Off to Pennsylvania

We started the day heading to Union Station to pick up a rental car, then headed north to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Gettysburg National Visitor Park Visitor Center is quite impressive. We were excited to get tickets for a bus tour of the battle fields. Unfortunately, the rain started just as we were loading the bus, and it only got worse. I ventured out of the bus a couple times, but was soon drenched, so thought I was better off staying inside. The good news was that we had a great tour guide who really brought the Battle of Gettysburg to life for us. He not only gave facts and figures, but some personal stories from the 170,000 Americans involved in the largest battle on American soil. Despite the rain, we got a good feel for what happened on those farm fields over 150 years ago. The monuments are everywhere and recognize both Union and Confederate lives. Now I want to come back and see them in the sunshine and take time to explore at my own pace.

After leaving Gettysburg, we drove 2.5 hours to my cousin Nancy's place outside of Philadelphia. It's so good to be here. Her husband Howie prepped a huge prime rib for at big family dinner tomorrow. So excited to see everyone and for them to meet Will.

Short entry today as much of the day was in the car. The trip is winding down.

Goodnight all!
Rich & Will

Last Full Day in DC

Today was our last day in DC. After a relaxing breakfast out, we walked to the Holocaust Museum. We did not know that we needed to be there early to get free tickets to the main exhibit, the chronology of the Holocaust. But there was still plenty to see. There were 3 or 4 other exhibits that dealt with not only the Holocaust but also genocide in general and the horrors in Cambodia. We can't even imagine what the Jews went through, but the museum certainly does a good job of illustrating the atrocities committed by not only Hitler and his people, but also the complicity of the "friends" and neighbors that betrayed their Jewish colleagues. It's scary to think that this was not even 100 years ago and that there are many people who think this way still today.

After the Holocaust Museum, we walked across the mall to the Natural History Museum. The exhibits here are so well done and very educational...thus the huge numbers of school groups in attendance. Many were well behaved, but unfortunately, there were many that were unsupervised and running amok, so sad. We really enjoyed the photography exhibits of animals and nature. Such exquisite photographs. The dinosaur exhibit is always a fun one as well.

After lunch, we walked up to the National Portrait Gallery and Art Museum. Such a cool variety of portraits from early Americans to modern stars.

We had an outstanding dinner at CIRCA Foggy Bottom where I had the best blackberry margaritas ever. Then, we walked a couple blocks to Captain Cookie & The Milkman for dessert...it was as good as it sounds!

We're all packed tonight. In the morning we go to Union Station to retrieve a rental car, then drive north to Gettysburg and on to Philly to see family.

We have loved our time in DC and highly recommend it.

Sleep well all!
Rich & Will

Museum Day!

We got a late start today after our marathon yesterday, but still managed to squeeze in three museums.

We started at the Newseum...or museum of news. It was absolutely amazing. It is the only museum that changes an exhibit every day! That, of course, is their exhibit of front pages. They receive thousands of submissions every morning of digital front pages. They have to narrow them down to several hundred which are then printed and pined up on displays on the sidewalk as well as in the museum. There are front pages from every state in the union as well as many foreign countries. It was very interesting. One exhibit had rows and rows of newspapers from the first printing press up through today with historic headlines such as Jesse James, the

sinking of the Titanic, the assination of JFK, and so many more. It was a newspaper timeline of the history of our country. Other amazing exhibits included a huge piece of the Berlin Wall and a entire guard tower, a mangled news antenna from the top of the Twin Towers framed by front pages from 9-11, history of news coverage from many wars, a photo wall of all the journalists across the world who have lost their lives doing their job, a 4-D movie experience about some famous historical journalists including Nellie Bly and Edward R. Murrow, lots of interactive news screens, and lots, lots more. We could have spent the entire day there.

Next, we took in the National Archives. This was so incredible. We got to see the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of

Rights. I use to teach about these documents, so it was very special to actually see them in person. The National Archives has many other exhibits as well, all about famous documents and how they have impacted our world, as well as the preservation of these documents. The digital age has brought new challenges to the world of document preservation.

We finished up the day at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. It is amazing how many planes of all types and space vehicles have been fit into this building. The story of flight right up through the

modern age of space exploration is illustrated with historical and current vehicles.

