Bryan's Window

This is post on something I did a while back, but it's something I feel that I should really mention, as it was such an experience (main point: It was incredible!). I'm writing this for anyone who wants more info on what it's like to go on a Topdeck Travel trip.

A while back, I took one of the winter tours to Europe with Topdeck travel. I had a ton of vacation saved up, but no one to travel with. I was single at the time, and most of my friends, family, or co-workers either couldn't take the time off or couldn't afford the trip. I wanted to go to Europe badly, and I wasn't comfortable going to the mainland, where English is not as widely spoken, completely on my own for the first time.

For a while, I wasn't aware of companies that offered travel for young people or solo travels, so when I started finding out about them, I got insanely excited and began researching them inside and out. After looking through the companies and available trips, I decided on the Topdeck Travel Trail to the Alps trip. It had the major sites that I wished to visit, and it was a hotel trip, not a hostel trip.

I flew out to London a few days before the trip started so I could see some extra sights and also visit family. As the time approached, I was definitely getting nervous. Would the people be friendly? Would this be a fun two weeks? Would there be a storm in the ferry crossing, etc. I barely slept the night before trip check-in. Shortly put, none of that happened (minus the storm, but it actually wasn't that bad).

We started off with an early morning drive from London to Dover. We met our trip leader in London, but the driver was actually waiting for us in Calais.

Upon arriving in Paris, we checked into our hotel and had our kick-off dinner. This was my first visit to Paris. After driving through the suburbs and then seeing the inner part of the city, it seems like they just take all the trash in the city and dump it in the suburbs. The city is quite clean, while there was trash and litter everywhere on the outskirts.

After the dinner, we got a driving tour of the city, including the Eiffel Tower. It was an incredible sight to see. And of course, the trip leader gives us tips and strategies to avoid the hecklers (she gave us tips in other cities as well).

The next day, I got up early and started touring the city with one of the other tourists. We kicked off early at Notre Dame. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed.

Next, we walked over to the Louvre. Even taking the less common entrance, the wait was long. I can't imagine what this place would be like in the summer. That said, the first thing we did once we were in was go straight to the Mona Lisa. With that out of the way, we spent some time touring the remainder of the museum. Topdeck had a group bike ride scheduled, but I forgot the time, so I accidentally missed it (it was no big deal).

We then went over the to Eiffel Tower again to see if we could go up, but it was was too foggy, so we went over the the Arc de Triomphe. It was pretty amazing to see in person. Just as amazing though was the Etoile roundabout intersection around the monument. Twelve streets coming to an intersection with no stoplights or stop signs.

After a nice walk down the Champs-Elysees, the last main sight I saw was Les Invalides to see Napoleon's tomb. The day wrapped up with a tasty dinner back near Notre Dame.

And that concludes our time in Paris. One of the things I really liked about Topdeck is that they give you a mix of group activities and self-exploration time, so you can see things with the group and also wander around on your own. In the next post, I'll write about the portion of the trip in Switzerland!