European Vacation

Day 1:
Our flight from Dulles leaves at 9:55 pm. Because I’m such a dedicated and hard worker, I work a full day on Friday before heading home to finish up last minute packing. Of course beltway traffic on Friday afternoon makes the trip to the airport over an hour when it should be about 35 minutes, but we’re there in plenty of time to get turned down for an upgrade. I get a couple of hours of sleep on the plane, but Sage gets only a few minutes so we’re both feeling pretty wiped once we land at Heathrow. We arrive at 10:00 am local time in London, and thankfully Customs and Immigration don’t take long at all, and we’re on our way to our hotel. Because of my bad planning, I have tickets to an Arsenal game at 3:00 pm, so once we get out of the airport we have about 4 hours to get into London, check in to our hotel, change and get up to Highbury in North London. The other key is that the broker I bought the tickets through told me he would deliver them to our hotel instead of shipping them internationally. So we get to our hotel, The Darlington, which is only a 5 minute walk from Paddington Station. Already we’re in trouble: First, our room isn’t ready, so we’ll have to change clothes and wash up in the hotel bathroom and check our bags before going to the game. But second, they say they don’t have my tickets. So I call the ticket broker who tells me “I delivered them meself yesterday”. So I have the woman behind the counter look some more, and finally she finds them. WHEW! Lastly, they are charging us more than what I booked. Finally a manager shows up who says he’ll try to sort it out while we hit the bathroom to change. Lucky for us, by the time we get back to the main desk he has not only sorted out the correct price, our room is ready for us after all. So we’re able to drop our bags in our room before heading to the Tube to head up for the game. This is Arsenal’s last year at Highbury, the stadium they’ve called home for 93 years. The atmosphere outside the stadium is very much like the streets around Fenway Park. It’s a regular neighborhood all outside Highbury, as if they simply plucked down a stadium in the middle of a bunch of houses. The game is cold but great, with tons of singing from the fans. Arsenal beat their London rivals Charlton 3-0, and we head on back to our neighborhood. We hit a local pub for some drinks and snacks, and then back to the hotel for an early night.

Day 2:
After breakfast in the Darlington’s sun room we head off to the Tower of London. Sage and I went to the Tower in 2003 the last time we came to London, but we loved it so much we wanted to see it all again. This time we took one of the tours offered by the Yeoman Warders, or Beefeaters as they’re commonly known. The Warder really makes the history of the Tower come alive. Unfortunately, this being Sunday, the Tower’s chapel (which is only open to those on the tour) is closed for service so we don’t get a look in. After the tour we walk around and check out the Crown Jewels, the White Tower, the famous Bloody Tower, as well as walking along the walls. We head out around noon and stop at The Black Friar pub for lunch. On our last trip we absolutely loved English Pub food – quick, simple and flavorful, and usually pretty cheap. The Black Friar’s food was disappointing, and the bartender sounded like he was from Eastern Europe, not the East End. We then set off for Westminster where we walked from the Houses of Parliament to Buckingham Palace. Along the way we saw Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey, The Horse Guards, St. James’s Park, and St. James’s Palace. With our feet hurting we tube it back to the hotel for a quick rest. We head out for dinner, and while the pub selection is sparse in our neighborhood there are several restaurants that look promising and we score with an Italian joint called Ask. After dinner we’re back at the hotel, and I’m a little restless so I decide to go for a quick walk. After about 10 minutes I turn a corner and don’t believe my eyes: Victoria Casino. I stride right in, and after a 5-minute wait of having to sign up for a membership, I’m at the craps table. I wind up winning 304 Pounds (that’s currency, not weight), and Sage is quite pleased when I come back dropping the Queen Elizabeth’s on the bed.

