The List #1 - DONE!

So, on March 24, my husband and I got on a plane and flew to London.  My first trip ever out of the US.  Going to England to visit my OD was #1 on my list this year.  I'm planning on doing a day-by-day breakdown of the trip, but I'll post that on my other blog so you won't be bogged down with a bazillion pictures here -- I'll post links as soon as the posts are written.

I accidentally reformatted the memory card on my camera about 5 days in and lost 300 pictures.  That makes it a lot harder to remember what we did when.  We tried to eat authentic French and English food and see as much as possible in the short time we had.  We walked 8-10 miles just about every day.

In Paris, we went to the Louvre, the Musee D'Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, Sacre-Coeur, Montparnasse Tower, the Catacombs of Paris, and Pere Lachaise Cemetary. There are probably other places in Paris that I've forgotten.

This is the one picture I took on my phone -- it was a beautiful day.  We bought a baguette, cheese, and salami from small markets and ate the sandwich here, in view of the Eiffel Tower. 

This was taken at Pere Lachaise Cemetary, where Jim Morrison of the Doors, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and Edith Piaf are buried (to name a few).

 On the same day, we walked back to the Eiffel Tower for me to get more pictures since I had deleted all the others.  Not quite as nice of a day. :(

I had also taken a bunch of pictures of doors in Paris (my daughter's suggestion).  Again, most were deleted, but this one remains.

We then went back to London, and went to a bunch of places there as well.  It seemed we were always going to the museums.  We tried to do a self guided Jack the Ripper tour, which would have been super cool if I had known more about the murders -- should have done my homework.  There was a free or relatively cheap tour but we didn't get to the starting point in time for that.

The Tate Modern museum.  Kind of an ugly building, but interesting, just the same.  I'm not a huge modern art fan it turns out.

Reminders on the street that they drive on the wrong side of the street there.  Fortunately, we didn't get hit by any vehicles while there.

We went to see a ballet at the Royal Opera House.  It was a beautiful, old building, and surprisingly, I enjoyed the ballet.  We saw "The Four Temperaments/Untouchable/Song of the Earth".  The middle one, was the best.

Walked down Drury Lane -- didn't see the muffin man though...

Another beautiful day, walking across the Thames toward Parliament.  We passed on going in, but got some great pictures from the outside.

 Artsy picture of Paul with Big Ben in the background.

Buckingham Palace.  I guess we got there right before the changing of the guard so that was kind of cool but we were too far away to really see anything.

 Tower Bridge from inside the Tower of London (where we saw the crown jewels).

Platform 9 3/4.

 Abbey Road.

 A blue police box.

 And a red phone booth.

 OD and husband at St. Paul's Cathedral.

 Notting Hill.

 The Shard.

The flight home .. over lots of ice and ocean (and 11.5 hours, ugh!!).