Beware - this is going to be a very long post with the entire recount of our trip so I can have it written down somewhere for the future. If nobody ever reads it other than me, I won't be offended! I am purposely not including many pictures in an attempt to keep it brief.
Pictures can be found here:
Paris:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6Dsf5usFwdxy842k9
London/NYC:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/JS5xTQZxKj6yma9c7
Here is my recap of our big adventure this summer:
It started last fall when Erin casually mentioned that she wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. Since Erin rarely asks for things and since we had been talking anyway about trying a big family adventure, the idea came to us to attempt a trip to Europe with the kids this summer. We figured that they are now old enough to (hopefully) remember most of it, but are not so old that they don't want to travel with their parents. Coupling that with Bob's impressive stash of airline miles - enough to fly 5 of us there and back for free on a single airline - it was the perfect storm. After deliberating on other destinations (Brussels, Germany, and Edinburgh/Scotland came up as options), we decided to go to Paris and London to keep it simple and hit two major cities for their first trip. We booked flights and AirBnb apartments just after Christmas 2017, and waited and planned for the next 7 months. Thanks to modern technology, we had a schedule spreadsheet, documents for packing/preparation, and all of our electronic tickets in one shareable place. Awesome!
Fast forward to July 18th, 2018. We were ready to go, and we were so happy that Grandma A. was able to join us! She drove to our house that afternoon and was very helpful with the Wednesday night summer activities (tennis and two dance classes all within 3 hours...we had 3 activities this summer and they all happened to be on the same night every week). We did some more packing, went to bed, and got up Thursday morning to finish up packing and getting the house ready. We left around 11:00am for the airport, parked, rode the bus, went through security, and found our gate. The kids had burgers and hot dogs for lunch and the adults had Jason's Deli wraps/sandwiches. We had some time to wait (we tried to get on an earlier flight to Charlotte, but it was full), boarded our flight that took off around 2:30pm for Charlotte. We arrived in Charlotte quickly and walked right on to the next plane. Grandma was by an aisle with an empty seat next to her, then Anna and Bob, then me and Erin. It was a nice, new American Airlines plane, and it was not full. There was some kind of water dripping on me from the overhead compartment for awhile, but it stopped. The kids' water bottles both overflowed in flight due to changes in cabin pressure. Thanks to Bob's status, we got to sit in "economy comfort" which had a little extra space between the seats. The flight went great - we had pasta for dinner, then "bedtime". We tried to sleep (but nobody slept too much), then "wake up", and breakfast on the plane. Erin and Anna both got airsick on descent - I think the spicy pasta, disrupted sleep, and the motion messed them up. We handled it and no damage was done (we are very experienced in this area of parenting).
We arrived around 7am Paris time in CDG airport. We went through customs (no immigration) and picked up our bags. We then hiked quite a distance to the RER terminal, used the restroom (had to pay 0.7E per person), and Bob got tickets for the train. We hopped on and rode in to the city, to the Port Royal station. The blue RER line went straight from the airport to that station right near our apartment - easy! Marine was at the apartment when we got there and showed us around, and we were able to stay there since it was already clean that early in the morning. We all took showers, unpacked, looked around, rested for awhile, and then ventured out into Paris! We got pizza at an Italian place near the apartment, then got on the Metro to Trocadero, a plaza across the river from the Eiffel Tower. From there, we had a great view of the Eiffel Tower! There were lots of guys selling stuff in that area, as well as around the Eiffel Tower. The girls rode the double decker carousel there, and then we walked to the Bir Hakeim metro stop. Grandma and I stopped at a grocery store near the apartment for dinner and breakfast items. Bob set up the air mattress and due to differences in voltage in France, our a/c adaptor for the air pump met its smoky end. No damage was done, though. We had pre-cooked rotisserie chicken and potatoes, cucumber, bread, and butter for dinner and tried to stay awake until bedtime. Erin did an art show for us. We all were in bed between 7-8pm, slept until 12:30pm, then back to sleep until 7:30 for the adults - kids were still zonked after 8am!
