Photos Day 9 / part 3

Paris street flair

These old buildings are just mind blowing...

Hard to choose from all the cute cafes in town

The Seine - and the Island, something we will explore by boat the next day

The Paris Opera House

Photos Day 9 / part 2

The oldest bridge in Paris

The Invalides building

Some of our precious girls!

Arc the Triumph - the people are so small!!!

Waiting at the Louvre - what a pretty spot to wait

Photos Day 9 / part 1

The Louvre - what an architecture....!!!

I would like to know how many visitors there are each day...?!

Strong boy!

A model of the Notre Dame

The stained glass windows always amaze me, how accurate and beautiful they are even hundreds of years later!

Day 9 June 19, 2011 - Paris

After a good night sleep and a 1/2 hour more sleep in the morning we left with a bus for a half day city tour, passing by the most important buildings of this gorgeous city. The size and architecture of them is magnificent and very different from London. Our French tour guide Jan, gave us a good overview of it as well as some information on the Parisian lifestyle and how important it is to conserve their culture. Many things do get adapted from the US (i.e. Starbucks and coffee to go - for an authentic French person and absolut "NO") and it proofs to be difficult to make sure French habits and customs don't get extinct.

We also walked around a few sights to stretch our legs and explore on foot for a bit, around the Paris Opera House, Les Invalides (an old military complex and the place Napoleon Bonaparte is buried) and then we visited the Louvre, one of the world's largest museum. We had an hour free time for lunch and met up again to walk through this enormous building, to see some of the most important pieces like the Nike of Samothrace, Michelangelo's sculptures and obviously the Mona Lisa by Da Vinci.

The Grand Louvre is dating back to the 12th century when it was built as a fortress for Philip II. It had many additions thereafter and was used as the imperial residence till 1680 when Louis XIV decided to move to his Palace in Versailles. The Royal collection remained in the Grand Louvre and was converted into a museum already in 1793!!! Today over an area of 652,000 sq ft you can see more than 380,000 art pieces from paintings to drawings all the way to archaeological finds. I personally don't know what is more fascinating - the absolutely impressive in- and outside architecture or the artifacts. Either way, it is definitely a must see when in Paris! Specially the new and modern structure of the Glass Pyramide over the main entrance (built in 1988) gives it a unique and contemporary feeling.

We all had about 2,5 hours of free time to roam the exhibitions by ourselves a bit more, explore the Tuileries and Carrousel gardens or do some shopping for last minute trinkets and souvenirs. From there we went on for our dinner at another nice bistro, no doubt that food in France is much better than in England, although I also believe that our group restaurants in the UK weren't really a good example either.... Good thing lunch was on our own and everybody got to explore and find some good eats then!

After a really nice meal (and some celebrating of father's day and my birthday) we took the Metro, where we got to enjoy some musical entertainment (a group of 3 men that moves around in the underground cars with their instruments playing for the passenger's joy - not so fun for the locals but definitely for us!) and then the long stairways up to the Sacre Coeur Basilica, located on the summit of Montmartre, the highest point in Paris. The sun was just setting as we got there and the view was stunningly beautiful, when it was lit up with a view all the way to the Eiffeltower. Once again we all were in awe about the architecture and age of this magnificent church, unbelievable how detailed and enormous they were building in those times with such simple equipment!

A stroll around the small cobbled stoned streets and a treat to an Italian Gelato (thanks to our fundraiser money from the Tomato Patch!) ended our beautiful day, without rain!, in Paris. We managed to catch one of the last Metros back to our hotel and all collapsed in our beds, too tired to notice the smell, lousy bathrooms or noise from the trains and cars outside....

Bon nuit - tomorrow is our last day, sniff!!!

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Day 8 June 18, 2011 - London/Paris

Bonjour from Paris!!!

