Day 1- London

After the 8 1/2 hour flight from Vancouver, I landed in the afternoon at Heathrow.  I picked up an off-peak multizone travel card for £5.40 to get to the hostel via the tube.  This card would take care of any other tube or bus travel for the rest of the day.  From Heathrow, the Piccadilly line went directly to Russell Square where my hostel was located and I'd be there in an hour and many stops later.  I picked a hostel that was close to the Royal National Hotel which was Contiki's London base.  Other options included the Heathrow Express train or Airbus.  The Heathrow Express was £13 (15 minute trip to Paddington Station) but it would have taken me at least half an hour more and multiple transfers on the tube to get to my destination.  The Airbus (£10 one way) has a stop in Russell Square but takes over an hour and a half.


View of Parliament and Big Ben
 
The Generator hostel was great.  Close to the tube station, from £15 to £17 a night (depending on how many in a room... I paid for a quad), sheets, pillow, comforter, towel and free breakfast (cereal and toast).  I was a little confused exiting the station and headed the wrong direction initially (not good to wander aimlessly with a heavy pack).  The station exit is actually facing North so that Russell Square is to your left.  To get to the Royal National, head left and turn right at the square.  To get to the Generator, cross the street and walk North for a couple of blocks until you hit Tavistock Place.  Turn right and the hostel is on your left behind another building.  After showering up and with a map in hand, I headed out and tubed to Piccadilly Circus.  From there I walked to Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square and over to Parliament passing No. 10 Downing.  Crossing the Thames, I walked along the south bank to the Millennium bridge and found a tube station by St Paul's Cathedral to take me back.  This was a fairly long walk.   In the evening, I headed down to the hostel bar for a beer.  I met a few fellow travelers that night, mainly Aussies, but the hostel seemed to be a pre and post Contiki tour hangout.  The local draft, Carling, was a deal at £2 a pint and only £1 during happy hour.  As expected prices in London appear the same as in Canada, if you ignore the 2.5x exchange rate to Canadian dollars.  Some of my cost of living index items include 80p - £1 for a bottle of coke or £4 for a McDonald's meal.  Most pubs in England are self-serve, probably as an attempt to deny Aussies waitressing jobs in the country.

 

Day 2 - London

In the morning, I hooked up with some fellow Contiki travelers.  We picked up the two zone off peak travel card (£4.30 for the day) and tubed over to Parliament.  We walked passed Westminster Abbey and rushed through St James Park to catch the changing of the guard at noon.  There were big crowds and we couldn't see much since most of the action took place behind the gate except when they marched by to get to the palace.  All we did see were the tops of their hats and we could hear the band play a few Elton John numbers.  From there, we walked up to Piccadilly, over to Leicester passing the Ritz Hotel and over to Trafalgar Square.  We went into the National Gallery (free) and saw some famous art including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Monet's water lilies (he painted quite a few of them).   From Trafalgar, we took the No. 274 double decker bus to the Tower of London.  The bus was hot and slow in traffic but was included with our travel card.  We paid the £12 to go into the Tower and saw the crown jewels and King Edward VIII's suit of armor.  The girls were impressed by his armored cup. 


Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.  Notice the giant couple on the right.
 
From the tower, we took a river boat back to Parliament (£5.40) which included commentary on the buildings and bridges we passed by.  In the evening, we checked out the British Museum (free) before it closed (some galleries were open til 8:30pm).  We got to see the Elgin Galleries which contained statues and relief's from the Parthenon (brought back to the safety of England according to the museum).  Didn't have time to see the Rosetta Stone or any Egyptian relics.   Later on, it was back to the hostel bar for another beer.

 

Day 3 - London

In the morning, I transferred to the Royal National and then we were off to go on the London Eye.  We had pre-booked and paid through Contiki (£12) and avoided the big queue for tickets but were still stuck in a big queue to get on the eye.  The line moved fairly quickly though.  From there, we tubed to the War Museum (free).  I had an appointment but had to get back to the Royal to make it to our pre-trip meeting.  A few of us headed to the Goose pub down the road from the Royal National for dinner and a pint before our early morning tour start the next morning.

The time in London was over and I still missed a few things I wanted to do including climbing up St Paul's Cathedral (I thought it was closed with all the scaffolding and didn't realize you could climb up either), visiting Covent Gardens and Hyde Park, and seeing a show.  Hopefully next visit to London.

London Eye and Old County Hall
 

 

Day 4 - London to Paris

We loaded up the bus and we were off.  With 51 seats in the bus, the group consisted of 43 girls and 8 guys (including 3 couples).  There were 11 Canadians, 11 Americans, 3 Kiwis and the rest were Aussies.  I initially thought I could handle being around girls constantly but I would later be proven wrong. 


