Thinking back on my trip, I have come up with my 5 favorite moments:
1) Sitting atop the doomed bus in Paris, having that moment of realization that "Holy cow! I'm in Paris!" I think Paris was one of the first places that I wanted to visit that was not in the US. For this of you who don't know, our whirlwind day in Paris did not exactly live up to our hopes and dreams. Due to a combination of crazy Paris traffic and quite possibly inept bus drivers, it took us 3 hours to go from the train station to the Eiffel Tower. Keep in mind, we had a very limited amount of time in Paris (approximately 11 hours from arrival to departure). By the time we made it to the Eiffel Tower, got through line to get tickets and get on the elevator to the second level, spent some time up there and then boarding a second elevator to take us to the very top, and spending some time up there (still all the while thinking "Holy cow! I'm in Paris!"), stopping by the post office to mail some postcards (where a very kind woman offered me sunscreen when she saw my terribly sunburned face. I kindly declined as I had bought some myself the day before after the fact), it was approximately 4pm and or train was scheduled to leave Paris around 9pm. We decided since it took us three hours to get there, we would be wise to head toward the train station as we certainly didn't want to be stuck in Paris for the night. All in all, Paris was okay. Not what we had hoped for but hey, not everyone can say they have been to the top of the Eiffel Tower but I can! (Oh and when we got back to the train station, we found this little cafe where I successfully ordered our snacks in French, thanks to middle school and high school French class).
4) Westminster Abbey. Breathtaking church!
3) St. Paul's Cathedral. Honestly, I expected to like Westminster Abbey more. And while that church was certainly beautiful, St. Paul's was stunning. One of the things I really liked about the churches (aside from the long histories of both of them) is that they are active places of worship and both of them hold regular services. (thus, no photography allowed meaning no pictures. Google them both if you want to see pictures although I am sure they won't do either church justice). Even in the midst of all the tourists that visit on a daily basis (except Sunday when they have services and are not open for tours, but you can attend services at each of them) they have a time of prayer every hour. Amazing! I think that the next time I am able to visit London, I will make plans to attend services at one of these churches.
2) Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. Talk about something that has stood the test of time. It is the ceremonial locking up of the Tower (where by the way, the Crown Jewels are kept) that has been done every single night at the same time for over 700 years. Talk about commitment to tradition. It was very intriguing. It is open to the public, is free but you must have a ticket which you must request in advance in writing. Very simple thing to do but you do have to plan in advance (I think I got our tickets all the way back in February). It was really just a very interesting thing to see. Once again, there is no photography allowed. I'd you are interested in seeing a video of it, I came across it in the first episode of a documentary series titled The Tower. I found it on Netflix and it is available for streaming. Just invade you are interested in it.
1) My absolute favorite!!! And while it may sound cliché, I LOVED the Changing of the Queens Guard at Buckingham Palace. We were actually there twice. The first day we got there kinda late and I was able to see NOTHING! It was amusing though. We were all packed in like sardines. We decided to go back, much earlier this time, the very next day. We got there 1 1/2 hours before it started and were rewarded with front row seats, hands on the fence. I don't know what it was about it but I really did LOVE it! I will eventually get around to posting some video from it.
So there you have it, my favorite parts of my trip. I cannot wait to go back! It will probably be awhile before I do, but when I do, I have a fabulous travel mate lined up and I can't wait to share these fantastic experiences with her!
One of these days, I really hope to put together a montage video of all my pictures from the trip (like I did when I went to Ireland) and post it here. Might be a little while before I get that done though.
