Paris France. October 11, 2006. (Easily our busiest single day, the writing for this one never seemed to end. Sorry for the long posting time. –ed) We woke to a misty morning in Paris, and rather than go out to find breakfast we decide to have it brought up to our Westin room. The food was on a par with every other bit of room service I’ve ever had with one exception. We’ve traveled all the way to Paris for the best orange juice either of us has ever tasted, and not just a little bit better, this is like a different league. This is like fresh squeezed vs. Tang. This is orange juice that gets its own paragraph. I wouldn’t fly to Paris just for this, but still, quite good.

Our juice swallowed, we’re down to our Paris coach and off to our first stop, the Pompidou Center. Or rather the parking lot of the Centre Pompidou. It seems that motor coaches aren’t allowed near our real destination: Ile de la Cité, the home of Our Lady of Paris, known to us as the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. On the way we got our first look at a standard morning’s traffic in Paris. It would seem that there are no specific traffic laws here, only some rather vague suggestions. The chaos is amazing, but then you begin to see that they seem to have some set of inner rules that governs what car goes where next. I never did quite understand the rules, but everybody seems to get where they’re going with a minimum of sheet-metal damage.

The walk down to the cathedral was actually quite short. It was an extremely foggy morning, so the pictures are a bit gray, but even in the fog Paris is still a lovely city, with its cobbled streets and terrace lined buildings. We crossed Pont Neuf to Ile de la Cité. Literally “New Bridge”, Pont Neuf is actually the oldest bridge across the Seine. Its name refers to the fact that it was the first stone bridge in Paris, and was named New Bridge by the people when it was first built. No matter what its name, the views up and down the river from the bridge are enchanting. In this instance we’re looking up the river toward Ile Saint-Louis.

When we reached the cathedral we discovered that right out front is the official center of Paris. A small brass plaque of the Sun King (Louis XIV) marks the center of Paris, so when you’re on the road from Le Mans to Paris, and you see a sign that says Paris - 187 km, you know exactly where that 187 km ends: About 30 meters in front of Notre Dame de Paris. We spent a bit of time taking pictures and learning the history Notre Dame, and then we were taken around to the side of the cathedral and ushered through a tiny door and into a very steep stone circular stairway. 387 very warn steps later we had made it to the top of the Galerie des Chimières, which is the level that connects the two bell towers. Unlike most US cities, Paris is a city of Classical height. There are few buildings higher than 5 stories and even fewer higher than 9 or 10. The cathedral is one of those, rising about 16 stories above the river. The view is spectacular, and if you can stand the climb I highly suggest it.

The inside of the Cathedral is spectacular also, but not in the same way as Westminster. Notre Dame is fantastically beautiful, but lacks the insane number of historical references that Westminster can claim. For hundreds of years, the Kings of France were crowned in Reims, to the North East of Paris. It wasn’t until Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France that Notre Dame was used for a coronation.

From Notre Dame we crossed back over Pont Neuf, this time with the sky turning blue as the morning fog burned away. Just down the river, still on the Ille de la Cité is the Conciergerie, the last home and prison of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Once we got back to our bus we headed north toward Montmartre, home of two fantastic churches, a winery, an artist’s colony, and one of the coolest neighborhoods in Europe. We parked at the bottom of the hill as there is just no way to get a bus up the narrow roads of Montmartre. So after a short walk up a little market street we were provided tickets up the funicular railway to the top of the hill. Once there we found ourselves in very cool little square that would be our base for the afternoon. We started off by wandering over thru the neighboring square full of artists. Some of the people in our tour got their portraits painted, others joined Beci and I in a search for food.

Crêpes are one of the classic street foods of Paris, and they’re simply brilliant. I can’t recommend them enough. And so I got a fromage et jambon crêpe (ham and cheese) and Beci got a sandwich (it was good, but she admitted later that my crêpe was better). We then shared a chocolate crêpe with four of our fellow travelers, Jenni, Mickey, David, and Amber. We also learned to order Diet Coke. From this point forward calls of "coke-a-lite" could be heard at every meal, sometimes to the consternation of our French hosts who drink wine with meals, and Coke as little as possible.

