Travel Essentials

These are the travel make-or-breaks. The quality of my trip largely depends on these things and they are all within my control. If you are at all curious to find out what I think makes a trip great, then read on...

Choose Your Traveling Companions with Care:

A good companion can save a bad vacation, and bad companion can ruin a well planned vacation. If you have a well planned vacation and a good travel buddy, the results will be the best time of your life! In my experience, the more people you travel with, the more stressful it will be. It totally feels like herding cats to me. Not only is it harder to move a large group around, it is more stressful if something goes wrong. Then I screwed up every body's trip, not just mine. Really consider how many people you feel comfortable traveling with--I think my limit is 4--and only travel with people who will either A) Happily go along with the itinerary you've laid out or B) Happily let you go along with the itinerary they've laid out. That's not to say that more than one person can't plan a trip, just choose to travel and plan with people who will accept and enjoy the same kind of vacation you would.

If you don't choose your companions with care, you could spend your trip to Savai'i stopping at every LDS Stake Center--there are a LOT of them and they all look the same!--instead of swimming with freaking SEA TURTLES.

Lee is an excellent travel companion, I must be too as he never complains.

Tour Bus or Independent Travel?:

To each his own and all that, but me? I am all about independent travel. I find traveling tour group style to be a little frustrating, more expensive, and less hands on. Tour groups can't stay at little B&B's because there isn't enough room, there is less room for spontaneity, and depending on the tour group you might end up wasting your free time because the group itinerary is unclear.

Traveling with a performance group or service organization can give you cultural experiences you wouldn't get any other way, they can add meaning and value to your travels. I enjoyed my trips with groups, but I prefer to be the master of my own itinerary.

My Mom at a great hotel that is too small for a tour group.

Research, Research, Research:

If you show up at the Louvre on a Tuesday, you'll be disappointed to learn that it is closed. If you have your heart set on seeing Hamilton on Broadway, don't expect same day discount tickets. You won't know what you need to know before you start researching, so get researching!

Make sure you find out when things you want to do are open, when sights are the most crowded, what little hidden gems you can find at your destination. What you don't know can, and certainly will, hurt you.

There are lots of travel writers, guidebooks, Internet forums, and TV programs that will help you prepare for your trip. A lot of them are free! I will absolutely be buying a guidebook for our next Europe trip as I found our Paris guidebook to be invaluable. I listened to podcasts, read tons of blogs, and I asked questions on a travel forum and got good responses within minutes. I followed the advice of the other posters to stay in a hotel that was more central to the touristy stuff we would be doing and I am so glad I did. I wouldn't have realized how far away we were staying until it was too late to find a new place to stay. Good preparation can make a vacation, no preparation will break it.

Make sure you've learned about the history and culture you will be immersing yourself in. Visiting a historic sight without understanding it's story, it's value, is a really good way to be bored on your trip. The more you know, the more fun you will have!

Go Google Mona Lisa images right now so you can understand how few people this is.

Seriously, knowing how to avoid crowds on your trip is a major stress reducer!

Enjoy all the parts of your vacation:

There are three parts to every vacation, at least according to that guy on youtube. The first part is the anticipation and planning stage. Looking forward to your trip and preparing for it is part of your vacation. The more you do in this stage, the better the rest of your trip will be.

The second part of your vacation is the actual vacation. This is usually the shortest of the three parts. The third part is looking back on your vacation and enjoying the memories. In order to get the most out of both the second and third phase requires and balance between making memories and recording memories. Take photos. Take lots of photos. If you see something photo worthy, get several shots so you can make sure at least one turns out really well. most cameras have settings for night time, flash, back lighting, and auto mode. Try taking the picture with a few different modes on and see which one turns out the best. If you are a pro, then have fun capturing great images in a new place.

Have a variety of pictures! Some with people, some without, some at odd angles, some with nice smiles, some with silly faces and poses, these photos will probably come to define a lot of the memories you keep of your travels.

