2006-12-15 - 10:29 a.m.
The Trip is over! I've never been so happy to be home. Don't get me wrong-I'm always glad to come home, and always enjoy being here. But this time? This time it's even better.
We spent the rest of our time at London looking at the outside of important buildings, and the insides of the free ones. On Tuesday we decided to walk over to see St. Paul's and the Tate Modern. Michael had recommended the Tate, as they have a free five story tall slide that you can go on.
Well, we told Michael of our intention of walking from his place (north side of Hyde Park) to St. Paul's. Turns out he works near there, and takes the tube every morning, so he figured it would be a long walk. He was right, but really, we had a lot of time, and were quite used to walking. It took us about forty five minutes to get back to the Parliament buildings, where we crossed the river. We turned right, and started walking up river. There was a strong headwind, and added to that my knees and feet were quite sore from my worn out shoes, and all the walking we had been doing. We walked for a good half hour along the Thames, until Jesse finally consulted the map- and realized that we had been going in exactly the wrong direction. The Tate and St. Paul's are downriver. So, we walked all the way back (at least the wind was behind us this time) and finally found the museum. Not being terribly interested in modern art, we forwent the museum and got tickets for the slide. Turns out there was a two hour wait, so we took our tickets and went to St. Paul's.
St. Paul's was very nice, but we only saw the outside. It cost ten pounds (!) to get in, and we couldn't figure out when a service was so we could go in for free. Instead, we walked further downriver and found the Tower of London. This was something else that I had particularly wanted to see, and we were able to walk all around the outside of it. They had a skating rink set up on the lawn that used to be the moat, which was pretty funny. I don't think I've ever seen an outdoor rink surrounded by green grass before.
We crossed Tower Bridge and walked back along the other side of the river. This was awesome, because we kept passing all these great historical sites. I stopped to read all the plaques, but Jesse blew right past most of them. I saw the stairs that were the scene of Nancy's murder in "Oliver Twist", a replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship (smaller than I would have thought, but still beautiful) the dock where the tea ships would unload (filled in now) the Globe and the remains of the palace of the Bishop of Winchester. I was really happy to see all this- everything that I've read about!!
We made it back to the museum in time to get on the slide. This was a bit of let down after waiting for two hours. They make you put on a helmet (Jesse put on elbow pads as well) and sit on a cloth, and warn you to keep your chin on your chest. After all that it was, well, a slide. Like the ones that you used to go on as a kid, but a bit longer. Not particularly fast, or scary. Just a slide. I mean, it was a really long drop, and looking at it from the outside, it was quite steep, but the actual experience? Not that great.
We slowly made our way home, stopping for fish and chips for supper. Every night on the street of London there are people giving away newspapers- one is called The London Paper, and the other is the London Lite. I was delighted to find free reading material, and took a copy of each. News wise they were ok, but they had comments that readers texted in every day that were pretty funny, and a crossword.
Our last day in London we spent at the British Museum. This is, of course, free, which is only part of the reason we went. The other part is that it's the British Museum. I mean come on! The British may have give up their colonies, but they kept the artifacts. The museum was great. We saw the Elgin Marbles (the bits of the Parthenon that Lord Elgin took) which was neat, because we had just been in Athens. We also saw the Rosetta stone, and lots and lots of mummies. I liked the mummies. They had some guy's mummified lung on display. Can't say it's what I would choose for the last resting place of my internal organs, but it was neat to see.
On the way home I found a used bookstore, and found a book for the flight home. This relived my mind mightily, because it was that or reread something, and I wanted something that I would be able to escape into, without knowing what would happen.
We stopped for fish and chips for supper (notice a theme?) and in a stunning break from tradition, I got a steak and kidney pie. It was prepackaged though, and if I had seen that I think I would have gone for the fish. Still, it was very good, if greasy, and I got chips with it, so that was ok.
The next morning was our last in Europe. We got up brutally early, and Michael, awesome guy that he is, got up to say goodbye. What a guy! We caught a six o’clock bus to Victoria station, and managed to find the coach station from there. It's not, as the signs would have you believe, in the same building, but some blocks away. However, because in the end Jesse and I had some sense, we had looked out where to go before hand, so we didn't get lost.
The coach to the airport was long, and fairly miserable. They had the heat way up, which always makes me feel a bit sick. It was an hour and a quarter out to airport, mostly through stop and go traffic. Added to that, the bread and cheese from breakfast were sitting heavy in my stomach. Honestly, when I left, I loved bread and cheese, but I'm definitely over it now. If I never see it again it will be too soon.
Once at the airport we checked in with no troubles (our bags were exactly twenty kilograms each, which is the limit) and got in the security line. This was long, but other than that not bad. I mean, we did have to wait forty five minuets, but we had lots of time (not like the guy behind us, who was late, and growing increasingly frantic. He was Canadian though, so he was too polite to barge past us) and there were no unfortunate holdups. Didn't set off the metal detector, nothing bad in my carry on and we were through. After that, it was just the waiting. We spent our last pounds on a couple bottles of water and some fruit and nut bars, and settled in to wait.
The plane was an hour late leaving for some reason, which was aggravating. We had an hour stop over in Manchester, and the plane was half empty till we got to Manchester. After that it filled up, but there was no one right in front of me, so no one was leaning their seat back in my face or anything. I had a window, which I enjoy, and Jesse had an aisle, which he enjoys. The flight was pretty good, they showed three decent movies (The Devil Wears Prada, You, Me, and Dupree, and Mission Impossible 3) and one terrible one (Jack Frost). The three good ones really helped pass the time though.
We finally landed, and Jesse and I used our finely honed walking skills to out walk nearly the whole flight to customs. Once through that, we picked up our bags, and found our families. Dad picked me up, and the first thing he said to me was “you need a haircut". It was great to be back. We hadn't been in the car five minutes when he started grousing at other drivers (C'mon! What's the hold up?!?) With all his trademark phrases. He even said gee whiz (he pronounces it JAY whiz, which is really quite menacing, especially if directed at you). I got to drive part of the way home, for the first time in five months. Dad will be the first to tell you that I was a little rusty, since he was sleeping, and I kept jerking the car, apparently. It was just like learning to drive, with Dad giving directions from the passenger seat.
Once home, everything was right. Yesterday was Tim's birthday, so I was home for supper for that. Everything at home is just so right. Kind of hard to explain, I think, but after such a long trip, things here work the way I expect. In Europe I think I judged the normalcy of things by how they measure up the way things are at home. Once home, everything is normal. It just makes sense!!! I love it. I have my old room (first time in five months and nine days that I've slept in a room alone) and everything is how I remember it.
