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Earlier this year Chris was offered a position with his job abroad – it’s a temporary assignment (supposedly 9 months) and as part of the “package” the kids and I got to spend the summer in England.

As much as I love to travel, I’ve never been to Europe so this was a HUGE deal for me!! I’ve been spending free time planning random trips to European destinations since I’ve been able to go to the library and check Rick Steves’ books out so I knew I would be making the most out of this opportunity. 

During the 6 week period we are over I planned 5 “big” adventures and a few day trips – Paris weekend, Scotland road trip, Cotswolds/Stonehenge/London road trip, Chamonix, and Italy. We are almost at the end of our summer and I wanted to share all the great things we’ve been up to!

Paris Weekend

The first weekend we were here we took flight to Paris! We left from the Manchester airport (about an hour from where we are living) a little after noon on Friday. The flight was a little over an hour long and when we landed we took a cab to our apartment style rental at the WS Hotel de Ville Musee Pomidou, which was in the 1st Arrondissement. 

After we got ourselves into the apartment we headed right back out to walk around. We were all very hungry so we stopped at Cafe Vigouroux and sat outside with our charcuterie and burrata. 

With our bellies full we headed toward The Seine and over to Notre Dame. Once we took our photos and sat for a little while we walked back across the river, wondered around a little more, then called it a night. 

The next morning I was up before everyone else so I walked down to Au Chaud Pain Choc for a mocha and 4 croissants. I tried to order in French…thank goodness the lady spoke English. I didn’t think I’d retained much Spanish from my years of taking Spanish but the words that are coming to me when I try French are mostly Spanish. 

Once everyone was up and ready to go, croissants were eaten and we were off for the day. I’d booked a water taxi day pass so we headed back to The Seine to find the stop closest to us. I didn’t pay attention to what time they started running boats so we were a little over an hour early. To bide our time we went over to Chez Julian and had some more food. 

This was a really good “accident” because the hot chocolate there was so good!! Everything was good but the hot chocolate was thick and silky AND getting it there meant we didn’t have to do down to one of the more touristy “hot spot” places in town to experience Parisian Hot Chocolate (which was one of my bucket list items). 

The impromptu breakfast took just enough time and by the time we were finished the boat was starting to run and we were able to get on the first boat out. 

We rode the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower stop, got off, walked around under the tower, took some pics, then headed down the Seine toward Swan Island. Ada has been after us about seeing the Statue of Liberty ever since she learned about it in school last year and on Swan Island there is a smaller version. 

Walking down to see the statue took about 45 minutes BUT we got the best pictures of the Tower and the river without any of the crowd so even though the walk was long and hot and when we got to the statue Ada was not interested (of course) it was worth the walk for the photo op. 

After walking to see the statue we walked back to the Eiffel Tower, found somewhere for lunch – we ordered escargot and the kids approved. I’ve always approved and Chris is not a fan. 

Then we walked back to the Batobus and rode it back to our stop. It was SO HOT we decided to go take a little break in the hotel (less hot) before going to dinner.

After our hotel break we walked to Le Hanger for dinner. I read about it online somewhere and we didn’t make reservations so we wanted to get there right when they opened and hope to get in. The strategy worked in our favor and we got a table! 

This was probably the best meal I’ve ever eaten – I ordered the duck frois grais, Christopher had salmon, Chris had beef stroganoff, we ordered a bruschetta for the table, and crème brûlée and chocolate cake for dessert. Ada ordered an extra plate and ate off everyone lol. 

When we were finished eating we walked down to the Seine to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle. The internet said it sparkles for 5 minutes on the top of the hour every hour after sunset but…on the night in question the sunset was 9:58 pm *I know this because tracking the exact sunset time is one of my Apple Watch screen options* and the tower did NOT sparkle at 10 pm. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be for us so we walked back to our rental and watched it sparkle on TikTok lol

The heat Saturday made us rethink our Sunday plans and during our afternoon hotel break we booked tickets to The Louvre for Sunday – because it has AC. We didn’t think the kids would be that interested (we were right) but the kids were free and you can’t argue with AC. 

A quick pause about the heat – when everyone told me it was hot in Europe I looked at the upcoming temps and thought 85, what is everyone talking about?? I even thought, the feels like at home is already 105, it will be fine. What I didn’t realize was that AC is rare and even if places have it the odds of it working like proper Georgia AC are slim to none. You would be surprised at how hot 85 is when it’s 85 outside AND 85 inside.

Ok – back to The Louvre. We spent maybe 2.5 hours wondering around The Louvre – passing by The Mona Lisa twice. They both knew what The Mona Lisa was and were slightly interested, Christopher more than Ada, but really they just walked with us asking us how much longer it would be. I did find a few good air vents on the floor to stand over while we admired the art. 

When the kids were hungry enough to be on the verge of hangry we left The Louvre and headed back toward the subway line we were going to use to get to the airport to grab our bags, which we’d stored at a drop spot I found on Bounce. If you don’t use Bounce when you travel look it up – it’s a great way to find bag drops near where you are or where you are heading and you book and pay in advance so all you have to do when you drop the bag is have them scan a QR code and leave your bag. 

We had lunch before grabbing our bags then after grabbing the bags stopped at a playground near the subway for Christopher and Ada to play before we headed back to the airport to fly back to England.

Paris take-a-ways

• I didn’t love Paris but also I didn’t do a great job planning Paris. I was trying this new thing where I didn’t plan much and just went with the flow and I don’t flow well so it wasn’t my favorite. I won’t be making this mistake for the rest of my summer trips.
• The Batobus was a terrarium – would recommend but NOT when it’s hot and sunny. It was great seeing Paris via The Seine but I was really jealous of all the people on the open air version of the hop on/hop off companies.
• The food 11/10 – I might have gained my 40 before 40 back in just one weekend lol
• The cab from the airport was a bad call – again with the poor planning – I thought it would just be easier than the train and it probably was but it also took almost 2 hours to get from the airport to the hotel.

