England and Paris

 

On May 15 we began our day with a visit to Jane Austen's home in Chawton, England. Nadia had specifically asked for us to go there. She has read three of Austen's books, and years ago one of Nadia's favorite book series was the Mother Daughter Book Club, and in one of those books the girls visited Austen's home in England. We then drove to London and parked the car in the parking lot of the apartment building where we were going to be spending three nights. We planned to take the bus, but then we thought it would be faster to take a taxi to Buckingham Palace, and we didn't want to be late for our "private" tour (we were 5 of 20 people in the tour). A comedy of errors ensued. We had trouble getting the app to accept our credit card. Then we waited for the first taxi driver who accepted our request, but then he changed his mind. We had to wait for another taxi driver to come our way. We *thought* we were helping out by walking in the direction of where he was coming from, but in reality he came to where we had been when we requested the taxi so we then had to RUN back to where we had been in the hopes he would still be waiting for us. We were supposed to arrive 15 minutes before our tour began to go through security, but in reality we arrived one minute after our tour began. Paul knew that they would be collecting our phones so he turned off his phone as we were walking into the palace. Paul and Nadia got new phones this year, and when we upgraded their phones they were switched to a plan that includes international traveling. Ian didn't bring his phone, Oliver doesn't own a phone, and I've only been using my phone in airplane mode. Unfortunately, Paul forgot that the tickets were on his phone, and ironically when he turned off his phone, it went through an update and had to be restarted on Wi-Fi, and there wasn't any Wi-Fi in that area of Buckingham Palace. So we had no way to show our tickets. I took my phone off of airplane mode (which incurred a $12 charge from Verizon) to try to access the tickets on my phone, but that also was unsuccessful. Thankfully, they had my name on a list and finally let us in without actually showing tickets. From that point forward I made sure to save screenshots of all tickets on my own phone. The tour was interesting, but the tour guide spoke very quietly (trying not to disturb those who were working there). 

As we walked from Buckingham Palace to the British Museum, we stopped at a Pret A Manger for dinner. It's a British fast food restaurant which serves much healthier options that most fast food places in the US. Paul and I tried to go to the British Museum in 2002, but they were on strike the day we tried to go. The Bayeux Tapestry which we saw in France in 2002 will be on display in the British Museum from September 2026- July 2027. I wish the kids could have seen that, but I'm very glad that Paul's 24 year wait to visit the British Museum is over. We ended the night with Phantom of the Opera at His Majesty's Theatre. It was my third time seeing that Broadway show and Paul's second time, but it was the first for the kids. They liked it. Ian jumped a couple of times (such as when the large chandelier fell down). It was the kids' sixth Broadway show. When we saw Aladdin in Buffalo while on vacation I was mortified at how underdressed we were compared to most people, but in general people weren't dressed up for the show in London so we were fine. The bus ride was only supposed to take about 20 minutes, but there was an incredible amount of traffic that night even though it was late so by the time we got to our apartment it was about 11:45 pm. In hindsight, we could have gotten back much sooner if we had walked back despite the fact it was about 2 miles away. The first two nights in Wales our apartments had a machine that was both a washer and dryer, but I didn't do laundry because our trip had just begun, and then we stayed at hotels which didn't include free laundry. I started a load that first night in London and it took me days to get that small load of laundry dry! I had hoped to do multiple loads over the course of three days. That didn't happen. The first night of our trip we got almost no sleep as we were on the plane. The second night we went to bed later than planned because of a variety of factors. The third, fourth, and fifth nights of the trip we were able to go to bed at a very reasonable hour and didn't have to get up early. Two of those nights Nadia and Ian had their own room, and I think they (or at least Ian) stayed up later than recommended. He also didn't think to take a shower either of those days or nights, and he left our adaptor at the hotel, and that has been sorely missed since then. The sixth, seventh, and eighth nights of the trip we didn't get enough sleep.

