Why do you think I have this outrageous French accentuh? (or, the Paris entry)

Ah, Paris. City of gorgeous architecture and baguettes. I absolutely love the architecture in Paris. The roofs are amazing. And again, I loved the buildings rising along both sides of the busy streets, with shops on the first floor and apartments on all the others.

Our first meal there we went to a little cafe on the corner near the apartment where we stayed. Our waitress spoke very little English (she spoke a bit more English than we do French, though) so we had an interesting but entertaining experience there. My dad took French in high school, so he knew enough to get us water. We ordered our food by just pointing at something on the menu and hoping for the best. And for the most part we did very well. The food in Paris is amazing. And nearly every entree comes with fries--what's not to love about that!

There was a transportation strike in Paris so about 1/3 of their trains and subways were working. We were lucky to have even that. So getting to our apartment from the airport was quite an experience. I packed like a girl, so I had a huge suitcase I had to carry up and down subway stairs, push onto sardine-packed subways, and pull for blocks through Paris. It was an adventure. People talk about the stereotype of French people being rude (one of our French waiters even commented on how rude French people are) but I did not experience that. At almost every subway stop different men got off the subway and offered to help me with my bags, even though it wasn't my stop or his. I was very impressed by that. And one morning we went to this fun little busy bakery to buy bread, and the woman was very patient with the two Americans who spoke no French.

We saw many beautiful things, and I can't do them justice so I will just quickly describe everything.

• We went to Notre Dame and climbed to the top of the towers (because we hadn't done enough walking. The stairs were very twirly, which wasn't so good for my already questionable equilibrium). But the climb was totally worth it. The view from there is amazing, as are the gargoyles. Gargoyles are neat and I might have to put one somewhere in my house (if Todd lets me).



• We spent two hours in the Louvre. I am not appropriately cultured so I do not appreciate things like museums, especially famous huge museums with famous and actually very unimpressive art (ahem, Mona Lisa). But the Louvre itself is a stunning former palace that I greatly enjoyed.
  
• Because transportation in Paris was so crowded, and some subway cars took 30 minutes to arrive, we walked along the Champs-Elysées (which is a very long big road filled with shops and restaurants and lots of people) to the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc is beautiful, especially at night. Eight roads lead to the Arc, and then it's a huge crazy roundabout. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the mass of cars navigate it. Europeans and their roundabouts. I don't get it. (p.s. I took this picture from the Eiffel Tower, which is miles away from the Arc. I'm proud of it.)

• One day we took a train to Versailles. The palace is beautiful and the roof on the chapel is phenomenal (I have a thing for roofs and doors. Nearly half of my pictures from the trip are doors). I cannot believe how those royals lived. Total luxury. No wonder the people revolted. Versailles also has gorgeous enormous gardens, which are not as beautiful in the winter (and all the many fountains were turned off and the statues were covered, which sucked) but it was still beautiful. There's a large pond and people were rowing boats in it--I loved that. It was like a postcard.


• We were very lucky to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and we got there right at sunset, so we got to see the city at sunset and then as all the lights came on. It was great. They have flashing lights on the Tower that go off every hour (I think) and we were there when the lights went on. The Eiffel Tower is very beautiful and quite an architectural wonder (for me).


• We took a river tour on the Seine, and although it got SO much colder on the water, I loved the water tour because you got to see Paris from another angle, and because there are so many cool bridges spanning the river.

One interesting thing about being in France is how much they love Napoleon. In Madrid they talked very negatively about Napoleon invading Spain, placing his brother in charge, etc. They do not like Napoleon. Then you come to France where everything is "Yea Napoleon!" I enjoyed that.

Oh, and the omelettes in Paris were so yummy. My family made fun of me for that, but I really liked my omelette. Those French can cook. I'd be so overweight (and happy!) if I lived there.

It's time to try defying gravity (or, London)

England--our motherland. London was the coldest place of the trip--bone-chilling cold. I don't know if the Thames has magical powers or what, but I was so cold. Despite the cold it was fun, especially because they speak English and I could therefore understand 90% of what was said.

The apartment we stayed in was actually right by the Thames. I enjoyed seeing the river from our windows. It was near Woolrich Arsenal, a totally fun name.

We took the Underground everywhere we went (subways are so convenient in huge cities), and the announcer kept telling us to "Mind the gap" (there's a gap between the subway and the sidewalk, so they wanted to make sure we didn't put our feet in it). That announcement made me giggle every time.

We took a bus tour (of course) of London, and on one specific route they have sassy tour guides who are highly enjoyable.

London highlights:

• Big Ben! Absolutely my favorite building in London, and maybe even Europe (which I know is random given all the wonderful beautiful things I saw, but for some reason the Big Ben and Parliament buildings really stuck out to me). We didn't go inside Big Ben, but I took many many pictures of the outside of it.


