We got up at 7 am and I was pretty casual about getting ready.  The shower was a little tricky to figure out, but once we solved the riddle it was comfortable to use.  I took my time because I had completely missed the previous evening’s conversation about getting to the airport.  Kuniko was almost out the door and I was still putting on my underwear.  I got suitably motivated, and met Kuniko in the lobby soon after.  We hurried our suitcases out the door and found the Pullman Hotel down the street.  Across from there were some airport shuttlebuses parked, and we were able to just catch the 8 am shuttle on time.  It was an easy ride to the airport, and we could check in our luggage right away.  We had a last glass of champagne in a lounge near the gate (What time was it? Who cares?), and then we went to the gate.  The plane was on time, and we had a nice easy flight to Shanghai.

In Shanghai we had to pick up our suitcases, which meant going through customs and immigration in China only to go right back into the security and immigration stations.  It was a strange system, but luckily we were not alone – a lot of other people shared in the confusion.

In the end we made our flight with plenty of time to spare, so we ordered a couple of beers at the bar.  We asked for the big Hoeegarden glasses, but belatedly realized they were really big!  I did most of the heavy lifting, since Kuniko was going to be driving once we got back to Japan.

We caught our plane on time, and it went quickly. A two hour flight goes by in the blink of an eye after you finish an 11 hour flight.  Arriving in Kansai airport we were able to get through customs without anybody inspecting our foie gras (we may be August’s biggest importer of foie gras), and then we caught a bus to the ferry terminal.  The ferry took us across to Kobe airport where our car was parked, and we drove home without incident.  Our house was in great shape, and the typhoon that came through the previous week apparently hadn’t damaged anything at our place.  Unfortunately some of the neighbor’s trees were blown over.  We unpacked all our stuff, organized things and started laundry, and then finally opened up our traditional bottle of post-trip sparkling wine.  Home safe and sound!

I know I probably say this after every trip we take, but it was really one of our best trips ever.  Looking back it was hard to believe that on the same trip we were at Big Ben, Stonehenge, the Eiffel Tower, tasting ports in Porto, eating cassoulet in Toulouse and drinking cognac in Cognac, and meeting my family in Paris.  We really packed in a lot of fun and activities, and it felt like just the right amount for us.  Both of us are feeling refreshed after our trip, and we’re already wondering when the next trip will be.  First we’ve got to sort out a few things with our careers.

Another great trip in Europe – we always have fun there and it is becoming clear that the lifestyle suits us very well.  Something to think about for the future…

We could get a good amount of sleep that night, and I didn’t stir until around 7:30 am.  I could have slept longer, but we didn’t know the program for the day and we didn’t want to cause any problems for Fabien’s family.  So up and at ‘em!

Fabien was waiting around for us downstairs, and he was very patient as one by one we all took showers and got organized.  While we were getting ready Fabien gave us some presents to take back home with us.  He gave a lot of stuff to my parents, and they were really happy to receive them, although I didn’t envy them the packing job they’d have at the end of the trip.  Fabien gave us a bottle of his best cognac to take back, so I wrapped it carefully and it made it all the way home to Japan without a problem.

Once we were ready, we went over to have a light breakfast at the main farmhouse kitchen.  Crackers, homemade honey, grape jam, and hot coffee served in little bowls – excellent.  It was a light breakfast that was just perfect for us.  After breakfast Fabien led us on a tour of his farm and distillery.  It was a nice operation, and you could tell that it had a lot of history behind it.  We toured the distilling room, where he had two big pot stills, and also the winemaking operation that had mainly cement tanks but also some new stainless steel tanks being installed. His barrel room was piled high with old and new oak barrels, aging away.  I noticed that he had heavy security around the place, so I guessed that someone was taking the amount of alcohol around here seriously. We also met his other dog, Bullet, who was just as friendly as Baya.  They both looked happy to have visitors.

Finally, we said our goodbyes to the family, and piled our stuff back into the car.  It was a quick visit, but we were really happy to have a chance and see a little bit of Fabien’s life.  I hope that we’ll be able to return the hospitality in Japan someday.

Fabien drove us back to Angouleme station, and wished us a safe journey.  His mom had sent a bag of sandwiches (salami sandwiches and pate sandwiches, yum!) along with lots of water and other goodies for our trip to Paris.  We munched on sandwiches while we waited for our train, and soon enough we were boarding and looking for our seats.  It turned out that a couple of people were in our seats, and so I did my best to explain to them about it in my broken French.  They looked mildly perturbed that we would bother them about it, and they took as long as humanly possible to move so as to try to make us give up, I think.  Finally we could take our seats, and it was just as well since the train was kind of full.

The ride to Montparnasse station wasn’t so long, less than two hours, and we got our gear off the train and started walking down the platform.  Luckily this was the second time Kuniko and I had used the station, since we went to Rennes earlier on the trip on our way to Mont St. Michel.  We knew our way around the station and were able to lead my parents in the right direction.  I had remembered seeing our next hotel, the Waldorf, previously when we had driven by this street, so we were able to find it without too much trouble.

We checked into our room, and Kuniko was especially relieved that the hotel was a good one.  We were worried about how it might turn out since we had two tiny hotel rooms in London and Paris previously.  There was even more pressure because not only my parents were staying here, but also Nancy and Lynn and Roger and his parents were coming from Switzerland.  But the rooms were spacious, clean and modern, and it worked out perfectly.

Everyone kind of gravitated to the lobby, and we were finally able to see Nancy and Lynn, who had been in Switzerland with Roger and his parents.  They looked tuckered out – I guess they had done a lot of sightseeing and cave spelunking.  It was great to see Roger again after 4-5 years, and to meet his parents who spoke no English but didn’t let that get in the way.  We had kind of a party in the lobby before we figured we should take it outside and go get some wine.

Somehow I was appointed “herder of cats” which is not my favorite job in the world.  I guessed that perhaps Roger had more experience in Paris, but as it turned out we were fine.  I walked everyone down the street until we found a brasserie that looked like it had a lot of empty seats, and they tucked us into a corner.  The waitress spoke enough English to handle the drink order, and soon everyone was quaffing vino and catching up with each other.  Kuniko and I sat right next to Roger, and it was good to talk to him and hear how he was doing.  To be honest I think we were a little tired so it was tough to keep the conversation going, but the wine was helping.

For our next stop I think people wanted to have a little food with their wine, so we walked along the street until we found a place that agreed to serve us a “pre-dinner”.  The waiter reminded me that unless we ordered food he couldn’t help us, but the menu had some cheese and sausages on it, and that proved to be the perfect amount.  I really enjoyed one of the dishes we ordered, goat cheese wrapped in a grilled eggplant with a pesto sauce, and there was a ton of fresh bread to fill us up, too.  I ordered a bottle of red, but the server said that I shouldn’t order it with the food that we had – it would be too bold and tannic.  I was hoping for bold and tannic, but I relented to his opinion.  The wine he substituted was really good on its own, and I was glad he overrode my order.

Roger was busy talking with his parents, my parents were busy talking with Nancy and Lynn, so there really wasn’t much for Kuniko and I to do.  Maybe it was the seating arrangement, or maybe everybody had been on some exciting adventures, and they were eager to talk about what happened to them, so a good thirty minutes passed while we remained pretty much invisible.  So Kuniko and I switched to Japanese and kept each other company.  Eventually everyone else kind of ran out of steam, and then they were looking to us for setting up the next activity.

We figured we’d go back to the hotel for a short break, and then hit the streets and try to go check out the Eiffel Tower.  Kuniko volunteered to be the navigator of the Paris Metro, Roger was acting as her copilot, and we were off!  As we went down the stairs into the metro I noticed that the clouds were really rolling in, but I had no idea that it would be a big deal later on.

First we bought tickets at the machine for where we wanted to go, but unfortunately the station nearest the Eiffel Tower was under construction.  Instead we had to take an indirect route, using two train systems instead of one.  Luckily Kuniko really knows her way around public transportation, and she guided us in the right direction easily.

We lined up for the train on the platform, and then started getting on when it arrived.  Suddenly, disaster! The platform had some outer doors to prevent people from jamming up the train, and apparently about half our party was still outside the train when they started to close.  My mom’s foot got caught in the gap, and she went down, and meanwhile the train doors closed on us.  We were left with nothing to do but hope that her foot wasn’t close to the train as it departed.  Nancy, Lynn, Kuniko and I were in the train, the rest of the gang were with my mom, so we rode it to the next station and then got off and went back.  Nancy was panicking, but I think we reassured her enough that she was OK to get back.  When we arrived back at the original station Kuniko saw the rest of our group leaving on the next train, so we were happy to see that Mom was OK.  Lynn joked that there was no blood or feet on the platform when we arrived, and we caught up with everyone at the next station.  Welcome to the hustle and bustle of public transportation!  Mom was OK, just a little damage to her pride.  She was a trouper and kept up the pace the rest of the evening.

From this station we changed to an RER train, and that took us to the closest Eiffel Tower station.  When we came up out of the station there was a lot of rain!  It was really coming down.  The good news was that Kuniko had brought an umbrella, the bad news was that she was the only person that did.  We walked a short way in the rain until we reached the tower and then found shelter underneath.  Luckily the impressiveness of the tower helped people overcome the rain.  Even better, it was just before the top of the hour so we had everyone stick around and watch the tower sparkle a little bit.  It was great that everyone could be there, rain and all.

We took in the view of the Siene River, and then we had to figure out where to go for dinner.  We were a wet group of wild foreigners with limited mobility, so I kind of ruled out a nice restaurant straight away.  Instead I remembered that our previous hotel was nearby, and there were some casual restaurants in the area.  In the end we found ourselves on Rue du Universite hitting a cornerside brasserie.  They had a table for our big party inside, and we all sat down and took a look at the menu.  This was our last dinner in Paris for a long time, so Kuniko and I decided to stick with French dishes, but everyone else ordered stuff all over the board.  Hamburgers, steaks, lasagna, salmon – everything was fair game.  Kuniko had a quiche that was better than I expected, and I had goat cheese on toast – I couldn’t get enough of the goat cheese on this trip.

Someone pointed out that I had some bird crap on my sleeve.  Oh no!  It must have been one of the risks of seeking shelter under the Eiffel Tower in the rain.  Later I found some more on the back of my shirt.  Blessed by the pigeons of Paris, I guess.

Once again Kuniko and I were seated away from the conversations, and so we ordered a couple of glasses of champagne, toasted the end of our trip, and enjoyed each other’s company.  Even though we were surrounded by people, it felt like it was just us wrapping up the trip together.

