Last Day of Paris + 3.5 Days in Sweden

The last day in Paris we were going to get up early and climb the Eiffel Tower, but we were so tired we ended up sleeping in until 10 or so (it was totally worth it). We decided we wanted to go see the Musee Rodin, but when we got there we found it that it was closed Mondays. No problem though, because it was right next to Invalides, which was our second choice anyway.

We spent a couple hours in there and saw lots of things like Napoleon's tomb, the midevil museum, and the WWI/WWII museum. It was more of my kind of museum - filled with all manner of sharp, explosive, and otherwise dangerous objects and machines. Afterward we headed back to the Cafe du Marche for lunch (I had duck, which was delicious).

After lunch we took a walk down the Seine looking for shops where we could find scarves and other gifts. We were going to go check out the Louve, but when we got there it was a little later in the day (3 or 4) and we didn't want to spend another hour in a huge line, so we decided to just keep walking. We found some nice shops near the Louve and got some scarves and a poster for Lauren. We were planning on walking over to Notre Dame, and on the way Lauren found a really nice purse.

We finally decided we were too tired to make it all the way to Notre Dame, so we took the metro back to the hotel. That night we got all packed up and ready to go the next day, then fell asleep.

Napoleon's Tomb

Invalides

Napoleon's Tomb

Invalides

Invalides

Louve

The next day was all traveling to Stockholm (so I'll keep it short). We got up and had delicious pastries at the boulongerie across the street. We made it to the train station, which took us to the airport. We actually got there with plenty of time to spare, and waited around in the terminal for a few hours. The flight was around two hours, and when we landed our luggage came in pretty quickly.

Kristina met us outside customs and we found an ATM so we could get bus/metro passes. When we got outside the air was so cold and dry that Lauren and I both started coughing (it was probably in the teens at that point). I greatly appreciated not having to do any navigating back to the apartment, especially since it was two buses and one train.

When we got back to the apartment we were tired and hungry, so she made the Swedish meatballs that her mom sent up with her. They were really good, and Lauren became a fan. After dinner and drinks we were tired and passed out pretty quickly.

(No pictures for today - just travel)

The next day we decided to go sightseeing after breakfast. First we all (Lauren, Kristina, and I) headed out to Kaknäs Tower, which is a huge 30 story tower on the edge of Stockholm. We took the metro (which was the prettiest, cleanest, all-around-nicest one we saw in all of Europe). While waiting for the bus out to the tower we saw the Esplanade Hotel, where my family and I stayed ~10 years ago when we stayed in Stockholm (picture below). It was in the 20's, so we were freezing waiting for the bus.

Finally the bus came and took us straight to the tower. We took the very fast elevator to the top, but unfortunately it was so foggy that we couldn't see much. However, we didn't mind so much because there was a cafe at the top where we got some really yummy little snacks and just relaxed for a little while.

Next we took the bus over to the Vasa Ship museum, which was really neat. It's a museum built around the Vasa ship (a 17th century ship that was recently brought up intact from the bottom of the harbor). The museum was really neat (one of my favorite museums in Europe) and we spent a few hours in then. Luckily I got plenty of good pictures thanks to my mini-tripod (it's very dark in there). After we were done in there we headed back to the apartment (after a quick grocery run).

After dinner and some wine, we all fell asleep as usual.

Esplanade Hotel (you can see the sign mounted vertically on the building down the street right in the center of the picture - you might have to zoom in a bit)

Me being silly at the Vasa Museum

Lauren and I in front of the Vasa Ship

Vasa Ship

As usual we woke up, ate breakfast, and went out for some more sightseeing. It was new years eve, so we decided not to stay out too long. We went down to old town Stockholm and looked around. We saw the palace and the Nobel museum, but by this time it was snowing pretty hard, so we went into a little coffee shop and got some food and warm drinks.

Afterward we walked down the main little street full of shops and looked around (though we didn't really find anything to buy). Then we got off the little island that old town was on and walked up a hill to a point where we could see most of the city. It wasn't as good of a point of the tower, but we could see alot more just because the fog wasn't nearly as bad. We took some pictures, then headed for the metro station to get out of the cold.

