Hello all. We're in London (hungover) at the moment. We're staying at Jane Sharpe's place so have free internet access, yay! Jane's just gone to the supermarket and we're going to have an English breakfast. We've got three days in London, this is the third. The first day we were perfect tourists. We got in on the train at 9am, went and bought our theatre tickets from Leichester Square, then walked down to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, which I have to say was incredibly long and drawn out, and a bit overstated really.
We then wandered down to Westminster Abbey, which is very impressive from the exterior. We didn't go inside as they were charging £10, and that's a lot of NZ$ :(. We did however go across the road to parliament where we could get in for free (after two full body searches), and sat in on the house of commons for a while (it was good to sit down). Parliament buildings (think Big Ben) are pretty impressive inside and out. 
Then we went over to the Tate Modern for a quick visit before Going back to the West End to meet Jane and Mike for dinner before our show. We went to see We Will Rock You, which is a random futuristic story about the search for music/rock and roll using Queen's songs. It was pretty good. Yesterday we got up a bit late and headed off through the torrential rain to a fancy design centre. Heaps of the tube lines closed due to flooding and in some stations there was just water pouring in through the obviously not very water-tight roof. The closed stations only affected us a little (and made everything a little busier). We also went to the shopping mecca of Harrods, which was just amazing (from a design point of view too). Couldn't really afford much despite there being a massive sale and 50% off a lot of things (the stuff in my price range wasn't nice). Braedon loved the food areas. There was a guys making pizza bases: throwing them in the air and singing Italian opera at the same time... We then went up to the British Museum, but didn't really see much apart from the architecture. It's really huge and we only had about half an hour. We looked through the shops as they really show you all the important stuff from the museum... :) After we went down to a bar and met up with friend for drinks, which was cool, hence the hangovers...
We then wandered down to Westminster Abbey, which is very impressive from the exterior. We didn't go inside as they were charging £10, and that's a lot of NZ$ :(. We did however go across the road to parliament where we could get in for free (after two full body searches), and sat in on the house of commons for a while (it was good to sit down). Parliament buildings (think Big Ben) are pretty impressive inside and out. Then we went over to the Tate Modern for a quick visit before Going back to the West End to meet Jane and Mike for dinner before our show. We went to see We Will Rock You, which is a random futuristic story about the search for music/rock and roll using Queen's songs. It was pretty good. Yesterday we got up a bit late and headed off through the torrential rain to a fancy design centre. Heaps of the tube lines closed due to flooding and in some stations there was just water pouring in through the obviously not very water-tight roof. The closed stations only affected us a little (and made everything a little busier). We also went to the shopping mecca of Harrods, which was just amazing (from a design point of view too). Couldn't really afford much despite there being a massive sale and 50% off a lot of things (the stuff in my price range wasn't nice). Braedon loved the food areas. There was a guys making pizza bases: throwing them in the air and singing Italian opera at the same time... We then went up to the British Museum, but didn't really see much apart from the architecture. It's really huge and we only had about half an hour. We looked through the shops as they really show you all the important stuff from the museum... :) After we went down to a bar and met up with friend for drinks, which was cool, hence the hangovers...Looking back a bit further, we took the train from Maribor, Slovenia to Venice before flying to Paris. Venice was amazing (for the hour and a half that we spent there). The Venice Biannale was on but we didn't manage to find it in that time. I'm looking forward to spending a few days there later in our trip.
The apartment in Paris is great. We are so central. I do now apreciate elevators more though. The five storeys up to the apartment really just finish you off nicely after a hard day of sight-seeing... We've climbed a lot of stairs. We've been up the towers of Notre Dame (422 steps and about 63m) and climbed up the Arc de Triomphe (not as high). 
Paris is so beautiful. London makes you appreciate that a bit more. I suppose after Vienna, Venice and Paris, London is lacking a bit... We've done lots of touristy stuff: Musee d'Orsay, Louvre (only a small area, but battled with the crowds and saw the Mona Lisa, as you do...), Napoleon's tomb (which was huge for such a little man) and the WW1 & WW2 museum, Picasso Museum, Centre Pompidou, Sainte Chapelle, the Pantheon, shopping on the Champs Elysees and at the Marais, eaten lots of pastries (very yummy) and too many bread products (there are about 5 bakeries within about 50m of the apartment!). 
On Bastille Day we went to the Parade. Everyone jambed into the metro and went to the same place - very crazy. Couldn't see anything but the odd hat. It's really just a military parade on the Champs Elysees. There were also aircraft displays. 
We also went along to the concert at the Champs de Mars (under the Eiffel Tour) in the evening. We had a picnic on the lawn to the side and then went and watched a strange looking old French guy singing. There were just sooo many people. The place was full. The fireworks at the Eiffle Tour was pretty amazing. They set it all to film music. We didn't have a hope of getting onto the metro after so ended up walking the 6-7km back to the apartment (the crowds dropped away after about an hour of walking - it took an hour 45 - very tiring, got in about 1am, but it was worth it). This photo is of the big screen showing the crowd through the centre of the Champs de Mars looking towards the Eiffel Tower.
Paris is so beautiful. London makes you appreciate that a bit more. I suppose after Vienna, Venice and Paris, London is lacking a bit... We've done lots of touristy stuff: Musee d'Orsay, Louvre (only a small area, but battled with the crowds and saw the Mona Lisa, as you do...), Napoleon's tomb (which was huge for such a little man) and the WW1 & WW2 museum, Picasso Museum, Centre Pompidou, Sainte Chapelle, the Pantheon, shopping on the Champs Elysees and at the Marais, eaten lots of pastries (very yummy) and too many bread products (there are about 5 bakeries within about 50m of the apartment!). On Bastille Day we went to the Parade. Everyone jambed into the metro and went to the same place - very crazy. Couldn't see anything but the odd hat. It's really just a military parade on the Champs Elysees. There were also aircraft displays. We also went along to the concert at the Champs de Mars (under the Eiffel Tour) in the evening. We had a picnic on the lawn to the side and then went and watched a strange looking old French guy singing. There were just sooo many people. The place was full. The fireworks at the Eiffle Tour was pretty amazing. They set it all to film music. We didn't have a hope of getting onto the metro after so ended up walking the 6-7km back to the apartment (the crowds dropped away after about an hour of walking - it took an hour 45 - very tiring, got in about 1am, but it was worth it). This photo is of the big screen showing the crowd through the centre of the Champs de Mars looking towards the Eiffel Tower.A few days ago we did a day trip down to Tours and the Loire Valley. We did a half day tour around three Chateaux and had a fancy French dinner in a restaurant after. We tried snails, duck foie gras, and nice French wines. All very nice.
1 comment:
Great timing to be part of Bastille Day.
Results of the UK flooding are pretty incredible.Glad it hasn't been too much of an issue for your trip.But hear mainland Europes under a bit of a heatwave in some parts.
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