Eurotrip 2015: Part 2

Not only did the four of us get to celebrate our respective anniversaries in Europe, but the sixth day of our trip was also J’s birthday! Waking up a year older in Paris isn’t too bad of a deal, if you ask me. Out the door by 8:30AM (only thirty minutes behind schedule) we headed out for a quick stop at a gluten free bakery to grab a bite for our commute to Versailles. With a six-inch chocolate cake in hand — apparently K’s idea of breakfast — we were off. To get to Versailles from Paris, we had to change train lines three times; 20 minutes into the final leg, we realized we were heading the wrong direction. There was a slight delay while we waited at the next stop to change directions, and K was disappointed he’d made an error in our navigation, but we arrived in Versailles only an hour later than intended.

Exploring the gardens of Versailles.

As we approached the Chateau we were SHOCKED at the length of the line at the palace entrance. In hopes that the wait time would die down later in the day, we headed to the gardens, where you could forget just how many people were there as you go lost among the hedges. The gardens were lovely and vast, although it would have been much nicer with the fountains on. We weren’t sure if France was in a drought during our stay, but none of the fountains were ever running as we did our sight-seeing throughout the country. Maybe the French are just more environmentally conscience than Americans are? When we emerged from the gardens, we were pleased to see that the line for the chateau was much smaller. Despite the shorter wait time, we completed our tour in as little time as possible; since hadn’t been able to tour the Louvre yesterday, we were hoping to get back to Paris in time to spend a couple hours wandering the museum. At the completion of our fast-paced tour, we stopped at Angelina’s before heading back to the train station for a highly recommended hot chocolate & macaron snack. The hot chocolate was rich and thick; it was as if you had melted a block of milk chocolate and mixed it with heavy cream. It was very good, but a little went a long way. It’s a good thing K & I shared one!

Upon our return to the city, we emerged from the metro stop below the Louvre with plenty of time for an afternoon of art appreciation. We walked to the entrance gate and were disheartened to read the sign “Closed on Tuesdays.” Face. Palm. Somehow, we’d managed to mess this up again. So, we snapped some photos below the Louvre before walking to Les Marquis de Laduree for some more macarons. When we returned to the apartment we started a load of laundry and cooked ourselves a dinner of pasta, salad, & wine (I know, apparently, we didn’t get enough Italian food while we were in Cinque Terre).

Another morning in Paris, and we were determined to finally enter the Louvre — third time's the charm, right? Since we had to squeeze it in on a different day than originally intended, we’d agreed to see five great masterpieces rather than wander the museum all day. We saw the Venus. We saw the Mona Lisa. We saw the Wrath of Medusa and, next to it, Liberty Leading the People. We strolled through the ancient Egyptian art and even saw a mummy on our way out. After viewing the small collection of art from Monet and Matisse at the L’Orangerie Museum at the other end of the Tuileries Gardens, we headed to lunch at NoGlu, an entirely gluten free restaurant and arguably the best meal of our vacation! Following lunch we headed to O Chateau for a wine tasting and introduction to French wines course. As the class started in the brick cellar below the wine bar, I took out a pen and totally nerded it up by taking meticulous notes.

The Venus & The Mona Lisa.

From O Chateau we ventured to Paris’s Montmartre neighborhood, in the 18th arrondissement. Starting at the Moulin Rouge, we hopped on the Petit Train de Montmartre and headed up to Sacre Coure. It was a gorgeous church and it had an exquisite view of Paris from its hilltop vantage point. We walked to the bottom of the hill and hopped on the metro towards the Luxembourg Gardens. Along the way we took a slight detour at 2 different metro stops to see St. Germain de Pres and St Sulpice. At St Sulpice, there was a poetry vendor fair set up, so we wandered briefly before heading to the Luxembourg Gardens and then back to the apartment for our last night in Paris.

The Moulin Rouge. On the Petit Train de Montmartre. Sacre Coeur Basilica.

After doing so much walking in Paris the last few days, we were happy to sleep in our last morning in the city. Finally feeling well rested, we casually packed our bags and headed to brunch at a café down the street. At the train station, we went through customs before boarding our train to London. Another stamp in the passport! On board the train we used our remaining Euros on snacks, and I slept to pass the time. 

Welcome To London

We made it to London and then to our adorable AirBnB apartment with no setbacks; navigating to our apartment, we were all glad that we were ending our trip in an English speaking country. After unpacking and relaxing a bit, we headed to Kensington Park and Kensington Palace near-by. We then had dinner at Geale’s Seafood and ate dinner on the patio; by the end of our meal we were ready to get back to the apartment and sleep!

Our first dull day in London, we intended to hit all the major attractions. We had a casual breakfast at home (this was the first apartment fully stocked with food and drink) before getting an eager start to our day. Our first stop was Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. On our way to lunch we stopped outside the Benjamin Franklin House to take a quick picture or two; despite being in London, it is the last standing residence of the famous American revolutionist, scientist, and politician. After stuffing ourselves with pub food and hard cider, we ventured out to Westminster Abbey. From Westminster, we walked down towards the Tames and admired Big Ben and Parliament. To take in the sights in a new way, we hopped on a river boat where we saw Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, London Bridge, Cleopatra’s Obelisk, and several other sites on our voyage to the Tower of London.

