Europa Oct 09 - Abr 10 / Europe Oct 09-Apr 10

The times get even better when family comes to town!!!

2010-03-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

The times get even better when family comes to town!!!

Written by Jim, Katie and Brett Allen

On December 16th, my brother Mike, sister-in-law Kelly and my niece Katie and Nephew Brett all came to visit us and spend time together over the holidays. In a word our time together was ‘wonderful’.

After meeting them at the airport on the morning of the 16^th we promptly jumped on the train that took us into the heart of the city or what might be better described as the maze of subway (metro) tunnels that would lead us to our humble Paris abode. Although we only had to transfer once onto the metro, it was at one of Paris’ busiest stations (Chatêlet, which at the moment is also under renovation) where five subway lines and three regional train lines intersect. When we finally made it to the station near our place, they said that thank God they didn’t have to do that on their own as they would have never made it through all the tunnels, ramps, escalators, ticket booths and stairways.

That being said when we arrived up onto street level on the Avenue of the Opera they all said ‘Wow, this is so beautiful’. At one end of the street is the Opera and ‘about ten minutes’ in the other direction is the Louvre! After a short walk from the subway to the apartment, roller bags in tow, we arrived ‘home’.

We were happy to hear that they didn’t find the apartment too small. After a brief time of getting settled, a quick nap for Brett and shower, we were off for our first of many walks around the city! We did the ‘less than 10 minute walk to the gates of the Louvre and walked through into the beautiful centre court where we saw the Eiffel tower and Arc de Triomphe off in the distance and took our first photos, including the must-have pics of us in front of the pyramid at the front of the Louvre.

From there we walked through the court yards, into a few churches, in front of the gorgeous City Hall and then we went to Notre Dame Cathedral at the true centre of Paris on the Ile de Cité, with each of these destinations being just about ’10 minutes’ from each other. Now, if you are beginning to sense a theme emerging it is because every time Uncle Jim was asked how far something was, the answer was always about ‘10 minutes away’. Of course this fact was almost always disputed by Rene and by the end of the trip, with Uncle Jim having lost every bit of credibility; every-one else also disputed his claim!!!

After a quick walk through a nearby Christmas market (the first of several we would visit over the holidays), we had our first (late) lunch in the Latin Quarter, in a quaint French restaurant, where we ordered a mix of things most of which were accompanied by the customary ‘frites’. Brett having ordered a crepe, thinking it would be sweet, soon discovered that they also come in a savoury version, and he and Uncle Jim ended up exchanging lunches as his wasn’t really what he had in mind.

We then headed back out and made it through the Tuleries Gardens through to the Champs Élysées, where we experienced the largest of the many Christmas markets that were located throughout the city. We made it part way up the grand avenue and then headed home (along a path that had several destinations, each of which was about 10 minutes away) and relaxed at the end of a very full first day.

On Day 2 we awoke to a snow fall (the first of the season where the snow actually stayed on the ground) and we picked up our touring more or less where we left off, by taking a different route back to the ‘Champs E’ along Rue St Honoré. We continued along the street that some describe as the most beautiful avenue in the world. For sure, when it is decorated for Christmas with thousands and thousands of twinkling lights, one does believe that it lives up to that claim. We made our first entry into one of Katie’s favourite places in Paris the QuickSilver store that sells Roxie!!! We lost count as to how many times we actually went in there!!!

Having this time walked all the way along the avenue to the Charles De Gaulle circle where the Arc de Triomphe is we decided to this time continue our journey and head to the Eiffel Tower. Having arrived at the Trocadero (from where one has the best view of the tower) we were all amazed by the striking beauty of the tower when we realized that no, we weren’t all there looking at the tower. We had temporarily lost track of Katie, who was distracted by the waffle stand and crepe vendors and hadn’t even seen the tower. Having reoriented her towards the real reason we had walked the ‘10 minutes’ to the tower, she too did take in the marvelous view. The view is always fanstastique but with the parks and tower covered in snow it was truly magical!!!

The only thing about viewing the tower from there is that there are a lot of vendors selling souvenir merchandise, and you guessed it, once again we had lost track of our dear Kates who had become the prey of one such vendor who had already placed a bracelet around her wrist, just so ‘she could see what it looked like’!

We took a walk along the Seine River where Mike and Brett engaged in a game of snow ball target practice (we didn’t keep score but memory has it that Brett won the battle)! We then walked along one of the most exclusive shopping streets where all the major designers have their ‘houses’ (i.e. the house of Channel or the house of Dior etc). Kelly … and all of us for that matter … (except for the fashion-minded Venezuelan shopper) were aghast at the prices but Katie managed a couple of fashonista shots with the mannequins (perhaps there is a modeling career there for her beyond the annual high school fashion show!

During the next few days, they and Rene went off to Munich Germany while Uncle Jim went to the Netherlands for work. Since Uncle Jim wasn’t present on this part of the trip, Katie and Brett are going to write about all of the goings on there.

Day 3: Saw the Allen's and Rene board a train in Paris for a 6 hour trip to Munich. As we departed at 3pm, we left Paris at daylight. For 2 hours we were able to see the beauty of the rolling French countryside. We passed many villages that you would love to stop and walk around. Remainder of the train trip was uneventful, except for a women who seemed a little "confused" she seemed to be having an interesting conversation with an imaginary friend. We did not realize it at the time but this lady shared a seat with Rene. We arrived in Munich at 9:30. What an amazing train station. 43 tracks filled with trains and people going and coming. We hopped in a taxi and take us to our hotel. Check -in was easy and after we unpacked we went downstairs to try some German beer.

Day 4: Saw us get up early. After talking at the front desk we can get unlimited subway travel for 10 euro. Subway was a 10 minutes walk from our hotel. We discovered 5 minutes into our walk this amazing little bakery each day would see us stop here for coffee, hot chocolate and fresh baking. This was a great way to start our day! As confusing as the Paris subway system was, Munich was completely opposite. What amazed us was no turn styles to get on and off it was all on the honour system. Not sure where to get off we decided to exit at Mariplatz. When we got to ground level we found ourselves right in the middle of a huge German Christmas Market. Not knowing where to go Kelly approached a police women her English was perfect and she pointed us in the right direction. It was only a 10 minutes walk. This is when we realized the temperature was about -18 Celsius. We got on our bus for the Hop On Hop Off Tour. First stop was King Ludwig's Castle. The size of this castle was nothing that we have seen before. One small part is still used by the German King. Next stop was the 1972 Summer Olympic Park. This was a self walking tour. We saw how all the Olympic venues are still being used. We walked and froze to the main stadium. Kelly took us to the left which resulted in us walking completely around the stadium. If we had "LISTEN" to Katie we would have been less then 100 yards away from the front entrance to the stadium. Katie and Kelly had their pictures with their Olympics mittens taken in front of the Olympic sign. After an in-tasting German lunch we walked across the highway to the BMW building -WOW words cannot describe this building. We got back on the bus and headed downtown and decided to go on the inner city Hop On and Hop Off Tour. While we stayed on the bus we were able to see buildings from Hitler's third Reich. Back downtown we had to be at the train station for 7:00 for the German Beer Tour. Our guide Kathleen was amazing and we soon found out that the Germans treat beer like the French do wine. On this tour they encourage you to mingle with others. We met people from Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, and USA. When in Munich you must do this tour. Tired we return to our Hotel.

Day 5: Saw us up early again and back to the train station. We had to get on a bus and head out to the German Alps for the Castle tour. Our tour guide was a hoot. We can't remember her name but she reminded us of our Nana Dorothy. Rene found her a little bossy and she never said please or thank-you just like good old Dot. As we drove to the castles it had snowed that night. Everything looked like a Christmas card. We arrived at a small village and where told the castle was only 45 minutes away. We quickly realized 45 minutes was a walk straight up hill in freezing temperatures. Brett wanted to take the carriage ride but he was out voted and we need to walk to stay warm and the walk was beautiful. Once we arrived at the top we got in line for the start of our tour. Unfortunately for Kate's another turn style situation developed. Kate's was quickly pulled out of line by a "BITCHY" lady from the castle and escorted through another entrance. This was funny for everyone except Kate's. The castle tour was amazing and the walk down was much better. We had lunch in a beautiful hotel looking back up to the castle. Dorothy had us back on the bus right after lunch in the same seats except for Rene as we where heading to King Ludwig's summer castle. The trip through the Alps was breath taking. Half way to the second castle we stopped at a German Village - Oberammergau for a quick shopping trip. Unfortunately Brett and Rene have a different idea on what quick means and almost missed the bus. The summer castle had only 5 rooms but had millions of dollars of gold in it. When we got back to Munich in our hotel Brett and Mike decided to go for a swim. Unfortunately we did not know some of the German traditions around change rooms, showers, and Saunas.

Day 6: In Munich was a low key affair we shall spend the day touring and shopping through the town. For lunch we went to the world famous Hofbrau House. For lunch we had Sausages, Pork Knuckle, and the best pretzels and the beer was pretty good to. At night we decided to try our Chinese food it was very good. After dinner we took the subway to see the Munich Soccer stadium, which looks like a giant blue ice cube.

Day 7: Our last full day in Munich was to see us take a tour of the Dachau Concentration Camp. This was an extremely moving experience. This was made even better by our superb tour guide Nick. This is difficult to put into words this experience. Suffice it to say it is difficult to comprehend what went on here. We should never forget it. We went back to the hotel after the tour for an early dinner, as we had to get up early the next day to catch the train back to Paris.

Day 8: Saw us return back to Paris by train. The scenery in Germany from the train was spectacular. We arrived back in Paris shortly after lunch.

Upon their return from Germany, we all met back up at the apartment and moved into the second Paris leg of the trip.

This leg included another trip to the Eiffel Tower but this time we went up the tower and Kelly noticed that Brett was checking out some hot chicks more than he was checking out the spectacular view. As luck would have it, they asked us to take their picture, which presented Brett with his first opportunity to talk to them. Alas, it was an opportunity lost as he suddenly transformed from Joe-Cool into Mr. Bashful and didn’t make the move much to the rest of our disappointment.

