I don’t know if this is the appropriate place to post this or if those of you who helped me will even see it but I just wanted to thank you all for all of your help in planning my trip with my husband and elderly parents. Your advice was incredibly helpful and the trip went off without a hitch—except for my 84 year old father falling on the steps at Westminster Pier and we spent one of our 3 days of London in the emergency room of the hospital. He had a gash on his head that they had to stitch up and he cut up the top of his hands from the “skin slippage” of an older person but thank God he is fine and with a day of rest we were up and off to Paris. Terrifying, but he is completely ok. The hospital system was very impressive and so different from the states.
When I first started planning this trip, my parents were in great physical health but after my mothers emergency surgery that caused us to postpone the trip from June til September and then my fathers skin cancer surgery in the interim, they aren’t the same 82 and 84 year old spry corvette driving, exercising daily parents I have always known. So this trip really has special meanings and memories for me especially now.
As for all of the posts back and forth on here and the other country forums, I can’t thank you enough for convincing me to reduce the luggage to just a 21” carryon each and two under the seat pieces. With them being less able-bodied now, extra luggage would have put a huge burden on us. My mother still packed her normal amount (about 20 blouses and sweaters, 6 pairs of pants,- thank God she’s a size 6 so there is less material-LOL-4 pairs of shoes and everything that you may possibly need from 4 flashlights for the hotel room for at night when it’s dark, sewing kits with spools of thread, 4 tubes of hydrocortisone cream in case she itchy shaking happens and everything else you can imagine. But I navigated the luggage space and made it work. The carryons are super heavy but with four wheels very easy to maneuver.
We just finished Paris as well, WONDERFUL, and are now on the train to Germany and I can COMPLETELY see the wisdom in your luggage advice. The train advice was also amazingly helpful. Thank you for making my trip better and more manageable. This forum and your help has been invaluable.
By the way, I HIGHLY recommend the Hotel Eiffel Seine. Wonderful service, nice room especially for the price and the people at the front desk couldn’t have been nicer, and more helpful, even making phone calls for me for sightseeing when I was not understanding something so they could ask my question in French for me.
Thank you all!