Hi Everyone!
I'm back from my trip to London & Paris. It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. We spent five days in London and then took the EuroStar - sometimes called the bullet train, for good reason, it goes about 200 mph!
Part of the trip is under the English Channel and it is pitch black when going through the (affectionately called) chunnel. We spent 3 days in Paris and then headed back to London for one more day, then we flew home.
I really did NOT like the 8-9 hour flight - that was rough, really rough. If I ever do that again, I'm taking pain meds and sleeping meds. LOL!
In London we saw the Tower of London, Thames river, Westminster Abby, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, London Eye, Florence Nightengale museum, Windsor castle, and many many art galleries/shops/and the like. We rode the Underground (subway) all over London and for anyone who's been there, yes we did "mind the gap". You hear this automated "mind the gap" message about a billion times when riding the underground. It means don't step in the space between the platform and the subway car.
We did a lot of shopping. Abigail was completely enthralled with all the different shops. We had a ball! We were very close to the high end shops too, Louis Vitton, Chanel, Tiffany and the like. Of course we couldn't buy anything there, but it was fun to look. Our apartment was only a block or so from Stella McCartney's (Paul's daughter) boutique.
The ride to Paris on the EuroStar was really cool. The English and French countryside is very beautiful. Both countries have fields of crops, and with all the rain they have, it was very lush and green.
Paris was different from London, everything is very old and a little dirty. It took us a bit to get used to the difference, but when we did we loved Paris too. We saw Notre Dame, Louvre, Museum d'Orsay, Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, and many other sights. We spent one day at Disneyland Paris. We hadn't planned to do that, but Abigail wanted to and so we went. It was really delightful. It is not yet high tourist season in either London or Paris, so there were NO LINES at Disneyland!! There really weren't lines at any thing at all. And in Paris, often Abi and I were the only English speakers in a tour group. Sometimes we were embarrassed to pull out our cameras and take pictures because we were the only tourists!!! But we did take lots of pics. I'll post some in the picture thread. Abi took lots more pics than me, she's a better photographer, and I need to get her pics downloaded to my computer.