Last Post- Paris and Back to the USA

Little preview and a good photo of us

Jan 13- Paris (traveling to Paris, Louvre, farewell dinner)

  We had a super early morning and skipped working out as the wake up call was 5:45! We left early to catch the fast train from Bordeaux to Paris. We took the train instead of driving up on the bus because we could squeeze in another expedition if we took the train instead of just sitting on the bus all day. We caught a simple lunch on the train and arrived in Paris around noon. We got onto a swanky coach and drive around a bit before hitting the Louvre.  The Louvre was originally a defense medieval castle used by Philippe Augusta and turned into a museum in 1836. It is the worlds most visited museum with around 10 million visits a year. We started out two hour highlight tour with seeing the fortress original moat, walls and even well. From there we saw Venus de Milo, or in English the Venus from Milo (which is Greece in origin). She is important historically because she is actually Greek and not a Roman copy, aka the 2nd century BC.  There are very few Grecian originals left.  We also saw the Greek  copy of the original hermaphrodite sculpture. We had seen the celebrated bronze copy in the Prado in Madrid. Every piece is a masterpiece but the piece of Diana hunting with a stag was particularly beautiful and intricate. We were pointed out the hall that inspired the hall of mirrors in Versailles. That hall even had what was left of the crown heeled after they plundered the monarchy during the French Revolution. The winged victory was the last thing in the Greek and palace area. She is from the 3rd century BC. She would have been painted and looked like she was flying. The sculpture was so well done when you walked around the light bounces and you could see the wet clothes and musculature. It was easy to see why the Romans copied the Greeks seeing Venus and victory!  
    

L- entrance underneath the pyramids, UR- entrance! BR- selfie time

       

UL- winged victory, UR- the famous hermaphrodite sculpture, BL- Venus de Milo, BR- Venus hunting

       

UR- remnants of the caste underneath the Louvre, UL, Mid, BR- examples of castle architecture, BL- Louvre from the outside

 
 Then we headed to the Italian painting sections that are chronologically displayed. Leonardo was the first big name we stopped at, like St Johns the baptist and Madonna on the rocks. It had a dark 'smoky' style. The Mona Lisa had her own wall. It is the famous painting that's on the must do list for Paris. It is thought she is very famous possibly due to her being stolen in 1911. She was in he headlines until recovered two years later when he tried to sell it in Florence. He stares also seems to follow you everywhere you go in the room. That room also had a giant painting of Jesus Turing water into wine and a Venetians "borrowed" (aka napoleon stole it) from the Doges palace in Venice.    

Famous selfie time!  Not to mention one of my favorite pictures of us

     

L- Michelangelo's St. John the Baptist, UR- Jesus turning water into wine, BR- The "borrowed" painting from the doges palace in Venice

     
  From there we hit large French paintings from the 19th century. Our guide pointed out how this area of the palace was added by Napoleon so his decorations were everywhere. It seems fitting one of the most famous paintings is the Coronation of Napoleon (although it really is napoleon Coronation of Josephine). We saw so many more works than that but every one is impressive and just the size of them is staggering. They are often life sized and each could be looked at in detail.  

The coronation of napoleon close up and from afar.  It was HUGE

     It was crazy but an hour and a half had passed and we headed back downstairs to see Italian and specifically Michelangelo sculptures. The "slaves" (it was never named by the master himself). Is a famous work where it is unfinished in the back. We thought the sculpture of Apollo vanquishing a serpent looked like he was taking a Selfie. There was also a beautiful sculpture of Cupid waking up Psyce by the kiss of love. From there we saw a few more sculptures and our two hours was , sadly, over.

UL- cupid and Psyce, UR- the slaves by Michelangelo, BL- funny sculpt of a kid trying on a a hat, BR- Karen imitating the statue that looked like it was selfiing

 
  It was back to the coach and to the hotel where we checked in and got our bags that had been driven from Bordeaux by our driver with our original coach. We had a couple of hours to do whatever before our farewell dinner at 6pm.   Cec and I walked around for about an hour before the cold drove us back to our hotel.  It was a cold rain, the weather finally caught up with us.  Cec played foozeball with some of the younger members of the bus and I went up to work on this blog and watch some movies.  Dinner was a 6pm.  While we all still had another day, tomorrow is an optional excursion night and this is the last night the entire bus will be together.  Its good timing to.  Some people are starting to complain a lot more, and everyone seems touchy and tired.  There are some cec and I are ready to get away from and I'm sure there are others ready to get rid of us. It was a fun night with lots of laughing and even an accordion player.  Cec and some of the guys even tried to cancan.  Cec got a little to enthusiastic and kicked so high he fell!  After dinner we drove around paris looking at it lit up, then off to bed for another morning in winter paradise!

