Day 5 began with a drive into Brussels to find church services for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Twenty minutes into our drive, Mark announced that he thought he forgot his wallet which happened to have the only cash we had because we'd used the cash I had. Thankfully I had my credit card (though still without a chip) so hopefully we would be ok at least on Monday when banks opened again.
Mark located the church building and an older missionary couple greeted us while we were parking and showed us where to go and what to do. In that congregation there were eight languages spoken, so we were give headphones for translation. As it happened, the speakers for the day spoke English!
After sacrament services we asked one of the missionary couples what we can do to get cash with an unchipped card and no pin number. He told us not much, and gave us 10 euors to help get us from point a to point b. We went out to the car to change our clothes (next to the man that was peeing in the bushes), and Spencer and D.J. discovered that they did not bring their regular shoes because, "Mom, you never told us to bring them!" I sigh and think about people who are very smart but have little common sense and vow to figure out how to help them have common sense. However, experience can be the best teacher so I'm sure the experience of wearing their church shoes and socks all over Paris will help them never forget to make the same mistake twice.
When we drove by the train station it took us a few trips back and forth in front of the station and me making one trip inside for a map to help us figure out where to park, but we did it and got to our train in time! Stephen decided to come along with us and met us at the train station from his connecting train from Oostende. We were so excited to have Stephen come along with us!
When we walked out of the doors of the above train station, we saw this something like this:
Stephen and I just looked at each other and exclaimed: "We are in Paris!"
Fortunately for Spencer and D.J., one block away from the train station we spotted a store that said "SHOES," and we promptly made our way to the store to buy shoes that wouldn't give them blisters with all the walking we were going to do. Converse was the choice. Our hotel was two miles away, and we opted to experience the Paris streets and take in the sights and memories while walking instead of taking a taxi. We dropped off our things, used the bathroom in our tiny, tiny toilet areas and we were off to the Metro station to get to the Eiffel Tower.
On our way to the station, we heard an orchestra playing inside of a city square. They were so good! There was music everywhere we went in Paris, by professionals and street performers alike. Spencer got sick of me saying, "let's just follow the sound of music," as he knows that's one of my favorite movies and it just rubbed him to know there is truth in it. Haha!
In the same square, we posed for a picture near Victor Hugo's home.
As we neared the Metro station, about 12 blue vans drove toward us and as they passed by we discovered they were police vans. Hmmmm. Then as we kept walking, we realized that there were police in full riot gear walking toward us in a wide line. Hmmmm. Move to the side to let them through. Then as we kept walking, we heard shouting and chanting as we realized we were going to be in the middle of a demonstration. . hey there's the Metro station, get down there quick! We raced down the steps in time to hear the noisy crowd walk over us for about 15 mintues (as we figured out yet again that we can't get a measly thing without a chipped card). It was so loud and worrisome, that D.J. said to me, "I feel like I need to go hide in a bathroom stall!" Stephen was curious enough to go up a few stairs and see what was going on and I followed.
I discovered by the man in the green t-shirt which says "Free Palestine" that it was a Pro-Palestinian protest. I looked the demonstration up on the news and it ended at a synagogue where the participants forced about 130 people to stay inside. Three or four people were hurt because there were too few police at the synagogue and the police ended up using tear gas. We were grateful for the underground Metro station!
Following the sound of this Russian sounding music in the Metro.
We were Metro frequent flyers for 24 hours thanks to the navigation skills of Stephen and Mark. They were brilliant enough to take pictures of maps to help us get where we were going:
When our hearts slowed down a beat from the excitement of the protest, we exited the Metro and took a left turn towards the Eiffel Tower. But we did not arrive at the Eiffel Tower. Instead we came upon this amazing building called L 'Hotel des Invalides which contains war memorials, monuments, grave sites (including Napoleon's), hospital and museums relating to France's military history.
As we approached the tower we heard. . . the sound of music! This time is was what sounded like professional Opera singers!
The sun broke through the clouds at one point to shine on these far away buildings, which I discovered is the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris, a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica that stands at the highest point of Paris.
We couldn't decide whether to climb the stairs or take the elevator to the top. So we decided we couldn't make a decision because we were hungry and needed a bathroom (all bathrooms at the tower seemed to be under construction or locked). We crossed over the Seine River then crossed again, pausing for a picture that Mark has deemed the picture of James the Benevolent.
And thankfully they had hamburgers for the boys, while Mark and I had pasta and Stephen had an omelet.
By the time we made it back to the Eiffel Tower, if was sunny again. We decided to ride the elevator since we had walked quite a bit already and we knew we had to walk back to the hotel. Good decision. After heeding the many reminders to mind the pick pockets, we went up the first elevator to the second floor, then the next elevator to the top, which we reached right at sunset. It was crowded, but still a thrill to be there. I was interested to find out that Mr. Eiffel built an apartment for himself and his daughter close to the top.
Spencer tried to get a closer look.
James wasn't too excited about the height and stayed close to me most of the time. It was amazing to see Paris from the Eiffel Tower! We had fun pointing out sites and finding things in the view finder.
We were glad we stayed late when the lights on the tower came on. As we crossed the river yet again to get to the Metro, we came across a man who had fallen on the sidewalk. His family couldn't wake him and it seemed he'd had a stroke or something, I asked if they had called the police and they said yes, it just seemed like a really long time until they arrived. But they did, whew!
Stephen bought and shared banana/nutella crepes with us while we waited for Mark to get some final pictures and then we boarded the subway.
While on the subway, all three adults in our party became suspect of a man near us who was eyeing Mark's back pack and looking our way a little too often. Upon exiting the subway, the man stuck by us and we made sure each boy had an adult by them and to stay close. As we emerged from the stairway, we were relieved to see the police there (we think leftover from the demonstration) and went the opposite direction of the man. We fell in bed at about midnight, full of amazement for all we saw during the day!
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