July 2009 Weddings
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
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Those who've been to London, Paris or Rome
Tips/advice/must sees! DH and I have both been to Paris, so we know what we want to see again and what we missed the first time, and we have a good idea about the other two cities, but since we are doing everything ourselves (no tour) I'm just curious at what people recommend!
And go!
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Re: Those who've been to London, Paris or Rome
London:
The London Eye -- awesome view of the entire city
Chislehurst Caves -- underground series of caves that were used as shelter during WWII..whole underground city...so cool...and you are a teacher I'd assume you'd appreciate stuff like this too! haha
The London Dungeon -- Awesome torture devices!
The Tower of London
Stonehenge is neat -- but depends how long you are there if its worth the trip for a pile of rocks
Ummm...The British Museum is great
I just love England! Shopping is great. Theatre district is fab...
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What are you looking at?
Also in London - You can't miss Harrod's :-)
Rome - Trevi Fountain at night, Vatican, Coloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Piazza Navona has neat fountians and tons of cafes, etc around it
Depending on how much time you have in Rome - Day trip to Pompeii (viator.com has great day trips up to 3 night trips)
I heard the catacombs are neat, but we didn't have time
Paris - Montmartre & sacre coeur
Even though you've already been to Paris before, I'll give some recs anyway. DH and I were there over Christmas. It was his first time there, my 2nd, so we did a mix of things.
Definitely do Sainte Chapelle on the Ile. de la Cite. It's a few blocks from Notre Dame and IMO it's far better than Notre Dame. There's an awesome restaurant on St. Germain called Le Latin St. Germain Brasserie. We had duck and mussels there and it was fabulous.
Shopping at Galeries Lafayette is fabulous. There's an outdoor observation deck on the very top floor. The views from there are amazing. The cafe up there isn't bad either.
How long will you be in Paris? You might want to get the Museum Pass, which will allow you to skip the lines at all the places it's accepted. It's not accepted at the Eiffel Tower, however.
The Seine River boat cruise is fun to do in the evening, but I wouldn't pay extra for the dinner cruise. The food is terrible.
Montmartre and around Sacre Coeur is beautiful. Sitting on the stairs at the basilica is fun and you get some awesome views of the city.
If you have time, take the train out to Versailles. It's beautiful, and was DH's favorite thing we did in Paris.
If you're looking for something classically Parisian, check out the Rue Mouffetard markets. They're near the Latin Quarter, I can't remember the metro stop, but they've got all the fresh vegetables, fruits, seafood, and meats out. It's neat to walk around that area.
Les Invalides is gorgeous from the outside, but even better from inside. Napoleon's Tomb is really neat too.
Of course, the usual Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe are must-see's. Along the Champs Elysees there are some great shops and restaurants. We ate at one called Unisex and the food was pretty good. Not far off the Champs Elysees is le Grand Palais. It's the building with the glass roof...it's beautiful! Check it out at night when it's all lit up.
That's all I can think of for now...if anything else comes to mind, I'll post it. I'd live in Paris if I could...maybe someday!!
Trafalgar square, St Peter's Cathedral, at least one art museum (the one at Trafalgar square is interesting just because it has so much art of national significance), British Museum (the history one) Picadilly circus (fun and cool English shopping), Harrod's, Westminster Abbey (DO NOT miss this one. It is 110% worth every penny and minute), Tower of London, The tower Bridge, Eye of London (I didn't get to do this and so wish I could have), walk by Buckingham Palace, and whatever you do be sure to "Mind the Gap!"
EDIT: After reading your time frame, I'd say skip Harrod's if you skip anything. It's really just a huge ultra expensive designer mall. Cool, yes, but on a schedule I'd skip it. I'd also skip St. Peter's if you have to cut something. Do Westminster instead. St. Peter's (which I just say from the outside) is cool because it was very well preserved in spite of the WW2 bombing in the city. There is some other cool story related to WW2 and St Peter's but I can't recall it at the moment.
Other than what Maria already said I would suggest hopping on one of the open top tour buses, kind of corny I know but it was totally worth it. My dad and I rode the whole loop and got a great view of the city and an idea of the layout. Our tour guide was great and we really had a great time. We also did a Jack the Ripper tour which was a lot of fun. It was a walking and bus tour then we had fish and chips at a pub and that was included.
Stonehenge-- Loved seeing it but it really is a whole day trip.
Bath-- you probably wont have time but going to Bath was amazing. The whole city is made of this one pale stone and it is beautiful
People have covered London pretty well. I really recommend the London Eye.
My only rec. in Paris is to not get lost at night in a bad area because I've never seen so many hookers in my life all in one block of another. I did love touring Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower at night.
Rome- Colosseum, Vatican City, Trevi Fountain. You can't miss out on any of the gelato and the food is to die for.
When you go to the Trevi Fountain at night, go to one of the gelato shops around the square and eat some ice cream on the steps. Expect a lot of people, there are tons of people. The legend is if you throw a coin over your right shoulder into the fountain, you'll come to Rome again... try to do the metro and walk there b/c you see sooo much random stuff when you just walk around the city.
The Vatican, St Peter's Basilica (gorgeous - you can see his tomb... kind of surreal), Sistine Chapel... the cool thing about Rome is that there are a couple of metro lines that take you to or near all the major sites... hmmm, the Spanish steps are neat, it's just a neat city to walk around in and just "take in." Take some time to just take in dinner outside and just people watch in a square somewhere... get as much gelato as you can in Italy... lol.
London... everyone covered it. My favorites were the Tower of London and Westminister Abbey. I didn't get to see Buckingham and I regret that. I agree that the open top red buses are convenient and run on a loop so you can get on and off as you like. I did that in Paris and it was awesome.
Paris... my favorite was Versailles... hands down. Louvre was awesome as was the Musee de Orsay (sp?)...