Honeymoon Day 11 - Rome Day 2
Today is our last day on the honeymoon. We are getting to the point where we are ready to go home and sleep in our own beds and see our puppy dog again. But before we can do that, we have one last tour...the Vatican.
We headed out early this morning and even check at the front desk to make sure that our travel to the tour office was less than the amount of time we had allotted. The front desk lady assured us that we would be fine. So off we went. Two metro stops and a 15 minute walk later we arrived at the address on our tour voucher...only to find that they moved their office. Thankfully it was only around the block and down the street, but it was a bit stressful for a minute. We finally arrived at the tour office, checked in and waited. And waited some more. Finally our bus arrived and we were off to the Vatican.
As we approached it became very clear that the "skip the line" part of the tour was more than worth the cost of the entire tour. The line around the Vatican stretched forever. We guessed that the people at the end of the line would wait a good 2-3 hours before they got in. Our bus driver dropped us off at the end of the line, so we walked past everyone as we made our way to the tour entrance to the Vatican. After much confusion (which became a theme for the tour) and about a half hour wait, we finally made our way into the Vatican museums behind our teeny tiny tour guide and her rolled up piece of paper (note: the top of the paper she held up was about at head height for most of our group, so it was a challenge to keep up with this little Italian lady).
We slowly made our way into the Vatican and would stop from time to time for our guide to explain the history of the Vatican and that much of it is museums housing both very old pieces of art and even newer, more modern art. Our guide also explained that just a few days ago, Pope Ameritas Benedict had moved back to the Vatican from his vacation home away. So there were two Popes at the Vatican the day we were there. Very rare. We didn't see either of them, but it was pretty awesome to know that both of them were nearby.
We walked through many galleries on our way to the Sistine chapel filled with amazing tapestries and paintings and art work. They were all beautiful, but due to time restrictions on our tour, we didn't have much time to stop and admire them. Finally we made it to the Sistine Chapel. Our guide informed us that pictures were not allowed and that no talked was allowed, not even by her. So we were told we had 10 minutes inside and to meet her outside the exit doors. The Chapel was much smaller than I had anticipated, but so magnificant. The paintings on the ceiling and the wall behind the alter were stunning. The room was packed, but everyone in it was walking around with their head tilted back admiring Michaelangelo's finest work. The guards were constantly shushing the crowd and going after anyone that they saw take pictures. I could have stayed in there all day, but we had to move on.
Next up was Saint Peter's Bascilica. Again we waited for quite awhile to get in, but once we did, we were not disappointed. Of all of the churches we saw in Paris and Italy, this was by far the most amazing one we saw. It was so grand and stately. Everything it in was magnificent from the floors to the ceilings. There really is not way to explain this place with words other than you must go see it sometime in your life. Again we were limited on time, so we had to move on. Both of us would have loved to stay there and explore more.
As our tour was wrapping up and we were tired of waiting, we handed off our headsets to our guide and went off on our own. As we stepped out of Saint Peters we found ourselves in Saint Peter's Square. It was pretty amazing to be in the middle of a place that just a few short months again we saw the new Pope emerge and greet the crowds on tv. We grabbed a few sandwiches and sat down to enjoy the view.
As we walked away from the Vatican we decided to hit up two more spots in Rome before calling it quits for the day. Due to the lack of metro stations in Rome (mostly because the city is built on itself so much that they can't dig tunnels) we gave up and hailed a cab to the Trevi Fountain. Trent had not heard of this fountain before, but he went along with it. Our cab dropped us in the middle of a busy sidewalk (or so it seemed) and somehow managed to tell us in english that it was around the corner. We both thought he was crazy, but paid our fare and sure enough as we stepped around the corner there it was. It's so strange to find such an elaborate and beautiful foundation in the middle of a busy intersection in the middle of Rome. It took us a little while to make our way to it, but we finally made it to the front and enjoyed the rushing sounds of the water and the amazing carvings.
Once we had our fill, we wandered a few blocks to our final destination for the day, the Spanish Steps. Again, Trent had never heard of them, but they were also a sight to see. The flowers were in full bloom and lit up the stairs the church at the top of the hill. We decided not to climb them, mostly due to the sheer number of people, but enjoyed the view and got a few pictures. As we headed back to the metro to make our way back to the hotel, we enjoyed one last gelato.
We took naps back at the hotel and then got a final recommendation for dinner from the front desk. Again we were not disappointed with the food. It was by far the best pizza and lasagna we had ever had.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Our Final Stop - Rome
Honeymoon Day 10 - Rome Day 1
This morning was our final test of our travel adventure through Europe. We had a 10am train to Rome from Florence. Thankfully the Florence train station was both close to our hotel and much, much smaller than the train station in Rome (and much less crazy). We opted for first class tickets on this train, which put us in a business coach, with larger, comfy seats, tables so I could work on the last two blogs and no screaming babies. The ride was a short hour and a half and the scenery was beautiful, at least what I could see as I may have fallen asleep a few times. We arrived at the train station, found the taxi stand and made it the short drive to our hotel without much incident. It was our first experience with driving in Rome, which seems to have no rules. The lines on the street don't matter, sometimes the lights do and people park wherever they find room (we saw numerous smart cars parked perpendicular to the sidewalk). Our taxi driver parked on the sidewalk as he dropped of us at our hotel and we thankfully didn't pay an outrageous amount for our ride.
This hotel is by far the best and they upgraded us for a reduced rate to a deluxe room. They also sent up a bottle of chianti as a congratulations on our honeymoon (we gladly accepted that)! And when arrived back from dinner tonight, they had turned down our beds for us and left mints on the pillows.
