Monday, May 19, 2014
Yikes...
Well, this is unfortunate...
The Blogsy app we have been using for our travel posts has gone totally wonky. Trying to do anything at all now causes the ipad app to crash. To add insult to injury the blogger.com postin interface sucks. It is even virtually impossible to place the cursor to add a "g" to the end of "postin" in the last sentence.
So here we are at the end of week 12/beginning of week 13 and have decided that since this is our last week of this trip we will leave off and try to post these last two weeks when we get home...
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
Week 11 Paris
Monday was our first "shopping" day in Paris. We started off by walking over to the Marais to find an Oska store on Rue Vieille du Temple. After that we walked along Rue de Bretagne which changes to Rue Reaumur. The architecture along Rue Reaumur is fascinating. We took a few of photos ...
... but for an interesting read and more/better photos, check out this website. It is quite a walk along Rue Reaumur to the geogeous looking opera house, the Opera de Paris Garnier...
From there we took a brief Starbucks break then headed down the Rue de La Madeleine past the monstrous church, La Madeleine...
... on to Rue Royal, and on to Rue Saint Honore. Now we were in the high fashion district surrounded by stores such as Gucci, Chanel and Hermes to name but just a few. After looking in a few stores we decided it was time to head towards home but thought we would go back via the Monoprix store, we saw on Rue Reaumur earlier, to pick up a few groceries on the way. For an evening out we tried one of the sidewalk cafes on Place de la Republique where it was fun to watch the many young kids doing their skateboarding tricks.
Tuesday, we were off to the Musee d'Orsay as the pass we bought on Saturday expires today. We walked down Blvd Richard-Lenoir to the Bastille and caught the #1 metro to stop Palais Royal Musee du Louvre, walked across the Seine and along Quai Anatole France to the museum entrance and the long line. With our ticket we were able to "go to the head of the line" but, alas, the line of people with tickets and passes was just as long! Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound, we joined the line of ticket holders. The line moved quite quickly and the time was lessened somewhat with the chats we had with the young couple ahead of us. They are from Edmonton so besides our respective travels we had lots to talk about. Eventually we found ourselves through security and IN. We headed straight for the Van Gogh special exhibit where we had to stand in another line but it was worth it. Wall after wall, gallery after gallery, Van Gogh after Van Gogh. The whole place was very crowded but wow! The rest of the museum is no slouch either with the highlight for us being the huge collection of impressionist style paintings.
By the time we left the museum it was well after 2:00 pm and definitely lunch time. We headed down Rue de Bac on to Blvd Raspail. About a block later, on the corner of Rue du Grenelle we spotted a little cheese shop. Barhelemy was closed but what a lovely store front and, we swear, you could actually smell the cheese through the windows!...
Continuing down Blvd Raspail we turned left on to Rue de Verenne to the cafe Le Pain Quotidien where we had an excellent lunch of quiche and chicken salad. After lunch we continued along Blvd Raspail to Rue du Cherche Midi to find the other Oska outlet in the city. After checking out the latest in Oska we wandered around the area then into the impressive Bon Marche on Rue de Babylone. By the time we left the Bon Marche it was early evening and time for a sit. We took the metro to Place de la Republique where we found curbside seats at the Indiana bar and restaurant. Nice evening but unbeknownst to us we ended up sitting right under some plane trees which were sheding whacks of seed fluffer thingies... very hard on the eyes and throat!
Wednesday we thought we'd look into what day trips from Paris might be possible on our Eurail Global Pass. After another stop at the "local" Osaka store we took the metro to Gare du Nord to see what we could accomplish vis a vis day trips. It took a while for us to find the right ticket office and after standing in line for about 15 minutes we found that a two hour train, each way, to Brugge, Belgium return would cost us 170 euro... with the pass! Wow!!! In Germany, the two hour train, each way, to Dresden cost us 9 euro each (18 total) return to Berlin. Well, we are not up to forking out 170 euro (about $265 CDN) to spend maybe 3 or 4 hours in Brugge. So, we'll have to figure out something else.
A bit disheartened we left the station and wandered along Rue Lafayette taking in the various store fronts, arcitecture and general life going by. By early afternoon a light rain started so we picked a restaurant, Le Tire Bouchon, for lunch and to wait out the rain as it started to fall ever more heavily. Kris had a grilled steak with green beans and Brian tried the croque madam (like a croque monsieur but with a fried egg added to the top). Both very good. We ate slowly and the rain gave way so we paid up and went on our way.
Continuing along Rue Lafeyette we eventually arrived at the very large, impressive and generally expensive Galleries Lafayette "department store". We found they had a couple of hair salons so I, Brian, decided it was time for a hair cut/trim. Approaching the reception desk I asked if I could get a hair trim motioning that I didn't want a beard trim at this time (tiny steps). The woman said, in her best anglais, that I could make an appointment for 3:00. It was now 2:50 so that sounded good. Appointment made, I went out into the store for a few minutes and went back into the salon a couple of minutes before 3:00 whereupon the same woman asked me if I had an appointment! Well yeah! Anyway, after being shuffled from one stylist (?) to another to another, I was finally put under the scissors. There was a lot of snipping without a whole lot of cutting but my ears did get lowered and I was reasonably happy with the result. Forty minutes later and 29 euro poorer I was back on the street. By that time Kris had had a good look around in the store and we decided it was time to head back to the 'hood. Walking around to the front of the Opera house we took the #3 metro to the Sebastopol stop, jumped out to Monoprix for dinner groceries, then back on the #3 to Republic and a transfer to #5 to get us home. For a couple of glasses of wine we wandered a couple of blocks down Richard-Lenoir to Le Paris, where we had our first dinner here last Friday. Very nice evening to sit out.
Thursday was VE Day in France so we figured many things would be closed. However, the large outdoor market just down the street was in full swing so we wandered through it picking up some roasted chicken and sausages for dinner...
