Today we went to Saint Chapelle and saw the magnificent stain glass windows, each one telling a story from the bible. The Saint Chapelle was commissioned by King Louis IX of France to house his collection of Passion Relics. We really wanted to see the Conciergerie, unfortunately it was closed. In 1391, the Conciergerie became the first prison of Paris and during the French Revolution, nearly 3,000 condemned spent their last days here. They were then transported to Concorde Square to be guillotined. Amongst them were Marie-Antoinette, the Austrian and wife of Louis XVI and Charlotte Corday, arrested to have stabbed Marat in his bath. Since the day was already going down the toilet mom decided that we should go visit the Sewer Museum. So we made our way down to the museum which was in ... read more

Today we got up early and made our way across Paris to join 10 Parisian bird enthusiasts for a morning tramping through the Bois de Boulogne. While we didn’t see many birds we did see some interesting ones including the Green Woodpecker. In a continuation of our bird themed day after lunch we went to the Natural History Museum. We didn’t actually get inside though. The Museum has in addition to a museum and a zoo, an extensive set of gardens. We walked through the gardens, coming upon another interesting bird the Gray Heron. By the time we had finished in the gardens it was getting to be dinner time and our feet were starting to hurt. We made our way back towards our apartment and found a restaurant a few blocks away and had a ... read more

Got up a bit late but walked over to Notre Dame. Spent the rest of the morning there before heading off on Rick Steve's Historic Walking tour. We went to the Latin quarter and near there we had a French lunch of savory and sweet crepes. After lunch we made our way to the main Paris attraction, Tour Eiffel! It was a bit of a walk and it took us until 6pm to make it to the base of the tower. Then (because it was a beautiful clear night, and we didn't think to get tickets earlier) we waited in line for an hour to go to the top of the Eiffel tower. If we wanted to take the 1,626 steps to the top we wouldn't of had to wait in line! There were some nice ... read more

Happy Hallowe'en!! In honor of halloween I went, with a couple of the girls who work with me at the cafe, to the Edinburhg Dungeon! It was a delightfully frightful experience. It was a guided tour, where each section had a different guide who told a tale of horror and bloodshed from the area. It was very good. Halloween is not a huge holiday over here and as a consequence we only got 8 trick or treaters (a group of 3 and a group of 5). That being said they have a very different custom over here. Instead of just ringing doorbells and yelling trick or treat (or like I have notice many kids do, just stand at the door and hold open their bags and stare at you) the children over here earn their treats. ... read more

I went on another trip today. As you might be able to guess from the title it was to England and consisted mainly of castles. Our first stop was actually an unofficial stop that was not supposed to be on the tour. We went over to Holy Island. Holy Island is a tidal island. The road over there is only uncovered when the tide is out. We got there just after the shuttle went up to the castle so I ended up walking up there. I didn't go into the castle since it cost money (and there were still 2 castles to come). I did however walk up and look out from above. I got back down to where the bus would take me back at 10:49. The bus was supposed to leave at 10:50, it ... read more