Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris. Show all posts
Friday, May 28, 2010
Paris to salzburg by B
We took a night train from Paris to Munich and it was quite a ride. It's about 10 1/2 hours and while we booked a couchette with beds they are deffinately not the comfiest kind of beds, especially if your 6 ft tall. Needless to say by the time we hit Munich I had gotten a grand total of about 3 hrs of not great sleep. It was cool though because we met this other couple from PA that was traveling around Europe as well we got to talking and found out that he had just proposed to her under the eiffel tower in Paris; how exciting! We checked in to our hostel in Munich and since we couldn't get in our room till 2 we decided to go see the first of the Nazi concentration camps in Dachau, Germany. It was an amazing musuem and exhibit and a very sobering place. I believe very strongly that these places should always be remembered and taught to children and our childrens children so that this kind of atrocity will never be repeated again. Some people I think blame God for the worst things that have happened in human history, but the truth of the matter is that God was not behind these torturings and killings, we were.
That night we got ahold of one of my friends from high school who lives in Munich and had a couple of 1 liter beers together at the augustiner beer hall. The next day we went to the englischer gardens and watched a bunch of people surfing in the middle of the park on a quickly flowing river. Surfers have such ingenuity when it comes to finding waves. The gardens were beautiful and the food in the park was delisioso! We came back and saw that they had been setting up some booths on the streets for what we know is ascension day. There were tons of booths and we thought they wouldn't be open until they day we left but they opened that night and some of them had food others had games some were Protestant others catholic it was amazing to see these two faiths come together in this way! We tried lots and lots of food it was all so yummshis. The thing that really impressed me though was munich's kicking music scene, they had tons of musicians lining the streets playing regae and folk and almost all in English great stuff! All the people were really happy and upbeat, the festival in a whole was a major highlight of my vacation thus far.
The next day we went to slazburg Austria this train ride from Munich to Salzburg was great! The scenary was absolutely gorgeous and when we got to Salzburg the scenary there did not disapoint. Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart and where he spent some of his time, so we went to see the house where he lived. It is pretty amazing to think that such a young boy could compose such amazing things! Salzburg was an amazing place all in all and they too had some kind of music fest which was also great. Good old Bavaria and there music scene who would have thought? And the food here was incredible so much so that we went out to eat at the same place every single night! I am pretty sure I have never had a better restaurant experience and I think I tried everything on the menu good stuff!!! The only negative about this city was the weather it was chilly like 38 degrees chilly and a little rainy but it made it very nice to be inside enjoying great food.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Paris by B
Paris
What an experience! I was personally not looking forward to this city- I had low expectations. For the most part I was pleasently surprised with the city. The people there seemed friendly, i had heard so much about them being extremely rude but this was def not true at least in my case. The history in paris is very very rich, and a little confusing. I guess I am ignorant to a lot of other countries rich historical backgrounds. One of the highlights was seeing notre dame it was enormous, and gorgeous it's hard to even fathom them building that place nearly 800 years ago! The louvre was also incredible, NOT the Mona Lisa part, but they had an incredible collection of early Mesopotamian artifacts and steles. One in particular the stele of mishak peaked my interest because the bible references this king many times in the book of 1 kings. One painting that caught my eye was John martins pandamonnium check it out online if you get a chance it's amazing! We did our fair share of walking around Paris but it was the biking that really made it interesting, they have bikes you can rent for 30 mins free and they are all over town it's great! Although if you thinking walking in Paris is crazy crowded and scary biking is even more so, one time I looked at J and she was peddling very casually and there was a double decker bus right behind her haha. Crazy, crazy but all in all Paris was a lot of fun I wouldn't go back to the city perse but deffinately to the country side of France, or maybe a different city.
What an experience! I was personally not looking forward to this city- I had low expectations. For the most part I was pleasently surprised with the city. The people there seemed friendly, i had heard so much about them being extremely rude but this was def not true at least in my case. The history in paris is very very rich, and a little confusing. I guess I am ignorant to a lot of other countries rich historical backgrounds. One of the highlights was seeing notre dame it was enormous, and gorgeous it's hard to even fathom them building that place nearly 800 years ago! The louvre was also incredible, NOT the Mona Lisa part, but they had an incredible collection of early Mesopotamian artifacts and steles. One in particular the stele of mishak peaked my interest because the bible references this king many times in the book of 1 kings. One painting that caught my eye was John martins pandamonnium check it out online if you get a chance it's amazing! We did our fair share of walking around Paris but it was the biking that really made it interesting, they have bikes you can rent for 30 mins free and they are all over town it's great! Although if you thinking walking in Paris is crazy crowded and scary biking is even more so, one time I looked at J and she was peddling very casually and there was a double decker bus right behind her haha. Crazy, crazy but all in all Paris was a lot of fun I wouldn't go back to the city perse but deffinately to the country side of France, or maybe a different city.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Day 26/27: Paris da Vinci code style
5/7 fri
5/8 sat
We had had our first French pastry yesterday. They call them drops - crispy layers of croissant around chocolate chips and a tangy custard cream. So today we had that again for breakfast then biked to Trocodero to view the Eiffel Tower. We had seen it in the background all yesterday but it really is quite something up close. We walked down, under it and through the gardens.