We took the metro back home and made dinner for new years. We ate a delicious dinner and made yummy cocktails (I never realized that Absolut Vodka was Swedish). We all ended up getting really drunk. Everyone was setting off fireworks everywhere (including all around Kristina's apartment building), so at midnight we took the Champagne downstairs and outside to watch the fireworks for a while. The alcohol only kept us warm for so long (it was still snowing) so we came back in and promptly passed out before 1am.

Nobel Museum

Stockholm

Lauren and I on the point overlooking Stockholm
Happy 2010 - It's really cold

New Years Fireworks (they were being set off just feet away from us)

There's not much to say about the next day - Lauren and I were both quite hungover (Kristina was somewhat more resilient than us and managed to be mostly fine the next day). We really didn't do much this day, which was fine because I figured it would be our recovery day anyway (the exact reason that I didn't book flights back for this day). We just stayed home, rested, and got all packed up since we had to leave at 4 in the morning for the airport (our flight out was at 7:10 am).

The next two days were spent traveling - Stockholm to Rome took 9 or 10 hours, then Rome to Home took 28 (sleepless) hours, not to mention the hell Lauren and I were both put through at our separate connecting airports (I was in Toronto, she was in DC), but we made it home fine. My sleep schedule has been much better since I got home (going to bed before 10 or 11, waking up pretty well around 6 or 7), but I hope to correct this and return to my usual college student lack of sleep schedule.

Anyway, this concludes my travel blog. Hope everyone enjoyed reading it.

Day 14 - 3rd Day of Paris - Versailles

Today we decided to give Versailles another try. We woke up by nine or so, and after getting ready and consuming another nutella crepe, we headed down into the metro. We went back to the same station and got our train tickets again. This time we made sure to specifically ask that the train was running, and which one to get on. She said get on train “Vick”, which didn't seem to exist the day before. When we got to the platform, it still seemed that it did not exist. Only train “Sara” was there, which was the incorrect on the day before. However, there were a ton of people waiting by a track that didn't appear (on the overhead monitors) to have any trains running on it. And yet within 10 minutes, train “Vick” showed up on that line.

Very odd that it didn't show up on the monitor, but that must've been what we did wrong the day before – we didn't wait for a train that we didn't know was coming. Oh well. We jumped on it, and sure enough it took us right out to Versailles (just how I remembered it from 4 years ago). When we got off the train, we headed straight off to the palace. Unfortunately when we got there, there was a huge line for tickets. We had to stand in line, in the cold windy courtyard, for 40ish minutes until we got inside to the ticket counter. There we bought tickets to see the palace, the garden, and Marie Antoinette's Hamlet (which was the one place at Versailles that Lauren hadn't seen before).

It was decent weather, partly cloudy, but it was very windy (I've never seen clouds move so fast) and we were worried that it would start raining later in the day, so we decided to do the gardens and the hamlet first. We walked down the main path to the end of the gardens, which was very far away – the gardens huge, even if you take the most direct route through them. From there we had to walk along the road to Marie Antoinette's hamlet – the little fake country village that she had created just so she could pretend she was in the country side. The walk to get there was again, very far, and our feet and legs were quite sore by the time we even got there (I think they got sore faster every day because of lack of recovery time).

When we got there we walked through her country house at the entrance, which was, as usual, ridiculously lavish (especially for what was supposed to be a simple country retreat house). Then we headed out into the landscaped gardens. It was a huge area with lots of paths that branched everywhere – including into little tunnels through the trees and such. We ran across a very neat area with a huge stone area above a large pond (which was frozen over – just like pretty much all standing water around Versailles) and some sort of simple building. There we sat down and just rested and admired the view for a while. Then we headed off towards the hamlet – but I intentionally took us over some little hills and through the trees because the pathways were so neat. This is the kind of area you just want to explore for a day (I can see the appeal for Marie Antoinette).

