The last mango in Paris

So sad. it's our last night in paris. what a wonderful city. we've been here a week and there's still plenty to do. we both love it here.

today, we went to the louvre and saw all the masterpieces. that place is so huge, it has 12 miles of galleries. no joke. it takes up blocks of the city. hard to imagine that was a residence of kings at one point. how long would it take to sweep the floors???

after the louvre, we climbed to the top of notre dame. we finally had nice weather, so the view was great. we got up-close and personal with the gargoyles, a bell named emanuelle, and the roost of quasimodo. it was 422 circular stairs, but this was a breeze compared to the vatican, where the walls curved in on you.

on to montmartre after that. the place where renoir, van gogh, and many of the master impressionists brooded and became inspired through wine, women and song. the famous moulon rouge (means red windmill) was just down the hill, but we didn't go. primarily because it would have meant walking back up the hill.

we had a delectible dinner tonight on a typically paris veranda. a huge, ancient wisteria grew over the eating area and a bass violin player set up just across the street. it was so typically paris, it was almost cliche. but i don't care. the wine was the best i've ever had and the waiter actually had a sense of humor. good times.

now we're heading back to the apartment to pack. again, so sad.

see you soon. we took 18 rolls of film. don't worry, we won't make you look at all of them.

au voir!

dinner

just a quick note. we ate at a jewish restaurant for dinner. the kitchen is right out in the restaurant, no barriers. the cooks and waiters were singing "Golddigger" by Kanye West and Jamie Foxx.

who knew?

A return clue

It's the same, but it's not.

8 22 5 15 24 9 5 12 2 21 12 8 8 22 13 22 5 20 26 5 22 19 7 21 12 22 8 5 26 24 22 25 22 9 26 5 12 2 12 19 4 4 12 13 16 7 12 13 12 23 15 15 18 7 8 18 8 22 12 19 8 9 5 12 2 21 12 9 12 15 12 24 22 19 7 9 12 22 20 26 9 22 5 22 25 20 13 18 13 9 12 14 26.

versaille

today, wednesday, we went to versaille. we were both disappointed. maybe it's because of the cloudy, rainy, cold weather. maybe it's because none of the 300 fountains were on. maybe it's because there were no flowers and the hall of mirrors (where the famous treaty was signed) was under renovation. i just wasn't enchanted.

i got that the place was huge. i also got that the garden was massive. and that's about it. the 13 gift shops weren't even that interesting.

i'm not saying we shouldn't have gone. i just think we should try it again on another trip, hopefully with better weather.

i remember (with tim's help) what we did yesterday. we went to a little street called rue cler. it had the most wonderful little shops--cheese, wine, fruit, meat, fish (pee-yew), olive oil, chocolate, bakeries, flip-flops, etc. the visa card got a work-out there!

after rue cler, we headed to napolean's tomb. that place is huge. it really gives new meaning to having a "little guy" complex. sad how he ended. there was a museum of military history attached and we would have liked to have seen it, but us stupid americans couldn't figure out how to get in. the staff tried to help but they just kept waving their hands in the direction of moscow and said "that way." oh, well. just another reason to come back.

oh, we ran into patrick, the man who owns our apartment, today. what a nice guy. he introduced us to the little old granny who owns the antique shop next door. (who knew that was an antique shop?) that lady was so thrilled to meet us. i thought she was going to pinch our cheeks and offer us warm cookies and milk. we'll have to poke our heads in and say good-bye friday.

oh, good news for me. i'm pretty sure we're staying in the purse district. every shop on our street sells purses. wholesale.

tim is truly becoming european. yesterday he put on his orange and yellow striped shirt with his gold cords. so far so good. until he added his green sweater. don't worry, i took a picture. he's also getting into panhandling. there are alot of musicians here with their hands/hats/instrument cases/cans out for coin. yesterday, while i was trying to figure out where we were, tim decided to get entreprenurial. he stood on the corner, with his hand out, just whistling whatever came out. no tune in particular (at least not that i could tell). unfortunately, it didn't pay off anything, but it was fun.

speaking of panhandling, yesterday we found an orchestra playing a concerto in the subway. it was probably 8 violins and several violas. they sounded great. they've been playing that metro stop for 15 years and have 3 cds. so we bought one. too bad there's no cd player in the apartment.

