Moving, Gardens, and Windsor Castle

So began the last week in NW8...

Monday a large group of Americans (and a couple Aussies) met at the Clifton. I met up with Lindsey at last (a friend of my friend Sas's that we stayed with on Spring Break last year in New Haven, CT) who happens to be working in London and lived just a couple of blocks from us. I also got a very fortunate tip that night from Amanda that she and Morgan had a spot opening at their flat the following week. The next day I called their landlord, visited the flat in Bayswater, and agreed to take the flat, all in time to catch a show of "Aladdin" (a British pantomime - not pantomime as in the silent mimics in the US but rather a highly satrical "children's" show with the lead roles often done in drag), starring Ian McKellen as Widow Twanky, the title character's hilarious mother. Wednesday was the BUNAC pub meet at a v. classy pub on the Thames and Thursday and Friday were spent packing.

Saturday we woke up early to move out of our flat, which all went smoothly and without incident. I even took my first London minicab ride as I moved my stuff into a hostel for the next few days. I spet the afternoon leisurely strolling around Bayswater, my new neighborhood sandwiched between Notting Hill, Paddington, and Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. I wandered through the parks, catching some of the more well-known sights like the Peter Pan statue, the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and the Albert Memorial. I met Kate's boyfriend John and we walked up to Westminster to meet Kate before finding something to do for the evening and thus avoiding going back to the hostel too early. (photos: Kensington Gardens toward Kensington Palace; the Diana fountain; the Albert Memorial with the representations of "the Americas"; and Harrods at night.)






Sunday, I met Morgan early to go to Windsor for the day. We caught the train and headed out of town (not too far out of town... the ticket was only four pounds!). Upon arrival we directly went up to Windsor Castle, the first castle I've visited that's still actually used as a royal residence. We took the tour, learning about the various royals and how they used it, including the religious ceremony of Charles and Camilla's wedding the past April (you could by discounted comemerative china from their wedding). We couldn't unfortunately go into the chapel that was the burial place for Charles II, Henrys 6-8 (or something like that, including Henry VIII), and a few other famous monarchs that I forget. The palace also had a ginormous doll house taking up an entire room and was taller than most adults. (photos: the first corner of Windsor Castle; the gardens in the Inner Bailey of the Castle; accross the courtyard to the Royal Apartments; and up the other courtyard towards the center of the Castle with apartments on the right and the Chapel on the left)







After the palace though, we got some lunch at a pub and wandered through the streets towards Eton, the most famous public school ("public" here actually meaning "private"), though it closed early for tours that day. A bit bummed, we headed back to the train and got back to London in time for fabulous gelatto in Leicester Square. I met GP later and we watched a bit of American football showing at a ridiculously American Sports Café filled with all sorts of people you'd usually see at a frat party with no loss of greek letter paraphenalia. Exhausted, I returned to the hostel for the night.

Flat-Hunting, V&A Museum, and Greenwich Again

So, by the end of last week, Kate and I had decided to move out of our flat. We spent the early part of this week looking at flats. We at one point found one by where GP was living, but Kate and John found one they decided, after much debate, that they liked just a bit better. I continued looking, but was not finding anything really exciting. We didn't do too much after work this week other than look for housing or update things online, etc., in efforts to save money and also to figure out what the heck we were doing after we moved out. Thursday night, Linsey from work and I went to dinner and for drinks since her last day would be that Friday. After work on Friday, the office went out to celebrate Alex's birthday, Linsey's last day, Paula's work anniversary, and our winning a major travel industry award earlier in the week (Best Travel Recruitment Agency from the Travel Weekly Awards, hosted also by some well-known British tv star whose name I forget). I left once John, our MD, started "breakdancing" and headed into town to meet Tyler, my friend from UofM in town for a few days, for a drink as well at the Cheshire Cheese before heading home farely late.

