Paris Day 2

Our second day wasn't much different than the first.  We picked up bikes and headed out to see more sites.  This time we headed towards Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe.  Once we got to the area we had in mind we ditched the bikes and continued to walk.   We eventually grew tired of walking and decided to find some lunch.  After walking in circles we ended up at a small deli type place where we could at least see the items so we'd know what we were getting ourselves into.

After lunch we decided to make our way out of the city to see a cemetery that my dad had asked us to stop by.  He's a huge history buff and wanted us to see a World War I American Cemetery.  I had actually found one right outside of Paris so we jumped on a train and headed out to Sureness. 

It was neat to see Paris from a different angle, being so far away, and we just happened to be on a higher elevation so we could just see it all laid out before us.  The cemetery was very somber, and we even found a few markers for soldiers from Louisiana, but we are glad we went.  Being there really made us think about how lucky we are to be living the way we do.  It also made me angry that human beings can be so evil, but that's a whole other subject.

Once we were back in Paris we were ready to finally see the Eiffel tower.  We had waited until later in the day because we wanted to also see it at night.  All I have to say is that I am not one to be overly amazed by structures, but being in front of the Eiffel tower was worth the trip.  It's just as magical as one would expect it to be.  We spent a lot of time taking picture after picture....a picture from this angle, a picture with both of us, a picture with the flash on, etc,etc.  After a while of that the hunger grew upon us again and we went looking for dinner.

Like usual we circled block after block trying to decide on somewhere to eat, when we realized we just weren't going to find the "perfect" place and we just decided on a restaurant called Cafe Le Dome.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you look at it, we didn't actually end up eating here.  This is where we ran into our first...and I think only...rude Parisian.  It started out with us deciding to sit inside because of the massive amount of Europeans that smoke. 

We deliberately picked a table that was away from the windows and both sat on the booth side of the table because of the extreme lack of people inside the restaurant.  This is when a waiter approached us and asked us if we were eating or just getting drinks.  When we said eating he told us that we could only take one table, meaning that we couldn't both sit on the booth side.  As Jeremy was getting up to move the waiter grab our menus and put them on another table and rudely told us to sit there and walked off.  He had moved us right next to the patio, which is completely open so basically we were sitting on the patio, in the smoke.  We were both pissed and I said let's get out of here.  We left and moved along to a much nicer waiter at a different restaurant. 

 The sun was finally going down once we left the restaurant so we headed back to the Eiffel Tower.  At first it was still a little light out and it wasn't really lit up, but after we waited a little while the lights finally came on and I thought "wow this can't get any better".  I figured we were now going to head back to the hotel, but Jeremy suggested we go sit in the grass.  I'm glad that he did because we were eventually treated to a light show that just topped our night off.

It eventually started to rain and we still stayed out for a while under the umbrella, but after it seemed like it wasn't going to stop we made our way underneath the tower to keep dry.  Luckily the rain didn't last much longer and we hopped on our bikes and rode to the hotel.  Goodnight Paris....we're going home.

 The following morning we jumped on the subway to the main train station where we got aboard the Euro Star.  This train brought us through the Chunnel to London.  From London we got on another train back to Edinburgh.  We stayed one more night in Edinburgh and then flew home in the morning.  And that pretty much brings us to where we are now.  The End!

Paris Day 1

While we were out getting breakfast we noticed bikes that were stationed along side the road.  We actually noticed quite a few of these stations and decided to check it out.  As you can imagine...neither one of use wanted anything to do with this so called "walking" thing.  It ended up being this really cool service where you could grab a bike, ride to another station, check out the sites, and then pick up a new bike.  And it was really cheap!  It ended up only costing us 3 euros each for both days. 

This actually ended up being my favorite part about Paris.  Riding through the streets like we had not a care in the world and no where to be.  It was amazing.  When Jeremy and I had originally talked about going to Paris we decided that we would just go and see things and not actually spend a lot of time at each site since we had a short stay. 

The first stop we made was at the Louvre...and no we didn't go inside, because that would of taken pretty much the entire day, but we did go and were able to experience the magic, from the outside.  Next we went across the River and made our way to Notre Dame.  That was also beautiful, as you can imagine, and it was even more beautiful on the day we went because they just happen to be doing a film and had everyone possible blowing bubbles up into the air.  Amazing...just amazing.

Once we left there we headed to Saint Michel.  We desperately tried to find ice cream and after about 20 minutes we finally did.  You know how it is...when you want something it's never around.

After inhaling that we continued to ride around seeing the sites and eventually headed back to our hotel to figure out dinner...we were starving. 

I know this is horrible...considering we were in Paris, but after over 35 days away from home we just wanted some good food!  We ended up a Breakfast in America.  We started with nachos, Jeremy had a hamburger, I had french toast, and we both drank A&W root beer.  The most expensive root beer we've every drank at that.  But it just really hit the spot.  After being thoroughly stuffed we headed back to the hotel and had a good night of sleep.

