Got my gear together and got to the departure lounge @ 6.30am. I met up with Sue. We had our luggage weighed (mine was 18 something kilos thank god) and we had our names marked off and got on the bus. I sat next to Sue somewhere up the back-ish. I was fine there. Might try to get the front more though.
We left the National @ about 7.15, picked up currency packs in London, Reuben gave us the bus talk, and we reached Dover @ about 9.15 (??). The ferry was an enormous P&O liner thingo, and so after having our passports checked, we drove on, then got off to explore.
Sue got breakfast and we went out onto the rear deck to watch the view - I took some photos of the 'white cliffs'. I ate the rolls and juice I got the night before. We got some currency changed, and then it was just about time to get off again. It was very interesting to find that you could see both England and France nearly the whole time. We lost an hour in time zone.
From Calais we drove through countryside with a lot of trucks to a roadside servo - I got a drink and survived my first interaction with the locals. We drove on to our campsite in Joinville - arriving at about 5.45? We were greeted by Chris (a local Contiki dude) with champagne and escargo. I ate some, even though I was feeling dizzy and a bit sick, and it was OK, though there was a helluva lot of garlic there disguising something or other. But I had to say I'd done it.
We had dinner right after that - chicken and salad that was nice. We had about 45 mins then we took off on the bus again @ 7pm for the city proper.
It was just starting to get dark and we did a drive around seeing Notre Dame, and some other trendy buildings. A gap through the trees - and suddenly there was the Eiffel Tower (la tour Eiffel). We left the bus, and I didn't really appreciate it until I got closer and saw its sheet size - 321m!! For the millennium, hundreds of lights were put on it to flash as a chaser every half hour. I tried to get a photo, but still photography could never capture the amazing effect.
Shell gave us our tickets, and we (after much queueing) took the huge lift to level one. It stopped, but continued to level 2. I took a picture here, and was surprised that the shutter didn't stay open for that long.
We got in the small lift to go right to the top (after more queueing) and saw the view the whole way up. We got out, and it was so nice. I took one photo, but the shutter was open for about two whole seconds. I took one of Sue on her camera and she took one of me on mine. We had to make haste, as the bus was leaving @ 9.45, and had to queue again to get down. We saw the lights go on again on the hour as we waited for stragglers.
We drove on and continued with our tour. We saw various other buildings, flash hotels, before Shell announced that Reuben had taken a wrong turn and that we had to hang on because we were entering the businest roundabout in Europe. Here's where Reuben barrels straight into the middle of the roundabout around the Arc d'Triomphe. We almost hit one car, and made countless others change course. Shell had put on the Mission Impossible music, and it was such a cack, because there were cars going absolutely EVERYWHERE and it was INSANE!!! He obviously knew exactly what he was doing, and we'd been told that the only way to get anywhere in Europe was to push and shove. So after pushing and shoving for a while, he ended up on the inside of the roundabout on the kerb (going the WRONG way of course) while Shell gave us the Arc d'Triomphe spiel. We must have gone around about five times before we were ready to move on.
We then saw the Opera House, the Champs Elysee, the Louvre, plus other cool things we can see tomorrow. We came up one street and Shell told us to breathe in. Reuben was heading for this tiny arch in a wall. We didn't think he was serious but he didn't chicken out. There must have been a grand total of three inches on either side of the bus, but he got through beautifully - what an AWESOME driver!!
We headed back to the campsite. I had a shower, wrote this, and crashed at about 12.30. [What?! How did it get that late??? Shit!!] G'night!
We left the National @ about 7.15, picked up currency packs in London, Reuben gave us the bus talk, and we reached Dover @ about 9.15 (??). The ferry was an enormous P&O liner thingo, and so after having our passports checked, we drove on, then got off to explore.
Sue got breakfast and we went out onto the rear deck to watch the view - I took some photos of the 'white cliffs'. I ate the rolls and juice I got the night before. We got some currency changed, and then it was just about time to get off again. It was very interesting to find that you could see both England and France nearly the whole time. We lost an hour in time zone.
From Calais we drove through countryside with a lot of trucks to a roadside servo - I got a drink and survived my first interaction with the locals. We drove on to our campsite in Joinville - arriving at about 5.45? We were greeted by Chris (a local Contiki dude) with champagne and escargo. I ate some, even though I was feeling dizzy and a bit sick, and it was OK, though there was a helluva lot of garlic there disguising something or other. But I had to say I'd done it.
We had dinner right after that - chicken and salad that was nice. We had about 45 mins then we took off on the bus again @ 7pm for the city proper.
Shell gave us our tickets, and we (after much queueing) took the huge lift to level one. It stopped, but continued to level 2. I took a picture here, and was surprised that the shutter didn't stay open for that long.
We got in the small lift to go right to the top (after more queueing) and saw the view the whole way up. We got out, and it was so nice. I took one photo, but the shutter was open for about two whole seconds. I took one of Sue on her camera and she took one of me on mine. We had to make haste, as the bus was leaving @ 9.45, and had to queue again to get down. We saw the lights go on again on the hour as we waited for stragglers.
We drove on and continued with our tour. We saw various other buildings, flash hotels, before Shell announced that Reuben had taken a wrong turn and that we had to hang on because we were entering the businest roundabout in Europe. Here's where Reuben barrels straight into the middle of the roundabout around the Arc d'Triomphe. We almost hit one car, and made countless others change course. Shell had put on the Mission Impossible music, and it was such a cack, because there were cars going absolutely EVERYWHERE and it was INSANE!!! He obviously knew exactly what he was doing, and we'd been told that the only way to get anywhere in Europe was to push and shove. So after pushing and shoving for a while, he ended up on the inside of the roundabout on the kerb (going the WRONG way of course) while Shell gave us the Arc d'Triomphe spiel. We must have gone around about five times before we were ready to move on.
We then saw the Opera House, the Champs Elysee, the Louvre, plus other cool things we can see tomorrow. We came up one street and Shell told us to breathe in. Reuben was heading for this tiny arch in a wall. We didn't think he was serious but he didn't chicken out. There must have been a grand total of three inches on either side of the bus, but he got through beautifully - what an AWESOME driver!!
We headed back to the campsite. I had a shower, wrote this, and crashed at about 12.30. [What?! How did it get that late??? Shit!!] G'night!
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