Howdy!
So sorry this has taken me 25 million years to post, I really don’t have any excuse!
Mom and her friend Joan came to London a day or two after Charles and Laurie left. They stayed in a flat near the Tower of London (I was lucky enough to be able to stay with them there) for four days, then we went to Paris, Venice, Nice, and Ireland. There’ll probably be some repeat photos here…
Day 1: Mom and Joan’s flight was delayed so basically the first day was dinner and bed. We walked across London bridge and through Borough market to a typical English pub for dinner: steak pies, mash, and cider.
Day 2: The next day we went to Spitalfields market in the morning. We did some shopping there before heading to Covent Garden area to meet Helen for lunch. Helen, whom I’ve mentioned before, is a relative of my cousin Sandra. She lives south of London and has been a huge source of reassurance throughout our time here in London. We speak on the phone and had lunch back in the fall. Mom and Helen had spoken on the phone prior to Mom’s visit, and so we arranged lunch which was great. After lunch we walked to the British Museum, and then we took a bus to Buckingham Palace. Then we hopped on the tube to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral, had some eats and called it a night.
Day 3: We headed out to Greenwich to see Greenwich village, Greenwich park, the Meridian and the Queen’s House. We took a city boat cruise back into the city to Westminster Pier where we checked out Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. After that we had a traditional British meal at Nando’s (ha) and headed to the theatre to see Fatal Attraction starring Kristin Davis!
Day 4: We walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace and toured around in there seeing the various state rooms and exhibitions. Then we headed to Oxford Street for a bit of shopping, then dinner chez Meg and Chris.
Day 5: After a very early wakeup call, we headed to the train station. Fun fact: the night before, I called to arrange a taxi for the morning. The taxi driver who picked us up was a taxi driver from a taxi I’d hailed back in February. What’re the chances?! After almost missing our Eurostar train (don’t worry – I remembered my passport this time) we were headed to Paris. A short train ride later we were in the city of love. We dropped our luggage off at our flat, then we visited the Arc de Triomph and did some shopping on the Champs Elysees. We then had dinner with Chris’ parents who happened to be in Paris at the same time. We met in the Latin Quarter and it was a lovely evening. Sadly no pictures!
Day 6: Armed with our hop-on hop-off tour bus tickets, we headed off to Notre Dame. After showing up just in time for mass, we walked took it all in and then grabbed lunch. Back on the bus, we hopped off at the Champs Elysees again, then headed to the Eiffel Tower (passing Trocadero on the way). We ate crepes at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, then took the bus past the Champs de Mars, the naval colleges, Les Invalides, les Grand et Petit Palais, Garnier Opera House to the love locks bridge and the Louvre.
Day 7: Was a bit of a wash partly thanks to a baggage handler strike. We went to Charles de Gaulle airport in the morning and headed to Verona instead of Venice, as the baggage handlers in Venice were on strike. It was far from the end of the world, but it added quite a lot of travel time. Thankfully Easyjet arranged buses to get us from the airport in Verona to Marco Polo airport in Venice. Once in Venice we had to figure out how to get a boat to Venice itself. Once we sorted that, we sat on our boat for an hour and a half (sans windows), then got off close to our hotel. Checked in, grabbed dinner (some amazing cannelloni for me) in a harsh thunderstorm and hit the sack.
Day 8: I woke up to find Chris in the hotel. He was supposed to get in the evening before but because of the Verona fiasco he arrived in the middle of the night. In the morning we did the three island tour to Murano (known for its blown glass), Burano (known for its lace), and Torcello (known for its church). After arriving back in Venice we grabbed some lunch, then Chris went shopping with Mom and Joan while I took a wee nap (and according to them, he’s an amazing shopper). We met up for dinner in San Marco Square.
Day 9: We spent the morning shopping, then we crossed the famous Rialto Bridge, sought out lunch. Then we took a public boat-bus to Lido, the island with the nicest beach in the Venice area, for the afternoon. After we headed back to Venice we took a gondola ride and then sadly had to pack up.
Day 10: We flew to Nice, checked into our GORGEOUS flat there then got some groceries and walked to the beach. After dinner Mom and I went for a walk down the famous Rue Massena to the main boulevard where we saw a bit of the old city and some buskers.
Day 11: We spent the whole day in the Old City shopping.
Day 12: We headed to Dublin. We arrived, found out hotel, and then did an evening tour of Georgian Ireland which was fantastic.
Day 13: We were up early and headed to Connolly train station. We took the train to Belfast and then we switched to a coach. First we stopped at Carrickfergus Castle in Belfast, then we took a two hour drive through Northern Ireland. We saw a lot of the coast, valleys, and mountains. We stopped at Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. Then we went to Bushmills Distillery for lunch and a little whisky tasting, followed by Dunluce Castle. Then we hit the Giant’s Causeway, then back to Belfast to the train station to go back to Dublin. My seat mate on the coach was a very nice woman named Mel from Sudbury – very small world.
Day 14: We headed to Heuston train station this time, and hopped on a train to Galway. Once in Galway we got on a little van with an insane driver and headed to the Aer Arann Airport in Connemara, where we got in an eight seater plane for a seven minute flight to Inis Mor, the biggest of the three Aran Islands. We had a tour in a van with a resident of Inis Mor who showed us a 1200 year old graveyard, a lighthouse that is now miles from the coast, and I trekked up to see Dun Aonghasa, a stone building from approximately 1500 BC. We got to check out the Aran sweater markets (with the famous Aran wool), and the traditional Aran tar and canvas boats, as well as all the walls all along the island that were purposely built like lace, with gaps between the stones to let the winds through. Inis Mor boasts two elementary schools, one high school, 12 teachers, two police officers, one doctor, 800 person population (the other two Arran islands have populations of 150 and 200, respectively). I loved the Aran Islands but the weather was pretty awful which was a shame. We took the train back to Dublin that night.
Day 15: We headed to the airport to find Mom and Joan’s flight delayed, meaning mine to London was going to be leaving first. We said our goodbyes in the airport and went our separate ways. On my flight back to London, we came at it from a different direction (and in daylight, for maybe the first time ever for me) and I was amazed to be able to pick out Hyde Park and Regents Park, and the Eye and the Shard and the Gherkin and Tower Bridge. It was a fantastic trip and I’m so glad Mom and Joan made it over.
That’s all I can say for now. Sorry if this is jumbled/riddled with mistakes. If I get feeling ambitious maybe I’ll label the photos!
Meg
Bags of Milk 