Dereham, England - Part 1

I have made it safely to my dad and step-mom Jo's house in Dereham, England.  They picked me up from the airport (I was seeing mom off on Wednesday), and we went to the most adorable little pub in a small town near Dereham for lunch.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing.  Felt so good after being so busy for 5 weeks!

Today dad and I spent some time downtown, and then my step-sister, Danah, came over with her fiance, John, and 4 boys for a BBQ.  I had a blast spending time with my gorgeous step-nephews!    

We have some things planned over the next few days, so stay tuned for a couple more posts!

London, England - Part 2

What a busy day today!  We realized that we really had only one full day in London, so we crammed in as much as we could.  

We first went to see Big Ben and the Parliament buildings.  What a stunning building!  We went down the street to Westminster Abbey.  Since both of us had been inside before, we decided to just take in it's beauty from the outside.  Another incredible piece of architecture and art.

We walked to Buckingham Palace and happened upon the Changing of the Guard.  We weren't too pleased about this, since it means the crowds in front of the Palace are insane.  We had both seen the Changing of the Guard before, so we were really just interested in seeing the Palace!  We fought the crowds and spent a few minutes there.

We then walked down The Mall to Trafalgar Square, where we had lunch at a great pub.  We then walked back to the Thames and walked along the South Bank until we reached the Millennium Bridge.  We walked across this fascinating structure toward St. Paul's Cathedral on the other side of the river.  We went inside the Cathedral and toured around with an audio guide.  While mom was wandering around in the crypt (I had finished touring and was waiting at Starbucks), a group of people all wearing purple choir robes walked by and she followed them upstairs to the Cathedral floor.  The choir was preparing for a service and had a practice right then.  It was a mixed choir of about 60 people.  She said it was absolutely gorgeous.  Food for the soul.  Kinda regret my Starbucks.  :-)

We made a quick trip to Kensington Palace, but were disappointed in the amount of construction / restoration happening to the building.  It was hard to see the Palace itself.  

We rushed back to our apartment, changed, and rushed to the Piccadilly Circus area for our Broadway show!  We went to see The Book of Mormon.  While it would certainly not be for everyone (incredibly irreverent and probably offensive), we loved it!  It was hysterically funny and the singing and dancing were phenomenal.  We are Broadway fanatics, so this was the perfect way to end our trip!

Mom flies home tomorrow.  I am heading to the Norfolk area to spend some time with my dad and step-mom.  I fly home on August 16.  I may do a couple of more blog posts, but most of our time will be pretty low-key.

At the beginning of the trip it seemed that 5 weeks was so long.  But it has flew by and we have had the time of our lives!  There are so many more stories to tell, but we'll save those to tell in person.

Thanks for all of your well-wishes, prayers and encouragement for us during this time!  And thanks for 'coming along' with us during our Summer in Europe!

London, England - Part 1

We left lovely Paris this morning and took the Eurostar train under the English Channel to London.  We easily found our flat (which is so big and beautiful!), and met our wonderful host.  

We went to the Tower of London first, to see the Crown Jewels.  So pretty and sparkly!  We took in some of the other exhibits too, like the disturbing torture chamber.  

In true London fashion, it started to rain heavily.  We were completely unprepared, since this was only our second rain of the summer!  So, of course we had left our rain jackets / ponchos and umbrellas at the flat.  So we ran to the nearest Starbucks to wait it out.  

When it let up, we walked across Tower Bridge and then walked along the Thames South Bank.  We ate fabulous fish & chips and drank Pimms & Lemonade at a great pub on the Thames.  

We had planned to walk to Big Ben, but it began raining again.  So we called it an early evening and will be better prepared tomorrow!

Paris, France - Part 3

For our last full day in Paris we decided to go see the Palace of Versailles.  Unfortunately, so did several thousand other people.  The line-ups and the crowds were overwhelming.  For those of you who know me well, you know that I absolutely hate crowds, especially in confining spaces.  I whipped through the Palace quickly and waited outside for mom.  Since I couldn't really enjoy what I was seeing, this is how she felt about Versailles:

"It was a gilded, opulent nod to the indulgences of Louis XIV.  The famous Hall of Mirrors was amazing, and it was interesting to see that even the bed chambers of the King and Queen were used to conduct business transactions.  While the rooms were intact, the original furniture was all carted away due to the French Revolution.  They are still trying to find furnishings of that period so that some of the rooms can be returned to their former glory. In spite of the crowds, I'm glad I saw it."

