Day 3... White Cliffs and "Bogi"

In the morning, we packed up our suitcases and had breakfast in the hotel. Then we headed to the Cosmos desk to be loaded on to a bus. This wouldn't be our permanent group of passengers or bus driver. This ride simply took us to the ferry so we could cross the English Channel and there we would meet up with our permanent tour group. While this sounds kind of boring, it was actually quite exciting. The port was Dover... famous for the White Cliffs of Dover. Not only a significant part of WWII history but it is a VERY busy port. I had never seen an operation quite like that. There were rows and rows of freight trucks and containers waiting to be loaded on HUGE ships. There was activity everywhere and our tour bus seemed tiny.

After getting our passports stamped by French officials, we waited for the ferry. Oh, the ferry... this wasn't your average Texas Gulf Coast ferry. It was the LARGEST ferry I have ever seen in my life. In fact, the word ferry seems some puny. This was a SHIP. I lost count of how many 18-wheelers drove into the belly of this ship. Not to mention all of the passenger cars. Once inside the ship, it reminded me of the Carnival cruise ship I was on a few years ago going to Cozumel. There were lounges and snack bars and it was endless. According to the ferry website, the ship can hold 2,290 passengers and 650 cars. It was MASSIVE. 

Leaving the port.

 The entire cruise lasted about 1.5 hours. We had lunch and watched the Channel go by. As we got closer to the French shoreline, we went outside to see the city of Calais appear.

I just had to take a picture of my lunch. I thought it was funny because the crust actually told you what was IN my pot pie!

Arriving in France.

 

Once we were in port, it was a madhouse getting off the ferry. However, we made it off and followed our directions to our bus. We finally met our awesome tour director... Bogla'rke Fekete. Yep. I said, Bogla'rke Fekete. Luckily for all of us, she had a nickname- Bogi (pronounced Boogie). She was a very bright, funny and sweet Hungarian lady. Our bus driver was Franco, a large Italian man. Over the course of the tour, we would learn to understand Bogi's heavily accented English and Franco's lack of English.

We loaded up into our bus and as we drove towards Holland, we learned more about Bogi, Franco and the passengers we would be spending the next 18 days with. Out of the 38 passengers, there were 8 Americans (including us), 2 Canadians and all of the rest were from Australia and New Zealand. It was a fun mix. We stopped for lunch somewhere in Belgium and then made our way into the Amsterdam area for our hotel and dinner.

We knew we were in Holland by the windmills.

Old school windmill.

Day 2... More London

We had a FULL day ahead... 3 outings back to back! We loaded onto a bus with other folks from our hotel and started with a "Morning Sightseeing Tour". Our guide was named Carlotta and she had a beautiful British accent with a wicked sense of humor. We drove through the city and saw several "burroughs", doubledecker buses, little black taxis and beautiful homes. Then we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Trust me, it was amazing... no photos inside were allowed.

After St. Paul's, we headed to Buckingham Palace to watch a British tradition... the Changing of the Guard. This is done daily as the military guard changes shifts every day. In very typical English style, it is all about the pomp, military precision and ceremony. Plus, the Band Geek in me loves a good parade!

When our tour ended we only had a short break for lunch so we headed over to a little sandwich shop by the hotel. We quickly ate and then meet a different group (same tour guide) for our next outing- the Tower of London and The Crown Jewels. Trust me... the jewels were amazing- no photos again.

 

While we were visiting the Tower, we saw an very interesting ceremony called the "Guarding of the Word". Basically, soldiers stationed at the Tower were given a curfew to be back at post every night. Only those allowed to come home after curfew were given a secret word. That word was to be recited at the front gate and it would grant them access. So, every day, a small number of soldiers march down to the front gate and one member gets the word. Then they return to their post. Its an odd thing to us but something they take very seriously.

You can distinguish the superior office because he has the taller hat... no joke.

It was VERY warm that day, so as we explored the grounds of the Tower we took a break for some really yummy ice cream. We loved the cones... what a fun way to have two different flavors!

Once that outing was over, we returned to the hotel and had time for a quick change. Then we were on to the "Taste of London" outing. The evening began with dinner at a local pub. It was called Ye Old Cock and calls itself the skinnest pub in London. It was pretty small in width!!  Surprise, surprise... I had fish 'n' chips. Brad chose a very YUMMY steak pie. We would think of is as a pot pie and Brad really enjoyed it.