Scotland Road Trip

For our journey to Scotland we started by driving to Edinburgh. We did stop in York on the way to Edinburgh, but I’m going to cover that in a “England” section of my ramblings.

We arrived in Edinburgh early Thursday evening and I’d pre booked parking in a garage near the hotel we were staying at – I highly recommend pre booking any parking your can if you ever find yourself driving around the UK. 

There are times when you pay for the good hotel that’s convenient and right in the middle of all the things and this was one of those times for us. We stayed at The Grassmarket Hotel and it was so easy and so cute. Everything we wanted to see and do was an easy walk from where we were staying and we didn’t need the car for anything.

Our first night in Edinburgh we checked into the hotel and had dinner at the pub next door – nothing exciting but the food was good and after a full day of being in the car and knowing we had to get up early the next morning that was just what we needed to do.

Friday morning we got up early and was out the door before 6:30 am to walk up to Waverly Bridge to catch the airport shuttle bus. My mom was flying in and after doing some research I thought it would be a better idea to ride the bus to the airport and back instead of getting the car. 

This was the BEST idea – because we had to get up to Waverly Bridge and because it was so early we walked some of historic Edinburgh without any crowds! The bus ride to and from the airport doubled as a small tour of the area and it was just really easy. We collected mom, arriving at the airport right as she cleared customs and hopped back on the bus to head back tot the hotel. 

My mom’s main “goal” for her visit was to see castles so I’d booked in for a “skip the line” Edinburgh Castle tour. We got her stuff into the hotel had a quick breakfast then headed up to High Street to meet for the tour.

The castle tour was interesting but seeing as Edinburgh Castle is still a working castle we were mostly on the grounds and not “in” the castle. I think we all enjoyed what we did see – the view from the castle walls is amazing, we got there right as they were doing the daily cannon firing, and the wind and misty rain were very “Scottish”. 

When the tour was finished we headed back down to the hotel, stopping at Oink for some pulled pork sandwiches. We took them back to the hotel to eat, Mom wanted a quick rest and to warm up before going back out.

After we ate and my mom got a quick nap in we headed back out walking to Greyfriar’s Kirkyard and exploring. My mom loves old gravyards so we spent a good bit of time walking around looking at the graves – the kids actually enjoyed this too. They thought it was cool to see all the old markers and how decorated they were. 

Dinner on Friday was a quick bite at another pub. We popped into Black Bull for a random things dinner and dessert ordeal. The big take-a-way here was the sticky toffy pudding – it was so rich and warm. 

My mom was tired from flying over and then spending most of the day walking around so we headed back to the hotel after we ate and called it a night. It was a little early for me and I could have walked around Edinburgh way longer just looking at the buildings but we did have an early morning and long day of driving ahead so we watched some tv before going to bed and had an early night.

Saturday morning we got up early and got packed up to go. I left the kids with mom while I walked the 10 minutes to grab the car then came back around to pick them up. The streets were pretty empty again but a little busier than Friday morning around the same time. We left Edinburgh heading north and our first stop was The Kelpies.

We did a quick walk from the parking lot to the statues to take a few pictures and look – the visitor center wasn’t open yet so we didn’t go inside. This was fine though because I didn’t want to spend a lot of time at this stop, I just wanted to see the statues. 

After The Kelpies I routed us to The Hermatige, which is a nature walk area. We arrived and there was a coffee and donut truck in the parking lot so we got fresh donuts (he fried them to order) and coffee before starting our walk. 

The Hermatige is a series of walking paths that lead through some of Britain’s tallest trees to a waterfall, stone building and bridge, and a cave. There is probably more but that’s the walk we took. This was a great stop – the building on the edge of the waterfall and the stone bridge looked like something out of Game of Thrones and the kids had so much fun playing in the cave and along the side of the river. 

When we loaded back up I had a text from my friend Crystal telling me to check out Blair Castle while we were in Scotland. I’m not going to lie – I read the message then went about my regularly scheduled program (sorry Crystal lol) BUT about 10 minutes down the road from The Hermatige we saw the sign for Blair Castle and since she’d just mentioned it and my mom had already mentioned the 3 castles I had on the agenda might not be enough we decided to go check it out.

Blair Castle is an estate for the Duke of Atholl – who currently resides in South Africa. You can go inside the castle to see the stuff the family has collected over 19 generations of ownership (think Biltmore but even older). You walk through the 30 something rooms on display and can read about what’s in the room, who of note visited and stayed at the castle, and the kids had a search and find style activity to complete for a gift shop prize. 

After the castle we walked the gardens, tried to spot the Highland Cows, saw the Red Deer, and then had some lunch at the cafe. This was a good stop and I’d recommend it if you are interested in going inside a castle, walking gardens, there was a pretty big playground my kids were mad we didn’t visit, and seeing some animals. 

Back in the car heading north again I realized we’d stayed at Blair Castle way longer than I thought so I routed us to head to our rental check in instead of our next stop. I used Expedia for this trip and the booking I got in Inverness was more of a VRBO than a hotel so we went by to drop our bags and then got back in the car for the next two stops I had on the agenda.

I’m an Outlander fan so obviously I needed to go to Culloden Battlefields and Clava Cairns on this Scottish adventure. We got to Culloden after 6 pm so the visitor center was closed but the battlefield is open to walk 24/7 and the sun doesn’t set in the summer until after 10 so we had plenty of daylight left. We walked around and I explained some of the history (not the Outlander history) about the importance of the battlefield to Christopher. He said it was “indescribable” standing somewhere so many people had died. 

