2009 Travel

So, it's the start of a new year. One of the primary reasons for moving to London was to explore more of Europe. Since moving here, I've been to Geneva, Zurich, Paris, Nice / South of France, Edinburgh, Cambridge, South coast of England / Isle of Wight, and a few different areas closer in to London. In addition to travel that I have planned back to the States during the remainder of my trip, I want to experience at least the following:

• Ireland -- the cities and pubs, but just as importantly, the countryside
• Eastern Europe -- Possibly some combination of Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic
• Greece -- No ideas exactly where yet
• Egypt -- I know little about it, but why not give it a try?
• Skiing in the Alps
• Skiing in Eastern Europe
• Iceland
• Norway

...and anything else that comes up that seems particularly interesting and remotely affordable.

I'd also like to run a marathon over here this year. London's not going to happen for me this spring, as I would have needed to sign up with a charity by now. Paris had been a remote possibility this spring, but I'm leaning more toward a fall marathon at this point. Perhaps Berlin.

Given I used a substantial amount of vacation in the past few weeks and I'm planning to use more than a week in June for a trip with the family, I don't think any of these could be week-long trips. Rather, they will need to be weekends or long weekends.

My first possibility is skiing in the Alps. Nathan, a friend who studied over here several years ago, recommended several places about 40 miles away from Geneva. After looking online, they appear to be quite promising, and there are even ski-in, ski-out B&Bs with completely reasonable prices. I'm seriously considering booking a weekend trip either the weekend of January 24th or sometime in late February. I have no desire to coordinate a large group, and think it'd be fun to do either alone or with just a few friends. If you're interested in joining me, let me know in the next few days...

Also, any other thoughts or can't-miss places? Let me know!

New Years week

During the Chicago Marathon weekend, a friend and I had somewhat joked about traveling to France at some point. Over the interim months, talking occasionally, we decided to actually book the trip. We had four days in the south of France, followed by two in Paris and two in London. I'm now back in London, back to the reality of work and everything here.

South of France
We flew into Nice on Sunday afternoon, after a layover at Heathrow. Our adventures began with Julie navigating with the GPS while I tried my less-than-professional manual skills with a compact diesel on very narrow, very hilly streets in Cagnes-sur-mer. We eventually got to the hotel without too much damage to life, limb, vehicle, or sanity. It was a probably six-room or so bed & breakfast in a small town about a 15 minute drive away from downtown Nice -- much quieter and further away from the crowds, but also further away from the activity. We found a great place for dinner that first night, just up the road, then crashed.

On our first full day in the country, we toured the Villa Rothschild, drove along the coast, had lunch in the village of Eze on the cliffs over the water, toured Monaco at sunset, and ended up in Nice for dinner along the Promenade.

For our second full day, we set out with an itinerary with a set of five wineries for some tastings in Provence. In doing our research the previous night, we realized a peculiar thing about France -- whereas we are used to having specific addresses for anywhere we would go, they have at most a street name and a city posted on their websites -- not so useful for the GPS. Regardless, we got to Chateau de Berne, which was amazing -- they have a hotel, restaurant, and event center on site for weddings and the like in the summer, but we were literally the only people there for our tasting. The sommelier spent at least 90 minutes talking us through nine different wines, the region, and everything. Granted, we have essentially opposite tastes -- Julie was all excited by the rose and white wines, while I loved the fuller bodied cabernet / shiraz blends toward the end of the tasting. We then went to a smaller vineyard where the single woman there spoke limited English, but recommended a third place that we had not found online the previous night. It was similar to the first, and we joined up with a group of four Brits for a tour of the vineyards, 30m-deep wine cellar, and tastings. After this, we continued on to Cannes to explore the town and have dinner, before going back and crashing for another night.

On New Years Eve, we explored Old Nice, tasted olive oils, and visited the Musee Chagall. We returned to the hotel in the afternoon to begin planning our time in Paris and to recover a bit before dinner. Now, the B&B owners were staying there along with several other guests -- they put on appetizers, champagne, and the like beginning at about 6pm. We all just sat around a fire, talked, and generally relaxed for a while before heading off to an Italian place for dinner. This was at most an 8-table restaurant, right up the street from the hotel. When we had checked in, our hostess called to make our reservation. Stephan, the restaurant owner, came out to greet us, take our orders, cook the meals, and everything. It was a phenomenal experience! Just before midnight, we returned to the hotel to ring in the new year with the other guests and some more champagne.

