Guest Blog: Heather, my sister-in-law's tale of her honeymoon with my brother in London

I would like to introduce a new series of guest bloggers with my sister-in-law, Heather, and her tale of times in London with my brother on their honeymoon. Pictures follow. Hope you enjoy...

So my brother-in-law STEVE runs this fantastic blog, and was kind enough to let me brag about my honeymoon to all his readers. His brother Ryan, my new husband, and I spent two marvelous weeks in London and Dublin, with a three-day jaunt over to Galway on the western coast of Ireland. Everything was beautiful - more than I could have possibly imagined - and other aspects, well….you'll see.

I'm going to do this post in two parts: first will be London, and I'll have a follow-up in the next week or so about my time in Ireland. This is for both our benefits (but mostly mine - my fingers will get sore from typing).

I get a little snap happy with my camera (these pics are from my iPhone and my Nikon D300) but lucky for all of you, they're not bad representations of life over there! I tried to eliminate the requisite photos of my standing in front of Big Ben with my hand out to make it appear as though I were "leaning" on it…there were a frightening number of those happening and I don't want to talk about it.  Anyway…..

After a six hour flight, Ryan and I had a one-hour layover in Dublin before heading onto Heathrow Airport in London (that flight was like a commuter train - 50 minutes and tons of business people). I thought by taking an overnight flight and landing in London at 11 am, we would abolish any and all troubles with traditional jet lag. HA! We literally spent our first day in London passed out on the bed. Like, that's it. I think we went to some sushi place that night, but honestly, I was a zombie.

So after my embarrassing waste of my first day in a city I've always dreamed of visiting, we got right into some of the more "touristy" things before coming back to our B&B in Notting Hill. The Main House sits among the residential Georgian townhouses of London's West End neighborhood, which boomed after that movie with Julia Roberts came out. There are a bunch of designer boutiques and plenty of fun places to eat, but surprisingly, it didn't cost as much as you'd expect. By London standards, it was downright cheap. London seems to have no middle class. I'd normally be fine with a hostel, but this was our honeymoon, so that wasn't exactly going to work out. Our options were literally The Dorchester or the spare room in some Indian family's basement. Was it too much to ask for some middle ground? We found it at The Main House. Caroline Main turned her white Georgian townhouse into five separate apartments, and has hosted everyone from Japanese pop stars to Hollywood film producers. We stayed in a suite on the third floor: a spacious, hardwood bedroom with an enormous private bathroom and period antiques everywhere. It was beautiful, huge for European lodging, and very private. The only problem we had was in the third night: a car alarm started going off around 10 pm, and rather than shutting it off, another car full of Lebanese people drive up, get out, and start kicking the shit out of it - so now the car is rocking around AND squealing alarm sirens, when yet another car drives up, a fourth Lebanese man gets out, and starts blaring Katy Perry's "Part of Me" at max volume and he joins in kicking. This went on for about twenty minutes while Ryan was trying to Skype with his parents. Their first taste of London was, um, colorful.

On the second day we spent a fair amount of time at the Tower of London, seeing the ravens (whose wings were "trimmed" not clipped. Uh huh. The legend goes that should the ravens ever leave the Tower, the monarchy will fall. Leave it to the Brits to head that one off), the crown jewels, the armory (which featured amazing steampunk-looking dragon constructed out of old knights' armor), and the torture chamber exhibit. It turned out to be the best tour we took while in London. We ate fish and chips from a street vendor….not the best idea. I like to disregard stereotypes, but you know the one about how British food sucks? That one is effing true. The crust was flaky and golden and very tasty, but the fish itself was full of tiny bones and was a little gray. We didn't eat much except ginger ale and tums the rest of the day.

Later, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. There was a sign that said, "No photographs, please." Pssh. You charge me 15 pounds for entry, don't expect me to keep the iPhone in my pocket. We did, however, get a different kind of tour on the advice of my friend Jen who went to London last summer. She advised us to climb the stairs all the way up to the top of the dome, and promised the views would be better than if we took the London Eye (overpriced and SO not worth it, compared to what we found at St. Paul's). We saw a warning sign at the base of the stairs advising anyone with heart problems or who might be pregnant not to continue on. Since these signs usually designate an increased level of awesomeness on theme park rides, we nodded once to each other and carried on. 

15 minutes later: "Can't…make it…one….more….step…GAHHHHH!!" Just kidding. it wasn't quite that bad, but there were 597 steps to the top, and they weren't all nicely paved cement steps, either. Some were around turrets, others were big enough for one foot through some custodial cabinet that hasn't been used since 1870. I'm 5'4" and pretty tiny, so the fact that I had trouble didn't bode well for people of a much larger size - then again, if they're that big, they should probably have headed the "heart condition" sign at the start of this ride. (I also noticed the age of climbers decreased the higher we ascended into the tower.) When we arrived at the top, however, all the pain and sore calf muscles were worth it: London on a misty day, with views as far into the distance as the River Thames.

