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.

Travel In Our Own Country: Bath

My dad, step-mom and sister visited last weekend.  The last time they were in the UK to see us, my daughter was about 8 weeks old and had recently been let out of the hospital following a 10-day stint with the chickenpox (yes, seriously) that included 3 times daily IV drugs.  We weren't up for much that visit!  The visit before, we had driven to Belgium to stop in Leuven and Bastogne en route to Luxembourg City for the night and then back home through Bruges.  Not wanting to do that much this time, my dad suggested we stay in the UK.

Planning was...interesting.  Brighton was the lead contender as a place to visit.  When my husband and I sat down to try and book hotels we were shocked to see 2 rooms for 2 nights going for upwards of £1000 total, until we discovered some sort of technology trade show going on.  So change of plans!  We suggested the Cotswolds and that seemed to go over well.

I'll get to the Cotswolds in my next entry.

On the Friday we drove from Folkestone to Bath, taking a bit longer than the 2 hours 56 minutes our GPS's said it would take given road works on the m25, plus a lorry caught fire after the Gatwick exit.  We own a 7 seater car, but this time had 8 people to fit so my dad rented a second car.  He drove my sister, one of my boys, himself and I, while my husband drove our car with the baby, our other boy and my step-mom.  They reached Bath first and managed to easily find the parking garage we had both inputed on our GPS's.  Us...not so much.  At one point we were about to turn onto a taxi and bus only road but were waved over by a white van, and a police officer who calmly told us that if we made that right turn we would receive "a lovely traffic offence ticket."  The van let us into the other lane and found our way to the nearest parking garage at the Hilton hotel.

Because Josh et al were already in Bath, I had texted and asked them to find a restaurant for lunch.  My dad, sister and I are, sadly, BIG Nando's fans so when we heard that was option we all jumped.  I plugged Nando's into Google maps and we set off.  Yeah, Nando's moved.  We got to where Google said it was, called Josh and he told us how far off we were.  We kept on walking and wound up meeting everyone outside of Giraffe and decided that that was the better option for everyone.

Roman Baths

After lunch, we walked to the Roman Baths.  We were met at the door by an employee who told that the Baths were closing in 60min and they recommend 90min for the visit so we'd have to move quickly.  We were headed to the Cotswold right after and not returning to Bath so it was now or never. We went through the site faster than we'd like but it was still beautiful.  The boys listened to their audio guides, I admired the floor mosaics and column bases, we drank the water, took some photos and were ushered out right at 6pm.  Actually, Josh and I went to the gift shop before everyone else to get a new mug and a magnet for the boys.  

Bath Abbey

We walked around the outside of Bath Abbey, and then walked back in the direction of our car.  My dad and I had no clue where we were so we used the small map from Lonely Map England seeing as my mobile had died earlier.  Somehow we found our way back, stopping at Waitrose to grab some essentials for our cottage rental, and made our way to the Cotswolds.

A Day In Bruges, Belgium

One of the fantastic things about living a mere 10 minutes from the Euro Tunnel is that it's very easy to go to the continent and come back in the same day.  Last Sunday, my husband and I sat on the couch planning a variety of upcoming things (visits from family, our younger sons birthday) when we came up with the idea of going to Bruges for the day.  We've never crossed and come back in the same day because we've always gone further afield (Brussels, Paris, Luxembourg, etc).  Google maps says that Bruges is an hour and fifteen minutes from Calais - so challenged accepted, right?

We chose not to tell our boys what we had planned.  Instead we packed up the things we needed (mostly baby items!) as they slept Friday night.  We woke them up just before 5am Saturday morning.  Out the door, in the car and out of the driveway by 5:15am.  Checked in and waiting to be called through customs by 5:30.  We boarded, hung out in the car and were in Calais getting petrol before 8am (France is an hour ahead of the UK).  We passed the Belgian border and made it to Bruges around 9am, relying on memory and not GPS for once!

We had from about 9am until max 5pm given that we had to get back to Calais for our 19:50 train home.  The day started with a search for Belgian waffles, which we had promised the boys.  We wound up the same restaurant we went to 2 years earlier with my dad, step-mom and sister.  Everyone indulged - our table was full of chocolate sauce, whipped cream, ice cream, cherries, coffee, juices.  It gave us all a bit of a kick that we needed after waking up so early.

Spencer looking down the canal.

From breakfast we decided to find a boat tour by wandering through the streets and knowing that we'd find it eventually.  Getting a bit lost and wandering is always worth doing, especially in smaller cities.  We ended up wandering along the water for awhile before choosing one of the "Canal Tour" operators.  Cash only, which meant we set off to find a cash machine.

From the boat.

The boat tour was wonderful.  Bruges has 4 locations where you can get onto a boat tour, and each is licensed to own 5 boats so up to 20 are moving about the canal at the same time, all filled with tourists...but still lovely and worthwhile.  It gave us a different perspective of the city, while the boys just loved being a boat (our daughter happily ate rice cakes for the half hour).

The bell tower comes into view.

The view from the bell tower.

After the boat tour, as we were walking back toward the main square, the bell tower came into view.  I asked the boys if they'd like to climb to the top.  Of course they did, these same two boys climbed the Eiffel Tower 2 years ago and that's twice the steps!  We waited in the queue for about half an hour - we should have done it when we arrived as it opened at 9:30am but oh well, now we know for the future.  The climb was interesting - windy, steep steps, occasionally with nothing to hold onto.  The view was stunning.  My new "thing" of going up as high as possible has been so worth it (my recent trip to Slovenia and Italy will be posts in the coming weeks!) and I love that the boys feel so accomplished and proud of themselves when they come back to the ground, look up and go "I climbed that!"

Inside the Friet Museum.

Next up we walked out to The Friet Museum.  It smelled amazing as soon as we walked in so walking around it just worked up our appetite.  I was holding the baby, who was a tad grouchy, so I didn't get to read as much as I would have liked but I did learn a few things.  We made our way down to the cafe that boasts wonderful chips...and they sure were.  4 orders of chips were eaten pretty quick!

Chocolate Museum!

We followed lunch at the Friet Museum with the Chocolate Museum.  Baby finally fell asleep.  The boys were hunting for clues to a puzzle they had to solve for a prize.  Josh and I got to read a bit more than we were able to at the chip museum.  We chose not to wait 15min to watch a demonstration because we were running out of time!  We stopped in the gift shop for the boys to pass over their completed puzzles (they got a chocolate lollipop) and I bought a mug.*

We made our way back to the main square, stopped in a few shops (chocolate and beer) and then decided that even though we had about 30-40min before we had to leave, we may as well go.  Sometimes the Eurotunnel will offer to bump you up to an earlier train if there's space so we were banking on that.  Instead, we wound up stuck in traffic, which added about 30min to our travel time so good move on our part to leave early.  We were not offered an earlier train, yet by the time we changed the baby, bought some water/milk and hit up duty free (cheap wine!), it was time to go.  Back on the train, home a few minutes after arriving.

As I initially said, we had never gone and come back in the same day.  Now we know how much we can and can't get done (Bruges has so much more to do!).  We could leave earlier, come back later.  We have options, and this won't be the last time we hit 3 countries in one day.

* I collect mugs when I travel.  They don't have to say the city name.  I'll post about that some other time