Homebound

As great as the journey has been, we did anticipate our return to Chicago....

We stayed at the Hilton connected to Paddington station in London where the express train runs to Heathrow airport in 15 minutes. As we took the 5am train, it was nice to not have to haul our luggage across the city. Our flight was about the first one to the US and once aboard got comfortable in the new seating configuration that United has in business now. We were seated facing backwards but it wasn't a problem because often we were that way on trains across Europe. In the event of an airplane crash, it's actually better to be seated facing backwards and I've heard that military planes are configured with such seating.

The change in seating that United business has now is completely flat beds and it was the first time either of us experienced it. Passengers really get a much better sleep and it was nice to nap for half the flight as we landed at 11am with a full day ahead in Chicago. Hopefully we get some upgrades on our United accounts so we can experience it again!!!!

Home!!!!!!!!!!! Chicago greeted us as usual with clouds and light rain but it's nice to be home finally!

We've got stacks to do, 2 1/2 months worth. We haven't even started on our thank you notes even though we hauled the box of them completely around the world.

Again, thanks for everyone who followed along and we hope that it was fun to read. Our biggest wish is that all of you can visit some of the places we had the fortune to and if we provided a little bit of inspiration to do so, it was worthwhile for us to relate our travels.

Over the next few months we've got some trips planned which we also consider part of our honeymoon so feel free to check back once in a while to see what we're up to. If all goes as planned, the honeymoon will never end.....

London, now with photos

As mentioned yesterday, our first stop was the St. James area and on Jermyn Street we stopped in at Floris and their royal warrant is shown below as "Perfumer to The Prince of Wales." Shauna bought some of their China Rose scented products after being introduced to their Rose flavored mouthwash earlier this year. Royal warrants are certain indicators of high quality craftsmanship whatever the product and the holder's shop is always worth having a look at.

The photo below is from one of Ryan's favorite shops, the James J. Fox cigar shop which has a history that reaches back over a century. Winston Churchill's order ledger is shown below and just one of many exhibits in their cigar museum.

The royal warrant for Fox's is shown below as "Tobacconist to His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh."

Ryan having a relaxing moment in Fox's.

Nearby the neighborhood is Green Park where we relaxed as Ryan always does on trips to London.

Shauna loves the area as well.

Just as the sun went down we finished up the day by catching the tube from Piccadilly Circus.

Early today we strolled around a modern shopping area and Shauna found her perfect glasses, light pink with heart shaped lenses.

Leicester Square

Nearby the old futures exchange a statue of a futures trader was erected in 1997 and Ryan poses beside it.

Here's a view of Jermyn Street and immediate view are some of the shops were we bought stuff: Thomas Pink, Hackett and Floris.

Below is St. James, not too big but filled with absolutely marvelous shops. As mentioned previously, most merchants date back to the 19th, 18th or even 17th centuries like Berry Brothers and Rudd who were established in 1698.

One place that Ryan always wanted to visit for a shave and haircut on St. James is Truefitt and Hill which is the oldest barbershop in the world. He's used their West Indian Limes shaving products for years and their royal warrant as barber to the royal family is below.

Inside where it all happens.

First a hot towel to get the pores to open up.

Then it's the lathering and a straightedge razor shave.

Ryan can go home looking like a gentleman now. To be honest, Ryan can give a better shave himself but it's nice to get pampered.

Pink + Mercedes = A car Shauna would like

Not too far from historic St James, we had afternoon tea at the Athenaeum Hotel. They offered a LaDuree (the pastry shop in Paris) afternoon tea which kicked off with LaDuree label rose Champagne.

Once we finished with the Champagne, it was Laduree tea served alongside their macaroons and crumpets.

In the next room was the largest Scotch selection of any bar in London. Ryan thought it was extensive but nothing too amazing...and of course the amazingly rare stuff was out of price range.

London, quick post

We're just checking in quickly from an internet cafe but we did make it to London with the Eurostar train this morning. It takes a bit over two hours for the train to travel from Paris to London and about 30 minutes of that is underground.

Once we made it to London, we went straight for one of the most historical shopping areas in the world. On St. James and Jermyn Streets are various shops who were founded back as far as the 17th century and hold royal warrants. These warrants showcase that they are the official supplier of certain goods to the royal household. Tomorrow we'll have a better chance to explain and exhibit the area but today we have to keep it brief.

Cheerio from London and sorry for the quick post that lacks photos.

Paris, bad internet

Apologies for being away for a couple days, our internet won't cooperate again to load photos. We haven't had all that much to report anyways since our days have been spent strolling around the boulevards and stopping at anyplace which looked interesting. The one benefit of visiting Paris previously is that we've already seen the major sites (Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Montmartre, etc...) so we aren't burdened by anything on the agenda.

Sometimes the little things add up to something greater than doing something grand. Today we ate brunch at our favorite restaurant, returned for a short nap, went out to visit friends for a cafeside bottle of wine and conversation before finishing the day with excellent Lebanese food. It's these types of days which make life worth living and what a honeymoon is all about.

In the A.M. we're off to London for the final two nights of the trip.....

