Days 5 & 6: Tate Modern, Soho, and traveling to Getaria

 I didn't post yesterday for reasons that will become clear later.

BUT

Yesterday was our last morning in London proper.  We packed up the bags and sent them down to Gatwick airport with C while the rest of us finished up checking out of the airbnb.  Shortly after, I took for my adventures while the rest of the gang (C/D/S/A/O/H) went to high tea nearby:

I started my morning at Tate Modern, getting my modern art fix.  The exhibitions were exceptional, and most of them were exploring the perspectives of folks who aren't traditionally featured in the modern art space.  Non-male and BIPOC artists were front and center, and some of the exhibitions focused specifically on institutionalized racism, societal racism, imperialism, colonization, and other similar issues.  One of the things I love to do with modern art is to look at it, think about the artist's perspective, and then try to learn something new about the world.  This visit did not disappoint.

After my visit to Tate Modern, I headed towards Soho to meet the others, but ended up stopping for lunch three times. The first was in this market the museum, which had lots of yummy stands.  I grabbed a scotch quail egg:

From there, I headed up to Soho and grabbed a more substantial bite at Nopi, one of the restaurants run by one of my favorite chefs.  The broccolini pakoras and negroni with peppercorn and cinnamon were delicious!  Along the day, I passed (and temporarily joined) this protest for higher wages and lower inflation.  It was a very diverse group of marchers.  Behind a group of black balaclava-clad young mean was a group of retired nurse.  

Third lunch was a little bun from a place called Bao.  Minced pork, peanuts, and cilantro.  Chinese in form, Vietnamese in flavor.

After that, I met up with the gang at Hamsley's, a seven-floor toystore. H & O each got to pick out a thing to take home! 

From Hamsley's, we took the tube to Victoria Station and then the express train down to Gatwick airport.  We slept at the airport since we had an early flight to Bilbao the next morning.  I didn't get a chance to update the blog since all three of us were in the same hotel room and we all turned lights out at the same time.

The next morning, our trip to Bilbao was relatively painless. After scorching heat in London, we were hoping for more of a respite in Spain, but it's unseasonably warm here too.  The house we're staying in is a lovely farm house near vineyards, with a few of the Bay of Biscay from the backyard:

Our host  Javier speaks some french but no English, so I'm relying on my Spanish to get through most communcations.  He's a nice older man who uses half the house as a vacation spot while he rents out the other half.  After we settled in, he drove me to Zumaia and Getaria to get a lay of the land while Chef Laura prepared a welcome meal for us.  She laid out leek cream soup, crab bricks, poached hake, seafood stew, steak and potatoes, fish-stuffed-peppers, and sauteed local peppers.  After all that, a glass of lemon gelato with cava before a cheesecake with a berry vinegar sauce.  We were stuffed.

The house is not designed for hot weather, and we ended up needing a few fans to get air moving, particularly on the top floor were C/O/H are sleeping.  Also, there are flies everywhere!  There are plenty of screens in the windows, but they still find us.  At dinner, I started attacking the flies with my steak knife and caught one!

We had a fishing outing planned tomorrow, but the captain has canceled due to weather.  So, we'll see what we end up doing!  It'll probably be a little lazy, as everyone had an early morning.

Day 4: Hampton Court, London Eye, and a bit of the modern city

 Up early to get to Waterloo to catch a train to Hampton Court Palace, where Henry VIII liked to escape from the heat of London.  Unfortunately, there was no escaping the heat for us.

C/D/B/A/O/H and I went (S went to the Chelsea Physic Garden instead).  We took a commuter line out of Waterloo, and from our final stop, the palace was a short walk.  

Our guide Sheila was dressed in Tudor fashion (she must've been sweltering) and gave us a whirlwind 60-minute highlights tour.  From the guide and the decor, it's clear that despite being used by dozens of Monarchs over hundreds of years, Hampton Court Palace is situating itself as the locus for Henry VIII stuff. We saw kitchens, privies, portraits of dead wives, crowns, tapestries, etc.  

We also saw that Hallie's favorite singer, Kacey Musgraves, is giving a concert here next week (we're sad we have to miss it!).  

After the tour, we did a hedge maze (we got out pretty quick) and then headed over to the Magic Garden, an area set aside for kids to play, etc.  It was too hot for H and O to be into playing outside, so most of zipped back to the train to head back into London (A stayed a bit longer and took the next train, scratching her history itch).

On the train back to London, our group of six decided to do the London Eye next (I begged off), since it was right next to Waterloo.  

They had a great time seeing all of London from the pod, and I checked out a few bits of modern and nearer London history: the Leake Street Arches graffiti tunnel and the old departure point for the London Necropolis Railway.

Also, here's a hotel made out of shipping containers!

We met back up and headed home.  S had committed she and I to watching O while her parents went out, but by the time I got back, plans had changed and I was no longer needed to sit. But, since I was hot and sweaty and expected to need to be back for family dinner soon enough, I just stayed in and cleaned up. 

Dinner was Turkish delivery, and we all crashed out pretty early.  The girls zonked by 7.50, and the adults were struggling to keep ourselves awake until 9.30.

