La Seine et Le Louvre

Bonsoir!

What a wonderful first full day in Paris! Honestly, our feet are starting to hurt from all of the walking we've been doing so we decided to take it easy today. We took the Metro, which is so easy (yay!) to l'Ile de la cite (accents missing) where we saw glimpses of Notre-Dame and Sainte Chapelle on our way to Pont Neuf to catch the boat for a river cruise! This ended up being the perfect way to start our journey. The guide was an adorable French girl who spoke in both French and English and pointed out fun facts about each place we passed. My favorites were the views of the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame from the river. I'm not sure how they could be better from land. It's truly amazing to see things in real life that you've seen in pictures thousands of times. They are even more majestic than I imagined.

One of the many bridges of Paris, this one symbolizes the friendship between Russia and France

Le Tour Eiffel!

Notre-Dame, this is the largest rosette

 After the river cruise we stopped for lunch at a cafe called Le Soliel D'Or (the Golden Sun) for a delicious pizza and people watching. Then we headed back to the hotel for some R&R.

Le Soleil d'Or

Yummy!

This evening, my amazing mom found out that the Louvre is free on Friday nights for people under 26. Funny story: At the gate I tried to use my French to say I'm 22 years old, but I was distracted and accidentally said "J'ai deux mille douze." or "I'm 2012." Like the year! Suffice it to say the ticket girl got a pretty good laugh :)   Anyway, for only 10 Euro we saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, a Sphinx, ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, part of a Pharoah's tomb, and countless priceless works of art by French and Italian painters. Our tour guide from earlier told us that in order to see every piece of art in the Louvre, if you spent only 10 seconds at each one, would take over 3 months! I'm so happy with all that we saw in a little over 2 hours, but obviously there is a lot that we missed.

Le Louvre, only about half of the whole building is captured here

Mona Lisa!

Just one of the many beautiful ceilings

Venus de Milo

Having some fun :)

Us in front of a Sphinx

Le Louvre from outside, showing the Pyramid entrance

Then it was back to our hotel for another great meal. Those of you who know me will understand when I say that I could live off of only bread, but here I'm seriously considering it. Wow! I can't wait to wake up so I can head down to our delicious hotel breakfast for another chocolate croissant :)

A demain,

Karli and Kelly

London et Paris

Bonjour from Paris, we made it to the next chapter of our big adventure!  Hard to believe we woke up in London and are ready to put our heads on the pillow in Paris.  Got a late start today, slept in a little and skipped breakfast for the privilege.  Headed to Harrods first thing, the store is all decked out for the Queen's Jubilee, all of the windows represent her life and special crowns were made by all of the top designers for her celebration.  We got to see a replica of her coronation gown which was exquisite. 

Replica of Queen Elizabeth's Coronation Gown

Outside of Harrod's, it takes up a full city block

Then stepped inside to amazing decadence everywhere with ballgowns and jewelery and handbags and linens and food, food, food of every conceiveable kind.  We were like kids in a candy store but our pocketbooks were way too small.

Both of us outside Harrod's

Harrod's Boulangerie, yum!

Mom and the Harrod's Guard bear

Even in London they appreciate D-Rose :)

Finally had the obligatory fish and chips for lunch before leaving London, delish, and Karli had a chicken ceasar salad complete with some cute little anchovies (don't know if she found them to be so cute).  Loved loved people watching in London, also don't want to forget that "rocket" on the menu really means lettuce, had to ask about that, and that they stamp the street crossing with either "look left" or "look right" cause if you don't you would be smashed like a bug in no time. Totally mastered the tube and made it with all of our luggage (don't ask) to St. Pancras where we made it successfully through customs and boarded the Chunnel to Paris.

Leaving London from St. Pancras International

Arriving in Paris!

What a great trip, the French countryside is just as beautiful as we read and hear about, so many little towns that Karli said she could see Belle from Beauty and the Beast living in.  Arrived in what seemed like no time and conquered the Metro, even switching lines, and made it to our hotel.  Charming spot in Montparnasse, sat outside for a light dinner and drinks on a warm evening and marveled that we are really here.  Time for bed for sure, can't wait to see what tomorrow holds in store.  Bon Nuit from Paris! 

Kelly & Karli

Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, and Piccadilly Circus

Another wonderful day in London!! Some quick facts: 1) The weather is gorgeous, we've had nothing but sunshine 2) We are masters of the underground/tube 3) People keep looking at us because we smile so much, I guess the British are more reserved :)

Today we decided to abandon our pub walk/crawl idea and tour the Tower of London instead. What a great decision! I thought the Tower of London would just be some big old tower, but it is in fact a royal palace complete with inner and outer fortress walls. It was originally constructed in 1066 by William the Conqueror. We took a guided tour by one of the famous Yeoman/Beefeaters, saw the Crown Jewels, and an exhibit on royal armor. Personally, I love reading about so many of the people who stayed/died in the Tower, including Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey. Two saints are also buried there including Sir Thomas Moore.