I figured that we wouldn’t want to face public transportation again after the last episode, and guessing that it would be best to keep my Mom off her ankle to give them more chance at mobility the next day, we arranged for three taxis to come and pick us up.  I talked to each driver and gave them the destination, and we got back in less than 10 minutes.  Much quicker and simpler than the trains (and probably safer, too).

In the lobby we took one last group photo, and then said our goodbyes.  Everyone else was staying for one more day in Paris before heading on to Switzerland to stay near Roger’s hometown, and also they are planning a night in Zermatt.  I know they’ll have a great time.  After our goodbyes we headed straight up to bed.  Apparently Kuniko and I discussed how to get to the airport, but I was drifting in and out of sleep and completely missed the conversation the next day.

It seemed like we had just lay down to sleep, and already our alarm was going off.  During our usual workdays we get up at 4:30 am, so it wasn’t crazy for us to get up at this time, but it was not easy.  While we were getting ready we heard a knock on the door, and it was my dad saying that it was raining pretty hard outside, and maybe we should order a taxi.  Good idea!  I ran downstairs and asked the staff to order up a taxi for 5:30 am.

At 5:20 am everyone was in the lobby, in various states of consciousness, ready to go.  Outside it was dark and wet, but it seemed like the rain had stopped.  With a train departure at 6:05 am we didn’t want to make the wrong decision, so we waited for the cab.  Unfortunately it didn’t show at 5:30, and everyone was starting to get a little nervous.  I walked outside looking for a cab to hail, but at that hour they were few and far between.  The hotel clerk called several other taxi companies, and finally around 5:40 a cab showed up.  We piled our luggage into the cab and she drove like a madwoman to the station.  What a relief!  I noticed while riding that the fare meter was running much faster than normal, so they must have a special rate for desperate tourists in the wee hours of the morning.

So we made the train on time, got our luggage in a good spot, and everyone settled into their seats.  The first hour of the TGV journey was pretty dark, but soon enough the sun came up and the rain disappeared.  We rode for about two hours, and then changed trains at Bordeaux.  We had ten minutes to change, and it turned out to be barely enough time.  Once we got to our seats we opened up some supplies and had a simple breakfast.  It was one hour from Bordeaux to Angouleme, and the time went by quickly.  The French countryside is always nice to watch, and we could always take a nap if we needed it.

The station at Angouleme was where we were to meet Fabien, who was my parents’ first intern years ago.  We dragged our suitcases down the platform, carried them down the stairs, went across to the main station, carried them up the stairs, and then went out front to look for Fabien.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t there.

We waited a few minutes before starting to look around for WiFi connections and double check our communications, but suddenly he appeared and everything was OK.  It was my first time to meet him, and he seemed like a really friendly guy, with excellent English.  He took us over to his car and miraculously all of our luggage fit in perfectly.  We drove through Angouleme and on to Cognac to our first sightseeing stop of the day, Hennessy.  On the way, we passed through so many vineyards, I felt like we were driving around California.  This time we were traveling in a completely different wine country.

Fabien sells most of the cognac that he makes to Hennessy, so it was a natural choice for a tour and tasting.  The tour was very nicely done.  We took a boat ride across a small river to where they age some of their cognac in barrels and casks, and then enjoyed a movie that explained the process without words that was very nicely done.  They had a lot of nice dramatic effects during the tour, and we learned a lot about the process that they go through.  Of course, Fabien had arranged the tour in English.  He thought of everything!

At the tail end of the tour we were led to a tasting room, and we could try several different brands of Hennessy cognac.  Fabien advised us that we would taste some of his own very old cognac at his house later, so at Hennessy we tried only some of the younger ones.  The guide suggested mixing some of the younger cognac with either ginger ale or tonic water (which I think they called “Indian tonic”).  One of the cognacs that they were selling in the tasting room was more than 700 euros a bottle – for the big spenders!

After spending time tasting the cognac we walked a little bit around the old historic town, which was pretty much empty.  The buildings were all bleached white, and made a nice contrast with the blue skies and green trees nearby.  It was a really nice area to spend some time.  From here we left town and drove a ways to go have a riverside picnic.  Once we arrived we met Fabien’s mother, sister and an intern that is working with him.  His sister, Letitia, was really friendly and cheerful and she spoke a little bit of English with us.  Gautier, the intern, spoke even more English, and he had a goofy sense of humor that made me laugh all the time.  Fabien’s mom was very serious about hospitality, and she kept laughing at the funny situations that we got ourselves into throughout the day.

For example, just as we sat down to have a picnic a cloud came by and started dumping rain on us.  Ten minutes ago it was blue skies, but the weather changes fast in this part of France.  We threw everything back into the cars, and drove into a tiny town nearby.  There was a post office building that had a small alcove, and it looked like it would make a perfect shelter for our picnic, so we appropriated it.  Everything was spread out, cognac and grape juice cocktails were poured, and as we got started the sun came out again. Figures!

The food that Fabien’s mom had brought was delicious – snail pate, bread, meats and cheeses, potato chips and tomatoes, along with a great rose wine and an even nicer red wine.  Fabien really knew his wines, and poured some very high quality stuff while we were there.

After the picnic we were leaving to get some tickets for a boat ride down the river, but there was apparently a car accident down the road a ways.  Two firemen walked up and blocked the road going the other way, using a sign that showed a car flipping over.  The firemen had interesting helmets, too – they looked more like they belonged on a medieval knight than a fire fighter.

Once we picked up our boat trip tickets we walked out to the river.  As we approached a bunch of young people were getting into canoes and kayaks, and I suddenly thought that this is what we signed up for, but as we turned the corner we saw a big flat-bottom boat docked nearby with passengers waiting patiently on board.  Once we got on and settled in, the captain gave us some history and information, but since it was in French we could only kind of guess at the meaning.  But the real attraction was traveling up and down the river, and following some of the branches to different scenic areas.  It was very relaxing – almost too relaxing after the wine and big lunch.  One of the interesting parts was passing through a water lock system that raised and lowered the boat to travel on different parts of the river.  Watching that operation up close was something I had never done before.  The river had fish swimming around below, and plenty of dragonflies up above.  There was even an awning that they could open and close to protect the passengers from getting too wet from sudden squalls.  The trip was a little more than an hour, and somehow we made it without falling asleep in the warm sunshine.

After disembarking from the boat we all drove a ways down the country road to a park that was located outside an old abbey, at Bassac.  First we stopped at the park and had a quick picnic with grape juice, coffee and a tasty chocolate cake that Letitia had made.  We kept forgetting important stuff in the car, so Fabien’s mom was clever enough to drive the car closer to us instead of sending us back and forth out to the car.  The park was deserted and we had the place to ourselves.  I really enjoyed walking around on the green grass in the sunshine, enjoying the sunny weather, and not being all sweaty like we would have been in back in Japan.

Once we demolished the cake we walked across the street to take a brief tour of the abbey, and it was quite beautiful.  The stained glass was especially striking, and the design of the place was really well done.  There was a tiny group tour walking through and getting explanations in French, but other than that it was just us.  Out back behind the abbey were some gardens, bordering a stream that held lots of fish and plant life.  While we were enjoying the view a couple of people in a kayak went gliding by, and they had a tiny dog sitting on the bow of their boat.  It looked like a very peaceful adventure they were on.

Since we finished up with the abbey, Fabien took us to an old castle on a hill overlooking the greater part of Cognac, with green vineyards stretching to the horizon.  The castle itself was being restored so we couldn’t go in, but this was another place that was completely empty and left all to us.  Our last stop before heading to Fabien’s home was the “Table of Orientation”, a platform on a hill in the middle of some vineyards that showed famous landmarks in a 360 degree view.  It was interesting that in almost every vineyard we saw in Cognac there were no fences separating them, and anybody could just walk into whatever vineyard they liked.  I don’t think that would go over well back in California. I was again struck by how similar the views were to Sonoma Valley, and we even took some touristy shots of us next to some green grapes a month away from harvest.

We were dead tired by the time we headed over to Fabien’s place.  It may have been by design, but when we arrived we were ready for dinner and bed, I think.  We arrived there around 8:30 pm and it was still light outside.  Fabien’s family has a building that they have renovated as kind of a bed and breakfast.  It was quite large and clean, with four bedrooms and a big living space and kitchen down below.  It was nice to put away our bags and get comfortable for a little bit.  I could tell I was going to sleep well that night. But before sleeping we went over to the main house to have dinner.  On the way I met one of their dogs, Baya, who was very friendly.  She was locked up while guests were around, but I had a chance to pet her for a little while.  So cute!

I was really looking forward to a French farmhouse meal, and I wasn’t disappointed.  Fabien, as head of the family, served us cognac cocktails and put out some snacks, and we talked for a while.  I can’t speak for everyone else at the table, but I was ready to drink.  The pace of the drinking slowed considerably, maybe because Fabien was in charge of drinks and he was busy talking most of the time.  But the food kept us busy, and it was really delicious.  There was lots of shellfish (langostinos, scampi, mussels, tiny shrimp), a superbly roasted duck that was the best duck I’ve ever had, local wild mushrooms that rocked my world, and roasted tomatoes with garlic.  After dinner they served a homemade plum tart, and Fabien broke into his stash of very old cognac and served us a healthy dose.  It really was smooth – this was cognac that his grandfather was involved in making so it was very well aged.

As we were leaving to go back to our rooms a bat suddenly swooped inside the room, and flew around in circles looking for the exit.  It made for a bit of a wild ending to the day, but I guess they eventually got it out the door.  We went to bed well past midnight, and it took only moments for both Kuniko and I to fall into a deep sleep.

This morning we got up a little bit earlier than “normal”, and had a light breakfast in the hotel.  They had some interesting yogurt flavors that you don’t find in Japan (coconut, for example), so it wasn’t totally boring.  We had some time before our flight to Toulouse, so we decided to do a recon of the local train station.  It was actually quite close by, and we semi-figured out the system first before we checked out of our hotel.  After checking out of the hotel we came back, bought tickets at the correct machine, and then caught a train to the airport.  The train was a little bit closer to light rail than an actual train, but it was a very modern system. I’d guess the trains and station were less than five years old.

As we left the middle of Porto we could get a chance to see some of the outskirts.  We saw a lot of smaller houses, some in good neighborhoods and some in bad.  There was a lot of open space out here also, which was nice to see after the narrow old city.  It took about half an hour to get to the airport, and we arrived with plenty of time to spare before our flight.  We hit a café and bought some juice to kill time, and then dropped our luggage at the EasyJet counter.  According to the board there was only one flight by EasyJet from Porto that day, so it was easy to find the right counter.

