We’re back in Seattle! (Well, Kent. It’s close to Seattle. Greater Seattle metropolitan area.)
Day 24 (part 2): London to Seattle
Finally, we’re at the end. We flew out of Heathrow airport, flying home via British Airways in their Premium Economy class. It’s really nice! Not business/first class nice, of course, but a definite step up from coach. Shorter domestic flights well likely stick with standard coach class, but for anything long-haul, it’s worth the extra money.
The English countryside is really pretty.
Unfortunately, even with the extra leg room and all, I still can’t actually sleep on planes, so it was a long ten hours. Watched The Mandalorean and Grogu, which was a perfectly serviceable extra-long episode of the series, but I’m glad I wasn’t tempted to pay to see it in the theater. I don’t feel like I lost anything by watching it on the back of an airline seat. Also watched Ready Player One, which was entertaining fluff; even having read the book and knowing how pop-culture dependent it is, mostly I was impressed at how many characters, items, and visuals they got permission to include, and I’m sure I only caught a small fraction, as I was watching a fairly highly compressed version (judging by how muddy it got during quick action scenes) on an airplane seat console. And I read some more of the Discworld book I’m currently reading, Small Gods.
Perhaps a little ominous these days, but still, it’s good to be back.
Eventually, the plane landed, we breezed through incoming customs, caught a Lyft, and we are home again! It’s been a great trip, but after three and a half weeks, we’re so happy to be sleeping in our own beds again.
The last of the GPS track log maps for this trip!
Many more photos to come over the coming weeks (or months) as I get through processing them all!
Random Travel Thoughts
And finally, a few random thoughts and comments that have come up while we’ve been traveling but didn’t make it into the earlier posts:
Euro convenience food is better than ours, with more variety and much better quality. This may well be a side effect of so much of Europe’s grocery/shopping norms operating on a “shop regularly for a day to a few days at a time” cadence rather than the U.S.-ian “shop every week or two unless you do monthly/semi-monthly Costco runs” cadence; even their “convenience” stores are closer to just being small grocery stores, with a wider range of choices. It made grabbing easy in-hotel dinners and breakfasts very easy, and was much more affordable than if we’d gone to restaurants for every meal.
Without planning it this way, we travelled in inverse likelihood of encountering cigarette smoke. Germany (Frankfurt and Berlin) was smoke everywhere (walking through the Berlin zoo, with ashtrays on all the garbage cans, parents calmly puffing on cigarettes while shepherding children around, and some smaller semi-enclosed viewing areas that we simply couldn’t go into because of the stench was a truly bizarre experience), Amsterdam almost as bad, Brussels a bit less. Paris was much less smokey than we expected; it was almost at US/UK levels. The UK is more like the US, where cigarettes are around on the streets and in some public areas, but generally briefly and/or can be avoided in most cases, and many large public spaces and parks are designated no-smoking areas.
Pot smoke was nonexistent in Germany, which was nice. Some in Amsterdam, which was expected, it wasn’t as prevalent as we thought it might be. I don’t remember encountering any in Paris or Berlin, and I’m not sure about Brussels. (As with cigarettes, I don’t particularly care if people smoke pot or otherwise use marijuana, I just really don’t like the smell of the smoke and prefer it when people don’t force me to unwillingly participate in their indulgences.)
US tow trucks assume enough space to maneuver the car and tow truck around to tow or winch the car up onto a flatbed. Euro tow trucks assume they’ll need a crane to hoist the car onto the flatbed.
There have been so few pickups, SUVs and the like, etc. Virtually nonexistent for most of the trip; all vehicles were small, reasonable cars or work vans. Have spotted a few in London, but they’re still in the minority. It’s been so nice to spend three weeks without giant SUVs and status-symbol pickup trucks dominating the roads. And while we did see Teslas, they weren’t as numerous as they are in Seattle (or were in San Francisco), and thanks to the EU/UK’s stricter safety regulations, not a single Cybertruck!
Germany and London had the best train/tram transit. Amsterdam’s trams are good but they need more cars; the trams were always overcrowded (but we did like the rear-of-train secondary person).
Though the UK is a walk-on-the-left country, London has so many tourists from walk-on-the-right countries that the end result is that all pedestrian spaces are effectively a chaotic free for all, with enough inability to predict where anyone will be, is going to be, or which direction they’ll be coming from at any moment to make Heisenberg himself giddy. Escalators, on the other hand, are a no-nonsense hard line: stand to the right, walk on the left, violators will be shoved.
When we hopped on a train in Paris, we headed out of the EU and through the Chunnel to London. The border crossing in the terminal was a little hectic and unpleasant, as there were few clear instructions until you did something a little wrong, when you got firmly corrected, and at first we didn’t understand why we had to do the whole passport scan and biometric photo check twice in a row, ten feet apart. It made sense after the fact — the first time was leaving the EU, the second time was entering the UK — but as a first-timer, the system really feels designed by and for people who do it regularly and can breeze through, rather than newbies. Still, we didn’t make any major errors, got through, and got on the train without any real major hassle.
Our last look at Paris from the train station.
The train ride was as pleasant as any have been, with pretty views of the French and English countryside as we went. The Chunnel, of course, isn’t much for scenery, but it’s fun to have done that.
The train ends at St. Pancras, part of a complex with King’s Cross, so it was relatively easy to find our way to the correct Underground platform and make our way to the Tower Hill station. From there, it’s just a couple blocks around the Tower of London to the Tower Hotel where we’re staying. This is the same hotel we stayed at last time we were here; it’s a funky old brutalist exterior (according to Wikipedia, “voted the second most hated building in London in a 2006 BBC poll”) with very ’70s British interior and gorgeous views of Tower Bridge, and we like it a lot. We got settled in and called it a night.
Cheers, London! Never going to get tired of that view.
Much of our Paris to London journey wasn’t quite as ‘as the crow flies’ as these track log maps make them look, but the GPS tracking app occasionally glitches out.