Next up Clava Cairns – my mom is not an Outlander fan so she didn’t get it but she did like the stones and the fact that it is over 4,000 years old and originally a cemetery. The kids thought this was pretty cool as well. 

Dinner was next and we were able to snag a table without a reservation at Battlefield Bar and Grill where we tried Haggis balls. I feel like we got the toned down version of Haggis trying it in meatball form but we all liked it and even the kids gave it a thumbs up so I’m happy with that and don’t need to try it again. One day we will tell the kids what haggis is but that day is not today.

After dinner we went back to the rental and watched a little bit of tv – which was in Gaelic and went to bed. We had another early start and long day in the car and I had some research to do to find Highland Cows – my mom dropped a little “Highland Cows are on my bucket list” comment on me after we didn’t see any at Blair Castle lol

Sunday morning we got up, packed everything in the car and headed south. I’d found a place called Farm Ness that was actually on our way to the first castle on our list to visit. 

Farm Ness is a petting zoo and play area that also serves coffee and snacks. For the price of admission you get a bag of food to feed some of the animals and you can play on the pedal race track, hay bales, inflatable trampoline, and other playground things. 

The kids had a blast – they had Highland Cows, goats, piglets, pigs, alpacas, rabbits, Shetland ponies, gerbils, and lambs. Christopher tried out all the pedal toys on the track and he, Ada, and I had a race. I’m bad about planning and not thinking about doing activities specifically geared toward kids so this was a great addition to our itinerary. 

We had 12:00 tickets to the Urquhart Castle so after about 90 minutes of feeding animals and playing at Farm Ness we got back in the car and headed further south. We stopped along side Loch Ness for a few photos and to see if we could spot the Loch Ness monster. 

The Urquhart Castle was more of what my mom was interested in – a castle ruins. We spent maybe an hour walking around the ruins then had lunch in the cafe before heading further south. 

Our next stop was Invergarry Castle. This one is full ruins, you can walk around the castle perimeter but you cannot go inside. 

After Invergarry Castle we had about a 3 hour drive to the town we were staying in for the night – a town called Dumfries. I picked this town because I wanted to go to the sea and see the sea cliffs and it was a central location with a nice hotel that was in an old building. 

It did rain on us the whole drive to Dumfries – until this point we’d had a little sprinkling for 5-10 minutes at Edinburgh Castle, Farm Ness, and Urquhart Castle but no real rain. By the time we got to the hotel the rain had cleared up so we stayed dry while checking in and getting our bags out of the car.

The hotel (actually most of the hotels we’ve stayed at) had a good restaurant – much better food than a lot of the hotels at home – so we had dinner at the hotel then walked to the church next door after dinner. We did another pretty early evening since the plan for the next day was a hike and a long drive back “home”.

Monday we got up early and drove from Dumfries to Balcary Bay, about a 45 minute drive. While we were in the hotel Sunday night I found another castle nearby and booked tickets to see it on the way to Balcary Bay. 

Caerlaverock Castle was a triangle shaped castle and the ruins are open for visiting. The kids had a good time running around here and we met an armor man who had his armor and swords on display for people to pickup and learn about. Christopher and Ada really like dressing in the armor and play sword fighting with the man. 

After the castle we continued to Balcary Bay. The hike we were going on is one of the public footpath trails so we had to find the signs and enter the fields through the gates. We found the wrong field at first and ended up in a field of sheep but it only took a minute for me to realize where we’d gone wrong and we were on the right path in no time. 

I think the walk took maybe 45 minutes from the parking to the cliffs – mostly uphill through fields of wheat which were blowing in the wind. The views from the cliffs were amazing and totally worth the walk and the drive over. 

When we were done with the walk we loaded back up and drove back to our cottage – it took up about 4 hours to get back and by the time we got home we had time to show mom around the cottage, start laundry, and play cards for the night. 

Scotland take-a-ways

• LOVED, LOVED, LOVED everything Scotland and don’t think I could ever go there enough or get tired of visiting. 
• If I had to plan it again, knowing what I know, I would have picked mom up in Edinburgh and driven to Inverness making the same stops along the way. Then stayed for 2 nights in Inverness heading north to explore for the full day we were in town. 
• If I go back I’ll be looking more closely at the Historic Scotland Membership. I’m usually pretty good about finding these things but I missed an opportunity to save a ton of money by not doing the research for something like this. This membership would have paid for itself before we left Scotland but also includes some discount on things to visit in England.

The Cotswolds, Stonehenge, and London

On the backend of Mom’s visit we hit the road again (Wednesday) and drove south starting with a day driving through The Cotswolds. This is a very popular part of the English countryside so I did some ChatGPT research and came up with 9 towns to drive through over the course of the day. I asked Chat for towns that were not as busy, that didn’t have bus car parks, and that were “off the beaten path”, then I added a few of the busy towns and mapped it all out for a track.

We drove through/visited the following towns…

• Snowshill 
• Guiting Power
• Lower Slaughter
• Burton on the Water
• Yanworth
• Windrush
• Eastleach
• Coln St. Aldwyns
• Bibury

We stopped in Snowshill at the Lavender Farm – it was a great stop with the lavender, wild flowers, and rolling countryside. We got there around 10 am and it was already pretty busy.

Next we drove through Guiting Power, Lower Slaughter, and Burton on the Water – I’d read there was a large parking lot in Burton on the Water but by the time we got to the area it was full and there were cars lined up everywhere trying to find spots so we kept on going to Yanworth and then on the Windrush.

Between Yanworth and Windrush we got in a sheep traffic jam – a few loose sheep were blocking the road and weren’t in a big hurry to trot ahead of us before moving out of the way. 

We stopped in Eastleach and ate lunch at a pub on the river. They were only serving pizza when we were there but it was some of the best brick oven pizza I’ve had in a long time and between the four of us we ate 2 12 inch pies.

