Final thoughts on Paris

Paris is really just too big to do in a day and a half. We definitely want to come back one day..

My French was much better then I expected. I have not taken a French class since 2002, so I was a bit nervous to speak. However, I think I did a pretty good job!

Of course the food was great. JR fell in love with chocolate eclairs! I had one as well, and it was heavenly.

JR avec une eclair chocolat et
une tartlette de fraises

In short, nous aimons Paris! (We love Paris)!

Les Jardins

One part of the French culture that JR and I both love is the laissez-faire attitude. Parks were full of Parisians and tourists alike, just enjoying the day. The well manicured parks have plenty of chairs for relaxing and are decorated with ponds, fountains, statues. People bring lunch, cofee, ice cream, etc and just relax.

On Saturday, we took a break in the Jardin de Tuileries (outside of the Louvre) and on Sunday morning, we relaxed in the Jardin de Luxembourg in the Latin Quarter.This garden is located outside of where the French Senate meets.

Jardin de Luxembourg

In front of the French Senate

Pond in the Jardin de Tuileries..Louvre in back

Sacre Coeur and Notre Dame

We rode the metro to see the Sacre Coeur, a church nestled on the highest point in Paris. The line to go in was way too long, so we decided to just enjoy the view. There were lots of street performers, musicians, and artists there..so it was a good people watching spot..

View from the Sacre Coeur

We also visitied the famous Notre Dame Cathedral. Unfortunately, we did not get a glimpse of Quasimodo :)  The church was really dark, and did not get great pics.

Beautiful stained glass

View from a bridge..it is the building with the 2 towers

Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees

The Arc de Triomphe was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to honor French soldiers. It serves as a round about point for 12 different streets in Paris. There are no lanes in the round about, and JR and I agreed that it would be a nightmare to drive in!

One of the roads coming off the circle is the famous Champs Elysees. (In 7th grade French, that song was always played between recorded lessons..I sang it the whole day..JR caught on too) The Champs Elysees is home to great shopping in Paris (but really expensive). It is also lined with lots of restaurants, which JR and I stopped at one for a beer and a 7-up. The bill was 13 euro for these 2 drinks!! (that is about $16.50)

We did not have any time to do any shopping, but I want to come back someday to do just that!

Eiffel Tower

On our bus tour Friday night, the bus stopped for people to take pictures in front of the tower. We got out and snapped a few..we got better ones the next day. We were immediately bombarded with people trying to sell us cheap Eiffel Towers..JR and I were both really good at saying a strict no and moving on quickly..

It was really windy...

We had purchased tickets to go up the Eiffel Tower earlier in the week, so we came back on Saturday night to see the views from the top. We decided to walk up the first 2 floors (instead of taking the elavator), which was 42 flights of stairs. My legs were so sore after the first 20 flights or so, and JR had pulled a muscle earlier in the day from all the walking we did, so he was struggling as well! (we must be getting old)..After getting to the 2nd level, the only way to the very top was an elevator (thank God). The views were amazing--our camera did not do it justice--but here are a few. (more on my facebook page)

on the second level looking up

 There is a lawn behind the tower where people picnic and relax all day. There were vendors selling beer, bottles of wine, cokes, etc. It was a great place to just sit, relax, and enjoy Paris.

The Louvre

We started the day at the world famous Louvre museum. This is the 2nd most visited museum in the world (next to the Vatican museum in Rome). The Louvre is home to the Mona Lisa, Aphrodite, The Winged Victory, etc, etc, etc.

The outside of the musuem is absolutely massive. The Louvre was originally built as a fortress in the late 1100's.  Graudually is was built up and became a chateau (palace) until Versailles was built in the 17th century. For more info, check out http://www.louvre.fr/.

 Below are some photos from the inside...there are too many on the blog, so check out my facebook page for all of them :)

in front of the glass pyramid

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the Mona Lisa...so small!

Oh la la...

What a weekend! To borrow some words from Charles Dickens, "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times ''...

The worst of times just happened to be the mode of transportation we took to Paris: the bus. Taking a bus was literally over 500 euros cheaper, so we thought it was quite the deal. Friday morning, we were picked up at a bus station at 5:30 am. From there, we made several stops to pick up others throughout the western part of the NL. We then stopped at a central location and waited for about 10 other buses. Once all the buses arrived, people were sent to the bus that was going to the location of their choice..

We left the central location around 10 am..off to Paris..(already in the bus for almost 5 hrs). By car, it would have taken about 3-4 hrs from this location, but it took us 10 hours to get there (total bus time almost 15 hours). We had to make 2 stops (toilets, refreshments), which both took about 45 mins each..then when we arrived in Paris, our driver got lost. We drove around Friday evening rush hour traffic in Paris for 2.5 hours..