Cec and the guys trying to cancan (he fell)

Paris by night

Jan 14- Paris- Eiffel Tower, Versailles, City tour, Moulan Rouge

So it was the last day for an early wake up call and a workout! We started the day off with a bus tour of the city with our tour guide. We found out that paris is made up of about 20 different districts that has their own mayor and city hall, but all of the districts are under the control of a main Paris mayor. There are only 2 million people that live in paris, but that is because it is so expensive to live there, over 11 million people live in the suburbs and travel into the city every morning. One of the major parts of the citiy is the river Seine which winds through the city. The name derives from the word sequina, which means snake. One of the first stops was the impressive Arch of Triumph. This is a massive monument erected by Napoleon to commemorate a military triumph at Austerlitz. It was inspired by the triumphant arches in Rome that we have already seen, but the scale of it is pretty impressive. It is over 150 feet tall and close to 80 feet wide. Next we drove down the Champs Elysee, which was one of the main roads in Paris. There are tons of shopping and high end stores here. This is also the main thoroughfare for social gatherings, where people congregate on holidays to drink and eat together. The roads of Paris doesn't have actual lanes, but traffic rules are more of a suggestion. It was very similar to driving in China, except Chinese driving didn't seem as intense. We drove past one of the oldest monuments in Paris, it was an obelisk that was given to the city from Luxor, Egypt and is close to 3,000 years old. We also passed scores of restaurants and cafes, one of the more famous French shops was a place called Maxim. It is quite expensive to eat at, so much so that someone opened a restaurant next door with more down to earth prices called "minims" . Next it was off to the French Opera House, which is called the Garnier Palace after the architect. This is the secret home of the phantom of the opera based on the novel and is built to the nines with gilded statues and references to Napoleon throughout the building. We passed many old buildings throughout the city, one of them had a interesting looking metal dome that was actually made from the melted down cannons that were captured by the French army. Despite the rush of over 70 million tourists and a large suburban population, there is a marked lack of soaring highways and overpasses in the city. The thinking is that if you build more roads, then you will have more cars. So they purposefully restrict roads and built lots of avenues with trees and really try to keep the atmosphere of the city like a 1800's city. I have to say that Paris does have a lot of old world charm. We happened to pass the Musee D'Orsay, which is actually the #1 attraction in Paris (according to tripadvisor.com). Yes, this museum is more highly thought of than the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum. This is because there are some of the most famous paintings in the world here. While the Louvre may have the Mona Lisa, The Musee D'Orsay has works from Renoir, Manet, Monet, Cezanne, Degas, and of course, Van Gogh. We did go to the museum, but more on that tomorrow  

As we took our bus tour (pics were hard and didnt turn out) we saw a motorcade protest of something.  Notice the DJ on the brown van.  There were cars behind them for at least a mile.

 
 Our next stop was the Alexander III Bridge, or as it is in French, Pont Alexander III. It was built as a token of friendship between France and Russia. This is a famous bridge because it is easily the most ornate bridge in the city that was built for the worlds fair in 1900. It was designed by Gustav Eiffel and is the only single arch bridge in the city. There are scores of commercials, music videos and movies that have the bridge in the background because of the stunning backdrop that it provides (think Adelle). Les Invalids was the next stop on the bus tour. It started out as a hospital and retirement home for war veterans, and has now become the museum for the army as well as other military memorabilia that has accumulated since 1670 when construction started. One of the most unique features of the museum is the gilded gold dome, that has a total of 20 pounds all together. On one of the side streets from the Invalids was a statue that was hidden by some shrubs in someones back yard. Our tour guide told us that it was actually Rodin's statue, The Thinker!  

UL- Alexander III bridge, UR- Arch of Triump, BL- Guilded dome on the invalids palace, BR- the river

 
Then it was on to one of the main mainstays of the city, the Eiffel Tower. It was the highest tower in the city at the time that it was built in 1889. It is 1000 feet high and has 7,000 tons of iron. It remained the highest towed in the world until the Chrysler Building was built in New York. Eiffel revealed his plans and met with a lot of resistance because it wasn't built out of marble or brick. A lot of Parisians thought it was quite hideous, and there was a large petition that was distributed to tear it down after the world's fair. Support grew and because Paris was pretty intent on keeping their 18th century look, a lot of people thought this new iron monstrosity was totally ugly. The only reason that it wasn't torn down was because Gustav Eiffel contacted Thomas Edison and discovered that the tower was the ideal height to try out the new radio antennae that were creating the next wave in technology. Because of radio, that is one of the main reasons why the Eiffel Tower is still standing today, that and the engineering genius of Eiffel.  

We have many pics of us here but this is one of our favs

     
We then went to Versailles in an extra excursion. This city exploded in size after King Louis XIV moved the capital to Versailles. It is a complex that has the palace, the town and the forest. There were three Kings who lived there, all of them were named Louis. Louis 14th was the Builder of Versailles, Louis the 15th was the spender and furnished the palace, and Louis 16th was the loser and lost his head! There were also three queens, they were all named Mary. The palace has over 1,000 rooms and the tour was only in the 10 most impressive rooms. The rooms that we saw were all dedicated to Roman mythology and slyly incorporated the different kings as mythological creatures as well. We were in a room that had a piano and discovered that Mozart had played here. Some of the more interesting rooms were the kings public bedroom, where people would sit and watch him sleep, and then watch him as he would wake and get dressed. Then they would go to the kings public dining room and literally sit there and watch him as he would eat his meals. The people watching would be 20 feet away, and they were not being fed, just had the pleasure of watching the king eat. All in all, Versailles was a over the top, gilded palace that is full of ostententatious shows of wealth. The hall of mirrors was actually somewhat dingy and dank. The architecture of the palace was quite boring (it was only 5 stories high) and I (Cecil) wasn't that impressed.    

Standing in front of Versalles

   

Details from Versalles.  If it looks like it is gold, it is.