Anyway, this was his lucky day as when we went down and were once again walking through the Christmas Market where Kelly and Mike did some shopping, we ran into the same girls again. We couldn’t let this opportunity pass by again so we asked if they would have their picture taken with the shy-boy. They did so and that is when we found out that they were Australian chicks visiting France! Let’s just say that he looked very happy and quite at home amidst the blond babes!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were at hand. On Christmas Eve we attended a wonderful service at the American Cathedral and despite the rain made a great night out of it. On Christmas Day we had a quiet day together with a minimum of presents … the real gift was in our being together. Christmas lunch included turkey cutlets in crepes with cranberry sauce (given that we have no oven in the apartment it was the best we could do) and Kelly prepared an amazing pasta dish for Christmas dinner.

One of the highlights after Christmas was the day that we took the train and spent at Disney World. Despite the cold weather, biting wind and long ticket lineup(s) that Rene and Brett endured getting into the park, we had a blast. Yes, we were nuts riding roller coasters in the freezing weather, but who cared as it was so much fun anyway? Despite Katie protesting before going on the mine ride, she was the one who seemed to enjoy it the most! We boarded a train after dinner and finally warmed up (or thawed out) by the time we arrived back to Paris.

Katie and Brett also made up their list of Top 10 moments in Paris:

1.The Christmas atmosphere

2. Disney Paris- The Roller Coaster
3. Walking in Paris and everything was 10 minutes apart.

4. Going up the Eifle Tower.

5. Brett and the Australian girls.

6. The light show at the Eifle Tower.

7. Our Christmas Eve dinner.

8. The American Cathedral Service.

9. Our bakery in Munich and the Castle Tour.

10. The river boat cruise.

11. Spending time with Uncle Jim and Rene.

And, no, Rene and I did not add number 11 but we were thrilled to see it on the list!

Between the Louvre and the shopping and dinners and walking, walking and more walking we filled the rest of our days in Paris together. On our last evening the weather warmed up quite a bit and we took the evening boat cruise along the Seine and saw once again, from a different angle some of the beauty of the ‘City of Lights’.

We loved having family come to town … as it made our time in Paris all that more special.

Berlin Wall East Side

2010-02-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

Rene at Brandenburg Gate

2010-02-07T11:01:00.000-08:00

Berlin Wall History Museum

2010-02-07T11:00:00.000-08:00

Jim at Brandenburg

2010-02-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

Berlin East Side

2010-02-07T10:58:00.001-08:00

Berlin Communication Tower

2010-02-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

Berlin A Divided City / Berlin Una Ciudad Dividida

2010-02-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

English Version

Last week we went on the next leg of our European odyssey and this time the destination was Berlin. This was a city that was higher on Jim’s ‘must see-must visit’ list than on Rene’s. That being said, after we got there, we both were able to see the virtues of the city that Hitler had wanted to transform by fashioning it after Paris and recreating it into the ‘Grand Germania’.

The most startling feature of Berlin is how after 50 years since the wall was first erected, it still remains a city that feels like two places in one. There is still tangible evidence of the wall, as several segments still remain as a testament to a past era and big gaps – sort of a no-man’s land of sorts - still exist in the urban landscape where the wall once was stood. Beyond that, however, the feeling and flavour between the two sides of the city still varies tremendously. There are signs that the government has done lots to invest in what was East Berlin and, still though, it remains a quieter more somber version of its western neighbour.

Our hotel was in the centre of the East side of the city and, so, at first, we thought, for its size and historic importance, that Berlin felt a bit sleepy or devoid of urban life and vibe. There was the classic line-up of all the international shops that one finds in every large city these days and there were very modern shopping malls and new buildings, but they felt somehow imposed on the rest of the surroundings.

As well, the weather was very wintery with lots of snow on the ground and sidewalks which, despite making things seem quite beautiful, added to the sense that there weren’t many people around.

On our second day, we went to a concentration camp about 45 minutes from the city. It was a very impactful experience. This was a camp that Hitler used in the beginning to imprison and then mostly eliminate the intelligentsia from Poland and Czechoslovakia. For both of us, this was a part of the story that we had not heard before. We had always heard of the Holocaust but the systematic elimination of other countries’ ability to lead themselves was something new. Over time, of course, the other groups like Jews, homosexuals, the gypsies and even handicapped people were added to the camp as they, of course, we are deemed to be enemies of the state.

Despite having studied the Holocaust and the concentration and extermination camps in school, there is nothing quite as impactful as standing and walking in the very place where such a brutal ‘machine’ exacted such a toll of hate and destruction of human life. One cannot experience this without being impacted by what the dark side of human life is capable of.

Perhaps the most troubling part of the whole experience was the infirmary, where the Nazi doctors used Jewish children to conduct human trials of vaccines for various conditions. Being there made one cry and just remembering it still hurts inside.

After the train ride back, we had a quiet evening back in the city.

The next two days we had the opportunity to get to know more of the more cosmopolitan and vibrant side of Berlin. As so much of the city was bombed and completely destroyed beyond the point of being able to be restored, the city (especially in the former West Berlin) feels very modern. In the rebuilding, the urban planners took mostly a clean-sheet approach to the effort, meaning that there were new buildings, public squares and even a different street grid than had existed before.

Some of the new architecture is stunning in its innovative design and use of colour. This is true not only of the large business buildings popping up everywhere but is also evident in the many new museums and embassies that have relocated back here since the capital of the reunited Germany was re-established here.

One of the things that we both remarked on was how polite and friendly everyone is in Berlin. Despite the German reputation for being gruff and stern, we found everyone to be quite the opposite. In all the shops, restaurants and just on the street we found that people generally went out of their way to be helpful and accommodating (just slightly different than the day-to-day experience in Paris!!!).

As well, Jim loved the food and Rene got along in the food department. For Jim it was a trip down memory lane in the flavour department, while for Rene, it was one sausage and mustard too many for his delicate Venezuelan palate. That being said, the chocolate saved the day for him and we even found a chocolate shop where you could make your own flavour or blend of chocolate. You gotta love a place that has its priorities right!!!

The look and demeanour of the people also made especially Jim feel like he was in familiar territory – reminding him of extended family members from when he was growing up. Even in this way, however, Rene was not left out as one thing we began to note was how all the signs had names on them that reminded us of friends and family. The names included Kreis and Fischer (both names from his mom’s side of the family) and then Rene noticed there was a Dorothy Street (Jim’s mom’s first name) that we subsequently discovered intersection with a Charlotte Street (Jim’s mom’s second name). Rene, unable to hold himself back from making some kind of commentary said, ‘perfect Dorothy Charlotte corner is just beside the Parliament, allowing her to control everything and run the show.’ Jim just can’t imagine what he meant by that!!!

As we arrived to the airport on our last day another round of snow began to fall, which made the Brandenburg Gate and Linden tree-lined streets look even more beautiful. So, after a quick de-icing executed with German efficiency, we were back in the air and on our way home to Paris. Yes, Berlin remains somewhat a divided city but we had an amazingly wonderful and full experience none-the-less.

Versión en Español

La semana pasada tuvimos la oportunidad de empezar una nueva odisea en Europa, la primera del 2010. Nuestro primer destino fur Berlín, esta ciudad siempre ha ocupado uno de los primeros lugares en la lista de ciudades por visitar de Jim. Por otro lado no ha tenido la misma atracción para Rene. Ahora bien, fue muy interesante ver las virtudes de la ciudad de Berlín, la ciudad que Hitler quiso transformar inspirándose en la belleza arquitectónica de Paris, una ciudad que el iba a llamar Germania.

Lo que mas resalta de la ciudad de Berlín, es que después de 50 anos de la construcción del Muro De Berlín, todavía se puede sentir la división de la ciudad. Todavía existen ciertos lugares en la ciudad en donde algunos segmentos del Muro son tangibles como evidencia de una era pasada. Y mas allá de esto, aun es perceptible el sabor de una ciudad dividida en dos partes, ya que ambas partes difieren una de la otra de manera muy marcada. Es indudable, que el gobierno ha hecho una gran inversión para revitalizar lo que era el Este de Berlín, pero aun así se sigue sintiendo mas tranquilo y con mucho menos energía que su vecino del lado Oeste.

Nuestro Hotel estaba ubicado en el lado Este de la ciudad. Aun cuando, el hotel estaba ubicado en una zona en donde existen mini centros comerciales y edificios modernos, y a una cuadra de una gran avenida con las súper tiendas internacionales, (las mismas que se encuentran hoy en dia en cualquier otra gran ciudad), todo se sentía como superpuesto y fuera de lugar, ya que no tenia relación con el resto de los alrededores, por lo que nuestra primera impresión fue de una ciudad casi dormida, con muy poca vibra y sabor de una gran ciudad. Si a esto le añadimos que no había mucha gente en las calles, gracias a que el clima era totalmente invernal ( muchísimo frío y muchísima nieve), la ciudad definitivamente no se sentía como una gran ciudad.

Durante nuestro segundo dia, fuimos a un campo de concentración ubicado a 45 minutos de Berlín. Obviamente, esta experiencia nos marco profundamente. En sus comienzos este campo fue utilizado para mantener prisioneros la inteligencia de Polonia y Checoslovaquia. Tanto para Jim y como para mi, esta parte de la historia de la segunda guerra mundial era desconocida, ya que no teníamos conocimiento de la eliminación sistemática de la parte intelectual y lideres de otras naciones. Con el pasar del tiempo, a este campo fueron llevados enemigos del estado alemán, Homosexuales, Gitanos y por supuesto Judíos.

Aun cuando hemos estudiado y leído mucho sobre el Holocausto, sus campos de concentración y exterminación, no hay nada que nos haya impactado mas, que el caminar por uno de los lugares en donde se cometió tanta atrocidad, donde el odio fue el camino para la destrucción de la vida humana. Esta experiencia nos hizo ver lo que es capaz de hacer el lado oscuro de un ser humano.

Uno de los lugares que mas nos estremeció en este campo de concentración, fue la Enfermería. Aquí, los doctores Nazi usaban niños Judíos para experimentos científicos, les inyectaban virus de una enfermedad especifica y luego probaban la vacuna que supuestamente podría prevenir la enfermedad, el solo recontarlo nos crea un dolor interno indescriptible…

Después de un dia cargado de una historia espantosa, no nos quedo mas que tener una noche tranquila en la ciudad.

Durante los siguientes dos días, tuvimos la oportunidad de conocer mas de la parte Cosmopolita y vibrante de la ciudad de Berlín. El lado oeste de la ciudad da la sensación de una ciudad moderna, este se atribuye a que gran parte de la ciudad fue bombardeada y casi totalmente destruida. En su reconstrucción, los planificadores urbanos decidieron empezar de cero, creando nuevos edificios, plazas y espacios públicos y hasta en muchos casos cambiando el diseño original de las calles.

