Day 25: Zurich to London

We got up early (5:00 a.m.) so that we can make the 2.5 hour drive from our little berg in Switzerland to Zurich in time to catch our 10:25 a.m. flight.  The drive was, of course, spectacular, as we passed even more scenery worth of photography (had I not been in a hurry, and I had not been driving, I might have taken a few photos). 

One unexpected expense of the morning having to pay airport diesel prices to fill up our van.  I didn’t see a gas station within 30 miles of the airport, so I had to pay for rental car gougers to fill it up.  It was uncommon thing in Europe not to see a gas station for such a distance along the freeway.  One of the great things about European freeways are that they are littered with great gas and convenience stores located every 15 at what we would call “Rest Stops” in the U.S.—stops that don’t actually require you to get off the freeway: you just simply pull over into a parking lot to the side of the freeway into a complex that typically includes a decent restaurant, and a convenience store that would put most American gas-convenience stores to shame.

Apparently, there is a gas station on airport property, but as my luck would have it, that station was under renovation.

Airports and Easy Jet (skip this part if you don’t care about such details)

Speaking of Airports, that Zurich airport—at least what we saw of it—was beautiful.  Leave it to Swiss to create an airport that is almost as beautiful as its mountains.   We did have to walk about three miles to our gate, but that was likely due to our choice of budget airline (it seems that the less you pay, the farther away your gate is).

The family caravan at the Zurich Airport.  Apparently, Abby has had enough--

it's hard being pushed in a stroller all the way across Europe.

Europe has a selection of budget airlines that offer incredible deals on flights to and from popular destinations.  We chose Easy Jet for our three cross-European flights (Zurich to London for $70; Bristol, England to Paris for $49; Paris to Prague for $60).   So far I’m impressed, perhaps because they operate on a model dear to my heart: one that relies on efficiency and automation to deliver the same product that “big guys” offer but at about 30% of the big-boy price. 

As you may know, we’ve tried to do the same with  the mortgage company we created, Box Home Loans, which relies on offering a narrow product line (similar to choosing not fly to every destination in the world), efficiency through focusing on one target customer (by only lending to small, well-qualified clientele), and automation (by putting much of the process online). So, perhaps I’m biased, but I couldn’t be happier with our choice in budget airline. Sure, they make you pay for baggage ($5-$15 per bag depending on how quickly to tell them you’re bringing a bag), but Delta does that to.  Sure, they make you pay for in-flight food, but Delta does that too.  In contrast to Delta, most of their employees actually seemed to enjoy working for their airline, and all flight attendants on our flight were very pleasant.

Make note that they are rather strict on carry-on luggage: when they say that you can bring one bag, they mean it.  My dad had to pay 50 euros to check his briefcase at the gate when he flew from Paris to Venice on Easy Jet.  Had he pre-booked that, it would have cost him $10. Ouch. 

That said, they are very clear about their one carry-on policy when you book online, asking you if you want to prepay for any checked baggage, and warning you that it will cost much more at the airport. 

One final note on Easy Jet:  In contrast to some of their competitors, they seem to fly out of “normal” or “big” airports. Ryan Air, a competitor budget carrier, flies out of random, hole-in-wall airports that are usually 30-45 minutes from anything, requiring you to spend previous travel time and money to get to them. 

Arrival in London and Easy Hotel (more travel advice; skip this if you’d like)

My primary concern of the day was meeting up in a timely manner with my nephew, Coleman Packer, who joined us in our journey in London.  Coleman had saved his own money to travel with us for 15 days in Europe (8 days in England and 7 days in France).  He traveled by himself from Salt Lake, and arrived at London’s Gatwick airport about three hours before we did.  I felt a little extra anxiety that morning, worrying about missing our flight, which would leave Coleman stranded at Gatwick.   Fortunately, we and our flight were on time, and we have no incident relating to our meeting up with Coleman.

