England 2018 (Part 4)

For me, no visit to England is complete without going away from the United Kingdom and visiting my favorite city: Amsterdam. This city is far away but you can take the speed bullet, known as Eurostar and in four hours you are there. 

We are happy!

Things to love about Amsterdam? Everything! Just everything! Our Airbnb was just two blocks from the main square and we were just a few minutes from all the bars, stores, and markets. You can see the images and decide what you are looking at. 

This city is just, well, magical in a sense. The canals, the buildings, the people, everything!

Of all the cities I have visited, this one would be the one I would want to retired to. 

England 2018 (Part 5)

Back in England, and specifically in London, there were other things that needed attention before returning home. For example, going to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

There we saw David, as always, naked.

We also saw our friend Frida, who was having her own exhibition. An entire floor dedicated to her.

And then there was time meet up with colleagues who were also in London at the time. First, Carol, my colleague from my teaching days at Bellarmine University and at King's College London. That's right, we both taught classes at King's College London. 

We are so happy to see each other!

Then it was time to have tea at the Oscar Wilde Lounge with my theatre collaborator and friend, Jimmy.

And a visit to one of the most amazing and most magical castles we didn't know about.

Hardly anyone visits this castle because it is not easy to get to it. It takes two trains. But, once there, the trip is worth it because it is the only castle where you are allowed to go INSIDE and visit every single room, garden, and corner of the place. 

ENGLAND 2018 (Part 2)

 

Hampton Court

We visited Hampton Court with its majestic gardens, beautiful ponds, and swans. It truly felt like we were in a fairy tale.

We went to Windsor, and of course, visited Her Royal Majestic Home away from home: Windsor Castle

We visited Bath, which became Miguel's favorite city. He loved the fact that it look as if we were in Roman times. And of course, the Roman Baths. 

We visited a couple of friends in Liverpool and I learned it is the home of The Beatles. 

Of course we visited many other cities because we visited many other castles, but since it happened almost four years ago, it is hard to remember and I have 23,000 pictures from this trip. It's hard to go through all of them. 

ENGLAND 2018

At the airport, ready waiting to take off!

I just noticed that no traveling has happened since the pandemic started, at least no traveling for us. The last post for this blog was back in 2019 when my husband and I took a trip to the Maya Peninsula, to Oaxaca, and to CDMX.

In lieu of the fact that no traveling has happened and realizing that there is no record of our 2018 summer trip, and also because I can't stand being home without traveling, I've decided that I'm going to post some highlights from our 2018 summer trip to London, England. 

From the porch of our apartment

We spent a month traveling throughout England, making London our home. Of course, nowadays the cheapest way to stay somewhere is through Airbnb and we found a lovely one-bedroom apartment in a very beautiful street.

Of course, as soon as we arrived and settled down, the first thing we did was finding food. And lucky us, we found a pub so close to our place that we visited such location several times during our stay.

I love the fact they had Cholula salsa!

One of the first things we did was a tour around the city. We did it twice, once by bus so we could see the city through the streets and the other was by boat, going up and down the River Thames.  

The Parliament (under construction)

The Tower Bridge (behind us)

The London Eye and County Hall

And of course, we navigated the city using the bus system, the tube, and walking, lots of walking.

Such a cool modern bus system

The Tube System reminded me of El Metro in Mexico

The background, OMG!

We really spend our days walking the city from point A to point B to point C and so on. We visited as many places as we could.

The Tower of London and others

Westminster Abbey

And of course, we couldn't miss the street markets, which are everywhere and each specializes on something. We simply went with the flow.

Sometimes the smell were too much

Other times they were not enough

And this is by far the best market of all!

Visiting different places on our own, just walking and taking our time was the best way to see the city.

Standing on one of the many bridges

The Eye

A park near our apartment

The views from St. Paul's Cathedral were breathtaking. But to do that we climbed so many stairs and yes, it was very windy and also scary, especially if you suffer from vertigo, like I do.

London was not the only city we visited in England, and England was also not the only country.