Scarborough, the land of vintage beach vacation-ness!

Hello Everyone! Well, just to set the scene, Sean and I are back in FL after the LONGEST day of travel in my life. But we're still traveling around for the next few months, so don't even think that this ends the life of this blog. We've been home for about a week, and have since been to Atlanta, and Sean's been busy planning a small east coast tour and is booked up around New Year's in the Pac NW (so stay tuned for that info).

But for now, our time in Scarborough...

So for those of you who don't know, my step-mom Anita's sister Terry married a Brit (David) and has essentially been living in Scarborough ever since. It's an old seaside vacation resort town complete with beaches, rows of brightly colored changing rooms by the sand, a castle, grand hotels, an old health spa, docks and sailing boats, cobblestone streets, and other bits of cute. Terry and David's house was maybe only a ½ mile from the beach, and although it's a sizeable town, there was a ton within walking distance. As we arrived by the ferry in the morning, we were able to do some exploring after a quick lunch at the house. Terry's daughter Katie also came down to hang-out with us for the weekend (most excellent), and we hit up Robin Hood's Bay, and Whitby.

Robin Hood's Bay is a bit north of Scarborough still along the water. No one knows where the name came from, but it probably wasn't from the Robin Hood story as nice as that might have been. It was mainly known in recent his for its extensive smuggling operation, but has since become a eerily cute and quaint vacation town. I wouldn't be surprised if ½ of the homes in the town were rentals. Most of the streets were crazy narrow, only meant to accommodate walkers, and the design of the city definitely has not changed much in the last several hundred years.

We then made our way to Whitby, another seaside town. The factoids I remember most about Whitby is that it's apparently the site of one of the largest Goth festivals in the UK, and is home to Whitby Jet (a black stone that was made famous during the Victorian period, used for jewelry). The day was really about walking around, and taking pictures. Enjoy!!

The next day, we had ourselves a nice little tour of Scarborough itself capped off with a nice little cup o' coffee at Roasters (VERY tasty, well done), and a brief walk-through of the Grand Hotel as well as catch a glimpse of the Crown Spa (not shown below).

On Terry's recommendation, we went to York for a day. Unfortunately for us, it was really cold and rainy most of the day which isn't conducive to saving money (have to pay to play indoors in historic towns). Started by grabbing some lunch at Café Concierto, and then spending some time in the Minster. Having not really ever spent time in an Anglican church, this was a particularly interesting visit. With the entry fee, you were able to walk around a subterranean museum that highlighted the long history of the site of the church from Roman times onward, as well as displaying the Minster treasury, and other relics related to the Minster's history.

The main room was really gorgeous, divided into 2 halves. To the left of the main entrance was the worship area. The quirky thing in this area were the “Semaphore Saints”, a modern addition to the Minster conveniently located by some wonderful heaters. We couldn't figure out what they were saying, but we may have been distracted by the fact that they didn't have heads. ;) The other half of the building was for effigies and for whatever group pow-wow the Anglican ministry has... or its where the choir sits. I have no idea.

I guess the only other activity of note that day was I had my feet munched on by little fish. It's some kind of Thai foot treatment. Nature... God... whoever has a strange sense of humor. That there is some creature out in the world who wants nothing more in life than to chew the dead skin off my feet... weird. They just swarmed me as soon as I dipped my yuckie dogs in the water. I don't know that my 20 minutes really did anything amazing, but it was interesting.

York is really beautiful though. There is a street called The Shambles that was

mentioned in The Domesday Book here in York dating the area to about 1086. The Shambles was a term used for streets where most of the butcher shops were, Shambles being derived from a medieval term. It is also the home to St. Margaret Clitherow, a woman who was martyred hiding and hosting Catholic services in secret out of her home. Her sentence was to be weighed down by a heavy stone without food or water for 3 days... she didn't survive. But despite an grusome history, it has since elevated itself, swapping butcher shops for boutiques, and was named the most picturesque street in the UK for 2010. Here are some other photos to check out...


Overall, our first stop in the UK was great! Next, it's Tenby (Wales) and the Tenby Blues Festival!!

