Warning this will be long and this will contain a lot of pictures....doesn't that make it a good read??? Don't forget to click on the pictures if you want a better view :)
I don't usually do a day by day trip report, but since we saw and did a lot of things, I thought it'd be easiest to break it down. I'll also give you a break down of our total costs and show you how inexpensive it can be to visit Europe :)
Tuesday 5/5
We flew USAir from Orlando to Charlotte to Philly to Paris. Yes there was 2 connections, but I guess for $421pp airfare you suck it up. The first flight was uneventful. I didn't even cry leaving Little Lion with my parents. LL didn't even notice nor care since Grandma and PopPop were there which means LOTS of attention :)
Our flight from Charlotte to Philly was on a Steelers airplane. Mr. E thought that was cool. There was nothing fancy about it except for the paint on the outside.
The next flight is where the trouble started. We loaded the plane on time, however, the plane's paperwork was not completed. That held us up for an hour at the gate on the plane. When we finally got the all clear, we had to wait another hour on the runway because a small storm had blown through making other flights delayed which made the runway CROWDED. When we first got to the runway there were 22 planes in front of us to take off. So 2 hours behind schedule we finally made it in the air. The rest of the flight was uneventful.
Wednesday 5/6
We arrived in Paris 2 hours late. This would have been fine except we were meeting Laurent to get the keys to our apartment at 10am. We made good time on the RER(train) and found the apartment easily. We were only an hour late and luckily Laurent was still there :) He was a very friendly Frenchman. He showed us to our apartment. The pictures from my previous
post were accurate. I would totally recommend the apartment to anyone who is visiting Paris. I give it 9/10 stars. It got 9 stars because of it's location....right in the middle of St.Germain area which is happening and has lots of bars, restaurants, and shops in walking distance. The apartment had everything you would need to feel like it is home....nice towels, remodeled bathrooms, comfy bed, dishwasher, washing machine, tv, free internet, and calls to the US. I would have given it a 10/10 except the stove wasn't working which was fine for us since we never ate anything except breakfast there. It also had bambooey carpet (hard to explain) that was NOT comfy at all on the feet in the bedroom. I had to wear my flip flops when upstairs. And the main reason it got a 9/10 is that it on the 6th floor which means 80 steps!!!! After a day of walking 80 steps was A LOT!!! Our running joke was that we only had 80 steps to go when we were on our way *home*. Here is the staircase in this 150 year old building :)
After freshening up, we walked over to Luxembourg Gardens. The weather was chilly and slightly overcast. This was a beautiful park where there were chairs all over for families, students, and business people would eat lunch and hang out. We decided to join them and had a ham and cheese crepe (skinny pancake). It was yummy!! Here are some of the beautiful gardens and silly Mr.E and the big head ;)
After strolling, we went grocery shopping for drinks...ie champagne and wine and breakfast. Then back to the apartment to sleep off the jet lag. For dinner, we went to Hippopotamus which is a chain restaurant like an Applebees here. The food was good (french fries included) and the beer 1664 was tasty too. On our way over we crossed the Seine River when the sun was setting. So pretty!!
Once we ate dinner, we thought we should see some of The City of Lights. We walked over to the Louvre which we posted in our
sneak peek blog. Then back to the apartment to celebrate our first night in Paris with Champagne.
Thursday 5/7
We woke up late (darn jet lag) and took the Metro (subway) to the Eurostar station to take the train to London. We grabbed a french bread sandwich to eat on the train. The train we took makes the trip in 2.5 hours and goes under the English Channel. The train also tops out at close to 200mph. It was fun to see how fast you were going against the cars on the highway. The English Channel portion was 30 mins and it was like going through a big tunnel.
We arrived in London and went to the train station to buy a one day Travelcard because if you bought it from the train station, you could use the website London 2-4-1 to get into many attractions for buy one get one free. (Yes I use coupons on vacation too!!!) The weather was dreary, overcast. Our first stop was the Tower of London. I used my BOGO coupon to save 17GBP! The Tower was my favorite part of London. It has so much history from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn getting beheaded there. Here is the outer wall. They did reenactments on the front lawn.
The white tower is the most famous part. This is where they held prisoners. Inside was the exhibit Dressed to Kill, Henry the VIII. It had Henry VIII's armor and weapons. It is amazing how well preserved and how much of his things were kept.
There were many hands on activities. You could try and solve mysteries. Try on armor. Touch the torture machines like the Rack.
The other main exhibit is the Crown Jewels. An exhibit for all women!! What girl doesn't like crowns and tiaras with many diamonds and jewels. Since the jewels are so important to the country of England they are protected by the royal guards.
The Towers are also protected by 6 Ravens. The ravens are symbolic because legend says that if ONE raven leaves the tower will fall. So the ravens are still there. One raven took a liking to me...I think it was the trail mix we were munching on ;)
On our way out we stopped to check out the Tower Bridge.
Our next stop was Big Ben. This was our first *London BABY* sight ;) Notice the crappy weather. Never fear, Love is still in the air ;0x
Next to Big Ben was the London Eye. We would have rode it, but as you can see by the weather, the view wouldn't have been good. Plus we didn't have a lot of time since we were just there for the day.
We then went to all of the major sites.....Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.
We ate dinner at Garfunkels....fish and chips of course. Out London time was up, so back to the Eurostar for the ride home.
