Day 3: Heidelberg, Germany (am) and driving to Paris, France (pm)

Because the day was so long, complicated and multi-dimensional, we both had to contribute to this blog so you will see above each section the name of the person who wrote it.

Carrie B:

Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg Castle

We woke today to beautiful weather in Germany!  After the girls completed their workbooks, we headed downstairs for breakfast in our quaint hotel in Heidelberg.  Once breakfast was over, we called our husbands and updated the blog while the girls watched High School Musical.  Once we were finally organized and ready to start our day, we packed up the car and walked behind the hotel to the Heidelberg castle.  After buying the girls postcards, we began our walk up the steep hill towards the castle.  Ellie, in her athletic way, ran up the hill while the rest of us walked.  During our hike to the top, Grace turned to her mom and said, “This reminds me of that big wall in China.”  

Rolling down the castle hills

 

Teachable moment

The castle was beautiful and although the girls weren’t happy that they couldn’t explore the interior rooms, they had a nice time looking out over Heidelberg and studying the architecture.  Once we were at the top, Carrie and I found a cafe that allowed us to sit and relax.  After a quick talk with the girls about staying within our sight, I went inside the cafe and returned with coffee, pretzels and drinks for the girls.  Carrie and I sat outside and watched as they barrel rolled down a patch of grass on the castle grounds.  

Once we were finished with our coffee, we took the girls inside and had a teachable moment about apothecaries.  We didn’t know much about it ourselves so our teachable moment was very brief!  Afterwards, we walked around the castle courtyard a bit more and of course, afraid to miss a moment of documentation, we clicked away on our cameras. 

Carrie L:

Parking in Europe

Once we made the trek back down the hill, we had our bathroom break in the lobby of the hotel and headed back the car to get a move on towards France.  In another reminder of just how big our car is out here, the hardest part about getting back on the road was actually getting back in the car!  The girls all squeezed in from the back but Carrie and I, and our lack of “limberness” couldn’t have possibly contorted ourselves in that way.  Carrie squeezed herself into the driver’s seat while I waited for her to pull out and then jumped in myself.

Heidelberg, Germany

We drove around Heidelberg a bit before getting on the highway, although not exactly by choice.  These little European towns can test the abilities of any GPS, not to mention the people who are following it.  After doing a circle three times around the city center, we finally figured out how to get in the correct lanes, make the turns at the right times and follow the German signs.  Carrie B. may have been getting a little frustrated because she kept missing turns and lanes, but it gave me a chance to snap more pictures and take in more of Heidelberg around us.  

Finally on our way around 1:30pm, we prepared for the 5 1/2 hour drive to Paris.  We should have been able to make it there by 7:00pm and, giving a little time for traffic and dinner, we thought 8:00pm was a realistic estimated time of arrival.  We couldn’t have been more wrong!

Leaving for Paris in the dirty car

The drive to France was actually pretty uneventful.  Carrie B drove the first half while I worked with the girls on finishing up our lessons about Germany.  They made their toilet paper roll German boys and we started to introduce a bit about France and the French language, of which I know nothing other than phrases that would be down right inappropriate to teach little people.  I did make a feeble attempt at a French accent and told the girls that in France the way they pronounce “Paris” is “Pare-eee”.  I even rolled my “r” sound a bit to make it all that much more authentic.  Well, Ellie decided she was great at rolling her r’s the French way and started in on her rendition of “Pare-eee” but we were hysterical listening to her because she can’t roll her r’s.  Instead, she builds up enough saliva in her throat and gurgles the r sound to make it seem like she is rolling it.  When asked how she learned how to do that she said, “I listen to my classmate Maurits speak Dutch and that is what he does with his letters.  He makes sounds come out of his throat.”  She then went on to continue her “Pare-eee” accent with gurgling r’s and added “Platypus” at the end, in honor of the platypus on Phineas and Ferb, and now to this day refers to Paris as “Pare-eee the Pla-ti-puss” with gurgled r-sounds all over the place.  Really cute and funny, we still laugh every time she says it. Probably because she really thinks saying “Paris” in her guttural way is authentic!

