American Mom in London: May 2014

Friday, May 30, 2014

Holiday Weekend in the Lake District

One place in England that we have repeatedly been told we needed to visit during our time here is the Lake District National Park. The Lake District, located in North West England, is a popular holiday destination famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (known as fells). We took advantage of the three day spring bank holiday weekend to travel to the Lake District.

With all of our travels over the past two years, we have been lucky to only have had a few major snags in our plans. Unfortunately, the trip to the Lake District was one of the trips that didn't go so smoothly, at least at the start. We were booked to travel to the Lake District via Virgin Trains. We got on the train at Euston Station in London, and it was absolutely packed. Fortunately, we had reserved seats but people were hovered over the top of us during the first three hours of the ride as the train was standing room only. It was pretty miserable. We made it to a small town called Preston about two hours away from where we were staying in Keswick when the train stopped at the station and an announcement came on that we would be waiting at the station until signals were fixed in Penrith (the station we were trying to get to). After about a half hour of waiting, there was another announcement that the train was cancelled and everyone was to get off the train. No direction was given on how to re-book tickets or get to our final destination.

After finally being able to talk to a worker at the Preston station, we were told that all trains going north were suspended. We called the taxi company that was supposed to pick us up in Penrith, and they agreed to drive the two hours to Preston to get us. So, after waiting for the taxi for two hours and then driving an additional two hours to our hotel, we finally made it to Keswick. The taxi cost around the equivalent of $200, which I guess isn't terrible considering how far they had to drive. The rest of the day, it poured rain so we were pretty much ready to head home at this point. We had dinner and went to bed and hoped the rest of the weekend would improve.

Although rain was predicted for the rest of the weekend, the travel gods must have felt sorry for us after the first day of our trip and the rain held off for the most part during our last two days in the Lake District. We spent the next two days hiking, boating, feeding ducks, and enjoying the cute town of Keswick that we were staying in. It was a nice low key weekend without a ton of sights to see unlike many of our travels. It felt great to get out of the city and spend time outdoors. Pictures are best to share the fun we had in the Lake District.

Two of Colin's favorite things - boats and water!

Colin and David spent a lot of time feeding birds on the trip.

Admiring the beautiful view.

Boat ride around Derwentwater

Hawse End, a stop on our boat ride.

Climbing the Catbells - I think Colin did better than David and I!

View from the top of the Catbells.

Hiking around Derwentwater.

Posing with a swan.

Fortunately, no problems were had on the train ride back to London...thank goodness! Only two more trips to go now before we move back to the States.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Mom Visits London!

My mom recently visited us in London for a fun-filled 10 days. After a LONG delay in Green Bay, she finally made it here early afternoon on Friday, May 9th. The first day of her trip was spent relaxing, taking Colin to the park, and trying to adjust to the new time zone. After Day 1, we were extremely busy for the rest of her trip trying to cram in as many activities as possible. Pictures are the best way to share all the fun we had during her visit.

Day 2: We started the day by taking a long walk from our flat to Regent's Park. Mom admired the flowers and how green everything was, and Colin enjoyed stops at two playgrounds.

Day 2: After Regent's Park, we walked to Camden and spent some time at the Camden Market. We got caught in a major downpour and had to hover under umbrellas to eat our lunch (a quesadilla and a Turkish wrap). Mom was excited to find this donut cart although we ended up eating ice cream frozen by liquid nitrogen at Chin Chin Laboratories for dessert instead.

Day 3: On the third day of Mom's visit, which also happened to be Mother's Day, the two of us took a day trip to the Cotswolds.

Day 3: Burford, one of the four stops on our Cotswolds day trip. Mom is modeling the new scarves we bought since it was so cold.

Day 3: We enjoyed a lunch of trout at the Swan restaurant in Bibury during our Cotswolds day trip.

Day 3: Bourton-on-the-Water, Cotswolds day trip.

Day 4: Colin wasn't feeling well this day so we spent a relaxing morning at home. He stayed home from school due to his fever and joined us on a trip to the Borough Market in the afternoon. I don't think we will ever get sick of the Borough Market, which will be one of the things I miss most about London when we move back to the States.

Day 4: At night, we went to see Mamma Mia. The tickets were my Mother's Day gift for Mom.

Day 5: After spending the morning at the US Embassy getting extra pages added to my passport while Mom stayed home with Colin, we headed to the Shard for lunch. The Shard is currently the tallest building in the EU. The view wasn't the greatest on this day though due to the rain.

Day 5: Mom at lunch at the Oblix Lounge in the Shard.

Day 5: Enjoying a mother/daughter lunch at the Shard.

Day 6: The weather finally started to improve by the sixth day of Mom's Visit. We decided to get outside and enjoy a picnic in the morning with lunch from Pret.

Day 6: After dropping Colin off at school, Mom and I walked through Chinatown and did some shopping on Oxford Street.

Day 6: We found out that John Lewis has a newly opened rooftop garden at their Oxford Street flagship store. A great place to enjoy some sun on a beautiful day.

Day 6: We went to our second show of the trip, "Once". It was my second time seeing it, and I think I will be seeing it a third time someday!

