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Okay, confession time.

Paris was a bit of a downer point on this trip. We had only one day, really, and Neve was still not back to herself so we couldn’t explore as much as we had planned.  Basically, we didn’t give ourselves time to really adjust to it and get into it, and navigating the Metro with our luggage was quite a challenge (all stairs, all the time, everywhere. This is why the French are so fit.)

Next time?

We did, however, manage to get a fabulous hotel room thanks to the many, many points my husband had saved from years of work travel, and we had a great neighborhood base from which to roam a bit.

We were located in Trocadero, which is to the north, and practically under, the Eiffel Tower.

The one thing Neve rallied for was The Paris Catacombs. This was the thing that she had picked herself,many she was NOT going to miss it.  The wait, unfortunately, was a little over an hour long in the hot Parisienne sun. We kept ourselves amused remembering the wise words of my friend Aurelie and her boyfriend Paul, “We French enjoy waiting in lines. We wait all the time.” So we stood there, waiting, feeling ourselves we were truly French now.

The Catacombs did not disappoint (aside from the typical American tourists we encountered who were loud and disrespectful in their comments. Jerks. Quit making us look bad!)

They say there are more than 6 million skeletons in the Catacombs. I can believe, after witnessing its staggering vastness, there are many more than that.

As you may imagine, it is very dank and wet down there. There was a lot of dripping water from the walls and ceilings, and some of the bones were molding.  We all had what we’ve been calling “Catacomb Crud” on our shoes afterwards.

And then, at the very end, Neve coughed so hard she threw up. In the Catacombs.

Sigh.

We made our way out, stopped at a Monoprix (an excellent grocery/everything store) to buy fruit and wine, and dropped Neve at the hotel for a bit. Maddie and I explored the neighborhood a little, found some chocolates, and picked Neve up again for dinner and the lighting of the Eiffel Tower.

It it was hard to capture the sparkle effect!

Trocadero

I will say say this for Paris: it is STUNNING at night. They don’t call it the city of lights for no reason!

Getting a bit behind in posting! The morning we left London Neve woke with a pretty high fever and cough.

We thankfully stayed with an old friend from college in Versailles for two nights; but our hectic pace was dramatically slowed for our time in France, and Neve spent much of it in bed.

Maddie and I wandered the village of Versailles a bit (and loved it) before touring the palace itself. I even made Maddie try a Croque Monsieur for the sake of stereotypical French cuisine.

We finished the day with dinner at a creperie with Aurelie and her boyfriend Paul. I tried the goat cheese and tomato crepe; absolutely divine. For dessert: chestnut crepe. Add in the French wine and it was heaven!

Aurelie’s neighborhood

The gate at the palace

It it was a lovely, lovely village, and if pressed, I may admit to having liked it better than Paris itself. (But don’t tell anyone).

This morning we were out early to beat the long queues at Westminster Abbey.  Pro tip, though: even getting there twenty minutes before opening on a Monday morning, the lines was really, really long.

Thankfully it moved pretty fast. Sadly, no pictures were allowed inside. But I will tell you this: it was one of the most moving experiences I’ve had, and I’m not religious. It was simply staggering in scale and beauty and history.

Neve, Maddie, and I each lit a candle in the nave and paused to take it all in. Then we moved through, taking care to read as many of the tombs as we could.

We lingered over the tombs of Elizabeth I and her sister Mary, and I’ll admit I got a bit emotional, having studied her for so long and finally being that close to her earthy remains. I also reached past the rail and put a hand on her marble crypt. It was an experience I’ll not soon forget. Just a foot or two, some marble, and a few hundred years separated us.

We left the Abbey amazed at how close we had come to nearly a thousand years of history, and headed for lunch at a cafe in the crypt of a different church, St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Yes, they have a cafe in the original crypt. Yes, there are still burial stones and markers in there. No, it was t creepy. And the food was well-priced and very, very good.

We managed our way over to Oxford and Regent streets so Maddie could find the London Coach Store, and then we browsed a Top Shop and Marks and Spencer.

We’ve also gotten very adept at navigating the Underground. We love it!

