My Travels

A travel blog to record the events during my time spent around wherever (the icon indicates the current country).

[parkerstravels]

Things I learned today

France - 9286 soldiers are in the Normandy cemetery. - Frank Burger was an American soldier who killed 8 Germans and took 42 prisoner singlehandedly at one time. - Notre Dame was built in 1173 and took over 173 years to complete. - The tower on the Rouen cathedral is called the butter tower because to raise money to build it they would allow people to pay for the use of butter on lent. - The Eiffel Tower weighs 10,000 tons. - The first inhabitants were called the Parisii and originally settled on city island where Notre Dame is. - Paris has been the capital for 15 centuries. - Gustav Eiffel is the man who paid for the tower. - The tower had the first radio antenna in France. - The Eiffel Tower was originally red. - The Eiffel Tower took 2 years, 2 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days to complete. - There are 2 million people in Paris and 2 million cars. - The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889. - The obelisk in Concorde square is 4000 years old and was a gift from the Egyptians and the French gave them a clock that never worked in return. - The Russians would go to the coffee shops and say "bistro" which is fast in Russian so that they would make they're coffee quickly and the French didn't know what it meant but they knew they would get more business if they put it out on the signs of they're coffee shops and that's where bistros come from. - In Versailles there were 20 bathrooms for 4,000 people.

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Some ridiculous guns, many tanks, jeeps, hummers, and all that jazz from WWII.

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Italian exotics for rent. 89€ for 20 min.

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Versailles.

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Canelés!!!

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So many macaroons. So many.

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The Eiffel Tower!

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Locks of Love.

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Notre Dame

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A quick stop in Rouen on our way to Paris. Good panini and a nice pointy cathedral.

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Normandy. Cemetery. Omaha Beach. Pointe du Hoc.

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French food just doesn't disappoint.

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Goodbye England. It's been great. Hello France!

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Things I Learned Today

- The natural history museum has over 17 million items in there including a full size model of a blue whale. - Prince Albert is to thank for all the museums and libraries built from the money raised in the great exhibition. - Knightsbridge was named after Knights crossing the river to go to the crusades and is now a high end shopping area. - Harods started in 1834 and has been in its current location since 1854 and was the first place in Britain to have an escalator. - London is over 609 square miles. - London has a population of 8.6 million and is increasing by 20,000 per week. - 300 different languages are spoken. - First city in the world to have the Olympic Games 3 times. - There are 23,500 black taxis on the road. - The test to own and run a taxi is called the knowledge. - The first stretch of underground railway was built in 1863. - Over 8 million horses were killed in the First World War. - "The whole 9 yards" comes from the 9 yard length of ammo belt stored in the wings of the spitfire fighter jets. - Carrots are said to be good for your eyes because the pilots were told to say that when asked about their performance in shooting planes down at night. This was so nobody would know about their implementation of radar into planes. - Macaroni meant fashionable man. - The union flag is only called the Union Jack when it is on a ship. - Two types of pedestrians: the quick and the dead. - Pel Mel is a game that is a cross between golf and croquet. - People from the royal family are said to have blue blood because King George had a disease that turned the blood blue called porphyria. - The lions are a symbol of Britain's naval power and the sculptures of the lions front half were modeled off of a lion and the other half was modeled after a dog because the dead lion that was being used for modeling had rotted before the man finished. This is because the modeler was having an affair with the woman upstairs and spent more time with her than sculpting. - Covent Garden is where the monks of Westminster used to have their garden and is now a market area of the city. - The strand used to be the way from the Tower of London to Westminster for coronation. - The swastika was a Hindu symbol before it was used by the Nazis. - Britannia is Latin for painted people which is the name given to the British by the Romans in 55 AD and is where the name "Britain" comes from. - There have been 5 London bridges. - The nursery rhyme of the London bridge is from the British chasing the Vikings away from trying to destroy the bridge. - A church is only a cathedral if it has a bishop and his seat called a cathedra. - Queen Elizabeth Tower is the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world.

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Here's London day 2!

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Things I learned today

- Big Ben is the name of the bell. The tower is called Queen Elizabeth. - The London Eye was not meant to stay open and is sponsored by Coca Cola now. - Waterloo is a train station named after a battle the French lost to the English.

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Here are some snapshots of what I did today. Harods is very intriguing… There's more to come. Stay tuned!