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| It's my face and the Eiffel Tower. |
Originally, it was my goal to go to Paris for Christmas and London for New Year, but it turned out to be easier to travel the other way around. And so, two friends and I, on the morning of Christmas Eve at about 4 a.m., took the train to Düsseldorf... and then a bus to Düsseldorf-Weeze airport (which is actually in the Netherlands, fun fact) to fly into London.
Can I just say that, although beautiful, London is perhaps the place I've visited that I liked the least? That's not to say that it's bad, just that it wasn't for me. Maybe the chaos of Christmas leaked into every facet of the city and made it less lovely than normal, and I'm sure I'll visit again one day and hopefully think differently... but on this trip, getting around the city was such a nightmare that I could hardly enjoy it. The subway system (although clean and pretty quiet) was only half-operating, so trying to get anywhere without several train transfers was almost impossible.
We, of course, saw Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace (where we watched the Changing of the Guard ceremony in the rain...the band played showtunes and closed with 'Hey Jude'... that was not at all what I was expecting). We ate fish and chips, which were great, but my dad catches and fries fish at home all the time, and honestly, his are just as good or better. My favorite part about London was the British Museum. It was the best museum I have ever been to in all my life. I'd visit it again and take friends. It was just the right amount of 'whelming'. There was a lot to see, but it was so well laid out and had such a nice flow that I didn't even notice that I'd been in there for 3 and a half hours. AND I SAW THE ROSETTA STONE!!!
It rained basically the whole time we were in London, which is to be expected. If I were to visit London again, I'd want to see the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, actually ride the London Eye, see St. Paul's Cathedral, see a show or two on the West End...all of this would be lovely if the sun shined and public transit worked.
To go from London to Paris, we took a coach bus. We went to the wrong coach station (because there are two with the same name...again, stupid London transportation), and almost missed our bus. Needless to say, I almost had a heart attack. We had an 8 hour ride on the bus to relax, though, part of which wasn't actually spent on a bus, but on a ferry crossing the English Channel. I saw the White Cliffs of Dover, so that's a thing.
Arriving in Paris and getting to our hotel was so much simpler compared to London. Everything in Paris just seemed really simple and lovely compared to London, actually. The weather was wonderful, about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the sun was shining, the Christmas markets were still out. I got to speak a little bit of French (and people actually understood me, responded in French, and I understood them and responded. Amazing!). We had to take public transit very little because you can actually walk around Paris.
We saw Sacre Coeur, and the amazing view of Paris from the top of the hill it sits on (we took stairs all the way to the top of that hill). I felt that I could see for miles and miles. It was so beautiful that we just sat there, ate some pastries, and took it all in. That's one thing I've discovered that I really really love---being on the top of high places. I don't necessarily like the part where I have to get there, as I'm afraid of falling and I have a slight case of vertigo, but I love the view from the top. I seem to have been infected by one of my friends who has an affinity for rooftops. I'm hooked.
We saw the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, the French Military Museum (lol), the Latin Quarter... and the Louvre. I'm glad to say that I saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, but I was so overwhelmed in the Louvre that I couldn't really enjoy anything. And it took over an hour and a half to find the collection of German art that my friend and I were looking for, and only one painting from the artist we were looking for was on display. Disappointing. There are almost 400,000 works displayed in the Louvre, and you'd need a lifetime to even touch the surface of appreciating what's in there.
We were at the Eiffel Tower for New Year's Eve... It was amazing and disappointing at the same time. There were fireworks, but it was sort of cloudy and you couldn't see them. There were SO MANY PEOPLE. Having done New Years Eve in Times Square a few years ago, I can honestly say that people had much more respect for personal space in NYC than in Paris. At one point, I actually thought that if I fell, I'd be crushed to death by people. It was that way on the subway back to our hotel, too.
All in all, a great trip with lots of good things...especially food. I'm not ashamed to admit that in London and Paris, we visited Chipotle a total of three times. Mexican food, sort of. Better than German food, at least! ;)
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