After driving past the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of World War 2, we arrived at the Brandenburg Gate – Katie’s top landmark for Berlin. We got out, took some pictures, and headed toward the Reichstag. We both walked over to the entrance of the building and wanted to get a tour, but since we didn’t have our passports, decided to just head off on our own through the Tiergarten – the largest city park in Berlin. We rented some Limes and zoomed around the park, just enjoying the beautiful weather. Our self-led lime tour of Berlin ended at the Victory Tower (Siegessaule Tower). We climbed up (and counted) all 285 steps to the top of the tower for the beautiful views of the Tiergarten and surrounding Berlin. No lie, I was actually quite terrified of the heights, and held on closely to the inside of the tower. Katie and I made our way down the tower steps to the bottom, re-boarded some Limes and headed back to the hotel to deal with the fact that we had no clothes after today.

Our day ended with us going out to purchase some essentials from our still missing bags. We made a quick stop at Primark for some essentials, and a few other shops for a SIM card and toiletries. We stopped by a city square near the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaschtnis-Kirche where a small fair was setup with street food vendors, beer tents, a DJ, and some children’s rides. We used this opportunity to get some street Doner Kebab and a couple of beers, with a crepe for dessert.

We walked up the hill past the National Museum on our way to our AirBnb. We checked in, sorted out a few things, and hit the town. Our place was just a shot away from Wenceslaus Square, where we would end up spending the majority of our time in Prague. The square was mostly tourists, but also had a large row of stores with popular shopping brands. Something that would become very important to us in the near future.

I really had no expectations when entering Prague. I did a little research on what to see, and what to expect, but I didn't spend enough time looking into it to collect any real opinion on if I'd enjoy it or not.

Prague is gorgeous. All of the common tropes of "Old buildings and windy cobblestone streets" are alive here in Prague. Each time we'd come around a corner we would be greeted with a 14th century tower, baroque statues, a church, or all 3 in one. Our afternoon was spent punishing our feet by taking in as many sights as we could see. We started with Old Town, seeing the Astronomical Clock, Church of Our Lady before Tyn, and the status of Jan Hus. We took a quick break at an Irish Pub with a couple of Staropramens.

The day ended with a bit of shopping (as we had no outfits for the next day), Laundry at the AirBnb, and a headache for Katie. We rested up for what would be a busy day starting the next morning.

We rose early on May 4th, with big plans for Prague. Now, fully charged after a full night's rest, we walked down to the place where we boarded our Hop-on-Hop-off bus. The bus started off in Prague's old town, where we passed the Powder Tower, a 15th Century remnant of the city's original fortifications. We transferred busses to at the Hilton Hotel, and started our tour to new parts of Prague. The winding road took us up the hill to Prague Castle, where we alighted to explore the complex. Being an active government building, we had to go through security before continuing to the castle.

Tickets in hand, we walked into the St. Vitus Cathedral. The ceiling in this church was the highest in Czechia, and the stained glass was some of the most intricate and beautiful we've ever seen. The sun shone through the glass and illuminated the church beautifully, so we stayed for a few pictures then headed out to explore the rest of the castle.

The tickets we purchased included a tour of the Tower, so we headed off to the tower entrance and prepared for the climb. Unlike the Victory Tower in Germany, the spiral staircase in this tower had no rest stations, so we powered up all 280 steps to the top. If our challenge was the steps, our reward was the view, and it was worth far more than we had paid.

A full view of Prague was spread out in front of us, and only 2 other people at the top meant the tower was almost all to ourselves. The tower's large stone walls and walkway provided more security than the sloped 18" of metal at the Victory Tower, so we took our time snapping fun pictures and just soaking in the views.

After coming down from the tower, we looked at our ticket and what else we had access to. We scanned through the turnstiles leading us to "Gold Street" where a cute midieval street lay before us. Each of the small doors had a vendor or display of something Czechia was known for. We, of course, toured the display of Mideval weapons and armor.

