I'm actually caught up with posts for the first time since right before the cruise. This is kind of amazing.
Part of the reason why is because we did practically nothing today. We woke up this morning to say goodbye to Umma, Halmony, and James as they left for the airport and then Oppa left us alone in the apartment for the rest of the day. I mean, we could have probably tried to arrange a trip to somewhere if we wanted, but I think it was nice to just have an uber lazy day.
We sat around the apartment doing practically nothing all day. At some point, Mia took the cucumber that was in the fridg and made a pretty epic salad thing out of it. We watched Laguna Beach on TV for five seconds before getting tired of it. We watched Living Lohan on my computer until we got bored with that show. I caught up on blogs. Finished the book I was reading. Played Nintendogs. Watched a lot of TV. Actually, the 1930s Scarlet Pimpernel was on and I kind of half-watched that.
Oppa got here around 7/8 (not sure exactly when) and we made pasta for dinner. He brought back another cucumber so Mia made her little salad thing again. We had a little minifeast for dinner. Good times.
After dinner, I just kind of put a lot of the packing stuff together so there will not be as much stress tomorrow morning. I did that and found out from Chris that he succesfully ordered a transcript to be sent to Hastings and that should get there by Friday. Good.
This probably won't be the last you'll hear from me. Tomorrow's a very long travel day and I'm sure there will be things to write about.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Another lazy day
Today was another lazy day. As I said in the previous entry, it was supposed to be a day in London, but we decided against in the end in favor of another rest day.
I woke up around 10 and really spent the first few hours of the day lazying around Oppa's apartment. Umma was doing last minute laundry and packing. We watched some Laguna Beach because it was on TV, but since it's not nearly as exciting as the Hills, we found Quantum Leap and watched that instead. I read a lot and did some stuff online. We had cereal and a lot of the chocolate that's been lying around. A pretty relaxing day.
Around 2:20, we headed out to find a bus that would take us to Reading so we could go back to the Oracle and watch The Dark Knight. The bus stop was actually a lot closer than we had thought and we managed to make a friend at the bus stop. A lot of people helped us get to the Oracle. Either our clueless vibes are apparent to people other than Egyptian security guards, people in this area are incredibly friendly, or both.
We get to the Oracle and buy tickets to the 4:30 Dark Knight. That left us with an hour with nothing to do, so we ended up going back to Yo Sushi for lunch and spending a lot more money there.
After that, we went to see The Dark Knight, which was pretty amazing. There's a lot I could say about it, but this is LOL Europe and not LOL Bamtan. I thought Heath Ledger was incredible. Maggie Gyllenhaal was much better as Rachel than Katie Holmes, even though there really isn't much to the character in general. I want to see it again.
The movie got out a little before 8 and we walked over to this shoe store that Umma saw on the way to the Oracle the night before and wanted to go to. It was closed, so we sadly went back to the mall. We stopped in HMV before grabbing some pizza from Pizza Hut to take back with us. We went back to the bus stop to get back to Wokingham and sat there for around 30 minutes before realizing that the last bus was at 7:45 or something.
We called Oppa to pick us up, walked back to the mall, and waited for him to come and pick us up. We got back. Umma did last minute packing. We ate pizza. I read more of my book and caught up with blogging. Eventually went to bed at almost 2 am because I had to arrange to ahve Chris sort out some Hastings stuff that I found out is due on Friday. That was about it for that day.
I woke up around 10 and really spent the first few hours of the day lazying around Oppa's apartment. Umma was doing last minute laundry and packing. We watched some Laguna Beach because it was on TV, but since it's not nearly as exciting as the Hills, we found Quantum Leap and watched that instead. I read a lot and did some stuff online. We had cereal and a lot of the chocolate that's been lying around. A pretty relaxing day.
Around 2:20, we headed out to find a bus that would take us to Reading so we could go back to the Oracle and watch The Dark Knight. The bus stop was actually a lot closer than we had thought and we managed to make a friend at the bus stop. A lot of people helped us get to the Oracle. Either our clueless vibes are apparent to people other than Egyptian security guards, people in this area are incredibly friendly, or both.
We get to the Oracle and buy tickets to the 4:30 Dark Knight. That left us with an hour with nothing to do, so we ended up going back to Yo Sushi for lunch and spending a lot more money there.
After that, we went to see The Dark Knight, which was pretty amazing. There's a lot I could say about it, but this is LOL Europe and not LOL Bamtan. I thought Heath Ledger was incredible. Maggie Gyllenhaal was much better as Rachel than Katie Holmes, even though there really isn't much to the character in general. I want to see it again.
The movie got out a little before 8 and we walked over to this shoe store that Umma saw on the way to the Oracle the night before and wanted to go to. It was closed, so we sadly went back to the mall. We stopped in HMV before grabbing some pizza from Pizza Hut to take back with us. We went back to the bus stop to get back to Wokingham and sat there for around 30 minutes before realizing that the last bus was at 7:45 or something.
We called Oppa to pick us up, walked back to the mall, and waited for him to come and pick us up. We got back. Umma did last minute packing. We ate pizza. I read more of my book and caught up with blogging. Eventually went to bed at almost 2 am because I had to arrange to ahve Chris sort out some Hastings stuff that I found out is due on Friday. That was about it for that day.
Disneyland, Paris/Back to England
We woke up early this morning (or slightly earlier than usual) because we had our flight back to England. Umma wanted us to leave a little earlier because we wanted to walk around the Disneyland, Paris area. We had gone to this park like fifteen years ago or something like that. Back when we went there, the park wasn't even called Disneyland, Paris. It was called EuroDisney. Anyway, that's why we were leaving earlier than usual.
Since it was a Sunday, the market was closed, so we couldn't get more of those sausage sticks that we liked. As you may or may not tell, this was a very upsetting experience. Truly, it was. We got on the road and headed back in the direction of Paris. We traveled relatively problem-free towards Paris, stopping once to get more gas, use the restroom and get snacks at a gas station. Once we got to the general Paris area, I had to figure out how to get us to Disneyland, Paris. I was more or less successful, except for when I got us onto one freeway going in the opposite direction of our destination and we had to go. We won't talk about that though. All in all, it was about 1-ish when we got to the general Disneyland area. As we entered the area, we passed by the hotel that we stayed at way back when, which was some Western-themed resort. I thought that was cool. We parked in some parking lot and walked over to the Disney Village, which seems to be the equivalent of Downtown Disney.