After Eastleach we drove through Coln St. Aldwyns and Bibury. Bibury is another of the really popular towns and I was hopeful that by getting to town after 5 pm we would be able to park and walk around but I was wrong. Even at 5 pm it was a zoo and we decided to keep going and head to our hotel in Tormarton.

We had a hotel dinner and the kids played on the hotel green. Then we all watched tv before going to bed.

Thursday morning we were up early again to go see Stonehenge. I tried to book an early morning inside the stone circle tour but by the time Mom decided to come to the UK all the spots were sold out so I pre booked entry for the earliest time slot (9:30 am). 

We arrived around 9 and got right in line for the entry. When they opened at 9:30 we were in the first group to get on a bus to ride over to the sight. We walked around the outside of the circle and by the time we were ready to leave (around 10:30) it was 90 degrees and the place was crawling with people. 

I appreciate the 90 degrees is abnormal, even in the summer, but the line for the bus being as long as it was probably wasn’t so the Stonehenge advise I give is this…book the special “inside the circle” tour or be there right when they opened, with a pre-booked ticket. If you can’t do either of these I’m not sure it’s worth the wait and the crowd. 

After Stonehenge we headed to London. Since Mom was flying out the next day and the kids and I were heading back home AND I was NOT about to drive in London I decided to park in long term parking (another thing you can pre-book and pre-pay for) and take The Underground (the tube) into the city.

This did add some time to our journey – maybe – who really knows how long it would have taken and where we would have ended up having to park if we’d driven into London but for reference the bus from parking to the airport took about 15 minutes and the tube from the airport to about 5 minutes from our hotel took about an hour.

We dropped our bags at the hotel – we arrived right after the check in time started (yay for good timing) and then we turned around and went right back out to hit the tube and go to the meeting point for our afternoon activity.

I knew we would only be visiting London for the evening we arrived and I wanted to do two things, afternoon tea and see some of the “big” sights. I could not have found a better tour option when I found the afternoon tea tour bus from Golden Tours!

It was such a cute tour – over 90 minutes we were drive around London so we got to see some of the things you’re supposed to see when you’re in London and we also got served afternoon tea! The food was great, the kids enjoyed their kid versions of sandwiches, and they had hot chocolate for them as well. I would 10/10 recommend this as a tour option if you want to combine tea with tourism especially if you are short on visiting time. 

After tea we walked over to Buckingham Palace, through St. James Park, past Big Ben, and then took the Thames Clipper back to the stop closest to our hotel.

We ordered take out burgers from the Burger & Beyond that was across the street from our hotel and called it a night. 

The next morning we took it easy letting the kids sleep in then headed back to Heathrow to wish Mom farewell and then head back north to The Midlands.

Cotswolds/Stonehenge/London (lite) take-a-ways

• I think I would have been more impressed with The Cotswolds as a whole if the area we are staying in wasn’t also charming English countryside
• If there are towns in The Cotswolds that are CANNOT miss for you I would suggest booking a tour and letting someone else deal with the parking.
• Stonehenge was very cool and worth the visit. I would go back to see it again but as I mentioned before, only with the special access or the opening time slot ticket.
• London fast via the afternoon tea bus was the perfect way to dip our toes and check off being in London with the short amount of time we had there.

Wales

Wales wasn’t on my original planning spreadsheet but after I arrived and realized we were only about 2 hours from the border I decided it should be on the agenda as a day trip. 

Early in our stay I’d planned to take the kids one week day but after running some errands and then having them ask several times if they could just play at the house I decided to find another day. 

The next available day I found was a Saturday and when I asked the kids if they wanted to go they told me they wanted to spend the day with Chris without me 🙃😂🤷🏽‍♀️ so I went to Wales solo.

After doing some research on Northern Wales I decided to go to Llandudno. It’s a coastal town with a limestone headway and you can take a cable car or a train or drive up to the top. 

I set off early in the morning and was in Llandudno by 8:30 am. Nothing was open so I got a really good parking spot on the main strip and was able to walk the boardwalk and pier with very few people around. 

The cable car up to the top of The Great Orme opened at 10 so around 9:45 I walked up to the lift and waited in line. I didn’t really do enough research ahead of time so I did t realize there was a train or that you could drive until the cable car operators came out around 10:15 and said they were delaying the opening because of the wind – that’s when I got my Google on and realized there were other options but to be honest the “walk” up to the cable car was a bit of a hike so I waited for them to open so I could ride the cable car up. 

The view from the top is a 360 degree view of the area and it was worth the wait – there were goats all along the mountainside and you could see the beaches all around. The wind also felt really nice. 

Since the cable cars were having wind issues they were only selling single tickets, not return tickets and this gave me the opportunity to ride the train back down the mountain. The train drops you at a different point in town so it was nice to go down a different route and check out more of the city. 

After The Great Orme I waited around for a little while for a fish and chips shop to open so I could eat fish and chips on the promenade. 

When I was done with lunch I decided i was done in Llandudno but it was too early to go back home so I looked to see what else was nearby. Turns out I was only an hour from Snowdonia National Park so I routed myself there. 

The general “Snowdonia National Park” I put into my GPS routed me to Betws-y-Coed which was the perfect little town to walk around in. I walked from one end of the town and back stopping along the way to watch people jumping off the rocks into the river and to have a scone and hot chocolate snack. 

When I was done I headed back to our cottage to share with Chris and the kids what they missed out on haha!

Wales take-a-ways

• I wish I’d taken mom and the kids to Llandudno. It was really cool and the kids would have loved swimming at the beach. 
• I’d like to do more exploring in Snowdonia National Park – if European Summer 2026 is in the cards expect to see more about Snowdonia and Wales in general. 

