Last Sunday (June 19), I went to the Hotel des Invalides and Napoleon’s Tomb. The war hospital is now turned into a war museum, housing ancient armor, objects from Louis XIV to Napoleon III and a whole wing dedicated to the 2 world wars. The chapel where the tomb is held was built for a place where the injured soldiers and nobility could attend together. It was cool, but got a little boring for me.

Monday I went to an evening mass at Notre Dame. It was completely in French so I obviously had no idea what they were saying or singing, but the music was pretty and the cathedral is outstanding. The detailing and mood of Notre Dame is magnificent.

On Tuesday there was a big music festival going on ALL OVER the city! Street performers and bands were on every corner and in bars, so we went down to the Latin Quarter to have dinner and be entertained. The bands were OK, but the atmosphere was festive and lively, so we had a lot of fun.  We walked all the way down the Seine and made it to the Eiffel Tower by midnight to watch it light up and “sparkle”.

Our event for the week planned and paid for by our UT program was a Seine River boat tour on Wednesday! It lasted about an hour and we saw many of the major sights from the river while all hanging out together on the barge. Afterwards, a group of us went down to the Latin district, walked around and hung out at some small bars.

OFF TO LONDON, ENGLAND…Cheers!

This weekend Melissa, Kristine and I took a short trip to London! I have to give a big shout out to my Aunt Carrie, who gave me a "Top 10 London" book, which was vary helpful and used quite often. We took the Chunnel from Paris on Thursday afternoon. We found out our hotel, The New Dome Hotel, was kind of in the ghetto outside of the central area, but it was clean and the people were very nice, so we had no complaints. That first night we found a very cute Italian restaurant right near the New Dome, walked around our area (just a little) and went to bed early.

London is so busy!!! On Friday we went by Parliament Square, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham palace to see the changing of the guard at 11AM. There were so many people there, and I am too short, so it was very hard to see anything that was happening. The weather that morning was perfect, so it was so nice to walk around the city.

We had lunch in the Waterloo area and I got the necessary “Fish ‘n Chips” at a pub/bar close to the station. That afternoon we headed toward the Thames River and walked down to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and crossed the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul’s Cathedral. I went all the way up the 528 steps to the top and got an amazing view of the city. No photography was allowed inside the cathedral, but you’re just going to have to trust me when I say it was the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was huge, and the ceiling, altar, choir gallery and everything in there was so perfect, colorful and elegant that I swear my jaw was dropped the whole entire time. I did sneak one quick picture at the very end, but it does not do this place justice.

For dinner we headed to Trafalgar Square and ate at the Texas Embassy. It was the old embassy building when Texas was its’ own country, and now it’s a tex-mex restaurant. We got free margarita’s with our Texas drivers’ licenses, and we were missing Mexican food, so it was a great dinner. We even ran into some of our friends on the MPA program who were also in London for the weekend. We went to Piccadilly Circus afterwards and walked around that busy area!

Saturday morning we rode the London Eye. It was a little cloudy and gray, but still fun and the view was awesome of course.

Then we headed over to Westminster Cathedral, which was not as pretty as Westminster Abbey, but this one was free to go in. This time at Buckingham Palace we went at a time that was not as hectic so we got to really see the palace. I did not meet any royalty this time…I guess Will and Kate were not in town. We went up to Covent Garden for lunch and ate at another yummy pub/restaurant.

After lunch we took the tube up to Abbey Road. This was where almost all of the Beatles’ songs were recorded and the site of the iconic album cover picture. We spent loads of time trying to get the picture just right, but the street was just too busy! Still, it was very fun exploring the area in the gorgeous weather.

The tube took us back down to the London Bridge, which was really unimpressive. It was just a concrete bridge like any other, but the Tower Bridge was much cooler, and is the one you see in most of the pictures of London. We stopped by the Tower of London on our way from London Bridge to Tower Bridge, but unfortunately it had just closed by the time we got there.

Sunday morning we got up and went back around Westminster. We just HAD to take the classic telephone booth pictures. Being obnoxious American college tourists, of course we had a mini photo shoot with one of them by Big Ben. It was worth it.

Then we met up with some other girls from our trip that were on our train ride back and saw platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter at King’s Cross station. It was depressing, though, because the whole station was under construction so 9 ¾ was moved outside and it wasn’t a real brick wall so it just looks kind of dumb. But we still went and checked it off our list!

All in all, the trip was successful and a great way to spend a weekend. We definitely needed a lot more time to completely experience London and all the castles, but our time was exciting and it was so nice that they all spoke English haha. Sorry for this novel of a post, but I hope you enjoy all of the pictures!