I'm back. After three weeks of planes, rented cars, trains, subway stations, fighting children, creative kosher eating and the likes, we are back on home turf and damn glad to be here.
I have several things that I want to write about over the next few days but for today, I am only going to offer my observations on three weeks spread between Scotland, England and France.
1) If I ever run away from life, I am going to Scotland. If you are looking for me, you can find me there -- notice, I am not mentioning specifically where I will be. Previously, I had planned to drop-out somewhere in Vermont or New Hampshire, but now I have had a change of heart. I will be somewhere in Scotland.
2) Fashion and style never made it as far north as Scotland. The people couldn't be any nicer, but it might be a worthwhile venture for someone to import Vogue, In Style and a few other fashion how-to magazines. I saw some of the biggest fashion crimes of our trip in Edinburgh and worst of all, I don't think any of the Scottish people noticed.
3) The Lake District of England is unbelievably beautiful however, since I am far from the first person to have figured that out, there were zillions of other people in my way while I was looking around. If all those people would have just gone home, I might have considered dropping out there.
4) I always thought that Walmart was the everyman's shopping Mecca. I was wrong. I stumbled into Tesco in Perth, Scotland and it changed my life forever.
5) Cadbury World outside Birmingham is the biggest scam I have ever seen perpetrated on an innocent chocolate-loving public. To quote my husband: "We should have just spent the 40 pounds the museum cost us, on chocolate."
6) Warwick Castle, also outside of Birmingham is the second biggest scam ever. I know I am going to get a lot of flack for saying this, but I am sorry, I cannot be moved from this position. We had so many recommendations to visit Warwick Castle that I had big expectations -- and entry had a big price tag -- and as far as I am concerned, I should have spent the day at Tescos!!!!!
7) Paris is the most over-priced place I have ever visited. Absolutely everything costs a ridiculous amount of money. One example: one scoop of Haagen Dazs ice cream costs three to four euros from a street vendor.
8) While Paris has what are probably the best collection of museums and monuments -- in one city -- in the Western world, I simply don't like it there. I love the museums -- the Louvre, D'Orsay, The Centre de Georges Pompidou, the Picasso Museum, to name but a few, but frankly I do not plan to ever step foot in Paris again.
9) Three kosher pizzas in Paris cost 300 nis. If we had eaten them in the street they would have cost less but we wanted to actually sit on chairs at a table to eat for a change, so there went that possible bargain.
10) There do not seem to be any caucasians living in Paris. Assuming that at some point in the past, there were lots of them, I wonder where they went?
11) However, Parisians will actually stop their cars and let you cross the street, while Londoners would run you over without blinking an eye.
12) London is a much more orderly place and that suits my personality much better than Paris. That said, the museums aren't nearly as good.
13) That said, Londoners may smile at you but they would walk right over you without giving it a second thought. And of all the Londoners we came across the least friendly ones were the ones we met in synagogue.
14) London had the best buskers of anywhere we went. If you want to see the best array of buskers I have ever found -- Covent Gardens is the place to go.
15) Travelling without children is much cheaper and much quieter, however, there are less people to put in your vacation photos. Of course, there are also less people TO LEAVE YOUR CAMERA WITH ALL YOUR VACATION PHOTOS ON THE BUS -- NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN.
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