Saturday I was finally able to sleep in and it was wonderful. I got a letter that morning from Contiki, the tour company that I was going to travel with for over a month to 17 countries, that my tour was cancelled due to a lack of people for my particular one. Hmmmm... I began looking for new options for travel, though was indeed a bit frustrated upon recieving the news. I then got around to looking at a flat in South London, though it was farely underwhelming, before heading to meet Tyler, Trace, Kate, and John at the Victoria & Albert Museum. After many delays, I missed meeting Tyler but found the others and we wandered around the unusual yet fascinating museum. We saw a display on fashion, got to design a textile, try on an 18th-century-like skirt frame (v. hilarious picture!!!), and even oggled at a massive display of ironwork (i.e. blacksmithing stuff and hearth tools!). At that point dying of hunger, we all went into SoHo to catch a fabulous noodle dinner and then head out to some pubs. We finally went to the Canadian pub, The Maple Leaf, and Trace about fell over from excitement at about 8 different tvs all showing hockey. We also vowed to return for food sometime once we realized they have poutine. We ended up walking around more than sitting and chatting in pubs, and again returned quite late. (photos: me in an old skirt; some of these ironwork pieces may look a bit familiar to some; and these too; and St. Pauls at night (my favorite!))




Sunday I slept in again but also started the day looking at flats, seeing some of the shadiest, dirtiest, and dodgiest that I'd ever seen before. Frustrated, I met finally with Trace, Morgan, and Anna in Brick Lane, then heading to the Petticoat Lane market and another near Liverpool Street after I had come from Hyde Park and Speaker's Corner (an area of the park where there's a lot of freely-speaking people, mostly preaching/debating religion). However, we apparently were going through Greenwich withrawl after only a week and decided to go back for a big group Tex-Mex dinner. Anna, Trace, and I went to the observatory and saw the laser marking the Prime Meridian that, on a clear day, can be seen for 15 miles. Finally Kate and John arrived and we had a ton of time to wait for GP and his roommate (which some people remaining nameless found a way to blame on me). The dinner was ridiculously tastey and we went back to the PM for those that hadn't yet seen it before heading back to town and looking at more flats, etc. that night. (photos: Speakers Corner; and looking up at the Observatory and the PM laser)

St. Pauls, Degas, and the Prime Meridian

So, we were back in London. I was so tired and also quite tired of having to pack, repack, etc. with all the travelling, so being back in town was a welcome change. The day after returning (Jan 2), was a bank holiday, so most people were just coming back into town. We decided to take advantage of this and try to do some shopping on Oxford St. with all the sales. However, it was still busy, though nowhere near xmas shopping busy, and neither Kara, Trace, or I found anything we really liked. We made our way then towards St. Paul's to tour that and climb to the top of the dome for a view. The church was neat, though I'd been in it for the xmas concert, I hadn't relaly looked around afterwards. I had more time now to check out the crypt and see the tombs of Wellington and Nelson, etc. as well as admire all its churchiness (in a good way, of course!). We then climbed to the tob of the dome for neat views of the city, but also really fulfilling any need to see the city from up high after climbing the dome and having done the London Eye. After, we made a quick stop at the British Museum to check out the Egypt room before trying to find a show to go see. However, we couldn't find anything and settled on heading back to my flat to watch a movie.

The next day I returned to work, which was actually nice to get back into a routine. It wasn't too busy, which was also still v. nice. Afterwards, I met Trace and Kara and we got tickets to see Les Mis before catching a v. tasty dinner accross from the theatre. Trace and Kara hadn't really seen the show before (Trace had, but had seen a bad cast and had hated it til then), but both came out of it absolutely loving it. The cast we had was pretty good, but the man who played Jean Valjean was amazing (comparable to Colm Wilkenson!)!!! After the show, it was home for me after saying goodbye to Kara on the tube since she went back to Germany for school again the next morning.

Wednesday aftwer work I met Andy at the National Gallery to kill some time beffore the first BUNAC pub meet of the year. They had all sorts of specials like free snack food for us since there were so many new arrivals. It was definately weird for people who'd just gotten here to react at my being here for two months as being "a long time."

Thursday, Kate and I came to the conclusion of a loooong debate about whether or not to move from our flat. We decided that since GP and Sam had moved out (and besideds the wacky and stingy/greedy landlady), the flat had gone downhill and the crazy (if not actually, than v. close to it) girl taking Sam's place was enough to drive us from the flat. Our lease is up in mid January, and since we find ourselves increasingly not wanting to come back to the flat at night due to the unwelcoming atmosphere now, we want to get out and find someplace new for the rest of our time here. There're some prospects, but those are still being explored. After discussing housing, we made our way to The Clifton for some chill hangout time for the evening. Friday, friends from work and I went out after work before I met GP, Kate, John (Kate's boyfriend), Trace, and GP's friend Katherine at Ye Ole Cheshire Cheese for a while as well.

