Flight to Venice...And Then Where To?

Once I figure out how to make a separate "About Me" page, I'll just put this there but because I've received a few PM's on FB about where the photos at the top are from, they are left to right: Delphi, Greece; Vancouver, BC; Savannah, Georgia; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Burano, Italy.

Right.  Slovenia.  It all started with the UKBA and their inability to be a functioning body within UK Immigration.  My dad and step-mom asked us in June 2012 if we'd like to join them in Grand Cayman for a second time in February 2013.  We said yes, and booked our flights in September.  We knew my UK Visa was to expire in November and had planned to use the fast-track, premium service we had used back in 2005 for my new one.  You pay a bit more, but get a decision there and then, plus your Biometric Card (aka the new passport stamp) in the mail within a week.  So I went to book an appointment and....nothing.  This was happening.  I could not get an appointment anywhere in the UK (including Belfast) before or even 2 months after my Visa expired.  The only choice we had was to send it via the postal option, which the UKBA states can take up to 6 months to process.  Obviously things didn't look very good for me.  And ultimately my Visa arrived 3 weeks after Josh and the kids left for Grand Cayman.

Meanwhile, British Airways surprised Josh and I with amazing customer service.  They were sympathetic, they offered alternatives, made helpful suggestions.  3 different phone calls and their policies didn't waver so we knew what our options were.  I could change the date and destination of my flight, but I had to do so before the GCM flight left on that Friday morning and it had to take place before a year on from the date on which we purchased the plane tickets (early Sept).  Somewhat arbitrarily I chose to fly into and out of Venice Marco Polo in May.  I had never been to Venice and the price of my GCM ticket swallowed up the entire cost of the Venice flight, the new flight taxes and gave us a refund in taxes from the GCM flight.

Then came planning the trip.  Venice is expensive, everyone knows that, so it was out of the question for me to spend an entire week there.  Plus I had been told by many people that you only a need a day or two in Venice.  Thankfully I chose to ignore this advice and planned to spend 3 days/4 nights.  So what should I do?

My options, as I saw it, were: San Marino via Bologna, plus possibly Florence; just Florence; Cinque Terre; Lake Garda/Verona; Innsbruck, Austria; Pula, Croatia.  The more I stared at google maps, the more I realised how close I would be to Slovenia.  And then the more time I spent looking at Lake Bled and Ljubljana, the more I wanted to go.  The logistics were the tricky part.

There are virtually no trains that go from Venice to Ljubljana.  You can take a train to Udine, then to Villach, then to Ljubljana.  You can take a train to Trieste, spend a night there, then take a bus across the border and then a train to Ljubljana (I would have lost 3 full days just to travel this way).  You can get a shuttle van from the airport in 3 1/2 hours but the reviews online weren't exactly glowing (I saw one of the shuttle companies when I arrived at Marco Polo, and therefore wish I had done it this way - oh well!).  Or you can do the trek that I did: go from Marco Polo airport to Venice Mestre train station, grab coffee and read for an hour, take a comfortable bus to Villach (4hrs) that makes a quick stop in Udine and then goes through beautiful Austrian countryside, spend the night in Villach where I put the 2 German words I know to good use and then grab a 6:27am train to Lesce Bled, Slovenia, arriving at Lake Bled around 8am.

Villach, Austria

Lake Bled.  One of the first photos I took upon arrival at 8am.  

So sure it was a roundabout way of getting to Slovenia but it was well worth it.  The way back went much quicker.  I took a 7:30am train from Ljubljana to Villach, and then the bus (same line as I had taken to Austria) back to Venice arriving around 2:30pm.   It was adding in Lake Bled that forced the overnight in Austria.  Had I wanted to go straight to Ljubljana, I'm fairly certain that I could have gotten there on the Saturday.  My next entry will be Lake Bled!

A Day in Paris: Impulse Travel

I keep meaning to write about my week in Slovenia (via Austria) and Italy (Venice and Verona), but I get sidetracked.  This entry included.

The downside to impulse travel?  Sometimes you make, umm, interesting decisions.

Sitting on the couch Friday night (July 12th), Josh, our friend, John, and I were thinking of something to do Sunday.  Stonehenge?  Brighton?  PARIS!!!  Because this is how we operate.  It's amazing that we've seen any of the UK at all because we almost always end up on the continent when we attempt to travel outside of Kent/London.  So Josh books the tunnel.  I go to a friends house to borrow their baby backpack around 9pm.  And then we encounter 2 problems.

First, the baby has the chickenpox (or so we thought).  It looked very mild on Friday, so we're hopeful that because she had it at 3 weeks old last year, it will stay mild and we'll be fine.  By Saturday night, I made the call that she and I would not go.  It was looking worse. (it was an abnormal reaction to the MMR vaccination she had 14 days before the rash came out, not chickenpox at all.)  Had we been a tad smarter, we probably would have planned an outing in the UK, despite the baby and I not going anyway.

