Wednesday, June 21, 2023 - Amsterdam, New York, to TAP Portugal Airlines 254 near Montréal, Québec
We had the morning to prepare, including getting a couple animals to their temporary home. We were packed and on our way before 1:30. Flight availability and pricing led us to our first ever departure from Montréal, so our drive took us up the Northway. For a while getting close to Plattsburgh, we followed a wide load taking up both lanes [Picture] though thankfully moving at or above the speed limit for the most part. Our first stop was for one more snack of U.S.A. favorites in Plattsburgh [2 Pictures]. From there, it was a short ride to the border, where we picked the wrong line and were delayed about 25 minutes, even though there were only 6 or 7 cars ahead of us in the line. When it was finally our turn, we cleared customs quickly. We got off A-15 for a few exits when we switched drivers, passing through a few small Québec towns. We arrived in the Montréal area with plenty of time to spare, so we took a ride along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River after crossing into the city on QC 138. We stopped at Rene-Lévesque Park to walk around a bit and to see the riverfront [5 Pictures][People Picture], then continued along Boulevard Saint-Joseph into Dorval. This was a really nice drive and we still parked at the airport with huge amounts of time to spare. We parked in our Econoparc lot [2 Pictures] and took the shuttle to the terminal. Lines were not too long at checkin or security. We wandered the terminal some then crossed into the "no turning back" where our departure would be. Food offerings were limited, and we got some hot pretzels as a pre-flight snack. We started boarding before 11 PM, using some transport vehicles like I've never seen before. They connect up at the gate, drive out to the tarmac, then connect up to the plane's main door. Everyone was boarded [Picture] and we were finally able to take off at 11:50 [2 Pictures], about an hour after scheduled departure. [16 Pictures from the Roads]
Thursday, June 22, 2023 - TAP Portugal Airlines 254 near Montréal, Québec to Lisbon, Portugal, then on to Cádiz, Spain
The flight took us across northern Maine and New Brunswick, then across Newfoundland before heading out over the ocean. The flight was pretty bumpy on and off for the first couple of hours. A decent meal was served about an hour into the flight, then the lights were dimmed to let people try to get a couple hours of sleep. With about 90 minutes to go, the lights came up a couple notches and a snack was served. We had some great views of the Lisbon area on approach [3 Pictures] and finished the flight with a bumpy landing. Arrival in Lisbon was already late with the delay in Montréal before takeoff, and things continued to be pretty slow. It took a while for the shuttle bus to come to our plane to take us to the terminal, then there were some lines at passport control (no questions asked but we did get our visa stamps). No matter on those delays as we still got to baggage claim (after a lengthy walk) as our flight's bags were still coming out. We got ours quickly and proceeded to the Guerin/Enterprise rental car desk [Picture] for one of the more in-depth rental car pickups I can recall (observation: the self-serve kiosk is not faster for an individual but I guess they can at least have more people entering information in concurrently without hiring more staff). Finally, we had a car and were ready to set out on our drive. It took a little getting used to the car's manual transmission and to the traffic craziness near the airport. After a few extra minutes, we were on A12 crossing the impressive Da Gama bridge by early afternoon. We just made a stop for a snack at a rest area as we drove south along A 2 in Portugal. Along the drive we noticed how the trees looked a little different in this part of the world, kind of high plains of the US, but not really [4 Pictures]. It was interesting to see some huge nests in some of the power line towers [2 Pictures]. The terrain got more hilly [3 Pictures] as we approached the southern coast of Portugal where we'd turn to the east on A 22. It took us until just before 5 PM WEST/6 PM CEST to arrive in Spain [6 Pictures], where we made a quick driver switch just over the border. Our route took us through Sevilla with some traffic (and a chance to listen to just a bit of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in The Rabbit of Seville) [Picture], then on down to Cádiz. We hit the 24 hour mark since pulling out of our driveway about 30 miles short of Cádiz. [32 Other Roads Pictures] We worked our way through Cádiz to our very nice hotel, Parador de Cádiz [Picture][People Picture], and checked in [Video Room Tour]. With the delays at the start of our flight, we were cutting it close for the pre-wedding tapas and Flamenco show, but it turns out we were there in plenty of time and now we can say we've seen an authentic Flamenco show [2 Pictures][3 People Pictures][Flamenco Video 1][Flamenco Video 2]. What seems like about a single 36-hour day finally came to a close well after midnight back at the hotel.
