Day 3--Amsterdam, Train, Paris

July 11

Jenny and I woke up early to take the train to Paris. We checked out of the hostel with our take away breakfast in hand and headed our way to the train station in Amsterdam. The take away breakfast consisted of 2 rolls-1 with Ham and another with cheese. It was very simple and had enough food to keep me full until after we arrived in Paris (4 hours later). While on the way to the train station, we saw a huge parking lot for bikes. Imagine the multi level garages for cars--they had the same thing for bikes.

On the train, we got two seats facing each other so that was perfect! We were able to chat with ease and observe the Holland/Belgium/France landscape as well as the other people on the train. At one of the few stops, two women and a baby came and sat next to us. The baby was adorable and kept on looking at me and touching me. I guess the baby was maybe 10 months old.

Jenny fell asleep and I continued to look at the landscape, then all of a sudden, i could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. I excitedly woke Jenny up as the train slowed down to go through the city. We were finally here!!!!

We got off the train, walked through the huge train station to get to the subway. We could not figure out the subway ticket options so we waited in a long line to talk to a cashier. (By the way, everything in Paris is French! Amsterdam had both English and Dutch languages). We were able to buy two one day passes although the cashier knew very little English and had broken English.

The hostel gave us directions to the hostel, but it was not exactly clear, so we walked around Paris looking for it. We finally found it, and entered. The hostel was not up to standard like the one in Amsterdam but we tried to ignore it and waited in line. After about 30 minutes of waiting (only 2 people were in front of us), we finally got to the desk and the guy could not find our reservation. Everything was writte on paper in a pencil and it was not organized so we decided to try and find another place to sleep. There was a hotel across the street so we tried it, it was full! They suggested that we try another place, but their writing was in French so we went to another hotel on the same side as the hostel, and it was too expensive. We were starving and sat down to eat, thinking we would use their wi fi to find a hotel that was available and reasonably priced. During lunch, I saw a green sign with white letters saying HOTEL across it, so after I ate, I walked over there to check it out. It was available! and at 96 euro per night ($130), I took it. The lady gave me the key, said it was on the 3rd floor (actually, 4th since they did not count the ground floor), I walked up the narrow spiral stairs in the dark to the room to make sure it was acceptable. It basically had a bed, toilet and a bathtub/shower combo with no curtain, but that would have to do! I walked back down and excitedly told Jenny about the accomodations for that night. We walked back with our backpacks, and went up to the room. We quickly changed our clothes (into cooler clothes), left our backpacks and took off for some sightseeing.

The first thing we noticed after getting out of the subway is that while Amsterdam had many bikes, Paris has many scooters and Vespas. In addition to that, they will STOP for pedestrians, even if you walk in the middle of the street. A welcome change from fearing for our lives in Amsterdam! :)

Jenny and I decided to go to the Notre Dame Cathedral first since we did not want a repeat of what happened the day before in Amsterdam with the church closing shortly before we got there. We did NOT want to miss the Notre Dame cathedral and boy, was it worth it!!!! It was HUGE and had magnificient architecture. While getting there, we had a little adventure.

Since everything is in French, we had a little hard time figuring out the metro system and where to go. We got on the train thinking that it would take us in the direction of the cathedral, but instead, it went in the opposite direction so we got off at the next stop (a very long ride) to get on the train going the opposite direction. We had to exit the station and re-enter. Our passes did not work in the turnstiles since we did not get passes to allow us travel that far so we bought 2 one way tickets. Right after we bought it, we noticed that on the other side of the turnstiles, there is a gate that remains open to enter the station!!! Wish we noticed that BEFORE we got the tickets. Later that day, we noticed on the subway map that each direction has a letter and number assigned to it. For example, the green line may split into two separate routes going north and each route has a letter and number attached to it. Ah well! A learning experience! :)

We were able to figure out how to get to the cathedral by looking at the street map and following the signs. All the streets have long names and many streets meet at one point making a circle. I even took a picture of the map so that we could refer to it if we got lost!

