Psst, sorry to use the board for this message.
I sent you two e-mails this morning regarding Monday and Tuesday but I keep getting a message telling me that something failed in the delivery. Is your e-mail down or does my ButtMail have a crack?
If I don’t catch up with you here or through e-mail, I will call you once we get to our hotel.
Cheers!!! 
First the BRAAAAAP thread, now this. Whats on the mind of dopers this morning, hmmm?
Log jam ?
I think the butt mail must be constipated as all the usual spam, etc. is plopping out with the usual consistency. Have you been eating your greens ?
As a girl friend of mine once said rather sytlishly on the phone: “Got to go now, the heads poking out…”
Hope to here from ya’ll soon.
Make that: ‘stylishly’ - or not.
Or: “Gotta dash, it’s tapping the white cloth!” 
Oh
My
God
Women have actually said those things!?!?!?!
I’ll go resend the e-mails. . . .
(Right after I take care of this turtle head.}
It took a few pushes but I think the ButtMail log jam has been taken care of. Let me know if you got the e-mail, if not, I guess I better grunt harder or something. 
Hey Coldie and the rest of you Euro Dopers - We’ll be in London Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday morning. Any chance of dropping by for a few?
(Come on guys, be spontaneous!)
Are you not coming to Dublin, then, Diane? 
I would go to London, since I’m on holiday next week, but I’ve got to keep the time free for job interviews.
Except for Tuesday, when I’m in Belfast. Don’t suppose I could talk any of you into an impromptu BelfastDope?
About bounced mail: Mail servers often resend the mail for a few days automatically until it gets to its destination. Read the notice you get from them carefully.
Im coming to London this year I hope, as I just went to get a passport.
Can’t make it to Ye Olde London Towne on that short notice, Diane… I would have tried if it weren’t for the fact tht my GF will come to me for Easter, arriving Thursday. All in all, no can’t do.
I do hope you have a great time - it’s an awesome city. I’m sure Andy will give you a good seeing to, wink wink, nudge nudge, whaddayasay Guv?
Coldie - “A good seeing to” – Nothing could be farther from my mind. Anyway, I’m absolutely positive Diane’s not that kind of gall - that’s the public announcement over with
If all goes to plan, I will meet up with Team Diane this evening and, maybe, take a little night tour in my wheels. As the car tends to occasionally steer itself into pub car parks, a bite to eat and a beer might also be on the agenda. Depends on how they feel.
Seems Diane might also be visiting somewhere she calls ‘Madame Trousers’ – apparently it has wax work models. Not sure if the attraction is the models or anything in trousers.
Wow - you have a Peugeot as well, L_C? Mine does that all the time! I usually give her a budget jug of Bordeaux while I treat myself to a Guinness or two, and then we’re on our merry way again. What’s your standard operating procedure?
I’m around Monday/Wednesday. What’s the plan?
Yep, still got the old faithful 405. Mine seems to favour Vodka and Red Bull with too much recreational additive as a chaser – a nasty habit picked up from my ex.
Expensive but makes a hell of a difference to the gear ratios. Works for the car, also.
Matt – fancy a bite to eat this evening ? Diane’s not far from your manor, we could eat somewhere near you if you’re up for it ??
Drop me a mail if you can make it.
Anyone else game ?
Mail sent…
Didn’t manage to meet up with mattk but I did get to spend some time with Team Diane on Monday evening and yesterday.
As they hadn’t been here before, I took them on a driving tour of the city on Monday night for a couple of hours after which the car, rather predictably, did steer itself into the environs of a suitable hostelry. Saw all the usual suspect sights and tried to give them a feel of the city including the cultural diversity, history and current developments.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was fun as we tried to squeeze in as much as possible. As well as Diane, her father, son and daughter (TwistofFate, I said ‘daughter’ !!) tripped around their number one choice – The Tower of London (a very good tour by the Beefeaters and highly recommended) – and also did the Tower Bridge tour (surprisingly interesting and well put together). Then we leaped across to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (another good tour) before I finally cornered them into visiting the most wonderful, exhilarating, mind blowing space, I think, in the world at the moment: the Tate Modern – truly magnificent !! It takes me days to recover from visiting that place…phew…The weather was typically April (‘April showers’) but I think we all had fun.
So, today (Wednesday) they head off back to Germany and Diane fly’s back to the US on Thursday. I assume she’ll be around on the board after the weekend - if she doesn’t get lost again, again, again…
Sorry I couldn’t make it in the end. Call of duty and all that bobbins.
The bags are unpacked, the critters from my daughter’s mini zoo have all found their way back home from the pet babysitters, the youngest boy got a haircut and is looking like a boy again, the telephone answering machine has been unburdened of the 9000+ messages, my hot rollers were plugged into the wall socket for the first time in a month, we are slowly relearning our language, the mountain of mail has been sorted, the phone calls made, the kids are back in school, and I was greeted by a huge pile of CRAP on my desk!
Shit! I need a vacation!
There are many nice things I can say about those EuroDoperTouristGuideGuys, but one thing in particular is that they are absolutely adorable and wonderful hosts! I should also mention their very sexy accents!
As I already mentioned in the Amsterdam thread, Coldie made our Amsterdam visit perfect! I would have been lost without him! :::snicker::: Again, MANY, MANY THANKS!!! If you are ever up for another job as tour guide, my sister is heading off to Europe in June or July and will be making the trip to Amsterdam. She has the same sense of direction as I do.
