Notre Dame de Paris Experience

After admiring the Hôtel de Ville, we continued our walk to the Notre Dame de Paris or the Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris. If translated in English, Notre (Our) Dame (Lady) of Paris. Still, it is in the 4^th arrondissement so just nearby the Hotel de Ville. The Notre Dame Cathedral houses the Archbishop of Paris.

What attracted me, physically, inside the church are its stained glasses. They are magnificent! I took photos of some of them. The Notre Dame de Paris or the Notre Dame Cathedral is also widely considered one of the “finest examples of French Gothic architecture” (Wikipedia 2011) in the country (France) and also the rest of the continent (Europe), naturally aside from the awesome stained glasses I previously mentioned.

This is from the right side of the Cathedral's entrance. Look around up and see the design...

Since this group of policement on horses were passing as I crossed the street to the Cathedral, I just have them posted here... :)

The iron works behind me and the sculptures are admirable...

WIth my fave...Joan of Arc... the quality is really bad but I did not want to use flash inside the Cathedral (respect)...

Bass relief (?) depicting Christ's sufferings...

Notre Dame de Paris in one glass... this is the miniature version inside the glass...

Also the miniature version of the labor force that made this church, Notre Dame de Paris successfully erected...

Below are a few samples of the many beautifully crafted stained glass inside the Cathedral. Beautiful work...

The Hague (Central Station) to Paris (Galieni) Eurolines Trip: Waiting for the Bus at the Hague CS

It's the trip starting at night: at 22:45 or 10:45PM from The Hague (Centraal Station) to Paris (Galieni Parc de Bagnolet bus station). Tre trip was estimated to last for about 7 hours including all pick-up stops and pause stops along the way. The ticket for this one-way trip costed only Eur 39 but including insurance and other fees, the total is Eur 47... stillnot bad. This post will lay out what one can expect during the waiting period and the next post will be about the trip itself and it might be helpful, especially for this eurolines trip experience from The Hague to Paris. The bus passing The Hague, I assume, started from Amsterdam and thus, the same information in the succeeding post(s) apply for those passengers.You will see the following numbered points.

1. Since this was a night travel, the check-in desk wasalready closed. The ticket itself (no boarding pass)was enough for the driver. Make sure that you printed the page of eticket (not the receipt page) for presentation. Sample is shown below.

2. Where to wait? The stop for eurolines busses is not in theplace where thelocal busses stop. It is behind the eurolines office, and when you wait you can see the bike shed of the central station (CS). The stop is not labelled so be careful. See some of the pointsof view when one is waiting for the eurolines bus.

The CS bike shed

Really near this trash can

Not the eurolines bus, just wait for eurlolines bus... there might be a bus parked in the waiting area

There is also a waiting area with chairs and tables if you would like to stay 
there, especially if you wish to eat and/or sit/rest

 3. At around 22:05 or at 10:05 PM, a eurolines bus bound for Amsterdam passed by. It was NOT thebus for Paris, just wait for the bus. It will aeeive just around "on time" although passengers are advised to be present 30 minutes before the trip.

4. The bus arrived at 22:35 or 10:35PM and we were around 15 passengers who hopped on. The baggage packing, the arrangement and everything lasted for around 10 minutes. At 22:47 or 10:47 PM we departed. 2 minutes late, not bad at all!

Don't forget to give your ticket to the driver to prevent delays. You will know why in the next post.