Two weeks ago today we flew home from Europe (by plane), after capping our trip to Belgium with a long weekend in London. We had no real set plans, other than to just wander and then regroup with old friends who live in southern England.
It was a bit of a change to go from biking through fields of, uhm, yes, brussels sprouts in Belgium to be immersed in the big top spectacle of Oxford Circus on a Friday night. We sought some comfort in green, quiet Regent's Park as we weaned ourselves back to normal levels of beer consumption. We had a great Indian dinner at a restaurant next to our hotel where the teenage boys sitting next to us presumably were super high. Thankfully, they - and their giggles - left shortly after we arrived.
On Saturday, we walked by half of all the places you'd expect. I'd been to Kensington Palace before, but for some reason had never seen this beautiful garden before. We walked through peaceful Hyde Park and then, with laser-like focus, sought to purchase something so that I could get 20 pence to use the bathroom in the park. (I had lots of 20p coins in my pockets when we got back to the US.)
We walked past Buckingham Palace and then looped up through the little streets so that I could go to the Brooks store. Thank you, John Boultbee Brooks, for making the carved C17S bike seat. And thank you, Brooks store, for carrying this now-hard-to-find-in-the-US gem. Right now, I'm debating - with myself - about whether I should hold it in reserve or put it on my third bike. Yes, I have this seat on my other two bikes already.
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| Mr. Brooks, my hero |
Oh, and we then walked to the British Museum. We saw the Rosetta Stone! And a bunch of sculptures and things from the Parthenon! And some jade from China! It all was pretty cool - and free. On the other hand, it feels so wrong. I can get behind the idea that some stuff, if left it its own country, will get destroyed by invaders and crazy zealots. However, was it all taken under such circumstances? And isn't there a respectable period after which the items should be returned? We don't have the answers. Having a very British dinner and a pint of beer didn't clear things up for us, but it did make us happy.
On Sunday, we walked by the other half of all the places you'd expect. But this time, we did it with our friends Paul, Claire, Lauren, and Sam. They lived in Minnesota for a bit before the kids were born and moved back to England when Lauren was starting school. It was such a wonderful day catching up with old friends. We saw cool stuff (Tower Bridge, Tower of London, as well as old Roman ruins that Paul navigated us past), and ate a very British dinner at Chipotle, to acknowledge that the teens were remarkably good sports.
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| Dan and the Harris family, paying homage to a sewer engineer |
And, now we've been home for two weeks. It was a bit of a rough re-entry into normal routines - at least for me - but I'm plotting out the next year or two of potential vacations to keep living the dream.
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