New Years Day had a much slower start, followed by our flight to Paris. After we checked into our hotel there, we went out to see the Eiffel Tower at night and to have dinner nearby.

Paris
On Friday, we had by far our most energetic day to ate. We had an early breakfast at the Renaissance before getting to the Louve. We got into the museum shortly after it opened, saw the Mona Lisa, saw a few other sites, and were on our way to our next stop within barely more than an hour! Throughout the day we toured the Arc de Triumph, Champs Elysses, the Eiffel Tower in sunlight, the Latin Quarter (unbelievable bistros!), had the world's best macaroons, and toured the Musee d'Orsay, all before dinner! It was a fun whirlwind tour, but we definitely could have enjoyed another day or two there, as well.

On Saturday, we visited the Musee Rodin, before taking the EuroStar back here to London. We spent some time out with friends on Saturday night here, then explored Brick Lane on Sunday, before facing up to the reality of a new work week, with Julie returning to the States yesterday morning as I took the tube back to the office.

As we suspected, we are very different people -- I enjoyed the south more, while I think Julie was more a fan of the bigger cities. I had red wine every night, while Julie had white. I navigate by maps, whereas she does by GPS and next-step directions. We are definitely very different people who want different things, yet it was still a great, relaxing, fun trip that I'm absolutely glad to have taken!

Christmas week

After a snowy late night drive across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, I got home to Mechanicsburg and collapsed at 2am or so on the Sunday morning before Christmas.

Over the next few days, I caught up with family and friends, did all of my Christmas shopping, cooked for the family, read a bit, and just generally relaxed.

Sunday evening, the Renshaw family got together at my grandmother's, where we all had pizza, caught up, and I had the opportunity to meet Cassidy, my newest cousin! All of us cousins then ended up at Karen & Gene's (and Cashew's place, too...) for some Wii sports!

On Monday night, I caught up with Bill, Andy, and Jared for the first time since Bill's wedding. Now, for perspective, all three of them have purchased and moved into their houses within the past seven months, so I'd seen none of their places. This ended up being the Harrisburg area home tour! Andy and I met at his place when he got home from work, then we met up with Bill, Jolene, Jared, and Jen at the ABC for dinner, before visiting Bill & Jo's house, then ending up at Jared & Jen's for some amazing cookies and good ol' fashioned Monday Night Football.

We had all the normal family traditions for Christmas Eve dinner and mass, followed by the family gift exchanges on Christmas Day. It was great to see everyone again, spend time together, and yes, even to see Santa!

Saturday afternoon, after a week of relaxation and visiting with friends and family, I was back in a car, driving to New York before the next leg of the trip...

New York

In early December, I realized that I had a unique opportunity. Half of the team for my current work project is based out of New York, and I work with them regularly enough that it made sense to spend time with them in person rather than on the phone for a few days. With that as my justification, I changed my previously booked Christmas travel plans to return to the States a week early. I ended up working out of my client's midtown office for the last week before Christmas, rather than from here in London.

Whereas I'd originally expected to see at most one or two people and spend all of 12 hours in NYC, Kai ended up being incredibly gracious and letting me crash at her place for a full week. I still worked during the days, but it was a great opportunity to catch up with friends over lunches, dinners, Christmas parties, and the like. We did sushi lunches in midtown, John's Pizza twice, Italian in the city, PF Changs with Kai, Sam, and Susan, a slice from Benny Tudino's after a beer at the Goldhawk, and a few other places as well.

Oh, and what would a week in New York have been without the obligatory Road Runners race? Thank you to Steve for driving me up to Central Park on a snowy, 20 degree morning to do our 15k run... the snow on the trees, the CNN sign showing 23 degrees during the race, the fact that they collected our chips before we even got to the start line... it was great!

After a dinner at a midtown bistro that Saturday night, I got into a rental car and drove down to Mechanicsburg to spend Christmas week with the family.

My most substantial realization during this week happened on an early Sunday morning run, my first weekend in town. As I was running through the quiet streets of Hoboken, I realized for the first time how much that area had started to become my home. In some ways, it felt more like I belonged there, having returned after six months abroad, than it ever had when I actually lived in the area. Much can happen in the next year, and it is by no means certain that I will be returning to New York following this time in London, but I did realize that as much as being in London now is the right choice, I will at some point want to be closer to home -- whether in the NY area or in another east coast city.