... and yes, the market goes all the way down to the Bastille, whose monument you can see in the distance. Also, the Petit Palais has been advertising a special Carl Larsson exhibit that was "open every day" so we headed over there about mid morning or so taking the #1 metro from Bastille to Champs Elysees Clemenceau. Leaving the metro we were met by a line of police officers blocking the way. We were told this exit was closed but the Petit Palais was "open" and we would have to get back on the metro, go to the next stop and walk back. So back on we went and got off at the Franklin D. Roosevelt station to find the Champs Elysees barricaded for whatever parading had happened for VE Day. Teams of people were busy taking down the barricades so we figured it was done for the day. We walked back towads the Petit Palais. Right at the metro station we were blocked from exiting is a statue of Charles de Gaulle where it appears much of the celebration must have taken place but it was all dispersing by the time we got there. On to the Petit Palais, which despite the large sign out front proclaiming "Ouvert tous les jours" was clearly not so and showed no signs of being so any time soon. Crap!
So, on to plan B. We strolled across the Pont Alexandre II with it's fabulous sculptures and view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance...
After crossing the bridge we wandered along Blvd Saint Germain. More cool architecture along the way. As we walked it started to rain again so we stopped in at Le Drop Cafe on Rue de Bellechasse just off Blvd Saint Germain. Alas, we can't remember what we had to eat, but it must have been reasonably good! After lunch we continued, in the rain, along Blvd Saint Germain with most shops closed for the holiday. Eventually we turned right on to Rue du Dragon, a street known for it's shoe stores, some of which were open on this rainy holiday. There Kris picked up a very nice pair of shoes. After that it was, still in the rain, time for a coffee break at the famous Cafe de Flores. Kris had a cappucino and Brian had a hot chocolate with a piece of apple pie. Now... this is what a piece of apple tart should look like...
... and it tasted as good as it looked! While there we chatted with two other women who were also taking a rain break. On lady was from Las Vegas and on a nice sounding trip with friends. The other lady was from Istanbul and knew, very well, the Starbucks in Bebek, with the fabulous view, because she lived near there. Nice chats.
Afterwards we walked over to the Bon Marche where we bought some "pink mustard" and some button shaped sugar cubes, for souvenirs to take home, amongst a few other grocery items for dinner. Later we tried a sidewalk cafe at the Bastille for an evening sitout.
Friday we took another shot at the Petit Palais. We arrived to find a huge line but after checking it out we discovered the long line was for people wanting to see a different special exhibit "Paris 1900 The City of Entertainment". The line for the Carl Larrson exhibit was much shorter and we joined that one. It took a while to get in but once in and past security we found that tickets for both shows were being sold at the same cashier... good thing we were in the shorter line... and while buying our Carl Larrson tickets Kris said "hey, let's just buy both and forget about lining up again"... so we did, no problem! Sucks to be the people in the much longer and slower moving line for the Paris 1900 exhibit... in fact, if we had known, entrance to the museum itself is free so a person could actually just walk right in claiming to only want to see the museum, then, once inside, simply go to the cashier and buy whichever special exhibit ticket is desired!
The Carl Larsson exhibit was utterly fabulous and well worth the wait in line. The Paris 1900 exhibit is sort of neat but we suspect it would have much more appeal to a Parisian than it did for us. Glad we didn't wait in the extra long line for that one! Having taken in two exhibits it was now well after noon. We decided to leave this area and since one area on our list was the fabric district near the Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica we headed over there. We took the #1 metro line to Charles de Gaulle Etoile then transferred to #2 to the Anvers stop followed by a short walk uphill to Place St Pierre the heart of this fabric district. But, first things first, lunch time... Le Ronsard is a cool little cafe with window tables looking directly up the hill to the church...
... and the food (croque madame and crepe) was very good. After lunch Kris headed into the fabric stores while Brian ferreted out the Montmartre Funicular, the easy way to the top of the hill, as opposed to the raft of steep steps. After Kris completed a good look through the numerous fabulous fabric stores, and finished drooling, we took the funicular up the hill and did a tour of the church. After that we headed home for a rest before going out to the Le Paris for a bit.
Saturday we decided to try what is claimed to be "the largest flea market in the world", Les Marches des Puces Saint-Ouen. We reached it via #4 metro stop Porte de Clignancourt where, unfortunately, you have to run the three block gauntlet of street hawkers before getting to the actual market area itself adjoining Rue des Rosiers. This is actually a conglomerate of 14 smaller "marches" only a couple of which you might call "flea markets", the others being more like permanent small stores selling large antiques. We preferred the Marche Vernasion where it was fun, albeit a tad damp in the rain, to browse the wide variety of stalls throughout the numerous alleys. Kris was looking for an engraved serving spoon and came away with a nice one at a reasonable price. We stopped in at Cafe Voltaire for another quiche and croque monsieur lunch before browsing some of the larger antique furniture areas. On the way out of the market area we found a 50 euro note so that basically covered our lunch and the serving spoon. Nice! Oh, on a comfort note, beware that you may come across squat toilets in the market. At least the one we came across was.
Leaving the market area we took the #4 metro to Strasbourg Saint-Denis then transferred to the #8 metro to Filles du Calvaire where it was an easy walk to our local Oska to see what new stock they got in during this last week. Before going into the store we stopped in at Le Progress, a corner bistro just up from Oska, for a cappucino respite. While there Brian ran across the road to a BNP Paribas bank to get some cash. It has been a week since the last withdrawal but every attempt from 250 down to 50 euro failed with a "you are not authorized" message. What the??? Anyway, Kris picked up a nice pant and blouse set at Oska then we went to Monoprix for some groceries before heading towards home. To get home from there we had to do a metro transfer at Place de la Republique so we took that opportunity to go up to the plaza and have a drink or two. We decided to try Le Dejazet where we could sit outside but still be out of the rain should it decide to make another appearance. A nice location with good wine but, almost too hard to believe for a modern looking restaurant in the centre of the city, it too still has squat toilets for it's customers!
Later in the evening we called Scotiabank only to be told that Brian's daily withdrawal limit has been lowered to $1... now isn't that just the most useful amount going!!! The agent actually asked "Did you request it to be lowered?"...DUH... of course not!!! So she says the card has now been compromised and is no longer usable AND they can't replace it because it is a debit card. Lucky we travel with an extra one so we had them raise Kris' card limit so we could just go and get more cash than we will likely need for the remainder of the trip. What a pain in the ass!
