Going home, Day 9, New York and Minneapolis

April 7, 2019

Today I woke up a tiny bit better.  I no longer sound like I'm coughing up a lung, but I'm still coughing.  I went through the entire bag of cough drops and now I think I have a fever because I'm sweaty all the time.  When Anneliese woke up, we decided to go to a flea market in the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area of Brooklyn--right below the bridge.  The entire area looks like it was once pretty down, but is being regenerated.  It has a bunch of boutique shops and trendy restaurants and cobblestone streets.  Old warehouses are being remodeled into apartments.  We looked around, then I got a little lightheaded so we stopped in a pizza place for lunch.  I hadn't eaten since the bagels yesterday (and a few handfuls of trail mix).  Anneliese had a pizza and I had lasagne.  Then we returned to the flea market--I got some earrings and she got some patches for her jacket. 

Anneliese in DUMBO

If you look carefully, you can see the Empire State Building in the arch.

Manhattan Bridge

Manhattan Bridge

Manhattan Bridge

 We then needed to head back to her apartment to get my ride.  I am flying out of  LaGuardia and there is no AirTrain.  Anneliese looked it up and it would be 3-4 transfers involving buses as well as trains and would take forever, so she said my best bet would be an Uber.  And an Uber would cost less than a SuperShuttle. She has an account, so we used hers.  Less than 5 minutes later, he was double-parked in front of the building!  The app had estimated that I would arrive at the airport at 6:20, but we arrived at 5:50!  Great experience.  So far.

I did the self-check in and headed toward the security to get to my gate.  As I approached, there were two women standing there directing people in.  One of them said that I had to go back and check my bag.  It took awhile for me to understand her, she had a very strong accent.  So I went back to the desk, fuming.  I saw the little box that you can drop your bag into to see if it is the right size.  I tried it and it fit, so I went back and showed them in the box before security.  Nope, she said I had to go back to the desk to check my bag.  By now I was completely ticked off.  I went to the check-in desk and waited, then told the woman at the counter the problem.  Another staff walked up and I explained the problem to him as well.  He pointed to the box, so I went over and showed him how it fit in easily.  He told me to show the women that.  I told him that I did, so he went to get a supervisor.  He explained it to her and she said that it was the right size.  So he suggested that I take the items out of the front pockets and put them in either my small backpack or in the big pack, so I did.  He also suggested tucking the backpack straps in so that it looked like a regular suitcase, so I did that as well.  So I carried it to the women and as I walked past it looked like she was going to stop me again, so I said that the supervisor okayed it and kept walking.  The TSA agent checking passports asked how I was doing, so I told her what happened (briefly) and she looked at my bag and said that of course it wasn’t too big!  Then through security (no bags flagged, just a routine pat down). 

I went to my gate, but the previous flight had not left yet so it was hard to find a seat.   After leaving to use the bathroom and fill my water bottle, I called a friend to see if she could sub for me tomorrow.  Unfortunately, she was sick too and unable to cover for me.  So I finally found a seat and entered my absence and texted my classroom team to let them know the situation and how to change the schedule to accommodate my absence.   There was a huge delay for the other flight leaving from out gate so we were moved to another gate.  I went to the desk and got my boarding pass with a seat assignment and settled in to wait.  Soon they started calling group one to board—I was a seven.  As they reached seven, they requested several passengers to come to the desk—I was one of them.  They had reassigned me—to first class!  Yeah, baby!  

In first class, I ordered a diet coke and received it in a glass glass with ice.  And we could choose a snack from a basket of snacks they offered to us.  Eventually, I covered up with the blanket and I think I slept a bit.  We arrived early and I was picked up by Randy.  Time to go home and eat and sleep! 

