A Few Hotel Reviews

Last time I came to Europe, I did little reviews of all of the hotels in which I stayed. I noticed that it kind of cluttered up the blog so, to the extent that I did it again on this European trip, I thought I’d do them in little blocs. This is the first of those blocs for this trip – Paris, Marseille and Milan. (Update: As a bonus, I’ve added Pisa.)

In Paris, I stayed at the Hotel Des Nations Saint Germain. It is located in the Latin Quarter, almost literally a stone-throw’s away from the Pantheon and very close to Notre Dame. It was in a very good location, though I’m convinced that there is not a bad location to be found in Paris. The closest familiar chain that I saw was a Starbucks that was located about a kilometer away. There also was a Carrefour grocery very close, which is a grocery chain that I fell in love with in Buenos Aires. The room was about average size for a European budget hotel room. Just a little bit larger than the full-size bed in the room, but large enough. There was a small television with CNN International and BBC and the bathroom was roomy enough. Nothing spectacular, but it was under $100/night, so I will take it. Oh, and internet. It was available, but you had to pay for it. Not too pricey, though, as I spent about $5/day.

In Marseille, I stayed in the New Hotel Select. It is located about four blocks south of the main train station. As I’ve written about before, the neighborhood is a little sketchy between the train station and the hotel, but wonderful in the other direction. When I arrived, I was given a rather large room with a huge bathroom. I was ecstatic for the price – around $80/night. On the second of three nights, though, the toilet stopped working. I was a little less ecstatic. I was moved to the room next door, which was much smaller than my previous room. My ecstasy had pretty much ended by this point. The hotel had free wifi, but only in the lobby, which sent me down to the lobby on a few occasions to play with the beautiful internet. The staff was friendly, but one thing that was really curious was that when I checked out, at 5:00 in the morning, I had to wake the night person up as he was sleeping on the floor behind the desk. I still got out on time, though, so whatever.

In Milan, I stayed at the Hotel Aladin. I’m not sure what to say about this place. It was cheap. So it’s got that going for it. Location-wise, it wasn’t ideal. It was a 25-minute walk to the nearest metro stop, so that was a pain. It was clean enough, I guess. The proprietors were an Asian couple that spoke a little English and were very friendly. That’s about where the good things ended, though. The shower stall was entirely too small for me, and I’m not a huge guy. Somehow, Expedia believes that the fact that there is a computer downstairs for public use during the five minutes a day the owner or his family wasn’t using it constitutes “high-speed internet service.” It didn’t help me none. The television had only local stations, nothing in any language other than Italian. The walls were thin, the room occasionally loud, and there was no breakfast. And when I say it was cheap, I mean only in terms of Milan. Thus far, it’s still the most expensive hotel I’ve stayed in on this leg of the road trip. Had I known, I probably would’ve stayed somewhere else, but I just wanted some place cheap that would allow me to see a match at the San Siro, so I guess the place wasn’t bad enough to ruin my trip, but I don’t think I could recommend it.

As a bonus for you, my special friend, here’s a fourth hotel review in this entry. Since I’m currently on a train from Pisa to Rome, I can comment on the Alessandro Della Spina Hotel, in which I stayed in Pisa. Again, I went cheap, but this was at least listed as a 3-star hotel (which aren’t as nice as 3-star hotels in the U.S., but aren’t bad). Here, my experience was much better than in Milan. Even though I didn’t have an address for the hotel, just a general idea that it was to the southeast of the train station, I found it easy enough and it was only about a 10-minute walk away. The staff was extremely friendly. Although the room was small, typical for European hotel rooms, it was very nicely decorated and very clean. Internet service wasn’t free, but it was there and after Milan, I was extremely thankful for that. It was about a 20-25 minute walk to the main tourist areas in Pisa, so the location was adequate for that as well. The hotel also served free breakfast. There was nothing hot, but they had two of my favorite luncheon meats – mortadella and salami, so there is no way I can complain. All-in-all, I have to say that I was rather pleased with my experience at this hotel.

There you go – the first of a series of hotel reviews for this trip. Tune in next time for Rome, Athens, Thessaloniki . . .