Sunday was planned to be just a day to wander. We decided to go back to the Marche aux Puces de Vanves, the same flea market we went to last Sunday. Great way to start a day of wandering! We spent a couple of hours strolling the market looking in the different stalls. In our opinion, this is a much more authentic/real flea maket than the much larger collection of "flea markets" we saw yesterday, and much more fun.
Leaving the market we took the #13 metro back to the centre then switched to a #1 and got off at Saint-Paul, the Marais. Even though most shops were closed there were still thousands of people out and about with the result being many very crowded restaurants, cafes and bistros. We wandered the streets of the Marais for about an hour before coming upon the restaurant Le Voltigeur which had a couple of empty seats so we took advantage and had yet another excellent quiche and croque monsieur lunch. After lunch we continued to wander the streets periodically ducking into shelter when the rain started. After some time we arrived at the Monoprix where we thought we'd pick up some food for dinner. Oops, not so much - store closed! So it will be dinner out tonight. After going home for a rest we went off to the Bastille and chose the Falstaff Cafe for a very good pizza and wine dinner.
Another week done.... as Kris says "...in Paris doing Paris things..."
... but for an interesting read and more/better photos, check out this website. It is quite a walk along Rue Reaumur to the geogeous looking opera house, the Opera de Paris Garnier...
Tuesday, we were off to the Musee d'Orsay as the pass we bought on Saturday expires today. We walked down Blvd Richard-Lenoir to the Bastille and caught the #1 metro to stop Palais Royal Musee du Louvre, walked across the Seine and along Quai Anatole France to the museum entrance and the long line. With our ticket we were able to "go to the head of the line" but, alas, the line of people with tickets and passes was just as long! Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound, we joined the line of ticket holders. The line moved quite quickly and the time was lessened somewhat with the chats we had with the young couple ahead of us. They are from Edmonton so besides our respective travels we had lots to talk about. Eventually we found ourselves through security and IN. We headed straight for the Van Gogh special exhibit where we had to stand in another line but it was worth it. Wall after wall, gallery after gallery, Van Gogh after Van Gogh. The whole place was very crowded but wow! The rest of the museum is no slouch either with the highlight for us being the huge collection of impressionist style paintings.
By the time we left the museum it was well after 2:00 pm and definitely lunch time. We headed down Rue de Bac on to Blvd Raspail. About a block later, on the corner of Rue du Grenelle we spotted a little cheese shop. Barhelemy was closed but what a lovely store front and, we swear, you could actually smell the cheese through the windows!...
Continuing down Blvd Raspail we turned left on to Rue de Verenne to the cafe Le Pain Quotidien where we had an excellent lunch of quiche and chicken salad. After lunch we continued along Blvd Raspail to Rue du Cherche Midi to find the other Oska outlet in the city. After checking out the latest in Oska we wandered around the area then into the impressive Bon Marche on Rue de Babylone. By the time we left the Bon Marche it was early evening and time for a sit. We took the metro to Place de la Republique where we found curbside seats at the Indiana bar and restaurant. Nice evening but unbeknownst to us we ended up sitting right under some plane trees which were sheding whacks of seed fluffer thingies... very hard on the eyes and throat!
Wednesday we thought we'd look into what day trips from Paris might be possible on our Eurail Global Pass. After another stop at the "local" Osaka store we took the metro to Gare du Nord to see what we could accomplish vis a vis day trips. It took a while for us to find the right ticket office and after standing in line for about 15 minutes we found that a two hour train, each way, to Brugge, Belgium return would cost us 170 euro... with the pass! Wow!!! In Germany, the two hour train, each way, to Dresden cost us 9 euro each (18 total) return to Berlin. Well, we are not up to forking out 170 euro (about $265 CDN) to spend maybe 3 or 4 hours in Brugge. So, we'll have to figure out something else.
A bit disheartened we left the station and wandered along Rue Lafayette taking in the various store fronts, arcitecture and general life going by. By early afternoon a light rain started so we picked a restaurant, Le Tire Bouchon, for lunch and to wait out the rain as it started to fall ever more heavily. Kris had a grilled steak with green beans and Brian tried the croque madam (like a croque monsieur but with a fried egg added to the top). Both very good. We ate slowly and the rain gave way so we paid up and went on our way.
Continuing along Rue Lafeyette we eventually arrived at the very large, impressive and generally expensive Galleries Lafayette "department store". We found they had a couple of hair salons so I, Brian, decided it was time for a hair cut/trim. Approaching the reception desk I asked if I could get a hair trim motioning that I didn't want a beard trim at this time (tiny steps). The woman said, in her best anglais, that I could make an appointment for 3:00. It was now 2:50 so that sounded good. Appointment made, I went out into the store for a few minutes and went back into the salon a couple of minutes before 3:00 whereupon the same woman asked me if I had an appointment! Well yeah! Anyway, after being shuffled from one stylist (?) to another to another, I was finally put under the scissors. There was a lot of snipping without a whole lot of cutting but my ears did get lowered and I was reasonably happy with the result. Forty minutes later and 29 euro poorer I was back on the street. By that time Kris had had a good look around in the store and we decided it was time to head back to the 'hood. Walking around to the front of the Opera house we took the #3 metro to the Sebastopol stop, jumped out to Monoprix for dinner groceries, then back on the #3 to Republic and a transfer to #5 to get us home. For a couple of glasses of wine we wandered a couple of blocks down Richard-Lenoir to Le Paris, where we had our first dinner here last Friday. Very nice evening to sit out.
Thursday was VE Day in France so we figured many things would be closed. However, the large outdoor market just down the street was in full swing so we wandered through it picking up some roasted chicken and sausages for dinner...
... and yes, the market goes all the way down to the Bastille, whose monument you can see in the distance. Also, the Petit Palais has been advertising a special Carl Larsson exhibit that was "open every day" so we headed over there about mid morning or so taking the #1 metro from Bastille to Champs Elysees Clemenceau. Leaving the metro we were met by a line of police officers blocking the way. We were told this exit was closed but the Petit Palais was "open" and we would have to get back on the metro, go to the next stop and walk back. So back on we went and got off at the Franklin D. Roosevelt station to find the Champs Elysees barricaded for whatever parading had happened for VE Day. Teams of people were busy taking down the barricades so we figured it was done for the day. We walked back towads the Petit Palais. Right at the metro station we were blocked from exiting is a statue of Charles de Gaulle where it appears much of the celebration must have taken place but it was all dispersing by the time we got there. On to the Petit Palais, which despite the large sign out front proclaiming "Ouvert tous les jours" was clearly not so and showed no signs of being so any time soon. Crap!