After Versailles, we went to the Arc de Triomphe.  We wimped out and found the elevator that took took us to the top, instead of climbing the stairs.  Paris is stunning from up there!  The Eiffel Tower looks pretty spectacular, although it almost looks fake!  Maybe I'm just not used to seeing such a famous monument in person yet.

One of the last things that mom wanted to do was walk down the Champs-Elysees.  We did some window shopping, decided that it was way out of our league, and went back to the neighbourhood we are staying in (Montmartre).  We had a delicious dinner, and found a fantastic specialty chocolate shop for dessert.

We leave Paris in the morning and head to London, which is our last stop on this incredible trip!  

Au revoir Paris!  Merci beaucoup!

Paris, France - Part 2

This morning we tackled The Louvre.  We decided that audio guides were the way to go, and we both followed "The Masterpieces" tour.  We only saw a small portion of the museum (over 65,000 pieces of art there - that would take days to see everything!), but we saw what we wanted to see!  Standing before the Mona Lisa was amazing!

We made our way to the Notre Dame Cathedral.  We decided that we had climbed enough stairs during this trip, so we opted to not climb to the top.  We did go inside and walked around the building.  Stunning!

After a bite to eat (French cheeses and crepes!), we spent a couple of hours relaxing at our apartment so we could be ready for....

Moulin Rouge's show Feerie!  We went to the 11 pm show.  Oh the sequins, feathers, lights, massive snakes (eek!), miniature ponies (??), and yes, the many topless women.  The dancing was great, the singing was great (except the horrible lip-synching), the wine was flowing and the acrobatics were phenomenal!  It was a night to remember!  

Paris, France - Part 1

What a day!  We had to get up crazy early (4:00 am), so we would be able to get to the airport in Santorini on time for our flight.  We flew to Athens, then to Paris!  We arrived at our apartment around 3:00 pm, settled in (apartment is nice but TINY!), had lunch and set off to see some sights!  We hadn't planned to do much today because of our early start, but we ended up being quite busy!

We walked to the Basilica of the Sacre Coeur, which is about a 5 minute walk from our apartment.  So so beautiful.  We hiked up yet another large set of stairs to enter the Basilica.  Simply gorgeous inside!  Couldn't take any pictures though.   

We decided that we want to take in the Moulin Rouge show, Feerie, while we are here.  We went to search out the theatre to buy tickets for tomorrow night!  Can't wait!

We felt that we still had energy to do more, so we went to the Eiffel Tower.  I definitely had a moment there!  Not only is it beautiful and famous, it is an amazing feat of architecture as well.  We went up to the very top (that's for you, Lois!) by elevator.  We were NOT about to climb 702 steps to get part-way up!  The view of Paris from 281 metres up was incredible!

We had supper nearby, and then went back to the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower and just sat and looked at it.  The sun set and created a beautiful pink backdrop.  When it was dark enough the lights came on and it was stunning!  We sat there for about an hour, just taking it in.  What we didn't know was that every hour the tower sparkles for a few minutes.  Amazing! It was a perfect evening, gazing at a perfect sight.  

Santorini, Greece - Part 2

Last night we took in the famous Santorini sunset.  Crowds of people were gathered to watch it.  It honestly looked very similar to our beautiful prairie sunsets, with the added bonus of the sea.  We figured that most of the people there are not used to such vibrant sunsets, because they all burst into applause when it was done!  Too funny!

Today we decided that we had earned a “day off”. We went down to a cafe/lounge/pool and spent the day there. It was amazing! We scored some lounge chairs, which overlooked the pool and the sea. The chairs and pool were free to use, but you had to order from the cafe/bar. And order we did! It was hard to resist when the food and drinks were brought right to your lounge chair.

Tomorrow we have to be ready to leave at 5:00 am, in order to catch a taxi to bring us to the airport for our 7:00 flight back to Athens. Then we fly to Paris! Our few days in Greece have been lovely and we would both like to come back one day!