One Last Day In Paris (Until Spring)

(For the record, I don’t have any pictures to accompany this post, so I’m just putting up random pictures of Paris. Enjoy!!) If you followed my trip from my first tour of Europe, you might recall that I met people here and there but it was usually for a day or so and then we’d go our separate ways. Ah, the traveling life. In Argentina, however, I was in the same place (mas o menos) for two months and I was able to make a bunch of friends. One of those friends was a guy named Joe who was in my TEFL class in Buenos Aires. His partner is a student in Paris now, so he has been living there for several weeks. Yesterday was my last day in Paris, so I met up with Joe to catch up and see what he’s learned about Paris in the past few months.

After getting some wires crossed and a delay caused by the cyclone (or whatever the Hell it was) that hit France like a German tank division (sorry, is that in bad taste?), Joe and I met at the Café de Flor on Boulevard Saint Germain. It is next door to Les Deux Magots, but is supposed to be better and less touristy that its better-known neighbor. I had some coffee and some bread, which in France is always good, and we talked for a while. The wind died down and the rain stopped, so we headed out of the café and walked down the Boulevard towards the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. It was a long walk and we decided that since twilight was coming, it was time to grab a beer.

I don’t know the name of the place we went to. I know it was on a side street in the Latin Quarter and it had lots of Irish Beers, but I didn’t hear anybody inside who sounded Irish. I also don’t know if the place had a juke box or if the music was run by the people at the bar or if it is haunted by a sadistic DJ but whoever was in charge of the hit parade decided to play about half of the Grease soundtrack while we were there. This was followed by half of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Now, I’m used to traveling overseas and seeing things hit in other countries a few months after they hit in the United States. Thirty-three years, though, seems a little ridiculous. Nevertheless, Kilkenny’s and John Travolta turned out to be a pretty good combination and a good time was had by all. (And in case you were wondering, no it wasn’t Disco night. John Travolta was eventually followed by the Black Eyed Peas , Madonna and a pinch of Michael Jackson. Okay, I guess the Michael Jackson stuff could fall into the disco category, but I think it was just a sadist with a five-Euro note.)

After the Travoltafest, we went out and got some pizza. I realized that it was the first pizza that I had ever had in France. I wanted to test it out because I’m heading south and will be in Italy in a few days and I wanted non-Italian pizza to be fresh in my mind when I get there. We go a trois jambon (three ham) pizza and a pepperoni pizza. To my dismay, the trois jambon pizza was the better pizza and that’s a disappointment that I’m going to have to carry with me for the rest of my life. Perhaps, though, after spending three weeks in the middle east, there was no way I wasn’t going to love a ton of pork products piled onto a pizza.

That was it. After pizza, I returned to my hotel and started to pack for Marseille. (I’m currently on the train to Marseille.) Thanks to Joe for hanging out with me in Paris and hopefully I’ll run into some more friends from Buenos Aires during my travels.

This trip, I am sort of playing by ear. I think I have the first three weeks semi-planned (Paris – Marseille – Milan – Pisa – Rome), but I’m still debating about what to do the following six weeks. I can head south to Sicily, west to Spain or east to Greece. If you have any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

Until Marseille . . .

Paris Revisited

My trip from Raleigh to Paris was, as was predictable, painful. I can’t say anything went wrong on the trip. As a matter of fact, everything seemed to go right on the trip. Every single flight was on time. There were no crying babies. There were fat people sitting next to me taking up all of my elbow room. The food was nasty, but typical. I really don’t have anything specific to complain about. It’s just that I have a lot of trouble sleeping on planes and this trip was no exception.

Before I get to the next topic, allow me to set it up. In 1999, I was playing softball and while I was running to first base I blew some tendon or something out in my left leg. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but I went to the doctor and he told me that it wasn’t my ACL, but it was something attached to the ACL and he put my leg in a cast and gave me some crutches. He told me to keep the cast on for a few weeks and that in five-six weeks, all would be normal. I seem to recall that it healed a little faster, but that his time frame was relatively close. In the summer of 2000, it happened again. This time, I wasn’t playing softball; I was walking in my apartment. I went to the doctor again and he wrapped it up in an ACE bandage and sent me on my way and it healed in a few weeks.

