The Beginning of the End; Paris

I can’t believe that four of our six days in Paris are gone already! We have done so much in so little time and still have so much to go. Here is a glimpse into the past couple wonderful days. 

Our first evening we wandered around the district called Le Marais. We’re staying very nearby and this is quickly becoming a booming area in Paris. Originally it was where the working class lived, but now with its lively nightlife it’s become an area where young people live and hang out. Then we went to see the Seine and Notre Dame. Wow. I’m not afraid to say that I cried several times! We ate an excellent dinner complete with wine and chocolate mousse for dessert. Mmmmm :) 

The second day we woke up early and got a baguette for breakfast. We headed to the Louvre and spent 4.5 hours in there! It is a marvelous museum. There’s so much more to see than what we got to, but we made it to the sections we were interested in. We actually followed the Rick Steves pocket guide tour through the museum and he takes you to all of the major works and gives plenty of information about the work and the artist. We also went to see several sections that he didn’t cover in the tour and were not disappointed by any of it! We spent the rest of the day walking about the city aimlessly and enjoying every little bit of it.

Yesterday we started by getting crêpes and eating them on the side of the Seine. Only in Paris can such a simple act be so wonderful! Then we decided to do the Rick Steves self-guided walking tour from our book called Historic Paris. It took us to many sights including Notre Dame, Point Zero, the Deportation Memorial (which unfortunately was closed for renovation), to several other small churches, through the Latin Quarter, and finally ending at the Pont Neuf. My favorite part of yesterday was either going up to the top of Notre Dame and having one of the best views in Paris or actually going into the cathedral itself. It has such a mysterious look to it that instantly makes you feel a sort of contemplative quietness. It’s magical!

Unfortunately yesterday couldn’t be completely perfect. I have been working up a nasty cold for a few days and Josh suddenly caught it as well. It got so bad that we returned to our hotel by 7 and fell asleep immediately. With fevers of over 100 degrees, we were both knocked on our butts! Luckily, we woke up this morning with much more normal temperatures and less aches and pains. We got medicine at the pharmacy and as I write this we are both feeling so much better! Thank God!

Today was a darn near perfect day. We began the day at Sainte-Chapelle, a church built for King Louis IV. He’s the only king to be given sainthood. In addition, the church was built at the price of 150 million euros (nowadays) to house the crown of thorns that Jesus wore on the cross. This was supposedly found in Constantinople (present day Istanbul) and was bought for 500 million euros! The church is small, but stunning. In my opinion, it can rival Notre Dame. The 15 separate panels of stained glass that make up the walls tell the Christian story. Sadly, the rose window is being renovated so we didn’t get to see that part of it, but we certainly weren’t disappointed!

Next we continued on to the Musée d’Orsay admiring the many unbelievable paintings. We again followed the Rick Steves tour. If you travel to Europe any time soon buy the Rick Steves pocket guide for your chosen city. They’re excellent!! Kate and Eric Wolf insisted that we go to L’Orangerie museum as well and boy are we glad we did! There are two circular rooms that house 8 of Monet’s Water Lillies paintings. The giant paintings go around the circular walls and there’s a seat in the middle. As you sit down you are completely surrounded by these masterpieces. It’s the most overwhelming feeling. Monet intended for them to be displayed like this so that the viewer could feel as if they were sitting by his pond in Giverny. If you allow yourself to separate mentally from the room and become immersed in the painting then you can absolutely accomplish this goal. It’s an experience like none other!

After L’Orangerie we walked along the Champs-Elysées starting at Place de la Concorde and the famous Obelisk and ending at the Arc de Triomphe. Our museum passes that we purchased allowed us access to the top of the Arc for free, so we took advantage of that. We had the best views of the Champs-Elysées, the other streets that stretch out like the spokes of a bicycle, and of course, the Eiffel Tower. We concluded the evening with a lovely meal with creme brûlée for dessert. Tomorrow we see Versailles - I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!

