London Day Two: Harry Potter Tour -- Lacock Pt. 1

We're all big fans of both the Harry Potter books and films, so it was natural we would want to take a Harry Potter tour while in London. There are many different tours and I narrowed it down to a 10-hour London Taxi Tour.

These tours are not cheap and I had originally thought I could plan out a tour on my own for both London and Oxford, but just needing to get to different locations could make this difficult and I could see the kids protesting that they were tired of walking and getting lost. Taking a guided tour would eliminate any guesswork. Grandma and Grandpa would spend their day touring London.

I had heard from my friend Rhonda that you could find that southern delight, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, in London and there just so happened to be a stand at the railway station we would arrive at and leave from London everyday to get back to Mottingham. We had promised the kids back in Germany we would have Krispy Kremes and the $2.50 per piece pricetag did not deter us. Those doughnuts were worth every cent.

Gordon, our tour guide, found us right outside the train station and loaded us into his van.


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The first part of our tour would be leaving London and heading out to the most distant location, Lacock in Wiltshire, almost to the other side of England. But first we needed to get out of London.

We drove over Lambeth Bridge, the place the Knight Bus squeezes in between two other buses. Traffic slowed us down and we didn't see another Harry Potter location for 2½ hours.

We had a tough time getting through London and then we crossed England and arrived at Lacock, a charming rural village untouched by modern development.

The wall behind us is to where Harry and Dumbledore first apparate at the beginning of The Half-Blood Prince.

Harry and Dumbledore walk by this door on their way to their mysterious destination. It became obvious very early on that our guide knew his stuff. He posed us in the exact angles we would see in the films and snapped several pictures of each shot.

Strolling down a street, we passed King John's Hunting Lodge, the oldest house in this medieval village. The main part of the lodge, dating back to the 13th century, still has much of the original cruck beam structure. King John (1167 - 1216), "Bad King John" of Robin Hood fame, frequently indulged his passion for hunting in the surrounding forest, and it is likely that he made regular visits to his Hunting Lodge.

The Potter house from Sorcerer's Stone.

The village is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust, and attracts many visitors by virtue of its unspoiled appearance. It also attracts many film crews. Do you recognize this street? It was used as downtown Meryton in the 1995 BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice, the best adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Other TV programs and movies filmed here include another Austen adaptation, Emma with Kate Beckinsale, several different Robin Hood films, Cranford and The Other Boleyn Girl.

Can you believe it? What a way to break the heart of a Pride and Prejudice fan! The Red Lion Pub is where Mr. Darcy first sees Elizabeth Bennet and declares her "tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt me." That blue contraption vexed me greatly!

Here is the delectable Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. You can see the Red Lion over his shoulder. This miniseries was a cultural phenomenon in Britain, due in great part to Firth's portrayal of the proud Mr. Darcy. I remember watching it when it was first broadcast in the U.S. on A&E, over a period of three days. It killed me to have to wait an entire 22 hours to see the next part.

And then there was this scene. Mr. Darcy takes a dip in his lake after traveling home on horseback from London. Making his way to his house, in his wet undershirt and lost in thought, who should he run into but the woman who has been occupying those thoughts, Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Even though I had already read the book and knew what would happen, I do believe I let out a gasp, then a whoop and finally a shriek when the two laid eyes on each other. Here, velvet-eyed Mr. Darcy has lost his composure in the presence of the now much-more-than-tolerable Miss Bennet and is asking, "And your parents are in good health?" for the second in just a few minutes.  I love Harry Potter films, but I have to admit there is no better way to spend six hours than to watch this miniseries. Sigh.

London Day One: Flying standby

It's fall break and time to take a trip. We chose London and persuaded Grandma and Grandpa Nylund to join us. The first step would be getting there with a standby plane ticket.

One part of this process that has always irked me is how you are not allowed to sit at your flight's gate at the Frankfurt Airport unless you have an assigned seat. And it has seemingly never occurred to anyone to put more than just one or two seats outside the gates. So, we always end up standing for an hour. Standing. Standing with four kids. Do you know how slowly an hour creeps by when you are just standing there? At least we brought our stroller so Becca, who would have wanted to be held the whole time, could get off her feet.

