Rachel's Graduation Trip Part 5

I promise this is my last post for our London/Paris trip!  I somehow messed up my back beginning last Monday (I blame the 10 hour plane ride home), and haven't been able to do much of anything all week.  My back pain was so bad I went to the ER early Tuesday morning where they informed me I have a pinched nerve, which is something that takes time and patience to heal.  Because of the pain and discomfort, I have been a total sloth, playing musical chairs in the hopes of getting comfortable. Yesterday I realized I was finally feeling comfortable and today the pain has lessened quite a bit. Tomorrow I have PT and I'm hopeful I can get to moving around a bit better and faster in the next few days. Posting our London and Paris journeys has really saved my butt. Whenever I could, I would sloth my way to my laptop and hammer out a few words and relive the days we zinged around London and Paris, having the time of our lives.

We spent the last day in Paris at the Eiffel Tower. We met our tour guide at 8:00, and after three long, cold, rainy hours we were finally in an elevator going up up up.  We purchased front-of-the-line tickets, which I highly recommend. I can't imagine how long the hundreds of people behind us waited to go up. 

Every cold, wet minute waiting to go up was worth it though!

I cannot take credit for the pictures taken while we were at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Thanks to his stupidity bravery, Robert stuck his phone out of the fence to take these pictures. Don't worry, he didn't drop his phone.

My favorite part was watching Saype's artwork on the Champs-de-Mars garden magically appear once we were high enough.

 

After a magical, but freezing morning we ate a nice hot lunch at New Jawad, an Indian restaurant. I also enjoyed a milky chai and suji halwa, which is pictured below. There's an Indian restaurant in the Kansas City area that serves this semolina dish (it's bright orange with almonds), but only on the Sunday buffet, and it's a ridiculously expensive buffet.  We made some at home once, but a little goes a long way, and I'm the only one who likes it. This suji halwa was made with coconut and raisins, two exciting additions I loved. I can't wait to make it at home again, this time with all three toppings.  

After lunch we took an oddly soothing boat tour (perhaps I was just sleepy from the heavy lunch).

In addition to walking several miles a day, we also used the subway and bus in London. Their public transportation is excellent. In Paris we walked if we were in a surge-pricing zone, and then we took a an Uber the rest of the way. Though it was often raining, we all enjoyed these walks just as much as the sites we saw.  If you look closely, even this beautiful statue has graffiti. I was surprised by how much graffiti covers Paris. It's everywhere.

A couple of our Uber rides were in vehicles we hadn't heard of like this one:

 On Friday we began our journey home. Here's a few seconds of Paris I captured on our way to the train station:

We spent Friday night in London and walked to Paddington Station Saturday morning. I enjoyed the sound of our suitcases rolled down the cobblestone streets so much I captured it for future listening.

One of Robert's dreams came true when the train driver let him see the driver's cab. It was a great way to end a wonderful trip.

Rachel's Graduation Trip Part 4

Watching this tapir frolic in the rain was the best part of the trip for me. As it turns out, going to the zoo when it's raining is one of the best times to go. We only saw a handful of people, but most of the animals were out and about.

The Rodin Museum was beautiful. We immensely enjoyed the rose gardens and sculptures. We also saw a sneak peek of the Eiffel Tower while we were at the museum.

The Rodin Museum, like Musée d'Orsay, was in a beautiful building.

This was my favorite exhibit.

Rachel wanted to go to McDonald's in both London and Paris, so we did.  The Paris McDonald's was atrocious. Thankfully I wasn't that hungry!

Behind us is the Arc de Triomphe.  Listening to French speakers pronounce this was even better than seeing it.  It sounds like pure music.

There were lots of cobblestone streets and wibbly wobbly roads in both London and Paris.

We made a pastry stop before heading to the Paris Catacombs. We quickly learned that the French do not eat breakfast. If a place happened to be open before 10 A.M., breakfast consisted of coffee or tea and bread with jam and butter or a croissant.  Thankfully there were patisseries everywhere, sometimes two or three on one block! In addition to pastries they sold quark with granola and sandwiches. We also tried several pastries from different patisseries. Rachel stuck to the same lemon tarte with meringue each time. Robert tried pretty much anything with strawberries, though the palmier we found just once was his favorite. And I usually tried different things, but the chocolate eclair was my favorite. This patisserie, Paul, had both the elusive palmier and a great chocolate eclair, but the best chocolate eclair came from La Délicieuse.

After our pastries, we explored the Paris Catacombs, which was incredibly fascinating.  It's really such a sacred place, I felt uncomfortable being there.  But the fascinating history outweighed my discomfort.  

Stay tuned for the rest of our Paris adventures!

