Europe 2009 Trip.

Background:

First I canb't type well, so ignore typing mistakes. (peter).

We're taking 2 months off and doing a hiking/biking trip in Europe. The idea initially was to bike for 2 full months but April's knee started hurting so we switched it to a hike (80%) and bike (20%). And right before we left April got plantar faciatis (sore foot)! Man that women is falling apart! And it better her than me cause she's tougher than me and will gut it out; I would wimp out.

We're starting with April's dream hike, coast to coast 200 miles across England, shitty food and all.

Red eye flight to London was fine. We slept for about 1/2 the duration and arrived in London feeling pretty good. Arrived later in the afternoon, got to our small B+B near Victoria station, had dinner at an Italian place then read/went to sleep. It was a Sunday and a holilday weekend (bank day on monday) so most of the shops/restaurants were closed.

Ok, then here's our first day in London with the Tiger (that's the family nickname for April who has to get out of her cage and go do things). And remember we're jet-lagged. We eat bfast, then go buy our train tickets to Robin Hood's Bay (start of hike), then go to another subway stop to get a sim card for the phone we brought, then we go buy 1/2 price theatre tickets for Billy Elliot, then we decide to go to the yearly Notting Hill festival which had literally hundreds of thousanda of people pushing around, April starts by getting lost and then crushed getting back to me, and we watch the mardi-gras like parades, dancing nude girls and all, then we have to walk forever to get back on the tube cause they closed some stops cause of too many people, then peter overrules April for the tube route back to a lunch spot, but that causes big problems cause they stop picking up at that station again cause of the festival, so then we go out of our way but finally get to Sloan square for lunch at 3:30, then walk back to our hotel, peter showers again cause he's got total swamp ass, then we rush out to eat (can't find the place at first), and then go to the freaking Billy Elliot from 7:30-10:30, and finally getback to the room at 11:00.

There was a time when we would have crushed that Notting Hill street party, but now our feet hurt, there's too many people, the music was too loud, we don't trust the jerked chicken street food, we can't start drinking beers at noon, and I'm worried about swalls and jock rash! Ha-ha! Wangstas!

The Billy Elliot play was very good. The lead kid was awesme. Mimi go see it.

Big cities seem to have the best and worst of everthing. Amazing variety and choices of food, arts, people, culture, etc. But so many tourists in London. And so expensive. And so many different ethnic groups. Very cosmopolitan and diverse city.

When I visit places I like to think about their history and the linakge to their present state. At that crazy festival it was harfd to imagine that this was the country that conquered the world and won WWII. Ddn't seem like alot of "salt of the earth" types. Must have been the country folks who are simpler yet tougher and more resourceful that carried the day. We'll see as we go upcountry.

Ok, that abvout it. On the next day we took the train to the start of our hike. That'll be the next entry.