Tomorrow Is Another Day...

Fairy Tale Ending

It was a very sad moment as we left the charming town of Hallstatt behind us, but we took heart in the knowledge that our vacation wasn't quite over yet.  We wound through the mountain roads, and are pretty sure we even caught a glimpse of Hitler's Eagle's Nest tucked high up in the Alpine slopes.  We had a long drive ahead of us to get back to the Ramstein area in Germany, but we had carved out enough time to visit quite possibly the most well-known attraction in Germany--Crazy Ludwig's Schloss (Castle) Neuschwanstein.

We arrived in the small village of Fussen around noon, and felt as though we were driving onto a Disney park.  There were hordes of tourists on foot, a huge fleet of horses and carriages waiting to whisk people up to the castle, and restaurants and souvenier shops dominated the streets.  After a teensy road sign misunderstanding which led to us attempting to drive up a pedestrian only walkway (oops), we found parking and then waded upstream through the crowds to find the ticket shop.  The next English speaking tour wasn't for another few hours, which gave us plenty of time for lunch and a leisurely hike up the hill to explore the area surrounding the castle.  We found the Marienbrucke (Mary's Bridge) overlook which gave postcard worthy views of Neuschwanstein, and also had a view of the mustard yellow Schloss Hohenschwangau where Ludwig grew up, dreaming of building his fairy tale castle in the mountains.

We showed up for our tour time and laughed at the military (Disney?) precision with which tours were conducted.  We were issued a time and a number, and a few minutes before each tour began the number would flash up on a lightboard at the head of a very Disneyesque roped off holding area.  From there we filed into the castle and were taken on a 30 minute tour of the partially completed interior.  Neuschwanstein is most famous for being the castle from which Walt Disney took his inspiration to build his own park castles.  And between the turrets, charming mountain setting, stunning views of nature, and opulent interior, we certainly felt as though we had stepped into Sleeping Beauty's castle.We made it back into Ramstein that night and went to bed shortly after arriving, in preparation for our 4 am wake up call to head to the terminal and attempt to Space A home.  Unfortunately, incompetence reared its ugly head, and the two flights that we should have been able to get on took off without us.  I could go into a long diatribe about this and how angry we were, but after a few hours of steaming over other people's screw ups, we put on our big boy/girl panties and decided to make the best of things.  Nothing was going home the next day, so we were left with one more day in Germany.  And we decided to spend it in beautiful Heidelberg.

Our first order of business was a leisurely outdoor breakfast in the quaint Marktplatz (Market Square), then we toured the mostly ruined Heidelberg Castle.  The castle was begun in the early 1200s, and added on to over the centuries by the various rulers.  It went from a fortress in its early life to a pleasure palace in the 1600s.  Unfortunately, between invading armies and natural disasters, the castle was left in ruins on three separate occasions and has only been partially restored since the 1800s.  Still, it is easy to imagine how impressive this castle must have been in its heyday, and the ruins are quite lovely in their own right.  And of course, one of the most famous residents of the castle is the Heidelberg Tun--the wine barrel capable of holding 220,000 liters of wine and hosting a small party on the small dance floor constructed over its top.

Our next stop was at the University of Heidelberg, where we explored the beautiful Great Hall where students have historically defended their theses, and then the old Studentenkarzer (Student Jail), where from 1778-1914 students were imprisoned for infractions such as carousing in the streets and disturbing the peace.  Over time, it became something as a badge of honor to spend time in the jail and leave your mark through humorous cartoons, poems, and diatribes graffitied onto the wall.

Finally, we headed across the river for a cardiovascular workout on the Philosphenweg (Philosopher's Walk), named thusly because the stunning views of Heidelberg are said to inspire philosophical thoughts.  We were mainly inspired to sweat, but there were some beautiful views as well.  The walk took us back into the center of Heidelberg through an old city gate, and after a quick stop for a sandwich, we were in the car and once more heading back to Ramstein.  A friend was kind enough to drive us the hour and a half to Spangdahlem Air Force Base that night so that we could be there in time for a very early morning flight the next day.  Happily, we were boarded on that flight, and after a nap on our air mattress and a gas stop in Newfoundland, we landed in Charleston.

Thanks for humoring me as I recapped our trip!  We had such an amazing time, and I can honestly say that this was my favorite trip abroad that we've taken together.  It was the perfect combination of relaxation and sight-seeing, and I can't believe how much of western Europe we were able to experience in just a couple of weeks.  Now, more than ever, we really hope that some day we'll get the chance to live in Europe, but until then, we'll enjoy these memories and hope to make it back again some day soon!

