Since we are a few days behind in our postings we will try to catch you up on the latest from the trip for our day in Florence and our first day in Rome. The pace of the trip and trying to catch up with the original itinerary is leading to a number of late nights and early mornings, which by day 5 are finally catching up with us. Every morning we say "We need to get to bed at a decent hour tonight" and every night we find ourselves strolling the town until midnight and 1:00am. These are the hours were you see less tourists and more residents coming out to enjoy the best that their city has to offer. It is fun being a part of that mix and to share moments with locals outside of the hustle and bustle of the day. But I digress. :)
Day 3 found us taking the high speed train to Florence early in the morning. The trip taking only taking an hour and a half, we arrived in Florence at 8AM. We strapped on our bags and took the short walk to the hotel. We had previously let the hotel know that we would need baggage storage, a quick check-in at the hotel and we dropped the bags to start the days adventures. To orient ourselves to the city and see many of the main sites we opted to do a Rick Steves walk around town. Though slightly cheesy at times, they are great walks for seeing the true parts of the city and getting the brief history as to why the sites are important. His guides for specific museums have also saved quite a bit of money and time as we have not had to spend extra money to purchase audio tours.
We started at the Duomo in the city center and learned a bit about the main church and its significance in the life of the city. It has been fun to watch the first reactions of Susanne and Christyn as we turn the corner from an small alley revealing the architectural masterpieces before us. The Duomo is large, the 4th largest in the world and is tightly surrounded by the city. So you really don't have a warning that you are approaching it, until wow there it is. The church is covered in pink and green marble which gives it a unique look when compared to other European churches. We walked down the main shopping street to another church (Orsanmichele), which we learned was originally a place where people could buy grain for their horses. Over time the real estate in the area made it too valuable to continue as a marketplace, and the arches leading to the streets were covered in to make the building a church. Each of the 14 archways were made into niches and local artists were hired to design statues to fill in the niches. As we admired and listened to the audio guide, an older Italian gentlemen relaxing on the nearby steps causally engaged Michelle in conversation. A quintessential Italian look to him, made for a great photo opt - Christyn got the best photo. We had to drag Michelle away to continue on our journey.
Popping in and out of various landmarks we pass works of art that continue to inspire awe in all of us...and it is all there for us to see. Reaching the Arno River, the views of the Ponte Vecchio with all of its buildings clinging to the bridge makes for a serene picture. As our audio guide tour ends, we pinch each other to remind us it is real and it is happening. The troubles of the airport quickly fading as new memories take hold. This is why we travel, to enjoy the beauty that unfolds around us with each new step. The Ponte Vecchio area is a tourist haven, but you cant help but get caught up in the sights and sounds as the beauty surrounds us. We drop into a few shops and start filling our bags with delightful reminders of where we are. One planned stop is a stationary store where they demonstrate how that make a unique oiled designed paper.
After a gelato stop and a infamous spoon incident, we start a stroll through the massive Boblini Gardens above the Pitti Palace. At the top of the gardens the views allow both great city views in one direction and in the other a hint of the Tuscan countryside. We wandered through the gardens for two hours and then strolled over to the Bardini Gardens, covered under the same ticket.
The early mornings and late evenings taking their toll, we stopped for take away Margarita Pizza and headed back to the hotel...it took longer than needed as Tim struggled to get his bearings. But as we wandered through the streets, Michelle stopped us and pointed down a street and said to Tim "Remember this place?" No he thought, I cant even remember if I had breakfast right now. Sleep deprivation was definitely hitting us hard. She pointed down a side street and reminded Tim of a restaurant that they had enjoyed in a previous trip. Once we verified that it was, dinner plans were set. We then crashed at the hotel for a mid-afternoon nap.
After a 5:30 alarm went off, we were back at it. We opted to let Christyn sleep while Susanne nod Tim went to the train station to secure tickets for the next day. Michelle stayed behind to find a hotel. Within 20 minutes Susanne was back up and trying to wake Christyn up. I turns out, the market that we thought was open until 1pm actually closed at 6:00pm. Shopping at the market was the one thing Christyn really wanted to do, and we would be leaving too early in the morning for her to catch it on our way before the train. Michelle and Christyn then went to the market while Susanne rejoined Tim and headed to the train station.
It is amazing the kinds of deals you can get when you go right at closing time. Either that, or Christyn is a master negotiator. Or perhaps the retail prices are so inflated that everything looks like a steal. Or some combination of the three. Christyn bough scarves that were listed at 15 euros each for 3 for 20 euros and a purse originally listed at 35 euros for 15 euros. Within 20 minutes she had finished a good portion of her shopping list for friends and we were headed back to the room.
Once Tim and Susanne arrived from the train station we set out for dinner. The dinner was at a place called Osteria Zio Gigi where the owner is also the server and will bust out in very loud singing as he waits on the various tables. If he takes a liking to your table expect to be serenaded. If you can't make it to La Scalia in Milan, Zio Gigi is an excellent alternative. His wife is the perfect sarcastic foil to his over the top character. Our favorite line from her, when we asked if he was going to be singing tonight was "If you call that loud noise singing!" That combined with good food makes for a memorable experience. With bellys full we headed back to the room. After a quick shower, the booking of a hotel room and packing up for the next morning we all crashed out in bed. Another full day, and tomorrow we will be in Rome!
