Oui, Oui...90% chance of showers

And we woke up to the sun shining in the skies! But don't get too excited, the weather report was still 90% chance of showers and most of our day was planned for outside.

What to do? Gear up, put on the rain coat, grab the umbrella and head out.

Our first activity for today was a leisurely stroll down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.  The Champs-Élysées is arguably the most famous street—and one of the most expensive strips of real estate—in the world.

Well our walk ended up not being leisurely, nor a stroll because it did indeed start raining. But I would rather be in Paris in the rain than at work any day of the week. So we dodged in and out of stores and stopped at a cafe for breakfast.

We made our way down to this. The Arc de Triomphe.

Our original plan was to just admire it from the outside. But since it was raining (off and on at this point) we decided to pay the admission, go inside and climb the stairs (284 spiral stairs) to the top.

And it was at this moment our vacation was about to be ruined. My camera, as my mom would say, "went on the fritz". I pulled it out to take photo number 662 and the automatic lens opener/closer/cover (not sure what it is called) jammed. I was getting a sliver of image on the display.

So what went through my mind? "I have 3 more days to take pictures", "I am going to have to buy a camera in Paris",  "Why do these this happen to me"???

So we found a seat to examine the situation. I was seriously ready to just rip the cover off in order to be able to take photos. But in jumps level-headed Lauren who says "it looks like it is just out of alignment, let me see". And it was. And we were able to get it back on track and the vacation was saved. Whew.

The views from the top of the Arc de Triomphe were spectacular despite the weather. Here we are looking down the Champs-Élysées.

Our next stop was The Eiffel Tower. I had explored the various ticket options and we ended up booking the "Skip the Line" tour in which we had a tour guide, tickets to the second level and we could continue to the top of the tower if we chose. The instructions were to "meet at the entrance of the Trocadero Metro station at 3pm". 

Well we got there about 1:30 to scope it out. What if there were more than one entrance? We had some time until we met the guide so we ducked into the Théâtre National de Chaillot and we snacked in their "snackeria" (a word coined by me on this trip) on macarons until it was time to meet. 

The guide was easy to find at the appointed time. We were given audio headsets and started our tour on the Trocadero with some history about the tower. It wasn't raining at this moment so we were able to do this part of the tour keeping relatively dry. 


 

A few facts about the tower. It was named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. It was built for the 1889 World's Fair and was supposed to be torn down after 20 years. The addition of radio transmitters enabled it to stay standing for communication purposes.

We made our way to the second level of the tower where the guide pointed out many of the sites that could be seen around the perimeter. And that was pretty much the tour. It was supposed to be a 2 hour tour but it was raining pretty hard at this point so we ended about an hour and fifteen minutes later. Our tickets allowed us to continue to the top on our own. The line for that was long. It was raining and it felt like it was about 40 degrees out. We were freezing. So we opted out of going to the top.

Our last stop for the day was the Louvre. We took the metro to the "Louvre" stop and we got out into this shopping mall type area with a lovely food court. Since it was also dinnertime we decided scope it out and we ended up eating at.....McDonald's. Neither of us had been to one of these in years. But it was fast and we could order at a kiosk so speaking was not necessary.

We got our museum tickets and floor plan and ventured into the museum. The main reason to be here is the Mona Lisa. It wasn't too hard to find. There were hundreds of people in front of it all scrambling to get a photo of it or a photo with them in front of it. The painting was enclosed in glass so a good photo was impossible to get and all the pushing and crowds. I didn't get it. But I took the obligatory photo anyway.

We then wandered around looking for the Venus de Milo. The other reason to go to the Louvre. The place was huge, it was very easy to get lost. And we did get lost a few times. You would need a few days to effectively see everything in the museum.

Another long day. Our feet were not happy with us once again. Back to the hotel to collapse and rest up for tomorrow. 

Bonsoir!

Where did we leave off? Ah yes, our first full day in Paris. 

Today our first stop is the Palace of Versailles.

First we had to figure out the metro. It looked a bit different than the underground in London (as in it was above ground) so we were a little thrown off. Add in that they have trains (as in regular trains) and metro trains (as in subways). To get to Versailles we needed to do both a train and subway. 

Our station was a 5 minute walk, VERY convenient. We gingerly inserted our passes, I was praying that they would work since I ordered them online, they were very small and I had my doubts. But they let us enter, we studied the map and got on the subway (above ground), transferred to a train (also above ground) and soon we were in Versailles. 

