A couple more questions answered. Most of them are from Kathy. In fact, all are from Kathy. To respond to the question about the puzzle, read one of my latest posts (second latest, I think). No, I did not manage to solve it. Well, actually, I did technically solve it, but I can't exactly proclaim myself a brainiac because of it. I had to go on YouTube and watch a video solution several times over in order to bring it to a solved position; at which point I bragged for a little while then told Grandpa the truth and promptly called off the bet. Also, my legs have in fact recovered (believe it or not) but I haven't gotten over my caffeine addiction. BTW, in case you havn't seen many pictures of the tower bridge, there's one with a blog post. In case you hadn't figured out where the walkways are, they're on that big long blue part with the royal crest (?) kinda visible on them. Dad loves his new toy (WOW) and I'm starting to miss being able to play with it when I'm bored. Also, Magic Camp is coming up and I think that I will be using the chain escape during the campre's show.

Posted comments not showing up :-(

It has come to my attention that a number of people have made comments but they just haven't been published for some reason.
We love hearing what you've had to say about the trip so if you have said something or asked a question,my apologies for not answering. Please post again . If you are posting under "anonymous" you can tell right away if it works because a caption will pop up saying "your comment has been saved". if you don't see this message, chances are that your comment has gone to never-never land.

Here's a (hopefully) complete list of all of the souvenir items that I accumulated during my trip. The ones that came free of charge are marked with a *.

Bags*
Grandma was smart. Every time someone asked if we wanted a bag, she said "yes". She even specifically asked for a bag sometimes. They make great souvenirs and they're cheap.

Harrod's (large)
Harrod's (small)
Hamley's
British Museum (x2)
Transport Museum
Historic Scotland (museum)
Davenport's Magic Shop
Tower of London
Hard Rock Café

Fliers*/magazines*/newspapers*
"This is London" travel guide
Kensington Palace (we didn't go there)
"Connoiseurs Scotland"
"Where"
The London Paper
Welcome to Edinburgh (x2)
Hatchard's: a short history
Camera Obscura
The Real Mary King's Close
Pollock's Toy Museum
Edinburgh Castle
Daily Telegraph
Celsea Physic Garden

I also got 5 maps (free)

Tickets
Tower Bridge Exhibition
City Sightseeing London
The Original Tour
The London Eye
We Will Rock You
London Underground Day passes
Edinburgh Castle

General
Tower Bridge Photgraphs and Magnet
Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum Souvenir Keychain Featuring Johnny Depp and You
Rapid-Fire wooden rubber band gun with target and 10 rubber bands
Hard Rock Classic Tee
Headphones from the Original Tour*
Jumping frog (balloon legs, when you pump air into said legs they expand, thus allowing the frog to spring into the air)
Air Canada Comfort Kits*
Napkin from Harrod's*
Diet Coke Bottle from the Club Lounge*
Jars of Ketchup and Maple Syrup
Magic Wallet
Working Replica Catapult wih pencil sharpener
Sugar/sweetener packets with Harrod's Logo*
"Wheel" keychain from Royal Yacht Brittania
Brittania Bear Keychain from " " (for Michelle)
Replica Roman Coins from British Museum (for Michelle)
Bagpiping Bears (from Grandma, one for each kid)
Egyptian Golden Cat earrings from British Museum (for Katherine)
Harrod's Biscuits (Chocolate Macademia nut/Ginger, for Mom, Katherine, and Michelle)
Hand-cranked music box ("whistle while you work")
Underground Logo Keychain from Transport Museum
Rosetta Stone-shaped keychain from British Museum
Hard Rock Café Pin*
Hard Rock Café rotating guitar keychain
"bagpipes" keychain
"Wow" (super-awesome magic trick)
"Count of Monte Cristo" escape (binds hands, feet, and neck)
Bedlam Cube
Eastsheen double, triple, and quadruple 2x2x2 Rubik's apparatuses (picture the 2x2x2 Rubik's cube but linked at the corners of other 2x2x2s)
Giant Inflatable HoverDisk (seems to have a mind of it's own)

If i've forgotten anything, i'll be sure to post it

I would like to thank my faithful readers for supporting my blogging experience. Your comments have given me fuel, and it's nice to know that there are people out there who care.

