We were a bit exhausted by the time Day 2 in Monte Carlo had rolled around, so we decided not to set an alarm. Whoa - that can be dangerous! We missed breakfast and lunch, but didn't regret it one bit! It was hotter that day, so when we finally managed to drag ourselves out of bed, we went to the beach again. The previously thought to be cold water was much more refreshing and a welcome temperature this day. It was really crystal clear, so we just stood in it for a while, staring at the fish we could see swimming near us. Some of them were on the large side, so I found myself jumping in shock every now and then. I'd be focusing my attention on one area to the left of me, and then glance to the right to see a fish had swam right up near me without my consent! Haha. They were harmless, but it was still alarming when I wasn't expecting it. We had such a short walk from the water to our beach chairs, but it was long enough for the rocks to feel burning hot! Kinda made you want to run right back out into the water. The privacy of our beach was really nice, though, and I enjoyed having good, quick drink service and a quiet atmosphere. There was a small hut nearby selling coverups, swimsuits, shorts, and the like, so I wandered over there to check it out. I was quite surprised to see a coverup with a price tag of 800 euro on it! Man, they sure were proud of themselves! Maybe that Ferrari owner can buy that, but not me!
When we got back from the beach, Jer attempted to watch the Tour again. This time he opted to follow it sans commentary since he wasn't getting anything useful from having the French broadcasters on! When it was over, we went down to the concierge to ask for a recommendation on a good place to watch the Holland match. She told us about a restaurant/bar called "Stars and Bars" and said, "It's an American restaurant so the food isn't good." Hmmmm, surely she noticed our American accents. Apparently that didn't stop her from telling us how she really felt! LOL. We decided to check it out anyway, since ya know, we're used to that crappy American food. We took a cab over there instead of walking since it was pretty muggy and Jer was tired of feeling like he had run through a sprinkler after being outside for a few minutes. Driving up to the port area is am experience! It's hard to believe there are yachts in existence like the ones we saw there. They are extremely fancy and every last detail is attended to. I'm pretty sure the buoys on one of the yachts probably cost more than my house! And we even saw one that had a matching speedboat. It's like, "I'm so rich, even my yacht owns a boat." They all had these elaborate walkways that extended out from them, connecting them to the marina sidewalk. They're like mini red carpets or something! I'm sure the folks that walk on them feel like celebrities (or maybe they actually are!)
We made it over to Stars and Bars and got a table with a good view of a TV for the game. One small problem - my phone had updated its time in London when I accidentally turned on cellular access for a second, so it was set on GMT. The sportscenter app on my iPhone told me the game started at 7:30. If we were still in London, that would've been correct. Now we were in Monte Carlo, where the time zone is CET, and my phone didn't know that. The game really started at 8:30 our time! Oops. We tried to drag our appetizer out for as long as we could since we knew we'd be there for a while! No worries, though. The bar actually started filling up as it got closer to game time, so my mistake just insured we had good seats! The crowd there was 99% Dutch fans, so that made it more exciting. There was lots of cheering and celebrating going on!
After the game, we headed back out to the marina to gawk at the yachts a little more. We passed by the casino area on our way back to the hotel, so we decided to stop in and kill some time. The casino had other plans! Jer was wearing shorts and flip flops, so we got denied! Burnnnn! What? Yacht owners don't wear shorts and flip flops??
I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Monte Carlo - Day One
To get from London to Monte Carlo, there were quite a few hoops to jump through! We took a cab from our hotel to Heathrow Airport (which set us back 65 pounds!). Our flight to Nice wasn't too bad and we managed to catch a few naps here and there. At one point I woke up and heard the passenger in front of me say, "I had to buy an extra seat for my trombone!" which prompted me to try to fall back asleep. Once we arrived at the Nice airport, we had to board a bus to take us to the Nice rail station. It was a short bus ride, and we actually had seats, so no complaints there. I had pre-purchased our rail tickets online, but they were for the train leaving 2 hours from the time we arrived at the station. So, we asked if we could exchange them for an earlier departure. We were told we couldn't, so we bit the bullet and bought another set of tickets (which turned out to be way cheaper than the ones I had previously purchased online). That got us on a train leaving in just 30 minutes. We headed out to the platform to await its arrival. Jer sat on a bench and I put my backpack next to him to save my seat while I searched for a vending machine. When I returned to him, he told me about his first experience with a French person. He said a lady walked up and motioned that she wanted to move my backpack. He said "No, no" and held his hand over it. "My wife is sitting there." The lady said something in French that he took to mean "What?" and started to reach for it again and Jer said no again. She made a face and said something else to him in French and walked away, while still continuing to make comments. He doesn't know the language, but he thought her tone spoke for itself! Maybe she thought he was lying or something? Oh well! We laughed about it and continued to wait for our train. Shortly after that, we noticed that the Asian lady sitting next to us on the bench had her video camera out. From the corner of our eyes, we saw her rotating the camera all around in every direction. Hmmm, I guess she wanted to capture the train station in all its glory. Then we looked closer and realized she had the camcorder pointed at herself the whole time. She was taking 360 degree video of herself at the train station. Wow, that'll be an interesting video for her friends and family to watch!
