UK – allthingsfaust.com

We took a quick – and cheap! – 90-minute flight from Bilbao to London on Tuesday. We hopped on the Underground and headed into central London. We met up with Keith and Naomi at the Airbnb in Chinatown. We met a former colleague of Naomi’s for drinks at the pub, grabbed some dinner, and had a nightcap back at the flat while catching up on travels from the past week. While we went to Bordeaux, San Sebastián and Bilbao, Keith and Naomi headed to Normandy.

Chinatown:

We ventured out on Wednesday and walked to Big Ben, Parliament and Westminster Abbey. Leena and I hopped on a boat and road down the Thames to the Tower Bridge. The tour commentary was excellent. I’ve found city boat tours to be a very good way to see a city (architecture tour in Chicago; duck boat tour in Boston).

The Tower of London:

The Tower Bridge. To its left is the Shard, now the tallest building in Western Europe. To its right is a building nicknamed the Walkie Talkie.

On Thursday, we headed to the Chelsea neighborhood. After a stroll across the Thames and through Battersea park, we stopped for lunch at a pub founded in 1866. Traditional fish & chips hit the spot. We then headed to Stamford Bridge for a tour of Chelsea FC’s home pitch.

OK, we actually headed there since they signed me. A shot from my introductory presser:

And that’s pretty much a wrap for this trip. We head back tomorrow…

We flew to London via Seattle on Monday/Tuesday, arriving about half 7. We had a 3p train to Paris, so with a few hours to kill, we took a train to central London (from Gatwick) and made our way to the Charles Dickens museum. It’s located in the first residence he had with his wife. We learned about his life, which included going to work in a factory at age 12 when his father was jailed in debtor’s prison. He only revealed this to a few close friends during his lifetime, but his works are full of his insights from the experience.

The train to Paris went through the Chunnel, which was pretty cool in theory. In practice, it’s just a long dark tunnel. But knowing you’re going under the North Sea to reach mainland Europe is alright. I believe France is now country #23 on my list of countries visited. Upon arriving at the train station, we bought another train ticket for a local train to the place we’d booked. We met our friends Keith & Naomi (they flew in from JFK and arrived a few hours before us) and headed out for dinner and drinks.

Day 2 in Paris was a LOT of walking. We went up a tower for a panoramic view of the city, crossed the river Seine multiple times, and enjoyed the Jardin du Luxembourg. Dinner wasn’t as good as the first night.

On Thursday, we caught the bullet train to Bordeaux, hitting speeds around 200 mph. We like Bordeaux. It has amazing architecture, many pedestrian-friendly streets, people out and about everywhere, and plenty of places to pause for food and/or drink.

Today, Friday, we drove our car out to Saint-Émilion – the heart of wine country. It’s a bit touristy, but what a postcard-perfect town! We (I) may have driven the rental car into a ditch (very obscured by weeds!) while trying to park on the side of the road. The front passenger side wheel may have dropped off the road, and the rear driver-side tire may have been a couple of feet off the ground. A friendly and helpful Frenchman may have stopped to give some assistance. I allegedly had Leena sit in the rear passenger side seat to help stabilize the car while the Frenchman pushed from the passenger side. A turn of the wheel while gunning it in reverse may have pulled it back out of the ditch.

This may have happened. Allegedly.

We did some tasting in town, mixing in a couple of cave tours. We had another great meal in Bordeaux tonight and are enjoying a Blanc de Noir we tasted and purchased in Saint-Émilion earlier today. We’re off to San Sebastián tomorrow.

Tag: UK

London

London, Paris, Bordeaux