Saturday I woke up earlyish and headed to the Tate Britain. I particularly wanted to catch the exhibit on Degas, Sickert, and Toulouse-Lautrec (which I did and which was fabulous!). I really enjoyed this museum as it was much more my style than the often disturbing Tate Modern. I then headed town the river towards Westminster, catching a bite to eat before meeting a group in Bayswater to see "Brokeback Mountain." After, we went to the "Sports Cafe" in town to watch American basketball (including the Pistons!), American football, and a bit of Canadian hockey. A strange night, but fun and finally with good nachos.

Sunday I met Morgan (a BUNAC-er) and Trace to go to Greenwich for the day. We got to ride two tube lines that we hadn't yet been on (I only have one left til I've ridden them all!) and it was a nice ride since we rode an above-ground train to Greenwich, only about 20 minutes from central London. Greenwich was such a lovely town that had the feel of it's own place without being absorbed by the city, though still a 20-minute tube ride away from the heart of the city. We walked through town on our way up to the Greenwich Royal Observatory, home of the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time. We did the "Now I'm East! Now I'm West" hopping over the prime meridian and set our watches to noon exactly as we stood on the Meridian, as well as seeing lots of old astronomy tools and telescopes. After the Observatory, we headed back into town to the National Maritime Museum, complete with anything anyone could ever want to know about anything nautical. After being about shipped-out, we actually had Mexican (ok, more like Tex-Mex) for lunch and then went to see the Cutty Sark, an old tea cutter tall ship in a dry dock that you can walk through. It wasn't too much to see, but still neat when you could walk around at will on deck. Then, we started back to London via another new tube line, making it back with pleanty of time to do laundry and blog. Alas, I may have to add pictures another night since it's now getting a bit late... (photos: the Observatory, me on the Prime Meridian (i'm not saluting or anything), and the Cutty Sark)

Frickin' Scotland!!!

Ok, I LOVED Scotland! I loved France too, but I also loved Scotland! After getting in late on Boxing Day (26 December), we got up early to go to the Glasgow airport to pick up our rental car, which turned out to be a VW Polo (small, silver, hatchback, 4-door, manual, steering wheel on the right side). Trace agreed to be our official driver since he was the oldest and had the most experience driving a manual. After picking up our car and getting adjusted to driving on the left-hand side of the road, we were soon on our way towards the Highlands.

That day, after we accidentally took a slight detour, we were soon on our way towards Loch Lomand (of the "You take the high road, and I'll take the low road..." fame). Our first Scottish loch was lovely and we got out quite a bit to take pictures. We drove up through the Trossarch Mountains towards the Isle of Skye. On our way, we stopped to again take pictures and were surprised by a man in traditional Scottish dress playing the bagpipes at this perfect overlook on the side of the road. We, being quite nerdy, got very excited. We also drove past the well-known Eileen Donan Castle on our way to Skye, which we barely arrived at before dark. We drove along the island until we came to the main city of Portree (not too big of a city) where we shopped around for a place to stay before settling on a hostel. Then we went to the nearby pub that seemed to be the only thing open for food at that point (since it was a bank holiday, most things were closed) and had a tasty meal, including Scottish venison stew... mmmmm... However, after dinner, it was only 7:30, though it was of course pitch black. With no options, we returned to the hostel to watch some movies in the common room. We met a guy who was hoping to teach history at Hillsdale College (yes, in Michigan. He'd been studying in Glasgow for a while) and thought that history was getting to be "too revisionist." After he left, a guy who lived/worked at the hostel came and chatted with us all the way through Batman (our second movie of the night) telling us everything about himself, his music tastes, his Christmas presents, etc. He did inform us that part of the most recent Harry Potter movie was filmed just outside of town (the part with the dragon), so seeing that became our goal for the next morning. (photos: Loch Lomand; roadside bagpiper in the highlands; sheep!!!; sunset in the highlands with the usual frost and fog; and Eileen Donan castle)







