Finally...the end of Europe!

I figured I should finally finish our European vacation. It's funny how easily our memories fade. I've been looking at the pictures and trying to determine which days we did what, but the date stamp on my camera was off from the date stamp on Brads...yadda yadda. Paris is definitely somewhere that I would like to go back to someday. I'd like to explore outside of the main parts of the city and go to Moulin Rouge and Sacre Coeur, so that'll be on the agenda for the next time. I'd also love to venture outside of Paris altogether and explore other cities in France. But we'll save my vacation fantasies for another post.

Our second full day in Paris was actually our anniversary. It was so nice! Since we had done so many things on the Wednesday prior we got to kind of relax and take it slow on our anniversary. We woke up in the morning and started off the day climbing all 1,000+ steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower (and back down).



The funny story about those colored ivy leaves is that they are hiding Brad's pocket knife. We had bought our tickets to go up the tower and go through the security and Brad set off the alarm. The security people told him to get rid of it. So we went for a little walk in the park area adjacent to the tower where Brad found a lovely pile of fall leaves where he stashed his knife for safe keeping. Brad told the security after we went through the second time that "he had put it on the bus." Since there are so many tour buses, it's highly believable. So we went on our merry way and when we were finished the knife was still waiting in that pile of leaves.



The view from the top was amazing! I wish there wasn't so much smog, but all in all it was a beautiful day. There were a lot of people, but it wasn't horribly crowded. I'm thinking that it could have been much worse.



My legs were pretty sore after all the stair climbing, so I was very happy that we didn't have a full schedule! After our work-out we went back to our hotel and found a bite to eat, then took a little afternoon nap. When we woke up we decided to go and investigate a car show. We had seen posters in the metro for the car show,and actually, when I was looking at hotel rooms before we planned this trip I kept seeing "no vacancies" because of this car show that happens every two years or something. So we ventured out again, and found some lovely specimens on display.



This car show was HUGE! It spanned 3 or 4 buildings, but we didn't make it to all of them. One thing I was not happy about was the lack of air conditioning pretty much everywhere. Once we got into the first building full of bodies and cars the temperature reached an unbearable high in my mind. We saw a ton of really amazing cars and even rode in a simulated 4D ride. The fourth dimension was the fact that they blew hot and cold air on us then sprayed us with water during the simulation. It was a nice cool-down for a few minutes. My favorite car was the Nissan. I know, compared to all the super expensive cars, it's probably a poor choice to focus on, but since I'm the one blogging, I get to dedicate a whole picture to just that car. It's just so cute! I love how it looks like it's smiling and kind of has freckles.



I think it was worth it to come to the car show. Even if we didn't' get to see all the cars. We half-way hoped we would run into someone famous at the show. We were thinking maybe the guys from Top Gear would have been at a place like this, but we didn't spot anyone.



After the car show we headed back to our hotel and went out to dinner. It was the best dinner we had, probably during the whole trip. Then we went to bed and got up early in the morning on the 8th to get our rental car and head to Switzerland! Which is where I'll pick up from next time.