Bruges: Fairytales and Beer

So on Lis's recommendation, we spent a portion of our last day in Belgium in Bruges, a small, historic city northwest of Brussels closer to the water, and on our way to Zeebruges where our ferry for the UK was leaving. Ummmmm... WOW! As soon as we got there, I recognized our mistake in not coming to visit here earlier. Unfortunately, it was a pretty cold, rainy day, so spending a bunch of time walking around with our packs was less than ideal. However, following the flow of other tourists to the center of town (marked by a huge church, as it is with most towns), we were lead through narrow, cobblestone streets divided by walls, overlooked by castle-like towers, and dotted with boutiques and salons. Images below...

Castle bits and charm...



Fairytale Bruges... TOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!



As soon as it started raining, we started looking for shelter. There was a nice shopping district off one of the side-roads leading to the main square that contained a convenient pub with one of the largest beer displays I've seen thus far (see below). Our cash station woes continued, and I had to wander around the main square trying to find a cash station that would work with our bank. But it all worked out, and Sean and I enjoyed our first brew in Belgium on our way out of town ;) We didn't really have all that much time, so we ran out, grabbed some chocolate for my Aunt Terry, and headed back for the train station. This is harder than one might think, as probably 1/2 the stores in Bruges sell chocolate or tea treats of some variety. We bought 3 small bags of tea biscuits, and a nice variety of truffles wrapped in a silver bow. The only thing that made it to the UK were the truffles ;)

The wall of beer! Many of them had a matching cup from which they were supposed to be drank from... and they were served that way as well. Imagine the dishes...

My Waterloo in the rain...

The train out of town was amazing... probably circa 1950-something, 2 cars long, delightfully noisy, and the most beautiful, super-pimp upholstery ever!!

The train ride didn't take all that long (maybe 30 min), but this was the easiest part of the trip. Getting TO the ferry was another issue. There were all kinds of truck routes and highways that could take you down to the docks, but walking around with all your belongings on your back in the rain didn't lend itself to skipping down said routes. As we made our way down to the water, you can see that Zeebruges is normally a seaside vacation spot with several hotels and restaurants lining the beach. As we've been making our way around the last few months, my tolerance for carrying both my backpack and the laptop bag has been decreasing, and there is a spot in my mid-back that becomes sore after about 30 minutes, so my drive to get to the boat far outweighed my desire to see anything else of the town. It all worked out... we found a bike route that runs along the highway to the docks that we could walk, and we made it there just in time to check it, get some tea, and get on the boat.

There was a huge group of Brits on the boat as a part of some kind of vacation cruise... and the ACCENTS!! Holy cow! And the kids were positively wild! It felt like home ;) It is amazing how apparently well-mannered the kids we were encountering on mainland Europe were, and so to be suddenly back amongst the heathens made it even more apparent ;) The cruise ship was great, similar to the one we had on our way to Barcelona but with a few less bonuses... no gym, and less places to walk about on deck. Sean and I spent most of the time in our room (it was an overnight ferry) save for a few hours for dinner, and for Sean to go out and make some fans by playing in the lounge somewhere.

Getting off the boat is more time consuming than one might think. For reasons only known to the crew, there is a whole bunch of stuff that has to be done before you let the people and their luggage off the boat. We were docked a good hour and a half before we could get off. But Terry was waiting for us, and so we headed off to beautiful Scarborough!!