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We boarded our train to Monte Carlo and hoped for a quick trip. Since Nice and Monte Carlo are so close together, the ride was only supposed to take about 20-25 minutes. We didn't realize it included 5 stops along the way, though. That was kind of annoying since we had 2 large suitcases and 3 carry-ons that people had to maneuver around at each stop. Our fellow train passengers were quite an interesting bunch. There was the silver-haired crazy man who spoke to himself in French constantly; the group of 5 boys dressed in swim trunks who debated whether or not to get off at each of the intermediate stops (we figured out why later); the look straight ahead and don't talk to anybody because I've got my earphones on guy; and the Goth couple who probably hadn't showered in a few days. Jer and I just kept our hands on our bags and hoped for the stops to pass by quickly. After about three stops, a bunch of official-looking guys boarded the train and started demanding tickets. The 5 boys had moved to an adjacent train and we could see them running off of it when the doors opened. Ohhhhhh. I get it now. They were avoiding the ticket checkers. Two people in our vicinity were trying to cheat the system and they received citations.
After arriving at the Monte Carlo train station, we decided we didn't feel like navigating the city streets to our hotel with all our luggage, so we called a cab. It's so funny to me that the cabs around here are Audis or Mercedes. Just a tad bit different than I'm used to. All in all, our journey from London to Monte Carlo started with a cab, then a plane, then a bus, then a train, and then ended with another cab. Whew!
We checked in and headed up to our room at Le Meridien. The hotel is very nice and in a wonderful location. There were lots of fancy, schmancy cars parked out front. The view from our balcony was of the private beach below, and then looked out over the water. We changed into our swim suits immediately, since the beach was our first order of business! As we walked out, we stopped by the dining room to check out the menu. Holy schnikes. Each entree was 29euro and up ($36+usd). The buffet was 42euro. Hmmmm, I guess we'll worry about food later! The beach was a pebble beach, not a sandy one, and the water was a colder temperature than what we experienced in Mexico a couple months ago. No complaints though; it was still beautiful! We relaxed on our beach chairs for a couple hours, just trying to stop time. Every now and then we'd scan the area to check out the interesting people and outfits. Yes, there were topless sunbathers. Yes, the men in speedos were prevalent. No, being wealthy doesn't mean you're in great shape.
After getting some good sun, we decided to head back to the room to get ready for dinner. Jer found Le Tour on TV, and suffered through the French commentary. He would hear the announcers getting excited about something, and throwing out some cyclist's names, but he had no clue what they were saying! I just had to laugh. When the day's ride had ended, we departed from the hotel in search of some cheaper food. It was about 5:30 by this time, but we were starving since we hadn't eaten lunch. We passed by a couple places, but found that they weren't open. Hmmm, I guess they only served lunch. We stumbled upon a mall and figured that would be our best bet. There was a little Italian eatery there, with entrees from 10 - 13 euro. That'll do! The food was great, while our attempted exchanges with the waiter were less than stellar. After dinner, we shopped at some of the stores. This one shoe store had tables set up by size, with shoes strewn about them. I figured the prices would be decent since it didn't look very fancy. My mistake! The prices ranged from 100 - 300 euro per pair. No thanks! Jeez. We were beginning to realize nothing would be affordable in Monte Carlo. It was about 7:30 by this time, and all the stores started to close. Interesting. We walked back to our hotel and saw that the restaurants we had previously seen closed were now open. I guess everyone eats late dinners here!
We changed into some fancier clothes so we could visit the Casino de Monte Carlo. We heard there was a dress code and an entrance fee. We went down to the valet station to request a cab since I didn't want to walk all the way over there in my high heels! As we waited, a guy pulled up in a Mercedes. He handed his keys to the valet and then gave him a handful of change as a tip. When he walked away, the valet made fun of him to the other valets. We obviously didn't understand exactly what he was saying, but we got the gist of it. Since everything under 5 euros is change, not paper currency, there could've actually been a few euros there in the tip. We weren't sure, but we were like crap, don't tip these guys in change. Good to know! We arrived at the Casino, and it was everything we'd imagined. There were ridiculously expensive cars parked out front, and the entrance was very grand. We paid our 10 euros each and went inside. The design and decorations were so elaborate and jaw-dropping. I wish I could've taken pictures. There were very few tables in there, and only a couple of them actually had players. I believe there were a lot of private rooms, so that might've been where all the wealthy gamblers were. There was a small slot machine area, so that's where I headed. Of course the minimums were high, but I had to gamble some just to say I did! I actually walked away with more than I started with, so that was exciting. There really wasn't much to do in that casino, since it was more of just a spectacle, so we left and headed to another one. There are actually like five casinos in that area, but only the main one gets all the press! The next one we went to also had a dress code (no shorts), but it had more of a Vegas feel. There were more slots, more flashing lights, more people, etc. I sat down at a slot machine and ordered a Sprite. That set me back 7 euro. Ouch! I decided to milk that drink for quite a while. We called it a night around 2am and headed back to our hotel. We still saw people eating dinner at that time. There were lots of bars and nightclubs still going strong. We apparently need to change our timeline for the day!
