We got up around 8 this morning.. Mom to have her coffee and shower, me to run 2 miles in the park. It was absolutely gorgeous this morning! The sun was shining, the skies were blue, it was just cool enough to run well.. perfection. Once I got back, I quickly showered and then mom and I went downstairs to eat breakfast.
Breakfast is usually my favorite meal, but I don’t think that will remain true for this trip.. that buffet had watery eggs, funky sausage, and thick bacon.. and beans-that we didn’t eat lol. Thankfully there were croissants, too, and I could make a little runny scrambled egg sandwich.
We started our sightseeing adventure shortly after 10:30 and walked our butts off. We saw the Italian Fountains, The Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben & Parliament Square with Westminster Abbey and Palace, The London Eye along the Thames River.. and from that point we started to take advantage of the sightseeing busses all over the place.. and sat down to ride and rest our feet.
We ate a quick subway sandwich for lunch and continued over to the London Bridge and the Tower Bridge. There were so many people out and about and as the day wore on the more and more crowded it got. We took one of the buses back towards Hyde Park from the Tower Bridge area late afternoon, and got lucky enough to snag seats on the top of the double decker.
We walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace and then took the tour of the Palace and the Gardens. I preferred the gardens to the palace, because it didn’t really have much inside except for paper replicas in plastic boxes, set up like dollhouses in each room.. showing what it “would have” looked like instead of making real sized replicas.. I mean, some rooms had actual beds and tables and things, but not many. In the Gardens there was a statue of Princess Diana and her boys. It was beautiful.
We walked back to the hotel room from the Palace and then decided to book tickets to see Matilda, the play, at the Cambridge Theatre. We changed clothes and got a taxi to the area.. it was already 6:30pm and the show started at 7:30. The restaurants were busy and sidewalks were packed with people, so we made the sad decision to go to McDonald’s for our dinner.. yikes! I mean, it served its purpose.. it was fast and filling, and we made it to the show just in time to use the restroom, grab a drink, and take our seat!
We loved the show! It was funny and very entertaining, although musicals do get a little annoying to me at times.. haha. When we left we had to walk a little ways to a main/busy street to hail a cab. The process took a good 15-20 minutes. And then it was easy going to get back.. way less traffic than the way there, thank goodness.. because we’re both pretty exhausted. My watch says I’ve walked 15.2 miles today. Only 2 of those were from my run this morning!
We’ve mostly packed up already, because in the morning we take a cab to Kings Cross Station to take the Chunnel (a train that passes underwater through the Channel) to Paris. I’m so excited for the next leg of our trip! France, here we come!
Mom’s alarm went off at 7 this morning, I decided to ignore it (as did she), but sadly it went off again at 7:03 so I got up and got dressed for my run. She was just starting to stir, so I hoped she’d be getting ready while I was gone.. we had to leave by 8:30 to get to the train station on time.
We definitely scooted those beds farther apart 🤣
I did a quick mile through the park, and gauged I’d end close to the road I’d need to walk down to get us some bagels to go.. I was almost spot on.. I only had to go past the gate by 20-30 seconds. When I finished I walked quickly towards the bagel shop, and about fell out when I realized it was Sunday, they were closed, as was almost everything around me. Crap.
I headed down the Main Street to our hotel, now sad and with a stomach acting like I had starved it for 4 days straight 🙄. Even the gift shops were closed. Surprisingly, less than a block from the hotel, I passed a little cafe that was open. I was the sole person on the block and in the cafe, minus the man working there. He made me 2 americano coffees, and 2 ham and cheese croissants. Not too shabby.. this meal to go was less than the cost of one of our buffet breakfasts yesterday and sure to be twice as good.. I’d say I won 😉
I quickly took everything back to the room, Mom was already out of the shower and drying her hair. We ate our food and sipped our coffees before she finished getting ready and I started. Shockingly, we were packed and walking out the door by 8:28 and asking for a taxi by 8:31. What a successful morning!
