So here we are.

Grosvenor House, London. 11pm.

Our alarm is set for 5.30am

We are trying to consolidate our luggage and pack multiple tins of Queens Jubilee Biscuits, prayer books from Rome, housewares from Paris and piles of other things we have accumulated on our journey. We have way too much stuff but Bill has been tagged with the name The Consolidator for his fine skills in fitting way too much stuff into a way too small case and he is making this happen!

Hanging over this whole process is the feeling that we dread.

We don’t want this to end.

Here is a photo from yesterday at Paddington Station as we made our way to Windsor for the Queen’s Jubilee Pageant. It was brilliant!

Rule Britannia!

We made it to London!

Our hotel, Grosvenor House, is out of this world unbelievable for this former backpacker! We had a great journey on the Eurostar and quickly checked in, did hand washing that we had to do, ordered a room service lunch and then made it to the Tower of London with time to spare.

We will wander around until 9.30 as we then have to return to the Tower for the Ceremony of the Keys! Woot woot!

Tomorrow, Parliament is opening so we are running to the Mall to see the Queen go past in the morning! It is so good to be back – I shouldn’t have left it so long!

In the meantime, we are sending you all a big hello from London!

Today is the final presidential election for France. At the moment we are watching amazing scenes on TV. Bill can decipher about every tenth word and the election commentators are really arguing among each other… not just playing it up for the cameras!

At about 5.30 when we were starting to head back for an early night, there were police everywhere. Not just some cars, but whole conveys of trucks, vans and cars that were all full of officers. We are currently watching an OJ Simpson style chase of the cars carrying the candidates. It is mental out there! Here are the scenes right now from Place de la Bastille. Crazy!

We are tired!

Another full day today meant that by 6.30 tonight we have been laying in bed just relaxing.

Dinner tonight? Cheese puff chips from the supermarket in Venice that have been sitting in my suitcase, some fresh strawberries and other fruit from the fruit stand nearby and a chocolate chip baguette from the boulangerie down the road.

Not exactly glamorous, but our legs definitely need a good rest and.. this is supposed to be a holiday after all!

While we are having a great time, we are still missing Rome like crazy. London has some work to do to try and top Rome… we’ll see what happens!

We are in Paris!

Leaving Venice this morning was an adventure with a nearly 2 hour vaporetto trip to the airport. Definitely the most interesting airport commute I have done!

We got some lunch at the airport – best airport meal ever of pumpkin gnocchi with butter, cheese and poppy seeds. Delish!

We arrived at our accommodation safely on a wonderful train trip from the airport. We are staying out of the heart of Paris in a lovely neighbourhood near Cité Universitaire. Again, another amazing accommodation choice so with that we are three out of three! Here is the view from our window –

So sad!

Tomorrow we leave Italy for Paris. We do not want to leave! It has been so wonderful and we have seen so much! Italy just seems to suit us. We have even said buonosera to our usual six o’clock on the dot eating time and have been eating at 8.30!

We will miss Italy so much… but we’ll be back!!

We left Rome this morning (so sad – we had an amazing time in so many ways!) and caught the fast train to Venice. Getting off at St Lucia and hopping on the vaporetto meant that all my beautiful memories of Venice from 1999 came flooding back.

We are staying at Don Orione, a religious guesthouse right near Accademia. It is wonderful accommodation and the church attached to our building is just beautiful. We feel very lucky to stay here! Our room is sparse – no TV or radio. We have a small desk and we get breakfast in the morning. It is glorious!

It is so good to be back!

Mass at St Peter’s Basilica would be amazing at anytime. The three hours we spent in the presence of Pope Benedict this morning was absolutely overwhelming, beautiful and unforgettable. I am still in shock I think – the Mass was an Ordination Mass so to see the whole thing is something that will stay with us forever.

We got there so early we ended up in the 21st pew (!!!!!!) and on the aisle. I took a lot of photos that have to wait until we get home to share but Bill snapped this wonderful photo of our Holy Father in the recessional.

I still can’t believe it and have so much to process from the whole morning… but I just wanted to share the photo.

It is nearly 11.30pm here in Rome and we are too excited to sleep!

We have to be up at 6am tomorrow because…. we are off to Mass. This is not just any Mass… Il Papa is presiding!!

I organized this a while ago but it all became very real when we walked through some special bronze doors at St Peter’s that were manned by the Swiss Guard, to pick up our tickets.

I’ve checked my purse five times tonight to make sure the tickets are still there!! Here they are -

Rome has been amazing. We love it so much! It is so much more beautiful than how I remembered it. I think experiencing this with Bill and as someone older and wiser makes such a difference. We are already planning our return!

Bill has done a couple of updates… I will do my usual full catch ups when we get home!