Back to the States

I needed to head back to DC for meetings, but wanted to do some visiting on the front end of the trip as well. I flew into Newark and headed up to my friends house in New York State to enjoy some rural peace and quiet. From there it was off to New Jersey to spend several days with my parents and to catch up with some friends from high school.

One night my parents and I went to Shogun Legends in Wall for sushi which was really nice. We also went to Graziano's in Point Pleasant one night with my cousins. I've been eating pizza in this place since I was 5 years old. There's even a waitress there that I remember from when I was a little kid. It's hardly changed, which is a good thing as it has no need to, great New Jersey Italian style food, the ultimate in comfort food. Then it was off to Annapolis to visit with my friend Jennie before heading to DC for a week of work.

Proof
On Sunday night, Janine and I went out for dinner at Proof in the city. The food was great, but the wine list is the real winner here. Plenty to choose from and most of it reasonably priced. I've been to so many restaurants in Europe where there's ten or 15 wines of reasonable prices and pages upon pages of "fine" wines starting at hundreds of dollars, so I really appreciate good choices. While they had several vegetarian options, they didn't offer a pre-determined vegetarian tasting menu, just a meat focused one. I had the impression that vegetarians were more an after thought than central to the menu's plan, however that didn't make the food any less excellent. I highly recommend it. It strikes me as a great place for lunch, I'm not sure if they are open on the weekend for lunch, but their proximity to the National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery would make it a great stop for a leisurely lunch after a morning of museuming.

We Dine in Essex

Keeping the non-stop pace up, the day after we got back from Sweden, Joe and I headed to Essex to have dinner at Neil and Dan's house. We'd had, had them over for dinner in May and it was their turn to return the hospitality.

The train ride was nice and gave us a chance to see a part of the country we hadn't been to yet. Neil and Dan have a great house with a really nice garden. It's all very relaxed and welcoming. We had cocktails in the garden before heading inside for dinner. Soup, which was full of Fall was the first course. There were so many courses it's hard to recall them all now, but the centerpiece was the best vegetarian paella I've ever had with a seaweed side (I can't recall the exact name) that was surprisingly sweet and crisp. I'd had it before as a garnish, but never by the fork full. I was disappointed to be so full by the time we got to the entree. For dessert we had dueling chocolate and regular cheesecakes.

Time and conversation flew by and we had to end the evening just to make sure we got the train back in time. Joe and I are up next for Thanksgiving dinner. Dan's sourcing an organic turkey for me.

A Week in Stockholm

Joe had a week of meetings in Stockholm, so a few days after we got back from the States we jumped a flight to Stockholm for a week. We got in on Saturday afternoon so we would have some time to tour before the work week started.

On Sunday we went to the Hallwykska Museet. The owner of the home had been a forest baron heiress who made arrangements for the house to be preserved as a museum in its exact state at the time of her death so people could see how see how people lived at the end of the 19th century. A beautiful home, with intriguing collections from all over the world, it was really interesting to see the every day things...the kitchen and its utensils, the telephones, the bathrooms. Make sure to take the tour and plan on spending some time with the tapestries.

We stayed at the Adlon Hotel, just a couple of blocks from the train station. Extremely tiny rooms, at least that's my guess since we were supposed to be in one of the larger rooms. Nothing fancy by any means, but serviceable. The only real negative is that our room had a lovely view of the street, but was really loud at night. And, since there was no aircon and it was warm, the window needed to be open.

Monday was officially a bank holiday in the UK so I was off, though Joe had to work. I took the opportunity to just walk around and enjoy a day of nice weather and take in some of the city. It being Monday museums were closed. After visiting the sculpture garden at the Modern Art Museum, I had a nice walk along a marina and eventually ended up for a sunset cocktail at Gondolen. One of Stockholm's hottest restaurants, I went for the view, which I highly recommend. I'd also recommend eating there too, as the food going past the bar to the dining room looked very enticing. Afterwards I did some walking around the neighborhood near the Slussen subway stop. Definitely a happening neighborhood that is almost exclusively locals.

One night after work, Joe and I headed out to a neighborhood far outside the tourist area in search of a restaurant called Portofino on the island of Soldermalm. Before heading toward the restaurant we went to SOFO (south of Folkungagatan) to check out the neighborhood. It's full of trendy stores and restaurants. If I get back to Stockholm, I definitely want to spend more time getting to know this neighborhood.

