Paris 3-Day Itinerary: Day Two

Read Day 1 here - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
Read Day 2 here - Mus�e de Louvre, Sacr�-C�ur, Galeries Lafayette
Read Day 3 here - Mus�e d'Orsay, River Seine, Champs-�lys�es

Originally we wanted to visit Mus�e d'Orsay but it was closed on Mondays. So we walked to see Mus�e de Louvre instead. It was still relatively early in the morning and we thought we would see what the queue situation was like.

Mus�e d'Orsay

Mus�e de Louvre was actually a palace. It was very large and I remember thinking that it was a waste that I usually only saw the famous pyramid in photos when the place itself was much more grand than that. Upon sight of the extremely long queue outside Mus�e de Louvre we knew we did not want to waste our day waiting so we did a quick browse of the gift shop and left.

Mus�e de Louvre

Behind Mus�e de Louvre was Rue de Rivoli, a shopping street. There were many souvenir shops and other stores there. From Rue de Rivoli, we took bus 85 to the Montemarte area and walked to Sacr�-C�ur, Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. When I saw this structure on TV it looked more steep and a lot bigger but the walk up was not bad at all. You can ride the funicular up if you wish.

Sacr�-C�ur offers the highest point in Paris after the Eiffel Tower so you can also come here for a great panoramic view of the city.

Sacr�-coeur

Behind the basilica were many artists selling their work or drawing portraits for tourists. I had a delicious soft crepe there.

Behind Sacr�-coeur

It was raining in the late afternoon so our last stop of the day was to Galeries Lafayette. It was a huge, multi-building department store including clothing, accessories, and food. The main building featured a beautiful dome overlooking the multiple levels of glittery items.

Galeries Lafayette

Interior of Galeries Lafayette

Read Day 1 here - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
Read Day 2 here - Mus�e de Louvre, Sacr�-C�ur, Galeries Lafayette
Read Day 3 here - Mus�e d'Orsay, River Seine, Champs-�lys�es

Paris 3-Day Itinerary: Day Three

Read Day 1 here - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
Read Day 2 here - Mus�e de Louvre, Sacr�-C�ur, Galeries Lafayette
Read Day 3 here - Mus�e d'Orsay, River Seine, Champs-�lys�es

For our last day in Paris, we visited Mus�e d'Orsay in the morning. We queued for 45 minutes before we got in (EUR 11 for adults, EUR 8,50 for students.) Mus�e d'Orsay was smaller than the famous Mus�e de Louvre but it was a great option since we did not want to queue for hours.

I was amazed to see the works of artists I had studied as a child in person from Van Gogh to Monet. Each piece was beautiful and there were many Impressionist artists' pieces here.

Mus�e d'Orsay

Van Gogh

Monet

Next we went back to the Eiffel Tower but this time to ride the river cruise down River Seine. The hour long cruise cost EUR 14 per person and featured eight sights. For example, the tour pointed out the place where Rousseau used to live.

River cruise down Seine

After the cruise, we went to take photos of the Eiffel Tower from the opposite side of where we were two days ago.

Eiffel Tower

Champs-�lys�es was a long shopping street filled with stores from high street to luxury designer. It was beautifully lined with two rows of neat trees on either side and was one of the few places in Paris we visited where there was not the wafting scent of urine.

Champs-�lys�es

In the evening, we went to eat dinner at a delicious restaurant called L'Office. I recommend trying it out! Service was attentive and our server patiently translated each menu item for us in English. Make sure that you make a reservation ahead of time because they will refuse those who just show up at the door. I used La Fourchette to make the reservation.

That was the end of our 22 day Europe trip! There was a lot of walking, cobblestones and trains involved but each day was filled to the brim with new sights to see and activities to experience.

