Viva Le France!!!

I safely made it home from across the pond. It was a great trip. When we left off I was heading out to the Royal Observatory. It was pretty cool. The whole Maritime area was very cool. Both the Observatory and the Maritime museum were free which was a nice bonus. The Observatory sits on the Prime Meridian and has all kinds of time related artifacts and astronomical crap. They are building a new area with more modern exhibits so I'll have to go back. The Maritime museum was also worth a stop. We had dinner Thursday night with Jeff's friend from Australia. He was a funny character. On Friday night Jeff and I met at Waterloo Station to catch the Eurostar train for Paris. It was crazy around the station on a Friday evening but we had no troubles. We rolled into Paris around 11:30. It was a little tough to find an ATM at first but we eventually got our Euros and hit the Metro. The Metro (subway) was not the cleanest I've ever seen. Graffiti everywhere but still better than some stations in Chicago. We also noticed lots of bums around the streets of Paris whereas there were none in London. Much to my surprise the girls in London were far better looking on average than Paris. The architecture in Paris was outstanding. The Effiel Tower was incredible but overcrowded. We also checked out the Bastille monument, Notre Dame, the Champs, and le Louvre. I wasn't overly impressed with the Mona Lisa but there were some other cool paintings. I was proud of my ability to read a little French but I couldn't speak or understand anything. Luckily everyone speaks English. On the flight home Monday I took off at about 5 pm and the sun was setting for about 6 hours. As much as I'm afraid of flying, I love it when I get up there. The views are truley unmatched by anything on the ground. As I looked at my wrist while I type I see the little bracelet that a couple scammers from Senegal conned us into buying while we were in Paris. 5 euros each but they did make them right their in front of us. Overall, the trip was great and I look forward to going back to see Normandy and rural areas of London.

When I got back there was a voicemail waiting for me from a firm that I applied to before I left but when I called them yesterday the interview process was closed. It would have been nice to get back to a potential job but I guess I'll have to get back to the postings.

Pictures: Jeff and I on Eurostar, View from the Tower, Me at the Louvre, Big Ben kids Parliament, Tower Bridge.

Wet.

It is 10 a.m. on Friday morning and I'm here at Jeff's apartment. It is raining pretty hard out there right now so I'm going to wait a few before I head to the Prime Meridian in Greenwich to get the official time. Speaking of that Jeff said daylight savings time either ends this weekend or next. I hope it is this weekend because it will extend my stay in France by an hour. We are leaving tonight on the Eurostar train for the 2.5 hour trip to Paris. We have a hotel there for two nights and come back here on Sunday afternoon. I want to go to Normandy but Jeff doesn't want to do all the extra traveling (and paying) so we'll probably just stay in Paris. I'll get Normandy next time when I make my brother come with me. I'll just slip him a mickey before the plane takes off and before you know it we'll be in Paris. Maybe I'll do it next summer if Jeff stays here longer than 3 months.

I've been busy walking around London this week. The Underground is very easy to navigate but they have frequent signal problems that shut down various lines. On Tuesday I visited the Tower of London and got a great tour led by one of the Beefeaters and I told him to lay off the red meat because it's bad for his colon. After that I hit the Tower Bridge and the Monument. The 311 steps to the top of the Monument was good practice for the Sears Tower climb next month. Too bad the Sears is almost 7 times as tall. On Wednesday I saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (actually the second half of it). It is an overrated experience. Too many people, the building isn't impressive, and the guards look just like the witches guards on The Wizard of Oz, which I found pretty amusing. No flying monkeys though. Next was "Big Ben kids, Parliament" and Westminster Abbey. Much more impressive buildings. After that I rode the London Eye and took a cruise on the Thames. Both were very enjoyable but expensive. Everything here is expensive. The cruise and glorified ferris wheel cost 23 lbs which is about $40. I could go to Six Flags for that price. Yesterday I went to the Wimbledon Tennis museum and had lunch at their cafe. It was a nice museum but small. It was raining and Centre Court was under construction so I skipped the tour. My feet were hurting pretty good by then so I headed to the cinema near Jeff's place and saw The Departed for the cut rate matinee price of 6.5 lbs or about $12. Good thing it was an excellent movie. Well, it looks like the rain has eased so I'm heading out. The good thing about the rain here is that it keeps the humidity up unlike back home where the dry fall/winter air makes my skin crack and itch. Take care.

I made it across the pond.

So I'm here in London. It's 9 am and I'm at Jeff's apartment in Notting Hill. I only got 2 hours of sleep on Sunday night on the flight over here. I could barely stay awake on the train from the airport. It was actually sunny and probably close to 70 when I got here. It is of course overcast today though. After I dropped my stuff off here yesterday I road the Tube around to the other side of Hyde Park where I stopped at Harrods department store. It's like the Marshall Field's on State but higher end. Then I walked from there across Hyde Park, where I got a little lost, back to Jeff's place. I couldn't stop moving or I was going to drop of exhaustion. Jeff and I went to dinner at some foo-foo Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood and had dessert at a little bakery. I slept like a rock last night but I'm still feeling a little tired but I'm about to head out to see more sights. I think I'm going to hit the Tower of London first and work my way back this direction. Hope everyone is having fun at work. :o)

Go Tigers.

Just want to comment quickly about how great the Tigers are. They are great. How's that for brief. But really it is an amazing run they are on and it would be great if they could clinch the ALCS in Detroit. If we could just get Mags to stop swinging at the first pitch. For those who aren't aware I went to the clinching game against New York last Saturday. The game was great but so is the city. It gets nicer and nicer every time I go back. And even free street parking for the biggest baseball game in 22 years.

I had a nice birthday today. I don't feel any different now that I'm thirty. I celebrated by having a $40 lunch at a Brazilian steakhouse with 6 of my former SEC co-workers. So much for me not eating red meat. It was delicious. I have had red meat this year even though I tried to give it up as one of my new year goals but probably less than 10 times total. Then for dinner a group of us went out for dinner and watched the Tiger game. Brad and T-Bag even picked up the bill. What a couple of swell guys. I even stopped by Lenscrafters today and got the paint cleaned off that I got on them a year ago. And to make up for my binge eating I walked 31 flights of stairs in my building to train for the Sears Tower climb on Nov 12th. This will be my last post before I leave for London on Sunday. I'm looking forward to hanging out with my old roommate for a week. Take care.

London

Anybody out there ever take a day tour from London to Normandy? I found a site that has 2 day tours but you have to take a train to Paris, stay the night, bus to Normandy, back to Paris, then train to London. I'm looking for just a one day bus tour from London to Normandy and back.

I'm also looking for suggestions on things to see and do while in London besides stare at their teeth.