Han, in London

Last week I went to Paris on the Eurostar, having booked myself a short trip just for the heck of it and because it is just so easy.

I stayed at the Hotel Paris Louis Blanc, right on top of the Louis Blanc metro station, and about ten minutes' walk from Gare du Nord.

www.hotel-paris-louis-blanc.com/uk/index.php

I chose it because it was central and vv cheap and I have to say, it was lovely (also has free wifi). Would definitely recommend. The room was small but as it was just me I didn't really care. I was on the fifth floor (woo!) and this was the view from my window:







I got the 7.01 train from St Pancras, because I am an idiot who didn't take into account that I would have to get to St Pancras for 6.15. However this did mean I was in Paris by 10.30, and after stopping at a supermarket to get chocolate I walked straight off to the Parc de la Villette to see La Géode and have a wander.

( Many many pictures )

More pictures in the next post (coming later as I have to add more stuff to my shop now)!

The Atomium is a massive structure...thing out near the end of one the metro lines in Brussels. It was originally built for the World Fair in 1958 (also known as Expo 58, which is a far cooler name). It's 102 metres high, and the shape represents an iron crystal multiplied 165 billion times (!!).

It was originally only supposed to last for the duration of the Expo but it proved to be so popular that it stayed open  to the public afterwards. It was closed for a big renovation in 2004, which included replacing the original aluminium spheres with stainless steel. It reopened in 2006 and now gets about half a million visitors a year, iirc (not nearly enough imo, more people should go). 

There are nine spheres in the Atomium, of which five are open to the public (although one of those is the Children's Sphere which is only for school groups). We didn't go right up to the top sphere (despite the temptation of a panorama) because the queue was massive and we'd already been in a queue for a stupid amount of time (that's the problem with tall buildings just made for climbing). 

View from outside, anyway:



( outside views )
Inside the Atomium:

( inside the atomium )
There was a viewing platform in one of the spheres so you can get a higher view without going up o the panorama.

( looking out from one of the spheres )

We went to the Dartington Crystal factory last week (http://www.dartington.co.uk/) as Crishna makes glass things and likes glass and generally feels about glass the way I do about card making supplies (/beads/yarn/oh God I have too many hobbies). Also, they have a glass blowing experience thing and we wanted to blow glass. 

The visitor centre has some interesting displays, and places to do glass painting and jewellery making (we didn't do either of those, and I'm still not 100% sure what the jewellery making thing was but unless it involved making actual beads I'm pretty sure I can do it at home), and you can walk through the factory to see Dartington products being made, so this was our major point of interest besides the glass blowing.

The blowers make between 4 and 11 types of glassware per day, and it's pretty involved and tough (not to mention hot) work. 

( Factory pictures )

( Glass Blowing )