Reminiscing... 9 months late. What the heck! Sharing our Europe trip... including Disneyland Paris!

[mariezp]

I was going through my photos several days ago from a 2 week trip my family took to Europe back in late August 2014. I was trying to give a brief review to my friend, SherryE, when I realized there was just too much to summarize in a short message. So while I am a bit late starting up a trip report 9 months late I think I would really enjoy sharing some details and highlights from our trip. I do hope some of you might enjoy reading and seeing some pictures from our amazing adventure. And, last I would also like to offer up some advice to anyone who is considering a trip to Europe.... DO IT! It is amazing.

Just a little background info...
I have been hanging around the Disboards according to my account since 2007. My how time flies! For the most part I have spent most of my time on the Disneyland side of the forums. After doing a little calculating I think I finally decided that we have made 13 two week trips and 1 one week trip in that 15 year time period. The information I have garnered here on the DIS has been invaluable! For 2 additional 2 week trips I have ventured over to the WDW area to obtain information. My most recent activity sent me over to the Disneyland Paris section so I could get a few tips for a really quick 2 day once in a life time visit in France which occurred during our 2 week epic European adventure. Every bit of information I have gathered over the years has been so appreciated and I could not have done it without the awesome help of so many other people's advice, wisdom and encouragement.

Over the last 25 years I have planned many a trip but this trip to Europe was the first trip I ever had to plan on such a grand scale. I am extremely proud to say the entire trip went off without any major snafus in my itinerary. I am still in awe at the availability of travel information that is out there and within reach of your fingertips. Internet resources are such amazing tools. I would encourage anyone who has dreamed of going to Europe to make it happen! If I can do it so could you!

Anyhow.... let's get on to the report!

Just in case anyone might want to move on to the Disneyland Paris section of our trip you can skip on down to post #20, Day 4, August 30, 2014.



Day 1, August 27, 2014
We flew out of Dallas Fort Worth airport here in Texas in the evening on a 9.5 hour overnight nonstop flight to London Heathrow.

Day 2, August 28, 2014
I had hired a driver for the day who was also our tour guide. Rozzy met us when we arrived early morning at the airport. She was a quintessential English lady, compete with the cute little accent with a good bit of feistiness and totally eager to please.... but not until she first lost our car in the parking garage. lol! 30 minutes later we were whisked away, weaving our way through the tiny streets of the city.

Everywhere you looked there was astounding architecture from ages past. I forget all the things she pointed out but I am pretty sure we drove past every popular attraction that London had to offer.

We finally stopped at the Tower of London. You could see Big Ben and the Thames River off to one side.

We made our way into the complex of buildings to see the crown jewel exhibit which, of course, was amazing.

Afterwards she led us over to an English pub for lunch. It was interesting that there were little metal plaques attached to the tables warning about pickpockets. They do not have a lot of violent crime in the UK but the pickpockets are apparently relentless anywhere there is any major tourist attraction. Afterwards we were supposed to go see another exhibit but everyone was so tired from the flight that we just decided to have her take us back to our hotel.

The hotel we stayed in was The Old Crown Inn in Highgate. It is an old but beautiful on the outside. I had to borrow a photo I found on the internet. (thank you, bodidog!) I cannot believe I forgot to take a picture of my own because I had fell in love with the building!

Anyway, the inside was old and funky..... apparently they decided to add on... and then add on again later. It was like a maze finding our way to our room. Our lodging for the night was not fancy by any means but had character and was certainly sufficient. After we checked out our rooms and stored away our backpacks we later went back downstairs for dinner in the pub. Food portions were huge but we found the food to be rather bland. We enjoyed the atmosphere and then passed out from exhaustion. Crossing time zones is not for wimps! Following Rick Steves lead though I was not going to let it get us down... we would be up and at em' early in the morning!

 

[firecracker725]

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[annegirl]

So excited you started this! I can't wait to read all about it!!

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Wow! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[mariezp]

Thank you to those of you have popped in for a look and especially to firecracker725, annegirl, and Teresa Pitman for taking the time to let me know you are reading along. I was hoping someone might enjoy!

I'll have another installment coming right up!

 

[mariezp]

Day 3, August 29, 2014

Our hotel was in the lovely neighborhood, Highgate, which is a little outside of the center of London.

The next morning after breakfast and a quick look around we were to meet another tour guide for a Sherlock Holmes tour. My son and hubby are big fans. Emma and I were just along to gawk at everything London. We made a visit to The Sherlock Holmes Museum.

