Travel For Two

Playing Hooky at Wimbledon

Posted on June 23rd, 2009 by g.
Categories: Living Abroad - Life in London.

Yesterday we took the day off work and headed to Wimbledon for The Championships. While K went two years ago when friends were in town, this was my first time. It was great fun!

We arrived early afternoon joining the queue to for tickets and made it in to the grounds after a couple hours. We walked around the courts dropping in on a few matches and taking it all in before taking a break for the traditional strawberries & cream and champagne. Then we settled in some seats and to watch Vliegen vs. Mahut and finished out the day with Ladies’s Singles watching Cornet vs. Dushevina.

I have never watched tennis on TV and have always thought it was a bit boring, but I really got into and had a great time. I’m already planning on doing it again next year!

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Nice Day for a…White Wedding!

Posted on May 24th, 2009 by k.
Categories: Living Abroad - Life in London.

Our friends Mike (one of G’s coworkers) and Alex were married this weekend in Beccles…near Suffolk.

We had AMAZING weather for our trip to this little riverside town and were able to enjoy a run along the river, an ice cream at the Quay and an absolutely spectacular wedding event–thanks Mike & Alex!

Unfortunately, we forgot our camera at home, but G did manage to snap a few shots with his iPhone.

First, the church was built in 1291! Yes, that’s right. 1291!! The pastor (the bride’s cousin) was once a Versace model. She wore her mom’s English lace veil. The reception was held inside a huge marquee outside the family manor house (Mufton Hall). Guests included the daughter of the once president of Cyprus, a BBC commentator, a journalist from Parliament…not to mention over a hundred others who were the absolute nicest people you could ever hope to meet. Add to this mix the absolute sweetest, most caring couple who thought of every possible detail in order to make every guest feel valued and at home. And you have–the perfect wedding day! It was spectacular. So happy to have been a part of it.

Congratulations Alex & Mike, thanks for letting us be a part of your day!!!

We traveled back to London today to enjoy the remainder of the bank holiday weekend! Thank goodness for the weekend sunshine!

To see more photos from the wedding, click here.

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One Sea, Red Sea, Two Sea, Dead Sea

Posted on May 17th, 2009 by g.
Categories: Asia, Travel.

We crossed the border back into Israel and took a quick detour into Eilat to dip our toes into the Red Sea. While standing on the beach, looking to our left we saw Jordan. Looking to our right we saw Egypt.

Then we headed north to the Dead Sea and one of the highlights of our Israel trip. The Dead Sea is the saltiest sea on Earth with over 33% salinity and the lowest point on Earth at 400 meters below sea level. The high oxygen levels and minerals in the water make it popular spas. And bobbing like a cork is fun!

I was afraid that it would be novel rather than enjoyable, but in fact we loved floating and relaxing in the calm salty waters our first day. We stayed all afternoon bobbing in the water and soaking up some sun. While we received loads of warnings about the salty water causing small cuts to sting, it wasn’t that bad. However, the bottom of the sea is coated with sharp pointy salt crystal that really hurt to walk on. Top tip for dead sea visitors — bring some type of shoe to wear in the water.

The windy second day stirred up some waves that made it a bit tougher to relax in the water. You do not want to get the water on your face as it stings your eyes and lips. So we took our photos and then opted for the mud masks — from head to toe. The mud is supposed to have properties that make it attractive for spa treatments. It certainly did something — it is incredible how soft out skin felt. The hype about the dead sea treatments can’t be just hype.

While at the Dead Sea, we stayed at the Ein Gedi Kibbutz. A kibbutz is a commune and is a popular way of life in Israel. People have freedom to choose to live in the commune, unlike in communist nations, but as a part of the commune, they share in the work and belongings of the community. The kibbutz has morphed over the years, and many now cater to tourism.

Ein Gedi is actually an oasis. In the middle of the desert, there is a patch of lush green with waterfalls and pools. We hiked up in the afternoon for a dip.

We spent a night in Tel Aviv in between Nazareth and Petra and finished our trip with another night in Tel Aviv. Heading back from the Dead Sea, we took the highway through the West Bank. We didn’t venture to any Palestinian towns, but saw the fences and roadblocks imposed on the borders. It really left me with mixed feelings. We also some great signs while driving through the desert warning us of camels!