You don't have to take pictures and make movies of every single thing you see. Will you or anyone else really care what your lunch looked like? When you get your camera out snap lots of pictures, but don't always have your camera out. Take time to enjoy the moment first, then take a couple pictures, but make sure you really do both. If you've planned well, focused on enjoying the moment, and taken some quality photos, you are all set to enjoy your vacation for the rest of your life. To round off that third phase, write down some of the funny or poignant experiences and stories from your trip, good and bad, so you can remember them long term.

Don't Skip Meals:

You may be thinking what I was thinking, "I'm a big kid. I can handle going a few hours without eating." Yes, you can. But should you? Are you really happy when you're hungry? You may be able to go without eating from 8 AM till 2 PM at home or in the office, but now you are traveling. That may mean you are walking, biking, or hiking a lot more than on your typical day. Walking around Paris, we were averaging 8 miles a day, London we averaged 6 miles a day. That's a few hundred calories extra we were burning.

I found a direct correlation between how much I enjoyed what I was seeing and how long it had been since my last meal or snack. Any time I realized I was being snippy, that was a sign that it's lunch time and we'd better take a break. And if you've done some food related research ahead of time, then you might already know about a kebab stand or café nearby that has good prices and good reviews. Then you don't have to wander aimlessly hoping it will start raining hamburgers or you will magically find a non-tourist trap restaurant next to the Eiffel Tower (not a thing.)

You'll be so hungry you could eat a pig!

Take a Break for a Couple Hours Every Day:

Paul usually naps for a couple hours between 1 and 4 PM, So family trips kind of require us to use that time as quiet rest time. What I didn't realize was that time was just as important for me as it is for my 2 year old. Think about it, when you go to Disneyland what time do you start to feel burned out? Just after lunch? You just want to crawl inside Goofy's house and take a nap.

Well, do it! Maybe not in Goofy's house, but head back to your hotel if you can, or sit down somewhere comfortable for a while. Maybe you travel to lounge and relax but I don't, in general, travel that way. I travel so that by the time my trip is over I am so exhausted that I am ready to get back to my usual routine. I find that taking a break sometime during the afternoon to recharge the ole batteries helps me enjoy my evenings more. My sister told me that taking afternoon breaks when her kids started to get grouchy-- and Disneyland gets the biggest crowds--helped keep everyone in good spirits. I found the same worked for me in Paris. We'd head back to our hotel to kick off our shoes, send an e-mail home and rest before dinner.

If you aren't a baby, then you might need to nap at your hotel, not the street.

Bring Only the Best, Most Comfortable Shoes:

This is an obvious tip, but an important one nonetheless. It's not like I don't know this, but I have consistently screwed this one up. I keep bringing the superfluous extra pair of shoes. I always tell myself, "If your feet start getting tired from wearing the same shoes everyday, you'll be glad you brought a back up pair." I did this in Orlando last year, I brought my never-gives-me-blisters-perfect-for-warm-weather athletic shoes, and an extra pair of tennis shoes, just in case. My feet were starting to feel tired midweek, so I switched shoes. I only did wear the back up pair once and I just spent the whole day wishing I'd just worn the other shoes. The soles just weren't thick enough for real comfort and the arch support was lacking. My feet got more tired more quickly, and I wore my better shoes every day after that. I never did get any blisters.

In Paris, I brought a back up pair of tennis shoes that, I'll admit, I knew weren't great. I figured they'd be okay for a couple miles. Six miles later I am limping and I have blisters the size of my pinkie toes on my pinkie toes. Blisters that puffed up despite my generous layers of mole skin. I threw the offending shoes away that night and I will always remember the very painful lesson they taught me. Never again.

Yes, a good pair of shoes can take you anywhere.

Take Jet Lag into Consideration Where Applicable:

I sometimes hear the advice that you should do the things you want to do most right away, in case something goes wrong (sickness, strikes, closures, inclement weather) so you can make sure you have done what matters most to you. I agree with this, except when you are going to do some drastic time zone changes.