We finally woke the sleeping beauties and had breakfast - scrambled eggs with cheese, pain au chocolat, cereal, and grapes. Yum! Everyone got ready and we headed out for our first full, well-rested day in Paris. We took the metro to the Eiffel Tower for our 10:00am ticket time. We were proud of ourselves for buying tickets ahead of time and avoiding the LONG lines there, but when we got past one security checkpoint and to the second one, they noticed that our tickets were actually for Sunday! No harm done - we saw the tower from the outside and then took a bus down the Champs Elysees to the Palais Garnier/Royal Opera House, the next stop on our schedule. We again bypassed lines with our pre-purchased tickets and went inside the opera house. Erin has become really into ballet and is also a big fan of the movie "Leap", which is set in Paris during the construction of the Eiffel Tower. The girl in the movie dances at the opera house, so Erin reenacted several parts of the movie during our walk through the Palais. It was more crowded than we expected in there, but we were able to see all of it. From there, we walked to and through the Galeries Lafayette and admired the beautiful ceiling/roof of the building. Then we walked to a nearby Monoprix and got sandwiches, chips, fruit, and drinks for a picnic lunch at the Palais Royal grounds! Anna also enjoyed shopping around the store and using the elite employee-only bathroom with a push-pedal sink. After lunch and checking out the Palais Royal area, we walked by the Louvre and took a little break in the grassy area near the mini arch there. We then walked through the Jardin Tulieries and finished up at the trampolines at the northwest corner of the park. That was a huge hit! Then, we got ice cream and rode the metro back to the apartment for a little rest. We took the metro back to the Chapel of our Lady of the Miraculous Medal for 5:15pm Mass...the metro/walk took a little longer than expected and we ended up in the second balcony right after Mass started, which was warm, but we could see well. The mass was not very long. We tried to buy things in the gift shop, but they only took cash. This is the site where St. Catherine LaBoure saw Mary. Then we walked to dinner - the first place that we had researched was not serving dinner that night (drinks only), so we ended up at Cafe le Flores per the first restaurant's suggestion. The adults had salad, steak, and scalloped potatoes, and the kids had kids' meals (Erin had "sausage", which was actually 2 hot dogs without buns, and fries and Anna had ham and fries). Then we took the metro back to the apartment, stopping at the City grocery store. Anna squeezed us some orange juice for breakfast on Sunday. According to our phones, we walked 8.9 miles that day!
Everyone slept well and we had to wake the kids up again at 8am on Sunday. We had scrambled eggs, cereal, donuts, and grapes for breakfast, got ready, and took the metro to the Eiffel Tower for our 10am ticket time. This time, we were able to ride to the top, stopping first at the lower level observation area. We all enjoyed seeing so much of Paris from up high! After the tower, we rode the metro to Parc Monceau, a pretty park in a residential area of the city. We walked around, checked out the carousel, and witnessed the Paris police finding and apprehending someone. We then rode the metro to a stop near the river and got lunch from the Breizh crepe stand along the river. The meal ("savory") crepes and dessert crepes were both so good! After lunch, we walked to the Rodin Gardens and saw the pretty garden and statues. Some of the garden was under construction. From there, we rode the metro to Notre Dame, but were sad to see a HUGE line waiting to get inside the church. The line went all the way back to the end of the plaza and then wound back around. So, instead, we watched Anna play in the sandbox and play area alongside the church and we all looked at the gardens. We walked to the Pompidou Center and saw the adjacent Stravinsky Fountain and some guys dancing in front of the fountain. We took the RER train back to the apartment, stopped at the store, and made spaghetti, carrots, cheese, and bread for dinner. We FaceTime'd with the cousins who were at the Charlotte Whitewater Rafting Center at that time and also Grandma F. We wanted to go back to Notre Dame, but the church stopped allowing entry 30 minutes prior to its closing time, so we had run out of time. Instead, Bob, Erin, and I walked through the beautiful Luxembourg Gardens near the apartment, got Erin a treat, and enjoyed the busy park that evening. We saw two heavily armed guards at the palace there. We walked about 10.4 miles today!
