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| Millennium Bridge with view of St. Paul's Cathedral |
Few months ago, I had been trying to figure out where I wanted to go for a vacation this summer. Well, that decision got easy when my oldest niece said she wanted to visit England. I'm not sure where she got her interest in England from, but I figured why not take her? She's 16, about to turn 17, and thought it would be a good experience for her. Her parents were ok with the idea, so we planned a week at end of August to go. The trip ended up being a few days in England, and few days in France. That meant cramming a lot into a short span of time, but we managed to see most of the highlights of London and Paris, as well as some day trips out of the city.
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| London Eye & Big Ben |
We arrived at Heathrow around 0600 on the first day, and did not sleep so much on the red eye flight over. Alana seemed fine, but I was pretty tired! On top of that it was a rainy day :( We started the day off by hitting the
British Museum and
Victoria and Albert Museum. The rest of the day was a bit of running around. We wanted to go into the Buckingham Palace but tickets were sold out for the day. We bought tickets for the next day and then headed to London Bridge, only to find out the London Dungeon had moved to Waterloo. At least Alana got her first glimpse at the palace, Big Ben, and London Eye.
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| Golden Coach in the Royal Mews |
We managed to get up the second day at a reasonable time and had no jet lag rest of the trip, which was nice. Today we went to the
London Dungeon. Getting there early was key because lines apparently get really long by late morning. The rain had also let up today, too, so we got more pictures of the
London Eye and
Big Ben. From there we walked across Westminster Bridge, grabbed some lunch to go at Tesco, and ate in
St. James Park. We took a tour of the
Royal Mews, and then of
Buckingham Palace. I think the State rooms are typically open for tours late July to late September, so this was my first time inside even though I'd been to London several times already., (It was also my first time at the museums in London.) After the palace tour we took a long walk through
Hyde Park to our hotel.
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| Windsor Castle |
Day three was a bus tour to Windsor, Bath (first time here for me too), and Stonehenge with
Evan Evans Tours (booked through
Viator.com). It was a lot to cram into one day, but they did a good job of giving us just enough time to see most of
Windsor Castle, Bath (including
Roman Baths), and
Stonehenge. If you have to do these all in one day, this was the tour for it.
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| Tower Bridge |
Our last full day in London started off in
Tower of London. Again, getting there got us tickets and into the
Crown Jewels without a queue - a nice change from the last couple times I visited. We also explored all of the tower grounds. From there we walked across
Tower Bridge to London Bridge. From there we took the rail to
Greenwich. After a quick look at
Cutty Sark, we grabbed some sandwiches at a shop and ate at a bench at the
Old Royal Naval College with a view of
Greenwich Park and the
Royal Observatory. We walked up to it after lunch and had a look at the
Prime Meridian. We then rode the ferry back down the Thames to London. We had a quick look at
Shakespeare's Globe (couldn't go in due to a show going on), walked over
Millennium Bridge for a look at
St. Paul's Cathedral. We also made quick stops at Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus.
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| Alana and Eiffel Tower |
After saying good-bye to London, we got on the
Chunnel for a 2.5 hour train ride to Paris. We were checked into our hotel by early afternoon so we had plenty of time to do something. We hit the
Sacre Coeur first, and then went to the
Louvre. Since it was a Wednesday, a late opening day at the Louvre, we could've spent a lot more time here but I think we were both museum'ed out now. We saw Mona Lisa, the Rosetta Stone, and many other things, but didn't stay more than couple hours... if that. I think I'd much prefer to see the art works in a more natural setting. After that, I could tell Alana really wanted to see the
Eiffel Tower, so we went there also. We braved the line (apparently it wasn't as bad as it normally is) and even went up the tower to the 2nd level. We were both kind of glad we didn't go all the way to the top since it was a bit scary going up the elevator. Some energetic souls walk up the tower, but that's quite a climb. We walked down and it took us a while to just go down.
On the second day we in Paris we met up with my friend, Gorik, who came to join us from near Brussels. Alana and I had already seen the more popular highlights of the city the day before, so were kinda left wondering what to do today. We started off at the
Notre Dame Cathedral, but lines were so long we didn't go inside. We walked around a bit through a park, and then found a place for lunch outdoors. We walked through
Luxembourg Gardens, ate crepe, and then tried to go see the Catacombs, but lines there deterred us once again. A bit bummed out we sought to go watch a movie, but the only one in original English was One Direction. Alana was outvoted by the two adults to not watch it.
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| Luxembourg Gardens |
Our last full day in Europe was spent in
Versailles. It's my third time there but always enjoy it. We went through the palace, the gardens, Grand Trianon and to
Marie Antoinette's Estate. I think the latter only opened in 2006, so I had not been there before, but I really enjoyed it. The grounds had some old farm houses that were quite charming, and Petit Trianon was also nice to see.
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| Marie Antoinette's Estate |
Overall, it was a busy but a good trip. It was also really nice to spend this time with my niece and getting to know her. She's a quiet girl, but really nice and caused no trouble at all. She didn't complain about anything, and had no problem keeping up pace (I was the one struggling with all the running around.) She's got a solid plan for her future and I expect she will do well. It's a shame her whole family couldn't come with us, but maybe next time.
