Third time was only sort of charming... Paris

Feeling much better this time around after our overnight train from Venice to Paris, I jumped off the train to the station.  As it is Paris, I promptly fell in a hole and fell down on my face.   Seems about right for Paris.  Since it was raining and I could not tell if I was hurt, we got into a taxi to go to our favorite hotel.   (Jordan stresses I paid for a taxi so things were already better!)

The hotel is as great as we remembered,  The surrounding area is a Japanese neighborhood and it has really grown larger in the last five years.  We regrouped to venture out to see the Modern Arrondissements of La Defense.   My mother stayed here her one time in Europe. This area has the modern Grande Arche and lots of statues.  It houses offices and shops.   It was a different side of Paris for sure. 

Afterwards, it was time to experience the best part of Paris - the bakeries!   As I am now gluten-free, I planned to visit some very special bakeries.  Helmut Newcake was the snobbiest place but worth the effort for those pastries.   

(Les Halles Lego store:)

We also had to finally go to Harry's New York Bar.  The bar has University flags and Carolina's flag was one of the originals!  I properly ordered a French 75 while Jordan ordered a pina colada.  (le sigh)

That next morning we got to see the Eiffel Tower in the Jardin du Trocadero on our way to the Musee Rodin.  The Rodin Museum is housed in a turn of the century artist house where many artists lived.  It houses the most famous sculptures in the gardens outside.   It was amazing and seeing the Thinker up close was priceless.  (For Marvelous Mrs Maisel fans, this is the museum the mom walks through in Paris multiple times.)  This place made me like Paris for an acre or so.

After lunch, we FINALLY made it to the Catacombs.   I paid beyond normal pricing due to the popularity of the site,  but after two times of it being closed while we were in Paris we had to go!   It's the reason I returned!   I found the miles of underground a bit odd and sad, but at the same time fascinating.   I could not imagine going to some of the crazy concerts and parties that occurred down there during Paris's glory days.  

As it was also the 100th anniversary of the WWI armistice, we looked at the WWI celebrations and walked through Forum des Halles.   That night it was the last major F1 race of the year, so we headed to the Opera area to the Aussie bar to watch.  The bar seemed to find it odd two Americans were watching F1, but everyone was not cheering on Lewis so it was fun.

We were excited to head home.   I still do not love Paris but I am glad I got to see more sites and walk at a slower pace.    I have vowed to not go back until I am 50, so let's see if I do not have to resort to flying into CDG....

A Return to Venice

Late post, sorry.  As Lauren said in our last post from before this trip; we are pretty bad at getting our last few days documented, especially on longer or tiring trips.  This trip turned out to be pretty tiring, even if it was a still amazing.

We took the train to Venice because we had some free time in our schedule and Lauren let me pick what to do.  I could have stayed in Florence another whole day or done a few other things, but the end result was that we needed to be in Paris within 2 days for our flight home (Paris often has the cheapest flights).  One of the easiest options for getting to Paris was something we had done before; the night train from Venice.  It's not exactly the cheapest option, but it is easy and it also means I get to go back to Venice which is, maybe my favorite place on Earth, at least top 3.  Is it sometimes smelly?  Sure. Did it flood a week before we got there?  It was only a couple of feet!  But, is it one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in Europe?  You bet.  Bonus; we found that Venice is one of the best places for Gluten free Italian food which Lauren was thrilled with.

We got Venice in late afternoon, it was foggy and chilly but still beautiful as ever.  We stayed at a nice little B&B tucked a little bit further into the city than last time.  We got checked in easily and then went out into the city to explore for the night.

Lauren found something new and interesting for us to do though: the mall in Venice (which is exactly as high end as you might expect it to be) has a rooftop terrace which allows you to see basically the whole city.  In a city built on wooden posts and piers, a high vantage point is all but unheard of, so this was a nice treat.

With little to do officially, we had a nice evening and enjoyed proper Italian food, including a full Gluten Free meal for Lauren with bread and pasta that she found amazing. 

The next day we got up a bit early to re-pack our bags, have a nice breakfast at our B&B, and head off for a visit to Burano which is a small town/island about 30 minutes boat ride from Venice.  It's like a miniature Venice but it's also known for it's colorful homes which are beautiful and interesting. 

