We originally had planned on only spending 10 days in the U.K. There was no particular reason, just a number in my head, but we bought tickets from Ryan Air (a discount airline kind of like Southwest but a bit worse) with those dates in mind. With the Haggis tour we were going to be there 14 days and the tickets needed to be changed. Because of heavy fees to change the date of the return flight, it was cheaper to just buy a whole new ticket. Chris took care of it and I assumed that there were no problems until last night while printing out our e-tickets, he looked at me with a long pause and said, “Um, I accidentally put the wrong name on the tickets.” “What do you mean ?” I asked. “I put my last name as your last name”, he returned. What???? We aren’t married. That isn’t the name on my passport. They aren’t going to let me on the plane. I was a bit pissed. He went on to explain he was sorry and that he didn’t know why he did it aside from the fact that he loves me and thinks of us as a family and it just accidentally happened. AARRGGHH. He tried to rectify the situation last night, but customer service sucks over here and it was going to cost a fee to even be able to talk to a customer service representative. So, we decided that we would just have to get to the airport earlier (we were already going to be getting up at 3 A.M. to just make it there for our 7:20 A.M. flight because of the need to take a bus to Stansted that is sooo far away) to fix it.

Bleary eyed, I approached the ticket counter. The agent tried not to smile as Chris told the story while I stood there not amused. I think he was even on his side, but still what was his reply? “You will have to pay a fee to fix that.” And how much was the fee you ask? 45 pounds!!! That is 90 bucks to change my name back to MY name. OMG that fee is actually more than the cost of the second plane ticket which was 38.96 pounds. It might have in the end been cheaper to change the original tickets that had my REAL last name them. Silly Chris’s and their upsetting Becky’s. But, what are you gonnna do? I still wanted to leave the U.K. and head back to a real bed and real house in Germany. C’ est la vie right?

Tags: Accident,Mistake,Name Change,Name Change Fees,Ryan Air,Silly Chris
Categories: Becky Blogs, London
2 Comments »

Last day in London before going on our bus tour of England, Wales and Scotland. It pretty much rained every day and therefore we were not really interested in Hyde park or the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Neither of us really needed to see Harrods’ department store. (I can just hear my friend Quynh thousands of miles away screaming in horror for me letting those words slip from my mouth)

So, we went to the British Museum because it was free and indoors and also because it had the Rosetta Stone which we have both always wanted to see. I mean the REAL Rosetta stone that allowed scholars to finally be able to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was a major stepping stone in being able to learn about the past and to relearn a language that had been lost to antiquity. Without it we would not be able to read the writings in the tombs of Luxor in the Valley of the Kings or any of the other numerous artifacts that exist.

Also in the British Museum are the Parthenon Friezes and Sculptures (yes the 2500 year old Parthenon in Athens, Greece that was built as a dedication to the Greek goddess Athena) that have been on permanent public display in the museum since 1816. They were relocated here over the years 1801 – 1805 by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, to which Athens belonged for about 350 years. Currently about 50% of the sculptures and friezes are here and the other 50% are in the Acropolis Museum. This of course causes much strife between Britain and Greece. Britain argues that the Ottoman empire gave them to Lord Elgin to preserve them and keep them from weathering and they are therefore legally theirs. They say that more people have access to them and can appreciate them in their museum due to the large numbers of visitors they receive worldwide per year. Greece argues that they are theirs and want them permanently “loaned” to them to be put in their New Acropolis Museum, when it is completed, where they will also be preserved and protected from weathering and enjoyed by many visitors per year. Who is right? Who is wrong? That is a tough issue that involves not only the legality but also the morality.

Hmm, who knows.

Tags: British Museum,Elgin Marbles,Parthenon Frieze,Rosetta Stone
Categories: Becky Blogs, London
No Comments »

We went to Westminster Abbey today. It was so impressive. They didn’t allow pictures inside, but basically it was like a big old cemetery covered with stone and stained glass. It was dedicated as an abbey on 12/28/1065 and has been used for, I think, every coronation since William the Conqueror on 12/25/1066. It was cluttered with the tombs of lots of dead people. Everywhere you looked there was another crypt for a dead British ruler I.e. Elizabeth I, Mary I, Henry VII, Edward I, Mary Queen of Scots, etc. There are also about 120 writers, poets, actors, musicians and artists memorialized or buried here in Poet’s Corner. Also here we saw the Coronation Chair where every future king/queen has sat on their coronation day since 1301. All this makes me wish I knew more about British history because I am sure there are some cool backstories behind their deaths, I.e. beheadings, revolts, traitors, etc. You know the British and their nobility out for blood so they themselves could claim the throne. I am glad I am not the Queen. The thought of my brother, Bob, in the middle of the night trying to strangle me so he could conquer the throne just gives me the creeps. Besides, he wouldn’t make a good King anyhow! LOL Just kidding Bob!

We had decided to do a show while in London. Of course there were lots of choices like Wicked, Spamalot, Chicago, The Lion King, Les Miserables, etc, but we didn’t want just any show. Ryan recommendation, after talking to us for the last few days, was for Avenue Q, and he couldn’t have been more dead on of the something crazy we wanted to see. It was this musical that had Muppets in it, loosely based on Sesame Street characters, but they weren’t “G-Rated” Muppets, they were like “R Rated” Muppets singing about internet porn, closeted homosexuals and how everybody is a “little bit racist”. There was even muppet sex. It was flippin hilarious. You should check out their web site. I think they have bits of their silly songs on there.

After the play went to the Tate Modern (no photos inside). We had tried to make it there yesterday before closing, but despite riding the bus and getting off at 4 different stops we never found it. Today I decided not to use the buses and used Millennium Bridge and the Thames River as landmarks. Modern art is not my thing, but Chris loved it. There were weird rooms everywhere. One I particularly remember was this one area where one lady collected all her personal/junk mail and scraps of paper that she had written on for a year and at the exhibition would read them aloud and then black out all the personal information and then tack it somewhere on the four walls of this small room. It did look like chaos, but I kept thinking that either she must be some kind of recluse or maybe British people don’t get as much junk mail as Americans, because I could have covered those walls probably 4 times over with all the crap I get in the mail. I truly feel sorry for my postmaster!

Tags: Avenue Q,Tate Modern,Westminster Abbey
Categories: Becky Blogs, London
No Comments »

London has so much history. How do you fit it in in four days? Well you either have to move fast, or you pick your favorites. Chris had already been to London and had done the Tower of London, but I really wanted to go. As he was feeling under the weather with a cold, he graciously let me go by myself while he found a nice nook to read a book and sniffle. It was amazing. There it is this huge structure surrounded by a wide moat ( long ago filled in with dirt and grass). It looks deceiving from far away in that I thought that it was all one structure but in reality once I entered I saw that it was a series of walls that you pass through with smaller towers for defense and then in the center was the huge White Tower with the four pillars that was begun in 1066 with the reign of William the Conquerer. There are also other buildings around it like a chapel, Waterloo Block (which houses the very impressive crown jewels-they are so huge they look fake), and other armouries and dungeons! I of course took the free Beefeater Tour where very knowledgeable guides walk around with you for an hour and give you a bit of interesting and sometimes comical history, but mostly it is centered on all the folks that entered through trator’s gate and were held prisoners here (some for quite a long time) before being led up to tower hill for their beheading. Oh the british brutality, not much better than the french! (Oops, can they imprision me for that comment?)

After Chris had had a bit of a rest, we waited a bit and then since it was not raining (it of course rained alot while we were in Britain, so we always tried to run to do outside things when we had the chance) we decided to do a London Walks Ghost Tour. Our very proper petite british guide led us around the dark streets and alleys telling us the bloody history of this town and some of the ghost lore. It was quite fantastic, not because I saw any ghosts, but because of how the city shined at night. It’s starting to feel very fall here and very pretty. Our London hosts, Ryan and Natasha came with us and I think all had fun. Stopped by a Tapas bar on the way home for snacks to break up the spooky vibes. Good food and new good friends, I can’t think of any better end to an evening.

Tags: London Walks Ghost Tour,the White Tower,Tower of London,Traitor's Gate
Categories: Becky Blogs, London
No Comments »

We decided that London and the U.K. would be our next stop. We had already delayed it twice. We were supposed to go there before Paris and then after Paris, but plans changed. We still wanted to go, but as the weeks went by we both realized that it was getting colder up there, and since I hate the cold, well it was now or never. As we started planning, I had a bit of a freak out when I started to understand how expensive the pound is. 1 U.S. dollar is only 0.50 British pounds. So, half of our money was being eaten away the longer we were there and the more we spent. Our Eurail tickets for the trains that we had for the rest of Europe also did not work in the U.K., so we had to approach it all a bit differently. We decided to try to couch surf a couple times and also do a bus tour package for transportation so we could see more of the country up into Wales and Scotland.

Arriving in London was also another of those surreal moments that I keep having in Europe. Riding into the city on the bus from the Stansted airport (which is 1 1/2 – 1 1/4 hours away from the downtown area!), I saw the London Eye and Big Ben poking above the horizon. All around me were the double decker buses, the little red phone boxes and the classic black London cabs. It was just like in the movies.

We basically went straight from the bus station to the underground to find our gracious hosts. Ryan and Natasha, 2 lovely people from Toronto who had been loving in London a few months, had agreed to let us couch surf at their flat for a few days and also had invited us out to a dinner on the town. But, this wasn’t just any dinner, it was a dinner where we ate in total darkness. How cool is that. At Dans Le Noir, we ordered in the lobby while there was still light, but it was only a basic description, like no seafood, or meat only, or strict vegetarian, etc. You still have no idea what they are going to serve to you. That is part of the fun. Our server, Nadine, who was blind, led us, just like on the picture, to our table. She then presented us with the water and wine that we had to figure out how to pour for ourselves in the pitch blackness without getting it everywhere (Poor Ryan lost some of the wine on the table). When dinner was served, I tried multiple times to use my fork, but as I did not have sight to guide me I was never sure if there was anything on the fork and multiple times it ended up in my mouth with nothing on it. In the end I gave up and just used my hands. After dinner you are led out and the servers let you try to guess what you ate. It was a very interesting night. I found myself really feeling for the sight impaired. I found myself straining to see light, or constantly checking to make sure my glass was still there and I wasn’t going to spill. I really appreciated sight. As an aside, the restaurant apparently has cameras everywhere in the eating area to make sure everyone is staying safe and you are instructed not to move or get up without assistance. I wonder if anyone has ever flashed them before they knew they were being watched? I bet they have some stories!

Tags: Couchsurfing,Dans Le Noir,London
Categories: Becky Blogs, Couch Surfing, London
No Comments »