Family Vacation 2018

June 2018 - April 2024
The annual Hancock family vacation has gone international. Read more
Currently traveling
  • 5footprints
  • 4countries
  • 2,144days
  • 16photos
  • 3videos
  • 6.0kmiles
  • 5.1kmiles
  • Day 1

    DFW International Airport

    June 13, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    Left my puppy family behind to meet up with my “real” family. I only cried a little.

    Photos courtesy of Bob Crowder. Included is a Behind the Scenes shot of my grandma trying to repack me because my suitcase was 5 lbs over the *free* limit. It worked. I was spared $100.Read more

  • Day 2

    Germany

    June 14, 2018 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Landed at 9 A.M. Germany time (2 A.M. Abbie’s-body-time). First thoughts: everything here is much greener and much quieter. Also plane food is not as bad as stand-up comics say it is.

    We drove 2 hours to Spangdahlem to meet up with our sixth vacation-squad member. Everyone was very happy and smiley and pretending like it hadn’t been almost 24 hours since we’d last slept.

    Our hotel is in a close-by town called Dudledorf (lol I know) and it’s the cutest little town. If you asked someone to imagine a town called Dudledorf, they’d imagine this. We ate dinner a cute little bistro just a short walk from the hotel. Not the most eventful day but I’m going to sleep like a baby tonight.
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  • Day 3

    Bayeux, France

    June 15, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Didn’t do much documenting today because most of my time was spent in a car traveling from Spangdahlem to Bayeux. I didn’t take many pictures on my phone, so I don’t have any to provide until I can update with the pictures from my camera.

    We left about 9 am and didn’t arrive at the hotel until around 7 pm. We went through Belgium, and I’m sure other places that I missed because I took a great nap. I did wake up in time to see the English Channel. We did make a couple stops on the way to a castle (I considered buying it but decided it was too under my budget) and a chocolatier. I ate a pomme caramel and we freaked the poor woman out with our American verbage.

    We’re staying in a hotel close to the Bayeux cathedral. We got to look inside for about one minute before we were asked to leave because we came in after closing time, but it was still nice (pictures to come). We ate dinner at a place near the cathedral. The food was alright, but I was highly disappointed in the frenchlessness of the French fries. We came back to the hotel after because although it was still light out, it was around 10 pm and everything was closed.

    Not much else to talk about from today but I had to update because the app demands that I tell you I’m in a new country. So this was a very long way of me telling you “I’m in France now”.

    Heading to Normandy tomorrow!
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  • Day 4

    Normandy

    June 16, 2018 in France ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We had breakfast at McDonald’s today. As sad as that sounds, it was interesting to see America’s version vs France’s. They really don’t like ice here. They think it’s a rip off because you get less drink, but we also have bigger cups and free refills. So I’ll let you decide which deal is better.

    We headed to Normandy which was a short drive from the hotel. We went through the Bunkers, saw the mortar holes, and went to the memorial and cemetery. I didn’t have the opportunity to learn the depth of what happened there in school, so it was harder for me to grasp the insanity of it all than for my family. It was a great experience however to be able to see where such an important part of history took place.

    Afterwards, we went to Sainte-Mère-Église (that’s French for “the church where this guy named John Steele’s parachute caught on a spire and he had to hang there for two hours playing dead so the Germans wouldn’t shoot him”) and did touristy things and ate a light snack. That snack was a waffle topped with whipped cream, chocolate, and ice cream. Their whipped cream is called chantilly and is the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Cool Whip could never.

    Now we’re eating dinner at another place on Main St. in Bayeux. I had spaghetti. It was pretty good but the diabetes waffle filled me up so I didn’t eat much. We’re going to bed early tonight because we’ll be leaving early in the morning for La Mont Ste Michele.
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