London day 2

So the next day in London was packed FULL of things to do. We started out the day heading to Middlesex University in North London to register for the British medical boards which I am going to take in a few months. After grabbing some lunch, we checked out of the hotel and headed to see some of London's sights!

We headed first to Buckingham Palace, home of the Queen of England. We spotted some "Bobby's," otherwise known as British policemen....And then stared at the palace through the gates.... There really wasn't anything special about it...
AND I saw the Queen's royal guard! Usually they wear red but today they were wearing grey...
Next we headed to The Tower of London. Now it is not really a tower, but more of a castle where the first kings of England set up shop, and where the queens crown jewels are...There were more royal guards there guarding her crown jewels....
Also right outside of the Tower of London is the Tower Bridge. This is not London Bridge, but the Tower Bridge....
I tried on some old fashioned hats...
Next we headed to the river Thames to get on a ferry down to Parliment and the London Eye.
Along the way we passed London Bridge...
Which was not anything special.

Then we came up upon the London Eye...
Which is the biggest ferris wheel I have ever seen in my life! I think it is the biggest in the world. It was not time to ride it yet though. We had Parliment and Big Ben to head to...
As we approached Big Ben...It was clear that Parliment and Big Ben were beautiful! Such amazing architecture....
We then went into Parliment where they had arguments taking place. We had to check all of our electronics so we could not take pictures. We watched some arguments taking place. It was quite entertaining. Each person gets 6 minutes to talk and it goes from one side of the room to the other. Each side is a different party. There were snide comments and screams from the other sides during everyone's arguments or speech. Much more fun to watch than C-Span.

Then it was to the Eye, which I was the most excited about. It is a gigantic ferris wheel with these egg shaped pods that you go into. It takes 30 minutes to complete a full revolution. It gets very high up about 440 feet I believe. The pods rotate as the wheel rotates so you always have an unobstructed view.

Here is after we just got on and they closed the door...
Here is a view of the pod in front of us so you can see what they look like....
Here is the pod that was behind us and the view while we were nearly at the top...
A view of London...
A look at the wheel when we were at the halfway point....
Another London view....
Me looking out...
Me in the London Eye....
After the eye, we headed back to the hotel to get our bags, and it was back on a train to Manchester. We rode a Virgin train, which is the same company that has Virgin airlines, Virgin mobile, records, galactic, etc.... The train was another fast one and we got back to Manchester in 2 hours. We got in at about 11pm and had a flight the next day for Spain 7 hours later! We decided to stay up all night and pack and catch up on things instead of sleeping. I will tell you all about Spain in my next post!

London!

After a long and eventful day in Paris, we had gone to sleep and woke up and headed for the train station. This would be my first experience on high speed rail AND going through the Chunnel! The Chunnel is the tunnel that goes under the English Channel. Arriving at the train station in Paris, the first thing you notice is how busy this place is! It is just as busy if not busier than an airport.

After going through customs, we headed to our train.....We took our seats, and a short while later we were off! The train goes very fast. I am talking 150mph fast. As we blazed through the French countryside I sat back in comfort in my seat. The trains are very comfortable and very quiet. They have a bar to buy drinks and snacks from and bathrooms that are bigger than airplane ones. I had a chicken and rocket sandwich... You can travel from car to car easily.

My excitement built as we approached the Chunnel. My infatuation with the chunnel comes from when I was young watching a documentary about it. Ever since I had wanted to travel through it. I pulled out my video camera to document my journey. Then, without warning, we had entered!!! I anxiously peered out the window excited to fulfill my childhood desire....However all I saw was darkness...That was it, the chunnel was just a dark tunnel. Nothing more nothing less. Such disappointment I felt. Watch it here...

Feeling dumb I went back to reading my magazine. Then we had emerged in the UK! shortly after we were in the London train station. This train station was also huge!
We said farewell to our train...We then headed to the underground subway to our hotel. We had had an exhausting few days. So we decided to take it easy the rest of the day and just relax and get some food. Tomorrow would be for the sights of London.