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
British Airways Finally Gets It Right
Hi all! Sorry for the delay in a post, it has been a whirlwind of a few days. We are all well, safe, and exhausted from all of the adventures of the last few days.
The last we left you was on Monday and we were still unsure on whether we would make it out of London on the flight we had rebooked to Milan. Originally we were set to fly into Rome, but British Airways was not sure if they would have the Rome flights moving until Tuesday or Wednesday. Not wanting to delay our trip any more, we looked for any flights flying into any cities that we were semi familiar with. It turns out it is pretty difficult to book 4 people on the same flight after a global outage of an airline. We managed to get a flight for Monday to Milan instead and figured we could train it into Florence or Rome depending on where we could pick up the original itinerary. As it is, we are out the tickets we bought for the Vatican and the Borguese. But the more we can salvage the better!
Prior to our flight we spent the day working through some of the sites we wanted to see on our London city guides. Christyn really wanted to go to the Camden Market, so we took the metro out in that direction. On the metro a cute family of four sat next to us, and of course we go to chatting. They were on their way to see the Platform 9 3/4 a one of the train stations from the Harry Potter movies. Since Christyn is a huge fan, and it was in the general direction we wanted to go, we tagged along. We then made our way up to the Camden Market. This is an open air market with hundreds of permanent vendors selling all sorts of things. And it was hopping. We bought some Hungarian take-away food and walked around the market for a few hours. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and make our way to the airport.
As it was, with the rebooked flight to Milan, we still had the worry that even if the flight took off we had no idea how we would get from the Linate airport to the city center, as the metro does not run out to Linate. And we didn't want to book a hotel for Milan until we were sure the plane would be taking off. So many ifs, and all hanging on one itty bitty little flight off of an island to the main land. :)
As it turns out, the flight did take off, we were on it, and we booked a hotel for Milan abut 5 minutes before we boarded the plane. Whew! We figured we could always get a taxi, but where is the adventure in that? After exiting the airport and collecting our luggage we learned that there was a #73 bus that could take you into the Duomo (the main church area) and then on the same tickets (they are good for 90 minutes of travel) we could metro to the hotel from there. We spent 20 minutes or so in the big piazza in front of the Duomo and walked through the galleria. Mind you we have our full packs still on. We seriously think that we should all earn at least one college PE credit by the time we are done with this entire trip! By the time we reached our hotel it was around 1am. We were hot and tired. We opted to plan for an early departure so that we could catch an early train out to Florence in the morning. By 5:45am we were out the door and back at the train station again. A bit of a brutal turn around, but we made it.
It is now 2:30am our time, so I will update you more on our Tuesday adventures in Florence and our Wednesday plans for Rome. Ciao!
The last we left you was on Monday and we were still unsure on whether we would make it out of London on the flight we had rebooked to Milan. Originally we were set to fly into Rome, but British Airways was not sure if they would have the Rome flights moving until Tuesday or Wednesday. Not wanting to delay our trip any more, we looked for any flights flying into any cities that we were semi familiar with. It turns out it is pretty difficult to book 4 people on the same flight after a global outage of an airline. We managed to get a flight for Monday to Milan instead and figured we could train it into Florence or Rome depending on where we could pick up the original itinerary. As it is, we are out the tickets we bought for the Vatican and the Borguese. But the more we can salvage the better!
Prior to our flight we spent the day working through some of the sites we wanted to see on our London city guides. Christyn really wanted to go to the Camden Market, so we took the metro out in that direction. On the metro a cute family of four sat next to us, and of course we go to chatting. They were on their way to see the Platform 9 3/4 a one of the train stations from the Harry Potter movies. Since Christyn is a huge fan, and it was in the general direction we wanted to go, we tagged along. We then made our way up to the Camden Market. This is an open air market with hundreds of permanent vendors selling all sorts of things. And it was hopping. We bought some Hungarian take-away food and walked around the market for a few hours. Then it was back to the hotel to collect our bags and make our way to the airport.
As it was, with the rebooked flight to Milan, we still had the worry that even if the flight took off we had no idea how we would get from the Linate airport to the city center, as the metro does not run out to Linate. And we didn't want to book a hotel for Milan until we were sure the plane would be taking off. So many ifs, and all hanging on one itty bitty little flight off of an island to the main land. :)
As it turns out, the flight did take off, we were on it, and we booked a hotel for Milan abut 5 minutes before we boarded the plane. Whew! We figured we could always get a taxi, but where is the adventure in that? After exiting the airport and collecting our luggage we learned that there was a #73 bus that could take you into the Duomo (the main church area) and then on the same tickets (they are good for 90 minutes of travel) we could metro to the hotel from there. We spent 20 minutes or so in the big piazza in front of the Duomo and walked through the galleria. Mind you we have our full packs still on. We seriously think that we should all earn at least one college PE credit by the time we are done with this entire trip! By the time we reached our hotel it was around 1am. We were hot and tired. We opted to plan for an early departure so that we could catch an early train out to Florence in the morning. By 5:45am we were out the door and back at the train station again. A bit of a brutal turn around, but we made it.
