My Last London Update

Hi there. Its been a few months since my last update. I would like to claim I was busy but truth is I have just been lazy, experiencing our last few months in London with the typical mixed emotions.

We have been in London for almost two years and has the time flown. It seems like yesterday when we got off the plane and froze in our sandals and shorts, not anticipating the chill of April. Just last week we were walking through Holland Park commenting on how warm the April weather seems now. Grocery shopping is no longer the culture shock it once was. I now enjoy the shortie paper towels and don't endlessly stalk down American foods (except Hersheys syrup but if you saw Jake hankering for chocolate milk, you would understand). We are now old pros with public transportation. I know the perfect carriage on the Bakerloo line to be the first to the stairs and we seamlessly get around London on the buses.
In the bigger context, we have made new friends here, been able to experience different cultures and see lots of sights. Moving here with two young boys was a massive effort but each of us has changed and grown with our experiences. Jake has actually lived in the UK longer than in the US. Christian started kindergarten here and looks forward to coming back. Bryan and mine's passports are now covered in stamps and computer hard drives are full of pictures. When we moved here, we knew we were in for an adventure but had no idea how wonderful that adventure would be.

So long for now!

Travel tips from a traveling family

Preparing to move to Houston, we are taking our last few trips before our departure in April. For the Christmas break, we went skiing in Saas-Fee Switzerland. For the upcoming mid-term break, we will be jetting off to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. And for my birthday, we will be traveling to the Netherlands so I can run den Haag Half-Marathon. Our travel itineraries are certainly full but with the end in sight, it is time to reflect upon our travels for the past two years and to share our learnings.
Pack light—we can fit everything we need for our family of four in one suitcase. Okay, for our ski trip we had four suitcases. But for trips where you don’t need fifty pounds of ski gear, we can fit it all in one suitcase. It certainly helps when you have to take public transportation, either at your home or at your destination. It never hurts to have an extra fold-up bag you can use to bring home any of your shopping treasures. Growing up, my mother would bring three suitcases for a two-day weekend, trying to pack for every possibility. Our approach is to pack for what you expect and worse case, you have to buy something at your destination. Best case, you only have to lug around one suitcase.
Favorite European location—Tuscany. The reason the trip to Tuscany was so perfect was the wonderful food, plentiful wine and friends to keep us and the kiddos entertained. Italians are very friendly and even if they don’t speak English, they will try and communicate with you.
Cheapest place to visit—Krakow Poland. We didn’t spend much time in Krakow but stuffing your face with pierogies is easy on the wallet. The scenery is as good as Prague but food and cleanliness of Krakow beats Prague hands down.
Best travel guides—Time Out guides. Being Americans, we had more familiarity with Frommers when we first arrived. But after taking several trips where we religiously followed the Time Out recommendations, we realized there was no point in buying other guides.
Most expensive place to visit—Switzerland, followed closely by Norway. We visited Switzerland twice, once to Lausanne and once to Saas-Fee.
Biggest travel headache—Lost luggage. Our luggage got lost on the way to Barcelona. Maya Angelou once said that you can tell a lot about the way a person responds to losing their luggage. I’m not very proud of who I am based upon how I responded.
Budget airlines—airline fares can nickel-and-dime you to oblivion. Once you find the lowest airfare, you’ll frequently find that either your flight leaves at 6:30 AM or that your trip wardrobe will be limited to what you can fit in an attaché case. Research the flights and aim to minimize the cost but realize you may want to spend an extra $30 to get that speedy boarding or to bring one checked item.
Itinerary planning—the best trips for us were when we decided were we wanted to eat, picked a popular sight nearby for sightseeing and let the rest of the day fill in. Traveling, you can definitely try and do too much, finding yourself grumpy, exhausted, and starving, heading into a yucky touristy dive.
I think the biggest travel learning from me from the last two years is to roll with the punches. Things don’t always go as planned but you will have a much better time if you stay flexible and relaxed.

Most Memorable Driving Moments

The family has made a number of trips in Europe, most of the time depending upon public transportation or a taxi to get us to our destination. However, we have rented a car for a few of our trips.
Below are my most memorable moments while driving in Europe
1. Trying to remember how to drive a manual on the side of a hill in Bergen Norway. The most frustrating part of the whole situation was the fact that I couldn’t read any of the road signs. That and rolling halfway down the hill when trying to take off in first gear.
2. Dodging sheep and lorries while trying not to drive into a loch. Most roads in Scotland were laid out in Victorian times, well before a car was invented. Hence, most two lane roads in the Highlands were meant for two carts to pass each other. Most definitely, the roads are not wide enough for a Range Rover and a lorry to pass.
3. Driving down Holland Park Avenue on the left side of the road while repeating to myself “Drive on the left side, drive on the left side”. That was after waiting a good five minutes for the GPS to pick up the satellite signal while I sat in the rental agency car park. I was frozen with fear from the idea that I had to figure out the roads to drive less than two miles from the agency to my house.
4. Receiving a parking ticket in Montalcino. Never mind that I could not read the road sign that said “One Hour Parking Only” in Italian. To top it all off, we found out when we returned the car that we had to pay the ticket in person in Montalcino. Needless to say, we are still waiting for the bill from Budget.
5. The parking attendant in Sienna. To find a parking spot at the fortezza, you tipped this guy and he would stand in your spot until you could reach it. When you handed him his tip, he gave you a packet of tissues as if you were paying him for the tissues. Compared to number 4, at least I did not get a ticket.

To GPS or not GPS?