Friday, June 23, 2023 - Cádiz, Spain
This was our free day in Cádiz, a sunny, hot, and breezy one [2 Pictures][People Picture]. We had a fairly late breakfast at the Parador. I went for a mile and a half walk late in the morning with the main goal of getting some Euros from a cash machine, but also the chance to walk along more of the waterfront [4 Pictures], ending with a view to and from our balcony [4 People Pictures]. Early afternoon, we all took a longer walk through much of the northern part of Cádiz, including Parque Genovés right outside our hotel, Plaza de San Antonio, Plaza de San Juan de Dios (where we got some McDonald's fries to try them out), and the Catedral de Cádiz [13 Pictures][8 People Pictures]. Near there we picked up some really tasty gelato. Back at the hotel by around 2:30, it was time to relax and visit with others here for the wedding. Mostly this was out by the hotel pool [2 Pictures] (where there was some excitement when a hat blew off and landed on a roof - rescued by a staff member with a pool skimmer [8 Pictures]). I also took a third walk of the day, a much shorter one first east along the waterfront then to a small grocery store to pick up some bottles of water. Later, we met friends for an enjoyable dinner at a restaurant called Mediterraneo [4 Pictures], then visited with them and a larger group until late in the evening [2 Pictures].
Saturday, June 24, 2023 - Cádiz, Spain
This was the day the trip was built around: Callie and Jaime's wedding. Still, we had a good chunk of the day before any of that began. We met up for a mid-morning breakfast, then took a walk out toward the Castillo de San Sebastián [27 Pictures][17 People Pictures]. This was our first time actually getting right down to the ocean in Spain. The weather was still hot, sunny, and windy. We rested a bit for the mid afternoon, got a small, late lunch at the hotel pool's snack bar, then got prepared to go off to the wedding. We took a taxi over and arrived at the Iglesia San Francisco at the Convent of St. Francis in plenty of time to get to our seats. The church is fairly small but very impressive. It was interesting to follow along with a Mass in Spanish, and the ceremony was very nice [18 Pictures][26 People Pictures]. The party started right outside with confetti and singing. We walked back to our hotel which was also the site of the reception. That began with a outdoor hors d'oerves and drinks until about 9, then we moved inside for dinner and the main reception. Things not only seem to regularly go late into the evening in Spain, but also well beyond scheduled times. The courses of the dinner arrived between about 10 and midnight, then the dance floor opened. We stayed until after 2, but the party was still going strong [7 Pictures][19 People Pictures]. Some stayed past 5 AM!
Sunday, June 25, 2023 - Cádiz, Spain, to Lisbon, Portugal
Too soon, it was time to leave Cádiz. We got a late breakfast at the hotel then packed up to check out. We put our bags in the car and walked around the city some more, mainly to find the right box to drop in some post cards. We stopped back at the Paradores and had a lucky meeting with the bride and groom and talked for a while [Picture], then met friends at the pool area for a bit and then said good byes. We got into the car around 2:00 and first headed south through Cádiz [2 Pictures] and down along the small strip of sandy land south of there. We made a quick stop to see a beach before we got into San Fernando [10 Pictures][People Picture]. In San Fernando, we stopped for gas, then again near where the bride and groom from yesterday's wedding live and work [8 Pictures], then went into the middle of the town to get some pizza and pasta at a small restaurant called Pizzeria la Pala [2 Pictures]. We enjoyed our meals, and were on our way for real around 4:00. Just the drive from there: north past Jerez on A-4, which led to some smaller (and slower) roads for a bit. By this time, the car was showing temps of 42-43°C, well over 100° F. The car's A/C was keeping up. Some confusion reading signs led us through Puerto de Sevilla for another short delay. After that, it was a much faster ride up A-66 to Mérida. This ride was pretty scenic, crossing some mountains. Another signage misread meant a short detour at Mérida, but then it was A-5 across to the border with Portugal, then A6, A12 over the Ponte Vasco de Gama right at sunset [6 Pictures], and to our hotel for the night. Melia Lisboa Aeropuerto is right next to the airport [Picture]. We parked and checked in, then I returned the car over at the airport and walked back. After settling in, we got a small, late dinner at the hotel bar. [79 Pictures from the Roads]
Monday, June 26, 2023 - Lisbon, Portugal, to London, England
Our flight wasn't until mid-afternoon, but we really didn't have time to do anything in the morning while based out of the hotel right next to the airport. We took our time in the morning getting organized, checked out the fitness room, and walked across the street [Picture] to a BP station convenience store for a little breakfast. It would be a very short walk to the terminal but we decided to take advantage of the hotel shuttle to avoid carrying all of our bags through multiple crosswalks on busy roads. The airport was packed. We first checked in and got boarding passes and dropped our checked luggage. Next was the first boarding pass check, then security. All were quick. Once in the international terminal area, we found a very busy food court area and ended up with a snack/small lunch from the KFC [3 Pictures]. Passport control was next, past the crazy canned fish store, and we were at our gate with a good amount of time to spare. The flight boarded almost an hour late, then when everyone was on board the announcement came that we had at least 20 minutes before we could get in line for takeoff because of heavy