Post by foureyedgeek on Jun 3, 2005 16:07:54 GMT -5
Ah, hello everyone. I'm not sure that this will count as a "just back" report because I've been home for over a week and a half. I do have an excuse for the lack of posting, of course. Somewhere between Rome and London I picked up a cold and it has turned into a Sinus Infection. Sinus infection combined with jet lag, I had a really tough time getting back into the swing of things. So here we go.
We flew into London and then hopped on a Eurostar train and headed to Paris. That first day was probably the longest day of my life. All we wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep, but we successfully stayed awake the entire day. (Although, I think we did go to bed before the sun went down, which was odd)
Paris: We stayed at a hotel in the 3e, it was a cute little place called the Hotel Bellevue et du Chariot d'Or. There were 4 girls in our group (it was supposed to be 5, but thats a long story). The hotel was great for the price. And we got extra towels every day, which made me very happy. Paris was a very exciting city. I loved every minute of it. I had previously been worried about using the Metro system, because I'm from small-town America and we have no public transportation system, so this world of underground transport was new to me. But once we were there, I realized how easy it was to use. We still walked alot all over the city, but the Metro was really a blessing. Sacre Coeur was my favorite church, but all the churches in Paris are breath taking. We found a crepe shop right around the corner from our hotel and we ate there almost every night, becoming friends with the guy who made our crepes. Paris is a beautiful city, and expensive. I had been prepared to spend $100 usd everyday, but when I got to Paris I tried very hard to save my money. I withdrew 200 euros the first night we were there and it lasted for the 5 days we were there. I was very proud of myself. Our last day in Paris was spent wandering around Jardin de Luxemburg and Jardin des Plantes, what a beautiful way to end our days there. We took an overnight train to Rome.
I was pretty worried about the train too. The woman at our hotel told us some scary stories, but alas, everything turned out to fine. Our couchette mates were Indian guys studying in America for their PhD, so their English was supurb and they were great guys.
Rome: In Rome we booked an apartment. Since there had been 5 of us on the trip, an apartment seemed like a perfect idea. With 4, it was still great. We were down the street from Vatican City, so we were close to all the Pope action and only a few subway stops from everything else. We shopped at a street market for fresh fruits and drinks for our fridge. Staying in an apartment could have been the smartest thing we did. It was so homey. In Rome we did a few tours with the tour company Rome(ing) Tours, thanks to a post from Muvver about how fun the tours are. Fun they were! The pub crawl was great and the regular "all over tour" was very informative . We had planned to see Pompeii but after the pub crawl the night before, we could hardly get out of the apartment before noon. No Pompeii
I was a little down about that, but its okay. While we were there, Gelato became my best friend. Thanks to Rome(ing) Tours we found a place near the Pantheon that made homemade gelato everyday. We went there more than once. (If you are standing at the Pantheon face away from it, take the road on the left hand side that is the furthest away from Pantheon, the Gelato place is probably the 3rd or 4th place on the right hand side)The last day we spent in Rome was spent mostly at Ciampino airport. This is where we perfected our Phase 10 playing and had to listen to an ignorant American complain about Europe. People like that just drive me crazy.
London: In London we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Notting Hill. The location was really great. I love Notting Hill and the B&B was about a 4 minute walk to the Tube station. We did all the really touristy things there, double decker bus, London Eye (which is amazing), Tower of London, and Changing of the Guard. We saw the British Museum and the British Library. We also did the Portabello Rd Market. The market was so fun. I'm really into antiques and stuff like that, so the market was right up my alley. We also used the TKTS for discount tickets for Les Mis. We were in row C, and the show was fabulous. I saw it in New York, but London was much better. We had a hard time trying to find a place to do our laundry in London, but that was our fault, we tried to do our laundry at about 8pm, when all the places were closing. We found places to do laundry, but they were already closed. After asking many wonderful people, we found one open until 10. So my advice is do laundry early, don't save it until the evening like we did. The underground was a life saver too. Everything we did was in Zone 1, so we all got a couple of day passes and we were set.
