European
Experiences
10 Year Wedding Anniversary Trip
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10 Year Anniversary
Trip to Holland and Paris
 The trip started in Amsterdam, a city
famous for its canals. We flew non-stop from Seattle to Schipol. We
took a commuter train from the airport to Centraal Station. Our hotel,
the Golden Tulip Baribizon Palace is only a 1 minute walk from the
station. Our mode of transport around Amsterdam was the trams. The
trams cover nearly all the major tourist center of the city.
Despite that we both got
pretty serious colds and sore
throats here, we still had a great time. We went through the Anne
Frank Huis, the Amsterdam History Museum and the Maritime museum. We
took a daytime 1 hour canal boat cruise as well as a 3 hour dinner
boat tour. We ate at one of the Brown Cafe's as well as the Hard Rock
Cafe and a Argentinean Steak house.
Our favorite meals (we ate
there twice) was at the Pancake Factory. The pancake are large and
very thin. We had the strawberries ice cream and whipped cream, or
peaches ice cream and whipped cream. You could also get meats on your
pancake, but the sweet tooth prevailed!
 We
also took a train trip to Utrecht to go to the Railway Museum there.
Later in the day we went to Rotterdam to ride the Metro to the
EuroMast (space needle like thing). It took 3 elevator rides to get to
the top. The top one was a rotating platform. It was kind of goofy,
they made it seem like you were on a rocket blasting off into space,
complete with the rumbling of the platform.
We lucked out that it only
rained the last day in Amsterdam, but it really rained! Mark spent the
day riding the metro and trams.
Leaving Amsterdam we took the
Thalys High Speed train to Paris. We arrived at 12 noon. Gare De Nord
Station is under major re-construction so we could not find the
tourist center. We decided to just walk into a local hotel for a room
and dropped off our bags. The room was very small, but the price was
about $80 and the service was great.
 We
used the metro system to get around. Our first stop was a cafe for
lunch. We tried to go to the Transport museum, but it was closed :(.
We rode over to the Arc de Triomphe. It was free today to walk to the
top. There were a lot of steps to climb,
making us pretty winded. But it was worth it.! We had a great view of
the Champs-Elysees, and the Eiffel Tower.
After walking down the
Champs-Elysees, we went over to the Eiffel tower went 2 elevator rides
to the top. It was relatively crowded so it took a while. When  at
the top we heard a concert down below, and what did we hear but the
Village People hit YMCA,  how
strange!
We ate at a small cafe at the
tower. Cyn had a chocolate filled crepe (Pancake). She really like the
pancakes on this trip! That was the end of the first night!
The next morning we went over
to the Ile de la Cite. This island in the middle of the Seine River
was the original Paris town site when the Celts settled it about 2000
years ago. Our first stop was Sainte Chapelle, and old chapel now part
of the Paris court house and old prison complex. It was built in 1248
to house King Louis IX collection of artifacts. Its 16 huge stained
glass windows represent different books of the bible from Genesis to
the Apocalypse. We then saw the oldest Bridge in Paris called the New
Bridge, dating to 1607.
 Our
walk ended up at Notre Dame. It's facade was undergoing a restoration
at the time. It is a beautiful cathedral dating 1163 finished in 1330. The plaza in
front of the church was considered mile zero and all distances
from Paris started here. Originally shops and homes filled this area
until they were cleared out in the 1800's when Paris was re-laid
out.
We completed our souvenir
shopping here and went over to the Hard Rock Cafe to get our
collectible items there. Hunger prevailed and TGI Friday's fit the
bill. We had about 90 minutes before we had to get back to the
train station, so Mark wanted to try out the new Metro Line 14. It is
an automated line with huge picture windows in the front so you watch
the train's progress down the tunnel. It has beautiful open stations
and gives a smooth (rubber tires) ride.
It was time to get to our
train. We boarded our first class car on time and waited for its
departure. The time passed. Apparently somebody had taken
"ill" on the train so it was being held. About 1 hour later
they made everybody get off the train and move to another train across
the platform. Later we found out that the ill person had a heart
attack and had died. Not very pleasant. The train trip itself went
well, but there was no catering because of the hasty train change.
We got off the train 3.5 hrs
later at Schipol airport and stayed at a airport hotel. Our flight was
at 10:30 am and we wanted to do gift shopping (chocolate) at duty
free. We flew business class back (10 hours), without any issues.
All in all it was a great
trip, one that we will remember for the rest of our lives!
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Kavanagh
