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Mark & Robyn's Travels
The flight was to London was fine except delayed about 1/2 hour due to the traffic flying into Heathrow. As usual our flight parked at the furthest possible gate from the terminal, carrying Robyn's 80 lb. carryon lengthened my arm by two inches, I will need shoulder surgery after this trip. One thing that has amazed me during our travels to Europe the last 4 years is getting through British immigration and customs is a breeze, takes a total of about 15 - 20 minutes. When we return to the US it will take 1 1/2 - 2 hours to get through immigration and customs.
We are staying at the Chesterfield Mayfair, we stayed here in 2014 and they treated us great. The place is pricey but what isn't in London and anyway what are we going to do with our money leave it to our kids (hahahaha that's a good one, opps did I say that out loud). We had afternoon tea scheduled for 1 pm, we arrived at the hotel at 1 pm. however this hotel treats us great, they moved the reservation and got us into our room immediately. We had a quick discussion about this being our second stay at this hotel and that our anniversary was coming up. After we got back from tea there was a note in our room with two complimentary drinks for us at the bar for our anniversary.
We did afternoon or high tea (pinky up) here last time we stayed at this hotel so Robyn had made reservations for it again. I am not a hot tea person, I like it iced with a little lemon period. If you are going to do a tea this is the place to do it, they are attentive and keep the little finger sandwiches coming, or scones, or pastries. Here are the pictures from the tea and I behaved instead of acting like a goofball.
After tea we decided to head to the British Library, we actually saw this on a Rick Steve's show. It contains historical documents that can be viewed at any time, best of all it is free. Let me back up to when we were having tea, Robyn suggested we could go to the British Library and see the Guggenheim Bible. I sat there a second and said that would be great however I think you mean the Gutenberg Bible. Guggenheim Gutenberg they sound alike both start with Gu and have en in the middle. If anyone ever wonders where our daughter gets her mispronunciation of words well you don't have to look too far. We spent about an hour going through the exhibit and what they display is absolutely incredible. Pictures cannot be taken at all, more on that in a bit. This is what was on display, original compositions by Bach, Handle, Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky. The Handle composition was of the Hallelujah Chorus including where he marked out notes and wrote in changes which compared to the Mozart piece which was so neat and meticulous. There were also original scores of the Beatles Help, Yesterday, Ticket to Ride, and Hard Day's Night. The Ticket to Ride was done on the back of a birthday card to Julien Lennon and the front of the card was a little boy riding a toy train. They also had original works by Dickens and Jane Austen including her writing desk. I wonder if that was where Jane Austen wrote "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies", there is a joke there figure it out. Now about the no pictures, when we were looking at Jane Austen's writing desk there was a young Asian woman trying to take a picture with her cell phone, I thought Robyn was going to scream out "No Pictures" her inner teacher is always taking over. The other documents we saw included one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta which just blew me away, right beside it was the Papal Bull issued a shortly after it invalidating the decree. There were also letters by Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots who not only is one of my favorite figures in English history but also the most tragic, there will be more on Mary when we get to Scotland in a few days. And of course we found the Gutenberg Bible which is on of 49 copies in existence (when I was at UT in 1978 the university acquired a copy which is on display at the Ransom Center this was the last Gutenberg Bible to be sold). But boy was I surprised when right next to it was the Guggenheim Bible, Matthew Guggenheims personal Bible given to him at his confirmation. Now to call me a liar you will have to go to the British Library and see for yourself, ask where the Guggenheim Bible is you may be surprised at the answer. Next time you are in New York go the Gutenberg Museum to see the Guggenheim Bible.
Well back to reality, on the way back to the tube stop Robyn took a picture of the St Pancras Hotel which was restored a few years ago, it is a beautiful piece of architecture so I have included the picture.
We also finally made it to Trafalgar Square, it only tool us three visits and Robyn took a picture of Lord Nelson.
We finished our evening with fish & chips and a pint at the King's Arms Pub which is near our hotel. Please note all the people standing outside the pub drinking. I found out from my first visit to London for work back in 1996 that going to the pub before heading home is a great daily London commuting tradition.
As I said this is a great hotel we stay in and when we got back to our room there was a plate with cupcakes and a card with personalized notes from several members of the staff wishing us a happy anniversary. The picture of the cupcakes is minus one because I had already eaten mine. Tomorrow I don't know what we are doing and neither does Robyn which has her greatly stressed, so she is in a happy place.
We are staying at the Chesterfield Mayfair, we stayed here in 2014 and they treated us great. The place is pricey but what isn't in London and anyway what are we going to do with our money leave it to our kids (hahahaha that's a good one, opps did I say that out loud). We had afternoon tea scheduled for 1 pm, we arrived at the hotel at 1 pm. however this hotel treats us great, they moved the reservation and got us into our room immediately. We had a quick discussion about this being our second stay at this hotel and that our anniversary was coming up. After we got back from tea there was a note in our room with two complimentary drinks for us at the bar for our anniversary.