P.S. Our pictures aren't uploading very well, so we will leave them for our next post. :)

Barcelona, Spain... a cool and calm New York City

Hello all! We have been so busy since we left Barcelona and I am just now getting to this blog post! Barcelona was phenomenal! Not only did we get to see the city and all that it has to offer, but we also got to spend some time with my Spanish aunt and meet my Spanish cousin and uncle as well! Some of you may be confused, don't worry, I will get to that in a bit. We loved our time in Barcelona and can't wait to go back.

 Before I start, let's talk about my "Spanish aunt." Her name is Judith and she was an exchange student that lived with my mom and grandmother in 1990. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what possessed my grandmother to accept to house an exchange student, but they have never regretted the decision. Judith has lived in Barcelona all of her life, and was taken to Bedford, PA to live on a farm with my family. They have stayed in touch ever since. Every time that she comes to our side of the US they have made a point to see each other and my grandmother has gone to Barcelona to visit her. Judith told us that she feels very lucky to have had my family as her host family. Since then, Judith has started her own wonderful life and now has a young daughter named Claudia and a husband named Jamie. She is a fun and vibrant personality and has fantastic social skills. Also, her English is amazing, so she is a lot of fun and easy to talk to. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to know her better.

Judith made the offer when she learned that we were moving abroad to come to Barcelona whenever and she would have a place for us to stay. So, of course we took her up on it. We stayed in a really cool apartment that was owned by her friend in the heart of the city. She picked us up and took us back to the airport. It was truly more than we could ask for.

The first full day in Barcelona we went everywhere! We went to La Sagrada Familia, The National Cathedral, the Gothic quarter, La Ramblas, La Boqeria, Catalunya Square, the Barcelona Apple Store, the port, the Columbus Monument, and their version of the Arc de Triomph. This was the first time in our three weeks of travel that we actually were exhausted when we got back to the apartment. At one point I thought to myself, "I cannot pick up my leg to move one more step."

I don't know if you have ever seen pictures of La Sagrada Familia, but it just looks weird. It looks like a giant sandcastle. I didn't think that I would really appreciate it much because of how weird it is, but it was truly stunning in every way. I had goosebumps the whole time that we were there. The architect of the church is Antoní Gaudi.  It is still in the process of being built although the groundbreaking was in 1882. It is supposed to be completed in either 2026 or 2028! In typical Gaudi style, every aspect of the church embodies nature from the columns that turn into trees to the entrance gates that look like a honeycomb. It was so beautiful that we actually bought a book about it. The pictures that I took would never do it justice. Below I have posted a couple pictures so that you can get the idea, but I highly encourage you to watch a YouTube video or look up pictures on Google to fully appreciate the beauty. Even better, just go to Barcelona!

The National Cathedral was also beautiful. Nothing like La Sagrada, but beautiful! The Gothic quarter that it was situated in really gave you that classic Spanish feeling so to be in this stunning cathedral surrounded by these buildings was doubly amazing. 

After the Cathedral, we continued down La Ramblas, a shopping street that is filled with just about anything you could ask for. We stopped in at La Boqueria, the market. We bought some fresh fruit here which was delicious! It was the best I have had in a long time. We looked around at the fruits and vegetables as well as the fresh (and sometimes gross) meat and fish. A really cool experience!

We continued down the Gothic Quarter to the monument of Christopher Columbus and the port. The coolest part about the statue is that he is pointing toward the Americas. It was like he was pointing us home :)

The second day we met up with Judith and her family. I have never met her family before so this was very exciting! They took us up to almost the highest point in Barcelona for coffee and a great view! We got to talk and get to know one another better. It was a lovely time! 

We drove around the mountain a little more and then they took us to the Olympic village. The Summer Olympics were held in Barcelona in 1992. Judith was actually a volunteer for the games! 

Getting to know Judith's family was so much fun. Her husband, Jamie, isn't very confident with his English so he didn't talk very much, but he seemed like a very nice guy. Claudia, on the other hand, became very close with Mariah and by the end they were best buddies. She was so adorable!

