Mantra for the Week: Pudding!

In Thornton Wilder's play The Matchmaker (or the musical version Hello, Dolly! if you prefer), the lovable bumblers Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker leave Yonkers, NY, where they're supposed to be minding Horace Vandergelder's store, and spend the day in New York City (I think these names are hilarious, by the way). They are afraid they won't know if they're having an adventure or not, so they decide on a code word to let them know: Pudding. For Jill and me, this week was definitely pudding.

Jill and Sunny at Tower Bridge

Jill left this morning and one of her requests on the way to the tube was that I write a blog entry about her time here before she gets home to read it. After taking a three-hour nap, I'm ready to oblige - seriously, this touristy stuff is hard. I know I've said it before, but it's really true.

What have we done in the last week? Just about everything we had time for. The weather didn't much cooperate with her visit - it was pretty grey and rainy the whole week, and the temperature was a bit chilly - but we managed to do a lot of fun things, including some I hadn't done before. Probably my favourite new thing was climbing to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. Typically I'm loath to pay the admission to get into London's big churches (but as I'm a good guide, we went to both Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's), so I've only been into St. Paul's once before and it was a very quick visit a decade ago. This time, we spent the time (and the £15) to do the tour justice and climbed to the top. Even though it was a pretty dismally cloudy day, the views were spectacular and the cool breeze felt really good after all the steps. A word to the wise: when there are seventeen signs saying 'Watch Your Head', you should do that. Right, Jill?

One view from the top of St. Paul's

Another highlight to the last week was renting a car to drive to Stonehenge and Bath. I'm not going to pretend to describe the whole day. Suffice it to say, getting out of London in morning traffic takes a long, long time; when it's windy and a little rainy, Stonehenge is not the warmest place to be; and there is never enough time in Bath. I think I've been there at least four separate times now, and I always feel rushed and like there's still so much more to see and do. It's such a beautiful city and it's a shame there aren't ever more hours to do it justice. At some point I'm going to have to spend a couple of days there rather than always making it a day trip out of London. We did manage to squeeze in a quick visit to the Jane Austen Centre, though - this is what happens when I'm your tour guide.

At cold and windy Stonehenge

Bath (photo courtesy of Stephanie Sinclair)

Sunny at Stonehenge

Renting a car was a definite adventure, and trying to get it back to London on time was more than we had bargained for. Nonetheless, a successful and hilarious day in the English countryside. What's better than that?

One of my biggest challenges this year is not having a smart phone. I didn't realize how much I unconsciously relied on it until it wasn't there; as Jill put it, we were suddenly living in 1997 again. Jill didn't have a phone at all this week and mine is, well, a not-smart phone. In the spirit of 'pudding', Jill and I left London last weekend for a quick jaunt to Paris. The morning had a somewhat magical start (my alarm didn't go off at 5:45 when I wanted it to and I still managed to wake up by 6:00 so we didn't miss our train), but we were a little less organized leaving for Paris than one might wish. The post-it note with our hotel information spent a lovely weekend alone on my desk in London. So with no way to check email for our hotel information, no GPS or maps with us, and my phone which died on the train, we arrived at the Gare du Nord in Paris. We knew the area of our hotel, so figured out the Metro and guessed which stop to take, found a map that gave two possibilities for our hotel, and picked one. We guessed right.

Although the weekend had a somewhat bumpy start, we had a wonderful time wandering Paris, the Champs-Élysées, visiting the Arc de Triomphe, Sacré Cœur and Montmartre, the Louvre, Notre Dame de Paris, and the Latin Quarter. Even the weather cooperated. 

On the Champs-Élysées

You know, I did a report on the Arc de Triomphe in fifth grade.

I spend much of my travelling life on guided tours, usually with students, but the freedom to walk and see things as we chose this last week is much my preference. Although there were still things we wanted to see and do, the flexibility to change plans, sit down for a pint, or enjoy something for an extra hour is so much fun. Additionally, the gift of reconnecting with a childhood friend for a week in two of the world's most fabulous cities is one whose value cannot be overstated. I've been a lucky, lucky girl this year: I have wonderful new friends I adore and with whom I've been able to explore, I live in my favourite city and get to see it every day, and lots of my favourites from home have been able to visit me. Don't get me wrong, I spent my fair share of time thinking about my life in Minnesota this week - partially because Jill and I went to see Singin' in the Rain last night, a show that's made me tense with fear since I directed it in 2004 - and I miss lots of things and people there, but there are no words for how much I love where I am today. Pudding!

More pictures from our week are on Facebook here. The album is public.