Month: May 2015

Last day and coming home

SDSpivey

It continued being unseasonably cold in Inverness and very windy.

We took a bus tour around town. It was a Hop-on Hop-off brand bus, seemingly popular in Europe, where you buy a day’s ticket and can ride as much as you want and get on and off at will. They also have audio commentary throughout the ride, remarking on features as you pass them.

At one point the bus crosses a canal and is talking about the locks and the lochs, very hard to differentiate by ear.

We walked across a foot bridge to a couple small islands in the River Ness and visited the Botanical Gardens.

The gardens had all sorts of flowering plants, cactus, shrubs, and even vegetables. On a cold day, it really felt good to go into the “tropical house”, even though it was probably on in the 60’s, it felt warm and wonderful.

We also stopped at a weaver’s shop, where you can watch them make wool cloth or tartans. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any one doing it while we were there. The shop had huge amounts of clothes, mostly wool, and souvenirs and a large selection of Scotch whiskey.

I did finally realize why the day seems so long, besides all the walking of course. I checked a program on my phone and got that we were at latitude 57.5, less than 9 degrees from the Arctic Circle, above which you can have at least one day without any sunset.

This also helps explain the cold.

We had to get up early to catch the plane, so I set my alarm on my phone. Early the next morning we were awoken by a loud alarm, but it wasn’t mine. The fire alarm was going off.

We went down, but when I got to the bottom of the stairway, it was just me and another girl. It appears that everyone else decided to ignore safety protocol and take time to get their shoes and jackets and such. Meanwhile, I am standing there in just my pants, no shoes, no shirt. At least I wasn’t wearing shorts.

Since we were up and everyone else was up, we went ahead and took our things and headed next door to the bus stop.

Upon check in at the Inverness airport, they had no record of mom’s flight info and I find out that the airline had changed my schedule after I had already landed in Europe. Since I had a print out of the bookings, the clerk issued a ticket for mom anyway and required us to check in at the next airport, Manchester, in order to fix the scheduling.

I noticed that our seats were not together, despite the seat next to me being empty. So I was able to stretch out a bit on the flight.

When I got home, I realized that I had forgotten where I hid the keys on the back porch, and I didn’t have a light to look for them. But one of the doors wasn’t closed firmly so I was able to get in and turn on the back light. Took me several minutes to find them.

Day 25, Inverness

SDSpivey

The night train I had booked was supposed to be a straight through, we were constantly making stops on the way. Despite the 30 minute head start, we still didn’t arrive until 30 minutes late. That makes 13 hours on the train, without anything to do or eat.

We watched the scenery as we made the final few hours through the country side. Saw many sheep and lambs and snow on the mountains in the distance.

Finally we arrived. The station had WiFi, so I was able to finally look at the map. A quick trip down the road and we were at the last hostel for this trip.

We dumped our bags and walked around town. It was freezing, down in the mid 40’s and gusty winds, so we made it a short trip out.

After a crashing on the sofa, it was a bit sunnier and we went back out, going to St. Andrews church and Inverness Castle, which is a working court house.

Every flag I see is a Scottish flag, the only Union Jack was part of St. Andrews Cross flag, in the church. I take it they still think of themselves as Scots, not as part of the UK.

Despite the cold, the days here in Europe are long. As I write this, it is after 10pm, but the sun is just setting.

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Day 24, Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey

SDSpivey

On Sunday we had to check out of the room and then head out to Heathrow Airport, where I had a rental car waiting.

I drove out to Highclere Castle, where the popular show Downton Abbey is partly filmed.

I really had reservations about driving on the wrong side of the car. I frequently drive in the left lane, so that wasn’t too fearful, but sitting on the right side of the car is unusual, much less driving on that side.

I didn’t have too much trouble, other than a drifting to the left on occasion. As we were leaving the castle, we were following a single lane road for quite a while, so when I turned onto a real road, I was on the wrong side for a few moments before I recovered. Luckily no one was coming.

There was some sort of “game festival” also going on elsewhere on the property, but didn’t affect us getting there. It must be nice to have property big enough that you can have two events, without conflict.

As we were awaiting entry into the castle, we saw the Countess Carnarvon escorting Newt Ginrich and wife.

Inside is mostly still original, with the only new items being the family photos displayed all over, much like any home. With the exception that most homes don’t have candid photos of the Queen or young Princess Diana.

With the house being so old (1830’s), there is obvious wear and destruction, which is one of the reasons for allowing visitations to the estate, to help pay for the expensive restorations needed.

