Tour Eiffel

I'll post some pics up here in a bit, but just thought I'd give the low-down on the Eiffel Tower.

Tip for anyone visiting there - even though it was winter there was a massive line of people waiting at the bottom for the lift. Meanwhile, opposite was a complete absence of a line at the other leg of the tower for the walk up to the first level. Not only is it cheaper and quicker its quite a do-able climb even for someone of dubious fitness and just recovering from being sick as I am, which brings you to the first level. There you find another queue for the next elevator to the next level. After a quick circumnavigation of this level (there's signs and photos showing you bits of paris), I found the next set of stairs, which take you up to the second level.

And yet again there is a queue of people who came from the second elevator, waiting for the elevator to the top (no options here). Only the people who take the elevator are only there for one thing, because there is a second queue with no-one in it to the same elevators on the other side of the tower, just near where you come out of the stair-well. These elevator tourists didn't even walk around the level! i'ts only 25 metres around. They just line up like cattle at the next big queue.

Now I'm not 100% on heights - I very much like to have something to hold onto, so the stairs were ok - but that tower is waaaaay too tall for its own good. Even inside a closed elevator, the trip from the second level to the top of the tower was enough to make my legs start to go wobbly. They're nice enough to enclose you within a glass elevator, which leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination, and you just keep going up, and up and up.

The top was pretty amazing though. Suddenly all the big sites of Paris are there to be seen, at the lower levels it was just buildings and buildings and buildings, at the top they just pop out.

Anyway gotta go - times up on the internet cafe machine thingy