Lovin', Livin', and Leavin' London

[Josh, writing from Bari's account as she already uploaded the pictures for this post.]

Although we had so much fun exploring Europe, we also really enjoyed just living in London and taking advantage of everything this amazing city has to offer.  We have already chronicled many of the things we did in previous posts--going to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Tower of London, the British Museum, and the Science Museum (Caitlyn's favorite), to name just a few.  We spent many hours just relaxing in a pub.  And we hit almost all of the main tourist sites.  This final post highlights some of our activities in London as we tried to live like locals.

We loved commuting on the tube and the double decker buses.  Caitlyn in particular always wanted to go on the top deck of the bus.  I preferred the tube because it was faster.  But either way, we found London public transportation to be really great.

Our tube stop

Caitlyn on the tube with her new monkey suitcase, purchased at Harrod's.
She insisted on pulling it everywhere!  Right after we purchased it,
when we are at the airport, she exclaimed "Hey--I have a suitcase--just like everybody else!"

After I taught my final class of the semester, we all met up for "proper burgers" and then spent an hour at the British Museum.  The museum was only a block from my office, so we had already visited it a few times, but we wanted to see the Parthenon exhibit one more time given that we had just been at the Parthenon in Athens.  England and Greece are in a mild dispute over the ownership of the Parthenon friezes.  The majority are in the British Museum, taken from the Ottoman Empire around 1800.  Greece has been asking for them back, and even built a new museum (the wonderful Acropolis Museum) to prove they would have a worthy home.  For now, the friezes are still in England.  It was great to see them after having just been at the Parthenon.

That night, the London Law Consortium took a boat cruise along the Thames River.  It was a little rainy at first (so it really felt like London!), but after the rain cleared it was great fun to watch the city go by from the top deck of the boat.

Two of my students, Jack and Ella.  Ella was a frequent babysitter for us;
she and Caitlyn are now great friends!

Tower Bridge

The next day, we did another typically English thing--we went to a football match!  Although we lived closer to the Arsenal stadium (and could even see the lights from the stadium from our rooftop deck), tickets to their games are expensive and hard to find.  So we opted for the cheaper Fulham Football Club on the south side of town.

Fulham was in a fierce battle to avoid relegation.  The Premier League is England's top football league, and every year the bottom 3 teams (out of 20) are relegated to the "Championship" league, which some refer to as the "Second Division."  Fulham, which had been in the Premier League for 13 seasons, was in 18th place at the time, with three matches to go.  Their opponent that day, Hull City, was in 14th place, so not out of the water yet.  Relegation is a great system because it means that the games at the end of the season matter a lot, even for the worst teams.

The match was fun, but watching the fans was perhaps even more interesting.  They have songs, chants, and there is overall mayhem.  There are no annoying distractions like promotions during the game--it's pure and refreshing, albeit quite roudy.

Here are the entrances.  It may be hard to tell, but they are very small.  I'm not sure how many Americans would fit comfortably through these gates!  Just another example of the differences of another country.

Fulham took a 2-0 lead but could not hold on, giving up 2 late goals.  They were stuck with a tie, and eventually were relegated a few weeks later.

We spent the remainder of the weekend seeing some friends for an English breakfast, and Caitlyn went to the Princess Diana Memorial playground one last time.  Then it was time to pack up and head out for our final two-week adventure around Europe.

We came back to London for one last night before heading home to America.  We took one final walk through the "subway" under the main street that led to our place (as Caitlyn pointed out every time we walked through the tunnel, "they painted it!")...

...and ate at our favorite Indian restaurant, The Sitara.  This place was about an 8 minute walk from our house, and is ranked in the top 20 of all restaurants in London on TripAdvisor.  Raj, the owner, cooks up fresh and delicious Northern Punjabi food.  Jazz music plays in the background, and the small place is decorated with a jazz theme.  This is really the only restaurant we visited multiple times--and Raj knew us by the end of our time in London!  For our last meal we told him just to whip something up--and it was delicious.  Caitlyn loved the chicken korma the most, and on our final meal there she ate two orders of it!

The next morning our landlord, Michael, came over to see us off.

