London

From Scotland we drove back to Central England to return the rental car. We spent a night at a unique AirBnB, on a small boat in Midlands. We chose this spot in part for its uniqueness, but also because it was very close to Midlands airport, out of which we would be flying early in the morning on our way to London to wind down our tour of Europe.

London was fascinating, with a lot to see. It’s a large city, but reasonably easy to navigate via the subway (the “tube”), buses and on foot. With a week to explore on our own, we felt that we got to see all the highlights we wanted to.

It was mid-October when we were in London. Although the number of tourists typically starts to dwindle in September after the summer high season, we still found many places crowded. I like to tell people the photo below was our only view of the Changing of the Guard. That’s not entirely true, but it does illustrate the crowds we encountered.

We enjoyed visiting museums in London, especially since many offer free admission. Of course they are also nice because as well-known museums in a large city, they are able to acquire some of the most sought-after works of art. Van Gogh is consistently one of my favorite artists, and I enjoyed seeing a number of his works.

In an unscientific survey of costs during our travels, we would say that Copenhagen and Zurich were the most expensive cities we visited in Europe. Prague was the least expensive. Berlin was somewhere in between. London was not as expensive as Copenhagen and Zurich, but is was certainly not inexpensive. One thing that seemed expensive in London was transportation. In order to visit my cousin on the outskirts of London, we took a public bus plus a train for a portion of the trip, and the total cost was the equivalent of about $72 US for two of us to make the round trip. Many people make this commute daily to work in the city, so this must be quite expensive on an annual basis.

A note about traveling in London – if you ever find yourself flying to or from the Stansted area, I highly recommend the Hampton by Hilton London Stansted Airport for its convenience. You could almost say it is located inside the airport. Actually it is across the street, but it is within easy walking distance, mostly via a covered walkway that protects you from the weather. We had an early morning flight, and staying at the Hampton Stansted ensured that we would be on time. I would also give a shout out to the hotel staff, who were some of the best we’ve encountered at Hampton Inn. They made it a truly great experience for our brief stay.

Scotland

As we had done in our earlier travel in Europe, we rented a car to get to our house sit in central England in order to have the freedom to explore. It also enabled us to explore other parts of the country after the house sit was complete. We drove north to visit Scotland, both Glasgow on the west side and Edinburgh to the east.

We found the people to be friendly and outgoing. When we first arrived at the street where our AirBnB was located, a man noticed us looking around and asked if he could help us find anything. We were approached by another local the next morning while having breakfast at a nearby café; she just wanted to chat for a few minutes.

We also found a similar sentiment to what I mentioned in an earlier post: the Scottish and the English are not on what you might call the best of terms. One of the museums we visited proudly displayed the following excerpt from the Declaration of Arbroath from 1320: “As long as only one hundred of us remain alive we will never on any conditions be brought under English rule. For we fight not for glory, nor for riches, nor for honours, but for freedom alone, which no good man gives up except with his life.”

We stayed in a working-class neighborhood in tenement housing. I had heard the word “tenement” before, but didn’t actually know what it meant. As I understand it now, it is an apartment building, maybe three or four stories tall, where a common front door leads to several units inside. The tenements in the neighborhood we stayed in were around 110-140 years old. There was a train within walking distance that made for an easy trip into Edinburgh.

We had our rental car, but we decided leave the car parked at the AirBnB and to take the train into the city instead of driving, dealing with potential traffic congestion, and finding and paying for parking. As it turned out, we were very happy about this decision. We didn’t know about it beforehand, but the Scottish Communist Party held a major rally, which blocked many of the main roads for several hours. Tour buses, taxis – everyone was stuck in traffic. We were so happy to have arrived by train and to be exploring on foot. I have to throw in one political comment about this rally – I found it ironic that a major rallying cry by these Communist Party protesters was for freedom!

We did discover a little of the Scottish sense of humor during our visit. The tour guide on the hop on hop off bus explained that in most countries’ judicial systems, a defendant on trial will be found either “Guilty” or “Not guilty”. Scotland has another option – “Not proven”, or in other words, “We know you did it, we just can’t prove it”, also referred to as “getting off Scot free”. The photo below contains another example. Instead of using the official name of this bridge, locals refer to it as the “squinty bridge” because it doesn’t cross the river perpendicularly, but at an angle.

House Sit in Loughborough, England

After traveling on our own in Ireland, we took a flight to the central part of England and settled into another house sit. This time we had just one dog. We enjoyed walking him around the neighborhood and meeting locals. We were able to leave him alone for a few hours per day and explore some of central England.

Our first stop was Leicester, birthplace of King Richard III. As an American, one of the surprising things we run into frequently in Europe is places or objects that are many centuries old. This is less common in the US and even less so in the western US where I have spent most of my years.

This hall was used as the town hall for over 300 years. The wood paneling and carvings date from the year 1637!

