Paris: Day 1

We arrived in Paris in the early afternoon. It was odd to leave England. By the end of my time there I'd really started to feel at home (for the first time in my life) in a foreign country. Arriving in another foreign country, especially one that speaks a different language and was so different from the UK, was a little shocking. I had gotten comfortable with living in Europe but I hadn't had to deal with the "different language" part of it. This was all accelerated by the fact that a couple hours previous I'd been in, what had come to feel like, my home and now I was in a totally different culture. I guess Europeans deal with this all the time. A three hour train ride can drop you in another country with a different language, history and culture but a similar trip doesn't get you very far in the states.

After some confusion in getting our metro tickets, we finally made our way to the hotel. The Paris metro is pretty easy to navigate and (for someone as tall as myself) much more comfortable than the London Underground. After a quick breather at the hotel, we started walking to the the Pantheon.

It wasn't too far away and we made our way in without any waiting in line. While there, we bought a Paris Pass. This card gets you into most attractions and allows you to skip the lines and go straight in. Below are a few pictures of the Pantheon. It was a very impressive building. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it. Usually large, ornate churches or temples are centuries old but this was fairly new. I don't think it makes it any less impressive, in fact, it left me wondering why more countries or cities no longer build public works like the Pantheon.





After looking around the Pantheon and the crypts below, we were able to get tickets to the last tour up to the top of the building. They limit the number of people that can go, so we were happy to get on the list. It offered some beautiful views of Paris that you can see below.




After making our way back down, we walked through the nearby Jardin du Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Gardens. It was really beautiful and seemed quintessentially French. There were people lounging and enjoying the sun, performers playing music and people picnicking.



After getting back to the hotel we met up with one of Jamie's friends who had been living in Paris for the past three years. It was nice to have someone who knew their way around to join us on our first night in Paris. She gave us a lot of tips that would prove very useful.

Last Few Days in London

I'm writing this about a month after the fact...

My time in London was quickly coming to an end. I was sad to finish my last couple days of my internship. I had met a lot of really great people and had some really great experiences, but I was really looking forward to seeing my wife, Jamie. My last day at the Embassy was on a Friday, I was preparing to meet Jamie at Victoria Station to begin a whirlwind tour of London and York. Unfortunately she was delayed in leaving the States due to bad weather, so she didn't arrive until a day later than planned. I was really disappointed, particularly because I wanted to visit York; but we just wouldn't have enough time to do everything we had planned.

One good note, however, was that I had already done most of the major sights in London so showing Jamie around was a lot easier than if we didn't know the area, particularly because a lot of the tube lines were down for repairs. We planned to do the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, a Thames River cruise, the Tower of London/London Bridge, the British Museum, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, and Chinatown...all in three days. Since I've already written about most of these sights, I'll just post a few more pictures and a shorter description covering our few days in London.

After meeting Jamie at the train station we went back to my flat, dropped off her stuff and hopped on the bus to get to the Tower of London (the tube was down for the weekend). We also had to stop and buy some toiletries since the airline lost her luggage. Jamie enjoyed the Tower as much as I had. We managed to do a Beefeater's tour and see the crown jewels and a few of the major parts of the Tower. After the Tower we went to Harrod's, which I had yet to visit during my time in London. Harrod's was really neat to see, but everything was ridiculously expensive. After that we went back towards the Tower Bridge area where we had dinner on the south side of the river. We went to an Argentinian steakhouse called Gaucho. It was really good, perhaps a little pricey but you'll agree that you get a great view! The below picture is the view from the front of the restaurant. From left to right you can see the Gherkin, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge and the City Hall.



The next day we made our way to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, then walked to Westminster Abbey. The below picture is a cool view of the Horse Guards Parade (on the left) and the London Eye from St. James Park on the walk to Westminster Abbey.




We grabbed lunch and a beer/cider on the way to the Abbey (below) before doing an audio tour. We then made our way to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Jamie had picked out a couple paintings that she wanted to see so we didn't go through much of the museum. Afterward, we made our way to Covent Garden before meeting friends for dinner in Chinatown.




Our final day in London started with a boat ride from Westminster Pier, across the street from Parliament, to the St. Katherine's Pier next to Tower Bridge. The below two pictures are from the boat trip. From there we made our way to the British Museum. It was my second time there but it could have been the 100th, I still couldn't get enough of it. Jamie really enjoyed it too, although I think the crowds took away from the experience.




Finally, we made our way to Harrod's for Afternoon Tea. We both knew it was really cheesy, and overpriced, but it was still fun to do. I'm glad we did it because we had a really good time. Of course, Jamie enjoyed it a lot. The below picture is of our table with champagne, scones, sandwiches, desserts and tea. You can have as much as you want (except for the champagne) so we ate as much as we could. Our final meal in London was the fish and chips place near my flat, seemed to be a fitting end to our last day in London.




The next day we got a full English breakfast from a nearby cafe before heading to St. Pancras Station where we got on the Eurostar (which was surprisingly fast and comfortable) to Paris. I was sad to leave London, but was looking forward to Paris and eventually getting home for a little rest before starting back at school.