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Nice train station
We boarded our train to Monte Carlo and hoped for a quick trip. Since Nice and Monte Carlo are so close together, the ride was only supposed to take about 20-25 minutes. We didn't realize it included 5 stops along the way, though. That was kind of annoying since we had 2 large suitcases and 3 carry-ons that people had to maneuver around at each stop. Our fellow train passengers were quite an interesting bunch. There was the silver-haired crazy man who spoke to himself in French constantly; the group of 5 boys dressed in swim trunks who debated whether or not to get off at each of the intermediate stops (we figured out why later); the look straight ahead and don't talk to anybody because I've got my earphones on guy; and the Goth couple who probably hadn't showered in a few days. Jer and I just kept our hands on our bags and hoped for the stops to pass by quickly. After about three stops, a bunch of official-looking guys boarded the train and started demanding tickets. The 5 boys had moved to an adjacent train and we could see them running off of it when the doors opened. Ohhhhhh. I get it now. They were avoiding the ticket checkers. Two people in our vicinity were trying to cheat the system and they received citations.
After arriving at the Monte Carlo train station, we decided we didn't feel like navigating the city streets to our hotel with all our luggage, so we called a cab. It's so funny to me that the cabs around here are Audis or Mercedes. Just a tad bit different than I'm used to. All in all, our journey from London to Monte Carlo started with a cab, then a plane, then a bus, then a train, and then ended with another cab. Whew!
We checked in and headed up to our room at Le Meridien. The hotel is very nice and in a wonderful location. There were lots of fancy, schmancy cars parked out front. The view from our balcony was of the private beach below, and then looked out over the water. We changed into our swim suits immediately, since the beach was our first order of business! As we walked out, we stopped by the dining room to check out the menu. Holy schnikes. Each entree was 29euro and up ($36+usd). The buffet was 42euro. Hmmmm, I guess we'll worry about food later! The beach was a pebble beach, not a sandy one, and the water was a colder temperature than what we experienced in Mexico a couple months ago. No complaints though; it was still beautiful! We relaxed on our beach chairs for a couple hours, just trying to stop time. Every now and then we'd scan the area to check out the interesting people and outfits. Yes, there were topless sunbathers. Yes, the men in speedos were prevalent. No, being wealthy doesn't mean you're in great shape.
View from our balcony
After getting some good sun, we decided to head back to the room to get ready for dinner. Jer found Le Tour on TV, and suffered through the French commentary. He would hear the announcers getting excited about something, and throwing out some cyclist's names, but he had no clue what they were saying! I just had to laugh. When the day's ride had ended, we departed from the hotel in search of some cheaper food. It was about 5:30 by this time, but we were starving since we hadn't eaten lunch. We passed by a couple places, but found that they weren't open. Hmmm, I guess they only served lunch. We stumbled upon a mall and figured that would be our best bet. There was a little Italian eatery there, with entrees from 10 - 13 euro. That'll do! The food was great, while our attempted exchanges with the waiter were less than stellar. After dinner, we shopped at some of the stores. This one shoe store had tables set up by size, with shoes strewn about them. I figured the prices would be decent since it didn't look very fancy. My mistake! The prices ranged from 100 - 300 euro per pair. No thanks! Jeez. We were beginning to realize nothing would be affordable in Monte Carlo. It was about 7:30 by this time, and all the stores started to close. Interesting. We walked back to our hotel and saw that the restaurants we had previously seen closed were now open. I guess everyone eats late dinners here!
Jer looks out over the city
We changed into some fancier clothes so we could visit the Casino de Monte Carlo. We heard there was a dress code and an entrance fee. We went down to the valet station to request a cab since I didn't want to walk all the way over there in my high heels! As we waited, a guy pulled up in a Mercedes. He handed his keys to the valet and then gave him a handful of change as a tip. When he walked away, the valet made fun of him to the other valets. We obviously didn't understand exactly what he was saying, but we got the gist of it. Since everything under 5 euros is change, not paper currency, there could've actually been a few euros there in the tip. We weren't sure, but we were like crap, don't tip these guys in change. Good to know! We arrived at the Casino, and it was everything we'd imagined. There were ridiculously expensive cars parked out front, and the entrance was very grand. We paid our 10 euros each and went inside. The design and decorations were so elaborate and jaw-dropping. I wish I could've taken pictures. There were very few tables in there, and only a couple of them actually had players. I believe there were a lot of private rooms, so that might've been where all the wealthy gamblers were. There was a small slot machine area, so that's where I headed. Of course the minimums were high, but I had to gamble some just to say I did! I actually walked away with more than I started with, so that was exciting. There really wasn't much to do in that casino, since it was more of just a spectacle, so we left and headed to another one. There are actually like five casinos in that area, but only the main one gets all the press! The next one we went to also had a dress code (no shorts), but it had more of a Vegas feel. There were more slots, more flashing lights, more people, etc. I sat down at a slot machine and ordered a Sprite. That set me back 7 euro. Ouch! I decided to milk that drink for quite a while. We called it a night around 2am and headed back to our hotel. We still saw people eating dinner at that time. There were lots of bars and nightclubs still going strong. We apparently need to change our timeline for the day!
Casino de Monte Carlo
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
London - Day Three
We decided to actually get up at a decent time on our last day in London so we could experience as much as possible before leaving. We ate breakfast at our hotel before starting our day and were surprised to see beans being served. Beans at 10am? No thanks. Apparently that's a normal British occurrence. After breakfast we headed towards Vauxhall station to catch the tube to Trafalgar Square. On our walk there, we heard loud music and as we got closer to it, realized that it was a nightclub. We could see it full of people, still going strong at 10:30am on a Sunday morning. Wow. Kudos to those guys for having that kind of dedication to partying! When we got to Vauxhall station, we found the line we needed and waited for our train. A girl walked up to us and asked us if the train went to a particular destination. We assured her that it did (in our noticeable American accent) and she responded in her British accent, "I live in this city and I don't even know where it goes!" Score one for the American Meezys giving directions to Brits in London!
