When we were in Paris a few years ago, we got caught in a bomb scare at the Eiffel Tower.

[Stinky The Clown]

The picture below is a few minutes after they reopened it. You can see the armed guys in the center of the picture. There were many more of them at the perimeter. We had been forced into a small pen in a whole line of pens that were set up on the perimeter of the grounds of the park. Lots of armed guys with camos and automatic weapons. Big show of force. There was a one day national strike and someone phoned in a bomb threat.

It was disconcerting, but not particularly frightening. Except I felt like I was taking spy pictures because I didn't want to be seen photographing the scene.

This was in 2004.

[lisa58]

1. I was there in June 2004 and although we did not experience a bomb scare...

....that is exactly what it looked like....armed guards in camo all over the place.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. What we saw was a mobile command center (three blue buses with blacked out windows) ......

..... lots of guys in camos and lots of other guys in blue police uniforms (cut like the camos, but solid blue). The pens were made of portable fence units and were already set up. We took it to be a preparation for the strike. But maybe it was normal. Or the new normal.

[MadMaddie]

2. Thanks for sharing Stinky!

You know I know that people are screaming about why and how this terrorist got on the plane. My question is if the explosive is hard to get then they need to start going after the bomb material source....right?

Just heard the Amsterdam officials are going to install body scanners within the next 3 weeks.

[hlthe2b]

3. I've been caught up in bomb scare evacuations at Orly airport

in Paris twice--several years ago... Entire airport evacuated and situation dealt with, all within an hour or 90 minutes... Having been returning from the Middle East, I was pulled out for extra questioning, but the questions were focused and professionally addressed. I was not made to feel humiliated or powerless, as has been the case with some TSA. Their screening activities were also understandable and not seemingly "just for show."

[Stinky The Clown]

7. We saw armed guys at the airport, too

Indeed, armed guys are a common sight at every European airport I've been in since the mid 80s. And they make themselves obvious. Not obnoxious. Just obvious. Where I was surprized to see them was at the train station in Rotterdam. I flew into Schipol and they were everywhere, including in the (attached to the airport) Schipol train station. I was surprised, however, to see them in Rotterdam, where I was going. I went to Den Haag a few days later and saw them there, too, but that was not a surprise given what's there.

[hlthe2b]

11. I know... As a teen I became horribly ill in Germany...

and while trying to get home, lay down on a airport couch in Frankfort... I woke up sort of dizzy and unable to do more than just look down at boots and semi-automatic guns going by every few minutes across the concourse... I can't decide if it was the stomach virus or that site that most threw me... And, yes, they are obvious, but not obnoxious.

We have a lot to learn from our European and British coutnerparts.

[kestrel91316]

5. I stood in that exact spot in June 2001. That thing's AWESOME.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Damn. We had a bomb scare in high school but didn't get to go up the Eiffel Tower afterwards

I'm jealous.

[StarfarerBill]

8. Yep. We had a bomb scare or two in high school in the early '80s;

just getting out of class and hanging around outside was a big treat for us.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. That only happens if the scare was during finals.

[JuniperLea]

10. In December of 2001

I traveled from LAX to JFK with a sharp, pointy, metal nail file in my purse. The purse was x-rayed, searched... mind you, this was New York, a scant three months after 9/11... and I traveled back and forth with this crazy thing in my purse and no one said jack. When I got home and unpacked, I freaked... then I got pissed! It should have been confiscated, dammit!

[Stinky The Clown]

12. My partner's husband carried a BOX CUTTER on a plane one one of the first days after 9/11 .....

...... that we allowed to fly again. You know. When the lines to get screened were hours long? He had it (basically lost) waaaaaay down the bottom of a pocket in his canvas (Land's End) briefcase. He was traveling from DC to Beaverton, OR.

[JuniperLea]

13. They made a big deal about an under-wire bra...

Made the woman go in another room and take it off and be re-screened with the metal detectors... maybe they were all looking at her boobs and missed my sharp pointy object that could easily pierce a jugular... :)

[Warpy]

14. Bomb threats used to come in to the VA hospital where I worked

at least once a week. That meant an extra trip around the floor to make sure there were no bags or packages lying around.

I knew I'd gotten entirely too jaded when I told the last one I hoped he'd put the damn thing around the always broken elevators.