Day 19: London
For our first full day in London, we didn’t have anything planned until the evening, so we decided to start our day with wandering around and exploring the local sights on foot. Since there’s a particularly notable sight right outside our hotel window, we decided to do something we’d skipped on our last visit, and do the Tower Bridge tour. Seeing a bit of the inside was neat — Victorians weren’t exactly minimalists, and even the interior spaces are impressively crafted. The tour goes up one of the towers, across the upper walkways (which now have glass floor sections), then down again, and then down into the old steam engine rooms (not used anymore). Fun start to the day!
A little disconcerting, sure, but fun to do.
From there we wandered up the Queen’s Walk along the Thames, wandered through the Borough Market and sampled a few different goodies for lunch, found the Golden Hinde and explored that, then went through the Clink prison museum, and then went back to the hotel for a bit to give our feet a rest.
For our evening adventure, we walked back up the Queen’s Walk to Shakespeare’s Globe to see Much Ado About Nothing. Their production was wonderful, as expected, and seeing a long-time favorite play at the Globe was a real treat. A nice nighttime walk back to the hotel afterwards, and off to bed.
‘Groundling’ tickets are just £5. We opted for seats, and paid a few pounds extra for cushions.
Two very similar walks for this day’s outings.
Day 20: London
This day had originally been entirely unplanned, but then last night we were browsing the London theater options before Much Ado started, and we’d made an impulse decision to add another performance to our itinerary.
But that wasn’t until the evening, so we started our day by being very touristy and hopping onto one of the “hop on hop off” open-top city tour buses that constantly run around d the city. We figured this would be a good way to get a peek at areas of London we wouldn’t otherwise see, and maybe help us find ideas for more things to explore during other unplanned times. It was a grey and lightly rainy day, so while we were comfortable sitting on the open top deck for a while, eventually it got to be raining hard enough that we came down to the lower enclosed deck. Not long after that, the bus suddenly filled with other people who decided to use it as a good way to get out of the rain. We stayed on just long enough for the rain to slack off a bit, and then hopped off at Notting Hill.
We stuck it out as long as we could, but even Seattleites eventually get tired of rain. Photo by my wife.
We took a slow wander up Notting Hill (even spotting the storefront used for the film) to Portobello Road, poking in little shops along the way. We found me a new hat and a few more CDs, got lunch, and wandered back to the bus stop.
I found three volumes of the Dependence: Next Level Ectronics sampler series; the first two (2004 and 2007) and a later one from 2015. Each was filed in a different section of the store. Photo by my wife.
We hopped back on the bus, intending to ride it the rest of the way around the loop to where we started. Unfortunately, for some reason, it seemed this driver had other plans, and we ended up literally going in circles. We went around one block twice, then passed the Marble Arch at least four times, and eventually ended up going entirely rogue, heading down a street not on the published bus route. Eventually it got back on route, but by then it had taken much longer to get there than it should have and we no longer trusted the driver, so we hopped off at the next stop and took the tube back to the hotel.
This did mean that we ended up at the Piccadilly Circus tube station.
We had about a hour or so to rest, and then it was back on the tube and out to the theatre district to see our impulse purchase show, Avenue Q. We’d both heard about it for years and had had it on our “want to see” lists, and it did not disappoint. Funny, raunchy, and sweet, and absolutely fascinating to watch, as the performers handled their puppets. After the show, another tube ride back to the hotel and off to bed.
Weird route and rain and all, that bus did take us around parts of London we wouldn’t have otherwise seen.
Day 21: London
Having had two pretty full days, we gave ourselves a slow morning and didn’t leave hotel until after noon. Once we did, we took the Underground up to Trafalgar Square. We started with a couple hours in the National Portrait Gallery, then went on to the National Gallery, giving us a nice afternoon of gorgeous and historic art.
The Royal Family: A Centenary Portrait (2000) by John Wonnacott. I though the wide-angle, almost fisheye-lens distortion of the painting was really neat.
We found dinner, then went to our third show in three nights and saw The Producers. While we’re both very familiar with the film version of the musical, this was our first time seeing it on stage, and it was hilarious…and, honestly, at times a little unsettling. I mean, it’s one thing seeing “Springtime for Hitler” on your TV screen, it’s quite another, no matter how hilarious, to be sitting in a theater with giant red, white, and black swastika banners dominating the stage. Mel Brooks knows, though: Always mock fascists.
If you’ve got it, flaunt it!
After the show, another tube ride back to hotel, and another late collapse into bed.
We were definitely getting more and more familiar with these particular sections of London and the District, Circle, and Northern tube lines.
Day 22: London
Another more planned day today. We got up a bit earlier in the morning and headed out, taking the tube to Waterloo station, then hopping on the NRS South Western Railway out to Hampton Court. We then spent our day slowly wandering through Hampton Court, letting my Tudor-era Anglophile wife soak up the history. We did have some disappointment in that a large part of the formal gardens was taken over by an upscale car show (which we had no interest in paying £112 to see), but there were other gardens still accessible, and aside from that unfortunate bit of timing, we very much enjoyed the day. We came back to the hotel in the afternoon, and had a quiet hotel evening.
Inside the courtyard of Hampton Court.
The part of the gardens we weren’t able to get to because of the car show is to the right side of the second of these maps.
Day 23: London
Took it somewhat slower again, with another day where we didn’t leave the hotel until after noon. (At over three weeks into this trip, we’re definitely flagging a bit.) Once we headed out, we started with some souvenir shopping, then went back out to the theater district. Wandered there for a bit, then saw The Mousetrap (notable both for being a fun Agatha Christie mystery, and for being the world’s longest continuously running play, now in its 74th year).
Now, if it was in its 74th year with the same cast, that would be really impressive.
After the play ended, we started to come back to the hotel and saw that the tube line we wanted from the closest station was delayed with massive crowds in the station, so we bailed out and walked to the next closest station that would have the final line we needed to get to the hotel. Got back, had dinner, and relaxed in the room. Just before crashing out, we got to watch Tower Bridge open and close for a cruise ship passing through.
The people on the cruise ship sure got a nice twilight view of London and the Tower Bridge as they went along.
A bit more walking on this route that we’d originally planned, but certainly nothing we couldn’t manage.
Day 24 (part 1): London to…?