Our treat for the evening was dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill. The grill is the longest established restaurant in Washington D.C., being founded in 1856 as a boarding house and saloon. The meal was fantastic!

Tomorrow is our last full day in DC as we leave Friday morning for Gettysburg and then on to my cousin's place outside Philadelphia.

We're trying to prioritize what we want to see before we go...there is still so much.

Thanks for reading, and good night!
Will & Rich

The Capitol, Supreme Court, and MORE!

Another great day in DC! We thought it would pretty low key with a couple tours and not a lot of walking. WRONG! After a sunset walk around the Tidal Basin after dinner, we logged a record 27,025 steps, over 12 miles! But we saw so much, what a great day.


We started the day at the Capitol Building. We arrived a bit early for our tour, so we wandered around outside taking some photos. Then, we went over to the Library of Congress, right behind the Capitol Building. Wow! What incredible architecture, very different than many of the buildings around it, just beautiful. The Library of

Congress houses the Jefferson Library. It has many original books from the library of Thomas Jefferson, just amazing. The reading room of the library is incredibly beautiful. There are several museum quality displays located throughout the library as well.

We arrived on time at Representative Greg Walden's office for our Capitol tour. We were so glad we scheduled it through his office as there were only 8 of us on the tour lead by one of Mr. Walden's staff members. She did a great job, was very personable, and even took us into some areas that the large Visitor Center tours were not able to go. We got to travel through the tunnels under the Capitol to the office of the Representatives. There's a small "town" underground including a post office, gift shop, restaurant, and gymnasium. We were even able to eat lunch in the restaurant where the staffers and representatives eat. She was able to take us out on the

Representative's Balcony which overlooks the mall, wow, what a view! The Capitol was amazing. So much to see and so much history. The rotunda was shrouded with scaffolding due to preservation and restoration work, but at the end of the month it will be closing completely, so we were glad we were able to see it. Since my visit in the early 90's, a completely new Visitor's Center has been built under ground. It's huge and adds so much functionality for visitors.

After lunch, we went to the Supreme Court. It wasn't so much of a tour as it was a talk, in the actual Supreme Court! The docent did a great job of explaining how the Supreme Court process works. It was amazing to sit in those chambers thinking about the history that has been made there. I had

the impression that there was almost always dissenting opinions rendered, but in actuality, most votes, about 80 per cent are unanimous by the court. We just tend to hear more about the votes that are split. There is very little technology used or allowed in the court room. There are no cameras, television or otherwise, allowed at any time. Reporters must use pencil and paper, no recording devices. The court does now record sessions, but that is the only technology used. When they meet in their chambers for discussion, ONLY the justices are in the room, no clerks, secretaries, etc. And again, NO technology. I guess I would't do well, LOL. I found it all very fascinating, especially since so much of school law, which I studied thoroughly in my graduate work, has been determined through the courts.

Next was a walk to Union Station, some shopping, and a Metro ride up to Dupont Circle. We walked back to the White House from there and sat in the park across the street and did some people watching. Lots of high school graduates came through the area for photos. There were the usual protesters, street performers, and tour groups as well. Security presence seemed a little higher after yesterday's scare. We were pretty sure we saw President Obama and his daughters enter the White House at one point, but it was hard to be sure.

After a rest and cocktail in our hotel room, we headed back out for dinner at an excellent Mexican restaurant, MXDC. Everything was delicious. We decided to head back to the mall area after dinner for a walk around the

Tidal Basin to see the memorials we had not seen yet. As we approached the Washington Monument, we were treated to spectacular sunset that continued to paint the sky as we neared the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial It made for some gorgeous photos. We continued on around taking in the Franklin Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials, both amazing. We may have to go back to see them in the daylight.

So, after our record setting day, we are exhausted! I think sleeping in is in order tomorrow. Have a great night!

Rich & Will

Memorial Day

Greetings all!

Memorial Day for us was split between Arlington National Cemetery and the National Memorial Day Parade.

