European Vacation - England!

For our big vacation of the year, Justin and I went to Paris for the Paris Marathon, then to England to see the sights and, more importantly, visit our good friends Chris and Claire Schmidt. We were in Europe for 10 days total and had a wonderful time! We went to Paris first, but I'm posting pictures from England first and hopefully a blog about Paris will follow after I go through those pictures!

After missing our train from Paris to London on Monday, we finally arrived in England on Tuesday morning. This was my first experience on a high-speed train and it was very enjoyable! We went through the "chunnel" under the English Channel, which is a little scary and really amazing.

When we arrived in London we caught a train to the suburbs, then drove to Chris and Claire's house in Brampton. It was an adorable little town with beautiful countryside. One of the crops that seemed to be everywhere was rapeseed, which is used for making oil. This time of year it is flowering to fill beautiful yellow fields. This is a field just a short walk from their house.

It was good to see Bailey again too!

After going 110 miles/hour sightseeing in Paris, in addition to running a marathon, we were ready for a break. It was so nice to be at a friend's house where we could relax and get comfortable like you can't in a rented room. We spent Tuesday afternoon primarily hanging out around the house.

Wednesday we woke up fairly early to travel 3 hours west to Bath. The weather looked iffy, and poor Chris had to drive in some pretty terrible conditions, but once we got there the rain let up long enough to let us enjoy this cute old city. We first visited the Roman Baths, which I really enjoyed. It's amazing that they have excavated so many ruins and figured out what the baths looked like in the first and second centuries. It was surprising to me how much was still in tact. The museum did a great job of explaining the history of the baths in a way that was interesting, too.

In Roman times, people visiting the baths would write their grievances on lead and toss them into the baths for the gods. Historians have uncovered what they said and it's funny to see how trivial some of their problems were, and how harsh their punishments! For instance, one said something along the lines of "So-and-so stole my gloves and therefore should be put to death."

They also through coins into the water just like people do today! Although I think it was an offering to the gods rather than to make a wish, but similar idea!

They had a fountain where we could drink water from the hot springs that feed the baths. It was pure, unfiltered water, but it looked perfectly clear. It had a metallic taste that was probably from all the iron in the water - that is what causes the rocks in the baths to be so orange and rust-like.

After the Roman Baths we visited Bath Abbey, a lovely church but nothing remarkable compared to all the other beautiful old churches that we saw! I'm not sure we even have a picture. It's funny how after just a week in Europe a church that is more magnificent than anything in the US is "just another church." We also tried a few flavors of British "pasties" that were very good.

Source: Wikipedia

Thursday we planned to go to London, but the weather forecast looked terrible and we were pretty exhausted from our day trip to Bath, so instead we hung out around Brampton. It was nice to have a day to relax. Chris, Justin and I went to base to work out, we drove around to see the city of Huntington and we spent time at home chilling out. Justin and Chris played some XBox soccer, Claire and I played on the computer, Justin and I went for a walk, then we enjoyed a great home-cooked meal. It was a low-key but very enjoyable day.

Friday Justin, Chris and I went on a whirl-wind tour of London, trying to see all the main attractions in one day while avoiding the constant threat of rain. We started the day at Buckingham Palace, where I had hoped to see the changing of the guards. We got there at 10:45 and learned that the changing of the guards was at 11:30, not 11 as it said online. The crowds were already 5 or 6 people deep and we could barely even see the guards at all! I couldn't imagine standing there 45 minutes to barely be able to see anything, so we snapped a few pictures and headed on to the next attraction.

The next stop was Westminster Abbey, but we walked through St. James Park to get there and it was beautiful. We have TONS of pictures of birds, but here is just one of the pictures we took!

This isn't St. James Park, but I had to throw it in here too! Superman! :)

 From the outside it was easy to tell that Westminster Abbey was more ornate and majestic than the other churches we had visited, but I probably wouldn't have been willing to pay the 16 Pounds ($27!) to tour it if Claire hadn't told us it was worth it. Once we got inside we realized she was right! The Abbey was BEAUTIFUL and so detailed everywhere you looked. We weren't allowed to take pictures through most of it, but here are a few pictures from the public areas. Much of the Abbey was devoted to burial sites and memorials for Britains most distinguished citizens. Each grave (if that's what you call it) had a statue of the deceased laying on top of it. It was really interesting!

