The Brooks' and Mattie's go to Paris

July 1-4

We recently had our first visitors from the States come to England for a 2 week visit. While we thought we would have plenty of time to do things, time went by so stinking fast. We had a trip to Paris planned but determining the location of our trip was honestly about all of the planning that we got done beforehand. We found ourselves the night before looking into things to do and finally, in our exhaustion, decided to just go with it. We discussed the Paris Pass which allows you access to lots of the big sights and also included transportation but we weren't able to justify things and knew we’d have to pack things in at a pretty fast pace to break even on the price. Fast pace and 30 weeks pregnant do not belong in the same sentence together. So looking back, I am super grateful that we didn't go with that plan.

We traveled into London on Tues, July 1. Our train to Paris wasn't until that evening but we took the day to explore London. We attempted to park at Epping car park, which is the tube station we usually park and ride from but seeing that it was a work day versus a weekend, the car park was full from commuters. So we went on to Debden and found a spot there. Aaron accidentally paid for parking through the weekend which actually only ended up being a couple more pounds. We were about to discover what traveling with another couple would be like as it was me, Aaron, his sister, her husband and their 15 month old daughter. Aaron had a backpack, they had a big suitcase (which they were able to fit my backpack into), their jogging stroller and a pack and play - just in case the hotel didn't have a crib. Most of the time, I found myself wandering aimlessly without anything to carry while the others struggled with carrying the stroller, luggage and pack and play up and down stairs (we discovered many places that weren't stroller or even handicap friendly in general). I quickly assumed the important role of scanning our Oyster tube cards in and out of each station though and felt like I was contributing a little bit to the process. We tubed into King’s Cross/St Pancras and checked the suitcase and pack and play (Brad creatively, yet unsuccessfully, tried to get away with making them into one item so he'd only having to pay for one) into a locker/secure area so we didn't have to lug them around London for the day. We were able to see all of the places in London that was on Brad and Melissa’s wishlist, including Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben area, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace. My favorite part of this trip to London was discovering that Lucy seems to have perfect pitch and would continually hum the tune the tube played when the doors opened and closed. 

Our train for Paris left around 6pm. We left from St Pancras and traveled via Eurostar. With the time difference, we arrived in Paris around 915pm local time to Gare du Nord. I had printed directions to the hotel and we had a map to look at but we still managed to walk in a circle before getting onto the right boulevard. We used Hotwire to book our room and I had called ahead of time to let them know we would have a baby with us, to see if there was a crib available. They told me that their two cribs were reserved but they would see what they could do, which is why we brought the pack and play. After some difficulty at the front desk with my confirmation email not being a hotwire voucher we got the keys to our rooms. Brad and Melissa’s room included a loft, pack and play (so now we had two!) and a single bed. Our room felt about 10x smaller than theirs and would have never fit a pack and play into it in addition to their stroller, so I’m glad I called beforehand. We decided to meet the next morning and get started on some sightseeing from there. Aaron was anxious to watch the US world cup game that night and after scrolling through the TV channels, all he found sports-wise was rugby. After going back to work this week, he told this to the French man he works with at his NATO command and Charlie told him that was “Impossible!”. Aaron looked and looked again, but he was unable to get the game and had to update the score every now and then on the internet.

The next morning, Lucy was still sleeping after having been up during the night, Aaron and I decided to walk and see what we could find out about the Big Bus tour tickets. We talked to the woman at reception and she gave us brief, confusing directions to the metro. We decided to try and walk to the ticket office and didn't get very far when we found the metro station and just decided to figure out how easy it would be take the metro with our group. We did find a boulangerie that sold all of the delicious baked goods I learned about in French class many years ago. Aaron got a donut and I tried un pain aux raisins - which was delicious. 

The metro was very similar to the London Underground - color coded and easy to get the hang of. We bought a book of 10 tickets from the Information Booth. This was where I got to experience Aaron’s attempt at French for the first time. I had kind of zoned out when we got to the head of the line and he panicked a little bit and started speaking in that extra loud, slow voice you use when you don’t think you’re being understood. I should have been there for him. A lot of the French that I did learn in high school focused on effectively traveling and being able to communicate in places like Paris. I was amazed at how many things came back to me over the couple of days we spent there. We obtained tickets for the Big Bus and headed back to the hotel to meet up with the rest of our party. We decided to get the two day Big Bus ticket plus the riverboat cruise because it would provide transportation to all of the big sights that we wanted to see. So we walked to get the bus and hopped on. We rode past the Louvre, Notre Dame, down Champs Elysees, around L’Arc de Triomphe and got off right before the Eiffel Tower. 