I have recently had several people request details on certain post items, so I though that I wuld clear some things up. One thing worth mentioning is that I went on the London Eye, as opposed to the London I. This error occured in the first post which was composed of phone conversation and IM transcripts. I mentioned it during an IM chat and, using "chatspeak", called it the "I" in an attempt to asave finger energy and prevent joint strain. I probably assumed that my family at least knew what I was talking about and thus used a shortened form. While we're on the topic of the London Eye, some people had never heard of such a creature. I think that the best way to describe it is a giant Ferris Wheel except slower. That and the carriages don't rock back and forth, making you feel like you're going to fall. It is actually quite nice. Also, now that we're back, I can disclose certain souvenir items that were previously kept secret. The "awesomest item for mom" from the Tower of London Gift Shop was in fact a DIY moving paper model of an executioner chopping someone's head off. We are now in the process of making said model. The Tower Bridge (which we visited afterwards) is a little bit different than most people expect. It's very blue. I was not anticipating so much of the colour blue. It is magnificant and if you see a picture of the bridge, you'll see a span connecting the two main towers. These are walkways, open to pedestrians like us. It's neat being up there.

Something else that some people were wanting more details about was the bet placed between myself and my Grandparents. The wager was placed on my ability to solve the Bedlam Cube, which is a cubular puzzle consisting of 13 differently shaped 3 dimensional pieces. The rules we decided upon were that all of the pieces must be used and there should be no gaps (spaces between blocks) in the puzzle. The deal was that if I could solve this puzzle, I would travel 1st class on the flight from London to Toronto and Grandma and Grandpa would have to go Economy (there was only one first class ticket). If I couldn't solve the puzzle, I would be sitting Economy and Grandma/Grandpa would fly 1st class. Unfortunately, I soon realized that solving the puzzle before the end of the trip would not likely happen, even for a cubemaster like me, and thas it would be likely that pieces would become lost in transit if they were not in their original packaging. I decided that all bets were off and looked online for a solution instead. Before doing this myself, though, I sent a coded plea for help to my father. The ensuing conversation was apparently quite funny to some, so I will post it here:

Marc Hache says: i love the way you write
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says: thanx. Just working on this BEDLAM CUBE.
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says: I always make sure to say PLEASE and thank you, and that was what got me into the London Dungeons gift shop today. I'll explain what i'm doing later.
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says: we should SEARCH FOR the hatchard's in Picadilly
Marc Hache says: Atta boy. You should think about going to bed. Another big day tomorrow.
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says: I just created a SOLUTION of water and sugar, I request that you follow the coded instructions that I just covertly sent. The CAPITALS should help you do it.
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says: relay the results ASAP, please and thank you
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says: let me know if you don't get it

By the way, it was my pleases and thank-yous that got me into the London Dungeons Gift Shop. I asked one of the costumed actresses if I could just go into the gift shop without the whole Dungeons experience. Because I was so polite, she granted my request even though she wasn't supposed to do so.

Another thing: I wish to dispel rumours that on our last day I had a bad day. I absolutely did have a good day even though my blog may seem to indicate otherwise. I would like to officially say that although certain days of the trip may have been better, it was in no way a bad experience. In fact, it was coming very close to a good experience, especially the Royal Yacht Britannia. We also saw some cool things on the way.

For those who are interested, I will be posting a complete list of souvenirs on Monday, August 4th or later

Once again, not much to write about today. We went on a train then spent several hours in an attempt to reach our hotel. Once there, I immediately honed in on the conveniently located model aircraft shop near the lobby. I checked out the prices and decided that shopping there might not have been as fun as originally thought. A mass-produced 6 inch model costs around $40 whereas a fee 10 times that will only get you a small model of a Fokker Dr 1 Triplane. I'm not a big fan of the monetary decisions of that place. Anyways, we retired to the lounge where they had some delicious chocolate cake with heavenly sauce. A big bonus was that it was free (free as in "don't pay for it at the time of consumption. We probably paid for luxuries like this with the cost of the hotel room). We don't have much more time here, but I might just continue writing after I get back. We're not going buisiness on the way back, but that matters not as I will have plenty of memories to get me through the trip.

Too much coffee

Barb again. Apparently gramma decided that coffee would help to keep Jean-Marc awake so that he could more fully enjoy the whole experience. Thanks gramma.