Going through security I managed to set off the security alarm, so I had to be searched.  I’ve gone through the metal detectors enough times that I know what will make it go off and what won’t, but this time maybe they had it set to a very sensitive level.  They never found what was causing it, but after the frisk I was OK to go on.

We found a little shop that sold tiny sandwiches along with glasses of sparkling wine, and that seemed right up our alley.  We enjoyed our brunch and then did some shopping in the duty free shops for some omiyage – some for other people and some for us.  They had some good shops at the Porto airport, actually.  We had plenty of time to shop because our flight was also delayed about 30 minutes.  But once we got boarded it was a very easy 90 minute flight to Toulouse.  Kuniko’s suitcase was literally the last bag out on the baggage carousel, so we had some time to wait there, too.

We caught a taxi from the airport, and it took us to the center of Toulouse.  We had picked this city for meeting my parents based on geography only – I wasn’t very familiar with the city at all.  As it turned out it was quite nice, and it reminded me a little bit of parts of Paris.  The taxi driver knew the hotel so it was a direct shot there, and as we were unloading our bags we met up with my parents who were in the lobby of the hotel.

Wow – it was really surreal to see my parents here in Europe.  They had spent nearly two weeks with friends and their former interns in the southern part of France.  We caught up with them over a bottle of rose in their hotel room, and it sounds like they had a great time during their stay.  They told us all about the wedding they attended, about driving in a rental car to Toulouse and the adventures they had doing laundry and mailing packages in France.  It was really good to see them out here trying new things.

We decided to walk around a little in the downtown area of Toulouse and do some exploring.  There was a big shopping street nearby, so we walked down the street and breathed in the vibe of the neighborhood.  I bought a muddler at a cooking tools shop (and I brought home a catalog – what a cool shop!), and we saw some street performers speaking and breakdancing and gathering big crowds.  We kind of stumbled on a big square that was in front of the opera house.  There were restaurants along two of the sides of the square, so we stopped at one for a glass of wine and to give everyone a chance to rest.

On our way back to the hotel we followed my parents who remembered that there was a Carrefour supermarket nearby.  Eventually we found another supermarket that was closer, but it was a little strange inside.  It was kind of like a wholesaler/seconds supermarket, and they sold their products out of boxes.  Even here we found lots of interesting stuff.  Kuniko scored some cans of foie gras pate, but we also got some supplies for our train trip the next day to Cognac.

Well-supplied, we went back to the hotel to drop stuff off, and then went back to the opera house square to have some dinner.  We chose a restaurant based on the fact that they were displaying an English menu in out front, and it turned out to be a good choice.  The staff was very friendly despite the fact that we only spoke English, and the food and wine was great.  My mom and I had cassoulet, and Kuniko and my dad had foie gras.  They served us bread right on the table, which I saw for the first time.  So far in our travels in France we got our bread on plates, so there was a little mini-culture shock moment for me.

My dad was quickest to snatch the bill, and Kuniko was really bummed out.  She had been spending most of the afternoon planning how to get the bill first, but unfortunately we lost out to age and experience.  Next time we’ll get it! We took a short walk back to our hotel, had a nightcap of port that we brought over from Porto, and then went to bed.  It was hard to set the alarm for 4:15 am, but we had an early train to catch the next day and we needed to drag our luggage a few blocks to make it to the train station on time.

We slept in much later this morning.  Probably an effect of drinking so much port and eating so much food in one day.  Luckily we didn’t feel too full thanks to all the walking up and down hills that we did the day before.

Since we knew that the hotel breakfast wasn’t exciting, we walked down the street to a little café/bakery that Kuniko had spotted the other day.  We went inside and I ordered in Spanish, since English wasn’t really working at this shop.  We had two cream pastries that were charred black on top (so good!) and some delicious coffees with milk.  We ate right out on the street as pedestrians walked by our table, and it was good to be outdoors enjoying something delicious again.

From here we walked back towards the river, but to a slightly different destination, called Plaza Infante.  I had read that there was a train that ran from there to the Atlantic Ocean, and we were interested in checking out the beach.  When we arrived we quickly figured out that the train was actually an historic streetcar, and we paid the paltry sum of 2.50 euros for a one way ticket.  Inside the streetcar was all old lightbulbs, wood and leather.  You could open and close the windows at will, and the streetcar putted along by electric engine and overhead wires alongside the river.  It was great to see a side of the city we hadn’t seen yet, and it felt strangely like traveling in Mexico.  It was a little bit of a rough ride (historic cars don’t really have great suspension) but we arrived at the final stop after about 20 minutes.  The last stop was right near the ocean, and we walked along a cement pier to the western edge of Europe.  Out here the sun was shining brightly, it was much warmer than yesterday, and there was a strong wind blowing.  On the pier there were fisherman lined up, probably catching cod after cod.  It was nice to be out here, it wasn’t crowded and it felt good to be on the water.

We slowly walked back, and discovered a small mini-golf course so we shot a few holes to give Kuniko her first mini-golf experience.  From there it was a short walk to the streetcar station, and we waited on a shady park bench until the next streetcar arrived.  What a great little break from the main city…

Back in the Ribeira area, we stopped at a café for some cold Sagres beer and another Francesinha sandwich.   The service here was pretty slow, even by European standards, and it took a long time before we got the bill.  I handed the guy a 50 euro bill, and waited patiently for change, but Kuniko was starting to think that the guy ran with our money.  Luckily he finally showed up and gave us our change, and we could safely leave.

We walked all the way through the Ribeira, across the bridge, and all the way along the other side, up the mountainside, and finally found our way to Graham’s, one of my favorite port makers.  We signed up at the main desk for two port tastings – one tawny and one vintage.  The building and location were absolutely beautiful, with views that ran the length of the Porto river area.  They picked a perfect location for their port caves.  We really liked their ports (as I thought we might) – and Kuniko’s favorite was “Six Grape” which is pretty easy to find in Japan.  We were the only people in their tasting room at the time, so we had the huge facility to ourselves.  I really liked the pace of things in Porto – slow and deliberate.  On our way down the hill we stopped at another place, Churchill, and did a regular wine tasting this time to shake things up a little.  The guy led us through a flight of their wines but there were no big winner’s here.  I’m sure their ports are much better.

From there we decided to head back to the hotel area and stay close in case we wanted to take a siesta.  We marched up the hill and took some different routes to see some other scenery.  We even snuck through a traffic tunnel to shave some time off our walk and keep the sun off of us.  Today was really sunny and a little hotter than before, which finally gave me some blue sky for my photos.

Near our hotel we intentionally made a turn off the main drag and found a little bar/restaurant that looked interesting.  We sat outside and I went in and ordered some beers to drink.  At first we weren’t going to eat anything, but we reconsidered and I tried to order in Spanish from the staff.  I mis-read his body language response to my questions.  His gesture that I thought had meant, “Sold Out” actually meant “Is that all you want?” so we received some extra dishes.  No problem – we ate cheese, linguica, and some sliced ham with our beers.  This area was a little off the beaten path, so we could watch some strange people walking around.  Some guy came begging at the table next to us, and the guy at the table gave him some money.  Promptly the guys at the table behind him started yelling that he shouldn’t be giving any money, and I thought maybe a situation might develop.  Luckily everyone was cool about things and nothing happened.

Slightly drunk on beer and port we did some more drunken shopping on the way home, and bought water, cookies, and even some curry mango sauce that looked good.  Then it was back to our hotel room for our siesta.  Ever since our trip to Spain we have embraced the siesta for our hot weather trips.

For dinner we went back to the Ribeira area and went to the balcony level, above the main restaurants where we had eaten before.  The balcony level was less popular but the view was much better, and we found a restaurant that turned out to be not only cheap but also delicious.  We ate appetizers while an aggressive seagull watched us carefully, drank a cheap bottle of local red that was better than it had any right to be, and looked down on all the tourists and the river below us.  A guy pretended to be a statue and only moved when people gave him coins in his bucket.  A group of kids played soccer with their tiny pug as tourists walked by and looked on. As for our meal, we had steak with mushroom sauce and shrimp, cod croquettes, frites, and rice.  Behind us the full moon was rising over the bridge, the weather was mild, and our restaurant featured some live music, so it was a very nice romantic meal for us.  After we wrapped up our meal and paid our bill, we got up, and just at that moment they started shooting off fireworks over the river.  We had no idea that this was in the cards, so we got a free fireworks show as well.  It seemed like the whole day had perfect timing.

We felt like we should get one more glass of port and some cheese for dessert, so we went to a little restaurant that was located just below the bridge on a stone outcropping over the river.  We had port and cheese there, but the weather was starting to get cool quickly, and we were exposed to the wind being right out on the river.  We wrapped it up quick – I’ve never seen Kuniko drink a glass of port so fast!  As we walked back to our hotel there was a lot of live music playing on the streets and in restaurants, and it made for a nice finish to the evening.  Also, going uphill was good for burning calories!  It was another great day in Porto.

We followed through with our vow to sleep in, but in the end it wasn’t all that late. It was good to have a slow morning with nothing going on, though. We went down to eat our free hotel breakfast, but we were a little disappointed. It wasn’t that the breakfast was bad, it was just a typical hotel breakfast. No local foods, unfortunately.

The next step was to marshal our forces and go out to see Porto in the daylight. First impression in the day time was completely different from the night time. You could really take in the architecture, and I took lots of pictures of buildings and facades. As usual, Kuniko was very patient with me. We wandered the town using a tourist map from our hotel, and also my GPS when we got lost. Most of the city is grey, but many of the roofs were painted bright orange, which made for an interesting contrast. Doors and windows were also usually colorful, and you could really feel how old the city was. It is a medium sized city, so there was some trash and bad smells now and then, but no worse than any other city we’ve visited. There were hills everywhere, reminding me a lot of San Francisco, but also plenty of seagulls, as the Atlantic Ocean was not that far off.

Walking up a hillside we found an old church with a beautiful view over the Douro River. From here we could see across the river to the Nova de Gaia area that housed all the port caves. All the big port company names were there, and it was like looking at a box of chocolates that you just opened. Which one should be enjoyed first? We walked down the hill to the riverside, and then across the big bridge that links the two sides of the river together. During our trip we spent a lot of time going back and forth across this bridge.

Our first stop was into Sandeman’s. It was still just after breakfast, and I didn’t really feel like tasting port so early, but it was interesting to look through and check out the system. Apparently they were open and letting people take tours and tastings. We decided to save them for later, and as we left a huge Japanese tour group came in. We were surprised to see Japanese people here – it was the first time to see any since we came to Portugal (and actually, it was almost the last time as well – not many Japanese tourists in Porto).

