USVI-On-Line

Trip report and some pix from recent trip to London and Paris. Second time to Europe for family of 3. First trip was to Switzerland in 07 that was awesome and had us wanting to return to Europe, but to where?

Italy and Greece are at the top of the list, but Greece is a bit of a mess right now, and we only had the opportunity to go in early July, and based on what I’ve read, you really want to avoid the crowds in Italy in July/August.

So we asked my daughter where she wanted to go and she came up with London and Paris. After all, this was a HS graduation gift that was enabled by the college scholarship money she received and also as reward for her hard work that resulted in being named class Salutatorian. Quite an accomplishment finishing #2 out of a class of 468 at a Blue Ribbon HS. She had to write and deliver a speech at commencement – nerve wracking, but very gratifying.

Plus I went through a pretty serious health thing last year that just reinforced that life is too short and precious to be saying “oh, we’ll do that someday”, so we started putting this trip together only about 3 months ago, hoping that maybe the cities wouldn’t be too crowded. And, both the Pound and the Euro were going in the right direction, so the trip would be about 20% cheaper than at the beginning of the year.

Had some trouble gaining traction on the trip research, but always start with studying the maps cross referenced with the top sights to figure out time needed and logistics. I liked the Frommers “Day by Day” guide I recently used for San Diego, so got the London and Paris versions, plus the Rick Steves Paris (his Switzerland book was likewise helpful), supplemented with stuff on Tripadvisor. It was interesting to note that there are folks on the TA Paris forum that are as obsessed with Paris as folks are about St. John.

The maps in those Frommers guides are very good – there are 33 maps in the London guide, and 40 maps in the Paris guide. The front fold out of the Paris guide was especially helpful with a city map on one side and the Paris Metro (subway) map on the other.

Researching Paris was freaking me out a little because of the language difference, and the first (and second) look at the Metro map can be a little intimidating. I was also picturing emerging from the Metro in a complex part of the city and not having a clue which way was which, so I ordered this neat little compass that is built into a D ring that I attached to my 25 yr old LLBean camera bag. Man, did that thing come in handy to figure out which way we wanted to go in both cities. Only went down the wrong block once in each city before correcting after a few hundred yards (or should I say meters).

Enough prelude. Friday July 2 evening flight out of JFK on AA. Very weird to be going to the airport in the late afternoon vs. early morning. We had learned from our other transatlantic trip to be prepared with the inflatable neck pillows, eyeshades, extra comfy clothes, etc. I got a pair of noise canceling headphones for the iPod. They worked pretty good to cut the engine noise.

In an effort to receive something edible, we also tried ordering special meals, signing up for 2 vegetarian and one diabetic. We are neither, but figured we might get something better than mystery meat. The diabetic meal was salmon which wasn’t bad, but the vegetarian was some really awful Indian food. The plane was equipped with those TV monitors in the seats in front so you could choose what and when to watch.

With some limited napping on the plane, arrive Heathrow about 8:30am Sat July 3 London time after the 6+ hr flight. The AA terminal of our arrival was pretty old and used looking, tried to find a bank ATM to get some British pounds. Had been warned in TA forums not to use the ATMs owned by Travelex and other currency exchange services as your exchange rate would be awful. Couldn’t find one in this area, so just continued on to find the bus service we would take into the city, assuming I could use a CC to pay for those tix. (BTW used the Capital One CC on this trip – one of the few that do not charge a “foreign exchange fee” of 2-3%. On a trip like this, that can add up to real money) You can also take the Tube aka Underground (subway), but learned on TA that National Express runs these nice coach busses into the city several times an hour for just a little more than the tube, and when I saw that they terminated at the Victoria coach station that was walking distance to our hotel, and you get to see some of the city on the ride in, it became a no brainer.

Nice ride into the city, walk and roll suitcases the few blocks to hotel, ParkPlaza Victoria. Too early for check in, but drop bags, start walking towards Westminster Abbey, finding a Barclays bank ATM, stop at a Pret A Manger for good sandwiches on the way.

Did the Westminster Abbey audio tour, saw Big Ben, London Eye, walked over the Westminster Bridge, etc. and back to hotel to check in. Somehow we got the concierge level room at the regular triple rate, which means breakfast was included, as well as free happy hour stuff. Nice! Room was decent size for Europe, new bathroom. I think we all napped, then walk to dinner at “The Orange” sort of an upscale pub in the nearby posh Belgravia neighborhood. Of course, the World Cup was on the telly.

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Westminster Abbey – parts of this Gothic structure dates from 1245. All of the coronations of English and British monarchs were held in the Abbey since that time, and all sorts Kings and Queens of England and aristocrats are buried there. The place reeks of serious history. No photography allowed inside.

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Everyone slept well, and I’m thinking “what jet lag?” Breakfast at hotel. A traditional type of English breakfast is bacon, eggs, grilled tomato, and beans. Fruit, yogurt, and cereal was also available. Walked down to the Thames to catch the river boat up to the Tate Modern Musuem. The Tate Modern was very good, and surprisingly, very comparable in quality and quantity to the MOMA in NYC. Walked over the Millennium bridge up towards St Paul’s Cathedral (that’s where Princess Di got married). We are scheduled to see that again later (inside) on a tour we were signed up with.

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Down to the subway to get our “Oyster” cards = smart cards that you load up with X money and swipe going in and out of the Tube, automatically deducts fare prorated on zone/distance traveled and time of day. You can turn your cards in at end of trip to redeem 3 pound deposit and unused fare. Pretty slick and much more sophisticated than the flat rate NYC subway.