Thursday, after arriving in Paris and walking around for an hour or so, I went to my hotel. Since I hadn’t slept in about 24 hours, I took a nap. A few hours later, when I woke up, I straightened out my legs. POP!!! There it went again. On the first day of a nine-week trip in which I planned to walk several miles every day, I go back on the DL. Fortunately, I happen to travel with an ACE bandage with me, so I wrapped up a leg and, never being one to let common sense interfere with my plans, I went walking. And walking. And walking. My leg hurt after a while on Thursday and Friday, but by the end of the day Saturday, it wasn’t hurting at all. To be honest, at the moment, it feels good as new – knock on wood. Oh, well.

If you recall from my last trip to Paris (and if you don’t, feel free to go back and read all about it), I visited most of the places that I wanted to visit. I went up the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph; I visited the Louvre and Musee D’Orsay; I did all kinds of crap. This time, I spent most of my time just walking around neighborhoods, some of which I had visited before and some of which were new to me, and stopped in little cafés and got a sandwich and some coffee and people watched. Last time I visited, I stayed in Montmartre. This time around, my hotel was in the Latin Quarter, near the Pantheon and La Sorbonne, so I spent a lot of time in that neighborhood in the beginning. Of course, I spread out. At one point, I walked from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower, to the Arc de Triomphe, to the Louvre, to the Musee D’Orsay . . . and then I got tired and hopped on the Metro. But it was a Hell of a lot of walking for a one-legged man.

I liked doing it this way because, even though I am still obviously a tourist, it felt much less touristy since I wasn’t standing in lines to see all of the well-known attractions. One thing that I want to point out, though, is that when I was in Paris before, the weather was perfect the entire time and I said that Paris was the most beautiful city that I’d ever seen. This time around confirmed my earlier assessment because the weather was pretty crappy the entire time I was there (we were hit by a cyclone or typhoon or Act of God or something my last day), but even in the gray and the rain and the cold, Paris still is a stunningly beautiful city.

On my last full day in Paris, I met up with a friend of mine from Buenos Aires. That’ll give me something to write about in my next entry, though.

Bonsoir.

Paris: Passing Thoughts

I’m about halfway between Paris and Zurich – the train just made a stop somewhere in northeastern France – and I thought I’d take a minute to make some passing random comments about Paris.

I’d like to say I love Paris, but that’s not quite true. I’m in love with Paris. I already miss her and I can’t wait until I have an opportunity to go back and see her again.

I was concerned that my spotty French might be just enough to get me into trouble, but it turned out there was nothing to worry about. While I wasn’t going to have any deep conversations with anybody in French, I was able to feed myself and get around with little problem. Unlike Brussels, which was more Dutch than French, and Zurich, which will be more German than French, in Paris, everything is in French and that made things less confusing. I also was amazed at how quickly French will come back to you after a dozen years when you are immersed in it.

I’ve always heard about how rude the French are, particularly to Americans. I found this to be untrue, at least in Paris and at least in my experience. Of course, I tended to stay in touristy areas for the most part and you would expect people in that field to be extra nice and helpful to their sources of income, but even when I went out into the little shops in the other neighborhoods, I found the people to be charming and patient with my broken French.

One quick story – speaking of broken French – when I went to the soccer match Sunday night, a girl came up to me and wanted me to fill out a card, something to do with a giveaway related to the match. She spoke quickly, and I wasn’t particularly interested, so I told her I didn’t speak French. She replied that it was okay, she spoke English. It turns out that her English was like my French and after she explained what was being given away, I still had no clue. She then asked me if I was “interesting”. I wanted to assure that I was, but that I was not “interested” in whatever she was trying to get me to do. Remembering that people hadn’t picked on my French, though, I decided not to pick on her English and just passed on the card.

On my way to Sacre Coeur, I stopped by to take a picture of the Moulin Rouge (see left). After taking pictures, I walked down the street on my way to the church. Down the street was an interesting mixture of adult theaters, sex shops and other businesses of the same nature. A virtual pornucopia of adult-related . . . umm . . . entertainment. Just in case you’re in Paris and are so inclined.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’m beginning to see mountains. Alps? Maybe. I’m not sure when I’ll have internet access and be able to post this, but you’ll hear from me in Zurich, I’m sure.

Paris: Hotel Monte Carlo - A Review

Unlike in Brussels, I was able to find my hotel in Paris, the Hotel Monte Carlo, with not just relative ease, but actual ease. Once I arrived in Paris by train, the stop closest to the hotel was only four stops away and the hotel was less than a five-minute walk from that stop.