now we are on the hunt for the fabulous falaffel we had a few days ago. we're in the jewish quarter right now. tim fits in nicely.

au voir.

je parle francais

sorry for the infrequent posts. believe it or not, there is a dirth of internet cafes in paris. the ones that i can find, don't load the blog for some reason...

yesterday we had the most fabulous dinner at a tiny restaurant run by a family. the daughter took the orders and helped us decipher the menu while the bother cooked. mom greeted regular customer with those oh-so-french air kisses on each cheek while she fussed with the centerpieces on each table. it was probably one of the best meals i have ever had. i started with a puff pastry with a cheese sauce (it had a fancier name) while tim tried the escargo--which he loved. then we had our main course. i had a type of beef stew slow simmered all day and so tender a knife wasn't necessary. it melted in my mouth. tim had a meat we can only assume was duck. he said it was delicious. we ended with dessert, of course. i had an apple dish with homemade caramel sauce (and homemade ice cream) and tim had the cheese plate. it is customary here to end meals with an assortment of cheeses.

i have to say, i've never been much of a drinker, yet i find myself drinking wine with every meal. and it is always wonderful. the wine here is cheaper than buying a coke. party.

we also took a night cruise on the seine yesterday. the whole day was cold and rainy and the cruise was no different. it was nice, though. i don't think i'd do it again, though.

for the life of me, i can't remember what we did before dinner. it must have been a good night...

My husband, the poop head

Howdy to all from the City of Lights. Sorry it has been so long since my last post. We arrived here on Saturday morning and met a friend of mine at the Louvre. My friend, Coen, and his girlfriend, Lucinda, stayed in our apartment this weekend. Boy, did we have a great time. L is fantastic and it was great to see Coen again.

We toured the city with them and saw many of the big sights: the arche de triumph, montmartre,the champs elysses, the tuolleries, luxemburg gardens, notre dame (we were there during mass; the choir sounded heavenly); and finally the eiffel tower at night. they had to catch their bus back to Delft, so they could not go to the top; but tim and i did. it was beautiful. at the top of every hour, the tower shhimmers with hundrededs of lights. it reminds me of champagne.

today, tim and i visited the apartment where jim morrison died, his grave and many others (including chopin and oscar wilde) in the pere lachaise cemetary.

our little apartment is quite the place! it was just completely overhauled, so everything is new. i think we are its first inhabitants. we love it here.

now, i will explain why my hubby is a poop head. a pidgeon, oh yes, pooped right on his head. let me tell you, it must have been a pidgeon the size of a teradactyl.

time to go. this keyboard is backwards and i need a crepe.

au voir!

the most amazing thing happened...

we have been useing the guidebooks of rick steves to get us around. we have his dvds and we try to watch his travel shows on pbs as often as possible. in short, we are fans.

so, today, in milan, we visited the duomo. a beautiful cathedral (the 4th biggest in the world and took 500 years to build). i was listening to the audioguide while tim was taking pictures. we came around the corner of the church and there was a film crew. tim jokingly said, "look, its rick steves." and low and behold it was.

immediately we start giggling like boy band fans. here is our travel god right in front of us. he is the one who inspired the one carry on bag. he is the one who suggested lucca. and the 500 year old hotel in florence. and the wonderful restaurants. and how to skip the line at the coleseum. right in front of us.

tim went over and asked if we could take a picture. he was very nice to us and obliged. he is much taller in real life than on tv. ricks cameraman took our picture for us, while he was taping. they were filming a special on how they film their specials. we might be in it! the whole meeting was on tape. we acted like blightering idiots, though.

its kind of funny. until today, there has not been one photo taken of tim and i together on this trip. we are too weary to ask someone to do it for fear of the camera being stolen. now, the only phot of tim and i together on this trip (we have used about 10 rolls of film) has rick steves in it.

funny how things work out.

so, for the rest of the day, we will bask in the glow of meeting our travel hero, eat canoli, and wait for our train to depart at 11 p.m. we have a sleeper car tonight and we will wake up in dijon, france around 5:30 tomorrow morning. from there we will take a train to paris and our little apartment in the marais district.

caio!

