Michelle's Trip Across the Pond - Part 1 (London, York, Farm)

Michelle Mudge is officially our very first across-the-pond guest!  Our parents live next door to each other, and although we’ve never physically been neighbors we act and feel like family.  Michelle’s dad is a pilot so, in the most fantastic of perks ever in history, she flies for free.  A couple weeks ago we promised her a fun, although likely chilly spring break and she took us up on the offer to come visit.  As a complete coincidence, Chris’ cousin Tracy who lives in Chicago and her friend Diana were starting a two-week Italy trip at the same time.  Chris and I had already purchased tickets to Florence to meet them, so Michelle hitched on to that adventure as well and so got a sort of two-for-one spring break adventure to England and Italy!  So much happened during her time here that I’m splitting this blog into at least two. 

Michelle will probably cringe, but I have to brag on her for a couple minutes.  She’s a junior at Chapel Hill which happens to be my alma mater.  She was a diver there until a back injury forced her to retire.  I find this amazing: at a time in their lives, she and her dad were both ranked #1 in the state in diving and her brother and sister were both #1 in the state in tennis. Her poor mom is super talented but they give her grief about being the only one not in that club!  Michelle is now an intern with the strength and conditioning coach for UNC men’s basketball and UNC diving.   She’s on first-name basis with all the people we see on TV and it was actually confusing to watch the Carolina game with her because she doesn’t refer to the players as Zeller or Henson, etc… it’s ‘Z or Tyler’ and ‘John’.  Poor girl, we absolutely drilled her with questions about the guys and the team!  We got to the gym a couple times while she was here and Chris tried to soak up all of Michelle’s weight-training knowledge.  After a particularly tough workout, Chris couldn’t laugh/cough/sneeze/sit up for about three days because his abs hurt so much.  I poked him in the stomach anytime I got the chance J.

The first day Michelle was here we took it easy and went for a little walk with Bailey along the River Ouse that runs near the house.  As is typical here, the sky was brooding and the wind was chilly, so we didn’t stay out too long. 

The next day we went into London to do some sight-seeing.  There’s no way to experience all of London in a week, let alone a day, so we chose a little circuit of sights that Michelle absolutely wanted to see.  We started at the famous Trafalgar Square and stepped into the (completely free) National Gallery to see Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and an impressive quantity (18 – I looked it up) of Monet paintings. The National Gallery houses one of the greatest collections of art in the world and we could’ve spent ages there if we had more time!   

Michelle in Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the background.

Michelle and me in Trafalgar Square.

Michelle gives this a sense of scale!

From there we walked to Big Ben and then into Westminster Abbey.  I’ve never been into Westminster and can say it was hands-down my favorite part of this London excursion.  The building itself is spectacular, inside and out. We couldn’t take pictures in the church, so I added a few from the internet.  The Abbey is where coronations have taken place since about AD 1050 and the latest Royal Wedding happened there just recently.  It’s also the final resting place of Britain’s monarchs.  It’s a great honor to be buried there and underfoot are tiles marking graves of a variety of other important and influential historical figures! Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Darwin (so interesting that he’s buried in a church), Isaac Newton, and Charlie Chaplin are just a few examples.   We spent a good hour inside but again, could’ve spent three times that if time had allowed.  I’d say it’s a ‘must-see’ for anyone going to London.

Michelle with Big Ben (which officially is the bell in the clock tower) in the background.

Queen Elizabeth the 1st (picture taken from http://www.westminster-abbey.org/)

Inside Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey (photo taken from http://www.westminster-abbey.org/)

From Westminster we walked through St. James’s Park to see Buckingham Palace, and from there headed by subway to the London Bridge.  We walked from there to the Tower of London, a castle in central London that seems so strangely out of place surrounded by the more modern buildings of the city! Interesting tidbits: it holds the Crown Jewels and King Henry VIII’s second wife Queen Anne Boleyn and fifth wife Catherine Howard were both beheaded there.  Yikes.  The Tower Bridge is a London icon.  It crosses the River Thames (that’s pronounced ‘temz’, not ‘thaymes’ although in retrospect it would’ve been a ton funnier to let Michelle go with her pronunciation…) alongside the castle. At one point in all this wandering we found ourselves mistakenly going down a stone staircase that led directly into the Thames – as in, the bottom stairs were underwater.  It provided one of about a hundred laughs from the day!

