London!

Bee’s Knees!

Stena Britannica is one amazing ferry and the trek across the English Channel in our Captain’s Room at the front of the ship with one huge, round window is a memory not soon to be forgotten!  A week ago today, we sailed from Amsterdam to England and slept on the ferry, waking up at 5:30am on Monday morning to the intercom playing the tune to the song “Be Happy”.  After a quick breakfast, they herded us off of the boat and we boarded the train for London, Liverpool Station at rush hour.

As the train barreled down the tracks, we were pleased to hear the English accents all around us and we settled into our seats, holding luggage and looking out the window at the English farmland. So very polite, these British people.  

  Across the isle from us sat a very old man who kept looking at us with a curious gleam in his eye until suddenly, he started to spill out his entire life story as we rolled down the tracks.  Michael was his name and in an hour’s time, we learned intricate details about the 89 years of his life and we were spellbound at his stories.  He called himself “the miracle man”  and this old Jewish man spoke of his near death experiences in the war, he teared up while telling us about meeting his wife and falling in love and their three sons who were married with families.  He spoke of his passion for music, opera music to be specific and he told us stories about living in Jerusalem and traveling the world with his wife, camping in tents together  and now, on this very day, he was on his way to see his older brother in London.   Tears slid down his very old, very wrinkled face as he spoke about losing his wife to cancer a few years back and Jolynn and I cried with him, sitting there on the train to London, holding our luggage.  And then his stop came up before ours and suddenly he was struggling to stand up to get off of the train and Jolynn  jumped up and helped him just seconds before the doors on the train slammed shut and we yelled “Goodbye Michael” and then Jolynn and I sat in silence the rest of the way to Liverpool Station, tears streaming down our cheeks as we came upon the magnificent city of London, city of manners and respect for others.

I guess we came to Europe to cry.

And laugh.

Reuniting with an old friend and meeting a new friend was absolutely heartwarming as we sat over the lovely breakfast they had ready for us and laughed, relaxing into our seats in their lovely flat in the “Little Venice” section of London.  Mj graciously drove us around the city in their beautiful new Toyota hybrid and we gazed out of the huge moonroof at the towering buildings above us, in total awe and adoration for this amazing city.  Touring Westminster Abbey and the tombs of kings , queens, poets,  Charles Darwin, dignitaries and even plumbers (Jolynn’s personal favorite) is a memory that we will always cherish.  We stood and contemplated life and death at the Poppy Exhibition at the Tower of London, an emotional exhibit honoring the lives lost in wars.  We took a cruise up the Thames River and under the London Bridge, walked the Queen’s Walkway along the Thames, smiled our way across the magnificent Tower Bridge, ate fish and chips and a hot dog at the London Bridge subway station,  peered into the courtyard at Buckingham Palace and watched the guards stomping their feet in pompous circumstance.  Our dear friends and residents of London zoomed us in every direction, narrating stories of England and London that no one else hears on mundane city tours. 

And have I mentioned how polite and respectful England is to tourists?  We simply adore England!

Magpies entertained us and we watched squirrels and Ravens scramble for food in a schoolyard as we waited for choir practice to start.  Choir practice?  Yes!  Choir practice!  And Lordy, what a choir practice!  Unforgettable experiences with Mj and GD in England, quite the musical enchantment, talent and passion and talent, talent, talent!  Blessed!

We laughed and drank good wine and dined at excellent restaurants and laughed some more.   We had a cozy dinner in a bookstore/restaurant in the Non Fiction corner and treated our taste buds to exquisite Thai cuisine while being surrounded by old books in a seaside village town on the coast of England.  We serendipitously walked off of the cobblestone village street and into a Irish pub where a celebrated jazz singer was performing and we were treated to “Funny Valentine” while we huddled together in a small, friendly room filled with glowing faces and comradery among humans, humans who were not at war, humans who were strangers and yet drawn together on a weeknight in the England air on a weeknight  in a pub in the night with a bright moon above. 

Absolutely delightful.  And Polite too!

Sitting in the backseat of the cab on Friday morning, with Mj behind us, waving, tears streamed down our faces again.   Life can be very cruel and so very wonderful.  I am so intensely grateful for my experiences, for my friends and for my family.  And I am especially grateful to Mj and GD for their generosity and extreme kindness.  I shan’t witter on, suffice to say “Grazie!”

“Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made.”

Robert Browning

 Crying our way into London and crying our way out of London – this has been the most amazing trip so far and we are only half way through!  I wonder what tears and laughter awaits us!

We will return to this polite, respectful land - Great, Great Britain!

Copyright @ 2012  Jeannine Cristina   All Rights Reserved