With our tour of the castle complete, we set our sights on Lunch. Wendy Mills at OST had given us a great recommendation that wasn't too far away, so we navigated toward it. Unfortunately, the restaurant that Wendy had recommended was closed, so we backtracked to a different one we saw earlier. Our lunch was ideal: 65 degrees and sunny, at an outdoor cafe overlooking Prague, with $1 beers and $12 plates of Czech delicacies. I ordered the goulash and Katie ordered the Pork and Dumplings with Gravy. Both of our meals were excellent, amd the whole experience was just ... mm.. perfect. As I was finishing my beer, a man and his wife came over to us. "Are you finished? May we sit?" Since we had snagged the best seat in the house, this couple wanted to use our table.

"Sure, of course you may have our table" His wife looked embarrassed.

"Ahh, thank you" he says. He calls his wife over, her eyes rolling so hard I can hear them spin.

"You know" he says, "I was born in Prague, and this is my favorite restaurant" Katie and I lock eyes with extreme validation. "Once you visit Prague, you never want to leave". We were starting to agree.

We boarded the bus again and were off toward the rest of the western side of the city. The Monastery, "New Town" (Built in 1600, mind you) and countless baroque buildings went by as the afternoon rolled on by. We changed busses again, and headed into old town, where we boarded a boat for the provided 1-hour river tour. The boat took us back past some sights we had seen earlier before taking us under and around the St. George Bridge. Built in 1350 it's one of the oldest structures in the city, and one of the coolest in my book.

Our excitement for the day ahead woke us up instead of any alarm, and we readied ourselves for a big day in Budapest. After breakfast, we headed across the street to meet up with our hop-on-hop-off bus, and started our tour.

"For those just boarding the bus, we are running a modified route today, so we will not be stopping at points 16, 17, 15 and 4. Please see the altered map on level 1 if you have any questions"

The traffic thickened around our bus as we looked at the stops that were cancelled. We had no idea what "Hero's Square" was but we also saw the Buda Castle stop was closed as well. Looking around, we couldn't tell what was going on, but there were police closing down streets and general crowds behind them. Eh, whatever, I'm sure that wont be a problem later.

We got off the bus at Parliament and had to walk through the tourist district to see it. "Oh! Look! I think it's a bike race!" Katie said. Sure enough, a cyclist raced past us down the fenced off course between us and the Parliament building, service car in tow.

"So, uhh, how do we get around the race?" I asked a nearby guard. He pointed me down the course to a bridge over the racetrack.

We finished our walk at Dock 6, where we boarded the boat tour of the Danube. We found a spot near the stern of the ship that gave us solid breeze and sun, where a few drinks set the tone for an enjoyable trip up and down the river.

An hour later, we disembarked and coursed back through the tourist area around St. Stephens Cathedral back to our hotel. Katie checked in with back home as I took a cat nap. Dinner took us to a restuaruant serving traditional Hungarian food. I ordered the Beef Goulash and Katie ordered Chicken Paprikash. I even ordered a glass of Bull's Blood red wine - more on that in a bit ;). Katie's meal was better, but both were so good that I think Paprika consumption in our house is about to steadily rise.

Our driver was on his way to the hotel to pick us up, and arrived promptly at 9AM. We hopped in the car, and were on our way to the town of Eger. Months ago, I started looking into the history of Hungarian Castles, and really wanted to tour one more in depth. The one in Eger showed up at the top of a few lists, so I found a private tour to Eger and booked it.

Our driver and tour guide, Richard, drove us up the street previously closed by the bike race toward heroes square and Vajadahunyad Castle. While driving by, Richard told us the castle was constructed in the 19th century to showcase the different architectural features of Hungarian Castles that had either been destroyed or now existed outside Hungary's current borders. I noted the destination as a must-see on the way back.

90 minutes later we arrived to Eger, having made best friends with Richard along the way. We began to tour the Old Town of Eger, and taking a break from the large crowds and general business of Budapest. We walked into the main square, past the northernmost minaret in Europe, past the old communist "pantry" toward the Church of Saint Anthony. After a quick peek inside, we headed up the hill for my main attraction: Eger Castle.

