Good Bye London, Bonjour Paris

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Day 33: Saturday, June 24: London

I'm going to admit.. I didn't think I'd like London.. but so far it has been
a wonderful city to hang out in. I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact
that the last two days have been a perfect 80 deg. Today I headed down to
the Tower of London before it got to busy and walked around, toured all the
towers, saw the Crown Jewels, walked through the White Tower and just had a
nice morning out in the sun. After I caught the tube to Maritime Greenwich,
home of the Prime Meridian and where all Time is based off of.

If you ever get to London, go down to Greenwich, I thought I was going to
pop on down, straddle the Eastern and Western Hemisphere and head back into
town. First thing you see is the Cutty Sark, an old time ship docked along
the river. You then head up to the old Royal Navy College which has been
transformed to the free National Maritime Museum. I ended up spending over
an hour here, looking at all the ship models and such, they also had a
history of sea travels and how advancements of Timekeeping is what made
exploration possible. This was a great museum that I didn't even know I was
going to 😊 I then hiked up to the Royal Observatory, specifically built to
keep more accurate time. The Prime Meridian runs right through the
Observatory, and even more interesting is, time is an hour earlier here in
the summer because Britian recognizes Daylight Savings.

I jumped back on the tube (bought a handy dandy day pass for £5) and headed
up to the British Museum. This place is huge and packed with people (due to
the fact it was Saturday, and free), but I spent a couple of hours wandering
the halls and going up and down stairs (this place has more stairs than Mt.
Sinai, I'm sure of it). They have an incredible Egyptian Collection, but I
admittedly wizzed by it since I was getting tired and already spent two
hours in the Egyptian museum. They have artifacts from all over the world,
from all different time periods, definately a place you could hang out for
days in. I headed to Green park and laid in the grass for an hour, just
people watching. I've decided that since the weather is pretty crappy most
of the time in London, the girls must not have a reason to own bikinis,
because, out in the park, on a nice beautiful day, they just all take in the
sun in their bras.. Just an interesting observation, thats all.

Now, lets say you've been traveling for 5 weeks, and you haven't had a
single decent burger.. You've definately tried.. You are in London, where do
you go? Right! Down to Hyde Park Corner and the Original Hard Rock Cafe. I
took a seat on the patio and ordered the Legondary 10 Oz Burger, with 2
slices of American Cheese, 2 slices of bacon and a Onion Ring, with a side
of French Fries (not chips), plus, an ice cold bottle of Bud (you won't
believe how many people drink Bud here). It was perfect, exactly what
I was looking for. They even have this guitar vault that they take you
down to, pretty cool. (BTW, the Burger and Beer came to £14, including
Tax and Tip, thats $25 American.. ouch).. Still a better deal than
that damned Dungeon (yes, I'm still bitter)..

Day 34, Sunday, June 25: London

The trip to Stonehenge and Bath was booked full, so I decided to make
use of the day. I slept in, headed down to the photo shop and got my
photos put on CD, then found a really cheap internet place that would
allow me to upload the images. That's how you got my latest photos. I
got a haircut, grabbed some lunch and headed back to the hostel. I got
my laundry done and watched Happy Gilmore. After laundry, I decided it
was time to repack and took full use of the dorm room floor, unpacked
everything, got rid of all the unnecessary paper and packed everything
back up nice and neat. Over the past couple of days, I also got a
bunch of phone calls out of the way, it was nice to hear from home.
Took it easy the rest of the night.

Day 35, Monday, June 26: London

Markus landed in the morning, met up in the early afternoon. We headed
back over to the Eye because he hadnt done it before.. The weather was
"typical London" for once, rainy and dreary.. We checked into our
hotel and Wandered the streets of London, looking at shops and just
random English living. We headed to an Irish pub for dinner and headed
back after a long day.

Day 36, Tuesday, June 27: London to Paris

We got up early and got onto our bus for Paris. Got to the Cliffs of
Dover and took the ferry to France. A long drive to Paris, with a
quick little siteseeing tour around the city, stopping at the Eiffel
Tour for a quick photo and driving circles around the Arc de Triomphe,
we didn't see any of the accidents that happens once every 6 minutes.
Not much of an interesting day, mostly travel on the bus. We did try
Escargo, and it wasn't as bad as you think it is.

Day 37, Wednesday, June 28: Paris

First thing in the morning, we got a tour of the Palace of Versailles,
spending about 2 hours walking through the Grande Apartments and the
Hall of Mirrors. That Louis XIV needed things BIG, and he got them. A
beautiful building with acres of gardens surrounding it. We headed
back into Paris and started with the Arc de Triomphe, climbing the
stairs to the top for a view of the city. The day was perfect, in the
80s, clear sky all around. After getting back down, we wandered down
the Avenue des Champs-Elysees checking out all of their high end shops
and the widest Main Avenue in all of Europe. After the shops, we
walked through a park were I got a delicious Chocolate-Banana Crepe
and then passed by the Oblisk that Egypt gave to France in return for
the clock that doesn't work at the Mohammed Ali Mosque in Cairo. They
are also setting up for the Toure de France, with grandstands and
such.

We decided to take advantage of the late closing time of the Louvre
and pretty much walked right in. The architecture was amazing and of
course we stopped to see Di Vinci's works, including the Mona Lisa.
Saw all the Di Vinci Code sites and after two hours of paintings and
sculptures, we decided to call it a day and headed out into the city
in search of a cafe for dinner. It took us 4 different ones that
actually served dinner after 6pm and ended up with a hilarious (to us)
waiter that knew enough English to get us in trouble. The food was
good, I had a steak with shallot sauce and Markus had a hamburger with
egg. I then headed off to a French Caberet over by the Moulin Rouge.
It was a lot of fun, the performances were outstanding and all the
"intermission entertainment" was hilarious.. There was an acrobat with
issues, spanish jugglers and of course the audience dance competition.
All in all, a great day in Paris.

Day 38, Thursday, June 29: Paris

This morning we took the train into town and headed over to Notre
Damn, a beautiful cathedral that also had a choir singing, so we took
our time wandering through as we listened to them. We then decided to
do something a little different, we headed down to the Paris
Catacombs, where they moved all the bodies from the cemetaries in the
18th century and put all the bones 20 meters underground. There are
over a million bodies in there, it was very errie, but something you'd
never think of seeing. I had a bagette with ham and cheese from a
local bakery and then we hoped back on the train for the Basilique du
Sacre-Coeur at the top of the hill. The views from here were almost as
good as from the Arc. The church definately wasn't as elaborate as
Notre Dame, but had its own unique features. Tonight, I'll head to the
Eiffel Tower to go to the top at night, since I already did the Arc in
the day time.

Tomorrow, we have an early start, we are headed to wine country and
stopping of in Lyon for the night, then off to Barcelona.

Until then,
~Dave

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