Loop-di-Loo

So on my way back from Gatwick when I returned from Venice, I saw this sign for Chessington World of Adventure. I had no idea what it was but I thought it was a pretty amazing name. Who wouldn't want to go to a world of adventure?

The next day at work I mentioned it to the girls who explained that Chessington is an amusement park, but when we looked it up online it seemed aimed more towards little kids than I would have liked. Then they told me about Thorpe Park and last Saturday's event was born.

Thorpe Park is the closest thing to Six Flags in the UK - with the possible exception of Alton Towers, but that's a pretty long way out of London. Thorpe is only about 20 miles outside the city.



Anyway so Juliet, Tim, Jenni and I went on Saturday when it was supposed to be a gorgeous day, sunny, over 70 degrees...and it actually was! After a few train shenanigans - our plan to all get on at different stops but end up on the same train didn't go so well - we re-grouped at the entrance and began the most awesome day of adrenaline (second only to when I went to Six Flags for Mikey Z's bday, that was most excellent).

The lines really weren't that bad - they have 3 big coasters, and we were able to ride each of them twice, which was pretty awesome. We also rode a couple of the water rides - just not the first one for which we stood in line about 30 minutes...the line was really long and the people coming out weren't just wet, they were soaked to the bone. Plus, even though it was a nice day outside, 3 of us were wearing jeans, and it's so fun to walk around in wet jeans for a few hours. Anyway, we bailed. But the log ride and the rapids were just the right amount of liquid fun. (okay, it's possible i shrieked at the time, but i did get a line drive of water aimed at my side)

It was an fab day with an awesome foursome of friends, and I definitely went on all the rides I could in a single day. In fact, for future reference, don't try riding an entire roller coaster with your eyes closed. That's a dead lock for a good 20 minutes of queasiness.

Some shots from the day...




Here's one after the log ride (a little moist-er than five minutes before):


And here we are on the train home with all the little Zippys I "won" on the goblet toss (i actually lost every time but they give you a little charity prize):



There's now talk of going to EuroDisney at some point. I'll keep ya posted...

Coming back home to the west coast...

Hey kids, a trip I had planned to Madrid was canceled for next weekend (it's a 3 day weekend the first of May) and things are still light at work, so I'm comin' home! I'm going to be in LA from Wednesday April 30th through Monday May 5th. I'd love to see as many of you as possible. I'm already pretty psyched that I'm going to be able to attend a baby shower and a birthday party that weekend...otherwise my plans are pretty flexible. I'll be staying down in Venice with Mr. O'Connell and plan on getting in a lot of beach time, some serious shopping, and as much Mexican food and sushi as my tummy can hold.

Let me know if you're around!

For now, the best way to get ahold of me when i'm in town will be my email and my (310) vonage number. I'll probably get a pay-as-you-go mobile as soon as i get to town and i'll just forward my vonage calls to that phone. If you have Mr. O's # you can also call him and he has generously offered to be my messenger service.

(p.s. the title of this post is from the song "west coast" by Coconut Records. I highly recommend)

London weekends

For the past couple weekends, I've been in and around London, exploring a pretty big variety of activities.

A couple weeks ago, Helen and I went to the National Portrait Gallery and walked around the regular (read: free) exhibits. It was a rainy day - that's actually why we were there too...we had originally planned a walk around Hampstead Heath but the rain made that an undesirable activity - so it was really crowded. I wasn't sure if I would actually enjoy a whole gallery of just portraits, it sounded a little repetitive to me. But I loved it - especially painted portraits from the last 200 years. I mean, the artists' self-portraits are definitely the most interesting to me but most of the more modern ones have a more stylized aesthetic, no matter the subject. Your classic pose, looking seriously off into the distance, dressed in long velvet robes...not so much. The gallery also does a fantastic job with its descriptions; they give you a lot of extra background on the subjects and artists. It was fascinating to learn about the incestuous inter-relationships of painters, writers, politicians, etc.



