Saturday December 16: Arrive in Paris
Missing Money
We now get to spend several hours enjoying the charms of Heathrow. We won’t even find out what our gate is for another hour.
They did end up feeding us on the flight from Boston. I had Chicken Teriyaki, and Amy opted for the Mac and Cheese.
I watched one movie, which only continued for a short time after the food was done. Then I tried to sleep. It was almost a lost cause. There was only about 3 hours of potential sleep, and it is almost impossible to get comfortable in those seats. I gave it my best shot, but I found just about every position got too uncomfortable after 10 or 15 minutes (I’m guessing), and I would have to shift to a new position.
There was a modicum of breakfast (a muffin and yogurt). Bringing my daypack full of my in-plane stuff is working out really well.
We had to take a bus from terminal 3 to terminal 4. The ride took about 10 minutes. I was wondering if they were planning to drive us to Paris.
In terminal 4 we had to go through security again, which meant that I had to dump my water bottle. Amy did a poor job of taking everything other than clothes off, so she got a personal detailed check.
I’m a bit tired, but not as bad as I would have expected. I think it is time to choke down the muffins and stuff I got on the plane. Maybe by then we’ll know which gate to wait at.
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We waited until the specified time, checked the board, and found that our flight was ... delayed by about an hour. It would be that much longer before we found out where to go, and that much longer to kill time in the airport.
We eventually found our gate, and now we’re killing time there, waiting for them to start boarding. We’re doing a lot of waiting in this airport.
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The flight from London to Paris was strange. It was, not surprisingly, a smaller plane (A220?) that had 2 seats on one side and 3 on the other. We were near the back of the plane. The strange part is that we got in near the beginning of general boarding. As we were heading back along the aisle, the seats in the back of the plane were mostly empty—maybe only a quarter filled or less. But most of the overhead bins were closed and presumably full. I checked one or two to see if they were closed and empty, but at least the ones that I checked were full. I’m not sure how these got filled when the seats were mostly empty.
We ended up going to, I think, the last bin, and we put our two carry-on bags there. Then we had to head “upstream” to get to our seats. Similarly, after we landed, we had to wait for the people behind us to leave the plane, and then we could go back and get our bags and deplane ourselves.
This was a reasonably fast, no-frills flight. They gave us “lunch”, which consisted of a cheese sandwich; i.e. two slices of bread, a slice of cheese, and I think some mayo. There was no entertainment system, but Amy and I spent most of the flight trying to doze.
When we got off the plane (about the last people to do so), I saw a large group of people in the concourse. I thought it was the tail end of a long line, but it looks like there was a large tour group of girls from Japan. We zipped in front of them, and then the mob of them set out, hot on our heels.
Going through passport control was quick and easy. Then we had a long wait for the checked bags to start to arrive. I don’t think they started coming out until about an hour after the plane landed.
We went out and found a Viking greeter. We were there along with another couple from our flight. We were introduced to our driver. We all went out, loaded up the van, and headed in to Paris. Interestingly, there were two rows of 3 seats each, but they were facing each other. That is in some ways a bit friendlier. It also might save space, as both sets of seats sort of share the same knee/leg room.
We went in to our hotel, found the people at the Viking table, got organized, checked in at the hotel, and then went up to our room. At this point, Amy discovered that she didn’t have her money belt, which contained about $100. It came off during the extra screening that she went through at Heathrow, and apparently it never got back to her, and she didn’t notice it until we were at the hotel. Since there is no ID in it, I think we can consider that cash as gone.
I contacted Erdinc, a co-worker who lives in Paris, and then Amy and I went out in search of dinner. We found one place that we liked, but it didn’t open until 7, and it was currently just after 5. We went to another place (we had gotten some suggestions from the guy at the Viking table), and this place was open, so we went there.
Dinner was very nice. I had duck confit, and Amy had lamb confit. Apparently “confit” is a process of cooking with low heat for a long time, and it makes the meat very tender.
A couple was seated next to us, and it turns out that they are also on our cruise, so we’ll probably see some more of them.
We found an ATM on the way back to the hotel, so I got some Euros. Then I pinged my coworker, who is heading over to meet up with us. I’ll hang out with him for a bit, and then have an early night.
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The elevators here are interesting. It is a tall building—I think there are about 35 stories. We’re near the top—on the 31st floor. In most elevators, you push a call button, get in the car, and select a floor. Here, you enter the desired floor on a panel in the lobby, and it tells you which elevator to use. When you get in the elevator car, your floor is already configured. You don’t/can’t select the floor from within the car. I originally thought that it might just allow it to do a better job optimizing the stops for each car, but I think there may be a simpler explanation. The elevators that we take are “express” ones. I think they only serve the top 9 floors. So it might just be selecting the first available elevator that serves the floor you want.
It is definitely interesting when your ears pop (only slightly) when going up to your room or down to the lobby.
In any event, we met up with my coworker down the in lobby, got a coffee, and just chatted for an hour or so. He just left, and we’re back up in the room. We just need to get organized a bit and then hit the sack.
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Tomorrow starts the first real day of the tour, and then the following day brings us to the boat.