So, on to plan B. We strolled across the Pont Alexandre II with it's fabulous sculptures and view of the Eiffel Tower in the distance...
After crossing the bridge we wandered along Blvd Saint Germain. More cool architecture along the way. As we walked it started to rain again so we stopped in at Le Drop Cafe on Rue de Bellechasse just off Blvd Saint Germain. Alas, we can't remember what we had to eat, but it must have been reasonably good! After lunch we continued, in the rain, along Blvd Saint Germain with most shops closed for the holiday. Eventually we turned right on to Rue du Dragon, a street known for it's shoe stores, some of which were open on this rainy holiday. There Kris picked up a very nice pair of shoes. After that it was, still in the rain, time for a coffee break at the famous Cafe de Flores. Kris had a cappucino and Brian had a hot chocolate with a piece of apple pie. Now... this is what a piece of apple tart should look like...
... and it tasted as good as it looked! While there we chatted with two other women who were also taking a rain break. On lady was from Las Vegas and on a nice sounding trip with friends. The other lady was from Istanbul and knew, very well, the Starbucks in Bebek, with the fabulous view, because she lived near there. Nice chats.
Afterwards we walked over to the Bon Marche where we bought some "pink mustard" and some button shaped sugar cubes, for souvenirs to take home, amongst a few other grocery items for dinner. Later we tried a sidewalk cafe at the Bastille for an evening sitout.
Friday we took another shot at the Petit Palais. We arrived to find a huge line but after checking it out we discovered the long line was for people wanting to see a different special exhibit "Paris 1900 The City of Entertainment". The line for the Carl Larrson exhibit was much shorter and we joined that one. It took a while to get in but once in and past security we found that tickets for both shows were being sold at the same cashier... good thing we were in the shorter line... and while buying our Carl Larrson tickets Kris said "hey, let's just buy both and forget about lining up again"... so we did, no problem! Sucks to be the people in the much longer and slower moving line for the Paris 1900 exhibit... in fact, if we had known, entrance to the museum itself is free so a person could actually just walk right in claiming to only want to see the museum, then, once inside, simply go to the cashier and buy whichever special exhibit ticket is desired!
The Carl Larsson exhibit was utterly fabulous and well worth the wait in line. The Paris 1900 exhibit is sort of neat but we suspect it would have much more appeal to a Parisian than it did for us. Glad we didn't wait in the extra long line for that one! Having taken in two exhibits it was now well after noon. We decided to leave this area and since one area on our list was the fabric district near the Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica we headed over there. We took the #1 metro line to Charles de Gaulle Etoile then transferred to #2 to the Anvers stop followed by a short walk uphill to Place St Pierre the heart of this fabric district. But, first things first, lunch time... Le Ronsard is a cool little cafe with window tables looking directly up the hill to the church...
... and the food (croque madame and crepe) was very good. After lunch Kris headed into the fabric stores while Brian ferreted out the Montmartre Funicular, the easy way to the top of the hill, as opposed to the raft of steep steps. After Kris completed a good look through the numerous fabulous fabric stores, and finished drooling, we took the funicular up the hill and did a tour of the church. After that we headed home for a rest before going out to the Le Paris for a bit.
Saturday we decided to try what is claimed to be "the largest flea market in the world", Les Marches des Puces Saint-Ouen. We reached it via #4 metro stop Porte de Clignancourt where, unfortunately, you have to run the three block gauntlet of street hawkers before getting to the actual market area itself adjoining Rue des Rosiers. This is actually a conglomerate of 14 smaller "marches" only a couple of which you might call "flea markets", the others being more like permanent small stores selling large antiques. We preferred the Marche Vernasion where it was fun, albeit a tad damp in the rain, to browse the wide variety of stalls throughout the numerous alleys. Kris was looking for an engraved serving spoon and came away with a nice one at a reasonable price. We stopped in at Cafe Voltaire for another quiche and croque monsieur lunch before browsing some of the larger antique furniture areas. On the way out of the market area we found a 50 euro note so that basically covered our lunch and the serving spoon. Nice! Oh, on a comfort note, beware that you may come across squat toilets in the market. At least the one we came across was.
Leaving the market area we took the #4 metro to Strasbourg Saint-Denis then transferred to the #8 metro to Filles du Calvaire where it was an easy walk to our local Oska to see what new stock they got in during this last week. Before going into the store we stopped in at Le Progress, a corner bistro just up from Oska, for a cappucino respite. While there Brian ran across the road to a BNP Paribas bank to get some cash. It has been a week since the last withdrawal but every attempt from 250 down to 50 euro failed with a "you are not authorized" message. What the??? Anyway, Kris picked up a nice pant and blouse set at Oska then we went to Monoprix for some groceries before heading towards home. To get home from there we had to do a metro transfer at Place de la Republique so we took that opportunity to go up to the plaza and have a drink or two. We decided to try Le Dejazet where we could sit outside but still be out of the rain should it decide to make another appearance. A nice location with good wine but, almost too hard to believe for a modern looking restaurant in the centre of the city, it too still has squat toilets for it's customers!
Later in the evening we called Scotiabank only to be told that Brian's daily withdrawal limit has been lowered to $1... now isn't that just the most useful amount going!!! The agent actually asked "Did you request it to be lowered?"...DUH... of course not!!! So she says the card has now been compromised and is no longer usable AND they can't replace it because it is a debit card. Lucky we travel with an extra one so we had them raise Kris' card limit so we could just go and get more cash than we will likely need for the remainder of the trip. What a pain in the ass!
Sunday was planned to be just a day to wander. We decided to go back to the Marche aux Puces de Vanves, the same flea market we went to last Sunday. Great way to start a day of wandering! We spent a couple of hours strolling the market looking in the different stalls. In our opinion, this is a much more authentic/real flea maket than the much larger collection of "flea markets" we saw yesterday, and much more fun.