Rachel's Graduation Trip Part 3

Leaving our hotel and heading to Paris. This hotel always had digestive biscuits on their tea and coffee tray in the room. This really should be mandatory at all hotels!

 

We took the chunnel to Paris. It was super fast and comfortable.

Our hotel room in Paris, which was in the 11th arrondissement, was at the tippy top of a building in what can only be described as an attic. It was tiny and adorable with a fairly big bathroom.

We asked the gentleman at the front desk where we should get dinner.  He suggested Chez Wang. So yes, our first night in Paris we had Chinese food, and it was delicious. The lady at the restaurant was super nice, didn't speak any English, and when it was discovered we didn't speak any French, she pointed to something on the menu, gave us a thumbs up and disappeared. She came back with dumplings with some kind of meat and lots of onions, and they were possibly the best dumplings I've ever had, though I will need to go back to Copycat in D.C. to verify this.

We spent the next day at Musée d'Orsay, which is in an old train depot, a beautiful building that rivaled the artwork. 

This was one of my favorite pieces - Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science by Louis-Ernest Barrias.

After Musée d'Orsay, we wandered around a bit. Here we are with Notre Dame behind us.

More Paris adventures to come!

Rachel's Graduation Trip Part 2

We ate a lot of interesting and good food in London and Paris - Indian, Thai, Chinese, Italian, Greek. Pretty much a little bit of everything except French, which I'll explain more about later. 

I had two favorite breakfast places. Antipodea in Kew prior to our garden visit where I had oatmeal with apricots that had been poached in chamomile tea and an Australian hot chocolate, called Mörk (and yes I totally picked it because of the name and also added it my names of future cats list).

The second breakfast place I loved was Dishoom, which is where we ate breakfast on Friday. The interior was so beautiful I felt like I could live there. Rachel spoke animatedly about the bathroom soap for hours. The place was cozy, smelled of incense, and was stunning.  I had appam pancakes with shrikand, berries, fat, crispy coconut flakes toasted to perfection, and jaggery syrup which faintly reminded me of sorghum, a syrup I can't keep at home because of how much I love it. I also had my first chocolate chai. 

On the way to our next destination, I nearly tripped over my feet when I saw this:

Most of the graffiti in London and Paris was lost on me, but I connected with this face.  Maybe it's because it's the same face I have when I find out I'm way down the line for a book I really want to read.  Btw this is called queuing in London.  While waiting in a line in London, a lady asked me a question. I had no idea what the heck she was saying, so with mild embarrassment I asked her to repeat herself. She rolled her eyes, raised her voice, and pointed to the line I was standing in. "Are you queuing?" she demanded.  Holy crap, lady, if the line means that much to you, by all means, get in it.  I didn't say that.  I just nodded yes and turned away from her wrath.

Next up for Friday - the London Transport Museum!  I think this was my favorite museum of the trip, though the Winston Churchill War Rooms are a close second.  We enjoyed learning about the history of transportation in London, including a buggy that had three horses and was a nightmare to drive and the growth and evolution of the wildly fascinating subway system.  My favorite part was the Poster Prize for Illustration 2019 exhibit.  My favorite art was a collection of napkin drawings by Haijing Chen during his London travels. The exhibit was overwhelmingly inspirational and beautiful.

Robert visited this museum as a child and was thrilled to share the museum with us.  We were all surprised and delighted that the same subway driver simulator he played when he was a child was still there!!

After the London Transport Museum, we had casual afternoon tea at The British Museum.  After my amazing afternoon tea experience at The Chantilly in Tucson, AZ with my brother, Scott, I knew I had to do an afternoon tea while we were in London.  Though we reserved the tea, Robert and Rachel both still had an opportunity to do something different if they didn't want to do the tea. My heart exploded like fireworks when they both decided to do the tea with me.  The aubergine chocolate cakes with meringue were the best treats (they tasted like extra fudgy brownies).  The tea was excellent and Rachel thoroughly enjoyed the lumpy, irregular sugar cubes.

Look at that face!  It's the best!  (I tell Ella this about her face too lol).  Robert did let me drink most of his tea in exchange for my scone, which was very sweet of him.

On Saturday we did something very special that will stay with me for the rest of my days.  We visited one of the places on my bucket list, Highgate Cemetery, and it was balm for my soul. I don't care what happens to my body when I die.  If there is someone who loves me when I go, they can do whatever brings them the most peace. I'm not wild about ending up in a cemetery, but if I do, I can only hope that nature prevails and ripples my grave as it claims everything that belongs to her. This is why I love Highgate so much. A nonprofit organization takes care of the pathways, but the families are responsible for the graves. If there is no one left to take care of a grave, it is mostly up to nature to decide its fate. 

It was very windy during our visit, which I think added to the serenity and spirituality of the place. 

