A Peek at London

One reason I opted to travel with Darren to Paris was that we would take the train to London, through the Chunnel. I've always thought that sounded so cool, and I get the shivers thinking about a tunnel under something as deep and wide as the English Channel. So I was a bit disappointed by how underwhelming it was from the train. Just half an hour of nothing to see out the windows. Bummer. Maybe I'll get another chance sometime to see more of it.

London is huge! Huge, busy, fast. Yikes. My family did a big road trip when I was 16, and I think we spent one day in New York. I know I barely saw it, but London seemed even bigger. Biggest city in Europe, I think. With my travel-weary baby, I had no illusions of seeing much, so I was actually really please with all we did, squeezed in between naps.

Telephone booth, because it's bright red, and really good hot chocolate, not very sweet

It helped that our hotel was right next to Buckingham Palace! Pretty amazing. That put Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Parliament Building all within a 5 minute walk or so.

Just around the corner from our hotel, you can see Westminster, Big Ben, the London Eye, and a double decker bus!

Our first day we walked around Buckingham Palace. I think we got to the front gates right after the changing of the guard, because tourists were swarming like flies on roadkill. Crowds of people kind of give me the heebie-jeebies, so we didn't stay too long. We walked past St. James Park, and then through Hyde Park. It's startling to have so much green space in the middle of such a crowded city. Very refreshing.

Speaker's Corner, at Hyde Park

The Serpentine, at Hyde Park

Herrod's was adjacent to Hyde Park, and I thought we'd stop in for a peek. It was terrifying! The ground floor has a grim army of men and women in black, prepared to attack with perfume and cosmetics. The women's fashion floor looked like it was prepared for a really expensive Halloween, and the children's floor was the worst. Big screens showing child models on the runway, dressed up like adult models. You know, dramatic make-up and hair, clothes from the Capitol in the Hunger Games, pouty, icy expressions. So, maybe haute couture isn't really my thing. I was also a little tired by this point, so we took one of those double decker red buses back to the hotel.

Our second day, I toured Westminster Abbey in the morning. What an amazing structure! So much history! It was really beautiful. Grant was napping in his stroller, which made it difficult for me to get into many of the little chapels along the side. But everything I could see was so beautiful. And they had a really nice audio tour included with admission. I thought they did a really nice, friendly, yet tactful job of sharing their faith as well as the beautiful building. That was probably the highlight of our visit to me.

After Westminster, I attempted to take a bus to St. Paul's Cathedral. I did manage to get on the bus, however, I quickly discovered that mine was not the only stroller. There were 3 other strollers, not collapsed, and at least a dozen large suitcases. Apparently that bus was heading for an airport. We really didn't fit, I was getting car sick, and Grant was fussing. So we got off, and resorted to our feet.

Steps of St. Paul's

St. Paul's is the cathedral from Mary Poppins! That was cool. We sat on the steps with a bunch of other people, ate our lunch, and attempted to feed the birds. There actually were pigeons there when we sat down, but Grant made a bunch of noise and scared them away. Oh well. Hopefully the "saints and apostles" weren't terribly disappointed as they looked down.

St. Paul's, looking up from the Millennium Bridge

From St. Paul's, we crossed the London Millennium Footbridge to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Then London Bridge,

Chasing a pigeon, with London Bridge, and a funky modern building, in the background

And the Tower of London, at which point we got caught in a thunderstorm. We found a nice covered courtyard outside an office building, and I tried to play catch with Grant by rolling a mandarin orange to him. He had other ideas.

I was ready to try a bus again, but Grant fell asleep, and I ended up walking along the Thames all the way back to our hotel. It was a really nice walk, pretty path and all that, but I ended up walking nearly ten miles that day!




22 Hours in Paris

One of the biggest challenges for me about this trip is the limitations on planning ahead. We're following Darren around, so we're really dependent on his schedule. I might have chosen to travel separately from him if I had known the visit to Paris would be so short. Because, let's face it, the one-year-old contingent is kind of attached to his routines and nap schedule. But we had a really good time, and I ended up being glad that we came.

Baby Grant tearing up newspaper with a 3-year-old Japanese boy on the train to Paris.

Visiting Paris with an 11-month-old in September is quite different from visiting Paris with a 8-week-old embryo in February. No surprises there! Our hotel was once again close to the Gare du Nord, but I opted not to experience the Metro with a stroller. Instead I chose the Marais neighborhood as our destination, and we walked. Long walks allowed Grant to nap a little, and I got to see more of the city.

Grant eating the best falafel I've ever had, on the Rue de Rosiers (Jewish quarter)

 

The absolute best thing about traveling with a baby is the opportunity to mingle with people just living their lives. If I sat down in a park like this without the baby, it would be kind of creepy. Instead, I really wished that I knew more than hello, good-bye, and thank you in French. The lucky kids had no problem with a language barrier, and it wasn't too hard to understand when another mom pointed out to me that my kid was eating sand.

