July 25th- The Eiffel Tower

We’ve had a couple of days that have really been marathons for us, and we were all feeling it. We got up and around slowly this morning. The clock on the TV said it was 8:00. Not bad. We can get to the Eiffel Tower relatively early, still, and avoid most of the lines. As we were about to head out the door, Julie looked at her watch. It said it was 10:00. The clock on the TV was two hours slow. Well, we really needed the extra sleep, so we weren’t complaining too much.

We did have to reassess our plans for the day. We had brunch at McDonald’s instead of breakfast, but that included McCrêpes for the girls. (They’re French, right?) Instead of taking the trains into the city and probably having to make two different transfers, we decided to drive. It’s Saturday, and we didn’t have major problems getting in or parking. We parked along the Seine, downriver from the Eiffel Tower, right next to the model of the Statue of Liberty that the French kept when they gave the United States the big one for a birthday present.

We could admire the Eiffel Tower from where we parked and had no trouble walking to it. There were any number of people trying to sell trinkets of the Eiffel Tower as we walked. They all seemed to have the same ring of two or three sizes of replicas. Apparently, they’re not allowed to sell things this way, because we later saw a whole bunch of them run away at the same time when they apparently saw the authorities approaching.

Once we got to the Eiffel Tower there was an enormous number of people waiting in the space between it’s legs. Lines had formed and were winding around and around but they were these enormous serpentine masses that had formed on their own instead of having any direction. Scott and the girls got a place at the end of a line, and then Julie went off to find out where it actually went to. After weaving in and out and around, she confirmed that it did indeed go to the ticket booth and the entrance, so we staked out our claim in the queue. It took us close to two hours to move to the tickets and the elevators. The girls had some cotton candy while we waited.

The tower itself is a curious mix of grace and strength, beauty and industry. From far away, it’s unmistakable world-renowned silhouette is thing of beauty. You recognize its iconic importance immediately, and as you approach it and it grows in size to tower above you, your excitement mounts. However, you can see how the Paris residents may have objected to it originally. It is a product of the industrial age showing the wonders of progress by leaving its skeleton open to be viewed. The rivets and girders that can appear graceful at a distance can seem cold, hard and brown when viewed up close. Still, even when waiting in the long slow lines, you look up every once in a while and your eyes follow the curve of the legs up as far as you can see, and you’re impressed.

Once in the tower itself, we went up to what they call the 2nd floor. We didn’t read our Rick Steves enough to realize that there were exhibits on the 1st floor too, and like many other visitors we passed over that. The second floor is about 400 feet up, and offers some nice views of the city. We could pick out the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, the Louvre, and the Sacrê-Coure without any coaching. The three girls were happy to wait there, but Scott paid the extra money (and waited in the extra lines) to go up even further, to the “Summet”, the highest floor at about 900 feet. The views were not so much better there, but he was glad that he did it anyway. The elevator passed some workmen, attached with ropes, who were working on maintenance to the higher parts of the tower.

The Eiffel Tower sapped most of our afternoon and all of our energy. We crossed the Seine at the Trocadèro and walked through what looks like a ritzy neighborhood down the avenue named after John F. Kennedy. Not only did the apartments look rich, but there were nice looking houseboats moored along the embankment there. We got to the car and drove back out of Paris.

We seem to be staying in a part of the Paris suburbs that is populated by many blacks and minorities. Non- “French” people, anyway. We visited the very busy mall that we had seen near our hotel. It was harder to park there than it was in Paris. We ate at a pizza place in the mall, and did some shopping. Anna and Emma each got a new outfit and Julie got some sweatpants. We told her she just wanted to tell everyone that she was wearing fashions from Paris. Most importantly, we bought a big duffle bag to help us haul the stuff home that we’ve accumulated. We had hoped to send it home in several shipments, but finding post offices didn’t fit well into our schedules.