We did make it to Portofino and it was an excellent restaurant. Great service and an amazing menu. We were expecting something a little more casual, not that the restaurant was stuffy, but the menu and food were very high end. Joe had the lobster ravioli, which were amazing. They had a great wine list too.

Thursday night we had reservations at F12, perhaps the best restaurant in Stockholm. Short for Fredsgatan 12, the address of the restaurant, this was a dining experience that will stand out for years to come. We both had the tasting menu with wine pairings, Joe had the meat and I had the vegetarian version. The first four wine pairings are served "blind". Poured from a decanted bottle you get a chance to banter your guesses with your server after each glass. I recommend you just surrender. While we were able to get some parts right, the wines themselves were so special and rare you'll never get them unless you are a serious expert with a deep knowledge of wines, especially those of Austria, Germany and France. The executive chef is Sweden's Chef of the Year 2009 and his cuisine showed why he had received the honor. Service was impeccable and the decor worthy of attention without being distracting. The other clear distinction for F12 is that they served me the most expensive meal I have ever eaten.

The cost of the meal at F12 was more a function of the cost of eating in Sweden than of the superlative experience. You will find that many very nice places in Sweden are self service. This is because the tax on self service is about 12%, whereas if someone waits on you it's 25%. This on top of the fact that many things are imported because of Sweden's short growing season and limited farm land and, well, you get the picture...be prepared for the cost of eating to shock, even at McDonald's.

On Friday, our last night in town, we dove head first into tourist cliche and had a drink at the Absolute Ice Bar. Book your visit online in advance and you'll save a bundle. It was interesting and I'm glad we satisfied our curiosity, but the interest didn't even manage to last though the length of the one shot sized cocktail served in a block of ice that you carefully drank with your gloves. Fun, but it definitely falls into the never need to repeat experience category.

From the Ice Bar we went to Kungliga Operan Gustav Adolfs Torg, the Royal Opera House, to see Spader Dam, or the Queen of Spades, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky based on a story by Alexander Pushkin. We were able to get great tickets the week before the show at the box office. Even if you don't go to the ballet or opera, the theatre is worth a visit. It's a beautiful building. The opera itself was great. We had a really good time.

We had an early evening flight on Saturday so we checked out and headed over to De Kungliga Slotten, The Royal Palaces, for the full tour. The combination ticket includes The Royal Aparments (a must see), The Treasury (also a must see), the Tre Kronor Museum which explores the history of the Palace's construction can be easily skipped and Gustav III's Antikmuseuem, which other than the view of the adjacent garden is an easy skip, especially if you've been to the Vatican Museum in the last year. We also took time out that day to drop in to several churches and wander the streets of Gamla Stan before heading to the airport.

Consistent with our Sweden tour in July, I found eating and alcohol to be expensive, hotels and transit to be the same as any big city, English to be spoken everywhere - with no one hinting that you're rude for not knowing or attempting the language, though we did try - and to make a sweeping generalization, the Swedish people are the friendliest people I've ever met.

US East Coast Round One

Our two week US East Coast August tour went by very quickly.

In Washington, Joe and I got to dine with our friends Janine and Martha, which is always a blast. We ate at Komi. Martha, Janine and I had eaten there on my last trip to DC and I was really glad Joe got a chance to experience this amazing restaurant. It didn't disappoint on the return visit. This remains one of the most amazing places I have ever eaten. If you love food, you have to go, but book early. It's become a hot spot in DC and they are now taking reservations only 30 days in advance and those reservations all go the day they open up.

From DC we headed to New Jersey for a quick visit with the rents before going to the Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island for Joe's nephew's wedding. A couple of nights before the wedding Joe's brother and sister-in-law, went out to dinner with my family, which was nice as the two sides hadn't had a real opportunity to meet before. As we had expected, everyone had a great time.

The wedding was really nice and it was great to see so much family at the same time. After the wedding we spent a night at my parents before flying back to London.

It was a serious whirlwind tour.

Reality Show

Yesterday I finished reading Howard Kurtz' Reality Show. While I wouldn't recommend this for everyone, if you are either a public relations person or an American baby boomer you'll probably enjoy this book.

Non-fiction the book looks at the issues and influences behind the changing of the guard at the network evening news anchor chairs that has transpired over the last few years leaving us with Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric. Kurtz does a good job giving it all a perspective against the backdrop of the 24-hour news cycle, cable news and the Internet.

