Recommendations and Tips For: London England

This morning I am going to be sharing some of the things that I learned from our recent trip to London. We spent a total of 4 days in London and saw quite a bit while we are there. I know we didn’t even come close to seeing a fraction of what is there, so I will only be remarking on what we did see, rather than anything else.

Recommendations:

Alright, we are going to start things off with something easy- I would recommend seeing The Tower. You don’t have to spend all day here like we did, the most would be probably 3 hours if you really wanted to do it. I would recommend doing the Yeoman Warder tour as they can give you quite a bit of information and then you can pick and choose from there as to what really interests you. If you do want to see everything and have the time to do so, I would plan for at least half the day spent here.

I would also personally recommend The Tower Bridge. Not only is walking the ramps cool, the view is dramatic and breathtaking in its own way. I would recommend going when they first open, rather than at the end of the day. Crowds can get big, lines can get long, and EVERYONE wants to get that perfect picture on the viewing bits. Save yourself the trouble and do this first on your day ha-ha.

Ok, now for City Tours. If you’ve read my “What We Did” post (you can catch it HERE), you know that we decided to just walk the streets of London. London has a wide variety of ways to see the city from walking tours to the Hop On, Hop Off buses and it is very unique to what works for you and your family. I heard from several people that they really enjoyed the bus tour as they got information that you wouldn’t get just by walking (such as where buildings were hit during World Wars, different routes for royals, parades, etc.). I also know that there are several different walking tours geared toward a variety of interests. For us, walking was what we chose and what I would recommend. The architecture and street scene of London is just so incredible that I feel like bus tours and such don’t do it true justice.

Now, I’m going to give what will probably be a VERY unpopular opinion…The London Eye is not a “must see” attraction. <gasp> What?! I totally thought that it would be a must-see thing, and while I really loved it and had fun looking all around and seeing the city from above, I didn’t find it to be anything truly groundbreaking or incredible. I don’t know if that is just because of what all we have done or what we like to do, but it just wasn’t…”it” for me. The queue’s move fairly quickly, my husband timed it out to waiting in the queue for 35 minutes and the wheel itself is 30 minutes. If you want to do it, do it, but I found Tower Bridge to be a slight bit cooler.

Tips:

Public Transportation. Public Transportation. Public Transportation. The London Tube is one of the most efficient public transports I’ve ever been on. Trains run every 5 minutes or less, if one station or line has an issue there are several other options, all of which are detailed on various boards when you walk into the station, and everything is very organized. We purchased day passes every day, which were not too terribly expensive, and they covered our entire travel for that day. It didn’t matter how many times we got on and off, as long as we stayed in our zones (which were extensive and big) we could just use the one pass. It’s super easy and straightforward to navigate and, honestly, I think the rest of the world could take a lesson or two.

Book-Attractions. This is honestly just a Europe thing that we’ve now learned about in the past couple times we’ve traveled. A lot of places have the option to pre book tours online and if you have the option take it. Often times the prices may be cheaper by booking online, you are guaranteed of your entrance time as queue’s can get busy or tickets may actually sell out(two places, The London Eye and a Museum in Edinburgh didn’t have open entrance times until several hours after we got there and doing the Warner Bro’s studio tour was completely sold out months ahead of our trip date), and it’s easy with either printing your own tickets or doing a will-call and picking them up on site.

Budget Appropriately. London isn’t expensive necessarily, but it also isn’t the cheapest place to stay. You pay for everything (except table water, which was a nice surprise after Germany), and the costs can add up quickly. Parking is a cost that most people don’t think of, but even to just park your car at the hotel will have a charge. Overall, I found the cost of travel wasn’t terrible, but it is something you will want to budget a little bit.

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A Cuppa Cosy Summer Holiday – London, England

Our first “long” stop on our summer holiday was to spend 4 days in London England. I’m a massive Anglophile and have pins all across England of places that I’d like to visit. In fact, I’ve said in the past that I’d love to just take a few months and work my way through England and Scotland. HOWEVER, I have a husband who is interested, but not that interested in England and two children who don’t understand, so we had to make some priorities with our trips. So, we decided to give it our all in London for a few days and see/do as much as we could.

I want to preface this by saying I don’t think you could ever “run out” of things to do in London. There is just so much and, honestly, I feel like we didn’t even scratch the surface in that general area. There was a lot more on my list that I would love to see, but, again, husband and children so we tried to stick to the popular things for this visit. Who knows, I may go back sometime soon…

First and foremost- we decided to do a hotel stay while we were in London. Here’s the thing, for us we love staying in little flats or cottages booked through AirBnB. It’s what works well for our family and having the little separate spaces for us and the boys really just helps keep everything cohesive. BUT London is a very expensive place to stay and Summer is a very popular travel season. This leads to prices going up and we simply struggled to find a flat that would fit our needs, but also be budget friendly and ended up deciding that a hotel would be the better fit for us. We picked another Holiday Inn, this time the Brent’s Cross location and we were very pleased both with the staff, the room, the breakfast, and the shuttle taking us to and from the Tube Station. Highly recommend them if you are needing a hotel there and don’t’ want to necessarily be in the hustle and bustle of central central London.

