Practical Details

It's been over two weeks since my trip ended, and I've been asked by a number of people about how I planned my trip, the specific places I stayed, etc. so I've decided to compile the information into one handy-dandy page for anyone who might find it useful.

First, a few of you asked what camera I used to take photos. Nothing fancy, I can assure you--just my Galaxy S6 phone. I'm quite pleased with how my pictures came out, and while I'm sure other people on the internet can explain more of the technical aspects, I think it helped that I was surrounded by a lot of beauty, which makes just about any picture look good.

How do I plan my trips? I choose locations that appeal to me and seem like they would be relatively easy and safe to travel as a single woman. I also set aside a chunk of my paycheck each month and save until I can afford to go where I want for the amount of time I want. I then research accommodations on TripAdvisor, Booking.com, and Expedia, often cross-referencing them to find out which places are highly rated on both sites. I also research things to do (sites, tours, etc.) primarily using TripAdvisor and plain old Google (e.g. "Things to do in Bruges"). I then look up locations on Google Maps and see where the accommodations I'm interested are in relation to the sites/locations I'd like to visit. I make a list of what I am interested in doing in each city prior to going and group them based on proximity to each other. I often don't stick to this list, but it's nice to have an idea ahead of time and not waste time researching and figuring things out while I'm actually there.

Most cities in Europe offer walking free walking tours where you tip what you want at the end (I usually tip 10 euros or pounds, which is what a lot of not-free walking tours will charge you). These, or bicycle tours (which cost a bit more), are great to do toward the beginning of your stay in each location as they give you a nice overview of the history, important sites, and the layout of the city. Guides also are great for recommending places to eat and places to avoid.

Super specific but helpful thing: since bathrooms tend to be small and/or lacking in any counter space, get one of these for your toiletries (you'll be so glad you did)   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01E77763U/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is also terrific for charging up your electronics/USB port devices in multiple countries/regions:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DJ140LQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also used these bags to group outfits, types of clothes (e.g. underwear, pajamas, etc.), which was SUPER helpful as I was traveling from place to place so frequently and didn't want to unpack my entire suitcase each time. The bags helped keep me organized and made it easy to find what I needed quickly.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EF7I49W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now for the list of accommodations I stayed at, with a few comments about each. I mostly stay at B&Bs when I'm traveling alone as I find them to be a bit more personal and cozy. Most of the accommodations I stayed at cost between $130-180 per night:

1. Antwerp, Belgium: Lindner Hotel & City Lounge https://www.lindner.de/en/antwerp-hotel-city-lounge/welcome.html  Pros: clean, comfortable, modern, friendly staff, and located right by the train station, which had a lot of convenient shops and eateries. Cons: a bit far (solid 20-30 minute walk) from a lot of the historic attractions.

2. Bruges, Belgium: Number 11 Exclusive Guesthouse http://www.number11.be/index.asp?taal=uk I stayed in the Vanilla Room, which was spacious and lovely and only one flight of stairs up. Pros: beautiful, quiet, and comfortable location just around the corner from a canal; short walk to most historic squares/attractions; very helpful hosts and delicious breakfasts; beautiful garden in back. Cons: none, as long as you can climb stairs. I'd stay there again in a heartbeat.

3. Gent, Belgium: De Waterzooi http://www.dewaterzooi.be/en/  Pros: amazing location right across the street from the castle, tram stops right outside, HUGE suites with everything you could ever need, amazing breakfasts, and really kind and helpful hosts. Cons: none. This was my splurge of the trip, and it was worth every penny.

4. Burford, England (Cotswolds): The Angel at Burford http://www.theangelatburford.co.uk/ Pros: good location, historic pub just downstairs with good food, fairly spacious room Cons: staff are mostly friendly but very busy as they are running a pub; room had a weird smell; breakfast was good but fairly basic. I think I was spoiled by the previous B&Bs and this experience fell short.

5. Hay-on-Wye, Brecon Beacons region, Wales: The Start B&B http://www.the-start.net/ I'm going to be honest--if you are looking for modern luxury, this isn't the place for you. The furnishings are a little homely and the bathroom is TINY, but the pros far outweigh these things and made this one of my favorite places of the whole trip. Pros: super gorgeous and peaceful property right by the river (I could see it from my window) and a short walk from town; chickens!!; wonderful breakfasts; and the manager, Liz, was so warm and friendly and welcoming that she felt like an old friend. She also did a load of laundry for me, which will endear her to me forever.

6. Betws-y-Coed, Snowdonia, Wales: Afon View http://www.afon-view.co.uk/ Pros: pretty central location, free parking in back, very spacious and comfortable rooms, nice owner. Cons: room I had in front had a great view but was also a little noisy since it was right on a main road. WiFi was also kind of slow.

