Day 16 - British Library, Platform 9 3/4, Eurostar, Paris, Eiffel Tower (Due to technical difficulties, pictures will be uploaded later.)

OH MY GOD! I'M IN PARIS!

Back in London toay, we visited the British Library, which is the national library of the UK. Its vast collection is so large, it is second only to the Library of Congress. The BL holds over 150 million items, including over 25 million books, and historical items dating back to 300 BC. We saw an original Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible. The GB dates back to the mid 15th century and represents the beginning of the printed book.

All this history, yet the most remarkable thing was visiting Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station. Sound familiar? It's the famous platform that Harry Potter used to get to Hogwarts. By the way, some people from our group got to see J.K. Rowling last week, as well as stars from the film. They were here promoting their new movie coming out this week.




We then hopped aboard the Eurostar for a quick trip to Paris (2 1/2 hours). We went under the English Channel, but because there are various tunnels throughout the trip, it was difficult to tell exactly which was taking us under the water. Here is a picture of the train station and then us on the streets of Paris heading toward our hotel, which is just a block from the Metro.

Once we got to the hotel, we quickly got settled and headed to the Eiffel Tower. Our first site was as we rounded a corner and we could see the top of the tower. It looked enormous. The closer we got made us realze just how large it really is. We scurried to get in line to go to the top, but it was temporarily closed. We did go to the second landing, however, and got some beautiful shots of the city.


Well I must say, my first impressions of Paris are mixed. The Eiffel Tower is amazing, as well as the views of the city. However, since we've gotten here we've seen three arrests (a couple really close up!) and the people are not as reserved and mannerly as those in London. I realize I've only been here for a few hours, so I'm holding out hope that this was just "one of those nights" and I will become just as enamoured with this city as I was with London. Oh, did I mention the guards with machine guns?