So, when we went to this park way back in the day, we ate at some seafood-ish restaurant in that little village area. They gave everyone hammers and would tell everyone to pound on the tables with said hammers to scare away sharks. Gianni loved this restaurant when we went there, so we spent a while trying to find it even though we knew that it was very likely no longer there. We were right. I think it's a Rainforest Cafe now. Now that we were disappointed and depressed, we all went to the bathroom and looked at a few of the stores. Since it was lunch time, we also looked for a restaurant that was not as overpriced as the other restaurants so we could eat lunch. We ended up settling on this New York-themed place but ended up just taking our food to go when we realized that we were semi-late for our flight.
It took us a lot less time than we had expected to get from Disneyland to the airport and because they are both two major areas, it was not hard to get from point a to b. We stopped at a gas station along the way, where Oppa found a crumpled 20 Euro note on the ground. Cool stuff. It almost negated the gas that we just spent. Not quite. We got to the airport and circled around a while trying to find the right terminal. We returned the car and then headed towards the terminal with two hours to spare.
We found the desk for our airline, thinking we had to check in there. They shooed us away to another place, where we had to wait for like 40 minutes in this long line to check in. We get to the check in counter only to have them tell us that Halmony needed to check in at the counter outside. Obviously this was both upsetting and annoying, especially after having been shooed away by the first counter. There was yelling and stress that went back and forth, but it kind of all worked out. Oppa checked everyone else in while Umma took Halmony back outside to do whatever they had to do. Then they just let us go up and check Halmony in. There was almost a fight with Oppa and the man at the counter in the process, but we managed to successfully get through that line.
Next we stood in the passport control line for another 15 minutes. It probably would have been faster if it wasn't for the fact that people take about four times as long to check Gianni because his beard probably either tags him as a drug smuggler or a terrorist. We've had this problem for a while, actually. If we were to ever carry anything suspicious (not that our family of all people would), Gianni would not be the one to carry it as he's the one most frequently tagged for the random check. Anyway...
We get through the passport line and then have to go through the security line. This was actually annoying for eco-geek me. They make you throw your bottles away in a little trash can. This is standard procedure, yes, but you usually don't see a recycling bin on the other side of the security line that taunts you. Even though there aren't any vending machines or anything, there are actually like twenty recycling bins in the gate. I don't know.
Anyway, we were in with ten minutes to spare before they started boarding. Except we didn't board. There was some sort of delay with the plane. The pilot actually started explaining it on the plane, mumbled something that I couldn't understand and said nevermind it's not important. Anyway, it meant that it was another 30 or so minutes until they started boarding. We didn't board directly onto the plane. We all got into little extremely stuffy buses that took us over to the plane. We all fit into two buses and even though they have this strict order in which they load people onto the plane, the fact that we got into these buses together that jumbled us up kind of defeated the purpose. Though, for all I know, there could have been a special bus that took all the special passengers on first. All I know is that the A and B people seemed to get jumbled, which worked in our favor. We got separated from Umma and Halmony, who went on the first bus. As we were waiting for the first bus to unload all of the people, we saw the two of them shuffle over to the save spots for the rest of us. The plane took off almost an hour late and after of this stress, I've decided that I don't like the Charles de Gaulle airport.
The flight itself was not particularly exciting. I did some of those fill it in puzzles and read my book, while Mia and Halmony slept on both sides of me. I felt like there was significantly less leg room on this plane than the one we took to Paris, but that was probably my imagination.
Because the plane took off so late, we arrived to the Lutton Airport somewhat stressed. We got in at 6:20 and our shuttle to the Heathrow Airport left at 6:40. This gave us very little time to get to the bus stop. We got off of the plane as soon as we could and then stood in line to get through customs. Even though the line for the non-EU passport holders was shorter than the EU passport line, they had less people working on it and only took one person at a time. They wouldnt' take us as a group even though every other airport I've been to does and I'm sure that since they all asked us more or less the same questions, it would have saved them time too. Actually, they didn't ask us all the same questions. I got the standard questions. The guy Mia had asked her slightly more complicated questions that I think she failed. Gianni got asked a ton of questions, including ones that asked where he went to school and what he studied there. Lol at my brother.
Once through customs, we ran to the bus station and got there right at 6:40. We got there right on time, only to find out that the bus we were on was very late, so we ended up waiting another 30 or so minutes for it to come. The problem was that we arrived right at rush hour, so the bus was stuck in traffic on the way here. The bus ride to Heathrow took a lot longer than the one that we took from there. Part of this was traffic, which was pretty intense. Also, to avoid traffic for the majority of the trip, our driver took us through a lot of surface roads. It was definitely a very scenic trip, but we got to Heathrow over an hour after we were scheduled to arrive.
The initial plan for the night, since Umma and I had bus tickets to go to Reading was to see The Dark Knight at the Oracle in Reading. The Oracle is this big shopping mall in reading, by the way. Anyway, by the time we got to Heathrow, we were very tired. Oppa took everyone to get the rental car and drive to Reading and Umma and I took the bus and we were just going to meet at the Oracle. The bus ride over was long due to it being rush hour and a traffic accident along the way. The bus was also very stuffy and the AC was not working, so we were dying for most of the trip. Some guy eventually opened the emergency hatch or something to get air into the bus.
We eventually got there and made our way to the Oracle to meet everyone else who seemed to have been waiting there for a while. We were still going to get TDK tickets, but found out that kids under a certain age are not allowed to be at the theaters after some certain time, meaning that James could not see it with us. We decided to just wait a day to see it then.