The Hills Are, In Fact, Alive With the Sound of Music

So, getting back to wrapping up our European vacation, our next stop after Munich was Salzburg, Austria.  While France was our favorite country for its architectural and cultural aspects, Austria was by far the most amazing display of glorious nature.  Between the mountains, the crystal clear rivers and streams, and the perfectly pristine air, we felt like we had found heaven on Earth.

We had one day to take in quaint and beautiful Salzburg, and we once more turned to our pal Rick Steves for his city walking tour.  It gave us a great overview of the city and its Mozart-centric history.  The yellow house in the first picture above is the house where Mozart was born, though he evidently grew up across the river in a different house.  He is also the central figure in the Mozartplatz in a statue that Mozart fans claim is a terrible resemblance.  One of our favorite moments was while wandering in the square around the Salzburg Cathedral, we found a talented balalaika quartet playing Mozart tunes.
After lunch at a beer garden overlooking the city, we hiked up a hill to the imposing Salzburg fortress.  The fortress was so effective, that it was never actually attacked by a foreign army--well done fortress builders!  It was a fascinating look at medieval "emergency preparedness" with an entire miniature city located within the walls and room for thousands of citizens of the town below to take refuge in case of attack.  It also offered a gorgeous aerial view of Salzburg and the Salzach River. From Salzburg, we made the drive into the Dachstein mountains to spend a couple of days in the UNESCO World Heritage site, Hallstatt, Austria.  This tiny fairytale town is perched in a breathtaking valley right on the banks of the Hallstatter See (lake) and is one of the towns that makes up the Salzkammergut region.  We splurged on a fabulous room in a family run pension, and the views above are the ones we had the priviledge of waking up to each morning.  It was very easy to imagine running away from the real world and living in the middle of such perfection every day.

Our first excursion after arriving was to the salt mines above the city.  Archeologists have found evidence that the salt mines have been in use for 7,000 years, and were the original industry of the village--long before tourists discovered its more leisurely qualities!  We donned our heavy-duty mining gear, then made our way into the mine, by turns walking, taking a mining train, and even whizzing down long miners' slides!  When we got back to our room, a thunder storm was rumbling in, so we took the opportunity to take a long nap with the windows open, before heading out for dinner and a little more exploring.

The next morning, we started our day with breakfast at a hotel down by the water, then walked up to the village church to visit the Charnel House.  All over Austria, grave sites are not purchased, they are rented.  Every 10 to 20 years, a bill is mailed to the family members to renew the lease, and if the bill is not paid, the headstone is removed and the grave is reused.  In Hallstatt, the villagers faced the complication of finding enough space for all of their dead over the generations.  Their solution was to bury the body for 10-20 years, then dig up the bones, bleach them, decorate them and place them in the Charnel House.  Now there is a cemetery outside of the village where people can be buried, so there is no longer the need to place bones in the small chapel, but it does still make for an eerie and fascinating visit!
We spent the afternoon hiking around in the Dachstein mountains.  Our first stop was the Mammoth Caves, which are enormous naturally formed caves in the mountains.  Of course, being literal Americans, we waited up until the last moment to spot a prehistoric mammal, but none were to be found.  From there, we visited the Ice Caves, where each year water melts and refreezes in stunning formations.  It's difficult to show much perspective in the photos since of course we weren't allowed to walk near the ice, but the formations were so large that they towered over our heads even as we climbed stairs and peered down into gaping chasms.

We exited the dark caves and hiked over to the terrifying Five Points overlook, dangling precariously off the side of the mountain.  Okay, so maybe it was very firmly anchored, but I can guarantee you I did not feel that way when I was clutching white knuckled to the rails, a terrified smile plastered firmly on my face.  In that photo of me behind the frame, my heels were hanging over the edge of the platform into NOTHINGNESS, and Colby took FOREVER to find the right settings before I could finally flee back to the safety of solid ground.  But it was a beautiful spot, and we spent about an hour watching a multitude of insane individuals strap on a parachute and leap off the mountain to glide down to the valley below.  Our vacation was drawing near to its close, and Hallstatt was the perfect stop along the way to recharge our batteries and experience the beauty and majesty of the Austrian mountains.

