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Back to the Old Country (April/May 2007)

Buckingham Palace	Embankment	Sovereign's Tower	Westminster Abbey
Admiralty Arch	St Pauls Cathedral	Salisbury Cathedral	Salisbury Cathedral
Stonehenge	Stonehenge	Kirk	Stonehenge
Roman Bath	Amy	White Tower	Tower of London
Tower Bridge	Notre Dame	Notre Dame	Seine River
Kirk and Amy	Eiffel Tower	Kirk	Kirk and Amy
Louvre Museum	Louvre Museum	Hampton Court	Kirk and Amy

• Drove to Madison, WI to meet up with Amy.

• Early evening flight to London via DTW, of course the Northwest flight from Madison was late and we only had 8 minutes to get to our connecting flight - Pretty much ran through the airport only to find out that whole you have to be on the plane for international flights 30 minutes before departure thing was a lie.
• Watched a few movies in route and didn't sleep at all.

• Arrived in London and walked through immigration and customs.
• Took the Victoria Express train into London from Gatwick Airport.
• Got on the underground to make our way over to our hotel.
• Once at the Gloucester Road station I really had no idea where the hotel was so we winged it a bit.
• Checked into hotel, the Park City, which was surprisingly very nice for a mere $300 a night (the exchange rate was 2:1 during our visit so everything was extra expensive).
• Took the tube back to Victoria and then walked over to Buckingham Palace and checked out the sights.
• Due to lack of sleep on the flight over we called it an early day and headed back to the hotel to nap.
• Picked up some beverages and snacks at the Sainsbury market around the corner from our hotel.
• Had a burger in the hotel bar and then went up to the room for a "nap" - the nap ended up being 16 hours long.

• Slept in due to our long "nap".
• Used the tube to get down to the Westminster area.
• Walk around the embankment along the River Thames.
• Took some snapshots of Houses of Parliament and Big Ben
• Walked up to Trafalgar Square where some weird concert was going on.
• Then over to Piccadilly Circus where we had lunch at the BK lounge.
• Then walked up to Green Park and over and through St. James Park, spent some time relaxing in St. James Park.
• Enough sights for one day, headed back to the hotel where we had dinner.

• Went into The City and visited St Paul's Cathedral - ventured up to the first level of the rotunda.
• Walked across the foot bridge to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and then had a $75 lunch of burgers and fries at the Tate Modern Museum's restaurant.
• Went back to Westminster hoping to tour Westminster Abby but the line was long so opted to visit the Cabinet War Rooms instead.
• Went back to the hotel to change for our evening at the theatre.
• Took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and had a rushed dinner at some mediocre restaurant across the street from the Queen's Theatre.
• Saw a wonderful performance of Les Miserables which I enjoyed very much with wonderful seats thanks to Amy.

• Up early for a bus tour to Stonehenge.
• Bus company changed stations since my last visit so it was a little confusing when we showed up at the old place, luckily the new place was just across the street.
• Went to Salisbury to visit the cathedral which was built in 1250 and briefly saw a copy of the Magna Carta.
• Had lunch at a local pub.
• On to Stonehenge for our brief 45-minute visit thanks to the tour being behind schedule, tour guide guy was kind of a lame dork and kept delaying everything trying to get people together so he could give his narration when all anybody wanted to do was see the sights on their own.
• Finally got to Bath where we toured the bath complex and then strolled around the city center and smoked and had ice cream.
• Back in London had a good dinner at the Ask pizza restaurant at the Gloucester Road mini-mall.

• Went back down to The City via the tube and toured the Tower of London where we saw the crown jewels and Tower Bridge.
• Went back to the Westminster area to tour Westminster Abby after hitting the ATM, Amy said she liked seeing all the dead people.
• Then started our adventure to find dinner, went over to Hyde Park so Amy could see the Speakers' Corner, couldn't find anyplace to eat there so ventured down to the area near Harrods, nothing there so went back to the Gloucester Road area and ended up eating at a steak place that wasn't all that bad.

• Up before dawn to get our 7 am Eurostar train to Paris, France.
• Got into Paris and took a bit to figure out the Metro ticket process and what trains went where.
• Went down to the area near Notre Dame and toured the cathedral and then walked along the Seine River for a few blocks.
• Then took the Metro (after much confusion about what train went where) over to the Eiffel Tower area, took some pictures and got accosted by gypsies - actually that happened everywhere.
• Had a crappy microwaved burger at a cafˇ and then some ice cream while we looked around.
• Back on Amy's favorite Metro for a trip over to the Louvre Museum.
• Got there an hour before it closed so made a quick trip through the portrait gallery and got to see the Mona Lisa and also the Venus de Milo.
• Afterward spent some time outside enjoying the architecture of the buildings and took a walk in an adjoining park and smoked.
• Took the Metro back to the train station where we had some interesting pizza across the street at a restaurant before heading back to London on the 9 pm Eurostar train.
• Worn out after a 19-hour day!

• Back to Waterloo Station for the second day in a row this time for a train trip out to Hampton Court.
• Toured the palace which is beautiful and successfully navigated the maze.
• Headed back to hotel meet up with James the S.F. guy to get rid of the all-white cigarettes I had brought over for him (they only have corks in the U.K.).
• Had dinner in the hotel restaurant which was strangely sparse again.

• Checked out of the hotel and caught a cab over to Victoria Station to take the Victoria Express train out to Gatwick Airport.
• Flew home through DTW, again watching many movies in-flight and not sleeping.
• I think Gizmo (Amy's cat) was happy to see us when we arrived home.
• We were happy to get a good night's sleep after our travels.

• Drove back to Winona.

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