So I last left you anticipating the arrival of my Grandma Cary and Grandpa Don. They had been traveling around Europe for the past month and scheduled a special weekend trip to Paris- a city which neither particularly like due to bad past experience- to visit me. We had a great time…I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see people I know. I got done with work about an hour and a half early and skipped (truly) my way down to the metro stop to meet them. There was hugging and excitement. We all walked back up to the apartment, they sat and had a g&t with the dads and had a chance to meet the little darlings I take care of…who put on a couple of singing performances for us…and called them “Eryn’s mom and Grandpa Don”. Then we walked through my neighborhood and had dinner at my crepe place. We headed back to their hotel (a little bit of a commute…we def learned and became quite comfortable with the metro).
Saturday we got up and had the free breakfast and coffee at the hotel. We decided to do the batobus- the boat that is a hop on hop off throughout the city, along the Seine. We went to the Musee D’Orsay, Notre Dame, St Chapelle, walked along the Champs-Elysees, visited the Arc de Triumph and had a stop at the Eiffel Tower…it was a full tourist day.Unfortunately, we had my first rude Paris experience…of course when I am with the people that already aren’t thrilled about Paris…I was so mad. We sat down to have dinner at a restaurant on the Champs-Elysees- a very touristy spot- and our waiter just ignored us…took forever to get a menu, and then several attempts to get his attention to take our order. Finally, after about a half hour, Don managed to flag him down, he came over…started talking to some guy on the street behind us, so we patiently waited…and then he said “I’m waiting. Are you planning on ordering” like he had been waiting on us! I said no, and we got up and left. Went somewhere else. I was so mad.
We didn’t end up traveling up the Eiffel Tower…the line was so unbelievably long, but Grandma and I did eat a dessert crepe while looking at it…which I think was probably just as good.
Last week was a pretty typical work week- nothing too out of the ordinary. Friday morning, my friend Roseanna, from Barcelona (well, she is from Australia, but we met in Barcelona) arrived on the train and hauled all of her stuff into my room. I had my usual work day, and then at 5:30 we jetted to the train station to get our train to Amsterdam. Well, we learned a few things. First, it takes a little longer than expected to get there, navigate through the Friday evening people-traffic, get our tickets and find our train…so we missed the 6:30 train and had to wait for the 7:30- no big deal. Second, turns out if you get your tickets ahead of time, they are significantly cheaper. We had previously looked online and had the price figured out, but figured we would just buy them day of…yeah, prices went up. Sad. But we got there.And Amsterdam was adorable. A really pretty city. I’m definitely a fan.
We got in pretty late, so we walked to our hotel and got some rest. We woke up fairly early on Sat and ate breakfast. We also did the hop on, hop off boat through the canals. We went to the Rijksmuseum…which has several Rembrandts and other great stuff. Then we jumped on the boat over to Anne Frank’s house. That was hard. I mean, it was really amazing to be able to actually go in the annex and see where the family hid, but it is so strange to think that this house is now a tourist spot, you know. It was pretty powerful, and we left feeling fairly somber. After that we did a bit of wandering, both because there isn’t a ton to do in Amsterdam and we were a bit museum’d out…not to mention that the city is a bit difficult to navigate and we got last more than a few times.
Luckily, it is a beautiful city and wandering is not a bad thing to do. Later, we checked out the Red Light District. So bizarre. This completely friendly, and tourist loving city has this whole district just available for prostitution. There was glass door after glass door of prostitutes posing in the window, waiting for someone to go in. And while that was strange, it was stranger that it just wasn’t that big of a deal. There weren’t people shouting out obscene comments like you would expect. And then, of course, the coffee shops with the pot menus. You walk along the street and can smell pot everywhere…and then you go in these coffee shops and, of course- we are in Amsterdam…people are just a-smoking away. I am sure you will all be thoroughly disappointed to learn that I did not participate. I know, how could I not in Amsterdam…it is legal. But I did sit in the coffee shop and had a yummy hot chocolate…so I think that should count for something.
Sunday I woke up bright and early, and got in my Human Race gear, sent all the way from Philadelphia, and went out to run my own personal 10k. I was planning on doing the Nike Human Race 10k in Paris, but went to Amsterdam instead. So I mapped out a course and did the run on my own. I had the entire city to myself at 8am…there wasn’t anyone up…it was a gorgeous day. Roseanna and I cruised the canals and did some souvenir shopping , and then caught the train back to Paris. We managed to get in the first class cabin- for some reason, it was actually cheaper. So we got a meal and wine…lovely. It was a great trip…really glad I was able to head out and do some world exploration…there will definitely be a few more weekend trips in the future.Hope you are all well. I miss you.