That's okay, your dog is now sleeping on my bed every night.I hope that you don't mind.

;-p Barb

It's official.I've become my mother.

Barb Here. I'm not sure where in Edinburgh this was taken but I thought that it was a great picture!

Welcome to what may be my final blog post. Today was unfortunately our final official day of this trip. Today we decided to make our way through the thick, soupy fog to some magic shops. Unfortunately the nearest good magic shop is in Glasgow. We decided to trek to where the concierge said anyways, and were rewarded with one cheesy shops with a couple of card tricks and several offensive novelty items and another that contained nothing related to magic. So much for that. It was a nice walk, though. Anyways, we decided to go to the Dynamic Earth Science Park where we went back to the beginning of time ("the difference between the time machine and a lift is that the time machine tells you what year you're in and not the floor you're at"). After this experience, I managed to convince Grandma to take me close to a monument similar to the one that I climbed yesterday (except this one wasn't as tall). They advertised it as 170 steps but I only got to go up 150 when I discovered that there was a barricade in my way. Once again, so much for that. It was still cool up there, especially with the fog rolling in around the several surrounding monuments. On the same hill as this tower they had "The Embarassment". The Embarrasment is a replica of the Parthenon in Greece that never got finished (the city ran out of money and got lazy, so they just gave up and left it half-finished). It wasn't very acessible (apart from the fact that it was on a huge hill, there was a large ledge just to get on the stairs and I nearly killed myself trying to get up for a picture that didn't turn out) but it was neat nonetheless. Afterward, we journeyed over to the Royal Yacht Britannica. It was closed, but fortunately the security people were very friendly and let us on for 5 minutes, free of charge (it would normally have been around $60 for us all). If the friendly security emloyees are reading this, thank-you for your kindness. After this, we were pooped, so we returned to the hotel. Today may have sounded rather disappointing, but overall it was actually quite exciting. I got to see several new sights, and enjoyed it quite a bit.

New pictures added to Flickr

This is Barb. Jean-Marc sent me an email to let me know that he has added some pictures to his Flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/28858566@N07/?saved=1

Problem is , he has reached his monthly limit after adding less than one days photos. I'll have to see if I can figure that out.

Barb

An amusing snippet from our chat

This is Barb. I thought I would post (with permission) an amusing snippet from my IM chat with Jean-Marc.


barb.hache@shaw.ca says:
What did you eat for supper?
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says:
Dessert
barb.hache@shaw.ca says:
Hahaha ! What kind of dessert?
jean-marc.hache@shaw.ca says:
Well, to save money we decided that Gpa would have the appetisers (soup) gma would have the main course, and I would have dessert. I had a merangue, a chocolate square, and a gelatinous subsstance that tasted rather like cola

I didn't write yesterday because there was not much to write about. We went on a train ride and had dinner with Grandma's cousin Linda. We had lamb and I will discuss that later with those who so wish.

So today, Granpa stayed at the hotel. Grandma and I went and walked up to the Edinburgh Castle. That was really neat. We then went to the Camera Obscura and World of Illusions. Camera Obscura is a large periscope at the top of an optical illusions museum. It projects onto a table and thus you can do such "amusing" things as "picking people up" by putting a piece of paper in front of them and "making a bridge" by folding said piece of paper in half and resting it on the table. Also, there is a floor dedicated to holograms and the rest contains optical illusions like the famed M.C. Escher's pictures. After that, I dragged Grandma over to the Scott Monument (dedicated to Sir Walter Scott) and I went to the top alone (grandma was to tired). The total height of said monument is 200 feet 6 inches (61.1 m.) and to get to the top there is no elevator. Therefore, you have to take the 287 steps to get to the top. You have to pay 3 pounds to boot! I think that even though Grandma didn't climb the steps it will still take her several days to recuperate from the walking.