WHY ME?! WHY ME?!

Second, it was Bastille Day.  The Catacombs were closed.  Josh has now attempted to get to the Catacombs 3 times in the past 9 years and no-go.  The first time, when he and I went in 2004, we arrived too late in the day and were told we wouldn't be able to enter.  The second time, in 2011, the queue was so long that we would have stood waiting for about 2 hours.  Our boys were 4 and 5 and they had just climbed 770 stairs up the Eiffel Tower (2iem Etage).  We weren't going to get that much more out of them.  This time, closed on public holidays.  Had we been a tad smarter, we might have checked if there were any holidays happening.

Proud boys climbing to the 2iem Etage for a second time!

But...everyone was fine.  They climbed the Eiffel Tower again.  They saw L'Arc de Triomphe again.  They had McDonald's along the Champs Elysee.  They had ice cream.  They saw Notre Dame again.  That's pretty good for a day-trip, especially when the city in question is 3 hours of driving plus 35min on the Eurotunnel, plus time for check-in.

If anything, we learned that Paris is doable as a day-trip and it probably won't be too long before we attempt it again.  Maybe the Catacombs will be open?

Up next: a series of Slovenia/Italy posts!

The Last Day of My Twenties

I turn 30 tomorrow so it must be a good time to reflect.  I've touched on where my love of traveling comes from and my favourite city but summing up my twenties seems relevant for the purposes of this blog, with regards to travel.  Let's backtrack...

I turned 20 on a ferry.  On July 9th, 2003 I left Rome for Ancona.  I used my Eurorail pass, paid the 26euro supplement fee, bought some very random food (focaccia bread and gummy worms were there, I don't remember what else) and batteries for my discman (hello 2003!), and I boarded my overnight ferry.  Given that I chose to stay out on the deck, I wound up sleeping first on the hard bench of a table, and later underneath the table - most people were doing this.  I woke up around 3am and realised that I was in fact 20.  Once in Patras, Greece I napped in my hostel for an hour or so before an Australia girl came barreling in and woke me up.  We wound up drinking cheap wine and eating corn by the water.

In between 20 and 30, I saw a few places.  My trip is 2003 took me to Paris, Rome, Patras, Athens, Ios, Santorini and Corinth.  I stopped in London for 3 nights in 2004 en route to Athens en route to Ios.  Upon returning to London, I met my now husband.  We went to Paris in August, 2004.  I took him to Canada in Feb 2005.  We went to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, then Bin Tan Island, Indonesia and Singapore in April 2005.  We visited Bath in June 2005.  We went to Rome with our then 8-week old firstborn in January 2006.  We went to New York City, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and Boston in June 2006.  We drove up to North Wales in October 2006.  We moved to Toronto in September 2007.

I then had a very quiet period.  Outside of one visit to Ottawa, a trip to Niagara Falls and a Christmas spent in Lethbridge, Alberta, I stayed put.  To do so much travel, and then virtually nothing for 2 years was interesting.  That "travel itch" people talk about?  It's true.  It's wanderlust.

Fast-forward to August 2009.  A friend and I met up in Rome, then visited Pompeii as a day trip (that was one long, hot, very dirty day!).  We flew to Athens and from there visited Sounion, Corinth, Delphi and the Piraeus (yes, there's more than ferries to the islands there).  We spent 2 nights in Malia and then 2 in Heraklion in Crete.  One night in Santorini.  2 in Nafplion in order to see Epidauros and Mycenae.  Another couple nights in Athens, which included a trip out to Aegina.  Returning to real life was hard. (obviously if you're here via facebook, you know what I did my degree in; if not, I did Classical Civ and Art History - hence the crazy ancient site trip.)

In 2010, Josh and I used up some airmiles by flying to San Francisco and heading 3 hours south to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins.  We then spent 3 days in SF - our boys thought the boat out to Alcatraz was amazing.  Later in the summer, and it was an utterly disastrous summer, I used up the rest of those airmiles in order to fly to Raleigh, North Carolina.  I drove from Raleigh to just outside Fort Bragg to meet a friend, to Charleston to meet another friend, to Savannah because, well, Savannah should be on everyone's bucket-list.

Once I landed in the UK, where Josh and the boys already were, we decided to test out the Eurotunnel and take a trip to Northern France.  We met up with my brother, sister-in-law and niece in Brussels, Belgium in November.  In Feb 2011, we met my dad, step-mom and sister in Grand Cayman, our first trip to the Caribbean.  We went to Dubai in April 2011, where Josh's parents used to live.  We went to Paris in June.  Josh and I went to The Algarve in Portugal, unknowingly pregnant with our 3rd child having recently given up trying.  We drove from the UK to Luxembourg and back (via Leuven, Bastonge and Bruges) in 36 hours in October.