Hey, our hotel room is small. (How small is it?) It’s so small, that even the mice are hunchbacked. It’s so small that we have to go outside just to change our minds. Ba-dum-dum. HA! HA! But seriously, there really is nothing in here besides a double bed, the single bunk bed over it, a tiny shelf for a desk and the chair. There is no room for anything else. We’ve never seen a hotel room without any closet or bureaus or drawers (even in the desk). The TV (with the bad clock) is hanging above the desk so it won’t take floor space. The walls are plain white with nothing on them except for a long picture of some yellow and orange flowers. That same picture of flowers is hanging in every hallway and stairwell that we’ve seen, but they’re either sideways out there or they’re sideways in here. The bathroom is decent enough sized, considering, but there are no shelves in there-- not even a soapdish in the shower. The shower head has broken from it’s holder too. This night will be our fourth and last one here. We’ll be glad to put this one behind us. We usually don’t mention the names of hotels in the blog, but let’s just say if you see the words “Premiere” and “Classe” together in the name of a hotel, it’s probably not “premiere” and it sure ain’t “classy.” (While reading this writing back to the girls as their bedtime story, the railing to the bunk gave way and Emma came tumbling down. She looks like she bit her lip and has a bloody nose, but she’ll be fine.)

Paris itself has a graffiti problem, and seems dirty. Maybe not as dirty as New York, but dirty nonetheless. Scott would say, “What do you expect? It’s full of Frenchmen.” except that it doesn’t seem very PC. Julie is more charitable and says that we’re not city people. While we’ve had fun in Paris, we do seem to enjoy ourselves more when we are in the Alps or the countryside. That’s been something we’ve known ever since our honeymoon when we started in D.C., and then scrapped those plans after a taste of the traffic and crowds and went to explore the battlefields of rural Virginia. The same is true here, and we’ll be looking to the countryside, on this last leg of the trip back to Zurich. There were a few more sites in Paris that we would have liked to have seen up close, like the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees, for example, but we’ll wait for now. We’ll drive back into Paris tomorrow to see them instead. HA HA! No, the Tour de France arrives in town tomorrow. We won’t be anywhere near the crowds for that one.

July 24- Disneyland Paris

We left from our hotel, expecting to catch breakfast on the way back to Disneyland. There were three excited girls looking forward to a long day there. We wanted to be there when it opened at ten, and didn’t know how traffic would be so we left early. We got to Disney with more than an hour to go before most things opened up. We were so early that we parked in row A1, though there were a few people parked there before us. We got breakfast at the McDonald’s in Disney Village. Emma was slow finishing her Egg McMuffin, so Anna started telling her to eat like “Mommy’s Little Piggy” (from “A Christmas Story”). Emma tried shoving the whole muffin in her mouth but she started to gag and threw up most of breakfast. She recovered quickly, and we were off to the park.

As we mentioned before, the Disneyland Paris park is a lot like the Magic Kingdom park in Orlando and the original Disneyland in Anaheim. There are differences, yes, but the concepts are basically the same. The attractions are laid out in lands that circle around the castle in the middle. Many of the attractions themselves are the same, although there are often subtle differences that can sometimes be improvements.

When we entered the park we got on the Disneyland railroad, bypassed Main Street, and rode around the park to Frontierland. We started at Thunder Mountain Railroad. Anna has always loved this ride, and even Emma said she liked it. Anna noted that the ride’s track was a lot longer than the similar roller-coaster train at Heide Park, even counting that they sent you around it twice at the other one. One twist on this version of Thunder Mountain is that the mountain itself is in the middle of the “river” that the riverboat goes on, yet you board on the opposite shore. That means that part of the track has to take you through tunnels under the river. This situation makes for some dark sections that Dad and Emma didn’t care much for, but the rest of it is fun.

Anna was disappointed that she was too short for the Indiana Jones roller coaster, but we moved on. We strolled around the pirate themed Adventure Isle in Adventureland, which takes the place of Tom Sawyer Island in other parks. One of the cool features of this park’s version is that next to the large pirate ship is a huge “Skull Rock” like the one from Peter Pan. There are lanterns set back into its eye sockets, so as you walk past it, its eyes follow you. We then went on to Pirates of the Caribbean, another of Julie’s favorites. It hasn’t been “Johnny Depp-ized” like the one in California yet, so it’s still basically the classic ride, though in a slightly better building, resembling the ruins of a Spanish colonial castle. Emma hated this ride and kept her head cuddled up against Mom for the whole ride.

