Day 4 (2025) - Lassie, Please Help Find Our Parents!

Today was our last day in Paris. We had two flights scheduled from Paris to Vienna, both around 3:30pm so we had some time in the morning. Before we left the states, I booked us entry to the Louvre at 9am, right when it opened. Based on my previous experiences at the Louvre I figured that if we got in a little after 9am, we might be done seeing what we really needed to see by 9:10 (OK, maybe a little later). The night before, Brian suggested we walk the 30 minutes to the museum, partially to get some good exercise but more realistically to try and work of last night’s dinner. We made plans to meet at 8am and walk to the Louvre, while along the way look for a place to grab something for breakfast. Unfortunately, or double unfortunately, on Sundays many places don’t open early, and anyway the route we took was mostly a retail shopping route with a lot of cute clothing shops (Debbie was bummed we hadn’t discovered this area sooner, me not so much).

We arrived at the museum around 8:40 so we figured we had some time to kill.  We spotted a food truck near the entrance we were going to use (not the pyramid entrance so we didn’t have to wait outside in a long line) and Amanda and I ordered quiches and Brian and I ordered double espressos (about the size of a small at Starbucks). After we had eaten and had our coffees, we made our way inside to where I assumed we would just stroll right in since we had a 9am reservation.  But no monkey breath, that’s not the way it works. We had to wait in a very long line (at least it was inside) to go through a single security checkpoint. It was long enough that Debbie had time to go to the food court and get her favorite – pain au chocolat. It wasn’t the best one she’s had, but it gave her some food at least.

Loading up before getting inside

We finally made it into the entry hall of the museum around 9:45, so we were already running late. Our new plan was to be done by 11 and then get back near the hotel to grab lunch before heading to the airport at 1. Inside the entry hall there were three escalators that would take you to the museum. We headed for one of them that seemed to have the least amount of people waiting to go up, but as we approached the escalator we were waived off and told to go to the one opposite us. We didn’t think much about it at the time, so we did what were told. We will come back to this monumental mistake later.

Debbie and I had gotten advice from our friend, Mark Putter, to download a 1-hour guide to the Louvre, which would hit the highlights. The kids had zero interest in this and headed off on their own.

I tried to open the audio guide, but it wasn’t loading. While I fiddled over and over with the guide app, we walked in through some statues. The kids had gone this way as well, and Debbie and I spent so much time dealing with the app that they came back to see what was taking us so long.  I will come back to this concept later as well.

We walked up some stairs after the statue area and then took an escalator to another floor. When we got to the top of the escalator we had two choices – left or right. For the second time already this morning, we chose wrong and went left. In the rooms we encountered we saw a lot of large rugs and armor, but Debbie really liked all of the modern clothing that was on display. We never really figured out why all of these modern dresses were in the Louvre, but as they say in Paris (or I think they say in Paris) c’est la vie. My mother can correct me if this is not the correct use.

We kept walking and walking (and walking and walking) and kept seeing more and more rugs and dresses. We finally got the app to work and in the first few minutes of the audio it talked about entering the Louvre in the Denon wing. Unfortunately, that was not where we were. We were in the Richelieu wing. 

As they say in Maine, "You can't get there from here"

We started heading back the way we came and at some point we stopped to ask a guy that worked at the museum how to get to the Denon wing. It was possible it was this guy’s first day on the job, or it was possible he didn’t even work there, because he pointed us back towards the way we just came. We turned back around and headed back again through the rugs and dresses. Have I mentioned we saw a lot of rugs and dresses?

These were but a few of the many dresses
I don't think I have photos of the many rugs

At some point we didn’t feel like this was the right way, and again stopped to ask someone for help. This time the person actually had an idea of what to do and explained where we needed to go and at what room number we should turn. The problem was that even though our map had room numbers on them, we could not in our two Ivy League graduated minds figure out which room we were in. So we asked, and the guy simply pointed to the sign high up on the wall. That might have been helpful to know about 30 minutes prior.

At least now we were heading in the right direction through the rugs and dresses, but again may have made a mistake and missed our turn. We asked one more person for help and she got us heading in the right direction.

By now we had been in the Louvre for probably 45 minutes and had seen nothing but some statues (not the biggies), rugs and dresses. It was also at this point that Lassie had likely located Brian and Amanda and told them that their parents were hopelessly lost and needed help. And like a miracle in the desert, Brian and Amanda appeared to (a) help us get to the Denon where the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus de Milo were located and (b) to make fun of us for our ineptitude. We asked them what they had seen already – and they had seen EVERYTHING of importance, while we had seen NOTHING!

Our saviors taking photos of their soon to be hopelessly lost parents

We had long scrapped the idea of using the audio app (all I end up listening to was that we were in the wrong area) and instead followed Brian. He led us successfully to see the Mona Lisa, Winged Victory and Venus de Milo (although not in that order). We had wasted so much time with the rugs and dresses that we pretty much saw the three "biggies" took a photo or two of each and moved on to the next one. 

Could be the logo for our experience - no brain!