Our taxi driver was the kindest gentleman I’ve met so far.. when Mom told him that I’m an ICU nurse, he stopped our meter and didn’t charge us for the rest of the ride. He was telling us about his heart attack and how he never thanked the nurses for their care and skill when he was so scared, because he was so scared and how grateful he is for people like “Us” nurses. So very sweet. He dropped us off at Kings Cross Station and told us how and where to go.
We looked for a gift shop before getting in line to go through security, but they didn’t have any that had the little “Big Ben” trinkets we wanted. We made it through the line to find out that they DO stamp our passport on leaving the country! Heck yeah! I was giddy as hell over a half second stamp, and I honestly still am. Lol it’s the little things in life.
The train took us from London to Paris through a tunnel that goes underwater through the English Channel. I would say it was really neat, but it was a dark tunnel and you couldn’t see anything..Mom slept and I read a book on my kindle app (Verity, by Colleen Hoover.. it’s dark but damn it’s good). Before I knew it we had arrived, it was time to get off the train and all I could think about was needing to pee. All mom could think about was taking a picture of the train. Ha
We got out of the terminal area and into the main station, I found bathrooms, I had to Apple Pay to use one-ugh-and then I found the little help desk to get someone to point us in the right direction of the local train to take us to our hotel. The man was nice and made it very easy to find.. we bought our tickets at the kiosk thing (a whole €3.80 for both of us) and we made our way to the platform.
We only had to ride 5 stops before getting off, and I got Mom to slow down and wait a bit before going up the stairs because a man had been eyeing us the entire time on the train and followed us once we got off-to the point that he stopped on the stairs when we didn’t continue up them.. and then turned to ask us if we wanted his help with our stuff. It sounded kind, but I’m here to tell you it felt creepy. He had gotten close to Mom on the train once already, I had missed that but she mentioned it when I whispered to her to wait and let him go on.. once we got to the top of the stairs, we saw him circle down to the other train platform.
After that, we walked out into the sunshine and busy streets of Paris. It was STUNNING! We gathered ourselves, found our sunglasses, and walked less than 2 minutes before we were at the door to our cute boutique hotel. In that 2 minutes, we passed 3 different cafes! I think we’re in the perfect location for our time here in Paris 🙂 Our hotel is adorable, the front desk man was so nice, after he checked us in and we unloaded our stuff in our room, he spent 10 minutes showing me a map and how to get to the best rooftop bars, where to eat desserts only, the best crepes, and the easiest way to navigate from the hotel to the main “hot spots” of the city.
Sadly, the first rooftop bar he mentioned is closed on Sunday’s. Haha. So that didn’t go well, but we are in such a busy and exciting area that we literally had over 50 places to choose to eat at.. we picked the “burger joint” because many of the places we went by only had their menu in French and we were both too tired and too hungry to figure out Google Translate for this meal.. we just wanted to eat. The burger place was slap full, so the girl told us how to walk to a little park around the corner a ways to eat our “take away” food. We were sold!
We ate our burgers and fries (I had a goat cheese something or other burger, mom had a blue cheese burger) at the little park at a table meant for chess.. hey, it worked, and they were delicious! From there we walked the streets towards the Seine River. We got our first glance of the Eiffel Tower and saw Notre Dame Cathedral. We passed a couple street performers singing, and as I walked by I realized they were singing an Outkast song. Outkast is one of my favorite groups, but it’s Nana’s all time favorite group (Nana is the man I’m dating, his name is pronounced like NahNah not NaaNuh lol), so naturally I stopped to listen, record a bit, laugh, and give them some tip money.
Mom and I carried on walking to a little cafe no where near our hotel to have some wine, tiramisu, and use their bathroom. Mom had some Rosé while I had a Pinot Noir. We sat, sipped and people watched, which seems to be what everyone else was doing too. We slowly made our way back towards the area of our hotel, on the hunt for a store that sells a curling iron for mom.. no such luck..
We did stop into another cafe, this one within a few steps of our hotel.. we (I) had more wine and we continued to talk, laugh, and people watch. Mom kept saying she was drinking white wine, aka the still water they poured into wine glasses..hahaha lord have mercy. Now it’s almost 10 pm, we’re settled into our room, showered, and about to start a movie on tv (I’m still drinking wine, this room comes with a stocked fridge). We have a decently early morning tomorrow.. we’re going to the Louvre Museum to see the Mona Lisa (and well, everything else in that ginormous place). I’m hoping we both enjoy the experience and take it a little slower than we did Kensington Palace.. because honestly we were both bored as hell in that place. I don’t think the Louvre will be like that though.. surely..
