Turning 50: How it Started... My husband is only 6 months older than I, and we have been married just about 24 years now - together about 27, but have known each other even longer. THAT is a story for another post. This is how we celebrated our 50th Birthdays. Back story: I was an art major, if you can imagine. As part of that, there were 4 semesters of Art History that were required for the degree. The basic art histories 101 and 102 were mandatory, and the other 2 were electives, but your choice. I chose Oceanic Art and Renaissance Art. All of these classes inspired a deep desire to see some of this in person. We all know that photos just do not do true justice to real beauty. During all this college time, our school offered study abroad opportunities. I had a job, so it just wasn't possible for me to do any of that for the 3 months. One summer, they offered a quick trip around Europe over 15-18 days that would end right at the commencement of the summer sessions. It took you to England, France, Italy, and an added excursion to Greece. Pretty much all of the places where there were buildings and art that we studied in the Art History classes. I was excited! I had been saving up my money to do something fun for myself and this was it! Unfortunately, someone decided to run an extra-large stop sign and t-boned me; totalling my car. I was also injured in the accident, which required a lot of physical therapy. I still deal with back issues to this day. In the end, I had to choose whether to go to Europe or buy a new car - and I chose the car. Idk if that was the right choice or not, but it allowed me to still have a job and get to classes on my own. My dream would have to wait. Life took over. Real official grown-up, full-time jobs with apartments and groceries to pay for kind of took over. Not to say that we didn't go on vacations, but they were more like weekend trips to Florida (4 hour drive). I had met my husband around this time, but was dating someone else; so was he.
Some years passed before he and I ended up dating and then married. A lot of trips happened between then and now as well - including a 3 week long trip to Hawaii for our 40th birthday celebrations - but mostly still the trips to the Gulf Coast or surrounding area.
When my husband and I started thinking about our 20th Wedding Anniversary, we decided London and Paris would be the ticket! He had taken me to Rome in 2008, so Paris was the next bucket list city.
Well OF COURSE we did NOT go to Europe for our 20th!
Covid had everything open then closed, then open again, then closed again. We were NOT going to risk going to Europe and either getting stuck there for who knew how long, or going and having to spend the entire vacation in a hotel room. No! Not gonna happen. We opted for a more family-friendly trip to Orlando and decided to postpone Europe to our 50th, which was only a couple of years later.
You have to understand something about my husband - he is NUTS when it comes to trip planning. He has spread sheets and binders and schedules down to the minute. He does not know what a real vacation looks like. Those beach trips... I was asked, "What do you want to do?" To which I replied, "Go to the beach?" with a wtf look on my face. He argues we can rest at home (which no, we cannot). Does this take the fun out of everything? Sometimes. It usually ends up working out ok in the end, but I digress.
He started planning this a year and a half out - pretty much as soon as we got back from Orlando. I put in my 2 cents that I did not want to go to London anymore because everyone I know who is either from England or has visited already all say to get the f**k out of London if you want to really see England. We had gotten hooked on "Outlander" so I wanted to tour Scotland instead. Hubs was amendable to that and adjusted the planning. It was the cheapest to fly into Gatwick Airport, so he made another adjustment to stay in London anyway. He found an Air BnB for 5 days (that I would NOT recommend because there was a water leak under the sink that created a moldy hellscape within a day or 2). Another story for another time... We did take a day trip to Bath, so that was the only non-London thing we saw. The other day trip was to Warner Brothers Studio, so I don't think that counts - LOL.
After that, we would take the rail to Paris, where we also had an Air BnB (but no moldy kitchen), right there by plenty of restaurants, shops and even the subway. A view of Notre Dame greeted us as we left every morning. It was so unbelievable that I literally cried as soon as I popped out of the tube and saw Notre Dame... She was still very much under fire restoration, but she was still a stunning sight to see! And I'm not even religious! The overwhelm never left... We passed by several times that week, and I was just - idk - moved? every single time. I know I smiled or giggled every time I looked at her. We did take a day trip to Versailles. After that week, we would hop the rails again to head back north to Scotland. We had an Air BnB for 2 nights in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, it was also the weekend that a certain mega super star was in town for 2 concerts. Night 3 would have been triple the price, so we opted to start our driving tour early. It meant we had to backtrack from Stirling to see Bamberg Castle (also a "Last Kingdom" fan), but I didn't care. We traveled the typical route, sleeping at mostly hostels and a hotel or two. We ended up skipping some of the more northern Highlands due to weather that impacted travel time and visibility. We would be gone for just about 3 weeks. It was one of the most amazing trips I have ever been on. Rome, NYC, and Hawaii being up there too, but nothing like my "motherland" of Paris... (My great-grandfather was actually born in Marseille and was brought to the US as a child. We still have family there, though. We could not squeeze in a trip down there.) NEXT TIME!
Next post will get into the details of the trip. I took a TON of photographs too.
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