Hi everybody, let’s recap the last couple of days… On Sunday, the 12th, Keith and a friend took us on an 18 mile bike ride along the coast to Reculver for some breakfast and to see the Reculver Towers. After our sore butts recovered a little we drove to Herne Bay to see Hollie, Keith’s niece, sing a few songs in her band the Interseptors. They put on a great show! Then we headed home to BBQ with Jill & Keith’s neighbors, who were lovely, and watched the Olympic closing ceremony.

On Monday, the 13th, Keith dropped us off at the train station and we rode into London. We met up with our Airbnb host and then holed up in our room to plan what we wanted to do in London and where we could stay in York and Edinburgh. Once we got most of that figured out we ventured around our place to find some grub. Most of the restaurants we saw were closed but we ended up finding a place called Small and Beautiful. My burger tasted fine but Amanda’s risotto tasted a little like dirt 🙁 We finished that night with some Game of Thrones episodes and hit the sack.

Today, the 14th, has been a long day. Our pedometer recorded 9.53 miles of walking today! I wish it could keep track of the time spent standing though. Then you could really get a sense of how many calories we burned today.

Our first tourist attraction was the Tower of London. A collection of 2o towers in two rings of concentric defensive walls and a partially filled in 160 foot wide moat that protects the Crown Jewels, and previously protected kings, queens, prisoners, and more. We did the hour-long Yeoman Warder (aka Beefeater) guided tour and definitely enjoyed it. To be a Yeoman Warder, you have to have served in the military for over 22 years and have a certain list of badges and qualifications. We stood at the spot where Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, was executed. Lady Jane Grey, the “Nine Days’ Queen”, was also beheaded there.

We also learned about the tower’s ravens. There used to be a problem where there were too many ravens in the tower and they interfered with astronomy work. A legend stated that if all the ravens leave the tower, the tower will fall. Clearly, all ravens could not be removed but something needed to be done. Charles II compromised and decided the ravens would be protected by a newly appointed Ravenmaster, but that there would only be six ravens at the tower. From then on, only six ravens are kept in the tower with clipped wings. WWII bombings brought the live raven count from 6 down to 4 so two replacement and two reserve ravens were added.

After browsing around the tower some more, and doing a tour around the tower walls, we unexpectedly found a Guinness World Record poster in the White Tower (the main tower in the center of the fortress). The record was of the tallest suit of armor for a man. The suit measured 6 feet 8 inches tall. Imagine being on the battlefield and having a giant in a shiny suit of armor swinging a sword or mace at your face. No thanks.

Stepping out of the Tower of London you can’t help but see the Tower Bridge and that’s where we decided to go next. Before we went up top, we waited for the bridge to be raised for a boat to come through. We watched a few funky videos on the design and building of the bridge and were able to see the Thames from up high. There was an engine room tour at the end and that was pretty interesting. The massive steam engines aren’t used anymore as the bridge was converted electricity.

Dinner was next. We stopped at The Pommelers Rest and had some tasty food there. Our intention after dinner was to visit the British Museum but we had mixed up the opening and closing times and found that it was closed. Oopsies. I really wanted to make sure we saw Big Ben so I convinced Amanda to walk the 2.5 miles over to Westminster. Well, it would have been only 2.5 miles if we hadn’t gone across the London and Millenium Bridges. Once we realized what Big Ben was attached to Amanda wasn’t too happy that I made her walk almost 3 miles to see something that we had planned on seeing the next day. Tomorrow we’ll be visiting Westminster Abbey later on in the day which is very close to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

Our very friendly hostel night manager in Barcelona, Fran, had told us to do the Paris Catacombs tour (among many other great recommendations). One quick Google Images search later and I was sold. Bones after bones after bones after bones PLUS it was underground. I seem to love anything underground. It was a ‘must visit’ type of thing for me. We started off the morning of the 8th with our daily vanilla macaroon ritual at a bakery down just down the street from our AirBnb rental and then some cappuccinos at a café nearby. There was room to sit outside and we thought it’d be a nice place to sit and journal for a bit, but as we quickly realized, outside seating attracts the smokers. Not surprisingly, smoking in Europe is much more common than in the US and in California in particular and there’s nothing quite like a deep breath full of unwanted cigarette smoke while you’re trying to enjoy a cappuccino. We downed our drinks, went inside to pay, and took the metro to the Catacombs.