We finally stopped near the center of the city, were given about 1.5 hours to get something to eat and get back to the bus...

JR and I found a bistro and enjoyed a delicious meal, then went back to the bus for a quick tour of Paris before heading to the hotel for the night.

The best of times was our short stay in the city. It was everything I always wanted it to be: full of culture, fashion, food, sights, and a general feeling of happiness :)
 (Paris blog will be broken into a few entries, so bare with us!)

Yes, this is a true story

Picture this: An overcast, windy day in Bolsward. Then, me riding my bike as fast as I can to the dry cleaners to drop off a suit. Got it? Okay, now the wind is blowing so hard that it cancels out all the forward motion of my pedaling and the bike tires just stop turning.

I really could not believe that happened! I had to dig so hard to overcome the wind! I really thought I was going to fall off my bike because of it. Needless to say, the ride home was great--I made record time with the wind at my back..

Have a great weekend everyone! We are off to Paris very early Friday morning, so we will hopefully have a new post by Monday.  Au revoir!

3 games, 2 countries, 1 sport...

We had a really busy weekend full of soccer--a little bit of heaven for JR! We started out in Leeuwarden (NL) for Cambuur v. FC Dordrecht. (Camburr won 2-1) There were about 8,000 fans at the game and there was a good atmosphere in support of the home team.

Before the game, JR actually dressed as Pak, the club mascot and walked around downtown Leeuwarden to get fans excited and raise awareness for the game. I went with him and acted as his guide..people loved it, especially little kids (though he did scare quite a few).

It went pretty well except I ran JR into an awning (oops) and 2 boys wanted his autograph but JR could not grip the pen. So I held the pen in his "hands"and signed "Pact"...I got the name wrong, hope the kids did not notice :)

We had a really fun time after the game. There is a bar/lounge area in the stadium that the fans go to after the game. Everyone knew we were the Americans and bought us lot of drinks..by the time Alex was ready to leave, it was 1:00 am.

We got home and JR was dying to go to a local dance club, The Dancing Prince. I agreed to go, and we rode our bikes there. It was closing as we arrived around 1:45 am, so we went to a bar across the street. We had a drink and rode home about 2:15!

JR fell off his bike after running into a cement post (to his defense it was dark and the post was only about 1.5 feet tall)...but I did laugh the entire ride back!

On Saturday night, we went to Groningen (NL) to watch FC Groningen v. De Graffschap (Groningen won 2-1). This game was better, with one of De Graffschap's players getting a red card in the 20th minute. We saw a penalty kick and lots of shots on goal. Their stadium was really nice, there were about 25,000 fans there, and we had great seats in the business section.

FC Groningen scores the 1st goal

Sunday brought us to Dortmond, Germany with our friend Sevy Sucurovic. Borussia Dortmond has the biggest soccer stadium in Europe (seats around 82,000), and the atmosphere is absolutely crazy! These fans are truely die hard. Unfortunately for the home team, Bayer Leverkusen won 2-0.

From our seats

I really, really liked Germany! Luckily for our bank account, all shops were closed (it was Sunday), because the shopping there is AMAZING!!! (or so we think b/c of window shopping) The food was really good, and drinks were normal sized, although no ice and rather warm. We hope to make it back to Germany before we leave!

Good beer

With our friend Sevy at a cafe before the game

SimmerWike

Well, it is SimmerWike (summer week) here in Bolsward: a Thur-Sunday celebration of the end of summer. The vacation period is drawing to an end, and kids start back to school next week.

Tonight, there was a bike race circling Bolsward. I do not know how many laps around the city the bikers did, but after an hour and a half, they were still going!

There is also a concert series during the festival! Tonight featured a Mexican-style band..they have a really neat floating dock. We did not stay for the concert because it was too cold, but plan to back this weekend!

Sorry for the Absence..

Sorry for the absence this week, but I have just been dragging...I need a fountain coke so, so, so very badly! When you order a coke at a restaurant here, it is from a glass bottle or can (thus no free refills), and my carbonation-addicted self is having withdrawals!

So, needless to say, when the Zbo's pick us up from the airport on Sept 8th, please come quipped with 2 large Sonic cokes.

Thanks. more to come this weekend..

