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.

Brussels: Hotel Mozart, a Review

Okay, I am currently on a train from Brussels to Paris and I have an hour or so to kill, so I’ll do a quick review of the Hotel Mozart, in which I stayed while in Brussels.

Although it took me an hour to find the hotel because it’s located in an alley of a street, it turned out to be a fantastic location. I dropped my stuff off and went outside and turned in the opposite direction from which I came. I walked 50 feet and boom, I was in the Grand Place, the most well-known area in Brussels.

The room that I stayed in was larger than I was expecting, but that was because of an upgrade. According to the hotel’s chart, the room went for 150 Euros a night, but I was charged only 80 Euros (about $115) per night. I guess that explains the full-sized bed. The lighting was horrible, but I didn’t stay there to read anything, any way.

Another convenience was that I was on the first floor. This kept me from having to lug my stuff up four flights of stairs like I did at the WIgmore Court Hotel in London.

Like the Wigmore Court, there was no air conditioning. Of course, at this time of year, it’s fine to open a window. Unlike the Wigmore Court, however, noise was a bit of a problem. Not so much from the busy street below, because I didn’t face that, but my room was on the way to the breakfast room, so I got a lot of traffic outside my window starting at about 7:15 am.

The wireless internet service was free, but not without problems. The first day-and-a-half, I had no problems connecting and it was pretty fast. Last night, however, it was hit and miss, and mostly miss.

The continental breakfast was adequate, but nothing special. A croissant and a large roll made with almonds and other nuts, with some butter and strawberry preserves, coffee and orange juice. It got me started, but was not as good as the full English breakfast (kinda, sorta) that I had at the Wigmore.

The staff was polite enough, though I can’t say that I used them for anything, so I don’t know how helpful they would have been.

A brief summary statement about the hotel is that it is a good hotel, in a fantastic location, at a good price.

Brussels: Map = Good

While I’m waiting here in a Brussels train station for my train to Paris, I thought I’d put together a short entry to pass the time. (I f-in love my MacBook, by the way. Have I mentioned that before? I’m sure I’ll mention it again at some point.)

Today’s topic: If anybody ever tells you that you don’t need a good map when you travel to a foreign, non-English speaking country (and I’m not sure why anybody would ever tell you that), you yell at that person!! You yell at that person like he’s the President of the United States and you’re a mentally-challenged South Carolina congressman with neither dignity nor integrity and you say “YOU LIE!!!” because a better map really would have helped when I got to Brussels.

I got off the train in Brussels, navigated my way through the metro to the stop (I thought) was nearest my hotel. The problem was that my hotel was not so much on a street as it was in an alley and the alley wasn’t on any map in my possession, and I had a handful of them. What also didn’t help was that streets in Brussels keep changing names, sort of like they did in London. It was easier for me in London, though, because of the whole English thing, as opposed to in Brussels where everything is listed in two languages – French and Dutch. As soon as I thought I knew where I was, the name of the street would change and I’d discover I was heading in the wrong direction.

Eventually, obviously, I found my hotel. It took me about an hour of hauling 100 pounds of crap around Brussels, at certain points of which I was only a block away from my hotel although I didn’t know it. After I dropped off my stuff, I backtracked and learned that the metro stop was only about 15 minutes away. The next day, I discovered that there was a closer metro station (10 minutes) from which I wouldn’t have to switch trains to get to the train station. Good news for today – my trip back to the train station was quick and painless – but a better map would have helped when I arrived.

Oh well. Part of the excitement to travelling to new places, I suppose. I think my map of Paris is sufficient, but we’ll see when I get there.

Cheers.

Brussels: Two Days Was Probably Enough

I’ve had fun in Brussels, but that has been primarily because I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some British ex-pats for the (European) football matches that were played last night. There are a few things I’ve found impressive in Brussels, but I think it was a good idea limiting this leg of the trip to two days.

If you see a crowd of people standing around a statue of a little boy peeing like a racehorse, you must be in Brussels. Manneken-Pis is the symbol of Brussels and adorns most of the Brussels-related souvenirs. (Georgia, your shot glass will have a little boy peeing on it.) It’s just the way it is. I guess its better than having french fries with mayonnaise as your city symbol because THAT would be really gross.

The Grand Place, which is about 50 feet from my hotel, is the center of the historic city. There are numerous former guild-houses bordering a large open square and market. Most of the buildings go back to the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century, rebuilt after the French blew up the original buildings. The area and the architecture are very impressive.

Unfortunately, that’s been about it, as far as I’ve been able to find. Everything around the Grand Place is in French and Dutch, although English will get you around. My one proud moment was when somebody asked me for directions in French and I was able to help her. (Don’t be impressed. I just recognized a place where I had just been and I pointed for her. In any event, it helped her, so I’m counting it.)