It was a short walk from the train to the palace. And this was a palace. You could see the gold trim on the gates and buildings from far away. We got our tickets and got into a very long line to enter. Again, our bags were checked and we had to walk though a scanner. 

We got our audio headsets and began our tour. Did I mention "this was a palace". It was beautiful. From the furniture, to the rugs, to the wall coverings, to the art work, to the chandeliers. There were many chandeliers. 

Yes, I became a little obsessed with the chandeliers.

We toured the massive gardens and walked down to Marie Antoinette's home on the estate where we saw even more chandeliers. Touring the palace and gardens took the better part of the day. We did experience some funky weather here, clouds, rain and even some hail.

We took the train back to Paris and headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner.

Dinner was at the Cafe Cambronne where we were greeted with a lyrical "bonsoir" by the hostess/ waitress. It was the second of the three restaurants at the end of our street. She spoke a little English so language wasn't a problem here. The food was delicious and the service excellent.

Off to our evening activity, we were going to the Musee 'd Orsay. This was one of my favorite things we went to on the trip. The museum is housed in an old train station. Not only was I surrounded by more Monet paintings, the architecture was incredible. No photos were allowed in the museum but I was able to sneak one in. How cool is this?

We were at the end of another exhausting day, again our feet were not happy campers. Tomorrow the weather report shows 90% chance of rain, not what I was hoping for. 

Bonjour Paris!

Our travel day.

Today we are leaving London and traveling to our next destination, Paris. Unchartered territory. A foreign language. Mean, nasty people. What were we thinking?

We were taking the Eurostar train to Paris. It wasn't leaving until 2:31pm. So we took one last walk down the Thames River and said goodbye to London.

We had 2 options to get to the train station. Take a taxi, which would run about 20 euros plus tip. Or take the underground for about 2 euros. We opted for the underground. We got our luggage into position and started lugging it to the station. Which isn't an odd sight. Over the last 5 days we saw numerous people lugging luggage somewhere, now we were part of the crowd.

I will say I was a little hesitant about doing this. My suitcase weighed in at 41 lbs., plus a carry on, plus a purse, but we scoped it out ahead of time as far as the number of stairs we would encounter. I have to say, it was VERY easy to take the underground to the train station. Once again, everything was well marked and we had no problems getting there.

Of course we were early so we had lunch before boarding at about 2pm.

The train ride went off with no problems. Two and a half hours later we were in Paris.

We headed to the taxi stand and waited in line to get a taxi to our hotel. I had the address neatly written on a piece of paper so no speaking would be necessary. The line was long, but moving and we were soon in a taxi with a nice young man who was somewhat familiar with English.

Off we went. Traffic was worse than here. They have these circles where all roads converge and you go into the circle, no lanes, nothing and just close your eyes and pray you make it to the other side without getting hit.  

We made it to the hotel. The Best Western Cambronne. It was a storefront hotel. Very European, 30 rooms, the elevator was 24” by 48” inches, and there were 5 flights of stairs up to our room. They were all spiral. The room was small, but immaculate and the bathroom very modern.

My first impressions of Paris. It was like a little New York. It was dirty like New York. Traffic was horrendous like New York. The buildings were really old and short, no skyscrapers here. And the street our hotel was on was, well, sketchy. I was out of my comfort zone at this point.

We lost an hour traveling. It was dinnertime. We headed out for nourishment. We picked one of the 3 cafes that were at the end of our street. The waiter was friendly and able to interpret our English. Pointing at the menu goes a long way in France.

We ordered a pizza, a salad and 2 diet cokes. The pizza was 11 euros, the salad 8 euros and the total was 35 euros. Hmmm…..the diet cokes were 8 euros, EACH! There was nothing we could do at that point, we ordered them and we drank them. I was going back to the hotel and googling “the cost of diet coke in Paris”.

Back at the hotel we quizzed the desk clerk about “the cost of diet coke in Paris”. He was clueless, he was from Los Angeles.

After googling, this is what I found out. 

Drink Wine, Not Soda - Unlike the US, where ordering a soda at a restaurant will save you $5 over ordering a glass of house wine, in Paris, Coca-Cola is priced like an expensive import. Expect to pay around 5 euros (or 8 euros in our case) for a Coke and 4 euros for a glass of wine.

Also.

To save 4-7 euros during meals, order "une carafe de l’eau, s’il vous plait". The waiter will bring you a carafe of tap water. Look around, this is what the Parisians do. Unless you specify a carafe of water, you will be given and charged for bottled water at most restaurants.

Lesson learned. Wine is cheaper than soda and tap water is free. 