the masterpieces

we visited the uffizi museum today. michaelangelo, leonardo, titan, botacelli, the list goes on. they were all beautiful. our guide, barbara, enlightened us on the techniques and meanings behind the paintings. her english was great, but she pronounced some words amusingly. like the word naked. she said nakt. and tired was ty-red. she was great.

we have hot water now. who knew you had to turn on the water heater with a switch that is 7 feet off the floor hidden by the hairdryer?

its our last night in florence. i hate to leave. this city has so much character and history. for dinner tonight we got some fresh tomatoes, basil, cheese, rolls, grapes and a piece of cake and sat out on our verranda overlooking the city and countryside.

we are off to milan tomorrow. we will only be there until midnight, then we take a night train to france.

caio.

the cooking lesson

so today was my big cooking lesson. and all i can say is that it was fabulous. we made a fava bean and mint bruschetta (pronounced brew-SKAY-tah), homemade gnocchi with pesto sauce, veal and artichokes and for dessert an orange custart tart with almonds.

there were three students in the class, including me. the other two were a couple from denver, who were very nice. the chef, barbara, was also great. she was, of course, fluent in italian, but she also spoke english with barely an accent. we complimented her on her english and she said, "it could be better." then she used the word oxidized.

our little palace in firenze is not all it is cracked up to be. there was no hot water this morning. that is one of the primary things that can turn my mood in a snap. and i ran into the table and chairs in the middle of the night on my way to the bathroom and nearly scared tim out of the bed. but, now we have learned how to turn the water heater on, so we are hoping for a warm shower soon.

we also visited the academia museum today. it was very anticlimactic. the david was, of course, awe inspiring, as were the prisoners, but the rest of the museum only rates an eh. most of the paintings are copies. i should probably explain the prisoners. they are unfinished marble statues michelangelo did not complete before his death. many look like humans trying to emerge from the rock, but cannot. hence the name the prisoners.

tim is well on his way to becoming a gelatto connesiour. he is talking about having a well rounded gelatto experience, so no more chocolate for him. he is on to the unpronouncable flavors.

time for some beauty sleep. we have to be at the uffizi early tomorrow. we are also going to try to get to the medici palace and the piti palace.

caio!

ah, firenze

firenze, the italian way of saying florence, is just like rome, siena and every other italian town. only this place has more character. we got here this afternoon and checking into our hotel (we still have not gotten the station to hotel time under 45 minutes). pensione sorelli is a huge, 500 year old mansion with an amazing view of the city and the tuscan country side. the ceilings in our room are probably 14 feet high. actually, the room is almost as big as our house. the senor who owns the place (a slick, cigarette smoking, i'll do anything for you kind of guy) raced us down two flights of stairs to our room 9. this palace of a room sleeps 5 comfortably. he said, "look, you even have a view of the duomo." and we do. out the bathroom window.

it really is an adventure here. you can not be afraid to try new food or adapt to a new way of living. when we first got here, we thought we would starve to death just eating a roll and tea for breakfast. that's not the case at all. we're really enjoying this adventure and were sad to discover it's half over.

well, i'm sitting here in an internet cafe, looking out at the arno river, just next door to pont vecchio. i think i'll go explore.

stay tuned. my cooking lesson is tomorrow! caio.

tim is bummed about the wings. we've been following them on the web, so now he's pouty.

oh, one more thing. the bathroom is so huge, it echos in there. not good if you're rooming with tim. "beeutiful. what an echo!"

bye bye lucca

i loved lucca. we biked the ramparts. ate fabulous food every night. had a hot shower every day.

there was a soccer stadium *stadio football* just outside the 100 foot thick city walls. we could hear the fans cheering, chanting and singing the team song. sure beats any team spirit we have back in the u.s.

oh, the food. we found this great restaurant with the most charismatic owner ever. he actually mock scolded you if you did not finish your meal! he looked a little like a mad scientist. i call him alderto. i have no idea what his real name is. he just looks like and alberto. i named the bartender eddie.

we climbed a 10 story tower that overlooked the whole town and the tuscan country side. it was beautiful, but a little rickety. we also saw several weddings proceeding to the 1,000 year old church there. the facade had byzantine mosaics. it is hard to believe that the people who live there are used to ancient works of art.