7. Stratford, England: Hunter's Moon Guest House http://www.huntersmoonguesthouse.com/  Pros: Really lovely house and rooms, very nice owners, free parking, good WiFi. Cons: a solid 15-20 minute walk to town and further for sites. I had a car, which made that not an issue for me personally, but if you were on foot, might be a hassle.

8. London, South Kensington neighborhood: The Nadler Kensington http://www.thenadler.com/kensington.shtml Pros: compact but very comfortable rooms with modern conveniences (like air-conditioning, cable TV) and kitchenette, good WiFi, short walk (about 2 blocks) from Earls Court tube station and a number of convenience cafes/stores where you can get relatively cheap food to go and prep/eat in your kitchenette. Cons: this might have been a one-time fluke, but here was that whole broken door lock mechanism thing for my entire stay, which was a bummer. The hotel didn't handle it the best at the time, but they did make up for it by offering me a nice discount at the end. I'd be willing to try staying there again since I liked everything else about the hotel and it was very reasonable for London.

Speaking of "reasonable" and "London," the car service I used to get to and from Heathrow (and was significantly cheaper than what the hotel quoted me and my brother got) is this company http://www.blackberrycars.com/ Their drivers were very nice, as were the cars, and the communication and punctuality was great.

Hope that helps, and happy travels of your own!

Walks and Locks--London

Yesterday began with a Secret London walking tour, which was great fun and full of interesting information (another possible retirement career: tour guide). We started in this courtyard, which is where teenage boys who wanted to go into the law were quizzed and then trained/apprenticed (if they passed their exams and showed promise). This area, as well as a good majority of the rest of London, was heavily damaged during WW2. Our guide said what people did at the time was put all the rubble into designated bins, wait for the war to be over, and then did their best to reassemble the buildings using as much of the original materials as usual (hence, the beautiful carved porch entrance dating back to the 1700s).

British resourcefulness can also be seen in their repurposing of cannons throughout the city. Seeing as cannons are virtually indestructible and England has tons of them (pun intended) from their long history of warfare, they now function as car barriers on curbs and the bases of lampposts. Once the guide pointed that out, I started seeing cannons everywhere.

Some more insider info: if you see a building of brick and terra cotta, it was most likely built between 1880-1900. This particular one was built by an insurance company, which was one of the first major companies in the city to employ educated and more middle and upper-class women (as opposed to lower class women, who have always had to work). They worked in a separate area from the men, with their own entrances and exits, lounge area, grand pianos (to keep up their genteel arts during lunch) and rooftop garden. It all sounds rather nice until you hear that they made only half the salary of their male counterparts. 

This is the site of the largest heist in Europe, which happened just last year. This is the jewelry district, and a group of men waited until everything was closed up for the long Easter holiday weekend, then went down into a neighboring basement and drilled through a huge concrete wall to access a bunch of goodies, including safe deposit boxes. The great twist of this? The men were all in their 70s and 80s. Several were caught, mainly because they didn't factor in CCTV technology. Also, the bit on the drill broke at one point, so they went and bought another one, and not a whole lot of people were buying huge drill bits that weekend. As you might guess, the movie rights to this story have already been bought, so look for a film starring Michael Cain (at least that's what I'm guessing) sometime in the next year or two.

Fun little pub crammed in the midst of a bunch of more modern buildings all around it--The Old Mitre, which dates back to 1546, according to the sign out front.

Next up, St. Etheldreda's Church, which is the oldest Catholic church in London. Or mostly Catholic church. Originally established in the 1200s, it became Anglican under King Henry VIII (who did things like having monks hanged, drawn, and quartered if they objected--he nailed the arm of the lead monk to the door to send a message), was Catholic again for the Spanish ambassador in the 1600s, then back to Anglican, then back to Catholic in the 1800s, when Britain finally got around to granting full legal rights/equality/freedom to Catholics.

Inside the church, the guide explained that Ethelreda, a good Saxon name, was not pleasing to the invading Normans, who re-named her St. Audrey. The story of St. Audrey is that she was a nun who struggled with love of one worldly thing--wearing necklaces. She prayed for God to remove this desire from her heart, but still found herself unable to give up that practice. She developed a tumor in her throat, which she was sure was God's punishment, and she died during a surgery to remove it (can you imagine what surgery would have been like prior to the year 1000?). Later, however, when the monks were renovating and expanding the church, they came across her grave, and when they dug it up, discovered her perfectly preserved and her neck perfectly healed. People visiting were also healed, she was sainted, and this began mass pilgrimages, which was medieval tourism. One of the things pilgrims could purchase as a souvenir of their visit was a cheap necklace, which was known as a "St. Audrey," which eventually got shortened to..."'Tawdry." Hence, where we get the term for cheap, somewhat gaudy jewelry.