Buckingham Palace, London

The Tower Bridge.

London wore us out and the next day was cold and rainy so we spent the majority of our time sleeping, cooking, and running errands on base.  Oh, and I think this is the day Michelle killed Chris’ abs at the gym. 

The next day, Michelle and I took a train a couple hours north to the medieval town of York while Chris slaved away at work.  What a charming town!  It is surrounded by a medieval wall, upon which you can walk and within which are the narrow, convoluted, cobbled roads of the town.  We stumbled upon a free tour within five minutes of getting off the train and learned all about the towns tumultuous beginnings.  A super-condensed history: in AD 71 the Romans conquered the Brigante tribe who had been living peacefully in the area.  It was these Romans who started building the walls (parts of which still remain and are incorporated into the medieval wall!)  After the Roman Empire collapsed the Anglo-Saxans took over in about AD 300, then the Vikings conquered in AD 866, then various English royalty took over afterwards and the place has been relatively peaceful since.  All that learning made us hungry and since no trip to England is complete without fish & chips we stopped at a little restaurant for that and a meat pie.  We even got ‘mushy peas’… it is hard to get more British than that.  After lunch we walked the rest of the city walls and admired the York Minster.  It’s the largest medieval cathedral in all of Northern Europe and is stunning from the outside!  I’ve heard it has amazing stained glass inside but was unfortunately closed while we were in York.  We had time to grab a couple half-pints of locally brewed beer and pear cider at an ancient looking pub before having to catch our train home.  All-in-all it was a nice day that would’ve been even nicer with warmer temperatures or a little sun.  Ahh, England. 

York Minster

The saying goes that in York, "gate means street, bar means a gate, and a pub is a bar".  This is one of the 'bars' through the city walls.

Eveything is soooo old.

Michelle standing on the city walls.

Clifford's Tower, part of York Castle.

We meant to take it easy on Friday in preparation for the Italy Adventure but instead ended up having a full day of working on the farm in the morning (http://www.south-farm.co.uk/), and going to the gym and planting onions in my garden in the afternoon.  Not a typical spring break, but she got to pet some piggies, wash some veggies for the kitchen (the farm is part of a wedding venue), plant some things, and learned a ton about how vegetables grow!  As an aside, I have to say that Michelle was such an easy guest to feed – she didn’t shy away from any of the weird food I put in front of her! We exposed her to sloe gin and all sorts of fun vegetables like green garlic, celeriac, fennel, different cabbages, and parsnips.  

Washing celeriac for the kitchen.

Me weeding the garlic.

Michelle learned how to plant onions!

Saturday morning the three of us took off to Italy to experience Florence, Cinque Terre, and Pisa… but that will be in Part 2 of Michelle's Trip Across the Pond! 

Cold Copenhagen

Super cheap airfare led us to Copenhagen, Denmark for President's Day weekend.   In the normal pre-trip preparation it became clear that the trip would be a relaxing one (read: not much to do!).  Copenhagen is a cute, colorful city with some grand buildings but lacked that sort of ‘wow’ factor for us.  Admittedly, the harsh weather and our uncharacteristically low energy levels probably had a big part in that… the city would probably be quite charming in the spring and have a much more exciting nightlife in summer.   Winter did allow us the chance to see the mini icebergs that filled the canals and port.   We’d stop to marvel at it and Chris would have this mischievous look in his eyes like “I want to try to run across that” or “I want to pee on that” or “I want to throw something on that.”  I’m not entirely sure that one of those things wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t there.  Haha!

Ice filling the inlet.

(I got 7 inches chopped off my hair!)

A favorite part of the trip was talking to our 25-yr old waitress about Denmark’s social system, youth, and medical care.  Quick synopsis: they earn a lot (she made ~$30/hour as a waitress in a sports bar) but pay really high income and sales taxes, medical care is socialized, and dental care isn’t covered.  We asked her what we should see in Copenhagen and her response was “Go HOME! There’s nothing to do here in the winter!  Come back in the summer.”

