The Longest Trek Ever
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2011
1
2
9
Trip End
May 10, 2011
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Where I stayed
London, England, United Kingdom
Monday, May 2, 2011
[typos representing Tristan's less-than-stellar penmanship -- I swear I'm not trying to censor him!]
I just dodn't want to puck up gour experience! I uant to spend the marxmum time with you because I tove you bub ip you want to sleep... I uill stay up!
The rest of us took our time having breakfast, and finally Tristan phoned to tell us that he'd crashed at Charlotte's (or Charlotte's friend's? it wasn't too clear) place. Reassured that he was still alive, we went to the coffee shop around the corner, the same one we'd been to the day before. The man working there was very happy to see us again -- the day before, he'd overheard my parents speaking French, and as my parents told me, his French was much better than his English. It was nice to see such a big smile light up his face when I went into the shop and said to him, "Mes parents m'ont dit que vous parliez français."
Coffee consumed, we hailed a cab and sped off toward the British Museum.
I've always liked museums, and this one has lots of famous pieces, i.e. the ones you see pictures of in books on art, history, and art history. The Parthenon frieze and the Sutton Hoo burial treasures were what interested me in particular, but there was plenty of Egyptian stuff to see as well, not to mention lots of objects from the ancient world. Really, anything up to the late Middle Ages will keep me happy.
Somehow, my mother and I managed to completely miss the Rosetta Stone in our haste to get to the Parthenon frieze. Afterwards, I realised that the huge crowd of people we'd had to walk around had in fact been looking at the famous stone, so we went back to see it for ourselves. There weren't as many people at that point, but still too many for me to get a decent picture of it.
My one disappointment was that this cat didn't seem to be on display; the room it was supposed to be in was closed.
After a while we split up along gender lines, and when time came to meet up again, my mother and I had been waiting for the menfolk for several minutes before we realised there had been some miscommunication. Max had said "Let's meet here," pointing at the museum map. My mother had asked him whether that was where we'd come in, to which he'd replied that it was. It was not, however -- they'd been looking at a different set of stairs on the map. Finally we found them, then had lunch at the museum's cafeteria, sniping some seats at the end of one of the tables. I had a sandwich and a fizzy elderflower drink, which was light and sweet and refreshing.
Since we'd taken a taxi to the museum, we (read: I) insisted we walk back. I wanted to get a look at Regent's Park, more or less halfway between the museum and our hotel. Besides, the day was beautiful and it would have been a shame to waste such wonderful weather, so we set out, ignoring the moaning of The Great Pessimisto, as we've come to name the pater familias.
"It's so far. Why do you insist on making me walk for hours?"
"It'll take us about forty minutes, probably."
We reached Regent's Park after about fifteen or twenty minutes' walk. My father was still holding up, but as soon as we found a nice shady spot, he flopped down on his back and refused to get up until he'd had a nap. Max followed suit, and my mother had fun poking them with twigs.
Because The Great Pessimisto was convinced it would take us at least an hour to get to the hotel, we didn't stay very long at the park. Max and I had plenty of fun at his expense, though.
"Should we stop and forage for food? I don't think we can go on for much longer without sustenance."
"The sun is getting pretty low. The wolves will be out soon!"
It was a bit past four when we got back to the hotel.
We found Tristan asleep in our room (we kids had a triple, while our parents had a double with a rather miniscule bathroom). We managed to wake him eventually, then went and had dinner at a nearby restaurant that promised free wi-fi because -- shockingly! -- our hotel offered no internet access. The restaurant was very nice and the food was extremely reasonably priced; it tasted like it should have been at least 50% more expensive than it was. I had a cream of asparagus soup, then a flaky pastry with mushrooms in cream sauce, followed by something good for dessert, some kind of tiramisu, I think.
Max: Um... The weather is better than expected. *mumble* the ashes of the Senate. [Quoting the tv series Rome.]
Daddy: We only met one Londoner, but he had the Knowledge.
Max: Um... Hm. There's strange pollen or something outside.
Maman: C'est les méchantes platanes.
Max: Platane, platane.
Tristan: *clears throat* I'm glad that I met a Portugese man in a white suit, but I didn't ask him for our fish back. [See: Portugese vessels fishing in Canadian waters, History of]
Daddy: Most Londoners have been replaced by Czechs and Poles.
Maman: La température est de notre bord. Les prix dans les magasins sont à peu près les mêmes que chez nous. Les gens qui parlent anglais sont à peu près 20%.
Daddy: I want to ramble by the Ribble as it thunders to the sea.
Max: It's more of a slow ooze.
Maman: La douche est petite.
Daddy: I can't even pull my pants up without opening the door. I haven't eaten the baloney in the morning.
Maman: Le métro est pas toujours simple à comprendre.
Max: We got ice cream.
Daddy: We got the Westminster ice cream that Max had been babbling about.
Comments
Aaaah! ma fille, après avoir lu cette chronique tout le monde va savoir qu'on est une famille bizarroïde...
Aww, why no Ramses?? Is he not worthy of your pictures? *sadface* He's the big head and shoulders from a statue sat high up to the right of the Rosetta Stone and before the stone sarcophagus.
The Rosetta Stone is ALWAYS crowded. I'm an Egyptology student and I've never bothered fighting the crowds to see it (why bother when there's Ramses to stare at?? XD)
The stone Bast cat statue wasn't out? That sucks, it's really gorgeous. The glass case reflects horribly though so I couldn't get a decent photo.
(Why yes, I HAVE spent too much time in the British Museum!)
I enjoy the photo of your mother with her poking stick. It's good to know she was well-armed in such a dangerous city.
Trop cool ce voyage de famille. Ca me rappelle mon propre voyage en Angleterre. C'est cool que vous vous amusez!!
hugs
mp