The tower was constructed for the 1889 World Fair and had a license for 20 years, at which time it was due to be dismantled. On its completion, the tower was 986 feet tall and became the tallest building in the world - a title it held for 41 years!

We got some good pictures and made our way down to the base of the tower where there was a section of tents with lots of different food. We ate there and then decided to go on the riverboat cruise. We had sat up on top of the bus for the ride there and were already starting to feel the effects of sunburn and the warm day. We were separated from Brad and Melissa on the cruise because we were towards the end of the line getting on. Aaron and I sat in the middle of the boat while they found a seat outside. Aaron fell asleep at one point and I started crying at another point. It was so warm and I was dizzy and not feeling hydrated enough and also very, very tired. Melissa came to give Aaron the camera at some point and and said, either they just had a big fight or they’re really tired. Once the cruise was over we decided to head back to our hotel area and find something to eat and call it a night. We rode the Big Bus from the Eiffel Tower area back to the Opera House and started walking towards our hotel.

Palais Garnier - The building sits on top of an underground lake and cellars and in 1896, a large chandelier fell and killed someone inspiring the setting for Phantom of the Opera.

We encountered many brasseries which are comparable to our version of a restaurant/bar. We found one to sit down at and eat. Aaron and Brad ordered some rather rare/borderline unsafe steaks and we were finally able to communicate to the staff that we wanted some fruit for Lucy and they brought her out a big bowl full of strawberries with an equally big bowl of sugar to go with them. Something else that we noticed was that Paris didn't seem to be too kid friendly. We may have been looking in the wrong places, but there weren't any kids menus or many options for kids in general as far as food went. After dinner, Brad and Melissa decided to continue walking for a bit and Aaron and I headed back to the hotel. We went to bed extremely early hoping the next day would go better energy wise.

We got up early to head to the Eiffel Tower. We weren't able to book tickets online, so we knew we’d need to get there early to stand in line for hopefully not too horrendously long. We decided to take the metro to the area because the Big Bus didn't start running until later that morning and we wanted to be in line before the tower opened. So we hoped for the best as we entered the metro with the stroller. Aaron and I scoped things out the day before and didn't really see many places where the stroller would be able to enter the turnstile. We ended up just passing the stroller overhead as we passed through. We were traveling during rush hour and had to deal with angry people trying to get around our group, but all was well in the end. The line for the Eiffel Tower moved pretty quickly and we were able to spend a couple of hours there. 

The views were amazing and I’m so glad we decided to go! 

We ate lunch again at the same food market place we had the day before. We tried some crepes this time, despite my attempt at getting strawberry and nutella together, we had just a nutella one.

We walked down to the base of the tower and let Lucy crawl around for a little bit. It was nice to just sit and relax and pretty amazing to do it with the Eiffel Tower in the background! 

From there, we caught the bus to the Louvre area. Initially we were going to pay to go in and see the Mona Lisa, but ended up just walking around the area for a bit. 

The Louvre - the world's largest and most visited museum.

We started walking towards Notre Dame and came across the Pont des Arts where many people have attached locks to the bridge. 

The tradition involves a couple attaching a padlock with your initials to the Pont des Arts and then throwing the key into the Seine River as a sign of your love. We had fun looking at all of the locks and then discussing how much money has been made from this epidemic. There were salesmen on the bridge selling the tiniest of locks for 4 euros. 

From there, we took a short break and sat down somewhere on a street near Notre Dame. I was hot and tired but wanting to continue on to see more things for the day. I was personally jealous that Lucy was on her second nap of the day. There needs to be some sort of invention for an adult carrier that accommodates pregnant cranky women. 

Construction began in 1163 and took 185 years to complete.

We went over to Notre Dame and decided to wait in line to go inside, the line moved pretty quickly so we were soon inside the magnificent church. From Notre Dame we hopped back on the Big Bus and rode it to the Champs Élysées. 

L'Arc de Triomphe honors the soldiers who fought and died in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

 

At the base of the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where a flame continually burns as a memorial to fallen soldiers from WWI.

We checked out L’Arc de Triomphe and decided to find something for dinner. There were plenty of choices along the boulevard and we finally settled on a briocherie/outdoor cafe kind of place. We tried some 3 cheese pizza, ham baguette, a macaroon and an eclair. 

Aaron and I decided to take the metro back to the hotel while Brad and Melissa walked, wanting to the see the Pantheon on the way.

Once back to the hotel, we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower later that night to see it all lit up. We headed to take the metro a little after 930pm and got to the tower a little after 10. 

30 Weeks!

The tower lights up on the hour for about 5 minutes so we found a spot and waited until 11. The light show was amazing! 

