Disney Surrpise

We have been back from our holiday in France for nearly 3 weeks now (is that possible??) and finally I am getting some of the pictures uploaded. Digital photography is great for freedom to take all the snaps you want to, but it does pose the problem of sorting and uploading when it's all done. Gone are the days when you took only a few shots for souvenirs of your travels. Instead it is a daily ritual of uploading hundreds of pictures from your memory card to your computer (of course you are traveling with your laptop) to make room for the next days onslaught. This cycle repeats through the length of your trip. No more dropping a couple roles off to be developed and picked up in a week. Anxious friends and family all over the world begin to email, send messages and tweets asking "When are the pictures going to be up?" Talk about pressure!

At last my traditional post holiday collapse seems to be winding down and I am getting some of the pictures ready to share. I will start off with our first few days of the 1st week -Disneyland Paris.

We had told Anja that we were absolutely not visiting Disneyland this trip to Paris. She thought it was going to be a full week of visiting monuments and museums in Paris. She was looking forward to the Eiffel Tower or course, but besides that it seemed like a pretty raw deal to go to Paris and not Disney when it was your birthday. On Monday morning bright and early we got in the car on the pretense that we were going to the Eiffel Tower. (DRIVE? to the Eiffel Tower? From the south end of Paris? Only an 8 year old would believe that one!) A couple dozen "are we there yet's" later we arrived at our surprise destination.



SURPRISE!!!!!!!!



She soon realized why I was so insistent that she wear the new polka dot dress that I bought for the trip. Minnie Mouse is a fashion icon!



First stop was the driving track. Be very thankful that this girl is not allowed to drive yet! My neck is still not quite recovered from riding along with her. ouch.



We were really lucky to have what we dubbed "The golden ticket" which was my pass that they gave me to board rides at the exits, thus in effect jumping all the queues. Since I am in the wheelchair and have the proper proof that I didn't just borrow it for the occasion they gave me the 'easy pass' which means that we didn't have to wait in long lines. I also got in for a reduced admission and Axel got in for free as my "attendant/caregiver". (We had this courtesy many of the places we went on our trip actually. Most places do their best to accommodate people with disabilities. ) I tell you, it sucks being mobility challenged, and I'd wait in a million queues if I had my health back, but this made it a bit more palatable.

We took Anja on Space Mountain without really giving her fair warning what it was all about. This resulted in many tears and her not believing us when we promised that Snow White wouldn't be scary. If she didn't need therapy before she will now. She decided that her idea of a good thrill ride was the teacups. Good old teacups. You can't go wrong with them.



It was a long 3 days full of crowds, the weather was not at it's best for much of it, and oh lordy was it expensive. But when you see this face smiling back at you,there is no doubt that it was worth all of it.




There are many more pictures on our flickr page. Disney is such a visual experience so looking at the whole set should tell a good story of our visit. ** 3 days in Disney left us just 2 days to do some quick sight seeing (and fabric shopping of course!) in Paris. Look for my next post within the next few days of our Parisian ramblings. For me and Axel, that is when the holiday really began!