Pretzels, Beer & Zee Autobahn

After our amazing day on the beaches of Normandy, we loaded down our clown car once more, and made the long drive to Munich.  It took a full day, so we took turns at the wheel.  I wish I could say that we took full advantage of the no speed restriction zones on the autobahn, but unfortunately our poor little Citroen just wasn't up to the challenge.  The highest speed she was even capable of reaching was 170 kph (105 mph), and I think the fastest I could actually get her up to was 150 kph (93 mph) when we were coasting down a hill.  We did love the very explicit rules about only using the far left lane to pass, and that trucks and slow cars actually stayed in the right lane except for passing.
Ah, Munich.  We liked Munich.  It had its own charm, and who wouldn't love an entire city devoted to the mission of turning everyone who enters its borders into a raging alcoholic.  Except... we didn't really love it.  In all fairness to Munich, I think it was a case of misinformed expectations and that last photo in the grouping above--CONSTRUCTION.  EVERYWHERE.  Loud, smelly construction.  EVERYWHERE.  I was not expecting Munich to be such a big city and that the historic downtown would be so small.  I was expecting a bit more quaintness.  That said, we did enjoy our two days there, and we didn't regret including it in our travels.  Our first stop was at the Marienplatz to meet up with another Sandeman New Europe free walking tour, so we kicked things off with the Rathaus-Glockenspiel show at 10 am, then enjoyed a wonderful three hour overview of the city.

After the walking tour, we stopped at a beautiful Rick Steves recommended (of course!) beer garden for lunch, then walked back over to the Residenz for a tour of the palace that the kings of Bavaria made their home for generations.  One of the things that we found most fascinating about Munich is that after the city was levelled by bombs in WWII, the citizens decided that rather than speedily erecting a brand new city (a la Tokyo), they would painstakingly recreate each historic road and building.  Because they didn't have much in the way of financing and were in a hurry to have a semi-completed city by the 1972 summer Olympics, many of the buildings were finished with a painted facade to simulate architectural details.  You can see this effect in the picture above of me with the bronze lion.  Because of this approach post-WWII construction is going on to this day as they slowly update the facades with the actual stones and moldings as they get the money and time.  Absolutely amazing.

When we finished our tour of the Residenz, we went outside to visit Dodger's Alley.  Munich and Bavaria were the birthplace of National Socialism and where Hitler began his rise to power in the 1920s.  He gave many of his infamous speeches in the Odeonsplatz, which was also one of the sites of Hitler's failed 1923 revolution, known as the Beer Hall Putsch, where some of the Nazi Stormtroopers were killed.  Once Hitler attained power, he erected a memorial to the Nazis who had died in the revolution, and set two Nazi soldiers to guard it.  Any Munich resident who passed this way was forced to salute the guards and the memorial or face arrest.  Many citizens who did not support the Nazi regime took to diverting down the alley pictured above to avoid the memorial.  Once the Nazis figured out what was going on, they stationed a guard at the alley to question people and take their names and if they were seen taking this route more than once, they were sent to Dachau for "reeducation".  The bravery of these people who quietly stood up for what they believed has been memorialized in a row of golden stones on the road.  Finally, we walked over to the English garden to see Munich's most unexpected sight--surfers in the park!
The next morning, we began our day with a sobering visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp.  This was one of the smaller of the most "well-known" camps, and was used as a reeducation camp, not as a mass execution site.  You can see in the pictures above that there were crematoriums and a gas chamber, but the chamber was never used in the way that you hear of in camps like Auschwitz.  It was tested a few times, and of course, many, many people died at the camp, but Hitler preferred to keep the mass execution sites outside of Germany.  We were lucky enough to arrive at the camp just before an English language tour began, and our guide was excellent and engaging, and I feel that we were able to get so much more out of the experience than if we had tried to see it on our own.
We were pretty emotionally and physically drained after Dachau--we'd been going non-stop for over a week at that point--and we needed a break.  We decided to skip the art museum that we'd planned to visit and go back to the room for a relaxing afternoon and a nap.  Once we were refreshed, we headed back out into the night for the obligatory visit to the Hofbrauhaus.  I wasn't expecting great things since it is unabashedly a huge tourist trap, but I must admit that our food was pretty good, and it was fun chugging down a 1 liter beer (okay, okay, it was a Ruß'n--white beer with lemonade)!  We did get very lucky that it was a beautiful evening, and we scored a perfect table on the balcony overlooking the beer garden.  A perfectly German end to our time in Munich.

