October 26th, late morning
We are flying along on a Eurostar high speed train from London England to Lille France. I think the top speed we saw was close to 300km/hr but not quite. We’re in the last 20 minutes of our train ride and it wasn’t until the longer of the many tunnels that we realized we had passed through the Chunnel. I thought I would get my computer out to write a quick update before we arrived.
Today marks 3 weeks in Europe for us and a full one week since we left our friends in Scotland. It seems like it has been more than a week! We have spent that week in England and our now moving into the France part of our trip. Before talking about England though, I thought I’d cover off some lessons learned for backpacking in Europe.
Rice bowls made by Robin. Just a fun shot to start off this blog post.
Some stuff we’ve figured out that works for us
Phone stuff. Before coming to Europe we had looked into international phone plans. We were going to be travelling long enough that I was very interested in keeping things simple. By simple I meant keeping connected in the same way I am in North America. The reality is the ability to use google maps as well as another 8 or so apps that I’ve downloaded since being here makes the logistics of planning much easier than going to ticket offices or waiting for wifi - as well as being much cheaper.
Through Rogers, our only option was to pay “just $15/day to Roam Like Home!”. Obviously not a cost effective option. So - from this information we decided two things: 1) if we were stuck, we could just turn the data on, and we could have access to regular calling and texting - but only if we were really stuck since it was expensive. 2) We would try to find a SIM card once there, and we would change our voicemails before going to say that people should email or call/message us on whatsapp. Turns out we walked into the first cell phone store and bought a 10GB plan with a sim card for £10 for a month (about $17CDN) - Better than my $70 phone plan at home! It has been straightforward and worked great.***Word of caution - before you travel - you need to make sure your bank has two step verification setup with not only your cell number, but also your email - or you won’t be able to confirm any online payments. *** I was lucky enough that for some reason this had crossed my mind vaguely in the days before and I had half heartedly thought about it. So far we’ve been good.
Eurail pass. This is something people talk about a lot. Our general feeling is that you can save a lot of money using this, as long as you have the patience to figure out the app, and as long as you are lucky with delays. If you book through a carrier for your train ticket and it is delayed, you can get a refund through their website - but if you book travel through a eurail pass and you are delayed you are S.O.L. We’ve had one day that had long delays (very much because of crazy weather and we were purposely making a run for it to avoid the weather so it made sense) and the other because we screwed up and didn’t get off a train when we were supposed to. We’ve paid about $2200CDN for 15 days of travel (as much as you want in one calendar day), which is about $150 for each day. Our one trip from London to Paris would have been about $990CDN. But we did have to pay for about $276 of reservation fees - but for most trips we’ve figured out how to avoid the reservation fees now. We’ve debated just buying a car and selling it when we’re done, but in the end we really do love travelling on the train and I think it’s been the right choice. If we lived here we would definitely just drive a car though or fly - it is still super expensive to take the train - unless it was a monthly pass for a commute to work.
Banking: Make sure your bank accounts is setup with an email 2 step verification as well as your phone number - otherwise if you get a different sim card you won’t be able to confirm “it’s you” for a number of quite important things you’d like to pay for that you often can only do online (lodging, travel, activities).
Footwear: I chose to bring Blundstones as primary footwear and then some super lightweight grippy slip on shoes. I’ve been really happy with the choice. My feet have yet to get wet in Scotland bogs, rainy streets, and mushy trails. I waxed them well before I came. And the luxury of putting on some relaxed fitting dry shoes that take up so little room in my bag is great. I can also jog/run in the lightweight shoes which I can’t easily in boots so that’s been great.
Cost: Everyone has said that Europe is SOOO expensive. Though eating in restaurants is certainly expensive (as it is in Canada), we’ve found that right now - groceries are on par in some places and significantly cheaper in many places. In Scotland the cheese, milk, bread, eggs, meat are all so so much cheaper. And the cheese is so good! We were pleasantly surprised. The biggest cost has been accomodation - but again, airbnb prices are cheaper than what we are renting our places out for, or at least on par. So…though the bank account is hurting, which we expected - we’ve been pleasantly surprised for the most part. Now…we’ve been doing things like walking, hiking, running, trail running, shuffling and generally just exploring on foot which is not too expensive. Museums and galleries are open by donation in Scotland, leisure pool swims and not too expensive, and most of what we are doing is in smaller towns so less costly. Obviously sight seeing attractions are pricey wherever you go, and sometimes well worth it.
