London Baby!

What a whirlwind trip!! The morning started in Paris. Our kids and Todd were leaving the hotel at 4:45 am. We said our goodbyes the night before and were ready to do Europe on our own. We got up early in the morning so we could make one more stop. Nicole really wanted to see Jim Morrison's grave, so we ventured over there. It was so nice to be on our own instead of traveling in a herd!

Our train left Paris at 1:00. We had to maneuver the metro with our suitcases. I have definitely decided that next time I will down size considerably. It would be worth it to wash more to not lug so much stuff around when on my own. When we were checking into the train station we had to travel through a passport check for Paris. They stamped our passports, we walked two steps and got to the England passport check. It was pretty funny. The guy helping me was hysterical. When he saw that I was only going to be in London for one day the following conversation ensued.
Him: "Are you flying home tonight?"

Me: "no"
Him: "Tomorrow?"
Me: "tomorrow we are taking the train to Brussels."
Him: (irritation beginning to show) "Brussels is only an hour from here by train."
Me: "I know, but we want to see Olympic Park."
Him: (heavy sigh and eye rolling)

That interaction while hysterical, should have been an indication of how crazy it was over there and how irritated the locals are by the whole thing. The underground is expected to see 1 million extra travelers per day. And starting Wednesday morning there are designated Olympic lanes which are used by official Olympic traffic only. Major traffic is expected in the area for the local drivers.

Once we got to the hotel we wasted no time. We figured out how to take the Underground and headed to Olympic Park. We weren't sure what we would be able to see without a ticket to get into the area. What I didn't expect was the mass amount of people streaming into the area. It turns out that they were having a dress rehearsal of the Opening Ceremonies and people were able to get tickets to come and see it. It was NUTS there, including a break down of one of the Underground lines that caused a ton of delays for the people going home after the show. I'm making predictions now. Commuting to and from the Games will be a HUGE topic of conversation during the Games and it won't be good.

The good news for us was that even though we couldn't get close to Park we could go up to the third floor of a store with a good view of the area and a souvenir shop. I might have spent more in that store than I did in the first two weeks!! I was giddy with the excitement of it all. The Olympics have always been important to me. I can't wait to watch the games on tv and know that I was there!!

This morning we got up early to catch an open top tour bus. I never thought I would be one of those tourists, but it was the only way for us to see the sights in the short amount of time we had. It was pretty fun.

By noon we were off to the Eurostar train under the English Channel again. The timing of our trip was really perfect. We got out just in time!!!

Oh, and did I mention the the Tour de France ended in Paris the day we were there? We didn't see the lead riders, but saw some of the entourage and all the streets blocked off. Quite a trip!!