We did notice, however, that they had a Yo Sushi at the Oracle. Let me explain. When we went to England like 6 years ago, we went to this sushi restaurant in London called Yo Sushi. The sushi isn't really that great compared to what we can find in like California, but James was in love with this place for whatever reason. In fact, part of the reason we were going to go to London the next day was so that James could be reunited with his beloved restaurant. The fact that it was in the Oracle was very convenient for us and we ended up just canceling the London plans so that we could have a more relaxing packing/laundry/Batman day. Anyway, we got to Yo Sushi very shortly before closing, so there really wasn't much of a variety. I have to admit that I was a lot more impressed with the place this time around. Possibly because I avoided the sushi, but for a pound you also get unlimited fizzy water and I really liked the fried rice that I had. Also, I got avocado rolls and I haven't had avocado in forever (other than that one day I managed to find guacamole in the Windjammer Cafe). After we ate, we all squished into the car to go to Oppa's place and stayed up a while to watch Love Actually on TV before going to bed.
Since it was a Sunday, the market was closed, so we couldn't get more of those sausage sticks that we liked. As you may or may not tell, this was a very upsetting experience. Truly, it was. We got on the road and headed back in the direction of Paris. We traveled relatively problem-free towards Paris, stopping once to get more gas, use the restroom and get snacks at a gas station. Once we got to the general Paris area, I had to figure out how to get us to Disneyland, Paris. I was more or less successful, except for when I got us onto one freeway going in the opposite direction of our destination and we had to go. We won't talk about that though. All in all, it was about 1-ish when we got to the general Disneyland area. As we entered the area, we passed by the hotel that we stayed at way back when, which was some Western-themed resort. I thought that was cool. We parked in some parking lot and walked over to the Disney Village, which seems to be the equivalent of Downtown Disney.
So, when we went to this park way back in the day, we ate at some seafood-ish restaurant in that little village area. They gave everyone hammers and would tell everyone to pound on the tables with said hammers to scare away sharks. Gianni loved this restaurant when we went there, so we spent a while trying to find it even though we knew that it was very likely no longer there. We were right. I think it's a Rainforest Cafe now. Now that we were disappointed and depressed, we all went to the bathroom and looked at a few of the stores. Since it was lunch time, we also looked for a restaurant that was not as overpriced as the other restaurants so we could eat lunch. We ended up settling on this New York-themed place but ended up just taking our food to go when we realized that we were semi-late for our flight.
It took us a lot less time than we had expected to get from Disneyland to the airport and because they are both two major areas, it was not hard to get from point a to b. We stopped at a gas station along the way, where Oppa found a crumpled 20 Euro note on the ground. Cool stuff. It almost negated the gas that we just spent. Not quite. We got to the airport and circled around a while trying to find the right terminal. We returned the car and then headed towards the terminal with two hours to spare.
We found the desk for our airline, thinking we had to check in there. They shooed us away to another place, where we had to wait for like 40 minutes in this long line to check in. We get to the check in counter only to have them tell us that Halmony needed to check in at the counter outside. Obviously this was both upsetting and annoying, especially after having been shooed away by the first counter. There was yelling and stress that went back and forth, but it kind of all worked out. Oppa checked everyone else in while Umma took Halmony back outside to do whatever they had to do. Then they just let us go up and check Halmony in. There was almost a fight with Oppa and the man at the counter in the process, but we managed to successfully get through that line.
Next we stood in the passport control line for another 15 minutes. It probably would have been faster if it wasn't for the fact that people take about four times as long to check Gianni because his beard probably either tags him as a drug smuggler or a terrorist. We've had this problem for a while, actually. If we were to ever carry anything suspicious (not that our family of all people would), Gianni would not be the one to carry it as he's the one most frequently tagged for the random check. Anyway...
We get through the passport line and then have to go through the security line. This was actually annoying for eco-geek me. They make you throw your bottles away in a little trash can. This is standard procedure, yes, but you usually don't see a recycling bin on the other side of the security line that taunts you. Even though there aren't any vending machines or anything, there are actually like twenty recycling bins in the gate. I don't know.
Anyway, we were in with ten minutes to spare before they started boarding. Except we didn't board. There was some sort of delay with the plane. The pilot actually started explaining it on the plane, mumbled something that I couldn't understand and said nevermind it's not important. Anyway, it meant that it was another 30 or so minutes until they started boarding. We didn't board directly onto the plane. We all got into little extremely stuffy buses that took us over to the plane. We all fit into two buses and even though they have this strict order in which they load people onto the plane, the fact that we got into these buses together that jumbled us up kind of defeated the purpose. Though, for all I know, there could have been a special bus that took all the special passengers on first. All I know is that the A and B people seemed to get jumbled, which worked in our favor. We got separated from Umma and Halmony, who went on the first bus. As we were waiting for the first bus to unload all of the people, we saw the two of them shuffle over to the save spots for the rest of us. The plane took off almost an hour late and after of this stress, I've decided that I don't like the Charles de Gaulle airport.
The flight itself was not particularly exciting. I did some of those fill it in puzzles and read my book, while Mia and Halmony slept on both sides of me. I felt like there was significantly less leg room on this plane than the one we took to Paris, but that was probably my imagination.
Because the plane took off so late, we arrived to the Lutton Airport somewhat stressed. We got in at 6:20 and our shuttle to the Heathrow Airport left at 6:40. This gave us very little time to get to the bus stop. We got off of the plane as soon as we could and then stood in line to get through customs. Even though the line for the non-EU passport holders was shorter than the EU passport line, they had less people working on it and only took one person at a time. They wouldnt' take us as a group even though every other airport I've been to does and I'm sure that since they all asked us more or less the same questions, it would have saved them time too. Actually, they didn't ask us all the same questions. I got the standard questions. The guy Mia had asked her slightly more complicated questions that I think she failed. Gianni got asked a ton of questions, including ones that asked where he went to school and what he studied there. Lol at my brother.
Once through customs, we ran to the bus station and got there right at 6:40. We got there right on time, only to find out that the bus we were on was very late, so we ended up waiting another 30 or so minutes for it to come. The problem was that we arrived right at rush hour, so the bus was stuck in traffic on the way here. The bus ride to Heathrow took a lot longer than the one that we took from there. Part of this was traffic, which was pretty intense. Also, to avoid traffic for the majority of the trip, our driver took us through a lot of surface roads. It was definitely a very scenic trip, but we got to Heathrow over an hour after we were scheduled to arrive.