Muchos de los nuevos y modernos edificios tienen diseños innovadores tanto en estructura como en colorido. Esto se evidencia no solo en los edificios de negocios, sino también en nuevos museos y en los edificios de las embajadas que retornaron a la ciudad de Berlín poco después de la caída del muro y luego de que la ciudad de Berlín fuera nombrada la capital de la nueva Alemania.

Una característica que emerge fácilmente en la ciudad de Berlín, es lo cordial y amigable que son los alemanes. Aun cuando los Alemanes tienen una reputación de ser fuertes y algo bruscos, nosotros encontramos que son totalmente lo contrario. En todas las tiendas, restaurantes y hasta caminando en las calles, encontramos personas que tomaban de su tiempo para ayudarnos y proporcionarnos cualquier información que fuese requerida en un momento determinado. (un poquito diferente a nuestra experiencia en el dia a dia de Paris!!!!)

En cuanto a la comida alemena, tenemos que decir que Jim estaba como un pez en el agua, mientras que Rene simplemente comía para alimentarse. Para Jim, el degustar la comida alemana fue como transportarse a su niñez y adolescencia, mientras que para el paladar venezolano de Rene una Salchicha con mostaza fue mas que suficiente. Por supuesto, que lo que salvaba el dia para Rene, eran los suculentos chocolates, y aun mas cuando encontramos una tienda en al cual tu podías crear tu propio chocolate mezclando el chocolate de tu preferencia (Oscuro, con leche o blanco) con tu sabor preferido y hasta añadir nueces, caramelo, etc.…Aquí es cuando uno dice que hay saber cuales son tus prioridades!!!!

El prototipo físico de las personas, hizo que Jim se sintiera como en casa, ya que muchas de las personas que veíamos o con las que Inter-actuábamos nos recordaban a uno de sus familiares. Inclusive los nombre de las calles y avenidas, nos hacían recordar a su familia; nombres como Kreis y Fischer (ambos usados en la familia materna de Jim). Pero lo que fue mas sorprendente, fue el encontrar una calle con el nombre de la mama de Jim (DOROTHY) y al caminar unas tres o cuatro cuadras mas encontramos la intersección de DOROTHY y CHARLOTTE, que es el segundo nombre de la mama de Jim. En este momento, Rene no pudo morderse la lengua y comento: DOROTHY/CHARLOTTE, esta es la esquina perfecta no solo por el nombre sino porque esta ubicada justo al lado del parlamento, ósea que aquí tu mama tiene el control, y como diríamos en Venezuela aquí ella se paga y se da el vuelto!!!! Según Jim, el no se puede imaginar porque Rene hizo un comentario como este…je,je,je

Justo antes de salir para el aeropuerto y como para tener una buena despedida, empezó a nevar dándole un toque de belleza invernal al la Puerta de Brandenburg y a la Avenida de LosTilos. Al llegar al aeropuerto, la eficiencia alemana hizo que el avión saliera justo a la hora indicada para regresar a nuestra casa en Paris.

De una u otra forma, Berlín siguen teniendo el aspecto de una ciudad dividida en al cual tuvimos un experiencia maravillosa.

Budapest Danubio Azul

2010-01-21T05:02:00.003-08:00

Budapest at Night / Noche en Budapest

2010-01-21T05:01:00.000-08:00

Vienna Outside Parliament Building

2010-01-21T05:00:00.004-08:00

Vienna Outside Parliament Building

2010-01-21T05:00:00.003-08:00

Vienna Palacio Real / Royal Palace

2010-01-21T04:59:00.001-08:00

Viena

2010-01-21T04:58:00.002-08:00

Praga City view

2010-01-21T04:58:00.001-08:00

Praga

2010-01-21T04:57:00.002-08:00

Praga

2010-01-21T04:57:00.001-08:00

Praga City view

2010-01-21T04:56:00.000-08:00

Praga

2010-01-21T04:55:00.000-08:00

Between the East and the West - Entre el Este y el Oeste

2010-01-19T14:39:00.000-08:00

English Version

Our latest adventure was to Prague, Vienna and Budapest, which meant that we spent time on what was both sides of the old iron curtain. That in itself was fascinating to experience.

We began with a couple of days in the beautiful city of Prague, which seems at times, and especially at night, to have been plucked out of a Dracula movie or some adventure movie somewhere in Transylvania! The Dracula like setting was also enhanced by the billowing fog that seemed to be ever present, again especially at night.

The city is known for its churches, and gilded tower tops. The centre of the city is magical with lots of narrow streets, interrupted by public squares and gathering places. There are many bridges in Prague, the oldest and most beautiful of which is the Charles Bridge, the cornerstone of which dates from the mid 1300’s. There are spectacular statues that adorn every few metres of the bridge, some of which can be a bit haunting (skull and crossbones type stuff) but most of which are works of art. Some the sculptures date back to the early 1600’s!

On one side of the bridge is the Old Town and on the other is what is called Lesser Town (wouldn’t feel too good about living on that side of the bridge with a name like that). Despite the difference implied by the names, we found both sides to be fascinating and intriguing. We were staying on the Old Town side of the bridge in a recently-renovated and reasonably-priced hotel, within walking distance of an ultra modern shopping centre that stood in contrast to the rest of the ancient quarter.

And we mentioned a shopping centre, I am sure you are imagining with a shopping centre that close that would be a stop for Rene. If that is the case, then you would be correct. Of course, Jim was wishing for the good old communist days when there would be no such diversion. But in this case Jim has to admit that Rene’s blister covered feet won out and he needed to replace those pair of shoes. So, unfortunately for Rene, he had to replace his fashionista shoes he had bought just a few days earlier in Paris with some pragmatic shoes from a local Bata store. So, after a visit to a number of the shoe stores in the mall, we were off to discover Prague with Rene’s feet feeling temporarily (more on that later) better. Jim of course at this point in the story made the point about utilitarian function being more important than looks in walking shoes!

Having satisfied the most basic of human needs (for Rene) ‘good looking shoes’, we then moved up Maslow’s hierarchy and sought out some lunch, we ended up in a place that served the most amazing Goulash we had ever had. From there we spent the afternoon and evening exploring the many meandering streets of the Old Town. We were struck by how many concerts were being offered everywhere. Classical music seems to have been a big part of the history of Prague.

That evening, Rene was once again noting that his feet were bothering him this time it was a combination of the blisters and because the shoes didn’t fit well and cut into the upper part of his foot. Jim could smell that another visit to the shopping centre wasn’t far off. And again, alas, in classic Ground Hog Day mode, day two starts a bit like Day One. Several shops later Rene settles on a semi-fashionable, semi-functional pair of Puma walking shoes. At this point in the story he was smiling not because his feet were feeling better but because he could now make the point that utilitarian was fine but that you also ‘only get what you pay for’.

On our second day, we started our visit outside of the shopping centre with a visit to the Old Jewish Quarter. We were struck by how what was once a thriving Jewish community had been reduced to a tiny fraction of its original size and was now virtually a vestige of its pre-WW2 self. The synagogues were now museums and concert halls (a fate shared with many churches we have visited since arriving in Europe) and former social halls and cemetery told the story of a community that had struggled only to be devastated by hate and discrimination. It was a meaningful and appropriately sober morning.

In the afternoon, we opted for something a bit lighter which was a visit to the royal quarter (across the Charles Bridge but clearly up from Lesser Town). This series of connected palaces and other impressive buildings put most other Royal Quarters we have seen to shame both in terms of its sheer extent and its imposing citing at the top of a hill over looking Lesser Town (but then who wouldn’t overlook an area called Lesser Town). The cathedral in the centre of the Royal district won the prize for impact and sheer beauty.

On the way back down the hill we stopped for our customary hot chocolate which was as thick and creamy and tasty as it had been in any spot on the other side of the iron curtain! Although Rene had tried the German type food the day before, he didn’t seem to be interested in the other local delicacies such as pig knees or something called cow knuckles (who knew that they could be consumed). So, we ended up at a great Italian place for dinner!!!

The next day, we were off to Vienna by train. The train ride was about 5 hours and went incredibly smoothly. The country side was mostly flat with some small hills and the farmland looked very fertile. We were quite impressed by the wind farms dotting the countryside in Austria.

With no mountains in site (much to Jim’s disappointment based on his Sound-of-Music-influenced vision of what Vienna would be like), we pulled into Vienna and set off to discover this incredibly opulent and sophisticated epicentre of classical music. If we had to sum up our impression of Vienna in one word, it would be ‘elegant’. We spent two wonderful days touring around this city (meaning walking and walking and walking --- thank God for those shopping outings in Prague and the new shoes!!!). With Jim pushing for more German type food, based on his childhood memories, we followed the recommendation of a friend of my brother Mike’s and ended up in a place that served the best Schnitzel in the world. Rene was back on the German food team as he gobbled it down approvingly!

One of the highlights for us in Vienna was the classical music concert we went to. It was in one of the old palaces, again in the Royal district. The music was a combination of Mozart and Schubert and we recognized many of the pieces and enjoyed it immensely. We also had great seats which made it all the better.

Another highlight was experiencing the preparations for and initial days of the Christmas season. The street decorations were better than any we had seen anywhere. Again, and despite their qualifying for over-the-top status, they were done very elegantly. Every street seemed to be decked to the max! Clearly the celebrating of Christmas is a huge priority in this part of the world. The other wonderful part about Christmas in the Germanic world, were the Christmas markets. It seemed like every neighbourhood or area had its own Christmas market of artisan work, German food (we partook of the Sausages and beer in one of them), crafts and other gifts. These markets brought a whole different feeling to the annual ritual of Christmas Shopping.

Our third destination on this trip was Budapest, which we learned had previously been two cities Buda and Pest which were on either side of the Danube, which, by the way, is as blue as they say it is.

It was at this point, having been in what had been the East and then having crossed back to what used to be referred to as the West and then back again into the old East that we became aware of just how different these two ‘worlds’ had been and to some extent, just how different they continued to be. Despite amazing efforts in both Prague and Budapest to reclaim and restore much of their historical beauty, there were many marks still present that had been left by the former Soviet system.

In fact, the city refers to itself as a ‘Paris of the East’, and although it is a tiny bit of a stretch, one can see why they do say that. The old architecture is stately like in Paris and there were attempts to create the wide boulevards and tree-lined streets like in Paris.

