Last Day in London

For our last day in London, we had to catch the Tube to the airport by about 4PM to ensure that we got on our flight, so this was really a partial day. However, there were a few things left for us to do in London, so we decided to head out fairly early.

We thoroughly enjoyed "Avenue Q" the night before, but were up early to sieze the day. We started our day at Harrods, which is a British Department store that would be most comparable to a Nieman Marcus. We looked a lot but didn't buy much as the exchange rate here is pretty bad, and we decided it wasnt a good investment to spend 200 pounds on a coat for lucy :). However, we did enjoy perusing the extensive, although pricey, pet collection

After Harrods we headed to Buckingham Palace. It was neat to see the area where the changing of the guard occurs every day or so, but didnt actually see the changing of the guard. We did however see the Royal "Band" perform which was neat as they marched down the street playing the Indiana Jones theme, and some other patriotic-sounding tune. We were a bit surprised that there coats were a charcoal grey, rather than the red overcoat that we expected to see.

From there we headed to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport via the Tube. We were glad that we gave ourselves a little extra time, as it took us an hour to get through security at Heathrow.

We are excited to be back in the states tomorrow.

Dave and Brian

London Day 2

We started day 3 in London by visiting the Half Price Ticket booth. We were able to score some pretty good seats to tonight's production of Avenue Q. Its kind of like the muppet show, but the puppets are somewhat crass. We're pretty excited about this and look forward to finishing our day off with a show. Its playing at the Noel Coward Theater in Leicester Square, the hub of the London Theater disctrict.

After getting our tickets for the show, we headed back to the our neck of the woods (London Bridge area) and took a walk along the Themes River. We stopped in at Shakespear's Globe Theater. Though this is not the original Globe Theater, it is a full size repleca of the original. Its a working theater and they actually put on some of Shakespeare's work. It was a pretty interesting site and we were glad we took the time to see it.

After speanding sometime in the old era, we headed to the Tate Museum of Modern Art. We were very excited to see this museum, and even more excited that it was free! We initially walked into the large central room of the museum to see a series of spiraling tubes that originate from the different floors and all end on the ground floor of the museum. We didnt realize that they were slides until we saw people zipping down them at high speeds. It was quite a site to see.

Aside from the picture of the slides, we were not permitted to take any other pictures, but thoroughly enjoyed the varied collection that included works from Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Andy Warhol. We spent a while at the museum before heading accross the millennium bridge to see St. Paul's Cathedral.

The millennium bridge was neat, it appears to be a suspension bridge that was constructed only for pedestrian traffic. We crossed the bridge quickly which put us ride outside of St. Paul's Cathedral. It gets dark at about 4PM here, so some of the pictures didnt turn out very well.

After taking some pictures of the exterior, we briefly went inside before heading back to the hotel for a break before dinner and the show tonight.

We have sporadic access from the hotel here, but hope to have another update soon.

Cheers!

Dave and Brian

London Touristy Sites

We started our day at Big Ben and the Parliament buildings, which we also took in the sights of Westminster Abby. I think we both expected Big Ben to be a little larger, but were nonetheless very impressed with the scale and detail of these buildings. Westminster Abbey was beautiful and the architecture was very impressive.

After putzing around this area, we moved on to the London Eye, which we were both very excited about. This is a large 'ferris wheel' with capsules that hold about 15-20 people. The capsules themselves are surrounded by glass to give you a 360 degree view of the bustling city. The capsules also slowly rotate to keep you evenly flat throughout the 'flight'. These go very slow as the 'flight' takes about 30 minutes to complete. We were lucky to have such a clear day and got some good photos and videos here.

Next we took the tube to the Tower of London this was a neat area as there was both the tower, as well as the tower bridge which we walked across to get to our hotel. We choose not to go into the tower, as it was pretty costly and there were loads of people. The tower bridge was interesting as it is commonly mistaken for the London Bridge.

After our adventures we stopped into the hotel for a little rest and relaxation. We headed to dinner at a neat little pub/restaurant. Brian had the homemade pie, and Dave opted for a chicken club sandwich. The pie was a great traditional UK meal, we'd highly recommend it!

That was our first full day in London. We look forward to what adventures lie ahead for tomorrow!

Cheers!

Brian and Dave

Traveling to London

As I write this we are traveling in the chunnel at over 100 miles per hour on the Eurostar. The train has been exciting aside from the difficult luggage problems that we had. But we are enjoying the ride. We’re glad we decided not to fly as that experience would have taken us much longer to complete and the Eurostar station is less than a mile from our hotel.

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We arrived in London at about 1pm GMT, and checked into our hotel after having some Fish 'n' Chips. We are are staying at the London Bridge Hotel, which is located next to the London Bridge. Its very 'fanc' and about 100 yards from a tube station which will no doubt be very convenient for us.

