My First and Probably My Last

This blog will be quite different then most….mainly because of the person writing it. Right now my wife is sleeping beside me at half past noon. She woke up this morning with a terrible stomach ache and thinking food would help she ate but in fact it didn’t help and that is why she is taking a lil nap. So I have taken it upon myself to be a good husband and take some of the weight that my wife carries off of her back and put it on my own. So if you are ready to hear about the end of our London journey and the beginning of our Switzerland journey from an insensitive, laid back, not much of a writer, no grammar skills-man than keep on reading….if not I will not be hurt, I promise. Okay enough of the intro….i just know that I have to jabber a lot or this blog would be about 2 sentences….We were in London and it was great. Now we are in Switzerland and it is great! So I hope you wont mind my jibber jabber!!!!!

If I am not mistaken my wife last finished with our dinner with Antonia and her boyfriend Antoni. So I will begin with the next day. We woke up around 11 as usual because we love to sleep and we stay up until 3 a.m. every night….but I am sure you already knew that. We decided to head into the city and check out some of the sites of London. We took the tube (i.e. underground rail system) to Waterloo exit where we walked out to the river and took a stroll along the banks. Of course since it was Saturday and it is London the banks were very busy and full of people doing things for money….such as this picture….which is hard to describe but basically there is a girl underneath the men and the entertainer removed the crates the men were sitting on but they stayed up and did not fall….which was pretty cool. Cool enough for Ashton to beg me to give her a pound to give the entertainer….which I eventually did. After that we walked a little further and saw some break dancing which we watched for a little bit and then moved on before Ashton would want to give any more money away. We found a souvenir shop where we bought our coaster…which was very nice for me because we usually have to go into 30 different stores looking for the right coaster and we usually end up going back and buying the one we saw first….so that was a relief. We then headed to parliament and took a few pictures which was all we really could do there. There was a park nearby that we went and sat at for a little while and then decided to go into the city center and grab something to eat. Of course going out to eat is very expensive in Europe so we just shared some nachos….played some monopoly deal and then headed back to our “home,” where we stayed the rest of the night and did a whole lot of nothing really.

Moving onto Sunday. We met up with Simon and Kiren, his fiancé. Now Simon is the main reason we wanted to come to London so we were really looking forward to meeting up with him as well as meeting his fiancé. A little background on how we know him. He lived in Danville quite a while ago and went to the same church, Danville Alliance, we did. He also stayed with my family for a summer I believe so I got to know him pretty well. We were meeting them in a tube station at 2:30. So Ash and I arrived at 2:15, because I like to be early, and waited for them. We waited and waited and waited. Since we have not phone there was no way to contact them. It was now almost 3:30 so I came up with a plan of me getting back on the tube and going back to the house and skyping him to see where he was and if everything was alright. I wanted Ash to stay just in case they showed up. Which they did right about the time I got back to the house. So I then returned and we headed off to eat some dinner at Nando’s. Now this is probably my favorite restaurant in all of Europe. The reason being is the fact that they have free refills. Which was unheard of until then even at your favorite fast food…McD’s. We ate two whole chickens, two baskets of chips (fries), coleslaw, corn on the cob and mashed potatoes. Yes we were very hungry…atleast Simon and I were. We then headed off to find our last souvenir which was something for the kitchen. Of course since it is Sunday everything closed at around six and sure enough it was 5 past 6. We finally found a place that was open till 6:30 and we went in. Everything was super expensive. Ashtons favorite thing was an 85 pound sugar bowl. Which comes out to be about 150 bucks. I definitely said no way! We then settled on a different sugar bowl that cost about 12 pounds…still a lot to me for a bowl that holds sugar….unless its gold sugar! We then hit up some starbucks because we were all getting tired and we needed some dessert after our huge meal. We talked a little more and then headed our separate ways. On Monday we went to Buckingham Palace, took a few pictures, looked at it and then headed back to the apartment to take a little nap because we were doing another all nighter in the airport. You are probably thinking that nothing has gone wrong for us in quite a while, besides the taxi driver not knowing where the apartment was. Well that is to come. Our wonderful host, Antonia, drove us to the train station and dropped us off free of charge because she is great. We then, luckily or not so luckily, got a train right away. Of course about 15 minutes into the train ride it stops. About 5 minutes later a voice over the intercom says there is a trespasser on the tracks and that it will be taken care of in a little bit. 15 minutes later same voice and same story…..another 15 minutes we are offered tea or coffee and the same story. Now they have switched off the train and half of the lights. 15 minutes later the same voice and the same story. So now we have been sitting in the train for a little over 45 minutes. Finally a worker comes by and says that they are going to shut off all of the lights and that we can either switch trains or stay on the train. She also tells us that are 40 pound tickets will be reimbursed. We decide to get off. We then had to carry, or I did, Ashtons 50 pound suitcase side ways all the way to the front of the train…and then up the stairs and over to the other side of the tracks where our train would come. Got on the train and about 45 minutes later finally we were at the airport. Ashton went to the train ticket station to talk to someone about our refund. They told her to fill out this form and if they thought it was worthy of a refund they would mail us a check to the US. So basically we are most likely not going to get a refund. But everything from then on went smooth.

We arrived in Swiss Cheese on time where our new host was ready to pick us up. He drove us over to Konstanz, Germany, right down the street basically, where we went to a market and got some fruit that cost 15 euro and we ate it all for dinner that night….an expensive dinner snack. Finally at about 2 p.m. we were at his house and we were sleeping….we then woke up to a dinner he had cooked for us, some grilled chicken, fruit (of course), weird colored potatoes (grayish purple), and an onion salad which I ate not so happily though ( if you don’t know me I despise onions). We ate all of this right on the lake at about sunset. After dinner he took us on a walk to see the little town of 500 people we live in. Then we headed home and started our long night of work.

Moving on to Wednesday…..we woke up at noon and Thomas, our host, had breakfast set out for us….he is just really awesome. After breakfast/lunch he took us to the top of hill to try and see the Alps but it was a little to hazy in the distance to see them. But it was still very pretty….and I saw a deer as well as some deer stands which I enjoyed quite a bit. Although in order to hunt in Switzerland you have to be born in a family that already does….which is pretty crazy! Anyways he then took us to a grocery store were we bought our food…obviously! Notice how I am getting less and less specific…..that happens when I write to much. After that we headed back and started working again. He cooked us some spaghetti for dinner and we also had some salad and some mandarin sherbert ice cream for din din! And now we are to Thursday where Ashton is lying next to me criticizing my spelling of sherbert…..but that is alright because I know it is only due to the stomach ache….well that is all for now folks!!!!! And probably all you will hear from me!