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.