We then stopped for an early lunch, due to the fact that Emma had lost most of her breakfast. We ate at the same Pinocchio restaurant that we had breakfast at back in 2001 when we visited. We had chicken nuggets and ham sandwiches this time, and the girls got Mickey shaped lunch boxes with their meals.

From there, we headed into Fantasyland and began with Alice’s Curious Labyrinth. It is a kid friendly maze filled with characters and music and from Alice in Wonderland. The girls seemed to especially like the big floral representation of the Cheshire Cat with eyes that spin. This attraction is the first of several “walk-through” attractions that this park seems to have a lot of. After that we rode boats through “Le Pais des Contes de Fées,” or “Storybookland” as it’s called in California. The boat take you through miniature representations of the settings of many fairy tales and stories. Anna took many photographs as Dad took video. We then rode on the Casey Jr. circus train that circles and doubles back through that same area of Fantasyland.

“It’s a small world” seemed like an appropriate ride for our European vacation, and it was interesting to note subtle differences here. The individual European nations seem to get more representation here, somehow. Germany especially is given more figures, though oddly, the Eiffel Tower and cancan dancers of France are moved from their usual central location to the side. The most interesting addition is a large area for Canada and the United States, which didn’t seem necessary in the American parks but would be a glaring omission if left out here. The North American area comes just before the finale. Scott noticed that among the towering landmarks for the United States were the twin towers of the World Trade Center. They were far in the back, so they were not very prominent, but they did date the attraction, slightly. The ride also ends with a walk-through. Children explore a cluster of landmark buildings that represent the world. They can peek in child-sized windows where they see little cartoons of the children of the global community communicating with each other digitally.

We rode Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and then explored the castle. We had misidentified it as Belle’s, but it is actually supposed to be Sleeping Beauty’s. Scott remembers reading about how the designers of the castle were challenged to find a way to make the castle look fantastic enough because their were hundreds of real castles within driving distance of this park. In the castle itself, another walk-through tells the story of “Le Belle Au Bois Dormant” through stained glass and medieval tapestries. We also rode the carousel, though the family was completely split up on it.

On our way to the park this morning, Anna and Emma were talking about the characters whose autographs they would like to get. For some strange reason, Emma said she wanted to get Jafar’s, from “Aladdin.” It seemed to be a pretty random choice. And yet, lo and behold, who should we see along with the Queen of Hearts and few other Disney villains? Jafar himself, with Iago on his shoulder. The girls got the Queen of Hearts to sign their book, but Jafar was acting more like a villain. He was making people kneel before him. He was giving people the brush off, and Julie got “the hand” several times. When he would deem people worthy of taking his picture, he’d spread his huge arms in front of them. Instead of staying in one spot, like other characters do, he’d take a few long strides away from the group. Emma put both of her hands on her head and said, “He’s driving me crazy!” Anna and Emma never did succeed in getting him to sign.

We rode on the Pinocchio ride, which didn’t open until 3:00, and had fast passes for Peter Pan’s Flight at 3:15. The girls loved both of these rides. Then we split into two groups as Anna and Mom went to ride Space Mountain and Emma and Dad went to the Dumbo ride.

We don’t think there’s been one day in the last 3 weeks (since Austria, at least), when we haven’t seen both rain and sunny skies in the same day. Sometimes, it changes several times. When we woke up yesterday, Julie said “Uh oh,” when she saw the dark overcast skies. Scott said, “Don’t worry. That means it will be sunny soon.” He was right. The exact opposite happened this morning. It was bright and sunny, and he said “That means it will rain today,” and the rain came this afternoon, as we split up.

Anna and Mom went to ride Space Mountian, Mission 2. The French Space Mountain is done with a Jules Verne look, and shoots your car up the outside of the building from a “cannon” like in From Earth to the Moon. The inside part of the ride has been redone, so there is a loop and some corkscrews now that turn you upside down. That’s why it’s “Mission 2.” Anna and Mom both loved it.