Shortly after arriving at our hotel this afternoon, we packed up our tourist bags and headed out to find our meeting spot for our afternoon tour. We asked at the front desk how to get to the Colosseum and the easiest way was of course the Metro. We had already tackled the metro systems in London and Paris, so why not one more. We are truly pros now at subways. We got our tickets with no problems, got through the ticket gates and quickly joined the crowds on our way to the train. And when I say crowds, I am not kidding. We thought the Paris metro at rush hour was crazy. This didn't hold a candle to Paris. And it was ever busier on our way back (which I'll get to later). We got to our stop and as soon as we saw sunlight, there it was, the massive Colosseum. We grabbed a few sandwiches and popped a squat nearby to admire the view. We walked around for a little while before our tour and of course found some gelato. I found the most amazing combination...pineapple and coconut (pina colada in gelato form)...amazing!!
We met up with tour and took a 3 hour walking tour of the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. It was all incredibly amazing and much of the history was very hard to comprehend. After coming from places that worked so hard to preserve all of their history, it was very different to see a place that was pillaged and crumbed over the last hundreds of years and now stands in ruins. But our guide was great, and offered up a lot of information surrounding the ruins and the history of Rome. The theme of her tour was that the Romans were crazy people and by the end we were both convinced she was right. On a side note, it got into the high 70's here today, which was by the far the warmest of any day of our trip and it was hot! There were few clouds in the sky and the sun was very bright and very warm. I have no idea how anyone comes here in the middle of the summer and survives. Thankfully once we moved on from the Colosseum, we got a slight breeze which helped a little. Tomorrow is supposed to be just as warm, but most of our tours tomorrow will be inside, so that's good.
After our tour, we jumped back on the metro. Actually we shoved ourselves onto it. There were so many people on the platform and in the train that we let the first one pass because we could see no way to get on. 3 people got off one of the cars on the next train, so Trent pushed us onto it (his rationale that 3 came off so 2 can easily fit on made logical sense, but holy cow was that car cramped). To give you and idea, all of the windows and glass on the doors were completely fogged over because of the amount of body heat on the train. It wasn't exactly comfortable and was a little smelly, but thankfully we only had two stops until we could get off and switch lines. Of course the train jerked its way to the second stop and I was fearful it would stop and we would be stuck. But we finally made it and switched to the second train, which was just as full, but had A/C, which the first train did not have.
We stopped at the hotel to freshen up and get a dinner recommendation from the front desk. We asked for something more relaxed and were pointed in the direction of what the lady described as a loud, fun place. We arrived and the place was empty but we had a seat and were greeted by a younger girl who sat down next to us and asked if we had any food allergies or restrictions. Then she suggested an appetizer that she explained in broken english. It sounded good so we said yes. A few minutes later we had a huge wooden plate set down in front of us filled with all kinds of meats, cheeses and bread. It was divine. In the meantime, they played some fun, upbeat italian music, and everyone that worked there danced and sang around. Then an older gentleman stopped by and sat down with us and asked if we wanted to share a pasta. He brought over a menu (kind of...it was a piece of paper with some pasta dishes written in market on it) and explained them to us. We picked the gnochi and were not disappointed. It was the Roman version, which was round and about the size of a popcan and had some cheese of some kind on/in it. So awesome. Then of course we had tiramisu, which was also amazing. Overall, Roman food is just as amazing as the other food we've had so far.
Tomorrow we visit the Vatican for a tour in the morning and then we'll see what we feel like after that. It's our last day and we're starting to slow down a bit so we'll see how it goes.
Love you all!
K&T
Love you all!
K&T
Tuscany
Honeymoon Day 9 - Florence Day 2
We were up early today as we had an 8:15am meeting time for our Best of Tuscany Tour. We made our way to the train station meeting point and jumped on our massive bus along with 60 other people. Our guide, Barbara, was really nice and talked to us on the 1 hour drive to Siena.
Once in Siena we walked a bit to meet up with a local guide for a 1 hour walking tour of the city. Our Siena guide was somewhat of a crazy fanatic when it came to Siena, but we soon learned that most of the people from the small towns in Tuscany were like that. Trent and I equated it to college football fans, but instead of football teams, they are crazy about their towns. Siena was amazingly beautiful and had a very interesting history, especially with their annual horse race in the main Piazza in town.
After our tour we had an hour on our own so we did a little shopping and exploring. After Siena, we headed to a farm for a tour and lunch. This "farm" grew everything from wine grapes to olive trees to wheat to tomatoes (and then some). They also raised cattle for beef, pigs and chickens. After a tour, we all sat down to lunch and a wine tasting. The food again was amazing and other than the cheese, everything came from the farm (bruschetta, pasta with meat sauce, salads, ham, salami and almond cookies). Trent even got seconds on the pasta and cheese. We then ordered a few bottles of wine to be shipped home, bought a couple of bottles of wine to take with us and headed back to the bus.
A quick 10 minute bus ride later, we were in San Giamanino. We were given maps and told to find a certain gelateria in town as it won the best gelato in the world 4 years in a row and were given an hour to wander on our own. We headed for the gelato and tried some of their more abstract flavors which they are known for. Trent had saffron (not so great) and cherry and I had ricotta & blueberry (very good) and blackberry & lavender (good to start off with, but the lavender got a little strong after a while). We enjoyed the amazing views of Tuscany from the this little town and marveled at how pictures of this place can't do it justice. We decided that if we ever decided to leave Omaha, we would move here in a heartbeat (of course that will never happen, but we can dream, right?).
Our next stop was Pisa and was over an hour drive. After all of that food and wine, most of the bus fell asleep, including Trent and I. It was a much needed nap and refreshed us for Pisa. As buses are not allowed in the center of Pisa, we hopped of ours and jumped on a tiny little train-like shuttle. From there we made our way slowly to the center of city, where the famous leaning tower is. From where we entered the piazza, the tower looked normal, but the further you walked away from it, the more it leaned. So amazing. And odd. We took the required photos and wandered around the piazza a bit. We got tickets to go inside the church and learned that it is the 3rd largest in the world. It was very pretty inside and had one of the most elaborate tabernacles I have seen. It was a beautiful day and had cooled down a little from earlier, so we walked around the piazza until it was time to get back on our train to the bus.