Once we started driving into the city I was behind the wheel and we realized we had the address of the apartment we rented entered into the GPS, but we actually needed to collect the key from the management company first.  So, we adjusted the GPS destination and made our way into the city.  Remember that 8:00pm estimated time of arrival? Well here is where that goal starts to unravel.  

First off, traffic.  I have driven in major US cities and my fair share of international cities. It could be argued that Singapore is a difficult place to drive or that maneuvering a car in Manhattan is never suggested.  None of them, however, holds a candle to driving in Paris.  I imagine driving in places like Calcutta, India or Bangkok, Thailand would be worse than driving in Paris but no one drives in those places...you hire a driver to take on that beast of a skill.  So, those kinds of cities aside, I am going to argue that driving in Paris is the worst place to drive....and I don’t like to stereotype but in this case, I also have to go out on a limb and say the “friendliness” of the French drivers and pedestrians were less than ideal and added to the misery of that night.  I am pretty sure I single-handedly heightened the already negative nature of the French driving and walking population.

If traffic was the only obstacle we had to encounter that night we still woudn’t have come close to our ETA...but I wish traffic had been the only issue.

In addition to the traffic and rain, add in the fact that it was after 8:00 at night and therefore it was dark. We were trying to decipher the slow response time of the GPS after each turn we made and tried not to get too frustrated each time I made a turn and it said “Recalculating.”  I swear I followed it exactly!  Why does it keep recalculating?!?!?!

At last we saw the checkered flag on the GPS at 8:30pm indicating we had reached our destination.  We did?  Where?  The name of the road we were on was not the name of the road of this management company.  Not to mention the fact that although we don’t speak a lick of French we can recognize a bad neighborhood when we see one and this had “BAD” written all over it, even if it was in a fancy language.  

Finally I pulled over on a crosswalk (which didn’t make people crossing the street very happy but at that point I was telling the French to take a number in the Carrie Lupoli complaint department).  Carrie and I looked at the map, the GPS and around us when realized the “street” we needed to be on was actually an alley behind us.  With no place to park and three kids in the car, we had to make a quick decision as to how we were going to get the key (which was in a locked storage box because we arrived after office hours).  Carrie B. was going to have to make the brave attempt at getting out of the car to get our key!  

Carrie B:

Before I got out of the car, I reached down and pulled an umbrella out of the passenger side door and said, “I’m bringing this umbrella as a weapon.”  I walked down the street with nothing but my umbrella and the information for retrieving the key.  I crossed the street and turned off on to the side road where the place was located.  It was a dark alley with spray painted graffiti covering both sides of the walls.  Two men were walking in front of me and I was a bit nervous to be the only woman, or other person besides these two, in the alley.  Like a scene from “Mission Impossible,” I found the door quickly, entered in the code and was immediately buzzed in.  Inside the building was a row of lock boxes.  Once again I entered in a code, took the key and headed back as fast as I could to the car.  Carrie L. couldn’t believe that I was already back and mentioned that she had texted her husband  just in case something bad happened so he was aware of our last known location.  We had no idea that we would be the victim of even more dangerous situations that evening!   

Carrie L:

As we were waiting in this dark, seedy location, illegally parked with less than presentable people milling about, I immediately locked the doors. I couldn’t have been more relieved to see Carrie running back to the car with a look of success written over her face.  As she pulled open the door and sat back down I realized the car doors weren’t locked after all and, in fact, they don’t lock when the car is running....a fact that would continue to haunt me as the night went on.  It was unnerving knowing that anyone could have opened our doors of the car at anytime.  From that point on, whenever we were parked, I immediately turned off the car to lock the doors, but for the next few hours, while we were aimlessly driving around Paris looking for our apartment, the inability to lock our doors as we stopped at red lights or drove slowly on small, one way back roads only added to my stress levels.

After Carrie got back into the car and re-lived her Mission Impossible moment, I texted Peter to let him know we were fine and on our way to the apartment.  According to our all-reliable GPS, we would be there in 5 minutes as it was only 1.2 km away.  Brilliant.  We were behind schedule but it was only about 8:45pm so we should be settled into our apartment with a glass of wine within the 1/2 hour.  Nope. Not even close.

