Mumsy and Guvna take on Europe: A 2016 Europe Trip Report! updated 5/29/2017

annegirl

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Hey everyone!
I have finished up my latest Disney World trip report and announced an upcoming trip to Europe. Many expressed interest in having a pre-trip report/ trip report to read and so I thought I would create one.

UPDATE:
I will now have the trip report attached to this pre trip report. You can follow the links!
 
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First of all:
Who are Mumsy and Guvna?

I am Guvna. My name is Cheryl. I am 38 years old. I live in Utah with my husband and my two daughters (aged 5 and 9). I love all things Disney. I love reading, blogging, sewing, celebrating, planning (especially trip planning), and all things British.


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Mumsy is my mom. Her real name is Marcia. She is 66 years old. She is my best friend. She also loves Disney, reading, British things, and traveling. She also loves running. She and I love to go on trips together and have so much fun hanging out as much as we can since we only live about an hour away from each other.

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Why do we call each other Mumsy and Guvna?
That started years ago. As I mentioned, we travel together a lot.
In 2000 we went to Prince Edward Island in Canada for the first time together. We were being silly and I called her Mumsy. She then said something like, "Right-o Guvna!" And it stuck.


So, onto the trip.
We are going to England, Wales, France, Switzerland, and Germany.
Spring 2016.
We have talked about wanting to do this for years. But then last year I was talking to my husband about wanting to go so bad. I have never been out of North America. I have traveled the United States and Canada extensively and been to Mexico a couple of times. But other than that.. no where else.
He said it would be a few years before he felt like we could really afford to go to Europe as a family but why didn't I talk to my mom and see if she wanted to go with me.
I rang her up immediately.
She was on board.
The hardest thing about this trip will be that since it will just be my mom and I, I will be away from my girls for 3 weeks. yep. Three weeks. I am always with my kids.
I am a stay at home mom and the longest I have ever been away from them has been a weekend. So it will be a huge adjustment.
That is part of the reason we decided to go in 2016 rather than this year. Maddy, my youngest, will be in school by then.

Well, that is the story of who is going, where, when, and for how long.
I will be back with more about our plans!

 
Excited that you started a PTR! Can't wait to hear all about it. I'm sure it will be tough leaving the girls, but this is definitely a great opportunity for you and mom :)
 


Excited that you started a PTR! Can't wait to hear all about it. I'm sure it will be tough leaving the girls, but this is definitely a great opportunity for you and mom :)

So glad you came over! I am excited to have somewhere to put all my plans. It helps to write it out somewhere other than my trip binder! :) Yes. I think it will be hard on them having me away for so long and I will definitely have some hard moments and some anxiety but I think they will actually have a great time with Doug and it will be good for them to all have to do without me for a while. Haha.
And I am sure I will really appreciate them all the more when I get back.


:cheer2::cheer2::cheer2::cheer2: you are doing a PTR on this. I can't wait to hear all the plans.

Yay! So glad you came over!
 


Here we go....


Links for pre trip report will be below the trip report!

Introductions

Trip report:

First and second day: Traveling and Iceland
Third day, part one: our hotel and Paddington Station
Day Four: Bath, part one- Bath Abbey
Day Four, part two- Bath, Roman Baths and Sally Lunn's
Day Four: Bath, part three- the rest of Bath and our hotel
Day Five: Stonehenge part one
Day Five: Stonehenge part two
Day Five: Winchester
Day Five: Jane Austen's home in Chawton
Day Five: Cassandra's Cup Tea Room in Chawton
Day Five: Canterbury Cathedral
Day Five: Canterbury
Day Six: Dover
Day Six: Highclere Castle (Downton Abbey) part one
Day Six: Highclere Caste part two
Day Six: Highclere Castle part three and York hotel
Day Seven: York part one
Day Seven: York part two
Day Seven: York part three
Day Seven: Haworth