The Big Sick, Day 8, New York

April 6, 2019

Yesterday, on Saturday, we woke up with plans and fabulous, warm weather!  We went to Kossar's, a bagel place on the lower East side, for bagels then to Times Square for tickets to see a show for the night.  My cold was getting worse, coughing all of the time, etc.  Well, I started feeling very weak as we were going from Kossar's to Times Square and incredibly tired.  I had a horrible headache.  We had to stop a few times for me to rest, and to be honest, I don't remember all of the trip.  I had started having some intermittent diarrhea as well earlier, but blamed the virus I obviously had.  The virus I had been beating back since before I even left had finally won.

Just outside the subway stop we ran into a Tartan Day parade, with many bagpipe bands.  I love the bagpipes, so it was enjoyable.  We watched bits of it as we walked closer to Times Square.

One of the many bagpipe bands, plus tons of Scottish flags being waved everywhere.

A breath of spring

When we got to the TKTS line, I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to walk through that whole line, yet alone go to a play that night.  So we regretfully went back to Anneliese's apartment where I laid on her couch.  We talked for several hours, then I fell asleep as she worked on job applications and watched TV.  I felt badly since she had switched with someone to get the day off to spend with me.

I woke up (after intermittently waking up for a few minutes at at time) just after 1:00.  There was no where open to get food or order in and Anneliese only had oatmeal (we had planned to be eating out), so I ate a handful of trail mix and went to bed.  I had slept intermittently for eight hours.  I continued to cough and blow my nose.  My ribs hurt from the coughing and my nose has little sores on it from the blowing.  Not a pretty picture.  I also continued to need to quickly get to the bathroom for the rest of the night.  I slept more until around 9:30 Sunday morning.

Here are photos from my room in London that I forgot to post yesterday:

this is my little balcony

I'm a leavin' on a jet plane, Day 7, London to NYC

April 5, 2019

Today was mostly a travel day, going from London to New York.  I was happy that I woke up on time, about 15 minutes before my alarm, got ready, then finished packing from last night.  I am stopping to New York  for a few days to visit my daughter.  She graduated from NYU last spring and is currently living in Brooklyn.  While I was eating breakfast, I surprised another of my host’s overnight guests when he came out to get something to eat.  I smiled and said hi; he made a sound that was probably supposed to be a greeting.  

To get to the airport, I took the Jubilee line to Green Park, transferred to Picadilly, then rode to the airport.  Going through security was pretty fast until they flagged my bag.  I didn't even have to go through the x-ray thing.   They asked me to unzip every zipper and she took everything out of my backpack.  She put my electronics (portable charger, phone, camera, camera battery, etc.) in a tub and sent it through the machine again.  One of the agents said that sometimes what they see on the x-rays doesn't make sense so they flag it.  After I was deemed safe, she said that it was probably a combination of my almonds and electronics, that organics and electrics like batteries kind of mess with the x-rays. 

 Just like on the way to London, I had no gate or seat listed on my boarding pass.  I went to the departures area to find out my gate, but the board said that it would announce the gate at 12:30 (for my 1:30 flight).  Heathrow has a huge seating area with a few flight screens in it and doesn’t announce a gate until it is closer to boarding.  At 12:25 I got my bags and went to the flight screen—gate 13.  So I made my way there, figuring I’d get my seat before going to the bathroom and filling my water bottle.  Well, I asked for an aisle seat and got one and had to show her my passport.  Then she waved me into the gate area.  I asked if there was a toilet in this area or if I should go to the one I passed and come back.  She replied to just use the one on the plane; that I could board now!  So I walked directly out to the plane without a huge line of people.  There were some people already getting settled.  It was incredibly relaxing!  Much less stress than the huge lines of people queuing up to get on.  I am seat 64C—last row.  I love sitting in the last row because I can recline my seat without worrying about the person behind me.  Slowly the plane filled up (the person between me and the window was already there when I arrived—only two seats on the outsides).  While I was waiting for my gate my daughter texted me that she found out that she has to work and wouldn’t be home when I arrived, but was going to bed (early am in New York).   I simply said that we’d figure it out when I arrived.  She obviously needed to sleep if  she had to work later. 

