London- What a Girl Wants

Inspired by us watching the great Amanda Bynes movie "What a Girl Wants", we're sharing with you our trip to London, England. Jenn and Jon have two very different ways to travel. Jenn loves taking a sleeping pill and Jon loves staying awake stressing about turbulence. This week's episode shares stories from the Tower of London (they have Ravens!) to the West End to the great search for some drink called a Pimm's Cup.

London

Transcript from our Podcast:

Jon: A new episode and back to full strength, meaning we're not as sluggish as we were last weekend during, after our Vegas trip.

Jen: Ready.

Jon: Oh my gosh. I listened back to that episode and we are talking like this. There's like seven seconds pauses between each of us because we can't figure out what to say next.

Jen: I know.

Jon: We are professionals, if anything.

Jen: I got to tell you though. It's not because we were hung over.

Jon: No...

Jen: Sleep deprived.

Jon: You said that last weekend.

Jen: I'm telling you.

Jon: I know.

Jen: My body was shutting down from lack of sleep.

Jon: I shook all night. That's where it was. So, welcome, if this is your first episode instead of last week, San Diego one, man we're happy about that.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: My name is John and my wife. Jen is sitting next to me who is cracking open a bottle of wine right now as we speak, what do you what are you drinking?

Jen: LA crema.

Jon: LA crema.

Jen: Some Chardonnay.

Jon: It’s a Chardonnay kind of afternoon.

Jen: Yep.

Jon: Perfect! We do that for a liquid courage for her to get through this and then she gets loose and really tells you how she feels about certain countries we visit. We're an international incident waiting to happen.

Jen: Oh, I know, I know.

Jon: Like sometimes I go, oh no, when are they going to start boycotting us already? We're not even a big enough podcast yet, but if you haven't started following us on Instagram, please do so it's oursavingsstartstomorrow. And we had a great week of followers and likes with the San Diego photos.

Jen: I know.

Jon: It’s cool.

Jen: I'm seeing some more reviews. It’s great

Jon: We got more reviews.

Jen: Yea.

Jon: You can send those to me

Jen: I know.

Jon: So, I can show those.

Jen: Oh, you don't read them?

Jon: No, I'm afraid they're going to hurt my feelings

Jen: I get it, I get it.

Jon: And we're not gonna do it anymore.

Jen: I read it just to like get angry.

Jon: It gives you the fuel more than,

Jen: But then it's like nice. And I'm like, oh, okay.

Jon: Before we get to today's episode, which is all about Merry old England, we Yes, have a brand-new sponsor. It's an eBook this time.

Jen: Oh cool.

Jon: Yeah. Called 'Crazy is as Crazy Does". And this eBook is available on both Amazon and Barnes and noble. In fact, what I did was I took a link to go to both of those on our website as well. So, you can actually just go to oursavingstartstomorrow.com. Yikes. And you can find it there, but you know, you and I got really into that murder show about the psychiatrist interviewing all the serial killers.

Jen: Oh yeah.

Jon: We had COVID at the time we were lying in bed and for like three days straight, all we did, we watched like the show.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: And they talked to so many notorious serial killers in that show, like the Zodiac killer, Big Ed was in there. Well, if you're intrigued by serial killers, like Ted Bundy or a Big Ed or the Zodiac killer,

Jen: Whose not?

Jon: Then this twisted tale is for you. It's about this guy, John Goodman, who evolves from like this timid criminal to like a mastermind serial killer. It's not real...

Jen: Okay.

Jon: But you read it. It's hard to kind of figure out, wait,

Jen: Is it real?

Jon: Yeah. And you start to doubt the, the psyche of the author.

Jen: Oh, okay.

Jon: Like how messed up are you to make this?

Jen: Alright.

Jon: And it goes from like 1955, all the way to the 2018. So, again, thank you to our new sponsor. Please support our sponsors 'Crazy is as Crazy Does' the e-book now available on both Amazon and Barnes and noble. All right, let's go across the pond.

Jen: Let's go.

Jon: Over to England. Our knowledge of England before we went over there were movies.

Jen: You know what inspired me to actually do this week's podcast?

Jon: Yes, tell everyone why we're talking about England this week.

Jen: I couldn't decide which place that we should do. And then we were watching this week with the children.

Jon: Oh, thank you.

Jen: What a girl wants.

Jon: Amanda Baynes

Jen: Oh my God.

Jon: Collin Firth.

Jen: She's so good.

Jon: I know.

