Rome

Day 1

Both Colin and I slept quite well on the train, so we awoke in the morning with a full night’s sleep.  Once we arrived at the station in Rome, we bought our Roma Passes (for sight-seeing) and took the metro to our Bed & Breakfast (which will simply be referred to as our hotel in the future).  Once there I wanted to take some time to sort out the FedEx fiasco, and find out where in Europe my camera was.  It turns out that it was shipped to my hostel in Amboise (this happened after I’d asked it to be stopped in Paris and received confirmation that it had been done)…and had arrived there the day after I left….drats!  Trying to set up another shipment to get the package shipped to Rome was a fiasco, so after a few hours of effort, I gave up for today.

Because of the time it took to deal with FedEx (and the fact that we were both starving by this point), we cancelled the day trip to Naples and Pompeii that we had planned for today, and set off in search of food.  We walked from our hotel to the Coloseum, passing virtually no restaurants on the way (and the ones we did pass were closed).  Along the way we did pass a gelato shop, so I did stop for some wonderfully chocolatey gelato.  Finally, just in behind the Coloseum, I spotted a few restaurants.  Colin couldn’t eat anything at the first restaurant we stopped at because there may have been a chance of nuts in the pasta sauces (and he wasn’t going to eat just salad), so we went two more restaurants down the street and found a place with a better menu, better prices, and a wonderful waiter who walked Colin through all of his dish options (which may have been overboard, but was still nice of him).  We had a nice, lazy and relaxing late lunch (2 pm), enjoying having the Coliseum as the background of our first Roman meal.  The food here was really good.  We made a mental note that this would be a safe place to return to if we were in the neighbourhood again.

After lunch we took a stroll through Ancient Rome, passing the Coloseum, the arch of Constantine, the Roman Forum, Trajan’s Column, a bunch of churches, and the Pantheon.  Finally we ended up at Piazza Navona. 

By this time we were both starting to get a bit hungry again (and by now it was well past 7 pm).  We took a tour around the Piazza scoping out all of the restaurants, but all of the prices were well above 10 euros for a plate of pasta (whereas we had paid only 7 euros for similar items earlier in the day).  So, given that we weren’t starving yet, we decided to hold off on eating and check out the art that the local vendors were selling.  Colin bought three small paintings of different Rome landscapes, a large paining of Rome, a large painting of Venice, and from a different vendor a painting of a couple holding hands in front of the ocean. 

All of the paintings were very nice.

After the shopping, we decided we were sufficiently hungry, so we walked down the street away from the piazza and hit another group of restaurants (these ones with much better priced menu items).  We stopped here for dinner (it’s called Insalata Ricca, if you’re curious).  I had a really tasty cheese ravioli in pumpkin sauce and Colin had some version of spaghetti with red sauce.

Once finished dinner, we set off to do a night walk through the streets of Rome – of course stopping for gelato for me along the way.  Our walk started at the Piazza Navona and passed by the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain (we both tossed a coin over our shoulder to ensure our return to Rome), and ended at the Spanish Steps.  While we were at Piazza Navona I also bought a Louis Vuitton Purse (likely a knock-off I know, but I haggled the guy down 30% in price).  Finally we had a bit of an adventure getting back to our hotel (the subway had stopped running, so we had to take a shuttle bus, and we spent more of the time on the bus being totally disoriented), but we made it back to the hotel.  This was a really long first day in Rome!

Day 2

We had a bit of a slow start this morning, but good news I managed to get FedEx to arrange for the shipping of my camera to the hotel in Rome.

Today we walked to the Coloseum, then stopped at the same restaurant as yesterday for lunch.  After lunch we went into the Coloseum – it’s really impressive, and quite uncanny how modern-day stadiums are not much different from those that were created many years ago.  After the Coloseum, we toured Palatine Hill, then the Roman Forum – both of which show you the remains of ancient buildings, but the Roman Forum was much more interesting than Palatine Hill.

After our long day of walking around ancient ruins we were tired and hungry.  For dinner we went to a restaurant just across the street from the forum.  We then did a quick walk to Campidoglia to see the piazza, the she wolf sculpture, and the nose fountain.  After all of this, we walked our tired selves back to the hotel for the night.

Day 3

So it turns out that Colin and I are a terrible combination of getting up and out of the hotel in reasonable time.  This morning was no different, I was quite stressed that we were going to miss our tour of the Vatican Museums….thankfully we made it on time, with a few minutes to spare!

At the Vatican Museums, Colin had booked us a guided tour – it was a really good tour (and an excellent idea, since it meant we didn’t have to wait in the admission line).  The Vatican Museums are huge!  They’re filled with sculptures, paintings and tapestries.  Interestingly (and somewhat unexpectedly) not a lot of the works have a religious basis, it’s really just a super-impressive are collection.  But, funny enough I found the Sistine Chapel (the main highlight) underwhelming compared to the collections within the Museums.

After the museum, we had a really late (3 pm) lunch (at another branch of the Insalata Rica chain that we had dined at our first night).  When we left the restaurant we were both stuffed, but I couldn’t help stopping for a gelato – there was a place around the corner that had a line that went down the block, with a line that big, how can you not try it.  The gelato was really good.

