June 2007
Truly? I don’t remember much about taking the train from Paris to London via the Chunnel. I sprung for first class seats for Henrik and me and my first travel tip of this blog?
Don’t bother. If taking the Chunnel train, save your money and ride in coach. Our first class seats seemed not much different from coach. The meal served us tasted mediocre, seemingly straight out of cellophane.
June 25th— London! Now that I knew Henrik was terrific at directions, I put him in charge of figuring out which underground stop we needed to take to reach our hotel. After Paris, we knew we could find anything. Many of the buildings all looked similar in the vicinity of our lodging, but fortunately, the doors were well marked with bold numbers. Without too much difficulty, I exclaimed, ``Henrik, this is it!” It will have to go on record as the “no name” hotel because apparently there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the place. I have no details about our accommodations for the one night other than it is located off the Piccadilly Line near a residential Earl’s Court stop.
Henrik and I walked into the small lobby to check in. After inquiring first if Pete had already arrived, the clerk told me, “Not yet”. “Oh no”, I thought to myself, my mind whirling with thoughts of “What will we do if we don’t find each other? or “What if his plane didn’t leave?” We had no cell phones between us to make contact.
We were scheduled to leave on Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 the next day. The last part of our trip would be ruined if he didn’t show up. After all, he had the formal wear with him!!!
We hadn’t been in the lobby for five more minutes when I happened to turn around and whom should I see strolling past the lobby’s plate glass window? Pete!!! Now THAT was a travel miracle. I hadn’t felt so grateful to see my husband in my life. As a single parent feeling responsible for a child; dealing with the minutiae of traveling between two continents and several European countries for the past week, I felt more than ready to pass the baton of responsibility to someone else.
After checking in, the three of us settled in quickly. Now, how to best see London in one day?
Why, you take a tour of the city by boat and bus of course.
And that’s how we spent our afternoon in London. We bought tickets for the combined guided tour on a bright red double decker bus followed by a river tour on the Thames via a Batobus (London tour boat). In addition, to make our day in London super authentic, nature provided the rain.
We saw many of London’s highlights using these two modes of transportation. It was a perfect way to spend one day in London. I found an old postcard recently I sent from the city to my parents, Bill and Else Matthews, living in Shelbyville, Kentucky. Besides writing about the sites we saw, I mentioned the next morning's breakfast;
Travel Tip - Send postcards to friends and loved ones when traveling. They will appreciate being remembered and your card is a great record of your travels years later.
“Off to a good London breakfast with eggs, sausage, bacon, coffee for $4.70 pound. London is very expensive $1 US =1.90 pound!” ( Of course it’s all relative. I just paid $18 USD for breakfast this past week in Canada).
After checking out of our hotel the following morning, we made our way to Victoria Station where we caught a bus to Southampton. From the photo I have, it looks like Henrik and I were a tad pooped on this leg of our journey.
The Queen Mary 2, first set sail on January 12, 2004 (just 3 years earlier). Designed to cross large expanses of ocean water, QM 2 remains the last ocean liner in service in the world (as opposed to a cruise ship which is designed to go shorter distances between ports). When our bus arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Terminal on Tues. June 26, 2007, all three of us stood in the parking lot, astonished at the sheer enormity of the beautiful ship taking us back to America.
I’m in no position to be a “cruise critic” but Cunard has not failed my expectations after now taking three sailings on the line; this one aboard the Queen Mary II, and two sailings since on the Queen Elizabeth II. To my knowledge, Cunard’s ships do not have giant water slides, skating rinks, or surfing simulators. Thus, you probably aren’t going to see a lot of children on board (and I haven’t for the three cruises I’ve taken on Cunard). What this ship had and from what I’ve read, still has, is a fabulous onboard Canyon Ranch Spa . We paid the minimal additional fee and visited the spa’s indoor pool, various steam rooms and dry sauna every day. Of course treatments were available but we found ourselves relaxed enough using the pools and saunas.