We headed into the city last night and visited Leicester Square. It seems to be a happening place, with all kinds of shopping, restaurants and entertainment options. There are large video screens, much like Times Square. We had a terrific dinner at a local eatery and took in the sights of a carnavil. We took in a movie, Children of Men and check out the discount ticket booth (similiar to the one in Times Square in NYC). The movie was great, and the experience was interesting as you buy a movie ticket for a reserved seat here. There was also an usher that showed us to our seat after we arrived. It was a small theater, only about 50 seats - quite different from the megaplexes in the US.

That was about the extent of our travel day. We plan to hit some of the touristy sites tomorrow.

Cheers!

Dave and Brian

Last Day in Paris

Today we spent our last day in Paris. We decided to take it down a notch today, and focus on a little shopping and resting for our voyage to London tomorrow. We ventured to the Eiffel Tower and Tracadero areas again, and enjoyed some good cuisine de Chinois (Chinese Food), which appeared to be the only thing that we were able to get during the eveining, as everything else appeared to be closed. Everything opened late and closed early, so it was somewhat difficult to find things to eat.

Unfortunately, the fireworks at the Eiffel Tower were cancelled as there were high winds, and it was deemed to dangerous to go forward. However, we were extremely tired and may not have ventured out anyways considering that we can see the tower from our room.

We are leaving Paris tomorrow via the EuroStar train through the chunnel. We will miss the 1.15€ Brie, cheap wine, bread and pasteries, but are looking forward to London as it is an English-speaking country.

Avoir!
Dave and Brian

Chateau de Versailles

Today we visited the famous Chateau de Versailles. This included a guided tour of the chateau, followed by a 'train' that we took around the grounds to see the gardens and the grand canal. The experience was magnificent as the chateau was astounding in its size, engineering and detail. The only annoying part of the day was that it was about 40 degrees, raining and that there were about 20 mph winds.

There were also beacoup de people here , as we had to wait about an hour to get in. Although it was well worth the wait!

We spent pretty much all day at the Chateau. The pictures didnt turn out very well because it was pretty wet.

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and our last day in Paris. We will be traveling by train to London on New Years Day, so we may not have another post until we get there.

Avoir!

Dave and Brian

Museum Day Two

Greetings,

Day two of our museum tour was great! We finally started seeing more crowds as we worked our way through more of the touristy sites including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. The weather has also improved a bit, as it appears to be above freezing consistently throughout the day. Although the 40mph winds at the top of the Eiffel Tower didnt help the much.

We started the day by tackling the Eiffel Tower. There were lines about 500-700 feet long, but we were able to make it through the lines in about 45 minutes. There were 2 elevators required to get to the very top. The first elevator takes you up one of the legs of the tower at a 45 degree angle. These elevators are two stories high, and hold quite a few people. They are a little strange though as they tilt ever so slightly as you go up the leg of the tower, presumably because the track you're going up is not completely straight. Once we reached 2nd level, we were in another shorter line to get to the top via one of 4 elevators that run vertically up the top section of the tower.

The views at the top were amazing. There is an indoor section where the elevator takes you, and another floor above that is outdoor and very cold and windy. We were able to get another great view of the city from all directions.

After the Eiffel Tower, we briefly stopped at the Tracadero, which is adjacent to the Eiffel Tower, and a great place to take pictures. It was here where Dave took pictures of these Germans who insisted on kissing each other as we took the pictures of them in front of the eiffel tower.

From the Tracadero, we moved along to the Louvre. We were amazed by the scale of the Louve, and the amount of people that were there. After finding the entrance for our museum pass (allowing us to avoid the line to get in), we explored the SULLY wing of the Louve which included some great Greek Sculpture and some Egyptian art. This was the main focus of our visit as we wanted to focus on a single wing. However, we also found time to see the Mona Lisa (no pictures were allowed here).

After the Louvre, we moved on to the Notre Dame. This was a site as well towering above the crowds of people below. There was a single Christmas Tree below the church, and scores of tourists taking pictures from every angle in the plaza in front of the structure. We went into the church, and much like Sacre Couer, were diverted along a loop of the church from the side entrance around the back of the altar and back toward the front. The interior was amazing including the immense height and rose windows. Unlike Sacre Coeur, we were able to take pictures here, but it was pretty dark inside and most of them are hard to see.

Our final stop of the day took us to the Pantheon, which I remembered studying in my architecure class. Its modeled after the Roman version and contains a number of famous people buried in the crypte of the church. We were unaware that there was an installation by Ernesto Neto in the Pantheon, which provided an interesting dichotomus view of interior. The installation was comprised of panyhose material filled with tiny styrofoam balls.

After the Pantheon we hit McDonalds so we could get a Value Meal with a Beer. Brian was tempted to ask if Beer was available for the Happy Meal, but we were challenged enough to try to communicate what we wanted. This was a very interesting experience, but the food is pretty much the same as in the US with the exception that you can order a Beer and Diet Coke is called "Coca-Cola Light".

After that we headed back to the hotel and grabbed dinner. We plan on going to the Chateau de Versailles tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have another update for you soon.

Avoir!

Dave and Brian