April 2-3

London --> Paris

We are on the Eurostar right now on our way to Paris.

The last few days have been a blur.

Friday- April 2

After a 6 hour flight (where Kenny and I could not sleep), we arrived in London. It took us so long to get through customs and passport check and it was so HOT in the terminal. Once we finally made it though, we collected our bags and headed to the London Underground. It took 3 times as long as the Heathrow Express, but it was worth it because we paid way less, got a day pass for the tube and got to know how it worked.

After a few transfers, we made it to Carr-Saunders Hall where we checked our bags (we couldn't get the room until 2:00pm). We headed back out on the tube and made it to Victoria Station where we bought our hop-on hop-off buss passes. The bus ride was crazy. We flew past all of London's major sights with a tour guide we could hardly understand and a crazy driver.

We stopped for lunch at the Sherlock Holmes Pub and had a traditional meal of fish and chips. It was ok, but we found out later that we could have salved half the price had we bought it through the bus company- oh well! :)

After eating and killing another hour walking in circles, we got on the catamaran cruise that came with the bus tour. This by far was the highlight of my day.

The audio guide was easy to understand, the views of the parliament, Big Ben, and the London Eye were unbeatable, and the best part was that the Tower Bridge (a drawbridge) opened and we got a picture of a lifetime!

After the cruise, Kenny and I were beat so we headed back to the Hall, took a wonderful hot shower and crawled into bed at about 6:00pm.


Saturday- April 3

We slept until 9:30 this morning!!! After a rush job of showering and packing (check out was at 10:00am), we checked out and ate breakfast- not great, but FREE. The guy at the cafeteria even filled our water bottles for us. We then were able to leave our bags at the Hall until we needed them this afternoon. That was so nice and saved us tons of money.

(Just a note: we just arrived in France on the Eurostar)

We jumped on the Tube once again and headed for Buckingham Palace for the 11:30 Changing of the Guard. We couldn't see too much at first because every tourist in London was there!!!

After the little parade, most of the people left and we made it all the way up to the gate and took some great video. The guards must hate the fact that they have to put on this show every day. (They played Star Wars and Indiana Jones)

After the guards were all changed, we walked a bit around Green Park- very pretty with lakes and flowers- and then back on the Tube for Westminster Abbey and the Parliament Building.

The Tube dropped us off directly at the base of Big Ben- which is HUGE! We spent an hour or so just walking around the buildings and taking pictures.

We had to be at the train station by 2:30 to make sure we caught our 3:10 train to Paris. We checked our watch and saw that it was only 1:00ish so we decided to visit Whitechapel (place where Jack the Ripper killed the girls) and get Danny the t-shirt he wanted. We got on the Tube and the next thing we knew, it was 2:00! We abandoned our mission and headed back to get our bags at the Hall, back onto the Tube to Waterloo Station and then we had to figure out how to get on the train to Paris.

After validating the tickets, going through security and metal detectors, and getting our passports stamped, we made it to the train- only minutes later it was on its way to Paris- glad we made it!!!

Well, we are now on the train and should be in Paris shortly. Yeah!!!