What a week it has been! It is hard to believe that I updated the blog an entire week ago! I guess I will pick up where I left off...
On Friday, J and I visited the Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb. I can say that the Army Museum's WWII exhibit was one of the highlights of our Paris trip. It was a great exhibit, very thorough, and interesting. J and I both really enjoyed it. After that, we headed over to Rodin museum to see "The Thinker." Can't wait to show you all some of these pictures. I have a great one of J posing just like him...very funny. We then headed over to the Conciergerie Prison and Sainte Chapelle. That evening we went up to Montmarte and saw the Sacre-Coeur, the square, and had dinner at Moulinde de la Galette, which is one of two windmills left (used to be 30) in this particular area. After a fabulous dinner, we walked down a few very steep streets to attend a show at Moulin Rouge. It was very entertaining and I am glad we went, but it was humorous and not Broadway by any means :).
Saturday was a pretty low key day. We slept in late and then headed out to the Versailles Palace. It was absolutely huge and the gardens were beautiful. It was funny though, now thinking back, because J was not all that excited about it. He kept telling me that he liked some of the German palaces better because they were actually furnished with original pieces instead of Versailles, where you walked through several rooms with "simply" art on the walls. We stayed a few hours and found an adorable little sweater and shirt for Rylan in one of the kids stores on a quaint little avenue before leaving. That evening we headed over to Ile St. Louis for dinner at Auberge de la Reine Blance and Berthillon ice cream. Both were fabulous on this classy street with little boutiques and apartments everywhere. It was one of my most memorable evenings because it was very romantic in the evening with all of the lights. We walked over a great little bridge to Notre Dame, which was also illuminated beautifully at night.
Sunday we did the Marais neighborhood, which winds you through the Jewish area of Paris. It is dotted with lots of high end boutiques and restaurants as well, but is very charming and hopping on Sunday, when most of the rest of Paris is quiet. (BTW, I used Rick Steves' Paris book to kind of plan the areas where we headed). This walk took us through Hotel Sully, which had two beautiful courtyards. The one courtyard was so peaceful and quiet that you would have never thought that you were in the middle of Paris. After that, we took the Metro back up to Montemarte and walked around some more. It was a little too crowded and touristy though, so we did not stay extremely long.
Monday brought an interesting day. We really did not have much left to do, but we were also a little anxious about finding out whether we would be able to go home. We did walk down to the Seine and took a river cruise. It was a perfect day for doing so. The weather was perfect and the cruise not too crowded, so it was very peaceful. Things got a little hairy though soon after because we found out we weren't going to be coming home, which we figured. We kind of put our heads together and decided that neither of us could possibly stay in Paris any longer. Not only had we run out of things to do, but we were tired of the food and how expensive everything was and were just tired of the city life. We decided we were getting out, since our new travel plans had been extended until the following Monday. With that being said, we realized that we needed to do laundry because we had pretty much run out of clothes. So I was able to have the Parisian laundry experience at a laundromat right up the street from our hotel. Not many people can say that they have done laundry in Paris :).
On Tuesday we got a cab and went to Charles de Gaulle Airport to rent a car. We had a reservation, but were extremely nervous about actually obtaining an automatic since so many flights had been canceled. We got lucky though and were able to get one. It felt awesome to get on the road and just drive in a car like normal. We stopped at a gas station and got some snacks and it was just so normal...so nice. We drove from Paris to Heidelberg, about five ours and walked through the old town. Jason was in heaven because he was able to eat "real" weiner schnitzel. I have some great pictures of that as well...him savoring every last bite!
Wednesday we woke up and went back into the old town of Heidelberg and toured the castle and ruins. That as well was very peaceful. We then got in the car and headed over to Ludwisburg to tour their palace which was a furnished version of Versailles (that J had said he loved). It was very cool, even though we were on a German tour :), and the gardens there were beautiful as well. From there we headed to Fussen. I drove this lag of the trip and had a blast on the autoban. I got us there in no time. We had another great German meal, weiner schnitzel, and had decided that we would stay here a few days. THEN, we made the call to Continental that told us we could fly out Saturday from Frankfurt! So we decided we would stay here two days and then head to the airport Friday.
Today we toured Neuschwanstein castle. All I can say is breathtaking. A castle next to the Swiss Alps...we will definitely be back to Fussen someday. No doubt about it! We can check Paris off of our list, but this place is worth a revisit!
We'll be home soon...
No comments:
Post a Comment