• London has the largest ferris wheel in the world, the London Eye, which is more than 400 feet tall. Each pod on the wheel is about the size of my kitchen. We were lucky enough to go on the Eye, and it was a great view of London. And I didn't get sick or too freaked out to be so high.


• We saw Buckingham Palace. Which is . . . a big building behind a big fence guarded by men with guns. Unimpressive. And it didn't even have those guards with the tall black hats (you know, THE London photo op). I believe those guards are in the Tower of London guarding the Crown Jewels, but you have to pay to see that and I'd much rather spend that money on food and souvenirs (the value of the dollar sucks. It was $1.50 for a Euro, and more than $2 for a pound. Sheesh.).


• We did walk around the Tower of London, which is a neat castle right on the Thames by the Tower Bridge. I believe it's where they took William Wallace (if it's a true story. And Braveheart is just too good to not be true). It was kind of a hodge-podge of architectural styles, but I liked it. All around the building were cool blue light posts.
  
• We walked across the Tower Bridge. Bridges are neat, and this one is beautiful.


• Ha! Oh yeah. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral, which our guide told us is the steps where the Mary Poppins "Feed the Birds" took place (see, I so do not appreciate culture like I should!). It's also where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married.


• After looking at Big Ben (yea! Big Ben!) we saw Westminster Abbey. It's very beautiful.


• The chimneys in London are really cool.
  

Because I am not very cultured, I do not enjoy most musicals. I cannot stay awake for them and avoid them at all costs. On our last night in London, though, I changed my mind about one musical (there are now three I can sit through!), because we saw Wicked and I LOVED it. I felt so grown up liking a musical.

Instead of dragging our bags around London and the metros and trains, we took a taxi to the airport. My dad told them we had lots of bags, and our driver still showed up in a Toyota Highlander-type car. Which is a good car, but not for 7 checked-size bags and about as many other carry-on bags. But our driver got all the bags in and on the car. I was so impressed. Poor Kelsey sat in a pull-up seat in the very back with the bags. We took surface streets to the airport, which was very cool because we got to see London suburbs and gorgeous houses. Our driver was an excellent guide. I liked the trip to the airport. Then right before the airport we passed rolling hills and trees, exactly the landscape I picture when I think England. It was beautiful.

We flew home on my birthday (how fun to have two different birthdays--we left at like 10 local time AM and got home at 2 PM local time--more time to party!). It was a 10-hour flight, but no layovers was SO nice. No risk missing a connecting flight or having our luggage lost. We flew Virgin Atlantic, and I totally recommend that. It was great. The employees who checked in our bags were actually the rudest airport personnel we encountered the whole trip, but the personnel on the plane were fantastic. Best I've ever had (and we were just in economy class). They were up almost every hour giving us drinks, hot and cold snacks, a meal, and ice cream. It made the flight so much easier. Also nice was the individual TVs we each had and the 10 movies we could choose from. I watched three different movies, which really helped the flight get over quickly. They had a cool map on one of their channels that showed our flight progress. That was fun.

And then there was the jetlag. It wasn't bad going from the US to Spain, but coming back from London, I really felt the 8-hour difference (London is ahead of us). I took quite a while to recover.

I promise . . .

So yeah, the Europe posts. Written, but no pictures are on them yet (that's quite a project) and I like posts with pictures, so I don't want them up yet. So they're not. And I know it's been a month since I went on said vacation, but . . . yeah. Hopefully they'll be up this week, but who knows? If I hadn't gotten the worst cold of my life last week the Europe posts would be available. But I did, in fact, almost get bronchitis, so no posts. Also, I sometimes think I am a traditional LDS woman and can do creative things, so I am making a stocking for Todd, and it's more important than my Europe posts (sorry!).

So in a nutshell, the dog ate my posts but they'll be up soon.

My polls are way more fun than CNN's (and more accurate)

So it turns out I have more than 4 friends who read this blog--apparently there are 13. Woo-hoo! And of those 13 people, 53% think it's not tacky to include in our wedding invitations information about where we're registered. Thanks for the input.

I am in a gray area--I think it's tacky, especially when printed directly on the invitation; but I also know it's a necessary evil to avoid weird gifts, and also to make our guests' lives easier (if they choose to bring a gift. Which is not required, future wedding guests of ours. Therein lies my issue--telling people where we're registered seems to imply "bring a gift if you're coming," which I dislike and is not true.) (that was a very big aside).

We are indeed telling people where we're registered, but printed on an insert. And in small font. And mainly to avoid, as was suggested, hummingbird bookends.