Last Stop: London

I've been kind of slacking on writing my last travel post because I've still been trying to catch up on sleep and unpacking! But here goes...


Truthfully, I was thrilled to be headed back to the UK after spending almost a month traveling around Europe. While we had only spent one day in London when we flew into Heathrow in May, we both were pleasantly surprised at how friendly and welcoming the Brits were. After the whole EuroStar fiasco, it was so nice to finally step foot off the train and onto UK soil. After all, this meant that we were this close from going home! Much to our delight, information booths in London train stations actually provided excellent directions when asked, unlike the lack of help we encountered in French train stations. ha. We were on our way to our hostel in no time, but once we arrived, we found out we couldn't check in until 2pm. Once we finally were able to get to our room, we were both exhausted and took a 4-hour "nap." We obviously didn't go out exploring that day...

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

Kensington Palace

With a schedule full of things to do and see, we set out the next morning, beginning in Hyde Park. We stopped by Kensington Palace, where there was construction going on...so parts of the palace were blocked off. It was still gorgeous, nonetheless! Next, we headed toward the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. As a Princess Di fan, I was so excited to see this fountain that I'd heard so much about. We got to the fountain just as it was opening for the day, so we lucked out and got some great pictures before it got crowded. After that, we continued on toward Buckingham Palace, where we planned to watch the Changing of the Guard. Despite arriving almost an hour before the ceremony started, the crowd was already huge! We stood around with everyone else, baking in the (surprisingly) hot sun and listening to a sarcastic policeman attempting to keep the crowd orderly. Once the Changing of the Guard finally started, the crowd hushed and all eyes were on the red uniformed guards for the duration of the ceremony. It was incredible to see this in real life...definitely something to be seen if you are visiting London! It was quite a long ceremony, lasting nearly an hour and a half...its so bizarre (and neat!) that London basically has a parade every day.

Changing of the Guard

Buckingham Palace

After the Changing of the Guard was over, we headed toward Parliament and Westminster Abbey, stopping on the way for lunch. I was excited to try something out of my comfort zone: Fish and Chips. I am definitely not a huge fan of any kind of fish, but I was determined to try this famous British meal while I was in London! I'm so glad I did, too: it was AMAZING. Hands down, my favorite meal of the entire trip. I definitely could not eat like that every day...not only was it a bit unhealthy, but it was a LOT of food! After lunch, we continued on to Westminster Abbey. We originally were not going to pay to tour the Abbey, but once I got there, and saw how spectacular it was, I knew I couldn't leave London without going inside! Unfortunately, you were not allowed to take pictures inside, but let me just say, seeing it on TV is nothing like actually being there! It was so stunning...definitely my favorite church of the entire trip. They had a special exhibit of Royal Wedding photos, which was very neat. I was one of those crazy Americans who woke up at 4am to watch the wedding take place live, so naturally I thought it was cool to walk through the Abbey where Wills & Kate had just gotten married.

Westminster Abbey

Fish & Chips!

Once we had toured the Abbey, we stopped on the banks of the Thames for a few pictures of Big Ben and Parliament before heading to the London Eye. We were both excited for the Eye, and it definitely didn't disappoint! We only waited in line for a few minutes before boarding one of the neat glass-enclosed capsules. The Eye is to London what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris: you get to see excellent views of the city, making the city look much smaller than it seems from ground level! Once we made it around the Eye, we called it a day. We saved the rest of our itinerary for our last full day in London.

London Eye

Parliament & Big Ben

On our last day, we woke up early and made sure our bags were packed to head to Heathrow that night, then we headed out to finish our London-in-two-days itinerary...nothing like cramming it all in...ha. We walked to Notting Hill (yep, like the movie), where we then took the Underground to Abbey Road for a photo op. When in London, right? ;) After that, we headed toward Shakespeare's Globe Theater, where I snapped a few pictures. On our way to see Tower Bridge, we stopped at a little pub for lunch, where we both tried Pimm's for the first time. I actually liked it...interesting flavor, for sure. After lunch, we passed London Bridge and then took a few photos of Tower Bridge before heading to Harrod's. 

The Globe Theater

Pimm's!

