Day 40 – Tampa, Florida
Woke up very early this morning and so did Paul which is quite unusual. I asked him why he was up so early and his response was – “It’s 12 noon in Paris!!”. I started unpacking and checked on-line and found that they had located our missing bag and it would be delivered sometime today between 8am and 10pm. We had a lot to sort through and a pile of mail to go through.
I have to say that even though it is nice to be back home, our trip just flew by. It never felt like we had been gone all that long as we were so very busy and having such a wonderful time. There were several places that we would have liked to spend more time in and some that one or two days was enough. Paul wasn’t thrilled with Venice and I wasn’t real fond of Rome. We loved Germany but I hated the food. We were both surprised at how much we enjoyed Paris as it is such a big city. London was a lot of fun; Norway was absolutely beautiful as was Germany and Switzerland. We tended to enjoy the countryside more than the city centers although it was great to see all the major sites that we had heard so much about. The ruins in Rome were amazing, the Eiffel Tower beautiful. All of the churches we visited were fantastic with the Sistine Chapel and Notre Dame being my favorites. I loved Europe and would go back in a heartbeat and hope to plan a return in the very near future. Because there is so much to see over there, I’m not sure I would repeat any of the countries I have already been to before seeing the other countries first. I would definitely recommend the Rick Steves Tours to everyone but be prepared to go full speed the entire time. We were lucky that we had a terrific tour group and several great guides. We learned a lot about traveling, such as how to wash your clothes in a sink and string them all across your hotel room to dry!! We are comfortable maneuvering through subway and metro systems. We learned a few words in German, Italian and French and a little about their customs. It is amazing the hard times that they have been through over there with wars and dictators that we have never experienced on American soil. I think everyone should go to the Anne Frank House and Dachau as it is something that we should never forget or stop being horrified at so that something like that can never happen again anywhere.
Well, it’s back to the daily grind and real life for us but we had 6 weeks of living a dream and some fantastic memories to relive in the future.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Day 39 – Paris to Tampa
Got up extremely early to shower, dress and finalize our packing. We were in the lobby before 4am to catch our shuttle. By 4:30 we had determined that they weren’t coming and tried to get the front desk person to call us a cab. He spoke very little English and didn’t seem to be too bright!! The first cab never arrived either and we had to ask him to call another one. We finally got a cab around 5am and headed for the airport. We had been told that the cab would run us about 50€ but the driver insisted on 60€ because he had put our suitcases in and out of the trunk of his cab. We didn’t have time to argue with him so we forked over. Our day was not starting on a positive note!! We finally checked in with the airlines, checked our luggage and headed through security to our boarding gate. We only had about 15 minutes before we started boarding.
Our first flight took us to Milan, Italy. We ran through that airport as they had changed our boarding gate and it was way over in a different wing. Made that plane and settled in for a LONG flight. We were on Alitalia Airlines and I have to say they really treat you well. We were fed a really good meal, given snacks and free wine!! And we each had a little TV in the back of the seat in front of us that allowed us to choose what movie we wanted to watch and we could even play video games. Of course, you can only catch a few minutes of sleep here and there as you are so uncomfortable. Got to JFK, grabbed our luggage, it was all there, to go through customs and then give our luggage back to the airlines for transfer to our next flight. We had enough of a break in flights that we grabbed something to eat and then caught our flight to Atlanta. That flight was uneventful and we arrived in time to catch our final leg of the trip to Tampa. Even though our day had started on the wrong foot, all our flights were pretty much on time and we didn’t run into any real problems. We arrived in Tampa at about 8:45 to find two of our three bags waiting for us. We had to file a claim for our one bag which, of course, was the one we had put the majority of our souvenirs in. Heather came and picked us up and we headed to our home and our first night in our own bed in a long time.
Got up extremely early to shower, dress and finalize our packing. We were in the lobby before 4am to catch our shuttle. By 4:30 we had determined that they weren’t coming and tried to get the front desk person to call us a cab. He spoke very little English and didn’t seem to be too bright!! The first cab never arrived either and we had to ask him to call another one. We finally got a cab around 5am and headed for the airport. We had been told that the cab would run us about 50€ but the driver insisted on 60€ because he had put our suitcases in and out of the trunk of his cab. We didn’t have time to argue with him so we forked over. Our day was not starting on a positive note!! We finally checked in with the airlines, checked our luggage and headed through security to our boarding gate. We only had about 15 minutes before we started boarding.
