LeHavre, Gurnsey, and Cobh

LeHavre is about 4 hours and 4 million miles from Paris.  Other than everything being French, you would never even know that you were that close to Le Tour Eiffel...  We docked in LeHavre and took a tax-ee to the downtown area, which was mainly closed.   

It was actually quite nice, and quiet, I guess because world cup soccer was on.  

There was this group of musicians playing and dancing, and they were good, even without a big crowd to watch them. 

Some kind of mascot thing.  Funny enough, when we are in Korea and we don't understand what is being said, people naturally assume that we aren't from around there and that we don't speak Korean.  Here, when the kids didn't understand what was being said, people assumed that they had to speak French LOUDER!  If you have ever had that happen, you know that it really doesn't help.    And if you are trying to speak to someone that doesn't speak English,
DON'T.   TALK.   LOUDER.   AND.   SLOWER.....      THEY.   DON'T.    UNDERSTAND!

This is the Eglise St Joseph, a church in the town.  While we very rarely go to church in Korea, when we are on vacation, we go almost every day!  

This is the view up the spire.  

Walking around the deserted and closed shops.  

Back on the boat, and leaving France.  

This is the next day.  We are going to Guernsey, in the Channel Islands.

We didn't know where it was before, either, so don't feel bad.



Um... if this still doesn't help, that big lump above the circle is Great Britain and Wales, the bumpy lump on the left is Ireland, and the wiggly place on the bottom that kind of looks like Abraham Lincoln's profile  is France.

Guernsey is, I guess, a British territory, but also it's own country.  When you are in the shops, they will take Pounds, but give you change in Guernsey dollars, which you can only spend in Guernsey, or take home as a souvenir.  This is a castle that guards the harbor.   

So cute... but I don't know that I would necessarily make a sign with only 3 places of interest... they could have just handed out postcards...   

The waterfront street. 

We decided to walk out to the lighthouse along the castle walls. 

Another thing about Guernsey is that although the people speak English, we still couldn't understand about 3/4 of what they were saying.  Gary has the hardest time with this.  People just want to talk to him, and he just nods and smiles.  Who knows what he has agreed to!

Next set of cool phone booths.

The Wallgate was a new thing for us!  You put your hands in and soap squirts out from the silver knobby thing in the top.  Then about 10 seconds later, water... so you can lather and rinse.  But wait... the Wallgate experience isn't over yet... lastly blow-drying happens... all right in that one unit!  As we were walking out of the bathroom marveling at the experience, this Guernsey gent says... "It wuhrks greet when it wuhrks!"  We all laughed, except Gary, who smiled and nodded and asked us--- what did he say?

This is the Hauteville House, where Victor Hugo spent some time writing.  Of course, it was closed when we got there, but if you want to see inside, which I did, you can look here:

http://www.visitguernsey.com/victor-hugos-guernsey

The view from the top.  

You can see the roofs of the houses, and all of the little chimneys.

Love these secret little passageways. 

This was the bank, and another little side street.  Guernsey was actually a nice place to visit, and I think it is selling itself short by claiming it has only three points of interest.  This little side street reminded me of a back way in Portsmouth.. just cute little shops, nicely priced, and despite it being Sunday, many were open. 

And since we had Guernsey money we had to spend... well, why not!

Wouldn't you love to wake up one day and see this?!?  This is our next stop, Cork, Ireland.

Cork was a major transatlantic port and the departure place for about one third of Irish immigrants.  It was also the last port that the Titanic stopped before sinking.  So, despite the huge immigrant business, it is the Titanic that Cork uses to make it's mark.

There is a Titanic Museum, several Titanic shops, and a Titanic Memorial and Gardens.

Not great if you are getting off a cruise.

Ah, no thanks, I don't want to see photos of the Titanic victims eating dinner...  

Instead we went to this park, with an extraordinary number of benches.  There were A LOT!

Walking uphill to go to ... yup...  a church!

This is St. Coleman Cathedral.  

And this is the view from their parking lot.  Each of those houses is connected to its neighbor.  Actually it is one long apartment building, but each one is painted separately.  

The view inside.  

After that we decided to take a walk to the Titanic Memorial Gardens. This was a rest along the way. 

And some nice scenery. 

That brick wall to the left is the wall of the gardens.  It wasn't really much of a garden, mainly just four or five stones with Titanic passengers names engraved.    Not even one mention of the 2.5 million success stories, though...

So we just decided to play on the shore instead.  By this point we are kind of Titanic-ed out, so we started having some fun.  This rock?  It was a paperweight on the Titanic!  That rusted out piece of scrap metal?  Yup!  A pipe, from the Titanic.  I actually brought two pieces of the Titanic home with me, but, shhhhhhh... they'll probably want it back for the museum.

Leaving Cobh.

And the last farmhouse that passengers on the Titanic ever saw... 

London!

We started our summer trip home this year in London.  We decided to spend a couple of days here because we figured, when are we coming to London again?  It seemed like a good idea when we were planning it, and it turned out OK, because we had the worst jet lag, and went to bed both nights at around 6:30.  We are such fun!

