Favorite things to do in London?

When I was first there, 30 years ago, I went to see EVERYTHING. All the top tourist sights (except the changing of the guard, which I find boring), and as many others as I could fit in. I also just loved walking through the neighborhoods. And the theater – much to see (lots of Tom Stoppard plays) and relatively cheap.

These days, I’m not so intense, I have a kid, and there’s less time. And both London and I have changed.

1. My absolute top number one thing to do in London (maybe in any city) is the British Museum. I always have to say hello to the Rosetta Stone and the Sutton Hoo Helmet, then just wander through.

2. I still love walking through neighborhoods. Bloomsbury, Chancery Lane, Westminster, Knightsbridge. If I go back when the Bean is older, I'd love to just do walking tours.

3. The parks. We had a lot of fun boating on the Serpentine the last time we were there. I’d like to see some of the parks I’m not as familiar with.

4. I’d still love to go to the theater, but the last couple of times I’ve been, it seemed like only American musicals were showing, so we didn’t go.

5. Museums. I love wandering through sky lit rooms and just taking my time. Hard to do in the tourist season, though. Or with a kid. I like the National Gallery best, but I think the Imperial War Museum is an incredible place (and what a wonderfully sonorous name). I’ll do almost any museum.

6. I really enjoyed St. Paul’s the last time we were there. The Bean wanted to do the 530 steps to the very top of the dome. I’d done that once, but was both not in shape and too unhappy about heights to do it again, so the boys went while I just wandered around. Or just sat under the dome, waving at them, and enjoying a peaceful interlude. I would have liked to have seen Westminster Abbey again.

My last couple of trips have been with the Bean, so along with taking in things he would like, there were also the little things that are fun with a kid, and become family traditions. I’m always the family tourist guide, but on the last trip he really got into helping me plan the tube routes for the day. Fun to see him be proud of how good he got at it. Or, he’d always be pretty tired and “touristed out” by the end of the afternoon. So instead of going to a restaurant for dinner, we’d just go by Tesco’s or Marks and Spencer, and pick up sandwiches, fruit, salad, cookies, whatever. And a whole pile of newspapers. Then head back to the hotel and just sit and eat and read.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt G.:
You get a free, all-expenses-paid weekend in one of these cities. Which would you pick (and why): Buffalo, Toledo or Saginaw?

Matt, I forgot about this one! Or maybe I was just waiting hopefully for some other destination options...

Nothing in Saginaw I'd like to see. I've been to Toledo several times (the Bean loved Cosi, the hands-on science museum there). So I guess I'd say Buffalo. Never saw much of the city two summers ago when we were there for the family reunion, except the one street where my great-grandparents built the first 3 houses. That was my paternal grandmother's family. I'd like to know more about my paternal grandfather's family, also from there.

Steve, Sparky's doing great.

He just had his 8-week post-op visit a week ago, and was given the thumbs up to start outdoor walks again, gradually building up over a month. From the way he's been behaving since, I'd swear he knew what the vet said.

He's also allowed to jump now, so he can get back up on the sofa -- which he does every chance he gets.

He likes the spot where I sit the best, and will get up the second I leave. So when we're watching TV in the evening, and I need to get up for something to eat or whatever, the Bean and I have a routine -- he sits down in my place the second I get up, then we switch back.

Yes, we could train Sparky to not get up, but that wouldn't be half as much fun.

And he even got his first post-op walk in the woods today -- high five!

Apple, thank you! I'm glad you like the thread.

Mr. Nan is doing great. He is out exercising almost every evening now that the weather's better -- with no more zaps from his device.

He has his tests and procedures that I mentioned in my thread a month or so ago this Monday. After that, things will be back to (the new) normal.

Oh, and don't you have a question?

i guess i do..

I am always interested in food. What do you cook for your family.. or do you?

What foods do you like?

i have a terrible memory so forgive me if i should know this. are you affiliated with that big ten university (my alma mater, btw), and how do you like living in SE michigan?

quote:

I am always interested in food. What do you cook for your family.. or do you?

I cook during the week, usually, but nothing really special. Never learned to cook much as a kid -- for some reason my mom didn't seem to want to share the cooking.

I do like trying to do something fancier every once in a while. There's a community college with a good cooking program near us -- when I get the time, I'd like to take a couple of the classes they offer, so I can learn how to cook, rather than just follow recipes.

I like making cakes, pies and cookies.

Actually, I guess I know all the cooking I need to -- my mac and cheese is the Bean's favorite comfort food.

Pique, yes I am. My first job there was what brought me to Michigan, though I'm doing something else now.