We woke up, had lots of weird porridge and toast before getting on the road. We stopped to take pictures of its v. picturesque harbour before getting towards "The Old Man," a stone cliff face that of course looked nothing like an old man without a LOT of imagination. We also did some hikeys on the moors (pronounced "moooorrrrrrrrrrrrs," thanks to Katie C and Sandy Safford, et al) and saw tons of sheep and highland cattle (also on t-shirts "heilan coos"). The sheep were everywhere and grazing on some of the most absurd parts of the terrain, including cliff faces, and the cows were covered in a thick oarngey-red hair that made them look v. punk rock. We kept looking for the puffins that were on all the postcards, but didn't see any of them either. Soon, obligated to get going due to winnowing daylight hours a long drive ahead of us, we got on the road. We headed towards the Northeastern tip of Scotland, catching the last ferry over to Mainland, the main island in Orkney. Sick of our two cds of Scottish music that we'd bought that day (since we had no antenna on our car, we often didn't get any radio stations and we were in dire need of entertainment), we began to also appreciate bizarre Scottish comedy serials on the radio. After the nearly 2-hour boat ride, we drove towards the main city on Mainland, Kirkwall, and after searching for any open hostels, we settled on a hotel accross from the harbour before heading to a pub we'd found with local Scottish pub music. (photos: The Old Man where part of Harry Potter was filmed (with some smallish moors; Trace and Kara; cliffside at Skye (objects in photo are larger than they appear); coastal Skye;






The next day, when going down to breakfast, we found only three places set in the dining room and realized we were the only three in the entire hotel and that we were only part of the handful of tourists on the entire island. We also discovered that the strange boards on the windows (see photo) were for a game that the locals play on Xmas and New Years Day (they divide the TOWN in half and each team has to try to get a ball to the other side of town, but there are no rules at all and it's apparently like a gian rugby scrum a.k.a. free-for-all). We took some pictures of town and the cathedral before heading out to find some wildlife. The guy at the tourist information centre told us where to look for seals, puffins, and even whales. However, with the cold winds and probably our inexperience whale-watching, we didn't see anything in our breif (10-30min) stints on the coast. We did see lots of other birds and tons of fabulous sheep. We even went to an island just off mainland that was only accessible by foot during low tide when the tide exposed a concrete walkway to the island covered in old Norse ruins. Also on Orkney are some of the best stone-age and Norse ruins, which we saw at Skara Brae (an old settlement recently discovered), and also some of the best standing stones (we saw a couple more henges, which I remembered meant "standing circle" approximately...). We had to catch our boat at 4:45 that afternoon, since we decided not to take the 6:30 or 11:30am or the 9:00pm boats (the only others off the island that day), so we knew we'd be doing our drive that night in the dark. We drove through Lybster, a small town twinned with "Fort Mackinac, USA" since it's founder was also the founder of Fort Mackinac and former Lt. Governor of Michilimackinac, Patrick Sinclair. We'd hoped to see his grave, but had to settle for the road sign and a plaque since it was quite dark when we got there. However, we finally got into Inverness, got a room at a hostel, found some food, and settled in for the night. (photos: downtown Kirkwall with the weirdo boards; part of a henge with the mountains of Orkney; the "gently undulating hills" that characterize the island interiors; coastal Orkney; sheep!!!; Skara Brae; island with the exposed walkway (red speck is a woman walking on the walkway); one of my favorite road signs, often with the phrase "Elderly People" under it; Trace and I at Lybster (hard to see us, but we're there next to the sign)











The next day, we were up to do some shopping, continuing our ongoing quest for a Scottish cableknit sweater. We hadn't found one in the Highlands, but I did at last find a lovely green one that smells delightfully of sheep and wool (seriously, not in a bad way at all) at a kiltmaker's shop. We also got a sampler pack of fudge, since it seemed so traditional there as well. We then paid a quick visit to Loch Ness and then headed back through the Carignorms towards Edinburgh so that we could return our rental by our assigned time. We made it, cought the bus into town, and got to our hotel.

OK, so the hotel was flippin weird. It was the cheapest thing we could find in town, since Hogmany (the New Year celebrations popular all over Scotland, though over-the-top in Edinburgh) guaranteed most everythign was gone months ago. It was also of a weird modern/contemporary decor that left us feeling cold and like we were in a painted warehouse. It was comfortable, but v. weird. After getting in and resting, we went to dinner and met Trace's acquaintences before going for a second dinner and then back to be the token Americans hanging out in a group of British and Scottish university studnets. Kara and I were quickly getting tired and we made our way back to our weirdo hotel. (photo: Loch Ness)



