The In-Laws have Arrived

Hello to all. As you can see, Jackie and Mike arrived safely in England. They started their week off with a spin in the mini cooper around the village and dinner at the Queenshead. Tuesday we went over to Oundle and did some shopping and ate lunch in a coffee shop. Wednesday we found ourselves at Queensgate Mall in Peterborough. We enjoyed the shopping there and went to the city square and took pictures. On Thursday we went up to Caleb's school and to a big Garden Center with lots to see and do. We spent 3 hours up there shopping. The English are all about their gardens, so you can imagine the size of this garden center! Huge! Tomorrow you will find us headed for London for a show and shopping. Check back with you on Sunday!

THOMAS THE TRAIN ENGINE

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you! It is Thomas the Train Engine! We went to the Nene River Valley Railway this past weekend and rode on a steam engine train. It was very cool. I felt like we should have had our cowboy hats on and guns and at any minute Owen Wilson was going to come charging up along side to rob us! Chugga Chugga Choo Choo! This is the oldest running steam engine railway in England. Even on special weekends, Thomas the engine is used to pull trains. The inside of the rail car is preserved just like it was in the old days. It reminded me a lot of Harry Potters scene when the kids are on the train in their compartment. Two big couch benches facing each other. That is the kind we chose. They also have seats facing each other with tables between them for taking tea and snacks.

Sunday we spent the day at Nene Park at Dan's division picnic. Spent the afternoon playing, visiting and eating. I caught up with womEn I had met in February when I came over and met new ones also. I believe there were 4 ISE families and the rest were single British guys and British Families. We had a wonderful time and spent the afternoon there.

This week I am busy getting groceries ordered, laundry folded, and the house cleaned (when am I not???) awaiting for Dan's parents to arrive. We are looking forward to spending time with them and going sight seeing. Hope you all are having a wonderful summer! Pam

Paris

Steak Tartar on Top And a view of Paris from the Eiffel Tower

Paris

Let me start by saying that Paris was a beautiful city. It was crowded, very hot, and seemed to take forever to get anywhere. The French are very proud of their language and we entered one cafe that repeated the menu in two words of English for each item. The rest of the time we "guessed" what we thought the meal might be and ordered it. We were only stung once, and that was poor Luke. He ordered something and what came out was Steak TarTar. Raw Hamburger Patty that is supposed to be good. He did try it, (I wouldn't) and ate about half. It really looked like worms on a plate. I will include a picture of that. We also found that since Paris is up "so late" we could not find breakfast anywhere! Not even a bakery around the city centre. The cafe's did not start serving food until 12:00. We found this out because we missed the breakfast served by the hotel because we were up twice during the night with fire alarms going off! The boys did not even hear the first one, so after getting dressed, and putting my contacts in, I stepped out and banged on their door. It ends up that someone was taking drugs and smoking to cover it up. (Thats what we were told anyway). We were so tired, that we didn't care and nobody got up for the second one 5 hours later, except me, the "mom". I just had to make sure that it was a false alarm before I could go back to sleep.

I learned from this trip that I am a "Beach" person at heart and my Bella does not do well walking in the heat, nor myself, dragging her along and trying to deal with the heat! She kept asking where the "pool" was! Dan said that the city was much like New York, but not as closed in and suffocating. I believe that at that point, I decided that I never have to see New York! It was very crowed, (summer holiday for kids) and there were thousands of People out and about. The Eiffel Tower was very impressive. The pictures do not do it justice. It is so large! I will include pictures from Ben and Lukes camera as they went up in the tower to see the city. The lines were large, and we didn't want to wait with Belle and Caleb. Luke and Ben hopped off the bus, they had their tube tickets and knew where the hotel tube stop was, and we said "Adios", call if you need anything! It took them 30 minutes to climb to the first level and then 1 hour wait for the elevator to go up farther! The pictures are beautiful and I am thankful that I had two young strappin boys that just had to go up! We were able to get into Notre Dame Cathedral. Absolutely beautiful. On Sunday we hired a driver to take us to Versailles, the Palace of King Louis the XIV, XV, XVI, and home to Marie Antoinette (wife of Louis XVI). It was beautiful and you can view the pictures on the album sight.

The subway was very fast. I guess it covers a lot of city and to be efficient we felt like we were flying. I shouldn't say "felt", we really were. This was not a "brace the feet" type subway; you had to hold the bars or sit. The subway is also open from one end to the beginning and you can watch it snake along under ground! London subway's are not like this and they are not as fast.

The Louvre is the worlds largest museum and boy, do they have that right! After about 1500 hundred paintings, I was done! You cannot imagine the hallways, galleries and rooms filled with art, and Roman statues! And that is just the part we went into. We could not even get a picture to encompass the museum as a whole. I am sure that the Ben, Luke and Dan could have spent another 2 hours there, but Belle, was not doing well. We walked her little legs off the first night. The next day, the first staircase that we walked up in a subway, she exclaimed, "oh no, not again. My legs are tired!" It was definitely a "walking" vacation as the city centre is very spread out and to even get to a bus or a tube stop, you have to walk. Over all, it was very pretty and I am glad that we "saw" Paris. Will we go back? Yes, just not in the summer and when we have a sitter for Bella. It is not a vacation for little children. She could care less about the art and the Eiffel Tower, she just wanted to know where the next Disney Store was!