Email sent June 11, 2022
Alicia and I told our kids that when they turn 12, they can choose a destination in the US to visit with a parent of their choice, and then when they turn 16, they would go with the other parent anywhere in the world. Adria and I had things booked in May of 2020 for her 16 year old trip, but of course that didn't happen, so we went this year instead (and Rella and I will be in South America in July for her 16 year old trip).
Adria and I are flying home right now (currently flying over Tennessee, will have a layover in Atlanta) and wanted to send out a travel log and a few pictures (low quality on purpose for emailing on airline wifi...I have better versions for Dropbox) if anybody would like to see.
Thursday, May 26 2022: USA
Left on Thursday, May 26. Flight was supposed to leave around 8:30pm, but then got delayed to 10:30pm or so. We saw my rheumatologist doctor at the airport, she and her family were on the same flight. It was funny to see each other without masks on for the first time. We flew directly to London, landing on Friday May 27 in the afternoon.
Friday, May 27 2022: UK (London)
We took the Heathrow Express and then the tube to our hotel (Marriott Marble Arch), and got settled in. We didn’t have any activities scheduled for Friday night, we just walked around Hyde Park, Westminster / South Bank areas, Chinatown, and we found a gelato chain (Amorino) that would end up being our best friend in both UK and Paris. Chinese for dinner.
Saturday, May 28 2022 (Happy Birthday Dad/Grandpa!): UK (London)
We went on a London Tower tour, and got to see the exact spot where our 7x (?) great-grandfather Sir Thomas More was beheaded, as well as the chapel on White Hill (?) where his tomb is located. Lots of history and cool info, and finished up the tour walking across the top of Tower Bridge. Then we went to the Tate Modern, one of my favorite art museums. We walked around St. Paul's Cathedral, but didn’t go inside because the queue for tickets was too long. In the evening we saw “Come From Away”, a musical about when 38 planes and 7,000 people had to do an emergency landing, and then stay for several days, at a little town called Gandor in Canada after the attacks on 9/11.
Sunday, May 29 2022: UK (London)
We went to the Hyde Park Chapel for church, and then did a lot of walking around Hyde Park. A lot of things around Buckingham Palace and other areas were shut off as they were preparing for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee on June 2. We went to the National Gallery (after getting caught in a rain storm), and saw some more art. Then we went to Queen Mary’s gardens. For dinner, we went to a Brazilian Churrascaria (sp?), it was fun to speak to the restaurant staff in Portuguese.
Monday, May 30 2022: UK (London)
Adria went for a run in Hyde Park (she did this most every day while in London, and loved it). We went to the British Museum, the Design Museum, walked through Holland Park, and in the evening had dinner and went to see Phantom of the Opera.
Tuesday, May 31 2022: UK (London)
We went to the London nCino office (my parent company) to get a quick office tour and see some of my co-workers that I occasionally have some meetings with. Then we went to St. Paul’s Cathedral (got tickets to see the inside and climb to the roof), which was really cool. Then we went back to the National Gallery, because we hadn’t seen everything we wanted to last time before closing time.
Wednesday, June 1 2022: UK (London)
We walked around some other parts of London (Mount Street Gardens, Southwark Park), and then headed to the O2, which is a big mall / stadium / arena for events. We hiked on the top of the arena, which was pretty cool, you have a nice 360-degree view of everything around. Then we did the Emirates Air Line ride, which is like a ski-lift type ride / public transport across the Thames. After that, we took a river shuttle on the Thames to get us closer to our hotel. We went back to our hotel room to recharge our phones and rest just a few minutes, then we went to Wembley Stadium to watch the Italy vs. Argentina soccer game. It was so crazy to see 87K people so into a soccer game! We watched Messi and other famous players as Argentina won 3-0. We made it back to a neighborhood where we could get a late dinner at Five Guys before everything shut down for the night, and went back to our hotel.
Thursday, June 2 2022: UK > France (Paris)
The whole country was starting their Platinum Jubilee festivities to celebrate Queen Elizabeth being queen for 70 years. It was actually pretty cool to see all the patriotic feelings and respect people have for the queen. We went to St. Pancras International train station, thinking we had plenty of time to catch the Eurostar. But the line was (no joke) 100x longer than the previous times I had taken this train. We would have missed the train if it had departed on the scheduled time, but it ended up being delayed by 2.5 hours. So after a whole lot of standing around, we finally left the UK and headed to Paris. Arriving in Paris, we took the Metro to our hotel, and got checked in. Then we grabbed some dinner and walked around a bit, then got to bed.
Friday, June 3 2022: France (Paris)
In the morning we went through the Catacombs of Paris, which is an old underground rock quarry that was converted in the 1700s into an ossuary to store the bones of 6 million people, mostly people that had been buried at cathedral plots that needed to be relocated. After that we went to the Eiffel Tower. They stopped letting people buy tickets to the summit right before it was our turn, but we still enjoyed taking the stairs to the 2nd level and seeing the great views from there. After that, we walked around the Musée du Quai Branly, which Adria had done a report on at school. Then we went through the Musée d’Orsay, another one of my favorite museums. (And bought an umbrella while in the ticket line…I think all my umbrellas I’ve ever purchased were bought on a trip when it started to rain suddenly.) In the evening, we went to the apartment of the Hamills, a family that was in our ward in California. We knew them well, and Adria babysat their kids quite often. It was super fun to see them and their kids, and to hear about their life in Paris. After that, we walked around the Seine again. We walked around the Pantheon and a few other areas on the way back to the hotel.