Leaving the market we took the #13 metro back to the centre then switched to a #1 and got off at Saint-Paul, the Marais. Even though most shops were closed there were still thousands of people out and about with the result being many very crowded restaurants, cafes and bistros. We wandered the streets of the Marais for about an hour before coming upon the restaurant Le Voltigeur which had a couple of empty seats so we took advantage and had yet another excellent quiche and croque monsieur lunch. After lunch we continued to wander the streets periodically ducking into shelter when the rain started. After some time we arrived at the Monoprix where we thought we'd pick up some food for dinner. Oops, not so much - store closed! So it will be dinner out tonight. After going home for a rest we went off to the Bastille and chose the Falstaff Cafe for a very good pizza and wine dinner.
Another week done.... as Kris says "...in Paris doing Paris things..."
| Back to Week 10 | On to Week 12 |
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Week 10 Berlin to Paris
This is a toughie... we had the draft of this week almost done but something happened that caused it to simply disappear from Blogsy, the publishing app we have been using on our iPad. Crap! Very odd... so anyway we'll see how well the tiny brains can remember what we've been up to...
Monday we had a pre-arranged Reichstag tour booked. Our tour time was for 10:30 with a request to arrive 30 minutes early. The easiest route from our place was to walk about a .5 km through the Tiergarten to catch the #100 bus which stops right in front of the Reichstag. That was quicker than we thought and we arrived about 45 minutes early so had to wait around a bit but soon they had us marching through security and being checked off on multiple lists to make sure our passports matched the names on the reservation. After security we were divided into language groups. Our English tour group consisted of about 18 people from such countries as Denmark, Sweden, England, USA, and, of course, Canada.
The tour guide and the tour itself were excellent. Besides being shown different areas of the building we were told about the history of the building and about how it came close to being torn down altogether after the war due to the damage it had suffered, but when the wall went up, right beside it, a decision was made to keep it and rebuild it as a museum. After re-unification and the decision to move the capital from Bonn to Berlin it rebuilt in it's present form. The last stop on the tour was the plenary and a talk about how the German parliamentary system works.
The various art works in the building are really interesting. There doesn't appear to be much info available on line, about the art, but the video on this site tells a lot about it. There are a few pics from the tour on our picasa album.
After the tour ended we were free to walk up to the top of the Dome. That was pretty cool with great views out over the city. This one being of the Hauptbanhof (the black building with the tubes sticking out of it)...
... and this one being of the Memorial to Murdered Jews in Europe...
After leaving the building we stopped at the Memorial to the 96 elected members of the Reichstag who were murdered under the Nazi regime..
We decided to take the #100 bus back through the Tiergarten over to the Ku'damm area and try the buffet lunch on the 7th floor of KaDeWe. Not bad selection and decent lunch but a bit pricey at close to $30 CDN each. After lunch we wandered around the general area stopping in a large, well stocked model train store... oh so tempting but not this day. Later that evening we went over to Friedrichstrasse for some wine, people watching and tour boat watching along the river...
Tuesday we figured would be our last Berlin museum day. Catching the S-Bahn over to Friedrichstrasse the the M1 tram to Museum Island we thought we'd try the Pergamon Museum first. However, the lineup for tickets was way to long for our liking. We opted instead for the Neues Museum next door where we were able to basically walk right in. The cashier tried to up-sell to a Museum Island Pass but you really need to be prepared to power walk through at least a couple of them since the pass is only good for one day. Usually one museum a day is enough.
The Neues is primarily an ancient Egyptian and Roman history museum. The main holding is the iconic bust of Queen Nefertiti. The Nefertiti gallery is the one place in the museum where photos are not allowed. There were at least four "guards" in the gallery making sure no cameras were about to be used. Sketching is allowed so we partook of that activity along with a group of about a dozen young school girls doing the same. Fun. Lots of other interesting items in the museum including one Roman sculpture that bore an uncanny resemblance to Brian...
For the afternoon we took the S-Bahn to Alexander Platz then the M4 tram north to Mariensburgerstrasse in search of one of the Boesner Art supply stores. After a sort walk from the tram we entered the alley at #16 Mariensburgerstrasse. This alley with it's walls covered in urban art (not graffiti) ...
... leads to the store door. Wow! This place is huge. The Opus art supply store in Vancouver would fit int a small corner of this place! Their product catalog is a tome of a book about 2 inches thick and weighs a ton. We elected to not tote one away but did come away with a small selection of supplies. This place actuallly saves you from yourself by not accepting credit cards.
Later that evening, after doing some grocery shopping at the local Kaiser's supermarket we stopped in at a Paulaner pub a few doors down from Kaiser's. Nice wine and nice munchies.
Wednesday morning we headed over to the Ku'damm for some items we were running short of. Then to another part of the city, in Charlottenburg, we had not previously been for some lunch and to ferret out yet another Boesner store. Seemed like a good excuse to check out the area. To get there we took the U1 (underground metro) from Ku'damm to Wittenberg then the U2 to Ernst-Reuter Platz. Emerging from the metro we found ourselves on a very large traffic circle with busy roads angling off like spokes on a wheel. We found Marchstrasse and headed off past the immense Berlin Technical University. Past the university on to Franklinstrasse this area appears to be mostly light industrial with a couple of large VW and Audi dealerships thrown into the mix but not much in the way of eateries. We found the Boesner store but decided to find some lunch first so continued along Franklinstrasse. Turning the next corner at Helmholtzstrasse Kris noticed a number of storefronts with awnings which usually indicates restaurants as they did in this case. We picked Schrodingers, a busy looking small place and went in. There were two seats at the end of one table so we took those. Two young guys beside us were having what looked like "mac & cheese". It looked good so Brian tried it (Spatzle)and Kris tried the Schnitzel. Excellent lunches for under 6 euro each. Lunch done with it was time to head over to Boesner. This time it was just some supplies to supplement the basic Schminke paint set Kris had picked up in Rome. Another excellent large art supply store.
