News & updates (Newsletter)

CLZ Alwin here, bringing you the CLZ newsletter for October 2024.

This month was all about our name change (we are now “CLZ”!), our new website, new app icons and new names and URLs for the web-based software. This big change has been cooking for a long time and we are super happy it is finally all live now!

Most of the team has been involved in this big “renaming” project, as we have been updating all sites and products. And we’re still not done. You can expect to see minor tweaks to the look and feel of our sites, fixes to our documentation, etc…

While all that was going on… our mobile team has been quietly and secretly working on a major new feature for the CLZ Books mobile app: OCR scanning of ISBN numbers!
A great way to add books that do not have barcodes, but DO have an ISBN listed on the book. Read on below for more details.

This is what we have been working on in October:

We are CLZ!
- Collectorz.com is now “CLZ”
- New logo and new website
- New app icons for all 5 CLZ Mobile apps
- Connect is now called “CLZ Web” and is now at app.clz.com
Coming up:
- CLZ Books 9.5: Scan ISBN numbers with OCR!
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Check Covers” project, FINISHED!
- New Core for Games project: a better Hardware database
- Core for Movies: “Check Covers” project, 81.75% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary, 2,493 new releases

Read more

It’s the last day of September, so here is the CLZ News for Sept 2024.

This month, a big chunk of our time went into the CLZ Comics 9.8 release, in which we strengthened our partnership with CovrPrice for comic values. The development teams on both the CLZ and CovrPrice side have worked together to finally allow subscribing to CovrPrice straight from the CLZ app itself, as an In-App purchase!

Next to that, lots of work on both the Connect web-based software and all CLZ mobile apps. This has already resulted in big updates for mobile, but not for Connect yet. Expect cool updates for the Add screens of both Movie and Game Connect in October.

These are the updates for September 2024:

CLZ mobile apps:
- CLZ Comics 9.7: Improvements for Add Comics, Statistics and Main screen
- CLZ Comics 9.8: Subscribe to CovrPrice as an In-App purchase
- All CLZ apps: new Sort Order screen, new Date folder option, nicer Stats
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Check Covers” project, 95.6% cloud coverage!
- Core for Movies: “Check Covers” project, 78.0% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary, 2,113 new releases

Alwin here, the CLZ guy, with your CLZ news for August 2024.

It’s holiday season, so members of the CLZ team are taking their well-deserved vacations. But still, we have been able to introduce a big improvement to the Add by Title features of both the mobile and web editions of our movie, game and comic products.
The new “search for…” suggestions will save you a lot of time and typing.

We have also completed a big 9.7 update for the CLZ Comics app, which we planned to release before the end of the month. But the last stretch, tweaking and tuning the UI, took more time than we anticipated. So we will release this new version early next week.
You can find a sneak preview of v9.7 below.

The news for August 2024:

CLZ Movies and Movie Connect: New “search for…” suggestions when adding movies by Title
CLZ Games and Game Connect: New “search for…” suggestions when adding games by Title
CLZ Comics and Comic Connect: New “search for…” suggestions when adding comics by Series or by Issue
Coming up next week: CLZ Comics 9.7, with lots of improvements all over the app!
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Check Covers” project, 95.6% cloud coverage!
- Core for Movies: “Check Covers” project, 78.0% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary, 2,113 new releases

Read more

newsletter search-as-you-type

This is the CLZ News for July 2024, brought to you by CLZ Alwin.

TWO big updates for the Add Comics screen of the CLZ Comics mobile app this month, one a complete re-design and rename of an existing feature (Pull List tab is now called “NCBD”), the other a change that is hardly even visible, but has huge benefits (smarter barcode scanner).
And.. we’ve got another Add screen update coming up next week!

For the Connect web-based software, we’re also focussing on improvement of the Add screen, starting with 2 small Game Connect tweaks this month, but with several other Add screen improvements coming up for Game, Movie and Comic Connect next week.

Then, there’s our endeavours for the mobile apps, to try and reach a bigger audience, by replacing our “free 7-day trial” with a “100-item free mode”.
The short story is “it failed big time” 🙁 We are back to our tried and tested “free 7-day trial”. Read on below for the long story.

The CLZ Content Team has been busy too. The comic guys Rowdy, Justin and Taco got swamped with huge NCBD’s in the past few weeks, combined with a flood of SDCC exclusives (still working to get the last ones covered).
Martin and Kelvin have been focussing on the barcode coverage of our Core for Games, so adding more barcodes and the correct cover images for them. Our Core is now recognizing over 99% of game barcodes worldwide!