Day 3: Super Bloom and Super Hot

 A/B/O bought our octet tickets to the SuperBloom and entrances to the Tower of London for today, so at 10am, we showed up at the tower, ready for action. The SuperBloom is a huge amount of flowers planted in what used to be the Tower's moat, and we started our visit by circling the tower, in the moat (which was devoid of shade on this scorching day), marveling at the flowers and the busy bees:

Our own busy bee decided to record her memories by sketching some of the flowers!

After the SuperBloom, we walked along the Thames and then spent a few hours inside the Tower. It's as described - a tower, in the center of London, full of historical artifacts.  Castles, weapons, chapels, armor, ravens, dungeons, and ice cream!  We saw perhaps a third of it before we called it a day, grabbed ice cream for the girls, and hopped a water shuttle to London Eye.

We had hoped to pick up tickets to the Eye, but by the time we got there, we had run out of time. So, we headed for home!  Me on foot, and the rest of the octet on the Tube.  My overland walk took me past Big Ben, Parliament, Scotland Yard, Parliament Square, and Westminster Abbey:

Once home, we cleaned up (this was definitely a two-shower day) and headed to proper pub for a proper dinner.   Dinner was swell (A & I particularly enjoyed their G&T's), and we all returned tired to the house to get the girls ready for bed.   After they were zonked (which took a record short time), C and I headed to the corner pub for a pint and a chat.  This was my favorite beer of the evening (for taste, brewer's name, and graphic design reasons):

Tomorrow is an early morning for an early adventure!

Day 2: London: Settling in and Culture!

Our first morning in London was reasonable.  S and I slept in (ish) until 7.  The girls got up around 4.45, but only ended up waking B.   Thanks for taking one for the team, B!  C&D landed on time and got to the flat a bit before 10am.  We let them get settled in, then grabbed lunch at the Italian joint from yesterday before hopping a couple of cabs to the West End. We tried using Bolt, but after a few drivers cancelled, we found hailing a cab much more successful.

Our first bit of culture was The Lion King.  I had never seen it; neither had most of the family.  We all loved it, though S (who had seen it in NYC) noted that the production was much smaller than on B'way. Plus, I think that there were a bunch of swings performing today (including followspot and A1).  Still, great performances, and it's easy to see why it's still going strong 25 years later.

After The Lion King, S and I split off from the rest of the group and had a nice walk through town.

Then we took the tube across town to see the new Punchdrunk show, The Burnt City.  If you aren't familiar with Punchdrunk's work, I won't go into detail here except to say that it maintained their aesthetic (dark, sexy, moody).  We had a great time, though the ending was a little less climatic than Sleep No More.

After the show, we grabbed a quick bite at a local brewpub and then headed home.  On the advice of a local (by way of Oregon) we met at the restaurant, we headed for the river taxi for an evening cruise home but when we got to the dock, the last boat had already left.  Alas. We still got some nice photos:

And, in case you're thinking of taking your e-unicycle on the boat, sorry. You can't.

Summer Vacation: Day 0 & 1: LA to London

After a hard year at school and almost 6 weeks separated from my fam, we packed up and headed out for a family vacation! Covid cancelations meant that we all had wanderlust, so we're starting out celebrating S's parents' 50th anniversary in England and Spain! Stay tuned to this page - I'll post updates here. Mostly it's a travel journal for me, but it's also nice to share what's happening. 

H and I got up at 5am on Monday morning to start to acclimate to British time. We took a morning walk in the nature preserve to get our blood pumping. 

When we finished up packing and got to the airport, we discovered that the airline wouldn't let us check into our flight. We had done our online checkin and had boarding passes, but a glitch in the computer made it looked like I bought two tickets for myself (which is a no-no). We had about 15 minutes of not knowing what was happening (the clerks at LAX weren't communicating well with either us or each other, and when S got on the phone with Delta/Virgin customer service, the hold time meant that she wouldn't get service until after our flight took off. Fortunately, a little bit of assertiveness paid off, and a genius-bar-level clerk helped get us sorted. 

 Through security, onto the plane! I think it was the first time traveling Premium class (which is not-quite-first but still pretty fancy) for us. 

The flight was fine. Service was good. Sleep was hard to come by. S got 3 hours. I got around 4. H got 6-ish. But, we all made it safe and sound to Heathrow and then to our flat in Pimlico. 

Our trio was the first to arrive, and we got into town before the housekeeping staff had the flat ready. We stowed our bags and then went for a nice Italian lunch (O Sole Mio) in a nearby shopping/dining area. I asked H if Italian food sounded good to her, and she asked if she had ever had it. I told her what kind of foods that entailed (spaghetti, meatballs, ravioli, lasagna, artichokes, etc.) and she quickly deduced that she did, in fact, love Italian food. She had spaghetti and meatballs, and while she was exhausted, she declared the day one of the best days ever.  After lunch we went to St. George's Square while we waited for B/A/O to get in from Heathrow. 

Once they arrived, we settled into the flat. H and O had a great time playing, and the grownups got a chance to put our feet up. We ate dinner at 5.30, the girls were asleep by 7.30, and the adults started moving towards bed at 8 ish. C/D arrive tomorrow, and the fun'll really get going! 

On the cab ride from the airport, H and I started a LIST OF THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT BETWEEN LONDON AND CALIFORNIA. Here are today's additions: 

• money shape/color/currency 
• driving on the other side of the road 
• accents 
• steering wheel on the other side of the car 
• age of the city