La premier dia en England nosotros le quedamos in la coche. Necesitamos para nosotros viajar muchas. Es necesidad para nosotros viajar muchas porque necesitamos subir en London.
Our first day in England we really didn't get out of the car at all. As we drove I continued to do my homework/write/read/watch out the window. We stopped to eat lunch and I noticed yet again how the Europeans have a much greater variety of good healthy food. While there were two junk-food places to eat at: Burger King and KFC, they were shoved in the corner while the more healthy foods got the center stage. I've adored eating this lovely food and drinking good healthy juices instead of pops. Course, I think I might've lost some weight, only reason my belt works right now is that George is here and is making me bloat a bit (blasted water weight goes right to my hips!-Grinch).
For the record, whenever I first arrived here some of the first things I noticed was how fast people were walking and how thin everyone was. Seriously, while I've been in Europe I think I've seen maybe 5 fat people, or obese people. People here walk more places, are active, and they often eat healthier foods (the healthy foods get pushed to the front anyway). In Scotland their obsession with things deep-fried was the worst I heard (deep-fried chocolate bar sound good to anyone?). The thing is though that so many of the women here made me look down and say, "Holy shit! My ass looks huge compared to theirs!" I'm not even joking, that's what I did.
Ahmee's been having a fun time pointing out her curves and how it's difficult for someone like her to travel with someone like me. Personally, I think that Europe is the place for curvy women to all of a sudden become very aware of any lumps they happen to have. Here, smaller is better. Their manikins (sp?) have thin waists, smaller upper body, and a more curvy bottom half. In Mexico they just like big boobs a thin waist and then a big butt. I like Mexico's manikins more.
Back to the day though! The only other time the car stopped was to drop it off at the airport. We dropped it off and then we headed to the train station where we took a subway to Glouchester Station. After Gloucester Station we had a fun time finding our reserved apartment. It was number 31 Rosary Gardens. Ahmee did not have directions and the taxi driver we got didn't know where it was. So we ended up walking around, lugging our bags in the rain, for over an hour (maybe 45 minutes at least). Eventually we found it in a book, and we were able to find the place. When we walked in we were worn out and tired. Ahmee informed the girl downstairs that we had a hard time finding the place and that we'd never gotten directions and the girl told her they don't give out directions unless asked. I didn't want to listen to Ahmee complain so I grabbed a few of my things and started edging toward the door. Poppy saw me and did the same so we were out of there pretty fast.
We went out the main office back onto the street and went right next door to our apartment building number 29, our room is also number 29 so we had quite a few flights of stairs to go up. We went up 4 flights and we were there. We found our room to be tiny. We had to move furniture around to get my cot set up. That's right, I'm sleeping on a cot. It's not too bad. It's got a mattress so I'm fine. We also found our bathroom to be pretty much a sooped-up porta potty. The curtain is the only thing that keeps the water in the shower from getting the whole bathroom wet.
After setting all of our things down and getting things situated we went out for a walk. Poppy was hungry and Ahmee wanted to check out Hyde Park. We walked through the high-rent district and past several colleges. Took a picture of a bike parking lot. Told you the Europeans exercised more!
When we reached Hyde Park we went and checked out the Prince Albert Memorial that was dedicated to him by Queen Victoria. It was a very ornate monument. Lots of gold painting and statues. Along the base there sat men of stature, philosophers, engineers, writers, artists, musicians, tons of famous names with their bodies. It was quite a congregation of men. The fence around the monument had four corners and on each of the four corners there stood a pillar that was dedicated to a different section of the earth like : Europe (had a woman riding a cow), Asia (had a woman riding an Elephant), Africa (woman riding a camel), and America (a woman riding a buffalo). Have to say that the American woman looked like a Roman, very sparsely dressed. Only thing was that there was a hint of Indian mixed in. The front two pillars were Asia and Europe and the back two were America and Africa, can you tell which ones were favored? Albert’s statue was several times the normal size of him and was golden. He sat in the very middle of the structure and was protected by the lovely roof over his head.
After we saw Albert we started getting very hungry. I informed Ahmee and Poppy that there was a place to eat in the park, so we started heading towards the lake. We found a place to eat, unfortunately they only served skimpy little sandwiches. We gobbled them up and were surprised when then filled us. Outside the restaurant on the lake: The Serpentine, there were lots of birds that were begging for food. I took a corner of my sandwich and went out and fed them. Was very amused when the smallest bird there got the largest piece by flying over the heads of the other birds and catching the crumb midair. This bird was smart enough to swoop in and snatch the best crumb, but it wasn't smart enough to fly into the patch of flowers whenever a young boy chased it around and around the flower pot. Made me chuckle.
Once we were filled we went next door to the fountain that's dedicated to Princess Diana. The people of England are still quite in love with her. They have a park dedicated to her, a fountain (a large circle where people can rinse their feet), and on the gates to Kensington Palace, where she used to live, they're still hanging flowers and poems in her memory. The people absolutely adore Diana. They also love bashing Charles around (example later). This fountain that was dedicated to her was very elegant, smooth, efficient, helpful to other people, and it never stopped moving. Sounds an awful lot like what I've read about Diana. The fountain was very fitting for her.
We walked on to Kensington Park when I saw a sign that read Peter Pan. As we had walked into Hyde Park I remembered from various movies that there's a statue dedicated to Peter Pan in one of London’s Parks . None of the movies mentioned where it was, so I was very excited to see a sign that pointed right to it. Of course, we had to have a looksee. Just like the movies. That's all I can say. I love the story Peter Pan, so seeing this particular statue made me very happy. I got to look closer at the fairies that were beneath Peter, and all the animals that lived in Neverland. Peter Pan looks very tame in this statue, and Windy (the only female figure without wings) is seen looking adoringly up at Peter. Love this statue. I really do.
We didn't admire it too long, Ahmee wanted to check out Kensington Palace. On the walk over we saw a statue of living energy (a man riding a horse), and the circle pond which had tons of swans in it. I've been warned by Momma that while swans are lovely, they are also quite mean. I never got close enough to find out. I wish we'd taken a picture of the ducks going bottoms up. They did it at the same time! Had to love the little flapping tails. We walked along the edge, avoiding the bird poop and the other walkers, until we made it over to the Kensington Palace gates. Ahmee had hoped it would be open for visitors, but it wasn't. I suspect people are still living in there. What a fishbowl place to live in! Live in the middle of the park in a rather large manor house, you're going to attract attention even if you're not royalty. First thing I noticed about Kensington Palace was that the gardens were wonderful. The best gardens I've seen on a royal house so far. Most royal homes don't bother too much with it, they prefer straight edges, grass, and trees. This one had curves, lots of flowers and foliage, and enough green grass to satisfy the eye. As we walked along to the main gate we ran into several things taped to the fence in memory of Diana. We have a picture to show just how many are on the fence. I had no idea that the people of England still did this for her. It's very touching that they still love her so much even after she's gone. I also think its fitting that the woman who cared so much about people and children lived in a lovely park where the Peter Pan statue was dedicated.
After we looked at Kensington Palace we headed back to the apartment, where we tried in vain to get the internet up, and then fell asleep with the windows open. Before I began to fall asleep I noticed my throat was getting itchy. Kept thinking that, that was not a good sign.
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