Chester, Day Three: Liverpool

Today was a really great day. We began it with breakfast in our hotel. I'm not sure how they prepare the sausages here, but they are absolutely delicious! Also, I tried nutella on my toast today which was also particularly tasty. Then we headed down to the Chester train station to head over to Liverpool for the day. I was craving something chocolate, specifically a flake bar (which are SO good, if you ever get the chance to taste one), but I couldn't find any at the convenience store at the train station. I settled for some "twirl bites" instead which were similar to flake bars.

We then proceeded on a 45 minute train ride to Liverpool. The train was actually very similar to a subway, but it was above ground. We made many stops along the way.

We started from Chester at the very bottom of the map and went all the way up to James Street. This map isn't very proportional to the actual geography of the land.

Once we arrived, we headed out for The Beatles Experience, which was our main stop for the day. Along the way, we found this giant anchor, so I thought I'd give moving it a go.

The Beatles Story was very interesting. I already had an appreciation for the band, but today I learned so many details about their story and where they came from, which is Liverpool if you didn't already know that.

I think it would have been so cool to see them play live at The Cavern which was a local joint for live acts. They made a replica of it, which is pictured below.

They actually made the whole room into a replica with seats for you to sit in in front of the state to make you feel like you are actually the there. It was super cool.

We spent two hours learning lots of cool facts about The Fab 4. We hummed their tunes all around the shops of Albert dock for the rest of the afternoon while we did some shopping. We came across a candy store that had lots of incredible finds. Remember crispy M&Ms? The ones that had the blue bags before pretzel M&Ms? They sell them here! I stocked up on those, and also bought a chocolate frog because they had a little Harry Potter section. We had some great photo ops throughout our shopping trip as well.

Dad with his Beatles mop top on

I see British people

This is made out of jelly beans!

Once we finished shopping, we decided we could use some lunch. We heard that "scouse" is the fare to try in Liverpool, which is a type of beef stew and is served with red cabbage and chips on the side. Every pub we went into though was out of it sadly, so we settled for some fish 'n chips. I tried a mushroom cream bruchetta as well which was actually really good. The restaurant we ate at, Liverpool One Bridewell, was actually a super cool place to eat. It use to be a jailhouse in the 1800s. The restaurant isn't one big room, but it's actually still laid out like a jail. Obviously the cell doors were taken off, but each cell had one large table at it. It was painted and heated though so it wasn't super creepy. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture though.

After our late lunch, we decided to head back to Chester. We found a Pound Store, which is like a Dollar Tree in the States, that sold Flake bars, so naturally I bought 12. Don't worry, they came in packs of three so it only cost 4 pounds, not 12. We had a quick nap once we got back to the hotel and then headed off to dinner. Sergio's, an Italian restaurant was our choice tonight. My veal parm was super delicious. Just a heads up, all Italian restaurants are better in Europe. That's just a fact.

Now it is time for bed, since we have to catch the train to London tomorrow. It was a wonderful experience here in Chester. I will definitely be visiting again in the future.

Chester, Day Two

We had a very relaxing day in Chester today. We started off the day with breakfast in a restaurant called Carluccio's with Dad's coworkers. I had some scrambled eggs and mushrooms over a piece of toast, as well as a white chocolate mocha and a chocolate croissant. It was delicious.

Mom and me sampling the coffee and croissants

Dad and his coworkers left the restaurant early while mom and I slowly finished up and then we went back to the hotel to clean up for the day before heading out. Our first stop today was the Chester Cathedral.

I am the tiny stick in the bottom left corner.

We must have missed a sign somewhere that said when the cathedral was built because I don't know, but the oldest date we found on a stone there was 1140, so we assume it is quite old. There were lots of beautiful stained glass windows as well as a cute little garden area in the center.