Our first flight took us to Milan, Italy. We ran through that airport as they had changed our boarding gate and it was way over in a different wing. Made that plane and settled in for a LONG flight. We were on Alitalia Airlines and I have to say they really treat you well. We were fed a really good meal, given snacks and free wine!! And we each had a little TV in the back of the seat in front of us that allowed us to choose what movie we wanted to watch and we could even play video games. Of course, you can only catch a few minutes of sleep here and there as you are so uncomfortable. Got to JFK, grabbed our luggage, it was all there, to go through customs and then give our luggage back to the airlines for transfer to our next flight. We had enough of a break in flights that we grabbed something to eat and then caught our flight to Atlanta. That flight was uneventful and we arrived in time to catch our final leg of the trip to Tampa. Even though our day had started on the wrong foot, all our flights were pretty much on time and we didn’t run into any real problems. We arrived in Tampa at about 8:45 to find two of our three bags waiting for us. We had to file a claim for our one bag which, of course, was the one we had put the majority of our souvenirs in. Heather came and picked us up and we headed to our home and our first night in our own bed in a long time.
Day 38 - Paris, France
This is our last day in Paris. I guess it was appropriate that it should be raining as that is how we started the trip and how we will end it.
Since our breakfast is no longer included in our room fee and they want 8.50€ for a bowl of cereal we decided to walk over to a little place that would give us a Rick Steves breakfast discount and we could get an “American” breakfast that included ham & eggs.
Day 38 – Paris, France
Our plan for today is to see Napoleon’s Tomb and go up in the Eiffel Tower. We walked to the Tomb in a fair downpour and saw a group on a Segway tour in the rain – that must have been miserable!! The Tomb is inside so we were able to get out of the rain for a while. They also have a Military Museum included in the ticket and our book had said that the World War I & II exhibits were quite good. The Tomb is quite impressive. I think they said he is in like 4-6 caskets in all. The outer casket is quite large and sits on a pedestal in a circular room with friezes of Napoleon along the outside wall. The building it is in is actually a church and Napoleon’s two brothers are also there along with a couple of military leaders that are quite well known in France. The museum was very interesting also and we spent several hours seeing it all.
We headed back to the hotel before going on to the Eiffel Tower and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and some pastries from a boulanger along the way. We ate in the lobby and then walked to the Tower. It was still raining but had turned to more of a drizzle by this time. Because of the foul weather the lines to purchase tickets to go up in the Tower were much shorter than those we had seen over the past couple of days. We decided to only go to the second level as the views from there are better and because of my fear of heights. By the time we got up to the second level, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Even though we were only on the second level, our ears were popping. We had some great views and took numerous pictures. There were gift shops up there so we did a little shopping as we really had not found any tacky tourist gift shops anywhere in Paris. Paul tried to talk me into going on up to the top but I refused. We headed back down and back to the hotel for a rest before going out for dinner.
We went to a little cafe just around the corner from our hotel for dinner. They have outdoor seating and had a plastic barrier up to protect us from the rain if it started up again. We ordered chicken and mashed potatoes and expected to get a skimpy serving again. They brought out a huge portion of food that also included some salad which we hadn’t had in quite a while. It was very good and we, of course, had some beer and wine!! Back to the hotel to be sure we are all packed up and ready to go as we have reserved a shuttle to the airport and it is supposed to pick us up at 4am – YUCK!!
This is our last day in Paris. I guess it was appropriate that it should be raining as that is how we started the trip and how we will end it.
Since our breakfast is no longer included in our room fee and they want 8.50€ for a bowl of cereal we decided to walk over to a little place that would give us a Rick Steves breakfast discount and we could get an “American” breakfast that included ham & eggs.