A torture device on display at the town hall compound

Next we visited Nottingham, of Robin Hood fame. Most of the original castle was demolished long ago, but some walls remain along with a later-built mansion that now serves as a museum. Unfortunately for us, the museum had closed a month earlier for a multi-year renovation.

Back near our house sit in Loughborough we came across this sign on an apartment for rent. What is the difference between “Coming soon” and “Coming soon-ish”?

A Few Stops in Ireland

After finishing up our house sit in Howth, we toured other parts of Ireland on our own, including taking guided bus tours of Connemara and the Burren/Moher areas. Here are some of the things we learned.

Britain taxed light, i.e., windows, so people looked for ways to minimize the tax. Split doors were installed because a split door allowed in light but was not taxed as window. In the photo below of the Bank of Ireland you can see that they completely bricked in the windows to avoid the tax.

I apologize for the poor quality of the following photo, taken from the bus, but I included it because it illustrates several things: note how the traditional cottage has small windows and a split door due to the light tax. It also has a thatched roof, which is becoming less and less common. Thatched roofs are expensive to install (the equivalent of over $30,000 US) and insurance is high due to flammability of the roof.

Everywhere we visited in Ireland and later Scotland, we noted that the people spoke with animosity about the British. Likewise, the British spoke disparagingly about the Irish and Scottish. Undoubtedly, the history runs deep. Here is a small example of the history and ongoing attitude of the Irish toward the British. Below is a photo of what are called “famine walls” – labor intensive walls made from thousands of stones. These were part of a governmental make-work program by the British to keep out-of-work Irish people busy and provide some income during famine. The walls didn’t have any other purpose, for example, they didn’t divide one property from another.

The Burren is a rocky area on the coast of Ireland, scraped bare by ancient glaciers. The tour guide summed up the Burren as follows – There’s water, but not enough to drown a man; there’s wood, but not enough to hang a man; there’s soil, but not enough to bury him.

Blackhead lighthouse in the Burren area; the only square lighthouse in Ireland

Finally, I have to mention that we stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast, Clooniff House, in Galway. The proprietress and her husband were so friendly and accommodating, she cooked up a great, traditional breakfast for us each morning, and she gave us great tips and assistance with our tour reservations.

The Cliffs of Moher, made famous by the Princess Bride movie

House Sitting in Ireland

After leaving Prague, we drove back toward Copenhagen, passing briefly through Zurich, Switzerland, and again through Germany. Then we flew to Dublin, Ireland, for the first of our European house sits.

The actual location was in Howth, Ireland, a small fishing community across the bay from Dublin. For this sit we had one cat and two dogs to look after. We were there for eight days, and the weather was amazing, with just one day of rain.

The view toward Dublin from our house sit

Our duties on this house sit were to walk the dogs along the coast once or twice per day. Here we are walking toward the lighthouse.

In our spare time we were able to visit Howth Castle and of course go out for some local fish and chips.

Prague

Prague surprised me. I didn’t know much about Prague, and I wouldn’t have included it in our itinerary, except that Maricela’s sister had spent a semester there during her college years and often spoke highly of it. So we included a two-day stop there, and we’re glad we did. There is so much history and beauty here!

Soon after we arrived, we did what we generally do upon arriving in another country, find an ATM and withdraw some local funds. Prague is a big city so we had no trouble finding an ATM. I requested the equivalent of about $300 US, and the machine asked if I wanted to select what denomination bills or if I wanted to take the default denominations determined by the machine. I didn’t think much of it and selected the default. Unfortunately, it dispensed one large bill worth nearly $300! Our next stop was to find a place to eat. Before being seated, we asked at a restaurant if they would have change for our $300 bill, and they did, so our problem was solved.

We signed up for a walking tour that we found on the Experiences section of the AirBnB site and the guide did an amazing job. Read the captions on the following photos for a few random facts shared during our tour.

Originally, this statue was named, “Statue of liberty”. It was renamed by the communists as “Statue of a woman holding a torch while riding a lion”, a name so long and meaningless that it is assumed people will ignore it.

The designer of this tower failed to depict any poor people. As a result, he was given the death penalty. Another designer, of a nearby church, faced a different fate – his creation was so magnificent, the authorities blinded him so that he couldn’t create a similar, competing masterpiece for another locale.

The towers on this church are known as the Adam and Eve towers. Eve is the slightly larger one on the right. The church was completed in 1251 AD.

Just to the right of the center of the photo is a statue of stylized flames. It was made to remember a man who set himself on fire and ran around the square to protest the rise of communism. His family didn’t want to memorialize him so much as they wanted to remember his ideas.

Prague castle is said to be the largest in the world. It took 1100 years to build, from 820 to 1929, and was built in many different styles.

Berlin

We rented a car in Copenhagen, took a ferry to Germany, and drove to our first stop, in Berlin. We had hoped that by renting a car and doing our own driving we would get to see more of each country, including small towns, countryside and local residents. Unfortunately, we ended up driving primarily on large interstate highways. This made for fast, efficient travel, but it was less picturesque than we had hoped for.