As we continued down the street we found ourselves in need of a restroom, so we decided the next open port house we would stop there for a tasting and to use their toilet. We followed some signs up and down some hills, found ourselves walking down empty pathways and dirt roads, but eventually discovered the tasting room at Offley. I wasn’t very familiar with Offley so we stepped inside, and arranged a tasting (and a bathroom break). The tastings were pretty reasonable, and we could enjoy two flights of very different styles of port. I had a flight that was more geared towards vintage and ruby ports, and Kuniko had a tawny port flight. I have never really been into tawny ports, but my feelings about them started to change while in Porto. There are a lot of great tawny ports out there, and the elegance really came through. I think I still prefer the rich, ripe fruit of good vintage ports, though. Too bad they are so expensive! At the tasting the staff was nice enough to guide us through the flights in English, so we could really understand exactly what we were tasting.

Since we had several glasses of port inside us we wanted to keep the party rolling, so we walked up the hill until we found Taylor’s. There we had just two glasses of port and also some cheese, and sat outside on the picnic tables on the lawn, and enjoyed the view of the river valley. Some peacocks were walking around (with babies), a strange looking chicken, and some cats. It was a nice place to relax, and the port wine quality was a step up from Offley (in my opinion).

All this port was taking its toll on our empty stomachs, so we walked all the way down the hill to the riverside, and found a small restaurant along the main walkway. A tout came up and sat us at a table (turned out he was American), and we ordered some beers to cleanse our palate, and some food to share. This was our first experience with the Francesinha – basically a meat sandwich completely covered in cheese and chili sauce – a heart attack inducer. It was really good, mainly because it is at the opposite spectrum of what we usually eat in our daily lives. We also ordered some picapao (kind of a mixed meat bowl) and some garlic shrimp.

Feeling the need to move after all these calories we walked back to our hotel neighborhood. It is a pretty steep uphill climb to get back to the area of our hotel, so that helped with the exercise a bit. Near our hotel I found a couple of local supermarkets using the GPS application on my phone, and we had some fun shopping while buzzing with alcohol. The prices in Porto were much cheaper than Paris or London, so it was a bit of a free-for-all. We scored lots of good stuff for omiyage, juice, water, sardine pate, and more. It was a whole lot of fun. Then it was just a short walk to our hotel, where we crashed out for an afternoon siesta. Our feet could really use the rest.

We woke up around 5 pm, and decided to go walk by the riverside. We tried a new route to get there, passing through some shopping streets and regular neighborhoods. There was a hippie guy making huge bubbles for the kids and dogs to pop, and it reminded me of Berkeley, California for some reason. As we walked it started to drizzle, but we weren’t really getting wet and it was still warm.

Along the river there was a long line of restaurants that were serving food for tourists, and it was very easy to stop at one at random and order some wine and food. We split a half bottle of local red (that was really good – the still wines were much better than I expected) and also had a bowl of “duck rice”. We just sat and enjoyed the atmosphere and drank our wine. I noticed that people that had arrived after us were starting to get our food, but no duck rice appeared. After a while I gave the waiter a look, and he just shrugged. I was gearing up to complain, but finally it showed up. We had killed the half bottle by that time, and so I ordered a glass of wine to have with the food. The guy hooked me up by filling the glass all the way to the brim – thanks, man!

While we sat here there was a stream of tourists behind us walking along, but nowhere near as many as we had seen in Paris and London. The amount was just about right for us, and it never felt like we were fighting crowds. There was some live music playing in the distance, and a couple of street performers were working the crowd at various intervals. At the center of attention was the river, and the port riverboats that were always anchored along it. Porto really is a beautiful city, and we were enjoying our time there.

Since we had only one dish at this restaurant, we figured we’d hit a few more restaurants having one dish at each of them. It is a common strategy when we go out in Japan, so we thought we’d adapt it to this situation. Our next stop was a seafood restaurant on the other side (the port cave side) of the river. Our server reminded me of Anna Kendrick, and she poured us wine and served us cod with cream as our main dish. We were getting plenty of cod on this trip – it was the local specialty fish apparently. We had originally ordered something else, but she told us not to order it because it wouldn’t go well with what he had already ordered. Thanks for the inside tips!

Our last stop of the evening was at Sandeman’s. Outside their main port facility they had a restaurant with lots of outdoor tables to enjoy the view. We grabbed a table and ordered a cheese platter with some port. The cheese was really good – different from what we have had so far this trip. It was very moist, kind of like a giant BabyBell wheel. It went really well with our tawny ports, and made a nice finish for the evening. It was getting late and lots of shenanigans were happening around us, so there was plenty to see. Some kids were playing soccer down the way, and one couple suddenly ran off without paying their bill. Almost all the restaurant waiters ran after them, and that was the first time I’d see it happen in Europe.

We paid our bill, which was a little more expensive than we expected (maybe we were covering the lost money from the people that bailed) but totally worth it for the port and cheese experience. We walked from there back across the bridge, up the hill, and to our hotel. I spent some time writing in this journal, and then it was time for bed. I think our plan for tomorrow is more of the same!

Our alarm was set early (6 am), and it was pretty tough to get out of bed.  We dragged ourselves up and in and out of the shower, and then lugged our suitcases down the stairs to check out.  As we checked out the clerk said that he expected payment at that time, but Kuniko had already paid by credit card a long time ago.  This is a sensitive topic for us, especially after last summer in Granada and the episode we went through there.  I could tell Kuniko’s anger was starting to come up, and I was starting to move out of the way.  The clerk apparently saw it too, and so he rechecked his files and found that he was in fact in error.  He blamed his coworker, but it was a little pitiful in my opinion.  Anyway, we left our bags there for safekeeping and hit the road.

Our goal this morning was to see Versailles Palace before our flight out to Portugal.  On paper it seemed doable, and we already had e-tickets for Versailles so it was just a matter of logistics.  And as it turned out, it was pretty easy to do.

From our hotel we walked to Invalides station, which was only about 10 minutes’ walk.  From there we bought tickets and caught a train to Versailles Palace.  The train was already just sitting there waiting so we got some seats and were pretty much the only people in the train car.  It was a nice ride out to Versailles, passing some interesting neighborhoods and beautiful buildings.  We ate some chocolate on the way, soon enough we arrived at the station around 8 am.  We stopped in at Starbucks for a coffee to go and then walked down the street until we found the Palace.  It was hard to miss.  The front gate was quite dramatic with statues and shiny gold gates, just like at our house.

We had already bought tickets, and I had heard that the gardens were open an hour before the palace opened, so we walked behind the palace and spent a lot of time in the gardens.  They were huge!  As we walked around the grounds it was a little cold, but the sun came out now and then and warmed us up.  The beautiful flowers, fountains and pools were everywhere, and the scale was really impressive.  Around opening time we walked back around to the front of the palace to join the line, and we found that it had grown tremendously while we were exploring the gardens.  Uh, oh – maybe a small miscalculation here.  We lined up at the back, and it took about an hour to get inside the palace.  Luckily the weather was good, we could do lots of people watching, and the line moved pretty fast.  By the time we neared the front of the line it had grown even more.  I would hate to arrive at that time and try to get in.

Inside the main gate they had a security check, and they looked inside Kuniko’s bag and even under her hat, but we made it through.  Once inside, there were a lot of people – maybe too many.  Each room had so many people in it that it made it a little difficult to move without walking in front of someone taking a picture.  There were a lot of reasons to take a picture, too – the interiors were beautifully (and ostentatiously) decorated, with each having some sort of theme.  Because of all the photography the flow of visitors was slower than usual.  I didn’t mind, since I was also taking a lot of pictures, but I could tell Kuniko wanted to move it along a little faster.

Some of the rooms had historical significance, some were decorated in a unique way, and it seemed like there were decoration styles for just about every taste.  I really liked the darkest rooms with no windows, that were decorated in black and red.  The hall of mirrors was beautiful as well, with chandeliers catching the sunlight and spreading it out down the long hall.

We went through the palace fairly quickly, finishing up after an hour.  The lines outside were even longer as we walked back to the station, and between the station and the palace there was a steady stream of visitors walking.  It was easy to catch a train back to Paris, and we could see inside each train going the opposite way there were tons of people going to Versailles.  So I guess our timing wasn’t so bad, and I’m sure those people going in were going to have to fight even larger crowds.

Back in Paris we walked back towards our hotel to pick up our bags, but we felt like it would be a better idea to get something to eat first, before we had to manage our bags at some restaurant.  So we hit a small corner brasserie (the kind with red awnings).  The place had a relaxed atmosphere, and we took a table facing the street so we could watch people walking by.  I can’t say enough how nice it is to eat and drink outside on the street and watch the world go by.  This has yet to catch on in the Kansai area, so we always try to get our fill in Europe.  The waitress spoke English, and they had an English menu, so I knew we must be near the Eiffel Tower.  We ordered a couple of big glasses of wine – rose for me, red for Kuniko.  I ate some spring rolls stuffed with warm goat cheese and mint, with a little sweetness in the spring roll wrapper.  It was really good.  Kuniko had a very substantial ham and cheese omelet, heavy on the cheese.  A few tables down a young American couple were discussing deep topics and maybe having a fight, but by the end of the meal they had seemed to patch things up.  Ah, Paris.

With brunch completed, and a little bit of a buzz from our wine, we went back to our hotel and collected our bags. As we walked with our bags we happened to see a taxi.  I flagged him down and he stopped, but he already had a passenger.  He told us to wait five minutes and he’d be back, so we sat and waited.  At the end of the quiet street we were on there was a much busier street, and I could see taxis driving back and forth along it, so I started to wonder if this was a good idea.  We waited about ten minutes, and then gave up on our taxi and went to the busier street to catch another cab.  As you might expect, as soon as we got to the busy street there wasn’t a taxi to be found.  We waited a few minutes here and eventually a cab came by.  And wouldn’t you know it – it was the original guy.  He swore up and down that he went back for us, and I believed him, but it was kind of an awkward ride to the station.  He took us to a station but it turned out to be the wrong station, and we spent a few minutes walking to the correct one.  Once we got our suitcases down to the platform, bought our tickets and caught the correct train, everything was cool.  The Paris metro was not exactly clean (especially compared to the London underground and Japanese trains, which are admittedly high standards).  When we got on the train to the airport a nice lady gave up her seat so we could get our bags and bodies near each other.  The ride was a little long, but there weren’t so many stops before the airport.  While we were riding the train an old guy played the violin (rather poorly) in our train car, looking for donations afterwards.  It was just the right thing for a train in Paris, I thought.

