London: Sightseeing

My first visit to London was in 1995. It was brief and I had my first case of major jetlag.
When my cousin Cody moved there I decided it was time to give it another visit.
London proved challenging to find decent budget accommodations. The prices are up there with New York prices (or higher). We settled on paying a bit more for a room in an Victoria Townhouse near Kensington Gardens. We weren’t too far from the tube and in walking distance to Notting Hill and many attractions. Our room had this lovely terrace.

The hotel was called the London Vicarage Hotel. I just learned that the hotel just closed November 2014 after 50 years of service. It really was a great location and you felt like you were living in another time in history.
To start our sightseeing we started at the nearby Victoria and Albert Museum. It was a great museum that is free to visit (they have a donation box). There was a David Bowie costume exhibit that I really wanted to see but it was hard to get a time to visit and I couldn’t get my companions to go with me (and it cost $$). We did get to see this amazing Chihuly chandelier though.

My cousin met up with us at the museum and we did a tour of the place then went out for a walk in Kensington Gardens (Connected to Hyde Park – Central Park in NY is the equivalent of Hyde and Kensington Gardens combined).

It was a nice walk on a cold sunny day. There are many trails for use. My cousin and I decided we never want to grow up and posed by the Peter Pan statue.

Later we met up with Randy and had dinner at a french restaurant. Côte is a chain restaurant in London but provided the service and quality of a fancy french brasserie.

Another day we wander around town and I have to point out places of interest.

Millennium Bridge

Walking along the Thames

Big Ben

Houses of Parliament

More Big Ben

Westminster Abbey

Paddington Station (with Paddington Bear)

The Regent’s Park

It was a nice time to visit family and enjoy everything that London has to offer.

Taj Mahal

During my trip to India earlier this year I got to visit the Taj Mahal twice. For the first visit the company that was hosting us chartered a bus to take us. For the second visit my husband and I had a private tour.

The Great gate

Calligraphy

And there it is after crossing through the gate.

You have to wear show covers to walk inside.

Very detailed stone work.

Minaret

The mosque

Side building

Later they took us to see stone artisans in action.

And there is always an opportunity to buy.

Biltmore

During last summer’s trip to Asheville we took a day to explore the Biltmore estate. It was a great way to spend the day and the weather couldn’t have been better (most of the day anyway). I thoroughly enjoyed touring the house; my favorite was touring the server’s quarters and the kitchen area. Sorry no pictures inside were allowed (although I was just about the only one following the rules). The estate area is vast and has magnificent views of the mountain range nearby. While you are there be sure to tour the gardens and greenhouse at your leisure. It was a real treat as well.

After touring the grounds we drove over for our Biltmore winery tour and a free wine tasting. Most of the wines made there are drinking wines. There weren’t too many that I wanted to purchase but the ones I did were in the $30-50 range!! We did pick up a couple mid-range bottles to take home and I since I wasn’t driving Itreated myself to the Biltmore premium wine tasting :).

Later on we met up with our friends and had dinner at their local mexican joint Nachos and Beer (yes that is the name). The tacos and side salad I ordered was delicious and a great size for the money. They also have local craft beer on draft. I can see why this is one of their favorite places to take the family.

My friends husband was nice enough to watch the kids for the evening so my friend could come with us to try some local breweries. More about that later……

Night in Barcelona

Tonight is the last night of enjoyment we have in Barcelona. Whatever illness we get hits C first. At first it is funny because he is usually the one with all the stamina and I am the person with low energy. He starts dragging behind and is having a hard time keeping up with me. He jokes that I am a force to be reckoned with after me completing my first half marathon, which I recently did. Then it catches up with me this evening, whatever ails us. I learn I am getting sick when I try to eat tapas in a late night restaurant tonight. C can’t even come into the restaurant and remains outside on a bench. I look down at what I believe to be the most disgusting plate of food I have ever laid eyes on. We are hotel bound for the rest of our Barcelona trip. However before that we have a nice evening stroll around the city. It is quite beautiful at night.

The streets were preparing for the Barcelona marathon for the following morning.

Plaça d’Espanya

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya

Magic Fountains near Placa d’Espanya

Luckily we were there on a night that they had a musical light show at the fountain. We wandered around the fountain and enjoyed the show.

It is Whitney Houston tribute night.

We enjoyed our last real evening of the trip. The rest was mostly hotel room bound. After this trip we have discovered the art of probiotics while traveling. Probiotics have saved us from illness on many other trips since. We even survived a couple weeks in India!!
The illness has put Barcelona back on the list to must visit because there was so much more to see there. I hope one day to visit again.

Khajuraho

After our visit to the holy city of Varanasi we flew to Khajuraho to learn about Jain religion and a whole other side of Hinduism.

This little bitty Spicejet plane we took to Khajuraho from Varanasi was one of the nicest forms of transportation that we experienced in India. The one hour flight was very comfortable. We were pretty much the only English speaking tourists on the plane.

After our comfortable flight we had another long car ride to our hotel in Khajuraho. Everything in India is a long car ride away. The scenes on the way are quite like the pictures below. Most Indians are poor and have a very hard life. They lack what we would consider basic necessities like a toilet and sewage system. You will see many men relieving themselves on the side of the road (number 1 and number 2). Visiting there was a very eye opening experience. We really don’t know how great we have it in the United States.

Also typical, cow dung is saved into round “plates” and used as burning fuel.

Soon we are back to the luxury of our 5 star hotel again since we are rich Americans. (Note: We are not really rich but nice hotels like these are cheap to stay at for us but unobtainable for most in India)

Our hotel overlooks the temples we are able to see later.

The temples in Khajuraho were built by the Chandela dynasty from the 10th to 12th century. The dynasty eventually fell and the temples were “lost” until rediscovered by the british in the 1800’s.
The artwork on the temples is quite amazing. The western group of temples are most famous for their erotic images. We started with a smaller temple and worked our way around.

Vishnu’s Varaha Temple (boar)

We then explored the other temples with all the detailed images. Each depiction had a story behind it.

We then moved on to view the exterior of the other temples. We notice stories being played out in stone like the one below where a man looks like he is being torn apart.

And this very voluptuous woman.

Ganesha is everywhere.

Scene after scene appears on the walls.

One of the smaller temples nearby.

This lady is showing this little man or doctor the splinter in her foot.

Soon things get interesting. We get to see what the temples are really famous for. They are know for their erotic religious scenes. It is believed that this sect of Hinduism used sexual energy to bring them closer to god.

The time of day was great to watch the sunlight drape over the temples. All in all it was a great day to visit. We did later visit a group of Jain temples but they were soon to close and we rushed through them. I unfortunately did not get any pictures. I will say that the Jain monks have very strict diets and a sect of them spend time naked. You can read more about it here.