Trip to Holy Land - Day One

George and I have always wanted to see the Holy Land and definitely had this on our "bucket list."  Well, this was the year we finally were able to make it happen--and who better to go with than three of my siblings and their spouses?  Doug and Joyce, Jerry and Shelly, and Blair and Denise.  We were so disappointed that Larry and Beverly weren't able to go due to health reasons, but hope and pray that he will soon be better so they can join us on our next excursion!

Doug and Joyce, George and I decided to stay for three days in Paris prior to going on to Jordan since we were flying through Paris anyway.  This turned out to be an added bonus!

And we're off!  All smiles now, but traveling all through the night to France with a little two-year old girl across the aisle screaming the whole way (with the dad screaming even louder at her!), didn't make for any sleep at all!

And what is this?  A 4-oz can of Diet Coke will never do!  We had to get used to no ice and no tall, cool ones for most of the next two weeks!  Such a difficult sacrifice!

 Arriving in France at 11:00 a.m., we were pretty tired!   After going through all the customs, we found Joyce at the luggage retrieval, but no Doug.  He couldn't find his passport when they got up to customs, and ended up going back to the plane.  Long story short, the passport was in the luggage Joyce had, and finally the whole thing was worked out after about an hour and a half.  We then boarded our shuttle and headed for our hotel in downtown Paris.

This quaint little hotel only had 35 rooms in it, but it was very clean and centrally located.  

This is a large room by European standards!

 Our view from our little balcony.

Our view in our room--the entire wall was covered with these two pictures.  Interesting, huh?!

The rooms weren't ready yet, so we rested and bit and then all four of us walked to the Eiffel Tower which was about 20 minutes away.
 
 It was such a beautiful evening for a walk.

 We stopped at a little sidewalk cafe and had wonderful salads and burgers.


 We then continued our walk to the Tower.


When we walked to this exact spot, George told of the experience he had with my dad, mother, sister, and brothers when they were touring France after picking my brother Blair up in Italy after his two-year Mormon mission there.  My brother Jerry broke the rental car key off in the ignition, and they all had to sleep in the van overnight until they could get a locksmith the next morning.  It was an experience they will never forget!



Crossing the bridge over the Seine River.

And there it was--bigger than life!

We watched them load the boats for the river cruise which we would be doing the next day.

Currently, they have scaffolding while they are working on the first floor to make it a beautiful attraction for visitors.

We walked around the Tower, then headed through the park by it.

The famous double-decker merry-go-round that is right in front of the Eiffel Tower.

I took this picture for all my grand daughters who love the princess carriages.  I've never seen one on a merry-go-round before!

Before going to bed, George, Joyce, and I went to a little grocery store where we bought yogurt and throwaway bowls and spoons to eat our breakfast of granola each day.  We couldn't believe we were in Paris!!!!  (By the way, thanks so much to my sister Joyce for being able to use her journal to remember all of these events!  She's so diligent in keeping great records!)