Everyone slept well that night and we again had to wake the kids up at 7:30am on Monday. They slept in Paris like they never do at home! The apartment did not have air conditioning, but it had big, beautiful windows that we opened in the evenings, and then each room had a fan that was plenty to keep us cool during the night when temperatures got down into the low to mid 60s with low humidity. The windows were also very sound-proof and we (at least I) did not hear any street noise when they were closed and the fan was on. Also noteworthy is that there are hardly any bugs in Paris (or in London)...the windows didn't have screens and we only had one bee briefly enter the apartment in the 4 days that we were there. Amazing!
Monday was the much-awaited Disneyland day. We had cereal, bagels, and grapes for breakfast and took the very crowded RER B train from Port Royal to Chatelet-Les Halles, where we transferred to the RER A double-decker train to Disneyland (Marne la Valle/Chessy), which is located in a suburb east of Paris. It took just about an hour to get from the apartment to Disney. We were inside the park by 9:45 (posted opening time was 10:00), and it was already open. We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice, the teacups twice, It's a Small World, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, walked through a few exhibits, rode a fairytale boat ride, Anna did the Alice in Wonderland maze, saw some characters from afar, enjoyed the mist area, and I am probably forgetting some. We avoided the Star Wars rides and Pirates of the Caribbean due to the girls being scared of them, and also missed Dumbo because the wait was too long. We tried to ride the Indiana Jones roller coaster, but it was taken down for mechanical issues right before we got in line. We had a really good Mexican lunch at a "Coco" themed restaurant and also got ice cream treats at the end of the day. We utilized the Fast Passes for many of the rides, which was helpful because it was really crowded that day. The park is pretty small and there is also an adjacent "Hollywood" type of park, but we only went to the main Magic Kingdom-esque one. We left the park around 4pm and got back on the RER A and B trains to the apartment. We had leftovers and also had a really good pizza from the grocery store for dinner, did some preliminary packing, and went back out to mail our postcards and got macaroons and eclairs. This was our last night in Paris! On Monday, we only walked a measly 5.8 miles, plus or minus some.
Tuesday, we got up and had leftovers plus raspberry biscuits for breakfast, finished packing, and left the apartment by 8:10am. We walked to the RER station, which we took to Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar train. Gare du Nord is very big, and train travel is very popular! There was a similar check-in process to an airport, including filling out immigration cards and going through customs there. We waited in the departure lounge, which was very fancy with foosball tables and lots of tvs, used the bathroom (pretty art on the stall doors), and got on the train for the 10:00am depature. It was a fast, smooth ride with maybe 20-30 minutes under the English Channel at the end before arriving in St. Pancras station in London around 11:30am London time (an hour earlier than Paris). We got very close to Belgium on the train, but did not actually cross into it. We got some yummy sandwiches from the M&S and ate them in the station. Then we took the tube to our apartment (the Vauxhall tube station was right at the apartment complex), met Kristine there and got a tour of the place, and then headed out to Westminster Abbey. There was a long line, but, again, we had tickets already and got right in. It was a very impressive place and we were most awe by all of the tombs/markers of famous people in the floor. Anna enjoyed the audioguide led by Leo the Lion for kids. After that, we rode a bus a few stops to Westminster Cathedral, which is the Catholic seat for England and Wales. It is a beautiful church. We then rode the tube back to the apartment and got food at the Tesco Express right downstairs and cooked burgers, potatoes, veggies for dinner and had some fruit. The grocery store was very convenient, but about a third of the store was empty the whole time we were there due to some kind of cooler malfunction and stocking issue. Then, we got ready for bed and admired the pretty evening view of London and the Thames from the apartment. We only walked 4.9 miles today due to the train ride.
