Luxor says welcome to the weekend :)

Supreme cuteness

So puppy day 2 - I definitely won’t be doing every day posts 😂.   But I have 10 mins to kill and So Many Photos, so why not ;)

A solid 6h sleep and a willingness to chill for another hour after her bio break was much appreciated this am.   

Today we’re figuring each other out and routines.   Knock on wood as of rn we’ve had no house accidents today so that’s a win - but she’s also home alone rn sooo *shrug*.  In her crate, but that resulted in her needing a bath last night so we’ll see.  Won’t be gone as long today so hopefully that’ll help.

We had some fun playing chase and tug w this one

We went for 3 mini drives today.  The first one she was concerned about and sounded like a stressed guinea pig for most of the drive 😂.   Second one she didn’t seem to mind (keep in mind both of these drives were under 2km.   Like the route I walk when I have no time to go for a walk ;)).  3rd drive was maybe 10 mins and she fell asleep during it lol.  Taking that as a good sign.

She seems to like being on the floor behind me instead of on the seat. 
She fell asleep here for a good 10 mins.

She “helped” me take care of the roses today (which for those who don’t know - which is prob like 98% of you - are outside of our fence so is somewhere she hasn’t seen before).   We then hung out there for a bit for experiencing the world going by.  Socializing my puppy may turn out to be good for my mental health 😂.  Turns out if I need her to chill and just watch the world go by, I have to do the same thing with her ;)

Helping ;)

The cats are adjusting faster than I expected.   They both stayed on the couch with me when she had her after dinner I-DON’T-WANT-A-NAP crate time temper tantrum ;).  Later this evening, Mori was chasing Luxi's leash while I was holding her and decided to follow it even after she was settled on the couch.  This is the closest they've come yet.

Two formally dressed chaos goblins on one couch!

She is scared of them if they’re on the same level and wants to pounce on them if she’s higher than they are (couch).  So definitely will be keeping a close eye on that and hope one of them swats her early (ideally anywhere that’s not her eyes!).  

Potential agility puppy much?  Lol this made me laugh.  Totally unscripted :)

I carried her down to the end of the street and a little bit up the next one - we live in an area where lots of people are regularly out in the evening.  She saw powered wheelchair (not sure about that), multiple kids on bikes (no problem), a basket ball (not sure), and met a few people until she showed signs of having enough of that, so I brought her home.  She's showing signs of being overtired now, so potentially too much for one day.   She's currently rearranging furniture in her puppy pen.   lol definitely a working dog. Lesson learned. 

Extremely cute land shark

Luxi definitely just put herself in her crate and went to sleep.  So for all the yelling and drama I get occasionally (not every time, maybe 50%?) she's clearly decided that's a good safe place to go sleep.  Win. 

Overall though, all things trending right.  She’s so tiny.  I really can’t get my head around it.  And it’s been a long time since I’ve had a dog that didn’t know anything so having to remember starting from scratch.  Well - not quite actually.  Huge credit to her breeder who clearly put a ton of time in w her since I can handle her everywhere (ears, paws, belly, tail, etc) and she has zero concerns,  and she def had crate basics before we got her.  So very much appreciated.   BUT compared to Sash, and even Tucker, we’re starting from scratch ;).  

She is so cute though.  And there are nose prints on my car windows again.   That shouldn't make me as happy as it does.

Happy Gotcha Day!!!

So I started my new job on Wednesday, so of *course followed that up by right after work on Thursday leaving to pick up our new puppy!   Not gonna lie, an extra week here would've been good for my sanity.  However, here we are :) 

I can't believe it's been less than 24h.  Here goes...

She is super interested in everything

The drive to Hannover took us just under 3h (previous visits have been about 2h20min so that wasn't the best start ;).  However, we got there and got loaded up and were home again by about 10:30.  Luxor was good on the ride home, slept some and spent a lot of it investigating and crawling around the limited amount I would let her go.  Yes I realize she probably should've been in a crate, but after seeing her reaction to the crate when we got home I'm just as glad we didn't try that in the car first!  And sometimes you just have to snuggle your new puppy.