I'm not really happy living here. Never enough warmth, never enough sun. And not a lot to do -- I would rather be closer to a more lively and interesting big city. But Mr. Nan really likes his job here, so we're "stuck".

Not sure where I'd like to move to if I had the chance. I have it in my head after our visit last summer that I'd like New York. But that's probably just further evidence of how crazy I am. And it's not any warmer.

actually new york is quite a bit warmer. spring comes earlier, fall finishes later. the ocean is close by (you can even take the subway to the beach!)

but living in new york city is very, very different than visiting, even on an extended visit. it's a challenging place to live. and if you don't have tons of money, it can grind you down quickly.

i always found so much to do in ann arbor, culturally speaking. and i remember the summers as idyllic. has that changed?

where did you grow up (or was that asked already? sorry, i have ADD!)

quote:

it's a challenging place to live. and if you don't have tons of money, it can grind you down quickly.

Yup, that's why I said I was crazy.

When I say big city, I mean something with the size, energy, depth and variety of New York, Chicago, SF, LA. Ann Arbor has its good points, but it's not enough for what I'd like.

I don't know about the idyllic summers -- I guess it's different when you're not a student. And I don't live there.

I grew up in a suburb of LA. There's a lot more culturally to LA now than there was then. But we did go to the theater a lot, in my late teens and college years. I miss that a lot. I'd like to take the Bean, who has become interested in drama.

quote:

Originally posted by Nan W:
I'd like to take the Bean, who has become interested in drama.

All teens are interested in drama. Just not the kind that interests you.

Nan,

Your interest in Alice in Wonderland. When did it start? What started it? What do you like about it?

Thanks!

Daniel, thanks for waiting so long for an answer. Monday was Mr. Nan's device test and surgical procedure, then after that I was just exhausted.

It went well, as far as it went. The device tested fine, but they were unable to do the procedure to fix the non-life-threatening arrhythmia because they couldn't induce it and get it to last long enough to map it. Without knowing which of 3 or 4 parts of the heart it was coming from, they couldn't do the fix.

Mr. Nan is bearing this more stoically than I thought he would. It means that they haven't eliminated that arrhythmia as a cause of his device going off unnecessarily. But it hasn't done that since last October, and he's been exercising quite a lot. If it turns out to be a recurring and frequent problem, they will try the procedure again.

For me, I realized I was looking at this procedure as something that marked the end of the whole episode. Once we got past that, things would get back to "the new normal". And they have. It feels wonderful, like being out of the jungle, or over a mountain or through a tunnel. Or maybe back through the looking glass.

Speaking of which, see next reply!

I think I didn’t read Alice until I was about 13 or 14, and got my hands on my sister’s copy of Martin Gardener’s Annotated Alice. I already talked about the suburb I grew up in as a “concrete and asphalt” landscape – that was a pretty apt description of the mental landscape, too. Alice took me out of that into a mental world that was extremely intriguing. It fit with my sense of humor, too.

I’m not the kind of fervent fan that re-reads it every month or year. But I was looking for something that in some way represented me for my avatar, and was having a hard time. I picked Alice because she represents something about my life both past and present.

In the present, I’m like Alice in my avatar – I’ve come all the way across the chessboard and finally become a queen. I’ve done all the schooling, found a husband, bought a house, had a kid, have a work life -- and now sales people in stores call me “ma’am”. At this point, I’m not just going forward one square at a time, but can go any direction I want, as far as I want.

In the past, there was the Oxford connection (where I was headed to study after touristing in London and seeing all those operas). Oxford and Alice are of course very intertwined. But I’ve always thought that answering a question about her on the entrance exam was something that helped me get in.

For me, it was actually 3 three-hour essay exams, one each on general topics, English Lit, and criticism (“candidates should attempt three questions,” the instructions for each exam said) and a German translation exam.

Daunting? Are you kidding? I hadn’t majored in English for my first BA. Knowing the way I am, I still to this day do not know why I wasn’t petrified. Somehow I just told myself I probably had no chance, so it almost didn’t matter what I wrote. And the general paper questions were actually fun – if nothing had depended on the way you answered them! A previous year's test had asked: “What is identity? Can it be lost?” “Who is more corrupt, the man who gives bribes or the man who takes bribes?” “How would future generations suffer if we falsified the evidence about ourselves on the basis of which they write their history?” “Should there be limits to curiosity?”

One of the questions on the general paper in my year – and the only one I remember answering out of all 9 essays I wrote -- was: “…the different branches of Arithmetic—Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision. Comment on these as elements in education.”

So maybe I owe Alice something!

Nan W,
Very interesting post from a very interesting person.