Jen: Well, she was so good.

Jon: Right yeah.

Jen: What happened?

Jon: Oh, you know.

Jen: She was so cute.

Jon: She started doing more than wine during podcasts.

Jen: Ugg gateway.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: I know, but that was anyways, it was a cute movie and it made me be like, oh, let's do London.

Jon: We love the movie Love Actually.

Jen: I do love the movie, Love Actually.

Jon: It’s our Christmas movie. We watch it every year. And Then About Time is another

Jen: Literally one of my top 10 movies.

Jon: Austin Powers, did that make us want to go?

Jen: No, that was not.

Jon: No, Yeah, that was not one of them, but the other ones definitely.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: So, my mom had been to England before we went and she was like, you've got to try this Pimm’s cup. Pimm’s cups is all the rage in England.

Jen: Your mom does not sound like she's going to be so offended.

Jon: And we were like, oh, Pimm’s cup okay. That sounds great. We'll find Pimm's cup. If you're telling us, it's all the rage it's hip.

Jen: And yeah. And it's like not a touristy drinking.

Jon: Yeah, yeah that’s the other thing.

Jen: Like that's what people in London drink

Jon: That’s what the locals drink. We’re like okay well, if that's what the locals drink, we definitely want to fit in.

Jen: Right.

Jon: We get to England and we asked for a Pimm's club at like at the first bar, we go to.

Jen: No idea what we're talking about.

Jon: No, none. And we were like, oh, this person's not a local.

Jen: Right.

Jon: Obviously this person has not lived in England, contrary to what his teeth and his accent would tell us then what we thought. Because obviously we knew because my mom told me

Jen: Yes, well, and then the second bar, they're like, Nope, you don't want that.

Jon: They talked us out of ordering Pimm's cup.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: So, the third bar we went to the bartender again was like, it's not good.

Jen: Yea you don’t it

Jon: Like, you don't want this? We're like no,

Jen: We need it.

Jon: We've been told this is the drink.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: Don't get Pimm's cup if you go to London, there's no reason for it.

Jen: Well, it's Gin. I mean, we'd like gin.

Jon: Is that what it was?

Jen: Yeah. I think it's gin and there's some other I think it's Pimm.

Jon: It's Pimm's gin yea, yea but it's like a fruit cup.

Jen: No, but like, there's something else in there. Like a liquor,

Jon: Oh, I don’t know.

Jen: Some kind...

Jen: Terribleness.

Jen: Definitely should have looked it up before this podcast.

Jon: If they look up terribleness and bottled it into some kind of liquor.

Jen: And there’s cucumber in it. I know there's cucumber.

Jon: There's no, it's like a bunch of different stuff. It's not just one fruit. It's like a fruit cocktail

Jen: I don't think that we finish it.

Jon: No. We took one sip and we were like, ah, Pimm's is an English brand of gin-based fruit cup. It's also considered a liquor. The Pimm's is, the liquor, it's terrible.

Jen: Don't tell me. I told you.

Jon: I told you. Okay. So, other [inaudible06:24] let's go back a step.

Jen: Because there are some funny stories.

Jon: You got a sleeping pill from a friend of a friend of a friend, a drug dealer.

Jen: No!

Jon: You found a drug dealer on the corner,

Jen: Some of them work

Jon: Slip them a 20.

Jen: I was talking about how we were going to London. He's like, oh, the best thing is taking. I think an ambient, I don't know. And so yeah, he gave me some drugs, sounds so bad.

Jon: Unmarked pill

Jen: It sounds so bad. Like just like two pills in a baggie. I got it for free though.

Jon: Well, the first one's always free though. They start charging afterwards.

Jen: So, anyways, we decided, I decided I'm taking this. So, we had a layover in Houston and then we got on the plane and we had dinner. I had some wine, cause that's what you should do.

Jon: If you're going to have a sleeping aid, you want to chug a bottle of wine.

Jen: Definitely want to have some wine with it.

Jon: Of course.

Jen: That's like recommended. So, then I had the wine and then you chickened out at the last second.

Jon: I was afraid. I've heard that people react weird sometimes on Ambien. I didn't want to be over the ocean just

Jen: So, you know, not even sure if it was Ambien. I mean, I really don't know.

Jon: I did not want to be over the ocean. My pants down waddling, like a penguin.

Jen: Oh my gosh.

Jon: Up and down the aisles, quacking like a duck.

Jen: It's embarrassing.