the graffitti in the town was a little disconcerting, though. the whole country is full of graffitti, but i never felt very threatened, which i owe to the fact that i do not read italian and therefore do not know all the good swear words. however, i do recognize a swastica when i see it. and i can also pick out a hammer and sicle, too. i also know what pisa merde means. here is the foreign language lesson of the day. CAUTION do not read this part to small children. merde means shit.

the birds here are annoying. they sound like giant squeeky toys the size of jason. and the music here is hysterical. it is all american. we just heard its raining men.

we loved lucca. but we had to move on.

other observations

yesterday, while we were at dinner (a smoking-hot waiter served us--mama mia!), another american couple sat in the same room as us. the man seemed to have a great grasp of the italian, but the woman did not have the gift of being a polyglot. so, instead of walking up to the waiter to ask for mustard, she whistled for him. like she was calling for a dog. i almost fell out of my chair i was laughing so hard. why do people do that.

there are no streets or sidewalks in italy, they are all the same thing. you walk in the street and you drive on the sidewalk. the law says you have to miss pedestrians by 1 meter. gee. that makes me feel better.

everything in italy also takes 10 mee-nutes. you walk somewhere, it takes 10 mee-nutes. you catch a bus, 10 mee-nutes. there seems to be a space-time continuum issue here. or the laws of physics do not apply. i cannot be sure.

tim is getting fabulous with his italian. he really is picking up the language rather well. i am very impressed.

we met a lady from australia yesterday. she is traveling around the world for three months. she said she wanted to do it before she gets too old. how brave. she is doing it by herself!

i should go check on the laundry. until tomorrow. caio!

who are you

salubrious peregrinator--who are you

on the road again...

here we are in lucca. this is italy. no ifs ands or buts about it. it is posititvely wonderful. it tops rome, venice and siena. hands down. it is an ancient city with its walls (100 feet thick) around it. inside are shops, homes, piazzas and little markets. we have only just arrived and i truly feel like i am in europe for the first time. i cannot wait to explore more.

siena, the town we just left, could have been better. it was just like rome, only smaller. the color "burnt siena" originated here because of the color of the bricks. the hotel was very strange. it felt more like a hospital room than a hotel room. oh, and there was no bathtub or half-bath. the shower stuck out of the wall and you showered in the middle of the room. everything was drenched. it was a fun experience, though.

for today, we are doing laundry and exploring the town. tomorrow we can rent bikes and ride around the ramparts of the town. it is only 2.5 miles around.

the language barrier

so far, we are managing on our little italian. tim did a great job today making and canceling reservations for our hotel on the phone. he actually went down to the front desk to learn the word for "cancel"--kahn-cha-lot-o. i had a misunderstanding with the fella at the smoke shop. i was trying to ask if he could break a $50, but he thought i was asking for 50 metro passes (you buy them at the smoke shop--tabacchi). boy, did he chew me out when i told him i did not want the passes. i even got some authentic italian obscene gestures.

side note--church bells are everywhere!

food and wine

so far, the food has bee wonderful. tim has ordered some pretty questionable items (like today he ordered a ham/pork sausage. it came out looking like two ironed cow udders). but the pasta and pizza are delicious. we have not had nearly enough wine, though. it is cheaper than a glass of pop! the desserts are not as austentatious as i thought. i suppose i will have to wait for paris for that.

catch up time

hey all. love the comments, but if you are going to make them, please sign your name at the bottom, otherwise i have no idea who it talking.

on to buisness. yesterday we went to the vatican. it was positively breathtaking. it sure puts your tiny life into perspective. the bascillica is huge. in the dome, you can stand an entire football field up end zone to end zone, floor to ceiling. it holds 95,000 people for mass (the Big House in ann arbor holds 100,000, but not for mass). we climbed the 342 steps (plus a 5 minute elevator ride) to the top of the dome. at one point, you are actually climbing over the top of the dome, so the walls curve in. i had to duck. it looked like everyone needed a good dose of v-8. once you got to the top, it was just stunning. that was the point where our batteries in the camera died. so we climbed down and walked around the roof of the bascillica. you know they actually have a gift shop (where we found some batteries) and a coffee shop on the roof of the church? wild.

after the bascillica, we went through the vatican museums. there was a woman in the museums taping everything on a camcorder. she experienced the entire museum through her viewfinder. how sad for her. the raphael frescos were more amazing than they were in my art history class. add to that the sistine chapel, and it could bring tears to your eyes, or at the very least an overwhelming sense of awe. no photos allowed in the chapel, but of course, there were the idiots who took pictures, sat on the steps and talked in their un-church voices. dumb.

