~ Kenneth Stilling
Only eight days till we head to Paris! It's that once in a lifetime trip we all dream about taking, only this one is becoming a reality!
My In-Laws, Pat and Stew, are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this year, and they decided the thing they'd like to do more than anything is to take the family, as a group, someplace no one had ever been. That's a pretty tall order since there's been a lot of traveling in this family. Pat & Stew have been to Greece, Austria, Hungary, Ireland, Alaska and most of the interesting areas of the US, including Hawaii with Kurt. Patti and April spent last summer in Amsterdam and Brussels, and I think both have been to Germany. Kara went around the world, stopping in 10 different countries on her Semester at Sea trip in college, and Jill spent three weeks in China after her freshman year at Pitt. Laura took a day trip to London with me once, when I worked for US Airways, but that's about it for overseas travel. I've been a lot of places with my job, but rarely have I had the chance to actually sight-see for more than a day or so.
The spring was filled with numerous meetings where all sorts of ideas were tossed about (I was in Qatar, so I missed out on these epic brain-storming sessions): Ireland, Germany, the Caribbean, the Baltic Sea.... and when the dust settled, it was decided that we would venture forth on a Seine River cruise called Paris and the Heart of Normandy.
I've never been on a cruise before. I had seen the river cruise boats working up and down the Rhine River when I flew out of Germany in the 90's flying relief supplies into Sarajevo, and wondered what that was like, but didn't think that would ever work it's way into our family vacation plans. Pat and Stew took a similar cruise on the Danube a few years ago, loved it, and wanted to show us what a fun experience it is. I have to admit, the idea of moving all over a part of Europe and never having to change hotel rooms has a certain appeal!The cruise itinerary is truly exciting:
- Day and a half in Paris (Louve?)
- Giverny & Vernon (Monet's garden)
- Rouen
- Normandy Beaches
- Les Andelys & Conflans
- Conflans & Paris (Palace of Versailles?)
- Paris
The cruise package is through Viking River Cruises, who seem to have set up quite an operation all over Europe and Asia. Pat and Stew graciously made all the arrangements for the Cruise itself, so the nitty-gritty details of transportation and lodging to and from the cruise was left to us. Laura and decided that since we were going all the way to Europe with all the kids, probably for the very last time, we should do a little something extra while we were there. Looking at the map and tossing out ideas for interesting things to do and see for the days we had left, we settled on a trip to London, another new experience for all of us.
Since we weren't confining our activities strictly to the cruise, we decided to get our own airline tickets to and from Paris (Delta flies non-stop from Pittsburgh to Paris, pretty much the only international flight out of Westrn PA), then see how much time we had left to fill in London. I scoured the Internet a couple of different days and finally found a pretty good fare through Kayak.com. It probably saved about $500.00, but then I gave it right back by arranging transportation from the airport to the cruise dock through Viking, so it was pretty much a wash. We probably could have taken taxis, but it will be a lot less hassle finding someone there waiting to pick us up, and who knows exactly where we're going, and already has a vehicle big enough to transport all five of us.
The 8 day cruise ends Sunday, August 15th, and our plane reservations home are for the 19th, so we have 3+ days available to us to see London. The next trick was figuring out how to get there and back. There are pretty much three choices:
- Rent a car and ride the ferry across the English Channel then drive up to London (9+ hours, assuming you know what your doing/where you're going)
- Take a bus either through the Chunnel or across on a ferry (9 hours)
- Ride the Eurostar train through Chunnel (2-1/5 hours)
The price seems pretty steep at first blush, but the Eurostar Chunnel train ended up being our choice. Laura did the research, picked our times and seats, and made our reservations, all on-line! For five of us, two round-trip tickets are going to cost a bit more than $800. That's really not bad when you break it down, and we don't waste two whole days traveling. Plus (Wait! There's more!) - we get the experiences of the high speed train ride, the Chunnel, and views of the French and English countrysides!Next: where to stay in London for just three nights. That seems like it would be easy, right? Especially when you start looking for rooms two months out. The problem is it's summer in London and apparently EVERYONE is looking for rooms to rent.
I contacted a travel agency, but they really didn't want to have anything to do with the process... a couple of hotel rooms just wasn't a money making proposition for them. So... I hit the internet again... looking at all the different sites, trying to gage location vs. pricing for 5 people. Obviously the closer in to downtown London the higher the prices. The question was, how far away was too far?
Everything seemed so expensive: I was faced with at LEAST two hotel rooms, maybe three, and the cheapest I could find was $200/night. Things were looking pretty bleak when I decided to see if there were vacation properties available... apartments big enough to sleep five people that might be close enough. Sure enough, I found several websites that offered vacation rentals, including HomeAway.com where I thought I found a winner titled, "Central and spacious - London Eye & Big Ben short Walk! SUMMER AVAILABILI
I contacted the owner who replied back that, yes he had availability for the dates I wanted, but oh, did I know there was a 5 night minimum? I looked all over the web page and couldn't find anything that said 5 night minimum. Oh well. But luck was on our side. I kept looking and suddenly, on the same site, stumbled across "Hip, chilled and bohemian mansion apartment, Central London nr Camden Town."
Now that sounded interesting.... Upon further investigation, it turns out it's a complete two-bedroom apartment in a swanky tree-lined neighborhood about a mile north of downtown London, sleeps 5, is available for the three nights we need it, AND only costs 570 Pounds total! It even has a name: "
Yobaba Lounge!" It looks art deco fun, and the owner has been terrific to deal with, so we are totally psyched to see if it's all it purports to be.The final logistical item was finding a final night's stay in Paris, for the night we return from London, and prior to catching our flight home then next morning. That took another trolling through the web pages trying to find someplace that would accommodate 5 people in only two hotel rooms. Laura wanted to be somewhere in town to enjoy one last afternoon and evening
among the sights and sounds of Paris, so the pressure was on. Finally I found a site called Booking.com that listed rooms with their no-kidding sleeping capacity. At the Best Western Empire Elysees, just a few blocks from the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysées, I found two rooms, (one supposedly really sleeps three!) for less that 300 Euros. Not bad for Paris in August. I have some trepidation on this one (Best Western in Paris?), but it's one night, and the various ratings from other visitors say it's not a bad value for the money and location. If we can have a fun evening, get a good night's sleep and get to the airport the next morning, I'll be happy.Now we just have to pack and figure out to do once we're there! Anyone have any suggestions? ;-)
