After that, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower. Now I make it sound easy, all of this walking, but it wasn't. It was pretty much half of the city, and took about and hour and a half to get to the Eiffel Tower. When we got there, we decided to go up.
This is the Eiffel Tower from the ground:
This is from the middle (second floor):
And this is from the top (you can see the point in the upper left of the picture):
This is the view from the top:
Probably the worst part of going up the tower was the elevator ride. The elevators were glass, so you could see everything as you ascended. And it was painstakingly slow. Rick and I got a little queasy, but once we were at the top and on solid structure again, we were good. The view was amazing.After descending again, we wandered the direction of Notre Dame (though we eventually got sick of walking and jumped on the metro). We got Kebab (meat shavings, french fries, ketchup, and lettuce in a pita) for lunch and chilled in front of Notre Dame.
After eating we went in. It was fun. I mean, after awhile all the Churches start to look the same, but I guess that's just because I'm not as interested in the inside of them.
There were several gypsies in the courtyard of Notre Dame. Now I'm not talking about the culture. I'm talking about the ladies that walk up and ask, "Speak English?" and if you say yes they thrust a piece of paper into your hand asking for money. It's annoying, especially because they are fully capable of getting a real job. At one point, Rick gave one of them an Eiffel Tower keychain. She initially refused, but he insisted so she took it with a smile. The second he turned his back she glared at him. A minute later she came over and tried to get it back. He wouldn't take it. She tried again, and he still wouldn't take it. So she glared at him and tossed it over her shoulder behind her and stormed off. It was hysterical.
Anyway, we wandered some more, stopping at Haagen Das for Ice cream (I got cookies and cream. So happy...). We then rushed back to the hotel, because we were late to meet the other half for dinner. When we got back there was no sign of them, so we thought they had come and gone. So we showered then went back out.
We weren't very hungry for dinner, but we wanted to eat at a nice place, so we found a sort of nice place and sat down. It wasn't super nice but it was a restaurant. Well, we just ordered appetizers, and apparently that wasn't enough money for them, so we left.
We then went to the boat tour area and waited for the other group. Again, they didn't show. So we got on the last boat tour of the night (10:30) and travelled up and down the Seine. It was beautiful.
At the top of every hour after dark, the Eiffel tower lights up in a sparkling show for ten minutes. It was beautiful to watch, especially because we were on the boat when it happened. It was a magical evening.
The sparkling tower:
The lit up tower:
So after a stop at the Moulin Rouge to see it at night, we went back to the hotel to bed.
The next day was basically just spent wandering around buying souvenirs. We went to the Moulin Rouge area first because they are cheapest there, then we went back to the Notre Dame area for lunch and just to chill until it was time to return home.
No comments:
Post a Comment