Paris-The first Full Day

We seem to be loving the City of Love.  Last night we enjoyed Notre Dame and a cafe close to it with some great food and three course meals.  Today we took in the sights of the Luxemburg Gardens, The Pantheon, and The Louvre.  A good sight seeing day.  There's more to it, of course, complete with funny antedotes, if you wish, but those are best left for in person.

We moved into our little Apartment in Addirondesment 2.  It's quite possible the best place we could get, with full kitchen and balcony.  It's admittedly small, but pretty wonderful.  Eliz gets extra bonus points for finding this place.  We have already moved in and littered the floor with our belongings, and added a couple of bottles of wine to the place. Tomorrow is going to be a shopping day.  We are both excited about this week as it will be the first time since we have been gone to be staying in the same place for more than three nights.  And now the real goodness...pictures!

Notre Dame

Us at the Pantheon

That would be Eliz laying in the burial spot of the great French countrymen of the Pantheon

The Venus De Milo, our version

The apt we have...if you look close enough, you can see sleeping Eliz

Taize...an excerpt from my Journal

Imagine a place free of the bonds of Denomination and Religion. A place open to Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Buddist, Muslims, all faiths. A place where we can come in the name of a higher Purpose to interact. A place where relationships are formed, discussions held, and love abounds. This is the Community of Taize, or so it's purpose.

We gather, 4000 in number, ages 7 to 82, all here for worship, all hoping to find the missing piece, the reconnection, or spiritual awakening. Tonight we gather in the name of Christ to worship. Our shoes lie empty at our sides as we are truly on Holy Ground.

For over an hour we sing chants, prayers really, to God and the world. Rhythmic tunes in Latin, English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, and more. A special sermonette by the prior of the Monastary simeautaneously broadcast in five languages. A crazy and amazing feat. It turns out to be the 100th birthday of Mother Teresa, our first night in Taize.

There was no real end to the evening prayer time. At one point the Brothers leave, but people remain singing, chanting, and praying. Over the next half hour people trickle out as they are ready...and the service is over. A calm heart and uplifted soul we go our ways with anticipation of morning prayer.

In the town of Taize, the camera was on an old wall with a timer.  

Where we slept for three nights...very comfy

My pretty wife in the town of Taize

The brothers in Worship (this is actually a picture of a card from the exposition eliz took.  Pics during the service was frowned upon, but this is what it looks like)

We met some wonderful people, including a lady from Stonewall (less than 20 mins from our house).  Peace and Truth was the theme.  It was truly a blessing for us both and a place we hope to return to with our family and friends.  

Taize Hiatus

We are going to be at the monestary in Taize for the next four days.  I don't believe we will have any internet, so this is good bye for a bit.  We should be back on line on Sunday, at which point we will update our travels.  Have a great Weekend!

Thalys Has Free Intenet

For those of us in first class.  They also serve a fish meal complete with your choice of wine, white or red with choices.  Not too shabby.  I try to provide the best life style for my beautiful bride, cause she deserves it. 

We are one of those high speed trains on our way to Paris.  Our orginal plans of going straight to Lyon was thwarted as a result of all the seats being sold out.  Leaving us with the sad option of leaving an hour later with a 3 hour lay over in Paris before we get to Lyon, then a small train to Macon-Ville...such a hard life this layover in Paris, but we shall do our best.  Cheers!

Amsterdam(ed)

So, it turns out that Amsterdam, for us, was more of an Amsterdon't.  We had troubles and crazy times from the get go. As we exited our train and followed the crowd out, I thought we would be ok.  But, as we poured ourselves into the lake front along with the thousands of others here for Sail 2010 we found life a bit difficult. Combine this with the weather and we were in for a bit of a trip.

We rented bikes and attempted to navagate the huge number of people.  With the rain storms it was not only a challenge, but a nasty one at that.  We dodged, bikes, tourist, cars, vespas, small motorcyles, all of which thought they deserved to be on the "bike lanes." Constantly on our guard, we attempted to manuver the city.  One scary incident with a car brought our romantic trip in Europe to an almost nightmare.  We thought it best to turn the bikes in and become tourist on foot. 

But that was not it.  Our hotel "ship" had a room size less of that of the cabin on the train we took to Amsterdam.  Eliz and I could literally not be in this room if one of us wanted to unpack or get ready in the morning it was That small.  She had the top bunk and swore there was mold all around the port hole.   I was afraid to check. 