We only book two tour times for our time in London as we wanted to have a little bit of leisure time/didn’t really want to be bogged down by having to be at certain places at certain times our whole trip. We like to have a semi structured travel plan to our travels (picking what we want to do, but sticking to a fluid timeline to do it) so I tried to keep booking times to either earlier mornings and only do one per day. This gave us a chance to have one “free” day in London as well as a full afternoon to just wander as we pleased and see whatever sights we wanted to see, while still getting a chance to do some of the things that were better to have scheduled.

*I do want to say- there are a couple different reasons to choose to book ahead online, some places it is cheaper, some places sell out of time slots, some places require it.*

I also want to say, real quick, that we got very lucky with our weather while we were there. Most days were sunny all day, warm temperatures (think 80’s at the height of the day), and no rain in sight. The day we left started a few days of straight rain (typical London weather), so we did really get lucky!

Day 1:

Our first day in London was the day that we had nothing scheduled so we decided to just…walk the streets. We had gotten a lot of tips about what the best way was to do touristy things in London, all of which I’ll talk about in my Tips/Tricks, but we ultimately decided that walking was the best for us. This gave us the freedom to pick and choose what we actually wanted to see and to explore as we wanted to. Plus we like walking and I feel like you can get a really good feel for a place simply by walking through its spaces.

Anyways, we did a walking trip through what I guess would be central London, as well as hopped on the Tube to get to a couple other spots that were a little far for us to walk. We hit up the following spots: Parliament, Big Ben (under construction currently), The London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park (stopped for a little picnic lunch), St. James Palace, Downing Street (walked past), Piccadilly Circus, Hatchards (did a little shopping), Platform 9 ¾ and Kings Cross Station (they were filming there!), Trafalgar Square, and the Marble Arch.

 

Whew. It sounds like a lot just typing it. I can remember the exhaustion in our hotel room now haha. Seriously though, we had so much fun just having a wander through the streets, admiring the different architecture from the everyday buildings to the ornate hotels to the palace’s and beautiful parks in between.  Our day ended at The Marble Arch, which is right near Hyde Park and we decided to eat dinner in this area as well before heading back to our hotel. We chose to go to Cote Brasserie for dinner and had quite a lovely meal outside on the terrace (which is actually set in the front, on a little cobblestone street filled with art and jewelry shops).

Day 2:

We slowed down only ever so slightly on Day 2 in London by taking a trip to The Tower.

Known mostly for it’s illustrious execution and torture history, there is actually quite a bit longer more in depth story to the Tower. Known as “London’s Castle” it has had numerous uses in the past, but is currently a historic spot for tours, viewing of the Crown Jewels, and a way to have a great day out. It’s a landmark that I have always wanted to tour and I would say it might have been one of the true highlights of our time in London. We started with the Yeoman Warder (aka Beefeaters) tour, which gave my husband a good background on the history of the Tower and was a good refresher for myself. The Beefeaters are highly knowledgable and provide little gems of information both about The Tower and their roles within the Tower.

The tour lasted approximately an hour and we immediately turned our sights to The Crown Jewels. This meant standing outside in a queue for quite a bit of time (not a horrible amount, it gave the kids a chance to nap in the stroller/on our shoulders) waiting for our chance to take a little peak. The Jewels are, of course, absolutely incredible. You’ll see several different crowns, the scepter, and much more. The really nice thing is that you are viewing the jewels on a moving walkway so there is no extra standing and gawking or not being able to see things due to other people. Thankfully when we went, most of the items were not in use, so we got to see everything that they would put out for display.

IMG_6739 2.jpgWe then headed over to the White Tower, which is an internal tower within the gates and holds a lot of exhibits detailing the fighting and knighthood of the time. There were exhibits on the different King’s and their metal wear, the horse sizes as well as war tactics, and defense strategies.

The White Tower itself also has a full floor dedicated for kids (and adults) to explore in their own way. There is a canon they can practice firing, an arrow practice stand, an artifact exhibit with buttons showing where different bits were found on the ground, and a knights stand that had helmets and chain metal to touch.

The boys loved having some items geared more towards there age and spent a good bit of time running to each thing over and over again.

From the White Tower we wandered over to the different prison and torture chambers, learning the history of Richard III and the little boys of The Tower, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the many wives of Henry VIII. We also wandered through the turrets and towers on the outer wall. This gives a glimpse into the actual battlements of the Tower and how it was used as a fortress, as well as a pretty good view of Thames River and London across.

The final thing we got to see while we were at the Tower was a changing of the Guards.

This was quite a sight to see as the march along the front entrance path, then up to the Crown Jewels tower, yelling commands, before the actual changing of the guard. We got incredibly lucky to be in the places we were at the times that we were to see the entire process. It was definitely a cool experience to see how another country handles these changes.

All in all we spent a total of 5 hours at The Tower. Yep, 5 hours. To say we were spent at the end of it would be pretty accurate. We wanted to do something else, but didn’t want to travel far, so we decided to head over the Tower Bridge.