Then mom and I went for a little shopping spree. We encountered lots of fun boutique-type stores. I'm not sure if it is a chain or not, but my favorite was called Rock Bottom, where I got a pretty reasonably priced dress. I also enjoyed Cath Kidston, which had a wide assortment of objects with fun prints. I got a cute flowery sunglasses case as well as a luggage tag. We also came across a delicious patisserie. I had some delicious blueberry ice cream and my mom had a chocolate eclair, which was especially tasty. We think that the English must use clotted cream instead of custard to fill their eclairs because it was much creamier and way yummier. We are hoping to go back to this patisserie soon because they have a delicious sounding waffle dessert with ice cream and chocolate syrup piled on top.

Our shopping trip was cut short when the rain started to pour (it was an outdoor shopping center) so we hustled back to the hotel. I took a little nap and then we got ready for dinner. Dad had a business dinner to go to so it was just Mom and me dining this evening. We went to an Indian restaurant called the Koconut Grove, which was quite tasty. Mom and I shared the chicken tikka massala and I had some garlic naan on the side. I will admit, I was hoping for some butter chicken, but this satisfied my Indian craving just as well. I really need to start trying some Indian restaurants in Lexington. I crave it far too often.

So now we are back at our hotel at 9:30 p.m., feeling like we are ready to pass out. Not an exciting end to our day. We might as well get plenty of sleep while we can though before our day trip to Liverpool tomorrow.

Chester, Day One

Today was our first day in Chester. Our plane touched down around 8:15, and after a long line at customs and an hour car ride to the city, we finally made it. I was really surprised with how well I was surviving on one hour of sleep. We decided to take a nap anyway though after we arrived at our hotel. We scarfed down a quick breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then slept for two and a half hours. Let me tell you, your body will not like you when it thinks it needs to sleep for eight hours and you can only give it a small fraction of that time. I was quite bleary-eyed for a good four hours after we woke up. Our sleep was nice and uninterrupted though, thank goodness. We were concerned that the maid might wake us, so we made sure that didn't happen.

My dad was finished working around 2:30, an hour after we woke up from our nap, and headed out with us for some afternoon tea. Just a heads up, clotted cream is delicious. We need to have that back in the states.

Dad was too manly for our tea and scones though, so he had a sandwich instead.

 The restaurant we had tea in was really neat. There were signs up everywhere talking about the history of it. Apparently it used to be some sort of underground bunker. In the same historical mindset, we decided to take a walk around the old Chester wall, which was built in the 1700s. It is about two miles in circumference. Yay for exercise. There were lots of great photo ops along the way.

Dad and I in front of the wall

Mom and I on the wall, right underneath the clock tower in the previous picture.

Dad and I in front of the old Chester castle which is now part of the University of Chester.

The watchtower door. Anyone home?

Once we finished our walk, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. My mom wanted to take a photo of the flower arrangement she received from my dad's company for her birthday/Mother's Day, so I decided to give her a hand.

If this looks odd to you, its because my mom wanted a solid color backdrop for her flowers and this was the only place in the room that had one. Seeing as there was no table over there, I became the table. I thought I did a really great job.

Then we got cleaned up and headed out downstairs to the hotel restaurant to meet up with Dad's coworkers for dinner. We had a difficult time finding a place to eat, since the horse race track here is having its opening weekend. All of the restaurants were packed, and we were even turned away from a few places because we were too "casual" to eat there, even though they usually let people in who wear jeans. So we wandered to a pub and sampled some cask beer (please note: the drinking age in England is 18 so I am legal here), which was definitely interesting considering it is more room temperature than actually cold. Finally, we went to a restaurant called Duttons where I had some scotch eggs, steak fritz (which I was informed would be "quite rare" and it was actually well done, if I do say so myself), and some toffee pudding for dessert. All in all, a great first day. We hit the hay early since we were only running on a few hours of sleep, and despite the metal springs that pushed into my back in my pullout bed, I have never fallen asleep faster.

Photo creds to Brian Geitner. At the hotel restaurant.

