Amsterdam

After only a day back in Glasgow, I returned to London (Stansted), where I met Joe and we stayed the night before catching a flight to Amsterdam.


Amsterdam
Day One (May 12)


After a very early but short flight and much longer bus ride, Joe and I arrived in Amsterdam.  We dropped our stuff off at our hostel in the museum district and went to grab lunch at a pub in the Leidesplein area.

We attempted to find St. Nikolaas Boat Tours, which were supposedly free, but it was not where it said it would be.  Since it was possible we just got the address wrong, we went back to the hostel in Museumsplein to double-check the address.

This time we marked it on the map.  When we returned to Leidesplein, the boat tour place was not where it said it would be.  We came to the conclusion that it doesn't exist.  Frustrated that we wasted hours trying to find it, we decided to walk back towards Centraal Station and visit the Sexmuseum.

The Sexmuseum was an entertaining little museum.  In addition to paintings, photographs and sculptures, there were the interactive elements of mannequins coming out of the walls.

After we went through the Sexmuseum, we walked around much of Amsterdam's area near Centraal Station. Which was basically a bunch of Coffeeshops, canals and bikes.

We decided to conclude our day of walking around by visiting the Red Light District.

The Red Light District was an interesting place to visit.  We walked along all of the streets and saw the sex shops and infamous girls (or as they should be called 40-year-old women) in the windows.  After walking through the district, we stopped at a few bars.

On the way out of the district, Joe was yelled at by one of the women in the windows for having his video camera with him (and attempting to accidentally get a shot).  Later, Google told us that it could have been worse--one of the pimps could have thrown the camera into the canal.

Day Two (May 13)


We had considered going to the Keukenhof flower garden an hour or two out of Amsterdam on our second day, but were advised by the tourism centre that it was not good at this point in the year.  Instead, we went to Bloemenmarket (flower market) on our way to the Anne Frank House.

There was a long line at the Anne Frank house, so we decided not to go inside.  Instead, we ventured to the Pancake Bakery, a traditional Dutch pancake restaurant.  Dutch pancakes are odd.  Pancakes are treated like a pizza or tortilla and filled with cheeses, veggies, and meat.  It tasted fine, but a little unusual.

After pancakes, we returned to the Centraal Station area where we walked around for a bit before heading to the Dam area, where Joe did his interviews for his Joe Goes... piece.

The Dam area was filled with a number of street performers.  After we finished shooting Joe's stuff, we decided to walk around the Red Light District again, without any incidents of the night before since we dropped off Joe's camera.  We had a few beers before going back to the hostel.

The next day, we just got coffee before catching the bus to the airport for our flight to Dublin.

scenic Stratford-upon-Avon and old Oxford

Stratford-upon-Avon


The day after I left London, I took a day trip from Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace and home of William Shakespeare.  Part of the rail service happened to be down that morning, so I had to take a bus to Leamington Spa where I was supposed to transfer to a train to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Well, the signs said Platform 4.  Platform 4 said the Stratford-upon-Avon train was there.  I got on the train...and waited a half hour.  Around this point, I made friends with three Canadians--Kate, Rob, and Stuart--who were also trying to get to Stratford-upon-Avon.

Turns out, the Stratford-upon-Avon train mysteriously disappeared and we were on a train headed to Birmingham.  we got off at Hatton, where it looked on the route map like we could get a connection to Stratford-upon-Avon.  And, we could.  In an hour and a half.

My new friends and I set off to see what Hatton had to offer.  Hatton pretty much only had fields of sheep that were labelled as public footpaths.  So, we spent our waiting time wandering through the fields of sheep.

After our time with sheep, we did end up on the correct train and arrived at Stratford-upon-Avon.  I ended up spending the day with the Canadians seeing the various Shakespeare houses.

Our first stop was Shakespeare's Birthplace, self-explanatory.  The interior of the house was restored to what it would have been like when Shakespeare was born/lived there.  One of the workers said that one of the floors is believed to have been put in by Shakespeare's father.

The next stop on our Shakespeare house tour was Nash House/New Place.  This house, well the one that was intact, actually belonged to Shakespeare's neighbor.  Shakespeare's house is currently being excavated.  In fact, there was a dig for Shakespeare ongoing event.  Unfortunately, it was over for the day by the time we arrived.

