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Europe 2016

July 2016
A 16-day adventure by meredith Read more
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  • TravelerEurope 2016
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    Day 1

    Day 1: Edinburgh, Scotland

    July 7, 2016 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    So we finally made it to Scotland (drove from roanoke, VA to DC and flew to Newerk, New Jersey to Edinburgh, Scotland). We took a tram from the airport to downtown and put our bags in a £2 locker for the day in the Scottish National Gallery and had a nice breakfast and a very strong americano at the adjacent restaurant - contini. After loading up on caffeine (since it felt like 2am) we walked the portrait gallery for a couple hours and then princes street gardens- the weather was perfect which is very unusual- sunny and crisp. After meandering, we grabbed our bags and walked to the flat where our keys were left in a lock box and settled in a bit. Went to a nearby grocery store (sainsburys) and was pleasantly surprised by the choices and prices - they even had coconut ice cream. Plus they had my favorite chocolate (green and blacks) and coffee (illy) which was not only available, but cheaper. We dropped our groceries off and decided after watching a few minutes of Wimbledon that we needed to keep moving and get out into the sun before we fell asleep. We walked up Calton Hill which has a fantastic 360 degree view of Edinburgh Old Town and Edinburgh New Town (which was built in the Georgian style in the 1800s). It's also a port so you can see the bay as well. After taking some pictures we meandered down a beautiful Georgian lane to admire the architecture then back to our flat to make dinner. Then bed!!Read more

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    Day 2

    Day 2: Edinburgh, Scotland

    July 8, 2016 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    After sleeping for 11 hours, we got up and made breakfast and got out the door around 9 to make our way up the Royal Mile (a rather kitchy, but essential part of any Edinburgh visit). It's the original high street with lots of old buildings and closes and cobblestone streets. It starts with the Edinburgh Castle on top overlooking the city all the way down to Holyrood Palace where the royals stay when in town (and the queen and Her Majesty's hubby were in residence- so we couldn't tour it). We arrived at the castle with our pre-bought tickets (the line was insane- internet people!) and walked straight through. The castle has been built on for centuries starting as a fort in the first century and slowly built on with a great hall and an 18th century residence and other museums and such. It was a really interesting place with a great military museum and a rich history. Eventually we had enough of that and found our way to The Elephant House cafe where JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series. I was expecting a bunch of nerdy Harry Potter fans, but I think everyone was trying to be like me and pretend you didn't know where you were. We had a nice coffee and salted caramel brownie in the back room where she wrote her books with a great view of the castle (no doubt Hogwarts inspiration). After that we walked about the royal mile, chatted with shop owners, and found side streets to get lost in. We eventually made it to the new Scottish Parliment Building that's quite possibly the ugliest building I've ever seen (it cost 450 million pounds to build- 400 over budget and may be torn down soon because it's too expensive to maintain apparently) and then across the street to Holyrood Palace to catch a little glimpse at the gate. We walked to our flat for a rest and then walked some more down Queens Street (a major shopping area) around the back of the castle to The Beehive Inn for some pub grub. After walking so much is was perfect to sit in an authentic pub with rowdy people yelling at Wimbledon and eat a Steak and Ale Pie with mash. The side rooms with their deep tweed chairs and fireplaces was just the right vibe. We meandered back down the windy hilly streets back to our flat to make a decaf and eat some coconut ice cream with the BBC news before we hit the sack.Read more

