I See London, I See France

Mr. Mingle came back with Underground underpants. Wait, what??

Mr. Mingle and I just returned from a wonderful vacation in London and Normandy France. Finding ourselves with leftover pounds (both money and weight) at the airport before we departed, we stalked up on chocolate and saw these boxers with the map of the London Underground and thought, “what the heck? Let’s get them!” Personally I was hoping they'd have boxers that said "Mind the Gap" – the most popular phrase on the London Underground, but alas none existed. But never mind, you don't want to hear about Mr. Mingle's pants! (Nor, I'm sure would he wish me to be writing this.)

After I left Maryland on my business trip I flew straight to London where I was met by Princess Di at the airport. She lives in a house just outside of London and was very nice to put us up the whole week we were there. When she bought the house a year ago they had completely gutted it and it is still in the process of being put back together. I knew this, yet was still surprised when I walked in and saw that there was no finished room downstairs – no kitchen or sitting rooms. So, immediately we headed upstairs, the finished portion of the house, where she showed me our room for the week. I seem to have this knack of visiting people when they have just moved into their homes and are still living among boxes – but this certainly took the cake! However, it was a warm and welcoming home with a comfy bed, a working and clean bathroom, and not to mention free, which we were ever so grateful for. The exchange rate right now is a real killer – everything we bought was double in price of what we'd pay here, including coffee. (Travesty!)

Princess Di's home is in the center

Mr. Mingle flew in a couple of days later and we spent the first 5 days exploring London and the surrounding areas. Some of the highlights were visiting Wimbledon with Princess Di and Queen Maja on the single sunny day we had in England. Going to the British Library – I had never heard of this one before, but it was well worth the trip! They have a wonderful collection and display of old manuscripts including some Shakespeare novels, musical scores from Beethoven, as well as the original Magna Carta. It was also a good shelter from the rain, as that was one of the 2 very, very rainy days we had (the rest were just off and on).

One night we went to the theater and saw the musical Avenue Q which I highly recommend to everyone. It's a musical that won the Tony a couple years back in NY and is basically like Sesame Street for 30+ year olds. Since they use puppets as main characters they get away with singing songs like "Everyone is a Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet was built for Porn". It's hilarious, and was well worth the money. One day we took a day trip out of London to Oxford and saw a little bit of that city. Unfortunately that was the rainiest day of all and most of the exploring we wanted to do was by foot and outdoors. But we got a glimpse of 30 minutes of sunshine when we went to see Christ Church College, and this was one of the settings used for Harry's Hogwarts College so that was a fun site to see.


After a week in the London area, Princess Di, Queen Maja, Mr. Mingle and I hopped a ferry and went over to Normandy, France where Di’s parents now live. We stayed with them for 3 nights and had a very fun and relaxing time exploring the Normandy area and visiting with our good friends. Normandy is best known for the D-Day beaches where the Allies landed to kick the Germans out of France in WWII. We visited some of the sites of this event, and saw the large US Cemetery there. It was very moving and I wish we had had more time to spend.

Besides getting a WWII history lesson we also spent plenty of time eating and filled up on more than our fair share of cheese and croissants (hence the extra pounds at the airport). We also went to a jazz festival in a nearby village and saw a concert that was a tribute to John Coltrane, the saxophonist. The music was good, but strangely they also had a narrator who talked all about John Coltrane, in French. I was the only one of us who has never taken a single lesson in French so just sat staring blankly (and dozing once), but even the others had trouble getting the whole story and I think were all glad when the concert ended. But it was fun to walk around the village afterwards and hear other musical groups playing all over the place, and of course we ate. They had this one vendor who specialized in everything sweet, so we stopped by there and got hopped up on sugar. Di got a crepe with lemon and sugar, Mr. Mingle and I shared a beignet (big fluffy donut) in sugar, and Maja ordered churros. Little did we know that the smallest order of churros she could get was 12! So, we all helped finish those and by the end were literally bouncing off the walls. A short while ago, this crazed self portrait would have been due to alcohol consumption, but now it's all sugar:

Mr. Mingle, Queen Maja, Princess Di, Mingle

The pace of the trip was very nice since we never got up super early and just did a few things each day. Mr. Mingle and I had both been to London before so we did not feel like we had to cram everything in and just tried to see the things that we had not been to before, and those things that interested us the most. However, by the end, it was a good time to come home, back to our own bed, back to our cats (who missed us terribly!), and time to stop living out of a suitcase.
Thank you to our friends who were such gracious hosts in London and France! It was a wonderful vacation, and may be the last one Mr. Mingle get for awhile with just the two of us!

Mr. Mingle, Mrs. H, Queen Maja, Mrs. Mingle, Princess Di, Mr. H