On May 16 we walked to the Tower of London and had breakfast at a place called Cheese & Peppers on the way there. Paul and I prefer guided tours. The kids generally do not, but they did all like the Beefeater tour at the Tower. Thankfully we saw the crown jewels before the line got really long. Our next stop was the Tower Bridge. These two stops were the only ones that were repeats in England for Paul and I. The Tower Bridge tour hadn't changed that much, but the Tower of London site was much different. Next we took the underground toward Westminster Abbey. A protest was being held that day very close to the Abbey so we had to alter the route we took to get there. Our fourth stop was the Churchill War Rooms. We planned to visit the bronze statues at Leicester Square, but many roads were closed due to the protest. We finally gave up on having dinner where I had planned and also skipped seeing the statues. We had time for shopping before we went to see Paddington the Musical at the Savoy Theatre. The kids liked Phantom of the Opera, but they absolutely loved Paddington. They have been listening to it every day since then. Thankfully we didn't encounter extra traffic on our bus trip back to the apartment that night, but it was still a VERY short night of sleep because we had to get up at 2:45 am to drive to the airport for our flight to Paris. 

I thought leaving at 3:15 am would allow us plenty of time. I was wrong. The line for the security screening was very long. By the time we got to our gate, they had already started boarding. In Paris we bought 5 passes that allowed us unlimited use of the trains/subway for the day. We took the train from the airport to Notre Dame. They didn’t give out any reserved tickets that day, but thankfully the line wasn’t long. Since it was Sunday morning, they were having a service while we were there. After visiting the Cathedral (which Paul and I had been in before the fire), we bought some baguettes and pain au chocolat, which was a treat I really enjoyed when we spent a week in France in 2002. They were having a bread festival outside of the cathedral. Our next stop was Sainte Chapelle, which is my most favorite cathedral I’ve ever been in. In 2002 we had a private guided tour of it, which we loved. We just walked around it ourselves this time. There were far more security screenings now compared to 24 years ago. We went through scanners 8 times in one day (two times just for the Eiffel Tower). We had crepes for lunch at Chez Suzette before visiting the Musee de Orsay, which was the only site on our itinerary that wasn’t a repeat for Paul and I. Monet, Manet, and Renoir are three of my favorite artists so it was a delight to see so many of their original works of art there along with ones by Van Gogh. We ended our day in Paris with a visit to the Arc de Triomphe, eating pizza at Chez Pippo, and going to the second floor of the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t bring my camera to Paris because of the rain forecast. We did experience a total downpour for about 75 minutes in the afternoon around the time of the Arc. We had brought two umbrellas with us and bought two more in Paris. Considering how frequently it rains in the UK, we considered ourselves fortunate that this was the first time we had much rain. We took the train back to the airport, and then we had a long wait at the gate because our flight was delayed. By the time we drove back to our apartment, I had been awake for almost 23 hours straight. The kids had slept in the car and on the airplane. Nadia really wanted to visit Paris, so this was a gift to her.

 On Monday morning we started our day at Kensington Palace, took the underground to Westminster, and toured Big Ben. They collected our phones so we didn’t get credit for going up all those stairs, ha ha. It was a very interesting tour. After the tour we took the underground back to where our SUV was parked and drove to Cambridge. Driving in London is not exactly pleasant. We had a punting trip on the River Cam (similar to gondolas in Venice) and walked around the town some to get dessert at Jack’s Gelato. We got another parking ticket, but we have challenged this one because they said we hadn’t paid for parking at 6:13 when we had paid for two hours at 6:03. We have proof that we paid so I hope our appeal is successful. I never, ever want to rent a car in another country again! We didn’t have this trouble when we rented vehicles in Europe from 2002-2004. Paul has been a champ driving on the left side of the road, but it can be stressful especially on very narrow one lane (yet two way) roads (especially true in Scotland). We got behind schedule in Cambridge so we didn’t check in until around midnight at our hotel. It was the only Holiday Inn in this trip that had a room that could accommodate 5 people, and they had an amazing breakfast selection. 

We ended out time in England at Alnwick Castle on Tuesday morning. The kids were excited because some of the scenes from Harry Potter movies were filmed there. We took a guided tour that focused on the movies filmed at the site. Due to the grass being wet, they weren’t having broomstick training that day, but they did provide broomsticks for photos. Due to the fact it was raining  when we parked, I didn’t bring my camera to the castle. It never rained while we were there so I wish that I had brought it because it’s much harder to freeze action with a cellphone. Paul was more interested in the history of the castle. After eating lunch at the castle, we drove to Scotland.