Travel day! The usual routine: Pack up, check out, and head off towards our next destination! Heading out was a little more trouble some than expected. Turns out today was the day for the London Big Half half-marathon, which attracts some 16,000 runners and starts by going over the Tower Bridge. This was pretty cool to discover when we were getting ready this morning, and we’d take regular breaks from packing to watch runners cross the bridge. But when it was time to go, this was the day we’d planned to give ourselves a bit of a break and take a traditional London Black Cab to our departure point, and we suddenly discovered that the number of roads closed around the Tower Bridge meant that cabs couldn’t get to our hotel. We checked with the concierge, and they just told us that the next closest taxi stand was near the Tower Hill Underground station, which gave us a vague direction to go, but wasn’t exactly clear directions. Apple Maps found us a taxi stand, though, and just a few minutes later a taxi pulled up to drop someone off, and we were able to hop on. And now we’re settled in and waiting to depart for our next stop.
I was fascinated by the street map display style of the GPS app the black cab driver was using.Oh, dear, the destination on this track log does kind of hint at where our next destination might be, doesn’t it?
Well, that was a long travel day. After the four hours sitting in the Brussels Midi station and getting on our train, things looked fine, with the most interesting piece being checking the weather report for Paris and seeing thunderstorm warnings. Well, we’re from Seattle and brought lightweight raincoats, so we didn’t think much of it, and ended up missing all of the rain anyway.
We got to the first train station on the outskirts of Paris, and transferred to one of the local B-line trains to go into the city — almost missed it, but just squeaked in the doors with the help of a man on the train. We chatted with him until he got off, and then we rode a few more stops to where we had to switch to our next in-city C-line train. And waited…
…and waited…
…and eventually figured out (along with everyone around us) that the storm had downed some trees on a track somewhere and the C trains were entirely disrupted. So we decided to go up to street level and see what we could figure out, hoping it wouldn’t have to be on foot, since we were about an hour’s walk away from our hotel. We got up to the street level, and were immediately distracted with a gorgeous view of Notre Dame at dusk. Once we got over that, we walked a little ways up the street until we found a bus stop and taxi stand. At that point, it was after 9 p.m. we were tired, and it was time to admit that sometimes, a taxi is worth it. Fifteen minutes later we were at the hotel.
Yes, that’s our cabbie scrolling through sports scores on his phone with one hand as he drives us through busy Paris traffic to our hotel. Welcome to Paris?
The hotel is very cute, all built around an inner courtyard, with an elevator we had to take one at a time, tiny walkways, and a tiny room, and it’s great. We’re here, the beds are comfy, and that’s it for the day.
Our Interrail journey from Brussels to Paris.From the southern end up to the left turn just at the ‘a’ in ‘Paris’ was the train, the final leg was by cab.
Day 15: Paris
Big day for exploring Paris and seeing all sorts of pretty things!
We started by getting up nice and early in the morning and walking from our hotel to the Louvre (just over two miles, which is entirely doable after a night’s sleep and when you’re not carrying backpacks). Made it to the Louvre with about half an hour before our 9 a.m. entrance time (when the museum opens), stood in line at the entrance closest to the Mona Lisa…and then right at nine, a museum staff person came up to tell everyone who was lined up there that that entrance wouldn’t actually open until 10, and to follow them. Of course, by this time there was already a huge line at the main entrance, so we were a little concerned that we’d just get dumped into the end of that line, but instead, we all got marched over to the group entrance and let in there. No biggie, as it turned out.
Once in, we beelined for the Mona Lisa…along with nearly everyone else. This really is one of those things you do to be able to say “I’ve seen the Mona Lisa in person”, not to actually, you know, stand there, look at it, and see the painting. The scrum wasn’t as bad as trying to see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, and we were able to get to the front and get our 15 seconds of photo and selfie time in, so we called it a success and went off to investigate these rumors that the Louvre has one or two things worth seeing other than the headliner. We then had a very pleasant few hours wandering the museum and finding all sorts of things to gawk at.
Yes, it’s a bit crazy, but I can now say that I’ve seen the Mona Lisa in person. Some people will be very impressed, others will understand that it’s about the experience, not the art.
When lunchtime rolled around we grabbed a bite at the Louvre’s cafe (it was close, quick, and convenient), went out and wandered the grounds for a little bit, and then went across the street to the Musée d’Orsay for the afternoon. What they say (whomever “they” are and wherever they say it) is true: you go to the Louvre to say you’ve been to the Louvre, you go to the Orsay to be able to see the art. Another incredible collection, but not (quite) as crowded (save for the Van Gogh rooms on the top floor, but having just been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, we were okay with skimming those rooms), and much easier to be able to find something you like and be able to hang out and really appreciate it.
The Orsay has this incredible model of the Paris Opera; if we)d had more time, I could have spent a lot of it just staring at this (and hoping to spot the Phantom…).
Once we were all art-ed out for the day, we crossed back over the Seine to the Jardin des Tuileries, and then proceeded to walk the entirety of the Avenue de Champs-Élisée, all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. Once there, my wife found a bench to rest on while I climbed the 280 steps to the terrace at the top for some gorgeous views of Paris. When I made it back down to ground level, we walked from the Arc back to our hotel.
At the top of the Arc de Triomphe.
The Orsay-to-Arc-to-hotel leg of the day’s walk was about 4.7 miles. All together, my watch tells me today ended up with 23,705 steps and 10.58 miles — a record for this trip so far! (We’re not really trying to set these records, we just want to see All The Things, and then whine when we get back to the hotel about walking too much and swear we’re going to take it easier the next day. Then the next day comes along….)
That was a lot of walking, but it was well worth every step.
Day 16: Versailles
Today’s adventure was an excursion out to Versailles. We got up really early, had a quick in-room breakfast, and headed out. Hopped on a local train, rode ten stops, and a short walk later were at the gates. We had the earliest entry tickets we could get (9:30 a.m.), and had made sure to get there nice and early, so we had time to start our day with a short walk through the gardens. Being able to do this first thing in the morning was really neat — hardly anyone else was there (a few visitors early for their entrance time like us, and locals out for their morning run…y’know, like you do, when you live close enough), so we had the entire space nearly to ourselves. We did that for about half an hour, then went back up to stand in line for our entrance.
It bugs me to no end that this fountain is just slightly off center from the rest of the gardens.
