Category: Europe 6/2015 Page 4 of 5

Paris, France ~Day 2

On June 25, 2015

In Europe 6/2015

Caitlyn was in charge of our itinerary for Paris. To be honest, I believe this was the only place she wanted to go and would have been happy just coming here.

Where else do you have accordion players on the Metro?

And really awesome paintings that you can pretend to be eaten by in the Metro!

But the main attraction for this little girl was the Eiffel Tower. This was her first time seeing it.

The Eiffel tower opened in 1889 and was the tallest building in the world for 41 years until the built they Chrysler Building in 1930.

Interesting fact about the Eiffel Tower: during the Second World War, the French knocked out the elevators so that their enemies couldn’t go to the top to enjoy the views. This didn’t stop Hitler from climbing to the top by foot. I have to guess he had sore calves the next day.

The lines to get to the top were ridiculous so we decided it made sense to get there early the next day to line up before the masses arrived.

From there we went to the Arc de Triumph.

Napoleon ordered the construction of the Arc de Triumph in 1806 to honor the Grande Army who had conquered most of Europe. At that time they were considered invincible. The names of the first 128 battles of the French Republic and Napoleon’s empire are written on the walls along with the names of the generals.

And we walked down the Champs Ellyse.

We came across a shopping center that had these cute statues that were just asking for us to take our picture next to them.

Then we went to a park to chill out. Cat was collecting cool rocks and picked up bird poop by mistake. It freaked her out and she wiped it on her pants! Yuk! Thank goodness for wet wipes!

We watched these guys demonstrate the art of bush trimming which was pretty extensive.

…and couldn’t resist some downtime to play with the bouncy ball.

As Cat was in charge of the day and tried to find something for everyone, she had come across the Palace of Justice Clock for me. (And asked Howard our navigator to get us there.) The clock was installed in 1370 but has been restored several times. Legend has it that the king had the clock keeper’s room directly behind it so if the clock stopped or broke, he could fix it immediately.

H the photographer took this cool shot with the sun shining thru the back of the French flag.

We haven’t done any souvenir shopping yet so we got a few things here. We couldn’t resist a glamour shot with these barrets!

Then we got to Notre Dame. It is such a beautiful church with amazing attention to detail. The line to get in was ridiculous so we just enjoyed the outside.

Notre Dame is located on the island Ile de la Cite, which concentrated the power of France from the 4th to the 14th century. It has endured destruction and renovation in many periods. The recent renovation in process started in 1991 and has been focusing on cleaning up and restoring the facade. We caught a gentleman working on a piece when we were touring the outside of building.

This is the back of the church. We came across this couple getting their wedding photos. I think I missed my calling.

We came across this Norwegian marching band performing in the park as well. Some of the kids were really young. I don’t think the drummer was more than 5 years old!

We also came across this play area. Cat made a friend and wouldn’t let us leave until her friend left. The disc was slightly slanted and spun around. We probably saw 8 kids fly off the disc. Cat fell off once and then decided to push it around rather than ride it. How does that phrase go…they will only do it once? 😉

Throughout the day we kept crossing paths with sets of 3 military soldiers patrolling the various landmark sites. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if they weren’t all carrying big guns. I mean really big automatic rifle guns.

We were impressed to see self cleaning free public toilets. Let’s just say this thing was awful…aka “the devil”.

We caught the water taxi back along the river Sienna for a chance to sit down a bit.

We weren’t able to go in the Louvre but did walk through the park next to it.

There was such care made even for its pillars just on the outside the museum.

Finally we went home, changed clothes and went out to dinner at Weplers. It was a mistake that we came across such a historical restaurant but I think things happen for a reason and it was perfect!

We started the meal with an amazing bottle of champagne, French onion soup and of course the required escargot.

Cat loved the escargot! I’m really proud of her for trying it! After completely filling ourselves we caught the train home and called it a night. It was definitely a full day, or a 1/2 marathon day as we walked the same distance!

