13 posts tagged “europe2008”

Jenna and I discovered this song that we LOVE.  It's French rapper Sinik, featuring James Blunt.  It's not on iTunes yet, but here's the video:

And naturally, there's bound to be trouble.  ;)

This is us out in Munich.  What a night.  I'll leave it at that.

And here's me and Janie in Zurich:

I'm a little behind on pictures.  I have some pics from our time in Germany that I haven't uploaded yet.  Hope to have a chance to do that once we're back in Paris tomorrow.  Stand by!  Great pictures of Munich and the gorgeous countryside around the Neuschwanstein castle are on the way!  :)

UPDATE:  Uploading several now.  (Yay!)  Won't have time to do descriptions tonight, so bear with me ... will explain all soon ...  :)

The past few days have been quite a whirlwind!

• Took a six-hour train ride from Paris to Munich, arriving in Munich at 9pm Thursday.  Grabbed a beer at a local pub, went to bed.
  
• Spent Friday exploring Munich
• Met up with Janie and Carl Friday night for a fun night out that eventually wound down with hours of Jenga with two very nice German guys, and finally came to a close around 6:30am on Saturday.  (Wow)
• THEN, Jenna and I slept for about 2 hours, then got up, checked out of our hotel and caught the morning train to Fusse, where we visited Neuschwanstein (known as the "Cinderella castle")
• Took the train back to Munich that evening, met up with Janie and Carl and after some trouble getting the car out of the parking garage, we hit the road (the autobahn, to be exact) and crossed the borders between Germany, Austria and Switzerland .... finally arriving at Janie and Carl's wonderful apartment in Winterthur close to midnight.

We are so exhausted today -- and Jenna and I are still battled our colds -- so we are passing on our original plan to go skiing today and will just hang out, do some sight-seeing in Zurich, etc.  We're pretty bummed to have to pass up a day of skiing in Switzerland, but I really think it would be pushing it to try to squeeze that in.  Shmay.  It's hard to believe that we'll leave for Paris again early tomorrow morning, and then fly back to the States the day after that.  Goodness, the last part of this trip is flying by!!

Europe is really ideal for people who enjoy strolling.  Most of what we've done this trip has involved walking ... mulling around ... exploring this and that ... ducking into intriguing cobblestone alleys that lead to discoveries of beautiful courtyards, shop-lined streets, or a glorious view of a centuries-old church.  It's the best way to get to know a city.

And in doing so, we've still managing to visit most of the key sites of Paris and -- now -- many of Munich.  More on that later.  For now, I'm going to nap before dinner and a night out on the town with Jenna, Janie and Carl.

Auf wiedersehen!

Well, hello from Munich, Germany!  Ah, we've only been here for a few hours, but it's been quite an adventure so far.  Never have I ever felt more American, confused and clueless!

We took the train from Paris to Munich (a 6-hour ride).  We had a fun ride ... as we always manage to make things fun.  We read, listened to music, played cards, watched a movie and snacked along the way.  We arrived in Munich at about 9:30pm.  Found our way outside and surveyed the taxi situation.  It took us a minute to sort of figure things out, and we ended up with a female cab driver who happened to NOT speak English, as so many people here do, and who did NOT know how to get to our hotel.  There were bad signs from the get-go.  Since we couldn't communicate with her verbally, we had to point to where I'd written down in my travel notebook where we were going and the address of the hotel.  She had to get out her reading glasses and then walk over to another cabbie to consult him about the location ... it was quite an ordeal.  I think she got a little lost trying to get us there.  And then we had some miscommunication about paying ... ugh, it was a mess.  By the end of it, she was basically kicking us out of her car and muttering, "Americans," with disgust under her breath.  Whoops. 

So ... we got checked in to our hotel fine.  It's a great place!  But ... like many places in Europe, they value the "community" aspect of hotel dwelling.  We have a sink in our room, but that is all.  Community toilet down the hall.  And community shower next to that.  Lovely.  Haha.

And what's the first thing any respectable traveler should do when arriving in Munich?  Have a beer at the neighborhood bar, of course!  Which we did.  However, neither Jenna nor I are beer drinkers, so we had no idea what to get.  We walked in and I asked the bar tender if she happened to speak English.  She said, "A little," so I proceeded to order us two beers -- trusting that whatever she chose to serve us would be good.  And it was!  (Surprise!)  I'm quite proud:  I drank more than half of mine.  (I don't like beer, so that amount is a feat for me.)  So Jenna and I drank and chatted and relaxed, and then right as we were leaving, you won't BELIEVE the song that came on.  Sweet Home Alabama.  I stopped dead in my tracks and said, "Oh my god.  That's so surreal."  Then, hearing my English, a man behind me jumped in and asked if we were American.  We had a nice little chat with him -- yay for running into another American -- and then retired for the evening.

So, now I'm off to shower in the little closet down the hall.  Wish me luck!

We head to Munich tomorrow, and I'm not sure what our connectivity situation will be there, so I thought I'd go ahead and post something quick right now.  Goodness, looks like my last post was a few days ago.  Time flies!

We've stayed busy getting out and about, and I'm still getting over the crud that has me blowing my nose every five minutes and coughing at inopportune times.  Ah, well.  I'll get over it soon enough.  I feel so bad for Jenna, though -- I'm afraid I gave her my cold.  At least we already mastered the whole pharmacy arrangement, so I can just pass on my medication to her.  Haha ...

Ah, what points to highlight ...