It is now 2:30am our time, so I will update you more on our Tuesday adventures in Florence and our Wednesday plans for Rome. Ciao!
Monday, May 29, 2017
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make English Tea
So if American news is covering any of the British Airlines mess you likely all know now that our worries about our British Airways flight to Rome were valid. Once we landed we made our way from Termnal 2 to Terminal 5. On the way we were looking for signs of hope that things had returned to normal in the 10 hours that we were in the air. The flight attendants and pilots on the first flight were even calling into Heathrow to check the status of our flight. One thing we have learned through this, if we ever have the chance to fly on Air New Zealand again we will. They were amazing. The seats were comfortable with enough room, the video screens near each seat actually worked, included in the fare were amenities like blankets and pillows, and they even fed us two decent meals in flight. They also had touch screen ordering of drinks at any time so that you didn't have to get up or try to hail a flight attendant. Interestingly enough, their drink selection was quite robust, including the traditional options and quite a number of adult options. It made us wonder if part of the training to be a flight attendant included bar tender school.
On our way to the terminal we saw a number of British Airways flights leaving the tarmac and had renewed hope that we might actually make it out on a flight. Unfortunately, as we were headed to check in a BA crew member verified that our flight was indeed cancelled. We were told to exit the airport through customs and go back into the airport on the arrivals side to rebook our flight with the BA side on arrivals. When we got down to the ground floor and were about to exit the airport we learned that they were not letting anyone up to the arrivals to rebook unless they were on a confirmed flight and had checked in. We also saw that if you left the airport they would not let you back in unless you were on a confirmed flight. We opted to stay in the airport until we could sort everything out. All passengers on cancelled flights were told to rebook with BA.com. Which was ironic, because it was IT issues that prevented flights from going, and now we had to rely on BA.com in order to get a new flight.
Determined to make the most of it, we grabbed a piece of cold floor with about 2,000 of our closest friends to figure out what we would do. Thankfully Heathrow has free wifi and with that we could use to actually make a call. After about 3 hours on the phone with reps from both British Airways and Air New Zealand we were rebooked on a flight to Milan (not Rome) on Monday. We cancelled our original Rome hotel (thank you Booking.com for allowing us to do that for free) and then tried to figure out how and when we could rejoin with our original itinerary. At this point we are going to miss our reservations for the Vatican museaum and the Borguese gallery (which has Michelle's favorite statue), but we should be able to catch up in time for our reservation to the Academia in Florence for the statue of David. Fingers crossed, as BA is focused on getting their long haul flights back up first and their short hall flights up next.
After securing a flight Tim and Susanne went to see if they could get our bags, which were tagged to go to Rome so we did not pick them up after our flight landed in London. At that moment, we were worried that they would end up in the big pile of bags that were left unclaimed. BA was assuring passengers that they would be reunited with their bags as soon as possible. We had two days of clothes and essentials in our packs, so we were not worried in the short term. But the idea of relying on an airline to properly forward baggage around the world when they can't manage getting people around the world seemed a bit of a stretch. Michelle and Christyn worked on local transport information and finding a hotel for the night. With BA reimbursing 200 British pounds for a hotel for 2 each night and 25 British pounds for food per person, there were a number of options available to us. We had fun looking for the best deals in some swanky places. :)
Tim and Susanne had their own adventures in baggage. There were a number of lines they had to be in, each with frustrated passengers and little information. The one they finally landed in allowed 5 people at a time in to search for luggage, and this included the BA workers. So if a crew member went in, that was one person of the five and the rest of the line had to wait. After an extended search of a few hours they finally managed to locate all of our bags and were able to take them out of the baggage handling area. There is no sight sweeter after all that the day held then your husband and sister-in-law walking up with big smiles and 4 bags on their arms.
All told, we were in the airport for 6 hours to rebook flights, find bags and get to our hotel. Thankfully we arrived at 11:00am London time, so we departed at 5:00pm and were at our hotel by 5:45pm. Since we are (hopefully!) only in town for one night, we decided to work on our list of sights to see in London a little earlier than planned. First up, a traditional London pub for dinner. We bought two different local brews and a number of dishes to share. Fish and chips, shepherds pie, traditional English breakfast plate and a fish plate filled out the table. After dinner was a short walk to Buckingham Palace. We walked through St. James park at dusk, which was a very serene experience after a hectic day of airplanes, air ports and rescheduled plans. The slowly setting sun, the various birds and the beautiful scenery all combined to remind us of the bigger picture of what we were doing and why we are here.
Our walk continued with the ultimate goal being to see the River Thames. Along the way we marveled at Trafalgar Square and bumped into a small pastry shop. Since we all had a hankering for something sweet, we purchased four different options and made our way to the Jubilie bridge. It has a beautiful nighttime skyline view of the city and of the Parliment buildings (including Big Ben). We ate the pastry's in a small park overlooking the same city view and marveled over the days challenges and blessings. A quick walk past the London Eye brought us to the tube station and then back to our rooms.
Today was fill of blessings and adventures, and we are grateful for things like free wifi almost everywhere that made the day so much better. We can't image how difficult this would have been had it happened even 10 years ago. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but we are together and we are safe and we are still excited for what God has planned.
