Flat Swimmy in London & NYC
/December 3, 2024
Hello friends of Flat Swimmy, my name is Ashley and I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with your friend Flat Swimmy for the past couple of weeks. Flat Swimmy arrived to me in early November at my home in New York City and accompanied me on a short trip to London, England. We packed up our bags and headed to the subway to take us to the airport and across the Atlantic Ocean to gloomy London. Flat Swimmy wanted to get a picture with the Lego statue we spotted in the airport in New York. Check him out with his new friend out!
We arrived in London where it was very cold and rainy, but Flat Swimmy said that was exactly like the weather where you all live in Oregon so he was prepared. We got into the airport at Heathrow and Flat Swimmy asked for a picture to prove he made the trip, then we hopped on the London Underground and made our way into the city.
After we took a nap -- London is far from home and has an 8 hour time difference from Flat Swimmy’s normal home in Oregon so he was exhausted from the trip! – we headed into central London to walk around Hyde park. I even pushed Flat Swimmy around in a stroller for a little while so he could rest his tired little legs. On the way into the park, Swimmy was excited to see a famous big red London Double Decker bus.
Once we made it into the park, we saw a couple of signs that made Flat Swimmy laugh. Can you guess why he thought the second sign (the picture he asked me, Ashley to join him in) was so funny?
Then we saw the Peter Pan statue…
And the Albert Statue, which Flat Swimmy thought was really impressive for it’s HUGE size and the bright gold Albert in the middle.
We also saw the Royal Albert Hall, where we sadly just missed seeing Princess Katherine and Prince William who were making a public appearance. Did you know that they still have a Royal Family and a King and Queen in England, which is part of the United Kingdom? They have had a Royal Family for over 1200 years! Many of the founding fathers of the United States first arrived from the United Kingdom.
After we left the park, we stopped by the old red telephone booth because Flat Swimmy wanted to call his friends (who he kept calling “the Otters”) but unfortunately the phone wasn’t working!
The next day Flat Swimmy and I go on the train and rode down to Portsmouth for Flat Swimmy’s first soccer match at Portsmouth FC. They scored 4 goals and won 4 to 0, Flat Swimmy had so much fun we forgot to take his picture! Although to be honest, he was a little afraid of how loud the fans were screaming for their team that he hid in my jacket pocket and just peeked out to see the action in the game.
After we finished up at the game (or as they call it in England, the match), we passed a postal box that was addressed for Letters to Santa and Flat Swimmy tried to mail himself to Santa!
The next day it was back to London for a final day with friends. We went for a walk along the canal and saw houseboats all along it that people live in. One person had a cat on top of their houseboat, Flat Swimmy thought it was hilarious! Along the way we stopped for a sausage sandwich, which was not like an American sausage sandwich…the sausages were round and there was no egg or cheese – very strange, Swimmy thought.
We ended the day with a traditional English Sunday Lunch, also known as a Sunday Roast, which is usually a type of meat (most typical is roast beef), roasted potatoes and carrots, lots of gravy, and a big Yorkshire pudding on top. Flat Swimmy wondered why an eggy bread was called a pudding, but no one could explain to him why it is called a pudding when it is more like a bread…
The next morning it was time to fly back to New York from London. Flat Swimmy slept on the whole plane ride but woke up excited to be somewhere new again when we landed. After a good night’s rest, Flat Swimmy was ready to get up and explore New York City.
We got up and went for bagels (a must eat breakfast in NYC is a bagel with way too much cream cheese) before walking into Central Park. A loop around the Jack Onassis Reservoir provided us with great view of the tall buildings in Manhattan (the main neighborhood in NYC).
Then we ventured further down into the park and saw people having picnics on the Great Lawn. We also saw people playing jazz music in the park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the way out. Flat Swimmy couldn’t believe how warm it was in NYC compared to England and Oregon. We got lunch in an Irish restaurant, where Flat Swimmy asked to try Shepherds Pie (a traditional Irish food of ground meat, peas/carrots, and mashed potato on top) and learned about an Irish sport called Hurling…Flat Swimmy wanted to take the Hurley (the stick they use to hit the ball like in hockey) home but the server said he could not have it that time, maybe next time…
Finally, it was time for Ashley to go back to work so Flat Swimmy joined her for a day at the office. The morning started with a commute into Union Square to get to work, where we stopped by a holiday market on the way in. Once we arrived in the office, Flat Swimmy was happy to see a calendar from the ELC at Ashley’s desk. After a morning of meetings and working, we went for a walk at lunch to see some of the tall buildings, like the empire state building.