Day 7: We climbed 528 steps to get to the top of the dome at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was worth it for the great view on a beautiful day!

Day 7: We rewarded ourselves following the climb with tea at Bea's of Bloomsbury.

Day 8: We started the day by heading to the London Eye. We figured Mom should go on the London Eye on this trip since we didn't get around to it during her visit in October with Dad.

Day 8: Mom on the London Eye.

Day 8: Colin's fourth time and my fifth time on the London Eye. After the London Eye, we enjoyed a sushi lunch and then enjoyed the beautiful weather by taking a long walk and a trip to the playground for Colin.

Day 9: We started the final full day of Mom's trip with a food tour in the East End. I had heard great things about the Eating London tour, and it didn't disappoint. The tour made eight stops: bacon sandwich, bread pudding, cheese shop, fish & chips, salted beef bagel sandwich, beer (virgin cocktail for me), curry, and caramel torte...yum!

Day 9: Mom finally got to spend some time with David who was busy with work most of her trip. No trip to London is complete without a pitcher of Pimm's & Lemonade!

The following morning, we said farewell to Mom. We had such a good visit exploring London, checking items off of my London bucket list, and eating way too much food. I can't wait until July when we move to Wisconsin and get to see a lot more of my family.

Thanks for visiting Mom!

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Chocolate, Cheese, Cowbells, and Cable Cars: Our Weekend in Switzerland

With less than two months in Europe before we return to the US, we are trying to cram in as much last minute travel as possible. We took advantage of a bank holiday weekend (David had this past Monday off for the "Early May Bank Holiday") to travel to Switzerland. We followed the advice of my best friend Rick Steves and headed straight for the Alps after our arrival in Zurich. We found the Swiss train system to be extremely efficient and extremely expensive, like most other things in this country. As a bonus, there are playgrounds on the top levels of some trains. Colin was a big fan! After a 4:00am taxi ride to the airport, a 7:00am flight to Zurich, and three train rides, we finally made it to our hotel in Lauterbrunnen by early afternoon.

Lauterbrunnen is a small, picturesque village located in a valley of the Alps, between giant rock faces and mountain peaks. After checking into our hotel, we set out to explore the area. Unfortunately, we got our first dose of bad weather this afternoon with near constant rain. We managed to take a small hike and explore the waterfall behind our hotel, Staubbach Falls, before deciding we needed to postpone more serious hiking for another day. After drying off at our hotel, we had our first Swiss meal of the trip at Restaurant Oberland, cheese fondue for me and rosti (a Swiss dish consisting of hash brown potatoes, cheese, and various other toppings like ham and mushrooms) for David. We were already big fans of the Swiss cuisine.

We are pretty sure cows do not sleep as we were kept up most of the night by the noise of cowbells outside our hotel room's windows. Oh well, part of the Swiss experience! On day two, we had planned to head up to the Schilthorn. The revolving restaurant at the 10,000 foot Schilthorn summit, the Piz Gloria, was the setting for a James Bond movie. Getting to the summit requires taking a cable car from Lauterbrunnen to Grutschalp, a train from Grutschalp to Murren, and then two additional cable cars to get to the top. Unfortunately, the rain we were experiencing in Lauterbrunnen had turned to a heavy snow by the time we reached Murren. We checked out the live cameras showing the weather at the Schilthorn summit, and it was basically white out conditions. The weather at the top was not expected to get any better so we decided to save the $200 or so it would cost to get to the top and just explore Murren for a bit. We walked around the quaint ski village and had another cheese based Swiss lunch (raclette, a melted cheese served with potatoes and pickles, and more rosti) before taking the train and cable car back down to Lauterbrunnen.

Fortunately, the weather had improved in Lauterbrunnen by the time we returned so we took a hike to Trummelbach Falls. Trummelbach Falls are a series of 10 glacier-waterfalls located inside a mountain. They are reachable by a combination of an elevator and a hike up the inside of the mountain. The experience was very cool, a bit scary (slippery stones, steep ledges, and lots of warnings to hold on to your children made me super nervous having Colin along), and very wet. We hiked back to our hotel enjoying the scenery, random cows in the road, and some Swiss chocolate on the way.

The following day, we bid a sad farewell to the beautiful Swiss Alps and headed to Lucerne. After storing our luggage at the train station, we spent a few hours exploring this beautiful city. Lucerne is best known for its famous Chapel Bridge, a wooden bridge that was once decorated with paintings depicting the development of Lucerne. Unfortunately, the bridge caught fire in 1993 and many of these famous paintings were destroyed. After some sightseeing and a lunch of pretzel sandwiches, we were back on the train heading to Zurich.

The final day of our trip was spent exploring Zurich before flying back to London. There aren't very many "must-see" sights in Zurich, but you could tell the city has a lot of money due to the banking industry and would be a very easy place to live. The weather was beautiful so we spent a lot of time just walking along the river and lake and letting Colin play at a playground. It was a relaxing way to end our vacation. I think we all agreed that Switzerland is a country we definitely plan to return to one day!