Enroute to Belgium

We woke up this morning and went straight to the Gare du Nord to get on our high-speed train to Brussels. Nicole, as shown here, is a little sleepy. Believe it or not, I'm getting free wifi on the train. We plan to stroll around Brussels for a bit and then use the remaining part of our Thalys ticket to get to Bruges, where we will be staying.




This will be the first time for both of us entering Belgium. I have a hankering for a waffle.

Location:Thalys Train, Seats 83 and 84

Last night in Paris

After relaxing for a bit, we then headed out for food and a drink near the Louvre. Tonight the Louvre was open until 930, so the crowds weren't as crazy when we arrived. I was able to get unobstructed shots of the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and others.

It was relaxing just to roam the hallways without fighting off tour groups and field trips. We left just as the sun was going down. We decided to start walking over to Notre Dame to see it at night. The sun takes quite a while to set here (doesn't get dark until after 10), so we decided to sit in the heinous looking bleachers to kill time.

We watched a group of street performers lazily twirl batons and a girl with a hula hoop. Nicole and I probably sounded like the two guys from the Muppets heckling them from the top of the bleachers. I said the show would be a lot better if the hula hoop was on fire. Oddly enough, this eventually happened!

When the sun finally set, I took some pictures like the HDR one here. A little artistic license was taken, but I like the effect. We saw the Eiffel Tower on our way back, so I snapped a couple more of it and we went back to the hotel to prepare for our next leg: Belgium!

Location:Rue du Conservatoire,Paris,France

Versailles

Today we took the train to Versailles. The whole process of getting there and into the palace could be summarized as . . . confusing. Not to toot my own horn (prepare for it to be tooted!), but I have done a pretty good job on the metros and dealing with changing lines and getting us to wherever we needed to be. That being said, we initially got on the wrong train. It was the correct line in the correct direction, but that particular line has about 5 different end stops. This was further complicated because I had to catch the C line train from the B platform and the front of the trains doesn't have the destination on them. It simply said something like, "Jane."




When we got to Versailles, we had to snake our way around a building to buy tickets (and then struggled to find an exit), and after all that had to stand in a much longer line just to enter the grounds. It was all very disorganized. And since it is a major tourist destination, we had to deal with crowds of people. Many of them were children, and they posed a major obstacle to our progress as they would take up an entire room. We resorted to tossing them out of the way. Interestingly enough, the two pictures that I posted don't really show the hordes of people, but I can assure you they were there.




We walked around the gardens for a bit, but they are under restoration now, so that combined with all the fountains being off didn't really make for any good photo ops. Instead, I offer you this picture of a movie poster for "Very Bad Trip 3" aka "The Hangover 3" aka "Don't see this movie, it is the worst thing I've seen since The Thin Red Line. You're welcome. I just saved you a very bad trip. We are now recovering from all the walking by eating French cookies in the room. There shall be another update later this evening.

Location:Rue du Conservatoire,Paris,France

Pieds fatigues

After pressing on again, we headed to the Montmartre area briefly trying to find a place to eat, but nothing caught our fancy, so all of our hill climbing was in vain. We then headed back to the Eiffel Tower area. We found a place to eat on a quiet side street. Nicole had a Croque Monsieur and I had a Croque Madame. Or as the waiter inquired, "Monsieur pour Madame, et Madame pour Monsieur?"

It was a good meal and both of us were very relieved to be sitting. After dinner, we went to the Eiffel Tower again. We decided to walk up the stairs for the first two levels and decided to take the elevator to the top after that. Neither of us had been to the very top, so we thought it would be something neat to do.

Now that we've done it, I don't recommend doing it. The view is pretty much the same as on the 2nd stage, but there's less room for people to stand, so everyone ends up pushing and shoving. In the ensuing chaos, there was a mad rush to see the sunset, a marriage proposal took place, and we nearly got into a fight with a man from Eastern Europe. He cut us off in the line to go back down. Bricole does not tolerate this kind of behavior and made it known. We were very relieved to finally get back down. The top was far too over-stimulating...and our legs were tired, so we were eager to get back to the hotel.

Location:Rue du Conservatoire,Paris,France

Le premier jour

We began our day shortly after 830 with a walk around Notre-Dame. Throughout the years, I have seen the cathedral in various states of restoration including one time where the entire front was covered in scaffolding. I was surprised to find the scaffolding finally gone this time, but leave it to the French to ruin it by putting a bunch of awful looking bleachers and tour group staging areas right in front of it.

We decided to walk around inside for a bit, playing around with our fancy cameras and doing our best in the tricky lighting to get something that looks decent. After wandering along the riverbanks, we took the metro to the Champs-Élysées and walked to the arch.

We had to sit for a bit when we got there as the previous day's events and all the walking we had been doing was tiring us out. I was also hungry. However, contrary to when I travel with my parents (who do their best to starve me), I was able to secure a baguette from Pomme de Pain (French equivalent to Quizno's) and we ate outside on the Champs-Élysées just like the folks in the other bistros and cafés, but paid a fraction of the price.

We then continued on to the Eiffel Tower, where we showed up just in time to see the water fountains from the Trocadero firing in the air. We didn't go up the tower itself. The lines to do so were out of control. We thought it might be fun to go up at dusk or nighttime, figuring the tour groups will be long gone by then. We then returned to the hotel, where I promptly informed you, dear readers, of our goings on. Nicole promptly passed out face down on the bed.

Location:Rue du Conservatoire,Paris,France

Je dis,"Bonjour"

I am quite tired after a long day of flying followed by . . . a long day. I snapped this picture of San Francisco from the plane just after departing. That seems like days ago. We knew today would pretty much be a bust because of our groggy state. We tried to walk around and orient ourselves today, but it probably looked like a scene from The Walking Dead.




We made it to the rooftop of the Printemps Department Store for a free view of Paris on our first day. It all went downhill from there. We walked through the Jardin de Tuileries, but we were both a little loopy and kept walking into each other inadvertently. It harkens back to another time in France when my favorite sister spent her first day at the world-famous Chartres Cathedral and remarked in her journal that she saw a "big ol' church."




Tomorrow we will hopefully be more alert and plan to do some actual sightseeing. It's about 8pm, but I don't think I can make it much longer. Here's to hoping we sleep in later than 5am.

Location:Rue de Provence, Paris, France

Finally on our way

After rescheduling our entire trip, we are finally enroute to Europe . . . almost. We have to change planes in San Francisco first, but least it's more or less on the way. And it sure beats Newark. It is a short flight from LA to SF, but I took the time to entertain Nicole with my fancy flight gadgets and could show her our exact position, airspeed, and estimated time of arrival. Obviously she was thrilled and asked me to give her updates in real-time every few minutes as we embark on our 11 hour flight to Paris.

We now find ourselves in the United club trying to make a meal of cheese and crackers. We did not arrive in the terminal that has the Cinnabon, so our options were limited. On the other hand, my stomach is stable. Our next flight boards in about an hour and a half. We are sitting near the back of the plane, so we will be stuck with whatever meal option nobody else wanted. Who else ordered the salmon loaf with beets?

Location:28000 ft. over Monterrey