Last night, I made it back to Atlanta safely after an exhausting week of travel through England and France. My blog has turned into something of a picture diary as of late but that's ok. I hope you enjoy this latest entry about my travels through Europe. Click the pics for larger shots.
After watching the London terror dramatized on CNN all morning last Friday, my state of mind was hardly ideal as I embarked on my trip to London's Gatwick airport. Indeed, my apprehe
nsion and fear of traveling to the latest front of the war on terror prompted me to write a somewhat philosophical post on how to deal with terror in our everyday life. But when I finally touched down in London at 6:00 a.m. local time (1 a.m. Atlanta time), having just eaten dinner and then breakfast in a span of three hours on the plane, I was too delirious to care about extremist Islam. I managed to catch a bus from the airport and finally at 11:15 a.m., 16 hours after leaving my house in Atlanta, I arrived in Cambridge.
My decision to save some money and spend the first two days of my trip with Liz in her temporary room in Cambridge proved very worthwhile. She was in the middle of a 6-week Davidson-in-Cambridge program and her knowledge of the city made the beginni
ng of my trip fairly stress-free compared to later in the week. Cambridge is a really cool town, surrounded by the stunning facade's and quadrangles of the university's prestigious old colleges and replete with traditional English pubs and cobblestone streets that transport you far from your everyday 21st century life and concerns.
I really enjoyed my time in Cambridge even though my first day there is hard to remember due to the jet lag-induced haze of severe exhaustion. On Sunday afternoon, Liz and I tried to keep our spirits up despite the rainy weather and enjoyed a long stay at a small little tea room (named exactly that) where we were treated to a large pot of tea and warm scones with "clotted cream." As far as dining goes, England excels in tea and beer...and that is pretty much it. The rumors about England's lackluster coffee and food are painfully correct. Speaking of beer...wow. I made sure to savor at least one English ale every night I was in the UK. The coolest things are the hand-pulled taps. As opposed t
o regular taps that use air pressure to deliver the beer from the keg to your glass, the manual pulls are these big lever things that pump the beer from the basement into your glass...very cool. Liz and I were trying to figure out why the English suck so much at making coffee and food. We basically decided that they probably ask the same question about Americans and their stubborn obsession with crappy beer. Besides the afternoon tea, the highlights of my time in Cambridge were definitely my respective nights at The Eagle and The Granta. The picture here is of me on the patio of The Granta, a very cool bar situated right on the water. I would give anything to have something like this in D.C.
On Monday, Liz and I traveled to London where the sad reality of our
hotel was nowhere close to the impressive images we had found online. Despite the lodging and our refusal to ride the tube, we walked all the way to the center of London and enjoyed seeing the sights that we had read and heard about all of our lives. Although the recent bouts of terrorism had taken a noticeable toll on the psychology of the city, I was fairly comfortable during my time in London and most people seemed content to avoid conversation of the attacks although it was on everyone's mind. It was hard to ignore the stepped up police-presence in a city where police are normally unarmed. This picture isn't exactly worthy of publishing, but it's the best I could do as far as proving my presence in the vicinity of Parliament and "Big Ben."
On Tuesday, we took the Eurostar train from London to Paris via the Chunnel. Before I go further, let me say that it is ridiculous that Europe has such great train services and here in America we can't even keep the tiny Amtrak in business. Meanwhile, the Senate passes a $250 billion highway bill on Thursday...more of the same in the U.S.A.
Anyways, Paris is a beautiful city that reminded me of Rome with its outdoor restaurants and patios. There was only one problem with our two days in Paris...we couldn't speak an ounce of French. While we were still able to enjoy the sights, anything that involved speaking to someone was really stressful and awkward. In our first pathetic attempt at communication during 
lunchtime right after checking into our hotel (which turned out to be very nice), a waiter came up to us, spoke a bunch of French and after watching Liz and I despairingly look at one another hoping the other would make the first move, he simply walked away and left us bewildered and embarrassed. Later, we managed enough rudimentary communication to get some bread and cheese. Here is a good picture of Liz on the bank of the Seine (a much more beautiful river than the Thames). Her facial expression tells th
e story of our stay in Paris: excitement and curiosity tempered by uncertainty, stress, and awkwardness. We did have a very nice dinner that night, and after making our way through the gigantic Louvre museum the next morning, we headed back to London, hoping we would return to Paris more prepared, in terms of language, time, and energy, to tackle the challenges of the great city. This picture of the Eiffel Tower is probably one of my best of the week. Unfortunately, the short rainstorm at the time kept this pic from being postcard-worthy.
The last t
wo days in London were a great ending to our week. Our hotel was wonderful and we were happy to be 2 for 3 in terms of our hotel choices. Thursday was a full day of sightseeing. We began by riding the London Eye, a big giant ferris-wheel type of thing that was built a few years ago by British Airways. At the top of this thing, you are at the highest point in the city. If it weren't raining at the time, the views would have been spectacular. We continued with a boat ride up the Thames to the infamous Tower of London. We spent hours at the Tower and our t
ime there was perhaps the best part of the trip. The Tower is 1000 years old and within its walls can be seen and felt the history of England and London over that immense course of time. Most famous for its role as a feared prison where prisoners spent their last dark days awaiting the chopping block, the Tower is also a 
small village where the brains behind the forces of England were based, much like the Pentagon in America today. Prisoners entered in the middle of the night through the "Traitors Gate" and usually were next seen with their heads being lopped off months or years later. Overall, the Tower of London was really interesting and the gregarious and dramatic Yeomans provided a very entertaining tour that helped me understand the history and intrigue behind the Tower of London over the last millennium.
Before heading back home on Friday, Liz and I made the obligatory trip to Buckingham Palace where we saw the fanfare and overall silliness of the changing of the guard. This was a really great trip but as I said earlier, it was quite exhausting in that we attempted to do so much in so little time. Still, the week provided me a very good introduction to England, London, and Paris and I know that one day I will return better equipped to enjoy and explore these places. As usually happens, though, I was also happy to return to America, having learned new things about foreign lands while regaining my appreciation for this country and the unique privileges and experiences that come along with being an American citizen.
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