Ready to see the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.
On our recent 12-day trip to England, Scotland, and Wales my husband and I took almost 2000 pictures. (That's what happens when your cell phone is easier to whip out than your camera.) Most of those pictures are of the incredible scenery, ancient architecture, and, uh, food I ate.
But one of the things I love to capture when I travel is quirky items, things that make me smile, and those that make me say, “huh?”
You can find better pictures of the UK than I have to offer, but here are a few of the photos I snapped that you probably won't see in a guidebook or on National Geographic. Likely for good reason…
(Click any photo for larger images.)
For more travel fun, check out my Hodgepodge post from our 2010 trip to Europe. What are some odd-to-you or interesting things you've seen while traveling?
Wow, we had such great dialog on Tuesday's post. I love it when all my blog friends come together to discuss a topic. That's a tough act to follow, so today I'm giving you the last installment of photos from my European tour this summer.
We ended our vacation in lovely London. As usual, we only had about a day and a half to explore, so we just hit the highlights. Our hotel was across the street from the London Eye (the ferris wheel) which is right on the Thames. We were basically right across the river from Westminster Palace (aka the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben).
London was a nice change from the rest of Europe. As much as I enjoyed all of the cultural exploration, I have to admit it was nice to be able to speak the language again. Mostly. 😉
We have hundreds of photos, but here are a few I thought I'd share. (Not sure why the thumbnails are a bit blurry. They're crisp if you click on them for the larger version. Sorry.)
Westminster Palace (Houses of Parliament) w/Big Ben on left, London Eye on right, over the Thames River
The London Eye. Like a ginormous bicycle wheel.
The ubiquitous London taxi cab.
One of my favorite books. Not surprised it's considered a classic, but was surprised to find it in Westminster Abbey gift shop. Not exactly a pro-church tome...
Buckingham Palace changing of the guard. Massive crowds. Not really as exciting as I expected, but cool nonetheless.
Of course, we took the Underground. And yes, we did mind the gap.
If you missed my previous posts about some of the fun and curious things we saw on our trip, check out Hodgepodge and No Detail Too Small.
I have been shirking my travelog duties lately, so today I thought I'd cover a little of my trip to Paris. As luck (good or bad, depending on your preferences) would have it, we arrived in Paris on Bastille Day.
We reached the city in time for dinner and then a nine o'clock boat tour on the Seine River, which motored past the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and the Grand Palais, and under bridge after beautiful bridge. I thought we would see the Bastille Day fireworks from the boat, but it didn't get dark in Paris until almost 11 pm! We took a bus tour of the important sites and then got out to join the masses lined up along the Seine to catch the celebration after dark.
The fireworks were, well, fireworks, but somehow it was neat to be watching them in Paris. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially since I'm not inclined to fight huge crowds. (Like the DC Cherry Blossom Festival. Never. Again.)
Our saintly bus driver fought the traffic for more than an hour and delivered us back to the hotel around 0130. The next day, we toured the Eiffel Tower and the Palace at Versailles, walked along the Avenue des Champs-Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, and rode the Metro.
Sunflower fields in the French countryside
One of many boats on the Seine that appeared to be lived on
The Arc de Triomphe at night, with flag out for Bastille Day
Notre Dame
The Eiffel Tower, duh
View of Paris and the Arc de Triomphe from the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower
Garden at the Palace of Versailles - I found the garden more interesting than the building
Gardens at the Palace of Versailles
Toyota Showroom in on the Champs, just like any other store
It was a quick two days in a lovely city full of history. And people. I wanted to see the Louvre, but they had limited hours on the day we could go, so we missed it. I guess that's a good reason to go back, oui?
This is a random collection of fun things from my European tour that I haven't already mentioned.
This semi caught my eye on the way to Florence. Truck drivers in many European countries are not allowed to drive on Sundays or holidays (or even the whole weekend). They just have to stop and park until the ban is off. This driver apparently ran out of clean clothes.
