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Eurotrip 2014, Part 14: Canterbury, Greenwich, and More London

January 20, 2016 Michael Rappa3 Comments

Since I’ll be returning to London in three weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to actually try and finish the journal of my previous trip, which I began writing oh so long ago…

July 9, 2014: After our visits to Leeds Castle and Dover it was time to head to Canterbury, home of the famed tales by Chaucer. We parked and walked through the charming pedestrian market area to get to the cathedral. Unfortunately, we were denied access to the cathedral because the BBC was shooting some TV show there, so that was a bummer. We had to settle for the crypts, which we only had 15 minutes to explore before they closed. The crypts were really neat, but the feeling of being rushed did not make for a pleasant visit.

I then headed back into town and ate a late lunch at an outdoor French café, enjoying a dish of beef bourignon. Later I would discover that I had left my umbrella at the café—and an umbrella is not a good thing to be without in England. Oh well, stuff happens when you travel. Luckily, it didn’t rain before I was able to buy a new one back in London the next day. Anyway, here are some photos from my visit to Canterbury.

Canterbury, England: Canterbury Cathedral Crypt

Canterbury, England: Canterbury Cathedral

The next stop after Canterbury was Greenwich, London, home of Greenwich Mean Time, at zero degrees longitude. We waited here to catch a boat that would take us along the Thames back into central London. In the meantime I walked around and snapped some photos:

Greenwich in London, England: Royal Observatory with the time ba

I also tried unsuccessfully to use a bathroom in a restaurant. I’m well aware that most places in Europe either charge you for the bathroom or will only allow patrons to use it. However, a large restaurant along the river had a sign on the outside advertising bathrooms, so I thought this place was an exception, especially since I had just watched one of my fellow tour members head upstairs to use it. So I headed up, figuring if anyone said anything I would just buy a soda or something, but as soon as I began ascending the stairs a restaurant employee came running across the restaurant to yell at me. I would have offered to buy something, but this person’s behavior irritated me so much that I just left.

Speaking of bathrooms, here’s a travel tip: never ask for a ‘restroom’ in the U.K. because nobody will know what the hell you’re talking about. One person thought I was looking for a place to rest. 🙂

Eventually the boat arrived and we were off. Here are some photos from the cruise:

I was disappointed to discover that it was a simple commuter boat rather than the cruise with tea, wine, and scones that had been promised on the web site through which I had booked the tour. This, on top of the denied Canterbury Cathedral entry and arrival to the crypts at closing time, as well as other missed itinerary points in Dover, left me feeling a bit ripped off, so I complained to Premium Tours. As it turns out, my booking was secured through a third-party web site that contained outdated itinerary information, but Premium Tours still made good on my disappointment by giving me a 25-percent refund, which was much appreciated.

Overall, I booked four tours through Premium Tours and found them to be a very good tour company. Although this tour was somewhat disappointing, I very much enjoyed the Bath/Stonehenge tour (worth every penny), and the Paris tour allowed me to see a lot of the city in just one day.

In the end, however, I felt as if I booked a couple of tours too many and did not spend enough time in London itself, so one bit of advice I would give someone coming to London is not to overbook yourself on tours that take you out of the city . . . unless you don’t care about seeing that much of London, then book away!

I decided to depart the cruise near the London Eye ferris wheel since I had pre-purchased a voucher to ride it and this would probably be the last day I would have a chance to do so. I waited in line for a half hour only to get to the front and be told that my voucher was no good, that I needed to go to the building nearby and exchange it for an actual ticket. I had naturally assumed that I could simply present my voucher to the ticket taker, just as I had done with my voucher to enter the Tower of London, both of which had been purchased from the same tour company: The Original Tour. The tour company should have made it clear that the London Eye voucher did not work the same as the Tower of London voucher, so this was partially their fault.

It was also the fault of the ticket takers at the London Eye, who should never have allowed me to enter the line with just a voucher: the attendant confirmed this, but she was completely unsympathetic that their screwup caused me to waste a half-hour of my time–she refused to allow me to go get a ticket and return to the front of the line; I would have to go to the back of the line and wait all over again. So I left the line (which was even longer now than when I had first queued up), and entered the building to get my ticket–until I saw how long the line was there. At that point I was so fed up that I said “screw it” and left; I had better things to do with my life. I ended up not using the voucher at all.

To be honest, once I realized the London Eye cars were enclosed and that any photos would be taken through glass, I wasn’t too upset about missing the ride (I had already gotten a bird’s eye view of London at The Shard anyway); I was just annoyed about wasting my money on the voucher. The lesson here: if you purchase vouchers in advance from ‘The Original Tour’ company, make sure you know which vouchers are good for entry, and which must be exchanged for a ticket.

After that debacle I decided to just do some more walking before heading back to my flat. Here are some photos from that walk.

I freshened up in my apartment and then decided to venture back out since I hadn’t really had a chance to experience London at night. I made my way to Picadilly Circus and snapped some photos before taking a stroll through Chinatown, where I planned to eat dinner. It was my first visit to any Chinatown, despite living halfway between Philly and New York (a few days later I would also visit Chinatown in Amsterdam, and a few months after that I would visit San Francisco’s Chinatown, so I made up for lost time). One thing I discovered about Chinatown is that, with so many similar restaurants to choose from, it’s hard to pick one place, so I found myself walking around in circles.

