Saturday, Oct 13
430am, Melbourne
FL: The journey starts. After 4 hours of sleep, we hop on the 7am
flight from Melbourne to Atlanta. Amanda discovers the only shoes
she brought are dress shoes and flip flops. And so it begins.
10am, Altanta
GA: Catch flight to Cincinnati. Sit around for 7 hours until our
connection to Paris.
7pm, Cinncinati
OH: Actually, this airport is in Kentucky. They call it Greater
Cinncinati. It’s Kentucky. Whatever. We are blessed with 2 first
class, side by side, tickets to Paris. We bask in the amount of
leg room we have as we cruise over the Atlantic at roughly 586mph
and get 2.5 hours of sleep in between a wonderful dinner, movie,
and breakfast.
Sunday, Oct 14
930am, Paris
time, Charles DeGaulle Airport, France: Gazing at the Eiffel Tower
in the distance, we land. Sun is shining. The day is bright.
Exhausted and excited, we head to our bank’s ATM to get some
euros.
10am: ATM card
is 'eaten' when trying to withdraw funds.
1002am:
Standing, hopelessly staring at ATM machine while Ryan murmurs
about technology and security under his breath
1020am: Buy 2
two-day Paris museum passes. Buy 2 train tickets into Paris with a
credit card. Try to purchase metro tickets, but automated machine
would not accept the credit card. It’s the same card we just used
to purchase train tickets. Stupid machine. Seriously. What next?
1130am: We find
a “live” person and purchase metro tickets with credit card. It’s
still the same card. It works this time.
115pm: We
finally arrive at our hotel. “Hotel Crimeé.” Things are totally
different in Europe. We take the rickety, 2-person (at the most)
elevator up to the 5th floor and are excited for a tiny
room with an adjoining PRIVATE bathroom.
3pm: Visit
Calvary Chapel Paris - the second Calvary in France. (Amanda is
beginning to limp from only having super thin flip flops to walk
across Paris). Pastor Michael started an English service in the
afternoons 3 weeks ago. He was from Seattle, WA originally before
God called him to assist in building the first CC in Nice, France
with his wife and then started this Church plant. French services
are on Sunday Morning. It was amazing to meet with our brothers
and sisters in this disciple-like setting in a circle sharing the
Word.
345pm: Pastor is
speaking. Both tired and jet lagged, about to pass out.
430pm: Grabbed
food and went to sleep by 6pm.
Monday, Oct 15
945am: Awake to
realize its 945am. We had slept 15.5 hours. The longest either of
us has ever slept in our lives.
130pm: After
taking the metro to Challete Des Halles, found sneakers for Amanda
in Go Sports, got 10 euros off. It didn’t help. Much.
140pm: Narrowly
dodge a man fleeing from the scene of a crime – debated tripping
him (yes, we were that close to him), but decided not to get into
it since we didn’t know who was right and who was wrong---slight
language barrier.
150pm: We pass
Fountaine des Innocences - small fountain that was the last
remaining Renaissance fountain in Paris (1549)
230pm: dropped
by the bank to get another ATM card. They showed us the large
branch on the map where we could do that. The man tells Ryan it
closed at "dix-sept heure". This is 1700 hours, also known as 5pm.
Ryan still has some jet lag. We casually head that direction,
planning to be there before closing at “7pm”.
250pm: Visit
Notre Dame and listen to Rick Steves’ tour of the historic
district. Amazing flying buttress design. Dumb Americans with no
respect sit in church and wife screams profanity at husband for
not tying her shoelaces right. Notre Dame has become an empty
tourist attraction where people pay to restore instead of a place
of refuge for those who need to be restored.
4pm: Find free
bathrooms. Bonus!
445pm: Visit
Bastille Square - the start of the French Revolution.
520pm: St. Pauls
Cathedral - initiated Jesuit style with decaying Renaissance and
the start of the Baroque period. Late 16th century.
555pm: Ryan and
Amanda metro over to the bank. Ryan remembers how to tell time
because it is now 1755. The bank is closed. Amanda repeats the
phrase of the day- "shared experience". We check out the
Arc de Triumph just up the road.
620pm: Head back
to hotel, hungry, tired, thirsty, and paranoid about pickpockets
on the Metro. The local supermarket is our dinner for tonight,
since they actually accept credit cards and we have a total of 7
euros in our possession.
Tuesday, Oct 15
9am: Head to
Bank (yet again). French and American systems do not interact.
Ryan makes call to the US and they send a replacement card. To our
address. In Viera FL. Great. Thanks. We exchange some of the only
cash we have to get some much-needed euros. At least we don't need
to rely 100% on credit cards now!
945am: Got the
best tasting creamy coconut yogurt at the nearby “supermarché. We
ate it on the sidewalk leading up to Rodin. Passer-bys glanced
over with smirks and smiles as we ate like a couple of kids camped
out on the curb. One lady even invited us to enjoy it; "Bon
appetite!" She shouted as she walked by with her husband. Amanda
said it was the best tasting 'ice cream', I mean yogurt that she
had ever had.
