It's the Big Day here in France, and we decided to escape the craziness of Paris for the countryside and Versailles--apparently mirroring Louis XIV's actions about 300 years ago. We managed to negotiate the RER transit system and arrived at Versailles on a glorious blue-sky day--finally! What can one say about Versailles? "Oppulence to the max," we kept saying about everything we saw, but even that doesn't quite capture it. The Hall of Mirrors was incredible, even by today's standards. We had downloaded a tour (by guide book author Rick Steves) onto our iPods before we left, so we had a [View Full Entry]

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Today was our first full day in Paris. We headed up to Ile de la Cite this morning and were awestruck by the vastness and beauty of Notre Dame, not to mention amazed by the feat of its construction during the 12th century. Since it was Sunday and masses were going on, we got to hear the organ and choral singing, as well. We opted to wait in the hour long line to climb the tower, but multi-tasked and bought lunch at the conveniently placed creperie across the street and ate it in line. The boys managed to get in a [View Full Entry]

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July 11, 2008 We began our tour of Normandy at 0830, meeting our English guide, Dale, at the "Battlebus" (9 passenger van) which would take us around the D-Day sites. Dale enlisted in the British infantry at 17, and while he was too young to have served in WWII (he spent most of his time in Northern Ireland), he was a student of military history with an encyclopedic knowledge of everything about the Allied invasion of the Normandy coast. We began by talking about the paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne ("Band of Brothers") whose mission was to jump behind [View Full Entry]

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July 9 to 12, 2008 On Wednesday, the 9th, we packed up and were out of our London apartment by 10, then took a cab to the Waterloo Station for the train to Portsmouth. The hour and a half train ride was uneventful, and we caught a another cab to the Portsmouth Marriott (and arranged with the cabbie to pick us up at 7AM the next day for the ferry). The room at the Marriott was quite comfortable and large, considering the four of us were sharing it. After the boys took a quick swim, we headed off to the Portsmouth [View Full Entry]

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Drew has graciously volunteered to write the blog on yesterday's activities, while the rest of us pack and get ready to clear out of the apartment. We're taking the train to Portsmouth today, then the ferry to Normandy tomorrow. Friday we'll tour the D-Day Beaches, then Saturday it's on to Paris by train. We won't have internet to continue blogging until then... Unfortunately, we've learned that the bad weather will be coming along with us to France--rain is predicted for our entire time there! So glad we packed all those shorts, tank tops, sandals, skirts, etc. On the upside, who knew [View Full Entry]

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Guess what! It's raining again today--even got some serious thunder and lightning in the late afternoon. But your intrepid travelers plugged onwards through the itinerary. First on the day's schedule was the Tower of London and Crown Jewels. We all were surprised to discover that it's not just one tower, but a large castle complex, with many towers, castles (one dating back to William the Conqueror), the Crown Jewels exhibit, armories, a chapel (containing crypts of Thomas More, Anne Boelyn, Jane Seymour, etc.), and the private homes of the Beefeaters and their families. There are even qu [View Full Entry]

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We woke to another dreary, rainy day, but tubed and trained our way to Stratford Upon Avon through the lush English countryside. We trugged into town from the train station, and were grateful the rain stopped as we turned the corner to "Shakespeare's Birthplace" (museum and house where he was born and raised)--just behind a half dozen high school tour groups from Italy! The place had a bit of a Disneyesque atmosphere (probaby the hordes of tourists contributed to this impression), but we all felt it was worth seeing. The rooms in the house gave a good sense of daily life [View Full Entry]

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Got back from seeing Les Miserables a bit ago (awesome), and I realize I'm quickly slipping behind in my entries. But I really need to start getting to bed before midnight, so I just wanted to promise you that I'll try to catch up tomorrow night with a triple blog entry. In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures to tide you over... [View Full Entry]

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Saturday, July 5 We started off the day with a morning of "special family moments" revolving around our attempt to get discounted Lion King tickets to tonight's performance, only to discover after waiting in line for a half-hour at the famous "Tkts" booth in Leicester Square, that Lion King is the only production which doesn't release tickets for discounted sale. We hunkered down for a (too) late breakfast to get our blood sugar up and crankiness down, which was the slowest and most unsatisfactory meal we've had yet on the trip. Adding to the fun, was the post-breakfast search for the [View Full Entry]

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Friday, July 4--Happy 4th of July to you all! Today was filled with new impressions and spectacular scenery. We took a bus tour that included Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath. We were rushed at every stop, of course, but we enjoyed our "taste" of each. Our guide was very informative and witty, but she didn't compare with the experience we had with passionate Bill in Scotland--the difference in their approaches was kind of reflective of the stereotyped national temperments of the two countries... Salisbury Cathedral was gorgeous and dramatic, a soaring gothic masterpiece. After reading [View Full Entry]

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