This week I had the pleasure of traveling to Europe (London & Paris) with The Charleston Symphony Orchestra's Gospel Choir. I traveled as a guest of the choir. In the past the choir has traveled and performed in Leipzig, Prague, Vienna, Rome, Florence, Pisa and Milan. On Saturday, I traveled to South Carolina to meet up with my Aunt and the choir to make the trip. My aunt has been a member of the choir for a few years now. On Monday, we caught an evening flight to London. The ride was smooth. It took about 7 hours. While in London, we stayed at Novotel Hotel Excel, which is about a mile or two from the soon to be Olympic Village for the 2012 Olympics. In a lot of ways, London reminded me of New York. I loved it. The Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, The Albert Memorial and Buckingham Palace in addition to many others were some of the stops we made in the city. Wednesday we made a stop at Harrod's. I thought the store was nice, but in my opinion, extremely overpriced. The choir performed at St. Paul's Cathedral and on a trip to Bath they performed at Bath Abbey.
Hungerford Bridge in front of Big Ben & Houses of Parliament
Tower Bridge
St. Paul's Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
Guards at Buckingham Palace
While
in Bath, we went into The Roman Bath's , passed by Jane Austen's house
and a pub regularly visited by Dickens. We also did some shopping.
Bath Abbey
The choir performing in Bath Abbey.
My Aunt who is a part of the choir.
On Friday, we began our trip to Paris from London. We used the Euro Tunnel, a vehicle transport train to France. Our motor coach drove in (with us on it.) So Cool! Gates came down in front and in back of the motor coach. The ride from the English side to French side took all of 30-35 minutes, never mind the fact that we were traveling 140 mph.
The bus on the transport train.
Here we are, driving out of the transport train.
This is a shot of what the transport train looks like from the outside.
Once we arrived in France, we drove through the French countryside until we ended in Paris a few hours later. We stayed at The Mercure Hotel. Our first stop was Musée du Louvre. Some of the famous artwork I saw included La Gioconda (aka Portrait of the Mona Lisa), The Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace. The pictures I took of the Louvre don't do it justice. It is a magnificent place. The same goes for the Palace of Versailles. We saw the Hall of Mirrors, The Royal Apartments and The Gardens. Once we finished our tour we drove up Le Avenue des Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe. The Avenue was getting ready for the end of the Tour de France. They were placing bleachers along the avenue. Then we went to see the Eiffel Tower. On Sunday, our last full day in Paris, the choir performed at The American Church in Paris during the morning service. After the service, the bus took us to Île de la Cité to get lunch and visit Notre Dame. I decided to finally stop at a cafe called La Fontaine Saint Michel Restaurant to have my first authentic Parisian Crêpe. I had mine with sugar. SO GOOD!! I had one last year while at Disney at France in Epcot, but of course a crêpe in Disney is not the same as a crêpe in Paris.
1. The Eiffel Tower 2. The Garden at Versailles 3. La Gioconda 4. Outside the Palace of Versailles 5. A Room in The Palace of Versailles 6. Winged Victory of Samothrace 7. A Hall in The Palace of Versailles 8. Venus de Milo 9. Gates outside of The Palace of Versailles 10. The Hall of Mirrors (Palace of Versailles) 11. One of many ceilings in The Louvre 12. Sarcophagus of a married couple from Cerveteri 13. Paris Opera House 14. Mona Lisa behind bullet-proof glass 15. Statue outside The Palace of Versailles 16. Gardens of Versailles 17. Part of a building outside of Versailles 18. Gardens of Versailles 19. Arc de Triomphe
Once we finished, the choir returned to The American Church in Paris for their evening concert. By the time the choir came on to perform their was standing room only. The balcony had been filled and all of the seats were filled to capacity. They even began placing folding chairs in the outer aisles and this not a small church. It was truly amazing. A representative from the American Embassy came out as well. If you live or are planning to visit the Charleston area of South Carolina you need to check this choir out. You can find more information on them here.
Besides all of the site-seeing I did manage to get some knitting in. A couple of weeks before the trip I purchased some Terra from Rosies with Springtime Bandit in mind. I started it the day before I left. I've managed to get through half of the third repeat. I have one more repeat and the edging to go. I had a little trouble in the beginning, but it's been smooth sailing since.
Happy Knitting!