Once in, we kind of skimmed through the first half of the palace (lots of pretty paintings, but having just done a number of museums, we were okay with doing a quick breeze through while keeping an eye out for any we really wanted to stop at) so that we could get to the Hall of Mirrors before it got too crowded. While not empty when we got there (there were 9 a.m. entry people before us), it wasn’t super crowded, and so that was where we really slowed down to take things in, and enjoyed moseying our way through the rest of the palace.
What I admire the most about Louis XIV is his understated and subtle design sensibilities.
From there we went back out to the gardens, which while much busier, had the advantages of having the fountains running (which hadn’t been turned on yet earlier) and more dramatic skies (instead of the morning’s flat grey). We went down along the main walk towards the Grand Canal, then headed off toward the Grand Trianon. We weren’t sure if we’d be able to go in or just wander the outside, but it turns out our tickets were good for that too, so we got to wander through the inside of that smaller palace as well.
Those skies were really staring to look ominous….
After the Grand Trianon we went out and explored the Trianon’s gardens and fountains for a bit. This was a nice treat as well, as fewer people make the trek out to the Trianons, so it was a much quieter stroll than in the main gardens.
Eventually we could see the skies getting even more dramatic, so we decided that it was time to head back (not an easy decision when we realized we’d missed Marie Antoinette’s Petit Trianon, but there’s only so much time…). We got back to the main gardens just in time for a heavy rain storm to start, which lasted our entire walk back up the gardens, out of Versailles, and the few blocks down the street to the Paris Metro station where we got on our train. We were absolutely soaked, but still having a good time. We got back into town and to our hotel, hung our clothes up to dry, and crashed out for an afternoon nap.
After a couple hours to rest, we were hungry and ready for dinner, so we headed out and walked down the block to a really cute little Italian place just at the end of the street from our hotel. Had a good dinner there, then walked two more blocks to the Champ de Mars, and stood and watched the Eiffel Tower slowly light up as the sun set, then as it put on its sparkly light show shortly after sundown. We then walked up through the park to near the base of the tower — and as keeps happening on this trip, knowing about something on a theoretical level doesn’t really prepare you at all for the reality of standing underneath this colossal structure. It’s really an incredible thing.
It’s huge.
After enjoying the view for a while, we decided that it was time to call it a day and headed back to the hotel.
After having seen Versailles in films and TV shows for years, actually being there was kind of surreal.
Day 17: Paris
Today we made another attempt at taking things a bit slower, with…mixed results, unsurprisingly. We slept in as late as we could, and had a nice slow morning, with breakfast in the room and no rush to get out and about.
When we did venture out, we started off by getting a bag full of pastries from a local patisserie, and walked up to the Champ de Mars to eat them while sitting in the park in the (figurative, due to the time of day) shadow of the Eiffel Tower. Then we strolled around the park and the base of the tower for a bit before making a brief stop back by the hotel room to make sure we were prepped for our afternoon adventure.
Enough people want to do this kind of shot that there’s a very convenient plaque on the ground telling you where to stand. Well, I never claim to be original….
Heading out again, we started by crossing over to the other side of the Champ de Mars and finding a cute French restaurant for lunch (we had to get actual French food at least once while we were here, of course). When that was done, it was back to the Eiffel Tower, where up to the top we went! We took the easy way up in the elevators, which is a two-stop process: one elevator up to the second level, and then a second elevator (and then a short flight of stairs) up to the top.
And here I thought the view from the Arc de Triomphe was impressive!
As can be guessed, the view was incredible. We went all the way around the top, me taking photos and my wife (who is somewhat afraid of heights, but was determined to do this, and handled herself quite well) stayed nearer to the inner wall. After our circuit, we started heading back down again. We took the elevator down from the top to the second level (the only option), but then, having spent our time in line for the elevator sandwiched between one family who didn’t bother to rein in their rambunctious 7-year old at all and another family who were remarkably pushy and kept trying to go around (or through) us even though there was no space to either get around or to get to, we decided to just skip the next elevator and take the stairs down. All 674 of them!
It’s a lot of stairs, but easier to do going down than up, and though it took longer, it was a much more pleasant experience than being crammed into one of those elevators again. About 15 minutes or so later, we were back on the ground (to my wife’s great relief). We took a little time to recuperate, and then headed back to the hotel to get back into a quiet space and away from people…and once there, though we’d considered some other evening jaunts, we decided we were fine with calling it a day. A short venture out to the local grocery for dinner sandwiches, and then we tucked ourselves away for the evening.
Having a hotel two blocks off of the Champ de Mars was incredible.
Day 18 (part 1): Paris to…?
It’s another travel day! So, the usual routine: sleep as late as possible (today that meant we got about 11 hours of sleep…we may be getting a bit tired at this point in the trip), pack everything up, and head out. We walked to the closest metro station, took two metro trains, and made it to the Gare du Nord with several hours to kill before our next train. Camped out on the floor, found some lunch, waited, and eventually made our way to the right platform, boarded our train, and are now watching the French countryside roll by on our way to….
And now for Belgium (my apologies for using such rude language)!
Day 12 (part 2): Amsterdam to Brussels
Before we left for this trip, while researching so that we’d be prepared, we’d read that trains in Germany were the most unreliable. We’d also read about some of the most common behaviors to avoid to make sure we didn’t stick out as stereotypical rude Americans: Talking unnecessarily loudly, having loud phone conversations or playing music without headphones, placing our bags on seats so that we took up multiple spots, and so on.
Well, bad behavior is universal. Europeans are just as bad about all of those as we were warned not to be (and we’re not much for that kind of behavior anyway), and so far, the German trains were rarely more than a few minutes late if at all and they regularly apologized when it happened, while every Dutch train on our Amsterdam to Brussels leg has been late by at least 15-20 minutes. One time that just meant we had to change our connecting train, but then later they decided that the train we were on was late enough that it was better to pull it out of the schedule entirely, made the next stop the final stop, kicked us all off, and we had to find another train to get us the rest of the way into Brussels.
It’s nothing we haven’t been able to cope with, and all part of traveling like this, of course, but it has definitely been a bit of a shift from our expectations.
Delays and train swaps and all, it was a really pretty trip.