Saturday, June 4 2022: France (Paris)
After Adria’s morning run, we took the metro for a bit, quickly went through part of an open air market, and visited another family we knew from the California ward that also lives in Paris now, the Alvarez family. (Adria also babysat their kids a lot.) We had lunch there, and chatted for quite a while. They will be headed back to the states later this summer, but plan on moving back to Paris in a few years because they love it so much. After visiting the Alvarezes, we went through Luxembourg Garden, then in the early afternoon we went through Sainte-Chapelle, which is a beautiful little cathedral with amazing stain glass windows. While there, a man walked through the crowd, up to a piano at the center of the front, and the crowd hushed. Phones were pulled out, videos capturing the moment. A single percussive note rings out, continues on a steady beat. Then the pianist pulls out a tool, tunes the string, and continues to the next note. Adria and I laughed pretty hard at that, and how long other people were confused at this strange musical number.
Sunday, June 5 2022: France (Paris)
Although we could have gone to a 12:30pm ward in English, we went to church at 10am, the one that our friends attend. I picked out words here and there, and Adria understood pretty much everything. After church, we went through the Museum of Paris, and the Place de Vosges, which is a nice plaza where Victor Hugo lived. We then went on a boat tour on the Seine, and after that we went to the Pompidou Center, another museum I like that has great unique modern architecture too.
Monday, June 6 2022: France (Paris) > Italy (Cinque Terre)
We woke up early to head to the Paris airport, and flew to Genoa Italy. We took a taxi to city center, grabbed some pizza for lunch, and then took a train to Monterosso, one of the “Five Lands” or "Cinque Terre" in Italian, that we would be visiting for the next few days. This would be a quite different experience than London and Paris…these little villages didn’t even have a road or railway system until relatively recently, they are 5 little towns on the Mediterranean connected by hiking trails. We did a few little hikes around Monterosso, got dinner, and headed to bed.
Tuesday, June 7 2022: Italy (Cinque Terre)
Adria went for her morning run, but there wasn’t very far to go within our village. We had breakfast at the hotel, and then set out for some hiking. We didn’t really know what to expect, so we figured we’d go at least to the next village and see how we were feeling. But at the end of the day, we hiked between all of the 5: Monterosso to Vernazza, then to Corniglia, on to Manarola, and finally to Riomaggiore. It was about 12 miles total distance, with some pretty intense elevation gain (lots of steps up, and then eventually back down). We took the train back to Monterosso, We swam in the Mediterranean a bit, relaxed on the beach, and then showered and went to dinner. Back at the hotel we watched an episode of Obi-Wan.
Wednesday, June 8 2022: Italy (Cinque Terre)
Having done all the main trails yesterday, we wanted to explore some of the higher routes that are less commonly traveled. So we took the train to Riomaggiore, and hiked up a steep trail to a cross roads that ended up being less of a destination spot than we anticipated, so we took a loop trail down that ended up totally around 8 miles for the day. Then we grabbed a late lunch and took the train back to Monterosso for some more swimming and beach time.
Thursday, June 9 2022: Italy (Roadtrip)
We checked out of the hotel, took the train (and then taxi) to La Spezia, where we rented a car for a massive road trip. This was my first experience driving internationally, and I admit I was pretty nervous. We drove from La Spezia to Pisa, parked for a quick photo op at the leaning tower, and then went from Pisa to Florence for lunch, and then on to Bologna where we just drove through the city. Then we went to a town called Adria! Adria Italy has a history going back to 1,000 BC, and is now a very cute little non-touristy city of about 20,000 people. We walked around a lot of the town, saw the cathedrals and a few other interesting things, grabbed dinner and some artisan cookies, and then got back into the car to drive further east to the Adriatic Sea. We put our hands in the warm ocean water, took a bunch of pictures, and then drove to Milan, getting to our hotel right at midnight.
Friday, June 10 2022: Italy (Milan)
We returned the rental car, got our Covid tests required to head back to the US (then found out a few hours later that the US won’t require those tests as of Sunday…so not any help for our trip through), and took the train into Milan (although our hotel is at the “Milan Airport”, it is still a 1.5 hour trek from our hotel to the center of Milan). We went through the Duomo (main cathedral), the Duomo Museum, walked through the pricy design district, and had dinner before taking trains and a taxi back to our hotel.
Saturday, June 11 2022: Italy (Milan) > USA
We went to the airport in the morning. Our flight sat on the tarmac for about an hour before taking off, and then (as I’m writing this) we flew to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to Salt Lake, with a scheduled arrive around 9pm.
It was a very fun trip, but we’re excited to come!
Love,
Shane and Adria
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