Kendra Sherill’s family trip to Europe
In the latest installment of Tails from the Trails, Kendra Sherrill answers our questions about her family vacation to London and Italy:
Tell us about where you went and why you went there.
We went to London and Italy. My mom, Mary Sherrill, my aunt, Carolann Andrews, my two cousins, Carly (age 16) and Sarah (age 14), and I, Kendra Sherrill (age 13) all went together. We do have relatives that live in Italy, but they live very far south, so we were not able to visit them. It took nine hours to get to London, and another three hours to get to Italy. This is definitely one of our favorite places on Earth; we had a wonderful time!
Give us the details about your vacation transportation.
During our trip, we practically rode every kind of transportation there is. From nine-hour plane rides, to four-hour train rides, to 10 minute bus rides. We rode in planes, trains, taxis, extremely crowded public buses, double-decker buses, shuttle buses, ferries, water taxis, water shuttles, and walked about 10 miles each day. All of the traveling made our trip even more fun and exciting.
Where did you find the friendliest people?
In Italy and London, there were many friendly people. Almost everyone in Italy could speak a little English, and they even felt bad when they couldn’t speak it well. They were all so helpful, even though directions to our hotel almost always consisted of “up ahead and to the left.” When we asked to take pictures of the Italians, not one of them questioned us; they just posed and smiled. The nicest people were people running the shops in the markets and, of course, the tour guides were always so kind and fun to be around.
If you ran into a bad restaurant, waitress, rude town or terrible bathroom, tell us about it.
Now we are coming to the good part. One of the worst restaurants we went to during our trip was in Venice. It was called Planet Restaurant. As you might guess from the name, the food wasn’t all that good. Our waitress was very pushy, acted as if she didn’t speak English (which she did), and brought us food we didn’t even order. And she charged us for it! But the weirdest part was, at the end of our meal, she brought each of us a shot of hard liquor and just stood there smiling and pretending like she didn’t know why we were confused by the whole situation! Who would be crazy enough to bring three teenagers hard liquor?
If at some point in your trip, things didn’t go according to plan, let us know.
We woke up on our last morning in Rome to find out the all of the taxis were on strike! It may sound strange, but in Italy this happens often. Our plan that day was go to Florence by train. But, we needed a taxi to get to the train station! So, we ended up riding a really crowded bus with our luggage in 110-degree heat! It worked out, but it was really surprising. The taxis were on strike the rest of the time we were there; even the water taxis in Venice!
Give us the best meals of your trip.
The best food we had on our trip would definitely be at the Yellow Bar in Florence. It had the complete Italian atmosphere, and we ate there two nights. It is a great family-style restaurant. The pasta was the best pasta we had on the trip, and the prices were reasonable. The food was served family style, which means they brought your food in a hot skillet and you served yourself. The chefs also loved when we took pictures of them! We had a great time there.
Give us the best roadside oddity you spotted and where it was.
We did not see any roadside oddities on our trip, but we did see the Coliseum, the Pantheon, the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the Roman Forum, Uffizi, a Venetian glass-making factory, Buckingham Palace, the world’s first medieval castle, Big Ben, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, Westminster Abbey, and the statue of David, to name a few.