London Luxembourg and Paris

Back to the civilized world.  What does one say that can be entertaining or intriguing after spending 4 months in the relative bush?  While there are a few subtle attempts at humor, for the most part our last few weeks have been delightfully boring and civilized.  The Janssen family caravan arrived at London Heathrow on a late flight from Cairo.  After 4 months on the road it was an amazing treat to be in an English speaking country, or “fancy English” as Halle calls it.  We were able to easily find a train, our hotel, etc., and all by ourselves.  Ah the joys of independent travel.  A great friend once described his “top 10 showers”, made memorable by being at the end of particularly long hike or other situation where one is lacking the opportunity to bath for days or weeks.  Much like a shower after a 3 day climb of Mt. Rainier, the shower in our London hotel after several days on a fishing boat in Egypt was absolutely exquisite and definitely a lifetime top 10.

I’d been to London on many occasions, having worked for 4 months about an hour west of London early in my career.  Still I was absolutely enthralled by the city.  Rather than my memory of most Brits being pessimistic and complaining, I was shocked at how incredibly nice every person that we met was.  People went out of their way to be helpful, compliment the kids, offer us advice, etc.  Absolutely unbelievable.   The kids loved taking the Tube (the London subway) and mastered reading the maps and catching the correct train.  We walked for miles on several sunny days with temps in the mid 50’s.  We met up with several friends (The Malone family living in London for a year) and Greg Chapman who is working for Amazon in Luxembourg and was in London on business.  It was great seeing these folks, especially since they must have taken pity on our traveling circus and treated us to great meals, wine and some adult conversation.  It was so great to see Christmas lights, get a coffee at Starbucks, shop for basic supplies at known stores, and have confidence in knowing we were ordering.  In addition to enjoying the small pleasures of life, we were also treated to two incredible guided tours.  The first was at the British museum where our guide Lawrence (a 6’7” archeologist) enthralled the kids with animated stories of ancient civilizations throughout the world.  Using artifacts from around the world, he explained how different early civilizations were, but how alike they all were too, especially when it came to violence.  We decided that the worst culprits were the Aztecs.  They loved to sacrifice and torture.  If you get stuck in a time machine don’t dial in the Aztecs unless you’re extraordinarily well-armed.  Our second tour was a fabulous 3 hour history of the Tower of London by a woman named Viv.  It was a pleasure learning so much from 2 people who absolutely loved their work and were able to share their knowledge with the kids.  The museums have provided great insight into the benefit of our kids directly experiencing many places in person.  They have a fascinating recall of Greek and Roman and Egyptian gods.  The guides have been impressed and each museum visited reinforces what they’ve seen. 

London really delivered for us.  The kids loved their first theater experience (The Lion King).  It was a good safe bet and it was magical for Traci and me to see the unbridled joy on their faces at some of the amazing scenes and music.   Hayden and Halle joined me for a trip on the London Eye, the world’s tallest ferris wheel.  The lions were inappropriately tackled and touched at Trafalgar Square (Oh that little fence is made to keep kids out?), Westminster Abbey was fascinating with its rich history and graves of so many makers of history, the security in front of 10 Downey street was impressive (yet the guards were super friendly), and an old lady walked out of the front of Buckingham Palace escorted by a guard and I told the kids it must have been the queen although at a hundred yards away it almost certainly wasn’t (unless she travels incognito in a Toyota Rav 4).  At the end of 4 days we could have easily stayed and enjoyed another week.  Fabulous, fabulous town.

Next stop was Luxembourg to visit with our great friends Greg and Erin Chapman, with their kids Mackenzie (12), Sam (10) and Ben (9).  Greg is working there for Amazon and it was great to see them all again.  Hayden was in hog heaven, hanging with 2 boys and enjoying at least 4 hours per day on a rip stick or razor scooter.  The Chapmans were delighted to receive gifts from Venice, shorts and aprons depicting specific anatomical features from famous statues.  We walked, talked, watched movies, took long runs, played with their dog Oprah, and laughed with the kids.   After 2 days and 3 nights, we snuck out in the morning and left their house in pure disarray.  Under the cover of night, like fleeing hobos, we jumped a train to Paris.  It was a high speed train which was pretty cool.  I’m guessing we were traveling around 150mph and we arrived in Paris in 2 hours. 

