The Europe Highlights Tour 2012

Aunt Karen, Missy, and Mom on the Thames River cruise

On April 2 my mom, Aunt Karen, and cousin Missy came to visit me. I took the train to London and got to the hotel, checked in, made myself a cup of tea, and waited around, enjoying being able to watch TV for the first time in ages. And I waited. And waited. Their plane was due at around 9 a.m. so I figured they would be at the hotel a couple hours later. By around one I was starting to get panicky, so I texted my sister back in the US and asked her what was going on. She told me their plane had been delayed for eight hours and they hadn't flown out until that morning. Yikes.

So needless to say I had the day in London to myself. I went shopping in Oxford Street and spent way too much in Primark, which was near our hotel, and then walked to Piccadilly Circus. My family didn't end up getting in until around one a.m. Even though everyone was exhausted, it was great to see them again.

Our first day in London we took a red double-decker bus tour so they could get an overview of the sights. Missy and Karen wanted to do the Tower of London, but since I'd already done that and it's pretty expensive I said I'd go do the London Dungeons while they did that and my mom offered to come with me. But Missy and Karen wanted us to stick together, so I ended up dragging them to the Dungeons as well. Big mistake. Someone had told me it was really good, but I thought it would be an actual historical experience and not just a glorified haunted house. So between people dressed like Jack the Ripper jumping out at you and the guy in the video about the London fire of 1666 yelling "FIIIIIRE!" over and over again, it was not what you would call a must-see attraction if you only had about a day in London. And it took forever. We ended up asking the lady dressed up as some sort of witch at the end to let us out a side exit. Someone had brought their baby along (WHY?) and had to duck out early, so we asked if we could go too and the lady said irritably, "You too? Fine" and let us out. We managed to race over to the Tower of London and see it before it closed. Luckily everyone thought the whole thing was pretty funny, but I'm still going to be haunted by the stupid London Dungeons my whole life. We later took a river cruise down the Thames, ate in a pub near Big Ben, and took an 11 p.m. walk to Buckingham Palace (no late-night parties for the Queen - the place was deader than Derby after 10).

Clifford's Tower, York

The next day my mom and I woke up early and took the tube to St. Paul's Cathedral. Since it was Good Friday the cathedral was closed to visitors, but we were allowed to come in and sit and look around. It was really beautiful inside...not as big or old as Westminster but very beautiful. Then Mom and I got tea at a little bakery beside St. Paul's.

Afterward the four of us headed out for York, a place my aunt and cousin wanted to come to because they said it was known for chocolate and ghosts. The old part of it still has many preserved medieval buildings and the old town walls are still in place around the city, which we walked over. We visited the cathedral called the Minster, popped in and out of some cute shops, and walked through the old-fashioned cobbled streets. For dinner we went to an adorable tea parlor called Betty's, where my mom and aunt split afternoon tea. The best thing we did in York was that night - we went on a ghost tour. Our guide led us through the dimly lit medieval streets and told us various gruesome stories from the area. We saw Clifford's Tower at night, which was eerie and impressive, and walked through streets called things like Mad Alice's Lane. Afterward our guide, a really nice gentleman whose name I can't remember, took us to a pub called the Swan, the oldest pub in York—from 1407 I think it was. We all bought drinks and then he took us up to a room on the top floor with some dilapidated tapestries and a massive fireplace and told us stories about the supposedly haunted pub. Good times.

Bath

Then we were on the move again—this time to Bristol because we’d found a cheap flight to Dublin out of Bristol airport. We ended up going to Bath that day instead of Bristol because our hotel was close to both and my family really wanted to see it. I’ve been to Bath but I enjoyed going again. We toured the cathedral and the Roman baths, and even got to see a wedding leaving the cathedral later. All the men wore kilts, even one of the little boys who looked adorable in his. Mom told me to take pictures so I wove through the wedding party as they left the church to get a few pictures. No wonder they hate tourists. We ate dinner at Sally Lunn’s, which is in the oldest house in Bath. The place had something called a Jane Austen room which my aunt thought was a fancy name for the bathroom, so bathrooms became Jane Austen rooms for the rest of the trip. One of the highlights of that day was our taxi driver who took us to and from our hotel. Most of our taxi drivers the whole trip were extremely kind and helpful, but this one was this really sweet old man who chatted to us the whole way—or mostly he and my cousin Missy talked. I’m pretty sure she promised to come back and visit him someday.