Finally, we are still enjoying building big Lego projects together. After building the Lego Barad-dûr tower, we also finished the Avengers Tower!
Next up, the Hulkbuster 🙂

Today’s topics:

CLZ Core mobile apps:
- CLZ Comics 9.4: Re-design of Pull List feature (and now called “NCBD”)
- CLZ Comics 9.5: Improved barcode scanner, no more AUTO/EXT toggle!
- CLZ mobile apps: back to “7-day free trial”, no more “free mode”
Connect web-based software:
- Game Connect: New platform picker in Add Games screen
- Game Connect: re-design of “Unrecognized Barcode” screen
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Check Covers” project, 94.4% cloud coverage!
- Core for Movies: “Check Covers” project, 72.0% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary
Building the Lego Avengers Tower!
Come join the Club CLZ forum (4,200 members now!)

It’s me again, CLZ Alwin, with your CLZ News for June 2024.

Big changes for the CLZ mobile apps this month, as we replaced the 7-day trial with a 100-item “Free Mode”. Maybe not that interesting for you as an existing user, but then again, it *could* be. Read on below!

The implementation of the Free Mode took most of the time of the dev team this month, so only one other update went live, a cool new way to search comics in Comic Connect.

Of course, our 6-man Content Team (Rowdy, Martin, Justin, Taco, Kelvin and Senno) has been working full-time on our Core online databases. Their first priority always is the adding of all weekly new releases. When that’s done, they’ve always got some big projects going on, to improve the quality and completeness of the existing Core database.

Don’t worry, there’s time for fun too! We started building Lego projects at the office 🙂 First up was a big one: the Lego Barad-dûr tower!

Today’s topics:

CLZ mobile apps: New “Free Mode” for small collectors
Comic Connect: Search box top right now allows “Issue Search”
Still coming up: CLZ Comics 9.4, with completely revised Pull List features
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Check Covers” project, 92.2% cloud coverage!
- Core for Movies: “Check Covers” project, 62.8% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary
Building the Lego Barad-dûr tower!
Come join the Club CLZ forum (4 thousand members now!)

We’re nearing the end of the month, so let’s go over the CLZ News for May 2024.

This month, we released the fifth and final v9 mobile app: CLZ Music 9.0. In the meantime, CLZ Comics already saw its 9.2 release, with v9.3 coming up soon!

For your computer, the web-based software is getting lots of attention. Two feature updates for Comic Connect, and a big structural improvement to the search features for all Connect flavors.

Finally, there’s still a lot of work going on for our Core projects for movies and games, still checking and replacing thousands of cover images each week. I hope the gamers and movie fans among you are already enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Today’s topics:

CLZ mobile apps:
- CLZ Music 9.0: Collection tabs, better Add Albums screen, easy people filtering
- CLZ Comics 9.2: Improved “Updated Values” screen, after updating from CovrPrice
- Coming up: CLZ Comics 9.3, with completely revised Pull List features
Connect web-based software
- Comic Connect: use Edit Multiple to set Creators & Characters
- Comic Connect: Jump to Issue feature (aka “the sniper button”)
- Music/Movie/Book/Games Connect: Improved search behaviour
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Check Covers” project, 92.2% cloud coverage!
- Core for Movies: “Check Covers” project, 62.8% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary
Join the Club CLZ forum, to talk to us and other users!

This is Alwin, the CLZ guy, with your CLZ News for March 2024.

This month, the main events were an enormous v9.0 update for the CLZ Games mobile app and a nice CLZ Comics 9.1 update with 2 often requested features. With these alive and kicking, our mobile devs Pim, Bernard are proceeding with v9 updates for the CLZ Books and Music apps!

Also, a big update for all Connect flavors is imminent. AJ and Joe are doing the final testing and fixing at this very moment. Launch next week?

In the meantime, our content team is still checking and correcting lots of video game cover images, and have also proceeded to do the same for movie cover images. The improvements should already be noticeable in your software!