We arrived back in Florence at 8:30pm and had found out from our tour guide that our hotel had an amazing restaurant in it, so we headed back there for dinner. We had already had some really amazing food so far in Florence, but this was by the best. We both had amazing pasta and then a meat course. And of course we had a bottle of Chianti (which is becoming one of our favorite red wines very quickly). After a nice dinner we settled in the for the night, knowing we had a day of travel to Rome ahead of us.
Florence was an amazing city and we had already started planning to come back for our 10 year anniversary (we're thinking by then we can pull together enough money...maybe). We would love to see some of the other towns in Tuscany and hit a few more farms/vineyards as well.
Love you all!
K&T
Love you all!
K&T
Italy :)
Honeymoon Day 8 - Florence Day 1
The day started off a little early with our transfer to the Paris airport at 6:30am. And then it got a little stressful as we could not find our flight to Florence on any of the monitors in the airport. We found a couple of very nice Air France workers, who informed us that we were in the wrong terminal. Awesome. They told us where to go to get on a shuttle, and thankfully it wasn't too far of a drive to the correct terminal. We arrived really early (thank you to our travel agent for booking our transfer so early) and had a nice long wait until our flight. We were in a smaller terminal for smaller, regional planes and they had everyone wait in one giant area until 20 minutes before the flights at which time they assigned a gate and boarded everyone. It was quite nice actually.
We arrived in Florence and found our driver without any problems. He was a cute little old Italian man, who was very nice. He showed us where the main train station was as we passed it and thankfully it was only 2 blocks from our hotel as we knew we would be back there in just two days to catch our train to rome (I am writing this from our train to Rome). We arrived at an amazing hotel and were greeted by very friendly staff who showed us to our room and then disappeared as quickly as they showed up. Our room was more of a suite with a long hallway once you walked in the door, a sitting room with 2 wardrobes, a big room with a massive king sized bed and a nice sized bathroom (with both a shower head taller than both of us (not the case in Paris) and a full glass shower door). We were thrilled. Oh and the bed was by far the softest and largest so far. Trent mentioned every time we were in the hotel that this was his favorite and he didn't want to leave. Me either. It was very nice.
We headed out to explore and find the meeting place for our private walking tour later that night. Oh and to find food (we were starving at that point). We found a nice piazza near the hotel and there were a couple of nice priced hotels so we picked one and went it. Oh my goodness was it amazing. We had bruschetta that was to die for and then I had gnocchi and Trent had risotto. Both were beyond words. Mine had these large chunks of fresh mozzarella in them. I had no idea what fresh mozzarella tasted like. So amazing. After lunch we found a gelato place and walked around a bit. We found our meeting place for our tour and decided to just enjoy the scenery. Trent had an Italian beer and after a couple of hours we had another gelato.
Our guide showed up and was about our age and from MA. She married a Florentine and was doing her PhD in something to do with ancient things. Neither of us was entirely sure what she was studying, but she knew a lot about Florence and was a great guide. We walked around with her for 2 hours seeing the major sights in Florence and getting all of the history. She then recommended a few places for dinner so we went off in search of those. We walked down the river banks and were amazed at how quaint the city was. Dinner was amazing (it was a little off the tourist track, but with Kristin & Dan's italian phrase book we were able to decipher the menu on our own without any trouble). Dinner was very good and as it was late we strolled back to our room for the night.
Overall, we had no idea we would be this impressed with Italy. Everything is so different from Paris and London, but still beautiful and impressive in its own right. I can't explain it, but Florence has this really cozy feel to it and the people are all so nice. And the food makes me think of my Mom and Nona's cooking. Oh the food. :)
Love you all!
K&T
Late Posts from Italy
Sorry for the lack of posts the last two days. Our first day in Italy was a whirlwind and by the time we got back to the hotel we didn't want to mess with the blog. And the second day we learned the wireless wasn't free so we decided to wait until Rome and hope that it was (and it is). So I'll be posting the last two days blogs shortly for you all (I wrote them on the train to Rome today).
Love you all!
K&T
Love you all!
K&T
Monday, May 6, 2013
Last Day in Paris
Honeymoon Day 7 - Paris Day 4
For our last day in Paris we knew we wanted to visit Sacre Coeur and then we figured we would see how long that took and would go from there.
We slept in a little (until 7:45) and then headed out on the Metro North to the Montmarte area of Paris. Just a few blocks from the Metro we were greeted with the sight of Sacre Coeur on the hill. This chapel was built at the top of a hill so that it was visible to many from various places throughout Paris and to get to it you have to climb at least 225 stairs. The chapel is amazing inside and has a beautiful ceiling above the altar. Pictures were not allowed, but I highly recommend looking it up to see how amazing it is. As we came out of the chapel and walked around it, rain started to fall and we decided to sit a nearby cafe with a full view of Sacre Coeur and enjoyed a few espressos. It was quite peaceful.
We bought an umbrella (of course the one I packed was back in our hotel room) and headed out to try to find a nearby museum with works by Dali. After making one too many wrong turns and the cross streets not being marked on our map, I got a little cranky and we decided to head back to the Metro station and gave up (I don't do well being cold and wet, let alone being lost, cold and wet). We got back to the Metro station with no problems and decided to head to another museum that we knew how to find. We skipped to the front of the line with our Paris pass and were amazed by Monet's Water Lily paintings. There were 8 in total in two massive oval shaped rooms. Neither of us had any idea there were that many of them or that they were that large and impressive. He apparently worked on them for the 10 years leading up to his death and even designed the rooms for them to be displayed in. Very impressive and beautiful. The museum also had some works by Renoir, Picasso and other French artists that were very impressive as well. After some lunch we headed back to our room for a nap. The rain had stopped, but the morning was pretty draining and we were in need of a recharge.
After our nap, we decided that the 225 stairs to Sacre Couer were not enough for the day so we headed back to Notre Dame and got in line to climb to the top. The line moved pretty quickly and soon we were climbing the 400 stairs to the top of one of the towers. Keep in mind that there are only so many people allowed on each stairwell at a time and only 20 at a time allowed at the top 1/3 of the cathedral, so we booked it up those stairs (total time up, viewing and back down was less than 45 minutes). Needless to say were exhausted by the time we got to the top but the view was amazing and well worth it. And I never realized how tiring going down 400 stairs can be. And of course every stair was on a spiral staircase that got skinnier and skinnier the closer you got to the top. Side note, we have yet to see a normal staircase indoors here in Paris, they are all spiral.