We then went to St Peter’s Basilica.  We were just in time for the evening mass, so we decided to go to that – I’m hoping that one Mass in Rome will make up for the fact that I haven’t gone to any other masses during my trip.  The whole mass (except for a small part of the homily) was in Latin, so I didn’t understand anything, but it’s the same sequence as back in Canada, so I knew what was happening.  After mass we took a tour around the basilica.

After our long day in the Vatican City, we were both quite tired (and still full from lunch), so we went straight back to the hotel.  I spent a few hours planning out the remainder of my vacation, and booking accommodations, while Colin did a little work and watched a movie.

Day 4

This morning we had to pack up our bags before leaving for the day – the owner had said we could keep our room, but we wanted to be packed just in case someone showed up to rent it out…that way they’d only have to worry about storing our bags, not cleaning up our stuff, which was everywhere in the room.

We got to the Borghese Gallery just in time for our booking.  The museum was nice, I preferred the sculptures on the first floor to the paintings upstairs.  After the gallery we got a turned around (aka sorta lost) in the Borghese Gardens while looking for the restaurant that was supposed to be there (turns out its inside another museaum – not what we were looking for).  So, we caught a cab back to the park entrance, then walked to the Spanish Steps area.  We had lunch in this area (the prices were inflated, and the service was poor – but the food was still good), then decided to cut our afternoon short and head back to the hotel early (I still had no idea where I was staying tonight, and my FedEx package was yet to be picked up in Amboise).

Once at the hotel I got my plans and accommodations sorted (with the help of Colin), I will be staying another 2 nights in Rome in a convent.  I was happy that I had a place to stay, but still frustrated by the FedEx ordeal.  I’ve decided to buy a new camera here, and I and stop back into Rome once my other one arrives here.

At 4:30 pm the cab arrived.  Colin and I piled in, I was dropped off at the convent (and said goodbye to Colin), and Colin continued onwards to the airport.  After checking into my room and getting settled, I set off in search of a camera.  The desk man at the convent had suggested a store called Trony, so I went there and bought their cheapest digital camera (a Samsung just a step below the one that I’d left in France).

After buying the camera I went to the supermercato to pick up some dinner.  While I was there a random stock boy was checking me out, and proclaimed that he loved me….weird!  All I have to say about that is….. Italy is weird!

I returned to my room in the convent, ate my dinner (smoked salmon, and caprese salad) did some train scheduling for tomorrow, and went to bed.

Day 5

This day I only spent the early morning and late night in Rome.  The rest of my day was spent in Naples and Pompeii.

I didn’t get as early of a train out to Naples as I had wanted, because the train was sold out, so I left Rome a little later than planned.  To pass the time before my train departure I went for a walk in the Termini area of Rome.  I saw the outside of Santa Maria Maggiore (I couldn’t go inside, as it was fenced off for some reason).

For the story of Naples and Pompeii please see the relevant post :)

Day 6

Today I only spent the morning in Rome, as I also made my journey to the Cinque Terre today.  In the morning I woke up and had breakfast at the convent (breakfast wasn’t much, but it was included in the room price, so of course I made time for it).  I then finished packing my bags, checked out and spent a few last hours in Rome.

Today I went to the Cappucin Crypt – Colin and I were supposed to go there on his last day, but we went back to the hotel early so we could sort out my accommodations, etc.  The crypt was really neat, there were all sorts of decorations made out of the bones of cappucin monks.  Unfortunately I have no photos to share, as they didn’t allow photography.  After the crypt, I went to Piazza del Popolo and briefly went inside the church there.

After all this sight-seeing it was time to catch my train to Cinque Terre.

Paris

Day 1

I arrived in Paris from my overnight train ridiculously early in the morning, and having had little sleep on the car (there were no couchettes left when I booked my ticket, so I was stuck with a reclining seat).  After getting to the station and having a little breakfast, I set off to figure out transit passes for Colin and I for the day.  Once all of that was sorted, I caught the bus to the airport to meet up with Colin.  The bus was soooo busy - apparently the rail line to Charles De Gaulle Airport wasn't working, so everyone and their mother were taking the bus.  Unfortunately I made it to the airport after Colin had already landed, but we managed to meet up and get back on the bus to downtown Paris.  We went straight to the hotel to drop off our bags, shower, and get ready for the day.

This first day we covered a lot of sights.  We visited the Musee d'Orsay, and went up the Eiffel Tower.

After the tower we went on a Seine River boat tour, it was quite neat seeing the major landmarks from the river.

Colin passed out about 2/3 of the way through the boat tour, so he got a nice 20+ minute nap in (a good thing since he'd gotten very little sleep on the plane).  After the boat tour, we went to a restaurant along the river.  Just as we finished dinner the sun had set, and the Eiffel Tower became lit up, and there was a light show.  It was really neat to see.

We then made our way back to the hotel....walking in the rain for a good portion of the journey.  We had to transfer Metro lines, and the easiest way to do that was to walk from the Musee d'Orsay to the Louvre.  But, while that was the easiest way, it wasn't exactly fun in the rain (it had started raining while we were on the Metro from the Eiffel Tower to the Musee d'Orsay).  But, we arrived at the hotel, dried off and went to sleep.


Day 2

Colin and I had a slow start to our day today.  After sleeping in, I went out to get some supplies for breakfast, while Colin stayed at the hotel and did some work.  We left the hotel to go to the FedEx Paris depot, only to find out that my camera had still been sent to Amboise (even though I asked that it be re-directed and stay in Paris).  So that was no good!  I'm still camera-less, and I have no idea when I'll get my camera.