One of the unique things that the city is known for are its hot springs that apparently come out of the surrounding mountains the foothills of which can be seen from the city itself. Always being people who are up for trying what the local city and inhabitants have to offer, we went to a hot spring feed public bathing station. According to the description we read, it has been a steam bath and hot spring for over 400 years!!! We spent a very relaxing morning there before heading off to another Germanesque meat and vegetable market that had every piece that you could ever imagine (and then some) of a pig on display and for sale. The German cuisine took another hit for Rene thanks to our trip to this market.

Our favourite eatery in Budapest was a local dessert place (imagine that) that truly rivaled anything that we have had in Paris or elsewhere. It was so good that we went twice and then in the last half hour before our flight home we went back to have some goodies to take back with us to Paris.

The cab ride to the airport was fascinating not because of what we saw but rather because of what the driver told us about the switch from the Soviet to the western system. Overall he said that he was happy that the switch had happened but that in the old system everyone was equal and taken care of (his parents now had no pension and no part of the system that would take care of him). He noted that now they have private and public healthcare now and that although that sounds great, the doctors give poor care in the public system so that people feel forced to use the private one. Makes us Canadians feel proud of our system and gives us lots to ponder when others say we should change it.

Yes, indeed this was a trip where east met west in culture, history, cuisine, architecture and the people!

Version en Espanol

Nuestra mas reciente aventura fue en Praga, Viena y Budapest, es decir que esta vez visitamos ambos lados de lo que fue la Cortina de Hierro. El solo hecho de haber estado en algunas de las ciudades que formaron parte de esta historia política fue realmente fascinante.

Empezamos con un par de días en la bella ciudad de Praga, la cual te da la sensación de estar en una película de Drácula o en cualquier otra película basada en Transilvania, sobretodo con la densa neblina que parecer estar siempre sobre la ciudad y especialmente durante la noche.

La ciudad de Praga es conocida por sus bellas iglesias y los picos de sus torres. El centro de la ciudad es mágico, conformado por calles estrechas que terminan de una y otra forma en plazas o pequeños parques. La ciudad esta dividida por el río Moldava por lo cual existen una series de puentes conectando ambas partes de la ciudad, siendo el mas famoso el puente Charles “ Carlos”, el cual data de los anos 1300’s. El puente esta decorado con increíble estatuas, algunas de ellas pueden ser un poco tenebrosas y sombrías, con calaveras, huesos, etc., mientras que otras representan personajes famosos de la historia de Praga y personajes de la iglesia. Estas estatuas que datan de los anos 1600’s están dispuestas a lo largo del puente y separadas una de la otra solo por unos cuantos metros.

A un lado del río esta la ciudad vieja y en otro lado esta la ciudad baja. Aun cuando existe una gran diferencia entre ambas partes de la ciudad, nosotros encontramos ambas partes fascinantes. En esta oportunidad nos hospedamos en un hotel ubicado en la ciudad vieja, el cual fue recientemente renovado y a un precio relativamente razonable. Cabe destacar que solo a unas pocas cuadras se encontraba un Moderno centro comercial, que obviamente contrastaba con el resto de la vieja arquitectura.

Y ahora que estamos hablando de centros comerciales, ya se deben estar imaginando que seguramente esta podría ser una parada en nuestro tour para Rene. Bueno esta vez y por razones muy justificadas, esta fue nuestra primera parada. Por supuesto, que Jim en este momento esta deseando estar viviendo en los viejos días de comunismo, en donde este tipo de distracciones nos existían, pero en este caso, esta distracción era necesaria ya que las ampollas en los pies de Rene ponían nuestra primera caminata en riesgo. Fue así como tuvimos que reemplazar los zapatos de “estilo” que Rene había comprado unos días antes en Paris por unos zapatos aburridos de la famosa marca “Bata”. Finalmente y después de haber visitado unas cuantas tiendas de zapatos en el centro comercial, salimos a descubrir la ciudad de Praga, ya que por los momentos Rene sentía un alivio en sus pies. Fue así como Jim comento: ‘ La comodidad y funcionalidad debería prevalecer sobre el estilo de los zapatos para caminar”!

Luego de haber satisfacido una de las necesidades basicas de los humanos (para Rene) un buen par de zapatos (bonitos y según Jim en estilo), descubrimos un pequeño restaurante en donde disfrutamos de una sabrosisima sopa (Goulash). Ya con las baterías recargadas y zapatos “cómodos’, caminamos toda la tarde y hasta bien entrada la noche por las calles de la ciudad vieja. Algo que nos sorprendió muchísimo, fue la cantidad de conciertos de musica clásica que se presentan todos los días en las iglesias, salones de conciertos, etc. Sin duda alguna la música clásica forma parte de la historia de Praga.

Al finalizar la noche, una vez mas Rene sentía una molestia en sus pies, esta vez era una combinación de las viejas ampollas y otras nuevas que aparecieron en la parte superior del pie. Por supuesto que Jim vaticino una nueva visista al centro comercial. Fue así como nuestro segundo dia en Praga empezó con otra visita al centro comercial. Esta vez Rene consiguió unos Puma con un poco mas de estilo y funcionalidad. Fue en este momento que Rene con una sonrisa en la boca no solo porque los nuevos zapatos se sentía muchoooo mas cómodo que los anteriores, sino por que una vez mas el dicho que reza venezolano “ lo barato sale caro” se cumplió una vez mas.

Ya con nuevos zapatos, empezamos nuestra visita al Viejo vecindario Judío. Fue impresionante ver como una comunidad prospera como la judía fue reducida a una pequeña fracción de lo que una vez fueron y lo que solo queda son unos pocos vestigios de antes de la segunda guerra mundial. Las sinagogas son ahora museos y salas de conciertos (algo que parece ser común en muchas iglesias en Europa), cementerios y salones sociales ahora nos cuestan la devastación de una comunidad a través del odio y la discriminación, verdaderamente fue una mañana muy conmovedora y de reflección.

En la tarde, optamos por algo un poco mas ligero como la visita a Palacio Real, localizado al cruzar el puente “Charles” y claramente en la parte superior de la ciudad baja. Este Castillo esta conformado por una serie de palacios conectados unos a otros, con plazitas y callejuelas de piedras. En el centro de este gran complejo esta ubicada una de las catedrales mas imponentes que hemos visto hasta ahora, su belleza y majestuosidad la hacen merecedora de premio arquitectónico. Este palacio pone en duda la majestuosidad de muchos otros palacios reales en Europa!!!

En el camino de regreso y cuesta abajo, nos paramos a disfrutar de un súper espeso chocolate caliente “que ricura!!!” muy semejante a otros que ya habíamos probado al otro lado de la cortina de hierro. Y para cerrar esa noche en Praga, decidimos cenar en un súper restaurante de comida Italiana (delicioso), ya que la noche anterior habíamos comido comida alemana y Rene no estaba interesado en lo mas mínimo en comer las delicateses locales como rodilla de cochino o nudillos de vaca (que por cierto no sabíamos que se podía consumir esa parte de la vaca).

Al dia siguiente tomamos el tren con destino a Viena, el viaje tuvo una duración de casi 5 horas. Por lo que pudimos observar, pareciera que el interior de Austria esta conformado de llanos muy fértiles y pequeñas colinitas. Otra cosa que nos impresiono, fue la cantidad de granjas de molinos de vientos, obviamente esta gente esta de lleno en transformar el viento en energía!!!!

Ya en la elegante Viena, tuvimos la oportunidad de asistir a un concierto de música clásica en uno de los palacios del complejo Real. El concierto fue una combinación de piezas de Mozart y Schubert, y para nuestra sorpresa Jim y yo reconocimos muchísimas de estas piezas, lo que hizo que disfrutáramos el concierto a plenitud. Sin tomar en cuenta que los asientos que teníamos estaban muy cerca del escenario…

Gracias a que estuvimos en Viena al comienzo de la temporada navideña, tuvimos la oportunidad de disfrutar de la elegancia y de la originalidad de las decoraciones navideñas. Las calles definitivamente tenían un estatus de clase alta. Definitivamente le dan una gran prioridad a la navidad. La otra parte que hace sentir la navidad en pleno, son los pequeños mercados alemanes navideños que estaban ubicados en cada una de las plazas y parques de la ciudad. Por supuestos que en cada mercadito se podía encontrar manualidades, regalos, y mucha pero mucha comida alemana (salchichas, pan y cerveza, entre otras).

Nuestro tercer destino en este viaje fue Budapest, lo primero que aprendimos en esta ciudad fue que previamente existían dos ciudades, Buda y Pest . Cada una de ellas ubicada a cada lado del río Danubio, que por cierto es AZUL!!!!

Estando en Budapest, y al comparar el Este y el Oeste de la Cortina de Hierro, nos dimos cuenta de la diferencia y la indiscutible marca que dejo el sistema comunista en estas ciudades o países, aun cuando se nota el esfuerzo que han hecho ambas ciudades (Praga y Budapest) para recuperar y restaurar la belleza histórica de ambas.

Para comprobar el punto anterior, tenemos que destacar que Budapest es conocida como el “Paris del este” y aunque esta denominación podría caer en una exageración, se puede notar que hay una arquitectura, boulevares y calles con árboles muy al estilo parisino.

La ciudad de Budapest es muy conocida por sus aguas termales provenientes de las faldas de las montanas que rodean parte de la ciudad y las cuales son muy visibles en la ciudad. Jim y yo, tenemos la buena costumbre de tratar de hacer cosas cotidianas o tradicionales que hacen los habitantes de la ciudades que visitamos, de esta manera no sentimos un poco mas en salsa y aprendemos mas de las ciudades y las personas que alli habitan. Fue así como conseguimos la información de uno de los Baños Turcos mas viejos de la ciudad, que según la gente local ha estado funcionando por mas de 400 anos. Allí pasamos gran parte de la mañana, disfrutando de un buen masaje turco seguido de varios baños termales!!! Luego de esta gran experiencia caminamos a un pequeño mercadito Alemán, en donde los vegetales y las carnes eran la especialidad, por supuesto que para aquellas personas que adoran comer cochino, este mercado era el cielo…Aquí vendían desde las chuletas de cochino, pernil y jamón de pierna hasta orejas, rodillas, cola, etc,etc, etc…La crema de la comida Alemana un gran Hit para Rene??????

