Day Seven - Back Home in Sevenoaks

Well we truly exhausted ourselves in Paris and came back to Sevenoaks on the train last night ready to sleep for a week!

However time waits for no-one so we had to keep moving!

This morning we headed out to Knole Park which is a very old house that used to be owned by King Henry V111 way back in the day.  Now it is my local park, complete with Deer that roam around and are almost tame.

How is that for cute?

 The house was amazing inside, but you are not allowed to take photos so we have nothing to show you.  Lauren is giving a fantastic 'Lauren Pose' in the archway though...

And Sharon and I did our bit at the gate back out of the park!

 After the park we headed back into Sevenoaks and went to the local Italian Cafe for lunch.  Pizza and Cannoli anyone?   A spot of shopping (man these two can shop!) and then a stop in at the local Nail Bar to get swished up for our night out on the town.  Lauren's nails are now a FABULOUS colour!

After making ourselves beautiful we headed off to the city for our Cirque de Soleil experience. I still reckon the show I saw with Kyla was the best, but this one was not too shabby either!

We started our evening at the Wasabi Sushi Train

And then moved into the theatre to wait for the show to start.  Man were we up high!  Not allowed to take pictures in this show, so we just have a couple taken before the start on my blackberry to show you!

All and all we had another great day....and were eagerly awaiting Andrew arriving tomorrow :-)

Day Six - Or Should I say...Paris Day Two!

Our Wednesday in Paris started with another of those fantastic hotel buffet breakfasts - and in France they are especially fantastic with all the pastries and bagettes

We then headed off to drop our bags at Gare du Nord for the day while we went exploring.  They have various sizes of self-service lockers at the station, and you can just put in some coins and leave stuff there for the day.  Some of the lockers were big enough to hold Lauren....but we decided she could come with us to see the sights :-)

Here are the highlights from our day

Lovely Lauren on the RER train from the hotel to Gard de Nord

Oh man - this guy has lost his head.....

The Notre-Dame.
Did not see Quasimodo anywhere!

Beautiful last view Notre-Dame before we headed off on our Red Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus Tour

The Luxor Obelisk in the Place de Concorde

Fantastic old building at the end of the Place de Concorde

Name that landmark!!

A collage of photos from the Louvre .  Can you spot the pyramid through the arch behind Lauren?

 

The wishing bridge - it glistens like gold filigree but it is really just covered in padlocks!

Lunch at a Paris cafe.  

Not sure what the rascal though she was doing!

And then off to the Laduree shop for spectacular Macaroons!

Delicious Sorbet with a Macaroon on top for Lauren

And Oh My Goodness!  Look what Sharon ate!!!!!

Day Five. Paris here we come :-)

Today was the first of two days for us to 'do Paris properly'. We started in the way we intended to go on, with a nice lie in, and lovely hotel buffet breakfast and then a quick dip (well for some of us) in the hotel pool.

Refreshed and ready to attack the day we headed on the train into Paris.  It takes about twenty minutes on the train, and then we were right in the thick of things!

We had decided upon a nice Bagette and Cheese lunch in the park, followed by a cruise down the Seine to admire the buildings. 

Our girl does Paris so well.....

It was a great plan. We enjoyed having a quiet morning at the park (people watching like true locals!), and by the afternoon were ready for the sightseeing opportunities on the boat


Sitting on the grass - you are not allowed to sit on most of the
 grass in Paris parks,
 but this was a special 'walking allowed' section!

The view from our picnic spot.  Parliament meets here.

Who took photos of the back end of a horse!

And now for a more styalized photo of the horse

Our first view of the Eifel Tower from the boat

Paris is undeniably spectacular - so many fantastic old buildings interesting things to look at.  we did get a little tired of street after street of old buildings when we were actually looking for an ice-cream shop (there was just not one - of the right sort -  to be found and we were HOT!)

We headed back to the hotel in time for cocktail hour in the Executive Lounge before someone took a second dip of the day in the pool.  Then back down to the lobby lounge for some late dinner before retiring for the night....knowing that the hop-on-hop-off base awaited us the next morning!

Day Four. Oh No - not Another Disneyland say Sonia's feet...

At 5.30am our very unwelcome alarms started ringing and our looooooonnnnnnnggggggggg day begun.

We headed off to Ashford International Station to board the Eurostar train to Paris.  They made us go through security - just like at the airport and then we were stamped out of England.  A better than English but not quite up to French standard Croissant was breakfast and then we were away!

The train into Paris goes through the Chunnel for about 30 minutes, and then takes about another hour and 15 minutes to get into the centre of Paris.  Bizarrely they do not make you go through immigration at the Fremch end....so we were out of England but not in France according to our passport stamps.  Weird!  We asked for some directions and got ourselves promptly onto the local train that whizzed us to Paris Disneyland (which looks just like Tokyo Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland!)