If you skipped the history lesson, welcome back. We walked up to the Castle and gained entry. The castle walls were in great shape after nearly 700 years in existence. We were soon met by a woman who knew zero English explaining where to go, and for what. We started to walk along the castle walls, taking in the view of the surrounding area. We ventured into the museum area lower in the castle keep and then onto the ruins of the old church. The outline of the church foundation was clearly visible, along with the bases of pillars that used to hold the whole place up. We continued around the castle mount to the many exhibitions they had available. One included a display of Hungarian cultural artefacts, and the other was all about the Ottoman attack in 1552 (see above if you skipped the history lesson)

This place is awesome! Just a quick walk away from our hotel, in the amusement park "Prater" they serve traditional Austrian fare, and feature Budwar "Budweiser" on tap. We walked around before sitting down at our table and saw an absolute assembly line of a guy filling beer steins (with a huge foam head on top!)

We sat down next to some other Austrians and got our order of pork knuckle submitted. Our beers arrived and we toasted with the group next to us: "Prost!" Then, our massive meal arrived. They slammed down the pork knuckle in the middle of our table, grabbed the leg bone and yanked it out, then finished with a small flag marking this "The Original Stelze".

We were so full from dinner that the sights of the rollercoasters almost made us sick. One ride however, did spark our interests: the Ferris Wheel! We got our tickets, and stepped aboard. The views of the city we were exploring were all about us. After a beautiful night, full of pork and excitement for the days ahead, we returned into the hotel and began relaxing a very busy day away.

Oh! I almost forgot to update you on the bags! Not sure where I left off, so I'll start here: In Budapest, we received an email from our Hotel in Berlin: "So, the airline dropped off your bags, let us know what you'd like us to do with them, or if you'll be back in Berlin anytime soon."

Neat. So not only did they not update our address oto our place in Prague, they went ahead and dropped off the bags, 5 days after losing them, at an address we hadn't occupied in 3 full days... a full day after we called and told them to just send the bags back to our address in the states.

Katie took up the torch, calling the bag service and telling them what to do. Explicitly: Come and pick up our bags, and deliver them to Saint Paul, to our permanent address.

Hotel Zoku Vienna is really, really cool. We woke up in our lofted bed and had an amazing breakfast of avocado toast, eggs and bacon. We also really got to know several the staff here, Jared - from California - married an Austrian woman and has lived here for a few years. McKenna met an Austrian rugby player at Aquinas and has been here for a few years as well. Yeah, you read that right, Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. Jared heard I was from Michigan and told us to find McKenna. She looked at our last name and - well, it wasn't hard to figure out the West Michigan connection.

We took the metro into the center of town where we boarded the first hop-on, hop-off bus. All the other busses we've ridden have had open-air 2nd levels, but the ones in Vienna all had clear plexiglass on the top to, I assume, protect passengers from low-hanging trees. While the plexiglass did offer protection from the trees, it also created a greenhouse inside the bus. While we roasted away on the top floor, catching every passing breeze we could find, we toured around Vienna. The sights were worth the heat, as we passed building after building of Baroque and neo-classical architecture. We stepped off the pizza oven bus in the Museums district to check out the "Iron Men" exhibit at the Kunsthistoriches Museum Vienna.

Refreshed from lunch and the cool air of the museum, we ventured to ride the bus again. The bus took us around the rest of the Ringstrasse and over the Danube. As we realized early on, we really like towers, so we made a stop at The Danube Tower and rode up to the top. The views from this 867-foot-tall tower were incredible. We could walk around the entire viewing platform and soak in the views from all angles of Vienna, so we took our time taking pictures, and occasionally looking over the edge! We walked up the steps to the upper floor and sat down at the Cafe. The seating area of the cafe slowly rotated around the kitchen, so you could sit and have a beer while "watching the world go by" - which is exactly what we did.

The rest of the afternoon included some shopping on the high street, and ate dinner at a Turkish restaurant (Did I mention how much we love Kebab?) We metro'd back to the hotel and took a breather, relaxing in the hotel the rest of the night.

The next morning, we rose with the same amazing breakfast we had the day before and began our tour by heading into the center of town. Before meeting up with the bus, we decided to take a quick detour toward Hofburg Palace, with special consideration for the Austrian Crown Jewels.