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This was something that my husband had seen on a London Documentary of some sort (a tourist one of like things to do or something along those lines) and he picked it out based on one thing. Not only is Tower Bridge just a sight to behold, but you can actually go up into the towers and walk across a clear portion of the floor, looking at the road and water beneath you. Insert freaked out face here…

IMG_6797.jpgI will say, as someone who is terrified of heights, this wasn’t that bad. It didn’t freak me out near as much as it probably should have or could have. Andrew absolutely loved running across the clear portion (he loves those things) while Colton was a little bit more apprehensive about the whole thing. You can look at the sides and see a really dramatic view of London and the Thames, which was just beautiful.

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As part of admission, you are also able to go down to the engine room and get some information and insight on how the bridge operates and how that operation has changed throughout the years. I will say- if they are in the process of raising or lowering, you are not actually able to go in, but they do have the times posted while you are purchasing tickets so you’ll know ahead of time.

We decided to stay in the area and had a lovely dinner at Vapiano’s. This is a chain restaurant that we actually quite enjoy, it’s one where they make your food right in front of you and we had a lovely time eating and people watching.

Day 3:

Our final day came with an early start, the earliest of our holiday (aside from the first day driving) in order to make our ticket time. Now, when I was picking out things that I wanted to do on this trip I tried to keep my husband and children in mind. There are so many things that I would want to do, but they are just not interested, so this particular experience was my one thing that I think I was the only one truly interested bit and I didn’t want to miss it.

IMG_6867.jpgThat one thing was getting a tour of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and let me tell you, it was entirely worth it. I love Shakespeare’s works and while this isn’t the original (or even the second, this is the third rendition), the impact was still the same. It was breathtaking to walk along what was the best recreation they could do and what was even better was they were having an active rehearsal while we were there and the show that the stage was set for was a personal favorite of mine, A Midsummer Nights Dream! We were very lucky to even be able to take pictures inside the theatre as that is typically not allowed while there is a rehearsal. It just added to the entire experience and I just feel so blessed to have been able to do that. It was just so cool.

Once we finished that tour we headed back towards Buckingham Palace (thank the lord for the Tube!) and to Churchill’s War Rooms.

This was my husbands “one thing” for us to do. We waited in line for a little while to get in, but used the time to do snacks and naps. The museum itself is actually a really cool stop. Nothing has truly been touched in the rooms themselves, except to add manicans at certain points and before you get into the full rooms, you can walk through an exhibit talking about Winston Churchill’s life. I found the most interesting part being listening to the secretaries that worked for/with him. Such a good insight into who he was and what he was like.

Our last London stop was to visit/ride The London Eye. We purchased tickets the day of for a late in the day time (wait for my tips post for more information on my thoughts for this attraction) and were able to see the Mounted Guard and the retiring of the Mounted Guard (for the evening), which was an interesting sight to watch.

The London Eye itself is quite a marvel. It’s basically a large Ferris Wheel with enclosed carraiges that take you up quite high to give you a birds eye view of the city. You can see almost all of the landmarks of central London and you get pictures galore throughout the experience. You can also participate in the 3D experience (included with a Standard ticket), which just takes you into what you see and the various celebrations.

We had dinner at Steak & Co with an old friend of mine whose trip just happened to overlap with ours in London for a night. It was such a lovely way to end our few days in London!

That wraps up the first full section of our Summer Holiday 2019. I hope you enjoyed seeing London through our eyes! Have you been to London? How do you feel our trip compared to yours? Did you have a favorite of your trip? I think my favorite was probably The Globe if I’m being totally honest or walking through St. James Park. What would you want to do if you could do a trip to London?

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A Cuppa Cosy Summer Holiday 2019: Calais and Dover

Good morning and happy Friday!! Today marks the start of my many many blog posts about our Summer Holiday. I think this is going to end up breaking down into 5 “what we did” posts and 3 “tips/recommendations” posts. I just have so much that I want to share about our trip, tips for future trip takers, and things that I want to look back in and reflect about. It would just simply be too long to only do one or two posts…SO…

I am going to break it up by “location” or Day. This means that there will be separate posts for London, Edinburgh, and Inverness and then two additional posts about the stops we made WHILE traveling to and from. The individual cities will also have separate recommendation/tips posts, but the travel day posts will just have the tips within the post…

If that makes sense? Hopefully it does because this is going to be a long post and I’ve already blabbered on for 151…152 words.

When we originally planned this trip, I picked out the three cities we wanted to visit, knowing one would be London, one would be in the Highlands, and I wanted to do an “old school” Scotland spot. After quite a bit of back and forth and weighing our options, we ultimately decided that driving would be the best option for our family. When it comes to cost, enjoyment, and ease driving was just what fit for this particular trip. This meant having to cross the Chanel with our vehicle.

There are two ways to cross the channel, the Euro Tunnel or the Ferry. Both options have you drive your car into a train or ferry in Calais and then be whisked across/under the water to Dover on the other side. There are pros and cons to both options, and we weighed both choices for a long time. Ultimately we decided to take the train across. The benefit is that it is quick (about 35 minutes), but you stay with your car and do not have the gorgeous views and café that you get with the Ferry. I am not sure how often the Ferries get “cancelled” or pushed back on the time’s, but that is something else to consider. We had cancellations or delays on both sides of the crossing (this was handled very well though, they have a service spot with a lot of shopping, and they will automatically sort your vehicle into the next available train).

