We just got back from our two week vacation to Europe and had such a good time. We came back exhausted, but in a good way. Originally planning this trip for September/October, we switched things up and went in July. I wasn’t happy about this at first, but I think everything worked out exactly how it was suppose to in the end. We hit up Cambridge and London, England, Paris, Bern, Switzerland and lastly Barcelona.
After hearing great feedback about using Delta for international travels, we decided to give them a try. Overall we were really satisfied with them! We flew STL to Detroit and then over to London. Not kidding when I say Detroit’s airport was really nice! We flew with Delta’s partner airline Virgin Atlantic over to London and landed right at 6 AM after a 7 hour flight. I don’t think either one of us slept at all on the flight over. After landing in Heathrow, we took the Underground to the King’s Cross station and bought a separate train ticket up to Cambridge. That journey alone took two hours. The best man from our wedding and his wife live in Cambridge, so we really didn’t mind the extra travel. We were so excited to see them.
Once settled into our friend’s place, we headed into the main center of Cambridge and walked through the various schools. I didn’t understand this at first, but each school/program at the University basically has it’s own campus. There’s over 100 constituent college campuses within Cambridge (if I remember that fact correctly). We checked out the King’s College Cathedral, St. John’s College, and the Trinity College campus and some of their buildings. They’re all quite beautiful. It rained for a portion of the day, but we didn’t care. Rain became a common theme for our time in England.
We grabbed lunch at The Anchor before heading back to the apartment for a bit. Of course we had to get fish and chips. The portion was big enough for Tim and I to split because neither one of us were terribly hungry. By that afternoon, both Tim and I were crashing from jet lag and needed a nap. Napping also became a common theme on this trip. (Apparently it’s harder to travel east and jet lag recovery time is double than when you travel west.)
The weather had cleared up that afternoon, so punting was in order! It was pretty hilarious to do/watch, but also really enjoyable from my standpoint because I just had to sit there. We rented the boat from Scudamore’s (no chauffeur, though). You’re able to take drinks and food out with you, so everyone got a beverage from The Mill beforehand. It’s super easy to run into things because the boats are so long and awkward. The boys took turns punting to get us up and down the canal. I’m glad we ended up waiting until later in the day to go because there was considerably less people out on the canal by that point.
We ended the evening by hitting up The Grain and Hop Store to grab a bite to eat and watch the Euro Final. Portugal beat France in overtime. The bar was packed! We couldn’t even go upstairs because there were so many people. When Portugal scored and then won, people went insane. It was fun to experience. We decided to work off our drinks and food by walking home to call it a night. We were headed back into London the next day!
-m.