The Trip Has Ended - From the NYC Airport

Wow---

That's pretty much all I can say waiting for our 8:30 p.m. flight from LaGuardia. What an amazing trip with so many great things to see. We should have pics up tomorrow from the last day in London [Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, & Chelsea Soccer Stadium] and all of Paris. A quick run down of our trip.

London, Day Three -- We saw a bunch of cool stuff in our last day. We started out by hitting up the Westminster Abbey, which was an amazingly beautiful church. We took in all the sights and sounds and were just overwhelmed with its size and beauty. Next, we headed to Buckingham Palace and made it just in time for the full changing of the guard ceremony, which began at 11:30 a.m. It was pretty cool. After a walk through Hyde Park, we took in the House of Parliament/Big Ben and hiked it on the Tube for a tour of the Chelsea soccer stadium. It was pretty amazing to see their stadium and you can understand why they are so crazy about soccer. We did some minor damage to the credit card, then we headed back to the Comfort Inn, picked up our luggage, and made it over to the Waterloo train station for our 2.5 hour ride on the Eurostar to Paris.

Our trip to Paris was pretty uneventful and easy. Luckily, we ran into a US-couple from Virginia who told us to buy a carnet, or 10-pack of Metro tickets, instead of the 3-day pass. That turned into a very wise move and saved us a significant amount of dough, which Steph would manage to spend later in the trip. After a wrong turn down the street, my 3 years of French came in handy and we made it to the Holiday Inn.

Paris, Day One -- We made the one-hour train trip to Versailles and took in the castle. It was unreal. It was immensely large, with so much stuff to see. Marie Antoinette's estate was pretty awesome as well. The sheer size of the estate was downright amazing. Then, we headed to the Arc de Triomphe and got some great shots of Paris from the top of the Champs Elysses. Lastly, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, and we walked the 700 steps to the second level. It was amazing, and then we sat and had some snacks on the grass in front of the Eiffel Tower while the lights came on. We sat for about half an hour before the light show came on and it was unbelievable. It was a great night.

Day Two -- We made the priority of our day the Louvre, but we were really tired [apparently] as we slept in until about 11:30. We went to the Louvre and didn't realize we had spent 5 hours there as we were walking through everything. We managed to snap a few pics of the Mona Lisa, which we did not think was allowed but all the guards said it was okay, and some of Steph's fave, Van Gogh. We also saw a ton of cool other art, too countless to name. We then headed over to the Notre Dame Cathedral and caught the 6:00 p.m. mass. Again, breathtaking. We then had dinner along the Seine River and called it a night.

Day Three -- We went to the Musee d'Orsay and saw some more Van Gogh, and then we went and took some pictures of the Church de Saint Sulpice. After that, unforuntately, it was time to head back to the Eurostar station for our trip back to London. We were tired, but it was great.

All in all, an amazing trip. Both cities were extremely easy to navigate, and you wonder why St. Louis doesn't make public transportation more widely available and easy to use. Steph said it best by saying that in about 45 minutes, we felt that were able to navigate either city with ease. We should get all the pics posted soon.

For those in the STL, Blackthorne's Pub tomorrow night in south St. Louis city for some goods eat, beer, shuffleboard, and photos.

Matt and Steph