The Notre Dame Cathedral was HUGE and had amazing architecture. There were many people in the plaza and the line to enter the cathedral was L O N G. While Jenny stood in line, I walked over to see the prices for admission and was surprised to find out that it was FREE! The line moved rather quickly and we were in the cathedral before we knew it.

There were many people in the cathedral but it was big enough that we did not feel crowded. We took many pictures, marveled at the interior and paid our respects to family members and friends who departed us by placing a candle on the pillar. There are two towers in front of the cathedral and you can pay to enter the towers. Jenny and I were going to until we saw the line for it. Unlike the line for the cathedral, it moved slower than a snail, so we decided to forego the towers and make our way to the famed Eiffel Tower.

When I saw the base of the Eiffel Tower, I was SURPRISED at how big it is. Walking through the park and into the clearing, I dropped my jaws at the sight of the entire tower. It is HUGE beyond belief!!!! I guess I kinda assumed that it would be a little bigger than the one in Las Vegas, but the real thing felt like 100 times bigger!

There are four entrances to the tower (one in each base). One was closed, leaving us with 3 entrances. Two has elevators the entire way and you can take the stairs half the way on one base. Jenny and I decided to sneak in some extra exercise as well as save some money by taking the stairs half the way (to the second landing), and elevator the second half. We stood in line for about a hour before we finally entered.

We went up the 328 steps to the first landing. We thought we would take the elevator from here... WRONG!!! There were only 342 stairs left before we could use the elevators. With some support for each other, we made it to the second landing! 670 steps!!!! Although we were exhausted from using the stairs, it was worth it because the people who used the elevators could only see from the second landing and the top. We saw Paris in three different heights and the first landing had maps of different landmarks and a brief history of each. We were able to find different landmarks before we got to the top. It was on the first landing that I discovered how huge the Arc d'triomphe is! Again, I assumed it would be a little bigger than the one in Las Vegas, but from the first landing, I could see that it rose above most of the buildings in that area of Paris, and the buildings are high! When Jenny pointed it out, I told her that it was impossible and that she must have seen the wrong building, but indeed, she was right.

We reached the second landing and there was a long line for the elevators so we decided to see the sights while waiting in line to save some time. We finally reached the elevators and off to the top we went! At the top, I saw the aftermath of two engagement proposals! The couples were next to each other! Thankfully, we did not see any more proposals after that!

At the top, I realized that Paris is really a big city, stretching for miles beyond the hills that blocked us from seeing further!

There was another long line to go back to the second landing. (No free rides, people!). We were getting hungry so we stopped for dinner at the first landing before going back down so that the sun would set a bit and we could see Paris at night. We ate a chicken baguette and fries (with a wooden mini fork for the fries). While going down to the bottom, the light show that comes on each hour came on! We hurried so that we could at least see part of it. It was magnificient! The light show made the tower look like a diamond glistening in the sun! We were glad we caught it before it ended so that we did not have to stay another hour to catch it.

Our legs were exhausted and our feet hurt from all those steps (not only at the tower, but at the metro stops and our hotel) and walking, so we went to the Arc d'triomphe to see it then go back to the hotel. Like I said, the Arc was HUMONGOUS! It is (or was) the biggest free standing structure in the world and I believe that. When I first read that in the book, I thought "Oh no big deal" compared to the structures today but it really is, even compared to the structures today. We took several pictures, and stopped by a McDonald's for some McFlurries that Jenny has been wanting since before Amsterdam. They did not have the one that Jenny wanted (Oreo) so we got M & M McFlurries. The M & M tasted like they were peanut butter M & M (in my opinion) or peanut M & M (in Jenny's opinion).

We headed back to the hotel and retired for the night at around midnight. We had a very long and busy day with plans to wake up at 6 am the next day to catch the Louvre before our next train to London.

If you could gather anything from this post, it is "Everything is bigger in Paris!". :)

For Day 3 Pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/suzyki/Day3AmsterdamTrainParis?authkey=Gv1sRgCLnnlaWL1MynHg&feat=directlink