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Published: July 31st 2009
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After the Odell siblings' jaunts in Europe, I felt very lucky to have Kyrie in Yorkshire for a few days of wandering. As this was Kyrie's only allotted time in Britain, we felt it fitting that we take a trip to London to see the sights and partake in one or two of the many cultural events on offer. The weekend didn't get off to an auspicious start. We were unlucky to have chosen to stay in Hampstead Heath, in the North of London, on a weekend when the Northern Line of the tube was shut down, so there was the added drama of trying to negotiate alternate train lines and buses-always fun! After checking in, negotiating the tube and bus combo to get into London centre, we spent a good hour lining up for vendors in the West End trying to decide upon a show to see. After much deliberation, we'd finally decided on a show only to discover no tickets were left by the time we reached the vendors window. And so we harkened back to an old favourite and decided to see Les Miserables (quite probably possibly the greatest musical of all time in my book so not
much of a compromise really!) Having finally secured our theatre tickets for that night, we were all feeling a bit tired and hungry. It may have been desperation, but what possessed us to choose a Chinese buffet in an out of the way restaurant in Chinatown beats me-I blame it on the pretty lanterns on display above our heads that distracted us! It certainly wasn't a culinary feast-we found ourselves congratulating each other later in the evening when it seemed assured we weren't going to come down with food poisoning as a result of eating the obviously regularly reheated, possibly MSG-laden array of gluey food on offer.
The theatre definitely made up for the poor culinary experience later that night. As we talked excitedly about the show, I learned this was to be the first musical Kyrie had ever seen. If you're only ever going to see one show, this is 'The One To See' in my book. So I was extra-excited having a novice theatre goer in tow as we took our seats and sat waiting for the first notes of the overture to sound. As you'd expect with a last minute purchase, the seats weren't totally mind-blowing.
But I was quite surprised at the fact they were indeed okay-especially given the popularity of this musical. With this kind of show though, in the end it doesn't matter too much if the view is stunning or not-all the drama and emotion is in the singing and dynamics of the orchestral score. I sat completely captivated from the moment the curtain rose til the last applause died down in the theatre. It was magic. Kyrie seemed to enjoy the who theatre-going experience and Adam, also a fan of this musical, agreed it was a lovely, elegant Saturday night theatre-going experience.
Rather less elegant was our sprint through the pouring rain after our theatre going in an attempt to locate a bite to evening. After numerous failed attempts in the West End and surrounds, we decided to try a bit closer to our bed and breakfast. This was unwise as we soon discovered little is open offering food at 1am on a Saturday night. We ended up in a kebab/chippie shop dining on hot chips with sauce (as we were a bit too afraid of the risk of food poisoning to eat anything with meat or salad), whilst the
shop workers themselves watched in somewhat bemused fashion (I doubt many people call in after a night at the theatre soaked to the bone for a 2am chip feast).
I'm not sure what Kyrie felt about the whole London experience overall-we spent two rather cold days wandering from Tower Bridge to Piccadilly, Covent Garden to the West End, Borough Market through to Spittalfields....and everything we could squeeze in between. To me, London sparkles in the sunshine but when its grey, the city can feel very oppressive (unfortunately the sky is often grey in London). We had one day of patchy sunshine, and the other was grey with patchy rain so it was a mixed bag. Still there are essential sites every tourist must see-nomatter the weather-and we tried to squeeze in as many of these as time allowed. For the things we didn't get to do, I took comfort from the idea that this will be yet another reason for Kyrie to come back to visit us again so that can't be a bad thing!
For our last few days together, we headed home to Yorkshire. I couldn't possibly let Kyrie leave England without having done the tea
and scones thing, and so we headed to the great British establishment of Betty's Tea Rooms in York. We had a quick stroll around the York Minster, stopped in some shops long enough to buy a dress or two each, and then headed to Betty's for a tea date. While tea and scones may not be everyone's ideal morning tea, at Betty's they follow old traditions and morning tea is definitely served in style. There's the tiered plate containing scones and jam and clotted cream, as well as gorgeous old tea pot complete with china cup and saucer. There's something a bit glamorous about it all!
In Sweden, we'd had our first spa day together and having Kyrie here for such a short time seemed the perfect excuse to partake in more spa treats! So while Adam went off to work, we had a girls day out to the Turkish Baths in Harrogate. Harrogate has been a 'spa town' for a very long time, with the discovery of mineral baths dating back to 1571. The Turkish Bath itself built in 1894 is a recreation of a traditional bath house complete with plunge pool and heat chambers. The idea is
to immerse yourself firstly in a cold plunge pool, before heading to the steam room, followed by the three heat chambers-the Tepidarium (warm), the Calidarium (hot), and the Laconium (hottest)room, interspersed each time with a further dip into the plunge pool. The first time in the cold pool, both Kyrie and I could barely prevent ourselves from crying out due to the intense cold. But after a few cycles of the whole process, it felt completely cleansing and refreshing. We followed this up with a back massage and a further hour spent in a jacuzzi. Total bliss.
The relaxation soon came to an end though as no sooner had she arrived, it was time for Kyrie to head off again. It was with great reluctance that I helped her repack her back pack the night before she set off back to Sweden in time to celebrate Liam's 1st birthday. I would gladly have kidnapped her and forced her to stay on with us in the UK. But all good things must come to an end and so it was that our time together had come full circle and we once again bid each other adieu.
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