 
After we got back from the excursion, we took a walk by the river. There is a 20 foot wide sidewalk on either bank, and people were sitting, eating and running along this path. It was a great place to get away from the traffic because it was a good 20-30 feet below street level. Our walk lasted for an hour and we even booked a nightime river dinner (more on that tomorrow as well). Then it was off to see the Moulan Rouge. It started in the early 1900's after the depression in france from the first world war. The original theater was near a red mill (hence the name Moulin Rouge). It was a cabaret show with an excessive amounts of costumes, showgirls submerged in a tank with snakes swimming around them, and a host of other variety acts that kept us on the edge of our seats for the entire 2 hours. It was a great show, and on the ride back we said goodbye one last time to our friends we had made on the tour and went to bed.  

Moulan Rouge!  Famous farris wheel and a great show.

Jan 15th -Paris- Bus tour, Museum d'Orsay, River Cruise

We stared the morning with a workout, checked out then hit a taxi to our much cheaper, smaller, and not by the Effie's tower hotel. It was near the Moulin Rouge but clean and had wifi and breakfast so good. It is a little weird that you give your key to the front desk ever time you leave then show your password to pick it back up. They said it was for security. Whatever, one less thing to keep track of. We started the morning by saying goodbye to some friends at breakfast and then we went on the hop on hop off tour bus. It was to cold to sit outside. We saw the famous cathedral, Ritz, Theaters and the so called ' red light district'. There was a chocolate museum we didn't have time for and lots of interesting commentary. We ride that loop then switched to the classic route and heard about the Opera house, Louvre, Notre Dam and hopped off at the Museum d' Orsay. A few notable things on the tour included: the fun commentary we heard is that the French call Police "chicken" in French because it the police precinct is where a chicken stall used to be. We also saw a driving caravan protesting something with a smattering or different vehicles from old keeps to regular cars and vans being lead by a DJ. Anyway, We then grabbed some Venician style hot chocolate while sitting OUTSIDE in January underneath some heat lamps. Finally, we grabbed fast lunch at the museum and got inside around 2:30! The museum d'Orsay picks up where the Louvre art ends, from 1848 to 1914. It includes mostly French paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. We spent hours walking the floors and marveling at all the masterpieces. Notably, the building itself is beautiful. It is the original worlds fair building from the 1900's and has beautiful carvings and a giant clock as well.  

UL- Museum d'Orsay oustide, UR- famous polar bear sculture with cecil for scale, BL- A venician hot chocolate, outside, in January, BR- An architesture hall based on the hall of Mirrors in Versalles

   

Details from inside the Museum d'Orsay

     

Picture of the Museum from the highest point.  Beautiful old world train station

   
After the museum we ended up lost and catching a cab in the pouring rain to get to our dinner cruise. We had booked a dinner cruise. It was a romantic dinner as we ate a really nice 3 course dinner with the lights of Paris in the background. It was also a really good activity for a cold and rainy evening. We hit an ATM after that and headed back to our hotel for a little rest. All that excitement is a lot for one day!

Cec in front of the Cruise boat

     

The Effiel Tower lit up at night.  The haze is from the rain.  We think this was one of our favorite Paris pics.

   
 
  January 16- Paris- Ile de City/Notre Dam and the Louvre

The day started with a stressful cab ride to the ile de la cite or the heart of the city. We picked up a super interesting, albeit cold, city tour there. The ile de cite Is an island on the Siene River and is the old city that is the historical city center. In fact, there is a marker that all roads were measured from that point. The city was originally settled by celts, then overtaken by romans. In 491, Frankish forces defeated romans and France empire started. However, French had been continually pillaged by Vikings so gave land now called Normandy. Anyway, the heart had several bridges around it due to being an island. Including the first stone bridge, pount norf, This was important because bridges used to have houses and vendors on them and wood couldn't hold the weight and often was accidentally lit on fire! In fact, there was one stall where a man was famous for removal of teeth, which he would do for free. He made money by letting people pay money to watch! The city's life blood had been the river. It was where goods were moved and therefore money flowed. Now it is illegal to swim in the river but Joan of arch's ashes were spread in river after her burning. We also saw the building where Marie Antoinette was held. She was famous for saying let them eat cake. Cake is the burned bits of food that fall to the bottom of the oven, not what we think of as cake. However she never said that, it was from a propaganda cartoon newspaper (she wasn't French so they didn't like her.) she was executed in 1977 by guillotine (2 months after the first Star Wars ). Next to her holding cell was the Palace of justice. It used to be a place (duh) and now where the Supreme Court of France is located.

The river and the statue where we met our tour group

   
Next was the highlight, Notre Dame. It is a gothic church over 850 years old. It took over 180 years to build, mostly due to money issues. Gothic sounds dark but it was all about light and night with flying buttresses and huge stained glass windows. The outside of the Church is split in three, representing the trinity, the bell tower, rosary windows and the doors. The carvings on the door each have meaning from the Adam and Eve story to the triumphant Mary. One of the notable saint carvings was a saint of France, St Patrick lost head for preaching walked 6 miles then collapsed! He was actually carved holding his own head! The church is also shaped as a cross. It has undergone a lot of restoration on the glass and decoration but a lot is left to do. They are basically afraid of wiping the paint off. In fact, there was a small space were a well meaning Nun tried to clean up the dirt and cleaned area with water. She was stopped but you could clearly see the damage where she had tried to clean. There was also the claimed holy relic, the crown of thorns, housed in glass. They had beautiful carvings on the choir boxes, stars on gen windows, and glass everywhere. After the visit inside, we walked the 487 steps to tower. It was a lot of winding stairs and tight corridors but we were rewarded with sweeping views of Paris. Yes, we did also get to see the massive bells and cranky gargoyles.
 