The initial plan for the night, since Umma and I had bus tickets to go to Reading was to see The Dark Knight at the Oracle in Reading. The Oracle is this big shopping mall in reading, by the way. Anyway, by the time we got to Heathrow, we were very tired. Oppa took everyone to get the rental car and drive to Reading and Umma and I took the bus and we were just going to meet at the Oracle. The bus ride over was long due to it being rush hour and a traffic accident along the way. The bus was also very stuffy and the AC was not working, so we were dying for most of the trip. Some guy eventually opened the emergency hatch or something to get air into the bus.
We eventually got there and made our way to the Oracle to meet everyone else who seemed to have been waiting there for a while. We were still going to get TDK tickets, but found out that kids under a certain age are not allowed to be at the theaters after some certain time, meaning that James could not see it with us. We decided to just wait a day to see it then.
We did notice, however, that they had a Yo Sushi at the Oracle. Let me explain. When we went to England like 6 years ago, we went to this sushi restaurant in London called Yo Sushi. The sushi isn't really that great compared to what we can find in like California, but James was in love with this place for whatever reason. In fact, part of the reason we were going to go to London the next day was so that James could be reunited with his beloved restaurant. The fact that it was in the Oracle was very convenient for us and we ended up just canceling the London plans so that we could have a more relaxing packing/laundry/Batman day. Anyway, we got to Yo Sushi very shortly before closing, so there really wasn't much of a variety. I have to admit that I was a lot more impressed with the place this time around. Possibly because I avoided the sushi, but for a pound you also get unlimited fizzy water and I really liked the fried rice that I had. Also, I got avocado rolls and I haven't had avocado in forever (other than that one day I managed to find guacamole in the Windjammer Cafe). After we ate, we all squished into the car to go to Oppa's place and stayed up a while to watch Love Actually on TV before going to bed.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Bayeux/Normandy Beaches
Because we didn't have to travel as far today, it wasn't that big of a deal that we were not out early again this morning. We still woke up, got ready, went to the market and did all that jazz by the same time that we did the day before. We bought a lot more of those silly salami sticks though because we loved them so much.
Our first stop of the day was to the town of Bayeux, which is about 20-30 minutes away from Caen. It is a cute little French town that houses the Bayeux Tapestry. This tapestry, which is over one thousand years old, tells the story of the Norman invasion of England and the events leading up to it. This thing is pretty epic. It's like 70 meters long or something like that. The price of admission to see it included the little audio guide so that it could walk you through the story of the tapestry. This audio guide was more stressful than the one I had the day before though. It would rush you through 4 or 5 frmaes of the story at once and then make you pause for like 5 minutes so that they could play really silly music. Other than that, it was pretty cool. They even sold do it yourself tapestry dealies in the gift store. I don't think it was for the whole tapesty, that would have been ridic., but you could do small parts of it and display it in your home. How fun.
Anyway, there was another little part of the museum that you could visit after you saw the actual tapestry, but I didn't find it as interesting as I found the tapestry itself. There were some cool artifacts (like authentic chain mail), but other than that they just had little mannequins in poses really.
After leaving the museum, we walked around the town a little more. We grabbed postcards before we saw the tapestry, so we had to find stamps to send them out with. The first tobacco shop we went to kind of yelled at us as if we were offending them, so we almost gave up. On the way back to the car, Oppa took Mia and me to see the Bayeux Cathedral. We found another tobacco shop in the area that did sell stamps, so that part was settled. The cathedral itself was very nice. It wasn't too big compared to some of the other cathedrals that I've seen on this trip, but it was still very nice. Also, it looked like one of the gargoyles on the facade was an angry nun-like person. Maybe that was just my imagination. We met up with everyone else and loaded back into the car. After circling around for a little bit, we drove off to our next destination.
The next stop was Omaha Beach, which is where the American cemetery and memorial for the D-Day landing is located. It was about a 20 minute drive out of Bayeux. The drive also included passing by a lot of cows. There are a lot of cows in Normandy and they are all very perfectly spotted (or all white).
Anyway, we parked outside of the cemetery and memorial and walked inside. The area was very pretty and very nice. The cemetery itself was sad, though. Oppa, James, Gianni, Mia, and I all walked down to the beach itself. I think Oppa was expecting to see some stuff from WWII in the area because he saw it when he went there ten years before, but there really wasn't anything in the area that we were at except for beach. We climbed back up and met Umma and Halmony again and then walked through the cemetery to look at the main memorial.
On the way out, we also visited the museum that they had set up at the entrance. It was nice. I think it was like a year or two old because everything about the museum seemed new. But pretty much it was memorializing the Americans who died at D-Day and gave short biographies about some of their lives as well as background on the event itself. I really liked the set up.
We left the area to find another museum that Oppa had found an advertisement for either in Bayeux or at the hotel or somewhere. This one had a lot of guns and items that were used by people during the war and kind of told the story of the French experience of it, or that's what I got out of the museum at least. It wasn't too big and there wasn't too much to the museum though, so we kind of breezed through it and left shortly after.
We weren't really sure what else to do at this point. We were kind of hungry by this time since we hadn't really eaten since breakfast (with the exception of those sausage sticks that we had been poking at throughout the day). We ended up stopping at this little fishing town to eat. I don't remember what the name of the town was, but it was very cute. We just got food from some small sandwich shop and Umma was disgusted with the fry sandwich that Gianni got. It was literally just a baguette with fries in it. She clearly had not eaten with us on our backpacking trip to have experienced the constant fries, the hamburger sandwich with fries in it, the American pizza, etc. I had a nutella crepe for dessert, so I was very happy. I also managed to finish my book while Umma and Mia ran around looking for a place to eat.
We left the town after we ate and then went to another town to look at the mulberries. On the way, we stopped at some other little place to look at the batteries, which I guess held a lot of the guns and tanks and stuff. I'm not exactly sure because I don't remember all of Oppa's explanations. It was a fun little stop though (and a good bathroom break). We could climb on top of them and look inside and stuff. It was cool. I think Gianni got cut on the back by one of the rusty old guns, which caused a bit of a panic.
