25 years ago two young kids got married. We were 20 and head over heels in love with one another. We had nothing - no college degrees, no good jobs, no money. But we had each other. In the ensuing 25 years we raised three amazing children and fell even more in love. We made a lot of sacrifices so I could stay home with the kids for 16 years, so we could both go back to college and get our degrees, so Brian could run for office, and so much more. Often that meant putting our personal wants and dreams on hold. About two years ago we realized we were on the cusp of being empty nesters. It was now our time - time to put ourselves and our wants first and we knew just what to do - travel.
Brian and I have been talking about traveling since the beginning. We knew there was a great big world and we wanted to see it. We took the kids to Disney tons of times and did a few long road trips to see the sights, but now we could think bigger. With the world laid out before us we decided to hit a place where we could gently break in our passports and check some items off the bucket list. For us, that meant Europe.
Our way of traveling isn't for everyone. We travel fast. We travel light. We travel to explore things together. And, we had an amazing time!
Traveling fast means that we didn't stay in any one place that long. We knew from previous trips that too long in one place, even if there's tons to do, bores us. So we spent 3-4 days at most places.
We wanted to see lots of places this trip, so we traveled light. This means we packed for a full month in Europe with only one carry-on backpack (not suitcase, backpack) under 20 pounds in weight per person. Think about that for a minute. One backpack meant we each got about 3 pairs of pants, 5 shirts, 1 extra pair of shoes, socks, underwear and toiletries (oh, and my luxury item - a hair straightener). That's about it. But it worked for us and it was absolutely the right choice.
Lastly, this was all about being together. We are a couple who genuinely likes spending time with one another and that was key with our trip. We were gone for 28 days. In that time, the furthest apart we got was when one of us was in the bathroom. Day in, day out, pretty much 24/7 we were together.
And yes, it was amazing. All of it. Even the "not so good parts" (you'll read about that in Sicily) and the stormy weather (thanks, Ireland) and the frantic 1am phone call from home (hello, coronavirus). We wouldn't have changed our experience for the world and are looking forward to sharing it all here.
Day 1
After 25 of years of dreaming and planning and waiting for the right time, it’s finally here! Time to fly. If you know anything about Portland International Airport, it's the carpet. Taking photos of your feet with the carpet is a tradition, so here's the obligatory feet photo and one from the terminal.
We flew Portland, Oregon to Seattle, Washington on Alaska Airlines. We love Alaska. Friendly, simple and safe. This was a short 1-hour flight that we paid for using miles, so it cost us each about $6. Bonus!
Once in Seattle we had a few hours to kill and we were really thankful for that time because we landed in one terminal and then had to take two separate trains to get to the terminal we needed to be at for our next flight. Talk about inconvenient. This was our first reminder that we are so spoiled with PDX. Our airport is AMAZING and has so many great eateries and amenities. We hit A LOT of airports on this trip and PDX is, by far, the best.
We planned our next flight as a long one because I hate the up and down of airplanes. I'd rather just take one long flight than connecting flights. Good thing, because this flight was 10.5 hours long! We flew straight from Seattle to London Heathrow. We booked through Delta, who partners with Virgin Atlantic, so it was actually a Virgin Atlantic flight. We booked that way because it was several hundred dollars per person cheaper than booking directly with Virgin Atlantic.
Here's one of our tips for happy flying - pay a little extra to be more comfortable. Brian is 6'4" and 10.5 hours in coach with minimal leg room would be really uncomfortable for him. Plus, the coach seats are fairly narrow and we're not little tiny people. We just couldn't stomach the extra $1500 it would cost us for first class with lay down seats, but the couple hundred extra over coach that we paid for Premium Economy was soooooo worth it. Not only do you have wide, comfortable seats but you have extra pitch (the amount your seat reclines) and a footrest. They gave us a toiletry kit with toothbrush and other stuff in it, a blanket and pillow to use, even headphones. You get to board early and they greet you with orange juice and prosecco. Then it's drinks in real glasses and several nicely plated meals during the flight. Plus they have the Wander Wall, a wall stuffed with snacks and drinks that you can help yourself to throughout the flight.