It turned out that my daughter's roommate was home and could let me in.  She then texted me to meet her in Manhattan, she had an idea for dinner.  We went to Spaghetti Incident and had, you guessed it, spaghetti!  I had meatballs.  We also got a bread appetizer with ricotta and figs.  Then back to her apartment.  She is letting me sleep on her bed, she'll sleep on the loveseat tonight.  I've been awake for way too many hours, it's almost 5 am in London.  I've been awake for almost 22 hours.  Time for bed!

Here's a picture our tour guide took of us and emailed:

We are all brandishing out wants and saying a spell!

These feet were made for walking, Day 6, London

April 4, 2019

For my last day in London, I signed up for two walking tours.  A free walking Harry Potter tour out of Leicester Square (you can tip the tour guide if you like it) and a walking photography/history tour of Bermondsley (the neighborhood I'm staying in).  Before getting to the tours, when I went down to the kitchen today for breakfast, I took out my container of milk that I bought yesterday and hadn't used yet.  There was less than half of the 2 pints left!  Just enough for my cereal and tea.  Since I've been here, I've found my milk carton in the door instead of on the shelf with my oranges where I left it every day.  My host, Alex, must have just assumed it was his.   Aaaargh!  And Minnesotan that I am, I don't want to confront him about it or accuse him of stealing my milk (though I'm sure it was an honest mistake).  I finally decided to not say anything and pick up another container of milk for tomorrow.  I told him when I'll be leaving tomorrow and that he can have my extra food (tea, sugar, possibly cereal, a few oranges, and now, milk).

Well, onto more pleasant things.  I used up all of my cough drops (again), so I stopped at a small souvenir stand to pick some up on the way to my first tour.   I"m not sure why a souvenir stand sells cough drops (throat lozenges), but I'm just glad they do.  They only seem to sell Halls here, though.  The Ricola seemed to work better.  Well, I met my group on time (11:00) at the Swiss Monument in Leicester Square (only two trains).  The monument celebrates the relationship between Britain and Switzerland.

Swiss Monument, each shield is from a different state of Switzerland.

the glockenspiel was a gift from the Swiss

Our tour guide, Nathan, was a nice young man, 23 years of age (the same as my oldest daughter--makes me feel old!).  He was flirting with one member of our tour--a young woman.  My first impression was that he had been or was a theater kid.  I was right!  His brief bio was that he was born in a small town outside of Oxford, moved to London when he turned 18, got a degree in philosophy, and is now getting a degree in theater.   So he was very expressive and had enough energy for all of us!  We were encouraged to allow ourselves to completely geek out on Harry Potter.  He showed us many places in and around Leicester Square that had been mentioned in the books, filmed for the movies, or had provided inspiration for J.K. Rowling.  It was a very good tour and the best part was that it was free.  I did tip the tour guide, Nathan, a few pounds.  The tour ended promptly at 1:00.

Leicester Square where the dementors swooped over

The country wanted everyone to know that they support LGBT rights, so
they created new walking symbols at Leicester Square where they hoped
that everyone would see them.  This shows two men walking; the space
between their bodies forms a heart .

Big Ben

Nathan showing us where the men's bathroom in the final movie was (where those that
Voldemort does not like have to enter the ministry of magic.  This is across the street
from Buckingham Palace.

The Misistry of Defense shown here had tunnels and bunkers underground--which
would be the ministry of magic for JK Rowling.

This is the area where Ron and area abducted workers from the Ministry
of Magic so that they could assume their personae to sneak in.

Interesting building--different architecture than the others in the area.

Another walk signal--this two male symbols intertwined; another had two
female symbols intertwined.

Gringotts

Diagon Alley.  JK Rowling walked through this alley each day on her way to work at Amnesty International.
It has a bookstore for the occult, tarot readings, many bookshops, and a rare coins shop.

Children's bookshop featuring photos of HP actors in costume and JK Rowling,
all signed.