Day seven: driving to the Lake District and Bowness-on-Windermere
Day Seven: Bowness-on-Windermere part two
Day Eight: Hill Top Farm
Day Eight: Grasmere part one
Day Eight: Grasmere, part two: Dove Cottage
Day Nine: Lyme PArk
Day Nine: Chatsworth part one
Day Nine: Chatsworth part two
Day Nine: Our cottage in Chipping Campden
Day Ten: Oxford- Queen's College Library
Day Ten: Oxford
Day Ten: Bodleian
Day Ten: Oxford- The Eagle and the Child
Day Ten: Oxford- Christ Church
Day Ten: Stratford Upon Avon
Day Eleven: Harry Potter Studio Tour
Day Eleven: Harry Potter Studio Tour part two
Day Eleven: Harry potter studio tour part three
Day Eleven; Lacock, part one
Day Eleven: Lacock, part two

Day Eleven: Castle Combe
Day Twelve: Chipping Campden
Day Thirteen: Leaving Chipping Campden, going to Cardiff, Wales. Doctor Who experience, part one.
Day Thirteen: Cardiff/ Doctor Who part two, leaving for London
Day Thirteen: Train to London
Day Thirteen: Evening in London
Day Fourteen: Tower of London part one
Day Fourteen: Tower of London part two
Day Fourteen: Tower of London part three
Day Fourteen: Thames and Globe Theater
Day Fourteen: Millenium Bridge, King's Cross, British Library
Day Fourteen: End of day in London

Day Fifteen: Trafalgar Square, london morning
Day Fifteen: Buckingham palace changing of the guard part one
Day Fifteen: Changing of the guard part two, Westminster Abbey
Day Fifteen: Big Ben, walking in london and the park
Day Fifteen: Churchill War Rooms
Day Sixteen: Crossing the Channel to France
Day Sixteen: Our hotel/ first night in France
Day Seventeen: Mont St Michel part one
Day Seventeen: Mont St Michel part two
Day Seventeen: Mont St Michel part three
DAy Seventeen: Mont St Michel part four
Day Seventeen: Mont St Michel part five
Day Seventeen: Utah Beach
Day Seventeen: Point du hoc
Day Seventeen: Omaha Beach and the American Cemetery and museum
Day Seventeen: Our B&B Les Hautes Sources
Day Eighteen: Leaving our B&B, Giverny
DAy Eighteen: Monet's house, part one
Day Eighteen: Monet's house, part two
Day Eighteen: Monet's house, part three
Day Eighteen: Monet's house part four, arriving in Paris
Day Eighteen: our hotel in Paris
Day Nineteen: Notre Dame Cathedral part one
Day Nineteen: Notre Dame part two
Day Nineteen: Notre Dame part three
DAy Nineteen: a cafe, Shakespeare and Company bookshop, riding the Batobus
Day Nineteen: Louvre part one
DAy Nineteen: Louvre part two
Day Ninetten: some Paris walking, Angelina's cafe
Day Nineteen: Eiffel Tower part one
Day Nineteen: Eiffel Tower part two and dinner
DAy Twenty: Versailles part one
Day Twenty: Versailles part two

Day Twenty: Versailles part three
Day Twenty: Versailles part four
Day Twenty: Versailles part five

Day Twenty: Versailles part six, back in Paris
Day Twenty: Last evening in Paris
Day Twenty one: Train from Paris to Zermatt Switzerland, part one
Day Twenty one: Train to Zermatt, part two
Day Twenty one: Zermatt hotel and the town, part one
Day Twenty one: Zermatt part two
Day Twenty two: train to Germany
Day Twenty two: our hotel in the Black Forest
Day Twenty three: Driving to Bavaria part one
Day Twenty three: Driving to Bavaria part two, our hotel in Garmisch partenkirchen
Day Twenty four: Neuschwanstein part one
Day Twenty four: Neuschwanstein part two
Day Twenty four: Oberammergau and our hotel again
Day Twenty five: Dachau concentration camp part one
Day Twenty five: Dachau concentration camp part two
Day TWenty five: Flight home






