April 11 Pictures

Pictures:
1 - Another raspberry mojito, Hard Rock Cafe, London and a "two for one" from the bartenders.
2- Looking down Picadilly Street
3- Park Lane Hotel on Park Lane and Picadilly Street - just thought it looked cool
4 - Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner.  It was originally the entrance to Buckingham Palace, then was moved here in 1882.  It commemorates the first Duke of Wellington's defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.
5- Episcopal Church on Gloucester Street - front
6- Episcopal Church on Gloucester Street - side
7 - My neighborhood in London
8- My "self catering" studio apartment in London - just love it, it has all the homey touches and the owners are just great.  View of the kitchen
9- My apartment another view
10-Entrance to the Hyde Park Corner underground.

First Day in London

Went out and about today with two main missions: send a box of stuff home (thank you sister Cindy) and find the Hard Rock cafe to get pins for my friend Trish in Kansas.  It has been fun to be on this "hunt for Hard Rock" in each city.

So headed out to the London Underground - or tube - to ship some things home.  I am finding it is really easy to get around and I have several stations close by.  I walked to the West Kensington Station to go to Gloucester Street to find the Mail Boxes Etc.  Imagine my delight when I walked out of the underground and there in front of me was a Starbucks!  And even better they took my Starbucks Gold Card.  It was especially nice because I could buy my city mug and ship it with everything else.

I met a delightful young lady who confirmed that Google was right, a short walk down was a Mail Boxes Etc.  We also compared notes on friendly people.  She had just returned from Copenhagen and she said every one was so pleasant and nice and we generally agreed that people were not that way in France - or at least in Paris.

Mail Boxes was a great place, they pack everything for you and I left my first round of personal "treasures" in their good hands - and out of my suitcase.

My next trek was down to Picadilly Circus to find the Hard Rock cafe.  It was a rather round about walk from the train station to the Hard Rock and I discovered on the way back all these nice under ground walkways that took me back to my train station without having to brave the traffic that does not yield for each other let alone pedestrians. I stopped at Hyde Park Corner for some pictures then to the subway before the full force of rush hour.

London

Today was a travel day.  It cracks me up, the landlord made such big deal about leaving the apartment clean when I checked out, then showed up, said he was busy, gave me my deposit and was gone.  My cab came and took me to the train station.

So my sister had told me stories about riding the train and of course being the worrier I am stressed over it all.  I ran into a nice couple from Australia who let me follow them as we made our way to the train.  

It was interesting, first they checked our tickets in.  Then they checked our passport to board.  Then we went to passport control and finally to UK border control.  Finally went through security where we did not have to take our shoes off and to the area to wait.

Typical of me, I was an hour earlier than they said we needed to be, but based on the lines, I am glad I was.  Two of the doors that accessed passport control were broken so it was like taking a four lane highway down to one lane plus there was another train checking in that left before ours.  It turned out being early was a good choice, I was down on the track within minutes of them calling our train and the plus of that was no one was behind me while I put my suitcase on and I could put it on the botton shelf so no more lifting.

Much to my surprise, I apparently booked first class.  I had a single seat with a nice big window.  Also I discovered we were served a meal on china.  We had cold sliced beef (nice and rare) potatoe salad, bread and these amazing petit fours, our choice of beverages (bar included) and very hot, strong coffee to finish.  Not that I realized the choice I was making, but glad I made it when I bought my ticket online.

Poured rain all the way to the chunnel.  Came out of the chunnel to sunshine.  It was a short trek to St Pancras, the train station.  Followed the crowd out and got one of the those black taxi cabs you always see on TV.  Where virtually no one talked to me in Paris, my driver talked the entire way.  A delightful gentleman my age, maybe a little older.  I now know about his wife, daughters, grandson who was coming to stay with, their trip to the Red Sea, their planned trip to the zoo, the Olympics and UK taxes.  After the silent treatment in Paris, I just loved chatting with him.

I am at my "self catering" apartment in West Kensington.  I posted a picture of it in on one of my first posts, but they did not portray it's charm.  And they included all the nice touches missing in Paris.  Chilled water in the fridge, a welcome basket of teas, coffees, condiments (including milk in a tube) and raspberry short breads.  Where the Paris apartment had virtually nothing (I left it nicely stocked for the next person) this apartment also has soaps and shampoos and extra towels.

