London and Paris part 1
Well I meant to sit down and write this shortly after getting back from London, but I have been working ten hour days and a long week. So now things have started to settle down I have some free time.
London and Paris where excellent! We both had a great time and even though it is an expensive trip to take I recommend going.
Well while I was pondering how best to 'put this down on paper' so to speak, I decided I would show a picture followed by what ever I have to say about that picture.
After a long flight (8 1/4 hours) and an expensive taxi ride from the airport about £70 or $140 we arrived at our hotel in the heart of London. While checking in I opted to upgrade our room to one that had just been renovated and included air conditioning. Having been to Ireland in the summer and staid in a hotel with no air conditioning I can tell you it is worth it to get the air conditioning if just for the purpose of circulating air in the room. In case you hadn't guessed it yet the picture is a view out our hotel room window. On our first day in London we didn't do anything but check in and get some dinner and then try to sleep.
This is the roof covering the platforms at St. Pancras where the Eurostar highspeed train departed from on our way to Paris. I have no pictures of the Chunnel or from on the train its self. Your not missing anything with the Chunnel there is literally nothing to see. you are in a dark tunnel with the interior lights of the train keeping you from being in total pitch black for about 30 minutes.
After reaching Paris and getting on our Tour Bus one of the first things we saw was the Paris Opéra. It is very ornate and of architectural interest however I have no pictures that do it justice since we just passed it on a tour bus.
These are both pictures of the glass pyramid in the.. umm courtyard of the Louvre. I believe it is also the main entrance to the Louvre however this is not the way we entered and we were just passing by the Louvre on our way to the Eifel Tower at the time this picture was taken.
Here is the Obelisk of Luxor that was given to the French in 1829 by the viceroy of Egypt. It sits in a square where beheadings used to take place. I don't remember if there was anything special about the fountain but it looks nice.
From the Obelisk we dove up and past the Arc de Triomphe. One day once I have had a chance to learn some French Jessie and I will have to go back to Paris and spend some time exploring the city on foot.
Next up the Eiffel Tower. We finally get to stop and get off the tour bas to see something. It is pretty amazing really. As part of our tour we got to go up to the first level of the tower. It cost more to go up to the second level unless you want to take the stairs then it cost nothing extra to go up to the second level. We opted to stay on the first level. the next few pictures are taken from the first level.
The views from the tower are spectacular and we didn't even go to the top. There is a good story that should probably be inserted right here about our time wandering around below the Eiffel Tower.
This story actually starts with us up on the first level of the tower where our tour guide made a suggestion. The suggestion was that taking the stairs down isn't that bad it only takes about six minutes which is usually less time than you will spend waiting for the lift that takes you down. We thought this suggestion didn't sound too bad and decided we would take the stairs. Let me just say there are a lot of stairs to go down even just from the first level. Our calves were sore for the next three days. Upon reaching the bottom of the tower we had no sooner exited the tower when I was accosted by a man selling cheap Eiffel Tower trinkets. The man of foreign decent, probably middle eastern, was carrying a couple metal rings each loaded up with mini Eiffel Towers. The first words out of his mouth where "you buy key chain 1 euro" as he jingled the rings in my face. I said no and tried to continue walking. He continues with his insistent efforts to get me to buy from him. "only 1 euro" to which I say "no thanks" his reply is "ok deal, two for 1 euro." I now pause to exam the trinket key chains and decide what the heck I want to get some souvenirs from Paris anyway. I search through my pocket and come up with a two euro coin, which happened to be the smallest of my currency at the time, and give it to this pest of a street vendor. I wait as he gets the key chains of his ring and expect that after that he will give me my change of 1 euro. Nope, wrong again he gives me 4 key chains and no change. I decide not to try and argue with mister broken English and instead decide this works quite nicely as I have 4 siblings who would enjoy a souvenir from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. at this point you are probably thinking oh that was a nice little story, but wait it gets better. As we are milling around below the tower just enjoying being there and seeing everything Jessie and I start noticing more and more of these vendors. Some like the one I encountered are harassing hapless tourists and others are just letting interested people come to them. We probably had seen two or three others before we noticed that a small group of 3 of them looking panicked and are quickly heading toward the other side of the tower from where we are. As we continue to watch we see the reason for there panic; several French police on bikes are now on the seen and attempting to surround at least