Paris, France ~Day 3

By admin

On June 25, 2015

In Europe 6/2015

Cat and I got up early, grabbed breakfast and headed to the Eiffel Tower to get in line to get the elevators to the top. We arrived 30 minutes before it was supposed to open and lined up. There was hardly anyone there! We were probably 50th in line and felt really good about our positioning.

Since H is afraid of heights he came to meet up with us in line after he had booked our train tickets for the next leg of the journey. The plan was that he would find a coffee shop and then meet us at the park under the tower.

Elevators were supposed to start going up at 9:00am. 9:15 came and went, 9:30…9:45. Then we noticed the information booth closed and all of the staff walked out of the tower. This didn’t look good. Then these signs went up.

Rumors of a 4 hour wait started whispering through the crowd. People started leaving the line and giving up as well.

Since I have already been up to the top of the Eiffel Tower, I told Cat it was her decision to decide if we stayed and waited or we left. She decided she wanted to stay. So… out came the bouncy ball and we made the best of it.

At 11am we started noticing employees walking back to their work stations and by 11:30am we were on our way up.

We had moved significantly up the line and were one of the first few up to the top. Cat was in awe of the view and to be honest the heights didn’t phase her. I looked over and she had her head over the barrier.

All that waiting did leave a strain on our bladders. We had a giggle about leaving a deposit that high up!

We saw where H was waiting for us and waved furiously at him but he never saw us.

Misc pics:

We had a quick ice cream while we enjoyed the view and then went down to meet up with H.

From there Cat wanted to go to the Museum of Modern Art and see the expo on clay animation which amongst other things, focused on Shawn the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit. It’s ironic that Cat has such an attraction for Shawn the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit as H and I had 2 stuffed animals as our mascots for pictures during our early years as a couple.

Afterwards we went to the grocery store and grabbed some food for a picnic and ate dinner on the lawns underneath the Eiffel Tower. We thought we were original in our idea but that wasn’t the case at all!!

City officials even handed out garbage bags to everyone so there wouldn’t be litter everywhere!

The atmosphere was lively and buzzing and just was a fun way to end our Paris trip. We waited for the light show that started at 11pm; which was “dazzling” and then headed home.

We stopped for a quick pic under the tower…

It was after midnight by the time we got home which was bad timing as we had a 7:30am train to catch the next morning and a big day ahead of us!

Paris….Caitlyn loves you! Thank you for a great visit!

5 Hours in Brussels, Belgium

By admin

On June 26, 2015

In Europe 6/2015

We caught the 7:45 train from Paris to Brussels. Of course we were all a bit groggy from our late night date with the Eiffel Tower.

We had one quick train change and had a giggle about the phone charging stations that required you to pedal to create the electricity. After this trip, I will should get one of those to electrify my house to burn off all of these choc croissants I have been eating!

We got to Brussels and had a few challenges. Firstly these doors were unlike any we had seen before and they nearly chopped us in half.

Then we were walking up these stairs and I tripped and fell in the lip of the step. Cat thought it was hilarious until she tripped and fell as well!

We took another walking tour. It’s a great way to get a quick understanding on the history of the city and the background to the landmarks that everyone is there to visit. Note: Cat was quite pleased with herself that the guide singled her out because she was so well behaved.

This building was the Town Hall.

Notice that the doorway and tower are off center. Legend has it that the architect saw this and climbed to the top of the tower and committed suicide but this is just legend because he built several other buildings afterwards. It was mainly just the result of building it in 3 different phases.

Of course we saw Manneken-Pis (Statue of the Pissing Boy). Manneken-Pis is regularly dressed in a choice of some 800 outfits supplied by its very own tailor.

