Bonjour from Paris!

Hi guys,
This is tough as the keyboard is different: We arrived in Paris this afternoon: We left early this morning for the Waterloo station in London and got into Paris at about three this afternoon: We then checked into a coooolllll Holiday Inn: We are up on the fifth floor overlooking the main street; and we have balconies; plus our rooms are pretty nice: For those of you that have a map: We are in the southeast corner of Paris on the north side of the river by the Gard de Lyon train station: As we drove from the Gard de Nord train station to our hotel; I fell in love with Paris: We cant wait for tomorrow to get on the Open Tour bus line (like in London) where you can jump on and off: there are so many buildings that are the old French style with the whitish granite walls and grey roofs and then around them are the modern skyscrapers: It feels very funny not to be able to communicate in a languge we know: I want to learn French: I have a hard time understanding French words; but when we see it written; Craig and I can figure it out because the language is similar to Spanish: The train ride was great: We were under the water for twenty minutes: At top speed we were traveling at one hundred eighty six miles per hour: But it was so smooth: They served us really good food on the trip: We went for a walk and found a Garden of Natural History across the street from our hotel; it was hugh and beautiful gardens to walk around: And ate dinner at a side walk cafe: heaven!
Take care; love to all: Karen and Stan say hi!

Last Day in London!

Hi everyone! Well since we wrote you all last, we've had some busy time and some down time to still try to catch up on much needed sleep adjustment. The bus company we've been using is great. It really gets you around the city. And sitting up on the top gives you a great birds eye view of the cool buildings and the designs. We went and did the London Eye. It's a great big type ferris wheel across the Thames from Big Ben. It's quite high and when you are at the top you can see quite a bit in every direction. It takes about 1/2 hour to do the rotation and it doesn't stop moving. It was great. Then we went off and saw the Tower of London. What is really strange is how they have preserved as many of their old buildings as they could, but they build new skyscrapers around them. The tower of London is built with modern buildings all around it. It's way bigger than I thought. And it had been used for many reasons. It was originally built by William the Conquerer in 1066 a.d. and added on to with each king after. But it is most famous for the famous and royal executions they did there. So it became a dreaded place of being sent to as it meant your death. They also had a vaulted room there that contained the crown jewels. I had no idea what to expect, but they had crowns dating back to the 1600's and every possible additional thing that went with coronations imaginable. They were beautiful and I couldn't imagine being the person wearing all that splendor or money. We also went in St. Paul Cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren designed and built it (along with several other buildings in the city) and he is buried there. I found out that this is the church where Prince Charles and Diana got married, not Westminster Abby. It also had it's own beauty on the inside. The stone in West Minster Abby was almost a dark grey where as the stone in St. Paul's was almost a white stone and a lot cheerier.
We also went on a river cruise up and down the Thames. The water was a murky brown and very rough. I had heard the current is very strong and the river is fast, and it sure looked that way as we navigated up and down. We had a very funny guide explaining all the buildings along the shore.
We've also just rode the bus around the city on the different routes just to see everything, as you could spend days here and not see it all. Plus the fact that there is a lot of traffic and when you are in the downtown area, it can take quite a while to get just a couple of miles. Especially if it's a one way street with roundabouts. We never found the time to travel out into the countryside. Quite honestly, I don't know how we could of done that unless we spent a fortune for a driver.
But we got to do a lot in 3 days. As everything costs so much we had to pick and choose our preferences.
This morning as we were about to leave, I thought I heard what sound like a lot of horses hooves clic clac down the street below us. When I opened the curtain and looked down, there was a line of about 15 riders each ponying an unsaddled horse on each side in formation going down the street toward the busy Oxford street. The riders looked military. Where they came from and where they were going, couldn't say but boy did they look out of place but the horses were beautiful.
Well we are off to Paris in the morning. We are allowing a lot of time so we are heading out right after breakfast as Waterloo Station is huge and we don't know exactly how to navigate it. We want to allow extra time for getting lost in the station. We should be in our hotel by afternoon. Paris is going to seem so different from here. Can't wait to see it.
Hope all of you at home are well. We miss you loads.
Lots of love from us to you!

