Mumsy and Guvna take on Europe: A 2016 Europe Trip Report! updated 5/29/2017

[annegirl]

Exciting trip news!​

There is one thing I have been waiting for the chance to book and I finally got the email last week and today I got it booked!​

We will be seeing Stonehenge on the day we wanted to toward the beginning of the trip but we will be going on a special access tour. ​

That means we get in early in the morning before it opens and actually get to go up into the circle like you used to be able to do. ​

They keep the tours open to only about 30 people. ​

And it didn't cost much more than the regular admission. ​

I got it right through the English heritage website. I heard about it a while ago but couldn't find anything on their website about it. So I emailed them and asked. ​

They sent me a reply saying they wouldn't have times open for our dates until November and they would get back to me. ​

And they did. ​

We have a 6:45 AM time. I was hoping for an 8am but I am so happy that I don't really care! We can also enter during regular hours if we want for no extra cost although we probably will just head out on the road after our tour.
I am so excited to be able to get a jump on our day (we have a lot of driving that day) and to be able to get up close to the stones!

​

 

[missangelalexis]

That's awesome! Congrats!

 

[annegirl]

That's awesome! Congrats!

Thanks!

 

[minneylovesmicky]

Yes! I would love to hear your review of it!!

will take lots of pics for you of the inside - we are down to 30 days to go....eeekkkk getting both very nervous and excited

 

[GAN]

You've done a great job planning -now just let the trip happen! Nothing is going to be perfect, roll with the punches ...you're going to have a wonderful time!

 

[annegirl]

will take lots of pics for you of the inside - we are down to 30 days to go....eeekkkk getting both very nervous and excited

Yay! That is SO excited. I am down to under 100 days now and I can't believe it. I am kind of nervous too but mostly excited. I just can't believe it!

You've done a great job planning -now just let the trip happen! Nothing is going to be perfect, roll with the punches ...you're going to have a wonderful time!

Exactly. I always worry myself so much with all the planning before a trip but once there we just do what we can do and try to soak it all in. I will try to update more of the trip plans this week sometime.

 

[annegirl]

Day Fifteen:

Tuesday we will wake up really early at our hotel in London. We will be arranging with our hotel to have a driver take us to Poole to catch our ferry.
We have a cabin on Brittany Ferries to cross to Cherbourg, France.
I am pretty excited for the ferry ride.
We got a cabin so that if we needed naps we could take them and have our own private bathroom. It will be a lot more relaxing I think. The ride is a bit over five hours.
When we arrive in Cherbourg we will be picking up our rental car and driving to our hotel in Normandie, about 8 miles away from Mont St. Michel

We should be getting to our hotel by mid to late afternoon so we will check in and head out to Mont St. michel.
If by some chance we get there later in the day we will just relax and go to it in the morning.
But hopefully we will be heading out to it this afternoon/ evening.

We are really excited to be in France for the first time!​

 

[minneylovesmicky]

Yay! That is SO excited. I am down to under 100 days now and I can't believe it. I am kind of nervous too but mostly excited. I just can't believe it!

Those days will fly by for you.

 

[missangelalexis]

The ferry ride sounds like it will be really nice. So cool that you have a cabin!

 

[annegirl]

Those days will fly by for you.

I know! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by since I started planning the trip!

The ferry ride sounds like it will be really nice. So cool that you have a cabin!

I am sure it will be so nice to be forced to relax for a while.
Yeah, I am excited about that cabin! It really wasn't that much more money for it and since we are sharing the price for it , it was a no brainer.

 

[annegirl]

Day Sixteen

This day we will wake up in our hotel near Mont St Michel.
If we didn't get a chance to see Mont St Michel the night before we will visit it this morning.
Hopefully we will have already been there and we will head straight East to visit the D-day beaches.

We plan on spending most of the day walking at the different beaches, visiting the cemetery and honoring those that gave all.
It will definitely be a sobering and sad day but I think it will be amazing to see these places in person.

We will then make our way to our hotel for the night near Giverny.

Doesn't this look amazing???? It is out in the countryside and we chose it over the ones right in Giverny because it looks so charming.
It was a really good price too. We will have to share a bed that probably won't be too big but I think it will be worth it for the experience.

​

 

[GAN]

You will love the French countryside, and the people....