Our final Shakespeare house was Hall's Croft, the house where Shakespeare's eldest daughter and her husband (the town doctor) lived.  It is also where Shakespeare died.  This house was similarly restored to what it would have been like when Shakespeare was alive.  Like all the Shakespeare houses, it had a beautiful backyard/garden area.

Our last Shakespeare-related stop of the day was to be Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare's grave is.  However, they closed the doors about a minute before we got there, so we didn't get to see it.

Before catching the train back, we decided to walk along the Avon for a while, and ended up taking a chain ferry across.  The Avon River--and Stratford--are really beautiful.

On the way back to Oxford, we were able to take the train the entire way.  And, the trains actually went where they initially said they were going to go.

Once we returned to Oxford, we decided to grab dinner in the pub where J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis frequented with The Inklings for years--The Eagle and Child.

They had many Tolkien and Lewis things throughout the pub--photographs, quotes, etc.  My favorite was a The Lord of the Rings quote by Merry and Pippin.

It was an overall fun day with some lovely people from Canada.  And, of course, we got pints.

Oxford


The day after visiting Shakespearean sites, I explored Oxford.  I began my very nerdy day by attempting to walk to J. R. R. Tolkien's grave in Wolvercote Cemetery.  It was a much longer walk than I anticipated.  I ended up getting what turned out to be 3/4 of the way there before getting discouraged and turning back.

Having walked about five or six miles by the time I was back in the Oxford center, I was pretty tired.  My next stop was Christchurch College of Oxford--the setting that not only inspired Harry Potter, but it was filmed partially in Christchurch College.

The biggest Harry Potter connection was the Dining Hall of Christchurch College.  It looked very much like the Great Hall of Hogwarts.

After getting my fill of the Harry Potter-esque scenery, I went to Carfax Tower to get a view of Oxford.

I still had a few hours before my train, so I decided to get on a bus and actually make it to Wolvercote Cemetery to see Tolkien's grave.  It was inscribed 'Luthien' under Edith's name and 'Beren' under J. R. R.'s name.  The Lord of the Rings fans left memorabilia on the grave, included a 'one ring' pin.

After visiting Wolvercote Cemetery, it was time to catch my train to London and flight back to Glasgow.

I spent the next day in Glasgow getting ready to go back to London to meet Joe.

lovely London

Day 1 (May 3)


Ashley, Anna and my trip to London began mid-afternoon with a short flight from Glasgow to Stansted (and then a longer bus ride into London).  By the time we arrived in London, it was more-so evening than day time, so we stuck to the hostel for the night.

Day 2 (May 4)

Our first day really seeing London was a pretty busy day.  After getting an early start, we took the Tube (or Underground) to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard.  We arrived pretty early, but by the start of the ceremony, the palace gates were pretty crowded with tourists pushing their way to the front in an attempt to get a good view of the ceremony.

The gates that keep the public away from the palace are set rather far away, so we did not get very close to the guards.

The ceremony was a little long, but entertaining.  The guards marched in and did the strangest little shuffle while they lined up.  I tried to find it on YouTube, but no luck.  There also was a great deal of marching band music throughout the hour-long ceremony.

Once the changing of the guard ended, we spent a little bit of time by the Victoria Fountain in front of the palace before proceeding on to our next destination for the day.

Our next stop was Westminster Abbey, where we got to wait in quite a long line.  Once we got inside the Abbey, the workers were pretty adept at getting tourists to move quickly through each space, especially the small rooms with the graves of Elizabeth I and Mary I.

My favorite part of the Abbey was Poet's Corner, which is the resting spot of literary greats such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Charles Dickens.  It also had memorials to other favorite writers of mine, most particularly William Shakespeare and the Brontes.  Literary happiness, indeed.

After wandering through the remaining halls and gardens of the Abbey, we decided to head across the River Thames to get a shot of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.  Unfortunately, the sun conspired against us, and the iconic buildings turned shadow-esque due to the sunlight.  Boo sun!

Alas! 

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament completed our sightseeing for the day. 

Day 3 (May 5)

Our second day of sightseeing in London was spent mostly at the Tower of London.  Tower is a misleading name for what is really the first royal palace established in London, dating back to 1066.  It is huge!  And filled with a multitude of museums of old towers/sections to explore.