Today we decided to walk the Champs Elysee.  We started off at the Arc de Triomphe, and worked our way towards the Louvre.

We stopped in at the Swarovski store and the Luis Vuitton store.

We stopped for lunch along the Champs.  After making it most of the way down the Champs, we decided to detour and visit Notre Dame.

After our busy day of touring we got on a train headed to Rome.

Manosque

Day 1

So, as I was taking the night train from Bordeaux to Marseille I swear I heard rain, but when I arrived in Marseille it was really too early to tell (5 am).  Once the sun came up, the sky seemed grey, so I could do nothing but hope that it wasn't raining in Manosque.  On the train on the way to Manosque it was raining.  When I arrived in Manosque it was an all-out downpour.  That's when I realized there would be no climbing for me here :(

I met Alan (a middle-aged rock climber/guide originally from Manchester) and we went for a coffee to discuss the options.  The rain continued, and we both agreed that there was no way we'd be going climbing today.  When I asked about the possibility of going tomorrow he told me the forecast was the same (and had been the same for the past few days) - rainy and miserable.  There will be no climbing here this time around.  Alan gave me a lift to my hotel, and I gave him some Euros to pay for the gas that he'd spend getting to/from Manosque from his home town a 1/2 hour drive away.  In the end, I'm glad he showed up knowing that we wouldn't be able to climb.....but I am disappointed that I won't be climbing.  I'm now super thankful that I got some climbing done while on Guernsey.

Its been raining off and on for the rest of the day here in Manosque.  After checking into my room (many hours ahead of schedule, and feeling quite deflated), I had a nice long hot shower, then went off to explore the town - trying to make the best of things.  When I left the hotel is was drizzling a little bit, but part of the way through my walk it started to downpour (again).  Thankfully I was wearing my rain gear, quick-dry pants and my new shoes (which are in fact waterproof).  The rain didn't show any signs of letting up, so I returned to the  hotel at around 6 pm to have my dinner.  I'm really hoping the weather will be nicer tomorrow, but I'm not too optimistic as the forecast is rain all day (the worst part being that hotel check-out is 11 am and my train is at 6 pm - but at least I can leave my bags at the hotel).  Fingers crossed I don't spend tomorrow wet and cold.

Day 2

Today was much nicer in Manosque (cloudy but not rainy until the end of the day)....still not nice enough to call up the rock climbing guide and go climbing though.

In the morning I went to the Manosque Market.  I picked up some fresh produce for the day - peas, cherries, and an apple.  I also bought some olive oil (the Manosque area is a huge producer of French olive oil), as well as a shirt.  After the market I went for a tour around the city to see the main attractions.  I stopped in to see this one re-designated church which has been painted with murals of a modern-day apocalypse, it was really neat.

I ended my day with a trip to the grocery store to get supplies for my rail trip.  At 6 pm I boarded the first of my trains (I would take an autocar then another train afterwards) to get to Paris to meet Colin.

Amboise

Day 1

Getting to Amboise was quite the journey.  I had to take a train from Lorient to Nantes, another from Nantes to suburban Tours, and a final train from Suburban Tours to Amboise.

After getting on the first train and travelling for about 10 minutes I realized that I’d forgotten something really important – my camera.  So I called Auntie Rosie and asked her to look for it.

When I’d arrived at my hostel in Amboise it was 4 pm.  I quickly used the WiFi and then set off to explore the town.  Its quite a cute little city.  I’d show you a photo, but unfortunately I don’t have any…

After exploring the city and picking up some food for dinner, I returned to the hostel (which had seemed deserted earlier), to find a bus-load of kids unloading.  Grrr, these must be the worst children invented.  All night long they were running up and down the halls “whispering” and slamming their doors.

Day 2

I’ve discovered that the school kids wake up, and make a lot of noise at 8 am, but are gone by 9 am – so today I decided to enjoy the peace & quiet and sleep in.  In the end it seemed I slept a little too late, because when I awoke I had a hard time getting a toilet/shower because the cleaners had already begun working.  Oh well!

Once showered and changed I called up a tour company to enquire about a trip to Chateau Chennonceau in the afternoon – no luck there, since nobody else was booked they couldn’t run the trip for just me.  So I set off into town to rent a bike to go to the Chateau.  I got a half day rental from a shop called Veloc, and was on my way.  The bike was the WORST thing I’d ever used.  It was so broken, even more broken than the old Canadian Tire Supercycle bike that I ride to/from the C-train station.  On this bike the front derailleur was totally broken…the last user had actually bent it so bad I couldn’t even get it to make contact with the chain.  But at least the rear derailleur worked….most of the time.  So, instead of having an 18-speed bike, I had a 6 speed.  Oh, and the route to Chateau Chennonceau was very hilly….meaning that I had to get off the bike and walk quite a few times.  While frustrating, at least I made it to the Chateau in the end.  The Chateau was very nice, it really made me wish that I hadn’t forgotten my camera (so yes, again there’s no photos of this either). After biking my way back to Amboise from the Chateau, I told the merchant about the broken bike, then carried on with my evening ritual.  I went shopping for dinner (this time adding in a bottle of rose wine – it was a long day), then ate outside on the bank of the river.

