Friday, November 24, 2017

Europe Day Twelve - Amazing Day of Heights

Our day began early when we were picking up our Big Bus Tours day pass. We rode the bus over to Notre Dame to reserve a time to go up. Once we were done we left on the bus to the Arc de Triomphe.


The Arc de Triomphe was built in honour of the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic wars. Napolean never got to see the arc finished in his lifetime but when he died they marched his body underneath the arc towards his final resting place in Invalides. When we finally reached the top of the 200 stairs we got rewarded with this view of Paris.


It was amazing. You could see the Eiffel Tower on one side and the Louvre and Notre Dame on the other side. You could also see the seven lane roundabout surrounding the Arc. We climbed back down, took the bus to the Louvre and entered under the glass pyramid.




Once we got in and put our coats in a locker we made a B-line for the Mona Lisa.





We walked down the hallway and took some time to admire the paintings and famous sculptures that we saw on the way.


When we got to the Mona Lisa it was a lot smaller then we thought it would be. It was a pretty cool painting but not my favorite one. We had to work our way through the crowd to get our pictures.


After a while we had to go or we would miss our chance to go up Notre Dame. We all sprinted down the sidewalk, even Sage. When we arrived we got in line and realized that now we had to climb 365 stairs in a circular case to reach the top.


It felt like we went up forever until finally we saw the door to the outside. When we reached we were so high up. There were gargoyles everywhere.


We got to go up the bell tower and saw the huge bell at the top.


We took in the view before we had to go down and start our descent. We reached the bottom and went inside the building. It was pretty elaborate decorating and the roof stretched up forever.


After the long day we were ready to go home. We caught the bus to the Eiffel Tower and were about to go home when we saw that the line to go up was pretty short.



We got in line and within 15 minutes we were on the elevator to go up. The sight was a little foggy but when the towers lights came around we got to see the city. It was after 7 o'clock so it was pretty dark out.


We got to see the candle wax figures of Thomas Edison and Gustav Eiffel (the creator of the Eiffel Tower) in a little office at the top.


When we were ready we went back down to ground level and the Tower lights sparkled above us. We walked into the night chasing rats away as we went. As soon as we reached home we hit the hay and fell asleep.
1 full day Big Bus tour
Total miles walked: 7.3 miles
56 flights of stairs

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