Storming the Beaches

Unexpectedly, one of my favorite days on our trip was the one that we spent driving around to some of the main D-Day invasion sites.  I've always had an interest in World War II, and Colby and I even took a WWII history class together in college, but out of all of the amazing things we had on our itinerary for our two weeks in Europe, I didn't think that the Normandy beaches would be so moving, beautiful, and enthralling.  We visited the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach and agreed that it was the most beautiful military cemetery that we've had the honor of visiting.  We explored Omaha Beach, Point du Hoc, Grandcamp Maisy--a recently uncovered German battery, Utah Beach, St. Mere Eglise--famous for the American paratrooper who was caught on the spire of the village church, and Gold Beach where the British military invaded and set up the mulberry harbors--remnants of which are still present and in remarkable condition.

One of the things that struck us as we made our way through France, Germany and Austria is just how present World War II is in so many ways--memorials in churches and village squares, Allied flags flying on narrow, winding streets, remnants of battlefields on the outlying acreage of a farmer's fields.  I think in America, we tend to think of it as being such a long time ago--since then we've been involved in the Korean War, Vietnam, the Cold War, the Gulf Wars... World War II has a tendency to be remembered as a more quaint, romantic war featuring strapping GIs and plucky Rosie the Riveters.  But walking through those battlefields, seeing the the scars that remain on buildings, the craters and bunkers that still sprinkle the beaches as children play in the surf, we were reminded of the horror of that war that we fought on a faraway soil, and the irrepressible beauty and strength of the countries and the people left standing to rebuild and memorialize.

Omaha Beach
 

Point du Hoc

Utah Beach
 

St. Mere Eglise

German Cemetery at La Cambe

Gold Beach

Au Revoir, Paris. Bonjour, Normandy!

For our last day in Paris, we had saved one of the most visited sites in France--the palace of Versailles.  After researching various methods of visiting Versailles, we determined that the most appealing was the one that involved wheels and wine.  So, once more we met up with a Fat Tire bike tour, rode to the train station and headed west.

Our first stop, once we arrived in the town of Versailles, was at the market, where we loaded up on Camembert, melon, duck rillete, a bottle of red, and enough bread to ensure that we would not starve for many days.  We then packed our supplies and biked to the palace park entrance, cruising past Marie Antoinette's hamlet, the Grand and Petit Trianon, and finally settling in a shady spot by the Grand Canal with the impressive palace as our backdrop.  We proceeded to spend the next hour or so lounging in the soft cool grass, enjoying a leisurely picnic with our fellow tour members.  It was one of the highlights of the trip, and we were all left giggling at the idea of a tour in the United States actually encouraging drinking then bicycling.

Just before we all slipped into a post-lunch slumber, our tour guide rallied us back to our mounts, and we continued along the path around the canal, up to the palace.  At that point, we were issued our tickets and set loose in the interior.  It was... underwhelming.  I remember years ago, going to a touring exhibition that included a mock up of the Hall of Mirrors, and since that day dreaming of visiting it someday for myself.  Unfortunately, far too many people are allowed to enter the palace at one time, and instead of feeling the splendor and grandeur of the rooms, you are far too aware of all the sweating, elbowing tourists pressing in around you.  Fortunately, the Hall of Mirrors was a big enough room that we were able to catch our breath and appreciate the magnificence, but the rest of the experience was sorely lacking.  We agreed we would have been much happier lounging on the lawn for another hour instead.

To celebrate our last night in beautiful Paris, we made one last pass by our old friend Le Tour Eiffel, and then had the pleasure of meeting up with a lifelong friend of Colby's who just happened to be staying in a hotel in the same area as we were.  It was just one of those funny coincidences, only discovered through the power of Facebook status updates.  After talking over a bottle of wine, we went our separate ways and Colby and I metroed over to Montmarte, a little too late to catch the sunset, but in perfect time to gain a beautiful view of Paris at dusk.  Unfortunately, that's when a devil of a migraine hit me--and not just one of those bad headaches that people call migraines, but the full nausea, sensitivity to light. eye searing joy of the real deal.  I really wanted to find the Moulin Rouge, but when after dinner I was literally whimpering while walking down the street and trying not to cry every time we came in view of a streetlight, we decided to call it a night.  Not the best way for our time in Paris to draw to an end, but these things happen.
My head was still feeling slightly bruised and achy the next morning, but lucky for me it was a much quieter day.  We loaded up our car once more and made the hour and a half drive west to Giverny to visit Claude Monet's house and gardens.  I have a special place in my heart for Monet because his artwork always reminds me of my little sister, and I love his vibrant impressionist scenes.  So when I saw that his home lay on the drive to the D-day invasion beaches, we decided that we had time for a detour.
   
