Paris-Day 4

Day 4 was our last day in Paris!  Our train didn't leave until almost 5:30 that evening though, so we had another almost full day to enjoy.

We started the day by getting packed up and getting checked out of the apartment.  The owner of the apartment offered to keep our luggage for us for the day, so that was great!

After we checked out, we headed back down to Notre Dame.  This time the line wasn't bad at all, so after a short wait, we headed right in!

Strollin'

Notre Dame

Beautiful stained glass

It was HUGE!

After Notre Dame, we sent to St. Chapelle.  It is made up almost entirely of stained glass, and it is absolutely beautiful!!  The stained glass tells the Christian story from the Garden of Eden to the Apocolypse...it was really pretty, but with over 1000 images, you would have to spend the entire day in there to see the entire story.

St. Chapelle

Very elaborate...

Beautiful stained glass windows...it wasn't very sunny the day we were there...but they were still amazing!

The floors were even amazing...beautiful OLD tiles...

After St. Chapelle, we played it safe and had lunch at a pizza spot...always a hit with the kids!

After lunch we headed back to the playground we had visited the day before.  We figured it would be good to let little R get good and tired before we put him on a train for 4 hours!

Pushing A

Just runnin'

Little R LOVED these little springy things...he jumped from one to the other numerous times...FUN!

Finally we decided it was time to walk back to the apartment, pick up our luggage, and grab a taxi to the train station.  The owner of the apartment had told R of a place where taxis line up and wait for people.  So with our luggage in tow, we headed to the line of taxis.  We found one that was big enough to hold all of us and our luggage, and R asked him if he could take us to the train station.  He said no, because he was at the back of the line, and he had to wait until he was at the front of the line.  R tried to inform him that no cars at the front of the line would fit all of us, but he wasn't receptive to that info!  So we headed to the front of the line, and none of the taxi drivers would take all of us to the train station!! : (  We decided to walk down to the bus stop and see if we could catch a bus to the train station...but we couldn't quite figure out how to get all the way to the train station without several bus changes...and that would have been quite difficult with all of our stuff!  By this time, we were getting uncomfortably close to our train departure time, with no idea how we were going to get there!  I recommended we just take control and WALK it...at least that way we knew we would get there eventually.  So we used R's excellent navigation skills...and after a VERY LONG, VERY FAST walk (through parts of Paris I hope to never see again), we finally made it to our train.  We were sweaty, exhausted and grumpy...but we made it to our seats ON TIME!!  We were SO happy to be on that train!!  We got settled in and had a great 4 hour ride to Stuttgart!

Little R napped in the stroller during our frantic walk to the train station, so he was happy and refreshed when we got on the train.

Totally tuckered out from our crazy walk...at the end I wasn't sure she was gonna make it.  I was going over ways to fit her in the stroller with little R at one point.  But she made it, so no drastic measures were necessary!

Watching Over the Hedge...little R's movie of choice for the trip home.

Peace and quiet with the Ipod...priceless!!

Not sure what this is...his "I'm cool" look, I guess!

We arrived in Stuttgart sometime around 9:30 and called the Taxi company that we had used to get to the train station the day we left.  They gave R another number to call because they didn't have anyone to send.  R stressed that we had 5 people and luggage, and they said they would send someone right out.  The taxi arrives, and it is SMALL....again an SUV that will seat 5 people and some stuff, or 7 people and NO stuff!!  The driver was determined to make it work....but it was impossible.  He called the company and told them to send a bigger car.  And R called the company and told them (not so nicely) to send another car that would fit us all.  So after waiting about 30 minutes outside the train station (and a rat sighting), a taxi finally arrived that would fit all of us.  And we were off!!  And I think the taxi driver thought he was Dale Earnhardt, Jr....he was driving like a wild man!!  I was literally terrified that we wouldn't make it home, after all this!!  R got him involved in a deep discussion about soccer, and that seemed to make him slow down a bit.  So we made it safely home after all!  We were so happy to be back in Germany, back in our town, back in our house, back in our own beds!!  Home Sweet Home!!