Minor grumbling aside, we did make it to Brussels without any major complications. The mentioned minor ones, but no major ones, ending up at our hotel just about two hours after we thought we’d be here. That was still early enough (about 5 p.m.) for us to get our room and then head out for a bit of a wander, finding dinner and then getting fancy dessert Belgian waffles and sitting in the gorgeous Grand Place as we ate them. Not a bad evening at all! Then back to the hotel to wind down and get to bed.
Brussels’ Grand Place, the central square of the city, was just about a ten minute walk from our hotel.For two people tired after a long day of travel, we didn’t do too well at staying put once we arrived.
Day 13: Brussels
Today we had just one thing planned: a morning tour of Choco-Story Brussels, a really cute little museum all about the history of chocolate. It’s a self-guided walkthrough of displays tracing chocolate from its initial cultivation through its being brought to Europe, and ends with a demonstration from a chocolatier making pralines (which you then get to sample). It was fun, and quite tasty!
Just before entering the museum, since we’d shown up a bit early, we were walking up and down the block and peeking at what was on nearby streets, when we realized that we were standing right next to Manneken Pis, a famous fountain of a small boy peeing. One more Brussels landmark seen (in a city full of them; Brussels really is gorgeous).
This funny little fountain is a huge part of the Brussels culture. Images of it are everywhere.
After the museum we took the rest of the day for a slow wander, starting with browsing through a music store we’d spotted just a half-block away from the fountain. The store had a nice mix of vinyl and used CDs, and I had fun browsing through and picking some up as Brussels souvenirs. Then, as we walked on, we found two more vinyl shops in the next two blocks! Considering how just a few days ago I was bemoaning the modern dearth of record stores, this was a fun part of the day; apparently Brussels has a good physical media scene!
Ended up coming out with a Hooverphonic album from the early 2000s, a techno/industrial sampler from 1993 called Blood and Computers (I have Vol. 2 already, so it was fun to find Vol. 1), an album from a band whose name I don’t remember right now but who was described as New Wave/Buggles/OMD-inspired because I wanted to get at least one thing I was totally clueless about…and the old Songs in the Key of Springfield Simpsons soundtrack album at my wife’s request.
From there it was just a day of poking around the streets of Brussels, peeking into cute shops and fancy cathedrals, and just seeing where we ended up going. We were nice enough to ourselves to take a few hours of mid-afternoon downtime instead of pushing through the full day again, which was a good idea. Then sandwiches for dinner, ice cream while watching people at the Grand Place, and back to the hotel again for the evening.
Even with a few hours of midday rest, we definitely still got our steps in.
Day 14 (part 1): Brussels to…?
This is a long travel day. Our train out of Brussels doesn’t leave until 16:52, and checkout time at the hotel was noon. So we checked out just a bit before noon, walked to the local station, hopped a short train to our departure station…and then spent the next four hours camped out in the Brussels Midi station until it was time to board. Not exactly the most exciting hours of the trip, but sometimes that’s how it goes. We’re on our next train now, headed for….
Just one small section of one tourist shop in the train station. If you’re ever in a sudden need for a small figure of a urinating boy, Brussels is the place to be.
No private cabin this time, but that was fine; we still had booked first class seats, so were in the first class car. One of the things I discovered on the Frankfurt to Berlin ride was that no matter how pretty the view is, it’s extremely difficult to take decent pictures while traveling at 150 MPH, so I left the camera packed and just alternated between watching Germany go by out the windows and watching Max Headroom episodes on my iPad.
Our first in-Europe country hop!
The train to Amsterdam was about six hours, and then we figured out the local tram system to get to our hotel. Turned out to be nice and easy: one tram line for about 30 minutes, then a short walk along a pretty little canal before heading about a block into a residential/commercial neighborhood to get to the hotel.
If you’re going to have a bit of a walk to get to your hotel, you could do far worse than this.
Got ourselves settled in, walked a couple blocks away for a really good dinner at a neighborhood Middle Eastern place (Turkish pizza, which though called pizza, is closer to a burrito in form, is really good), stopped by a grocery for breakfast supplies, and now are getting ready for bed, as we have an early morning planned for tomorrow.
Walking to the local tram stop, then taking that to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof.Berlin to Amsterdam!Tram from the train station, and then a short walk to the hotel.
Day 11: Amsterdam
A day of museums and wandering around the central part of the city.
We started the day with the Rijksmuseum (Dutch masters, Rembrandt, etc.), had a great lunch at a nearby café, and then went to the Van Gogh Museum (all about the VW microbus and where it’s been…wait, no, that’s not right). After that we took a tram a few stops towards the city center until the main canals started, when we got off and walked the rest of the way in so we could walk over each of the canals. Then we spent the next couple of hours just randomly wandering our way through central Amsterdam, seeing what we could find.
My only iPhone shot of the day from the Rijksmuseum, to take advantage of the wide lens. Militia Company of District VIII in Amsterdam under the Command of Captain Roelof Bicker by Bartholomeus van der Helst, c. 1643.
Amsterdam is a gorgeous city, and for all I’d read and understood on a theoretical level that bikes are a big thing here, I didn’t really get it until today. It’s incredible to walk around a city like this, where bikes, walking, and the transit system (trams and buses) are by far the preferred ways to get around, and cars are drastically deprioritized. You’ll see streets as wide as a three- or four-lane road in the U.S., but there’s just one car lane each direction, and all the rest is pedestrian, bike, or tram lanes. Bikes are everywhere at all times; the morning and afternoon commute look like you’re on the sidelines of the Tour de France, only instead of athletes on speed bikes, it’s everyday folks on regular bikes, from modern e-bikes to old style Schwinns (or the European equivalent) to various forms of cargo bikes. It’s really incredible, and I wish the U.S. would get on board with this kind of thinking and city planning (or re-planning) – this article on how Amsterdam became a bike city is worth a read.
I saw a lot of this style of cargo bike, some kitted out like this as a child carrier, and some with a more utilitarian cargo compartment.
What with not having seen a single SUV or pickup in almost two weeks, convenient and low-stress country hopping on Interrail (formerly Eurail), and experiencing Amsterdam, this summer vacation has been an amusing experience in just how far behind Europe America is when it comes to seriously thinking about transportation as anything other than cars, more cars, bigger cars, and more bigger cars.