Day 3:
This was going to be a big day, as not only was Sage going to go somewhere she has wanted to visit for a very long time (Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks), but I am going to be driving in England for the first time. Because the two animal parks are in the south of England, and not easily reachable by train, we decided the best option was to rent a car and drive to both in the same day. I reserved a car months ago, and made sure I did 2 things: 1) get an automatic transmission (I figured driving on the left side of the road was going to be distracting enough, I didn’t need to worry about shifting with my left arm too), and 2) reserve the car at a location that won’t make me drive through too much Central London traffic. So we head on the Tube to the South side of the Thames, near Tower Bridge. I’ve been pouring over my London A-Z book for months, making sure I knew the right roads to get out of London to the major Motorway that would take us south, and Sage has the printed out directions as well. Even so, I’m very nervous as I pull out. Thankfully, London (and England in general) has some of the best road & traffic signs you could ask for. As long as we knew what road we wanted to be on, it was extremely easy to figure out how to get out of town, even with the steering wheel in the wrong place. Speaking of that, I had several close calls, almost clipping cars and buses on my left. For some reason, even with the steering wheel on the right, I kept wanting to move the car to the left. Anyway, there were no accidents and we were able to make it to Port Lympne, near Hythe in Kent, by 10:00 am. Port Lympne is the 2nd park to open (after Howletts) by John Aspinall, an Englishman who made his fortune as a gambler and then turned his attention (and money) into animal conversation. Calling Port Lympne or Howletts a zoo is like calling the Queen Mary 2 a boat. While technically it’s true, it doesn’t come close to reflecting how big the two are. Port Lympne doesn’t have the variety of animals you may find at a regular zoo, but they know how to take care of the ones they have. Each animal group is given huge areas for them to roam, and their enclosures have plenty of variety and enrichment activities to keep their minds from getting too bored. The main attraction at Port Lympne is the Palace of the Apes, a large indoor/outdoor enclosure home to a group of 9 breeding gorillas. Howletts and Port Lympne have the largest group of captive breeding gorillas in the world (70), and they have even been successful in reintroducing gorillas back into the wild in Western Africa. Also at Port Lympne we were lucky to see a Black Rhino baby as well as an Asian Elephant baby. They also had plenty of cats, including lions, tigers and bush dogs, and plenty of hoof stock, including water buffalo and Asian deer. After a few hours there we headed off to Howletts, which is about 40 miles away. On the way we stopped at Chilham, a small little English hill town that we stopped at with a tour group 3 years ago. We loved it so much we sought it out again. We had lunch at The White Horse pub, and then were off to Howletts. Howletts is older, and not as big, as Port Lympne, but they have even more gorillas. Unfortunately the weather had turned cold and wet by this time of the day, and all the gorillas decided to stay inside when we got there. We did see plenty of African Elephants, including several babies, and they even had some snow leopards on view, something we had never seen in another zoo. After a quick visit to Howletts we headed on back to London. Again we didn’t get lost at all and made it back to London and the car rental agency in one piece. We hung out in South London for a few hours. First we had dinner at Wagamama, and then hit a pub for an hour or so, drinking a few pints and watching the first half of a West Ham football game. At around 9:30 we got back to the Tower of London to witness the oldest military ceremony in the world: The Ceremony of the Keys. We saw this the last time we were in London as well, and it easily was one of our favorite events. They only allow about 30-40 people to witness this each night, and it’s a very serious and solemn event. Unfortunately this night there was a large business group that must have been having a dinner event at the Tower, and then they came to watch the Ceremony afterwards. They were loud, obnoxious, and completely disrespectful of the Ceremony, which seemed odd considering it’s their country. But whatever. After the event we tubed it back to our hotel after a very long day.

Day 4:
We slept in a bit, had a nice breakfast, and then caught a taxi to Waterloo Station for our train to Paris. We went on the EuroStar, which goes through the Chunnel. It’s only a 3 hour trip and we arrive at Gare du Nord in Paris around 4:00 pm. After a quick taxi ride to our hotel, the Relais Bosquet, we check in. We’re excited to find our room actually has a view of the Eiffel Tower, though through the clouds and rain it’s not a great view. Still – a view of the Eiffel Tower! After resting up a bit we walk over to said Tower, and then find a small café to eat. After dinner we walk over to the Seine for a nighttime river cruise. The cruise is cold, but thankfully covered so we stay out of the rain. After the cruise we had back to the hotel where we watch the Eiffel Tower light up from our bed.