The moments that given insight into decisions about what does and doesn't make the news were the most interesting to me. But I also thought that if I'd been even five or ten years older, the challenges of the guard changes itself might have been more of a focus for me.

Catherine Visits - Part Two

Last weekend we went to Oxford to see Catherine on her turf and tour the town. It's another place I haven't been since my first trip to the UK in 1988. We took the train and took advantage of First Great Western's Weekend First offer that let's you upgrade to first class on the train for practically nothing, £5 to Oxford, which given how crowded the train was in both directions was so worth it.

We stayed at the Royal Oxford Hotel which is right next to the train station. It didn't look so great on its web site, but was actually a great room at a great price when we got there. Fresh fruit in the room, how often does that happen?

The three of us strolled around Oxford, taking in the sites. Because Catherine is attending Christ Church College we were able to take see the Harry Potter sites without having to queue, though we did have to deal with the crush of tourists, mostly teenagers.

We headed over to a place called 4500 Miles from Dehli on Parkend Street for a great Indian lunch. Catherine said it's considered the best curry in Oxford and while I can't vouch for its standing in Oxford, it was excellent. We had a great meal and then set off to take in some architectural highlights before grabbing some pre-dinner beers.

For dinner I had scoped out a place called Restaurant 66a at the Cotswold Lodge Hotel. Great service and an excellent local cheese platter - the stinking bishop was mind blowing. When we asked for coffee afterwards they invited us into the lounge, where we sat in big club chairs in a bay window while they served a pot of french press. All of it was extremely reasonable in terms of price, I definitely recommend it as a must eat in Oxford.

The next day we took the bus to Blenheim Palace, where the Duke of Marlborough lives and where Sir Winston Churchill was born. This was my first visit to what I'd call a manor home. The Duke and his family still live at the Palace and charge £17 per person to visit to help pay for upkeep of the building and the 2,100 acres that make up the World Heritage Site. It was really a beautiful place to spend the day. We talked about how if we lived nearby we'd get the annual pass and picnic often. It was a great way to spend the day and cap our time with Catherine before she heads back to the States.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Two weekends ago I read The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mosin Hamid. It was a quick easy read from the reading perspective. I literally started on Saturday and finished it on Sunday and had a whole weekend in between.

It's definitely the kind of book that makes you think. While it is framed around current issues in the world, it is more of an everyman, every instance story that applies to so much of how people have approached otherness through the history of mankind. It did make me look at things from multiple sides, something I think we, as in the human race, fail to do all too often.

If you just want to keep thinking they way you do about people and races and ideas that make you uncomfortable so you can just continue to ignore them, don't read it.

Catherine Visits - Part One

My niece Catherine is here this summer for a six week post graduate course at Christ Church College in Oxford. She took a weekend and came to London to hang out and do a little touring.

Her number one thing to do was visit Westminster Abbey, so I finally returned after more than 20 years. I had avoided the Abbey because of the crowds and the cost, £15 per person to walk around a church. It was incredibly crowded. It made my time there, on a weekday in February in 1988, very special. My biggest memory was just how vast and empty the space seemed to be since there were so few people there. I made a brass rubbing in the cloister in the back where I sat by myself for almost an hour. The brass plates don't seem to be there anymore.

That said, it's not like you could opt out of seeing Westminster Abbey if you're coming to London as a first-time tourist, but it does serve to remind that off season travel has plenty of benefits besides lower prices.

After the Abbey we did something else I had done on my first trip in 1988, but hadn't done since - we toured Tower Bridge and took the pedestrian crossing at the top. It was as much fun as I remembered and touring the steam engines that used to drive the bridge lifts with an engineer added a special twist.

We finished the visit with an amazing dinner at our favorite place, Skylon. They have just introduced a tasting menu and I had been anxious to try it out. They offer both a vegetarian and meat/fish version. It was great, but I have to say that for a tasting menu the portions were way too large. So if you decide to go and take this option, I recommend eating about half of every course they put in front you so you'll be sure to have room for dessert!

Love in the Time of Cholera

Last week I finisehd Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Maquez. It was exactly what you would expect from a love story that won the Nobel Prize. Engrossing, moving and of course a great read. The most telling thing I can say about it is that I kept putting the book down because I didn't want it to end. Instead I wanted to wallow in the images and feelings Marquez had painted for me at that moment. It was all so vivid.