Notre Dam!

   

UL- crown of thorns encased in ruby in the chapel, UM- cec in the tower, UL- one of the gargoyles on the top of the tower, ML- View from the back of the chapel, MM- Karen squeezing through the walkways on the tower, MR- one of the 4 rosary windows, BL- one of the famous bells of notre dam, BM- example of one of the three carved doors, BR- carvings ont the altar telling Biblical stories.

     

A view of Paris from Notre Dam tower

   
After sweating a bit we went to Saint Chappelle (holy chapel). It was constructed by king Louis IX. He was a French king famous for his devotion to the crusades and was the only monarch that was a pope as well as being made a saint. The church was tiny but the original stained glass windows were mesmerizing. These aren't just any stained glass windows, they are the original windows from Notre Dame. I (Cecil) thought it was the prettiest church we had the pleasure to go into on the ENTIRE TRIP.  It was also kind of neat that it was attached to the place of justice. The palace of justice is where the french supreme court works.  We had to go through the same security check as if we were going to court, and we also used the same exit!  

You think this picture is beautiful? It's like a black and white compared to standing in that amazing place.

   

Details from the church.  All the glass was original and one could break their neck looking up.

   
After that we headed to the Louvre, picking up a Nutella Crepe at a roadside stand. Cec claimed it was the best thing he ate the entire trip. The Louvre took us a while to get our stride. We got lost a little bit but finally found the giant Egyptian and Greco-Roman areas we went back for. By 5:30 we were getting tired of being out and picked up the hop on hop off bus we bought and road it around getting colorful commentary about the highlights of Paris until we got close to our hotel. We got off and went to a giant shopping area where we picked up some dinner to go (tapas style) and went back to the hotel via cab. Cecil was an awesome husband to get me a cab, it was cold and I was getting tired. We still had to eat, pack and shower as our flight left the next morning!  
 

Photos from the lourve with the exception of the UR, cecil waiting for his crepe.

January 17th- Back to the USA

  We got our shuttle at 7:30 and hit the airport about an hour after that.  We had to check in, pay for another bag, get some tax free stuff sorted and then find our gate.  Paris airport security was in high swing and all that took over another hour.  Then we waited and basically got on our planes.  We flew Paris to Munich, then Munich to Dallas/Washington DC, then DC to Pittsburgh.  Our long international flight was through Lufthansa and the seats were TINY, there we no USB ports, and there were 4 children under the age of three in close proximity.  Let's just say we were happy to have our noise cancelling headphones. Regardless, we hit Pittsburgh with much Jet lag and fatigue at about 11:00pm.  From there we split up to visit with our families.  We only had a few days and were trying to make the most out of it.  As a note, the first thing we really noticed as we walked off the plane was a cinnabon...... welcome to America I guess!  Our plans are to spend the next days with our families, then move back to columbus the following Monday.

Large- our main plain to DC, UR- after we landed and something like 16 hours later, MR- cec and I found a pay phone to check in with our rides/families.  We didn's know they still made these in America!  BM- The infamous dinosaur fossil in Pittsburgh made us feel at home, BL- sunset on our trip

We wouldn't have traded our experiences in New Zealand, with meeting new friends and learning about a new place for anything.  Our trip through Europe and China was vast, eye opening, and wonderful. We would like to any a special thank you to Mark and Meredith Reddington, who went to New Zealand in 2013 and gave us invaluable advice.  It also could not have happened without a lot of work from Mom and Dad back home. We had a once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip and made memories and friendships we will cherish forever,  Thank you New Zealand, we will miss you.  Kia Ora.

 

THE END .... or is it?

Europe- Pisa, Eze, Nice, Arle, Barcelona, Madrid/Toledo, Bilabo/Biarritz, and Bordeaux

Jan 5- Pisa
The morning started at our 5am workout, 6:30 breakfast and 7:30 leave normal routine. We all drove through the countryside while the sun rose. Our first stop was to the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was constructed in 1350. For a while it was at a 9% lean and in real danger of falling. In 1990 a committee was formed to figure out how to support the tower. It has been reinforced by a counterbalanced weight underground and steel cable braces. The engineers did such a good job of stabilizing it, that it started to completely correct and slowly started to straighten up. The tourism board told the engineers that no one wanted to visit the Straight Tower of Pisa, and the engineers had to take away some of the improvements they had made!  Now, it is safe and returned to its original leaning angle. It actually is part of a church and is technically a bell tower. There is a baptismal church and cathedral beside it (which we did not know). There are a few museums that surround it but for us it was really a picture and coffee stop. I got a fake Burberry bag to match my vey real coat from the previous day.      

