Europe Adventure: Day Sixteen, Part Three- Les Hautes Sources

After leaving the Cemetery it was time to head to our bed and breakfast for the night. 

We wanted to be close to Giverny and I found this place online that had great reviews and looked beautiful. It is called Les Hautes Sources. If I ever make it back I will stay there again. I loved it. 

We were already behind schedule and so we were trying to get there as quickly as possible. 

We thought we would try to stop for dinner along the way but there wasn't anything. 

We soon got into the little town of Menilles (Mini) and weren't that impressed. 

The GPS took us to the wrong spot so I put the address into my phone and backtracked a bit and went up a very large hill. 

I still couldn't find the place so I called the owner. 

He told me he would come out into the street so we would see him. 

As we drove back down the hill we saw him waving. 

We pulled in through the gate and were immediately smitten . Both by the place and by Amaury, the owner. He was very charming and so friendly. 

The family lives in one building and then the other buildings are used as the bed and breakfast. 

This place was gorgeous. 

He showed us to our room. 

It was in this building, the balcony was ours. 

The stairway to our room...

Our room: 

It was very beautiful and cozy and felt very French. 

We had an awesome view. 

The bathroom: 

Amaury told us that there would be no where open for dinner close by. 

We went into the little kitchen where you can buy snacks on the honor code and got some chips and drinks and then went to our room and had those with some more Zone bars. 

We read for a while, cleaned sand off of us and out of our coats and purses, and just enjoyed the relaxing, comfortable environment. 

We slept great and woke up to the birds singing. The only sound we could hear!

Europe Adventure: Day Twelve, Part Three- Wandering around London

After settling into our hotel we left to do some exploring. 

Our hotel was pretty close to Notting Hill so we followed the navigation on my phone to walk over to that area. 

The houses were beautiful and colorful!

 

Finally we made it to the area we were most excited to explore.

We made a stop at the Biscuiteers shop. 

This store seriously has the cutest storefront. 

It was just as cute inside. They had just about every shape of cookie you could want. 

They are very pricey. But you kind of have to get one!

Picking out some biscuits!

Our next stop was The Notting Hill Bookshop!

I couldn't get a great photo of the store front because there were about thirty drunk people standing right in front of it (and sitting on the ground right there) but I got as good of a photo as I could. 

If you have seen the movie Notting Hill, you will remember this bookshop as the one that Hugh Grant works in. It was so cool to go there!

After that we walked along Portobello Road where they were just starting to clean up the Portobello Market.

We went in a few more little shops and bookstores as we walked along. 

At this point it was still just early evening so we hailed a cab (I wasn't sure which tube stops went where yet even with all of my research..) and went to Harrods. 

This place was so HUGE and so fancy. 

We walked around most of the departments. I am not a high end shopper so it was really interesting to see all of the expensive brands of clothes, perfume, and jewelry. 

We found the memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed. 

We walked around the huge food court that has pretty much anything you could want to eat. 

We decided we would get our dinner here to go and take it back to our hotel. 

My favorite place was the children's section. 

They had so many cute things. 

I put our hotel into my phone and it wasn't far (so we thought) and we decided to walk. 

We followed my phone and it took us all over the place. We definitely saw a lot of the non touristy part of the city as it took us through neighborhoods. It was a  cool walk but then soon we got to the destination. 

It looked EXACTLY like it should. A bunch of tall white buildings surrounding a small green park. 

But it wasn't it. 

We were so confused. 

We tried to put it in my phone again and realized we were in the wrong place and had a few miles between where we were and where we were supposed to be. 

We walked some more. 

We even walked right past a church.

We were getting so lost. Pretty soon we were on a busy road again and were very close to Kensington Gardens. We could see the Prince Albert Memorial (don't know why I did

We went into a store and asked a girl for directions. She wasn't sure but she was really nice and looked it up on Google maps and printed it out for us. 

But the printer ran out of ink and so we couldn't read the map. 

Ahhh.

So we walked some more and started to walk through the park but then it started to get pretty dark and we were a little nervous about getting lost in the park when it was dark so we decided to try to catch a taxi. 

But we couldn't find a place where they were pulling over. 

Finally I saw a taxi at a red light so I ran over to him and asked if he could pick us up. He pointed to a place for us to stand and said he would come back around for us. 

He was really nice. 

He didn't know where the hotel was but I told him what happened with the navigation. 

He told us that there was a 1-8 Kensington Gardens Square and a 1-8 Kensington Square Gardens. 

Our hotel was Kensington Gardens Square and apparently I had put the other one into my phone. 

Crazy that they had such similar addresses and looked the same!

But we safely got back to our hotel and I swore I would not leave the hotel the next day until I knew exactly which tube stations to use!

We settled back into our room and pulled out our food from Harrods. I was hoping it would still be good after our long walk and it was. 

We both had a roasted chicken and avocado sub. My mom had soda. I had water. 

It was really good. 

Then we had some hedgehog biscuits my mom bought at Biscuiteers. 

Souvenirs for the day: 

I bought the Queen and hedgehog biscuits and the little royal chocolates from Biscuiteers to take home to my family. I worried they would be stale and hard by the time I got home to share them with them but they weren't. Even the gingerbread was still soft and tasted great two weeks later. 

I bought the little bear Christmas ornament at Harrod's.

And from the Doctor Who Experience I got a Tardis key chain to use as a Christmas ornament. 

Today felt like such a big day and the stressful situations added to that. 

We were exhausted. But we were so happy. 

It was so cool to be in London and we were looking forward to our next couple of days seeing more of the city!

Up next: Tower of London!

Europe Adventure: Day Eight, Part Three- Little Campden House

When planning the trip I knew that we wanted to stay somewhere in the Cotswolds for a few days. 

We would be driving around to a lot of places but we wanted somewhere we could call "home" for a while. 

I had my heart set on a thatched cottage but as we went through a ton of different cottages we kept going back to this one. 

It was in a village that I loved the name of- Chipping Campden.

And here we would have our own bedrooms as well as the fact that while it had amazing reviews it was one of the cheaper options. 

We finally decided to go with Little Campden House.

When we left Chatsworth we drove south to Chipping Campden and found our little home. 

It has a private parking spot in the back/side. I was really worried before arrival because I was told it was a small space surrounded by rock walls and I might want to get passengers out before pulling in. 

I imagined me running into the sides with the rental car. 

But when we got there I was actually so pleasantly surprised. 

Compared to a lot of the places that I had parked up to this point, this was positively roomy. 

 

After parking and getting all of our bags out, we walked around the wall and to the front door. 

We were given a code to a key box so we were able to get in right away. 

I loved the look of it.

When you go in, there is a little foyer and the stairs leading up to the bedrooms. 

There is also a small half bath to the right of the foyer. 

The kitchen was pretty big and very bright. 

The kitchen opens up to the walled in courtyard with tables and a shed. 

It didn't end up being the best weather to spend a lot of time out there when we had time.. but it was still fun to look at!

It also had a large family room area. 

They had a selection of movies and games too. 

Upstairs we each had our own bedroom and bathroom. 

This was my mom's bathroom...

This was her bedroom...

My bathroom...

My bedroom...

Going back down the stairs...

As soon as we were settled in we made some sandwiches for dinner and watched part of one of the movies they had in the cottage- Nights in Rodanthe.

We felt so at home and relaxed. It was great. 

Next up: Oxford!