Howdy folks,

Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
this coming spring.
We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May. Is this a good
time?

Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
we're looking at
Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris. Otherwise, we're
open to whatever
we should see.

Suggestions? Must sees? Places to eat?

Our previous trips to europe included Russia and Scandanavia. I've
also been to several
places in the orient (hongkong, bangkok, taipei, sydney, okinawa,
vietnam)curtesy of
uncle sam.

Any suggestions or tips would be welcomed.

thanks much,

rono

rono wrote:
    > Howdy folks,
    > Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
    > this coming spring.
    > We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May. Is this a good
    > time?
    > Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
    > we're looking at
    > Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris. Otherwise, we're
    > open to whatever
    > we should see.
    > Suggestions? Must sees? Places to eat?
    > Our previous trips to europe included Russia and Scandanavia. I've
    > also been to several
    > places in the orient (hongkong, bangkok, taipei, sydney, okinawa,
    > vietnam)curtesy of
    > uncle sam.
    > Any suggestions or tips would be welcomed.
    > thanks much,
    > rono
London AND Paris in 8 days? Why don't you just stay home & watch it on
TV..........troll

On 10 Oct 2006 07:00:23 -0700, "Cochon Capitaliste"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >London AND Paris in 8 days? Why don't you just stay home & watch it on
    >TV..........troll

Not everyone has the time, opportunity or money for the
perfect "rent an apartment and stay a month in one place"
visit. I found five days in each city quite enough for my
needs first time round in '03, and only stayed four days
each in '06.

Don't presume that every traveller has the same interests as
you. The OP asked legitimate questions. If all you can do is
sneer - then why bother posting. It doesn't look smart - it
looks dumb and puerile.

On my own trip there were some places that bored me stiff
after a day - Slovenia for example - and others where I
happily stayed over a week. I was quite happy to leave Paris
after four days this time.

Yeah, shallow, I know. But I had a lot of fun, and I'm sure
the OP will too.

Cheers, Alan, Australia
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/

On 10 Oct 2006 06:34:07 -0700, "rono"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Howdy folks,
    >Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
    >this coming spring.
    >We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May. Is this a good
    >time?
    >Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
    >we're looking at
    >Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris. Otherwise, we're
    >open to whatever
    >we should see.
    >Suggestions? Must sees? Places to eat?
    >Our previous trips to europe included Russia and Scandanavia. I've
    >also been to several
    >places in the orient (hongkong, bangkok, taipei, sydney, okinawa,
    >vietnam)curtesy of
    >uncle sam.
    >Any suggestions or tips would be welcomed.
    >thanks much,
    >rono

You'll find others here more expert than I. Don't ignore the
obvious, so if your mini-tour misses any of the major points
- Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower etc then
see them. But we spent much of our time wandering the side
streets, sitting in the cafe's, sipping coffee and watching
the passing parade.

If you're interested in Cathedrals don't forget Chartres;
there should be day trips available but I drove so I can't
help there.

In London, same logic - see the major things the tour
misses. Check what shows are on in the Theatres, do a boat
ride on the Thames, maybe a day-trip to Oxford (it's an hour
away). If you like markets and street shops - Carnaby
Street, or a bit more downmarket, Portobello Road or Camden
Town; we took buses to both (she went, I followed but I sat
up top and enjoyed the ride:-)


Cheers, Alan, Australia
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/

"rono" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] ups.com...
    > Howdy folks,
    > Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
    > this coming spring.
    > We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May. Is this a good
    > time?

When is Easter next year - that affects some opening times.
Also there will be public holidays on or about 1st May.

    > Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
    > we're looking at
    > Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris. Otherwise, we're
    > open to whatever
    > we should see.

How many free days do you have in each place ?

    > Suggestions? Must sees? Places to eat?

Usual question - what turns you on ?

    > Our previous trips to europe included Russia and Scandanavia. I've
    > also been to several
    > places in the orient (hongkong, bangkok, taipei, sydney, okinawa,
    > vietnam)curtesy of
    > uncle sam.

And you most enjoyed.........

On 10 Oct 2006 06:34:07 -0700, "rono" <[email protected]> wrote:

    >Howdy folks,
    >Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
    >this coming spring.
    >We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May. Is this a good
    >time?
    >Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
    >we're looking at
    >Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris. Otherwise, we're
    >open to whatever
    >we should see.
    >Suggestions? Must sees? Places to eat?

My strongest suggestion would be to explore the web site
http://www.jack-travel.com with all must sees, places to eat, to
lodge and various other articles.

Jack-travel

    > Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
    > this coming spring. We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May.
    > Is this a good time?

Any time in spring or fall is great.

    > Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
    > we're looking at Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris.
    > Otherwise, we're open to whatever we should see.