Bruscels - Mooles and Freets

Brussels ended up being a little bit lackluster for us. There is definitely a bit of pattern; when we spend time outside of big towns for a while, transitioning back into large, touristy cities always leave us over- and underwhelmed. I ended up getting out and running around the small ring road (5 miles) which surrounds the downtown district. On the edge of the ring there was a lot of diversity going on, and after reading somewhere that Brussels is 46% foreign born, I didn't really feel it until I took the jog around the edge of downtown. African neighborhoods and exotic grocery stores gave way to the Middle eastern Kebap stands and small shops, which met up at the South Train Station (Bruxelles Midi), and began it's trek up a big hill, which became more affluent and bright until it burst into a long stretch of high priced boutiques and embedded shopping galleries and malls. From there, up and to the left, the European Union buildings and various governmental embassies dot both sides of the Ring. A last hard left reveals the Botanic Gardens fronting a large Baroque-y building and a long down-slope to the river.
We stayed in a hostel this time, not knowing anybody. I got some good ping-pong in and we met a couple of travelers, I played some songs I didn't know how to play, and they're on YouTube and Facebook now. Enjoy! Of course there's Belgian beer, and a lot of it. We found that it wasn't that expensive, but also wasn't really that cheap. It was nice to find the Chimay Blue that I love was more readily available, but looking at the Wall of Beer in Bruges (Brugge), I saw a lot of familiar bottles, which means the distributors are doing them jobs. Duvel, Kwak, and Leffe, plus Kierke and Gueuze (try them yourselves, I can't explain them) were all over the place. Chris was initially excited to go to Delirium Tremens Bar, but one step inside made it clear that Belgium is still allowing smoking. One lesson we've taken to heart on this trip has been that, to a certain extent, doing something for the sake of doing it isn't a good enough reason. So we didn't get a beer in Delirium. We got beer and drank it on our own time.
We ended up with one good coffee place, and I got a jacket that I'm sure will feature prominently in future pics. I'll leave Chris to cover Bruges and Scarborough before I pick up at Tenby again.

Here's some pics of the festivities!
Our first night in town, walking around, and going out for dinner. Note the mussels and frites :D





Funky street art...


Sean and his hot chocolate in one of the main squares in Brussels. Behind him was the Brussels museum (rebuilt).

Bonn, bonn bonn bonn, BONN!!!!

Bad Godesberg used to be its own town, but then Big Bad Bonn got all uppity and crept up, over and around it. It's not all bad, I suppose. They have a couple of H&M's, a decent downtown shopping area, their own castle (The Godesburg), and one of my favorite people in the world! Lis and I met back in college, on a fateful trip to find palm fronds in Evanston, IL for the express purpose of roasting marshmallows for the bonfire for Jones Residential College during New Student Week. As a true Floridian, I couldn't imagine that marshmallows might be roasted on anything other than whittled palm frond stems/stalks, but that trip taught me a lot about the world (most specifically that palm fronds don't grow everywhere). If you've ever been to the coast of Florida (any of them, really), you might come the conclusion that palm fronds are the cockroaches of the plant world – only good for one thing: roasting (marshmallows). Now I'm older, wiser, married, a nurse, and on vacation in Europe, so it nearly goes without saying that I'd be checking in on Lis, her man, Tim, and their two pre-people: Sarah and Bennie (Benjamin).
Our trip from Paris to Bad Godesberg was notable only for its lack of strike-related delays and the exciting, super-swank Thalys train we took to get there. It really seemed like the whole thing was first-class, free booze, free booze, meals, comfortable chairs. It's actually a shame that we couldn't have that kind of train for some of the longer stretches (stay tuned for Scarborough to Tenby). We got into Bonn and Lis picked us up, took us back to their house, and we arrived just in time to catch the kids getting home from their grandparents. Chris and I visited Europe 4 years prior, and Sarah was just an infant at that time, so seeing her driving her parents crazy was lovely. She goes to an International kindergarten, which means that, in addition to her father's German and her mother's American English, she's learning British English. On a related note, British English may be the best voice for whining ever invented. Sarah definitely at an age of challenging authority, testing boundaries, and Bennie, who's a very sensitive young man, is a real people pleaser. Unfortunately, since he's also 2, he's torn between his desire to please himself and his desire to please other people. This results in a lot of earnest crying. And tearful hugs. And running around in a comic fashion with footsies.
The first night, as per usual in Bonn, we drank a lot of wine. Tim was generous with his collection, and we ended up sleeping in the next day. The running I'd started in Paris continued in earnest in Bad Godesberg. I got some very nice runs along the Rhine, almost up to Bonn, and saw some very large ducks. We did a lot of walking, as is our wont on this trip. I imagine that, on average we walk at least 5-6 miles each day we go out, which is almost every day. Sometimes I even find myself walking that, then coming home for another 5-7 miles jog. My legs and feet are never overtired, but I'm always acutely aware of their presence. That's really the best reason for working out, I suppose; I end up feeling my body. I like it. I'm training for a half marathon in December, which takes some of the joy out of “eating whatever you want” vacation ethos, but there is a sense of accomplishment associated with actually losing weight on vacation.
We did a walk around Bonn, which is covered with Beethoven-related stuff. We found a good looking cafe, but it wasn't truly awesome. There's a continuing issue in Europe with UHT (ultra high temp pasteurized) milk in general use, and it's getting in the way of great macchiatos and cappuccinos. Being back in Germany is bad for our coffee life, but we brought some ground coffee from Cafeoteque, where everything was an unsettling combination of awesome and expensive. We visited Lis at work at the United Nations in Bonn, got some lunch with her coworkers, and took part in a birthday surprise expedition to Koblenz. We ate a lot of chocolate, for some reason. Must have been lying around... We did some cooking, including a very nice pumpkin soup. Chris really enjoyed hanging out with the kids, and we got to talk with Lis and Tim about the daily concerns of being parents of young children, in Germany, and in general.
Of course, being the Rhineland, there's a lot of beautiful hills and well maintained trails on both sides of the Rhine. We took a ferry across the water to the east side to do a hike up to the St. Petersburg Hotel, atop the St. Petersburg mountain. We have some pics of that, but due to internet connection stuff today, we'll post the pics at a later time. I tweaked something in one of my feet for a couple of days, which precluded me from doing my planned jog up to the Drachenfels; it's ok though, we'll be back. :-)
Towards the end of our time with Lis and Tim, Chris and I snuck out to Bad Neunahr in the Ahr Valley. This is a wine growing region to the SW of Bonn, beautiful in the waning day, and it was hosting the last wine fest of the year for the region. Unfortunately, we missed the booths and such, but we did get a lovely dinner and a very nice cup of hot chocolate out of the deal.
All in all, Bad Godesberg was a very comfortable part of the trip. We have been blessed to have friends (new and old) peppered throughout this trip, so when we're feeling a little lonely or ready for some new people, the next town seems to provide. Lis and Tim gave us a room of our own and we settled in to help them as best we could. It was a very busy weekend for both of them, schedule-wise, but we think we managed not to make things worse, which has always been our goal as a couple. Not my goal personally, persay >:)
Soon we'll get Belgium and Scarborough up, we promise!