Today was fill of blessings and adventures, and we are grateful for things like free wifi almost everywhere that made the day so much better. We can't image how difficult this would have been had it happened even 10 years ago. Tomorrow will be another adventure, but we are together and we are safe and we are still excited for what God has planned.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
And Away We Go Again . . . . Hopefully!
So today begins our next European adventure, this time with Tim's sister Susanne and our niece Christyn. We are looking forward to another 20+ fun filled days exploring the European landscape.
For months we have been excited about the great airline deal we scored on tickets (about $500 less per person than our first trip in 2007) and the fact that we have a direct flight from LAX to London. Knowing that when we get off of the first plane we will at least be in Europe was an exciting proposition. Then we have a small flight from London to Rome to start our trip.
That was until this morning of course. Our connecting carrier for the London to Rome flight is British Airways. If you have not seen the headlines, they are having massive IT issues and have cancelled all flights for today. Our flight that we have for tomorrow is still on, but we anticipate it being cancelled as well unless they are able to recover their systems quickly. The pictures of frustrated and angry passengers at the airport is not exciting! So we may begin our trip in London, and then have to get creative on how we actually get down to Rome. Never a dull moment when you are traveling! So for those of you who are reading this, just know it may be a few days until we are able to post again on this blog pending travel arrangements.
We are T minus 45 minutes before we leave for the airport, so we will sign off now so that we can get in a few last minute snuggles with all of the kiddos. Much love to you all and we will update soon!
For months we have been excited about the great airline deal we scored on tickets (about $500 less per person than our first trip in 2007) and the fact that we have a direct flight from LAX to London. Knowing that when we get off of the first plane we will at least be in Europe was an exciting proposition. Then we have a small flight from London to Rome to start our trip.
That was until this morning of course. Our connecting carrier for the London to Rome flight is British Airways. If you have not seen the headlines, they are having massive IT issues and have cancelled all flights for today. Our flight that we have for tomorrow is still on, but we anticipate it being cancelled as well unless they are able to recover their systems quickly. The pictures of frustrated and angry passengers at the airport is not exciting! So we may begin our trip in London, and then have to get creative on how we actually get down to Rome. Never a dull moment when you are traveling! So for those of you who are reading this, just know it may be a few days until we are able to post again on this blog pending travel arrangements.
We are T minus 45 minutes before we leave for the airport, so we will sign off now so that we can get in a few last minute snuggles with all of the kiddos. Much love to you all and we will update soon!
Monday, June 2, 2014
5 days until we return
For our second full day in Paris we had grand hopes of working through the last of our "must see" list. We started the day early at the Eiffel Tower. Tim decided he would wait for us since he had been up a few times to the top already. We would meet him about an hour and a half later.
So it was us and about a million of our closest friends. Ok, so maybe it wasn't that early (9:45) and maybe it wasn't a million people, but we did wait in line for an hour to get to just the ticket counter. Once there we were told that the top was closed and we could only get tickets to the second platform. When we talked to the ticket agent he said we could by tickets to the top when we reached the second platform. Oh goodie, another line! Once our tickets were purchased we waited in another line for another hour to get into the car that takes you to the second platform. In this line we were serenaded by a young boy (around Alexanders age) who was having a monumental tantrum while he, his mom and his brother were in line. And he did not stop screaming for the entire hour of this second line. On one hand we felt bad for the mom, it is a hard situation being in line for something like this with a child who is melting down. But my goodness was it the most horrible hour to hear him screaming all around us. We were hoping and praying that he would not be in the same little car as us when we went up to the top. Thankfully he wasn't!
Once at the second platform we headed right over to the line for tickets to the top. Unfortunately that line had closed about 5 minutes ago and wasn't going to open for another 30-45 minutes. So we waited again, in a 3rd line. At that point the time to meet Tim had passed by 30 minutes so Michelle stayed until the ticket counter opened up and then headed down to the bottom. Brenda and Greg bought tickets to the top. We were to meet up in another hour.
When Michelle got to the bottom she found Tim and they opted to grab a quick lunch at a small cafe. We enjoyed sandwiches on french baguettes and watched the locals and tourists go by. One group of 3 Romany girls caught the attention of a number of people. They were walking past our cafe when someone walking by on the sidewalk next to them bumped on girl with his shoulder. She turned to yell at him and our maitre'd came flying out of the back part of the restaurant yelling at them and physically blocking them from the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. He did not push them but used his body to steer them into the street along the restaurant, then continued to follow them all the way down to the corner, past 4-5 other shops. We detest discrimination, but for people who prey on the innocent like they seem to do it is hard to argue with the reflexive defensive state that people seem to be in when they are around.
Once finished with lunch we met up with Brenda and Greg and walked around the base of the Eiffel Tower. Rick Steves had an interesting 20 minute podcast about the history of the tower. We had known that it was built for the worlds fair and that the French hated it, but we didn't know that after winning a contest to design a building for the fair Eiffel ended up having to finance 80% of it (4 million dollars) when the French government backed out on their promise to pay for the construction. The government ended up financing around 1 million.