Wednesday evening we headed back over to the river across from the Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn station and found a talble overlooking the river. We were joined by another couple with whome we struck up a conversation. Julie and Paul are from St Louis and also have a home in Fort Benton, Montana, both places we are familiar with so we had lots to chat about besides our respective travels in and around Berlin. They told us about their adventures in a small town, not far from Berlin, where they were able to track down a whack of information about Paul's grandparents. Very interesting. Julie is an architect so Berlin is pretty well a perfect place to visit. After a nice long chat on a nice evening out we exchanged contact info and went our separate ways. If luck is with us we will connect again in St Louis, Fort Benton or maybe at our place on Vancouver Island, a place Julie said she has on her bucket list.
Thursday was not only May Day with most stores being closed but also packing day for us. After doing the first (big) round of packing we decided to go off to another different part of the city. We chose to get off the S-bahn at Hackescher Markt and wander in a different direction than previous times in the area. We walked along Orienburgerstrasse past some of the riverside parks where large numbers of families were already starting to set up for their May Day picnics. It was shaping up to be a fine day for a bbq.
After a while we happened to walk past the New Synagogue Berlin. It was open for visitors. This is a very interesting building complex, mostly used just as a Jewish Centre and museum now. Built in 1860 it had been badly damaged by the Nazi regime and the war in general. In 1958 a major part of it was deemed too unstable to save and was demolished. A lot of the reconstruction was done in a way to preserve what they could as a memorial.
Returning to Hackescher Markt we had a nice lunch at the outdoor section of Restaurant 1640, a place we ate at earlier this visit to Berlin. Kris had a sausage but since they were still serving breakfast, Brian tried the English Breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, sausage links, toast and has browns... Kris got the better of that one, but still pretty good.
After a bit more wandering we headed towards home to stop in for coffee and cake at Cafe Buchwald at the end of what we always refer to as the "Bear Bridge" but is it's actual name is the "Moabiter Brucke". It was also time for a bit of sketching...
Then it was home to rest a bit. Later for dinner we returned to the 12 Apostel restaurant at Savigny Platz, this time for a salmon, prawn and fresh creme pizza and some wine. Meanwhile our apartment owner Christa was arranging a taxi for us for 6:30 am Friday.
Friday morning we were up early to finish packing and get ready for the taxi. The taxi arrived on time and we got to the hauptbahnhof in time to sit and have a coffee and buy some food/sandwiches to go for on the train. The train left a couple of minutes late so we were sort of glad we had changed our reservations to this earlier train from Berlin so we had lots of extra time on the connection in Mannheim (if this one was late then the chances of the later one being late seemed pretty good). It was a rather uneventful train ride through some nice scenery from Berlin to Mannheim to Paris. About an hour or so out of Paris there was an announcement that 1st class passengers could have a taxi arranged for them. Sweet deal! We got off the train in the Paris Est station and there waiting for us was a taxi driver holding a sign for Emmerson! Nice. That makes life easy. A quick taxi ride and we arrived at our apartment. Thierry was waiting for us and gave us a quick rundown on the place, nearby grocery stores and restaurants.
After getting settled we went out and got some basic groceries then wandered along Blvd Richard-Lenoir (our street) and tried Le Paris for dinner. Could there be a more aptly named place to try for your first meal in Paris? Food was good. Brian tried sausage with cheesy (as in cheese, not as in chintzy) mashed potato and Kris tried duck (as in the bird, not as in 'look out'). Could escargot be next? Very nice meal.
Saturday was our welcome to Paris day. We started out by wandering through an arts and craft market just down the street where Kris picked up a couple of beautiful scarves/shawls. Then it was into the metro, at The Bastille station, to see about passes. Since we are goiing to be here for a few weeks the best deal is the Navigo card which is designed more for locals but gives you unlimited metro/bus use for 7 days (monday to sunday) for around 20 euro. Compare that with the 5 day tourist pass that runs in the 38 euro range. Since the pass doesn't start until Monday we bought a book of 10 individual rides to tide us over. After that we got on the M1 line over to the Louvre. We didn't go into the Louvre today but did walk through the outdoor complex, past the Pyramid, through the Tulieries (garden) and after a stop for a nice lunch of quiche and croque monsieur in the garden, we waited in line for the Musee de l'Orangerie. The main display in this museum is the Nympheas de Monet. This is just fabulous. The display comprises two semi-circular rooms encircled by Monet paintings of water lilies. Wow! No photos allowed but the rest of the museum is pretty cool as well with huge selections of Renoir, Picasso and others.
Leaving the museum we walked along the Champs d'Elysee, a very busy artery in the city...
... while we wondered what it must be like, at the end of the Tour de France, cycling this major boulevard and knowing that you have won the race. We walked just about as far as the Arc deTriomphe before we started to flag. We found a Starbucks hidden away in an arcade so after a lenghy wait in their lineup we sat and enjoyed an iced latte. Leaving Starbucks we stopped in at Monoprix then at Sephora where after only a few minutes in that madhouse Kris came out exclaiming "Run for your life!". Man, what a zoo!
Outside Sephora we noticed a metro station so went into the bowels of the earth, used a couple of tickets to get on the #1 line and came out at The Bastille. By this time it was cocktail hour so spotting an Indiana bar/cafe watering hole we dropped in for some wine, chips with guacamole and some people watching before heading home for the night.
Sunday morning we went deeper into Parisian life and spent several hours at the rather large Marche aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves. A bit of a bugger, for us newbies, to get to but we figured it out... walk to The Bastille, take #1 metro to Champs d'Elysee-Clemenceau, transfer to #13 metro to Porte de Vanves, go the wrong way out of the metro station, and finally ask a stranger in our best French "excuse moi, ou est le marche de puces?", which apparently was good enough as he directed us straight to it. This place is one mother of a flea market! Lots of fun to wander along checking out the wide range of "stuff" on offer. We found some great buttons and a cool set of pewter "knife rests".
Leaving the flea market we retraced our metro steps back to the Bastille then walked along Blvd Beaumarchais until we found a nice looking bistro in which to have lunch.