Here are the kids in Heathrow Airport.  We had about a 14 hour flight, and it was about 2 in the afternoon when we arrived, but it was midnight for us.  Party-girl Pooks was fine, but R-Man looks like he is ready for bed. 

We were planning to take the bus/tube from the airport to our hotel, which we thought would be manageable, but at the last minute I got cold feet and had Gary book a taxi pick-up... THANK GOD!  London is huge, and crowded, and it would not be easy to manage four suitcases, three carry-ons, and two kids, especially when you have NO IDEA where you are going.  Even the taxi guy had to use the GPS, and he was from there!  This is our place, we stayed in a cellar room, and even that was pricey... but we got our money's worth... remember we were in bed at 6:30 each night!!!

Here we are, eating dinner the first night... everyone is sleepy but Pooks. 

Here we are in one of those cool red phone booths... love them!  I don't know why the picture is sideways, but we were standing up at the time.  This is the next morning at 5:00 AM.  We actually ate breakfast at McDonald's, where we NEVER eat, because it was the only place open at that time.  All of the local, regular breakfast places didn't open until 9:00, when we were ready for lunch.  Actually, we think this is why America won the Revolutionary War... jet lag.  If you wake up 5 hours before your enemy, you have a slight advantage!

We were also the first people in Kensington Gardens, the gardens surrounding Will and Kate's house.  Exercisers slowly started trickling in as we were sight-seeing.  

The Peter Pan Statue.  

Walking down by the pond, and under the tunnel.  It really was a beautiful morning.
We finished our walk through Kensington Garden, and made our way to the Marble Arch (no picture) where we boarded the Big Red Sight-seeing Tour of London.  

Because really, what better way to see London than with every other tourist, and an obnoxious soccer-loving maniac giving you the details... Ahhh... good times! 

As usual, I have about 1000 pictures of our day, but I will just pick out a few winners to share.  If you want to see more, let me know!  Here is our first view of Big Ben from the roof of the big red bus.

Actually, we kept joking that we were the Griswolds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc

This is the Golden Jubilee Bridge, and I think that is Parliament in the background.  

St. Paul's.  This is a really big church.  

Lucky for us, it is also a National Winner in the Loo of the Year Awards.  Unfortunately, London is like most of the other places we have visited in Europe... there are no potties!  If you want to go, you have to pay, which makes it feel like a rip-off... I guess that is how they keep people from loitering around any place too long... but it also makes any place that has a few shrubs into a rest area... just saying, would it kill them to have a few bathrooms???

Back on the street... empty bladders and all!  Phew! 

Here we are having breakfast for lunch, because of course, lunch doesn't start until noon, but when you eat breakfast at 5, you are ready for lunch at 10:30.  So we are in a bar, having breakfast for lunch.   Of course the bartender is like, "Water?"  And we replied, if it is too early for lunch, it is too early for beer... 

Our big red bus went over London Bridge, but it was just a plain ole bridge, nothing really spectacular about it, it wasn't even falling down, so we didn't stop and take any pictures, but we did stop here, the Tower Bridge.  

Back on the big red bus, and this time we get a great view of the Thames River and the London Eye, which is that big ferris wheel. 

We hop off the bus to see this guy, playing bagpipes.  We originally thought that bagpipes were Scottish, but I think every place we visited had at least one guy playing them. 

Here we are, with a Bobby, in front of yup, Big Ben... (Parliament!)

And once you are off the bus at Big Ben (Parliament!), it is walking distance to  many of the other sights from European Vacation.  So here we are, at Westminster Abbey.

And really, after spending most of the morning riding and walking around London, I have to say that the Brits are jolly good sports about having royalty money rubbed in their faces over and over again.  This place is huge, and gorgeous, but really, we are over the glory and greatness of Elizabeth, Philip, Will, and Kate.  Enough with naming stuff after yourselves, and the statues, and all of that stuff.  We get it.  You own London and you're nice enough to share it with the rest of us.  Thanks.

Outside Buckingham Palace.  Not a toilet in sight.  

The guard.

Gary actually got most of his face into Buckingham Palace.  That is as close as any of us got to HRH.  

What can you even say about this.  Even the path is dedicated to the queen. 

To use a bathroom we had to pretend that we were staying at this hotel near the Hard Rock Cafe.  While we were waiting I found this.  It was part of a huge display, and unfortunately there were none for sale. 

Back on the bus.  This is as close as we got to going into Harrods.  Because if you think the palace and streets are packed, you should see the mobs outside here.  

Will and Kate were nice enough to let us take a photo in front of their house.  I have to say, I would not like to live here, or in Buckingham Palace.  You can't leave your windows open.  And weirdos are always walking around your house and using your bushes as a rest stop.  I would much rather live just about anywhere else.  

The royal Kensington merry-go-round.  It was actually really pretty.   This is our last stop before we head home and to to bed.  It is pretty late, like 5:30, so you know... 

After another Mickie D's 5AM breakfast we head out for our last morning in London.  Another stroll around Kensington Gardens and one shot in front of the Royal Albert Hall.  

All aboard... we are getting ready for our cruise.  

Tomorrow, France.