Europe Part II

Paris!! (see Europe Part I here)

On May 1st we took the overnight train from Munich to Paris. We arrived in Paris the morning of May 2nd.  We headed straight to our hotel, The Hotel Saint Dominique located near Rue Clair.  We had a super cute little room right off the inner courtyard and a view of the Eiffel Tower out the front door of the hotel.

Once we checked in, we headed to a local flea market.  This was so much fun!  I guess they only have these on the weekends: http://en.parisinfo.com/professionnals/1729/marche-aux-puces-de-la-porte-de-vanves.  We had a blast just walking through the market, checking out all the stalls selling their wares.  It truly felt like we were among the true Parisians! 

After the market and some lunch, Bob, Sue and I headed to the oldest department store in Paris:  Le Bon Marche.

We got Bob’s mom her souvenir and thank you gift for watching the kids.  It was a beautiful department store and we found a lovely scarf for Marcie.  AND we spotted Andi MacDowell coming down the escalator.  Ooh La La!

 

Every evening, before dinner, the 4 of us (Rob, Sue, Bob and I) would meet in our lovely courtyard for aperitif’s.  It was wonderful!  One of the most favorite parts of our trip!

We ended our first day in Paris with kissing on a bridge over the Seine River overlooking the Eiffel Tower lit up at night.  Wonderful!

Day 2 found us off to Sacre Couer in Montmartre.  Montmartre is the highest hill in Paris where all the artists used to live and paint.  Today it still has artists who create and sell their paintings in a street vendor atmosphere. At the top of the hill is Sacre Coeur, a beautiful church that was built in the late 1800’s.  The view from here is the best in Paris!  It looks out over the whole of the city.  
(climbing the many steps to Sacre Coeur)

  The church was so beautiful.  But I felt a little bit weird taking a tour while they were having service!  It was Sunday, so the locals (and probably some tourists) were attending service while the tourists walked around the outer edges of the sanctuary admiring the architecture and the paintings.  Kind of weird and maybe a little wrong….but, still, I loved the church!

After that, we headed to the artists square and we bought our first piece of real artwork.

 

Walking back down from Sacre Coeur, we saw a beautiful carousel and we then we shopped along Montmartre for souvenirs for the kids.

 

(shopping for scarves with Sue)

After Sacre Coeur and Montmartre, we headed over to the Luxembourg Gardens and Palace where we saw kids sailing boats on a pond, listened to a brass band, saw a big giant head (?) and just enjoyed the cloudy and cool, but lovely, day in Paris.
(Luxembourg Palace)

(kids sailing boats – this was really cool.  The kids put their sailboats on the pond, pushed them out in the water with a stick, and then ran around the pond following their boat.)

(those silly Americans!)

After the gardens, Rob and Sue headed back for nap and Bob and I decided (NO SLEEPING!), so we headed off to the Louvre!

We got there about 2 hours before it closed – on FREE MUSEUM SUNDAY.  It was CRAZY!  Funny story:  Once we got in, we decided to head to the bathrooms and then decide which wing we wanted to see.  We KNEW we would only be able to see just one wing because the museum is so huge!  So, we start heading to what we THINK is the bathrooms.  Little did we know that when the sign said “Sortie”, which means exit, that we would actually be exiting the museum!  We thought that the sign just meant “this way to the exit” not “you are exiting now”.  So, we walked in the Louvre, then we walked right back out!  Luckily, the museum people were nice enough to let us back in without having to stand in line again.  Bob and I joked that we could say “Yes, we were in The Louvre….but we didn’t see anything!”.  :-)  We were pretty loopy at this point from being so tired.

Once we were back in again, we chose the Denon Wing, that houses the Italian and Spanish Paintings, including The Mona Lisa.  At the top of the stairs to this wing is the famous “Winged Victory”

This is how close we got to The Mona Lisa: (that’s her on the back wall. Much smaller than you would think, huh?)

This picture was on the opposite wall of Mona Lisa: I was amazed at how close you could get to some of the paintings.  Pretty cool, huh?

We didn’t get to see very much – I pooped out pretty quickly.  But trying to get to the Sortie (for real this time) we saw some beautifully old paintings and even an Easter Island Head.   Definitely a place I would love to try and actually spend time at next time.

After our quick tour through the Louvre, we headed back to our hotel for our nightly aperitif and dinner.  We met up with a friend from home, Jon D’hondt, who had been working in Paris for two weeks.  We walked to Rob and Sue’s favorite crepe stand in Rue Claire and enjoyed a nice evening of crepe’s for dinner and crepe’s for dessert.  I have to say, the Nutella and Banana crepe was super yummy!

Whew! Day 2 was a busy day.  I think I’ll stop my blog post here for now, and blog Day 3 (Versailles!) on a different post.

Europe Part I

So, I'm finally blogging about Bob and my fabulous trip to Europe!