The battle against jet lag is real. Trying to stay away late enough so that you are on a normal schedule is a serious challenge and sight seeing--outdoors, in the sunshine, not in overly warm museums--is a good way to combat the exhaustion. I have spent my jet lagged hours in some cool places, but they were not nearly as cool as they would have been if I had been fully alert and rested. I have some good memories from those days, good travel experiences, but they are all a little hazy, a little tainted by exhaustion. Try your best to stay awake and have fun, but know your limits. Don't try to dive into the deep end on 0 hours of sleep. Test the waters, eat, drink, and sleep well, then you can really dive in when you are ready.

Enjoy the Memories, Good and Bad:

Bad vacations often make the best stories. Having things go wrong just adds a little spice to your travel, though a little goes a long way. You will always love telling people about the place you stayed where you had to take icy cold showers (done that) or the water didn't work so your showered in the rain (Lee's done that.)

It's fun to talk about the meal of a seafood pasta that scared you to death because all the seafood still had it's shells, antenna, and faces. And let's not forget the hostel bathrooms that smelled like Sasquatch died in there but not before taking off his moldy hiking boots and wrecking the toilet (this one is almost too recent to be funny.) Sometimes the things that go wrong are the most entertaining parts of your trip, so enjoy the ups and downs. Write the good and bad down in a journal or a blog or photo album, and tell your travel stories to all your disinterested friends and family for years to come.

Historic Royal Palaces, Christopher Wren, and The End

If there is one thing you must absolutely do when you go to London, you MUST visit the Tower of London. Admission prices are steep. They are worth it. You should get there early, and go and visit the crown jewels first. When we first arrived The Tower was practically empty and we walked right in to see the biggest diamonds you'll see anywhere with no line. We actually got to spend a lot of time in there because it was empty enough that we could take our time and double back. No press of people pushing us onward. You cannot photography the crowned jewels, but the rest of the mighty tower is very photogenic:

The White Tower, the original fortress/palace build by William the Conqueror.

 

From the fortified walls you will get the best views of Tower Bridge.

 

The now empty moat of the Tower of London. It's much more hygienic this way.

 Yes, the Tower of London is my #1 most essential site in London. The most essential part of your visit is to take the guided tour with a Yeomen Warder (AKA Beefeater, but they don't like to be called that.)

Here's Lee and our guide in his traditional regalia.

Yeomen Warders are a select group of retired military men who, as a reward for their service, are given the responsibility of guarding the Tower of London, their main responsibility is in giving guided tours. Hilarious, irreverent, informative, boisterous, quintessentially British tours. The tour is included with the aforementioned steep admission price. To not join one of these tours is just robbing yourself. Taking the tour is also the only way for a tourist to visit the chapel where lies buried Sir Thomas More, Anne Boleyn, and Katherine Howard. Our witty guide also hinted that if you wanted to attend a service in this chapel (it still does regular Sunday service) one could attend the service then, according to him, no one monitors whether you leave straight away or whether you wander and visit the rest of the Tower...without paying admission! Call that my dishonest pro-tip.

This is Traitor's Gate: This is how prisoners were brought into the Tower by river, including Elizabeth I when she was imprisoned by her half-sister Mary. The pair of them are buried side by side at Westminster Abbey.

 

Lee stands betwixt two great London icons: The White Tower and Tower Bridge.

 

On the left you can see another Yeomen Warder tour, the large building behind me is home to the crown jewels.

 

Inside the White Tower is a display of royal armor and weaponry. This fortress was once home to the armory and weapon stores and the royal mint.

 

This is what Brits do with their old weapons now. Note the pistol claws.





 This room was Sir Walter Raleigh's during the time he spent as a prisoner of the King. He famously wrote a history of Britain, studied botany, and consulted with great minds during his not so strict imprisonment. He was, however, eventually executed.