Well, we did the Eiffel Tower yesterday.  Climbed it at dusk, so the pictures are cool, and the view was even more amazing -- as I'm sure you can imagine.  I got a pretty shot of the sunset view from the tower.  And I included some tips to those of you who might consider climbing it in the future.  ;)  (nudge, nudge)

I can't remember if we'd done the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Eleysee before my last post or not, but anyway -- we did that.  The picture that I've included here is the view up the Champs-Eleysee, looking at the Arc de Triomphe.  The Champs-Eleysee is a big street in Paris, basically, with great shopping.  (See the pics.)  And just off that street is the blvd with all the BIG designers' stores; though, not to be confused with la Place de Concorde, which is where all of the big fashion houses are (where Chanel actually MAKES her clothes).

Oh!  And today we took the train to Reims, France (pronounced like you're clearing your throat -- seriously) to visit the champagne house of Taittinger, one of the few (if not the only) champagne house still owned by the family of its namesake.  It had many other cool historical elements to it .. such as ... one location where they create their

champagne is built on the grounds where an abbey once stood.  A way, way long time ago, monks at the abbey used to make wine there.  The ground under the abbey is pretty much solid chalk and the monks dug out tunnels and cellars underneath the abbey, where they eventually created and stored their wine.  Today, the Taittinger family uses those same cellars -- though somewhat expanded -- to store their champagne during the various stages of creation and to let them age.  The chalk, because of its nature, absorbs water and keeps the cellars at a constant, cool temperature, which is perfect for storing champagne.  Interestingly, there are also some very, VERY old quarries that date back to the Romans.  The Taittinger family discovered them by accident as they were expanding the cellars below ground.  Apparently, the Romans mined the chalk and brought it up to the surface to dry.  Once FULLY dry, it forms a very hard stone, which they used for building structures in the area.  At any rate, the history of the cellars was very interesting, but we also learned a good bit about the process of creating champagne.  And you know, "champagne" is called that because it comes from the Champagne region of France.  Then each variety differs based on a number of different factors: the kind of grapes used (chardonnay grapes, etc.), the time allowed for aging at each interval, the ratio of different wines used in the mix, etc.  It's all very intriguing and complex.  And they're still learning about it.  The Taittinger have a special room in their cellar where they store very, very, VERY old champagne and wine, to taste and experiment with over the years, since some things only reveal themselves with true time.

Okay, I've rambled on enough.  Go look at the pictures!  Like always, I've included little notes and details where necessary!  And if you have a question about a pic, just leave a comment.  :)

More pics and stories to come ... we head to Munich tomorrow and then Switzerland after that!

A new little adventure that taught us a lot:  the post office!  I had several post cards to mail, and the post office was right across the street from our apartment, so we thought, "Easy enough. No worries."  Slight underestimation.  Figuring out the whole process was a challenge!  First, we went to the automatic machine, then decided that wasn't what we needed, so we went to stand in line to speak with someone.  But then decided, "Well, no, the machine should be what we need, but we don't know how much postage would be for each card."  So then we had to flag down someone to ask that simple question.  Once we figured that out, we could go over and use the machine.  Great.  But.  It only took coins.  Did I have 10 euros in coins?  NO.  Crap.  So I got as many stamps as I could with the coins I had.  Only to notice as we got done ... that there was a change machine right next to the stamp machine.  D'oh!  So I put some bills in and got the coins I needed.  I got ALL my stamps, finally.  And you should all be getting a post card from me soon.  "And now you know  ... the rest of the story."  :)

Today, we went for quite a long walk -- through the Luxembourg gardens, the Pantheon and the surrounding neighborhoods.  (Hopefully, more on that later.  I did, of course, take plenty of pictures.  AMAZING and inspiring design.)

But for now, a treasure of the Pantheon in Paris that I found particularly intriguing.  The Pantheon houses a Foucault pendulum.  Essentially, it was created by French physicist Leon Foucault as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.  It looks as though the pendulum moves and changes positions around a circle as it swings, but in fact, it is the Earth that is actually moving.  I thought I'd share this video that I took:

After waking up late, going to the market, and taking our time getting ready, Jenna and I headed out to tackle Montmarte.  I was aware that this was a neighborhood/area clearly marked in my Paris guidebook and that it was a popular place to visit, but I was quite oblivious beyond that.

Pigalle is right near Montmarte, so we actually went to the Pigalle metro stop and then walked from there to Montmarte -- strolling at an easy pace and doing a little shopping along the way.  The rent is low in Pigalle, so it's ideal for designers who are just starting out.  We found a few neat little boutiques with unique items.  One in particular really caught my eye because of the practical and attractive nature of the clothing, as well as the very distinctive brand -- almost every item features a large, simple square (usually on the back).  I purchased a lovely, very soft, gray sweater.  So I own an original Patricia Louisor now -- yay!  This is her, holding one of her items:

One thing to note: Pigalle is the prostitution district in Paris.  Pretty much fine during the day, but still a risque neighborhood.  So while we were there during the day and were perfectly safe walking around and shopping, I unfortunately fell prey to the crude and manner-less young men who frequent this neighborhood.  It may have been my red coat.  Who knows.  But frankly ... no, sirs.  That is my derriere, and you are not allowed to touch it.

Despite that annoyance, I may have discovered my favorite place in Paris: le Sacre Croeur.  Meaning, "the sacred heart," it's a church that sits atop the hightest hill in Paris -- giving it quite a spectacular view.  There were no photos allowed inside the building, but we did get to walk through.  It was breathtaking.