Going Home!

We are going home!  We waited as late as possible to get up, get downstairs for one last meal in Europe and then head to the airport.  The airport is a 10 minute walk from the hotel.  That doesn’t include waiting for elevators, the tram in the airport to take us to the North Terminal…. We made it over around 9 though for a 12:00 departure.  It’s a good thing we did though!  Around a week ago, we had gotten notice that our flight home had changed from a transfer in Boston to a transfer in NYC.  We tried getting in our apps to see it but that never worked.  We just thought it was no problem and we would just be able to check in.  We were not able to check in on the phone app so we just went straight to the airline desk.  They were actually not able to check us in either because our ‘travel agent,’ credit card company had not done something on their end to confirm our tickets.  We had to try calling our card companies.  One had their entire computer system in maintenance and they couldn’t help us.  After three amazing ladies,  Jet Blue agents, worked together, we were able to get boarding passes. 

 

We thought we all did so well preparing for security but 5 of our 8 bags were pulled for inspection!  Ametures!   After a few laughs about our mistakes and the loss of one wine bottle opener from Cesani, we passed inspection and made it to our gate.  Our aglio olive oils bottles even made it through!  Yay!

 

We all loved this trip but are happy to be going home!  We’ve missed home – Aspen, River, friends and routine (somewhat on that last part).  Goodbye Europe; until next time! 

Starting toward home!

Fortunately, we packed before leaving the apartment yesterday morning.  We were able to get up and out of the place in about 20 minutes.  We had to wake at 5:30am for our first Metro to and 6:50 train to Calais.  It was a very easy start to what became an interesting two days.  I did sleep on this train most of the way! 

In Calais, we had switched the time we were taking the train during booking and ended up booking to one station too early.  We got off 5 miles from the doc where the P&O Ferry would take us across the channel at 1545.  It was only about 0930 when we got off the train.  We were in the middle of no where land in terms of this non-urban country.  We could see roof tops near by so after a failed attempt at calling an Uber – haha, we starting walking into town.  We walked a train through the woods!   It took by someone’s house and onto the street where we could turn and walk down to a local café.  I think it might be more a bar than café but several locals came in for coffee or beer to sit a few moments and read the borrowed local paper.  A couple of fellows came in like it was a morning routine, one had beer and one had wine.  It was 9:45 in the morning.  They stayed a while to solved the worlds problems it sounded.   I have no idea because of course we don’t understand French but it was fun to witness!  While we sat, John was able to get us on the next train coming through into Calais!  He has been amazing at getting us where we need to go!   We didn’t want to overstay our welcome so after three cups of espresso for John, we decided to walk their little town and came across an artisan bakery.  Of course we stopped for more bread to go with the chocolate croissant we each had at the first train station.   That all ended well with us on a tiny three car train taking us into the city.  

Our intent in Calais was to walk into town for food and then to the ferry.  It was all a little further than expected plus the temperature was 54 degrees and so windy.  We were not dressed for that!   We finally found food but realized that were running short on time to get to the boat that we absolutely could not miss if we wanted to get across to London for our flight home on Saturday.  There was a sweet lady answering our questions in her broken English and our lack of French.  Our hope at this point was that we could call a cab but needed cash.   We had tried to spend all of our cash so we only had about 12 Euro – probably not enough for a cab.  Walking distance we were, in miles about 1.5.  We inhaled half of our food, paid the bill and started walking.   The cold vanished pretty quickly for us.  We were walking at a faster pace that we probably exercise on a regular basis and carrying our packs.  I must have given the police a desperate look the second time they went by us because they came back around and stopped to see if we were ok.  They were kind enough to give us a little more detail about our path like landmarks to watch for.  One officer was giving the other one English word or two that would guide us for each turn.  We made it with about 15 minutes to spare and got on the ferry!  That’s a process in itself to be foot traffic on a ferry!   We joked that this memory would be right up there with our getting lost on the bike trail in Arizona.

 

The ferry was a really nice ride with snacks and drinks for our journey.  It was a good thing because we needed to get more sustenance after that walk.  We relaxed, stepped out onto the deck occasionally to see the views and relaxed more.  Outside our window a sea gull was drifting along side just moving up and down enjoying his lack of need to flap his wings!  The kids are such troopers on this trip!  We were able to go out on the deck to stand in awe of the White Cliffs of Dover as we approached!  The sea gull were going  The sun actually shone down on them for a short while as we approached.  Upon exiting out boat, a car picked us up within about 10 minutes.  The rail strike in all of England today seemed to be a hamper to us and did cost an unexpected chunk but we were all glad we didn’t have two more trains to navigate and a car carried our bags right to the door of the hotel!  

 John took the kids down for dinner, I opted for a quiet moment in the room alone.  Honestly I was too tired to care about dinner.  Not so much with growing kids – they need to eat all the time!  Haha!

Fantastic last day of touring!

