We rode with John (at 6:30 a.m.) to Schtipol airport in Amsterdam then took the train to the Central Station of Amsterdam. We stored our luggage in a locker at the station and then walked outside to breathe weed. No need to find marijuana in Amsterdam, it will find you.
We split an eggs and ham on toast breakfast with coffee at a little café (not a coffee shop) and then took a canal boat tour around the city. After the tour we walked by hookers (not great looking) and then split a burger and beer (Lynn had the beer) for lunch ($10 euros). I bowed to the Jenever while Lynn drank her Heineken.
At 1:00 p.m. we boarded the bullet train and headed to Paris. We arrived at the Gare du Nord around 4:30 p.m. Our first challenge was trying to figure out how to get out of the train station. We eventually figured out you needed to buy a Metro ticket to get through the turnstiles which took you to the Metro. We bought tickets at a kiosk (one working out of five kiosks) and our Paris adventure began.
We took the M8 to the Ecole Militaire stop which was right in front of our hotel (which we didn’t see). A crazy man said “go down this way” so we walked a ways and then noticed the numbers were decreasing below our desired address. At a drugstore where we asked we were told to go “past the Eiffel Tower” (back where we started and beyond). When we had walked a fair distance we saw the numbers were too large. So Lynn asked at a restaurant (Carmine’s) and their helpful manager looked up our destination on his phone and told us to go back past the Eiffel Tower. We promised to come back for dinner later that night and headed off to where we began our journey and there was our hotel (Hotel Royal Phare).
We were assigned a fifth floor room and fortunately they had a “lift” (the smallest in existence but we were glad it was there). First trip
was Lynn and one suitcase, then Dave and the second suitcase. After settling in to a very acceptable room we head off for dinner and drinks
at Carmine’s.
We shared a lovely bottle of Provence rose and six escargot and an artichoke, prosciutto, leek and cheese pizza (awesome!). They also brought us an additional cup of the escargot butter which we slathered on our pizza. We brought half the pizza back to our room (we had a mini-fridge) and stopped to say thanks to the manager before we left. He gave us complimentary limoncelo.
After a lovely walk past the Eiffel Tower at night we were at our hotel room for a good sleep.