It was a long day. We climbed our 5 flights of spiral stairs to the room to watch Grey’s Anatomy (in French!) and prepare for our adventures tomorrow.

Master of the house, doling out the charm...

Our last full day in London.

First on today's agenda was Buckingham Palace to see the "changing of the guard". This takes place daily at about 11:15. We walked from our hotel to the Palace.

 I didn't know what to expect. And even Lauren, having seen this prior, couldn't tell me what to expect. It is not like the "I Love Lucy" episode, where she walks up to the guard and attempts to get him to crack a smile. There are crowds of people and roads being barricaded. And there were guards behind the massive gates. So we waited and a few guards went through the gates. And we waited some more and more guards and a little marching band went through the gates. And we waited. And nothing. So we figured behind the massive gates they were "changing the guard". And since we couldn't battle the crowds to get over there, on we went.

We took the tube to our next stop which was St. Paul's Cathedral. We paid the admission and this time we decided to forgo the audio headsets and just take in the beauty of the Cathedral. There was a Eucharist going on. We saw Norma our tour guide from yesterday leading a tour in the Cathedral. We grabbed some lunch in the cafe.

Then we went to do the main reason you go to the Cathedral. Climb to the top of the dome. This was our first encounter with "European spiral staircase syndrome". European architects only know how to make staircases go in circles. And there were 528 steps to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. And they all went in a circle.

Did I mention that schools were in session while we were in Europe?  We started our ascent behind a group of elementary school children who we later ditched at the first stop while they were resting. We made it to the top and had spectacular views.

So now we begin our descent. Which isn't as easy as it sounds. Lauren and I headed down and there were people behind us, so I was feeling the pressure to keep up the pace. But I was getting seriously dizzy. We finally made it to the bottom and we had to sit for a bit, our legs were like jelly!

We then walked over the Millennium Bridge which is a pedestrian bridge over the Thames River. It was opened in the year 2000 for the millennium and closed 2 days later after pedestrians felt it swaying....a lot. It was then closed for 2 years while modifications were made.

And then we did something we hadn't done the entire trip. We headed back to the hotel to take a break. We had big plans for the evening. This was our “night on the town”. We were going to actually sit down and have a nice dinner, (no sandwiches in the room!) and see a play.

We took the tube up the Picadilly Circus area. When you hear Picadilly Circus I automatically think of circus, tent, clowns, trapeze artists, the whole nine circus yard. But no, it is an area, like Times Square, Picadilly Circus, same thing.

We had dinner at Princi, a fine Italian restaurant. Lauren’s pick, she had eaten there on her previous trip.

Then we headed to the Queen’s Theater to see “Les Miserables”. Again Lauren’s pick. I had never had a big desire to see this play. I have a thing about foreign, period piece books, movies, plays, you name it. So I was hesitant. Would I understand the plot? Would I like the music?

Observations about London theater. We had to PAY for our playbill. 4 euros, not cheap. A lot of people were dressed for the theater and it was only Tuesday night. Everyone had a drink in there hand.

We had center mezzanine seats, or the queen’s dress section, as they say in London. By the end of the show I had a new favorite play. It was entertaining and the music was great. The only down side was that everyone dies.

It was the perfect way to end our stay in London. Tomorrow we head for Paris for the second part of our journey.

It's time to take a Bath!

Are you still with me? There is a lot more to go.

We had a full day ahead of us on Monday. We were going to Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. This was a planned excursion we booked through Evan Evans Tour Company.

We were being picked up by bus at 7:55 a.m. from our hotel lobby. So we headed down about 7:45 and waited. And waited. And waited. We took comfort in the fact that there were 5 other people waiting with us. The concierge was on it though and kept calling them and giving us updates. There was traffic, but they were on the way. They finally arrived at 8:30 and we were off. Well not really. They didn’t mention that they were bringing us to a central bus depot to get the tour bus we were actually taking for the day.

A side note. Again, for all my research I never really looked at the logistics of this trip, like how far Bath really was from London (97 miles). I just knew we wanted to go to Bath and Stonehenge, Windsor Castle was an added plus. So our timetable for the day went like this:

9:00 am          Leave London

10:00 am       Arrive Windsor Castle

Noon               Leave Windsor Castle

2:00 pm         Arrive Bath

3:15 pm         Leave Bath

4:15 pm         Arrive Stonehenge

5:00 pm         Leave Stonehenge

7:15 pm         Arrive London

So we are finally off with Norma as our tour guide for the day. First stop Windsor Castle. We arrived at 10:00 am but by the time we got our tickets and went through security it was more like 10:30. We were firmly told the bus leaves at noon AND to make sure we get lunch somewhere (for the bus ride) here because this was the only opportunity for food. Not a lot of time for Windsor Castle.