On Wednesday, April 29th, 2009, I arrived in Munich Germany. We stayed at a lovely, quaint hotel called the Hotel Laimer Hof, run by a very friendly man named Sebastian and his wife. Sebastian was awesome with helping us plan our time in Munich and the surrounding Bavarian countryside.

(our very cute hotel)

Bob was already in Munich due to work, and I had plans to join him at his work dinner at Restaurant Tantris, which is one of the 50 best restaurants of 2009 and number 1 or 2 in Germany! It was fabulous, French, and very fancy! We had 6 courses and 3 different wine pairings. The menu is set daily by the chef, and at our place setting was a handwritten menu in German with an English translation. Very nice!

(web picture of the restaurant)

The next day found us touring Marienplatz in a very rainy Munich and we had to purchase rain hats!
(Bob and his lovely hat)

(Lisa and her lovely hat at the Marienplatz Gates)

(Marienplatz taken from the top of the Glockenspiel looking at the Old Town Hall)

(The Glockenspiel)

After a morning of touring Marienplatz, having a traditional Bavarian lunch, discovering Radler, and strolling the open air markets, we headed back to our hotel and made a detour at Nymphenburg Palace which was in the same neighborhood. However, we were so tired and jet lagged that we just toured the garden, the gift shop (which had a great presentation of how the palace was built) and the outside of the palace.

(Nympenburg Palace)

That night for dinner, we went to an old German Monastery called Kloster Andechs, established in 1445! They brew their own beer and have a restaurant called The Klostergasthof that has fabulous food. The locals recommend the Pig Knuckles (which was very tasty) and the Apple Strudel.
(the monastery)

The next day was our last day in Munich so we decided that after breakfast we would rent a car and head to Neuschwanstein Castle -- the one that Walt Disney used to create Sleeping Beauty's castle. To get there we traveled through the beautiful Bavarian countryside with views of the Alps.
(Sue Clark, Rob Craft, Bob and I at breakfast on our last day)

(Bavaria with the Alps and the castle -- just beautiful!)

(Bob inside the castle courtyard) (View of the town and Hohenschwangau Castle -- the parent's castle)

We had a great time touring the castle and learning about Mad King Ludwig II. We drove back to Munich through an old medieval town called Landsberg am Lech. The town still has the old castle walls surrounding it.

When we arrived back in Munich, we realized that it was May Day and there were many festivities going on at Marienplatz, with lots of beer and lots of rowdy crowds! We were pretty tired and had several hours to wait for our overnight train to Paris. So we found an Italian restaurant off the main streets (much quieter) and had a nice, long, leisurely dinner until it was time to go to the train station.

The four of us all stayed in the same cabin in the sleeper car. It was quite cozy -- 4 bunk beds and very little space. However, it was worth it when we woke up the next day traveling through the Champagne Region of France!

(Our cabin in the sleeper car)

I thoroughly enjoyed Bavaria Germany! The buildings are so old and the architecture is so beautiful! The cobblestone streets; the buildings that are older than our oldest buildings in the US; the bullet holes from WWII....all so very interesting! The countryside is breathtaking! I would love to go back some day and spend more time touring the countryside and learning more about the history.

That's it for Part I. Stay tuned for Part II!!!

Apring Break 2009

FINALLY! I have my pictures uploaded and stored on Snapfish. Whew! That took forever.

We have learned, living in the Pacific Northwest the last 4 years, that you MUST get out of here during Spring Break to find the sunshine! If you don't, it feels like winter lasts for 9 months. That is why this year we headed off to Clearwater Florida to enjoy the sunshine and spend time with some extended family.

Here are some highlights of our trip to Clearwater Beach Florida.

We stayed in a lovely neighborhood about 3 miles from Pier 60. We rented a little 3 bedroom house with a fantastic screened in sun room and an awesome pool.

We visited with Bob's grandma who lives in Palm Harbor. His mom flew down from Indy, so we got to hang with her too. And his Aunt Katie drove over from Stuart to spend a few days with us. We are so blessed to have such a great family!

We spent several days just hanging out at the beach. We had a beach access that was 3 blocks from our house. It was perfect! The walk was through the beautiful neighborhood and it was close enough for us to run back home and get anything we forgot to bring with us. We had lots of sunny days to spend at the beach and in the pool. We spent our days boogy boarding, relaxing in the sun, making sand castles and catching lizards!


We took a Pirate Cruise one afternoon, which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. The pirate crew kept the kids entertained all day and even had Bobby dress up as "Peg Leg Pete" to help with a water gun fight. The parents enjoyed free cocktails and we even spotted some dolphins while out on our cruise!

Pier 60 was fun with many activities for the kids -- bungee tramplines, vendors and entertainers along the boardwalk, and lots of ice cream!

We even took a ferry ride one day from Honeymoon Island to Caladesi Island, which was supposedly the best natural beach in 2008.?

We had such a wonderful vacation. It's always good to soak up the sun, and the family time together. We can't wait for next year!

Here are a few from our last night in Florida. Check out the beautiful sunset!