London

Wednesday Febraury 17th

From Paris we headed to London for a day trip. We left our luggage in the lockers at King's cross and before heading out I had to go 3/4 of the way between platforms 9 and 10 to find the entrance to the Hogwarts express. Disappointed at its nonexistence, we left and headed to Buckingham palace. Starving, I suggested we eat fish and chips. After which we went to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben.

Then we went on the London Eye.

Many hours remaining before our flight, we had a coffee at a café under the tower bridge, which was my favorite thing about London.

At night we headed back to the airport to return to Germany, and because I still had an exam to study for, my mom returned to her brother's house near Bremen and I returned to Heidelberg.

Paris

Sunday February 14th

During our semester break my mom came to visit me. I went to see her at her brother's house near Bremen in northern Germany and then we flew from Hamburg airport to Paris. After dropping our things off at the hotel we headed to the Arc de Triomphe. The next morning we headed to the Louvre, which to my surprise was the royal residence and seat of power of the French government until Louis XIV moved it to Versailles in 1682. Besides all the interesting paintings and priceless artifacts, a cool thing about the Louvre is that its free for European university students.

Once inside the first thing me and my mom wanted to do was to see the Mona Lisa, just like every other tourist. I was dumbfounded by how large the museum actually was due to how long it took us to get here.

To see the entire museum, one needs to spend a whole day there. But after about 6 hours we thought it was time to see other things in the city. So we went to the Eifel tower.

To the Bastille Monument

to Notre Dame Cathedral.

And back to the Eifel Tower at night

Unfortunately we were only in Paris for two days, so we did not have the opportunity to go to Versailles. That will have to wait until next time.