I've never been to Europe. I've also never been on holiday for more than 18 days. This is going to be a first in so many ways.
Scheduling vacations is becoming a little more challenging given I'm at the point in traveling where a weekend or week getaway isn't what I'm seeking anymore. I'm going to make the most of travel time and do a sampler of various parts of Europe! This will be a back-to-back trip vising various spots from Western Africa all the way up to Northern Europe. September 2017 the fun begins.
Itinerary:
London, England
Paris, France
Southampton, England
Vigo, Spain
Lisbon, Portugal
Agadir, Morocco
Lanzarote, Canary Islands
Las Palmas, Canary Islands
Tenerife, Canary Islands
Madeira (Funchal), Portugal
La Coruna, Spain
Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France
Southampton, England (Time to start cruise 2)
Cherbourg, France
Paris/Normandy (Le Havre), France
Oslo, Norway
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium
Southampton, England
The other night I wrote a trip plan of all the things I'm going to see / do while on this adventure and wow, it blew even me away. I'm not going to lie, this trip also has me a bit nervous due to all the issues happening in London and Paris. Some friends are saying to stay home but I counter the idea, saying to myself I could get killed by someone driving to/from work daily. If it's my time to go then so be it. Onto a lighter note, just wait until you see some of things that will be visited in the next few weeks!
What do you do when flying from your home city is $900 more (with the same connection) than driving 2 hours north? You get a one-way car rental and drive the 2 hours to start your trip. Today it all begins. Off we go, headed to LAX, connection in Atlanta, finally onto London-Heathrow.
Lightest packing ever for a trip
Very curious what a $20 burger gets in the airport
It's so great being able to go to sleep then wake up an hour before arrival time.
One hour to go
This is the trip, Oslo to the north, Marrakesh to the south
Beautiful countryside morning
Hello London! For this trip I opted to stay next at the Premier Inn London King's Cross hotel. Yes it's kind of away from the tourist places. I picked this place because it's a block away from the Eurostar train station which I'll be jumping on at the wee-early morning hours in a few days... more of that later.
"Mind the gap" which comes cross the subway train each stop apparently means "We can't lineup the platform and the car floor so enjoy the step"
Cruise-ship sized room, how fitting
What do you do when you're going to be running around Europe for a month? You head to the nearest cell phone store and swap out your US sim card with a local carrier. Verizon was going to charge me $10/day for 10mb/day. That's dumb. Instead, in the tunnel between the airport bag pickup and the train station you'll see a kiosk to get a sim-only card. The carrier "EE" is the best here. You could get 50gb/mo for $30. Tmobile also lets you do unlimited data if you have their international plan but you're capped at 2g speed, which is right about the speed of an old dial-up modem.
Time to explore! There is no plan today as I didn't get to the hotel until 3pm. Let's see what we can find.
Before going to London I'd recommend making a list of everything you want to see. After that's done add it into a new personal Google Map then you can plan the route to see everything. As you can see today is going to be a very ambitious day seeing all these sites.
Also recommended is downloading the Citymapper and Visit a
City apps. Citymapper will guide you between destinations flawlessly. I couldn't have navigated the various subway / tube stations here without it.
Visit a City will give recommended things to visit and in what order for a city.
Beautiful park upon exiting the tube
Fall foliage beginning to display on trees
By chance today there is the formal Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. This is something not be missed if they do it the day you're there. Be warned thousands of people will want to see this 11am event, they'll begin showing up before 10am to see it through the gate so you have to plan ahead (unless you don't mind being body blocked by people). I got so lucky in my spot at the gate (though I got there at 9:30am).
Westminster Abbey. I have to be honest, when I saw I could do this in 30 minutes but it would cost $30 I was very skeptical about investing the time and money. In hindsight, best investment made this trip thus far. It is a shame though that you cannot take pictures inside this, what is basically a crypt because the pieces are spectacular. In the end I was there for nearly 2 hours moving at my own pace. Get there at noon and you can be part of mass (and hear song fill the 225 foot tall ceiling).
Ok so I took one pic
Mind blown seeing this. Chapel made by Henry 7th. Words nor pictures can really capture this beautiful piece of art
And the last spot (ok I missed taking photos at the other places on the schedule) - The National Museum. Free to attend and houses some of the most important artists. Museums here do shut doors at 6pm so be sure to be at any tourist building before 3:30pm to enjoy it before being kicked out.
What's that at the bottom?
Never knew di Vinci could paint so well (1491, "Virgin of the Rocks")
Raphael (1505). the painting is some 8 fee tall
In the right light you can see the huge brush strokes
3 of the 7 Monet pieces
4 of the 6 Renoir pieces
The building is as beautiful as the art it holds
360-degree view of one of the wings
So that's what it looks like to leave your room at 8am and get back at 7pm. I'm beat. Tomorrow will be another repeat of today expect we'll tackle places to the east.
