tourist updates

Hey all, I've got quite a few days of recap for you.

Let's see..

We've done the London Eye, which has probably been my favourite part so far. It's the most amazing view. And it just baffles my mind how it's still fairly new. It was built in 2000 as a present to London! I forget from who. Maybe from London. You never know. Anyways, that's where I've taken some beautiful photos (if I do say so myself) and didn't once stop to lament scarily over the fact that I was so high up.


Oh, before that, we took a few moments for our first glances of the Parliament and Big Ben. So detailed.

Then we hit a bus tour, which spanned Thursday and Friday. We saw all of the famous parts of the city, and it's beautiful. It's hop on, hop off, so we got off at a few places.. first stop was St. Pauls Cathedral. There, we paid to walk around inside and ponder over the statued caskets and higher than high ceiling. Then we climbed the ridiculous stairs up to the second level to the Whispering Wall, where we couldn't hear the whispers because the organ was too loud. Figures.



From there, we got back on the bus and toured around until (the real) Picadilly Circus, where we stopped to use the washroom and find mom a sweater. In fact, whilst buying the sweater, she left her credit card, which we didn't discover until a day later. (The Gap kept it: good luck!)

Then we got back on the bus which showed us where the Princes live, where the bowler hat was invented, The Tower, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and back to Westminster. There we checked out the pretty Parliament and Big Ben at night, and I got a couple great shots there too.


On Friday, we went to the London Bridge and walked from there to the Tower Bridge. Then we went to the Tower, walked around, saw the Crown Jewels. Then we had a nice lunch and got on the boat cruise down the Thames, to get off at Westminster. From there, we went over to Trafalgar Square via the bus tour to book tickets for Paris and Stonehenge tours. Then it was back to Westminster for the Abbey's Evensong.

Saturday was Paris. We had to get up at 3:45 to be at St. Pancras station by 5:30. Mom left her camera in the cab, and they returned it that night (more good luck!) Then the Eurostar was stuck in Kent for an hour because another train got stuck in the chunnel. By the time we got to Paris, it was noon and we had to be back to leave by 5:30. So we hopped on a bus which took us to the Eiffel Tower. You know, all my life I thought it was black? No, it's brown. Or at least really rusty. Actually, all of Paris is dirty and stinky, and I had never heard that before (apparently everyone knew but me, instead I had this Lady and the Tramp view in my head). Anyways, we ate real french nutella crepes (tasted just like Cafe Crepe in Toronto) and got on a boat cruise of the Seine. So many bridges!! And all the buildings look the same, and the same colour. It's kind of strange. Anyways... then we got back, checked out the Tower again, and somehow found our way over to Notre Dame, where we had lunch at Cafe Panis right across the street, looking out the window at the cathedral. It was pretty. There was a french couple sitting next to each other that were so into each other. The waiter didn't seem to like us tourists and made us wait for everything. I had french fries in france and they tasted just like Toronto fries too. Whatever. We got back to Gare du Nord (station) and were delayed on the train again. Also, France is REALLY COLD.


Lets see... then today my mom let me sleep in and relax for the day, which I was very grateful for. Then we grabbed some really tasty Thai food in the neighborhood and saw Bride Wars. haha.

I know this is kind of a flavourless update, but I'm getting tired.

Also, as of the last entry, it's not the posture that makes everyone cooler.