Writer, traveler, photographer, hiker, film/TV addict, amateur chef, casual gamer, and occasional tennis & saxophone player . . . in real life I do web development.
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted a photo of the day, so in honor of Endangered Species Day, here is a mule deer I encountered in Yosemite National Park this past fall along the Yosemite Falls trail, grazing peacefully, completely unafraid of humans. Yes, I realize that the mule deer is not an endangered animal, but since I don’t have any photos of endangered animals, this beautiful specimen of unendangered North American wildlife will have to suffice. đ
Date: 10/18/2014 Camera: Nikon D5100 Click for larger view
Here’s hoping for a day when all the world’s creatures will be as unthreatened as this deer.
We fell in love with you from the moment we saw you on that wintry day back in 2000. While all of the other dogs up for adoption were jumping around in their crates and barking, you were just lying there, seemingly in your own world, a beautiful shepherd mix, oblivious to the chaos around you. We knew right away that you were the one who would make our family complete.
Your foster mom told us your story, about the hard life you’d had. Although they found you living as a stray, they were sure you had been owned before, and almost definitely abused by some awful human beings. Somehow you escaped, whether by your own choice or theirs, and ventured out on your own. You were eventually rescued from a cave along the river in Trenton in the middle of winter, skinny and pregnant. We liked to joke that you were the Matt Foley of dogs: “I lived in a cave down by the river!”
When we first brought you into our home it was not easy. You still had the mentality of a wild animal, complete with coarse fur and an utter distrust of humans, especially men. You were scared of your own shadow, spending the first few years of your life with your tail between your legs. You refused to go on walks; you would just plop yourself down on the ground and not budge. The first night you slept in our bedroom you peed all over the room. The first day we left you alone in the house we shut you in the laundry room only to come home and discover that you’d eaten your way through the louvered door to get out. We found you sitting on the couch in the living roomâyou had not touched anything else in the house, you had just wanted out of the laundry room.
I’m sure some people would have considered sending you back during those tough first weeks, but we refused to give up on you, and eventually you rewarded our patience with the 15 happiest years of our lives. You finally warmed up to your mommy and became completely attached to her. It would take me a lot longer to earn your love and trust, a couple of years in fact, but when it finally happened it was the most amazing feeling in the world.
You would never be a completely normal dog; your neuroses followed you for the rest of your life. You would run away in fright at the slightest sound, from the ice maker in our fridge to a car door slamming outside (during the last few years of your life you would go mostly deaf and I swear it was the happiest you’d ever beenâno more noises to frighten you). You were terrified of spinning things like ceiling fans and bicycle tires. And crowds of people? Forget about it. There were so many occasions when we’d be out for a walk and something would spook you into flight. You became very adept at doing a Harry Houdini out of your collar (thanks to your big shepherd neck and small terrier head) and then running all the way home.
But you got better with each passing month. Eventually your tail began to wag, your coat softened, and you started to hang out with us more often in the house. Watching you blossom from a basket case into a happy, playful, and loving dog was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Your love and trust was all the more special because we had to earn it. You would never trust many other people in your life, but that was okay, you had us and we had you; we were the perfect match. We loved our neurotic nutcase, and we were the only ones who ever understood you.
Your name was Heidi but we had so many nicknames for you. You probably thought your name was Smushyface because I called you that so often. Then there was Heidarolla, Little Egg, Baby Girl, Smusharella, Potato, Potato Pancake, Sweet Potato, Sugarloaf, Cinnamon Girl, and dozens more. And of course Heidi-HoâI used to sing that Blood, Sweat & Tears song to you all the time:
Hi-de-ho, hi-de-hi
Gonna get me a piece of the sky
Gonna get me some of that old sweet roll
Singin’ hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho
We don’t have children but you were our daughter in every sense of the word. We raised you, loved you, and cared for you for more than 15 years. We watched you grow into an amazing individual. We took you on every vacation. Watching you frolic on the beach was among the happiest of all my vacation memories. We truly had a wonderful life together.
Then in your 15th year we began to notice that you were having trouble with stairs, culminating in the nasty spill you took down our home stairs, which forced us to make the heartbreaking decision to put up a gate and confine you to the first floor. Your right rear paw began to knuckle over when you walked and, shortly after your 16th birthday, you were diagnosed with Degenerative Myelopathy, an insidious, ALS-like neurological disease that was slowly paralyzing you and robbing you of your ability to control your bodily functions.
We were devastated, but determined to rally around you. All of our research assured us that you were not in any pain, so we would do our best to care for you and manage the disease. If we had put you to sleep, as some had suggested, we would have missed out on the last six months of your life, and that would have been a sin, because there were still so many happy days ahead. You were not ready to go; you were still the same spunky dog, so full of life. You had always been a fighter and a survivorâyou just needed some extra help now. You could still move around the house on your own, but you needed assistance with going to the bathroom to keep you from falling over in the middle of doing your business. Helping you walk outside made me feel even closer to you, and it brought you closer to us, as you instinctively knew that you now needed to depend on us for some more things. We even bought you a doggie wheelchair for longer walks, which I had been hoping to do much more of as the weather warmed.
