London

Our trip last week was not just to Paris, we went to London as well. We had 4 1/2 days in Paris and 1 day in London. The trip was fairly short but when you add in the travel days it felt pretty long. London was fairly exhausting. We left our hotel at 5:30am to get to the train station because we had to check in 45 min in advance. Checking in at the train station was like going to the airport. You have to get your tickets and go through customs and get your passport stamped. Which is definitely cool. I love all the stamps in my passport -- Ho Chi Minh City, Tokyo, Rome, Patras (Greece), Athens, Madrid, Paris and London. And that's just since January of '08. :-)

London was not what I hoped. In fact I didn't enjoy it as much as Paris. I found London loud and bustling and way too busy. Even in winter it was ridiculously full of tourists, which I hated. And everything was so expensive. The city was just that, a city. It was NYC with an accent and for twice the price. While Paris is filled with croissants and Vietnamese food, London is full of fried fish (fish and chips) and Indian curries. Maybe since I was wanting a romantic getaway, London just threw me for a loop since it was anything but romantic. Admittedly it was fun riding on the train to London - especially riding through the chunnel. Plus the train station was Harry Potter's train station which was also pretty cool, since I love Harry Potter. I also liked the British Museum - rosetta stone and mummies. The next time I go to England I think I will stick to the country side. I'm envisioning a tour of English castles. It will be like a Jane Austen novel come to life.