Today’s topics:

App and software updates:
- CLZ Games 9.0: better Add by Title, Collection tabs, Check Value, etc…
- CLZ Comics v9.1 use Edit Multiple to set Creators & Characters
- Coming up: big “pick lists” update for all Connect flavors
- Coming up: big v9 updates for CLZ Books and CLZ Music
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Wrong Covers” project, 89% cloud coverage!
- Core for Movies: “Wrong Covers” project, 24% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary
Sign up for the Club CLZ forum, over 3,500 members now!

Read more

CLZ Alwin here, on this leap day, with the Feb 2024 edition of the CLZ Newsletter.

Of course, the big event this month was the v9.0 release of our CLZ Movies mobile app, which is now live for both iOS and Android. A huge update, with several new features and many big improvements. A similar update is coming up for CLZ Games, check the sneak preview below.

Our web developers are busy preparing a big update for the Connect web-based software, in which we add many improvements to the pick lists screen, for both selecting and managing pick lists.
As for updates this month, Connect is now available in Swedish!

On the Core side, we are making great progress on our Wrong Covers project, resulting in a “Check Covers Cloud Coverage” of 81% now! More info below.

Today’s topics:

App and software updates:
- CLZ Movies 9.0 is live, for iOS and Android
- Connect: now available in Swedish. Looking for translators!
- Sneak Preview: CLZ Games 9.0
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: “Wrong Covers” project, 81% cloud coverage!
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary
Sign up for the Club CLZ forum, over 3,300 members now!

This is CLZ Alwin, with the very first CLZ Newsletter for 2024.

We started off with a bang, with the introduction of our new “Club CLZ” support forum. This is now THE place-to-be to get support for the software, the apps and our Core online databases.
Read on below for full Club CLZ info and sign up instructions.

As for software releases, we did two big updates for Connect. No updates for the mobile apps yet, as the mobile dev team is still working on the upcoming huge 9.0 update for CLZ Movies. Taking a bit longer than planned, mainly because we decided to add more improvements than originally planned. Full details below.

The Core content team is as busy as usual, with all the weekly new releases, plus our ongoing project of checking and improving all video game cover images in Core.

A summary of today’s topics

Club CLZ is live, come join our new support forum!
App and software updates:
- Comic Connect: New Check Value screen
- Connect: now available in Portuguese, Danish, Serbian and Slovak
- Coming up any day now : CLZ Movies 9.0
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: update on our “Wrong Covers” project
- Core for Comics: New Comic Book Day summary

Read more

club clz clz movies connect ncbd

The end of the year is near, so this is CLZ Alwin with the 12th and last CLZ Newsletter for 2023. But first: A happy 2024 from the entire CLZ Team (13 people now!): Martin, Rowdy, Sven, Stijn, AJ, Pim, Joe, Bernard, Justin, Taco, Senno, Sytske and me, Alwin!

December 2023 was kind of a slow month in terms of app updates and software releases. But we have definitely not been sitting still 🙂

With CLZ Comics 9.0 alive and kicking, our mobile team Pim, Bernard and AJ are preparing four upcoming v9.0 updates for the other four mobiles: CLZ Movies, CLZ Games, CLZ Books and CLZ Music. Read on below for more details.

The CLZ content team has been working on three huge Core projects, for movies, games and comics. More info below. We even hired a new part-time content manager to help with that: Taco’s friend Senno has joined the team for two days a week!
Also, Justin has created a cool Wrap-Up 2023 infographic about our Core comic database, find the link below.

Let’s go over these projects in this newsletter:

App and software updates:
- Coming up: version 9.0 for the CLZ Movies/Games/Books/Music mobile apps
- Coming up: additions and improvement for the Connect web-based software
CLZ Core updates:
- Core for Games: better cover art and region info for game releases
- Core for Movies: better cover art for 4K, Blu-ray and DVD releases
- Core for Comics: internal database re-design
- Core for Comics Wrap-Up 2023

Read more

core cover images variants

It’s the last day of November, so here’s your CLZ News for the month!

A very busy month, with several cool Connect updates and, as the big surprise today, a huge version 9.0 update for the CLZ Comics app!

CLZ Comics 9.0: Check Value / Collection Tabs / Issue Search and more!
Comic Connect / CLZ Comics 8.10 : “In Collection” indicators in Hide Variants mode
CLZ Comics 8.10: Two improvements to the Search box in main screen
Connect: Further improvement for multiple collections
Connect: Favorite fields for Edit Multiple
CLZ mobile apps: New “Remove all unused pick list entries” option under Maintenance
Core Work in Progress: better cover images for game releases

This is CLZ Alwin, with your monthly dose of CLZ news.

