This morning, we woke up rather early to catch the Eurostar to Paris. After a big hug with DT, we departed to the nearby underground station. And I can say, throughout my entire Europe journey, today was the toughest!!!!!!!!!! When I was at the Tube station, since this station was kind of small (Goldhawk Road Station), so there was no escalator!!! Imagine I had to carry my 17kg luggage, walking up the staircase of more than 30 steps........... Of couse I couldnt do it!!! It was definately too heavy for me, what more to walk up the steps. But, thank God, one kind-hearted lady appeared, and lending me a helping hand, so we both carried it up!! I just couldnt express my appreciation on her help.
The journey was fine when we reached St Pancras Station. Another handsome guy helped me with the luggage. Before we went on board, we had a nice breakfast at Costa, something like Starbucks but with lots more variety of drinks and food. I had a cup of hot chocolate, and a bacon sandwich. I always eat bacon in Europe, as this is rarely seen in Malaysia. It was a great experience to have the journey in train. Nothing special, but at least it didnt make me dizzy! In order to spend all my coins, I bought a chocolate muffin and a bottle of mineral water. We reached Paris Gare Du Nord station in 2 hours time.
Firstly, we bought the Paris Visite 2-day pass, which was the tourist pass for unlimited ride on Metro and RER, from Zone 1 to 3. We could already feel the coldness eventhough we were still inside the terminal. Paris was really really cold. And the interesting story was just about to begin. This was the unluckiest day for my journey. Initially, it was not a fuss at all to get to our hotel, but... but... but.........
The original route was:
Gare du Nord - Chatelet Les Halles (green line, RER)
Chatelet Les Halles - Neuilly Plaisance (red line, RER)
Due to an accident happened at Gare de Lyon station in between Chatelet Les Halles & Neuilly Plaisance, we could not reach Neuilly Plaisance directly by using the RER red line. This was definately not a good sign. To change more lines indicates that I had more tendency to carry my luggage up and down........ Don't expect a good escalator, you wont be even seeing it in most of the stations. And, we had to walk even more as we took the wrong train!!! What a lame joke!!! Moving the luggage up and down, in and out of the train was definately the most suck up thing in my journey. Until one stage, I just kicked my luggage and let it rolled down the staircase....... Another nightmare was at Nation station. It took about 20 minutes for each train to arrive (due to accident), and sad to say that it was fulled of human inside, worse than a sardine can.
So our new route was:
Gare du Nord - Chatelet Les Halles (green line, RER)
Chatelet Les Halles - Nation (red line, Metro)
Nation - Neuilly Plaisance (red line, RER)................ :'(
By the time I reached the hotel, Gis Hotel, it was 5pm. And I was like a dying salted fish.
The moral value of the story is:
Don't intend to carry a huge luggage if no one is helping u + Always expect something which is unexpected in a trip.
Now, our Paris adventure begins. After resting and charging ourselves, we moved to the first spot of the day, Notre Dame Cathedral.
Notre Dame Cathedral
A statue in front of Notre Dame
After that, we walked around, looking for Sainte Chapelle. We found it, but too bad it was already closed. Since the church was inside the compound, so it was kind of difficult to take the pic. What we saw from the outside was only its roof. Then, we continued walking, and saw the Seine River.
Romantic Seine River
I couldnt remember what is this
Pantheon
It was about 8pm by then. Since we didnt buy the Museum Pass, so we were quite worried about our trip to Louvre Museum the next day, as we always heard that there was a long queue. So, we decided to get a peep first. Without wasting time, we took the Metro to Palais Royal Musee Du Louvre station. The train actually stopped inside the museum. If you wish to see the glass pyramid, u would need to walk up to the main entrance of the museum. We realised that there were many ticketing machines at the internal entrance. This means, we actually do not have to queue at the main entrance. What a good trick :D After getting the clue, happily, we explored some other parts of the museum. Of course we couldnt enter into the exhibition hall without ticket, but at least we could take some pics outside the hall.
Seen this in Da Vinci Code? Where Mary Magdeline lies underneath the starry sky.
Inside the Glass Pyramid
External view of Musee Du Louvre
We could also see the Eiffel Tower from here. It was very far away, in blue light, in conjunction with Christmas Mood :)
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