The garden was absolutely charming, and the waterlily pond and bridges were exactly what I'd always imagined.  We found that Normandy is sort of France's version of Seattle, and the frequent rain showers make for stunning plantlife.  We spent the better part of an hour weaving our way through the emerald, shadowy paths and it wasn't hard to see how a person could be inspired to paint masterpieces in such a setting.  With plenty of day still left ahead of us, we continued on in our journey and drove another couple of hours to the quaint town of Bayeux.  We had just enough time to visit the Notre Dame de Bayeux, and of course every history geek's favorite wall hanging, the Bayeux tapestry.  Sadly, this is also when we discovered that it is possible to travel with two camera batteries and still have both of them crap out on you at the same time, so I have no photographic evidence of that evening's adventures which also included my first encounter with escargot.  And it was AMAZING!

The City of Lights

Before our trip, whenever I would mention that we were planning to go to Paris, I would brace myself for the barrage of negative comments.  The food isn't good.  The people are rude.  It's so overrated.  I rarely heard anyone who had actually been there say a nice thing about the city.  So while my expectations were incredibly high, I was also expecting to be terribly disappointed.  I could not have disagreed more with all of the detractors.  I am absolutely mad about Paris.  It is a breathtakingly beautiful city.  No, the people aren't warm and fuzzy, but absolutely no one made me feel uncomfortable and while I would make an effort to speak French, almost everyone was willing to speak with me in English if they were able.  If not, they found someone who could speak English, or we just made do with "pointy-talky".  A commenter yesterday leveled the accusation of photoshop on our photos, and the only thing I can say to that is no, Paris is just that beautiful.  It is like strolling through a painting.
On Thursday, we got an early start with a quick visit to Notre Dame, before meeting up with a Sandeman's New Europe Paris Walking Tour.  We had a great experience with this "free" tour in both Paris and Munich, gaining a wonderful overview of each city with high energy, well-informed young guides.  I put free in quotes because while technically there is no charge, the guides are working for tips only, so we gave each guide 20 EUR at the end of each tour.  Still, 10 EUR each for 3-4 hour walking tours is still quite a steal!  We covered many of the same points as the night bike tour, but this time in the light of day.  My favorite was the beautiful Tuileries Gardens behind the Louvre, which led to a horde of lounging Parisians and tourists around a pond facing the gold tipped obelisk on Place de la Concorde.
After our walking tour and a quick lunch, we went to L'Orangerie to see their small but extremely high quality collection of Monet's waterlilies and other impressionist and modern painters including Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Matisse and more.  This is also where we bought our Paris Museum Pass, which I would highly recommend if you're planning to go to at least four of the sites covered.  We bought a two day pass and from then on were allowed to skip most lines at the other sites (not including security lines, of course), and made for a great time saver.  After L'Orangerie, we walked over to Rue Royal for one of my favorite moments of the trip--macarons at Laduree!  Each of the pastries was perfectly crispy on the outside and melt in your mouth delicious.  It was decadent and classy and just so perfectly Parisian.  Checking things off my 30 Before 30 list right and left!

That evening, we went to a Vivaldi concert inside the stunningly beautiful Sainte-Chapelle church.  It was certainly the smallest church we saw on our trip, but with the walls of stain glass windows and delicately carved stone, it felt like being inside a jeweled music box.  We still had enough energy left in us by the end of the day to head over to the Eiffel Tower for a night time view of the city.  We managed to time it perfectly so that when we exited the elevator, the lights had started twinkling.  So romantic! Friday, we put on our walking shoes, mustered up our courage and made our way to the Louvre.  Everyone from Rick Steves to our tour guides had hammered into our heads the importance of going to the "secret entrance" (that everyone knows about) at the Porte de Lions to avoid the scary line at the Pyramid entrance.  So, being intrepid adventurers, we went against the flow of people walking toward the Pyramid and found the lions.  Unfortunately, we also found that the Porte de Lions entrance is closed on Fridays.  So, consulting Rick once more, we discovered that the second best entrance is from the mall below the Louvre.  That gave us a short ten minute security wait, then with Museum Pass in hand, we were officially in!  My favorite piece was the impressively placed Winged Victory, and we also got a kick out of the massive crowd of camera-wielding tourists crushing in around poor old Mona.

