June 23rd

This was another early morning because we wanted to get the suitcases through the metro before rush hour hit, so I went with Roger, Mike & Pam at 7:00 am down the street to the metro with the suitcases so I could help get our heavy suitcases down the stairs.  Then I headed back to the apartment while Roger, Mike & Pam got on the metro to the station were we would get on the Thalys train to Amsterdam and then he headed back to the metro station to meet me with the last bag after I checked out with the owner of the apartment at 8:00 am.  Sorry I don't have pictures of Mike & Pam sitting at the metro with the luggage and just hoping that we were coming back for them.  But I did get some at the Nord rail station while we were waiting to board the train.  The pigeon had only one toe on each of its feet.

We had a fun time playing cards on the train.  I finally won a game.

We made some new friends from the bay area.  Roger had actually taken a picture for them while we were at the Eiffel Tower.

After we arrived at the Amsterdam Central Station we had to call the houseboat owner to get a code to the key lock box so that we could get into the apartments.  Which sounds easier than done.  I highly recommend either having a cell phone or a calling card.  We could not figure out how to make a call and if it wasn't for someone helping us that was using another pay phone I don't know that we would have ever completed the call.  I had already gone and asked a couple of other people that live and work right by them for help, to no avail.

                                                                            To Pam's chagrin we decided to walk with our luggage to the houseboat.

But we were all very happy when we reached our new home for the week.

Once we got settled in we headed to the grocery store to get some food for dinner.  It was a guessing game for some of the items we purchased but it all worked out well.  What did we have for dinner our first night in Amsterdam....tacos.

Since we are further north it didn't get dark until after we went to bed at 11:00pm, which made it hard to get to sleep.

June 22nd Musee d'Orsay

I had decided last night that I would just stay at the apartment today so I thought I would make breakfast for everyone.  I was looking forward to having the morning to myself and it was wonderful.  When they left it was raining pretty hard but the day turned out to be beautiful.

Because of the strike the day before the employees let everyone in to the Musee d'Orsay in for free.  Roger, Mike & Pam said it was packed with people, which is one of the reasons the employees went on strike.

June 21st Eiffel Tower

Since we knew our way to the Eiffel Tower, after our practice run yesterday.  We left the apartment a little later but arrived there about the same time.  We all headed up to the 2nd deck which is all the Pam and Roger could handle, since both of them are afraid of heights.  Mike and I then headed to the top.  All I can say is it was amazing, even without clear skies.  We were both very excited to be up there and the views of all of Paris.  If it weren't for the fact that we wanted to share our adventures with our spouses I think we would have stayed up there until they kicked us out.  As we headed back to the 2nd deck it was kind of a let down, because the views just aren't the same.  The elevators are all glass so you can see out throughout the ride.  All I can say is put it on your bucket list if you haven't gone already.

We headed to the Musee d'Orsay but noticed that something was going on at the Foreign Visitor building so we stopped and became Paparazzi.

We then walked down to the Musee d'Orsay only to find out they were closed because the employees had gone on strike and they weren't sure when or if it would open today.
















The rest of the group wanted to wait and see if they would reopen but I didn't so I started walking around and found a couple of shops, so I had to go back to Roger and ask him for money but instead they all came with me.  After purchasing my Paris ornament (yes it is really supposed to be a pin) we kept walking around the block and then the decision was made to go ahead and walk to the Pantheon since it wasn't that much further.

So we headed down St. Germain Boulevard and then turned on Rue Tournon so that we also ran into Palace de Luxembourg, which also has some lovely grounds.  The city of Paris was getting ready to celebrate the summer solstice by having bands play all around the city and in the park here they were setting up and doing sound checks.  One of the performers sang a christian hymn in English so that was nice to hear (it just happened to be one of Pam's favorites).

After spending some time there we headed over to the Pantheon.  Were did we have lunch you might ask, well at Le'Subwee of course.

And of course we found another church to visit on our way to the metro.

Home safe again.

Mike's new friends.

June 20th Louvre

This morning we got up early and took the metro to the Eiffel Tower because we had tickets for 10:00am only to get there and find out that we really had tickets for the 21st not the 20th oops my bad.  I tried to look at the good side that at least they hadn't been for the 19th.













So off to the Louvre we went.  We are getting to know the Seine very well, this time though we walked on the other side.  At least we are burning some of those calories from all the bread we are eating.

We got to the Louvre to find a very long line to get in and that is only for the security check.  Luckily it moved along pretty quickly and we made some new friends (mother & daughter) from Chicago.  They had been in Italy before arriving in Paris the day before.  Once in the Louvre we had to get in another line to purchase tickets.  Then we headed to see the Mona Lisa with most of the other people.  You can not begin to imagine unless you've been to the Louvre how big this place is and how many people come here everyday.

Roger & Pam talked about how our children go on field trips to the zoo, missions & maybe even the underground gardens but the French children go to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower etc., of course there is more French history to learn than American history.

We decided to take the Metro to just below where we had taken it yesterday because in that area there were a lot more eateries.  I think the real reason is because we saw some yummy desserts there.  Wouldn't you know it we came out of the metro right where we saw those desserts yesterday, which is also where we bought our baguette.  We ate next door to it in a sandwich shop.  We got a delicious dessert with our meal it was a chocolate banana torte.  The meal also came with some espresso which Pam and Roger drank.

Since we didn't have to walk as much today (or maybe it was the espresso) we had enough energy to finish our game of Up and Down the River, which made Mike happy, even though the Hitchcock's seem to be beating the Mullins.

I kind of feel bad for Mike but not bad enough to stop, because every night and pretty much every morning the rest of us are on either an I-pod touch or the computer and he is kind of left out.  I had told him that we have spent all day with him it is now time to reconnect with other people.

June 19th

Pam prepares for the day by stretching.  We have been walking many miles everyday and the legs get a little sore.

We headed to Notre Dame via a scenic route.  It is funny that we passed some of the same buildings that we had passed a couple of days prior but it was like seeing them for the first time.  We made some new friends though along our walk that had also met up with the ring droppers, so we took advantage of the opportunity for a group picture.







We also had to wait while a huge group of bicyclists rode by before we could cross the road.  There were people riding all sorts of bikes ie. unicycles, recumbent, tandem, kids & regular.

When we reached Notre Dame we needed to take a little break, we used that time to admire the outside of the building before heading inside.

I was amazed that they let us go in since they had a service going on. I can't imagine having a bunch of people walking around our church while service  was going, but I guess they are used to it.

There were people outside that were taking turns holding pieces of dried bread in their hands and letting the birds come and eat it.

We walked around a little bit in the Notre Dame area before heading to Montmartre.

We had purchased a pack of metro tickets the day before when we were in Versailles so we got to take the Metro from Notre Dame to a station close to Sacre-Coer.  When we arrived there we realized we had just missed a bicycle competition than had taken place because they were doing the award ceremony.  We had to wait for the ceremony to be over before we could climb up the hill to go into the church.  You would not believe what these cyclists rode down and the jumps they must have had to do.  I am sorry we missed seeing them ride.

We had decided to walk from there back to the apartment which the path took us by Moulin Rouge which was in what you might call the red light district.









Of course we stopped and bought another baguette for dinner and breakfast.