Tower Bridge

Harrod's

Harrod's. Wow is all I can say. This store deserves its own post, but I'll try to keep it short and sweet! Harrod's has EVERYTHING. From designer handbags and clothing to displays of chocolates and teas, it was spectacular. It also has five floors...and we spent an hour and a half just on the first floor! We spent a lot of time looking at all of the different candies, and finally decided on some chocolates to bring home. After spending way too much time there, we headed out to King's Cross Station, where we had another photo op with "Platform 9 3/4" (from Harry Potter, obviously!). Unfortunately, as King's Cross was under construction, the train station installed a fake Platform 9 3/4 outside of the station. Yes, its still pretty cool, but it looks a bit fake....oh well, you win some, you lose some. Speaking of Harry Potter, there was almost zero reference or memorabilia of the Harry Potter films in the entire city of London! A little disappointing.....

Our last stop in London was per my request: Whole Foods. I loved that London had Whole Foods, because it meant that I could finally find "normal" food! WF is right up my alley in terms of food, so I picked up dinner there before we headed to the airport for the night. Yes, I said "for the night." And yes, we did sleep in another airport all night. So thrilling. HA. We decided to save money and camped out in Heathrow instead of renting a hotel room. Needless to say, I got all of my pictures downloaded, caught up on my celebrity gossip, and even got a little sleep before we had to catch our flight the next morning! Our flight left London at 11:15am, and because of the 5-hour time difference, we arrived home at 2:00pm. A little confusing...and a lot tiring! Once our flight landed at Dulles, we still had a 4-hour drive home. Thankfully, we didn't have to drive (which would have been incredibly scary, as we were both exhausted....ha). I managed to go to bed and wake up at "normal" times my first day home, but yesterday was rough for me. I woke up too early, then took a 3-hour "nap" in the middle of the day. I'm still dragging a bit, but I hope I'll adjust to the time change quickly! I still have some interesting things to write about our trip...but I'll save those for another day ;)

Crossing Abbey Road!

-xoxo

The City of Lights

Despite the fact that I am getting antsy to fly home, I was excited to be going back to Paris for the second time. The first time I was here 5 years ago, I didn’t get to see some things, so I was looking forward to being able to see things that I didn’t have the chance to see before! Disclaimer: this post contains a lot of good, but also a lot of negative…Paris wasn’t too kind to us. The sights were incredible, but we had some trouble with people…ha.

Luxembourg Gardens

Hotel Room

AWESOME Starbucks in the city

Fountain in the Latin Quarter

Notre Dame

Moulin Rouge

Unfortunately for us, the train ride from Madrid was an overnight train, and it was pricey…we ended up purchasing “sleeper seats” instead of a couchette this time around because it was cheaper, and because our previous experience with couchettes was not too pleasant. Big mistake…we both had the most uncomfortable sleep of our lives, hands down. Did I mention it was a 13-hour train ride? Our train was nearly an hour late getting to the station in Paris, and when we stepped off the train, we learned that there was no information desk open and there were literally 2 out of 20 ticket windows open. After waiting in the line for way too long, we purchased our Eurostar tickets for London...which broke. the. bank. And we were told the only train available was the 8am train…even though there is literally a train to London every hour for about 12 hours a day. As we were getting ready to leave, we asked the lady at the ticket office for directions, and she was no help, whatsoever. We find the Metro, and manage to an information desk, where I asked for directions to the area surrounding our hotel. The man was very helpful and pointed us to the correct Metro. Once we arrived at our stop, we went to the info desk to ask where our hotel would be located. Even though I clearly named our hotel, the lady stared at me and said “Mercure Hotel?” over and over. Apparently it’s the only hotel she knows in the area. I also asked if there was a place I could get more information, and she stared for a minute and said “No.” I guess you can figure out how we were starting to feel about Paris. 

