Updates and Travels

Hi everyone!

As most of you probably know, Chris and I are into week four of our seven week adventure, so I thought it was time for an update. Before we left London, Chris was in Ontario for a three week visit and my dad came to London. We had lots of adventures together while he was in England, including a trip to Windsor, Stonehenge, and Oxford.

Windsor Castle

Stonehenge

Oxford

Tower Bridge going up

Tower of London

Greenwich

We toured the Cutty Sark at Greenwich, a former merchant ship that primarily brought tea to England from India and China

St Paul’s Cathedral from Millennium Bridge

Dr. Who currency at the British Museum. (This one’s for Paola.)

The Hardy Tree, in St. Pancras cemetery. Thomas Hardy, the novelist, was working laying railway track. Part of his job was to relocated headstones. He planted a tree and heaped the headstones around it, and now the tree and stones have grown together.

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

Chris had a great time in Canada, seeing family and friends and attending weddings. On the 24th of September, we vacated our flat and started our adventure. Although one might say our adventure started on the 23rd, when our Interrail passes delivery failed to show up. Long story short, i no longer recommend DHL and we had to get up extra early to  make the hour-long trip with all our luggage to the DHL depot in the middle of nowhere, London. After DHL we headed to Paddington station to catch our train to Bath.

The day we arrived in Bath, we didn’t do much. We had lunch and then checked into our lovely BnB. We had a nap and then went to a restaurant called The Boater for a great dinner. A quick walk around near the restaurant and we headed back to the BnB.

Our second day, we did a two hour walking tour, then had lunch at a place that came highly recommended, called Thai Balcony (it was a Thai restaurant…with balconies). After lunch we took a boat trip down the river Avon to Bathampton and back. A quick walk around one of Bath’s stunning parks and it was back to the BnB for the night.

Day three we had arranged a package deal to see the Roman baths, two hours at a spa, and afternoon tea at the fancy shmancy Pump Room restaurant. The Roman baths were really cool, and our two hours at the spa were excellent. We got to enjoy a rooftop pool with views over the city, five aromatherapy saunas, and an indoor whirlpool. All of the pools were filled with hot spring water. Tea consisted of champagne, tea, salmon finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and jam, and like eight different desserts. It was incredible, and the interior was a gold ball room. It was really cool.

But then we had to head to the train station to catch our train to Swansea, where we had our first train troubles: We had tickets for 5:45 pm, but we thought it was 5:45 pm from Bath. Turned out it was 5:45 from Bristol, and we had to get from Bath to Bristol. Needless to say we missed our train in Bristol (but only by minutes!). Luckily the next train going to Swansea was only about 20 minutes later and the nice train manager let us get on in with no problems. We arrived in Swansea to a delicious home-cooked meal by Chris’ family friend Lucy, and I got to meet her wonderful husband and daughters.

Here are some pictures from Bath:

Our first train, from London Paddington to Bath Spa

The Avon, after dinner our first night

One of three Roman baths, all connected by a colonnade

Part of the wall the Romans built around the city – most of it’s gone now

A hanging toilet – when toilets first hit the scene, they were added onto the backs of houses like this

The Royal Crescent, 30 attached Georgian homes that have been left largely untouched. Click the picture for more info on The Royal Crescent

The Circus, a circle of Georgian homes, again largely untouched. Click the photo for more info

Where Admiral Phillip, essentially the founder of Australia (New South Wales), lived and died

Bathampton

The Roman Baths

So as I said, our first night in Swansea started off excellently with fantastic food and company. The next day (Saturday) Lucy, her husband Nigel, and her daughters Phoebe and Zoe, and Phoebe’s boyfriend Tom, went to a Welsh market and then to Aberdulais Falls. Aberdulais Falls is the site of an old tin mill that’s in the process of being preserved by the National Trust. It’s a gorgeous piece of history tucked into nature.

On Sunday Lucy, Nigel, Zoe, Chris and I went to Rhossili Bay, a beach on the Welsh coast about an hour from Swansea. I seem to have some great love for oceans and mountains (probably for obvious reasons – like they’re lacking in my neck of the woods, my part of Canada). It was so beautiful and relaxing, I’m so glad we got to go there. We were there at low tide and the patterns left in the sand by the water going out were gorgeous. Chris and Zoe flew kites. There’s also a rock formation called the Worm’s Head, you can go out to the end of the formation during low tide, but if you stay too long you can get stranded when the tide comes back in.

Aberdulais Falls (click the last photo for more info)

Rhossili Bay

While that’s only the first two places were visited, I’m going to leave it there for now. Since the airline lost our luggage on our most recent journey I had some time to start this post, but luggage has been found and it’s time for new adventures. Next time: our 15 hour journey from Swansea to Berlin, which did not go off without a hitch.

Love Meg

P.S. For those who don’t already know, we’ll be back in Canada on the 14th of November!

P.P.S.: We’re having a great time, we’ve had awesome weather and a whole lot of fun.

Mom’s visit and our trip

Howdy!

So sorry this has taken me 25 million years to post, I really don’t have any excuse!

