My Friday off Work

Regents Park & Rowing

(double click photo to see more & rose pics should say Queen Mary's Garden (not St. Mary's)) I just knew I would love CWS: Compressed Work Schedule. As many of you probably know, I’ve always been something of a workaholic. I always feel compelled to get to a good stopping place and that time is not necessarily at 4, 4:30, 5 or later! Well, my new work schedule is 9 hrs per day Monday through Thursday, 8 hours one Friday and ZERO hours the next Friday. Yes, (9X8)+8=80. Last Friday, I had my first Friday off and boy, did it feel luxurious. Slept late (yes, I am well known for that, too), had a little breakfast, went to Starbucks & got a laté (lah tay), then to Regent’s Park (maybe ½ mile from my house) to admire the beautiful flowers, greenery, and water.
At first I just meandered about the park, taking it all in. It is a huge park with a zoo at one end and a college right in the middle. It has runners, walkers, strollers, bike riders, lovers, poopers, an all manner of human and canine beings. There was a charming area with very folksy, primitive, whimsical type tree houses, see-saws and seating areas – even a real, plastic-covered library in one of the tree houses.
After this bit of wandering I decided I would rent a row boat, row out into the middle of the lake, lie down in the boat and read my book. Oh, yes, I was sure rowing would come naturally; after all, I have paddled a canoe! Sadly, my assumption was hardly on the mark. With the wind blowing about 30 knots (Does that sound right, Tom Bentley? I just made it up.), I kept going around in circles & getting blown back to the dock. The oars wouldn’t stay in their hooks, the arms wouldn’t go the right direction, and I was expending a heck of a lot of woman-power and getting nowhere quick.
Finally a young man working at the dock took pity on me & offered to help. With some oar wrestling, I managed to get to where he was. He hops in and smoothly demonstrates proper rowing technique. He says (in some foreign accent that I imagined to be Italian/Venetian) “Look, it’s easy.” Well, I felt bass ackwards sitting backwards in the boat and my arms kept feeling like they were doing the opposite of what they should be doing when they were doing the right thing. So after a 5 minute lesson, Mr. Venice hopped out (please don’t tell me that those Venetian paddlers stand up & don’t really row; I thought of that, myself) and I’m back to my circles. Mr. Venice calls, “Want to trade for a paddle boat?” “No,” I say. I’m determined to get to the other end of the lake. And so I do, but only in time to turn around and row back to the dock – no reading or napping in the boat this time. But I felt pretty good considering I was the only woman rower I saw, and considering that the rowers were outnumbered by the paddlers probably 10 to 1! Although I certainly wouldn’t characterize my rowing as smooth, I enjoyed the heck out of it & will definitely row again. After finishing the boating, I found myself a cozy little bench behind some bulrushes and read for about an hour. What a lovely, leisurely day!

Paris Coach Trip July 2009

Paris Coach Trip

(Double click photo to see more pics) We left early Friday morning, having gotten up at 4:30 a.m. to be sure we boarded the coach at 6:05 a.m. Quite a hard thing to do for a non-morning person, but knowing I was returning to Paris was a lovely incentive to rouse me out of the bed. I hardly could have imagined going there once, yet here I was RETURNING! We took the tube to the Great Portland Street station & met the coach at the International Students House right off Marylebone Road. My friends from work, Lexcie and Wendy, had organized the trip for us, having found the information on this web site: http://www.internationalfriends.co.uk/.

I couldn’t recommend the coach trip with this company more highly. The tour guide, Andrew, was quite the historian, giving us the background we needed to properly appreciate the sites we visited. Plus, when we experienced two detours in getting to the Louvre because of the Tour de France finale, he not only managed to get us to the Louvre, but also pointed out an additional site on the way (site of Napoleon’s signing the Lousiana Purchase) we wouldn’t otherwise have seen.