Friday 5/8
We woke up to another overcast chilly day. We decided to walk to the Arc de Triumph and hope that it clears up before heading over to the Eiffel Tower. In order to get to the AdT you have to walk down the Champs Elysees. The CE has many shops along the way which we didn't stop in (that'll come later). On our walk we had a few glimpses of the Eiffel Tower.
The AdT was huge and the huge flag was in honor of VE day (the end of the war from Germany).
We then headed over to the Eiffel Tower! We were going to go up, but the weather was again not cooperating and it was BUSY!!
We were getting hungry from all the walking. We decided to eat lunch in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower. Sooooo romantic :) And just like that the sun came out for seriously 15 minutes. We were trying to take a ton of pictures while the sun was there since it hadn't been out our whole trip.
The clouds came back and we headed back to our apartment for a siesta. The French people don't usually eat dinner until 10:00. We went to an outdoor bistro for beer and people watching and then to a nice restaurant for dinner at 11. And made our usual way back to the apartment to video chat with Little Lion and drink wine :)
Saturday 5/9
Dinner at a pizzeria on the way home at midnight. Yummy ;)
Sunday 5/10
While we were there we saw a mother with her 2 daughters about 8 and 10 and all 3 of them were sketching a painting on their sketch pads :) So nice to see! Like I said the Louvre was so big that we didn't even get to the top floor after being there for 3.5 hours. We were hungry and tired. We grabbed Subway (the number 1 sandwich shop in France) and headed back to the apartment for a siesta. We had a romantic dinner at an outdoor cafe while we were serenaded by street performers.
Monday 5/11It is our last full day in Paris and that meant SHOPPING! We went back to the Champs Elysees.
Along the CE, were many car shops which Mr. E enjoyed. They are very fancy and space agey ;)
Mr. E was in search of shoes. Unfortunately Frenchmen don't have big feet and Mr. E does.....is a size 12 big here??? So we went to NUMEROUS shoe stores to find only a few shoes that came in his size. He did end up finding a pair. I however, didn't;( The French have great shoes, but they are dressy and expensive. Being a stay at home mom, my normal shoes are flip flops. I couldn't make myself buy them. We also came across our first mean French lady. She was not happy helping Mr. E. She had to look for several pairs of shoes for him and when she came back with 2 pairs, he didn't like either. So she not quietly said some mean French words at him. Speaking of the French people that we came across, most of them were nice, but not friendly or helpful. I mean if we went into stores that were empty, they wouldn't greet us or ask if we needed help. On the streets they kept to themselves, not smiling as they walked. Very reserved would be a good description. Yes, I know there are friendly, great French people (I taught a great family from France), but this is what we came across. I did end up getting an Eiffel Tower appliqué for our Living Room which is a French wine theme.
That evening, it was raining. We thought a movie would be a good idea. We decided to see Wolverine. It was in English with French subtitles. You may laugh that we went to a movie, but with a toddler at home, going to the movies is a luxury that we don't get often. Movie theaters are different than here. The concessions are not fresh popcorn and one cooler of ice cream treats. The theater was small too.
The movie was good and we enjoyed it. We picked up some food on the way back to the apartment. We packed up for our trip home the next day.
Tuesday 5/12
We headed to the airport in hopes of an easy travel day (yup foreshadowing). It started off with us getting on the wrong Metro to the airport. Luckily we realized our mistake before it went the wrong way. However, it did tack on 15 extra mins of travel time. When we get to the airport to check in the French attendant informs us that my suitcase is too large to be a carry on....mind you I used it as a carry on on the way over. I tell him that, but he says too bad and that carry on sizes will be changing soon to smaller and they were starting. OK fine, I'm irritated because 1. I could have packed wine and champagne to bring home 2. I was going to have to pay for checked in luggage! The attendant asks if we want to check in Mr. E's suitcase too, but we say no because we don't want to pay extra. He takes my suitcase and puts it on the ramp to the plane and hands me our tickets. I say do you want my credit card and he asks why? UMMMM don't they charge for checked in luggage????? I don't argue and we are on our way. We walk through customs and through the airport to security. As we get to security, I ask Mr. E were is my Eiffel Tower applique? He has NO idea!!!!!! I said I bet he left it at the check in counter while we were shuffling with luggage. I'm upset because this is my souvenir. We attempt to walk all the way back to check in but can't because we'd have to deal with customs again. So to the gate, we went;( Mr. E decides to ask the gate attendant if there is anyway to get the ETA from check in. She calls down. That person says they have it and to come down. Mr. E asks if they can meet at customs since our plane was boarding shortly. The USAir people decide it's a security issue to do this and they were kind enough to walk it to us!!! I was so happy to get it back!!!
Our international flight was only half full and we were able to spread out and get comfy and the flight home was smooth too ;)
My parents and LL met us at the airport! We were all very excited to see each other!!!!!!! All in all it was a great trip and could only have been better if the weather was nicer! Would we go back?? Probably not unless we take our kids later on when they are teens. We are the type of people that know there are MANY places on this Earth that we want to see, so why go twice :)
How much did this cost???
I know you are all wondering...Can I afford a trip to Europe? SURE!!!!
We used cash for everything there since using your credit cards have additional fees (3% extra for most cards). Our Debit card only has a 1% fee so it made sense to go to the ATM (which is on every corner) and get cash.
Airfare for both of us $842
Train tix to London both $218
Hotel $1200
Cash (500E, 80GBP, $50) $830
Total $3090 for 1 full week in Paris!
