Cj and I love Europe we are always planning trips to go over there and explore. This year just like all the others Cj got on a kick where he started looking up plans for going to europe. My response this year was, well if you want to go you better plan it because we are planning on having another baby soon and I said I wasn't going pregnant or leaving our newborn so if he wanted to go he better actually make plans. To my surprise he did! It was a long trip 13 days to be exact I was pretty nervous about being away from the kids for that long but they were safe in the hands of both grandparents who split the time taking them while we were gone. So grateful to have our parents so willing to take the kids. So off we went on our big trip. Our first stop was in London, then on to Budapest, Hungary ( this is were CJ served his mission it is his second home he loves it so much ) then off to romantic Paris.
The flight over is rough I don't love flying, especially 11 hours, and it was a red eye I assumed I would be able to get some sleep but no not a wink. CJ was able to get in 4 or 5 hours I was jealous. We arrived safely though got some food and some sleep and started off on exploring London.
LONDON, ENGLAND
Me in front of Buckingham Palace.
Cj facing the opposite direction from Buckingham getting a view of the Eye in the background
We stayed right by London Eye so every night as we would walk home we would get this pretty view. We actually got a good view of it from our hotel as well.
Westminster Abbey, this is the church Willie and Kate got married at. But it has a lot more history than that of course. A lot of royalty is buried there along with many famous authors and others.
This is the courtyard inside of the abbey
Me on a London street
Down in the London Tube, there was a lot of public transportation while we were gone. While its nice and convenient it does mean a lot of walking and after 2 weeks I missed my car.
CJ getting ready to go inside for the tour of Parliament. Thats Big Ben in the background.
Don't mind my facial expression sometimes CJ would catch me off guard. but this is one of the only pictures we had of Tower Bridge.
The view from the top of St. Pauls Cathedral. They let you climb up to the top of the dome and it was a hike. Hundreds and Hundreds of stairs. Side note this is the church where Princess Diana was married. It was very gorgeous inside but they did not allow photos.
We have a lot of photos like this but it's nice to have some photos with both of us in it.
Inside Harrods department store. That place is unreal its so huge and seriously has everything. Even a food market, restaurants, bakeries, every clothing brand you name it they have it. We took this for Corbin.
So some notes about London. We were able to go see Wicked while we were there i've always wanted to see it and since we were going to be in London I told CJ we were seeing one show while we were there and they just happened to have Wicked. Cj is not into plays or musicals but he actually really enjoyed it. We ate a lot of indian food it's very popular over there and we love it. We actually went to one restaurant two nights in a row it was so good.
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY
So a two hour flight and we had made it to CJ's second home. He was so exited to get there, this is Hero's Square. this is where they have their memorial to the unknown solider.
This is the Hungarian Parliament. If you look closely you can she the building over to the right is all nice and clean and the building over on the left is all dirty. They were cleaning it while we were there it was funny to see the difference. We were able to take a tour inside.
A view of Parliament and the river from up at Buda Castle which I apparently got no photos of only photos of the view from it.
Parliament at night
This bridge is shown in a lot of the movies that are filmed here. The one I can think of off the top of my head is I SPY with Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy.
This is a tram thing that you can take from down by the bridge shown above to get up the hill to the Castle.
This is Vaci Street. It's like the main street with a lot of the shopping and restaurants.
Inside the Subway
Kristina in Hungarian
We were able to spend some time with Gabor a friends of ours from over there. Gabor was nice enough to drive us around and show us some sights out of town. He also took CJ to go go-cart racing.
Us at a little town outside of Budapest
Hungary's countryside
Side notes on Hungary, The food was really good there some of my favorite meals of the trip were there surprising enough. They have my favorite paprika chips im missing them already. CJ got to visit old places he lived and work on his Hungarian again. We had a great time.
PARIS, FRANCE
The most recognizable thing in France i'm sure the Eiffel Tower of course.
Side note, In all of our pictures it seems like we are wearing the same thing everyday, we aren't really just the same jackets. Had to pack light:)
Cj and I in front of the Eiffel Tower
Seriously CJ got this picture on his phone. Thats a good picture I was shocked.
Night Photo
Standing underneath it
The Palace of Versailles
Versailles is one of my favorites in France, it's just so amazing and so huge! If your wondering about the weird rusted steal in the front, the french select an artist I think each year to do some kind of installation. They apparently like to pick things that will be controversial. If it didn't looked all rusted maybe it would be so bad but the color was so out of no where.
The front of the palace
This is the famous hall of mirrors it's very extravagant. Notice all the people! France was very busy everywhere we went.
This is the Queen's Suite
Us listening to our audioguide overlooking some of the gardens.
The gardens at Versailles are almost more spectacular than the palace. You even have to buy a whole separate ticket to go the gardens. It's never ending and very well maintained. We sent hours out there walking around. We were lucky to be there because this time a year they will actually turn on the fountains for two hours it was cool to see them all on.
Down in the gardens and way in the back thats the palace
The famous Louvre pyramid. Now CJ is not into art and even the Louvre didn't get him in the art mood. You can't go to Paris though and not go the Louvre to see the David or Mona Lisa.
Just us standing on one of the bridges. Every bridge is different and some are actually super modern it's a weird juxtaposition to the very historical feel of Paris.
Notre Dame
That's Notre Dame in the background. The bridge had all these padlocks locked onto it, I guess when you want to show a sign of commitment to you significant other you can head down to the bridge and lock your love together and then throw the key into the river.
This is a church that had these amazing stained glass window lining the whole nave. You can tell the ones are the right have been restored the ones on the left have not yet.
In Paris and in London, they had these little racks of bike all over the place and you could just rent one and return it to another one somewhere else. It was a little crazy in the Paris traffic but a nice relief from all the walking.
On our last day we booked a scooter tour. It was SO much fun! We now know this is the way to get around Paris. I sat on the back of CJ there is no way I would be any good at driving in the crazy paris traffic. It was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip we had this great guide who would drive us to all the sights and then stop and give us cool information. Highly recommend this to anyone.
The Arc de Triomphe
There is a crazy roundabout that goes around this notice how no one is in lanes or anything of the sort. It's just like a free for all and people are not driving slow.
So much fun
One of our favorite bridges thats our guide in front of us.
This one shocked me. On the big street below the Arc de Triomphe is a very popular shopping area. All the big names are there. As we were scootering past we noticed this huge line, we asked our guide and he said it was the line to get into Abercrombie and Fitch! Seriously! there were security guards in front and everything. The line was 3 times size of the one going into Luis Vuitton. Our guide says it's hugely popular and all the wealthy kids wear it. This surprised me I mean I remember Abercrombie being popular here and maybe it still is but not that popular.
So in France we had a great time it was very easy to get around really every country we went to a lot of people could speak english so it wasn't to hard to get around. It was really nice to be back in the states though and hear English again. All and all it was a great trip! We were happy to get home to the kids though we missed them so much and we were very tired after two weeks of traveling.