Literally a hidden 'gem' amongst the wealth of museums in Vienna, the Imperial Treasury Museum was just outside Hofburg Palace and housed amazing displays of gold, silver and precious stones. Our jaws were on the floor as we went from case to case, taking in as much detail as we could from the ornate creations in front of us. Katie was in heaven,

"I like sparkly things" she kept saying over and over, as if in a trance.

After the tour, we completed our time in Salzburg by visiting another square nearby and splashing around in the fountain. Realizing how tired we were from everything we did that day; we hailed a taxi and went back to our hotel for dinner. The sun was beginning to set as we found a table for dinner. We had to really squeeze our brains for every drop of German as the hotel staff knew very little English, but managed to order some Weiner Schnitzels and of course, Stiegl’s. The view from the hotel was stunning now with a different light on the mountains from before. The sun shone at an angle over Salzburg giving us the most incredible view of the town with the castle at the center. The sun set and we headed inside to find a fun little surprise: the hotel had a bowling alley. What!? Why would an Austrian Alpine Hotel have a bowling alley in the basement? We didn't know either, but we played a few rounds of string-set 9-pin bowling as we enjoyed another round of Stiegl's.

The views of Munich were all around the tower as we shuffled single-file around it. The 3PM bells rang out from beneath us as we looked out over the various points of interest around town. Since the tower walking area was only 1 person wide, we slowly made our way around the tower before starting our way down to the street below.

"It's getting close to beer time" said Christof, as an almost a perfect segue to our next activity. We stopped for pictures and to pop our head inside the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, "Just to say we went" as we navigated through the beautiful park toward the Biergarten. Christof, Sonia, Katie and I all chatted our way through the park, talking about what we all like to do, what we do for work and fun, etc. We soon arrived to the Biergarten Chinesischen Turm and made our way around the stalls. Christof and I happily took two "Masse" (aka the BIG one) of Hofbräu Weissbier while the girls got radlers. We sat and drank our beer as we talked about our hometowns, our thoughts on vacations and holidays, and a little bit of the differences between Germany and America.

Breakfast in Germany is strange. It's basically a bunch of bread and charcuterie meats and cheeses until you're full. That said, we were treated to a great breakfast with Christof and Sonja at the hotel restaurant. We solidified the plan for Southern Germany as a group, then headed out to the car. We had in the plan to visit the oldest brewery in the world Weihenstephan Brewery, but because it was an hour outside of Munich, (meaning, 2+ hours round trip) we nixed it and headed straight toward Füssen. As we drove, Katie and I were refamiliarized with the thrills of the Autobahn.

After touring through some idyllic German countryside, we soon reached Füssen. Füssen sits just above the approach to the Alps in Southern Germany, and has a lot of history around it. We toured the castle on the hill here, and took some pictures down by the river before it was time for lunch. I had shared much about my love for the Turkish-German creation of Döner Kebab, so we searched for nearby places to get some. We found a Turkish restaurant, but all they had was Durum Kebap, which is a little different, but still was very good.

We arrived to the Wolf's home in KIRTCHBURG around 7PM. We were greeted at the door by Paul and Birgit Wolf; Christof's parents who we would be staying with for the next 3 nights. Over the previous 2 weeks we hadn't had a single home-cooked meal, so our dinner of home made lasagna, salad, and veggies was very, very welcome. Dinner conversation was a general meet-and-greet with Paul and Birgit, whose English was very good, regardless of her constant "Sorry, I'm not good with English" comments and use of Google Translate for one-off vocabulary words. Paul's English was, well, it's a lot better than our German. We both realized how nice it was for them to not only open their home to us, but to speak to us in our own language while we were there, so my comments on their English abilities are not intended to be critical.

We ended the night with a sunset walk around the neighborhood, and a tour of our upstairs bedroom and bathroom. Tucked into our beds and ready to get some rest, we set the alarm for early in the morning. After all, someone ordered an Audi R8 for delivery at 8AM. :)

The search for our sweet treat took us up a hill to a park with a nice view overlooking the city, a theme for the afternoon's activities. After exploring the area and taking pictures, Sonja departed to take care of some weekend chores at home. Christof, Katie and I got on a train and rode up to where we could get an even better view of Stuttgart: from the Stuttgart TV Tower. If you couldn't tell, Katie and I love towers, we love getting up to see the views afforded by them, and we love them even more when they have elevators.