Jon: So, I decided against it, so I wouldn't get tased at any point.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: Air marshals were still a big thing when we went.

Jen: Yeah, and we were also like, we were on one of those planes that we were in the middle.

Jon: Yeah, there's people on both sides.

Jen: There was like four seats in the middle and it was like, you were on the aisle and then me. So, I'm like in the middle, middle.

Jon: What does it matter? You were out within ... you took that pill, chugged, the second glass of wine. And your face hit the seat in front and you didn't stir every once in a while, during the flight, I would like put my finger under your nose to make sure you were still breathing.

Jen: I was out, we could have crashed

Jon: We hit turbulence, which you always do on flights over the ocean. I'm not a great flyer.

Jen: I know.

Jon: And so, I'm awake keeping the plane up in the air for everyone else.

Jen: Willing it up.

Jon: Yihan you are just drooling with your head flopping from my shoulder to the stranger shoulder, back and forth.

Jen: Out, it was great.

Jon: You woke up like, as we were landing.

Jen: Yep.

Jon: It was like the perfect amount of time

Jen: [crosstalking08:46], was it though? I don't know.

Jon: Why.

Jen: Well, because then we landed, got into a cab that I well, a car. I think I got us a car, sir.

Jon: You asked for like... you ordered some car service to get a tour of London, after we had the flight over...

Jen: I wanted to maximize the time.

Jon: So, it was like this two-hour car ride around London where the guy's like, hey man, if you look over to your left and, and you're like back asleep again.

Jen: Oh, I did not have enough sleep.

Jon: I'm drained because I haven't slept yet. So, I'm just like ...

Jen: And you flew a whole plane.

Jon: Thank you.

Jen: Across the pond. Do you want to go see this? I'm like, no, I just want to go to the Marriott.

Jen: I know oh my gosh.

Jon: Like please take us to our hotel.

Jen: Yeah. I could barely keep my eyes open.

Jon: And then your drug dealer suggested to you that after you take the Ambien and you get there, the best thing to do after a long flight like that is to schedule a massage right away.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: What a terrible idea, because we still haven't slept.

Jen: Nope.

Jon: We're still just like zombies.

Jen: Yep.

Jon: And we decided to get a massage where we both fell asleep on the table, the minute we laid on it.

Jen: Yep.

Jon: I'm pretty sure they both left the room for the hour.

Jen: They could have.

Jon: Came back in and woke us up and said, how was it?

Jen: I remember, I think we also did, like, we kind of did a whole treatment. Like there was like a mud thing, like you put mud on and then you like stayed in this steam shower for a while.

Jon: Fell asleep in there too.

Jen: And we were like looking at each other. I'm like, oh my God, make this end. I'm so tired. I just want to lay down. I just want to lay down. And then we had our massage and yeah, like I remember you snoring, like instantly.

Jon: Oh yeah done.

Jen: And I obviously was out

Jon: A fun fact about if you go over to England or a lot of European countries, they celebrate what's called Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas. And we traveled during the holidays, this was before kids.

Jen: We actually landed on Christmas.

Jon: I know, I didn't want to say that though. Cause I didn't want to say how we made masseuse massage us on Christmas day.

Jen: I'm sorry for giving you money.

Jon: What is wrong with us?

Jen: I know and also a guy picked us up from the airport.

Jon: The poor man gave us a tour where we slept in the back on Christmas Day.

Jen: You know what though, hindsight, he's probably very happy about it. He's like great, whatever. I picked up these two American yahoos and I'm going to make money off of them and then go home. I don't have to, like...

Jon: My dad would take a job just to get out of the house on a non-holiday. So, yeah, it definitely makes sense. But Boxing Days is the day after Christmas. So, we woke up refresh that day and everything's closed.

Jen: Yep. Nothing to do.

Jon: Nothing's open banks are closed. Like it's a complete holiday.

Jen: Yeah. We couldn't even go shopping.

Jon: No,

Jen: Like nothing was open.

Jon: So, it was kind of a... we just walked around, which if you've never been to Europe, you can walk everywhere.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: It's a lot like, like New York, you can just walk the streets and it really is such a great way to see the architecture and get a feel for what the town's actually like.

Jen: Yea.

Jon: And I actually recommend doing that for a day. Just wander, get lost. We found this beautiful park where there was a fair going on in the middle of it. And that's where everyone was since they weren't. And we got to buy somebody treats.

Jen: Yihan also just like actual local pubs and restaurants ...

Jon: Where you can get a Pimm's cup.