Uno de nuestro lugares favoritos en Budapest, fue una pastelería/café que realmente era un buen rival par la pastelería francesa. El lugar están bueno que fuimos dos veces a disfrutar de los pasteles y dulcitos. Y para rematar, regresamos una vez mas antes de agarrar el taxi para el aeropuerto para comprar una Magnifica Torta de Chocolate!!!!

El conductor del taxi fue un señor muy agradable que nos dio un buen resumen de la vida diaria en Budapest durante el sistema comunista y después de este. Nos dijo que definitivamente el cambio de sistema trajo cosas buenas pero que también destruyo algunas cosas buenas del sistema comunista, entre estas el sistema publico de salud, el cual es una de las cosas que la gente extraña. Actualmente existen dos sistema, uno publico y uno privado, siendo el sistema privado el mas rentable y por consecuencia el mas eficaz, mientras que el publico funciona pero con muchas fallas, las cuales obligan a la gente a preferir el sistema privado (aquellos que pueden pagar). Algún parecido con la realidad venezolana es pura coincidencia!!!!

Definitivamente este fue el viaje en el cual la cultura, la historia, la cocina, la arquitectura y la gente el Este se cruzan con la del Oeste!!!!

BRUGGE OR BRUJAS

2009-11-29T14:02:00.001-08:00

BRUSELAS OR BRUSSELS

2009-11-29T14:01:00.001-08:00

AMSTERDAM 2

2009-11-29T14:00:00.001-08:00

AMSTERDAM

2009-11-29T13:58:00.001-08:00

Flea Market or Mercado de Pulgas

2009-11-29T03:42:00.000-08:00

English Version

The Art of Everything That is Paris

So, it’s Saturday afternoon and nothing to do but stroll around and so what do we do but go to the infamous St Ouen Flea Market. Again, this is one of those things that Jim would never do in Canada but what the heck, this is a French flea market.

Now, we have said on other occasions that the French just know how to do things, must be the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that’s in the air here, and the same is true for how they do flea markets. It’s true, there is even an art to how they do flea markets.

In the end, the flea market, which is huge, is more of an antique or collectors’ market. There is a stall (or several) for everything, every taste, every past-time and everyone. There are stalls for mirrors, stamps, perfume bottles, birdcages, beads, vintage postcards (in fact vintage everything), each type and piece of furniture or any kind of knickknack ever imagined by humankind.

Of course, part of the art of the Parisian flea market is that there are neat little cafes tucked in here and there (and, yes there was a pastry stop partway through the market) and petit restaurants with small older ladies in black wigs belting out Edith Piaf type songs over a crackly microphone. Despite all of these marvels what really intrigued Jim was how the merchants gathered in neighbouring stalls and had lunch. Now this was art!

Gathered around small rickety wooden tables and perched so artfully (with their slightly disheveled scarves around their necks) on little rickety stools, they unwrapped the cheese, cut open the bread, uncorked the wine, sliced the cured meat and plucked the grapes from the bunch that was artfully laying inside the crumpled white wax paper. How do they do it? Simple ingredients and yet so amazingly well pulled together.

Hours later, we emerged from the market famished (having been tempted by so many of these lunch scenes unfolding before our eyes and under our noses) that we set out in search of lunch. With Rene declaring that under no circumstances we were walking all the way home (the market is located just outside the city limits). He had had enough. Jim just said ok.

You have probably guessed it by now … several hours and during our way back home, we had a lunch and a few stops in more than one artfully decorated Christmas ornament shop (you all knew that we would be Christmas decorating here in Paris too, it was just a matter of time), Rene realized that we were now to close to home to bother with the metro so yes, we had had yet another wonderful walk through the City of Light and Artful Living!

Version en Espanol

Paris… donde todo es arte

Una vez mas ha llegado la tarde de otro Sabado Parisieno y por supuesto no se nos ocurre otra cosa que salir a disfrutar de nuestras ya acostumbradas caminatas. Esta vez decidimos ir al reconocido Mercado de Pulgas San Ouen¨. Una vez mas esta es una de esas cosas que Jim nunca haria en Canada, pero que mas le queda al final es un Mercado de pulgas Frances!!

Ahora bien, hemos dicho antes que los frances definitivamente saben hacer las cosas muy bien con ese ‘no se que Frances’ que esta en el aire (je ne sais qouis) y una vez mas este es el caso del meracdo de pulgas. Y es que hay arte hasta en la manera de crear un Mercado de pulgas!!!!

Al final de cuentas este gran dichoso Mercado de Pulgas, es mas que un mercado de coleccionistas de antiguedades. Alli se encuentra una gran cantidad de localcitos que venden de todo, para todos y de todas las epocas. Como por ejemplo, botellas de perfumes, espejos, muebles, estampillas, postales, jaulas de pajaros, en fin cualquier cosa imaginable que haya producido el ser humano.

Por supuesto que en el Mercado de pulgas tambien se pueden encontrar los famosos cafes parisienos y pequenos restaurantes con senoras mayores usuando pelucas negras emulando la gran Edith Paif. Cabe destacar que algunos de los doblajes eran hasta credible!!!! Una de las cosa que mas impacto a Jim durante nuestra estancia en el Mercado fue la manera en que los duenos de los locales almorzaban en pequenas mesistas muy a la francesa: una canilla de pan, un pedazo de queso, una botella de vino y ocasionalmente unas frutas. Por supuesto que las mesistas y sillitas tambien eran antiguedades, hasta al punto que creemos que necesitaban restauracion. Pero definitivamente almorzar de esa manera es parte del gran arte!!….Voula!!!

Despues de varias horas en el mercado de pulgas y haber visto tantos grupos de de personas almorzando a la francesa, emergimos de este lugar de arte organico con la mision de encontrar un lugar en cual pudieramos disfrutar de un fabuloso almuerzo similar al de estos artistas. No sin antes Rene declarar que de ninguna manera ibamos regresar a la casa caminando, ya que nos encontrabamos a las afueras de los limites de la ciudad de Paris y ya habiamos caminado suficiente por el dia. Sorprendentemente y muy condecendientemente, Jim acepta la proposicion….Quien sabe por cuanto tiempo???

En el camino de regreso a casa, almorzamos a la francesa y tambien tuvimos unas cuantas paradas en varias tienditas de decoraciones navidenas. Seguro que ya habran adivinado, aqui en Paris nuestro apartamento tambien tendra decoraciones navidenas, era solo cuestion de tiempo antes de que Rene empezara con sus ideas de decoracion!!! Y entre paradita y paradita fue que Rene se dio cuenta que ya estamos cerca de la casa y que no valia la pena tomar el metro!!!!

Y asi culmino otra de nuestras grandres caminatas en la ciudad de la Luz!!!

Amsterdam- Brussels or Bruselas

2009-11-29T03:21:00.000-08:00

English Version

One Part Mad Max, One Part Sodom and Gomorrah and a Dash of Tulips!

And, with that you have the beginnings of one’s first impressions of Amsterdam. We arrived here late on a Friday night, having taken the train from Paris earlier that evening; with the nightly street party in its full glory. Coming out of the train station and running right into party central, located just beside (east, west, north, south – who knows in Amsterdam) the red light district was more sensory overload than either of us had expected.

Now, Jim had been there before for work and had managed the odd outing here and there but had never run into the middle of all the partiers. To him it looked a bit like a happy version of the news coverage of the European soccer fanatics, when they were being hooligans. To Rene however, it was almost too much for him to take in, the action was out control, no organization at all plus more than a few garbage cans over floated. In the middle of all this “disaster he just said, ‘this is not what I expected’.

We made it through the brick paved streets and alley ways with each turn leading us down a narrower and narrower path with more and more people in it until we found our very nice hotel, which was in a (slightly) quieter square inch, just outside the mayhem. As one walks through Amsterdam, one gets an amazing appreciation of how well they use absolutely every space of land for some kind of function. But then, when your whole city is below sea level and you’ve reclaimed every square inch from the sea, one understands such a valuing of the space.

Back to the story and Rene is still in shock. Jim knows that one of their favourite things when arriving somewhere is to walk around and get a sense of the place. He also knows (for those of you who know about or remember Rene’s first impressions of Rome you know) that for Rene first impressions are REALLY important. So while Rene is refreshing himself in the bathroom Jim plots out a nice walking route. Right, he says to himself, we’ll walk right to the oldest church in the city.

So off we go and 3 alleyways, 2 pedestrian malls and umpteen number of canals and footbridges later, Jim has indeed led them directly to the oldest church in the city and smack into the right light district!

While all of Amsterdam on a Friday night qualifies for the sensory overload prize, this was the area that definitely qualified for the honourable mention in the Sodom and Gomorrah category. There were girls in every window of every size and dimension (the girls, not the windows) and age! There were streets and streets of them and we ended up in one building that Rene called the prostitution shopping centre with rows and levels laid out much like a large food court. Outside and on the streets there was the Mad Max feel of traffic, bikes, three wheeled vehicles that were a hybrid of a bike and a rickshaw, and drunken Brits and Germans all moving in some kind of organic flow that no-one would have been able to control. There were the famous ‘coffee shops’ out of which billowed marijuana smoke and everyone and everything seemed to be on some kind of high.

And then, in the midst of all of this free-for-all we spot a police officer and yes, he has stopped a woman and what’s this, he is actually writing her a ticket. You mean there are infractions in the midst of this chaos? The charge you might ask? Her bicycle light was burnt out and she needed to pay a fine. Mmm, live on the edge in Amsterdam.

By the next day, with Jim earnestly and repeatedly trying to point out the city’s positive side (of which there is much), Rene’s opinion had solidified and ‘this was not his city.’ Although he did admit that the rows and rows of brick houses (some of them tilting to one side) lining the canals, and the hundreds of bridges, the old churches and public buildings were picturesque, he remained unconvinced. In fact, I think it was the outdoor, wide open, and overflowing take-your-breath-away porta-urinals on the street corners that did him in in the end.

There were though amazing highlights there too, including the Anne Frank house which left a sobre imprint on the two of us, Rembrant’s house and museum and the Van Gogh museum.

Rene gave it a 6.5 out of 10, while Jim an 8.5! Good thing we didn’t choose Amsterdam as our place to reside for the time in Europe. By the way, as for the dash of tulips, although it was November, we still went to the flower market but even it didn’t do that much for him. Darn those first impressions and will someone please empty those porta-urinals!