Did You Miss Me / The Effects of Flying

Day 1: 3:01 a.m. USA time/ 8:01 a.m. UK time

Location: The air above Manchester

My body thinks it's time for sleep, but my jet lag informs me that the day is only starting. The joys of flying eastward. I am nearly 15 minutes away from landing in my favorite place in the world: England. Nearly two years after my ten day spree in London and Ireland, here we are again in the United Kingdom, well almost. Our plane has been going in circles for about ten minutes now in order to wait for our turn to be 'vectored' by flight control at the Manchester airport, whatever that means. My dad would know if he were here. He has become quite the flying guru these days. He arrived here three days earlier than my mom and me to begin his main purpose for coming on this trip; his company is opening a branch in the city of Chester, which is about three hours NW of London for those who are geographically unaware. We are about to embark on a ten day journey through England, and I couldn't be more excited. If only we would land. From my plane window, the English countryside looks like a patchwork quilt, filled with varying shades of green.

I guess that's what you would expect when you are 12,000 feet above the ground. I think it's beautiful. If only I could use that quilt to wrap myself up in; this plane is rather chilly. It doesn't matter that I only got an hour of sleep and that the plane food lived up to every horrible stereotype in the book (I'm practically famished). I'm in my happy place now and can't wait for the adventure that I know is just beginning. Stay tuned. 

Paris: Day Three

Hello again!

So today was a very VERY relaxing day for my parents and I. My mom didn't even wake me up this morning (which is usually how the day goes). I woke up naturally at 11 a.m. and walked out of my room to find my dad still asleep in his room and my mom drinking coffee on the couch. I was all "hey" and she was like "hey" and I was like "... it's 11" and she was like "yeah... it is..." so apparently it wasn't some sort of mistake. We just decided to take it easy today. Its always nice to get a full night's sleep. So we had a big breakfast meal at like noon and then we headed off to the Louvre museum. I can't even begin to describe to you how big it is. Its like really freaking humungous. And it is soooo easy to get lost. Which we did. Many times. The sad part about it was that all of the exhibits were in French so we didn't really learn a whole bunch about what the museum had to offer. However we did get to see some beautiful exhibits that we were familiar with such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.

   

The Mona Lisa is not as small as it looks. It was in a glass case and there was a huge crowd around it (which was to be expected since it is the museum's most popular exhibit) so sadly the picture did not turn out so well. I actually got to learn quite a bit about the Venus de Milo though which is the second picture if you are not familiar. My mom had a Paris guide book that talked about it and it said it is a Greek statue that was built to represent Aphrodite, the goddess of love. However the statue was not of one particular women but was made up of all of the qualities that embodied a perfect woman of their society. One interesting fact about this statue is that her dress size measures to be a size 14! Boy how times have changed. I wish beauty were still viewed in that aspect today and that people could just love their bodies and that a full body just represented the fact that you weren't starving. Oh well. 

Then we left the Louvre and got a snack in a local cafe and headed back to the flat. I took a nap. Officially 3 for 3 on taking a nap everyday on vacation so far. But surely its good to relax because this is the only break from school I get for the rest of the semester. Then we cleaned up and went to another Italian restaurant for dinner. I got the spaghetti. It was delicious as expected. I have noticed that the pasta here is so rich. It is definitely way better than anything I've ever had in the States. I hope to go to Italy someday and see if theirs is any better because this seems pretty hard to beat. 

Sadly, today's entry is just a short one since we spent most of the day relaxing. I've gotta head to bed now because tomorrow we are getting up early to go to the Palace of Versailles! How exciting!

Paris: Day Two

Whew! What a day today! My first full day in Paris was definitely action packed to say the least. I'll work chronologically to recount all of the details.

First off, I woke up at 5 a.m. because my sleep schedule is way out of whack. Some of my friends from home were still awake though because they are night owls however, so I gave them a call using the phone in our flat because it is free apparently! Imagine that! So after I talked to them for 20 minutes, I decided to work out. Then I showered and got ready for the day.

At 9:30, we headed out for Notre Dame. The architecture of that building is so exquisite, it was astounding. Well really, all of the Parisian architecture is breathtaking but this was just magnificent.

