Paris, Partie Un

Belgium needs to find something a little
cooler to get excited about.

This was by far the least hectic days of the next four in Paris, so this will be a short read.  We made the long journey from Amsterdam by stopping in Brussels for lunch.  You really do need to get a waffle for lunch.  I grabbed one with belgian chocolate and bananas on top.  If you go down the side streets or near the little boy piss statue(national pride in a little boy peeing statue), you can find cheaper ones that are the same size and just as good. From there we continued on through the incredibly boring Belgian countryside (passing a few nuclear power plants as we crossed into France) and finally got to Paris in the early evening.

In Paris, I had an awesome room in the top floor of a hotel in Puteaux, called the Puteaux Kyriad.  The only problem is the hotel was in Puteaux...a 25 minute metro ride away from the center of Paris. Luckily I had some time on my hands for the next few days.  Puteaux is also where you will find La Defense, and most of the skyscrapers in Paris (except of course Montparnasse.) We established our group meeting point for the next four days at Notre Dame, and orientated ourselves with the metro, which is really quite easy.  For the first night, we decided to eat in the latin quarter, which is diagonal across the Seine from Notre Dame, and is known for cheaper (14 Euros will get you a 3 course meal and free wine) yet quality food.  A lot of the restaurants serve french food, but most are owned by foreigners.  Ours in particular was a greek run restaurant, as are a vast majority of the restaurants. You also must plan ahead when going to a restaurant because the meal will often take 90 minutes to 2 hours to complete.

Notre Dame: Pretty sunny for a picture at 9 pm!

We all got a good night sleep so that we could survive the whirlwind of the next 4 days.

Amsterdam

I am not going to spend much time discussing Amsterdam, because what happens here, should stay here.  But seriously there isn't much to do or see within the city and 2 days is about all you need for a complete visit.  The architecture is very interesting, with very narrow and tall houses.  Residents were taxed by the width of their homes so they are all only a couple metres wide but 3-5 stories tall.  There is an old part of town where there is even more interesting architecture, but unfortunately it is also the red-light district, where women stand in the windows and wait for men to walk in.

We got into town, and went immediately to Anne Frank's House.  It always has a long line so you need to be prepared for that.  It is a nice 4 story home that was used as a store and living quarters on top in the ecret annexe while Otto Frank's family was hiding there.  It was amazing to see the rooms and places in that side Anne wrote about in her diary, and see a visualization of everything.  There were also stories of people that they knew on video screens, and explanations of what happened in Amsterdam during the war.  It was very moving and well done.  Unfortunately they don't have the real diary or notebooks still on display but everything is a facsimile.

We stayed away from the center of town again in a hostel, so we had to get acquainted with the tram system.  It is extremely difficult to understand because all the names are in Dutch and things run in circles so you are often confused by what direction it is going!

Tall, unique architecture

Ok so most of what i did here in Amsterdam can be summed up with Van Gogh Museum (the bedroom, ), Anne Frank, Picnics in the Park, and a lot of walking.  Some good restaurants are around Dam Sqaure (Wok 2 Wok), and I recommend going to as many of the markets as you can.  They are all open every day until 5 pm.  Don't go to the Tulip market expecting to see much in the way of flowers.  Instead you can buy bulbs and seedlings to plant in your own garden.  Van Gogh is a must see as well as the city park down the street.  And of course, you have to plank the I AMsterdam sign....  Make sure you know the difference between a coffee shop and a cafe....

Abbey Road and other Touristy things.

So we only had a half day in London before we needed to grab a shuttle for a ship to Amsterdam, so we tried to do little last minute tourist stops before we left.  The first of these was finding Harry Potter's 9 and 3/4 line to Hogwarts at Knights Cross station.  Good luck with that.  They are doing renovations of the entire station so they moved the track outside and it is now a poorly made photo wall unfortunately.  That was disappointment number one.  Then we travelled for another hour to make our way to Abbey Road.  The place was packed, not by people, but by rude and angry drivers.  We tried to get a good picture, but weren't really that successful, but seriously, its not that big of a deal.  I hear early in the morning is the best option in the future.  Got back to Greenwich, and I checked out the Market which was large and pretty unique with fruit, and a lot of other goods.  I then took the opportunity to go up to the royal observatory and take pictures of the coolest site in Greenwich, the Prime Meridian.  


It is an arduous climb up the hill but the view of London is definitely worth it.  I grabbed some food for dinner on the boat on the way back, and it was off to Amsterdam. The boat, a Stella Liner, was gigantic, 11 floors, with most of what a major cruise line would have on it, which was very comfortable.  We took advantage of it and had some fun!  Not like we needed to, Amsterdam in the morning.

