I’m going to group in the departure from Paris into this post about Zurich. They say it’s about the journey and in this case I agree. We took two vehicles for our long trek from Paris to Zurich for a show in the evening. So, that wakeup call was absurdly early, and despite a fun evening with friends, none of us had been able to see any of Paris’ famous landmarks. So, in a spontaneous moment I turned our car towards the city (away from Zurich) to make a quick stop at the Eiffel Tower.
Now, we are talking 6am, but traffic was already chaotic. Cutting through the traffic in our big van was nothing short of a Bond film. With some help from the GPS we found ourselves at the plaza overlooking the icon, and parked quite illegally in the roundabout nearby. With cameras in hand, we sprinted out to a cool, hazy morning to snap as many photos as our memory cards would allow. As an added benefit of being there so early, we were nearly alone in the photos and enjoyed the view without the backdrop of screaming kids or pushy tourists.
The 10 minutes was so nice that it felt like a few hours of rest. A quick stop at the little coffee cart in the plaza and we were off again, miraculously ticket free and blissful. Arriving in Zurich we were certainly later than the other car and knew breaking the news that we stopped to sight see would not go over well. We just sat down with the guys at the extensive catering tables and enjoyed a full lunch. Meanwhile, Aaron was preoccupied with his parents who had come to visit, and most everybody was too tired to give us too much shit for stopping in Paris.
One of the coolest parts of this stop was seeing the ads for upcoming artists and our picture in the same ad…Chris and I discussed whether or not Miley Cyrus would be a good show. One of the toughest parts of this tour stop was a developing issue we had with some of our free tickets. Without divulging too much information, somebody we know had caused some trouble and potentially done something illegal. Word got back to the Backstreet Boys and that came back down on our group. Despite our group acting completely above reproach, there was a chance that the BSB management would end our tour right then and there. There was no word and our plan was to simply show up at the next venue. We are driven and persistent, and the actions of somebody else were not going to ruin our tour.
After the show we made a quick departure as our lodging for the night was back in Europa Park, only 2 hours from Zurich. There we got to speak with friends and nurse a potential wound. With the tumultuous evening, we were lucky to have a 1pm departure time for Mannheim. Without knowing if the tour was done or not, we prepared for the next day. Here we go!