With just eight days in total for London and Paris, there is so much to
offer in both cities that on such a tight schedule you would probably
find that spending your time in the cities would be more rewarding than
day trips. The one exception is Versailles.

    > Suggestions? Must sees? Places to eat?

My top five for London: British Museum, Museum of London, Tower of
London, London architecture, and London pubs.

My top five for Paris: Musee D'Orsay, Louvre, Versailles, Parisian
restaurants, and the Sainte Chapelle.

Howdy Miss L Toe,

    > When is Easter next year - that affects some opening times.
    > Also there will be public holidays on or about 1st May.

Good point. I think we'll miss easter, but I'll check on that and
Mayday.


    > How many free days do you have in each place ?

It looks like 2.5 in each.

    > Usual question - what turns you on ?

I'm for local fare, wifey is more meat and potatos.

    > > Our previous trips to europe included Russia and Scandanavia. I've
    > > also been to several
    > > places in the orient (hongkong, bangkok, taipei, sydney, okinawa,
    > > vietnam)curtesy of
    > > uncle sam.

    > And you most enjoyed.........

On my R&R's in the orient, I enjoyed Bangkok the most. Very friendly
and western and yet exotic. Strange, but my folks who have literally
been most everywhere you can go - mom liked Bangkok and Key West. Go
figure.

St. Petersburg is wonderful and I could easily go back. I also really
liked Bergen.

peace,

rono

Iceman wrote:
    > With just eight days in total for London and Paris, there is so much to
    > offer in both cities that on such a tight schedule you would probably
    > find that spending your time in the cities would be more rewarding than
    > day trips. The one exception is Versailles.

Yeppers, gots to see Versailles. Been to the Winter Palace, plus
Katherines and Pauls and also have hit Newport with the Breakers,
Marble House and the Elms and been to Biltmore, etc. Looking forward
to Versailles.

peace,

rono

Alan S wrote:
    > On 10 Oct 2006 07:00:23 -0700, "Cochon Capitaliste"
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
    > >London AND Paris in 8 days? Why don't you just stay home & watch it on
    > >TV..........troll
    > Not everyone has the time, opportunity or money for the
    > perfect "rent an apartment and stay a month in one place"
    > visit. I found five days in each city quite enough for my
    > needs first time round in '03, and only stayed four days
    > each in '06.
    > Don't presume that every traveller has the same interests as
    > you. The OP asked legitimate questions. If all you can do is
    > sneer - then why bother posting. It doesn't look smart - it
    > looks dumb and puerile.
    > On my own trip there were some places that bored me stiff
    > after a day - Slovenia for example - and others where I
    > happily stayed over a week. I was quite happy to leave Paris
    > after four days this time.
    > Yeah, shallow, I know. But I had a lot of fun, and I'm sure
    > the OP will too.
    > Cheers, Alan, Australia
    > http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
Alan, Australia you've never been any closer to either London or Paris
than a website.

"rono" <[email protected]> wrote:
    >Iceman wrote:
    >> With just eight days in total for London and Paris, there is so much to
    >> offer in both cities that on such a tight schedule you would probably
    >> find that spending your time in the cities would be more rewarding than
    >> day trips. The one exception is Versailles.
    >Yeppers, gots to see Versailles. Been to the Winter Palace, plus
    >Katherines and Pauls and also have hit Newport with the Breakers,
    >Marble House and the Elms and been to Biltmore, etc. Looking forward
    >to Versailles.
Give the house (palace/hunting lodge, whatever) an hour; give the
gardens two hours; then get back into Paris and see interesting stuff
like Parisians taking lunch in the Luxembourg Gardens, or watch the
traffic negotiate Place de la Bastille, or observe tourists behaving
like idiots in front of Notre Dame, or take a stroll by the Seine, or
just explore a random corner of the city -- all much better ways of
using limited time than giving too much of it to Versailles.

--
PB
The return address has been MUNGED
My travel writing: http://www.iol.ie/~draoi/

In article <[email protected]. com>,
[email protected] (Cochon Capitaliste) wrote:

    > *From:* "Cochon Capitaliste" <[email protected]>
    > *Date:* 10 Oct 2006 07:00:23 -0700
    >
    >
    > rono wrote:
    > > Howdy folks,
    > >
    > > Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
    > > this coming spring.
    > > We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May. Is this a good
    > > time?
    > >
    > > Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
    > > we're looking at
    > > Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris. Otherwise, we're
    > > open to whatever
    > > we should see.
    > >
    > > Suggestions? Must sees? Places to eat?
    > >
    > > Our previous trips to europe included Russia and Scandanavia. I've
    > > also been to several
    > > places in the orient (hongkong, bangkok, taipei, sydney, okinawa,
    > > vietnam)curtesy of
    > > uncle sam.
    > >
    > > Any suggestions or tips would be welcomed.
    > >
    > > thanks much,
    > >
    > > rono
    > London AND Paris in 8 days? Why don't you just stay home & watch it on
    > TV..........troll

Eight days is rushed, but not utterly ridiculous. It's not as if they're
obliged to see every single thing of interest in each city.