At such moments, I remind myself that if David were working with any other company here in Germany, we would not be taking such trips. I shouldn't complain about having to stand for an hour every once in a while.

We did not get on the first flight, so we needed to crisscross the airport, get to the next gate and then...stand some more. We did get on the second flight. Hooray! Standby is stressful and we always do a big sigh of relief and an internal happy dance when the ticket agents call our name.


In one hour, we were landing in Heathrow. In one hour via the Tube we were in the center of London and then one hour later, we were arriving in the town where we had rented an apartment, Mottingham.


We found a nice little apartment a 17-minute train ride from London with 2 bathrooms, plenty of beds and most importantly, a kitchen. Just eliminating the hunt for breakfast every morning will make things easier.

For dinner, we had hamburgers for dinner with Kraft Original Macaroni and Cheese brought over from the U.S. by Grandma and Grandpa. Mac and cheese is always a welcome treat. And then it was early to bed as we have a big day tomorrow. Harry Potter, here we come!

And even more random observations

Emilie got points taken off a test last week because she wrote "The function of the Queen Bee is laying eggs," instead of "The function of the Queen Bee is to lay eggs." She also lost points for writing "Me and Micaela went to the store," (not grammatically correct, I grant you) instead of what the teacher thought was more correct -- "Myself and Micaela went to the store." I've learned from experience that it's not worth complaining about. I tried once when James lost several points for perfectly good English on a composition. The school re-instated those points and then proceeded to go through his composition again with a fine-toothed comb and took off that exact same number of points for silly things they missed the first time around. Not worth it.

One of the kids at Rebecca's preschool rides this bike. The brand name made me chuckle and feel slightly sick to my stomach.

The wonderful grandmotherly director of our preschool wore a nice blouse last week. As she turned to lead the children to the chapel for religious instruction, across her back, emblazoned in huge letters, was the phrase "Cold Drinks and Hot Girls!"

The electronics store at the mall sells turntables and music on vinyl. And you do see new releases, not just old albums.

It's a German tradition that you provide a treat for your colleagues to enjoy on your birthday. Last February, David stopped by our bakery on the way to work and said he wanted to buy a bunch of rolls and an entire apple cake. The bakery lady sputtered, "But, but, if I sell you the entire cake, I won't have any for my other customers!" She reluctantly boxed up the cake for David and reprimanded him with a "Next time, order it in advance!" David wanted to say, "I thought the whole point of this was for you to sell stuff and for me to purchase it." He has also learned from experience that it wouldn't have been worth it.

There was a man's shirt for sale at our little grocery store that said "I take mine shaked, not stirred."

I let James change the channel of the car radio from a station "for grownups" to a top 40 one. During the 8-minute drive to the mall the other day and the 8-minute drive back, I listened to four songs, three of which incorporated the f-word. One was the Pink song Funhouse, the second was the Lily Allen song F**ck You (very much) during which she says the f-word about 25 times (I tried counting, but it's a catchy tune and hard not to sing along to), and the third song included not only the f-word, but also the sublime lyrics "Shush, girl, shut your lips, do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips." For the record, Helen Keller did learn to speak vocally.

The children's show "Make Way for Noddy," a program about a bobble-head doll, is shown here in Germany and we also caught it on TV one day in France. Micaela reminded me recently of the title character's name in French: Oui-Oui. My kids thought that was hilarious. Bathroom humor is big in our house.

That long thin bundle of meat I saw at the supermarket last week didn't look familiar. I check the label and discovered it was a rabbit.

You often see bikers and scooter riders pulling a trailer behind them loaded with their groceries or crates of mineral water. Many are much smaller than the one pictured here and look homemade.

Frankfurt International Auto Show

It's Election Day in Germany and people are holding their breath. Germany has been threatened by a certain terrorist organization that promises to attack today or over the next few weeks if the election outcome is not to their liking. There have been reminders on our Armed Forces Network radio station and through e-mails from American-based organizations for American expats to be on the alert and to keep a low profile.

It is also the last day of the Frankfurt International Auto Show and David really wanted to go, threat or no threat. James, who unfortunately heard about the terror warning at school, was adamant that he would not leave the house today. It was up to Micaela and David to champion freedom by gaping at a bunch of stylish and expensive cars.