Scheduling: Travelling is tiring. Packing up from one airbnb/hostel/hotel, travelling to the next and setting up again takes a lot out of you. Plus for every move there are logistics to plan on the computer which takes away from time enjoying your travelling. At this point, we are kind of of the mindset that 3 nights is about the minimum we would want to spend in one place, with 4 nights to a week being better. This makes for nights where you can just drink some wine (or whiskey, or beer depending on what country your in), watch a movie or play a boardgame without thinking about train tickets and schedules. It is really fun to spend a day doing a bit of reconnaissance and then by the end feel a bit like you’ve got the place wired. We have almost 7 weeks left, with about 3 weeks committed to - so as we plan our next moves we are keeping this in mind. If anyone has some “must do” activities/places to visit between southern France and Stockholm, Sweden, we are all ears. We are talking about surfing on the coast of France? Biking in Switzerland? Cold water dipping wherever we can find places to do it?
Since my last blog…
Our last update was October 14th, a few days before we left Scotland. Since then…
We climbed a Munro with our friend Paige in Scotland. A Munro is a peak that is 914m (3000feet) above sea level. We started about 125ish meters above sea level so climbed about 850ish meters as this one (Stuc a’Chroin - with one of the meanings being “Peak of Danger” or “Cloven Hoof Peak”) is about 975m. It was just under 20km of walking with super light packs. Tons of sheep and deer to watch, streams to drink from, epic views and clear skies for which we lucked out. This was Munro number 125 for Paige (she went on to climb a chain of 4 more in about another 20km again the next day but we rested our legs and went to the local pool).
Near the top of Stuc a’Chroin with Paige. Gavin and Robin on our walk. The road in (first part of the walk through and past a beautiful sheep farm).
We took a train to Edinburgh a night early, on our way England. Perth area was set to get even MORE rain (they had already had a ton) and trains were cancelled for the next day we figured we’d better get out of there. Before we hopped on the train though we did a restaurant crawl (pub crawl that included the kids) to a total of two places. This may not seem like a crawl it beats Paige and Scott’s current record of one in their past pub crawls. Their regular haunt is Cullach Brewing in Perth (The Cullach). And really we only left there to grab some sushi, see at least one other restaurant in Perth (since the rest of the time in Perth we were walking to and fro), beat their record, and then we just went back to The Cullach again.
We spent 3 nights at Henley-on-Thames. The site of the Royal Henley Regatta. What a novel idea for us to visit a city that revolves around rowing. We did lots of walking along the river and enjoyed a great little airbnb above a bakery two blocks from the train station and right in the centre of town 4 blocks from the river. Thanks to Bill Verity for his recommendation to visit here. We didn’t get out on the water, but had we been there a couple of days longer - we definitely would have. Add it to the list of places we’ll need to come back to (somehow this trip is only creating more trips).
The Thames River. Home of the Royal Henley Rowing Regatta.
A beautiful little walk around the outskirts of Henley on the right of way foot paths.
We visited the town of Shrewton - which boasted being only a couple of miles from Stonehenge. This was indeed true, but - having only recently been without a friend with a car for the busy roads, we had to learn how to get around without a car. Buses to Shrewton from the Salisbury train station don’t run on Sundays - and we arrived on a Sunday. And so - our first taxi ride. We went directly to Stonehenge, did the standard tourist round of Stonehenge (which is incredible despite the many fences and gates), and noticed that there were trails that went almost as close to Stonehenge as the “paying path” that seemed to be open to the public. Now - generally it is in our nature to happily pay for fees to parks, reserves, historic societies and anything that we appreciate being able to access - even if it’s hard to figure out who to give money to. But the fees were very high to see Stonehenge, and there are huge numbers of buses, security guards, fences, and people doing lawn care (since the cows that eat the grass everywhere else weren’t allowed there) that seemed to be the main costs that our fees covered - rather than much to do with conserving the Heritage. Also many in town seemed to share the opinion that potentially a lot of money was being spent to create tunnels out of current roads and infrastructure that would not allow anyone to lay eyes on Stonehenge while they were near without paying. This seems - not quite right. Now….we obviously don’t know all the details - and so happily paid…once. But two days later we returned along of network of trails and rights of ways that we found online on a map of “Buckinghamshire Foot Paths” from Shrewton to Stonehenge with only about 500m along a highway that had a generous shoulder. Happily for us, we ran into a group of friendly model airplane pilots on the way back that welcomed us to visit and see some of their planes fly as well as enjoying some great conversation. The takeaway from this small town mini stay was that our first item to do when visiting somewhere in the future will be to look up rights of way maps, to allow us to navigate trails and towns as if we had lived there for years. We ran into so many friendly people on our walks. The morning we went to Stonehenge, we started out before sun up and had just a beautiful day of walking.
