Paris - July 16 & 17

From London we took the train to Paris and got in to Paris in the late afternoon. After checking into our hotel we went out to explore!

Our hotel was in an amazing location, we were just steps from the Tuileries Garden, the Louvre and  the Champs-Elysees:

After walking around for a bit, we got on our 'hop on hop off' boat to see more of the city.

First up - the Eiffel tower!

We cruised around, looking at all the buildings and getting off the boat whenever we wanted to look at something closer.

Out for a quick dinner:

The Louvre:

We didn't have enough time to go inside the Louvre, instead we admired it from the outside:

Back on the boat to the Eiffel tower:

 

The Eiffel tower lights up at night and twinkles for 5 minutes at 10pm every night. Of course, we could not miss that!

Waiting for the show to start:

After a very late night, we woke up early so we could make the most of our last day in Europe. It was also Michael's birthday! What a great way to celebrate!

First stop: the Notre Dame:

We walked past a bunch of beautiful buildings:

Arc de Triomphe:

And back to the Eiffel tower for a tour and to go up to the top!

Amazing views from the top:

We took one final full loop on the boat around Paris seeing all the sights and beautiful buildings. We ended our day with Michael's birthday dinner:

Creme brulee:

and a sunset walk:

We all loved Paris! It was so pretty and so fun to explore!

That ends our European adventure! Until next time!!

London - July 13-15

We arrived in London late afternoon on the 13th. We checked into our hotel and then went to get a snack before heading out to see some London sights.

We found a nice patio by the river to enjoy our afternoon snack:

We crossed the river and wandered around:

The next day we started out at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. There were so many people, it was pretty hard to see everything. It was interesting to see anyway!

From there we walked through the gardens and gate... 

over to St. James park:

Then to Westminster Abbey:

and to Big Ben:

We're not really museum fans, but we all wanted to go to the Natural History Museum. It did not disappoint!

We still had a little time before dinner, so we walked over to Kensington garden:

and the Princess Diana Memorial garden:

We walked past the Shakespeare globe:

And watched the sun set over the river to end our day of sightseeing:

(What a long day of walking!!)

Our final day in London... 

unfortunately it rained ALL day :(  So we tried to stick to indoor activities.

We started out at the Tate Modern museum:

I love art, but know that it's not really Michael and Jakob's thing. I have always wanted to see a Monet in person and I finally did. It was so beautiful! In the pictures it looks so dull and boring, but in real life it's amazing! It was also so much bigger than I ever imagined. I stood there admiring it for a very long time. 

After we were done at the museum and had lunch, we walked over to the Tower of London and the Tower bridge. 

We did the full tour of the Tower bridge. It had great views of the city and a see through floor to the bridge and river below:

We walked back to our hotel along the river (it turned out that our hotel was in a fantastic location!)

After dinner we went to the Borough market for a little shopping and dessert.

That's it for London! Onto Paris!!!