Pre trip report:
Day One- Flight
First thought of as day two (changes later to day 3)- Bath
Day Two- Iceland stopover
New Camera
Some pictures of the Scottish festival with new camera
Day Four- Stonehenge, Jane Austen's home and grave, 100 Acre Forest, Dover, and Canterbury
Day Five- Nottingham, Sherwood Forest, York
Real Life Update- 4th of July
Real Life Update- 4th of July #2
Day Six- Alnwick Castle and the Lake District
Day Seven- Lake District, visiting Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm
A question about Train travel in London to Portsmouth or Poole to catch a ferry
Day Eight- Driving from the Lake District to the Cotswolds, visiting some cool places along the way
Our cottage in the Cotswolds
Flight is booked
Revisions to day one/two
Day Nine- some hopeful outings: Harry Potter studio tour and Highclere Castle
Trying to figure out car rentals
Day Nine- updated version of the day
Day Ten- Harry Potter Studio, Castle Combe, Lacock, and Bibury
Real Life Update: Back to School!
Day Eleven- Rest day at our cottage in the Cotswolds, Chipping Campden, and the Cotswold way
Real life update: Salt Lake City Comic Con
Day Twelve- Driving to Cardiff, Wales, the Doctor Who Experience, and back to London!
Real Life update: Maddy moving to 1st grade!
CHange of plans to Day five and six!
Car or Train?
Car taken care of
Days Thirteen and Fourteen: Two days in London
Stonehenge news
Day Fifteen: Going to France, Mont St Michel
Day Sixteen: Visiting the D-day beaches and our next hotel
Day Seventeen: Monet and Paris
Days Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty: Paris
Day Twenty One: train to Zermatt, the Matterhorn
Day Twenty Two: train to Freiburg Germany, hotel in the Black Forest
Day Twenty Three, Twenty Four, and Twenty Five: Black forest, our hotel at the foot of the Alps, and some touring, then going home
 
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Day One:

Our day one is still a bit up in the air until we book our airline tickets.
We are planning on flying Icelandair if we can because my cousin that lived in Europe for a while recommended them to me.
She told me that they usually have a lot lower prices than other airlines but she was perfectly happy with their service.
Plus you get to stop in Iceland along the way for free.
And she said that since Iceland is a part of the EU that you can go through customs there in Iceland where it takes less time than it would in London.


So I have been waiting and watching for them to release flights for our dates.
They finally have now.


However, there are some issues.
While they do have a flight going out on the day we wanted to depart it stops in Seattle for a really long layover and then has a really short one in Iceland and doesn't get into London until close to noon. I was really hoping to get there early in the morning.
Also, Salt Lake City, while having a really nice airport is not a hub and our flight coming back at the end of the trip does not have a SLC option. The closest it comes is to Denver.
My cousin told me that flights out of SLC tend to be a little more expensive than other airports too.
So I thought I would check what it would be to fly out of Denver as well.


Since we would already have to find a flight from Denver to SLC on our return, what if we did one from here to Denver for departure as well?

So I looked that up and flying in and out of Denver was a couple hundered dollars cheaper.
I noticed though that they didn't have a flight on our exact day but they do have one for the day before that flies from denver straight to Iceland and then on to London arriving at about the same time our other flight would have except one day earlier.
I talked to my mom and Doug about this option and we decided it would actually work quite well because it will allow some changes of schedule and rental car that will make some days better and save some money as well.
And it really is only a difference of a few hours of the kids' awake time that I will be gone- leaving a couple of hours before their bedtime rather than a couple hours after they wake up the next day.


I haven't bought the tickets yet because I do want to watch it for a couple of weeks to see how they go.
As of right now the round trip flight from Denver to London and then Munich to Denver is under $1000 each but I am hoping I can get it to around $800 or less so that adding on a flight on Southwest (hoping for them because of the free checked luggage which Icelandair has as well) would put it at still under $1000.


If all goes as planned and I am able to get these flights and ones that match up well with them then we will be leaving at around 3pm and getting to Denver a couple of hours before the flight so that we have enough time to check in there and get settled before the flight to Iceland.
It would be an overnight flight arriving in Iceland at about 6am their time. (I believe they are about 6 hours ahead of us)
I would love to have some time to explore a few places around Iceland but in order to make this new schedule work to the best for us we would rather get into London as early as possible so we will just look out the windows and enjoy the fact that we are in Iceland before jumping back on a flight to London!


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More on the rest of the day later.
As it gets closer to the trip I will also post about packing plans.

 
That Denver option and those prices sound pretty darn good to me.