Across Millennium Bridge (the one the Death Eaters blew up in Half-Blood Prince) we could see Shakespeare's Globe. This isn't the original where Shakespeare premiered his plays - that one was destroyed by fire in 1613, the rebuilt in 1614 only to be demolished in 1644. This one is a replica built in 1997 about 750 feet from the site of the original. So, still cool, but in a museum kinda-way. We arrived too late to tour it, but not too late for happy hour at The Swan, a pub built right next to the Globe in 2007. Again, not exactly the oldest thing in London, but it was their menu that caught our eye. Every drink was named after one of Shakespeare's plays, characters or scenes, with lines from that play describing it. VERY cool. 8 pounds so I didn't get to try one, but still, VERY cool.

Our third day was probably my favorite, only because I LOVE HARRY POTTER (sorry, was that too loud?). The new Warner Bros Studio Tour London opened at Leavesden Studios, where all eight HP movies were filmed, just two weeks before we got married and came to London (coincidence? Or do the Fates just favor me THAT much?). I advise any HP fan to bring a change of pants. These are THE sets that all those incredible, legendary British actors played wizards in for over ten years. Without spoiling it, I will say that they take you into a room with incredibly comfy seats and show you a movie with Dan, Emma and Rupert introducing the studio and how they grew up there, blah blah blah. Only kidding - it was a good intro, but I was just super excited. I'm super excited just telling you about it (probably should have had only 3 cups of coffee this morning). When the movie ends, they all say, "Welcome to Hogwarts." You think you'll be taken into another room, but NAY - the flipping' screen goes up, and there right in front of you are the doors to the Great Hall! Joy. The tour guide asks for a volunteer. Side story: when I went to the HP Exhibit at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, they picked a volunteer to be sorted. A little two-year-old got picked and it was infuriating. He didn't even know how to read, let alone grasp the importance of such an occasion as being sorted. Determined not let that happen again, my hand shot up before the guide could finish her sentence, and she picked me. ME! My honor? To help open the doors to the Great Hall and be the first welcomed into Hogwarts. Huge moment for everyone. Ryan was taking video the whole time, so he got a little gem we've passed around family and friends a few times: when I opened the door, I thought I was supposed to pull. I also forgot that these are not thousand-year-old iron doors, but plywood painted to mimic patina as a movie set. Thus, I nearly broke the Great Hall. Luckily, I tossed my hair and recovered with a winning smile. And I still beat the token two-year-old in, so it was cool.

The specifics of this tour would take another few blog posts to get into, so I'll let a few pics suffice. The sets were everything: potions classroom, Gryffindor boys' dorm, common room, the giant clock thing that suddenly appeared in Prisoner of Azkaban, the Burrow, the ministry of Magic, and then outside, the Knight Bus, Godric's Hollow, Tom Riddle's grave, and Number 4 Privet Drive. We also got to try Butterbeer :D The next building had all of the behind-the-scenes stuff, like Creature creation, concept art (LOVED that) and the Hogwarts model, which is HUGE and what they filmed when you thought you were filming the outside of the castle. They CG'd tiny actors into the courtyards and stuff and filmed it all on green screen. The wand room and the inevitable gift shop followed.

The rest of our time in London was spent at Westminster Abbey (huge for me, I love the Poet's Corner), the Sherlock Holmes Museum, Harrods, Fortnum and Mason (where they were charging 7 pounds 50 - thats about $13 - for Aunt Jemima syrup, that foreign delicacy), the British Museum aka the Rosetta Stone, some walking around Soho's red light district (actually super fun), a play by Scrubs' Zach Braff called "All New People", and basically trying to find something edible. I would say fudge but I'm severely allergic to nuts, so that was out. Then we discovered Spaghetti House. OH MY GOD. Started by two Italian brothers in the 1940's, this London chain had every bit of tasty food you could imagine. I don't know if we were just super hungry or if it was true culinary excellence, but that food was GOOD. We started with bruschetta that we watched the chefs make behind a counter with the reddest tomatoes I've ever seen. My main dish was penne pasta with smoked salmon in a basil cream sauce. Obsession. Feeling like normal human beings once again, we celebrated our final days in London with street shopping at the world-famous Portobello Road Market - a two-mile stretch of antique and food vendors - and a last glimpse at the skyline before jetting off to Ireland.

Look for my Ireland adventures soon, which I promise will include a lot more booze

 

Jersey Boys and an Unexpected Brunch

There are tricks of the trade for fans of everything from Broadway shows to baseball games to obtain tickets at low costs, avoiding the mentality of feeling like a bit of a sucker and making the rest of us envious of their frugal abilities. These loopholes exist in the system for stadiums, on events where there isn’t expected to be a sell-out, to at least cash in on seats that would likewise stay empty. 

Ally had a history with sliding to the front of those loophole lines for her Broadway fascination in Chicago and New York. The past Sunday we went to Chicago quite early, my back and mood out of sorts, my eyes still with a haze of the morning about ourselves on the toll way as we drove into downtown, parking at a cheap lot for the day. Doing do reminded me that unlike my students who venture into the city for an assigned cultural adventure, I won’t get suckered into paying twenty-five plus for parking for convenience. You are in Chicago, one of the best walking cities in the states – put those soles of your shoes to work.