We ended up joining a Yeomen (free) tour of the Tower, which took us to key points such as Traitor's Gate and the chapel.  Once the tour concluded, we took in the sites of the Crown Jewels, Beauchamp Tower (where prisoners were kept), Bloody Tower (where the two princes were killed), and Wakefield Tower (where the torture devices were kept).  

By the time we saw all of these parts of the Tower, it was mid-afternoon.  And, by the time we reached Shakespeare's Globe (which we had intended to do), we discovered that tours of the Globe end at 12 noon every day.  

Day 4 (May 6)

This was quite possibly my favorite day in London--because it was almost entirely literary!  It began with quite possibly literature's greatest man, William Shakespeare.  Our day commenced with a tour of Shakespeare's Globe and a look at the Globe's Exhibition.  

The tour was quite good and informative.  It was led by a woman who reminded me of one of my Beloit professors.  One thing that I didn't know about the Globe is that it was a project started by American Sam Wanamaker, whose daughter Zoe Wanamaker played Madam Hooch in Harry Potter.  Double-literary glee!  

I also didn't realize how small the Globe is for holding 900 people sitting and 600 standing.  Crazy!  

The exhibition was also pretty cool.  It included a history of the Globe theater (and it's multiple burning downs) and exhibitions of props and costumes from various performances at the Globe since it opened in 1997.  Lovely.

After finishing up at the Globe, we proceeded over Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.  Millenium Bridge was also a wonderful moment of literariness.  It is the bridge destroyed by the Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  

When we arrived at St Paul's Cathedral, we didn't want to pay 13 GBP to go in, especially since we were pretty cathedral-ed out by this point.  Instead, we appreciated the outside and saw most of the inside from the area where you purchase tickets to go past the ropes.  Close enough, when you've already seen about a dozen cathedrals in Europe.

Once we had our fill of St Paul's, we took the Underground up to King's Cross station to go through Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts.  :)  

After our visit to Hogwarts, Ashley and Anna went back to the hostel and I went to the Charles Dickens Museum/House.  It was a lovely experience.  The other visitors were a bunch of middle-aged English ladies on an afternoon out.  The House had a video all about Dickens' life and a number of items that belonged to either him or his family.

While Dickens lived in the house, he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby.  Naturally, I had to purchase one of the books.  Since I already own Oliver Twist, I purchased Nicholas Nickleby in the house in which it was written.  Happy day!

Day 5 (May 7)

The last day of our visit to London began with a visit to Abbey Road, the famous crosswalk on the cover of the Beatles' Abbey Road album.  There were about a dozen tourists attempting to get the famous Beatles shot between traffic.  I'm sure that London drivers who have to go on Abbey Road HATE tourists.

After Ashley and I got our crosswalk pictures, we went to see Abbey Road Studios.  It was pretty small and looked more like a house than a recording studio--aside from the fact that the outside gate was covered with graffiti about the Beatles.

After Abbey Road, we headed to Buckingham Palace to meet Jacquie and her fiance Dan for lunch.  After lunch, we parted ways.  Ashley and Anna headed to the airport to catch their flight to Glasgow and I headed to the train station to catch my train to Oxford.  By the time I got to Oxford, I was too exhausted by three poor nights of sleep in the loud hostel in London to do anything but go to bed.

Scone Palace, the Royal Wedding and REST

The two weeks in Glasgow between spring break and resumed travelling consisted of some much-needed rest.  We were pretty tired out after our exhausting 15 day adventure around Europe.

Our return to Glasgow was quickly marked with disappointment.  We went to purchase tickets to the Isle of Skye, a little before the designated 4 p.m. time, to discover that they were sold out.  What the crap, Union?  Selling tickets early?!  Not fair!  We were rather unhappy about it.

I spent most of last week catching up on sleep and sorting photos from spring break.  I got my two essays back for my Adaptations of Literature to Cinema class.  They turned out quite well.  My grade for the class is in the second-class marks category (the equivalent of a B).  I'm satisfied.

On Easter Sunday, I decided to get out of my sleepy, flat slump and get some Costa Coffee.  While I was in Costa Coffee reading Middlemarch, Sleigh Bells "Kids" came on.  It was awesome!  :)  Glasgow, for the win!