Lots of big and small releases this month, for both the CLZ mobile apps and the Connect web-based software, all bringing improvements of existing features:

Connect + CLZ: Pre-fill screen: Orange highlights and a Clear button
CLZ mobile apps: Easier access to Manage Pick Lists tool
Connect: complete re-design of batch editing feature
Comic Connect: Filter your Series list by Completed status
Connect: Improved search results in the Link with Core screen

We’re closing in on the end of September, so here’s our CLZ Newsletter for Sept 2023.

This month was all about the CLZ mobile apps. A new sync button on the main screen and new getting started tips for new users. Read all about those below.
In the meantime, some CLZ users have helped us translate the Connect web-based software to more languages!

Also, Breaking News: The CLZ Team will present at the New York Comic Con!

The topics today:

All CLZ mobile apps: New Sync button on main screen
All CLZ mobile apps: New in-app “getting started” tips for new users
Connect web-based software: now available in French, Spanish and Hungarian
Breaking News: The CLZ Team will present at the New York Comic Con!

This is CLZ Alwin, with your CLZ News for August 2023.
This month we completed the huge project of “customizable cast/crew” for movies and “customizable creators/characters” for comics (and of course the ability to sync your customized lists). Most of the CLZ team has been working on this for over 3 months!

But with that project completed, the team is being freed up for other stuff. This is already showing in several improvements for the Connect web-based software (for printing, exporting and importing), and more updates for the Windows editions.

Here’s the full list for today’s newsletter:

Comic Connect + CLZ Comics: Modify your Creator and Character lists
Comic Collector: Cloud-sync your customized Creator and Character lists
Connect/Cloud: Printing / Exporting a selection is now much easier
Connect/Cloud: Improved Import from CSV/TXT screen
Book/Music/Game Collector: Simplified Sort Name editing for all pick list entries
Two Factor Authentication (2FA) now available for your CLZ Account

Read more

There we go, with a loooonnnnggg CLZ Newsletter for July 2023.
Three subjects this months: one big project finished (cast/crew editing for movies), one similar project almost done (creator/character editing for comics) and one ready for launch tomorrow (2FA for CLZ Accounts!).

At the CLZ HQ, we’re still planning around the well-deserved vacations of CLZ team members. But we are still managing to get updates out the door, albeit a bit slower than usual.

These are the big projects for this and next month:

For Movie Connect and CLZ Movies:
Modify the Cast and Crew lists of your movie entries and Sync them to/from the CLZ Cloud
For Movie Collector:
Cloud-sync your customized cast and crew lists + an easier way to add actors, directors, producers, etc…
Coming up: Creators / Characters Editing and Syncing for Comic Connect, CLZ Comics and Comic Collector
Coming up tomorrow: Two Factor Authentication for your CLZ Account

CLZ Alwin here, with the CLZ Newsletter for June 2023. And it is a bit of a strange one, because we did not do ANY software updates this month (apart from some small bug fixes for the Windows versions and one bug fix build for CLZ Comics iOS).

The reason is simple: the entire dev team is working on a major project for our movie and comic tools, a project that we have been postponing for many years, because of the complexity and the enormous amount of work. But we have finally started on it:

The ability to add and edit cast and crew lists in the CLZ Movies mobile app and the Movie Connect web-based software. Similarly, the adding and editing of creator and character lists in CLZ Comics and Comic Connect. And of course, the syncing of these custom lists through the CLZ Cloud.

So let’s use this newsletter for a nice sneak preview of these updates:

Sneak Preview: Creators / Characters editing in CLZ Comics
Sneak Preview: Cast / Crew editing in CLZ Movies
Coming up: similar updates for Movie Connect / Comic Connect
What about Movie Collector / Comic Collector for Windows?
ETA?

Read more

The last day of May, so it’s CLZ Newsletter time!

The CLZ mobile team, Pim, Bernard and AJ, finished a huge project this month, resulting in 5 updates for all 5 CLZ mobile apps with the long-awaited multi-level folder feature. It was a big and complex enterprise, but based on all the happy feedback we received it was well worth the trouble.

With that out of the way, the mobile guys have joined the rest of the team on our next team-wide mission : the ability to edit Cast, Crew for movies, and Creators and Characters for comics, in both the Connect web-based software and the CLZ mobile apps.
For more info, see the What’s Cooking section below.

