Tuesday in LONDON (09.23)

We are writing now (Tuesday, 4pm GMT) from a cruise on the River Thames, the tickets for which came along with our bus tour today. It’s so much fun riding along the river, drinking sparkling lemonade, snugglin’ with Richard on this, the eighth anniversary of our meeting.

I was talking to Erin (my dear amiga who is hosting us around England this coming week) last week and we talked about how places have a certain spirit, and how, even though I am used to beautiful mountains living in Montana, seeing the Alps would still be amazing. She was right—Bavaria has its own spirit, a warm, sweet, welcoming feeling, which I really enjoyed. Munich had a bit of a steely feeling, even though we visited while most of the city was drunk. I was never comfortable in Paris, but London? I think London may be my town. I am so loving it, even though it’s not as clean as Germany. It’s kinda like how I didn’t really like New York City, but I like Chicago; I’m not a fan of LA, but San Diego and Seattle are quite nice.

So I’m just saying I am having a great day here. It’s a lovely way to celebrate our big anniversary and my birthday eve.

So now it’s Wednesday and we are pulling out of St. Pancras station heading toward Luton Airport to fly to Edinburgh, Scotland today—MY BIRTHDAY! When I stopped writing last night, our boat had arrived in Greenwich (say “Grenitch”) and we hopped out right next to the Cutty Sark, the boat that’s closed for rennovation. The little we saw of town was adorable. We grabbed a fabulous little snack to go at Marks and Spencer (so far, Marks & Spencer is the thing I would most like to replicate in the US—really great fresh groceries and food to go, like Trader Joes with a bigger selection of prepared foods) and caught the tube back into London to finish the west loop of our bus tour.


We went past Victoria Station, thru Belgravia, around Buckingham Palace, across the Thames again to Lambeth Palace were the Archbishop of Caterbuy resides (funny how the prophet has a tiny little apartment on West Temple Street and the Archbishop has a palace in London). From the top of the bus we watched the sun set and London light up. I think the Thames is just as romantic as the Seine, but then I’m the girl who finds Ben Stein and business suits iresistible! Heh, heh. We got off the bus at Trafalfar Square and took the tube back to King’s Cross. We bought our tickets for this morning’s train, then stopped at a Turkish/ Fish & Chips stand where I got a fabulous Falafel with hummus and Rich got super-delicious Tukish Kebabs. We met the darling Netta in line—she is a college student in London from Orange County. She is so cute, we took a picture with her and gave he our blog address, so Netta, if you’ve logged on, HELLO and good luck in school! You should keep in touch with us.

So yeah, that was fun. I am tired but excited for Edinburgh. Rich said I can have a nap for my birthday, so hopefully we’ll get settled at the Cairn Hotel, take our naps, and stay up late exploring the Royal Mile and hopefully making a video call to our children.