Paris...In Pictures

The River Siene

Luxemburg Castle

At the Louvre Courtyard

St. Jacques Tower

Eliz drinking a Coca Cola Light (cause there isn't a "diet" coke) like the Europeans

Eliz holding the Pyramid at the Louvre...it fell when she moved.

Steak Tartare Lunch...yeah, that's raw meat

Bones from French Revolution, Catacombs, Paris

Stairway of the Arc

Arc de Triomphe

"I'm Squishing it"

Isn't She Cute!

Overlooking the River and The Tower

Tomorrow Versailles...

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.)