Oui, Oui! Paris!

This weekend I ran the Paris Marathon, seeing 26.2 miles of Paris. Despite being terribly under-trained for this running feat, I was energized by my magnificent surroundings and by the Parisians who cheered me onward by shouting out "Allez Christina". All I can say quite simply is that I absolutely LOVE Paris-- the food, the fashion, the architecture, the history. I hope that this was just the first of many more of my adventures in Paris.

During my trip, I visited the Catacombs of Paris, an underground ossuary that holds the remains of about 6 million people, the Eiffel Tower, the Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, the River Seine, and the Louvre. I also ate lots of yummy food.

My snaps below do a pretty good job of summarizing my trip. Enjoy!

Snaps from the Catacombs:

{Looking ominous at the Catacombs}

{Underground tunnel}

{Stacked bones and skulls}

Snaps from around Paris:

{Notre Dame}

{musee du Louvre}

{Eiffeling}

 

 

 

{La Seine}

{Hotel de Ville}

{Hotel de Ville}

{Amazingly Delicious Raspberry Tart}

Post-Marathon Snaps:

{Marathon Finisher!}

{Marathon Medal!}

Camel Burgers..Mmmmmmm

About a month ago I visited Borough Market, one of London's largest food markets.  It has a vast array of delicious desserts and cheeses and also some interesting meat products...

Easter Weekend Wrap-up: Richmond Park, Stonehenge, Frome and Bath

Hello! I hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. I know I did! In the UK, people typically have off on Good Friday and the Monday following Easter Sunday which allowed me a nice 4-day weekend.

On Friday, A and I explored Richmond Park which is in west London. I was amazed by all of the wide open green space, the streams, and the deer happily munching on the grass. It's incredible how all of that exists just right outside the hustle and bustle of central London!

On Saturday, we visited Stonehenge. It's crazy to see something that was built around 3000 BC to 2000 BC!

Then we made our way to Frome, which is about 107 miles west of London. The inn we stayed at was built in 1690 and surrounded by farmland. From our window, we could see horses and just across the street were alpacas and chickens! The inn's bar was a cozy spot-- they served us local ales and ciders and Herbie was allowed to walk around freely-- he made the most of this privilege by wandering over to the tables of the bar's regular patrons to coax them into giving him pieces of meat and cheese.

Chicken Coop!

Alpacas

Drinking "Proper" Cider with Herbie at the Full Moon Inn

Horses!

Very stylish horse hair-do

On Sunday, we made our way to Bath, which is about a 30-minute drive from the inn. Bath was first established as a spa town by the Romans in AD 43 and was a leading center of fashionable life in England in the 18th century. We walked around the city on our own for a bit. We caught the beginning of Easter Mass at Bath Abbey. Then we took one of those bus tours which was well-worth the fare as it showed us both the city and the skyline of Bath. I would love to go back soon and try out Bath's spa which is the only natural thermal spa in Britain.

Tourist in London, Take 1

My first weekend here, I covered a handful of the main touristy destinations - London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace. More interestingly though, I also visited London's oldest wine bar - Gordon's Wine Bar. The building has been in its current form since 1890! A friend and I shared a bottle of wine and I ordered a side of two delicious cheeses with a baguette.

After the wine, we went to see Yayoi Kusama Exhibit at the Tate Modern. My favorite parts of the exhibit was the ordinary living room/dining room covered in florescent multi-colored polka dots and the infinity mirror room (please ignore my bucked teeth in the second picture - not sure what happened there...).

Herbie now pees in Royal Parks

Despite the incredible hassle of getting Herbie from New York to London (at times I thought that smuggling drugs into the UK would be easier than bringing a dog here), it was of course entirely worth it. The parks here are perfect for dogs-- they can go off leash at any time of day and there is so much open green space to explore. So he is keeping busy-- running like a maniac, meeting dogs that bark with British accents, and becoming acquainted with the Queen's beautiful white swans.

We have some catching up to do!

Hi everyone! It has been almost a month since my last post, but to say things have been busy would be a complete understatement. Anyway, I have been in London for about three weeks now and I am happy to say that I am starting to feel very at home here. I plan to use some of my next posts to play catch-up.

A Bit of Inspiration