After our improvised lunch Beci and I decided to go see the two churches. We started with the smaller and older of the two, Saint Pierre de Montmartre. From a visual standpoint it was probably my favorite, with a slightly older heavier look to its construction, it looks like a place where important things occurred in the history of the Catholic church, and indeed they did. Saint Pierre is where the order of the Jesuits was founded.

The Basilica of the Sacré-CÅ“ur is literally right behind Saint Pierre. It is one of the most recently completed cathedrals in Europe (Barcelona has one still under construction) having been finished less than 100 years ago in 1914. Cameras and noise are prohibited in the Cathedral, so I have no pictures of the interior, but I assure you it’s worth the visit. The outside is quite distinctive, and reminds me of a cross between a Russian Orthodox church and a mosque.

We met our entire party back at the square. Several were just finishing up the tiring task of sitting for a portrait. Once the 16 of us were back together Alex and Roni lead us down the side of the hill to meet a member of la Comanderie du Clos MontMartre, the wine makers of Montmartre. A short walk from their hall we discovered a hidden gem of Paris. A vineyard hidden on the back of the hill. The wines of Montmartre are sold at a very high price, and the proceeds given to charity. I don’t drink wine at all, so I can’t tell you how the tasting went, but Beci seemed to think it was good, and nobody dropped from acute wine poisoning.

After we finished our wine tasting we headed back to the hotel. Montmartre was easily my favorite bit of Paris to this point, and whether you’re in Paris with Disney or on your own, I suggest spending a day up on Montmartre. The bohemian ambiance is something you can’t find anywhere else.

After a short nap we were back up and dressed in our Paris best for a night out at the best known tourist attraction in France. Our coach made quick work (OK, not so quick, but impressive still in a giant coach) of the traffic. After a quick stop to take some romantic pictures with the Eiffel Tower in the background we proceeded to the Tower for dinner. This was also the first time we saw any sort of an armed military, with a few smartly dressed French commandos walking around under the tower. After a few minutes wait we were ushered thru the standard Disney back door line passing about an hours worth of people who now wish they had traveled with Disney, but didn’t. At the top of our short elevator ride we made it to the first terrace level of the tower, at the 95 meter mark. Here we would have dinner at Altitude 95.

After dinner Beci (just slightly terrified of heights) agreed to go up to the very top. This is not a short building, and Beci on a small metal platform nearly 300 meters above the ground was something of a miracle. Indeed, until the Chrysler building and it’s radio tower was finished in the 30s the Eiffel tower was the tallest building in the world. Its still the second tallest building in all of France, and easily the tallest in Paris.

once we made it to the top (even for me the ride up the elevator was a bit alarming) we stepped out onto the walkway outside. With some coaxing Beci even made it to the edge for a picture or two, and then it was back down to terra firma.

Paris France. October 11, 2006. (Easily our busiest single day, the writing for this one never seemed to end. Sorry for the long posting time. –ed) We woke to a misty morning in Paris, and rather than go out to find breakfast we decide to have it brought up to our Westin room. < more... >

Sorry about the delay in posting, we were having too much fun at Disneyland Paris, but more about that in a few posts time. Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Paris, France. October 09, 2006. London is full of hidden gems, and this morning we set out on a walk to find some of them. Our home in London is just around the corner from Lincoln’s Inn Fields, one of the traditional homes of the London legal profession, and also known as the ‘Middle Temple’ because the space was formerly held by the Knights Templar. It’s full of little courtyards which all seem to be full of little surprises.

On the left is a law office. Traditional old buildings like this surround the squares. On the right is one of the Temple buildings which dates back to the time of Shakespeare. It was in fact used for the premiere of Shakespeare’s play King Henry the VIII. Last on the list and in the center was quite a surprise for me, and one I recognized as soon as we walked into it’s courtyard. The Temple Church. It’s actually two different construction projects, the original circular church which you may have seen in the Davinci Code, and the newer more traditional part which was added on later. The church was closed when we came past, but there were some workmen doing something and we were able to get a peek and this long exposure photo of the inside.

