Europe, Part One
FINALLY!
I can't even. Okay, let's not get too teenager. I have wanted to go to Europe for as long as I can remember. First it was for the history and all the sites. Then, with help of the early middle ages of the interwebs, it was the different cultures and languages. Finally, in my early thirties, it was the food - oh my.. the food!
Editors note: This is going to be my first attempt at a real blog. If you're just here for the pictures, feel free to scroll on down. If you would rather enjoy the ramblings of a mad man, continue at your own risk.
How did this happen?
So, to get this whole thing started, we have to travel back to my last job in Tampa. Whilst there, we hired a lovely Portuguese fellow named Luis. Luis is a bit of a world traveler who somehow ended up in Tampa for unknown reasons. Early in 2015, we invited Luis and his wife, Monica, to Thanksgiving dinner. They had never been to a traditional American (MURICA!) Thanksgiving and, for some reason, thought our house would be a good place to experience that.
In mid-2015, I got a job offer in lovely Charleston. Luis and Monica came to our going away party in Tampa. We kept in touch via Skype and such, but figured the Thanksgiving thing wasn't going to happen. Lo and behold, in October I get a message that says, "Hey.. is Thanksgiving still on??" Well heck yes it is! If you are willing to load up in your car and drive seven hours to see us, you better believe we're rolling out the red carpet (or we'll have food for you, at least).
Thanksgiving 2016 turns into quite a large affair. It's our first in Charleston and we end up with 15 people or so - family, plus Luis and Monica. Thanksgiving dinner does turn out to be quite traditional and then Monica insists on making a traditional Portuguese dish (read: cod) as a night cap. There's a whole s'mores story in here too, but I'll save that for another time. On this trip, we discover that Luis and Monica are moving to London. They make the offer of, "if you guys are ever in London, you can stay with us!" The rest, as they say, is history!
What do we do with the kids?
We love our kids.. honestly! But, they are just not old enough to really appreciate.. stuff. They want to do fun things, which is totally understandable. So, is it worth it to spend at least double the money, three times the stress, and subtract 100% the romance to take them with us? I think not! Luckily, these kids usually end up with quite the summer itinerary. For this trip, we thought about how we could knock out one of their annual summer trips along with us maybe getting cheaper tickets to London. Boston - and my dear sister Jacque - seemed to be the ideal solution. We made the necessary arrangements, bought our tickets, and were on our way!
Boston - or more accurately, Rockport
Now that the kids are older, traveling is much easier. They both have devices to keep them occupied.
Someone has to keep watch of the bags
Pretty strawberry moonrise with lighthouse up the coast.
We decided, hey, if we are staying right on the beach, we have got to see the sunrise. Great idea, right? Well, when you get as far north and east as Boston, sunrise is a bit earlier. By bit earlier, I mean 5:04 AM! Luckily (but perhaps not smartly) for us, waking up at 4:30 Eastern meant the same as waking up at 9:30 GMT. That should put us on a good schedule!
First of many selfies - this one just before sunrise.
Sun peaking out from behind the rocks.
Long Beach in Rockport is a pretty neat beach. Growing up with just the white sand beaches of the gulf, anything with added geological character is pretty neat in my book.
Dear sister Jacque also took us into the historic shopping district of Rockport. It was super cute. Pretty much the definition of a New England beach town. I guess it just was not cute enough for me to take any pictures.
The flight from Boston to London is just under six hours. One of the reasons we booked with Norwegian was the opportunity to fly on one of the new 787-9 Dreamliners. I have never been on a wide-body before, and the only thing I could geek out over more might be the double-decker 747 or A380. This plane was set up in a 3-3-3 configuration. After consulting http://www.seatguru.com, I knew I wanted to be in the first row of regular seating so I could have the extra leg room. Unfortunately, this meant we ended up sitting across the aisle from each other, but it ended up working out well enough.
London!
We got there.. now what?
So Luis and Monica don't happen to live at Gatwick, or in the absolute center of London. What does that mean? Well, for us southerners, it means we get to ride some trains! You see, in the south, we don't ride trains. They're dirty and stuff (hopefully your sarcasm detector is on). To get to our final destination, we had to take a train from Gatwick into London - in this case, Southern Lines into Victoria station. Luckily, London has made things a bit easier by allowing you to purchase an Oyster card that works for transit in London (tube and buses) and the trains going to the airport. It was Sunday morning when we got in, so while it was a bit crowded, it was not bad at all by London's standards. We then hopped onto the tube! We had to take Northern Line Southbound - don't get me started! - down to Kennington. Once to our Kennington stop, we had a short walk to the flat. This might be the romantic in me talking, but it's pretty damn cool to be given a spot on a map over 3,000 miles away and end up at that spot, eventually.
No sleep till.. nighttime!
Our strategy for this trip was to try to immediately align ourselves with local time. This meant sleeping on the plane (whoops) and then making the most out of our first day in town. Since it was Sunday, Luis and Monica were off. Monica made us some amazing eggs and smoked salmon so we scarfed that down and took off through the city. They are big fans of the markets, so we first hit up Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill. Part of this was so we could see beautiful Notting Hill and part of this was so they could search for new records.
I love the black cabs in London. They're super pricey - compared to other transportation options - so we never took them, but they look so.. British!
Looking down the road at the shopfronts.
After Portobello Road, we meandered through several other markets and all I could do was take a picture of this tasty looking paella stand.
After the markets, we set out to find a proper English Pub. Luis really wanted to show us Dirty Dicks..
.. but we didn't get anything there - go figure. We ended up at a place near Monica's office called The Crown and the Shuttle. When you walk in, it just looks like your typical pub. Order a drink at the bar (since that's the only way to get a drink) and head to the back.
Out the back door is the beer garden. Brits take their beer gardens seriously. Maybe we just don't in the states and everyone else does? The great weather meant it was packed!
From there, we headed to Monica's office. It is in a four-story building with roof access. We went up to the roof to check out the view.
It was getting close to dinner time - FOOD - so we decided to head to an Indian place they like. London has its share (and then some) of great restaurants, but it really isn't known for any particular cuisine. Indian food is probably the exception. This place was kind of off the main drag and was BYOB. We picked up a bottle of wine and headed to Meraz Cafe.
Little market and mural across from restaurant
I had this pretty girl sitting across from me.
We got an amazing spread for less than £60!
We decided to see if we could go check out the view from The Shard - the tallest building in London. But, how to get there? We hadn't yet experienced the iconic double-decker bus, so now was the time!
Front row on the top, baby! It was pretty frightening how close everything was to the front of the bus. On more than one occasion, we were sure the bus had squished a moped.
So we show up at The Shard and find that there are multiple entrances - one for the hotel and one for the restaurant and bar. The bar we wanted to go to is on the 31st floor. Apparently, we didn't meet the dress code for the bar - thanks Luis! We started to walk away a bit defeated when the hotel manager walked over and let us know that though the bar had a pretty strict dress code, he could let us check out the lounge area.. on the 34th floor! We thanked him immensely as he led us into the lobby and onto the elevator. The view was amazing! Sorry in advance for the window glare.
Here you can see the Walkie Talkie building across the Thames along with London Bridge on the left and Tower of London and Tower Bridge on the right.
With that, we headed back to the flat to finally go to sleep!