Then we headed back out to the city. My Dad decided to sit out the climbing of the Eiffel tower, so we agreed to meet him again later and we went to get in line. Even though it was a long line, this is what the kids had really been looking forward to, so we were willing to wait. The line for the stairs to the second level were better than the elevator all the way up lines, so we bought tickets and got in line. Well, after about an hour in line it looked like a storm was blowing in, the sky was getting really dark. Suddenly the security personnel told us all to clear out the area, there was an evacuation order. It was like "you're kidding me, now that we've been in line this long!" The lady told me we could either try again later or get a refund, could not say how long it would be closed, but the whole area needed to be cleared!
We assumed it had something to do with what had happened in Oslo. We had heard about it on the morning news and surely security everywhere was tightened because of it. So we cleared the area along with thousands of other tourists ... it was weird to see the whole square under the tower clear our so fast, when it had been crawling with people. Everyone was coming down the stairs and elevators, too, the whole tower had to be cleared out! Alex was so disappointed and it didn't help it started pouring rain and storming, thunder and lightning and all. We also hear several explosions, like security was detonating some type of explosives. There may have been a bomb threat or something, kinda scary!
We stood under a tree for a while while Daryl found my Dad, then we walked around trying to find a place to take shelter and have a bite to eat. Well, good luck, everyone else had the same idea of course! We wound up soaked, but we did find a place to eat.
The good news was we went back later and we did get to climb the Eiffel tower! It was great, and the sun was out!
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