Archive | November, 2017

Lessons Learned

21 Nov
19 November 2017.
No matter how many trips we take, we learn something new to apply to the next adventure. Just last week I learned I should have a packing list even going to Portland for two nights as I managed to pack the car and forgot to bring a jacket. In Oregon. In November. Hello, Columbia store! I did get a nice, new winter coat out of it.
Lesson 1: Packing
Packing is always a work-in-progress. I was very pleased with how much I managed to fit in my suitcase and keep the weight reasonable at about 22 pounds. For an eight-week trip I had 2 blouses, 2 long sleeved tees, 3 short sleeved tees, 2 jeans, one black pant, a lightweight cotton pullover sweater, khaki jacket, cardigan, jammies & undies. [See: It Fits.] One of the tees died in the first two weeks and I had to buy a fleece in Munich because I was sick of being cold. That heavy fleece made for some packing challenges as we moved on. And I found myself grabbing the same blouse, one L/S tee, and my two remaining SS tees over-and-over. I wished I’d had another cardigan instead of the khaki jacket. So, next trip, I already have a revised packing plan.

My wardrobe is about layering: 2 blouses, 2 long-sleeved tees, 2 short sleeved tees, 2 jeans, one pullover sweater, khaki jacket, jammies & undies. Wear on the plane: black stretchy pants, tee, & lightweight jacket.

My intentions were to class up my act and wear make-up more often. I wore make-up daily from the age of 13 to 62, so in retirement I seldom put it on. This trip was no different. Next time a little CC cream and mascara and nothing more for “dress up.”
We did take trekking sticks and were so happy we did. Definitely worthwhile and they do not weigh much.
Lesson 2: It’s OK to ship
We don’t buy too much when we travel, but I did acquire some nice table linens in Ortisei. Along with the fleece I bought in Munich and the one Ric bought in Ortisei when he hit a level of cold intolerance, the linens pushed us over-the-top and we had to break out the packable duffle. Ric had to schlepp that thing to Venezia and again to Assisi, along with his roller bag and day pack. Luckily it only weighed about 10 pounds. In Assisi we took the Umbrian oil we had purchased at a farm, the no-longer-needed trekking sticks, and the acquired linens to Mailboxes, Etc. Yes, it was pricey, but well worth getting rid of any weight we could since we still had a month of travel ahead of us. [See: Assisi is more than San Francesco for our shipping adventure.]

Not the stairs we had in London, but this staircase at Palazzo Braschi in Roma is rather dramatic, don’t you think?

Lesson 3: Check for stairs
We decided a few of years ago that we would no longer climb more than one floor with luggage. I think it was specifically during a trip to in 2014 when we had a place on the 4th floor (5th American) in Porto Santo Stefano. [See: By the sea.] It’s one thing to walk up-and-down without luggage, but if there is not an elevator we no longer stay where we have to walk up more than one flight with luggage.
Our last trip threw us two curves.
In Paris, the description for our “apartment on the 5th floor with elevator” did not mention the elevator was for one person at a time! Whenever we returned from an outing (three or four times a day) we had to take turns going up one at a time. It was no problem to walk down, but up five flights (6th floor American) was a bit much along with walking 7 to 10 miles per day.

This was our elevator in Roma when we lived there. It is HUGE compared to what we had in Paris this year.

In London I had reserved an apartment in a modernized building with an elevator. We stayed in the same apartment in 2015 and knew what we were getting. However, the landlord had to switch us to a different property [See: Wrapping up the Grand Tour.] when a problem caused by another vacation rental caused the condo board to change the rules. The new apartment was lovely except for the entry stairs (steep and narrow with a shallow tread) and the apartment stairs (twisting spiral with grab bars) which made it an adventure every time we exited or entered. It was only 37 steps, but it felt like exercising in the gym.
Always ask about the stairs.
Lesson 4: Never go more than 4 nights without having a kitchen
We made a last-minute change in our itinerary and instead of a week in an apartment in Roma, we spent 4 nights in a 5-star hotel in Pesaro and 3 nights in a B&B in Bra. Both places were enjoyable, although remarkably different, but what we missed was being able to dine in. We were forced to go to restaurants. That gets old. When we changed plans I should have worked harder to find an apartment in one or the other.
Lesson 5: Minimum one-week stays
It is not practical to spend a week everywhere. I would kill myself if I had to spend a week in Paestum, for example, as we found two nights too long there. [See: We have time.] We enjoyed getting to see Pesaro and Bra, but one-week stays might have been a bit much without a car. Still, we moved around too much in our eight weeks. We will endeavor on our future trips to pick bases and stay at least a week even if it means renting a car to take better advantage of the base. That would have been a good solution in Le Marche as well as Piemonte, had we stayed in one or the other for a full week.
Lessons learned in past travels
Long ago we adopted the practice of using a taxi upon arrival if our digs are not within a 10-15 minute walk of the station. We cling to this practice to make arrivals and departures less stressful.
Cooking (simple meals) while traveling is highly desirable. It saves money, but also calories and sanity. Restaurants get old and it is tiresome to have to find one every single night. In some countries it is damn hard to get enough fresh vegetables in a day. We relish having an apartment with even a miniscule kitchen so we are not forced into restaurant food for every meal. Salads and pasta are favorite limited-ingredient meals when we are traveling.

