I have promised to post here a report of my short romantic trip to London and Paris. Here it is. Those who thought I was crazy do not have to read further. I also apologize for my grammar. <BR>Note: We have been in both cities before so we didn't go to museums but instead mostly walked and absorbed atmosphere. This is definitely not a trip for first-timers at either city.<BR><BR>I have decided to make the trip a surprize to my wife. She knew that we would go somewhere but had no idea where. As she later said she thought that I would take her either to Adirondack (forrest) or to Motreal/Quebec. So I just put her in a car and started driving towards airport. Possible destinations were narrowed as we went through each fork in the road. It was fun watching her trying to guess. Finally we arrived to the airport, parked the car at long term parking and took a shuttle to terminal. Only when we approached Virgin Atlantic counter she realised that we were going to London. She was happily surprised. When I told her that we would also go to Paris she looked completely happy. But... my best laid plans nearly came to a grind. The flight was overbooked and they closed the flight four people behind us. It was 1:45 before flight!!! While all tickets say to come 2 hours in advance I have never seen any airline actually close its flight so early. I usually come to airport 1 hour in advance for international and 30-40 min for domestic. I guess, I will have to change that habit now. Anyway, they didn't have any economy class seats so they gave us "Premium Economy" - their name for a business class.

continued<BR><BR> After reading this forum I tried Ambien (sleeping pill) for the first time. 5 mg tablet worked perfectly. Next thing I remembered was landing. We arrived to London at ~10:30 am, 5:30 EST time, so we didn't have any jetlag. There were no lines at passport control and about 11 am we already had our luggage. Now we needed to get to Waterloo station to drop it to "Left Luggage" office. I took an advice of this forum and took Express train. It was a big mistake. Transfer from Paddington to tube is very long and time consuming and then there are 10 station before Waterloo. It took us almost and hour and a half instead of 50 min directly by tube. I wouldn't advice anyone to take the express unless they need to go somewhere near Paddington. We dropped our luggage at about 12:30. <BR>Then we went walking. First we went to London Eye since it was very close. The line looked long but actually passed in 25 min. I think it was well worth the time. After London Eye we went across Waterloo Bridge towards Trafalgar Square, then through St.James Park to Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey/Parlament. That took nearly 5-5.5 hours. Along the way we had lunch at a very cozy restaurant "Sherlock Holmes". Then we walked back to the station and took 8:20 train to Paris.<BR>No problems with the train. Very nice, clean, easy to sleep on. Very restful. <BR>We arrived in Paris at 11:30 pm, took a cab to our hotel. I reserved Louvre Forum hotel based on Fodors recommendations. The hotel was great. Next to Louvre, very clean, quite big rooms, even though reviews sadi that rooms were small (I guess they compared them to US hotels). Just $79/night. We still had some energy left so we dropped bags and went for a walk along Seine.<BR>For the next two days we just walked and walked and walked. We went only to one museum - Rodin, since it is my favorite. We went up to Eifel Tower, up on Notre Dame, etiher than that we just walked from Louvre to the Arc, to Monmartre to Sacre Coeur church, from Invalides to Eifel tower, small street in Latin Quater, etc., etc. In evenings we went to Latin Quater for dinner. There is a place there with a lot of small streets with one restaurant after another. It is near Rue Mouffetard. One restaurant "Jardins Artemis" was espessially good. I strongly recommend it.<BR><BR>On Sunday we took 8:07 train back to London, and spent half day at the Tower. About 3:30 we took a tube to the airport for our 6:30 flight.<BR><BR>I have to say that the trip was great. The only bad thing was having to go to work on Monday.<BR>

Dear Vadim,<BR>I was one of the first persons to say that I thought you were crazy - but I retract it. You clearly knew what you were doing, and what to expect, and if you ever want a new girlfriend, keep me in mind.<BR>I'm very happy for you that things went so well!

Janice, if you believe one word of this you are more gullible that Vadim's wife. My first clue was when he said touchdown was at 10:30 and they had his luggage and cleared immigration by 11:00. With the taxi time, unloading the jumbo, the long walk from the VS gates, a 10 to 30 minute wait at the baggage carosel and even a few minutes at immigration makes that claim IMPOSSIBLE.<BR><BR>And why would they walk to waterloo bridge from the Eye since Westminster Bridge is right there?<BR><BR>And anyone who calls the tourist infected Sherlock Holmes "cozy" has never been there.

no mention of how the wife felt after it all?

if people believe all this they are really gullible. He's a troll having fun with people on this board. He's having the last laugh at all your expense because so many people took him seriously. He never left whatever place he lives in.

At first I thought Vadim was trying to do a good thing for his wife. But the more of his posts I read the more I think he is a troll. Nothing he has ever written is anything that could not be posted after getting information from basic London and Paris threads. I think Troll Alert is correct - he never left home.

so what was the weather like?

Also, the train ride from London to Paris is 3 hours. With the 1 hour time difference, his trip only took 2 hours.

1. Actually I didn't mean "touchdown by 10:30". I meant that we left the plane at 10:30. No wait at baggage carousel.<BR><BR>2. "Sherlock Holmes" restaurant is far from Baker Street. There is a pub on first floor and restaurant on second. It is near Trafalgar Square. Only a few tables were occupied and it was very nice and cozy.<BR><BR>3. I might have confused bridge name. <BR><BR>4. My wife loved it. The only complain I have heard from her was that she did not want to leave.<BR><BR>5. The weather in London and Paris was around 16C. It was drizzling in Paris on Friday and morning Saturday but not too unfomfortable.<BR><BR>6. To those hard cases that think that I have nothing better to do than making up and typing all this, photos will be available online in a week or so. Of course, I could have spent hours creating them myself, right?<BR>

Heidi, you are correct. The train left at 19:20, not 8:20. It is the last train.

I envy you your trip. ish I were going on the same type of trip this weekend. Alot of jealous wanna be travelers read this website.

I'm not sure if he's a troll or not. But, I can say that if Jardins Artemis is his idea of an "espessially [sic] good" Parisian restaurant, then I don't think I'll look to him for advice about the best of Paris. Its food is average at best.

I ask once again, who really gives a shit if he is real or not? leave the poor man alone. <BR><BR>if you really think this sort of trip is impossible, then obviously you have never traveled, yourself. (you should get out and live a little)

TTT

Vadim - no one ever said the Sherlock Holmes is anywhere near Baker street. It is in Northumberland ave just down from Trafalgar Sq. and IS overrun by tourists. Not cozy, not 'quaint', bad food and fake Holmes memoribilia. Come clean old boy, you are a clever troll, but a troll nonetheless.

Vadim, when did you go on this trip? Has it been recently?

Vadim, I was another of those who was surprised at your trip plans - it's really not something I would recommend to anybody!<BR><BR>Still, you seem to have enjoyed it and so did your wife - and that's the main thing really. Come back soon and spend more time here!

I'm still trying to figure out what day of the week you caught the Virgin Atlantic plane, Vadim. Was the trip from Thursday night to Sunday night (aka Monday a.m.)? No, maybe Wednesday night?

Why do you all think this person made up this story? Who on earth would take the time to do so?