Labor Day Weekend comes early to Europe

Labor Day is celebrated in Belgium on May 1st. And unlike the three-day weekend we get in the US, Belgians get four days! So, for our first extended "holiday" weekend in Europe, we decided to journey to London, England to celebrate the Labor Day Holiday...

To travel from the European "mainland" to the UK, you basically have three choices: By air, by sea or under the English Channel. My English mates at work suggested taking the ferry boat to the UK, so that we could see the Dover cliffs upon arrival, and return via the Eurotunnel, or channel tunnel. (No one here calls it the "Chunnel", as many Americans seem to know it by...)

Thursday morning (Day 1) is damp and rainy during our drive from Brussels to Calais, France, but the channel Gods must have been smiling down on us, because the weather cleared up just in time for our channel crossing. For about $150.00, the four of us and our Toyota Corolla Verso sailed from France to England in about an hour and a half. The ferry boat is large and modern with on board restaurants, arcades, lounges and viewing areas.

We brought a picnic lunch and found a nice table by the window to eat at. The girls were sooo excited with this new experience! As we neared England, we ventured outside to the ship's upper deck to get a better view of the white cliffs of Dover. The winds were very strong and we had to hold tight to the girls so they wouldn't fly away!

After arriving in Dover and heading out on the highway, we made the two hour road trip to our hotel, the Windsor Marriott. In the UK, we found it nice to be able to read all of the signs again. Speeds were again posted in MPH and distances were in miles and feet, instead of kilometers and meters. However, since they do drive on the opposite side of the road, there were a couple of occasions where I had to think twice about which lane to turn into...

On Day 2, we headed out to visit Legoland, in Windsor. Although the park is similar to the Legoland in Carlsbad, CA, there are many different rides and attractions that make this park unique. And unlike the park in Carlsbad, Legoland Windsor seems to have a lot more rides that PS can get on. In fact, she just barely passed the 0.9 meter height restriction (hey, what happened to inches?) In addition, there were several more food options at Legoland Windsor and the food there was very good.



Legoland was a full day for us and we were beat by the end of the day (at least Daddy was!). We spent a quiet night back at the hotel, preparing for Day 3.

We began the next day with a drive to nearby Slough station, where we jumped on the train to London Paddington station. (TRIVIA: this is where a young English writer first saw a toy bear that inspired him to write a series of children's stories about an abandoned bear named Paddington!).

Just outside of the station, we caught one of the famous London Double Decker Buses, that took us on a tour of the entire city. Of course, we had to sit on the open-air top level and we saw everything from Big Ben and Tower Bridge, to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London and MI-6 (James Bond's HQ).

After a lovely (that's an English term!) dinner in London, we retired to the hotel to prepare for Day 4 - a drive to Stonehenge.

Less than two hours outside of London (and through some of the most beautiful English country roads) lies this prehistoric monument that is still a mystery to most archaeological experts. Mainly because no one really knows what it is, except that its really really old (over 6,000 years, by some estimates).

After our Stonehenge excursion, we got very hungry and drove to the nearby town of Salisbury. We found a charming English pub called The Kings Arms serving "roast Sunday dinner", which consisted of stuffing, roasted potatoes, vegetables and Yorkshire Pudding. The only choices available were the type of meat (lamb, pork or chicken) and drink. The staff was very friendly and we had a nice time enjoying this traditional Sunday favorite.

Day 5 found us going back at Legoland! There were some rides that we had missed on the first day, so we went back to have another go at them. But first, we drove through the quaint town of Windsor and saw the magnificent Windsor Castle, the Queen's "other" residence. Actually, I think that this one is a nicer place and she should consider making this one her full time residence!



Anyways, I made sure that everyone knew we HAD to leave Legoland by 4:30P to catch our train back to France. So, naturally we didn't get on the road until 5:15! But, the nice thing about England is that you can drive so much faster than in the US. Our navigation system said that the 100 mile distance to Folkestone was just a little over an hour's drive away (you do the math!) Anyways, we almost made it on time...

We reserved the Eurotunnel back to Europe, and although we missed our reserved train, there was another one 20 minutes later. The Eurotunnel was a great choice for the way back, because you just drive onto the train, park your car and relax inside until the train arrives in Calais, France. All this for about 100 bucks!!!

We returned home to Brussels about midnight and carried the sleepyheads from the car to their bedrooms. They were both fast asleep and hopefully were dreaming of the wonderful weekend we all spent in England...