Sunday September 25, 2011
We traded sleep for the opportunity to re-walk the streets of Paris last night with Ty going one way and me the other. My journey took me down Rue St Denis through the sidewalk restaurant section and I walked through the centre of the Louvre and up the Champs Elysees. There I bought myself a bottle of champagne and went down to the esplanade along the Seine and raised my glass to my good fortunes and wonderful life. When I ran out of champagne, I peed in the river and walked up to the pantheon and over to Les Halles. Unfortunately, my camera battery had gone dead hours before after going through the Louvre so I have no pics to document my finds which included numerous fountains, cathedrals, and endless restaurants full of people smoking and drinking and talking in loud voices. Ty and I met back at the hotel around 2:30am and while he slept till 4:30, I uploaded pics to my blog and then we took a cab to the airport. The streets were no more empty of people at 5 am than they were at midnight, with the exception of two Canadian travellers headed on their way... Farewell Paris! Tres Bien!
We flew into London around 10 am, took the "tube" downtown and checked in to our hotel. We started our walking tour at the Tower of London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London
buying a few knick knacks (and having a Starbucks with cream!), and then we walked across the Tower Bridge over the Thames River. From there we walked beside a WWII warship (The Belfast) and found the Golden Hind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Hind. Then we walked up to St. Pauls Cathedral http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Paul's_Cathedral where Tyler insisted we go in and listen to an organ recital under the dome. We stayed for three hymms including Fantasia and Tocatta in D minor, Prelude and Fugue in B major and Final from Sonata No. 1 in D minor. Not our regular Sunday afternoon music but it was unforgettable. From there we went to a sushi bar for lunch and then walked back to our room, where we are bandaging our blistered feet for another round, though sleep beckons me with a long curved finger.
Tomorrow, we plan on walking up to the British National Museum to see the Rosetta Stone. Then comes the Palace of Westminster (Big Ben), shopping at Harrods and Harvey Nichols, and a visit to Camden or Portabella Markets, all before breakfast. Laughs.
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| Tower Bridge |