Back in Tel Aviv, this time we headed into town first. We visited the art museum where we saw pieces by Piccaso, Monet and Van Gogh and others. We ate frozen yoghurt Israeli style with fresh fruit toppings, wandered through the market and found an nice sidewalk restaurant for lunch. Then it was too the beach to catch our last rays, dip our toes in the Mediterranean one last time and watch the sunset on our Israel trip.

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Petra Jordan

Posted on May 14th, 2009 by g.
Categories: Asia, Travel.

Crossing the border from Israel to Jordan was a real experience. It is the first time that we crossed an international border that felt like a real border. Each side had the armed guards at the gate with watch towers, barbed wire and a strip of no-mans land in the middle. We couldn’t take our car with us, so we parked it and carried our bags over to the other side. From there we grabbed a Taxi to drive us the 2 hours to Petra.

Living in a big city and a wealthy nation, it seems foreign to us to take a Taxi long distances. But in some parts of the world, it is very affordable (by our standards) and the most efficient way to travel. For the same cost of catching a taxi across town in London, we were able to travel the 120km.

We arrived in Petra in the evening just in time for the Petra by night tour. Our first views of the ancient city came walking down the luminary lined canyon to the Treasury — the most famous of the stone carved building facades. It is also featured in one of the Indiana Jones movies (can anybody name which one? and which scene?).

This magical introduction was followed by a full day hiking through the ancient sites. Out cab driver’s advice was perfect — we stared early and hiked to the opposite end first to see the Monastery — the second most famous building. The early start kept us fresh for the 800 stairs at the end and we beat the crowds to have the place to ourselves. We enjoyed an early box lunch provided by our hotel while taking in the view.

While eating lunch, we met the local goats. They were looking for food and weren’t shy. A big one approached us and headed straight for our bag. I moved the bag and gave him a ’shoo’ as usually works with a dog. This goat was more persistent. He continued for the bag and didn’t have a problem going through me. K and I looked at each other and realized this was going to require more effort. I stood up and blocked the goat with my back to him while K quickly gathered up our things. The goat wasn’t happy about this and gave me a bit of a buck on the backside. With all but K’s sweater in our hands, we thought we were clear. But you know that saying about goats eating anything? He went after the sweater! Fortunately we beat him to it and made our get-away. It was quite comical. And even more comical watching the goats approach the next group of hiker’s arrive. We managed to catch one goat on video struggling with a bag.

That night we learned to cook some traditional dishes at The Petra Kitchen.

After two days in Petra, it was back to Israel for a dip in the Dead Sea. I’ll wrap our trip with that and Tel Aviv in the next post.

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Jerusalem to Galilee

Posted on May 13th, 2009 by g.
Categories: Asia, Travel.

Since returning from Israel, we have been busy with a marathon and a trip to Champagne that we got a bit behind on our posts. We’ll catch up this week to fill you in on our trip to Israel.

The trip had its ups and downs, but finished on a high. We also ventured over to Jordan which we really enjoyed and prompted us to joke that the highlight of our trip to Israel — was Jordan. During our trip we dipped our toes in the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee.

It all started in Jerusalem. And that’s where we started as well hitting the holy sites first thing. We watched Jews pray at the Western Wall (or Wailing Wall) bobbing their head up and down. We walked around the Dome of the Rock, the mosque built over the rock that is the cornerstone of the world — where Adam and Eve were formed, Issac was commanded to sacrifice his son, and Muhammad ascended to Heaven. And we saw the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where Jesus died on the cross. We thought it odd that every holy site has a church or mosque built on top of it — but I suppose that helps to protect (or claim) it. The highlight though was the sunrise service Easter morning at The Garden Tomb.

Israel has a perplexing mix of old and new. Wandering through the souks and stalls in the narrow winding streets of the Old City reminded us of Marrakech and Stonetown. Yet only a half mile away and we strolled down a wide modern pedestrian street lined with global brands that reminded me of the Streets at Southpoint.

While the guide book says you could spend a week in Jerusalem alone, we found two days to be plenty and headed up north on the third. Unfortunately, this is where we hit a few bumps in the road with our GPS and bank card. We spent the afternoon in Akko and enjoyed a nice seafood lunch overlooking the Mediterranean from the city’s ancient walls. Billed as the best of Israel in the guide book, we expected more Cinque Terre charm than it could muster and were glad to head inland in hopes of catching the sun set over the Sea of Galilee.