I won’t deny that it was sometimes difficult, especially for your mommy, who, as the first one awake in the morning, bore the brunt of cleaning up your accidents and washing you off, but you were more than worth it. You were our baby girl and we would have done anything for you.
We had begun to steel ourselves for the end, especially as it became harder to keep weight on you. We had envisioned a final day of fun where we would take you to the park and feed you all of your favorite foods, burgers galore and cream cheese for dessert. But we weren’t there yet, and neither were you. You still had so much zest for life–how could we ever have lived with ourselves if we had extinguished that light?
We thought you would tell us when you were ready to go, that we would see it in your eyes or your demeanor. Then we would know that it was time to plan your happy final day. But we never got the chance because on May 3rd, 2015, four months shy of your 17th birthday, a sudden attack of bloat stole you from us in an instant. In the end it was not your DM or your heart murmur that took you, but damned bloatâand damn that bloat to hell for making your final day of life so painful. We rushed you to the hospital and they gave you pain meds and made you comfortable. The doctor said they could operate but with your age and all of your medical issues, we knew it was time. We were not going to put you through a surgery that you might not even survive, so we made the gut-wrenching decision to say goodbye.
They brought you into the room so we could spend our final moments together as a family. I don’t know how much you were actually there because of the meds you were on, but I choose to believe that you knew we were with you, your pack mates, petting you and kissing you, holding you until it was over.
Staying with you while the doctor ended your suffering was unbelievably traumatic, and it will haunt me for the rest of my life, but I would do it again. There was no way I was going to leave you in the hospital to die with strangers. And I’m so thankful that you did not die alone while we were at work, that you were able to spend your final moments on Earth surrounded by your loved ones.
We were in shock. We had expected a gradual decline and had hoped for a more peaceful end. We were not prepared to lose you so quickly and so violently. Three days later we’re still in shock. Every time I walk around the house I expect you to be there. I see you out of the corner of my eye, your nose peeking around the corner, your ear popping up from behind the couch. I hear the tags of your collar jingling in the next room. My mind goes on autopilot, one moment thinking I have to put this plate of food up high so Heidi doesn’t get it, another moment walking downstairs to say goodnight, but you’re not there.
I don’t know how this is supposed to work without you. The house is so empty. You moved into our home right after we did. We’ve never really lived here without you. Everywhere I turn there are signs of your presence, from the scratched-up front doorjamb to the gouged-out windowsills in the guest room; from the torn-up area of carpet on the upstairs landing to the nose prints all over the back French doorsâand everywhere in between. You made an indelible mark on our lives.
We were so lucky to have you for 15 of your 16 1/2 years on this planet, and incredibly lucky that you lived so far beyond the average lifespan for a dog of your type, but I still feel cheated. I wasn’t ready to let you go, not like that. I miss you so much. I miss your flippy-floppy ears, the way one ear stood up straight while the other went halfway up and then out to the side at a right angle. I miss your nose, petting the bridge as you started to fall asleep. I’ll miss finding that special spot on your neck that gave you so much pleasure. I’ll miss rubbing your belly, rubbing your paws, holding your silky ears in my hands, that white area of your chest. I’ll miss running around the house with you as you pounced on me like a wild animal stalking its prey. I’ll miss how frisky you would get as I left the house in the morning, nipping at me as if to say, “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
And god how I’ll miss the way you’d sometimes rest your head on my lap while I petted you, or when you’d burrow under our legs and stick your head up on the couch cushion, demanding that we pet you. I’ll miss watching you take lawn dives and roll around in the snow. I’ll miss throwing the ball with you and fighting to get it out of your mouth. I’ll miss how excited you got over your nightly cheesy treats, the way you jumped around when I asked you if you wanted to go “bye byes” in the car, how you hid under the bed during thunderstorms. I’ll miss feeding you out of my hand, having you hang out back with me while I grilled, and watching you take almost an entire flight of stairs in a single bound. I’ll miss watching you sleep, all curled up and pretty, or running in your dreams. And I’ll really miss all of your neurotic issues because they made you uniquely you. There will never be another dog like you; they truly broke the mold.
I take comfort in the knowledge that we gave you a great life. I know in my heart that we were meant to be together. I’m not sure what would have happened to you if we hadn’t decided to go to Pet Smart that day, whether you would have clicked with anyone else or whether they would have been willing to put in the work it took to bring you out of your shell. But you rescued us as much as we rescued you, and I want to thank you for that. Thank you for bringing more joy into our lives than you can possibly imagine. We learned so much from you. You made us not only better dog parents, but better people. I wouldn’t trade a minute of it. You were the best thing that ever happened to us, the best part of us.
I love you, Heidi Girl, and I will never, ever forget you. Rest easy now, my baby.