For the fall mid-term break, we spent the week in Tuscany. Since Tuscany is an area with limited public transportation, we rented a car for a week rather than use public transportation. So far, when we travel places and rent a car, we also rent a GPS. But when we landed in Florence, I realized I had forgotten to book the GPS. When I asked if we could get one, the agent told me they had just rented out the last one. The comment struck fear in my heart—drive around in a foreign country without GPS? How could I? Never fear, the agent armed me with a map and directions to the A1. So we left Florence airport armed with only our internal compasses and a good old fashioned map.
The week started out fine. We made it to our house easily enough, using the map, the car rental agent’s directions and the directions from the house. Also, we were staying with another family who had brought their GPS. Each day, we agreed to visit a specific town and we’d follow the other family who were guided by their GPS. On the way home, we usually found our own way home, using the handy old map. We also saw our friends misguided sometimes by their GPS, taking wrong turns. I was getting a little arrogant, believing why would you need a GPS when you have a good map and some common sense. How did people get around prior to GPS guides? Maybe GPS is cheating and we should all have to make do with just maps.
My attitude changed the night we drove home from Montalcino. Our friends went a different way. Their GPS kept making them go the wrong way down narrow streets so we left in a different direction. We managed to make it out of town okay following some very self-explanatory arrows. However, it was dusk and we managed to miss the first turn on a round-about. No worries, we realized our mistake and turned around quickly. We started on the way back to the house and I lost track of time reading a book. However, when we made it back to the town we visited earlier the same day, we managed to make a big loop around town following the signs. When we made it back to the four-lane highway, we went the opposite direction of the house and had to go 5 km until we could turn around. Then, we got off the four-lane, heading to Castiglion Fiorentina, we couldn’t read the directional signs and managed to add at least 8 km on to our trip, heading back to Cortona. Two hours after leaving Montalcino, we made it home, at least half an hour after our friends who used their GPS. We were very happy to have made it back to the house.
After a week of driving around Tuscany, I believe that utilizing a GPS is not cheating. Sure, you can get around with an old-fashioned map but it’s a bit like refusing drugs when you’re delivering a baby—if God didn’t want us to use them, he wouldn’t have given us the ability to invent them. Maybe we will fish out our old GPS and upgrade it. We just have to figure out how to charge it without a car!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

One of our main goals while living in London was to travel throughout Europe. We knew that living in London would make a perfect base for seeing the many sights scattered through Europe and that the short distances would make that more do-able with small children. Now, eighteen months on, we can say that we have plenty more to see but certainly have managed to accomplish our goal so far.

Traveling, especially with kids, brings on its own set of difficulties. Costs, booking accommodations, making sure you pack the pacifier and stuffed animals for cuddles. But believe it or not, one of the most difficult parts about traveling for us when we first arrived was deciding where to go. Moving to London, we were overwhelmed by the choices. We couldn't even decide where to go for day trips outside of London.

Since we now have visited nine places in Europe and eight places in the United Kingdom, you can say we have overcome that obstacle. I think its interesting in how we have overcome that obstacle and decided where to go.

First, we bought a book "Frommer's Best Day Trips from London." It has twenty-five different day trips it recommends, each places that you can easily visit in one day. It neatly narrows down our local UK options to twenty-five and eliminates any of those dodgy day trips that "infrastructure" would make a day trip really difficult. We have now visited almost half of the places in the book.

Second, Bryan started looking at runnersworld.co.uk and related forums. He used the sites to find races in the UK and in Europe that were recommended. We would never have been to Deal or Lausanne if not for those sites. We have an upcoming trip to Nice for him to do the Nice-Cannes marathon and our trips to York and Winchester were for races.

Third, we also bought "1000 Places to See Before You Die." It is not a travel guide. It does, however, pick from the millions of things to see and helps you focus on the best things.

Finally, we had to adopt a just do-it attitude. We picked a place we wanted to see, booked tickets and went. Traveling is really about the journey. We had to learn things are never perfect and to learn from each trip. We go places, explore them and see where it takes us. Every trip is an exploration, all places with the possibility to return.

Do you remember where you were, five years ago today?

I remember standing in the Shell station at Carrolton and Earhart on Friday August 26th. In a remarkable moment of clarity, I told Bryan we should go to my parents’ house on Saturday, just in case. The storm was predicted to go over Florida but with my being on maternity leave, I did not think it would be a big deal to go spend the weekend with my parents.
I remember being in my parents’ living room, watching a black and white battery operated television, desperate for the helicopter camera to pan over Uptown. Christian was nine weeks old and very close by. He benefited from Katrina in that living with grandparents meant there were plenty of arms to hold and love him when I was tired.
I remember the phone ringing a lot with people calling, worried, and wondering if we were safe. We were fine, without power or air conditioning, but fine nonetheless. My sister had to stop my six year old nephew from watching the news; it was making him worried for his aunt.
I remember receiving pictures of friends’ devastated houses, viewing the pictures on my parents’ computer. Those pictures made it feel very real, very close and I wondered about our house.
I remember when we found out about our house. I was in my parents’ carport, washing my car, when Dad called to say he’d made it through the barricades. He reported that the water had been to our top step. Everything in the shed, the air conditioner and water heater were ruin but nothing in the house had been damaged.
I remember hearing Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends” every time I got in the car. The song described my wish to escape the sadness and wake up when it was over.
I remember sitting in the Sears parking lot, hearing Mayor Ray Nagin say come home. He would later rescind the offer due to Hurricane Rita. Even still, for the first time in three weeks, it felt like the nightmare would be over soon.
So, if you wonder do I remember where I was on August 29th, 2005, yes I do.