In Paris we stayed in the fabulous apartment of the Frink family.  The apartment is located in an incredible, central location off the Luxembourg Gardens, and there we were joined for the week by Traci’s parents.  As in London, we pretty much enjoyed a lot of places that were the appropriate combination of activity and kid-centricity. We climbed the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, and the Arc De Triomphe.  We walked dozens of miles along the Seine, did some simple shopping on the Champs  Elysees.  We toured the Louvre, Hospital Invalides, the catacombs and Sacre Coeur and its adjoining streets.  We also enjoyed home cooked meals most nights.  I think the highlight of our week was being invited to the home of Heather and Peter Knox for Thanksgiving dinner.  Traci and Heather have been friends for what I shall very delicately say is about 4 decades.  While looking forward to the traditional meal, I was dreading trying to help procure the essentials when I am such a French language neophyte.   After a quick perusal of the local grocery store and several meat markets I came to the conclusion that Turkeys are outlawed in France, probably because of a very strong Duck and Chicken unions.  I was pretty much set on pizza or chicken for Thanksgiving dinner.  Then Traci scored an invite to the Knox’s.  That was seriously good work.  Peter is a gourmet chef and while I don’t think he would admit it, he prepared a spread that had to have taken several days, and having been in Paris for a few years he had obviously learned how to say “turkey” in French and more importantly learned where to procure said bird and even more importantly knew how to prepare it along with about 15 other dishes and every conceivable beverage that was never in lack of going dry and all were kept warm in one oven and presented and displayed perfectly.  Wow.  Super fun to see them and their kids and to be the recipients of such amazing hospitality.

Off to work off some of the calories from the past week by escorting Traci on a run along the Seine.  Not bad living.  November 30^th we depart for our winter haven in St. Anton, Austria.  Our current plans are to spend 3 months there before heading east in March.  That may change a bit depending on the weather.   La Nina is a nasty little brat from my current perspective.  While I loved her last winter, it seems that while the pacific NW mountains are getting buried, Europe is suffering for snow.  Currently there is no snow but the forecast next week looks promising.  Regardless we have a great apartment rented and are looking forward to life in an alpine ski village. 
 

We’ve been fortunate in the timing of our travels.  We escaped Greece just as major public employee strikes started happening.  We left Rome the day before the Italian equivalent of the occupy wall street protesters looted and burned areas around the Colosseum and then days later Rome was hit with horrendous floods.  We left Egypt a week after riots re-erupted and 40 people were killed (although I’m sure that had we been there it would have been safe anywhere away from Tahir Square).  I’m not a believer in cultural equivalency;  I’m glad that we were able to experience to wonders of many of the places we’ve visited but I’m looking forward to at least 3 months of the wonders of western civilization. 



Happy Bus in London with Nelson's column at Trafalgar Square in the background




Building we passed on the way to the British Museum where Anesthesiology was started



Our guide Lawrence at the British Museum, explaining how Aztecs disemboweld their victims



Rosetta stone at the British Museum



For the Harry Potter fans



Inside the Tower of London where Anne Boleyn, Jane Grey  and several others who weren't the correct flavor of the month were beheaded



Tower of London and guide Viv

Tower guards and their new prisoners



On the London Eye....the huge ferris wheel.  Where's Sydney?



Trafalgar Square.  What fence?



Lessons learned from Africa



What's a phone booth?  Thought I'd get a picture of these famous antiquities before they are completely irrelevant



Diagon Alley or a likely source thereof



Westminster Abbey and the rewards of their scavenger hunt

The Chapman family in Luxembourg sporting our gifts.  They are so proud



Sam, Hayden, Oprah, Ben and Halle.  Luxembourg is dog crazy. This is on the way home after lunch at a restaurant (and of course Oprah joined us IN the restaurant as well)



"That was funny....that car just about hit us!  Huh huh huh let's do that again"



Greg and Mackenzie taught Halle and Sydney how to play Lacross



Movie night

In Paris.  Notre Dame in background.  60 degrees and sunny.  Not bad for late November.



Doc White.  As a father he taught his kids about spitballs. As a grandfather revenge isn't so sweet.



With Traci's parents at the entrance to the Louvre



Mona something



Scarred for life visiting the bones of 6 million Parisiens in the Catacombs



Uncanny resemblance

Janice trying to figure out the public toilet, then being helped by Travis.  Toilet 1, Grandparents 0.



Peter Knox as Hayden and Halle go for seconds on Thanksgiving



Zander, Hayden, Halle, Sydney, Heather and Allegra



Our Hosts Heather and Peter Knox



An after dinner Thanksgiving walk along the Seine



Napoleon's Tomb



Traci and skippy cleaning dog poop from their shoes.  Halle finds happiness in everything.