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    Day 3

    Day 3: Edinburgh, Scotland

    July 9, 2016 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We slept really hard and long last night and had a slower start. After breakfast we started walking northwest to the Botanic Gardens which is free and got to not only enjoy the peace and quiet of the gardens, but also start to see the everyday lives of Scots. We meandered the windy side streets along from the Botanic Gardens to Stockbridge where we looked at the local shops and then happened upon a stone stairway that ran along the creek that led to the Nelson Monument with everything around there covered in ivy, moss, and golf course green grass. This ran under a train aqueduct to a quaint village called Dean Village. It was so nice to get away from the main drags and see normal life in quieter cobblestone streets with their wee mini coopers, lush gardens, and beloved terrier dogs. We got a coffee at Nero Coffee (a UK chain I convinced Joel to try as he was looking for a Starbucks). We then walked clear across the city to a pottery shop called Meadow Pottery and bought a nice mug to add to our collection and had a nice chat with the artist named Paul- who I would have liked if he wasn't wearing a Bernie 2016 shirt- and he taught us all about the raku pottery process. We grabbed lunch at a place called Wildmanwood which had very reasonably priced pizzas and salads (rabbit in the salad- yum!) and listened to the Scottish restaurant guys chat about American gun control and the obvious solution of taking guns away to stop these killings from happening. I wanted to give them a bazillion different explanations why that wouldn't work, but I decided to enjoy my pizza and not go into explaining the American Pshyche. Honestly though, American news is covered just as much as the UK news in the UK and throughout the world and it's incredibly embarrassing sometimes. That's why I try to make a point of being an extra good representation of an American whenever I travel. They need to be reminded that not all Americans are fat, stupid, and racist. Speaking of which, we haven't run into too many Americans in Edinburgh- lots of Europeans, but very few Americans. After lunch, we walked to the National Museum of Scotland to look around the huge and really nice history museum which had a great section on Scottish history. We walked back to our flat for a rest and Joel pre-cooked dinner while I took a shower and watched Serena Williams win her 22nd grand slam. We then walked back to the Royal Mile (my hip joints are starting to scream at me at this point- it's a very hilly city) and participated in a City of the Dead tour. There are several horror/history tours in Edinburgh, but this is the only one worth doing. They are incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Edinburgh and take you to a few spots you can't otherwise visit that are haunted because of the horrible things that happened centuries ago. Edinburgh was one of the dirtiest cities and hearing about the different atrocities was enlightening and a little bit disturbing. We visited underground caves and graveyards and churches where alleged ghosts lurk at Greyfriars Kirk. Very entertaining and totally worth it. Sorry for the novel, we did a lot today.Read more

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    Day 4

    Day 4: Edinburgh to London

    July 10, 2016 in Scotland ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We made our last breakfast in Edinburgh of sausage, eggs, and raspberries with coffee and packed up our bags to leave our lovely little flat. If you're ever in Edinburgh, I highly recommend where we stayed- super close to The Royal Mile, nice big space, with nice furnishings. We walked up to our bus stop to take a bus from downtown to the northside of the city to worship with the local brethren. We found out that the bus only takes exact change or a prepaid pass and when we tried to purchase one yesterday, the office was closed. Joel thought it closed at 7:30, but it was 17:30 (5:30). They use military time here so it can be very confusing and makes you second guess everything. We decided to get some currency exchanged instead and when we went to our stop, the bus was 30 minutes early because Sundays are unpredictable. We made it to the building and waited until an old man named Dave came and opened it and he told us classes were cancelled because so many people are on holiday so we talked for an hour learning about his life and telling him about ours until everyone else came for worship. It was a fairly typical worship just with a Scottish flair and some liberal leanings. We met several people but needed to make our way back into town to catch our train into London when a nice lady with a funny accent offered us a ride to Waverly Station. We got in her SUV with her 2 kids and found out she was from Tennessee so her accent was funny because it was a mixture of southern and Scottish since her husband is Scottish and she has lived here for 14 years. Her kids have a very mellow Scottish accent and sound American to other kids apparently. Found out we both have family in Hendersonville, TN. Small world! It was really nice to hear her perspective on travel, Scotland, and that the lure of living in a fairytale town dies away. Something I love about traveling is learning to appreciate the life you already have back home. Simple luxuries like being able to run the oven and iron your clothes without blowing a fuse (which we did) or own 2 cars or have a dryer dry your clothes (apparently a dryer is a fire hazard in these old buildings and many can't have them). So anyways... things I love about Edinburgh: the mixture of medieval, georgian, and modern architecture, the rich history, the friendly people, and the super lush landscape. Things I dislike: too many tourists on the main drags, the bus system, the amount of young smokers in the city with really poor choices in clothing and an awful lot of alcohol seems to be drunk. Once Joy dropped us off, we grabbed some lunch and a coffee and went to platform 19 and 3/4 (ok, just 19) to board our virgin train to London's Kings Cross Station. It's pretty comfortable and I would take a train any day over a plane. It's about 4 hours down the east coast of England with great views of the ocean and the countryside. Joel spent his time journaling and reading (an actual ebook) and I watched the country and villages pass by. Once we got into King's Cross, we made our way out the enormous station into a very international city. Our flat was literally across the street in what seems like a pretty nice area with other botique hotels nearby. As any large city, 1 street can make an enormous difference in how nice an area is. Our flat is significantly smaller with far less stuff provided to you but it's clean, quiet, and a great location. You can't ask for any more in London this time of year. The low exchange rate is helping quite a lot, but it's still extremely expensive, far more expensive than Paris. Speaking of which, after grabbing groceries (which are hard to find - I guess everyone eats out for all their meals) and purchasing our tube oyster passes, we settled in, made dinner, and watched the Euro Soccer game France against Portugal. Glad we're not going to Paris until next week.Read more