 

Wow- I look really tired...

 

After dinner, we boarded a boat and enjoyed a night cruise along the River Thames. We got to see the city of London a night including Parliment, Big Ben and the London Eye. It was gorgeous... unfortunately, our little point-and-shoot cameras couldn't do it justice.

After a wonderful evening, we returned to the hotel exhausted. It was off to bed because the next morning we had to be packed up and ready to go. We had an early departure to cross the English Channel and finally meet our tour group for the rest of our trip.

The trip of a lifetime....

As I write this blog, my husband is being a busy bee working on projects all over the house. I, on the other hand, am on the couch. I just caught up on all the TV missed while we were on our trip (and a little sleep too.) I feel guilty that he is upstairs frustrated and yelling at a bathroom faucet he can't get fixed while I am enjoying a cold Dr. Pepper and chocolate I got in Italy. However, I think the break-neck speed of the honeymoon and walking back into month-end at work has gotten the best of me. So, I have decided to take it easy today and work on my projects tomorrow. So, how do I relax? (Other than good chocolate and 3 hours of "Glee".) I write my blog! So, without further adieu, I will begin to retell our European honeymoon, or The Trip of a Lifetime... 

The honeymoon began on Wednesday, May 4th. I tell you this now because by about Day 5, I couldn't have told you what country we had spent the night before in, let alone the date. We both had routine doctor appointments in the morning and ran several errands. Then we grabbed some lunch and headed to Houston. In order to get a direct flight and save us some money, we chose to fly out of Houston instead of Austin. This was only made possible by some wonderful members of my family. My Mom's cousin, Mike and his wife Stephanie agreed to not only let us park at their house, but Mike took us to the airport. (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!)

We got settled into our seats and prepared for the 8 hour flight. We had been up VERY VERY late the night before preparing for the trip so we were running on only a few hours sleep. This helped a lot since we needed to sleep through most of our plane ride to be on track with London time when we arrived. We were both able to sleep for a few hours. We also had a surprisingly good dinner on board and watched a couple of movies. Before we knew it we had landed in London!! We were met by a representative for our tour company and loaded into a shuttle to our airport. As we drove on the other side of the road, seeing the funny little cars and unfamiliar street signs, it finally began setting in... we were in LONDON! 

This day would be a free day- without any scheduled tours, etc. So, we checked into our hotel and were in desperate need of some lunch. After a short walk from our hotel, we did our first London "must"... we ate lunch in a pub!! Brad played it safe with a hamburger and went traditional... fish 'n' chips!!

After a quick nap at the hotel, we decided to take advantage of our free time and take the Underground, or "Tube" into downtown London.

We had been given instructions by a hotel staff member and assured that our stop would take us directly to where we wanted to go... "you can't miss it". They couldn't have been more right. In fact, this will forever be one of the coolest memories for me... as we got off the train, there were a couple of ways to get out of the station and since we weren't sure which one, we guessed. As we walked up the stairs, we chatted about how we hoped we would be able to find our way around and as if on cue, the bells of Big Ben began ringing in the 7PM hour. As we emerged from the underground station, there was Big Ben- directly in front of us! It was awesome...

This was our view as soon as we emerged from the subway station.

We walked over the River Thames bridge to the London Eye. When I visited London over ten years ago with my parents, we didn't ride the Eye, so it was on my list of things I wanted to do during our trip. The London Eye is like a ferris wheel but MUCH larger. Each "pod" holds about 20 people and you can walk around inside of them. It takes about 30 minutes to go all the way around you have amazing views of London. We happened to time our trip around sunset and it was beautiful.

After the Eye, we walked around the city for a while. We walked by Westminster Abbey which just one week prior had been the site of the big Royal Wedding. In fact, there were workmen still taking down the bleachers constructed for the media coverage. All I could think about was how when I was there before, it was known to me as the place were they held Princess Diana's funeral... now it had a much happier memory attached.

It began to get late and we decided to make our way back to the hotel. We had missed dinner at the hotel restaurant and since we weren't very familiar with our other options, we went with something we knew... Subway!! As we grabbed our dinner to take back to the hotel, we did the math... we were now on 38 hours with only about 4 hours sleep! Needless to say, the next thing on the agenda was SLEEP! We had a busy day of sightseeing ahead.