Once we returned from our walk we all loaded into the coach again and drove off to a part of London known as Little Venice, because of all the canals crossing thru it. There we got to take part in another bit of hidden London, a canal boat ride to Camden Locks. In Little Venice we boarded a classic canal boat and cruised thru some of the lesser seen parts of London, past the London Zoo, and into Camden town.

At Camden we went back to using shanks mare and explored the Camden Market. Camden is an eclectic part of London with actual bargains on some really cool stuff in the market.

From the Market, we got back on our coach, which had been magically transported to Camden, and rode off to the south bank of the Thames and Waterloo station. There we met our fourth (counting our feet). In France they call it the TGV. In the USA we know it as the Bullet Train. In the UK they simply call it the Chunnel Train to Paris. The train ride was quite comfortable and before you know it, you’re rolling into a new country, a new city, and a new part of your adventure.

Ah Paris, city of lights. This is where I post a picture of the Eifel Tower, or a lovely shot up the Champs-Élyees. Unfortunately it was seriously foggy on the evening of our arrival, so a picture of me in front of a Champs street sign is the best you’re going to get. With a free night in front of us Beci and I decided to walk from our Hotel up the Champs toward the Arc d’ Triumph. We ran into some of our travel mates at a bank machine (ATM good, cash exchange at the train station bad). We made it to the Disney Store, where we got some pictures of a few of the French plushies and their amazing hidden mickey chandelier and then headed back to the hotel.

If you’ve never been to the Champs, it’s quite impressive. I suppose, even if you have been there it’s quite impressive. You see it in movies, or on final day of the Tour de France, but it seems to be one of those things that doesn’t translate well on film. It’s impressively wide, long, sweeping, and tree lined. Add to that the amazing buildings on each side, the specialty shops, the park-like setting of the lower third, and you have what the French like to call La plus belle avenue du monde. And they’re not far wrong. The most beautiful avenue in the world.

The middle of the day was sort of eaten up by the Chunnel transit, but that made for a nice bit of rest in the middle of the trip. Tomorrow we’re on to the Louvre and a nice lunch in the Tulleries Gardens.

Sorry about the delay in posting, we were having too much fun at Disneyland Paris, but more about that in a few posts time. Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging.

Paris, France. October 09, 2006. London is full of hidden gems, and this morning we set out on a walk to find some of them. Our home in London is just around the corner from Lincoln’s Inn Fields, one of the traditional homes of the London legal profession, and also known as the ‘Middle Temple’ because the space was formerly held by the Knights Templar. It’s full of little courtyards which all seem to be full of little surprises. < more... >

London, England. October 8, 2006. Day three started with a quick drive over to “the city”. Turns out that most of what we think of as London is actually the city of West Minster. London proper is quite small and is mostly just the financial district, running from St. Paul’s Cathedral in the west to the tower of London in the East.

The coach dropped us off right at the border between West Minster and London, and we walked up the gentile hill to St. Paul’s Cathedral. They were doing a bit of cleaning on it round the side, but the front had already been polished up, and it hasn’t looked this good since Christopher Wren finished it back in 1708. We didn’t enter St. Paul’s but I think if I were to do this trip again I would add it to some of my free time. I’ve done the walk from the hotel down to the cathedral and it’s not too bad, only about 15 minutes or so. As a bit of an aside, the steps on the left side of the cathedral picture above are famous to Disney fans as the location of the “Feed the Birds” number in Mary Poppins.

From the cathedral it is a short walk down the hill to the Millennium Bridge – The newest bridge across the river Thames.  It’s a pedestrian only bridge and has some wonderful views up and down the river, as well as back toward the city and St. Paul’s. When it was first finished and opened, the foot traffic caused it tow wobble back and forth so violently that with more than just a few people on it the shaking was so bad people could barely stand up. The designer pointed out that there was no problem with his bridge, people just didn’t walk right. The bridge was closed after three days and two years later re-opened, sans-wobble.