The Grand Place also is surrounded by dozens of restaurants of various ethnicities that all seem to sell moules frites. By the way, I’ve had fries now at three places in Brussels and they’ve all been Big-Hunt-good.

Today, I walked up to the financial part of the city, which I guess is a mile or so away from the Grand Place. As you get closer to the financial center, more and more English appears on the signs around town. There are a lot of malls and shops in between the two areas.

One thing that is great about walking around the city is that I could allow myself to get lost. My hotel is very close to the Hotel de Ville, which, like the Washington Monument in DC, can be seen for a few miles all over town. This was helpful because I pretty much always knew which direction to head in to get back to the hotel.

Another thing that is great about walking around the city is that you go from mall to mall and then find some 400-year-old church or some monument to Belgian history. (I don’t know any, by the way.)

If I had another day, I suppose I would find my way down to Waterloo to tour the battlefield. If I've missed much more, I'm not aware of it. (I hit a number of museums in London and will again in Paris, so I'm not much in a museum mood at the moment.)

Finally, I just want to note that I found a few street vendors selling escargots. I have nothing against snails. I’ve eaten a few. They’re a’ight. But they’ve never struck me as street food before.

Speaking of food, I have had waffles and steak frites and have tried a burger from a local fast food place. Also have enjoyed coffee and pastries and people watching. Tonight, I’m planning on trying a few Belgian beers and watching some more football. And I’ll probably get some moules frites because everybody seemed to be enjoying that last night. That’s about it from Brussels. I head to Paris tomorrow and will post some more pictures on my Facebook page later.

I heart London

Well, tonight is my last night in London. In fact, it’s my last night in an English-speaking country for the next four weeks. I’m hoping Mr. Keene taught me enough to feed myself in Belgium and France. After that, it’s all going to be guesswork for me.

I haven’t had a chance to go into any detail about what I’ve done since I’ve been here so what I’ll do is sort of give everyone a bullet-point type of list of what I’ve been doing, with a little commentary where it appears necessary. The brief summary, however, is that I love this town. I could spend another month here and still not get everything in.

What have I done over the last four days in London?

Went to the British Museum - My main interests here were, for some reason, the Rosetta Stone and the collection from the Parthenon. The Rosetta Stone was the first exhibit visible when they opened the museum, so that was pretty cool. I’ve seen the Parthenon before and I wanted to see the parts that were stolen, I mean taken to England for safe-keeping. Lots of other stuff here too, of course, but those were the highlights for me.

Went to the Tower of London – I paid four pounds for the audio tour and it was well worth it. Unless you’re an expert on the history of the Tower of London, I’d recommend it.

Took a tour of the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace – Fancy. Didn’t learn as much as I had hoped, though. Still, I suppose it was worth it; if not for the tour, then for the pastry I got at the café.

Took a tour of the Cabinet War Room and Churchill Museum – These are together and are both really cool. If you have any interest in WWII, this should be high on your list.

Walked from the Tower of London to Parliament Square – I think this was a few miles or so. During the trip, got to see the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey and several other buildings. Good for picture taking, though I didn’t get a chance to spend a ton of time at any of the landmarks.

Had Fish & Chips, Sausage & Mash and Beef & Ale Pie in various pubs – How much brown sauce is too much? Evidently, there’s no such thing as too much brown sauce.

Went to two Football matches – Highlight of the trip!!! Sat in the home side at a Tottenham/Manchester United match. Home side lost. Sat in the visitors side at a Fulham/Everton match. Visitors lost. Don’t tell PSG that I’m sitting in its side when it plays Lyon next week.

Crossed Abbey Road in the crosswalk on the album cover – I am now officially the fifth Beatle.

Went out drinking with some locals – The people that I hung out with were awesome. Very friendly and fun. Somebody told me that if you wanted to make friends in Europe, just talk soccer. So far, that’s been true.

Watched a British comedy and thought it was funny – It was called Lunch Monkeys. I’m sure there’ll be an American version eventually that will be funny for a few seasons and then lose its way.

Rode the Underground – Probably on at least half of the fourteen or fifteen lines. Even rode the National Railway out to White Hart Lane.

Rode a red double-decker bus – From Oxford Road to Abbey Road.

Made a phone call from a red box – Had to get my hotel reservation straight for Brussels.

Walked at least 25 miles – Saw a lot of the city and a bunch of different neighborhoods, including Chinatown (and San Francisco has nothing to worry about). A decade of walking around DC and three years of walking around Cambridge is paying off.

All around London there are plaques that say so-and-so lived here or worked there. I found one hilarious one and took a picture of it. Evidently, Benedict Arnold is still considered an American patriot here. (I know he once was in America, as well, but that ended a long, long time ago.)

That’s all I have for right now. Tomorrow, I’m hopping on a train to Brussels for a few days. The only thing I know about Brussels is the stuff in and around the Grand Place. If anybody has any advice or suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them.