I haven't seen the movie, but heard it did not do the book justice, so if you have seen the movie and you're thinking no way, you might want to reconsider.

Stockholm at last

We left Ostersund on a high speed train scheduled to arrive in Stockholm in time for a late dinner. Unforunately we hit our first serious travel delay in a long time. Even though it was an inconvenience and our five hour ride took 10 hours and included a bus and another train, I have to give high marks to the Swedish rail service. Though it didn't affect us, several people had connections and I could tell by the announcements and watching what was going on that they had set up hotel rooms, food vouchers and new train tickets the next day for these folks. Maybe the airlines could learn a thing two?

When we arrived in Stockholm slighly after midnight, it was cold and raining and the first cabbie at the stand wouldn't take us to our hotel after we'd gotten all loaded up because he said we could walk...30 mintues, in the dark, in the rain, wasn't going to happen. We did get a very friendly cabby who had watched our first cab experience happen and had felt really bad, it was really nice.

Our room at the Hotel Stureplan was awesome. We had gone for one of their contemporary loft rooms instead of a classicly decorated room. It was the perfect antidote to the hassles of the trip even if the minibar was dinner and drinks. The neighborhood is a great place to stay and play as it seemed, to us anyway, to be the heart of the party part of the city.

We slept in, skipped breakfast and met up with a couple of colleagues from our corporate office in Stockholm who took us to lunch. Everyone had been telling us that we had to go to the Vasa museum. We weren't really sure about this, a museum about an old boat, but everyone was so insistent we figured we better check it out. We got ourselves 72 hour mass transit passes, jumped on a bus and headed over. It proved to be an amazing thing to see. The museum houses a 17th century naval war vessel that met an early fate and is extremely well preserved. It was raised from the harbor in 1961. If you only have a couple of hours in Stochkholm I'd put this toward the top of the list. I've never seen anything like it.

Then it was back to the hotel to hook up with a former colleague from the States who lives in Stockholm. While waiting for him, we induldged at the hotel bar, Per Lei, with a champagne tasting that was great fun. It was slow at teh bar so we were able to have a long talk with the sommelier who was a very knowledgable and being Swedish, extremely friendly. We didn't have dinner there, but next time I'm back it looks like a nice place for a long, quiet dinner for two.

After hooking up with Babak he took us for a walk through the old part of the city where we hooked up with a friend of his and then went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant called Sogni, not too far from our hotel. It was here that all the answers to our alcohol in Sweden questions seemed to come together. They don't drink much wine as it was never grown in the country so beer and spirits are the norm. Almost every place you go has a menu of shots worthy of an American spring break experience. They also don't really have bars, what happens is restaurants, like Sogni, turn into bars after dinner and they stay open well into the night. We also found buying anything other than beer for personal consumption hard too. This is because you have to go to what I would call in America a state store. These stores are open with very limited hours and are rarely located in town centers, which is why we could never successfully get a bottle of wine for the train.

Our last day in Sweden, we were exhausted. It had been a great trip, but we had been on the move the whole time so we slept in again and then just walked around. The Swedes do an amazing job of mixing ancient and contemporary architecture in a pleasing way.

We were done touring and just took in the city and the people. It was a fitting end as we spent several hours just rehashing all the ground we had covered and thing we had seen and done and then went back to our hotel room to close all the shades at 11p to hopefully get it dark enough to want to sleep.

Ostersund

The night train to Ostersund was interesting. It wasn't quite as comfortable as we had expected, but we did get some sleep. By now it wasn't ever really getting dark, which made convincing yourself to go to sleep a little hard. And, as fate would have it, the train arrived 40 minutes early. The difference between 6:20a and 7:00a always seems like alot to me.

We walked through the sleeping town to our hotel to drop off our bags. Even though we weren't even registered yet they invited us to indulge in the massive buffet breakfast - that amazingly friendly Swedish culture that we experienced again and again. After breakfast we walked around town and waited for the vistor center/bike rental center to open at 9a.

We got a pair of really nice mountain bikes at the visitors center and headed to the bike trails on the island of Froson. It was cloudy and it had been sprinkling a little bit, but the weather was supposed to turn toward partly cloudy. However, about seven miles out of town it started to rain. We stopped to get out of the rain and tour Froso Church, a small, wooden church that was first built in about 800 and had recently been restored. It was really beautiful inside with sea themed murals. When we left the church it was still raining so we went across the road to The Music Cafe where we had waffles with cloudberries and hot coffee until we were nice and dry. It was becoming obvious that the rain wasn't going to stop, so we decided to head back to town and our hotel room rather than ride on in the pouring rain. We were cold and soaked when we got back, but it had been a great ride.