And even if you don't get to explore Iceland, at least you can say you've been there. :)
 
And she said that since Iceland is a part of the EU that you can go through customs there in Iceland where it takes less time than it would in London.

Although Iceland is part of the EU, the UK is not covered by the Schengen Treaty. You will still have to go through UK Immigration which can be time consuming for everyone, especially non EU citizens like yourselves.

ford family
 
Although Iceland is part of the EU, the UK is not covered by the Schengen Treaty. You will still have to go through UK Immigration which can be time consuming for everyone, especially non EU citizens like yourselves.

ford family


Yes, you will have to go through customs upon arrival in London regardless of where you came from.

We are doing Icelandair from Denver to Copenhagen next spring and doing the stopover in Iceland on our return. DH and I have been to Iceland, but the kids haven’t. Reykjavik isn’t very large but you definitely want to experience the Blue Lagoon (natural outdoor geothermal spa) which is right by the airport.

Your trip sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing!
 
I will be away from my girls for 3 weeks.

WOW! 3 weeks!!!! this is a long trip!!! like you i would miss my kids SO MUCH! yet you deserve a get a way with mom.

Good luck with the flights and glad you have the cheaper of them. I would love to see everything your about to!!! this is going to be a lot of fun to follow along with!
 
Sounds like an awesome trip! We did Paris, the Swiss alps and Munich in two weeks in 2012 and we didn't feel rushed at all so three weeks should be perfect for your itinerary!
 
You have a very long time to watch airfare! I'm sure it's possible (probable) that it will go down. Are you flying into London and out of another city? (Sorry if you mentioned it, I haven't had coffee yet.)

That is A LOT to cover in three weeks. I'd buy a few of Rick Steves' books and figure out what you want to do and all of that. I've used them on several trips. :)
 
That Denver option and those prices sound pretty darn good to me.

And even if you don't get to explore Iceland, at least you can say you've been there. :)

Yes. That is exactly what we thought. At least we can say we have been there!

Although Iceland is part of the EU, the UK is not covered by the Schengen Treaty. You will still have to go through UK Immigration which can be time consuming for everyone, especially non EU citizens like yourselves.

ford family

That is good to know! I wonder if it changed since my cousin went through or if she just didn't remember doing it. Thank you.

Yes, you will have to go through customs upon arrival in London regardless of where you came from.

We are doing Icelandair from Denver to Copenhagen next spring and doing the stopover in Iceland on our return. DH and I have been to Iceland, but the kids haven’t. Reykjavik isn’t very large but you definitely want to experience the Blue Lagoon (natural outdoor geothermal spa) which is right by the airport.

Your trip sounds awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! I have looked into the Blue Lagoon. I don't know if we will have a long enough layover. But if we do, we will definitely do it!

WOW! 3 weeks!!!! this is a long trip!!! like you i would miss my kids SO MUCH! yet you deserve a get a way with mom.

Good luck with the flights and glad you have the cheaper of them. I would love to see everything your about to!!! this is going to be a lot of fun to follow along with!

I know. 3 weeks is definitely a long time away from them. It will be hard.
It has been really fun to work on the plans so I am excited to share them!


Sounds like an awesome trip! We did Paris, the Swiss alps and Munich in two weeks in 2012 and we didn't feel rushed at all so three weeks should be perfect for your itinerary!

Nice! Thank you. I am so excited.

You have a very long time to watch airfare! I'm sure it's possible (probable) that it will go down. Are you flying into London and out of another city? (Sorry if you mentioned it, I haven't had coffee yet.)

That is A LOT to cover in three weeks. I'd buy a few of Rick Steves' books and figure out what you want to do and all of that. I've used them on several trips. :)

Yeah. I have been planning for months now already. I always plan way in advance. I have read a few Rick Steves' books and watched a few of his videos too. I also have some of his podcasts on my phone. Along with some other travel guides and I have also been reading a lot of blogs where people have written about their trips to the places we are going so that I got a lot of recommendations. It is so exciting.
We would be flying into London and flying out of Munich.
It will be a ton to cover in three weeks. We will be very busy!! That's kind of how my mom and I tend to travel. We tend to pack in as much as humanly possible!
 