The apartment in London technically had air conditioning, but it really didn't work very well. Kristine said that London and much of Europe was suffering from a very unusual heat wave, the worst in 40 years, and the high temps in the 90s were more than they were accustomed to. So it was pretty toasty in there each night, but we were tired enough to sleep. Also, it was not very humid, so it didn't feel as bad as what we were used to in North Carolina, and it cooled down at night.
Anyway, we slept well and woke up earlier the next day than we had been (perhaps that was due to London being an hour earlier than Paris). We had Cheerios (Erin was pleased that the Tesco Express had them, though they were a little different from American Cheerios), eggs, and yummy donuts and pastries for breakfast. We were out by 8:20 to the tube, which we took to Buckingham Palace. We had a nice little walk along the street leading up to the palace, which opened at 9:30am. We had a ticket time of 9:45, so we got in line and waited for our time. We got right in (Grandma's scissors were confiscated here, sadly...the Eiffel Tower guards had almost taken them, and Buckingham Palace did). We got another round of audioguides, except for Erin, who refused to use them at each sight. The palace was astonishing inside...there were so much gold, ornate decoration, and incredible details. The audioguide was great and we learned a lot walking through the State Rooms. At the end, there was a great little "family pavilion" hands-on area for the kids, which we all enjoyed. From there, we had a stop at the gift shop and walked through the gardens (which I found to be unremarkable myself, compared to the palace...it was just grass and a small pond). We then took the tube to our predetermined lunch spot, The Mayfair Chippy, where we had fish and chips! Yum! I also got sides of mushy peas (they were ok, about how they sound), and some kind of curry (not good and very smelly). We all loved the lunch, minus the curry. At some point around this time, we witnessed a city bus rear-end a car and lots of police activity from that. It seemed like it was the car's fault. Then, we walked to Hyde Park and saw the Marble Arch at the northeast corner of the park. The park was quite brown due to the heat and drought. We walked a little ways and then caught a bus that ran along the north edge of the park and got off near the Princess Diana memorial playground, which was really neat - and crowded! The girls played for awhile in the sand and water, rinsed off, and then we walked past Kensington Palace, where William and Kate live, and the pond there. We caught another bus that ran along the south edge of the park to Harrod's. We browsed through the store for awhile and tried to keep Anna from purchasing anything. Anna and I also managed to open a side door and set off an alarm (whoops). Then we took the tube back to the apartment, rested for awhile, and then tubed back to Covent Garden to look around and eat dinner. Wow, that place was hopping! It is a theater district, and even on a Wednesday early evening, it was packed! It had a really neat market area in addition to the theaters. We tried 3 or 4 places for dinner to no avail, and finally got a downstairs table at Pizza Pilgrims, which was very good! We then walked over to Trafalgar Square and admired the fountains and view, then took the tube back to the apartment. We logged about 7 miles of walking this day.
