Last day in Europe

We are sitting in Schiphol Airport (Amsterdam) after having gone through the most amazing security we've yet encountered. Everything is automated but help is close by. You begin by scanning your passport then follow the instructions to either set up seating or confirm what you've organized ahead of time before printing your boarding pass.
Then around the corner and be relieved to see that the ten-aisle snaking assembly point for checking baggage is practically empty with only a 5 minute wait. Place your (heavy) luggage in the special opening (a line of about 10 of these open caves available), enter passport into machine, answer questions on screen, print baggage tag and apply to suitcase handle, then press continue and watch while door closes, suitcase was weighed and measured and scanned, then  disappeared! Luggage claim spits out then we walk to next section for security. Everything in a tray (no need to empty bags) then walk into body scan, then have attendant do extra pat down (my first complete body check...) then watch as my backpack is diverted (Bill's not). Polite permission asked at every step, May I scan your body, may I do a pat down, may I check your backpack, may I scan for mysterious chemicals??? Okay, you're good to go. All this took about 10 minutes.
Now sitting in Amsterdam Bread Co sipping wonderful strong coffee which I will miss, and eating a fresh croissant (will miss these too).
Our departure couldn't have been more civilized and easy.
Sad weekend ahead but we are anxious to be back home.

Van der Valk Hotel, close to Schiphol Airport. (GNS friends will get the irony of the name)
The wall had a modern version of the Night Watch to keep us safe all night. 

Patio looked out over beautiful park. Pot drifted in from neighbouring balconies. 

There were black swans on the lake last night - not there now. 

Last delicious cup of coffee. 

Petit Déjeuner, Déjeuner and Diner

 Our favourite brasserie (I know, I know, we were only in Paris for a day and a half) but we loved this little cafe in spite of its unfortunate name: Le Quasimodo Notre Dame

Two locals meeting after work

Interior of le quasimodo

The cheese shop where we bought our slice of brie - no English spoken, only one word: brie, then hand gestures. 

A sampling...

Petit Déjeuner: Café Crème and omelette (basket of baguette at every meal)

Petit Déjeuner - Croissant and Café Crème

Déjeuner - brie from Crèmerie, baguette from boulangerie 

Diner - Tenderloin with herbes de provençe and puré de pomme de terre

Le Dessert - Crème Brûlée (couldn't wait for picture...): Heaven on Earth.... 

Advice to self. Travel light!

When we travelled in 1973, we (mostly Bill) hauled suitcases on spindly wheels and we vowed we'd never travel that way again. We've done well until now and here we are. Taking more "because of the cruise", we packed two suitcases with extra shoes, clothes and some mysterious weights that we can't seem to identify, and now we have to navigate our way along bumpy streets, through turnstiles, and up and down multiple staircases.
Renewed vow: Travel light!

Moving day

Two suitcases down steep stairs - nice to have help, eh?
Notice the metro entrance - no indication at street level. You just have to wander the streets in the vicinity until you come across it, 

The Jokes on Us...

So all the drama from two days ago are a distant memory. We are back to the dreaded Gare du Nord and wonder if we walked through platform 9 3/4 last time. Where we now sit is a modern station - light, not too crowded with perhaps fewer English speakers but big smiles at our fractured French. Where is the dark world we entered on Monday?

Entering train station from underground metro

Our train in three hours. Paris du nord to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam

It is still Paris, so soldiers as well as police roam the station - armed to the teeth, fingers on triggers - fulfilling, I think, Macron's vow to react strongly to all threats. 

Gare du Nord

Getting around in Paris

Our memories of 46 years ago (!) in Paris was that of the most beautiful subway stations in the world. Our 2019 experience is that the subway system continues to amaze our North American minds but in comparison to London, it is much less user-friendly.
Finding metro stations on land is challenging. No iconic symbol standing out for a block to let us know where to dive down into the station. Just a stone staircase in many cases. We rarely found one without the (willing) help of a local.
Maps are always posted on the wall to confirm our wrinkled, smaller one and the entry barriers take our little tickets and spit them out higher up changing the red to green and allowing passage. Now the challenge. Signage is there when you know how to find it but challenging if you are new to the station. It can't be that bad though as we only had to reverse once (first time in horrible Gard du Nord train station we are returning to today).
Metro cars in outlying areas have no way of alerting you to next station and the stations themselves have names sneakily hidden in amongst huge ads. We got on to it quickly and became more relaxed, knowing our station and counting stops when necessary.
One stark difference is the service announcement: Rather than "Mind the Gap" of England, it is "Beware of pick pockets" in French, English and Mandarin.

Chatelet - Metro station on the Purple line

Moveable sidewalk (taken from midway) to connecting station

Line C is a double-decker train rather than subway cars

A Day in Paris, in pictures, captions to follow

Breakfast - cafe creme, omelette and baguette. I had crepes.

Pont d'aréole from Ile de Cite to Right Bank

First view of Arc de Triomphe coming up from metro

Tunnel to get tourists safely under roundabout. 

165 foot Arch built to honour Napoleon's soldiers-begun in 1809

Avenue des Champs Flysees 

Entrance hall to Petit Palais - one of many built for 1900 World's Fair. Only two left - this and Grand Palais across the street.

Place de la Concorde. Place of Revolution, Louis and Marie both executed here. 3000 year old obelisk marks the spot.

