We reached Calgary airport at 1:15 pm on Wednesday (April 30, 2014) and dropped off our suitcases (we had already checked-in online on Tuesday). Our flight was on time and took off at 3:20 pm. It was a 9 hours long flight.
As soon as the flight took off, I changed the time on my wrist watch to match that of the Western European time zone. Most countries that we will be visiting on this trip (excluding Portugal) follow the same time zone (8 hours ahead of Calgary/3 hours behind Pakistan). That meant that we left Calgary when it was 11:20 pm in Europe. Our plan was to sleep as much as possible during the flight since it corresponded with night time in Europe. To that end, we had woken up early in Calgary at 5 am on Wednesday so that we could sync with European time.
At the start of the flight, we slept for half an hour before being woken up by the complimentary beverage service. We couldn't sleep after that so we watched movies. Samia watched The Hobbit 2 and since it was a long movie, I watched 2 movies in that time - Thor 2 and Paranoia. We were also served dinner during our movie marathon and then we caught some more shut eye time after our movies ended. We slept for about 2 hours and were then woken up by the breakfast service. As always, KLM airlines' food was really good - much better than what is served by most airlines.
We landed in Amsterdam at 8:15 am on Thursday, May 1, 2014 European time. After freshening up, we passed through a very smooth immigration line and then waited at the airport for 2.5 hours before proceeding to the train terminal to catch our train to Paris. We made good use of the one-hour-free-WiFi at the airport during the wait time.
The train left Amsterdam airport at 11:20 am and reached Paris at 2:40 pm, exactly on schedule. It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride and we passed through Rotterdam, Netherlands and Brussels, Belgium on our way to the final destination of Paris. Experiencing Europe during train rides is a great way to appreciate the subtle differences between neighboring countries with vastly different cultures and histories. For instance, Netherlands is modern and makes use of every inch of space they have available while Belgium seems older and France is mostly rural until you start entering the Paris metropolitan area. We loved the scenery for the first hour of the ride but then tiredness took over and we fell asleep for about 1.5 hours.
After getting off at Paris' Gare du Nord station, we had to take a subway train to our hotel but it took us a good half an hour to find the subway train. It turned out that the confusion resulted from the fact that the line we were looking for was at a different station so a connecting train had to be taken first. Anyway, we sorted that out and reached our hotel around 3:45 pm.
The hotel is exceptional. In every little detail, they've surpassed our expectations and the quality of service is extremely high. The hotel has the feel of the bygone era of the 1920s Europe with huge chandeliers and classy conventional architecture.
We took showers and rested a bit before leaving for dinner. It was raining so we decided that we would just have dinner. The original plan was to do a Seine River cruise after dinner but we've decided to do that on Saturday when the forecast is not rainy.
We chose a restaurant from our Europe travel guide book that we had purchased from Calgary. The restaurant's name was Le Beouf sur la Toit and it used to be a Cabaret club in the 1920s. We got lost on our way there when we took one wrong turn but it was fun since we ended to walking on the iconic Champs Élysées (pronounced Shaun-za-leezay). It was still raining but we had our umbrellas so it wasn't too bad. The restaurant's decor took us back in time and the food was excellent. We had olives and crab cake as appetizers, salmon and sea bass for the main course and then chocolate soufflé and lemon tart for desserts. After being on a juicing diet for the past one month, we decided that we'll indulge a little during our vacation.
After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. Our phones keep track of how much we walk during the day and according to that, we walked 6.5 km today!
Our first impression of Paris is that it's a lot like any other big city - in fact, it reminds us of New York City in more than one way - the roads and trains are old like NYC, the people busy and then there is so much to do. Our hotel is in a nice neighborhood of the city (8th district or as the French call it, the 8th arrondissement) which is quiet and mostly residential with a quick 5 minute walking access to Arc de Triomphe.
We're ready to go to bed now and tomorrow we'll be exploring the historical Paris.
As soon as the flight took off, I changed the time on my wrist watch to match that of the Western European time zone. Most countries that we will be visiting on this trip (excluding Portugal) follow the same time zone (8 hours ahead of Calgary/3 hours behind Pakistan). That meant that we left Calgary when it was 11:20 pm in Europe. Our plan was to sleep as much as possible during the flight since it corresponded with night time in Europe. To that end, we had woken up early in Calgary at 5 am on Wednesday so that we could sync with European time.
At the start of the flight, we slept for half an hour before being woken up by the complimentary beverage service. We couldn't sleep after that so we watched movies. Samia watched The Hobbit 2 and since it was a long movie, I watched 2 movies in that time - Thor 2 and Paranoia. We were also served dinner during our movie marathon and then we caught some more shut eye time after our movies ended. We slept for about 2 hours and were then woken up by the breakfast service. As always, KLM airlines' food was really good - much better than what is served by most airlines.
We landed in Amsterdam at 8:15 am on Thursday, May 1, 2014 European time. After freshening up, we passed through a very smooth immigration line and then waited at the airport for 2.5 hours before proceeding to the train terminal to catch our train to Paris. We made good use of the one-hour-free-WiFi at the airport during the wait time.
The train left Amsterdam airport at 11:20 am and reached Paris at 2:40 pm, exactly on schedule. It was a thoroughly enjoyable ride and we passed through Rotterdam, Netherlands and Brussels, Belgium on our way to the final destination of Paris. Experiencing Europe during train rides is a great way to appreciate the subtle differences between neighboring countries with vastly different cultures and histories. For instance, Netherlands is modern and makes use of every inch of space they have available while Belgium seems older and France is mostly rural until you start entering the Paris metropolitan area. We loved the scenery for the first hour of the ride but then tiredness took over and we fell asleep for about 1.5 hours.
After getting off at Paris' Gare du Nord station, we had to take a subway train to our hotel but it took us a good half an hour to find the subway train. It turned out that the confusion resulted from the fact that the line we were looking for was at a different station so a connecting train had to be taken first. Anyway, we sorted that out and reached our hotel around 3:45 pm.
The hotel is exceptional. In every little detail, they've surpassed our expectations and the quality of service is extremely high. The hotel has the feel of the bygone era of the 1920s Europe with huge chandeliers and classy conventional architecture.
We took showers and rested a bit before leaving for dinner. It was raining so we decided that we would just have dinner. The original plan was to do a Seine River cruise after dinner but we've decided to do that on Saturday when the forecast is not rainy.
We chose a restaurant from our Europe travel guide book that we had purchased from Calgary. The restaurant's name was Le Beouf sur la Toit and it used to be a Cabaret club in the 1920s. We got lost on our way there when we took one wrong turn but it was fun since we ended to walking on the iconic Champs Élysées (pronounced Shaun-za-leezay). It was still raining but we had our umbrellas so it wasn't too bad. The restaurant's decor took us back in time and the food was excellent. We had olives and crab cake as appetizers, salmon and sea bass for the main course and then chocolate soufflé and lemon tart for desserts. After being on a juicing diet for the past one month, we decided that we'll indulge a little during our vacation.
After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. Our phones keep track of how much we walk during the day and according to that, we walked 6.5 km today!
Our first impression of Paris is that it's a lot like any other big city - in fact, it reminds us of New York City in more than one way - the roads and trains are old like NYC, the people busy and then there is so much to do. Our hotel is in a nice neighborhood of the city (8th district or as the French call it, the 8th arrondissement) which is quiet and mostly residential with a quick 5 minute walking access to Arc de Triomphe.
We're ready to go to bed now and tomorrow we'll be exploring the historical Paris.
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