Oh, and Auntie Rosie shipped my camera to me today via FedEx, it should arrive tomorrow J

Day 3

Today was quite exciting, filled with lots more biking than yesterday.  When deciding to come to the loire valley I’d decided that I would do a cycling tour of the winery region.  So in the morning I rented a bike (from a different merchant this time), and set off (this time doing a tour around the block to make sure all the gears worked).  The fellow at the bike shop told me it was about 15 kilometers to Vouvray (my ultimate destination being a winery just beyond Vouvray called Marc Bredif).  While cycling I decided to take a different scenic (read: much longer) route, following the “vignobles a velo” (wineries by bike) path. This was good, but added quite a bit of time to my journey.  While on that path I didn’t really see any wineries either, I just saw a bunch of grape fields. It wasn’t until I was back on my original path that I started seeing wine merchants.  I stopped at one and bought a bottle of their Vouvray white wine.  I then continued on to Vouvray.

Once you entered Vouvray it was like, Bam!  There were wine merchants everywhere.  I went to the tourist information centre, and the girl advised me against going to Marc Bredif, because it was still a ways away and would require me to drive on the main highway.  She had me convinced for a while, but in the end I decided to go anyways.  I’m really glad I did, because it was only about a 5 minute bike ride from the tourist office.  I also found out that she was using the term “highway” quite loosely, the max speed on that road was 70 km/hr.  So I arrived, did a wine tasting, and ended up buying a bottle of white Vouvray wine for myself and a bottle of red for Colin.

Getting back to Amboise was quite the adventure.  I missed the bridge across the Loire, so I ended up riding along the “highway”, then turning around and going back into Vouvray.  I eventually found the bridge, but once I crossed I couldn’t find the bike path (well I did, but it just took me in a giant square and spat me out onto a “highway”).  So I rode along the “highway” to get back to Amboise.  At one point a  driver honked at me, and I thought that meant I wasn’t allowed to be on that road, but I passed many cyclists on my way back, so I guess he was either encouraging me or he’d had a bad day.

Nevertheless, I arrived back in Amboise, unloaded my purchases onto my hostel room (I had also stopped at a Litl to get some food), then I went to the train station to book my tickets to get to rock climbing on Friday.  My transport plans have changed a bit, tomorrow is a holiday, and this weekend is a long weekend, so a lot of the train reservations are sold out….so I am taking the least direct route possible to get to Marseille – but at least Ill make it to climbing on time. 

After dropping off my bike, I took a quick stroll around town and returned to the hostel for dinner, a shower, did some packing and went to bed.

Sad news….my camera didn’t arrive today.  The flight it was on to Paris was delayed, and since tomorrow is a holiday it won’t make it to Amboise until I’m already gone.  So I’ve gotten them to re-route it and keep it at the Paris FedEx station, I’ll go pick it up there once I arrive in Paris.

Day 4

Today I spent most of the day in the town of Amboise.  Since it was a holiday, there was nobody at the reception desk of the hostel, so I had to cart all my stuff around with me all day.  To help prevent this I spent the morning on the beach of the Loire around the hostel.  After eating lunch there, I decided to visit the Chateau Amboise, it was not as impressive as the Chennonceau, but it was still interesting to see.

After the chateau, I walked to the train station to catch the trains that would get me to Manosque for rock climbing.  It took me 4 trains to get to Manosque (including one overnight train).  The voyage I took was Amboise to suburban Tours, suburban Tours to Bordeaux, Bordeaux to Marseille (a night train where I thankfully got a couchette), then finally Marseille to Manosque.....arriving in Manosque for climbing Friday morning - but that's a story for the next post. 

The "house in France" - Lanvaudan, Vannes, Hennebont

Day 1

This weekend there are 2 families (Auntie Rosie, Uncle David, Lily as well as their friends Stuart, Claire and their  three children) and myself at the house, so its a bit of a full house.

On day 1 we arrived to the house in the evening, had dinner and went to bed.
Note: this is the same day that I saw St Malo and Le Mont St Michel.


Day 2

All of the children were up really early - I swear there's no way I was up that early when I was a child, that's just not possible!

Well, once we were all awake and ready for the day we went to the market in Vannes.  Vannes is a really quaint town with lots of old French buildings (some which appear quite close to falling down).

After Vannes I did some antique hunting with Uncle David and Claire in Hennebont, where Claire managed to find 3 stools for her house.  After antiquing we went and booked my ticket to Amboise (my next French destination) at the train station - it was really handy having Uncle David there for that because he has much better French skills than me.

We also went to a supermarket called Litl....it has to be the best supermarket on the planet!  Its like the dollar store for food.  I didn't buy much, but the groceries that I did get were really well priced - like a bottle of good rose for 2 Euros.  I hope I come across more Litl shops during my journeys across France.

After returning to the house in Lanvaudan, Uncle Davind and I swapped out Claire for her husband Stuart and set off for the neighbourhood pub.  Now I use the term pub here loosely, it actually used to be the general store.  Now it has a small bar, a really nice bar man who only speaks French (called Jean), tables with benches.....and most importantly, the cheapest drinks in town!  Interestingly Jean also makes unpasteurized butter.  Be skeptical if you'd like (I definitely was at first, but its really quite tasty).  Yes pasteurization was created to keep nasty stuff out of dairy products, but the French believe that it also takes away the flavour.  So really, what can you do when visiting France, the land of anti-pasteurization?  You can do nothing but join in the fun and hope it doesn't wreak havoc on your digestive tract (which thankfully it's yet to do).