Laundry truck
McDonald's and Burger King are all over Europe, but the menus are modified to fit the local tastes. I'm still not sure if this breakfast sandwich in Innsbruck looks good, or like something covered in bugs. Note how the menu is partially in English. We saw that a lot, whether the English made sense or not.
Good morning, Innsbruck
Mmm, nothing says pizza like an American gangster.
Pizza speakeasy in Innsbruck
No refrigerator for your kiosk? No problem. Just stream cold water over the drinks all day long. Seems wasteful, but I can't decide if I want the water to be recycled or not.
Water cooler
This shop window cracked me up. “Um, excuse me. Where's the door?”
How do I get in?
Want an easy, memorable web address? Try this one.
Anyone have a pen?
The cars in Europe were noticably different. Until we reached England, they were mostly small hatchbacks or station wagons, and even the American makes were usually models we don't have in the US. My youngest dubbed this Fiat Panda the “fat panda”.
Fat Panda
Saw this in an antique/junk store window in Lucerne.
I'm going kuckuck
This poor person was on the third floor of a building in Lucerne that must have had a tight staircase and no elevator.
I hope this wasn't an emergency
The EMT might want to check the patient's blood pressure...
And finally, even on a trip to Europe, we couldn't escape the Bella, Edward, Jacob love triangle.
My husband and I recently took the kids on a 12-day tour of Europe. We hit the highlights of cities like London, Venice, and Paris, and enjoyed the natural beauty of Innsbruck and Lucerne. But–as I mentioned in a previous post– the most interesting part for me was the details that made Europe different from the US.
Not just foreign languages, old buildings, different food, and paying to use the restroom. I mean the things you might never discover without visiting.
For example, in many of the hotels, the lights wouldn't turn on unless you inserted your key card into a slot by the door. After the first night in one of those hotels, the tour group was laughing about how long it took each of us to figure it out.
Insert key card for electricity
If you're in continental Europe and you want a Diet Pepsi, too bad. Pepsi apparently failed Euro-marketing 101. It wasn't even in the little grocery stores. And if you want a Diet Coke, it's Coke Light.
In Innsbruck, there are boxes at the crosswalks, but no obvious button to push to request the walk signal. We never did figure out if it was a motion sensor or what.
Mysterious crosswalk box
If you need to know what street you're on, check the wall of the nearest building. No street signs on poles.
The commercial rest stops are amazing. Clean bathrooms, great food, and nice displays. They reminded me of the toll road oases in Illinois and New Jersey, but nicer.
Rest stop food
Rest stop shopping
Rest stop tortellini
Just to make things confusing in Italy, if you wanted self-service food, it worked like a cafeteria, but if you wanted something made-to-order, you had to pick it out, get a ticket for it, pay at the cashier, then take the receipt back to pick it up. We stuck with self-service and still got excellent food like the tortellini above.
The UK had fun names for its pubs. We didn't get a chance to eat at The Slug & Lettuce (“Slug” for short), but we dined at a pub called The Bunch of Grapes (near Harrod's).
The Bunch of Grapes
This is just a sampling of the things that I noticed on our trip, but I think they're the unique aspects of a place that make it interesting. And as a writer, it's the little details that make a setting real to the reader. I'm already dreaming up ways to incorporate some of the places we visited into a new book.
What are some of the fun things you've learned about different places you've been (foreign or not)?
I have more fun tidbits about our European travels, but I've been getting requests for photos of things besides toilets, so today I'm going to share some of my favorite shots from one of my favorite spots: Innsbruck, Austria. We fell in love with this city, and it was only rivaled by Lucerne, Switzerland, which I'll post photos of on another day.
Yes, I'm going to milk this trip for all I can. 😉
What I loved…mountains, oddly-colored green river, pedestrian-friendly city center, architecture and color of the buildings, natural beauty, and history galore.
Looking west from downtown
Off the beaten path, but still beautiful
View from our hotel window looking northwest along the Inn River
Multi-use path alongside the Inn River
Early morning farmer's market
As soon as we drove into Innsbruck, I realized how much I've missed the mountains. The majestic scenery and abundant charm of this small city captured my heart.
What places do you love and why?
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