This being said we jettisoned (yeah I went nautical on this thing) our plans for the last night in Amsterdam and pushed on to Brussels.  When I say this town smells likes waffles, I do not lie.  In the train station, on the streets, it seems everywhere we go it's waffles smells and smiles from people.  Definetly the right decesion.  Although we will be here for less than 24 hours, it was well worth the trip from Amsterdam.  Now it is after midnight here and I am reeling on the cheese and great beer. 

I will say Amsterdam was not all bad, there were good things, but for us, Brussels is where it is at.  Here are some pics from both places. (oh and spell check is only operating in German, so get over the misspelled words)

Our small, yet uncomfortable room in a Ship

Wicked Awesome Bar in Amsterdam.  See if you can see the anomaly here.

Beach Cruiser is not my Style, give me a MTB

Brussels, Belgium

Waffle Time in Brussels "the best I've ever had." EVRM

We may have not loved Amsterdam, but we did have some fine times.  We are having fun in Brussels too.  Next five days we will be in Taize.  Don't know what the internet is like, so let's hope updates will follow.  Peace!

Remnants of the Berlin Wall

US Embassy, Berlin

At the Football Match

TV tower used to Broadcast Nazi Propaganda

Berlin Wall Ran though here

Riechstag, German Parliament Building

Munich Photos

Odd Michael Jackson Memorial in Munich

 Marien Platz

Eliz at the Botanical Gardens

Bier Garten, trying to plan

Berlin-Day

Berlin, has to be one of the coolest cities in Europe (in my vast knowledge and all).  It is a cheap city, the cheapest in Germany we've been told.  Not to mention it is a blast.  We went to musuems, saw a football match (European, not american), went to flea markets, saw naked sun bathers, saw the Riechstag, the Berlin wall, ate CurryWurst and Fallafel, saw fire dancers, slept on the hardest mattress ever, mastered public transportation, tried to rent a bike only to find out all of them (in Berlin it seemed) were rented, slack lined, bargain shopped, and many, many other things.

The football match was a highlight for me, as it came with all the cheering and crazy fans.  The home team won and we were given free ticktes to sit in the family section of stadium.  The section was sponsered by a Duetsche bank and this man picked us out of the crowd and gave us two seats next to him cause he was not suppose to sell them.  They were 11 rows up from the field.  The game was at the olympic stadium.  The same one where Hitler attended the Olympics, pretty cool place.  The fans were the best part.  I got some great video of it and will post it later.

Oh, and to get to Berlin we took a 10 hour night train.  The train ride is only about 5 hours to get from Munich to Berlin, but this one traverses all over Germany to make it last the full 10 hours.  We were in a room with 6 Couchettes, or mini beds, three on one side, and three on the other in a space approx 8x8.  I thought there would be a dinning car or bar car we could hang out in, but no, there was just the one room for us.  Turns out the middle to beds fold down to make seats, but we didn't figure that out until the next morning, and we had some randoms in the room that didn't speak english.  Crazy night sleep bumping around and shaking with the train.  Eliz and I had the top bunk.  Fun, but not the most comfortable way to travel.

Right now we are on the train, 1st class.  When we first traveled from Prague to Munich, we sat in 2nd class and didn't know any better.  But let me tell you 1st calls is better than all the connotations it alludes to.  We are lucky enough to have our own room with a table and seats that fold down a just a few steps from the dinning car.  This will make the 6 hour ride more bearable.  Pictures from out time will follow.

Munich-Night

Munich, Hmmm, can't say it was our favorite place, but it was very intesting and fun.  We stayed in a hostel, that was about 300 meters from the train station.  Two important lessons where learned there.  1) We are WAY too old for a Hostel and 2) areas around central train stations are seedy.

We were fortunate to have a four bedroom room with two Canadians that had the same sleeping habits as us, being going to bed by 10pm and getting up after 8, but before 9.  There were real nice and we shared some interesting stories.  Another thing about European Hostels is they have awesome bars.  Which leads to awesome all night parties, that Eliz and I just weren't in to.  And with no a/c, having to leave the window open to the main street made sleeping a little difficult, and also reference #2 from above.  It was such an experience that the night before we left, we canceled our hostel reservation for Berlin and changed it to a hotel.  Well worth the extra expense!

Now the good about Munich.   They have some great beer.  We spent time in the Botanical Garten's biergarten, the English Garten's biergarten, the Haufbrau Haus' biergarten, and the Hostel Bar, where we enjoyed the Pope's favorite brand of beer Augustina.  They had the 0,5l (half liters) and 1,0l (whole liters).  The big ones where difficult to drink, but worth the challange.  Sweet Eliz stuck with the 0,5ls. 

