Saturday, May 26, 2007

How to entertain a houseguest in 1 week

First, thanks to the many of you who offered suggestions on how to entertain my brother during his visit. He had a fabulous time, as he said in his post, and I thought I'd touch on a few of the things he didn't mention that I really enjoyed!

We took the advice to take a boat ride on the Regent's Canal from Camden Town. Lovely! It spritzed rain but there were actually patches of sun. Our tour guide was from Czech Republic and her parents were visiting. (It was very cute, watching them snap her as she unlocked the lock. Like this:)



We also wondered around the very funky Camden Lock Market, which reminded my bro of New York's East Village:



Hampton Court Palace was another destination. Henry VIII seized it from a cardinal when he broke away from the Church of Rome (when Henry broke away, that is). Like the canal ride, it was something I hadn't done before, and like the Tower of London, which Sir K saw on his own, it's something I would do again and again. Maybe you can see why:





It did rain on us a bit there. And most everywhere I guess. (I wonder if it's as moist as Flagstaff??) As Smitty noted, we did Stonehenge and Bath again. Bath felt even more rushed than last time, so I am definitely planning another excursion there. Meanwhile, I enjoyed the Roman baths:



One last thing I want to mention: We did the Jack the Ripper tour again. (Well, my brother and I did. Despite Smitty's insistence that he would go, he turned down the opportunity to be with his bikes.) Anywho, I had not only a functioning camera this time, but a much better guide, and it wasn't the exact same walk to the exact same places as last time. (Some stops were the same, but not all.) Our guide stressed the hard life faced by women in the East End, in streets like this:



And here is where the Ripper scrawled (or they think it was him, anyway) a message that some think pointed to Masonic involvement, a theory which our guide dismissed:



For those of you whose ideas we didn't use this time around, fear not! We expect more visitors -- not to mention that we still want to play tourists ourselves. Hee hee.

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4 Comments:

Blogger oldest kid said...

Looks like we need to come back!

1:53 PM  
Blogger Schmutz said...

We missed most of those places last time we visited. Guess we'll have to come back, also!

8:49 PM  
Blogger Schmutz said...

I've been having problems commenting. This is to see if I've straightened it out.

8:57 PM  
Blogger Mrs. Werbenmanjensen said...

Looks like you've fixed the commenting problem, Schmutz. Now you need an avatar!

And you're all welcome back, of course.

11:02 AM  

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