We made our way to a street I had read about that was suppose to be great windowshopping with stands of goods and what not - rue cler. We found it but maybe because of the hour (3) it wasn't much of anything. We grabbed some bikes and headed to notre Dame. B had a run in with the french police. We were riding on the wrong side and they were not pleased. Passed a cute gardeny marketplace I made a mental note of to check again. Notre was not busy so we checked out inside.
The inside is enormous breathtaking and awe inspiring. A service began as we were leaving to head to the louvre. The louvre was busy for it's extended hours but we got tickets and were inside within 10.
In 3 hours, we covered some good ground. Sadly we had to walk quickly through some rooms. Although I don't think it's possible to give the louvre any justice in even a full day- it's 3 wings with 4 floors each.
We saw the Mona Lisa which was roped off, enclosed, and guarded by 3+ attendants - kinda crazy. B found a new favorite painting but we forgot the name so he's been researching it and I was very very excited (after asking an attendant about it and he having no idea what we were talking about) to turn a corner and find one of my absolute fave paintings by pannini - modern Rome.
As we left the louvre - we saw this. The inverted pyramid featured in Da Vinci code where magdalene is supposedly buried under. I looked but no plaque on the roof indicating the rose line.
Left and saw the Eiffel doing it's night time glitter dance. I think we took the metro this time to champs élysées for dinner (listened to a trumpet player) and then home via bike.
Saturday morning, we didn't really have a plan. I realized that we hadn't had a crepe yet so at our first stop, luxembourg garden we saw a cute little stand making crepes. Mmmmm yum. We sat and watched everyone enjoying the gardens. It seemed to be the place to be for locals - teenagers hanging out on steps and lawn, sailboat races in the pond, parents and their kids playing sports, and even little toddler pony rides. It was a great way to spend the morning.
Afterrwards, we biked around the Latin quarter and up to notre dame again. There was a lot more people this time so we sat and read some info on the church and stared at the gargoyles. We also stepped on the "center of France".
Our next stop was st chapelle where we waited in our first line to anywhere on our trip. It was worth it tho to see the largest stained glass in Europe. A small room but beautiful. It was also next door to the supreme court of France which was cool to see up close. We went next door to the conciergerie - an old Parisian prison, where Marie antoniette was held.
A recreation of the area infront of her cell.
We walked around a bit more and I saw that market I'd seen the day before. It was just two rows of stands on each side and you couldn't tell where one stand stopped and the next started. It smelled like lavendar and gardenias.
Then we just biked. We tried to get to the marais area but it started to rain so we hopped on te metro to champs élysées.
Hotel de ville?
Since it was raining and early - only 7, we decided to see iron man 2. We think the theater was a theatrical theater not just a cinema. It was huge and had the nicest chairs we've ever experienced at the movies - plush with cushy arm and head rests.
The movie was great (better than frirst) and conveniently right next door to a restaurant that looked good and had beouf bourgignone as the plat du jour so we decided this would be our dinner out. Sadly, maybe cuz it was slightly touristy, it wasn't that gReat. It was very loud and the waiter was annoyed we didn't want to order 12euro drinks or 7euro water. And, again sadly, our food was cold, good, but probably wouldve been great warm. Oh well, we bipped literally next door after and had beignets and ice cream from what seems to be their big fast food chain (they do have mcd, kfc, and bking though). All for under 3 euros - nice!
Rain stopped so of course, we biked it home.
5/8 sat
We had had our first French pastry yesterday. They call them drops - crispy layers of croissant around chocolate chips and a tangy custard cream. So today we had that again for breakfast then biked to Trocodero to view the Eiffel Tower. We had seen it in the background all yesterday but it really is quite something up close. We walked down, under it and through the gardens.
We made our way to a street I had read about that was suppose to be great windowshopping with stands of goods and what not - rue cler. We found it but maybe because of the hour (3) it wasn't much of anything. We grabbed some bikes and headed to notre Dame. B had a run in with the french police. We were riding on the wrong side and they were not pleased. Passed a cute gardeny marketplace I made a mental note of to check again. Notre was not busy so we checked out inside.
The inside is enormous breathtaking and awe inspiring. A service began as we were leaving to head to the louvre. The louvre was busy for it's extended hours but we got tickets and were inside within 10.
In 3 hours, we covered some good ground. Sadly we had to walk quickly through some rooms. Although I don't think it's possible to give the louvre any justice in even a full day- it's 3 wings with 4 floors each.
We saw the Mona Lisa which was roped off, enclosed, and guarded by 3+ attendants - kinda crazy. B found a new favorite painting but we forgot the name so he's been researching it and I was very very excited (after asking an attendant about it and he having no idea what we were talking about) to turn a corner and find one of my absolute fave paintings by pannini - modern Rome.
