Ambleside, England, May 11

We are in the lovely town of Ambleside in the Lake District in Northern England. Besides me having a chest infection and needing to rest a lot, we are loving it here. Luckily, I got an antibiotic and if I have to rest, this is the place to do it. I won't get to do all the hiking I had planned on, but it is so beautiful here and we have an amazing view from our Airbnb that I am okay with it. We always intended this to be a low key, restful two weeks in between cities, so it worked out.

On the way from Bayeux to Mont St. Michel we stopped at the German WW2 cemetery. It was quite the contrast from the American and British cemeteries. Everything was dark bronze or black, giving it a very somber feel. It was a pretty setting, but a very different feeling. There were not too many people there either, compared to the others. I had to keep reminding myself of the sign at the entrance of the cemetery, where it said not all Germans who fought in the war believed in what the Nazi regime stood for. I have a couple pictures below from the cemetery.

One of the things I was really looking forward to was spending the night at Mont St. Michel, which is a medieval Abbey. They started construction on it in 708 AD and in 966 AD Benedictine monks settled there. So...it is OLD ;) It is it's own little island, when the tide is in, it is completely surrounded by water. You can only access it by walking across a long bridge (or taking a shuttle from the parking area). The narrow cobblestone streets just wind up and up until you reach the Abbey at the very top. It has shops and restaurants and amazing views. The hotel we stayed in was very old...well I guess that goes without saying since everything there is extremely old. It was a warm, humid day when we were there and we couldn't imagine staying there in the summer with no air conditioning. The only drawback to our visit was we had to get up early to take the first shuttle out so that we could catch our train to London. Check out the pictures of Mont St. Michel below.

After getting up at the crack of dawn, we drove 3 hours back to Paris and Gare du Nord train station, where we returned our rental car. After making it through security and passport control, we headed to the Eurostar lounge, since Jami upgraded us to first class. I gotta love that guy :). Our first train experience was great, although how could it not with a nice meal and all the champagne we wanted! It was so nice to sit back, look out the window at the passing scenery. It wasn't a big deal at all when were traveling under the English Channel. It just got dark out the windows for about 40 minutes. After we got to London, we had to change train stations to take another train to Manchester, England where we spent the night before renting our car and driving to the Lake District.

The Lake District is beautiful. It is a national park and this little town we are in is almost fairytale like. The stone buildings and slate roofs everywhere are so enchanting. We can see the steeple of this very old church from our Airbnb. I have a picture of the church below. It is a much more casual atmosphere around here, since it's known for it's walking and hiking trails. It is also one of the most dog friendly towns we've been to. Every other person you see has a dog on a leash. They are in all the pubs and restaurants too. It is also fun to be back to pub culture! French cafe's were nice, but pub's are more our style we have learned. Also...I love not having to think about a language barrier. It's a nice break before we head to Italy next month- where I know almost next to nothing of that language.

So, that is the update on our life right now. We are enjoying nature, peace and relaxation in one of the most beautiful areas we have seen. We are here the rest of this week and then we head back to London for two weeks. We have lots of fun things planned there, so the blog should be a little more exciting! I am doing my best to get fully recovered so I can do London justice!!

Bayeux, France, April 29

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've updated the blog. I haven't forgotten about it - I've just been sick :(. I have had a recurring upper respiratory issue and also had a flu-like bug our last week in Paris. So--I didn't get all the Paris photos I wanted, but am so glad we were there for 3 weeks, so I got to see everything I really wanted to.

I'll start with my Paris recap. Paris was so beautiful and I couldn't believe I was actually there seeing all the sites I've dreamed about for - well, for my entire life. I never got tired of seeing the Eiffel Tower. It is much prettier and striking in real life and I was always kind of mesmerized by it. I was glad we stayed so close to it and could see it every day!