In the evening I went to a Hunter's dinner.  It was really tasty, there was lots of venison (deer) - pate, sausages, stew.  The only down side to the hunter's dinner was finding a piece of ammo in one of my sausages....thankfully its was just a small piece, thankfully not big enough to break a tooth.

Only Auntie Rosie, Claire and I ate at the venue.  Uncle David and Stuart took the kids to the house (and got take-away dinners for themselves), so that the men could watch the football (soccer) games.

I did quite well with my French at the Hunter's dinner.  Virtually non of the dinner guests (or servers for that matter) spoke English, so I was forced to brush up on my French skills.  I did quite well.  Most of the people that Auntie Rosie introduced me to were quite impressed with my French.


Day 3

Today was a nice and relaxing day at the house.  Most of the day was spent between making preparations for the evening meal and swimming in the pool.  While the kids were swimming in the pool, I decided to join them and spent my time between playing with the smaller children and doing stroke corrections for the older ones.

I had an early night this night, as I had to pack my bags for my early-morning train trip to Amboise.

St Malo and Mont St Michel

First, let me say how much I love modern technology.  Here I am in suburban Tours France with nothing to do for a 2 hour lay-over (the ticket agent thought I was crazy for taking a 2 hour lay-over).  Mais voila!  I can steal a hotel's free WiFi (pronounced in France as WeeFee, lol) and blog.  All is well in the world, and I've found something to do with my time.

Anyways... getting back to the subject.

After sleeping for barely 8 hours (I arrived at my hotel in St Malo after 1 am), I met up with Auntie Rosie’s friend Sam.  Sam was to take me to Mont St Michel for the day….but my journey there would be just as eventful as getting off of the island of Guernsey the day before.  Earlier in the morning Sam’s hairdresser had called he to re-schedule an appointment - so while Sam got her hair cut, I went in search of food (croissants and pain au chocolate).  After finding some sustenance (that term really makes it seem like I’m roughing it much more than I am), I went for a walk around the ramparts of St Malo.  For those of you that don’t know ramparts are really just walls – kind of like the Great Wall of China, but much smaller, and it circles around the city.  Ramparts are quite neat, not only do they offer good views but they were used for protection of the city, so there’s lots of neat nooks and crannies with windows to shoot out of.

After my walk around the ramparts I met back up with Sam – who was freaking out a bit because I was about 5 minutes late (perhaps I should have informed her that punctuality is not my strong point).  She’d actually gone so far as messaging Auntie Rosie saying “OMG, I think I’ve lost your niece in St Malo”.  Then, just as she hit send, I appeared.  It was quite comical.

Anyways, we set off for Mont St Michel, stopping to pick up her mom and cousin along the way.  Just before arriving at the Mont we stopped for lunch.  The first place we went to was serving a bunch of bus tour tourists, so after waiting to order, we decided to leave, and went across the street.  The second restaurant was much better.  For lunch I had a dessert crepe – freshly cooked, filled with apple and custard, and swimming in syrup and powdered sugar.  When I ordered it as my main the waiter looked at me with a “crazy tourist” expression….but hey, I’m on vacation Monsieur, I can eat what I want!

After lunch we went to Mont St Michel.  Sam and I walked all the way up to the top (where we found out the Cathedral was closed, which was a little disappointing).  The whole place was really neat.  I even climbed my way up the narrowest steps I’ve ever seen.

After the Mont, Sam and I went to Cancale for some oysters.  We stopped at a restaurant and each of us got a Dixie cup of white wine, then we went to see the oyster farmers.  We bought 6 oysters to share.  The merchant split open the oyster shells, halved a lemon, and handed us the dish.  We went and sat on the sea walls to eat the oysters.  I won’t lie, I was really skeptical, but just kept reminding myself that I like sushi. 

For those of you who don’t know, here’s how you eat an oyster: 1) you peel apart the shells, 2) you separate the oyster “meat” from the shell, 3) you drain out the sea water, 4) you add a little lemon juice, 5) you open your mouth and dump the oyster “meat” in off of the shell.

Oh, and have I mentioned….the oysters aren’t cooked!  Like I said, I was really skeptical, but in the end they were delicious!  I ate my 3 faster than Sam ate hers.

Well, after the oysters we made our way to the St Malo port to meet up with Auntie Rosie, and I swapped cars, said goodbye to Sam, and set off for “the house in France”.

Guernsey

Day 1

You can read all about my arrival day in Guernsey in my "Last day in London and Arrival in Guernsey" post, so I won't duplicate that here.


Day 2

This day the family went down to the waterfront to have lunch.  We had a very nice (but extremely filling) lunch, at a nice restaurant along the main drag of St Peter Port. 

We were hoping to go up Victoria Tower, but after lunch we were too late to get the key.  I hope I have time to do this another day.  Instead we went for a drive around the island to check out the various sights.  We stopped at a few of the beaches with Napoleanic towers and German Bunkers (from WWII).  After seeing these we went to the little chapel, where I was also able to see a Guernsey cow.

Afterwards I went back to Aunt Louise and Uncle Trevor's house for the evening.