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    Day 5

    Day 5: London, England

    July 11, 2016 in England ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We started our day by taking our first tube ride from Kings Cross to Westminster. It was easy to understand and well marked. It's still overwhelming because of the amount of people crammed into such a small space. We had a cool and windy morning to see all of the main Westminster sites: Westminster Palace, Victoria Tower with Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, then we made our way to Buckingham Palace through St. James Park and saw part of the changing of the guard. We then walked through the Horse Guard's Parade to Trafalgar Square and went to the National Gallery to browse through all of the paintings. After our best coffee yet on the trip and a delicious berry tart at Cafe Concerto (very posh), we went to The National Portrait Gallery to browse through the portraits of the royals and other important brits. We then grabbed a warm soup and a coffee from Pret A Manger (a great affordable and healthy chain option throughout the UK). We people watched and noticed how many homeless people were at Trafalgar Square and openly using drugs in broad daylight taking hits off of an aerosol can. I'm used to seeing marijuana, but nothing like this. A londoner sitting next to us told us that the homeless population has exploded recently in London for whatever reason. It's so difficult and impossible for me to ignore the ugly parts of such a grandiose place. Much like DC and other large cities, the homeless and poor live amongst the wealthy and it's beautiful architecture. We then made our way back to Westminster Abbey to attend the free evening worship (otherwise you have to pay £20 each to visit- no thanks) and got to hear the choir sing for about 45 minutes. The cathedral was stunning and hearing them sing was a fantastic way to visit the cathedral. After the evensong, we made our way back to our flat via the tube and made dinner and decided to stay in the rest of the night.Read more

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    Day 6

    Day 6: London, England

    July 12, 2016 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We tried our hardest to get going earlier, but beyond walking streets with closed stores and taking pictures outside, there's nothing to do before 10. We walked through Chinatown (nothing open yet), then down regent street to Picadilly Circus (their times square equivalent) and down Oxford street (a major shopping street). It was mostly interesting seeing everyone going to work. A enormous variety of people from low-end labor jobs, to the highest-end government and financial jobs (in lovely navy suits with camel breifcases and beautiful umbrellas). We turned around at the BBC building and walked back east to the British Museum. We stopped in Patisserie Valerie for an Americano in a quaint section to soak up the last sun rays of the day before rain came in the afternoon. Saying the British Museum is enormous is a bit of an understatement. You really do need a plan of attack, which despite my intentions, I never really got to. So we started at the top- to have a few moments of quiet since the rest of the museum is a complete bombardment of tourist and school groups. We made our way down until 12 when we decided to grab some lunch at a little cafe called Salt and Pepper a couple blocks away. Just enough space from the museum for a little respite. Then we returned to the museum to finish the main ground floor with the major attractions of the rosetta stone, the mummies, and my personal favorite section- ancient Assyria. We finally finished walking the entire museum (we may have missed one or two rooms of course) and then walked to a Montrose (a much larger grocery store) and then back to the flat in the rain to rest our legs. We both did a little workout to feel halfway human again and ate some fresh food before heading back down to Picadilly Circus to peruse the shops. We visited the Fortum and Mason Tea Salon and suddenly I feel quite at home. They have 4 beautiful floors of fabulous teas, desserts, meats, cheeses, produce, flowers, home goods, handbags, silver, china, everything beautiful in the world. We meander the streets and window shop until my feet can't do it anymore and we get back on the tube to return another day.Read more

