Euro trip - Nov 2019 - Part Two (London)

17 November 2019 - London, UK

The plan was to start early - get some good old full English breakfast and do as many things as our aged bodies possibly can. We did start early; unfortunately, the restaurant we had planned on going to was still closed (side note: internet results are not always accurate.. surprise!) so we ended up getting coffee and a light breakfast from a Pret A Manger near the train station. Then with food in our tummies, and armed with oyster cards and cameras, we were off to seize the day... carpe-ing the diem or something of the sort.

First on our agenda, Abbey Road. There were a few people already (though not too many as it was still early-ish) at the "Beatles" site, waiting to cross the road and do the pose with a wary eye towards oncoming traffic - I actually didn't realize before then that it is an "active" road.

Next stop: Notting Hill and Portobello Road, including the famous blue door (from the Notting Hill movie). Nice little neighborhood. No sign of William Thacker or Anna Scott though.

Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. We found a fish and chips stand by the Tower entrance so we made a quick stop to split one order - had to have fish and chips while in London, eh. 

We didn't have enough time to go inside so we just took some photos outside and crossed the Tower Bridge - sometimes mistaken as the London Bridge referred to in the song (and no, thankfully, it is not going down going down going down). 

After a needed rest/break for our aching feet and legs at a small park near the bridge, we walked again in search of lunch. Unfortunately, another setback, the restaurant we initially went to was packed - they said Sunday lunches usually are - and they referred us to another place (The Trinity) instead, where the food, as it turned out, was actually pretty good. 

Sunday Roast and Scotch Eggs

Leadenhall Market. This place was featured as Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies. As it was a Sunday, some of the shops were closed. Still, it was a nice place to just walk for a few minutes and imagine a place to where no ordinary muggles can go.

 

Covent Garden Market. Wonderful shopping hub, a bit on the high end for a lot of the shops. And since it was mid-November, it was close enough to Christmas for lots of beautiful festive decorations. (I just really love Christmas! 😊)  Also had my first ever English Afternoon Tea in a little tea shop called Whittard of Chelsea.... so fancy. 😏😂

Afternoon Tea at Whittard of Chelsea

Evening mass at Westminster Cathedral.  

A small (or perhaps not so small to the British, I apologize) ignoramus moment: I thought we could go to St Paul's Cathedral and spend some time there for mass... only to realize sometime during the day (and fortunately, before actually going there) that it is an Anglican church. 😳  So we decided, as we didn't have enough time anyway, to just skip this and go to Westminster Cathedral instead.

After the evening mass, we went back to our hotel to get our stuff and decided to wait at the train station for our night train to Edinburgh. A nice lady at the Euston station let us stay at the lounge (and have some snacks/refreshments) until it was time to board our train - it was still a couple hours wait so we were very thankful for this. 

The Caledonian Sleeper was nice -- to me, as a first timer on a sleeper train. Though our room was a bit tight for two people (and two weeks worth of luggage), I wasn't really expecting it to be otherwise anyway.  It was a very interesting experience taking a shower over the toilet (covered though) while trying to maintain your balance or brushing your teeth while watching the country-side pass by. There was a tiny hitch at breakfast, but it was so tiny I won't ruin this post by going into details.

Overall, not a bad full day in London. Still so many places and things I wish we could have seen and done -- clearly, London is not meant to be explored in a day -- but I will back. Someday. I still have money in my Oyster Card left to use after all. 😜

"Perhaps in the darkest times all we can do is refuse to be part of the darkness."

- Guy Gavriel Kay (A Brightness Long Ago)

Euro trip - Nov 2019 - Part One

Last November (feels like forever ago now), I actually found a couple of friends - two of my closest friends from college - to go with me on a trip. 🤣 After a couple of months planning and coordinating -- none of us are within a thousand mile radius of each other, and one is even on the other side of the planet -- we finally embarked on our amazing-race-ish trip to Europe. We had a lot planned... we were too old for this kind of trip, we said; but still very young at heart so we would come out of it alive, or so we convinced ourselves. lololol. 

Our journey started in London (at least for 2 of us) -- I flew in from St Louis and arrived in London around mid-day while Michelle flew in from Manila arriving close to midnight, so I had a whole afternoon and half of the night to myself. 

After London, Michelle and I would head to Edinburgh and explore Scotland a bit for a few days before heading to Stockholm to meet Meann for the rest of our trip.

This was actually the only journal entry I wrote during the entire trip on the first night in London - I was either too wiped out most nights after this or I was too busy chatting with my friends, whom I hadn't seen in years before this.

*****

16 November 2019

8:57 PM - London

25,678 steps as of writing this, and I really only did most of the walking in the afternoon. I am exhausted right now, but I will try to write as much as humanly possible.