There were snails everywhere. At one point, I stopped looking at graves and went on a snail hunt, which was exhilarating. 

I love this ghostly flower, but haven't figured out what it is yet. It's pretty when it blossoms, but has such a supernatural radiance before the flowers pop out.

I love when trees have no respect for a beautifully carved piece of stone with life and death written on it, and they go about their business of flourishing.  

After the cemetery, we were famished so we decided to try a bunch of London snacks.  In London, pork rinds are both crunchy and spongy and British chocolate tends to have a higher fat and cocoa content, which made ordinary things like oreos and M&Ms taste different. The purple skittle in London is blackcurrant, the doritos are nowhere near the same as ours, and there are lots of other chips with unique flavors like roast beef and pickled onion. They also have salt and vinegar peanuts, which is something I'll be on the prowl for in Kansas City.  The rice crispy treat did, however, surprise us because it tasted exactly the same.

Though they're not pictured, we did try a handful of beverages. Orange juice always tasted a bit watery.  All of their sodas have reduced sugar, and their orange Fanta is yellow.  Rachel and I tried a couple beers.  Our favorite was Brothers toffee apple cider.  Once, on a rare sunny day I made the mistake of asking for iced tea, and the waitress shook her head with shock and looked so upset I thought she was going to storm off.  Ice is rarely served in London, and on the rare occasion it is, it is with juice.  I think this has to do with the fact that most of our visit was cold, windy, and rainy, which sounds like fairly common weather there. 

Stay tuned for our adventures in Paris!

Rachel's Graduation Trip Part 1

Robert, Rachel and I just got home from two weeks in London and Paris.  Whaa?  

Yup, for Rachel's graduation present, we told her she could go anywhere in the world (with the exception of a few places of course).

This was a mighty big trip for all of us so I will break this up into a handful of posts.  

While we were in London we noticed many people walking around with selfie sticks permanently hanging from their chests.  They were literally recording everything they saw.  Robert even saw one gentleman still recording while in the restroom.  Please don't worry though.  I will only share our favorite things.  No potty pics!  Robert and Rachel reveled in the historical significance of the buildings.  I lost count of the times I heard one of them exclaim"this is older than our country!"  I reveled in the beauty of both London and Paris and couldn't keep up with the splendor.  We all appreciated and enjoyed the food, differences in cultures, and jumped for joy every time we saw pigeons, dogs, strange vehicles, musicians, and people who returned our smiles.   

We just got back yesterday so I am still processing everything.  I am simply exhausted with joy, wonder, and gratitude.

Here is part one of our favorite moments, places, and food from London!

We flew in Saturday night and arrived Sunday late morning.  We immediately found some fish and chips and a telephone booth.

Monday morning we had a traditional English breakfast at Regency Cafe - an egg with beans, black pudding, and toast.  Afterwards, we visited the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. There was a pretty cool glass floor at the top of the Tower Bridge, which we all thought was the bees knees.  

While in London and Paris, Rachel and I fell in love with spiral stairs, which were everywhere. We giggled and squealed all the way up this first set of spiral stairs. And then we went back down and did it all over again.

We had lunch at various places at Borough Market, which was an open market/restaurant place.  We finished the day at The Winston Churchill War Rooms Museum, which was a very thorough and intense look into Winston Churchill's life and also a tour of the war rooms.  My favorite display showed his daily routine, which included a lot of meat and naps. 

Tuesday we toured Westminster Abbey.  Trump was in town so the direct route to Westminster Abbey was blocked. We cut through St. James's Park, which had a beautiful garden with an adorable cottage, Duck Island Cottage.  Rachel walked through Westminster Abbey with her mouth open the entire time, completely gobsmacked.  We also popped into the National Gallery where Rachel explored while Robert and I took a coffee break.  Afterwards, we had lunch at The Real Greek, which was excellent, and a hot chocolate at Hotel Chocolate, which was the best hot chocolate I've ever had - 70% chocolate with coconut milk.  We ended the day by going up in the London Eye, which was fantastic! London is a beautiful city on the ground and breathtaking from above.

We spent Wednesday at Tate, which Rachel loved, and a two-hour bus tour of the city, which I was reluctant to go on but now highly recommend. 

One of Robert's childhood friends lives in London so we met up with him and his daughter at Kew Gardens on Thursday.  We had no idea what we were getting into.  Kew Gardens wasn't even on our list of things to see!  It's spectacular!  It's so big, we didn't even see all of it.  We spent an enjoyable day following Ben's three-year-old daughter as she zig-zagged around the gardens.  I've never had a three-year-old as a tour guide before, but I can say it is one of the best ways to see a garden.

Ben's daughter took a shine to Rachel and didn't want to say goodbye to her at the end of the day.

More London and Paris adventures to come!