About two weeks ago I set out on a continental European vacation with three friends from ISU (Megan, Megan and Abbie). The itinerary was quite simple, approximately two days in each of the following cities: London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Leeds. I met up with the girls in London on the 24th of June and headed out the next morning for Paris. Paris was quite simply beautiful, but first let me rant about the trouble we had getting there...
We awoke at 4:00 a.m. to catch our flight from London to Paris. Things went quite smoothly as we caught the bus from the hotel to the train station, and from the station to the airport. Again our arrival into Paris was met with only minor problems up until our arrival at Gare du Nore, a train station in the city of Paris. Our plans were to catch a cab from the station to our hotel only a couple miles away. Exiting the train station we were lucky enough to see the Olympic torch run by. Seeing the torch was quite nice, but the traffic it caused was not so nice. The traffic prevented us from catching a cab and forced us to take the metro. After figuring out how to navigate the metro, we finally arrived at our hotel only to find that there was a problem with our room, and we were put in a different hotel. Two times a cab was called to take us to the other hotel, and both cab drivers refused to take us to the hotel. Only after a ten minute argument with the receptionist did the second driver finally agree to take us to the other hotel. So the four of us with 6 suitcases crammed in the tiny cab and finally made it to the hotel. Total time for the whole trip from London to Paris hotels: 12 hours.
Both Paris and Amsterdam were great! We had an exceptional time touring the cities and seeing the sites. Particularly memorable sites were the top of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, The Louvre, Champs-Elysees, the Ann Frank House, The Bulldog and the Heineken brewery.
Pictures from the trip are here (I hope to get more soon!)
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