That Sunday - not surprisingly another rainy day - I went to the Natural History Museum, also free, to see some dinosaurs. Or so I thought. Turns out, the dinosaur exhibit was a freaking madhouse. And once you're in there, you're pretty much trapped and can't turn around. So many prams, so many parents lollygagging with their empty prams chatting with friends and completely blocking the narrow walkway. Aaack, nightmare. Once I got out of the dinosaurs, though, I was a happy camper. It's a drop dead gorgeous building.


And the exhibits are lovely, although some of the animals are starting to look a little dusty and rough around the edges. My favorite hall was the minerals. Just rows and rows of glass cases filled with minerals, rocks, crystals, metals, etc. All labeled with their common names, elemental makeup and source locations. They also had samples as they would be found in the rough as well as their everday versions (like cut stones, or copper wire). My inner science geek definitely got her fill. But the best room of the whole museum is The Vault. It's in the back of the hall of minerals and it's where they have all the precious stones in both raw and cut form. They have one case that has over 250 different colored cut diamonds. The light changes from normal daylight to a UV light and the stones actually glow totally different colors under UV light. Super cool. And seeing a raw diamond embedded in rock made me realize that even if I came across one (you know, in all those mines I spend so much time in), there's no way I would recognize it.

Then, a week ago, my co-worker Juliet and I took a train about an hour south to visit a couple of National Trust properties. You can read more about it on their website but the National Trust is an amazing organization that owns all these old manor houses all over England, plus hundred of thousands of acres of land, and holiday cottages that are available to rent. They have events - concerts, holiday celebrations, period reenactments - through the year at all the different properties and within the houses they have extensive collections of period furniture and artwork. Visting them isn't free but it's a great day out and most properties (at least the ones in the country) have acres of gardens and land to explore. We got lucky with a gorgeous day and were able to visit two different spots in Surrey - Clandon Park and Hatchlands Park. They were about 2 miles apart, and the first (Clandon) was a mile from the train station so we planned to walk from to the other and back to the train. It was definitely lucky it didn't rain, though - that would have seriously dampened our day (literally and figuratively). Unfortunately, we started walking the wrong way towards Clandon from the train station, which we didn't know until Juliet stopped a couple pulling out of their neighborhood. They felt so badly for us, they actually dropped us off at the entrance themselves. They were driving a Saab station wagon and had a friendly black lab in the back, so it wasn't exactly scary hitchhiking. Just really generous on their part.

Clandon was a lovely estate, and that day there was a WW II re-enactment going on in the front lawn and a Napoleonic-era reenactment going on in the back, so things were definitely lively. There are room stewards all over the properties, and they can answer all kinds of questions about the homes and the families who owned them and any other random trivia you have for them. Clandon was owned by the Earls of Onslow - fyi, currently the 7th Earl of Onslow is still living - but the property is now owned by the National Trust. The 4th Earl of Onslow was made governor of New Zealand so they have an interesting collection of souvenirs from their time in NZ, including a maori hut which they purchased from a local village, brought back to England and reconstructed in their back garden. When I leave England, I'll be lucky to bring back a teapot without breaking it.

Me in back of Clandon:








The WWII reenactment:









Juliet and one of the Onslow's Kiwi souvenirs:







Then we had a little walk along the motorway to get to Hatchlands. Not the most scenic. Hatchlands has "the world's largest collection of composer-related keyboard instruments" which is odd but very true. Every room had multiple pianos, harpsichords, clavicords, organs, etc. They also have a tenant who lives in the upper floor of the house and the tenant's collection of art and his own art is up on the walls. It's an odd place to visit, that's for sure, but you're not hurting for stuff to look at. They have much more land to explore, but Juliet and I were pretty wiped at that point. We did a little walk, saw some bluebells and the house's old ice house and set off again. The walk back was on a public footpath between a golf course and a farm. We saw pheasants and bunnies...much more the lovely scenic countryside route.

