The Tower and Home

(The last breakfast.) Bruce had vowed to sleep the next day. Barb and the kids and I would head back to the Eiffel Tower. The kids had actually been pretty heartbroken that we hadn't stayed there for our first attempt, but given how the dinner adventure went, I'm really glad we didn't stay. Of course, we didn't make it out of the hotel at the crack of 9 like we'd hoped. I guess we got to the Tower around 10:30 or 11. If anything the line was worse than the day before.

(Could this be a tourist? Would Peter Bull ride in the same train with this man?) But today we were prepared to stick it out. Good thing too. While we were in line they announced that the top floor was closed. We were deflated. There was some question as to whether Bruce asked if we wanted to go to the top BEFORE we learned it was closed or AFTER. It makes sense that he would have asked before, but that's not how Barb and I recalled it. We decided to go up despite the closure, but as luck would have it, when we got to the front of the line for our tickets we learned that the top floor would open in 40 minutes and we could just pay the additional fare then. And so we did. Actually, when we got to the 2nd floor there was already a line for the 3rd (top), so we got in it while Barb went into the different line for tickets for the top. She jumped in line with us without the slightest fuss--it's good to know the local protocol. Up we went. The girls liked the view from the top, they loved that they could say that they'd been there. I pointed out the Grande Arche de La Defense where we'd stopped at the beginning of the day before, and I pointed out the Statue of Liberty, though that was difficult to see. And I reminded them to notice how much smaller/lower all of the surrounding buildings are.

Barb and I had resigned ourselves to missing our scheduled ferry back and paying whatever fine we might incur for that, so we decided to try to get on a river boat tour of the Seine before we left. Until we got there and there was another line and I lost all interest. It probably would have been fine, but with the number of times we'd been lost in the past 2 days and the severity of the time setbacks that had cost us, it stressed me out too much to have enjoyed it. The girls would have loved it, though they would have loathed the line every bit as much as I would... I think.

So we hit the road. In the RER station we parted company with Bruce. He was taking the Eurostar back and we had the drive. Barb got directions to get on the highway from the hotel and she was kind enough to let me drive. En route she found the ferry schedule. We nearly made the 6:30 ferry, or so we thought. We got there almost in time anyway, and were well impressed with ourselves for that. We weren't charged an extra fine for catching a later ferry, so that was nice. And, though cold, the weather was clear and we had a little jumproping contest to while away the time. The "contest" was mostly just a mechanism to pass the one jumprope around among the 3 girls... and then the aunt and the mom as well. It was pretty fun, even though Sophia gave herself a nasty little whipping with the rope somehow. We got to get onto the next ferry about 20 mintues before it took off so we had prime seats in front of the big screen tv in the lounge. The kids got to watch a bunch of Donald Duck shorts the whole way back, several episodes they got to see twice.

Deb waiting for the ferry back

The drive on the UK side was uneventful. We got home pretty shortly after Bruce. Barb began this blog entry and I went to bed and saved packing for the morning.