After about 3 hours of tromping through the Louvre, we gave our feet a break, and took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe, exiting the station right at the massive 12 lane roundabout encircling the arch.  This was another of my favorite experiences as the views of the city were beautiful, the sun was shining, and there were plenty of spots to take a seat and relax over Paris!  I was also excited to find my mother's maiden name listed as one of the French generals who have a place of honor inside the arch.  My people!
  
And not quite done torturing our buns and thighs, we made our way back over to Notre Dame to make the climb up to the bell tower and play Quasimodo.  I loved getting up close and personal with the gargoyles and chimera, and again it was a beautiful aerial view of Paris, though I didn't love that after our hour long wait in line, they limited us to five minutes at the top.  After we descended, we had our best meal in Paris at Orangerie (not to be confused with the Monet museum!) on the Ile St. Louis, finishing our day with a delicious stop at Amorino Gelato--Berthillon's biggest competitor for a reason--and a beautiful sunset stroll along the Seine.

The Grand Tour Begins

I'm baaaaaaack!!!!  We got home from EUROPE (!!!) last Thursday after a few shenanigans pulled by the Air Force when we tried to get home on Tuesday.  That just resulted in a bonus amazing day in Germany after a supremely amazing almost three weeks traveling through France, Germany and Austria.  An amazingness that is currently reflected in the harsh reality of our credit card bill.  Man, we had a really good time.  Yikes.
On Sunday, August 14, we got on a flight from Charleston to Dover that was then connecting on to Germany.  However, they were picking up cargo in Dover, and we weren't confident that there was going to be room for passengers as well.  Lucky for us, the pilot was one of Colby's friends from Washington who had also moved to Charleston, so he worked extra hard to release seats for us.  Much to our surprise, we found ourselves heading across the ocean at two o'clock in the morning.  Once we got over the shock, we blew up our air mattress and slept for the next five hours, woke up to eat our box lunches, and I barely had time to get involved in my book before we were landing at Spangdahlem AFB.  Our pals from Ramstein were kind enough to come pick us up, and while we waited I took advantage of the free wifi to start making hotel inquiries and booking some tours in Paris.

We spent that evening and the next day in Ramstein hanging out with our friends and making arrangements for the next couple of weeks of our trip.  On Wednesday, August 17th, we loaded up in our tiny little Citroen C1 and made the five hour drive to Paris.
We checked into the charming Hotel Londres Eiffel, then set out with Rick Steves to get to know our neighborhood.  We squealed with excitement when we saw the Eiffel Tower soaring above all of the nearby buildings just a few blocks away.  We walked a couple of streets over and strolled down bustling Rue Cler, finally settling on Cafe du Marche for an early dinner and some spectacular people watching.  We were already beginning to teeter dangerously close to the precipice of falling completely in love with Paris, and that night we took a tour that sealed the deal.  We met at the South leg of the Eiffel Tower at 7:00 pm, and about half an hour later I was flying down the street on my shiny red cruiser.  I hadn't ridden a bike since a pretty bad experience on a different vacation about five years ago, so my expectations were fair to middling.  But I'd heard from multiple sources that the best way to see Paris is by bicycle, and dammit, I am nothing if not determined to squeeze every possible amount of fun out of any destination and to do it in the best way possible.
  And much to my surprise, after a rocky first few moments, I remembered the joy of feeling the wind in your hair and how to pump your legs extra hard to get those few moments of easy cruising.  It truly was perfect.  We biked around to many of the main sites--Notre Dame, the Louvre, and of course stopping to get some of the justifiably famous Berthillon ice cream--then just as the sun began to set, we boarded a boat cruise on the Seine and drifted down the river with a perpetually full glass of red wine, all of the beautiful monuments lit up against an inky black sky and the Eiffel Tower twinkling in the distance.After the cruise, we made another pass by the Eiffel Tower, getting there just in time for the 11 o'clock twinkles, then it was back to the bike shop to return our cruisers.  If you happen to find yourself in Paris, I cannot recommend the Fat Tire tours highly enough.  We did two of them (more on that later) and could not have been more impressed by our experiences and our guides.  Once our bikes were locked up for the night, we made the leisurely walk back to our room, already completely mad about Paris and looking forward to our next three days in the City of Lights.