I'm in West Kensington in a pretty residential area.  A block away is a fish and chips place, I think their equivalent to KFC, a Thai place and Tesca Express, a small grocery store owned by Tesca which seems to have banks, insurance, pet insurance and a long list of other services besides grocery stores.  I had my first encounter with a pin and chip machine for my credit card and after a couple of tries (and a very nice clerk) finally got it to work.  Gathered up my groceries to discover it was pouring rain.  So I was soaked by time I got back - just in time to meet the plumber who was there to replace the faucets in my bath.  So I had the plumber and the owner's son in and out of the room and an extra trip to the hardware store (I think that is a requirement for any plumbing/elecrical job) thrown in so at about 7:45 everyone is now gone, I have water again and I just turned on the heater because it is SO cold - humid cold - at home probably wouldn't bother me at all.

So that has me current.  I have found a Mail Boxes Etc just a short ride on the subway away (at least that is what Google says) and two doors down from that is supposed to be a Starbucks.  So that is how I plan to start my day tomorrow, send a box home, drink a Starbucks and see what London has to hold.

Sunday and Monday in Paris

So someone left me a post that I am behind on posting.  Not much to tell.  Sunday was Easter and crowds were crazy so I didn't do much other than wander around my neighborhood and discovered that the Port St Denis was just down the street from me.  That was the only new picture I took.  Then I spent part of the day getting pictures transferred to Picassa and labeled so I'd know where I went and got packed so I wouldn't have to on Monday.

Monday was also a holiday and even though traffice was dramatically reduced, crowds were even worse.  The highlight was the people I ran into while out and about.  A lady from  England and her daughter who flashed the first smile I think I had seen since I arrived.  I got onto a bus with a whole group of ladies my age from Spain and later had a family I am guessing were from India sit near me.  Their only daughter sat with me and she was a joy to ride around with.

I reserve my last day for shopping, so I did that, stopped by Hard Rock for another raspberry mojito, then back to my apartment for my last night in Paris.

Pictures April 7

1. Raspberry Mojito HR Cafe
2. Ministiere de l'Economie
3. Palais Omnisport de Paris-Bercy
4. Gare de Lyon

Saturday April 7, 2012

Today I planned to do the other two tours of the Hop-on-Hop off, which took me by the Sorbonne, which to be honest I missed as we drove by.  I expected something big and imposing and it was just kind of lost among buildings.  I did like the Palais du Luxembourg, which was beautiful.  We passed the Observatoiri de Paris and the Cimetiere du Montparnasse which is a big cemetary with many famous french people buried there.  We also passed the Tower Montparnasse.  I probably should have done this tour before the grand tour since many things along this route paled in comparison to seeing the Louvre, Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.  

The final tour I took was the Bastille-Bercy tour.  This went into the southern part of Paris and much of it ran along the Siene.  This appeared to include  newer parts of Paris. 

This tour started off along the edge of the Latin Quarter where I'd been the night before and passed the St-Nicols du Chardonnet church, a very old and beautiful church.  We continued on to the Opera de Paris Bastille, which was opened in 1989 and the tour said the President of France had asked for new and exciting architecture.  My first thought was how could they get any more exciting than the wonderful architecture they already have, so it seemed out of place and I found it underwhelming.

From there we went to the Gare de Lyon which has this beautiful clock tower.  We continued along the Siene where we saw one of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France - the national library.  It is four "L" shaped buildings each on the corner of a rectangle.  In the center is a garden that is not open to the public that preserves a variety of plantlife from around France.  But it is the library itself that is amazing.  I houses over 80,000 books, has modern and ancient books/manuscripts and an entire digital section.  I surmise it is comparable to the Library of Congress. 

We crossed the Seine and passed the Ministere de l'Economie - a new building that now houses most of the Ministries of France that up until recently were housed in the Louvre.  It is an architecturally stunning building, but again I thought so out of place with all of the marvelous architecture of France.  We also passed Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy, which is a 17 thousand seat sports arena.  It is covered with grass and the top appears to be glass.  They said it was used for sporting events, including a US Football game, concerts and a big truck rally for which they removed the roof.

 We finished the tour at Notre Dome and I took the bus back to the Opera Garnier, one of my favorite places.  I walked home from there with a stope at the Hard Rock Cafe to buy pins for a friend and a Raspberry Mojito (and some dinner) for me. 

Friday April 6, 2012

It's Saturday night and I'm playing catch up.  Yesterday was awesome, I started my Hop-on-Hop off tour.  I got my Starbucks (4.05 euro) then walked over to the bus stop, which is a block from Starbucks and about 6 blocks from my apartment.  Got on the bus, it wasn't crowded, and started my first tour.

We left the Opera House and headed down Boulevard des Italiens.  This is where we saw the Academie de Musique, which is the top picture.  Lining the top of the building are busts of famous composers like Bethoven and Mozart.  When we got closer, I got a picture of each bust with their names.