These are our updates for May 2023:

New in May 2023::
- Use multiple folder levels in the CLZ mobile apps
- Connect: re-designed collection tab-bar
- Comic Connect: new look for the Series folders
What’s Cooking?
- CLZ mobile + Connect: edit and sync Cast, Crew, Creator and Character lists!

This is CLZ Alwin, with the April 2023 edition of the CLZ Newsletter.

This month, we were finally able to go live with a huge project: the localization of our Connect web-based software in other languages (other than English). The first language is live now and I guess you won’t be surprised it is Dutch, our own native language :-). More coming soon!

Also, we have embarked on a new mission this month, something we have been postponing for many years: the ability to add/edit and sync custom lists for Cast, Crew, Creators and Characters for our movie and comic tools! More info below.

Here’s the news for April 2023 and an updated What’s Cooking list:

New in April 2023:
- Connect is now available in Dutch!
- Comic Collector 23.6: New report after Updating Key Info
- Youtuber Mystic shows how he is using CLZ Games
What’s Cooking?:
- Multi-level folders for the CLZ mobile apps
- Comic Connect: new look for the Series folders
- Connect: re-designed collection tab-bar
- Connect/Cloud: editable/syncable Cast, Crew, Creator and Character lists!

On this last day of the month, let me (Alwin) give you an overview of this month’s releases, in the March 2023 edition of the CLZ newsletter.

This month was all about the full roll-out of our new “CLZ Scanner” barcode scanner app and about a cool new look for slabbed comics in our comic tools:

New in March 2023::
- 5 updates for the desktop software with support for our new CLZ Scanner app
- New look for slabbed comics and 3 new slab related fields for all comic tools
What’s cooking?
- Multi-level folders for the CLZ mobile apps
- Translations for the Connect web-based software
- Two-factor authentication on CLZ Accounts

This is the Feb 2023 edition of the CLZ Newsletter, as always brought to you by CLZ Alwin.

This month, we were finally able to complete a project that a large part of the CLZ team had been working on for several months:
Our completely new, build from scratch, CLZ Scanner barcode scanner app!
The app itself is now available in the iOS App Store and Android Play Store and support for the CLZ Scanner app is already live in the Connect web-based software.

Sadly though, last week’s email to all Connect subscribers, happily announcing the CLZ Scanner, with instructions for “getting started”, has been the most misunderstood email I have written in many years…
That is, judging from the responses I have received. I have seen confusion, I have seen frustration, I have seen complaints, I have seen anger… one guy even threatened me of reporting my company to TrustPilot for being “harsh on seniors and people with medical issues”…
All that because we made a new and better barcode scanner app to replace CLZ Barry 🙁

I am still not entirely sure where I went wrong, but I will try to explain CLZ Scanner better in this newsletter and in future CLZ Scanner reminder emails. In any case, my apologies for all the confusion and frustration I caused!

In other news: CLZ is now on Instagram! I hired a 5-man full-time social media team to manage this new social channel, so here we go!
Just kidding of course, this is just a nice side-project for our comic content guys Taco and Justin 🙂 Let’s see where they takes us!

New in Feb 2023::
- Our new “CLZ Scanner” app is live!
- CLZ Comics is now on Instagram!
What’s cooking?
- More slab-related fields for all comic products
- Translations for the Connect web-based software
- Multi-level folders for the CLZ mobile apps
- Two-factor authentication on CLZ Accounts

This is CLZ Alwin, with the first 2023 CLZ Newsletter.
Remember that in last month’s newsletter I had no releases to report on, because of the quiet December month? Well, we’re back on track, with 6 big releases in January. Two for the Collector desktop software, 2 for the Connect web-based software and 2 for the CLZ mobile apps!

And we have some interesting projects going on that will result in even bigger releases soon (check under What’s cooking below):

Released in Jan 2023:
- Book Collector 23.0 / CLZ Books 8.0 / Book Connect: 7 new data fields!
- Comic Collector 23.3: Improved Pull List and new “Discover” mode!
- CLZ Comics 8.2 / Comic Connnect: New report after Updating Key Info
What’s cooking?
- More slab-related fields for all comic products
- New “CLZ Scanner” app, to replace CLZ Barry
- Translations for the Connect web-based software
- Multi-level folders for the CLZ mobile apps
- Two-factor authentication on CLZ Accounts

It’s Dec 30, so this is CLZ Alwin with the final CLZ Newsletter for 2022. But first: A happy 2023 from the entire CLZ Team: Martin, Rowdy, Sven, Stijn, AJ, Pim, Joe, Bernard, Justin, Taco, Sytske and me, Alwin!

