Paris!

Before moving on to Paris, I forgot to mention - one of the things we really hoped to do while in Amsterdam was visit Keukenhof Gardens. 

We're both garden fans and this was to be a real treat.

But - as adventures sometimes go, this was one that was just not meant to happen.

We had our tickets, and the day we were scheduled to go we walked (asking lots of directions along the way) and dallied along to Amsterdam City Center, and took the ferry to A'dam Lookout to catch our shuttle. 

But.

Because we had dallied (and gotten lost - more than once) so, we missed the last shuttle to Keukenhof.  

Boo.

But I called that evening and a very nice man said, "no problem just go back with your tickets any time."

So we did.  A couple days later.

Got on the bus in a drizzly cold Amsterdam, rode the shuttle the 45 minutes to Keukenhof, got off and it was colder and windier and rainier.  Ugh.

Donald looked at me, both us bundled up ready to fight the elements and said, "Want to get back on the bus?"

"Hell yes," said I. 

No Keukenhof this trip, but there's always next time!


Now - on to Paris.

We took the train from Amsterdam, napped most of the 3 hour trip and arrived at Paris-Nord 

and started looking for the exit when Donald spotted a piano and decided to entertain us.

Don Barley does not play piano.

But he was, nonetheless, entertaining.


We made it to our hotel, Hotel Relais Madeleine (much more about the hotel later!  Suffice to say, we LOVED it).

Dropped our bags and went out to explore our new neighborhood.

Found a lovely little Italian spot for dinner, moved on to a small cafe for a cappuccino and headed back to the hotel for the evening.

That's it for Day One - More Tomorrow!