aircraft traffic. Lisbon seems to need a bigger airport. The delay was longer and we finally took off about 90 minutes behind schedule. At the start of the flight, we had some nice views of the Ponte Vasco da Gama [3 Pictures] then quickly got above the summer haze so there wasn't much more to see. We arrived at Heathrow about 90 minutes later than expected, then had one last delay while waiting for our gate to clear (and with a loud screeching sound filling the cabin to make it extra annoying). Once we were off, customs was quick and baggage claim wasn't bad either. By 7:45 or so we were on our way on the Underground [Picture] and met up with our friends at Wimbledon Station, got some late dinner at a burrito place near there (Tortilla, which we'd end up visiting a couple more times while in England), then got a ride with them back to their house, our home base for the first few days in London.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023 - London Area
For our first full day in London, we took the bus and train into Waterloo [2 Pictures] and walked across the Westminster Bridge to the Parliament/Big Ben area [14 Pictures][7 People Pictures]. We walked around that area and found the lines long at the Churchill War Rooms and Westminster Abbey, so didn't go into either. Instead, we walked up toward Trafalgar Square [4 Pictures] and got a great lunch from a pub called The Admiralty there [4 Pictures]. Then up to Leicester Square and onto the Underground to Kings Cross. Of course our motivation there was to find Platform 9¾. We did a little shopping in the Harry Potter store next to the "platform", and got pictures (after a long wait in line) with the cart half way through the wall [8 Pictures][14 People Pictures]. After that, it was time to make our way down to the U.S. Embassy for our short insider's tour there [4 Pictures]. It was interesting to see the place inside, even though we couldn't get to a few places on this particular day that we otherwise might have. After the tour, we returned to Vauxhall Station for a train back to Wimbledon. We sat outside to talk a bit at The Alexandra near the train station, then took a bus back to our hosts' house. After a couple hours to relax and get some laundry started, we walked to a very nice dinner at Cent Anni with our whole group.
Wednesday, June 28, 2023 - London Area
We had two things planned for this London day. The first was to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. After the bus and train [Picture] from Wimbledon, we arrived in the area a little after 10:30 with a light drizzle falling. We had a couple different vantage points and were able to see quite a bit at times [19 Pictures][People Picture]. We tried to meet up at least for a few minutes with friends from Florida who we had just seen in Cádiz and who were also in London before heading home. After the Changing of the Guard was basically done, we walked through The Green Park to Picadilly. Along there, we came across a street food market outside of St. James's Picadilly Church [Picture], where we each found something to our liking [18 Pictures][People Picture]. The rest of the day and evening was dedicated to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre [5 Pictures]. We were in the area pretty early, so we walked around a bit and I picked up some waters in a nearby grocery store when we found out that we could bring bottles in despite what the theatre's web site states. We went in a little after 1:30 for the 2:00 show and found our seats in the high and steep balcony. We were definitely looking down on the stage and didn't have a view of the very front of the stage. The show is divided into two separate admission parts with an intermission during each. The first half was great, and we had a solid 2 hours between shows to find something to eat and do other things. We walked through Chinatown to the Shake Shack for a fast food meal near Leicester Square. Stops after dinner were at the M&M's store [3 Pictures][People Picture] across the street, and at a gift shop with a lot of focus on Harry Potter. We went back in for Part 2 around 6:30 for a 7:00 curtain. We had time to check out some views from lower areas before going back up to what was quickly becoming a pretty steamy balcony [4 Pictures][5 People Pictures]. The second part was even better than the first. Everything about it was impressive. The cast was all great, but I thought those playing Scorpious, Ron, and Myrtle were the best. When the show ended after 9:30, we went around back and saw several cast members at the stage door [22 Pictures]. Once we got on our way, our walk/train/bus [Picture] was all pretty quick and we were back in Wimbledon by 11.
Thursday, June 29, 2023 - London Area
Our third and final day in central London was focused on the Tower of London. We took the train from Wimbledon to Tower Hill [Picture] and spent much of the morning checking out the Tower [19 Pictures][3 People Pictures]. We first saw the Ravens. We got into the Crown Jewels display right away (no lines to speak of early), spent a good amount of time in the White Tower, made a quick visit through the Fusilier Museum, and walked around the Battlements. After the Tower, we walked across the Tower Bridge [11 Pictures][4 People Pictures] and got lunch at an Indian Restaurant called Sala near there. Next up was a mid-afternoon Uber Boat up the Thames to Vauxhall [12 Pictures][People Picture]. For something different, we returned to Wimbledon by bus instead of train. It took longer, especially with traffic, but it was good to see a little more outside of Wimbledon and central London [14 Pictures][People Picture]. We got back to Wimbledon late afternoon. In the evening, we walked with our hosts and another person in town to the Hand in Hand pub for a nice dinner. I finished the evening with a conversion of a 6-page paper to a 2-page abstract..
