Friends and Birthdays

When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I liked doing fun things for my birthday. As I've gotten older, though, I don't really care about that anymore. I do usually end up doing something, but I won’t be sad if I don't end up doing anything.

I have a group of friends all around the same age plus or minus a few years. Some like to do things for their birthday and some don't. 

In this blog post, I will write about three birthday gatherings I went to this year. Just because I want to remember. 

For Rachel's birthday, we got together at Diana's house and ate Olive Garden for dinner. After we ate dinner, we played Nertz and then had cake and ice cream for dessert. It was a good time with delicious food, a fun game, and lively conversation!

For Cat's birthday, we went to a pottery studio where we each picked out and painted a dish. I hadn't been to a pottery painting studio in a long time but it was fun to paint and chat! 

Here are each of the dishes that we painted at the pottery studio. Mine is the bowl with the star in the middle. The studio glazed the dishes and we picked them up a week or two later. I love my bowl and use it all of the time. :)

For my birthday, we got together at Diana's house where we chatted while eating cupcakes and ice cream. My friends also let me talk about and show pictures from my trip that I had returned from a couple of weeks earlier. (I consider my Europe trip as an early birthday gift to myself.) (I invited a couple of more people to my birthday gathering but they couldn't join us that night).

I am grateful for my friends and their kindness and friendship throughout the years! I think they're pretty great. :)

Random Thoughts About My Trip

It’s now been almost exactly a month since I got home from my trip. (It’s crazy to me because it seems so long ago but yet like yesterday at the same time.) When I first booked the trip, I thought I might be going alone. I booked it with no one in mind to come with me, but I was happy to have someone join if they could. 

At the beginning I had some family members show some interest in going but in the end not being able to join me. So I ended up planning this trip as if I was going alone. (I did book the Ten Boom Museum tour several months in advance and booked it for two just in case someone came with me, but it would be okay if only I showed up for the reservation too. I didn’t book any hotels or train tickets until I knew for sure if someone was coming with me or not).   

A couple of months before my trip I decided I did not want to go alone. I was able to convince my brother, Tim, to join me. He checked to make sure he had enough PTO and then started looking for flights. Thankfully, flights were still decently priced at that point and he bought tickets. Although I would have been okay going alone on this trip, I am glad Tim was able to join me. 

This was my first international trip that I planned completely myself. I wanted to record some of the random thoughts I had while on this trip.

1. I do not like that some European airports (Copenhagen and Lisbon were the two I flew out of on this trip) don’t tell you the gate number for your flight until about an hour before your flight departure time. These two airports are quite large and it can be hard to get from one side of the airport to the other once they tell you your gate number.  

2. I really liked staying in Haarlem, Netherlands. Haarlem is a quiet, charming town with cool things to see. It is only a 15-minute train ride to center Amsterdam and the hotels are generally cheaper than center Amsterdam.

3. A lot of the hotels we stayed at did not have very good pillows. 

4. The countryside of Belgium, Luxembourg and France are gorgeous! I already want to go back to Belgium and France. 

 

5. It was annoying that the airports I flew out of had very few seats at the gates. 

6. I loved the almond croissant I got from Andersen and Maillard in Copenhagen, Denmark! I will compare all almond croissants I eat in the future to that one from now on. 

7. It was nice that Luxembourg had free public transportation anywhere within the country.

8. It’s good to have quick drying clothes, merino wool socks, and water resistant shoes on a trip where rain is possible. They dry quickly and also are generally lighter weight for packing purposes.

9. The organ concert at St. Bavo Church in Haarlem, Netherlands was a cool cultural experience.   

10. It was nice to have luggage storage at the hotels we stayed at because we often arrived before check in or needed to check out before we were finished sightseeing for the day but were going to catch a train to the next city later that day.  

11. NannyBag in Paris was awesome! It would have taken too long to drop off our bags at our respective hotels (near the airports we were flying out of) and still do the stuff we wanted to do in Paris that day. It was nice to be able to drop off our bags near the train station in center Paris and then pick them up at the end of the sightseeing.  

12. At the Lisbon airport, it was not fun having to take a 10-minute bus ride to the plane and then sit next to the plane on the bus but not be able to get out for at least 15 minutes. All while standing on the hot, crowded bus with an injured leg that induced a panic attack.  

13. It was worth it to buy first class train tickets. When we bought our tickets first class was only ~$4 more per ticket than 2nd class. (You need to buy them enough ahead of time to get that pricing though.)

14. The only luggage I brought was a personal item (sling bag) and a carry on (backpack) and I liked that! (I think I would have been okay with a carry on rolling bag also instead of a backpack, but I went with a backpack for this trip). It was easy to get on and off the trains with only that as my luggage. Also after I went through passport control and customs back in Virginia, I was able to just head straight to my ride instead of having to wait at baggage claim for who knows how long. 