Anyway, we eventually got to the town with the mulberries. That's apparently the code name that they used for what Oppa described as cement-ish boats that the Allies blew up to form temporary ports and docks in preparation for the Normandy invasion. You could see a lot of them from the town we were at, which was cool. If had time for beach stuff or were into that at all, I wondered if you could swim out to some of the closer ones and climb on them, but since we didn't pack our swim suits and did not have time to swim, we wouldn't find out.
We drove back towards Caen and were going to look around the city itself, but got slightly lost while doing so and ended up deciding against it. Our hotel was on the outskirts on the town, so we hadn't really seen much of it. Anyway, we got back to the hotel around 8, while there was still a lot of daylight outside and while there were still actually parking spots in the parking lot.
Once we got back, we all took turns on Oppa's computer. I blogged for a while and tried some of Oppa's apple alcohol (very strong, btw). After I was done with that, I went back to the girls' room and read the new Dave Gorman book while watching Lost in French.
Our first stop of the day was to the town of Bayeux, which is about 20-30 minutes away from Caen. It is a cute little French town that houses the Bayeux Tapestry. This tapestry, which is over one thousand years old, tells the story of the Norman invasion of England and the events leading up to it. This thing is pretty epic. It's like 70 meters long or something like that. The price of admission to see it included the little audio guide so that it could walk you through the story of the tapestry. This audio guide was more stressful than the one I had the day before though. It would rush you through 4 or 5 frmaes of the story at once and then make you pause for like 5 minutes so that they could play really silly music. Other than that, it was pretty cool. They even sold do it yourself tapestry dealies in the gift store. I don't think it was for the whole tapesty, that would have been ridic., but you could do small parts of it and display it in your home. How fun.
Anyway, there was another little part of the museum that you could visit after you saw the actual tapestry, but I didn't find it as interesting as I found the tapestry itself. There were some cool artifacts (like authentic chain mail), but other than that they just had little mannequins in poses really.
After leaving the museum, we walked around the town a little more. We grabbed postcards before we saw the tapestry, so we had to find stamps to send them out with. The first tobacco shop we went to kind of yelled at us as if we were offending them, so we almost gave up. On the way back to the car, Oppa took Mia and me to see the Bayeux Cathedral. We found another tobacco shop in the area that did sell stamps, so that part was settled. The cathedral itself was very nice. It wasn't too big compared to some of the other cathedrals that I've seen on this trip, but it was still very nice. Also, it looked like one of the gargoyles on the facade was an angry nun-like person. Maybe that was just my imagination. We met up with everyone else and loaded back into the car. After circling around for a little bit, we drove off to our next destination.
The next stop was Omaha Beach, which is where the American cemetery and memorial for the D-Day landing is located. It was about a 20 minute drive out of Bayeux. The drive also included passing by a lot of cows. There are a lot of cows in Normandy and they are all very perfectly spotted (or all white).
Anyway, we parked outside of the cemetery and memorial and walked inside. The area was very pretty and very nice. The cemetery itself was sad, though. Oppa, James, Gianni, Mia, and I all walked down to the beach itself. I think Oppa was expecting to see some stuff from WWII in the area because he saw it when he went there ten years before, but there really wasn't anything in the area that we were at except for beach. We climbed back up and met Umma and Halmony again and then walked through the cemetery to look at the main memorial.
On the way out, we also visited the museum that they had set up at the entrance. It was nice. I think it was like a year or two old because everything about the museum seemed new. But pretty much it was memorializing the Americans who died at D-Day and gave short biographies about some of their lives as well as background on the event itself. I really liked the set up.
We left the area to find another museum that Oppa had found an advertisement for either in Bayeux or at the hotel or somewhere. This one had a lot of guns and items that were used by people during the war and kind of told the story of the French experience of it, or that's what I got out of the museum at least. It wasn't too big and there wasn't too much to the museum though, so we kind of breezed through it and left shortly after.
We weren't really sure what else to do at this point. We were kind of hungry by this time since we hadn't really eaten since breakfast (with the exception of those sausage sticks that we had been poking at throughout the day). We ended up stopping at this little fishing town to eat. I don't remember what the name of the town was, but it was very cute. We just got food from some small sandwich shop and Umma was disgusted with the fry sandwich that Gianni got. It was literally just a baguette with fries in it. She clearly had not eaten with us on our backpacking trip to have experienced the constant fries, the hamburger sandwich with fries in it, the American pizza, etc. I had a nutella crepe for dessert, so I was very happy. I also managed to finish my book while Umma and Mia ran around looking for a place to eat.
We left the town after we ate and then went to another town to look at the mulberries. On the way, we stopped at some other little place to look at the batteries, which I guess held a lot of the guns and tanks and stuff. I'm not exactly sure because I don't remember all of Oppa's explanations. It was a fun little stop though (and a good bathroom break). We could climb on top of them and look inside and stuff. It was cool. I think Gianni got cut on the back by one of the rusty old guns, which caused a bit of a panic.
Anyway, we eventually got to the town with the mulberries. That's apparently the code name that they used for what Oppa described as cement-ish boats that the Allies blew up to form temporary ports and docks in preparation for the Normandy invasion. You could see a lot of them from the town we were at, which was cool. If had time for beach stuff or were into that at all, I wondered if you could swim out to some of the closer ones and climb on them, but since we didn't pack our swim suits and did not have time to swim, we wouldn't find out.
We drove back towards Caen and were going to look around the city itself, but got slightly lost while doing so and ended up deciding against it. Our hotel was on the outskirts on the town, so we hadn't really seen much of it. Anyway, we got back to the hotel around 8, while there was still a lot of daylight outside and while there were still actually parking spots in the parking lot.
Once we got back, we all took turns on Oppa's computer. I blogged for a while and tried some of Oppa's apple alcohol (very strong, btw). After I was done with that, I went back to the girls' room and read the new Dave Gorman book while watching Lost in French.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Mount St. Michele/St. Malo
Because our destinations for the day were kind of far from where we were staying, we wanted to leave the hotel kind of early-ish. If you've ever been on a vacation with my family, you would know that we hardly left early. It was still technically morning when we left, though. That's good.
