Day 216 - Written by Kim en route from London, England to Toronto, Ontario.
Again as I sit to write and reflect on our recent experiences, I can’t believe how time has betrayed us by passing too quickly instead of standing still. We’ve continued to have a fabulous time with family and friends catching up as if we’d just seen them yesterday. As you read in our ‘Sunny Seaford’ post, we’ve had my sister with us for these last stops on our journey around the world, and it’s been a lot of fun showing her our second home in Seaford, and taking her on a whirlwind tour of two of our favourite European cities for her first time. For Courtenay’s first time to England in 21 years, we felt we had to help her do a lot of catching up, so as soon as she stepped off the plane it’s been go-go-go! We took her for a tour around our familiar hang-outs in Seaford, and booked some time in Paris and Amsterdam. With more of his planning magic, in just a few hours Austin had put together a fantastic 5 day tour that saw us using all the major modes of transport – plane, train, automobile and ferry. We tried to squeeze as much into our 5 days as we could because wanted to make sure that Courtenay’s first time in Europe, outside of England, was as memorable and mind-blowing as it was for us on our first European tour almost 9 years ago in the summer of 2002. We were glad to have Courtenay with us to conquer the last continent of our trip.
Our mini Euro-trip began when we drove from Seaford about 5 miles to the neighbouring port town of Newhaven where the ferry travels twice a day across the channel to Dieppe, France. The crossing takes approximately 4 hours. We’ve had nothing but warm, beautiful, sun-shiney days since we arrived to England, and the morning of our ferry crossing was the same. Courtenay ended up spending her four hours on the sundeck up top where she managed to fall asleep and get her first sunburn of the year. I’m not sure that was something she planned on going home saying after visiting England in the month of April. We caught the train from Dieppe to Paris and had arrived in the city of love by dinner time. Again, Austin, our master navigator, had in no-time figured out the subway system and like good little puppies, Courtenay and I followed him as he lead us straight to the front door of our hotel. Hotel Magenta, our digs while in Paris, was actually surprisingly comfortable and roomy. We had gotten quite a good deal, so didn’t have high expectations. It was two bedrooms and Courtenay even had her own half bathroom. Not bad at all! We quickly freshened up and hit the town and stopped for an affordable dinner of baguette and beer on our way to see the Eiffel Tower by night. Our time in Paris was off to a perfect start! Here are some pictures from our trip over and of first evening in Paris…
Celebrating Courtenay’s first time on French soil…
Checking out Dieppe’s harbour…
Using the metro to get from the train station to our hotel…
Courtenay making quick work of the stairs at our hotel…
Beer and baguette for dinner – the dinner of champions!
Hanging out with the peddlers seen all over Parisian subways…
Courtenay wheeling and dealing for some souvenirs…
Celebrating our first view of the Eiffel Tower with a cold beer… CHEERS!
Enjoying the Eiffel Tower by night….
Feeling the love in Paris…
Showing our excitement and love o Paris…
The next morning we took our time getting up and at ‘em and by 11am we headed out on a walking tour. We took the subway to our first destination, which was a graveyard where many famous poets are buried, and was made more popular when the lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison, was buried there. His death in the height of his fame has meant that over the years, thousands of people have put this graveyard on their sightseeing tour while visiting Paris. We’ve heard that his grave site has even become a bit of a nuisance and that his head stone has been changed numerous times after it’s been knocked over by people partying at his gravesite. When we were there, it was quite peaceful, and interesting to see just how many people bother to stop at a graveyard. The infamous Notre Dame Cathedral was our next stop, and from there we walked to see all of the city’s most famous sites, which included Sainte Chapelle, Pont Neuf, the Seine River, the Louvre, Champs D’Elysees, Arc De Triomphe, finishing at the Eiffel Tower. It was about 6 hours of walking, but we saw all we were hoping to show Courtenay before we headed back to our comfy room by subway. Here are some pictures of our whirl-wind tour of Paris…
Austin guiding us through the graveyard…
Courtenay and I hanging with Jimmy Morrison…
Let our City walk begin!
Notre Dame…
We’re saints… the sign says so!
Champs D’Elysees
The Louvre…
Austin is one lucky guy!
Posers..
Courtenay lovin’ the fact that McDonald’s sells beer…
Austin doing what we do… imitating a statue! Facepalm
Courtenay and I enjoying a stroll around Paris on a beautiful spring day…
I really wanted to see this little boy fall in. To my disappointment, his Grandma was there to hold him back….
Tee-hee….
Again with the imitation of statues…
Yay! We made it to the the Arc!
