Mom In Europe

Wednesday, March 13th: Mom landed in Germany to spend 2.5 weeks in Europe with us. Her trip started out rough. Because of a snowstorm here, her flight was delayed out of Houston for quite a few hours. Once she arrived in Germany, we waited for her luggage to show up. Never happened. We left them our contact info so they could deliver it once it was found. Mom and I drove straight from Frankfurt Airport to meet Nathan at our favorite German restaurant in Schwetzingen. We had a delicious (as always) dinner, but our waiter scolded Mom for not completely finishing her meal. Uhhh... Welcome to Germany! : / 

Thursday, March 14th: After taking Nathan to work, Mom and I hung out at home, waiting for her luggage to show up. It never happened, so we finally left to run a few errands on post and to pick up Nathan from work.

Friday, March 15th: In the morning, we started the long drive to Courmayeur, Italy. Without Mom's luggage. Nathan was battling sickness, so when we arrived at our hotel, he took a nap and Mom and I went walking and shopping downtown. But not before having some wine with Diletta and Andrea : ) (Read here about our last visit to Courmayeur.) That evening we had pizza at The Pizzeria Du Tunnel. It is the best pizza we have ever eaten, and they also have some really good wine. Mom hates cheese and was actually able to order pizza without cheese right off the menu. It had marinara sauce, olive oil, garlic and herbs. It was really tasty!

Saturday, March 16th: We spent most of the day in Annecy, France. It's just on the other side of Mont Blanc and is called the Venice of the Alps. That night we ordered pizza from Du Tunnel again and ate it in the rec room of our hotel, while it snowed.  We said goodbye to Diletta and Andrea, with hopes of them being able to make it out to California as they have planned. We would like to host them for a change!

We came across Fournier Optician. Mom's mom's maiden name was Fournier : )

The lake view was gorgeous!

Sunday, March 17th: Over night it had snowed a foot - probably the most snow we have seen since moving to Europe. Nathan had to dig our car out of the snow before we could load our luggage and drive to Milan.  Before going to the AC Milan game, we walked around downtown. The cathedral there is really impressive, but it was completely overcast and drizzling so it wasn't the most enjoyable time. The game was good, but more importantly, Nathan reached his goal of collecting 20 scarves.

El Shaarawy

Mario Balotelli

Monday, March 18th: We made the long drive back home, and then just hung out at the house and ate dinner.

Tuesday, March 19th: I went in to work and ran a few errands while Mom waited at the house for her luggage. It didn't come, so she finally called and discovered they had made an error. As in, they thought we were coming to pick it up instead of having it delivered. The worst part was she called 30 minutes after the last delivery left. We enjoyed time together at home once Nathan was off work.

Wednesday, March 20th: We hung out at home again, while Nathan went to work. That evening, while Nathan and I were at Christian Campus, Mom's luggage was delivered! She had gone a week without her luggage. Good thing she had packed a few outfits in her carry on! 

Thursday, March 21st: Since we weren't bound to the house, Mom and I spent the day shopping in downtown Heidelberg.

 Gramps & Grandma Gigi's (Mom's parents) wedding china was from Rosenthal. They were married in Stuttgart, Germany in the 1950s.

Friday, March 22nd: We spent another day in Heidelberg to see the castle. We then picked up Nathan from work and the three of us drove to Paris.

 We toured the Apothecary Museum on the castle grounds.

Saturday, March 23rd: The main reason we traveled to Paris, other than wanting to take Mom to see the City of Love, was to visit the Louvre again. When we went with Nathan's family, we left wanting to go back and see a bunch that we missed due to a time crunch. Good thing Mom enjoys art : ) We let her explore the paintings while we headed for artifacts from ancient cultures. After a few hours there, we ate lunch and then walked down the Champs de Elysee, stopping at Laduree for macaroons. Delicious and worth the 20 minute wait in line. We made it to the Arc de Triomphe, and then did some people watching under the Eiffel Tower. The last stop on our Parisian must-sees was Notre Dame. Unfortunately for us, they happened to be celebrating its 850th anniversary and there was a huuuge crowd gathered on the streets surrounding the cathedral. We pushed our way through and encountered some feisty old people who were looking to pick a fight. We hung out for a bit in the park behind Notre Dame, then walked across the bridge, over the Seine and did some street vendor shopping. We then rested at our hotel for a little before dinner. The restaurant recommendation from the girl at the front desk of our hotel had an extremely long line out the door and along the street, so we opted for another place nearby.

waiting in line at The Louvre

ancient Egyptian pottery

linen blanket

makeup tools

old papyrus

setup of an ancient Egyptian temple

This was really interesting. This was at the back of the temple and housed the god, which was woken up and fed each morning by the priests.

This sarcophagus was gorgeous, but I couldn't get a good photo of it because it was behind glass.

One of the things I love about visiting The Louvre is that the building itself is just gorgeous. Makes sense though since it used to be a palace.

And we couldn't go to The Louvre and not stop to see Nike. Ahhh... still my favorite.

Sculpture always impresses me. You can't tell from these pictures, but you could slip your fingers in behind certain parts, like the centaur's legs in the lower picture. That takes skill.

Nathan recognized this straightaway as being from Pompeii. That red paint color is abundant there.

Recognize above and below from the Pergamon Museum? 

inside Laduree on the Champs de Elysee

Lovers' Locks on a bridge over the Seine

This view of Notre Dame is beautiful.