We started the day taking Uber to Arlington National Cemetery. The traffic going into the cemetery was really backed up, so the driver, very smartly, dropped us off at the end of the bridge rather than getting stuck in traffic. We hoofed it into the cemetery and up the hill to the amphitheater and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There was a long line with several switchbacks waiting to get through security at the top of the hill, but it moved steadily. Once inside, we headed to the amphitheater. I had originally thought we would stay out and watch the laying of the wreath at the tomb, but most people seemed to be inside, so we went along. When we entered, there were not many seats left,
but we found good ones in the back row straight back from the dais. The amphitheater was lined with American flags including several giant ones behind the podium.

We really didn't know what to expect and somehow did not get a program when we entered. Will asked to borrow a program from the guy sitting in front of us. He opened it up and was completely surprised to find out that President Obama was going to be speaking! We had know idea! We were so excited.

The guy we borrowed the program from had a photo and memorial on the back of his shirt, I assume of his son. His son was born one year after my son, Zachary, and died in 2007. I can't even imagine.

While waiting for the ceremony to start, the Army Band played marches and patriotic songs, so good. Then, the colors were presented with representatives from a variety of groups marching in, each with an American Flag an a flag representing their group.

A 21 gun salute signaled the arrival of President Obama in the cemetery. He first went to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier for the laying of the wreath. We could hear the playing of TAPS from where we were in the amphitheater. The President along with other dignitaries then entered the amphitheater. We got to sing the Star Spangled Banner with the President, listened to the dignitaries, then President Obama. He gave a thoughtful, moving speech honoring our veterans and told several personal stories of veterans who had recently died. One wife and 10-month-old baby were in attendance and were introduced to a standing ovation. Getting to see and hear the President more than made up for not getting White House tour tickets and getting rained out of the concert!


Once the audience was dismissed, we worked our way around to the front of the amphitheater to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We got a good spot to watch the changing of the guard and the laying of wreaths from a variety of organization. Two school-aged children, presented a wreath made out of cut-out red, white and blue paper hands.

On hour hike back down the hill, we made a stop at the graves of President John F. Kennedy & Jacqueline Bovier Kennedy Onasis.
The memorial was covered with small flags and flowers from the many people who came to pay their respect at the Eternal Flame.

We decide to hike back to town since the traffic was so bad. We got back in time to grab a bite to eat and find a good spot to watch the Memorial Day Parade on Constitution Avenue. The parade was made up of a wide variety of military groups and a huge selection of high school bands. I had a great spot for photos right across from the Washington Memorial.

Unfortunately, about a third of the way through the parade, someone through something over the fence at
the White House, only a few blocks away. This shut everything down. Emergency vehicles were everywhere.We sat and waited about an hour before the parade started again. It is billed as the biggest Memorial Day parade in the country. I have no doubt it's true! We stayed 'til the end! :)

We grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner. We found a little Chinese place not to far from the hotel and had a pretty good meal, then headed back to put or feet up for the evening. Haven't done this much walking in a LONG time!

Tomorrow is a tour of the Capitol and Supreme Court! With all the excitement of Memorial Day, we had almost forgot!


See you tomorrow night!
Rich & Will

Great Day - Rainy Night

Hey Everyone!

Today was hot and humid, which turned to thunderstorms tonight. We still had a great day. After a bite to eat at the hotel, we headed back to the mall area to see the things we had seen last night during the day. There were a lot more people, of course, but it was still great.

Our first stop was the Vietnam Memorial again. People everywhere paying their respects. But the moment that moved me the most, was a hearing two different young fathers explaining to their young boys how significant the memorial was, that all the people had died, and how to behave. In a day and age when we are so use to children running amok in public places, it was moving to hear these young fathers taking responsibility and teaching their children. I actually teared up as I walked by the one pictured here. 

We revisited the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, then headed over to see the Korean War Memorial, another moving memorial. We discovered a flag display in the lawn that was really something. Each little flag in the grass had a photo of a vet attached to a cutout of the state they were from. It appeared to have been done by school children. So cool. 

After a water break, we headed over to the Memorial Bridge to take in the Rolling Thunder motorcycle ride and demonstration. The motorcycles went on for hours! It was incredible. We heard estimates ranging from 50,000 to 350,000 riders. Absolutely amazing showing. 