Jen: No, no one wants that.

Jon: Not that.

Jen: Not a Pimm's Cup.

Jon: We scheduled one of those big tours that takes you kind of all-around London and they brag about how their tour guides have like, I swear, it's a masters in tourography.

Jen: Yeah. She had like a pin or something that she wore that was like...

Jon: And she pointed her pin out many times.

Jen: Yeah. She was like legit.

Jon: Yeah. And so, it was really fun though, we got on this bus and they drove us around and one of the places we went to was the tower of London, which is a must. If you are a history buff or if you just want to see like England, like you have to go to the tower of London. That's what the crown jewels are.

Jen: Yeah. It was cool.

Jon: They have the Royal arms there. I became obsessed with. They have this Raven's quarter.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: It's just a bunch of birds, but they make a big deal out of it. They have a Raven keeper, all the Ravens that have died there are in the Raven cemetery ... it's like anywhere else you would think, oh, this person's the crazy person who buries their dead birds. But in London at the tower of London, it's noble.

Jen: Yep, I know.

Jon: Those Brits. We went to St. Paul's cathedral, which is where Princess Did, I believe got married.

Jen: Okay.

Jon: It's one of those things, coronation, something happened at St. Paul's cathedral.

Jen: Okay.

Jon: What?

Jen: Didn't she get married at...

Jon: Windsor?

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: I don't think so. We should have looked this up also.

Jen: Yep.

Jon: All I remember about St. Paul's cathedral is they had stairs If you wanted to get up to the top of the dome. And they're steep and they're short and here's something you don't think about. Everyone tells you to save up for retirement. This is actually why we call our show, our savings starts tomorrow because of this story that this group of women, they had saved up to travel to Europe after they retired. And there were sweet old ladies and we get to St. Paul's cathedral, and they're all excited and they can't walk up the stairs to the top. And it was one of the things they wanted to do. And it was just too hard.

Jen: In fact, they couldn't do a lot of it.

Jon: No, they sat a lot.

Jen: There was a lot of walking, like even in the tower of London, you've got to walk all the way through. And yeah, and there's, it's not like super hilly, but it's still a lot.

Jon: You know what though? I was talking to the one of the ladies and she was afraid of the cobblestone and like rolling an ankle or breaking a bone or something. So, that's why we're really advocates for travel when you're younger, if you can and because you can go up the stairs to St. Paul's cathedral, we did see the changing of the guard.

Jen: Yeah. You got to do that.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: I mean...

Jon: It's fine.

Jen: Like, whatever, but

Jon: It's one of those things, you get a photo posted on Instagram and then move on. When we were in line for the London eye; the London eye is huge Ferris wheel that they built and you go inside and there's like bars in some of them. And it was actually like a very similar one in Las Vegas. Yeah. But as we were getting to it, we realized that we had bought tickets for a show at the West End, which the West End to London is like...

Jen: Broadway

Jon: Broadway to New York and we had to leave. So, we had to bail on our tour.

Jen: I know that was the last thing. And I was really looking forward to it, but...

Jon: Yeah. So, we didn't do that, but we did go home, get dressed all nice. And we went to the West End to see Wicked.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: We saw two shows. We saw wicked and Phantom and we're big Americans, right? Like ...

Jen: I'm not big.

Jon: I'm not saying you're large because I don't want to get hit.

Jen: Oh my gosh you're calling me large.

Jon: I'm not calling... I'm just, no, I'm saying that we're big boned Americans.

Jen: No, I still don't [inaudible15:43]

Jon: Okay, so we're used to large things.

Jen: Okay. We're used to large.

Both: We're not large...

Jon: But we're used to large things.

Jen: Yea okay.

Jon: The theaters in the West End are not that.

Jen: No, and you know what, I'm sorry. I was looking around at some of...

Jon: The locals?

Jen: The locals and I'm like, they were just as uncomfortable.

Jon: You calling those English people fat?

Jen: [Inaudible16:04]

Jon: All I know is if there was a fire, we would be trapped and dead.

Jen: Okay. The seat… and we're not crazy tall people

Jon: No, we're short. I'm short, like a Hobbit.

Jen: And no, you're not, but we're not like, I mean, what am I? Five, seven?

Jon: Sure.

Jen: My knees were hitting the seat in front of us.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: I was just thinking like, oh my gosh. Like if you were any taller, any bigger, you wouldn't be able to.

Jon: I do think though it was fun to go to the West End. Like what a cool experience.

