That’s right, you read it: in the Swiss Alps, cows’ wear bells. Not a small dinky bell, very large, very noisy solid bell dangles around their necks. Supposedly, there are even ongoing discussions involving animal cruelty and these bells, but that’s not the topic of this post. The sound of the bell is pleasant at first but after about an hour of sitting on top of a mountain in what should be a peaceful and silent area, the constant noise from the bells becomes something else. Continue reading
There is no shortage of clean drinking water in Zurich; there are over 1,200 fountains that tap into the never-ending source of pristine groundwater. We were at the lake one afternoon and mentioned to the group we were going to buy a bottle of water. They quickly corrected us that there was a fountain not far and we could get free water. One girl accompanied us and when I saw her cup water with her hands from a fountain which a young girl was stomping and splashing away in, I almost choked. It looked like a regular fountain back home which re-circulates the water meaning we would be drinking some pretty nasty water. Feeling it would be rude we took one or two sips before excusing ourselves stating we really weren’t that thirsty (we were). Back home, we googled it and learned that Zurich has an excess of ground water, therefore, the fountains do no re-circulate water. In Switzerland, if there is a fountain or tap which you can’t drink from, there has to be a very obvious no-drinking sign. Continue reading
The city of love and home to the Eiffel Tower. We checked into our ‘apart-hotel’ in the late afternoon and didn’t realize we had a great view of the Eiffel Tower until our second night lying in bed. It lit up at 9:00 PM and every hour for a few minutes, the lights would sparkle and dance causing all those below to ooh and awe; including us one evening. That same evening we witnessed a proposal on the grass beneath the Tower – she said yes! Continue reading
The Channel Tunnel is one of the ‘Seven Wonders of the Modern World’ selected by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It connects the UK to continental Europe. I remember thinking: wow, you can drive across the English Channel. Of course, being in England and on our way to Belgium, we wanted to go across the Channel Tunnel. The high-speed train is the obvious choice, until you see ticket prices. We went with Megabus (a coach bus company) and expected it would take the ferry and we would miss the tunnel altogether. So, when we arrived at the Channel Tunnel Border Crossing we were slightly surprised, a little excited and vastly disappointed. There was a train stuck in one of the tunnels and we had a minimum three hour wait ahead of us. Continue reading
Our first major European city on our around-the-world trip was London – a classic choice. We spent four nights at an airbnb in East London near Bethnal Green Station. Walking to our apartment we felt a bit like we were in the rougher part of town but inside the place was great, and the price difficult to beat in London ($85 CAD/night for two people). Continue reading
One of the first things I did when we decided on dates for Europe, was start messaging all my friends and family who live there. Staying with people you know in other countries and cities has countless benefits: you get to catch up with someone you likely haven’t seen in a long time, you are shown a different side of the area, you can get away from just the touristy spots, you can often drive around (without having to weigh the pros and cons of a rental car), you get a glimpse as to how people in that area live and, in my opinion, it improves the overall experience. Oh, and free accommodation doesn’t hurt the budget… Continue reading
Our plan was to fly from Vancouver to Europe and we were looking for the cheapest city to land in – Paris, Frankfurt, London, etc. We checked prices to Reykjavik out of curiosity (I had always wanted to go Iceland) and they turned out to be surprisingly cheap. While Icelandair offers a “free stopover up to one week” en-route to Europe, it was even cheaper to only book a flight to Reykjavik with them and then another airline to England (we flew into Bristol with EasyJet). Continue reading