My maiden glimpse of Eiffel Tower ~ Jaho Jalal

There are many a landmarks around the world that one wants to see - but one of the most visited landmark around the world remains the famous Eiffel Tower of Paris. Some call it a rusty iron structure attracting people from around the world. But the fact remains that all those who love travelling would somehow travel to Paris to see this gigantic steel structure at least once in their lifetime.

And that once in a lifetime came for me too when from Kiel, Germany where I had gone to visit my son who is studying there, we embarked upon the journey of some of the neighbouring Schengen countries. Our first leg of journey was Groningen in Netherlands where I had gone to see a friend after 43 years and have already shared it in one of my earlier posts.

Our next stop was at Paris and obviously the first thing that we had on our programme was seeing the Eiffel Tower. So after dumping our luggage in the hotel on Voltaire Street, we boarded the underground metro train to the nearest station to Eiffel Tower.

As soon as we got out of the train, and we started scaling the stairs to the ground floor, we were swarmed by shops selling souvenirs, mostly of replicas of the Eiffel Tower. But we were in a hurry to see the actual one and without wasting an additional time, we got out looking around who gets to see the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

And I got lucky as I walked out of the shade of the building to the left (below), suddenly there appeared the Eiffel I had so longed to see since my childhood. In the morning haze, the tower looked a bit hazy too, but as we approached nearer and nearer, it got brighter and clearer.

And from now on it was us and the Eiffel Tower with our cameras clicking and taking countless photos as can be seen in the following photos.

Sizing the tower is the most favoured type of photo for the tourists - my younger son too joined in

Going towards the Eiffel Tower

Having reached the base of the tower, one is really struck by the voluminous steel structure of the Eiffel Tower. And to my surprise, it was not rusty at all.

Queuing up for the ticket to climb up the tower is some feat in itself. There is s along queue of tourists and visitors, standing for hours and hours, but still displaying patience. My two sons got into the queue - but we later came to know that the every 'climber' has to be present at the ticket counter to get the ticket. So me and my wife too joined the queue and inched forward to get our tickets.