We got our audio headsets and off we went. We had to sprint through the castle to get it all in, not fully listening to the audio commentary.  It was a beautiful castle though. I wish we had more time there and time to explore the actual town of Windsor.

Windsor Castle. Note the flag on the top. This flag means the Queen was in residence that day. If the British flag is flying, it indicates she is not in residence.

We left at noon on the dot to head to the city of Bath. The city was established by the Romans as a spa about 60 AD. They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath, in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs. We got our admission tickets and into the “spa” we went.

Not quite like our spas today. The city of Bath was charming, what we were able to see of it. It was another, “wish we had a little more time to explore here” place.

Last stop of the day, Stonehenge. Norma gave us a little history about Stonehenge during the bus ride. Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England. It is one of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks. The mystery of it is that no one really knows how those massive stones got there. The weather there is always questionable and today was no different. We went from peeks of sunshine in Bath, to cold, windy and generally miserable at Stonehenge.

Arriving back in London we enjoyed some traditional pub food at this place. Headed back to the hotel and once again collapsed for the night.

 

Tomorrow is our last day in London, what will it bring?

Keep your eye in the sky

Sunday. This was one of my favorite days of the trip. We were out the door early, made our coffee stop and were on our way.

A walk along the Thames, specifically “The Queens Walk” was on the agenda. Our first stop along the walk was the Globe Theater. 

We paid the admission and got….you guessed it, the audio headsets to make our way around the displays and exhibitions. Also included was a guided tour of the actual theater.  The docent was extremely interesting and full of facts and stories about the theater and Shakespeare’s era. This was a late addition to our itinerary (it was on Lauren’s radar), and it ended up being one of our favorite tours on the trip. 

Then lunch at the adjoining Swan restaurant. A side note about the restaurants in Europe. We were never rushed anywhere we ate. Not like here, where they need to turn over the tables quickly. We could have sat there all day and no one would have cared. 

Strolling along the Thames we encountered many things.

The “Clink Prison Museum”

A group of musicians. We later saw them over by the Tower of London entertaining the crowds.

And the Tower Bridge. Which many people mistake for the London Bridge. But that is a whole other bridge.

We headed across the bridge to go to the Tower of London to see the crown jewels. For some reason I was excited to see this. I am not sure why, maybe the whole concept that all these jewels were kept in one tower under lock and key. Then Lauren burst my bubble and explained it really wasn’t “a” tower. And it wasn’t. It should be called the Towers of London because the whole place was a series of towers and fortresses and building all linked together. The crown jewels were in a building, not even a tower. But they were gorgeous and worth the long line we had to wait in to see them.

By now our feet were screaming again so we hopped on the tube and headed back to our hotel area. It was near dinnertime so I thought we would grab some sandwiches and head back to the hotel to regroup before heading out again. We had one more thing in today’s plan. But Lauren wanted to keep on going.

So we went over the Westminster Bridge to this.

The London Eye. It is the tallest ferris wheel in Europe, and the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom. I first saw it on an episode of The Amazing Race and ever since then it has been on my bucket list. And I was going on it.

I had bought these tickets ahead of time, so we basically skipped the line and got right on. The sun had finally popped its head out and the views from here were incredible. After our 30 minute revolution on the wheel we decided to end our day with a Thames River cruise.

Now our feet were really done for the day, so we stopped for some sandwiches and headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted.

What will tomorrow bring? You will have to wait to find out.

Kensington, Notting Hill and Harrods...

Saturday found us out the door early. We headed for the little coffee shop right down the street from the hotel only to find it closed. Closed? Looking at the hours of operations they were closed Saturdays and Sundays. Interesting. A lot of stuff you would think would always be open was closed on the weekends.

So we found another shop around the corner.

And then we headed to the "underground", Pimlico stop to be specific. Did I neglect to mention that Lauren had been to London this past fall on a short trip? She was very familiar with the subways and the Oyster card system so she was also in charge of this. Getting us from point A to point B. Not that it was hard. Unlike NYC, where you have no clue where you will end up once you get on the subway, the London Underground is extremely easy to navigate.

I will also note that is was very clean and signage was easy to understand and follow.

First stop, Kensington Palace. Home of Princess Diana. Another little known fact about me, I am a big fan of Princess Diana. Brought my 7" BW TV to work when she got married in 1981 to watch the ceremony and cried when when died in 1997.

