Summer in the Cities

Today is our last day in London before heading to Southampton to catch the Queen Mary 2. Those nice days in Paris, Brussels and London have thought us our first travel lesson; city trips in August are great. Due to the holiday season there is less traffic, fewer people and some not-in-use offices, like the Buckingham Palace, are open to public. Sure it is hot, but after freezing in Paris in December I clearly prefer hot sunny city days. Yes, many locals are out of town and some of the trendy places, like art galleries are closed, but facing the brutal truth, we never met many locals during our city trips and we were never hip and cool enough to join a fancy arty party. Therefore, more August city trips will follow.

Accidentally I booked us in a hotel at Rue Trousseau which turned out to be quite nice. During my gap year I lived for 6 months in this street and worked in the cheapest youth hotel of Paris. So Rue Trousseau and its surrounding was my “hood”. It was really cool to rediscover the different streets, markets and shops and at the same time notice the changes of the past 10 years. It used to be more of a craftsmen quarter with little shops and now most of these shops were taken over by chains. Also the hotel, which was closed by the fire police at that time, where I used to live, is still there. I had a great time in Paris although, as Michi pointed out, I lived like a homeless (running water in the room or the whole building is so overrated).

To discover some new things we went on a “Trendy Marais Tour” operated by Discover Walk. They offer tours for “free”, meaning that they do not have a fixed price but you give the guide a tip at the end of the tour. It was a great tour where Alma, our tour guide, presented us the space invaders; An anonymous artist or a group of artists invading the world by posting little pixel aliens on walls – maybe they have already invaded also your hometown?

Being in Brussels made us aware that we actually do not know anything about Belgium history and after those 2 days we have to admit that we do know much more than before. They have nice big old buildings, old trams and tons of chocolate shops (if the people of P. do think about new boxes for His, go to Brussels they really know how to make nice packages and to present them in a real nice way).

Our highlight was definitely the Atomium. It is a little bit outside but it is worth to make the trip.

Olympia is still all over London. The Olympics have just ended and now London is preparing for the upcoming Paralympics. Everywhere there are flags, posters, half of the ads are somehow related to Olympia and barriers are still or already blocking streets.

Bond – James Bond; Great exhibition about the last 50 years of 007. If it stops in our city do not miss it.

Next to the Tate Modern the Shakespeare Globe, a round theater - remember “Shakespeare in love”? – was rebuilt. We went to see “Henry V” and although we understand between 50 and 80% is was great. The whole setting is as in the 16^th century; people standing before the stage, no special effects or even loudspeakers, great actors and fantastic costumes.