We got to Charles de Gaulle airport with plenty of time to spare, and went to check into our flight to Porto in Portugal.  We were a little early, so we had to wait about 30 minutes off to the side until we could get our bags checked into EasyJet.  In the baggage line we spotted a musical group, who were checking a giant tribal drum made of a log – I wondered how much that costs in baggage fees.

Our flight to Porto was about 25 minutes late, but that is to be expected with the cheap low cost carrier flights.  We just sat and read our books and soon enough they were calling us to board.  We had the aisle and center seat, with an antsy middle aged woman trapped behind us in the window seat.  She was clearly uncomfortable with the arrangement and kept trying to communicate with someone else on the plane.  We just sat down and went right to sleep, which made ignoring everything much easier.  The flight was a pretty noisy one – maybe the noisiest flight I’ve ever been on.  There was not one but three screaming babies, lots of turbulence, and the boy behind us kept yelling out “Papa!” every time he saw something out the window.  Our zen training served us well, however.  Thankfully it was a very short flight, and soon we were descending to the runway at Porto.

But there was one final surprise in store for us.  Just as we were about to touchdown the plane suddenly accelerated and took off again.  That was a first for me, and everybody on the plane was wondering what was going on.  The plane began to circle over the ocean and head back to Porto, and after a while the captain announced that there was a dog loose on the runway, and that they would try landing again after it was safely captured.  Everybody laughed at the story, and soon enough we landed safely and taxied to the terminal.

Maybe I’m cynical, but I had doubts that there was really a dog on the runway.  If the pilot made some kind of mistake, or if there was some technical trouble with the plane, the last thing he would say on the announcement would be, “I made a mistake, let me try again.”  I figured the dog on the runway was a funny situation that would make people relax, and then they could have a planeload of calm passengers for the second attempt.  This is only my theory, though – who knows?

We got our bag quickly, cleared customs, and grabbed a taxi right away.  We were the only people in the taxi line.  The driver was very aggressive, and it was our introduction to Portuguese drivers.  Thanks to his aggressive driving we made it into Porto very quickly.  He took us to the address that I had shown him, and it was clear that it was a bad neighborhood.  I was pretty nervous, until he realized he had made a mistake, and he took us around to another place.  This might have been a way to get a little more fare – I wasn’t quite sure.  However, the final destination was a much nicer area so it was with much relief that we got out and unloaded our bags.  Our hotel was located on a busy shopping street, mainly filled with pedestrians.  The streets were cobblestone, and the sidewalks inlaid with black and white tiles to form tasteful designs along each street.  I really liked the architecture as well – most houses had tiles inlaid into the front with various colorful designs.  We were off to a good start in Porto.

We checked into our hotel, the Grande Porto Hotel which was historic, clean, and very old-fashioned.  We really liked our room – it was spacious, with a big modern bathroom, air conditioning, and a refrigerator.  It was nice to know that for the next three nights we’d be very comfortable with plenty of room to spread out.

First item on the agenda was to go out and explore the city.  I had a plan to go see the riverside, so I used the GPS application on my phone to lead us to one of the bridges on the river.  I didn’t realize it, but we ended up on the top of the bridge, and all the stuff we wanted to see was at the bottom.  It was dark, and we were a little wary of the vibe in the area.  Since we didn’t know the town at all, we thought it best to head back to our hotel and get something to eat nearby.

Across the street from our hotel was a restaurant that had tables out on the street, so we grabbed a table and soon had some glasses of wine in front of us.  The restaurant was called the “Majestic Café” and later we found out that it was famous.  I’m not sure if it is famous for the food, the architecture, or the history, but we really liked it.  Our waiter was really friendly and helpful, and he gave us lots of freebies.  With our wine we ordered some dinner.  Kuniko had duck cooked in port wine, and I had cod cooked in garlic oil, on top of boiled eggs and potatoes.  My dish had a pretty dramatic presentation, and even the people at the table next to us wanted to take a picture of it.  We finished the dinner with a couple glasses of port, and then went back to our hotel.  Before bed we turned off our alarms and put out the “do not disturb” sign.  That was a very busy day.

In the morning we got started a little on the early side, mainly because we weren’t sure exactly how many transfers we would have to manage today.  I also wanted to spend some serious shower time, since the shower we had here was about four times bigger than the tiny one back in London.

The morning was a little cloudy and it looked like it had rained during the night.  Instead of eating breakfast somewhere we walked around the abbey, going up and down the steps for exercise.  We went outside for a recon mission, and inspected the shuttle bus system.  Already there were buses full of tourists coming in, but we could see how easy it was to get back to where we wanted to go, so we walked back into the main island to finally go and see the abbey at the top.  We found ourselves on the same pathways, becoming more and more congested with tourists as time went on.  Luckily we knew a shortcut that we discovered the night before.  There was a tiny crack between two shops, almost impossible to notice – we had come down the hill last night and found ourselves emerging from that place, so it made sense to use it backwards and bypass the crowds.  It worked very well, and we made it to the top much more quickly.  We lined up and were admitted quite rapidly into the abbey itself.

We’ve been in one or two churches around Europe before, so we kind of felt like we’d seen it all.  We were therefore quite pleased with the understated and simple abbey.  Most of the stained glass windows used only light colors, and the predominant theme was shades of gray.  The interior was much larger than I expected, and the visitor’s path took us all over the abbey, popping out on ledges and balconies now and then.  It was one of the better visits that we’ve made, especially combined with the lack of tourists.  Once again, it pays to start early!  A couple of things surprised me – about half the tourists that we did meet were Japanese, which was a higher ratio than any other destination on this trip.  The other interesting point was that there was a gift shop right next to the main cathedral inside the abbey.  I’m used to a gift shop somewhere on the grounds, usually near the exit, but this one was literally in the next room from where people prayed.  A little too blatant for my tastes.  We spent about 45 minutes going through it all, and then went out the exit (which was under construction so that it was a little unclear how to get out).

We took a brief break in our room, and then rolled our big suitcases out of the room, down the cobblestones, and out to the shuttle buses.  The suitcases got a lot of looks, but I’m used to not caring what people think.  The shuttle took us to the main bus pickup area, and we were first at the bus stop with about 40 minutes to kill before our bus to Rennes arrived.  Kuniko waited by the luggage and I went over to a supermarket that we had passed earlier.  Unfortunately it was not really a supermarket – more of a convenience store combined with a gift shop.  I was able to find some small pastries to take back to share with Kuniko, but unfortunately no coffee.

When I came back to the bus stop, there was now a sizable line of people waiting also, predominantly Japanese.  The bus to Rennes finally showed up, and it parked a little ways from the bus stop, so suddenly we were not exactly in a good position.  I took our suitcases over and got them all loaded up underneath the bus, just like everyone else.  Once they were in I turned around nobody had boarded the bus yet.  All the Japanese people had realized that we were there first, and everyone was patiently waiting to make sure that we could also get on first.  Kuniko waved them on board – the bus wasn’t even going to be a quarter full, but I was really struck by the cultural differences.  I’m not sure if that would have happened if they had been a mix of other cultures and countries.  One of the nice things about Japanese manners, I guess.

The bus ride back to Rennes was pretty uneventful, and Kuniko caught up on some sleep.  We passed through rain and sun the whole trip back, so it was anybody’s guess as to the weather in Rennes and Paris.  Once we arrived at the station we bought some pastries – I had a cheese pizza that was mainly made of cheese, and Kuniko had a quiche that was pretty good too.  Both were delicious and reasonably priced.  We found some public seating in the middle of the station to settle down and eat our lunch.  Kuniko held down the fort and I went into a bar nearby to see if I could talk them into letting me buy some beers to eat outside of their establishment.  The bartender spoke zero English, but I did my best with sign language and a few choice French words, and she supplied me with two cold bottles of beer.  They were really good – maybe the best beer of the whole trip (and that includes London!)

After lunch we still had almost an hour to kill, so we decided to go into the bar since the bartender had been so patient and kind with us.  She was happy to serve us a big carafe of Bordeaux, and after we polished that off she suggested a Cote du Rhone.  She gave us some free hard salami, but we ordered a mixed cheese platter to go with our wine as well.  The salad that came with it was really good – walnuts, raisins, lettuce, tomato, vinaigrette, and maybe peanut oil?  The simple things are so much better in France.

Despite all the alcohol, we caught the TGV on time, and then we were headed back to Paris.  As we were boarding the ticket checker outside the train said that our ticket was for the wrong day, but it was indeed correct.  She was a little confused I guess, but she let us on anyway, and it made me wonder what exactly her job is for.  We found our seats, and once again we sat next to a passenger with a small dog.  This dog was pretty lonely, so I had a lot of chances to pet the dog and be friendly.  So cute!  The owner was neither friendly nor cute, however.  I could see why the dog was starved for attention.

We got a little bit of sleep on the train, and so we were well rested upon arrival at Montparnasse station.  We decided to spring for a taxi to take us to the hotel, since we were still dragging our bags around.  The taxi driver was a little strange – he ignored us completely, talking on his Bluetooth headset to someone in a Middle Eastern language, and clicking and unclicking his ballpoint pen.  He got us where we needed to go, however, and we found ourselves out front of the Hotel Malar soon enough.

The hotel design was quite nice, with a modern lobby and an artistic feel to it.  We checked in and the guy told us that our room was on the 3^rd floor (which in Europe means the 4^th), and then he gave us the bad news – no elevator.  We had to carry our bags up a lot of narrow steps, but I didn’t really mind.  It was much tougher for Kuniko, but in the end we made it to our room.  The room was also pretty small, but from the top floor we had a nice view of the rooftops across the street.  Again, we’re good in small spaces, so no worries. This hotel was just for one night.

Once we had sorted out our stuff we decided to go out for a walk and try to find a nearby supermarket where we could get some supplies.  We found a small Carrefour market a few blocks away, and had a lot of fun shopping there.  We found plenty of cassoulet, pate, and other yummy stuff, but unfortunately no canned foie gras.  When we were checking out the clerks were giggling to each other about something to do with Kuniko and me, and so our clerk wasn’t paying attention and dropped one of the coins from my change.  It slid under the cash register and desk in some way as to be pretty inaccessible.  The cashier seemed to get angry at me, maybe because she was hoping that I’d say “don’t worry about it” and let her off the hook.  But I don’t know how to say “don’t worry about it” in French, and even if I did, I’m on vacation and this is entertainment for me.  So get that coin!  Eventually she gave up and called a manager and they opened the register and got the replacement coin out for me, and I gave them a big smile and “Merci!”