Top: Selfies, of course!  Bottom- tourist picture fun

From there was a scenic drive to nice along the Apenine mountains. We drove past dozens of hill towns and where the quarry marble. The road had the most tunnels of any road in Europe, 167 tunnels. Our guide challenged us to guess and I (Cecil) guessed the  Price is Right answer (with 3 tunnels which was the lowest) and won a "lame duck" prize of lemon flavored soap from the perfume factory (more detail on that later).  We passed into France from Italy still with the alps to one side and the Mediterranean on the other. Sheer cliffs, mountain towns, ocean and trees were everywhere. Beautiful, but impossible to photograph. We got to see Monaco , Eze and Niche and the other beautiful towns bordering the sea. We stopped at the Fragonard perfume factory and learned a little on how perfume and soaps are made. They use a lot of products from that area of eze in the producrs. It looks more like a lab than what I expected. We also learned the difference between the different type of body sprays: Parfume is 24% oils, Toilette is 10% oil and Cologne is 5% alcohol. We got some toilette sprays and called it a day. I will not lie the soaps, hand creams and actual perfume was super tempting.  It was still a beautiful day and we had dinner and a drive still to do so we all loaded up, checked in the hotel then got back in the coach for the optional excursion. We first drove up the hill, leaving Nice, for Eze. We stopped at a viewpoint and enjoyed a view of Elton Johns (and other very rich) people's homes and the peninsula. We even got to see a local tiny car that seemed no more than a high speed golf cart with a cover. Anyway, It was particularly striking because of the sunset. Then we disembarked in Eze and walked up the hill past some super exclusive hotels and where Niche wrote some of his novels. At the top of the hill was the view and the remnants of the castle that stood there. The gardens and cannons and some walls were left. Some shops had sprung up in addition to the hotel. We walked through the twisted streets and visited the baroque church before walking down to Pinocchio Restaurant and enjoying dinner. Evening was funny with normal conversations about tv shows and movies. The ride back let us see Eze and Nice lit up, but no where as nice as sunset.  

UL- View of the streets un Eze, UR- selfie at the lookout, Mid- sunset over the mediterranean, UL- more sunset photos, UR- the road climbing up the hill to Eze

       

Our favorite selfie during our excursion

Cecil with the crazy small could-almost-be-a-fast-golf-cart-car

       

UL- Eze, UM- the restaurant sign, UR- view of the castle, Mid- Streets in the old Eze area, BL- sunset, BR- more streetview pictures, it looked like something out of a movie or assasins creed video game

  Jan 6- Nice
We started the morning with a drive down the promenade in Nice (pronounced Niece) in the south of France. The promenade was about 5 miles long and had scores of hotels and restaurants on our right, including some very old iconic hotels that have been in movie scenes. On our left we were blessed with another beautiful day and got to see the sun against a nearly cloudless blue sky. The promenade was interrupted by the small international airport. It was a relatively small airport, but it did have many private jets parked. As we turned away from the waterfront, we could see the Alps in the background. They were about 1 1/2 hours away and it is possible to spend a morning skiing and then drive back to the ocean and spend the afternoon waterskiing. We kept on passing these tiny one story buildings that were really busy and had "Casino" on it. They were all really busy and we were surprised how early the French liked to gamble, until we were told that these were just grocery stores that were called "casino". We drove about 15 minutes until we were in the town of Saint Paul and walked into the center of town. There was a famous French painter Chagall who lived here and is now buried here as well. One of the more quirky places was La Colome D'Or, where a very broke Picasso traded artwork for drinks. We then went into St. Paul de Vence. This was a town from the 1700's that was an small enclosed town with city walls that were close to 30 feet high. We had some free time and were able to roam before we had to head back into town. We walked through a large park in the middle of the city and passed a large water foundatin that was easily half a football field in size. instead of one large fountain, it was a series of close to 100 fountains that looked like a blown up bed of nails when they were all going at the same time. We then ate at a very exclusive restaurant (not really, just Subway). The funniest part about Subway was how to order. Because of the metric system, there is no 6 inch or footlong, it was 15cm and 30cm.   After our free time we loaded back into the coach for Monaco.It was a scenic drive down a part of the promenade and heading through the bays to Monaco.  Our tour guide told us hat there is so much money in Monaco that you can smell the money. It is a country of 30,000. Citizenship is obtained only through birth. Wee passed through three or four small towns along the water. We went into Monaco without any difficulty, but it was something else. There was a Ferrari dealership right next to a Porsche dealership. There were also some impressive older buildings and of course the royal palace. We even saw royalty! Princess Caroline was being driven to the palace when we were trying to cross the road. Dinner was at a local restaurant and the food was pretty good. It was time for our introduction to the Monaco Grand Prix, the only Formula 1 race that is held on regular roads. We saw the roads that they used from above when we were on the palace, including the starting line and the pit section. Then we got back on the bus and drove up the pole positions until we were at position 1 and stopped the bus, then Giovanni (the driver) gunned the engine and off we went! Then it was time to go to the other city in Monaco, Monte Carlo. It took a whole 20 seconds to drive from Monaco to Monte Carlo (no joke). We then kept on walking up the road and got to the main parking area of the Casino Monte Carlo. There was a veritable who's who of expensive cars here. We went into the casino and paid our cover fee and went in. It was suprisingly small, although there was gold plating and really expensive furtniture everywhere. We did play $10 each in blackjack and then left to spend some time in the gift shops. I was less than impressed with Monaco, because it seems to strike me as everything that was wrong with society today. Monaco seemed to be all about taking from people, like through cars, money, and clothes. other than the royal family, there are no real significant contributions from Monaco, like famous artists or scientiss. I was glad we went but wouldn't go back for any reason.  

