European Adventure, Part 5: Off to Paris!

Saying goodbye to:

Pretty entranced by the train (at the beginning).

Going through the Chunnel (and finally relaxing from almost missing our train?)

And hello to:

The train became a bit of a screen time free-for-all, too.

Greeting the French countryside with a refreshing bottle of Vittel and an unwillingness to sit still!

We arrived at Gare du Nord, caught a taxi, I attempted to communicate with the guy in my very rusty (verrrrrry rusty) French, and we discovered that he didn't take credit cards, so we had a nice little ATM stop along the way, but then made it to our Airbnb accommodations (right above the Ladurée chocolate shop!) and almost immediately went out exploring (/walking towards our dinner location).

Two passed-out bozos in the back of a cab.

Paris!

The Eiffel Tower as seen from the Jardin des Tuileries!

Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel! (William had decided not to cooperate for pictures anymore.)

The Louvre!

Notre Dame!

Made it to our restaurant on the Île Saint-Louis! This meal was delicious, but such a disaster, haha.

William begins a lifelong love affair with ice cream? Actually, in this case, raspberry sorbet.  (For those who are curious, mine is a scoop of salted caramel and a scoop of dark chocolate, because when in Paris...)

So excited! Later this night, I asked him if he liked Paris.  Yes!  Why?  "They have really delicious ice cream there!"

Exhausted boys! (Sharing a sofa bed--which made me nervous enough for Robert that I didn't sleep very well, but no worries, he woke up for the first time fairly early and joined us, so I could quit worrying about him rolling off the sofa bed? Haha.)

European Adventure, Part 4: Last Night in London

By the late afternoon, William seemed totally fine, so we were off--as soon as Donald and Robert got back to the hotel, we headed out to catch the tube (do I capitalize that?) to a pub that Donald had picked out for dinner.  Caroline and Tyler were just waking up from their post-race naps, so we made plans to catch up with them and check out their flat (teehee!) later.  Robert was a little bit out of sorts at never getting a real nap for the day.  Ooooops.

Posing in front of the New Scotland Yard on our way to the tube station.

Trying out a London red telephone booth!

Ha!

Posing in front of "Little Ben" on our way from the tube station to the pub.

A refreshing gin and tonic that nonetheless failed to make our meal relaxing.  Haha.

Robert thought this giant glass filled with water seemed like something he should pick up unassisted.

Going to town on his fish and chips.  William opted for the bangers and mash, of course.  

He had a natural instinct for dipping in the tartar sauce.  Good man.

Taking a break from his fish to focus on the chips.

In between the tube leg and the double decker bus(!!) leg, William decided he desperately needed to pee.  Note: we had just tried to get him to do so before we left the pub not too many minutes before this, but he said he had tried and could not.  Sigh.  So, we were rude Americans when we were faced with no apparent bathroom opportunities, and William peed behind(ish) a phone booth down an alleyway!

Robert and I took in the local culture while we waited.

A double decker bus! As seen from the front row of the top level of a double decker bus! So exciting.

The boys were pretty excited about this transportation choice.

Sooooo many selfie attempts, so few whole faces captured.

William is mid-song here.  He sang a song of his own creation about the joys of riding a double decker bus for the majority of the time we were on one.  

Up next, you would assume that I would have pictures of our visit with Caroline and Tyler, but you would be wrong, because apparently we failed to take any.  We stopped in, watched a little soccer, the boys did their best to destroy their very cute flat, and then they took us out to the high street to catch a cab back home, but on the way took us on a tour of their neighborhood, including a stop for an impromptu salt beef bagel (beigel? haha) to share--yum--and a pop into a bar filled with Portuguese fans raucously cheering on Portugal as they won over France in extra time to become Euro 2016 champions.  The boys felt the deafening roar of "POR-TU-GAL! POR-TU-GAL! POR-TU-GAL!" was too loud, so our stay was brief (but so was the time left in the game, haha.  Anyway, so somehow we managed to miss out on pictures along this adventure.  But it was a lovely visit!

London Eye from the cab on the way back.

Blurry Westminster Abbey at night

Big Ben again!

We got home so late that the hotel had snuck in and done turn-down service! (We had rejected it the night before.) Including little linens for our feet! How ridiculous.  The boys immediately picked it all up and started carrying it all over creation, but a nice thought.  Haha.

European Adventure, Part 3: Sightseeing Plans Interrupted

So, we made it through the whole day Saturday without sleeping (give or take a snoozing bozo or two in the cab), we sort of made it through a...behaviorally problematic dinner, and we made it back to the hotel in time for a downright respectable bedtime.  Phew!  Burkes: 1, Jet lag: 0, right?!  I was feeling pretty smug at the close of Day 1(.5).  So of course, we woke up to the elder Burkelet puking in his sofa bed.  Sigh.  We moved him to our bed, he threw up another time in our bed, then we moved him to the floor.  By the floor, his reaction time had gotten better, so although he threw up...5 times? total, he made it to the bathroom before sullying more linens/clothes, etc. the rest of the time.  Here he is in between Incident 3 and Incident 4:

Pooooooor guy.

I'm still not sure if this was just from pushing too hard through the travel day(s), or if he had an actual illness.  The fact that Penelope got something similar shortly after we got to the Netherlands points to actual illness (sorry, Kaplans!!), but that was also surprisingly far after the fact.  Either way, it extended throughout the morning and into the afternoon, with long intervals of sleeping in between runs to the bathroom (often immediately following requests for sausage and OJ), and so I stayed in the hotel with the patient, while Donald took Robert on a grand adventure to the Tower of London!

Taking the Tube!

Robert seems underwhelmed by the Tower.

Serious pose befitting the location; photobomb by a bear statue.

The Tower: A Tour as Told Through Grumpy Selfies

Scared of the knight in his armor?

Checking out the Crown Jewels

Pointing at a cannon

Another grumpy selfie! I believe I see a hint of the Tower Bridge in the background!

Giving up on selfies and capturing the silhouette instead.

Hey, look at that! Pretty neat bridge there!

Robert approves!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, William woke up, and after one false start of saying he felt good and wanted food followed by a mad dash back to the room to throw up again (but false alarm!--"I don't have any puke. I might just need some sausage."), we ventured down to the Executive Lounge (ooh! ahh!) to dip toes gingerly back into the world of food.  Here he is deciding to wake up for the day some time in the early afternoon, looking emaciated and pitiful:

He really perked up once he got some food and water in him.  I was still trying to pace him, so we ended up spending quite a long time in the Executive Lounge, slowly grazing on their food and drink, and watching the Wimbledon coverage in the background.

Someone's feeling better!

We were just about to head back up to the room, and they brought out the scones and tea sandwiches! Don't mind if I do!

Revived by the power of tea sandwiches!

(We took a few to go because he kept wanting more, but I was worried about his trying that much food without a bathroom right there, haha.)

After enough time had passed to indicate that the food experiment was a success, it was time for a bath in the fancy tub!

Aaaaand there he is in his robe and slippers.  It ended up being a really nice spa day for him, I think! Haha.

Post-bath, I let him set up camp on the sofa and watch a little bit of Mighty Machines.  Sick day abroad!