After Westminster Abbey we walked up to Trafalgar Square where we saw a couple monuments, including the countdown to the OLYMPICS!!! I LOVE the Olympics and we had originally planned to visit Chris and Claire during the summer games, before we decided to run this marathon together. I'm so glad things worked out as they did, though, because I'm certainly not going to be fit for overseas travel in August when I'm 8 months pregnant!

We did a speed-tour of the National Gallery where we saw famous artwork, making a point to see the Van Gogh and Monet pieces. It was a free museum, which was great because we didn't feel obligated to stay a while to get our money's worth! We literally spent about 30 minutes in the museum and don't even have any photos to show for it!

Next we went over to the Tower of London, which was disappointing to me...

But the Tower Bridge was impressive! To be fair, when we walked by the Tower of London it was raining and I was cold, and all I really cared about was not being wet and cold! We crossed the Tower Bridge and about the time we got to the other side the rain stopped. The pictures that we took turned out to be amazing because the sky behind the tower looked like the apocalypse, but the sky overhead was bright and sunny. These pictures are completely unedited and impressive, if you ask me!

Saturday morning we had to get up early to go to the airport and head home. I was sad to leave and sad that vacation was over, but a little bit ready to get back home too. After an hour and 15 minute, very frustrating wait to check our bags, we caught our flight and had an uneventful trip home!

This was a wonderful trip and I'm so glad that we had the opportunity to take it! Some may consider it our "babymoon" but I'm not ruling out the possibility of other quick vacations between now and September! But either way, it was a great trip and wonderful to get to spend so much time together as a couple before the baby arrives, and it was great to see Chris and Claire!

If anyone has lots of time to kill and wants to see all our pictures, they are here -
https://picasaweb.google.com/116852733301428701805/2012415ParisAndEnglandVacation?authkey=Gv1sRgCNGO3fblp4HJXQ

Paris Marathon!!

Justin, Chris, Claire and I all finished the Paris Marathon on Sunday! It was Chris and Claire's first marathon, which is always special, but they both did really well with performances to be proud of. Chris ran a 3:25 in his first marathon - wow! Justin's race was equally impressive, considering that even as of that morning he was planning to walk the whole race. He hurt his foot back in February and was in a boot for weeks and still hasn't been cleared by the doctor to run. He didn't want to come all this way to not finish, especially once we found out that we wouldn't get t-shirts until the finish line! He decided to walk, but Chris and I both said he wouldn't be able to hold back. We started the race together and ended up running together the whole race! Justin and I finished in 4:54, which is slow for both of us, but given the circumstances it was a time I was happy with.
The course took us past many of the best sights in Paris and was a great course overall. We were in parks for about 8 miles, which was kinda boring, but other than that there was always something old and pretty to look at! I took at few pictures along the way.
Chris and Claire in their official "trash bags" before the race:

Justin ready to run with the Arc de Triumph in the background:

Justin and I in front of the Eiffel Tower around mile 18:

The finisher medals were disappointing, especially for such a big and expensive race! They looked just like the t-shirts. We aren't sure if it is supposed to be like a Tour de France yellow jersey or what.

Here are my thought on the race itself:
The Good:
- The course. It was beautiful, mostly flat, and in PARIS!
- Food on the course. At each water stop, they had bananas, oranges, raisins and sugar cubes. Although wet banana and orange peels are slippery and dangerous, it was nice to have real food during the race! They gave out bottles of water, which was nice since there were only aid stations every 5k. I carried one with me most of the way. I realized late in the race that I was way over hydrated, though, so that may have actually been a bad thing.
- The weather. We got lucky. It looked like rain for a lot of the race, but it never did. We have decided that the meteorologists in France have NO ability to accurately predict the weather, so we didn't know what to expect. It was cold and windy at times and I would have enjoyed a tiny bit warmer, but certainly can't complain about the weather we had.
The Bad:
- The water and food stops were a mess. They were only on one side of the road, some were cutting the fruit up as we got there, and the course was covered in fruit peels and water bottles.
- Cobblestones. Lots of them. Especially problematic when wet and covered in oranges.
- Crowds. Back where we were in the pack, the course was pretty congested the whole time. The second half of the race had a lot of spectators that crowded onto the course, narrowing it to a few feet at times.
- Port-o-potties. There were not nearly enough, especially at the start and the early miles of the race, and they were all disgusting. I feel like I can pass judgement on "all" the portopotties because I used quite a few of them! Men (and some women) were using the bathroom all over the place. It was gross.
Overall it was a great race and we had a wonderful time! I would recommend it to anyone that wants to run a fun destination race and maybe even for a fast race because of the flat course and mild weather.
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