Today was a very very long day! And right from the start it didn’t go as well as I could have hoped, but that’s life I guess! I woke up on time at least, so that was something. Finished the last of the packing and made sure I hadn’t left anything behind, before heading downstairs to check out.
My plan was to leave my bag at the hotel, go sightseeing, and then collect my bag on the way to the airport. This ended up not happening, as aside from the hotel desk guy being rather surly, the hotel also charged for baggage storage! In all my travels I’m not sure I’ve encountered another hotel that charged for that – most are happy to keep a hold of your luggage if you either arrive early or aren’t leaving right away. (My second hotel in Inverness was even happy to hold onto a bag of stuff I didn’t need during my three day tour of the Orkney’s!) At least there was a left luggage facility at the Gare du Nord station, just across the road from the hotel. I think it ended up costing about the same as what the hotel was charging, but I’d rather pay them than the hotel!
Made it to the nearby stop for the open top bus tour, and this one actually showed up! He was running late though, as he was basically just waving people on board, and said that the card machine was broken, so we’d have to buy tickets at the final stop, which was their main office. I’d forgotten how bad Parisien traffic can be, especially for buses, but this was the easiest way to see a heap of sights, considering I still wasn’t feeling the best. The ‘Blue line’, which I was on, didn’t have too much to see, as it was bascially just a straight trip from Gare du Nord to their office on the Avenue de l’Opera. Once there, I was able to buy a ticket and join the queue for one of the ‘Red line’ buses, which covers the major sights of the city. Once the bus had arrived and we’d all boarded, we were told that the bus wasn’t working and we’d have to change. (I think it might have been more that the driver needed a mandatory break or something, as after a while he came back and drove off without doing anything to the bus!) So we all queued up for the next bus to come along. Having seen how many people were already on that one, plus the ones in the queue, I opted to wait for the next one, even if it was a bit annoying.
This turned out to be the right decision, as not only did I get a window seat on the top deck, but we had an amazing live tour guide (instead of the recorded announcements). Daniel, the guide, originally from Amsterdam, but has lived in Paris for the last 10 years, and was great – informative and funny, it was a welcome change from the rather dry recorded commentary! The full tour is supposed to last around two and a half hours, although I think we were closer to three or past it by the time we returned to the start, given the previously mentioned Parisien traffic. I’m glad I got a good seat too, as at a lot of the stops we didn’t have enough spots for everyone who was waiting to get one!) We hit all the highlights though – the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Place de la Concorde, the Champs-Élysées and the Arc de Triomphe, and the Trocadero and the Eiffel Tower. We did have a bit of rain on the Champs-Élysées, which was a downside to the open top bus thing, but luckily it didn’t last very long!
After the tour finished and I was back on the Avenue de l’Opera, I ended up walking through the city to the Hard Rock Cafe. Originally I wasn’t planning on going, as I’ve been a couple of times before, but I was getting hungry by that point and figured a big late lunch would probably serve me well considering I didn’t know when I’d be eating on the plane, and I try not to eat at airports if I can help it as it’s generally rather expensive! (Which isn’t to say the Hard Rock Cafe is cheap, because it isn’t, but still.) Looking at the map during lunch I realised that in the time it would take me to walk to a metro station that would take me back to Gare du Nord, I could just walk straight to the station, so I did. This worked out well as I got to see a bit more of the city, helped my lunch digest, and stretched my legs, as I was going to spend a fair chunk of the next 24 hours or more sitting down.
I actually made better time than I thought getting back to Gare du Nord. Collected my backpack without any issues and then figured I’d head straight to the airport. It would make me almost embarrassingly early for my flight, but given that leaving it much longer would mean trying to take the train with a backpack in the middle of Paris rush hour, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make! As I was making my way from the train station within the airport to the terminals, I was struck by a sense of deja-vu. Having a better look around (rather than just following the signs) I realised that I’d been there before – when I did my big trip in 2013 I’d landed in Paris from Cairo and then hopped on a train out to Interlaken in Switzerland. So it was the same place, I was just heading in the other direction this time! (And before you ask why I didn’t just fly to Switzerland, I wanted to be able to say that I’d gone from London to Singapore by land, which meant flying to Cairo from Paris and then back there!)
In any event, I found a quiet spot in a lesser-used terminal to sit and read for a while, before making my way to my terminal to drop off my checked bag and go through security. There was a bit of a line for security, but it was well managed and didn’t last long. (They also have one of the conveyors which returns the tubs back to the start for the next people to use, which is cool and much easier than having someone have to stack them up and carry them!) And then it was more waiting until we were ready to board! Even though it seemed we boarded a bit late, we still pushed back on time, so we mustn’t have had to wait for any late passengers. Interestingly, the cabin crew on this Emirates flight came from 13 countries and spoke 14 languages, which I think is a record for a plane that I’ve been on!
And that’s it for this entry. Not sure if there’s much I can write about the flights, but I’ll put them in separate entries, just to keep the days organised!
