There'll Be Bluebirds Over....

the White Cliffs of Dover....

Tomorrow....

Just you wait and see

But more on that later.

I got onto yet another London trip after I traded the radiation and earthshaking of Japan for the two day London Heathrow layover (which actually ended up being a 3 day layover, but more on that later as well).  I guess I should consider myself lucky that I am able to fly there so much since I certainly don't have the seniority to hold it on a regular basis.

We had a great crew and a couple of my friends were on it, including Mary Beth.  Due to light loads and a long layover, she brought her mother and her daughter Olivia along for a sort of mini-vacation.  I learned Olivia reads my blog, so a quick shout out to Olivia!

My plans the first night were to meet up with my friends Charlotte and Robin and go see a play.  Charlotte and Robin were friends back from my "777 Domestic Mafia" days, who just came over to International.  On the suggestion of my friend Bobby, I wanted to see Pygmalion.  It's a play by George Bernard Shaw.  The movie and stage version of My Fair Lady was based on the play (which everyone knew about but me apparently).  I would be closing in early September so I wanted to see if before it went away.  I've pretty much given up on seeing Warhorse until some time next year when the excitement dies down.  The Pygmalion cast included Diana Rigg, most famous as Emma Peel from the Avengers, although I remember her from The Great Muppet Caper and The Worst Witch.

We got pretty good seats for a pretty good deal.  The ticket manager offered us Orchestra seats for about £30, which was £15 less than the list price.  After buying our tickets, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant before seeing the show.

The next day they were heading home since they just had the regular layover, but I had made plans to head south to Redhill to meet up with my friend Amanda and do a road trip to Dover to see the White Cliffs.  I have wanted to visit this area of Britain ever since my friend Kathy made me listen to "White Cliffs of Dover", a song made popular during WWII, by Vera Lynn.  It was written and recorded during a time when British and German planes would have aerial battles over the area near Dover.  The song's lyrics talk about a time when there will be peace and tranquility and no war.  The only problem is that Bluebirds (mentioned in the first line of the song) are not native to England, and are only found in captivity.  Anyway, it's still a great song and you can hear it here.

Unfortunately, Aaron, Amanda's husband, was already back in the states for work, so it would just be me, Amanda and Samantha.  It would be the first time they visited the area as well.  They are members of the National Trust (the British version of the National Park Service) so we got free admission and parking onto the site).  The ride southeast to Dover only took about an hour or so.

The city of Dover is home to the port of the same name that serves as the launching point to continental Europe.  Ferries full of cars and trucks cross back and forth, to the tune of about 60 crossings per day.  It's also one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.  As I stood out overlooking the port, I started thinking about how cool it would be to take the Chunnel train under the channel and go to the continent for the day.  That idea must have taken root quickly, but I will save that for another blog entry.

After a nice lunch at the visitor center (I had something called a rarebit, kind if like a melted cheese sandwich, which was delightful) we began our trek down the 2 mile trail along the cliffs.

As a bit of background, the cliffs spread both east and west from Dover, but we tackled the eastern part.  At it's tallest point, they are over 350 feet high, which might explain the advisory to stay at least 5 meters from the edge.  The striking white color comes from the fact that they are made of pure calcium carbonate, or chalk.  The cliffs also serve as a symbolic form of protection for Britain as they are the closest point to the continent, and the height of the cliffs also served as a natural fortress for centuries from foreign invaders.  With Calais only 9 miles across the channel in France, the cliffs can be seen from the continent on a clear day.  The harsh weather continues to erode the cliffs at a rate of several centimeters per year.

Here we are as we set off for our two mile trek.  This was before we realized that the trails were not as stroller friendly as we thought they would be.  I remember making a comment that it might be best to come back here after Samantha has finished high school!

This will give you an idea of just how darned difficult the trails were to maneuver around, and you can also see how quickly the chalk built up on the stroller wheels as well as the bottoms of our shoes.

Our little journey involved lots of pauses for pictures and general resting after stroller drama.