UL- posing in front of the bay and where the forumla one races go, UR- view from the cliffs, Bottom: the castle

     

Jan 7- Arle          
 Today we started west and after an alarm snafu we missed a workout but were on the bus at 7:45. Out main stop for he day was Arles. We walked through the local markets first. They had chicken, pigs and fresh food longbow the the normal junk stores, clothing stores and other flea market kind of things. People there apparently buy the animals and then slaughter them at home to have it as fresh as possible. We saw some Romanesque churches and buildings followed by a cafe made famous in a Van Gogh painting. It was an ancient Roman city and even has a smaller, albeit it, better persevered Roman amphitheater. We walked around it a bit, but it was so cold and their was a really biting wind and wanted lunch so we only walked around half of it. The views from the top tower were beautiful and the original archways were staggering in their age. It's funny how the theater looks. They still use it for equestrian events and theater. The floor of it reminds me of the horse rings I showed in as a kid. Some things don't change much!      

UL- view from the outside of the colosseum, UR- inside the colosseum, BL- view of the Arles river, BR- archways insisde the colosseum

       

L- old church with great carvings, UR- the actual cafe made famous by van goh (bottom left is the painting)

 From Arles  it was back on the bus for a ton of driving. Honestly, it was a boring and somewhat tiresome day. We had three rest stops and most of it cec watched moves and I alternated between sleeping and reading. Boring. The sunset was nice, the included dinner at the hotel was decent and the bed was welcome. Not the most exciting day, we were happy when it was done.  

  Jan 8- Barcelona

We started out with our local guide after a wonderful breakfast and workout. We were staying in the Spanish square and saw the monuments for the rivers as well as a bullring that had been converted to a shopping mall. There were a ton of interesting architectural buildings from mid-evil to minimalist. We saw where they had the olympics and worlds fair as well. The Olympic buildings are still all used for public good, people were even playing tennis in the cold when we drove by. The city is at maximum width and length. It is boxed in by other towns, the sea and mountains. The port is gigantic and very busy. As we drove around, most of the buildings we're newer (1900's) or newer but there were smatterings of mid-evil architecture, monuments and art interspersed. Many of the houses were beautiful with rod iron and other decorations. Famous homes of Gaudi (famous spanish architect) and other super elite were very impactful. Picasso learned art here and even has his own museum. Today was actually a big shopping day as it was after three kings day. The city celebrates the kings who came to visit baby Jesus and gifts are brought. In fact, papa Noel (Santa) doesn't bring presents, the kings do. Our second stop was La Sangria Familia, a church dedicated for the holy family. It was started but then Guadi dedicated 40 years, unpaid, to building the church. He is now buried in the crypt under the church. He made three main facades: the passion, the glory and the nativity. It took 135 years and still isn't done. It is estimated to be done in 2026. There are fruit bowls representing the glory of he harvest in Murano glass. The church had an explosion of decoration everywhere. The passion facade was the easiest to read and done in cubist sculpture. Cecil and I were not great fans, but if art is meant to be shocking it succeeded in that. I think we just prefer traditional styled churches, or the ancient churches.  

Posing in front of la sangria familia church

     

Different pictures from la sangria familia.  UL- showing the glory decoration, everything is decorated. Mid- la sangria familia from far away, showing it is still under construction. UR, BR- The passion cubist decoartions. BL- crypt where Gaudi was buried. BM- showing the fruit bowls on the left next to the glory facad on the front

  After the church we walked around some of the city. Near the church there is the main shopping center as well as the bar Picasso frequented. Barcelona is second to London for shopping so there were many places to window shop. It reminded cec and I of New York City, that 1950's style and/or art Nuevo style. There was tons of street art everywhere from signs, carvings and other building decorations. There are pieces of older buildings around like the cathedral de Santa Cruz, with a traditional gothic style. There were also old palaces and restored buildings mostly made into museums but still nice to see.  

Walking tour through Barcelona

   After our tour we went to the aquarium. The walk there was pleasant and we passed the statue of Marco Polo pointing at New York as well as the rest of the harbor. The aquarium was nice, but nothing special. Good exhibits. After that we went to a sidewalk tapas bar and got some tapas and pizza and paella for lunch. We wandered around looking at street vendors, city streets, street art and even graffiti until we only had around an hour until we had to be at our meeting time for the evening program. We were walking back but took the taxi so we would have some time to rest. We went back, changed and then relaxed until 5.  

L- the marina, UR-Caganer statues.  They are all pooping because it is supposed to be good luck (aka back int he day to fertilize fields) and how it is a mark of someone famous or culturally relevant as well (we liked yoda and gollum but they also had trump and clinton both) , MR- art representing marjor arists in madrid, BR- columbus statue pointing to the USA

     

Pictures from the aquarium

   At 5, we met for the dinner and flamenco show. Dinner was a gigantic and just seemed to be a never ending wave of food. We tried everything from berry salad, to paella, octopus, and cannelloni. They had a chocolate fountain, macaroons and dozens of other desserts to. Oh, and of course, Sangria (yummy!). The show has been running since 1970. The flamenco is a passionate dance and is impromptu dance, never the same twice. It was very emotional and strong footwork. It reminded me of river dance actually. Basically it was Spanish opera with dancers. Cecil and I both loved it. It was Karen's favorite dinner show so far.  

