Paris 2016 Part 1

To continue on from where we left off in Day 4, we jumped off the Chunnel and were able to get right onto the Metro, but man, let me tell you, it was way harder to figure out where we were suppose to go with everything being in french. But we finally figured it out, and we got off right in front of our hotel. We were staying at the Westin right by Tullieres park. It's gorgeous. The lobby was full of Lillies and it smelled incredible. We got cleaned up and went out for a quick dinner, and hurried home to rest up for our full week in Paris!

Day 5 

The best part about having so much time in Paris was that we didn't feel like we had to cram everything into just a few days. So all of our days were pretty laid back, and easy going, but we still felt like we got everything in that we wanted to, and then some!

We started our first full day in Paris by strolling though the alley ways to find a bakery for breakfast. We found one quickly and got some croissants and pan au chocolats, and a few baguette sandwiches for later on. We enjoyed these on the steps of a small church and a crowd of pigeons quickly became our friends.

We then headed across La Seine to get on a river cruise to show us some main sights, and to help us get a general overview of the city. The cruise was fine, a little chilly and surprisingly not too informative. But we still got some lovely pictures and a chance to rest our feet which is always enjoyable when you are logging over 9 miles every day.

It was noon, so we were on the hunt for lunch. We walked through Tuileries gardens and found some crepes! We got ham and cheese and also Nutella with bananas. So delicious.

We kept meandering up to the Champs-Élysées, poking into some shops and gazing at the Arc de Triomphe. It was stormy and about to rain, so we did a quick Google search and found a theater not too far away showing movies in English with French subtitles. We hopped on the metro and we're headed to see Tarzan. If you haven't seen it, you should go! We liked it a lot.

We grabbed some dinner at an Istanbul restaurant which was so good, and then walked all the way home.

We grabbed some ice cream and chocolate on the way and enjoyed those in our hotel room and settled in for the night.

Day 6

Bastille day! We were anxious to get up and get out to the parade. We had grand plans to beat the crowds and have the best spot of all. Great plan, until we accidentally slept in until 15 minutes before the parade was to begin. We jumped up and hurried out the door and actually made it to a decent spot just a few minutes before everything got started. We didn't have the best view of the marching, but we could see the horses and tanks and planes and hear the band just fine.

We didn't have time for breakfast so we were ravenous for lunch. We found a bakery and grabbed two of the most delicious sandwiches I've ever eaten, and a few pastries, and a Coke Zero and enjoyed a little rest while we ate our lunch.

After our recharge, we headed out on a long nice walk to Notre Dame to do an audio tour we had downloaded on our phones. It was so fun. I really enjoyed learning about the sculptures on the face of Notre Dame and some history behind it. We wandered the surrounding city and stumbled upon the coolest gelato shop where they scoop your gelato into the shape of a rose. It was so fresh and delicious and we will probably make our way there again before we come home. It was so good. Another fun surprise that we happened to find was a French board game shop. Floor to ceiling was full of amazing games. Alex was in heaven checking at all out.

It was time to head to our firework watching spot. Alex had read a few blogs about good spots to watch the July 14th fireworks, and it was seriously perfect. We grabbed a picnic of bread, cheese and ham, crackers and some fruit and some apple cider! We munched and people watched and enjoyed the view of the sparkling Eiffel Tower. The fireworks were some of the best I've ever seen, and I'm so glad we were able to experience that.

Getting home on the metro was comical. The trains we jammed packed. Like one car drove by and these girls faces were literally smashed up against the window. It took 4 trains to come and go before we could finally squeeze into one. Luckily we only have to go 2 stops before transferring so it wasn't too bad.

It was a really fun experience to be in paris during a local holiday!

Day 7

MY FAVORITE DAY! We went to Disneyland Paris!! We woke up early and headed for the train station. We rode an awesome double decker metro all the way to the gates of Disney. The lines to get in were quite short and we grabbed our maps and set out!

We admired the castle and Alex caught a few Pokemon, and we got our picture taken right away so I wasn't worried about getting it done all day. The wait for Indiana Jones was only 5 minutes so we did that first. It's totally different than the ride in California. It's just a crazy intense roller coaster. It rattled our brains a little too much so we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean next. There are two drops on this Pirates and it is so fun. Funny to hear them singing all in French, but just as enjoyable.

We went to fantasyland and rode Small World which was so cute. Alex had never been on that, so it was a fun one to do together. All the wait times for the other fantasyland rides were a bit too long so we went to Tomorrowland. Super short wait for Space mountain, so we did that. It was so much fun, so we did it a second time right away. My hair was crazy so I invested in my first ever pair of Minnie Ears. They even perfectly matched my outfit, which I promise I didn't do on purpose.

We wandered through the shops, went on a few more rides and ate lunch. We'd hit up pretty much everything so we left Disneyland and walked over to Walt Disney Studios.

