We got to airport with plenty of time to spare, eased through ticketing and security, even finding the time to sign up for frequent flier miles for everyone in the family!
The plane took off on time, and the flight was pretty smooth all the way across, however, just as I feared, the seats were pretty cramped, and the guy on the aisle just had to read all night, so his lamp shown down on us the entire night, making sleep pretty much impossible. On the plus side, each seat had it’s own entertainment screen with videos on demand, so time passed pretty quickly. I know Kurt was in heaven getting to watch a couple of movies there was no way I’d be renting at home. I watched “Date Night,” which I thought was really funny.
We were met immediately by Viking personnel upon exit from the baggage area, and had a pleasant bus ride to the boat, arriving around 9:30 in the morning. We were so early that most of the passengers from the previous voyage were still waiting for their taxis.
Our boat is parked just down the road from the Eiffel tower, right along the Left Bank of the Seine - in fact you can see it from the deck of the boat. Our rooms weren’t available until 3 pm, so we stored our luggage with the crew, and took the kids for a walk-about to fight-off the creeping exhaustion and give us all something to do for a couple of hours. The weather was amazing: sunny, but not hot, with a tiny bit of breeze to keep us cool as we walked. Our trek took us about half an hour, but with the blue skies and interesting sites, we didn’t even notice the time.The base of the tower is open and had lines formed at each of the four legs, people qued up waiting to get their turn to either ride the elevator or climb the stairs to the top of the tower. The typical souvenir vendors were spread out all around the monument hawking their wares: mostly various sized replicas of the Eiffel Tower which could be had for 1 to 3 Euros. We took a bunch of pictures and headed back to the boat, as lunch and the other part of our group, Patti, Stew, and Pat, were due in soon.
After lunch one of the event staff from the boat led a short walking tour of the local area near the boat. We visited a small bakery (one of thousands in the city), saw the local supermarket (Monoprix), and learned how the Paris subway system (Metro) works in case we want to use it during our stay.
Promptly at 3 p.m. our cruise director announced via the ship-wide PA that our room were ready. There are about 70 rooms on the boat arrayed on three decks. Each room holds two people, and obviously the higher you are, the better your room. Our rooms are on the first deck with our windows just above the water line. They are quite comfortable, but you do have to learn to move around in a coordinated fashion when both people are in the rooms. The beds fold up to provide some extra space during the day, though to be quite honest, I don’t think we’ll be spending much time in the rooms between breakfast and bedtime. There is a lounge/meeting area in the bow with large picture windows and a bar, and a large dining room which can seat all 140 people in the stern. The top of the boat has a large deck area with lawn chairs and beach umbrellas for lounging while we are in port or underway. All in all, very clean and comfortable accommodations with a very attentive staff.
After meeting up with the rest of the group and having a wonderful five-course dinner, Stew, Pat, Laura, and I walked over to a nearby island (reachable by a main road bridge right near our parking location), to watch the Eiffel Tower “sparkle” at 10:00. The sky had just darkened fully when at exactly 10 p.m, lights positioned all over the tower began to pulse and sparkle in a very impressive lightshow, which lasted a good 8 or 10 minutes. It wasn’t fireworks, but it was definitely the next best thing. It was a great cap to a long, but very exciting day for us.Tomorrow: Touring the City of Lights!
No comments:
Post a Comment