Mom and her friend Joan came to London a day or two after Charles and Laurie left. They stayed in a flat near the Tower of London (I was lucky enough to be able to stay with them there) for four days, then we went to Paris, Venice, Nice, and Ireland. There’ll probably be some repeat photos here…

Day 1: Mom and Joan’s flight was delayed so basically the first day was dinner and bed. We walked across London bridge and through Borough market to a typical English pub for dinner: steak pies, mash, and cider.

Day 2: The next day we went to Spitalfields market in the morning. We did some shopping there before heading to Covent Garden area to meet Helen for lunch. Helen, whom I’ve mentioned before, is a relative of my cousin Sandra. She lives south of London and has been a huge source of reassurance throughout our time here in London. We speak on the phone and had lunch back in the fall. Mom and Helen had spoken on the phone prior to Mom’s visit, and so we arranged lunch which was great. After lunch we walked to the British Museum, and then we took a bus to Buckingham Palace. Then we hopped on the tube to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral, had some eats and called it a night.

Day 3: We headed out to Greenwich to see Greenwich village, Greenwich park, the Meridian and the Queen’s House. We took a city boat cruise back into the city to Westminster Pier where we checked out Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. After that we had a traditional British meal at Nando’s (ha) and headed to the theatre to see Fatal Attraction starring Kristin Davis!

Day 4: We walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace and toured around in there seeing the various state rooms and exhibitions. Then we headed to Oxford Street for a bit of shopping, then dinner chez Meg and Chris.

Day 5: After a very early wakeup call, we headed to the train station. Fun fact: the night before, I called to arrange a taxi for the morning. The taxi driver who picked us up was a taxi driver from a taxi I’d hailed back in February. What’re the chances?! After almost missing our Eurostar train (don’t worry – I remembered my passport this time) we were headed to Paris. A short train ride later we were in the city of love. We dropped our luggage off at our flat, then we visited the Arc de Triomph and did some shopping on the Champs Elysees. We then had dinner with Chris’ parents who happened to be in Paris at the same time. We met in the Latin Quarter and it was a lovely evening. Sadly no pictures!

Day 6: Armed with our hop-on hop-off tour bus tickets, we headed off to Notre Dame. After showing up just in time for mass, we walked took it all in and then grabbed lunch. Back on the bus, we hopped off at the Champs Elysees again, then headed to the Eiffel Tower (passing Trocadero on the way). We ate crepes at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, then took the bus past the Champs de Mars, the naval colleges, Les Invalides, les Grand et Petit Palais, Garnier Opera House to the love locks bridge and the Louvre.

Day 7: Was a bit of a wash partly thanks to a baggage handler strike. We went to Charles de Gaulle airport in the morning and headed to Verona instead of Venice, as the baggage handlers in Venice were on strike. It was far from the end of the world, but it added quite a lot of travel time. Thankfully Easyjet arranged buses to get us from the airport in Verona to Marco Polo airport in Venice. Once in Venice we had to figure out how to get a boat to Venice itself. Once we sorted that, we sat on our boat for an hour and a half (sans windows), then got off close to our hotel. Checked in, grabbed dinner (some amazing cannelloni for me) in a harsh thunderstorm and hit the sack.

Day 8: I woke up to find Chris in the hotel. He was supposed to get in the evening before but because of the Verona fiasco he arrived in the middle of the night. In the morning we did the three island tour to Murano (known for its blown glass), Burano (known for its lace), and Torcello (known for its church). After arriving back in Venice we grabbed some lunch, then Chris went shopping with Mom and Joan while I took a wee nap (and according to them, he’s an amazing shopper). We met up for dinner in San Marco Square.

Day 9: We spent the morning shopping, then we crossed the famous Rialto Bridge, sought out lunch. Then we took a public boat-bus to Lido, the island with the nicest beach in the Venice area, for the afternoon. After we headed back to Venice we took a gondola ride and then sadly had to pack up.

Day 10: We flew to Nice, checked into our GORGEOUS flat there then got some groceries and walked to the beach. After dinner Mom and I went for a walk down the famous Rue Massena to the main boulevard where we saw a bit of the old city and some buskers.

Day 11: We spent the whole day in the Old City shopping.

Day 12: We headed to Dublin. We arrived, found out hotel, and then did an evening tour of Georgian Ireland which was fantastic.

Day 13: We were up early and headed to Connolly train station. We took the train to Belfast and then we switched to a coach. First we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle in Belfast, then we took a two hour drive through Northern Ireland. We saw a lot of the coast, valleys, and mountains. We stopped at Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Then we went to Bushmills Distillery for lunch and a little whisky tasting, followed by Dunluce Castle. Then we hit the Giant’s Causeway, then back to Belfast to the train station to go back to Dublin. My seat mate on the coach was a very nice woman named Mel from Sudbury – very small world.

