new look

For all you readers who have complained and complained about my black background and colored type ;-) Here is a new all white/dark text look for you. Enjoy.
PS. That is a current shot of the bluebells in bloom. DA took that photo. I thought it looked nice.

It's all Greek to me

We spent a few days in Athens, Greece over Easter holiday - our Easter that is. When we asked our taxi driver if things would be closed for Easter, he replied, "sure, next week." We had forgotten that the Greek Orthodox calendar is different so they celebrated Easter a week later this year.

Mars Hill.

One neat thing was that DA went up to Mars Hill early on Easter morning to enjoy the scenery and take some photos. Neat to be in the birthplace of Christianity for the Gentiles on Easter morning. It was the site of Paul's speech about the "unknown god' to the Athenians recorded in Acts 17.

Seeing all the temples to various gods in and around Athens allowed me greater understanding of all those references in the Bible.

the kids goofing off at the Parthenon

Athens is a big city surrounded by mountains. The mountains are pretty, but they cause smog to settle over the city much like Salt Lake City or Denver. There are lots of people, traffic, tourists, etc. We had heard mixed reviews about Athens, but I'm happy to report that it is good for about 2 to 3 day trip. Just enough to do. In my opinion, they need to fix 2 things in order for the city to be greatly improved - 1) get rid of spray paint. There is graffiti all over town. Just ruins the look of the city and makes it feel dirty and unsafe. 2) ban the men selling purses and sunglasses on blankets laid out all over the side walks. You can hardly walk down the street without tripping over their wares. Seriously, those guys need to be banned!

We stayed in the old part of town (in the Plaka), in the shadows of the Acropolis. We have thousands of pictures of the Parthenon/Acropolis. (FYI - the Acropolis is the mountain and the Parthenon is one of the temples on top of the mountain.) We never got tired of looking at it though. The mountain is lit up at night - very pretty.

When L first arrived in England, his social studies class studied the "Elgin Marbles" which are housed in the British Museum in London. They are the marbles that went around the top of the Parthenon, as shown here. He had to write a paper about whether the marbles should be returned to Greece now that Greece has a museum to adequately house them. England will not return them and Greece considers them "stolen" as we heard from our guide several times. It was cool to see the reality of something he studied in school. We've also been to the British Museum to see the Marbles.

click here for more info

We walked and walked and walked all over the old town while we were there. Saw more historic things than I can even remember. The Grecian history is SO OLD. They say they are the oldest civilization in the world - history going back 6,000 years. We got a kick out of all the tour guides saying "6oo years before Christ" over and over and over and over and over again. I swear every statue, building, temple we saw was made "600 years before Christ"!

The temple at Delphi in the background

We also made road trips out to the Temple of Delphi where the Oracle was located and Cape Sounion. Delphi was an important ancient city built on the side of a mountain close to the sea. Very interesting museum and archaeological site there at Delphi. My kids really wanted to see where the Oracle stayed. Our tour guide said the Oracle sat over a hole in the ground where volcanic gases escaped. I've heard other theories as well, but all theories conclude that the Oracle was basically "high" all the time, yet she was considered the one voice of reason and wisdom that all the politicians/leaders consulted. The hole has been filled in with dirt over the centuries due to earthquakes and corrosion, so it was not obvious. The kids were bummed. They really wanted to see it.

walking the ruin streets down the forum in Delphi archaeological site. a "treasure house" on the right.

In 'honor' of their cousins who took jumping pictures all over England. A theater in Delphi

Cape Sounion is the site of a temple to Poseidon right by the sea where all the sailors would stop as they started their journeys from Athens. It was a pretty site, but in my opinion - not worth the drive to get there.

another shot of Poseidon's temple. Thought the clouds looked pretty in this shot.

During our stay we made a point to attend church at a congregation supported by our home congregation in Dallas. I'm very glad we made the effort to get there. We met several people with whom we had common ties. Some college kids were there from Harding Univ. in Searcy and we've since hosted a few of them at our house as they traveled through London. Small world.