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    Day 7

    Day 7: London, England

    July 13, 2016 in England ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We started our day taking the tube to the museum of London and looking through the history of the city. It was a really nice museum save the groups of middle schoolers we had to dodge through. We walked down through the streets to see the busy business section and passed by the Royal Stock Market. I got distracted with a perfume shop -Penhaligions- which you can't find in the states. As usual, the shopkeeper asked where I was from. I say the states, but they want to know the state, which I think I've said a different state every time cause I don't really have a home now. We then walked passed old Bond Street and then to the Victorian covered market Leadenhall where we had lunch and watched all the busy businessmen pass us by. I realized more people were looking at me than usual and caught on that I was using my hands to eat my pizza and they use their forks and knives to cut it up and eat with a fork. They don't pre-cut your pizza for you but they did give us a pizza cutter because they knew we were Americans. As hard as you might try, it's so difficult not to automatically be spotted as an American and that's not a bad thing, just a reminder that our cultures are still very different. They looked on at me with curiosity and I proudly stuffed my face with the extreme efficiency of a folded slice of pizza. We jumped back on the tube at Liverpool to the flat to change into warmer clothing before going back out to tube to the south bank to grab a coffee, see the Tate Modern building before jumping on the circular river cruise on the Thames from Bankside Pier. It was a 50 minute tour on the top of a cruise boat that took us to Westminster and then over to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It's a great way to see all the main sites from the comfort of a boat. We got off the boat and walked across Millenium foot bridge to St. Paul's cathedral for their evensong service at 5 which unbeknownest to us at the time was a special service done once a year with the patron of the church Duchess of Gloucester in attendance. We stayed for it's whole service which is Anglican with their all-boys choir. It was quite lovely hearing them sing and even more interesting hearing their sermon and seeing their rituals. After that we went back to our flat for dinner, laundry and to watch the BBC news with Theresa May becoming the new Prime Minister today with David Cameron resigning after the UK voted to leave the EU.Read more

