The Milliquet's

Wow!  It's hard to know where to start but we are convinced that the immediate reflections on a year of travel will be a valuable memory.  As we sit on our final plane ride of the journey the setting seems to be the right time to pour out a few thoughts and jot answers to some commonly asked questions. At the start of our journey we tried to define how we felt with an appropriate analogy.  The analogy we fell on was the feeling of going off to university.  The wonder, the excitement, the unknowns.  When one leaves for college there is a belief that one will come out a better version of oneself on the other end.  What is unknown is what those differences will be and how those transformations will occur.  So many variables such as the quality of life, the different stresses, the risks, the new friends, how to keep relationships with existing friends, etc. Now that we are on our way homes we can say with confidence that we are thoroughly happy with our decision to forget the expec

We enjoyed another relaxing day with Stu and Alice, and the kids.  We walked the popular ridge walk and then through a few farm fields back into the small town of Aldbury.  In Aldbury we enjoyed a delicious lunch and saw the famous stocks before heading over to see the Pitstone windmill.  The windmill seemed to be a fitting way to tie together our time in western Europe.  Eventually we went back to Tring and spent a few more hours with everyone before heading back to London.  The following morning we would get up early and take one final flight back to Seattle.  The end of our journey.

After a nice breakfast with Anne, Dan and the boys we caught a train out to Alice and Stu's.  We spent the first few hours relaxing in their garden before heading to the Grand Union canal where Scott and Sylvia floated down the canal in the inflatable Kayak, while the rest walked along the old horse path.  We reached a pub and enjoyed some drinks in the shade before making the journey back to their house.  A fun bbq was enjoyed in the back garden followed by an evening of sharing travel photos.   A lovely time with family. Some local brews Stu had stocked in the fridge!

After many days of go go go we slept in an effort to recover a little bit.  Eventually we left the house in the early afternoon and headed into town to visit a few more sites.  Our first stop of the day was in Greenwich where we visited the home of the prime meridian.  The tour of the observatory and its grounds was very informative and we both left amazed by the ingenuity and persistence of the inventors and scientists who have made navigation and time keeping so easy for all of us.  After Greenwich we headed back into central London and walked past Shakespeare's globe theatre before heading to the Borough Market for a snack.  We had one more highlight that we had yet to visit so we made our way to Buckingham palace and looked at it over its walls.  It was early evening by now but Tori could not put the thought of going home without an essential souvenir out of her head.  We made a scramble to get to Barbour before they closed and Tori was very happy to go home with a souvenir. 

Another busy day was ahead of us as we headed into town via the tube for a visit to the Tower of London and the crown jewels.  We followed the tour for a bit before branching off and doing our own self guided tour.  As entertaining as the special tour guards are trying to take in the castle from a throng of 150 people is a tough task.  We were able to see the crown jewels and some how avoided a long wait in the queue to see them. An impressive display with a value that would have many zeroes if ever sold.  After exploring more of the large site we left the palace and took a quick photo in front of Tower Bridge (often misnamed as the London Bridge).  From here we caught the tube and met Anne for lunch at Gray's Inn.  Entering the courtyard was a wonderful respite from the craziness of the streets of London.   After lunch we wandered over to Neal's yard and then onto Covent Garden.  Our walk continued past the Canadian embassy to Trafalgar square.  After spending a few minutes