Vacation 2012

On June 6th I left on my way to London with my dad and two younger siblings. We spent 3 days there, cramming as many touristy things in to make good use of our three-day London Passes. Our passes got us into various museums and tours without having to pay the entrance fee, it came in handy, especially since reviews said you got your money's worth after only 4 visits to the sights.

The first day we arrived to nothing but pouring rain. We were all exhausted from the 10+ hours of flying, and it was cold... It was miserable until we found our little hotel, but by that point my shoes were soaked through. So, naturally, I changed into my flip flops and we took the Underground to Westminster in the hopes of getting into the Churchill War Rooms before they closed, but to no avail. There was only an hour left before closing, and the guy at the desk said it takes at least an hour and a half. So, we ended up making our way to Westminster Abbey where an Evensong happened to be taking place. We went in and listened to the prayers, and participated as much as standing up with the congregation goes. I just loved listening to the choir with the great acoustics of the church. It was amazing! From there, we walked passed Parliament, seeing the Big Ben and crossed the River Thames to the London Eye. Pretty cool, but that was just the beginning of our long journey back to the hotel. We wandered up and down bridges and walking down side streets, taking note of how old some of the buildings were, and just soaked in the fact that we were in London!

The next couple days were packed with information as we went to the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the Churchill War Rooms, toured Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus, the Globe Theater, Portobello Road, the British Museum, and hearing the St. Martin In the Fields Orchestra. So cool! London is definitely different from here, but I liked to be amongst such different architecture, and to hear all the different languages of tourists (mainly European and Chinese.)

Sunday is when we went to church. It was in a fenced in brick building just 5 minutes from our hotel by food. Very convenient. We walked up, and the missionaries held open the doors for us, welcoming us and asking where we're from. It was a very friendly atmosphere, a familiar atmosphere in the foreign land of England. I loved it!

After sacrament meeting we headed to the St. Pancras International train station to catch our EuroStar train to Paris. It was a 2 hour and 15 minute ride, taking us through the countryside of England, under the English Channel and onto French sod. I could look out the window and see random castles on top of hills and windmills along the way. The rest was a blur of green.

In Paris, it was raining, but not near as hard as it rained in London. It smelled of cigarette smoke and I realized I couldn't understand the majority of the people, or the signs for that matter. After stopping in our hotel, we wandered down Rue de Les Halles to find the pest shop made famous in Disney Pixar's 'Ratatouille,' you know, the one with the rats in the windows? Yeah, it's real. We wandered to Notre Dame to catch an evening mass, and it was the exact same as in Westminster, only in French. Here though, we were allowed to wander around and take pictures. I was so excited to see the famous Rose windows, and they didn't let me down! They're so beautiful and colorful and big. Seeing those windows may have been one of my favorite parts. Next we wandered our way to the Eiffel Tower. It was raining off and on, so we had our umbrellas with us, but unlike in London, no one else had umbrellas, they just wore raincoats with hoods or dealt with getting wet. "Le Tour Eiffel" is so huge! You have to be quite a ways away to get the full picture without craning your neck 180 degrees. It's pretty though... and every so often they turn on lights that make the tower twinkle. That night, my family and I got a lot of pictures of the tower from all different angles before wandering home. Yeah, we wandered, and got lost. We didn't get back to our hotel until 12:30 am local time. My dad guessed we'd walked over 10 miles that day.

The rest of the time in Paris we toured climbed over 700 stairs and took a lift to the top of the Eiffel tower to see the breathtaking view of the city. We even ate lunch on the first level of the tower in the restaurant up there. It was delicious and refreshing after hiking so much. We also walked to the Arc de Triomph and down Le Champs Elysees, then took a train back to Notre Dame. We took proper pictures of the outside this time, because it wasn't raining, then wandered through nearby side streets for dinner. We ate at a very French restaurant, outside on the patio, making friends with the manager. The food was so delicious! French bread, crepes, beof de bourgignon, and European orange Fanta (it's better over there) all so delicious!

Before leaving Paris, we stopped in a Patisserie for some baguette sandwiches and pastries... you can't leave France without trying those!

Back in London, we went to Abbey Road as made famous by The Beatles and took pictures of us crossing the street. We then took a Double Decker bus to Regent Street where we went to a 6 story toy store called Hamley's. It was fun. We also went into the massive department store called Herrod's... it's full of really expensive name-brand stuff, but it was cool. I liked the Egyptian theme inside. We saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace the following morning and watched as they marched down the street (we got there kind of late, so we couldn't see the actual "changing" on Palace grounds.) We also walked through Hyde Park, and went to the Temple of the Knights of Templar, pretty cool. At King's Cross Station we took our picture with a trolley hanging part way out of the wall with the plaque Platform 9 3/4 hanging above it. That was fun! :) That night, we sat in Trafalgar Square eating sweet rolls, and Cadbury fruit & nut chocolate with our sparkling water, with Big Ben in our view. It was nice to finally just sit and relax after a long, hard vacation in Europe.