Definitely worth staying up for! We were pestered by the daytime souvenir salesmen of trinkets only now the trinkets were replaced by, “Beer, wine, champagne, cigarettes?” At one point, one of the salesmen started running back away from the tower yelling rapidly and we thought a fight was about to break out, but here it was a policeman ineffectively chasing all of the salesmen illegally selling alcohol. On our journey back to the hotel via metro, we encountered a very drunk group of American teenagers that probably obtained their alcohol from said salesmen. You wonder why Americans get such a bad rep when traveling abroad, all you really had to see was this group of teenagers to confirm why. The metro randomly stopped running at one of the stops and we were told to disembark. After a quick conversation with a local, we discovered that the line was under repair and we would have to find a way to get back to the hotel otherwise. We quickly re-routed ourselves but we found ourselves among mass crowds of people in sheer panic. There were people crawling over each other and over the turnstiles because they couldn't get their tickets to work and one child was literally screaming and practically frothing at the mouth. It was rough, but we finally made it back to the hotel.

Our train the next morning left from Gare du Nord around 1015am and with the time change we were back in London by 1140am. It was a successful trip overall and Aaron and I are looking forward to going back. Paris is so easily accessible by train from London that we can easily monitor ticket prices and plan to go back eventually! 

This post is dedicated in loving memory to my Camelbak water bottle and Lucy's baby doll which we managed to lose while on this trip. 

Ireland: Dublin to Cork

June 20-22
We decided to go to Ireland some time last month. Aaron knew he had a 3-day weekend and it was right after his birthday so we decided to squeeze it in. I say squeeze because between now and the baby's due date, we have plenty to fill the calendar! I recently returned from the States and had really just unpacked from that trip when I found myself re-packing the suitcase for this trip. We found tickets to Dublin pretty cheaply through Ryanair. We flew out of a tiny airport in East Midlands early in the morning on Friday. We were able to park right next to the terminal and walk right there, so that was nice and a big difference from the London airports where you have to catch a shuttle and plan for a lot more extra time actually getting to the terminal. Our flight left around 645am or so but we couldn’t help noticing that the airport bar was full of people drinking at 530am. I suppose it was 5 o’clock one way or the other. Things were quite crowded and it was obvious that holiday/vacation season has begun. We noticed several groups of women and men taking trips for their bachelor/bachelorette parties. Except here, they call them hen parties for women and stag do’s for men. The women all had pretty pink sashes on that said, “Hen party”. And we flew with a group of men that had green polos made for the occasion that read, “Ben’s stag do”. Fairly comical.

Once landing in Dublin, we had a car rental through Hertz. Aaron just turned 25 on Thursday, so he is officially able to rent a car these days! Although he has been waived from that restriction with the military so it wasn’t really a huge celebration of privileges for him. We were given a Ford Ka, which is very similar to the Fiesta. It was red and had hippy flowered seats. It was also stick shift! I asked Aaron if he was ready for stick shift to be back in his life and he said he thought he could handle it. It was weird for him to drive on the right and have the shift to his left but things went fairly smooth. We headed into Dublin and found a place to park near Trinity College. We ate at a little cafe I found through a blog that supposedly has the best muffins. Aaron got a breakfast sandwich and I tried a peach glazed muffin. It was good, but definitely nothing spectacular. 

We walked the grounds of Trinity College and glimpsed some graduates and also noted the length of the line for the Book of Kells and decided to skip it. 

We headed for the Guinness Storehouse. We took the brewery tour and ended it with a complimentary pint of Guinness which I was able to exchange for a glass of Sprite at their rooftop bar. 

The views of Dublin were amazing! We ate lunch at one of the restaurants located within the storehouse. I ordered Irish beef stew and it was pretty good! I wasn’t a big fan of the shredded cabbage but the rest of it was delicious. From the Guinness storehouse, we started driving toward Galway, where we would be staying that night. There wasn’t really anything along the way and I was to keep Aaron company during the drive. You can view our travel route here:

Having recently returned from a trip to the States, I was suffering the effects of jet lag big time. I quickly fell asleep and told Aaron to wake me up if he needed me. We ended up making several stops between me falling asleep and arriving in Galway. I can remember in my tired state catching several glimpses of people strolling down the sidewalk eating soft serve ice cream and thinking, that sounds so good. Where does one find this ice cream everyone is carrying? I quickly figured out that it was gas stations that sold this delicious looking treat and all you had to look for was an ice cream cone statue outside of the station and they sold it! 