We had such a great time in Barcelona! It's too bad that we only had two full days to be there. We are already planning our next trip there and hopefully we can get there in the next ten years. If you were looking for an overseas trip and are a fan of New York City, Barcelona is the place for you. It's like a calm, warm version of New York City. It isn't nearly as busy and way more beautiful. It is a city that has so much to offer. We highly recommend it!

The delightful surprise that was Lisbon, Portugal.

I wrote this post Thursday and haven’t had any time to upload it! Enjoy!

Our trip to Lisbon, Portugal was quite a shock to us. We originally chose Lisbon because, well, why not? We researched it and thought that it would be a cool place to relax and recharge after London. There isn’t much to do in Lisbon, but we were able to fill our days with some really exciting and beautiful sights. We did relax a bit. But, this city really took us by surprise. 

The city of Lisbon is 3,000 years old and is steeped in history (one of my favorite lines from Rick Steves). It is slower paced, generally quiet, and filled with beauty wherever you turn. I will say though, this is a stop-over city, not a 4-7 day vacation spot. If you are going to be traveling elsewhere in Europe and need to kill some time, Lisbon is a great stop. The beauty is different here. Because of that rich history, there are different styles left by past monarchs and conquerers. For example, you will find buildings covered from bottom to top in colorful tiles. This was from the time when the city was ruled by Muslims. So, we had a bit of Istanbul here in Lisbon as well. 

If you look closely, this building is covering in tiles.

We stayed in the downtown area of Lisbon at Pensâo Elegante. The best way I could describe it is that it was like a bed and breakfast, without the breakfast. It was very, very, very clean, and the staff was lovely. Our only complaint; there wasn’t a heat source in any of the rooms. I had read a review that said this and couldn’t believe it. In Lisbon, they don’t get cold weather. The whole time we were here it was in the low to upper 50’s which is great. But, when the buildings are made of cement, that temperature sticks. So the rooms were around the same temperature. Brrrr. The first night I asked for a heater but they didn’t have any more. Luckily, we were warm under our 7 blankets (that’s not an exaggeration). The next night they gave us a heater and it was MUCH better. All part of the experience. I definitely would recommend this hotel for anyone planning on going to Lisbon that doesn't want to break the bank (2 nights were $34).

We decided to try another free walking tour. This time we booked a tour with the highly reputable Sandeman’s company. This is a tour company that can be found all over Europe. Our tour guide’s name was Cuco and he had a big personality and was entertaining to listen to, when he gave us information worth listening to. The tour started out kind of rocky. He gave a lot of information that was more about how to survive as a tourist in Lisbon. Valuable information, but not what we wanted to hear. We wanted to hear about the rich history and wanted to see some of the important sights. For about the first half hour we didn’t get any of that. We were just about ready to walk away from the tour when he said, “Now let’s got to the most boring church in Lisbon.” This intrigued us. 

We arrived at the church and from the outside it was definitely boring. The architectural style is actually called Portuguese Plain Style. But the inside, that was something to see. The most expensive chapel in the church had some of the world’s rarest marbles and woods. The white marble is from the same marble used to sculpt the statue of David. The wood is alabaster, which is the rarest and most expensive wood in the world. All gold and silver was solid, not leafed. Amethyst and lapis lazuli stones were used. And the two paintings in the chapel aren't paintings at all. They are mosaics that look like paintings, but the stones are only 1-2 millimeters, so they are totally undetectable to our eyes. The total worth of the inside of the church? $3 TRILLION. That is $3,000,000,000,000. Lots of zeros! This little chapel is the most expensive chapel in the world!

The altar. 

Alabaster wood.

the 1mm x 1mm mosaic tiles.

After that we went to see several other interesting sights, including a church that has no roof. In fact, it hasn’t had a roof since it caved in during the earthquake of 1755! We saw several of the charming areas that constitute the historic center of Lisbon including Bairro Alto, Baixa, and Rossio. Lastly, Cuco took us to Commercial Square, where the peaceful revolution of 1976 occurred, overthrowing the longest fascist regime in world history. By the end we were very pleased with the tour and the information we were given!

