Our Travels in Europe

Dôme des Invalides, Paris

Patrick and I have talked about traveling to Europe for years and our only regret is that we didn't go sooner. It was truly a wonderful trip and we both agreed one of the best we've taken. The days leading up to the trip didn't go well with Patrick getting the stomach flu and I was worried, but most of it ran it's course before we headed out.

As for traveling with someone with the early stages of ALS, there were challenges, but nothing we couldn't handle. We took things slower than normal, but other than a stumble when getting out of a taxi in London, Patrick managed well, although Europe is not disability friendly, and we avoided some things that had potential difficulties: sky diving, bungee jumping etc.

France: The Mona Lisa, Notre Dame, and Disneyland

We were given the advice to spend the first day in Paris on the Hop Off/On Double Decker Bus.  This proved to be great advice.  The bus allowed us to tour around Paris and make a note of the places we wanted to visit.  On the bus tour you are given headphones and information is provided about the various sites throughout the city. We used these bus systems in all the cities we visited: Paris, London and Edinburgh.



Paris is a beautiful city, with it's architecture, cafes, cathedrals and museums.  We spent time visiting a number of museums, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and enjoying the cafes. We stayed at a quaint hotel near the Eiffel Tower which was both lovely and convenient to the bus lines.  Yes, we can now say that we've seen the Mona Lisa at the Louvre with hundreds of our closest friends:). The Mona Lisa is behind glass and about 100 people at the same time all trying to get a glance and photo of the painting.  This was a little over the top crazy for me, as I'm not a great fan of huge crowds.

We also visited the Musée d'Orsay which has some of the most famous impressionist paintings.  During this visit I took a couple of photos of some famous paintings including Whistler's Mother.  Apparently, this is not allowed and I was told to stop by the museum staff - Patrick thought I would be placed in museum custody and ultimately museum jail, so of course he pretended not to know me.  Here are my illegal photos...

Whistler's Mother



I think you are now an accomplice by viewing these...

We took the train to Disneyland which is on the outside of Paris. What I didn't know was that Disneyland Paris is actually two parks: Disneyland and Disney Studios.  We rode a few of the rides: Phantom Manor (Haunted Mansion), Peter Pan and It's a Small World.  I must be honest in saying that although it was fun to see the parks - they are not as nice as our Disney parks.

Any concern I had about not knowing the language was largely unfounded.  We muddled our way, and our experience was that people were kind and provided help if we asked.  

England: The Queen, Underground War Rooms and Bath

London is a busy city, very similar to New York City, with lots of people, traffic and pigeons.

Yes, there were a lot of pigeons, in fact one of the best photos I took, was of Patrick laughing because of a flock of these nasty birds.  We stayed near the Marble Arch at the Marriott Hotel in London.  The hotel staff was nice, but from a mobility perspective it was the most challenging of the hotels we stayed in.  There were a set of marble stairs that you had to climb to get to the elevators as well as a set up stairs in the hall leading to our room.  I suspect these are created by obstacles due to renovating an old building.  This just made things a bit more difficult for our comings and goings.

At the Marble Arch, enjoying the pigeons

The other challenge we found throughout Europe was that bathrooms were often located in basements for restaurants and stores.  So Patrick climbed up and down many stairs over the course of the trip and he managed ok, but it didn't make things easy.

We stopped by Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen, but shockingly she didn't invite us in.  We did however, take a tour of the Mews (horse and carriage area of Buckingham Palace), the Churchill War Rooms, the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey.   As is the case also in France, lots of beheadings took place in these locations.

We highly recommend, the Churchill War Rooms were located underground near Parliament, it is where Churchill lived and worked during WWII.  Within the war rooms there is another museum on the life of Winston Churchill which was quite interesting and interactive.

Most of the touring we did was unscheduled and we just selected what looked interesting from the bus or recommendations from others.  We did, however, preschedule a bus tour to Bath and Stonehenge while we stayed in London. It's a few hours to Bath and we enjoyed the country side as we traveled. Bath is wonderful and definitely worth the journey.  We found a cute fudge shop in Bath and sat outside to try some carmel fudge, it was good, we did laugh though because as we looked at the bag it read "A San Francisco Fudge Company" and here we thought we were enjoying local confectionery fudge:) 

Animals in War Memorial

The French, British and Scotch all love their monuments and we saw tributes to everything including War Animals and Bobby the Scottish Dog. At the Animal in War Memorial there were many wreaths and flowers for fallen animals.  I'm afraid, although I am an animal lover, it seemed a bit over the top.  I suspect Roxie would have appreciated it though.

Scotland: Haggis, Desmond, Cloud Atlas

We ate at a number of pubs in England and Scotland.  I enjoyed the pubs both for the atmosphere and surprisingly the good food. We had steak and ale, meat pie, roast and mac n cheese at the various pubs and the food was wonderful.  I'm a true "comfort" food person and the pub menu is full of these types of items. The only pub food that was a let down was the burgers, frankly they burn them to a crisp. It happened a couple of times and I finally asked one of the waiters why they over cook the meat.  Apparently, because of the mad cow outbreak a few years back there are strict standards on cooking beef.  So, don't eat burgers in Europe unless you like them burnt.

A Pub in Scotland - Great Meat Pie!

After hearing what haggis and black pudding were made of we opted not to try these foods. This is also true of the snails, steak tar tar and baby calf brains in France.  I think these items are best for the true British, Scotch and French.  We did, however buy haggis stuft animals for Anthony and Christian.

We enjoyed all the countries, sights and cities along the trip. I must say I was quite taken with Edinburgh it is such a charming old world city.  We stayed on the "Royal Mile" which is the road to Edinburgh Castle.  My suspicion is that if someone who lived 100's of years ago visited the city now, there would still be much that is the same.  Edinburgh was/is the home of Sean Connery, and JK Rowling. In fact, Harry Potter was written in Edinburgh at a local pub.

