Our first stop was Mannheim Germany. Not to far from the Frankfurt Airpot, but was an easy location for us to decide where we wanted to go from there. During our time in Mannheim mom and I walked around and looked at the city, figured out the plans, and scouted a place for dinner. All the while dad was trying to get some sleep, and that is also why we stayed in Mannheim the first night was to allow them rest since they had traveled the entire day before.
After we left Mannheim we headed over to Paris, France. So our journey started at 9:30am on Sunday as we embarked on a very unplanned vacation. Upon arriving in Paris, by train, we tried to figure out where our hotel was. Believe it or not none of us had ever been to Paris, and there were no free maps to be found. So instead of wasting time trying to Google map our way and walk and further waste time; ohh wait we did do that. So after a few minutes passed we finally, by we I mean dad, decided to hail a cab. He took us to our hotel, where we couldn't check in until 3pm, dropped off our luggage and head for the cites. Now the easiest way to get around Pairs is the metro system, and that is exactly what we did for the next couple of days. Our first stop was Notre Dame. Holy Cow!! This church was enormous!! The shear size and and detail work on this historic place was just unbelievable and is definitely a must see when in Paris. After losing mom countless times in Notre Dame we decided it was time to make her more visible; therefore, she bought a hat with the say "Paris" on it. As if we didn't look like tourists before we sure did now!!
After touring Notre Dame we decided that it was time have a snack before we saw anymore. We stopped over at a small cafe right next to the church and had Crepes!! These are the sugariest pancake things you could ever imagine, especially if you get carmel and whip cream on them. After we could all barely move from the overdose of sugar, we headed off to the see the Arch of Triumph. The Arc is probably a very central point in the city, and was built to honor the Triumphs of Napolean. While standing at the base of this enormous landmark, off in the distance was the Eiffel Tower.
After the Arch we headed towards the tower. Now before getting to this Eiffel Tower I knew that it was a large structure, but little did I know just HOW LARGE it really is. This tower is just huge!! Words really don't describe it until you are standing at the bottom of it and looking up at. As we walked around for a bit we contemplated the idea of having dinner at the top, but decided we would just go up and have a look around. We then hopped in line and waited for around an hour to go up, and then spent about an hour or so having a look around Paris from one of the highest points in the city! The really cool part about going to the top of the tower was being up there at night. At night you could see all the main sites lit up and you could really see just how big of a city Paris really is!
As we end dinner and head back to the hotel, we were wondering if leaving our luggage in the front lobby of the hotel was actually a good idea. Luckily all the bags were accounted for upon our return to the hotel, if that is what you would call it. The first problem was our room was on the fifth floor and the elevator was barely big enough for the bags let alone three people. When getting to the room I opened the door and first noticed the camo wallpaper, flower curtains and plaid bed spread and the fact there was just a full bed for three people, not good. Luckily the hotel/hostel had an extra room that the odd third wheel could sleep in; that was me if you didn't catch that.
Upon awaking for day two in Paris I was room less and we had no plans for the rest of the trip and it was only Monday morning. Once we all got ready to go for the day we decided to figure out our plans for Tuesday, or at least figure out where were going to sleep. So after having mom run up pack everything up, checking out once with no refund, and then about to leave and googleing hotels near by, the hostess suggested switching us to a three person room. Wow that would have been really nice to know before we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off.
On to site seeing. Our first stop on Monday was the Louvre. Now when I got the Louvre I had heard that it is big and that there is no way you could even see half of the place in a day, but much like I was with the Eiffel Tower, this was the biggest museum I have ever seen!! Once I thought I found the end of it, and was wrong because it just kept going even further!!! After getting over the size of the building we had lunch and started in looking for just a few of the main attractions. We stopped and saw the Mona Lisa, Venius statue, and few other really large and famous painted, sculpted things. After we saw a tiny part of the Louvre we then set off to see some other places.
The first place we went after the Louvre was some really big church over looking the city and then after we went up and down the giant hill we stopped for a drink at a local place we thought would have wireless, but it was broken. The next thing we did was head towards the infamous Moulin Rouge. Then later that night we went and saw the show at Moulin Rouge. After the show we made our way back to the hotel, and then next we would be headed for Italy!!
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