We spent the evening sitting outside of Notre Dame, walking the sidewalk shops and enjoying our final meal in Paris (the final crepe count is 7 and creme brûlée count is 2). We are definitely going to miss the bread, the escargots and the french cuisine, but we are so looking forward to Italy tomorrow.
Our honeymoon is more than half over and although we miss everyone, our puppy and a few other strange things (like ice and not having to wait in line for everything), we are still having a blast.
Love you all!
Kristen & Trent
For our last day in Paris we knew we wanted to visit Sacre Coeur and then we figured we would see how long that took and would go from there.
We slept in a little (until 7:45) and then headed out on the Metro North to the Montmarte area of Paris. Just a few blocks from the Metro we were greeted with the sight of Sacre Coeur on the hill. This chapel was built at the top of a hill so that it was visible to many from various places throughout Paris and to get to it you have to climb at least 225 stairs. The chapel is amazing inside and has a beautiful ceiling above the altar. Pictures were not allowed, but I highly recommend looking it up to see how amazing it is. As we came out of the chapel and walked around it, rain started to fall and we decided to sit a nearby cafe with a full view of Sacre Coeur and enjoyed a few espressos. It was quite peaceful.
We bought an umbrella (of course the one I packed was back in our hotel room) and headed out to try to find a nearby museum with works by Dali. After making one too many wrong turns and the cross streets not being marked on our map, I got a little cranky and we decided to head back to the Metro station and gave up (I don't do well being cold and wet, let alone being lost, cold and wet). We got back to the Metro station with no problems and decided to head to another museum that we knew how to find. We skipped to the front of the line with our Paris pass and were amazed by Monet's Water Lily paintings. There were 8 in total in two massive oval shaped rooms. Neither of us had any idea there were that many of them or that they were that large and impressive. He apparently worked on them for the 10 years leading up to his death and even designed the rooms for them to be displayed in. Very impressive and beautiful. The museum also had some works by Renoir, Picasso and other French artists that were very impressive as well. After some lunch we headed back to our room for a nap. The rain had stopped, but the morning was pretty draining and we were in need of a recharge.
After our nap, we decided that the 225 stairs to Sacre Couer were not enough for the day so we headed back to Notre Dame and got in line to climb to the top. The line moved pretty quickly and soon we were climbing the 400 stairs to the top of one of the towers. Keep in mind that there are only so many people allowed on each stairwell at a time and only 20 at a time allowed at the top 1/3 of the cathedral, so we booked it up those stairs (total time up, viewing and back down was less than 45 minutes). Needless to say were exhausted by the time we got to the top but the view was amazing and well worth it. And I never realized how tiring going down 400 stairs can be. And of course every stair was on a spiral staircase that got skinnier and skinnier the closer you got to the top. Side note, we have yet to see a normal staircase indoors here in Paris, they are all spiral.
We spent the evening sitting outside of Notre Dame, walking the sidewalk shops and enjoying our final meal in Paris (the final crepe count is 7 and creme brûlée count is 2). We are definitely going to miss the bread, the escargots and the french cuisine, but we are so looking forward to Italy tomorrow.
Our honeymoon is more than half over and although we miss everyone, our puppy and a few other strange things (like ice and not having to wait in line for everything), we are still having a blast.
Love you all!
Kristen & Trent
Sunday, May 5, 2013
So Much Culture!
Honeymoon Day 6 - Paris Day 3
Today started a little earlier than we had hoped. We opened the windows last night and slept much better with the cool air (for some reason the A/C in our room only blows out warm air). Thankfully I have a white noise app on my phone that drowned most of the traffic noise from the street. We wanted to get to Versailles this morning when they opened at 9am, but due to an argument with the metro ticket machine, we had to wait for the 9am train. It all worked out though and we met a nice Canadian family waiting for the same train that we talked to during our wait.
We arrived en mass at Versailles and had only a 5 minute walk until we saw the palace. Again, there are not words to describe this place. Every other palace we have seen up to this point pales in comparison to Versailles. We knew we only had a few hours to spend at Versailles and as the line to get into the palaces was a winding crazy line that we estimated was a good couple of hour wait, we skipped the palace and headed towards the gardens. We were not disappointed at all. I have never heard Trent say so many times how amazed he was with gardens before. Or how grand they were. Or that they were not what he expected. We wandered around for a few hours and were delightfully surprised that the fountains were running as our travel agent told us they didn't run on the weekends. So as we wandered we saw many fountain shows (think Bellagio fountains in a garden) and heard some amazing classical music. It was truly amazing. After a few hours (and only seeing a fractions of the gardens) we decided to head back to Paris. We timed our arrival at the train station perfectly and found our way back to Paris near our hotel. We found a nice cafe for lunch and enjoyed a leisurely 2+ hour lunch (the French have zero concept of time, which today was quite wonderful).
After lunch, we jumped on one of the big double decker red buses and toured the city. We stopped at the Museum d'Orsey and we were able to soak up so much french art history, it was amazing. We skipped to the front of a several hour long line (courtesy of our Paris pass that paid for itself right there) and found ourselves in an old train station full of french impressionist art (Renoir, Van Gough, Cezanne, Monet, Degas). OMG it was amazing. I don't know much about art, but I LOVE french impressionist art and this was a little piece of heaven for me. Trent enjoyed it very much as well and made a comment that after that museum we had to be dripping in culture (hence the name of today's blog). We headed back out and jumped back on our bus to enjoy the rest of the tour of the city. We saw a few new sights including L'Arc de Triumphe and the the Opera house and saw several we had already seen, but could never get sick of seeing (the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower).
