My 2022 Global Adventure: Day 6 (Shininess! Tunnels! Barbie!)

 Day 6

Today I headed to Paris. The earliest train I'd been able to get to get via my Eurail pass was for 3pm, so between checking out of my hotel and getting in line for the train (they recommended you get there an hour and 15 minutes early) I needed something to do. I decided I'd visit the British Library, since it seemed cool and was near the train station. But there were a couple of hurdles I had to jump over first....

First, I wanted to store my bags in a luggage storage place so I could be free to explore the library. I found a service online that runs via an app where they have local businesses do the luggage storing -- kind of like an AirBNB for suitcases. I made a reservation for my bags, but when I got to the storage place, I couldn't connect to the internet, so I couldn't check in via app -- and that was the only way to check in. So I walked back to the train station (where I could get wifi) and tried to cancel, but the app was like "no canceling!" But I WAS able to change the reservation from 2 bags to 1, and then, strangely, I was able to hit "check in" and then immediately hit "check out." The app noted that my bag had been stored for 0 minutes -- and it charged me 0 dollars. Okay then!

I then went to the luggage storage place at the train station, which I probably should've just gone to in the first place, except that it was slightly more expensive. I stored one bag and just decided to carry the other one around.

I had another mission to accomplish before I could visit the library: I needed to find a place to mail some postcards. I had written them, addressed them, even stamped them, but there was not a mailbox to be found anywhere! Google kept suggesting places, but every time I got to them, I'd find out they were closed or nonexistent. Finally, I walked to the library, went to the info. desk, and asked the librarians for help -- because I figured if they didn't know where a postal box could be found, no one would. They did some Internet sleuthing and came back with an answer, bless them....

So -- in case you're ever in the vicinity of Kings Cross, St. Pancras Station, etc., and you need a postal box, there is apparently ONLY ONE, and it's not at either of those places (because that would make too much sense.) It is at Euston Station down the block.

By the time I got that all sorted, I needed a break. I sat down and had a snack. Then I made my way to the British Library. I knew I wouldn't have as much time to explore it as I'd hoped, but oh well. I paid 10 pounds and went to a basement exhibit on the use of gold in antique documents and artifacts.

Yay shiny things.

Then I headed back to St. Pancras, where I was (at first) too early to get in line for my train. I retrieved my bag from the storage place and sat down for a bit. Once I did get in line, it took OVER AN HOUR to make my way though it. WHY did I think taking a train from London to Paris was something I wanted to do? Oh yeah, because I wanted to go through the Chunnel.

Which I did.

And it was completely underwhelming. Which is to say I didn't even realize we'd even gone through it until... we were in France.

Hello, France...

Finally... Paris! I made my way to our hotel. H. was there waiting for me. We were staying at the Absolute Hotel Paris Republique, which had checked the boxes of things we wanted out of a hotel -- single beds, private bathroom, good location, and decent price. It turned out to be a good choice except for the fact that, because it was so warm while we were there, we had to sleep with the window open... and the noise down below was ridiculously loud. 

Picture that song from the beginning of Beauty and the Beast where everyone's calling "bonjour!" and the baker's yelling about baguettes to his wife and people are bargaining over the price of eggs. 

Now imagine that all happening at 2am. And 4am. And constantly.

On the plus side, the rooms were all themed. We got the Anarchist Barbie room...

Tomorrow: we explore Paris!

Things I learned today: 

*Don't wait until the last day you're in a country to try to mail postcards.

*Just use the nearest luggage storage place... even if it costs a bit more.

*As impressive an engineering feat as the building of the Chunnel may have been, when you go through it... it just feels like a regular tunnel.

Things I considered doing in London, but didn't get to. Maybe next time....

*Museum of the Home

*Poplar

*Thames boat tour

*London Zoo

*Victoria Park

*Victoria & Albert Museum

Molly Goes To Minnesota: Part 2

(Part 1)

Molly Goes To Minnesota: Part 2

Day 2 In Minneapolis - Late Morning

It took me a while to find it (third floor, southeast corner of the Mall) but finally I reached it... and by it, mean....

Heck yeah, Barbie!

Now, I fully knew going in that this exhibit was probably intended for children, but I also knew that they weren't keeping paying adults out. So I paid and they loaned me this groovy bracelet, which could interact with some of the kiosks and computers inside the Dreamhouse.

 Such as this one...

We started out by registering ourselves (hi I'm a girl and I like ponies!) and gazing around a very pink room (the first of many.)

Then our tour guide took us (and by us I mean me and about five adults, five little girls, and a baby boy) on a pretend elevator.