From London we headed to Dover (of “White Cliffs” fame) to catch the ferry. A few miles from Dover we experience a BIG traffic jam and didn’t find out until we were almost there that our ferry company (P&O) had had a computer crash & wasn’t able to board anyone until the computers were back up. We were delayed for maybe an hour. After boarding the ferry, we all de-boarded the bus & got in the breakfast line at the cafeteria on the ferry. I think it took about an hour & a half to get into Calais from Dover. Then perhaps 2-3 hours (I forget so quickly) to Paris. Awhile before arriving in Paris, our guide handed out maps of Paris for us to peruse.

In Paris we checked into the All Seasons Hotel in Bercy, a historic area on the Seine famous for being the warehousing district for wine coming into Paris. Wendy dubbed her room “MyPod,” a apt name since the hotel décor was a cool mix of futuristic “Jetsons” and sixties “Mod.” After a quick trip to the ATM for some Euros, we head out for a panoramic tour of Paris on our coach, hitting many of the highlights of the city. Later in the afternoon we boarded a boat on the Seine at the Eiffel Tower and cruised eastward all the way back past the Ile de St. Louis, then turned around and backtracked to the “Tour Eiffel.” The boat was equipped with receivers we could use to hear commentaries about the sites we were passing – lovely churches, monuments, and gorgeous bridges.

At the conclusion of the boat ride we could choose to stay at the Eiffel Tower or go back to the hotel. We stayed & all 4 of us went all the way to the top! And what more romantic thing could happen than that a fellow dropped to his knees and proposed to his girlfriend right there on top of the world. One very surprised girlfriend, ooohs & aaaahs all around. We ate dinner on a boat parked beside the Tour & had crepes avec chocolat & chantilly (whipped cream). Then down the street to the Metro stop & back to Bercy. One jam-packed filled day!

On Saturday we started with Montmartre, first climbing the steps to the beautiful Sacre Coeur at the height of Montmartre. Sacre Coeur is less than 200 years old, but the chapel beside it, St Peter’s was build in about the 12^th century. It is lovely and has in its crypt a statue of St. Denis (the Christian martyr for whom Montmartre is named) holding his head in his hands (he was supposedly decapitated).

We then walked back down the hill to see two of the “windmill” cabarets (outside only), the Moulin Rouge and the Moulin Gazette. After Montmartre we visited Notre Dame on the Ile de la Cite. Beautiful stained glass, rosette windows. My photo is of the West window which depicts scenes from the Old Testament (East window: New Testament).

In the afternoon we went to the famous country home of French kings & queens, Versailles, about 10 miles outside Paris. Now, THIS is a palace! Humongous! I believe it was Louis XV who rented out rooms at Versailles to the courtiers in the wings of the building. Across the way, facing Versailles are also huge buildings that mimic the palace in architecture – these were horse stables! The palace was quite crowed this day with all sorts of people, but I do believe that Italy was empty for the day as the place was filled with Italians. All Versailles is amazing, but the Hall of Mirrors is absolutely exquisite! After Versailles, dinner and souvenir hunting in the Latin Quarter.

Sunday morning and I woke to a dead camera, so no pictures of the Louvre, but if you are adventurous you can check out my facebook site for photos my friends took there. No doubt the paintings and sculptures at the Louvre felt honored to be included with us in many outstanding, and highly respectful photos.

After the Louvre it was home again, home again, jiggity jog & the trip over in reverse. One more thing I must comment on, though, is the scrumptious scones with clotted cream we had on the ferry back! Absolutely mouthwatering.

The weather for the weekend was cool and lovely – quite a contrast from the hot April/May weather my friends, Eleanor, Karen, Kristi & I experienced last year. Andrew commented on the same subject.

And speaking of Andrew, we found that he came by his historical knowledge quite honestly, having taken a history degree from Oxford. He leads tours to Stonehenge, Bath, Stratford-on-Avon also and my friends & I hope to catch him on one of those in the future.