We have returned, and we are soooo worn out
Posted Friday, April 12, 2002, 3:46 AM, CDT by Hank | So glad to be home! We saw a lot, but at a price. Physical ailments, credit card debt, ocassional insanity. What a trip!
I have hundreds of pictures to go post now...really glad I got that bigger compact flash card for my digital camera.
I should have posted a more detailed itinerary before we left...but this is what we did:
We drove to the Orio al Serio Airport, Bergamo Italy to fly to Stansted Airport, London. We took the Stansted Express to Liverpool Street Station in central London and grabbed a taxi to the Columbia Hotel where we stayed for 3 nights while venturing out to see sights like Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, and the Tower of London. During the time at the hotel we got pretty good at using the subways so we used that to get around most places...it was much cheaper than taking taxis.
On our last day at the hotel, we got up and grabbed the subway over to Waterloo Station and took a EuroStar Train to Paris, France. This was a 3 hour journey through the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) under the English Channel. We arrived at North Station (Gare du Nord) in France and took the subway to from there to Ternes Station near the Hotel Deux Avenues. We stayed 4 nights in Paris and got to do everything from see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
The second to last day in Paris, we took another train to Disneyland Paris. Mom couldn't go because by this point she was pretty sick, lost her voice, and was coughing a lot so she stayed behind in the hotel. The rest of us spent the entire 11-hour business day (and a little more) at Disneyland. It was the definatetly climax of our trip though we wish Mom could have been there with us.
The final day of out trip was pretty hellish. We had to travel from Paris to London and London to Italy---all in one day. Mom was still feeling very sick so all this traveling was the last thing she needed. Then all the other little things that happened made it--well--memorable to say the least:
From our hotel in Paris, we walked our bags to the subway and took it to North Station where we ended up missing our train back to London by only minutes. We were told we could exchange our tickets and while Dawn was about to do that I realized that I had lost one of the bags I was carrying. Ooops. I had left it nearby while trying to find the right place to go earlier. It was still in it's original location, untouched--I'm so lucky. We were able to exchange our tickets without being charged and sucessfully took a later train. 3 hours later, back in London, we found a pharmacy in Waterloo Station for Mom to see if she could get some better medicine than what we had found in France. They suggested a clinic actually located right there in the station and she got to see a real doctor who prescribed her some stuff that made her drowsy--we still had to get to London for a flight that evening. We really had no place to stay while in London since we had checked out when we went to Paris. We thought about getting her to the park to sleep for a few hours, but ended up just going back to Stansted Airport via the Stanstead Express. Mom got a little bit a sleep on the trip and soon we were at the Stanstead Airport. From that point we could only wait for our flight that evening...about a 3 hour wait or so. We finally got checked in and on our plane and eventually we were landing in Italy again. The weather was foggy and rainy and it was dark when we arrived. After our 3 point landing, every relieved passenger on the flight applauded. Whew! All we needed to do now was get our bags and drive home. Of course the ticket I needed to use to pay for the parking didn't work, and the machine to pay ended up eating my credit card, but we got it sorted out, got my card back, paid and got home. What a long, stressfull day.
We are awake now after 11-12 hours of sleep a piece.
OK, now to post the pictures...this could take a while. | |