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Flying Home, September 3 2007

Time to go home, this time we would stop over at JFK for 3.5 hours. After a long flight from Gatwick to JFK, we can't believe how many people were packed in the immirgration. We were glad we have 3 hours to do this, well at least the line was moving. After about an hour wait, we passed the immigration. We were told to pick up our luggage to go thru custom check. It was an even smaller area with everbody now with a few luggages to themselves, and the ridiculous thing is they only have 2 custom officials checking all these arrivals! People were very impatient cause most people have a connecting flight to go and the line was barly moving! And people were yelling at each other cause some people tried to cut in line. We waited at least 1.5 hour to clear, then of course we were too lucky to be pulled out for a more detailed check, so the luggage had to go thru the scanner. But nothing we bought is illegal anyway. So we passed, as soon as we got out of Custom, we can't believe we had to go thru Delta's baggage's re-checkin. And there was line too, and the line again was not moving. The Delta people were blaming secutiry causing the delay. But the atmosphere there were just tense cause people can't believe how inefficient they were to transfer poeple out, we were all supposed have our baggage checked to the final destination and went thru security check at departure! Anyway Delta eventually realized they were making a lot of people angry, so they simply take the luggages and let people go. But then we still had to go thru the check by Homeland security. Geez, after all is done, we had less then 20 minutes to get to the gate! So we ran to our gate, the waiting area was mostly empty when we got there, so we went into boarding gate directly. When we entered the gate, we found all the travelers were crammed in this big airport shuttle that connects to the gate. Not long after we entered, the shuttle moved toward an airplane which was not taxied in the terminal, then we were "imprisoned" in that shuttle for about 20 minutes with no air-conditioning because the airplane is not ready yet! So the flight was delayed for about 40 minutes, finally we took off.

When we got to SeaTac, it was raining and cold, then on our drive home, a big thunderstorm just came down real hard. 20 minutes later at around midnight, we were back to our home. kids took a hot shower, and I can see they are happy to be back to the comfortable home. It's a wonderful trip, but it is very tired even for me too. As I closed my eyes in my warm bed, some scenes in the last couple weeks flashed back, and I said: until next time..

Cambridge, September 2 2007

Today's destination: Cambridge. There was supposed to have a direct train from King's Cross to Cambridge. But the station worker told us we had to do a bus transfer somewhere in the middle. A 1 hour ride turned into 2.5 hours. When we got there, it was noon time already. It was a nice day so we decided to buy food at a grocery store and picnicked. As we walked out of the station, we saw a sign for renting bike. or as they said, bikes for hire. we thought that was a good idea so we went in. 4 hours of renting costs 24 pounds for 4 bikes, not a bad deal so we did it. The bike trail map the stored gave us over-simplified the city a little bit so we got lost right away when we crossed a cyclist's bridge. From there it took us almost an hour to find our way back to the town center.





The town is very nice and packed with tourists. Much more tourists then I have imagined. I thought Cambridge would be a very quite town, but everywhere you go, you see people. Still it is a very beautiful town. The university is probably just an administration entity. It is comprised of many colleges, each college seems to be independent, they have their own campuses and students. Most of the colleges are very old, dated back to the Henry VIII period and earlier. The river Cam ran through the back of many college campuses, all with nice green backs, as the locals called them . A lot of people will try sell you the "punting" ride, sort of like the gondola ride in the river. We really like to do it cause the punting seems fun and it will take you thru many beautiful bridges. But they seemed to only take cash mostly and we already ran out of cash and this was our last day, beside we had to return our bike not long after. So we didn't do it. Instead we rode our bike through many small roads behind the colleges. A very nice way of touring the town. Along the way, we saw St. John's, Trinity, and King's colleges. The bridge of sigh, which is the most famous bridge in Cambridge, is located in St John;s backyard, again we couldn't go in cause every college that's open to public charged $2.75 per person to get in and we didn't have cash! It is really pity we can't do punting and visiting college campus cause we were short of cash. But still Cambridge is very nice, the history, old town feel, nice scenery all makes this short visit worth while.

There is direct train back to London so it only took us an hour. When we got back we realized most of the stores closed on Sunday, the only thing we can find was Indian restaurants, so we ate one more time at Punjab near covent garden. The menu looks like Indian restuarants in Seattle, but tastier.