First view of Eiffel Tower 

Looking straight down from 900' top tower. Beautiful planned city and buildings clear. 

Partial view of the Seine River

Curved arcade of the Trocadero, site of World's Fair in 1878 

Arc de Triomphe in centre. 

Pampidou Center with all working pars on outside

See-through escalators of Pompidou

Two solitudes,

Our two days in Paris demonstrated to us the stark reality of two solitudes this amazing city is experiencing. Yesterday we were jostled and crammed into a world of immigrants, ethnic and visual minorities, and watched alarmed at armed and serious police stopping and examining the person and luggage of 'suspects' - usually with beards and dark skin. This was our first 20 minutes of Paris. That along with the robbery attempt made us wonder why we were here.

Today, we experienced the well-loved, luxurious and largely white part of Paris. The contrast was vivid. Bill's fitbit says we covered 20,093 steps so we did our all to see as much as possible. We started with breakfast in a sidewalk cafe a few blocks from our apartment on Ile de Cite. Then we found the subway and made our way to the Arc de Triomphe for a walk down the Champs Elysees. Most of Paris is closed today but we found the Petit Palais open and took in its small but wonderful permanent collection.
Subway tickets burning a hole in our pockets (we bought a package of ten) we decided to just take a detour to the Eiffel tower for a look. Once there the possibility of seeing Paris from the sky enticed us and we followed a snaking line for 90 minutes before taking the elevator up to the top! The view was more than worth the wait and gave us a chance to really see what we've seen and where we'd been. Paris is a city to appreciate from up high.
Back on subway (actually a train for this part) and back to our neighbourhood to walk past Notre-Dame again and then on to the restaurant where we had breakfast for an early dinner. People-watching from our outside table could have kept us there for even longer but we finally decided our feet could take one more hike through the district of Marais to see the Pompidou Center. National Geographic described this amazing building as "love at second sight" and I agree. Reading more about it helped me like it much more. Sadly it is closed today so we had no chance to appreciate the interior which is what the structure is all about.
We wound our way home - had to double back a couple of times when stopped by police who have blocked much of Ile de Cite off.
We liked the day a lot - feel we more than made up for our experience yesterday.

Notre-Dame Cathedral

View of Notre-Dame out our window. Our fourth-floor apartment is in the Left Bank, just across the river. 

One of three rose windows that still had medieval glass. We assume scaffolding is from renovation of tower that possibly started the fire. 

Back of Notre-Dame taken on our walk to Ile St. Louis

If its Tuesday it must be Paris

Sitting in Rotterdam train station for two hours we cracked open our Paris travel book to begin making plans re Metro passes and what to see in a day.
Turns out Paris makes it easy - Much is closed Monday and Tuesday so Pompidou, Orangerie, Louvre and Cluny are off the list. Looks like we'll be mostly doing walk about.

Our arrival at the Gard du Nord train station from the Netherlands was as unwelcome as a city can get. We found ourselves caught up in rush hour (at least I hope that was what it was) with huge lines, huge crowds and armed police everywhere. We found our way to the tourist information and got the metro tickets and directions to the B line (b for bleu). The woman in the TI said she liked having the police everywhere because "We have troubles now." It turned out to be a burly police officer who helped us when we were on the wrong platform. Thank goodness because that train was so full someone on the platform was pushing people in in order to shut the doors. We were going the other way and our platform was closer to what we've been used to. Once at our station, we were going up the escalator and had three young men attempt to rob Bill - one took the attention away by offering to help me with my suitcase while another tried to get into Bill's pocket. Bill shouted at him and the three just laughed and took off. So here we are.
Internet is slow in our room so pictures will have to wait.

Good internet connection - our air BnB

We finally have a consistent and fast internet connection. Up until now it has either been non-existent, slow or spotty. Makes a huge difference for uploading pictures. 

So our Air BnB, while having a few small issues, is comfortable and really good for blogging.

The only crazy thing (there has to be something, right?) is that when we drove up and Bill looked at the email with the directions, we found out the owner had told us the address minus one detail: the building and suite number. There were four identical high rises in a row! Bill went walk-about while my mind started to go crazy - I thought I remembered that the owner lived in California (now middle of their night). A young woman who lives in one of the buildings came to Bill's rescue (of course). I watched from the car as she gently pried Bill's phone out of his hands, swiped it a few times, then dialled something on her phone, spoke Dutch to someone, and handed her phone over to Bill. The owner was on the line apologizing for 'forgetting to add the suite number' and proceeded to give better instructions. As we pulled up to the correct building and got the key out of the unlocked mailbox, the owner, a 40-something guy, walked up and proceeded to introduce us to the building and suite. Guess he felt guilty about the 10 minutes of anxiety he laid on us. 

Living Room

We are on the ninth floor. Entrance to our suite is via an outdoor walkway. We've watched too many crime shows - we keep expecting a swat team to come creeping around the corner about to break down a door. Or, would it be a body tipping over and falling past our balcony? Like I said: too many movies. The apartment is good. 

Tulips!

Brueghel - Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase

Detail of Brueghel

Detail of de Heem's Vase of Flowers

Saw this beauty today.

Bouquet in Mauritshuis

Delft

Our View of Delft

Detail of light standard

Yesterday was equivalent of Dutch Remembrance Day. Today was annual celebration of liberation. 

Light standard in Delft