After another lengthy walk, we arrived at the hamlet, which was a really neat little village that was constructed around an small lake (no doubt artificial – like everything there). It even included a little light house. There were lots of coy, a couple ducks (that kept diving underwater), and even very loud swan. We headed over towards the little fake farm, where there were lots of animals. First was a cage containing chickens and rabbits – it was pretty funny to watch a rabbit chasing a chicken around (though another rabbit got pecked in the nose when he tried to smell an annoyed looking chicken). There were also turkeys, sheep, goats, cows, some very sad looking donkeys (I think donkeys just naturally look sad), and even a dog. We couldn't tell if the dog was trained though, because we didn't know the French command for “sit”.

We were very tired, so we headed back along the path to the entrance of the Hamlet, then back along the road to Versailles. By this point we were very hungry and our legs were pretty much just non functional, so we stopped and grabbed sandwiches and sat down for lunch in the gardens. It seems that the gardens are a perfect place for cats though, because no less than 4 cats (all very cute – especially the calico kitten) would emerge from the bushes and sniff around for dropped food. When we were done with lunch, we headed back to the palace to walk through there.

Inside it was very crowded. We walked through the palace and saw many of the rooms, including the king's room, the hall of mirrors, and others. The one thing that always struck me was how short their beds were – they must have been so short. We saw lots of neat things, but it was very crowded, and while I'm not a claustrophobic person, by the time we left I was just about ready to punch the next person who bumped into me (it was just that crowded the entire time).

It was 4 or so and we were really tired and ready to head home. First we stopped by a starbucks near the station so Lauren could get coffee and I could get water. On the train ride home, I was so tired I fell asleep (and it was only a 20ish minute ride). I also almost passed out on the metro ride back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel rather early (no later than 5), so we napped and rested for a couple hours before heading out for dinner.

For dinner we headed back to that same bar/cafe for some more onion soup. It was delicious as always, and afterward we split a burger and fries there, which was also very delicious (and not in a gross greasy way either). After dinner we headed back to the hotel, and passed out as usual.

Day 13 - 2nd Day of Paris

Today we decided to head out to Versailles because it was a relatively nice day (in the 40's, mostly clear). We woke up a little after nine, which means our sleep schedule is finally back on track – I think being lazy in Barcelona corrected it. After getting up and getting ready, we headed out for the metro by 10:30 or so. As per our daily routine, we each grabbed a crepe at the crepe stand right by our metro stop (a little spoiler – I have a nutella crepe almost every morning in Paris). We jumped on the metro, and headed towards the Invalides stop where the train to Versailles passed through.

We were a little unsure about how it would work with the train because we heard there was an accident on the tracks a few days before (some rocks fell off an overpass and damaged the track), however, it wasn't on the area of the tracks we would be going over. We got to the station area and bought our tickets, then walked through the ticket gates. Once inside, we were very confused because it seemed there was only one train going in the correct direction, but it wasn't going to the correct destination (because the tracks split twice on the way to Versailles). Finally we decided to board it and get off near Versailles, then just walk half a mile. Unfortunately, after just two or three stops, the train immediately makes the wrong turn – it didn't seem to be headed anywhere near Versailles. So we jumped off at the next stop and hopped back on the metro into Paris.

It was already noon or so, so we decided we were better off just staying in Paris for the day, and figuring Versailles out the next day. First we decided to go see the opera house in Paris, so we took the metro over there. It was really neat inside – nice to see something like that, that isn't religious for once. We walked around it and saw the grand staircase, as well as a private box that overlooked the stage and all the seating. We also walked through the hallways and out on the balcony, as well as through some small galleries they had. Probably the coolest part though was the box overlooking the entire stage and seating area. We were disappointed though that we couldn't go to the top floors or a box on the top floor (that really overlooked everything).

After we were done there, we decided to get lunch before seeing the Musee D'Orsay. We took a metro as close to the D'Orsay as we could (conveniently) without using the slower RER, so we got off near the Louve. There we found a little cafe, and we did lunch cheaply by splitting a 7€ pizza (which was quite good). After we ate we walked along the Louve side of the Seine until we got near the D'Orsay, then crossed the river to get there.