July 2, 2014: After spending a couple of days in London and a day in Paris, it was finally time to explore some of the English countryside via a tour of Bath and Stonehenge. This was my second of several tours booked through Premium Tours, and would turn out to be the best one by far. I can’t recommend this tour highly enough. Just make sure you choose the option in which you see Stonehenge in a private viewing at sunsetâI think this option is only available during the summer, and only on certain days, but it is so worth it. Whereas the public must view Stonehenge from behind ropes at a distance, this tour gives you access inside the ropes to walk among the stones. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The day began with a trip on the subway to the Marble Arch, where I would be meeting with my guide and waiting for the bus to pick us up. While waiting I snapped a photo of the arch. You can click on any photo in this post to view a larger version.
Marble Arch
The guide was a cheeky older fellow with a biting wit named David. In his welcoming speech to the group he told us that the company basically gets two types of reviews from people on his tours: those who loved him and those who hated him. I fell firmly on the former side, finding his humor quite entertaining, and a welcome change from the by-the-book guides you frequently encounter on these tours. I can see how some easily-offended people might not like him, but in my opinion he made an already great trip even more enjoyable.
Our first stop was the very charming city of Bath. On the way I snapped a couple of photos of the countryside from the bus.
English CountrysideA town in the distance.
The main attraction in Bath is the ruin of the Roman Baths, but the entire city is rich with character. It’s easy to understand why so many celebrities have homes here. We only had a few hours (most of which were spent in the Baths), but you could easily spend an entire day or more meandering through this majestic city.
While waiting in line to get into the Roman Baths, I befriended a couple who were on the tour with me after I overheard them talking about Monty Pythonâit turns out I wasn’t the only one to organize an entire trip to the U.K. around the Python reunion concert. We bonded over that (they were going to the show the day before mine) and also over Treme (the HBO show) and our mutual love of Trombone Shortyâthey were from New Orleans and had seen Shorty perform before he was famous. I’m usually alone on these trips and too shy to strike up conversations, so this was a nice change of pace for me.
Outside the Roman Baths
Before long it was time to enter the Baths. I’ve always been fascinated with ruins, especially those of the Roman Empire, so I was very much looking forward to this.
The main bath viewed from the upper level.The main bath viewed from the lower level.Our guide David talked me into taking this photo in front of the “do not touch the water” sign.The smaller bath. The water once rose as high as the dark area just below the tops of the arches.
After exiting the Baths I had free time to walk around the city. It was a beautiful day to enjoy a beautiful city (finally, a day without rain). Here are some photos from my walk around town. You can click on any collage photo on this page to open up a gallery.
I only wish I had longer to spend in Bath, but it was time to move on. Our next stop was an old Saxon village called Lacock. On the way I snapped a couple more photos from the bus.
Railroad TunnelTypical English countryside scene: a stone wall and field of roaming sheep.
Lacock, with its quaint buildings, is like a walk back in time. We had lunch reservations at a 14th-century inn called The George.
The George Inn
I can’t recall exactly what I ate (some sort of meat pie) but it was delicious and fresh (we had placed our orders earlier that morning to give them time to make the food from scratch), washed down with some home-brewed ale, and followed by a tasty dessert. This was my first proper English meal of the tripâand the most inexpensive by far.
After lunch we had a walk around the town. It didn’t take long to see why this was a key shooting location for the Harry Potter films. Here are some photos from our walk around the town.
Some Harry Potter interior scenes were filmed in this abbey.
This house appeared in The Half Blood Prince.
The tiles of this roof are made of stone and supposedly have not needed replacing in hundreds of years.
Before long it was time to kick this trip up to eleven (as Nigel Tufnel might say) and hop back on the bus for our ultimate destination: Stonehenge. They no longer allow cars to park at Stonehenge itself (which is a good thing), so you must park at the welcome center, from where a shuttle takes you up to the site. While waiting for the shuttle I walked around the museum, which had lots of useful information about the history of Stonehenge.
Finally, the park closed to the general public and it was time to catch the shuttle for our private viewing. On the way to the site I managed to snap one heavily-zoomed photo of two of the many barrows (burial mounds) found in the surrounding area.
Barrows
Then we made our approach to Stonehenge. It’s impossible to put into words the feeling of standing on this ancient site, and photos fail to do it justice, but here are a few.
The stones are roped off to the public so most people never get much closer than where I’m standing in this photo.
Kinda looks like an Easter Island face.
Having the entire place to ourselves was amazing, especially as the setting sun bathed the sky in pretty hues that made for some great photos. At one point our guide David had us be quiet and just soak in the atmosphere. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the idea of a place like this giving off vibes, but standing there in silence among those massive stones was definitely goosebump-inducing.
Soon it was time to hop back on the bus and return to London. By the time I reached my apartment it was 11:30 p.m and I had been on the road for over 13 hours, but it was more than worth it. As I mentioned at the top, this was the best of all the tours I booked through Premium Tours, as well as the best day I spent in England during my entire two-week stay. And on that note, I leave you with one final photo of the sun setting over Stonehenge.
I just discovered that my previously posted Yosemite movie was banned by YouTube from being playable in almost every country in the world, including the United States. Apparently that’s what happens when you use Pink Floyd as your background music. Oh well, lesson learned; back to using classical music in all my videos.  This new version features “The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives, though apparently even classical music occasionally runs up against the long arm of the copyright police–one of my previous videos using a Holst piece is banned in Germany.