A selection for you....pick the similarities to other blog posts!



I must say - she drives better than some I have been with...

Now this one is new - never before have I been subjected to the horrors of SPACE MOUNTAIN.....and she wanted to do it again....no way!

A cutie princess pose with the castle in the background

The spinning cups - Sharon and Lauren were feeble comapred to some I have endured!

The ever-pleasing 'Small World'

And the highlight of the day...the Mine Train!!

We walked and walked and walked.   Exhausted we crashed at Planet Hollywood for dinner before heading back on the TGV high speed train to CDG Airport where our hotel room was waiting for us.  ...where we slept REALLY well!

Day Three. Oh dear - I had no idea they wanted to visit a UK hospital!

Well Poor Sharon woke up feeling not so grea on Monday.  Her calves had been bothering her since she got off the plane, and the did not seem to be getting any better.  So after a call to the travel insurance company (don't leave home without it...) we were off to the hospital.  To wait.  And wait.  And wait :-).  They were very thorough.  For sore calves they did blood tests (well I guess calves do need a blood supply), a Chest X-Ray, an ECG...hey what....where do they think calves are!! and an ultrasound.  Now the ultrasound would make sense - that would check for DVT - but all those other things?  Weird.  So we know what it was not...we still have no idea why Sharon's calves hurt :-)

Later in the afternoon we went off for...you guessed it...more SHOPPING!  This time at the Outlet Village in Ashford.  Wethenwent to the supermarket to pick up a picnic dinner to have in our Premier Inn (not really very 'premier') to spend the night before catching the early early train to...Disneyland!!!

Day Two. Off to London!

So I was right and jet lag struck my little travelers with a vengeance.....at 4am....hehehe

We got ourselves organized early and headed out to catch the 8.31am train to London.  We had a 10am reservation of the London Eye and it was fantastic!

Big Ben from the London Eye Capsule

 

Burning some energy at the very cool playground near the London Eye

After the London Eye Lauren opted for a stop at the London Aquarium.  I had not eve thought of visiting here...but I think we have a budding marine biologist in our midst.  Lauren LOVES fish.  Who would ever have guessed.

Walkng over the sharks!

A cute Seahorse

A turtle - we hear Braden wants one as a pet!

And a super cheeky pop up sea eel thingy

We had a god fun couple of hours in the cool of the aquarium before heading back out into the 30 degree day that London put on for our arrival.  It was awesome - but darn hot!  We ate lunch at 'EAT' - think Pret a Manger on steroids, and then headed back out to try and find a boat down the river.  After much walking we decided against pursuing the option and headed off for some more....shopping!!!  These girls are happy if the shop every single day!!!!  We visited Bond Street - the home of all the big English stores like Marks and Spencer, Next, Gap, Primark (ask Lauren for a look at her £3 onesie when she gets home!) and Zara.   The shops shut at 5 in London on Sundays, and our feet were feeling the pressure so we headed home for Ready Meal Dinners (Hestons Lasagne or Venison Shepherds Pie anyone?) and then a nice early night to try and beat off the jet lag.  

How can it have been so long?

My goodness - it has been nine months since Jayna and Zach took on Hong Kong.  Feels like just yesterday :-)

Unbelievably Lauren and Sharon have now been here in London for a whole week as well.  Time sure flies when you are having fun!

So what have we been up to...

Saturday saw a ridiculously early morning for me as the rascals booked at 6am arrival at Heathrow!  It takes about an hour from my place to the airport, so I sure did not get much sleep Friday night!

After collecting the weary travelers and pumping them full of caffeine to keep them awake we wandered up into Sevenoaks and took a look around the shops.  In no time at all the shopping started and a stunning pair of daisy pants had made it into a shopping bag.  Eh what you ask?  Just wait till lovely wears them to your place for dinner!  They are certainly cheerful...

We then popped into the car and headed to Ightham Mote for a first taste of British History.  Ightham Mote is just a few miles from Sevenoaks and makes for a great visit.  There is a fabulous old house with all sorts of old fashioned furniture and paintings.

 

The only Grade 1 Listed Doghouse in Britain :-)
It smelt like smoke from years and years of using the huge fireplace in the great hall. The very enthusiastic volunteer guides had lots of interesting facts to tell us about what used to go on in the house. We had late lunch at the cafe before heading home for a bit of a break and some time out of the hot hot hot English sun (unbelievable weather we have had!!).

We ate delicious lamb for dinner with mashed potatoes (Lauren's choice form the pre-prepared vege section of the supermarket) and salad.  Yumm.  A nice episode of Escape to the Country on TV and we were all about ready for bed.  We pushed the travelers through the shower and into bed, knowing they would be awake at 4am!  Lucky things:-)