We enjoyed strolling around Burano before heading back to Venice where we relaxed for a bit by grabbing a few drinks (and fries) in the Irish pub right in the middle of town.  We found it to be one of the few things that isn't as good as we remember it (new management we think) as the rest of town appears to be far cleaner and updated dramatically compared to our last visit.  After relaxing and catching up on wi-fi we had one of the best meals of the entire trip for dinner. 

From there it was a bit of a rush to pick up our packs and make it to the train; luckily it turns out our train was early and we didn't have any issue getting aboard.  Lauren picked up some gluten free Gelato for us (it was very good) and we settled in on the Thelo overnight train to Paris for the second time ever.  A small overnight cabin may not be many people's idea of luxury but I really enjoy the old-school experience of travelling by train, and I had a good night's ride. To be fair we didn't sleep as well this time as our first experience but we did arrive in Paris feeling a lot better this time (despite the rainy weather). 

More to come about our short 3rd visit to Paris and hopefully some of our many other travels in 2018.

Frenzy in Florence (Firenze)

I had read you need days and days in Florence.  Well it’s off season now; so we raced through the city to see it all in only two days.  After we finally arrived following an interesting Hertz car experience (see previous post); after checking into a B&B our first mission was to go to Hard Rock.  I was so very hungry. I had to go to a reliable food source. It was amazing after days of no food.

 However that evening it was raining a lot.  We cabbed it to the Boboli Gardens and Palazzo Pitti.  This is across the Arno river in the city. This was one of many Medici palaces we would visit this trip.  It has gardens to rival Versailles.  Since it was raining so hard, we skipped walking to the famous Piazza Michelangelo overlooking the city.  Instead we walked back over the famous bridge of Ponte Vecchio bridge and oriented to the city on a slow walk back.

The next day we hit the city running.  We ventured to the most famous spot, the Duomo (the top of the church).  We got a rare reservation to climb the 400 stairs to the top of the Duomo to see the city.  It was grueling but we made it.  Look at the views:

We then visited all the Cathedral sites including the amazing museum.  The museum had the original doors of the Cathedral/ Baptistery as well as some moving artwork:

Since I’ve found myself becoming a huge fan of the Renaissance, I had to visit all the Medici sites.  That included seeing two different churches, a library and their crypt / tombs.  

After an amazing lunch at Ciro & Sons, I made us venture to more art.  We made it across the old city to the Academy.  This is an art museum that made a household name for housing the Michelango statue of David.  This one statue that lived up to all the fuss.

We rushed over to Santa Croce, a church that has multiple famous tombs as well as functions a  lace school, nunnery and art museum.  It has great records of the Florence floods as well.  (Let’s appreciate Jordan for saying I’m good and drinking beer on the square so I could take my time). 

We then had time, much to Jordan’s dismay, to visit the Palazzo Vecchio.  This building was used as and still has function as City Hall as well as being a living quarters for the Medici clan for a time.

We finally ended up strolling around the city, catching a pub and finding some food that was too good.  I finally got to try the wild boar pasta! Even Jordan scraped up desert at this dinner.  

We had a decision to make that night - to visit more things the next morning or get to Venice early.  We have a love affair with Venice so we got up early and made it happen in Florence; guaranting an early arrival in Venice. We visited one of the best art museums in the world.  To see these Renaissance works almost alone( we were really early)  was moving.  Thank you Uffizi.  Then Jordan made me visit the Bargello statue museum alone.  To stand alone in a room full of Michelangelo statues was breathtaking to say the least.  This museum was diverse so I loved it.  We then walked a few yards to the Galileo Science Museum.  These artifacts, while different, were so cool and completed the idea of a Renaissance man (human).  

We then grabbed a lunch and bought our train tickets to Venice! Thanks Florence for over-feeding me and being amazing.  We appreciated you.  Even if you didn’t capture my heart like Rome, I wouldn’t hesitate to come again - during the off-season. 

Steps: 35k

Wine bottles: 6 (we deserved it)

Note of Record - of the best wines of our life: