No hablamos Español....todovia: A few weeks in London

LonDon, England – the city of warm ale and tube delays. Due to a minor technical difficultly with our communications our first five hours in England (after waltzing through customs) was spent on either a train or a tube as we "sped" from Gatwick airport to the west of London, only to turn around and catch the tube back from the west of London to the east of London.

Emma (and her flaties), Woody & Gabby, and the Normans (Erin´s cousins) were "superlative" hosts throughout our time in England. Thank you everyone for putting up with our bludging. We also managed to catch up with a couple of friends, like Becs, Talava and Frazzier. There were a couple of good nights on the chop, including some blindfold soccer in the park. We still can´t get over that people can drink anywhere in London – that´s right anywhere…. in the pub, on the street outside the pub, in the street not outside the pub, in the park (on the way to the park), and even on the bus or tube on the way to the park (which is on the way to the pub). In fact, you could probably start drinking at home, go do the grocery shopping, feed the ducks in the park, visit London Tower, go see Cats, go to the pub, and then head back home – all without having to relinquish your vessel.

We stayed most of the time in Emma´s flat full of kiwis, which was just lovely, right above Tescos in Putney, most of the time with four of us Emma´s room, taking turns between dosing on the massage table, a thermarest, and the ultimate…Em´s bed. Em was able to take a few days off work to hang out and show us the sites, which was great fun, as well as making things a lots easier!

We managed to see a couple of shows and catch the encore of a Fat Freddy´s gig in London with Emma. We graced London Tower with our presence – which was a real treat. We were pretty awestruck to the number of different and vicious weapons on display – it´s amazing to think that they thought of so many ways of taking each other out. One highlight in particular was the display of Henry the VIII´s suit of armour, which was out of proportion in one specific area, which sort of explains the rate at which he replaced his wives.

We stayed with Erin´s cousins for some of the time, who live about an hour out of England in just what you think of when you think of the English countryside. It was great to have some time out of the city, walking their three crazy dogs in the fields, and having a few quiets at the local – a 14th century pub, and swimming in the pool with the kids. Ann totally spoiled us and was a great tour guide, taking us on a tour of Windsor Castle... lots of paintings… lots of knives… lots of guns… lots of armour… lots of stone.

Woody also organized a road trip to Oxford, Bath and Stonehenge which went down a treat. If Oxford was pretty good, Bath was really a treat. It seemed a lot more European in its layout than other places (which probably belies its well-preserved Roman history) and it wasn´t throbbing with traffic – like Oxford was. We managed to time our stay in Bath with a wine and food festival…which can lay claim to serving portions that even umpa-lumpas would have considered a little on the light side. But they were tasty nonetheless. Stonehendge followed Bath, and was just as spectacular in the southern drizzle.