The area is filled with wild Exmoor ponies that graze along the cliffs.  They did not seem to be too bothered by the tourists, as one didn't even mind going potty right in front of us.

They were a great distraction though for Samantha.  As soon as she would get fussy, we would point to a pony to try to make her forget she was about to have a tantrum.

We met a little terrier named Harry along the way.  Lots of people brought their dogs.  I wish we had brought their dachshund, Wolfie. 

It was at about the half way point that we realized we were not going to make the lighthouse.  All the difficult terrain we had encountered up until now we were going to re-encounter on the way back.  Not to mention that Samantha was starting to get fussy, so I left mommy and baby behind and ran ahead to get some more pictures.

Of course I had to stop and do the obligatory foot shot for my "Around the World with My Feet" album.

At the farthest point in our journey, the lighthouse was still quite a distance away, so this was about a close as I got to it.

I opted for a different route for us on the way back to the visitor center.  There was a lower trail that didn't see to have a many steep areas, so I thought that would be an easier route for us.  It was indeed flat until the end when we realized we had not only overshot the visitor's center, but also the car park, and also the National Trust entrance!  In the end, Amanda carried Samantha, and I collapsed the stroller and carried it up some pretty steep hills.  We finally made it back to civilization and didn't even have to resort to cannibalism or eating roots.

With all the obstacles, it was still a wonderful day.  The weather was great.  Very cloudy, which kept us from getting too warm (we still worked up quite a sweat).  Back in London that day, it had rained buckets, so we were fortunate to have dodged that.

The drive back wasn't too bad, even with a bit of traffic as we got closer to the city.  After getting back to the flat, I said my farewells to Wolfie and the girls and hustled back into town to catch a 6:45 train back to London Victoria.

When I got back to the hotel, I went down to the crew room, only to find several of my co-workers gathered around a computer screen.  Our flight the next day was cancelled, so we were now laying over one more day and then flying home on Saturday.  Normally an extra day in London would be awesome, but I had backed trips up and was supposed to fly to Honolulu on Saturday, and of course had made plans for the layover.  That all fell apart.

My friend Mary Beth was worried because now our flight on Saturday would be full, and she had her mother and daughter with us.  There was no way they would get on the plane on Saturday.  She ended up sending them on a nonstop to Raleigh on Friday, but weather cancelled their Dallas flight and they ended up getting stuck in Washington DC before making it home on Saturday.  The joys of non-revenue travel!

On Friday, I met up with Mary Beth after she got her mom and daughter off to Raleigh.  We went downtown for a 2pm London Walk about Sherlock Holmes.  Our guide was a rather prim and proper older lady and actress named Corinna.  She will actually next be seen in the 2011 movie Hysteria, coming out later this year, about the invention of the female vibrator.  She has a bit part as Lady Perrigott.

She was a very knowledgeable guide and new anything and everything about Sherlock Holmes and the writer Arthur Conan Doyle.  The walk included places where Sir Conan Doyle lived, as well as places that were included in his novels, or inspired his stories.

I enjoy the London Walks tours because they take you to parts of the city you would not normally visit.

When our tour was over, we made our way over the Thames to the Southbank.  It was brimming with people, street performers, and musicians.  

We made our way down river towards the Tate Modern and into a little alcove with lots of restaurants and pubs.  I had visited this one particular pub on numerous occasions, so we went there for an afternoon of drinking pints of the Früli, a Belgium wheat beer with fruit flavoring (perfect for a warm summer day) and an early dinner.

I finally made it home on Saturday, a day later than planned, tired, broke, and out of clean underwear.

Manchester

So at about 5:45 am, Ladyfriend and I are sitting in the Window Exit waiting for boarding to finish on our 6am departure from Colorado Springs.  I was low on time, so I had my name on the Make Up List.  I noticed there was a Manchester trip in open time for that afternoon and made a call to scheduling to see if it was going to come to my seniority.  Miracle of miracles, it did, but I realize that the reason it did is because it is a 757 trip and no one likes to fly a 757 over the Atlantic.

