a veg life

(posted by Emily) 13 July 2015 Casperia, Italy Rome, Italy,  Florence, Italy On Monday, we took a fairly laid back approach to our day. With no tickets pre-booked, our departure from Casperia was not really time sensitive. We had breakfast, and chatted with the Danish couple who were also staying in the village for a bit. Then, it was down to Vigna one last time for a quick beer and goodbye--more like see you later :)  We took the local train in to Rome (and may have been scammed by the conductor selling us tickets on the train? It seemed too expensive), and then bought Italo Rail tickets to Florence--probably would have saved some money buying those in advance, but oh well!  We arrived in Florence around 16:30, but couldn't meet up with our Airbnb host until 19:30, so we wandered a bit to find where the flat would be, and then found a local bar with an aperitif and buffet special--7 Euro for your cocktail and food, and they had wifi, so we sat for a while and snacked to ...

(posted by Emily) Wednesday 23 July  After driving in to London with Malcolm on Tuesday, we decided to head up to Cambridge to see the university and meet for lunch. We had to wait for off-peak travel and much to our dismay, discovered almost every train in either direction was delayed due to overhead wire problems.  We weren't the only ones sitting around waiting, and by the time a train finally arrived to head north, there was quite a crowd ready to board. What should have been maybe a 50 minute trip turned into a three hour ordeal by the time we arrived.  Malcolm picked us up from the train station and we headed into town and on to the university's campus. The university and the city are so intertwined, you can be walking down the street and stop in a clothing shop that is right next door to one of the school's colleges.  We decided to stop in a pub for a drink before lunch. They were having a cider festival, with seven different v...

(posted by Emily) Sunday 20 July Daily Step Count: 13,041 After a great night's sleep at the Hilton London Gatwick (for the record--the largest Hilton both Rick and I have ever seen), I was so ready for breakfast. We were able to eat in the hotel's restaurant, at their buffet.  We were both tickled to find so many options for us--fruit, salad bar, hash browns, vegetarian sausages, OJ, cranberry juice, tomato juice, and even soya milk for our coffee! I was one happy camper!! We did a quick bit of research about how best to get into the city, and then hopped on the train. We rode into Statford, and had time to pick up a few groceries at M&S before our train to Roydon.  When we got back to the boat, we sorted out all of our dirty laundry and got the loads started. Beds were made, things put away, and we put together a pitcher of Pimms. #priorities  As we were cleaning out our bags, I realized that other than clothes/s...