Category: 2024_005 Europe with Buehler Girls

It’s about 4:15am on Monday morning and I’m awake after 6 hours of sleep. Not as much as I would have liked to have but enough to get me through the day.

The trip home was uneventful, pretty good food, a couple of good movies and a little nap. Getting through immigrations was a breeze (thank you to Global Entry) and my bag was the 5th one on the carousal (thank you to business class priority bag tag), so about 45 minutes after landing I was on the curb waiting for my brother and sister-in-law to pick me up. They arrived a few weeks ago to house sit for me. It was great to see both them and my beautiful house.

Here are a few pictures I couldn’t share earlier. While in Paris, the girls sat for a portrait that I wanted to give to Christina’s husband, Andy, as a thank you for trusting me with his 3 precious girls for two weeks. They gave it to him yesterday as a Father’s Day gift so now I can show you the pictures from the sitting.

Nora wasn’t very happy about sitting for this, but she relented because she knew it was for Daddy and that it was important to me. She said that the ice cream mom promised for after the sitting was just a bonus.

I think the artist did an amazing job and Christina said Andy loves it.

Christina called yesterday for Father’s Day (she is Andy’s middle daughter; and, yes, both her dad and her husband are named Andy) and it was good to see her and the girls on the call. Everyone said they had a great time but are glad to be home with Daddy, the dogs and their things.

I was unpacked in no time and settled back into my house very quickly. Andy, Annette and I played golf early Sunday morning, and I didn’t do too badly. Not my best round but certainly not my worst. I unpacked the boxes I shipped home, and it was like Christmas as I had forgotten what I packed.

I put it in a grouping with the weaved pieces and the wooden mask. I think I broke a toe when I stubbed it while hanging these up, but it’s a small price to pay. I think it looks great, the grouping, not my toe which is stiff, swollen, painful and bruised.

Today (Monday) I get back into a routine. I have several appointments and another round of golf Thursday morning. I think Annette and I are driving down to Tubac, a cute artists town about 90 minutes south of here. If I just lay around the house, I get sleepy and the car hasn’t been driven in almost 6 weeks, so I need to blow the dust out of her. Besides, they have really good Mexican food.

In about a month I head out again, this time to Chicago. I’ve only been back 3 times since we moved here in Nov 2020, and all of them have been related to death and dying. A dear friend’s memorial service, taking Peter back to say goodbye to his family and then, of course, Peter’s memorial service. This time I just want to enjoy everything the city offers in the summer…. concerts in the park, walks on the Lake path, and of course, a game at Wrigley Field. I will be in Chicago on Aug 6, the 1st anniversary of Peter’s death, so of course, I will drive out to the cemetery to visit with him. I’m driving from here, so I’ll do a bit of site seeing along the way in Sante Fe and Dodge City. I’ll also visit friends in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa and Michigan. On the way home I’ll stop in the St. Louis area to see the girls. It should be a great time. I probably won’t post but I’ll give a quick update before I start posting for my next big trip… Christmas markets and a concert in Europe. That trip begins on 20 Nov when I fly to Budapest.

Thanks again for following me on my latest adventure; it was fun to have you along.

Love to all and have a wonderful, safe and healthy summer.

I’m snuggled in my cocoon for an 11 hour flight to Phoenix. Hopefully it will be uneventful.

My girls, on the other hand, are having another nightmare travel day. Their flight to Newark is 1 hr 45 min late which means they won’t get through immigrations in time for their connection to St. Louis. They were rebooked but now have a 7 hour layover in NJ, getting home this evening instead of 2pm. I tried to get them passes to the lounge but wasn’t successful. They will, though, get meal vouchers. Hopefully they can find a place the kids can stretch out. What a way to end an amazing trip!

Well, it had to happen because there is no way you can be in London for 5 days without rain. But it wasn’t too bad. It only really rained on us once when we were on our way from the Tube to a store the girls wanted to visit. Other than that, it was cloudy, windy and cool but otherwise not bad.

Our day started at the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels. There are no photos allowed but the collection is spectacular.

Did you know that the Tower of London is actually only one section of the entire complex, the White Tower. We didn’t visit there in 2022 as there are over 200 stairs and there was no way Peter would have been able to do it. I hadn’t seen it since my first trip to London in 1990, so I put on my big girl pants and hiked up the stairs. Luckily, half the 200 are going back down, so it wasn’t too bad.

There were some very cool exhibits in the Tower, so it was worth climbing the stairs.

We did a quick pass through of the chapel.

