Warwick Castle, Brussells, Paris

There are pretty pink flowering vines over the doors of many houses, maybe roses. Flowering trees and bushes all over, green woods and green grass. Many fields separated by hedges or stone walls. Many lilac bushes, all in bloom; it is still spring here. The general color of England is green, feels of fertility, age and history. It is overcast a lot of the time. It is a country for tourists; things are well labeled and people very friendly. The national speed limit is 70; small cars and fast drivers. There is a great variety of cars, all small; we saw one Ford Mustang and one Toyota.
We drove to Warwick and saw the castle. Beautiful grounds with peacocks. We saw the dungeons and torture instruments; much armor. We saw the state apartments with wax figures portraying a party which took place in 1898. Very well done. Winston Churchill was portrayed as he had been one of the guests. We then drove to Blenheim Palace. Unbelievable! It is ornate, fancy, the loveliest, most beautiful house in England. It was built, by order of Queen Anne, for one of Churchill’s ancestors, the Duke of Marlborough, because of a victory in France. We saw the room where Churchill was born and much memorabilia of his. Lots of beautiful china and paintings.
Leon was very brave and drove into London and Victoria Station where we checked our luggage and then drove back to White City to drop off the car. He did very well! We took the underground into Victoria Station and walked to Buckingham Palace. As we walked past we noticed mounted men,the royal Horse Artillery. We asked them and they were on the way to the Horseguards Parade ground to rehearse for another performance. We went and since it was a rehearsal, it was free. We saw another great program of marching bands and mounted men pulling the cannons around. They played the 1812 Overture and the cannons went off, also muskets, and the huge bells in some nearby bell tower and it was magnificent.

We walked back towards Victoria Staten and passed by Downing Street where the Prime Minister lives. You can’t go onto the street itself; it is blocked off. We caught the 9:30 p.m train to Dover , arriving about 11:30 p.m. and got on the ferry. There were two types of seats; regular seats, three across, or lounge benches that you could stretch out on. The knowledgeable passengers got right off the train first and onto the ferry and appropriated the benches. We tried to sleep on the regular seats but it was not very restful. There were also a few cabins on the top deck. The night was noisy with much banging and bustling about but the crossing was very smooth.
We arrived in Oostend, Belgium about 4:03 a.m. continental time (3:03 British time) and took a train into Brussells, arriving about 6 a.m. It cost 5 Belgium Francs to use the toilet and 6 to wash one’s hands! We located the street where we were to pick up the car on a city map at the railroad station and decided to walk since they didn’t open until 8:30 a.m. We left most of the luggage and started out. We ended up walking 2 hours and 15 minutes! Brussells is very dirty; we saw a lot of it but all was dirty. You had to watch where you put your feet as the sidewalks were full of dog doo. This surprised me very much as I though Belgium would be clean like the Dutch Netherlands. One man was very helpful and showed us where we could buy a map of the city.
This car is a Ford Escort, very nice. We drove on freeways; the ones in France are like U.S. ones. It was like driving in L.A. during the rush hour on the freeways and worse on the city streets in Paris. Mad drivers! We arrived about 3 p.m. in Paris and found our hotel. As parking is very hard, we found a spot and left the car there the whole time; we didn’t move it. At this bread and breakfast we have our own private bathroom which is nice but the room is dark and dingy. You could tell that at one time it had been a very lovely home but had really deteriorated. The window opened onto a small courtyard overlooked by other buildings. We went out and bought some food, then returned to our room. We were both very tired.
We woke up feeling much better. The bus and metro are on strike; no transportation. We finally caught a taxi to take us to the Louvre. We waited in line over an hour but it hadn’t opened; their help couldn’t get in to man the place due to the strike. A sign said it would open but not when. We got tired of waiting and walked to the Jew de Paume museum, which had been open earlier, but it was now closed because of the strike. We walked along the Seine River in a drizzle. We decided to try the Louvre one more time and it was open! We were so glad. We saw the Venus, Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa, my main interests, and so much more. I really enjoyed seeing the huge painting of Napoleon being crowned by Louis David and another smaller painting really impressed me, St Joseph in the Carpenter’s Shop by Georges de la Tour. It was mostly dark but with a candle illuminating Joseph and who I also believe is Jesus as a child. We would walk down the main corridor then step into a side room thinking we could go back but other rooms opened off the room and we would get derailed. It would take months to see everything! Wish we had had much more time.
We walked some more by the Seine then took a boat ride at Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris. We saw the Eiffel Tower from the river, also Notre Dame and the Paris Opera House. After the ride we walked to Notre Dame. It was very dark and gloomy inside. The drizzle continued but we walked along the Ile de la Cite and Ile Ste Louis, the two Islands in the river, then back to the hotel buying things for supper on the way.
When it was time to leave the next morning, we tried to pay for the hotel with traveler’s checks, the landlady, very brusque, wouldn’t take them. We had to drive to one of the railroad stations and exchange them for francs then drive back, pay her and collect our luggage. The daughter was very nice and welcoming and spoke English but the old lady was not very friendly.