2018 Year-End Review

How do these things sneak up on us, another year in the record books and I have not broken any record or shattered anything.

I had 2 “big” trips this year and a few small ones. It felt like the travel gods were on some other path than mine.  In the spring I did go to London and the timing worked out great for the royal wedding.  I was lucky enough to be on the grounds of Windsor Castle during the wedding and saw close up the carriage with the newlyweds go right past us.

Then recently I was in Paris for a few days and mostly had a great time.  I have been lucky enough to have visited both of these cities previously but did find new and exciting things to see and do.

For the most part, those were the 2 major unique events that happened this year.  As is prone to happen people are born and die.  I have a new great-grandson born earlier this year, that makes 3 great-grands so far.   I lost a second cousin, much too young, this year and a few friends.  I was able to reconnect with a couple of old friends and spend some time rehashing much older days.  I participated in a craft show for the first time in almost 10 years and certainly enjoyed that.

Not to appear like a slug for most of the year, I have been spending a great deal of time with my grand and great-grand daughters.  One is hard at work in her college program and one is 9 and in 4th grade.  My involvement is to make sure the little one gets on and off the bus and has homework finished and helping out with cooking some meals for the family.  It’s amazing how much time that can consume.

This will continue in 2019 since this is the last semester of my granddaughters college degree.  She may decide to go for post-graduate studies, but after tough study and work and home commitments she will take a couple of years off. (She is also planing her wedding in 2019, busy lady.)

For next year, I have put 2 more countries back on my travel wish list, they have been for many years and I really hope to get to them.  I can’t wait to see what my grand is doing with her life and career and what level of commitment she may need next year.

At my age it is always time to ramp up the exercise and cardio so I can be the  active gram out on the dance floor, not the one looking for paramedics.  Trying to get back to some of my favorite cities to visit and find one or two new ones.  Take a course in college for anything, just to make sure the gears are all still turning. Oh, I also want a new tattoo or two.  Not a super long list, but I know from experience things pop up to change my direction.

 

 

 

Leeds Castle

My recent trip to England took me to new places which is always delightful.  My grandson who was traveling with me selected the destination for this day.  His choice for this was because of the maze.  We have corn mazes which are fun, but he wanted to see and experience the original styles they have in Europe.  So underground to the train to the bus to a long walk and in a couple of hours we were there.

Starting with beautiful grounds and just amazing flowers in bloom with the castle as the backdrop  for it all.  This like many has self guided tours and lots of signs to keep you going in the right direction and with a bit of history to explain what you are seeing.

We found beauty inside and outside the castle.  We never did find the maze but loved the visit.  As we were told, this was a “proper” castle with a moat and everything and it did not disappoint.    Now off to the next adventure.

London Travel/Royal Wedding

Well this title is a bit misleading, our remaining days of travel were all outside of London.  This was the week of the Royal Wedding and I was pretty much prepared to change travel dates, but my grandson said Yes, so off we went.  He scouted out the best route to get to Windsor and we took a bus, double-decker of course, to a train filled with other wedding watchers.

The trains were filled with people from all over the world, speaking a huge variety of languages and all seemed quite charmed by the event about to take place.  Windsor is a smallish town fairly distant from London and very much like the places you see on TV shows.

With the help of the “Royal Wedding” signs around town and a local giving us directions as he watched from his front lawn this parade of people going past.  We made it through security and safely on the grounds of Windsor Castle.  About 100 yards in front of our location was a huge, movie screen size, TV for viewing the wedding.  Now, just to wait.  A camera in a tower on the grass was about 10 feet away and he was filming all around the area.  When he turned the camera on the people right there a lot of flag waving and cheering happened.  We were “officially” at least in our minds, a part of the royal wedding.  We found a fairly open space to watch and settled in.

The people watching was fun and a few cars with guests and Megan with her Mom came right past us for us to all wave to.  We then watched them disembark from those same cars at the front of the castle.  Once the wedding started the grounds quieted a little but not completely.  Many of us on the grass joined in with the songs and cheered the events happening. We all sang God Save The Queen and waited for the carriage to come past.

We were certainly rewarded for our efforts and were no more than 20 feet from the carriage and saw Prince Harry and Megan!!!!! This was never officially on my bucket list, but certainly is crossed off now.  The locals asked what would this compare to back in the US.  The only thing I could think of was seeing the President.  I have luckily seen 3 and shaken hands with 2 and this felt the same.

London Travel Part 1

I have a couple of adventurous grandchildren who are always up for almost anything fun.  I was doing a bit of whining and saying it had been far too long since I had the opportunity to do any international travel and I would be doing some soon.  I had some eager companions who said they were willing to take time off from jobs and school if necessary to go along. My grandson and I settled on a weekend where he knew he could make himself available and we decided on London.  So I checked the calendar and flights and hotels and discovered it was the weekend of the royal wedding.  He said let’s go anyway so we did.

We arrived Friday morning and first stop was the hotel we were staying in.  It offered a great rate but was a bit out-of-the-way.  My cell phone never did work while I was out of the country so we had no sense of where we were going.  We stopped in a pub by the underground stop that I remembered was near the place for lunch and directions.

By the way, for any of you going there.  I am not sure if it was the wedding weekend or just the summer weather starting but it was the worst time ever getting out of the airport.  When we got off he airplane there was a queue that snaked through the airport at a snail pace.  We spent almost three hours in line waiting to get up to the front of the line and have our passports checked and stamped.  This was my 7th trip to London and I have never seen anything so bad.  They were bringing water for us standing in line because they thought someone might pass out.

Found the hotel, but they had no storage facility for our bags so off we went on our adventure.  First the London Eye.   A truly giant Ferris Wheel with huge enclosed cars for about 20 people in each car.  Moves very slowly, no shaking or wobble almost don’t even know you are up in the air.  A short walk over to Westminster Abbey,  Big Ben is in scaffolding for the next 5 years with some major repairs to the building.

We took a pedicab to Buckingham Palace, just because it really is impressive, between the gates and the people and the size and the park area, I’m not sure I would want to live there. Then off to Piccadilly Circus because it is like going to Times Square in New York, just an iconic place to see.  I was pretty much done for the day, but when you have an 18-year-old boy along you just keep going.