Rush hour traffic in Tucson. Oh are we glad to be home!

Oh USA we're glad to see ya!

Chateau Gaillard

Paris

Definitely Today Has Been The Highlight of our Adventure

I will send pics in a minute from my phone but it is so much easier to type on the iPad.
As I said earlier we have had the great opportunity to stay just outside of Paris with our son Brian's friends Keith and Deborah Grimaud. Their home in St. Germaine en Laye is absolutely wonderful. Just what you would expect in a Parisian home. They have taken us for crepes, helped us navigate Paris metro, busses and tourist attractions, but today they surprised us with an unexpected road trip to Giverny, home of Monet. The drive there along the Seine River was so amazing in itself. They took us on a side trip to one of their favorite solitary places. Along the river there were beautiful little cottages, swans along the bank. It was just amazing. We traveled on to Giverny, home of Claude Monet. We visited his home and spent several hours enjoying his garden! It is just beyond description. We ate in a roadside restaurant under red striped awnings, then traveled on to Chateau Gaillard, a fortress in ruins, but still intact enough to be able to envision every story you have read with a setting in the 12-14th centuries. As I have said before, I am going to have to read Pillars of the Earth and other books with European settings again now that I have been to these places.
We finished off the day visiting a French supermarket and having a delicious home cooked dinner. We head back to London tomorrow, and on to Houston Saturday. We have just had such a wonderful trip.

Paris lights under a full moon

Keith fixes breakfast!

River cruise on the Seine

Notre Dame

My backpack

Pear and chocolate crepe!

Keith went out for fresh croissants for our breakfast!

Boat ride on Seine

Notre Dame

Paris ! WOW!@/

Bath Abbey

I will probably always remember the Abbey in Bath as the place I lost my phone. Thankfully I remembered I had set it down inside, and went running back for it. They had already called
Our b&b to say they had it! Freaked me out!

Cheap Street

I wish you could see the name of this street in Bath is Cheap Street. It was raining while I was fumbling to get the pic so forgot to zoom in!

Chan, this is for you...

Have I mentioned the pastries?

Just unbelievable. I hate everything else. I have new appreciation for picky eaters

Stratford upon Avon

Cafes abound everywhere

Oxford University

Tea in Oxford.

High tea in Oxford

The people from Kent

Flat Stanley

We were pm. Tour yesterday and we went to Stratford Upon Avon. I saw a couplemabout our age and wondered why they were trying to stick something to the wall. I caught a gli
Ps and saw it wad Flat Stanley. For all you mon teacher types it is an activity that school children do where they take Stanley on their travels, and more likely they send him with their grandparents, the Adventurers. Wentook Stanley on a trip when Cody was on the first grade. Also , we did one for Ashley and maybe Andrew . We talked to the people and they were from Kent. We have found people to be very friendly. We also visited Warwick castle, the Cotswolds and Oxford nOxford was the highlight of our day with it's buildings dating back to the 1500's. Today we are taking a fast train to Bath.

Adventuresome hotels

I should have taken a picture but we left early this am and won't be returning to this room, but I had to share this. Last night I got ready to take a shower and found that every time I touched the shower head or the control knob I got an electrical shock. Now here I am standing in water. I finished my shower without touching either and then Denny got in and assured me I wasn't nuts: the shower was indeed shocking! We called our Bulgarian friend, the desk man, who came to the room. He looked at the shower, then he looked down at my flip flops.. He pointed to them and asked, "How do you say in English?". I told him, and he said, "Well, wear them in the bathroom!"

Anita Howard
anitaraehoward.blogspot.com
Sent from my iPad

How do we like London?

We actually have loved London. There is just so much to see. I would like to go back and read all the books with the setting in London... Charles Dickens, J K Rowling , Rosamund Pilcher, Tolstoy now that I have been here. We have just been amazed at the taxis, and the driving on the opposite side of the road. It is true that it is a very multicultural city with very few English speakers. We have run into very few Americans. Most of the people in service jobs barely speak English.
We think the pedestrian fatality rate has to be huge, because they do not EVER STOP for pedestrians and give the impression they would run right over you.
It is a very clean city with many options for food and drink.

It has not been as expensive as we thought it would be. I think it is cheaper than Disneyland! Haha!
We have made some mistakes with public transportation. People are generally courteous and helpful but it really makes a bus driver angry if you try to get on the bus and pay there. They want you to have your ticket in advance. If and when we return we will anticipate how long we will be here and buy a rail and bus pass.
We have good access to wifi everywhere. If you have a registered Starbucks card, wifi is there. Also McDonalds has free wifi. The trains have wifi. Both hotels have wifi.
Verizon phones will not work here but I can text using my iPhone or iPad with wifi..
Tomorrow we go on our tour so we will catch up when we return.
Anita Howard
anitaraehoward.blogspot.com
Sent from my iPad

Caramel Bar! Yum!

Ok. I forgot to mention that we went to a few places today after getting settled in our hotel this morning. We took a bus to Victoria Station, then walked to Buckingham Palace. We walked from there to Harrods where I visited their elegant restroom! We didn't buy a thing there, but we did find a caramel bar I'm the window of a patisserie as suggested by Melissa! Oh Melissa, it was Delish!

Adventure Continues

We arranged a tour today to Warwick Castle, Stafford on Avon and some C word place. I forget. We changes hotels and found put we pretty much got ripped on the first one . We had arranged that hotel before leaving home through a travel agent. When we arrived at the hotel, we were told they had a leak and they were going to move us to another hotel. When we got to the changed hotel, we were pretty amazed at how little we got for our £114 per night. We headed out this morning looking in the same area and found a really nice hotel with a room at least twice as big for £79. The manager said they frequently over book and when you arrive they give you the leak story. Now that we've been here, I would be more likely to make our own arrangements. We like where we are staying and would stay here again. Write it down. Maranton House Hotel near Earls Court Station.

Biking around London

Well, today we took a different bus and headed for the Thames River for the River Cruise. We decided to try riding bikes along the river. You can rent a bike for 2 pounds for 24 hours. We enjoyed riding along the river but riding around Trafalgar Square, don't think so. There are many cyclists and they dart in and out of traffic but we were not brave enough to do that.. We ended up walking to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and other antiquities. We took the subway back to our hotel.. It was rush hour and when I was finally able to get a seat, we were at Earls Court, our stop near our hotel. I bought these great adapters to charge my electronics but left them at Carrie's. So today, I went and bought an adapter. When I went to plug in my iPhone chord, it blew and scared me to death. It also blew the power in our room (but not the whole hotel, Sara!). The maintenance man came and fixed it and now it is working fine, but it ruined my iPhone adapter. Thankfully I can use my adapter for my iPad.

Trying to post pics

Oh darling, Let's Be Adventurers

Well here we are in London, second day. I am still trying to upload pics from my iPad. Maybe I will figure it out today. I tried what you suggested , Jen, but it didn't post. Hoping to post daily to this. We'll see.