Extras

I found these pictures on my other camera. I had just taken a few so I had forgotten about them. I wanted to remember how the London Eye looked at night.

The night we went to Harrods we found this amazing dollhouse. It would be fun to watch my all my granddaughters play with something like this.

I borrowed this from Tanya's blog. Tim was the only one who was crazy enough to take a picture. It really was a scary room. Thanks Tanya for sleeping so close to me.

Parliment

Day 14 and 15

August 16-17

Wayne and I got up early so we could be at Parliament for a 9:15 tour. I think one of my pictures from the last post is suppose to be on this post. Oh well, it is what it is.

I really enjoyed our tour of Parliament. I learned a lot about the way Britain's government is set up. It is very different from America's government. The governing body is the House of Commons. There are over 600 members. How can that many people make decisions? The room they meet in doesn't even have that many chairs. The queen is not allowed in this room. On Opening Day of Parliament the queen reads a speech that the House of Commons writes for her. Once she is in her throne ready to address Parliament the House of Commons makes her wait. That is their way of saying we are in charge. I was not allowed to take pictures. The House of Lords side is very richly decorated. The House of Commons is nice, but not as ornate. I really enjoyed the tour.

I have always liked looking at Big Ben.

We next walked around Westminster Abby. It is a good thing we had taken a tour last year. The line was way too long. We hadn't looked at this side of the Abby. It is a great looking building.

We continued our walk down Whitehall. As we were approaching Horse Guard we were blocked off by the police. We soon found out why. Horses were coming out so they could trot down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. It was time for the changing of the guard. We didn't see the changing of the guard but we did see the horses. We walked through the Admiralty Arch and then down The Mall. This is how the Mall is decorated.

We came across these two statues of the King and Queen. They are the Queen's mom and dad.

At the end of The Mall is Buckingham Palace. I had fun taking pictures as Wayne rested.

Once we were through with Buckingham Palace we strolled through St. James Park. We came across this little cottage. I think it has been the caretaker's place.

Our walk continued back to the river where we crossed on the pedestrian bridge. It was here that I found my souvenir, a small painting of London.

For our final night, took a picnic to Greenwich Park. We ate in the flower garden. It was very calm and relaxing.

It was a great way to end our London Holiday.

We left early Wednesday morning for the airport. It was sad to leave this cute little family.

Natural History Museum

Days 12 and 13

August 14-15

We got up early Sunday morning and walked across the street to the train station. We had to look around for the Eurostar area. Once we found the area we went through customs. Tim and Tanya had to talk to the agent longer than Wayne and me. Tim showed all his paperwork with his copies of their original passports and visas, their temporary passports and visas, and their new passports without the new visas. The agent approved everything and they walked through customs. I think all of us were a little worried, but there was really no reason to be worried. Once back in London we spent the rest of the day just recuperating. We did get dinner and had fun walking to Greenwich Park. It was fun and enjoyable watching the girls play. Natalie is much more courageous than Marisa. Marisa learned how to slide down a pole by watching Natalie.

Monday morning, Wayne and I went and explored London on our own. We spent some time at the Natural History Museum. I just love the outside of this building.




The Natural History Museum was different than the museums we have visited so far on this trip. It was actually nice to see something besides art and old buildings. There were a lot of good displays. Since it was free, we didn't feel bad that we didn't spend a long time here.

Once we finished the museum we did some more walking around parts of the city we haven't seen too much of. We headed to Leichester Square. Half price play tickets can be purchased here. We were hoping we could see a matinee. They aren't available on Monday. As we were walking I saw this interesting building. It belongs to the Masons. It made me think of the Di Vinci Code.

Our next stop was Covent Gardens. It is a cute shopping area with lots of outdoor entertainment. We found a nice place for lunch. We finished our tour of the city by shopping on Bond and Oxford Streets. We had promised Natalie that we would buy her a train set for her birthday. Tanya told us about John Lewis. It is a huge store that had everything I was looking for, train set, flashdrive and books. I finally had a good shopping day.

We headed back to Tim and Tanya's. As we got off the underground, Tim was also getting off. We went the rest of the way home with him.

Monte Michel

Day 11
Mont Saint Michel

Saturday morning after our breakfast of French pastries we got back in the car to drive to Mont Saint Michel. The drive was very green and pretty. As we got close, you could see this gigantic building in the skyline. There was nothing else around it. It took us awhile to travel the roads to actually get to this island. We went through several small French cities. Mont Saint Michel is actually an island, but then it isn't an island when it is low tide. The water goes way out when it is low tide. We would have to wait several hours until high tide so we didn't see it as an island. People still live and work here.

This is what you see as you approach the island.

Here you see homes and shops.

As you can imagine there were tons of steps. It wasn't too stroller friendly.

Wayne, Tim, Marisa and I climbed the stairs to the top.

It is still a working church. There was a service going on when we reached the top. Because the priest and nuns (I don't know if that is what they are called) were so still I thought they were models, but then the models stood up.

This is a view of the channel from the top. Those tiny little dots are people. As I mention before, the water was at low tide.

This is the court area at the top.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time here because we wanted to get back to Paris before it got dark. Our drive back was pleasant and we weren't have any trouble following the roads to get to Paris. That is until we were in the city. The GPS was working, but it was recalculating when we weren't going the way it wanted us to go. One of the tunnels was under construction. The GPS kept taking us back to the tunnel. Thank goodness for Tim and his maps. I wouldn't really say we were lost but it did take us a long time getting to where we wanted to go when we were so close to our original destination. It allowed us to see more of the city then we would have seen. Wayne drove around the Arc de Triomphe. Because there are no street lines he got to dodge the other cars. We finally arrived in the part of the city where the train station is. Pretty scary part of the city. The guys were going to drop the girls off at the hotel, but changed their minds when they saw the parking entrance. It was an interesting experience getting the car parked and our luggage up to the street. We finally made it. Only the girls weren't too excited about the looks of the hotel. There was only room for two people in the elevator. The room was really a dump. It is a good thing that Tanya can tolerate her in-laws because it was very close quarters.

We really didn't want to spend more time than we had to in this tiny little room, so off we went to the underground, back to the part of the city we knew and felt comfortable in. We wanted to have one more crepe before we headed back to London. We found a place right by the river then we stood on the bridge and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle. What a wonderful way to leave Paris.