Hi everyone! Wow, London is sooooo coooooollllll! We got up and had a pretty good continental breakfast with the hotel and then we set out for the "Original Tour Bus Company" which is a double decker tour bus and the upstairs floor is open. It's the kind that makes several stops and you just hop on and off where you want to get off. It has been an amazing day riding around on this thing. Sitting up on the top open deck you get some amazing views of all othe old and new buildings. Our first stop was Buckingham Palace. The flag was up which means the Queen in town. What we didn't expect was that every year they open part of the palace to the public for viewing for two months. We just happen to be here during the last two weeks. So we ended up spending 3 hours touring the unbelievable opulent rooms that normally the public would never seen. We saw the ball room, the corination room, the banquet room, the art gallery, stair cases, the inner court yard, and more. We were able to pick up great earphones with prerecorded explanations of the rooms and so we could walk through all the rooms at our leisure. Some of the rooms just took your breath away. It was gorgous. Hugh paintings of past monarchs and the thought occurred to us, what must have it been like to be born royalty and not know anything else in your life and to have every luxury imaginable? So we had a great time checking out all the dishes, gifts to the queen in the past, and chandeleirs, and more. When we went outside (we entered the tour from the side of the palace) we were in the back of the palace that faced 30 acres of green gorgous gardens surrounded by brick, wired fence for their privacy and protection. Then we came out and met a Sgt. Constable who talked with Craig and Stan. They compared salaries, benefits, and stress levels. He told us that he had enjoyed visiting America because a good dinner in London costs about $50 but he was thrilled about a steak house we have called Sizzler where he could get a good steak and all you can eat salad for about $8. He told us that if he lived in America, he would get fat. Well we are eating well here. We are finding ways to economize on food. After we exited the palace gardens, we walked back around to the front gates and saw the balcony where Prince Charles and Princess Diana stood after their wedding and saw the mile long street that leads up to the front of the palace. The ornate work on the gates and the statues everywhere leave you in no doubt that the premises are royalty.
Then we got back on the bus and when to Sherlock Holmes Pub where we had bought a prepurchased lunch of Fish and Chips from the bus company. It was good and Karen was so looking forward to it. There are pubs everywhere and they are so old English looking. Then we got off and visited West Minster Abby. This church was built in 1066 and it was unbelievable to realize that it had been around for about a 1000 years. We weren't sure what to expect inside and we found that many famous people were buried there. Some of the most famous was Sir Issac Newton and Darwin. They also had several kings and queens there. Mary Queen of Scots was there as well as King Henry the VIII. We walked around in there for quite a while reading all the headstones on the walls and the floor. We saw the same corniation chair that has been used since the first corination in 1066 that Queen Elizabeth used in 1953 for her corination. This was the same church that Charles and Diana got married in and it was cool to imagine the wedding there. Then we rode the bus for a while just to look around. We saw Big Ben and Parliment and the London Eye (hugh observation ferris wheel) all of which we are going to do tomorrow along with a boat ride on the river Thames. (We ran out of time today) We saw Picadelly Circus and walked around Trafalgar Square. Karen and Stan were stopped by the BCC and interviewed. That was fun to watch. Then we got out and checked out the Tower of London which back in midevil times was a prison and execution facility. By the time we got there it was closed so that is also on the list of do's for tomorrow. We drove over the London bridge. The bus tour was so worth it as it would have been difficult to drive to all these spots and we have seen no parking anywhere. The driving alone is scary. Craig and Kim were recently there and \I don't know how Craig did it. Rush hour around downtown was interesting to see how they work the roundabouts and not crash. We ended up making a couple of repeat trips around the bus route to get where we wanted to go as we missed a part of the tour earlier but by 6 o'clock we were beat and headed home. We found a KFC by the hotel and decided that it was a cheaper way to go for dinner. There is still so much we could go see but everything costs to enter and on the tour we found out that London is the most expensive city in the world right now and the exchange rate proves that. So we are saving a lot of extras for the next trip as we want to come back and see more. As I will probably say this about every city we see, I think that we will be making more trips to Europe in the future.
Everyone here is so friendly. We are having a great time and miss you all so much.
Hope everyone is well. Lots of Love to all from all of us in the UK!

Hi everyone! We made it to London! We flew in a 747 (our first time) and Karen and Stan were in Business class while we were in coach. They did great. We actually did fairly well. But boy were the seats tight together. But they had good movies and served us food all through the night. We arrived in London around 7 in the morning. Our plane had to bank a few times before landing and out the window the plane flew over the Thames overlooking Big Ben and the London eye (Their hugh ferris wheel). The sun was just coming up and it was cool. It took a while to get through customs, and get money exchanged, but then Craig decided that the tube (underground rail) might get us to our hotel fine. Well, it was a lot cheaper than a cab and believe it or not, it is set up just like BART at home. We found ourselves getting around pretty good even with luggage in tow. We are staying at the Hotel Rose Court. It's a nice clean small hotel off the main drag. Rooms are tiny. This afternoon we took the underground to Notting Hill. It's really pretty there and a lot of upscale homes. Geranium flowers everywhere. We are out in Marble Arch area, about 40 minutes northwest of downtown London. I really like it here. Hugh parks,and lots of trees. Tomorrow we are heading out on the tour bus that drives all over London to see the main tourist sights.
We survived the all night flight but after having dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe (this is the original one) we are beat and heading for the hotel to sleep.
It's freaky to have to watch backwards to cross the streets so you don'[t get hit by a car. The double decker buses are cool. We are doing a lot of walking. Hopefully it will counteract the calories.
Miss you all. Take care and we will write again soon. Love Carol and Craig and Karen and Stan