Day 4 – Paris, and some Den Haag (The Hague)

Day Four – Paris, and some Den Haag (The Hague):
Talk about whirlwind tour! We had to leave Paris at 3pm, and the day included visiting the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and shopping. I'm still in disbelief as to how we got it all done. Granted, we didn't spend a long time at any one place, but we did get to see the major highlights. Just like the day before, everything is so stunningly beautiful! We expected the Mona Lisa to be tiny, since that's what everyone says, but it was bigger than I expected! I think many other works of art were more impressive though. It rained a lot, and I got myself a snazzy Paris umbrella for the low low price of 5e. Talk about standing out in a crowd! Purple umbrella with Paris France written all over it. The gargoyles on Notre Dame were smaller than I was expecting, but the architecture was stunning. We finally made it to the Pantheon and had about 20-25 minutes to run through the crypt. We saw Dumas, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, and the Curie's tombs. Along with many other people we didn't recognize :)

From Paris we took a train (or two) to Den Haag, The Netherlands. The train from Bruxelles to Den Haag was interesting because the man behind us sporadically talked to us. When we finally gave in and got into a conversation, we learned that he is a former member of Dutch Parliament! He also went to Harvard, and his daughter is an actress and wants to go to Sarah Lawrence, which costs $50k/year, and he won't qualify for tuition assistance. I'm not sure why people feel compelled to share too much detail with us! He also gave us a list of things to do and see in Den Haag and Amsterdam, which was awesome!

We opted to take the easy way and take a taxi, because yet again our hotel gave us incomplete directions. We got in around 9pm, and headed to the beach for dinner. The sun was setting so we went down to the beach (the North Sea) – it was windy and even the sand was cold, but it was beautiful! I was brave enough to feel the water, but wasn't paying attention and the water ran up onto my tennis shoes – so then I was cold, sandy, and wet! We went to dinner at a local restaurant right along the water – it had a wonderful atmosphere, and English menus! (Upon request, of course). I had fish, since we were on the coast, and Natalie had breaded pork tenderloins – both were tasty! We were going to share mousse but they accidentally brought us each our own. We didn't complain :) It was probably the best I've ever had! It came with gingerbread-ish cookies, which were unique and tasty. It seemed like a local authentic meal. We finally got done with dinner around 11:30 and made it back to our hotel. We're still not used to the long, drawn out meals.