I arrived too early to check-in, but the hotel allowed me to store my belongings and gave me a map to Paris. The check-in was very quick and friendly and, this is a big plus for cheap European hotels, it had an elevator, so I didn’t have to lug my gear up four flights of stairs.

The room was very clean. It also was small, but not too small. There was a bed, a desk, a fan (which came in handy) and a sink. The room I stayed in did not have a bathroom en suite, but this was not too much of an inconvenience other than the noise of people roaming the halls.

The neighborhood was fantastic. The hotel was very close to two metro stops serving three lines. The street I was on connected was like the middle line of an H connecting two much busier streets. All along each of these streets were bars, cafes and various other types of shops. One thing I found tremendously convenient was a little market across the street from my hotel that had among the only good values I saw while in Paris. I ended up eating or drinking in several of the places up the street (Rue de Faubourg Montmartre) and really enjoyed the vibe.

The staff was very friendly and helpful. The hotel had free wireless internet which, like the other places I went, tended to go out for periods of time, but fewer periods of time here than I experienced at other places. The free continental breakfast was very basic: croissants and bread, cereal and coffee or tea. That was okay, though because it was good enough and there was plenty of other food around Paris (ham and cheese sandwiches, in case you haven’t been following) that I wanted to eat.

Besides convenience, I picked this hotel because of the price, which came out to around $95/night. By any standards, that would be a good deal. By Paris standards, it was pretty damn great. They also have rooms with en suite bathrooms, as well, they are more expensive, of course.

One problem I did have was the noise. Like the other hotels I’ve stayed in here, there was no air conditioning and it was a little warm at night. I could open the window to the street, but it was a very busy street and quite noisy. After being awakened early two evenings in a row, I abandoned the open window and used the fan that was provided in the hotel. That turned out to be just the ticket, though the hallways were noisy as well, especially in the evenings. I don’t know if others had doors that were difficult to shut or if other guests were just oblivious to the fact that people might be sleeping at 2 am, but doors seemed to slam at all hours of the night.

Overall, if you’re looking for Paris on a budget, I would recommend this hotel. The location and price alone are well worth a stay.

Paris: Last Two Full Days

This is my last night in Paris and my train to Zurich is a 8:24 am tomorrow, so I probably won’t go into too much detail about my past two days in Paris. I guess that as a compromise, I won’t dwell too much on what I’ve been eating. I’ve veered a little off of the ham and cheese sandwich routine, but not by far and I have still been getting my fair share of ham and cheese sandwiches, fear not, but we don’t have time to discuss that right now.

Yesterday was Sunday, so that made it church day, just like every Sunday in the Sheldon household. Okay, it had been a long time since I went to church on a Sunday, but this week I went to the Cathedral of Notre Dame. I was sort of mixed on this beforehand, not being a church-going person myself, but I really enjoyed it. The bad part about visiting a church on Sunday morning is that services are being held so you have to be extra quiet and you don’t have complete access. The good part about it is that it’s free.

I have to admit that I was a little awestruck as I was walking up the metro steps to Notre Dame that these were the same steps that Jesus walked when he went to speak to the players before their game against La Sorbonne and told them to win one for the Gipper. (I think that is Touchdown Jesus to the left.) Or something like that. Anyway, Notre Dame was awe-inspiring for completely non-made-up reasons as well and I took lots of pictures.

After Notre Dame, I went to Sacre Couer because, well, too much God on a Sunday can never be a bad thing, right? No pictures were allowed inside, although that didn’t stop many, so my only pictures are from outside. Sacre Couer is near the top of Montmartre and I had heard how great the views were from there. If you like views of smog, there probably were none better. Again, Sunday, God, pictures, so I can’t complain.

After this, I decided to go on some wild goose chases. I guess that wasn’t technically the plan, but on some friendly advice, I went to the catacombs. They were closed due to vandalism. Then, on some friendly advice, I went to Harry’s New York Bar. Entirely different part of town. It was closed due to not being open. Oh, well. So much for the friendly advice.