After the bus tour we took a quick break to check our "to do" list and then took the Metro to a small street south of our hotel a ways that I saw an article about in the flight magazine on the way here. It did not disappoint. It was a mostly pedestrian road lined with shops selling wines, chocolate, souvenirs and of course cafes. It was very quaint and very Parisian. Unfortunately most of the shops were closed as it was after 7 on a Sunday, so we headed back towards our hotel after a nice stroll and found another charming cafe for dinner. We are now relaxing after yet another wonderful meal and another crepe (number 6). Oh and we skipped crepes at lunch and opted for creme brûlée as Trent had never tried it before (it was the best creme brûlée I have ever had).
Tomorrow we are heading to Sacre Coure in the morning and then finding another museum that has more works by Monet, including his famous Water Lilies paintings that supposedly take up multiple walls in two oval rooms.
Love you all!
Kristen & Trent
Today started a little earlier than we had hoped. We opened the windows last night and slept much better with the cool air (for some reason the A/C in our room only blows out warm air). Thankfully I have a white noise app on my phone that drowned most of the traffic noise from the street. We wanted to get to Versailles this morning when they opened at 9am, but due to an argument with the metro ticket machine, we had to wait for the 9am train. It all worked out though and we met a nice Canadian family waiting for the same train that we talked to during our wait.
We arrived en mass at Versailles and had only a 5 minute walk until we saw the palace. Again, there are not words to describe this place. Every other palace we have seen up to this point pales in comparison to Versailles. We knew we only had a few hours to spend at Versailles and as the line to get into the palaces was a winding crazy line that we estimated was a good couple of hour wait, we skipped the palace and headed towards the gardens. We were not disappointed at all. I have never heard Trent say so many times how amazed he was with gardens before. Or how grand they were. Or that they were not what he expected. We wandered around for a few hours and were delightfully surprised that the fountains were running as our travel agent told us they didn't run on the weekends. So as we wandered we saw many fountain shows (think Bellagio fountains in a garden) and heard some amazing classical music. It was truly amazing. After a few hours (and only seeing a fractions of the gardens) we decided to head back to Paris. We timed our arrival at the train station perfectly and found our way back to Paris near our hotel. We found a nice cafe for lunch and enjoyed a leisurely 2+ hour lunch (the French have zero concept of time, which today was quite wonderful).
After lunch, we jumped on one of the big double decker red buses and toured the city. We stopped at the Museum d'Orsey and we were able to soak up so much french art history, it was amazing. We skipped to the front of a several hour long line (courtesy of our Paris pass that paid for itself right there) and found ourselves in an old train station full of french impressionist art (Renoir, Van Gough, Cezanne, Monet, Degas). OMG it was amazing. I don't know much about art, but I LOVE french impressionist art and this was a little piece of heaven for me. Trent enjoyed it very much as well and made a comment that after that museum we had to be dripping in culture (hence the name of today's blog). We headed back out and jumped back on our bus to enjoy the rest of the tour of the city. We saw a few new sights including L'Arc de Triumphe and the the Opera house and saw several we had already seen, but could never get sick of seeing (the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower).
After the bus tour we took a quick break to check our "to do" list and then took the Metro to a small street south of our hotel a ways that I saw an article about in the flight magazine on the way here. It did not disappoint. It was a mostly pedestrian road lined with shops selling wines, chocolate, souvenirs and of course cafes. It was very quaint and very Parisian. Unfortunately most of the shops were closed as it was after 7 on a Sunday, so we headed back towards our hotel after a nice stroll and found another charming cafe for dinner. We are now relaxing after yet another wonderful meal and another crepe (number 6). Oh and we skipped crepes at lunch and opted for creme brûlée as Trent had never tried it before (it was the best creme brûlée I have ever had).
Tomorrow we are heading to Sacre Coure in the morning and then finding another museum that has more works by Monet, including his famous Water Lilies paintings that supposedly take up multiple walls in two oval rooms.
Love you all!
Kristen & Trent
Saturday, May 4, 2013
The City of Light
Honeymoon Day 5 - Paris Day 2
So today was our first full day in Paris, and boy did we pack it full of adventure! The day started off with a tour of the Louvre. I planned ahead and made sure we had twice the amount of time I thought we needed to get to our planned meeting spot near the Louvre. Holy cow did I underestimate that one! We walked to the Louvre yesterday afternoon and I swear it was only a 15-20 minute walk. Nope! Try a 40 minute run/walk! Luckily these tours plan on tourists showing up late so we actually ended up waiting about 10 minutes for our tour to start (which allowed us to catch our breath), but we were a good 15 minutes late for our arrival time. And all of you know how crazy I am about being on time, so just imagine me saying "we're not going to make it" for the last 10 minutes of our run/walk to the tour. Not fun.
But we made our tour and it was amazing. We only got to see parts of one of the 3 wings to the Louvre but we saw some pretty amazing pieces including the Venus de Milo statue and the Mona Lisa. We were both really glad we did the tour but decided we'd had enough in the Louvre and we wanted to make sure we weren't late for our next tour (which wasn't for 2 hours) so we jumped on the Metro and made our way to the meeting point for the Eiffel Tour tour.
We climbed up the metro stairs and found ourselves in front of a rather large building. As we came around the corner I looked up and there it was. The Eiffel Tower. OMG that thing is amazing and beautiful and captivating. Just awesome. Our tour took us to the 2nd observation deck and then left us to explore some more or go to the summit if we wanted. Of course we got in line for the summit and were not disappointed. The views of the city were breathtaking from the 2nd observation deck and were unreal from the summit. So amazing. We worked our way back down (which required several waits in line for elevators) and decided to head back to the hotel.
After a quick rest we decided to head out again in search of a nearby garden. Of course the gardens here aren't just gardens, they're gardens surrounding palaces. We ended up at the garden and palace de Luxembourg. Once again it was amazing. Such beautiful grounds and another grand palace. It has yet to get old. And Trent marveled at this one because not only were the trees surrounding the palace in perfect lines, they also formed perfect diagonal lines.