We saw lots of armories for both people and horses.

After we were done at the Tower, we headed to Tower Bridge just a short walk away.

We only walked about a quarter of the way across the bridge as the sky was getting dark and we wanted to get back to the Tube before it started raining.

Our next stop was a Beatles store the girls wanted to visit. On the way, my heart leapt in my chest when I saw L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele which has the absolute best pizza in the world. There are two restaurants in Naples, which is where the chain started. Peter and I ate at one in 2016 during his first trip to Europe. The pizza was so good! Today we were heading to afternoon tea at Kensington Palace, so we weren’t able to stop for lunch. Now I guess I have another reason to come back to London. Or I suppose I could just go back to Naples and eat at the original restaurant. But if you’re ever in London and want authentic Neapolitan pizza, this is the place. It’s on Baker Street and there is also one in Soho.

After the Beatles store it was on to Kensington Palace for a late lunch. I’ve had several afternoon teas and it’s a wonderful experience. They had a special kid’s tray, and the girls ate every crumb.

Nora had been practicing drinking with her pinkie up for 2 weeks. She finally got to put it to use.

Once we were done with lunch, we walked across the lawn for our tour of Kensington Palace. This is where Queen Victoria was born and lived until she became queen just a few weeks after her 18th birthday. After that she lived in Buckingham Palace.

The first room is the Jewel Room.

I think this was Victoria’s cradle.

And this was Queen Charlotte’s (wife of George III) dress.

There were costumes for the kids to dress up in.

We had a great time at the Palace. We didn’t see any real royals as their private apartments are behind the main building.

Our hotel is only a 15-20 minute walk from the palace and the sun had come out so it was a pleasant trip home. Dinner was at an Italian place across the street and then it was time for me and Nora to head to Covent Garden for our show.

The show was great, and I was excited to see that Samantha Barks was still playing Elsa. She played the part of Eponine in the film version of Les Mis and has an incredible voice. The highlight of the show, of course, was Let It Go which closed the first act. Everyone in the known universe knows that song by the first 4 notes so when it started playing you could hear the kids (and there were a million of them) getting very excited. I found this short clip of Samantha and the incredible costume change. It really was very cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gek5C-ZWxI

It was such a joy to see the wonder on Nora’s face during this show. I had just as much fun watching her as the actors on the stage. This is two West End shows in two days; she’s turning into a real theater kid.

We got back to the hotel only a few minutes before Christina and Drew, who had a great time at their show as well.

Well, my 5 1/2-week adventure is coming to an end. The safari seems a lifetime ago, but it’s only been 3 weeks since I was at the golf resort in Joburg. So much has happened since then. I missed Peter more than I can say, but it was such a joy to share my love of Europe with Christina, Drew and Nora. I’m not sure the girls have really processed everything they’ve seen and done in the last two weeks. It’s been such a jam-packed trip, so it may take a while for it to all sink in.

It’s almost 11pm and we have a car coming for us just after 6am, so I need to close this out. As always, thanks to everyone who traveled with me on yet another travel adventure. It was an amazing experience, and I will cherish the memories forever. Love to you all. Lynn

Today started with a ride to the south side of the Thames and our first theater of the day – Shakespeare’s Globe Theater. While waiting for it to open, we walked a few blocks to the site of the original Globe theater where Shakespeare would have performed. There’s nothing there but a metal plaque in the ground, which is why this wasn’t a 3-theater day.

The original Globe Theater was built in 1599, destroyed by fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614 and demolished in 1644. The current Globe Theater was built in 1997, spearheaded by American actor and filmmaker Sam Wanamaker. An interesting factoid, Sam’s daughter Zoe is also an actress and had the role of Madame Hooch in the first Harry Potter movie. She was the witch who taught the kids to fly.

Anyway, back to the theater. It was built in the same style it had been built in the 16th century, with wooden pegs instead of nails.

Just like in Shakespeare’s time, people buy tickets to stand in the area around the stage. If you want to spend more, you can buy a seat in the covered section.

We saw an original of the compilation of Shakespeare’s plays. He wrote 36 plays and only half of them had ever been published. So, without this book, we would have lost 18 of his plays including Romeo and Juliet and MacBeth. I’m not a big Shakespeare fan but even I think that would have been a terrible loss. Of course, if we didn’t know they had been written, we wouldn’t have known what we lost, but….

We saw the costume “Queen Elizabeth I” wore in the play with Queen Elizabeth II in the audience. Apparently, QEI came into the theater and bowed to QEII, who bowed back to her. Pretty cool story.