Day 5:
Today is Wednesday, which doesn’t mean much to me. We’re up early to head over to Notre Dame and to start a full day of sightseeing. We enter the great Cathedral and walk around with the rest of the tourists. We aren’t impressed by the insides of Notre Dame as much as some other cathedrals we’ve seen, though the outside is really impressive. The towers of Notre Dame open at 10, and we decide to wait for those to open. One of the great things about Paris is that they offer the Museum Pass, which gets one into dozens of Paris museums and monuments, including the Notre Dame towers, for 1 fee. We were told we could buy these at most metro stations and museums. While we were waiting for the Towers to open I read in my guidebook that the pass is available at “most larger museums”. Therefore I get it in my head that probably we can’t buy the pass at the Notre Dame towers. Since we have time before they open we decide to walk over to the nearest metro to purchase it. Unfortunately they tell me that they don’t sell it there. We hit another metro. This one says that they don’t sell it, but we can get it across the river at another metro. So we head to that station. They look at me like I’m an idiot (probably true) and tell me they have no idea where I can buy one. By this time it’s past 10, so we head back to Notre Dame. In front of the Cathedral is the Notre Dame Crypt, one of the many museums on the Museum Pass. I stop there to ask if they sell it. They don’t either, but they tell me that the nearby St. Chapelle sells it. Since we wanted to visit St. Chapelle anyway, we head over there. We finally buy the Museum Pass, which is now only offered in 2 or 4 day increments (we wanted to buy one for 3 days), so we get the 2 day pass and walk around St. Chapelle, known for its intricate stained glass windows. After the church we walk back to Notre Dame to climb the towers (where, OF COURSE, we find that we could have bought the Museum Pass all along!), which is a lot of fun. At the top of the towers one gets not only a great view of Paris, but also up close meetings with Notre Dame’s famous gargoyles. The rain and clouds dampens the views a bit, but it’s still very impressive and fun. After the climb down we head over to the Notre Dame Crypt, which is just a large archeological find of old ruins under Notre Dame’s plaza. We grab some street-side crepes, and then decide against walking around the Latin Quarter because a) it’s raining, and b) you never know when another student protest is going to break out. Instead we hop on the metro for Pere-Lachaise Cemetery, the final resting spot of many famous French (and non-French) people. We buy a $2 map at a flower shop next door and head in. The cemetery is enormous and we mark off the graves we want to see: Georges Seurat, Marcel Proust, Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Frederic Chopin and, the most famous grave at Pere-Lachaise, Jim Morrison. We’re able to find Seurat but can’t find Proust or Balzac (nor, in the rain, are we really excited about spending too much time doing it). Oscar Wilde is easy to find, with its enormous headstone covered in lipstick kisses. We make our way to Jim Morrison to find plenty of gawkers and flowers. Finally we’re able to spot Freddy Chopin, my favorite grave in Pere-Lachaise. We trudge back to the Metro and head back to the hotel to dry off, warm up and rest for a bit. After our brief rest we buy some baguettes on the Rue Cler, a great little pedestrian street right around the block from our hotel. We then hop on the metro to go to the Louvre, hoping it isn’t too crowded. With our Museum Pass we’re able to bypass all the lines and head straight in. We’re neither big art fans, though I do like Impressionists quite a bit. Fortunately there isn’t any Impressionism at the Louvre (they’ve moved it all to the Orsay across the river), so we’re able to hit the Venus de Milo and the Mona Lisa in about 10 minutes. (And please spare me the emails and lectures about how much we missed…I’m sure there are priceless treasures that have huge cultural value…neither of us cares.) We wanted to go up the Arc de Triomphe at night, as it’s supposed to give a great view of the Eiffel Tower all lit up. However, with the rain and cold getting to us, we decide to walk up the Champs-Elysees now and go up before dark. We pass the Place de la Concorde along the way, and we stop at a café for a drink. The Arc (entrance free with the museum pass – score!) isn’t too tall so climbing up doesn’t take long. The views aren’t that great with the weather, so we look, ponder, and descend. We head back to our hotel and call it a night.

