London was Lovely.. .and Paris - Qui! Qui!

Have you ever needed to blog about something that you know is going to be long, detailed, involve lots of pics, etc...and find yourself putting it off, for oh..hmmm....a week?!?! Enough is enough! I am just going to give you the Reader's Digest version (okay, my best attempt at a short version, at least) of our London and Paris Trip recap.

"Are you traveling for business or pleasure?" customs man asks. "Well, both actually."

Truth be told, the reason for the vaca - business, but it came with a heaping side dish of pleasure ;). Jordan and his family had two half-days of meetings, covering the business part of our travels, but other than that...we were all about the pleasure.

Sidenote: Jordan and I had both been to London before, for 6 weeks actually, while studying abroad with Baylor. But, we went during separate summers, so this time it was especially fun to experience London all over again, together!

We flew out on Friday for London. We arrived in London at 7a.m. Saturday, London time, which was midnight Friday, Texas time. But, no rest for the weary...we were off and running. That day we were up for 36+ hours due to the time change...it was lovely.

While in London we...

Visited the Cabinet War Room (where Winston Churchill ran and called the shots during WW2)

...ate at the oldest known Fish n Chips place -Rock and Sole

...shopped in Covent Garden (the young, trendy area), toured Kensington Palace (Princess Diana's former residence), walked through Hyde Park and saw the nutjobs/crazies vant and rave at Speaker's Corner

...went for a ride on The London Eye

...made an unplanned visit to the South Kensington Police Station (long story)

...ate at Wagamama, which was still just as deelish as J-man and I remembered it 8 years ago
...drank a pint at the famous and nostalgic Waxy O'Conner's, ate pizza late night from a street vendor (a must-do)...


...walked The Tower Bridge

...toured The Tower of London, saw the Crown Jewels...

...toured Westminster Abbey Windy, ehh?
...went to see Wicked. It.Was.Fabulous.

...shopped 'til we dropped at Harrods

... had 'high tea' at Fortnum and Mason

...and did some more great shopping at Fortnum and Mason, too.

Whew...are you tired yet?

Next, we headed to the train station to catch the Eurostar/Chunnel to Paris!

We arrived in Paris late, late Wendesday night and crashed. Thursday morning we were up early and off running again.

During our short stint in Paris we...

Toured and hiked 200+ steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe

...then headed to Notre Dame

...where we toured the Cathedral

...and Bell Tower (ya know, Quasimoto) where we hiked 600+ more steps

After some hardcore touring in the a.m., we headed to The Eiffel Tower for some relaxation at an amazing lunch midway up the actual Tower at the restuarant Jules Verne. The food, service, and views were all abolutely phenomenal. Nothing better than sipping champagne mid-day atop the Eiffel Tower...ahhh....can we go back yet?!?



Okay, back on track...after the Eiffel Tower we headed back towards our hotel which was just off the Champs de Elysees. On the way back as we strolled down the Champs de Elysees we did some window shopping...some of those stores were a tad too rich for my blood :). That night Jordan and I went out just the 2 of us, and it was SUCH a treat. We walked the streets and stumbled upon this adorable little Italian restaurant( I know, we were in France, but hey, who's counting). We chatted, chomped on tasty pizza and sipped on red wine, all the while soaking in the charm of it all :). Pardon the overly-cheesy-tone...but it was really such a nice, simple, quaint night for us.

Friday morning we were up early again and out the door to the Louvre. We toured for 6 hours (yes, you read that right, 6 hours)...and just about collapsed from exhaustion that afternoon.

Jordan making me laugh. Clearly I must have been delirious ;)

But there was no time to rest...we hopped on the Metro back to hotel and loaded into a cab back to the train station to catch our train back to London. Once back in London it was straight to the hotel and straight to bed, as our flight was awaiting us the next morning for our return home.

The trip was wonderful - the sights, the food, the company, the accomodations, the weather...all of it...wonderful. It was, however, great to be home in the end. I do love traveling, but nothing beats a much needed good night's sleep back in your own bed. And for your information, I was in bed by 7:30pm the night we got home...but give me a break, to my body clock, which was still on Paris time, it was 2:30a.m.

Okay, I have no crafty way to wrap this post up - so- The End.