Planning makes me excited

There are two types of people in this world: people who like to fly by the seat of their pants and people who like to plan ahead.  Or as some people like to call it, my dad and my mom.

My dad is literally the most laid back person I know and my mom could not be more on the other side of the spectrum.  The fact that they were once married to each other is actually pretty bizarre.

I like to think of myself as a pretty good mix of the two of them (although I bet they each think I am more like the other).  I am honest and bold like my dad and I can relate to his sense of humor.  But, I am organized and type A-ish like my mother.

When it comes to traveling, I LOVE to plan ahead.  I am not one of those people that likes to know exactly what I am doing each minute of the day, but I do like a basic layout of where I'll be and when.  I find that planning and booking things ahead is super fun and makes me even more excited about the trip.  That said, I like to leave room for spontaneity and I am not married to any of the plans I make.

Matt and I have made some serious progress on our Europe plans, flights are booked and hotel reservations are made.  Here is what we have so far:

1) LONDON, UK

 
(Image from here)

We will be here for four nights and believe it or not we have a free place to stay!  Matt's dad works with a company in London that has a flat for people they work with to stay in when they visit.  Well, Matt's dad was nice enough to call and ask if we could use it and they said yes!  This is a HUGE blessing as London isn't exactly cheap. The flat is in the City of London right by the Tower Bridge.

We know we will be going to Leavesden Studios one afternoon, but other than that we haven't made many specific plans.  Yet.

2) DURHAM, UK

(Image from here)

We all know why we are going there :) We'll be there for two nights.

3) Helmsley, UK

I mentioned in this post that we wanted a portion of this trip to be relaxing.  For a while we thought we'd go to Lake Como in Italy or maybe the South of France but then I thought about the English Countryside, how it is my favorite landscape, and got really excited about staying there.

So I went to this website and we found the Feversham Arms Hotel and Spa.  It seems pretty great and you best believe we will be taking full advantage of the spa.  We got the dinner package so we'll be eating well too!

During the day we will be exploring North York Moors National Park and the little town of Helmsley.  Oh yeah, and resting!  We will be here for three nights.

4) Paris, FR

(image from here)

From Helmsley, we head to Paris for three nights.  We just watched Midnight in Paris the other night and it made me so excited just to walk around and eat french food.  Thanks to wikitravel we found what I think is going to be a great hotel, Hotel de l'Alma. It's just a two minute walk from the Eiffel Tower and is totally affordable!

OK so that is the plan so far. WE CAN'T WAIT! Any suggestions about what to do/where to eat in any of these places?  I got such great advice after my last post and would love some more.