Category: Miscellaneous

The Eiffel Tower

June 7, 2015

Ever since I was a little man I wanted to visit this. Today that dream came true.

We arrived just at opening but even then had to wait about an hour before we could start the ascent. And this was in the shortest line, since we’d opted for the stairs.

Security was very tight, including bag checks, metal detectors, a visible police presence and numerous warning signs for pickpockets. That said the morale of the (very large) crowds was high, and the overall experience was a good one.

The tower had three viewing levels, the lower two accessible via stairs and the summit only accessible (to the public) by a lift. There are 670 stairs from the ground to the second level (about 40% of the height of the tower) and we climbed them all. The above photo was taken from this level looking northwest. See the shadow of the tower?

It wasn’t enough to go only halfway up though – we of course bought a second ticket and rode the lift to the very top! The lift is mostly glass, and the views as you ascend (like the above photo) are magnificent. Here are some photos from the summit of the tower, 300 m above the ground:

If you look carefully at the second of these photos, you may be able to work out where I stood to take the one at the start of this post.

We were very impressed with the tower. It certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the world’s foremost tourist attractions 🙂

Afterwards we headed to The Catacombs, but the line was extremely long and very slow-moving so we decided to walk to a nearby park. Much like the rest of the city, it was full of ancient statues (and tourists!). This lion – just one of dozens in the park – was cast in 1870:

We returned to the Notre Dame area to shop at the riverside vendors that seem to line the streets for miles.

Selling mostly books and art prints, this is a fascinating place to shop and one that certainly made me wish I had a bigger suitcase. I’m sure KLS would have gone crazy buying prints here!

Needless to say I made a few purchases myself, including of the postcard variety. Watch your mail boxes dear readers, a little piece of Paris may arrive one day soon 🙂

Paris

June 6, 2015

Yesterday I caught this train from London to Paris:

The trip was comfortable and seemed quick. The channel tunnel was only about 20 minutes in length, so we were clearly going at a good speed. Once in France I was treated to views like this for the remaining 90 minutes to Paris:

I took the subway to the hotel where I was met by Sue! Although the rooms are tiny, the hotel is quite good and very well located.

It was about 4pm and very warm out (35C) but we almost immediately set out for a walk along the river to Notre Dame. This was perhaps not the wisest of plans:

That’s Riley checking to see if Sue had been overcome by the heat! It was hot hot hot and quite unpleasant, but we’re all Australian so that doesn’t bother us does it? At any rate I forgot the heat once this came into view:

Magnificent isn’t it? I left the girls in the shade (since they’d been here already) and joined the line to enter.

There was a service being held to bless the sacrament. This made the interior even more spectacular, seeing it while the priest sang his rites (in French) and the people responded. The sheer size of the cathedral was breathtaking:

After Notre Dame we went shopping to get Riley some shoes and we stumbled upon the biggest grocery store I’ve ever seen. The produce section alone was about as big as my local and we boggled at not only the variety but also the (low!) prices. Those lucky French!!

So after one day my impressions? Paris is busy, hot, green, beautiful and has the worst traffic I’ve ever seen.

Oh and I can’t understand anything the locals are saying 😉

London

June 5, 2015

Yesterday’s train to London was extremely comfortable:

And as of the cabin wasn’t good enough, my first class ticket also meant free food. I was in hog heaven when I was handed a bacon sandwich:

It was a lovely trip through endless countryside that mostly looked like this:

Many times the rail line traveled alongside s canal and I saw many narrowboats chugging along.

I also saw legions of cows and sheep and even managed a quick shot of a flock of camels fleeing from a falling star:

After arriving in the city and checking into my (barebones but clean) hotel I headed out to explore.

The subway here is expensive if you’re only here a day. Since I wasn’t going to buy an Oyster card, I had to pay for individual tickets, which was about $8 per trip. The trains are also old, a bit too hot and don’t run as frequently as other metros.

I got off at Leicester Square, a short walk from Trafalgar. The weather was beautiful and the crowds large as I walked to The Mall toward Westminster Abbey.

It seemed to get hotter as the day got older, and later on I’d notice that I actually got a little sunburned. The crowds at the Abbey were massive, and I quickly discovered they had stopped selling tickets for the day! I headed toward the river…

Amazingly, I bought more postcards here and there. I’ve sent about ten so far this trip, but have about 20 more in my bag 🙂

Last time in London we didn’t ride The Eye due to colossal lines. I very much wanted to remedy this yesterday but once I got there the lines were just as bad. I wasn’t going to wait hours so continued on my way…

I saw more in my wanderings: Oxford St, Soho, Picadilly Circus and many shops but I was getting very tired and eventually shuffled back for an early bedtime. Considering I only had half a day, I think I did a pretty good whirlwind tour of London!

Today – very soon actually – I’m hopping on the train to Paris! An underwater train!? This should be an experience…

Robot Claw