The 5th Earl Carnarvon was co-discoverer, with Howard Carter, of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the 1922, there is a permanent exhibit on site of the mummy and casket and many various other artifacts found throughout his explorations.

We had lunch at the manor house amongst the many children playing on the back lawn. Afterward we strolled the gardens, including the “secret” garden, which isn’t very secret with a sign pointing the way.

With the rain threatening, and a night train to catch, we headed back to Heathrow.

Despite the navigator having all the Enterprise locations pre-installed, it did not have Heathrow, so I programmed it to go to the zip code of the agency. We spent at least half an hour trying to follow the directions, the signs didn’t list any rental locations and the navigator was too slow with the directions to easily get into the correct lane or make the correct turn.

I did finally get there, but I was unable to find and gas stations on the way back, so I was hit with a£40 refueling charge, about what I pay to fill my entire tank.

We then took the underground back into town to the train station.

There was little chance to get food on the train, at least not until morning, so we grabbed a bit at the station. Then I went to check the board to see if there was a platform listed yet, we still had over an hour.

There was only one train listed at our departure time, and that was going elsewhere.

I went to the info booth, but was closed, so I headed to the ticket area. It is all ticket machines, but I did spot an employee, so I asked him about it. He walked out to the board and looked also, and did not see the train listed, either. So he went back into his office area and came back with the news that the train schedule had been push up 30 minutes and was currently boarding.

I grabbed Mom and we headed to the platform, where the employees there also knew nothing about the change, but the porter did.

I have never hear of anyone pushing a schedule ahead before. We were well under way before the original departure came about. If we had been 20 minutes later getting to the station, we would have been stuck. I really expect better from Richard Branson’s Virgin brand.

This cabin was even smaller that the previous had been, but at least we were in it, instead of sitting at the station.

Day 20 to 23, To London

SDSpivey

This is going to be a long post as I am jamming all of London into one post, because of the lack of internet.

We have had an ongoing problem with early arrivals, by not being to check in to our rooms until twoish. Oddly, the only one we could check in before noon was the one where we wouldn’t arrive before 2.

We left our Paris hostel and walked down to the train station, about a mile, but at least it was all down hill. The train to London was about 2.5 hours, just long enough to be boring, but not enough time to sleep.

Since UK doesn’t use euros, we utilized the changer at King’s Cross (the Harry Potter station) to get pounds. With a fist full of new cash, we splurged on a taxi (£14) instead of the “tube” to get to our hostel.

We should have saved our money, 4 days in London cost over £700 (about $1100). Everything in London is expensive. The exchange rate is about £3 to $2, so you need to add 50% more to any price to determine equivalent pricing to US.

I had booked a 20-bed dorm, but we ended up having to use the top bunks of designed-for-children bunk beds and there were only four outlets, right next to each other. We went down and tried upgrading and managed to get a private 3-bed room to ourselves. Oddly, the beds were almost touching, side-by-side, going across one wall. They really should have put in a king size, instead of 3 singles. Unfortunately, that room was only available 1 night, so we had to transfer the next morning to a 4-bed dorm, we were the first in, so we snagged the bottom bunks. Woo Hoo!

The first day we went into the underground station, right on the corner, and the attendant at the ticket machine got us to buy an “Oyster Card” which is just a RFID card that allows you to bypass the ticket machines and pay ahead. I was skeptical, but I didn’t want to have to specify my destination for every ticket I bought.

The tickets were high almost £5, which is 3 times higher than Italy or Paris. I initially put £15 (plus £5 deposit) on each card and later another £10. After riding all over, dozens of trips, the final balance was still more than £6. That card was the only thing that saved us any money on this trip. I don’t understand the deposit, because we got that back and still have the cards.

We went out to London Bridge, rather a boring bridge now days, there isn’t anything on the bridge like it used to be. It used to be lined on each side with houses and shops, much like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.

We crossed and then walked the wharf to the Tower Bridge. This is the bridge most people think of when they imagine the London Bridge. It has two towers that support the roadway and hold the machinery that raises the two middle spans, allowing tall ships to pass.

You can take a lift up to the top of one tower and cross over to the next, walking over a glass floor.

We had a quick lunch of fish and chips, then took a tour of the London Tower, a fort/castle and home of some of England’s kings and where some of those kings imprisoned some of the king’s enemies and critics.

There is also an exhibition of the crown jewels at the Tower. Unfortunately, most of the crowns had been scavenged by later kings to make new crowns for themselves, so many are just gold and fur, no gems. You would think they would at least fill them with fake stones.