Eventually we were running out of steam, so we found a restaurant for dinner and ate while sitting outside and watching people stroll and roll by. Then we hopped on the tram back to the hotel, and called it an end to our day.
The longer straighter line is the tram from our hotel to the museum plaza, the rest is us wandering wherever our feet took us.
Day 12 (part 1): Amsterdam to…?
And it’s our next travel day!
You know the routine: Get up, have breakfast, pack out, and get to the train station. All of which went as expected, so we’re ion the train, nicely settled in to our first class seats, and off to our next stop!
We did manage to spot a number of traditional Dutch windmills out the window of our train after we got out of Amsterdam and into the countryside. This was the closest we got.
From Frankfurt, we rode the train northwest to Berlin!
Day 8 (part 2): Frankfurt to Berlin
Midway through our ride to Berlin, a couple joined us in our cabin. It turned out they’d originally reserved two of the other seats in the cabin, but at first didn’t want to bother us with their two small terriers and sat in general seating. But then the dogs started getting whiny, so they asked if they could join us so as not to bother other passengers in general seating. We said sure, the dogs settled down, and we had a nice chat with them as we rode the rest of the way into Berlin.
Our first view of Berlin once we left the train station: The beautifully preserved ruins of the original Kaiser Wilhelm church building and a Stitch street performer.
We made it to the Berlin Spandau station, changed trains, got to the Zoologischer Garten station, and then had a walk of just under a mile to our hotel. Got checked in, went out to find dinner, and decided to try a burrito place a short walk away, as we’d been told that Mexican food in Germany is its own thing, almost but not quite like what we’re used to, but not bad. We got there and were amused to realize that the restaurant had a San Francisco Mission district theme, and I was wearing my “I ♥️ SF” shirt that I just got a few days before…obviously this was the right place. (And the burritos weren’t bad, either.)
I ♥️ Serendipitous Food (choices)
After that we wandered down the shopping district street we were on, eventually stopping by the Haribo store for gummies, peeked in the Lego store and found an exclusive Germany set, and then stopped to get some gelato…and the place we stopped at had a flavor called SanFransisko (with saffron, honey, and apricot), so obviously that was the flavor to get.
We’re really enjoying how so many eateries have outdoor seating areas.
Back down the street to the hotel, and it’s time for bed!
Day 9: Berlin
We originally had grand plans for the day. We were going to visit the Berlin Wall memorial (or one of the other places where parts of it still stand), see Brandenburger Tor, maybe some of the other big historical things that Berlin has to offer…
…and then decided that, yes, those would be good to see, but we’d just done a few days of history in Frankfurt, and neither of us are huge WWII buffs, and there’s this other big famous thing just a mile away from us that isn’t at all related to war…
…and so we went to Zoo Berlin instead, and spent a very pleasant day slowly strolling the zoo and seeing the animals. We saw nearly everything the zoo had to offer (the aquarium building had a line out the door that didn’t seem to be moving, so we skipped that), and some of them multiple times (as someone in this household really likes hippos, and this zoo has both full-size and pygmy versions, with babies of each size, so they got multiple visits).
Guess what? Hippo butt!
When we finally ran out of zoo, we came back to the hotel, rested for a little bit, changed, and went out again. Yesterday evening as we were passing the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, my wife saw a poster advertising a classical concert for tonight. So tonight we got to see the Berlin Orchestra’s eight-piece Chamber Orchestra with guest performers of a solo violinist, an opera soprano, and and an organist play a selection of pieces, including Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on a huge, beautiful pipe organ. (However good of a recording of that piece you’ve heard, it doesn’t compare to hearing it played live on a big pipe organ. It’s incredible.) The musicians were really good, and the whole performance was wonderful.
The inside of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is gorgeous.
After that, we walked back to our hotel and called it a night.
20,567 steps and 9.37 miles.
Day 10 (part 1): Berlin to…?
Travel day! As such, the morning was all about repacking and making sure we were ready to go. Walked up to the Zoologischer Garten train station (where a cute older lady asked for a photo of me because I was wearing my kilt and she had a friend who is Irish…at least, I’m reasonably sure that’s what she said) and took a local train up to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof. We had about an hour there before catching our next train, so I took a few minutes to wander around and look at the place. It’s huge, and basically a big three-level shopping mall sandwiched between the local train tracks on the top level and the long-distance tracks on the lowest level, with much of it open, so you can look down from the top all the way to the train platforms at the bottom.
Taken from a middle level, looking all the way from the glass ceiling to the long-distance train platforms at the bottom.
After a few minutes of exploring (and buying a couple pastries), I went back down to the platform, and not long after that, we were on board and settled into our seats, watching Berlin pass by outside our windows on our way to….
In Part one, we spent two days exploring San Francisco before jetting off for…somewhere else. That somewhere else was Frankfurt, Germany!
Day 4 (part 2) and 5: San Francisco to Frankfurt
Getting off the ground took a long time, as the San Francisco airport is down to two runways due to construction. We were scheduled to take off at 4:30 p.m., didn’t board until almost 5, and we actually took off at…(it’s 5:52 as I write this, and the pilot just told us we’re 12th in line, so…getting there, but a bit longer yet)…6:30?
Since we knew this was going to be a long flight (about 10 hours), we sprung for Premium Economy class. We’re finding it a nice upgrade – a little more space and legroom and some extra amenities, just enough to make a long flight noticeably more comfortable. Since we brought our own entertainment (iPads loaded with books, movies, and TV shows), I just set the seat back monitor in front of me to track the plane as it flew. Our route was a nonstop straight shot northeast out of San Francisco, continuing on over Canada, Greenland, Iceland, a bit of Scotland, and the Netherlands before descending into Germany.
Up and over, nice straight shot.
The flight itself was fine, with nice smooth takeoff, flight, and landing, and friendly staff. Even a fun little set of welcome goodies, including earbuds, toothbrush and toothpaste, sleep mask, socks, and a little case to hold them all. I, unfortunately, do not sleep well (or at all) on airplanes, but I dozed and zoned out as I could and otherwise watched the first Resident Evil movie and a couple Max Headroom episodes and finished one Discworld novel (Reaper Man) and started the next (Witches Abroad).