Sunrise walk to Stonehenge. The trails around Shrewton. Stonehenge! Some model airplane spectating. A beautiful walk to a town nearby to visit a great pub for lunch (the Bell Inn in Winterbourne Stoke).
We spent a day in London so that I could visit a friend from University (so great to see you Emanuela!) - and we didn’t even take one picture with her. But we got to tour around University College London (UCL) where she works, and have dinner with her. We snuck in a ride on the London Eye, a wander by Big Ben and some other beautiful buildings that honestly I just looked at on google maps to see what they were when we went by, and hopped a tram to our hotel.
The London Eye
Big Ben
October 29th addition - since I didn’t finish it up on the train earlier this week
We are wrapping up our stay right now in Le Havre, France. This is our last night here and we’ll be heading to Paris for a few nights tomorrow. This Port Town is said to be the first location to have received coffee along trade routes from Martinique. The “First Caffeinated Port in France”. We chose here because we know one of the Skippers taking part in a double handed sailing race (Le Transat Jacques Vabre) that follows the coffee trading route from Le Havre to Martinique. The race started TODAY (October 29th)! It is the 30th anniversary of the race, and it has been amazing to be around the energy and buildup that goes along with an event like this. Most importantly, we got to see our friend (a previous boss of Kathy’s), Scott Shawyer, and wish him well on his upcoming race. We’ve been following his team for a while and hadn’t realized he would be starting this race from here until we were already in Scotland! We therefore made it one of the first destinations to visit in France to coincide with the race timing. As a bonus to seeing Scott, from team “Be Water Positive” of the Ocean Canada Racing group, we got a tour of his incredible boat. We also got to see the rest of the boats from the dock, and got to watch the start of most of the race from the shore today. Unfortunately, the winds are looking really heavy (strong) for the coming week and more, and there has been much discussion about the safety of starting the race. Wind is good - obviously it’s a sailing race. But this much wind (50-70 knots predicted) is unsafe. There are four classes in this sailing race. Class 40 (40’ monohulls), Ocean Fifty (50’ Trimarans), IMOCA (International Monofull Open Class Association - 60’ Monohulls) and CLASS ULTIM (100’ Trimarans). They are each covering a different distance (different route) with the intent of having them arriving roughly in the same span of time in Martinique. With the winds so strong, the decision was made to allow the Class Ultim boats to start as planned, but to have the Class 40 and Ocean Fifty boats start and go only as far as Lorient, France, and then pause until further notice. Meanwhile the IMOCA boats are to hold off on the start until further notice. Scott and his co-skipper Nick Maloney are sailing in the IMOCA class and has been super positive about the decision though obviously they are disappointed and anxious to start the race. The crews appreciate the amount of knowledge and thought that has gone into the decision. They are all so tough and strong, but also knowledgeable about the limitations of their equipment and the power of the winds. If you’d like to follow the race, it is incredible to see - check out the skippers of the boats here, as well as click on the little window that says “Cartographie” to follow their progress on the live tracking map. We aren’t sure at this point if the race for the IMOCA boats will be delayed by a week, or more or less, or not able to go ahead. We feel very privileged to have met the crew, seen the boat and been among the great energy surrounding this event. We are so hoping there is a safe way for the race to proceed for all of the teams that are currently grounded. You can also follow the Canada Ocean Racing Team “Be Water Positive” on social media (Facebook and Instagram).
While in Le Havre this evening, we took advantage of the beautiful beach for a cold water swim (not too cold at 15 degrees celcius:) ). We were inspired by a woman we saw (and subsequently spoke to) who was swimming. She lives there and swims most days year round. We promptly went and got our suits and got to do some body surfing in the waves. We’ve missed the water these last few weeks!
Robin and Jeremy try their hand at turning the winch double handed. A group shot with Scot Shawyer from Be Water Positive on his boat which he is co-skippering with Nick Maloney. Gavin and Robin with their Be Water Positive Swag. The start of the Class 40 race from our view on shore. Our sunset dip.