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| in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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SUNDAY:
The above picture is really from Saturday, but it is from Amsterdam. On Saturday afternoon, we toured the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This ship model was done in the late 1600's and it is amazing. The star of the museum though is Rembrandt's Night Watch. It was difficult to get near or to spend any great time looking over due to the crowds and the guides. I am glad to have seen it. It is immense.
Sunday morning we left the ship and taxied to our motel about a mile from the ship. Nancy took the train to the airport to travel back home. Jo-Ellen would stay with us another day and leave for home on Monday.
Our hotel was 200 yards from the train station. After dropping off our luggage, we took the tram to the Van Gogh museum. It was my favorite museum on the trip. I am not a huge fan of Van Gogh, but I really felt that the museum was well laid out and I learned a great deal about Van Gogh. I didn't feel rushed and I thought that the audio tour was just right, not too lengthy but having some good information about Van Gogh and his paintings.
In the evening, we toured the Anne Frank house and then went to a Rijsttafel ("Rice Table") dinner. It is a mix of Dutch and Indonesian culture. Think Chinese where everybody orders a different entree and then you share. You get to eat a lot of different foods at one sitting. The Anne Frank House is worth doing but it is a lot of climbing up tiny stairs. I don't think that I have read the entire diary, but only snippets. I might give it a read now that I have toured the house and heard more of her story.
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| Statute of Anne Frank |
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| The West Church, near the Anne Frank House (she heard the bells of this church during her time in hiding) |
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| The Rijsttaffel |
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| Burp! |
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MONDAY:
On Monday, we boarded a train for Paris. We arrived 3 and half hours later. We then took the Paris Metro to our hotel. When we left the ship, we thought that we were done with tiny rooms and tiny bathrooms. We were wrong. Our room in Paris was the same size or a bit smaller than our room on the ship. The bathroom definitely was smaller and not as well planned as the bathroom on the ship.
In the afternoon, we met Louise and Sean as we walked down to Notre Dame (the Notre Dame). Louise and Sean had just gotten off the train from the airport and were walking up to our hotel.
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| Ken at the Paris train station |
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| The view from our hotel room (the nicest thing about our room...notice the rental bike station on the other side of the street) |
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| The side view of Notre Dame (that's Deb taking the same photo) |
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| From inside the cathedral nearly behind the altar |
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| A view of the Seine from the bridge leading to Notre Dame |
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| From the back side of Notre Dame (IMHO, the best view of the cathedral) |
TUESDAY: On our first full day in Paris we traveled to Versailles (French for "Palace without bathrooms"). The wait to get into the Palace when we arrived had to be at least 90 minutes. We opted to see the gardens first.
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| A view of the gardens looking away from the Palace |
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| Looking at the back side of the Palace |
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| In front of one of the many fountains |
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| The gang walking toward one of the smaller "retreat" palaces |
Late in the afternoon, we made our way into the Palace. Our wait was only 50 minutes. A word about the bathroom situation. Apparently the French only need to go to the bathroom twice a day. That would explain the near complete lack of public restrooms. There had to be 10,000 people visiting Versailles that day. I doubt that there were no more than 60 bathroom "units" (stalls and urinals) on the grounds of Versailles. When you do the math, it does not yield a great result. About 10% of the visitors were grade school age children. Plan on waiting a long time in line to use the limited facilities. The Palace is worth seeing but once is enough.
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| Getting to information overload? |
WEDNESDAY: Wednesday was dedicated to seeing more of the typical tourist sites of Paris. First stop, the Arc de Triomphe. It was built to celebrate Napoleon's victories. The views from the top are quite nice.
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| Looking West |
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| Eiffel Tower as viewed from the Arc de Triomphe | | | | | | | |
We were then going to proceed to the Eiffel Tower, but it was closed due to a strike that was in its second day. After lunch, we made our way to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart). It is located on the highest point in Paris. After you get up the hill (we took the cable car), it is 300 steps to the top.
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| Looking down at the courtyard below the church |
Later in the afternoon, as we made our way back to our hotel, we stopped at the Luxembourg Gardens. It seems less overrun by tourists than the other sites that day. It seemed a bit like a much smaller version of Central Park in NYC. We rested and watched kids pilot toy sailboats across the pond.
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| Being French in the Luxembourg Gardens |
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On Wednesday evening, we took a one-hour cruise on the Seine. Here is where I got my best shot of the Eiffel Tower.
THURSDAY:
Thursday was our museum day. We trekked over to the Louvre. Yes, it was crowded, but you still need to go if you are in Paris. We did manage in about 5 hours to see a good deal of the collections. I spent most of my time in the Italian section. Most of it is religious art so be prepared for many paintings of the Annunciation, Jesus and John the Baptist as infants or toddlers, the Crucifixion, and Jesus be taken down from the Cross (Pietà).
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| The Pyramid |
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| Looking away from the Pyramid toward the Tuileries Gardens |
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| The Grand Gallery |
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The next picture is of the Mona Lisa. I did get a bit closer than this, but I was still about 10 people back from the painting at my closest view. I checked back several times and the crowds never did seem to be less than is shown here.
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| Notice all of the cellphones in the air... |
The next set of pictures is taken from inside the Louvre, from the second or third floor. These pictures give an idea of how large the museum is.
After the Louvre, we managed to get to the d'Orsay museum. It is directly across the Seine from the Louvre. We liked (Susan and I at least) the d'Orsay a bit more than the Louvre. The d'Orsay has a more "modern" focus. The artwork seemed to mainly from the 19th Century and early 20th Century. The Louvre has artwork from much earlier. We toured the Impressionist wing (Monet, Manet, Degas and Gauguin). The other nice thing about this museum is that photo taking was not allowed. Part of the problem with the Louvre was that so many were taking several shots of each painting. Sometimes, taking several shots with different family members in front of the most famous paintings. At the d'Orsay, you could get closer to the paintings and spend some time looking at particular paintings.
That evening, our last, we had our best meal in Paris. Thankfully for our aching feet, the restaurant was only about 100 yards from our hotel.
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| From inside the d'Orsay toward Sacre Coeur | |
FRIDAY:
Friday we took a bus to the airport and headed home. Our flight was delayed an hour, but we arrived in Pittsburgh around 6 pm (after leaving Paris at 3 pm).
I am happy to be home, but I really enjoyed the trip. I thought that the river cruise was a really good bargain. The food was very good to excellent. There was always enough to do and see and still some time for relaxing on the boat.