The next day, we rode the London Eye, basically an enclosed ferris wheel, which is on the river bank of the Thames. Then walked across the Westminster bridge to the House of Commons, where the clock tower containing Big Ben, which is the large bell, not the tower.

Next door is Westminster Abbey, the place of many royal coronations and weddings. They wanted £20 to enter and wouldn’t allow any photos, so we skipped it. We wanted to head over to Buckingham Palace, but there was something going on and we couldn’t.

Our room is across the road from Hyde Park, a huge park with a large duck and swan pond, and the Diana Memorial Gardens.

On the other side of the park is a blue police box, the only Tardis in London. Nearby is the Natural History Museum. On room has over forty double sided cases with mineral and crystal samples, way more than anyone could take in. There was also a 5 pound natural quartz crystal “spear”, that was almost totally clear. There were so many beautiful colors of minerals, the whole rainbow must have been represented.

The mammal room had a full size model of a blue whale, a huge model, dwarfing the elephants and other models.

They had various extinct and near extinct stuffed animals, including a bunch neither of us has ever heard of.

There was a skeleton of a dodo bird, which is ironic as the nearby Oxford Museum had the last known full specimen but a clerk had thrown it out, believing it to be garbage.

Day 19, Musée d’Orsay

SDSpivey

This morning we went to the Musée d’Orsay.

It is filled with more modern art than the Louvre, with many paintings by Renoir, Van Gogh, Pissaro, Degas, Manet, and Monet.

There was only one elevator that we could find to go up, all the others were closed behind doors, hidden from casual use.

Afterwards, we crossed the bridge and grabbed some food and ate in the Louvre gardens at a round fountain, feeding a few of the baby ducks a bit of our bread.

The temperature here is in the low 60’s, with wind blowing and shifting directions. Neither of us brought any sort of jacket, but I did have my Inverness, FL sweatshirt, thankfully. Mom had to break down and admit she was cold and bought a Paris sweatshirt this morning.

Day 18, Le Louvre

SDSpivey

We spend most of the day at the Louvre Museum, starting off going down to the Egyptian exhibit.

There is a walkway that originally would have been under water, in the moat, making up the wall of the original small castle, before it was expanded and expanded.

There were a number of sarcophagi, more than I thought even existed.

The cafe wasn’t too high priced and was surprisingly good. In part, I ordered a small yogurt, which came in a terracotta cup, for some reason. I might have kept it to reuse, but it had yogurt residue inside, plus I didn’t want to carry this heavy thing around all day, but I felt guilty about throwing it away.

Smartly, we then found the elevator and headed for the top floor. Working down the stairs is so much easier than working our way up them.

After looping to and fro throughout the various rooms, we headed straight for the room with the Mona Lisa, huge crowd of people around it, of course. They were acting as if that was the only painting in the whole place. I doubt they even noticed the other paintings within that room.

With our legs giving out and rain threatening, we called it a night.

Day 17, Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame

SDSpivey

We started out the day going to the Eiffel Tower. That sucker is tall!

The base sits on stone pedestals about 30 feet square and are spaced 100 feet apart.

They have a double-decker elevator that goes up to the second level, at an angle, then you have to switch to another elevator to go straight up to the top.

There are people climbing the stairs. These people are crazy and need to be locked up for their own safety.

Oddly, the Sacré Cœur can be seen from even the second level, day or night, but the Eiffel Tower isn’t visible from the church. Even the top of the tower is still way below the elevation of the church and is lost in among the buildings.

We headed over to the Arc de Triomphe. When I asked the ticket guy if there was an elevator, he responded with a yes, but that there were still stairs after that to get to the roof. He lied. We had to climb a LOOOONG spiral staircase up to the inner room, then climb more stairs to get up on top.

We then walked down the Champs-Élysées to the river and crossed over to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was free and the line wasn’t long. It is really just a quick loop around the outer edges of the floor, leaving the center for prayers and other church duties.

It was rather dark inside and dirty. Not garbage on the floor, but a dinginess from centuries of dust and candle soot. All of the old buildings are the same way, they can’t be cleaned without doing damage, but this was a bit worse.

Also, while we could see the actual Notre-dame statue (the “Our Lady”), you could only see it from the back. Even the people praying would have been to far back to see it well.

Later that night, we headed back to the Eiffel Tower, to see it lit up and to go up. Did I mention it is TALL?

Day 15 & 16, Last of Italy, Arrival in France

SDSpivey

I had made a huge mistake. We had to check out of the hostel by 10 AM, but would not leave on the train until 11 PM, a thirteen hour wait.