The purpose of our train ride was to go to the Original London Sightseeing Tour company to buy tickets for their hop on - hop off bus tour. We knew we needed a little help getting around to all the tourist attractions quickly since we weren't going to be in London long. This tour was excellent, and really gave us a great overview of the city. Some of the sights we experienced were The National Gallery, Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Speakers' Corner, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, Monument, Tower Bridge, and The Tower of London. We had a live tour guide who gave us lots of great history about each location. I took a billion pictures because I just don't see things like that everyday! I think my favorite sights were Nelson's Column (the giant monument in Trafalgar Square of a column with Admiral Nelson standing atop it) and the Tower Bridge (looks like something out of a fairytale).
The purpose of our train ride was to go to the Original London Sightseeing Tour company to buy tickets for their hop on - hop off bus tour. We knew we needed a little help getting around to all the tourist attractions quickly since we weren't going to be in London long. This tour was excellent, and really gave us a great overview of the city. Some of the sights we experienced were The National Gallery, Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Speakers' Corner, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, Monument, Tower Bridge, and The Tower of London. We had a live tour guide who gave us lots of great history about each location. I took a billion pictures because I just don't see things like that everyday! I think my favorite sights were Nelson's Column (the giant monument in Trafalgar Square of a column with Admiral Nelson standing atop it) and the Tower Bridge (looks like something out of a fairytale).
Nelson's Column (it's way more ginormous than this,
but I couldn't get the height all in one shot!)
Tower Bridge
After our sightseeing, we decided to eat at a restaurant near Trafalgar Square. It had caught our eye while on the tour because of its name - Texas Embassy Cantina. What??? Of course we had to check it out! We walked in and were pleased to see so many Texas references. And what better day to eat there than July 4th! They informed us that patrons showing a Texas driver's license would get a free margarita. We obliged! We enjoyed our lunch, served to us by a waiter dressed as Davy Crockett. Jer's meal came with french fries and at one point he pointed to them and asked me if I wanted any "chips." I looked at him in shock. He didn't even realize he had said it! I guess those British sayings were rubbing off on him. We walked around the restaurant after eating and smiled about all the Texas memorabilia we saw - a Dallas Police Department patch, a Texas Tech license plate, Texas driver's licenses, etc. It was so funny to see that on the other side of the world. We grabbed a sharpie and added our names to the wall of visitors. It was a great experience!
Represent!
Just a little ways from home...
After lunch, we headed over to Oxford Street to do some shopping. There were tons of places to go, and we stopped into a few. Jer picked up a couple shirts at Zara Men, and I grabbed a travel straightener at a department store (since I fried my other one). We also had our first experience with a pay toilet. It was everything we expected it would be. We were pretty exhausted from all our walking, so we decided to call it a night. On our way back from Vauxhall station, we were fortunate enough to see a pizza delivery guy on a vespa get his pizzas stolen from him by a group of teenagers. How nice of them! We quickened our pace back to the hotel after that! The rest of the night was spent packing and going over our travel plans for the next day. London - we enjoyed meeting you! Monte Carlo - here we come!
My final observations about London, continued from the Day One post:
1) Our normal-sized tips by American terms were regarded as very generous by the British.
2) Traffic lights flash from red to yellow before turning green.
3) Too many people think it's okay to wear white see-through pants/shorts/skirts with inappropriate undergarments.
4) We definitely think they could stand to have more trashcans around, especially in the Tube.
5) It was really hard to navigate once you were off the Tube. If there were street signs (like we're used to), the writing on them would be extremely tiny. There would sometimes be one pointed in the direction where two streets branched off, leaving you wondering which it referred to. Sometimes there didn't appear to be any signs designating where you were. Other times, there would be a sign on a building pushed back from an intersection telling you the street name, which does you no good when you're in the middle of a block trying to figure out which direction you should head. You pretty much had to just choose one way and wait to get to the intersection to see if it was correct.
6) Tax (if any) was already included so you always knew exactly how much something was going to be before getting rung up.
7) In America, we drive on the right side and walk on the right side. Since cars drive on the left side in the UK, we assumed the people walked the same. But, since there were so many foreign tourists there, it was a crapshoot as to which side people should walk. There was constant switching back and forth with each new group of people you approached.
My final observations about London, continued from the Day One post:
1) Our normal-sized tips by American terms were regarded as very generous by the British.
2) Traffic lights flash from red to yellow before turning green.
3) Too many people think it's okay to wear white see-through pants/shorts/skirts with inappropriate undergarments.
4) We definitely think they could stand to have more trashcans around, especially in the Tube.
5) It was really hard to navigate once you were off the Tube. If there were street signs (like we're used to), the writing on them would be extremely tiny. There would sometimes be one pointed in the direction where two streets branched off, leaving you wondering which it referred to. Sometimes there didn't appear to be any signs designating where you were. Other times, there would be a sign on a building pushed back from an intersection telling you the street name, which does you no good when you're in the middle of a block trying to figure out which direction you should head. You pretty much had to just choose one way and wait to get to the intersection to see if it was correct.