Chamonix-Mont Blanc, France

I have wanted to visit Chamonix for as long as I can remember. In college I got really in to watching Rick Steves on PBS and I had a notebook where I would write down the places he went then go to the library and do more research and Chamonix was one of these places. 

This trip was one where originally Chris was going to come with us but once I started the planning process we realized doing it over a “long weekend” wasn’t going to be possible so we switched up the plan and that’s how he ended up in Paris with us but not Chamonix. 

To get to Chamonix (the most affordable way) we flew from London to Geneva then took a transport bus to Chamonix. This meant either driving or taking the train to London and since our flight to Geneva was at 7 am we needed to go a day early and spend the night in London. 

I decided to take the train and to go early so we could spend some time in London – which like with York in the Scotland bit I’ll share about in an UK section below. 

We got up early on a Tuesday morning to catch the 7 am flight. Upon arrival (9:30 am) we went through customs and found the company I’d booked an 11am transfer with. The timing was great – after cleaning customs we might have sat for 20-30 minutes waiting on the bus. 

The bus took us to the Chamonix bus station – which took about 90 minutes and then we rolled uphill to our hotel to do a bag drop. The kids were tired and hungry from the early wake up call – 3:30 am for them so we could be in the 4 am van to the airport from the hotel. 

Lunch was the first thing in the agenda after the bag drop and we found a small pastry shop down the street from the hotel to pop in. 

After lunch we needed something to do so I looked up easy hiking from Chamonix and found a trail that took up to a waterfall. Doing that burned the 2 hours (plus some) that we needed before being able to check into the hotel so it was perfect! 

I’d made 5pm dinner reservations at Le Monchu – yes I do a lot of eating in the early bird 😂 but it works for us and honestly we are usually pretty hungry by 5-6pm so why not get it and get fed!

I chose Le Monchu because Tik-Tok told me too and it didn’t disappoint – me at least… I wanted to do fondue and I really thought the kids would love the fondue but they were not fans. They did eat the bread and charcuterie that came with the fondue and they had ice cream. They even asked if we could come back and eat there again the next night so it wasn’t a total miss. 

When we finished dinner we walked around Chamonix some then went back to the hotel for some rest. 

Wednesday morning we had 9:30 am reservations for the Aiguille du Midi – which is the cable car that takes you up to the highest point on Mont Blanc you can get to without climbing or hiking. It’s a two cable car journey – the first taking you to Plan de l’Aiguille and the second taking you the rest of the way up. 

We went right to the top and after walking around for a little while – there was very little visibility – we went back down and stopped for a little while at the Plan de l’Aiguille. 

The kids loved the Plan de l’Aiguille area – we got hot chocolate and did some “hiking”. It also wasn’t as cold at the Plan de l’Aiguille so they really liked that. At the top it was about 30 degrees and I’d brought coats but I didn’t bring the snow skiing coats so my little southerners were very cold. 🥶

When we’d had our fill of playing we crammed back into the cable car and headed back to Chamonix. 

For our time in Chamonix I bought a single day Mont Blanc Multipass, which gave us access to several of the things to do in the area. The next thing on the list was the Mer de Glace Ice Cave. We went straight from the bottle of the cable car to the Montenvers train station to catch the train up to the Montenvers station. 

At the top train station the kids wanted lunch so we grabbed a sandwich and some chips before riding the cable car down to the Ice Cave. 

The internet says there are 550-600 stairs to access the cave and thank goodness I read that as one way and was prepared and prepared the kids for a ton of stairs – luckily that total, up and down, so it wasn’t as bad as we thought it was going to be 😂😂. 

When our time at Mer de Glace was over we took the train back down to Chamonix, walked back to the hotel to shed the jackets (it was around 70 in the valley) and then just walked around until dinner. Dinner though – what a thing…the kids saw a McDonalds and had their hearts set on getting happy meals. At first I resisted but honestly a cheap meal was not bad for the overall budget of this summer so we went to McDonalds and had cheeseburgers and fries for dinner. 

After dinner we went back to the hotel and the kids got baths and into their bathrobes so they could watch some tv before bed. They both said this was the fanciest hotel they’ve ever been at because of the bathrobes 😂. 

On Thursday we had another early(ish) morning meeting the bus for transport back to Geneva at 9am. I did not want to miss the bus so we were at the bus station pastries in hand by 8:30. The bus was right on time and we headed back to Geneva!

Chamonix take-a-ways

• I hate that Chris missed out on this one but I’m very glad we didn’t try to cram it into a weekend, even a long weekend. We were able to see and do a lot of things without feeling rushed and overwhelmed by a tight timeline. 
• I thought Chamonix was smaller than it actually was so I’m very glad I based my hotel reservation on how far it was to walk to the Aiguille du Midi. I don’t travel relying on public transportation very often and spending a little bit more to be in the middle of the city we are staying in made a big difference. 
• I would LOVE to see Chamonix in the winter but I’m not sure I could handle it 😂🤷🏽‍♀️🥶
• I paid for a transport via a private company but I think (just thinking here) that I could have done more research and taken a public bus to/from Chamonix saving a little money. 

Geneva 

Originally the Chamonix plan involved Chris joining us so it was going to be an in and out weekend style trip but when that went out the window I decided if we are flying in/out of Geneva we have to spend at least one night in Geneva so we can see the city! 

I’m so glad I was able to fit this into the plan – we had the BEST day in Geneva! 

We arrived into Geneva airport via the Chamonix transport bus around 10:30am and from there took the airport train to the city tram. From the city tram stop closest to our hotel it was about a 5 min walk. Total travel time for the train, tram, and walk – maybe 20 minutes. The hotel I booked (and many more in Geneva) included public transportation passes so we were able to take the train and tram for “free” which was nice, we didn’t have to mess with getting tickets. 