So, once we determined that we would be staying a night in Calais, I started to look around and see what we could experience while we were there. The drive to get to Calais for us is an almost all-day drive, so I knew that there wouldn’t be a lot of energy/time for us to really explore. This was fine as Calais is a port city, which means there is a lot just right on the pier if you don’t want to go far/the time is getting late (and you have little ones like we do). We ended up with a couple of free hours, so we wandered over to the Lighthouse, climbed to the top and looked out at the city below. This was an absolutely beautiful view for us and a lovely way to get our bodies moving after being cramped in the car all day long ha-ha. I’m starting to really love these aerial city shots that we’ve been doing a lot of, it’s nice to see a city from above.

We also decided to walk along the pier of Calais, watch the cars board the ferry’s and watch the water of the channel crash in and out. It may not be the most exciting thing, but watching the sun slowly start to go down while listening to the waves is just so incredibly relaxing.

We actually ended up eating dinner at one of the stand-up shacks right near the pier, choosing burgers, fries and cola’s for dinner. We stayed in a hotel in Calais, choosing the Holiday Inn Calais for our one night there. The hotel is actually right on the water and is a completely fine choice to sleep for the night.

Once we reached England and the other side of the Channel, we decided to take a stop at Dover. I’ve always wanted to see the seaside town of Dover and its beautiful White Cliffs. As soon as I had seen that no matter which choice we made, we would be right near/in Dover I knew that we had to stop there. It was a no brainer for me.

We did two stops in Dover, Dover Castle and The White Cliffs of Dover. Exploring Castles, both intact and ruined, have quickly become one of those “things” we do while traveling. They hold such a wealth of information, history, and can be some of the prettiest spots to walk.

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Dover Castle was no exception to this. Not only is the castle stunning and the displays full of information and objects from the time period (found on the property), but they have a cast of period actors that roam the grounds/are in the buildings as you walk through. It just added such a good touch to the castle, without feeling cheesy or cringeworthy. There were two exhibits that we were not able to see, the underground tours, as the queue’s got to be too long for our two very tired little boys. This isn’t anything that we weren’t aware, when purchasing the tickets, the attendant said that they were expecting a high volume of visitors and those two tend to go quickly. Regardless, I would still recommend a stop to Dover Castle, it’s the perfect stop to stretch your legs and learn a little history.

The cliffs are actually right down the road and you can see it from the overlook point at the castle, so make sure you take a look from the distance before you head over.

Oh, the cliffs, the White Cliffs of Dover… I got to live out every Victorian/English Drama Movie/TV Show I’ve ever seen and stand at the precipice of those cliffs dramatically staring out to the abyss….ok I’m exaggerating just a little bit, but it was a dream spot and a definite must see. Not only are the cliffs themselves incredible, but the water- oh the water- a stunning blue/green combo that makes one swoon at the site. Now, we only had time to go out to the lookout vantage point, BUT you are able to hike out to the cliffs themselves, the lighthouse, and have a lovely afternoon tea at the café near the lighthouse (which I so so so wanted to do). Another perfect  stop if you just want to get out and stretch your legs for a little while.

So that was the first, short leg of our Summer Holiday. I hope that you enjoyed seeing Calais and Dover through our eyes! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you’ve been there, is there anything you would add? What was your favorite spot?

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Falconhof Schloss Rosenburg- A {1/2} Day Trip

I am going to do a little throwback post of a day trip we made in July, but I didn’t get a chance to get written up and posted before our vacation. During the July 4thHoliday weekend we took a little day trip over to a nearby Castle (Schloss in German- it actually references a stately or manor home) that has a falconry and falcon show. This post is mainly geared towards those in Germany or visiting the area, but anyone can get enjoyment out of our little daytrip.

Falkenhof Schloss Rosenburg is a castle in the Bavaria region that contains a falconry and has trainers on hand that work with the various birds that are housed on location. I want to note that all the trainers very much doted on these birds and they were very well treated from the little bit that we could see. They do bird shows twice a day (11AM and 3PM) and you can walk through the museum, the grounds, stop for Eis (Ice Cream), and then take a little hike if you’re really feeling adventurous.

There is an entrance fee of 8 Euro per Adult (prices vary for other ages and breakdowns) and I found this to be semi reasonable. They are not a government funded place, so they use the admission prices and sales for their funds. For this reasoning I don’t mind the price point, although you will definitely want to follow my tips to make the most out of your admission cost.

You’ll want to get to the castle and grounds about 15 minutes before the show. This will allow you some time to go wander through the different bird’s area’s and see each bird before the show begins. About 15 minutes after the show they will close down and block off the bird’s area so you cannot get up close to them, which is why I say do it before it begins. They have a variety from hawks to eagles, owls, and many others. It was really neat to just see the variety and the boys definitely loved looking at all the birds.

