PARIS day 1+2
The day started off pretty well, we woke up and packed up, leaving our stuff with the front desk, and biked to the small cafe, ’t Smalle, on a canal near the Anne Frank house. They had seating right on the water, and there were these very strange looking ducks which had babies with red tufts of hair around their heads. Anyways, had a wonderful ‘klein ontbijt’ or small breakfast, which included a croissant, orange juice, a coffee, some bread crackers, jam and hagelslag of course. And then to really finish up our time in Nederland, we ordered a serving of poffertjes. God poffertjes, probably one of my favorite dutch treats, and paired with melted butter and powdered sugar, that is heaven for a sweet tooth like me. I mean they just melted right in my mouth. The perfect send off meal if you ask me, I mean anyone who goes anywhere in the Netherlands cannot leave until they order poffertjes, its like going to Belgium and not ordering a waffle.
After our small breakfast we returned the bikes and made our way to the train station, where we would board a train in the Amsterdam Centrum. We found last minute tickets, lucky for us, with the company Thalys. However my mom had the misfortune of losing her phone before we boarded. Even in a country that is practically all based on the honor system, you always have to watch your pockets.
Train station in Amsterdam
So the train was a good 3 1/2 hrs long, getting us to Paris around 6:40 pm. Leaving a city I loved was difficult, but stepping off the train and immediately being hit with an interesting smell was, well discouraging. Okay to be honest my first impression wasn't that great, it does get better I promise. But then it was the walking, and the stairs and also the distance away from the center. I mean we ended up figuring it all out, but it took a day or two. So we were staying in an apartment near the Sacre Cur. Lucky for us it was the place of a friend of my moms, and we didn't have to sneak in an extra person. As it happens though, I'm not sure the french believe in elevators, so stairs to the second floor is what we took. The first day we got in a bit late, so we get settled in and went outside to explore a little. Our exploration took us down the block to a pizza place, believe it or not. It was late though and we just needed to get some food so we could get to bed. We had big plans for the next day. So thats what we did, ate and went to bed.
The next morning we were planning on getting up early to start our day, but no one set their alarm, which meant early was getting up at 11. Which I was fine with, because as we learned later on, the French take some sort of nap around 5 and then have dinner at 9, so we were not missing much. My sisters and I decided that we would walk to the Eiffel tower, not a small undertaking for where we were located, about 4.5 miles away, down slopes and up again. We were supposed to get there around 1:30 but we ended up gazing upon the huge structure at around 4 instead. Though we did make some pit stops along the way. One was the Arch de Triumph, but we didn't make the mad dash to get to the center of it. There were some police near us and she didn't want to get arrested for Jay walking, not going to lie though, they were carrying some hefty guns, a little deterring, so we took pictures in the middle of traffic (the crosswalk) instead.
Then we continued our trek to the tower, after about the second hour of walking, we passed a shop with macaroons in the window, so sascha suggested we go inside and have some. Walking up to the door there was a doorman who had to unlock the door for us, a little puzzling for a macroon store. But after seeing the price tags on the items, $1500 on a chocolate cake for example, we realized that this wasn't a macaroon store. In the words of Sascha, “We just wanted some macaroons”. But it was too late the sales people already figured out that we were not interested in buying a two thousand dollar plate, and began laughing. We said sorry and left, feeling a little naive for not observing a little bit more. As soon as we left Sascha and I started laughing so hard that we were crying, but I am not sure if it was because of what had just happened of the heat exhaustion. I am guessing both. We continued walking after our little hiccup and finally caught a glimpse of the top of the tower, even though it was still far away we were getting closer.
Crossing the bridge to get to the side of the river where the Eiffel was, we passed the memorial of Princess Diana, a flame resting above the spot where she had her fateful accident. After a moment we kept walking getting closer to our endpoint. We stopped by a small market to pick up some picnic items, some crackers, chocolate, olives, goat cheese, and grapes. Finding a spot on the grass in front of the monument, we sat down and set up our spread, but not before taking a moment to take in the grand image before us. I mean seeing the tower in person is a whole other experience than in pictures, it really takes your breath away. We were there for a while, taking pictures and just resting. Then the parents called and it was time to head back for dinner. There was no way we were walking back though, so using my knowledge of subways, from being at school in Brooklyn, NY, we found our way back to the apartment.
My mom told us that her friend had recommended some cute little restaurants right down the street form the place, even though down the street meant down a huge hill, but down wasn't the hard part. Anyways we ordered a nice cheese platter and some goat cheese salad. The salad ended up being one of my favorite dishes.
But after all the walking we did, it was definitely time for an early night. So after dinner we headed back up to the room. Ready to take on the next day, after a good nights rest of course.