We quickly got into our routine of sightseeing, going to the street market on Rue Cler and getting what we needed for dinner that night, then we had our daily stop at the corner Boulangerie/Patisserie where we got a baguette and something sweet. It is a good thing we walked so many steps while we were there, otherwise my waistline would be in serious trouble! The bread, cheese and pastries were all heavenly!

My biggest takeaway from Paris is that Parisians are not rude. They are also not overly friendly, but it's just their culture. They are a formal culture and you MUST start every interaction with "Bonjour". We saw the difference in how people were treated when they did and did not start out with it and our expderience was much nicer. It's not just with tourists though. By staying in a residential area of town, we saw many interactions between the Parisians themselves. They also start every single interaction with "Bonjour,Monsieur (or Madame). If you have the key phrases down, "Bonjour, Merci, S'il vous plait" you will be treated well. Since it's obvious the minute we opened our mouths we were English speaking, they usually started talking to us in French. Granted, some had much better English than others, but even for those with limited English we made it through with broken French, broken English and lots of pointing :).

Paris was a wonderful adventure for us and definitely got us out of our comfort zone!

We rented a car in Paris and drove to Bayeux, France in the Normandy region. We were very happy to get out of the busy city, too! Bayeux is a small, medieval town and has been great to explore. This was Jami's #1 thing on his list of what he thinks will be his best experience of our trip. He has been excited to visit all of the D-day sites here in Normandy. We took a fantastic day tour and saw all of the major sites on our first day here. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable and we had the best day. It was also a very sobering and moving day, when we stood on the beaches and listened to everything that happened on June 6, 1944,

We drove to Caen to visit their large WW2 museum, then to some of the other beaches. We also enjoyed driving through these small French villages and the countryside is just beautiful here. Jami has great pictures from those beaches and will have a better explanation than me, so make sure to read Jami's Corner for his thoughts on Normandy!

We have two more nights in France before we head back to England. I've enjoyed France a lot, but we are both really looking forward to getting back to an English speaking country. While we've managed just fine, it does get tiring managing the language barrier.

Now, hopefully I can finally stop coughing and can enjoy our train trip from Paris to London in a few days!

Paris, April 11

Bonjour! We are into our second week in Paris and I am loving this city so much! I love walking around, looking at the architecture and seeing all the history and famous sights and monuments. I love strolling along the Seine with Jami and people watching. Tourists and locals all come sit out along the riverbank to enjoy the nice weather we have had this last week.

Monday, we had a 12 hour long tour to the champagne region. Our guide picked us up at our apartment at 7:45am and dropped us off at 8:00pm. It was definitely a full day! Along with 5 other Americans, we toured two champagne houses, Dom Caudron and Taittinger. We both preferred Dom Caudron champagne and brought a few bottles back with us to enjoy later. One thing that amazed me about Dom Caudron is that the care and picking of the grapes is all done by hand. No machines are used at all. The harvesting is also done all in one weeks time, where pickers come from all over the world to work in the vineyards. The caves at Taittinger were very interesting. They were built in the 4th century by the Romans for mining limestone. Later, they were used by the citizens of Reims to live in during the wars. They even had school for the children during that time. They are now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Walking through the caves was a much better experience than their champagne, if I'm being honest. We also had a 3 course lunch at a 4 star hotel in Reims and walked through the Notre Dame of Reims. Our guide said many say it is more beautiful than Notre Dame in Paris. I will let you know after we go inside Notre Dame here in Paris, but the Reims cathedral was so beautiful it will be hard to beat. Our favorite part of the day was the tasting our guide had for us. He held it outside, alongside a vineyard. It was so nice standing there in the beautiful countryside and drinking champagne.

Tuesday, we walked to the Hotel des Invalides. It was built in the 4th century as a retirement home and hospital for war veterans. Today, it is a museum of the French military history and wars. It also the resting place of notable French war heroes. I have a picture below of Napoleon's tomb.

