Amsterdam --> Paris

I took the train from Amsterdam's Centraal station to Paris' Gare du Nord today. Riding the train was thrilling - it was super fast (over 100mph), super quiet, and super comfortable.

Arriving in Paris, I took the Paris metro to the apartment that I'm staying in. The Paris metro is very useful, and sometimes very stinky. There are many lines that criss-cross the city, and make it easy to get anywhere you want to go, fast. But, it's not a clean & modern metro by any stretch of the imagination (Greece, Bangkok, and Singapore are all better). One of the stations smelled like pee. But - regardless, I like the metro - it makes it easy to get around.

The apartment I'm staying in is Awesome. It's in Montmatre, which is an artsy area on the north side of Paris (near Moulin Rouge). I really enjoy the place.

After arriving & getting settled, I headed down to Notre Dame. The church is amazing! I walked around the outside (love the architecture), and then toured the inside (which was as impressive as the churches I saw in Rome). Then, I waited over an hour to get up into the bell towers. The wait was worth it - there was a great view of the city (including my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower), and I got to see the largest bell in the tower (enormous!).

The gargoyles on top of Notre Dame are really cool. My favorite was one that was devouring an animal (there's a pic on flickr). While I was up there, the bells started ringing - deafining, but awesome.

Following Notre Dame, I wandered around Paris - trying to make my way to the Eiffel Tower. I failed - it was much farther than I expected, and I took a couple wrong turns. But, after grabbing a Panini, I jumped on the metro & was there in no time.

Usually all of the big tourist sites are impressive, but just live up to my expectations. The Eiffel Tower far exceeded what I expected. It was much bigger than I had imagined, and was really really cool to see. I didn't have time to go up in it (the line was gigantic) - I'll have to do that soon.

On my way back to the apartment, I came across a big rally - protesting the recent Iranian elections. It was held on Champs de Mars, right in front of the Eiffel Tower. There were pictures of Neda (the Iranian woman that was shot during the protests in Iran) everywhere.

Well, I've been up for 18 hours, so I'm going to bed. Tomorrow should be great - I'm going to watch the last leg of the Tour de France live - they'll be riding on the Champs Elysees in Paris!