We planned some time to try the Eye, but it was rather expensive, honestly, it would have cost more than our tour of the Abbey had, and that hadnt been cheap at £40. Instead, we found a nice little cafe called “Giraffe”, and had a nice early dinner before meeting a group for a Jack the Ripper tour.

Our guide, Lindsay, was fantastic. She works for Scotland Yard as well as for the tour company, and she’s met descendants of the Ripper’s victims. She has research coming out soon, and she’s been interviewed many times for documentaries.  We went to each spot where the victims’ bodies were found, and she showed us photographs of how each place looked at the time of the murders. The sky had gone grey and it was windy, with a nice chill and the smell off woodsmoke in the air. It was perfect!  It was one of our favorite things we’ve done, for sure.

The last thing we did was stop at The Blackfriar Pub next to our hotel for a last pint in the UK, as we leave in  the morning for Paris.

We were right under Big Ben on our way to the Abbey.

On Whitehall Rd.

The Cafe in the Crypt

The floor of the cafe

Big Ben and Parliament from across The Thames

Church in Spitalfields from the Ripper tour.

The Spitalfields Market, which was there at the time of the killings.

We ended the tour just under The Gherkin at “Ripper Corner”, the site of the second-to-last murder.

Such a fun night!

Ah, Hampton Court. A must-see for any Tudor enthusiast. Maddie and I have been looking forward to this for ages.

And you know what? It didn’t disappoint. In fact, it surpassed all of my expectations. It was magical.  It is sad, though, that William and Mary spent time ripping down and rebuilding the palace to “update” it.  The newer Georgian section is wonderful in its own way, but I wish we could see it exactly as it was during Henry VIII’s time.

It did, however, have a lovely and authentic smell today, as there was a big fire going in th great kitchen, filling the air with a lovely woodsmoke.

After an incredible time at the Palace (with beautiful, sunny, and mild weather), we hopped on a bus and met my old friend Jenn for lunch. We haven’t seen each other since high school (and I’m NOT admitting how long ago that was!). Even worse, she lived just outside Richmond for quite a few years and we never got together despite being less than an hour apart. Now she lives in London with her family. And so arranged to meet us at a pub today in -fittingly – Richmond, UK.

I am so grateful I got the chance to see her and spend time with her here. I can’t think of a better way to top off a brilliant day.

Yes, we took one of those hideous bus tours.

We had wanted to see The Cotswolds and Stonehenge, and I wasn’t too keen on renting a car and finding our way on our own. But honestly? In a way I wish we had. There were some great advantages to the bus tour: I didn’t have to drive, and our guide pointed out many interesting things all along the way.

Like: The Top Gear test track!! We drove right by it!

BUT.

We spent far more time warming our bus seats than anything else, and very little time able to see what we wanted to see.  We started in Stratford Upon Avon, which was absolutely lovely, but had a mere hour for touring the Shakespeare birth house and the village.  The drive through the Cotswolds was, of course, heavenly (so many sheep!!!!), but we got to Bath after two pm and had roughly an hour to both eat lunch and explore.  And let me tell you: when there are hundreds and hundreds of people getting off tour buses at the same time as you?

Yeah.

We did manage a bite at a small take-away selling meat pies and sandwiches. On our way to find the Abbey we happened upon a little yarn shop, and when we popped in: YES!  They were selling Junioer Moon Farm yarn!!! We had a nice chat with the ladies there, bought some locally-sourced Sheltand yarn, and ran for our bus.

Another hour later, we were at Stonehenge. The wonderful thing is, they’ve torn down the visitors’ center that was just next to it and moved it out of the landscape. It’s sad they no longer allow people to wander through the stones, but it was still impressive and mystical nonetheless. We did our best to be still and in the moment as much as possible.  I really, really loved it.

Back in London, we were dropped off on the West End by Earl’s Court. This worked out very, very well for one reason: there’s a TARDIS right outside of the Earl’s Court Underground stop.

We found a light dinner and went down for our train, only to find that the entire loop servicing our station was closed for the weekend. Fortunately, the young men working there put us on the correct detour (and also, I cannot tell you how much better the London Underground is in every possible way than NYC Subway. It’s clean. It’s brightly-lit. It’s easy to navigate. So we weren’t off-put by having to go around a bit), and we got back to our hotel just as it was getting dark.