The show itself is in German so be prepared for that and they talk about each bird individually as they are flying around above you. I’ll come back to the flying over you in a minute. They cover diet, hunting and sleep patterns, and I believe how they are housed at the castle (don’t quote me on that though). They do various flights for each bird, enough to give you a good glimpse into the bird, what the bird is capable of, and what they enjoy. Once the hawks are done with the “official” part (I hate to even call it that because a good amount just felt natural and looked natural for the bird), they just free flew all over the grounds for the rest of the demonstration.

 

Now, when I say the birds fly above you, I mean they fly right above you. Swooping right in front of the crowd to get the trainer who is right behind the crowd. If you’re not prepared for that it can take you a bit by surprise to have two very large talons or a wing almost clip you. To me, it was so cool to have the bird be that close by, and our older son got a real good experience from that. He loved watching the birds fly right over his head.

The bird show lasts about 45 minutes to an Hour total and afterwards we wandered through the museum. There isn’t a lot to the museum, mostly about the birds that are in care there, the different species, and the various animals that have been known to be in the area. There are some pretty…intense animal fight scenes, but I guess it’s just nature in action. The views out of the museum windows are incredible, a good overlook of the little town of Rosenburg.

Finally, we decided to take a little hike over to the ruins that were a short distance away. I don’t even think they were a mile away, but that short distance really made me regret wearing Sperry’s for the day. It’s not an intense intense hike, but you will definitely need some solid footwear. It’s all worth it because the view at the end is just so beautiful!

And that was our little day trip for the Holiday! Have you been to a falconry or bird show/demonstration?

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Round The Kettle Ep. 16: A July and August Debrief

Oh, hi there! Long time, no speak…

How are you? I’ll be honest, it feels a little weird doing this this way, but I couldn’t just jump right back into normal blog posts without doing something else. That felt much weirder. How did July treat you? It’s a little crazy to think that it is now August 2019. I feel like our time is just flying by and there really isn’t any stopping it. It doesn’t help that we’ve just been a busy storm over here.

I figured that I would take this Round the Kettle as a way to sort of…organize my thoughts. Let you in on a little background of what has happened and what will be happening and just kind of have a chance for us to catch up properly. That ok? I hope so 🙂

So, July, whew what a month! In our area and my husband’s job, July tends to be a mass holiday time period with everyone going on holiday throughout the month (to different spots and times obviously). To be honest, we only truly started taking summer holidays a couple years back, we used to just save the time off days up for winter holiday and take a month-long December/January time period. But, once we started the summer holiday, we haven’t really been able to stop.

One of the benefits to living overseas is being able to do a lot of foreign travel. It’s not “cheap”, but it also isn’t expensive (as compared to traveling to Europe from the States). We are definitely changing our budget around to accommodate our travel and are very happy and willing to do that. But, I digress… It’s been really fun to watch where all of our friends have been traveling to as there is such a variety to the trips here. I’ve seen people go to France, Croatia, Italy, Prague, and then our very own trip over to England and Scotland.

Did you go anywhere in July? Any Summer Holidays?

I’m going to be completely honest; I have no idea how I’m going to be breaking down our travel into reasonable blog posts. We saw so much. We did so much. We experienced and learned more than I could even imagine. And I have SO MUCH TO SHARE. It’s something that I’m actually really struggling with in a weird way. I think I’m going to do a breakdown of our trip in this post, and then go from there, although after the breakdown if you have any idea’s, please let me know!

So, our summer trip. To say that England and Scotland were a dream holiday for me would be putting it very mildly. I’ve been dreaming of a chance to visit these countries for a long time. I’m a huge Anglophile, a huge reader, and the Highlands of Scotland have always held a sacred place in my heart (now a much bigger much more sacred place). When hubs agreed to the trip, I could not wait!

We did a total of 14 days away as follows: Day 1 and 2 travel, stopping in Calais for the night, stopping in Dover, Kent, England and then arriving in London, England early evening of Day 2. We did the Eurotunnel to cross the channel both going to and coming from. Day 3- 5 were in London, Day 6 we headed up to Edinburgh Scotland. Day 7-8 in Edinburgh, Day 9 headed up to Inverness with a stop at Balmoral Castle. We spent Day 10-11 in Inverness/Black Isle and then used days 12-14 to come back home with a few pit stops in Bastogne and Luxembourg.

Over all the trip was absolutely perfect, we would have preferred to have one more day in Inverness, but more on those specifics in all of my numerous travel related blog posts coming up.

Now, looking forward, August is going to be equally busy, but more in the home sense.

I’ve got to finish up putting our house together for starters. All that’s really left are the “final touches”, but those can be a bit of a pain to get just right. I do plan on sharing some of the things from our house, but, again, more on that later in the month.

I’m going to be participating in a readathon for the entire month, with a goal of reading 9 books by the end of the month. Which means I’ve spent the past week trying to get everything sorted so that when August 1 came, I didn’t have nearly as much on my plate and could focus mostly on reading.

To top all of that, my husband is now going into his busy time at work. He will be in and out for the majority of the next couple of months which means that everything is going to be double what it is normally. It also means that everything that can go wrong probably will and we are just going to have a fun time on this ride called life.

So, overall that’s where I’m at. Tell me, how was your July? Are you ready for it to be August? Before too much longer the temps will start to fall and Autumn will be upon us. Are you excited? I sure am.