Anyway, here again is the compilation of all videos taken during my two-day visit to Yosemite National Park back in October 2014.  You can view the HD version by selecting 1080p from the quality settings of the video.
July 1, 2014: The phone in my London flat roused me at 4 a.m.âmy wakeup call. What am I, nuts? Who gets up this early on vacation? Someone who wants to spend a day in Paris, that’s who. So I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for my walk to St. Pancras train station, where I would be meeting my tour group for a 6:00 check-in. With only 1.5 hours of sleep under my belt, it was going to be a LONG day, but I knew that it would be worth it. After all, how many times in your life do you get a chance to see Paris?
I met with my group and then went through a security check-in process that was very similar to what you experience in an airport. I hadn’t been expecting thatâduring my 2011 trip I rode trains all over Europe without going through any type of pre-boarding security. I guess security needs to be tighter when you’re taking a train that goes through a tunnel beneath the English Channel.
Soon I was on the train and we were headed to France. I tried to catch some sleep while we were in the tunnel, but was unsuccessful. Eventually we arrived in Paris and we met up with our guide, who was waiting for us at the end of the train platform. This was the first of several tours I had booked through Premium Tours. There were several tour options for the Paris day trip, both guided and unguided. I chose the most expensive one as it was the only option that included access to the Eiffel Tower. This package also included a two-course lunch with champagne at a restaurant on the Tower itself.
But first we hopped on a bus for a driving tour of the city. Here are some photos from the bus. I did my best to minimize window glare (you can click on any photo in this post to open up a gallery).
After our tour, the bus dropped us near the Eiffel Tower. Our guide warned us not to engage with anyone who might approach with a clipboard asking us to take a survey because it is a scamâwhile the survey taker distracts you, his or her partner picks your pocket. Sure enough, we had barely departed the bus when a girl approached with a clipboard. One of the men in the group forcefully told her “no” and she didn’t bother any of the rest of us.
The line to get into the Tower was huge. Thankfully, as a tour group, we didn’t have to wait as long as the general public, but it was still a good wait. We eventually made it to the front, through security (they check your backpack), and up the elevator to the restaurant. The restaurant is on a lower level of the Tower, giving you a good view of the city, though our table was not near a window. The food was good, though not overly memorable.
It was at this point that I realized our tickets did not include elevator access to the observation deck of the tower. If we wanted to reach the observation deck we would either have climb the stairs or go back down and purchase a lift ticket. I would have been fine with climbing, but we only had about 30 minutes between lunch and the time we were supposed to meet at the dock for our boat cruise, so there wasn’t enough time to climb up and get back down again, nor was there enough time go down and to wait in line for a lift ticket. Had I known this, I would have skipped lunch and just spent the time climbing to the observation deck. I initially thought that I might still have a shot to get up there, so I skipped dessert and headed out, but soon realized after climbing a few flights that I would never make it. As a result, I was only able to take a few photos from the stairs through a chain-link fence, which did not allow for any wide shots since I had to zoom in enough to get past the links.
With the time I had left, I headed back down to the ground and took a walk around the nearby area so that I could get some shots of the Tower from below.
Elevator Action
Before long it was time to head down to the dock and meet back up with the group for our cruise along the majestic Seine. I hadn’t realized that the London rain had been following me to Parisâit had just taken a while to catch up. By the time we boarded the boat my old friend had arrived, but luckily the rain wasn’t heavy enough to prevent me from taking photos. With gorgeous architecture on both banks, a Seine cruise is highly recommended.
There was a group of school children on the boat with us and the girls screamed at the tops of their lungs every time the boat went under a bridge, creating an ear-piercing echo-chamber effect. Under different circumstances I might have been annoyed, but this was Paris and it actually added to the atmosphere. Many of the bridges we passed beneath had locks on them, so it turns out there’s more than one Love Lock Bridge, though it was easy to tell which bridge was the original because it was completely covered in a blanket of locks.
At the end of the boat trip we hopped back on our tour bus and headed to The Louvre. Upon arrival the guide released us for free time. We had the option of touring the museum but I decided to meander outside among the impressive grounds (especially since the sun had finally made an appearance) rather than spend all of my remaining time jockeying with crowds for a glimpse of the Mona Lisa. I wouldn’t mind seeing it someday when I have more time to spend in Paris.
After snapping some photos in the main plaza I made my way to the Louvre gardens.
I could see the Arc de Triomphe in the distance but did not have time to walk all the way there, so I settled for admiring it from afar. At this point I thought it prudent to eat some dinner since I knew I would not have the opportunity by the time we got back to London later that night. Time dwindled as I searched for a place to eat, and I didn’t want to run the risk of missing the bus, so I settled for a tea house in the Louvre itself. After a bit of trouble communicating with the waiter (I usually try to pick up some of the language of the country I am visiting, but since I was only spending one day in Paris and three days in Amsterdam/Bruges, I concentrated instead on learning some Dutch for this trip), I ordered afternoon tea, which came with finger sandwiches and desserts. That’s right, my first ever afternoon tea was in France, not England. đ
I gobbled down the food, drank my tea, and rejoined my group in the nick of time. Before long I was back on the train and bound for London. Once again I was unable to sleep on the way home, so by the time I returned to my apartment around 9 p.m., I was ready to collapse. I had another long day ahead of me in the morning: a trip to Bath and Stonehenge, but thankfully I didn’t have to wake up for that trip until around 7:30, so I had some extra time to catch up on sleep.