Originally, when the French were going to pay for the construction the tower was going to be removed a few months after the fair. When Eiffel had to finance it he negotiated for it to remain up for 20 years so that he could have a chance to recoup his money. The government agreed. Once it was finished it took Eiffel only 6 months to recoup his initial investment. But with the agreement with the government he was able to keep it up for another 19.5 years. That is a great investment! With that timeframe Eiffel began to think about how he could get it to stay up permanently. He rented space to scientists for various explorations and created a restaurant on top complete with a grand piano. But what saved it was the radio. The French installed a radio tower at the top, and during WWII it intercepted a number of German radio transmissions from the troops just outside of Paris. These interceptions allowed the French to move their positions and defend the city. And the tower stayed.
We had our second lunch with the Smiths in the 4th district near some shopping that Michelle wanted to do. There is a french store called Le Kilo (now 4 different locations) that sells vintage clothes by the kilo. You make your selections and the price you pay is based on the weight. It sounded like a fun quirky place. Michelle found a skirt and a scarf that she liked. She would have bought a bubble gum pink leather jacket if it had been real leather. It wasn't, so she didn't make the splurge. But it was tempting!
Back at the hotel the men opted to rest while the ladies went to the train station to buy train tickets to Brussels. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called Le Chemise. It was on the expensive side but we were meeting one of Tim's former clients for dinner since they were in town to watch a french open match. Michelle had pork wrapped in philo dough with an amazing mushroom sauce and Tim had a filet mignon with an onion sauce. The menu had 20 items and 6 were desserts. My kinda place! Everything was delicious and the company was great. A perfect final evening in Paris.
Back at the room we facetimed with a very sleepy Alexander and selected a hotel room for Brussels. It didn't seem like we did all that much when compared to our first full day in Paris, but we were all pretty tired. A semi early night for us, in bed by 11pm! Au demain!
So it was us and about a million of our closest friends. Ok, so maybe it wasn't that early (9:45) and maybe it wasn't a million people, but we did wait in line for an hour to get to just the ticket counter. Once there we were told that the top was closed and we could only get tickets to the second platform. When we talked to the ticket agent he said we could by tickets to the top when we reached the second platform. Oh goodie, another line! Once our tickets were purchased we waited in another line for another hour to get into the car that takes you to the second platform. In this line we were serenaded by a young boy (around Alexanders age) who was having a monumental tantrum while he, his mom and his brother were in line. And he did not stop screaming for the entire hour of this second line. On one hand we felt bad for the mom, it is a hard situation being in line for something like this with a child who is melting down. But my goodness was it the most horrible hour to hear him screaming all around us. We were hoping and praying that he would not be in the same little car as us when we went up to the top. Thankfully he wasn't!
Once at the second platform we headed right over to the line for tickets to the top. Unfortunately that line had closed about 5 minutes ago and wasn't going to open for another 30-45 minutes. So we waited again, in a 3rd line. At that point the time to meet Tim had passed by 30 minutes so Michelle stayed until the ticket counter opened up and then headed down to the bottom. Brenda and Greg bought tickets to the top. We were to meet up in another hour.
When Michelle got to the bottom she found Tim and they opted to grab a quick lunch at a small cafe. We enjoyed sandwiches on french baguettes and watched the locals and tourists go by. One group of 3 Romany girls caught the attention of a number of people. They were walking past our cafe when someone walking by on the sidewalk next to them bumped on girl with his shoulder. She turned to yell at him and our maitre'd came flying out of the back part of the restaurant yelling at them and physically blocking them from the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. He did not push them but used his body to steer them into the street along the restaurant, then continued to follow them all the way down to the corner, past 4-5 other shops. We detest discrimination, but for people who prey on the innocent like they seem to do it is hard to argue with the reflexive defensive state that people seem to be in when they are around.
Once finished with lunch we met up with Brenda and Greg and walked around the base of the Eiffel Tower. Rick Steves had an interesting 20 minute podcast about the history of the tower. We had known that it was built for the worlds fair and that the French hated it, but we didn't know that after winning a contest to design a building for the fair Eiffel ended up having to finance 80% of it (4 million dollars) when the French government backed out on their promise to pay for the construction. The government ended up financing around 1 million.
Originally, when the French were going to pay for the construction the tower was going to be removed a few months after the fair. When Eiffel had to finance it he negotiated for it to remain up for 20 years so that he could have a chance to recoup his money. The government agreed. Once it was finished it took Eiffel only 6 months to recoup his initial investment. But with the agreement with the government he was able to keep it up for another 19.5 years. That is a great investment! With that timeframe Eiffel began to think about how he could get it to stay up permanently. He rented space to scientists for various explorations and created a restaurant on top complete with a grand piano. But what saved it was the radio. The French installed a radio tower at the top, and during WWII it intercepted a number of German radio transmissions from the troops just outside of Paris. These interceptions allowed the French to move their positions and defend the city. And the tower stayed.
We had our second lunch with the Smiths in the 4th district near some shopping that Michelle wanted to do. There is a french store called Le Kilo (now 4 different locations) that sells vintage clothes by the kilo. You make your selections and the price you pay is based on the weight. It sounded like a fun quirky place. Michelle found a skirt and a scarf that she liked. She would have bought a bubble gum pink leather jacket if it had been real leather. It wasn't, so she didn't make the splurge. But it was tempting!