After the gardens we headed back to the Eiffel Tower to see the light show at night. Our tour guide told us that there is a contract between the operators of the tower and GE to light it up every night on the hour for a few minutes with twinkling lights. She noted that the contract run outs in a year or two and then it's possible that the tower will no longer twinkle at night. So we grabbed a few sandwiches and crepes (numbers 4 & 5 if anyone is wondering) and popped a squat with the perfect view. We sat for a little over an hour waiting for the show to start at 10pm, but it was well worth it. Once I get back to the states I'll post a video of it that Trent took on my phone. So amazing and incredibly romantic. :)
One final note for the day, we found 3 people today that spoke "American" English (as we've started calling it) and it was so nice! Our tour guide at the Eiffel Tower was a Masters student from Philly and was super nice to talk to and a couple from California sat next to us to watch the Tower light show tonight that were super nice. It was the first time since we left the states where we have been able to talk about home with people we can understand completely and who understand us. So wonderful!
We are headed to Versailles tomorrow morning and then I think we're going to tourist it up and get on one of the big double decker buses tomorrow afternoon. With all of the walking today, we're ready for a more relaxed tour of the city.
Love you all!!
Kristen & Trenton
P.S. Heather, I can totally 100% understand your absolute love of this city, it's absolutely intoxicating!!
Friday, May 3, 2013
Ah Paris!
Honeymoon Day 4 - Paris Day 4
So many things happened today that I don't even know where to start. The beginning I guess makes the most sense. But I must say that the absolute highlight of the day was mass at Notre Dame. With everything else that happened today, this brought me back to calm and reminded me how wonderful Trent and I have it to be in Paris together (no worries, nothing bad happened, it was just a long, trying, crazy day).
The day started off early with no problems getting packed up and to Saint Pancras Station in London. Kings Cross was somehow connected (with the famous platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter movies) and no we didn't get to see it, but we were near it. :). We made it through customs and security and soon found our train to Paris. Other than the screaming, crying 2 year old behind us on the train, the ride wasn't too bad. It was my first ever train ride and was pretty fun. It would have been so much better without all of the screaming, but c'est la vie as they say in Paris (that's life). We got in line for a cab once we arrived (which was eerily similar to Vegas) and made our way to the hotel. The ride was bid odd as our cab driver got a call halfway through our ride and put it on speaker so he could talk to whoever called him. We got checked in and made it up another teeny tiny elevator to our almost as teeny tiny room. It's actually not too bad, but it certainly is not the 2 story room we had in London and the A/C does not seem to work.
We were starving so we headed back up the street to Notre Dame which we knew we passed just a few blocks before getting to our hotel. It was quite the site, so we found a table outside at a nearby cafe and ordered a couple glasses of wine and a pizza (yes, we ordered pizza in France...we were tired and hungry). We knew we needed to pick up our Paris Passes so we could ride the metro/buses and get into all of the museums so we headed to the nearest place to get them. I might add that of the 4 places listed that we could pick up our pass, all 4 were within 3 blocks of each other and were no where near our hotel. But we were feeling adventurous so we headed out on foot. On our way we walked through the Louvre's courtyard, spotted the Eiffel Tour and the Arc d'Triumpe. Needless to say we were both in awe. Such a magical place.
And then we proceeded to get lost. And take wrongs turns. And get lost some more. We finally found the metro station that were supposed to be able to get our pass from and the two ladies working there had no idea what were asking for. The language barrier became very real for us. Instead of listening to them telling us to get on the metro and go a long ways away, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe, which we thought was a few blocks away (and actually was) where we thought we had the best chance of getting our pass. We arrived soon after and got our passes without any problems. And then took a nice long break at the bar to get our bearings back. It was at this point that I had my first freak out. Poor Trent didn't know what to do, but I was exhausted from walking so much and getting lost so many times and now I wasn't sure we would even be able to use our pass on the metro and get back to our hotel. Being the good husband that is, he went and talked to the lady and found our metro passes in the stuff we got with the pass and then led me back to the metro station where we worked our back to the hotel.
We had our metro pat all mapped out, but of course the station we needed to switch lines at was closed so instead of just one change we got to go way out of our way and made 2 line changes. But we made it. and got off the metro back at Notre Dame. We decided to find a place to sit and relax, but instead ended up inside the Cathedral. I can never come close to explaining how amazing that place is to anyone. We walked in and heard the organ playing and beautiful singing. And of course there was incense burning. It was a magical place. So calming and comforting and wonderful. We walked all the way around the church and ended up sitting down to enjoy part of mass as it started sometime as we were walking around. Of course neither of us had any idea what they were saying as it was all in French, but it didn't matter. We sat through the first reading, listened to the Gospel and then listened to the homily, all the while in awe of this amazing Cathedral.
On our way out of the church we decided to walk around it, to see if we could figure out how to get up to the top of it (we never did, but are planning to go back for a tour and hope to figure it out then) and as were passing through the gardens behind the church, I saw the bridge of locks just beyond the gardens. Sadly, I saw this bridge on a reality tv show that I will never admit to watching and thought it was pretty neat and really wanted to find it. You buy a lock, write your names on it and then attach the lock to the railings of the bridge and throw the keys in the river. The railings are completely covered with locks and it was quite a task to find a free spot, but we found one, bought a lock and locked our names and wedding date on the bridge. We took a few pictures and even noted which lamp post we hooked it by in hopes that we will be back some day to find it again.
We then found a amazing cafe for dinner. We enjoyed a bottle of wine, escargot, lamb and chicken and of course crepes (Heather this was the second crepe of the day and was even better than the first!). The meal was amazing and we were both so excited to be in a place known for their amazing food and wine to enjoy and to be together on this adventure together.
So yeah, it was a long, crazy day, but we're back at the hotel and Trent is currently enjoying a game of rugby on the tv. Tomorrow we have a tour of the Louvre in the morning and a tour of the Eiffel Tour in the afternoon, with more sightseeing in between.
Love you all!
Trent & Kristen
So many things happened today that I don't even know where to start. The beginning I guess makes the most sense. But I must say that the absolute highlight of the day was mass at Notre Dame. With everything else that happened today, this brought me back to calm and reminded me how wonderful Trent and I have it to be in Paris together (no worries, nothing bad happened, it was just a long, trying, crazy day).