There are many legends around his origins but no one really knows it’s true significance. One legend is that the boy’s father, the king, died and the throne was passed to his 2 year old son. During a battle, the soldiers kept him in his bassinet and hung it from a tree where he slept quietly. The story goes that the opposition was winning the battle and was under the tree when the boy stood up and peed on the high ranking officials from the tree branches above. This gave his soldiers the motivation they needed to continue fighting and win the battle. This sounds like a good story to me!

While we were there he had an outfit change as well!

Of course we stopped for a Belgium beer on the tour.

They have a cathedral that is similar in design to the Notre Dame Cathedral but it just didn’t have the same presence.

On our walk we came across seashells that marked the path for the Camino de Santiago de Compostella. My goal is to do this trek when I am 50. I feel like it wasn’t a coincidence that we came across this!

We got some more Belgium beer outside of the Beer Guild and also tried Belgium waffles and Frites. We had to make the tough decision to stop and get chocolates or miss our train.

We caught our train with a promise to ourselves that we have to come back to try the chocolates.

Amsterdam, Netherlands ~ Day 1

By admin

On June 26, 2015

In Europe 6/2015

We got up and headed into town. We found ourselves in a lovely coffee shop for breakfast. The coffee shop was kid friendly and the strongest thing they had was coffee. Breakfast was probably the healthiest we have had since we have been traveling which was a great way to start the day!

There was a great market outside that had things that ranged from wedding dresses to leather purses to Buddha statues to hemp lollipops. It was a lot of fun to look around!

I have never seen so many people riding bikes and such organized chaos of bikes, pedestrians, cars and scooters on the roads! Business people, families, old, young…everyone rode their bikes! We wanted to join the fun and decided to rent bikes to see the city instead of just walking around. Cat was too big to sit on the back of one of our bikes and too small to fit their smallest bike. H drove this tandem bike with her instead. Interestingly enough, his handlebars controlled the direction of the bike. The first pic is him practicing without her.

Then they were off!

In just a short time you would have thought they had been riding this bike together for years!

We stopped to watch this big boat go under the draw bridge,

And later found another market to walk thru. My mother and my neighbors, the Alvarados would have been in heaven here!

One stall had an tons of pins for sale. Books and books of them!

The market also had a park next to it and Cat scored an ice cream. H got some smoked mackerel that was being smoked onsite as well!

We rode around some more and came across the Brazil Beach Volleyball Team practicing. There is a large tournament going on in the town square right now.

We rode around some more to try to return the bikes. We knew it was close to the metro station we took into town this morning but couldn’t quite figure out how to get there.

We couldn’t find the right one. We thought we knew where it was and H the navigator was getting frustrated because things weren’t coinciding with his map. The Metro stop name didn’t match the one we were looking for. It wasn’t until the third time we saw it that we realized Sneltram was the name of the Tramline and not the station!

We have the bikes reserved until 12noon tomorrow and just locked them up somewhere near the city center. A) let’s hope we can find them in the morning and B) let’s hope they are still there.

After parking up we wandered around a bit. We found a cool toy store with this decorated bike outside.

Then we found a great restaurant, had dinner and called it a night. I thought it was funny that the restaurant sold cigarettes out of machines still. I haven’t seen one of these in years.

This is my first time here but I can only assume that being a parent in Amsterdam at night time is a completely different experience then being “kid-free”.

Either way we had a great day and I wouldn’t change a thing!

Amsterdam, Netherlands Day 2

On June 27, 2015

In Europe 6/2015

Today was a bit of a special day as it was mine and H’s 17th anniversary! Seems like just yesterday we were backpacking thru the Snowy River.

We were relieved to get to our bikes this morning and to see that they were still there.

We got them back to the shop after a short ride around (it was a very short ride since the bike seats definitely left their “mark” and our booties were a bit sore!

We got breakfast and decided to hop on a boat ride around the canals. It was a beautiful day out so we felt obligated to get one without a roof. It was a bonus that it had a bar on board!

Family selfie from the boat.

View of an old church from the boat.

