Summer European Vacation, Part 4--Paris

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUSBAND!!

He turns the big 4-0 today!

I can't wait to share with you the gift I made for him. You may remember my 40 Blows post, if you missed it, click here.

Now, I wanted to share with you my last post regarding our Summer European Vacation. You can check out the previous posts here, here and here.

I loved this leg of our trip. Paris was everything I was expecting. So romantic, so rich in history. I absolutely loved every single second of it...it was worth every penny!

Now, you might remember that it was only my hubby and I that took this little trip, which was to celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary (read about our love story here.). We left the kids with Grandma and the rest of the family in England (so nice of them!) while we took the trip to Paris.

I did a lot of research. A lot. I had visions in my head of what to expect and I felt prepared. Until we arrived. Oh, that's right. I don't speak French. Yikes! But thanks to the Forum on Trip Advisor, I knew the appropriate ettiquite. And it worked.

So here are the pictures and a little commentary of our romantic rendezvous to Paris:

It started to rain as soon as we got off the subway. Welcome to Paris!

Our first stop was a few blocks from our hotel. It was of course to see the Eiffel Tower.

No, we didn't climb up it. No, we didn't go up the elevators either.

Yes, I have a husband that doesn't like heights.

We still enjoyed it from the ground.

We walked around on the first day, just to take in the city. We had a late lunch/early dinner a few blocks away from our hotel. It was recommended by the hotel and it was worth every Euro we spent.

We stopped at the bridge titled Locks of Love. We paid 10 Euros for a padlock and put C+D and the date and found a "special" place for our love lock. Next, you are supposed to toss the keys in the river to claim your love with last forever. Only, we didn't know this until the last day and didn't get a chance to go back and throw them in. We still think our love is timeless.

We stopped back at the Eiffel Tower at dusk to watch them "light" the tower. It is so cool. Breathtaking. One of my favorite moments. Everyone crowds around in the park and at 10pm, the show begins. It sparkles. Everyone oohs and ahhs. Here is the video I took. (first video I've ever uploaded, so I hope it works!)

The next day we bought tickets for the Batobus and the Red Tour Bus. Both worth it. It's a great way to hop on and off at different tourist locations. We saw:

Notre Dame. So beautiful. We didn't go inside, but can just imagine the beauty.

The Louve. It's massive. We aren't artsy people so we didn't pay to go in. I think you could get lost in that place. It's over 652,000 square feet. The famous Mona Lisa is displayed here.

We drove by the Arc de Triomphe and decided to get off the bus to visit it. There was some sort of ceremony going on at the time. We didn't stay long because we didn't want to distrupt the service.

This is from the official website: The triumphal arch is in honor of those who fought for France, in particular, those who fought during the Napoleonic Wars. Engraved on the inside and at the top of the arch are all of the names of the generals and wars fought. There are inscriptions in the ground underneath the vault of the arch which include the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I where the Memorial Flame burns and have made the Arc de Triomphe Paris a revered patriotic site. 

Here's the Batobus we took around. It's like a water taxi.

Sorry about the quality of the picture. I still wanted to share this with you because I thought it was one of the coolest things (besides the historical sites) about Paris. In the evening, the locals gather on the riverfront and hang out with their friends. Bring a blanket, wine, cheese, bread and just chill. This was on a weeknight, too. The river was lined with people. I wish we had something like that back home.
 

From a post I read online, I found this FREE Walking Tour, given by locals. It's a company called Discover Walks. They wear pink vests so you can recognize them. In Paris, there were several different options, we decided on the Paris Landmarks tour. IT WAS AWESOME! AND FREE! Although, you are encouraged to tip...and you actually want to when it's over. Our guide was great, funny and very socialable. Highly recommend this tour.

After the walking tour, we treated ourselves to Amorino Gelato. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I didn't even think about how many calories there were in that bad boy! The hubs and I shared this, by the way and it was plenty!