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Travel/Hiking/Getting Out With Kids

I’ve been getting a couple of questions, getting some comments, and hearing remarks from other families about how great it is when you have kids that are “easy” travelers, love to be outside, don’t mind walking/hiking. Most of these are in a tone of surprise, some have further questions, and I have heard a couple people say that they wouldn’t travel as much because they do have kids.

Let me say this, in the grand scheme of things traveling with kids is easy.

That’s putting it lightly. It’s obviously not “easy” and it is a little bit more complicated than if it was just you or you and your significant other, but it is definitely not as hard as people seem to think it is. Kids are not a reason not to travel. Let me say that again- kids are not a reason not to travel. In fact, they are a really good reason to travel.

This is going to be a post in two parts, the first talking about how we started and managed to travel/hike/get out with our two boys and the second will touch on the good reason about traveling with your kids.

When we had Colton we did a fair amount of day trips, getting out on the weekend and exploring our area. We did two long distance trips a year, one to see family and the other to a new location every year (both of which we drove to). We also did one long haul flight when he was a little over a year and a half.

Honestly, there has been no special secret to traveling with him, or with Andrew. We’ve just done it.

Has he had meltdowns? Yes, in fact he had the worst meltdown in a Dunkin Donuts in Berlin. Did it suck? Yes. Did people stare? Eh kind of (as much as they ever have in any other circumstance). Did it end? Yes. Did we quickly finish our food and head out, yes. It wasn’t an end to the trip, it didn’t change our enjoyment of the trip overall and it definitely didn’t change our minds to traveling in the future.

Yes, on the whole we have relatively easy going, up for anything kids, BUT I’ve found that kids are willing to go along on a good amount of things if you are wiling to take them. We do a variety of things on our vacations, some things with the kids in mind (Tiergarten in Berlin), some things with Mom and Dad involved (Mozart’s Birthplace in Salzburg). We make sure that we combine things throughout the day of kid friendly and mom/dad. We make sure that meals are as close to the same time when we are out as when we are home.

I’ve also found, specifically when it comes to hiking, being active, and being outside (also just being away from screens), kids follow their parents lead. Lately Colton, currently 3 ½ years old, has taking to walking almost 90% of our hikes. We recently did a “light/mild” hike through some Castle Ruins. We ended up walking almost 2 ½ miles that day and he walked almost all of that.

We’ve had some really long days while traveling. Walking, riding various forms of public transport, and while we’ve had moments of meltdowns (to be expected either way), they’ve both adapted really well to this sort of go, go, go. If anything I think they enjoy it, seeing all sorts of different, new things. They nap when they need to whether that is in a little umbrella stroller or on our shoulders and are generally really good on the fly.

Our weekly walks (once or twice a week) go about 1 ¾ mile and he walks all of it without being asked to be carried. Even Andrew at 2 years old is walking a good amount of these walks we do. We have always been outdoorsy, always chosen to walk a lot, hike, be outside as much as possible and I think that is a lot of why our kids are that way as well.

Basically what I’m saying (if this makes any sense), is to just go with it. Get out, experience the world, have a positive mindset about it and your kids will follow that. They model their behavior off of you as their guide, so if you are open to these new experiences, so are they.

Quickly I want to touch on WHY traveling is so good and important for our children. The first is that it teaches them a level of independence. Of learning how to handle new environments, new places, and new experiences. It also shows them that there are other places in our world. The world is a wide and wonderous place full of different people, cultures, and traditions. I think it is incredibly important to teach and show our children as many of these as possible. Our children should know more than what they grow up in, they should know of the world and if you can do that for them in some way, that is invaluable towards their future and their lives. I can touch on this in a separate post if you’d like.

And that is how/why we travel with our kids. Ultimately it comes down to just doing it. If you are wondering how to travel with your kids, more practical tips/or things that we take with us, let me know below and I’ll talk about that in another post!

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No Camera’s Allowed

It’s no secret we’ve been doing A LOT of travel over these past few months and that is not something that will be changing anytime soon. It’s also no secret that I’m a major camera/picture junkie. I LOVE taking pictures.  I’ve always got my camera out from everyday little moments (seriously, my older son just looked so cute playing with a baseball bat in the store), to bigger vacation moments (this scene was just dreamy!). I’m one of THOSE people. I love having all of the memories to look back on, little snippets of our day to day to have for memories. This is especially heightened when we travel.

I’ve been able to capture photo’s at almost every place that we’ve traveled (every place’s exterior at least), but I have noticed that there are some locations that will not allow camera’s or photos. The most memorable were Neuschwanstein/Hohenschwangau, Berchtesgaden Salt Mines, Mozart’s Birthplace, and Salzburg Cathedral doesn’t encourage them. Each place has their own vast reasons as to why and I am not here to talk about the reasons (frankly I can guess, but just respected their rules).

With that though, it got me thinking. Every time I pick up my camera I pull myself ever so slightly out of the moment. Every time I go to take a picture of a place, rather than just take a minute in that place, I pull myself away. Yes, I’ve got a beautiful picture to hang in my home, to remind me of the wonderful places we’ve been, but I also have then taken a few minutes out of our time there (just for one single picture, not for all of them), to take the picture rather than simply enjoy the scenery.