But I have to admit, my walking endurance can't compete with Juliet's. We had tried to stop in at a pub on the way back but they didn't serve food between 2:30 pm and 7pm so we were s out of luck. After a little more walking, we stopped to eat Juliet's only remaining food - an orange - along the side of the rode. It was a delicious orange. It should be noted, that Juliet comes so prepared it's unbelievable. In here tiny little bag she had snacks, rain gear, an extra sweater/jumper, a swiss army/pen knife, tissues, along with all the usual stuff in a girl's bag. Plus she knows plants really well so she was able to track down wild garlic and all kinds of things. I highly recommend getting stranded in the wilderness with Juliet...if you ever get to choose such a thing. Unfortunately for her, I wouldn't be much help.

Anyway, by the time we got back to Clandon - which was still a mile away from the train station - even Juliet was hungry and maybe a little tired (i was definitely both those things). Unfortunately the next pub we tried wasn't serving either. But finally, low and behold, a pub/French restaurant just a few blocks from the train was open for business. And I had my first - and most delicious - Sunday roast. Hurrah! (angels singing)


I'm now an official paying member of the National Trust so there will be lots more days out with Juliet in the future.

Venezia

Wow, how amazing is Venice? As soon as I got on the vaporetto (water bus) from the bus station, I was in love. It's such a special city, unlike any place else and yet exactly how I'd pictured it. (mostly thanks to movies like Casino Royale and The Italian Job) Even though my co-worker noted that it's basically just a tourist city - there's no other real commerce there, I didn't care. As far as tourist cities go, it's beyond superior to Solvang, Orlando or even Vegas. Despit being dominated by non-Italians, you still feel the history of the city in your bones as you walk around the tiny alleyways and cross the canal bridges. Anyway, obviously I'm totally enamored with it.

I feel really lucky that I was able to go when I did - I've been repeatedly told that it's a sweltering zoo of people there from June-August, but going in mid-April was fantastic. The weather was lovely - no rain, one day I need a light sweater and the other a jacket but it was easy to walk around. Even though I had pre-booked a couple of museum visits, I really didn't need to and everyone else were just walk ups.

So here's my itinerary and commentary. Enjoy....

I stayed in the Dorsoduro district, which is in the south west part of Venice. I booked everything through lastminute.com and I have to say it worked out really well. The hotel, San Sebastiano Garden worked out perfectly. It's a little 16 room hotel, on a small canal within easy walking distance of the San Basilio vaporetto stop. (yes, even with luggage). Both people at the front desk were incredibly helpful and friendly. I was in the handicap room (or one of them), and it was completely lovely. The doors were all extra wide, the room and bathroom were huge and everything was neat and tidy.

Arriving Friday evening, I was nervous about figuring out how to get to my hotel from the airport but it was easy to buy the bus/vaporetto tourist pass at the airport and then it was pretty obvious that the #5 bus was the one to take you to the center of town to catch the vaporettos. The hotel's website had great directions so I knew which vaporetto to hop onto and it was a lovely evening boat ride over to the hotel's stop. Once I set my bags down, the front desk offered up 3 different choices for me for dinner and left it up to me. I really appreciated that approach because then I didn't feel like he was getting a commission or always suggested one restaurant to all the guests. To get to all 3 restaurants, I had to walk down the tiniest alleyway I've ever seen. About 15 feet in, it opened up into normal size, but I definitely never would have walked down there at night on my own if I didn't know for sure that there were all these restaurats. Anyway, in an attempt to be a little adventurous, I went to one with a lot of fresh seafood in the window, La Furatola. Along with a lovely bottle of wine, I had...wait for it...spaghetti with cuttlefish in ink sauce. It was a really nice dish, obviously very fresh. The cuttlefish in the pasta was very tasty, but I have to be honest and say I could only choke down one of the tentacle pieces. I just can't eat things with suckers on them. But the other bits were delicious. Also, I'm pretty sure I was the only one in the restaurant who didn't speak Italian, so even though they had a menu in English, I was pleased that it was good enough restaurant that actual Italians ate there.