After a bite for lunch, we took in the Smithsonian American History Museum. It was nice to get out of the heat and into air conditioning. The American History Museum has a wide range of exhibits. Everything from food to presidents. We got to see Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, Archie Bunker's chair, and Michelle Obama's (and other First Ladies) inaugural gown. Probably the coolest exhibit was the Star Spangled Banner. I had no idea that it was so huge or that a lot of it was cut off as souvenirs for friends before it was given to the Smithsonian. Unfortunately, it was the only exhibit where they did not allow photography.

We headed toward the Capitol Building for the concert next, but it started to rain on our way there. But it was just sprinkling, so we kept going. By the time we arrived, it was pouring. Without ponchos, hats, or any kind of rain gear, and no end in site to the rain, we decided it was a bit foolish to sit out on the lawn for 3 hours waiting for the concert. Uber rates had been jacked up 2.5 times because of the demand for cars, so we started walking. Sigh...what a walk! About 20 blocks in the pouring rain. When we finally arrived at our room, our keys wouldn't work. Will went to the front desk only to find we had been checked out of our room! The issue was rectified fairly quickly, thank goodness. We got into our room and found everything still there. Whew! 

Just finishing watching the Memorial Day Concert in our room, on TV, nice and dry. :) Tomorrow, is Memorial Day and we're hoping to get to Arlington Cemetery in the morning, then back for the parade in the afternoon. This city knows how to celebrate our veterans!

Today's favorite quote, heard from a young man hawking water, "Don't let dehydration ruin your vacation!"

Cheers all!

Rich & Will

What a night!

We made it! Our flights to PDX and to DC went without a hitch and were over all very smooth. I had a 42-year-old guy sitting next to me on the flight to DC who had never flown before! It was kind of fun taking in the whole process from his point of view. He did really well, considering it was his first.

Once in DC, we did another first, we took an Uber car to our hotel! What a great system. Much cheaper than a taxi and the driver was friendlier. It actually felt safer than a taxi to me. Kind of weird to hop out of the car and not pay the driver anything directly. Will definitely use Uber again.


Our hotel is walking distance to the national mall and our room is beautiful. Thanks to our Marriott timeshare points!

As soon as we settled in, we headed off to explore. We headed to the White House first. There were throngs of people everywhere...one of the busiest weeks of the year in our nation's capital. It was interesting to us that MANY of the people around us were foreigners, seemingly more than there were Americans.

After a yummy hamburger and delicious chocolate milkshake for dinner, we headed toward the mall. It was getting dark, which was perfect as we wanted our first view of the monuments to be at night when they were lit up. Walking down the mall, the Washington Monument began looming in the distance. What an incredible feat of architecture. Unfortunately, it is not open at night to go to the top. From the base, there are gorgeous views of the Capitol Building and Lincoln Memorial in opposite directions.

Next we headed down the mall toward the Lincoln Memorial. It is deceptively close looking, but it is quite a walk. Even though I had seen it before (Will had not), it was still just as moving. Now that I know I am distantly related to Honest Abe, it has even more significance for me. There were people everywhere, but Abe just sat calmly taking it all in. The view from the top of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial back toward the Washington Monument is breath taking, seeing the obelisk reflected in the reflecting pool.

On our way back to the hotel, we walked by the Vietnam Memorial. There
were wreaths lining the walk way and personal memorabilia lined the wall itself. The names seemed to stretch forever. It really got to me, what a tragic loss of life. We were able to find the name of a POW that Will wore on a POW bracelet when he was in high school. Seemed surreal to him to connect the bracelet to a real person.

A fifteen minute walk back to our hotel and we are exhausted. Even though we were on a plane most of the day, my FitBit still registered 14,500 steps!! So off to bed as soon as I post this. Tomorrow is the concert on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building, can't wait! And of course, more exploring!

Hope your Memorial Day weekend is off to a great start!

Our bags are packed...

We're all packed and ready to go! We fly out early morning to PDX then straight to Ronald Reagan International Airport. We plan on taking our first Uber ride from the airport to the hotel. Can't wait to start exploring DC. Hopefully, the weather holds for the Memorial Day Concert on the west lawn of the Capitol on Sunday. Check it out on TV, you may see us! Stay tuned for photos and blow-by-blow blog entries!
Ciao!
Rich & Will

Another one checked off the bucket list!

