Europe Trip Day 4

We weren't sure what else there was to see in London so we decided to take a tour to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford. We got up at 6 am and headed over to the Marriot to get picked up by a bus. Mini loves buses and she loved this one. On this first bus, we sat in the seat right behind the back door and we let her sit in the seat next to the window by herself. She loved sitting there and looking out the window.

Unfortunately, we had to switch to our actual bus and someone had taken the seat behind the door. Mini was a bit disappointed that she had a big seat in front of her but she had to make do. Windsor castle was nice, with amazingly ornate rooms. It made me wonder about all the money these kings and queens had for no good reason other than being in a blood line. Of course Mini was just interested in the horse statues that had armored knights on top ("ma, ma" she would say).

Next up was Stonehenge. Mini fell asleep on the ride over and Mama had to carry her through Stonehenge. It was especially windy as is common and we rushed through so Mini wouldn't catch a cold. It was pretty much a tourist trap anyway but at least we can say we were there.

We made a final stop at Oxford. The tour guide gave us a walking tour of the campus. The interesting thing we found out is that Oxford is not a single college but a collection of many colleges. Other than that, we bought Mini a shirt so we can start imprinting her on getting into college.

 All in all, the tour was expensive and rushed. Furthermore, I found out that buying the "complete" package was more expensive than buying the "select" package, which did not include admission, and paying admission separately. WTF? This deserves a bad review. The one redeeming quality was that we found out that the history and science museums were free. We had a plan for the next morning. We had Indian food for dinner and then Papa crashed.

Europe Trip Day 3

The night before, I found a couple places to go eat. We wanted to try a pub that was known for their good savory pies. We made our way over there. When we got there, they told us that they don't allow children. That's the first time we've been to a restaurant that rejected children. Granted it was a pub...but it was lunchtime no less! Mini, you got us kicked out! We ended up at Subway.

From there, we headed over to Parliament and Westminster Abbey. At Westminster, Mini was back to pushing her stroller around. We then decided to check out a playground on the map near the London Eye. We walked across the Thames as mini fell asleep in her stroller. When we finally made it to the "playground", it turned out to be under construction for the Olympics. They did have these large eggs for easter that you could put stickers on so we took Mini over to partake. Instead, she took the stickers and stuck them on her shoe. oh well.

We ended up taking her to a nearby hospital that had a small plaza with a fountain and some grass. There were a couple of ducks that mini was both interested and scared of. We gave her some bread to feed them with. She also enjoyed picking some flowers and throwing them into the water. It was all very cute.

With some time to spare, we decided to check out the Royal Opera House. We ended up at Covent Garden Market, a open air building that reminded me a lot of Faneuil Hall in Boston. We saw a costumed character that looked like a hippo. Mini wasn't sure what to think of it; neither did we. Turned out to be Moomin...i guess it's a English thing.

On the way home, mini fell asleep. I was worried that she would be jetlagged. We couldn't afford another wake-up in the middle of the night as we had to get up early for a tour that we booked. She woke up when we got back and we ended up staying up for a couple hours to do her normal nighttime routine, but she fell back asleep at 11pm - no more jetlag! Unfortunately, I still had jetlag -- didn't fall asleep until 2am that night.

Europe Trip Day 2

Day 2 was really an extension of day 1 since we were on a red eye. Customs in London was ridiculous. The line was at least a couple hundred people long. Some regulars complained that they had never seen the line so long. We waited in line for at least half an hour before we realized there was a "Special Assistance" line that we could go to because of Mini. Mini, you saved us a couple of hours!

We didn't get to our hotel until late afternoon. We decided to go visit buckingham palace. We had about an hour of daylight when we got there. Mini spent all of her time pushing the stroller outside the palace gates. I guess London is very close to Heathrow so there were plenty of planes flying overhead. Mini would look up at the sky and point every time a plane flew by. She has incredibly sharp hearing and eyesight. Anyway, we stopped off at a pub on the way home for some English grub. We ordered Fish and Chips and a Steak and Ale Pie. I asked the bartender if I needed to tip. He said up to me so I tipped 10%. Later, I found out you don't have to tip in the UK, especially not at pubs.

Mini was really tired during dinner and fell asleep on the walk to the hotel. It was her naptime in SF time, but we were all pretty tired from poor sleep on the plane. Everyone went to bed as soon as we got to the hotel at 9pm London time. Sure enough, Mini woke up after a couple hours since it was a nap for her. Mama and I were so tired, we couldn't get up. Mini would sit up for a couple minutes in the dark then lay back down on Mama, sometimes on me, trying to go back to sleep. Then, she'd sit up and repeat. She was extremely patient. Finally, after an hour, we were able to get up. We ended up taking her downstairs so that we could use the free wifi in the lobby. We played hide and seek with mini in the bar/lobby area. She was completely awake. At 4am (8pm PST), we finally made our way back to bed. Still on West Coast time...

Europe Trip Day 1

We had planned a trip to Europe nearly 6 months prior. The trip, however, got of to an inauspicious start. Early this morning, I got a voicemail that our flight had been cancelled. I called the airline and found out that Spain was on a strike. We had encountered striking Europeans on our honeymoon in Greece. This seems to be a common occurrence - damn Europeans! Anyway, the airline told me I had to talk to the agency that booked my ticket. When I called Thank You Rewards, they said that I definitely had to make the flight change through the airline and I should be adamant about it. I called back the airline and they were adamant that the change had to go through the agent. Now, neither party would conference in the other. So finally, I did the conferencing on my iPhone -- luckily they make that feature extremely easy. After 2 hours, I was finally able to make a simple flight change. Unfortunately, I wasn't actually thinking straight by this time, so we ended up having a 3 day layover in London, which I would come to regret later.

We still had to resolve our hotel situation as I had prepaid all of our hotels for the duration of the trip. We quickly booked something for London on priceline and then had to cancel the hotel in barcelona. At the end of the day, we were out $200 for changing the hotel - I felt lucky. We finally made it to the airport for a red-eye flight after a half day at work. Mini was having a lot of fun at the airport. She was crawling everywhere, which was good because we hoped to tire her out. We were hoping that we would have 3 seats, but unfortunately, the plane was full. Mama would have to hold mini the whole flight or so we thought. It turns out the airlines have a "car seat" on international flights that they can attach to this fold down table on the bulkhead. Anyway, the flight actually turned out to be surprisingly uneventful. Mini actually slept pretty much the whole way there. She even slept in the car seat for a couple hours. The downside was that no one in our row could watch the TVs while the table was open. It's ok though because we ended up sleeping also.

WOTD: Bus, Bei, Nai

Finally, you said bus!  When we were walking to the bus stop after Grattan Playground, you asked "bus?"  It took you long enough given how many buses you've been on and how many buses you've seen.  Now you can really warn me when the bus is coming :)

Yesterday, you also said "bei" for blanket and "nai" for milk.

Pocky in the Sunset

Baby girl, I have the best little moments with you. Today, we went to the Sunset to pick up bean paste and other Asian grocery items, one being Strawberry Pocky sticks. You started asking for the Pocky as soon as we left the store and I caved in. We were standing on the sidewalk and you just plopped down and extended your hand for the treat. It was great because the day was warm and you found a good corner for people-watching. We sat there on the sidewalk for a good ten minutes enjoying Pocky and the warm sun (sitting on the sidewalk is not something I would normally consider). A terrier dog even licked one of your Pocky sticks as it walked by, we had to throw that one away.