Travel Tuesday: London

Something just occurred to me. As I was looking back at old pictures from the last few years of travel, I realized that I never blogged about two big trips from 2012: London and Budapest. How did that happen?!

It must have been on one of my blogging breaks, but I can't believe I never went back and wrote about either trip. What a shame. They were both awesome. 

So, in an effort to rectify that little misstep on my part, today's Travel Tuesday is brought to you by our trip to London in May of 2012. 

Our car had broken down just a week before the trip, and I remember very clearly the look I gave Dan when he told me we'd have to bike the five and half miles to CERN before hopping on the tram to the airport - with our luggage. 

Now, it was only for a few days, and we travel light, buuuuutttt....yeah. 

So we climbed on our bikes around 4:30 AM, in the pitch dark, with miner's lights on our helmets, and rode to CERN. We then hopped on the tram to the airport. It was a pain in the butt, but I was so proud of us for doing it. I felt very self-sufficient (and a little sweaty) as we waited in line for the plane.  

Once we got to London, we made our way to Hampstead where we were staying, and began a great four days in London. There was a bit of a heat wave going on, and I hadn't brought any shorts. Of course the majority of clothes I had brought with me were also black. I have to say, not my best packing. We did a lot of walking along the Thames, went to the Damien Hirst exhibit at the Tate, went to St. Paul's Cathedral, had brunch in Hampstead and went to The Heath. I finally went to Harrod's and had tea. This was also just before not only the Jubilee for the Queen, but also the summer Olympics, so London was very festive while we were there. We walked through a lot of parks, and saw Buckingham Palace as well. I climbed onto a lion at Trafalgar Square (they're bigger than I thought and it was way more difficult than I had planned on), and we ate our weight in fish and chips. A few beers, a few Pimm's, and some whoopie pies and burritos at Eat St. in King's Cross. It was a great trip.

I think it's time for another one. 

A la prochaine friends...

Honey 

Travel Tuesday: Jungfrau Marathon, Switzerland

I find it hard to believe that it has been almost 3 years since my crazy husband ran the Jungfrau Marathon - an entirely uphill marathon, up a Swiss Alp, often with a 10% grade, that ends on a glacier.

When signing up for this marathon the organizers suggest that you add 1.5 hours to your best marathon time, and assume that will be your time for Jungfrau. If that calculated time is over 6 hours, they suggest you not enter. Anyone who takes longer than 6 hours to finish the race does not receive a race shirt or finisher medal.

Dan finished in the top third for all of the men in 2011's race, and I was obviously so proud of him.

Jungfrau is in the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland, and is worth the visit if you're into hiking, skiing, and other outdoorsy activities. It's picturesque as can be, and was in fact the area that Tolkien used (Lauterbrunnen specifically) as inspiration when writing about Rivendell in "Lord of the Rings."

We stayed in Wengen for the race, and since Dan's legs weren't complete lead the day after, we went for a hike to explore the Jungfrau at a slower pace. On the way home we stopped in Lauterbrunnen for a few hours to check out some waterfalls, have a beer, and take a lot of pictures.

If you ever the chance to participate in the Jungfrau Marathon, I say go for it, as it's been labelled as one of the most beautiful race courses in the world. It's not so bad to participate as a spectator either.

This year's race will take place in about 2 weeks, and it's hard for me to believe how far we've come since that race. We've made friends, we've lost friends, we've had highs and lows, we've made a little human, we've grown as individuals and as a couple. I hope to be able to bring Oswin to Wengen and Jungfrau sometime in the near future, to take the cogwheel train to Kleine-Scheidegg, to pretend we're walking in a chapter of "Lord of the Rings," to show her somewhere that showed us how strong we really are, well, that would be amazing.

Happy travels friends, and if you're running this year, Hop Schweiz!

A la prochaine friends...

Honey    

...and finally, Levanto.

I guess it's high time I wrap up talking about our June trip to Levanto, Italy, now that it's almost August, huh? Yeah, probably a good idea.

Our trip to Levanto (and Vernazza, Cinque Terre) was a short one, but it was so worth it to get away for a few days. Levanto is such a gorgeous city in the Liguria region, and we'll definitely be returning. We rented a huge-for-us-apartment in the new part of town, but were able to explore the old part of town on our last day there. The Old Town felt like something straight out of a Hercule Poirot movie...you know, the ones where Jane Birkin plays a simple and ugly girl (as if!), but then actually ends up being some sexy femme fatale who was behind the murders all along? 

(I honestly feel like that happens in every Hercule Poirot movie. Or maybe I've just seen the same one a million times.) 

In Levanto the cliffs are steep, the beaches are a combination between sand and rock, the mansions in the old part of town are massively impressive...

...and the water was just exquisite. The Mediterranean is typically a cold body of water, but it was certainly the warmest I had ever felt it to be on all of our past dips.

Both the private and public beaches were really nice, and each came equipped with lifeguards, which doesn't always happen on free Italian beaches. We found Levanto to be a really family friendly city, and there were kids playing soccer (everywhere) and fishing off of the rock getty.

There was also one particular babe getting her first taste of the Italian Riviera.

She loved it. I swear.

We were there just before high season, so it wasn't overrun with people yet, which was nice.

Next time I hope we can stay for a longer period. Maybe for forever. I kid, sort of. I'd love to stay long enough to get a few lazy beach days in, and still be able to hike in Cinque Terre. We hiked on our first trip back in 2010, but didn't get very far as the trail was closed between Corniglia and Vernazza. Maybe we'll even try to start in Levanto, as there is a trail that takes you to Monterosso, which is the northernmost of the five villages.

Until then, I'll just keep looking back at our pictures and daydreaming about the views and foccacia. 

A la prochaine Levanto! We miss you so!

Honey