From Gatwick, we took a direct train to Victoria station, a five-minute walk to our to our Hotel:  not coincidentally, Easy Hotel.  Yes, that same airline is also a franchiser of no-frills (and I mean that) hotels across Europe.  When the apartment that I had rented in London back in November suddenly fell through (very long story that I don’t have three pages to bore you with now), we scrambled for a reasonably-priced place to stay in London just a few weeks before we left.  Hotels in London are in the astronomical range—more expensive than even Switzerland.  You can pay $200 a night for a complete dump in bad location. 

"Finally," Jeffrey says, "A break from all these women!"  Coleman and Jeffrey on the Gatwick Express.

We came across this outfit, which only costs about $90 per night for a superb location—a five minute walk to Victoria station, a transportation hub in London.  Easy Hotel is evenmore stripped down than its airline: the average room size is about 8X7 with a bed, one outlet, and bathroom that is about the size of an airplane lavatory.  That’s it. No nightstand. No chair. No dresser.  Just enough to space to put you’re a suitcase and a half.  And the great thing about the size of the bathroom is that you can use the toilet, brush your teeth, and take a shower all at the same time without ever moving your body. 

The “air conditioning” is an open window, which means that you want to bring ear plugs to deaden the street noise below.  Even though it’s advertised that it comes with air conditioning, I suspect all of the air vents are found in the hall and/or lobby because there wasn’t a vent in the room.  Frankly, there are few times in the year when you really need air conditioning in London, as our highs were in the 70’s during our stay.  Thus, the window probably only needs to be opened for about 8 weeks during the year.

If you want TV, that’s five pounds a day.  That didn’t matter.  Euro TV doesn’t interest me too much.  Internet (a necessity for me on a 8 week trip) will cost you 2 pounds a day. If you’d like someone to clean your room or make your bed during your stay, that’s another 10 pounds an occurrence.  When you run out of toilet paper, you do have to go to the front desk to ask for another roll. That’s fine—they’re very accommodating and pleasant, and like flight attendants on the airline, they seem to be happy to work there.

Would I stay there again?  Absolutely.  That is, if I were on another trip with my family or a large group for whom I was paying, or if I was with a budget conscious group.  If it were just Lisa and me, I would not. I would pay for AC, a little more quiet, and a little more room to breath.  Easy Hotel meets the basic necessities of travel for me:  well located, particularly to major sights and public transportation; clean; and safe.  The reality is that on a European vacation, you don’t spend much time in your room anyway.  If you can meet the necessities I just mentioned, go for the cheapest-priced option you can find.

I took the time to discuss Easy Jet and Easy Hotel for those of you who think that Europe has to be a terribly expensive vacation.  I doesn’t, and there are ways to significantly reduce the cost of doing this. I suppose that we all have different definitions for what expensive means and that regardless of the level of luxury that you choose, any trip to Europe will cost a hefty chunk of change.  For that reason, I was actually kind of embarrassed to let people know that we were going on an eight week trip to Europe; it sounds so extravagant, over-the-top, and, well, something that only the rich and famous do.   But we tried to do this trip with a relatively tight budget in mind, saving money by staying at places like Easy Hotel and choosing a home base for Tuscany not in Florence but in a berg five miles from Lucca, and only paying 600 euros for the whole week.  That said, there are also things that we decided not to cheap on:  we weren’t going to avoid seeing any sights even though it often costs me $75-$80 to do so.  We were going to find apartments with kitchens so that we could eat breakfast at home, and make an occasional lunch and dinner so that we felt good about blowing a wad of cash at nice places to eat: one of the joys of travelling. 

You can't go to London and not take the obligatory photo in the red phone booth. Coleman hams it up for the photo,

Abby wanted here turn too.