So after landing back in the Big D around 8:30, I dropped Kirsten at home and then went home to unpack and then repack before heading back for my 2:15pm deadhead to Chicago.  I was blessed to get to sit in a seat surrounded by a large family of talkative and messy French people.  They were spilling drinks left and right and passing food around, dropping stuff everywhere.  When we got to Chicago, their zone looked like a disaster area.

The flight to Manchester was different.  I had not worked one of the 757 Transatlantic services before as our Europe trips are too far to use that equipment.  The crew was all on reserve.  Apparently it is the least popular trip on the bidsheet, so everyone trades off it.  The flight was full, but I was pleasantly surprised because the "Mancunians" (people from Manchester) are simply delightful.  Very low key and laid back.

We arrived in the morning right on time.  I was a bit worried about the nightly riots and looting, but apparently the night before was the night the police finally got a hold of the situation so it wasn't "supposed" to be a problem.  The hotel staff still suggested we return to the premises by 6:00pm or so in case there are problems.  Several of the shops around the hotel were boarded up because of broken windows from the nightly riots.

Most of the crew were just going to sleep and stay in their rooms, but one of my co-workers, Geoff, said he would show me around the city.

Downtown Manchester is pretty small compared to London with it's ever expanding boroughs, but like the British capital, it is heavy on the Victorian architecture.  City Hall looked like a church cathedral. 

Downtown's main shopping center was the site of the new "Shop a Looter" campaign.  CCTV cameras are everywhere in the city and lots of looters were caught on camera at the stores where they were "shopping".  Now there is an effort to have the public help bring these people to justice.

It was starting to rain, so we decided to visit the Old Wellington, which is the oldest tavern in Manchester.  It was built in 1552 in a part of the city that at the time was called the Shambles.  The building has actually been dismantled and reassembled at least 3 times over the past 30 years to maximize space for downtown development.

When the rain let up, we started back towards the hotel, but then it started up again, so we made our way towards another pub and enjoyed a pint of Stella and watched the rain.  

It finally let up and we made our way across the main square toward the hotel.  I came upon a Boots/Waitrose combination store (Boots is my favorite drug store and Waitrose my favoroite grocer in the UK).  Two great things rolled into one!  After purchasing my provisions for the night and for the way home, it was time to get back to the hotel.  We rolled in right around 6pm, the suggested time.

There was no problem with looting that night though.  The next day, our flight home was about 8 hours and 25 minutes, or about 5 hours too long for that type of plane.  Of course right after landing in Chicago, a freak hailstorm hit the airport and it rained like crazy, so I was delayed heading home on my deadhead, but finally made it about an hour later than scheduled.

Rocky Mountain High

Just when I thought that I couldn't stand another day in the oppressive and unhealthy Texas heat, my friend Bruce comes to the rescue with an offer to join him in Colorado Springs for a day of sightseeing at Pikes Peak.  He secured a "Yes" from me when he told me that temperatures usually hover in the 40's at the very top.  After checking the loads and seeing how open the flights were, I decided to bring Lady friend along too, so she could have a last hurrah before heading back to the little angels of hers in the classroom.

I came in from Honolulu on the morning of the 9th and headed home for a few hours of heavy napping before heading back to the airport that evening with Kirsten.  Our flight out to the Springs was heavy, but First Class was open and she and I found ourselves in seats 3E and 3F for the quick flight west, and had to time to enjoy a few Gin and Tonics.

We landed in Colorado Springs a bit late, but my friend Bruce was standing by and he picked us up at the airport and we headed downtown to a local brew pub that Bruce found on the internet, called Phantom Canyon Brewing Company.  We decided if we were going to head to the Rockies, we should try some local microbrews.

We all started with "Flight" of beers.  Bruce had the 10 sampler, Kirsten and I did the 6.  Some where good and some were not so good.  Bruce and Kirsten ended up with a pitcher of Hefeweizen.  Dinner wasn't the healthiest.  I actually ordered their macaroni and cheese with pretzel crumbles.  The heartburn would not hit me until later.

