The Adventures of The Tylers: July 2012

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Paris Day 1

We took the train from London to Paris (under the English Channel) and arrived around lunch time. We were not able to meet our host for the flat in Paris and it did not quite meet expectations but it had a bed and bathroom and it worked for 3 nights.

We got settled in and set out walking to see what we could see. We walked by the Lourve, through the garden over there and to the Place de la Concorde. It is now a traffic circle but back in the day it was where the had the guilletine for beheading people. We realized that the Arc de Triomphe wasn't too far so we walked down the Champs-Elysees. We did a bit of shopping along the way also. Everything was so incredibly crowded. I'm sure it didn't help that they were getting ready for the Tour de France to finish a few days later.

After taking some pictures at the Arc we took some back streets to get away from the crowds. We made it to the Eiffel Tour and went across the river to take pictures and sit underneath it for a bit. Finally we headed back toward the flat along the south side of the river. It seemed like a much longer walk heading back. We got back to the flat around 9:00 and went to restaurant below for dinner. We quickly learned why people do not like the French. We had horribly rude service that took forever. The only upside was that we only had to walk upstairs when we finally paid at midnight. The food was actually amazing also. It was an interesting introduction to the city.

Cute towns we passed while on the train

The studio flat

Our 1 window opened to 3 other walls which made for absolutely no circulation of air

Some pretty gardens we stumbled upon while walking

The Lourve

The pyramids at the Lourve

The mini version of the Arc de Triomphe that is over by the Lourve

Garden by the Lourve looking down toward the Place de la Concorde and Arc de Triomphe - so many people

The goat in the garden - how weird is that?

Place de la Concorde

Some really fancy car that had everyone looking

A store on the Champs - Elysees that had concept cars by Citroen

Stores on the Champs-Elysees

Arc de Triomphe

We found some Americans to take our picture

Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tour

Les Invalides

Les Grand Palais

Monday, July 30, 2012

London day 4

Day 4 took us a bit west of the city to Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea FC stadium. Unfortunately it was getting closer to the Olympics and a few of the Underground lines were running with delays. It took much longer than expected to get there but it was worth it once we finally made it. We went through the museum and had a guided tour.

After the tour we grabbed some "triangle sandwiches" and had a picnic in Kensington Gardens (we had a small break in the rain). Then we went to Kensington Palace. It was a bit different than we expected it to be with lots of exhibits that were good for families but a little corny for us. We walked through the gardens and then through the park. It was a round of about way in the rain but it was beautiful.

We ended up walking over to the Victoria and Albert museum. We only had about an hour before it closed but walked around a bit. We got to see some amazing sculptures, a neat fashion exhibit, and some huge Michaelangelo's that are copies (he still made them) of tapestries in the Sistine Chapel.

When the museum closed we ended up walking to Harrods a huge, old department store. We spent a few hours walking around and being amazed before we headed back to the flat. We had amazing pizza and walked around to get a few more pictures before packing up and getting ready to head to Paris the next day.