well, we blew out of rome this morning. we literally had to run to catch the train. this ride we were not so fortunate to sit in a compartment with others who spoke english. i do not know what happened, but the other lady in our compartment had a misunderstanding with the conductor. we witnessed italian expressions first hand. it got loud, but no one got angry. it was actually pretty funny.

now we are in siena. just a little south of florence. we did not realize, but monday is labor day for the country, so it is very difficult to get hotel reservations this weekend. we are lucky enough to have a room in a small town called lucca. it is supposed to be beautiful. no claim to fame though. it will be nice to slow down. it seems like we are tearing through this country.

we are meeting americans everywhere we go. just today at dinner, a couple sitting behind us came over to our table after they were done eating and asked about our trip. it is like that wherever we go.

well, enough for today. my time on the computer is running out. oh, one more thing--we are idiots. it took forever and a lot of fumbling to realize that you have to keep your room key in the light switch or else it will not stay on.

caio!

underwear, stilettos and other musings

there are distinct differences between europeans and americans. the first was the dogs in the restaurants. that still disgusts me.

the second is the lack of underwear. with the low rise jeans that are so popular today, it is pretty obvious when someone is not wearing their unmentionables. honestly, i do not know what is worse--seeing someones underwear hanging out, or their crack fully exposed. at least europeans are skinny.

the fashion here is something to behold. i am a quaker, apparently. and eeegads--the mullet is back! women are wearing a more updated version of the dreaded mullet, but i have noticed on quite a few men that they are wearing their hair longer and slicked on the sides.

more on fashion--if you have a suit coat, you wear it. no matter what you are wearing. it is plainly obvious that the suit coats on the men are from suits they only wear for funerals and weddings. but, there they are, wearing a navy suit coat with jeans and a t-shirt.

manners are even different. you just walk into and through people. no excusi, or pardonne. just blow through. it was strange to acclimate to, but once you are used to it, it is kind of fun.

well, caio for the evening. we are for the Vatican tomorrow!

the caesar schuffle

whew! what a day!

i have to digress for a moment and talk about the hotel again. we have to walk UP 30 (one flight) stairs to the front desk, where i am writing to you. this is also where we have breakfast--cereal, rolls, croissants, etc. oh, breakfast. i love it here. they have spreadable chocolate. yum!

okay, back to our day. we started out on the metro and headed up two stops to the colosseum. it was huge and beautiful. thanks to our travel guidebook, we passed up the hour-long line by buying our tickets at a different booth. after touring the colosseum, we got a picnic lunch from a little baker, a mom-and-pop place. for about six€, we each had huge ham and cheese sandwiches on home made bread. fabulous.

we then walked through ancient rome. the birthplace of modern civilization. i still get goosebumps....several arches, a huge bascillica built by constantine, and the huge finale--the spot and building where juilius caesar was cremated. there is a small monument there, inside a decaying temple to caesar. the funeral bier is still there and some people bring fresh flowers and place it on the spot of his remains. we walked where emperors trod. it really was awe-inspiring.

after ancient rome, we went to capital hill and the monument to victor emanuel, the first king of italy. we were fortunate to have our guidebook, it saved us from walking up the 242 steps to the monument.

we were crossing the street on the way to the pantheon, when we ran into a group of ladies from seattle, traveling with the same guidebook. so, we walked with them to the pantheon--also an amazing experience. we did not realize raphael was burried there, until we happened upon his tomb. again, goosebumps.

leaving the pantheon, we thought we would head back to the hotel for a siesta, but the trevi fountain was so close, that we headed there. what a huge fountain! it has to be as wide as a city block and 40 feet in depth (not water depth).

just the marble carvings here alone are breath-taking. they are everywhere. we were also blown away by ancient rome--priceless carvings, columns, etchings, bits of statue--just laying in the grass.

oh, we also met a little priest named romano. he asked where we were from and told us detroit is the best! i do not think he has been there...