It did eventually stop raining and we headed out for a late lunch and to walk around the town. Before we left the next day we took a ride on the S S Thomee, an 1875 lake steamship, to tour a small part of Lake Storsjon. The lake is huge. After riding for more than an hour we came upon the open center of the lake and though we could see the moutains rising on the other side, we couldn't see the shore as it was beyond the horizon. The lake is said to be home to a lake monster that is a relative of the Loch Ness Monster.

Orebro

It was a great train ride from Malmo - the Swedish rail system is wonderfully pleasant, efficient and friendly - to Orebro.

After checking into our room at the Plaza Hotel, we went out looking for some dinner. It's a small town and things were rolling up early so we ended up at a local Pizza joint that seemed pretty busy. Great pizza and great fun. We were far off the tourist trail and only one person in the restaurant spoke English. The chef from the back came out and we talked about our order. He found it hard to comprehend that we didn't want meat or fish on our pizza, but was happy to make it with onions and peppers. It was special for us to be in this town in the heart of Sweden and the pizza chef thought it was really great to meet two Americans who had come his way.

We spent the next day touring the town. It's got a true medieval heart centered at Orebro Slott. The castle itself has actually been turned into a conference center, but they offer a fun guided performance tour that features people from the tower's history reenacting scenes and involving the audience. It was fun. If you have kids a definite must.

Orebro is a big destination town for camping and cycling in Sweden. While we were there they were having their annual summer arts festival. In addition to public sculptures, we caught some public performances of dance and music.

Just down from the Slott is Wadkoping, one of several open air museums in Sweden where buildings and life from medieval times are preserved. We saw the one in Lund from the outside, it was very museum like. The one in Orebro is a living museum, with shops, restaurants and lots of activities for kids. We also visited St. Peter's church and caught the noon chimes of the clock at the Radhuset or city hall.

The other fun thing in Orebro is the Svapen or water tower. A famous design that has been copied by towns and cities around the world. It has an observation platform on the top with, of course, a coffee shop and a gift shop.

After a day of touring we hung out in a nice outdoor beer hall in the center of town with a view of the castle before catching the night train.

Lund & Malmo

We went to Lund primarily to meet up with our friend and colleague Matts who wanted to officially welcome us to Sweden. Before hooking up we checked into our room at The Grand Hotel. The room wasn't too grand, but the rest of the place was in a classic way. The staff had that incredible Swedish friendly thing going on and you had this feeling like you were staying in one of the hotels from the early days of the U.S. transcontinetal railroad.

Lund University, founded in 1666, is Sweden's biggest research focused university and heavily influences the feel of the town from a personality and architectural standpoint. Matts was running late so we took a walk around.

We met up with Matts back at The Grand where he had made reservations for dinner. The restaurant is considered one of the best Swedish restaurants in the area and has an amazing wine list. As part of our welcome, Matts guided us through a first course of three kinds of herring, Swedish akavit and beer - simply sublime. For dessert we had another Swedish speciality, cloudberries, which were served with ice cream and a confection that translates as "cake baked on a spit", but seems to be a meringue with added flour that is piped out and then baked. Cloudberries are very special, if you ever get a chance to have some, don't pass it up. After dinner Matts gave us a walking tour of town.

The next day we made sure to make time to retrace a few of our steps to visit the Lund Cathedral, which was founded in 1085, and i renowned for its astrological clock. Then we jumped on the train to Malmo for the day.

Malmo is a great small city, with a beautiful medievil center. We only had a few hours there and so only took a walk around, visited the oldest church in town and had a few beers. If we had, had more time, a visit to the contemporary art museum seemed like a good idea as well as a visit to the Turning Torso tower which, as Sweden's tallest building looms above the city from miles away. Though as I understand it, you can't actually enter the building as a tourist. I remember watching the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering about the building of the tower. It was really exciting to see it so close.

Copenhagen

We spent two nights in Copenhagen before riding across the Oresund Bridge to Sweden for a week of touring the country. After a really easy train ride from the airport, we checked into our amazing hotel, The Copenhagen Island Hotel, about midnight. It was only one stop on the S-trains to Copenhagen Central Station from the heart of the tourist area and next to an "American" style mall with a great food court for a cheap breakfast or lunch...and great Dane watching.