That evening we took a dinner cruise along the Seine on le Calife. Jami spoiled me and booked the Premiere experience, where we had the best spot for views on the boat and enjoyed a bottle of champagne throughout the evening. The food was great and it was so much fun eating and drinking while enjoying the monuments of Paris lit up at night. The boat captain timed the tour so that we went past the Eiffel Tower as it starts to twinkle at the top of the hour.

Wednesday, I gave into my claustrophia and let Jami do the Catacombs tour by himself. He had really been looking forward to it and was very happy to go on it's reopening day. It had been closed for renovations for 6 months and he was hoping it would open while we were here. Make sure to check out Jami's Corner for photos and his thoughts on that experience. Wednesday evening we did the closing tour of the Louvre. It was nice because the crowds die down at that time of day and our tour guide made sure we saw all the "big" exhibits. We will need to go back sometime because 3 hours does not even begin to be enough time to see everything. We did walk by the active crime scene from the heist at the Louvre last October. Our guide told us all about how they did it.It was a crazy plot that actually worked. Some of the participants have been found and arrested, but the mastermind and the jewels are still at large. The tour ended at the Mona Lisa, which was a highlight for me.

Friday was a day I had been very excited for. We went to la Galerie Dior. Most of you probably do not know that growing up I wanted to work in fashion. I've been obsessed with clothes and fashion since grade school. I wanted a subscription to Vogue when I was in the 6th grade! I even studied Fashion Merchandising in college, but ended up changing majors. The career path did not work out, but my obsession is still going strong. So, going to Dior was special for me. The exhibit is done beautifully and I was in awe of seeing his dresses in person. They had so much of his processes, notes and fabric samples along with his design sketches displayed also. They also had his office intact from how he left it. We then made our way over to the Dior store, where I wanted to buy my retirement present to myself. I'd been saving awhile for this. Unfortunately, they can't ship to the US, so I will have to wait until closer to time to come home to buy my handbag since there is not room enough in my suitcase for it. I did buy this cute bucket hat I'd had my eye on for awhile though ;) I could have gone crazy, but I really wanted the hat and will patiently wait for the handbag.

I have some photos of this week below. Stay tuned - we have more adventures and sights to see next week!

Paris, France April 5

Bonjour! Ever since high school French class, I have dreamed of coming to Paris, walking past the Eiffel Tower and eating amazing food. It took me 40 years to do it, but I'm finally here, doing all that and more.

It is hard to believe that last Sunday when I updated this blog, I was sitting in Dingle, Ireland in our spacious Airbnb with the amazing view. Today, I am sitting in a very small, but cute, Airbnb in Paris. Our only view from the apartment is a little courtyard, but when we walk out onto the sidewalk, all we have to do is turn to the left and we see the top of the Eiffel Tower.

This week has been an adventure in itself. We said goodbye to Dingle Tuesday and flew to Paris Wednesday. Unfortunately, we had a small hitch when we got here and discovered our luggage was in London. We would have had to wait two days for a courier to deliver it to us, so we opted to make the trek back to the airport to get it ourselves on Thursday.

I will admit I was a nervous about coming here. We have had transition periods in each country where it takes us a few days to get accustomed to the grocery stores and our neighborhoods. Even restaurants have been different. Now, we have all that plus a language barrier to deal with.

It's not nearly as bad as I thought it might be! My small French vocabulary gets us through most situations and so far, everywhere we have gone and interacted, they all knew English. Bonjour is the magic word! If you start with that and then attempt French, they will usually just start talking back in English. Still, I always try to do a little and Bonjour and Merci Beaucoup are musts here.

One street over from us is Rue Cler that has an amazing street market and shops. I am now comfortable walking along and getting food for the day. I braved the Fromagerie and bought some wonderful cheeses, then we went to the Caviste and got recommendations for the best wine to go with what we picked up for dinner. The food we have gotten is so fresh and flavorful. Fruits without pesticides and chemicals!