It was an amazing adventure, and we cherish all of the memories we had during our time overseas.  We saw so much, learned a ton, and grew from our experiences.  Seeing the world is truly special--it allows one to think about the differences in opportunities, culture, food, and so much more.  It certainly helped us to become more well-rounded individuals, and perhaps more tolerant of other cultures and viewpoints.  I hope that Caitlyn remembers some of this experience (almost two months later she is still referencing things we did!).  Either way, I suspect we gave Caitlyn the travel bug, so I won't be surprised if we are reading her own travel blog when she is older. 

Thanks for coming along for the ride with us.  As they say in the Mother Country...

Cheers!

More Gelato!

We spent our final week in Europe traveling around Italy.  Italy is one of our favorite places, so we had a really wonderful time.  

We started out with a day in Venice.  Caitlyn LOVED being near the canals and wanted to spend lots of time looking out over the Rialto Bridge.

Caitlyn was enamored with the gondolas, so we took her on a short gondola ride across the canal.  It only lasted a few minutes but she loved it.  Next time we are there, when she is a little older, maybe we will spring for the full hour-long tour.

Can you find Caitlyn peaking out from the rungs of the bridge?  (Look for me in the purple shirt.)

Caitlyn also LOVED chasing the pigeons in St. Mark's Square.

One of the best meals we had in Venice was from Alfredo's, a little pasta stand.  They were making fresh pasta and sauces for 5 euros each.  This, and a gelato, were the perfect meal!

After Venice, we traveled to Rimini, a beach town on the east coast of Italy.  The tourist season had not yet started, so it was relatively quiet, but we still had nice weather and enjoyed relaxing on the beach for a few days.

Our hotel, Hotel Stressa, was perhaps the best hotel in which we have ever stayed.  Upon our arrival we were greeted with a hug and some cookies and tea, and we felt like we were visiting family, not a business.  In addition, the breakfast was amazing!  There was so much fresh food, and it was really delicious.  They even had gelato.  For breakfast!  The breakfast was so good that each morning I went for a run on the beach just to increase my appetite!  They also had a bike with a trailer that we used around town.  The accommodations were so great (and affordable) that we ended up staying in Rimini an extra day.  It was well worth it.

Although we spent most of our time in Rimini on the beach, we did explore the town a little.  Here was some of the best gelato we had in all of Italy.  They even had a chocolate fountain, and they would fill the bottom of the cone with chocolate sauce before adding the gelato!

The Rimini Arch of Augustus:

Bari's street!

Playing on the beach.  Last summer Caitlyn did not like sand, but this time she loved it!

Next up was a drive across the country, eventually to Cinque Terre.  But we stopped in a few places on the way.

First we found a little hill town that we saw off of the road and decided to check out.  (I don't even remember the name of the town--it was clearly off of the beaten path).  The town was tiny, and the only restaurant there was closed for the afternoon.  But it had beautiful views across the valley.  We also stumbled upon this 12th century church:

We also stopped in Lucca, a Tuscan town with a cool wall that encircles the city.  We walked around, and ate some pizza and buccellato (a raisin bread that is native to Lucca).  Walking on top of the wall was cool.

Finally, we made it to Cinque Terre.  We stayed in the 5th town, Monterosso, but went to all five of the towns during our time there.

Here was the view from our hotel room:

We hiked from Monterosso to Vernazza, which is the hardest part of the hike (but the only part that was open).  The hike along the cliffs was very steep at times, but beautiful.  Caitlyn hiked almost half of it herself.  The other half she spent like this:

The cinque terre towns are breathtaking and charming, and we definitely want to go back.

As for food, in addition to gelato (of course), Caitlyn really liked the pesto pasta:

On our last night we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, in the first town, Manarola.  We sat along the cliffs and watched the water crash into the shore.

Then the sunset began...

We finished the evening with delicious gelato.  My favorites were dark chocolate and hazelnut.  Bari liked the dark chocolate.  Caitlyn was a fan of the fruit flavors, especially raspberry, strawberry, and mango.

We had a little time before our flight out of Pisa, so we went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I was impressed at how much it is really leaning!

The obligatory touristy photos "holding up" the tower:

Playing on the lawn at the Leaning Tower:

Italy is perfect for the kind of vacation we like:  amazing food, great historic sites, a vibrant modern culture, and gelato!  Caitlyn also says that Italy was her favorite place to visit (especially Rome and Venice).  I can't wait to go back.