Getting used to her new home

Her first night was good.  It took about 10-15 mins of extreme puppy temper tantrum (puts Mori's yelling to shame!) and then she slept for more than 6h.  So a definite win.  Sadly I did *not* sleep anywhere near that long so made today even more of a challenge.  

Chris took her out first thing this am and gave her a bit of breakfast before putting her back in her crate for a bit.  When I got up a little later I did the rest of her breakfast, with lots of real basics - teaching her that "yes" is a good word and to follow a food lure.   She thought that was a great game.  Very willing to engage for both food and treats.  Also entirely willing to go into the crate -- she just doesn't love staying there after ;) 

Meeting Enola

I was working today so tried to plan puppy time around meetings, and relied on Chris for when that didn't work out.   Overall, it worked out very well.  Lots of go out, play, train a bit, sleep, rinse and repeat most of the day.   Only had a couple minor accidents - one of which was in the crate when C and I were both out, so that resulted in needing to clean both crate AND puppy.   She was not amused. 

Exploring the back yard

Overall though, she's happy to run back and forth between Chris and I, she's extremely curious and adventurous, yet just a little cautious -- she has gone in the pond, entirely of her own volition, and met Nola -- which she was very not sure about but took on slowly while Nola was throughly ignoring her while eating treats ;)  She also really likes to hide under things, so I have high hopes eventually the crate will go over well.   When she's exposed to something new she explores it, approaches and retreats a few times, and then decides the world is good.

Exploring the pond - she found it, went all the way in, and came back out

She's had an unreasonable amount of treats along with her actual food - we'll have to right size that 😂   But for day 1, how can you not?   No drive today, so she'll need to go for a car ride tomorrow.   That's where she'll need to learn about the backseat - I think we're going to drive around to the other side of the house so I can take care of the roses 😂    So exciting.   I will be a happy human when we get to walking on a leash but we're not there yet.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's the highlights.  Cross your fingers for us that we both get some sleep tonight - C is off for two weeks tomorrow, so we'll be on our own, and I still need to make sure Mori gets his attention too!

Moriarty - The original formally dressed chaos goblin

London Day 1 - Afternoon Wanders

 After the British Museum we truly embraced the role of Tourist and walked over to the London Eye.   It’s about a half-hour ride, although it didn’t feel that long.  It was a minor challenge to figure out where to purchase tickets lol. But we did find them and were good to go.   Got through the line and there were about 15 of us in the cab - more people than seats but certainly everyone had lots of space, and this isn’t the kind of thing that you need, or even necessarily want, a seat for.   A sunny day with perfect weather, it gave us great views around the city and of the Thames.  Have to admit the Uber boat made me laugh — I learned later they’re essentially commuter boats.

Around we go :)

After hopping off the eye we went exploring - just walking wherever looked interesting.  Multiple roads were closed, making it super convenient to be a pedestrian ;).  

Empty roads

In not this order at all, we wandered through the calvary yard, up to the palace (right down the street since it was closed), to Trinity square, through a park that I have no idea what it was, but it was lovely, past the “Canada Monument”.

Things I've seen a million times, but never in person

I was impressed by how much green space there was everywhere, and how much it was being used.  Not as a tourist attraction, just by people hanging out enjoying the summer.  

Randomness on our wanders that made me smile

For dinner we tested out a pub - we’d been told to try the Sunday Roast…. Alas, it was sold out.   Still though, great day overall.  Lots of walking and saw way more than I’d expected.  Fun to just wander around and see what we see with no real plan.

Disappointed Chris

Some random extra photos with random unrelated thoughts from our time so far (that still hold after the end of the trip!):

Green space.  So much greenery and so many trees.  I love it.

