My European Vacation
Elsewhere on the Continent
| Since we were only a train ride away from several European capitals, we couldn't resist changing our tour plans and slipping off to Paris. Because our hostel in Brussels would lock its doors at midnight, this gave us only a paltry six hours in the City of Lights. We figured the best way to see all of Paris was from above, so we headed to two of its tallest landmarks. First up, the Eiffel Tower. |  |
| Having seen the Eiffel Tower so many times in movies and TV, the thing that struck me the most, upon seeing it for real, was the intricacy of its metal skeleton. |  |
| Looking down from the first level. |  |
| Me over Paris. |  |
| How to see Paris all at once. |  |
| Our next stop was the Notre Dame cathedral. |  |
| The entrance or front porch. |  |
| The interior of the cathedral, before I saw the "Please no photography" signs. |  |
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| The Pieta. |  |
| The vaulted ceiling. |  |
| John and I climbed up to the upper levels of the cathedral, touring the bell towers and getting a picturesque view of our previous stop. |  |
| While on the roof John and I discussed where to eat. He was following a special diet at the time, as well as being a vegetarian, so about the only dish he could have with me was pizza. I flippantly told him it didn't matter where we ate since "it will all turn to shit anyway". I was furious with myself when I realized I'd just profaned one of the most revered places in the world. Not only that, I'd done it on the roof, where I was even closer to God. I'm still mortified by the memory. |  |
| The apostles crowning the rear spire. |  |
| On our way down, I got a nice photo of the building's flying buttresses. Because we could only share pizza, we discovered a chain of restaurants called Pizza Land which we found in many of the countries we visited. For tonight though we dined in an Italian restaurant. Afterward we needed to take a train back to Belgium. We made it back to our hostel just in time. John had enjoyed our brief jaunt, so he was already thinking of other ways to spend our last day on the Continent. |
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