All Settled In!!

After what seemed like the longest day in history (and it kind of was- what with it being over 30 hours long) we have finally arrived and settled in at our first hotel. The Golf Hotel Bussy St. George welcomed us with a delicious dinner and BEDS! I'll tell you, you never appreciate a bed more than you do after a sleepless night on an airplane. We've got our power adapters and laptops in place and we're ready for a night of real rest.

We had an absolutely beautiful day in the city of lights today. We started off at Sacre Coeur. The climb up to it seemed never ending, but the view from the top was unparalleled. I've attached a picture of both the church and the view. Atop the hill was a little village with MANY shops and MANY people trying to draw your portrait. There must have been at least 20 artists on the street at a single time. We spent some time browsing through the stores, waiting for the extreme tiredness to set in.

While we were walking the streets of shops and artists we stole our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! Seeing it stand out of the scenery was even more gripping than I had expected. You're up so high, you have no concept of scale of buildings at all, and then you see the Eiffel Tower and it absolutely dwarfs everything surrounding it- even the highrise buildings!

Soon enough, we actually got to go to the Eiffel Tower. Being underneath it makes it seem even larger than life. Some of us waited in the long lines to go up to the platforms while some of us wandered about the city below. At this point we all had one thing in common- extreme exhaustion. We had a great first day in Paris and we're very excited for the fun tomorrow brings!