The Climax Of Our European Adventure (Part 3)

I promised you I would complete our seemingly never-ending European adventure story, and here we are. After scrolling through many photos, avoiding the derpy ones of myself and focusing on the well-lit images instead, and reminiscing aplenty on the incredible time we have, I’m finally ready to sit down and write this.

So strap yourselves in and feel the G’s!

Last time we left off, I took you through our stays in both London and Montreal. I have such a strong affinity to both these cities now (but a tad more to London, as you’ll find out in mere moments), and I can’t wait to revisit them once more. Honestly, this trip just put rose-coloured glasses on my view of everywhere we visited, and all our destinations, and their charms, are forever etched in my mind.

So, we left our friends Sammie & Deric in Montreal, and taxied on over to the airport. Montreal airport is quite small but decent. We had a late flight to get on, so we arrived at the airport super early and had time to kill — which we did, in a pub-style restaurant over some GIANT nachos and a teensy onion soup. I, of course, bought a number of Canadian fashion magazines, and then we boarded our red-eye.

Once we landed back in London, I was glad to be there once more, but I wasn’t in the best of moods (and that’s putting it mildly!). Being such a late flight, it was already bound to disturb our sleep, but there was an unsettled child (with parents who seemed unsettled by their child, shall we say) and a lot of peeps crammed into a small, economy-sized space. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best sleep of my life, and I didn’t arrive feeling fresh in any way, shape or form. But, we had to truck on, and so we continued.

I remember that morning: feeling greasy, dishevelled, and the epitome of Hangry, we hopped into our taxi — which just so happened to be a luxury Mercedes. Things were looking up! As we headed to what I thought was an average “airport hotel” (because that’s what Gav had told me we were staying in), I couldn’t help but notice that the houses around us looked so cute and old school. They were sweet little brick cottages, and the scenery was so green and lush. It was England in a nutshell.

As we started turning into a driveway, I was quite confused as to why there was a gated, hedged fence surrounding the estate — and why it was an estate at all. I thought maybe this was just an entrance through to the hotel, but as we turned in, I saw an English-style manor and realised that Gav was up to something indeed. This place looked like a palace! I can’t quite express my shock here, as I was really prepared to stay at a standard B&B (as we had for our first night in London), but my morning was definitely on the upswing from here on in.

And so, we headed in and were greeted by the staff — all of whom had the quintessential “British” accent and were impeccably well-mannered. It was bliss! The hotel is Alexander House, and I later found out that they have a helipad, an outdoor spa, and that you’re able to walk around the grounds in your robe. Heaven.

We had arrived early and were famished, so while they prepared our room we headed to one of the venues for a bite to eat. At this point, we’d been shown around the grounds by a very well-spoken young British man, and I was completely overwhelmed/thrilled. After the hellish flight we’d just endured (I know there are far worse pains than a bad flight, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it at the time), arriving at one of the most refined and hospitable places I’ve ever stayed was a very welcome change.

Anyway, at this point I’ll cut to the chase: that same day, after a relaxing bath, we were chilling in our beautiful Chelsea room and… Gav proposed.

I couldn’t quite believe it, and as I was already still in shock from our incredible surroundings, this really pushed me over the edge. I don’t think I’ve ever been so stunned in my entire life. Gav had had the ring on him the entire trip, and even though we’ve been together for 8 years, I still had no idea this was coming.

So, as you can imagine, this led to a lot of celebrating — namely, with a cream tea (but of course).

For the rest of our stay, we were pretty much on cloud 9, and being surrounded by the picturesque country estate was like a fairytale. As you can see from the above picture, I relished the fact I could be out and about in a dressing gown: definitely a dream of mine realised.

That night I slept like a baby, and the next day, we were able to just chill on the grounds and take our time. I was working remotely throughout this trip (on and off), but the next day was gladly a holiday, and I relished in that, as you can see in this picture:

I won’t divulge too many details of our stay, apart from letting you know that it was incredible and you should definitely get yourselves over there at least once in your life. It honestly felt like a James Bond/celebrity playground — just the way I like it.

After our dream stay in Alexander House, it was time to move on to the final part of our adventure: Copenhagen.

Now, this was a random last-minute destination, booked solely to tie in with my parents’ Eurotrip — which was beginning as ours was ending. I really wanted to meet up with them in Europe, because that’s just an awesome thing to be able to do, but our schedules weren’t quite working out. The only free time they had was 3 days in Copenhagen, and we were able to swing that at the end of our trip.

And thank goodness we did, because I discovered on this trip that Copenhagen has my heart.

There’s something about Copenhagen (and perhaps Scandinavian Europe as a whole) that is just so calming. The famous design aesthetic pervades the whole cityscape; everything is so calm, clear, and zen. In fact, Gav noticed that it was markedly similar to Japan, and sure enough, we Googled it later and found out that Denmark was heavily influenced by Japanese zen culture. Go figure.

We only had three days there, so I would definitely love to come back and explore it further, but we were lucky enough to be in the trendy Vesterbro area. Mum and dad had booked this, so we just booked a place nearby, but I happened to love it. There were cool cafes and clothes stores everywhere — and everyone just looks so damn good. Honestly, if you’re on the lookout for a young, fit and stylish potential love interest, head to Copenhagen!

Of course, we walked along the canal and saw the famous colourful houses — the epitome of Copenhagen — and also strolled around the city centre. We were lucky with the weather too: the day we were out walking, it was perfectly sunny, but the next day it poured. Luckily, Gav had booked a night for us to stay at the Marriott — as our flight left a day later than we thought — and we got to have a lovely chilled out day.

We went to a cafe called The Laundromat Cafe because, aptly enough, it is both a laundromat and a cafe. We had a bunch of dirty clothes which had piled up in the last leg of our stay (although I’d stayed on of it throughout the rest of the trip), and so this was quite a practical visit. Later on, we had dinner at the restaurant, in their their newly-renovated restaurant, where we ate the best pork of our lives — and this is coming from people who lived in Korea!

The next day, we had a little bit of time to kill in the city, so we took the train in to have a little walk around, soak in the sights, take some final glimpses at the beautiful Danish buildings, and eat some muesli on a park bench:

Later on, we headed to the impeccable Copenhagen airport, which has non-existent lines and the most efficient airport processes I’ve ever seen. It even tops Gatwick! Such a pleasure. And of course, it looks stunning, and all the shops and duty-free featured incredible gifts… it was hard for me to restrain myself, but I managed to purchase only a couple of items.

And so, our epic six-week Eurotrip came to a close… and it was truly the trip of my life. From France, to London, Montreal, London (again), and Copenhagen… it couldn’t have been any better. It still sort of gives me goosebumps when I think of it — which can only be a good sign!

So now that I’ve talked all about myself for this whole post — what about you? Have you been travelling recently, or is there somewhere you have you heart set on? Let me know in the comments!

Steph x