Advertisement
Published: October 19th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Leaving Poitiers this morning, we had a long and fairly boring drive to Paris, stopping for lunch at Orleans of Joan of Arc fame. It's quite a pretty town but there's not much of any real interest there. We arrived in Paris early in the afternoon and our tour headed for Montparnesse tower where Nicola, Cath and Jake went up to the top for a look out over Paris (I'm terrified of heights so I stayed on terra firma).
The next day we skipped the included city tour and headed off early to Versailles - well worth the effort. Walking up the cobblestone driveway entrance, the sheer amount of gold that has been splashed around the palace is overwhelming. Apparently Louis 15th really wanted to make an impression on his visitors, having named himself the Sun King. You can't help but be impressed though. The sheer grandeur of the place is amazing. The Hall of Mirrors (where the treaty of Versailles was signed at the end of WWI) was breathtaking as were the apartments of the king, queen and princesses. We walked through the gardens to the grand trianon summer palace and Marie Antoinettes palace, complete with a village estate
where the workers grew vegetables and everything the palace needed. Marie Antoinette's place was quite simple in comparison to the main palace but still beautiful. We still didn't get to see everything at Versailles but after almost a full day there, we travelled back to Paris and waited around until 9.30pm to go on a twilight/night-time boat cruise up the Seine river.
The next morning was the final day of our bus tour and we drove to Calais to catch the ferry to Dover but we first had to get past the customs officer who absolutely grilled Nicola and I about whether we were going to stay in the UK - as if! Seeing the white cliffs of Dover was special for me as I always remember my mum singing the song .."There'll be bluebirds over, the white cliffs of Dover, tomorrow when the world is free". Mum passed away a couple of years ago so it was a nostalgic moment for me. We finally arrived in London late in the afternoon, said our goodbyes to our tour mates and made our way to our hotel in Paddington. The next morning, we wandered through Hyde Park towards Buckingham Palace
where we saw the changing of the guard. From there we went to Covent Garden to meet up with Nicola's penpal Georgina and her mum. They showed us around Covent Garden then took us down to Shakespeare's Globe theatre and on to St Paul's Cathedral where we said our goodbyes. After strolling down Fleet Street and feeling like we were on a monopoly board, we headed back to Covent Garden to check out the shops again. From there we walked all the way down Oxford Street back to our hotel in Paddington - adding up all the walking we did that day came to over 20km all up!
Nicola wanted to go to the London Zoo so we spent the next morning there then walked through Regents Park back towards town. It was lunch time and we came across a gorgeous little café called The Honest Sausage which served organic, free range and fair trade food and drinks so we grabbed some delicious bangers and mash. I wanted to show Nicola Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament so we caught the tube down to that part of town before heading back for an early night.
We met
up with Cath and Jake the next day and went to have a look at the Tower of London. We went on a Yeoman's tour guide of the Tower which was really interesting but didn't bother with going to see the crown jewels as the lines were too long (I saw them last time I was there and I really didn't think it was worth the extra cost or the wait in line to see them - just my opinion). Besides we had loads to do and see so we kept going. Our next stop was an interesting old operating theatre museum with its showcase of surgical equipment and a replica operating room in the roof of an old building. It was found when they started refurbishing the building - fascinating. Next we went on the London Bridge experience which is a sort of "haunted house" type walk through the dungeons of the bridge. It was so much fun, well worth the entry fee. The only thing left to do on our "must see" checklist was a ride on the London Eye - well it wasn't on my personal checklist (I'm terrified of heights, remember) but it was on everyone
else's. So we waited in line to get our tickets then waited in another line to actually board the wheel and so began the worst 30 minutes of my life. Yes, you read correctly, 30 minutes is the time it takes to make one full revolution. I had my eyes shut almost the entire time! The others enjoyed it though.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.186s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0639s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb