Adventuring with MaryLou

5-21/22-2025 Paris

Our voyage to Paris was long and uneventful. First, we took the train to London. At Kings Cross station, we spent some time with Harry Potter. That’s where Platform 9¾ is set up just like in the HP movies. There was a long line for people to take pictures of themselves at this spot. The line ended at a sign that said something like “if the line extends to this sign, you have about an hour to wait.”

We didn’t wait in line but Teresa managed to get a pretty good photo of the place where people had their picture taken . It looked like wands and scarves were available as props to pose with. I don’t know how much it cost to enter this fantasy world.

Teresa fed her fantasy in the Harry Potter shop.

Then, we went across the street to the Pancras International Train station and got on the EuroStar to Paris. We went through the Chunnel which was a long dark ride under the channel ...our ears plugged and popped and everyone was quiet....a bit mysterious.

In Paris, it was raining…a real rain. We walked about a block away and called an uber that took about 15 minutes to find us. Then, it took an hour for the driver to drive about 3 miles to the hotel. The traffic…people…congestion…noise was everything I remember it to be. Hmmm.

We stayed at TimHotel, Gare de Lyon. This hotel had extremely small rooms. How small, you ask? Weelll... It had 2 beds, a desk and a bathroom. Teresa took the bed next to the window and I took the one next to the bathroom. When she wanted to walk from the window to the bathroom, I had to stand in the corner to let her pass. If I wanted to walk to the window, I had to turn sideways around the beds. She had to sit on her bed. The bathroom was so small that in the shower, one couldn't bend over to wash one's feet without hitting the sink or falling in the toilet. The toilet paper roll, hung over the toilet seat. I know, it's hard to imagine, uh. (I had to use wide angle on my camera to get the rooms in.)

The purpose of going to Paris was for Teresa to see the updated Notre Dame Cathedral and to go to Mass there. That was her bucket list. I thought seeing the “Grand Lady” would be a treat too. We discovered that reservations for tickets are taken up as soon as they are posted and we read that the unreserved lines into the cathedral are very long so we decided to just go and make a day of getting inside. We took a leisurely walk to get there... about 1.2 miles.

The square in front of the cathedral was packed with people.

Fortunately, we had the inside scoop to get in. At about 11:15 we got in the line for Mass and at 11:30, we went through a special gauntlet inside and to the chairs in front of the altar. Here is Teresa, praying that we will have a quick entrance into the Cathedral for Mass...

We managed to snag front row seats which made Teresa ecstatic. I could see her bucket list filling up. Mass commenced and Mass ended. Behind us, there were a few hundred people also attending Mass. The tourists wandered around the edges of the inside of the cathedral. After Mass, we became tourists and did our own wandering. Take a look. The Cathedral does look spanking new.

This next picture is where a relic of the crown of thorns of Jesus is held.

After Notre Dame, we wandered to the Latin Quarter and ended up at the Luxembourg Gardens for quite awhile, then we walked back to our hotel. Somewhere along the way, we stopped to eat and had the most wonderful onion soup. (In the US it’s called “French Onion Soup” but the “French” part isn’t necessary here, of course.) Here are some miscellaneous pics of our wander….including the soup. (Note: Teresa and I had a few “discussions” about our trek. She insisted that we were going the wrong direction, no matter how often I showed her the google map and said to just follow the blue dots. We were a block off course when we started but google set us right and off we went up hill and down hill. Just sayin”… follow google and you can't go wrong.)

Back at the hotel, we were exhausted but still managed to have a nightcap after we got into our jammies.

Salut.

5-20-2025 Edinburgh... or not

5-20-2025 Edinburgh …or not

Since Edinburgh itself was not very accessible, we decided to do the hop-on-hop-off bus. This means that for one price, we could tour the town and surrounding area and get off the bus to visit something and then back on to go to the next stop. We got off at the Royal Botanic Gardens and took a lovely stroll through the gardens. Then we had lunch.

After enjoying the quiet greenery of the gardens, we hopped on the bus again and went over to the Royal Yacht Britannia, where the Queen and her entourage enjoyed many hours of sailing from port to port around the world. This one weird photo is the only one I have. It was taken by a staff person who needs a lesson or two in photography.

And that was pretty much the whole day.