My brother and sister-in-law flank my favorite Roman tour guide, Sonia Tavoletta.

We use guides or guided tours to make the most of our time. We had only one day in Munich so having a guide was a perfect choice. A guide is also valuable to help with complicated sites (Pompeii, the Louvre, the Foro Romano) or to give the tour guide (me) a break. We used London Walks for the latter this trip and have used Paris Walks as well. Worth every centissimo or pence.
Feel free to skip something or change plans if our energy or interest level is just not there. We planned to go to Hampton Court Palace while in London, but we had been very busy and when I got down to the details of planning for the day trip, it was going to cost £75 for the train to-and-from and entry to the site even with a 2-for-1 deal. That and the better part of the day. We found our interest level in the site for that much money did not equate so we stayed in London and enjoyed other sights.
Sometimes we take a day off when we are traveling. Just do something little – maybe simply shopping and lunch – and then relax with a book or a movie and do the laundry. It is not a crime to do so. It is not a waste of time. It is “living local.”
Time to plan another trip! It remains to be seen if I can follow all of my own rules.

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Wrapping up the Grand Tour    

6 Nov
6 November 2017.
Our Grand Tour brought us to places new-to-us and also to locations we consider old friends. Our last stop: London for a fortnight. This was our fourth trip to the fabled city. We love it!

Dating to 1610, this is one of few buildings to survive the Great Fire of 1666.

People often ask me why we go back to the same places. While exploring and discovering unfamiliar places is exciting, going back time-and-again to a location allows us to dig deeper and experience things the one-time traveler doesn’t have time to discover. 
Since we’ve already seen the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Greenwich, the Cabinet War Rooms, Westminster Abbey, the British Museum, and St. Paul’s, what’s left?
Plenty. Here are the sights, sites, and activities that filled our two weeks. Note that only two of these were repeats from prior visits.
  • Victoria & Albert Museum for the Pink Floyd Exhibit
  • London Walks “Shaken not Stirred 007 Pub Walk” on Saturday night
  • London Walks “Little Venice” walking tour on a sunny Sunday
  • Self-guided walk through “The City” (in the Rick Steves’ Guide)

    View from lunch at Darwin Brasserie. Decent food, great view!

  •  The Sky Garden Darwin Brasserie for a view of London from 36 floors up in the “Walkie Talkie”
  • Liberty Department Store (old, classy, beautiful)
  • Fortnum & Mason (Scored some yummy cookies)
  • “Wicked” at the Apollo Theatre (Well-done but rather silly)

    Did you know that many Tube stations feature artwork particular to the location? Guess where this one is.

  • London Underground Tube Tour with Insider London (Very interesting history and operations)
  • Portobello Road Market
  • Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising (We were nearby in the Portobello Road Market and figured “Why not?”)
  • Hyde Park Italian Water Gardens and a lovely Saturday stroll to Hyde Park Corner with a stop for lunch at Serpentine Bar Kitchen
  •  London Film Museum for the “Bond in Motion” exhibit

    From the “Bond in Motion” exhibit. A couple of dozen original vehicles displayed with other artifacts and movie clips.

  • London Walks “Harry Potter on Location” walking tour
  • Exploration of Hampstead Village and Hampstead Heath (What a view!)
  • Canterbury and the famous cathedral
  • British Library
  • Bletchley Park (Had to watch “The Imitation Game” again after the visit)

    The pond and mansion at Bletchley Park.
    Heron in the pond at Bletchley Park.
    One of the famous huts at Bletchley Park.
  • Westminster Cathedral, home of the Roman Catholic Church in the U.K. with stunning mosaics
  • The National Gallery (Amazing collection! How did we miss this on prior trips?)
  • Kew Gardens (Would love to visit in May!

    Fall color at Kew seemed to be just past peak. Lovely, nonetheless.
    Kew Gardens and Hyde Park are both full of these little green parrots.
    Kew Gardens fall color.
  • London Transport Museum (second visit)

    The Mail Rail train at the new Postal Museum, now carrying people on a history tour.