Yesterday, we took the hop on hop off boat and that was a great way to off ee some of the places we want to come back and spend time photographing. I see the Eiffel Tower every single day and it really does mesmerize me. I love looking at it.

I have a few pictures below from our boat tour yesterday. We have lots of fun things planned for this upcoming week! Tomorrow we go to Reims with a tour for a day in Champagne country. Tuesday we are doing a dinner river boat cruise. Wednesday Jami goes to the Catacombs - I'm extremely claustrophobic, so I'm letting him do that one alone. Then we head to the Louvre for a night tour. Friday we go to the Dior Gallery and I plan on doing on some shopping for my retirement present to myself!! Woo hoo!

Stay tuned for more of our adventures in Paris!!

Dingle Final Thoughts, March 29

It's almost time to say goodbye to Dingle (and Ireland). I had really been looking forward to our three weeks here, but the reality has been so much better than I imagined.

I don't have any new pictures for this week, since we spent our time relaxing, revisiting places we wanted to see again and restaurants we had to go back to, like the Fish Box, for the world's best calamari! It's also been a very rainy week which discouraged outdoor activities, but as soon as the weather cleared, we were out wandering around. Tomorrow night is our last night in Dingle and we have reservations at a highly recommended seafood restaurant that I'm excited to try. I have had so much seafood this last month, but it's one of my favorites and I have to get as much as I can when it's so fresh and amazing. Seriously, though, I won't need to take Omega 3 supplements for quite awhile, lol!!

We are going to have so many wonderful memories to look back from our three weeks here. Three weeks is a lot of time to spend in such a small town, but we always looked at these weeks as the place we can relax, enjoy beautiful scenery and settle into being travellers. We have been so busy since we retired getting ready for this new stage of life that this is the first chance we've had to fully decompress from our jobs and let it sink in that we are retired and not just on vacation. We couldn't have picked a better place to do it.

I've enjoyed the view from our AirBnB so much and this town is so cute. Not all of the locals are fans of the tourists, but they definitely depend on the tourists. Most people have been lovely to talk to. One surprise for me is that our favorite pub, Foxy John's, has been one of the highlights for me. The magical experience we had on St. Patrick's Day there made us want to go back. Since then we've had nice conversations with the staff and a some locals. Tomas, who I talked about in my last post, will forever be one of the fun things we remember about Dingle. When we walked in yesterday afternoon, he was flirting with three young women and it put such a smile on my face watching them all interact.

The Slea Head drive and feeding a baby lamb are right up there on my favorite things, we had some great day trips also. I'm glad we took a month to be in Ireland and am so grateful to know that we are coming back twice more before the end of the year. I really can't wait for September when we come back because my parents will be joining us here for two weeks!

So, to wrap up, Dingle has been exactly what we hoped for and then some! Tomorrow we pack up, Tuesday we drive to Dublin to spend the night by the airport and Wednesday we fly to Paris!!

Thanks for reading my ramblings and next time I'll be writing all about our adventures in Paris!!

Dingle, Ireland March 22

We are still very much enjoying our time here in Dingle. It seems we are quite the oddity to the locals, though. They can't seem to wrap their heads around tourists staying in town for three weeks. We do spend a significant amount of time here in town, but we also take day trips and drive around to see the local scenery.

The Dingle Peninsula is known for its striking beauty along the Atlantic Coast. This area is known as the Wild Atlantic Way and the Slea Head drive is one of the top attractions. After driving it ourselves, we know why.

One of the best things about staying in one place for three weeks is that we can wait and do things on the best weather days. If we had only been here a few days, or even one week, we would not have been able to drive Slea Head on one of the best weather days Ireland has had this year. It was sunny, almost cloudless, warm and for once, the wind wasn't blowing.

We headed out after breakfast since the advice was to start early and beat the tour buses. We discovered why the advice to drive the route clockwise is very important. The road is extremely narrow and curvy (which I'm finding out is pretty much the norm for Ireland)! You would NOT want to meet an oncoming tour bus on that road!