At this point, our tour guide told us some Barbie facts. Annnnd then she was done telling us facts for the rest of the tour. Seriously... her job after this was just to escort our group from room to room and make sure nobody fell into Barbie's dreamtub.

The first room we visited was Barbie's kitchen.

The kitchen wasn't very impressive. Some of the drawers could open, and some of the knobs on the appliances turned, but a lot of stuff did nothing at all.

There was a one-minute cupcake decorating game...

...which was only amusing because I used it to create the most hideous cupcake I could.

However, there were no dishes or toy food we could actually play with. Kind of disappointing, the kitchen.

Next, we visited... the ice room?

My Barbie House never had an ice room!

Of course Barbie owns a sleigh!

Just when I was thinking this felt a lot like Frozen, two of the little girls climbed into the sleigh and began acting out scenes from said film. ("You can be Kristoff!") But that only lasted about fifteen seconds, because we were then ushered into the next room...

I guess this is Barbie's Media Room. There wasn't much to do in here. You could touch buttons on the piano to initiate 1 of 3 get-stuck-in-your-head Barbie songs, and there was another interactive game on the computer screens, and but mostly there were just things to look at. Pink things to look at.

Next we went into a kind of Beach room. 

This room had some neat interactive elements. There were buttons that would make the flowers in the flowerbeds "grow". You could look into the 3 different telescope/projectors and turn a dial to see half a dozen photos of Barbie & Ken & their friends. They also had a little ice cream stand with play ice cream cones/icecream that was popular with the little girls.

Onward to Barbie's bedroom!

I thought this bed was pretty funny. One, because it's so huge -- you could fit about twelve people on it, and two, because when I was a kid, Barbie beds were notoriously thin, as if to make sure she never could have Ken sleep over (comfortably). Well, that's changed!

Barbie's bathroom was a little strange. I mean, I remember my cousins used to have a tiny Barbie toilet that you could fill with water, and when you opened (or closed?) the lid, the water would whoosh away, and we all thought that was great.

This is... different....

 Save me!!

You could push a button on the wall that made the toilet seat rise and a little dolphiny thing popped out and made sounds.

I'm a little disturbed.

Then there were Barbie's closets....

"I say closetS... because there are several." -- Mr. Collins.

There was a particularly cool activity in one of the closet rooms, where kids could stand in front of a video screen and it would capture their image and then digitally put a dress or outfit on them. If they raised their arms, sparkles would appear on the screen and the outfit would change. The little girls in my group really seemed to love this.

The last stop on our tour was a gigantic room with several different stations & activities. You could dress up, "perform" on a stage, walk down a runway, get your make-up done, color a Barbie picture, play with an actual toy Dreamhouse, and basically just... play! At this point, our tour guide (such as she was) left us to our own devices and told us we could stay as long as we wanted and leave when we were ready.

Meanwhile, the same three Barbie songs kept playing over the loudspeakers. Enough to drive anyone nuts!

Upon exiting Barbie's house of dreams, I came upon a store selling -- what else?

If I had visited this when I was 10 or 11, I would have simply dropped dead from happiness. They'd have had to bury me in the sand in Barbie's Beach room.

Mega Bloks, the bane of any true Lego fan's existence...

In the end, I enjoyed the Barbie Dreamhouse Experience. Even though it seems to have been designed for 4-to-12-year-old girls, it was still a fun tour. I liked seeing all the different rooms and seeing the kids' faces light up when they encountered something extra special. All in all, not a bad way to spend an hour.

Day 2 - Afternoon

I had a vague idea of how I wanted to spend Thursday afternoon. Since I would need to go downtown for Rifftrax that evening anyway, I thought I may as well visit some other sights that are near downtown. There was the Minneapolis Institute Of Arts, a sculpture park, and a few other little things that I'd marked on my map.

From the Mall Of America, I took the blue line light rail to Franklin Street, where I caught a bus to 1st street, and walked about four blocks to to the Minneapolis Institute Of Arts.

And that ended up being the only place I went that afternoon because IT. WAS. AMAZING!

I spent three hours there, and it wasn't enough. So much beauty, art, history. I saw works by Monet, Picasso, O'Keefe, Matisse, and many more. And the place is so big! Plus it was virtually devoid of people that afternoon. I could have just gone here and the whole trip to Minneapolis would've been worth it. Crazy? Maybe. Don't care.

That said, by the time I was able to drag myself away, it was too late to try to go to the sculpture park or anywhere else. It was time to head downtown for some dinner & a movie. (A really, really terrible movie.)

* * * * *

Next up -- Part 3, in which I finally make it to the main event -- Rifftrax Live!