So long to find this, so little time looking at it

I've now saved you a trip to the Louvre -
you have seen the three "biggies"

Amanda had gone ahead and was waiting for us back at the main hall, and Brian, Debbie and I weaved our way quickly through the exit route to meet her and get out of there before we made another wrong turn and ended up back with the rugs and dresses.

We exited the Louvre a little after 11 as planned, Debbie and I with our heads hung low (although in actuality we thought it was hysterical all along and weren’t really upset about what had happened). We had to get back to the hotel, pack up and grab something to eat, since we had not really eaten. We hopped on a bus that took us back to the area of the hotel and went back to our favorite patisserie and grabbed some food and went to the room to finish packing up.

Waiting for the bus after our (mis)adventure

Since Ethan was not yet with us, we had two separate flights (Debbie-Brian and Judd-Amanda) but both were right around 3:30. I had arranged for a car to take us to the airport at 1pm, so right at that time we headed out of the Victoria Palace and headed to the airport.

The car dropped off Amanda and me first (while the times were the same, we were on different airlines and at different terminals), and then the car took Debbie and Brian what they felt was a long way to their terminal. For both flights I had “bid” on upgrades from economy to business and the day before I was notified that my flight with Amanda on Austrian Air would be upgraded for a small fee. We took advantage and waited for our flight in the lounge (wasn’t all that exciting of a lounge but it was better than waiting at the gate). In reality, the business class were three across regular seats in the front of the plane with the middle seat blocked off so no one could sit there. And we could board first.

Traveling in (a little) style

Can't beat the view from above on the way to Vienna

Our flight was a little delayed and took off about 15-20 minutes late, but we all arrived in Vienna safe and sound. Both baggage carousels were near each other and even though our flight was a little late I got my bag before Brian and Debbie got theirs. But eventually all bags arrived, and we headed to the Uber area. Amanda took an Uber back to her apartment to get settled while the three of us took an Uber to our apartment.

This was the first time in our travels (Judd and Debbie, not the kids) that we opted for an apartment instead of a hotel, so we weren’t really sure what to expect. We arrived at the building, followed the instructions and went up to Floor D to our apartment. The apartment was at the end of a hallway and when we got there the hall was dark, but we got ourselves inside and found a lovely duplex apartment. The apartment had three full bedrooms (one on the first floor and two upstairs. There was also a bed in an alcove upstairs. The bedrooms upstairs share a bathroom in between them so Brian suggested that Debbie and I take the downstairs room so we would have our own bathroom. To be fair, it was a good thought, but the rooms upstairs were larger. Nonetheless, we took his suggestion, and we encamped on the main floor and Brian took one of the upstairs rooms.

Before we left Paris, Amanda made a reservation at a pizza place kind of near her apartment, so one we got settled we ventured out on the U-Bahn (subway) towards dinner. Amanda had suggested we buy 3-day passes for the U-Bahn so we did. She also told us that in Vienna getting on the U-Bahn was kind of on the honor system – there is no required ticket checking to get on or off. The only real reason to have a ticket is if the authorities decide to spot check you. There would be a big fine if you didn’t have a ticket.

We made our way to dinner, which included a successful transfer, and we met Amanda at the pizza place. We ended up ordering three pizzas, and when they arrived we thought we had ordered way too much. Yeah, no. We polished them all off just fine, thank you.

During dinner we somehow got on the topic of Salzburg and the Sound of Music Tour. Our time in Austria would not really allow us the time to travel to Salzburg and do the Sound of Music Tour. Amanda had already traveled there for a day and done the tour, and I had done it when I was there after college. Debbie was bummed that she would not get to do the tour, as she believed she had not been there on her post-college trip. I say "believed" because she wasn't really sure, so she decided to text her friend, Debbie Novick, with whom she had traveled after college. Debbie Novick (have to use last names for a bit since there are too many Debbies in this part of the story) wrote back right away that yes, not only had they been to Salzburg, but they had also done the Sound of Music Tour. Debbie Volk had no recollection of this, which then led to a series of texts back and forth on our train ride back to the apartment where Debbie Novick tried to remind Debbie Volk of all of the things they had done together on their trip. The complete lack of memories by Debbie Volk of all of the things that Debbie Novick brought up ended up causing Debbie Volk to absolutely lose it on the train. I am sure any other passengers thought she was nuts!

Crazy American!

Editor's note: from this point onward all references to "Debbie" will revert to mean Debbie Volk

Amanda decided to bunk with us during our stay, not only because she loves us so much and wants to be with us, but also (and more likely) because our apartment was around the corner from her classes. This would save her 20 minutes of commuting to her 9am classes for the week. 

So we all got back on the U-Bahn to our apartment building. Debbie and I decided to try and walk off dinner a little by walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. We figured, Floor D, four flights. Logical assumption. But wrong. The stairs kept going and going and going. Turns out, while Floor D is the top, before that there is an M floor, then 4 floors, then Floor D.  Once again, the hallway was dark, but this time I noticed a round switch on the wall which thankfully lit up the hall.

Ethan arrives early tomorrow and we have a 4-hour walking tour scheduled in the afternoon. We settled into the apartment and went to sleep, with rugs and dresses in our dreams.