Vimy Ridge Memorial
 
At Dover, we took the ferry to Calais and drove through France peeking at the Vimy Ridge Memorial through the trees as we drove by.  By late afternoon, we were in Paris.  The campsite was in the suburbs but a RER (rail) station was nearby.  We were greeted with a welcome drink and a chance to sample some escargots served in the shell.  Our cabins were a little cramped (perpendicular aligned bunk beds) but they had a shared bathroom with a shower in the corner.  In the evening we got a bus tour of Paris's  major sites.  We were like a bus load of Japanese tourists armed with cameras getting off for 15 minute picture stops at the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides (where Napoleon's tomb was).  We drove along the Seine and past Notre Dame and the Arc de Triumph.  It was supposed to be an "illuminations" tour but it was still light outside so we never got to see the city lit up at night.  At the Eiffel, this was our first encounter with the annoying African souvenir sellers.  They were mainly selling mini Eiffel towers and postcards.  In the evening, we had beers back at the snack bar in camp.

 

Day 5 - Paris

This was a free day and we had a drop off at either the Louvre, Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triumph.  I had chosen the Eiffel Tower since I thought the crowds would be less in the morning.


Eiffel Tower Lift Lineup from 1st Stage.  No lineup for the stairs!
 

Tineke, Natalie, Kristy & Trish outside Notre Dame
At the tower, you had an option of taking a lift to the second stage (7.5€, long lineup) or taking the stairs (3.50€, no lineup).  I needed my exercise and took the stairs and snapped this pic of everyone else in line.  It cost another 3€ to take a second lift to the top.  Once we got down, we trained to Notre Dame (best deal is a carnet of 10 tickets for 10€, otherwise it's €1.30 for a single trip), walked along the Seine river and had lunch at a sidewalk cafe across from Notre Dame.  Notre Dame is a huge church.  It's free to look inside (fairly dark) and you can also pay to go up the tower by the entrance.

Paris is all about the sidewalk cafe.  Usually all the seats are facing the street so you can enjoy your coffee and watch the world go by.  And it's also rare to find take out coffee since you need to sit down and enjoy your coffee versus drinking it on the go.  Cafes may also have different prices depending on where you're sitting.  Prices on the menus posted may only apply when sitting inside.

We ran out of time to go to the Louvre and walked through Tuilleries Garden to our meeting spot at Place du Concorde.  The bus picked us up early since our optional French dinner was that evening.  We got two rounds of wine with dinner and were entertained by an accordion player that looked like Courtney Love on crack.  After dinner, most of group went to see "La Nouvelle Eve" but a few of us walked around the area which was the red light district but was also the site of the Moulin Rouge.  The girls weren't into seeing a strip show though I tried to work a deal for the group so we found a park and drank instead.  We were actually pretty close to the Sacre Coeur church so we should have hung out there instead.

 

Day 6 - Versailles and Paris

In the morning, our bus took us over to Versailles.  The entrance fee (7.5€) wasn't included with our tour and it was another 3€ to see the gardens but it was worth the extra money.


Kristy, Natalie & Trish in front of Versaille Garden
 


Me & Lisa with our 24€ drinks at a sidewalk cafe on the Champs D'Elysess
 
The palace was super crowded with tourists and hot but the gardens were amazing.  It looked like a painting looking out at the lake and trees.  We were hounded by African souvenir sellers in the parking lot pushing umbrella hats and postcards again.  In the afternoon, we bused back to Paris.  The Louvre was closed (Tuesdays) so I missed my chance to see the Mona Lisa.  There is a museum pass available which costs about 22€.  If you visit three attractions, you'd break even.  We went to the Arc de Triumph (didn't go up) and then shopping along the Champs D'Elysess.  We hit a snag when we stopped at Sephora (most of the girls were in there for over an hour) so me and Lisa went for a drink at a sidewalk cafe next door.  My 1/2 litre beer and Lisa's vodka & 7up cost me 24€ for the round.  We met up with others for dinner and then over to an Irish pub for some drinks.  We then decided to head back to the Eiffel Tower and try to catch the last train back to the campsite around midnight once I had checked the schedule.  The Eiffel Tower was spectacular at night and twinkled for about 15 minutes with strobe lights at 11pm.  We rushed back to the train station with plenty of time to spare and arrived at Joinville Le Pont.  The group was pretty happy about being back before the last train but that was only momentary since we got lost walking back to the campsite.  We were given pretty bad directions.  The buses also stopped running early in the evening.  I found a low quality map which is shown below.

 

The RER station is the brown blob on left.  Think it cost us 1.80€ from central Paris.  We had walked South from the the station when we should have crossed the road to head East over the bridge.  From there, take a left at the turning circle heading North crossing the underpass under the highway.  From there follow the signs to the campsite.  The campsite is actually on the NW corner of Parc du Tremblay, a fairly large park, and by the river.

 


Joinville Le Pont Map.  Campsite is in NE corner off the map.

  

 

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