Day 38 – Paris, France
Our plan for today is to see Napoleon’s Tomb and go up in the Eiffel Tower. We walked to the Tomb in a fair downpour and saw a group on a Segway tour in the rain – that must have been miserable!! The Tomb is inside so we were able to get out of the rain for a while. They also have a Military Museum included in the ticket and our book had said that the World War I & II exhibits were quite good. The Tomb is quite impressive. I think they said he is in like 4-6 caskets in all. The outer casket is quite large and sits on a pedestal in a circular room with friezes of Napoleon along the outside wall. The building it is in is actually a church and Napoleon’s two brothers are also there along with a couple of military leaders that are quite well known in France. The museum was very interesting also and we spent several hours seeing it all.
We headed back to the hotel before going on to the Eiffel Tower and grabbed a couple of sandwiches and some pastries from a boulanger along the way. We ate in the lobby and then walked to the Tower. It was still raining but had turned to more of a drizzle by this time. Because of the foul weather the lines to purchase tickets to go up in the Tower were much shorter than those we had seen over the past couple of days. We decided to only go to the second level as the views from there are better and because of my fear of heights. By the time we got up to the second level, the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Even though we were only on the second level, our ears were popping. We had some great views and took numerous pictures. There were gift shops up there so we did a little shopping as we really had not found any tacky tourist gift shops anywhere in Paris. Paul tried to talk me into going on up to the top but I refused. We headed back down and back to the hotel for a rest before going out for dinner.
We went to a little cafe just around the corner from our hotel for dinner. They have outdoor seating and had a plastic barrier up to protect us from the rain if it started up again. We ordered chicken and mashed potatoes and expected to get a skimpy serving again. They brought out a huge portion of food that also included some salad which we hadn’t had in quite a while. It was very good and we, of course, had some beer and wine!! Back to the hotel to be sure we are all packed up and ready to go as we have reserved a shuttle to the airport and it is supposed to pick us up at 4am – YUCK!!
Day 37 – Paris, France
Saw most of our tour members this morning for breakfast. Quite a few of us are staying another day or so in Paris before returning home.
Since Paul and I wanted to catch the first train to Versailles, we ate a hurried breakfast and headed to the train station. Jackie and Ray caught up with us and while we were waiting for the train we met up with another couple from the US who were sitting waiting with a Rick Steves book in their hand. They were doing their own tour using his book as a guide. It is amazing how many people you see in Europe carting around his books!!
When the train arrived, we boarded and found that David and Linda from our group were already on it – they had walked to a different station to board. The ride to Versailles was about 40 minutes long and then we had a 10 minute walk to the entrance.
Versailles it absolutely massive. Louis XIV built it as his country hunting lodge. He continued to expand it until it became overwhelmingly large. At that point, he decided he needed to build another home away from his vacation home and built another mansion a little further back on the property. His wife, Marie Antoinette, also decided she needed another home and built a smaller place not far from her husbands place. She also decided that she needed to get closer to the people at times and built a 12 building farming village on the property. The gardens are beautiful and there are numerous fountains of different sizes that only run on the weekends and they play accompanying music.
My favorite part of Versailles, besides the gardens and fountains, was the farming village. They have maintained the exteriors of the buildings, you can’t go inside any of them, and the gardens around the buildings have been maintained, including the vegetable gardens and vineyards. The main farm building has quite a bit of livestock including, cows, horses, sheep, pigs, rabbits and chickens.
We arrived at Versailles at around 9am and stayed until after 4pm. It was a beautiful day and not too hot. This is where we met our first rude Parisian. They have a Petit Train that runs throughout the grounds and our all encompassing ticket included transportation on this train. We stopped at a loading point and asked the driver if he went to a certain area of the grounds that we wanted to visit. He told us that he did not go there. I asked him if we could catch a different train at that stop that would get us there and he informed me that “No, You can walk!!” Soooooo, we took off walking. As we arrived at our destination, up drives the same gentleman we had spoken to in his train. I was not too pleased. We finished our sightseeing in that area and got in line to at least catch the train back to the castle. Who drives up but the same man. We showed him our tickets and he refused to accept them, said we had to purchase additional ride tickets from him at 3.50€ each. After we got off the train, we asked another employee of Versailles if our tickets covered riding the train and we were told that yes they did cover it. We were seeing red by this time but there wasn’t much we could do about it. We thought about asking for our money back but the lines to talk to anyone were extremely long and not worth the small amount we had paid. Oh well!!