The line for tickets was huge, but it actually moved pretty quickly, so we headed inside and bought tickets. As with many museums, I had to check my backpack, so I just took my camera in (it was nice not to have to carry everything for a while anyway). Inside, we walked around and saw most of the paintings. Lauren had the Rick Steve's Paris book with her, so we followed the first part of his little tour. However, they had an area or two closed for renovation, so the tour kind of got disrupted. Eventually we just headed off towards the impressionist paintings, where we spent the rest of our time. At the end, we went and sat down at the cafe because our legs hurt so badly and Lauren needed her Coca Light fix.

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel, sorely in need of dinner. Lauren had been talking nonstop about wanting French onion soup for the past few days, and the day before she had noticed that one place near our metro stop had it, so we decided to go there and get it. It was a nice little bar/cafe, and the soup was very cheap. It also managed to live up to our expectations, and was quite delicious. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and watched “Death to Smoochy” (I love that movie so much) until we fell asleep.

Grand Staircase in the Opera House

Opera House

Opera House

Seine

Musee D'Orsay

Day 12 - First Day in Paris!

This was our first day in Paris. We woke up around 8 or 9, and took off as soon as we were ready. For breakfast we stopped by boulangerie and grabbed some mini quiches (they were quite good). Since our hotel is only about 2 kilometers from Sacre Coeur (and we could see the top of it from the main street by our hotel) we decided to walk there. It was a pretty long walk, and we didn't really know our way, but we just followed the dome over the tops of the buildings – this was also when it actually registered in our head that the entire 2km walk was uphill, which makes sense since the church is at the top of a hill.

When we arrived there we took some pictures and looked through the tourist shops before doing a walk through of the church. It was xmas morning, so naturally there was a lot going on inside the church, but we were able to walk fully around the inside of it. It's a more modern church, and Lauren and I really like it's style, but it's still a church. The inside was pretty neat though (no pictures allowed).

Then we went down the stairs towards Paris to try and find a metro stop. The stairs were lined with vendors, including four especially aggressive friendship bracelet makers that were basically blocking the stairs that we had to push through to get by. We were able to find a metro stop relatively quickly and we headed out towards Invalides. When we got there (it is a large war museum where Napoleon is buried) we walked around the outside and took some pictures, though it was unfortunately closed since it was xmas day. We also walked over to the Rodin museum next door, but it too was closed for the day.

We then walked around the other side of Invalides (for better pictures) and headed off towards the Eiffel Tower. When we arrived, we took lots of pictures (while avoiding the throngs of identical looking wandering vendors of crappy Eiffel Tower models). We walked all the way up towards the base, and were considering going up it, but the massive line made us decide to do it another day (probably early in the morning) if at all. We have both been up it before after all.

Then we decided it was lunch time so we headed over towards the Cafe du Marche, which Lauren loves. We arrived there, and had a leisurely 1.5 – 2 hour lunch and dessert. By this time it was 4:30pm, so we decided to take a rather ambitious walk all the from near the Eiffel Tower, along the Seine, to Notre Dame. This walk took well over an hour and was 2+ miles, but we got to see all the sights down the Seine, so it was worth it.

Finally we arrived at Notre Dame. We wanted to go inside, but the line was huge (being xmas evening and all), so we decided to skip it and just take pictures from the outside. When we were done, we walked a little ways north to the metro station, where we were able to take just one metro back to our hotel stop. We got a nutella crepe at the stand right next to our stop, then headed back to the hotel, where it didn't take long for us to fall asleep.

Paris from Sacre Coeur

Same picture but focused on the city instead of the sky

Sacre Coeur

Me in the Gardens at Invalides

Invalides - Napoleon's Tomb

Lauren being adorable in front of the Eiffel Tower

Us being adorable in front of the Eiffel Tower

Lauren in front of her favorite bridge over the Seine

Notre Dame at Night (on xmas)

Day 11 - Barcelona to Paris

This was the day we left Barcelona. We woke up at 8 or 9 and did our usual relaxed morning routine (including croissants and rolls from that bakery). Our flight was at 4pm (checkin at 2), so we made sure to leave by noon. The metro ride to the train station was pretty quick and easy, but we were very confused as which train to board to get to the airport. We finally figured it out, but then naturally had to wait an extra 25 minutes for a train to actually show up. By the time we got on the train, it was past 1, and I was already a little stressed. So when a street performer started playing xmas music really loud right next to us in the crowded train car, I really just wanted to punch him.