 

[missangelalexis]

Beautiful hotel you will be staying at!

 

[annegirl]

You will love the French countryside, and the people....

YAy! I am so excited.

Beautiful hotel you will be staying at!

I know. I can't wait to see it in person!

 

[annegirl]

Either on the evening of the previous day or most likely the next morning we will be driving about 15 minutes from our hotel to the town of Giverny.
My favorite artist is Claude Monet. My daughter Madeline is even named after him- Madeline Monet.
So my mom and I will be going to visit his home and gardens!

AFter this the original plan was to drive a couple hours to see the castle used in the tv show Merlin- Chateau de Pierrefonds.

But then we were going to drop off the rental car at a Paris neighborhood closer to the area this castle is in. Then I found out that it is a dangerous area and one we should not go to so... I changed our drop off location to Versailles. Since that is the opposite direction pretty much of the castle we will probably not be able to fit it in.
If that does end up being the case then we will head straight to Versailles where we will drop off our rental car and ride the train into paris to our hotel for the next few nights.
We will be staying at the Paris Pullman.

This was pretty pricey. Thank goodness for sharing costs. We originally were going to be renting an apartment that was recommended to me but then we found out it was only a double bed and that bed was in the living room- a fold out couch one. We decided we would rather have our own beds! We got a deal for this place on booking and reserved a room with a view of the Eiffel Tower. We decided it would be worth it.
Depending on when we get to Paris we may go out and see a few things. That will be decided that day based on the time.

​

 

[missangelalexis]

Seeing Monet's home will be so awesome!

Perhaps pricey, but having a view of the Eiffel Tower sounds amazing, and who knows when that opportunity will arise again!

 

[annegirl]

Yes. I am so excited.
That is exactly what we thought. We can watch it twinkle at night from the comfort of our room.

 

[annegirl]

We will be spending the next few days in Paris.
We are hoping to maybe go to the Musee d'Orsay the evening we arrive as it will be open late that night.

I have heard from so many people that they like this museum more than the Louvre so we really want to check it out.
Over the next few days we will see and do as much as we possibly can.
We already have our tickets to the Eiffel Tower for the first full day in the late afternoon.

We also already have our tickets for Versailles for the morning of the day after that. We are assuming we will be at the palace of versailles most of the day.
I got special tickets to do a tour of the King's apartments so we can get right in without waiting in line.

With the rest of our time our highest priorities are:

visiting the Louvre.
However, we don't plan on spending much time there. We know we could go and spend days there and not see everything so we are making a list of the pieces of art we want to see the most and then we will go in and hit those and then move on to another thing. That way we get to experience it but it won't be the only thing we can do. This was a recommendation from my cousin that lived in Paris for a while.

Shakespeare and Company bookstore. I have dreamt about going there forever! We are planning on going there right after visiting Notre Dame Cathedral which we will do the first morning.

Of course we plan on having some yummy hot chocolate at Angelina's. And some Laduree goodies.

We want to sample the food and stroll the parks. And just soak it all in.

If we have any extra time we would also like to visit:

Saint Chapelle, the Opera house, the Arc de Triomphe

Obviously there are so many more things to see but these are all the most important to us and the second most important to us.
So, hopefully we will be able to see and experience a lot of these.
But I also want to make sure we take the time to just stroll around and bask in the fact that we are in Paris. ​

 

[annegirl]

After our time in Paris we will be catching a morning train to go to Zermatt, Switzerland.

I don't have all of the train issues figured out yet. I know of a few different options and haven't decided yet which I think is the best one.
BUT once we get to Zermatt we will be checking into our hotel, Hotel Antika.

This hotel was a really good price (just barely over $100 a night) on Booking.com. I am really excited for it. We have a room with a view of the Matterhorn.

After checking in we are hoping to ride the Gornergrat Bahn.

We won't be there long. Just one night but we will have enough time to ride this up, do a little walking around town, and enjoy our fun lodgy hotel.
I wish we could stay in Switzerland longer but it was kind of a thrown on thing to mark off a bucket list item before going to Germany.
The next day we will be boarding another train to head to our last country.
​

 

[missangelalexis]

Your time in Paris sounds like it's going to be lovely!

Your hotel in Switzerland looks awesome.