Seat of Our Pants » england

Hidden Gem: the Royal Standard

Martin — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:22:13 +0000

Being ancient isn’t necessarily a sign of excellence. Some things that have been around since forever are kept alive for the sake of tradition and/or pity. So, when someone mentioned that England’s oldest pub was around the corner, I didn’t think it would be particularly nice. Perhaps one of those over-priced, touristy and gimmicky places where you get to keep your beer glass once you finish your 20 dollar beer.

Well, surprise surprise. The Royal Standard is a living, working pub, a place where locals go to relax and enjoy food and drink. It counts its history back as far as 900 years (a claim I fear may have to be taken with a pinch of salt), and it is supposedly haunted by three ghosts.

We liked it so much that we visited it twice.

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How Au Pairing Got Me Where I Am Today

Jaime — Mon, 10 May 2010 16:50:20 +0000

Once upon a time I was a mother. No, I didn’t have my own kids. But for a year and a half I was a mother to two amazing girls. How might I have accomplished such a feat, you ask?

I was an au pair. It was a job I took sort of on a whim. I’d studied in Italy for a year and couldn’t get the country out of my head after returning to the States. So, I found the only job in Italy that I could secure over the internet at the time: au pairing.

The family I worked for lived in the Tuscan countryside. The job description included travel with them to amazing places like Switzerland and Sardenia. The travel was great but it was a tough job. It was my warm-up for motherhood; a chance to see just how tough and how amazing the journey can be.

I worked for them on and off for two years. It was Alessandra, the girl’s mother, who is responsible for my first backpacking trip through Southeast Asia. She spoke so well of Cambodia’s Angkor Wat that I flew there the week after my job was over. I met Martin – my travel buddy, amazing husband and co-writer of this blog – on the third day of that SE Asia trip.

It goes without saying that my decision to work as an au pair was a life-changing one.

Martin and I are just wrapping up our overdue visit with them. They’ve since moved to the English countryside, but their hospitality and generosity haven’t changed. Thank you Second Family for an amazing week. We miss you already.

P.S. Girls, I’m blown away by how beautiful and amazing you both are. You rock!

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How We Spent an (Almost) Free Day in London

Jaime — Sun, 09 May 2010 15:58:08 +0000

We’re poor backpackers. I’ll just say that up front. We’ve been traveling for a year now, slowly bleeding money from our bank accounts. We’ve spent most of our time in SE Asia, India and Nepal, which means we’ve been able to stretch our money quite well – until now.

For whatever reason (Martin and I are still trying to figure this one out) we decided to fit in five expensive cities into our final month traveling: Stockholm, London, New York, Washington DC and San Francisco. We’re able to stay with friends in each city, relieving us of the cost of lodging but we can’t stay in our rooms all day, can we?

We have to eat, so some of our money is spent on food. When meals are at least $10/person/meal, the trick to staying on budget is to find fun, interesting things to do that are cheap – free, even. Our first attempt was in London two days ago. It was a smashing success. London is a great place for free activities because they believe in a little thing called the Free Museum Entry.

We began our day with a visit to the swans at Kensington Gardens, which is obviously not a museum but free nonetheless. Though we weren’t particularly well received (we didn’t have anything to feed them), we paid nothing to see these huge creatures. Being largely ignored by the Kensington Garden swans – FREE!

London's Natural History Museum

Our next stop was at the Natural History Museum. It was a quick tour (we knew how much we had ahead of us) but was enough to bring out the kid in us again. Dinosaur bones, huge ammonite fossils, and stuffed Dodo birds – all for FREE!

Entrance to the Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Next up was my personal favorite (I’ve been there at least 25 times over the years), the Victoria & Albert Museum. If you’re into historical textile, fashion, sculpture, painting, furniture or, well anything, you will love this place. It has a bit of everything – on display for, you guessed it – FREE!

The amazing Turbine Hall of London's Tate Modern

After leaving the V&A we dashed over to something completely different: the Tate Modern. In a ten minute tube ride we jumped hundreds of years into the Modern era. On display was one of my favorite works by Francis Bacon, Triptych August 1972. An hour of pure modern art bliss – FREE!

Below the Tate Modern is an easily accessible Thames riverbank where we spent an hour treasure hunting, as Martin describes here. Finding bits of London history that we can keep – FREE!

Checking out bits of the Acropolis at the British Museum

Up next was the British museum, an absolute must see when you’re in London. Packed into their space is something for everyone. Literally. They have over seven million objects in their collection. We chose to concentrate on the Turkish items, since that’s our next destination. Turkey travel prep (with a quick swing through the Egyptian mummy exhibit and the Acropolis room) – FREE!

We polished off the day at a proper London pub, drinking a few pints of beer – NOT FREE, but well deserved.

The total cost for the day was 14 pounds each for an all-day travel pass for the London Underground. We ate on the cheap so were able to polish off the day exhausted, happy and only a little over budget (darn beer – gets us every time!) Thank you London for an amazing day.

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Scavenge Hunt Along the Thames

Martin — Sun, 09 May 2010 15:12:13 +0000

This is London: the City on the river Thames. People have lived here for a long time, during times of strife and glory alike. It was sacked by Queen Boudicea in 61AD, it has survived invasions and changing eras, and it ended up ruling the largest empire the world has ever seen. Its history spans two thousand years, from its Roman beginnings until today.

Now, just take a second and imagine all the stuff people have thrown into the river over the years. Uh-huh. A lot.

Next, imagine yourself walking along the river at low tide, picking over those very remnants. This is my very favorite thing to do in London.

Shards of history?

The riverbanks consist mostly of old brick fragments and other human waste – not too many things date from the present, thankfully (we only encountered the odd candy wrapper). Our findings this time were mostly blue and white porcelain fragments, a human femur (maybe!), broken clay pipes and rusty, handmade nails. With the help of a bit of imagination, we determined that the porcelain was from the days of the Opium War, the femur was a victim of Jack the Ripper and Shakespeare definitely used to suck on the clay pipes. The nails? We believe they once were used on the Endeavor – Captain Cook’s ship.

And this is...?

If you come equipped with a bit of knowledge about the history of the city, as well as a good dose of imagination, scavenging along the Thames is the perfect way to spend an afternoon. Oh and you’re never far from a pub, if you need to warm up between the tides.

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SOOPic: Bush’s Legacy

S.O.O.P Crew — Sat, 08 May 2010 19:50:35 +0000

So this is how the much ballyhooed War on Terror is regarded in the UK.

It’s a boardgame.

As seen in a Chelsea store. No clue to whether or not you get to yank Bin Laden’s beard if you win.

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A Skip and a Hop aaaand…

Martin — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:28:23 +0000

. . . we’re in England, in Buckinghamshire. We will be staying here for a few days, visiting friends and taking long walks around the countryside. London is about 30 minutes away, but you wouldn’t believe it when you look out the window.

This stage of our journey is another one of those great contrasts that I love to look back at later in life. You can’t even begin to measure just how far this is from Nepal, or Arunachal Pradesh, or Sumatra. Or my native Sangis for that matter.

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SOOPic: the Relic

Martin — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:00:40 +0000

Yes, dear readers, that is an actual phone booth with an actual coin operated pay-phone inside it.

It brings tears to my eyes, seeing that old thing. Well, almost tears. Maybe not any tears at all, but still. A payphone! Sweet!

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