The Prime Meridian

Stonehenge, Bath, and a Nice Evening

With a late bar night, not many people got much sleep, but we had plenty of time to sleep on the 2.5 hour drive from Greenwich to Stonehenge. The trip is shorter if you are on the other side of London and do not have to deal with the morning traffic.  The trip is very beautiful but you can only see so many sheep before it gets repetitive!  We were paired up with a high school tour, and the tour guide treated us like high schoolers.  I was "put in charge" of our group because I was the oldest!  When we got to stonehenge we were given an audio tour to listne to as your walk around the monumnet  You are about 20 metres away the entire tour around the stones, but it is large enough that you don't notice being far away.  The tour was pretty comical with the conspiracies, and lack of true knowledge of how anything actually occurred there.  They honestly have no idea, and therefore every sentance started with, "They probably wanted this" or "things could have looked like this."  You have to give them some slack though because the area has not been used since 2500 BC.

First picture I took, ended up being the best.

In between Stonehenge, which is is Wiltshire, and Bath, England is another hour and a half drive, and our guide didn't stop talking the entire way there.  The chaperones for the other trip where just eating everything he said.   

We immediately went on the Roman Bath tours when we arrived.  Unfortunately in the middle ages, the British took very poor care of early monuments, and artifacts, and they actually build a house on top of the baths and didnt even realize they were there until someone wanted to renovate their home.  There was a pretty cool exhibition of the place with another audio tour which took almost an hour to go through.  We were very hungry so we went nearby and to la Baguette which sells very cheap baguettes.  They are rightfully cheap because there is not much meat at all in the sandwich, but they will fill you up.  We walked around and were again quite entertained by the great British street performers.

One of the few that turned out well.  (Tower of London)

On the way back we stopped for Fish and Chips for the first time on the trip, and the food was quite good at the North pole in Greenwich.  It was pretty late already since it took so long to get back and forth from Stonehenge and Bath.  Be prepared to use most of a day when planning an excursion like this one. I really enjoy looking at cities at night and taking pictures of them, so I journeyed out and took some night photography and just tooled around.  It was a lot of fun and I ran into several other photographers along the way.  I enjoyed even if I wasn't quite successful.  Wish I had a tripod with me!

Tour of London!

Today, we had a free day to do whatever we wanted in London.  Our breakfasts included only cereal and bread stuffs, so we left for the day a little lacking in the food department.  Using our tickets for the Big Bus Hop On Hop Off Tour we boarded the double deckers near the Tower of London and we stayed on until the bus got to Westminster Abbey, where we got off and took a lot of pictures.  If you plan on going to a lot of Cathedrals or museums in Europe, plan on bringing extra money.  The tour was 16 dollars, so I decided to save my money.  You can get in free on Sundays for church of course, and that is definitely the best way to visit.  You can't take pictures inside either way.  Form there we walked to Big Bend, and along the way I met Nelson Mandela and Winston Churchill...their statues that is.  I am in awe of how ornate these building these are.

We found a lunch spot behind the Royal Festival Hall.  It was an amazing global food market with different cheeses and meat options.  Several of us had middle eastern pitas, and others had a great rice and meat dish from Ghana. From there we hopped back on the bus after crossing the Thames, and stayed on until Buckingham palace, which was unfortunately pretty disappointing.  If you are not able to see the changing of the guard, which only occurs at 11:30, it is not really worth going.  I will have to see the changing of the guards in the future, but apparently its gets extremely crowded.  


From there we walked through the park to Trafalgar square, where I split up.  I wanted to hit all the art and artifacts I could in the afternoon. The first stop I went to was the National Gallery.  I saw a lot of art from many different masters, including Van Gogh (Chair, 1 of the Sunflowers), Rembrandt, Cezanne, Da Vinci (the first Virgin on the Rocks), etc.  I really wish you could take pictures in art museums, but I definitely understand why you can't. From there I hopped on the tube to the Imperial War Museum, which was also fantastic.  There were a lot of old military vehicles there and some cool history lessons.  There was an exhibit of woman military art as well as a documentary on the holocaust.  Lawrence of Arabia’s bike (his favorite possession and the thing that killed him) was there as well(so of course they were screening the movie as well).  

Pullin out the big guns in London.

From there I continued on to the British Museum, which also had a long walk from the station.  In there was a huge collection of Egyptian sculptures, and of course the Rosetta Stone!  There is so much to see there in both of these places that it would take days to see it all.  


Afterwards, I walked by the Plough as well, which was known as something else earlier, but was frequented by Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin.  I know, perfect for me. We all went out to the Zoo Bar that evening, which is in leicester square.  I don't recommend any of the clubs in the square because they are really touristy. Another tip: know the 24 hour bus routes before you go out, because if you don't have experience with them in the past they are extremely confusing, and the tube shuts down around 1 am.  We eventually made it home though.  Tomorrow we are off to Stonehenge!  Leave any comments or suggestions for future stops!