We did afternoon or high tea (pinky up) here last time we stayed at this hotel so Robyn had made reservations for it again. I am not a hot tea person, I like it iced with a little lemon period. If you are going to do a tea this is the place to do it, they are attentive and keep the little finger sandwiches coming, or scones, or pastries. Here are the pictures from the tea and I behaved instead of acting like a goofball.
After tea we decided to head to the British Library, we actually saw this on a Rick Steve's show. It contains historical documents that can be viewed at any time, best of all it is free. Let me back up to when we were having tea, Robyn suggested we could go to the British Library and see the Guggenheim Bible. I sat there a second and said that would be great however I think you mean the Gutenberg Bible. Guggenheim Gutenberg they sound alike both start with Gu and have en in the middle. If anyone ever wonders where our daughter gets her mispronunciation of words well you don't have to look too far. We spent about an hour going through the exhibit and what they display is absolutely incredible. Pictures cannot be taken at all, more on that in a bit. This is what was on display, original compositions by Bach, Handle, Mozart, Beethoven, Stravinsky. The Handle composition was of the Hallelujah Chorus including where he marked out notes and wrote in changes which compared to the Mozart piece which was so neat and meticulous. There were also original scores of the Beatles Help, Yesterday, Ticket to Ride, and Hard Day's Night. The Ticket to Ride was done on the back of a birthday card to Julien Lennon and the front of the card was a little boy riding a toy train. They also had original works by Dickens and Jane Austen including her writing desk. I wonder if that was where Jane Austen wrote "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies", there is a joke there figure it out. Now about the no pictures, when we were looking at Jane Austen's writing desk there was a young Asian woman trying to take a picture with her cell phone, I thought Robyn was going to scream out "No Pictures" her inner teacher is always taking over. The other documents we saw included one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta which just blew me away, right beside it was the Papal Bull issued a shortly after it invalidating the decree. There were also letters by Queen Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots who not only is one of my favorite figures in English history but also the most tragic, there will be more on Mary when we get to Scotland in a few days. And of course we found the Gutenberg Bible which is on of 49 copies in existence (when I was at UT in 1978 the university acquired a copy which is on display at the Ransom Center this was the last Gutenberg Bible to be sold). But boy was I surprised when right next to it was the Guggenheim Bible, Matthew Guggenheims personal Bible given to him at his confirmation. Now to call me a liar you will have to go to the British Library and see for yourself, ask where the Guggenheim Bible is you may be surprised at the answer. Next time you are in New York go the Gutenberg Museum to see the Guggenheim Bible.
Well back to reality, on the way back to the tube stop Robyn took a picture of the St Pancras Hotel which was restored a few years ago, it is a beautiful piece of architecture so I have included the picture.
We also finally made it to Trafalgar Square, it only tool us three visits and Robyn took a picture of Lord Nelson.
We finished our evening with fish & chips and a pint at the King's Arms Pub which is near our hotel. Please note all the people standing outside the pub drinking. I found out from my first visit to London for work back in 1996 that going to the pub before heading home is a great daily London commuting tradition.
As I said this is a great hotel we stay in and when we got back to our room there was a plate with cupcakes and a card with personalized notes from several members of the staff wishing us a happy anniversary. The picture of the cupcakes is minus one because I had already eaten mine. Tomorrow I don't know what we are doing and neither does Robyn which has her greatly stressed, so she is in a happy place.
- comments
Debby Mark, here is my travel tip to you and Robyn about schlepping bags. I always try to carry on a roller bag to put in the overhead because my carry on bag is about 20 pounds, I have no idea why it's so heavy but it is. Just the cost of being female I guess. Anyway, it makes it much easier to get around the terminal if you have a roller bag to put the carry ons on top of.
mark_robyn Here is the problem, the small roller bag wasn't big enough for Robyn's crap, which meant she would have had two carry-on's so she went with a carry-on that would hold more however this meant it was not a roller bag.
Debby So what's wrong with two carry ons? You're allowed two and if it keeps you from a shoulder injury in my estimation it's a no brainer. Mark, listen to your sister, I'm older and wiser. This is no way opens the door for old jokes by the way.
mark_robyn The door to age jokes has been opened since I was born. The carry-on issue is not about the planes it is about how many bags I have to handle myself especially on and off trains. Remember Robyn can't lift anything and she can pull only one bag as long as it is light.
Debby Ha ha. I give up giving advice. Hope you guys are having fun.
Melanie That's because you and mother are suckers and already spent all your money on me and Matthew :)
Melanie I was also going to say and you wonder where I get it from! Sometimes mother is worse than me