travelenvelope: July 10, London

See the World for Free

The idea here is to TRAVEL THE WORLD regardless of time or budget. It dawned on me one day that even if I had unlimited time and money (which I definitley do not), I still couldn't see everything in the world that I'd like to see--I'm simply not going to live long enough to do it.

But I had a bit of brain wave and soon after the travel envelope was born. This is an actual physical envelope. I typed the name of every country in the world, plus every state in the US on little slips of paper which I then put into the envelope. In the beginning we (myself, my husband, Dave and daugher Catherine) would draw out a slip at random at the beginning of the month and that's where we would go---at least in our minds. We grab some books about the country from the library and put them in our bathroom to look at. We also check out some videos about the country if any. We check it out on googleearth, listen to the music, try the food, maybe even attempt to learn a dance or celebrate a festival.

After the first two years we discovered that even virtual traveling can be tiring, so we travel now whenever I happen to be in the mood.

It's great fun. I especially love it when people I meet have been to the place I'm "visiting" in real life, or get excited and have some virtual adventures of their own. I hope that anyone who comes across this blog will feel welcome to come with us on the trip!

You have a standing reservation to see it all!

Jul 10, 2015

July 10, London

New Haircut! Buckingham Palace is closed until July 25th. Shame! So she went to the "London Bridge Experience." This is not a real tour of the tower and history, but a silly tour like the Berlin Dungeon (Catherine was selected to be a witch). The second part of the tour was like a haunted house and she skipped that part.

But she did see the real tower and the crown jewels. I love that the English actually use these jewels when occasion demands. Wisely, there is a little conveyer belt that wisks the tourists past these treasures and stops those who would linger too long.

She clued us in on the 37 yeoman guards, whose job it is to guard the queen.

. She took the Yeoman guard tour and found out that each of these uniforms costs 13,000 pounds and the day wear is also crazy expensive. These men have to have served at least 22 years and that service has to have been exemplary. All 37 guards have to live in the tower with their families and are locked in at 10:00 p.m. (Bet that goes over well with their teenage children). There is a chapel in the tower for the guards and only the guards and their descendants have the privilege of being married there.

London was hot today so she went to the British Museum. In America this would have been an air-conditioned experience. Not so in England. What is it with Europeans and air conditioning???? My mother never liked it, but I would think a cool dry climate would be best for museum exhibits. Anyway... she saw some great stuff.

The rosetta stone.

She also saw Egyptian cats and mummies. And found Harry the Hippo. Poor Harry is not as clean as his other hippo friends in other museums. I told her not to worry; he's a hippo.