After standing on the train for 20 minutes with our luggage, we made it to the airport. We thought we were checking in from Terminal 2 zone B, but after running up and down the 100+ checkin stands twice, we finally realized it was moved to zone C. (At first I was pissed at easyjet, but I later realized they told me in some email that they switched checkin zones). So after walking 15 minutes, partially through the rain, we arrived at checkin at 2:00, right as it started, all ready to see a huge line. However, apparently the last massive checkin line we saw can be blamed entirely on the Italian airport and not on easyjet - our checkin line was non-existent. Instead of 50 exasperating minutes, it took all of 2 easy minutes to checkin and head off to our gate.

However, since we were all ready and there on time the flight was naturally delayed 80 minutes back to 5:20pm. After waiting around the gates for a number of hours we were able to board. The flight was fine, quick, and relatively on time after it's initial delay. We landed around 7:20pm or so. After waiting 20 minutes for our luggage, we worked our across the airport to the train station. Because the ticket machines don't accept bills (just coins) or foreign credit cards (for 8 euro tickets) we had to stand in a huge 30 minute line for tickets. We finally got them, and after another 15 minutes or so of waiting for the train, we were on our way to Paris.

However, we had to make a switch to the metro, and we were very confused about how to get through the gates, since all the ticket machines were on the OTHER side of the gates that we needed a ticket to get through. Luckily the gates were nice enough to accept our train tickets, and we were off again. By this point we were tired and grouchy (and I'm pretty sure Lauren was about one more flight of stairs away from leaving her suitcase behind) and we emerged in the rain. I wasn't exactly sure which way we were supposed to go, but luckily we picked the correct direction and found our cross street, and soon after, our hotel.

It was 10pm by now and we had very little to eat since we left 10 hours ago, so after checking in we found a nice little restaurant. It was a nice a little French-Middle Eastern place, so I had some of the best couscous ever (though Lauren wasn't a huge fan of her food). After that we got back to the hotel and promptly passed out - The End (of this day anyway).

Sorry - Grouchy travelers tend to not want to mess with their cameras. No pictures from today (you're lucky there was even one picture from our last big travel day)

Day 10 - Barcelona

This was our last full day in Barcelona. As usual, we woke up slightly after nine, awoke very leisurely, and went down to the nearby bakery for breakfast. It wasn't raining more than a couple drops when we went to get breakfast, but by noon, when we decided to head out to go sightseeing, it was raining pretty hard. At first we planned on going by Parc Guile and the Gaudi Houses, but because of the heavy rain, we decided to first stop by the Plaza De Catalonia, look around, and decide how far we wanted to go.

The Plaza was neat and we took a few pictures, but there was nothing huge and exciting. Lauren wanted these mosaic salt and pepper shakers she had seen earlier, so we kept an eye our for tourist shops that might have them. Parc Guielle was actually a 20 minute walk uphill from the metro stop, and it was raining quite hard, so we decided that instead of seeing the parc and the gaudi houses, we would instead just take a leisurely walk down the Ramba.

The Ramba is kind of the “Champs-Elysees” (the famous fancy/touristy street of Paris) of Barcelona. It's a big, pretty, touristy street in Barcelona that starts at the Plaza and is lined with lots of shops and such. What turned out to be really interesting was not the shops on the sides of the streets, but all the little vendor stalls lining the streets. It started out with a few generic tourist stalls, but as we walked it turned into pet stalls. Lots of birds – just about any kind you can imagine, from lots of little chirpy pet birds all the way up to chickens, roosters, turkeys, and other traditionally edible fowl. There were also lots of rats, mice, bunnies, snakes, fish (lots of fish), lizards, etc... There were a lot more than I mentioned, but that's all that Lauren and I can precisely remember seeing at the moment. If this was such a touristy street, I'm not sure who they thought they were selling to, since probably most tourists aren't going to be able to get these animals home a on a plane. As we approached our metro stop, finally all the stalls turned into plant stalls – lots of big pretty flowers and huge leafy plants. Who knows what would've been next had we continued walking.