Day 6:
Today started out great – beautiful sunny skies. We walk down to the Eiffel Tower so we can go up early before it gets too crowded. Unfortunately the Tower’s website, which says the Tower opens at 9:00, is incorrect, and it really opens at 9:30. So we wait in one of the elevator pillar lines (1 pillar you can only walk up, the others you can take elevators). 9:30 comes and goes, and while the other pillars open, ours doesn’t. Finally at 9:45 someone comes out and tells us that there’s a problem with their elevator and they don’t know how long it’ll take to fix. Helpful! Instead of waiting in the other really long lines we decide to head elsewhere and come back later. We go to the Orsay Museum, home to some of the world’s best French Impressionist paintings. Again, because we have the museum pass we bypass the VERY long line that is waiting to get in, and we’re able to zip around pretty quickly. Great stuff by Renoir, Monet (including a copy of the original one we have in our kitchen), Van Gogh, Cezanne and others. After the museum we find a metro and go to the Paris Catacombs. This is a mile-long underground labyrinth that contains the bones of 6 million Parisians from the 17th and 18th centuries. These are bones of people who were buried and then relocated when Paris wanted to use the old cemetery space for condos and strip malls. Monks carted the bones down to an old limestone quarry where they stacked them up. After making our way back out (and having our bag checked to make sure we didn’t grab any “souvenirs” – and why would we have?) we head back to the Eiffel Tower. The lines for the elevator pillars are really long now, so we decide to save some money and hike up the stairs. This isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, even though it’s 700 feet straight up. (The Eiffel Tower has 3 levels of viewing, but you can only go up the stairs to level 2.) We’re up high enough to get a good view of the city, but not too high that the smog obscures everything. After heading back down the Tower we grab some baguettes and head back to our hotel for a quick break. Tomorrow we will be driving out of the city and we’re picking up the car nearby, but we don’t have an exact address, just “Under the Air France Building”. After our break we walk over to the Esplanade des Invalides and are able to find the Air France building and our rental car counter. Along the way we notice a lot of police activity, but we didn’t think anything of it. We jumped on the metro and headed to the Montmartre area of Paris, and it’s famous Basilica Sacre-Coeur. The church overlooks the city, though it’s pretty overcast on this day and the view isn’t that great. The inside of Sacre-Coeur is spectacular, and after spending some time on the steps we metro it back to our hotel area to try to find some dinner. We stop at a pub for a drink, and the bartender acted very funny. After we arrived he shut the door and kept locking it. Whenever someone showed up to get in he would hop around the counter, unlock the door, let them in, then lock it back up. No idea what was going on, but we finally left and tried to find a café. Down the street we noticed a lot of fire trucks, and there was smoke in the air, so we figured there must be a fire happening nearby. We walk the opposite direction and find a great café called Le Comptoir du 7 where we chug wine and eat some great food. After dinner we head back to our hotel where, while watching the BBC news, we see video clips of protests/riots in Paris. While watching the video, trying to figure out where they were protesting, all of a sudden we see the Air France building in the background! Come to find out we had walked to the Air France building about an hour before the protests/riots happened, and then were walking around looking for a place to eat while they were going on, no more than 5 blocks away! (That explains why the bartender kept locking up his pub and all the sirens and smoke.) It’s a good thing we’re leaving the city tomorrow.

Day 7:
Another overcast and drizzly day dawns as we check out of our hotel and head over to the car rental agency. Along the way we see loads of debris (broken bottles, pieces of concrete) left over from the previous day’s riots. We quickly pick up our rental car and drive out of Paris, heading for Mont St. Michel. The street signs and directions within Paris are not nearly as good as they were in London, but we manage to find out way to the highway relatively quickly. Our original plan this day was to stop at Versailles on the way to MSM, but we decide to skip it for 2 reasons: 1) our museum pass, which covers Versailles, has expired, and 2) we feel we’d rather spend our time at MSM instead of at Versailles. The 3 ½ hour trip is non-eventful, and we drive down the causeway into Mont St. Michel at around 1:30 pm. The Mont used to be an islet, but with a causeway connecting the mainland to the Mont silt has filled up around the Mont, creating mud flats. Tides still make walking on the mud flats dangerous, and even some of the parking at the end of the causeway gets flooded during high tides. Luckily we found out that there weren’t going to be any high tides while we were there, so our car was safe. We trudge up the small main street of Mont St. Michel to our hotel, the Auberge Saint Pierre. Our room overlooks the main street, which is very nice, but also very noisy. We drop our bags and hike up the rest of the Mont to the Abbey at the top of the hill for which the tiny hamlet is named. The Abbey dates to 1017 and has been home to Benedictine Monks up until 4 years ago. After touring the abbey we take some back streets back to the main street where we scour for cheap trinkets and cheesy souvenirs. There aren’t many restaurants in the tiny village, and the ones that are there don’t open for dinner until 7:00pm, so we kill some time walking around the village and reading in our room. Our dinner is nothing special (figures), and afterwards we walk out on the causeway in the dark for a great view of Mont St. Michel all lit up. (Sorry, the pictures of those didn’t come out too well.) We then took a moonlit stroll up the ramparts to the Abbey before calling it a night.