D-Day Beaches

Ryan wanted to visit the D-Day beaches on a day trip which is about 3 1/2 hours drive from Paris but thought that Shauna should remain in Paris to shop and spend time with an Australian woman we met on the Champagne tour the day before to explore the city. The two of us being apart for 12 hours is the longest we've been away from eachother for over 2 1/2 months! Shauna had a wonderful time exploring food establishments and shops so it was for the better as she probably wouldn't have enjoyed the D-Day tour.

Operation Overlord was the largest amphibious assault in history and is also memorialized at the D-Day Museum in New Orleans which Ryan previously visited and highly enjoyed. This clip from Saving Private Ryan allows us to visualize the tremendous sacrifices American troops made for a free Europe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEh7p5ypQ9Y

The first stop on the his tour was Point Du Hoc which was an important landing point between Utah and Omaha Beaches. The 2nd Ranger Battalion took heavy causalities to capture the position but accomplished their mission of destroying heavy guns atop the cliff.
The landscape around Point Du Hoc still bears the deep scars of bombardment. The heavily fortified German positions withstood a lot of the aerial bombings and still appear rather solid over 60 years after D-Day.
Inside the artillery position, not a lot left but enough to get a sense of it's defensive position.
Omaha Beach is pictured below where the heaviest casualties were suffered on D-Day. I read elsewhere that the choices were simple since the troops couldn't go back into the sea and couldn't stay on the open space of the beach so the only option was to head forward towards the cliffs.
On Omaha Beach is a memorial to the US 1st Infrantry Division and the inscription is: "No Mission Too Difficult, No Sacrifice Too Great, Duty First, Forced Omaha Beach at Dawn 6 June"

Below is the reflecting pool of the American Cemetery in Normandy and contains about 10,000 American graves. The French have turned over the land to the American government for care and upkeep in perpetuity. Each marble gravestone is immaculately clean thanks to the efforts of workers like the gentleman below who scrubs each gravestone.

The gravestone below belongs to an unidentified solider and there were many of such graves at the cemetery.
Teddy Roosevelt Jr. died shortly after D-Day and you have to respect a Brigadier General who insisted on going onto Utah Beach with the first wave of troops. In fact, he was the only General to land with the first wave and was the first person off his landing craft. Unfortunately, he died of heart trouble just over a month after D-Day. Medal of Honor recipients like him have their gravestones with gold lettering.
The below view is of Omaha Beach from the American Cemetery and as you can see, it's a long way to the German positions with little cover to be had.
Gold Beach is pictured below which was taken by the British on D-Day. The structures that remain in the water were Mulberry harbors which the Allies built to facilitate the loading of equipment onto the beaches after they were secured. The natural port of Cherbourg was taken a while later so the Allies had to use the prefabricated harbors to get equipment in fast.
To finish the tour, a brief visit was made to Juno Beach which was taken by Canadian troops also with heavy losses. A new memorial center was recently built in the shape of a maple leaf.

Champagne

We took a day trip to the Champagne region which is only 1 1/2 -2 hours away from Paris by car. To start the day, we learned of how the grapes are grown before visiting a small winery. Traditionally, the land in Champagne goes back hundreds of years through family generations and it was the same situation with the small producer we visited.



Champagne is generally made with two different grape types, pinot noir (below) and chardonnay (second below).


It's a beautiful part of the world to visit for anyone, even those who don't drink alcohol.

The grapes don't taste the same as normal grapes but still are nice to sample. The skins were acidic but the juice tasted wonderful. Harvest finished the week before so it would've been too busy in the area if we showed up earlier.

The windmill on the hill is owned by Mumm Champagne.


The soil of Champagne is filled with chalk which is the bedrock that aging caves are dug out of. The cellar we first visited was quite small by local standards but the same methods apply to larger productions as in the smaller ones.

Once yeast is added to the juice for fermentation and bottled, the sediment takes a lengthy process to settle near the cap as pictured below. The bottles are stored in racks for many months and turned a quarter turn once a day to move the sediment towards the cap. Once the sediment is above the cap, the neck is frozen and the cap pops off launching a frozen cube of sediment out of the bottle so the final product is completely clear. To replace the lost juice, a combination of wine and sugar is added which determines how sweet a Champagne tastes.

Enough talk, let's drink!

A different region for growing grapes and note that the grapes are always grown on a slope in Champagne.

At lunch we were given a special dessert treat to celebrate our honeymoon which topped off a wonderful meal in central Reims.

After lunch we visited the cathedral of Notre Dame in the center of Reims which is very important for a lot of reasons...which you can lookup on the internet because we don't remember a whole lot about it. The thing about Europe is that there is such an abundance of religious buildings that they all sorta blend together unless someone is highly interested in their history.

Before heading back to Paris, we visited the extensive aging caves of Taittinger to contrast with the smaller winery we visited earlier. Shauna poses below near a rack of large format bottles. The names of different bottle sizes are after Biblical figures such as Jeroboam, Balthazar, and Nabuchodonosor for the largest size of 15 liters or the equivalent of 20 bottles.

Bottles of Champagne as far as the eye can see! The labyrinth in the caves holds millions of bottles of Champagne and is 4 total kilometers in length.

Shauna is standing in one of the oldest cellaring caves in Taittinger, it dates from approximately the fourth century and was a chalk quarry made by the Romans who used the chalk as a building material. Each of these original Roman caves is a pyramid shape because the design was to dig straight down then in a pyramid formation for the roof to be supported.