The girls had a chance to sit in the coronation chair used in the play Richard III. The original chair is in Westminster Abbey.

It was a very interesting one-hour tour. The guide told great stories about the theater and the Elizabethan times.

Then we headed to Southwark Cathedral just a short distance away. Peter and I tried to see that in 2022, but it was closed for a college graduation ceremony.

It’s not a huge church as cathedrals go, but it’s very beautiful.

This window was made in honor of John Harvard who founded Harvard University. He was baptized in this church in 1607.

We saw the church fox who wasn’t the least bit interested in any of us.

The original William was also in the garden.

We headed back to our side of the river for lunch. We wanted to go to a pub, but we were too hungry to hunt for one, so we ended up at Pizza Express across the street from the hotel. It’s a chain restaurant, and while not the best pizza I’ve ever eaten, it’s not bad.

After lunch we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and headed out for our second theater of the day, The Victoria Palace Theater, where I surprised the girls with tickets for Hamilton. This is where we started our changing of the guard tour yesterday and we talked about how we would love to see the show. I checked on tickets yesterday and was happy to see that their matinee performance is Thursday not Wednesday. We didn’t have anything special planned for this afternoon, so I thought why not. I talked with Christina before I bought the tickets, and she also thought it was a good idea. We didn’t tell the girls until lunch and they were very excited. Actually, all four of us are BIG Hamilton fans so we were all very excited.

We had great seats, only 14 rows back.

This was Nora’s first real theater experience, and she was absolutely mesmerized. Of course, she’d seen it many times on Disney+ as Drew is a fanatic, but Nora usually falls asleep before it’s over, so she didn’t really know how it ended. She wasn’t happy that both Alexander and Phillip died but she still loved the show. It was fabulous production, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it for the 2nd time.

Tomorrow, we have another theater experience as Nora and I are seeing Frozen while Christina and Drew are seeing Six, The Musical. It will be a great way to end our incredible 2-week European Adventure. But that’s tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I may not get post done until I’m sitting in the airport Saturday morning as we’re going to have a late night and a 6:15am pickup on Saturday. So, don’t be surprised if you don’t hear from me. Have a great night everyone!

We now know the secret of seeing the famous changing of the guard. Don’t go to Buckingham Palace. We did a tour instead and it was terrific. I knew that if we went to the Palace, Nora would be able to see anything, so I found a group tour on London experiences section of Airbnb.

We started at the Victoria Theater and passed by the Palace.

After a quick stop for pictures, we headed to Wellington Barracks (down the street from the Palace) where the guard lives. We hung out for a little while listening to great stories by our guide, Carolina, until the oncoming guard started heading out of the Barracks.

Next, we went to a spot where the small group of guards was going to protect Clarence House, which is where Charles and Camilla live. Charles never liked Buckingham Palace and doesn’t want to live there.

One of the reasons Charles likes Clarence house is that it’s far back from the street and very secluded. I couldn’t get a picture of it so here’s one I found on their website.

As we were waiting for group heading to St. James Palace, we saw another small group of horse drawn carriages and the royal car.

At first Carolina thought it was Charles on the move, but there didn’t look to be anyone in the car. The Trooping of the Colors (the official celebration of the monarch’s birthday) is on Saturday so she thinks this could have either been a rehearsal or them bringing the Royal Jewels to Clarence House.

Around the corner from Clarence House is St. James Palace which was built by Henry VIII for his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Unfortunately, in the 7 years it took to build it, Anne lost her head and never set foot in it. Now it’s the residence of Princess Anne.

This is the oncoming group of guards heading towards the Palace.

This was the out-going group heading away from St. James Palace. Because they’re now off duty, they march silently without music.

Then we headed through beautiful St. James Park.

The park was built by Charles II after the reformation. Countries started gifting Charles animals, so he ended up with a zoo. The only ones left are the pelicans. Not the original ones, obviously, but pelicans that are still gifted by the Russians. The story is that every 100 years the Russians donate 2 pelicans to the monarch. Well, in 1961, the U.S. decided to do the same. Except the pelicans we donated were the kind that were very territorial, and they started fighting the ones the Russians donated. The press had a field day with that, calling it a Pelican Cold War.

The tour ended at Palaces of Westminster and Big Ben.

So, it turns out that the Changing of the Guard is way more than the guys inside the gates of Buckingham Palace. If you’re ever in London on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday, I highly recommend taking this type of tour. It was fabulous and we learned a lot.