As we stepped out of the metro, the line to get into the catacombs didn’t look very long. What we didn’t see was that the line wrapped around the corner of the street and then some. An all too common sight in Paris around this time of the year. Compared to the Louvre or Versailles lines, the length of the Catacombs line seemed like it would be a piece of cake to wait through. There’s a 200 person limit on the catacombs though so the line moved slow. We got in line at about 11:45 am. At half past noon, another English speaker was walking around telling anyone that would listen that we probably wouldn’t get in based on our position in the line. The day before he had stood in line at about the same spot for 3 1/2 hours before getting in and the kicker was that they stop letting people in at 4:00 pm each day. We contemplated heading straight to the Louvre and forgetting about the Catacombs or staying and possibly wasting our time if we weren’t to get in. We decided to push our luck and stay. We met a lovely family from Canada who, just the day before, joined the line too late and were cut off from entering. The line moved quickly for a little while and then it slowed down for quite some time. I went searching for some water and lunch to consume while we waited in line, and ended up finding baguette sandwiches with a bonus of another vanilla macaroon 🙂

We ended up making the cut and were let in at 3:30 or 3:45 pm. We descended 130 steps and walked about 1.5 km before we saw our first bone pile. It was quite amazing to see as many bones as we did, in such huge quantities and in such a short period of time. Starting at the end of the 18th century, 6 million Parisians were buried there, but they weren’t buried as you would normally think a person would be buried. They separated the bones and placed them together according to the type of bone. Most of the bones we saw were large ones, from the legs I believe, and skulls. It was very creepy to see thousands of skulls in half an hour.

We left in a somber mood and trekked to the Louvre to run through a highlight tour with an audio-guide . The Canadian family was leaving the next day so they let us have their Museum Passes which let us skip the lines again, and also let us not have to use the tickets we bought. Amanda told me we’d have to make a trip back to use the tickets as we have two years to use them and I suggested we learn French before so that we can read the placards instead of trying to guess at the meaning.

We took the metro to the Louvre and ate a dinner that was much more expensive than we’d been used to paying (since it was *in* the Louvre). We walked right in with the Museum Pass, and picked up an audio-guide. The audio-guide highlight tour led us through the same area we had checked out two days earlier but this time we were understanding what we were looking at and the significance of it. The tour lead us through the the room that the Salon was held in which we had walked through before but didn’t realized what it was. Amanda was ecstatic to find this out. We’ve now opted to get audio-guides where ever possible as we learn so much more than just walking through and reading signs which may or may not have English translations.

We continued on to learn more things about different painting and statues and then headed home for the night. I was limping and in major pain at this point. I think I messed up my foot somehow while walking on the cobblestone in Versailles and then made it worse with all of walking in the Catacombs and the Louvre. I limped home and Amanda got me all set up with an icepack and some Aleeve (thank you Tawny for making us take the Aleeve) and a bottle of wine. Just kidding, I don’t mix pain killers and alcohol 🙂 I stayed off of it for the rest of the night and woke up feeling great.

The next day, our train to London was scheduled to leave at 9:13am and we needed to checkin at least 30 minutes early as the Eurostar trains require. What I had failed to recognize when calculating how much time we’d need to get to Paris Gare du Nord was that the metro line we needed to use was under construction and we would have to take a bus between two stations. That threw off our timing and we got to the checkin area about 10-15 minutes too late for the 30 minute minimum checkin. We were still there before the train had left, but they wouldn’t let us checkin. I was angry at the thought of possibly wasting $220 in non-refundable non-exchangeable tickets. For some strange stroke of luck, they let us get on the totally uncrowded next train that was leaving an hour later. We killed some time in the lounge reading and boarded the train at 9:53am.

I’m not quite sure how fast the high speed trains go in Europe but what I do know is that it’s a little scary when you pass a train going the other direction in less than a second. It’s almost easier to hear when you pass a train rather than watching it. We arrived in London and took the Tube to the Victoria station and  waited for our next train. Keith picked us up in Margate a couple hours later took us on a quick tour through Margate on the way to their home. It was a little bit nice to be in an area where all the signs are in English and everyone speaks English. I know Amanda is really enjoying the lack of a language barrier.

What a day.

We spent 8 hours on our feet today walking almost 7 miles around two museums and in between. We didn’t even get to see all of each museum either! We skipped probably 1/4 to 1/3 of the d’Orsay and 1/2 of the l’Armée. You could easily spend a whole day at each.

We got up early today (8:30am, yes, that’s early for us now!) and made our way to the Musée d’Orsay only to find a long long line. You see, most museums in Paris are free on the first Sunday of every month. We choose to get there early to try and beat the line, but it seemed many other folks had the same idea. Luckily, the line moved fast because there were no cashiers, just bag checkers. Amanda absolutely loved the time we spent here as impressionism is her favorite period of art and that’s what the d’Orsay is known for. We saw lots of Monet and Manet, van Gogh and Degas, Millet and Cézanne, Bouguereau and Pissarro. You can easily say Amanda was ecstatic to be there.

As soon as we stepped outside of the first museum, we realized it was raining. What? Raining? My weather app said it would be cloudy but it didn’t show rain! We schlepped it through the mild rain to the Musée de l’Armée.

At the Musée de l’Armée, we skipped SO MANY exhibits because we would have been there until midnight we if read everything. They have more sets of armor than you can keep track of and that’s only the stuff they have on display! We found a gun that shot in three directions at once, a cannonball about 2 or 3 feet wide, swords from the 1100’s, and Napoleon’s Tomb. We ended up buying an umbrella with Napoleon’s symbol on it before going outside for the last time and realizing it had stopped raining. Awesome.