We walked around the neighborhood of the Eiffel Tower, and found a little farmer’s market.  One of the booths there was selling cognac spiked with grape juice, and canned foie gras.  We were able to taste several kinds and then buy some to take back to Japan.  Mission accomplished!  I took some pictures of the Tower, and then we went back to the hotel to do a little research on restaurants for dinner.  Unfortunately, the ones I wanted to try were either booked up or closed.  The hotel clerk called one for us, but they were booked up as well.  I was starting to feel stressed – Friday night in Paris and I didn’t want to settle for some fast food!  We decided to just hit the road and find a place at random, and choosing the place caused a little more friction between me and Kuniko.  Luckily we calmed down and avoided a fight.  Usually about once a trip we either have a fight or get dangerously close – hopefully this was the only time this trip…

Finally we settled on a corner restaurant that looked just upscale enough to have a memorable dinner.  We sat at first outside and then realized there were heavy smokers and both sides of our table, so we moved inside.  Dinner was quite good actually – better than I expected.  We shared an appetizer billed as tepid lentils with truffle sauce and a crisped poached egg.  I had a sirloin steak with béarnaise sauce and frites, and Kuniko had seared sea bream with basil gnocchi and vegetables.  I ordered an expensive (for us) bottle of wine off the wine list, and we had a great meal.  It was hard to believe, but outside the two smokers seemed to be trying to compete with each other to make the biggest cloud of smoke.  One of them, an old lady, broke out a cigar and we were even smelling it inside the restaurant.  We were glad we weren’t out there dealing with it.

During the evening rain would start to fall off and on.  We were luckily inside the restaurant during the heaviest part, so no problem.  There is something about rain in Paris that didn’t seem to bother us that much.  Maybe because it was summer and a little warmer than usual, but it was actually quite refreshing.

Once we finished dinner, we walked out to the Eiffel Tower, and we arrived just a few minutes before the top of the hour.  I had heard that the tower was illuminated with a sparkling effect every hour at night, so we had perfect timing to see it.  We stood in a secluded park on the western side of the tower with very few people around, held each other, and enjoyed a quiet romantic moment.  It made up for the earlier fight, and also was a moment of quiet to put in the bank, because I had a feeling that the next time we were here with my family quiet romantic moments would be hard to find.

We wandered back to our hotel, bought some bottled water at the local convenience store, climbed up the stairs, and crashed out right away.

Our alarms went off very early on Thursday morning.  The original plan was to pack the night before our departure from London, but since we kind of slept through the evening we had to pack things up in the morning. Luckily packing was quick, we checked out painlessly, and we were rolling our suitcases to King’s Cross station to have breakfast.  We found a place in the station that was open and had some egg sandwiches and coffees.  While we were there, we noticed there wasn’t a line for Platform 9 3/4 (since it was so damn early) so we took a few souvenir shots.  Fun!

We wandered slowly over to St. Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris, and we were surprised to find that they were already getting ready to depart.  We hustled through security and passport control, and then got onto our carriage and found some space for our suitcases in the baggage area.  Success!  We walked over to our seats, but there were two guys sitting in them.  I double checked out tickets, and then asked the guys.  Their response was interesting – they said, “Somebody is in our seats, so you can probably go and sit anywhere.”  We walked down the length of the car, but it seemed like most seats were filling up.  There was no staff at the end of the car, so we went back and I politely asked them to move.  They sighed and got up and left, and we settled in to the seats we purchased.  Finally we could relax. Luckily the two guys got a spine and confronted the people in their seats, and it turned out they were in the wrong carriage, so I guess everyone could sit on the journey.  Good news.

From St. Pancras station to Paris Gare du Nord it is about two and half hours by the Eurostar train.  As we pulled away from London we started to see some more countryside scenery, but before you knew it the train was going underground.  Following that we spent a surprisingly short time in the dark going under the channel tunnel, and then we came up in France.  I think the total time under the channel was less than 30 minutes, but I’m not sure.  Anyway, we sped through northern France, and the weather continued to alternate between bright clear skies, sudden rainstorms, and clouds.

Once we arrived at Gare du Nord we caught a taxi to take us to Gare Montparnasse station.  It is perfectly reasonable to catch a metro to take us to the station, and theoretically we had plenty of time to get there to catch our TGV train, but we thought it would be easier to deal with our suitcases, and we’d have a chance to enjoy the sights of the city.  I’m glad we decided on this method – it nice to look around as we traveled.  The total cost was only about 16 euros, so very reasonable.  We had a short break at Gare Montparnasse, so we used the toilets (an interesting pay system that required tokens), bought some snacks for the train at a bakery (called “Paul”), and then we waited around for the station to announce the platform for our train.  Once they did we lugged our bags into the correct carriage, and sat down in very comfortable seats.

Our seats were in first class so they had plenty of reclining and leg room.  We sat across from each other, and next to us was a set of four seats facing each other.  A lady in that group had a tiny Chihuahua that she produced now and then to drink water or walk around a bit.  The guy next to her struck up a conversation (in French), and even though I don’t speak French it became apparent that she had a serious speech impediment.  They wrote each other notes on paper, but I could tell the guy was wishing he didn’t start the conversation – it was taking a lot of effort to continue it.

One thing we noticed right away was the train announcements were only made in French – no English at all, so we were hoping we’d be able to hear the announcement for our stop, Rennes.  Luckily things were clear enough to understand and we were able to get off at the correct station.  We went out of the north gate, turned right, and found the bus stop area.  I was led to believe that the bus departures were timed with the arrival of the TGV from Paris, but we found out that this was not exactly the case.  We had two hours to wait.  Luckily, we are really good at waiting around – especially in Europe.

I ran back over to the train station and went into a place that had a cooler.  I picked up a couple of beers to bring back and drink at the bus station, but the cashier pantomimed that I’d need to buy some food if I wanted the beers.  No problem – I bought a sandwich, and took everything back to enjoy with Kuniko.  We toasted our success, and Kuniko almost dropped the beer leading to a minor beer explosion.  We moved out suitcases out of the way and then we were fine.  Sitting on a bench at the bus station means that a lot of people will come and go.  The bench next to ours became occupied with a young couple who took out pouches of tobacco and rolled their own cigarettes.  Then they started smoking away.  We had nowhere to run, so we had to sit and take it.  Ugh.  Another pair of faces we saw were Japanese, and Kuniko told me that they looked a little disappointed to bump into another Japanese person.  Oh, well!  We ended up seeing them pretty often during our short journey to and from Mont St. Michel.

Finally, our bus arrived, and we took about an hour’s ride to the north coast.  We enjoyed the scenery during the ride, and I really liked seeing the French countryside.  Lots of agriculture and open space.  The bus dropped us off at a sort of way-station, and then we took a tram from there to the foot of Mont St. Michel.  It was a pretty dramatic view – the old abbey perched on top of rocks and a small town below it.  There was a lot of construction on the peninsula leading from the main part of the continent, but it looked about 60% complete.  I imagine that in a few years the approach will be completely different.

We were some of the only tourists heading in rolling along our suitcases – we still hadn’t been to a hotel since London, so it was a little strange.  We had thought about this issue when we planned the trip, but ended up deciding that we should just go ahead and drag them on in.  Inside Mont St. Michel there were narrow cobblestone streets and lots of tourists walking around, so that made maneuvering the suitcases that much more difficult.  After a five minute walk we found our hotel, and they checked us in from the counter of their restaurant.  They were nice enough to dispatch staff to carry our suitcases to our hotel room, which was up a small set of stairs and down a narrow alley.  We weren’t sure what the room would be like, but it turned out to be completely renovated and modern.  It seemed like the renovations were done within a few months before – very clean and comfortable.  We ditched our suitcases and headed out the door to check out the island.

At the time the tide was out so we could walk around about half the island on wet sand and mud, and that gave us some nice views of the Abbey.  The smell of sea was strong, but we couldn’t really see the ocean – it was strange.  We decided to go back in and explore the village inside, and eventually ended up at our hotel restaurant for drinks.  I ordered two beers from the menu at random, and one turned out to be a beer spiked with framboise, so it had a sweet berry taste.  Oops.  We killed them anyway, and spent the rest of the afternoon walking up and down the steps and hillsides taking pictures of just about every nook and cranny of the place.

Dinner was at a small restaurant that was one of the only places that stayed open after 8 pm.  The food was pretty good, but the restaurant itself was quite touristy.  Kuniko had grilled lamb, I had some local crab (all body and very tiny legs!), and I also had a side dish of ratatouille that hit the spot.  Complete with red wine and a cheese platter for dessert – we were happy to be back in France.

As usual Kuniko made lots of attempts at communication in the local language, and as usual the servers were charmed by her efforts.  The way she laughs and smiles at her own attempts, success or failure, somehow always wins the servers to our side.  It is one of my favorite things about traveling with her.

With dinner out of the way we walked back out into the darkness to get some pictures of the abbey at night.  It still was barely getting dark at 10 pm, so it took a while to get the shots I wanted.  Finally we came back to the hotel and called it a night.  We went to bed at the latest hour so far! It had been a busy day in two countries!

We woke up to a rainy morning, which seemed like a bad omen for our trip to see Stonehenge out in the countryside.  Since we weren’t looking to rent a car during this trip, we decided to arrange a tour through H.I.S., a Japanese tour company.  The meetup point was actually right across from where we had afternoon tea the other day, so it was still fresh in our memory and easy to find. We arrived a few minutes early and bought some juice for the bus ride, and then went to wait with about 30 Japanese tourists also going on the same trip.  The tour guide, a Japanese middle aged lady, showed up and started to review the paperwork for each of the tour members.  She was a little perturbed that Kuniko didn’t print out the receipt of our reservation, but Kuniko pointed to her name on the tour guide’s list, showed her ID, and everything was fine.

We climbed on to the big coach they had arranged for us, and found some comfortable seats in the middle. We had about a two hour bus ride to Stonehenge, with a break in the middle at a rest area.  The first hour we sipped juice and absolutely devoured some shortbread cookies that we had bought the previous evening.  While we rode on the bus, the tour guide gave a complete lecture on all the countries of the UK, and she related each of the countries to famous Hollywood stars to bring it home for the tour members.  When she reached the topic of Jane Austen, the tour guide really showed a lot of enthusiasm and went on and on.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t turn off the speakers on the bus and had to just get through the lecture.  It was kind of cute, though.

