Our last day here in London! I could use a few more days to see everything, but we for sure wanted to see Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. We decided to stop by the Courtauld Gallery on the way. It houses some art of the Impressionists and has a cool staircase that we took some pictures of, more fear of the dizzying heights. But with Camille’s fearless camera work we got some cool shots of the building.
We then ran over to the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. We enjoyed learning more about the amazing transportation over the hundreds of years in London. Going on all the busses and trains and boats and the tube has been a highlight of our trip!
They had a history of many of the posters from the tube over the years. There is some brilliant graphic design in all of that.
We headed out to Covent Garden to find lunch and got a feel for the outdoor markets there.
We finally found lunch at a noodle place called Wagamama. Fun place.
We hopped on a bus over to Westminster Abbey. Erik found an app for the busses in London that has helped us navigate that part of the transport.
Westminster Abbey is massive and impressive and full of history. So many people are buried here, from British royalty over hundreds of years, to poets and authors. We had a children’s tour that kept us moving and learning in our hour at the abbey.
Many of these places don’t allow photography inside, so we just settled for some pictures outside. Parliament was in session, but the line to get in was two hours long, so we visited Jewel Tower across from Parliament. It is a building form the 1600s that housed many documents from the government.
Here is the view of Parliament from Jewel Tower
Jewel Tower
It was time to go and get packed up for our train through the chunnel to Paris. So we got back on the tube and back to the apartment. We changed beds, vacuumed and left some goodies for Rob Flanigan who lent us the use of the apartment. We got all our bags out the door and headed for the tube.
Somehow there were not many trains heading the direction we needed for St. Pancras. So we waited about 15 minutes for a tube train, it was around 5:15. And when the tube train arrived it was packed and we had 7 rolling bags and our other hand carried items. We barely squeezed on and were on a packed train. We made it! It was a little stressful. But we got to the train station, and it was a very nice station to get on the Eurostar over to Paris. We got sandwiches and dinner. And then we waited for them to call our train. We had to go through a passport line again, but we did not have to check our bags. We did have assigned seats. We read and played games and relaxed on the train. It was very smooth and fast. We were only in the chunnel for about 20 minutes I think. The whole trip from London to Paris was just over 2 hours.
We arrived in Paris a little after 10, got some euros, and then found 2 taxis to the Flanigan’s apartment in Paris! We arrived and got buzzed in. Jennifer was there and was so kind to us. Her eight year old boy was still up. And they shared some bunk beds, the front couch, and a downstairs bed and loft bed with us. We got settled in, had some drinks and snacks, and then went to bed. What a blessing their hospitality has meant to us on this trip!
After lunch we decided to head down from the Flanigans to the Arc de Triomphe. We got tickets to hike to the top. Another dizzying spiral staircase to great heights. Makes me nervous. But the views from the top are fabulous.
A fantastic day in Paris!
