We haven’t forgotten about you folks at home in good old America: Happy 4th of July!!! 🇺🇸
A little interesting fact I discovered last night about our blog. So far, people from 12 different countries have read our blog last month! I’m very happy and motivated to keep on exploring (and writing of course!) Thank you for following us ❤️
And don’t forget:
I know, I couldn’t participate in a fashion show dressed like that, but hey, if I’m cold, I’m cold. And once I’m cold, be nice to me!
And here we are! London was calling and we listened! Well, actually we had to, because we are kind of stuck here. Today we arrived early in the morning, we said good-bye to out cruise ship and to Yuki & Bill, and we took the train to Waterloo Station in London to get train tickets heading over to the continent. Nice plan, but it didn’t work out. There are no train tickets to the continent for today, neither for tomorrow or the day after and the next day following. Right now, you cannot leave unless you had bought tickets way ahead of time, even for a train! Well, you think there are also airplanes and such things, but the only option would be a $1500 per person, one-way flight that takes 23 hours and would have a layover in Dubai. For that price, you might be able to find somebody who would take you to the Continent in a rowboat, right?
But since we are travelers and not tourists, we are positive, open-minded and adventurous, we decided to get the earliest possible train tickets in 3 days, which will bring us to Brussels. That was the only available option, unless you want to wait 6 days for more options. So here we are, Brussels it will be and London it is for now, because „London was calling“!
When I asked Ted, if he knows the song “London Calling” he said no, but he knows another song with London: “London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down, London bridge is falling down…..” So let’s stay positive, at least for the next 3 days, ok?!?
When I designed the costumes for Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” in 2019, I researched the three main locations to be accurate with local weather and dress. Two of those locations were familiar to me, one of which is my hometown – Ingolstadt – the other is Geneva in Switzerland, which is very close to my hometown. The third location are the Orkneys, a group of islands north of Scotland, with harsh and challenging conditions. The average temperatures, wind and rainfall, it reminded me of Iceland, the furthest north I’ve ever been!
And here we are, the Orkneys, where Dr. Frankenstein created and destroyed the female version of a creature that he made with the body parts of a young woman that had drowned and was buried at a graveyard…..
We arrived in Kirkwall yesterday morning
By now our first month of traveling is done and – so far – we have a lot of fun! First a few stats:
We travelled ~ 10,000 miles (16,000 km)
We changed the clock 11 times! (+3, +1, +1, +1, +1, +1, +1, +1, -3, +2, -1 hour)
We travelled on 4 airplanes, 2 cruise ships, subways in 3 cities (NYC, Hamburg, London), many buses and taxis, 2 sightseeing boats and 1 air tram
We were in 7 different countries (1 of which 2x)
We met with Anja & Jürgen (5 days) and Yuki & Bill (10 days)
We slept in 6 different places: 2 hotels (NYC, London), 2 ships (Queen Mary 2, Norwegian Star), 2 Airbnbs (Hamburg, Reykjavik)
We changed currency 7 times; $, £, €, SKR, IKR, NKR, £ and back to €
Biggest food surprise: Haggis (Edinburgh, Scotland): Haggis is a savoury pudding containing sheep’s pluck, minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and cooked while traditionally encased in the animal’s stomach. Wikipedia
Recipe: https://www.haggisuk.co.uk/how-to-cook-haggis
And we still like each other!