Within 24 hours of the previous post, I had all the necessary accommodations and tickets booked. Turns out I'll be spending almost the entire time in Paris! I arrive in London on a Tuesday, early afternoon. Tuesday I'll stay with my friend John (Kiwi UK-citizen I was on the India project with) at his place near the Tower Bridge. Wednesday AM I have an early train to Paris, arriving there late morning. Wednesday and Thursday night, I am staying in a 2-star hotel in Montmartre (I decided against the hostels for a variety of convenience reasons). The hotel should be perfect though. It received great reviews (clean, safe, friendly staff, great location), and I'm sharing a 3-bed room with other travelers, which is what I wanted. It makes it so much cheaper, and it's still an opportunity to meet people. There is one bathroom for the room, which again, is much better than the hostels. Total price for the two nights is somewhere around 73 Euros (about $90).
Friday night after work, John joins me in Paris, and we check into a Le Meridien Hotel using my, what else, points! (I'm still wavering between the one near the Champs-Elysees and the one in Montparnasse - any suggestions between the neighborhoods?). Despite all John's European travels the past several years, he's never actually made it to Paris, so we will have fun being tourists and enjoying vin rouge together in the city of lights for a three-day weekend. We return on the Eurostar to London Monday night, and I fly out to San Francisco the next morning.
For a last minute trip to Europe, this is coming together quite nicely! I've already bought and perused through a Paris tour book, picking out a few things I want to do that I never had the opportunity to on my previous trips. I spent a total of nearly 2 weeks in Paris in 1999, but never made it to the Museum of Modern Art in the Pompidou center, the Picasso Museum, the Rodin Museum, or walked around the Ile St. Louis, the smaller island next to the Ile de la Cite that Notre Dame is on. I also still need to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower!
I'm very excited about this trip, and the planning is just part of the fun!
...follow my adventures with me when you can, and meet up with me along the way whenever possible. Cheers!
1 comment:
In spite of the fact that I really like to plan things, what you say here reminds me how much more organized and how much more of a planner you are. I mean, "last minute"? Dude, you had more than three weeks lead time. That's impressive.
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