Eiffel Tower

View from Eiffel Tower

Big Ben

The Roman Baths

Tower of London

Stonehenge

Buckingham Palace

Changing of the Guards

Tower of London Bridge

I have been wanting to share our pictures from our wonderful trip to London & Paris last March for a long time now. Michael and I had such a wonderful time. Mom & Dad came with us which made the trip that much better because we were able to experience these things together. My mom and I took over 600 pictures so I did my best to just show you the highlights of our trip.

We saw the Windsor Castle which is perched high above the River Thames just outside of London. From William the Conqueror all the way through to our current Queen, successive monarchs have lived here and left their mark on what is now the largest continuously occupied castle in the world.

The most famous prehistoric monument in the world, and now a world heritage site, Stonehenge stands alone in the vast empty tract of Salisbury plain. Its origins date back nearly 5,000 years and it brings numerous questions to mind. What was this vast collection of stones intended for? Was it observatory of the moon, a temple to the sun, or an elaborate cemetery? Who were the people who carried and carved these 40 ton rocks? This was by far Michael's favorite part of the trip.

We also visited Bath to take in the sights of the Roman Baths, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, St. John's Cathedral, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben the third-tallest free-standing clock tower in the world, the London Eye, watched the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace and in between all of that we even managed to catch a few shows. The most memorable was The Phantom of the Opera. My parents have seen it 6 times from S.F. to N.Y. and this was by far the best show they had seen. Truly amazing.

Then it was off to Paris for the day, which as we all agreed was way too short. We were in a race to see everything we could before our train left to head back to London. We were able to see the Louvre (just the outside), Notre Dame,Champs-Elysées, took a boat down the Seine to see the subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences between the Left and Right Banks and of course we couldn't miss out on Europe's best known landmark and Paris's most famous symbol, the Eiffel Tower. Eiffel Tower was once the tallest structure in the world and its 1652 steps take you to top. Due to time...we took the elevator. Then before we knew it, we were making a mad dash for the train, crammed like sardines on a subway just to get there.

What a truly amazing trip it was. The only downfall was that Paris was such a short part of our trip. I guess that means we'll have to plan a trip back there one day....stay tuned!