Zeist-->Paris

Oh don't worry, I am still in line at Versailles if you were wondering. It's the longest line I've ever been in. Brad just counted one line and discovered there's about 2500 people in line. We're about 1/2-2/3 through.

We got up early August 7 and went to Rita's house for tea before Marv and Yvonne left on their cruise. All the same people were there. It was quite lovely. We then left and got back to the Spruijt house. We borrowed their bikes, and biked to the cemetery were Brad's great grandfather is buried. Let me tell you, these bikes are not like the bikes we ride in Canada. For one thing, they don't have gears. For another, you sit straight up like a king. You brake pedalling backwards, and they steer so much different. I rode Margriet's as well, and she is a good 4 inches taller than me. Mark insisted on push-starting me on the bike. The hardest part was getting on the thing beside I had to jump up about 6 inches once pedalling because I couldn't touch the ground from the seat. It was interesting!

We met the Spruijts at the cemetery. It was really weird to see Brad's grandfather's name on s grave, the same as his dad's. We also saw Mark's dad's, and saw a very touching scene as Mark sat contemplative on his tomb while Erik brushed the dirt off Opa's grave.

We biked back and ate lunch before we departed to the Utrecht train station. We almost missed our train because of crazy construction of the station, but made it! We took a train to Rotterdam, and then took a high-speed train called the Thalys to Paris. It goes 300km/h.

The first thing I noticed in Paris is that yes, it does smell like piss, and some dude was beating the shit out of someone right outside the station. Ah, Paris.

We walked to our hotel though, and quickly it was easy to see that Paris is indeed beautiful. We dropped off our things and went for a delicious dinner. We went to the Eiffel tower afterwards, and it was amazing!! It is so beautiful, enormous and just such a sight to see. It left me in awe to see such a famous landmark in real life. We walked around it for hours before we returned to our hotel for the evening.