Once across the bridge we walked east along what is known as Bankside, past the Globe Theatre. The Back in 1599 thru 1644 the Globe was the site of Shakespeare’s first run plays. It was destroyed in a fire once during that time, and rebuilt on the same spot. Eventually it was torn down by Puritans. The current theatre sits about 200 meters up river from the location of the original. The design follows as closely as possible that of the original.

Just south of the Globe our coach was waiting and we climbed back on and drove west to the London Eye. A very impressive Ferris wheel no doubt. During the summer months, the line just to get on can be as long as 3 hours, stretching back to where this picture was taken. The line was less oppressive today, but still, we got to skip it. Disney provides reservations and we got to use the “FastPass” line. Each capsule on the wheel can hold up to 25 people. We had just 16 in ours and it was quite easy to move around. The views are outstanding in all directions, and in particular there are great views of the halls of Parliament and the north bank of the Thames.

After the wheel made its way around 360 vertical degrees we walked around to the back of its complex and boarded a Thames river cruise. The cruise headed down river from Parliament to the Tower of London. The river was quite low, the tide being out, but the river still being fresh water. When the tide comes in the fresh water down river is pushed back up the river to London, so London never sees salt water, though it is built only feet above the high tide line of the North Sea.

Once we got off the tour boat we walked up a short promenade and entered just above the now bricked up Traitor’s Gate. The Tower is actually made of several buildings, centered on the White Tower. Just north of the White tower is the building holding the crown jewels. The prize of the jewels is the Great Star of Africa diamond at the top of the royal scepter. Weighing in at about a billion carats (actually just 530 or so), it’s perfectly clear and about the size of a kiwi fruit, or a very large plum. Truly this is a massive and massively impressive diamond.

There are also dedications to the seven people executed inside the tower grounds and several museums. You can tour the Bloody Tower where Sir Walter Raleigh was held captive, and where the two prince nephews of Richard III were murdered, handing the throne to Richard.

Notably absent from the official list of tower executions are anybody who was not royalty. Traditionally non-royals were taken up to tower hill to be executed, as was the case with Thomas More, and Guy Fawkes. However, during the world wars, at least 12 German spies were executed within the tower grounds. The final execution, on August 15, 1941 was that of the German spy Josef Jakobs.

We were particularly blessed while touring the grounds to be with the Disney guide, Stephen, as we had just our group of 16, and Stephen (a prestigious Blue-Badge Guide of London) knows everything, or can find it out with a quick phone call to the appropriate friend. Only the Blue-Badge guides are allowed to guide in the tower grounds, everybody else must take the official tours which are lead by the very capable Beefeater guards. Unfortunately, they lead tours of around 100 or more people. So Stephen was a particular blessing.

When we finished at the Tower grounds, we had a quick lunch at the New Armory building on the grounds, and then Beci and I went up to the Tower Hill tube stop to start our free afternoon in London. We took the underground west to the South Kensington stop on our way to the Victory and Albert Museum. There are two exits to every station, and I invariably pick the wrong one. The difference is usually a few blocks in the right or wrong direction. As always, I chose wrong this time and we ended up in a confusing warren of streets whose names didn’t show up on our tourist grade map. A quick check of the location of the sun led us to the north to the museum. I never get lost, and when I do (which I’ve already pointed out never happens) I easily get unlost.

The V&A is known by some as Great Brittan’s Attic, because it’s got a bit of everything, and the collections sometimes feel a bit like they came out of an attic someplace. We spent some considerable time in a display of popular clothing ranging from 1500 to 2004. The ‘70s by the way, still look ridiculous.

Our final stop for the day was Harrods. Really, I can’t convey the size of this place. In Seattle we have what we consider to be a fairly gigantic mall called Bellevue Square. Harrods has much more in what seems to be a much larger space. Room after room of everything you can think of, ranging from furniture to electronics, to games, to clothing and accessories and food. It’s an astounding display of shopping, and I get tired just thinking about walking thru it.