Pyramid at the Louvre

After that fiasco, we walked down the street to another hotel, where we stepped inside to ask where our hotel was located. The lady at the desk was extremely nice and gave us perfect directions to it. Amazing how you can go into a hotel that you aren’t staying at and get better directions than a Paris city employee can give you! We found our hotel without any trouble and went inside to check in….only to hear “Check-in is at 2pm.” We had just gotten off of a 13-hour train ride from hell, were exhausted, and needed to shower desperately…and it was only 10:30am…so we stored our bags in the baggage room and sat in the lobby to figure out what to do in the meantime. When we sat down, we met an American couple who had also just arrived in Paris, only to find that they could not check in yet, either. We introduced ourselves, shared a few sighs of discontentment about the hotel and then parted ways to find something for lunch. We even asked the lady at the hotel desk for café suggestions, to which she replied that she had none, and that there were cafés lining the streets. Thanks for nothing! We ended up finding a supermarket down the street and decided to just buy some fruit to go with the sandwich supplies we already had with us. SO, we went back to the hotel (in the lobby…because there was literally nowhere else to go), and ate lunch. I think the lady was annoyed that we were having a picnic in the hotel lobby, so she ended up giving us our room around noon. YES…it was either a guilt trip, or she was just mad at us. Either way, we won. Ha.

Sacre Coeur

 We got to our room and showered, and then headed out for a long day of fitting in everything we wanted to see…after all we only had two days to see everything! We started out the Luxembourg Gardens, which were gorgeous, and then headed toward The Latin Quarter. We stopped for a few French delicacies along the way: a French macaroon for me, and an éclair, a slice of Flan tart, and a crepe for Michael. Yeah, I think he liked French desserts…

Replica of the Statue of Liberty

As we headed to Notre Dame, it started to rain, but that did not shorten the line to get into the cathedral. I’m glad that I was able to tour the cathedral when I was in Paris before, because we didn’t really have time to stand in line given our tight schedule! We also encountered a serious line at the Louvre, so we didn’t go inside there, either. Luckily, I’ve been there before AND was able to get an illegal photo of the Mona Lisa…oops ;) Next, we headed to Montmartre, where we climbed the steps all the way to the top of the hill and checked out the amazing views of the city. We went inside Sacre Coeur, which I was unable to do before, so I was excited to see the basilica. Honestly, after being able to go inside St. Peter’s in Vatican City, nothing compares…but Sacre Coeur was still pretty! We decided to stay in Montmartre for dinner, so we stopped at a small café for some traditional French fare. I had a bowl of French Onion Soup with a ham & cheese crepe, which was excellent. Michael had a real Croque Monsieur…not a rip-off one like I had in Nice (where it was basically a simple grilled cheese with a small amount of ham).  When we got back to the hotel, I encountered the hotel staff being quite unhelpful and very unaccommodating to other guests…it was at that point I realized that the entire hotel staff was just downright rude and made no effort to provide customer service. But that is another story, for another day…….

Our last day in Paris, we woke up early and headed for Versailles. This was another place that I was unable to visit when I was in France before, and I was determined to go before I left this time! We ended up spending at least half the day just walking around the palace and the gardens, which were impressive. I had heard so much about Versailles after taking French classes for 8 years, but no picture can do the “real thing” any justice! Versailles was definitely the highlight of our visit to Paris, but we still had places to go and see once we left there! We took the train back to the city and hopped off the train near the Statue of Liberty replica, in the middle of the Seine. This was another famous landmark that I did not get to see during my first visit! After that, we took in the impressive sight of the Eiffel Tower as we headed toward it. As expected, there was a line to get to the top of the tower, but it really was not too bad. We spent about 2 hours total, including waiting and spending some time at the top. Once we got back to the bottom of the tower, we headed for the L’Arc de Triomphe. By this point, we were both freezing (it was pretty chilly in Paris the entire time we were there!) and hungry. It was after 9pm when we made it back to our Metro stop, but we managed to find a small supermarket open, where we bought some cheese for sandwiches. We both wanted to make one last stop at a patisserie for some French bread and pastries, but they were all closed and we had to be at the train station very early the next day. Not to worry: I still have a bag of French macaroons sitting in my bag :) 