We ran right to a Ratatouille ride. The wait was so long, but since there isn't anything like this back home we decided it was worth the wait. And it totally was. It's a fun 4D type roller coaster. Combine the little mermaid ride, soaring over California and Star Tours! It was really cute and we were glad we waited to do it.

Next we practically walked right into Tower of Terror. Just as good as back home! It seriously is the best ride ever.

On to more new rides. Crush's Coaster! I didn't know what to expect, but it ended up being my favorite ride of the day. You sit in a turtle shell back to back with the other riders so you are all facing out. And you go on a crazy roller coaster and you spin in all directions. I was afraid I'd get too dizzy, but it was so smooth and so fun. I wish we had had time to do it again.

We also did a Toy Story ride that is like the boat ride at Lagoon where you swing back and forth really high. But you are in the RC car riding up and down a race track. It was really fun.

We ran to ToT again and were able to do that right before they kicked us out.

Our feet were dead so we hobbled back to the train and made our way back home.

It was seriously so fun and I'm glad Alex loves me enough to agree to a Disney day while we are on our Europe adventure!

TO BE CONTINUED...

London 2016

If you haven't read up on how my husband and I were able to spend 12 days in Europe for only $100 out of pocket, go read his blog post all about that here. 

My blogs are much more journal-style, and are here just as a record and a memoir. 

Day 1

We headed to the airport early in the morning, and I cried and cried when I had to say goodbye to Iz. I knew she was in the best hands, and that she was going to have so much fun, but man I was gonna miss her. 

We got checked in and through security, then headed to the American lounge to get a bite to eat and a drink before our flight. We were lucky enough to be flying business class the whole way there, so we had priority boarding and meals provided the whole way. We watched some movies, read our books and even played a few card games on the first leg of the trip. We had a quick layover in New York, and then we were off again, headed to London!

The flight was great, and business class was wonderful. We almost didn't want our plane to land because we were having so much fun watching movies, eating ice cream and lounging in our big seats. 

We landed around 6 am London time, and decided to make our way to the lounge for some breakfast and a shower. It was nice to be able to rest a bit more and fuel up before making the trek to our hotel. 

We left the airport and hopped on the underground. We rode it all the way to Hyde Park and decided to walk through the park on the way to our hotel. It was a super long walk, and not too fun while dragging our bags behind us, but still the weather was perfect and it was nice to kinda get our bearings with our surroundings.

We got to our hotel, but couldn't check in until a bit later in the day, so we just left our bags, and headed back out to the park. We saw Kensington Gardens, and enjoyed a rest in the grass, and Alex spent some time catching Pokemon.

We walked Exhibition Road and found the Hyde Park Chapel. It was so neat! They have a mini visitors center in the lobby of the church, a Christus, some movies on the restoration, history about the church coming to England and lots of other things. We walked around there for a while, talking to the senior missionaries and using the free bathrooms.

When it was time for lunch, we simply found a grocery store and bought some sandwiches, a few waters and some chips and enjoyed them while resting our feet on the side of a busy street.

We were close to Harrods so we meandered around, having the most fun in the toy section! Alex loved the Lego and Star Wars exhibit.

We made the walk home, stopping again the Hyde park to enjoy a little concert in the park. We were very lucky weather wise, not too cold, and we had a light cloud coverage and a constant breeze. So nice.

Once we got home we both hopped in the shower to get ready for dinner. We accidentally closed our eyes for a bit, but luckily we didn't sleep for more than about 15 minutes. We enjoyed a little bit of wifi, checking Facebook and whatnot. Then headed out to dinner.

We picked a little Italian place called Bizzaro. The prices were the cheapest we'd seen all day and the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was authentically Italiano, the pasta was homemade and absolutely delicious. The whole time I just thought about how much my parents would have loved it!! We had every intention of going back again before we left. It was seriously that good.

We came home, stopping again at the store to get some candy and bandaids, then we watched a couple shows and then finally crashed for the day around 9. We were both able to sleep all night, and I feel like we got a good jump start on battling our jet lag.

Day 2

We started out with an nicer than expected breakfast at the hotel, then took the long stroll through Hyde park to get to church. The meeting was good, though we would have loved to hear more native accents. All speakers were American, besides one who was from somewhere in Asia. It was nice and it's always amazing how familiar it all is, even thousands of miles from home.

After church we went and jumped on our Hop on, Hop off bus tour. We mostly stayed on the bus and enjoyed the tour, but after a while the traffic got so bad due to road closures for a sporting event, that we simply got off and walked the rest of the way to Westminster Abbey. It was actually pretty neat that the roads in front of Westminster and Parliament were closed because the whole road was open just to pedestrians. You could stand anywhere for pictures, walk right across the street to look at each side of the river, and didn't have to worry about cars or big buses running you over or getting in your picture.

We got all of our selfies with Ben, then headed to get some lunch. We just grabbed some quick sandwiches and chips again, and then went to join the queue for the London Eye. We have gotten a discount on our Eye passes when we bought our bus tickets so that was perfect! Our timing was impeccable and the sun burst through the clouds just as we were about to get into our pod. The views were lovely and I'm really glad we went.

