Europe - Day 2

So on our second day we woke up in London, ate breakfast and made our way to the train station to take the Eurostar through the Chunnel to Paris.

We had to get the typical London phone booth shots.

This is the building opposite our hotel in the neighborhood of Montmartre. We loved staying here - it was pretty quiet and you got a little taste of local life without all the tourism.

So when we were walking up to the hotel I turned turned to Erik and said, "My big fear is that they've lost our reservation." I don't know why I thought that. But indeed, it was true. So instead of having a nice big room with a balcony, our first night we stayed in this 1-person room. The owner felt really bad and gave Erik a mattress to sleep on - on the floor. Ah, the romance of Paris.

The following are pictures from our wanderings around Montmartre:

The big draw to Montmartre is the Sacre Couer basilica, which is a sight in it's own right, but also provides a great view of the city. It was here that we caught our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower:

People-watching is a favorite pasttime of the French, so all these people were gathered at the basilica to watch street entertainers, and no doubt to laugh at tourists.

On Day 2 we also went to see the Tower up close. We didn't go up in it - I had done that before and we decided to save our money and stay warm on the ground.

Okay, so I realize there are a lot of pictures of the Eiffel Tower, but just be thankful that I left out at least 30 or so others we took.

That night we went on a river cruise on the Seine to see the sights. I imagined it would be this romantic time for us to cruise through Paris, but it was freezing and there were lots of people and everything the guide said was repeated in 6 languages. Nonetheless it was fun to see Paris from the river.

For 5 minutes at the top of every hour at night the Tower lights up w/ beautiful white sparkling lights. It's truly breathtaking.

The Rose Window at the Notre Dame (from the cruise boat).