December has been a quiet month, with no releases at all! Most of the CLZ team has been taking vacation days this month (just 5 of us working today 🙂 ). On top of that, our focus has been on several BIG projects that should result in releases early 2023.

So this is the perfect opportunity to make this newsletter into a “What’s coming in 2023” overview:

New “CLZ Scanner” app, to replace CLZ Barry
Translations for the Connect web-based software
Big updates for all book products with new fields
Multi-level folders for the CLZ mobile apps
Two-factor authentication on CLZ Accounts
More slab fields for comic products

And much more of course, the above is just what’s at the top of our list now.

This is Alwin, with the CLZ News for November 2022.
After months of working on comic related updates only (for our CovrPrice partnership), the CLZ team has finally been freed up to work on our other products again, phew!!
Which instantly resulted in two big 23.0 updates for the Windows editions of Movie and Game Collector (and in the meantime, both have already been updated to v23.1 too!).

Of course, the work on our comic tools has not stopped, with important updates for Comic Collector, Comic Connect and CLZ Comics.

All releases this month:

Movie Collector 23.0: Report screen after Update IMDb Ratings
Game Collector 23.0: New: Updated Values report and more value data from PriceCharting
Movie / Game Collector 23.1.1: trailer videos now appear as clickable thumbnails
Game / Comic Connect: Improved “Update Values” Report
Comic Collector 23.2: Re-Link Core Variant
CLZ Comics 8.1.3: Improved Update Values report screen
What’s cooking: new “CLZ Scanner” app / translations for Connect

Read more

covrprice imdb pricecharting

CLZ Alwin, with a summary of CLZ’s busiest month ever, Oct 2022!
The month started with the CLZ team going to Paris to celebrate our 22nd anniversary. Then when back in Amsterdam, instantly rolling into our biggest launch ever: the integration of comic values from CovrPrice into our comic apps and software.
And then finally, dealing with all the questions about it, fixing some issues (pun intended) and releasing the first improvements based on your suggestions!

But I am happy to report that the launch was a huge success, with thousands of users signing up for CovrPrice and linking their CP and CLZ accounts! Users love seeing the values for their comics and getting an idea of the total value of their collection.

We will of course keep improving the CovrPrice features, but we can now finally free up part of the team for other, non-comic projects. We’ve got some cool stuff coming up!

The topics today:

The CLZ team in Paris, check out the pics!
Now live: Get comic values from CovrPrice in your CLZ app or software
Two improvements for the CovrPrice integration
Fixed: barcode scanning on iPhone 14 Pro
Coming up: CLZ Scanner app to replace CLZ Barry

As promised some photos of our 20th anniversary trip to Paris that we took on the 22nd anniversary because of reasons 🙂

We did a lot of walking, eating, drinking, and generally having loads of FUN!

Day 1: Travel, 2CV tour, walking around and a big river boat dinner

We got up real early and grabbed a high speed train from Amsterdam to Paris:

In Paris we met up with our tour guide and we drove around the city in old Citroën Deux Chevaux cars, after which we had lunch and walked about the city a bit.

We see you Eiffel tower! We will be visiting you soon too!

Did you know they love collecting in Paris too?

After that, we enjoyed some free time on our own, and finished the day with dinner on a big river cruise boat, right under the Eiffel tower.

Day 2: Guided tour of the city, Eiffel Tower, Tuk-Tuk and Buddha Bar

After a great breakfast of croissants and pastries, we walked around the city on a guided tour with lots of interesting tidbits of information about the history of Paris.

And of course an LCS (“Local” comicbook store) had to be visited!

We then stopped briefly for a great lunch, with a glass of wine. Or two glasses. Salmon and mashed sweet potatoes:

Then, we headed over to the Eiffel tower to visit… all the way to the top!

Lots of influencing going on here.

Under the Eiffel tower

And now, to the top! It takes 2 elevator rides to get all the way to the top and the view is amazing!

They even serve beer half way up the Eiffel tower:

After that we “tuk-tukked” our way back to the hotel. A great (and FUN) way to sneak right through traffic and get somewhere quickly during Paris’ constant rush hour