After the Eye, we jumped on a river cruise. That was also included with our bus ticket, and it was way more fun than either of us anticipated. Our guide was hilarious and taught us about each different bridge on the Thames, and we got some lovely shots of Tower Bridge. Oh and we won the trivia question about where the London bridge now resides - It's here in Arizona, in case you didn't know ;)

We got off the boat at tower bridge, and enjoyed the long stroll back to the Eye and Parliament. We passed a huge crowd that was blocking almost all of Southbank. And as we approached we noticed they were all watching Murray in the Wimbledon championship. It was awesome cuz we got there just in time for the last match and we were able to watch him win. Extra fun because we also watched him win at Wimbledon a few years ago when we watched at a sports bar in Florida. We must be his good luck charm.

We kept walking along the river, and we passed through Borough Market, (SO MANY AMAZING SMELLS) and passed the restaurant The Anchor, which is the place Tom Cruise sits at the end of mission impossible. Alex liked that a lot.

By this point we had walked almost 9 miles that day, and we were both ready to plop on a bus and get home. The bus rides are so nice and we obviously love the free wifi. We got home easily and decided to head out for some dinner. We both wanted to eat in a Pub, so we found a quaint one near our hotel. We found a seat and both ordered the Fish and Chips. Again our luck and our timing was amazing because we didn't even know that the final French/Portugal game was playing, but we were able to watch it and enjoy the local energy. Very fun.

We headed home and finished the game (poor France) and then quickly crashed. It was a lovely, busy day, full of walking and amazing weather.

Day 3

We accidentally slept in until 9:15 this morning so our morning started out more hectic than we were expecting. We rushed to breakfast and then haphazardly collected our things and ran to the bus, hoping to make it to the changing of the guards at Buckingham. But of course we got on the wrong line and ended up over by Trafalgar Square instead. We figured we can see the guards tomorrow, so we meandered around the square, and then ended up browsing the National Gallery. We determined that we are uncultured swine, as we only recognized 3 artists that were in the Gallery.

We emerged from the museum and found blue skies! So instead of getting on another bus we walked to Piccadilly Circus and did a little window shopping. We thought about doing Ripley's Believe it or Not, but tickets were way over priced, so we chose to get back on a bus and head up to St. Paul's Cathedral. The history in that part of town is incredible. From Shakespeare, the great fire of 1666, the bubonic plague, it's certain that London is an incredibly resilient city. We grabbed lunch at a pub that is over 300 years old. We LOVED the atmospheres at the pubs. The haphazardly placed tables and chairs, the low ceilings, friendly staff, and delicious warm food.

After our bellies were full, we put in our headphones and did a Rick Steves guided tour of Fleet Street and the surrounding areas. It was a fun and different way to get around. We even got to see Gingots Wizarding Bank (it's the Australian embassy, but was used as the bank in HP)

It began to rain heavily, so we again found refuge on a double decker bus and rode back to the west side. Once the sun began to peak through again, we hopped off the bus and enjoyed a beautifully long walk along Regent Street and Oxford Circus. We peaked into the Disney store and I cried a little thinking about Izzy and how much she would love it.

We decided to walk the 2 miles home since it was so nice out. Once back at the hotel we took a quick rest, and then headed back out for dinner. Our hotel is surrounded by tons of different choices and tonight we followed our noses to a Malaysian noodle place. I'm grateful that Alex is an adventurous eater and isn't at all picky. We ended the night with some caramel sundaes and a movie back at home.

Day 4

Last day in London. We slept in again, but this time on purpose. It felt so good to not be jet lagged anymore. We packed up and checked out, but were able to leave our bags at the hotel so we could enjoy one last morning in the city.

The skies were blue and the clouds white and fluffy, so instead of taking a bus to Buckingham palace, we decided to walk. It was about 2 miles, but we just strolled through Hyde park. I wish you could smell it. It's so fresh!!! The grass and the trees and the flowers. I just can't get over it.

We got to Buckingham about an hour before the changing of the guards, but we staked out a spot and just enjoyed people watching and resting our feet. The guard ceremony was a bit of a let down, a whole lot of hype, not a whole lot of action. Haha. But still fun. We needed to head back to the hotel, and since we still had blue skies we started the trek home. Bad idea. About 5 minutes into the hour long walk the skies opened and we had a steady heavy rain. We had an umbrella, but still ended up kinda soggy. We can't complain about the rain though, since we were so incredible lucky with our weather so far, and honestly it wouldn't have been a true London experience without a little rain.

We snarfed down some lunch, and we obviously HAD to go back to the Italian place we went on the first day. And literally what we ordered the first time was SO GOOD that we got exactly the same thing again. And it was just as heavenly as the first time!

We grabbed some lunch and then hailed an Uber to the train station. We got on the Eurostar without any issues and enjoyed a quick ride into Paris.

TO BE CONTINUED...