Date: 07/10/2013
City: Paris, France
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 62620
Street: N/A
Weather: Cloudy, warm
We made it to Paris!
Getting from Berlin to Paris is not that hard, but when you are in Adelaide, Paris is a long way away!
So when we planned our trip we were hoping that we would have some money left to make it to Paris, and now we did!
We had breakfast and hopped into the subway to get to the Hotel de Ville where the cities administration has been located since mid 1300.
From here we walked to the Notre Dame Cathedral, passing over the Seine.
We took some pictures of the Cathedral before we entered.
In the Cathedral we took a self-guided tour.
During our tour we were looking for the staircase to the roof, but we couldn’t find it so we left after a while and had a nice lunch close by.
After lunch we hopped onto the subway and got to the Arc de Triumphe.
We walked to the top, the staircase was fun. And Sigrid looked a bit exhausted at the end. …
The view from the top was great.
At some stage the sun and the clouds provided a nice spectacle, we were just hoping that it wouldn’t start to rain.
We walked down the Champs du Elise when we passed a BMW shop with a nice car in. As it turned out, the mirrors were not working…. so we decided not to buy it J
From here we walked to the Eifel tower and arrived there just before sunset. We took a couple of pictures before we joined the long queue for the elevator.
It took us two hours before we got to the top, but the view was worth it.
On our way down, we use the elevator to get to the first platform and from there we walked.
What a day! We had a look back as we walked to the nearest train station to go home.
Date: 08/10/2013
City: Paris, France
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 62620
Street: N/A
Weather: Cloudy, warm
Today we started a bit later. The plan was to hop on a train and have look at the Sacre Coeur. When we got into the train, there was some announcement which we didn’t understand. We were sitting in the standing train for another 10 minutes when the second announcement came. Sigrid guessed that there might be a problem on this line and there would be a delay. This guess was supported by people leaving the standing train all of the sudden.
We walked a couple of minutes to the underground train line and hopped on the train there. Here the trains were going as normal, so we arrived at Sacre Coeur a short time later.
We walked up the stairs and had a look inside.
When we left the church we realised that there were people at the top, so we started to search for the staircase. It turned out that at the side there was an entry which allowed you to climb up to the top via a narrow staircase. On the top we had to follow a couple of narrow paths to get to the tower.
The view from here was great.
We also had a look at the crypt and here we found a sculpture with a guy holding his head, not sure why.
Not far from the cathedral was a Dali exhibition, so we had a look at this as well.
It took us a while, so when we left it was dark. The right time to have a look at the Moulin Rouge we thought…:-)
Date: 09/10/2013
City: Paris, France
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 62620
Street: N/A
Weather: Cloudy, rainy, warm
The weather forecast for today was rain, so we earmarked today for visiting the Louvre. On our way there we pased a bridge where the sides were completely covered with locks! It’s what couples do; they put a lock there with their names on it! Don’t know how much more metal this bridge can take ..;-)
Not far from the bridge was the Louvre entrance.
First we had a look at the beautiful lady in the Louvre, no, not the girl in front, the one at the wall J, the Mona Lisa, which was secured behind some saftey glass which made it difficult to get a good picture.
From here we had a look at different paintings; some of them were just great, like the faces out of trees or fruits.
We made our way to the basement, where the medial evil castle predating the Louvre could be seen. It started as a fortress and the remaining part have been excavated and can now be visited in the Louvre’s basement.
From here we went back and had a look at the Greek section, to take a picture of the Venus de Milo.
Next we visited the Egytian section, where we found the large sphinx, which weight more then nine tonnes.
For me the most impressive exhibit in this section was a granite coffin, the intricate work was amazing!
Walking throught the section made us aware that the Egyptians and the Inkas shared some fundamental beliefs. For example: The sun would set in the evening and fight against the evil throughout the night, sunrise the next morning meant that she’d won. Amzing, two cultures so far apart, and both are building pyramids! Anyway, from here we made our way to the Babilonia exhibition where the Code of Hammurabi could be seen inscribed in a stone. The code represents an early law book of the Babilonia from around 1700 B.C.
By this time our legs started to get tired, so it was time to get home. On our way out I saw the elevator in the Louvre, it was a huge hydraulic stamp in the middle of the staircase. On the pictures below it’s just moving up. I know, I’m easy to entertain J
That’s it, that was our visit to Paris. We could have spend much more time here, I’m sure it was not the last time. Tomorrow we will travel back to Germany, Wiesbaden, to visit Doris.
