Day 4: Last Tango in Paris

...first tango in London!

Today was an interesting day of missed connections and missed trains, but we have arrived in London, safe and sound. Today, we started our morning with a final croissant and pain au chocolate breakfast and a few minutes to pack, then we were off to Paris' amazing, ornate opera house to take a glimpse into the life of Paris' 19th century upper crust.

Now a place for ballet performances, the Opera Garnier is a perfect depiction of wealth and what beauty truly means. Every wing of the ornate building is different and magical in its own way. Rich colours and metallic finishes cover the thousands of archways and pillars throughout both the theatre and the entranceway. Everything was carved into the shapes of leaves and boats, even things like butterflies were common decorations in the building.

After learning about the wealthy's poor treatment of the actual art of opera and the strange (and true) myths surrounding the Phantom of the Opera, we were already headed back through the Metro to our hotel. Soon, we had everything loaded in the van and we were off to the Garre du Nord.

This is where our day got messy. Already later than scheduled, we stopped at the Garre and were rushed off with our bags towards the entrance. After a passport mishap and a lot of broken English transfers, we managed to miss our train and make the next (hint: this was basically all my fault).

The train ride was really interesting, seeing all the French country side and then entering the Chunnel and knowing "wow, I'm under water!". The ride gave us even more time to bond as a group and the train itself was clean, spacious and smelled good. Wish we could have switched the ten hour from the plane to this!

Upon arrival in London, we were late yet again, this time to get our bags to the hotel and to make it to dinner. We rushed everything into the hotel, freshened up a bit and then it was back to exploring yet another new city. London is so interesting to look at! It's such a strange hodge podge of old and new, but somehow it works. On route to the restaurant, we crossed the Thames on a walking bridge and had our first run in with the London tube.

Dinner was near the water, right at the base of the London Eye, which everyone was excited to see. Naturally, due to the general tardiness surrounding our whole day, the food took a long time to come and we were late for our time on the Eye - the last time slot of the day. Mr. Hartley-Foltz sad that there is an opportunity to try again, so at least the loss isn't too great!

London at night was so well lit as we walked back to our hotel. Big Ben was right there, looking just like in the movies and pictures. We had time to get some good shots of the city and the river, then it was beck home for a semi-early night to prepare for yet another big day coming tomorrow.