It was here that we witnessed first hand the air pollution challenges of a small industrialized nation as the sun disappeared long before it hit the horizon. We did dipped our toes in and chatted with some of the locals camping out for their holiday weekend. Still battling to find some place that would take our bank card, we escaped the stress on the Jordan river. Renting kayaks we half floated, half paddled down the river. The river banks were lush and green and we felt we escaped the pollution as well. A small rapid provided a bit of a thrill to contrast with the real-life version of the amusement park’s ‘Lazy River’.

Wrapping up our time in the north after two days, we stopped off at Tel Aviv on our way to Jordan — which I’ll tell you about tomorrow.

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Champagne!

Posted on May 10th, 2009 by k.
Categories: Europe, Travel.

Heading to France is like heading home. It’s relaxing and easy.

Sometimes France gets a bad rap, but for us, France is heavenly. The people are amazingly friendly and helpful (when you make an effort to know them), the food is incredible, aesthetics are polished and the vistas are gorgeous. Not to mention the wine. And, perhaps most importantly, we can be there in 2 hours from London’s St. Pancras station…

Last weekend, we headed out to the Champagne Region for the extended bank holiday weekend. We stayed in a little town called Reuilly near the center of it all at an adorable little B&B run by owners Bill & Meredith. Both Americans, they were very kind and helped coach us along to have a great getaway… helping us set out our plans for each day, inviting us for champagne toasts at the inn and making our reservations for dinners out. Bill makes incredible breads and they are both lively conversationalists. And they have impeccable taste in art. They were amazing hosts. And we admired them both very much for the lives they’ve lived.

Though the little town of Reuilly is literally just a cow path crossing, there was a Michelin star restaurant across the way at the ‘Auberge le Relais’. We had our monthly nice meal out there… with champagne, of course. In fact, people in Champagne drink it like most have beer. And the quality from even the smallest independents is incredible.

During the day, we headed out in search of a few open independents for a ‘degustation’. We weren’t particular about which wines to taste, so we let luck run its course and being ‘ouvert’ (French for open) would make us stop. Of course, being in France on a weekend, this was a severe limiting tactic.

Tasting Champagne was an interesting change. Being slow season (June is peak) and a weekend, owners would happily open a bottle for you to try a wine. But the wine will go flat between their visitors. If you buy, the tasting’s free. So it became a bit of a game. The wine maker wanted to provide you with more and more from the bottle (in hopes that you would buy more and more and with nothing to lose as the opened bottle would go flat). But, alas, we were driving and had to be good. Of course we bought wine at each.

First up, we ventured to a fun little shop just outside of Dormans. The lively owner’s son had just returned from being a foreign exchange student in Richmond (VA!). So it was fun to chat about his son (and to meet him). He also gave us a tour of his operation. They make about 40k bottles per year and do it all in-house. About an hour in, a nice Belgian couple and their son and daughter-in-law dropped in. He had made a special bottle of champagne for their village dinner and they had dropped down to pick up the lot. We stayed about an hour more and had a great conversation with them about our recent trip to Israel and Jordan. They, too, are well traveled and it was really fun trading notes.

We tried a variety of vineyards and all were fun. A couple were small with no English speakers. But we spoke enough French to get a taste and to buy a couple bottles at each. And our last independent’s (and our favorite wine of the trip) owner was younger than the others. The vineyard had been in the family for many generations and the time had come for her to take on the family yoke. In 2008, she moved back to Champagne to the family farm (near the Marne River) after living in Paris. She spoke passionately about her wines, but also spoke candidly about the new responsibility on her shoulders. Not married, she seemed a bit disappointed with the change in lifestyle and the depth of stress being so close to the family. She gave us a window in to the love and respect for tradition that make the French so uniquely different. Despite the consequences, she would never have dreamed of letting down the family by not returning.

While in Champagne, we also visited one of the big outfits—Pommery. The facilities are impressive as they have 18 kilometers of caves for wine storage carved from the old chalk underground. It’s clear that Pommery don’t take themselves too seriously (in a positive way) as they currently have an intriguing and bizarre art installation (live birds, lots of seed and guitars…amongst inflatable tanks, bizarre aliens, etc.). But the wine itself isn’t impressive as compared to its independent competitors (in our opinion)…especially in terms of value. Its price matches the big name.