Saying goodbye to San Francisco (and Karl the Fog).
We landed in Frankfurt, taxied forever, and then, accompanied by pained groans from many of the passengers (including us), pulled up next to a couple sets of stairs and a few buses. Everyone got packed onto the buses like proverbial sardines, and they drove us to a gate (and while it felt like they drove the long way around, I expect that’s probably not actually the case). But once we got to the airport, the rest — including customs and the new biometric scanning system — went nice and smooth. They even stamped our passports; we weren’t sure if that was still a thing that happened or not, so we were excited to hear the ker-CHUNK of the stamp.
From there, it was a quick swing through baggage to get our backpacks, around the corner to the train station, four stops to the Frankfurt Main Hauptbahnhof, and two and a half blocks to our hotel.
Gotta get that “welcome to Frankfurt” sign in there or y’all wouln’t beleive us. ;)
We were pretty well exhausted after going for over 24 hours, but with the time change, it was just four in the afternoon. We got settled into the hotel, and then wandered out to find food and a grocery for some simple hotel breakfast supplies. Food ended up being (very good) cheese fries from a little place that only does fries, as it was simple and we were too tired decide on anything else. We found a supermarket, but only after missing a turn and discovering that our nice quiet hotel is about two blocks off of a red light district…that was an amusing realization.
Back to the hotel, a small load of sink laundry, and then pushed ourselves to stay awake until 8 p.m. to (hopefully) knock our jet lag around and onto local time.
Day 6: Frankfurt
The battle with jet lag isn’t over yet, but we’re making good progress. While neither of us had our best night’s sleep, we stubbornly refused to completely awaken when we started to, and took the morning nice and slow, not leaving the hotel until around 10 a.m.
Once we did get going, we had our first full day exploring Frankfurt. We had only a rough plan, so started off on a more or less random direction and ended up next to the Städel museum, at which point going in seemed like the only choice that made sense. Right off the bat, they had a really neat exhibition of prints by (and related to) Pieter Bruegel the Elder; most of the rest of the museum was its own (very impressive) collection. Another current exhibition by Elmgreen & Dragset, in addition to its own installations, includes lifelike sculptures placed throughout the museum, often in humorous juxtaposition with the museum’s regular collection. We had a lot of fun stumbling across these additions.
What’s he looking at, anyway? Photo by my wife.
From there we wandered over into the Altstadt (old city), had our first sausage meal, and then visited the Frankfurt Cathedral (Frankfurt Dom/Kaiserdom Sankt Bartholomäus), including climbing all 328 steps up (and then down again) to the top of the tower to see the views of the city. Once done with that, we wandered the Altstadt some more and picked a couple more museums that might be on the list for tomorrow, ventured a bit into one of the main shopping areas nearby, and poked our heads into a couple more churches.
We climbed that! Sure felt that in our legs later on, too….
By this point we were starting to fizzle, so we went by a place we’d spotted earlier to get currywurst (my first time in 35 years, and just as good as I remember), stopped by a grocery for drinks to hydrate with, and came back to the hotel. As we were getting ready for bed a thunderstorm rolled over the city, and we got to watch the rain and see the clouds light up with lightening for a little bit.
Our day’s wanderings.
Day 7: Frankfurt
Our plan for the day was to get an earlier start and hit two museums. Then a jet lag induced lack of good sleep took effect, and we got neither.
We did get out and about, but not quite so early as planned, and then headed for our first planned stop, the Historiches Museum Frankfurt (history museum). This was neat, and in a gorgeous building that had been recently remodeled, but had lots of info about and peeks at the old building incorporated into it. However, it quickly became apparent that we did not have the stamina to make it through the full museum, so we went off to lunch.
A little later, happily stuffed with schnitzel, we peeked at the Museum of Modern Electronic Music (MOMEM), but didn’t quite feel drawn in. Instead, we decided to walk back to the river and stroll along in the shade of a tree-lined cobblestone path, enjoying the views of the city and looking at some of the other museums we could have gone to if we were here longer or had more energy.
The historical museum is the building to the left with the four-story tower capped by black turrets; we climbed to the top of that tower as part of our museum tour. The cathedral tower we climbed yesterday is to the right.
After that, it was back to our hotel, figuring that we were better off declaring ourselves done for the day. A couple hours’ rest gave us enough energy to grab dinner from the corner pizzeria…and that perked us up enough that we decided to walk down to the train station (just a couple blocks further down the street) to scope it out and make sure we knew where to go for the next part of our trip.
We grabbed gelato on the way back, sitting at one of the many outdoor seating areas, people watching as we ate, and then came back to the hotel. And that wrapped up another day in Frankfurt.
Our second day of wandering around Frankfurt’s Altstadt.
Day 8 (part 1): Frankfurt to…?
It’s a travel day!
Slept as late and as well as we could (still not adjusted, but getting there), packed ourselves up and out, and walked down to the Frankfurt train station (Hauptbahnhof). Since we’d scouted that out yesterday, we were able to get some food and go directly to our platform. A while later, our train showed up, and we found our seats. We’d reserved first class seats, and it seems we got lucky, as the other four seats in this cabin are unoccupied, so we have a cabin to ourselves for this part of the trip.
About to leave Frankfurt.
And with that, we say goodbye to Frankfurt and hello to…?
A brief note to begin with: I’ll be including a few iPhone photos here and there, but most of my photography for this trip is being done with my “real” camera. And since I want to focus on enjoying the vacation and not processing photos, those will be waiting until some time after we get home before they make it online. Until then, enjoy what’s here and use your imagination. :)
TSA at SeaTac was fine, and we breezed right through. Found our gate, got some lunch, and settled in to wait to board.
We didn’t want to deal with the hassle of roller bags for this trip, so we’re backpacking it. Trussing ‘em up with these rain/travel covers works great for checking them as baggage without worrying about straps flapping all over the place.
First time flying first class. Not bad at all!
Got to SFO; looks like a nice airport. Started finding out way to the BART station, got on the airport train…and got right back off again — once they manually opened the doors — when it broke down. At least it was still mobile, so it pulled away and another appeared. Got on the BART and went the wrong way, but it was only one stop and then this line reverses to go the other direction, so it was only a minor detour. Taking the scenic route?