Today, I am thankful for:

1. fairly uneventful flights. no delays. long layover in NY as planned, which was good because I had to go to a different airport and the traffic from LGA to JFK was terrible. Flight from JFK to Gatwick was on a B787-9, which had those cool windows -- the kind where you push on a button to dim/block light from outside. 😎

2. Thameslink train from Gatwick to St. Pancras - not too bad. I had no problems finding the train station at the airport and I was able to sit down though there wasn't enough room in the luggage rack so I had to hold mine while trying to not block the aisle and hoping nobody would yell at me.

3. SIM card - unfortunately, advanced planning doesn't always work out; the one I bought at the airport vending machine (yes, I researched about this beforehand) was a total waste... £20 down the drain. But I was able to buy a new one at an EE store in Camden Market.

4. lunch at a Diner in Camden Market - not the most British way to welcome London but the line, umm excuse me, the queue (when in Rome...) at the Poppie's, where I originally wanted to have some fish and chips was too long and by that time, I was already literally shaking from hunger. It was past 1 pm at this point and the last meal I had was on the plane.

5. finally armed with a working SIM card, I started my "pasyal" for the day - took the Underground to Hyde Park but went back to the hotel first to checkin. Because of the whole fiasco with the SIM card, I lost some precious time so it was already starting to get dark when I arrived in Hyde Park. Still looked pretty though from what I saw of it.

6. from Hyde Park, I walked to Buckingham Palace and took some pictures there, along with my fellow tourists. 😁

7. I had planned on going to St James's Park next but it was already too dark at that point so I just took a quick photo of the one part of the park I saw.

8. then walked to Westminster Bridge. The last time I was in London (Nov 2018), Big Ben still had scaffolding covering most of it - it still did today unfortunately. 😞  I took pictures of what I could see of it and of the London Eye (with the pretty lights). I crossed the bridge halfway. 

9. headed to Trafalgar square next. By that time, my feet and legs were killing me and my bladder was about to explode. So I decided to find a cafe and take a break. The place was packed, probably mostly with tourists who needed to take a break like me, so I had to let someone else join me at my table. Chatted with a couple of people at my table and the table next. I find the British really friendly - at least the ones I talked to at the cafe today. :)

10. feeling rested enough to go back to walking, I took a few pictures in Trafalgar Square then walked back towards the Thames River to Cleopatra's Needle.

11. I had originally planned to walk all the way to the Millennium Bridge and cross it but finally accepted old age and gave in to my aching feet - found the closest train station and took the Thameslink back to the hotel, where I am now in bed writing this and waiting for Michelle to arrive.

12. oh yeah, I bought an Oyster Card which was really useful today - some £££ actually well spent.

Tomorrow, more London.

journal entry: Espana parte cinco

25 March 2019

8:59 PM

Last day in Spain for this trip. (Tomorrow doesn't count since I have a really early flight - 6:30 AM)

I had a great time - consumed a lot of food, walked a lot of steps, learned a lot of things, visited most of the places I had planned to see.

I am very grateful for this trip. Today, specifically, I am thankful for:

1. Plaça de Catalunya - following the Barcelona City self-guided walk by Rick Steves, I started out from this square. The Times Square of Barcelona. 

2. Barri Gotic neighborhood

3. Barcelona Cathedral - also Gothic and beautiful inside

  

4. Palau de la Musica Catalana - very beautiful concert venue. Stained glass windows and very unique ceiling. It would be nice to see (and listen) to a concert there someday.

5. Mercat Santa Caterina - had an empanada and a paper cone with different small pieces of ham in it.

6. Museu Picasso de Barcelona - it was nice to learn that Picasso had different kinds of work other than what he became really famous for. (no pictures inside)

7. Cafeteria at El Corte Ingles - nice cafeteria in the top floor of a mall. Had paella, fried pieces of squid, and a small lemony cake. Food was okay. View from the top was nice.

8. Rambla de Mar - at the end of La Rambla is this place by the water. find a shady spot (or not if you don't mind the sun) and just sit and enjoy the view.

9. Pudding - nice little cafe a few blocks from the hotel. Had cafe con leche and chocolate cake.

Realizations:

1. I feel like if my feet had their own mouth, they would be screaming bloody murder at me right now.

2. lots of walking in the heat of the sun - I am definitely not a fan. This is now my second enemy when travelling, right next to tummy problems, which surprisingly didn't make an appearance this trip.

3. favorite food that I've tasted on this trip: 

    -tortilla (spanish omelette) - 2 out of the 3 times

    -mazapan (from Toledo) and ponche segoviana (from Segovia)

    -paella. (I feel like I just didn't go to the right places or the right places were not an option to solo travelers like me -- but I really love seafood and even though those that I did taste were not as mind-blowing as I would have liked them to be, I still liked them)

4. artist/architect I was most impressed with: Antoni Gaudi. Hands down.

5. favorite church: La Sagrada Familia followed by the Toledo Cathedral.