The vistas in Champagne were restful and beautiful. Bright yellow rapeseed fields were everywhere in mass. Add the green, green grass and a blue sky every now and again and the scenes were astonishingly beautiful. But, as with every season, there were tradeoffs. Being early May, the green fields of June were generally chalky brown with a tinge of green.

We had an incredible weekend away. But returned to a mad, mad week in London. As is always the case in advertising — it’s feast or famine. Luckily or unluckily, K returned to the feasting madness that ensued upon our return from Israel in late April. For us, it’s nice to get away as otherwise our time together is very limited, indeed.

This weekend has also been a good one. We’ve had lovely weather. K received a present from her client yesterday… and as luck would have it, the present was a posh picnic kit (whose client sends them present—her client is a dream, indeed). So yesterday, we headed to the hill with a bottle of bubbly and our yummy picnic treats. And today was also spent outdoors.

On another front, while G ran a marathon in April, K’s been diligent about going to the gym. But she decided to push things a bit harder (than her usual walking/elliptical/steamroom workout J). The trainer at the gym suggested running as a nice summertime activity, so we headed out to have her fitted for running shoes today. She’s been challenged by a friend to run a half marathon next March (in Bath followed by a spa visit, of course). And by the trainer to run a 5k by the end of July. She’ll need lots of encouragement along the way…

See additional photos from Champagne!

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I ran the London Marathon!

Posted on April 26th, 2009 by g.
Categories: Living Abroad - Life in London.

I did it!

I ran a great race and I beat my target of 4 hours. I also ran a ‘negative split’ which some describe as the ‘holy grail’ of marathon running. That means that I ran the first half of the race (1:58:30) slower and the second half (1:54:52) for a total time of 3:53:22. This is a notable accomplishment for a first marathon.

The crowds are amazing. Both on and of the course. To help manage the 36,000 runners, the field is split the field into three different starts that converge about 3 miles into the race. As we converged one group of runners on one side yelled ‘Oggy Oggy Oggy’ and the runners on the other side yelled ‘Oi Oi Oi’.

The runners are so thick at the start, that it is futile trying to run faster than the crowd. While this could be a bit of a frustration for competitive runners, it helped me keep a slow and steady pace and achieve the negative split. I expected the field to thin out quite a bit later in the race. It never did. It wasn’t as thick as the start, but there was a solid crowd all the entire way.

Off the course, the streets are lined with people for the entire 26.2 miles. Some of the popular spots have people lined up several dozen deep. Pubs are popular. Each one along the course is packed with people and has a band or DJ to electrify both the runners and spectators. One had a DJ in a traffic island as runners flowed around on either side. Another memorable spot featured big oriental drums echoing beneath an underpass.

For such a long race, the time flew by. A huge boost was all of the people cheering for me along the way. K did a fantastic job organizing a Cheer Squad which gave me a big kick at mile 22. But with my name on my shirt, there was someone to cheer me on through the entire race. If I needed more cheers, I simply moved from the center to the side next to the crowds.

While overall brilliant, there were a few wrinkles. The knee I injured about a month ago started bothering me at about 9 miles. It got better and worse throughout the race, but I managed to push through. Sometime after mile 21 I also got a cramp in my right foot which was a pain and I discovered once arriving at home that my right foot is covered in blisters. Didn’t have any of that in my training.

It was good that I did some of my training in Israel. It was hot for my last 12 mile run at the Dead Sea. And it was hot today (ok, by British standards… I think it was 68°F. I thought it was quite nice). Despite the forecast of cool and buckets of rain, the sky was clear and bright with sun. I was glad I got a few warm weather runs in and was prepared with my hat and sunglasses which I otherwise never would have bought.

Overall a great day. Would I do it again? Tough to say. You can’t beat the crowds and the atmosphere. And it didn’t really hurt while I was running. It actually felt great because of my training and picking a reasonable pace. However I don’t look forward to a repeat of the months of training and just the thought of another 26.2 miles makes my knee hurt. If it weren’t for my knee injury, I’d probably say yes. I almost registered for the Berlin marathon last month. Perhaps I still will.

Here is the results from the tracker today. It dropped out for about hour at around mile 12 due to my fat fingers (no I didn’t hop on the tube from Bermondsey to Canary Wharf!) but overall it worked well.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

And here is a Google Map of the run as recorded by my Garmin Forerunner 405 GPS watch (Thanks Mom and K!)

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