Each day, the menu included (and still does) healthy Canyon Ranch options. I found the food outstanding and the service impeccable. I enjoy dressing for dinner. Men are not required to wear black tie for formal nights; however, a jacket is required. Call me a snob, but to me, there is nothing worse than making an effort to dress nicely for dinner and seeing the guy at the next table wearing a ball cap. On my most recent Cunard cruise in January of 2020, I did see a wait staff member request that a gentleman remove his cap while seated at a nearby table. The passenger clearly expressed his displeasure. Perhaps he may have chosen the wrong cruise line?
The time literally “floats” by during the six nights at sea. During a Transatlantic crossing, you will of course, be at sea the entire time once you leave European shores. You might be wondering, “What do you do all day?” It’s amazing how much there is to do. Cunard makes a special effort to feature all kinds of different entertainment during each crossing, all day and well into the evening. We were lucky enough to hear the incredible Russian pianist Rustem Hayroudinoff. My personal musical highlight was the tribute to Queen performed one evening in the main theater. The talent of the singers and dancers rivaled anyone I have seen perform in professional theater anywhere.
We were lucky enough to hear the fantastic lectures given by Rick Senat, a UK solicitor, who penned the deal for the Harry Potter movies produced by Warner Brothers. More recently, Mr. Senat served as the executive producer of the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Coincidentally, Henrik was wearing a tie my father gave him that was covered in Warner Brothers cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. After his fascinating lecture series ended, Mr. Senat was kind enough to sign Henrik’s tie.
Henrik became friends with the other six or seven teenagers on the cruise. They spent their days enjoying organized games run by the cruise director or just hanging out together.
One other notable experience happened toward the end of our sailing. The weather had changed suddenly. During dinner, our captain informed all passengers over the general loudspeaker that because of the size and strength of the nearby storm, he made the decision to change course, taking us further north. He informed us that we were, at that moment, located not many nautical miles from where the Titanic went down on April 15, 1912. The entire enormous dining room went silent as a gesture of remembrance for the doomed ocean liner, passengers, and crew.
Which brings me to another travel tip when traveling by sea
Ask for a cabin in the middle of the ship and on a lower deck if you are concerned about seasickness. Travel agent Bill first suggested this tip to me and we all felt grateful when the Queen Mary 2 encountered rough seas during the later part of our voyage. Sleeping well each night, none of us experienced any seasickness during any part of our cruise.
One other fun fact. The three of us were seated for the entire voyage with three lovely British ladies taking a round-trip girls shopping trip to New York and back. At the end of the week, one of them made a confession. “When we heard we would be seated with three Americans, we were quite concerned that you would be rude”. We all laughed and they assured us that the table situation had turned out much better than they feared. I felt particularly relieved that we had convinced at least three Brits that not all Americans are “rude”.
And then, there was the trip highlight—-arriving in New York harbor at 5 am and passing by Lady Liberty. This is no feeling like it. Of course, most of us have had family members whose first sight of America occured at this same spot. The sight of the Statue of Lady gliding by was quite an emotional moment for me. For those few minutes, I could almost sense a bit of the hope and wonder felt by the millions who have come to the US from their home countries to start a new life. It really is a magical moment. It’s definitely worth getting up early to witness and I highly recommend doing so no matter what cruise ship you may be on.
We disembarked on July 2, 2007, arriving back home to prepare for the 4th of July celebrating. Experiencing Copenhagen, London, and the Atlantic crossing made for a phenomenal trip. We couldn’t imagine ever topping it. I wrote in my scrapbook —-”cruise to the South Seas 2012”.
Well, that didn’t happen. What was I thinking? I couldn’t possibly know that just five years later, there would be not one, but three graduations to attend in our family of four.
The next magnet moment involves a family trip all four of us enjoyed in back to back years; 2006 and 2007. No ocean liners this time, but we did experience pirate ships, kayaks, and even cruising on a —-banana?
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