The Royal Fusiliers Museum at the Tower of London takes us through the history of these London infantrymen all the way down to the exhibits honoring military currently in the service of Her Majesty the Queen. This backpack weighs about 1/4 of what a modern soldier would be carrying on his/her back. I could barely stand with it on.

 

The Tower of London has hosted some unusual prisoners, including hundreds of years worth of animals in the royal menagerie. There are terrific little statues all over as a reminder of that. Here are the monkeys! I believe there is usually a menagerie exhibit, but that was undergoing restoration so the animals have been placed throughout the fortress so visitors can still enjoy them.

Monkeys, Elephants, Lions, Tigers, and Polar Bears (oh my!) have lived and died in these walls, most died premature deaths as the conditions and care were inadequate. The Polar Bears were allowed to fish in the waste-filled moat (died shortly thereafter), The lions and tigers were accidentally allowed to intermingle and an epic cat fight killed some of them. One sadistic king liked to bait the lions with dogs for sport.

Tower Bridge--not London bridge--is easily the most famous bridge in Europe.

These days, the Tower holds no more prisoners and all the animals are gone...except the Ravens!

It was at some point predicted that if the Ravens ever left the Tower that disaster would follow and England would fall or something to that effect. A small flock of Ravens has been kept here ever since. Cared for by the Yeomen Warders, the Raven's pretty much have the run of the place, a safe place to sleep, and tourists to charm.

This Raven hopped right up to me and then proceeded to thrill a group of school children as he dug through the trash for the lunches he had just seen them discard. A caretaker ran over to shoo the Raven away, but the bird made off with some leftovers, leaving the caretakers to clean up the scattered rubbish.

 

I loved this view. While you wander around the medieval world, you can look over the walls and see the modern skyline of London. This is a city that is passionate about it's history, there are monuments and museums everywhere, but they keep innovating and creating new wonders. Maybe in a few hundred years, tourists will be paying to get into these historic skyscrapers and learning about British life during the reign of Elizabeth II.

It was time for us to say good-bye to the amazing Tower of London and head down the Thames for lunch and a different view of London. We took the Thames Clipper, passed right under Tower Bridge...

 On our way to Greenwich! Greenwich (pronounced gren-itch) is home to the Royal Naval College, the National Maritime Museum, and most famously the Observatory and the Prime Meridian. GMT, or Greenwich Mean Time, is the point from which all our time zones ripple out from, and the line is found right here.

Lee and I agreed that if we lived in London, we would want to live in Greenwich. There is a definite village feel to the area, much more cozy and relaxed than most of the city, and it still a college town with all the fun that has to offer. Greenwich has a great market with food stands and antiques, street food and markets like this one offer lots of tasty food for those eating on a tight budget. We weren't the only tourists getting our lunch there, but there were lots of local students chowing down, too.

The Cutty Sark, a restored sailing vessel that visitors can--for a price--board and explore!

 

The National Maritime Museum is a free (yay!) museum where you can see some of the trappings of Britain's long history of dominating the seas. If we hadn't just hit our afternoon wall--2-4 PM is a rough time for sightseeing--I would have had a little more energy to really read some of the exhibits and take more of it in. As it is, it was interesting to explore and it was right on the way to the green park and hill that leads to the Greenwich Observatory:

Yes indeed. That view is pretty spectacular! We spent some time learning about astronomy at a free museum next to the Observatory, then we headed back down the hill to the Royal Naval College.

 

This hall is, wall and ceiling, completely painted in decorative frescos. Do you like the little gaggle of tourists behind me in this photo? It was a little awkward to take the photo with them in the background in the first place, but it is even more awkward now that I get to look at their little faces for the rest of my life, every time we look back on our trip.

 

Directly across from this was a beautiful chapel (I am so over the no photos policy that is so prevalent throughout London's churches) where it seems that the vocal department was hosting a little master class. It was a little nostalgic for me to sit and listen to them, though it was a more lavish setting than I have ever rehearsed in.