Our room was ready when we got to the hotel to do the bag drop so they let us check in early, which was really nice! We did a quick drop of our things and then headed out to find some lunch.

I didn’t do much research for Geneva as far as food so I routed us toward the lake and when we got there we found a nice outdoor restaurant nearby. The food was good and the kids wanted to go back for dinner – that’s a theme here lol. 

There was a Ferris wheel right by where we were eating so after lunch we walked over and took a ride. Christopher and Ada loved being able to take pictures and videos from the top. 

After the Ferris wheel we started our Choco Pass journey. One of the things I’d found “to-do” in Geneva was to buy a Choco Pass and go around to some of the boutique chocolatiers in Geneva. This was a fun activity for the kids and I to do that got us out walking different streets in the city. 

We did maybe 8-9 of the 10ish stops on the tour before Christopher and Ada lost interest and honestly we had more chocolate samples than we were going to be able to eat. 

The transport pass the hotel provided included the water taxis so the next thing on my “want to do” list was to see Geneva by boat. We rode across the lake in the water taxi, which got us closer to the base of the Jet d’Eau de Genève. We walked over to that, enjoying the mist from the spray. 

On the way across the lake I saw a bunch of pedal boats so after walking to the Jet d’Eau de Genève we found the pedal boat rental place and rented a boat. 

The kids wanted to swim so we pedaled out and they were starting to strip down to their underwear when Ada DROPPED HER BOOT IN THE LAKE!! That’s right, Ada dropped her boot in Lake Geneva 😂🤦🏽‍♀️‼️

Luckily it floated (yay for cheap boots) so we were able to pedal around while Christopher finished getting swim ready and he jumped in to retrieve the boot. 

He jumped off the boat another time or two and Ada got in after a little push. They both said it was cold but they know the cold for a minute was worth being able to say they swam in Lake Geneva!

When our time with the pedal boat was up we headed back to our hotel so Christopher and Ada could change into some dry clothes. We spent a few minutes in the hotel while I recharged my phone and looked up places nearby for dinner. 

We settled on Le Perron which was a 3 minute walk from our hotel. They had steak and fondue so it checked off the two dinner request boxes. The kids wanted steak and I wanted them to try fondue again. Since we didn’t have a reservation we went right when they opened and we were able to get a table for a quick dinner. 

After dinner we walked around looking for ice cream (for Ada). I had crème brûlée at dinner and Christopher decided to try some macarons instead of ice cream. When we’d found the ice cream and the macarons we headed back to the hotel for the evening. 

Friday morning I let the kids sleep until they woke up – writing most of the Chamonix and Geneva parts of the blog while they slept. Once they were up we headed to the airport via the tram and the train. 

We checked our bag in then went back out to the train station to find some lunch and Christopher and Ada played a little before we walked back over to the airport and checked in for the flight back to London. 

Geneva take-a-ways

• I wish I’d stayed another day in Geneva to take the tram around to some of the outlying villages just to look around. 
• The ChocoPass was a neat idea and we definitely got enough chocolate to pay for the pass BUT…I don’t know that I’d do it again. It really became more of a me Google mapping us from one spot to the next and where that did lead to us walking down more streets than we might have had we not done the tour for the price of the passes I could have walked into any of the chocolatiers and just bought chocolate. Also – most of the samples melted before we got back to the hotel and were kind of a mess so maybe that’s why I’m salty about it 😂🙃
• Another ChocoPass point, if you’re 2 adults maybe just buy 1 pass and split the booty. I did 1 adult and 2 kids and it was so much chocolate!!! 
• Geneva is expensive – plan your budget then add $200 a day 😳😬

England

We did a few “day trips” around England – some tied to a bigger trip and some as actual day trips and just some general popping around on day where we weren’t traveling.  

York

The kids and I stopped in York on the way to Edinburgh. It was kind of a last minute decision to make the stop – I’m a podcast junkie and I’ve been listening to a podcast called The UK travel planning podcast and an episode on York came up on the playlist and it seemed interesting. 

York has a nice park and ride system with several lots a little outside the city. You park for free then pay to ride the bus into town. It was £3.50 per adult and free for the kids so it was a no brainer. 

The first thing we did when we got dropped off was find somewhere for breakfast. We left the house pretty early and I’m not the best about breakfast so everyone was hungry. The spot we chose was called Drift – I had an avocado stack and the kids split an “American” breakfast. 

After eating we headed to York Minster to see the church, wandered through The Shambles (which is a street claiming to be the inspiration for Diagon Alley in Harry Potter), watched a street performer while enjoying some ice cream, then walked the York City Walls. 

This was a great few hours stop on our way to Edinburgh! 

York take-a-ways

• There’s a train museum in York I think the kids would have enjoyed but we just didn’t have the time to make that commitment. Again, if European Summer 2026 happens this will go on my list of things to do. 
• The park and ride was amazing! It made York easy and stress free and we loved riding on the front row at the top of the double decker bus. 

JCB 

One of the things we did the day we arrived was go over to JCB and take a walk around the lake. If you’ve ever driven down 95 and seen the Savannah factory you can envision the World Headquarters – only HQ is much bigger with more mature trees. It’s also open to the public for walking the lake – unlike the Savannah site. 

We needed to stay away as long as possible so we took a stroll around the lake and got an ice cream from the local ice cream truck, which was parked out front of the lake. 

On our second day in England we did a JCB tour and went into the office so the kids could see where Chris was working. 

The factory tours are open to the public but have to be booked in advance and they are for individuals 15 and older. We got a little exception being that Chris works there but we didn’t do the full tour, we only did the part called “The Story of JCB”. It was a good tour – led by a retired JCB employee – the kids loved seeing all the equipment and hearing about the history of the business. They also LOVED that there’s a photo on one of the exhibits that includes Chris! 

