London Paris 2009

[Update @ 2009-11-18T00:27-8:00] The entire photo collection is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadgetdude/sets/72157622332008897/.

We are finally back from our 10-day vacation to London and Paris. I wanted to summarize our experiences quickly before memory starts to fade, so photos will have to wait are still being uploaded.

London (September 7 to September 11)

Day 0 (September 8 )

We flew via KLM airline to London, transiting at Amsterdam. We then took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station, which is already in the city. The busy 4:30pm commuters made sure I didn’t want to take Tube to my hotel, so I took a cab instead.

 

Day 1 (September 9)

Buckingham Palace

The parade changing ceremony was scheduled for every other day in Autumn, and unfortunately for us, the next ceremony was not on the day of our visit. We didn’t pay for the interior tour, so we stuck around outside to take some photos. Nothing too special.

St. James Park

This wasn’t even on my list of places to visit. We just happened to walked across St. James Park on our way to Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament. The park was full of ducks, squirrels, and pidgins. The highlight was when we saw a pelican up close on a bench cleaning its feathers.

Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret’s Church

We didn’t pay for the Westminster Abbey tour. Instead we went inside St. Margaret’s Church for free. Nothing too exciting, just a visit-because-it’s-famous venue.

Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster)

This was another visit-because-it’s-famous spot for us. I found it hard to take decent pictures with the crowd, the constructions, and the surrounding non-famous buildings.

Thames River Cruise

Let’s just say this is not the most exciting boat ride I have had, but I got some nice photos out of this. Luckily I got 30% off on the tickets using my Tube day pass.

Harrods Shopping Centre

I had no plans of visiting Harrods shopping centre. In fact, I wasn’t aware of such a place before my wife brought it up last minute – apparently her friend was very impressed with it. I certainly was not impressed. Sure, they managed to squeeze a lot of shopping in a small building, but it was just an upscale shopping center with a few quirks. Upon entering the front door, I was told to hand carry my backpack – a standard practice for fear of patrons accidentally knocking over merchandise with worn packs. Hand carrying my heavy camera bag didn’t help my window shopping ordeal one bit. Then we found out restrooms were only on levels one and four, for hygiene reason as we were told at the information counter. In the end we barely finished browsing one floor before leaving for the day.

Day 2 (September 10)

Tower Bridge

We didn’t pay to climb up the Tower Bridge, so what can we say, it’s a bridge. The paths at either end of the bridge were decent though.

Tower of London

We had originally planned to visit additional attractions on this day, but Tower of London offered more content than I had anticipated, so instead I spent the rest of the day here. I liked the Henry VIII armor exhibits, but my wife didn’t care for the circular, steep staircases. Oh, one of the Beefeaters gave quite a nice tour.

Day 3 (September 11)

Museum of London

Museum of London was the biggest dissappointment of our entire trip. Entry was free, but it cost us our precious vacation time. The museum was small and didn’t have anything interesting to us.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

St. Paul’s Cathedral is one of those places that would be boring if you are not into architecture, religion, or photography. I am into photography, so I had some fun with that. Again, I didn’t pay to enter the cathedral.

Transportation

We took the Tube (subway) to go between places. The tube consists of many lines, some with modern trains and some with beat-up ones. While not as new as Singapore’s MRT trains, London’s trains were more frequent. They were also crowded, but one person did give up his seat for my wife. The Tube interchanges were also convenient, with short walks to another platform.

Unlike in US, cars with manual transmissions were everywhere. When I walked by a row of street-parked cars near the Parliament, I noticed that all of them were stick-shift, including two Ford Mondeo family sedans.

Air Quality

There was a lot of second hand smoke out in the streets, but it was still tolerable.

Food

There was nothing outstanding about London food. We did find an inexpensive Chinese style restaurant near our hotel. We ate there every night because my wife swore by it, but frankly I wasn’t crazy about the food. The restaurant did serve freshly squeezed orange/apple/carrot juices though.

Toilet

Public toilet in London was one of the most expensive I had seen. On day one near Westminster Abbey I balked at paying 40 pence to use a toilet at a Tube station, and I consequently suffered because I couldn’t find another option for one hour. Many restaurants in that area simply didn’t have toilets, and the idea of free public restrooms seemed outrageous. For this particular occasion I ended up picking a restaurant for lunch not because it looked good, but because it didn’t have a smart dress code and had toilets. Later that day I didn’t even blink when I saw a public restroom near the Thames river for 50 pence per entry. £1 of our travel budget was spent right there.

Compare that to Singapore MRT stations where all the toilets were free – the government used to charge 10 to 20 cents per entry, but over the years they all became free.

