We left on March 30 on a nonstop SLC CDG flight. (My airline employee days come back - that is Salt Lake to Paris.) We arrived in Paris on Friday the 31st around 11:15am. We collected our bags and headed right for the train station at the airport and got on board the train and headed through the "Chunnel" to London. We stored our bags at a place at the train station and went to the Sherlock Holmes museum for Jacie. She is a huge fan and she was in all her glory. We then went over to Abbey Road where the Beatles walked across the crosswalk for their album of the same name. It was under construction so we didn't recreate the photo, but Jace was still thrilled to see it. Probably the most famous crosswalk in the world!
After seeing these sights we went over to the King's Cross area at the train station and saw the Harry Potter area where it looks like the cart is going through the wall. It's from the movie and I'm sure everyone who has seen Harry Potter knows what I'm talking about. I didn't get a picture. After that, we collected our bags and headed out to our hotel which was about a 45 minute train ride because we stayed out by the Gatwick airport.
The next day was April Fool's day. No fooling, London was cool! We left that morning on the train to Victoria Station and got out to see all the cool sights around there.
Tower Bridge
Westminster Abbey
Big Ben
London Eye
Buckingham Palace
Jacie loved London so much, she has determined that she is going to live there. It was so fun to be able to see the fun sights of London. We spent the day checking out the cool places and then went back to our hotel. The next morning we headed to the train station to get back on the train and head back to Paris.
We arrived in Paris and checked into the Hilton Charles DeGaulle. What a nice hotel! The best part was our room faced the airport approach so yours truly was loving it! Saw a couple of A380's come in. I told Don I could spend two days just in the room watching the planes come and go.
The view from our room.
We then got train tickets and headed into Paris. We got off at the Notre Dame stop which put us on a short walk to Notre Dame.
It was hard to believe how old and intricate these structures were. It really was neat to be able to see them. After going in and checking it out, we took a walk along the Seine River. That was so awesome. We were lucky to have beautiful weather that day.
We stopped at a cute little sidewalk place to grab some dinner before we continued our trek to the Eiffel Tower. Here is one happy American in Paris. They had Coke Zero there!
We then headed to the Eiffel Tower. Poor Jacie's feet stole up and she developed "cankles." By the time we got there her dogs were not just barking, they were howling. We rested for awhile in the grassy area and took some pictures.
We then grabbed a cab and went back to grab the train back to the hotel. We only had the afternoon in Paris. It sure was a wonderful afternoon!
On Monday morning we headed back out to the train station to grab our train to Stuttgart. Stuttgart is a very industrial city. Don was working the whole time so the girls and I checked out some of the things Stuttgart has to offer. We were about a block away from the Mercedes Benz Museum. That was cool. It was the history of Mercedes Benz. They had some cool models and the building itself was neat.
The Museum
The factory
I felt bad going there without Don. He is such a car lover. It was quite interesting and they talked about important events in history and how the automobile evolved.
The next day the girls and I attempted to find the LDS Family History Center. We gave the taxi driver the address which is Dieselstraße 17. Well, somehow I got messed up and we went to that address in Stuttgart only to find there is no LDS building there. When I rechecked the map, I realized we needed to go to Dieselstraße 17 in Baden- Wurtenberg! Oops wrong city! So I was a little disappointed that we were so off course and a taxi ride out there would have been about 90 Euros round trip. I'm not positive they could have helped us in our German family history quest anyway, because our ancestors are from up near Berlin so I think that's where I would need to go to find more information. We were in the middle of nowhere and Jordan was a little worried about how we were even going to be able to find a taxi. Lucky for us there was a bed and breakfast right on the corner of the street so we went in there and they called a taxi for us.
Our hotel was between the Mercedes Benz Arena where the Stuttgart soccer (I guess I should say football) team plays and the Porsche Arena.
The next day was our last day in Stuttgart as we were leaving Friday morning. The girls and I did a hop on/hop off bus tour. (We never got off!) It was funny, we went to catch the bus at the Mercedes Museum and the driver said we couldn't pay with a card, only cash. So we checked the times when the bus came back and headed to the hotel and bought tickets at the front desk. We then walked back to the museum only to see the bus driving off. I looked at the wrong time. I checked the summer times instead of the spring times. So we then walked about a mile up the road to the next stop to catch the bus which was the Swine Museum. (As in pigs, I'm not kidding!) We had to kill about 30 minutes so we went in and I paid 15 Euro to go in to this place! It was so weird! We then went back out to catch the bus, but couldn't find the stop until that bus had already left! UGH! So we walked BACK to the Mercedes Museum and finally caught a bus! After all of our efforts to catch the bus, this is how the girls enjoyed the bus tour:
I must include some pictures of the Swine Museum. It was the weirdest little place. It was in an old slaughterhouse and I guess there was a little old lady that loved pigs so she collected pig items from all over the world. They had even heard of Kewanee, Illinois! Kewanee was a city I served in on my mission that was known as the Hog Capital of the World. That was funny! Here are some interesting things we saw at the Swine Museum.
Each of these cupboards had some kind of pig item in them and every wall in that room floor to ceiling had a cupboard!
It was a fantastic trip. I'm so thankful we had the opportunity to go and be together as a family. It is so fun to see new places, but also to be reminded of how great it is to be an American. So blessed! I still maintain that my favorite place is together. No matter where I am, if I am with my family, it is my favorite.