Hey, Everyone!

Years ago, when Will and I went to London & Paris, I started a blog of our trip to share with everyone. (It's still posted here!) It was a fun process, even if I did get to bed very late some nights. Of course, we can share directly on Facebook, but a blog keeps everything together in one place. I didn't think many people were reading the blog, but when we returned, we got all kinds of positive comments and remarks about it. In addition, when I did our London photo book, I was able to copy and paste the blog entries into the photo book. What a great way to relive the memories.

So, at the end of May, we are heading to Washington DC, a trip that has been on our bucket list for a long time. I have been once, as a chaperon with some of my students, but Will has never been. We'll spend Memorial Day weekend there getting to see the big parade and the concert on the lawn of the capitol building. We have arranged for a tour of the Capitol Building as well as the Supreme Court. We're keeping our fingers crossed for tickets for a White House tour! We are both quite patriotic, so are very excited. 

At the end of the week, on Friday, we're going to drive north to Gettysburg, then on over to the Philadelphia area to visit my cousins, the Hoelzle family. We'll then fly home on Sunday out of Philadelphia.

I'll be blogging along the way and posting photos. If anyone has any tips or "have tos" for us, restaurants, sites, etc., please let us know.

Cheers!
Rich & Will

The Rest of the Story...

So this was NOT a photo we expected to take on our European vacation.

Our itinerary called for us to fly from Paris to London, London to Seattle, and Seattle to Medford. Our flight from Paris was delayed about 30 minutes. While still in the air, a flight attendant came to our seats to inform us that we had missed our London connection. (I have to admit that British Airways attention was amazing. We have never received service like this on an American airline.) The flight attendant assured us that they would take care of us and told us that an agent would meet us at the gate in London.

When we landed in London, the same flight attendant escorted us off the plane and connected us with an agent who sent us to a rebooking desk. We were quickly rebooked on a flight from London to Las Vegas with a connection to San Francisco then Medford.

Ahh...all was good. We were actually scheduled to arrive home 10 minutes before our original flights!

We had to run to our gate in London, only to find that they had two long lines for boarding, one for women and children, one for men. Everyone was frisked and carry-ons were searched. We had already been through the traditional security check! This delayed the flight a little, so when we landed in Vegas, went through customs, and retrieved our luggage, we had to run to the domestic terminal. We arrived at the United desk and tried to check-in at the kiosk, but were too late. Our flight was closed. Deja vu! We returned to the British Airways desk in the international terminal. They rebooked us for the next day, reserved a hotel room for us (and paid for it) and ordered a shuttle. The service was amazing.

After being up for 24 hours straight, things weren't all bad. We got a good night's sleep (nope, no casinos - too exhausted) and were up for the 8:00 AM flight to San Francisco. All went smoothly and we were home by noon on Saturday.

A week later, we were pretty much readjusted to pacific daylight savings time, sorting through 3,000 photos and video, and loving our memories of a fabulous European adventure.

...and now, you know, the rest of the story.

We'll always have Paris.

Dear Friends,



This is our last blog entry for Paris. So sad. It has been a fantastic adventure. There is so much to see that we have not seen, we know we’ll be back. Most of the fountains were still off for the winter and the gardens didn’t have much greenery or flowers. It was amazing how much some of the trees leafed out while we here this week. In a few weeks, there will be green everywhere, another reason to return.

The French sure know how to serve a continental breakfast. We went to a café we had not been to before and were surprised by what they called a continental breakfast. It came with two fried eggs, half a grapefruit, croissant, baguette, fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee. I guess it depends what continent you’re on. We were stuffed.

After breakfast we spent the morning at the Pompidou Center of Modern Art. There were some works that were not quite our cup of tea, but it was definitely interesting. We then spent some time exploring the area around the Pompidou while we waited for Nikita and Katrin (Nikita’s boss from last summer in Medford) to arrive. Katrin was coming in from St. Petersburg, Russia, and Nikita was meeting her in Paris for the day before they headed back to Rouen. We had lunch with them, fondue again (yum!), in Little Athens, and then headed up to Montmarte via the Metro.
The weather was gorgeous at Montmarte and there were people everywhere. The many steps heading up to Sacre Couer were lined with people just enjoying the sun and the entertainers. We toured around looking at the art work and small shops and shot more photos. Katrin and Nitita had to catch a train to Rouen, about 5:00 PM. It was so good to see them, it was hard to say goodbye. We have really missed Nikita. Who knows when we’ll be able to connect again. We walked around Montmarte some more, had a delicious gelato, and then headed back to the hotel to rest the feet a bit before heading to dinner.

