day 5- Tour day 2 Belgium to Heidelberg, Germany

Day 5- Belgium to Heidelberg, Germany

Early start this morning, we have our bags outside our rooms by 6.45 am and have breakfast then leave our hotel at 7.30 . We sadly bid farewell to this very beautiful city and drive through the Belgian countryside, before  we  cut across a corner of the Netherlands and head into  Germany. The boys are riveted by the history of Belgium and love the fact that it is the most “fought” on soil, according to our guide Lynda. We have a mid morning amenities stop, during which we have the boys running races up and down the deserted car-park. Kathryn joins in on a race or two and this burns off a little of the boys energy before reboarding the bus. We  arrive at Boppard just before lunch to depart on our  Rhine River cruise. The cruise lasts 90 minutes and we have very German sausage, fries and Mark has some schnitzel as well for lunch whilst we cruise down the Rhine. It is very misty and beautiful and it becomes more clear as we cruise further down the river. We see many small castles dotted along the peaks on either side of the river and many vineyards built on impossibly steep slopes. We see the well know  Loreley statue  on its little island in the middle of the Rhine before we dock and disembark.  We have more than a few anxious moments when we cannot find Liam anywhere. Mark checks the bathrooms and I checked the upper decks. Finally we locate him near the doors waiting to disembark. We must have walked past him at least twice in our frantic search  but he didn’t try to catch our attention, I now officially have at least 20 new grey hairs as the most likely scenario running through my Mummy mind was that he had quietly slipped overboard at some point in the last 5 minutes! We leave our  Rhine cruise at St Goar and drive further down the valley before joining the autobahn. We drive on to Heidelberg and spend the next 2 hours  exploring and taking photos. We enjoy some  wonderful gelato before wandering back to the bus. Drive to our hotel and after striking bad traffic we arrive late  . Dinner is at 8.30 pm, we finally get the  kids into bed , download our photos , recharge camera batteries, arrange clothes for kids for the next day then fall into bed.

Tiring but very beautiful scenery filled our long day……..

day 4 (Day 1 of tour) London - Belgium

DAY 4

 

Early start at the Trafalgar departure centre. 6.30 am. Ouch! Drive to Dover then take P and O ferry the Pride of Calais to Calais. In Calais we board our brand new bus (1 day old), our chariot for the coming 12 days,  then drive to Brussels in Belgium. On arrival in Brussels we stop at the Atomium for a brief photo shoot then continue onto the hotel to freshen up before heading into the old town. Wow, the  capital  is truly B.E.Autiful. We start with a walking tour through the old town taking in the Plas then on to see the Manekin Pis. Next we enjoy a few hours of free time to  wander the streets and have dinner. In one of those fun and frivolous moments we decided to have our waffles for dessert before dinner then wander the narrow cobbled restaurant street with the colourful maitre de’s who try everything to capture your trade. They grab the boys, shake hands and in we go !

What’s on offer ?

12 euro set menu

appertif

smoked salmon / scampi rich in butter

mussels and chips (mulle & frit)   or roast chicken

marble cake

Kids tried mussels (Maddie  and Riley did, Callum and Liam- absolutely not! ) but in the end they had margarita pizza and spaghetti bolognaise  instead.

 Mark and I tried the cherry beer . For all those who know us , you know we never have regular beer- just not beer drinkers so this was a first (and maybe last….it was OK but nothing to write home about)

Free drinks for kids, woo hoo!

We wandered back to the square , beautiful photography as the light falls

Finally take the bus back to the hotel. End day one………

Day 3-London

Day 3

Early start St Pauls Cathedral- got the tube sussed along with the relevant closures and manage to negotiate around without incident- much less busy today in terms of tourists- yippee!!!

Next to the HMS Belfast , a frigate turned into a maritime museum. We spent quite some time wandering the "bowels" of this frigate which is permanently docked across from the Tower of London. The kids loved going down into the engine room but fancied themselves more as the Captain of the boat (ship???? ok, so I am NOT savvy with the correct terminology here, sorry). Apparently this frigate carried not only the captain of this boat but the Admiral of the Fleet during war time so there are two separate bridges- one for this boat and the other so as the fleet could be managed without interfering with the running of this vessel. All very interesting. 

Then on to the Britain at War Museum, gas masks, Winston Churchill and bomb shelters, rations etc. It was a great insight for the kids and sitting inside a mock backyard "blitz" shelter listening to the various sounds of different bombers and bombs exploding was quite frightening.  The kids played dress ups with various military uniforms and tried on a variety of gas masks. As you leave you have to "climb" out through  a section of the neighbourhood the morning after a bomb raid that is all ruined.

