Big Apple Blog

The first day in London we decided to go for broke on all the major tourist attractions. London is a very friendly city as far as transport. The tube was easy to navigate, there are so many buses that they seemed to stop every other minute, and walking from one place to another was a great time as well.

We started at Buckingham palace for our appointment with the Queen – I kid you not. We show up for the changing of the guards and there are already a couple thousand people all over the place. We squeezed in near one of the gates and after a few minutes a bunch of guys with secret service earphones and scowls lined up on each side of the gate. Before we knew it there was a motorcade coming right at us from the entrance to the palace and as we looked through the window the Queen gave us that funky vertical hand wave. It was nice of the Queen to coordinate her schedule with ours.

We walked by Westminster Abbey but did not go in. We figured we would get lots of chances to see old churches during our trip. Right across the street is Big Ben and Parliament and we chilled in a park there for a while.

Probably the penultimate tourist thing to do is take a ride on a 135 meter high ferris wheel called the London Eye. It was pretty cool, but they stop running the thing at 8 PM and it does not get dark until well after 10. It was crazy how light it was in London. The sun would rise at like 4:45 and set at like 10:30. I woke up one morning thinking it was 7 or 8 and it was 5 AM.

You ride around in these little glass pods and it’s pretty cool – about 25 people per pod. We actually got a longer ride than normal because this hyper kid was running around and pressed the “Emergency” button. The wheel froze and someone came on the intercom and started asking what our emergency was. The kid received a souvenir tongue lashing from his parents.

The London phone booths are famous so Ariel stepped inside this one. What the picture does not communicate is the smell. According to Ariel, it has been used more as a urinal than a phone booth. I took her word for it.

We also walked around Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Oxford Circus. I am a sucker for fountain and statue pictures.

Returned from Europe yesterday and the trip was great. We hit the weather just perfect. According to locals in London it was pouring rain before we got there and there was not a single drop of rain while we were there. It was the same story in Paris for the most part. It rained twice on us but both times we were doing indoor activities anyway.

To be honest I did not expect much from London and it surprised me. I had visions of what Paris would be like, and for the most part they were met, but I had no such vision of London. What got me about London was the vibe. Very cool people and a relaxed atmosphere. Sometimes the American government strikes me as too Puritanical. For example, you can’t take a drink out of a bar in NYC but in London people overflow from pubs into the streets and it’s no problem at all. People were also drinking beer out of cans in the subway and it was no problem. I realize I was only there for a short time, but no one seemed out of control and I never witnessed any belligerent behavior related to drinking.

Paris was beautiful but it was a 180 change in vibe. Paris is filled with people dressed to the hilt from head to toe. You are bombarded by perfect display windows featuring all of the latest in high class fashion. I am of course talking mainly about central Paris where we spent most of our time. As opposed to London the atmosphere was a bit stuffy, but the people were great.

The funny thing is that we found the people in Paris who are paid to help tourists very rude while the locals were great. We were greeted at the train station by someone at an information booth who basically yelled at us for not knowing we needed to take pictures to obtain a weekly subway pass. But when I wanted advice on matching cheese with meat at a local grocery store I was greeted with a warm smile and great service when I uttered the phrase, “Sorry, I don’t speak French” in French. I thought it would be better to learn this as opposed to simply asking someone, “Do you speak English?”

More comments and photos in the days to come – travel rocks so when the chance presents itself, take it.

We have not taken a vacation in a while and we decided to venture off to London and Paris. Not that the blog has been super active recently, but it will be dark for a bit as we take our puny dollars and convert them to Pounds and Euros across the Atlantic. If you have any parting words of wisdom on travel to London and Paris, feel free to comment.

I’m sure we will have way too many photos when we are done with our trip. Peace!

A blast from the past came through town this past weekend. Zach Goldberg and I have known each other since 5th grade and he was in the Big Apple for business. We walked around NYC for a day and the weather was wicked good. Central Park was full of people and we hung out there for a while.

Zach works for UBS and they were sponsoring this promotional golf event at Rockefeller Center. They had a mini-golf hole set up that mimicked the 17th hole at the Players Championship. We each took our whacks. Ariel bladed the ball into the TV screen, I hit the green but it rolled off the backside, and Zach hit the green and stayed on. Of course he had taken about ten shots a few days prior so he had an advantage.

Zach has two kids and a bunch of gray hair. I felt funny when he started commenting on baby strollers he saw as we walked around. Comments like that made childhood seem light years away. I am officially middle aged.

Stereotypes exist, for better or for worse. Rats are etched on the minds of millions when they think of NYC for sure. And this stereotype is very accurate because each time I land in NYC I am shocked if I do not see a rat on the subway tracks at the Sutphin Boulevard station. It’s almost as if they are a part of the NYC Chamber of Commerce and are welcoming visitors to the Big Grimy Apple.

I set foot in North Carolina for the first time today when I landed at Raleigh-Durham Airport for a business trip to Duke U. I have a few stereotypes when I think of North Carolina and one was confirmed when the first urinal I stepped up to in the airport had a gargantuan mound of chewing tobacco in it. Tobacco road indeed . . .

I did not need another reason to like beer, but I’ll be purchasing a Foster’s at the Bodega tonight to celebrate the news that Foster’s is teaming up with some scientists to produce green energy. Be Green and pop a Foster’s to celebrate.