I’ve been pretty good at balancing pictures and being in the moment at every place that we’ve traveled, but in places where “No Camera Allowed” is displayed, I honestly get a little thrill out of it. A chance to just look, to not feel the need to capture everything I want (which is A LOT). I am able to focus more on what I’m looking at, take a little more time at each point in a tour, and while I don’t know if the enjoyment level is really any more or less (as like I’ve said I love taking pictures) it’s definitely different.

I’ve even noted this in my everyday. As I said, I’m always taking pictures in our everyday. Our kids are actually picking up on that, and will say cheese at any time or even pose sometimes haha. I love seeing what we were up to at various times of our weeks and it’s really funny to look back on. I’ve been trying to get better over the past year or two about just taking a step back from being like that, for a similar reason than the one’s I’ve stated above.

Now, let me make something clear…this picture bit has really nothing to do with Social Media or with Blogging. I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember. Always wanting to capture moments in pictures and in words, rather just being in the moment. This is nothing new to me. Social Media and my Blog has given me a way to share that with others, but it is not the root of what I am talking about.

I also want to be clear that I don’t think that there is anything wrong with this. I think that it is great and I fully plan on continuing on being that crazy picture person, BUT I definitely have enjoyed a bit of a reprieve every now and again and I think I need to do that more.

Looking through the lense or viewfinder can be incredible and you can see things and people in different ways, but It doesn’t really compare to just putting the camera down and being present at that moment. So here’s to less camera time and more in person/in the moment time.

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June In Travel – All the Ruins and Hikes

So, June has come to an end…what?! I remember posting earlier in the month that I couldn’t believe that the year was already halfway over and I am still heavily into that mindset. How are we already at this point in 2019? How are we already in 2019? I’m at a crisis point over here just thinking about how much time has already passed…

But that is not what we are here for today, so we will just put that thought to the side.

Today I am going to be re capping our month in travel, which to be honest is only mildly exciting this month. We have a very big travel month next month and have been preparing to move to our house for most of June (because somehow during our time in the hotel we managed to accumulate stuff, mostly books, and that all had to be packed up and moved). Originally we thought we were going to be moving into our house mid June, but that changed and we scrambled to find some weekend activities.

All that to say, that while we didn’t travel far, we managed to find quite a few fun/interesting things to do with our weekends.

I’ve always been really fascinated with ruins. I love to imagine what was, what could have been, what happened on the site, what the people living there were like, etc. It’s the nostalgia, the idea, the dreams of a different era and way of living. Ruins here are also great because a lot of the sites are open enough for the boys to run around and through the different passageways. It gives them a chance to stretch their legs, and learn how people used to live.

We have quite a few ruins in our nearby area and since the weather was nice, we decided to make those weekends into ruins weekends. We did two sites and then a third hike through the hills behind our house. I’ve got a couple more castles and ruins on my list that I hope to head to over the next couple months after we get back in town from vacation.

The first ruins site that we went to is the one that is closest and is also the one that we had to do a nice little hike up to. This is definitely more “ruins” than building, but we were able to see the barest outlines of what was and head up one of the turrets to see a beautiful overlook. After the ruins, we took another short hike through a nature preserve that we actually plan on going back to complete the full hike as it is a couple hours long.

The second site is Wolfstein Castle which is much more building structure and has a pretty good layout of what the castle actually looked like in its “heyday”. I think this might have been my favorite spot so far as it has so many little crevices and spots to look through. You can go through all sorts of good little rooms and areas. There is also a “turret” or tower that you can climb up to, although we don’t really know the rules for that and it wasn’t open when we were there. It has some beautiful overlooks of the city and there wasn’t a huge hike to get up there. As for castle ruins, right now it’s at the top of my very short list.

The final thing that we did was a short hike in the hills behind our hotel. We have been really outdoors this past month, choosing to be outside and walk as much as we can, but we decided to do something beyond our long walk to the park. We headed up the hills, in the woods, and off to a religious site. Now, religion is big here, so that wasn’t surprising, but the actual spot that we hiked to was so beautiful. I didn’t manage to get a lot of good shots of the actual spot because it was the top of a rock and trying to track both kids on the top of a rock is not good. But, trust me the whole hike was just wonderful!

And that was our month “in travel”. Definitely a little bit different than previous months, but still a really fun one! Next month we will be spending half the month in different countries so that’ll be an exciting month for us! Moving forward our travel will be changing a little bit due to my husbands schedule, so the Month in Travel posts might change a little bit, but I hope to still have a lot to share even if it is more local spots like these.

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A Cuppa Cosy Heads International – A Home of Our Own

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This picture pretty much summarizes my feelings today 🙂

Today is THE DAY. The day that we finally get the keys to our home. The day that our move to Germany becomes really real. The day that we can start to truly feel settled and home in our area.

If you haven’t been following along with our adventures, earlier this year we embarked on an international move from America to Germany. We’ve spent close to 4 ½ months in the hotel at this point, and have been without our “home comforts” (aka all of our stuff…) 5 ½ months. We’ve been incredibly lucky with our hotel situation, being in a hotel apartment (basically a 1 bedroom apartment) and being able to travel at every opportunity.