Because my husband, who loves travel as much as I do, loves me, he indulged my desire to drive down to Spain via Andorra in August 2012 despite how far out of the way it was.  We spent a week in Spain with 2 lively boys and our 3 month old baby girl.  We drove back via Bordeaux, St Malo and Mont St Michael.  We went to Vancouver 4 weeks after my appendectomy for a family reunion in November.

Lastly, due to the UKBA's incompetence, I did NOT go back to Grand Cayman with Josh and the kids in February of this year.  I was stuck waiting for a Visa with no ability to travel.  We changed my plane ticket to fly in and out of Venice in May.  I chose to leave Italy for half the week and made my way to Lake Bled and Ljubljana, Slovenia via Villach, Austria.  I then spent 3 days in Venice, with a day-trip to Verona.

That was the last decade of my life.  I also married the love of my life, had the three most amazing children ever, finished the university degree that a lot of people didn't think I would finish, moved internationally a few times and settled into a fantastic small city in Kent where we adore our life.

I'm excited to find out what my thirties have in store.  I'm not sure anything can top this past decade, but I guess that's just a wait and see game.

Travel In Our Own Country: The Cotswolds

First, I need to thank a friend for pointing out a horrible error I made in my last post (in several places).  I like grammar and I like proper spelling and when it's wrong I would rather know than a) be oblivious, or b) be annoyed when told I'm in the wrong.  So thank you, Mrs P!

The Cotswolds were lovely.  I had images in my head of what to expect: posh houses, greenery, Kate Moss hanging around.  Two out of three isn't bad, right?!

Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter.

I mentioned in my previous entry that Brighton was our original destination.  We changed direction to the Cotswolds after we realised that Brighton was having some sort of technology conference, and Bridport (where Broadchurch was partially filmed) was too far away and likely to be a hard sell to people who had not heard of, let alone watched, Broadchurch.  Cottage hires were plentiful but finding one in the right area for the right price was interesting.  A few places I contacted wanted well over £1000 for 2 nights!  I know it's a posh area and all, but seriously?  A 3 bed house behind a hotel for £1000?  No thanks.

We found Maisons de Meecham through a holiday lettings site.  Fantastic price, beautiful house...could anything be wrong with it?  Nope!  4 bedrooms, 2 with en-suites (perfect for the 2 adult couples), massive kitchen, dining room and lounge. Throw in the beautiful garden, with a big play-sturcture for the kids and BBQ (and outside dining)...it was perfect.  The adults wound up at the pub across the street on the Friday night, only to find new management sorting our their new menu and the woman who managed the property happy to make conversation as we waited to be seated.  I would go back in a heartbeat, and would book their house in France if in the area as well.

On the Saturday, my dad, step-mom, Josh, the baby and I head off on a self-guided tour.  Lonely Planet England had a Cotswolds tour to follow so we figured it was worth it.  It wasn't until our 3rd or 4th stop that I noticed it was a walking tour over two days.  Oh well, we still followed it.  Our first stop was Stanton.  Tiny village with a couple of beautiful houses and a war memorial.  We then drove past Upper and Lower Swell as we made our way Upper Slaughter.  We parked our car in Upper Slaughter at Lords of the Manor, which was full for lunch and far more posh than any of us were dressed for.  We chose to walk to Lower Slaughter, about 3/4 of a mile.  The scenery was gorgeous.  So worth the walk!

Between Upper and Lower Slaughter.

After lunch at the Slaughters Country Inn, we continued our drive (Josh had to run in the rain to get the car, thank you sweetie!!).  In Stow-On-Wold my step-mom and I grabbed some breakfast items for Father's Day breakfast.  We didn't stray too far from the town centre.  Next was Moreton-On-Marsh, where we got a fantastic parking spot and picked up cheese, crackers, bread and wine for dinner.  From there we drove past Bourton-On-The-Hill and found ourselves on the road toward Broadway and not Chipping Campden.  Possibly a good choice?  Broadway was beautiful.  Picturesque and lovely.

Stow-On-Wold.

We then turned toward Snowshill and hoped to see the home of Bridget Jones' parents, which is in Snowshill, but we didn't find it.  I will admit, we didn't look hard. (I should mention here that Josh and I have walked past Bridget Jones' London flat many a time!)  At that point, the baby needed to not be in a car seat and we needed to get back to the kids.  Lonely Planet said that the tiny village of Stanton was not to be missed so we decided it was worth it to go and see.  Worth it?  Oh yes.  If you have a picture of the Cotswolds in your mind, Stanton should be it.

After Stanton we headed back to Haresfield and returned to 2 happy kids and a happy teenager.  Dinner and dessert followed.  We made plans for the next day...Oxford.