We had to get up “early” today to make it to breakfast and to the Louvre Museum meeting spot for our tour on time. So, I didn’t run.. we got ready and left the hotel room by 8:05 and walked to our Crepe destination.. to find out it was closed! Damn.
We carried on and walked into every place that was open.. several only had croissants and jam, one lady said they were out of eggs, and then finally we walk into a cafe that claims to have breakfast AND eggs.. so we sit and order.. y’all, those fried eggs on top of that ham would have been a masterpiece, had they actually cooked the eggs a little bit.. like they were still gooey, I wouldn’t even had called them over easy! Hahaha
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still ate them.. because fat kid problems, I was starving and who knew how long it would take for him to come over, take them back, bring them back, etc.. plus I hate sending back food in general. So whatever, me and those gooey eggs went to town, stomach cramps later be damned. Lol Mom attempted and then gave me half of hers-which was actually cooked to over easy. I got a side of French bread and used that to soak up the yolks.. I wasn’t like loving it, but in the end I wasn’t mad at it either!
We walked to the Louvre Museum and stopped at a bridge along the way. I thought it was bridge Andrea and I had put love locks on back in 2019, but the majority of the locks had been cut off and the railings were covered in plexiglass. I was sad, to know that the lock Andrea had put on for her and Andres had been cut off and thrown away. I was also sad that the one I put on for Nancy was gone, too. —-side note, Andrea and I hiked the Camino de Santiago across Spain in 2019, 550 miles, but we started our trip off with a few nights in Paris before going to St. Jean Pied de Port. Andrea and Andres had just started officially dating. And Nancy, my work mama and the all around best human I’ve ever known, was at home in hospice care after the return of her pancreatic cancer. I put a lock on the bridge for her, symbolizing for everyone that loves her that their love would be eternal too. She passed away shortly after I got back from that trip, before I got to see her one last time.
Anyway, on this bridge today, I decided I’d get Andrea and Andres a new lock, and Nana and myself our first lock-since clearly that didn’t jinx their new relationship 3 years ago.. maybe it had some benefit to their relationship seeing how it’s been going strong ever since (heaven forbid it be because they were always meant to find each other and nothing at all to do with some lock she put on a bridge in Paris).. either way, I figured it couldn’t hurt us. We didn’t see anyone selling locks like Andrea and I did a few years ago, so we continued on to the Louvre to wait for our tour and we’d handle all this lock business later.
We met at the chariots for our tour guide. There were several companies and quite a few people, but our guide wasn’t there yet. The lines at the Louvre were really starting to grow. Since we were early, we got to watch lots of groups go ahead and walk to the museum and in through a side door. Eventually, our guide showed and he was absolutely worth every penny paid for this tour.. he had the look of a professor out of 1822, clothes and all-plus he was witty and cracked jokes that I found hilarious (others didn’t seem to find him as funny as I did though, whatever, be miserable). He was born in France and grew up here, but his family originated in Wales, so he had more of a British accent except when he spoke French.. I was in awe.
He took a group of 16 of us through the side doors, security, and then to the main area to start the tour. We had headsets on in one ear and he proceeded to take us around and show us things along with telling us the history behind the pieces he was showing us. It was educational, entertaining, and I feel like I got much more out of it than I would have if I just walked around on my own. We learned the history of the Louvre, all about Napoleon the 3rd, the French Revolution(s) and the many governmental overthrows and sieges. He also taught us about the differences between Roman and Greek statues and lessons about the important ones he showed us.