We went up the Rue de Clichy that took us into area of the artists, or bohemians, where we saw the Moulange Rouge (second picture) where the CanCan was created and the movie Moulin Rouge was filmed.  I'll be honest, I expected something big and if you're not paying attention you miss it. We continued on to the Gare du Nord, which is their main train station.  It looked like an ant hill with people coming and going with their luggage.  Another few blocks and we reached the Gare de l'Est, which is another train station.  They told the story of how a queen was coming in (I have to confess, I remember Marie Antoinette and Napoleon and all the other Kings escape me) and the train station she was coming into wasn't considered appropriate for someone of her stature, so they laid special track to the Gare de l'Est so she would arrive at an appropriate train station.

We made a circle to head back to where I was a picked up and passed the Porte St-Martin and Porte St-Denis.  These are arches that remind you of small versions of the Arc du Triomphe and were actually entrances to the city at one time.  We passed Pizza Hut, McDonalds (2 actually in short span), Starcucks and Hard Rock cafe before reaching the point where I changed buses to head towards the museums and Eiffel Tower.  We went down the Ave de l'Opera and saw another opera house and passed the Palais Royal to arrive at the entrance of the Louvre, which is structure that creates mini tunnels that are just big enough for the buses (3rd picture) and I surmise were built because the Louvre was originally a military complex and until recently housed many of the ministries of the French govenrment.  Once through we could see the Louvre complex and the pyramid (4th picture).  From the Louvre we went across the Seine past the Conciergie.  It got its name because it became a prison and the name was derived from the staff who took care of the prisoners, or the Concierge.  We continued on to Notre Dame, which was just amazing.  From there we went along the Seine River past several museums including the Musee d'Orsay.  We crossed the river and went on to the Champs-Elysee and up to the Arc de Triomphe.  Looking up the Champs-Elysee was amazing.  It was a Friday mid afternoon and we just crawled up the three lane street to enter the free-for-all around the arc.  Lots of little cars but they have the courage of a semi truck.  In addition, all the motorcycle riders weave in and out of the cars trying to move forward.

From there we headed over to the Eiffel Tower.  I read a travel post from someone who said going to the top was OK, but don't forget to look at the tower, that is what is really amazing.  Now I know what they meant.  As you approach it you can see it rise above the buildings.  As you get closer it looks amazing, the you drive up to it and it is awe inspiring. They said (we have a recorded tour available in 11 languages) that the Tower was built for an exposition as the tallest structure in the world and after the fair was over, angry Parisians wanted the "eye sore" torn down.  Slowly support for it grew and it remained.

We continued along the loop and passed the Hotel Biron, which is now the Musee Rodan.  The hotel was abandoned for years and artists moved in.  The state finally bought it and Rodan donnated his paintings in return of the favor that they would never be removed from the building and thus it became the Musee Rodan.

We passed the Musee de l'Armee with a row of cannons in front of it.  We were supposed to stop here and I was going to catch the bus that would take me to the Latin Section, but it turns out our driver was preoccupied with her cell phone and we didn't stop.  Actually, she didn't even turn on our audio, I learned a lot today when I was coming back from  Bastille and Montparnasse tours and we had a driver who was actually paying attention. So I retraced a small part of one of the tours then walked over to the hotel where I met Cindy and Lon Bruso for dinner (last picture)

We walked around the Latin Section and had cheese and bread and wine and beer served by a young man from Columb who spoke French and Spanish but very little English so we ordered in Spanish.  We continued to wander through the Latin Section, which was narrow streets and cobblestone streets and lots and lots of restaurants, very few of which were latin. There were Gyros and Greek and Morrocon.  We saw a suckling pig on a spit and later on saw a lamb on a spit.  We finally settled on a place where we had the menu prix.  I had a Sangria that was almost as good as the Sangria my sister Cindy and I had in a Chilean restaurant (NY), snails in the shell (a first for me) they were yummy but now I understand how Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman could send one flying across the room. We all had beouf bourguignon with noodles and it was amazing.  Cindy and I both had creme brulee, which was truly the best I've ever had and Lon had this amazing trio of sherbets that tasted like a bowl of fruit each sherbet was made from.  They walked me to catch a cab and it was a full moon over the Seine and the moon appeared to be sitting next to Notre Dame which was lit up, it really looked amazing.

I'm working on an online album of my pictures and will share with anyone who is interested.  I'll write about today and post more pictures tomorrow.  Since I haven't figured out what button in French lets me preview this, I'm just posting and if I missed a word/missspelled a word, I apologize in advance.