Paris, Finally

It was a lovely autumn day, a trifle cooler than we were used to of late, but refreshing none the less. The birds were singing, the lake was sparkling and the buildings were all very quaint. Who would have thought that disaster was just around the corner?

But wait, I get ahead of myself.

It all started on our last day in Rome...

It was a stinking hot autumn day. The birds were mangy pidgeons, the river was putrid and the buildings were all in ruins.

We finished all our sightseeing by 2pm and that left us with nothing to do and nowhere to do it for 6 hours until our train left. We loitered around the hotel (which we had already checked out of) for as long as we could and took as long as possible to eat dinner at a pizzeria.

Finally, we boarded the overnight train (only moderately uncomfortable) and headed for Switzerland. From there we were going to Paris on another overnight train.

But wait, I get ahead of myself.

Back to the birds, the lake and the quaint buildings.

We arrived in Zurich at about 8:30am. It was very relaxing after Rome. Cars drove sedately. On the road. Pedestrians walked sedately. On the footpath. And when they met at pedestrian crossings, cars actually stopped. Amazing! We took lots of photos.

We snagged a map from the tourist office and set off on a self guided walking tour of the city. After Rome it was all very beautiful. There were lots of old buildings (most of them still standing), clock towers, bridges, spires-- and all very green. Amazing! We took lots of photos.

Yes, there were clock towers.

Yes, there were spires.

Yes, there were pocket knives.

But...

Where were all the touristy shops?

In the end we did find some with a limited range and high prices.

As our day in Zurich drew to a close we were relaxing by the river and the world came tumbling down! Okay, perhaps a slight exaggeration. But it was bad.

There we were, casually perusing our rail route to Paris when we noticed that Stuttgardt (where we were schedualed to change trains) was quite some distance inside the German border.
Gasp!

Normally, this wouldn't be a problem-- we don't have anything against Germany, as such-- but when your increasingly incompetent travel agent doesn't include Germany on your Eurail Pass... then it's a problem.

Two hours, two helpful Swiss rail officials and one (competent) travel agent later and we were heading back to Italy!

Apparently we had several options.

1. Go direct to Paris, arriving at 10pm and sharing a park bench with a homeless guy.

2. Take overnight trains through France, switching several times and waiting up to 5 hours for connecting services.

or

3. Back track to Milan, wait 30 mins and switch to an overnight train direct to Paris.

Not surprisingly, we took option 3 and found ourselves in a sleeper cabin (extremely uncomfortable) with 1 female English backpacker and 2 men of dubious nationality, moral standards and personal hygine. Their snoring combined almost harmoniously with the sound of the train hurtling through the French countryside.

And so it was that we arrived, finally, in Paris.

We ascended the Eiffel Tower. We...

But wait, I get ahead of myself...

After walking for an hour to our hotel (one of us complaining the whole way) we checked our bags into the luggage room and headed for Notre Dame. We both agreed that it was much better than St Peter's but were incredibly disappointed by the distinct lack of hunchbacks.

We browsed the 42 touristy shops outside (note to the authorities in Zurich) and bought an embarrassing amount of cheesy, overpriced souviniors.

Back at the hotel we were in bed by 7pm. (No, we were sleeping-- we were very tired.)

Day 2 saw us taking in the Lourve. There were many paintings and statues. (The French government seems to have bought all the best Roman ones.) And, come on, the Mona Lisa is just a painting. After that we strolled along the Champs Elysees and had a hot chocolate near the Arc de Triomphe.

Day 3. We lined up to get tickets for the Eiffel Tower. And lined up to get to the elevator.

Day 4. We got to the second floor...

No, actually we did get all the way to the top after queuing for the second elevator as well. Then we queued to get to the rail to have a look. Then we queued to get back to the second floor and to get back to the ground. It was worse than the colesseum. The view from the top was pretty good though.

We wrote some postcards at the bottom, ate crepes and made our way back along the river to the train station.

Then, to England.

But wait, I get ahead of myself.

We don't leave for England until tomorrow morning. So, if you made it all the way through this post come back and find out about the UK.

PS, please excuse any spelling mistakes in this post-- somebody went and rearranged all the letters on this keyboard. Some strange Frenchman, I bet.