6) Tax (if any) was already included so you always knew exactly how much something was going to be before getting rung up.
7) In America, we drive on the right side and walk on the right side. Since cars drive on the left side in the UK, we assumed the people walked the same. But, since there were so many foreign tourists there, it was a crapshoot as to which side people should walk. There was constant switching back and forth with each new group of people you approached.
Monday, July 5, 2010
London - Day Two
After conquering our jet lag, Jer and I woke up extremely excited for Day 2 of our London stay. That day was Wimbledon day! I've been watching the Wimbledon tournament since I was a kid, and Jer has gotten more interested in it (because of me) over the past few years. Even as we boarded the train to the grounds of Wimbledon with tickets in hand, I still couldn't believe we were going. When we got there, I had to take it all in. There were beautiful grass courts all around, tons of spectators on Henman Hill awaiting the ladies' final, and a buzz in the air because of the exciting day to come. Since we got there early, we had a couple of hours to explore before the big match started. We headed to the Wimbledon shop so I could buy way too many souvenirs! This was a once in a lifetime experience, so I had to memorialize it! After that we checked out the food offerings. I went with a chicken caesar salad baguette and it was delicious. Seriously delicious. I'm a big fan of caesar salads, and then to put it in another one of my favorite things - bread - was perfect. Bravo, English folks. Jer opted for a "Dutchee," or a spicy British sausage in a crusty baguette.
Our tickets entitled us to entry into the Debenture Holders Lounge. This area was good for getting out of the heat, getting a full meal in a restaurant, or sitting out on a patio overlooking the practice courts. It supposedly had a dress code, but apparently they made an exception for our shorts and flip flops! (By the way, there were some extremely dressed up people at Wimbledon....high heels, dresses, suits. No thanks!) We went out on a balcony to see if anybody famous was warming up on Court 17. Imagine our surprise when we saw Rafael Nadal! We stood there in shock, watching him practice. I snapped a bunch of shots and took some video. It was so cool to see such a great champion on the court!
As it got nearer to match time, Jer and I decided to get the obligatory strawberries and cream and head to Center Court. I made the mistake of not putting enough sugar on mine, but they were still good! You can't go to Wimbledon and not get the strawberries and cream. It's a tradition!
When I saw that our seats were on the 3rd level, I started to get a little disappointed. I paid a lot of money for these tickets, and I wanted it to be worth our while. As we sat down though, I soon realized that it would be hard to find a bad seat in that stadium. Everything looks and feels close to the action. And really, the number of rows in each level is limited, so level three there is a lot lower than level three in a basketball or football stadium. Our seating area was inbetween the royal box and the players' coaches/family box. The Queen wasn't there, and I don't know any other British royalty, so sitting near that box was lost on me. I did, however, see Billie Jean King sitting over there, so that was neat. We saw Serena's family (including Venus) over on the other side of us, so that was cool as well.
When the match started, it was surreal. The crowd got so incredibly quiet during the points! It was the weirdest silence. You were scared to even whisper to your neighbor! We were cheering for Zvonereva, in hopes of it being a more interesting match. Serena was just too good for her that day. Even though she was winning handily, there were still folks in the crowd who thought they needed to yell loudly for her during the "quiet" times. Most notably, the girl seated directly next to me clung to the battle cry of "Come on Serena," with a British accent, extremely loudly, and often. I didn't care, because I was excited to be there too, but you could tell some of the hoity toity elite sitting near us were not too keen! I got to see Spot Shot in action, live, which was pretty funny. The crowd really does clap rhythmically while it replays, and then gives a collective "ooooooh" whenever the result is shown. We took some amazing photos during the match (and some video too, shhhhhh). Serena came out on top and we happily watched her accept her first place trophy.
The match didn't last nearly as long as we had hoped it would! We still had an amazing experience, though. It certainly makes me want to buy tickets to other Grand Slam matches in the future. We reluctantly left Center Court and decided to spend some more time wandering around the grounds. We headed back to the Debenture Holders Lounge and spotted Todd Martin warming up on a court. He was playing in an invitational match. After that, Jer spotted Martina Navratilova eating lunch on the balcony of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club. She was very gracious and interrupted her eating to say hello to all the fans below. I couldn't believe we were in the presence of all these tennis greats!
Alas, our Wimbledon experience had to come to an end. We felt so lucky to add this day to our memory, and wouldn't have wanted to spend it any other way.
That night, Jer had set us up with a reservation at Vertigo 42. It's a restaurant atop one of London's tallest buildings, Tower 42. We got there around 8 so we could witness the city before and after sunset. The views were incredible! As we sipped our champagne and enjoyed the scenery, we overheard a couple next to us chatting. They distinctly did NOT have a British accent, so we just had to interrupt them and ask if they were American. Get this - not only were they American, but they were Texans! So funny. We spent the rest of the night talking with them and hearing their story about what brought them to London. It's a small world! Check out the pics from the top floor. Breathtaking!
Our tickets entitled us to entry into the Debenture Holders Lounge. This area was good for getting out of the heat, getting a full meal in a restaurant, or sitting out on a patio overlooking the practice courts. It supposedly had a dress code, but apparently they made an exception for our shorts and flip flops! (By the way, there were some extremely dressed up people at Wimbledon....high heels, dresses, suits. No thanks!) We went out on a balcony to see if anybody famous was warming up on Court 17. Imagine our surprise when we saw Rafael Nadal! We stood there in shock, watching him practice. I snapped a bunch of shots and took some video. It was so cool to see such a great champion on the court!