  • Imperial War Museum (second time)
  • Postal Museum and Mail Rail Tour (Really off-the-beaten)
  • Sir John Soane’s Museum
  • Other innumerable walks, wanderings, and shopping
We were fortunate to once again rent an apartment from London Connection. This is our third time with LC and I believe we benefit when we rent from the same people multiple times, especially a small, privately held agency like this. A long stay can result in more favorable rates than a shorter stay.

Lorenzo Quinn’s “Love” on the banks of the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge. The same artist did the large hands called “Support” for the Venice Biennale. That is MI-6 in the background.

Our first experience with London Connection was at Christmas 2015, and our second was when we visited with our son in the spring of 2016. We liked the small apartment we had that Christmas, so I arranged to rent it again. However, a week-or-so before we arrived I got word that there was a problem: The flat had to be taken off the short-term market due to an Airbnb problem in the building. LC does not participate in Airbnb, but some other flats in the same building were rented through that service. The renters caused problems with noise and such, so the condo board said, “No more!” It would be 90-day rental minimums effective immediately. Tom Moore, the owner of London Connection, rebooked us in a flat considerably more expensive than the little one we had chosen, but of course, it was a complimentary upgrade. They really took care of us very well. We ended up staying in a new-to-us section of town, the very swanky Mayfair. The flat was in a mews house, once the residence for the horses and carriage drivers who served the important Georgian and Victorian families. Here’s a link to the flat.  It is a bit quirky in that the entrance stairs are very steep and narrow (think housing for grooms and their families 150+ years ago), and the second staircase inside the apartment was sort of a spiral, again narrow and steep. But once inside, we were in the lap of luxury.

Whimsical art in a park near our apartment.

We cooked dinner in quite a bit since we had a very nice kitchen and we enjoyed many a pub lunch. A roast for Sunday lunch is a must so we popped just around the corner from our flat to The Audley. We had the best hamburger ever at the Morpeth Arms pub, found a delicious flatbread pizza at the Serpentine Bar Kitchen, indulged in a gastropub dinner at the Queen’s Head Piccadilly, ate lunch with a view at the Sky Garden’s Darwin Brasserie, stumbled into the very sweet Greenhouse Café near the station in Kew, had unbelievable luck in Bletchley with our blind choosing of Pasha Med Turkish Bar & Grill, visited our standby for Indian at Punjab, “discovered” the charms of Le Pain Quotidien, and found pretty-darn-good-almost-Italian pizza at Bar Remo. Whew!

The street where we lived for two weeks.

A saving strategy given the steep staircase issue was shopping online at Waitrose and having our groceries delivered. I’ve done this three times now in London. I set up a delivery for an hour-or-so after we check-in, so while we are unpacking the delivery person shows up with the wine, water, breakfast items, staples, and supplies for our first dinner or two. Saves on schlepping.
In contrast to the start of our trip, we had almost no rain and temps were moderate in London. The storm Ophelia which hit Ireland and SW England made for some breezy days, but I think I deployed my umbrella only briefly one day in two weeks.

Little known Little Venice. Rather untouristed, peaceful.

Spending two weeks in London allowed us to become familiar with our neighborhood, sort out transportation options, and feel “at home.” We didn’t have to rush from sight to sight and could deviate from our plan to take advantage of discoveries. A long stay gave us a front-row seat to changes in the neighborhood. Window displays moved from fall to Christmas themes, decorations went up over major shopping streets, and pubs started to promote holiday parties and menus. We started to feel rather local. We tired ourselves out most days and relaxed at home with a simple dinner in the evenings.
Over the course of eight weeks, Sept 3-Oct 28, we walked an average of 15577 steps per day, covering about 330 miles according to my pedometer. We rarely took taxis and never rented a car. 
It was a perfect end to our eight week Grand Tour. Following are a few more photos just in case you are interested. 
Views from a double-decker bus going over the Thames. It’s a treat to ride in the front seats of the upper level.
National Gallery: During mid-term break lots of students participating in classes.
Sometimes just around the corner from a busy street, you find a reminder of what the city must have been like 200 years ago.
Flatbread “pizza” with harissa hummus, chili spicied lamb, roquito peppers, and feta. Yum!
Fall color in Hyde Park.
Started in 1875 for the cab drivers’ benefit, today some still remain and serve cheap, hearty, and very British food to London’s “black cab” drivers. Some also sell snacks to the public. although never inside.
Amazing stained glass, Canterbury Cathedral.
Quaint street often used in films. I believe some scenes from Harry Potter were filmed here.

 

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