Phase 3: Continuing through Europe....

I really should have had more time to get this updated, but oh well. It seems like a long time ago now, but it was an amazing time so here is the re-cap.
Stanley and I arrived in Venice early in the morning.  We had a couple of days of seeing the Biennale.  We stayed right between the two sites.  The first one had all of the different country regular pavilions.  The second day was at an old ship yard building which was amazing in itself.  2 jam-packed days of art, but definitely worth the visit.

At the Canadian Pavilion

The shipyard building

One of my fav works

We also managed to hit a few restaurants, see the main Venetian sites including the Peggy Guggenheim house and Piazza San Marco.  I also made sure I had my fill of Prosecco one afternoon! It was such a beautiful place.  I loved Venice.

  

Looking through Stanley's Rose Coloured Glasses

My tour of Prosecco including the original Bellini from Harry's Bar

The pizza we had.  Absolutely amazing.

So that was the whirlwind few days in Venice. Plenty more photos than these!  After we had our second day at the Biennale, we hopped the train to Milano.  We arrived at our cute Airbnb, and it was just outside this famous building called Bosco Verticale - an apartment building with a vertical forest. Amazing.   

Bosco Verticale

Our plan for Milan was pretty much to spend one whole day at the Expo, so the first night we were there, we met up with the lovely Asta who gave us the inside scoop on what to see at the Expo.  We enjoyed a fantastic meal at Eataly with Asta and his wife....and got to bed early for our huge day at the Expo.  

On our way to Eataly

Eataly - so yum.

So the next morning, we headed to the train station and hit the Expo.  It was amazing.  We got our 'passports' and got as many stamps as we could.  Here is the list of what we managed to visit in the one day:

Moldova, Hungary, Germany, Senegal, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bahrain, Mali, Republic of Liberia, USA, Turkmenistan, Palestine, UK, Mexico, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Monaco, Rwanda, Djibouti, Russia, Azerbaijan, Somalia, Mauritius, Jordan, Uganda, Turkey, Guatemala, El Salvador, Yemen, Burundi, Dominican Republic, Finland

We had a great jug of Pimms at the UK pavilion which Stage One built.  We had great coffee, went to a futuristic supermarket, had awesome German dinner, quite a few beers, swung on indoor swings in the Estonian pavilion and watched the Tree of Life show a couple times at night.  Amazing full day. Wish we had more time to wait in some of the queues.  

The passport

Stanley sits on this cool balloon kind of chair

Azerbaijan

The Pimms O'Clock Jug

The UK Beehive

The swings

The Tree of Life Show

We got up quite early the next day to catch our next train.  We were headed to Nice, France.  It was nice to be back at the beach!  We had a lovely lunch when we arrived, napped and checked out the town that night.  There was a concert on the beach, and we danced to an outdoor band in a nice restaurant.  The next morning we got up and went to the beach and through their botanic gardens. The gardens were lovely.  The sea water was warm, but we weren't fans of all the rocks on the beach. Later that day, we took the bus into Monte Carlo, Monaco later that day, explored, had a lovely dinner and went back.  

The train station in Milan

The beach and gardens in Nice

Our street in Nice

Sunset over the beach

Monte Carlo Casino

All over Monte Carlo

The Monte Carlo Palace

Our next stop was Paris.  So we took a train to Paris for pretty much one day.  We had a lovely dinner that night and spent most of the next day exploring.  

Our balcony

At the Louvre

Stanley in the Tuileries, in her fav chair

Printemps Department Store

We took the Eurostar over to London, which was actually really cool.  I really enjoyed it.  We were a bit late getting to the train station in Paris which made us a bit nervous, but we did make it.  We decided to splurge and stayed at the Great Northern Hotel.  We met up with a few people for drinks that night.  Stanley had to leave after a couple of days, but I extended my stay a bit and stayed with the lovely Steve Thomas.  I spent a few days catching up with people and seeing some of my favourite places.  I also managed to get to see Secret Cinema's Empire Strikes Back.  Very fun stuff.   Good work team who I know who was working on it!  I even stayed for the film.  I caught up with Dawn James and got tickets to see the Harry Potter film studios in Leavesden.  It was really cool, but the merch was super expensive.  Most of my time in London was good, however, it was stupid cold in London though!  So boring especially after so many lovely sunny warm days in Europe.  

The bar at the Great Northern

The Liberty Department Store

The Cafe in the Crypt - a place I usually stop

The obligatory Eye photo

Harry Potter model of Hogwarts - THIS WAS HUGE actually!

Collage with Dawn and I drinking Butter Beer!

So I arrived back in the US and decided to head out west for a bit to visit Brock, Amber and Nora.  It was great to spend some time back in the Washington area since they had very recently moved back. We went to an apple orchard, spent time at the park, blew a lot of bubbles, hit up several brew pubs (with Nora as well), went to the Children's Museum twice (!), and had a great time!  She has mastered so many words including my name and recognises me every time on the FaceTime.  I even got to have a couple of days with Kelly and Rob in Seattle which was lovely before I flew out.

At the Apple Orchard

There were pumpkins too!

At Aslan Brewery (like the Lion, the witch and the wardrobe)

At the Children's Museum

Already into the theatre lighting scene....perfect.

Hanging out in the backyard

She has stolen my glasses....obviously

With Brock before I left

After a trip to the west coast, I headed down to South Carolina.  Hit quite a bit of the hurricane weather, which was entertaining.  There is plenty more to talk about with my time down there and what I am up to at the moment, but I need to go finish enjoying Turkey Day.  More to come soon. Lots of love,

Sxo