Yesterday (I think – my days are a little mixed up now) we woke up in a Holiday Inn Express in Hollywood, having flown in to LA the day before. Our flight to London wasn’t until 7pm, and so we were going to do a little sight seeing with Sandra, our travel agent extraordinaire and now our tour guide extraordinaire, as she lives in LA and had picked us up at the airport and was ferrying us around and showing us the sights (we love Sandra!).

We checked out of the motel around 11:30 am, but left Sandra’s car at the motel because we were only a few blocks from the Walk of Fame and Grauman’s Chinese Theater – we headed out on foot. Along the way, we came upon a Bud Light promotion – they had set up this big fake football field with fake goal posts, and people were lining up to attempt to kick a field goal. After some deliberation, we decided to line up, too – it looked like fun 🙂

Now, some of you may know that about a year ago I had a pretty severe sprain of my left ankle, and even though it’s basically healed up now, it’s still somewhat weak and so I still wear a brace on it. You’d think that would have given me pause, no? But no – I approached the football, planted my left foot, started the kick attempt, and then my plant foot buckled and I was on my arse, with a brand new ankle sprain to show for my efforts (Sandra also took a pretty good picture of me right before my ankle buckled, so I have that to show for my efforts, too, which is some comfort but not a lot). And I banged up my right thumb and palm – apparently that’s where I caught myself.

DANG!! I was very, very bummed, as was my girl. We were both like “What were we thinking?” But, it was a new sprain, not a re-injury of the old one, and it didn’t seem that bad, though it did leave me hobbling. Lis ran and got me some ice, and I sat and iced my ankle while Lis and Sandra checked out the Walk of Fame.

When they came back, I tried out my foot, and while the going was slow, I was also able to limp along the Walk of Fame a bit, too, which was fun.

Lis and Sandra told me that Lis had picked up a new boyfriend their first time out, and I was able to see Lis in action again – there were a bunch of young men trying to hand out “free” hip hop CD’s (with tip fairly adamantly expected), and they kept singling Lis out with all sorts of attention and sweet talk – she was very, very popular! We figured it was the fetching fanny pack she was sporting. Sandra also got her fair share of attention, but they left the large gimpy lady alone.

After our tour of the stars, we got lunch and then Sandra took us to the airport. Being an awesome travel agent, she said “You should ask for a wheelchair when you check in.” Which I never would have thought of, but which was a Godsend – I would have had real trouble with all the walking around 2 such large airports.

It was actually kind of awesome to be wheeled through the airports, plus when you are getting wheelchair assistance you don’t have to wait in any lines! They took us right to the front of the security line at LAX and and the customs line in Heathrow. Of course, I did have to have the full pat down in security (and I do mean FULL – I feel like she should have at least bought me dinner first…)

The flight was a 10 hour red eye, and I can’t sleep on planes, so I was up for the whole flight, but it wasn’t bad at all. My sweetie had gotten us Premium Economy seats, and they were very comfortable, plus Virgin Atlantic has a lot of in-flight movies to choose from. I watched Brave and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – very much enjoyed them both. I started to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but the inflight movie screens could be a little hard to see (I think because of bad angles..??), so I stopped – figured I should wait until I could really see it, as it looked like the on-location India shots were probably quite beautiful.

They fed us both dinner and breakfast, which were all right, though I liked the food in Alaska first class better. Lis is lactose intolerant and so had to pre-order a special diet. She was going to do the vegan meal, but then she read somewhere that the best special meal is usually the kosher one, so she ordered that. Sadly, both her kosher meals were stale and nasty. We decided that we feel very sorry for our observant Jewish friends if this is what they have to deal with when traveling 🙁

In London Lis’s former host parent Ron picked us up at the airport and drove us to the Holiday Inn in Reading, where I am now writing this post, while Lis is procuring SIM cards for the phones and now swimming. We are both determined to stay up – as I write, it is 5pm London time, so 9am West Coast time, so we have been up for about 24 hours (though Lis did get about an hours sleep on the plane, and I took a tiny little 15 minute cat nap when Lis did her phone shopping). Our hope is that if we don’t nap, and then go to bed early, we’ll be on a decent schedule tomorrow.

Well, I think that’s all for now – cheerio, as we say in England 🙂

Tomorrow we are heading out to Los Angeles, and the day after that we are boarding a Virgin Atlantic red-eye flight for Jolly Olde England. We are very excited. I have never been to Europe before – the extent of my international travel is Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Lis has been abroad a couple times (she is so continental), but not since she was in her twenties – so, fifteen years ago or so (you’re welcome, sweetie).

Here is our itinerary:

• England – we are going to be staying in Reading, England, about 40 minutes outside of London.  When Lis was in college, she did a Study Abroad program thing and lived with a host family in Reading for a month.  We will be visiting them the first part of our trip.  Nothing fancy in terms of lodging – just the local Holiday Inn.  Note from Lis:  It actually sounds quite fancy – large pool, sauna, steam room, spa….
• Amsterdam –  when we first started planning our trip to England and Germany, I begged Lis to include a stop in Amsterdam, as I’ve long wanted to go to the Van Gogh Museum.  We will be staying in a Bed & Breakfast right on a canal and just around the corner from the Anne Frank Museum and the Homomonument.  The B&B gets excellent reviews (Lis checks Trip Advisor for new reviews almost daily) and we can’t wait!
• Germany – the original impetus for this trip was an art exhibition by David Hockney – we desperately wanted to see it when it was in London but couldn’t; then we learned it was going to Cologne and were ALL OVER IT!  The exhibit will be at the Ludwig Museum, and we’ve already purchased our tickets.  We’ve also been reading about Cologne, particularly the cathedrals and the Christmas markets that will just have opened when we get there – we think it sounds fun.  We will be staying at another B&B in Cologne – Bed & Breakfast Cologne – and the breakfasts are supposed to be out of this world.
• England – then back to England, this time for some relaxation in the countryside.  We will finish up our trip in Jane Austen country, in the lap of luxury at the Four Seasons Hampshire – I shall pretend that I am at Downton Abbey. (Regular readers of our blog will know that we LOVE us some luxury travel, and will stay at the Four Seasons whenever we can afford it, and sometimes when we cannot).

At first we were a little bummed to be traveling in November, but I figure the weather will be similar to Portland in November and so at least familiar, plus I prefer off season traveling with its reduced crowds anyway, and now I’m pretty excited about the German Christmas markets.  Can’t wait to get started!

Second note from Lis:  I’m a little concerned about this “having to beg Lis to go to Amsterdam” business and how it might make me appear.  First, I would like to say that I believe there’s a little bit of hyperbole there.  Second, I will admit that I am the planner for all of our vacations, but this one is kind of my 50th birthday trip, even though I won’t be turning 50 for another 21 years.  Thus, Mary did have to work a little to get Amsterdam in there.