Diagon Alley

Knockturn Alley

pretty doorway near Covent Garden

Then I went to Covent Garden near where we had ended our tour and got a few gifts for my family.  I then took that train to Kings Cross (where I had to change for the Northern line).  Since I was there anyway, I went to find Platform 9 3/4.  This time I found it.  When I was there yesterday, had I turned to the right rather than to the left, I would have seen it.  You can line up to get your photo taken with the trolley embedded in the wall, professionally or by your friends.  You can choose which house scarf to wear and they have a person whose job it is to flip the scarf up so that it looks like you're running into the wall/platform!  Evidently the man who played Professor Flitwick (and a few other characters in the movie such as the goblin at Gringotts) runs a HP souvenir stand there, but I didn't see it.  Since I was alone, I opted to just take a photo of the trolley in the wall without myself in it.

Platform 9 3/4 complete with trolley and trunk

When I arrived at London Bridge station, I still had an hour and a half until my next tour, so I brought my bags back to my room and settled in to read a bit of my book until it was time to leave.  Very relaxing and peaceful.

Then I headed to my other tour,  3:30-5:30.  We met at a pub that is closed for refurbishing across the street from London Bridge station.  It turned out to only have two of us with Natalie for the tour.  She asked if we wanted the tour to be heavier on the history or heavier on the photography.  We both said history.  She led us to the wharf, stopping to take photos along the way.  We explored that area, then nearer to where I'm staying, then on to the Borough Market area of Southwark (pronounced by the Brits as "Suffik").  I decided to stay in Borough Market for dinner and Natalie recommended a few places.  I chose Black and Blue, a steak place, and had another burger.  It wasn't as good as the one at the Bermondsey Kitchen (which was a Galloway beef burger, pickles, spiced tomato chutney, Ogleshield cheese and various onions).

Tower Bridge

Arty pic of the Shard

Arty pic of the Tower Bridge

10 years ago, only one of those tall buildings were there.  There was a law that
nothing could be taller than St. Paul's so that you could see it from everywhere in London.
Now you can barely see it.

The traitor's gate is under water.  Welcome to the tower!

These little steps helped get items up into the ware houses from the ships

This is evidently a #stridephoto on Instagram.  (If
I did Instagram!)

This is Jaco the dray horse, representing the field where the horses that worked for the Courage Brewery would rest after a day pulling wagons to deliver beer.  This is at the end of the street Horselydown or "horse-lie-down".

One of the canals to bring in goods

Many former warehouses retain the names of what they were used for, such as Cinnamon House,
even though they have all been converted to housing and offices.

Street art

Cherry trees

Sign of spring!

This sign is made with legos.  The owner of the building made them change it to F*ckoffee, but the
neighbors got up a petition to return to this spelling.

One of a series of public water fountains to bring fresh drinking water to the city
to curb the spread of cholera.

Another building stating its previous work.  Above each window is a carving
of the work of tanners.

More tanner carvings

Winch and step system to haul goods up into the buildings

See the horses?  This was once a blacksmith shop before an auto repair.

Arty photo

Up on the roof is a series of beehives

Bee Headquarters in London

Looks like the tropics!

Series of street art entitled rude kids.   Our tour operator
knows the artist making them.  He uses images of his own children and
their friends.

another #stridephoto

juxtaposition of modern and ancient

Public housing provided by Guiness beer heir in 1800s.  Still used for that.

Artists studio (same one that made the ants a few days ago)

I found out the story of this (remember from Sunday).  It was a building owned by Courage Brewery and it was painted during WW2 for the citizenry to "Take Courage"

This pub was originally named Market Porter.  Then when they painted the man in the
window, the man (and the pub) became known as The Market Porter.

On my way home, I wandered a bit, looking for a Tesco's or Sainsbury's.  I finally found a Tesco's and bought milk for tomorrow.  I should have looked for cough drops, but I forgot.  I put the milk into a little mini-fridge in my closet to save for tomorrow morning.  My room the rest of the week was hot--so hot that I opened the door to the balcony for awhile each evening.  Last night and tonight it has been very chilly, though.  Well, one more night, then off for New York tomorrow.  I'll have to leave at 9:00 for my 1:30 flight to allow 3 hours for check-in and security.