One of my favorites was Hermaphrodite, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite.. the sculpture looks like a woman daintily lying on a soft bed from every angle, except one, when you realize the figure has male genitalia. He told us a story about one theory: Hermaphrodite fell in love with a Fairy or a mortal and his parents forbade him to be with her, so the couple went to another God and begged to be inseparable, so the God joined their bodies and gave the one remaining body the best of the previous two. So they literally became one. And while I’m clearly not the best at retelling Greek folklore, I love the story regardless, and I love the meaning behind it.. not that I want to be in that situation myself lol
Anyway, we ended up at the Mona Lisa, the prized painting of the Louvre. There was a line to get to the front and then you had to basically fight for your chance to get a picture with the painting.. Lord have mercy it wasn’t that serious! I mean, it was beautiful and it was what I originally came for.. but all the hoopla was a bit much. From that moment, I swear the rest of the tour became entirely too crowded. People smacking into you, standing so close to a painting that they couldn’t see it if they tried, but yet they blocked it from view of anyone else.. cool.
Mom started to venture off on her own way before this moment, because she didn’t find our guide quite as entertaining as I did.. and the crowds were bothering her, too. By the time we finished, we were both famished and didn’t stop for much on the way out in order to find a cafe to sit at and eat some lunch. There were plenty of options choose from, I just picked one and we sat inside at a window so we could people watch.
I ordered croquettes, which none have yet to taste like the ones Andrea and I ate all the time in Spain, but these were still good. Mom got a burger, I got fish and chips, and it wasn’t too shabby. Naturally I liked the wine best 😉 Mom actually ordered a Chardonnay,I was shocked! (She didn’t like it lol). We ate and watched the people coming and going, and then watched a little longer as we waited for the waiter to bring us our check.
From there we walked towards the Eiffel Tower, and in search of the actual bridge Andrea and I had put locks on. She had sent me a picture so I could try to find her lock, and when I saw it I realized I had been at the wrong bridge before.. the one we put locks on was very close to the Eiffel Tower, and so maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to find them!
We walked, laughed, took pictures, stopped for little sit breaks, and walked some more. When we did get to the correct bridge, our locks had been cut off-the only locks there were with 2022 dates besides a few here and there with some older ones. I scoured the bridge anyway, just in case, with no luck. Oh, well. I’ll get new ones. Except even here there was no one selling any.
We continued towards the Eiffel Tower, stopping for more pictures of pretty places. We came to a perfect spot to take pictures together with the Eiffel Tower in perfect view. We hung out a while, then went to a little grocery store to get a phone charger for mom. They were playing Outkast, which made me smile. They also had some black locks for sale, not quite what I wanted, but they’d get the job done.
Immediately after leaving we found some souvenir shops.. we got a few goodies and then BAM. Mom spotted the good locks-way too big and €7, but how can you put a price on everlasting love? 🤣🥴 So i got them, I used that man’s marker, and then mom returned the black ones to the supermarket.
We went to a cafe and had wine (well, I had wine, mom had coffee and a crepe lol).. we were originally wanting to hang out in this area until night fall so we could watch the Eiffel Tower light up.. but then we changed our minds and decided to do that tomorrow. We walked back to the bridge, I put our locks on and threw one of the keys for each lock into the water.
We were heading back to our hotel room to decide what to do for dinner when I had to pee so bad, so we stopped at another cafe. I went in to use the bathroom and mom got us a table out front. We ended up ordering a pizza and more wine for me, a Coke Zero for mom. Y’all, I really try to get her to enjoy some alcohol with me, but she’s not really a fan and you cannot talk that woman into doing a single thing she doesn’t want to..
We enjoyed the pizza and eventually started making our way towards the hotel when mom flagged down a taxi driver.. she asked him, “can you take us to our hotel?” Of course he says yes, which hotel? And she says, “oh, I don’t know” hahahaha dear lord. I had to get the address out for him because there are several locations and we were nervous we’d give him the wrong one. We were swiftly back to our room, where I changed to go for my mile run.
It was already dark outside and a little creepy, since I didn’t have a perfect understanding of our area.. I managed well enough though 🙂 I finished my mile less than a block from our room, but ended up turning the wrong way, so I added a 10 minute walk to it.. whoops! I’ll blame all the wine 😉
Speaking of wine, that’s what’s taken so long to write this post and get it uploaded.. I drank too much wine to actually write any of it last night, I just went to sleep.. and I slept damn good, too.
