Blogs from Europe - page 11917

I wish I had something deep and thoughtful to write at the moment, but my time in the cafe is about up. It took a while to figure out the system and upload the note I wrote last night on the laptop. Since that note was so negative, I thought I should at least reflect on things after a full night's sleep. After 11 hours of sleep I woke to a very typical European travel breakfast and a bus tour of historical St. Petersburg. While certainly Eastern European in style and design, it is a beautiful old city with much to offer the adventerous. After the bus tour several of set out on our own and I now have 100 photos of the sights. Hopefully I can write more offline and bring it back here with ... read more

So, I flew out of London at about 1,45 it takes a while to get through the check in at Heathrow, so for all of you out there that are traveling make extra time getting out of Heathrow. The flight to Lisbon is about 2 hours and 20 mins and surprisingly went fast that could have been because I slept most of the way. I also talked to a Girl from New Zealand which was cool. I was neat cause there was a slight meal aboard it was a hot sandwich with pork and Patae. It also came with some Mango mousse which was very good. So upon landing I hit the info both and proceeded to the hostel, The Lisbon Lounge Hostel. It turned out I went to the old location and had to walk ... read more

Weather Report Started quite bright then gloomy with occasional showers. Sunny from mid-afternoon. First part of the day achieved that which I had planned then things went a little awry. Visited the only two settlements in the area to which I had not given my favour including the delightful church at Thriplow. Moved on to the RSPB reserve and once the rain stopped set-off on the circular nature trail which included a number of bird hides. Failed to see the Marsh Harrier that the warden told me about but had an enjoyable and relaxing wander around a this wild area. When I arrived at my next stop - Wimpole Hall - I could find neither mobile ‘phone nor wallet. Emptied the car and rucksack to no avail. Went back to Thriplow - no sign of ... read more

London- Cambridgecrisadrian As part of our 'get to know your backyard' month we decided to add another famous place, yet an unknown place to us, Cambridge to our list. Oxford and Cambridge have a bitter rivalry that goes back for centuries to the point that Oxford is referred to as 'the other place' within Cambridge. Everyone we spoke to assured us that Cambridge was better than Oxford.....so we were selected to be the ultimate jury to decide a winner. Our jury was made up of 4 members who have been selected from all of England for this role filled with honour and prestige......these 4 people also happen to be friends. So Nathaly, Stefania, Cris and yours truly decided to meet at Kings Cross Station at 10.00am sharp! Of course as our last trip to Oxford was ... read more

In the morning we visited Warwick Castle, located right behind our hotel. The castle is beautiful and extremely well persevered, but the whole place was hyper-touristy—wax figures, over-dramatic audio and video, and four separate gift shops selling slightly different things. Most of the cheesy figures centered around the castle’s involvement in the War of the Roses. A bunch of us got sucked into this hour-long presentation on preparations for battle which was only mildly entertaining and even less informative. We then watched a rather gimmicky but still enjoyable demonstration of the English longbow, which is what essentially kept the French from doing anything productive in the Hundred Years War. The really cool part of the castle was the walk through the rooms that would have been occupied by the Earl of Warwick as late as the ... read more