My 40th Birthday

Thanks to a business conference in Europe, Dave's parents who took care of the house and the kids, and the fact that France and Spain are so close together, I was able to climb the Eiffel Tower on my 40th birthday.  It was really incredible.

We arrived in Paris in the afternoon on the day of my birthday.  We made it to our hotel, dropped off our luggage, pushed through the strong urge to go to sleep and we were off the visit the Eiffel Tower, only a few minutes walk from where we were staying in the Rue Cler neighborhood.

 

 

 We decided to skip the long lines for the elevator and climb the 669 steps to the second floor of the tower.

 

The views of Paris from the Eiffel Tower are pretty incredible.

 

But, I also enjoyed seeing the inner workings of the tower and what an amazing feet of engineering it really is.

The Seine River

Here I am taking a picture of step number 660 out of 669 steps.

The tracks of one of the five elevators at the Eiffel Tower.

The underbelly and more elevator cables.

 

After visiting the tower, we strolled around the city for a while.

We crossed the Seine River at the Pont Alexandre III bridge which is a classified as an historical monument.

It was fun as we walked around to see the Eiffel Tower present itself again and again as we looked back from where we had come.

 

We finished off the evening by finding a nice café for dinner.  Unfortunately, it was too cold and rainy to sit outside like a true Parisan and people watch during our meal.

 

We sat inside and indulged ourselves on a couple of delicious pizzas.  We had an amazing day.  It was so nice of Dave to take a detour on his business trip to give me such a fabulous birthday.