Read Day 1 here - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
Read Day 2 here - Mus�e de Louvre, Sacr�-C�ur, Galeries Lafayette
Read Day 3 here - Mus�e d'Orsay, River Seine, Champs-�lys�es

Paris 3-Day Itinerary: Day One

Read Day 1 here - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
Read Day 2 here - Mus�e de Louvre, Sacr�-C�ur, Galeries Lafayette
Read Day 3 here - Mus�e d'Orsay, River Seine, Champs-�lys�es

The evening before, we arrived from London to Paris. For the metro, a single ticket cost EUR 1,80 and a day pass cost EUR 8,30. If you are in Paris on the weekend and under 26 years old, you are eligible for Le Ticket Jeunes Week-end which cost EUR 3,85 per day.

First stop of the day was to the Notre Dame de Paris. There was mass ongoing when we visited and unfortunately it became a bit noisy indoors because many tourists were inside hiding from the rain.

Notre Dame de Paris

Inside the Notre Dame

From the Notre Dame we followed signs and walked along the River Seine. To my surprise we saw a proposal in action! At first I saw a group of people on a bridge holding up a large banner that said, "Will you marry me?" Then I looked down the river and saw a river cruise headed toward the bridge with the happy couple at the bow of the boat waving towards their friends. What a nicely timed execution!

River Seine

The famous love lock bridge in Paris had all their locks removed a few weeks before we visited the city. However there were many other love lock bridges around the city. In fact, I saw love locks everywhere from gates to doors to window frames.

Bridge with love locks

Not far from the Notre Dame is the Shakespeare and Company bookstore. It was such a quaint little store and kept relatively quiet indoors despite its popularity among tourists. The scene where the characters in Triumph in the Skies played with the cat in the bookstore jumped to life for me when I saw the purring cat on a green velvet bench with my own eyes.

Shakespeare and Company bookstore

Our next stop was the ever-so-famous Eiffel Tower. Despite it being a complete tourist destination, I actually enjoyed my visit here. We opted for the stairs option because the queue for the elevator up to the top was longer. The elevator cost EUR 14,50 per person and stairs cost EUR 5 for adults and EUR 4 for students.

Base of Eiffel Tower

The stairs only allowed us to go up to the second section of the tower but the height was good enough for a panoramic city view since Paris' buildings are relatively low. In the first section there was glass flooring for you to look down at the queuing people and a small theatre playing a video of the origins of the tower. There was also a restaurant and a gift shop.

City view from the Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower by day

We came out to see the tower in the evening again. It closes at 12am but we did not go up again because we wanted to see the tower itself. It gave off a different feel by day and by night. After sunset, the tower sparkles at the turn of every hour in addition to being lit up.

Eiffel Tower by night

A few metro stops from the Eiffel Tower brought us to the Arc de Triomphe which was also beautiful lit up at night. The structure was much larger than I had imagined and I enjoyed standing in the middle as I watched the cars zoom past in all different directions to the 12 avenues converging to that point.

Arc de Triomphe

Read Day 1 here - Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe
Read Day 2 here - Mus�e de Louvre, Sacr�-C�ur, Galeries Lafayette
Read Day 3 here - Mus�e d'Orsay, River Seine, Champs-�lys�es

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day Three

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

One of my most anticipated places to visit on this trip was The Making of Harry Potter at Warner Brothers Studio. I booked my ticket with Golden Tours because the Warner Bros. website was sold out of the time slot I wanted. Golden Tours included the bus ride and admission to the studio (GBP 63 each.)

Golden Tour's Harry Potter bus

There were two pick up points and I chose the Gloucester Place one. The Golden Tours instruction in the email was confusing about where the pick up point was. To get there, alight from Baker Street Station and turn right when you leave the station. Keep walking straight until you reach the street that says Gloucester Place and turn right to find the bus stop. The bus stop sign will say "Harry Potter Studio Tour."

Bus stop sign

The bus I took was scheduled for 10:10am but came at 10:20am. The double decker bus was completely full and we were given our admission tickets from the driver after boarding. The bus ride took about an hour to reach Leavesden where the studio was without any stops in between.

Exterior of the studio

Queuing up to enter!

The tour took about 2.5 hours depending on how slowly you went through and I really enjoyed myself! There were many props and behind the scenes designs on display which helped me appreciate the crew behind the movies even more. Ten years worth of Harry Potter films were shot at this studio and I was so happy to see each thing that linked to the different movies.