But alas it was still raining really hard, so we decided to forgo the rest of the sightseeing and head back to the flat. As usual, we took Barcelona's wonderful metro system back to the flat. On our way back we grabbed some bake-able prosciutto pizza from the grocery store to make for dinner. Then we spent our usual evening back at the flat, eating dinner and watching 30 Rock with Heather (who, I'm happy to say, we apparently turned into a 30 Rock addict). Lauren also ventured out by herself in the late afternoon to go get the salt and pepper shaker she wanted from where she originally saw it by the Sangrada Familia.

So as usual, we went out and saw some touristy stuff, but the heavy rain and our general inclination to relax in Barcelona kept us from being quite as insanely busy as we were in Italy. Barcelona was a really nice place to just kick back and relax because of the flat, the easy to use metro system, Heather, and the lack of nearly as much good food and touristy stuff (that we really cared about) as Italy. We suspect that Paris will be a little bit crazier.

Building in the Plaza

You can see how hard it is raining (rain against the trees)

Lauren in front of the Rambla

Day 9 - More Barcelona

We decided to do a little more sight seeing this day. We got up around 9 or 10 and went down to that little bakery again and got bread, croissants, and a doughnut. We relaxed and slowly got ready to go out and see stuff. We left around 11:30am and jumped on the metro.

First we went to the Cathedral de Barcelona. It was kind of neat – gothic architecture, but much smaller than Segrada Familia. However, unlike Segrada Familia, we were actually able to go inside for free (during certainly hours of the day). We walked around (no pictures allowed inside) and it was neat, but to be honest it wasn't nearly as impressive as many of the churches we've already seen. After walking around and looking at all the opportunities to give money inside the church (about every fifty feet), we went back out into the square, where there were tons of vendor stalls set up, all selling xmas stuff (all involving either santa or jesus). There was also some really creepy music blasting – I can only describe it as “deranged disney”.

Then we had to track down “Wok to Walk”, this little Asian food place where we were supposed to meet Heather and one of her friends for lunch. It took us 20 minutes of walking and navigating in the rain, but we eventually found the place. Lauren wanted egg noodles with shrimp, but apparently (Heather tells us) in Barcelona, they never de-vein the shrimp anywhere, and this was true of most of the shrimp there too. For those who don't know (I didn't know this until this week), “de-veining” shrimp means removing the “vein”, which is actually the gastro-intestinal tract of the shrimp, containing all the poop. Awesome. Anyway, so she went with the egg noodles and beef (as did I), and they make it all right there. It was really good. Heather and her friend showed up soon after, and our lunch was great, except for the damn door that refused to stay closed and kept blowing cold air on us.

After lunch Lauren and I made our way over to the Picasso Museum – again, about 20 minutes of navigating on foot in the rain, but we made it. Unfortunately, they made me check my bag and pictures weren't allowed, so I have no Picasso Museum pictures to post. It was pretty neat though – they had an impressive collections of his works from throughout his life. We spent an hour in there or so, then decided we were tired and it was too rainy, so we jumped back on the metro and headed back to the flat.

When we got back around 4 or 5, we spent the rest of the evening relaxing (as usual). We made sandwiches from the fresh bread for dinner and watched a bunch of 30 rock. We also made it through two bottles of sparkling wine, which was delicious, though it only had the alcohol content of beer so it barely gave me a buzz. Anyway, it was a fun and relaxing evening, as usual.

PS - sorry I haven't been posting as many or as good pictures since Barcelona - there have just been less picture opportunities, especially with the rain. I'm sure it will pick up once we reach Paris.

Cathedral

Another Cathedral Picture

Xmas market outside the Cathedral