The day started off early with no problems getting packed up and to Saint Pancras Station in London. Kings Cross was somehow connected (with the famous platform 9 3/4 from the Harry Potter movies) and no we didn't get to see it, but we were near it. :). We made it through customs and security and soon found our train to Paris. Other than the screaming, crying 2 year old behind us on the train, the ride wasn't too bad. It was my first ever train ride and was pretty fun. It would have been so much better without all of the screaming, but c'est la vie as they say in Paris (that's life). We got in line for a cab once we arrived (which was eerily similar to Vegas) and made our way to the hotel. The ride was bid odd as our cab driver got a call halfway through our ride and put it on speaker so he could talk to whoever called him. We got checked in and made it up another teeny tiny elevator to our almost as teeny tiny room. It's actually not too bad, but it certainly is not the 2 story room we had in London and the A/C does not seem to work.
We were starving so we headed back up the street to Notre Dame which we knew we passed just a few blocks before getting to our hotel. It was quite the site, so we found a table outside at a nearby cafe and ordered a couple glasses of wine and a pizza (yes, we ordered pizza in France...we were tired and hungry). We knew we needed to pick up our Paris Passes so we could ride the metro/buses and get into all of the museums so we headed to the nearest place to get them. I might add that of the 4 places listed that we could pick up our pass, all 4 were within 3 blocks of each other and were no where near our hotel. But we were feeling adventurous so we headed out on foot. On our way we walked through the Louvre's courtyard, spotted the Eiffel Tour and the Arc d'Triumpe. Needless to say we were both in awe. Such a magical place.
And then we proceeded to get lost. And take wrongs turns. And get lost some more. We finally found the metro station that were supposed to be able to get our pass from and the two ladies working there had no idea what were asking for. The language barrier became very real for us. Instead of listening to them telling us to get on the metro and go a long ways away, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe, which we thought was a few blocks away (and actually was) where we thought we had the best chance of getting our pass. We arrived soon after and got our passes without any problems. And then took a nice long break at the bar to get our bearings back. It was at this point that I had my first freak out. Poor Trent didn't know what to do, but I was exhausted from walking so much and getting lost so many times and now I wasn't sure we would even be able to use our pass on the metro and get back to our hotel. Being the good husband that is, he went and talked to the lady and found our metro passes in the stuff we got with the pass and then led me back to the metro station where we worked our back to the hotel.
We had our metro pat all mapped out, but of course the station we needed to switch lines at was closed so instead of just one change we got to go way out of our way and made 2 line changes. But we made it. and got off the metro back at Notre Dame. We decided to find a place to sit and relax, but instead ended up inside the Cathedral. I can never come close to explaining how amazing that place is to anyone. We walked in and heard the organ playing and beautiful singing. And of course there was incense burning. It was a magical place. So calming and comforting and wonderful. We walked all the way around the church and ended up sitting down to enjoy part of mass as it started sometime as we were walking around. Of course neither of us had any idea what they were saying as it was all in French, but it didn't matter. We sat through the first reading, listened to the Gospel and then listened to the homily, all the while in awe of this amazing Cathedral.
On our way out of the church we decided to walk around it, to see if we could figure out how to get up to the top of it (we never did, but are planning to go back for a tour and hope to figure it out then) and as were passing through the gardens behind the church, I saw the bridge of locks just beyond the gardens. Sadly, I saw this bridge on a reality tv show that I will never admit to watching and thought it was pretty neat and really wanted to find it. You buy a lock, write your names on it and then attach the lock to the railings of the bridge and throw the keys in the river. The railings are completely covered with locks and it was quite a task to find a free spot, but we found one, bought a lock and locked our names and wedding date on the bridge. We took a few pictures and even noted which lamp post we hooked it by in hopes that we will be back some day to find it again.
We then found a amazing cafe for dinner. We enjoyed a bottle of wine, escargot, lamb and chicken and of course crepes (Heather this was the second crepe of the day and was even better than the first!). The meal was amazing and we were both so excited to be in a place known for their amazing food and wine to enjoy and to be together on this adventure together.
So yeah, it was a long, crazy day, but we're back at the hotel and Trent is currently enjoying a game of rugby on the tv. Tomorrow we have a tour of the Louvre in the morning and a tour of the Eiffel Tour in the afternoon, with more sightseeing in between.
Love you all!
Trent & Kristen
Thursday, May 2, 2013
A Day at Kew Gardens
Honeymoon Day 3 - London Day 3 (Final Day)
Today we braved the Tube to travel to the largest botanical gardens in the world, Kew Gardens. Riding the subway is kind of like riding a bike, it's a bit scary at first, but once you get on the first train it all comes back to you. Two stations line changes and only about 5 minutes of being completely lost on one of the platforms later, we arrived at the Kew Gardens stop. As we departed the Tube we found ourselves in the most adorable little town. We wandered down two blocks among adorable old houses and crazy expensive cars (Land Rovers, Aston Martins, Audis, etc) and found ourselves at the gates to Kew Gardens.
Needless to say, the next 6 hours were spent wandering, taking pictures and Trent oohing and aahing over the amazing plants. And I have to say that even for this non-crazy plant person, that was place was truly amazing. It was over 300 acres of gardens, trees, and fountains. I can't really describe it very well, but trust me, we have enough pictures to show everyone to give you an idea. :)
After a long day at the gardens, we for some reason decided to get a little more use out of tube pass for the day and headed to see Saint Paul's up close (we had seen it yesterday on our bus tour, but just in passing). What we did not factor into our decision was that it was rush hour on the tube. I didn't know you could stuff that many people on a subway train before, but holy cow do the British know how to squeeze into tiny places. People were literally hanging out of the train doors we they closed. Once we arrived at the Church, we were completely amazed at the size and beauty of it. Unfortunately we were not able to go inside due to a "celebrity organ concert" (whatever that is) but we were able to walk around and get some good pictures.