The next morning, I went to Basilica San Marco first, before it even opened, at the guidebook's advice. There was a small queue but it moved along quickly as soon as the doors opened. It's absolutely gorgeous inside, with incredible gold mosaics covering nearly every surface. I walked around St. Mark's square for a little bit, caught the end of a random fashion shoot going on in the square and marveled at the growing crowds (although, still really not that bad). Then I went across to the campanile in the square which gives you an amazing panoramic view of Venice. It was such a gorgeous, clear day, I could have stayed up there for hours just taking it all in, but there was more to do!

Still in the square, I went to tour the Palazzo Ducale (Doges' Palace) and was able to get on one of the "Secret Itineraries" tours, which I'd read about online. I don't usually go for the extra expensive tours, but this one was SO worth it. I would do it again in a heartbeat and HIGHLY recommend it for anyone going to Venice. Because I hadn't pre-booked, I had about an hour to walk around the palace before the tour. I was worried that I'd be doubling up on stuff we'd see on the tour but when they call it "secret itineraries", they're not kidding. We didn't go through any of the public rooms at all on the tour so I was glad I saw all of them first. It made the "secret" tour so much more rewarding. They take you into locked passageways where you see the chancellor's offices, in particular the chancellor in charge of secret documents and the bigger room where all of the secreteries worked handling all of the other non-secret state documents. Then you get to see the cells where Cassanova was imprisoned and are told about his crime, his attempted escape and his second, successful escape. But the best part for me was when we climbed up the stairs and were in the rafters above the massive gorgeous council room I'd seen earlier. the ceiling of the room is covered in beautiful paintings surrounded by enormous gold gilt frames. Anyway, when you're up in the rafters, the guide explains that the room was rebuilt after the first in the late 16th century but even at that time, it was rare for a room that size to have no columns, let alone with those massive paintings embedded in the ceiling. But you get to see the massive feat of engineering up in the attic that made the room possible. It's very cool. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take any pictures on the entire tour. Except of the box where citizens could anonymously denounce tax evaders, which is the slideshow picture of the stone man with the slot for notes in his mouth.

I wandered around a bit, then went to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and l'Accademia in the afternoon. Admittedly, I have a relatively low threshold for religious paintings, so after the first few galleries in the Accademia, I might have glazed over a bit. Peggy's collection is small, but wonderful and a great contrast in its modernism. I highly recommend it. The house and grounds are gorgeous enough to justify the visit and the collection is gorgeous. I just wish I could have a few of them for my house on the canal. =)

Since I'd got on out on a culinary limb the night before, I decided to try to go to this restaurant called Ai Gondolieri which (according to my guidebook) was more meat-centric. It was. And it was delicious! It was also very expensive - even by Venice standards, but I'm always happy to splurge on a good meal. Without boring with you with too much detail, there was a huge bread tray, plus veggie crudite as soon as I sat down. I had an amazing artichoke appetizer and then yummy veal in gorgonzola sauce (sigh). Now to be completely forthcoming, this restaurant was filled entirely with English speakers so it's definitely a tourist haven, but a fancy pants delicious one.

Sunday, I took the vaporetto to Lido - the island where they hold the Venice film festival, also the only island in Venice with a beach. After wandering around there, I took the vaporetto around to Murano. Wow, are there a lot of cheesy glass shops there. But I did find two gorgeous hand blown kitchen glass with a cute red, green, white and yellow swirl... Much nicer than I'm explaining right now. From there I took the vaporetto back which goes up the Grand Canal through the center of Venice and then got off near the Rialto and walked and shopped around there for a while. Then sadly, it was time to head back. The airport was kind of a disaster on the way back, but that's no one's fault...every single flight through Venice was delayed and we got off relatively easy in the end with only an hour push.

Here's my slideshow below, hope you enjoy...