End of the Year fun (part 2)
On Sunday Dec 21, we kicked off our winter holiday adventure. First, taking the train to Paris! Sadly, as soon as we were north of Barcelona, we were basically engulfed in rain and fog for most of the trip, but we did get to travel along the Mediterranean coast for a good while.
When we got to Paris, it was already dark (after 4pm) and rainy. We had no trouble getting on the metro to find our hotel in the Marais area of Paris. We were a little soggy when we got to the hotel! I used Chase Rewards points to book the Hotel de JoBo -- the hotel website made it seem like it was much too chic for us, but it's a nice little boutique hotel. We were on the Josephine's roses floor - everything was covered in rose prints from floor to ceiling. There was a cute little box of macarons to welcome us. The room was tiny, but this is Paris... you're supposed to go out and see things.
We bundled up and walked through the Marais, which is full of high-end shops and cafes along narrow little streets. We ended up at a bistro that looked warm and inviting, and had seats for us upstairs. "Les Marronniers" means chestnut trees. The food was delicious - we had avocado toast with smoked salmon and poached eggs, and then (we could have split an entree because there was just too much food!) John had pasta with bacon and I had a beef brochette with potatoes. We hadn't eaten well for the rest of the day and we were tired and hungry. We were definitely way too full for dessert. After dinner, I wanted to take a peek at Notre Dame, but it was rainy and cold and when we got over there, it wasn't lit up well, so we turned around and went back to the hotel to crash.
When we got to Notre Dame, the crowds were everywhere and it was getting even colder, so we snapped some pics (see pic at top of page) and made a beeline for the hotel instead. Nap time! The best thing about being on vacation is being able to just veg when we wanted to. After our nap, we used our drink coupons in the hotel bar before venturing out to have kebabs at a hole-in-the-wall place far away from the tourists. My favorite kind of dinner!
Tuesday morning we had to be up before dawn (not that difficult in December) to get to the 7:42am Eurostar to London. We got in the passport line as soon as we walked into the station - so crowded! But we boarded the train and had no trouble at all (unless you count the people coughing, sneezing, and generally spreading germs all around us). The nice ladies served us breakfast and coffee/tea, and we read and snoozed as the countryside flew by. We had an hour between arrival at St. Pancras and departure from King's Cross across the street, so we grabbed some food (we love you, Pret!) and tried to stay out of the way of the Harry Potter fans lining up to see Platform 9 3/4. And then we were back on the train, on our way to York.
Alan and Fiona met us at the York station and took us to their lovely home in Stamford Bridge. We got a History lesson: in 1066, the English army defeated the invading Norwegians at Stamford Bridge - which effectively ended the Vikings' time in Britain, but exhausted the English army right before the Battle of Hastings, where they lost to William the Conqueror. There's a plaque commemorating the battle right down the street from the house.
The next day, A+F dropped us off on the edge of town (York) so we could check things out. This time I remembered my hat, gloves, and scarf. Yay! I wanted to go to the York Ghost Merchants on the Shambles -- a tiny shopping street that was the model for 'Diagon Alley' (<-- see pic). It looked like a cute shop, but there was a 15 minute wait to get in, so we kept walking. We stopped for late lunch at the York Roast company, which serves up roasted meats & veggies in giant Yorkshire puddings. I had the turkey and cranberry and stole some of John's pudding. We walked up to York Minster, took pictures, and then wandered back through town. The church was holding services (it was Christmas eve, after all) so no tours that day. We met up at Waitrose for the ride home, where I discovered a magical thing called "gluten free Tam-tams" - OMG. If you've ever been to Australia -- or World Markets -- you know how addictive Tam-tams are. There were only 7 of them in the package, so I had to be judicious about it. I'm glad I haven't found them in Barcelona!
Christmas Eve, Fiona made chili for dinner, so John and I volunteered to make cornbread -- a completely new thing for our hosts. Luckily, Alan had some cornmeal and we went with a muffin tin instead of our usual cast iron skillet. We found the Lamb's cornbread recipe online, which is our go-to version. The corn muffins turned out delicious, and I think we added to the family repertoire. :) For some reason, Dan decided he wanted to watch 'Die Hard 2' after dinner. He'd seen the first one recently, and I hadn't seen the second one in ages, so ... wow, now I remember why I only watched it the one time. I went to bed before the end.
were pleased to find that there weren't a lot of people inside. We climbed the stairs and learned about the tower's history (it's been there since the 11th century, but the timber version burned down and was rebuilt in the 13th C.) It was also the site of a Jewish persecution and mass suicide (!!) in 1190. I wasn't expecting to learn about yet another anti-Jewish event on this trip, but antisemitism is as old as the hills, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised any more. Very sobering.
We paid for the self-guided tour and the tower climb, but by the time it started I wasn't feeling well, so John went up, and I went down into the crypt museum to see the history of the church, from the Norman times to the present. The Minster definitely reminded me of high school, though I feel like the National Cathedral was definitely warmer inside! Somehow, neither of us took a good photo of the golden (gilded) dragon that lives high on the side of the nave in the Minster. Its purpose is a mystery - it was possibly used to raise and lower heavy things. You can see a pic on Atlas Obscura.
Whew! Boxing day dinner was a fantastic smorgasbord of leftovers, and we were up before dawn (AGAIN) to get our flight to Dublin the next day. But that's for another post -this one is long enough!
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