As it got nearer to match time, Jer and I decided to get the obligatory strawberries and cream and head to Center Court. I made the mistake of not putting enough sugar on mine, but they were still good! You can't go to Wimbledon and not get the strawberries and cream. It's a tradition!
When I saw that our seats were on the 3rd level, I started to get a little disappointed. I paid a lot of money for these tickets, and I wanted it to be worth our while. As we sat down though, I soon realized that it would be hard to find a bad seat in that stadium. Everything looks and feels close to the action. And really, the number of rows in each level is limited, so level three there is a lot lower than level three in a basketball or football stadium. Our seating area was inbetween the royal box and the players' coaches/family box. The Queen wasn't there, and I don't know any other British royalty, so sitting near that box was lost on me. I did, however, see Billie Jean King sitting over there, so that was neat. We saw Serena's family (including Venus) over on the other side of us, so that was cool as well.
When the match started, it was surreal. The crowd got so incredibly quiet during the points! It was the weirdest silence. You were scared to even whisper to your neighbor! We were cheering for Zvonereva, in hopes of it being a more interesting match. Serena was just too good for her that day. Even though she was winning handily, there were still folks in the crowd who thought they needed to yell loudly for her during the "quiet" times. Most notably, the girl seated directly next to me clung to the battle cry of "Come on Serena," with a British accent, extremely loudly, and often. I didn't care, because I was excited to be there too, but you could tell some of the hoity toity elite sitting near us were not too keen! I got to see Spot Shot in action, live, which was pretty funny. The crowd really does clap rhythmically while it replays, and then gives a collective "ooooooh" whenever the result is shown. We took some amazing photos during the match (and some video too, shhhhhh). Serena came out on top and we happily watched her accept her first place trophy.
The match didn't last nearly as long as we had hoped it would! We still had an amazing experience, though. It certainly makes me want to buy tickets to other Grand Slam matches in the future. We reluctantly left Center Court and decided to spend some more time wandering around the grounds. We headed back to the Debenture Holders Lounge and spotted Todd Martin warming up on a court. He was playing in an invitational match. After that, Jer spotted Martina Navratilova eating lunch on the balcony of the All England Lawn and Tennis Club. She was very gracious and interrupted her eating to say hello to all the fans below. I couldn't believe we were in the presence of all these tennis greats!
Alas, our Wimbledon experience had to come to an end. We felt so lucky to add this day to our memory, and wouldn't have wanted to spend it any other way.
That night, Jer had set us up with a reservation at Vertigo 42. It's a restaurant atop one of London's tallest buildings, Tower 42. We got there around 8 so we could witness the city before and after sunset. The views were incredible! As we sipped our champagne and enjoyed the scenery, we overheard a couple next to us chatting. They distinctly did NOT have a British accent, so we just had to interrupt them and ask if they were American. Get this - not only were they American, but they were Texans! So funny. We spent the rest of the night talking with them and hearing their story about what brought them to London. It's a small world! Check out the pics from the top floor. Breathtaking!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
London - Day One
We have a lot to cover! Jer and I boarded our 9 hour flight to London full of excitement! We put our carry-ons in the overhead bin and waited impatiently for all the other passengers to get situated. One guy near us needed to put his bag in a bin and chose the one Jeremiah's was in. He apparently had no regard for the possibility that Jer's bag might contain something valuable or breakable and just started manhandling it and shoving it around, trying to make his bag fit. We watched that for a few seconds, convincing ourselves that he would stop or get it figured out, but no luck. Finally I stepped up and put an end to it! C'mon people, other people's stuff is important too! We were hoping this wouldn't be a foreshadowing to how our trip would go.
Our plan was to sleep as much as possible on the plane since we had departed at night and would be arriving in London the next morning. Jer followed the plan; I did not. I just could not find a comfortable position and maybe got 1 hour of sleep total! Bummer. A movie, a couple of TV shows, and some games on my personal TV monitor luckily helped me pass the time. The 9 hours actually went by fairly quickly, but I knew I would pay for the lack of sleep later! We got held up outside of London and were put in a holding pattern for a while, though. It wasn't for very long, but since the flight path is shown on our TV screens, it looked pretty comical.
The Holland v. Brazil match was scheduled to start soon, so we decided to get freshened up and change clothes, in hopes of finding a local pub. I took out my international travel adapter that my sister-in-law gave me for my birthday, so I could use my hair straightener. I plugged it in and.....POP! Crap! I unplugged it quickly and decided to abort that mission. I guess that item was a little too strong for their outlet. (Side note - I later found an American plug in another room in our suite, and tried to plug it in there. It didn't work, so apparently my straightener is just busted now. I fried it.) Did I mention all the lights went out too? Oops. Apparently I tripped the breaker for power to the entire room. We had to call the front desk. :(
After that debacle, we headed out in search of a pub. We landed at The Steam Engine and cheered on Holland to a great come-from-behind victory. I was proudly sporting my bright orange Holland shirt. After the match, we walked around London and lots of fellow Dutch supporters gave me props. Hup Holland!