Flamenco Dancers

     

Selfie and food examples from the show's buffet

A couple of miscellaneous tidbits from our time: Our guide also mentioned the infamous siesta. Siesta was created to give people a break in the diner because it was to hot to work without air conditioning. Now a lot of shops close in the afternoon for a siesta on tradition. Some other places work an hour longer M-Th and get out early on Friday to have a longer weekend. Sounds nice, right? The local language is Catalonian, a mix of Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The Catalonians have a sect that would also like to separate from Spain, due to cultural and economic divides… however it is unlikely to happen (as likely as Texans abdicating in the USA).    

Jan 9- Traveling to Madrid
 Weather finally caught up with us as we left Barcelona. We had to leave at 7:45 and we're rushed through our workout and breakfast and onto the coach. The snow and fog made travel slower and the countryside that was supposed to be nice was covered in a grey fog and ice crystals. We had grey weather and naps and/or books until noon. We had a lunch stop and drove some more. The country was dotted with windmills for energy and farms. Actually, a lot of the old spaghetti westerns were filmed. They put on a movie as it was a distance to Madrid, we were grateful to be there. Unfortunately, we only had an hour break but then we had another panoramic drive and dinner. We drove through the rich areas, including the palace and mountain views. There was also one of the largest 'normal' churches I've ever seen- like basilica size. The buildings reminded me of New England and Barcelona, lots of brick and iron work with old things dotted in. However, in the center were older buildings with more columns and art strewn everywhere. We also drove past a ham museum, they are all about fried pig here and the center point of Madrid. We saw dozens of fountains (Cebolis fountain the goddess of fertility and Neptune were my favs), plazas and museums. We learned a couple of miscellaneous fun fact: Madrid symbol is a bear eating strawberries, no one knows why. In the main plaza on New Years people gather and eat a grape every hour for good luck and celebration.   Dinner was ok. We were in a converted dukes wine cellar that was now a restaurant and enjoyed some nice cured ham, bland soup, well done suckling pig (cec disagrees about it being good), and average apple tart. The best part by far was the sangria (yummy sweetened fruit wine- if you've never had it it's delish). We had some musical entertainment with our desert and a trio playing the guitars and an accordion entertained with some Spanish songs. It didn't hurt that they were funny either.      

UR- dinner in the duke's wine cellar, everything else showing Madrid at night

Jan 10 - Madrid & Toledo
 Morning workout and breakfast were done by 8:45am. Then, we started the morning on an excursion to the old city of Toledo. This used to be the capital of Spain until 1561 when the capital was moved to Madrid. There were a lot of sales going on and our tour guide was telling us how during Christmas in Spain they traditionally give small gifts for Christmas and on Jan 5th that is when the big gift exchange is given, because that is when the three kings presented the gifts to Jesus. So it works out for us because the stores have had pretty big sales since we have been in Spain. Toledo is one of the oldest cities in the world. It flourished because it is built on a hilltop by a shallow river and is very hard to attack. This was a very interesting city where all three of the major religions were coexisting for close to 300 years. The city is somewhat frozen in time because it didn't really develop after the capital was moved to Madrid in 1561. It has many of the same fortifications and yellow sandstone that existed back then. The entire city proper is actually a UNESCO world heritage site.  

Toledo

  The first stop was a local workshop where they were working with Damascus steel and inlaying then with gold and silver. There were several artists working while we were their and it was amazing to see them take a sliver of gold thread and stamp it onto the steel surface. After the shop the we started the tour of toledo and walked up to one of the city gates that had he coat of arms of the city, which was a two headed eagle on it. We started walking and the tour guide told us that this section of town was called the Jewish quarter because this is where the majority of the Jewish population lived. There were Hebrew letters on the street that pointed to different shops. We climbed up the hill and saw a beautiful church that was one of the last gothic churches to be built. It had stone crenellations that were meant to resemble flames as well as chains on the side of the wall. The chains were made to represent the people that were saved from slavery and had resettled in Toledo.  

Views of Toledo and the coat of arms BL: one of the masters hammering gold thread into Damascus Steel

  Then just down the road from the church was the oldest synagogue in Europe. Santa Maria Blanca was originally built as a mosque in the 12th century but was later converted into a synagogue. After 1492, Jews were kicked out of toledo and the building then became a church. That lasted for a while when afterwards it was used as a halfway house for unwed mothers and it was eventually used as a stables for napoleons horses. It has been refurbished and is now a museum. The Jewish people who were from Toledo are still around, they are called sefardists and actually speak Spanish from the 1490's. Needless to say there aren't too many left.

Inside the Santa Maria Blanca which as been a mosque and synagog both

 We kept on walking and saw a painting that is very important to art history. The painter, El Greco who studied under the Venetian masters and came back to Spain to incorporate all of the different elements that he had learned from the masters that he met in Italy. He really wanted to be a part of a big cathedral that was being built in Madrid, but the King didn't like his style and he ended up moving to Toledo and becoming the premier artist here.  He made a painting called "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz" that is still regarded as a seminal piece of artwork in the world.     