Day 3

This morning Auntie Rosie come over to Aunt Louise's house.  We all had lunch on the patio....and of course I got sunburnt.  Luckily I was wearing my jacket, so I only got burnt on my nose and a small portion of my chest.

After lunch we went to the fish mongers (market) and picked up some lobster and sea bass for dinner.  After picking up TJ from school, we played some games in the garden (backyard).  Unfortunately, while playing baseball Aunt Louise buggered up her knee.  The worst part was that I couldn't drive her to a doctor because I can't drive a manual transmission car.  So after dinner Uncle Trevor took her to see a doctor.  For such a low-key day it ended up being very eventful!


Day 4

Today I went to Herm with Auntie Rosie - to search for puffins.  Puffins are the cutest little birds.

We saw lots of birds on Herm, but none of them were puffins.

We had a nice lunch on the beach at Herm (and of course I've gotten a small sunburn), and did a walk around the whole island - the first portion of the island was really hilly with lots of stairs, but thankfully the second half of the island was flat.

We arrived back to Guernsey in time to pick up Lily and TJ from school, then went out for an early dinner.  After dinner I went rock climbing with a group here in Guernsey.  The approach to the climb was quite scary - as you had to follow the footpath then walk down the side of the cliffs to reach the sea-level climbing crags.  I had enough time to do two climbs - both S rated, which is equivilent to the 5.4-5.7 range in North America (or so wikipedia tells me).  I'd say the climbs were likely around 5.7 because the footholds were sparse in a few places.  All of the routes on the coast here are trad, so I couldn't do any leading, but the other climbers let me climb up after they had placed the gear. It was a really neat experience to climb at sea level - especailly because part of the way through the tide started slowly creeping in.  Climbing here was a lot of fun, I had a really great time. 

All of the climbers from the Guernsey Mountaineering Club were really nice and welcoming, and it was great that even though I only had rock shoes they were ablt to outfit me with the rest of the gear I needed.  To anyone from the club that reads this, I've passed on my location and contact information on a postcard.  Should you ever been in my area of Canada, please come by and say hello.  There's good rock climbing to be had in the Rockies from June to August - so don't be strangers!


Day 5

Today was another busy day on Guernsey.  I woke up to take Lily to school, went for a drive around the island, and helped take Aunt Louise to physio…all before the time that I would normally wake up at.  After Aunt Louise was done physio; her, Auntie Rosie and I went for lunch right next to the ocean.  The lunch was quite tasty.

After dropping Aunt Louise back at home, Auntie Rosie and I went for a walk on the Guernsey High Street, checking out the shops and grabbing ingredients for dinner.  After picking up Lily and TJ from school, we zipped Lily off to Brownies and I went to watch TJ swim – he’s quite speedy in the pool, but his team doesn’t do a lot of mileage each practice.  After TJ’s swimming I said goodbye to Aunt Louise, Uncle Trevor and TJ, and returned to Auntie Rosie’s house for dinner.  What a busy day!

Day 6

This was a crazy day….filled with many delays!  After waking up and packing the remainder of my stuff, I set off for Castle Cornet (stopping at the ferry dock to find out that the ferry departure was delayed). Auntie Rosie and I went for a quick breakfast before heading to Castle Cornet.  Castle Cornet was neat, while there I got to see some “history in action” – a local theatre group takes on the personas of people from different periods, and they act out Guernsey’s history.  

After Castle Cornet we stopped back at the pier to find out the ferry had been delayed again (by now the departure had been delayed from 1:45 to 6:30).  After picking up Lily we found out that the ferry was delayed to 7:30….so we rushed to have something to eat and get back to the pier to find out….the ferry was delayed until 8:30.  Finally, when we arrived at 8 pm, the ferry was actually leaving.

Riding on a ferry was an interesting experience.  It had been delayed so many times because the seas were really rough….I think a lot of people spilt their beans along the ride.  Thankfully, my iron-clad stomach made it through.  To be honest, after we’d made out stop on Jersey (the mid-way point), I fell asleep.  I think the older couple near me from Guernsey thought it was hilarious….here I was a ferry novice schooling all the locals – fast asleep while the ship was listing and the others were retching.

Upon arriving in Saint Malo, I was taken to my hotel by a friend, of a friend, of a friend of my Aunt’s….not concerning at all!  In the end it was fine, the hotel had just what I needed – a clean bed to sleep in.

You can call me "Underground Master"

So, this post is a little out of sequence in where I wanted it to be (pre-Guernsey), but I don't know how to re-order the posts.

During my stay in London I became a Master of the Underground.  Upon arriving I bought a week transit pass, and definitely got my money worth.  Towards the end I was actually able to help other tourists find their way, and got a few "who knew Londoners could be so nice" replies, to which I promptly corrected them saying that I was just a Canadian on holidays.

So I've had the full Underground experience.  I've been stuck on the tube in the middle of a tunnel in an absolutely crowded car. I've been stuck waiting at a platform for ages for a delayed train to leave.  I've experienced all sorts of service delays, and have had to figure out how to re-route my trip to avoid the "suspended service" lines. I have also figured out how to efficiently get into and out of the stations and through the ticket gates quickly.

I will admit, the best words I heard while in London were always the announcement lady saying "The (insert line of interest here) line is operating a good service".  A good service always made for much more efficient sightseeing!

