October 6, 2001 : London

I had to be at the "Touringscope" office at 7:00 AM sharp - which meant I hadto wake up at 6:00 AM, and you know how difficult that is for me!

Well, I did manage it (somehow) -- although I ended up running most of the wayfrom the metro stop to the Touringscope office to reach by 7. There was a groupof 7 of us who left almost immediately for the train station (Gare d'Nord).Here we caught the "Eurostar" train to London -- nonstop from Paris to Londonin 3 hours!!!!

The train was excellent! Later I found out that it can go up to 300 KMPH (176MPH) -- but while you're on the train you can hardly sense the speed! TheFrance portion took about 1 1/2 hours, the channel crossing took 22 minutesflat, and we were in England! Then it was 1 more hour to Waterloo station inLondon. AND... since there's a 1 hour time difference, we left Paris at 8:00 AMand reached London at 10:00 AM -- that hour makes a difference when there'sonly 1 day to spend at London!

Anyway, part of my ticket was a double-decker bus tour of the city, andbasically I was on this for the whole day -- getting off at viewpoints,spending some time there, and getting back on another bus to go to the nextviewpoint.

First stop was Big Ben/Parliament/Thames River.... bought a cap there becauseit was starting to rain... Then back onto the bus.

The bus goes to all the touristy points -- Big Ben, Parliament, London Bridge,Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Millenium Eye, Buckingham Palace, TrafalgarSquare, Picadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey ..... with an optional side-trip toSt James Palace and Kensington Palace -- all this was supposed to be covered in1 day (I had to be back at the train station at 6 PM for train back to Paris).So I did not spend too much time in each place. A big waste of time was theTower Bridge, and it took so long that I had to skip going to Tower of London!I could have gone to the Tower of London instead, which I've heard is muchnicer. Anyway, that's saved for another trip...

I liked Westminster Abbey and Big Ben/Parliament area the best of all of theabove... The architecture on all those buildings is amazing! Unfortunately Iwasted about 2 hours at the Tower Bridge, otherwise I could have spent moretime in each place...

The day ended at Westminster Abbey, which was about 1 mile walk from Waterlootrain station. But I had had enough of walking, so I took the subway! London'sgot a nice subway system -- much cleaner and I think better organized thanParis... only negative point is there are not as many stops close to where youare.

The ride back again was 3 hours plus 1 hour time difference, so I reached backGare d'Nord station in Paris at 11:00 PM (after leaving London 7:00 PM). Thiswas great! That train is fantastic! A flight from London-Paris takes about 1hour, plus you have to be at the airport 2 hours before departure, and leavehome even earlier than that... so by the time you reach by plane, the traintakes just as long to reach, and it's a lot more comfortable, and the trainstations are right in the middle of the city, so you dont have too muchdistance to go after arriving!

Aboard the Eurostar	Chunnel Crossing, France side	Big Ben
Big Ben	Big Ben	Parliament
Parliament	Queen's Guard	"Millenium Wheel"
I forgot what this was! ;)	London skyline (part of it, anyway)	Tower Bridge : as seen from London Bridge
Tower Bridge	Tower Bridge	Tower Bridge View
Tower Bridge View	Tower Bridge View	Tower Bridge View
Tower Bridge	Tower Bridge	Tower Of London
Trafalgar Square	Trafalgar Square	Fountain at Trafalgar Square
Fountain at Trafalgar Square	Fountain at Trafalgar Square	Trafalgar Square
Fountain at Trafalgar Square	Marble Arch	"Little Ben"
Picadilly Circus	Picadilly Circus	Picadilly Circus
Buckingham Palace	Buckingham Palace	Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace	Buckingham Palace	Buckingham Palace
Westminster Abbey	Westminster Abbey	Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey	Eurostar : Back in Paris	Eurostar : Back in Paris

Paris Table of Contents
October 7 : Versailles, Tour Montparnasse