21 Adventerous Days in Europe on a
Rick Steves Tour
Europe Bound!
Today I woke up feeling quite sad - it was our last full day on the tour. It was surreal to think we were coming to the close of this experience. We had grown quite close to our tour buddies and had so enjoyed discovering the world with them. Luckily our last day was packed with some wonderful experiences and we were ready to enjoy every last one of them.
It’s hard to pick one wow moment for the day but ultimately I would say taking in the art at the Louvre. It was a wonderful to experience so many classics and to have a guide make them come alive.
France
Paris
May 24, 2013
Tour Day 20
Wow Moment
Food
For lunch we stopped in at a random spot and enjoyed quiche lorraine, cobbler, and a pop - nothing too special.
For dinner we enjoyed French onion soup, beef and fries, and crème brulee. It was so good that I forgot to take a picture of most of it. Delish!
Travel Tip
Pickpockets exist everywhere and especially places with lots of tourists. While we were in the Lourve our guide warned us several times to be aware of pickpockets. Mike and I both used money belts, and typically had either paperclips "locking" our backpack zippers or had our bags in front of us where we could see them. Because of this we never worried about having our stuff stolen. Even if someone had attempted to take our stuff, we at least had the most important things in our money belt.
We started the day off right - at the Louvre. We had a phenomenal guide who got us past long lines to major masterpieces without almost any crowd. She was probably my favorite guide we had and was another affirmation that going with the tour was the right choice for us.
As soon as we entered the museum she was pointing things out that would have gone unnoticed without her. She hustled us over to the Mona Lisa, which typically has hordes and hordes of people but when we arrived there were probably less than ten.
It was so nice to take a moment and just sit there to soak in the piece. It was a surreal experience to see something in person that I had seen so many times before.
I would never been able to take this shot with out the skillful maneuvering of our guide.
We continued on and our guide continued to enlighten us with her vast knowledge. We kept passing masterpiece after masterpiece from the Winged Victory to the Code of Hammurabi. It was a great experience.
I'm constantly amazed by what can be done with marble...
Afterwards Mike and I purchased a museum pass and then headed to the Orsay. We stopped for some lunch to give our eyes and brains a break. We then explored the Orsay. The Orsay is an art museum that used to be a train station. It has a light and airy feel to it. As soon as you walk in you see the major part of the museum and it is filled with white classical statues. We wandered around enjoying arts of all kinds - including impressionistic art and pieces by Van Gogh.
Next we headed to the Rodin museum. I was particularly interested in seeing the Thinker as I have always thought it was a powerful statue and we have a little mini Thinker in our apartment. It was very cool to see it in person and all the other statues done by Rodin.
Ultimately, we visited
Napoleon’s Tomb. The tomb was massive and caused me to be a little awestruck.
Mike and I headed to the hotel to rest a bit before our last group dinner together. We all gathered in our hotel lobby and headed to the restaurant. We enjoyed our last hours together reminiscing and sharing with each other our favorite moments. One member sang a song summarizing our experience and another impersonated Reid and the difficulties in leading a group of wayward travelers. We shared many laughs. Reid gave each of us a postcard and said he hopes he touched our lives in some way- if he only knew!
Mike tapping into his French side!
We then headed out to our last activity together - a river cruise. Paris is beautiful at night, especially when viewing it from the River Seine. The moon was full and was the perfect backdrop to the City of Light. We made our way back to the hotel, said our goodbyes, and headed to our hotel room- feeling surreal that is was all over.
There was no way to capture it but the moon was huge. It was beautiful as it said "au revoir!"