In saying goodbye to London (for now), I'm sad to say goodbye to the most efficient transit system that I've yet to experience.  Fare-the-well London Bridge Station, I was happy to call you home for a few days.

The "unimpressive" London Bridge

Using his iPad Uncle Trevor has done some research on the "unimpressive" London Bridge.  Apparently, over the course of time there have been many bridges at this site.  The "unimpressive" bridge was opened in 1973, after it was found that the 19th century bridge (which was more impressive and opened in 1831) could not deal with the increased amount of traffic, and fell into disrepair.  Interestingly, the 19th century bridge was disassembled and moved to Lake Havasu City in Arizona.....Colin maybe you've seen it?

Also interesting, the children's rhyme "london bridge is falling down" is said to have been inspired by the Roman bridge originally build at the site....which was replaced with the Mideval Bridge....which was replaced by the 19th century bridge.....which was replaced by the "unimpressive" London Bridge.

But, now that we've all had a history lesson, I think my original thought remains - the London Bridge that I saw was quite unimpressive, and I much preferred the Tower Bridge.

Last Day in London and Arrival in Guernsey

This morning I woke up and had breakfast at the hostel.  During breakfast I met a fellow Canadian who now lives in Paris.  We had a great conversation, and it was nice to meet someone from home (she actually grew up in TO).  After breakfast I bought the ticket for my trip to Gatwick Airport later in the day.

After all of this I went to the Borough Market, where I tested some of the local foods.  I had the best prosciutto (shaved right of the pig's leg, hoof still visible) and mozzarella I've had in my life.  It was a great market to check out.  I also got some apple blueberry juice and a raspberry meringue.

Post-market I went to a pub and had fish and chips as well as a pint of London's Glory for lunch.  It was quite tasty, but not the best fish and chips I've ever had.

Then, I was off to Gatwick to catch my plane to Guernsey, my plain a small 48ish seater plane with propellers.

The flight went quite well, but was very quick.  We had barely reached cruising altitude before we had to start descent.  The descent was a bit dodgy, as you're quickly descending and the only thing below you is the ocean...I was really hoping the pilot made it to the runway and didn't over-shoot or under-shoot the landing. The landing itself was a little rougher than I'm used to, the plane just kind of dropped (at least) two feet out of the air and landed roughly on the runway.....I suppose that's how smaller planes land.  Upon arriving, the whole Guernsey contingency was there to meet me:

Everyone then came over to Aunt Louise's house (except Lily who was at a sleepover), and we all had a good dinner (with millions of desserts courtesy of Uncle David).....in that one meal/dessert sampling, I may have re-gained all of the weight I think I've lost while travelling through the UK.  I also got a chance to go for a joy ride in Uncle David's Mehari car (a dune buggy go kart golf cart hybrid)

That was it for the day.  It was a good last day in London and a good remainder of the day in Guernsey with my extended family.

Stonehenge and Bath

This morning I woke up super-extra early (6:30 am), to catch a transfer bus to Victoria Station to take my coach bus tour to Stonehenge and Bath.  The coach was late in arriving, which was fine because it gave me some time to eat some breakfast (which I'd picked up from Mark & Spencer the night before) before getting on the coach.

As the coach left London, we got a bit of a tour of London.  It was interesting, because they were places that weren't on my long "to see" list, but still very interesting.  Then, as we made the drive to Stonehenge I took a nap, catching up on the sleep I'd lost by getting up so early.  I only woke up when the tour guide (a blue badge tour guide, he boasted) announced that we would be arriving shortly.  Then there it was....Stonehenge.  We got off the bus, and had about an hour to wander around the stone circle with our audio guides.  It was great - still fascinating in person, regardless of how many photos you've seen.  Speaking of photos, I probably too at least 100, here's a small sampling of what I saw.

Then it was on to Bath.  In Bath the first places I checked out were Bath Abbey and the Pump Room of the Roman Baths.  In the pump room I tried some of the spring water - it was not to my liking, it tasted a bit metallic and was warm (the biggest reason I didn't like it, as I like my water ice cold).

After this I grabbed a pasty for lunch and set off for the Fashion Museum.  They had a neat new exhibition of wedding dresses through the ages (not that I'm getting any ideas), as well as some really old period clothing including dresses and gloves.  It was a neat place a bit off the beaten path, so I'm glad I made it there.

I then met up with the tour guide for a tour of Bath.  We went to Bath Abbey (which I'd already seen on my own), past Jane Austin's house, to the circus and crescent - some architecturally really neat buildings that are curved (also, interestingly where a lot of period films are shot). Here's a photo of the circus:

After the tour we went back to the coach, and made our way back to London.  Once I got to London, I went to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.  The National Gallery was not really my cup of tea (there were way too many Mary & Jesus paintings, if I never see another one outside of a church again it'll be too soon), but when I got the the impressionist section, I really enjoyed that, as I saw a few of Monet's water lily paintings and they are very pretty and pleasing to the eye.  The National Portrait Gallery was also very interesting, it was neat to see the portraits of all the royal "characters" you hear about while taking tours of London.

From the galleries, I headed to the Tower of London again to get some photos of the Tower Bridge.  The sun had just set, so the bridge was all lit up and made for some great photos, like this one below.

Afterwards I made my way back to the hostel for some well-deserved rest.