Crewe and the English Countryside

Ok, so we haven't had internet access in London, so thats my excuse this time. After Dublin we took a huge ferry (the size of a large cruise ship) to Wales.  It was a quick trip, but we were all so tired because of an early morning that we slept the whole way there.  The day was a lot of traveling to get through Wales, but along the way we stopped in  Conway, Wales, which is right on bay with an amazing medieval castle.    The castle has amazing views and the outside shell of the castle is very well preserved.

Conway Castle

I also had Mackerel Rarebit for the first time at the museum Cafe.  It was pretty fishy, but was a nice authentic Welsh meal.  We immediately started learning some typical British phrases and words that have different meanings.  For example, with salad means with lettuce. Weird.

That was all we did in Wales, and we drove the rest of the way to Crewe in the evening, where we had dinner at the Hotel, which was chili on top of rice.  Lets just say Steak-n-Shake is better. We had an amazing chocolate fudge cake for dessert though.

Next day we packed up to head to London with a few important stops along the way.  I had an eventful morning, spraining my ankle! No worries though it happens to me all the time, and it was a minor sprain!  We went to another, less cool castle in Warwick (pr. Warick), England.  It was a medieval tourist trap with jousting reenactments and bad wax museums.  There were a lot of stairs to go up and down, and unfortunately I think we did everyone of them!  We would have probably thought the castle was amazing if we had not seen Conway the day before.

From Warwick, we went to Anne Hathaway's house. She was William Shakespeare's wife, and she lived in an old victorian home with a thatched roof.  We only took pictures and then headed to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare.  Unfortunately his childhood home is another tourist trap, and they regrettably have no original furniture or furnishings that were actually in the house when he lived there.  Instead they say things like, it most likely looked like this and we think this is what the house would have been like.  The trip was rescued by great food from the Food of Love restaurant.  Chicken and Mayonnaise with Salad.  Can you guess what that would be in the U.S.?

Shakespeare's crib

Well, we got the heck out of there and finished the day in London!  Staying in Greenwich, which I don't recommend if you want to be close to the city, we have to take a long Tube ride into the city.  We got dinner in Leicester (pr. Lester) Square, in Chinatown.  The fun in London is just beginning!

Dublin Continued!

Wow, I am already falling behind!  The second and third days in Dublin have been very fun! Yesterday, we went on a bus tour of the city of Dublin, where we were able to see the different parks around the city, including where the president of Ireland lives and a site where Pope John Paul II visited, and where Oscar Wilde lived and has a monument. (Great O.W. saying for the ladies: Women are not meant to be understood, but loved) We then travelled for a walking tour of Trinity College, where we saw the Book of Kells, which monks in Kells, Ireland wrote and painted during the 9th century.  It consists of four books of the four gospels, written on cowhide with homemade ink from around the world.

After that, a group of us went to St. James Gate brewery, of course, to go on the tour for Guinness!  Guinness is a huge deal here and is often considered the best place to work in Ireland.  The tour was self guided, and you traveled up 7 floors learning about the history of Guinness.  The seven floors together make the largest pint glass in the world!  At the top is the Gravity Bar where they pour you a pint of Guinness!

Guys, it actually does taste even better here.  It is properly poured and takes two minutes for the bartender to give it to you.  The entire tour took almost 3 hours, and was pretty hard on the feet.  Luckily it was a great way to escape the rain that plagued us for most of the day and night.

We gathered all together for the first time (a few people arrived from the US in the afternoon) for our welcome dinner and has a traditional Irish soup and beef stew for dinner with chocolate cream puffs (small eclairs).

After this we went on a pub crawl, and I am proud to say I was not crawling at the end of the tour.  It was extremely fun and we ended up gong to 5 different bars and meeting another tour group and some friendly Irish lads and ladies. The night ended at a small dance club called the Mezz, which also has a bar above it.


Today was much more relaxed, with the entire morning free for us to do whatever we wanted.  We took the opportunity to sleep, some needed more than others, and stroll around Dublin.  We then took a bus in the afternoon to Glendalough, or the town between two lakes in English, which is where P.S. I Love You was filmed.  The Irish countryside is extremely beautiful.  The city is a monastic site, where St. Kevin started a town in the 5th century that eventually contained 7 churches by the 12th century.  the buildings are in ruins for the most part except the stone foundations, but the site to this day remains a pilgrimage site as it did in its early history, and is very peaceful and beautiful.

Tonight was great, we ended up eating at South Street, where we had pasta and pizza which were all 10 euros or under.  I split one and was more than full, and others had to take theirs home, so it was very filling for the money we spent.  We are off to Stratford, Wales tomorrow on an early morning ferry, so I will talk to you next time from the UK!