Friday, June 30, 2023 - Wimbledon, Gatwick, and Brighton, England
We needed to move out of our friends' house for the last two nights [Picture]. In the morning, I went into the village [Picture] and I enjoyed meeting up with a Travel Mapping contributor I've known for years through the project but never met in person. In the early afternoon, we ordered an Uber to our hotel near Gatwick. Traffic was heavy but this was much easier than the alternatives on buses and trains and not too much more expensive [8 Pictures]. After a late (and slow) lunch at the hotel restaurant, we got into our room then headed over to the airport's train station. We decided to take a short afternoon/evening trip to Brighton. This involved the very much not free shuttle to the airport terminal, which is also home to the Gatwick train station. Once there, we bought our round-trip tickets to Brighton. We got onto a Southern Railways train that turned out not to stop in Brighton, so we got off to switch to a correct train when almost there in Preston Park [3 Pictures]. In any case, we got there. We started at a Bread Shop [4 Pictures] at the train station, then started our walk around the city. We first made our way, just out of luck, to the North Laine Bazaar [2 Pictures], then across to the Grand Parade, where we walked by a street fair being set up in Victoria Gardens and the Royal Pavilion [4 Pictures]. We arrived at the shore [8 Pictures][11 People Pictures, 1 Movie] as it got colder and windier, and walked out on Brighton Pier. Not my kind of place, but it was attracting a good number of people for a bad weather evening. We walked down onto pebbly Brighton Beach to touch the English Channel. The surf was really up, whipped up by the wind. When we had enough down there, we walked west along the shore in what was now a wind-driven drizzle to West St. and Queens Rd. which would take us back up to the train station. We got some food at another Tortilla restaurant there, and grabbed a candy bar from the Sainstead's. After that, the rain had stopped and we worked our way up to the station. We had about 25 minutes before the next Thameslink train, which we boarded when it arrived. We were back at the hotel near Gatwick for the night by a little after 9.
Saturday, July 1, 2023 - Gatwick and Greenwich, England
For our last day in the London area, we considered a lot of possibilities. Many were either prohibitively expensive or involved a lot more time on trains and buses than we wanted. So we decided to head back up into London with our goal being Greenwich. This involved quite a bit of confusing travel: the hotel loop bus, a train to London Bridge [Picture], Underground to North Greenwich by the O2 Arena (on the Jubilee line approaching this station, we crossed into the eastern hemisphere for the first time on this trip), then a bus into Greenwich itself. We walked around the area [13 Pictures] and got some snacks [2 Pictures]. We saw the Cutty Sark but didn't go in [9 Pictures], and wandered through the Greenwich Market and other things nearby. At Greenwich Park, we walked through a public art display and past the Queen's House (which is closed on Saturdays but definitely looked to be hosting a very high-end wedding). Our main destination was the Royal Observatory, which straddles the Prime Meridian. We walked up the hill, bought our tickets, and did the tour. Of course we took our pictures at 0°, and also looked through each of the other buildings [24 Pictures][13 People Pictures]. Once done there, we went back into the business district near the Cutty Sark for some gelato. Then it was a walk to the Maze Hill station and working our way back, via London Bridge station, to Gatwick for the night [3 Pictures]. We kept it simple in the evening and got some dinner at the hotel restaurant then got some things organized to make morning packing easier.
Sunday, July 2, 2023 - Gatwick, England, to Amsterdam, New York, via Montréal, Québec
We learned first thing in the morning that our flight would be delayed about an hour, so we were able to take our time more than expected. We got our hotel breakfast then took the bus to the terminal. There was a bit of a line for checking bags, then almost no line for security. We had about an hour in the common area with shops and restaurants and got some snacks before we were able to proceed to our gate. The process at the gate was slow as everyone was first processed into a holding area then eventually boarded [2 Pictures]. We were delayed further on the tarmac waiting for our turn to take off. Finally we were in the air a little before 1:30. The flight itself was good [5 Pictures], but we had neighbors just behind us who were coughing and sneezing and generally being germ factories, which made the whole thing a lot less pleasant than it should have been. And surprise, we sounded like them in a couple days... The flight ended up getting in about 90 minutes late, as we were getting off the plane at almost 4 EDT. We had a little trouble with the automated machines at customs to enter Canada but it didn't really slow us down. We still got to bag claim before our flight's bags had started coming out. They came soon after and we were on our way out. The shuttle bus to the parking lot was waiting and left soon after we got on. We found the car and got going. Things were a little hazy and smoky in Montréal as we drove past the city center and worked our way to A-15. That was quick until we hit U.S. Customs where the only two open general purpose lanes were backed up 15-20 cars each. It took us a half hour to get to the officer, then we were sent through quickly. We stopped for our first American meal in a while at the Five Guys in Plattsburgh. After that just a quick Stewart's stop and we got in just before 10. Just about 19 hours in transit. [12 Pictures from the Roads]