While the food was good, the service was only so-so.  We decided to forgo giving them our dessert business and instead walked over to Josh and John's, the local ice cream parlor.  Bruce and I chose the milkshakes.  I opted for the Yellow Cake flavored one.  Kirsten just had a boring old cone with Mint Chocolate Chip (she has never been one for the exotic flavors).

That night I woke up at about 2am with heartburn that was pretty bad.  So bad I had to sit up in bed for about half an hour while the Pepcid worked it's magic.

We had to get an early start the next day because we had already reserved our train tickets on the Cog Railway for our trip up to peak departing at 10:40 a.m.  Bruce took us back to the airport where we picked up our rental car.  The compact econo size was not available so we were given a complimentary upgrade to this orange monstrosity.

We reunited with Bruce out in Manitou Springs, at the base camp for our train ride up Pikes Peak.  The ride takes about an hour and half each way and you spend about 30 minutes at the top of the peak, which doesn't sound like a lot, but with the lack of oxygen, any longer and you's probably faint.

We purchased liters of water for the ride as the guides informed us that we would lose that much water during the journey.... might be true, but might also be a ploy to get us to spend $4 on each bottle.

We were on the smaller of two trains, the Aspen.  Cue the John Denver music.

We were pretty packed into the train.  We all had assigned seats of course.  We were aft facing so the whole trip was spent leaning forward.

We sat across from a nice lady named Vera.  She had brought her two granddaughters along for a little trip.  They lived outside Denver, but Vera was originally from the Czech Republic.  Bruce and Kirsten got to talk with her about their travels to Prague, but I had to sit their quietly and feel left out.

We started our train ride right on time and made our way up the steep train tracks towards the top of the peak.  Our conductor was very informative and pointed out lots of interesting facts along the way, none of which I can remember two weeks after the fact.

It was actually a rather gloomy day in Colorado, but after we made our way above the clouds a few thousand feet, we had nothing but sunshine and cool air!

About two thirds of the way to the top we passed the timberline, where trees stop growing.  Just under the ground there is a layer of permafrost all year long, which makes it impossible for trees and large plants to grow.  At this point, the views really became spectacular!  We also started to experience the "Rocky Mountain High" as we began to experience oxygen deprivation.  My ears started to tingle and Bruce turned bright red on his face.

We finally made it 14,110 feet to the top of the peak.  The weather was chilly and I loved every minute of it.

Now since this was a trip with Bruce and we were dubbing it a "mini man-cation" we needed to make sure one important ingredient was included.... Single Malt Scotch.  I secured a three bottle set of travel size miniature bottles of good Balvenie Scotch for our "tasting" at the top.  The trio consisted of 12, 15, and 21 year old malts (naturally Bruce took the 21 year old).  We celebrated our exhausting and challenging climb to the top with a wee nip or two. 

We had some time to walk around the top and explore the vistas.  It was very dry and dusty.

In 1893, Katherine Lee Bates visited the top of the peak and was so inspired she wrote a song, "America the Beautiful".  A plaque with the words commemorating the song is at the top.

Just when I thought I would pass out from lack of oxygen, it was time to board the train and begin our journey back to the bottom.  At this point we were all a little tired, but the ride down was still pleasant.

We spent a little time walking around Manitou Springs, a little hippy town at the base of the mountain.  We ate at a place called Hell's Kitchen.  After the dietary disaster the night before you think I would have learned my lesson, but no no no, I opted for the Macaroni and Cheese Pizza for lunch.  

Medical Marijuana is also a popular product in the town.  We saw lots of signs with the distinctive left around town. 

At this point we said our goodbyes to Bruce as he had to make his way back to Denver for the rest of his business trip.  Kirsten and I went back to the hotel and freshened up and then went out to my cousin Leslie's house for dinner with her family.  I had not seen her in years, so it was nice to spend time visiting and getting to meet her three kids for the first time.  The highlight of the evening of course was her husband Bryce's "Media Room to end all Media Rooms".  Puts any theatre to shame!