A French Italian dinner hit the spot tonight with a gelato chaser and a walk around the town before returning to our room to pack (ugh!). Over dinner we talked about our observations and surprises for our first visit to France…here are some of the things we came up with.

• Cafés are everywhere. Almost all of them are open for breakfast lunch and dinner. Seating is very tight and you often are sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone you don’t know. In France, no big deal. No one freaks out about their personal space. Also, when sitting outdoors in a café, people are typically sitting side-by-side facing the street, the ultimate people watching spot.
• A basket of sliced baguettes are served at every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner regardless of the cuisine being served. Mansy French dishes come with frites (french fries), at least in the cafés. Many dishes, including some pizza, are served with a fried egg on top. Crepe stands are everywhere – come on America, let’s get with the program!
• The French don’t serve lattes and mochas, unless it’s at Starbucks. In French cafés it’s café crème, which is coffee with steamed milk.
• In restaurants, the server brings a handheld credit card machine to your table. Your credit card never leaves your sight. Awesome idea that really needs to take hold in the States. Tipping is not expected in France and there is no spot for it on the credit card receipt…interesting.
• It’s not uncommon for men and women to share a restroom, once again in France, no big deal.
• In Paris, more French speak English, and sometimes quite well, than we were lead to believe. Most were also willing to speak English. Katrin commented today that when she was learning French, she purposely did not come to Paris because the Parisians were all too willing to jump into English when she was struggling with the language.
• It’s common for people to NOT pick up after their dog. This is quite nasty on the city sidewalks.
• Men aren’t afraid to wear color. We saw lots of purple and lavender, as well as red. Women do wear real fur in France, but not excessively. Almost everyone, men and women, wear scarves both for warmth and fashion. (Rich had to buy two, himself.)

I’m sure there are many more things that will come to mind as we travel home. Although this is our last blog from Europe, we hope that we will continue to have more opportunities to travel. With opening a restaurant, things will change for the next year, but hopefully we’ll be back on the road again soon.

To all of you who faithfully read our blog every day, merci beaucoup. We are so pleased that we were able to share this special time with our special friends and family.

Au revoir! We’ll see you at home soon.

Love,
Rich & Will

Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa?

Bonjour our friends!

Our day actually began with a trip to a nearby Internet café in order to print, sign and fax back our paper work for our new corporation for our Togo’s sandwich shop. Things have been moving forward while we’ve been gone, thank goodness, and thanks to today’s technology, being out of the country has not been a problem.

The Lourve was the next stop. The crowds were huge, but thanks to our Museum Pass, we were able to avoid the ticket lines and walk right in. The place is absolutely amazing. I think a person could spend a week there and still not see everything. We made sure to see the “gotta sees” like the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo as well as the sculptures, Italian paintings, Egyptian art, Asia/Africa/Americas, and a few others. The Mona Lisa had a huge crowd in front of it. The painting is behind glass and the area is roped off so people won't get too close. I think we have a better photo on the other camera, but it's difficult to focus on given the size, distance, and reflections in the glass. But this photo is the real thing. We also took in Napoleon III’s apartments, absolutely spectacular. When we came out of the Louvre, the rainy skies had parted and we had some beautiful blue sky, so we took some more photos of the area.

We then took the Metro over to Sainte Chapelle. It is cathedral from medieval times with incredible stained glass work. A section of the chapel was under renovation, but there was still a lot of glass to marvel at. The cathedral is surrounded by the Palace of Justice which was built in 1776. We wandered around a bit and ended up in an area where groups of people were waiting for court. There were police mixed in among them. It was quite an interesting atmosphere. We decided we were probably beyond the tourist area, so made a hasty retreat.