Samual Johnson's house (writer/compiler of the first English dictionary and hater of Scots)

Samuel Johnson's cat, Hodge

St. Bride's church, which inspired a 17th-century baker to create the first tiered wedding cake for his daughter's wedding, which set off a craze that exists to this day.

My lunch after all that walking and learning

Peter and I sat outside and enjoyed taking in the life passing by us on Buckingham Palace Road:

The goodies bar at Peter's hotel:

By the time we finished lunch, it was already 2:30 and I decided that I'd rather go back to my hotel for a bit of a rest (and to work on this post) than try to cram in a visit to the British Museum (next time!!). I decided to at least take a scenic walk for part of the way, saying hello to the Queen and Trafalgar Square along the way.

Some fancy-pants guest in full regalia (caught a glimpse of him through the window) was on his way to the palace.

Walk alongside St. James Park

Big Ben peeking through the trees

Trafalgar Square

Then back on the tube at Picadilly Circus for what I thought would be a quiet, restful afternoon break.

This peaceful break was not to be, however. Since the moment of my arrival, my door lock reader thingy (that's the official term) wasn't working. Staff tried eight different key cards, and the only one that would work was a staff card that had a special chip. At this point, one of two options seemed like a reasonable solution: offer me a different room or offer me a special chip card. Instead, they assured me this would be fixed. I went out for the afternoon, came back in the evening, and still couldn't get in. My room was a flight of stairs down, so I did a lot of going down and up and down again getting escorts to let me into my room. When I left at 10:00am yesterday morning for the walking tour, I reminded them that it still wasn't working and asked that they please fix it by the time I came back that afternoon. They had already tried their in-house maintenance man the day prior, so I assumed they'd be calling in a professional. When I returned at 3:30 pm, I found out they had had their in-house staff still working on it (again unsuccessfully--this time, the outcome was that NOBODY could get into my room) and had finally just called the locksmith. So, my afternoon was spent locked out of my room for a good hour completely, and then half an hour of awkward trying to get ready to go out to dinner with three men standing just on the other side of my bathroom door.

Needless to say, I was not a happy camper, and while part of me can recognize the humor of the situation, given how tired I was and what an unexpected hassle and stress this was, the queen's words summed up my feelings best: "We are not amused." I escaped to my brother's hotel and relaxed there for a few minutes, chatting with him and eating consolation wasabi peas, then we headed out to meet my former student, Anthony, for dinner. He graduated 16 years ago (I think--maybe 17?) and is a video game creator/programmer who just started up his own company with a friend. They are currently working on a very exciting project, and it was great to talk with him and hear about his life since college and the things he's learned and experienced along the way. Peter snapped a photo of us on the way out.

Check out his company's website here and learn about the new game they're creating, which has gotten great press and sounds wonderful (and unlike anything I've ever seen in the video game world, what little I know of it): http://foamswordgames.com/

Then back on the tube and to my still not-working-lock room, which, fortunately, the card with the special chip they finally granted me actually worked on. Glad I could use a card by myself for the very last time I needed to enter my room. To the hotel's credit, they did apologize profusely, gave me a bottle of champagne, which I passed on to Peter since since I don't like to drink the night before a long flight, and knocked a chunk off my bill (after some nudging from me). Still, lesson learned. The minute something like that happens, change rooms!

Now I'm at Heathrow after another entertaining and enlightening drive with Ibrahim, an immigrant from India, who lamented everyone's addiction to social media and blames the lack of face-to-face social interaction and physical activity/sport for the problems we're having today in politics and everything else. People all hate each other, he says, because of online socializing vs. real world socializing. He may have a point. He also gave me a good tip for getting good hotel deals in the UK and invited me to travel with him and his friends in the future.

Well, time for me to wrap up and get to my gate. Part of me is sad this trip has come to an end, but part of me is really looking forward to sleeping in my own bed with a decent pillow and seeing loved ones again, so I'm not leaving with much regret. Plus, I know it won't be long before I return. The saving will begin as soon as my next paycheck arrives...

Cheerio, and I will post one more entry when I get back home with some practical info that might be useful to you on your own travels. Also, to help me remember--I forget pretty much everything if I don't write it down. Thanks to you all for journeying with me and sending me so many lovely messages, comments, likes on Facebook, etc.--it really cheered me and kept me company along the way!

