This morning we all got up and were pretty tired. It had been a long week for everyone. We took the train from Leiden to Den Haag. Then from there, we took a train to Brussels. The train tracks were being repaired along this line so at one point, everyone needed to get off the train and take the bus shuttle service to another train station. It added a little bit more time to our journey and a little bit more stress. But, overall it wasn’t that big of deal.
In Brussels, we split ways. Carolyn and Tam took a train to London. Their flight back to America would leave Sunday morning. Rick and I headed to Paris. We encountered a minor setback though. We had purchased Eurail Passes for the trains. After some calculating, we determined that these passes were cheaper than buying all the tickets we needed. It was our understanding that we could jump on any train at anytime. However, we learned that some of the trains required a seat reservation and an additional fee. The train we were planning to take to Paris would have cost us 26 Euros each. That seemed like a lot especially after we had purchased the Eurail passes which were not cheap.
After speaking to a couple people working at the station, we discovered a cheaper way to get to Paris. The train was a little slower and had a station change about halfway. This one only cost us 8 Euros each to make reservations. The train stopped in Lille, France. Here there are two train stations right next to each other. We had to get off the train and walk to the other station. We had plenty of time until our next train and it was not too far to walk.
Rick and I finally arrived in Paris around 6:00. We found our hostel and checked in. Our hostel was on top of a very large hill. We got settled and then headed out to find the Eiffel Tower. We walked for a really long time and seemed to get nowhere. After we had been walking for quite a ways, it suddenly started to rain quite hard. It even hailed a little bit. After that, we decided we needed to figure out the metro system. A lady working at an information desk helped us find cheap tickets since we were less than 26 years old. We rode the metro to the closest station to the Eiffel Tower.
We walked for a little ways and found the tower. It was all lit up for the evening. We started taking pictures and suddenly all the lights turned off. They came back on a few minutes later. We slowly walked through the park towards the tower and took lots and lots of pictures.
Rick and I decided that we should go to the top of the tower since we wouldn’t have a lot of time the next day. To ride the elevators to the way top, it cost 12 Euros each. It seemed a little expensive but it was worth it. If we would have walked to the second level and then rode the elevator to the top, it would have been about half price. But, I think taking the elevator was well worth it. I didn’t like the elevator ride to the second floor. It went up at an angle and was a little jerky.
When we arrived on the second floor, we needed to switch elevators. We walked around a little bit. The view was great. The city was very pretty at night with all the buildings lit up. We could see for a long ways. I probably would have been happy just going to this level. But we wanted to say we had been to the top.
We got in line to take another elevator to the top of the tower. It was a little chilly since we were in open air. The third floor or top of the Eiffel Tower is neat. The main section is enclosed and warm. It had flags of many countries in the direction they were located. It had names of major cities and how many kilometers it was away from that point. It also had a legend that explained what the buildings were that you could see from the tower. Paris is a very large city. Even from the top we couldn’t see the edges.
We climbed one flight of stairs and were at the highest point people can visit. This area was not enclosed, so it was quite chilly. Rick and I walked around the entire circle. We saw an apartment that belonged to a man named Eiffel. He would invite guests there for a great view of the city.
Rick and I spent somewhere between 1 ½ to 2 hours in the tower. I probably could have stayed a little longer if I was not as cold and as late. Later in the evenings, the tower “sparkles” once every hour. It happened twice while we were in it. Basically, there are just many lights that flash repeatedly. We were on our way down when it flashed for the second time. We were slightly disappointed since we wanted to see it. We decided that it wasn’t worth waiting another hour to see. So, we took the metro back to the hostel.
Since the hostel was on a hill, we decided to see if we could find a spot to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle. We were able to do so and it was worth it. It looked really pretty from a distance.
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