Overall, I would say the tour is worth it, though there is bound to be some disappointment given the time constraints of a day trip (like, for example, not being able to see the city at night). For me, the biggest disappointment was not having the opportunity to go to the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. If I had a suggestion to make to Premium Tours, it would be to provide a version of the tour that skips lunch on the tower and instead provides you with tickets all the way to the top. Other than that, it was a nice tour with an excellent guide, and a perfect way to get a taste of Paris. Clearly, a day trip can only scratch the surface of this amazing city, and if I ever make it back, it will be for much longer, but considering that I was coming all the way from London, I was able to see much more in one day than I would have on my own. So if you have only one day to spend in Paris and are traveling from London, this tour is definitely a good option.
June 30, 2014: My first full day in London began late in the morning after allowing myself to sleep in (I needed to recharge the batteries after being awake for most of 32 hours). Today was the day I had set aside to do the touristy double-decker bus thing, so I walked ten minutes down the street to a pickup point and hopped on. The company I chose was called The Original Tour. For this leg of the tour there was no live guide so I listened to a recording via headphones. Here are some pics (click on any photo in this post to open up a gallery).
What’s nice about these tours is that they stop at most of the major attractions and you can hop on and off wherever you please. I took advantage of this by jumping off at Picadilly Circus. I needed to transfer to a different bus line and this seemed like as good a place as any. Here are a few shots from my brief walk around Picadilly Circus.
The white building in the distance is the Apollo Theatre, where I had tickets to see “Let The Right One In.”
I found the bus route I was looking for and hopped back on. Photos from this stretch include Trafalgar Square and St. Paul’s Cathedral, among others.
I jumped off again near the Tower of London because I had an appointment with a famous serial killer: a guided walking tour through Jack the Ripper’s old haunts in Whitechapel. The walking tour was included with the price of my tour bus ticket. Â But first, I snapped a few photos while I waited for the tour to begin.
I’ve always been fascinated with Ripper lore; I even featured it in my novel. The tour is pretty cool as long as you know what you’re getting: you’re walking through a modern city in the middle of the afternoon, so don’t go in expecting spooky atmosphere. It’s not the Whitechapel of the Ripper era, though there are some spots that give you an impression of what it must have been like. The main draw of the tour is listening to the stories of the guide, who did a good and enthusiastic job. Another plus of the tour is that it gives you an excuse to walk through a portion of London that you’d be less likely to visit on your own since it is a bit off the beaten path. Here are some photos from my walking tour.
It is speculated that Jack the Ripper could have lived in this building.
Old workhouse with separate Women’s entrance.
Narrow alley similar to how streets looked in the Ripper era.
After completing the Ripper Tour I headed toward a dock near the Tower of London and hopped on a boat for a cruise along the Thames. This was also included with the price of my tour bus ticket. By this time it had started raining but I found a spot on the outside deck under a little overhang where I could take some photos.
At the conclusion of the boat ride I headed for a bus stop to rejoin the bus tour. This wasn’t the most pleasant experience. In addition to the aforementioned rain, I couldn’t understand anything the guide was saying. It appeared that he was holding the microphone too close so everything came out sounding muffledâeither that or the speakers were shot. Here are a few photos from that stretch.
I stuck with the tour bus for a little while but between the rain and the unintelligible guide I’d finally had enough and decided to jump off near Parliament. From here I walked around, taking photos of Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.
At this point, after two days in London, I figured it might be a good time to have my first proper meal. I walked around looking for a place where I might have an authentic English dinner but wasn’t having much luck. As it grew later and I grew hungrier, I settled for a Spanish restaurant. That’s rightâmy first English dinner was Spanish food. đ
I then made my way to the Underground and headed back to my apartment, hoping to catch a few winks ahead of my 4am wakeup call. On the morrow I would be heading for Paris!
June 28â29, 2014: The day of my trip had finally arrived. I kissed Jen and Heidi goodbye and hopped on a train to Newark for my 10 p.m. flight. I was a little concerned that they had shut down the monorail service to the airport from the train station for repairs, but the temporary shuttle service they set up ran smoothly and I got to the airport in plenty of time.
As I went through security, I was apparently in some sort of express lane because I didn’t have to take my shoes off or empty my pockets or anything. In fact, the TSA agent yelled at me when I started to do so. I reached my gate with a couple of hours to spare, so I passed the time in a Heineken lounge. The time flew by, and before I knew it, we were wheels up.
I tried to sleep on the flight but I’ve never been very good at that; I think I managed a few winks here and there. I normally prefer an aisle seat when flying, but I found that an aisle seat makes it nearly impossible to sleep because you have people bumping into you all night as they walk up and down the aisle, so for this flight I chose a window seat. The downside was that I was sitting next to someone who refused to stand up when I needed to exit my seat, forcing me to climb over him and, at one point, causing me to spill water all over myself. Oh well, at least it dried by the time we landed.