*You can read all those posts HERE, HERE, and HERE.*

Overall, our hotel time hasn’t not been that bad. We’ve had a couple rough spots here and there, but, as with anything else, it is all about your attitude. We’ve been able to stay positive and look at all the good things about our time in the hotel and that has helped us…not want to go crazy in such a small space with our things.

Even though it has been a positive experience, I’m very happy to be leaving. We got the opportunity about a month ago to walk through our house and get an idea of floor plans, location, and just a sense of what we were working with. Since that point it’s been very much a time of just wanting to be in our house for us and for the boys. Our older son, Colton, asks just about everyday if we are going to the house and they are ready to have the room to stretch their legs (not to mention finally get all of their toys).

Honestly, for me I am just looking forward to getting our new home set up, arranging everything just so, and getting that “finally settled” feeling. I am looking forward to cooking full, healthy meals and on the cooler days baking. I’ve been missing being able to clean the way I want to clean, and having the space to have a good full morning routine. I’ve missed late evenings on our couch, with an evening cuppa, and a show on tv/book in my hand.

So, today is our big day. All of our household items start coming in tomorrow and the next day, and we will be spending the next week (or so) getting everything set up and settled. We are on a bit of a time crunch due to travel, but I’m also just one of those people who just does everything right then and there (can’t rest until it is all set up and done). I CAN’T WAIT.

There will be one final post in this series, once the dust has finally settled to wrap up all of our experiences/ give tips for folks who are looking at the same type of move.

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Things You Should Do and Tips for: Austria (Salzburg and Berchtesgaden, Germany)

We just recently spent a weekend away in Austria, which you can read about HERE, and it is a place that I would recommend that everyone and anyone should visit. It has a wide variety of things to offer for any taste and it is absolutely beautiful. I don’t have a lot of “tips” as some of the things we wanted to do, we couldn’t, but I figured I would share what I did learn with you.

Recommendations:

In Berchtesgaden there are two spots to visit. The first is Eagle’s Nest which we did not get to go to. I can’t say much more other than keep an eye on the weather and go during the July/August time period. There were still weather issues when we visited. The second spot is the Berchtesgaden Salt Mines. I would highly recommend this place because not only does it make the whole concept of a Salt Mine interesting and fun. It combines light shows with music, rides, and costumes. It is great for any age (especially the kiddos).

In Salzburg there is so much…

I highly recommend the Fortress, Hohensalzburg Fortress, at the top of the hill. Not only is the fortress itself pretty cool, but the view from atop the tower can’t be beat. If you are worried about the climb to get to the top, you are able to take a funicular up (and down). The base of the funicular is located near Salzburg Cathedral and is a good “jumping off” point for everything else as well.

Speaking of Salzburg Cathedral, I would highly recommend a stop in here. It is absolutely stunning inside and just take in the atmosphere and reverence. You can walk through the halls and head down to the crypt to complete your viewing of the Cathedral.

I would also recommend checking out one (or both if you can) of Mozart’s homes. We chose the birthplace, but you can easily do both if you would like to. The birthplace dealt with his birth, early childhood, and some of his composing as well as bits about his family. The residence deals with the bulk of his composing, everyday life in adulthood and has most of his instruments from later life.

On the Sound of Music tours, I personally chose not to do that. The tours that we were finding were close to 4-5 hours (which can be lengthy with children and a husband who isn’t super interested), on the more expensive side of things, and honestly I think you can cover the spots that you want to see pretty well on your own. I picked out a couple of spots that related to the story or the characters and went to those rather than doing a full tour.

Tips:

Tip #1: A Vignette.To drive in Austria you must have a vignette affixed to your car. You can purchase these in gas stations, at the border, or online (each has different date requirements and options), but if you do not it is a pretty hefty fine. They are inexpensive and easy to buy. Driving in Austria is really not any different than driving anywhere else in Europe (exception being the UK)  and even though we made use of the public transportation, we still really enjoyed having our car as well.

Tip #2: Getting registered.I don’t know if this was done this way simply because of where we were staying, or if it is a country wide thing, but we had to be registered by the AirBnB owner while we were staying there and pay a slight tax. By doing this though, we got a tourist “welcome” card of sorts which gave us a discount on some museums as well as free use of the public transportation (trains and buses).

Tip #3: Public Transportation.Seriously the public transportation in Europe is top notch and I really think you should make use of it whenever you can. It is just so easy to hop on a train, go to a city, not have to worry about parking, traffic, or anything with your car, and then hop a train to go home when you are done. The boys love riding the “choo-choo’s” and we’ve just really adapted to them (not that we really had to).

I don’t really have any other specific tips, but as always I recommend looking around on AirBnB for your accommodation. Not only can they be cheaper than a conventional hotel, but you can get some pretty stunning spots. This time we stayed in the mountains without anyone really near us. It was such a relaxing spot and watching the sunrise/sunset, hearing the birds chirping, and the trees swaying brought a whole new meaning to being in the Alps.

 

Do you have any tips or recommendations for a trip to Salzburg/Berchtesgaden?

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