London Travels: Sun, glorious sun

My wife noticed it first as we were getting ready to leave the National Gallery yesterday.

She looked out a narrow window and saw the sun peeking over Trafalgar Square and the London Eye in the distance between buildings.

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London Travels: When you’ve made it to Wembley, you’ve made it

America doesn’t have a national stadium or sports arena.

Sure, there are lots of historic, important ones — Madison Square Garden (especially for college basketball fans of a certain vintage), the Rose Bowl, the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Superdome, Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park, Wrigley Field — but none of them are a be-all and end-all.

London Travels: Henry VIII — the ultimate alpha male?

As we were visiting Hampton Court Palace, my wife had a question — why does Henry VIII, the palace’s most-famous former occupant — carry such cultural resonance?

London Travels: It’s Sunday, Jan. 28

Our trip to Hampton Court Palace meant taking a train outside of central London through the … outskirts? Suburbs? What are they called in England?

We went past neighborhoods of homes in close proxmity with small, fenced-in back yards, people playing football on miniature pitches, a busy playground. We shared a train with a seemingly very curious little girl, her helmet still on her head after riding on the scooter her mother was holding.

London Travels: New adventures in “our” London

When you’ve been someplace a lot like my wife and I have been to London — three times in the past several years — there are things that become so familiar, that they’re like your own.

London Travels: It’s all in the messaging

Somehow, I don’t think King George was singing that his “sweet, submissive” and “loyal, royal” subjects would “be back” for the purposes of robust trade when he threatened to kill their friends and family to remind them of his love, but I’ll double-check when I see “Hamilton” Wednesday night.

London Travels: Shannon Airport —I’m not sure I can cope

One of my wife’s and my favorite travel stories involves Shannon Airport in Ireland.

Three years ago, we had a layover there going from Boston to London, and next to the bright, sparkling duty-free shop was a terminal that looked like it had last been touched in 1974.

A primer to being an enemy fan

Yeah, some people are going to have a rough next 10 days or so.

Welcome to my world.

Here’s a moment of stupid for you

Because I share thick, wavy hair (and fortunately, little else) with former Illinois governor/would-be Senate seat merchant/current inmate Rod Blagojevich, my wife and I put my need for a haircut on the Blago scale.

Since I had moved past early Blago and was rapidly approaching full Blago, and I’m leaving for vacation this week, I went for a cut yesterday. It was routine and, since I’m a guy who has had the same haircut since I was a teenager, quick.

Get ready for the Super Bowl without me

Next Thursday night, my wife and I are heading to London.

There will be shows (“Hamilton”! “Les Mis”!), museums, hopefully a tour of Wembley Stadium and just the overall experience of being in London, even though the January weather might be kind of sketchy.

But I just realized another feature of our trip, which will also include several days in Edinburgh, Scotland.

We’re going to miss almost all of the Super Bowl hype. In fact, we just going to get back in time for the game.