Day 8:
We wake up at 7:00 to the bells of the Abbey. We’re on the road early as we have a lot of D-Day sites we want to hit today. Overcast skies greet us again as we get on the road. Our first stop is Carentan, a small village made famous by the exploits of Easy Company and as seen in “Band of Brothers”. Carentan is pretty big now with lots of strip malls, so we simply drive through on the way to the Normandy beaches. Our first stop is Pointe du Hoc, steep cliffs on the beaches that were assaulted by US Army Rangers on D-Day with grappling hooks and ropes. Of the 225 men who attempted the climb only 90 survived. Many German gun batteries and bomb craters littered the bluff above the water. We then drove to the American Cemetery in St. Laurent. This cemetery has the remains of almost 10,000 American servicemen who died during the Normandy campaign. It’s almost overwhelming, standing on the bluff overlooking the now serene waters of the English Channel and the practically empty beach, trying to imagine the horror that the shores witnessed almost 60 years ago. Sage and I hiked down the paths from the bluff to the beach; the only shells littering the sand today were of the sea variety. We made our way back to the bluff and cemetery and head down the road to Longues-sur-mer where several German gun batteries stand, with their rusted-out guns still pointed seaward. From that point we drive to Arromanches, a small town right on the coast where 17 old ships were scuttled in the days after D-Day, creating a large surf-break and letting the allies build a mile-long port known as Port Winston. With this toehold in Normandy the Allies were able to drive the Nazis out of France, and World War II was over in less than a year. There are still many remains of the huge concrete blocks in the Arromanches harbor, and we eat our lunch-time baguettes with cheese overlooking the sea. The weather decides to take a turn for the worse, so we hop back in the car for our drive to Honfleur, on the banks of the English Channel where the Seine meets the sea. Our hotel is right in the middle of Honfleur, not far from the center of town that is known as the birthplace of impressionism. Unfortunately the rain won’t stop, and our walk of the town is cut short by soaked pants and rain jackets. After drying off in the hotel we duck into a close Italian restaurant for mediocre food and horrible service. We call it a night.

Day 9:
We set off early for Belgium with full bellies and rainy skies. We’re actually driving to Lille, France, dropping our car off at a train station, and then getting a train to Bruges. (This was about $300 cheaper than dropping the car off in Bruges.) There isn’t much to see along the way to Lille, though I do have to stop outside of town and fill up the gas tank. I put in about 55 liters of gas, which is about 14.5 gallons, and it came to 71.26 Euros, or $85.67. That’s $5.91/gallon for those of you scoring at home. So when you complain about $2.99/gallon this summer, just remember, it’s a lot better than living in France. We arrive in Lille at the train station and immediately are confused about what to do with the car. We were told that the car rental office would be closed today (it’s Sunday), but when we picked up the car in Paris they said, “Oh, it’s a big city, I’m sure they’ll have a drop box for you.” That still doesn’t help us figure out where to park the car! We finally decide to park it in the underground garage that is right next to the train station, and miraculously there’s a sign in the garage for our car rental company. (Of course it would have been much easier on us if they had put the sign OUTSIDE the garage, but why make it easy?) We park the car, but there still isn’t any sign of a drop-box. We walk into the train station and we finally find their counter with a slot for a key. We buy our tickets for Bruges and are on our way within the half hour. We get to Bruges at about 3:30, grab a cab to our hotel, Hotel Patritius, and check in. We walk around the town, which is incredibly compact, bustling, and (I hate to say it) cute. Bruges has been almost completely preserved from the way it looked in the 18th Century, and is also a sort of tourist mecca. Fortunately the tourists here don’t seem to get in the way of our own touristy thoughts (unlike Paris where they seemed to roam around like giant whale sharks, swallowing up everything in their path), and we walk around town checking out frites, beer and chocolate. We wind up at a café on the Burg Square for dinner and beers before heading back to the hotel.