On the way out, we discovered that there was a market across the street from our hotel, so we got breakfast and salami there. We also got these like dried salami things which kind of tasted and looked like a classier version of Slim Jims. They were very good.
Anyway, we headed out towards Mont St. Michele. It was about an hour's ride out to the area and there was a lot of stress because Oppa doesn't generally trust my ability to navigate even though I managed to get us everywhere we needed to go.
Mt. St. Michele is this little medieval town place that has a very big abbey up at the top of the hill. It's a coastal city that is an island depending on the tide at that particular time. The view of the area from a distance is pretty spectacular. We got there around high tide, but I think it was waning down by the time we got there.
The actual town itself was very cute and very picturesque. Because the streets were very narrow, it felt a lot more crowded than it probably actually was. All I know was that there were certain areas that were hard to get through because it was so crowded. We climbed up the hill to get to the abbey and went inside to look. There was a great view from the top of it and the abbey itself was very gorgeous. Oppa also got us one of those free self-tour guide things to walk around with. Those are a lot more complicated to carry around than they should be.
Once we saw the abbey, we headed back down the hill. We stopped along the way to eat gallettes at this small creperie. They were very good. Mia and I also split a nutella crepe for dessert and that was kind of amazing. We bought James some ice cream on the way down (because he now eats ice cream almost constantly) and then left Mt. St. Michele.
On the way to our next stop, we found some random goose farm and Oppa bought his pate, his apple liquer, and his very smelly cheese. He was a very happy person at that moment in time.
Our next stop was St. Malo, which took some navigating to get too. We parked a little outside of town and then took a bus in. St. Malo is a cute little fortified coastal town. It was kind of similar to Rhodes in a way, except a lot less hot. And not as pretty. And there were not as many things to do. And it was smaller. So, I guess the only real thing that made it similar was that it was within a fort. It was still a very cute little town, though and after going through very hot spots like Greece, Turkey, or Egypt the cold weather was very, very refreshing.
Anyway, we looked around the town for a bit. We walked along the wall for a while, first. Then, we found some spot that overlooked the sea. It was pretty.
They also had some art stands scattered around the area and we looked at a couple of them. Mia found some really bizarre one that she liked.
We looked at a couple of other shops after that. Mia and I found some market that sold large bottles of Orangina. We got some as well as some chocolates. Good times. We wandered around St. Malo for a while afterwards, looking for a suitable place to eat dinner. We eventually found some place that did the sea food that Oppa and Umma were looking for as well as pizza because that's essentially all James eats. The food was good.
After eating, we took the bus back to the car and left St. Malo. I think we had good timing on this one because it was drizzling as we left and started raining soon after we loaded into the car. Oppa took a wrong turn somewhere on the way out of St. Malo, so we had to circle around a lot of very dark and not so crowded areas to find our way back. It worked out in a way. The road that we got lost on went in the direction of the freeway we had to take to get back to Caen.
Anyway, like we had the night before, we made it back to Caen very late. Like after midnight late. I read a lot on the way back and helped Oppa when we were changing freeways and doing things like that. It wasn't too hard finding the way back once we were on the right freeway, though.
After we got back, I was probably up until like 1 or 2 reading my book, which by this time I was very much into.
On the way out, we discovered that there was a market across the street from our hotel, so we got breakfast and salami there. We also got these like dried salami things which kind of tasted and looked like a classier version of Slim Jims. They were very good.
Anyway, we headed out towards Mont St. Michele. It was about an hour's ride out to the area and there was a lot of stress because Oppa doesn't generally trust my ability to navigate even though I managed to get us everywhere we needed to go.
Mt. St. Michele is this little medieval town place that has a very big abbey up at the top of the hill. It's a coastal city that is an island depending on the tide at that particular time. The view of the area from a distance is pretty spectacular. We got there around high tide, but I think it was waning down by the time we got there.
The actual town itself was very cute and very picturesque. Because the streets were very narrow, it felt a lot more crowded than it probably actually was. All I know was that there were certain areas that were hard to get through because it was so crowded. We climbed up the hill to get to the abbey and went inside to look. There was a great view from the top of it and the abbey itself was very gorgeous. Oppa also got us one of those free self-tour guide things to walk around with. Those are a lot more complicated to carry around than they should be.
Once we saw the abbey, we headed back down the hill. We stopped along the way to eat gallettes at this small creperie. They were very good. Mia and I also split a nutella crepe for dessert and that was kind of amazing. We bought James some ice cream on the way down (because he now eats ice cream almost constantly) and then left Mt. St. Michele.
On the way to our next stop, we found some random goose farm and Oppa bought his pate, his apple liquer, and his very smelly cheese. He was a very happy person at that moment in time.
Our next stop was St. Malo, which took some navigating to get too. We parked a little outside of town and then took a bus in. St. Malo is a cute little fortified coastal town. It was kind of similar to Rhodes in a way, except a lot less hot. And not as pretty. And there were not as many things to do. And it was smaller. So, I guess the only real thing that made it similar was that it was within a fort. It was still a very cute little town, though and after going through very hot spots like Greece, Turkey, or Egypt the cold weather was very, very refreshing.
Anyway, we looked around the town for a bit. We walked along the wall for a while, first. Then, we found some spot that overlooked the sea. It was pretty.
They also had some art stands scattered around the area and we looked at a couple of them. Mia found some really bizarre one that she liked.
We looked at a couple of other shops after that. Mia and I found some market that sold large bottles of Orangina. We got some as well as some chocolates. Good times. We wandered around St. Malo for a while afterwards, looking for a suitable place to eat dinner. We eventually found some place that did the sea food that Oppa and Umma were looking for as well as pizza because that's essentially all James eats. The food was good.
After eating, we took the bus back to the car and left St. Malo. I think we had good timing on this one because it was drizzling as we left and started raining soon after we loaded into the car. Oppa took a wrong turn somewhere on the way out of St. Malo, so we had to circle around a lot of very dark and not so crowded areas to find our way back. It worked out in a way. The road that we got lost on went in the direction of the freeway we had to take to get back to Caen.
Anyway, like we had the night before, we made it back to Caen very late. Like after midnight late. I read a lot on the way back and helped Oppa when we were changing freeways and doing things like that. It wasn't too hard finding the way back once we were on the right freeway, though.