I mentioned Bangkok before....it is a tough place to navigate and in the times I have been there I always was thankful I didn’t have to figure out those roads myself because there would have been no way I could have done it.  There is no discernible city grid in Bangkok making it impossible to miss a turn and simply go to the next block to get back on track.  Manhattan's city grid is easy...city blocks that are shaped like blocks.  Miss a turn?  Go to the next one and as long as you are thinking like a “square” and make enough turns going in the same direction, you can eventually find the road you missed.  Not so in Bangkok and not so in Paris...only in Bangkok no one would ever be crazy enough to take on those roads as a first time driver in the city...with children in the car....late at night.  In Paris, one would be crazy to do that too.  


Call me Crazy.

We couldn’t find it.  We just couldn’t find the darn apartment.  We followed the GPS point by point, moment by moment but as soon as we would get to a certain point it would “recalcuate” and take us all around the city again.  Remember it is also dark, rainy and LATE.  The girls were still awake and although were so well behaved, they wanted out of that car and into a comfy cozy bed.  We just had no bearings as to where we needed to be or how to get there.  A few times we were actually on the road of the apartment but we were at the wrong end, going the wrong direction and we couldn’t get ourselves turned around to get to where we needed to be.  If I hadn’t gotten enough French drivers and pedestrians mad enough at me the first few hours I drove in Paris, I certainly managed to cover a considerable amount of the population the last few hours we were there.

After a couple hours of this, we just didn’t know what to do.  We were stuck in this city with an apartment we couldn’t find and it was getting later and later.  So late, in fact, that we were really concerned about how we were going to find parking and get the kids and luggage out of the car safely, in a reasonable distance from the apartment (that is, IF we found the apartment).  We heard that parking was an issue in Paris and the owner of the apartment gave us some information on where to park but as we drove around the neighborhood for so long we realized that there was no way we would find acceptable parking that late.

In our ump-teenth attempt to find the apartment we finally just pulled over, turned off the car, locked the doors and tried to re-group.  We had no internet to research where we were and the city map we had was less than helpful.  Looking back now, I have no idea why we didn’t heed a friend’s advice about booking the Novotel Hotel in Paris that had parking.  I guess we thought the apartment was a more economical idea because otherwise we needed two rooms or an expensive suite and that we would manage to figure out the parking once we got there.  That was one of many mistakes we made leading up to this moment.  I texted Peter to see if he could find us a hotel in Paris with parking and to see if he could find the Novotel my friend Sabrina had told me about.  He was out with friends in Norway and desperately tried to help us by searching hotels on his blackberry in the middle of an Irish Pub on St. Patrick’s Day.  Bless him.

We found the Novotel on the GPS at the same time Peter found it on his Blackberry.  After calling and confirming they had rooms and parking, Peter texted to encourage us to give up looking for the apartment and just safely get to the Novotel.  Remember, all this driving around in seedy areas was with a car whose doors didn’t lock.

So, we made up our minds and said, “Let’s forget the apartment and go to the Novotel.  At this point our safety and time are more important then the money.”  We entered in the  Novotel to the GPS...the same GPS that couldn’t find the apartment. I don’t know what made us think it would allow us to find the Novotel.

As we were on our way, tired, scared and frustrated the GPS informed me that I would be taking a right up ahead.  So, as I put on my right blinker and committed to the turn, we noticed the arrows on the street were facing towards us, indicating that I was driving the wrong way on a one way road!  We both screamed and I immediately put the car in reverse, turned around and got out of there when in my rear view mirror I saw about 5 cars going down the very road I had just turned around from.  Apparently I WAS going in the right direction and everyone, it seemed, other than me understood this.  I know I don’t speak French but arrows painted on the road coming at me says “WRONG WAY” in any language.  