Hello again. Today was essentially uneventful. Today we started at noon. this was mainly because of the fact that Grandma and Grandma couldn't get me up until 9:00. Anyways, I discovered that I'm hooked on coffee at breakfast so I got some from the restaurant, then we took the tube to Goodge station in order to go to Pollock's Toy Museum. It was cool there (although Grandma and Grandpa didn't go in) and I got a jumping frog, a rubber band shooter with target, a magic wallet for dad, and a hand-operated music box that plays "Whistle While You Work". From there we went to Davenport's where I got a sweet chain escape and the best present for Dad. I spent over $200 there (100 pounds). We also visited the British Museum (we saw the Rosetta stone-that was pretty cool)

Today was exhausting. Casual, yet somehow exhausting. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep and large amounts of walking catching up to us. Maybe it was because of the staying up late to watch an eardrum-blowing musical. Possibly both. In any case, i'm officially pooped.

We began today with Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. That was neat. They had the models in a very open showroom with seemingly little security on the actual models themselves (I say open because there was no set order and no display cases, just models standing/sitting there like dummies in a clothing shop. In reality, it was VERY crowded and many shots were ruined because of people shunting and moving in front of the camera. Eventually I got shots of all of the models that I saw. We had to leave early because the 24-hour bus passes were about to expire (they actually did technically expire before we got on the bus, but the friendly driver people let us on anyways. Or maybe they just didn't notice. They might not have even cared). Anyways, we continued on to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. We got off the bus across the street from the restaurant and got there an hour later. We couldn't figure out how to cross the street, then we got sidetracked to a park where there was an arch that had a statue that I discovered you could go to the top of. I was the only one who paid the 2 pound entry fee, even though it was really cool on top of the balcony. Meanwhile, Grandpa reserved seats. After a wait, we had lunch at the first Hard Rock Cafe ever built (fancy mac'n'cheese for me) and then took a short tour of the famous Vault at the Hard Rock Store next door. The Vault consists of what the Hard Rock Cafe considers to be the most valuable and important rock memoribilia in the world. I got pictures of everything from Bo Diddly's rectangular guitar to John Lennon's glasses to several rock stars' credit cards. It was a humbling experience.

Afterwards, we got quite lost and confused in an attempt to find Hatchard's, a 211-year-old bookstore near the Ritz Hotel. On our way, we took a stroll through Regent Park. Eventually we found our way but I didn't find anything of interest in the 5 floors of books.

Continuing on, we made our way to pick up our We Will Rock You tickets (more on that shortly). I found a place in the Covent Gardens Market called Pollock's Toys (used to be affiliated with the Pollock's Toy museum that I want to visit) but they were closed/closing. We had some time to kill so I looked through the London Transport Museum. It was really cool but they had a hard-to-navigate unstructured setup that included a ticket-punching setup similar to that of the Dole Pineapple Maze in Hawaii. I managed to get all of the punches, but I had trouble finding all of the stations (they were too well-hidden, especially for the under-six crowd that sometimes appears).

I find it worth mentioning that we were thinking of skipping Davenport's (I can hear Dad gasping from here) and going to a place called the Magic Cave instead. We were acting on a tip from the magician who was manning the Marvins stand in Harrod's. He said that they were of equal quality but Magic Cave was cheaper. We had tried and failed several times to find this elusive store (or at least I thought it was a store) and finally today our efforts landed us at a tiny little stall in the Covent Gardens Market. It was cra- I mean.... not that great.

Upon completing this expidition, it was time to see the show, located "5 minutes walk" from where we were. We walked for at least 20, then hailed a cab. The show was not unlike Mamma Mia in the sense that it was not about Queen but based on their greatest hits. It takes place in the future when musical instruments are banned and everyone are cyborgs that are essentially the same (they have the same musical interests because there is only one band to choose from and they are all forced to work for the one corporation in the world). But there is a group of people who share the dream of bringing the mysterious "rock and roll" back to the world. A tad cheesy, but overall pretty good. They even had one of the original members of Queen come in and do a guitar solo. It was neat and I won't be able to hear for a week.

So that's our day in a nutshell. Tomorrow we want to do some shopping and then we're headed off to Scotland.

Hey! Who's that other dude and what's he doing trying to steal my blog?!

So today we woke late but breakfast was great. After much indecision about our plans we finally purchased a bus pass (valid for 24 hrs after first ride) and started our day around 10:30.

We first went to Buckingham Palace and were lucky enough to catch the changing of the guards. Totally unplanned, but convenient. We couldn't get the best spot for the first set of guards but the second time we saw/heard enough to get the experience in (however abbreviated).