We also rode on one of the double decker buses, took a ride on "The Tube" and went on another speedy walk through the city to various landmarks that pertained to the famous detective. We saw lots of interesting things on our stroll....

and a few unusual things...

We finished up with lunch at the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant.

After Simon finished his tour with us Rozzy picked us up to be our driver again. This time she took us out of the city and into the beautiful English country side. Destination: Pooh country.... we're talking the real deal as in the actual places that were the setting for the stories of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. Rozzy was even sweet enough to think to gather us sticks from her home for us to play Pooh sticks on the bridge right there in the Hundred Acre Wood! Could have stayed there for days but the skies were threatening so our adventure was cut short. Pretty and funun nonetheless.

From there she drove us a few hours to board our overnight cruise ship across the English Channel. Did not get to see much as it was cold and dark out on deck.

My daughter, Emma, did not take too well to the rocking ship. A dose of Dramamine and we were out for the night..... arriving in France the next morning at 6:45.

After a day of picture taking I discovered that the mode selection dial on my new camera was extremely easy to turn and every time I stashed my camera away in my tote it would end up on some new setting. Unfortunately, I did not know to check yet so most of my photos turned out poorly for the day. However, it did alert me to the fact that I needed to check the settings each time I went to take new photos. I did remember to check most times but my memory "ain't what it used to be" so I did have a few more boo-boos but I did manage to make it home with at least some fair photos.

 

[annegirl]

What did you think of the Sherlock Holmes museum? That is one of our "maybe" places.
We are hoping to make it to Pooh Corner as well. Glad to see that it looks like fun!

 

[TLSnell1981]

Hoping for a few snafus. They make the best stories.

 

[mariezp]

What did you think of the Sherlock Holmes museum? That is one of our "maybe" places.
We are hoping to make it to Pooh Corner as well. Glad to see that it looks like fun!

First off, I gotta point out again that I am not a huge Sherlock Holmes fan. Casual sorta but I really only watch because the guys do. Having said that, I did enjoy the museum even though I was not as savvy about the meanings behind most of the items throughout the museum. I love old Victorian era anything so since it was housed in an old building everything still held my attention and was nicely displayed. One of my favorite photos of the day was actually this old window in the building which actually probably has not a thing to do with Holmes but I thought it was pretty.

Anyway, the museum for sure would be more interesting to anyone who is a Holmes fan. Different rooms have different themes. In addition to the figures of characters you see in my photos there are also tons of items that relate to specific stories/cases. As much as anything I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the smile this place put on my son's face since he is a Holmes fan. And the opportunities it gave for my daughter to ham it up for the camera were priceless.
It certainly could fall under the "touristy" category but that was not a drawback for us as we have always been suckers for such. Keeping that in mind, I would suggest if you do decide to go to get your tickets in advance if you can or at least get there early. There can be quite a line.

As for Pooh Corner.... We missed the actual store. We were heading out of London a little later than expected and got there right after they had closed. We found the drive through the countryside interesting though. Never have I seen such narrow, winding roads! But it was all quite lovely. The Hundred Acre Woods itself was far bigger than I imagined.... although I've no idea if it really was 100 acres. It seemed we walked a good long way before we came to the Pooh Sticks bridge. There were nice paths meandering everywhere just waiting to be explored. I would love to go back should we ever have more time. If you love Pooh Bear it makes for a nice stop.

Hoping for a few snafus. They make the best stories.

I think the good Lord was feeling merciful by not allowing any major issues to creep into my plans. He already knew that I must have been out of my mind to ever have thought I could pull off such a trip with no previous experience in planning such a task. So obviously he also knew that if too much went wrong it might send me completely over the edge! lol!

 

[TLSnell1981]

Lucky you! I live by Murphy's Law. I always have a plan B and C and D, and etc.

 

[mariezp]

It must have been dumb luck for sure! If I had been smart I probably would have had a backup plan. Just grateful I didn't end up needing one.

 

[cruisnfamily]

How did you find your driver/tour guide for London?

And where did you gather your trip planning info from? How did you pick your hotels and transportation?

Thinking of planning a london/paris trip but don't even know where to begin!

 

[Carl]

What were the temperatures like while you were there? I was in Great Britain in May and we never saw a warm day.

 

[mariezp]

How did you find your driver/tour guide for London?

And where did you gather your trip planning info from? How did you pick your hotels and transportation?

Thinking of planning a london/paris trip but don't even know where to begin!