My chosen Parisian moments were enjoying dinner in a brasserie (while our last trip included several brasserie's, I can't say I enjoyed them, which was so sad!) and buying scarves. I hardly ever wear scarves, but it seemed the thing to do!

Grant's first baguette

Utrecht

While Nijmegen is a nice town, and the countryside where our hotel is located is pretty, Darren thought I should get a chance to see an older Dutch city, or at least a city with old Dutch architecture. Nijmegen is actually the oldest city in the Netherlands, but it was almost completely destroyed in WWII. We picked Utrecht for the canals and the architecture. It was also en route to Rotterdam, where we would be taking a train to Paris the next day.

We stayed in a hobbit hole! Well, a hobbit hole made of stone on the bank of the Old Canal. I didn't take pictures, so these are from the hotel's website.

 

Isn't it fun?! It used to be storage when the canals were used for transporting goods. Now it is relatively cheap housing. Although Tolkien may protest, I'm pretty sure hobbit tunnels are similarly damp and smell slightly of mildew. Some rather bohemian college students lived next door, which added to the atmosphere.

We enjoyed walking through town, but Baby Grant's brains may be slightly scrambled after bumping along the cobblestones in his "buggy". Even the shock-absorbing powers of B.O.B. weren't quite enough to combat these old roads!

Arrived in Nijmegen

When Darren's company decided that they needed him in Europe for a month, Baby Grant and I decided that we needed to tag along! We couldn't leave while my sister Katie and her kids were visiting. That time was already too short and too precious. So we let Darren go on his own, but a week later, we have caught up with him!

We are in Nijmegen, in the Netherlands, where Darren's company is headquartered. Grant and I arrived on Thursday evening. There are no pictures of this. You don't actually want pictures of this. My most determined attempts at packing light were completely foiled by the absolute necessity of a stroller and a car seat. The baby, the suitcase and the carry-on, no problem. But add the stroller and the car seat, and the narrow stairs up the train, and we were providing people with an opportunity for, um,  service! People really were quite nice, and it wasn't too bad getting on the train. I thought something similar would happen when we got off, but at the stop before ours, almost everyone left our train car. Everyone except a wizened, little old man who looked like he weighed about as much as my suitcase. Yep. Fortunately, it was the last stop, and I had time to make several trips onto the train to get everything off. It wasn't just because I had missed Darren's company that I was so very, very glad to see him at the train station! His co-worker, Volmar, picked us up and took us to our hotel.

The goal for Friday was to get enough sleep, so all we did was walk to Darren's office and meet more of his coworkers. They were very nice, but busy, so we kept our visit short, and went back to the hotel to sleep more.

Jet lag wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined it might be! I had packed a bag with toys and snacks in case we had to go out in the hall so that Darren could sleep, but Grant slept as well as he has been at home. Granted, that isn't saying much, but he went back to sleep quickly each time he woke up. I had hoped that I would sleep on the flight, since it was a night flight, but Grant needed a lot of help to stay asleep, in spite of having two seats all to himself!!! I doubt I was the only one on the plane green with jealousy! But Grant took the short night, and short day without skipping a beat. The first evening was the only really uncomfortable part for me too. So I may try a night flight again, should the opportunity present itself.

Darren had Saturday off, so we decided to check out the neighboring city of Arnhem and the Open Air Museum. It seems that there are several of these here, and we really enjoyed it. They have moved historic buildings, like farmhouses and windmills to a large plot of land. A section is even arranged like a small old-fashioned town. There were blacksmiths, wagon-makers, dairies, millers, and anything you could think of. There was also an amazing area for kids to play with a zip line and a fantastic climbing structure. We wished we had more time, but we all slept late, and it closed fairly early. We had a delightful dinner in Arnhem in a square with lots of restaurants, flowers, trees, and a man playing an accordion. I couldn't take a picture that captured the atmosphere.

And today we enjoyed going to church in Nijmegen. It's a fairly small branch, with mostly older people, but they were so welcoming. Darren met a very friendly couple, Nancy and Marcel, who offered to give us a ride. They helped us find a quiet, dark room where Grant took a nice long nap, and invited us to stay for the potluck. It is such a treat to sample traditional foods made by families instead of restaurant food, although that has been very good. We had a delicious leek soup, casseroles made with sausage, sauerkraut, potatoes, and cheese, and several little sausage roll things. We also talked to a lovely little Polish lady, who said my last name sounded like it might be Tyminski (with a little mark over the n). It would be nice to have a lead on my dad's family history in Poland.

Grant really likes Dutch pancakes. So do I! They are mostly savory, with leeks, mushrooms, ham, cheese, and all sorts of tasty things mixed into the batter. And the pancake shops are open for lunch and dinner, but not breakfast.