L'Arc de Triomphe

 Sunday morning, we woke up at 5:30am to head for the train station, where our EuroStar train was supposed to leave at 8:13am. The Metro took us right to the train station, but somehow, bad luck found us again and our Metro tickets would not open the gates for us to exit into the station. Don’t ask. At this point, we’ve learned to not question “WHY” anymore. Ha. Once we figured out a way to get into the station, we watch the screen, waiting for our platform number to show up. In every station we’ve been to, it seems as though they wait until less than 20 minutes before the train to announce the platform number. As it was starting to get close to our departure time, a message pops up on the screen for our train that says “First floor.” Okay. So we find the stairs and head up toward the first floor…where we see a huge LINE only for the EuroStar. Apparently it has its own terminal, where you have to go through lines very similar to those that you would in an airport. Too bad there was NO information in the trains station that warned people of this ahead of time. We were rushing through the lines, where we had to go through French border patrol, then UK Border Control for entry into London, and finally through security. We were already extremely pressed for time, and when we got to the train “gate,” the train was literally about to leave, and circumstances out of my control suddenly arose. Bottom line: we missed the train. And that’s all I have to say about that. Luckily, the EuroStar staff was very helpful and put us on the next train, leaving at 9:13am, for no extra charge. After the lack of customer service we had experienced in Paris, we were both pleasantly surprised at how helpful  EuroStar was. It’s probably because it’s not a French company. Ha. 

I’ve been sitting here typing this post on our EuroStar train, heading for London and not looking back. It’s been real, Europe, but I’m happy to say we’re beginning our journey back home. We have a few days in London to see everything, and then Tuesday afternoon, we’re headed for Heathrow, were we decided we would just stay all night in preparation for our Wednesday morning flight. We’ll save money, and quite honestly, we’re excited about staying in the airport instead of a potentially bad hotel or hostel! Hopefully, the last two days of our backpacking adventure will go smoothly and be pleasant. As of right now, we only have good things to say about the UK, from our experience at the beginning of our trip, so I hope the next few days will be good! Next post will probably be from Heathrow Airport! :) 

-xoxo

At Least The Trains Are Nice? {Madrid}

After spending nearly four days in Nice enjoying the beach, I would be lying if I said I was overly thrilled to take a train to Madrid…but alas, we hopped on an afternoon train headed toward Montpellier, France, where we caught a train to Spain the next day.  I have been to Madrid once before, five years ago, and I was looking forward to re-visiting the first European city I’ve ever been to. Our first experience on a Spanish train to Barcelona was quite pleasant, as we had roomy seats and more spacious aisles in our train car. Once in Barcelona, we had a bit of a layover…so we did what any American would do: went to McDonald’s. Hey, they had free wifi…and to Michael’s delight, a “Euro” menu. I do believe this is one of the first places I’ve been able to find truly free wifi…where you could sit there and not feel the need to buy a drink or something in exchange for using their internet. Ha.

The Royal Palace

A little while later, we hopped on the second train to Madrid. This was our first experience with a real high-speed train…and it was pretty awesome! We were cruising along at about 180 miles per hour…so it really didn’t take too long to get to Madrid. This was hands down our favorite train. The entire train appeared to be a “first-class” train…compared to what we were used to, it was very luxurious. They even had a movie playing(!)…but it was in Spanish, with Spanish subtitles. Fail. I can’t complain…after all, it was our most pleasant train ride yet, and it made us slightly less cynical toward the European train system.

Since we got to Madrid around 8pm, we decided to just make a trip to the supermarket (El Corte Ingles=my favorite European department store) to pick up some necessities…aka peanut butter. We were not able to find it ANYwhere in Nice, so we picked up the first jars we could find. Unfortunately for us, peanut butter in Spain is 4 Euros per jar…not quite like the .89 cent jars we found in the UK and Ireland. After spending way too much time for our own good in a department store, we headed back to our hostel, which was more like a hotel. We had a private room with a balcony…but it had a shower in the room. Literally IN THE ROOM. Just a curtain separated it from the rest of the room. ‘Twas interesting. We did have A/C, which was much-appreciated in the desert-like heat of Madrid.  Except Michael turned it down to 15 degrees Celsius…which is like 50-something degrees. He woke up at 8am to me whining in my sleep…because I was so cold. At least the A/C works?

For some reason (uhh…maybe being sick and just not getting enough sleep) I slept until 1pm. Then, we decided we should book the rest of our hotels for Paris and London since we will be there within the week. Once that was done, we had sufficiently killed 4 more hours. We headed out that evening to see some of the city, since we hadn’t done much of that yet. Ha. We walked by the Royal Palace on our way to Plaza Mayor, where we planned to have churros and chocolate.  Myself and a few of our friends had them when we visited Madrid before, and they were excellent. Unfortunately, when we stepped into Plaza Mayor, the little shop where I had churros before was no longer there. We walked around and looked at all of the café menus, and settled on an outdoor café to finally try the local fare. Although the churros were good, they were not as great as I remembered, and Michael was not overly impressed, either. I think it was just the place we went to…I’m sure we could have found some even better ones!