The Cotswolds, through the bus window.

Bath

I was thinking of my dear friend, Tanya, the entire time I was there.  I knew she’d love it.

Our temporary hone home base in London welcomed us back with this view.

Cant no even tell you how much I love it here.

Today us Tudor-history geeks (and I mean that in a “We studied it in college” way, not the crap fictionalized history way of a certain female writer I shall not name), went to The Tower of London today!

We took the Yeoman Warder tour at first so we could gain access to the chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula, where both Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard are buried. After paying our respects to two queens we’ve spent an awful lot of time studying, we wandered the rest of the palace grounds and happily saw some of the ravens as well.

After lunch we popped over Tower Bridge (and got held up by the drawbridge opening, which, let’s be honest, was pretty great to watch), and wandered down along the Queen’s Walk along the Thames to The London Eye. It was just over two miles to walk, and we loved it. In particular, I was absolutely thrilled to stumble upon The Burrough Market. It was an overwhelming feast for the senses.

We didn’t go on the Eye, as the line was miles long. Instead we popped into a little pizza cafe on the water and enjoyed the beautiful weather (I got sunburned today! In London!).

We called it a (relatively) early evening back to the hotel (it stays light later even here than at home, which is still throwing is off) because we have to be at a meeting point for our country tour by 7 am tomorrow.

Henry VIII’s famous suit of armor with the crazy codpiece!

The Burrough Market

So so much fresh food! I was wishing I could bring it all home!

The Globe Theater

Big Ben and Parliament (look kids!)

This view is right around the corner from our hotel.

so far we are loving London, and have been pleasantly surprised by how walkable it is!

Our last full day in Edinburgh was Wednesday.  We spent much of the day at the National Museum of Scotland, which was brilliant!

After dinner we met with my bestie Jessie and her family for a tour of Mary King’s Close and a whiskey nightcap. I’m so glad we were able to coordinate our trips that way!

Yesterday we sadly bid adieu to Scotland as we rode the train to London, where we immediately walked about 5 miles taking in the sites.

At the museum

Whiskey Still

Ha!

We loved Edimburgh, and are missing it already.

But, on to London! We successfully navigated the Underground, checked in at our hotel, ate dinner at a pub, and walked to Piccadilly Circus through Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square. It was vibrant, busy, and beautiful.

Fountains at Trafalgar Square

Neve climbed the lions on the monument.

Maddie and I didn’t realize how perfectly we were mirroring each other until we looked at the picture and pronounced it “eerie”.

Big Ben from Trafalgar Square.

Today: The Tower of London!

We’ve exhausted ourselves yet again, but it was worth it. We toured Edinburgh Castle in the morning (where we witnessed the 21-gun salute of the canons in honor of the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation), Holyrood Palace (where I fell completely in love with the ruins of the Abbey), and a little bit of time at the National Museum of Scotland.  We had a wonderful lunch at a tiny little place called ‘The Edinburgh Larder’, but ran into a snafu at dinner, as it seems no restaurants here allow under 18’s after 8 pm.

Cant win ’em all, I guess!

Our tour guide, who we would have followed all day just to listen to his accent.

Mural in the chamber where Mary, Queen of Scots gave birth to her son James.

From the castle you can see out to the Firth of Forth.

Holyrood Abbey

It’s hard are to take a bad picture in such a beautiful place. I’ve included this last one, though, from The Royal Mile looking out towards Holyrood (and beyond to the Firth) simply to show what Edinburgh looks like at 9 pm.  It’s about quarter to midnight now, and the sky still isn’t quite a full dark; there’s still some deep, lovely turquoise.

Despite a last – minute run to the doctor for steroids to clear up lots of fluid in my ear (yeah….hooray), we are off to Edinburgh tomorrow!

Maddie, Neve, and I will be there for three days before heading down to London for five days. After that we’ll spend a few days in Paris and Versailles, and finish our trip with three nights in Germany.

I’ll try to post here while I’m away, even if only pictures.

Paul, Emily, and Oona will hold down the fort here and take care of the animals (Neve and I worked the sheep and goats yesterday to make sure they’d be okay while we are gone).

Cheers!