On Saturday, when Kris bought the scarves, the woman there gave us a pass for entrance to the Grand Marche d'Art Contemporain currently on near the Bastille. After lunch, on Blvd Beaumarchais, we decided to use the pass today since the art show ends tomorrow. Wow, another huge event, but we had guessed that because the pass she gave us was from two fellow artists who had booth #573! The event tents wrapped around a good part of the Port de Plaisance de Paris Arsenal...
... There was a whack of great arts and crafts, mostly paintings and sculptures and eventually we found booth #573 but unfortunately the artists, Philippe Autefage and Caline Muller were on break so we didn't get a chance to chat.
Later that evening we wandered farther over into the Marais and sat at a sidewalk cafe for a couple of glasses of wine. As this week ends we are quite liking this parisian life.
Monday we had a pre-arranged Reichstag tour booked. Our tour time was for 10:30 with a request to arrive 30 minutes early. The easiest route from our place was to walk about a .5 km through the Tiergarten to catch the #100 bus which stops right in front of the Reichstag. That was quicker than we thought and we arrived about 45 minutes early so had to wait around a bit but soon they had us marching through security and being checked off on multiple lists to make sure our passports matched the names on the reservation. After security we were divided into language groups. Our English tour group consisted of about 18 people from such countries as Denmark, Sweden, England, USA, and, of course, Canada.
The tour guide and the tour itself were excellent. Besides being shown different areas of the building we were told about the history of the building and about how it came close to being torn down altogether after the war due to the damage it had suffered, but when the wall went up, right beside it, a decision was made to keep it and rebuild it as a museum. After re-unification and the decision to move the capital from Bonn to Berlin it rebuilt in it's present form. The last stop on the tour was the plenary and a talk about how the German parliamentary system works.
The various art works in the building are really interesting. There doesn't appear to be much info available on line, about the art, but the video on this site tells a lot about it. There are a few pics from the tour on our picasa album.
After the tour ended we were free to walk up to the top of the Dome. That was pretty cool with great views out over the city. This one being of the Hauptbanhof (the black building with the tubes sticking out of it)...
... and this one being of the Memorial to Murdered Jews in Europe...
After leaving the building we stopped at the Memorial to the 96 elected members of the Reichstag who were murdered under the Nazi regime..
We decided to take the #100 bus back through the Tiergarten over to the Ku'damm area and try the buffet lunch on the 7th floor of KaDeWe. Not bad selection and decent lunch but a bit pricey at close to $30 CDN each. After lunch we wandered around the general area stopping in a large, well stocked model train store... oh so tempting but not this day. Later that evening we went over to Friedrichstrasse for some wine, people watching and tour boat watching along the river...
Tuesday we figured would be our last Berlin museum day. Catching the S-Bahn over to Friedrichstrasse the the M1 tram to Museum Island we thought we'd try the Pergamon Museum first. However, the lineup for tickets was way to long for our liking. We opted instead for the Neues Museum next door where we were able to basically walk right in. The cashier tried to up-sell to a Museum Island Pass but you really need to be prepared to power walk through at least a couple of them since the pass is only good for one day. Usually one museum a day is enough.
The Neues is primarily an ancient Egyptian and Roman history museum. The main holding is the iconic bust of Queen Nefertiti. The Nefertiti gallery is the one place in the museum where photos are not allowed. There were at least four "guards" in the gallery making sure no cameras were about to be used. Sketching is allowed so we partook of that activity along with a group of about a dozen young school girls doing the same. Fun. Lots of other interesting items in the museum including one Roman sculpture that bore an uncanny resemblance to Brian...
For the afternoon we took the S-Bahn to Alexander Platz then the M4 tram north to Mariensburgerstrasse in search of one of the Boesner Art supply stores. After a sort walk from the tram we entered the alley at #16 Mariensburgerstrasse. This alley with it's walls covered in urban art (not graffiti) ...
... leads to the store door. Wow! This place is huge. The Opus art supply store in Vancouver would fit int a small corner of this place! Their product catalog is a tome of a book about 2 inches thick and weighs a ton. We elected to not tote one away but did come away with a small selection of supplies. This place actuallly saves you from yourself by not accepting credit cards.
Later that evening, after doing some grocery shopping at the local Kaiser's supermarket we stopped in at a Paulaner pub a few doors down from Kaiser's. Nice wine and nice munchies.
Wednesday morning we headed over to the Ku'damm for some items we were running short of. Then to another part of the city, in Charlottenburg, we had not previously been for some lunch and to ferret out yet another Boesner store. Seemed like a good excuse to check out the area. To get there we took the U1 (underground metro) from Ku'damm to Wittenberg then the U2 to Ernst-Reuter Platz. Emerging from the metro we found ourselves on a very large traffic circle with busy roads angling off like spokes on a wheel. We found Marchstrasse and headed off past the immense Berlin Technical University. Past the university on to Franklinstrasse this area appears to be mostly light industrial with a couple of large VW and Audi dealerships thrown into the mix but not much in the way of eateries. We found the Boesner store but decided to find some lunch first so continued along Franklinstrasse. Turning the next corner at Helmholtzstrasse Kris noticed a number of storefronts with awnings which usually indicates restaurants as they did in this case. We picked Schrodingers, a busy looking small place and went in. There were two seats at the end of one table so we took those. Two young guys beside us were having what looked like "mac & cheese". It looked good so Brian tried it (Spatzle)and Kris tried the Schnitzel. Excellent lunches for under 6 euro each. Lunch done with it was time to head over to Boesner. This time it was just some supplies to supplement the basic Schminke paint set Kris had picked up in Rome. Another excellent large art supply store.
Wednesday evening we headed back over to the river across from the Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn station and found a talble overlooking the river. We were joined by another couple with whome we struck up a conversation. Julie and Paul are from St Louis and also have a home in Fort Benton, Montana, both places we are familiar with so we had lots to chat about besides our respective travels in and around Berlin. They told us about their adventures in a small town, not far from Berlin, where they were able to track down a whack of information about Paul's grandparents. Very interesting. Julie is an architect so Berlin is pretty well a perfect place to visit. After a nice long chat on a nice evening out we exchanged contact info and went our separate ways. If luck is with us we will connect again in St Louis, Fort Benton or maybe at our place on Vancouver Island, a place Julie said she has on her bucket list.