I guess you aren’t supposed to get a lot of sleep while in Pari!  This is our last touring stop on this trip though so we are pushing through.  We started a little later and headed back to the same café for today's breakfast.  They were happy to see us come back.   On the way Carter saw a store he wanted to visit and ended up choosing to buy a bocce ball set to play somewhere in a park.  

                                                            It's hard to see in the pic but that's the Eiffel Tower 

                                                                    over the top of that cappuccino!

Today, we did not have anything booked until late evening so we made a plan to visit a few sites.  We started by making our way to Sacre Coeur Basilica.  We took a couple of trains before taking our time strolling through Arrondissement 18.   The Basilica was beautiful inside and out.  You can see all of Paris from up there.  It’s such a vast expanse of city that it’s hard to tell what is what but WOW, it’s enormous!  As we've experienced in multiple areas, there are hustlers trying to sell something.  The kids really learned the lesson the first time in Rome when a man who was so kind and friendly put bracelets on them and then tried to get John to pay for something we didn't want.  

From the top of the hill, we wandered down to see the Moulin Rouge with a stop for crepes along the route.   This is such a fun area of town.  Very quaint! We stopped for drinks after crepe and there were some families walking by.  People were not in such a hurry; we really liked this area!   It was so fun to see the actual Moulin Rouge after just having seen the theatre production this spring!   Before leaving the area, we stocked up on picnic supplies – meat, cheese, bread, desert, fruit….  Another train took us near the Eiffel Tower.  We popped in for drinks on the way to the park.  For the next few hours, we had a picnic and played bocce ball in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower!!  How amazing is that!  

                                            Grace had a new friend!  

  

After spending time in the park, we still had over two hours before our tickets to climb the Arc de Triomphe.  We were so exhausted, we almost didn’t even go that direction.  We did though, walk up the hill to Trocadero plaza for one last viewing of the tower.   There was of course a café near by so we decided to hydrate and see how we felt afterward.  It was close to 5pm and you could see that people were going home from their jobs, stopping for a drink, and taking the kids home.  I love watching people in their spaces doing life!  Side note:  the romance of sitting in a cafe to watch the world happen in front of you was a little smothered by the constant presence of cigarette smoke.  I had forgotten how smoking is such the norm in Europe.  I’m not sure if it was unanimous but the parents decided to walk in the direction of the Arc to see if we could get in early.  We had purchased tickets for sunset but didn’t think we could make it that long.  200+ steps to the top and we were glad we came this far.  The sun was setting so limiting our view in one direction but not the direction we really cared to see.  We saw a man in a Georgia Bulldog baseball cap!  Go Dawgs!  The last leg of this journey was tough.  One more train and walk back to our little, noisy apartment.   I think we were all tired enough to get a little more sleep this night except me.  Oh well, there was always the trains the next day.  

The Louvre at the end of the Champs-Elysées Avenue.

Paris Sights

The night was interesting!   As I mentioned, we are in the middle of lots of activity.  The club directly across and one level down on the street from us that is open until 4AM.   Half of their activity is outside on the street.   The street below is also under construction and there are metal sheets lining the walking path.  Every step a person makes echoes through the street and into our open windows.   C’est la Vie!   We have sights to explore in this city!  

We wandered toward the river to find a café.  Cafés Richard.  It was a beautiful breakfast!  Afterward, we walked and walked.  We saw the reconstruction underway at Notre Dame, listened to a jazz band on a bridge, stopped for another coffee, visited a few bridges, and watched people.  It’s so full of activity of course!  People were sitting all along the river enjoying their lunch and visiting with friends.   

 

Our tickets to the Louvre were at 2:00 so we made our way back away from the River, purchased ham and cheese sandwiches and sat on the steps at the Louvre before going inside.  I don’t know that anything really stood out as the best items we saw in the museum but just to visit this overwhelmingly stocked museum.  I don’t know if it’s the largest in the world but if you took three seconds to see every item in the Louvre, it would take 9 days and nights to see everything.  Our last stop at close to three hours was the Mona Lisa.  

Our next event wasn’t until 9:45 so we found a café of course!  This one was in such a busy area that it was a little too much as far as the people sitting so closely to us.  The snack was amazing though.   

We went on a shopping search for a bag store that didn’t work out.  I think we did get a little rest time back at the room after that.  Later in the evening we took a Seine river boat cruise to see the lights.  It really is magical!  It was actually still light but the sun was setting.  When we passed the Eiffel Tower just before turning around I thought we wouldn’t be able to see it lighted.  Just as the boat was turning to go back in the direction we came, the tower began to light up.  The rest of the journey is just got darker and the lights were amazing!  We exited the boat and police after police came down the street!  The officers lined the bridge near us and stood looking over with big guns!  We never saw anything going no fortunately but quickly exited the area.  A little more night life wandering and then we went back to our noisy room.