Being the tallest TV Tower in Germany, this one definitely had an elevator.

I wanted to make sure I was going to do this properly, and not break any laws, as the car attracted enough attention as it is. Also, the Autobahn is still a public road, so I didn't want to be responsible for something terrible happening to someone who was just trying to get home. You know; "check yourself before you wreck yourself" and all that.

We first took the car back to the AMG test track. With the top down, we flew around the corners on the road ahead, letting the car loose. We cruised the country roads toward the autobahn, passing through a tunnel along the way, so, of course you know I shifted up and revved it.

Once we hit the Autobahn, Christof familiarized me with the rules: speed limits are posted in certain areas, only pass on the left, and what the "unrestricted zone" sign looks like. Once the lesson was over, and we passed our first 'circle and 3 diagonal lines' sign and I put the pedal to the floor.

"Is this how you make ham-and-eggs?" Birgit lifted the lid of the frypan, showing me her efforts at making an American breakfast.

"Yep! That looks very good!" I replied, eager to enjoy the mix of bacon with sunny-side eggs on top.

Katie came down and joined us for a family style breakfast of ham-and-eggs and the usual German breakfast fare. We both enjoyed the reminder of an American Breakfast before heading out the door to Heidelberg. The GPS was set, and for the next hour-and-a-half, we zoomed down the Autobahn toward the town. Along the way we hit 220 kph (135mph) and I was pretty satisfied with my speed. The weather called for an afternoon of rain, so I figured that was the final high-speed run for the day.

We arrived to Heidelberg and parked the car. Today, we would be meeting with Stephan, Christof's younger brother. Stephan is a PhD student at a nearby university, and graciously took the day off to spend with us. We met up outside the parking garage and headed up toward the Castle Heidelberg. Yep, more stairs.

The top of the castle wall granted us amazing views of the historic town below.

"Heidelberg was spared from the bombings in WW2, so there are still a lot of historical buildings." said Stephan, as we toured above the castle wall and got to know each other. Stephan is currently researching image-recognition in AI systems and spends most of his time with his research or with his girlfriend, Anna.

The Castle tour looked a bit long for us, and after having toured so many castles already, we decided to just walk around and enjoy the perfect weather on the castle grounds, taking pictures and just chatting. We soon headed down the winding cobblestone streets to the old town below. Katie stopped into a local drugstore to get some relief from her allergies along the city high street. We continued into town, stopping in shops and attractions along the way. We then reached the bridge, where there's a weird bronze monkey? I guess by doing what I'm doing in this picture, I'm saying I'll return to Heidelberg. Sounds good to me.

After a great lunch of some real Doner Kebab and fries, we snagged some last-minute souvenirs and left Heidelberg for our afternoon location: Sinsheim Technical Museum. This museum wasn't on my radar when Stephan proposed the idea to us, but since it was scheduled to rain in the afternoon, we figured spending a day inside would be worth it. We arrived to the museum a bit early, as Stephan stopped by to pick up Anna to join us for the afternoon.

Other than those main things, there were many, many other items on display at the museum. I would love to list out everything we were able to see and experience, but I think that would ruin the fun, wouldn't it?

We ended our evening as they closed the museum behind us. Stephan, Anna and I went down to a nearby restaurant that Anna recommended for dinner, and had a great time just really getting to know each other. It was really quite nice of them to take a day off from their studies and research to spend with us at Heidelberg and the Museum, so after dinner we went out for rides in the R8 ;)

The rain held off for the evening, giving Katie and I a splendid 90-minute drive home to Kirchberg. Well, the GPS said it would take 90 minutes, but we made it home in far less time. While out for rides, Katie told Stephan that I had reached my limit of 145mph. I wont 100% say that Stephan pressured me into going faster than 145, but it sure gave me a few more ounces of assurance that I was in a more than capable car for the task ahead. I kept an eye on the GPS and when we got a long straightaway with unrestricted speeds, I punched it. Starting from 80mph, I put the pedal to the floor, my hands firmly gripping the wheel at 10-2. The speedometer flashed past 200 and kept climbing, as I remained focus on the road ahead. Katie took pictures, but when a car pulled out ahead of me, I had to brake. 235 kph.