The next day we walked to see the Little Mermaid, a statue that has sort of become the symbol of Copenhagen.  

The Little Mermaid looking out to sea

Sooo cold.

 I usually try to see and experience everything a new city has to offer but completely gave that up this trip.  After taking a quick picture of the statue, I kissed Chris goodbye and retreated to our cozy hotel room, got under the down blanket, and watched reruns for a couple hours while he went to the changing of the guards at the queen’s castle.  He was really impressed with their 30 minutes of showmanship and massive hats! 

Changing of the guard

There's a cutout for the hat!

That afternoon the sun finally came out and convinced us to do a bit more sightseeing.  The Nyhavn (New Harbor) area was quite colorful and pretty!

New camera trick - the panoramic shot of Nyhavn

Chris in the Nyhavn (New Harbour)... with his twin?!

Having fun with statues

Pretty church, too bad the spiral tower was closed until April

Our sweet neighbors the Fewells watched Bailey while we were gone.  With all the love and walks she got from the four of them I think she had a better time this weekend than we did!  Hopefully she’s not too disappointed we’re home…

Working on the farm and discovering new English veggies has me SO excited about our garden this year.  We spread a half ton of compost the other day and I spent the entire afternoon buying seed packets and seed potatoes to plant! 

Bailey's Arrival!

Love that ear!

Chris got Bailey as a four week old puppy during his first year of dental school, so she’s known him  way longer than I have!   We decided to wait to bring Bailey over to the UK until we were settled and traveling a bit less, so she’s spent the past six months in the doggie resort that is Chris’ parents’ home.   A few weeks ago we arranged her flight to London and it was so very exciting (for us – Chris’ parents were sad!) Bailey handled the flight fine and has settled into the English life very well!  She’s curious but not scared of the cows, still madly obsessive over her tennis balls, and likes to greet anyone coming to the door with barks and tail-wagging. 

She found the doggy door before we even saw it!

Wintertime on the River Ouse

Walking through the cows.

Bailey at the entrance to my running field.

The first weekend she was here we took her on a hike a few hours north to what is known as the Peak District.  Chris and I were miserable because of the cold, gusting wind and pouring rain.   Bailey, on the other hand, could not have been more excited!  She went swimming, explored a cave, figured out some dog stiles (gates), and generally ran circles around us.   She snored literally the whole drive back.  Hilarious.

The dog stile on the right and the human stile on the left.

One of the rare sunny moments of that cold, windy, wet hike.

The winter had been extremely mild until two weeks ago when we were slammed by a couple snow storms, the first of which was particularly exciting.  On the morning of the Superbowl about four inches of perfect packing snow came down fast.  The neighborhood kids (and parents!) were out in force building snowmen and having snowball fights.     Chris and I decided to forfeit our weekly long run (too much ice) and instead played in the snow all afternoon. 

Riding our neighborhood brontosaurus!

We were proud of our snow lizzard/monster.

After two glasses of wine... #1

#2

#3

Our winter wonderland.

The Superbowl kickoff was at midnight, so after playing all day we slept a few hours and then prepared for some company.  I don’t know how, but the guys all stayed awake the entire game.

Chris has been content at work and I’ve been making (slow) strides to get credentialed and cleared to start volunteering as an optometrist at the base hospital.  I’m also currently applying for an absolutely un-eye-related job on base, but that’s still in the earliest of stages. 

Ironman training is coming along quite nicely.  It’s officially less than six months away!  Thanks to some stellar coaching by our friend Andy we’ve both made progress in our swimming.  This past weekend we were signed up for a formal 30K run that was cancelled due to the weather.  Although I wanted to sit by a fire in sweatpants, we joined up with a small group and ran from Andy’s house, through the snow, for those 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) in what amounts to the longest run either Chris or I have ever completed!

 Our next big event is about a month away.  It’s a 112-mile cycling sportive that I REALLY regret signing up for this early in the season!  I’m not sure how we’re going to complete that ride considering it has been too icy and cold to get out on our bikes at all in the past month.  Unfortunately, I’m thinking the hour of spin class we do every week isn’t really going to be adequate training…

The combination of Bailey’s arrival and spending time with new friends has made us feel a whole lot more settled in our new life here.  Next trip is to Copenhagen, Denmark this weekend!

