Watching the recent Olympics took me back to the 1990’s when my husband and I made our first trip to Europe.
We flew to Frankfurt, Germany - which reminded me a lot of Missouri – and then on to St. Petersburg, Russia.
Our hotel in St. Petersburg, the Pribaltiyskaya, was on the Gulf of Finland and it was there that we experienced what is known as the “white nights” - the sun sets at about 10:00 p.m. but it never really gets dark. Thank goodness I found the black out curtains when we checked in.
We spent a week in St. Petersburg and then headed back to Frankfurt. We picked up our rental car and began to make our way to Paris, our final Europe destination. It had always been a dream of my husbands to drive on the Autobahn in a fast car. It was about a 7-hour drive, and we peaked at 150-155 km or about 90-95 mph. We didn’t sustain that speed the whole way because it was pretty nerve-wracking! Speed limits in the US were still 55 mph. So, 90-95 mph felt nearly out of control. Believe it or not, people were passing us!
We arrived at the edge of the city of Paris in the early evening, thinking that we’d be able to drive right to our hotel. No such luck. In Paris, there are no highway signs to identify where you are, where you’ve been or where you should go. Do you remember in the TV show MASH seeing a post with signs of names of towns and arrows pointing in that direction? That’s the kind of signage there was in Paris. We didn’t know the names of towns in the surrounding countryside - remember, this was long before the days of Siri and GPS. Street signs are posted on the sides of the building rather than on street corners like we were accustomed to in the U.S. We drove around a traffic circle for 2 ½ hours trying to find our hotel.
It was so bad that my husband actually got out and asked for directions! Unfortunately, this didn’t help because, naturally, they were given to him in French.
We knew we were in the right vicinity, but still could not find it. I was so sick of the traffic circle where everyone drove with one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on the horn and an occasional finger given out the window! I was near tears when I asked if we could just skip Paris and go home? My husband was not so willing to give up. He was having fun driving like a maniac - ha-ha! On what seemed like our 100th time around the traffic circle we looked down at a teeny tiny side street and saw the very small sign in front of our hotel!
By this time, we were exhausted. The gentleman behind the hotel desk was very nice, explained – in English, thank goodness! - a few things about the accommodation, breakfast times and where the elevator was located. We piled into the smallest elevator I had ever seen and pushed the button for the 3rd floor. As we began to ascend, we started to relax. Suddenly, the elevator stopped, and the lights went out. We snapped to attention in the dark and the elevator and lights started. We breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed once more. And, again, the elevator stopped, and the lights went out. It was then that I realized that every time we relaxed, David was leaning on the control panel and shutting down the elevator. What an ending to our first day in Paris!
Over the next few days, we enjoyed the sites of Paris: the Eiffel Tower and walking along the Seine River. We enjoyed the local artists painting and selling their wares. We were at the end of a long trip so skipped a lot of the typical tourist activities choosing instead to enjoy the atmosphere and ambiance of Paris.
The prospect of navigating our way back to the airport – especially since there was a huge truckers strike in Paris effectively closing their highway system – made us nervous. David put his map head on and noted that if the sun was rising in front of us, we would be headed in the wrong direction! The further out of town we got the less traffic we saw. Pretty soon, there were no cars, but, looking ahead, we could see orange traffic cones blocking the highway. My panic began rising, but David kept going. The cones diverted all traffic INTO the airport and then the highway was closed. Phew!
At this point, I just wanted to be home. 24 hours later I got my wish…minus some luggage. Sigh!
This was one of our most memorable adventures.
Lori Herr for The Gift of Scent