So I was looking forward to this.

All of the places I researched explicitly stated, "Get your tickets ahead of time, avoid the lines!". Well there was no line here. At all. We bought our tickets and proceeded in. There were no audio headsets for this tour. We toured the 3 separate areas they had to offer. There were cards in each area to let you know what you were looking at. A little antiquated to me. Again, it didn't take long, maybe an hour to tour.  I thought the whole palace would be a bit more glamorous. Truthfully, it was just ok. A bit of a disappointment.

Onward.

I had copied some walking tours out of my London tourbook and that is what was next in today's plan. A two-hour walking tour of the Notting Hill area. Yes, like the Hugh Grant movie. And yes, one of our objectives was to see the bookstore from the movie.

What I didn't realize was that Portabello Road was on the walk. And even with all my research I didn't know Portabello Road was a "thing". Especially on Saturdays.  So it was crowded.

It was a giant market, garage sale, rummage sale all wrapped into one and it went on for blocks. There were quite the variety of things for sale from fruits, flowers and olives, to gas masks, fabric, and records.

We made it to the Notting Hill Book store. Then had lunch at a small cafe and continued on our way. The walking tour was done in a loop, so we ended up where we started.

Which was Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. We were now off to see the Italian Gardens, Peter Pan Statue and the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. As we strolled through we took note of the beautiful flowers, many squirrels, ducks and swans. There were also paddleboats you could rent.

Our last stop for the day was Harrods Department store. It seemed like you could get anything in there. Shoes, clothes, food, perfume, they were all part of the offerings. We regrouped with a glass of wine at the wine bar and then went to do a little shopping. My goal was to get some tea, Lauren had brought me some from her last trip and it was delicious. We both ended up with a few things. It was time to head back to the hotel.

In all my planning, I was trying to cram so much in that I didn't leave too much time for dinner. Once we got back to the hotel our feet would not allow us to walk out again so we ate in the hotel restaurant that night.

What will tomorrow bring? Stayed tuned to find out. 

Westminster, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square....

Off we go.

If you know me, you know I can be an obsessive planner. I research, I read, I google, I bookmark, I read again. You have to have a plan. This was no different. I had a spreadsheet and itinerary plotted out each day. Prebooked tours lined up and whatever else we could fit in that day. I am practical. Our days were basically broken down by area. Since our hotel was in Westminster that is where we began.

First stop was coffee for Lauren. We had a nice little coffee shop right down the street from the hotel.

I had immediate first impressions about London. It was very clean, for a city. The buildings were very short, for a city. They drive on the wrong side of the road, so on the street they literally have written "look right" or "look left"  in the roadway so you don't get run over by a car. And you would get run over, pedestrians do not have the right of way.

There were some really really weird trees there. They kind of had knobby ends, looked dead and didn't show any signs of being able to bloom. Is this intentional? I haven't found out yet. 

The residential doors were odd. What is missing from this picture?
 

Where is the doorknob? The majority of residential doors were like this or they had a doorknob in the very center of the door.

We walked over to Westminster Abbey. The first of some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen. We paid the admission, had our bags searched (bags are search everywhere in London and Paris before admittance), got our audio headsets and began our tour. It was clear, concise and easy to follow.

Another note. Most of the places we toured are not lengthy. The audio tour keeps it to about an hour to go through the Abbey. Then you are done, there are so many people there, they don't want you hanging out.

We viewed Big Ben and walked past Parliment. And that was my plan for the day. I was keeping it simple since were were going on no sleep. But since it was only about 4 we improvised.

Continued down the Thames, through a beautiful park, and made our way to Trafalgar Square. We decided to eat dinner at a pub.  And we ended up here.

Pubs in London are a bit different than here. You seat yourself, decide what you want and then go up to the bar and order your food, pay and they bring it out to you. This was Lauren's area. I planned the activities, she was in charge of the food. The food was normal pub food, burger, sandwiches, etc. The bacon on my wrap was a little sketchy though, it kind of looked raw, but it was warm. After a few bites of it I decided to take the rest off.

After dinner we headed to the National Gallery, open on Friday nights and free admission.  This was the first viewing of many Monet paintings.

When we were done, we made a quick stop to purchase a scarf I had seen earlier (I wore it all week, it was chilly!) We headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

Stay tuned, tomorrow we visit Kensington Palace.

We're in London!

We're here on time and ready to go. Well, a bit tired, we did lose 5 hours and only slept for a few. We managed our way through customs, got our baggage and headed for the spot where we were to get our transfer to the hotel. I have to say, this was very easy. Everything was marked and no questions where to go.