On our way to Paris

So as you can probably imagine I took A LOT of pictures in Paris, the majority of them were of the Eiffel Tower, but they were taken.  Therefore, not to overwhelm this one blog with tons of photos, I decided to make 3 different blogs. 

Now where did we leave off....oh yeah, boarding our train in Munich.  Ok so like I said we hoped on our train as planned.  Since we already had an idea of what was going to happen and it was late, we didn't waste much time before we went to sleep.  I started out this time on the bottom bunk with Jeremy, but eventually moved up to the top.  It was just too uncomfortable to be crammed with another person on a one person bed.  I awoke the next morning around 6:30am and decided to take a shower.  Hahahah that was entertaining.  For one thing there was zero water pressure and being able to shampoo your hair while moving on a train is an art that one must master before attempting.  After getting out as much conditioner as possible I got out and prepared myself for a day in Paris!  

Looking out the back of the train

We pulled up to the train station around 9:30am and walked to the metro to catch our subway train to the hotel.  Actually finding the hotel once we got to the stop was another story.  As you know the stations are under ground, so when you emerge from below you have no idea where you are or any kind of sense of direction.  It also didn't help that we were at an intersection where like 6 different streets intersected.  We walked in a complete circle before we finally figured out where we were and where we had to be.  

We went in and left our bags then headed out for breakfast.  We came back at noon and were finally able to check into our room.  Our room was small, but it was nicely decorated and made it feel fancier than it really was.   Overall I'm happy with our stay there and I can't complain.  After a brief break and plan we headed back out on the town....

Austria Day 3

The next morning brought along another day at the hotel breakfast buffet. I had originally planned for us to go on another hike, but instead we decided to just head into Innsbruck and hang out in the city until our train that night.

We dropped our luggage off at the train station lockers and then explored the area. Innsbruck was nice, but not nearly as nice as Patsch. Around 5:30pm we headed back to the train station to catch our 6:30pm train. We got to Munich around 8:30pm, ate some dinner, relaxed, and boarded our 10:30pm train to Paris. This train ride was a little better than the one before since I kind of had an idea of what to expect, but didn’t get a whole lot more sleep.

 

 

Paris here we come!

Austria Day 2

Day #2 … oh day #2… started out pretty good, but this is how it ended up going down:

This was the plan. We were going to hike the Zirbenweg trail. This required walking back the 2.3 miles to Igls and taking a gondola up the mountain. Once there we would walk 7km (4.3 miles) to another lift that would take us down the mountain to the village Tulfes where a bus would be waiting to take us back to Igls. Sounds easy right?

Well when we arrived at the gondola to buy our tickets we asked the woman selling our tickets what time the last bus left Tulfes and was given a sheet with the times and was told 5:30pm. It was 12pm and the hike was only supposed to take 2.5 hours so we figured we had plenty of time.

The ride up was beautiful and once we arrived at the top it was still beautiful. The mountain was even covered in snow! We later found out that it had snowed the day before so it was fresh. Even though there was snow everywhere … and we were 2,035 meters (6,670 feet) above sea level … and I was in shorts … it actually wasn’t very cold. We ended up hiking along about an hour when we reached a hut and had some lunch. We would later find out it was a lunch that lasted a little too long.

While we were taking a break a nice Swedish couple insisted that we take their map of the area … this would end up being very crucial later. We hiked a couple hours more, thoroughly tired and ready to head back, when we finally reached the lift down. Wooo hooo we made it … 4:35pm and plenty of time to catch the bus. Unfortunately, 4:35pm is five minutes past the 4:30pm deadline to catch the last lift down, the nice gondola lady failed to mention this.

The chairlift lady was actually on the lift and waved and said “We’re closed!”. I then proceeded to have a melt down, because you see in our questions to the gondola lady, one of them was how long it would take to hike the trail down the mountain instead of the lift. Answer: 3 hours. Tulfes is at 923 meters above sea level. That’s a decent of over 3,000 feet! Let’s see. Currently 4:35pm, plus 3 hours, equals 7:35pm..last bus back: 5:30pm. At 7:35pm we would only be in Tulfes, still 13km (8 miles) from our hotel in Patsch.

Well all we could do was go down. We hiked…and hiked some more…and when our legs felt like goo…we continued to hike. Fortunately there were some trails that connected the small villages so we were able to stick to those for most of the way. We got to a village called Sistrans around 9pm and decided to get some dinner. We asked the locals and were lucky to find an open restaurant. We left there around 9:30pm and continued our walk along the road. Most of the rest of the walk was in complete darkness.

Quite creepy to walk in pitch black in the middle of nowhere…even between cornfields…you tend to remember clips from movies (and not the happy parts). We finally reached our hotel at 11pm with aching feet, legs, and blisters on our feet. We left our hotel that morning at 11am and had walked the 2.3 miles to Igls and then continued to walk until 11pm that night. We had officially walked more than we could imagine and were done with hiking. After a bath we hit the sack and slept a much needed night of sleep.

Running down the ski slopes to save some time

Well we took almost 400 pictures so we hope you enjoyed the ones we posted and sorry we had to post so many, but hey...at least it's not all of them :)