Okay, so if everything works out with flights we will arrive at around 11am.
Because this will technically be the day after we left Utah we will count it as day two.
We will take a couple of hours I'm sure to get through customs and get our luggage and then we will be taking a train from London to Bath.
We will be renting a car from Enterprise in Bath.
(my brother in law works for them)
We will be spending the rest of that afternoon and evening exploring a few things we would like to see in Bath.
If you have read/ seen any Jane Austen you will be familiar with Bath.
We want to see the Abbey, the Roman Baths, and a few of the other outdoor sites that we can wander around.


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We would also love to visit Sally Lunn's for tea or dinner.

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Then we will travel a few minutes outside of Bath to our hotel.
I have already booked us at a Best Western a few miles away.


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It looks really cool and I read quite a few really good reviews for it.
We got a room that is fully refundable and we can cancel anytime up to 5 days before the trip just in case this scenario doesn't play out when we finally get our airline tickets.
We got a twin room.


I know we will be exhausted when we arrive in London.
But I have read so many blogs and had so many of my friends tell me that the best way they got over jet lag was to jump right into their trip and go to bed at the local time rather than getting there and taking a nap.
I am sure we will be insanely exhausted by the time we arrive at our hotel but maybe we will have some time to relax in the pool before bed to kind of unwind.
We won't have a ton of time in Bath so we have a list of the things we want to see and then we have a list of only a couple of things that we want to see for sure so that we won't be upset if we don't end up getting to them all.
Also, we know that anything can happen and our plans could have unforseen bumps based on airlines or anything else but we are pretty flexible and handle those kinds of things pretty well.


A few years ago (before I had kids) we went on a road trip across the United States, up into Canada, across Canada, and back down into the US and into Utah that was almost a month long.
(lucky for me I had a job that allowed me to do that and my parents were retired)
On that trip my car died in Hershey, Pennsylvania. We were stuck there for 4 days. So it put the whole trip behind schedule and we had to move around a lot of things not to mention the extra expense to have a new transmission put into my car and the cost of a rental so that we could still do some of the things we had planned in the form of day trips from PA. But we took it in stride and something awesome happened.
We had a whale watching trip planned in Victoria, British Columbia toward the end of the trip.
The day we would have gone out there wasn't a single sighting. But the day we did the tour (4 days later than it would have originally been) we had an entire pod of orcas swimming around our little Zodiac boat and breaching all around us.
The captain told us later that he had actually been a little nervous because they were so close.
I could have reached out of the boat and touched one at one point if I were dumb.
We always go into trips knowing that they won't always go exactly as planned but we plan as much as we can anyway!


Also, Bath is one of those places that we really want to go to but it isn't our number one priority so we will be okay if we only see one or two of the things that we are most excited about!
 
Bath sounds wonderful (love the pictures) and that little place for tea or dinner looks lovely. Your hotel also looks really, really nice. It's nice that you go in knowing that things can happen and go with the flow. And how luck you were with the whale sighting. :thumbsup2
 
Glad your flight plans are coming along, hopefully the price will drop for you!

Your hotel in Bath looks lovely! It's good to have realistic expectations, especially when plans can easily go astray!

Wow I can't believe the road trip you went on, sounds like an awesome experience!
 
Bath sounds wonderful (love the pictures) and that little place for tea or dinner looks lovely. Your hotel also looks really, really nice. It's nice that you go in knowing that things can happen and go with the flow. And how luck you were with the whale sighting. :thumbsup2

Yes. I am really excited to see all of these things in person! That whale watching day still is one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. It was amazing.

Glad your flight plans are coming along, hopefully the price will drop for you!

Your hotel in Bath looks lovely! It's good to have realistic expectations, especially when plans can easily go astray!

Wow I can't believe the road trip you went on, sounds like an awesome experience!

yes. At least right now it is still a pretty good price compared to a lot I have looked at. But last summer I was pricing it out for this year when we were still trying to decide which year to go and it was a couple hundred cheaper. So I am waiting to see if it will go down to at least what it was last year. But we have budgeted for it at a little over what it is right now just in case so either way we will be good.
It was an AWESOME road trip. So much fun.
 

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