Back at the hotel the men opted to rest while the ladies went to the train station to buy train tickets to Brussels. Dinner tonight was at a restaurant called Le Chemise. It was on the expensive side but we were meeting one of Tim's former clients for dinner since they were in town to watch a french open match. Michelle had pork wrapped in philo dough with an amazing mushroom sauce and Tim had a filet mignon with an onion sauce. The menu had 20 items and 6 were desserts. My kinda place! Everything was delicious and the company was great. A perfect final evening in Paris.
Back at the room we facetimed with a very sleepy Alexander and selected a hotel room for Brussels. It didn't seem like we did all that much when compared to our first full day in Paris, but we were all pretty tired. A semi early night for us, in bed by 11pm! Au demain!
6 days until we return - the countdown begins
Well the first full day in Paris and we were off and running. In the metro we made sure to buy 2 day metro passes (so much easier than buying the small 10 ticket packs). We came early to the Notre Dame cathedral prepared to buy the 2 day museum pass as well and found that the counter we bought it at last time was no where to be found. Yikes! Michelle asked a guard at the front of the chapel if he knew where to buy it, all in French. :) He indicated that when you climb the tour of the Notre Dame you can either buy a pass for just that venue or you can buy the whole museum pass. Great! Except that the line for the Notre Dame was now almost 100 people deep. We had a feeling that lines were just going to be the theme of Paris for us.
Fortunately the line moved fast and we were soon on our way. The weather was also good, which was a blessing based on the rain we had the day before and the lack of any sun cover in the line. Once at the top the views were amazing and you could even see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Unfortunately there was a bend in the walkway that would only allow one person at a time up to the next level, and they blocked us from moving to the next level until the prior group was able to leave. So we stood up there, herded together on the roof with no where to go. Behind Michelle was a mother and daughter of unknown nationality (Eastern European somewhere) who had 0 concept of personal space. The mother was right next to Michelle, with her arm and shoulder on Michelle's back. Everytime Michelle moved forward a 1/2 inch to create some separation she moved as well. Michelle had her hand on a rail and the ladies hand was next to hers, touching her on the side of the hand. Michelle's hand moved, the ladies hand moved. It was the most bizarre experience. And the daughter was wedging herself in between Tim and Michelle using the same kind of distance and pressure. Finally Tim pretended to take a picture of Michelle so that the girl would have to move back, then he rested his hand on the rail so that the mom would have to get off of her back. And the mom did the same thing to Tim the entire time we were waiting there. As we moved up to the next level the mom went down to leave and the daughter continued up. Tim said she was so close to him on the stairs that the back of his heal kicked her with every single step. And when we had to stop on the stairs for a moment he could feel hear breath on the back of his arm. At the top he basically pushed her ahead of him on the shoulders to get her away from us. We have had people with 0 personal space before, but this was the oddest encounter we have had so far!
Once back on the ground we tried to go to the archeological site across from the churches open front court but it was closed for the day. So we headed over to the Jewish monument on the corner of the Ille de la cite. It is a moving tribute to those in the concentration camps.
Feeling the need for lunch we decided to head over to the left bank for a cafe. Walking across a bridge we noticed that the guard rails were loaded down with padlocks. It turns out this is one of the bridges in Paris where people will take locks (which are symbols of their love for someone) and attach their lock to the millions of other locks on the bridge. Then they throw away the key into the river to show their devotion. And when we say millions we are not exaggerating, the bridge was loaded down with lock on top of lock on top of lock. It was surprising that the bridge could hold all of the weight.
We had lunch at a little cafe. It is amazing how good a baguette with a few slices of meat and cheese can taste. Mayonaise is a beautiful addition when it can be found, but butter is just as good. :) The Smiths had an omelette with the most delicious potatoes on the side. Here's to hoping that all of our meals are this good.
After lunch we wandered over to the Pantheon only to discover that the pendulum that was used to show that the world was round was removed as the entire Pantheon was being renovated. We could still go into the building and visit the crypts below of famous French writers, thinkers and leaders, but much of the inside main floor was cordoned off. Apparently there are some major structural issues with the building based on how rain from storms was disbursed over the roof. Years of improper drainage created bigger issues and the French government was now going to re-engineer the roof and stabilize the walls. Based on the timeline they had created, the entire process will take about 10 years. Yikes!
After the Pantheon was finished we headed over to the Sainte Chappel, which is a small chapel with more stained glass on the walls than walls. And it too was being restored. There were a number of different computers that detailed how they were removing the original glass, cleaning it, replacing the metal holding the glass pieces together and then repainting the glass with the details that were originally there if the restoration was needed. It was an amazing process to watch, but sad that the entire chapel was not available to view.
Feeling inspired about all we had done so far in the day, we decided to continue piling it on with a quick trip to the Louvre. Since we had the museum pass we reasoned that the Smiths could complete the 1 hour Rick Steves podcast before it closed for the day and if there was more they wanted to see we could come back the next day for free and finish out the tour. The podcast, however, would take them to the major sites. Since this was Tim and Michelle's 3rd visit to the museum, there were only a few things they were interested in seeing, so the plan seemed sound. Surprisingly, the Louvre was so unbelievably crowded. Thankfully with the passes we walked right to the front of the security line and slipped in. If you ever go to Paris, buy the museaum pass, you will not regret it. Even if you don't go to enough museaums to equal the cost of the pass, the ability to go to the front of the lines is such a great time saver.
