Back from Europe

[jethrien]

I got in Saturday night, but I've been too busy catching up on sleep and family stuff to post.

Paris and London were amazing. I had a wonderful time. There were some snafus (airline sending my luggage to Denver, delayed flights, bad directions, ticketing problems, etc.), but overall the trip was a success. I spent 10 days in Paris (7 with my parents and 3 with chuckro) and 4 in London (just with chuckro).

I saw pretty much everything I wanted to see in Paris. Eiffel Tower, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, Pont Neuf, Invalides, Arc de Triomphe, a boat tour of the Seine, bike tours of the city, Luxembourg Gardens, the Latin Quarter, Versailles, Monet's garden, Musee Jacqemart-Andre, the opera house, Sacre Couer, Montmatre, the Louvre, Square Igor-Stravinsky, Musee Rodin, Musee Nissim de Camondo, the sewer museum...We had picnics of bread and cheese and wine and fruit, wandered twisty little streets from the Middle Ages, fed pigeons in Tuileries garden, had ice cream of exotic flavors, and ate a lot of chocolate croissants. And took about 9 rolls of film worth of pictures.

London I didn't see nearly enough of. But I got to see the Changing of the Guard and have afternoon tea. Visited Harrods and Kensington Palace, the British Museum (with an entire exhibit on historical clocks!) and the Victoria and Albert Museum, the archaeological site of the Rose Theater and the Tower of London. Took a bus tour and a boat tour. And we watched a production of The Winter's Tale in the rebuilt Globe Theater, done with original practices, from the costumes to the staging to the period instruments played by the musicians.

Favorite moments - tea in the Orangery at Kensington Palace. The play. A picnic on the grass under cloudless skies on the far side of the Grand Canal at Versailles. Riding bicycles through the place de la Concorde ringing bells like mad and screaming "We're all gonna die!" Drinking wine on the prow of a boat watching the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. Wandering the streets Heloise and Abelard lived in. Exploring museums filled with the most amazing art in the world.

Least favorite moments - Sitting in Dulles airport for 8 hours. Discovering that my luggage had gone west instead of east. Coming down with a nasty headcold and collapsing moaning on the grass in Hyde Park. Discovering after half an hour of standing in line that we were at the wrong terminal in Heathrow.

Observations: You know the reputations that Parisians are mean and rude and the English have horrible food? Both false. Everyone we met in Paris was helpful, charming, and friendly. And we didn't have a bad meal, and did have several excellent ones, in London.

I like travel. A lot. But it's nice to be home again.

Comments

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Hey, maybe at some point we should look into wandering a bit together.

[katertoticus.livejournal.com]

That could be quite fantastically fun. We know we live together well, so probably we'd travel together well too. Where do you want to go? Scotland? Utah? Greece? Montreal? New Hampshire? Vancouver? Hostel-hopping? Backpacking? B&Bs? Road trip? Wilderness? Cities? All of the above? The possibilities are endless, and terribly exciting. :)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, honestly. Not hostel-hopping, I think. B&Bs sound nice. I've been to Vancouver. I'd love to go to Scotland, or Greece. Never been to Montreal. But it does sound like fun, doesn't it?

[katertoticus.livejournal.com]

I'm not especailly keen on the hostels either. I think they're fine, but they're not terribly convenient, or reliably super-clean, or safe for valuables, etc. I'm glad T and I did the train-backpack-hostel thing this April, and I imagine I'll do it again, but I don't need to.

I'd love to go to Scotland again, and Montreal is definitely an easy weekend trip (only 4 hours drive from Boston). But I figure I'll let you get moved in and settle first before unsettling you... :)

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

Utah? The rest I can see, but what's there to see in Utah?
I had quite my fill of hostels in Australia. My friend Bryan was all about meeting new people, so that was good for him. Michael and I were all about comfortable privacy, so that was less good for us. :)
You two and Chuck should come travel with me and Michael sometime. We'd at least triple your cuddling-cute-native-animals quotient. *grin*

[katertoticus.livejournal.com]

Utah has some incredibly beautiful natural land features. Amazing red wind-shaped sandstone arches and crumbly canyons. I'll get there eventually.

Pics courtesy of google images:

http://www.rockymtnrefl.com/delicatearch.jpg
http://www.rpi.edu/~georgj/Sunset%20Over%20Bryce%20Canyon,%20Utah.JPG

[dushai.livejournal.com]

What about Google travel partners, katertoticus? Didn't we say something vague way back when about traveling together some time? :)

jethrien and chuckro, welcome back! Wasn't Sacre Coeur beautiful? I saw it after a dozen other cathedrals and I was still very impressed.

My final impression was that Paris has a love-hate relationship with tourism -- on one hand, it's great that the whole world thinks your city is beautiful, but on the other hand, they must have to deal with morons and jackasses all the time. I think it makes a difference if you try to speak French, even the pathetically tiny amount of French that I knew. It makes you look like Not Just Another American Jackass Tourist. Such is my theory, anyway, based on a whopping week and a half there. Take with an appropriate slab of salt.

Glad you had a great time!

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I liked Sacre Coeur, but I was far more impressed with Sainte Chapelle - three quarters of the upper chapel walls are stained glass. It's staggeringly beautiful.

Actually, I thought that the Parisians were kinder to tourists, even if you were speaking English, than the Londoners were. We had several people go out of their way to help us when we needed it, and I was impressed and touched with how friendly most people were.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

For the record, I've been to both Greece and Montreal, and both are fun (for completely different reasons). And you should only take me backpacking if you don't mind whining, or on road trips if you don't mind stopping every hour or so for me to go to the bathroom.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

That's ok. I had fun on my backpacking trip freshman year with OA, but I'm not actually physically fit enough to pull it off and really be happy. I like camping, but I prefer the kind where you go to a nice campsite and pitch your tent.