Nadines Travel Blog

We flew on Westjet over the pond on a direct flight from Calgary to Gatwick.  But before the flight, we took advantage of the Aspire Lounge in Calgary.  The Westjet Lounge had too stringent of entry times so we opted for the Aspire.  I would not do that again as the food in the Aspire was awful but at least the drinks were self-serve.  The Dreamliner plane is a nice bird to fly on, granted Business Class would have been kinder to my body but the Economy seat wasn't all that bad.  There was more recline than I thought there would be which enabled some fitful sleeping with the aid of a Zopiclone.  I had the middle seat, Darren to my right and a rude young girl to my left who had made two rude comments to me in the expanse of roughly 2 minutes.  23 years of Administration did not escape me, once a teacher, always a teacher.  After this last interaction with her, the flight was quite uneventful.  Uneventful is probably a sought-after adjective wh...

 We really enjoyed our stay at the lovely 5-star Grand York.  I took advantage of an American Express card credit and booked this hotel.  The hotel is the old railway headquarters that has been lovingly restored and renovated into the hotel that it is today.  There is an older section and a newer section and we stayed in the new.  The room was much larger than your average European hotel room and beautifully decorated.  I was a bit jet-lagged when going to sleep that night but I woke up exactly 12 hours later.  I do believe it was one of the most comfortable beds I have ever slept on.  I got up the next morning feeling refreshed and had a couple of Nespresso coffees that were complimentary.  I had a bath in one of the longest tubs I have ever been in.  The bathroom was quite posh and done up in marble etc. It is a 5-minute walk from the train station, no need for a cab.  The Grand is located inside the walled city of York and you pa...

 I purchased advance tickets for 10 am the one morning that we had in York and I am glad that I did because there was a lineup to get in.  This is a highly recommended site to take in when in York which is all about Viking history.  Extensive archeological digs took place exactly where the Yorvik Viking Center stands today.  York in Viking times was called Yorvik and was a Viking settlement.   If you have any British or UK roots you most likely have Viking blood in you.  I thought that I was pure British Isles most of my life.  Then I took an Ancestry.com test and it showed that I am 22% Scandinavian blood or Viking blood which makes sense.  The Vikings were fierce warriors and raped, sacked and pillaged their way throughout England.  (Why did I think that my family would be the exception?) My Viking blood is courtesy of these most fearsome invaders.  At first, they took their plunder and slaves back to their lands but eventually En...