After a couple of challenges - neither our UK or US credit cards would work in the machines - we were able to get a "10 klip" transit card for riding on the S-trains as well as the subway, a great bargain and an easy way to go.

We didn't have much time in Copenhagen and wanted to high the highlights. We started by walking through the main shopping district toward Nyhavn. Definitely a place to see. Beautiful architecture there and along the way. When we got there we discovered that we had lucked into part of the Copenhagen Jazz Festival.

After a couple of beers and some music we bought tickets and toured the canals by boat. A great introduction to the city, especially if you only have a a few hours. You get to see some of the oldest and newest archiecture of the city and get a real feel for the layout and key areas.

The next day we were up early and among the first visitors of the day at Rosenborg Slot. Dating from the 17th century, the Slot's treasury houses the Danish Crown Jewels while the Slot itself has some amazing collections. The one that really blew me away was the "glass cabinet" on the third floor...a room filled floor to ceiling with antique Venetian glass. Even in Venice I never saw anything like this.

Afterwards we headed to the Rundetaarn (Round Tower), unlike the usual sprial staircase this is a spiral ramp. It made for an easy walk and with a really wide space on the top, a great view of the city.

Then it was time to grab a quick bite and jump a train for our next stop - Lund in Sweden.

can you kew?

In June I went to Kew Gardens twice, each time with a different friend visiting from the States. If you have even the slightes inclination to gardens or parks, this is a must see when you visit London. A key word of caution...guide books say you can see it in 3 to 4 hours, well I spent a total of 10+ non-stop hours over two days and saw most, but not all and my pace wasn't exactly leisurely.

Both times we took the train from Vauxhall in London and used the Southwest Trains summer 2 for 1 offer to get in, which given £13 for a ticket was good savings. It's just a short easy walk from the Kew Bridge train station. There's a nice pub with tables out front for a beer when you leave the park.

On my first visit the focus was on the "glass houses":

• the Palm House
• the Waterlily House
  
• the Princess of Wales Conservatory
• the Temperate House.
  

I also did the Treetop Walkway, the Davies Alpine House and the Rose Pergula. All amazing.

The second trip we got tickets to ride the Kew Explorer (think DisneyWorld parking lot shuttle), which allowed us to see much more of the grounds. We visited:

• the Bamboo Garden and the Minka House
• the Pagoda
• the Japanese Gateway
• the Rhododendron Dell

Again, all amazing.

Even though there are plenty of visitors and you certainly don't feel alone, you don't ever feel crowded...there's plenty of space. I really can't wait to go back and see it in different seasons.

My key word of advice is that the food is typical cafeteria food. There's no lovely place to sit and enjoy a meal and be waited on, so bring a picnic! And comfortable walking shoes.

Teened London 10

My friend Katherine is bringing her two teens to the UK for summer holiday next month and she asked me for some recommendations. So here are my top ten for things to do in London with a teenaged guy and a teenaged woman...in no particular order.

1. You can't bring a young lady to London and not have proper tea, but what's the young lad to do? Take tea at the British Museum. Tea is served at the Court Restaurant, from 3p to 530p, reservations are highly recommended: +44 (0)20 7323 8990 or email: eat@britishmuseum.org. While the ladies are having scones and finger sandwiches, the lad can wander the galleries.

2. Take a tour boat - not just a transit, but one with a guide that narrates - to Greenwich. Make sure you arrive in time to be close enough to the Royal Observatory to see the ball drop at 1p as it has every day since 1833, before taking your picture straddling the 0 degree meridian that marks GMT. Consider lunch at Trafalgar Tavern, built in 1837, Dickens drank there, plan accordingly as there might be a long wait. Other things to check out in Greenwich include the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, the Fan Museum and the National Maritime Museum.

3. Have lunch from the stalls at Borough Market. Open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, this is a truly London moment. Bring your appetite and cash, most stalls take credit cards, but what a pain. Don't miss the grilled cheese and chopped onions sandwiches, look for the raclette signs. After lunch head to Tower Bridge for the tour or if you'd prefer something more macabre the London Dungeon.

