Day 1: Arrive in London, take a train, two subways, and a 1/2 mile walk to get to fancy schmancy hotel (I love cheaptickets!). Crash for 2 hours. Take a bus tour and walk around Buckingham Palace, Parliament and Big Ben. Take another two subways and make it back to the hotel in one piece. Total jet lag crash.Day 2: London Eye--super cool. Tower of London--I LOVED IT!!! We spent 4 1/2 hours walking around the castle and taking a billion pictures. Walked along the Thames and up onto Tower Bridge. So much fun!
Day 3: Quick trip to Westminster Abbey, wasted 36 pounds touring Kensington Palace (they did some weird modern art exhibit inside, it was dumb), walked through Hyde Park (lonnnnngggg walk), checked out of the fancy schmancy hotel, caught a taxi to King's Cross Station....found Platform 9 3/4's (and yes I was the only adult in line to get their picture taken but I had fun!), and then took the Eurostar train to Paris. We were instantly pegged as tourists and accosted by a kid who kept trying to get us to pay him to get us a taxi. We dodged him and had a gourmet meal at McDonald's and then found our own taxi. Got to our not so fancy schmancy hotel and hit the hay.
Day 4: Eiffel Tower! Dream come true! Went up to the second level (the line was HUGE!!) and enjoyed every minute of it. Went to the Arc de Triomphe (it's very big), hopped onto the metro and went to Sacre Couer--beautiful. It was sunset so the atmosphere was relaxed and peaceful. We took the elevator up (Sacre Couer sits on top of a hill about the height of Hill Cumorah and it's just as steep), and walked back down. Dinner on Champs de Elysees (sp) and spent $17.00 on two tiny bottles of soda--eek!
Day 5: Notre Dame, St. Chapelle (cool medieval church with stained glass windows all around), went to Pont Neuf (first bridge in Paris), spent an hour looking for a bathroom, saw the outside of the Louvre because contrary to what was in our tour guide book, the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays. Visited Jardin de Palais Royal and Jardin de Tuileries, ice cream in the park and laughing at the snotty waiter, Palace de la Concorde (and yes we actually survived crossing the street), hopped the bus to the Trocadero (a building across the river from the Eiffel Tower), got dinner at an Italian Bistro next to the hotel and went to sleep.
Day 6: Boat ride down the Seine. Visited the Louvre--Mona Lisa is just a picture, I didn't find anything remarkable about it, went to Pont Alexander (another cool bridge), went back to the Eiffel Tower and went to the tippy top. It was freezing!!!! but I loved every minute of it. Came down, ate an ice cream crepe and sat and watched the carousel. It was magical.
Day 7: Versailles. A-MAZ-ING. Huge and grandious and just absolutely stunning.
I love the view from behind Apollo's fountain looking towards the palace. It's easy to see why Marie Antoinette got her head chopped off. Everything at Versailles is bigger than life--absolutely breath-taking. Came back to the Eiffel Tower and took pictures of it all lit up and glittering.
I had a fantastic time and loved everything about London and Paris. The time flew by, I'm already thinking about where we'll go on our next vacation. What'cha think about an Alaskan cruise? Of course, this will be on our 15th or 20th anniversary but you can never plan too early right?