The girls want to do shopping this afternoon so we take the Tube to Piccadilly Circus, which is touted as the Times Sq of London but is small and hardly that, mostly cheesy souvenir shops, although there was one nicer store call “Total Britain” that was pretty good.

From there, we make the mistake to walk all the way about a mile to Harrods, another famous shopping destination about a mile away. Although it was pretty cool to see the transition from cheesy stores to upscale retail and hotels and parks along the route, it exhausted us. Harrods is like Bloomingdales on steroids. It had a fantastic food court that included an oyster bar and a chocolate bar.

Took the Tube back to one stop past our hotel for dinner at the White Swan – a traditional English pub for great draft beer, fish n chips, “jacket” potatoes, and “Farmers” cheddar cheese. Good stuff.

Walked back up to hotel, 2 of us fell asleep for a little while, then we all tried to go to sleep at about 10, but we were all tossing and turning to 2am. Yikes. My “what jet lag?” proclamation came back to haunt me.

Next Up: we get abandoned by our tourgroup at the Tower of London.

this is gonna be good! I ♥ the London Eye!
the first time to London I did a similar walk to Harrod's the day we arrived. I was like a zombie in there!

I love London, and I am loving this trip report.

I just realized that it has been almost 20 years since I've been to Westminster Abbey, so that might explain why I remember being able to take pictures inside.

That walk to Harrod's is killer. But that store is amazing. I got the best quiches in the food court.

I need to go there again soon. I miss it.

Looking forward to more!!

Thanks for the report and your photos are as usual great.

Love London too. Lots to see and do. I'm glad it's just two hours from us. We used to fly there over the day, first flight out in the morning and last one home again. Gave lots of time to shop etc.

Looking forward to the next report.

It's so interesting to read your report and the pictures are great. Looking forward to read more.

Linne

Looking forward to the rest of the report! (I like all the extra info. )

Congrats to your daughter, you must be veer proud!

Great photos, some look just like a postcard, your daughter is a lucky girl!

Lived outside of London for a year back in '91 and recall that it was possible to shoot pix inside Westminster. In fact, I remember doing some photography of historical folks in the crypt area.

My wife and I never got tired of taking the train in on Saturdays visiting Harrod's and me spending a few hours in the Food Court while she was fantasizing on the floors above.

Did you get a chance to visit Speakers Corner in Hyde Park? That was good time spent.

Your trip report and pictures are fantastic. The photos look like postcards. I love Harrods. Often wished that I lived in London so that I could shop in the Food Court. I think that London is one of the easiest large cities to get around in and the Metro system is so clear.

Great report and pictures!

I can't wait to read about your experiences watching the WC matches over there - although by that time I think the England team had come home!

patr wrote:Congrats to your daughter, you must be very proud! Great photos, some look just like a postcard, your daughter is a lucky girl!

Thanks. We are. Hard work should be rewarded. And if she had chosen the other college that was $53k per year and doesn’t give any merit money even to somebody like her, we wouldn’t be going on ANY vacations for a LONG time.

promoguy wrote:Lived outside of London for a year back in '91 and recall that it was possible to shoot pix inside Westminster. In fact, I remember doing some photography of historical folks in the crypt area. My wife and I never got tired of taking the train in on Saturdays visiting Harrod's and me spending a few hours in the Food Court while she was fantasizing on the floors above.
Did you get a chance to visit Speakers Corner in Hyde Park? That was good time spent.

Too bad no photography allowed now, although lighting is so low you would need a fast lens and/or tripod.
I think they don’t allow photography in a lot of places because they don’t want the distracting flashes going off (as they say in WDW "no flash photography please") and most people with point n shoot cameras can’t figure out how to intentionally shut off the flash to take photos without it automatically going off in low light.

Did see some soapbox activity at Speakers Corner.

silverheels wrote:Your trip report and pictures are fantastic. The photos look like postcards. I love Harrods. Often wished that I lived in London so that I could shop in the Food Court. I think that London is one of the easiest large cities to get around in and the Metro system is so clear.

Thanks.
A few observations about the London “Underground”: those tubes are deep. That probably helped minimize the damage during the WWII bombings. Thank goodness for the long escalators. Escalator Maintenance Mechanic is a good job to have in London.
Also seemed like some lines were a different gauge (smaller tubes, narrower tracks and trains).

And in terms of navigation, I think they had the platforms listed as north/south when it looked like on the map it might be more like east/west (or visa versa). That was a little confusing, whereas the Paris Metro was color coded and direction was identified by the terminal stop.

augie wrote:Great report and pictures!

I can't wait to read about your experiences watching the WC matches over there - although by that time I think the England team had come home!

I'll cover that, and indeed they had. The BBC does some great coverage, and they managed to tone down the audio feed of the vuvuzelas.

And of course Wimbledon also got extensive coverage, such as live broadcasts of obscure mixed doubles on the outer courts.

When I was there, and I know I took pictures in Poets' Corner. I think they mentioned that it slows the guided tours down, but it was also very hard to take pictures.

I thought the tube was much easier to use than the Paris Metro. But I don't remember the Metro being color-coded, just confusing. I chalked it up to not speaking French.

I love France though, and Paris is every bit as romantic as they say. I would like to spend some more time in France and see more of the countryside and further explore Paris. The transportation workers went on strike while we were there so after the first two days we could only see sights that we could walk to.

I can't wait to hear more about your trip.