We enjoyed the food in Athens. B made sure to have spaghetti bolognese at every meal. I think she can safely say she's eaten that dish in every European country we've visited. We ordered Greek salad several times. I personally prefer it with lettuce, but their version had cucumbers, olives, tomatoes. L has developed quite a varied palette and will try almost anything. He ordered some very interesting dishes, but always made sure to end each meal with a chocolate milkshake. Food was very expensive in Athens. The Euro to Pound exchange rate is almost 1 to 1, so there were no deals to be had!

Here are some highlights:

Acropolis at night. This is the view from our dinner restaurant. cool, huh?

old flea market street. It was packed with stores and people buying and selling junk.

another temple on top of the Acropolis. These statues are really pretty.

Athens

Temple of Zeus

The all-marble stadium of the modern Olympics built in 1894. The Olympic rings are hard to pick out, but they are in the distance around the top edge.

This is the reason we didn't rent a car. We couldn't read any of the street signs even though they are "translated". HA.

Truth be told, this is how the kids spent a lot of their time in Greece - waiting for Dad as he took pictures. Don't they looked thrilled?

DA is doing one of our favorite things - offering to take a photo of another family. I promise, anyone he sees with a camera, he offers to take a picture with their camera. Nice gesture, but takes up lots of time!

Happy Birthday

Celebrated DA's birthday with a dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. It was very tasty. Of all things - it had the best olives. The olives were served on a bed of ice. Very interesting. We've watched Jamie Oliver's cooking shows for years - way back when he was a young man with a show called "the naked chef" so it was fun to visit his place. I dont know how frequently he works in the kitchen there, but the food was good none the less. (He wasnt naked - the food was!)

B wasnt able to join us for DA's birthday dinner as she is on her school trip for a week to a campground on the Dorset coast. I've heard it's a beautiful setting. I'm sure she is having a blast, but I think it's been raining there so I bet she will return with a moldy, stinky suitcase.

Of course what would "an American birthday in England" be without a little cake drama. I swear, you'd think I learn. I had saved some Nestle Tollhouse choc. chips to make DA a choc. chip cake, but I had to come up with "1 yellow cake mix" and "1 box of pudding". I went to Tesco, the largest grocery store around and they did not have ANY yellow cake mixes. Not even an empty spot on the shelf for them. The extent of their baking was " chocolate cake mix, brownie mix, cookie mix, victoria cake mix and bisquick" That's all folks. So made another trip to my favorite store (Waitrose) and they had the same selection of cake mixes. No Yellow cake! I did find some "angel whip" or something like that which sounded like pudding.

I ended up making DA a "chocolate, chocolate chip cake" which turned out very yummy. Even better served on English pottery plates. ha.

Oh, for his gifts, you ask. He got a tiny stove top espresso maker, 2 espresso cups (plain white - wont make him drink out of all flowery cups!), and a salad spinner (ha. but he eats salad every night so he needed one). I did all my shopping at the local cooking store. Can you tell? It might just beat L's gift last year of a blender for his birthday gift, but just barely!

Happy St. George's Day

It's St. George's day. He is the patron saint of England. I heard of some fun events going on in the city, but nothing planned around here although all the shops on the High Street have their England flags waving. It's the closest thing I've seen to a little patriotism.
But the best thing about the day is that it is a beautiful day. A sunny spring day in England with all the flowers in bloom is hard to beat. 19 degrees today. It's so nice.
Happy St. George's day!

Bon Jour

Yes, Mickey DOES speak French. On our quick trip to Disneyland Paris, we got a kick out of all the French speaking characters. Tigger still sang in English though.

We joined all millions French and English families who were on Easter break at Disney. It was so, so crowded with long lines for every single thing, from rides to shows to the drink stand. We were a little tired of waiting, but I have to give my kids credit - they never complained. Funny to see the difference of taking our kids when they were very young and now to take them as a teen and tween (or "teen weenies" as B calls them). They didnt ask for any souvenirs until our last walk out the front door. No fancy Disney cups, no waiting in lines to talk to the characters, no crying when they were tired or hungry, no complaining about the lines - just enjoying the park. What a treat for me!