10am: Museé
Rodin - The famous Thinker. We think he was pondering eternity,
since he is also seen in the "Heaven and Hell" exhibit. Amanda
ponders where the bathroom is, or 'toilette' as they call them in
Paris.
11am: The Tomb
of Napoleon Bonaparte (ridiculous shrine to himself) and the
Armory were phenomenal, like something right out of a Middle Ages
story book. And it all happened 1790-1830. Not even that long ago.
12pm: Walk to
the Museé Orsay- a must see, especially with the Rick Steves mp3
audio guide. We were in and out in under 2 hours and didn't even
feel that rushed.
230pm: A quick
side trip on our walk by the Egyptian Obelisk that dates from 1250
BC from Luxor on the Nile, the time of Ramses II. It was a gift
from Muhammed Ali in 1836. The square where the Obelisk stands was
where the guillotine stood for political executions during the
Revolution.
4pm: The Saint-Chappelle
offers an amazing picture book of the entire bible in its upper
rooms’ stained glass windows. The afternoon sun offered a heavenly
backdrop to light the glass from behind. Napoleon re-introduced
Catholicism in 1821 after the revolution promoted humanism.
430pm: The
Conciergerie -old prison from the French revolution starting 1793
that housed many guillotine prisoners before they “lost their
heads.” This is where Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI were put to
death via the guillotine in 1794 because they were the King &
Queen of France.
530pm: quick
walk to the Pantheon before it closed turned out to be futile as
it was closed for “today only at 4:30pm-thank you for
understanding.” Okay, maybe next time we're in Paris? It just
gives us an excuse to come back.
545pm: Amanda
turns into a self-dubbed 'peg-leg' from walking so much with her
aching feet and new shoes that were just breaking in. The
anticipation of a promised Thai dinner seems to urge her on.
630pm: Dinner on
the street side of Montmartre with authentic Thai cuisine.
Romantic atmosphere. We soak in our special time in Paris together
and wander the streets for a bit afterwards
830pm: Metro hop
over the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower) built for the 1889 world fair,
in time for the 9pm display of glimmering and flashing lights all
over the tower. What a sight. We steal a kiss in its shadows.
945pm: Back to
the hotel for an early wake up. Tomorrow is a big day ahead.
Wednesday, Oct 16
1210 am - Why is
the alarm going off so early? Oh, that's the fire alarm. Woken out
of a dead slumber, we try to get dressed. As Ryan reaches for
passports, money, IDs and pants, Amanda reaches for her deodorant
and contemplates taking all the suitcases down 5 flights of
stairs. She then sleepily proceeds to put the deodorant on her
underarms, on the outside of her jacket. Who knows why a
woman thinks the way she does. Ryan doesn't even think that God
knows. Just as we are about to evacuate and scurry down the 5
flights of stairs to safety, the alarm went off. So much for the
fire, it was just a false alarm. Ryan contemplates fire drills in
his sleep.
915am: The
Palace of Versailles is decadence at it’s finest. At the height of
the French monarchy, King Louis XIV (the Sun King) built this
royal mansion in Versailles, the suburbs of Paris. Everything was
done with perfection, especially his own private cathedral that he
went to every morning at 10am with his family. The gardens and
grounds even have their own 'grand canal', and he had gondoliers
brought in from Venice with their gondolas, paid to go up and down
this man-made canal. Amanda most enjoys the beautiful grounds that
seem like they stretch on forever.
1pm –We decide
to take a picture of Eiffel Tower in the daylight this time. It
was a dreary day, but a fill-in flash does wonders for our facial
lighting. If it could only do the same for the Eiffel Tower. We
find a great secret photo spot with trees and buildings. C'est
fantastique!
230pm: Museé
Louvre: The largest and most visited museum in the world. Large
does not even begin to describe this museum. I think Labyrinth
would more aptly describe this maze of exhibitions. If you don't
get lost at least 20 times, you're not doing enough exploring. We
saw the Mona Lisa (and yes, it is smaller than you think, but
intriguing), the Venus de Mil
o,
and Winged Victory. To see original statues that are hundreds of
years old, or 4000 years old,
is breath-taking. To think that these are the same
statues that were around at the time that Jesus Christ walked the
earth is phenomenal. Another favorite section of ours is the
Egyptian section with hieroglyphics, many sarcophagi, and a real,
genuine mummy. It took us just under 4 hours to see a fraction of
what the museum had to offer. We hope to be back one day to finish
off the rest.
630pm: We find
free Wi-Fi in the Louvre mall, and send a quick email to our
family. They will have to wait until we get back for all of the
pictures and the real deal on the story!
