Cathy comes to London!

We were so happy that our dear friend Cathy came in town to visit us. We just loved having her and appreciate her taking the time and spending the money to come! We stayed in London most of the time but on the weekend took a trip to Dover, UK. We had a blast. We love you Cathy!

At Troubador restaurant on our first day!

Went walking through Hyde Park!

We had to get ice cream while she was here. It ended up in disappointment.

We went to the Earl's Court beer festival. Our sweet friend Alex came over from Oxford to join us. We miss you Alex!

Our day out sightseeing!

We took a boat cruise on the Thames River. This is Cathy's favorite site in London.

Dover, UK

Cathy and I did not realize the extent of the hiking we would be doing on the Dover cliffs. Notice Tony is taking the picture patiently waiting for us to crawl down this cliff. He was a good sport.

Dover, Castle

On one of our last nights we took Cathy to Brick Lane (Indian food). Cathy experienced bargaining with different people just to eat dinner. She loved it!

We miss you Cathy! Come back and see us soon.

Nice, Cannes, and Monaco!

I was in France for 12 days total, 1/2 the time with a family I nanny for and the other 1/2 Tony came and met me out there. I stayed in a beautiful Villa for the first 7 days while nannying for a 1 year old....alot of work! Once Tony met me we stayed one day in Nice, France then went to Cannes for 2 days and then did Monaco for 2 days! The beaches are beautiful but not as pretty as the US beaches. Instead of sand there were pebbles. The mountains in the back drop were incredible though. We ranked the cities in this order: Nice, Monaco, Cannes!

The villa I stayed at while nannying for one of my families in Nice, France!

My room at the villa!

The view from the villa!

The cute village called Mougins that I frequently visited on my free time.

Mougins, France!

Tony and I finally met up in Nice. We have spent so much time together since we have been here that it was a long 7 days apart for us. We were very happy to see each other.

The first day we headed for the pool and beach. We hung  more at the pool cause im so spoiled by sandy beaches that I wasnt impressed with the pebbled beach.

Had to put a shirt on towards the end of the day because yes i still have not learned my lesson with sunscreen.

Boat marina in Nice!

We walked through the "old town" part of Nice....that was my favorite!

Then we decided to go to Cannes, France! This was a very upscale place with great seafood restaurants. The only non-upscale place was our hotel!

This swanky place is the one that "Tony" found on trip advisor. It was supposedly ranked #1 on there website. We would have to disagree....GROSS!

Lets just say that we will leave the hotel planning to me next time!

We did go to an excellent seafood restaurant and split paella. We only got through 1/3 of the dish...it was huge! Yummy!

Cannes had sandy beaches! Reminded me of home!

Our next stop was the extravagant Monaco, France. I have never seen so many HUGE yachts in my life. We went up to Monte Carlo 2 nights to walk around the casino. Tony loved admiring all the Rolls Royce cars, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, ect. All the tourists including ourselves is just stand outside and admire the rich people and their cars...haha!

More yummy seafood...we must have had mussels at every restaurant we ate at in France.

This yacht doesnt do the rest justice. They were HUGE!

More pictures are on my other camera so i will post more at a later time. Hope everyone is enjoying the warm weather as much as we are here. Its quickly coming to an end :(

United Kingdom's largest wine vineyard: Denbies Wine Estate!

Tony and I always take big trips throughout europe on free weekends that we have available. We decided one slow weekend to take advantage of discovering more of the UK itself. We found a great Vineyard in Dorking, Surrey. It was about an hour train to get there. The best harvest time for them is October/November...seems like it would be too cold. We had a great time!

Check out the Vineyard: http://www.denbies.co.uk/Groups/126187/Denbies_Wine_Estate.aspx

These are the three wines we tasted while there minus a red wine.

Hand made barrels they used to use to store the wine.

The ride through the winery...it went 1 mile per hour. HA!

The map of the entire vineyard and where all the different types are produced. They had to have certain berries grown in the shade and some in the sun. Very cool to learn about how it is all made.

Strolling through the Vineyard. The grapes were very tiny this time of year (summer).

Tony is finally starting to appreciate wine over here!

You can see how tiny the grapes are!

We had a blast but want to go to the big Vineyards in Europe now!