My last day of exploiting

I got an early start this morning well, early for me. I wanted to beat the heat today, but I ended up staying out till the best came. 

I did 13.5 miles of walking. 

Original plan was just to visit the Arc de Triomphe and take interesting photos of Paris along the way. But when I noticed the Eiffel Tower peaking over roofs I decided it had to be visited again. 

Heading out

A selfie sphere. See me?

Lots of statues in the city

Nice walkway. Later my path was determined by where the shade was. 

My fittest view of the Arch in the distance. 

This is the narrow side of the arch. 

And here's a wide view. 

To actually get to the arch you must take the tunnel. Otherwise you would be dodging 4 or 6 lanes of roundabout. Parisians view traffic signs and lanes as a humorous suggestion. 

You can pay to go in the arch but outside was good enough for me. Hey, nice hat! 

Lot of cool sculptures on it. I imagine this is Joan of Arc. 

Leaving there i found myself on the Champs Elysées. If I still had my bike I could imagine I was leading the peloton into the final lap of the Tour. 

Cool building

It didn't take long to find myself near the Tower again. 

I didn't attend these Olympics but now I have the rings.  

Partial eclipse of the sun? 

I paid to climb the stairs. The very top was closed due to heat. 97°F today. Heat wave this week in Europe. Supposed to be over 100 tomorrow! 

The amount of steel work is overwhelming 

Made it to the 3rd level and the panoramic views of Paris are worth it. 

Looking up from the bottom. 

This extravagant bridge leads over to the Grand Palace. 

There they are together. 

There are several streets masked for US presidents but I only saw one statue. From a distance i thought this looked like Thomas Jefferson. And it was. 

The Seine 

I knew my brig over the Seine would give me one last view of Notre-Dame. 

And from there the road led me back to St Christopher's Inn, my hostel by Gare du Nord, my train station to the airport. 

Up early tomorrow and soon I'll be winging my way back to my sweetheart. 

Good night, good afternoon wherever you are. 

Back to Paris

Paris is where I landed on this trip and where I'll depart from. 

I did put my yellow pin on the cork board at the Rotterdam hostel. Looks like I was their only visitor from St George. 

Rotterdam Central Station was only a 5 minute walk from the hostel. Finding the right train platform required asking a couple people. One was right, one was wrong, but I made my train. It was running 10 minutes behind schedule but I had a 36 minute layover in Brussels, so I wasn't too worried. 

It helped that people sitting near me were going to the same stop. I didn't want to get off at the wrong stop! Turned out our stop was the end of the line so no worries

Made my connection with plenty of time. 

The train to Paris was much faster! 

I spent the ride looking out the window and playing the song "We may never pass this way again" in my mind. I didn't want to waste any of this time looking at the internet. 

Off the train and walking to the terminal in Paris. 2nd class passengers have to walk further than 1st class. 

Paris Gare Nord is a big and busy place! 

Since I am staying at the same hostel as when I started in Paris, it was no trouble finding it. It's only a few blocks from the station. 

Checked in and took my stuff to my room. Sweet to not have to climb into a bunk bed again! 

Paris, and a lot of Europe, is experiencing unseasonable weather. Not as hot as St George but with humidity and no air conditioning it feels pretty darn hot. Near 90 today and over 100 by the time I head home. 

I'm being lazy tonight but hope to walk to the Arc De Triumph tomorrow morning before it heats up. 

I feel like I'm almost home. 

Washing machines are not made with a universal language

This is one of those odd days on a trip when you are just trying to get everything ready for going home. 

Today that meant rearranging things in my panniers as needed and finding a laundromat so I can have some clean clothes to wear home. I don't want to be the smelly person you sit next to for a 10 hour cross Atlantic flight. 

It has been literally decades since I last used a laundromat and things have changed. Or they are just different in Europe. It's a good thing they had a sign in Dutch, Spanish, and English (that could be a Rosetta Stone for future civilizations!).You don't put your Euros in a tray slots and push it closed to start the process. Instead you run back and forth between the washing machine and payment machine, press different buttons, and hopefully it starts washing. Same with the dryer. 

But before that I did a casual walk around town. 

It's Saturday and that means Saturday Market. 

Vendors are up and down the Marktplaz selling everything you can imagine. 

You can get your sea food

Including fresh octopus and many fish I couldn't recognize. Antiques, jewelry and watches

And even some exotic looking spices. Some of them will make those octopus tentacles tickle your tongue! 

There's also an indoor market housed in the central of a huge arched apartment building. 

Another view

The architecture in this city is amazing! 

All that is left to do today is have some dinner and a good night's sleep so I can catch my train tomorrow. 

BTW, see where I am with these cool Webcam of Rotterdam. I especially like the one of the Erasmus bridge. 

Rotterdam Webcams - Live View https://share.google/vkjuggR4GcEzCs7CT

Sunset was at 10:06. This is the view at 10:30

See you in Paris. 

I no longer have a bike

I'm back in Rotterdam for 2 nights before taking a train to Paris. I got a €150 certificate to use in the store for giving the bike back. They'll clean it up (needed that!) and fix a couple things then give it a 2nd life as a used bike. That's a pretty good plan. 

Dean says goodbye to his bike. 

You would not think spending that money would be a problem but it was for me. I needed to only buy what would go in my carry on panniers, so nothing bulky. I've been that way with all my souvenirs from this trip. Mainly pins to add to my cork boards and a couple t-shirts. 

So today's ride went pretty quickly. The wind had died down some from yesterday but I still had a decent tailwind. I practically coasted back into town! I think it was the most effortless riding I did on this trip. Maybe day 1 coasting through the hair pin turns coming down the Alps, but I don't think so.  

Had to get another selfie with the lighthouse. 

I took some time to visit the flood gates and watch a film about how the devastating storm surge of 1953 showed them that needed to do something to prevent that happening again. 

There were a number of different ideas but this was the winner. 

The film really dramatized how they were able to build this and still keep the seaport open the whole time. I think it is one of the greatest engineering feats of the modern world. 

Cute boat!

I need to look up info on this Chinese boat. I have no idea what it does. 

The Euro Mast looms ahead. I'm almost done riding. 

I did see people rappelling down from the restaurant part. Susan says she would have done that in a minute! She's rappeled that far before but she wouldn't bungee jump with me. 

When I see this bridge I know I'm just moments from being done. 

So I've checked into my hostel and been assigned a bunk. 

Top bunk but much easier to access than others have been. 

They have a very slow elevator to the 3rd floor and normally I wouldn't use it, but...

this place has the narrowest 'stairs of death' that I've ever seen. 

No real plans for tomorrow except to find the train station and do some wandering around town.