Europe Trip Part 1

Not to start this post off on a downer, but somewhere along the way of the most fantastic trip EVER we lost one of our SD cards. Thankfully it only held the first half of the first day. We did lose our pictures of the British museum, but since we originally thought we had lost our Paris pictures, losing the British museum doesn't seem so bad. 

And now, finally, Europe Trip Part 1: 

It was a long 15 hour trip (3.5 hours to Texas, layover, then 10 hours to London) but we had movies a plenty and two delicious meals. Between traveling to and from London we watched: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, 101 Dalmatians (non-animated), the Muppet Movie, Man on a Ledge, and Michael watched the second LOTR. I was surprised at how yummy the meals were, but I suppose this is coming from the people who get excited about going to Costco every Saturday to eat free samples for lunch. 

Once we arrived in London we waited in a very very VERY long line to go through customs. When we finally got through all the security, our adventure truly began. 

Disclaimer: We had expected to have a lot more time to plan our trip, but things got very busy right before we left and so on arrival in London all we had planned was where we were staying that night and then the next three days in Paris, everything else after that was up in the air. This may not have been the most ideal situation, but it definitely provided a lot of opportunity for adventure. 

So when we finally got through security we had no idea how to get to London. Ok, I had some idea, but everything is so different from what you read online and what is actually there in front of you. Luckily, we had a nice English woman who helped us out and told us where we had to go..."quickly." After getting only slighty lost we were able to navigate our way to the London Elizabeth Hotel. 

It was a cute little place with a touch of character. We really enjoyed it. 

After we dropped off our pack we tried our luck using the London bus system to get to church.

We succeeded, but ended up being 35 minutes late. 

After church we headed over to the British Museum which was not only amazing, but free. We used Rick Steve's audioguide to help us navigate through all of the exhibits. It was really neat to see things like the Rosetta stone, mummies, and Parthenon sculptures. So much history! In fact, that was probably the neatest thing about all of Europe, the entire place is full of so much history.

After the British Museum we walked around and saw a few of the sights.

Big Ben with the London eye in the background.

Michael and the London Eye. We didn't end up going on it because Rick Steve's said the London skyline isn't that great of a sight. 

Cool benches along the river Thames.

Dinner.

We tried our hardest to eat "authentic" food from each place we went.

For lunch I had an "English Breakfast" and Michael had Fish and Chips.

And the usual pose...forget planking.

A moment of silence. 

They have these markers everywhere for different things. 

The latest addition was one for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, which we were unintentionally present for.

Buckingham Palace Gardens.

Buckingham palace under construction for the Jubilee concert.

Michael said Buckingham Palace was sort of underwhelming since he thought it would be a lot bigger and more grand. It was still really cool though.

We didn't go to the big changing of the guard because I heard you can never really see, instead we saw a mini changing of the guard in the evening and a secret Royal Guard exchange. 

Another sidewalk plaque.

After Buckingham Palace we tried to find our way home and got really lost. Then we were humbled by the bus system when the only bus we knew would take us home (that darn Bus 148) wasn't running anymore. It ended up being a late night for us.

The next morning we took the bus to the train station and got front row seats. It was almost like a Disneyland ride, but with much more to see and a very British influence.

 We took the Chunnel to Paris. Everyone asks us about the Chunnel and what it was like; mostly it felt like a normal train going into a normal tunnel - we were only in the tunnel for 10-15 minutes. It was pretty amazing to go from London to Paris in under 2 hours though. 

Once we got to Paris we had to find our way to the apartment we rented (we rented it through housetrip.com which we highly recommend). Even though we knew it was going to be raining, we hadn't anticipated the lack of road signs, so we immediately got lost. We eventually made it to the apartment which turned out to be quite cute. It was the mushroom guy that really sealed the deal.

After dropping off our packs and changing into dryer clothes we headed out for our next adventure, but not before we picked up a baguette and some cheese.

 BEST. CHEESE. EVER. 

It was soft and spreadable like butter, but a little milder than Brie. Yum. We ate it pretty much every day we were in Paris.

We went to the Arc de Triomphe 

Which was in the middle of the biggest roundabout I've ever seen.

It was pretty crazy watching drivers merge in and out - so many almost accidents!

I was surprised to find that they actually had a lot of arches all over Paris, and most of them were in the middle of the street. None were as big as the Arch de Triomphe though.

After the Arch we walked the Champs-Elysees, which is known  as "the most beautiful avenue in the world." Mostly it was full of stores like Louis Vuitton and the like, which is not really our thing. 

Once we were done with the famous strip, we headed to Montmartre to walk around and see the Sacre Coeur.

The Sacre Cooeur is on a hill, so it made for some good views. It was so cool to see this strip go all the way down to the city. Plus we liked the cute little balconies.

Reminded us of a chess piece.

The Sacre Coeur was the first chapel we visited. It was pretty impressive, although it's sad that the statues turn green.

The view.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so this is the best we could do. I can't imagine building this without machines.