Meanwhile, Dad and Emma were waiting to go on the Dumbo ride. That’s when the down-pouring rain hit, but they were under the tent that covers the queue for the worst of it. Dad put Emma on his shoulders, and he soon felt a change in the way she was shifting her weight. His suspicions were confirmed when he saw other people pointing above him and whispering, “She’s asleep.” Shortly before it was their turn for the ride, she woke with a start and said, “What are we doing here?!” While on the ride, she loved teasing Dad by making Dumbo go as high as she could and bouncing it like she was riding over the “little hills” on the way to Springville. After the ride, they went to meet Mom and Anna, but the rain was starting to pick up again, and they found shelter under an archway at an entrance to Fantasyland. While there, they saw a large number of characters coming in from the rain, including Peter Pan and Wendy, Pinocchio, Robin Hood, and others.

The family regrouped at Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast. On this ride, each person gets a toy laser gun. You shoot at little targets as the ride takes you through and keeps track of your points. Scott won, in case you’re wondering, with a score of over 46,000. Anna left our umbrella on the ride, but we were able to recover it. After Buzz Lightyear, we rode “Star Tours.” Even though this Star Wars ride was a French version, it’s basically a thrill ride on a run-away space transport, so it’s not hard to enjoy. Even Emma liked it as the vehicle was thrown back and forth and we made the jumps to light speed.

We then popped into Videopolis to use the rest rooms. It’s an enormous theater that also doubles as eating space for a cafeteria. When we visited here in 2001, there were Chinese acrobats that were acting out the story of Mulan. This time, they were just showing vintage Mickey Mouse cartoons, but the girls were mesmerized by them. Maybe it’s because they were tired after going so fast and hard for most of the day, or maybe it’s been so long since they’ve watched English language cartoons. Either way, they didn’t want to leave, so we got dinner there and stayed through the entire selection of about half a dozen cartoons before they started cycling through a second time.

“Discoveryland” takes the place of “Tomorrowland” from the original parks. Like Space Mountain, much of the French Discoveryland is Jules Verne themed. Green and gold are the dominant colors instead of white. This motif is used in the Orbitron, which takes the place of the rocket ships from other parks. Scott was a little surprised at how hard they were to get in and out of and how much force they throw you around with. He had always assumed they were gentle, like Dumbo. It didn’t help that mischievous Emma was diving his rocket and was gleefully trying to shake him around.

We rode the tea cups in Fantasyland, though Emma and Julie were both looking a little green during the ride. From there we circled back to Adventureland, and walked through the story of Aladdin in “Le Passage Enchanté d’Aladdin.” Julie didn’t want to leave without seeing “Phantom Manor.” She says it is the best version of the Haunted Mansion in any of the Disney parks that she has been to. She and Anna rode that while Emma and Dad waited outside.

We circled to the front of the castle, facing Main Street, where a show was about to begin. “It’s Party Time… with Mickey and Friends” featured dancers, sappy songs, and the characters, of course. Mickey, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, Peter Pan and Wendy, Tigger, Baloo, and Timon were all there. The show was mostly in French but there were some other languages thrown in, and there wasn’t really any story to follow. Oddly, Tigger and Baloo each spoke only English but Mickey and Timon spoke exclusively French. We wondered how those decisions were made. The girls liked the show as a way to end to the day.

Actually, that’s not the end of the day. The end to any day at Disney for us is the shopping, and the shops on Main Street were yet to be explored. There seemed to be less variety here than at the American Disney parks, with mostly the same selection of stuff to be found at any of the shops, regardless of the theme of the land that you were in. For example, Julie was disappointed that there weren’t any good adult-sized pirate shirts, and had to buy shorts with a skull and crossbones on it instead. Still, while it may seem to adults that there weren’t as many choices, you have to look at it through a child’s eyes. Anna and Emma were both faced with some agonizing decisions. Eventually, with what money they had left, Anna bought a glowing Tinkerbell pen that lights up in different colors and Emma got a cuddly baby-version of Simba. We had promised them each that they could pick out one more thing for their “birthdays,” since they hadn’t bought anything at Heide Park. Anna chose a exaggeratedly fuzzy Pluto and Emma got a playset with Minnie Mouse and her dresses. We also bought them new sweatshirts, because the ones they brought with them are showing wear. Emma in particular has been keeping us busy putting hers on or taking hers off because she can’t pull it off herself. We made sure her new one had a zipper in front.

We almost made it through the park without an accident, but Emma fell and skinned her knee just before we got to the car. We made the trip back to our little hotel room, and all four of us flopped down to sleep. We’ll make up the journals and blog tomorrow.