We were all up early again on Thursday (apparently the kids only sleep late in Paris) and tried to make Erin her beloved pancakes for breakfast using a mix that Bob astutely found on the bottom shelf at the Tesco Express. The pancakes, whose mix could also be used for "puddings", were a little doughy, but Erin liked them anyway. We also had fruit and Cheerios. Then, we went down to the St. George Wharf pier right outside our apartment window and waited for what we thought would be an 8:36am "Thames Clipper" public transit boat to take us up the river to the Globe Theater area. However, that time came and went and one boat did show up later, but there were not enough seats on it for us. So, Grandma and I took the tube to the Globe so we could try to make our 9:30am tour time, and Bob and the girls waited for the next boat, which finally showed up around 9:15. A businessman told Bob that the boats are nice because they are less crowded and cooler than the tube in the summer, but when they are off-schedule, they are really off-schedule. Bob, Erin, and Anna decided to go inside St. Paul's Cathedral and walked up the 500+ steps to the top of the dome! Anna had another audioguide, so she was happy, and Erin isn't known for her complaining, so they had a great time. Meanwhile, Grandma and I missed the Globe tour time due to the delays getting there and a wrong turn walking off the tube, but they got us in the 10:00 tour. We really enjoyed the animated tour guide as well as the story of the Globe theaters (the one we were in was actually the third one, a replica of the original, and it was reconstructed in the 1990s). We all met back up at St. Paul's steps a la Mary Poppins, and Bob gave a short interview to a Polish radio reporter about the weather. We took the tube to the Tower of London after that and had a lunch stop at a Pret A Manger (kind of like Panera to go) that was really good, and then went over to the tower! We saw the crown jewels, toured the White Tower, and Grandma also went through another tower while the rest of us got an ice cream treat. It was all really interesting, and we enjoyed it. From there, we walked over to the Tower Bridge and toured that. There were a couple of interesting videos about the making of the bridge, and we walked across the upper level walkway and back, including along the glass floor in the bridge. Eek! After that, we took the tube back to the apartment to rest for a little bit, pack up, and ponder dinner. We ended up going to a Nando's right near the apartment, which is a popular family-friendly chain that specializes in peri-peri chicken. I am not sure exactly what that is, but it was really good! I think it is some kind of Portuguese spice blend and slow-roasted chicken. We all enjoyed it, other than the kids' bottomless frozen yogurt being just milk due to the machine not working correctly in the heat. We then went back and got ready for bed. It felt like we walked more today, but I have 6.7 miles on my phone (which may not include the dinner run).
We woke up early on Friday morning, our last morning in London. We had leftover pizza, Cheerios, grapes, and eggs for breakfast and finished packing up. All the girls walked to Vauxhall Park nearby and checked out the pretty lavender garden, little fairy garden-type area, and a neat playground for awhile while Bob discussed our airline situation with American Airlines. They had canceled our return flight and he got us rebooked on a British Airways flight to NYC/JFK and then on to Raleigh that evening. Around 10:30, we met back up at the apartment, checked out (put keys in their mail slot in the mail room), and took the tube to Paddington Station (sadly, we could not find the Paddington bear statue), then hopped right on the Heathrow Express train. This train had amazing a/c, and it felt cold after a week of not much air conditioning! 15 minutes later, we arrived at our terminal (5) at Heathrow and checked in at the "family check-in" area which was really great with a bear mascot, arm painting, interactive games, and the staff was really great with the kids, letting them push the buttons to move their checked bags along the conveyor. We then took a tram to the middle terminal (B) and got some panini sandwiches for lunch. Bob and I went to the Admirals club and smuggled a bunch of cookies, drinks, pastries, and fruit out for everyone. Then we took the train to our terminal (A) and waited for our flight. I got selected for security screening, which got us on the flight sooner. We were almost to the back of the plane, the 4 Callaways in a row and Grandma in front of Bob on one end of the middle section with an empty seat next to her. The flight went well and smoothly other than some turbulence at a few points. The dinner was a more-appetizing pasta marinara which was a hit with the kids. Nobody chose the chicken curry. I was impressed at how much food we got on both transatlantic flights. This one included a yummy Magnum ice cream bar snack and a chicken salad sandwich plus candy bar snack later in the flight. We landed in JFK and Bob immediately got an alert that our flight to Raleigh was canceled due to weather! We were upset initially, but he got us rebooked on a Sunday morning flight and, lo and behold, we had a full day to check out New York City! We got a hotel, hopped on the "E" train to 42nd Street, and checked in to our hotel. The girls (especially Anna, who had not slept on the flight) were super tired at this point, but rebounded once we got into our hotel to stay up until their regular bedtime. Erin and I had some yummy NY pizza for a late second dinner. The hotel the AC Hotel in Times Square, was beautifully remodeled and clean, with glorious air conditioning! Erin and Grandma shared a room, and Anna was on the air mattress in our room on the same hallway on the 19th floor.
