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  • Day 26

    Goodbye to Spain

    July 23, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    This morning Sam and I packed up our Airbnb apartment in the centre of Madrid and caught the train to the airport. The metro in Madrid is pretty good and it was not difficult to find our way to the airport. We boarded a small plane booked with European budget airline, Vueling. We grabbed something quick to eat at the airport and then boarded the plane. It was not long and we were in the air, on our way to Paris, glimpsing out the plane window the last views of Spain for some time to come. We have enjoyed our three weeks immensely, but who knows if we will ever have the opportunity to come back to this unique country.

    We touched down in Paris at about 1:00 pm. We went straight through without delay, as Spain and France are both parts of the European Union. The international tourist with carry-on luggage can walk straight from the plane out of the airport and onto the next adventure. So we did.

    We caught the train to the centre of Paris. The station we alighted from was Chatelet Les Halles, not far from the Seine and very close to our next Airbnb. Our host, Rachel, met us and showed us around our very spacious and rather luxurious Paris apartment. We can walk to Notre Dame and the Louvre in five minutes from here. What a great spot.

    It wasn't long when Ben and Emily came around to our apartment. They arrive in Paris one day ahead of us. They have really enjoyed their trip to England and Scotland. They are having a great time. We swapped stories for a while and then ventured out for a walk.

    We headed first to the Louvre, to see the magnificent palace of Louis IV and his predecessors. We walked past the famous pyramid of the Louvre and through the Tuileries gardens to the Place de la Concord, where Marie Antoinette and many others had their heads separated from their bodies by the guillotine during the upheavals of the French Revolution.

    We met Sam and Jo Ryan, who had been up to the Arch de Triumph, and then we walked to Eglise de Madeleine, Place Vendome where the Ritz is located, to Angelina's coffee shop and then back to the Tuileries gardens to go on a ride at the Fair that is set up in those gardens. We went on a crazy roundabout which gave us a rotating view of the skyline of Paris. Then we enjoyed some churros and citrus gelati.

    We then decided at 7:00 pm that we would go to the Eiffel Tower and buy a ticket and go to the top. We waited for a bus near the Louvre for about 25 minutes in a queue (it wasn't to be our first queue of the night). The bus finally arrived and it was chock full of commuters. We pushed our way in and squeezed a few extras in by breathing in. This bus took us to the base of the Eiffel Tower.

    We waited in the queue for a ticket for two hours. After we bought the ticket we were expecting to go straight into the lift. What we then learned is that the queue for the lift was another 45 minutes, which we dutifully waited. When we finally got to the second level it was about 10:30 pm. Then we waited in the queue for 30 minutes for the lift to take us to the top. We got to the top at about 11:00 pm.

    We spent about 15 minutes at the top, then got in the queue to descend down to level 2. We got to level 2 at about 11:40 pm. Then we got into the queue to descend to the ground, another fifteen minutes. It was just before midnight when we saw the ground again. We caught the bus back in the direction of our apartment. Then we caught a train the rest of the way. Then we grabbed some McDonalds for dinner at 12:45 am, then finally got to bed about 1:30 am.

    We were in Spain this morning. Now we have just walked around Paris and been on top of the Eiffel Tower. Eating fries from McDonalds at 1:00 am was not the most unusual part of the day. It was an amazing day. And we were able to share much of it with Ben, Emily, Sam and Jo. Very special.
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