That night, our last night in Paris, we took another walk along the river. Looking up, we saw the Eiffle Tower and Carousel. I've always wanted to do a "fun" picture, so this is what we did! I jumped, hubby snapped the picture! LOVE IT!! Ok, so I am a little crazy! (but FUN!)

Before heading home the next day, we went down the side streets around our hotel. We found some gems! This Boulangerie was one of them. We saw locals going in and coming out with fresh bread, one after another. So, we had to stop in. We opted for a breakfast treat. So good.

Paris was everything I imagined it to be. It was a perfect way to celebrate our 15th Wedding Anniversary.

Travel Tips:

1. Research, research, research. Try Trip Advisor--it's very informative!
2. Visit side streets and watch where the locals go--you'll want to follow!
3. Visit the Eiffel Tower during the day, evening, dusk and dark. It's amazing how different it looks in the lighting.
4. Comfy shoes is a must.
5. Take a walking tour.
6. Say Bon Jour to all store owners, restaurant servers and business people. Then ask if they speak English. Most likely they know enough to help you.
7. Tipping is different over there. Your bill (especially when you pay by credit card) does not have a line for a tip. It is not expected. Appreciated, yes, but the wait staff and other service people (cabs) don't live on tips alone like they do here in the States.
8. Book an English-welcoming hotel. This was huge for us. They were so helpful, too.

Hope you enjoyed the little trip to Paris and the highlights!

I plan on putting together a list of travel tips as well as packing tips that I learned from this trip! Anything else you'd like to know? Have you been to Paris? What was your favorite part?



Summer European Vacation - Part 3

Happy Labor Day! How are you celebrating? We aren't doing anything special, just enjoying doing nothing!

I didn't get to this as quickly as I would have liked, but here is Part 3 of our summer vacation. I am skipping days 7, 8 and 9 because my husband and I took a side trip to Paris that I will be highlighting a little later!

Just in case you missed it--
For Part One, click here.
For Part Two, click here.

Days 10 and 11

We traveled by a commuter train from Swindon to London. Driving to London is very expensive. They charge you to come into the city and parking is horrible. It is highly recommended to take some other form of transportation to get into the city. We were lucky for this portion of our trip because we had our own personal tour guide, Maria. She is the daughter of the couple we stayed with. What was even better, she planned the entire trip for us! YEAH! We bought a Metro Pass that allowed us to use the subway and bus system for the day. We also had tickets for the Double Decker Tour Bus and Tour boat for the first day. It was nice to have so many transportation options available to us. 

  

 
We took the DD Bus around a loop and got off at the Tower of London. I think you could plan at least 3 hours in this place, not including the Crown Jewels. It was massive. The line for the Crown Jewels was long, but we waited (and waited). It was worth the wait. I couldn't take pictures during this visit, but make sure you take your time while inside. The jewels are amazing. You walk inside an actual vault and go on a flat escalator to view the jewels in glass cases. I can't believe that those crowns were once (and still) worn by the Royal Family. One of the jewels weighs 530 carats! 

Right outside the Tower of London is a great place to take pictures of the Tower Bridge. Did you know that the Tower Bridge is different than the London Bridge? Many people think they are one of the same.  After some family pics, we headed on the boat tour. It was a nice break for our feet and we got to see the sights from a different view! We even had a great commentator on the bus tour, too. This tour isn't a sight-seeing tour, but makes stops at different tourist attractions. We opted to stay on it the entire time to rest and re-coop. Once we got off, we hopped on the DD Bus and headed to the other side of town.

Our first stop off the bus was to see Parliament and Big Ben. Right across the street was Westminster Abbey. We didn't tour any of these because they were not open for tours at the time we visited, but it was neat to see them up close and personal.

Did you know that Big Ben is only the bell that chimes, not the tower? It is actually called the Elizabeth Tower. This was re-named last year (previously known as the clock tower) to honor the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Parliament is attached to the Elizabeth Tower (which I didn't realize until visiting!). The architecture is brilliant. Across the street is the famous church, Westminster Abbey. That church is exquisite. I do wish we toured inside, but with our short amount of time in London, it wasn't possible.