From here we went across the river as the girls had tickets for the London Eye. I had done it in 2002 with my mom, and not being a fan of heights, decided not to do it again. But the girls had a great time.

We had lunch at my favorite London restaurant, The Red Lion. It is only about a 15-minute walk from the London Eye and the food is delicious, so it seemed the obvious choice. Christina tried my favorite steak and ale pie while the girls and I had fish and chips. We were so hungry I forgot to take pictures, but I did grab one of Nora digging into her kids portion of fish and chips.

After going to Oxford Street to look for gifts we headed back to the hotel. I stayed home while the girls went back out to Hyde Park, just a few Tube stops from here.

They hung out at the Princess Diana Playground.

Then walked to the other side of the park where they found the Prince Albert Memorial. Peter and I visited here in 2022 and I know how far they walked. I would have never been able to keep up as I had over 13,000 steps when I got back to the hotel.

And, finally, they stopped for ice cream…..WITHOUT ME!!! Not very happy about that.

I don’t think they’re back yet, but I’m hungry, and since they filled up on ice cream, I don’t think they’ll want anything else. So, I need to go out and find something to eat. It’s after 7pm so it probably won’t be anything heavy, maybe just a sandwich.

Tomorrow we’re hanging out on the other side of the Thames, starting with Shakespear’s Globe Theater. We didn’t make it there in 2022, so I’m glad I’ve got the chance to see it. Night everyone.

If you’re not a fan of the Harry Potter films, you can close this post right now because it’s all about our trip to the Warner Brothers studios and the Harry Potter tour.

It was absolutely fabulous! We saw props, costumes, sets, miniatures and masks. We got to fly broomsticks and have our face printed on wanted posters. It was so fun.

Depending on which way you go, the Warner Brothers Studio is about 60-75 minutes outside of London. So, we left at 8:15 for our 10am timed tickets. While the first few rooms were crowded, after that people spread out so by the time we got to Diagon Alley near the end of the route, we were practically by ourselves.

Here are a bunch of pictures and videos without a lot of narration because, if you’ve seen the films, they’re self-explanatory.

Here are some costumes worn by the actors.

And, of course, Hagrid.

We had our picture taken.

And I flew over London.

Christina made the broom move.

We also saw many of the sets.

We saw lots of creatures.

And then there were the vehicles.

Nora tried to get to platform 9 3/4.

To catch the Hogwarts Express.

One of my favorite spots was the model used to film Hogwarts. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Harry used a Petronius charm to get rid of the dementors.

We ate lunch at the Backlot Cafe with, of course, Butterbeer.

I’ve got about 100 more pictures, but I think this is enough. You can probably tell from the photos that we had an absolute blast! If you’re a fan of the films and are in London, this is a must do experience. Christina and I had just as much fun as the kids.

Tomorrow we’re staying in London and seeing the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We decided to do a tour which is 2 1/2 hours long so we should get all the scoop on this famous event.

The day started early with a 4:45am wake up call to get our 5:30am Uber to the Caen Central Station. We had an uneventful 2-hour ride back to Paris and a 15-minute taxi ride from Gare St. Lazare to Gare du Nord for our Eurostar train to London. They have that process down to an art form. We went through immigrations to leave France and after walking about 15 feet, we went through immigrations to enter the UK. Then it was security and boarding our train for the 2 1/2hour ride to London.

The train traveled at about 135 MPH, so we made great time to the Dover Strait where we entered the Chunnel. In only about 20 minutes, we come out the other end in England. After that it was only about another 30 or so minutes before we pulled in the St. Pancras station in London. What an easy way to get here from London, so much easier than a flight.

The girls were excited about the cool London cabs and driving on the “wrong” side of the road.

The 2-bedroom Airbnb flat that I booked in January canceled about 6 weeks ago and I couldn’t find anything else that was reasonable priced in central London. After quite a bit of searching for hotels, I found that the Doubletree in Kensington had double rooms so that’s what I booked. We put in for a discounted upgrade to a suite, but unfortunately, none were available. After we got settled into our room, Christina told me she very nervous about 4 of us squeezed a double room. It was a decent sized room, but certainly not as roomy as the flats we’ve been staying in or the family suite we had in Brussels. So, after a bit of discussion, we ended up getting me a separate single room (king bed) while they stayed in the double room.

Once we got the room situation straightened out and had a bit to eat (nothing exciting… burgers for the girls, chicken BLT for Christina and a steak sandwich for me) we headed to the Tube and the British Museum.