As we left the louvre - we saw this. The inverted pyramid featured in Da Vinci code where magdalene is supposedly buried under. I looked but no plaque on the roof indicating the rose line.
Left and saw the Eiffel doing it's night time glitter dance. I think we took the metro this time to champs élysées for dinner (listened to a trumpet player) and then home via bike.
Saturday morning, we didn't really have a plan. I realized that we hadn't had a crepe yet so at our first stop, luxembourg garden we saw a cute little stand making crepes. Mmmmm yum. We sat and watched everyone enjoying the gardens. It seemed to be the place to be for locals - teenagers hanging out on steps and lawn, sailboat races in the pond, parents and their kids playing sports, and even little toddler pony rides. It was a great way to spend the morning.
Afterrwards, we biked around the Latin quarter and up to notre dame again. There was a lot more people this time so we sat and read some info on the church and stared at the gargoyles. We also stepped on the "center of France".
Our next stop was st chapelle where we waited in our first line to anywhere on our trip. It was worth it tho to see the largest stained glass in Europe. A small room but beautiful. It was also next door to the supreme court of France which was cool to see up close. We went next door to the conciergerie - an old Parisian prison, where Marie antoniette was held.
A recreation of the area infront of her cell.
We walked around a bit more and I saw that market I'd seen the day before. It was just two rows of stands on each side and you couldn't tell where one stand stopped and the next started. It smelled like lavendar and gardenias.
Then we just biked. We tried to get to the marais area but it started to rain so we hopped on te metro to champs élysées.
Hotel de ville?
Since it was raining and early - only 7, we decided to see iron man 2. We think the theater was a theatrical theater not just a cinema. It was huge and had the nicest chairs we've ever experienced at the movies - plush with cushy arm and head rests.
The movie was great (better than frirst) and conveniently right next door to a restaurant that looked good and had beouf bourgignone as the plat du jour so we decided this would be our dinner out. Sadly, maybe cuz it was slightly touristy, it wasn't that gReat. It was very loud and the waiter was annoyed we didn't want to order 12euro drinks or 7euro water. And, again sadly, our food was cold, good, but probably wouldve been great warm. Oh well, we bipped literally next door after and had beignets and ice cream from what seems to be their big fast food chain (they do have mcd, kfc, and bking though). All for under 3 euros - nice!
Rain stopped so of course, we biked it home.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Day 25: Paris
5/6 Thur: Paris
We slept in really late and didn't leave our apt until about 1. Our place was in the 16e and near Bois de boulogne (a very beautiful ginormous park) so we walked over there. We saw these in front and having read about the velib bikes and stations we signed up. Well 20 mins after trying to decipher it, then finding an English option, and after several issues with our credit cards, we signed up. While these bikes were superbly helpful, the downfall was that you only had 30 mins at a time to use the bikes. We spent a great deal of time over the next 5 days scouring for velib stations before time ran out. Despite that, they were especially helpful as our feet were boycotting us at this point and so Worth it because we got to see more of the city than we normally would have.
So we road down to the lake and straight back and exchanged for new bikes then set out for the Arc de Triomphe, which was 10 mins away.
Ditched the bikes and walked down this famous street. Lots of street performers and beggars and tourists but great window shopping!
We walked down to the grand palais and along the Seine until we came to the Place de la Concorde and the beginning of the Tuillerie gardens.
It was Thursday and the Musee d'Orsay was open late at a discounted price so we headed across the bridge. This museum use to be a train station.
D'orsay was amazing and they had a great selection of van gogh work. The highlight for me was Monet's water lillies.
We walked back over the bridge, past Hotel des Invalides, past some special event going on at the Grand Palais and then back to Champs Elysees where we snagged bikes to go back home.
We slept in really late and didn't leave our apt until about 1. Our place was in the 16e and near Bois de boulogne (a very beautiful ginormous park) so we walked over there. We saw these in front and having read about the velib bikes and stations we signed up. Well 20 mins after trying to decipher it, then finding an English option, and after several issues with our credit cards, we signed up. While these bikes were superbly helpful, the downfall was that you only had 30 mins at a time to use the bikes. We spent a great deal of time over the next 5 days scouring for velib stations before time ran out. Despite that, they were especially helpful as our feet were boycotting us at this point and so Worth it because we got to see more of the city than we normally would have.
So we road down to the lake and straight back and exchanged for new bikes then set out for the Arc de Triomphe, which was 10 mins away.
Ditched the bikes and walked down this famous street. Lots of street performers and beggars and tourists but great window shopping!
We walked down to the grand palais and along the Seine until we came to the Place de la Concorde and the beginning of the Tuillerie gardens.
It was Thursday and the Musee d'Orsay was open late at a discounted price so we headed across the bridge. This museum use to be a train station.
D'orsay was amazing and they had a great selection of van gogh work. The highlight for me was Monet's water lillies.
We walked back over the bridge, past Hotel des Invalides, past some special event going on at the Grand Palais and then back to Champs Elysees where we snagged bikes to go back home.
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