Barcelona is now one of my favorite cities visited.

journal entry: Espana parte cuatro

Just a little note regarding these journal entries... mostly (about 95%), I just copy verbatim whatever I wrote on my journal and then pick some photos I took that day when I post here. However, when I'm dead tired at the end of said day and trying to write on this journal, my grammar usually goes down the drain... a little more than usual. So I do have to make some little edits (corrections) sometimes. Not that what I end up posting is good, I'm just saying that what I wrote in my journal is worse. 😁

I do have to say, typing these journal entries personally leaves me with a bitter-sweet feeling... I am still a little bummed that I had to cancel my recent trip and my heart aches a bit thinking that travel will probably not go back to the pre-coronavirus normal in the immediate future; but mostly, I'm just really really grateful for the trips that I did get to go on and experience and see the things that I did.
So for now, I will have to be content with dreaming of travels past and future. Cheers! 😀

*****

24 March 2019
9:54 PM - Barcelona

Oh my Gaudi! I am in awe.

Today, I am thankful for:

1. train to Barcelona - 7:30 AM train so I had to check out of the hotel early then took an Uber to the train station. Train ride was thankfully uneventful so was able to sleep a little. Then I had to take a Suburban (local train to get me a little closer to the hotel) and walk the rest of the way, luggage in tow. Although check in was not yet available at the hotel, I was able to leave my luggage so I could do a bit of exploring.

2. Las Ramblas. It did get a little hot today but I enjoyed walking down this street. There's a fountain near the start (or end) of Las Ramblas, near Placa de Catalunya; tradition has it that whoever drinks from this fountain will come back to Barcelona. So here's hoping that is true. 😀

Font de Canaletes

3. La Sagrada Familia - so unbelievably beautiful, it literally brought tears to my eyes. I'm not even joking. I mean, I was expecting it to be beautiful, but I wasn't really prepared for what I saw. Wow. Just wow. I am now a fan of Gaudi. The attention to detail, and how each one is largely based on nature, it's simply astounding. So unique in design and really amazing. I would definitely want to come back to see when it's finished (2027). Puhon.
(Note: photos don't do it justice. That's my excuse.)

4. Vasanta Hotel Boutique - my room is really nice, like something I would get on a business trip when I'm not paying for it personally (haha!). But yes, I got a really good deal on this.

5. Casa Mila - again beautiful work by Gaudi. It's just amazing how everything is based on trees or vines or whale skeletons or beehives or sea shells or whatever natural thing or living being, and then just becomes this wonderful man-made work of art. I wish I was staying one more day so I could see more of Gaudi's work.

6. the food - I almost forgot about this. Ciudad Condal for some tapas and lunch and Faborit Casa Amatller for some chocolate and dessert. yum! Casa Amatller is another modernism style building - I didn't have time to go in but it looked really pretty from outside. Another of Gaudi's - Casa Batllo - is right beside it but unfortunately was covered in scaffolding.

Casa Amatller

journal entry: Espana parte tres

23 March 2019
9:42 PM - Madrid

Early train to Barcelona tomorrow so I'll keep this one short.
Today, I am thankful for:

1. Chocolate con porras - back again at Chocolateria San Gines for breakfast 😁, this time decided to try the thicker version of the churro. yum!

2. Royal Palace of Madrid - very impressive and definitely bigger than the Segovia Alcazar.

3. Cocido Madrileño - in one of those outdoor restaurants at Plaza Mayor. I can't even remember the name of the restaurant. The trouble with restaurants in Spain is that not a lot are open for lunch at noon or earlier (well, "trouble" for someone like me who's used to a different lunch schedule). I really wanted to try this dish before leaving Madrid so I thought I'd check online if there are any restaurants open early. I found some that said online they were open but they actually were not. So that's how I ended up in Plaza Mayor just trying to browse through all the restaurants there. It wasn't bad where I had it, but it probably was not cooked/served the traditional way.

4. Retiro Park - very beautiful park. I really actually liked this park. It did get a little hot at one point (and after I've done a bit of walking) but there was an abundance of trees to provide the necessary and much welcome shade. At one part of the park, there was a big group of people just standing there all looking at their phones and I was wondering why so I just kinda pass behind a couple of them and inconspicuously glanced at their phones and guess what.... pokemon go! 🤣 that was awesome!

5. #27 bus - a very nice break from all the walking. It was great to see the modern part of the city - Madrid really is a big city and pretty diverse in its architecture.

taken from inside the bus

6. Cibeles and Gran Via

Plaza de Cibeles

7. Chocolateria Valor - churros and frozen chocolate. The place was packed, which perhaps excuse the slightly non-ideal service. The food was yummy though.

8. Plaza de España

9. Templo de Debod - a lot of people, most of them waiting for the sunset, I think, since this was one of the places highly recommended for sunset viewing. I went there for that purpose but decided in the end not to wait.

view from Templo de Debod park