On Friday September 27th, I  left my Airbnb in London, then took three trains from London to Germany.

My Airbnb kitchen

 Airbnb living room

Airbnb living room

It was a long day but cool to check out the countryside and various countries. The high-speed trains here travel in excess of 300 miles per hour, so it only takes 2 hours each from London to Paris, Paris to Luxembourg, and about an hour from Luxembourg to Trier, Germany.

Eurostar: London to Paris

My Eurostar train from London to Paris was delayed, which made me very nervous about possibly missing my train from Paris to Luxembourg. Thankfully, a passenger behind me overheard my discussion with the conductor and offered to help. As soon as we arrived in Paris, I had to change to another station (also in Paris) which was a 10-minute walk away. He said it's easy to get lost on the way there, and suggested taking the Metro which is Paris' subway, to the next train station instead. He gave me his extra ticket, and we ran to my next train, which wasn't easy with 25 lb on my back and about 7 lb on my front.  so thankful to this kind, older British guy from being such a gentleman. First time I've ever hugged a total stranger.  I also had a very weird hamburger on my train from Paris to Luxembourg... but hey, it was food!

 No, that is not Fred Armisen.

Waiting for my next train in Luxembourg

About 6 hours, and a shit ton of second-hand cigarette smoke later, I arrived in Trier (the oldest city in Germany), realizing the town was too small to have Uber and not finding a taxi in site, I often to walk nearly a mile to my hotel. Gave me an excuse to explore the town a little bit. I also got a chance to try Currywurst for the first time, which I actually dig!

Finally arrived at my hotel, which was a Rick Steves the selection and doubles as a retirement community, unpacked at it, did some laundry and just crashed.  well I get the concept of having your property do double duty to make extra money, it's a bit of a weird concept to share lodging with an assisted living facility. There are odd things in my room, such as a emergency pull cord in the shower, and emergency called button throughout the room.  looking forward to staying at a normal hotel.

Don't pull the red cord! It doesn't summon a hot guy!

Saturday morning, I got ready and met up with our tour guide and several folks from my group for breakfast. From there, I went out and explored Trier for several hours, seeing all kinds of quirky stuff along the way.

That's Karl Marx on the crossing light

What does he do? Lick you to death?

and a ton of dogs--including one who I'm convinced the owner uses as a way to lure people into his shoe shop.

Luna, the shoe shop dog

I had been craving schnitzel since I arrived in Europe, and found a great place that was highly rated by Yelp reviews and fellow group members and had a nice late lunch. All of this for only 15 Euros, not too shabby!

Later that day I met up with my tour group for an orientation, intros and from there we did a brief walking tour of Trier, followed by dinner at Zum Domstein, which was sub par in my opinion. I guess you can't expect and really high quality dinner when they are cooking en masse. Got to know some really cool gals in my group (and we have at least three nurses in the group that I know of), from there, we went to a local cathedral to check out a really cool light show. We headed back to the hotel, and to help us plan for each day, our tour guide posts a sign at the front desk of the hotel,  including language tips.

Poor guy has a lot to deal with trying to corral 28 adults, but I am looking forward to the next two weeks with this group, they seem like a lot of fun!

My European Tour, Part Deux

A year and a half ago, I came to Europe on a solo trip to London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. This time around  I'm joining a Rick Steve's tour of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Nice to have someone else plan out all the details for a change! I will see how I like the group tour structure. If not, I will go back to doing my own thang. Thinking of England, plus Ireland and Scotland for my next trip.

Leaving Portland

Leaving Portland

As with the last trip, I first flew from Portland to Seattle, then from Seattle to Heathrow. I could have flown into Frankfurt since the tour starts in Germany, but the airfare was outrageous, so I decided instead to fly Virgin Atlantic into London again. Plus, I just love the Brits and really dig London!

I love how Virgin Atlantic names all their planes with female pop culture icons and similar. My plane for this flight was Birthday Girl, and they also have in West End girl playing that was inspired by the Pet Shop Boys. Unfortunately, no birthday cake was on board the Birthday Girl flight. Step it up, Virgin! :) 

My home for the next 9 hours

While the service and food on my Virgin Atlantic flight were as good as the last, the flight was so bumpy that it was impossible to sleep, which meant I arrived in London feeling like a total zombie. Thankfully, Virgin Atlantic has a lounge where you can shower, change etc. Helps you feel somewhat human again. (Yes, they clean them after each person! Of course I asked that question because I'm a bit of a germaphobe. The Virgin staff laughed at me, which I sort of expected.)

From there, I navigated through Heathrow to the train and took a very long ride to Covent Garden--cheaper than Uber, but took forEVER. Still had my Oyster Transit card from my last trip, which still had money on it. Woot! Everyone's complaining about the cool rainy weather here, but it's exactly like Portland right now. Rookies!

I arrived in Covent Garden, dropped my bag at a local business that is signed up for or a service called Stasher (they stow your bags in lieu of a locker while you do other things), and I was on my way to exploring Covent Garden. No way in hell I'm I'm carrying around at 25 lb backpack while I window shop!

Afternoon tea for one at Brigit's Bakery

Really cute little area with funky little shops and restaurants, including Brigit's Bakery, where I had a lovely afternoon tea!

After I was done with that, I was feeling completely exhausted and decided to just contact my Airbnb host to see if I could check in earlier than planned. I was literally falling asleep in my Uber on the way there. It's so important to sleep on those redeye flights--maybe next time I'll try sleeping meds...?

Tomorrow, it's a full day of train rides from London to Trier, Germany. Looking forward to it, but starting to realize I'm not as young as I used to be. The backpack is definitely harder to carry than last time! Same weight, too. Off to bed!

My upcoming Rick Steves tour route: