London Day 2

We started our day at the Tower of London, which is a fantastic historical site.

The best part was the Crown Jewels, which displayed royal treasures including my favorite piece, Queen Victoria's tiny crown.  She had it created after the death of her husband to fit with her mourning veil.

You can't take pictures of the crown jewels, so below are Google pics.

 We then took a tour guided by a Beefeater, which was highly entertaining.  They share quite a few colorful historical accounts, including every detail of each execution performed within the tower.

The king (Richard, I believe) had spikes put into several corners around the tower area because he found that too many soldiers were hiding in corners to smoke.  It seems these represent the first anti-smoking laws.

We wandered around for awhile and enjoyed a dancing bagpiper.

London Bridge was practically nextdooor.

We had lunch at the Tower and took a taxi to the Brittish Museum.  This place is a treasure trove of ancient history.  They have a good system: conquer a nation, take their precious artifacts, then leave the country.  It makes for an amazing museum!

I made friends with a 7-ton lion from a tomb in ancient Turkey.

The superstar is the Rosetta Stone in all her glory.

Oh, you know, just hanging out with a Sphinx.

They have quite a few ancient Assyrian carvings, most depicting the king hunting lions from his chariot.

Somehow it is the Brits who own the sculptures and carvings recovered from the Parthenon.

 Then, up to the 3rd floor to see Mummies. So many mummies!  I LOVE MUMMIES!!!

This month has been a whirlwind, and I am feeling the effects over the past few days.  I took a long nap, and we found a great Asian restaurant called Firecracker, where I enjoyed a super-sweet coconut drink and some of the best chicken wings I have ever tasted.  Our area of Westminster is not as bustling as where we stayed in Paris, and it seems most restaurants are closed on Sundays (which I would usually consider a great thing).  However, we are right next to the Burberry headquarters, which feels pretty fancy. :)

London!

We left Paris this morning and made our way to London.

Last Paris pic...

We took the Eurostar train through the Chunnel (woohoo! Another bucket list item checked off!) to London.  It was a pleasant trip, and lunch was a cheese plate...so fancy

We are staying at the Doubletree Westminster, which is a 10-minute walk from Parliament and Westminster Abbey.  We spend the evening wandering this side of the city, and Isaac got to choose dinner tonight so as expected, we found a McDonalds.  We ate outside in the freezing cold overlooking the river and the London Eye.

It was worth it - he loves going to McDonalds on every vacation.

Tomorrow, we are looking forward to exploring this beautiful city!

Musee D'Orsay

We visited the Musee D'Orsay today, which basically picks up where the Louvre leaves off.  

It has some of my favorite paintings, so this was a "don't miss" for me!  Unfortunately, this is one more European attraction that forbids photography, so the pictures below come from Google, but I saw them all today...so exciting!

They have a large Monet collection.

They've got Whistler's Mother (I am only familiar with this painting because of the Mr. Bean movie).

And most importantly, they have Van Gogh!!

I loved seeing the Renior painting that reminds me of my sister.

The muesum itself is pretty cool.  It is a former train station that narrowly escaped demolition in the 1970's when they decided to gather the art from several small galleries around the city and move it all to one central museum.

Afterward, we went to Champs Elysees.  You have to stand right in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Paris to get a good shot of the Arc de Triomphe, so I opted for safer photos.