So I guess thats my trip in a nutshell. I can not even begin to tell you all how much this website has helped me in the past few months. I don't post a whole lot, because I have found that other people have already asked my questions, but now I hope to be able to help other travelers because now I've done it. I've also started planning my trip for next summer, I think I've caught the travelling bug. ;D
We flew into London and then hopped on a Eurostar train and headed to Paris. That first day was probably the longest day of my life. All we wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep, but we successfully stayed awake the entire day. (Although, I think we did go to bed before the sun went down, which was odd)
Paris: We stayed at a hotel in the 3e, it was a cute little place called the Hotel Bellevue et du Chariot d'Or. There were 4 girls in our group (it was supposed to be 5, but thats a long story). The hotel was great for the price. And we got extra towels every day, which made me very happy. Paris was a very exciting city. I loved every minute of it. I had previously been worried about using the Metro system, because I'm from small-town America and we have no public transportation system, so this world of underground transport was new to me. But once we were there, I realized how easy it was to use. We still walked alot all over the city, but the Metro was really a blessing. Sacre Coeur was my favorite church, but all the churches in Paris are breath taking. We found a crepe shop right around the corner from our hotel and we ate there almost every night, becoming friends with the guy who made our crepes. Paris is a beautiful city, and expensive. I had been prepared to spend $100 usd everyday, but when I got to Paris I tried very hard to save my money. I withdrew 200 euros the first night we were there and it lasted for the 5 days we were there. I was very proud of myself. Our last day in Paris was spent wandering around Jardin de Luxemburg and Jardin des Plantes, what a beautiful way to end our days there. We took an overnight train to Rome.
I was pretty worried about the train too. The woman at our hotel told us some scary stories, but alas, everything turned out to fine. Our couchette mates were Indian guys studying in America for their PhD, so their English was supurb and they were great guys.
Rome: In Rome we booked an apartment. Since there had been 5 of us on the trip, an apartment seemed like a perfect idea. With 4, it was still great. We were down the street from Vatican City, so we were close to all the Pope action and only a few subway stops from everything else. We shopped at a street market for fresh fruits and drinks for our fridge. Staying in an apartment could have been the smartest thing we did. It was so homey. In Rome we did a few tours with the tour company Rome(ing) Tours, thanks to a post from Muvver about how fun the tours are. Fun they were! The pub crawl was great and the regular "all over tour" was very informative . We had planned to see Pompeii but after the pub crawl the night before, we could hardly get out of the apartment before noon. No Pompeii
I was a little down about that, but its okay. While we were there, Gelato became my best friend. Thanks to Rome(ing) Tours we found a place near the Pantheon that made homemade gelato everyday. We went there more than once. (If you are standing at the Pantheon face away from it, take the road on the left hand side that is the furthest away from Pantheon, the Gelato place is probably the 3rd or 4th place on the right hand side)The last day we spent in Rome was spent mostly at Ciampino airport. This is where we perfected our Phase 10 playing and had to listen to an ignorant American complain about Europe. People like that just drive me crazy. London: In London we stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Notting Hill. The location was really great. I love Notting Hill and the B&B was about a 4 minute walk to the Tube station. We did all the really touristy things there, double decker bus, London Eye (which is amazing), Tower of London, and Changing of the Guard. We saw the British Museum and the British Library. We also did the Portabello Rd Market. The market was so fun. I'm really into antiques and stuff like that, so the market was right up my alley. We also used the TKTS for discount tickets for Les Mis. We were in row C, and the show was fabulous. I saw it in New York, but London was much better. We had a hard time trying to find a place to do our laundry in London, but that was our fault, we tried to do our laundry at about 8pm, when all the places were closing. We found places to do laundry, but they were already closed. After asking many wonderful people, we found one open until 10. So my advice is do laundry early, don't save it until the evening like we did. The underground was a life saver too. Everything we did was in Zone 1, so we all got a couple of day passes and we were set.
So I guess thats my trip in a nutshell. I can not even begin to tell you all how much this website has helped me in the past few months. I don't post a whole lot, because I have found that other people have already asked my questions, but now I hope to be able to help other travelers because now I've done it. I've also started planning my trip for next summer, I think I've caught the travelling bug. ;D