We did a bit of sightseeing since it was still light out. We saw the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, County Hall, Jubilee Park, and the Thames River. It was surreal being in the presence of such amazing history and architecture. I loved every minute of it....well, except for the part where we tried to get hit by cars and motorcycles. It's hard to remember to always look right before crossing! Besides that, it was a fantastic first day. We also loved hearing the British accent at every turn. It's pretty comical actually, because they're speaking the same language, yet sometimes I have no clue what they're saying (cashier in the tube yelled at me because I asked "what" three times!)
After we had exhausted ourselves from walking around so much, and the jetlag started to set in, we decided to grab dinner at Jamie's Italian (a Jamie Oliver restaurant). Jer had flash steak and I had pasta bolognese. Both dishes were delicious. We also had our first order of "chips." They were pretty typical french fries, but we just had to get some since they call them by a different name. We headed back to our hotel afterwards and called it a night. So that's Day One! Up next....Wimbledon and Vertigo 42.
While I work on that post for another day, here are a few things I've learned/observed about London so far:
1) The fashion is atrocious (men and women)
2) Jorts are incredibly popular (refer to number one)
3) You'll hear sirens. Alot.
4) Cranes are everywhere because everything is under construction. (They disrupted some of my pics!)
5) They know they're weird here, so they put "Look Right" on the ground at crosswalks to remind you.
6) It's hard not to mimic the British accent.
7) Demands seem to be made in a nicer tone, when you envision them being spoken in a British accent. "Mind the Gap" as opposed to us saying "Watch your Step."
8) The lady's voice on the Tube sounds like the one in the Portal game.
9) Tap water at restaurants is more readily available than I expected it to be.
10) They don't have paper currency for anything less than 5 pounds.
11) There are so many variations of accents to be heard here, not just British.
12) Discretionary charges (mandatory tips) are added to some restaurant tabs.
Our plan was to sleep as much as possible on the plane since we had departed at night and would be arriving in London the next morning. Jer followed the plan; I did not. I just could not find a comfortable position and maybe got 1 hour of sleep total! Bummer. A movie, a couple of TV shows, and some games on my personal TV monitor luckily helped me pass the time. The 9 hours actually went by fairly quickly, but I knew I would pay for the lack of sleep later! We got held up outside of London and were put in a holding pattern for a while, though. It wasn't for very long, but since the flight path is shown on our TV screens, it looked pretty comical.
Our pilot was showing off
We deplaned and headed for the Tube. We were apprehensive, having little experience with this type of public transportation. We bought our tickets and headed to the platform. A train was leaving right then, but we would've had to run to it. We weren't sure where it was going, so we got cold feet. After it departed, we saw that it was in fact going to the right place. We had to wait 30 minutes for the next one. Boo! That's what we get for being amateurs.
The Tube - it can be intimidating!
The tube let us off at a stop that was still a little ways away from our hotel, so we decided to take a cab for the remainder of the jaunt to avoid hauling all our luggage down the street. The cab driver was really sweet and talked to us about our plans. We told him we were going to Wimbledon and then listed the remaining cities on our itinerary and he asked us if we had won the American lottery. Haha. That made us get even more excited about what lay ahead for us! We arrived at our hotel and were very happy with the location. We found out the room we booked didn't have a view of the Thames, so we upgraded to one that did. Not only could we see the river from our window, but also Parliament! Very cool. We unpacked all our stuff and I realized that I forgot to ask the front desk if our Wimbledon tickets had been delivered. I crossed my fingers and made the call. Success! The tickets had been delivered, as promised. I rushed downstairs and collected them. I had been waiting to get those puppies in my hand for weeks!
The living room of our suite, with the river view
The Holland v. Brazil match was scheduled to start soon, so we decided to get freshened up and change clothes, in hopes of finding a local pub. I took out my international travel adapter that my sister-in-law gave me for my birthday, so I could use my hair straightener. I plugged it in and.....POP! Crap! I unplugged it quickly and decided to abort that mission. I guess that item was a little too strong for their outlet. (Side note - I later found an American plug in another room in our suite, and tried to plug it in there. It didn't work, so apparently my straightener is just busted now. I fried it.) Did I mention all the lights went out too? Oops. Apparently I tripped the breaker for power to the entire room. We had to call the front desk. :(
After that debacle, we headed out in search of a pub. We landed at The Steam Engine and cheered on Holland to a great come-from-behind victory. I was proudly sporting my bright orange Holland shirt. After the match, we walked around London and lots of fellow Dutch supporters gave me props. Hup Holland!
We did a bit of sightseeing since it was still light out. We saw the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, County Hall, Jubilee Park, and the Thames River. It was surreal being in the presence of such amazing history and architecture. I loved every minute of it....well, except for the part where we tried to get hit by cars and motorcycles. It's hard to remember to always look right before crossing! Besides that, it was a fantastic first day. We also loved hearing the British accent at every turn. It's pretty comical actually, because they're speaking the same language, yet sometimes I have no clue what they're saying (cashier in the tube yelled at me because I asked "what" three times!)
Big Ben - I had never seen it this close-up before, even in pictures
Parliament - a truly stunning sight to see
While I work on that post for another day, here are a few things I've learned/observed about London so far:
1) The fashion is atrocious (men and women)
2) Jorts are incredibly popular (refer to number one)
3) You'll hear sirens. Alot.