Anyway, we stopped at an old fort that was barely there, but still had a few rows of stones forming the base of the fort. Considering it dates back to 500 BC, I guess it's amazing there's anything left at all. The walk down to the fort also provided amazing ocean views with waves crashing on the cliffs.

Our next stop on the drive was probably my most anticipated stop. The Hold a Baby Lamb and Beehive Hut attraction. It was interesting, the local man who runs it was a little on the gruff side and a very strong Irish accent made him hard to understand. The next thing I learned was that there was not so much "holding" a baby lamb as "feeding" a baby lamb - which also required an extra 5 Euro per bottle. So, I fed it instead of holding it and that was okay by me. It was so fun and the lambs were so freaking cute!!

The rest of the drive was breathtakingly beautiful and we enjoyed a stop at Europes most Westerly pub before heading back into Dingle.

We are loving our times at Foxy John's pub (the pub that's also a hardware store). We have found the most interesting and funny local man, who we found out is a retired teacher. He obviously is a daily visitor to the pub and we love sitting there listening to him joke around with the staff and other patrons. He is such a hoot. We walked in and sat next to him at the bar and he turned and said "I met you two the other day!" He proposed marriage to at least three different women while we were there. I know that chatting to Tomas is going to be one of the fond memories we leave here with that we will look back on for years and talk about.

Yesterday, we took a road trip to Kenmare. It was a cute little town and we still had perfect weather to walk around and visit all the local shops. We also got to experience some more of those very narrow, windy Ireland roads. Again, I am extremely grateful Jami's the one handling the driving!

Today is laundry day, and that is a full day chore with European washers and dryers! It worked out well since it's raining off and on. Even on easy days I never get tired of sitting here looking out at the marina watching the boats go in and out. The boat tours for dolphin watching have started this week, so I watch them come and go and I still like to keep tabs on how many tour buses are in town. Jami is now calling me "Gladys". At least it doesn't take much to keep me entertained. I have a few pictures from this week below and have added some of my best Slea Head drive photos on the Kim's Gallery page.

We are hoping to get a another road trip or two in this week, which is our last full week here in Dingle..well, our last full week in Ireland. We will be off to Paris on April 1.

Dingle, Ireland March 18

Happy Day After St Patrick's Day ;). We have had some fun since my last post. We are still enjoying a few quiet days where we wander around town trying new restaurants and pubs. Some have been great finds. The Fish Box takes the top for favorite restaurant/food so far. I have been trying lots of fish and chips over the last month, but theirs is superior. Also the best calamari Jami and I have ever had. Seriously, I am spoiled for life on calamari and I love calamari. We have to go back there before we leave!

We took a road trip to Cork and toured the Midleton Distillery. We had thought we were just going in for a few minutes so Jami could buy his beloved Blue Spot whiskey, but it was so nice inside that we signed up for a tour and premium whiskey tasting. What was going to be about a 15 minute stop turned into 3 hours of fun. I have a few pictures of that day below.

Now onto one of the best experiences of my life - St. Patrick's Day. When we started planning where to go on this trip and when, one thing we wanted to do was go to places when they were having their country's big events. We wanted to do Bastille Day in France, Octoberfest in Germany, Scotland during the Highland games and St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.

On the home page we have what we each expected our top 3 experiences to be and I may have guessed wrong on mine because experiencing St Patrick's Day here in Dingle was one of the most amazing days! I had thought we would watch the parade and then head into a pub for a pint and call it a day. Now, we did do both of those, but the day became unexpectedly moving.

The parade was fun. I really liked how it was more of a small town parade and instead of big floats, it had local businesses and lots of children's groups marching. There was the band that started it all by stopping in front of us and playing Irish music. I actually got a little emotional at that. I was immediately overcome by happiness at being in that spot and at that time.

