Day 9 – Heading back to Paris

Today was the last day in London and we wanted to make the most out of it. I got a wake-up m call for 7am, but we ended up laying in bed till 8am. Anna and I had packed our bags last night, so there wasn’t much to do to have everything ready. Out the door by 9am and we started walking around the Thames before heading back and having some breakfast at 11am near the hotel at a place call the Grill House.

After our meal we headed back up to the hotel, grabbed our bags and got a cab. The cab ride was pretty quick and we managed to get there faster than anticipated. We only had a little bit to wait, before we got on the Eurorail ride back to Paris. The train left at 2:20 and we were back in Paris at 5:45pm.

Our hotel in Paris, the Ibis Hotel was only about a 2 minute walk from the train station. We dropped off the bags and headed back out. We ended our evening having the dinner at The Savoy, a jazz bar restaurant. When we arrived we got the hostess a little of guard, as they were throwing a Christmas party for a company. When we asked for a table for two, she looked bewildered, stuttered, ask a colleague and then finally said yes and showed us to a table.

This was the perfect place for the last night in Paris. Food was great and the company was even better.

 

Day 8 - Additional Pics of the day

We really managed to take quite a bit of great pictures. Not all of them were taken on our main camera. However, we were not able to upload those due to a lack of cables. We look forward to updating and adding some of those when we get back. Here are just a few more from our day yesterday that I thought needed entry.

A straight on view of our hotel from the bus. Hotel is the building in the back left.

A shot from the Westminster bridge of the financial district 

Day 8 - Tower of London

After our lunch at Cote Brassieria, we hopped back on to the tour bus and got off by the Tower of London. We spent quite some time at the Tower. It is an area or compound of many buildings with the most amazing one containing the Crown Jewels. I wish we could have taken pictures of the crown jewels, but did manage to get one or two of some of the other items. The place was guards and secured like Fort Know and did not allow any pictures. 

We ended up staying by the Tower of London until right after dark. Once we left the Tower grounds we walked along the river and crossed the Tower Bridge – another iconic London structure. 

Starting to make our way back to the bus stop, we noticed that the traffic was not moving at all. We decided to start walking towards the next stop and then also noticed that some of the buses and taxis didn’t even have any drivers in it. Not sure why or what happened, but we figured the bus was no longer an option for some time. We switch direction and walked along the river heading back towards our hotel.

What better way to break up a walk then with food. Dinner at Cote Brassiere. We had breakfast at one of them earlier this morning, so we knew the food was going to be good. Anna had a steak with fries, along with a calamari appetizer. I had a mussel appetizer with a main dish of Seabream along with a tomato salad. All was very very good. Left there and managed to get down the road a bit before stopping in at the Mad Hatter for a couple of drinks.

Grabbed a cab around 8:30pm and rode back to the hotel. Took a load off our feet for about an hour before heading back downstairs to Ichi – a sushi restaurant – to end our evening. 

Day 8 - St. Paul's Cathedral

It was an early morning rise and a somewhat delayed departure. The plan was to get up at 7am, which did occur and then get out the door by 8am – that did not happen. However, we did get out by 9am and went straight to the Bus tour stop and bought an all day Hop-on Hop-off bus tour pass with One Tour. We were going to buy one the other day, but thought otherwise. It’s crazy – when you travel you always have so many plans in your head – regrettably or not they do not also come to fruition. Our motto has always been – “It all happens for a reason!”

On to the bus we hopped. First stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral. I know, another church, but this one was just as amazing as the last. When you truly see the craftsmanship and detail of all the work and then think how it had to be done back in the 12^th or 16^th century – WOW! The church offered an audio tour, which both of us opted to do. As we came it and as was told to us in several place, there was no photography allow within the church. It was strictly prohibited. Somehow, my camera must have gone off accidentally.

The cathedral had three areas, but we only visited two. The third was the dome section and I think the notion of climbing over 500 stairs gave Anna the non-desire to see what was up above. Trust me when I say there was plenty to see down below.

We strolled around the cathedral for about an 1.5 hour and eventually headed out for a bit of lunch. 

Day 7 – A little rest and back to the Thames

After and little R&R back at the hotel, we ventured back out at around 4:30pm and decided to hit the Christmas Market. It was full of all kinds of knick-knacks and food vendors. We picked up a few things and headed to a place we saw earlier called Wagamama – ramen fusion place. Can I just say – DELICIOUS!! Anna ended up having a Chili Shrimp ramen. I had a Duck ramen and we also order two appetizers – duck gyoza and bang bang cauliflower.

We stopped at a couple more places and had a few drinks before we headed back to the hotel around 8:30pm.

Day 7 – Parliament, Westminster Abbey and little of Buckingham Palace

The day was not going to get away from us today, so we ordered a wake up call for 8am. Up and dressed we eventually made it out of our room by 9am. We walked out of our hotel and headed straight for the Abbey. It was located across the Thames River from our hotel and fortunately our hotel was located from by the bridge. Somehow I managed to book us right in the middle of everything.

The Westminster Abbey is an amazing structure both inside and out. We walked around entire church. When we first got there at 9:30am, they opened up some side doors to enter for a mass at 10am. We decided to walk around instead. Part of the Abbey was closed due to it being Sunday, but we still managed to get a good look around. At 10 after 10 we did end up going into the church for mass. Unfortunately, we could not take any pictures. I will definitely head back in the upcoming day to visit the inside of the church in order to take some pictures.

Next, we walked over to the Parliament building, another mind blowing architectural marvel. It was not open today, I believe due to it being Sunday. We will attempt to visit it again tomorrow. Nevertheless, we walked around most of the building, pointing and waving at all the intricate orinamental stone carvings. We continued walking down Whitehall street, passed Downing Street. Always see it on TV and now it’s nice to see it in person.

Stopped in at Lord Moon’s Restaurant at 11:30am for a well need lunch. Since we did not eat any breakfast, we were both pretty hungry. Mama had a trifecta meal of shrimp cocktail, pigs in a blanket and tomato soup. I had a Brie and Bacon Burger. I did not try any of Mama’s meal, but would venture to say mine was best.

Off to Buckingham Palace. It was around a 10-15 minute walk. There was a crazy amount of people near the entrance and we did not stay too long. We took it in and decided to maybe come back during the week when the traffic was less.

Around the corner from the palace was the Queen’s Gallery. It was a museum showing and sharing the history of the English monarch and how it came to be. It had vast paintings of much of the Russian empire and Queen Victoria, weaponry, fine china and several very impressive sculptures. Leaving the museum, we walked the gardens for a short time and then hopped into a cab back to the hotel.