We are currently in Wendover (a market town at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England), and I’m getting further and further behind with updates and posts, but I will catch up eventually.
In the meantime, I decided I’ll get back to posting about current stuff and periodically do some flashback posts (as I get them done) about our previous adventures. (In other words, you can look forward to posts about Turku and Helsinki, Finland and Hastings, East Sussex, U.K. 🙂 )
So from today, here are pictures from our dinner at Shoulder of Mutton (a pub in Wendover). Here is my lovely plate of fish and chips…it’s like they knew just what plate to use for me, especially considering Mike’s plate was plain white and G and L had plain blue plates!
Here’s L with his bangers and mash…I snapped it quick before he devoured the last bites!
Here’s G with her pretty pink strawberry and shortbread sundae.
I don’t think that “Paris” and “pit stop” should probably ever be in the same sentence, but I’m getting caught up in the fun of using alliteration. 🙂 Anyway, we bid a fond farewell to Annecy almost 2 weeks ago (on Wednesday, November 9). While there were a few snowflakes in the air the day we left, we had a beautiful view from the train of tree branches and fields covered in snow as we traveled north toward Paris.
Train ride to Paris
Our time in and around Paris (which was less than 48 hours!) included:
a super nice commuter who helped us get unstuck from the turnstyle (too many bags to pull through before the door closed!),
another lovely commuter who guided us to the right track as we stood waiting on a track with no train,
coming up from the platform escalator to see the Eiffel Tower in the far distance lighting up the night sky right behind G and L,
First view of the Eiffel Tower (It’s a straight, vertical line right between G and L above the back of the white car…look hard… 🙂 )
super accommodations, hospitality, and dinners (and a pancake breakfast!) provided by Mike’s Gustie friend, Chad, and his family,
hide-and-seek and movies for the 11 and under group,
a night-time tour of the city via mini van (so cool to drive right along the Seine, under the Eiffel Tower, next to Notre Dame, and in front of the Louvre, etc.),
live jazz (including Chad on the trumpet),
rose-petal gelato cones,
a visit to the gardens and Palace of Versailles as well as the vacation “cottages” and Marie Antoinette’s hamlet and farm!
Palace of Versailles and Gardens, etc.
After packing and repacking and packing and repacking, we were comfortable (sort of) that we were going to pass the weight restrictions required for our flight to Finland, and we were on our way!
So, I mentioned before that I would share our short-term plans. Here’s what we know with links to our destinations.
We’ve been in Annecy for about 2 months now. We couldn’t have asked for a better place to start. The town is old and cool, very safe, easy to navigate, has lots to do, and many nice people. We’ll be here for about another 12 hours and are then heading up to visit a Gustavus friend of mine who lives outside of Paris. We’ll be there for two nights and are hoping to visit Versailles.
Dude’s just chillin’
We then leave from Paris-Orly to fly up to Finland and visit some family friends in Turku.
This is a stock photo. The water is frozen and there is already snow on the ground in Turku.
In Turku we’ll get a full tour from our native friends and we plan to watch the top Finnish hockey franchise play. Turku is the hometown for many NHL players, including the Wild’s own Mikko Koivu. We’ve also been invited to Fathers’ Day dinner where we’ll get to enjoy the whole family and some Finnish food.
From Finland, we’ll then go to the UK for a month or more. We’ll spend the first week in Hastings, UK in the south of England on the sea.
I doubt Hastings UK will have a spiral bridge, but we can hope!Here’s the Hastings we’ll be visiting.
Oh, and we rented a car for the first few weeks in the UK. I’ll be driving from the right-hand seat, and Jody will be panicking in the left seat. And so ends the plan.
From Hastings, we’ll travel in England, perhaps Wales, maybe Scotland, possibly Northern Ireland, maybe Ireland, maybe Albania…who knows?
Question from a mythical reader: So, you all loved Annecy, your kids speak French, you aren’t working anyway, why are you going to the UK?
Answer from the real me: True, I have been unemployed for about a month and am SUPER good at not working. I’m looking for something in Europe that will get me a work permit and us a residency visa, but not much shaking out.
We can only stay 90 out of 180 days in the Schengen countries on our tourist visa. When we leave and go to the UK (which are not in the Schengen countries), the clock stops counting on our tourist visa days.
So, We’ll get to travel, speak English, drink great pints in pubs, eat bangers and mash, and we’ll still have days left on our first tourist visa for France, Switzerland, Germany, etc.
