Final Snap Shots of Europe 2015

We are leaving for Taipei, Taiwan in one week.  I finally admitted to myself that I'm not going to write my final posts about Europe.  As a compromise, I'm posting snapshots.  If you are intrigued about any of these pictures, ask, and I might be able to tell you the story behind them.

Normandy Beaches

After reading so much about D-Day, Taylor is experiencing a peaceful Omaha Beach.  It's hard to believe this is the scene of the horrors of war.

The American Military Cemetery

Utah Beach. Can you see the barbed wire that is part of the landscaping?

Mont Saint-Michel Abbey
This is a huge tourist attraction.  The good part of this is it is easy to get to.  The bad part is that it is over run with people who are not on a religious pilgrimage.

Mont St-Michel rises out of the ocean.  We crossed a causeway to get to it. The village is at the bottom, and the abbey is at the top.

To get to the actual abbey, we had to work ourselves through our fellow pilgrims. It was a steep up  hill march through lots of gift shops, bakeries, restaurants, hotels, bars.....

On our way down from the abbey, we took a side street where it was very peaceful, and saw charming views.

Surprisingly enough, touring the abbey was  peaceful. I guess we left the other pilgrims behind to eat, drink and shop.

Cambridge
Being with Syvart was the most important part of our visit to Cambridge.

Cambridge Botanic Garden

We stayed in the guest room at Darwin College. It was fun seeing what college life is like at The University of Cambridge.

We ate breakfast here each morning.  Can you imagine all the young scholars, in their gowns, having formal dinners here?

One afternoon, Syvart took Taylor and me on a long, leisurely walk to the village of Grantchester, right next door to Cambridge.  The walk, along a river, through wooded areas and pastures, and over a few stiles was delightful. The real prize, however, was ending at  The Orchard Tea Garden www.orchard-grantchester.com.

This was typical scenery on our walk to Grantchester.

This is what we saw when we climbed over the final stile.

Here we are having cream tea in the orchard, just like Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Maynard Keynes, Rupert Brooke and their friends.  Our conversation, of course, was intellectual and witty. I discussed literature, and Taylor and Syvart discussed economics (tongue in cheek).

London
Our trip to Hampton Court Palace deserves it's own post, but the story is long and complicated.  We eventually arrived and enjoyed snooping around one of Henry VIII's palaces.

Syvart, Iris and Taylor catching their breath in front of one of the many garden walls at Hampton Court Palace.

Now, we're on to our next adventure.  Stay tuned for Taiwan!

Little Venice, London

We rented an Airbnb apartment in the Little Venice of London.  Once again, we were overwhelmed by the charm and good fortune of our circumstances.

Douglas House, Maida Avenue.

When we walked out the front door of our building, we were greeted by this canal with barges lined up on each side.

We're having coffee right on the canal.  The cafe is in a barge.

If we walked to the right of our front door, we encountered Edgware Street.  On Edgware, if we turned left, we came to a parade of shops that pretty much looks like the streets of Westmoreland, the neighborhood where we live in Portland, Oregon.  However, if we turned to the right the parade of shops became a a chaotic foreign environment.

I guess some of the products came from Morocco.

As you can see, everything is for sale at the market - even the kitchen sink.

If we turned left from our apartment, we had our choice of two different tube stations: Warwick Road or Paddington Station.  In the jumble of streets in that area, we also discovered Clifton Nurseries.

This nursery is tucked into a block with apartment buildings surrounding the perimeter.  The buildings on the block look pretty much like the one we stayed in.  The difference being that the block must have been quite a bit larger to afford the huge area that is an urban nursery.  This nursery had every thing.

In addition to a florist and a landscape designer, there were lots of plants that I wanted to buy right then and there.

I wanted to buy this bay tree.

But the best part was a green house that was a cafe.  Taylor and I met Syvart and Iris there one afternoon for coffee.  I think it is pure genius to include a cafe in a garden center.  Gardeners always get hungry imagining the work they will have to do if they make purchases.

We were here in the late afternoon, so the lunch crowd had dispersed.

Would I stay in Little Venice again?  Absolutely. I felt like a Londoner in this neighborhood, away from the tourist crowds.