Jen: Oh no totally.

Jon: I would recommend it to anyone.

Jen: Yeah. It's just really tight.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: And small.

Jon: And I believe if I remember right, it was really warm.

Jen: And we went to two different shows, two different theaters and they were the same thing.

Jon: One was her Majesty's theater? I mean, it was still, I thought that might be bigger because it's her majesty.

Jen: Nope.

Jon: But if you think about it, she's tiny. So, it makes sense. We did not go to Stonehenge

Jen: I know I was kind of bummed about that.

Jon: Yeah, sort of.

Jen: We went in winter and so it was, I mean, it's London. So, I think it's pretty,

Jon: Always raining?

Jen: Pretty gloomy, but it was raining a lot. And it's like an all-day trek out there.

Jon: It's two hours in the bus to get out to Stonehenge. And then it's like two hours there and two hours back.

Jen: And what do you do when you're there? You just like walk around...

Jon: You walk around it; you take some photos I don't even think. I mean, they're moving people further and further back.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: So, yeah. You stand there for two hours in the rain.

Jen: I mean, I would have liked to have said that we did it, but, and honestly, the next time we go, I still don't know.

Jon: We're not going to go still? We'll send a postcard though.

Jen: I know.

Jon: We did do high tea.

Jen: You got to do high tea.

Jon: What? I thought I was going to hate it.

Jen: It's amazing.

Jon: It was the best. They give you all these cakes and sandwiches like huge it's high, it's like 14 stories, high of treats.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: And then they pour you some fun tea.

Jen: Yeah, little sandwiches and cakes. Oh, not more, more like sweet stuff.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: I remember I thought that I was going to take a big bite of some cream that was on there. It wasn't cream.

Jon: What was it?

Jen: It was butter. I took like an enormous bite of butter.

Jon: Which is why we were too big for the West End theater.

Jen: Oh my gosh.

Jon: We did go to Harrods, which is like London's Nordstrom.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: What do you call it? Like, it's like a mall. All in one

Jen: Yeah. It's pretty crazy. You got to go there too. You've got to go.

Jon: It's just a famous store that you see it in all the movie.

Jen: Yeah. But it's like, I don't even know how many stories high, but it looks like you could literally buy everything there.

Jon: Yeah. Every floor, like one floor is like the toy floor.

Jen: You could buy a car there.

Jon: And then there’s clothes.

Jen: You could buy food.

Jon: Yeah.

Jen: You can buy...

Jon: People

Jen: Probably.

Jon: No, I don't think so. So, Harrods is a must. We walked by. We wanted to see because of Love Actually and Hugh Grant was the prime minister. We wanted to see 10 Downing Street, which is the White House as place that the prime minister lives at. They don't let you really close to it much like the White House, but you can see the white house from the street. You can't see 10 Downing Street,

Jen: No.

Jon: It's down an alley.

Jen: Yea.

Jon: Like they let the press down the alley when they want to get a shot of the prime minister walking out of his house. Otherwise, there's no way to get to this place. And it's guarded.

Jen: Yeah. Well, I would hope so.

Jon: I guess so you're right about that. We did try something new for the first time we went to an ice bar.

Jen: Oh yeah. That was the first time that we'd ever gone to an ice bar.

Jon: Yeah. Which was really cool. It's where everything's made of ice. They give you heavy coats and a shot of vodka.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: I'm sure he could have had other stuff We might've had Pimm’s.

Jen: No, we didn’t have Pimm’s no. But yeah, it was... look again. Would I do it again? No, but it was a fun experience and it was yeah.

Jon: All in all, London?

Jen: I love London.

Jon: It was great. Yeah. Go back again.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: I still would go back to every place we talked about.

Jen: Yes.

Jon: Because...

Jen: And I would go back with the kids.

Jen: Yeah.

Jon: We've been talking maybe in a few years doing something like that.

Jen: Yeah. I think that that's a good like toe in,

Jon: Yeah, for Europe it feels a lot still kind of like America to where you're not like culture shock completely, but you are still in a new country. And from there you can travel to so many other places as well.

Jen: Exactly.

Jon: So, definitely would recommend it as we would recommend you giving us a recommendation for our podcasts. If you are listening to this on apple podcast, all you have to do is give it five stars. Say something nice about us. That would be really cool.

Jen: Yes, please do it.

Jon: We'd appreciate that. And if you're not following us on Instagram, our Instagram is oursavingsstartstomorrow.