FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 2012

Paris, France

We are having way too much fun and I'm getting behind on my blog! I know Sheila is reading it and I want to keep her informed about her daughter, Sheryl's, behavior so I must get caught up.

Friday was a typical travel day. Lots of fun with a little transportation hassle thrown in.

Friday morning Sheryl, Noel and Linda had to attend the last day of the conference. The rest of us met for breakfast at 9:00. After breakfast David and Carol decided to check out the car museum, the Louwman Museum. They found out how to get there on the bus. But they were told to get off the bus at the wrong stop and they could not find it. There were some city workers working in a park or garden or something doing some kind of landscaping so they asked one of the men where it was. He tried to give them directions but said it was confusing so he told them to hop in his truck (with a trailer attached) and he would take them there. I guess it was quite the ride. They drove to dead ends and had to turn around and he drove them on bike paths, etc. Sounds like a riot but he did finally get them to the museum. How nice is that?

But I digress. The collection of over 200 cars has been assembled since 1934. It is the oldest private collection of automobiles open to the public in the world. It's interesting that the museum was designed by an American architect, Michael Graves. David and Carol said it was fantastic. I remember they mentioned they saw the car from the movie "Gold Finger" and also one of Elvis Presley's Cadillacs. I know they really enjoyed it because they were almost late to meet the rest of us to leave for the train station!

Sue, Sandy, Diane and I decided to go to the Centrum to shop. Luckily we are all tram experts now so we hopped on the tram and took off. We got off in the shopping area and walked around awhile. We spent a lot of time shopping at P&C's (Peek and Cloppenburg). It is a large department store like a Macy's. Sandy bought a scarf and a soccer jersey for her son and Sue bought a pair of shoes. We also went to the top floor to use the restroom. I don't think I've mentioned that you often have to pay to use the restroom -- from .30 euro to .50 euro generally. I was surprised that we had to pay to use the restroom in the department store! At least when you pay to use it, it is usually very clean. Just outside the hallway to the restrooms was a gigantic cafeteria with many different food stations and it looked and smelled delicious!!! We weren't hungry so we didn't have lunch but I wish we could have. We shopped at a few more stores and picked up some things (I bought a pair of loafers) and then we had to head back to the hotel to meet up with David and Carol to go to the train station.

Here was the plan. We all had train tickets from the Rotterdam train station to Paris at 4:58 p.m. BUT, Sheryl was on a panel that started at 1:30 and was scheduled to end at 3:00 p.m. Linda was finished with her work at the conference so she joined us. We planned to leave the hotel at 2:00 to give us plenty of time to take a taxis to the train station in The Hague and then to take a train from there to the Rotterdam train station. We planned to take Sheryl's and Noel's luggage with us so that when they finished up at the conference they could easily and quickly take the tram to the train station in The Hague and then take the train to Rotterdam and we would all meet on the platform for the 4:48 train to Paris. You can see this required some logistical planning -- performed by our Sheryl! We asked our hotel clerk to order two taxis for us to take all of us plus a ton of luggage to The Hague train station. Apparently she asked for a van instead of two taxis. It was a 7 person van and, somehow, we were able to fit all of us and all of the bags into it. By this time is was raining and just a little miserable. None of us were looking forward to getting all of the bags onto the train from The Hague to Rotterdam, THEN schlepping them to the train to Paris. While we were riding to the train station in The Hague our taxi driver made us an offer we couldn't refuse!!! He offered to drive us directly to the Rotterdam train station for less money than it would have cost us to do it as originally planned. We instantly took him up on his offer and were very relieved that it would be a little easier on all of us.

We arrived at the Rotterdam train station with plenty of time to spare and with our spirits lifted! We were hungry by this time so we decided to would get all of our bags to the correct platform and then we would go in groups to find some lunch. We checked on the platform number a couple of times and found out we would have to carry our luggage up a lot of stairs. The train station was torn up for remodeling or whatever and we could not find an elevator or escalator. David found a station employee and asked her if there was a elevator AND THERE WAS!!! It was just kind of hidden away in the mess of the construction work being done. She actually led us all to the elevator. Whew! Saved us a lot of work.

Diane, Sue, Sandy and Linda left us to guard the bags and they went in search of some lunch. They were gone a half hour or so which made me think they had found a nice restaurant. Nope! The only place they could find was a Burger King!!! Kind of disappointing. I walked down the train platform a ways to a little snack shop and they had some things that I thought would be better than Burger King. Carol and David had croissants with butter and I had a ham and cheese croissant and they were delicious! They also had fresh baked cookies so David and I had a chocolate chip cookie.

About this time Sheryl and Noel showed up. They were able to leave the conference at 3:00 and efficiently made their way to the Rotterdam train station. Sheryl's presentation on the panel was well-received and I think she was happy to have it behind her so she could actually enjoy a little holiday.

Sheryl had purchased all of our train tickets to Paris and we had assigned seats. The train pulled in on time and after a bit of a hassle getting all of our luggage loaded on we found our seats and off we went to Paris. PARIS!!!!! Imagine! It was a very nice train and the two hour trip passed by fairly quickly. When we arrived in Paris we planned to take a regional train to a station close to our hotel and then take taxis to the hotel. We made our way to where the regional trains were and Noel purchased all of our tickets. It's so funny . . . we all relied on Noel to tell us which train to take and kept asking him if we were going the right way and if we were taking the right train, etc. But Noel hadn't been to Paris in 30 years! I guess we think because he's European, he knows his way everywhere. Way too much pressure to put on dear Noel!

The regional train pulled in and we and about 300 hundred other people pushed and shoved our way onto the train, bags and all. We were squished in there like sardines! But, somehow, I managed to get a seat. I think I was the only one of our group who got to sit down. We only rode a few stops and then we all poured out of the train. We made our way out to the street where it was still raining and after awhile managed to get taxis to our hotel. Except for Noel who decided just to walk to his hotel which is located fairly close to ours.

Our hotel, De Lutece, is located on the Ile Saint-Louis in the Seine River. It is a 17th century hotel and it is very charming. although the rooms are small, we all loved our rooms. And the location is spectacular. We are so lucky we got to stay there!

After we all got settled, Noel joined us and we went to dinner. The hotel clerk recommended a restaurant called Auberge de la Reine Blanche which was just down the street from us. It was small and lovely and the food was incredible. A few of us had spaghetti with bolognese sauce, David and Sue had a "cheese salad" which looked great, Sue had french onion soup, Sheryl had beef bourguignon, Noel and Linda, I think, had Coq Au Vin -- everything was great. Noel selected a wonderful red wine which some of us drank. All in all it was good food and good friends and we were eating dinner in Paris. What could be better?

After dinner we called it a night and we returned to our hotel and went to bed.

I promise to write again soon.