Finally!

sorry it has taken so long to post. for some reason the internet in venice was so slow! this blog will not be properly punctuated. the italian keyboard is decidedly different that the american one, and i could be typing lines of hyroglyphics before i realized what is going on. oh, there are not any apostrophes either, so no contractions...get a cup of coffee and a snack--this post is a long one!

so, we landed in paris on sunday. little did we know that the airport transfer we needed to make was a 60 mile adventure. after we bought bus tickets to the airport in beauvais, we had lunch at a charming little parisian cafe. LESSON 1: parisians (and italians) bring their dogs everywhere--even in restaurants. we walk in and there is an english bulldog snoozing under a table while the owners enjoyed a leisurely sunday lunch. then, a second family walked in with their bulldog. we were a little unsettled by this, but we were repulsed when the dog actually got his nose into the salad of his owner. disgusting. tim evened us up the repulsion score when he apparently offended a group sitting by the bathroom door. he accidentally left it open.

we took the irish airline, ryanair, to venice from beauvais. if i thought the smith terminal at metro was a dump, this airport was a pole barn--no joke. and there were no toilet seats. no idea how that works. well, the flight would have been great had a couple of kids in the row behind us were not screaming the whole time. when we deplaned, the woman sitting in our row really let the little girl have it. i have no idea what she said, but tim thanked her afterward.

ah, venice. we spent our first hour there completely lost, but that is okay. it is an island. we were bound to find something sooner or later. and we did. piazza san marco is beautiful, but filled with pigeons. i actually saw a kid kick one. we were not able to make it into the bascillica or the palace of the doge, but we did get to murano, an island famous for blown glass. we toured several factories, amazed by the craftsmanship and beauty. we found a small mom-and-pop bakery and got some sandwiches and a cookie. we sat with our legs dangling over the canal, watching the boats go by. it was fabulous.

venice really is an amazing city. there are no roads anywhere. you really do walk or take a boat. all the bridges are just as charming as the next, with gondoliers taking their passengers around. last night, i was leaning out our window (no screens) and could hear a man signing opera and playing an accordian.

today we tried getting in to the bascillica, but it was a holiday, so it was not available. it is disappointing, but we had to move on. we took the train to rome. on the train, we sat with sisters from australia. they were great. it is so nice meeting people from different countries.

the hotel we are at now, caters to americans. we got a great last minute rate. they serve breakfast on a patio every morning. and the hotel starts on the fourth floor of the building. stairs, stairs and more stairs!

well, we are staving (it is after 9 p.m. and we have not had dinner yet), so we are going in search of pizza. caio!

oh, there are bedaes (butt washers) in EVERY room!

The night before...

Well, here we are. The night before we go. I don't think we'll sleep very well. We're both pretty excited. Our bags are packed--when I say "bags," I mean our one carry-on each. Yep, that's right, we're traveling for three weeks out of one carry-on bag each. Should be interesting. We'll be well-versed in European Laundromats. That's for sure.

Our travel plans have changed once again. We land in Paris and fly to Venice. Venice is having it's independence celebration on April 25, so if it's tough to get a room, we'll explore the area. I've recently read about a little town to the north of Venice that is half Italian and half German. You can supposedly tell the Italians from the Germans because the Germans wear sensible shoes. I'll let you know if it's true or not.

Anyhoo, after Venice, we go to Rome, the Cinque Terre, Florence, and then a week in Paris. I'm taking a cooking lesson in Florence from an Italian chef, which I'm excited about. And in Paris we've rented an apartment in the Marais district. We're also meeting a high school friend of mine, Coen, and his girlfriend, Lucinda, for the weekend there.

Hope you enjoy the posts. I'll be updating this from now on in Internet cafes. I may not get to one every day, especially if we're in the hilltowns, but try to get to a cafe as often as I can.

Ciao! Au voir!

Ready, Set, Go!

The official date of departure--April 22--has been set. We got great airfare to Paris, so we've changed our itenerary for the ump-teenth time. Now, we land in Paris and take the train to Avignon for a few days. Then on to Venice, Rome, Florence, the Cinque Terre, possibly Milan and finally Paris for five days. Whew. That was exhausting just typing all that!

30 days to go!

The first posting

We're getting ready for Europe. It's hard to believe that we've been saving for years for this and it's finally happening. We're checking into airfare and have decided to fly out of Toronto to Zurich, Switzerland with a layover in England--just trying to get more stamps in our passports. We'll keep you posted as we travel through Europe.

65 days and counting!