Got back to our hotel and ran into some of the others that were in our tour group and made arrangements to join them for dinner later. We walked to a recommended restaurant and had a terrific but somewhat expensive meal. Paul and I opted out of dessert and went to see if we could find a pastry shop open. Most places are closed on Sundays, or only open half a day, and quite a few are also closed on Mondays so we didn’t have any luck finding some pastry. Our dinner, though expensive, had been somewhat skimpy so we were both still a little hungry. We decided to just go to sleep so we wouldn’t know we were hungry.
Day 36 – Paris, France
We had breakfast at the hotel and then gathered to take the Metro to the Louvre. We had a local guide and used headsets again. Our first view of the museum was of the glass pyramid. It is a really neat thing to see.
Our guide basically hit the highlights of the Louvre, starting with sculpture and then we went to see the Mona Lisa. I didn’t realize that it was painted on a small piece of wood. It is hanging out in the open, no traffic control, but it does have a sheet of bullet-proof glass hanging in front of it. They were allowing people to take pictures of it but we had been told that if you use a flash, after being told not to, that the glass was specially made that all you would get on your film was a glare and you wouldn’t be able to see the picture at all. Besides the Mona Lisa, we saw Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, the inverted pyramid, the Slaves by Michelangelo and then Paul and I went back in to go through the Egyptian portion of the museum to see the sarcophagi and other items from that time. The Louvre is absolutely huge. It could take days if not weeks to see everything in it. It was originally a castle for the king and if you go down to the very lowest level you can see the original moat and base of the castle that has been incorporated into the current building.
 |  |
Since the Louvre is fairly close to the Champs-Elysees, we walked through the Tuileries Garden, grabbed a sandwich from a shop in the garden, ate it on one of the park benches and then strolled down the Camps-Elysees toward the Arc de Triomphe.
They were setting up the bleachers all along the street getting ready for the finals of the Tour de France. There are high-end stores all along the street and several car dealerships, Toyota, Peugeot and Mercedes. The traffic around the Arc is so bad that you aren’t allowed to cross the street there. They have built an underground tunnel to get you over the island where the Arc was constructed. We used our Museum Pass to climb to the top of the Arc so that we could take pictures of Paris. There were about 284 steps but it was well worth the effort. We took the Metro back to the closest train station to our hotel so that we could purchase our passes for our trip to Versailles tomorrow and them back to our room to rest for a while as we were pretty beat.
Our group gathered again for our last dinner together. We walked over to a restaurant and were given a menu to choose our meal from. We started with Kir in white wine and then had a choice of starter, our entree and a dessert plus Jennifer had ordered red wine for everyone. We all had a great time and we took a group picture in front of the restaurant to remember our tour together. Jennifer had told us all day that she had a special treat set up for us after dinner. She finally revealed that we were all going on an evening cruise of the Seine River. We walked past the Eiffel to the dock and got on a tour boat. We sat out back in the open and went on an hour long trip up and back down the Seine where we could see the different areas of the city all lit up. She provided us with champagne and then gave each of us a small Eiffel tower as a souvenir. We walked back to our hotel and told the members who were leaving early the next morning goodbye.
Another wonderful day in Paris. We had been told that Paris was dirty and that the people here were rude and hated Americans. We have found the city to be very clean and everyone we have met so far has been very nice and helpful. Paul and I are really looking forward to our trip to Versailles tomorrow. There are several others in the group that are going also so I’m sure we will see them.
Day 35 – Beaune to Paris, France
We left Beaune fairly early this morning to head for Paris. It was drizzling rain so we had to haul our luggage through the rain to the bus. Our luggage has increased in size and weight and with Paul’s back bothering him I am having to haul most of the stuff around. It rained for most of our 4 hour bus ride but by the time we got to Paris, it was sunny and cool.
We checked into our hotel and this time we have air conditioning but no shower curtain on the tub but it has a shower head in it. We aren’t sure exactly how we are going to take a shower without soaking the floor in the bathroom and Paul can’t sit down in the tub or he will never get out.
We are on our own for lunch so we walked down to the pedestrian street close to our hotel, found a place that sold already made sandwiches and had some lunch sitting out at a table on the sidewalk. The place also sold all kinds of pastries so we tried a couple of those also.
