Paris - Day 4

June 28th, Day 4: Versailles was the last stop on our Paris trip. Ridiculously opulent is the best way to describe it -- we sorta understand why Louis VI's and Marie Antoinette lost their heads. The gardens alone were insane - fountains shooting off in any direction, a constructed canal, miles and miles of pathways throughout the grounds. The palace itself had 800 rooms, of which we saw perhaps 10 and it took us an hour. We post up the room called, the Hall of Mirrors, which has 42 chandeliers and the hall is lined with mirrors to reflect the candles at night and the sun during the day. Enjoy.

Paris - Day 3, continued

Hotel de Invalides - built at the instruction of King Louis (we don't know which one) to house the war veterans which the brochure said was to assist them but our tour guide told us was because they were littering his streets. It is now a war museum and the chapel houses the tomb of Napoleon BONAPARTE. By the way, everywhere we go, they pay allegiance to him and the letter "N" is inscribed.

Sacre-Coeur - by far, hands down, our favorite place in Paris. Built on a hill, it overlooks the entire city. People gather on the steps of the basillica to enjoy street performers and the view. We came to visit and ended up sitting for hours. We posted a picture of one of the performers who stood on a lamp post and did soccer tricks.

Paris - Day 3

June 28th, Day 3:

Eiffel Tower, amazing. Fasiha kept feeling like the Tower was going to get knocked over by the wind.

Paris - Day 2

June 27th, Day 2: After a morning bus tour of the city, we went to the Palais de Justice, an appeals court. Afterwards, we had the day free so we went to the Notre Dam, where Fariha persisted to look for the hunchback (alas, to no avail). We then walked what seemed like all over Paris, along the river which was beautiful, and to too many tourist shops. Finally, we went to the Louvre, which was not anything either of us expected. It was MASSIVE, about eleven miles of galleries. This used to be a palace so the art is housed in some amazingly decorated rooms.

We found Mona, whom Fariha glanced at and was satisifed. Fasiha, on the other hand, insisted on a photo with her, and braved the crazy crowds to get to the famous lady. Seriously, the amount of shoving was unlike anywhere else we'd been to thus far. But Fasiha got her picture.

Bonjour de Paris!

Paris, June 25th - Day 1: We got up at five in the morning to catch our train to Paris. Turns out they double booked our seats so we got UPGRADED and went to Paris Harry Potter-style in our own first-class compartments for two. Once we got to our hotel, we immediately went out looking for food and found this amazing halal Turkish grill restaurant/hole-in-the-wall. We stood staring at the menu trying to decide while the grill cooks kept saying, "Bonjour, [something in French we think meant, 'what do you want?'] repeatedly. We then spent some more time working up the nerve to say "zhe vooo dray....poulet?" which we think means 'we would like chicken." Finally a waitress came and put us out of our misery. Afterwards we passed out.

When we woke up, we took the underground metro to the Arc de Triomph. We climbed the stairs up, beginning with our usual round of chatter and ending with the sound of panting. The view and breeze was fabulous and a great intro to the city. The flame is a memorial to the soldiers who died during WWI. Interesting tidbit, a homeless man was arrested for trying to grill sausages over the fire but was released on a warning.

We ended our day by strolling down the Champs de Elysees.

British Museum

June 17 & June 24: You may notice that we went to the British Museum twice. Fariha was enjoying the British Museum, taking it all in, when Fasiha abruptly cut the visit short because her camera battery died and refused to continue because she insisted we would have to return. Fariha wore the same clothes on the second day so none would be the wiser, Fasiha did not. Further insult, Fariha had to explain to Fasiha what the Rosetta stone is. Enough said.

This place is enormous and as people who enjoy artifacts and history more than art, this was a real pleasure. Here are a couple glimpses of what we saw. Notice Fariha with her old school Bengali auntie pose with the Egyptian. Marwan bhai - I found your people here. What uuuuuup.

Kensington Palace, Hyde Park & the Queen's Digs

June 23rd - After classes, we went to Kensington Palace, the home of Queen Victoria and her love, Prince Albert and more recently, the late Princess Diana. This palace is rather modest in size and interior rooms. The gardens surrounding were really enjoyable to walk through. And as we traversed the park, we found love - in solid gold and marble. There, erected before us was the Prince Albert memorial, the largest monument of love ever created, or at least during the Victorian period. Prince Albert, her Saxe-Coburg and Gotha soulmate (in death and life), or as Fariha calls him, her "Sacks Go-go," died at a very early age, plunging the Queen into deep mourning thereafter. Seriously guys, check it out.

We walked literally ten hours in Hyde Park. And pretended we were from the Regency era.

Buckingham was anti-climatic. Maybe it was because we were already tired from all that walking and so impressed by the monument of love that this fell short. The best Fariha could muster was "the Queen's digs are pretty nice."

Tower of London

June 22nd - Tower of London is NOT a dungeon, like many (Fariha) would like to think. In fact, it was at times a home, meeting place, and prison, but never at the same time. It consists of several quarters with different functions. Fasiha was not impressed by the King Henry VIII display of armor. The actual tower that held various political prisoners was pretty disturbing. Etched in the stone walls were intricate carvings of the invidual's family seals and their cries of innocence. On a serious note, it was rather chilling to think of the narrow tower these people stayed in for, awaiting their execution.

For the Braveheart fans, the tower is one of the places where William Wallace's limbs were displayed. He was not the first nor the last to be so honored.

Leeds Castle

June 21st - On our only free weekend day, we took an hour long train ride to Leeds Castle - now this is a real castle. We took a twenty minute walk through amazing gardens and pathways until the castle rose before us and we were in awe. Do you like our dramatic prose?

The castle always belonged to a family of dukes but was given to the government for the enjoyment of the English people in 2001 when the last surviving relative died.

Stonehenge: Big Expectations, Small Rocks

English Countryside, Day 3: After the morning Bath run around, our last stop was Stonehenge. It was a bit underwhelming. We arrived the day before the summer solstice, where we found gatherings of hippies ready to camp out to witness the sun rising over Stonehenge and whatever that means for the angling of the rocks (google it). Given an hour and half to circle this site, we took the opportunity to take pictures as just about every angle. Enjoy.

We Heart Jane Austen (Bath)

English Countryside - Day 2 & 3: Bath deserves it's own separate post. We reached Bath on Friday evening, when everything was pretty much closed shop so we walked around to get our bearings. We saw the Royal Crescent, a half-moon shaped row of town homes that are a signature feature of Bath, and more importantly, where a few pivotal scenes of Persuasion were filmed, which Fariha and Fasiha decided to reenact (yes, it is on film).

The next morning, we raced to see the Roman Baths and the Jane Austen Centre. The Roman Baths were incredible. Located modestly on the side of a high-traffic street, the baths are over two thousand years old and continue to flow. Legend was that the son of a king, who had leprosy, was cured after dipping into the waters. Since then, the Romans, and then centuries later, the British royalty and upper class partook of the waters to cure sicknesses, such as rheumatism. The remnants of the baths are age-worn but still give you a clear glimpse of how the Romans lived at the time. The pictures speak for themselves, this has got to be one of our most favorite spots of this trip.

With only an hour and half left before we had to head out, we rushed to the Jane Austen Centre and officially geeked out. We bought a lot of paraphenalia, took a tour and spent an inordinant amount of time on every random, inconsequential and significant artifact of Jane Austen's history. And left pretty sad -- suffice to say, if you know how her life ended, you would be too. Jane Austen and the both of us had a MOMENT.

Bath was our favorite stop on our English countryside trip.