We checked into our hotel which was located specifically in Kinvara. It was a bed and breakfast but on a larger, more impersonal scale. When we went to check-in, the front desk was unable to find our reservation but thankfully I always print out our confirmations and was able to prove that we had booked the room almost a month prior. We decided to eat dinner at a local pub and left our hotel to realize it was just a walk across the street. The atmosphere was great and the food was pretty good too. We really wanted to experience the traditional Irish music that featured at many pubs in Ireland but most places advertised the music starting between 9-10 and seeing that I’ve turned into quite the senior citizen since pregnancy, we turned in early for the night. But we did find ice cream first and it was just as delicious as it looked on our drive. The next morning we discovered that there wasn’t much of a difference between an English breakfast and an Irish breakfast. Most bed and breakfasts will have a continental option where you can help yourself to cereal, fruit, oatmeal and juices. We checked out of our hotel and explored the castle nearby before heading to Cliffs of Moher. 

We’ve seen a lot of old properties and castles since joining English Heritage so I don’t think the castle had as much of an affect on us as it does on most visitors to Ireland. Our next stop was the Cliffs of Moher, something we were both looking forward to. 

Upon arrival, we explored the visitor center and headed to the cliffs which I quickly realized involved a lot of walking and stair climbing. I quickly became overwhelming tired, emotional and unable to continue. I ended up sitting down on the stairs and sending Aaron on without me. I was able to enjoy a harp player strumming her melodies but I was definitely feeling sad that I couldn’t partake in the views. I’m thankful Aaron took plenty of pictures and wasn’t afraid to ask total strangers to take his picture because we seem to struggle with that as a couple.

I also got to people watch which is probably one of my all time favorite things to do. It’s amazing how many people act like they’ve never seen a cow before and the things they try to do to get its attention! 

From the cliffs we drove on towards our final destination for the night in Castlegregory near Dingle. This was a true B&B experience. The owner/hostess was just lovely and the house was located in a breathtaking location where you could see the bay from the house, it was amazing. We decided to take her advice on making the drive around the peninsula of Dingle that evening. 

We found a small cafe to eat dinner at in Dingle and started the Slea Head Drive. The views were absolutely amazing.

We made the loop just around sunset, so that made things even better. 

You could easily take a lot longer to explore the views and loop of the Dingle peninsula and we were quickly realizing everything we were told about the beauty of this area to be 100% true. 

The next morning, breakfast was able to be had inside or outside on the front patio. The weather was perfect so we took it outside and were the only guests to do so, so we had things to ourselves. We were served delicious french toast and waffles with fresh fruit, juice and breads. 

Staying at a bed and breakfast really completes the local experience because you are often given the opportunity to get advice from someone that knows the area very well and we have yet to have a bad experience with the breakfast part of things! We had all day Sunday to do things, but eventually needed to get to Cork to catch our flight home that evening. We had a tough time deciding if we could fit everything into the day that we wanted to. We decided to start driving the ring of Kerry and go from there. We ended up just doing a portion of it, but we were able to make the most of what we saw and talk about going back just to experience the rest of the drive! On our drive there, we traveled a pretty rural road and got to experience Ireland firsthand. There were sheep everywhere and at times they were just crossing the road without a care in the world. We would drive right up to them and beep the horn and gently attempt to nudge them off the road, but they were doing things on their own terms. It was hilarious but I’m sure annoying if having to deal with it every day. 

We were able to see several of the Lakes of Killarney, Torc Waterfall, Ladies View and Moll’s Gap.

We entered the ring around Killorglin and exited around Kenmare driving toward Cork. We went to Cobh and went straight to the Heritage Centre. Housed in a Victorian railway station, The Queenstown Story focuses on several exhibits highlighting Irish emigration, transportation of convicts and the town being the last port of call prior to the Titanic attempting to sail towards New York. We enjoyed the heritage center but knew we had to move on to make it to Blarney Castle before closing time. We were under the impression that Blarney Castle closed at 7pm but when we arrived at 515, we were informed that they closed at 6 on Sundays. We got discounted admission and decided to make a run for the top of the castle to make sure Aaron got the opportunity to kiss the famous Blarney Stone! 

I was hesitant to climb the 100 steps to the top but decided to go for it and I am so glad that I did because the views were amazing and the photographer was gone for the day so I was responsible for getting Aaron’s photo of him kissing the stone! Kissing the Blarney stone is a long-standing tradition where the visitor is grasped by the feet and suspended backwards to get to the stone and kiss it. Those who kiss the stone are given the “gift of gab”. We were told by the ankle grasper that it was given to a politician as a gift and it cured his speech impediment after kissing it. 

So after Blarney castle we had an extra hour to spare so we decided to travel into Cork and find a place to eat dinner. We took our time eating and walking some of Cork and then headed to the airport to catch our flight back home. It was a beyond wonderful trip and Ireland is definitely a place that we want to return to!