Friday, April 20, 2007
Where to begin... at this time, A and I are in Prague. We're near the end of our 'last hurrah' trip pre-baby's arrival which is flying by so quickly. My head is full of weird languages, my tummy is full of yummy food, and my heart is soaring with delight at it all.
Our flight via British Airways from home was quite good and efficient. We had a stopover and plane change in Heathrow, London for a mere hour. Forty minutes from when we departed Heathrow, we landed at Charles deGaulle in Paris. Unfortunately, our luggage did not. It's one of those rare occasions in which I packed a lot - likely because of my preference for comfort lately. Also, I find that options of clothing while pregnant makes for a much happier day since feeling pretty is a must with all the other crazy stuff going on in my head.
Sans luggage, we cabbed it to our Hotel, a little nugget in the 4th arrondissement (district), Le Marais, called the Hotel du 7e Art. We were prepared for a wee room in a prime location and that is certainly what we got. It was clean, quiet and the staff were very friendly and helpful.
It was 7:30 PM and we settled into our room, which took all of 30 seconds without our luggage, and decided we wanted to experience the Eiffel Tower on our first night. In our typical travel style, we want to get out jet-lagged and rot-gutted, to explore our new surroundings. We began to tromp it and realized that we were a ways off from getting to the tower before dusk. We opted for the Metro and in 2 trains with one transfer in 20+ minutes, we walked up the stairs to the street at Champs de Mars and saw the familiar, giant tower in front of us. We walked to the park surrounding it and found a bench to rest. It was about 9 PM by this time and nearly dusk. The yellow glow of it was just as I had imagined it. Then, came the light show - at exactly 9 PM - and WOW!.. we're really in Paris! The innumerable white lights glittered for 10 minutes. After that, the strobe on the top of the tower turned on and for the rest of the trip, we knew where the tower was in proximity to us.
We hopped back on the Metro, dog-tired and starved and found a patio table in our area by 10:30 PM. We were very quiet, waiting for the food, when conscienceness hit us we laughed at our jet-lag and keener adventure tour. We ate and dawdled back to our room to find not a bag to meet us. It didn't really matter though, because we're in Paris and it sizzles!
Our flight via British Airways from home was quite good and efficient. We had a stopover and plane change in Heathrow, London for a mere hour. Forty minutes from when we departed Heathrow, we landed at Charles deGaulle in Paris. Unfortunately, our luggage did not. It's one of those rare occasions in which I packed a lot - likely because of my preference for comfort lately. Also, I find that options of clothing while pregnant makes for a much happier day since feeling pretty is a must with all the other crazy stuff going on in my head.
Sans luggage, we cabbed it to our Hotel, a little nugget in the 4th arrondissement (district), Le Marais, called the Hotel du 7e Art. We were prepared for a wee room in a prime location and that is certainly what we got. It was clean, quiet and the staff were very friendly and helpful.
It was 7:30 PM and we settled into our room, which took all of 30 seconds without our luggage, and decided we wanted to experience the Eiffel Tower on our first night. In our typical travel style, we want to get out jet-lagged and rot-gutted, to explore our new surroundings. We began to tromp it and realized that we were a ways off from getting to the tower before dusk. We opted for the Metro and in 2 trains with one transfer in 20+ minutes, we walked up the stairs to the street at Champs de Mars and saw the familiar, giant tower in front of us. We walked to the park surrounding it and found a bench to rest. It was about 9 PM by this time and nearly dusk. The yellow glow of it was just as I had imagined it. Then, came the light show - at exactly 9 PM - and WOW!.. we're really in Paris! The innumerable white lights glittered for 10 minutes. After that, the strobe on the top of the tower turned on and for the rest of the trip, we knew where the tower was in proximity to us.
We hopped back on the Metro, dog-tired and starved and found a patio table in our area by 10:30 PM. We were very quiet, waiting for the food, when conscienceness hit us we laughed at our jet-lag and keener adventure tour. We ate and dawdled back to our room to find not a bag to meet us. It didn't really matter though, because we're in Paris and it sizzles!
# posted by tfoxfan @ 7:13 AM 