We checked in at the desk with the transfer place and we were soon on a shuttle van with another couple to our hotel. Well that is what we thought. We had to stop to pick up 2 other couples at another terminal so we got a nice little tour of Heathrow airport. Now we are off.

All of us on the shuttle were tired, one couple from Hawaii, one from California and another from New York. We were all a bit anxious to get to the hotel. Well apparently we were going to make a few stops, one of them being Park something. Park what? Park something. Exactly. This guy did not know where he was going. It became obvious after we passed the Natural History Museum for the third time. Finally he stopped and asked someone, got the right address and off we go again.

He dropped us at our hotel first which was not Park something, it was the Doubletree in Westminster, so why he didn't drop us off in the first place will remain a mystery. It is now after 12, yes over 2 hours for a 40 minute trip.

Lauren and I are both praying now that our room is ready and we don't have to hang out in the lobby until it is. At this point we were both a little frustrated, wanted a shower and to get refreshed.

The room was ready! Check-in was a breeze. They even handed me 2 warm chocolate chip cookies. Which was a nice touch, but now I had to finagle a suitcase, carry-on, mini backpack, room key and 2 warm chocolate chip cookies up to the 6th floor.

It was a nice room, clean and modern, although the bathroom was a cruise ship size bathroom. We got cleaned up and refreshed and headed out to start our adventures. I will say, this hotel was in a perfect location. Close to 2 underground stops, near the Thames river and a short walk to the Westminster Bridge.

Up next, we head out to start exploring.

A Trip is Born...

The whole idea to go to Europe came about maybe 2 years ago. We started planning to go with friends (which I was glad, the whole idea of going to Europe intimidated me a bit). Then things just weren't panning out.

But I still wanted to go to Europe! I had it in my head, and once that happens there can be no stopping me. So I did away with my fears and started my research. Hotels, flights, what to see, where exactly to go. We narrowed it down to London and Paris. We chose to go in May which is less expensive than the summertime. Deposits, payments due, should we get these ticket ahead of time? Done, done and done.

Then we wait until the anticipated day. May 16. Thursday night flight, 8:55pm.

I didn't get really excited until the last week. Why? Because now I thought we were actually going to go. Yes, I can be a glass half empty person. There are just too many things that could go wrong. But by Wednesday night I was giddy with excitement. I was actually going to cross the ocean and travel to another county. Huge deal for me, I have never been abroad.

Work was difficult on Thursday, people kept wanting me to actually work. Hello, I am on vacation in 2 hours. Finally I left at 3:30 for the last leg, travel to Hoboken to pick up Lauren and then to Park Plus to leave the car for the next 11 days. Hoping for no traffic, no accidents or getting lost. Well we did miss the turn for Park Plus and it took us a few minutes to regroup. But we got there. Got in the van and to the terminal.

Now I am probably in the minority, but I like to get to the airport early. I would rather be there waiting for my plane than stuck in traffic wondering if I will make it on time. So we were there by 5:00ish. Checked the bags, went through security (where I was patted down, specifically in the knee area) and we headed for the Garden State Diner in Terminal C. Flight is at 9:00pm. It only makes sense to eat dinner beforehand.

The time went fast and we were boarded and on our way on time. Flight time was 6 hours 30 minutes. I took an Advil PM and planned to sleep as much as I could. Which I did, except when they decided to serve dinner at 11 pm. And people were actually eating it, didn't they eat beforehand like us?

The flight was smooth, it was on time and before you knew it, we were touching down at Heathrow airport, 9:25am London time.

Next stop, get to the hotel and hope our room is ready.

Barbara has a Blog!

Finally!

Not that this is anything new for me. I have always kept a journal. Always. I have notebooks and datebooks from my teen years filled with my thoughts and aspirations. I can tell you when I had a fight with Alan (first boyfriend), what I was thinking when I got engaged and what I did on October 5, 1993 (Ladies night out, we saw "The Fugitive").

The writings have been different over the years, notebooks full of thoughts in my teens and twenties, jotted notes in my thirties and a concise, day-by-day datebook from about 1997 on.

Anyway, what actually is prompting me to start this blog is an 11-day trip I just took to London and Paris with my daughter Lauren. How do you effectively tell all your friends, co-workers and relatives your adventures without driving yourself crazy from having to tell the same thing over and over.

You start a blog.

So join me on my European adventures. And if you like what you read, stay with me for my adventures in general....