London and Paris

No blog post or set of pictures could do justice to the amazing trip we just returned from.  It was truly epic! 

Last spring, Heather and I agreed we would switch off kids for 5 days each, so we could go on trips with our husbands.  When we made that plan, I never dreamed that Matt and I would actually end up going somewhere as cool as London and Paris!  Wow!  I still can't believe it, and it's already over!

After dropping our little friends off with Heather and Austin (and sleeping a whopping 2 hours), we headed to the Cleveland airport for our flight to DC and then on to London.

We were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived in London, at 10pm their time (only 5pm our time).
We used public transportation to get to our hotel.  We got a kick out of the signs:

 Just curious what kind of life-changing injuries they mean.  Or do they mean that it would change your life a lot if you were dead?

 

We woke up to a typical Hotel Breakfast.  The rumors are true--British people eat baked bean and stewed tomatoes for breakfast!  You know Matt had no problem diving right in!

 

Our first stop was the Tower of London (by way of the Tower Bridge).  I had read a lot about the Tower of London, so I was really excited to see it all in person!

 We got to walk across the magnificent Tower Bridge on our way back to the city.

Lunch was the classic fish and chips.  Delish!

We found our way to London's Chinatown.  So cool!  There were lots of good things to eat and lost of totally disgusting things as well.

 And a quick stop for gelato, of course!

The next morning, we were up bright and early again to meet our train to Paris!  First stop was the Louvre!  I can't even begin to describe how huge and impressive the building is, how cool and beautiful the artwork was, or how many nude statues we saw!  We also saw the Mona Lisa!

 Arc de Triumph

 Pretty soon, we could see the Eiffle Tower off in the distance!  We just started walking toward it, and we got to explore the city a little along the way.

 We stopped for lunch at a traditional French restaurant.  Matt had escargot (snails) and duck confit.  I had steak with bernais sauce.  And crepes for dessert!

 Finally, it was time to go to the Eiffle Tower!  It was massive and so beautiful!  We loved it!

 

After that, Matt was determined to find vespas or segways to ride around Paris on.  Sadly, it was Saturday in Paris, so they were all sold out.  Luckily (for Matt) there were still a few motorized scooters to be had!  We rode those babies along the Seine River.

 While we were on our ride, we passed this cool chalkboard with tons of people drawing on it.  I figured my kids' names ought to be there by the Seine river in downtown Paris, too!

We weren't hungry at dinnertime, but it seemed wrong not to eat a bunch of French pastries, so we did!  Pain de chocolat, eclairs, baguette, macarons, etc.  So good!

Next, we headed over to Notre Dam Cathedral.  It was huge!  And gorgeous.  And there was a concert going on inside.  The acoustics were amazing!  Matt loved the gargoyles best.

The next day we were back in London.  Buckingham Palace was pretty cool

Then on to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament.  I feel like I keep saying how huge and old and cool all of these buildings are.  They really are!

For lunch, we wanted English Pub Food.  This "chap" gave us some recommendations.

 The Albert is such a classic old building with awesome English fare.  Matt had shepherd's pie with lamb shank, and I had a beef and ale pot pie.  Both were excellent!

We finished up our quick trip by going to see the city from above on the London Eye.

On the morning of our fifth day, we loaded back onto the plane and headed home to our babies.  During that 5 days, we had woken up before 5am three times (before 3 am twice).  Two nights we both had problems falling asleep.  The jet lag was crazy!  We flew in four airplanes, rode four trains (the one to and from Paris went under the English channel!), we rode four taxis, one rickshaw, and took about 30 subways.  We also think we walked somewhere between 25-30 miles.  Our poor feet were so sore and achy and covered in blisters!  We spent more than we planned and ate a lot more than we should have.  It was a crazy short trip for how far it is and how much there is to see, but we don't regret a thing!  IT WAS EPIC!

Heather and Austin were so nice to take such good care of our kids!  We owe them big time (which we will be paying back in just a few weeks!)  We came home to these sweeties!

(in their cute little dresses from Chinatown)