Katie sat back in her chair and stowed her phone as I waited for the car ahead to complete their pass. The long straight continued ahead of us as I eagerly awaited my next attempt. As soon as the vehicle ahead finished overtaking, I shifted down hard and hit it again. We were punched back in our seats again for attempt number 2. The absolute best sound that V-10 engine can produce is shifting gears at 8000 rpm as you keep the throttle wide open. My eyes were trained on the road ahead, but for a split second I glanced down:

275 kph, or 170 mph.

Riding this high, we enjoyed the rest of the drive home, timing bursts of acceleration to the music. I will never forget this experience, ever.

Before ending the night, we were hit with an ounce of reality, the grand total for less than 200kms of gas in this car was 110 Euro. Yeah, ouch. As we pulled in to Kirchberg I de-activated the sport mode on the exhaust and parked it for the night. The engine cut and we could hear again.

"We're never getting anything like this” said Katie.

"Agreed", I said, as we walked back inside. I was scared at the thought of what total familiarity with a car like this would lead to.

As I fell asleep, I thought about the day that we just had, and how it may have just been one of top five days of my life.

The driver came and retrieved the car promptly at 8am. After final inspection, sign-off and payment, I finally breathed a sigh of relief that my deposit would be returned in full, and that I was completely off the hook for damages on a very expensive car. Phew!

After another great breakfast with the Wolf’s, we got in their car and started out toward Tübingen. Our destination was an older medieval town just south of Stuttgart. After a bit of navigation troubles, we arrived at our destination and met up with our tour guide, Luke. Paul and Birgit had booked us an English tour guide for a walking tour around Tübingen, and we started off into the town.

Tübingen was everything you imagined in a cute, historic town in Germany, with many medieval buildings along a river, a historic castle on the hill, and a cathedral-style church in the middle. Having our own tour guide was, again, amazing as I got to ask as many questions as I wanted about the history of the area. Turns out, the area of Tübingen lays claim to the foundational discovery of DNA and was prolific in research on Alzheimer’s disease – as in – Alois Alzheimer did much of his research on the disease while at the University in Tübingen.

After the tour we thanked Luke and met back up with the Wolfs, we hopped back in the car for our one-hour drive north toward Ludwigsberg. Upon arrival, I woke up from my nap and we all headed out into the town for some lunch. Paul, Birgit, Katie and I all agreed on a nice Italian restaurant outdoors, overlooking the plaza and enjoyed our pizzas and salads together, planning out the afternoon. We soon continued our trip through Ludwigsberg toward Ludwigsburg Palace, aka “the Versailles of Swabia”. We had zero expectations for this palace but were game for anything our hosts had planned for us. We soon came around a hedge and were greeted with an amazing view of the Palace. Visually, it looked on par with Shonbrunn, with 5 floors and a massive footprint. We walked down the main garden toward the palace, taking pictures together and (for me) dodging the ever-present sunshine. After a few minutes of walking around the fountain, toward the palace, we noticed that Paul had drifted off to consult the gardeners at work on the palace greens. We waited for him in the rose garden.

The tour ended and we bid auf weidersehen to Paul and Birgit, as they were getting very tired and had to head home. We tipped the tour guide and set out to find a place to hang out until our dinner plans with Christof and Sonia. We walked through the nearby park, past the fairytale gardens until we found our favorite type of garden: biergarten! I hadn’t had a drop of beer since renting the R8, so it was high time. Katie and I sat in the biergarden, drinks in hand, taking in the moment around us. We were in the sight of a baroque palace, surrounded by beautiful gardens, the weather was perfect, the beer was cold, and the spot we found was shaded – couldn’t get better than that.