The rest of the day was filled with road side crepes, climbing the Arc de Triumph and dinner at the Lebonese restaurant across the street. It was nice because their menu had a fixed price option that was a "chef's choice". The chef basically gave you what he thought were the best meals of the day. It was fabulous, we had no idea what we were eating so we were able to focus on each piece of food and how it tasted to us. Of course we forgot to ask about the items we liked so we would know for later before we ate all of the item. But we left feeling full and ready for bed. Tomorrow we begin with the Eiffel Tower, which should be an early and exciting day!
Fortunately the line moved fast and we were soon on our way. The weather was also good, which was a blessing based on the rain we had the day before and the lack of any sun cover in the line. Once at the top the views were amazing and you could even see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Unfortunately there was a bend in the walkway that would only allow one person at a time up to the next level, and they blocked us from moving to the next level until the prior group was able to leave. So we stood up there, herded together on the roof with no where to go. Behind Michelle was a mother and daughter of unknown nationality (Eastern European somewhere) who had 0 concept of personal space. The mother was right next to Michelle, with her arm and shoulder on Michelle's back. Everytime Michelle moved forward a 1/2 inch to create some separation she moved as well. Michelle had her hand on a rail and the ladies hand was next to hers, touching her on the side of the hand. Michelle's hand moved, the ladies hand moved. It was the most bizarre experience. And the daughter was wedging herself in between Tim and Michelle using the same kind of distance and pressure. Finally Tim pretended to take a picture of Michelle so that the girl would have to move back, then he rested his hand on the rail so that the mom would have to get off of her back. And the mom did the same thing to Tim the entire time we were waiting there. As we moved up to the next level the mom went down to leave and the daughter continued up. Tim said she was so close to him on the stairs that the back of his heal kicked her with every single step. And when we had to stop on the stairs for a moment he could feel hear breath on the back of his arm. At the top he basically pushed her ahead of him on the shoulders to get her away from us. We have had people with 0 personal space before, but this was the oddest encounter we have had so far!
Once back on the ground we tried to go to the archeological site across from the churches open front court but it was closed for the day. So we headed over to the Jewish monument on the corner of the Ille de la cite. It is a moving tribute to those in the concentration camps.
Feeling the need for lunch we decided to head over to the left bank for a cafe. Walking across a bridge we noticed that the guard rails were loaded down with padlocks. It turns out this is one of the bridges in Paris where people will take locks (which are symbols of their love for someone) and attach their lock to the millions of other locks on the bridge. Then they throw away the key into the river to show their devotion. And when we say millions we are not exaggerating, the bridge was loaded down with lock on top of lock on top of lock. It was surprising that the bridge could hold all of the weight.
We had lunch at a little cafe. It is amazing how good a baguette with a few slices of meat and cheese can taste. Mayonaise is a beautiful addition when it can be found, but butter is just as good. :) The Smiths had an omelette with the most delicious potatoes on the side. Here's to hoping that all of our meals are this good.
After lunch we wandered over to the Pantheon only to discover that the pendulum that was used to show that the world was round was removed as the entire Pantheon was being renovated. We could still go into the building and visit the crypts below of famous French writers, thinkers and leaders, but much of the inside main floor was cordoned off. Apparently there are some major structural issues with the building based on how rain from storms was disbursed over the roof. Years of improper drainage created bigger issues and the French government was now going to re-engineer the roof and stabilize the walls. Based on the timeline they had created, the entire process will take about 10 years. Yikes!
After the Pantheon was finished we headed over to the Sainte Chappel, which is a small chapel with more stained glass on the walls than walls. And it too was being restored. There were a number of different computers that detailed how they were removing the original glass, cleaning it, replacing the metal holding the glass pieces together and then repainting the glass with the details that were originally there if the restoration was needed. It was an amazing process to watch, but sad that the entire chapel was not available to view.
Feeling inspired about all we had done so far in the day, we decided to continue piling it on with a quick trip to the Louvre. Since we had the museum pass we reasoned that the Smiths could complete the 1 hour Rick Steves podcast before it closed for the day and if there was more they wanted to see we could come back the next day for free and finish out the tour. The podcast, however, would take them to the major sites. Since this was Tim and Michelle's 3rd visit to the museum, there were only a few things they were interested in seeing, so the plan seemed sound. Surprisingly, the Louvre was so unbelievably crowded. Thankfully with the passes we walked right to the front of the security line and slipped in. If you ever go to Paris, buy the museaum pass, you will not regret it. Even if you don't go to enough museaums to equal the cost of the pass, the ability to go to the front of the lines is such a great time saver.
The rest of the day was filled with road side crepes, climbing the Arc de Triumph and dinner at the Lebonese restaurant across the street. It was nice because their menu had a fixed price option that was a "chef's choice". The chef basically gave you what he thought were the best meals of the day. It was fabulous, we had no idea what we were eating so we were able to focus on each piece of food and how it tasted to us. Of course we forgot to ask about the items we liked so we would know for later before we ate all of the item. But we left feeling full and ready for bed. Tomorrow we begin with the Eiffel Tower, which should be an early and exciting day!