We had a few options:

  • Drag the bags around with us all day as we browse the town.
  • Leave the baggage at the hostel until 5, then go to the train station.
  • Or take the bags to the station and check them.

The first option was no option. I only have one bag, but it is heavy and awkward. Mom has three. Also, there was rain forecasted.

The second was viable, but if we didn’t get back before 5, they would charge us for another night, AND we would still have to lug it around for 6 hours.

We decided on the third. We had already gone by the train station, on our walks, and found that it would be 6 euros per bag. That is 24€, but so much better than lugging them around.

Unfortunately, we neglected to notice (or remember) that this was only for the first 5 hours, an additional .90€ per hour was needed. We were already at the station, so we had little choice.

It ended up being over 57 euros, we would have been better off paying for another night. Then we could have had a nap, since because of the high winds and possible rain, we didn’t do anything all day.

There are only about 50 seats for about a billion people in the station, so when we got a couple, we stayed in them, taking turns going off to the potty.

I have actually found a good use for McDonald’s restaurant, they have free bathrooms. The station had a long line with a 1€ entrance fee. We also hit a McD’s in Rome, near the Spanish Steps, as there didn’t seem to be any toilets around.

The rain came much latter than the forecast predicted, but it was a doozy. The normal roar of the people talking was actually drowned out by the rain hitting the roof.

Finally, our train popped up on the departure board, so we decided to go ahead and go through the security gate. I don’t know why there was one, I didn’t see them checking tickets or baggage, just merely getting everyone to funnel through a tight doorway instead of the huge walkway they had walled off.

Going through early turned out to be a bad decision as there were no seats on that side, so we stood around the display waiting for our train’s platform number to be displayed (like everyone else in the secure area.)

At one point some station worker led a man over to the board and pointed out the man’s train and where the platform number would be when ready. Only the man was French and the station worker was speaking Italian.

I think the man was a bit slow and he just stood there for about two minutes just staring at the board, then was looking around nervously. As I was standing closest to him he asked me something in French about the train for Paris. Since I was going there and I knew the train was supposed to arrive in platform 8, I stated so, in my best French. I wasn’t 100% on that point, so I probably shouldn’t have said anything.

He then took off looking for #8, which was right in front of me, but he ran off anyway.

He eventually wandered back around and was staring at the display again. I couldn’t remember how to say 30, so I told him it would be 25 minutes. Close enough, right?

He then wandered over to #9, which had a train waiting. I didn’t see him again, so I hope he didn’t get on the wrong one.

Luckily our train car was the 3rd one, so we didn’t have to walk far to get on. (Unfortunately, that meant we were at the end of the train when we arrived.)

It was easy to get from the train to the Paris Metro, if you don’t count the numerous flights of stairs.

We were able to drop off our bags at the hostel, and then went out exploring. As long as you have money, you will never go hungry in Paris, there is a food vender every few yards.

I saw a shop across the boulevard wit h neon lights and made a joke to Mom about that being a strip club. Later we found out it <em>is</em> a strip club. There is an entire section of the street with strip clubs, sex toy shops, videos, or whatever.

Stranger still, are the families strolling along with their kids, as if it were just any street on a brisk Saturday morning.

The Moulin Rouge is also in the area, it is just a burlesque house, so it fits in well.

The Sacré Cœur (“sacred heart”) church is only a block north of our room, but it is literally about 500 feet up. It was built on the highest point in Paris. It even has a train that runs up the hill side, quite at a steep angle ~65°.

We walked around the streets beside the church, hoping that we could just gradually make our way up, but every time we turned a corner, there was a steep set of stairs that would have to be scaled.

We took a “short cut” through an old cemetery, but there was no exit, so we had to walk back out.

We finally made it to the top. The view was freaking great. There is about a 120° view of the city for miles and miles, unobstructed by any buildings or trees, of course you still have to see past the people.

There was only one way down, hundreds and hundreds of stairs. I know that we have done an entire year’s worth of exercise so far in the past 2 weeks, and there are still miles and miles left to walk.

Day 13 & 14, Lazy days

SDSpivey
Milan Duomo

We went downtown to the large church Duomo, but they wanted to charge admission, so we just walked around awhile. All I wanted was to go up to the roof to see the city anyways. It was under repairs, so that was out.

Milan looks so much like the other cities that we have visited, we ended up back at the room and crashed out for a few hours.

It was hot and humid, and after so much walking, we were just tired of everything.

It is now the 14th, so we are halfway done.