Green spaces are communal and appear to be well used by locals and tourists.  My guess is if very few people have yards, shared parks become more precious.   Along the same lines - way more trees and green spaces than I was expecting.  Those who know me will be aware how much that means.

Just liked this.

Along with green spaces, are far more cyclists than I’d expected.  And for some reason while I could figure out which way the cars would come from I never really remembered to look for cyclists.  This didn’t always go well ;)

View from the Eye

So I knew in my head there wasn’t much in the way of AC here, but I didn’t realize how much I’m conditioned to that expect it 🤷‍♀️.   Like when it’s hot and I get in a cab, I expect it to be cool in the car.  It was not.  Any time.  Despite all of the cars having the option.  Not an issue but just surprised me.  Similarly subway, museums, most of the pubs we tried, etc - all toasty.  Had to reset the baseline a bit.  Although our room now has extremely good AC so sleep was not an issue.   That being said, 30 deg in UK is not as hot as 30 deg at home.  Less humidity or something - idk what exactly but the issue is more that without having ubiquitous AC, there was no easy escape from it.  So we were very glad for our hotel room when we got home from our adventures.   The eye, fortunately, DID have AC as otherwise riding around in a glass bubble in the sun for half an hour would've been less than enjoyable.

Not sure who she is, but reasonably certain I don't want to make her angry.

The buildings are pretty but the sameness of the row houses would get to me.  Conversely, I love that the roads are not a grid - they go off on weird angles, are made of a variety of surfaces, and occasionally randomly stop.  Gives it a lot more character.

Dragon paws

Subway is fast and efficient and goes everywhere for cheap.   Most lines are not air conditioned.  Some of them branch off at different points and you have to make sure you pick the right one.  Often the stops on the printed map are reverse of the train’s direction of travel.

Some, but not all, restaurants and pubs work like they did when I was in Australia - they seat you, but then you go up to the bar or counter to order, then they bring food out when it’s ready.   Tipping isn’t really a thing here which is lovely.

?????

It makes me laugh to put this blurb between these two pictures.  People dress better in general here than at home - even though I am the opposite of fashion conscious 😂 I did appreciate it.  Obv not everybody - there are people who are always well put together at home and there are slobs here (maybe tourists ;-P) but, in general, people as a whole seemed better dressed.

Empty roads were creepy and awesome simultaneously

London Day 1 - British Museum

Gratuitous statue pic cause it's sitting the way Coco does and that made me smile

We fit So Much in today.   Wow.   

Impressive Curb Appeal ;)

We started with the British Museum — Google Maps gave us subway directions and we found it easily.  Lots of signs around warning about pick pockets, but we luckily didn’t have any issues.    Entry is free, and we got there right as it opened which had the significant advantage of not being packed yet.

Fascinated by how clear it is after thousands of years

The main thing on my list was the Rosetta Stone - which is, conveniently, right at the entrance.  And by being there first, we had a good chance to see it without a crowd.   It was significantly bigger than I had in mind - that was the main thing that surprised me.  😂 I have no idea why I didn’t clue into that, but here we are.

Seriously - how do you bring this home?

Following that we hit up the Egypt section - partially cause it was there, and partially cause it was on both our lists :)   Again, the surprise here to me was the size of things.   Now it turns out we were in the first of two Egyptian sections, specifically the sculpture collection.  So yes - we started big :).  Things that got me were: what incredible condition they were in after thousands of years, and how were they ever brought to the museum?!?!  Lol I honestly couldn’t get past that - it’s not just some jewelry or papyrus they helped themselves too, but sculptures and pillars, and GATES (okay those weren’t from Egypt, but same concept) - in some cases taller than my house.   I just can’t imagine the logistics to relocating some of this, esp with pre-modern transformation options.

