Back To Business

It was a typical Monday morning here at Casa de W&C... though none of us (including Rocky) was too thrilled when that alarm clock went off at 5:20-something this morning.  If jet lag is contagious, we all caught it... so it was a sluggish morning. 

Overall, it was a nice/calm weekend as we slept in (thus the quite literal rude awakening today) and adjusted to our new household dynamics.  But as the saying goes "time heals..." and while it was all a bit strange, we know the right decision was made and this is our new reality. 

And in that looking forward spirit, it's hard to believe that Todd will be heading back to Europe a month from today, but fortunately it'll be for pleasure and I'll be tagging along too (hopefully those two things aren't mutually exclusive)!   Well, technically we'll be headed to Houston at this very moment... but we'll eventually be on that flight to Heathrow (and to Terminal 4, thus avoiding what we're hearing of the nightmares of the new Terminal 5).

We started hitting the travel books again and, as "tweeted" over the weekend, we've had TiVo recording oodles of stuff, thanks to Wishlists, for each of our major destinations... so we've seen a lot of TV travel gurus Rudy Maxa, Rick Steves, and Samantha Brown (she's a hoot!).   It has been a bit overwhelming figuring out what's going to make it on to the "to do" list or not... and we'll just keep making offerings up to the weather gods for sun and moderate temps (though I'm sure it'll still be a shock to our system as we're gearing up for mid/upper-90s today and average May temps in Europe look to be in the 60s... for highs!).

It was a slow news day here, as our local paper was talking about the current high cost of traveling... starting with gas prices for summer road trips, but going on to mention the weak dollar abroad.  Todd already had a taste of that with his business trip to France ($US12+ for a very modest hotel breakfast), so we're determined to avoid mentally "doing the math" while we're away.

We took another look at our hotels and how to get to them from the airport or train station.  Fortunately, our Kensington hotel is right on the Piccadilly from Heathrow... and  our Amsterdam hotel is in walking distance from the train station... but Paris is going to be fun! 

After arriving at Gare de Nord (train station) via the Eurostar, we'll have to find our way to nearby Metro line 2... and then be a big 'ole "Welcome to Paris" as we emerge at the Arc de Triomphe (arguably - or not! - one of the world's busiest roundabouts!) and then have to find our way to our hotel (the green circle).

Hmmm.... maybe this would (or should) justify a cab ride... but what fun would that be?!