Gottfried Travel Adventures

 April 10 Today we met at the Louvre for a 3 hour tour. Our guide was good and took us to see many works of art including of course, the Mona Lisa, winged victory and Venus de Milo.  We wanted to see the couture history exhibit, so we dropped out of the tour. We went to a Louvre restaurant and had a great meal, but when we tried to go to the couture exhibition, we had to show proof of our entry, which we didn’t have. We think we’ll try again later this week. Instead we walked towards the Notre Dame to meet our next tour. There, our Argentinian guide told us the history of the cathedral and all about the restoration after the fire of April 2019.  After that tour, we walked toward our hotel and had a very nice dinner in the Marais at Au Chien oui Fume - I knew Chien meant dog so we gave it a try! It was a surprisingly wonderful meal and the art on the walls were all dogs in seemingly impressionist paintings.  This is a beautiful building we passed on our walk to the ho...

 April 9 What a day!! We started our day by walking to the first stop of the BigBus, the Paris hop on hop off bus. The circuit was 2 hours 15 minutes and we had a great seat on top with blue skies overhead.  We decided to stay on for the circuit plus a stop. This way we saw the whole city and then were dropped at the louvre stop. We stopped at a cafe and had a drink, some Foie Gras and onion soup.  We then walked 3 blocks to Vilmorin, a garden and seed store that Martha Stewart frequents when in Paris. We bought some seeds to cultivate and I bought a pair of garden gloves.  From there, we went to the Musee d’Orsay and toured the impressionist's gallery (Manet, Renoir, Monet, Lautrec, Gauguin, Van Gogh) and sculpted Rodin and many others.  We caught the BigBus outside and rode around the loop to the Eiffel Tower. We disembarked there and headed for the Seine River boat that came with our BigBus ticket. From 6-7, we tootled down the Seine and back under clear blue...

 April 8 This morning we packed up after breakfast and made our way to St. Pancras International- a beautiful building where Harry Potter’s Platform 9 3/4 was filmed and also the building that Ron and Harry flew over in the Weasley’s blue car when they missed the train.  National Geographic photo of St Pancras International  Everyone we have encountered here in London has been so incredibly nice! Again at the train station, we were treated with such kindness. After going through security and Passport control, we found ourselves in a large room with thousands (probably) of people. When the 10:30 train finally started boarding, hundreds made their way to their platform so that we could finally find a seat. Our train was so smooth that we didn’t even notice going into the tunnel. We hustled an uber from Gare du Nord to our hotel and thoughtfully figured out how to arrange our stuff in a small space. It’s not terribly small but it’s cozy.  We decided to walk to nearby Ga...

 April 7 Today we got out early and headed to Windsor Castle. Our tickets were for noon but we arrived about 10 and were able to go in.  It’s an incredible look into the lives of the royal family for over 1000 years.    We saw St George’s Chapel where Queen Elizabeth, Philip and her grandparents and great-grandparents are buried. We then went into the area where Queen Mary’s dollhouse (100 years old) is displayed. From there we went to the State Apartments where we saw King’s bedroom and other chambers, queens bedrooms and other chambers, ballrooms and dining rooms (all used by the former kings and queens). The modern royal family’s rooms are off-limits of course. But docents there tell of seeing King Charles and Prince William often coming in and out of their rooms. Meg bought a fine china cup to display with her collection.  After we left Windsor, we stopped in at the carpenter Arms pub and shared a fish and chips plate. Meg got a Pimm’s cup and I got an amber...