Acts of Volition

After we got married this summer my wife and I quickly fled the country and headed to the Olde Continent. We spent about a week in London and about a week in Paris. We took over 900 photos of all of the beautiful and touristy sites with our wedding-gift-new Canon SD300 digital camera.

From these 900+ photos, I’ve distilled a collection of a little over 300 that are worth seeing (lots of blurry shots and duplicates). Still, I can’t imaging people who aren’t my mom wanting to look at 300 shots of our European vacation. Here, then, is a list of some of the vacation (and photographic) highlights:

• The in-flight TVs had a map with our current location between (terrible) movies. At one point it had both Iceland and Casablanca onscreen at the same time.
• Two signs of the recent competition to host the 2012 Olympics:
  • Our hotel room in London featured olympic-bid sugar packets and a lawn near the Champs Elyses in Paris had the imprint of Olympic rings in the grass.
• We were walking down a street in London and happened upon the house of Ada Lovelace, one of the pioneers of computing.
• The London Eye was worth the ride (or “flight” as British Airways brands it). It provides a great view of the Parliament building. You also travel in weird pods. Here’s our neighbouring pod and the inside of our pod.
• Saint Pauls Cathedral in London was spectacular. The face features grand pillars and enormous doors (see small wife in bottom left for scale). You can walk up a few hundred steps to a great view of the city and across the Thames (that’s the Tate Modern across the river).
• The transportation system of London has become a billboard for advertising as exemplified by this Adobe-sponsored cab.
• I always thought the “London Bridge” was the one with the towers. It turns out that’s the Tower Bridge. The London Bridge is just a boring old bridge.
• An Internet terminal in Victoria Station in London had a keyboard with special keys for www., .com, and .co.uk. This was clearly from the future.
• Terrorism was all the rage as seen on this sign in Victoria Station that referred to the then-recent bus and subway bombings as “the current situation”.
• Out hotel in Paris was right across from the Gard du Nord train station. It was a beautiful building.
• The Eiffel Tower was another highlight:
  • We spotted a soccer game from atop the Eiffel tower.
  • We took a dorky double-self protrait featuring the tower.
  • I was able to stick my arm over the edge and take a shot down the Eiffel Tower.
  • The Eiffel Tower was apparently 6,014KM from Toronto.
  • The structure of the tower is remarkable.
  • The top of the tower is covered with radio and communications gizmos.
  • The symmetry and order of the streets of Paris is easily apparent from the tower.
  • There were French soldiers patrolling the base of the tower with automatic weapons.
  • I’m told this is called the “pussy shot” of the Eiffel tower. I get it!
  • A tourist-y boat tour on the Seine included a beautiful sunset and returned to the lit-up Eiffel Tower.
  • The Eiffel Tower is covered with strobe lights that turn on for ten minutes each hour after dusk. It was one of the cooler things I have ever seen. Even when it’s not sparkling, the tower at night is amazing.
• There’s a beautiful church near Notre Dame called Saint Chappelle that my sister pointed us to. The interior features an enormous room of stained glass that is breathtaking when it catches the sun. Exterior is almost as impressive.
• I didn’t realize you could actually go up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It’s a long walk up a lot of spiral stairs, but worth if for the view. You can see the Eiffel Tower and down into the office towers of the business district which seem to live away from the city center. The Arc also features some remarkable carvings and statues.
• We saw a bus driver asleep at the wheel of his parked tour bus. Amusing.
• There was a Windows error message on a screen at one of the train stations.
• The Sacre Coeur church was impressive. As with St. Pauls in London, you could walk up to the dome for a close-up view of the goat-gargoyles (I called them “gremlins”) and the stone-work and the rest of the city.
• Though I found the pyramid at the Louvre strangly compelling, our visit there was overshadowed by throngs of tourists (yes, like us). Popular pieces like the Venus de Milo the Mona Lisa were surrounded by mobs of tourists taking bad photographs (yeah, I took one too).
  • I found the architecture of the Louvre itself as impressive as the works of art it contained. The ceilings were ornate and the statues impressive. There was also a cool exhibit on the apartments of Napoleon.
  • There was a fountain outside the Louvre where you could rent a tiny sailboat. Very cool.
• We visited the Chateau de Versailles just outside Paris. While the castle was interesting, the gardens were far more impressive. There were perfectly manicured hedges, and beautiful fountain-statues. However, I was most impressed with the sheer scale of the gardens. The weather was perfect too.
• We had a chocolate and ice cream dessert at a Paris cafe that was so good it nearly killed us. The same cafe apparently has its bread delivered by a dude with a cart.
• For one night in London, we had a room with smallest bathroom ever. It was almost a combination toilet-shower (with a sink in the middle). I felt like you could pee anywhere (but I didn’t).
• The greatest revelation of the entire trip was that in Britain, orange juice with pulp is labelled “with juicy bits” and pulp-free is called “no bits”. This delighted me to no end.
• While I’m not one to be concerned with the life of a princess, the Princess Diana Memorial was surprisingly serene and peaceful. The sounds of the water over the different shapes of the monument took you right out of the city. It was well designed.
• The only people at Speakers Corner were other dorky tourists like us, wondering where all the “speakers” were. What’s up with that?
• Before an early-morning flight back to Canada from Gatwick, we stayed at an Ibis-chain hotel. The in-room hotel menu had a warning from the previous guests. They were right.
• We found some great signs including one that warned of no dogs in the park. What if they’re on a… No, NOT EVEN ON A LEASH! A sign in Hyde Park asked people to make sure their dogs didn’t “worry the wildlife”. The ducks must be under a lot of stress.

The trip was great and we saw all kinds of wonderful sights. We were all touristed out by the end of it though - our next vacation will involve a lot more sitting and a way fewer lineups.