We all slept well and were up a little early on Saturday. We had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts nearby and made our plan. We took the subway to the Staten Island Ferry, including a short walk by Wall Street and the bull statue and the Battery park. We hopped on the ferry (9:00am, I think), rode by the statue, saw Ellis Island, arrived at Staten Island in about 20 minutes, got right back on the return ferry, and repeated. It was a great, fun, easy, free way to get a pretty good look at the statue, which Erin had requested. We then took the subway back near Rockefeller Center, walked around that area for awhile and popped into Walgreens, the Lego store, and the American Girl store. These were huge hits, especially with Anna! We then had a yummy burrito lunch at a new place and researched Broadway show options. The big shows were either sold out or were too expensive for a matinee that day, but we did get tickets for Anastasia at 2pm. So, we went back to the hotel for a quick rest and then back out to the Broadhurst Theater and saw the show! It was really good, with beautiful sets, costumes, and music. We (or, at least, we girls) thoroughly enjoyed it! After that we walked the short distance to St. Patrick's Cathedral for 5:30 mass. We were a little early and tried to use the bathrooms, which ended up in us getting a "backstage tour" where we could peek at the sacristies. We spotted another family from StMM in Apex, NC, at the mass! We were still a little jet-lagged and tired after the mass, which took less than 45 minutes, so we took the subway back to the hotel and got dinner at the pizza/pasta and gyro places nearby and picnicked in our room. The food was so good during our short stay in NYC. We then packed up yet again and went to bed.
Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to meet our Uber driver at 6am. He drove us the short drive in no traffic to LaGuardia, where again the kids' and my suitcases were flagged for checking. We got breakfast (bagels) and boarded our flight to Charlotte, hopped off in Charlotte, waited a short time, and flew to Raleigh, where the girls got the luggage and Bob got the car. We swung through Wendy's drive-through and got home around 2pm. The travel on Sunday went smoothly other than another bout of airsickness for Erin on descent into Charlotte, which bought her some Dramamine for the second flight.
So, that was our big adventure. It all went very smoothly, even the delay in New York. We expect our travel insurance to cover the hotel and meal expenses there, so it was a nearly free day in New York City! The girls did wonderfully on the long flights, and they also were great with so much walking and the crowds. I think it was wonderful for them to see another part of the world and get a quick peek at how people live there. I feel like we Americans have so much more "stuff" than the Europeans do - they live much more simply and with less waste. The girls especially enjoyed the Eiffel Tower, Paris Opera House, Disneyland, Buckingham Palace, and New York. I especially enjoyed those things too, plus the experience of living in the apartments a little more comfortably than in a hotel.
My personal take on the two cities - Paris was my favorite. It feels much more European, is very beautiful in terms of landscaping, little details like the metro signs, there is awesome architecture, and it is also much quieter and cleaner in general. London was very nice, but it was odd to me to see a historical site with skyscrapers surrounding it. London seems to be trying to modernize and grow, which is fine, but it is kind of an odd mix. It seemed like there was construction everywhere in London. The London tube was also more dirty...but both metro systems (and the cities overall) pale in comparison to the filth in New York! Ha! That is just my take based on a short visit. I would go back to either city and would want to venture out of the city a little bit, to possibly see Windsor Castle and other outlying areas, as well as other countries within the United Kingdom. However, regarding families - London seems to be much more family-friendly than Paris, both at sightseeing attractions (great audioguides, play areas, more playgrounds in the parks, etc.) as well as in restaurants. Kids seem to be more welcomed and less hidden away. I am sure that families living in France outside of the city have a more child-friendly environment. The most surprising thing about London, to me, was the growth and construction and emphasis on the new. It seemed a lot like a big city in the U.S. Bob may weigh in at some point with his opinion, but that's my two cents.
I would definitely take the kids to Europe again soon to see some new cities. The only thing I might change would be to allow some more "free" time, or maybe somehow spending some time in a less-populated area compared to non-stop touring in a crowded city. I think, for this trip, we did it right since there was so much to see and do in each city. However, I think we would all enjoy some down time during a future trip...perhaps Rome and the Italian coast, Greece, or Spain and/or Portugal would fit the bill???