The park used to be known as Euro Disney, but they now go by Disneyland Paris. It is made up of 2 parks right next to each other: Disneyland and the Disney Studios. I believe it is about a 30 min. train ride outside of Paris (we didnt travel from Paris) and only one stop away from Charles De Galle airport. We traveled on both the Eurostar and a local French train. The train station is literally at the front door to the park gates.

I was a little frazzled on the train ride because we needed to transfer trains, but we did not get any notice that our stop was coming up and all of the sudden we were in the station for a 1 min. stop. (one minute is very short time when your kids have spread their stuff all around like we were on a 10 hour plane ride!!! - with luggage to handle as well) Would have helped if I had known how many stops to count or something, but when my ticket reads "Lille Europe", I was listening for "Lille Europe" to be called which I thought I could pick out from the French speaking announcer, but no - never heard it. I just happened to show my ticket to the person in the next seat, point to the words, shrug and she nodded "yes". That is how I decided we were supposed to get off the train. Not too confident of my decision. However, it all worked out well and we arrived as planned.

Disney was built in the middle of NO WHERE France. Flat, dusty fields give way to a color filled mass of buildings, master planned hotels, roads, etc. It's a little shocking to the senses. Our hotel, the Dream Castle, was nice, but heavily themed with a tad too much tile that echoed all the millions of little, crazed kids running around. B loved the curtained off bunk beds in our room. She thought she was a princess. I thought it felt more like spending the night in your local Disney store in the mall.

B was very excited because this was our first trip to a theme park where she was tall enough to ride some of the rides by herself. Just had to drive the car alone. Perfect that she was assigned the purple car and L the red sports car.

One difference I noticed from the Florida Disney people was that there werent any people "doing Disney" with lists as to what to ride when and in which order. I know in Florida, many guests have researched the whole vacation. Know when to get on which ride, when to get a fast pass, where to eat, which toilets have the shortest lines, etc. Here it was the much more laid back Euro style. Just casually walk around in your WINTER clothes (yes, Disney in April in long pants, long sleeves and a jacket!) and just ride whatever you come upon. It's much more relaxed that way... I didnt feel any stress to get somewhere by a certain time. I liked that part of it.

The kids with CARS characters. Luigi's tire shop.

Our only problems came curtesy of Expedia!!!!!! As I was checking in at the hotel desk, she told me that our hotel reservation had been cancelled. She did some work behind the scenes and was able to find a place for us. Thankfully. Then, as I tried to exchange my prepaid vouchers the next morning for our park entrance tickets, there was a huge snafu and we waited for 1 and 1/2 hours at the window while they tried to figure out why Expedia had not sent our tickets over - with a line of 50 people behind us cussing in French. I kept asking if I should step to the side as they figured it out so they could go ahead and serve the other customers, but they said "no, stay there". In the end, I had to buy more tickets at full price. UGH> an irritating call to Expedia will be placed today!!!!

Disney Paris is nice and new. Has all the popular rides from the Florida park, but is definitely smaller and much more condensed which may be why it felt so crowded. Also seemed a little understaffed. The Disney customer service ideal was not really seen, but I knew that already, so I didn't expect it. However, I must give the French people credit that every one I came in contact with was very pleasant and friendly.

My kids give it 2 thumbs up.

Oh, 2 crazy pictures I had to take:

This one of the guards with Uzi guns standing by the Disney village. Just gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling doesnt it????

This sign was in the train station. Talk about scaring the kids. "If you let go of your Mickey balloon, you will zap him to death!" I'm sure the train stations has had some serious issues with all the thousands of balloons Disney sells, but this sign was a little graphic I thought.

Spring Break

In our normal lives in Dallas, we would probably be spending our spring break either in Colorado or at all the "fun" spots around Dallas - Six Flags maybe? Well since Six Flags is a 10 hour flight away, what's a mom to do???? Disneyland Paris, baby! I am taking the kids for a quick trip to Disneyland Paris over the weekend on the Eurostar train. DA has to stay here to hold down the fort while the kids are geared up for a fun trip. I've heard VERY mixed reviews about it, but we are hoping for the best. It's likely to be really crowded since all the English schools are out right now. I'm pulling my usual procrastination stunt - 6pm and haven't even finished laundry or pulled out a suitcase. Better get on that pronto. (writing on the blog - common way to avoid my to do list).
It'll be funny to hear Mickey speak French. Bon Jour, Mickey!