one of the street vendors. What happens next resembles a humorous seen from a movie. The vendor is close to cornered by the 3 bike cops when he runs and leaps over a short fence say 2 feet tall into a park next to the tower. realizing he has no place to go the vendor now stops and tries to reason with one of the bike cops, from a distance, to let him just leave. Pointing to a bus that has just pulled up as if this was just some misunderstanding and he will now be on his way. The police positions remain unchanged and they seem just as ready to bust the vendor given the chance. The vendor sensing he must act quickly bounds over the fence again and attempts to board the bus this time only to be thwarted by the bus driver who will not grant him access. Before the police have time to react the vendor has fled across the street to the corner opposite the Eiffel Tower. Just so happens Jessie and I are head this same direction to catch a tour boat across the road and down some stairs to the river. Once across the street we are able to see the full scale of the Vendor invasion force. A group of around 15 are huddled in conversation perhaps coming up with a plan of action. There are also a few who are now setting up little areas on blankets to sell there possibly illegal Eiffel Tower goods. Suspecting that the action is over and there is no reason to continue watching these allegedly illegal vendors we head down the stairs to our tour boat. As we reach the bank of the river we turn to see the end of this unusual seen perhaps plucked from a comedy. The vendors are now doing a full sprint across the bridge in single file followed moments latter by one of the bike police never to be seen by us again. It truly was a comical site and one I wish I had had a video camera to record and show to people.
Ok more pictures.
Here you kind of see Notre Dame we passed it on the tour down the River Seine. We where on the wrong side of the boat to get good un-obstructed views. :(
Here you see the inverted pyramid, the Mona Lisa, a sculpture of Nike, and what our tour guide told us is the largest Egyptian Sphinx outside of Egypt. A woman not in our tour group rolled her eyes at the comment about the Sphinx and really looked like she wanted to correct our tour guide but she didn't. We had more pictures from inside the Louvre from Jessie's camera but sadly due to technical difficulties, probably my fault, the did not make it from the camera to my laptop or portable hard drive that I brought with us. I kick myself over this since there was a nice picture of the two of us in front of the inverted pyramid that was lost in with the rest of Jessie's Louvre pictures.
Well I think this will have to do for right now because if I try to put this all into a single entry it may have been weeks before anyone could read this. More to come.
London and Paris where excellent! We both had a great time and even though it is an expensive trip to take I recommend going.
Well while I was pondering how best to 'put this down on paper' so to speak, I decided I would show a picture followed by what ever I have to say about that picture.
After a long flight (8 1/4 hours) and an expensive taxi ride from the airport about £70 or $140 we arrived at our hotel in the heart of London. While checking in I opted to upgrade our room to one that had just been renovated and included air conditioning. Having been to Ireland in the summer and staid in a hotel with no air conditioning I can tell you it is worth it to get the air conditioning if just for the purpose of circulating air in the room. In case you hadn't guessed it yet the picture is a view out our hotel room window. On our first day in London we didn't do anything but check in and get some dinner and then try to sleep.
This is the roof covering the platforms at St. Pancras where the Eurostar highspeed train departed from on our way to Paris. I have no pictures of the Chunnel or from on the train its self. Your not missing anything with the Chunnel there is literally nothing to see. you are in a dark tunnel with the interior lights of the train keeping you from being in total pitch black for about 30 minutes.
After reaching Paris and getting on our Tour Bus one of the first things we saw was the Paris Opéra. It is very ornate and of architectural interest however I have no pictures that do it justice since we just passed it on a tour bus.
These are both pictures of the glass pyramid in the.. umm courtyard of the Louvre. I believe it is also the main entrance to the Louvre however this is not the way we entered and we were just passing by the Louvre on our way to the Eifel Tower at the time this picture was taken.
Here is the Obelisk of Luxor that was given to the French in 1829 by the viceroy of Egypt. It sits in a square where beheadings used to take place. I don't remember if there was anything special about the fountain but it looks nice.
From the Obelisk we dove up and past the Arc de Triomphe. One day once I have had a chance to learn some French Jessie and I will have to go back to Paris and spend some time exploring the city on foot.
Next up the Eiffel Tower. We finally get to stop and get off the tour bas to see something. It is pretty amazing really. As part of our tour we got to go up to the first level of the tower. It cost more to go up to the second level unless you want to take the stairs then it cost nothing extra to go up to the second level. We opted to stay on the first level. the next few pictures are taken from the first level.