Last night was for football and the reason for the timing of my trip. Olympique Lyon, who has won six of the last seven French football championships, came to play Paris St.-Germain at Parc des Princes. I am not going to go into a lot of detail here because (a) few of you care and (b) I’m doing more complete rundowns of all of the stadiums that I am visiting on my soccer blog www.worldclubrankings.com. Anyway, let it suffice for me to say the following. Soccer fans can be scary when they are yelling in English. When they start yelling at you and you have no idea what they are saying all you do is shout in agreement and hope you survive.

Oh, and I know I wasn't going to talk about food, but at the football game, I bought a hot dog. Not just a hot dog. A hot dog with a mini-baguette as a hot dog roll. I have to admit the hot dog was good. Not the best I've ever had, but a solid tube steak. The roll, however, was the bestest hot dog bun ever created. The entire cost of the trip was worth having a hot dog on that bun alone.

Today was mostly a cleanup day, trying to hit places that I had heard about, mostly little things. I went to the Pantheon and Jardin du Luxembourg, where I had lunch. (Yes, ham and cheese.) Then I went to the Bastille. Rather, I went to where the Bastille used to be and now, among others, a McDonald’s stands. Storm the Golden Arches!!!! I went back to Harry’s New York Bar and it was open, so I drank. Then I went to a McDonald’s (my first since London) to get the famous Royal with Cheese (see Pulp Fiction) and have a beer with my Royal with Cheese. (Actually, it was a Royal with Bacon.) D’oh!!! I wasn’t going to talk about food.

Okay, that’s enough. Gotta go to bed soon so I can catch the early train to Switzerland. Still don’t know what I’m going to do there, but I’ll decide once I’m there. The train ride is four-and-a-half hours, so I’ll probably write some more on the way.

Cheers!!

Paris: Another Beautiful Day

It’s been another unbelievably beautiful day here in Paris. After a sprinkle or two early in the morning, Indian Sommer continues with temperatures in the upper 70s under a gorgeous partly cloudy sky. Even if it starts to rain in an hour and continues as long as I’m here, I’ve already received more than I could have asked for.

Last night, I tried to get off of the ham and cheese sandwich kick for dinner, but I didn’t really get that far from it. I had an assorted cheese plate with bread and some foie gras with mini toasts. I also had an adequate French beer. Good meal, but too expensive. Such is Paris.

I started today with la Tour Eiffel. I hopped on a metro train to Trocadero because I learned yesterday when I was in the neighborhood what a beautiful view of the tower you get crossin the Seine from that direction. I knew that I wanted to go to the top, but I couldn’t decide if I wanted to climb the first two levels or take the elevator. I decided to compromise and take the elevator up and use the stairs coming down.

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower is amazing. I think I saw North Carolina, though I didn’t recognize anybody, so I didn’t wave. Sorry. There are two levels at the top – one that is completely covered and an open-air level. I went out to the open-air level briefly, but decided that the enclosed area was more my speed. After taking the lift to the second level, I decided to show my vertigo what’s what and climb down. On the first level, I took a break and had the best cup of coffee I’ve had since I got to Europe. Afterwards, I made it the rest of the way down.

From there, I decided to go to the Hotel des Invalides. It contains the French Army Museum (insert joke here) and the tomb of Napoleon. I started strolling around the grounds and viewing the exhibits and never saw anybody looking at tickets, so I never bought one. My primary interest was the tomb of Napoleon (see left) and I took some pictures and left. Turns out, judging by the size of the tomb, Napoleon must have been a hell of a lot larger than I’ve been led to believe all my life. My guess is that he must have been at least 15-foot tall and 2000 pounds. Not somebody I would usually peg to have a Napoleon complex, but what do I know?

Once I was finished there, I went to the Musee d’Orsay, which may have been become my all-time favorite art gallery. The highlight of the museum for me was the Van Gogh room. (In my mind, I’m pronouncing “Van Gogh” like Diane Keaton does in the movie Manhattan because it makes me laugh.) It has some of my favorite paintings of all-time (see left). (My favorite is The Scream. That’s why I stole it.) Anyway, I took a ton of pictures at the Musee d’Orsay and will post them to my Facebook page.

I came back to the hotel to rest up, which is where I’m at now. Heading out soon to find people in a bar watching football and drinking and likely will do the same. That’s it from Paris for now.

Cheers.