7 bridges are in a row. A couple of times we had to completely lay down because the area under the bridge was very low.

The boat ride ended in the red light district. Cat saw a lot of people eating french fries and decided she was hungry too!

The Bulldog was the very first coffee shop to legally sell marijuanna. We obviously couldn’t go in but it was fun to people watch from the outside.

Funny story…we thought we had bi-passed all of the “windows” in the Red Light District without Cat seeing them. We turned the corner and there were 3 empty windows so we didn’t think anything of it when all of a sudden 3 girls jumped out at us from behind the curtain and started dancing at the 3 guys walking in front of us.

It happened so fast! We just covered cats eyes and kept walking. She said “Mom….I think those girls were taking a shower by the window…but they were wearing their bathing suits so it was ok!”

We saw a bronze marker next to a church. We walked over and found this. In Brussells we found the conch shell. In Amsterdam there is “street art”.

As I had mentioned, there were tons and tons of bikes!

Check out this parking garage for bikes next to the Central Station.

We decided to hop on a tram to venture out of town a bit to see what we would find. It actually broke down near the Flower Market so we decided to explore instead. Talk about a tourist trap.

This is what the majority of the booths looked like:

(Cheap gimmicks and souvineer shops.)

We did come across 2-3 stands that had flowers that were pretty.

We were walking around the canals on our way to dinner and came across some young opera singers from 50 different countries singing the choral section of the last movement of Beethoven’s Symphoney No 9. (The Choral) Words are from Shiller’s poem “Ode to Joy”. It was such a scene. The choir standing against the hotel on the other side of the canal, the voices echoing off of the surrounding buildings, the sunlight reflecting off of the rippling water, the boats moving through the landscape…it felt a bit like it belonged in a movie.

For dinner we decided to go back to the restaurant we got lunch from yesterday. It’s called Frenzi and was a small, family run restaurant that was amazing. I had a delicious mozzarella, tomato, prosciutto and Pesto salad, H had seafood risotto and Cat had Shrimp croquettes which were balls of shrimp and mash potatoes that were deep fried. So yummy.

I do need to report that there has been a loss in our family on this trip. Cat’s 4th favorite and my favorite bouncy ball (red, white, and blue) wandered away from us and found itself falling off a bridge and sinking down into one of the canals (I would have thought it would have floated!) . We mourned the loss and decided to write a country song to sing about our blues… RIP dear friend. Thank you for the memories!

We called it an early night as we had to pack and get ready for an early start and long day of traveling.

Walk, Metro, Train, Boat, Train, Walk

On June 28, 2015

In Europe 6/2015

Today was a full travel day. We walked to the Metro station and caught it to the Central Station at 7:15am.

H was being silly when we got there.

Our last farewell to Amsterdam before heading inside.

Cat has become a Mindcraft rockstar from all of the practice while waiting for trains.

H finished off our last Orangina. We don’t think they sell it in Denmark and Norway. ;(

Cat made herself comfortable in our first class cabin.

We had 16 minutes to change trains in Oslabrook. We made it with time to spare!

We snacked on the most amazing strawberries I have ever eaten. I had to fight Cat for them!

Oh My Goodness….Cat learned how to braid!! Long trainrides are good for something!

We made it to Hamburg and had time for a Curry Wurst. (Sausage with curry sauce and fries!)

And finished with just enough time to catch our 3:15 train from Hamburg to Copenhagen.

The train drove onto a boat…

….it was a long boat. I looked right and saw this…

…and looked left and saw this…

It was a 45 minute boat ride and was a nice break from the train. Seagulls flew with the boat.

We saw 2 dolphins as well.

And there were 1000’s of jellyfish. I have never seen so many in my life! All of the white spots in the next picture were jellyfish.

We came back to our cabin…

And had our own little dance party!

We got into Copenhagen around 8:15pm and grabbed dinner at the grocery store and called it a night.

For it being a day of travel it was really a good day!