In article <[email protected]. com>,
[email protected] (rono) wrote:

    > *From:* "rono" <[email protected]>
    > *Date:* 10 Oct 2006 06:34:07 -0700
    >
    > Howdy folks,
    >
    > Wifey and I are headed to London and Paris on the Globus 8 day trip
    > this coming spring.
    > We're zeroing in on the end of April - first of May. Is this a good
    > time?
    >
    > Both cities include a mini-tour and then we're on our own. Day trips
    > we're looking at
    > Windsor Castle in London and Versailles in Paris. Otherwise, we're
    > open to whatever
    > we should see.

You can do Windsor in a half-day quite easily if you're organised (apart
from the castle there's not a whole lot of compelling interest - though a
short walk over the bridge into Eton is worthwhile, if just to see a VERY
atypical corner of England!).

Apart from that and Versailles, you'd be well advised to do no further day
trips on your limited schedule. As always, what you do in the cities all
depends on your interests, but my broad suggestion would be:

- For each full day you have in the city, identify two to four things that
the mini-tour doesn't cover (or that you'd like to see more of).

- If they're big - e.g. the British Museum or the Louvre - read up a bit
about them and isolate which bits are of particular interest, rather than
trying to see the whole thing - which will leave you tired, exhausted and
retrospectively completely confused as to what was what.

- Plan a walking trip (with the emphasis on walking) that takes in that
day's activities. Either make it a round trip beginning and ending at your
hotel, or plan on getting back to the hotel via public transport.

- Leave a couple of hours slippage in each day's schedule for starting
late/getting lost or distracted/end-of-day rest.

- Invest in good street maps of both city centres: invaluable.

- Bear in mind that at the time you're going the weather in both cities
could be anything from awful to great.

Alan S <[email protected]> wrote:

    > On 10 Oct 2006 07:00:23 -0700, "Cochon Capitaliste"
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    > >London AND Paris in 8 days? Why don't you just stay home & watch it on
    > >TV..........troll
    >
    > Not everyone has the time, opportunity or money for the
    > perfect "rent an apartment and stay a month in one place"
    > visit. I found five days in each city quite enough for my
    > needs first time round in '03, and only stayed four days
    > each in '06.

4 days is a good amount of time in both cities IMO. My first visit to
Paris as a tourist was for three days and I loved it. The only time I
went for more than that was a week in October in the early 90s. It
pissed it down the whole time, the hotel was crap, and so was the food.
Then again, I was a vegetarian at the time. I've enjoyed visits to Paris
so much more since eating meat! The current news about anti-smoking
legislation is just terrific! :)

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
http://www.davidhorne.net/pictures.html http://soundjunction.org

On 10 Oct 2006 11:39:11 -0700, "Cochon Capitaliste"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Alan S wrote:
    >> On 10 Oct 2006 07:00:23 -0700, "Cochon Capitaliste"
    >> <[email protected]> wrote:
    >> >London AND Paris in 8 days? Why don't you just stay home & watch it on
    >> >TV..........troll
    >> Not everyone has the time, opportunity or money for the
    >> perfect "rent an apartment and stay a month in one place"
    >> visit. I found five days in each city quite enough for my
    >> needs first time round in '03, and only stayed four days
    >> each in '06.
    >> Don't presume that every traveller has the same interests as
    >> you. The OP asked legitimate questions. If all you can do is
    >> sneer - then why bother posting. It doesn't look smart - it
    >> looks dumb and puerile.
    >> On my own trip there were some places that bored me stiff
    >> after a day - Slovenia for example - and others where I
    >> happily stayed over a week. I was quite happy to leave Paris
    >> after four days this time.
    >> Yeah, shallow, I know. But I had a lot of fun, and I'm sure
    >> the OP will too.
    >> Cheers, Alan, Australia
    >> http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
    >Alan, Australia you've never been any closer to either London or Paris
    >than a website.

Yep, all that time, money and jet-lag is obviously a figment
of my fevered imagination. Sometimes I think it was all a
dream too. Then my bank statement turns up in the mail.

It'll probably be a few weeks before I stick Paris and
London in the new blog. Learning as I go, geez it takes a
while to upload those pix. Finished Istanbul, just added
Barcelona.

Cheers, Alan, Australia
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/