The next morning, we were up and on our way to Edinburgh Castle where we saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, a great exhibit about prisoners of war at the castle during the American Revolution, and a large crowd of people gathering to watch a v. dull cannon firing. The castle, being New Year's Eve and the night for most of Hogmany, was packed so we were glad to leave. We then made our way to food and then to the train station to change/buy train tickets before heading to a lovely vantage point over the city. By this point, it was starting to rain and Kara's and my shoes were both still soaked from hiking in the wetness and mud in the highlands, so we were anxious to head back to the hotel to rest before catching dinner and going to Hogmany. (photos: Edinburgh from the Castle with the area for Hogmany being the low part in the center; Trace and the Big Cannon; UofM is flippin everywhere; and Edinburgh Castle and the run-up to Hogmany (festival-looking area))





We got to the main street that night still an hour before festivities started and were some of the few people not drinking, etc. in the huge crowd. We met 3 American military guys stationed in Germany, one of which was from Mackinaw City, MI (he was v. excited when he found out where we worked, since we'd actually heard of his hometown), and also got into a discussion with random people about the most recent Harry Potter movie. Luckily, we'd bought a special ticket that got us out of the ridiculous crowd and into a less-crowded area that had tradtional Scottish cleidh dancing (like square dancing, but more twirly!!!) and special bands, including some strange takes on traditional Scottish music. At midnight, we had an excellent view of the fireworks over the castle and then returned to the bands and dancing before heading back after everything ended at 1. (photos: Hogmany when you could still move in the street; dancing in the gardens; rocking out in Scotland (the guy on the banjo looks like Dennis, for those of you that know him); Happy New Year! Castle is barely visible behind the fireworks; and more rocking out)







The next morning, we packed, went to breakfast (had haggis for the second time!), and then counted the piles of vomit on our way to the train station. We'd decided to leave a day earlier to get back to London since we were all exhausted and wanted to save money. We had a lovely view of Northumberland (sadly, no flowers since it's winter...) and the moors from the train. Back in town, we returned to my flat, caught a quick dinner and then heading home to bed. I didn't think I was going to be that excited to get back to my flat and my crappy bed, but it was lovely.

Marseille and Provence

Thursday 22 December, after packing, I met the fam at the Liverpool Street Station to catch the train to the Stanstead Airport to fly to Marseille. We finally got on the plane and caught an amazing sunset between layers of clouds. By the time we got into the Montpellier airport, it was dark, though we were all v. excited to get new stamps in our passports. Mom's high school friend Ellen, who works at the American Consulate in Marseille, picked us up at the airport and drove us back to Marseille, filling us in on useful bits of info and answering all of our questions. Her "big" car was still too small for us and our luggage, so we rode the two hours with Leslie's bag on our lap. When we got into town, though we were all exhausted, we went to dinner at a great Italian restraunt on the Mediterranean, knowing that we wouldn't make it out of our rooms again if we went there first. Though everyone in my family had taken some level of French, we were still unprepared to use it at the restraunt and Ellen served as a great translator when we got flustred (which was quite a bit).

After dinner, we headed to the Consulate General's house, since Ellen had arranged for us to stay at the intern's housing at the guest house on the property (next door to where a former South American exiled dictator had lived). Mom and Leslie shared the apartment downstairs while Joe and I had the one upstairs. Ellen had provided some snack food and breakfast food that, together with the amazing view of the ocean we saw the next morning and the wonderful price of free, made our accomodations in France incredible.

The next morning, after catching the "multi-million dollar view" of the ocean, Ellen picked us up and took us to the consulate to introduce us to her coworkers and show us around. They were all lovely and we were treated to freshly-baked olive bread and even a personal recruitment speech for the NCSI. We then embarked on a tour through town where we stopped at the Santons market. Santons are a provençal tradition of statues of local traditional people that they arrange in village scenes containg the usual christmas manger scene. Leslie really like "le fou" or "the fool" and we began to see how hardcore some of the people became about their village scenes. We checked out the Santons museum and a bookstore before heading to lunch. Marseille and Provence are very well-known for their olives/olive oil, fish, wine, and lavender (needless to say, we at a lot of olives and fish and drank a good amount of wine!). They also apparently make a lot of ceramics and lots of soap (usually with lavender). After lunch, we continued through the markets, took a ferry ride across the harbour (it lasted only about 60 seconds, since it wasn't a great distance, but Ellen insisted it's a Marseille tradition), and went to another museum known for its architecture and now for its hovering and over-informative (though v. nice) docents. We did get a lot of info on Mary Magdeline, who is said to have landed in Marseille in 40 AD before continuing her life in Provence. We also then made our way into some of the oldest neighborhoods to a chocolaterie (delicious!!!), and one of the cathedrals in town before going back to the consulate and then to dinner. We ate at a little seafood restraunt on the Mediterranean that caught its own fish earlier that day. We all shared a humungous lupe that they did a whole presesntation with, including cracking its sea salt coating and filleting it infront of us. We also then had to eat the eggs, which they brought to us on a plate looking absolutely disgusting. We returned to our apartment that night absolutely exhausted and absolutely stuffed. (photos: part of the view from our room (the other way included some islands and the Chateau d'If); the santons market; the fam at the port; some of the streets in one of the oldest quarters in Marseille; a crêche scene with santons; and Marseille harbor with Notre Dame de la Garde above the Vieux Port.)