Another Christopher Wren dome, not quite as famous--or large--as St. Paul's.

We took the train back through London and passed through part of the downtown financial district, which was yet another side to the city we hadn't seen yet, and we made our way to the night life and party zone of London in Leicester Square. We had toyed around with the idea of seeing a West End show while we were in town and finally decided that we should go for it. Leicester Square is home to the half-priced ticket booth where we picked up a couple tickets for Phantom of the Opera.

For those who don't know, the West End is like the Broadway of Europe. Shows like Les Miserables, Mary Poppins, Cats, and hundreds of others open on the West End first and then Broadway.

I remember as kid visiting London and seeing Les Miserables and realizing, "Oh my gosh, these are the same voices from my CD at home!" Some of the same actors were still playing the roles 10-15 years later. We saw a fantastic production of Phantom of the Opera, just one of many dynamite shows on in London today.

While we were waiting for the show to start, we realized we hadn't gotten any iconic telephone booth's in our photos, so we snapped one with the banner for the show in the background. There wasn't even a phone in this booth, interestingly enough.

Our last day in London was kind of an abbreviated day for sightseeing, so I am just going to tack it on the end of this post. We spent probably 2-3 hours riding buses to get to our destination, the train line we needed was down for maintenance. There was a point where I started to believe that we would never get off this bus, that we had actually died in a crash and were now in bus purgatory where souls go when they have died before reaching their destination.

We did, however, eventually get off the bus. But because it took so long we only had 2 hours to visit before our sight closed, so here is our whirlwind visit to Hampton Court Palace:

 

Originally built for Thomas Cromwell, this palace was gifted to Henry VIII when his fallen favorite was trying to win back Henry and save his own neck. Henry VIII didn't forgive Cromwell, but he kept the palace and took up residence here, along with several of his wives in quick succession.

 

Edward, Henry's only son, was born here. Anne Boleyn's initials are carved into the woodwork of the Great Hall, this palace is one of the only residences of Henry VIII still standing.

 

Henry and Catherine of Aragon showed off their wealth and power in a tourney with France using a fountain just like this one, only that fountain ran with wine instead of water!

Feasting in the Great Hall in seats fit for a king.

 

 

 

The carved ceiling of the Great Hall was one of the great marvels of the day. Included are little faces in the eaves, "Eavesdroppers," to remind guests that the King was always listening...

 

The Kitchen's are huge as they had to be able to feed hundreds of courtiers. There were chefs in that day, reading from a Renaissance cookbook, dressed up in historic costumes, following a recipe to recreate the food from the time of Henry VIII. It was really neat to see them working!

Those are real roasting chickens, by the way. The fireplace seemed a popular place that day as it was pretty darn cold out.

Lee and the big man himself: Henry VIII as painted by the great Hans Holbein.

There is a fun little hedge maze in the gardens of Hampton Court, lots of kids seems to be getting a real kick out of trying to get lost from their parents.

 

 The later kings who lived at Hampton Court tried to tear down the out of fashion Tudor palace and remake it in the classical styles popular at the time, so they hired none other than Christopher Wren! There was a very obvious effort in this part of the palace and garden to imitate Versailles. Of course, all imitations fall short of Versailles overwhelming grandeur. Luckily they ran out of money before they could finish their extreme home makeover. Now the palace is half and half, a weird rift in time.

And thus ended our sight seeing trip! We spent our last night in Anerley, renting the spare room in a woman's flat, and from there it was a pretty short trip to get to the airport. We were happy to come home, to see Paul again, and to rest our aching feet.

What an amazing trip! Here is the last photos, out the window on our flight home. Flying on a clear day can be mind boggling, especially when you can look out your window and see ICELAND!

 

That is it for my trip posts! I have a few travel tips I'd like to share, I'll save those for another post. If anyone is planning to visit Paris, London, or anywhere really, I would be happy to help plan, prepare or share resources. Keep an eye out for some travel tips coming your way, whether you want them or not.

