On our first flight we met an wonderful older couple from Hawaii (he's hawaiian, she's from Conneticut) and had a nice time getting to know them. If I understood her corrrectly, she was Obama's truent officer in Hawaii when he played hooky to do something having to do with inhaling! She was such a gem! It was a long flight, but all went well and we arrived on time in Paris.
After a short lay over in Paris (we purchased a sandwich and pastried in the airport) we flew to London. We got settled into the hotel and headed back to the airport to board the Express Train to London - man that was a fast train!
Once we reached Paddington Station we stood around amazed. So many movies we've seen with scenes shot in this historic place! And there in the midst of amazing architecture was a Burger King, a McDonalds plus many bars and other shops! It just seemed to weird! From there we headed down to get our first experience of the London Tube!
Very soon I realised that the spreadsheet I had so carefully created in order to navigate through London, as well as my tablet which had a map for all the free wifi locations, had been left in the hotel room. We would have to navagate from my memory and/or ask for help!
We happened to arrive at percisely 5:30 pm on a Friday - I don't think I've ever been in such a small place with so many people! It was insane! But what really surprised me was that is was smoking hot down there! I expected it to be cool since it was underground, but it was over 80 degrees F - and so humid! Add that to being packed like sardines and it was pushing me to my limits! At one point we just got on the tube and when the doors shut I had to duck my head to keep from getting hit in the head! Yikes!
We did end up asking for help quite a few times, plus reading maps, plus guesswork. But looking back I'm glad we needed to ask for help as everyone was most helpful and it was fun to talk to all the wonderful British people! I love all the wonderful United Kingdom accents!
So, after two exchanges in the underground and getting some help from the locals we emmerged on the street to find our way to the British Museum. We were immediately confused and had to stop into a cell phone store and once again ask for help. He told us where to find a Subway restaurant so we could get dinner, and also how to find the museum. So we went off, righting the unreal crowds of people on the sidewalk, and found the Subway and took off with our dinner.
After walking several blocks we were sure we had missed it with all the gawking we did at the wonderful old buildlings everywhere you turn! So at the next light, I asked a young lady if she could help us find the museum. She was french and she said she was going there herself and we could follow her! So we did. We talked alittle and I found out that she lived just outside of Paris, but had grown up on the west side of France. We said goodbye at the gate.
Daryl and I took a few photos of the outside of the museum and wondered up the stairs, trying to cram out sandwiches down before reaching the doors. Once we got in I immediately went to the first information guy and asked what we should see if we had less than 2 hours. Well, it seems that their self guided tour brochure lists the "have to see" items and that it takes about 2 hours to see all those listed! Yeah - perfecto!
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| The model against the wall was the girl we talked to! |
We turned around to head to the first thing listed. We noticed some models posing for a photographer by the front doors. I stopped to take a quick photo as you don't see models dressed all up for a proffessional photo shoot in public everyday. Then we noticed that the model was the girl who had shown us the way to the museum! We had talked to a real live French model! Amazing! And she was so nice too!
The first thing we saw at the museum was the Rosetta Stone - the real thing! Incredible to stand just inches from something that is so monumental in history! From there we took in the displays of ancient Egypt, Sumeria, Greece (most of the Pantenon has been moved and re-assembled on site in the museum!). It was amazing!
By the time we had just a few exhibits to see left, we were hitting the wall of endurance and it wasn't pretty. We were both hurting - legs, feet, back - everything hurt. We'd been awake for over 40 hours (we had a few cat naps on the plane, but that doesn't really count as sleep) and we were toast. So we rested in one of the rooms and decided to just see one more room and then make our way back to the hotel.
One our way back we walked and walked - incredible architecture and a vast array of ever differing people kept us busy and entertained. What a place London is after dark on the Friday night. The temperature was nice, no rain and people were out in force. As we neared Picadilly Circus we hit a wall of people and decided that it was time to go down and get the tube out of there!
We had quite the time finding the right tube to get us to the hotel (15 miles away, out by the airport), but we eventually got it right. And on the way we got to talk to so many wonderful people. On the tube I decided that what we would collect on this trip is meeting people from as many different places as we could! So here's the list of what we've "collected" so far:
Holland
Italy
Germany
France
Hawaii
Bulgria (we were at the airport when we met those people!)
We can only "collect" them if I actually ask them where they are from and they can't be from where we are a the time!
So we finally made it back to the hotel and settled in for the night. That concluded a very long first day. We left Bellingham at 2:30pm on Thursday and went to bed in London at 11:00 pm on Friday...but is was really 41 hours due to the 8 hours time change! Tomorrow I will blog about today!
See you then!
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