After touching down in London I stopped at a machine to purchase an Oyster Card for the London Underground (aka, the tube) and put enough money on it to get me through two weeks of riding London’s public transportation system. The nice thing about the Oyster Card is that when you’re ready to go home, you can turn it in for a full refund of the amount you didn’t spend. After getting that squared away I hopped on the tube, which was conveniently located right beneath the airport, and headed for my destination. London is very big, so it took me about 45 minutes to get to my stop (luckily I didn’t have to switch lines, which would have been cumbersome while dragging two-week’s worth of luggage). Overall, I found a ride on the tube to be much more pleasant than riding on New York or Philly subways. Then again, I hadn’t yet experienced the pleasure of being sardined into an overheated car on the Picadilly line during rush hour. đ
Upon exiting the tube station it was about a 10-minute walk to my apartment building. I arrived early and wouldn’t be able to check in for another couple of hours, so I left my luggage in the lobby and decided to take a walk to King’s Cross and St. Pancras train stations. With two hours to kill, it was a good opportunity to get the lay of the land and figure out where I would need to report for all of those 6 a.m. excursion departures on my schedule.
The walk over was cold, windy, and rainy. The rain would be a recurring theme during my stay as England definitely lived up to its wet reputation, but the temperature thankfully warmed up for the rest of my London fortnight. I first encountered St. Pancras; its facade dominates the area and can be seen from a good distance down the street.
St. Pancras train station in all its Gothic glory.Hotel at St. Pancras
I then made my way to King’s Cross…
King’s Cross Train Station
…which looks really cool inside:
King’s Cross
I couldn’t leave King’s Cross without seeking out Platform 9 3/4. It wasn’t very hard to find; I just had to look for the long line of people waiting to get their photos taken.
Next Stop: Hogwarts
By this point I was feeling pretty hungry; I hadn’t eaten since our little breakfast on the airplane. I didn’t want to eat a full mealâI figured I’d have dinner laterâso I stopped at a food kiosk outside King’s Cross station, where I ordered some very tasty garlic fries (or chips, as they call them in England). That was all I had planned to order, but then I saw something I could not resistâa chocolate cronut. Although I live near New York, where cronuts were invented, I had never eaten one, so I wasn’t about to pass up the chance, and it looked delicious.
This chocolate cronut did not disappoint.
I then headed back to my apartment building to check in after first trying unsuccessfully to find a trash can anywhere near King’s Cross. I did see a person walking around picking up trash, which led me to wonder: Do they just drop their trash on the ground here? I decided to keep the trash with me and throw it out when I got back to my room.
After checking in, one of the front desk attendants led me up three flights of stairs to my flat. I had requested a room on the top floor after reading some reviews of thin walls, hoping that it would be quieter without anyone being over top of me. As I dragged my heavy luggage up an increasingly narrow stairwell, I was beginning to regret that decision, knowing that I would have to make this climb for two weeks. But in the end I was glad I chose it because it felt very private and I never heard much noise up there.
I unpacked a bit and then caught a short nap before my visit to The Shard since I had been awake for the better part of 24+ hours. I wound up skipping dinner, figuring that sleep was more important, but before long, it was time to catch the tube down to central London. I had an 8 p.m. reservation at The Shard, which is the final entry time of the day for the view from the top. During the summer, that’s the best time to go because you can stay up there until after dark, which means you can enjoy a bird’s eye view of London both during the day and at night, with a beautiful sunset in between.
The Shard is the tallest building in the European Union, so naturally, the views from the top are stunning, and I was lucky that the skies cleared up for me. The only downside, from a photographer’s perspective, is that you have to take all of your photos through glass. I did my best to minimize glares and smudges in the following photos (click on any image to open up a fullscreen gallery):
I headed home a little after 10 p.m. and got back around 11, calling it an early night since I was basically running on fumes by this point. It was time to catch up on some of that sleep I’d lost on the flight over so I could wake up refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of London in the morning.
My summer trip to Europe last year began on a whim. I hadn’t been planning on taking a big trip in 2014, but then Monty Python decided to reunite for a series of live shows at the O2 in London. I had never been to London and seeing the Pythons perform live for likely the final time seemed like the perfect excuse to head across the pond. I asked my uncle (and frequent travel buddy) if he was interested, but he had already planned a trip to Norway. I wasn’t sure if I felt like going by myself and the Python tickets sold out in minutes anyway, so I just forgot about the idea.
A few months later I saw an article about the shows and my interest was once again piqued. For the heck of it I decided to see how much tickets were going for online. I found a site called Seatwave, which is basically a European version of Stub Hub that acts as a middleman between sellers and buyers. After doing a bit of research to ensure it was legit, I started browsing. I was expecting to see monstrous prices, and while many sellers were asking a lot, I was surprised to find that there were also several reasonably priced tickets out there. I managed to find a very good seat for not much higher than face value (it helped that I only needed a single ticket) that was too tempting to pass up, so I pounced. A day or two later I received an email with a link to print out my show ticket and I was all set.