   

After touring the first level of Notre Dame, we stopped and had a snack in a little cafe across the street. I had my second helping of chocolate croissant that day. It boggles my mind how delicious those little pastries are. Then we wandered over to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore where I picked up a copy of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. It seemed fitting considering it is about the French Revolution and well... we are in France... But its really the cutest bookstore I have ever been to in my life. There was even a sweet little kitty on the top floor. I bet he gets all the love.

 

Next we went back over to Notre Dame and climbed the 389 steps to the top of the tower where we got the most beautiful view of the city. 389 steps is way too many. I was pretty much dying by the time we got to the top considering I had already done squats and lunges earlier that morning. We also saw "The Bored Gargoyle" who is supposedly the most photographed gargoyle on Notre Dame. Its too bad it was foggy outside otherwise you would be able to see the Eiffel Tower in the background a little better. Its maybe sorta visible...

   

After Notre Dame, we made our way to another cafe and had some lunch. My mom and I shared a plate of lasagna that was quite tasty. My dad had a bowl of French onion soup that is even more delicious over here in its native land. However, that was to be expected of course. Once we finished lunch we went over to The Conciergerie which served as a prison during the French Revolution. We saw the cell of Marie Antoinette and we may have even run into a medieval knight...

 

Okay clearly the knight was me in a children's costume. These are the kinds of stupid things my parents and I do. I wouldn't have it any other way though. Next we made it over to Saint Chappelle which was really quite beautiful. Many stained glass windows and wooden figurines. By the time we finished there, our energy started running on fumes so we made our way back to the flat to hang out for the rest of the day. This evening for dinner we had some real French cuisine. I'm pretty sure my meal was the best out of everyone's. I started with some escargot in pesto sauce, followed by rack of lamb with potatoes, and finished up with nutella crepes! I was so thrilled when I saw this on the menu because nutella is pretty much the most delicious thing ever. However, the crepes still did not compare to the nutella waffle I had last summer in London. That was really the best ever. 

Well now we are back in our flat and it is about time for bed. I will be sure to write tomorrow about more of my adventures. 

Bonsoirre!

Paris: Day One

Bonjour!

Well it is officially spring break at University of Kentucky. This year I am spending it in the City of Love with my parents (aka Paris, France). Today is our first day and might I say, it has definitely been an exhausting one. Our flight left from Cincinnati at 5:30 p.m. and then we arrived in Paris at 8 a.m. local time. So our dilemma was if you don't sleep on the plane, you really don't get any sleep at all. Well we didn't sleep on the plane. Planes are just not very comfortable. So the flight was a solid 8 hours and then we had a nauseating taxi ride into the city for another 50 minutes. Then our flat wasn't ready for us yet so we waited with all of our luggage in a cafe nearby for an hourish. So putting all that on top of the lack of sleep, its safe to say we were pretty exhausted. After unpacking, my parents and I decided it was nap time. Although my nap was more of a slumber (6 hours...). My parents went exploring while I was asleep. I must have been very tired because I didn't hear them leave or come back. They woke me up when they returned though and I got ready for dinner and we headed out into the city. Our neighborhood is nice because there are a lot of shops and restaurants close by. The restaurant we decided on ended up being Italian, which is odd considering we're in France. You would think we would get French food at least the first night. Its kind of funny though because when we first got to London last summer, we walked around the neighborhood and settled on a French restaurant and now that we're here, we went to an Italian restaurant. We are the strangest people. The food was quite delicious though. I had French onion soup for an appetizer, fettuccine alfredo for a meal, and creme brulee for dessert. And of course champagne all throughout the meal. It is so fun being able to order alcohol. It makes me feel so grown up and sophisticated. So now that I am a little buzzed and very full from dinner, I feel it should be bedtime. We have a big day tomorrow; I just have two words for you: Notre Dame! So excited! I'll fill you in tomorrow about more of my adventures.

Much love,
Jordan