After Amsterdam, we went off to Brussels for a couple of much quieter days. Just after our first breakfast on Brussels, we went to Bruges, a small entirely intact medieval town about 45 minutes by train outside the city and towards the English Channel. It is a wonderful place full of history (having never been attacked) and charm (the sort of which Rene had expected to find in Amsterdam). After spending the afternoon there, we came back and had a nice evening and following day in Brussels, during which we had the best Raspberry Tart we believe to exist on the planet! What’s a trip in Europe without an amazing dessert? And, it is true, the chocolate is fantastic there. Rene bought a box ‘just to have at the apartment’ in Paris. Sure!

On the last afternoon, with our site seeing finished, we decided to give into the temptation of just sitting down in a café and ordering a Kir Royal to watch the world go by. While sitting there we talked about how relaxing it was just to sit and soak up the ambiance. Anyway, we finished up, paid the bill and went to the train station, only to find that in all of our laidbackness we had misread the tickets and what we thought was the departure time, was actually the arrival time. So, it was Jim’s turn for the temper flash and his version of beady eyes, which Rene says is like a clenched jaw! Enough of all this taking things so lackadaisical …

How could we be so stupid etc etc etc (there were probably a few choice words added in). Anyway, the wonders of the train service in Paris was that there was another train an hour later, so all’s well that ends well (although Jim was in the dog house for awhile due to the outburst!).

We arrived back to Paris at our favourite Gare de Nord (see blog entry number 3) and still no sighting of Clousseau.

Version en Espanol

Parte Mad Max, Parte Sodoma y Gomorra banada de aroma de tulipanes

Ese gran titulo deberia representar nuestras primeras impresiones de Amsterdam. Llegamos a la ciudad de Amsterdan el Viernes en la noche, despues de un buen viaje por tren desde Paris. Al salir de la estacion de tren en Amsterdam tuvimos trato VIP en una de las fiesta que suponemos suceden los fines de semana en esta ciudad. La rumba en las calles (al norte, al sur, al este o al oeste) del Distrito Rojo o Barrio Rojo, fue mucho mas sobre estimulante de lo que ambos esperabamos.

Con anterioridad, Jim habia estado en varias oportunidades de trabajo en Amsterdam y durante esos viajes habia tenido la oportunidad de caminar por algunas de las callajuelas de la ciudad pero nunca habia estado en la gran Fiesta Callejera, por llamarlo asi de alguna manera. Para el, toda esta accion no era mas que una version feliz de un grupo de fanaticos de Futbol celebrando la victoria de su equipo. Por el contrario para Rene, fue una fiesta con muchisima accion, descontrolada y desorganiozada, sin tomar encuenta la falta de limpieza de las calles y callejones. Fue asi como inmediatamente Rene produjo su primera sentencia: “Esto no era lo que yo esperaba de Amsterdam”.

Finalmente y despues de pasar por varios callejones que se iban haciendo mas estrechos y mas estrechos, con mas y mas gente, llegamos a nuestro hotel, el cual estaba ubicado al frente de una plazita un poco mas pacifica que el resto de los callejones por los cuales habiamos pasado. Al entrar en nuestra habitacion pudimos disfrutar de un poco de la calma y la paz necesaria para digerir el Mad Max que habiamos experimentado unos minutos antes.

Es incredible que mientras uno camina en las calles de Amsterdam comienza a apreciar como han utilizado el poco espacio que tienen de una manera eficiente. Tambien tenemos que recordar que esta ciudad fue construida bajo el nivel del mar y que en varias ocaciones los diques fueron movidos mas adentro del mar para agrandar la ciudad. De alli que el valor del espacio sea tan apreciado.

Volviendo a nuestra historia,

Aun dentro de la habitacion del hotel Rene continua en “shock”. Jim por el otro lado, sabe que una de las cosas que les encanta hacer a ambos al llegar a una ciudad, es dejar las maletas en la habitacion y salir a caminar para ubicarse y a la vez empezar a conocer el lugar. Jim tambien sabe que para Rene, la primera impresion es “MUY IMPORTANTE”. Muchos de ustedes recordaran las historias de Rene en Roma????!!! Por lo que mientras Rene se refresca en en el bano, Jim saca el mapa y empieza a disenar una ruta para caminar, comenzando con la iglesia mas viaja de la ciudad, la cual Jim sabe donde esta ubicada.

Minutos despues salimos de la habitacion, caminamos por tres callejones, 2 boulevares peatonales y una serie de puentecitos hasta que dimos con la Iglesia que esta justo en el centro del Distrito Rojo.

Como mencionamos antes, Amsterdam los Viernes en al noche es una Fiesta sin control que definitivamente calificaria para ganar el premio al mejor sobre estimulo los cinco sentidos. Mientras que El Distrito Rojo se ganaria el premio de la Sodoma y Gomorra del Segundo Milenio!!! Hay mujeres de todos los tamanos, de todos los colores y sabores imaginables, vendiendo sus servicios con contratos pre-estipulados. Hay calles y calles de mujeres en sus ventanas exhibiendose de manera muy sugestiva invitando a sus clientes a probar el producto. En una de esas calles terminamos en lo que Rene bautizo con el nombre de “El Centro Comercial de la Prostitucion”, aqui las ventanas ya no eran en el exterior de las casas, por lo contrario eran cuarticos uno al lado del otro. Habian pasillos de ellos como kioskos en una feria de comida.

Afuera en las calles, definitivamente te sentias parte de un ‘set “ de la pelicula Mad Max. La combinacion del trafico en las calles no peatonales, las bicicletas, carros de tres ruedas a pedales “hybrids” y muchisimos Alemanes y Britanicos borrachos, formaban un caos organico casi incontrolable. No podemos dejar de mencionar los famosos “Coffee Shops”, en los cuales la marijuana y cualquier otro tipo de hojas, son consumidas como si se fuera a acabar el mundo. Es incredible ver decenas de personas todas funcionando a la nota mas alta que puede producir todas estas ramas que son inhaladas con toda la legalidad que se merece.

Lo mas comico es que en medio de todo este estado de “todos para uno y uno para todos”, vemos a un official de policia que para a una muchacha que pasaba en bicicleta y antes que la conductora de este vehiculo pudiera decir algo, el policia le pone una multa.???? Se estaran preguntando, que infraccion cometio este pobre ser, bueno imaginense que la lucecita de la parte delantera de su bicicleta no funcionaba….???

Entonces obviamente aqui tambien existen leyes, la pregunta es: sera que la lucecita de la bicicleta iba a ayudar a la mujer a ver entre tanto humo saliendo de los Coffee Shops????

Al dia siguiente Jim trato en muchas oportunidades de buscar la partes buenas y bonitas de la ciudad, pero Rene ya habia formado su opinion y definitivamente Amsterdam no era su ciudad favorita. Aunque tenemos que decir que, Rene admitio que las filas de edificios pegados unos a los otros y muchos de ellos inclinados hacia los lados, la gran cantidad de puentes y las Iglesias y edificios publicos viejos eran muy pintorescos, pero aun asi el mantuvo su posicion. Jim esta super seguro que lo que finalmente puso la guinda en la torta para Rene, fue el olor desagradable que emergia de los orinaios mobibles que existen en varias esquinas de la ciudad, segun rene esto solo previene que la gente orine en los postes de luz, con estos orinarios lo hacen solo en las esquinas permitidas…je,je,je

Por supuesto que hubo y vimos cosas muy extraordinarias, como la casa y museo de Anne Frank, donde ella y su familia vivieron escondiendose de los Nazis por varios anos. La casa y museo de Rembrandt, y el museo de Vincent Van Gogh.

Rene le dio a la ciudad de Amsterdam 6.5 de 10 puntos, mientras que Jim le dio 8.5 puntos. Gracias a Dios que no escojimos Amsterdam como la ciudad donde vivir durante nuestra tiempo en Europa. Y por cierto aun cuando es Noviembre todabia se pueden ver algunos tulipanes en el Mercado de flores pero aun asi esto no ayudo a incrementar la puntacion!!!!!

Que hacer con las primeras impresiones y que alguien por favor vacie eso orinarios!!!!!!

Despues de Amsterdam tomamos el tren via Bruselas, para disfrutar de dos dias con mas tranquilidad. Despues de desayunar en Bruselas tomamos un tren por 45 minutes hasta llegar a la ciudad de Brujas, la cual esta ubicada en direccion hacia el Canal Ingles. Brujas es una pequena ciudad llena de historia (una de las pocas ciudades en Europa que no fue bombardeada durante la segunda Guerra mundial). Segun Rene, Brujas tiene el encanto que le falta a Amsterdam. Despues de pasar la tarde en Brujas, regresamos a Bruselas en donde pasamos el resto de la noche y el dia siguiente. Fue aqui en Bruselas donde disfrutamos de la mejor tartaleta de frambuesas del “universo”. Y por supuesto no podemos dejar de hablar del chocolate el cual tambien es uno de los mejores del mundo, por lo cual Rene compro una caja “para tener en el apartamento”.

Durante nuestra ultima tarde en Bruselas, sucumbimos a la tentacion de sentarnos en un café y ordenar Un “Kir Royal” y ver como pasa el mundo en frente de nosotros, relajados y disfrutando el ambiente. Luego de disfrutar de nuestra bebida y de nuestro tiempo oscioso, pedimos la cuenta y tomamos el metro hasta la estacion de trenes. Al llegar a esta ultima nos dimos cuenta que nos habiamos confundido con las horas de salida y llegada, lo que habiamos pensado que era la hora de salida era en efecto la hora de llegada a Paris. Fue aqui cuando el verdadero temperamento de Jim emergio y entre otros muhos comentarios llego hasta arrepentirse de nuestro tiempo oscioso en el café???????

Lo bueno es que usualmente tienes varias alternativas para llegar a tu destino, ya sea tomando el proximo tren (una hora despues), usando otra compania o simplemente cambiando de ruta.

Finalmente una hora mas tarde llegamos a nuestra estacion favorita de trenes en Paris ‘Gard de Nord” en la cual todabia no hay senal del inspector Clousseau.

Oslo - Parque de Esculturas / Sculpture Park # 2

2009-11-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

Oslo - Parque de Esculturas / Sculpture Park

2009-11-05T13:39:00.000-08:00

Stocolmo City Centre / Centro de la Ciudad / Museo de Historia

2009-11-05T13:32:00.000-08:00

Stocolmo Mecardo De flores / Flower Market - Opera House

2009-11-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Copenhagen Jardin Botanico / Casa de Opera

2009-11-05T08:50:00.000-08:00

Llegada a Copenhagen

2009-11-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

Viaje a los paises Escandinavos/ Trip to the Scandinavian Conutries

2009-11-04T07:01:00.000-08:00

English Version

Gotta love the Scandinavian model …

No, not the tall blonde one but their socio-economic one!!!

