Last updated: 25 June 2023
From the Roaming Required Archives. Here’s a flashback from May 2016.
Another month passes us by so here’s a quick wrap up of the month that was May.
By the time May rolled around, we were well and truly knee deep in our epic ten day Baltic road trip. We’d spent time in Latvia and Estonia and this was the tail end of the trip where we found ourselves in Lithuania.
On 1st May, we bid farewell to Vilnius and jumped in our little Ford Fiesta hire car headed for the incredibly magical Trakai Castle. I was glad we visited in the off-season. The single lane roads were busy enough with people hanging out windows attempting to snap island-castle of Trakai as they drove past. We parked a mile away and walked leisurely along the river towards the Castle.
Our most popular Instagram in May:
On the same day we had read about this phenomenal site of Christian pilgrimage. It’s known as the Hill of Crosses, it’s just outside the town of Šiauliai in Northern Lithuania. Ordinarily a challenge for most travellers as it sits alone in the middle of nowhere, this is exactly why having a car is so handy. We’d timed it perfectly for sunset, the golden rays glistened off hundreds of thousands of crosses.
In typical Roaming Required fashion, we stumbled across a former Cold War era Soviet nuclear missile silo in the dense Lithuanian forest. While it is now open to the public although you need a good GPS and a sense of adventure to find it.
Back to London, we ordinarily hit the ground running with a retuning to the daily grind of the 9-5 life. However, you know that old saying, it never rains it pours? Well in May it poured. It poured with visitors! We don’t receive many guests from home, so when we get the chance to see familiar faces, they’re welcomed with open arms.
The day after returning from the Baltics, I took the high speed train to Kent to spend the day in Rochester with some old friends. The quaint village has an impressive cathedral that’s often in the shadow of the Rochester castle looms over the village from atop of the town-centered hill. A quirky high street where you could easily spend the best part of a day weaving in and out of all the charity shops, pubs and boutiques that line the street.
A week easily passed with the monotonous blur of peak hour Tube rides and boxed lunches.
More visitors turned up for one night only, so it was cocktails at Oxford Street’s latest rooftop bar, Notch. Marketed as cocktails served in jam jars, industrial-style trappings and swings hanging from galvanised pipes in the open air, it had some appeal. However Notch has endorsed the no booking concept, the pathetic excuse for rooftop porta-loos lacking lights and the four flights of stairs leave a lot to be desired. Oh, and it closed at 10pm!
Some special friends surprised us with the knowledge that they were heading to Vienna for a weekend. Quickly booking flights we jumped at the chance to see them. Vienna had fabulous weather made it perfect for exploring the city with Polawalk and a tour via our favourite method of exploration, Segway.
Back in London, a bar launch at Myki Sands bar in Soho, with real sand on the floor, live music and themed cocktails helped ease into another weekly cycle.
The majority of London’s museums are free. Often inundated with children and school groups, but for one night a month there’s a concept appropriately named “Lates”. Finding us both in London for Lates at the Science Museum is a rare treat, so we decided to pop in for a visit. Lates is an adults only affair. It’s not all boring lectures about dark matter and the history of trains. There’s bars throughout the museum and an array of activities. Silent disco, workshops make your own Solar system bracelet and talks from a Physicists from CERN about particle physics.
The end of the month saw a visit from a blogger friend Suzanne. She was popping over from the US for a mileage run. Tapas restaurants and cocktails in civilised posh hotel lobbies was the best way to wrap up May with yet another long weekend.
What’s in store for June?
June appears to be a quiet month for us ahead of a very busy July. We’ve scored some hard to get tickets for the final dress rehearsal for one of London’s biggest street parades, Trooping The Colour.
The Taste of London festival is back in Regents Park. Foodies will flock to the festival as the best restaurants and chefs fight it out to create the most desirable canapés.
We’ll be spending a weekend in hopefully sunny Brighton, send your tips for the best pubs in Sussex.
Amongst all that I’m sure there will be many more BBQs with friends as we embrace the London summer, and a trip or two to the theatre if we can squeeze it in!
