I'd like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.

That is the mantra I should have lived for. I disliked Paris. Never need to go back, have no desire to go back, wasn't that keen to go anyway. But anyway, I guess it was alright. Paris really is a city for lovers. It was rather romantic and maybe that is what turned me off to the whole city..you know me...maybe it was the bus ride. Maybe it was the reek of urine, maybe it was the chaos after the order of England. I am not sure.

We took the night bus into Paris and got there at 5 am. It was odd to try and communicate that early in the morning in a language that I don't speak. I wanted to slip into Spanish all the time. Of course, since I got home, I now want to answer merci to everyone. Go figure. We trekked to the hostel only to find that we couldn't check in until two. They let us crash in the chill room and we slept for a couple of hours. Okay that sets up all the pics below the cut.

This is what that I took to Paris. That little back pack. Of course that made it easier to carry around with me.

At the Louvre. We didn't actually go in as I am not an art fan. But this appeased my mom enough, at least for now.

Ah this was kinda fun to see.

This is my favorite picture that I took in Paris.

Um, this is my first bee sting. I got it on a bus tour. It hurt like snot and I hope the bee died a painful death. This is right after it happened, yes I took pictures before I sought medical attention. My whole arm ended up in rash and swollen, did I mention painful death?

The view from our hostel room. We ended checking in at three and crashed for the rest of the day. I think we went and got pizza too but for the most part it was was just a catch up on sleep day. We did call home to wish our father's happy Father's Day. I have to admit this was the first day that I was homesick and I was grateful that we had a room to ourselves. The hostel was fantastic and I would stay there again.

The next day I was feeling slightly more chipper and though Paris still stank of urine I liked it a bit more than before. Notre Dome was fantastic.

We saw all the big sites that day and realized we could have done Paris in a day rather than three and been perfectly happy.


The Sacre Coeur was my favorite part. Other than the men grabbing at me and calling me baby and sexy. That just made me angry. We had some great crepes (the food in Paris was fantastic) and then we walked around the church and the Montmarte which was fantastic.



I read six books on the trip most I read in Paris as there were days we would sit in the park for hours and read. One day I saw a couple snogging rather intensley, this lead to groping, which lead to some other things that I didn't think you should be doing when a seven year old is playing in the fountain next to you. That was a bit odd but we saw it more than once.
We took a boat trip which was okay, the London one was better. But the best part is that we got to see the Effiel tower at night.


Our last day we went to Versailles. This is the one thing I always wanted to see in France. So it was nice to go. I rode a bike for the first time in 15 years and realized how much I enjoyed it. The fact that I almost hit a small child who cut in front of me just made it more of an adventure.

We got there in time for the fountain show which was great.

Halfway there on the bike trip. The only way to see the Park and the gardens.

On the stair case at Reinette's house. It was so cool.

The gardens!

The hall of mirrors. The palace was packed and we didn't get to see it very well but this was so cool.
After we went to the d'Orsay which was great. The only reason we went was that we both like the impressionists. We really only looked at the fifth floor. But it was fun to see the paintings I actually liked.


Then we started our Pastry tour of Paris and ate our way through every bakery that we could find. Ah the food was fantastic. As we ate dinner this fine man came up and showed us why Paris stank.

And this was my reaction


So we left Paris that night and I did not sleep all that night. I caught about four hours when we got to London then it was off to the airport where we got upgraded to first class. I don't know how it happened, but it did. That was fantastic too. I felt so well taken care of and just adored. The final night of the trip we stayed at Amy's house. she is fantastic and I wish I had more time with her.

Well that brings the end of my journey. i loved it. I would go to England again in a heart beat and I have plenty of pictures if you want to see more.

O, it's a snug little island! A right little, tight little island!

So here is part two. Nancy and I rented a car and took a week to discover England. We went to so many places and saw so many things. It was fantastic. We ended up getting a sat nav which was both our salvation and the bane of our existence. For the most part it was fabulous I wish we had spent more time in Scotland and the Lake District. That was the one part that I would have expanded.


We went to Winsor Castle to tour it only to find that the Queen was there so we didn't get to go in. We got some great stalking pictures in though and I began to hone my techniques.

I loved Stone Henge. I was so grateful we stopped here. It was fantastic and so peaceful-even with all the other hundreds of people.

Bath was pretty fun, even if everything shut down at six. It was fun to go and visit a place that Jane Austen writes so much about. It was fantastic. We sampled some of the water and I learned why people were cured. That water was so gross that I wanted to throw up after that. We wandered and visited the Jane Austen Center. It was fantastic.
We went to Wales and I loved it. I want to move there and learn Welsh. Believe me it was fantastic. Our first stop was Tinturn Abbey, this is one of my favorite poems and visiting was so powerful. I loved it. It was peaceful and serene and just incredible.


I took so many pictures here. It was inspiring.

We then went down to Cardiff to full my Doctor Who obession. It was fantastic. I loved Cardiff, except for the Traffic. We went to Cardiff Castle and that really sucked, Not a fan and not the best place we visited.

Then it was off to the Doctor Who stuff which Nancy was great to indulge my fangirl personality.


Look Heather., It is Jack's coat...sigh.

Oh why does that man look so good?

Another Tardis!!! I want a ride! I won't bore you with the rest of the exhibition pictures-I took a lot but this was in the top three favorite things.

Then of course we had to visit Torchwood. I really just loved Cardiff and Wales all together.
The next day I finally had the chance to visit my idols home. Stratford was fantastic and after ten days of being in the country as I stood in front of Shakespeare's birthplace I finally knew that I was in England. I started to cry at that moment. It was rather overwhelming. We stopped at Anne Hathaway's cottage first, it was overcome with tourists, but still we had a great time.

I have so many pictures from the gardens and of Stratford but after that visit we headed to Warrick Castle that reminded me a bit of Disneyland yeah, it was odd. Pretty grounds though even if it was overrun with school kids.



Then we went to York that had the best food and the coolest church. York Minster was the coolest one that we saw!
We went to Scotland the next day. I loved Scotland and it was fantastic. We tried to tour Edinburgh Castle, but it was closed due to the installation of someone. We did make it to Holyrood Place though, which was lucky as it was closing that day for the queen to visit. Dang her, she was stalking us.
Ah Scotland the land of my forefathers.

We got caught in a rain storm that lasted three minutes, but we were soaked after.
Look, it is my new Scottish boyfriend.
Yes, I ate at the Hogshead. It was a great pub with some great food.

Isn't that gorgeous. If we had more time we would have hiked it. Oh well.

nance doing her laundry, I had done mine the night before In York. when nance sends that picture I will pst that one.
At Holyrood House.
This is Hogwarts, right?
Honestly Scotland is so pretty. I loved it there.
We stopped at Hadiran's Wall on our way back into England. That is the wall behind me. We were too tired and didn't want to pay for parking to walk up to it.

We decided if anyone asked we would tell them that this was the wall.

We swung through the Lake District and it was fantastic there. I want to honeymoon there, I want to retire there, I want to go spend weeks there. It was fantastic.



See how pretty. We tried to go to the Beatrix Potter sites but they were all closed on Fridays.
That night we stopped to see the Preston Temple. We didn't get a chance to visit it as the hours didn't fit in our schedule but all the more reason to go back.

On our way back to London we stopped at Pemberly, oh I am sorry Chatsworth House. It was one of the other top three things that I saw (the Lake District rounded out that top three). So here are my fangirly pics.





So that is it. I will do Paris as soon as I get home from the grocery store, or maybe shower and put the groceries away. But it will all be done soon.