However on a side note, for dinner that night we went to a British Pub and had some authentic British fare. Fish and Chips, and Bangers and Mash! The Fish and Chips were good...
But the Bangers and Mash were not so good.

I will post about London tomorrow!

Paris!

I left off leaving Amsterdam on a Coach bus and arriving in Paris at 6am. We had slept most of the way although the sleep was not a good one. After arrival at the bus station, there was the Metro a short walk away, which was connected to the station. So after a short walk we arrived at the station and the map that the Metro travels all around Paris. Having our address of the hotel we just needed to find the station that was closest. After we arrived at the station after 45 minutes of transfers and travel underground, we emerged into a sleepy Paris that was just waking up. The next problem was where to go? The hotel was nearby but we had no idea where. After guessing and being wrong after walking a half a mile, we finally were able to discover the location of the hotel. We were way to0 early to check in, so we left our bags and headed to find breakfast.

We found a restaurant that served an absolutely amazing French breakfast. Bread that they buttered for you, a Croissant, Eggs served on top of Ham, two pieces of toast, Orange juice and a hot chocolate. It was amazing.Now it was off to the main event, the Eiffel Tower. Seeing this in pictures and on tv did it no justice. Once I saw this amazing structure I was awestruck.

Poses were in order...
I did a Clare pose just for good measureAnd then I got closer....
It is HUGE! I had to go up. My friend John is terrified of heights, so he was going to wait at the bottom. After buying my ticket up I went. I climbed the steps to the 1st and 2nd levels.


Then there is an elevator to the very top!
Amazing views up there and such an amazing structure.
Also they have bathrooms up there and I peed at the top of the Eiffel tower!!!

From the top I spotted my next location. The Arch de Triumph! Can you spot it?
After arriving, we sprinted across the busy street. Little did we know there was an underground walkway. The Arch is not much at all and I really do not know what the big deal is all about.
If you asked me to describe the Arch in one word....BORING. This is supposed to be about their triumphs? How about getting their asses kicked in WWII and then stomped again in Vietnam(Thanks to my sister for the correction). But I guess this was built during Napoleon was ruling so whatever.

After leaving the arch the proper way which is under the street, we headed to the Louvre!
Lots of triangles and people oogling over old paintings.
We headed straight for the main event, the Mona Lisa.... There were 300 people huddled around the damn thing. There is a 20 foot perimeter away from the damn thing and it is behind glass. There are so many beautiful works of art there yet people want to see this stupid crap. After getting close and taking some pics, we left to go see other things.... I really do not know what the big deal is over this stupid thing.

Then we went to see the Venus de Milo....
Again I have no idea what the infatuation is with this stupid thing....

After the Louvre, we headed back to the hotel like zombies. BUT as we walked I spotted a French bakery!!! I had to stop and get something.....We got two chocolate eclaires. They were delicious.

We got to the hotel with the metro....Oh and speaking of the Metro, they have this stupid symbol on all of their subway trains and buses and crap....I mean what the hell is this stupid thing? A baby in the womb? Some lady sleeping? A lady emerging from the depths of Paris? What is this supposed to make me feel like as I am watching the subway pull into the station. Stupid French people...So Stupid.

So anyways we got to the hotel and passed out immediately for about 3-4 hours. Remember we had been running on about 4-5 hours of sleep that was on a coach bus so we were out. After waking up and showering we headed to dinner. We went to a restaurant right by the Eiffel tower so we could catch the evening light show that happens every night on the hour. After having an amazing French meal we saw the show. I put the video here. It is just 3 minutes of the same crap. However the dialogue is pretty humerus.


Here were some photos...

After the show we headed back to the hotel to head to bed and prepare for the next day in London! That post is coming up after this one.

Oh and on a closing note, if anyone is wondering why I am wearing the same clothes....I forgot to pack extra pants before leaving for Amsterdam, so I had one pair of Jeans and one pair of the adidas pants. So I have been wearing the same thing for the last few days. But whatever..
Next post is LONDON!