Spring Break 2017

Tower Bridge

For spring break this year our family spent 6 days in London and 5 days in Paris. The last time we were in London it was our family's first foray into international travel and we were a little nervous.  Taylor was 6 and doesn't remember the trip and the little boys weren't even born.  Unfortunately, BYU's spring break didn't match with the little boys's spring break so he had to stay in Provo and take midterm exams.  Miriya also had to work so couldn't join us either.  They have decided that this adulting thing kind of sucks.

We flew into London Heathrow on an overnight flight and were ready to see the sights after landing at 8AM.  We rode the subway to our hotel, stored the luggage and then went on a self guided tour of the historical part of downtown London.  Since you really don't sleep on an overnight flight, we made it a short day and returned to the hotel in the afternoon to get some real sleep.  The next day we visited the Tower of London.  We loved this place last time we were in London and the little boys loved it as well. One story that our family particularly enjoyed:  In 1683, when excavating for a new set of stairs the workers found a box with the skeletons of 2 little boys.  Turns out that in 1463 there was a fight for the crown after King Henry IV had died.  He had 2 sons that were 9 and 12 and were being watched over by their uncle, Richard.  Henry V was the 12 year old and was going to be crowned the next king but next thing you know, the 2 boys had disappeared and Richard took the throne for himself.  Hmmm, our boys went crazy with the implications of the skeletons in the box.  I think since the skeletons were similar in age to our boys it made the history much more realistic.

Tower of London

We also had the opportunity to visit Stonehenge.  This is one place that we had to skip on our last visit, I was so glad we were able to see it this time around.  It is very cool.  Unfortunately, you don't get to walk among the stones but it is pretty amazing to see how big the stones are and how perfectly arranged and to contemplate how it was done without any power tools or big machines.  It is also fun to talk with the boys about what they thought the stones were used for.  Isaac was pretty sure that it was put up as a jungle gym for the ancient kids.

We visited the British Museum and got to learn about the Rosetta Stone as well as see all to pillaged marbles from the Parthenon.  It was hard for the boys to visualize the statues inside the parthenon and Tom and I agreed that the Greeks got a bad deal and should at least have copies made to put inside their relatively empty parthenon on the hilltop.

Westminster Abbey

We stayed at a hotel right next to King's Cross station.  We did this because we had an early train through the chunnel to Paris.  We tried and tried to find platform 9 3/4 but failed miserably.  All the guidebooks talked about a Harry Potter set up that you could take pictures at but we searched that station and were unable to find it at all.  I guess we really are muggles.

The train to Paris was uneventful, Isaac didn't even realize we were going through the chunnel.  He was surprised when we got off the train in France and there was no ocean to be seen.  What a funny kid!  We didn't like Paris much the first time we went.  It was filthy and the people were rude.  We went back to France when we visited Marsielle but it was also filthy.  We decided then that there is nothing in France that you can't find elsewhere in Europe and we don't need to go back.  BUUUUT, we were in London and had a few extra unplanned days of vacation and the little boys had never seen Notre Dame or the Louve or the Eiffel Tower and Disney Paris was the last Disney they needed to visit in order to have visited every Disneyland in the whole world, so we made an exception and returned to Paris.

Our first 3 days of Paris were at Disneyland Paris.  Disneyland should be clean, right?  Nope, French clean is not American clean.  There was trash all around the park because trash cans were never emptied and the people would smoke wherever they happened to be, including in line.  Uggh!  We told the boys to enjoy France because we really aren't going back.  We also should have realized that Europeans have spring break too.  Disneyland during spring break is always a lot of crowds and long lines.  Here is a truth that we have deduced from travels.  No one respects the queue like the Americans.  The worst were the Chinese, they would jump up and elbow people out of the way to be the first to get on an airplane with assigned seats.  The next worst are the Europeans.  They do a sort of line creep where they look like they are in line but jump ahead of everyone at the last minute and if you take measures to prevent it, they just push you over from behind.  We reminded ourselves of why we usually go to Disneyland in October or January.  The boys had a blast riding Big Thunder Railroad and The Haunted Mansion.  Tom loves Star Tours but it was all in French so kind of loses its appeal when you can't understand what is going on.  In Hong Kong they had Chinese lines and English lines.  No such luck in Europe.  We were blessed with warm weather and no rain, hooray!

Notre Dame, seen from across the Seine

Rose window at St Chappel, a camera can't do it justice

Our last few days in Paris we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral.  The boys loved climbing the bell tower and "petting" the creepy gargoyles you can see from the ground.  We also visited the Louve and the boys got to see the actual Mona Lisa for themselves and learn about the Code of Hammurabi.  We took pictures in front of the Eiffel Tower and then also got to marvel at the stained glass windows at Sainte Chappel.  This was also a new stop for Tom and I.  So glad we got to see it this time around.  I have never met a cathedral that I didn't love but the stained glass windows in this chapel are absolutely amazing.  We should have brought our binoculars so we could see the stories at the top of windows.  We used our camera lens and it worked in a pinch.  They had a beautiful story about Christ entering Jerusalem and then the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.  It was actually a great lesson to discuss with the boys for Easter and with the beautiful windows bringing the story to life the boys really listened.

When we flew home there was a HUGE line in immigration, we just sailed by.  Thank you Global Entry, worth every penny!