Eurostar (September 12)

We took Eurostar from London to Paris. Take it from us, do not fly from London to Paris! Eurostar took only 2.5 hours, and you only need to check in 30 minutes before. Going through custom and security check was easy, and you travel from middle of London right into the heart of Paris. The train we took was not full, and the economy seats were comfortable enough that we were happy we didn’t upgrade.

I did have beef with buying Eurostar tickets though. Eurostar offered different pricing for tickets bought with US dollar versus UK pound, with UK pound prices much cheaper. I had originally planned to buy tickets after I arrive in London to save a few bucks, but 3 weeks before the trip I noticed that the 11am departure had already been sold out with prices for other departures soaring. The last thing I wanted was to be stuck in London and waste our pre-paid, expensive Paris hotel room, so I jumped online and purchased the Eurostar tickets. Merely a week later I discovered to my dismay that the 11am departure had magically become available again, plus the price of each ticket fell by US$50!

Paris (September 13 to September 17)

Day 1 (September 13)

Eiffel Tower

Maybe all the propaganda got to me, but I was expecting the sun and the moon with Eiffel Tower. While it was nice, the Eiffel Tower certainly wasn’t the sun or the moon. It is just another tall building, albeit of a more distinct design, with panoramic views. The line to ticket counter was long but bearable. You’d need to wait in line to go between the 3 floors. There was a cafeteria and restroom at level 2, so no worries in terms of bio needs.

Les Invalides

This is another location with nice architecture and statues. We didn’t pay to enter the museum.

Day 2 (September 14)

Musee du Louvre

Louvre was easily the most impressive attraction throughout my trip. I had originally thought of spending maybe 2 to 3 hours here before moving on, but we spent the whole day instead. The 9.50 euro entry fee was totally worth it given the scope of the exhibits. We covered only 1.5 floors out of 4, with the last 1 hour rushing towards the famous Mona Lisa. After being escorted out at the 5:30pm closing time, we spent a while taking photos of the museum external, which was pretty nice in its own right.

We ate lunch at the cafeteria on level 1. We waited 30 minutes to be seated. All seats were outside on the balcony, and while we got a nice view, there was no non-smokers section. The food was of course expensive and came in tiny portions, as can be expected from a monopoly in such a strategic location. Unfortunately the taste didn’t quite match up to the price.

Day 3 (September 15)

Sainte-Chapelle

Sainte-Chapelle was barely alright. For the 8 euros we saw a big hall with stained glass windows.

Notre Dame

Entry fee to Notre Dame was decent at 8 euros per person. The view from top was impressive and differed from that of Eiffel Tower’s due to the narrow foot path and existence of gargoyles. Travelling to and from the top was all manual affair via the circular steps. It took some effort but offered a fun experience for me. Tower of London had similar stair cases in its Henry VIII exhibit, but Notre Dame’s was much higher.

Latin Quarter

I had planned a nice walking route in Latin Quarter based on a travel guide, but in the end we cheated and only walked around a block or two. There was some souvenir shops and many restaurants. We tried the gyros and were happy with the taste and price. A word of warning: do not eat at Hong Kong Express – both the food and the service was terrible.

Day 4 (September 16)

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc itself was impressive, but the surroundings not so much. The Arc is situated in the middle of a super busy roundabout, so traffic noise and fume exhaust was prevalent as we admired the monument.

On the other hand, there was a McDonald’s nearby, so nature calls wouldn’t become emergencies. Same items in this branch was generally at least 1 euro more than at the one near my hotel.

Opera Palais Garnier

It’s a nice building with plenty of sculptures, unfortunately at that point we were pretty immune to sculptures.

Transportation

The Paris Metro was functional but rundown. The trains were old with no dynamic, visual indications of upcoming stops. The upside was that they were typically less crowded than those in London.

Changing trains at Metro interchanges meant navigating underground mazes and carefully following signs to other platforms. The platforms were not near each other, as was the case at Montparnasse – Bienvenüe station. For our trip to airport I had thought about taking the Metro followed by RER, but the very first trip on Metro killed that idea – I was not about to drag my luggages for hundreds of meters and up/down staircases (no escalators) to save a few bucks.

Air Quality

Air quality in Paris was terrible. In the morning it would be bearable when we left for our day trips, but by late afternoon I would be coughing with irritated eyes, running nose, and stuffed throat. There was just too much smog and second-hand smoke. In busy areas there would be someone puffing smoke or lighting up a new one meters away at just about every direction. The air quality single handedly killed my appreciation of Paris. Well, that and the fact that I didn’t find Parisians friendly to outsiders.

Food

The French food I tried was overpriced and average in taste. As previously mentioned, I did like the gyros I found at Latin Quarter. In general, I now understand why many Americans look for McDonald’s when they travel overseas – at least you get crappy food for cheap instead of crappy food with big euros.

Toilet

We were charged 40 euro cents per entry at a Crepe restaurant near Latin Quarter, and we paid for their food earlier.