A panorama of Commercial Square 

Following the tour we grabbed a quick lunch and continued on our way to the district called Alfama. Up here we saw St. George’s Castle, several incredible churches, and the Portuguese national pantheon. We walked for several hours just exploring the winding roads of the area and enjoying the peace and quiet from the usual hordes of tourists. It was so wonderful!

This building is now a shopping center and has a Starbucks in it. It is beautiful! 

I called Lisbon "The Land of 1,000 Rainbows." There were rainbows everywhere!

Monastery of Sâo Vincente de Flora 

Church of Santa Engrácia or the National Pantheon

We found Lisbon to be a delightfully charming little city with pleasant people and well-preserved history. We would definitely recommend it as a short trip between bigger cities. It gives the opportunity to relax and recharge while still seeing new and beautiful sights.

Also, we would like to add how excited we are to return home. We have 2 cities left and can’t wait to explore them, but we miss our families. We’re excited to return to the beautiful lives we have awaiting us! 9 days! :)

London - Blimey!

Hello!

Wow, London. Where to begin? We were so excited to finally see this much-loved city, but at the same time kept our expectations low. We've tried to do that with all cities because over-romanticizing the idea of a city can often lead to a great letdown once you've made it there. However, even if we had arrived with high expectations we would not have been let down! It's a fast-paced, beautiful, and history-enriched city that is tough to rival.

We spent the first day exploring the neighborhood of Greenwich because we were staying very close by and didn't feel like trekking into the center of the city immediately. It's a fun neighborhood with a very interesting maritime history.

Since London is so large we decided that the only way to conquer it in the short amount of time that we had was to do some sort of bus tour. So, we bought tickets for a hop on hop off bus for £25 (about $38 apiece) which included 3 separate bus tours, a Thames river cruise, and 3 free walking tours! What a deal! The hop on hop off service only runs from 8:30am to 4:30pm, so to make the most of our time there we were at the bus stop ready to go at 8:45. At that point it was about 35 degrees and raining, but we still sat on the top of the roofless double decker bus and enjoyed the sights of the city. They gave you headphones which you plugged into the seat and commentary gave you the background and stories of the different sites. It last 2.5 hours and took us to almost everything we wanted to see! It was really a great way to do it if you're short on time. Typically we just walk to all of the different sites, but London is just too large to walk to everything unless you're willing to sacrifice seeing some things. We then got a traditional lunch of fish and chips (yum!) and got back on the bus for a different tour route. By this time it had stopped raining and warmed up about 5 degrees, so we could finally feel our hands and feet again - thank God! :) The second tour had a person commentating and that was even better. We were so glad we did it!

After that we took advantage of the Thames river cruise. It was amazing to see the city from such a different viewpoint. We thoroughly enjoyed it! Finally, we ended our second day by going to the Apple store in Covet Garden. I think it goes without saying that Josh was like a kid in a candy shop!

For our final day in London we started off by heading to Buckingham Palace. We didn't go in, but seeing the outside was wonderful enough! We were totally in awe of the beauty and grandeur of the grounds, the gate to the palace, and the marvelous statue in front. I may have even shed a tear or two.

Next we went to the Victoria and Albert museum, which is MASSIVE! We were completely thrilled with this museum and would absolutely recommend it to anyone. The artifacts there are brilliant. After the Victoria and Albert we went to the museum of Natural history and saw their amazing dinosaur exhibit. It was phenomenal! They have one of the best dinosaur collections in the world and even have the most complete skeletons of some dinosaurs in existence. There were many other wonderful things in this museum, but the dinosaurs took the cake!