I got my last essay back on Tuesday.  I also got second class marks.  Now, all that remains of class work is to take two finals--one in Victorian Literature (May 20) and one in History 1b (May 26).

On Thursday last week, Ashley, Andrea and I took a trip to Scone Palace, near Perth, for the day.  Perth is beautifully set in the highlands--near where we went on our Blair Castle excursion.  We grabbed lunch in a pub--The Tavern--before heading off to Scone Palace.

Scone Palace is the crowning place of Scottish Kings.  The inside detailed the infamous Scottish monarchs who were crowned at Scone, including Macbeth and Mary Queen of Scots.

We spent about an hour going through the palace.  It was beautiful.  But, like Blair Castle, pictures were not permitted.  We noticed that Scone was going to have an event for the Royal Wedding the next day.

Once we finished with the inside of Scone Palace, we enjoyed the grounds.  The grounds around the Palace were pretty awesome.  And, there were a number of peacocks strutting about, to Ashley's delight.  They were beautiful--bright blue and green!

We took a look at the little cathedral near the Palace.  To our delight, we found the Stone of Scone (different from the Stone of Destiny currently residing in Edinburgh).  Ashley and I had some fun taking pictures "attempting to steal" the stone.

Afterward, we walked through the graveyard before returning to Perth to catch our train home.

On Friday, we had a little flat Royal Wedding party.  We started watching the coverage at 10 a.m. (an hour before the ceremony) and celebrated by each making a pitcher--mimosas, mojitos, sangria, Pimm's lemonade, and cider.  It was quite a fun day.

The wedding itself was good.  However, William and Kate's balcony kiss was quite wimpy...it last all of .2 seconds.  Fail, William.

On Sunday, Anna, Jacquie and I went to the Scotia bar for a pint.  We had a good time sitting in the pub and chatting.  Although, the pub was a bit crowded and noisy for a Sunday night.

Monday's excitement was, in addition to prepping for London, waking up to discover that Osama bin Laden is dead.  Interesting news...

Anyway, Tuesday through Saturday, we'll be in London, then I'm going to Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon to indulge in some literary nerdiness.  :)

remarkable Rome and a wee layover in Liverpool

Day 12 (April 14)


The travel day from Milan (Bergamo) to Rome was the worst travel day...ever.  It began with getting up at 5 a.m. to get a 6 a.m. taxi to Bergamo Airport.  We were checked in, had our coffee & breakfast, and were ready to go by 7 a.m.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 8:25 a.m.

We were in line to get on the plane around 8 a.m., when they announced that it was delayed until 9:30.  Shortly after, it was announced that the flight was delayed until 11:30 a.m.  Not cool.  We decided to grab a beer, since there was nothing else to do, and do some journalling while we waited.

The flight ended up not leaving until 12:30.  RyanAir's compensation for our four hours?  A 5 Euro coupon that could only be used at one restaurant in Bergamo Airport that only had meat sandwiches.  Our lunch was a brioche (croissant) and a can of Pringles.

By the time we got to Rome (Ciampino) and caught a bus into the city centre, it was after 3 p.m.  After we figured out the metro and finally found our hostel, it was 5 p.m.

We grabbed some pizza (that was kind of disgusting) and chilled in the hostel.  I got a text from Sam that he was coming to Rome that night, so I talked to the hostel receptionist and arranged for him to stay in our room.

Day 13 (April 15)


Our first day in Rome was spent exploring Vatican City.  After a long metro trek, we had to grab a bus for the final bit of our journey because a section of the metro was down.  We happened to be squished into the bus by two girls--Erica and Marion--from the States who are studying at Glasgow University.  They're our rivals, but it was still cool to run into a couple Glaswegians.

We ended up deciding to join their afternoon tour of the Vatican.  Beforehand, we grabbed a lunch of pizza and gelato.  Delicious.  Gelato is amazing--far better than DQ ice cream.

After lunch, we joined the tour.  First, we went to the Vatican Museum (and bypassed the line).  Our tour guide was pretty cool.  He was from the States and he knew a lot about Vatican City.

Apparently, Roman statues were not the plain white that we are accustomed to.  They were brightly painted--the paint just wore off with time.  We also learned that the water in fountains in Rome is potable.  Handy.

We saw a number of statues and tapestries in the Vatican Museum.  They were all pretty amazing.