Back on the DD Bus we went to finish off a cruise around London. We saw the hospital where Prince George was born just a few days earlier (thank goodness we weren't there at that time), main shopping areas, other church's, center parks and more. It was finally the end of day one in London--we were ready for bed!

Must get chips wrapped in newspaper while you are here!

The London Eye--heard it's worth going on, we didn't have time!

On day two in London, we rushed out of our hotel to make it to Buckingham Palace. Our tour guide scheduled our tour for us first thing in the morning. This was the first weekend that the Palace was open for the summer, so it was very busy. Advance tickets is highly recommended because we walked right in. Pictures weren't allowed inside the Palace either. The tour included an audio guide (kids version, too). I thought the Windsor Castle was amazing, but this place was stunning. The history, the gold, the massiveness of the rooms, the traditions...it was a lot to take in. We stopped during our tour for our son to take a break and color. They had a kids activity center in one of the rooms. Perfect way to break it up and get the kids re-interested in the tour. He colored his own crown and they displayed it up on the wall!

 

After the tour and some shopping at the Buckingham Palace gift shop, we toured the Palace gardens and made our way to the Royal Mews, otherwise known as the Carriage House. This was a fun tour to take. We could actually take pictures here! Such history--they kept everything and it was neat to hear how these carriages were used. Some were even gifted to the Royal Family. But the main carriage, was the golden carriage. We enjoyed it very much. 

By the time we were done touring and taking pictures of the Palace, half the day was over and it was time for lunch. We ate a quick lunch in hopes to visit the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. But, we were greeted with our longest wait yet (say what??), it was 3 hours long. No thanks. So, we decided to do some souvenir shopping and head back to Swindon.

Took this picture in the Subway!

I'm going to end our trip here. We stayed the next couple days around in Swindon and had a cookout with the family and a rest day before heading back to Illinois. Here are a few tips we learned in London:

Travel Tips:

1. Travel light. Bring items that you can wear multiple times--clothing that coordinates with one another.
2. Plan ahead. It was nice to have advance tickets to all the places to visited in London.
3. Take your time. Often times you rush through because you want to see "everything", but you ruin your chances of experiencing what you are actually visiting.
4. Pictures!! Take them and lots of them! And always have a back-up! (our camera died and we ended up using our daughters camera most of the trip)
5. Purchase electric convertors before traveling overseas. It was helpful to have one beforehand because when we realized we'd like to have another, we couldn't find one that we could actually use with the American plugs in England. So we had to make do with just one. 

 

European Vacation - Part 2 Tips & Places to Visit

Preparing for this post allowed me to dream once again about the wonderful vacation we took just one month ago. Ugh--why is it so difficult to get back into the swing of things?

I ended at the third day of our vacation in my last post. You can refresh your memory (or play catch-up) by clicking here. So, picking up where I left off...

Day 4

We wandered through the countryside (like many other days on our trip) and discovered roads not much wider than our car. It was interesting. They don't have ditches over there, so when you are on the edge of the road, you are typically looking at a long line of hedges. Makes you a little nervous because there really is no where to go if you need to make room for a larger vehicle coming the other way! Our destination was Stonehenge. I can tell you that I was not overly excited to go there, but figured since we were staying very close to it, that we probably should go and anyways, it is a popular tourist attraction (for good reason).

Upon arrival, you pay (they offered a family pass) and receive an audio guide to learn about the stones. I was blown away. I didn't realize the history and the mystery behind these rocks. It's amazing to me that they traveled so far with these stones, dug them so deep and into perfect formation but we have no idea why. It was eerie being there for some reason. I couldn't put my finger on it. I was truly impressed by these stones and encourage anyone to visit to see, learn and hear about what they have discovered so far.

We stopped for a late lunch at a tavern with a old thatched roof, but I couldn't find the picture of it to show you! (horrible blogger etiquette!)