In the afternoon we decided to take advantage of our hop on hop off tickets and do one of the free walking tours. We went to the meeting spot and waited only to realize that we had been stood up. The tour guide never showed! Oy, this was the third time we've had this happen during our European adventure and we were none too pleased. The upside is that what we did instead was WAY cooler! We went to St. Paul's Cathedral and it was unfortunately closed. Feeling a little defeated, we walked around to see the front and we noticed that some people were going in the front door. So, we decided to attempt to do the same and just walked right in. There were ushers asking if we were there for the mass. Of course we said yes! So we sat down directly under the massive dome and marveled at the beauty. They were just about to have their Evensong service. Evensong is when most of the service is sung rather than spoken. The most amazing part was that one of the church officials invited members of the congregation to come up to the altar and sit with the choir. Josh and I of course took advantage of this! They hosted a guest choir that surprisingly were from Minneapolis! It was truly an amazing experience. We don't have many pictures of the church because they have a strictly enforced no photo policy, but I encourage you to google images of it. Although we didn't get to sing with the choir, we had the best seats in the house and will remain in our hearts as one of the best parts of our whole trip!

Lastly, we went to King's Cross Station and took our photos at Platform 9 3/4. I was totally geeking out! The station is so very modern looking but the one section where you go to take pictures is still old looking. It's rather funny!

Josh and I were overall so thrilled with our experience in London. It's an interesting city because it doesn't particularly have that old-world charm that some European cities have, yet it has far more history than most. It's gritty and congested and loud, but all of those things add to the excitement and adventure of London. There is so much to do that we know we will have to return in the future and next time we will do a much longer trip. I look forward to the day that we return to this amazing city!

St. Paul's Cathedral. Don't forget to google pics of the inside!

Driving on Tower Bridge

Tower of London

City of London School - Daniel Radcliffe went here!

Great view of Big Ben and Houses of Parliament from the Thames River

Marble Arch

Down on the West End! When the Queen has passed and there is another king this theater will become "His Majesty's Theatre"

The windows of a very old pub in London. The etched glass is originally and miraculously none of them have ever been broken!

Big Ben and London Eye in one shot :)

Waiting for the river cruise in front of Tower Bridge

Westminster Abbey

The gates of Buckingham Palace. We look like ants in front of it! 

Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

The crest of the royal family

Replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. This is the only building in the city that is allowed to have a thatched roof since the fire of 1666

Walking across the Millennium Footbridge!

The iconic Tower Bridge :)

A Delightful Time in Copenhagen

Hello everyone! So we landed in Copenhagen on Thursday, after a baby-filled flight, not knowing what to expect from this city. It was one of those ones that we just chose because we saw it in a traveling book and thought that it would be cool to see it. We were immediately impressed by the kindness of the staff checking our passports. Denmark has been ranked as the happiest country in the world for several years and it shows! Then we were impressed by the beautiful hardwood floors that run throughout the airport, the directions posted in both Danish and English, and the layout of the airport. Then the best surprise came when we boarded the metro that connects the airport to the rest of the city and realized that it was completely automated. As you can imagine, I was geeking out pretty hard. 

All of these examples are what helps me describe Copenhagen in this one word; Efficient. There are other single words that come to mind as well such as beautiful, tall, swanky fire (that will be explained later), clean, and last but not least EXPENSIVE!

When we arrived at our last metro stop we were actually feeling sick because we were so hungry. So we stopped at McDonald’s. We were thinking, “Oh yeah this is going to be a cheap easy dinner. It turns out that this was the most expensive McDonald’s I have ever been to in my life! We got two meals and two coffees, a total of $25! I felt great because we had eaten, but when I realized how much 160DDK was I almost threw up all of it. Turns out, that is the standard in Copenhagen. It is an extremely expensive city. We did a little more research and Denmark is the 3rd most expensive country in the world (behind Switzerland and Norway) and the average income in Denmark is $75,000. Yikes. However, that also added to the amount of Teslas that I saw and the Tesla store. I was in Heaven! However, it doesn't explain the lack of Apple Store…. 

Next, our hostel. I was dreading another hostel experience. Jokingly, on the plane I turned to Mariah and said, “Just once, I would like to stay in a hostel at a hostel price but have the experience of a hotel. You know, like a big hotel room but with a bunch of beds in it.” Well, my wish was granted! We arrived at the Generator Hostel Copenhagen and immediately were impressed by the staff and what we saw. See, efficient. We went up to our room (which had a key card like a hotel - not something that you find in hostels typically) and it was beautiful. Two showers in the room only shared with 6 other people that are in the room, not the entire hostel like usual. Several sinks, a toilet, the bunks all had charging stations in it, reading lights. Marvelous! And the bed; very comfortable. To top it all off, the first night we only had one other room mate. That’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout.