So, we irritated Mr. GPS again and he took us on another wild goose chase around the city.  As we randomly took more rights, lefts and received more angry horn blasts that seemed to last longer with increasing aggressiveness, we took a breath as we were presented with a red light.  I closed my eyes for a second to try to re-group and when I opened my eyes I saw “Rue Saint Denis” on our right and left...the very road our apartment was on!  I quickly told Carrie to help me figure out what the numbers were on that part of the street and we saw #180...our apartment was #187!  We were there...we were there!  Ha!  In our attempt to find the Novotel we accidentally stumbled across our apartment location.  


Ah, so in just a few minutes we would be at our original desired destination.

Nope.  Wrong again....well, actually we did find it.  We found it pretty easily to be honest.  By that point we were pretty well versed in most of the streets in that area and we suddenly became smarter than Mr. GPS and ignored his incessant insistence to turn left when we knew we needed to turn right.  It wasn’t a direct hit on the directional bulls eye but after a few wrong turns, we managed to get to 187 Rue Saint Denis.  

Home Sweet Home.  Or not.

I pulled up the street view on Google Maps of where our apartment was located.  I attach them here for your viewing pleasure.

Now, I am sure you are drawn to the XX Video store directly to the right of the entrance or the “Sex Shop” immediately across the street from the front door.  Funny enough, it wasn’t the first thing we saw when we pulled up.  What we noticed were the dozens of men congregated in groups drinking and smoking at the door of the entrance to our elusive apartment.  There was no way we were walking through that group, with our children, up to that apartment.  And anyway, there was no place to park.  One of us would have had to take the kids up to the apartment while the other drove around, aimlessly again, looking for a place to park and then make multiple trips, unaccompanied, to bring up the luggage. No way, Francias.

Carrie said to me, “Forget it.  We found it and at least now we know.  We can’t stay there, it isn’t safe and it isn’t an option.  Let’s go find the Novotel.”  I immediately agreed and felt better for at least being able to justify that we didn’t stay there because of safety reasons instead of because we just couldn’t find the darn place.

Okay, so back to finding that Novotel again. Oh Novotel, where are you?  Mr. GPS got back on board with our quest and directed us through the ever busy streets of Paris.  We were well on our way when I was expected to take a right on the upcoming street.  After driving in more bus lanes than I like to admit, I remembered to stay to the left, allowing the buses to drive on my right, committed to not angering any more French drivers that evening.  I had a green light.  I had my right blinker on.  I was all set to make that right turn.  However I forgot about that darn bus lane again.  The bus lane where the buses drive straight through the intersections, rarely turning right on the small side roads like I wanted to do.  Can you picture this?  I am in the middle lane, about to turn right while the bus speeding up on my right has all intentions of going straight.  

I never saw the bus.  I thought I was free to take a right.  I was, after all in the right-most lane for cars.  I just kept forgetting about those buses.  

I started to turn right and I have no idea what prompted me to suddenly slam on the brakes.  I never saw the bus.  I had no idea it was there.  I really think God was with me at that moment because why would I slam on the breaks immediately after starting to turn right?  I slammed on them just in time for even a fraction of a second later, that bus would have eaten us up...completely and totally.  It was coming at us so fast and it blew its horn at us but it would have been too late if I had reacted to the sound.  Luckily God’s foot on that brake was what saved us.  We weren’t an inch away from that bus as it sped past us.  Add a few more angry French drivers to that list I racked up just then.

The shock of that moment didn’t totally hit until a few seconds later when Carrie B started laughing so hard she started crying and repeated over and over.  “We almost got hit by a bus.  We almost got hit by a bus.  We almost got hit by a bus.”  

At that point all the frustrations, fears and failures of the night came flooding to us and we couldn’t keep it together anymore.  We were laughing and crying hysterically in shock at our near death experience, re-living it over and over as we were completing ignoring Mr. GPS, who, by this point who was getting more and more irritated by us.  I didn’t think it was possible to actually anger a computer, but we managed to do it, I believe.  Or, it could have been our complete and total hysteria setting in making us really believe the GPS was just another French person who had it with the two Carries that night.

We just kept driving.  We were driving and laughing and crying and hyperventilating.  Carrie just kept saying, every few minutes, “We almost got hit by a bus.”  