We took a six hour tour of Dachau, the first concentration/work camp of the WWII.  This camp was what all the others where modeled after.  Our guide was extremely good, and we both learned a lot and experienced a lot.  Definetly and amazing tour.  Pretty depressing, we had to hit the bier garten afterwards. 

All said and done, Munich is a place I would go back to, for sure.  I would do things a little differently, like rent a bike to go through the Enghischer Garten (Europe's largest Park).  I also would spend less time in the shopping area, and not stay at a hostel. 

Now for Pictures:

(ok, so we are currently in route from Berlin to Amsterdam, and the internet is being routed through my phone.  Which means I only have internet if I have phone service, which is spotty, and not enough to let me load pics.  So, I will have to wait until a time when I have good internet and load a bunch.  But, I will update about things until then.)

Sunset on Prague

No, I don't have an actual picture of a Prague sunset, but the sun is setting on our last night here. Unfortunately, we are so exhausted from traipsing the city for the past three days, I think it may be an early night for us. Yesterday we took a "night time tour of Prague." It ended up just being the two of us, so we pretty much had a private tour of the Prague and the Prague Palace. We were completely alone in some spots walking the streets of Prague, the Courtyards of the Palace. It was pretty amazing! I actually couldn't believe a place so busy in the day time was so ultimately vacant at night. I think the brief down pour helped with our seclusion. But, it was merely and excuse for us to duck into a little cafe for beer, Horka Cocoate and Honey Cake. It's good that we are walking everywhere cause we need to burn the calories.

Today we took another tour, and underground tour of Prague. We say homes from the 1100s and wells and learned some pretty neat history of the place. We also went to the Cathedral Our Lady of Snow. This was one of the most detailed cathedrals I have ever seen. It helps me to appreciate Pillars of the Earth more, and that book helps me appreciate cathedrals more. Tonight we ate at a themed restaurant. Everyone speak very good English here, which is awesome cause Czech is a hard language to learn. but enough talk, how bout some pictures:

Eliz at St. Vitus Cathedral

Prague Palace, at night

St Vitus Cathedral at Night

Prague

This place is awesome.  We arrived here yesterday around12pm Prague time, which would make it approimately a 5am Louisiana Time.  The Jet Lag almost sidelined us a couple of times, but we pushed through.  We visited the Market Square, Astronmical Tower, a bridge we thought was Charles Bridge, until we realized Charles Bridge wouldn't be made of iron and fastened with rivets.  We walked across the river and hung out a Letna Park for a bit and watched the City and the Skate boarders.  As we were trying to get back to the other side, closer to our hotel, we "got lost" strolling through the one time gardens and now parks of Prague Castle.

Today we are going to explore Prague Castle in More detail.  Some of it dates back to the 9th Century.  It was kinda crazy last night as we were walking back to our hotel after dinner.  Dinner, which was down a schetchy alley right off a main road where this old Czech lady lead us saying in very broken English how good it was...it was ok.  But, walking back thinking "Man, I am strolling the streets of Prague at night." Pretty amazing. We found this neat basment bar a block from our hotel.  and I was able to use all of my Czech, "Beer Please, Thank you."

Here are some pics from yesterday:

Us at the Square with the 17th Century Church

Lunch Refreshments!

Taking a break at Letna Park, looking into Old Town

It's Terminal

I love sitting in the international terminal.  Hands down one of the best people watching places EVER!  We staked out a cozy, corner table, by an electrical outlet for the computer, and opened our eyes to the sights.  "The Bar" as the restaurant is called, is the perfect place to wait out our 3 hours lay over.  They even have one of those cheese self playing pianos competing with overhead PA.  The PA that advertises wonder location that taunt me with future Trips.  No walls, no barrier, just us and the throngs of people bustling to their next location in awkward stripped pants, mismatched clothes, weird shoes, and just general foreign fashion.

The Languages are amazing too.  From the little oriental girl running around playing with her stuffed panda  to the obvious 7 foot Nordic woman hacking into the phone.  The faces, languages, and culture mash is so exciting.  I can't wait till I am the minority and we have to figure our way through the unknown streets and rely on the "kindness of strangers."  Oop, gotta run, there's a cute little Indian couple that  I need to focus my people watching skills.  Quanta La Gusta!