Since we didn't eat breakfast/lunch until three we didn’t get dinner until late. It was raining out which sucked, but we went to a little Mexican restaurant called Taco Diner that got great reviews on Yelp and was more reasonably priced. We’ve been craving Mexican since we left home and man, did that hit the spot! 

The next day we started off with a free walking tour offered by the hostel. It was three hours long and took us to almost all of the main points of the city. Our tour guide was so knowledgeable and very friendly. Copenhagen has a fascinating history! There were a lot of fires. Seriously, any building that is currently standing was built to replace a building that burned down. Some buildings, such as their city hall, burned down 3 times! They believe that there is a curse on the city. In fact, their most recent fires were 2009 and 2013! I have included pictures of some of the important sites that we covered on our tour. 

Copenhagen is wealthy and also committed to solving climate change. They held the 2009 World Climate Summit. This person is doing their part.

Town Hall. It's three predecessors all burned to the ground.

A picturesque scene of a Copenhagen street.

The bell tower of a church that is now used as an art museum. At one time, it was used by the Copenhagen Fire Department as a lookout. 

The National Theater.

Hans Christian Andersen, a Dane, moved across from the theater when he was a teen in hopes of becoming an actor, not a writer. He was a soprano chorus member until his voice changed. It was for the best...

One of the most famous shots of Copenhagen. 

We had such a wonderful time!

The Copenhagen Opera House. Completed in 2004 in a Neo-futurism style by architect Henning Larsen. Funded by the shipping company Maersk (think Captain Phillips) at around $440 million. The wood that you see on the right side was colored with beer!

The Royal Palace is made up of 4 buildings like the ones that you can see on the left and right in this picture. It makes a circle and I was standing in the middle. So if you are me, over my left shoulder is the Queen's quarters where the current Queen of Denmark lives. It was under construction so I didn't take a picture. The Queen, Margrethe II, can speak 5 languages fluently, and she is a rather skilled painter.

Fredrick's Church or the Marble Church. It only took 145 years to complete.

 We got lunch at a hotdog stand. That might not sound exciting, but the Danish hotdog is famous among the Danish and with good reason. The hotdog was a beautiful link that was put in a lightly toasted bun then topped with ketchup, mustard, fried and fresh onions, and pickles. It was amazing.

Drool over it.

We went to the Denmark National History Museum next. It covered the prehistoric age to the 2000’s. It was a massive museum that honestly we kind of blew through. We have been to many museums in our lives and up to about the 1300’s it is all the same; pots, rocks, skulls, peat bog stuff, etc. It was in the 1300’s section that things got interesting. Very interesting carvings out of tusks, gold chalices from the Catholic days, swords, and recreations of palace rooms from the royal families. It was a very confusing museum to navigate, but we were very glad that we went through it. 

After the museum, we set out to find the statue of the Little Mermaid. It is the most famous statue in Copenhagen and has been voted the world’s second most disappointing tourist attraction - haha! But, we had to find it. I’m not sure why it is disappointing or why people are let down by it. What do they expect? Do they think it is the Disney Ariel? Do they expect Ariel to be there tossing her red hair? Sebastian to be leading a fish choir singing Under the Sea? IT’S A STATUE!

There she is. The Little Mermaid.

Anyway, feeling famished, we went back to McDonald’s for dinner. This time we actually looked at menu prices and it was less painful on the ol’ wallet. Our flight was at 7AM so we went back to the hostel and got everything ready for our 3:45AM wake up. Then we watched two episodes of Downton Abbey to get us ready for London. 

3:45 came quite quickly and we were out the door by 4:15. We boarded the autonomous metro and printed our tickets, passed through security (which was surprisingly painless and delightful) and were waiting on the other side by 4:45. We had a wonderful time in Copenhagen. I would definitely visit it again. 

More later!