4) Cranes are everywhere because everything is under construction. (They disrupted some of my pics!)
5) They know they're weird here, so they put "Look Right" on the ground at crosswalks to remind you.
6) It's hard not to mimic the British accent.
7) Demands seem to be made in a nicer tone, when you envision them being spoken in a British accent. "Mind the Gap" as opposed to us saying "Watch your Step."
8) The lady's voice on the Tube sounds like the one in the Portal game.
9) Tap water at restaurants is more readily available than I expected it to be.
10) They don't have paper currency for anything less than 5 pounds.
11) There are so many variations of accents to be heard here, not just British.
12) Discretionary charges (mandatory tips) are added to some restaurant tabs.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Baseball, Birthday, Barbecue, and Bone Marrow
(Okay, I'm taking a little liberty with the title of this post, but I wanted it to be cohesive)! This past weekend was jam-packed with activities, so there's a lot to cover. On Saturday, Jer and I watched the US v. Ghana soccer match with our friends Brian, Sharon, Justin, and Stari. I'm still a little bitter about our loss, so I won't spend a lot of time on this topic! I will say that my favorite part of the situation was making jokes about our opposition's name by incorporating them into existing song lyrics. "Make 'em say Uhhh....Uhhhh. Gha-na-na-na." Or "Never Ghana give you up. Never Ghana let you down." Yeah, we're corny like that. After the soccer match, we headed out to Frisco to watch the Heroes Celebrity Baseball Event. The Foundation that sponsored this game "is a non-profit initiative providing Dallas inner-city youth the opportunity to participate in team baseball, basketball educational and cultural curriculum, all while building self-confidence." Some of the celebrities/famous athletes in attendance were Mike Modano, Warren Sapp, Jason Kidd, Mark Cuban, Donald Faison, Demarcus Ware, Daryl Johnston, Mike Hamlin, and Drew Pearson. I love these types of events because they are for a good cause, and the participants have time to sign autographs and take pictures with their fans since it's not a professional game. The heat was ridonkulous, of course, but we still managed to have a great time! I garnered a few autographs and took a picture with Mark Cuban.
He smelled like money
Jason Kidd
Mike Hamlin, Mark Cuban, and Jason Kidd
On Sunday, we headed over to our friends John & Jenn's new place to have a housewarming/barbecue/pool party. It was great to soak up some sun and enjoy a couple hours with old friends. There were six of us there who were Bishop Dunne alumni, so I guess we had a mini-reunion of sorts! I love those guys and enjoy every opportunity I get to see them. We also spent part of Sunday with my sister and her family since it was my brother-in-law Trey's birthday. Trey is easy to shop for. What was our gift to him? A case of Sugar Free Rockstar...and he was thrilled about it. Haha. Of course that also meant we spent some time with my niece, Olivia. That kid is growing up way. too. fast. It still amazes me each time she makes a complete sentence, but I guess I should get used to it! She's a cutie pie.
watermelon...yumm!
Very happy about her daddy's birthday!
We had to call it an early night on Sunday since I had to be at the hospital at 7am on Monday morning. I underwent apheresis in order to extract white blood cells for donation to a boy with leukemia. I previously donated bone marrow to him earlier this year, but apparently it didn't fully graft and he needed a boost to fight the remaining cancer cells. After filling out paperwork and drawing a few more blood samples, I was finally hooked in and ready to go at 7:40. I was having blood extracted from one arm, which was going into a machine to separate out what they needed from me, and then the remaining blood transfused back through my other arm. My right arm was the extraction one, and I wasn't allowed to move it. The left arm was the return one, and I was free to use it the whole time. It was a little nerve-wracking since I'm not even comfortable donating blood like Jer does regularly, but everything went well. The arm they were extracting from started to get pretty sore and uncomfortable, but nothing unmanageable. Apparently the pressure in my right arm wasn't remaining strong, though, so I had to squeeze a little stress ball every few minutes to increase it. That wasn't fun. There was already pain in my arm, and that just amplified it with each squeeze. Finally at 11:40, the process was over and the needles were removed. Since I hadn't moved my right arm for four straight hours, and had endured the stress of the needle and extraction for that long, it felt like a ton of bricks were laying on it. I didn't even want to pick it up off the bed! It's still pretty sore now, 5+ hours later, but I think that will subside soon. It's a very small price to pay compared to the benefits it might have for that young boy! I encourage everyone to join the National Marrow Donor Program if you haven't already. You could save a life!
My arch-enemy, the red stress ball
Friday, June 25, 2010
Angry Beavers!
A couple months ago my friend, Todd, asked me to sub on his coed flag football team. I jumped at the opportunity because I loved playing on intramural teams in college and could use the extra exercise now. That quickly turned into subbing on an additional flag football team, part of the same "franchise" as the first, but played on a different night with a few of the same players. I was flattered that I kept being asked back, and enjoyed playing on teams with really talented athletes (especially the girls - damn, it's refreshing to see girls that can hold their own on the football field). Both teams were very successful, and last night was the last round of playoffs for the Thursday night team. (We won the first playoff game 27-0 last week). We dominated in the second round game, winning 20-0, which brought us to the championship game. It was a really great battle back and forth, full of great defense. We ended up victorious, 13-6. It was a pretty exciting win, especially for it being my first season with the team, and I look forward to playing on these teams again next season!
Champs!
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