Bikes, Drugs, and €1 Billion Fireworks: Welcome to Amsterdam!

Why Amsterdam? No particular reason, but it seemed like a good place to celebrate the start of 2012!  Amsterdam is the main city of the Netherlands (also called Holland and its people are known as the Dutch… so confusing), a small country to the north of Belgium and west of Germany.

We arrived late Friday night and were immediately wowed by the airport, which felt like a posh mall that morphed into the train station at the back. The trip from airport to city was simple and within 15 minutes we were at the downtown train station with instructions to take a tram to our hotel about a mile away. Every country has its own transportation nuances, of which ‘where to buy tickets’ is often the most confusing. I hopped on a tram to ask the conductor, who said I could buy the tickets onboard. I turned to tell Chris to hop on… right as the tram doors closed and we started moving. Uh-oh.  Wait! My husband is right there and he has the money!  Chris ran alongside the tram watching the conductor shake his head 'no'.  I locked eyes with Chris as he mouthed the word “hotel”, which I cleverly interpreted as meaning we were each to get there on our own. It could’ve been a big deal, but I had a map and the hotel address, and Amsterdam at 10PM is as safe and busy as any normal city at 6PM. It would’ve been even less stressful if I had map-reading skills but that’s my own burden to bear. (My lack of navigation skills and inability to keep track of tickets is legendary.) After each making a few wrong turns, Chris and I arrived at the hotel the same moment, from opposite directions! Out of the experience was born a new Travel Rule: always stay on the same side of tram/train/bus doors! (Brett, this was infinitely less harrowing than the split up at the Peru/Bolivia border, don’t worry.) At check in, we were told that the hotel had actually over-booked (uh-oh) and we were being moved to the brands’ 4-star hotel a few minutes away (yay).

Very happy after finding Chris and the hotel!

Pretty little square in Amsterdam

The next morning we beat the crowds and made it to the art museum Rijksmuseum as it opened (cup of Starbucks in hand… ahhhh).  We spent ten minutes alone with Rembrandt’s masterpiece Night Watch.  I agree with a friends’ assessment: as much as The Mona Lisa is surprisingly small, this painting is surprisingly large!  Afterwards we walked the few blocks to the Van Gogh museum to look at the 200+ of his paintings on display. Did we fully appreciate them?  Probably not, but it was good anyway! 

In front of Rembrandt's Night Watch (this SO doesn't do it justice)

From there we just started wandering through the city.  Amsterdam in a nutshell: bridges and bikes (and tulips in the spring but it rained most of the time we were there!).  The whole place is filled with orderly canals, like a tidy Venice, and gable-roofed houses that literally lean in towards the water.  It oozes charm.  You can’t relax too much to take it in, though, because you have to have at least one eye and ear open for the bikers whizzing by.  Everyone here rides a bike everywhere, in work boots or stilettos, while talking on their phone, painting their nails, etc. Bikes are chained to every inch of bridge/tree/permanent structure, too.  Love it!   

Bikes and trams

Pretty little bridge over one of the many canals.

A typical view of the pretty houses, houseboats, and canal.

Since Chris is working most days, I’m usually the one researching where to go/what to do on our trips.  Occasionally when we get somewhere and discuss the day’s (brilliant) plans Chris just looks at me with one eyebrow raised, like whatever I’m suggesting is crazy.  A cheese & wine ‘connoisseur class’ in the famous Raypenear cheese shop for only $18 each?  I was so excited I didn’t even think to ask him about it before signing us up!  He groaned out loud at the idea but after about a pound of cheese and two glasses of wine he was grinning! 

"This is not really what I want to do" LOL

Love cheese.

Learning about the salt/mineral crystals in this 2 yr old cows milk cheese.