The tour guide probably spent close to an hour explaining Michelangelo's art in the Sistine Chapel.  The infamous ceiling painting was only completed after being abandoned by Michelangelo in the middle of night--twice!  When the pope looks up, the panel in his line-of-vision moons him.  Classy, Michelangelo.

The altar piece, done entirely by Michelangelo, uses the appearance of one of the cardinals for the man deciding which stage of hell people are going to.

The Sistine Chapel itself was pretty cool.  However, there was a lot of security hurrying people through, saying "No photo.  Advance.  Shhhhhhhh!"

For the finale of our tour, we went to St. Peter's Basilica.  The tour guide told us a story about St. Peter and the palms used for Palm Sunday (which were in the basilica area while we were there).  We walked around St. Peter's Basilica a bit.  But, by this point of the trip, we were a little cathedral-ed out.

After we wrapped up at the basilica, we headed back to the hostel for the night.

Day 14 (April 16)


Our next day in Rome was spent in the general city centre area.  We began the day by setting out for the Spanish Steps.  Initially, we walked right past the steps, thinking that they weren't grand enough to really be the Spanish Steps.

It turns out, they were.  Ashley and Sam were in disbelief that those were actually the Spanish Steps.  Anna and I accepted it pretty readily.  Regardless, we climbed the steps and did the usual picture-taking.

There was a church at the time that we ventured inside.  It was small (by comparison to other cathedrals visited on this trip), but still beautiful.

After giving up on the Spanish Steps, we headed to the Trevi Fountain, where wishes come true.  Supposedly, tossing a coin into the fountain will ensure your return to Rome and grant your wish.

The fountain was pretty cool--it was composed of mythical creatures.  The water was a really bright blue.  It was beautiful.  Once we squeezed through the large crowd and made our wishes, we grabbed some gelato.  Again.  :)

The next stop for the day was the Pantheon.  The Pantheon is a domed, columned ancient structure that is architecturally impossible.  Apparently, if you put the design of the Pantheon into a computer, it will say that it is impossible.  The structure was really cool--and it had a hole in the top of the Dome for light.

Strangely enough, we ran into Erica and Marion again in the Pantheon.  Small world!

After we finished up in the Pantheon, we headed to Piazza Navona, where we planned to meet Ashley's friend from home and her two travel buddies.

Piazza Navona, much like plazas in Spain, was filled with street performers.  Ashley made friends with the cowboy statue guy.  But, she ditched him to go to dinner with us.

We ate dinner at a delicious pizza place near the Piazza Navona.  It was the best pizza that we had in Italy!

After dinner, we returned to the Trevi Fountain and got another round of gelato.  When in Rome...  :)  The fountain looked really cool at night.  Once we finished our gelato, Ashley and her friend said goodbye, and we headed back to our hostel for the night.

Day 15 (April 17)


Our final day in Rome was spent in what is quite possibly my favorite part of Rome:  Ancient Rome.

Our first stop for the day was my favorite:  The Colosseum!  It was gorgeous.  The building was ancient, decaying, and beautiful.  I could've spent all day just enjoying the Colosseum.

We had to wait in a bit of a line to get in, but it was SO worth it.  :)  We spent a good hour exploring both the first and second levels and taking in all of the Colosseum.  I loved it.

Unfortunately, we had other items on the agenda for the day.  So, we said goodbye to the Colosseum (though it popped in sight quite frequently throughout the day) and headed to the Roman Forum.

The Roman Forum was pretty cool, basically the lingering remains of what was once great.  It was pretty cool to see.  It took about an hour to go through the Forum.

After the Forum and grabbing lunch, we head to Circus Maximus, the old horse-racing track.  It turned out to be a field with a dirt track.  Sam was a bit disappointed and didn't believe that that was really it.  But, it was.

There was some sort of Renaissance Fair happening in Circus Maximus.  We caught what appeared to be the end of a faux sword-fight.  There were also a number of people walked around dressed in Renaissance garb.

After grabbing some souvenirs and supper, Ashley, Anna and I headed back to the hostel and Sam went off to catch a train to Florence.