Day 5

In the morning, we decided to head into town (Swindon) and do a little shopping. We visited the town center mall and many, many stores. We even made a purchase at their version of the Dollar Store--Poundland. My son bought a cricket set. (Thanks to the cousin we were staying with for introducing us to that boring sport--no offense, but how can you stay involved in a sport where the game can go on for days?)

The rest of the day was dedicated to my mother-in-law. We visited the town where she was born and spent her childhood. (cool fact: when we landed in London on the first day of our trip, it was 50 years ago to the date that she arrived over in the US!) She grew up in a town called Royal Wootton Bassett. 

This was a neat little town. We found her house she lived in and she commented that it was quite run-down. What a shame. The streets in this town were narrow too--very typical in England.

We went over to her long-time friends house for afternoon tea. It was one of the best homemade meals we ate on the trip. (oh, and her chocolate cake was to die for!)

Day 6

Today we visited Windsor Castle (the oldest and largest occupied Castle in the World). It was so hot that day (actually, we were blessed with very warm weather the entire trip!). We arrived and decided to have lunch first (it was close to lunchtime and well, we have kids and wanted to enjoy the tour of the Castle!). We ate at a cute little cafe on a side street (cobblestone, actually) named Limes. Everyone had a quick sandwich and it was relatively cheap! When we arrived at the Castle, we had to wait quite awhile to enter. Long lines are typical at top tourist attractions. Windsor Castle is one of the main residences of the Queen. It just so happened that she was in residence during our visit! (Still shocked we didn't get invited up for tea, though!)

You are not allowed to take pictures inside the residence, but man--it was exquisite. The amount of treasures inside and to know that it is still utilized today. It makes you think about who stepped in those rooms you were in--and how many people have been there, too. Quite amazing. Kids were a little bored visiting the different rooms. This was an audio tour, too, and they did offer a kids version. But, the kids were very good and didn't really bother us to hurry up through the Castle.

We also visited the Queen Mary's Doll House (huge!) which is inside the castle, St. George's Chapel (amazing church) and the Drawings Gallery (which included paintings from Royal Artists--including Prince Charles).

Because the Queen was in residence, we saw the Guards in several different places. We even got our pictures taken next to them! (my son was afraid the guard was going to get him with his sword on the end of his gun)

The best part of this day was that it was on this day that the world welcomed Prince George into the world. We will always remember that we were with the Queen when she got the news about the birth! How cool is that?

Tips

• Take time to have fun. Don't be rushed to get everything in. 
• Follow the lead of your children...sometimes. We knew we wouldn't have enjoyed the Castle if the kids were hungry the entire visit--we ate first!
• Women--carry a comfortable purse. I love my ThirtyOne Shoulder bag. It was comfortable, held everything I needed and didn't weigh me down.
• Watch out for theives. Keep a hold onto all your belongs--all the time.
•  Make time for shopping and enjoying the simple pleasures of the places you are visiting.
• Family vacations are about family, so make sure fit them into your itinerary--for instance--we planned that special day to go to Wooton Bassett. Is it on the "must-see" list for everyone? No, but it was important for our family to visit. So glad we did.

Top Attractions for this portion:

• Stonehenge
• Windsor Castle 
  

Stop by next week to see the our trip to London! What can't wait to share it with you!

 

It's our European Vacation! Places to See & Travel Tips!

We’ve been back to reality now for a few weeks since our awesome family vacation to England and mini-vacation to Paris. It was amazing and something I’m thankful for. Everything about the trip was just perfect. No troubles, the kids got along and we saw pretty everything we intended on seeing! I thought I would give you some insight on a few of the places we visited and tips along the way. This is going to be a multi-part series, just so I don't overwhelm you with all the details and too many pictures.