And Courtenay’s first visit to the tower in daylight…
We also want to take this time to give a shout out as promised to Courtenay’s friend Darlene, and all the girls at HGR who read the blog…
The next morning we got ourselves packed and ready to go and left our bags in luggage storage at the hotel, and hit the road to take Courtenay to see Moulin Rouge in the Montmartre area of the city. We had a nice walk around and picked up some souvenirs before collecting our bags and catching our train bound for Amsterdam.
We arrived in Amsterdam that evening, and set out for our hotel. Unlike in Paris, we were less than impressed with our digs for this part of our journey. We had booked a quad room right in the city centre and though we didn’t have high expectations, it was still overwhelmingly disappointing, so much so it was humorous. The ceiling was extremely low and had beams that made it even lower and more dangerous for Austin, who did manage to hit his head hard a few times. On top of that, there wasn’t even walking room between the four beds. We also had a nightly visitor, either a mouse or a rat, which we never saw but heard scurrying around and through our snacks. As always, the picture below will better illustrate just how hilariously crammed the three of us were into this tiny room.
After checking in, we immediately hit the street to take in Amsterdam’s infamous nightlife. There really is no place like Amsterdam, and with Austin and making our 4th trip to the city, it’s obvious we love the vibe and the people there. And, as exciting cities go, no one visit there is the same and we’re always able to discover something new and exciting. I think both Courtenay and Austin will vouch that on this trip to Amsterdam, the new and exciting discovery was visiting the tulip fields! Being in Holland during tulip season meant that we were able to travel to Keukenhof and see it in all it’s glory. There is no denying that the gardens are absolutely splendid, but there’s also no denying that we felt a little out of place being 3 of the very few people there who were under the age of 65! It was very crowded, and getting around the gardens was made more difficult when fending off an insurmountable amount of walkers and wheel chairs. Despite the obstacles, we enjoyed seeing the tulips in all their splendour. We now know what all the fuss is about! Here are some pictures highlighting our time in Amsterdam…
Amsterdam’s famous canals…
Checking out another one of Amsterdam’s claims to fame…
Oh, the night life!…
Austin ensuring Courtenay gets Maximated while in Amsterdam…
Amsterdam’s late night specialty – Chips with mayo and ketchup!
Some of Keukenhof’s glorious gardens…
The tulip fields! Tulips for as far as the eye could see…
Another typical sight in Holland…
Some of the fun displays…
Stunning…
Austin taking in the scents of one of the indoor displays…
Our flight back to London came too quickly, and before we know it we were back on English soil. My sister really enjoyed her first time in Europe, and we hope that her whirlwind tour has only helped fuel her travel fire.
Our time back in England was spent seeing all the many people that we were hoping to catch up with. We were able to get some face time with everyone, including my Nan who recently turned 90. One thing we’ve noticed, is that with a place like Seaford, where we have family and some great friends, no matter how long our visit, it never feels like enough time.
We had many visits and cups of tea with our Nan, and Uncle Bryan and Auntie Liz held one of their famous afternoon gatherings that included great food, great conversation and lots of fun with family. Even our Nan made it out for the gathering and enjoyed getting some sunshine on her face. Our friend Nick was kind enough to hold a gathering around his, and we were able to have some more time with fabulous friends. We love that Seaford is a home away from home to us, complete with amazing family and friends. However, it also means that it’s always hard to say goodbye. Here are some pictures from the rest of our time in Seaford…
Courtenay and I with Nan… age 90!
The famous red phone booths…
Another great walk in the South Downs…
Beachy Head…
Some fun with friends…
The only souvenirs I acquired along the way was a patch from each country we visited. I collected 25 foreign patches in addition to the Canada and Nunavut ones I started with, and here I am sewing on my last ones, France and Holland, representing countries 22 and 23.
Our final walk. Leaving my Aunt and Uncles headed for the airport to catch our flight bound for Canada…
We’re now on a plane bound for Toronto and can’t believe that our last few destinations can now be checked off the list. As we head home we find ourselves saturated with mixed emotions. Looking forward to seeing family and friends that have been missed dearly over the last 7 months, and excited to get back into some sort of routine. But it also feels very surreal that our amazing around-the-world honeymoon is now over. When we touch down in Toronto, we will have officially made a complete trip around the world, ending where we started at the beginning of last September. We’re taking the time to reflect on all the incredible experiences we’ve had and all the amazing people we’ve met along the way. It’s hard to feel sorry for ourselves as we just feel so lucky. I’m also sad to report that this blog is our second to last entry. I’m sure that Austin and I will find plenty other things to do with our time, as this has been a big project for us, but not one we will ever regret. So readers, we’ll sign off for now and will post our very last blog entry again soon.
Cheers,
The Knotty Travellers