I eventually settled on a Vietnamese restaurant, where I had a funny (and somewhat humiliating) experience. The waiter brought out a dish of greens and I thought he said the word “salad,” so I poured what I thought was dressing on it and started eating. After a couple of bites I thought to myself, “This tastes like pure cilantro.” That’s because it was. I was supposed to put the cilantro in the soup he later brought out. So I threw the rest of the cilantro and “dressing” into the soup when it arrived, but this was also a mistake because the “dressing” was actually dipping sauce for the spring rolls and meat that the waiter would be bringing out next. Oh, and the spoon I had used to ladle the “dressing” on the “salad” was my soup spoon. I’m sure the owners had a good laugh at my expense. I’ll just chalk it up to being the end of a long and exhausting day. 😉

After dinner I headed back to my flat. Tomorrow would be my final full day in London, so I thought I should at least go have a look at Buckingham Palace. That will be covered in the next installment. In the meantime, here are some night shots of Picadilly Circus and Chinatown.

View more of my photos from London

View more photos from my visits to the English countryside

Eurotrip 2014, Part 13: Leeds Castle and Dover

November 13, 2015 Michael RappaLeave a comment

After a long, long delay, I am finally returning to the journal of my 2014 European trip. Perhaps I might finish it before 2016 rolls around. 🙂

July 9, 2014: Fresh from my visit to the Cotswolds on the previous day, I embarked on another excursion outside London. Today I would be visiting Leeds Castle, Dover, Canterbury, and Greenwich, before boarding a boat that would take me along the Thames back into central London. This was my fourth and final trip booked through Premium Tours.

The first stop was Leeds Castle. Our group was given a private tour before the castle opened to the public, enabling me to get plenty of people-free shots. Leeds may not be as big as other castles, but it’s very pretty and serene, situated on a lake and surrounded by beautiful grounds. It’s worth a visit if you’re looking for a day out from London to a nearby destination.

Little did I know that in less than two years I would be returning (and actually staying in the castle for a couple of nights) for my sister-in-law’s upcoming wedding. This time I will be visiting the castle in February, so perhaps I’ll get some new photos with snow cover to contrast with the summer photos below:

These busts are supposedly life-sized.

Our next stop after Leeds Castle was Dover for a chance to view the famous white cliffs. Unfortunately it was just a 15-minute stop, so I only had time for a few photos.

After leaving Dover we next headed to the land of Chaucer: Canterbury. That part of the trip will be covered in the next installment.

View more photos from my visits to the English countryside.

Eurotrip 2014, Part 12: The Cotswolds

August 18, 2015 Michael Rappa6 Comments

July 8, 2014: Today I took a trip through the picturesque area of the English countryside known as the Cotswolds, which included visits to four historic villages. This was another tour taken though Premium Tours. It’s a great tour to take if you like strolling through quaint villages and doing a lot of shopping, but in my case I felt as if it was a tour I probably could have skipped.

Don’t get me wrong, the villages were all very cute, but for me it wasn’t worth a 5 a.m. wakeup call and a missed extra day I could have spent exploring London. Perhaps a half-day trip would have been better, as I could have gotten the Cotswolds experience without using up my entire day—the villages were similar enough to each other that it wasn’t really necessary to see all of them.

It probably didn’t help that the much-touted lunch at a 17-century Inn was a huge disappointment. Our only choices were trout or vegetarian pasta. I don’t like seafood, so I was stuck with the pasta, which was decidedly mediocre, plus some fruit thing for dessert that I didn’t like. I wasn’t expecting five-star dining, but offering one meat option would have been nice (later in the day I made up for my lunch disappointment by having a nice afternoon tea with scones in one of the villages).

Nevertheless, the trip offered many nice photographic opportunities and I would still recommend it if you’re looking to do something different and get out of London for a day (though if you can only choose one trip, the Bath/Stonehenge trip is much better).

Here are some photos from my day:

Cotswolds, England: Bourton on the Water

19th century village stocks

Rupert Murdoch’s Daughter lives here and doesn’t like people taking photos, so of course I took one. 😉

NOT a public garden. Only enter if you enjoy being accosted by an angry homeowner. 🙂

Word to the wise: make sure you don’t wander into private property. I made this mistake in the first village we visited. I followed a couple of people from my tour through an open gate into a large garden area that appeared to lead to a church. Alas, it was someone’s private property (I missed the sign on the way in) and we were chased out by an irate home owner. Based on how unreceptive he was to my apologies, it must happen to him a lot. Later, when we rode back through the town, I noticed that the gate was closed. 🙂

We returned to London late in the evening. I can’t recall what I did for dinner; I may just have called it a night since I had an early wake-up call. The following morning I would be taking another excursion outside of London, this time to Leeds Castle, Dover, Canterbury, and finally to Greenwich for a boat ride back into central London.

View more photos from my visits to the English countryside.

Eurotrip 2014, Part 5: Bath and Stonehenge

April 30, 2015 Michael Rappa3 Comments

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 sunset—I 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.

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.

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 Python—it 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 Shorty—they 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.

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.

Typical 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.

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 trip—and 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.

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.

View more photos from my visits to the English countryside.

Eurotrip 2014, Part 4: A Day in Paris

April 16, 2015 Michael RappaLeave a comment

July 1, 2014: The phone in my London flat roused me at 4 a.m.—my 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 that—during 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 scam—while 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.

Paris, France: View from the Eiffel Tower

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 Paris—it 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. 🙂

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.

View more of my photos from Paris.