Every traveler needs to decide what’s important to him, and then figure out what sacrifices he’s willing to make along to way to do what’s important to him.  I love it that my nephew Coleman paid his own way to Europe by saving every penny from a minimum-wage job, and that he was able to piggyback off of our trip; having him with us doesn’t cost us any more money, but it does save him a ton.  My point:  if you want to travel, you can.  You can find ways to do what really matters to you.  My friend, Scott Lambert, who works for Jordan School District, loves to travel (particularly to Europe) but on an educator’s salary probably couldn’t afford too many trips over here.  So, his “sacrifice” to get here every year is that he has the pleasure (or is it the pain?) of taking 20-30 high school aged kids with him each year. For babysitting them for 15-17 days, the tour company with whom he coordinates, comps his and his wife’s ticket for the journey.  He found a way.  You can too. If you want to travel, do it.  Get creative.  Plan it. Budget it. Look for opportunities. Decide what you’re willing to give up.  Then just do it. Don’t wait till you’re retired: your feet will hurt you too much by then.

First Day in London:

After checking into the hotel, grabbing as quick of a lunch that we could, we rode the underground (London’s subway) to the Tower of London.     If you’re like me and many other Americans, you probably think that the Tower of London is an actual tower that sits on a bridge, known as “London Bridge”—afterall, why do we sing that silly song, “London Bridge is falling down . . . take the key and lock her up.”  I always mistook Tower Bridge (pictured below) for London Bridge, and I thought that one of those "towers" on the bridge was the tower of London. I know--that's kind of embarrassing but I'll blame that on an elementary school teacher.

The big kids with Tower Bridge in the background. Don't you dare call this London Bridge again :).

We showed up to the Tower of London, and I didn't quite know what I was looking at.  The Tower is really a walled commune of buildings, consisting of many towers, some of which were used for heinous things like torture and for killing spouses that didn't produce male offspring.  For the part, this was a palace, and some of it's parts were used as a prison.  Currently, this is where the Crown Jewels are held: a  collection of jewels relating to the monarchy:  scepters, orbs, and crowns which the largest gems you'll ever see.  Pretty school stuff.  The british love their monarchy (well, everyone but Cromwell's group did), and they like showing off their stuff.  

The place is well worth a visit, and my only regret is that we didn't have enough time to fully enjoy the compound.  We had just 90 minutes at the place before they closed at the odd hour of 4:30 pm (a common closing time on many of the sites in London), and I suspect that you need at least three hours to do it justice.  

In front of the Tower of London.

Inside the Tower of Lodon complex.

After our tour of the Tower, we walked across Tower Bridge, a beautiful thing except for the odd blue that was added to it at one point, which doesn't quite seem to fit. Our evening ended with dinner, where the group split up between Indian food and Fish and Chips.   Apparently, the Indian food was the better choice (thankfully, I was part of that), as the Fish and Chips a traditional tavern was big, dry hunk of fish served with no tartar sauce.

Walking across Tower Bridge

Abby, who is starting to like the camera, saw her sister make this same pose a few moments before.  

Not to be outdone, she plopped to the ground and asked me to take this photo of her too. 

This was the photo Abby was copying.  Sam, now an Orem Tiger alumn, dropped to the pavement on the footpath on Tower Bridge to have a shot taken next to one of the blue Tiger paws that guide foot travelers across the bridge.  Why anyone would need help knowing which direction to travel across a bridge, I'll never know--I can't think of many bridges  that fork into multiple directions!

In conclusion, I will say that those first few hours in London felt rather liberating. After four weeks of Italian and German, we felt a little unchained being able to freely communicate with anyone on any subject.  For eight days we don't have to feel bad about not speaking our host-country's language; we don't have to begin any questions with "parla inglese?"; when we go to the grocery store, we don't have to use google translate to make sure we've bought the right medicine, or the right kind of creme. Sure, they drive on the left side of the road, but this the closest things to America we're going to have on our 60-day journey, and it feels good:  a great way to fuel up our tanks before we jet of the France on the fourth of July (yes, it is sort of fitting and somewhat symbolic that we leave England on the 4th of July).  

As you can tell, I'm  a few days behind on my blogging (we've been here five days already).  Hope to catch up tomorrow.  We've loved our time in England (mildly surprised about that), and I'm looking forward to sharing that with you soon.  Good night.