Ah Oui, Paree

Bonsoir!

My high school French teacher would be proud of me, I was able to say please, thank you and more tanquray sil vous plait without even a stutter.

The day started off at about 4 am in order to pick other travellers from another hotel and get on to the ferry at Dover going to Calais at 9 AM.  The countryside is picturesque with wheat allready headed out and the canola fields past bloom and in pod. Temperature is about 18C or 70 F.

The cliffs at Dover are entirely out of chalk and stark white, during WWII the pilots knew they were going to make it home from their missions when they could see them on their return flights.

It is about an hour and a half ferry ride to Calais and then about 2 hours to Vimy Ridge the WWI Canadian Memorial.  The property around the memorial is still bareing scars from bombing and land mines from the war, fences are up to keep people out as they still find live mines and ammo in the land there.  Aprox. 3400 Canadian soldiers were killed and over 11,000 wounded in the 4 day battle in which the Canadian troops secured the ridge defeating the Germans.  Learned that over 68,000 Canadian troops died during WWI.  The monument is quite large it must be over 500' high and dominates the ridge. Sean will be posting a picture of it here.

From there it was on to Paris, the city of lights. Wide boulevards on the Champs d'elysee, and the other streets leading to the Arc de Triomphe.  Checked into our hotel then back on the bus had dinner at a restaurant near the Arc de Triomphe then an evening cruise on the Seine.  A great way to see all the buildings, Eiffel tower and monuments. Toured a bit longer on the bus and then pulled up in front of the Eiffel tower at 10:00 PM where the light show was quite spectacular as part of the lighting ceremony the have lights blinking all over the tower for about 15 minutes.



OK here is the funny story for the day, after dinner Karen and Debbie went down the street to the phamacie to get Peter some aspirin.  Unknown to anyone the druggest sold Karen the ones that are like Alka Selzer that you are to dissolve in water than drink them.  Well Peter just popped them into his mouth and they instantly dissolved creating an explosion in his mouth.  His cheeks looked like a pocket gopher while he was swallowing them down!  The good news is they sure worked in a hurry.

One last note for the night for all you fans of the movie Pulp Fiction I can confirm that a quarter pounder with cheese at McDonalds is called a Royal Cheese. No we didnt have one but before the tour is over we may have to give it a try.

Tomorrow we are off to the Eiffel tower, Versailles and for the evening on to the Moulin Rouge, and no I will not be impersonating Tolouse Letrec.

Good Night
D & D

Our tour guide this morning aka Nurse Cratchet

Good Day!

The day of Friday May 13th started out great.  It is Karen's __th birthday today and it was a good start to the day..... until we met our tour guide (for those that don't know Nurse Cratchet was the evil nurse in the movie one flew over the cuckoos nest).   I think she got trained in the Gestapo school of tour guides.

"You will do this you wont do that you WILL be on time follow my umbrella NOW!"    :)  First stop was Albert hall then over through Picadilly and on to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  As it was time to leave 3 people were missing, saw them standing on the corner and she goes "well next time they wont be late will they?" After all we HAD to get to the changing of the guard... she had the bus driver drive right by them... bad karma dude..

After the next stop we were done and went to Notting Hill and the Portobello Street Market.  Which is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Lots of neat old stores but also temporary booths with produce, old books, antiques etc.  nice stroll to see all the different items.  Debbie thought that it was a lot livelier and more variety when she was here in the 90's with her girlfriends but at her age memory does funny things!

Tonight we went out for dinner at a restaurant called the Mitre on Holland Street to celebrate Karen's birthday and had a great evening good food and drink,  not in a hurry at all spent about 3 hours and it was a great time.

Going to sign out as we have a 4:45 AM (10:45 PM Houston time) wake up call to catch the first ferry over from Dover to France in the morning. On to WWl battle sites and a stop at Vimy ridge, then on to Paris.

Cheerio London, Bonjour Paris!

Dale & Deb

Let the games begin!! ;)

Moved from our hotel at Charing Cross over to Kensington which is near the former home of Lady Di and Notting Hill, very picturesque with a lot of Sycamore trees and little shops and restaraunts.
 
As we arrived at the hotel Karen and Peter Thompson had just started checking in as well so timing was perfect.  Our first order of business was lunch at a local pub, ok it was drinks at a local pub and the lunch was a sideline.  The fish and chips was excellent here Deb quaffed every different type of cider they offered, Peter had Guinness’s Karen and I stuck to the good stuff, (me Tanqueray her Jack Daniels).
 
After a couple hours there jumped in a cab to Picadilly to the Absolut Ice Bar what a riot!  The same company that builds the ice hotel in Finland (Lapland) every December has built a bar in London. Part of the bar is in a -7 Celsius cooler about 500 square feet.  You have to buy passes to get into the bar and its scheduled for a 30 minute visit.  They throw an insulated hooded cape on you with gloves on the idiot strings and in you walk to the locker.  EVERYTHING is ice the walls, bars, glasses, seats even a tv behind the bar in the ice wall.  Once we get the pictures downloaded Sean will post a couple on here for us. Thanks Sean.

Couldn’t believe we paid good money to freeze especially since Peter was just shoveling snow within the last month!  It was fun but glad it was only 30 minutes it was interesting but any thoughts I ever had of staying in an ice hotel went the way of the saying “fun place to visit but wouldn’t want to live there”.
 