It was a very long, tiring day, so we retired early to our room. We're off to Saint Pancras station first thing tomorrow morning to catch the Chunnel to Paris. It's hard to believe our time in London is over, but I know I am so excited to get to Paris.
Until tomorrow...Cheerio Pip Pip!! (for you Debbie!)
Kristen & Trent
A Few Photos From Wednesday
The first picture is on top of the bus with Big in the background. The second is from our afternoon tea.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Pinkies Up!
Honeymoon Day 2 - London Day 2
The day started off a little rough. I could not for the life of me figure out how to get either the hairdryer (and converters) I brought with me or the hairdryer provided by the hotel to work. It turns out there are 3 different power plugs ins in our room. One in the bathroom that uses a little converter with just two round prongs (and does not have enough power to run the hairdryer), another plug that is all over the room and powers the lamps, and finally, a strange looking plug hidden behind the desk with its own switch that finally turned on the hairdryer. So needless to say by the time I figured out how to use the hairdryer, my hair was mostly dry. So it was straight today. :)
We started off our day with breakfast at the hotel. It was mostly a cold breakfast of toast, croissants, some cold meats and cheeses and excellent coffee. We then headed down the road to the bus stop for the Big Bus Company tour. Once we found our bus we climbed to the top level and settled in. The bus took us all through city and included headphones for a recorded tour as we traveled along. We saw all the major sights of the city including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the London Bridge, and Saint Paul's. We also got brave and "hopped off" at Harrods Department Store. That place was amazing. Everything from top designer clothing, shoes and watches to freshly made foods spanning the globe to a vast collection of cigars, wines and whiskey. We grabbed a couple of sandwiches and hopped back on the bus to enjoy. We arrived back at our hotel after 5 hours on the bus and took a nice nap before part 2 of our day.
Fully refreshed from our nap, we cleaned up and put on our "smart casual" attire to head for afternoon tea at Browns Hotel. The hotel called us their cab (which was a Mercedes) and arrived just in time for our reservation for tea. We stepped into a beautiful old hotel that turned out to be the first hotel built in London almost 200 years ago. We were shown to a corner couch with a table and our tea adventure began. Neither of us knew exactly what to expect, but we can both say that it was a great time and we highly recommend it to anyone visiting London. We each picked our tea (I chose lemon verbena and Trent got Browns afternoon tea - both were very good) and then they brought us a tower of finger sandwiches, fresh scones and desserts. We also splurged and got a glass of champagne to go with our tea. The food and tea were amazing and never ending (they just kept bringing out more food whenever we would clear a plate). After almost two hours of sipping on tea and snacking on the yummy food we decided we needed to get moving again and headed out.
The rest of our day was spent wandering through another part of Hyde Park across from our hotel and nearby shops.
Tomorrow is the day that Trent has been looking forward to since we booked this trip...the day at Kew Gardens. Tomorrow will be our first attempt at the Tube (subway) so wish us luck!
Love you all!
Kristen & Trent
P.S. Turns out we can't post photos to the blog from the iPad. We will be able to post from the iPhone later, but as we can only get wifi on one device at a time, no pictures yet. Sorry! I will try to find some free wifi tomorrow before we hit Kew Gardens and post a few. Otherwise I promise to post some when we get to Paris and the hotel wifi is free.
The day started off a little rough. I could not for the life of me figure out how to get either the hairdryer (and converters) I brought with me or the hairdryer provided by the hotel to work. It turns out there are 3 different power plugs ins in our room. One in the bathroom that uses a little converter with just two round prongs (and does not have enough power to run the hairdryer), another plug that is all over the room and powers the lamps, and finally, a strange looking plug hidden behind the desk with its own switch that finally turned on the hairdryer. So needless to say by the time I figured out how to use the hairdryer, my hair was mostly dry. So it was straight today. :)
We started off our day with breakfast at the hotel. It was mostly a cold breakfast of toast, croissants, some cold meats and cheeses and excellent coffee. We then headed down the road to the bus stop for the Big Bus Company tour. Once we found our bus we climbed to the top level and settled in. The bus took us all through city and included headphones for a recorded tour as we traveled along. We saw all the major sights of the city including Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the London Bridge, and Saint Paul's. We also got brave and "hopped off" at Harrods Department Store. That place was amazing. Everything from top designer clothing, shoes and watches to freshly made foods spanning the globe to a vast collection of cigars, wines and whiskey. We grabbed a couple of sandwiches and hopped back on the bus to enjoy. We arrived back at our hotel after 5 hours on the bus and took a nice nap before part 2 of our day.
Fully refreshed from our nap, we cleaned up and put on our "smart casual" attire to head for afternoon tea at Browns Hotel. The hotel called us their cab (which was a Mercedes) and arrived just in time for our reservation for tea. We stepped into a beautiful old hotel that turned out to be the first hotel built in London almost 200 years ago. We were shown to a corner couch with a table and our tea adventure began. Neither of us knew exactly what to expect, but we can both say that it was a great time and we highly recommend it to anyone visiting London. We each picked our tea (I chose lemon verbena and Trent got Browns afternoon tea - both were very good) and then they brought us a tower of finger sandwiches, fresh scones and desserts. We also splurged and got a glass of champagne to go with our tea. The food and tea were amazing and never ending (they just kept bringing out more food whenever we would clear a plate). After almost two hours of sipping on tea and snacking on the yummy food we decided we needed to get moving again and headed out.
The rest of our day was spent wandering through another part of Hyde Park across from our hotel and nearby shops.
Tomorrow is the day that Trent has been looking forward to since we booked this trip...the day at Kew Gardens. Tomorrow will be our first attempt at the Tube (subway) so wish us luck!
Love you all!
Kristen & Trent
P.S. Turns out we can't post photos to the blog from the iPad. We will be able to post from the iPhone later, but as we can only get wifi on one device at a time, no pictures yet. Sorry! I will try to find some free wifi tomorrow before we hit Kew Gardens and post a few. Otherwise I promise to post some when we get to Paris and the hotel wifi is free.
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