Day 10:
We’re up early under relatively clear skies, and we take in the free breakfast the hotel has to offer. Maybe it’s a European thing, but they mostly have sandwich meats and bread, though they do have some croissants and cereal as well. We head down to the tall Bell Tower in main Market Place so we can climb to the top as soon as it opens. As we’re waiting, a little bit past the opening time, someone comes out to tell us it’s closed on Mondays. Of course. We decide to walk along the canals and through the city a bit, and wind up at the De Halve Maan Brewery for a tour. The brewery is actually more of a museum on how they used to brew beer in the old days, though they do have some new equipment and still brew a few days a week. After the tour (and free beers – woo hoo!) we decided to jump on a canal boat tour that sped around Bruges’ canals and showed off some of its impressive architecture. Of course it started raining during our time on the boat, but lucky for us they provided umbrellas for us to huddle under. Back on dry land we headed back toward our hotel and stopped for some more frites along the way. I never would have thought that mayonnaise on French fries would taste good, but I’m telling you brother, it does. They have all sorts of flavored toppings, including curry ketchup and chutney mayonnaise, but my favorite was Samurai, a very spicy mayonnaise sauce. We head back to the hotel to rest up, and then hit the streets again, checking out some more canals, squares, chocolate shops, and churches. We do some shopping for chocolate, stop for a drink at an outdoor café on the Market Square, eat our fill of more frites, and wander the back lanes and canals of town.

Day 11:
We’re heading to Brussels today but decide to go up the Bell Tower first thing before we check out and head to the train station. It is open on Tuesdays and we’re one of the first ones up the 366 steps to the top. The views are good, but it’s incredibly windy at the top. We head back down, check out of the hotel and grab a taxi to the train station. The trip to Brussels is only about an hour and we arrive in the center of capital of Europe around Noon. We hop a taxi to our hotel, Hotel Welcome, and are able to check in early. Rooms at Hotel Welcome all have a country theme from around the world, and while we were hoping for an African themed room, we wind up with India. The room is pretty cool and appointed in the Indian theme, but it’s more form over function. Also, there’s a horrible sewer smell that comes from the bathroom. I’m not sure if this was part of the theme of India or just wafting up from the streets, but either way it was pretty nasty. We take the short walk to the Grand Place, the center of Brussels, and have lunch at a small Greek place. We check out the Manneken-Pis, a small statue/fountain of a little boy whizzing away and the symbol of Brussels. (In fact the woman at our hotel called it “Brussels’ Eiffel Tower”.) Brussels has 2 sides to it: an older area of cafes and guild halls, and a new section with lots of buildings for the European Union, NATO, and the other organizations that are housed there. We walk around the old section a bit, stop for some drinks at a café, then find a small Italian restaurant where we have a great dinner. We head back to the hotel and then I head out alone around 8ish to find an English pub to watch the Arsenal/Juventus Champions League match that night. I’m glad I leave early as it’s more than half an hour before kickoff and the place is already full. I’m lucky to grab a seat at the bar with a good view of the TV, and by game time the bar is absolutely packed. Some fellow Gooners (i.e. Arsenal fans) wind up near my seat and they seem surprised to find a Yank (in Belgium even) rooting for English football. But as Arsenal pulls a shocker and wins 2-0 against the Italian champions we are all ecstatic and cheer wildly. I’m back at the hotel (only to find out that the game was on TV all along, though in Flemish) and call it a night.

Day 12:
The trip is winding down, and so are we. We decide to get on one of those double-decker city tour busses and let it drag us all around town to see the sights. We get off at the Atomium, a huge replica of an atom that was built for the 1958 World Expo in Brussels. It’s only recently reopened and we’re lucky enough to climb up most of the way to the top. Afterwards we get back on the bus (in the rain, natch) and see the rest of the city. We find another frite stand for lunch, with some Belgian waffles (or gaufres) for dessert. We’re pretty much toured out, so we get some reading in before heading out for dinner. Then it’s an early night at the hotel.

Day 13:
We’re heading back to London for our flight out tomorrow. After checking out late around 10:30 we jump on the Brussels metro to take us to the train station. Once there it’s a waiting game until our train departs at 1:00 pm. We’re on the EuroStar again, but from Brussels it’s only a 2 ½ hour trip, so we arrive back at Waterloo at 2:30 pm. (England is an hour behind France and Belgium.) Our last night is at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel, right on Grosvenor Square. After a quick trip to Piccadilly so Sage can buy the UK version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, we stop at a pub for drinks and dinner before heading back to the hotel for a last night. The next day is nothing but travel, so our vacation essentially ends as we watch the BBC in our hotel room.

Day 14:
As I said, today we simply made our way to Heathrow, got on the plane and flew home. After 2 weeks away it felt great to make it back to our own bed.