Thursday was not only May Day with most stores being closed but also packing day for us. After doing the first (big) round of packing we decided to go off to another different part of the city. We chose to get off the S-bahn at Hackescher Markt and wander in a different direction than previous times in the area. We walked along Orienburgerstrasse past some of the riverside parks where large numbers of families were already starting to set up for their May Day picnics. It was shaping up to be a fine day for a bbq.
After a while we happened to walk past the New Synagogue Berlin. It was open for visitors. This is a very interesting building complex, mostly used just as a Jewish Centre and museum now. Built in 1860 it had been badly damaged by the Nazi regime and the war in general. In 1958 a major part of it was deemed too unstable to save and was demolished. A lot of the reconstruction was done in a way to preserve what they could as a memorial.
Returning to Hackescher Markt we had a nice lunch at the outdoor section of Restaurant 1640, a place we ate at earlier this visit to Berlin. Kris had a sausage but since they were still serving breakfast, Brian tried the English Breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, sausage links, toast and has browns... Kris got the better of that one, but still pretty good.
After a bit more wandering we headed towards home to stop in for coffee and cake at Cafe Buchwald at the end of what we always refer to as the "Bear Bridge" but is it's actual name is the "Moabiter Brucke". It was also time for a bit of sketching...
Then it was home to rest a bit. Later for dinner we returned to the 12 Apostel restaurant at Savigny Platz, this time for a salmon, prawn and fresh creme pizza and some wine. Meanwhile our apartment owner Christa was arranging a taxi for us for 6:30 am Friday.
Friday morning we were up early to finish packing and get ready for the taxi. The taxi arrived on time and we got to the hauptbahnhof in time to sit and have a coffee and buy some food/sandwiches to go for on the train. The train left a couple of minutes late so we were sort of glad we had changed our reservations to this earlier train from Berlin so we had lots of extra time on the connection in Mannheim (if this one was late then the chances of the later one being late seemed pretty good). It was a rather uneventful train ride through some nice scenery from Berlin to Mannheim to Paris. About an hour or so out of Paris there was an announcement that 1st class passengers could have a taxi arranged for them. Sweet deal! We got off the train in the Paris Est station and there waiting for us was a taxi driver holding a sign for Emmerson! Nice. That makes life easy. A quick taxi ride and we arrived at our apartment. Thierry was waiting for us and gave us a quick rundown on the place, nearby grocery stores and restaurants.
After getting settled we went out and got some basic groceries then wandered along Blvd Richard-Lenoir (our street) and tried Le Paris for dinner. Could there be a more aptly named place to try for your first meal in Paris? Food was good. Brian tried sausage with cheesy (as in cheese, not as in chintzy) mashed potato and Kris tried duck (as in the bird, not as in 'look out'). Could escargot be next? Very nice meal.
Saturday was our welcome to Paris day. We started out by wandering through an arts and craft market just down the street where Kris picked up a couple of beautiful scarves/shawls. Then it was into the metro, at The Bastille station, to see about passes. Since we are goiing to be here for a few weeks the best deal is the Navigo card which is designed more for locals but gives you unlimited metro/bus use for 7 days (monday to sunday) for around 20 euro. Compare that with the 5 day tourist pass that runs in the 38 euro range. Since the pass doesn't start until Monday we bought a book of 10 individual rides to tide us over. After that we got on the M1 line over to the Louvre. We didn't go into the Louvre today but did walk through the outdoor complex, past the Pyramid, through the Tulieries (garden) and after a stop for a nice lunch of quiche and croque monsieur in the garden, we waited in line for the Musee de l'Orangerie. The main display in this museum is the Nympheas de Monet. This is just fabulous. The display comprises two semi-circular rooms encircled by Monet paintings of water lilies. Wow! No photos allowed but the rest of the museum is pretty cool as well with huge selections of Renoir, Picasso and others.
Leaving the museum we walked along the Champs d'Elysee, a very busy artery in the city...
... while we wondered what it must be like, at the end of the Tour de France, cycling this major boulevard and knowing that you have won the race. We walked just about as far as the Arc deTriomphe before we started to flag. We found a Starbucks hidden away in an arcade so after a lenghy wait in their lineup we sat and enjoyed an iced latte. Leaving Starbucks we stopped in at Monoprix then at Sephora where after only a few minutes in that madhouse Kris came out exclaiming "Run for your life!". Man, what a zoo!
Outside Sephora we noticed a metro station so went into the bowels of the earth, used a couple of tickets to get on the #1 line and came out at The Bastille. By this time it was cocktail hour so spotting an Indiana bar/cafe watering hole we dropped in for some wine, chips with guacamole and some people watching before heading home for the night.
Sunday morning we went deeper into Parisian life and spent several hours at the rather large Marche aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves. A bit of a bugger, for us newbies, to get to but we figured it out... walk to The Bastille, take #1 metro to Champs d'Elysee-Clemenceau, transfer to #13 metro to Porte de Vanves, go the wrong way out of the metro station, and finally ask a stranger in our best French "excuse moi, ou est le marche de puces?", which apparently was good enough as he directed us straight to it. This place is one mother of a flea market! Lots of fun to wander along checking out the wide range of "stuff" on offer. We found some great buttons and a cool set of pewter "knife rests".
Leaving the flea market we retraced our metro steps back to the Bastille then walked along Blvd Beaumarchais until we found a nice looking bistro in which to have lunch.
On Saturday, when Kris bought the scarves, the woman there gave us a pass for entrance to the Grand Marche d'Art Contemporain currently on near the Bastille. After lunch, on Blvd Beaumarchais, we decided to use the pass today since the art show ends tomorrow. Wow, another huge event, but we had guessed that because the pass she gave us was from two fellow artists who had booth #573! The event tents wrapped around a good part of the Port de Plaisance de Paris Arsenal...
... There was a whack of great arts and crafts, mostly paintings and sculptures and eventually we found booth #573 but unfortunately the artists, Philippe Autefage and Caline Muller were on break so we didn't get a chance to chat.
Later that evening we wandered farther over into the Marais and sat at a sidewalk cafe for a couple of glasses of wine. As this week ends we are quite liking this parisian life.
| Back to Week 9 | On to Week 11 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)