Kim Finally Goes to Europe

Early, and I mean early, in the morning we stepped out into the cold and rain of the Netherlands and boarded a train for the Amsterdam airport.Five hours later we walked onto our flight to London. It was fitting that we fly on British Airways - for only $37 a ticket. In an hour we were on the ground in the UK and once again on a train. By 2PM we were in our ABnB flat. It's located near the Notting Hill neighborhood and is a pretty nice place, with only 8 flights of stairs to climb. Just great for a final workout evey day.

Now, when you come to the UK from a country on the contenent of Europe it's comforting to be able to read all the signs and see familiar names of places that are easily pronounced in English. But you would also expect that English would be spoken here with that lovely (they use this word a lot here) british accent. While we hear plenty of that we also hear almost an overwhelming amount of foreign languages spoken, especially italian, at all the tourist spots. And... most of the workers in shops and restaurants don't have that british accent at all. I thought the US was a melting pot, but London may be even more so.

By the time we got ready to head out for dinner and a play it was already getting dark, This happens around 3:50pm. With our freshly purchased Oyster cards in hand, with unlimited subway and bus rides, we headed off to have that quintisential english meal of fish & chips. I'd researched that a place in Soho called Poppies had some of the best in town. It turned out to be just OK, but that may have been because when I ordered the large cod to share, the waiter said they were out of cod. We settled for haddock. Not as good. Strange thing is that right after we ordered, another couple sat down next to us and asked for cod - they misteriously had it available now. I guess I never noticed the fishing boat pull up after we sat down.

On our walk over to the play we passed through China town, remembering the dinner that Kaysha and I had there back in 2013, and emerged into Leicester Square. Here we entered into our first of several Christmas Markets in town. Lots of lights, Christmas music, Santa Clause and food. Maybe we should have waited to eat here. We also passed through the main shopping district on Oxford and Regent streets. They were all decorated with lights for Christmas.

I've always liked going to plays. In high school I made it a point to go to all the plays. I would even drag Kim along and encourage here to take me to the plays at her high school. In college, while interning at NASA in VA, I even went to a high school play there - The Sound of Music. So, our trip to London would include a play. And not just any play, but the longest running play in the world - Mousetrap, by Agatha Christie. Sixty-six years running and we attended performance number 27,594. Our seats were carefully selected such that they woluld give us the best view at the lowest possible price. I succeded, but at the cost of having to sit with our knees up to our chins. Now, who done it, you ask. Sorry, at the end of the play we were sworn to secrecy.Read more