We had the first of our mini jaunts around Europe last weekend (which we made into a long weekend) and it was to Scandinavia or at least the cities of Copenhagen , Stockholm and Oslo . What a delight!!!

These countries and cities are so organized and clean it is unbelievable. Each place stood out for different reasons: Copenhagen for its sophisticated elegance and its canals; Stockholm for its sense of preserved history blended with very modern sections and its parks (20% of the city) and islands (14 of them!!!) and Oslo for its pristine beauty, architecture and the incredible beauty of its fjord and rolling hills. And yet, they also had lots in common!

The common elements seem to reflect what one always reads about the Scandinavian Socio-economic model and are very perceptible even to the tourist. This includes things like public spaces play an important role so lots of room for pedestrians, cyclists, parks, public squares (not to mention great waterfront walking places), meeting places etc., real priority on green-eco projects like green roofs, electric cars, and streetcar lines with grass between the tracks; not to mention the cleanliness and impeccable upkeep of the cities, great museums etc. AND super fantastic public transit systems that work like clockwork!!! Also, one gets the sense of an incredibly safe and tolerant place. And, all of this plus an incredibly high standard of living and quality of life.

We enjoyed long walks (Rene would say VERY long walks), bus tours, canal boat rides and a combo of train and air travel that worked perfectly. Yes, it’s true that there is a lot to love about the Scandinavian model and, well, if the truth be known, the tall blonde ones aren’t that bad either!!!

Love Jim and Rene

Version en Espanol

Definitivamente nos tiene que gustar el “Modelo Escandinavo”

No estamos hablando de las/los modelos altos y catires sino del modelo socio-economico!!!

El fin de semana pasado, Jim y yo tuvimos nuestro primer mini viaje en Europa (llamemoslo un fin de semana largo 6 diitas), en el cual vistamos tres de los paises Escandinavos, o por lo menos tres de sus ciudades (Copenhagen, Estocolmo y Oslo) Bien Chevere!!!

Es incredible lo extremadamente organizadas y limpias que son estos paises y ciudades. Cada uno de estos lugares resalta por diferentes razones: Copenhagen por la elegancia y sus bellos canales; Estocolmo por la combinacion de su historia y lo moderno, sin contar sus parques (20% de la ciudad es parque) y sus 14 islas, y Oslo por su brillo, su arquitectura y la belleza de sus Colinas y Fiordos. Y aun con todo esto las tres ciudades tienen muchisimo en comun!

Uno de los elementos que tienen estas tres ciudades en comun sin duda alguan es el modelo Socio-economico Escandinenses que se percibe aun siendo turista. Esto se refleja en la imporatnacia que le dan a los espacios publicos,( parques y plazas) la importancia que tienen los peatones y ciclistas. Tambien hay que destacar el desarrollo arqutectonico de sus malecones, donde los espacios peatonales son extensos y parecieran interminables. Tambien es evidente la prioridad que tienen los eco-proyectos como techos verdes, carros electricos y canales de grama para tranvias. Por supuesto no pueden falatar los grandes y bellos museos. Es casi imposible cuando se habla de estas tres ciudades dejar de mencionar lo perfecto que funciona el sistema se transito publico, no solo su puntualidad, pero tambien la limpieza y modernismo. Por supuesto que la combinacion de estos y algunos otros elementos crean el alto nivel de vida que tienen los Escandinavos.

De verdad que disfrutamos nuestras largas caminatas (algunas muy largas para mi gusto), los tursitos por los canales, la ciudades y la combinacion de vuelos y trenes que hicimos en nuestro recorrido. Hay mucho por que amar el Modelo Escandinavo y para aquellos curiosos tamabien hay que amar a las/los Escandinavos altos y catirtes!!!!

Carinos

jim y Rene

Where is inspector Cloussau when.. Donde esta el Inspector Cloussau cuando

2009-10-31T01:45:00.000-07:00

English Version

Where is Inspector Clouseau when you need him most?

So, we are at the Gare du Nord train station and have just handled another of life’s transactional moments (exchanging train tickets) in broken French when we realized that we didn’t ask something that we should have. Rene says ‘let’s call the call centre number on the tickets so we don’t have to get into the long line again. Jim thought that was an incredibly efficient suggestion so agreed.

Anyway, there we are fumbling to find a card (French phone card or credit card) and this nice old man comes up to us and says ‘Ça ne marche comme ça en France’. Ok we say, so how does it work. He takes out his own card and offers to make the call for us, dials the number and waits while Jim fumbles through the conversation with the person from the call centre. All this time, the old man is patiently waiting for us to finish. When we were done, we thanked him for helping us out and asked him how much we owed him. He checked the balance on his phone card and said it was 3 Euros. So we gave him 4 Euros for his trouble and thanked him.

When we went downstairs to the metro station, Rene realized that his manpurse was open and that his wallet wasn’t there! Well, it had been years since I had seen his Venezuelan temper and the black (he says they are brown) beady eyes when he gets really mad. The translation would be something like ‘That old man, he really &*(*&?%$%? screwed us around. He took our money and we even paid him 4 Euros for doing that and thanked him too. What a couple of idiots we are.’

During this whole scene Jim uncharacteristically stayed quiet because he was thinking ‘wow, good thing I didn’t say what I had been , thinking upstairs when we left the old man, which was going to be ‘wasn’t that man really kind to help us out like that. See, Rene the French really aren’t like their reputation.’ I chose to just agree with Rene (and told him later what I had been thinking).

Anyway, after trips to the train police and then the National police, the lost and found for both the metro and the rail network, not to mention several calls to our bank in Canada and the one here in France (imagine we must be the first clients to cancel their new bank cards before the PIN number has even arrived!!!), we talked about the lesson in all of this.

Rene`s first answer was that he needed to stop being so Canadian in his mindset and get a redosage of Venezuelan way of being aware (and wary) of one’s surroundings. Later we both agreed that we still needed to trust people but that perhaps the learning for us was in not having to rush to do everything in the moment we think of it and just take our time to do things more calmly!!!

As we said before … Ça c’est la vie à Paris!!! And we are still on the look out for Clousseau!

PD After all that, a man in the subway station was trying to sell us used (and therefore invalid) metro tickets for a discount!!! Jim almost went for it while Rene just fumed!!!

Versión en Español

Donde esta el Inspector Clousseau cuando uno más lo necesita????

Durante una de nuestras visitas a la estación de tren de Gare de Nord y durante uno de esos momentos cotidianos como es el cambio de unos boletos de tren en la taquilla, nos dimos cuenta que gracias a nuestro poco francés se nos había olvidado hacer una pregunta. En ese momento se le ocurre la gran idea a Rene de utilizar uno de los teléfonos públicos y llamar al centro de reservaciones para así no hacer la larga cola otra vez. Jim por su lado pensó que esta era una gran idea y nos ayudaría a ser más eficaces.

Total, que en medio de la búsqueda de una tarjeta de crédito que funcionara en el teléfono publico, un señor de la tercera edad muy amistosamente se nos acerca y nos dice ‘Ça ne marche comme ça en France’ (eso no funciona así aquí en Francia). Entonces le preguntamos como funcionaban los teléfonos públicos en Francia. El señor muy cortésmente saco su tarjeta de teléfono, marco el número del centro de reservaciones y espero pacientemente que Jim finalizara la llamada en francés con la persona de reservaciones. Cuando Jim culmino con la llamada, le dimos las gracias y le preguntamos cuanto le debíamos por la llamada. El señor muy caballerosamente insertada nuevamente la tarjeta telefónica en el aparato telefónico, verifica el saldo y nos dice que solo fueron 3 euros. Fue cuando muy agradecidos por el favor le dimos 4 EUROS!!! y nuevamente le dimos las gracias.

Momentos después y ya caminando hacia la estación del metro, Rene se da cuenta de que su bolsito de mano esta abierto y que su billetera no esta en el compartimiento. Fue cuando su temperamento cambio en un segundo (Jim dice que habían pasado muchos anos sin ver el volcán estallar) según Jim el color de los Ojos de Rene cambiaron de marón a un negro profundo y supuestamente dijo algo como: Ese viejo del cono nos jodio @&%*$%#. Nos robo la cartera, le pagamos 4 euros y de paso le dimos las gracias…que estupidos somos!!!!!

En medio de todo este albedrío Jim permaneció tranquilo como si nada (cosa muy poco común), menos mal que en ese momento no me dijo lo que el había pensado del “SENOR”, lo buena gente que había sido, la paciencia que había tenido al ayudarnos y que la reputación de que tienen los francesas de rudos, obstinados y no cordiales, no era del todo verdad. Gracias a Dios Jim me dio la razón, al menos en ese momento.

Bueno después de ir al departamento de seguridad de la estación de tren, a la policía nacional, unas cuantas llamadas a los bancos en Canadá y unas llamadas al banco aquí en Francia ( por cierto nos imaginamos que somos los primeros clientes aquí en Francia que cancelan las tarjetas antes de que llegue la clave de seguridad), hablamos de los aspectos positivos y las enseñanzas en todo esto.

Por supuesto mi primera respuesta fue que tenía que dejar de ser tan Canadiense y recibir una super dosis de venezonalismo para estar más pendiente (pilas) de mis alrededores. Mas tarde Jim y yo coincidimos en que deberíamos seguir confiando en las personas ya que no todas las personas tienen las mismas intenciones. También aprendimos que deberíamos tomar las cosas con calma y pensar bien antes de actuar.

Como hemos dicho antes, Ça c’est la vie à Paris!!! Y como se imaginaran todavía estamos buscando al inspector Clousseau!!!

P.D. Después de todo este ordeal y mientras estábamos en otra cola para comprar los boletos del metro, un hombre adulto se nos acerco vendiendo boletos del metro usado e invalidados por un precio menor al precio regular….Jim casi cae otra vez mientras que el volcán casi estalla de Nuevo!!!!!!