Their World Wars exhibit is expansive and, while very interesting, you need a good two hours or more just for that. We did it in about 30 minutes as we were starving, and very tired from walking and standing all day. We decided to end our l’Armée visit and head home to cook some dinner. We had planned on getting an éclair at a bakery to hold us over until we cooked some pasta but everything was closed as everything does on Sundays in Europe. We ate some cardboard-like crackers with hummus that was supposed to taste like cilantro. But we didn’t care because we were finally eating and sitting, and the day was good.

Today, was a late day. Just like most of them have been so far. This was the first day we saw Barcelona in the daytime. We thought the city was busy at 2am but it was at least twice as busy at 2pm. After waking up at 12 noon, I finally kicked our butts into gear at 1pm and we headed off to explore Barcelona. We were both amazed at the gothic architecture. On almost every street corner on La Rambla, you’ll find beautiful grotesques on four or five story gothic buildings.

A random left turn outside of out hostel led us through a eery construction zone and to a high energy open air market. This place was crazy! Produce stands, small restaurants, egg vendors, candy booths, and more. We bought fresh fruit salad in a plastic cup for breakfast.

We saw the statue of Christopher Columbus (who is said to be pointing to America), posed for a few photos, and wandered off to walk around the port. The port had the same old vendors you’d expect at a high-trafficked tourist attraction, fake gucci bags, fake ray-bans, and city souvenirs. We quickly got tired of the port which seemed more and more like a tourist trap the longer we spent there. We walked back to our hostel and got heckled into buying some very yummy gelato in the open air market along the way.

After Skyping with our families, we walked out to find some dinner. Even though it was 9:30pm, our sleep rhythms were off as well as our eating habits. Waking up at noon didn’t help either. I wanted to walk North West on La Rambla, which is the main drag in the old Barcelona, since we spent all afternoon walking the other way.

We were both in tense moods, as we get when we are hungry and tired, and were having trouble finding and picking a place to eat. I wanted something fast and cheap and I assume Amanda wanted something very tasty but mainly safe and slow. I pointed to a Schwarma place that looked like it would be cheap and Amanda pointed to La Poma, a pizzeria, that definitely did not look cheap.

I conceded and we queued up in the line to get in. I looked over at the lack of a line at the Schwarma shop and gave an obnoxious sigh. Amanda responded by telling me I could eat there if I wanted but that she would be eating here. I stayed put.

The menu was in Catalan and Spanish. Two languages Amanda and I are horrible at. I do have a few schooling years of experience with Spanish, but I still have problems understanding or speaking to a Spanish speaker. We opened our handy translator iPhone app (an offline one since we’re roaming) and started translated bits and pieces of the menu. We found a goat cheese salad and margherita pizza with “jamón dulce” with which we used the app to learn meant “sweet ham”. Amanda asked to use the translator and started typing something in. She immediately burst out laughing and when I saw what she had typed in, and the response, I joined her uproarious laughter. She had meant to type “pollo picante” which means “spicy chicken”. In her Italian mindset, she actually typed in “pollo picanti”. And what did that translate to? “Chicken offends you”. At that moment, we joked for a little while longer, the spirits were lifted, and it set the tone for the rest of the night. Another late one for the Ross travelers.

Look at your man and back at me, I’m on a horse lion.

For the first time in my life I saw fireflies. Check out this quick video I took of Amanda catching and releasing a firefly.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjrMTXZJ6lE

Aside from seeing beautiful luminous bugs, for the past couple of days we’ve either been lounging around Liz & Dave’s saltwater pool or trekking around Boston. Their pool is absolutely fabulous! I’ll never have a regular chlorinated pool after feeling how great this pool is on your skin and eyes.

As you may have seen from the previous blog post, we did a Duck Tour this morning after taking the faster (and more expensive) commuter rail (purple line) into the city instead of the green line (which is a slower subway rail). The crowd on our duck tour was lame and didn’t play along with the driver’s antics very much. Amanda said she’s been with better group/driver combinations where they had much more fun. With that said, it was still fun and we got to see quite a bit of Boston. Here’s a photo of Amanda posing next to Samuel Adams –

After the Duck tour, we took the rail to the North End for some Italian lunch at Bella Vista. Interesting little place. The lasagna and chicken were decent but nothing to write home about. After that we did a little tour of Paul Revere’s house and walked to the Granary Burying Ground to see where Sam Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock are buried. Then, a detour to see The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX near the Boston Commons, and a quick sprint to Georgetown Cupcakes (OMG AMAZING) and then the commuter rail back to Needham. Dave brought up a great point of getting a pedometer to see how far we walk each day so I may look around each place we go to see if we can find one. Most of the time today, we opted for the stairs instead of the escalator or walking a couple miles instead of using the rail system again. Gotta burn off all the local Boston & Portland Maine beer’s we’ve (I’ve) been drinking 🙂

We said our goodbyes to Dave as he’ll be working early in the AM and took a quick photo “for the blog” 🙂