The other JCB related event we attended was a charity barn dance. Everyone kept asking us if they “got the barn dance right” – I guess being the only Americans in the crowd made us the experts 😂. The kids had a blast getting me to take their pictures with all the picture props. 

Foxglove Cottage and Gandlewell Cottage

We spent the majority of our time in England at Foxglove Cottage. Situation on some company farmland we had sheep and cows for neighbors and the backyard had apple and olive trees throughout. 

They don’t have AC so we spent a lot of time with the windows open and one of the strangest things to me is they don’t have screens. 

The bugs aren’t bad but we did have a fair share of wasps inside the house. 

Foxglove is a 3 bedroom cottage so when we leave Chris is being moved to a smaller place. I think “smaller” is relative because we actually got the keys and were able to move over to the new cottage during our last weekend in town. 

The new place is called Gandlewell Cottage and where it’s only a 2 bedroom I think I might be larger than Foxglove. 

It’s also on JCB farm property and the sheep aren’t neighbors they are in the front yard! The view is incredible from Gandlewell but the main reason we helped Chris move a little early – the shower at Gandlewell has water pressure and showering at Foxglove was like taking a bird bath 😂😂.

I think having such a great place to stay while we were here made such a big difference in how the summer could have gone. Foxglove was very quintessential “English countryside” and set the scene perfectly! 

I’m excited to come back in November and spend more time at Gandlewell. 

Alton Towers

From Foxglove Cottage, when the wind is blowing  our way we can hear the riders on the roller coasters from England’s Alton Towers theme park screaming. 

This obviously meant we needed to check the park out and after measuring both kids then converting into metric I decided they were both tall enough to have a decent time at the park. 

We went one weekday after lunch – the park entrance was only about 0.5 miles from the house so it made for an easy afternoon trip. They weren’t tall enough to ride the “big” rides so I figured spending all day there wasn’t necessary. 

Christopher and Ada had a good time. We rode their version of Thunder River, the Mine Train, and The Cyclone (comparing to Six Flags over Georgia) and several kiddie rides. They both loved the rides BUT there was one ride that might have scarred them for life. 

Alton Towers has a ride called The Curse at Alton Manor and based on the height requirements I assumed it was a kiddie ride similar to Monster Mansion (again Six Flags over Georgia)  it man was I wrong. 😂🤦🏽‍♀️

This ride has weird dolls and crazy graphics and the kids were petrified. I spent the ride nervous laughing knowing I’d messed up and not being able to stop laughing about it. Also…I don’t do scary so I was a little 😳. Needless to say Christopher and Ada said they will NEVER go on that ride again and when I do finally take them to Six Flags they will probably not trust me about Monster Mansion not being scary. 

Overall thought we had a great time at Alton Towers and I think the kids will be excited to go to Six Flags when they are both tall enough to ride everything. 

Denstone Hall Farm, Rambler’s Retreat, and Cricket

On the days we hung around the cottage we popped in on a few local places – one of Chris’ coworkers lived in Savannah for a little while and I knew his wife so we got together for dinner one night and she suggested a few places and activities for us. 

The first was Denstone Hall Farm. This place was so good – I went 4 times for the Pimm’s Scone. 

They are a farm to table restaurant and grocery store with a few boutique shops on the property. 

We also went to a place called Rambler’s Retreat. It’s a cute coffee shop and restaurant with walking paths next to a creek. We walked around the trails for a little while then got ice cream at the shop. 

A fun activity Anna shared with us was a Friday afternoon cricket league for kids. We showed up and the kids were welcomed into the games they were playing. It was a little funny though because the night we went it was too hot for them to play cricket so they were playing water games and doing little drills – it’s was about 80 degrees out 😎😂. 

Christopher especially loved playing and was sad we weren’t in town any other Friday afternoons to go back and play again.  

Uttoxeter Racecourse

Anyone who knows me know ms I love any activity with horses and racing is really up my alley!! When I saw there was a racecourse right around the corner from where we were living of course I had to find a time to go watch the races!!

The only day they had an event where we could be in town was right in the middle of my mom’s visit so that might have been why the timing of our visit at the house happened 😂🤷🏽‍♀️

The race day was an afternoon event – they had 9 races on the card. This was also a steeplechase (racing and jumping) – which I’ve never been to. 

We had the best time and Christopher was really getting in to the betting – although he didn’t pick a single winner for us 😂😂

London with kids

Before we flew to Geneva the kids and I spend 1/2 a day in London. We took the train in from Uttoxeter so we could be at the airport early and it made since to take an early morning train so we could make the best of a day in London. 

Several people suggested The Tower of London as a spot the kids would enjoy and where I sometimes enjoy just wandering around a city I knew the kids would probably be happier with an “activity”. 

We got off the train at St. Pancras then took The Tube to Tower Station where I found a bag drop spot close by. From the bag drop we found a quick place for lunch then went over to the Tower Bridge. 

We were a little early for our reserved ticket time so we hung around the Thames and we were able to watch the Tower Bridge open and close for a large boat to come through. The kids really loved that! 

The Tower of London was great also. We walked around through the rooms, saw the Crown Jewels, and watched the ravens get fed. Christopher was really interested in the poppy’s and the video about why the poppy’s are there and what they represent. 

After the Tower of London we headed back to get our bag from the bag drop spot and then headed to the hotel out by the airport. We had to be on the hotel to airport shuttle at 4am the next morning so we needed an early night. 

London with kids take-a-ways

• booking the Tower of London as the activity was a good plan (pats self on back). It was fun for the kids to explore while I also got to enjoy a historical London site. 
• I should have spent the little bit extra and stayed at the Hilton inside Heathrow. Between the expense of paying for us to ride the “Hotel Hoppa” to and from Heathrow and the extremely early wake up call it would have been more convenient to stay at inside the airport. 

