It's an old axiom in American culture that a visit from the in-laws is usually something to dread.
Luckily, in our family that does not hold true. Gloria and I are extremely fortunate to have two sets of wonderful parents, and everyone gets along brilliantly (that's British for "really well"). And no, I'm not just saying that because they read our blog (hi Mom!). It really is true.
So when Gloria's parents told us they wanted to come visit, we were excited....even when they said they were coming for over a month. Yep, you read that right. They came to London and stayed with us from the end of October until the first week of December - 6 weeks in all. We had a whole mess of fun adventures, so let's dive right in!
Naturally, we start with their arrival. Gloria's parents were a bit jet lagged, so they took a nap. Gloria immediately reverted back to her childhood and crawled into bed with her Mommy & Daddy.
We did all the typical London touristy stuff:
Took an open-top bus tour
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| Fun fact: The dragon marks the border of the City of London. It's basically the city boundaries from ancient times. Pretty cool! |
Trafalgar Square
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| Why yes, that is a giant blue chicken. Why do you ask? |
Covent Garden
We even made our way down to the Old Royal Navy College in Greenwich. It's actually a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is a really beautiful place.
In addition to the touristy stuff, we had a few fun other happenings as well. First up, Gloria's Mom's birthday! We celebrated with a delicious breakfast cooked up by yours truly (thankyouverymuch).
We also had the chance to visit with Gloria's Dad's cousin who lives in London, which was great. It was the first time they've seen each other in many years, so we had a nice reunion and dinner.
Being the huge nerds that we are, Gloria's Dad and I went to a gadget show. We got to play around with all sorts of stuff, including the Occulus Rift.
The Occulus Rift is a virtual reality rig that you wear (as you see in the pic). It's hard to explain, but when you're wearing it you really do feel like you're moving. As you look around, your view changes and it's a cool/dizzying sensation. I highly recommend trying it out if you have a chance.
All in all, we had lots of fun with Ma and Ba Ba in London. Oh, also one other thing I forgot to mention. While they were here they pretty much rode all of London's public transportation. Seriously. When they arrived they bought a one month pass, and then set out to get their money's worth. Overground, underground, bus... you name it, they rode it.
Some days they would leave the apartment in the morning and just take the tube out to the furthest station they could, and somehow they'd come home with bags of fruits, veggies, and other various items that they got for about 50 pence. It was glorious! By the time they left London we had our very own in-house transportation experts. Score!
In addition to our fun in London, we also took a few side trips to Germany, Bath, and Paris. Giddyup!
GERMANY
We went to visit Sven's parents Maria & Gert in Frankfurt, touring around the area and checking things out. |
| Gert leading the way into Frankfurt |
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| Atop a skyscraper overlooking the city |
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| Those Germans apparently love their Jagermeister! |
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| Downtown Frankfurt |
For those who have never been, Heidelberg is a quintessential German small city, with a castle and everything!
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| In the castle courtyard |
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| The view from the castle |
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| This is the view back down the train tracks up to the castle. I just thought it was a cool pic. |
especially St. Stephen's church and its blue stained glass windows.
But more than the churches, it is known for the annual carnival. (Per Wikipedia), The Mainz Carnival is a months-long city-wide carnival celebration featuring celebrations, parades, and jollity which are typical of carnival traditions in many countries, with a special emphasis on political and literary humor and commentary. Oh those Germans and their political and literary commentary. They are the life of the party.
From what we saw, the carnival was kicked off by a parade of freaky giant headed costumed people,
the crowd was all dressed up as well,
and it all centered around a big gathering in the town square with singing, dancing, and other frivolity.
Despite not understanding the words to any of the songs it was a neat experience and we're glad we saw it. And with that, it was time to bid Germany farewell...
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| A picture I took while walking along the train tracks in Mainz. I really like this one. |
BATH
Bath is a really neat city located a couple hours West of London. It is most well know for its natural hot springs, which is why the Romans erected thermal baths there (hence the name of the city), and for the unique (within the UK) Roman style architecture. Oh, it's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so there's that. Let's check it out!
The city is filled with cool architecture and churches all over the place.
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| These are the original Roman baths. There are new, modern thermal baths, which we also checked out. Sooo worth it. |
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| The bathstore! In Bath! Get it??? |
On our way back to London, we made a pit stop at some fancy rock pile or something.
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| Possibly the greatest of all henges |
Stonehenge was interesting. Nothing terribly exciting, but it is for sure worth seeing. Oh, also another UNESCO World Heritage Site. I've lost count, but I think we're at around 10 or so now. Pretty cool!
Paris
Ah Paris. While nothing can ever compare to the sweet bromance John and I shared in this fine city, this trip was another good one. Our first trip to Paris with parents. As you would expect, we hit up the usual sites:
The Louvre
The Love Bridge
Notre Dame Cathedral
The Eiffel Tower
Gloria's Happy Place (Moulin Rouge)
Champs-Élysées
Arc de Triomphe
And last, but most interesting/creepy, The Catacombs of Paris
The catacombs are a really interesting place. Basically, back in the late 1700's Parisians were running out of places to bury the dead. So they decided to build the catacombs and started burying the dead there. Today, the catacombs hold the remains of over 6 million people, and they are a tourist attraction. We walked the length of them and it is an interesting place. Kind of creepy, almost sacred feeling, and definitely worth a visit. I highly recommend it.
After Paris, it was back to London. Just in time to celebrate Thanksgiving!
Nothing says 'Murica like celebrating the pilgrims fleeing England to the new world. In your face London!
All joking aside, we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. Gloria's Mom made the turkey & gravy, Gloria made the sweet potatoes, and I made the stuffing, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. It was a great team effort!
Alright, that's about it (phew, that was a long one). We really enjoyed having Gloria's parents here to visit. So many adventures and so much fun.
Coming soon: Our final visitors of the year help us close out 2013....
Until then, cheers!
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