The next day we slept in slightly before heading to le Beaux de Provence, a small walled mountain-top town that reminded me a lot of the one from "Chocolat." We'd stopped on our way at a local ceramics shop and were starving when we arrived in town. We headed straight for a creperie before then making our way to the chateau (castle) at the top of the city. Joe and I did lots of climbing up precarious stairs to get wonderful views of the countryside. After the Chateau, we followed a procession of traditional provençal dancers that was preceded by shepherds and noisy donkeys and sheep. Eventually, with only a brief stop to buy cookies, we were back in the car to get a quick tour of the area before going back to Marseille. Leslie was thrilled to see some Roman ruins and we drove through St. Remy (the town Van Gogh featured in "A Starry Night" since he stayed in a mental hospital just outside the town near the ruins after cutting off his ear). Once back in Marseille, we went to Ellen's house for a Christmas Eve dinner of cous cous and relaxation. Again, stuffed to the max, we returned to our apartments for a chance to really sleep in the next day. (photos: Our apartments and Lesie with part of the ex-dictator's house in the corner; the streets of Les Beaux; Joe, Ellen, me, and Leslie in Les Beaux; the Chateau and Les Beaux; the view from the Chateau, including vinyards, etc.; and some of the traditional provençal dancers and musicians.)






Christmas Day was very quiet. We slept in and eventually were picked up by Ellen before heading on a scenic drive up the coast to a little fishing village where we would be having our Christmas Dinner. We arrived at La Grotte, the restraunt, and all had quite a bit of sampling of each other's food. Joe and I liked Ellen's mussels in lovely garlic sauce, and I enjoyed Joe's pulpe (a local kind of squid). After multiple courses, we finished with dessert before going on a drive up the coast along the Colanques (apparently v. similiar to the Norwegian Fjords) with some mini hikey-hikeys, photo ops, breathtaking vistas. Leslie and I even got on our bellies to peer over the edge of what's supposedly the highest cliff along the Mediterranean, if not Western Europe. Once it got dark, we headed back towards Marseille, making a quick stop at the village of Cassis. We returned to Ellen's flat to have tea again with her and her husband before going back to our flat for some rousing games of Euchre played with French playing cards (actually a bit different!). (photos: Hiking in the Calonques with Cassis below; big cliffs with Joe, Bob (Ellen's husband), and Mom; Leslie looking over the edge; Mom and Joe; Ellen and Bob; the fam doing what Joe called "The Face;" and us looking downright adorable.)







The next day, Mom, Joe, and Leslie left early to catch their train to Paris en route to Germany. I stayed behind to help Ellen clean before my train took me back to Montpellier before I flew on to Glasgow. However, we finished cleaning v. quickly and soon had nothing else to do to kill 4 hours with. We went up to Notre Dame de la Garde, a landmark in Marseille since it's on a hilltop overlooking the city and can be seen by sailors from miles away. After the church, I went to the train station to read and relax for a few hours before my train. After arriving in Montpellier, I caught some lunch and then a taxi to the airport to wait for my plane. The plane back to London actually arrived early, but after waiting for a delayed flight, we got into the terminal late and, among other things, nearly missed check-in for my flight to Glasgow. Luckily, I made it, met Trace and our friend Kara at the gate, and made it into Glasgow around 11:30pm, and then to our hotel. (photos: Notre Dame de la Garde; view from Notre Dame de la Garde with the islands and the Chateau d'If; and view from the church including the two forts at the mouth of the harbour and the Vieux Port.)



France was great and I really enjoyed it, especially being able to hang out with family. It was a v. strange Christmas since it was nothing like traditional Christmases, and was apparently equally bizzare for Josh and Dad who stayed in the US. However, we still had fun, Ellen was a tremendous host, and I hope to visit her when she is stationed in Haiti at the end of the summer.