The mean streets of Paris
7 days until we return. This morning we woke up bright and early in the morning so we could make sure to catch our train to Paris. We had a 3 hour drive, we needed to return the rental car plus find some lunch and our train. All before 11:25. We were shooting for a 7:00 departure from the house and almost made it out on time. Traffic was great and with the help from the GPS in the car we made great time. It helped to not have pouring down rain!
Once at the car rental place we dropped off the car and made the short walk to the train station. We were almost a full hour early, which is always nice. Tim and Brenda headed off to grab lunch (kebabs at one of the train station restaurants) and Greg and Michelle guarded the bags. Once our train bin was posted, we all headed that way, only to have a very small train pull up in the bin. There were far too many people for the size train that was there! Thankfully an announcement was soon made that the bin had been changed from bin 8 to bin 1 and we needed to move to the new bin. Upon arrival, there was a sufficiently large train for the group of people traveling.
The train ride was uneventful, which was great. There was a mom with her two children who would speak to them in fluent French, but when she had enough of their antics and wanted to get their attention she would say something stern to them in English. And they knew, when mom switched to English, you better pay attention. :)
Once in the train station in Paris we debarked and searched out the metro. passes in hand we looked to board a very packed train. And then something happened. Tim, Greg and Michelle were on the metro, but there was a french lady who began yelling next to us. The next thing we noticed was the French lady pushing two girls off of the metro and still yelling in French. Brenda was on the train, but something had happened between her and the two girls. And the zippers on her day pack were open.
It turns out that the three of us got on the metro and she was going to get on last. Then a girl came and stood right in front of her as if she was going to get on the metro. Brenda went to walk around her and felt a buzzing sensation on her shoulder. That was enough to distract her and apparently the two girls used the opportunity to get into her bag. The French woman saw what was happening and yelled at the top of her lungs at them. Brenda finished getting on, the girls were shoved off and we all stood there shocked. Seriously, we were in Paris all of 15 minutes. Then the French woman proceeded to lecture Brenda in french about being careful and watching out for herself. Thankfully they zipper they had almost open had a hairbrush on top and the other one was not down far enough to get into. So they got nothing, but we got a good scare. And thankfully we were all ok.
We headed over to our hotel room and decompressed there for a while. Not wanting to waste the day, we headed out for a walk around town. We saw the Seine river, walked across Pointe Neuf, walked around the Louvre museam (which is the former palace) and the Champs Elysse. At the end of the Champs is the Arc de Triumph which Brenda and Greg wanted to climb at some point. After a great dinner at a local chain steakhouse (called Hippopotomus :) we headed off to bed. We are hoping to make tomorrow a full day of site seeing so we can check off a number of our "must dos". It should be a full day of adventure!
Once at the car rental place we dropped off the car and made the short walk to the train station. We were almost a full hour early, which is always nice. Tim and Brenda headed off to grab lunch (kebabs at one of the train station restaurants) and Greg and Michelle guarded the bags. Once our train bin was posted, we all headed that way, only to have a very small train pull up in the bin. There were far too many people for the size train that was there! Thankfully an announcement was soon made that the bin had been changed from bin 8 to bin 1 and we needed to move to the new bin. Upon arrival, there was a sufficiently large train for the group of people traveling.
The train ride was uneventful, which was great. There was a mom with her two children who would speak to them in fluent French, but when she had enough of their antics and wanted to get their attention she would say something stern to them in English. And they knew, when mom switched to English, you better pay attention. :)
Once in the train station in Paris we debarked and searched out the metro. passes in hand we looked to board a very packed train. And then something happened. Tim, Greg and Michelle were on the metro, but there was a french lady who began yelling next to us. The next thing we noticed was the French lady pushing two girls off of the metro and still yelling in French. Brenda was on the train, but something had happened between her and the two girls. And the zippers on her day pack were open.
It turns out that the three of us got on the metro and she was going to get on last. Then a girl came and stood right in front of her as if she was going to get on the metro. Brenda went to walk around her and felt a buzzing sensation on her shoulder. That was enough to distract her and apparently the two girls used the opportunity to get into her bag. The French woman saw what was happening and yelled at the top of her lungs at them. Brenda finished getting on, the girls were shoved off and we all stood there shocked. Seriously, we were in Paris all of 15 minutes. Then the French woman proceeded to lecture Brenda in french about being careful and watching out for herself. Thankfully they zipper they had almost open had a hairbrush on top and the other one was not down far enough to get into. So they got nothing, but we got a good scare. And thankfully we were all ok.
We headed over to our hotel room and decompressed there for a while. Not wanting to waste the day, we headed out for a walk around town. We saw the Seine river, walked across Pointe Neuf, walked around the Louvre museam (which is the former palace) and the Champs Elysse. At the end of the Champs is the Arc de Triumph which Brenda and Greg wanted to climb at some point. After a great dinner at a local chain steakhouse (called Hippopotomus :) we headed off to bed. We are hoping to make tomorrow a full day of site seeing so we can check off a number of our "must dos". It should be a full day of adventure!
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