I originally had contacted a driver guide, Janine Barton, who was recommended by Rick Steves but she was busy and passed my information along to a colleague of hers, Rosamund Forester. http://www.bluebadgeguide.com/ We then got in touch with each other and worked out the details via many, many e-mails. She was excellent and can custom tailor your tour to exactly what you want. Rozzy then also put me in touch with Simon Rodway. www.silvercanetours.com He did our Sherlock Holmes tour. He was excellent as well.
One funny thing we did find out is that people in London walk a lot faster than we usually do. I suppose it is because they do so much more walking than we do here in the states and rely so much more on public transportation to get around. They've got to put a bounce in their step to get where they are going! Luckily, we were able to step it up from our usual laid back pace and managed to keep up.

As I mentioned, Rick Steves was a great resource. I bought some of his books (which I think now have more highlighted entries in them than not) and visited his website often.
However, I would have to say that Tripadvisor was my best friend! They have so much information! Most pages have external links and you can save points of interests and hotels plus make notes so you can come back to them later. I also especially loved being able to read reviews from other travelers.
And, I did ask questions on both site forums when I could not find an answer through google searches. Thankfully, there are lots of folks willing to help but do be prepared to run into some with snarky responses. Don't let them get to you no matter how discouraged they might make you feel at the time. Information is out there everywhere!
I also would track down every attraction website that we might be interested in. I signed up for travel websites. I just soaked up everything I could find for probably a good full year. Let me tell you my geography knowledge of Europe now is way better than it ever was when I was in school and had to learn it!

For the majority of my hotels I booked through booking.com. I found their website to be the most user friendly. It provided good user reviews and was easy to tell what sort of bed configurations the rooms had. Booking was easy and cancellations were too. All my reservations made through them went off without a hitch. I did do some rate comparisons with some other sites such as Expedia, etc. but usually ended up going back with them. I did make some reservations directly with some hotels when I could not find all the information I needed online or the rate was less by booking directly.

Our transportation was completely via public transportation. We did 2 weeks without a car. We rode the trains all over Europe and took cabs to and from train stations. There were a couple routes that I opted for a special shuttle service that I was able to find through some simple searching. I do know one thing I read about London is to make sure you use only the black cabs to avoid getting ripped off.

Some other good .com travel sites I found usefull or at least good reading were LonelyPlanet, CityDiscovery, VisitLondon, and Viator just to name a few. If you just perform any searches I guarantee you you can chase rabbits all day long and come up with more information than you ever need. Also you can always watch travel videos for tips on Youtube and Amazon. Londontown and Timeout have events listings that might be useful too.

If all else fails please do feel free to contact me and I will try to help if I can. I am by no means an expert but I did get to where I found it fun to track down answers.

Good luck with your planning! You can do it!!!!

 

[mariezp]

What were the temperatures like while you were there? I was in Great Britain in May and we never saw a warm day.

The temperature was pretty much perfect. Slightly foggy in the morning, warm during the day and light jackets in the evenings. My husband said it was as he always imagined.... quintessential London. We were impressed!

 

[annegirl]

For the majority of my hotels I booked through booking.com. I found their website to be the most user friendly. It provided good user reviews and was easy to tell what sort of bed configurations the rooms had. Booking was easy and cancellations were too. All my reservations made through them went off without a hitch. I did do some rate comparisons with some other sites such as Expedia, etc. but usually ended up going back with them. I did make some reservations directly with some hotels when I could not find all the information I needed online or the rate was less by booking directly.

So glad to hear you had a good experience with this! I have been using them a lot as well.

 

[laurafergie]

This is wonderful! Can't wait for more!

 

[mariezp]

So glad to hear you had a good experience with this! I have been using them a lot as well.

I do hope you have awesome luck making reservations through them as well! Looks like you have found some nice places to stay. I will be taking notes!



It is great to have planning resources that are able to supply photos to help you make your hotel choices. A good deal of the hotels I picked on this trip was based off of the "feel" of the place since my mind was thinking in terms that this might be a once in a lifetime trip. (Of course, all bets are off now!) I wanted the majority of the places we stayed to give us the feel of being immersed in Europe. Most stays were in a building that had a historical architecturally pleasing aesthetic appeal. (OLD) Also, I did make a few splurges that were well worth it. With all the places we stayed I was not disappointed although some did amuse us. (Don't be surprised when you run across elevators that will only hold 2 people.... only 1 if you have a suitcase. lol! Actually, be grateful for any lift because many of those old buildings have none and only have numerous flights of stairs!)

