I want to go to There

When my mom got home from work today she started talking about making plans for a vacation in mid to late December, after my sister and I are finished with school for the semester. London was mentioned.

Oh, how I miss London. It's the one city in Europe I've been to twice (unless you count the Paris airport, which I do not). I absolutely love it: the culture, the language, standing in queues, seeing the sites...I really miss that city.

Something about me changes when I'm over there. I adopt a slurred British accent, I attempt to walk as the Londoners do, my gestures and my expressions change to fit the culture of where I am. Traveling abroad is something so amazing.

I've already begun to think of places where I want to go--the British Museum being the main place and Westminster Abbey (note its presence in the background of the picture on here). I've been to the British Museum twice, but each time I somehow always get lost in the Greek and Roman sections and never can make it out before it's been hours and I've seen only two to three areas of the massive complex. As for Westminster Abbey, you can never get enough of seeing the tombs of some of England's most famous monarchs and other influential people. Of course I'm open to going to other places as well.

My parents also discussed taking an excursion out to Windsor, Salisbury, and Bath. I've been to Salisbury (Stonehenge is there) but the other two have eluded me on my past visits, so I'm looking forward to just hoping about going there.

Another possible side trip would be to take the Eurostar (2.5 hours one way) over to Paris and spend a day there. My sister has never been to France and I'd love to get a chance to build up more of my emerging French skills.

So right now I'm pricing out different ways of getting to Paris from London. Eurostar seems to be the quickest and most efficient mode of transportation, but the scenic route from London to Dover to Calais to Boulogne to Etaples to Amiens and then Paris would offer a lot more variant sight seeing. It's just the 7 hour one-way journey and £175 cost for round-trip tickets that bothers me.

I think I'm sticking with the bullet train option for the time being.