River Liffey, Dublin

After that we took the hour-long flight to Dublin. I really liked Dublin, even though I only got a taste of it. We walked around the Temple Bar area—shops, restaurants, pubs, lots of Irish flags. We browsed around there, then walked to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, then came back for dinner. The Irish are so friendly. We ate at a pub/restaurant named Oliver St. John Gogarty’s (love the name) and the second we walked in one of the guys at the bar called out greetings to us and let Missy take a sip of his beer. We got fish-n-chips and corned beef. The nightlife in that area was really thriving—wish I could’ve stayed longer. After that we walked along the River Liffey, which is lit up with green lights under the bridges at night. We went to what was supposedly the oldest pub in Dublin, but it turned out to be a bit boring. I made sure I had a Guinness, though! The other cool thing about Dublin was our hotel—part of it was a castle from the 1100s. They had a great hall area inside and everything.

Me posing on a mountain road

We wanted to see the countryside while in Ireland, so the next day we booked a countryside bus tour. We got picked up from one of the main streets by our jaunty Irish tour guide and driven to the seaside and then through the mountains for most of the day. I think that was probably my mom’s favorite bit; she was beaming the whole time. For most of my life I’ve listened to her talk about how Ireland is “on her bucket list,” so I could tell this meant a lot to her. Anyway, it was predictably gray and rainy but still amazing. I don’t know how our guide managed to talk to us about everything and drive along the narrow mountain roads. On one of the cliffs he pulled out a bottle of Irish whiskey and gave everyone a shot. I’ve never seen my mom take a shot, so that was a magical moment. We saw waterfalls, little villages, lakes, mountain goats, and had a tea break with massive sugary scones. So a great day all in all—or grand as they say.

Notre Dame

Before we could get too cozy in Ireland it was time to leave for Paris. Paris was a bit cold and damp when we were there, but the buildings were still beautiful. One of the first things we did—after getting some French soup, bread, and cheese—was Notre Dame. Very cool and basically made me want to yell “SANCTUARY!” a lot. We did another bus tour and got a pretty good overview of the city. The buildings there are all so fancy, and I love how many streets are lined with trees. The Eiffel Tower at night is incredible, and for the first five minutes of every hour it sparkles. The second day my aunt and cousin did their own thing for a few hours while my mom and I took the short train ride to Versailles, which I’d always dreamed of seeing. My mom was there a long time ago and she said they had cleaned it up a lot since she’d been. I loved getting to see the Hall of Mirrors. I wish the audio guides had been more informational, though—one thing I’ve learned since I’ve been here is that I hate audio guides, which mainly end up telling you about furnishings and architecture when all you want to hear is some scandal and history. Which Versailles would have had a lot of. Oh well. Still so worth seeing, despite the giant line at the entrance.

Versailles

After that she and I hopped back on the bus tour and went to see Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides. It’s gigantic—as my mom said, “Little man…big tomb.” Then we decided to go to the shopping street, Champs-Elysees; we have a painting of it in my house that my parents actually bought in Paris years ago so it was great seeing it in person. We bought some bread from one of the bakeries there and sat outside for a bit despite the cold, then wandered down to the Arc de Triomphe.

Mom and I with the Eiffel Tower!

We met up with the rest of the family, got dressed up, and went out for dinner at a place called Le Coude Fou…which could mean “We’ll Spit in Your Food” for all the French I know. The waiters spoke almost no English but were very friendly. I wanted to try authentic French food so I got paté as a starter and then duck as the main course. So many regrets. What everyone else had was delicious, but I could barely stomach mine. Paté is disgusting. Or at least that one was. Never again.

Sadly my mom left the next day—she only got to be with us a week. We missed her a lot for the rest of the trip. Karen, Missy, and I had a relaxed day wandering Paris. We had a long lunch near a square with a fountain. We passed a statue of a strange man with a golden face, at which point my cousin said, “Wait…I have to see this little golden man” and walked up to it, only to have the statue bend down to look at her when she came close. We all screamed bloody murder and walked away quickly. As Missy, who is from NYC, said, “I’ve seen people dressed as statues before, this ain’t my first rodeo.” Rookie mistake.