After that full day Beci went back to the Hotel room to rest, and I went with several others from our group to The Prince of Wales pub for a pint of biter and a pie. I’m a big fan of English pub food, and this was a nice casual dinner for me.

Tomorrow, Camden and our Transfer to Paris.

London, England. October 8, 2006. Day three started with a quick drive over to “the city”. Turns out that most of what we think of as London is actually the city of West Minster. London proper is quite small and is mostly just the financial district, running from St. < more... >

London, England. October 7, 2006 - What do Edward the Confessor, Geoffrey Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth, Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, King George II, and Laurence Olivier have in common? They’re all buried in Westminster Abbey of course, and that’s where today’s tour started. But first we had a very nice breakfast at The Pearl within the grounds of the Chancery Court hotel, our home base in London. The inside of The Pearl is decorated with about a bazillion fresh water pearls, which I must admit is quite impressive.

London, England. October 7, 2006 - What do Edward the Confessor, Geoffrey Chaucer, Queen Elizabeth, Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, King George II, and Laurence Olivier have in common? They’re all buried in Westminster Abbey of course, and that’s where today’s tour started. But first we had a very nice breakfast at The Pearl within the grounds of the Chancery Court hotel, our home base in London. The inside of The Pearl is decorated with about a bazillion fresh water pearls, which I must admit is quite impressive.

London, England. October 6, 2006. Our second try at our inaugural Adventures by Disney trip. Some of you may remember that our first trip was scheduled to begin on the August morning that the England police decided to arrest a bunch of terrorists and their plans for gel liquids.

That trip got postponed and thus our second attempt.

We left our house at 6:00 am on Thursday, Flew out of the Seattle-Tacoma airport at 9:20 am, transferred to a 777 at JFK around 6:45 pm New York time, and landed at London’s Heathrow airport at about 7:00 in the morning.

London, England. October 6, 2006. Our second try at our inaugural Adventures by Disney trip. Some of you may remember that our first trip was scheduled to begin on the August morning that the England police decided to arrest a bunch of terrorists and their plans for gel liquids.

That trip got postponed and thus our second attempt.

We left our house at 6:00 am on Thursday, Flew out of the Seattle-Tacoma airport at 9:20 am, transferred to a 777 at JFK around 6:45 pm New York time, and landed at London’s Heathrow airport at about 7:00 in the morning.

Take your taste buds on a world tour. Savor unique foods and fine wines that are the pride and joy of South Africa, Italy, Australia, Russia, Spain, Ireland and many other exotic locales. It’s a culinary and cultural potpourri, complete with tasty sounds from the "Eat To The Beat" concert series and over 20 international food and wine marketplaces representing more than 25 different countries and regions!

Location: Epcot®
Event Details

• Special Exhibits
  October 24, 2005, 1:00PM - 10:00PM

• Fun for Families
  October 24, 2005, 1:00PM - 10:00PM

• International Marketplaces
  October 24, 2005, 1:00PM - 10:00PM

Take your taste buds on a world tour. Savor unique foods and fine wines that are the pride and joy of South Africa, Italy, Australia, Russia, Spain, Ireland and many other exotic locales. < more... >

Boo! Don’t be afraid. The screams you hear are squeals of delight, not fright. Disney fantasy and Halloween fun come together on selected October nights for a one-of-a-kind celebration. Seize this rare opportunity to visit the Magic Kingdom in costume, and trick-or-treat for candy and goodies with your favorite Disney characters*, all in their finest Halloween outfits. With special music, parades and the spectacular all-new Happy HalloWishes fireworks show, this is no trick — it’s a real treat.

Location: Magic Kingdom® Park

Additional Information

* Admission to this event requires a separate ticket.
* Tickets valid only during specific dates and hours.

Boo! Don’t be afraid. The screams you hear are squeals of delight, not fright. Disney fantasy and Halloween fun come together on selected October nights for a one-of-a-kind celebration. < more... >