The Netherlands' New Years Eve Extravaganza was located in a park about a quarter mile from our hotel.  After a mid-afternoon nap, evening snack, and a bottle of champagne transferred to a Nalgene bottle we were ready!  We got to the park around ten and we worked our way to the stage. The show alternated between a DJ who was great, some sort of terrible 80’s themed host with an orange and purple leisure suit and fake afro, and some Dutch band who sang mostly in English but whose songs you’ve never heard.  Oh, and the whole thing was nationally televised so we’re probably famous by now. LOL.  The atmosphere was mostly fun.  At midnight while we counted down, two mammoth (like 100+ foot) paper mache figures were slid from either side of the stage towards each other and kissed as midnight struck.  The fireworks, which had not stopped going off in the 24 hours prior to this event, were now absolutely constant from every direction.  We were told that Amsterdam had spent one billion Euros on fireworks this year alone.  It was impressive, if not a bit tiring toward the wee hours of the morning.

Massive statues coming together for their midnight kiss. (Hmm...)

These things are scattered throughout the city to cut down on "wild peeing".  Brilliant! 

Happy New Year!

Yeah, it was cold!  In the background you can see the stage and the two massive characters.

After a molasses-slow start the next morning, we visited the Anne Frank House.  I read her famous diary only a few months ago, and it was eerie to enter the space, touch the walls, and see photos of the little Jewish girl and her family who hid from the Nazis for two years in a secret apartment. Also eerie was that this happened so recently that Anne may still be alive (in her 80’s) had she survived the concentration camp. The Holocaust killed 80% of Jews living in Amsterdam; that’s about 64,000 people.  In her father Otto’s words: “To build up a future, you have to know the past.”  We tend to forget so quickly, don’t we?


Amsterdam is well known for two vices: legalized prostitution and might-as-well-be-legal cannabis use. There are hundreds of Coffee Houses that sell 5 grams of weed at a time to anyone over the age of 18, and then let you smoke your stuff inside while you sip on a cappuccino or whatever else you’re in the mood for.  Hard drug use and weapons are absolute no-no’s and almost all the patrons are foreigners. (The Dutch actually smoke percentage-wise less than the rest of Europe and most of the world.)  We took a great tour of the district and industry and learned that a new law had just been passed that may forever change the Netherlands: coffee houses will only be able to sell weed to residents!  Supposedly all of Amsterdam will have to be in compliance by December 2012 so hurry up and visit if that’s your thing.  

One of the couple hundred Coffee Houses.

You can buy Magic Mushrooms, too!

The prostitution thing goes down in the Red Light District, which may be one of the most disturbing but distinctive neighborhoods I’ve seen.  Basically there are windows maybe 4-5 feet wide and 7 feet tall, like tiny store fronts, but instead of mannequins displaying clothes there are women displaying themselves.  These windows are jumbled in between coffee houses and ‘normal life’ stores like drug stores, groceries, dry cleaners, etc.  The Red Light District actually encompasses many square blocks of Amsterdam (different ‘styles’ of women tend to clump together… like Model Row, Tranny Ally, etc).  The apartments above all these stores (including those rented by the lovely ladies) are actually some of the most desirable and expensive real estate in the city.  So yeah, it’s not just 20-yr old ‘stag party’ guys walking through this area.  People work and live there, and families walk through doing errands.  Yikes.  We didn’t see that kind of thing growing up in sweet Davidson, NC!  In case anyone is wondering, the going rate is said to be €50/15 minutes.  Gross, dirty, and hopeless are my first thoughts but at least the women here have ridiculous security, their own union, and they’re self-employed.  I shouldn’t judge so there, that’s the end of that. 

Red Light District

 

Well, we found out what was wrong with Chris’ knee.  His left knee pain went from occasionally annoying him a year ago to waking him up almost every night for the past few months.  As most people have, we assumed it was some sort of overuse injury (um, Ironman training!) so he took a month off and went to the doc.  His knee cleared the initial exam “it feels really sturdy”, and the X Rays and then CT scan were inconclusive.  The MRI nailed it, though.  Chris actually has a small tumor in his tibia.  It’s an osteoid osteoma, a weird little benign cancer that usually spontaneously resolves within 3 years.  The only serious problem is the pain he’ll have to deal with for quite a while unless he opts for surgery.  After some research it seems as though training has nothing to do with the tumor or the pain, so now he’s trying to decide whether to start back up with Ironman training.  There are no known cases of an osteoid osteomas turning malignant, so we feel blessed for that.