Misery becomes memories...

As I sit on the night train to Venice I remember back to this morning and it seems as if it was a few days ago. Man alive…what to say about today…it was a very adventurous one. After falling back asleep we got up at 6:00 and ate at 7:00 so we could get in line to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower at 9:30 when it opened. It was one of the most MISERABLE few hours of my life with big cold wind guests and probably in the low 40’s weather wise.

We bundled up but it was down right cold (it hailed late in the day)  We thought we would never get warm again. By the time it opened to purchase tickets the line wrapped around and around and around. It was an awesome view from the top though on one side it felt like you could get blown off if they didn’t have the wire over the sides and top. After the top they take you down to the snack level to buy gifts and snacks.  The mini muffins cost 1.50 euro’s.  Yes, you are seeing it right.  A 1" muffin cost 1.50 euro's, about 2.25 US.  LOL  Obviously we didn't purchase one.

I did get a few good shots and an "illegal" one to...before I knew it was illegal to hold your camera out over the edge.  See:

 We were soooooo cold that we headed down an alley to a warm café  we hunted down to have French onion soup. Then we were back to the hotel by noon to check out and off to ‘experience’ the metro. We got on the right train headed the right direction…so far so good. We followed the directions from the man at the hotel registration booth to the tee and arrived at the ‘main’ train station. Problem was we were supposed to be at the Bercy train station. But being Easter He (Jesus) was actually watching over us. Turns out we found a man in the information booth who actually spoke ‘limited’ English (we found out most people who work at train station do NOT speak English – only French) to validate our train ticket and make sure we dated them correctly. Cost for having to change date is $50. He informed us that his station was the only station with Lockers for our luggage. So we locked up our luggage and took the metro to two little islands where Notre-dame is located. We toured the inside and also went clear to the top of it. Check out the views inside and from up top and notice the line  of people in the square, where all the people are gathered...they are waiting to get in to view the Church:

Yes, I really did wait a second time in cold, windy wet weather just to get to the top of this Church on the same day that I swore I'd never do such a dunb thing in my life again...and here I am to prove dumb can get dumber.

Then metro back to “wrong” train station to collect bags, and metro (with all our luggage in tow) back to “correct” train station. Note of importance when traveling,,,ALWAYS take a kleenex into the ladies rest room...especially in a train station...and so dumb became even dumber...  Our train was a little late, but got off on time. We are in 3 person (ladies only) rooms 4 rooms apart from each other.  Romms are small, but work fine. Train rock back and forth around corners so remember to hold on especially when walking through dining train...as Deeanna didn't and almost ended up up on the table of the 4 nice gentlemen...well, at least she picked 4 men.  Signing off.  Soon I will up date on drama of "The Night Train Incident".  Off to type it up now...another wild adventure for the Blog.