Saturday, December 24, 2011

Off to the UK

We don't want to spend Christmas in this tiny apartment and my father is visiting my sister and her British in-laws in Northern England, so we're off to spend the holidays en famille, though it feels odd to leave Paris two days after arriving.

We took the Eurostar to London, which was a challenge. We'd forgotten that the security is a bit like airport security so we lost our tickets and paperwork at the x-ray machine when we took everything apart and then tried to get it back together again. We're still novice at this "traveling with baby" thing, so we'll be working on that.

Hiking near the Lake District

I selected my stroller specifically to work well under most conditions (reclines to flat for sleeping, folds easily, etc.) and I'm happy to report that it stores nicely in a vertical spot on the Virgin Trains Pendolino luggage rack that is too skinny and awkward for anything else. With all the Christmas parcels it was touch and go until we got it squeezed in between the column and the end.

Our host's village was ideal for hiking and I didn't touch the stroller for 5 days, preferring to just use our Ergo to carry Eric. However, after Christmas we headed up for Hogmanay in Edinburgh and there we did enough city walking, with enough city walking napping that I was grateful for the stroller and glad we'd made the effort to bring it.

Eric was a delight on the whole of the trip, declared by many to be a "Happy Chappy" as he dispensed smiles up and down the island. At one bar a man named Dick even gave him a pound coin (specifying that it was for Eric, not us), in Edinburgh the Rabbie Burns pub gave him a keychain which I'm using as his zipper pull on his overcoat. He had his first-ever burrito made by my friend at the delicious Illegal Jack's (yes, he's been to California and Colorado and ended up with his first southwestern meal in Scotland, go figure!).

We had a lovely visit and we can't wait to return.

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