Europe Day 7-8: 19 Hours in Paris

Saturday July 20, 2019
The one place my daughter wanted to visit while she was in Europe was Paris. The only day she had completely free from any classes was Sunday July 21st.

Saturday morning I had a wonderful breakfast in the Executive Lounge. I ended up getting smoked salmon with cream cheese on whole-grain bread, fresh fruit, and pastries as well as coffee. There was Champaign available for Mimosas too but I didn't see it until I was ready to leave. There was essentially a whole brunch buffet set up in there. I decided having Diamond status was definitely worth it!

We got a late check-out so we didn't have to leave the room until 1pm. We made a stop at the grocery store next door for some premade sandwiches and drinks then went to pick G up from her Hostel. She was supposed to get out of class at 1:30pm but her class went a bit over so it was 2:30pm by the time we got on the road.

It took us five and a half hours to drive to Paris, including a 30 minute rest stop for gas and more snacks. Once we got into the city proper the route to our hotel took us past the Arc de Triomphe. Navigation was a team effort. The voice directions told my husband to "turn right on the 7th street" once we entered the "roundabout." I think my husband's brain fell out at that point. The Arc de Triomphe is more like an ARENA than a roundabout. There are 12 streets that dump out into a huge circle with no lane markers and a tourist attraction in the middle. It was anarchy. I counted streets while he drove and my daughter took photos.

No one died.

Our hotel, the Hotel de la Paix Tour Eiffel, was a half mile from the Eiffel Tower. We had to park our car in a parking lot and walk down several narrow streets to get to it.

We found some nice treats in our room

The room was the size of a shoebox with a pull out couch on the other side

Seen on our way to dinner...

After dinner G and I decided to see the Eiffel Tower at night.

We then debated on whether to see the sunrise over the Eiffel Tower in the morning. Sunrise was at 6:08am. It was now after midnight. We decided it might be a once in a lifetime opportunity, plus we could sleep on our ride back to Amsterdam, so G set her alarm for 5:30am and went to bed.

Sunday July 21, 2019

We made it to the Eiffel Tower for sunrise.

Dawn at the Eiffel Tower

Sunrise

Compared to the crowds the night before, it was really nice to be nearly alone at the Tower. Unfortunately there was trash everywhere. It was like everyone had had a party on the lawn the night before and no one had cleaned up. The grass was littered with empty bottles.

We got some nice photos anyway and the temperature was perfect for walking around. We got back to the hotel at 7am and went back to bed.

The alarm went off at 8:30am for breakfast and this time it was harder to get up. We had breakfast and checked out, put all our luggage back in our car, then went to further explore the city.

We took a bus to the 4th Arrondissement and walked over a bridge to the Ile Saint-Louis. We could see Notre Dame in the distance with scaffolding in place for repairs.

G wanted to get ice cream from Berthillon Glacier. We had just walked into an empty store then made our way back up to the front to look at the ice cream when suddenly we found 20 people lined up behind us. It was a bit startling. We quickly made our choices and got out of the way. Turns out a tour bus had just unloaded all its passengers just around the corner.

We spent a bit more time looking around the shops then had lunch at Cafe Louis Philippe.

Trying to choose a restaurant for lunch

Café Louis Philippe

Can't leave Paris without trying escargot!

We stopped at a bakery after lunch to pick up some macarons. It was time to head back to Amsterdam after that. We had to return our rental car at the airport before the rental car booth closed at 10pm. We got G back to her Hostel around 8pm but it was 9:30pm by the time we got the car returned. We ate at the airport after that.

Our hotel for the night was the Hampton Inn Schiphol Airport. I booked it because it had a free airport shuttle and it was, well, supposed to be by the airport. I knew we would be getting back pretty late on Sunday night and we had an early flight out to Dublin in the morning.

So... the free shuttle runs every 40 minutes. The next shuttle wasn't due until 10:40pm. My husband got a cab. Then... it took 20 minutes to get to the hotel. Turns out all the "airport" hotels are 15-20 minutes away. The only hotels that are actually at the airport are the Hilton and the Sheraton. Once we got to the Hampton we also found out that the first shuttle in the morning didn't leave until 5:40 am. That would be cutting it a bit close as we had an international flight that left at 7:40am. I started regretting not booking the Hilton. The Hilton had been twice as many points and I didn't want to waste points on a hotel we were staying in for 6 hours but still... it would have been convenient.

I was exhausted and a bit of a wreck by now. My husband went to print out our boarding passes for the morning. I took a shower and went to bed.