Now for my next trip I will probably make our lodging choices a little differently. I still want places that evoke the feel of Europe but since I want to be able to stay as long as possible I have a feeling that expense will play a much bigger roll in making my choices. Also, after realizing how little time we would actually spend in our rooms when we could be out and about exploring it just really doesn't make much sense for us to spend double on a room that is going to end up being just a place to shower and get a little sleep. If I get real brave we may even give staying in a hostel a try but I am guessing that the majority of our nights will be spent in something somewhere between a hostel and a castle. lol! Thankfully, the options are endless and it is so easy to do a little shopping around to compare prices from the comfort of your own home and find something that will meet your needs.

 

[mariezp]

This is wonderful! Can't wait for more!

Thank you! Working on more. Hopefully, I will have the next day up soon!

 

[mariezp]

Day 4, August 30, 2014
We arrived in Ouistreham, France at the ferry port for Caen bright and early, 6:45am. We were to take a shuttle to the train station from this point. Here was one of the few places we had any confusion.... did not end up working out bad for us but we did end up riding free on the shuttle to the train station which should have set us back a few Euros. I totally forgot that we were supposed to get tickets until after we boarded. Thank heavens we did not get thrown from the bus! lol! We made it to the train which would take us straight into Paris.

In the area we traveled in France via train it was somewhat rather lackluster in comparison to England/UK. I assume it might be like the USA and maybe the train tracks run through areas that are most direct and out of the way of the nicer areas rather than scenic. Wasn't much to see that looked a lot different from home unless we passed through a town with older buildings. Still half asleep/jetlagged combined with speeding by on buses and trains and getting used to a new camera I came up rather short on really good photos of this leg of our journey.

When we got off the train at Paris St. Lazare station we spotted this tiny little girl no bigger than my 14 year old Emma, maybe all of 100 pounds. She was trying to make her way through the terminal and was lugging a huge suitcase, a smaller bag and an awkwardly large folding table. Poor thing had a totally frightened and lost look on her face. Being from Texas where one never meets a stranger and the guys being the gentlemen they are they offered to help her with her load. We automatically made a new friend even as we were miles away from home.
Just so happens that she was from Canada. She was in Paris for a huge horse show. She was a horse massage therapist although I have no idea how in the world she could have possibly been strong enough to make any difference with animals that have got to be ten times her in size. Turns out the group she had been traveling with had some changes in their schedule so she had basically been abandoned and left on her own to make her way to the airport for her return home. She was so thankful for our help.
I had booked a car to pick us up rather than attempt to traverse the Paris metro. The driver was kind enough to let her ride along with us... for an additional fee, of course. We dropped her off at the airport and made our way on towards our destination, the Disneyland Hotel.


Since we were missing our annual trip to Disneyland in Anaheim and this was likely the one and only time we would ever go to Disneyland Paris I had decided to go all out and stay on site in THE Disneyland Paris Hotel. After all have you ever seen a picture of the hotel? It is heavenly just looking at it from the outside! Something out of a fairy tale, right? I didn't even go with the basic rooms but went completely overboard with the club rooms so we could have a private entrance to the park and see the fireworks over the castle directly from our rooms. The hotel was indeed impressive..... so much so that my tired bunch were totally party poopers and did not even seem all that interested in heading to the park. I was hugely disappointed because I would spend my ever waking moment inside the park but I put on my smile as best I could. I tried to make the best of it and not make a big deal. Apparently it worked because I don't think anybody noticed.

We finally made it to the park sometime after noon, had a mediocre lunch, rode a few rides, and had dinner at the Blue Lagoon which is DLP's version of Blue Bayou.(did not even compare)

The castle though, now it is impressive. So very pretty!

Love these little popcorn turner guys at Disneyland! No surprise that they have them in DLP too.

Haunted Mansion was fun as expected but their version is just a bit creepy.

Even though the park was opened late since it was Saturday we came back to our room well before closing time.... washed a little laundry in our sinks (whoo-hoo!) and watched the fireworks from our balcony.

This was my favorite fireworks shot of the castle but I was so annoyed by the little mysterious symbol that appeared in the image on the middle of the castle. I just assumed I had hit some button that made it appear on the picture. However, later when I looked at Ana's photos her picture had the same thing. Go figure! Guess it was some sort of reflection from the oval stained glass window.

We were such a lively bunch. Some of the crew didn't even make it through to the end of the fireworks and the rest of us fell fast asleep shortly afterwards. Not nearly as eventful as I had imagined but by golly I got to stay in that fancy hotel!