The weather has warmed, the humidity increased and the wind has died down a bit, so I was able to break out my new purchase last night. You will see from the pics below that there was no way I was going to be able to resist these - they are so completely me!! And I’m pretty sure I won’t see anyone else with them when we get home or basically anywhere else we go!!
So with a population of over 2.3 mill, you’d think downtown Houston would be bustling, but over the last week, we have been largely alone with the other tourists and homeless people wandering the streets. We were thinking that Houston must be suffering like many other cities post-covid with people working from home and not coming into the city etc. However there’s all these parking buildings and giant skyscrapers! So where is everyone? Turns out they’re under our feet - quite literally. Houston has this network of subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that link 95 city blocks 20 feet below Houston's downtown streets - it’s approximately six miles long. Locals use these tunnels to move about the city. It’s brilliant - protects them from the heat & humidity in summer, and rain and cold in winter. Portions of the tunnel contain gift shops, newsstands, banks, technology centers, flower shops, copy centers, dry cleaners, and food courts similar to a major shopping mall. It’s a bit like men in black - you enter a building and inside this there’s an elevator/escalator/stairs which you follow down to the tunnels…..
The other thing that’s quite amazing around Houston is the street art. Often featuring environmental and social justice themes, the murals celebrate Houston's history and culture. As you walk around you find them all over the place - apparently there's up to 850 murals in Houston!!
One of the places I have always wanted to visit is the NASA Space Center. Sitting on over 1600 acres, it is one of NASA largest research and development facilities. We saw only a small snippet of the facilities, but it was amazing to see the limited space astronauts have to live in and it looked a little odd to see pics of them sleeping while velcroed to the wall of the shuttle (OK, it’s probably a little more technical than velcro, but you get the gist!). We walked through a replica shuttle and an actual shuttle carrier NASA 905 which flew over 11,000 hours carrying space shuttles (I feel like we might have a few too many ‘shuttles’ in this sentence - hmmmm). Trap re-enacted a presidential wave from the top of the stairs but was missing the hair and skin tone! We took a tram to Rocket Park where we saw one of only three Saturn V rockets left and watched a great film on the history of space exploration, narrated by Tom Hanks. Finishing up with a tour to the Astronaut Training and next generation space vehicle development facility - which was pretty cool. Definitely worth a visit - there’s so much to see you need a full day here.
Spring Break started on Friday and it was a sight to behold. A people-watching bonanza! Flocks of young people descended on Houston clutching bottles of tequila and dressed to the nines - or pretty much naked depending on your age and definition of “clothes”. I have to confess I have never seen so many hot pants and boob tubes in my life as well as a huge array of cowboy boots. One pair that particularly grabbed me were these black glitter ones with a tassel down the back. Now if they had been in pink and I had room in my luggage, these could have been a goer. Unfortunately I don’t have a pic as I thought it might be rude to take photos of random strangers!
And proving that people are the same wherever you go, we watched as a car pulled up to the front of the hotel, a young couple got out, the guy grabbed one duffle bag and went into the hotel, then the valet parking guy and a hotel worker turned up with a luggage trolley where the women proceeded to unpack 6 shoe boxes and about 8 bags - proving that no matter where you are, the majority of males can travel anywhere for any length of time with one bag, while most of us girls require lots of shoes, clothes and accessories as you never know what you might need! And that is why half of Trap’s backpack is filled with my stuff - boom!
We are outta here, thank you Houston for your hospitality.
Houston has been an interesting experience so far! Getting through Houston immigration was a breeze - no one asked how long we were staying, no proof of onward ticket was required and the officer smiled!! There were no customs to speak of - we picked up our bags and walked through the door! We were a little taken aback by our uber - a Chevy Silverado truck - with not a prius in sight - in fact all uber’s seem to be big SUV/truck type vehicles. We had an interesting conversation with our driver - a late 50’s bearded fellow who gave us heaps of tips on places to eat while in town. Somehow we got onto the conversation of driving and he was surprised to hear from us that America was not the only country in the world that drives on the right side of the road. We did let him know that Europe does too, but I’m not sure if he believed us…. The hotel is great and everyone really helpful and friendly. There’s lots of street art and murals on building walls around the city, but a lot of homeless ...
Ey ‘up. Well, we’re embracing the holiday park culture – last night there was cash bingo followed by karaoke and the lovely man who won the bingo shouted us a drink – go the Northerners!!!! We also made some new friends who have a permanent/static caravan/cabin at the park. So, backing up the bus (or motorhome) a bit, since I last wrote, we’ve arrived in the UK. London was a lovely surprise with beautiful weather and mid-twenties temps. We stayed at a fab “BnB” - Chez Camilla, and after a wee nap, I took a wander down the Embankment along the Thames – Chez Cam is in Lambeth one block back from the river, so within 5-10 minutes I was staring across at Parliament Buildings. It’s been a good 10 years since we were last in London and I had forgotten what a lovely, vibrant city it can be. There were lots of tourists wandering about but also lots of residents out enjoying the sun. Cycling has really taken off since I was last here with bicycle hire stands everywhere. Also, along the Em...
Well it’s been a much lower key last week or so for us. The weather gods have forsaken us just as we reached the Maya Riviera & Caribbean Sea, meaning we haven’t been able to spend our time at the beach as expected. Trap didn’t need his speedo’s as the constant strong winds battering Tulum meant that swimming in the ocean was tricky at best, treacherous at worst with pounding waves and strong currents. On the upside we got a lovely full-body sand exfoliation on the first day we tried to lie on the beach, so our skin is glowing and we’re still finding sand in odd places a week later 🙂! Tulum Beach is a rather unusual place and I can’t say we’d come here again or necessarily recommend spending much time here. I’ll start with the good… What is fantastic about the area are the ce-no-tes and the archaeological site. The cenotes are spectacularly clear, fresh water holes in the ground that are all over the place. You can swim, snorkel, dive in them depending on the size and structure. S...
Sounds like an amazing city. I’m reading your updates on the bus to work - bloody fascinating (your updates, NOT the bus ride)!! 😬😁
ReplyDeleteToo funny. Bet Traps eyes are sore 🤣
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