After the parade we walked around looking for a pub. We wanted to try one we hadn't been to yet. We walked into one where we heard music playing, but we soon found out this was not the experience we were looking for. Seriously...if I hear a musician playing "Country Roads Take Me Home" in an Irish pub one more time I'm going to scream! This pub was obviously playing to the American tourists, of which there were many, who were LOUDLY singing along. The best thing from that pub was the woman I saw with a KC Chiefs bag and I yelled out "GO CHIEFS!"

We then tried a pub Jami had been anxious to go to. Foxy John's. It is famous for being a pub, but is also a working hardware store. I wasn't expecting much, but it was much better than the last place, so we got a pint and settled onto our bar stools. We quickly realized we were in exactly the right spot when a group of 4 or 5 older local men started singing local songs. It was spontaneous and everyone in the pub was either singing along or taking videos. Jami and I looked at each other and said "we have found our place". There was more singing and a woman started playing an accordion and there was more singing of "Galway Girl" and "Molly Malone" (that one I could join in on the chorus). We sat there for quite awhile, had a couple pints and enjoyed the experience. Later, back at the AirBnB we kept saying what an incredible day it had been. We are truly blessed to be able to be on this trip of a lifetime and experience these unexpected magical moments.

Dingle, Ireland, March 12

Hello from Dingle, Ireland!

I cannot explain properly how amazing this little town is. We have a great AirBnB - we even have our own private elevator. How cool is that?! The view from our apartment is amazing (see pictures below.) I got up to look out the windows yesterday and Jami mentioned that it's hard not constantly getting up to look out the windows all the time. He is not wrong. I sit here in the mornings looking out the window and can't believe I'm here - plus I keep a running commentary going on how many tours buses are currently parked in town. I'm sure Jami loves that ;)

We always thought that our 3 weeks here in Dingle would be when what we are doing actually sinks in. We have gone from NYC to London to Dublin and while we loved all of it, we are ready to be out of the city and enjoying the beauty of Ireland.

Several people asked before our trip what we could do in places for 3 or more weeks at a time. It's hard for people to understand that we are not "vacationing" we are living our life. We can't go, go, go every day or we will be exhausted, sick and tired of this trip. Our times in the cities does feel like we are vacationing because who wants to spend time sitting in a hotel room. Now we are in a very nice, spacious apartment where we can sleep in, cook our own breakfast and decide what we want to do that day. Sometimes, we will be tired or the weather will be bad and we have a stay at home and relax day. Other days, like yesterday, we have a relaxing morning, then we grabbed our cameras and went out exploring Dingle. We stopped into Dick Macks pub where it was more locals than tourists (although the tourists did pop in and out). It was fun sitting there, having a drink and chat.

I have a few pictures from Dingle below and a few more added on the Galleries page. Stay tuned because there will be LOTS more photos. Ireland makes me want to photograph EVERYTHING! Creative Mode has been Activated :)

Dublin, Ireland March 7

Hello from Dublin! I am so happy to be in Ireland!

Dublin is such a different city from London. It's a little grittier and doesn't have the hustle and bustle of London. It's a slower pace and honestly, I like it better than London.

We've had a great week here. We started out by touring the Guinness Storehouse, which was fun, but if we hadn't done the Connossieur Experience we wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. The Connossieur Experience was a small group beer tasting and we learned how to pour a proper pint of Guinness. I'm just going to throw this out there since it's my blog and I can say what I want ;) my pour was better than the Guinness expert himself, Jami. Probably beginner's luck, but I'll take it! After the tour, we visited arguable the oldest bar in Ireland, The Brazen's Head. It was so amazing to sit in the middle of that history.

We also had a guided tour of Kilmainham Gaol. It has a dark, sad history, but we learned a lot about Irish history and seeing the prison itself was very cool. It was built in 1796 and housed men, women and children - see I told you it had a sad history. Our tour guide was phenomenal and that was one of the highlights of this week for me.