We got into our hotel late last night, after our dinner at a lovely little restaurant, enjoying a good French cooked meal! Our Italian bus driver spiced up our transfer to the hotel with some fun music (a mix of Jazz and Middle Eastern) and spirits were high - until we got a bit disappointed at the standard of our accommodation. We had some unique experiences the last week, each hotel having it's own little quirks weather flimsy towels, noisy neighborhoods, little to no infrastructure, poor food, small bathrooms, hard pillows.... but they were all fairly new and had a certain standard being chain hotels. It took a while for everyone to accept that the showers stalls will be really small, there might be a bit of a different scent in the room (nothing a little bit of aroma therapy oil won't cover - very clever!) and that the rooms are just really small to begin with at our last destination France.

But we won't be at the hotel much anyways and after a hopefully good night sleep we will be feeling better.

We had free time yesterday morning until 1:30pm to explore London a bit more before leaving with the Eurostar Train. This now fast way, only 2hrs 15min train ride going through the English Channel in a tunnel has definitely speeded up the transfer to Paris - no more trains and fairy rides, which would use a whole day of travel! In London we split into smaller groups some of us going to the Tate Modern Museum, Hamley's Toy Store or the Portabella Street, one of the antique and food market areas. We then made it just in time to the train station, traffic in these big cities can get tricky, to leave at 4:22pm. We had a train compartment to ourselves and with some yummy foods from the market and more mingling and chatting, the time went by really fast, getting us into Paris at 7:45, since we have lost one hour and are now 9 hours apart from the US West Coast.

We now are ready to explore this beautiful city and enjoy our last few days with lots of exciting memories to fill.

Au revoir from us

Niki: High: Kimberly and Doug dancing in the bus! Low: Leaving London without having had Indian food.

Sarah: High: Seeing Kimberly and Alison being so excited to be in Paris again!

Rosa: High: Having a fun morning wandering around London more. Low: Maeve and Ro having a bit of a tummy sickness. (Happy to let you know both of them are feeling better again!)

Amelia: Eating crepes in England on Portabella Street. Low: Hard down pour rains while walking on Portabella Street.

Narayan: Hamley's Toy store - feeling like a 2 year old!!!! Low: Leaving London.

Photos of Day 7

The London Eye - say Hi!

Even though it sprinkled a bit, the view was still marvelous!

We had so much fun!

What a view!

Day 7 June 17, 2011 - London

Half hour internet at the hotel!!! So this will be a quick blog report, but that's ok because I need to get to bed ;o) We are all feeling the effect of a long week and need to rest more, to keep with the momentum.

After breakfast this morning we left Leeds at around 9am to come back to London. The 4 hour drive today was rather quick. Many of us took a snooze to recharge, but that didn't keep them also from hanging, chatting and laughing together - not much music today though... :o(

The afternoon was free and a majority of the group (29 people) went to the London Eye - the giant Ferris Wheel - for a panoramic 30minute ride. It did drizzle a bit, but the view was nevertheless spectacular and one could see the most important sights around very well: Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster, Buckingham Palace,..... Having the River Themes right under you is pretty cool and everyone was happy to have come along - no rain could hinder us on that. From there we made our way to meet up with the rest of the group for dinner in the Soho area, and afterwards a night walking tour giving us some more insight on London authors and the time during the Elizabethan area. Unfortunately is was raining the hardest we have experienced so far and the temperatures were lower too today....

Not necessary something to pick you up, specially since everyone was tired today., We all came back to the hotel afterwards, to get a good night's rest. We will have a free morning tomorrow with different activities offered before we leave on the Eurostar to Paris!

How exciting is that and I am sure that everyone will perk up in the city of love with some warmer weather and yummy baguettes ;o)

So long, stay tuned - we'll be back on the blog and in the States in 4 days....! Yikes

No highs and lows gathered today, although we all had a group low yesterday evening, because Maya had her pinky slammed in a door and fractured it! :o( So Kimberly, Mark and Hannah took her to the ER yesterday spending their evening there coming back only around midnight.... Maya is a trooper though, she slept through the night and was with us all day not whining once! Both of the youngsters, her and Silas, are doing so well and everyone loves having their energy around!!!