London alone

One of the things I really wanted to do this summer was ride and I spent a good bit of time trying to find somewhere closer to where we were staying to ride but I wasn’t able to find anything that didn’t require me to bring a horse or wasn’t a week long all inclusive experience but I was able to find a ride to book in London. 

I needed to book this for a weekend so Chris could handle to kiddos but I waited too long to reach out to the barn and ended up only being able to book a Monday morning – luckily Chris had the day off because of JCB’s summer shutdown. 

The downside – my ride would be the morning before we leave for Italy! 

Never fear though – if there’s anything I’m willing to do it’s travel so I worked out a plan and booked in to go to London on Sunday morning, wander around Sunday afternoon, ride Monday morning, and head right to the train station to get back and finish packing. 

Part of helping Chris move early also centered around me making sure I was 95% packed before leaving for this portion of my trip. 

I left on the morning train to London and when I arrived the first thing I found was a place to eat a proper Sunday roast. 

I had my roast at a spot called Alfred’s which I chose because it was right by where I was walking and wasn’t slammed but ended up being a really interesting spot. It’s a Victorian building that survived The Blitz so all the Victorian details are still on the ceilings and around the building. 

The roast was amazing – I’m sad it’s my first and maybe last British Sunday roast. 

When I was finished with lunch I went to find the Royal Horse Guard. Obviously I can’t come to London without seeing the royal Guard! I got my picture taken with one of the horse guards then hung around for a little while to see if anyone got bit – no one did. 

After that I headed to Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace and walked around for a bit. My hotel was close by so when it was time to go check in I walked to the hotel, checked in, and dropped my backpack in my room. 

I went back out after that and took The Tube to Belgravia and walked down Elizabeth Street checking out all the floral displays on the shops. I did a quick pop in at Penny Porchen and grabbed a mocha and a slice of lemon custard cake to-go. 

I ate my cake in a park bench then made my way back to the hotel. I decided to do an early turn in since I was getting up early for the ride the next day. When I got back to the hotel I looked to see how many steps I’d done and I’d walked over 10 miles 😳

Monday morning I woke up early and took a little walk through Hyde Park – mostly to stretch before riding and to grab a little breakfast. I ate in the park then went over to the stables for my ride. 

My horse was named Inka and we had a great ride!! We walked from the stables to the park, did a little warm up trot, then made our way around to Rotten Row. 

We saw the horse guard Calvary on their way to do the horse guard parade and we cantered down Rotten Row for several long stretches. When our time was up we walked back to the stables and I headed to the train station to catch my train “home”.

London alone take-a-ways

• AMAZING!!! before heading into 11 days in Italy with the whole crew and 8 months of solo parenting I needed some time truly alone. 
• I would do the Hyde Park ride again and again and if I ever make it back to London it’s def something I would put in my agenda. 

Well that’s the recap of our summer so far!! I’ve had the best time and I can’t believe how lucky we are to be able to experience so many things in one summer! 

In conclusion for this post here are some of my general take-a-ways.

• If there’s something you really want to see, do, or eat you need to book well in advance. There were several things along the way that would have been neat to do but when I pulled it up the day before to book in the time slots were sold out. 
• I planned this summer with the mindset of “this might be my one trip to Europe how can I make the most out of it” and I think I did a great job BUT I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy the English countryside where we were residing and I wish I’d spent more time just being “home”. 
• If you are planning a trip and have a vehicle budget $20-30 a day for parking. If you don’t use all of your budgeted money take yourself out to dinner at the end of your trip with the leftover money. So many places charge for parking and most of the places are a little pricey. 
• Also – if you’re driving to the airport to pick someone up expect to either pay to park or pay the £6 drive up fee. 
• The wheels on Ada’s bag blew out somewhere in Chamonix. I let her talk me into the cute bag instead of me using my brain and buying her the sturdy bag. I paid for it dragging that thing up and down the hills of Chamonix, through Geneva, and then through London while we transferred from the hotel to the train station. Skip the cute bag and buy the good luggage. 
• Europeans don’t use flat sheets – if you like a little bit of cover in your non-ac’d situation but think the duvet is too much bring your own. I ended up getting some cheap fitted sheets and cutting the elastic out 😂🤷🏽‍♀️

A note on safety…

I’ve gotten a few DMs whilst sharing my trip online about staying safe and whether traveling alone or with the kids “alone” 🙄 is safe and I wanted to say a few things. 

The only time in my entire trip I didn’t feel “safe” was on a train platform in one of the smaller English towns heading home from our Geneva/Chamonix trip. There was a guy wearing a black puffer coat when it was about 80 outside and he kept moving to my blind spot. There were tons of people around so I just quietly pushed the kids and our broke down bag a little further down the platform where there was a platform building behind us. This way no one could stand behind me. 

Here’s the thing with this though I didn’t feel unsafe just aware and he was probably just someone minding his business on his phone but because I’m paying attention it caught my eye. Also WHO is wearing a puffer jacket when it’s 70+ out lol

Anytime I travel whether it’s alone or with the kids I’m paying attention. And lets me honest – living in Savannah these days isn’t really any better than places you may choose to travel. 🙃😎🤷🏽‍♀️

Pay attention – if you need to dig through your stuff or get your bearings step to the side and pay attention while you’re doing it. 

Also I’m a phone and wallet in my back pockets person but for this trip I brought a cross body bag and even a fanny pack because I’m aware that in a crowded street or train station having those things in my. Ack pockets is like asking to be robbed. 

What’s next!

Next up we are heading to Italy for our “summer vacation”, Chris has the next 2 weeks off for summer shutdown. We are starting in Venice, making our way to Florence, the Cinque Terre, then Rome where Chris will wish us well and we will head home while he heads back to England. 

Follow along on Instagram and get on my email list to have the Italy report emailed directly to you mid August!