Tour de Holland

Today we rode our bikes to Sneek, about 11 kilometers or 6.83 miles. Of course I rode the whole way in the wrong gear, and my legs were so tired by the time we got there!!! ( Just a little bike history for me: when I was about 12, I rode about 3 miles on a flat tire--I had no idea it was flat--I thought I was just really tired!!) I fixed the gear problem on the way back, which made for a much better return trip :)

Sneek (pronounced like snake) is a much larger city with more shops, restaurants, and a market. We spent the afternoon walking around, doing a little shopping, and enjoying refreshments on an outdoor patio. It was actually really nice today-75 and sunny--which felt more like 85 because it has been so chilly!

When we made it back to Bolsward, we rode downtown to see what was happening. There was a sand volleyball game taking place, so we stopped to watch for a little while. It was a really sad game, as they are not so competitive over here. If the ball was not in the direct area of a person, they just let it fall to the ground and gave the other team the point..so strange and un-American :)

Bolsward Boat Tour and the Leaning Tower of Leeuwarden?!

Fenny and I took the canal tour of Bolsward earlier this week. Everything was in Dutch, so Fenny translated the important parts!

City Hall-built 1617

Building along the canal

When driving through Leeuwarden, you notice a building that leans sharply to the right. This building actually leans more then the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, so of course we had to make cheesey tourist picutres:

I look like a mime.

JR using his strength to PUSH IT!

Afsluitdijk Dike

On our way back from Den Helder to Bolsward, you have to cross the Afsluitdijk Dike, an 18 mile man made dike. The Netherlands looks like a mit for your right hand; there was no way to get from the thumb part to the second finger because of water. So, in the late 1800's plans for a dike started to arise. Constrcution began in 1927 and was completed in 1932. The dike is 90 meters wide and only 7 meters above sea level. The dike was a major point of contention during WW2, the Germans, however, were not able to take the dike over from the Dutch army. At each end of the dike bunkers from the war can still be seen.

Statue of Lely--man who started the dike project

View from a pedestrian bridge overlooking the dike

Look at JR's hair! It was really windy up there!

JR and me imitating the statue..this is how the whole dike was built!

Amsterdam, Part 2

The architecture of Amsterdam is very unique. Amsterdam is known for its canal houses; thin, rectanular houses, each with a different style.

Inside each house is very narrow and small compared to American houses. To conserve space, because it is at such a premium, spiral staircases are used to get upstairs.  This creates a problem when you move into a new house and have a king size bed. The only way to get the bed upstairs is through the front window. In the picture below, notice the wooden beams that stick out from the top of the roof. A rope is put through a metal hook and then the object is hauled up to the appropriate floor.

Amsterdam

We traveled by train to Amsterdam Saturday morning. When we arrived, it was very gloomy outside and ended up pouring rain the entire day. Luckily, there was a Hema (think small Target) in the train station, so we bought an umbrella and went on for the day.

On the canal cruise

Our first destination was the canal cruise. Amsterdam actually has more canals then Venice, so we thought this would be a great way to get acclimated with the city. We sat with 2 other Americans from Connecticut on the boat (who ended up being very strange)...

The cruise lasted about an hour, and allowed us to see a lot of the city we probably would not have seen. It started raining during the cruise, so most of our pictures did not turn out very nice :(

Bridge over a canal

Houseboats on a canal

It was also the Gay Pride Parade, which drew in about 400,000 people for the event. The parade was done on boats which floated through the canals and the crowd stood on the streets to watch. It was so crowded that we really could not get really close to take good pictures. Every float had a different theme; from cops to devils to brides. They all blasted music (mainly Madonna, Lady Gaga, and 80s)..The parade definitely made for some good people watching!

After the parade, we walked through the Red Light District. I never realized why it is called "red light"but now I know it is because there really are red neon lights above the windows. I was pretty disturbed by this area, so we did a quick walk through and went on with our day..

Our favorite stop in Amsterdam was at the Anne Frank House. It was very moving to actually be the place that Anne Frank and 7 others hid for 2 years, avoiding the Nazi army. It was very small, and I could not imagine living there with 8 people! We learned that during the day, no one was really allowed to do anything--run water, flush a toilet, move about the house--they were so afraid of being discovered by warehouse workers.I just can't imagine being a young girl and stuck inside an apartment for 2 years.

In the museum, the actual diary of Anne is on display, along with some of her other works. We weren't allowed to take any pictures in the museme so for more information, check out http://www.annefrank.nl/.

The Anne Frank House (the bottom level is a museum). The Franks and others lived in a 3 room annex in the back of this building.

The rest of our time in Amsterdam was spent people watching, avoiding the rain, and shopping. We had Chinese for dinner, then rode the train back to Den Helder.