 Like a mirage in a desert, we saw a big, beautiful hotel called Hotel du Louvre and we immediately texted Peter to see if he could look them up and call to see if they had parking.  We drove around the hotel, but like walking in a dessert thirsty for water and finding none, there was no parking to be found.  I was so intent on looking around me that I didn’t realize I was at an intersection.  I slammed on the breaks, not sure if I should turn left or right....but I didn’t stop quick enough and I found myself going straight...into what seemed to be the arch of a building...not a road!  I started screaming, “I am driving into a building...oh no!!!!”  Carrie just continued to laugh hysterically, and saying, “You can’t do this!”

The "building" I drove into (Google Maps)

But, we committed and there was nothing I could do.  I was driving into what I thought was a historical building in France.  

Ever hear of the Louvre?

I drove into it.  

Inside the Arch (Google maps)

Okay, so not exactly, but kind of.  As I was half way through the arch I realized my car fit and there was an open court yard in front of me.  Still not realizing I was on an actual, legal road, I was just thankful I wasn’t smashed into some ancient Parisian landmark.  I was driving and legal or not, I saw an opening at the other end...a way out.  

The Louvre! (Google Maps)

Eye’s focused on the way out, I quickly turned to my left and saw....yup, the Louvre!  I am HORRIBLE at Parisian landmarks other than the Eiffel Tower but even I knew what that glass pyramid was.  Part of me was blown away by my find but the other half of me was like “Uh oh...I am driving IN the courtyard of the Louvre.”  Surely this wasn’t allowed.  We were still screaming.  We were laughing and screaming. We were laughing, screaming and still not breathing.  All of the sudden I hear Carrie B yell out, “Wait!  Is that?  Yes...yes...look, over there!  The Eiffel Tower!”  That was all we needed.  We were done.  We were hysterical.  We were in Paris, lost and with no direction when suddenly we were literally in the middle of the city with two of the most famous landmarks in the world on either side of us.  

In the open courtyard (Google Maps)

You may be wondering what is going on with the kids during all this.  Elise, luckily was asleep.  Carrie was pretty sure she wouldn’t of handled this stress well.  Grace and Ellie I think were too scared to talk, move or complain.  They just sat there and didn’t say anything until after we were “in” the Louvre...”Mom, you are driving crazy.  Are you sure you have a driver’s license?”  

Yeah, Ellie.  I have my license, I just don’t have my sanity.

Carrie B.

We finally found the Novotel.  After we drove into the Louvre we gave up on Mr. GPS, although we are still convinced he gave up on us.  We had no idea, still where to go, but we were officially in Paris and we didn’t care anymore.  We would figure it out.  We were alive and not in jail.  Both points in the “+” column for the night.  

Suddenly, almost as if it were the moment agreed to give up all control, we saw a sign that said, “ACCESS NOVOTEL.”  Yes!  It was our very own North Star!  In all her assertiveness she learned from her hours as a mad Parisian driver, Carrie L. pulled up onto the front entrance of the hotel and parked directly in front of the doors.  “Go,” she commanded me.  “Get us a room!”  

Novotel Paris w/ onsite parking!

I walked in to the Novotel and the Concierge asked if he could help me with a concerned look.  I was wiping the tears from my eyes from laughing but I’m sure he thought that the tears were ones of sadness.  At the counter, I was approached by the hotel Director that gave me the same worried look.  I asked if he had any rooms available for two nights for five people and he replied, “Yes.”  He then spoke with his colleague in French and then turned to me and said, “I’m sorry ma'am but due to security reasons we cannot put all five of you in one room.  You must either get two rooms or a suite.”  I stood there thinking it over and began telling him about our nights events.  I mentioned that we had three tired children in the car and that we had planned to rent an apartment but once we saw the XXX shop across the street and scary drunk men outside the door we decided against it.  After listening to me ramble on he said the suite was 460 Euro a night but he could offer us a special rate of 340 Euro instead.  Sign us up!!!   


After getting the room, I went back out to the car and gave Carrie the good news.  We had a car and a parking spot in the basement!  We parked, carried in the luggage and went to sleep.  I had never been happier to be in a hotel room in my entire life!