Given the chilly, but nice weather, we decided a walk was in order. We walked to the Royal Opera house and on to Galleries Lafayette, a department store spanning several blocks and many stories. It’s so large it has a complete gourmet grocery store on one floor. I think it rivals Harrods in London in size. The stores were very crowded in every department. We’re not so sure the economy is as bad here as it is in the US. We continued the shopping theme and walked to an area that had a shopping mall that had three stories…ALL underground. It just seemed to go and go and go.

Our feet finally screamed, ENOUGH! So we headed to the Metro. The Metro station directly off of the mall is mammoth and is a major connection for many of the lines. The signage is not the best in the French Metro, unlike London’s Tube. There were many times we have had to hunt for the sign we needed. Today, we missed a tunnel somewhere while looking for our line and ended up a long way from our train platform. Not to worry, even though the Metro App (see yesterday’s blog) was of no use at this point, Rich still figured out which lines to take from where we were. We ended up probably walking farther underground to get back to our hotel then we would have if we would have walked directly there above ground. Still, it was an adventure.

It was crepes for dinner AND dessert tonight. Delicious! The French have two types of crepes. One is a buckwheat or salty crepe that is used with cheese, ham, and other ingredients for lunch and dinner. Then there is the crepe that Americans are more familiar with, the crepe sucre, or sweet crepe. We had ours spread with Nutella, magnifique!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Paris. Nikita and Katrin, his “boss” from this last summer selling books, we’ll be joining us for part of the day. We’ve made a good dent in what we wanted to see, so not sure what all we’ll do, but whatever it is, it will be great!

Thanks for reading. Au revoir!
Rich & Will

There's an App for that!

Greetings from Paris everyone!

What a crazy weather day. You would think we were in Southern Oregon! We had wind, rain, sun and cold. After a crazy rain and wind storm this afternoon (during our nap) the skies became completely clear for the first time since we arrived and the temperatures plummeted. It was worth it to see the full moon rising over Notre Dame tonight!

So getting around any big city can be a challenge. Taxi’s are expensive and buses – well, we’ve found them to not be too user friendly. You never know what stop you’re at as they aren’t labeled anywhere. On the other hand, there’s the subway system. The Tube/Underground in London and the Metro in Paris have been a life saver. And YES, there’s an App for that! Before leaving home, Rich downloaded two Apps to his iPhone that have been indispensable. The Apps are simply named Underground and Metro. They have a built in map of their respective subway system, but more importantly, the App will create the best route from one station to another without needing access to the Internet (important for keeping data roaming charges down). All we need is a map that shows the subway stations. In the App, we pick the station where we are starting as well as our destination station, and VOILA! The App creates a route including station names and transfers. It’s been awesome and has made traveling around these metropolitan cities very easy.

So, what did we do today, you ask? We started our day at the Rodin museum. It was an indoor/outdoor museum with many of his sculptures located in the gardens around the old Hotel Biron that houses his other works. The works of Rodin our fascinating and the collection was just the right size for a morning visit. The very first statue on the tour is the famous The Thinker. It sits high on a pedestal with the top of the Eiffel Tower showing behind him.

Next, we walked next door to view the Military museum where Napoleon’s tomb is housed. The building is another gorgeous structure with a huge golden dome. From there, we walked to the Alexander Bridge which has four huge columns, two at each end with statues and gorgeous ornamentation.

While we were at the bridge six police vans and policeman went flying by us. Since sirens are pretty common every day, we didn’t think too much of it. But as we walked further, we could hear what sounded like gun shots, cheering, and loud voices on a PA system. Will noticed it first and realized it sounded like some kind of demonstration. Just down the river from us was one of the government buildings and a hospital. Being the “ambulance chaser” he is at heart, Will set out at a fast pace toward the commotion. Sure enough, when we arrived, we found a full-fledged protest in progress. Most of the protesters were in hospital scrubs and one of the signs had the French word for hospital on it. From what we could tell it was some sort of strike or protest by the hospital workers. What was different was the tone of activism that permeated the area. The police had created a line across the street with their bodies, riot shields, and vehicles. They didn’t let us linger very long before they asked to leave. Just another action packed vacation day for Rich and Will.

We got back on track, walked by the Grand and Petite Palaces, now art museums, but built for the World’s Fair just as the Eiffel Tower was. A stroll up the Champs Elysees led us to lunch and watching people go by on the Champs Elysees.