If you've seen Cloud Atlas, then you know that a few of the story lines are in Edinburgh, Scotland.  If you look at our pictures you'll find some photos of these locations and the monument to Sir Walter Scott.  We both watched Cloud Atlas on the plane ride home and saw the Edinburgh scenes.  Yep, it made us smile...

Patrick's friend, Desmond, and his parents met us in Edinburgh for lunch and tea.  It was quite enjoyable to spend time with his family and gain a different perspective of Scottish government and customs.  We also spent time with Desmond in Glasgow, visiting the Glasgow Museum, local Pub and yes, the famous Indian Restaurant.

So, I know you're dying to know if the best Indian food is found in Glasgow, Scotland.  Well, Patrick is more the connoisseur so I asked him his opinion and he didn't fully commit to "the best in the world," but he did say that it is some of the best he's had.  Personally, I consider myself a naan expert and YES, it was the best I've had! If you're in Glasgow stop in at Assam's Restaurant you won't be disappointed.

Patrick and Desmond at the best Indian restaurant, Assam's

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

We traveled from Paris to London, London to Edinburgh and Edinburgh to Glasgow by train.  I can not say enough about the train system.  It's quite comfortable, efficient and relaxing to travel this way. It was definitely a highlight of the trip and I'm glad we opted for train versus plane.  On the flip side, the plane rides between Paris and San Francisco were quite brutal physically for Patrick and myself. I can see why people spend the money to fly business or first class, it is just not comfortable to sit in a small confined space for over 10 hours.

If you are considering Air France for your travel abroad, I recommend that you select another airline.  Although, we had assigned seating they bumped us into open seating on our return flight from Paris to San Francisco. We explained to the boarding staff the need for us to sit together due to Patrick's disability and they still didn't get us seats together.  We were fortunate that people sitting around us on the plane were willing to change seats. I was surprised by their lack of concern when someone says they have a disability, you'd think they would be much more accommodating.  Ah, well if I've learned anything in the last six months it's that there are really wonderful people that will go out of their way to help someone in need and then there are others... Fortunately most people are the first group.

Thanks to Navjot, Denise, Lourdes & Corrinne... They feed, checked on and gave rides to Caitlin who opted for staying home while we were in Europe. 
 

More Photos...

Patrick and I had such a great time in Europe, I wish I could write about all the different things we saw, but a picture is worth a thousand words, so if you are interested, you can view our photos at the following link: timmonseuropetrip2013.shutterfly.com/

Bonjour, Cheers and Au Revior,  

A word of advice from the Underground in London... While you're out in the world "Mind the Gap."

Just a Song Before We Go...

We are heading out on Friday for our trip to France, England and Scotland.  Neither of us have been out of the USA except for Mexico, so we are excited for the journey.  My hope is that we've remembered everything and that the ten hours on the plane will go quickly.  You see I've never been a huge fan of planes, so... wish me luck!

Trip Planning
Patrick is a good planner, he has the patience to read books, websites and forums to figure out what needs to be done for the trip.  I wish I was more help, sometimes I think I'm ADD because looking at various options of tours, hotels or websites just grows tedious. Now don't get me wrong I appreciate a good plan for travel I just tend to like the go with the flow feeling, however I think in going to Europe we probably should do a little planning.

The Best Indian Restaurant is in Scotland
We are both looking forward to various tours and sites: Stonehenge, Lourve, etc.  Patrick's friend from work, Desmond, just coincidentally is in Scotland visiting his family during this time and offered to spend a couple days with us showing us around Scotland.  This will likely be the highlight of the trip.  One of Desmond's promised destinations is the "best indian restaurant" -- "better than anything in the states."  Yep, we're heading to Scotland to try the best Indian food...

Update - Well this blog has been sitting in the unfinished posts for the week... so, it's Friday and we're sitting in the Air France Terminal waiting to board.  I thought I'd just tag this on with the previous blog since I haven't posted it yet. As we sit here there is a little girl across from us, my guess is she's about 2 years old, she is watching the Disney movie, Ratatouille, apparently she is getting ready for France. Airports are interesting places and the people watching opportunities are endless.

Speaking the Language...
My greatest anxiety of traveling overseas has always been the language difference..  I know about three words in French: Bonjour, Merci and Oui - likely all of these I mispronounce.  Our daughter, Caitlin took three years of French and our hope was that she would teach us a few words... well, she tried, but quickly seemed to lose patience with our attempts.  So, we're sitting in the terminal listening to many conversations being spoken in French and not understanding a bit.  My goal, is to double my knowledge of the French language - yeah, I know that brings my total to 6 words.

The Stomach Flu is Not Fun...
Patrick came down with a stomach virus yesterday - yeah, great timing.  He seems to be recouping but it was a dreadful illness and hard on someone with ALS.  I guess, on the up side, it's better he got it the day before the trip than during it.  A 10 hour plane trip can feel like an eternity when you're not feeling well.

The Journey... to see the Mouse?
I suspect I'll do a whole blog on our adventures in Europe.  So, yes, I'll bore you with our family photos.  My goal is to get all the tacky tourist photos we can, the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Stonehenge etc.  Oh, and if we're lucky we'll get over to see the French Mickey Mouse.  Yes, we are traveling 10 hours on a plane so we can see Disneyland Paris. Just for the record the most popular items that friends asked us to bring them are from Disneyland Paris.  So, perhaps we're part of the in crowd or maybe our friends are just as silly as us.

I'll keep you posted on our travels - hope all is well with you and yours.