One Night in Paris

Hahaha . . . I got to name my blog post after a porn film. If you like this one, wait until my trip to Dallas . . .

Getting out of my hotel in Brussels and into my hotel in Paris was perfectly painless. Good maps and a metro system in Paris with tons of stops allowed me to get to my hotel so quickly that I got there too early to check in. The Hotel Monte Carlo allowed me to drop my stuff off, so I went to the Jardin des Tuilieries and walked around for an hour or so until my hotel was ready. I took some pictures, including the one to the side. Then I went to my hotel.

I have to say that I’m pretty happy so far with the hotel. My room is on the fourth floor, but this hotel actually has a lift, so I didn’t have to lug all of my stuff up four flights of stairs. My room looks out over a busy street, so it’s a little noisy when the window is open, but I also have a fan in my room, so I may try to sleep with the window shut tonight.

I spent most of my first afternoon in Montmartre, the neighborhood in which my hotel is located. It’s very lively, with a ton of cafes, bars and various other institutions of capitalism, despite everything I’ve heard about France from about 40% of Congress, but I digress.

Last night, I went to an Irish pub to watch the Europa League match between Lille and Valencia. For dinner, I had what essentially was an open face grilled cheese sandwich with ham and tomato. I don’t like tomato much, particularly on sandwiches, but this was perhaps the best use of cheese I’ve ever experienced. In fact, I’ve had a lot of bread, ham and cheese since I’ve been here, as you probably could’ve guessed. Since I’m not a big fan of wine, I probably won’t be going crazy with it because this town is extremely expensive and good wine is just wasted on me because I can’t tell good stuff from bad stuff. I’m much more interested in bread and cheese.

After breakfast this morning, I headed to the Louvre. I took a ton of pictures and will post them to my Facebook page. My main interest in going was to see the Mona Lisa, which I’ve always dreamed of seeing. It’s even the wallpaper for my iPhone. Well, I’ve seen it. It didn’t change my life, but it was pretty awesome. Overall, I have to say that La Musee du Louvre was not as great as I hoped, but still well worth the price of admission. The one area in which it was much superior to the London Museum was the art collection, as one might assume.

One piece I have to point out, though, is the one to the right. As you already know, this is the great Gummi de Milo, made famous in an episode of the Simpsons several years ago when Homer peeled it off of the butt of a babysitter and as a result was accused of sexual harassment until he was proven innocent by a secret filmmaker. I always thought it was smaller than this, but I don’t really know art that well. Also, I was surprised to see it in the Louvre, but they have a whole wing dedicated to Jerry Lewis, so go figure.

Before I let this go too far, the Louvre doesn’t really have a Jerry Lewis wing. Just for the record.

After the Louvre, I again walked through le Jardin des Tuileries. I then continued on L’Avenue des Champs Elysees all the way down to L’Arc de Triomphe, which I’ll get to in a second. First, I want to point out that it was a beautiful Indian Sommer (German spelling) day here in Paris and that the stroll down the Champs Elysees was gorgeous. Again, a lot of cafes and eateries and other shops. I stopped for a ham and cheese sandwich and made my way down the street.

I got to L’Arc de Triumph (or as it is called by the Onion, The Arc of Capitulation, but I won’t go there) and decided I needed to walk to the top. Keep in mind, I had just walked around the Louvre for several hours and then walked a mile or so down to the Arc. I then decided to walk UP STAIRS to the top of L’Arc. It was worth it, though. Great views of the city on a beautiful day to go along with such a historic place.

After a little break, I decided to take advantage of my unlimited five-day metro pass and go to the Eiffel Tower. I was able to take some pictures, but it was already getting late and the line for tickets appeared to be never-ending. I decided that I would try again in the morning.

Tomorrow, my plan is to begin the day at the Eiffel Tower and then head to the Hotel des Invalides. I’d also like to get in the Musee d’Orsay and Notre-Dame, but whatever I don’t get to tomorrow, I’ll try on Sunday morning or Monday. I still have a few days here and the only thing set in stone in my calendar is a soccer match between Lyon and Paris St.-Germain on Sunday night.

Okay, I’m going to eat now. Since the wireless internet is fantastic in this hotel, I’ll probably keep you a little better posted from Paris than I have from elsewhere.