Averagely Adventurous

Waking up a bit later and fully rested this morning, we packed and headed to the train station across the street where our bus would pick us up.  The whole time we were in the station, we stayed on the north end, where the metro was.  We had no idea that further along there was a mini mall full of food.  It was perfect for this morning though, as we were able to grab breakfast before getting to the airport. I found the sandwiches I really liked, and this time had one with mortadella (a first for me and so good). And just in time for us to finish, our bus arrived.

 We essentially did a 5k this morning. Last night I came up with the route below. These spots were a combination of places I wanted to visit, and places we've noticed on other tours that we wanted to explore a bit more. 

 So last night we sorted out our day around our two tours. We figured out we could take the metro pretty early, directly to the Vatican and to the meet up point for our morning and afternoon tour. We could also use it for any other places as well as getting back to the hotel.  For that reason, we got the 24 hour pass, which is absolutely worth it, since it's cheaper than a taxi, has frequent trains, and is on the direct route for the touristy spots.  

 Quote of the day comes from our Vatican tour guide: "It's been over 400 hundred years, and we still haven't found a box of penises." (I'll explain later)

We were up at 5am this morning, and Pedro is currently snoring away, recharging before our late night Italian dinner. Our taxi came to pick us up at A's place, and not five minutes towards the airport, I almost lost my breakfast again.  I swear the driver was doing it on purpose- he was constantly accelerating just to pump the brakes, did so consistently for the hour ride to Gatwick.  Luckily I had taken some motion sickness pills to avoid the repeat of the train to London, and they kicked in just in time to knock me out. Even Pedro thought the guy was driving crazy, but hey, we made it. 

We saved the best for today since we knew we could use the tube to get around. Since there were also later trains, we didn't have to get up and go super early. We had a relaxed plan to hit Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye, and then A was taking us to Chinatown and some other good spots.  

 So last night we got together with A to devise our walking tour for our two days here.  We also had to factor in the rail strike, though it didn't affect us too much.  We caught a train into the London, but all of the underground tube was closed so were on foot from there. Since the train station was a bit more deserted we did take pictures at platform 9 3/4.

Not going to lie...today was a rough start for me. And poor Pedro took care of me, thank goodness. I woke up this morning dry heaving. Not the way you want to start your day at 5am, especially embarking on a trip. I knew it wasn't COVID or anything, just a bad reaction to medicine that I've had before. So I pulled myself together, got dressed, then nibbled on food and sipped water on the way to the train station. I was feeling a bit better, and we had taken the first train to Glasgow Central Station. This station is a lot larger, and I hadn't seen it before, so that boosted my spirits, as well as seeing our fancy cross-country train.

 Ok, I know my last two posts were a bit dreary, but seeing as we worked it out, I'm going to look on the bright side now.  I figured out our transportation in Italy. I've read on several blogs about transportation from the airport and within the city.  Italy has tried to protect it's tourists as best they can and I appreciate that. By law, taxis from the airport cannot charge over a fixed rate into the city. Even better though, are the shuttles. We got round trip tickets that are valid for any/date time for only £17 for the two of us. Also great, are the metro/bus passes the city sells.  They come in 24/48/72 hour passes and are valid for any public transportation for unlimited stops. Woo! We'll mostly be walking, but for a few of our tours, the meeting points are a few miles apart. The meeting points are also tied with a lot of the metro stops for convenience, so that's perfect. 

Pretty sure you can tell from my previous posts that I like to meticulously plan things. And this is something I just could not plan for. 

 As our London/Rome trip gets nearer, I have been doing a lot of research about the history of the places we'll visit.  I like to be our personal tour guide, spouting fun facts to Pedro as we go along.