I was very excited for the Book of Kells experience at Trinity College. If you don't know, the Book of Kells is a 9th century rendering of the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark Luke and John. There was a lot of information on how it was made and the monks who worked on it. The artwork alongside it was incredible and I was glad to have the explanations of what the artwork depicted. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed of the actual Book of Kells. It was under glass and the pages displayed depicted Jesus praying in the Garden of Gesthemane.

After the Book of Kells we got to go into the Long Reading Room. I have been looking forward to this for a very long time and although most of the books have been removed for restoration, we could still walk around the room itself. Some say it inspired parts of Harry Potter, which I can definitely see. We then walked around Trinity College campus and enjoyed the flowers and trees blooming. Although they seem to have aggravated my allergies and I'm a sniffling, sneezing mess today. Whatever - if I have not feel good, I'm happy to not feel good in Ireland!

Monday we are renting a car and driving to Dingle, a southwest peninsula, which is a small village, but a big tourist spot. We are very much looking forward to getting out of cities and driving through the Irish countryside and taking drives along the Irish coastline. So stay tuned. I promise to have better photographs than I do of Dublin!

London Recap, Feb 28

I'm sitting here on our last full day in London (until May). I still can't quite believe that we are not going home, but onto Ireland - yippee!!

I've added a few more pictures below and to the gallery, but I wanted to talk today about my impressions and thoughts about these last 11 nights in this amazing city.

It really is an amazing city. I love it here, but I have to admit London takes quite the bite out of the wallet! We did so many fun things, but I think my favorites were:

1) walking along the Thames, enjoying being with my favorite guy, people watching. We never knew what we were going to run into - like Shakespeare's Globe Theater. No, it's not the original but was rebuilt to look like it was back in the 1600's and used as authentic materials as possible. We wanted to tour, but they're doing some work on it, so we will put that off until we return in May.

2) HISTORY! OMG - my American brain kept getting blown away by seeing all the signs of when buildings were established. A pub established in 1616 that survived the Great London Fire, and walking along and realizing we were right in front of Westminster Abbey. One of the reasons we wanted to see all of Europe was because we both love history and boy, are we seeing it up close and personal. It's so much fun.

3) Photography day when we got up early for sunrise photos of Big Ben and Parliament. We then wandered to a local cafe for a great breakfast then onto Buckingham Palace. We got the obligatory photos of it then sat in St. James Park watching all the people head to the Palace and the ducks trying to scam food off all the people heading to the Palace ;) We then set up along the Mall so that we could photograph the Royal Guard and the Scottish bands making their to the Palace for the changing of the Royal Guard. We will photograph that in May.

London is a huge and very crowded city, but was so clean and everyone was polite. I very much enjoyed sitting at the pub, eating local specialties and having a glass of wine (or two). I'm retired...I can drink wine at 2:00 in the afternoon if I want!

I'm looking forward to coming back at the end of May and staying in a different part of town - Notting Hill.

For now...stay tuned next week for our adventures in Dublin...there may be a pint or ten of Guinness consumed.

February 23, 2026 - We're in London!

Ok - I guess we actually did this go to Europe and start traveling deal ;)

We had a very quick couple of days in NYC before heading across the pond to London on Wednesday and boy, is jet lag a thing! We slept 13+ hours the night we got here! I think we are finally caught up and used to the time change.

We've had a lot of fun so far wandering around. We have visited a couple of pubs and toured Churchill's War Rooms. We have wandered up and down the Thames and are becoming experts on the tube and pub culture ;) It's quite a bit different than in the States, but we are getting the hang of it. Yesterday we went to see London Tower and Tower Bridge. Today we went to the Natural History Museum and the British Museum. We got about 12,000+ steps today and are taking it easy tomorrow morning before we head out for Afternoon Tea. It's an Alice in Wonderland themed tea and I'm really excited for it! Pictures to follow.

Stay tuned for more adventures. I'll get better at the blog thing, I promise.

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