The O2, My Destination for the Monty Python Show
So, I had my ticket to Monty Python in London, but now came the hard part: planning a trip around it. This would be my second completely solo trip after Mexico in 2013. That trip had been easy to plan because I had done the whole thing as a tour. I thought that might be the best approach to take on this trip as well, but the London tours I looked at were very expensive and none of them included everything I wanted to see, so I undertook the more arduous task of booking an entire trip from scratch.
Planning a trip to a foreign country may have been an intimidating prospect in years past, but with so much information now available online, it has become a lot easier. All it takes is a bit of patience to sort through the myriad options and perhaps some organizational skills to ensure that all of your activites/times/dates are in sync. I could have used a travel agent to make things easier, but I actually found the planning exciting. I was able to arrange everything via web sites and email without ever having to speak to a single person on the phone.
I planned the vast majority of my trip with the help of a web site called London Toolkit, an invaluable resource with a wealth of useful information. Through this site I found my London apartment and all of my excursions. The site also helped me figure out which card to buy for riding the London underground and contained lots of great advice for navigating the cityâby the time I arrived in London, I already felt like a resident.
My original plan was to stay for about a week, but when I saw how easy it would be to visit numerous destinations from London, I ended up booking trips to Scotland, Paris, Amsterdam, and Bruges, not to mention a bunch of excursions both inside and outside of London, so my trip grew to over two weeks. I went crazy picking things; I was like a kid in a candy store. Later, when my credit card statement came in, I was in sticker shock over how much I’d spentâit’s very easy to forget that the purchases you make in British Pounds are going to be converted to significantly higher U.S. dollar amounts, and on top of that the credit card companies fleece you with their foreign transaction fees. In fact, I was so annoyed with the foreign transaction fees that I barely used my credit cards once I got to Europe; I tried to pay for everything in cash (Discover doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee but good luck finding anyone in Europe that accepts it). Anyway, this is definitely not going to be one of those blogs telling you how to travel cheaply in the U.K. đ
London is one of the world’s priciest cities, so the hardest part of planning my trip was finding an affordable place to call home during the two weeks I would be there. Most of the hotels were way too expensive for a two-week stay, especially if you wanted to be close to the center of the city. In the end, I chose to stay farther away from the city center, within walking distance to King’s Cross station. This made sense for me as several of my excursions would be departing from King’s Cross or St. Pancras, and the London Underground is so easy to navigate that you’re never really far from the action.
I could have stayed quite inexpensively in a hostel, but at this point in my life I value my own personal space and privacy more than saving money. I also strongly considered one of London’s Bed & Breakfast options, which are a step up from hostels and a good option for the budget traveler, but I had trouble finding one that met all of my needs. I eventually settled on an apartment complex called Studios2let in Cartwright Gardens.
I called this apartment building home for two weeks.
The apartments (or flats, as they call them in London) were basically just motel rooms with kitchenettes, but perfect for my needs and the price was right. Plus, they had AC, something that’s a little harder to find in cheaper places. I also liked the fact that the rooms were only serviced once a week, as this made it feel more like a home and less like a hotel. However, even these apartments were too expensive to stay in for the full two weeks, so each Friday I would check out, leave for my weekend excursion with all of my luggage (they didn’t offer luggage storage), and then check back in on Sunday evening.
Once my apartment reservation was all settled I booked my (very expensive) flights, and then came the hardest part of all: waiting five months to get this trip started! Stay tuned for Part 2, which will cover my flight and first day in London. Until then, here is a movie I made from all of the videos I took on the trip. Consider it a trailer, of sorts, for the installments to come…
One of the most popular San Francisco Bay tourist attractions is the sea lion gathering at Pier 39. These gregarious beasts lounge on the docks here day and night, and you can hear their barks from far away.
To me, the best part about the Pier 39 sea lions is knowing that you’re gazing upon wild animals behaving naturally rather than captive animals on display in a zoo enclosure. They may not smell so good, but they are beautiful creatures.
Date: 10/15/2014 Camera: Nikon D5100 Click for larger view
This is the long-delayed final installment of my series looking back at my very first Eurotrip in 2007, during which I visited Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I never kept a journal during that trip so I am writing this mostly from memory. All photos were taken with my old pocket camera.
Neuschwanstein
After spending a final evening in Salzburg we departed early the next morning for Bavaria, where we would be visiting Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig II’s famous fairy tale castle. Along the way I took some photos of the pretty countryside.
River near a rest stop.Taken from the bus.
We soon arrived at Hohenschwangau, where I took this photo of Hohenschwangau Castle, King Ludwig II’s childhood home.
We didn’t have time to tour this castle.
From here we began a long walk up a steep hill to visit Neuschwanstein. An optional bus or carriage was also available to take you to the top, but most of us chose to walk.
Our first view of the castle.
Here are some more shots of the castle exterior:
Front entrance with coat of arms.Inner CourtyardOne of the turrets.A view from the entrance.
Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for the Sleeping Beauty castle in Disneyland, whereas the Cinderella castle in Disney World was based on any of a number of different European castles, depending on who you ask. The castle was already an anachronism when it was built–the first skyscrapers were going up in New York around the same time. Ludwig II was also known as “The Mad King” or the “Fairy Tale King.” He was eventually declared insane and deposed, but now Bavaria makes millions from his palaces.
Ludwig II was fascinated with fairy tales and Wagner operas, both of which feature prominently in the castle’s design. The inside is quite spectacular, and even includes an artificial cave. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside but you can find pictures of many of the rooms online.
One word of advice: if you’re looking buy some souvenirs after completing the tour, avoid the first gift shop–things are cheaper in the second gift shop . . . and even cheaper in the shops at the bottom of the mountain, at least that was the case back in 2007.
Following the castle tour we hiked out to the Marienbrucke, a bridge spanning a large gorge, seen here:
Marienbrucke
About halfway to the Marienbrucke there is a great lookout spot with this beautiful view:
Hohenschwangau Castle is visible in the distance to the right.
From the Marienbrucke you can enjoy one of the iconic views of the castle, seen below. The other famous view, from the front, requires a hike up to the top of a nearby mountain, which we did not have time for.
Neuschwanstein
After our visit to Neuschwanstein it was time to head to Lucerne, Switzerland. Along the way we were treated to gorgeous views of the Swiss countryside.
View from the bus.Another view from the bus. This huge lake went on for miles.
Lucerne is reminiscent of some seaside resorts in the States, but with more historic architecture. Despite being a major tourist spot (complete with casinos) and one of the more expensive destinations in Europe, it is one of my favorite European cities. The views along the lake with the Alps in the background are simply breathtaking.
Lake LucerneA portion of the Lucerne shoreline.
No trip to Lucerne is complete without a visit to Mount Pilatus, the large mountain that looms over Lake Lucerne.
Mount Pilatus dominates the landscape.
To get to the top of Mount Pilatus you take cable cars, from which you can watch the terrain turn from grass to snow as you ascend.
First the grass . . .. . . and then the snow.
After a while you exit your comfy small cable car and transfer to a large one, where you must stand, packed in with as many people as they can fit.
The larger cable car making its final ascent.
Once you reach the top, the views defy words, so I’ll let the photos do the talking, even though they could never do justice to the sensation of standing there in person.
On top of Mount Pilatus.Some day I would like to return with a better camera.I wonder how you get to this church . . .The views are simply amazing.I didn’t want to leave.
To get down, we took the same cable car route, though apparently you also have the option of taking some sort of railroad ride down.
On our way back down.
My uncle and I went to a restaurant on a boat for lunch, where we split an order of quite expensive fondue–54 francs for what was basically bread and melted cheese. I wasn’t kidding when I said that Lucerne is expensive.
I spent the rest of the day exploring the city on my own. In my travels I encountered another giant chess board like the one in Salzburg, though I didn’t play on this one.
Giant Chess
I had planned to do some shopping later in the day, but everything in Lucerne closed at 4pm . . . on a Saturday! Instead I just meandered and soaked in the beauty of the city.
Along the lake.A city square.One of Lucerne’s famed covered bridges . . .. . . and another.
At one point I encountered a group of women having some type of bachelorette party scavenger hunt. The bride (dressed as a prisoner) had a list of things she had to do, one of which was to dance with strangers on camera. She tried to get me to dance with her, but I sort of just stood there and talked to her while she danced around me and her friends filmed it. The next guy (pictured with the girls below) was much more game and really got into the dancing.
Somewhere in Europe there’s a video of this prisoner dancing around me.
Later in the day, after I rejoined my group, we bumped into the wedding girls again. They said hi to me and then shouted “he’s a great dancer!” Everyone in my group gave me a look, like “just what have you been doing today?” So I had to explain it, a bit embarrassed, but it’s precisely these types of unexpected moments that add richness to your travel experience and provide you with unique stories to tell. I mean, anybody can tell anecdotes about visiting castles, but how many people can say they danced with a bride-to-be dressed as a prisoner in a public square in Switzerland? đ
As the day wound to a close, we visited the famous weeping lion monument and posed for our final group photo.
Weeping Lion Monument
We had to wake up at 4:15 the next morning to hop on the bus to Zurich for our flight out, so we called it an early night. I got searched again at the Zurich airport (seemed to be a theme on this trip) and then we flew to Frankfurt for a five-hour layover before finally boarding a plane for the States. I had come down with a cold on my last day in Europe, which did not make for a pleasant flightâapparently my inner ear passageways swelled up and prevented my ears from poppingâmy left ear still hadn’t popped a week after I returned home.
Despite the dubious ending to the trip, it was a life-changing experience, and the travel bug bit me hard. Prior to this trip, the idea of traveling the world had never even been on my radar. I spent the first 36 years of my life barely venturing from the east coast of the United States, but in the 7.5 years since, I’ve embarked on three more Eurotrips, as well as trips to Peru, Mexico, and California . . . and it all began with this trip back in 2007.
So ends a story that has taken me nearly eight years to tell. đ
Michael Rappa 