After we got back, I was probably up until like 1 or 2 reading my book, which by this time I was very much into.
Travel Day to France
So our plane to the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris left at 3 pm, so we naturally left Oppa's place at 9 am. There's actually a legitimate reason for this, so let me backtrack just a little.
We were flying from some cheapie airline that only leaves from the London Luton Airport and not Heathrow. These airports are like an hour apart. We could not, however, drive directly to this airport because Oppa had to return his car to the Hertz place at Heathrow. The airports are connected by a bus, so we had reservations for a bus shuttle at like 11 something or some time like that. His car only fit up to five people, so Oppa had to drop Umma and me off at the Reading train station so we could take a bus to Heathrow. I guess we really didn't have to leave that early. Whatever, we got to the Luton airport around 12:30 ish, an hour too early to check in. We spent most of that time in the WH Smith looking at books. I bought a book called the Pirates Daughter. It looked interesting, but I mostly got it because the word pirate was in the title and I am weird.
Anyway, after about an hour, we stod in line for the check in and did just that. We found out we would have to combine our carry on bags (we didn't check anything in since we would only be in France for like 3 days) to one, which was a stressful experience on its own. We went through security, which was a hassle as usual. I set off the alarm somehow and when they pat you down at this airport, they really, really pat you down. I'm sure a metal detector thingy could have been equally effective, but whatever.
We sat around the gate for a while after that, waiting for them to announce the gate the we would be in. I read my book until then. When they did it, we had to run down to our gate and stand in line. This airline doesn't assign seats, so the set up is very similar to Southwest. Other than that, the flight out to Paris was relatively uneventful. I just read my book which I ended up enjoying a lot more than I actually expected.
We got to the Paris airport and after getting through customs and purchasing a road map of France, we ran around the airport looking for the Hertz rental car place. While Oppa stressed to find this place, James and I stood in line for fries. We were all kind of hungry, so we bought a bunch of McDonalds fries to hold us over for our drive out to the Normandy area.
We get the car, which can surprisingly fit 7 people in it (tightly, but it can still fit all of us nonetheless), and start our journey out to Caen. I think the trip was like 2 and a half hours long or something like that. Not sure.
The drive was okay up until a certain point. It was like a fun little family road trip. Around 8 or something, however, the light went on indicating something was wrong with the car. Since the car manual was only in French and Mia's French classes did not go over automobile problems, we weren't exactly sure what the problem was. All we knew was that the car wouldn't go above 110 km/hr. We turned onto some random street and ended up driving for a while until we made it to some random gas station just outside of Le Havre. We stayed there for a while, trying to get a hold of Hertz to exchange the car or do something about the problem. We spent a good fifteen minutes there, either on hold or talking to the American office trying to get the right number to contact the French office before we gave up. I guess it didn't matter anyway because the moment we started the car up, the light and the problems all disappeared.
Now we were stuck in the middle of Le Havre, somewhat hungry because it was 9 ish around ths time and kind of lost. On the way out of the Le Havre area we stopped by this random restaurant so that we could eat and figure out where we were. This was actually a very interesting experience. So, we approach the doors to look at the menu and figure out if we want to eat there or not. The menu looks okay, but all we can see through the window are the restaurant patrons staring at us. We figured at this point that we had limited options food-wise, so we decided to eat there anyway.
The moment we enter the restaurant, we experience this sort of experience you would only see in old western films. Everyone inside turns around and stares at us. Maybe it was the Asian-ness. Maybe it was because we were in a small town and clearly did not belong. Maybe it is because we reek of the essence of American tourist. Whatever it was, the people inside were clearly not happy with our presence. To top that off, they managed to seat is in the center of the restaurant in this really silly patio table that did not belong in the restaurant. While we tried to sort out what we wanted to eat, they brought out a basket of bread that we very nervously and quickly ate. We ordered our food, and the food was okay. Oppa's sausage dish smelled strange. All of the people who stared at us initially all left, so it wasn't as uncomfortable. Our waitress was also very nice and she gave us detailed directions out of the area and to the Caen area as we left.
It was around 11 by this time and very dark and we still had an hour or so left in the drive. It was relatively easy to find and I fell asleep at some point along the way. I got woken up while we were in the general area because Oppa was stressing and trying to find our way to the hotel. It was actually not that hard to find though. Once we got there, Umma and Mia went inside to check in. We then parked, found our rooms, and I went to bed shortly after.
We were flying from some cheapie airline that only leaves from the London Luton Airport and not Heathrow. These airports are like an hour apart. We could not, however, drive directly to this airport because Oppa had to return his car to the Hertz place at Heathrow. The airports are connected by a bus, so we had reservations for a bus shuttle at like 11 something or some time like that. His car only fit up to five people, so Oppa had to drop Umma and me off at the Reading train station so we could take a bus to Heathrow. I guess we really didn't have to leave that early. Whatever, we got to the Luton airport around 12:30 ish, an hour too early to check in. We spent most of that time in the WH Smith looking at books. I bought a book called the Pirates Daughter. It looked interesting, but I mostly got it because the word pirate was in the title and I am weird.
Anyway, after about an hour, we stod in line for the check in and did just that. We found out we would have to combine our carry on bags (we didn't check anything in since we would only be in France for like 3 days) to one, which was a stressful experience on its own. We went through security, which was a hassle as usual. I set off the alarm somehow and when they pat you down at this airport, they really, really pat you down. I'm sure a metal detector thingy could have been equally effective, but whatever.
We sat around the gate for a while after that, waiting for them to announce the gate the we would be in. I read my book until then. When they did it, we had to run down to our gate and stand in line. This airline doesn't assign seats, so the set up is very similar to Southwest. Other than that, the flight out to Paris was relatively uneventful. I just read my book which I ended up enjoying a lot more than I actually expected.
We got to the Paris airport and after getting through customs and purchasing a road map of France, we ran around the airport looking for the Hertz rental car place. While Oppa stressed to find this place, James and I stood in line for fries. We were all kind of hungry, so we bought a bunch of McDonalds fries to hold us over for our drive out to the Normandy area.