First things first. This is not a vacation that one can plan last minute and be successful. We planned this for well over and year and we saved up for it for that long too! We knew we wanted to do it the right way and we wanted our children along as well. We stayed two weeks. This was perfect for us to see everything we wanted to see, but still too short of a visit. I did a lot of research beforehand and had the luxury of family members in England to help coordinate some of the activities. (although its totally doable by yourself)

Day 1

Sunrise on the airplane

We arrived at the London Heathrow airport at 6 in the morning. We were hoping that the kids would sleep on the plane (it was an overnight flight), but they didn't. None of us got any good amount of quality sleep. 

But, we knew it was important to keep going as long as we could, trying to stay on the new time schedule (London is 6 hours ahead of our normal time). Once we arrived at our relatives house (major cost saver!!), we quickly unloaded the car, had a snack and left. We didn't stay there long because we didn't want to fall asleep. We visited a local outlet mall and then a local Steam Engine Museum.

I think we had a dinner that night, but can't really remember--I believe I was sleep walking at that point!! We were all in bed by 9pm and slept in until 10 am the next morning!
Whew--up for 32 hours! (kids did amazing, might I add!)

Day 2
After catching up on sleep, we headed to Bath, England. One word. Beautiful. Well, there are many more words to describe this place...historic, amazing, crowded, lovely, brilliant...it is worth fitting into your schedule.
We walked around the streets for a bit before our Afternoon Tea reservation at the Pump Room. There are plenty of souvenir shops, local shops, street performers and tourists!

The Pump Room Afternoon Tea was wonderful. Such a beautiful dining room and located right next to the Roman Baths. Having an English Tea was on my daughters wish list. Although, I'm not sure if this is what she was expecting. We all enjoyed it very much. The little finger sandwhiches, scones with cream and jam (my favorite) and petit fours. I tried Hot Chai Tea for the first time. So good. Hailey tried their Iced Tea which was infused with lots of fruity flavors.

After tea, we toured the Roman Baths. I was amazed. I had no clue that the Romans were such a huge part of the English history (sorry, not really a history buff). This place was quite amazing. So much of what they built thousands of years ago, still stands and still operates. It's quite breath-taking.

You take an audio-guided tour through all the bath houses and learn many different facts about not only the bath houses, but way of life back then. I truly enjoyed this visit and recommend it to anyone visiting that area.

Day 3

We had a nice and relaxing day on Day 3. We visited Bourton On The Water and Bibury Trout Farm. Both Bourton and Bibury are very quaint villages. We visited the Model Village in Bourton on the Water which is a one-ninth scale replica in local stone of Bourton on the Water village. We did a little shopping and had lunch before we headed over to the Trout Farm.

The Trout Farm was a lot of fun. The kids enjoyed feeding the (very hungry) trout. They splashed around trying to get the food. Carson was lucky enough to hand feed a duck. I caught that on video, too!!


Travel Tips, Part One

1. When traveling overseas, book an overnight flight (if possible)
2. If traveling with kids overseas, try to break up the flight with a lay over. We laid over in Boston and it was a great way to get out of the stuffy plane, walk around, stretch and get a snack. I think this was important for our little travelers (ages 11 and 7)
3. If you plan on using electronics while traveling (or on the plane), get a back-up external charging system of some kind. It will save headaches and heartaches if you can easily recharge a dead iPad or gaming device!
4. Once you arrive to your destination, keep going on their time change. Plan activities to keep you busy until its time to go to bed.
5. Plan, plan and plan. Make a list of places you want to visit.
6. Take pictures, lots of pictures.
7. If you travel overseas and you need to drive a car (like we did), we recommend upgrading to a automatic. Most rental car companies provide manual transmission at a discount, but if you are not familiar with driving on the other side of the road OR other side of the car, we highly recommend upgrading to the automatic. Less stressful.
8. Speaking of driving, LOOK RIGHT, then LEFT, then RIGHT again...
9. Be flexible. This is especially important when traveling with kids.
10. Pack snacks, wet wipes and hand sanitizer! Enough said.

I will be putting together a few more posts with tips and itinerary suggestions! I hope you come back to visit!