London (aka the beginning of the end)

Today was my last day of driving, and I made good use of it by stopping in Oxford to meet up with some dear friends from home, who also happen to be visiting the UK right now and were in Oxford for the day. And what better place for good friends to meet than the hangout of the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc.). It was a bit rushed as I had to get on the road to return my rental car in time not to incur any nasty fees, but it was so wonderful to see familiar faces and connect in such a special place.

the wonderful Doud family

You know how I was going to take the tube from Heathrow to my hotel? Well, this morning I decided, "Screw that!" and looked up a service online that was very reasonable. I figure that's a very good use of birthday money. I must say, it was bliss to have someone else navigating the roads and navigating turns and just sitting. Also listening. My driver, a Kurd from northern Iraq, was very happy to talk about Brexit, which he voted for. He's lived in London for 17 years now, gone to university here, etc. and as he put it, "It's like a parent having seven children instead of just one or two--then everyone has to share the biscuits and there's not enough, right?" He then went on to talk about how all politicians are totally corrupt and nothing that happens politically is going to change his life much--"Just live your life!" was his constant refrain during the drive. So, the face of Brexit isn't always what you might expect. 

Aside from my key card reader not working (I have to get a staff member to let me into my room each time. Supposedly this will be fixed tomorrow), my room is very comfortable and even decently roomy for a London hotel room. It helps that I have a gorgeous birthday bouquet of roses from my boyfriend to spruce things up.

And this is also pretty nifty--a kitchen in the closet!

 My brother Peter gallantly traveled to my hotel (he's staying all week in a hotel a few stops away) and then we went to Westminster to ride the London Eye. Along the way, Big Ben chimed the hour for us.

London Eye

It goes very slowly, but it's still a little disconcerting that it doesn't stop when you board. About twenty of you kind of run onto it as it glides by you on the platform. But we made it safely, and here's a shot of me with my brother. So good to be with family!

A shot of the bubble pod in front of us--these things are really large.

some of the views

(I'm bigger than Big Ben!)

We then walked to Peter's hotel, which is about a block or two from Buckingham Palace.

This is the fancy "Executive Lounge" where guests get to hang out under a beautiful skylight.

 I didn't get a picture of it because I was too busy trying to keep my eyes from popping out, but they have a whole buffet of goodies--everything from candied almonds and wasabi peas to bags of candy. I went for the peas and almonds, which you can see partially eaten below.

We also got served drinks, and then one of the staff brought us these little canapes, which were delicious.

I was in heaven. If I were staying in that hotel, I don't know if I would ever leave that room. Oh, they also had a freezer full of individual containers of ice cream. I eyed it longingly but decided to pass since we were on our way to...dinner. Yes, more eating. We walked around Covent Garden first.

It was a great day and I am very glad to be here, but I am also pretty beat. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day, including (at this point) a Secret London walking tour, some time in the British Museum, and then dinner with a former student of mine who's a video game programmer and has been living here for years. Then, it will be time to pack up and prepare to leave. That said, I don't know that I will have time to complete a post tomorrow, but I will do so once I'm home. Or maybe there will be time at the airport--who knows! Either way, there will be a better conclusion than this.

Time for bed...

Birthday with the Bard

After a long drive south (about 3 hours), I reached Stratford-upon-Avon. I've been here before, so didn't feel a need to actually go inside any of the historic buildings, which was kind of a relief considering I was too tired to really enjoy doing that and am also tired of paying admissions fees. What was free and didn't require much was simply walking around town taking photos of places like...

Shakespeare's birthplace

A restaurant in honor of Kit Marlowe (who some believe could have been a serious rival to Shakespeare had he lived long enough)

And the public library

Perhaps the building that makes me happiest at this point is my B&B, which promises to be extremely comfortable and quiet. I am especially appreciative of quiet after having listened to whoever was staying in the room above me at my previous location stomping around and banging drawers and cupboards and talking loudly until midnight.

The one place I did enter and didn't mind paying a fee to (it was a tiny fee) was Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare and his family are buried.

He's here! sort of...

Actual entries of Shakespeare's baptism and death:

According to the little pamphlet guide, they give this bust a new quill every year on his birthday.

I later attended their evening service, which was lovely. A bit more formal than what I am used to, but church is church, in the end, and I've been missing it on my travels. After evensong, I headed to dinner at Lamb's, which is housed in a 16th-century building and has the low beams and plaster walls to prove it.

They tucked me in a cozy corner where I had a great view and immediately presented me with a complimentary glass of champagne and happy birthday wishes. This didn't stop me from ordering a nice red wine to go with my amazing dinner. I had messages via Facebook and text from many loved ones throughout the meal, so I didn't feel alone at all. Also, I had a good book.

Tomorrow is my last day driving. I'm returning the car to Heathrow and taking the tube (with all my luaggage) into London. While I'm not looking forward to that part of things, I am very much looking forward to meeting up with some dear friends from home in Oxford and then seeing my brother in London. And now to video chat with family and relax on that comfy bed! Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes and shared that you've been reading/enjoying this blog! It means a great deal to me to know that!