Sunday, March 24th: We had a rainy drive home, and then celebrated Nathan scoring really well on the writing portion of the GRE with a good dinner and Ice Wine.

Monday, March 25th: We hung out at home.

Tuesday, March 26th: Mom joined me at PWOC for our April program. She loved it! We went out to lunch with Katie, Moira, Sophia and Janesse afterwards. Mom and Janesse are now BFFs : ) Nathan left work a little early to drop us off at the airport in Frankfurt Hahn for our flight to London. After we landed at Stansted, we took the bus into London to our hotel and received a little night tour of the city.

Wednesday, March 27th: We got up early in the morning, stopped at Starbucks, and then started our City Sightseeing bus tour. We made it from near Buckingham Palace to Big Ben before we had to get off because we were freezing our butts off. We headed for a pub to eat lunch at in order to warm up and ended up at The Clarence, between Trafalgar Square and Parliament. We shared a table with 2 other people--a man and a woman. The woman was trying to convince the man to financially support a business or charity and was dropping some important names. The only ones we recognized were Prince Harry and Hugh Grant. We then made our to way to Westminster Abbey and then Buckingham Palace on foot.  After a short rest in our hotel, we made our way to Leicester Square to eat dinner at Garrick Arms. That's the pub Nathan and I ate at when we were in London and I had to take Mom there because it's just that good. Then, we hurried back to Victoria Station to see Wicked. The show was great, but we had a pretty disruptive audience. Some teens in front of us and a small child behind. It was somewhat shocking because every show I have ever been to has always had a very respectful audience. We enjoyed it anyways : )

on the City Sightseeing tour bus

I learned how hard it is to take pictures while on those buses. I have much respect for Nathan now! He can get fairly decent shots while we are on them. Me... not so much.

        London street                                        Piccadilly Circus

Trafalgar Square

I love these lions.

St. Paul's

Tower Bridge

going over Tower Bridge

Tower of London

London Eye                                                 Big Ben

Parliament

The Clarence

Winston Churchill                                     Parliament

Westminster Abbey

20th Century Martyrs

Maximilian Kolbe, Manche Masemola, Janani Luwum, Elizabeth of Russia, Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Esther John, Lucian Tapiedi, Wang Zhimring

Buckingham Palace

I have always loved the decor on these gates!

 

St. James' Park

Despite all the time I have spent in England, this was my first telephone booth picture. Crazy!

Yum!

 

Thursday, March 28th: We took the coach from Victoria Station to Oxford. Oh, what a lovely place with such precious memories! And this is my second visit post-studying abroad. I never would have guessed back in Fall 2005 I would be able to do that. Read about my first visit with Nathan here. We hit the highlights, including a sandwich at On the Hoof (me), a Cornish pasty (Mom) and ice cream at G&Ds, but were unable to go into Christ Church, which was disappointing. They were preparing for their Maundy Thursday service that evening. In the late afternoon, we took the coach back to London and spent the evening in Harrod's. It was fun to walk around in the different departments. The displays are so cool and the toy department is fun even for adults : ) We ended the night with dinner at Spaghetti Warehouse.

familiar buildings on the streets of Oxford

The sign was down!

We stopped in at a knitting shop next door to On the Hoof so Mom could browse. We then hit up Nine to Nine for Digestives : )

House 9 & House 10

Look, Lisa, the gate we/you/me (can't remember who...) got stuck under is gone!

G&Ds

Katie Mathews, I took this picture for you--the sign!

Christ Church

The following pictures are from back in London--on our way to & in Harrod's.

For Nathan : )

For Janesse : )

Accessories Room, decorated Egyptian style

moving window display

Confectionary

Mom bought some chocolate bark with almonds.

Ralph Lauren

Dress Up Room

Lego Room

Harry Pottery Room

For Nathan : ) It was only like 700 euros.

cute little kid clothes

insanely expensive prams

Everything in Harrod's is super swanky, including the elevators.

lit up at night

Friday, March 29th: Since we didn't have anything going on that night, Mom suggested that morning we try to get tickets to another show. We made our way to Leicester Square and were able to get two tickets to see Singing In the Rain that night. We visited the Tower of London afterwards and took the Beefeater Tour that Nathan and I had done. Those guys are hilarious : ) We ate lunch at a pizzeria and then walked from Oxford Circus to Piccadilly Circus before eating dinner again at Garrick Arms. Singing In the Rain was awesome. I hadn't seen the movie, but recognized the music. I loved the story : ) Mom and I both thought the performers and the audience were superior to Wicked's.

our beefeater tour guide

another view of the Tower

Regent Street

Eros in Piccadilly Circus

inside the theatre

the stage

Saturday, March 30th: We were able to go to the world famous market on Portobello Road the first half of the day, and then take the coach back to Stansted Airport to catch our evening flight to Germany. Our flight was slightly delayed, plus we had Daylight Savings Time, so we arrived home in the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday, March 31st: We celebrated Easter by watching a sermon from Broadmoor online on Jesus as the humble King and Mom packed up all her stuff. 

Monday, April 1st: After dropping Nathan off at work, I took Mom to the airport for her flight home. There wasn't any traffic on the road because of the German holiday, so we arrived super early and were able to enjoy some Starbucks before she had to board.


Even though we wish my whole family could have come, we greatly enjoyed traveling with Mom and experiencing Europe with her for the first time : )