Stopped at a small Italian restaurant for a great meal dining al fresco and saw an art gallery across the way.  Deb got us an invite in and it was a display of a private collection of art and artifacts from 18th century India.  Peter and Deb enjoyed but Karen and I were back on the street in 5 minutes.  From there strolled on to Picadilly Square and then cabbed it back to the hotel.  

That’s it for Thursday, May 12, 2011 on Friday we are on a city tour in the morning then going to Portabello Market at Nottinghill Gate in the afternoon which is supposed to be an open air market for art work, antiques etc. and hopefully a ghost tour tomorrow evening.

TTFN
 

Prince Charles And Dim Sum

Good Evening all!

Had an interesting day today.  Thought we would saunter on down to the changing of the guard (a mere 1.5 mile walk ).  Passed Trafalgar square and adjacent to it is Canada House which is the Canadian Embassy then proceeded to walk down The Mall directly to Buckingham Palace. 

Along the way you pass various residences which belong to the Royal Family.  The closest one to the palace is Clarence House where Prince Charles and Camilla live.  The royal guard in full uniform are at the gate armed with fully automatic weapons and I noticed some activity with police at the gate about to shut down traffic.  I told Debbie that they were probably changing the house staff for the noon shift but out came the royal limo with Prince Charles in the back seat not 3' away from us so that was cool.  Unfortunately my picture taking skills are lacking and all I caught on the camera was his front fender (oh well).

The changing of the guard was neat with the marching band plus somebody in the audience fainted and and an ambulance was called in as well a man a few feet away from us had his wallet stolen!

From there we walked up to Picadilly Square which is like the Times Square of London, went on to Chinatown for some of the best dim sum we have eaten in a while.  Alex and Tara when you guys get here in a couple weeks you have to look the place up it was good.

THEN things got interesting,  my knee has been bothering me for quite a while and Deb suggested getting accupuncture.  Looking at my knee like it could recieve short wave signals didn't even bother me it was the 600 pounds sterling they wanted me to buy in ground up whale penis's, hippopotamus lips and other exotics that ended it.  We will see if the accupuncture works but in the meantime the Advil works wonders.

Ended up walking about 3+ miles today so if nothing else I might get in a little bit of exercise by the time this trip is over!

Meet up with Karen and Peter tomorrow hope to get in a ghost tour and do the Portobello market before we leave on Friday.

TTFN (Ta Ta for now)!

Dale and Deb

Allo Allo!

G'day mates!  We landed about noon London time today and it ended up being about 2 pm by the time we got to our hotel in Charring Cross.  This is the theater district on the Strand right near the Thames.  Drove past Buckingham Palace but Liz didn't invite us in for tea. (Considering I am a British subject I think she owed me the courtesy).

Beautiful old buildings drove through Kensington and past Harrod's.  Considering greasy fish and chips plus two beer cost 25 pound sterling (about $50) at the neighborhood pub we WONT be shopping at Harrods, sorry Pat.

I also tried Ginger beer..... wont be trying that again, also ordered a honey brown pale ale, imagine my suprise when it was a pint of watered down beer instead of a 6' blonde oh well.  Debbie had Pear cider and I had to beat her knuckles with a ball peen hammer to get her to let go of the bottle she REALLY REALLY liked it. At 4.5% alcohol content its good for her cough and my ears!

Sean thanks for posting the photos of Deb and I eating fish and chips and the hotel.  Send me an email and I will do it myself instead of your mother bothering you about it.

The Charing Cross hotel is really quite nice the whole area reminds me a lot of Victoria BC weather is great.   We are sitting at Starbucks across from our hotel watching the double decker bus's go by.  They just arrested a guy who was a little (OK a lot tipsy) Paddy wagon showed up and shoved him in it in about 5 minutes tops.

Tomorrow we are thinking of a city tour and perhaps the open market at Notting Hill we will see.  Its just starting to get dark (8:35 london time).  We will talk to y'all tomorrow

Cheers
Dale and Deb

Dim Sum for dinner

Looks good to me!!!

Coffee, Tea or Me?

Ok that title dates me.  Its from a book and movie about air travel from the early 70's  and I doubt that I will get offered the Me part, oh well... a guy can dream huh?

We are at the airport about to take off for London.  This is going to be quite the tour and am actually excited about it.  They do have a pool going at the office though as to what date I am going to bolt for the airport as no one thinks I will make the whole 35 days.  I think the over/under is set at 22 days.

We will arrive in London around noon London time on Tuesday and are going to stay in Charing Cross for two nights before joining the tour. Will try and take in a play or two and do some touring on our own.

Everyone have a great night we will put a post out tomorrow evening, Cheerio!

Dale

Departure Day

OK It is BON VOYAGE day!

We leave tonight at 8 Houston time and fly to London return in June.  Looking forward to touring with our good friends Peter and Karen Thompson.

We have listed our home for sale on Shoreline Drive in Seabrook. So the house is prepared for showing movers are moving most of our worldly goods from here to the new house in Houston next week.  When we arrive back from Europe we will be sleeping at the new house so last night was our last sleep in Seabrook!   Its a good thing we have been so busy with everything Debbie hasn't had time for a nervous breakdown :)  I will try and post one more time before we leave tonight but if not you will be getting (I hope) daily posts from Europe.

In the meantime I am practicing my good byes so Ta Ta, A bientot, Adios, Ciao, Adverzien, and Averidirci!!!!