The main thing we wanted to see in the museum was the Rosetta Stone. The stone was created in 196 BC and discovered in 1799. It is what scholars used to translate Egyptian hieroglyphics.

While I was looking at the stone, I had an “it’s a small world moment”. I glanced at the man next to me and realized I was standing next to one of my neighbors from Robson Ranch. He looked at me and said, “I know you.” Arnold and his son were in London for the Mets/Phillies baseball game that was played this weekend and just happened to be in the exact same spot at the exact same time. Very cool.

After that close encounter, the girls and I wandered through a few rooms of the museum looking at Egyptian and Greek artifacts. Each room had a scavenger hunt that Christina did with the girls. Once again, a very cool way to engage an 8-year-old in what could otherwise be a boring museum. Nora was actually disappointed when we said we had to leave as the museum was closing in 15 minutes. We got there late so we only had about 45 minutes. She’s going to look at the website to see if there’s anything else she wants to see. I’m not sure we’ll have time, but I’ll try to squeeze in another visit if she finds something exciting.

Once out of the museum, Drew decided she needed to make a call from a real live phone booth.

On our way home, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up dinner. This is the first time we haven’t had a kitchen or fridge, so we’ll have to figure out how to get our dinner. We have complimentary breakfast, and we’ll have lunch out, but we certainly don’t need two big meals every day, so we’ll probably just pick up sandwiches or something light on our way back to the hotel. We’ll figure something out.

That was our day; relatively easy but I still had over 11000 steps so I’m a bit tired. I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep after a week of bunking in a queen-sized bed with a wiggly 8-year-old with very sharp elbows. Maybe getting separate rooms was a smart idea after all.

Today we had a wonderful tour led by Sophie, our Tour by Locals guide. We started earlier than planned as there are still commemorative activities going on and she was afraid everything would be too crowded. So, she picked us up at 8am and we headed straight to the American Cemetary. We were the first in line at the gates and entered at exactly 9am.

There was a flyover the beach in preparation for activities in Sainte Mere Eglise.

Earlier this week we had trouble getting to sites in Paris due to the construction for the Olympics. Well, today we had trouble getting to the sites due to deconstruction of the stands and stages from the 80th commemorations on Thursday. So, the girls couldn’t see the 22-foot bronze statue entitled The Spirit of American Youth Rising from the Waves. Here’s the photo from Wikipedia.

We were able, though, to see the small chapel located in the middle of the cemetery.

If family member of someone buried at the cemetery notifies staff that they will be visiting the gravesite, sand is sprinkled on the cross/Star of David, so the name and information is visible. Otherwise, the letters are difficult to read as you can see on the cross behind this one.

After the cemetery, we headed to the beach where the stands were still up from the ceremony. So, the girls had to walk along the beach to get to the sculpture, The Braves.

On our way to Point du Hoc, we passed the spot where the original American Military Cemetery was located. During the war, approximately 1500 military personnel were buried here. Eventually France gave the land where the cemetery now sits to the U.S. The families of the men interred in this original site were given the option of having the remains sent home. Sophie said about 40% of the remains stayed in France.

Pointe du Hoc is where 225 soldiers from the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled the 100-foot cliff in an attempt to neutralize the guns they believe were covering Omaha and Utah beaches. It turns out that the Germans had moved the guns back but, despite heavy casualties (only 90 of them were not wounded or killed), the Rangers were able to find and eliminate the guns.

Because of erosion around the cliff and the bomb craters, tourists are no longer able to walk off the pathway, so we didn’t spend too much time here.

Then it was time for lunch. Sophie took us to a creperie in a small town just a short ride from Pointe du Hoc.

After lunch our first stop as Utah Beach. My uncle landed here on D-Day +5 or 11 Jun 1944.

Here Drew and Nora had a chance to touch the English Channel. They said it was cold, but not as cold as they expected.

There were several monuments, including one honoring the Navy.

On the approach to the beach, there was one honoring Maj. Dick Winters, the leader of Easy Company, the company highlighted in Band of Brothers.

Thousands of hedgehogs lined the beaches, making it difficult to move men and equipment on to the beach.

Our final stop was the town of Sainte Mere Eglise. In the early morning hours of 6 Jun 44, paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions landed in the town instead of outside the town. As a result, casualties were high. But it was the first town to be liberated on D-Day. Today, there was a festival going on, so the place was packed.