Churros and Chocolate!

Plaza Mayor

 Thursday, our last day in Madrid, we headed for a cable car ride that promised views of the city…all for 5 Euros. I admit that I was hesitant to step onto this little car held by a thin cable. For good reason, apparently. The views were not spectacular, and on our return journey, it sounded like the cable car was going to break and we were going to fall to our death. Not being dramatic AT. ALL. Let’s just say, we were so glad to be on solid ground after that………...

Before we packed up and headed to the train station, we stopped for some Sangria. I originally was going to try Paella the second time around (the first ended badly 5 years ago…when I found out there was calamari in it), but I ended up nixing that idea in favor of a Caprese Panini. Mmm…italian food…sorry ‘bout it, Spain. After lunch, we took the Metro to the train station, where we are currently sitting….waiting for our 13-hour train to Paris! We decided we would try out the reclining chairs on this train, after a mediocre experience with couchettes on our train to Rome. So we’ll see how that goes…if we are able to get any sleep. At any rate, I know I’ll be able to sleep on our plane ride back to the good ol’ USA in less than a week because I am SO behind on sleep! 

Next post will be from The City of Lights, Paris ;)

-xoxo

Nice is Nice

After a hellacious day of train rides from Italy, we finally arrived in Nice, France, around 8pm Friday. Although I could have easily laid down and fallen asleep for the rest of the night, I wanted to go out and enjoy the beautiful weather in this lovely beach town. After putting our bags down at our hotel (which, by the way was luxurious compared to our previous “hostelling” adventures), we headed out to see the beach for the first time. 

A short walk later, we were on the boardwalk, listening to the waves crash and feeling the cool breeze coming off of the ocean. Finally, this trip felt like a vacation, where we could actually take a breath, relax, and not have to rush around to fit everything in! And relax we did….after a dinner of Croque Monsieur and baguette sandwiches, we headed back to get some sleep. And we SLEPT…for 12 hours. Oops! I guess that shows how much sleep we’ve been lacking on this trip. Haha. 

Since it was so late when we woke up, we decided against going to lay out on the beach that day. Instead, we walked around the town, going to the grocery store (another department store/grocery store combination…it’s a big thing in Europe, apparently), buying a few souvenirs, and finally heading down to the beach to enjoy the last bit of warm sunshine while we snacked on a baguette with a jar of Nutella. Later, we stopped by the market and picked up some cheese and apricot preserves to eat with bread for dinner, along with a cheap bottle of wine (that we opened by pushing the cork into the bottle…failure on forgetting a corkscrew. ha). ‘Twas a nice change from peanut butter sandwiches…

Since Nice had been so enjoyable and relaxing, we decided to extend our visit an extra day…which meant we had an actual beach day! Our last full day, we woke up pretty late again…totally worth it. Ha. We got our swimsuits on, and walked out to the beach, where we encountered one too many topless-sunbathing-women and tight Speedo-wearing men.  It was an eyeful, that’s for sure…and I don’t mean in a good way! After laying on the beach for a few hours, we decided to call it a day…you can only take but so much of unpleasant sights…hah. We relaxed back at the hotel for a little bit with the A/C blasting before heading out for a “real” dinner. We both wanted seafood, but seafood restaurants in Nice are a bit different than the kind we are used to seeing. We finally settled on a cute café, where I ordered a Salade Nicoise (hands down my favorite French salad) and a glass of Chardonnay, and Michael ordered Risotto with scallops and a daiquiri. Real food is amazing, that’s all I have to say. Haha. After dinner, we walked down to the beach and walked along the boardwalk for a while. It’s safe to say that neither of us really wanted to say goodbye to Nice…we had a great time and I feel like I was able to recuperate for the rest of our travels ;)

We’re currently sitting in the train station, waiting for our train to Montpellier, France, where we’ll stay for the night before heading to Madrid, Spain in the morning. Today is a French holiday, apparently, and all of the early trains were booked up, so we are camped out in the train station until 2pm. Fun! If only train stations in Europe were as nice as airports……….

Au revoir, France…at least until Friday, when we get to Paris ;)

-xoxo