Not the most comfortable pillow I can imagaine

The follow up Egypt section had all sorts of interesting things as well - including multiple coffins, the book of the dead, and a number of “everyday life” items (well, life if you were rich anyways!).  The one that got me was the neck rest — apparently they slept on their sides.  I really have a hard time understanding how those were comfortable.  Maybe they were packed w fabric ;)

Fascinated by these

The museum itself is not air conditioned.  There were fans in almost every room - often w people standing or sitting to take advantage of them.  This resulted in this gem of the statue heads lecturing their modern audience.  I was impressed I managed to get the photo discretely and in a way that didn’t show faces or obvious identifying features.   Lol   

This amused me more than it probably should have.

Both C and I found something completely unexpected that caught our attention.  For me it was the library, for Chris it was the clock room ;)

My squirrel moment

While my item of focus was the Rosetta Stone, Chris’ was the Sutton Hoo helmet, so he was pretty happy when we found it before we even started actively looking for it.

We also found out the middle area is actually a library?   I kinda love that.   Overall, great experience.  And free - I'm still amazed by that.

First night in London

Staircase of our first hotel

So arriving at the UK went well; extremely efficient entry process and called an Uber (for which they had a specific and clearly signed location).   Arrive at hotel and go to sign in, only to be told that they can see the room has been paid for but they haven’t received the money so they need to put a hold on my card, and I should call the travel agent.  🤔 

In Kensington Gardens

So we do that and then learn we can’t check in yet anyways, so we leave our bags w them (along w many other people) and go exploring.  We found Kensington Gardens v near by and had a gorgeous walk exploring that and found some food.  Messaged travel agent, who’s also a friend of Chris’, and she told us to leave it w her.  Awesome.  We get back and check out our room - it is *hot*.  The main reason we chose this hotel was the AC, so that was a bit of a surprise, but maybe just wasn’t turned on.  So Chris pushed some buttons, and we got organized.  The room was clean and okay but tiny - like so tiny it was not actually possible to open both suitcases fully without moving furniture and / or blocking either the mini fridge or the safe.  Double bed lol so would be cozy, but overall - as long as the AC brought the temp down, would be all good.

More Travels

Go out for more exploring and travel agent calls us back - the $ should’ve been sent directly months ago when we actually paid so this is very odd, but they were going to try and fix.  Apparently there’s been lots of back and forth and idea is we’ll just pay for the room and Expedia would pay us back.  Then we don’t have to move and all is good.   So she tries to talk to the reception lady and that…. Did not go well.   Definitely a high level of frustration there and a lack or understanding or a disinterest in understanding- not sure which.  Either way, left unresolved, agent says leave it w her, so we go exploring again.   Calls back in a little while and says Expedia will arrange for an equivalent hotel on the other side of the park and cover the price differential.   Since by this point the room still hadn’t cooled off either (which we hadn’t mentioned to anybody yet), we were okay w this.   So packed up, got the hold for the room cancelled, checked out, and ordered an uber.   Chris mentioned about the AC as a courtesy so they'd at least be aware and was told “oh, the whole second floor is out” ummmm and you didn’t think to mention that when we checked in?  Ah well.  Decided to count ourselves lucky and relocated.

We even walked by the Natural History Museum 

The next hotel we went to check in, they had our reservation, asked for our payment….  Definitely had a "not again" moment.  But when I mentioned it should already be paid they double checked and “oh yes, no problem - it just came through.  Looks like the booking was today?”  😂 fair - it’s been less than an hour ;).  

We went back and forth through this park a few times in our travels tonight

We were directed to floor "minus 1" which made me laugh, but was a stunning room.  Easily 4x the size of the first.  And w a nice cool AC temp.   Win!   Over the stay we were increasingly happy with this one.  There was a garden out back where we spent most evenings after finishing our travels.  One area even had a little fountain.   Just all round lovely.  Potentially the nicest place we’ve stayed.  Definitely in the top 2.   So yeah - minor hassle, dealt w by travel agent, resulting in excellent upgrade.  Worth the minor hassle of a reshuffle for sure.

Where we ended up :)
5/5 stars.  100% recommend.