We soon met up with Christof and Sonja at Syrtaki Ludwigsberg, a greek restaurant that Christof had recommended. As we ate, we recounted the great times we had with Christof’s whole family: The tours with Birgit and Paul, the Museum and Heidelberg with Stephan, and of course all the fun rides in the car. The dinner was a great way to put a cap on a great few days in Germany with them, and exchanged contact information as well as promises to visit before heading our separate ways for the night.

On our last day in Stuttgart, we packed our bags and met the Wolf’s for breakfast downstairs. For some reason, we left the two most important things in Stuttgart until the last day: The Porsche Museum and, more importantly, Paul’s vegetable garden.

With our bags in the trunk, we headed off down the street to Paul Wolf’s pride and joy. After a few meters of off-roading, we arrived at the small plot of land that we’ve heard most about during our stay with the Wolfs. Paul sprang out of the car and started shuffling down the rows of plants he’s been working on. As we had established earlier in the week, the hardest thing to translate was herbs and food items, but that didn’t stop Paul from pointing at his plants and telling us all about them (in German, as Paul does when excited about the topic of conversation)

The night before Katie and I both decided to try something new. Instead of getting a hop-on, hop-off bus, we would just get metro tickets, and zip to the sights we wanted to see. 2-day passes in hand, we boarded the metro and headed toward Notre Dame. We reached the church and realized we had forgotten something pretty big: breakfast. Luckily for us, there was a tent out front of the church where people were hurriedly making bread and other treats, so we queued up and grabbed coffee and some quiches.

Being tour-less this time, I eavesdropped on an English walking tour and learned some very interesting facts about Notre Dame, as well as the breakfast we just had. Turns out the little tent was the yearly competition of all the best bread makers in France competing to win the right to bake all the bread for the President of France for a year, so our quick pitstop was actually a small taste of some of the best quiche around town. Neat!

Right, so Notre Dame. At first glance you notice the scaffolding and other construction implements around the church. Since the fire in 2019, Notre Dame has been under heavy reconstruction, and although I would have loved to see the church in full form, it was perhaps more fascinating to see the massive reconstruction effort. One of the panels showed the importance of the trusses they had to build to support the buttresses, since they were supporting a roof that was no longer present and therefore, needed their own form support. Also, this was not the only time the church had been rebuilt. During the French Revolution, revolutionaries rejected all forms of crown and church, and destroyed most of the churches in Paris, including Notre Dame. It wasn’t until Victor Hugo began writing (and releasing, chapter-by-chapter) The Hunchback of Notre Dame did Parisians realize the church was more of a cultural symbol of France than it was a symbol of the church’s power, bringing together money and volunteers to restore the church.

The hostess seated us on the patio, our view of the Eiffel Tower ever so slightly obstructed by the bussing table. With Katie in the sun and myself in the shade, however, our perch was perfect. The menu was naturally French gourmet, and while the portion sizes were nothing close to filling, the meal was amazing. (My drink was very strong, though) By the end of lunch, Katie was starting to get a little sunned out, so we paid our tab and took a lap on the observation deck next to the restaurant.

Katie looked at me with those eyes again. You know, the same ones from the night before. “Can we go to the Eiffel Tower?” she squeaked.

As we came back to life following our naps, we decided to take it easy. While this may make big fans of Paris cry, by now we had seen everything that was on our list for Paris. We really didn’t plan too much for ourselves in Paris, and as we correctly guessed, we were very tired from 20 straight days of sightseeing, traveling, or both. We walked to the café closest to our hotel and grabbed some dinner and drinks, our energy reserves from naptime and dinner slowly starting to emerge in our bodies. “Wanna just go for a quick walk after dinner?” I asked.

“Sure, but let’s make it quick though I’m tired” Katie replied. By now you should know how this would end up. We would once again end up staying out until 11:00pm.

Our quick walk started off down Champs Elysees, but this time away from the Arc. We crossed by the Memorial to Charles De Gaulle, turned right, and continued between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, where a large masquerade party was accepting its guests. We soon crossed over the Seine toward the Tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte and continued to wander around.

"This will probably be the last time I see this” said Katie, slightly saddened at the thought.