4. You can't come to London for the first time without going to the Tower of London.

5. Over the weekend spend some time at Camden Market, open noon to 6p daily, but weekends are most interesting.

6. See a show for half price. Like New York City, London has an official Tkts Tkts service - and lots of not official ones so beware - where you can get day of tickets for shows at half price. What is listed the day before is a good indication of what you'll get the next day. Show up at 10a for the best shot. Want to see something special, most sold out shows offer excellent tickets for sale (usually 10 to 30) for day of show that go on sale when the box office opens. Remember "stalls" means "orchestra section".

7. Grab a coffee, or an expensive lunch, at the Tate Modern Restaurant on the 7th Floor of the Tate Modern for an amazing view of the city. When you're done take in some art, or head out the front door to the right to tour the Globe Theatre.

8. It's really hard to understand World War II and what it meant to the Londoners that lived through it. Other than imagining sleeping on a tube platform by flashlight (aka torch) a visit to the Cabinet War Rooms can help people get a sense of the reality.

9. Gain an understanding of British culture through the centuries by spending a few hours at the Tate Britain. The museum displays the world's largest collection of British art from the 16th century through today. If the weather's great, when you finish go right out the front door and walk across Vauxhall Bridge and have lunch or dinner on the waterfront at St. George Wharf (the giant high rise that looks like cruise ships). If the weather's lousy, go left out the front door to the Millbank Tower where you'll find a Pizza Express (make sure to check the website for great 2-for-1 coupons good at their outlets all over the city).

10. Because you will go to Harrods, with a teenage daughter how could you not, you'll need a destination beyond the Egyptian Escalator. I really recommend for a high level Mother/Daughter moment - send the lad sporting goods on the 5th floor - Harrod's Chocolate Bar.

Don't forget to visit Transport for London to find out how to get around town and most importantly how to get your Oyster card.

everyman

Over the weekend I read Philip Roth's Everyman. It's a quick read. It took me about two hours. That was the only easy thing about this book.

Roth's brilliance is clearly on display here. It would be almost impossible to read the book and not identify with at least one of the characters. The identification with characters and story lines made this book intensely powerful. It affected my waking thoughts and my dreams.

The book is set around the US Jersey Shore and New York City, where I grew up. This added personal reality of the setting heightened the intensity for me. A key outcome of the book was to bring me back in my life. I found my thoughts and dreams wandering to my childhood, high school years and people and moments I hadn't thought of in a very long time.

Definitely a great summertime deck or beach book. A couple of glasses of wine afterward and you'll win for the best stories of the evening.

Paris Weekend

Eurostar
Last weekend, Joe and I jumped on a late Thursday night Eurostar and headed to Paris for the weekend. Two hours and 15 minutes to Paris from London. It's great, but I'm still amazed that the food offerings aren't any better than Amtrak's.

Since the train is the perfect place to have a meal, we bring our own. There's a great Marks and Spencer's Simply Food at St. Pancras in London. Gare du Nord in Paris is a bit more challenging, but once you are inside security there's a Paul (it's way in the back) for sandwiches and the Godiva store has a great selection of upscale cheese and luxury treats for a picnic.

I rendezvoused with Joe at the St. Pancras Grand Restaurant. It's a great place to meet. Across from the St. Pancras Grand Champagne Bar, which rarely has seats, the restaurant has tables and couches along the front with a full view of the glass roof and a lack of people that makes finding others easy. You do need to plan on buying a drink, but a glass of champagne before you head to the continent is always nice. Joe and I had the May special, a glass of summer champagne and a plate of chilled British asparagus with herbed mayonnaise.

The Five Hotel
We stayed at a wonderful boutique hotel called The Five which is located on the edge of the 7th arrondissement (near the 13th). Really nice bed and some of the nicest, biggest, softest towels I've ever had anywhere in Europe. The rooms, typically small, were clean and designed to the highest standard of detail. The fiber optic lighting included a wall of starlight in the shower and a shower head that had color LED lights.

The front desk staff were great. Excellent language skills and really helpful. It was about a 10 minute walk to mass transit - either the RER or the Metro's 7 line - and then 10 to 20 minutes to get to the heart of Paris. Despite the closeness, the neighborhood was outside the main tourist zone. Plenty of cafes, restaurants and grocery stores, populated mainly by Parisians.

We arrived about midnight and wanted something to eat. The guy at the front desk sent us a few blocks away where we had falafel sandwiches and fries. Right away we knew we were in Paris. The bread was incredible, the fries extraordinary and the place, literally just a tiny sandwich shop.

