Bush enjoys perks of traveling abroad

The president has had some downtime to relax.

LONDON (AP) — Tea at Windsor Castle with Queen Elizabeth II, bike rides in a Paris park and the lush German countryside, a stunning view from a Renaissance villa outside Rome, a rare stroll with the pope in the Vatican’s private gardens?

Not a bad life. It seems President Bush is learning to enjoy the perks of traveling abroad as the most powerful man in the world.

The usual Bush foreign trip is packed from dawn (or earlier) to dusk (or later) with meetings, roundtables, official dinners and speeches. All those things are present, too, on this week’s European farewell, the fifth of eight or more overseas jaunts he is taking this year. Iran, Iraq, climate change, trade, the Middle East — all those weighty and difficult problems have dominated his discussions with fellow leaders.

The difference on this super-glam European tour, probably Bush’s last one to the continent as president, is the pace.

He hasn’t gotten going on a couple of days until 10 or 11 in the morning. There was downtime in the afternoons, and even one day — in Rome — that ended about 4 p.m.

Evenings were busy for the typically early-to-bed president. On five of his seven nights away, he was the guest of honor at a lavish dinner.

And Bush is certainly seeming to enjoy the food.

He raved about the asparagus delicacy he was served in Germany — the thick, white kind rather than the usual green variety. In Rome, he commented happily about leaving the city “with a little extra culture — and a little fatter.”

His Vatican visit on Friday featured a few rarities — a walk through the lush grounds where Pope Benedict XVI likes to pray privately and a personal guided tour of St. John’s Tower from the pope. “Fantastic,” Bush gushed.

On Saturday while in Paris, Bush went to a high hill overlooking the city to spend time at two lovely, sun-splashed parks commemorating American and French war dead. His route took him up the Champs-Elysees, around the imposing Arc de Triomphe and through the enormous Bois de Boulogne park.

Sunday offered one sight after another.

Waking up in Paris, Bush ventured through the city’s almost-empty early-morning streets to the Parc de St. Cloud, a former French estate on a green, wooded hillside, where he rode his beloved bike for about an hour. He went to church at the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, an Episcopal-Anglican church in the gothic style near the Eiffel Tower, calling the experience a joy afterward.

He and his wife, Laura, then flew to the sweeping lawns of Windsor Castle to visit the queen at her favorite residence — a rarity for the monarch who usually greets world leaders at Buckingham Palace in London. Soldiers in black bearskin hats and red tunics heralded their arrival at the 11th century royal fortress, high above the Thames River.

The queen and her husband, Prince Philip, had tea with the Bushes before taking them through the massive and ornate St. George’s Hall.

Back in London later, Bush met privately with British troops before being greeted for dinner with smiles and warm handshakes from Brown and his wife, Sarah, at the prime minister’s residence.