A long nap was just what I needed
Trip Start
Jul 31, 2007
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12
26
Trip End
Sep 25, 2007
Wow, I have had the most relaxing day for a long time today. Our Contiki tour has come to an end and Britt and I have checked into our first 'solo' hotel... and it is perfect, all thanks to Britt's exceptional planning. Free interent, lovely clean rooms, nice staff, close to some wonderful food (including a fresh produce store!!!), and a short walk to the Sienne. I was very relieved once we got here. Anyways, I have just woke up from a very long nap which I VERY much needed... I think I have had a sleep debt for a while now. But, I feel rested and refreshed for a nice walk around downtown Paris tonight to see the city all lite up. So, yesterday for the last day of the tour we did some sightseeing during the day with our Contiki travel buddy Derek, and since we were gonna be here for a few more days we let him pick where he wanted to go. So, we started with the Arc de Triomphe where we climbed almost 300 stairs to the top which made for an early morning excercise, but the view was awesome. I found that you could really appreciate the size of the Eiffel Tower for the top of the Arc because you can see it in comparison to all of the other buildings. We watched all of the traffic in the traffic circle for a bit... apparently an accident happens on average every 12 minutes because it is so massive and so busy with about 12 connecting roads. Apprently no insurance company will insure a car while on this traffic circle... crazy!!! After that, we walked down Champs Elysees and did a little shopping, walked for a long time and then had some lunch. Next stop was the Louvre which was pretty awesome... we took and audio tour that Britt downloaded which was pretty cool. And, after hearing everyone say that the Mona Lisa is smaller than you would think, it was bigger than I thought it would be!! I still dont quite understand the hype about it... I'll have to read about it more. Anyways, after that we took our first Paris Metro ride to Sacre Coeur (we are now professional metro users!!). Sacre Coeur was beautiful... that was, of course, after climbing was seemed like Mt. Everest to get to it. After that it was time to make our way back to the hotel to get ready for our last night with the tour... but now before Britt and I were able to find some shoes!! Now, here is where I am going to make a long story short... just after getting all gussied up to go out for the night Britt broke her new shoe and fell down the stairs!! She is okay but is now brandishing a huge bruise on her legs. Anyways, after running a sprint over to the shoe store (it was near the hotel) to get a new pair of shoes, we left for a drink before our dinner and cabaret show. The cabaret show was fantastic with all sorts of different talents, seemed a little bit like a cirque de soliel type thing. Dinner was awesome, and then we all headed out to a nearby pub and bar for our final night all together. While at the bar, some random girl stole the googly eyes that my mom gave me!!!! Who does that?!?! I just showed them to her and she ran away with them!! And no kidding, 10 minutes later half the people in the bar where wearing googly eyes on their foreheads!!!! Mom, please send more eyes with Britt's grandparents if you can!! Anyways, now we are just relaxing and recouperating from the non-stop nature of the tour and looking forward to do another big day of site seeing tomorrow!! I miss you all!!! Take care!
