A last day in Paris would not be complete without a final run for some pain au chocolate from our favorite boulangerie. And a few other yummy treats that they make to take out of town with us. We made our final breakfast and got the apartment cleaned up and had a little time to chill. We arranged for a taxi to pick us up and take us to the train station so we wouldn't have to try and get all of our stuff in and out of the metro stations and on and off the metro itself. That was definitely worth it, especially since our taxi driver was so nice!
There was a short wait at the Gare du Nord before we could board our train but plenty of people watching to keep us entertained. Not only that, there were also some funny Thalys signs placed around giving suggestions about how to spend your time on the train. The one for Paris to Amsterdam not only indicated that you could read the paper and drink some tea, you could also play Angry Birds. So funny! Once we boarded we found that we had single seats that were across from each other which worked out well. Then we were off on a three hour or so journey to Amsterdam.
The journey was quick and then we were back at Centraal Station. We were thinking ahead and bought our tickets for the return trip from Centraal to Schiphol the next day - nothing like being prepared! Then we made our way to our hotel and were in awe. This hotel room was incredible with super tall ceilings, electric powered curtains and a complimentary mini bar that we were told on a few occasions, by different hotel staff, to make sure we took advantage of it. Well, okay then!
We had a fun and tasty dinner at yet another Indonesian restaurant that we had not visited during our prior days in Amsterdam. Talk about multiple containers of yummy goodness! There were so many "boats" of things from our order that we think the total count of appetizer, dinner, and dessert containers was somewhere around 24! Regardless of the number of dishes, everything we had was so good. A great way to round out our European vacation for sure!
The next morning we had some breakfast at the hotel (great surprise for us was that they had chocolate croissants!). We got everything packed up and took a trek over to Centraal to catch a train to Schiphol. Once there we got all checked in, bags dropped off and made it through passport control. Security is at the individual gates so we first got a quick bite to eat before doing our security scan and being in a secure spot with access only to bathrooms or to board the plane. Once on board we found that we were on an older plane than our flight over and as such the amenities were not quite as nice as before, but hey, business class is still the way to go for a trip like this!
After a number of movies and reading, as well as some good food along the way - the milk and cookies were a pleasant surprise! - we made it back to SeaTac. Customs and luggage retreival behind us we were on the way home and got ourselves unpacked. We didn't last too long into the night and had to call it a day after having been up for close to 24 hours. So worth it though, this was an incredible adventure for us to go on together!!!
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