Finally we arrived at Stonehenge, parking in a bus (coach) lot next to the new visitors’ center.  This visitors’ center was completely different from the one I visited when I was here last, and I thought the design was quite nice.  We assembled outside the tour group station, and the tour guide distributed audio guides to everyone.  I declined mine – I have a strict “no audio guide” policy – but that kind of freaked out the tour guide.  I think I was the first person to ever decline.  Anyway, finally we got organized and walked to the visitor’s center, and we were loaded onto trams that took us on a 5 minute ride to Stonehenge itself.  The ride was quite nice – through some beautiful fields.  There was a UK National Trust trail that ran nearby, and there was also a walkway if you didn’t feel like using the tram.  The sun was coming out – the clouds disappeared, and it was just a perfect day to visit.

We walked around Stonehenge and took some pictures, took in the rocks, and avoided as much as possible all the tourists buzzing around the area.  Kuniko seemed to enjoy seeing it, and it brought back good memories from the last time I was here.  We moved around Stonehenge at what I think was faster than average speed, and reached the line to get on the trams for the ride back to the visitor’s center.  Since it was a gorgeous day and we had wrapped up our visit pretty quickly, we decided to walk along the trail and enjoy the views.  We’re always looking for ways to walk and burn some calories, so it was a natural choice for us.

We ambled along the roadway, and took lots of pictures of the green fields.  After the rainy morning I had expected to be under an umbrella all day.  It was a very pleasant feeling.  A couple of trams went by us and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the passengers – they were totally missing out on this feeling.  Kuniko posed for some pictures near a picturesque gate, and I pulled out my phone to check the time and-

HOLY CRAP! We had only 15 minutes before our bus was due to leave!  We started hustling down the road – walking hard.  Kuniko hates to be late so she started to outdistance me and leave me behind.  I hate to rush anywhere, so I kept it to a brisk walk.  More trams went by and now I had completely different feelings about those passengers.  Smart people – every one of them.

We made it to our bus one minute late, and we jumped on.  I was expecting everyone to be there already – Japanese people tend to be very punctual – but as it turned out only about half the people were there.  We sat down and caught our breath.  We made it!

The tour guide was busy watching for the rest of her flock, and a couple of people came in late and said that they saw other members of our tour walking (actually walking!) instead of using the tram.  The tour guide kind of freaked out about that saying that it is more than a 20 minute walk.  I realized that they were talking about seeing us, though, when they mentioned that they saw “the foreign guy”.  We kept our mouths shut behind them and eventually they turned around and saw that we were already there.  We beat you guys!

Once everyone showed up about ten minutes later, we took a short bus ride to the town of Bath.  This was another “second timer” for me, and it was very similar to how I remember it.  We toured the Roman Baths, I think I took pictures from exactly the same spots, and then we walked around town a bit.  Since we had some extra time we had sandwiches and beers at “The Huntsman”, a restaurant/pub right near the tour bus pick up point.  Kuniko had a ham hock and chutney sandwich, and I had a brie and smoked bacon sandwich – both excellent.

Everybody was on time at the bus stop, so we made our way to the last stop of the trip, a tiny little town called “Lacock”, which was slightly famous because it was the place where the first photo ever was taken, and also because they had filmed some Harry Potter scenes there.  We weren’t really interested in either of those two draws, and instead went to the store to buy a wine opener for later, and some Flake ice cream, and then to the Red Lion pub to drink some beers there.  While we waited for the bus to come back we chatted a little with the tour guide.  She was a little quirky but nice.  You could clearly tell she loves her job.  She said she only works four days a week – that’s a nice schedule!

On the bus ride back she was thankfully much quieter, and I think the whole bus except for her and the driver were asleep.  Once we got back into the outskirts of London she started pointing thinks out on the microphone, but I was really glad to have a chance to get in a nap on the bus.

We left the tour behind near Harrod’s, bought some cheesy souvenirs at a cheesy souvenir shop, and then headed back to the hotel.  For some reason I had a brutal headache, so I took some aspirin and lay down to wait for it to take effect.  Kuniko laid down for a nap, and the next thing I knew I woke up around 10 pm.  I still had a slight headache, I wasn’t really hungry, and Kuniko was completely asleep, so I made an executive decision to not go out to dinner tonight.  Instead, I went right back to sleep.

On Tuesday we continued our sightseeing of London, and headed out to see the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.  We took the Circle line to the Tower Hill station, and then walked a little ways to the Tower of London.  We arrived a bit early so we decided to walk across the Tower Bridge and explore the other side of the river.  We were still full from dinner the previous night, so we decided to skip breakfast, and do a lot of walking instead.

The Tower Bridge was interesting for me to walk across, since I had somehow missed the experience the last time I was in London.  The weather was clear and sunny, and we were treated to beautiful views of the London skyline.  You could really appreciate the unusual architecture that is common in the downtown area – very different from Kobe. Back at the Tower of London we were able to see red ceramic poppies being “planted” around and on the walls of the tower and in the dry moat area.  They were an artistic exhibit meant to symbolize all the blood that had run through the tower through history.  Pretty heavy.

We were able to pick up our tickets easily enough, but the entrance to the Tower had apparently changed recently, and we had to walk almost all the way around following guides to another entrance.  Once there it was easy enough to get in, and we set about exploring all the museums and exhibits.  Again, our relatively early start paid off and we could look around with very few tourists getting in our way.  The busiest section was the area were we could view the crown jewels close up, but for some reason they weren’t as striking to me this time around.  Kuniko wasn’t so impressed either.  But overall the visit was interesting, and I think we were both glad we came.

On the way out we shyly asked a Beefeater for a picture, and he politely said yes.  I think 90% of his job is posing for pictures with tourists, so it wasn’t really unusual for him.  Thanks, Beefeater guy!

Our next stop was Notting Hill.  Kuniko was really interested in exploring the neighborhood.  I remember going there years ago, but the day I was there everything was closed.  This time everything was quite open, and we had fun poking through the unusual shops and avoiding the really touristy ones.  I had fun looking around in a spice store, and Kuniko led us to various famous spots from the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts movie “Notting Hill”.  We even went into the bookstore that was in the movie, and it was a little weird to be in there considering I’d seen the scene once or twice on DVD – kind of a reality meets Hollywood moment.

Moving on from Notting Hill we took the underground to Marble Arch station.  Back in 2000, I stayed at a hotel near this station with my dad and uncle, and it was nice way to bring back the memories and walk around the Marble Arch itself.  I couldn’t exactly find the hotel by looking around, so I think it either went of business or I am mis-remembering the exact location.  Both of these are equally possible.

We continued down the main street, past lots of shopping areas and brand stores, and then made a random right turn and came across a pub for lunch.  Kuniko had venison pie, I had fish and chips, and we washed it all down with several beers.  Kuniko really liked the Portabello Ale that was common in London pubs – I think it was her favorite beer during the stay.  I tried so many beers I can’t remember a particular favorite, but I do know I drank way more stouts than I usually do.

While we were inside the pub the weather outside changed to cloudy and windy, but the temperature remained very comfortable.  I think this was the first time that we saw clouds during our London stay – so I guess we were lucky to enjoy very unusual weather (to me).

Now that we were full of calories we decided to get some exercise by walking from the pub all the way to Leicester Square, walking at top speed and dodging tourists as we went.  By now there were a startling amount of tourists walking around, so it made for an exciting obstacle course as we walked.  Leicester Square was an easier station to use (fewer transfers), so we made good time back to our hotel.  Once again we made time for our late afternoon nap.  We ended up sleeping a little later than we had planned, so we decided to go to St. Pancras station to try some wine by the glass.  Three or four days of beer had us looking to wine for a break.  We had a couple of nice glasses of sauvignon blanc, along with some great artichoke dip (we had to ask the staff to identify the dip).  Instead of going out to eat again, we decided to do some shopping at the M&S in the station, and we picked up sweet peppers stuffed with goat cheese, salami, diablo pepper cheese slices, and a bottle of Cava.  The Cava was an inspiration of Kuniko’s – we couldn’t find a place selling wine openers, and sparkling is always easy to open.  We brought it all back to our room and drank the Cava out of coffee cups.  It was nice to have a slow night in, since we are off to Stonehenge tomorrow.

We were still a bit tired out from the day before, so we decided to stay in and sleep as late as we could.  It still wasn’t very long though – we were leaving the hotel by 7 a.m.  Our first stop was to find a supermarket in Camden Town.  We took a train there and then walked a block or two to a big American-sized supermarket called Sainsbury’s.  We love to explore supermarkets when we go to other countries, and this was a good one.  I was really surprised how many of the items were pre-packaged/ready to eat foods.  They had ingredients and such also, but the prepackaged foods took up a considerable percentage of the store shelf space.  The buzzwords in London seemed to be “fair trade” and “organic”, with just about every item having some seal proclaiming these words.  We also saw some big packages full of scotch eggs – I love those!  I didn’t know they were so popular in England.

After looking at all the food on the shelves it was time to go get some breakfast.  Across from the train station we found a little corner sandwich shop that was also serving breakfast, and we had an omelette and a ham/cheese panini.  It was filling, but not altogether exciting.  It was very nice to take a slow breakfast on a busy street corner and watch London passing by outside the windows.

We dropped off our groceries at the hotel, and then got back on the train and made our way to the British Museum.  I was surprised to find that all the museums in London are free of charge, and with the British Museum you get a lot of cost performance out of your zero pounds.  We spent more than an hour there covering only some highlights of the museum, but it was clear that it could take days and days to completely see everything.  The main hall was especially well designed and impressive, and we also made our way to the Japan section, even though we just came from the real thing a few days ago.  There were so many interesting exhibits, but my favorites were the Ramses II statue, a statue from Easter Island, and also we could see a big piece of the Rosetta Stone. Those Brits are real collectors!

We had pretty tired feet by the end of that, so we stopped at a pub right outside the museum to recharge ourselves with beer.  They had an interesting toilet that was located underground beneath the ground-level pub.  While I was in there I noticed a big poster to give information to people about premature ejaculation and new treatments that were available.  I was startled later when Kuniko mentioned that the same poster was in the women’s bathroom.  Interesting conversation ensued!

Next stop was Piccadilly Circus, where we went to afternoon tea at a hotel restaurant called “Brumus”.  Kuniko had found out about it in her Japanese guidebook, and since we had made a reservation the previous day it was easy to get a table.  We had dressed up a bit compared to our usual casual attire, but we needn’t have bothered – almost every other customer in there was dressed extremely casually.  I sensed the atmosphere was a little different from what Kuniko expected, but we still had a great time and really enjoyed the champagne, tea and snacks.  The food was especially well chosen to match the tea and champagne, and it was nice to eat upscale for a change.  Among the bite-sized dishes we enjoyed were lobster rolls, cherry tomatoes filled with chutney, and scones with jam and clotted cream.  It was a very impressive meal!