To her credit Ally had a history with the Tony award winning musical Jersey Boys at the Bank of America Theater in downtown Chicago. For every performance she had seen of the musical, she could tell you by her mammoth stack of playbills how each show was, who was playing The Four Seasons and why the two hours plus of being immersed by classic early rock hits burns in her memory – all of those with the loophole seats. 

So in that vein, at 10am outside the theater, like a couple of eager kids, braving the frigid Windy City blowing at our backs, we waited over an hour for others to join us in line. No one came save for a few beefcakes who rattled the doors at thirty minutes till the box office opened, not bothering the read the hours of the office on the door they were furiously shaking as they spit out a few garbled slurs. Sliding into the first lobby of the theater we had first pick of two front row seats for the matinee performance of Jersey Boys for $25 a piece! 

With several hours to spare before the show, my curiosity for all things civic design coasted us down Michigan Avenue to the Chicago Architectural Foundation. This organization has enjoyed the business of thousands of tourists, locals and a few of my students over the years as they provide over thirty different types of architectural and historical tours of Chicago from the classical structures of Gilded Age Chicago to the Prairie Style structures of Chicago’s own Frank Lloyd Wright. That day, Ally joked with me to not get turned on too much in the entrance hall of the Santa Fe building, built by one of my favorite figures in all of human history, Daniel Burnham. In that square neo-classical entrance hall, light provided by a frosted glass ceiling, we killed time studying tidbits of Chicago history on the largest model of a city you’re likely to ever see. This model of the Chicago loop, parts of the West Loop and most of River North fit like a glove into the architectural gem, controlled not by some corporate conglomerate, but a foundation bent on preservation and education. The ten year plans for Navy Pier were quite intriguing as horizontal frames showed the number one tourist attraction in Chicago will get a futuristic facelift with a greenhouse, public spaces and sculptures that make the location look like an experiment at a hall of a World’s Fair.

Lunch was planned at The Park Grill, located in an enclosure that sits below the iconic Bean or Cloud Gate, at Millennium Park. Sitting down next to recently closed doors, fearful of the rain that was about to pour down from a thunderous sky, Ally and I were disappointed to find on Sunday that they didn’t do lunch, just an extended brunch until dinner. Not in the mood to go elsewhere, we hunkered down with an accommodating waitress who allowed my Kobe Burger scramble to be separated by portions, mixing a lunch and brunch together. The Kobe was succulent with the usual burger toppings of a bun, lettuce and sides. I think the decision to stay away from the peppercorn crust was smart seeing that the spice would have taken away from the flavor of one of the best cuts of meat for a burger. The sides of hash and chopped bacon were over salted. The running innards of the poached egg were a nice compliment to the hash and burger when the side dish of the egg wasn’t sitting in a bit of water from the poaching that the chef didn’t bother to remove. The Park Grill, which has a large open seating arena in summer where the skating rink would be in winter, has decent food for a location that gets some of the greatest exposure in Chicago. Once the rain started to fall, we braved the periods of downpours and sprinkles to walk the few blocks to the Bank of America Theater and Jersey Boys. 

That Sunday this past week wasn’t the first time I saw Jersey Boys. Last May when Ally and I took on a five day trip out to Las Vegas for my friend Stevie’s wedding we had the pleasure of seeing the story of pop musicians Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons at a specially designed theater at the Venetian on the Strip. Those productions, in Sin City, are trimmed down with less scenes and a shorter intermission all in order to make sure you don’t forget those slot machines bells and whistles are beckoning you back. 

Our rush tickets Ally and I obtained for the Sunday matinee earned us two front two seats, our knees a mere inch from the orchestra railing, the edge of the stage about three feet from the outreach of our hands. When the production started, I myself was surprised at how close some of the performers came to the front row. I could see every nuance of their quick costumes changes and faces that are to age from the 1950’s to the 1990’s. Though the profanity laced and fast pace of the show might throw off some viewers, one has to consider the subject matter. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons were a bunch of young Italian-American men (teenagers in Frankie’s case) from rough and violent upbringings in Jersey and Brooklyn. Throughout the show we are exposed to the history of the band, told chronologically from each of the major members their criminal early days, rise to stardom, nationwide success with an album of top forty hits, and their eventual moments of coming down to earth when one of the members of the band, the intimidating and temper ridden Tommy DeVito gambled away his and most of the Four Season’s fortunes. The crowd knows the hits Sherry and Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You performed a bit more up tempo than the originals in Jersey Boys as if you are privy to their first performances. 

Whatever city is fortunate enough to host a limited run of a tour of Jersey Boys, be it New York, Las Vegas, or Chicago, you would be wise to look into their rush policy. Jersey Boys is one of my favorite musicals that when talked up enough by Ally, that I was comfortable enough the first time I went to pay full price in the absence of a loophole.