A little over a year ago, my husband and I decided we would get serious about traveling to Europe. I told him I had to see Venice and left it to him to decide the rest. We sat down over a beer, listed everything out and the plan began to emerge that we would start in London, train to Paris, fly to Rome, train to Florence, train to Venice, fly to Munich and then fly home. And we did it all, almost unscathed. If you know me at all, I possess an uncanny ability to create “spikes” in an experience, take people out of comfort zones and actually, my husband once pointed out that I don’t seem to understand awkward situations. I just create them as words fall out of my mouth unchecked and I remain oblivious as people begin to react. A little out there on the edge I guess you could say. But more on that later. Haha! Hey!, keeps it interesting.
Shoreditch
We left on a direct flight bound for London at 4:30P on Friday, May 4th. Instagram had provided us the chance to explore London virtually and we chose to check out an area that no one we knew back in the States seemed to recognize, Shoreditch. A highly alternative vibe, the place was perfect for Drew and I. When we landed in London, the clock had shifted 7 hours ahead so it was 7:00A on Saturday, May 5th. We took an Uber from the airport since traffic wasn’t bad and right outside our hotel/hostel, we discovered this mural. Turns out this is the side of a music venue! By the way, these photos are a mix of mine and Drew’s together!
Citizen M Hotel
Once inside, we made our way up a flight of stairs to a fully automated check-in hotel system. There was an attendant helping anyone looking as lost as we did, but once we got the hang of it, we had checked ourselves in, grabbed ourselves our own hotel keys and moved to the wildest room setup we’d seen. And get this! Turns out, the bartender toward the back has a friend who went to Texas Tech in Lubbock, of all places!
The first thing you’ll notice is that the bed is just small enough to fit wall to wall so the actual hotel room wall was our headboard and footboard. The fun fuschia-colored light to the right of the photo is a frosted plexiglass formation that stood as both the shower and the bathroom. The smallest room I’d ever seen, this place fascinated the hell out of me. Talk about efficiency (I talk about that in my career a lot).
The London Tower Bridge
We made our way to the London Tower Bridge and over it for lunch on the waterside as we stared back at this incredible piece of history. You’ll find that through my blogs I am launching certain images for print sale so feel free to check them out if you’re looking to decorate your home or office space! The architecture of this thing is fascinating.
I caught this snap of Drew on the other side of a keyhole, a gate that separated us from a huge beautiful park. We roamed around and found our way down empty alley-ways, castles and back to the park after a pit stop for some prosecco, olives and wasabi peas. Look, it sounded good! Drew kept an awesome photo log of all the different beers he tried. We found our way into train stations and buses, even to an ancient looking building where they were playing pick-up soccer. At last, we got to the EuroRail to head off to Paris on Monday, May 7th.
