We're back from London.
Totally exhausted.
Marc's parents arrive at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.
I've gone grocery shopping, made dinner, cleaned up dinner, made the beds, scrubbed the sink and the tub, tidied up.
Too exhausted to do an exhaustive post tonight, so I'll leave you with some observations:
- Traveling with young children is difficult.
- Kids have a lot more energy than parents. (Or more than this parent, anyway.) I sure hope they have good memories of this trip.
- Sometimes it's dang hard being the parent. For once, I wouldn't mind being pushed around in a stroller all day, having people cater to my needs, going out of the way to make sure that I'm happy. (Sorry, that was just a short whining break.)
- Eva immediately adopted an alter ego who lived in London and called the subway the Tube rather than the Metro.
- I saw a lot of Londoners wearing very, very wide belts.
- We saw at least as many dogs in London as in Paris.
- I couldn't tell any noticeable difference in niceness between Londoners and Parisians. Marc felt otherwise (in Paris's favor, of course). We even had a woman chase us down the street after Max had forgotten his camera bag in a sandwich shop!
- I didn't expect London to look so different from Paris. I'm so naïve.
- The museums in London -- at least the ones we saw -- are huge! Enormous.
- The underground has more stairs than the Metro and is more difficult to navigate. Still, there's a certain satisfaction in finding your way around a new city.
- Even when you're a bit stressed about how much money you're spending on eating out every meal, you can still revel in not having to prepare or clean up after them!
- Coming back to the hotel room and having everything cleaned and tidied is a delight.
- Using pounds for a week can make you appreciate the (very relative) good deal that is the euro.
- Living out of 2 suitcases total for a week and then coming back to where you have 9 suitcases worth of your stuff can make you feel like you've hit the jackpot.
- Our apartment here is feeling much more homey now after being away.
More to come...
12 comments:
That is awesome that you got a picture of the Gap warning I heard about at the RS General Broadcast. Interesting how home is all relative. I've never been anywhere in Europe and I have to confess that I imagine London and Paris as more simliar than not. Someday I hope to see both.
....jiggity jig.
I, too, am glad to see Mind the Gap. Thank you.
I do hope you have a good time with family this week. Maybe they'll want to take it slow and you can recover? You can wish.
I'm so excited to read your posts and find out about your trip.
I have a hard time sometimes not feeling like kids are the most selfish creatures on the planet. Seriously, even the tiniest of kids. I find myself thinking, "Yes, of course, it's all about YOU!" I'm afraid of what this says about me.
It must be wonderful to be "home" again!
I have missed your posts and glad to see you back. Maybe it is good to have a trip that makes you grateful for 9 suitcases of things - so you don't think about the houseful at home. I hope Eva's alter ego has a british accent. I would really like to hear that!
Love the photo, reminds me of the pic from the Gen RS broadcast.
Glad you enjoyed your time in London, and isn't nice to be back to your "home sweet home" in Paris? :)
I will have to print that photo and hang it up as a reminder of the great R.S. Broadcast talk. Glad you are "home" again.
How cool to take such a photo after last week's broadcast. A new connection to that talk for you.
Staying in London and returning 'home' to Paris seems so out of this world for me. I would think them similar too. Can't wait to see more photos.
Traveling with kids is not ideal. The thought of being the one catered too makes me happier than it should. Good job on enduring the stay out of suitcases in such a huge, new city.
One of my favorite things about your blog is that you often tell it like it is about being a parent. It isn't always cooing over your adorable kids and being blissful every minute you are with them. Sometimes it kind of sucks, and it just has to be said. Sometimes that gets forgotten in blogland and we end up feeling more guilty than we should. Thanks for keepin' it real. Glad you are feeling more at home.
Great photo - would be fun to hang on your wall when you get back...
Sounds like an adventure each time I read. I am living through you as I have never been to Europe...one day perhaps...
Enjoy!
oh Michelle exciting as always and your analogies are always right on. I am just so happy to revisit my favorite places through you, its been a while since I've been, at one point, I was going to UK every couple of years like 4 times....ohhhhh travel! I should do my posts on my month in the uk and scotland, it will be fun to see ALEXEI soo tiny!
If I hadn't known you were in London, I would have thought you found a copy of Sis. Thompson's exact photo from her talk! Did you get to hear/read it? It was good.
Fun list to get us started on London posts- I vote book club in London next!
Mind the Gap! That was my favorite talk from the RS meeting. Great that you got to capture it.
I'm sure you must feel so glad to be back 'home' to your jackpot of 9 suitcases.
I think all the time about how easy it is to be a child..but you know they don't appreciate or even recognize it. I think your amazing for taking your kids to have these wonderful experiences as taxing as it must be for you emotionally and physically. At least at the end of an exhausting day you are in PARIS or London!
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