My second DoperTourGuide was London Calling.
He already gave his version of our time in London, but I wanted to add a bit more.
After a plane, train, and subway ride, we finally got to our hotel near Bakerstreet (yep, THE Bakerstreet from Sherlock Holmes). We went out for fish and chips and then hit Madame Tro. . . Tru. . . Trou. . . Touss. . . HOW THE BLOODY 'ELL DO YOU SPELL IT? <------- My new British accent.
Regardless of LC’s apathy of the wax museum, I absolutely loved it! One day I will return to London for the sole purpose to drag his sorry butt to Madame Whatshername’s. I know he would love it!
After the museum, we returned to our hotel and called LC. I wasn’t sure if I had the right number or not since the accent was a bit different than I remembered in Amsterdam. Come to find out, I had caught him with a mouthful of supper. He graciously offered to pick us up and show us the sights of London. My dad and son were pooped and decided to hang out in the room and do guy things like burp and fart and watch pro-wrestling while me and the daughter had our date with LC. He gave us the grand tour of London which included a stop at the pub near Eric Clapton’s home as well as tainting my opinion of the cute, innocent looking phone booths. (Psssst LC - As soon as I get my pictures up, you will have to check out the one of my son staring into the phone booth with slobber running down his chin. I had to drag him away, literally. The little perv!)
He made sure we experienced a wide variety of culture and sights, things that are sadly missed on your everyday, run of the mill type tourist buses, or so I am assuming since I didn’t see them mentioned in my guides.
I may have a :::slightly::: bad habit of getting horribly lost in Europe, but NOTHING prepared me for the freaky experience of riding shotgun on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the narrow streets as LC blasted his way through traffic! Holy Shit! I wasn’t going to say anything, but it’s a good thing I got a beer under my belt at the pub, otherwise I would still be picking car upholstery from my ass.
It was getting pretty late and I would have loved to have spent more time with LC seeing the sights and just having a great time getting to know him but we went back to the hotel so we could get up early in the morning and start again.
I called LC the next morning and we decided to meet at the Tower of London. What a great place that was! Our Beefeater tour guide was awesome and kept us laughing!! After the Tower, we took the tour at Tower Bridge. It was also very well done, especially thÿÿÿe doofy little guy hanging from the ceiling. It would have been kind of freaky if I still dropped the occasional hit of acid, but he was still cool without drug inducement. I think this was about the time I asked LC if he felt like a mother goose with her chicks following behind. We took a cab to Shakespeare’s Globe which was totally cool (I have got to go back for a play one of these days) and then over to the Tate Museum.
Oh yes. . . the Tate Museum. It is one of those places that you need an entire week to see. There is really no way to describe it but to say it is wonderfully bizarre! I would do anything to have an unlimited amount of time to spend there looking at each piece and try to decide what the artist was trying to say. Of all the art museums seen on this trip, this is my favorite, even more so than the Louvre. I can see why LC loves this place! In fact, LC loves this place so much I thought I was going to have to pull him off the museum’s pant leg (if it had one, that is). As it was, his tongue tripped me going up the steps. Someday soon I may start a thread of all the adventures of National Lampoon’s Diane Family European Vacation where I will go into further detail of all the unplanned side “trips” I took over the last four weeks (include the Tate), and yes, there were many.
Sadly, LC had to leave us soon after the Tate Museum and so we made our way to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Hard Rock Café, and eventually to our hotel later that night.
Again, there is no way to give adequate thanks to all the EuroDoper Tour Guides and the kindness and patience they showed to me and my family. I also am very glad I got to meet all of the other Euro Dopers, you are the creme of the SDMB and I am glad to have met you all.
You guys made our trip worth much more!!!
You got home ? That’s so impressive
Okay, that wax works place…
Most people seem to go with something like ‘Madame Two Swords’ – maybe I am missing something with that place cos it just feels like human taxidermy to me. I’ll go one day…
About the Tate…
Glad you enjoyed Tate Modern. I do get pretty excited when I go there because it’s just the most fantastic playground of ideas set in a seriously radical environment. Maybe the Guggenheim in Bilbao is more visually intriguing (as a building) and the Met in NYC definitely has a superior collection of the leading 20th century artists but Tate Modern is, IMHO, just way out there.
You’re right about Tate Modern being an extension of the main Tate. Most of the collection is at what used to be called ‘The Tate’ (now renamed ‘Tate Britain’) and the 20th century stuff has been hived off to the gallery we went to (‘Tate Modern’). If anyone’s interested the home page for the whole kegang-kabodde is here. It’s all too much to absorb but mentioning the definitive collection of Turners and William Blake’s should make anyone’s mind up Tate Britain is also worth a visit.
Diane, I had a great time meeting you and your family. I’m still struggling with the idea that the kids could be so wonderful. You sure brung 'em up gud. Love to see the photo of your son salivating over the ladies of the night – I just hope he didn’t jot down any phone numbers to take home…
I’m never quite sure what people want to see and experience when they come here so I just tend to wander around and hopefully they get a feel for the place and what it’s about. I’m biased so I think it takes about a year to get on top of everything (museums, galleries, music, culture, history, sights, etc.) but I hope you at least got a flavour.
It was lovely so see you and I’d love to welcome you back anytime although, I imagine, for a while you’ll be content with the lake to the left and the mountains to the right ;). Cheers.