In the Audi Pavilion

David's dream car would be an Audi. At the moment he is driving a three-time pre-used Volkswagon minivan that really shows its age.

A Bentley

A Lamborghini

Audi R8 Spyder

Audi R15 TDI Racecar

There were plenty of exhibits outside as well. The blue snow moved like a conveyor belt under the snowboarder wannabe.

I can only imagine what it must take to get out of bed in the middle of the night to use the potty in this camper-minivan.

We often see these covered scooters on the roads around Frankfurt.

A 1950s-ish Mercedes and its....

...modern sister.

Hydrogen-powered Roadster

All-electric SmartCar

The world premiere of the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

All-electric Tesla. 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, 244-mile range on a single charge, 125 mph top speed and 2x more efficient that a Prius.

Pagani

Lotus

People could pay to drive through a Volkswagon Toureg obstacle course with a professional driver.

David swears the incline was much more impressive in person. I'm impressed just looking at the photo.

Waiting for the track to seesaw back down to the ground

Prius Plug-In

David said that the hippest pavilion was the Mini Cooper one. Company salespeople were dressed in jeans and happy to show off their products in a laid back fashion.

This is the car I would have if I were single and didn't have to find space for four kids.

2009 BMW Vision Efficient Dynamics concept car

My ipod, my friend

Last spring, I found myself a bit lost. In the evenings, David would be on one computer watching TV shows he had downloaded off the internet, shows I was not interested in, such as Dexter or Ultimate Fighting; the kids would be on the other computer chatting with friends, writing e-mails or looking at silly videos on youtube; the younger two would be playing Playmobil and I would be twiddling my thumbs. There would be nothing I wanted to watch on German TV, I had no new books to read or had already spent three hours reading that day, and I had heard all the songs being played on the radio 3 times already that day. I was surprised to find myself feeling blue and lonely. I needed something, but I wasn't sure what it was.

One day, I was chatting with my friend Kathy, trying to explain my not-so-important dilemma, and bemoaning the fact that I couldn't even listen to Dr. Laura anymore in the evening. Dr. Laura's show is on our Armed Forces Network AM station in the evening with no commercial interruption, right when I am washing dishes. I had tired, however of what I considered to be her "anti-woman" viewpoint. Kathy suggested, "Have you ever tried podcasts? I'll load a few podcasts on my ipod and listen to them while I'm doing things around the house." No, I hadn't, but I was so desperate to feed my brain, I would try anything.

I checked out itunes and was flabbergasted by the sheer volume of podcasts, the great variety of topics and was relieved to see that most were free. NPR had dozens of podcasts that sounded appealing, there were loads of podcasts for moms, language courses, anything you could think of. And so, I began downloading podcasts and putting them on my ipod.

It wouldn't be such an exaggeration to say that podcasts have changed my life and that I have fallen in love with my ipod. During the day, going about my business, I no longer feel lonely. And when I open up my e-mail to find no new messages, I'm not too disappointed because I know I have my buddies on my ipod waiting to tell me a story, teach me a thing or two, or make me laugh.

Here is a partial list of what I listen to: I have the ManicMommies who amuse me with their stories of being working moms and navigating through the day with their young children; NPR's This American Life with its first-person stories relating to one theme (frenemies, a day in the life of a highway rest stop, the kindness of strangers), NPR's Wait, Wait....Don't Tell Me, the hilarious weekly current events game show that catches me up on the water cooler talk I often miss being out of the country; Stuff You Missed in History Class that gives me 15-minute talks on everything from Lady Godiva to Bonnie and Clyde to the Berlin Wall; NPR's Talk of the Nation is a call-in show and topics recently have been about how to properly apologize for bad behavior (in light of the Kanye West, Joe Wilson and Serena Williams outbursts), and the cultural influence of The Cosby Show; and What Really Matters features two moms talking about different ways to simplify the hectic life of today's typical American family .

There are expat podcasts, but the ones I have checked out seem to be geared toward people working in a foreign country, not toward stay-at-home moms living in a foreign country. But Rick Steves, the travel writer, has a podcast that gives some international flavor to my laundry folding chore. And one of the first things we'll do once we move home and get settled is join the local NPR radio station seeing that many NPR podcasts get their features from NPR radio broadcasts and I am now greatly in their debt.