London, Day 2

Today was another exciting day in London. The rain wasn't too bad today - just a drizzle here and there and one huge downpour in the afternoon.

This morning we started our day by taking the Tube to Notting Hill (mind the gap!). We spent several hours walking through the endless array of vendors at Portobello Market. The market comes to life on Fridays and Saturdays and is primarily known for the antiques. The food and produce area of the market was amazing. We never did find the blue door for the travel bookshop. Oh well.

This afternoon we visited the National Gallery museum . We have seen so much religious artwork in Italy and Paris that we very quickly walked through that section to get to the great Impressionism exhibit they have through the end of May. There was an entire room of only Monet's work along with several other rooms with Renoir, Manet, Pisarro, Picasso, as well as many others. Outside the Musee d'Orsay in Paris this was the biggest selection of Impressionist artwork we have seen, although this was the best display of Monet's work including a couple of the Water Lilies.

Next we spent some time walking around Covent Gardens, which is another market that is mostly covered, a welcome blessing given the nearly constant drizzle. There are several performers around doing skits, playing instruments, or singing. Great place to sit and do some people watching. We had tickets for a play tonight at a theater that was only a couple of minutes walk from Covent Gardens so we decided to get some dinner at a quaint little restaurant called La Boheme, right across the street from the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

The best part of our day was seeing Lord of the Rings play tonight. The play has not even officially opened yet. The play opened for preview on the 9th of May and will has the official opening in June. We had seats in the center about 2/3rd up the bottom stalls. The set was unbelievable and the cast was very good. We both thought that the actor playing Gollum did the best job at bringing the character to life. The play lasted 3 hours with one 10 min intermission and another 5 minute pseudo-intermission that consisted mostly of Orcs scaring the pants off various audience members. It was difficult at first to not expect the same scenes and exact story as the movies. There were some differences in the story line but the producers did a great job in bringing the overall storyline to life on stage. The special effects done with the Nazgul (black riders), Shelob (spider), and Orcs was really good.

London, Day 1

Today is our first full day in London. The weather forecast is rain all day. We decided to head towards Leicester Square to check out the half-price theater tickets, where we acquired tickets for Stomp tonight. Took the Tube to Harrods. We had original planned to do a couple of museums today but found that Harrods was much larger than we had anticipated. We did a lot of window shopping and bought a few gifts and later walked to Hamley's toy store to look around.

Tonight we had dinner at the Rock and Sole (Fish and Chips) which was very good and then went to the Vaudeville Theatre to see Stomp. You can check out the website for the show at http://www.stomp.co.uk. It is similar in creative style to Blue Man Group. There are 7 performers creating music from many various objects such as brooms, trash cans, and plungers. Highly recommended.

Paris/London

Our time in Paris comes to an end, but we head on to London today. We have had a great time in Paris. It truly is a beautiful city. We have seen and explored so much yet there is still so much we haven't seen.

We took the subway to the train station which was fun with our luggage, especially for John lugging both suitcases up and down all the stairs. It wasn't too bad. We made it to the train station to take the Eurostar to London, about a 3 hour trip including the three stops prior to getting into Waterloo Station. We experienced the British hospitality a couple times today when someone offered to carry one of our suitcases down a flight of stairs for us, then later a older chap on the street offered to help us when we were looking at our map to figure out which way we needed to head to find the grocery store.

It has rained all evening and is pretty cold here. Tomorrow the next adventure begins!

Paris, Day 5

Today we took a bike tour to Monet's house and gardens. We took a train to Vernon, where we stopped for picnic fixins (cheap Roquefort cheese and Riesling!), then picked up our bikes for the short ride to Giverny. The town where his house is very small and quaint, and surprisingly not overrun with tourists. We didn't realize that many of Monet's famous paintings (water lilies, etc) were painted at his house and that all the gardens were designed by him specifically as painting subjects. The gardens were absolutely amazing -- highlight of the entire trip so far. You can see in real life the water lilies, Japanese bridge, his house, all the things that you've already seen in his paintings. I could spend an entire week here just soaking in the environment; it is so peaceful and idyllic, not to mention exceedingly photogenic.

Took another walk down to the Eiffel Tower tonight for some sunset photos of the tower and the river (and some fire juggling!).

Paris, Day 4

Today we went to the Musee d'Orsay (Orsay Museum), where they have the world's largest collection of impressionist art. The museum is built in what used to be a train station, so the architecture is very unique. The museum is enormous (not Louvre-caliber, but still a few miles of walking) and has an astounding collection of paintings, sculptures, and decorative artifacts. They had an exhibit specifically on the Forests of Fontainebleau, where all the cool impressionist painters flocked around the turn of the 20th century to learn to paint landscapes. A trip to Fontainebleau for a photo expedition and rock-climbing (thanks for the tip Marvin!) just got added to my "must do before I die" list.

Today we also visited the Louvre gardens (aka the prime "make out in the shrubs" destination in Paris) and the Louvre's glass pyramids. Dinner tonight was at an Italian place (what is it with Italian food?!) on the Champs d'Elysées and another visit to the Arc d'Triomphe, where they're now flying a ginormous French flag, presumably celebrating their new President.

Paris, Day 3

Today we went to the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica, a church at the top of a hill where you can climb to the top and get a spectacular view of Paris for 30 miles in every direction. Next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral: grand Gothic architecture and gargoyles, and the most impressive stained glass we've ever seen.

Next stop was Luxembourg Gardens, a sprawling park with lots of fountains, impeccably manicured gardens, and plenty of benches and lounge chairs to enjoy it all.

Paris, Day 2

Today we went to the Louvre. Wow. The scale of the Louvre just dwarfs every other museum we've ever been to. It would probably take a week just to walk through the whole Louvre, and three weeks if you actually wanted to stop and look around on your way. Of course, we decided to do it in a day. Highlights: Mona Lisa (of course), Venus de Milo, Egyptian hieroglyphics/sarcophagi/mummies (including a mummified crocodile), history of the Louvre (raise your hand if you knew it had been around for 800 years), and the amazing angular architecture of the glass pyramids of the museum itself. Alas, we didn't even scratch the surface of all the Louvre has to offer; we'll just have to make another trip back later to truly do it justice.

Dinner tonight at Le Lotti, the restaurant next to our hotel (Hotel Jolly Lotti). Good food, though the maître d' was a bit snooty.

Today the French elected their new president, Nicolas Sarkozy. We had gotten back from dinner and were watching French CNN on TV and saw that the president was about to make an appearance at Place de la Concorde (a huge public square with a gold-tipped obelisk flanked by fountains) and realized it's about a quarter mile from our hotel! So we head downstairs to check out the scene -- a hundred thousand French people, what amounted to a free rock concert, and preventive police everywhere . Amazing sight, tons of people dancing in the streets, street vendors selling crepes/nutella (yum!), people just knowing how to enjoy themselves. Good times all around.