The views from the tower are spectacular and we didn't even go to the top. There is a good story that should probably be inserted right here about our time wandering around below the Eiffel Tower.
This story actually starts with us up on the first level of the tower where our tour guide made a suggestion. The suggestion was that taking the stairs down isn't that bad it only takes about six minutes which is usually less time than you will spend waiting for the lift that takes you down. We thought this suggestion didn't sound too bad and decided we would take the stairs. Let me just say there are a lot of stairs to go down even just from the first level. Our calves were sore for the next three days. Upon reaching the bottom of the tower we had no sooner exited the tower when I was accosted by a man selling cheap Eiffel Tower trinkets. The man of foreign decent, probably middle eastern, was carrying a couple metal rings each loaded up with mini Eiffel Towers. The first words out of his mouth where "you buy key chain 1 euro" as he jingled the rings in my face. I said no and tried to continue walking. He continues with his insistent efforts to get me to buy from him. "only 1 euro" to which I say "no thanks" his reply is "ok deal, two for 1 euro." I now pause to exam the trinket key chains and decide what the heck I want to get some souvenirs from Paris anyway. I search through my pocket and come up with a two euro coin, which happened to be the smallest of my currency at the time, and give it to this pest of a street vendor. I wait as he gets the key chains of his ring and expect that after that he will give me my change of 1 euro. Nope, wrong again he gives me 4 key chains and no change. I decide not to try and argue with mister broken English and instead decide this works quite nicely as I have 4 siblings who would enjoy a souvenir from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. at this point you are probably thinking oh that was a nice little story, but wait it gets better. As we are milling around below the tower just enjoying being there and seeing everything Jessie and I start noticing more and more of these vendors. Some like the one I encountered are harassing hapless tourists and others are just letting interested people come to them. We probably had seen two or three others before we noticed that a small group of 3 of them looking panicked and are quickly heading toward the other side of the tower from where we are. As we continue to watch we see the reason for there panic; several French police on bikes are now on the seen and attempting to surround at least one of the street vendors. What happens next resembles a humorous seen from a movie. The vendor is close to cornered by the 3 bike cops when he runs and leaps over a short fence say 2 feet tall into a park next to the tower. realizing he has no place to go the vendor now stops and tries to reason with one of the bike cops, from a distance, to let him just leave. Pointing to a bus that has just pulled up as if this was just some misunderstanding and he will now be on his way. The police positions remain unchanged and they seem just as ready to bust the vendor given the chance. The vendor sensing he must act quickly bounds over the fence again and attempts to board the bus this time only to be thwarted by the bus driver who will not grant him access. Before the police have time to react the vendor has fled across the street to the corner opposite the Eiffel Tower. Just so happens Jessie and I are head this same direction to catch a tour boat across the road and down some stairs to the river. Once across the street we are able to see the full scale of the Vendor invasion force. A group of around 15 are huddled in conversation perhaps coming up with a plan of action. There are also a few who are now setting up little areas on blankets to sell there possibly illegal Eiffel Tower goods. Suspecting that the action is over and there is no reason to continue watching these allegedly illegal vendors we head down the stairs to our tour boat. As we reach the bank of the river we turn to see the end of this unusual seen perhaps plucked from a comedy. The vendors are now doing a full sprint across the bridge in single file followed moments latter by one of the bike police never to be seen by us again. It truly was a comical site and one I wish I had had a video camera to record and show to people.
Ok more pictures.
Here you kind of see Notre Dame we passed it on the tour down the River Seine. We where on the wrong side of the boat to get good un-obstructed views. :(
Here you see the inverted pyramid, the Mona Lisa, a sculpture of Nike, and what our tour guide told us is the largest Egyptian Sphinx outside of Egypt. A woman not in our tour group rolled her eyes at the comment about the Sphinx and really looked like she wanted to correct our tour guide but she didn't. We had more pictures from inside the Louvre from Jessie's camera but sadly due to technical difficulties, probably my fault, the did not make it from the camera to my laptop or portable hard drive that I brought with us. I kick myself over this since there was a nice picture of the two of us in front of the inverted pyramid that was lost in with the rest of Jessie's Louvre pictures.
Well I think this will have to do for right now because if I try to put this all into a single entry it may have been weeks before anyone could read this. More to come.