We’d started at SFO and were aiming for Montgomery, but went down to Milbrae first.
Got to the hotel (quite a walk with these backpacks), dropped our stuff off, took a few minutes to rest, and then went out to find food. Wandered up and into Chinatown and discovered that there was a big street market/festival in progress on the main drag. Explored that for a little bit, but it was a bit much after a long day of travel, so we found a good Chinese restaurant for dinner. Walked around a bit more after that, then back to the hotel to crash out.
Apparently this is an every-second-Friday thing and not an everyday thing; we honestly weren’t sure, and were just enjoying the atmosphere.
Our first big walking day! Over 20,000 steps. Started from our hotel (a block away from the Transamerica Pyramid) and went down to the ferry terminal, then slowly walked up along the Embarcadero to Pier 39, pausing to take photos and browse interesting looking places as we went.
Grabbed lunch, then had an incredible catamaran sailing tour of the San Francisco Bay, including going under the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather was perfect the entire way, and we got some absolutely gorgeous views of San Francisco. We can highly recommend Adventure Cat Sailing if you get the chance.
We’re on a boat!
When that finished, we continued our walk north along the Embarcadero, eventually making it all the way up to Victorian Park/the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. That was when we turned around…but not without a detour through Ghirardelli Square to pick up a little chocolate.
We walked all the way back down the Embarcadero to the ferry terminal where we’d started, and then back up to the hotel. By that point it was 7 p.m. and we’d been going pretty solidly since 9 a.m., so it was time to stop so we’d be ready for tomorrow.
I use a GPS tracking app so I can later easily geocode the photos I take with my “real” camera, but it also comes in handy for seeing just where we went over the course of a day.
A little less walking today…but not by a lot, I still broke 18,000 steps and went almost 9 miles.
Our hotel was not this inexpensive, but thankfully still had the listed amenities.
We had a fairly slow morning, eventually making our way up to the closest BART station and heading out to the Mission district. Once we were there, we got a small taco brunch using the “first open place we walk past” method, and it worked great.
From there, we headed up to the Mission San Francisco de Asis, and realized we could tour both the old (1776) mission and the “new” (1918) basilica. Both are gorgeous, and as it was Sunday morning, we were able to listen in to the choir at the end of one of the Sunday morning masses in the basilica.
After that we decided to head towards Golden Gate Park, started that way, and a ways along realized that we were about to cross Haight street. So, we turned and walked the rest of the way there along Haight street, enjoying all the old classic San Francisco homes and the many cute little shops and restaurants along the way, stopping in one for a lunchtime burrito, right through the Haight-Ashbury district until we hit the park.
Once at the park, we ended up finding and riding the carousel, listening to a Hungarian folk trio and the Golden Gate Park Band as they celebrated St. Stephen’s Day, and then spending most of the rest of our time there slowly exploring the San Francisco Botanical Garden.
World’s fastest carousel! Or, well, maybe me playing with a long exposure. Maybe.
Eventually we could tell we were wearing down, so we headed out of the park. We found local burgers for dinner, hopped on a Muni train back towards downtown, and made it back to our hotel a little after six. Time to rest!
The lighter colored lines are faster (the BART and Muni trains), the redder lines are slower (walking).
Day 4 (part 1): San Francisco to…?
This morning we kept nice and slow. Took our time waking up and getting mostly ready to go, then had a brief outing to get breakfast at a corner place we’d passed a few times that looked good (and it was). Back to the hotel for the final load out, then a quick ride on the BART to get to the airport.
Now we’re all checked in, through TSA, lunched, and kicked back at our gate, ready for the next part of our summer adventure….
I’d let this project fall to the side for a while, but I started coming back to it last week, and this morning before work, I finally finished processing and uploading my photos from our summer 2024 vacation up to Victoria, B.C.
Day 1, Sequim: At our hotel in Sequim.Day 2, Port Angeles: While wandering through antique stores, we stumbled across this very cool old lens, a Nikkor 500mm f/8 reflex telephoto, still with its original carry case and filter set. If you’re into quirky old photo gear, I have more shots of and by this lens.Day 3, Klaloch Beach: Playing with the new lens while walking along Klaloch Beach. The out-of-focus rocks in the distance show the characteristic “donut” effect caused by the mirror setup of the reflex lens.Day 4, Whale Watching: A whale watching tour on the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Port Angeles and Victoria.Day 5, Dungeness Wildlife Refuge: We took a nice, long, slow wander about a third of the way out along the spit at the wildlife refuge. Lots of birds and gorgeous views of Mt. Baker.Day 6, Port Angeles: On our last day in Port Angeles we went on their “underground” walking tour. Not as much underground as Seattle’s, but historical walking tours are generally fun, and this one was occasional enhanced by Halloween decorations that never got removed after the 2020 pandemic shutdown; apparently when the tours started again, enough people were amused by them that they’re just year-round decorations now.Day 7, Victoria: We ferried over to Victoria, took a carriage ride tour through one of the historical neighborhoods, and then happened to be walking by the Parliament building when a protest against the Palestinian genocide was getting started.Day 8, Victoria: The Miniature World Museum was a fun treat, with lots of intricately detailed miniature dioramas of scenes past and future, real and fantastical. Our day also included high tea at the Empress Hotel and an evening walk along the waterfront.Day 9, The Butchart Gardens: We bussed up to spend most of the day at the Butchart Gardens, which are beautiful. Lots of pretty landscapes and flowers…and this, what I think is probably the most hilariously “should be sold with the generic artwork in frames at Ross or T.J. Maxx and hung in a mid-tier hotel somewhere” photo I’ve taken yet.Day 10, The Royal BC Museum: The museum had an exhibit with a lot of mid-century-modern items as part. There were several stereos like this one that I’d love to have (if I had the space and budget to ignore practicality, neither of which I do).Day 11, Victoria: For our last day in Victoria, we took two walking tours: a food tour in the morning, and a ghost walk tour in the evening. Both were a lot of fun.Day 12: Heading Home: And then we hopped back on the ferry, caught a nice view of Mt. Baker on our way back to Washington, and drove back home.
