Finally, following seven years of talking and planning, Stacey and I decided to take our long-awaited trip to Europe this summer. Ever since I completed my semester abroad in London (1998), we decided that we would return to Europe again…together. This August seemed like the perfect time to plan our trip, before such things as […]
Time to leave… Today, we woke up at 6:30, checked out of the Marriott Grosvenor Square, and walked to the Bond Street tube. We took the tube to Victoria, where we arrived just before 7:45 AM. There wasn’t enough time to catch the 7:45 AM Gatwick Express, so we took the next train that left […]
Today we woke up around 7:20 AM, showered, and had breakfast again at the Brigown B&B. This time, I had pancakes, and Stacey had toast with cheese. We packed our bags after breakfast, and went to the post office and shops in Ballina. I looked for smoked River Moy salmon to take back with us, […]
Today we woke up just before 8 am and were served an amazing breakfast at the Brigown B&B in Ballina (salmon & eggs for Mike, French toast for Stacey). The B&B owner is known throughout Ireland for her cooking ability and even hosts a radio cooking show – this is why we picked this over […]
Today we woke up at 7:30 AM, checked out of our hotel, and took our bags to the Marriott hotel across Grosvenor Square. This is where we stayed our first night in London, and it is also where we would be returning following our short trip to Ireland. Just to be safe, I had checked […]
Today we woke up at 7 AM to meet the Evan Evans tour bus at the Millennium Mayfair hotel. We met the “local” bus at 8:10 AM and took it to Victoria Station to transfer to our actual tour bus. Our destinations? Bath, Stonehenge, and Windsor Castle! Talk about an ambitious schedule for one day! […]
Today we woke up around 8 and traveled to Victoria station to check on Leeds Castle departure times. We decided that the train times wouldn’t allow us to spend enough time at the castle, so we picked up breakfast instead (hot cocoa/cappuccino, pain du chocolat/ham and cheese croissant from the French patisserie at Victoria). After […]
We woke up just before 10 AM (finally slept in!). Our plan was to head to Leeds Castle for the day. We didn’t have time to catch the 11:18 AM train after getting ready, so we decided to shoot for the 12:18 PM train instead. We called the concierge desk at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel […]
We went to bed shortly after midnight. At about 1:30 AM, the fire alarm went off in the hotel. We got dressed quickly and proceeded down the narrow stairway (not as narrow as the elevator!). Once we were near the bottom of the stairs, we heard “pas de problemme”, which apparently means “don’t worry about […]
We woke up at 4:45 AM to catch the 5:30 AM Tube to Waterloo Station (departure point for the Eurostar train to Paris). We left the hotel and walked to the Bond Street station, only to find that the doors were locked (it turns out we went to the *wrong* doors)! Frustrated and worried about […]