Sweet Baby Anna Lynn

with her YaYa

with her Aunt Laura

My favorite Pic of my niece

I'm having a small fit of insomnia...So, A haiku for you:

My Eyes Fail To Shut
Summer Heat Prevents Respite
The Mind Runs Too Wild

or

I am wide awake
Will My Head Lay Rest Tonight
Oh how sleep eludes

Blue Dye and Stupidity

Have you ever been greeted by a nice firm handshake? Would you be as receptive if the hand was blue? Would you tilt your head slightly to the left, squint you eyes, and judge the person as a bit off kilter? I hope not, because they could just be a little bored or a touch crazy.

So, it goes like this. Eliz was dying a white shirt blue, but only on the bottom with a gentle fade as it rose up. This is my creative baby's way of doing designer on her own. Why pay high dollar when it's so easy to DIY. She was doing this in the house, no problem, excpet our now blue counter...splotchy blue. As she was rinsing and drying the shirt I noticed a pot full of blue dye.

I thought to myself, I have never seen anyone with one blue hand before...wouldn't that be a sight to see. I geuss I could have let my imagination run with that thought and kept on with my night, but really, what kind of fun is that. What's the only this to do, but plunge your hand down into the pot and gingerly sip a beer for approximately 5 minutes. I mean, what's the worst that could happen, huh?

 Looks like tomorrow I will be greeting clients with sturdy, hard, BLUE, handshake.  And probably a sheepish grin too.  I gotta start working on my story of how this happened.  Right now I am think saving a baby from a fire in a Dye Factory.  I think I can pull that off.

Fromers, Steves, and Lonely Planet

My eyes hurt. I have been spending most of my days with my nose in travel books. Staring at three color maps while simultaneously cross checking places and translating local place names makes my head hurt. On the upside, I now think I am pretty darn knowledgeable about Amsterdam. Only Munich, Berlin, Prague, Paris, Lyon, and Taize to go, right. I can do all that in a little over a week. Ha!

It doesn't matter. We are not going to fill our days with museums and dance clubs. No for us we are looking forward to laying in the parks, picnicking in the beer gardens, and sunbathing on the banks of the Seine River, since August is the time the French truck in Sand to make beaches for those who can't afford to travel out of Paris.

I have books from the Library, from my mother, from Eliz's sister, books we bought. I am about to go on a book revolt. I say this as my eyes causally glance upon a magazine that is suppose to be in my pile of "Must Reads before I Go."

I will take opinions though. Fill up the comment section on things we should do while we are in Europe. Anything in particular that exemplifies local life or is instrumental in making connections with local people? Those are the real things I am interested in.

New Hobby

Yesterday, I took a little trip to Monroe (a.k.a. Funroe) Louisiana for some family time. Got to visit with my grandmother and aunt and uncle for the afternoon. It was, as usual, a very enjoyable day. However, the highlight was the time spent in my Uncle Mike's shop learning to weld.

Welding is something I have been interested in for a few months now, but I have never had the opportunity to actually weld anything. I had a few hours, uncle mike had a few hours, so I had a chance to try my hand at welding. It was pretty darn entertaining.  I managed to weld two pieces of metal together...twice.  There was a lot more to it and I learned a great deal.  I actually learned enough to know this is something I would like to pursue.  So watch out Mike, cause I am making a list of projects and blocking of weekends.  But, I will wait to the temperature drops considerable.  

This is the first thing I have ever welded (pause for affect and virtual "awes," and now we are back at it).  Actually it is half of the first thing I have every welded.  We cut the previous two, no one piece of metal in half to determine the amount of penetration of the weld.  This is the piece I kept as my souvenir.  Cause I am nostalgic like that. 

This is the same piece, only the end that we cut to see how well I did.  Not bad, but always room for improvement.  You can see I welded on both sides and the top section you are looking at is a pull technique...the first one.  The bottom bead is a push technique, which I believe I handled a little better.

We did some T welds ( I may be making up this termonolgy but who cares) too.  But they were very indicative of a first time welder so there are no pictures of that to post.

It was a blast and I am looking forward to doing it again.  There is just something extremely manly about connecting two piece of metal with molten metal...I liken it to Tom Hanks in Castaway when he builds the fire.  "I, WELD METAL!"  There may have even been a grunt or two, but I will never admit it.

Lastly, here is a pic of Uncle Mike and me in the process...and don't worry, the first, the very first thing I am going to do before I try this again, is get a set of those bitchin, awesome overalls!