Day 16 (April 18)


Our final travel day was another early one.  Our taxi arrived at the hostel at 6:30 a.m. and took us to Termini Station.  It was probably the worst taxi ride ever!  The company didn't warn us that it would crazy traffic on Monday mornings.  :S

We did arrive at the station just in time to catch an 8:00 a.m. bus to the airport.  However, RyanAir failed (again) and our flight to Liverpool was about 45 minutes late.  It's a good thing we booked our train tickets for a 7:30 p.m. train back to Glasgow.

Our afternoon was spent in the Liverpool Airport, with lunch from Subway and a couple pitchers of Carlsberg.

By the time we got back to Glasgow, it was after 11 p.m.

Spring break was a wonderful adventure.  We saw a lot of awesome sites and had many a good time.  Some of the travel days were bad, but overall our spring break was pretty much the best ever.  :)

breathtaking Bergamo, mediocre Milan

Day 10 (April 12)


For our flight from Paris (Beauvais) to Milan (Bergamo), we had to get up unreasonably early once again, at 3 a.m, in order to get a taxi at 4:45 a.m. to the bus stop, to catch a 5 a.m. bus to Beauvais.  When we arrived at the bus stop, it was crazy crowded with people heading to Beauvais Airport.  These people were not pleasant and rather pushy about getting on one of three buses heading to the airport.  :S

When we got to the airport, we had a bit of a wait before our flight.  We grabbed coffee and a brioche (croissant) for breakfast and waited for our flight.  This time, it was on time, and we were in Bergamo, on our way to our hotel at 10:30 a.m.

We had a shuttle from our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, in Bergamo pick us up from the airport.  Luckily, we were able to check into our room early and were ready to head out to see Bergamo by noon.

We caught a bus into the city centre and headed towards the Old Town section, a beautiful old village-like area on top of a hill.  We took a cable car to the top and wandered around the Old Town for the afternoon.

Our views of Bergamo from the Old Town were gorgeous!  We spent most of the afternoon enjoying the views.

Before heading back to the hotel, we decided to stop at a restaurant and grab a lunch/dinner combo.  I had bruschetta and Ashley had a salad consisting of mozzarella, tomatoes, olives, and a wee bit of lettuce.  It was pretty good.

We were pretty tired from our long day when we got back to the hotel, so we went to bed pretty early.

Day 11 (April 13)


For our second day, we took the train from Bergamo to Milan.  The train ride wasn't bad--only an hour--but the train station was rather confusing.  We spent nearly a half hour following signs leading to bathrooms that kept disappearing.

Once we got a map of Milan, we headed towards the metro.  It was the most crowded, sardine-canned metro that we've ever been on.  There was no space at all in any of the cars, though a new train came every two minutes.

Once we got to the main area of Milan, Piazza del Duomo, the disappointment began.  The outside of the Duomo Cathedral was pretty cool.  It had very interesting architecture.  However, the inside wasn't anything spectacular, and pictures weren't allowed inside.  We went through the cathedral pretty quickly before heading to the nearby shopping centre, supposedly the first mall.

It was a cool building, but it was little more than rows of overly-expensive, famous brand stores.  In my opinion, that is very bleh.  We'd been in Milan little over an hour, and we were already running out of things to do.  Milan for the lose.

Once we grabbed lunch and did some wandering, we were ready to go back to Bergamo, which we established as the better city.  Unfortunately, the automatic ticket machine lied to us and told us there was a 5:25 train when really the next train wasn't until 6:10.  When we finally got on the train, it somehow ended up nearly a half hour late.

We were pretty glad to be back at our hotel.  After spending a bit checking our e-mail on the computers, we decided to grab a drink at the bar.  As we were sitting there, we noticed a man with a Scottish accent.  It turns out he was from Kilmarnock (only 20 minutes from Glasgow) and was in Bergamo on vacation with his wife and daughter!  Small world!

After chatting with the Scottish man a bit, Anna "the cheetah" arrived at our hotel to join us for the last leg of our trip.  We ended up going to bed shortly after she arrived, since we had an early flight again the next day.

phenomenal Paris

Day 7 (April 9)


Today was another travel day from Madrid to Paris.  It began well enough--our flight wasn't until late afternoon, so we got to sleep in a bit.  All seemed to be well with our flight.  We were on the plane and all appeared to be ready to go..except, it wasn't.