Paris in Fall...

Hey Hey Hey!!

Well, updates have been late in the making... sorry. It's not that we're too busy... hardly... these last few weeks have been particularly lazy. But Laziness leads more to random web-surfing rather than productive blogging time. Not to mention it takes lifetimes to upload photos... grrrr. That being said, we promised ourselves we'd get things up and recorded today, so here we go.

PARIS!!!

… was fantastic... amazing... perfect. The train ride into Paris wasn't nearly as crazy as we thought it was going to be. The strikes simply limited the number of trains coming into and leaving the city, so I guess the only evidence we really had of the strikes was a very FULL train. Neither Sean or I speak French, but we had picked up a phrase book for the Kindle that provided some help, and there are enough travelers from the UK that signs and menus were available in English. We arrived earlier than our check-in time, so we stuffed our packs into a luggage locker at the train station and started our usual walking tour of Paris.

I know most people shoot for vacation in the spring... come to Paris to see the flowers and enjoy the mild weather! Me, I'm most certainly an autumn girl, and France did not disappoint. The weather was brisk and cool, the trees lining the motorways were bright orange and yellows, and the Frenchy skyline and architecture all provided sexy-candy for the eyes. Sean and I in our own way have become counter-tourists... all the normal things that tourists like to go and see and do, we don't. And with Paris being one of the most expensive and exciting cities in Europe, there was plenty for us not to do ;) Pretty much we can sum up our time there as art, tea, espresso, cookin', and walkin'... and buttery boots (I'll explain later).