Day 14: We headed to Heuston train station this time, and hopped on a train to Galway. Once in Galway we got on a little van with an insane driver and headed to the Aer Arann Airport in Connemara, where we got in an eight seater plane for a seven minute flight to Inis Mor, the biggest of the three Aran Islands. We had a tour in a van with a resident of Inis Mor who showed us a 1200 year old graveyard, a lighthouse that is now miles from the coast, and I trekked up to see Dun Aonghasa, a stone building from approximately 1500 BC. We got to check out the Aran sweater markets (with the famous Aran wool), and the traditional Aran tar and canvas boats, as well as all the walls all along the island that were purposely built like lace, with gaps between the stones to let the winds through. Inis Mor boasts two elementary schools, one high school, 12 teachers, two police officers, one doctor, 800 person population (the other two Arran islands have populations of 150 and 200, respectively). I loved the Aran Islands but the weather was pretty awful which was a shame. We took the train back to Dublin that night.

Day 15: We headed to the airport to find Mom and Joan’s flight delayed, meaning mine to London was going to be leaving first. We said our goodbyes in the airport and went our separate ways. On my flight back to London, we came at it from a different direction (and in daylight, for maybe the first time ever for me) and I was amazed to be able to pick out Hyde Park and Regents Park, and the Eye and the Shard and the Gherkin and Tower Bridge. It was a fantastic trip and I’m so glad Mom and Joan made it over.

That’s all I can say for now. Sorry if this is jumbled/riddled with mistakes. If I get feeling ambitious maybe I’ll label the photos!

Meg

Just the photos

Just the photos that wouldn’t upload last night!

Umbrellas over Vinopolis, which I think is brilliant and is something that should cover every sidewalk in London:

About Southwark Cathedral, from yesterday’s post:

Ed, a saxophonist playing on the edge of the Thames to help pay for school/practice:

Church near Brick Lane. Just thought it was grand:

Two very large ships in the Thames. Assuming they’re permanent? Too large to get out, really:

The coast from the plane:

Drake’s ship:

Remains of Winchester Palace:

The Globe theatre:

St. Pauls from the south bank:

 

The Tate Modern:

Until next time.

Meg

Prince George is Christened

Hey everyone,

Another post filled with more pictures than words.

School is going well. I have my first paper due on Friday, so I’ve been frequenting the library trying to get it all wrapped up. It’s coming along nicely. Last week on Wednesday I went to a Digital Publishing Forum (held monthly at UCL) on the future of permissions in the industry. It might sound rather dull, but it was really interesting. Wednesday evening, we got to go see Basia Bulat play at The Islington. You’ll remember Basia from one of my earlier posts; we saw her perform solo at Rough Trade back in September. This time she had a small band with her, and she was phenomenal. She was kind enough to put us on her “VIP” list (woo). She released her third album a couple weeks ago, and it’s great.

Last night after Chris finished work I went to meet him at the shopping centre where the restaurant is located, right by St. Paul’s Cathedral. We went and had a good ol’ fashioned British “tea” of fish ‘n’ chips at a pub near our “flat”. This morning, I went and checked out the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. I learned my lesson: don’t go on the weekend, and go early. It was cool, but I didn’t see very much because there were so many people there. I knew it’d be busy, but I was not prepared for it. I’d hate to see it at the height of tourist season. I’ll be going back on a weekday, and I’ll stake out a good spot.

Otherwise it’s just been paper writing for me, work for Chris, and a little bit of trip planning. We have booked a trip for my reading week. So we leave Friday November 1st and return Sunday November 10th. We’re going to Paris, Geneva, and Nice. And in Nice we get to see our friend Adam who’s in Barcelona doing his MBA. We’re really excited! And on Wednesday this week our friend Colin is coming down to London for Nottingham for a visit, so that’ll be fun. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures while we’re away and post them when we get back (because we all know Chris doesn’t take pictures OR write on here 😉 )

Hallowe’en is coming up but it’s not nearly as big a deal here as back home. Kids go out door to door, but once you’re too old to do that, it’s sort of the end of Hallowe’en for you. Mom sent us some Hallowe’en candy to get us through the season though, so we’re all set, don’t worry. Also, we are expecting the storm of the century tonight, so I hope everything’s dried out for the little ones later this week. Calling for 180 km/h winds and a ton of rain overnight. We’ve finally had to turn the heat on.

Now for the fun part: pictures!

Basia! I have a really good video of her playing her autoharp but I can’t upload it directly to WordPress without paying, and Facebook is telling me the file is too large 😦 If you want to see it, email me and I can send it to you:

Buckingham Palace:

Westminster Chapel, the Abbey’s more modest cousin:

Some more flash-musicians in the tube:

Jeremy Bentham in all his glory at UCL. A researcher is about to put a camera inside his head as some sort of social experiment, something to do with facial recognition software, so Jeremy will be watching you watching him:

A gang of cyclists and skateboarders, many in Hallowe’en attire, shut down Tottenham Court Road on my way home from the library on Friday:

New Scotland Yard:

That’s about it! Downton Abbey is calling my name. I hope you’ve all had an enjoyable weekend and have managed to avoid the snow. Until Sunday, the time difference between here and those of you in Ontario is only four hours, not five! Our clocks went back last night. And if you’re in Vancouver, it’s down to seven! We’ll throw up some pictures once we’re back from our trip!

Love you all.

Meg