15. I, of course, looked up the weather before my trip for the places I was going to go. It was definitely good to dress in layers. One of the layers being a decent rain jacket.

16. I am glad we got hotels near the train stations in each city. It made it easy to drop off or pick up our luggage and be on our way to our next stop.

I know these points might be kind of random but they are things that I want to remember.

Europe Trip- Day 9 and 10- Paris, France and Flight Home

Day 9

This day, we woke up early to catch a train to Paris, where we would spend our last full day on our trip. 

We got to Paris and dropped off our bags near the train station we arrived in using NannyBag. 

NannyBag was great because we could leave our bags at a hotel (or other certified luggage storage place that was on their website) near where we arrived instead of having to drop them off at our respective hotels for that night. It did cost a little bit but it was worth it. It would have taken too long to get to our respective hotels for that night (near the airports we were flying out of), drop off our bags and then get back to the city and do what we wanted to do.

Our plan was to go to Versailles this day. Tim still went to Versailles but unfortunately, I didn’t feel like I could with my injured leg. 

The night before I had done some research of what I could do that didn’t require a lot of walking or standing. I decided to do a hop on hop off bus of Paris but just stay on the bus the whole loop. 

I had to look up where to catch a hop on hop off bus near the train station we arrived in. I caught a local bus and got off near the Louvre. 

  The Louvre! This was where my bus dropped me off.

This was the bridge that I walked across to get to the Louvre and the hop on hop off bus stop.

   

The Louvre!

Since it was a little cold and rainy this day, I sat here (near the Louvre) and looked for tickets online to potentially go inside the Louvre instead of the hop on hop off bus (hoping there would be lots of seats inside the museum and it would be dry and warm).

But the next available tickets were for a couple of hours later. I knew I didn’t want to wait around that long, so I just went ahead and bought a ticket for the hop on hop off bus.  

On the hop on hop off bus. I decided to sit on top although it was cold and sometimes rainy outside. 

Notre Dame! It’s still being restored from the fire that happened there a few years ago but it looks like it’s set to reopen in a few months though!

I’m glad other people were sitting on the top too!

The Assemblée Nationale

Place de la Concorde

I kept on seeing the Eiffel Tower from different angles. 

Pont Alexandre III

It was cold!

Arc de Triomphe!

The Eiffel Tower!

I kept on taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower. I couldn’t help it. 😂

Les Invalides

Another view of the Arc de Triomphe. I almost missed this view on the bus. I didn’t notice it until we were turning away from it. Hence the weird angle of the photo. 

I must admit by the end of the bus tour I was ready to be done for the day. 

As I was getting close to the Louvre, I was looking up when the next bus back to the train station would be. The website said that that bus would not be stopping at the few stops near the Louvre until 8 PM that night for some reason. That stressed me out.

I got off the hop on hop off bus and started walking toward the local bus stop just to make sure the bus wasn’t going to come. (They had electronic signs at the local bus stops that said what buses were coming next and in how many minutes). But on my way I ran into a line of taxis and just decided to take a taxi back to the train station.

Once the taxi dropped me off at the train station, I went to McDonald’s to eat. There was one at the train station. Since my hotel was near the airport I thought it was best to eat while still in center Paris. 

I picked up my luggage at the luggage storage location and then I caught a taxi to my hotel near Paris Orly airport. I just hung out at my hotel the rest of the day.  

Day 10

I flew from Paris Orly Airport to Lisbon, Portugal then from Lisbon to Virginia

Having flown through the Lisbon Airport multiple times now, I’m not a big fan of it. It’s large, they don’t tell the gates until an hour before the flight time and they have buses to the airplanes. (I know the buses to the airplanes are not for all of the flights but at least with the airline I was flying that was the case and I didn’t like it). 

On my flight to Virginia, we had to get in a crowded hot bus and take a ten minute ride to the airplane. Then we proceeded to sit at the airplane on the bus with the doors closed for at least 15 minutes. Since I was standing that whole time my leg was hurting and there were too many people around and it was hot and I started having a panic attack. I won’t go into details but it was not fun and even now writing about it, it makes me emotional.

I made it safely back to Virginia, though, and was happy to sleep in my own bed that night. 

Overall, I loved my trip and enjoyed planning it. I am so grateful I was able to go and that my brother, Tim, was able to join me for most of it. 

Europe Trip- Day 8- Rennes and Mont Saint-Michel, France

We explored a little bit of Rennes in the morning and then took a bus to Mont Saint-Michel in the early afternoon. 