5-19-2025 Harry Potter & Ghosts in the Underground

Today, the weather turned cold. COLD. I pulled out my wool layers, hat, scarf and gloves. Teresa bought a scarf with the plaid of our clan, MacFarlane.

We discovered the National Library which has a great free public toilet and a small room with old books and manuscripts. The Shakespeare 1st folio was not on display but we saw an original Gutenberg Bible. It was in perfect condition. Beautiful.

At 11:00 we went on a Harry Potter tour. The guide, Catherine, was an energetic and very knowledgeable young woman, dressed in a cloak and carrying a wand. Several people were dressed in garb from the Harry Potter movies.

Many people brought their wands….a couple had just sticks…and about 2 of us (they-who-shall-not-be named) held ordinary pens. As we walked along, we used our wands to change the traffic lights and to make cars stop for us--for real (magic!). Soon after the tour started, we were “sorted” into houses. At almost every stop, Maggie asked a question from the books and awarded points to the “house” that answered. It was immensely entertaining.

We wandered through the grey friars graveyard where we visited graves with the names of many of the characters in the books. Apparently, JKRawlings, sat in a café overlooking the graveyard and wrote at least the first book of the series. The graveyard, as well as other places in Edinburgh influenced the magical places in her books. We visited some of those other places too—like the street that resembles Diagonal Alley.

For lunch, we went to a tiny restaurant off a back alley. I had Scotch Pie, beans and Haggis. Teresa ordered the same thing. It was so Scottish and really delicious. In fact, it was so delicious, I forgot to take a picture.

In the afternoon, I went to a small museum Gladstone Landing museum which was on all three floors above a café. My neighbor, Cindy’s, daughter is a docent there so I’d heard about this place and had it on my list. Cindy never told me her daughter’s name but always referred to her as “my daughter” so when I bought my ticket, I asked if “my daughter” was docenting that day but as you can imagine, no one knew what I was talking about. The museum was delightful and I learned all about the merchant who owned the building in the 1600s and several of the tenants who lived and worked there until the 20th century. It was worth climbing those narrow, spiraling and truly daunting stairs to see it all.

Now for a bit about Edinburgh… I can sort of tell that it was / is?) a grand city with medieval and Renaissance features. However, it was close to impossible to see anything in the city center. First, about 1/3rd of the streets of the royal mile was fenced off and torn up and the constant noise of jack hammers prevented listening to anyone...like a guide. Second, many many buildings in the center of Edinburgh (and beyond) are covered with scaffolding so pedestrians had to walk through special tunnels or under special platforms where workers were doing their thing. We walked in long cues through plastic-walled tunnels where we couldn’t even see a building to admire. In addition, on almost every corner and in every small square, there were scores of groups of tourists trying to hear their tour guides. Between the horrendous noise and the awful crowds…well,.. it’s not a good time to visit Edinburgh.

We decided to find a tourist office so we could ask about where to go to get away from the chaos. We were sent to one place but were told that it had closed and another one had opened at another place. Finally, we found the Source, which was…get this…. inside the French Consulate. We ended up talking to a wonderful young woman from….are you ready??… from Alsace France —which is where we’ll end up on Friday and is where our cousins live. We got some great information about where to go and what to do. In addition, there was a small shop inside the info office that featured locally made artisan goods. They were reasonably priced and showcased local talent. We also found out that we need a reservation to see the Castle and Holyrood Palace was closed for Parliament. Did I say that it’s not a good time to visit Edinburgh?

At 5:45 we went on an Underground Ghost Tour with Maggie. We went into the underground warren of rooms where we visited apartments and caverns where obviously real people had lived….and bwwaaaa…died. We were regaled with tales of hangings, and murders, and other wicked and gruesome acts. It was a “Dickens” of a tour.

In spite of the challenges of Edinburgh, I took pics of a few interesting things. While walking down a wide pedestrian road, we saw a magician setting up for a show. One small family was waiting for him to begin. All of a sudden he loudly yelled out “Stop what you’re doing and come here. I’m about to do a show.” I think people were then running toward him or running away. Many of us were laughing.

If a picture says a thousand words….here is a bit of the Royal Mile with the bus-less bus stop, the barriers along the road, the garbage dumpster, the crowds of people and God showing the way. At least you can’t see any scaffolding.