We sat on the plane for nearly an hour and a half before it finally took off.  The reason?  We suspect it was the two American girls around our age.  A stewardess kept coming over to them and saying something along the lines of "do ___ next time or it's going to cost you a lot of money."  We suspect they forgot to have their visas checked and didn't check their oversized bags.  Not cool!

By the time we got to Beauvais Airport, got to Paris via the bus, and found the metro to our hostel, it was after 10 p.m.  We settled in a bit before going (unsuccessfully) in search of food.  We ended up getting bread and cheese at a convenience store and making grilled cheese in our hostel.  Lame.

We did meet two girls--Charley and Louise--from Manchester, England in our room.  They invited us out to a club with them, but we were pretty tired and it would've involved an hour-long walk.

Day 8 (April 10)


For our first stop in Paris, we decided to tick the most important attraction off our list--the Tour Eiffel (Eiffel Tower).  After a quick metro ride, we reached our destination.

It was unreal to actually be looking at the Eiffel Tower in person, not in the movies.  And it was a beautiful day for it.  Though nowhere near the hot level of Madrid, it was a pleasant 65 F (20 C) and sunny.

Our short walk to the tower was filled with a number of guys on the street trying to sell us cheap Eiffel Towers.  They all had the same selection and seemed to know each other.  We ignored them and continued on to the Tower.

The line wasn't horribly long and moved fairly quickly.  We bought our tickets and took an elevator to the second level--the point above the legs.  We enjoyed the view and grabbed some coffee.  After taking a satisfactory amount of pictures, we decided to get in line to take the elevator to the third level.

We spent quite a while at the top of the Tower, enjoying the beautiful views of Paris and taking our fill of pictures.

On the way down, we took the elevator to the second level and the stairs to the bottom.  About halfway down the stairs, we were pretty glad that we didn't decide to take the stairs up to the second level.  The stairs were pretty never-ending!

After we reached the bottom and walked down the courtyard area, we had a great deal of fun taking pictures with the full tower in the background, including ones where it looked like we were holding the Tower in our hands.

After we got our fill of the Eiffel Tower, we went in search of lunch.  Since we were in the touristy Eiffel Tower area, lunch did not come cheap.  It ended up being about 16 EUR ($23-25) for a plate of fries and a glass of Coke.  :S

We spent a while of the afternoon doing some souvenir shopping and wandering about the Paris city centre before heading back to the hostel.

After dinner and it got dark out, we set out in search of a view of the Eiffel Tower by night.  We didn't intend to go all the way back to the Tower, but by the time we got in sight of it, we decided that we might as well go all the way back.  It was a bit of a walk, but worth it!

Our pictures didn't turn out the greatest, but the Eiffel Tower lit up at night is amazing--especially the light show that happens for five minutes of every hour.

Day 9 (April 11)


For our second and last day in Paris, we decided to go to Notre Dame Cathedral.  Before heading to the cathedral, we decided to stop off for coffee.  Ashley used her French skills to get us coffee--although, we ended up with espresso instead of actual coffee.  At least they brought us sugar cubes.

Notre Dame Cathedral was pretty packed with tourists.  The outside of the cathedral looked really cool.  The inside of the cathedral was also beautiful.  At first, we thought it was strange because there appeared to be a mass happening while tourists were going through the cathedral.  However, it turned out to be just a choir singing. It was still strange.

After we saw all of the cathedral, we headed to our next destination for the day--the Louvre and Royal Palace.  We paused on the bridge over the river to take enjoy the view and take some pictures before continuing on.

When we got to the Louvre, we were overwhelmed by its size.  We didn't plan on going in, since it was late in the day and we were a bit museum-ed out.  We walked through all of the Louvre courtyards, instead, and looked at the Arc di Triomphe du Carousel.

On our way out of the Louvre, we walked through a courtyard filled with statues.  Having had our fill of wonder at the Louvre (especially its size), we went in search of the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace was not easy to find.  We probably walked around it three times before we  finally found an entrance.  Once we did, we discovered that the inside was under construction and apparently not open to the public.

Instead, in the courtyard, we found what appeared to be items for a strange game.  We weren't quite sure what the purpose of the varying-sized podiums (?) was, but it was interesting.

The gardens were beautiful.  They were lined with trees and benches.  We sat and enjoyed a bit of the afternoon there before heading back to the hostel to pack for another early morning.