London

Day 1

I arrived in London at 7 am, with getting only about 3 hours of sleep on the bus -- ok Karolina, you win, I probably should have just taken the 2 hr train instead of the 7 hour bus....but the monetary savings were just too hard to pass up.

Upon arriving I bought a week-long tube pass, and headed to the hostel to drop off my bags.  Good news - this hostel has free WiFi :)  At the hostel I found out about a free walking tour, so I decided to do that in the morning/ early afternoon.  While it was a good way to get oriented to the city (I saw buckingham palace, the royal residences, big ben, the london eye, trafalgar square, the houses of parliament) it was not particularly informative.

 

After the tour I went to Westminster Abbey - Where HRH Prince William and Kate Middelton just got married.  I did the tour with the audio guide, its a very interesting place.  I stayed later to see the evensong service (which was quite different from a Catholic mass) - it was a sung service but did not include communion.

I then went back to my hostel, got settled in my room, and fell peacefully asleep.


Day 2

This morning I let myself sleep in, so that I'd be charged for the busy day ahead of me.  After waking up I went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards - not a super exciting ceremony, but I got some good photos.

 

After the ceremony was done, I went to Westminster Cathedral (different from Westminster Abbey), a Catholic Cathedral that was very impressive. I'm hoping to make it back there for a mass later in my stay here in london - perhaps saturday morning.

I then continued onto the Victoria & Albert Museum, taking in a free tour of the English art.  One of the things I saw was the Bed of Ware - a huge bed that could sleep upto 12 couples back in its time, apparently even Shakespeare mentions it in one of his works.

From the V&A I moved down the street to the Natural History Museum.  This museum is phenomenal, I wish I'd had more time to see it fully.  I (stupidly) went up to the second floor (as that's all I thought there was) when I arrived, and ran out  of time to see the very impressive first floor.  I could easily spend a whole day in that museum - there's dinosaurs, insects, birds, fossils, mammals and an area on biology and ecology.  This museum will definitely get a re-visit the next time that I am in London.

The end of my day did not go as planned. On my way to Leicester Square to get cheap theatre tickets I got stuck on the tube.  Literally, the train stopped mid-way through the tunnel, then once it got to the station it waited there for like 10 minutes. I probably could have walked faster, but I'm finding I'm terrible with navigating the streets here, so I prefer the simplicity of the tube.  Once I finally got off the tube I was too late to buy theatre tickets from the tkts booth (add it to the next day's list), I was also too late to go to the visitor information centre to book a Stonehenge tour (also added to next day's list).  Lastly, my guidebook said that the National Gallery was open late, but when I got there they're now open late on Fridays (serves me right for using a 2010 guidebook).  But, something good did come from all of this.....I got to see Picadilly Circus, and on the way back to the Picadilly tube station I stopped in at a sushi place that was having a 50% off happy hour - so I bought two trays of sushi for under 5 pounds.  I ate most of the sushi back at the hostel, and fell asleep exhausted and full of sushi :)

Day 3

This day was a very busy and long day.  I got up at 7:30 am – unheard of I know! I grabbed some toast and ceral at the hostel and set off on my day.  My first stop was to book tickets – I got tickets booked to see Stonehenge and Bath, as well as theatre tickets for that night.

I then went off to the British Museum and used on of the Rick Steve audio guides that I’d downloaded to tour the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek exhibits.  The audio guide was super useful, I’m glad I took the time to download it in the chaos before leaving Canada.  I’ll definitely be using the others that I downloaded as well.  After the British Museum I went to the British Library to check out the old historic texts on display (Rick Steve did have an audio guide for here to, but sadly I didn’t have enough time to use the whole thing).  There were some writings by Shakespeare, Freud, and most importantly (to me at least) Charles Darwin.

I then hopped on the tube and went to the Tower of London.  Upon arriving I did something really embarrassing…..I asked a guy in a soldier outfit where the tour was.  Only it turned out he was a REAL soldier (there to guard the royal residence on site), and not someone associated with the tourism of the site.  I felt like such a moron, and apologized profusely – I’d had no idea there was still a royal residence on site.  Plus it would have been much easier to know he was a soldier if he’d be wearing the big black puffy hat (which I later saw all the soldiers on duty were wearing).  Anyways, I felt terrible, but the two of us laughed it off.  For the rest of my time at the Tower, whenever I saw I soldier I giggled to myself…and wondered if it was the same soldier that I had asked for directions.

Anyways, I did find the tour and joined in a few minutes late.  The tour guide was really good, but it was more of a “who’s who of the monarchy” than a tour of the castle, which was disappointing.  After the tour I wandered around the castle, the coolest parts being the crown jewels as well as the armour and torture devices exhibit.  

When I left the Tower I went to go see the Tower Bridge (which must be the topic of the children’s song “London bridge is falling down….”, because London Bridge itself is just a simple bridge, completely underwhelming).  The Tower Bridge was quite impressive, but just as I got there the batteries for my camera died.  Sorry folks, no shots of that one, unless I make it back there again before I leave.

I polished my day off with a trip to the theatre.  I saw the musical Billy Elliot.  I’d managed to pick up some discount tickets from the tkts booth.  The performance was great, and my seats were soo close to the stage.  This is probably the most favourite thing I have done during my trip so far….hopefully I can get to another musical the next time I’m in London (which is right before I return to Canada).