A thatched roof house in the Danish countryside

One of the first places we visited in Berlin was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. There are 2,711 gray stone blocks of various sizes. A fellow traveler, visiting from Australia, summed it up in one word: Confronting.

Berlin Wall – only a few remnants have been preserved. However, they have installed a walkway throughout the city, marking where the wall formerly stood. There are a lot of reminders all around the city of damage that was caused during the war.

A section of the Berlin Wall that remains standing

Remains of a church in Berlin, damaged by World War II bombs

We found a great café around the block from our AirBnB. The food appeared to be carefully prepared, the atmosphere was relaxed, and the prices were reasonable. We also found a good restaurant for dinner. The menu was available only in German, although the helpful waitress spoke English well. Maricela and I each just selected an item at random from the menu, hoping we would like it. Thankfully it worked out well for both of us. An interesting thing after the meal – we left the helpful waitress a tip of about 15%; she came and talked to us and told us the tip amount was too much. Imagine that happening in the US! (In the end, we convinced her to keep the full amount.)

Traffic and parking were a bit of a challenge, but we survived unscathed.

A two-way street in Berlin near our AirBnB

Copenhagen

One of the European cities participating in the Icelandair fare sale was Copenhagen, Denmark. The good part about this is that Copenhagen was definitely on our “must visit” list, because we have relatives there who just had a baby and we wanted to visit them. The not-as-good part is that the Baltic Sea separates Copenhagen from continental Europe. That means we either had to fly or take a ferry across the Baltic. It’s not a huge problem, it’s just another expense that needed to be included in our budget. And it needed to be accounted for on a round trip basis; since we flew into Copenhagen, we would need to get back there to fly home.

Here are my first impressions of Copenhagen:

It appeared to be clean, everywhere we looked. There was no trash or other debris on the streets. The one odd exception is that we found several bicycles tossed into the canals.

We took the train several times, and it always arrived and departed right on schedule. We are from the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have the BART subway system. The BART trains have conductors piloting the trains. Before leaving a station, the BART conductor will visually look down the platform to make sure no one is still stepping onto the train before closing the doors and departing. In Denmark, the trains are automated with no conductor, so passengers are on their own to avoid the closing doors.

Strangers on the street were not particularly friendly, at least not very outgoing. However, we stayed at three different AirBnB’s, and all of the hosts were extremely accommodating. All the hosts were warm, inviting and welcoming, with one family inviting us to join them for dinner. We definitely enjoyed our AirBnB experiences in Copenhagen.

This will likely not be a surprise to anyone, but the reports are true, there are bicycles everywhere! I haven’t seen this many bicycles in use since visiting the Santa Barbara and Davis university campuses in California. The good thing is, the cyclists behave in very orderly fashion. At one point we observed a long queue of cyclists lined up waiting for a drawbridge to close – everyone waited patiently, within the lines on their side of the bike lane.

The cost of living seemed high, even for basic necessities such as food. Our first meal was lunch at a food truck style food court. We ordered a simple, carryout lunch of Mongolian barbecue ribs, curry cauliflower, and one piece of flat bread; the cost, including taxes but not drinks, came to the equivalent of about $36 US. Unlike the US, no tipping is required here. For comparison, we recently had a similar meal in the US; we paid $22, including tax, and added a $4 tip, so $36 vs. $26. I added a small hot chocolate to my Copenhagen meal, and it cost over $7, which is also significantly more than what a similar drink would cost in the US. Likewise, the tax on the purchase of new automobiles is high. It has fluctuated in recent years, but it has been as high as 180%, making a $25,000 vehicle cost $70,000.

We had good food, we enjoyed places such as Tivoli Gardens, and we had a great time visiting relatives. We would love to return to Copenhagen again one day.

A Plan to Visit Europe

As retirees on a fixed income, we generally look for ways to minimize our travel expenses. That is why most of our travel is to places where we can drive rather than having to pay for airfare. It’s also part of the reason why we look for house sits whenever we can.

We had had our eye on visiting Europe for a long time but hadn’t felt we could fit it in to our budget. There were certain places that we were especially interested in seeing and we also had some relatives in Europe who we wanted to visit.

Two things came together that helped us to finally take the leap and go to Europe. First, and most importantly, Icelandair had a sale on airfares between several East Coast cities in the US and a few cities in Europe. Normally we are located in the western US, but due to our recent Massachusetts house sit, we could easily fly out of Boston, which was one of the participating cities. Second, we lined up a couple of house sits in Europe, which would reduce our lodging expenses there.

We organized the trip such that we would travel on our own for about two weeks, then house sit for a week, travel again on our own, house sit for another week, and finish up with some more travel on our own. This would help break up the trip, giving us periods of time when we would be traveling and sightseeing, interspersed with more restful periods when we would spend a full week at someone’s home, taking care of their pets, and washing our laundry.

We haven’t traveled like this before. Stay tuned to see how it works out!

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Europe