Post Engagment: London, Hamburg, Frankfurt

The conclusion of the third day of London is long overdue, and the trip to central Germany hasn't even been addressed- so here it goes:

Merry Christmas Eve!

A very merry Christmas to everyone! Cooledge arived safely from Seattle yesterday. We tore up the town visiting Christkindlemarkts, Farmer's Markets, doner stands, and Salamas (our favorite place to watch American football). Today we are attempting traditional German fare from Goose with apple stuffing, Knodel, Rotkohl. Tommorow brings Schnitzel, German Potato Salad, and Kaisershamm. Betty and Greg are also arriving today to kick off this holiday with some real merryment. This picture marks our third month and Europe and the first time we can really say we are living and working in Europe. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all- we miss you.

London: Day 1

Well, well, well... despite my fears of being flown into the House of Parliment in a terrorist attack, we've made it back safely to good ol' Berlin. I must admit, it's nice to get back to Berlin's grittiness. As far as our trip, we saw so much; therefore, we shall tell you of our adventures in London by the day.

We woke up bright and early Tuesday morning in Berlin, after a night of heavy cleaning (and a weekend of heavy drinking)... Our apartment mistress was coming back to reclaim her land for a few days, so we wanted to make it quite smashing for her (notice the English flair). We awoke in the early morning dawn and made our trek to Schönefeld Airport, where our RyanAir flight would soon be departing. We boarded the plane without any cavity searches (much to my disappointment) and were on our way to jolly ol' London Town!

After only and hour and twenty minutes, we landed at Stanstead Airport. After a brief inquisition into our reasons for visiting Britain, we were allowed to enter the country and boarded the Stanstead Express to London. Ebe kept looking for Platform Nine and Three Quarters, but I insisted we not spend one of our days at Hogwarts being made fun of for being muggels. Anyway, back to reality. The train ride into Liverpool Station lasted around 45 minutes, and we got to hear the lovely accents of the British people. It was weird not hearing German and took our ears a while to get acclimated to hearing English again... especially such silly English as what the Brits speak! Liverpool Station was beautiful, and Ebe and I were awestruck as we left the station and stepped into London's financial district. Buildings with old world charm stood next to shimmering sky scrapers; one of which was shaped like a huge pin cone! We decided on our way to the station that we would take a walking tour and try to see all of the big sites on our way to our hostel.

After leaving the financial district, we promptly entered the City of London. Back in the day this was London, which was surrounded by many other towns and villages (such as Westminister, Bloomsbury, and Southwark), which have today become part of London. The sidewalks were much smaller than any other city we've been in thus far, and the city itself much denser. We zig-zagged our way through the center and saw St. Paul's Cathedral rising in front of us. It was quite a site to behold. Thanks to some handy plaques, we learned that St. Paul's has the second highest free standing dome in the world, outside of the Vatican! Pretty impressive eh? We continued on our way to Covent Garden, which is a little "old" world shopping center. We were a little bummed to see that there wasn't a Christmas Market as we had expected, but it was still fun to see musicians playing the classics such as Handel and Mozart. We wandered around for a while, but it wasn't really quite our thing, plus we had to get to Piccadilly Circus to pick up our London Passes before the tourist office closed.

The closer we got to Piccadilly Circus, the more touristy the area became. On every corner were souvenir stands and McD's, with even a few Starbucks scattered here and there. The square itself at Piccadilly's is kind of comparable to Times Square in New York we've heard, so try to imagine that with a little English flair and not the huge skyscrapers. We picked up our London Passes, went to a British supermarket named Temco, and proceeded to a little park named St. James's Square, where we had a tasty sandwich with cheddar cheese (finally some cheddar) and ham. After looking at the map, we realized we weren't too far from Buckingham Palace, so we decided to drop in on the old broad. After walking up to the gate, we realized we couldn't just walk in and say hello, as there were soldiers standing guard outside the gate... along with some policemen with badass guns. Now you may be thinking that the guards here are the ones you always see on TV and in the movies, who are wearing red uniforms with the huge black hats that make them look like a giant's q-tip, but unfortunately they were dressed in more "present day" garb. After watching them "walk up and down the square," we told the Queen bye bye and headed to Westminister Abbey and the Houses of Parliment.

We walked through St. James's Park on the way there, and saw some cool things: some boxers sparing one another, crazy squirrels, and geese that were more curious than George! Westminister Abbey was quite a site to behold, but just beyond it stood Big Ben, which I think took a little bit away from the Abbey's splendor. Big Ben is part of a huge building of the Houses of Parliment. It's a grandiose building with beautiful architecture. Probably my favorite site in the city. It was really neat being next to Big Ben thinking that years ago Peter Pan flew by with the Darling children on their way to Never Neverland. Needless to say, we took a few pictures and headed over the Thames toward our hostel in Kennington.