Great Hall

Gryffindor Common Room

There was a section where we could ride broom sticks in front of a green screen and pretend to fly while a video of scenery played behind us. It cost GBP 25 for a USB with the footage on it. Butter beer was GBP 3 next to Privet Drive.

The bus left the studio at 3:30pm and we were back at Victoria Station by 5pm.

Privet Drive

King's Cross Platform 9 3/4

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day Four

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London --> Paris

It was our last day in London but we didn't depart until the evening so we checked out of the hotel and left our luggage at a storage at St. Pancras International Train Station. Each piece of luggage cost GBP 10.

King's Cross station was next to St. Pancras station and I wanted to see what Platform 9 3/4 looked like. It was modern with automatic gates and didn't allow people without tickets to enter the platform. However, next to Platforms 9 and 10 was a Harry Potter gift store. The small store was packed full and on the wall next to the store was a sign that said Platform 9 3/4 with a cart halfway in the wall for fans to take photos. The queue was quite long and it cost money to take a photo but it's a good option if you do not have time to make it to the Warner Bro. Studio Tour.

From St. Pancras station, it was not a far walk to the British Library. The black barred section in the photo below was the King's Library.

British Library

We visited Hyde Park which wasn't particularly pretty but was famous for the Speaker's Corner.

Hyde Park

Harrod's was easily visible after a short walk from Knightsbridge station. The famous department store was very large and I did not go beyond the first floor to avoid getting lost and absorbed into walking around for far too long. On the first floor there were designer handbags, a raw oyster bar and a delicious confectionery section.

Harrod's

Interior of Harrod's

In the evening we took the 4:22pm Eurostar from London to Paris. It cost about CAD 130 per person and took 2.5 hours to reach Paris.

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day One

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

Berlin --> London

Departing from our hotel in Berlin at 7am, the metro with all the transfers took 1 hour 20 minutes to reach Sch�nfeld Airport. We reached the airport 1.5 hours ahead of our flight time and barely made it to the gate!

The security checking process was confusing and frustrating. People who had flights coming up were told to cut queue by airport staff so the line barely moved. As well, there were a lot more people in the queue than the security process could handle. After making it past security we ran down a flight of stairs, down a long hallway and up some more stairs before we reached the immigration booth. We had to queue some more to have our passports checked and only sat for a few minutes at the gate before we walked out to the plane.

We flew with Ryan Air from Berlin to London and expected some delays. Fortunately, the flight left close to on time at around 10:15am and landed at 10:45am London time (11:45am Berlin time.) A bottle of water cost EUR 3 on the flight.

We arrived at Stansted Airport and bought a National Express bus ticket to London Liverpool Street (GBP 10 per person.) The bus was scheduled at 11:45am and we reached our destination at 1pm. At Liverpool Station we were able to easily purchase Oyster cards for a GBP 5 deposit (refundable.)

British Museum

From Holborn underground station, it was a short walk to the British Museum. Admission was free so it was very crowded with many student and tourist groups. There were fascinating exhibitions though and was worth the visit.

Inside the British Museum

After the museum we walked to Covent Garden, Seven Dials. The name was derived from the seven streets that converged to a centre piece like a dial. The atmosphere was great with the narrow streets, red brick buildings and plenty of cafes, restaurants and shops.

Covent Garden, Seven Dials

From Seven Dials it was another short walk to London Chinatown. It was a small Chinatown that was pretty clean and lined with restaurants. Across from Chinatown was the Soho area filled with bars and pubs. Many Londoners stood outdoors enjoying their drinks after work.

Piccadilly Circus was an area with many old buildings that had huge TV screens plastered on them. It looked like London's version of Times Square with the abundance of advertisements for products, shows and musicals.

On the walk to River Thames

Leaving that area, we walked towards River Thames and came across the Horse Guards Parade area. Past that, we could see the London Eye from across the river. Walking to the side of the river where the London Eye stood, we could see the Parliament and Big Ben in its entirety.