The 7th Arrondissement
We spent most of Friday wandering around the 7th Arrondissement. After breakfast at a cafe watching people go by we bought our carnet du dix (10 tickets to ride the Metro or RER, the most cost effective way to go) and and road down to the Jardin Des Plantes. The gardens and trees were beautiful. From there, we walked to the Seine and along it for awhile, just enjoying the amazing weather - it was sunny and in the mid-70s all 3 days we were there.

We turned back into the neighborhood and stopped at the St. Etienne du Mont church which contains the shrine to St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris. From there we walked across the street and went into the Pantheon. Impressive architecturally, but not as impressive as Rome's Pantheon. Perhaps it's because the one in Paris was built in the 18th century.

We eventually made our way through little streets over to the Boulevard Saint Michel where we found a cafe and had a bottle of wine and some salad while watching the Parisians go by.

After a nap at the hotel we headed into the heart of Paris for dinner. My foodie friend Janine had recommended Le Souffle, near Place de la Concorde. Joe and I both had the flight of three souffles with salad. I had cheese, mushroom and rose. Joe had forest mushroom; ham and cheese; and chocolate.

I am a bit of a souffle snob so I do have to say the souffles were more formulaic than gourmand. However, if you don't make (or eat) souffles often, you'll be very pleased to have someone else whip the egg whites. The only negative I would share is that the staff pushed hard to turn the tables. Our four course, one hour 15 minute dinner could easily have been 45 minutes if we hadn't gently pushed back.

After dinner we walked along the Seine which was packed with the people of Paris having picnics and enjoying the first hints of summer weather.

Montmartre
Saturday we were off to Montmartre. On the way to the RER we walked through an amazing farmers market on the Boulevard de Port Royal, between our hotel and the Port Royal RER station. Great stuff for making a picnic, unfortunately that wasn't our plan for the day.

On my Mom's first trip to Europe she lit a candle at Scare Coeur and prayed that her children would get to tour Europe one day. I had lit a candle in thanks in 1988, my last trip to Paris, and wanted to honor the tradition by lighting another one.

After visiting the basilica we walked around the side streets and stumbled on a great restaurant, Chez Plumeau. Even though it wasn't out plan, we ended up having a long, long lunch. We sat outside under an old grape arbor full of leaves to provide shade, listening to the nearby street musician and enjoying the food. The staff were great and our fellow diners were a mix of Parisians and travelers from all over the world. Joe started with an excellent French onion soup while I had beet root carpaccio with basil sorbet. Next we both had sandwiches, but that fails to adequately describe these toasted, open face combinations of vegetables and cheeses with sides of fruit and salad.

We had watched amazing desserts come out throughout our meal so we indulged. Joe had the "crazy macaroons", two small scoops of ice cream with four different macaroon cream sandwich cookies on a skewer and I had an apple tart. Excellent, I highly recommend it for a quick cafe and dessert or a full meal. They had several worthy vegetarian options and were happy to make my sandwich without the meat.

It took us most of the rest of the day to stroll and sip cafe and wine back to the Seine and on to our hotel. After a quick nap, we found a little Italian restaurant on Avenue des Gobelins, just about the Metro stop of the same name called Cesars. Good pasta and, though we didn't have one, the pizzas looked incredible.

After dinner we headed over to the Tour Eiffel to see it all lit up. No easy feet as this time of year it doesn't get really dark until after 11p.

A Paris Sunday
We still had a full day in Paris before our train left at 8:45p. After sleeping in, we checked out, left our bags at the hotel, and headed out toward the Musee D'Art Moderne. I was particularly interested in seeing their Cubist collection. Unfortunately the museum was closed for no apparent reason. We weren't the only ones caught by surprise. A couple of Parisians wandered up and seemed a bit miffed too.

We didn't care, the weather was amazing and so we went for a walk down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees and then through the Jardin des Tuileries. From there we crossed the Seine and window shopped through the gallery district, stopping at a couple of cafes. Before heading to get our luggage we stopped in a little touristy street and had a great crepe at L'Eloquence, 6, Rue Gregoire de Tours.

Back on Boulevard Port Royal I was surprised to find the chocolate shop next to our hotel open on Sunday afternoon. Patisserie Sadaharu AOKI had the most amazing window displays and I finally succumbed. I bought some beautiful tea cakes and a box of chocolates that look like pastels. We have some company coming from the States in a couple of weeks and I'm saving this little bite of Paris to share with them.