If you’ve seen the 1962 film, The Longest Day, the church in this town was one of the plot lines. Paratrooper Private John Steele (played by Red Buttons in the movie) landed on the steeple of the church, dangling there for 2 hours before being captured by the Germans. A few hours later he escaped and made it back to his division. He survived the war, dying of throat cancer in 1969.

Even though I’ve been here several times, today was the first time I went into the church.

There were a lot of active duty soldiers in town from France, U.S. and Belgium.

It was an hour’s drive back to Caen and a relaxing evening. We have a very early train tomorrow (6:09) so we are packing up tonight. Tomorrow, the girls will touch the ground on their 4th country…. England. It will be great!

Today was an easy day for me, less than 7,000 steps. We had a nice 2 hour train ride from Paris.

We were able to get into our flat, so we dropped off luggage and headed out to lunch. The girls wanted to compare Dutch pancakes, Belgian waffles to French crepes.

The final judgement…..Dutch pancakes win!

After lunch we headed to Chateau de Caen, the castle of William the Conqueror.

After the castle we picked up a few groceries then headed back to the flat.

For some reason I was exhausted so I stayed home while the girls went back out to explore. Here are a few pics they took.

They found a street with lots of cute boutiques and had a great time shopping. By the time they got home I was awake from my nap and now we’re just hanging around the flat for the evening.

Tomorrow is our day trip with Tours By Locals. It’s my first time using this service but I’ve read good things. Sophie is taking us on a tour of the Normandy landing sites.

Before I tell you about today, here’s dinner from last night. We went to a cute little Trattoria around the corner from the flat, and the food was delicious.

Everything was absolutely delicious and small enough portions that we had enough tummy room to have sweet treats when we got home. We cut the two eclairs (chocolate and lemon) into quarters, and each had a small bite. These were very delicious. We still have cream puffs and the chocolate Bobka for tonight. The girls are LOVING the French baguettes. What’s not to love!

Today (Friday) was yet another full day in Paris. When Nora chose Paris to visit, the two things she said she wanted to see was the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa. She crossed both of them off her list today. First, we went to the Eiffel Tower.

Of course, the construction around it was crazy as this is where they’re going to have the beach volleyball competition. Between the tower and Trocadero Park on the other side of the river, there was nothing but fencing, scaffolding, etc., which made it difficult for me and Nora later in the day.

Then we headed down to the river for the 1-hour Seine River cruise. BTW. The opening ceremony is going to be very different this year. The athletes are actually going to be in boats going down the river versus walking into a stadium. That should be cool to see.

After the cruise we hopped in an Uber to grab lunch. We were in a bit of a hurry because Christina and Drew had 1:00pm tickets for the catacombs and it was already 11:45. As a result, I forgot to take pictures of the food, but it was an Italian restaurant, so we had the usual…pizza for me and Nora, carbonara for Christina and Drew. If you’re keeping score, that’s 3 out of 4 restaurants where we’ve had Italian. There is an Italian restaurant on every other corner and it’s the safest bet for the girls.

Here are some pictures Christina took of their visit to the catacombs.

Nora wasn’t the least bit interested in the catacombs and I couldn’t do the 250 stairs if I wanted to, so she and I went to the aquarium instead. It was only supposed to be a 15-minute walk from where we had lunch but because of the construction, it took over a half hour to get there. That was way more extra steps (and stairs) than either of us wanted to walk. But we finally found it and had a good time. It’s a relatively small aquarium but had some interesting fish. Here are some of our favorites.

We did know what the little blue fish was.

By the time we were finished at the aquarium, mom and Drew were done at the catacombs, so we met at the Louve, our last stop of the day. After a very frustrating 20 minutes trying to buy the tickets on my phone, we finally got them and were ready to explore this gigantic museum.

Like everyone else, we headed straight to the Denon wing and the Italian paintings to see the star of the show.

Once we got away from the Mona Lisa, the rest of the rooms weren’t horribly crowded. It was already after 4pm so much of the bus tours were long gone.

And just like at the Chateau yesterday, the ceilings are just as pretty as what’s on the walls.

After about 90 minutes we were tired and decided it was time to Sortie (French for exit) out of there and head home. Both Christina and I were very proud of Drew as she navigated us home on two different Metro lines without any help from us. Most 13-year-olds couldn’t have done that at home let alone Paris. Great job kiddo!!

It was another exhausting, 18000 step day. Tomorrow, we head to Caen, a little over 2 hours away by train. Then Sunday we have a private tour of the landing sites. That is what Christina has been waiting for. It will be great! I’m exhausted and heading to bed without proofreading this so please forgive the nonsense sentences and misspelled words. Night.