London Eye

Parliament and Big Ben

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

London 4-Day Itinerary: Day Two

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

We began our full day of London city touring at the Breakfast Club by Liverpool Station. First stop of the day was from Kensington High Street Station and walking to Kensington Palace. It honestly was not as grand as what I expected a palace to look like but it boasted a large park and pond. The gift store was cute with all the royal and British products.

Kensington Palace

Alighting from Victoria Station, we went to Buckingham Palace after the changing guards time was over but there were still a lot of people. Again, the palace was not as large as I imagined it to be but it was still nice. The area felt very patriotic with UK flags floating in between the trees on the streets surrounding the palace.

Buckingham Palace

From Buckingham Palace we walked down Birdcage Street toward the Palace of Westminster (UK Parliament) to see Big Ben. Again, there were many tourists. If you're taking the underground, alight at Westminster Station. Westminster Abbey was also in the area.

Big Ben

Next we went to see the St Paul Cathedral (alight at St Paul Station.) Outside the cathedral we spotted an old style double decker bus number 15 to Tower Hill and hopped on immediately. Someone at the back door scanned our Oyster cards with a handheld device. Most of the double decker buses were the newer style so we were glad we caught this one despite the lack of air conditioning. It wasn't too hot with the windows open.

St Paul Cathedral

Interior of cathedral

Double decker bus

Traffic jam was a constant problem in central London and many streets were single lane for each direction so it took a while to get there. We alighted a few stops early and walked instead because the bus was so slow.

Tower Bridge was a beautiful structure in stone with blue and white suspensions. I always thought that this bridge was London Bridge but it appeared that there was a new style concrete bridge a few blocks away from Tower Bridge that was actually named London Bridge. Hence what I thought of as London Bridge was actually called Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge

Read Day 1 here - British Museum and River Thames
Read Day 2 here - Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge
Read Day 3 here - Warner Brothers Studio Tour
Read Day 4 here - King's Cross and Harrod's

Berlin 2-Day Itinerary

Day 1

Prague --> Berlin

We took the 8:30am train from Prague to Berlin which took a little less than 5 hours. It cost CAD$160 for three tickets. Since we were only taking one metro trip, we bought a day pass for the second day in Berlin but only a single journey ticket to our hotel. Single journey tickets cost EUR 2,70.

Hello Berlin!

We walked to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which was damaged from a bomb raid in 1943. There is a memorial hall inside with a small gift shop section. Across from this original church is a modern octagonal structure.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

Octagonal structure

Day 2

For Day 2 we purchased an all day group pass to use the metro (EUR 16,90 in total.)

The German Bundestag is a traditional looking building with a modern twist at the top. The glass dome houses a roof terrace and garden restaurant. We only walked around outside and didn't go in. There were many school tour groups in the area.

German Bundestag

It was about a 10-15 minute walk from the Bundestag to the Brandenburg Gate. On each side of the gates were embassies with important partnerships with Germany. It was interesting to see all the embassies and international organization offices along the way.

Brandenburg Gate

The following photo is the Jewish memorial. Sadly, many people did not bother to read the sign on the sidewalk about what this was and thought it was some type of public art that they could step on. There were people posted at each corner of the sight reminding the public to not step on the stone rectangles but they couldn't catch everyone.

Jewish memorial

Berlin is a metropolis and it really shows that modernity is more valued than old architecture as compared to the previous cities we went to on this trip. Potsdamer Platz was an important square that was growing before the Berlin Wall was erected and it flourished again after the wall came down.

Potsdamer Platz

My main goal for coming to Berlin was to see the Berlin Wall because I had studied the Cold War quite a bit in university and wanted to see the wall for myself. I spent a long time reading the signs at the Berlin Wall Memorial. If it is too cold to stand outside, the signs with the same information are located inside the grey building in the left of the photo below.

Berlin Wall Memorial

Other than the Berlin Wall Memorial, at the East Side Gallery there were more pieces of the original wall still standing. Though it felt less "authentic" here with the art covering its surface.

East Side Gallery

In day two we also visited the TV Tower, Berlin Cathedral, Alte Nationalgalerie and Olympic park of 1936.

TV Tower

Berlin Cathedral

Alte Nationalgalerie

Olympic park