Mom with the Tower in the background, the grass used to be the moat

First look at the Tower, the inner pillars with weathervanes mark the White Tower, or the Palace

Guard Tower

Beefeaters, Tour Guides and Guards of the Crown Jewels

Tower Bridge

Henry VIII armor

Sorry it's not rotated. This is a statue of an important Roman, the wall behind it was built around 980AD and parts were used to build the Palace.

After the Tower, we hopped on the tube for St. Paul's Cathedral. On our way, we stumbled upon one of the pubs that was on our original pub walk list, Ye Olde Watling. It was originally built in the 1660s for workers building the Cathedral and was a great place to stop for a pint.

Notice all the men in suits having a pint? It's 1:30pm on a Tuesday :)

A few blocks away was St. Paul's. I could not believe how incredibly huge it is! Sir Christopher Wren was the architect and was the first person to live to see a finished cathedral he/she designed. We couldn't take pictures inside, but you might recognize it from Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles in the 80s. What surprised us the most was that around the high altar there is a tribute to the American soldiers who died in WWII. It was really moving to see this memorial in such a prestigious place.

Don't know what the problem is with pictures rotating, will try to fix for tomorrow

West Door of St. Paul's Cathedral

 
Continuing our busy day, we took the tube again (with a transfer) to Piccadilly Circus. This place reminds us of Times Square and is truly the place to be at nighttime. We had a delicious dinner at Grace and then saw the musical Thriller-Live!

Piccadilly Circus

Tomorrow it's on to Paris! I can't wait to see the City of Lights.
Until then,

Karli and Kelly  

Two Tourists Trotting around Town

What a great day in Londontown!  Started with continental breakfast, pics of food to come for those of you who asked for them, then off to the palace to wait a couple hours for the Changing of the Guard.  Met some people from Chicago, small world.  Got to see all the set-up for the Queen's Jubilee, the "famous kiss" balcony from William and Kate's wedding, Changing of the Guard and a sighting of Camilla leaving in a Bentley with one of her famous big hats.

Outside the gates of Buckingham Palace

We got both of us in a picture :)

The famous balcony-- two kisses!

Camilla Parker Bowles' Bentley- I swear I saw her in the backseat!

Changing of the guard

Outside the palace

Queen Victoria Memorial- by far the brightest statue I've ever seen

Carriage heading to the castle- with some important people

Guard band heading back toward Clarence House and St. James Place

Walked through beautiful St. James Park on our way to check out the Churchill War Rooms, closed up in the late 40s and just re-opened in the 70s. Saw the famous 10 Downing Street but couldn't get up close, it was gated off.  One amazing building after another until we rounded the corner and saw Big Ben and Parliament, beyond amazing.

Corner of Downing Street and Whitehall

Outside Big Ben

Then the highlight of our day, Westminster Abbey.  Wish we could have taken pictures inside, it is beyond words.  Over 3000 people are buried there, including kings and queens, writers and artists and actors.  We left there through the entrance that Kate came through on her wedding day in the footsteps of so many before her. 

North Door

West door, where Kate entered for her wedding

Took the tube back to Victoria Station, which is huge, there's a whole mall in there with all kinds of restaurants and yes, even KFC, McDonalds and Burger King.  Proud to say we chose a pub outside the station to dine on local beer and malted baguette sandwiches.  So tired after a full day that we stopped back at our hotel for a nap and a leisurely evening meal and a wind-down.  It was 80 degrees here today, crazy!

Victoria Station

More fun in store tomorrow, pub crawl and the Theatre in the West End, stay posted!

Kelly & Karli

Hello from London!!

Greetings from across the pond!

We are SO excited to be here and to start our adventure. It is about 1:00am local time, but I am wide awake to write this post. The flight over was great but long, 7 hours and 45 minutes. On the plus side, we got a brunch of french toast or 3-cheese omelettes and a mini deep dish cheese pizza for dinner! It was great to start out the trip with a little taste of home. When we arrived we hopped in a taxi (or mom says a hackney cab) with a wonderful older British gentleman to take us to the hotel. He drove us past Harrod's and the back of Buckingham Palace, which we're planning on going back to tomorrow. I'm so glad we got to see Harrod's at night, it is HUGE and all lit up like it's Christmastime.

Here's a few pictures from Day 1:

6am ready to go!

Departing from O'Hare

Arriving at Heathrow!

UK Ladies must be proud of their assets :)

Hotel room

Cool hotel bathroom, especially the sink

Cheerio til tomorrow!

Karli and Kelly