We really enjoyed the flight, despite the length. Everyone was so nice, the cabin was spacious and allowed us to walk around several times during the flight to avoid any blood clots or relieve boredom. The bathrooms were even larger than the usual coach bathrooms. All in all a great experience and so glad we chose Premium Economy. Two thumbs way up!
Just to give you a timeline of our traveling - we left Portland at 1:45pm and arrived at Seattle around 2:45. Our flight left Seattle at 5:45pm and arrived at Heathrow the next day at 11:30am. It was a long time to travel, but we arrived in London full of excitement and trepidation. Our dream vacation was finally here! Coming off the flight, I shared on social media:
A little jet legged, but we arrived in London. It’s raining and overcast - feels like home!
Immediately I learned one thing - I had not taken careful enough notes about airport transportation. How do I know this? Because the first thing we did was follow the signs to trains into London. Big mistake. We spent 25euro on a train ride when we could have taken the Tube for 5-10 euro. We didn't realize our mistake right away but when we did we were a little disgusted. Rookie mistake and we made it first thing.
It can only get better from here, right? Or.... not. We arrived at Paddington Station and then tried to figure out the maze of getting around this huge facility. We noticed the beep-in-beep-out that you do with your cards when you pass a turnstyle. This ensures that your card is read getting on and getting off so they know how much to charge you. Well, right away we make rookie mistake #2. We passed a little turnstyle thing that wasn't really blocking the way, it was off to the side. Not wanting to pass by without paying we beeped our cards. But those really weren't things we had to beep and we were just charged an extra 5.60 euro for our mistaken beep there. Ugh! Then, to make matters worse, we finally found the Tube, beeped into it and realized that the trains we wanted to ride were closed for maintenance that weekend. Seriously. 
At this point, Brian and I had been awake for about 24 hours. We did sleep a little on the plane, but just dozed on and off. We were tired and we felt a little stupid that we'd made all these mistakes, but we did what we always do - dusted ourselves off, kept a positive attitude and figured it out. Thankfully we had great service on our phones ($25/week for unlimited international with Sprint - so worth every penny!) so I did some research and realized our hotel was only about a mile from the station. We could walk that. First, we changed our shoes because neither of us were wearing our waterproof shoes. Avoiding the bird poop was key when trying to find a place to sit, but we eventually found something and took turns holding bags while the other changed shoes. Then we were on our way.
Our hotel was called London House Hotel and it was a Rick Steves recommendation. This was our least favorite place we stayed this trip, other than a horrible Airbnb issue in Paris. The room was really tiny. It did overlook a little park in the center square, but didn't have much else going for it. Location was ok and it was a 5 minute walk to either of the two tube stations nearby. Once we got checked in we unpacked and relaxed for a few, then decided to get right to our first adventure.
First off was food. We were hungry and when we're hungry we get hangry. I can't even remember what we ate, probably something at a corner restaurant we passed on the way to our first stop, the British Museum. The lines looked really long but we weren't carrying bags so we got right in.
One of the awesome things about London is how many free museums there are! We only spent a few hours here but there were so many things we could have seen, plus dozens of other free museums. We really came to the British Museum for one thing - to see all the Egyptian artifacts. Brian LOVES everything Egyptian and one of his other bucket list items is visiting the Pyramids and Valley of the Kings, so this was a little taste of what we might see there.
The museum was gorgeous and we really enjoyed what we saw. Our favorite was probably the Rosetta Stone. Just the sheer knowledge this one little stone unlocked for historians is amazing.
We also really liked the ancient Greek artifacts, though later we would lament how sad it was that they were in England and not in Greece.
We only made it a few hours before we were just too tired to go on. We headed back to our hotel then walked the little shops nearby, grabbing some fruit and pastries for breakfast. Then we caught the sunset before heading back to our hotel. What a beautiful way to end our first day.
No comments:
Post a Comment