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    Day 9

    Day 8: London, England

    July 15, 2016 in England ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    Today was a busy day and I'm having a hard time remembering everything we did and in what order. We started by taking the Picadilly line to South Kensington to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum of art and design. The museum was much bigger than I was expecting so we only did a small section of Europe (lots of clothing, furniture, art) and then the medieval section which was super fascinating with it's relics, sculpture, and tempera art, and lastly the enormous Raphael paintings. We left much unseen there to make our way to our reserved time for tea. We walk through Kensington Gardens to the palace and literally right next to the palace is a tea house called The Orangery where we had our afternoon tea. I didn't realize until afterwards that it was Joel's first afternoon tea so I walked him through the history and etiquette before we left which was very amusing to him. It's a great place to have tea because it's got a great view of the gardens and of Kensington Palace, a good tea, and isn't too stuffy (the big places are Fortnum and Mason and the Ritz which I'm sure are great but more expensive and not as laid back). After that we walked through Hyde Park which put us out on Oxford Street where we started our shopping excursions. We went to the big department stores (Marks and Spencer, Selfridges, House of Fraser) looking for trinkets and a china tea cup and saucer but with no luck. I ended up with 2 travel size spray deodorants from Boots that you can only buy full size in the states right now. Determined that deodorant wouldn't be the only thing I'd bring home from London we decided to wander more. We meander down Bond street which has the most exclusive and expensive brands in the world- I only recognize about 1/3 of the brands. We turn a bit left to meander down Burlington Arcade where the boutiques are even more expensive with watches and jewelry and tailors. There are security guards at every store entrance and pictures are strictly prohibited (but I got one before I knew that... Promise). We got an Americano at Richloux's before going down Picadilly Arcade where I found a perfume brand that's not in the states that I've been keen on called Killian. The attendant and I talk a while about various perfumes and what I'm looking for and I look back to see a comical face on Joel as if I've been speaking a different language for the past 5 minutes. I'm tempted, but not sold so we keep moving. We go back to Fortnum and Mason to pick out a box of chocolates to munch on tonight and some more tea to bring home after sampling and smelling several. Then we happen upon a little vendor market on Picadilly next to the St James Church and Joel finds some really unique stamps to add to his seal collection. The stamp owner went out of his way to explain different techniques to emboss the stamp and the history behind each symbol, super nice man. Next up was a bookstore called Waterstones where I broke down and bought The Tales of Beedle the Bard Harry Potter book- it was too stinkin' perfect not to. After that we visit the Nespresso store which allows you to taste whichever espresso you want and we both enjoy a free decaf espresso. I've had my eye on the new Vertuo Line and wanted Joel to approve it, so I was relieved that he loved it. We made our way into Carnaby Market which is a tangle of restaurants, shops, and events of all sorts. We really enjoyed talking with some of the shop owners here too. Something that really surprised both of us is how friendly and engaging everyone is here. They want to ask you which state you're from or talk about politics or current events. You'd think they'd be tired of tourists, but that hasn't been our experience so far. We walk and shop until my feet and hungry stomach can't take it anymore and return via the underground to our flat to make dinner and plan for our last day in London. I'm really taking to London. Once you get the hang of the tube and looking the opposite way for traffic, it's really an incredibly fun place.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2016
    Day 9

    Day 9: London, England

    July 15, 2016 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Today is our last full day in London and Joel's enthusuatic to see as much as we can. We first stopped back at Westminster to see 10 Downing street, but you can only see from a distance- no Theresa May spotting this time. We walk over to the imperial war museum's Churchill War Rooms and toured the underground bunkers where he led the majority of World War 2 and learned a lot about his life I never knew. I was unsure if we were going to do this since it's pretty expensive, but Joel was really interested and it ended up being pretty good. It was bigger than I expected and it put an interesting perspective on the war. We crossed Westminster bridge dodging through the hoards of people to grab lunch at Pret a Manger under the London Eye. Love Pret. Cheap, healthy, quick, and delicious. We need these to have an option in between Starbucks and Panera. We walked with our coffee along the south bank with it's street performers, runners, tourists, and business people. We turned right to walk through the old Borough Market which is a bustling food market with lots of great produce, meats, cheeses, lunches, coffees, etc. After quickly perusing we walked to The Shard which is the tallest building in London and for modern architecture quite nice. You can go to the top for £30- no thanks. We then continue our walk through a maze of streets to the Bermondsey Market with antiques mainly consisting of silver and peruse, but most are closing up by 3. We turn to go back to the shard where the London Bridge underground is and take it all around the city to Camden Town Market on the NW part of London. This is an interesting place and I'm having a hard time deciding what word to use for this neighborhood- perhaps eclectic or maybe international. It's the strangest mixture of trendy, goth, punk, and artsy. There are perhaps hundreds of vendors of everything you can imagine. Most of it's kitchy and trash, with a few nice artsy vendors, but it's the food you want to go here for. Every kind of food from every kind of cuisine seems to represented from jamaican, ethiopian, british, gluten free, vegetarian, israeli, indian, american, cuban, venezuelan, chinese, italian, french, it's all here for very reasonable prices. I sample what's offered, but decide to wait for an actual dinner later. We return to our flat to rest and plan the night. We decide to return to knightsbridge to complete the circle around London by visiting Harrods. Ah, Harrods. What an extraordinary place. Harrods is the sort of place that will make your jaw drop in awe at it's opulence and also make you gag with the absolute ridiculousness of it all. I'm glad I saw it, but it was my least favorite place in all of London that we visited. It's such an attraction to tourists that it feels anything, but British. In fact much of London feels unbritish, but this section especially. We did get some traditional British grub at a restaurant called The Bunch of Grapes down the road then grabbed some chocolate tarts on the way back before jumping on the tube for the last time (exactly £0 left on my oyster card!). As Joel said leaving the tube: "Goodnight tube. Goodnight knightsbridge. Goodnight smelly people. Goodnight escalator." Joel and I are always discussing what it would be like to live in the place we're visiting- and it's really hard to say whether I could put up with the tourists and foreigners and smokers for long. It's a wonderfully varied city with so much to see and do and I feel we've accomplished what we set out to do. Next up... Paris.Read more