Our plans for the following day ended with us at the airport, not Downtown Paris, so this was the last fun night of our trip in Europe. As the lights of the tower randomly flashed in front of us, we both just sat and recounted the amazing adventure we were about to complete. We had been across 6 countries, set foot in over 10 different cities, handled 3 different currencies and muddled through 4 foreign languages. We met and got to know more people in the last 3 weeks than we had in the previous year, and most importantly, learned so much more about how we operate as a couple.

I haven’t told Katie this yet, but I gained so much more love and respect for her through this trip than during any other time in our relationship, and the wealth of gratitude I have for her cannot be measured.

The tower’s sparkles soon faded, and we got up from our seats along the wall. After a snarky cab ride back to the hotel, we started packing up our things for the following day. Our trip was coming to an end, but not before one more day in Paris.

We woke up, not by fire alarm but on our own. Today’s forecast called for rain, so we figured we’d spend the whole day at the Louvre. As we sat in bed, running through the plan for the day, a thought struck me: you should purchase tickets online, since every other tourist in town will be visiting the Louvre today. I snagged 2 tickets for the 11:30 entry on my phone and moved on to our next task: getting COVID tests. Since the United States was the only country to require a negative test upon arrival, we had to produce a negative test to the Airline during check-in. We found a local pharmacy and paid for the tests, and within 15 minutes were on our way to the Louvre. We arrived at the Louvre around 10:30, an hour earlier than our entry time. We used that time to sort out the test results (yes, negative) and supply them to the app for the airline. There. Sorted. Since we still had some time to kill, we milled around in the mall underneath the plaza, getting coffee and snacks prior to entry.

After lunch, I set out to find Hammurabi’s code, the oldest set of recorded rules in the world. After searching through the ancient near-east exhibits (and asking someone) I found it. I snagged a few pictures and took my time admiring the inscriptions on the stelae. It was interesting looking at this while thinking about the Rosetta Stone in London – which had a massive view queue and plexiglass box around it while this room was almost empty, and I could have reached out and touched the stone. I didn’t, obviously, but I could have.

For the rest of the afternoon, I let my curiosity guide me around the museum, visiting the Venus of Willendorf, and the numerous stone carvings looted from the ancient Assyrian city of Susa. Katie, energy and interest draining, departed for the mall to snag some last-minute souvenirs. I tried to get access to the Roman exhibit, but it was under construction as, apparently it takes more than a day to build anything Roman. I then wandered down to the lower levels, touring the exhibit on Islamic Art. The Ottoman tilework and mosaics were stunning, and the exhibit was almost devoid of other tourists. I took my time cooling off in the dry air below the museum before taking one more stab at French and Italian Painting wing just above me. I got to see Liberty Leading the People and the Coronation of Napoleon before deciding that I too was quite tired, and that my eyes were full of stuff to see.

We exited the museum, searching for one more thing to see. Katie suggested we get a quick picture of the Statue of Liberty. Yeah, you didn’t know that Paris had a one-quarter scale Statue of Liberty? Yeah, neither did I, but I guess they liked the one they gave the United States so much they got their own. We had to do a fair bit of walking to get the shot Katie wanted to get, but it was a fun and spontaneous way to end our time in Paris.

“I’d rather have more time at the airport than not enough” I said, as I checked the time. Our flight out of Paris departed at 10:30pm, and it was 5:30 now. We stopped in to a restaurant near our Hotel for some last minute kebab, grabbed our bags, and started our hour-long trip to Charles De Gaulle International Airport. We thought we were a little crazy arriving to the airport a full 3 and a half hours before our flight departed, but by the time we boarded our flight, we were thankful for every spare minute we had. European airports have a lot to learn from the Americans, as do Europeans when it comes to how to quickly get through a security screen. You’d think the 45-minute line for security would give people enough time to lend thought to the 15 plastic bottles scattered around their suitcase, but nope. I digress.

Our flight departed CDG late at 10:50pm, but we were happy that it did. As we rose in altitude, I got Katie’s attention and had her come toward the window. While she leaned across me, unbuckled to get that extra angle out the window, we both got to view the Eiffel tower sparkle one last time. Thanks, Paris.