We then walked to the Muslim quarter and walked past some of the old mosques that are now churches. Interestingly, we passed a convent that practices silence but they sell marzipan from a window. Unfornately they were not selling anything at that time, so we did not end up getting anything from the marzipan nuns. we kept on walking through the narrow cobblestone streets and ended up walking through a small gate with steel bars. This was the gate that seperated the Christian side from the Muslim side of town, and at night, both sides would close and lock the gate to ensure peace between the community. Gives a new meaing to the phrase "good fences makes good neighbors" 

The next part of Toledo was the big Catholic cathedral. It used to be a mosque, until it was used by catholics in 1282. It has had a lot of construction over the years, close to 400 years worth of construction. It used to be a mosque until the catholics took over in 1282. One of the most amazing things in the church was the Monstance. This was a 6 foot gold and silver base with another 15 foot high solid gold replica of the church tower. There was close to 20 kilograms (40 pounds) of gold that had been poured into it. It was meant to hold the holy sacrament.  We were walking through the main hall of the cathedral and noticed that there was a hat hanging in midair. Apperently it is local lore that when the world ends and the people are called up to heaven from their graves, then the hat should fall to the ground.         Christopher Columbus is now a famous figure in history, but when he was going around trying to get funding for the trip, nearly everyone thought he was crazy. He was pretty much telling them that he was able to get to Pluto in a bathtub. But there was a cardinal that was based in Toledo that gave Columbus a lot of support and eventually got the money from the queen. Eventually when the Cardinal died, the crown "volunteereed" a lot of money to get the cardinal to be buried in the church, which is something that never usually happened in spanish churches (unlike British churches). We saw the cardinals body that was buried in the main alter of the church right next to a couple other bigwigs. We walked along the outside of the main chapel and saw an area in the front of the church that had a large opening. Apparently this was a very dangerous proposition because the entire church could have caved in, but luckily the construction was done right and the church survived. 

Images from the cathedral.  The organ (BL) was unsual as it was in stone and facing out and the monstance (BM), finally mary is smiling which is unsual for that time period (UL) 

Then after we got back to Madrid it was time for our city tour. There are close to 6 million people in Madrid, with three million commuting every day. It was founded in 1000BC by muslims in early Spain. The city exploded in sIze after becoming the capital. In the middle of the city was the Prado museum. It is known for its paintings from El Greco, Raphael, Rivera and many others. Because of Catholicism, nude paintings weren't allowed, but King Phillip had a special seperate room on the palace where he kept his private collection of nude paintings. After Phillips death the paintings were donated to the prado, and there was a special room where men had to pay extra to go into. The museum did have some amazing paintings, and it was time well spent. After the museum we went to another key area of the city. There was a egyptian temple that was 2,000 years old. There was some flooding in the area that the temple was in, and the temple was going to be submerged when the people from Madrid bought the temple and tore it down and had it reconstructed in the city. After that the tour was over and we were dropped off in the old city. We walked around and shopped for a while, and then walked to the Grand Via (main street) to see if we could get lucky enough to see the Lion King broadway show in spanish. The show was sold out, and we made our way back into the old town and ate at an enclosed market that had 9-10 different restaurants in it. So we ate small bites at 4-5 different restaurants. We had everything from fried anchovies, fried squid, to vegetarian paella and chorizo pizza. Then we headed back to the hotel and packed up to and headed to bed early.   

UL- cec eating local ham, UM- the symbol fo Madrid a bear earing strawberries from a tree, no we don;t know why, UR- chocolate churros! ML- Marzapan, MR- an ancient egyptian church found in one of the parks, BL- the market were we had the Tapas, BM- sunset, BR- delicous veggie paella from the market

   
  Jan 11- driving to Bilbao (Guggenheim) and then Biarritz
Not much to report about today, we spent around 7 hours on the bus.  We had the normal 5am wake up and workout.  It was still pretty rainy and slick so the cloud cover hid the rocks and mountins for the most part.  We slept, read and watch movies and/or played apps most of the time.  We hit the Guggenheim in Bilbao and had about an hour to walk around and look at all the modern art.  The building itself was the real marvel, intiricate structures linked together.

Guggenheim

  We drove more after the stop at the museum until arriving at Biaritz.  Its a picturesque fishing village that is now a trendy seaside resort and spa area.  We took a small drive out to the pier were we saw the town and beach and lighthouse, this time with a storm.  We had dinner at the hotel, and it is the best included dinner so far.  Tasty salad, baked salmon and fruit.  Everyone on the bus was getting a little cranky so I thinkhaving a morning with no alarms the next day will do wonders for people's spirits.  

On the coast near Biaritz, France

  Jan 12- driving to and in Bordeaux
 We had a late morning after a wonderful sleep in a workout at 11:30. We reached Bordeaux at around 3pm. We had a scenic drive through the city and saw the river as well as the city center and some important buildings. It is know for its wines and ballet actually. The city is mostly built in the 18th century (including cobblestone streets) and is also a commercial hub for France. Our tour guide dropped us off and we had a little over an hour and a half to walk through the main square. Like many places, we could have spent more time there. We shopped as there wasn't much more to do and ogled at the buildings. It was raining a lot, but that's ok the rest of the trip has been so nice it is hard to complain. We relaxed at the hotel and had an ok dinner as the next morning we were set for a 5:45 wake up call. Pretty relaxing day all in all, gearing up for our trip to paris.  

R- cec posing at one of the foutains, Left all- images from the streets in the city center