G20 Summit

G20 summit - it might be beneficial, but it has turned London on it's head. I agree that the leaders need to meet, and I appreciate England pulling this together and hosting, but the protests around the G20 seem very dangerous. Currently I am watching Sky news which is showing all the people protesting out in front of the Bank Of England. So far, it looks peaceful enough, but it has just started. My hats off to the security and police who are trying to keep the peace. It looks like a mad house out there.
The bankers in the city were told to dress down today so that they would not be targeted for violence on their way to work (however, they need to wear a suit at work). There are 2 major banking districts, one is known as "The City" AKA "the Square Mile" where the Bank of England and other very important banks are based and the other district is Canary Wharf. 27% of all the banking in the world takes place in London, so there are LOTS of bankers. One of the professors at a local university organized violence against bankers. Fortunately, it looks like he was fired for his violent tactics, but the protesters got the "call", and as a result, the police are trying to keep everyone safe.
Every group with an axe to grind has decided that the G20 is the place to make their voices heard. I hope that all goes peacefully and that the world leaders come to agreements that will help the economy, but in the mean time, I hope for calmness in the city.

special visitors

Stonehenge - as windy and freezing as usual. brrr....

This week we were treated to fun times with my mom and younger sister. As usual, I ran them into the ground with all sorts of London-y, British things to do. We did the double decker bus tour, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, West End show Wicked, National Gallery, Victoria & Albert museum, Borough Market, Trafalgar, Picadilly, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason, Hampton Court Palace, Covent Garden, Stonehenge, the Cotswolds, Sunbury Antique show, etc. whew. We also made time for some yummy homemade scones and clotted cream. I know they looked forward to napping on the flight home just to rest up from our touring.

Burford in the Cotswolds

My kids were thrilled to receive some Easter candy treats from home. You just can beat those Reece's candy eggs. B told me this morning, "Grandmommy must not trust me with candy any more cause she told me several times I could only have 1 piece a day. I guess she remembers when I ate that whole bag the first time she visited." ha. Just for the record - after 1 week, there are still 2 pieces left!

We tried to provide a sampling of all the English weather so that they could get the full grasp of life here: sun, wind, rain, gray, cold, cool ---no warmth. Same ole, same ole. At least they saw the sun and got to experience a couple days of British Summer time when the clocks change and it stays light later. YIPEE!

The guards parading in front of Buckingham Palace.

The G20 Summit (and protests) have been in the news for days. I knew the security and police presence would be intense in the city. Monday was our last day touring around in the city and the police presence that day was crazy even though the G20 was 2 days away. The Mexico State visit was occuring at Buckingham which allowed us a nice view of all the pomp that goes along with a State visit. However, the police were everywhere - diverting traffic and footpaths. My mom was almost run over by the police who were trying to bust up some guys staging a protest. She was literally inches from being knocked over. I tried to get us out of that area as quickly as possible. When we got over to Westminster Abbey/Parliament, there must have been some big deal going on there too because we saw tons and tons of limos with the guys in black coats with the long, funny looking wigs and police on every corner.

The beauty of Hampton Court Palace's field of daffodils.

We finished their tour with a power shopping trip through Sunbury Antique show at Kempton Park on our way to the airport. It's lots of fun to go through there and find trinkets to buy. My mom and sister were able to add some treasures to their haul. I'm always on the lookout for that one iconic thing that will define our life here. I believe mine MIGHT be English pottery since I seem to have an illness about buying it all the time! but I keep my eyes open for items the kids or DA would want to have so that every time they look at it they will remember their lives here.

Now that our last guests have left, DA told me this morning it's time to start cleaning out for our move back home. uhg!

It's all happening too fast. Anyone else want to come see us so I can put that chore off a little longer?????