The group met back at the hotel and we all walked to the closest Metro station to go to Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame. Sainte-Chapelle had two floors. The poor people worshiped on the lower floor and the nobility on the upper floor. You enter the church on the lower floor and you really aren’t very impressed. You then have to climb a circular stone stairway up to the main part of the church and as you emerge you are stunned with the stained glass windows. Every window in the church is brilliant stained glass and the windows are extremely tall. There are statues of the different apostles ringing the sanctuary and a gorgeous gold altar that was under renovation when we got there so we really didn’t get to see it very well – bought the postcard!!
We hopped back on the Metro to get over to Notre Dame. When we came up from the Metro station, we saw a huge area of sand. Once a year in Paris they haul in tons of sand and set up a beach area in the middle of Paris. They were out there playing volleyball and football. This is supposed to encourage the Parisians to get outside and to be content with city life. We walked over to Notre Dame and Jennifer talked to us about the exterior of the church and what we would see on the inside then we were set free to explore the church. They were having a service while we were in there but this is typical for that church. They allow tourists to go through even though they are holding services. They do have a certain area that you aren’t allowed to go into unless you are joining in the service. We walked around to see the different little chapels ringing the church. We joined the group again to travel back to our hotel. We were on our own for dinner and joined up with Barbara, Bruce and Jeff and went to a little restaurant, Leo le Lion, just a couple of doors down from our hotel. One of the big things that they do in Paris is sell you dinner by “plat”. This means they have a set price and you can either choose your three courses from a special menu or the menu is already set for you. You have to ask for the carte rather than the menu if you want to buy your food item by item.
After a delicious, but expensive, dinner, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night. When we got there now only was it lit up but it was sparkling which was just beautiful. As we watched and took pictures, it stopped sparkling and we discovered that it only sparkles for 10 minutes at the top of the hour.
Back to the hotel after a wonderful first day in Paris.
We left Beaune fairly early this morning to head for Paris. It was drizzling rain so we had to haul our luggage through the rain to the bus. Our luggage has increased in size and weight and with Paul’s back bothering him I am having to haul most of the stuff around. It rained for most of our 4 hour bus ride but by the time we got to Paris, it was sunny and cool.
We checked into our hotel and this time we have air conditioning but no shower curtain on the tub but it has a shower head in it. We aren’t sure exactly how we are going to take a shower without soaking the floor in the bathroom and Paul can’t sit down in the tub or he will never get out.
We are on our own for lunch so we walked down to the pedestrian street close to our hotel, found a place that sold already made sandwiches and had some lunch sitting out at a table on the sidewalk. The place also sold all kinds of pastries so we tried a couple of those also.
The group met back at the hotel and we all walked to the closest Metro station to go to Sainte-Chapelle and Notre Dame. Sainte-Chapelle had two floors. The poor people worshiped on the lower floor and the nobility on the upper floor. You enter the church on the lower floor and you really aren’t very impressed. You then have to climb a circular stone stairway up to the main part of the church and as you emerge you are stunned with the stained glass windows. Every window in the church is brilliant stained glass and the windows are extremely tall. There are statues of the different apostles ringing the sanctuary and a gorgeous gold altar that was under renovation when we got there so we really didn’t get to see it very well – bought the postcard!!
We hopped back on the Metro to get over to Notre Dame. When we came up from the Metro station, we saw a huge area of sand. Once a year in Paris they haul in tons of sand and set up a beach area in the middle of Paris. They were out there playing volleyball and football. This is supposed to encourage the Parisians to get outside and to be content with city life. We walked over to Notre Dame and Jennifer talked to us about the exterior of the church and what we would see on the inside then we were set free to explore the church. They were having a service while we were in there but this is typical for that church. They allow tourists to go through even though they are holding services. They do have a certain area that you aren’t allowed to go into unless you are joining in the service. We walked around to see the different little chapels ringing the church. We joined the group again to travel back to our hotel. We were on our own for dinner and joined up with Barbara, Bruce and Jeff and went to a little restaurant, Leo le Lion, just a couple of doors down from our hotel. One of the big things that they do in Paris is sell you dinner by “plat”. This means they have a set price and you can either choose your three courses from a special menu or the menu is already set for you. You have to ask for the carte rather than the menu if you want to buy your food item by item.