Kensington Palace. The Globe Theater. Parliament & Big Ben.

At the Tower of London we viewed the crown jewels and, in quite the juxtaposition, some medieval torture devices. And although not British cuisine, we stopped for dinner at Nando’s for Afro-Portugese chicken — apparently a favorite for London locals. With full bellies, we could see why it is so popular! We headed home early, for us at least, and arrived at the apartment by 8PM. Windows open, we spent the rest of the night relaxing to the sound and smell of our FIRST London rain.

The last day of our vacation, we woke up moderately early; it was a lot easier since we were running on Paris time, which is an hour ahead of London. We put on our best clothes and went straight to the underground… only to discover that the line that serves our current neighborhood was down for repairs for the weekend. K snagged a bus route map and navigated us to Buckingham Palace of the Trooping of the Colour/Queen’s Birthday Celebration Parade. That’s right, we were off to see the Queen! When we arrived we were surprised how cold it was — definitely colder than it was when we left our apartment. We followed the crowds of people and situated ourselves just inside the gates of the mall, luckily, behind a family that was sitting in lawn chairs. The parade started with the sound of a marching band in the distance, slowly making its way closer and closer. There were several bands followed by soldiers. Then mounted horse guards. THEN, we saw Kate Middleton and Camilla in an open carriage! AND THE QUEEN!!! Once the birthday girl went by, we left. Even though there was still more to be seen, it was our last day in London and we couldn’t spend the entire day ogling at the Royals.

Overcast and cold, with the occasional drizzling of rain (so stereo-typically London), we wandered around Borough Market. We sampled cheeses, salami, had some warm ginger apple juice, fudge, and tomato jam. I had a chicken meat pie and K had a sausage and egg breakfast. It was all very good. Just down the road, we toured the museum exhibit at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater before walking the glass floored pedestrian walkway over London Bridge. It was a quick day of site seeing, all with the intent of making it to Tea Time at The Kingsway Hall Hotel.

Borough Market & Tower Bridge.

For the record, high tea was AMAZING. We each had our own pot with the tea of our choosing —bottomless and you could change flavors at each refill! We had 4 different types of finger sandwiches, bottomless scones, and an assortment of bottomless pastries: lemon cake, macarons, fruit tart, mini éclair, and chocolate cheese cake. Arguably the best part of high tea at The Kingsway was that they also offered a gluten free pastry selection, and it did not disappoint; K was pleasantly surprised, if not shocked, that his scones were also bottomless! We all stuffed ourselves until we were uncomfortably full before heading home. High tea is a reasonable dinner, right?

A funny quirk to our high class, afternoon tea, was the rather large horde of naked bicyclists riding down the street about an hour into our meal. They were at such an angle and we were seated far enough away from the windows that we only caught glimpses of side boob and some butt, but it was pretty comical nonetheless (I later learned that this was apparently an international event and people in various cities across the globe were participating in nude cycling that day). Very full and in good spirits we headed back to our AirBnB apartment, the sun finally out! We packed and planned the best route to the airport; the underground closures made it a significantly more difficult journey to Heathrow. Sad that our vacation was coming to an end, we went to bed to prepare for an early morning.


At 5:30AM, our alarm went off. We got to the bus stop in front of our apartment just in time to see the bus we wanted drive away. Confused, we weren’t sure if it was extra late or extra early. Either way, we waited. And waited. We were all getting a little nervous when we finally saw a bus peeking out between the trees down the street. Thank goodness — today was NOT the day for the buses in the area to be down too! Only part way through our journey to the airport, we got out at a large bus transfer station and waited some more. The N9 is the only bus that goes to Heathrow from the station, but the first one that showed up didn’t go to Heathrow; apparently a third of N9 buses have an abbreviated route. So, we waited some more. Feeling a bit more anxious than we’d like, K looked up an alternative way to get to the airport, but it involved 2 more bus changes; A and I were discussing calling a cab when finally an N9 going to Heathrow showed up. Off we went!

We arrived at Heathrow without any more issues and checked-in for our flight without any problems. Unfortunately, when we went through security, A’s purse was pulled for a security violation. It seemed she and every other person who went through our particular security line had to have their bags searched and it was not a short process; our xray scanner-checker guy was very cautious. With everything worked out, we grabbed a little bit of breakfast and headed to the gate. We boarded our Virgin Airlines flight to a full bar lit up with LED lights and some very trendy flight attendants. Over the course of our very modern eight hour flight, K and I watched 3 movies and we did a lot of eating. We had curry chicken for lunch. Tea time snack. Chips. Chocolates. It was almost never ending! We landed in Detroit and breezed through customs, only to have our flight to Dallas delayed for several hours due to weather. Not exactly the welcome we had hoped for once state side, we were still happy to be home, even if it meant our Eurotrip had ended and we would all have to get back to the real world.





To read more about our trip to Europe, check out Eurotrip 2015: Part 1