Day 0/Travel Day - Faith did a fabulous job on the flight & she enjoyed a mid-trip snack in the British Airways Flight lounge in London before continuing on to Rome. Two taxis later and we arrived at our hotel. After a little navigation-re-evaluation we found a little place to eat and my SIL Sara & Chris enjoyed a little late night music :)
DAY 1 Ben-i-di-cto! - We headed out to the Papal audience in the morning, sat in the sizzling Italian sun, saw the Pope about 15 feet away, met up with the SIL & Brother in Law, ate an amazing pizza lunch, toured the Vatican/Sistine Chapel, took illegal photos of the Sistine Chapel-oops- and found our way to a little restaurant right in front of the Pantheon
DAY 2 Touring around Ancient Rome with Rich, the tour guide - We did it all... with a stroller, on our feet and it was great. Coliseum, the Forum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, Santa Maria Sobre Minerva... I still can't remember it all...oh yes, and a yummie repeat dinner at the Pantheon complete with 2 free bottles of wine and a Faith dancing to crowds gathered at the fountain
DAY 3 - St.Peter's in Chains was a mini-morning trip before heading back down the 500 million steps we carried the stroller up....and back down, then back to the hotel, into 2 taxis, off to the airport, where we boarded the lovely Ryan Air, which I never recommend, especially if traveling with more than a small purse, since they charge you for everything and then some, it was a mad dash to the plane where you pick your own seat, and people actually applauded when we landed, to give you a small idea of how even the locals fear Ryan Air. Once we arrived in Germany and my brother in law was kindly assaulted "Sir, can please see your passport" which translated into German was "Dude, you are huge and scare the daylights out of us small German police so we have to make us feel better by abusing our power" we raced (literally 180km/hr to a train to Stuttgart, where an amazing hotel feast awaited us).
DAY 4 - Dachau - this began as a taxi to the car rental for Bill & David, then a 2 hour drive, complete with Navigation chaos before arriving... amazing experience and what a transition from history hundreds of years ago in Rome, to a place no where near 100 years old... we gobbled up some American Burger King before driving back to the train station and making our way to Basel, Switzerland
DAY 5 - David and I took a mini-family rest day while everyone else headed up to Jungfrau... our adventures included getting lost while trying to locate 2 different churches for mass, walking halfway to the park before touring around to pick up lunch (a bag of prepacked lettuce, some almond slivers wine and coke light for us, and a raisin roll and snacks with some milk for munchkin) then back to the park where we hung out and let Faith romp and roam. This was followed by a quick swim at the pool before everyone met back up for another adventure to find some dinner, which ended in some more pizza...Swiss style..and then there was the mysterious mess that Faith blames Puppy for, we are still unsure
DAY 6 - Basel -take2- we toured around all the hot spots where David and his family spent there time, a return to the park, then off to the train station to head to Paris...
DAY 7 Paris - Eiffel Tower in the morning where we waited at the bottom for everyone else to take a tour, Faith enjoyed chasing the pigeons and dancing in the park, then Napolean's tomb, Notre Dame, Saint Chapelle and a long walk back and much more...
DAY 8 Louvre - We got up early and headed out for our family trip to the Louvre, it was a fabulous walk complete with a super great lunch, then back to the hotel, load up the taxi's and off to the train station to head to Bayeux...
DAY 9 Normandy - After waking up from our lovely beds in the beautiful chateau, we headed off for a day full of amazing history, and unfortunately cold, wet winds.... which lead to a sick Faith and a sick Mommy, and a sick Daddy over the next 48 hours. but we managed to see a ton of D-Day places and memorials and then off to the train station to head to Cherbourg to catch the ferry to Portsmouth...
DAY 10 Stonehenge/Windsor Castle - This was a tricky day...David and Bill picked up the rent cars, loaded up all our stuff and drove out to Stonehenge which was amazing to see and walk around (minus the GIANT fly-beetles that loved to attach themselves to anything and everything... then back in the car, to head to Windsor Castle for the complete experience, guards and all, and no illegal pictures for I had to carry a sleeping Faith through most of it, since ' buggy's" weren't allowed, but we did leave with souvenirs, then off to Maidenhead where David and his family lived for awhile...meanwhile, Faith is starting to show signs of sickness and by the end of this day, she had a full blown fever... yikes!
DAY 11 - Maidenhead, London/Harrods - Faith and I were allowed to stay in and get some much needed rest as she had a full fever and I was down with her. The rest of the family was able to tour around downtown Maidenhead and catch up on some favorite hot spots of the Martin family.... when we all met up we headed to the airport to return the rent cars, then caught 2 taxi's to London, where we hit up Hard Rock for lunch, walked through Hyde park on our way to Harrods and we called it a night with soup for dinner while Bill, Sara and Chris headed off on a Jack the Ripper tour...
DAY 12 Tower of London/Disney Store/Back to Harrods- We walked and took the tube and walked and explored.... Faith loved it all since she was on the mend, I was still under and David was just starting to get the worst of our sickness, but we trucked along. Faith was blessed with an adorable Minnie London rolling suitcase she insisted on after seeing all of us tote around our luggage for 12 days. Thanks Gigi!
DAY 13 - Buckingham Palace Changing of Guards/ Westminster Abby/British Museum-Rosetta Stone - Up and at them, sick as dogs, off to watch the changing of the guards where Faith slingshot my camera into the fountain which David quickly recovered, unharmed, then we saw the amazing Westminster Abby and headed to the British Museum to see the Rosetta stone and some of the greatest Egyptian exhibits I have seen.
DAY 14/15 -Flight Home - Exhausted, sick and yet amazed at how much we all saw, we all packed up our goodies and loaded 1 big taxi to head back home. David and I agreed we had a FABULOUS time, and we are so grateful to have had this opportunity as a family, with family.... we took almost 1000 pictures between 3 cameras and we are a little overwhelmed with all the great shots... I hope to get CD's to everyone soon!