This day was a really good day and the weather was lovely! It was sunny, a little windy and in the 60s. 

We had a little bit of time in the morning before our bus to Mont Saint-Michel. We wandered around the streets of Rennes a little bit. 

We had nothing in particular in mind to do. The next few photos are some cool buildings we saw along our way. 

A performing arts theater along our route!

I liked the look of this building!

We came across Jardin du Palais Saint-Georges and had to stop and look around the gardens.

We thought the building was pretty cool looking too, Palais Saint-Georges.

I really liked Rennes. In the little bit of time we spent there it seemed like a quiet, charming, and slow-paced town.

Église Notre-Dame en Saint-Melaine. We briefly went inside this church. 

Inside the church!

We went back to the hotel for awhile and then caught the bus to Mont Saint-Michel. 

Side Note: Although I had been feeling a bit better at this point, I had a coughing fit on the bus to Mont Saint-Michel. I felt bad because I couldn’t stop coughing for a few minutes and I didn’t have any water with me at that moment.

When we got close to Mont Saint-Michel, there was some traffic. We couldn’t tell what was holding it up. Once we got closer to the front, we saw this man directing traffic ahead of us. We noticed that he was letting bicyclists through. There was a bicycle race going on. 

Later we saw runners on the pathway to Mont Saint-Michel and learned that there was a triathalon going on there that day. 

We made it to the Mont Saint-Michel visitor’s center. I bought some water and we bought tickets to visit the abbey at the top of Mont Saint-Michel.

We had the option of either taking a shuttle to the entrance of Mont Saint-Michel or walking. I was going to take the shuttle but I had just missed one and the worker at the bus stop said it would take about the same amount of time to walk it before the next shuttle arrived. 

Although I had hurt my leg the day before, I felt like I could walk it. I would just be limping and walking slowly. But I was okay with that. It gave me time to soak in the views and take lots of pictures.

Look at that view! We had a clear unobstructed view the whole walk to the island.

I mentioned the triathalon above, well here are some of the runners from the race.

I really loved the walk to the island and I loved Mont-Saint Michel in general!

And we made it to the island!

So pretty!

On the island!

When I saw they had a post office on Mont Saint-Michel, I couldn’t resist buying a few postcards and mailing them from here.  

One of the views from the island!

The first thing we did was make our way to the abbey at the top of Mont Saint-Michel!

There were lots of stairs on the island. Honestly all of stairs were a little hard with my injured leg, but I made it! And it was worth it!

Everything was just so picturesque!

Stairs!

And more stairs!

We made it to the abbey at the top! I was glad we bought the tickets at the visitor’s center before because there was a long line to buy the tickets at the top.

It was a bit windy!

A video I took at the top of Mont Saint-Michel!

The abbey! 

In a courtyard inside the abbey! So pretty!

Inside the abbey!

After we finished touring the abbey, we slowly made our way down through the charming streets of Mont Saint-Michel.

I stopped by the post office on the way down and dropped off the postcards I had bought and written at the abbey. :)

We finished exploring the streets of Mont Saint-Michel.

Once again, I was contemplating taking the shuttle back to the visitor’s center, but decided to just walk again. 

I must admit my leg hurt quite a bit by the end of this day, but it was worth it for the full experience at Mont Saint-Michel. 

I’ve mentioned in previous blogposts how much my dad loved to travel. He really wanted to get to all seven continents someday. He got to all of them except Antarctica before he died. 

Earlier this year three of my siblings and a sister-in-law went to Antarctica. Before they went my mom and sister had a little bear made from one of Dad’s favorite shirts and tie. They brought the bear with them to Antarctica as a way to let Dad get to his seventh continent.  

My mom and dad served a mission in Paris, France (partly during strict Covid times). One of the places Mom and Dad really wanted to visit while they were on their mission was Mont Saint-Michel. Unfortunately they weren’t able to due to Covid restrictions. 

When I was planning this trip, Mont Saint-Michel became an important place for me to try to get to for myself as well as for my parents. I had my sister send me the bear they brought to Antarctica with them so that I could bring it to Mont Saint-Michel with me.

 

The picture above and the rest of the pictures are pictures with the bear. I think Dad would have loved visiting Mont Saint-Michel. I think Mom will also love Mont Saint-Michel and I hope we can get her there someday soon.

He made it to the top of Mont Saint-Michel! :)

I loved visiting Mont Saint-Michel!

We made it back to the bus in time although I had to walk extra slow because of my leg.

Once we got back to Rennes, I went back to the hotel while Tim found a place to order food and brought it back to the room.

I am so glad we got to go to Mont Saint-Michel! The weather was lovely, the scenery was gorgeous and it was just such a cool experience!