Once again we were a little tired after all the tea (and champagne) so we made it back to our hotel for a late afternoon nap.  I was really happy with the location of our hotel – being near King’s Cross station made transportation all over London a snap.  One bad point was that there was a playground nearby, so the kids would run around screaming and freaking out during the afternoon, which cut into our nap time a little.

After our short sleep in the room we decided to keep dinner local, and we walked a little to the southwest to visit a pub that was more out-of-the-way than some of the touristy ones we’d been to already.  This pub was definitely a local’s place, with gruff owners and lots of people talking with friends both inside and out.  We had roast lamb and chicken mushroom pie, along with our cold beers.  I liked the atmosphere of the place, kind of like what you imagine a local pub to be like.  Quite a bit different from Applebee’s!

After the heavy dinner we decided to be active and take the train to see the night versions of Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.  The subway system served us well again – we took the Circle Line around to Westminster.  The advertisements in the tube stations were really well done.  Some had big digital screens with interesting video ads; others were simple eye-catching displays along the escalator.  We even saw an ad for Martin Freeman playing Richard III in a play in London – not just a hobbit anymore.

We arrived on the river Thames and walked across it to a little park where we could observe the buildings as darkness fell.  Unfortunately darkness was falling a little slower than we expected, and it was a little cool while we waited on the park bench.  More opportunity for us to snuggle, though! It finally became dark enough for them to turn on the lights around 8:45 pm, and we were finally rewarded for our patience. I could take a few pictures, and then we walked on.

On our walk to Victoria station we passed Westminster Abbey and it appeared that there was some kind of big event going on.  There were many men and women in various military uniforms all lined up on the street to go inside, and later we found out that the night was the hundredth anniversary of the first World War.  The media was there as well, covering the event and taking pictures of some of the Royals inside.

Back at King’s Cross station we did a little shopping for juice and waters for the next morning, and I lined up at the local convenience store, M&S (Marks and Spencer).  A little pudgy kid bypassed the line and went all the way to the front.  He even looked over at me standing in the front of the line, but still put his items in front of the cashier.  Luckily the cashier sent him to the back of the line, but I was really surprised that the kid tried that move.  Most stores in London had a great system where the first person in line had only to wait for a digital sign to flash saying which number register was available, and then you just walked up to it.  You didn’t have to check the progress of each of the registers to determine when they would be available.  It was a nice system that let you turn off your brain, and I’m all for it happening more often in Japan.

Finally we made our way back to the hotel to conclude the day.  We’ve been really active out on the street, so we’re coming home tired every night.  That’s got to be a good thing considering the calories we’re taking in!

I’m not sure if it was because of the time difference, or if it was because we are used to getting up early, but we both found ourselves up and awake around 5 a.m. the next day.  We decided to go ahead and explore some of the famous sightseeing spots of London while it was early, and we rolled out of the hotel around seven in the morning. We took the tube to Victoria station, and from there walked east past Westminster Abbey to Big Ben and the houses of Parliament.  On the way we were asked by some other tourists if we could help them find something, so I guess we looked like we knew what we were doing. We spent several hours walking around the area taking in the sights – Buckingham Palace, the Guards Barracks, some beautiful parks, a cottage next to a pond with pelicans swimming everywhere.  Finally we ended up at Trafalgar Square, and it reminded me of my previous visit, and how many pigeons there were at the time.  Now it seemed like they had the pigeon population under control.

We felt a little hungry after walking so much, so we decided to go for breakfast, and found a nice little restaurant called La Roche, down the street from the Square near some theaters.  We both ordered coffee and a full English breakfast, and I reacquainted myself with the traditional eggs, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, beans and toast.  Just as before, the first one is really good and makes a big impression, but after 3-4 of these in a row they get to be a bit much.

After breakfast we were ready to get walking again, and we walked clear to Piccadilly Circus, then along the shopping streets until we reached Green Park, and sat on the lawn under some trees and took in the beautiful weather.  There was sun shining in London, and it was nice to see the good weather, especially considering the last time I was in London it was only gray and cloudy.  Green Park was filling up with people cutting across to go check out Buckingham Palace, and we realized that we missed a lot of crowds with our very early start.

Our next stop was a hotel that specialized in afternoon tea service, so we made a reservation for the following day, and then made our way to Covent Garden.  Unfortunately we arrived before noon, and apparently noon is the time when all the stores open and the pubs start serving alcohol (at least on Sunday).  We killed a little time in a pub sipping on a mango juice drink, and then at noon all the stores opened and we could do some shopping.

It was apparent that the weather was going to be on the cool side during our stay in London, and Kuniko had forgotten to bring some cool weather clothing.  I wanted to get some socks since I didn’t see many opportunities for flip-flops in London (and as it turned out, elsewhere either).  Even though the sun was shining and we had blue skies, it was just a bit cold.  We found what we needed at a couple of stores in the area, and then we stopped at a pub for beers and a small snack to serve as our lunch.  The pub had “jacket potatoes” on the menu, and we picked one flavor, BBQ pork, and it was interesting.  It was just a regular baked potato with different fillings that you could choose.  I’m not so sure BBQ is a good match for this dish, but it was fun to try it out.

By this time Kuniko was starting to get pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel to take a break and get some rest.  I made a reservation through the internet for our dinner at a place called Tom’s Kitchen in South Kensington.

Before heading to the restaurant we walked over to Harrod’s department store to walk through their food sections.  They had some pretty exotic stuff, and we marveled at the caviar bar where you could sit and enjoy various types of caviar.  A little rich for us, but maybe next time! We arrived at our restaurant a bit early for our reservation, so we sat in an adjacent park and watched families playing outside in the beautiful weather.  One thing I did notice more than last time in London was the abundance of public parks and areas to sit and relax.  I guess I don’t see them as much in our area of Japan.

I enjoyed the dinner – I had pork belly, and Kuniko had fish and chips.  She was a little disappointed in the presentation – it was served in a modern style, but I think she was hoping for something a little more traditional.  The food was a little pricey here for what we got, so overall we weren’t too thrilled with the place.

We were both pretty whipped after the big day, so we headed directly back to our hotel for some much needed rest.

We got a very early start in the morning, thanks to not being able to find a cab to drive us to Nishi Akashi station.  Instead we drove our car to Kobe airport, parked there, and took a ferry across to the Kansai Airport.  We had done something similar before when we went to Taiwan, so we were already familiar with the procedure.  The parking is unlimited and free, so that was a big plus.  It was also nice to be able to drive and stay cool and dry on a rainy day like today.

We arrived at Kansai airport on time, did a quick and easy check-in at the counter of Air China, and then breezed through immigration and security.  Usually our routine is to have a pre-trip cocktail, but seven in the morning is a little too early even for us. We substituted coffee and a hot dog, and then caught the two and half hour flight to Beijing.

When we arrived at Beijing I was surprised by the amount of air pollution. We had been to Beijing before for a weekend trip and were lucky enough to have blue skies and clear weather, which I understand now to be sort of a rarity.  Since we had about three hours to kill before our next flight, we hit the bar for draft McKilney beers (something a little hard to find in Japan) and an appetizer of sausages wrapped in bacon.  Getting that big calorie hit right up front!

The next flight to London was a little bumpy but no big problems.  Most of the passengers were noisy, so it was a little hard to sleep.  I spent most of the time watching movies, but I did get an hour or two of sleep. The food wasn’t bad, actually.  This was our first time on China Air, so I didn’t really know what to expect.

Arrival in Heathrow was followed by a very long walk to the immigration and customs areas.  It seemed like we walked for 20 minutes, with the occasional help from the people mover runways.  The immigration booths were pretty empty and there was no waiting for us to pass through.  Our immigration officer looked a little bored and chit-chatted with us as we went through.  He asked about our jobs and teased me that the correct spelling of “labor” is actually “labour”.  Even though immigration was quick, picking up our suitcases took a long time.  The system at Heathrow airport is automated so that if the carousel is full, no new suitcases will come out.  That means that you can either wait for passengers to pull off their bags, or the passengers can arrange and sort the bags already on the carousel so that there is space available for new bags.  It was a strange system, and it took maybe 30 minutes to get our bags and get out of there.

From the airport we caught a train on the Piccadilly Line using our Oyster cards that I had sent away for previously.  It was nice to be back on the London Underground.  We put our suitcases next to us and had a peaceful journey into town.  I was enjoyed the landscape as we went along – it was very green and all the houses and villages we passed looked very British.  It was Kuniko’s first time to see the landscape, so I thought it was a good way to get a first impression of England.  We arrived at King’s Cross station after about an hour.  My only previous experience with King’s Cross station was 14 years ago when my father and uncle and I traveled in England, and we had passed the station to rent a car.  I still have a vivid memory of some drunken homeless guy puking all over the pavement outside the station.  Luckily there wasn’t a repeat episode, and we could find out hotel without much trouble.   We stayed in the Montana Excel Hotel, on a street with a little row of hotels.  It was a pretty small hotel, and we were on the third floor, so we had to lug our bags up the narrow stairs, and pull them down the narrow hallway and into our narrow room.  The room was a bit smaller than we are used to, but we are very flexible about things like that, and we settled in quickly.

We thought it would be good to go out and find a pub for a bite to eat and some beers, so we backtracked to the station and found one in the back of the station.  It was next to “Platform 9 3/4”, of Harry Potter fame.  The station had built a little photo opportunity area, and there were a huge amount of people lined up waiting to take a picture there.  We didn’t feel like waiting so we passed and went right into the Parcel Yard pub.  We managed to find a table away from other patrons and I ordered us a couple of pints.  At our table we also ordered some food, and had a very nice beef pie that came with excellent mashed potatoes, and also we had some chickpea croquettes that were delicious.

Even though we had picked a table away from the crowds a large group of British guys took the big table next to us, and started carrying on.  They also had come in past the long line of tourists at the Platform 9 3/4, and one guy loudly said the line was “full of Chinks”.  His friends belatedly looked over, saw Kuniko, and tried to get the guy to shut up.  I pointedly looked over and caught one of the guys’ eyes, and he flushed with embarrassment.  I think they were all pretty ashamed, but no apologies.  We didn’t really care so much, and later I explained the situation to Kuniko who hadn’t noticed at all.  I guess there are racists wherever you go.

Anyway, after dinner we were feeling the effects of all that travel, so we headed back to the hotel and went straight to bed.  It was a big first day!