840pm: After
dinner, we rush back to the local supermarket for some last minute
items and breakfast for the next morning (yup, the yummy coconut
yogurt is addictive). When we were checking out, the store was
closing in 5 minutes and the cashier was getting frantic, trying
to finish everybody before the store closed. A man, presumably the
manager, in front shouted out commands to open and close tills. A
curt 'bonjour' after checking most of our items was quickly
followed by "Quel numero?" She was referring to the banana I had
in the bag. I stared back blankly. "Quel est le numero pour la
banana!?" she questioned again more intently than before,
hammering the banana against the bar code scanner three times
quickly. I don’t know. It’s a banana. Isn’t that obvious? "Je ne
sais pas," I say back, and she tosses the banana to the side. Wow
- they are serious about codes on their fruit! No banana for me, I
see!
930pm: We settle
in for the night after first grabbing a famous French "Crepe Pomme",
or apple crepe. Delicious. We are looking forward to our amazing
coconut yogurt tomorrow morning, take two.
To London we
go... or not
Thursday Oct 17
4am - The alarm
goes off. Keep in mind that this is 10pm on Wednesday, EST.
5am - We
finalize packing and check out of the hotel
515am - We wait
for the Metro to open to get to the airport by 8:05 to check in
for our flight.
530am - The
Metro was supposed to open at 5:15 am, right?
545 am - Why
hasn't the Metro opened yet? We're going to be late. We start
walking-and-“pegging.”
6am - We reach
the next metro station. Amanda's feet are hurting from the past
few days of marathon walking. At least this Metro stop is open. We
descend to the depths of the Paris Metro.
615am - Why
isn't the metro coming? And why is the time the metro is coming
flashing and continually changing? Does 2 dots for the time mean
that it is not going to come at all?
630am - We
figure that the Metro may be down, but at least if we walked to
Gare de Nord, or North Station, we could catch the train that goes
up to the airport for Charles de Gaulle. We exit the metro stage
left, bump into some very helpful Parisians, and get very good
directions.
640am- Amanda's
feet start to hurt more, and she starts to lose feeling in her
right foot. We press on.
645am - We
finally reach Gare de Nord, and proceed down to the RER B line for
the train to the airport. Why is there nobody here? A newsstand
kiosk worker informs us in English that the train is not running
because there is a strike for the rail workers that day, and that
most people are taking taxi cabs to the airport. We head back
upstairs, confused.
7am - Try to
find a taxi cab, but after asking a few, none of them go to the
airport. Besides, the trip would have to be less than 25 euros,
which was all the cash we had left. We go back inside to weigh the
options and pray for direction.
745am - Ryan
runs around trying to find information on airport transportation.
Amanda sits and starts to freeze while guarding our bags and
valuables, watching the French military with their black berets
pace the station with their machine guns.
820am - We
decide that calling Pastor Michael of Calvary Chapel Paris was the
best idea to see what he suggested. Rental cars? All sold out.
Taxi cabs? Nobody will go to the airport. Blue shuttle? Don't know
the phone number (they have reservations for door-to-door
service). He kindly offers to help more once he returns home from
taking two of his three daughters to school.
845am - After
praying & deciding that it is better find a taxi that can take us
to the airport than spend another night, we start toward the taxi
line. We exchange money into Euros for a highway robbery exchange
rate (Ryan is mad) to ensure we have enough for the taxi fare.
9am - As we are
standing in line, we overhear a mother and daughter trying to get
to Charles de Gaulle as well, and we offer to split the fare with
them. They agree. Friends forever.
910am - We
finally find a taxi that will take us to the airport, and now at
half the fare with our new friends. Unfortunately we miss our
flight from Paris to London. Did we mention that ticket was
non-refundable?
1010am - After
traversing several concourses in the sprawling Charles de Gaulle
aiport, we arrive at the Delta ticket center. We had no place to
stay in London, didn't make our flight because the train workers
were on strike, and were both exhausted. Not to mention, Amanda's
feet were nearing the 'numb' stage since her new shoes were still
being broken in. We looked back on why God impressed on us both
not to get a hotel room in London, and now we understand - we were
not meant to go to London. Paris would be our one and only stop on
this voyage.
1030am - The
friendly staff of Air France helps to check us in before the
flight finishes boarding. We race to get to the gate, which has an
estimated walking time of 5-10 minutes. We made it in 5. After
quickly changing our clothes, the gate was in the final boarding
process. Amanda was waiting for Ryan as he exited the 'toilette'
and handed the gate agent the standby request card. Two first
class seats were handed back to us. The last two first class
seats, as we came to find out. Praise God for HIS faithfulness to
His kids!
105pm EST –
(on airplane) Ryan pulls up his in-flight map to see that we
are over Lancaster, Pennsylvania going 512 mph with 1:15 remaining
in the flight. We have already traveled 3842 miles, and are now on
the final leg of our journey home. Even though this trip didn't
turn out like we thought, it does have a happy ending. Both of us
feel as though the trip has closure, and we feel blessed see other
parts of the world like this.
Afterthought:
One thing that we have discovered in our world travels. Cultures
are different, dialects are different, traditions are different,
but people are the same. They have the same wants, needs, desires
and hopes. And the best part is, if we choose to, we can all serve
the same God who loves us and has redeemed us from sin and death
with His Son’s blood.
Photo Gallery - Bon Voyage. Oui, Oui!