A pretty hectic end of the month!

We will be flying direct from Paris, France to Ottawa, Canada  on August 31st, only four days from now.

Our home town of Ottawa kind of gets left out when it comes to international flights. Despite the fact that it is the capital of Canada, and home to over a million people, almost all international flights depart from either Toronto or Montreal. So you normally have to connect in either one of those cities.

One of the most beautiful castles in Germany

When I originally started researching some of the things we wanted to see during our European travels, I came across the fairytale setting of the magnificent Eltz Castle.

And besides the architecture, the actual story is fascinating. Eltz Castle is privately owned, and has been in the same family for over 900 years. The castle and surrounding estate is currently in the hands of the 34th generation of uninterrupted lineage since the mid 12th century.

Welcome to Germany!

Of course Germany is not a new country for us, but it is country number 9 for grandson Cameron.

Cameron is now tied with his 37 year old mother for number of countries visited. And he's well ahead of his father. And they have a family trip planned to Dominican Republic this coming winter, so he will then surpass his mother because she has already been there.

Welcome to Netherlands!

Once again, Netherlands is not a new country for us. However for grandson Cameron, Netherlands is country number 8!

And while Ruth and I spent six weeks here in June/July of 2021, we never made it to the big city of Rotterdam. So that's where we headed yesterday morning.

Fresh strawberries. From a vending machine!

Just a relaxing day yesterday, which I think we were all in need of. Both Bjorn and Freya had to go to work, so we were on our own at the house. We got some laundry done and Cameron was quite happy playing some games on his tablet most of the morning. 

We did make it out for a walk in the afternoon, just in this area by one of the canals.

A beautiful day in Bruges, Belgium

It was about a 45 minute walk from where we had been parked to get to the center of Bruges, so we drove in to try and find a closer spot. If it was only Ruth and I, we probably would have walked it. But we figured with Cameron, we should probably try to get closer. 

And we got lucky, managing to find free on street parking that saved us a half an hour walk each way.

Welcome to Belgium!

Belgium is not a new country for us, but it is country number 7 for Cameron.

3 countries in 3 days. Kind of reminds us of that old 1969 movie "If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium" where a group of American tourists do a 9 country European tour in 18 days.

We had to get up at silly o'clock!

Welcome to France! Of course France is not a new country for us, but it is country number 6 for Cameron.

He has already been to Canada, US, Mexico, Morocco, and England. And he'll be adding three more countries during this trip. Belgium today, then Netherlands and Germany.

We had to get up yesterday morning at 3:30am. Silly o'clock!

Max is sold!

Yesterday, we got up at 5:30am, and less than half an hour later we were on the maze of highways around London's Heathrow Airport to make our way on the southern ring road avoiding most of the city.

But we were all amazed by the amount of traffic at that hour. What are all these people doing already on the highway at 6:00am? We purposely did that to avoid the heavy traffic. I suppose we did though, because it would have been much worse later on.

So much to see in London

The big cities of the world require much more than two days to properly see the sights. In fact, we've often said that you need to spend a full month in places like New York City and Mexico City. And of course London.

But, when all you've got is two days, then you just make the best of it!

We did a quick tour, then got the heck out of there!

Ruth and I have been to London many times, but of course this is the first time for our grandson Cameron (age 12). So it made sense to take in some of the more popular tourist attractions and sights even though Ruth and I have seen them before. 

We left Max at the pub parking lot near Heathrow airport and walked the 20 minutes or so to the Elizabeth line tube station that should have taken us to Tottenham Court Road. But there was some kind of problem on the line.

Grandson Cameron has arrived!

We had overnighted in a small village near Stonehenge so we had about a two hour drive from there to London's Heathrow Airport where we were picking up grandson Cameron.

We took our time though, and didn't leave until after 10:00am. Then we stopped at a highway rest stop for lunch, then again at a grocery store.

Our visit to Stonehenge

We said goodbye to Julie and the pups at around 10:00am. First stop was at a computer service and repair shop just as we were leaving the town of Wellington.

Last year when we bought new laptops in Norway, we kept our old ones. Mine was still working fine, except that the battery was done. And the casing on Ruth's was falling apart, although it still worked as well.

We're headed for Stonehenge

Another mostly cloudy day with a few raindrops but nothing too wet. We took the dogs out for a good run before lunch.

It's amazing how much a dog can run. We did almost 5 kms, but I'm sure they did 50 kms or more, and most of it at full speed. Their little hearts must just be beating like crazy!

We have a plan...

I spent several hours yesterday working on our plan to get to Paris. 

Travel during July and August is expensive no matter how you do it, but I was surprised that the train was going to cost so much. From Dulmen, Germany to Paris was almost €200 ($295 CAD, $220 USD) per person for the one way trip, and with two connections and not very suitable running times.