Grandma is a Good Sport

Ok, at this point, you may be asking yourself, how are we doing this with two grandmas, two parents, and two kids with an age span of 69 years, and having walked over 16 miles the past two days?

Well, Grandma is a good sport, that's how.

In London, we depended upon the buses, and we tried to keep the walking to a minimum, but it just isn't possible. The cabs have a maximum capacity of 5 people, the streets are often uneven enough as to be a bit hazardous, and renting a car is out of the question, as its just too hard to park.

When we arrived in Paris, we walked down the block to the first pharmacy, and asked about renting (or "hiring" as they call it here), a wheelchair. With no deposit, just our name, they had one delivered and we picked it up. Its worked out very well, although Grandma seems a bit concerned that she is putting out the Dad, who is doing the pushing (he won't trust any of the the rest of us), it enables us to all stay together much more easily.

Because Grandma is actually pretty mobile, she can hop on & off to go into stores and on public transport. If someone who is permanently in a wheelchair tried to use one here, it would be a real challenge, particularly on the metro, which is full of stairs, and no "lifts".

So, that's how we're doing it, and its working out pretty well!

(except, unfortunatly, the kids have been doing the 8+ a day and still have energy and the end, which the rest of us just can't understand. . . )

The Birds and the Boats

Sam: After we went to the Louvre, we went to a park. First we fed birds, a guy was feeding the birds and he taught us to hold our fingers straight up and pinch the bread between our fingers and the birds would fly up and eat the bread off our fingers. The pigeons sometimes, they would try to fly up on C's fingers, but they never did it to me.

C: The birds claws were actually quite sharp and sometimes a pigeon would try to land on me. The old man was quite nice, but he was always silent. He showed us how to hold up our arms and hands and fingers and feed the birds, and then after a while he gave us the rest of his crumbs and left.

Sam: The boats, I thought were really cool. At first, there were two people sailing boats, we thought they owned the boats, but then we walked around the circle, and saw that there was a boat rental, so we rented boats. There were boats and sticks. What you would do is push the boat out, and run over to where it sailed to, and then you'd push it out again. So, they were mainly directed by the wind.

C: We rented some boats for a half hour for 2 Euros (about $1.50). And we would push the boats away from the side, and when they hit land again, we would turn them around with our hand, or sometimes with the sticks, and then we would push them out into the fountain.

[Mom's comment: This was a wonderful pause in our day. Many people sat around the huge fountain, watching the sailboats drift along, as the children ran around the edges. It was a moment in our trip we'll probably all remember for a long time, and such a simple pleasure! And, the sailboats were so creatively designed, each with its own hand-made sail. Really quite a unique experience.]

Familiar, yet Different, Paris Version

Travelling Under the British Channel

On Wednesday morning, after waking up, we took a quick walk to Kings Cross station to see platform 9 3/4, then took a double-decker bus to Waterloo Station, to catch Eurostar to Paris. People here do not call it the "Chunnel", apparently.

The ride was smooth, it was dark in the tunnel, couldn't see any fish :). After about 2 3/4 hours, we arrived in Paris.

There were a lot of Scottish men in kilts on the train. Enroute to the Rugby World Cup being held this week in Paris. Everywhere we went during our stay we saw more kilts!

Russell Square Area

Mom: We stayed in the Russell Square Area. We didn't choose to stay here, we got free rooms with our plane tickets. However, it turned out to be a very nice area. The rooms were ok, about Motel 6 level, the free breakfast was basic, but servicable, as were the rooms. However, the neighborhood turned out to be very safe & walkable, and just a couple of blocks from the British Museum, one block from the Tube station, and lots of nice corner parks all around. We took a short morning walk to Kings Cross Station so the kids could see where the Hogwarts students caught the express every year.

There was a nice local neighborhood down the street, with a natural food store, bike shop, charity shop, pharmacy, pubs, bookstores. It was a wonderful way to see how real Londoners live.

We waited until early evening to hit the tourist district and the London Eye, which turned out to be brilliant. There was no line, and the tourist predators had mostly packed up for the day. It was low tide, so we walked along the shoreline for a bit, and found some interesting artifacts, such as small china shards and even a piece of an old clay pipe stem.

Overwhelmingly, London smells a lot like diesel fumes, but we found some nice, calm pockets, and I think the boy was right when he predicted it would be a lot like San Franciso, but flatter.

The photo above is of the Russell Hotel, not the Royal National (which is where we stayed). The Russell was on the next block and we could see it from the window.

Dad: London is full of bicycles. There are bikes of all stripes including lots of modern commuters and folding bikes, but not many old three-speeds. All the current trends in the US are here, especially the single speed conversion. Some cyclists here wear masks, presumably to ward off the diesel particulates. They zip along dodging the hordes of busses on incredibly skinny roads seemingly built with whatever was on hand or in fashion at the time. People have often told me that the roads in back home aren't safe for bikes. Yow!

The most common bikes in London are the same American manufacturers from the US Market: Trek, Specialized, Marin, Santa Cruz... I wonder what a Londoner thinks the name of their Marin San Anselmo means. Do they have them shipped from China to the US to build them and then ship them here, or do they build them in Europe? The best is that there are ocassionally fine old UK steel frames with fancy lugwork and such.

Familiar and Yet, Different

Post Boxes, Ambulances and more. . .

Kinder Toys

C: Kindertoys are a foreign candy which are milk chocolate on the outside, and white chocolate on the inside, and it is a hollow egg, with a small canister, with a disassembled toy that you must build and hopefully a "magicode". A "magicode" is a code that you can go on kindertoy.com, and I don't know what you can get. I've gotten a "magicode" before, but I've never used it. You always get a surprise on the toy that you get. They usually cost about .65 Pence, at railways stations, and "stop and go" shops.