A quick Metro ride got us to Saint Chappell, a gorgeous cathedral close to Notre Dame, but the line was quite long, so we headed to Notre Dame. We were soon inside the gorgeous cathedral gawking at the amazing architecture and beautiful statues. We discovered that there would be a concert of Gregorian Chants tonight. Now, we’re not huge Gregorian Chant fans, but the thought of hearing a concert in Notre Dame was intriguing. So, we bought tickets with plans to return later this evening.

After a nap during the wild rain storm (timing is everything), we headed to dinner in Little Athens. We ate at a French restaurant and ordered Boeuf Bourguignon, our first. We’re not sure it was up to Julia Child’s standard, but it was still yummy. We have been surprised at the popularity of frites or french fries in France. We had assumed that they were pretty American. We have been served frites with almost every dinner, especially the French meals. This is in addition to the obligatory baguette.

We returned to Notre Dame for the concert. Gregorian Chants are completely acapella, so all that is heard are the singers’ voices. Notre Dame amplifies the voices naturally and the sound travels throughout the cathedral. There are no bad seats, despite the massiveness of the space. The voices tonight were outstanding and very pure. They demonstrated the acoustics by walking throughout the cathedral for several of the numbers. It was beautiful. We could hear them clearly no matter where they were singing. It was quite an experience.

Another gelato after the concert, photos of the full moon over Notre Dame, and we’re ready for bed. Just two more days, and way too much to do and see. Thanks for keeping up with us and for all the positive feedback on the blog.

Bonsoir!
Rich & Will

Chocolat, Chocolat, Chocolat!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Today was our first day in Paris all on our own. Rich successfully ordered breakfast all in French, even though the waiter spoke very good English…still, it was fun.

So, let’s talk about food since we’re on the subject. The French really know how to eat, and you know what they say, “When in Paris…” (or something like that…LOL). You have to love a country where you can have chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner! We started the day with hot chocolate, had a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant) mid morning, a crepe au chocolat for lunch and finished dinner off with chocolate ice cream with, of course, chocolate sauce. And their chocolate…Mon Dieu!! We’re not too sure we’ll be home any time soon.

After breakfast we took the Metro up to the Tracadero, a huge building that houses several museums and overlooks the Eiffel Tower. We walked down to the tower, taking plenty of photos on the way, only to find very long lines. We figured we would spend several hours just in line. We were just about to give up when Rich had the idea to pull out the trusty Rick Steve’s travel guide. He recommends the line for the stairs as it is usually much shorter. After tracking lines and figuring out which was which, we discovered he was right! It was only about 15 minutes and we were on our way up the Eiffel Tower. Now, remember that exercise course in London? They have it in Paris as well. There are 360 steps to the first level (and a short break for that pain au chocolat and café au lait), then another 360 steps to the second level for breathtaking views of Paris. Well, no trip to Paris if you don’t go all the way to the top, 1,063 feet above the city. WOW! What a view. Fortunately, although you have to pay for the elevator on the way for the first two levels, going down is free. We spared our feet rode the lift back to terra firma.

After a lunch of crepe au chocolat, we hiked back of the hill and toured the Cité de L’Architecture, or Architecture Museum. It has amazing pieces of art from medieval cathedrals, chateaus, and hotels that were destroyed during the revolution. They have reconstructed entire ceilings, doorways, and murals in the museum. It was quite amazing. What was even more amazing is that Rick Steve’s does not mention it in his list of museums. If you enjoy architecture as we do, it’s a must see.

One more Metro romp took us back to the Arc de Triomphe. This time we pulled out our gym membership card, cleverly disguised as a Paris Museum Pass, and climbed to the 284 steps up to the top of the arch for another 360 degree view of Paris. Arriving back on the ground, we discovered a ceremony going on around the eternal flame. There were dignitaries, military, veterans and school children all assembled to honor those fallen in battle. The group singing at the end (the French national anthem?) was moving.
Remember that fondue pot stuck at the back of your cupboard? Well, the French still use theirs. We had a delicious dinner of two fondues, beef and beer cheese, followed by chocolate sundaes and café au lait. Magnifique!

Bonsoir et au revoir!
Rich & Will