This entire month has been content from my Europe trip! I hope you’ve enjoyed following along. I know I enjoyed following along my dad on his business trip to Cambridge, which was the whole reason for this whirlwind trip through three cities in ten days. (You might be thinking, hold up Audrey, according to your blog posts, you spent two days in each city so how does that add up? Well, if you take into account travel days and the one lost day in London, it amounts to roughly ten days.)
Cambridge
Is it crazy for me to say that of the three cities I hit up, Cambridge might have been my favourite? I think it has a lot to do with the slow and quiet pace of life. I didn’t feel overwhelmed like I did in London and Paris. I was able to enjoy every place I was at, without worrying about whether there was enough time to go everywhere I wanted to go.
Where I stayed // Airbnb – Auckland Court. Not one of the most exciting Airbnbs I’ve stayed at in terms of interior, but it was solid. It did its job. Everything in Cambridge is convenient to get to, including this Airbnb.
What I saw // I hit up Cambridge University Botanic Garden, King’s College Chapel, Fitzwilliam Museum, and the River Cam.
What I ate // Places popularly recommended are The Orchard Tea Garden, Fitzbillies, and Bread and Meat. Some cafes I hit up were Espresso Library, Indigo Coffee House, and Chill#2; I recommend the first two, the third one was average. For small bites, check out Jack’s Gelato and Fudge Kitchen.
What I would have done differently // I personally didn’t get all that much out of King’s College Chapel, so I might have taken that off the itinerary. It’d only be worth it for me to go see the King’s College Choir. I wish we spent more time along the River Cam and at The Orchard Tea Garden. They would have been wonderful places to spend full afternoons. And of course, I would have liked to check out more colleges and ideally have a student show me the good places on campus that are less obvious.
Favourite moment // Is it immature of me to say that I loved the shop Ark and the tiny rubber shark I bought there for 75p? Now I can sing the baby shark song with an actual baby shark! And you can bet that I will. I’ve got it tucked in my wallet so I’ll always be ready.
On the blog //
London
I am so obsessed with the Oyster card! Affordable, convenient, and efficient. I devoted a whole paragraph to it in my London post, so I’m not going to get into it here, but you can head to that blog post if you want to see what all the rave is about.
Where I stayed // Airbnb – Pimlico. Good location. Appreciated the large size and modern interior.
What I saw // I hit up all the popular places including Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, St. Paul’s Cathedral, British Museum, and Victoria & Albert Museum. I recommend watching as many Broadway shows as your budget allows.
What I ate // For a meal, check out Ottolenghi, Pizza Pilgrims, The Breakfast Club, and Camden Market. Recommended at Camden Market are kati rolls from Kolkati and liquid nitrogen ice cream from Chin Chin Labs. For small bites, check out Crosstown Doughnuts and Ben’s Cookies. Some cafes I hit up were Joe & the Juice and Timberyard.
What I would have done differently // Tourist spots I would have liked to hit up are Saatchi Gallery and Kew Gardens. I would have liked to hang out and explore Shoreditch for a hefty amount of time and make sure to hit up Boxpark. And of course, I would have liked to get my fix of afternoon tea at Sketch and the Sanderson. Some cafes I would have liked to hit up are Granger & Co and 26 Grains.
Favourite moment // Hanging out with Poonie and Mira my whole weekend was my favourite part of the trip! Which was basically the whole trip, so I guess I’ve cheated with my answer. I particularly loved kicking off our morning in Camden with hot yoga at TriYoga and then walking through Camden Market afterward. What a wholesome morning!
On the blog //
Paris
I live for the 9:30PM sunsets in Paris! Even though my family never left the Airbnb until 1:00PM for lunch, we still had plenty of hours of daylight, at least much more than we would have had if we were in some other city that wasn’t blessed with long summer days like Paris is.
Where I stayed // Airbnb – Champs de Mars. My favourite Airbnb! Modern, minimal, bright, spacious, airy. Beautiful French windows that open up to the Eiffel Tower.
What I saw // We hit up all the popular places including the Champs-Élysées, Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Coeur Basilica, Place du Tertre, Tuileries Garden, the Louvre, Shakespeare & Company Bookstore, and Notre-Dame Cathedral, although the Louvre was closed so I didn’t actually go in but spent a good amount of time around the pyramids, and I didn’t have time to browse through the Shakespeare & Company Bookstore. A smaller museum I checked out was Arts et Métiers.
What I ate // For bubble tea, check out Chamie. For desserts, check out Ladurée and Angelina. My favourite cafe was Hubsy, though it’s also a coworking space, so don’t plan to chat over coffee with a friend there.
What I would have done differently // Some cafes I didn’t have time to hang out at but would have liked to are La Maison Rose, Au Vieux Paris, and the Shakespeare & Company Cafe. I would have also liked to spend more time at the Shakespeare & Company Bookstore and the Louvre. Tourist spots I would have liked to hit up are the Orsay, Versailles, Luxembourg Gardens, Palais Garnier, Palais Royal, and the rooftop of Galeries Lafayette.
Favourite moment // I loved spending my afternoon at Montmartre. It was very smooth to plan and navigate. We started off the day with lunch at La Cave Gourmande, walked it off up and toward the Sacré-Coeur Basilica, cooled off with gelato at La Butte Glacée, strolled through Place du Tertre at a comfortable pace whilst finishing off our gelato, and rested and people-watched at Au Clairon des Chasseurs before leaving the neighbourhood. I would recommend walking down to La Maison Rose before leaving, maybe replacing Au Clairon des Chasseurs.
On the blog //
I think this Europe trip was the first family trip where I planned for anything. Usually when I’m on a family trip, I let my parents take the reigns, which usually ends up in not doing too much because we spend a long time during the trip trying to decide where we want to go and then some more time trying to convince my brothers to leave the house/hotel/Airbnb for it.
I didn’t want this Europe trip to go to waste as it would be my first time ever visiting Cambridge, London, and Paris, so I decided to take the reigns for this one. Part of the planning process was reflecting on my west coast road trip. On my west coast road trip, there was too much time to kill and not enough places to hit up, so for this Europe trip, I made a huge list of places we could visit. I planned to implement Carly x The College Prepster‘s tip of “pick two big things + one medium thing per day and keep a running list of ‘bonus’ things” to the fullest extent. It wasn’t difficult to come up with my lists, because there was tons to do in these cities, especially since I’d never visited them before.
However, during the trip, I realised that the tip I should have focused on was “know you’ll have to make a second trip”–you can’t do everything! I put so much pressure on my travel companions and myself to hit up more places than we had time for. I totally went overboard with my list of activities, which meant I was constantly wanting to rush and then would get frustrated with my family when they took their time and enjoyed where they were (*gasp*) instead of chasing the next destination. Also, I didn’t take into account the fact that I was traveling with different people who have different habits, even though that seems obvious. It was easy for Kat, Julia, and I (west coast road trip crew) to wake up early at our agreed-upon time. My family, not so much. Also, my family moves much slower *cough*Dad*cough*. I think another reason why I was so overwhelmed by traveling with my family was because our travel budget was greater (the perks of traveling with parents), which opened up a lot more things for our itinerary.
There was one day in London when I fell apart (read Day 0 of my London blog post), but I think after that experience I had a better idea of what was reasonably doable, which made my Paris trip go much smoother. There were tons of things I missed in Paris, but I had a good time regardless, and I definitely preferred this over cramming in tons of activities into two days and only having superficial experiences.
Welp, that’s it folks!