Hampton Court, September 1 2007

Being a history buff, Hampton court was my British highlight besides the tower of London. It was very accessible from the city, just a short train ride of about 30
minutes. On the way, we passed by Wimbledon. The stadium was right by the station. We were able to get to glimpse of it. As we disembarked the train, we saw the palace right away. Its famous red brick facades. It was great day to visit the place, the best weather in the UK was that day. We collected our audio guide headphones and started the tours. The audio guides offered many historic antedotes and backgrounds that made history more interesting. The girls definitely like it. I was really more interested in the Tudor section of the palace. We were in the great kitchen where they can cooked for up to 600 people at a time. It was staffed with customed historians who were demonstrating with real produce and meat as in tudor time. They were very informative and entertaining. Laurie was at this table for about 20 minutes. This guy was a baker, trying to make layered cake. And he was dishing out all the history about Henry VIII and his wives,. The whole operation was very efficient, from receiving end to presenting the finished meals upstaires for the courtiers. It really make the history in the real world. How people used to live.


We took the great stairs and headed up to the Great Hall, where Henry VIII would have been to meet dignitaries. The walls were covered by 6 huge tapestries that had cost him enormous amount of money. Henry wanted to play the political game with the big boys on the continents. So he had to presented himself in grandest style. These tapestries were indeed grand. They are a bit faded, now, but their gold and silver treads are still visible. The stained glasses on the upper third of the great hall all had emblems, names, coats of arms of his wives. Must have been added by later generations. We existed this room to the famed Haunted Gallery where a female ghost of Catherine Howard, Henry's 5th wife had been seen screaming across the hallway. It was broad day light, so no ghost sighting for me.

The tudor part of the palace was all dark and a bit damp with small windows and heavy brick walls. Our next tours took us to the apartments of king Williams and queen Mary and their successors. This was the 17th century, and renovation of the palace was under way to make it more livable. rooms were made bigger, window wider. Brick walls were converted and covered up the white washed stones and Greek columns. The lay out of the different apartments for these king and queens were similar to Versailles, but smaller and more intimate.



We then spent sometime in the private garden. It's got a nice pond with fountain, and well planned geometric designs. We then came upon the royal tennis court. Tennis was said to be invented in England. Henry VIII was a avid player and built this tennis court for himself. It was very narrow and short. There was a game in progress when we entered. The players were using small wooden, I supposed, historically correct rackets with modern yellow tennis balls. The viewers can watch the game in the tight narrow hall way, separated by wires and wooden wall on one side of the court.


We caught the 5pm train back to London. After living the the last few hours deep in history, I was really very content. We all left with very tired legs. Fortunately we got tickets to Wicked tonight, so we can rest. This show was virtually sold out every day. Basically the story line is the parallel universe for the wizard of oz. How and why the bad witch of the east becomes the way she is. Its music was all right. It was the story that keep this musical interesting. The set and special were fantastic. I am glad we got to see it.

Back To London, August 31 2007

This morning we said good bye to the beautiful Paris. Our train departs at around 3 pm, so we had the whole morning to kill. We went to the Bon Marche to do some last minute shopping, but we ended up didn't buy anything, except we packed a whole bunch of ready-to-eat stuff from their hot food center for our train ride. Because Paris's subway is not as easy to navigate with luggage from prior experience, we decided to take a taxi to the Eurostar station. First time on a French taxi, May had to do all the talking since I can't say a word. The taxi is a Citroen, I've never been on one before, kind of small car, feel like a Saturn. Anyway, the taxi driver is a woman, she keeps trashing or making gesture at the cars in front of her, occasionally she would say something to May, I thought that's kind of amusing. On the Eurostar. we started eating the food from Bon Marche, they are all delicious,. So now I know, next time, it would be a good idea to just go to place like this or Fuchon and pack a picnic basket, and pick a spot under the Effiel Tower, we can have a wonderful afternoon there! We finally got back to London Victoria Station. When we got out, we went to the theater that's showing the Wicked to check if they have any tickets, it is right next to the station. We got 4 tickets to the next night show!

For the dinner, we decided to try Indian, I guess Indian restaurant must be the most popular ethnic restaurant in London, they are everywhere, from neighborhood restaurant to very high end one. We read the review from Where mag and picked a place called Marsala Place. It is in Covent Garden. At around 7 o'clock, the whole place is packed. Mostly young crowds. Most of the people were having some kind of combo plate that has different kind of curry in it. May and I both had that too. All the curry is very spicy, so I enjoyed it since I like spicy food, but May thought they are too hot. The waitress said their kitchen never hesitate to put out real authentic spices. I am not sure if they are really authentic, cause the menu seems very tailored to the western style. Anyway, I thought the food is not bad but May didn't like it.