We get the car, which can surprisingly fit 7 people in it (tightly, but it can still fit all of us nonetheless), and start our journey out to Caen. I think the trip was like 2 and a half hours long or something like that. Not sure.
The drive was okay up until a certain point. It was like a fun little family road trip. Around 8 or something, however, the light went on indicating something was wrong with the car. Since the car manual was only in French and Mia's French classes did not go over automobile problems, we weren't exactly sure what the problem was. All we knew was that the car wouldn't go above 110 km/hr. We turned onto some random street and ended up driving for a while until we made it to some random gas station just outside of Le Havre. We stayed there for a while, trying to get a hold of Hertz to exchange the car or do something about the problem. We spent a good fifteen minutes there, either on hold or talking to the American office trying to get the right number to contact the French office before we gave up. I guess it didn't matter anyway because the moment we started the car up, the light and the problems all disappeared.
Now we were stuck in the middle of Le Havre, somewhat hungry because it was 9 ish around ths time and kind of lost. On the way out of the Le Havre area we stopped by this random restaurant so that we could eat and figure out where we were. This was actually a very interesting experience. So, we approach the doors to look at the menu and figure out if we want to eat there or not. The menu looks okay, but all we can see through the window are the restaurant patrons staring at us. We figured at this point that we had limited options food-wise, so we decided to eat there anyway.
The moment we enter the restaurant, we experience this sort of experience you would only see in old western films. Everyone inside turns around and stares at us. Maybe it was the Asian-ness. Maybe it was because we were in a small town and clearly did not belong. Maybe it is because we reek of the essence of American tourist. Whatever it was, the people inside were clearly not happy with our presence. To top that off, they managed to seat is in the center of the restaurant in this really silly patio table that did not belong in the restaurant. While we tried to sort out what we wanted to eat, they brought out a basket of bread that we very nervously and quickly ate. We ordered our food, and the food was okay. Oppa's sausage dish smelled strange. All of the people who stared at us initially all left, so it wasn't as uncomfortable. Our waitress was also very nice and she gave us detailed directions out of the area and to the Caen area as we left.
It was around 11 by this time and very dark and we still had an hour or so left in the drive. It was relatively easy to find and I fell asleep at some point along the way. I got woken up while we were in the general area because Oppa was stressing and trying to find our way to the hotel. It was actually not that hard to find though. Once we got there, Umma and Mia went inside to check in. We then parked, found our rooms, and I went to bed shortly after.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Wokingham (lazy day)
Today was our lazy day in Wokingham, or more aptly our laundry day. I kind of woke up when everyone was stressing to get Andrew out and to the airport and then went back to sleep until 10. I woke up to Umma cooking ramen with sweet and sour sauce that ended up being good.
We spent most of the day sorting out clothes and getting some of it clean. This took a long time because Oppa's washing machine is very small, so we could only wash clothes in small batches. Oppa had also gone to work for the day and had left us in the apartment with no toilet paper, which was slightly stressful.
I spent most of the day reading the Meg Cabot book that Mia got from the book exchange shelf on the cruise. It was very light reading and a fast read, but it was kind of addicting. At some point, we also found a Hills marathon on MTV. I had not seen the show before this and have just discovered how disgustingly addictive that show actually is. Also my extensive celebrity gossip knowledge seemed to provide me with a lot of background information on the people in the show. It's so dumb though.
At around 3, we went outside to walk to the Chinese restaurant near Oppa's place. Turns out it was closed, but some guy gave us directions to the center of town. We made our way there and we discovered that most of hte restaurants in town were closed until 6 as well. We eventually found a pub that was open and ate there. It was completely empty, so it was very awkward at first, but the food ended up being very good.
We walked back to Oppa's place, stopping at a store along the way to get toilet paper and actually met Oppa along the way. He drove us back to the flat. We stayed there for about thirty minutes and then loaded into the car to go to the movies, illegally putting James and Umma in the trunk. We actually all went there to see Batman, but it turned out that Batman was not out in the UK until Friday. So, Oppa went back, James Halmony and Gianni saw Hancock, and Umma Mia and I saw Mamma Mia. I've never seen a theater with so many women in it before in my life. It was actually somewhat terrifying. That said, Mamma Mia was extremely silly and campy, but the scenery was gorgeous and it was still fun to watch. Also, Pierce Brosnan cannot sing.
After the movie, we went back, did last minute packing for our trip to France, I blogged a little bit, and went to bed.
We spent most of the day sorting out clothes and getting some of it clean. This took a long time because Oppa's washing machine is very small, so we could only wash clothes in small batches. Oppa had also gone to work for the day and had left us in the apartment with no toilet paper, which was slightly stressful.
I spent most of the day reading the Meg Cabot book that Mia got from the book exchange shelf on the cruise. It was very light reading and a fast read, but it was kind of addicting. At some point, we also found a Hills marathon on MTV. I had not seen the show before this and have just discovered how disgustingly addictive that show actually is. Also my extensive celebrity gossip knowledge seemed to provide me with a lot of background information on the people in the show. It's so dumb though.
At around 3, we went outside to walk to the Chinese restaurant near Oppa's place. Turns out it was closed, but some guy gave us directions to the center of town. We made our way there and we discovered that most of hte restaurants in town were closed until 6 as well. We eventually found a pub that was open and ate there. It was completely empty, so it was very awkward at first, but the food ended up being very good.
We walked back to Oppa's place, stopping at a store along the way to get toilet paper and actually met Oppa along the way. He drove us back to the flat. We stayed there for about thirty minutes and then loaded into the car to go to the movies, illegally putting James and Umma in the trunk. We actually all went there to see Batman, but it turned out that Batman was not out in the UK until Friday. So, Oppa went back, James Halmony and Gianni saw Hancock, and Umma Mia and I saw Mamma Mia. I've never seen a theater with so many women in it before in my life. It was actually somewhat terrifying. That said, Mamma Mia was extremely silly and campy, but the scenery was gorgeous and it was still fun to watch. Also, Pierce Brosnan cannot sing.
After the movie, we went back, did last minute packing for our trip to France, I blogged a little bit, and went to bed.
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