The apartment that we rented was great... only about a 10 min walk from Notre Dame cathedral, maybe 15 min from the Louvre, around the corner from the grocery store and an outdoor market, and just a stone's throw away from the best espresso in Paris. Unfortunately, it was also 5 stories up the stairs, so running back to get the wallet you left behind was a little bit of a bear. The other unfortunate, albeit minor, characteristic were the Death Stairs. Our unit was lofted with the bed hiding up on the “2nd floor”, and the narrow ladder-like steps over time had gradually acquired an unfortunate down-slope. So unless you were in bare feet, or your sock-feet were sufficiently sticky, there was a very real possibility of slipping and losing your teeth as your jaw met the landing. Luckily, nothing like this happened, but we were VERY careful.

So Art. There was some kind of huge modern art expo that week in Paris, and there were tents, galleries, art dealers, and artists scattered all throughout the city. That being said, we still spent a good deal of time at the Louvre. It's hard not to... it's pretty cheap as museum entry fees go, and the place is huge!!! I believe it's the largest palace in Europe, so there were plenty of galleries you could make your way around. The first time we went, we rented a couple audio guides and saw the Big Guns... Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and of course, the Mona Lisa. After a brief rest at the café, Sean and I then went our separate ways for a bit and did some solo museum time. The next time we went through the museum, Sean showed me around some of the French galleries he saw on his own. And of course, you can't neglect the rooms the art resided in... it is a palace after all.

We also sprung for tickets to the modern art expo, and spent most of the day wandering around the make-shift gallery. Check some of it out!

Tea. Another bonus of the apartment we rented was that it was about a 10 min walk from the original Mariage Fréres, an old and well-established Parisian tea house and shop. The menu was expensive, of course, so settled on pots of tea and scones... SOOOOOO very good. I love scones. I know there are some pretty exquisite sweety comfort foods in the world, but scones are right at the top of my list. And the warm, wonderful fruity biscuits they had were Yum Yum Yum. We went twice during our trip :D

Espresso. So Sean and I did a bit of jogging around Paris, and our way back from our first run, we came across Cafeoteque. It's just down the street towards the river, and then a bit of a walk to the right. OMG... can you say Espresso Cherry Bomb? I think you can. SO.. MUCH.. FRUIT in the middle of that shot! And for my not-totally-coffee-geeky friends, good espresso when done right with the right beans is Sweet. Not like candy sweet, but definitely a noticeable fruity sweetness is noted on the 2^nd sip of the shot (the first sip tends to be a little more bitter). If you need a Denver reference, Aviano espresso does this very well. And for Chicago, the folks down at Ingelligensia in the Loop made Sean some fantastic coffee as well (Aviano uses their roast in-house). Needless to say we got some French press finally ground to the right size to take on the road with us, and had a couple nice encounters there.

Cookin'. Forgot how much I enjoy cooking. Most of the places that we've stayed in thus far have had what they call City Kitchens... microscopic spaces with a sink, a mini-fridge, a couple hot plates, no sharp knives, and a few pieces of cookware, but based on the assumption that you are eating out a lot. Admittedly, our unit in Paris was a bit nicer, but mainly because this was someone's home, not just a rental property. But to tell you the truth, we did not eat out in Paris. I know, the Crime of the Century! We did crepes, we did bread, coffee, fancy tea, and other small delectable treats. And yes, even more cheese, and I'm still not having issues!! (Still confused on that one.) But cooking in was great. We'd made our way through the wine we bought in Anglet, got a few beers, and really, we were happy.

Walkin'. What else can I say... it's what we do. Check out the pics!

Butter Boots. Why butter? Well, it's Paris, the epicenter of the croissant, and because it's the only way to describe what the leather of these boots feel like. What kind of woman would I be without indulging in some fantastical, stupid fashion purchase in Paris? I have to admit that the women in Europe do put themselves together very nicely. It was really rare to see any woman, no matter what her age, not look like she put forward some kind of effort that morning. I first noticed it in Vienna, and Paris even more so. And it's not about hair or make-up... it was the clothes. Parisian women wear beautiful clothes with layers, textures, colors, and finish it off with very natural-looking face and hair. And it was fall, so it's ALLLLL about the boots. I think that was the biggest give-away that I was a tourist... no boots. None. And the ones I found fit my swollen midfood joint. Yeah!Don't worry. We've dolled Sean up the mean time too. ;)

So from Paris, it's Bonn, and a whole nutha' entry!