We bid adieu to Paris and flew over the Alps to Venice. Getting to Venice was one of the most exhausting parts. You take a plane to an airport on the mainland, then a water bus to Venice itself. We also had a lot of confusion finding our bed-and-breakfast, which involved me texting an Italian who spoke very little English but put a lot of exclamation points and smiley faces as he tried to explain where we should go to reach his hotel. It was about 11 p.m. when we got to Venice, and despite our exhaustion we were impressed—St. Mark’s Square was still well lit and an orchestra was playing nearby. Over cobblestone streets and dilapidated bridges, through winding alleys…it was a lot to take in even at night.

Karen and Missy on top of St. Mark's, with a view of the square

Venice was amazing just because it’s so different from every other place. They don’t have cars—everyone walks or goes by boat. The water in the canals is this pretty green color. St. Mark’s Basilica was our first stop. The ceiling is all 24 karat gold and inside the treasure room are saints’ relics in gold cases—old bones, withered fingers, skulls. Gotta love it. I loved all the buildings—they all looked worn and old but they were still so elaborate. My cousin loved all the fanciness. We had some spaghetti carbonara at an outdoor café, then saw the Church of San Zaccariah for the body housed in it that supposedly never decomposed. The body was a bit of a bust because you couldn’t even really see it very well. You could go into the crypt for a euro which we gladly paid. I wanted to see some bones or bodies or something gory. But sadly the crypt was flooded. My aunt and cousin retreated, but I wanted my euro’s worth so I waded a few steps into the crypt. Instant regret followed, along with the unfortunate nickname “Crypt Feet.” Alas.

Venice!

We then hit up the Doge’s Palace. Lots of gold and grandeur, and we got to walk through the Bridge of Sighs. That night we did a gondola ride. They are more expensive at night but it’s also less crowded and everything is beautiful all lit up. That was one of the highlights of Venice. Our gondolier spoke excellent English and told us facts about the city and also about his life growing up in Venice. We rowed through the quiet city to the Rialto Bridge and the area around there. All the lights on the water were gorgeous. Afterward we had a quiet dinner outside near one of the canals. Venice was definitely a highlight of the trip.

Missy and I on the gondola ride

The next day we took a train to our last stop, Rome. I’d always heard drivers in Rome were terrible, which was demonstrated when our cab driver made a few most likely illegal turns and hit the curb a few times. The first day we basically raced to make our tour of the Vatican on time. Loved it…there was so much gold and grandeur and so many beautiful paintings that it’s hard to separate it all out in my head. The Sistine Chapel was cool to see, of course, but I thought the room itself seemed smaller than I expected—but that was probably because it was packed to the gills with tourists. St. Peter’s was also beautiful and slightly overwhelming for how massive a scale everything was on. My aunt really liked the Michelangelo sculpture, the Piata.

Since we were starving by this point, we hunted down a restaurant our hotel recommended only to find out it wasn’t open until 6. We ducked into a little pizza shop for a snack, and the mozzarella pizza we had there turned out to be the best pizza of the whole trip—much better than the more expensive pizza we got at other restaurants. Wish we would’ve gotten more food there! After dinner we walked to Trevi Fountain, which I loved, and then basically collapsed back at our hotel.

Trevi Fountain

I really like ancient history, so we went to Palatine Hill and the Forum the next day to see some Roman ruins. I wish we’d gotten an audio guide or something because there were times we didn’t know what we were looking at, but our faithful Rick Steves book was of some help with that. My aunt had also been before so she remembered a lot of cool facts. The Colosseum was incredible to walk around in as well. The only downside was the windy, rainy weather. Our next step was the Pantheon, the best preserved Roman building because it’s been in use for thousands of years. After that my aunt took us to a quiet, less touristy square where we walked through a church and listened to the fountains as evening fell. It was a more relaxing end to a somewhat hectic day.

We flew back to London for a night, ate excellent fish and chips at Poppie’s and strolled around Piccaddilly Circus, and they left on the morning of the seventeenth. I had a wonderful adventure with them—still can’t believe we did it all without dying of exhaustion, really! So grateful to my family for coming and so happy I got to see them!

Cousins at the Colosseum

I’m still really behind on this blog considering this happened about two months ago and I’m leaving the UK in less than two weeks…oh well! More updates to follow!