What can I say, but with 3 little boys, the wartime history is kind of a must. Next time we might round it out by doing the  Churchill museum and cabinet rooms. 

Maddie and I did Chiselhurst caves  a few years back during a visit to London and it has a fabulous recreation of the facility set up during the blitz to house thousands and thousands of Londoners every night during the blitz.  the tour is by kerosene lamp light and very informative.

Lunch at the Cornish Pasty shop at the tube then back to Green Park and wander through to the Royal Mews. Guided tour, was great, learnt all about the various carriages and even walked through the stables. We saw some of the horses although alot of them were with Lizzie at Windsor! The kids insisted we take photos of the stall nameplate which read "Jasper". That Queen has impeccable taste in names huh?

We make way back via Hyde Park corner to our apartment and have Chinese dinner  then make sure bags are packed and ready for our big tour start tomorrow. Need to get up at 4.45 am and leave for Trafalgar bus depot at 5.45 am

Note to self private car booking is better than taxi at costs and saved 2 whole hours by joining at the tour centre and not getting a hotel pickup.

Very sore feet but all in all a good day.  the kids were disappointed that we didn't get to the Museum of Natural History this visit. Last year we did it twice and it is a definite favourite and must for kids of all ages. 

Where's Won ???

A little sidebar from our European trip...

You have all heard of Where's Wally, well, we have our own version now. It is a game Jasper and I play...let me explain. Jasper is quite the social little being. I walk him at least once a day but often two long walks and on these walks Jasper  has "his people"! There is the cleaner from downstairs who has no English, but chatters away in Chinese to Jasper and fusses and clucks his tongue, there is a veritable "team" of drivers both chinese and phillipino who hang about near the entrance waiting for their employers who are also firm friends with him.  They pat him and get him to sit and roll their eyes when he rolls on his back for more attention.  But, before all these admirers there was Won. There is a service station up the hill from us and one of the attendants there has made a big fuss of Jasper since I started walking him. He calls Jasper's name and Jasper bounds over and gets kisses and hugs and cuddles and generally climbs all over this guy. So after the first few days of this routine I felt really bad that I didn't know the mans name. Next time I will just look at his name badge I thought, (very clever of me I know), but alas  it was all in Chinese....no help. So I asked straight out the following day, "I am so  sorry, but I don't know your name?"

"Won" he answered, so I repeated "Won?" , "No, WON"  he stressed,  a little more timidly I said "Won?" "No, Won .....R....O....N".....ohhhhhh, I grinned  Ron , "yes, Won!" he smiled a beaming big smile.

So now every time we walk past the service station I say "where's Won"  and Jazzy looks eagerly all around for his first and favourite friend :)

Visiting the Tower of London

Day 2...Tower of London

Day 2

 Good Friday 

" Took the underground to collect our London Visitors Passes.

Then back on the tube to Tower of London. “

Well that was the plan. Sounds so simple really. We were running early for the advertised 10 am opening of the London Visitors Centre so decided to get off 1 tube stop earlier at Green Park and have a wander through the Park. We enjoyed the stroll and got to enjoy Buckingham Palace and her surrounds. The kids found the squirrels to be somewhat more exciting than the palace it seems , especially since , for the first time, they are each armed with cameras. Wow those squirrels can move.  We now have a great collection of around 400 blurry squirrel shots if anyone is interested in a viewing session LOL

We arrived at the visitors centre to find it had been open already for one hour and the queue to collect our passes  stretched from the top floor along the length of the building then down the stairs and almost to the street. Ouch!  In the end we got our passes and headed to the Tower only to be thwarted by the old and unreliable London Underground. We quite literally walked in circles. Got on at one stop , had to get off at the next stop due to line stoppages, followed the signs on foot and ended up right back where we started! In the end we cut our losses and jump in a cab.

The tower was very crowded and with our passes we managed to skip ahead of the ticket line. Woo Hoo…..The boys loved getting to watch an exhibition of medieval firepower  (a traction trebuchet) at work  (see as mother to 3 boys I know my medieval war machines by name!!)   before we joined a yeoman Warder for a tour of the grounds and an insight into its 900 year history. There was a special exhibit  in the White tower of Henry IIIV armour. A celebration of the fact that this year marks 500 years since Henry took the throne.  We visited the chapel (closed to the public by the way unless accompanied by a warder) and also finally late in the day the crown jewels. Light drizzling rain fell during the day on and off and the number of tourists was quite overwhelming. We caught a combination of overcrowded buses (lot of not so nice pushing and shoving) and tube train back to Earls Court where we got the kids subway before helping them into bed. Back to the guidebook to plan tomorrow. A less than perfect day! But hey, look for the good. Tomorrow is another day.