Afterwards we decided to get lost (we seem to enjoy doing that) and finally caught a second bus up to the London Eye. We chose the Fast Track option with discounted Madame Tussaud's tickets included (tell you about that tomorrow) and only had to wait around 5 minutes (as opposed to the 30+ minutes for the regular line).

The wheel is almost continuous movement and only slows down a little for "our elderly and disabled passengers" (quote from an announcement). The Eye rotates at around 1/30 rpm, meaning that it took approx. 1/2 hour to go around. During this time, the Eye made me rather snap-happy. The majority of my pics are either from our giant bubble or the back of a bus (more on that later). Upon the completion of our "flight" we took a ferry to the Tower Bridge area (the ferry was included with the bus package).

So here we took a peek in the Tower of London gift shop where I bought the awesomest item for mom, then got some exterior shots of the Tower. We then came upon the second highlight of our trip: the Tower Bridge. It was as this point that Grandpa gave up on us and went to get a beer at a local cafe.Grandma went into the Tower Bridge (yes, I said into [as in the visitor's center that many do not know even exists]) to see the exhibition. As time was limited, we took the shortened version of the self-guided tour by simply rushing across the walkway over the bridge, purchasing the souvenir photos and magnets and etc. and then hurrying into the engine room (fascination. They actually had one of the old engines moving to show the principles but it was not connected to the bridge anymore).

After this I convinced Grandma to go with me to the London Dungeons in search of souvinir British "Darby" Handcuffs. No such luck, even though we toughed our way through a 1/4 mile to get there. Anyways, on the way back we saw the neatest sign for an air raid shelter. Sweet.

Anyways, we caught up with Grandpa and spent the latter part of the day taking advantage of our bus passes. We sat at the top of a double decker bus and listened to the tour guide while taking lightning-fast photos as we rushed by monuments and cool architecture. My trigger finger got itchy and so many of the pics are neat but make no sense at all.

Clocks seem to be a common theme.

Then we had a nice dinner and made a bet that I couldn't/could solve a new puzzle with first-class tickets on the line

Created a Flickr stream

Marc here again. Created a flickr stream for photos:

Click here

Gotta love the net.

First day of trip

This is dad blogging on Jean-Marc's behalf 'cause I didn't think to set it up before he left.

Combination of IM transcripts and what he told us on the phone.

Trip started with a good omen as we were on the plane with Zack Warner and Farley Flex. See picture.

It got better as Grandma and Grandpa surprised me with an upgrade to First Class on the flight to England. The ONLY way to fly.

The seats were on an angle to the front and because we were in first class they had large touchscreens. They were actually more like personal booths. But the nicest part was the reclining action. It worked like a giant recliner. The leg rest went up and the back flipped down.

After a rest at the hotel (hey, the plane landed at 6am London time !) we went to Harrod's. It is the coolest place in the world. They have a sweeeeeet statue of the founder. It's very lifelike.

The store has several thousand restaurants inside. Picture a mall that's all one store. Five or six floors of good, quality merchandise. Two/three departments per floor. I only got to see the toy department, but we passed by a huge pet section. Mom and the girls would die with the clothes, purses, and shoes there. We stopped at a little cafe on the third floor, and I got scones.

I got this schweeeet little Rubik's thingy that looks like four 2x2x2s linked at one corner. There was a huge pet dept they had Little Eliis suits and diamond-studded leashes

Then, we went around on the subway for a while and saw Hamley's (Mondo Toy place where I got a cool floaty thing for us) and saw Piccadilly Circus. It was awesome.

The subway isn't actually all that exciting. It's a little bit noisy and quite dirty, but travels no faster than a bus. An advantage is that they don't have traffic laws to obey.

The double decker buses are schweet but I didn't get 2 go on them.

The cars are wacko. The license plates are indecipherable and everything's opposite from what it is here. They drive on the left-hand side of the road and their driver's side is on the Right

We went to Kings Cross as well and not only did I see the Baggage Trolley that was cut in half, but also met the person in charge of security while the 1st Harry Potter movie was filmed. We saw the clock and walkway that Harry stood on while questioning the validity of his ticket; and also the pillar that was seen in the film (it was blocked by a big blue bin).

I think that we're going to the London I tomorrow. Grandma's going to try to go on as well.

That's, like, miraculous. I think that the plane ride did something to her.

More later.