A Stroll Along the Thames

If you every decide to visit London, I highly recommend following the itinerary I invented for our day, especially if the weather is nice. This was the perfect way to enjoy the London skyline and take it some great history and culture. Just skip the getting-on-the-wrong-bus-right-off and the whole rest of the day will go smoothly. First stop: Westminster Abbey! The great church where Monarchs are crowned, buried, and married.

The audio guide is free (church touring is not) and the narrator is none other than SCAR! You know, Scar? From the Lion King? Jeremy Irons? Yeah, anyway, photography not allowed inside the cathedral. We took a few photos outside and inside this other room before we noticed the sign indicated no photos were allowed in there either. Oops.

Surely I'm not the first person to miss the tiny sign while looking at the windows.

 

Westminster Abbey doesn't seem to be as big as Notre Dame, at least it doesn't feel as big, but it is packed with the burials and memorials of Britain's rich and famous. Henry V, Elizabeth I, Edward the Confessor, a lot of royal bigwigs and random rich people you've never heard of, plus memorial plaques and monuments for Shakespeare, Dickens, Handel, Purcell, Austen, Tennyson...the list goes on! The Abbey is also home to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, so that is the second one we've seen on our trip.

Literally next door to Westminster Abbey is Parliament!

You should be singing "Britannia Rules the Waves" in your head right now.

The seat of the government here in London is also home to the worlds most famous clock tower and the worlds most famous bell: Big Ben. Just to be clear, Ben is the bell, not the clock or the tower.

 

 

You can visit the House of Commons or the House of Lords, we didn't end up visiting Parliament beyond taking a few photos from the outside. We took a stroll along the South Bank--which has been fairly recently gentrified--and enjoyed the sunshine and buskers. We walked right by the London Eye, but neither of us were too keen on waiting or paying for the ride. We enjoyed our stroll, stopped for lunch, and made a stop in at the Tate Modern Art Gallery.

 

Another one of London's free attractions (to make up for how pricey admission is at the rest, I guess) the Tate was interesting and stupefying and confusing, as modern art often is. We liked this big piece: a collection of odds and ends put together in a fabulous way.

Andy Warhol's iconic Marilyn Monroe.

 

There were these fold up stools available for people to carry around the galleries so they can sit to examine the art, we used a couple because our feet were already tired and it was only midday.

Tate Modern's balcony provides a really great view of St. Paul's Cathedral and the millennium bridge. Which is where we are heading next. but first a brief detour for...

The new Shakespearean Globe Theatre! If it had been summer, we would have had standing room tickets like the paupers we are, but that wasn't really an option this time around. So we just paid homage to the Bard from a distance and carried on across the river.

A view on the Thames

 

Behind me is the industrial age smoke stack of the Tate Modern.

And we cross the river to visit St. Paul's Cathedral for the Evensong service. Some good information for church the aficionado: London's biggest churches charge admission for tourists, not for worship services. If you want to visit the church, save some money, and don't mind missing the tombs and smaller chapels that are on the far side of the quire, attending a service is well worth it. Evensong starts at 5, but they opened the door to us at 4:15, so we had lots of time to see the open portions of the church before the service. Both Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's does an Evensong service everyday where the psalms are sung or chanted by the choir and accompanied by the organ. I don't think you get a full experience in a big cathedral unless you hear some music, the spaces are meant to be filled with song. Baroque and Renaissance choir music really makes sense in a grand church in a way it doesn't always in a different venue. The choir at St. Paul's is spectacular, the interior (no pictures allowed) is impressive. We actually got to sit right up near the choir during the service.

 

And there you have it! If you want to add a bit to your perfect London day, you could go up on the London Eye, tour Parliament, or take in a Shakespeare play. You could even do the whole day in reverse by touring St. Paul's in the morning and attending Evensong at Westminster Abbey. To all my friends and family who are planning, thinking of planning, or dreaming of planning a trip to London, take my advice: Do a day just like this one!