After a delicious, but expensive, dinner, we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night. When we got there now only was it lit up but it was sparkling which was just beautiful. As we watched and took pictures, it stopped sparkling and we discovered that it only sparkles for 10 minutes at the top of the hour.
Back to the hotel after a wonderful first day in Paris.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Day 34 – Lauterbrunnen to Beaune, France
We left fairly early this morning to head for France. The scenery as we leave is absolutely beautiful. I will miss Switzerland and wish we could spend more time here. We made our first rest stop in Switzerland and everybody wanted to use up their Swiss Francs and so we all loaded up on Swiss chocolates. We stopped for lunch at a French rest stop that was attached to a fairly large shopping mall. They had delicious food and a lot of choices. The scenery has changed again from mountains to hills and the French countryside is covered in vineyards.
We arrived in Beaune and jumped off the bus and hauled our luggage to the hotel. It is a very old place that wanders in all kinds of directions and has several courtyards. There aren’t any elevators but our room is only on the second floor but the steps are very narrow and curved so it was a bit of a chore to get our suitcases to the room. Unfortunately it isn’t air conditioned and our room opens up onto the street so we can’t leave our window open.
We all met for a quick orientation of the town and then we were free to wander around before meeting up again for a tour of a winery and wine tasting. I did a little shopping and we wandered around until we found a church that we went into and took some pictures. Time for our winery tour and we went down in the cellars that are extremely old. When they excavated the tunnels they found tombs for some monks that were in the area. Part of the winery building was a church at one time and the monks were usually buried under the church. We only tasted three of their wines and some cassis but we didn’t buy anything as we didn’t want to have to haul it around. From the winery we walked over to a nearby restaurant for a group dinner. Jennifer had chosen the menu and we were to have a true Burgundian meal as Beaune is in the Burgundy region of France. We started out with escargot and parsley ham that was in clear jelly stuff. Not very appetizing looking but we tried it and it was actually very good. In France they normally eat 2-5 courses at their meals and take a minimum of 2 hours to eat. We all had beef burgundy for our entree and then a cheese plate for our dessert which is very common here.
Everybody headed back to the hotel – we leave for Paris in the morning.
We left fairly early this morning to head for France. The scenery as we leave is absolutely beautiful. I will miss Switzerland and wish we could spend more time here. We made our first rest stop in Switzerland and everybody wanted to use up their Swiss Francs and so we all loaded up on Swiss chocolates. We stopped for lunch at a French rest stop that was attached to a fairly large shopping mall. They had delicious food and a lot of choices. The scenery has changed again from mountains to hills and the French countryside is covered in vineyards.
We arrived in Beaune and jumped off the bus and hauled our luggage to the hotel. It is a very old place that wanders in all kinds of directions and has several courtyards. There aren’t any elevators but our room is only on the second floor but the steps are very narrow and curved so it was a bit of a chore to get our suitcases to the room. Unfortunately it isn’t air conditioned and our room opens up onto the street so we can’t leave our window open.
We all met for a quick orientation of the town and then we were free to wander around before meeting up again for a tour of a winery and wine tasting. I did a little shopping and we wandered around until we found a church that we went into and took some pictures. Time for our winery tour and we went down in the cellars that are extremely old. When they excavated the tunnels they found tombs for some monks that were in the area. Part of the winery building was a church at one time and the monks were usually buried under the church. We only tasted three of their wines and some cassis but we didn’t buy anything as we didn’t want to have to haul it around. From the winery we walked over to a nearby restaurant for a group dinner. Jennifer had chosen the menu and we were to have a true Burgundian meal as Beaune is in the Burgundy region of France. We started out with escargot and parsley ham that was in clear jelly stuff. Not very appetizing looking but we tried it and it was actually very good. In France they normally eat 2-5 courses at their meals and take a minimum of 2 hours to eat. We all had beef burgundy for our entree and then a cheese plate for our dessert which is very common here.
Everybody headed back to the hotel – we leave for Paris in the morning.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)