After many wrong turns, and seeing a little street fight, we finally made it to our hostel. We caught our breath, put our junk away, and headed out to an English pub for some tasty British ales. We found a neat little local place not too far from our hostel and grabbed a pint. We sat down next to a charming man with a lovely mullet and continued to watch soccer with the patrons of the bar. After many "bloody hells" and "fuck offs" yelled at the TV screens, Mr. Sandman was coming to collect his dues. We said "cheerio" to this lovely crew and headed back to the hostel to catch some much needed Z's.

Coming up... Will Ebe and Ian get lost in the maze of the Tube? Or will they get caught up in a good ol' English hooligan soccer riot?  Maybe they'll even unfoil the plot of the British dental epidemic...

 London: Day 2 ( ebe gets the surprise of her life)
London: Day 3
London 2011
All UK posts

2 months!

Into the second month! Weekend in Austria was amazing with a wonderful family and many great memories. The video in the upper left shows the actual Christkindlemarkt (Christmas Market) we went to in Vienna. In other news- Ian has almost got a job (woohooo!)& we are continuing to work on papers (sigh). NEXT- London.

We have added some new features to the blog. On the lower left there is a link of sights in Berlin. We also have a slideshow of our pictures in the left hand column. We are currently trasferring our pictures from Webshots to Flickr so if you wanna look at either disorganized mess of pics just go to either of those sites and look up beakymcgee & the photos will be there.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I think Ian & I are just going to go scavenge around & buy a 1/2 a chicken! Maybe if we're lucky we'll find a place that will show the Macy's Day Parade & football. That's the essence of Thanksgiving right?

The Continental Shelf

One of the biggest differences I've found about our apartment in Germany and our old apartment back home (besides of course the shower in the kitchen), is the idiocy of our German toilet. I hope you all don't mind, but I shall try my best to describe this phenomenon.

Like most toilets around the world, you would expect to poo right directly into the water at the bottom of the toilet bowl; however, many toilets here in Germany have a small porcelain shelf that catches the poo. Then when flushing (and hoping the water pressure is good enough and the poo not too hearty), the poo should just slide right off into the lower basin and disappear forever as it should.

This "lay and display" idea is monstrous to me. It just sits there on the top shelf and continues to stink up the bathroom the entire time as you try and finish as quickly as possible. Gone are the lovely days of crossword puzzles and PSP games while I passed through one of life's many pains in the asses... yes, the pun was intended. And I thought Germans were the best engineers...

We're ready for our close-up Mr. DeVille

We have been trying to organize our huge load of photos since arriving but have had numerous requests to just see the pics SO:
http://community.webshots.com/user/beakymcgee
they are a bit of a mess which we will keep working on. In the meantime- enjoy

(if you have trouble with the link just go to webshots & the username is beakymcgee)

Alcohol anyone?

At times it may appear Americans have a peculiar relationship with alcohol, but I have come to believe we ain't got nothing on Berlin baby!

Football in Deutschland

Football, the kind played with your hands- not your feet. Elusive in Berlin, Ian was able to hunt down a game in Freidrichshain with a bunch of other fans. We made it just in time for the highly anticipated Patriots v. Colts game & the room was packed! A lot of American guys, a German or two, & a Swede all fell into speaking in English with all fo its colloquialisms & slang. We have resisted the temptation to hang out with English speakers till now, but the trade off was some leads on jobs, advice on how to go forward, and proof that other determined Americans landed in Berlin without much of a plan & have thrived. Thank you Toy Town, thanks fellow ex-pats, and most of all thank you football (although the Colts should have won).

They love stamps... lots of stamps.

Well, Ebe and I are officially registered with the local town hall. A rule in Germany is that you must register with your local town hall whenever changing addresses. We've been kind of bad and waited until today to do it. The process wasn't all that difficult, but we were a little nervous going in because our landlady has never registered, so we didn't want to get her in trouble. Needless to say, after a few questions in German, a glance at our passport, and some data input, we were given a piece of paper with a stamp showing that we have officially registered.... yay. Apparently German bureaucracy loves stamps. We finally have a document that is stamped, and now all we need are a few more to finally apply for an extension on our VISA.

After all this, I think I need a coffee. Which reminds me of a little rant I had with Ebe outside the Fernsehturm one day. Back home, Seattle being home of course, you order a coffee and you have your choice of 4 different sizes... short, tall, grande, and venti. Germany seems to have the choice of two... small or large, and the large isn't even that big! I order a large and get a cup of coffee the size of a short back home! Now, if I can still hold my hands still enough to perform a vasectomy on Kevin Federline, the coffee was too damn small. If I'm not running for the nearest john for fear of befouling my pants after my cup of coffee, the coffee was too damn small. I want to be shaking like a whore in church or Michael J. Fox after my coffee. Oh sweet Seattle barristas, how I miss thee.

German v. American

There are many subtleties to appreciate in the difference between Germans & Americans. Ian & I are going to watch a football game tonight & Ian posted to the group to ask about details. An interested German also had some questions. Guess which one is Ian:

nw2berlin
Post #99

So Salama's tonight eh? What is the going rate for beers there? Do they have any specials or anything? This dollar/Euro conversion is really kicking my ass.


winterfeld
post #100

I'm new within this topic, .. is it possible to join your group this evening in Salamas bar?