Jim Y Rene

Long walks in paris - Caminatas largas en Paris

2009-10-22T14:04:00.000-07:00

English Version

‘These Boots Were Made for Walking’

Or at least they seem to be here in Paris!!! Wow, and do the feet ever get tired by the end of the day. The number one thing it seems we do here is walk! The city is so interesting that it lends itself to walking rather than going underground. Now, Jim is always convincing Rene that the distances are not really all that far, although it seems as if Rene is now getting on to Jim’s constant underestimating of the time it will take them to walk anywhere.

That being said, in the end we have found that walking is not only the best way to get from A to B but it invariably leads to some unexpected surprises, especially when one tries a different route whenever one goes somewhere. The other day, we discovered the internal gardens of the Palais Royale where people this late in the season still sit in lawn chairs and warm themselves in the afternoon sun. Most of the flowers are now gone but the gardens look beautiful anyway. Must be the years of constant tending that have made them look this way.

Other unexpected surprises that have come from walking these different routes have included a great place for pizza, another led us to the most amazing hot chocolate (that Rene even broke his diet for), on another walk we found the most amazing tarts (Rene’s was chocolate and Jim’s was red acidic berries --- no comments please) and just the other day we discovered … well I’m sure that by now you get the picture!!! The walks are as long as they are so that we can justify having all this amazing food that we find on absolutely every street corner. So it is a delicate balance between just enough walking to allow us to eat just enough of the surprise de jour!

The longest walk was from the apartment to the Arche de Triomphe, then to the Eiffel Tour walking along the streets of all the major design houses, to the view from the Trocadero and then home with Jim convincing Rene to take a different route back (which was only slightly out of our way but Jim heard about the detour for days after!!!).

Ah - Ça c’est la vie à Paris!!!

Version en Espanol

El Camino es Largoooooo!!!!
O por lo menos así parece el camino en Paris!!! Es increíble que cansado se sientes los pies al final de un día en Paris. Al parecer lo que mas hacemos aquí es caminar! Esta ciudad es tan interesante que definitivamente te obligue a caminar mas no a tomar el metro y aun asi, pareciera que Jim pasa mucho tiempo tratando de convencerme que las distancias no son tan largas como parecen y por el otro lado yo trato de convencerlo que empiece a calcular mas apropiadamente el tiempo y las distancias que caminamos a diario.

Aunque siendo honesto, estas largas caminatas nos han llevado a encontrar no solo la mejor manera de llegar a los lugares deseados sino también hemos descubierto lugares muy lindos en sitios inesperados. Hace unos días, descubrimos los jardines internos del Palacio Real los cuales son muy lindos aun cuando luce muy Otoñal. Es increíble a esta altura del Otoño, las personas se sientan ha recibir el sol de media tarde como si estuvieran en pleno verano, eso si esto lo hacen con los abrigos y las famosas bufandas parisinas.
Entre otras de las sorpresas que nos hemos encontrado durante esta largas caminadas esta una pizzería demasiada buena, un café en donde la calidad del chocolate caliente esta muy cerca al inigualable chocolate caliente venezolano, aquel que se acostumbraba a tomar en los velorios caseros y que aun se consigue en El Hatillo. Pueden imaginarse que la dieta se fue por la ventana ese día del chocolate caliente, y sin mencionar las tartaleta de chocolate que también disfrute al máximo. Y mientras yo disfrutaba de mis vicio por el chocolate, Jim hacia lo mismo con una tartaleta de bajas, con las frutas mas acidas del planeta tierra!!!!!
Otro punto positivo de estas largas caminatas es que el numero de calorías consumido en cada una de estas delicias pasteleras es quemado por lo menos en un 90%, ósea el remordimiento no es tan grande.

Y para finalizar esta entrada, les contamos que una de las rutas mas larga fue la que hicimos el domingo pasado, que nos llevo desde el apartamento hasta el Arco del Triunfo, pasando por los Campos Eliseos, luego del Arco a El Trocadero, pasando por una de las calles mas cara del mundo en donde se encuentran las tiendas de todos los diseñadotes de moda mas conocidos y de allí de vuelta al apartamento. Sin exagerar este recorrido duro aproximadamente 3 horas y media con una parada de 15 minutos para un chocolatico caliente…
Hasta la próxima

Ah - Ça c’est la vie à Paris!!!

2009-10-20T15:24:00.000-07:00

No podia faltar la foto con la Torre Eiffel.....

An afternoon by the Eiffel Tower

2009-10-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

Otono en Los Jardines de Versalles

Autumn at Versailles Gardens

2009-10-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Festival de Otono en Montmarte

Autumn Festival at Montmartre

Paris First Impressions / Primeras Impresiones de Paris

2009-10-20T14:51:00.000-07:00

English Version

Hi all!

Since Jim and I decided to take on this adventure Just thought that we would drop you a line to say `hi` and let you know that we have arrived and all is well. We had great luck in getting here. Everything worked perfectly from getting to the Toronto airport to receiving the keys to our little Parisien apartment. We do love the place even if it looks different that the photos on the internet. It is comfortable even if I barely fit into some of the spaces. Good thing I stopped eating butter tarts before I came!!! Haven’t done much of the touristy stuff yet. We have been doing lots of getting acquainted with our neighbourhood (between the Louvre and the Opera) and getting reacquainted with the city. It does seem a lot busier than we remember it – people everywhere and at all times of the day!!! It is truly a beautiful place with every building looking like an architectural marvel. There are the views along the broad avenues and then the quaint small streets. Both are fascinating. Also, there are endless cafes everywhere with people sitting and looking oh so French as they sip their coffee or read their paper with a glass of red wine and a small plate of peanuts. On Saturday morning, we got up and went to the St Honore market (which is just a few blocks away) and bought vegetables, meat and cheese. It seemed like a real French thing to do. Most of the food we have had in restaurants has been French even though there are lots of Korean and Japanese places in our neighbourhood. That being said, I am really behaving on the sweets front. So far, I have only had two croissants and totally have stayed away from the other pastries!!! The other things we have done have been things that Jim would do anything to get out of doing in Toronto (getting a local cell phone and opening a bank account etc.) but here, and because he is doing it in French, he is actually enjoying it. Thus far, he has been really pleased with how much French he can remember and that he can basically get by, just by faking it one way or another (you might be saying that some things don’t change wherever he is). The neat thing is that most of the time when he is speaking French, they don’t switch to English when they hear his accent. On the other hand I m trying to understand a few words here and there through any conversation and off course saying things like Bonjour, Madam, Monsieuor, Merci and other basics words. I do hope real soon to be able to move from words to sentences and so on. The one thing that we are taken back with is how expensive absolutely everything (except some wine) is. Not sure how they do it with the prices being as high as they are but everyone seems to be out and enjoying life, so somehow it all works. Am going to be looking for French lessons next week. Sending you all lots of love Rene y Jim

Version en Espanol

¡Hola a todos!

Desde el momento que Jim y yo decidimos embarcarnos en esta aventura y despues de haber visto la pelicula “Julia & Julie”, decidimos que seria una buena idea mantener al dia a nuestros familiares y amigos de esta gran aventura. Fue asi que nos parecio interesante la idea de crear un “Blog”

Asi que aqui les va nuestra primera entrada.

Unas pequenas lineas para decirles que hemos llegado a Paris y todo salio bien. Tuvimos muchisima suerte para llegar aquí. Todo funciono perfectamente desde la llegada al aeropuerto de Toronto hasta recibir las llaves a nuestro pequeño apartamento Parisiano. Nos gusta mucho el apartamento aunque luce muy diferente en las fotos del Internet. Es cómodo aunque yo (Rene) apenas entro en algunos de los espacios. ¡La buena noticia es que paré de comer las famosas tartaletas de mantequilla de la mama de Jim antes de venir!!!

Todavia no hemos hecho mucho turísmo, ya que hemos estado conociendo nuestro nuevo vecindario (entre el Louvre y la Opera) y asi familiarizarnos con la ciudad. ¡La ciudad luce mucho más intense de lo que nosotros recordamos, personas por todas partes a cualquier hora del día!!! Sinceramente es un lugar muy un hermoso, cada edificio es una maravilla arquitectónica. La bella combinacion de avenidas anchas y calles pequenas, es fascinante. Los interminables cafes, donde los parisinos se sientan a disfrutar de sus famosos cafés, pasteleria o vasos de vino, mientras leen el periodico o cualquier otro material informatico.

El sábado por la mañana, nos levantamos y fuimos al mercado de “Saint Honore” ( justo a tres cuadras). Alli disfrutamos de nuestra primera compra al aire libre de verduras, carne y por supuesto queso, “el queso”. Nos pareció una francesada hacerlo de esta manera. Hemos tenido la oportunidad de comer varias veces en restaurants y la mayoria han sido “franceses”, con comida muy exquisita. Como una gran coincidencia, nuestro apartamentido esta rodeado de comida japonesa y koreana….sera que me empieza a gustar el famoso “Sushi”. Por otro lado me he comportado muy bien en cuanto a postres se refiere, hasta los momentos solo he disfrutado de dos croissants dejando a un lado los otros dulces pasteleros…AYUDA!!!!!

Tambien hemos hecho cosas que Jim nunca haría en Toronto, como buscar lineas para los teléfonos celulares, y abrir cuentas bancarias, etc. Lo interesante es que aquí el lo esta haciendo en francés y lo esta disfrutando. El esta realmente contento con lo mucho que se acuerda del frances y realmente puede comunicarse en todas partes y cuando no se acuerda de algo o no sabe como hacerlo simplemente lo inventa y “VOILA”. (Hay cosas que nunca cambian y esto de inventar cosas es una de ellas). Lo mejor es que los franceses no cambian al ingles cuando oyen a Jim hablar con su acento canadiense, je,je,je. Por otro lado yo aqui tratando de entender una que otra palabra cuando me hablan y por supuesto tratando de ser sociable diciendo cosas como Bonjour, Monsieuor, Merci, Madam, etc. Espero pronto poder construir oraciones y tal vez poder tener pequenas conversaciones en la calle.

Otra cosa que nos tiene todabia asombrado es lo caro que es todo aqui, con excepcion de algunos vinos todo lo de mas es CARISIMO!!!!. No estamos seguros como viven con precios tan alto, pero indudablemente mchos parecen disfrutar de la vida como si nada, los restaurantes, cafes e inclusive tiendas repletas de gente.

Hasta los momentos, Jim y yo estamos en la busquedad de clases de frances, el mejorarlo y yo …bueno para ver que pasa….

Los queremos,

Rene y Jim