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    Day 10

    Day 10: London to Paris

    July 16, 2016 in England ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We made breakfast and watched the news as usual trying to keep in touch with the things that are happening around us. Since we've been here Wimbledon has seen local Andy Murray win, Euro cup occurred in Paris, tour de france continues, a new prime minister was quite suddenly installed at downing street, a terrorist attack occured in Nice, a coup was stopped in Istanbul, and we're only 10 days in. We're thankful for an uneventful trip so far and hope some of the changes will be positive. We seem to be on the cusp of major change, but it's hard to say what that change is exactly. Life goes on and we will continue to enjoy ourselves. For our last London site we visit the British Library next to the train station. The building itself is quite boring contrasting with the beautiful victorian gothic St. Pancras train station. What's spectacular about the library is what it contains. I knew it held a copy of the magna carta, old Bible manuscripts (which were neat to see) but I was more fascinated with it's copies of Jane Austen's hand-written Persuasion, Handel's Messiah, and Henry the 8's love letter to Anne Bolyn. It is well worth a quick look in. We went back to our flat to grab our bags and make our way to the station. Our flat was nice and served it's purpose, but we're definitely looking forward to more comfortable accomodations in Paris. We went to the top floor of the international station which was renovated in the late 90s after suffering great damage from bombings during the second world war. We enjoyed a coffee and relaxed in a great little spot away from the crowds (Benugo espresso bar) before our departure on a high speed train to Paris. The train and station are incredibly nice. The train is super comfortable... jealous. I love traveling by train and wish we could travel like this in the states instead of flying. It's above ground most of the way, but does go under the chunnel for about 20 minutes. It travels from London to Paris in 2 hours and 20 minutes so you can't beat that. We get off and make our way to the underground metro. It's instantly easier to navigate than the tube. It's great learning the tube first (english and a little complicated in my opinion) and then learning the metro. The metro uses numbers and their signage is much better than London. In just a couple minutes from leaving the train, we arrive to pick up our 5 day pass for unlimited metro and bus use and a fast pass into more than 50 museums called the Paris Visite card. To me, time is money and I didn't fly all this way to wait in lines. We then walk a block to our hotel (Hotel Saint Honore) which is right next to the Louvre. We originally used our reward points for free plane tickets, but when we needed to cancel that trip we used the points towards our hotel for 6 nights free in an awesome hotel. What better place than Paris to be comfortable? Our polite and funny bell hop takes us to our room and thankfully Joel exchanged our last pounds into euros to have something to give him. Whew! We relax for a bit before finding dinner. We happen upon a nice bistro and eat a light and healthy meal - Joel has the chicken Picatta and I have a very healthy portion of Salmon Tartare. Suddenly I feel like I'm actually on vacation. Up until now, it's been too crazy to actually relax because the energy that is in Edinburgh and London is palpable. Paris is completely different. Less people, less tourists, warmer weather, and happier people that are living at a slower pace. After dinner we walk to the Louvre and through Tuileries garden back to our hotel for a shower, chocolate (it's an essential part of my nightly routine), and plan for the Louvre tomorrow.Read more

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