Holidays are upon us once again

Well this is it. Just like that, our stay in Geneva has come to an end. We're off on holidays for the next few weeks, without a computer (!!!!). So no blogging for a while, unless some library or Internet cafe proves to be too much to resist.

We're heading to Spain for just under two weeks; the first week is at a resort in Malaga, but for some of those days as well as for the second week we hope to cover Granada, Gibralter, Ronda, Cadiz, Seville, Toledo, Madrid and a whole bunch of other places I haven't heard of.

Then off to Italy for just over a week, where we'll visit Rome, Florence, Venice and a few other scenic stops.

Then back to Geneva where we'll have left most of our luggage, and we take the train to the Netherlands. We will stay there for two weeks and hope to see a myriad of relatives (both sides of the family) and as many cities as we can comfortably manage.

Over and out.

Rain rain...

Well, time to put away those summer things. Today was the first day in forever that it rained here in Geneva. Seriously, I don't think it rained yet all April, and April is supposed to be one of the wetter months. It didn't rain much, but the literal dry spell is officially over. The next few days' forecast is sunny with temperature above 20; that was one short rainy season.

So here's what we've had to put up with. Many days with temperatures of at least 20. And it's not over yet. At least it better not be... we're going on holidays in a couple of days.

Paris: part zillion

Ok that's it. I'm going to finish this already. (I've started the two previous posts this way and then changed them since I realized I wasn't near finished.)

We went to the symphony to see Bach's St. John Passion performed at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a fitting performance considering it was Easter weekend. We had bought seats that weren't too terribly expensive but that, as always, comes at the expense of the view. The seating arrangement was so steep that there were bars in front of the seats -- pretty much at eye height. Oh well, there were much worse seats in the place, including some from which literally nothing of the stage could be seen. Ah well, it will just make Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto that much better next time.

Since *we* (cough, cough) very much wanted to go shopping, we went to Printemps, a major French department store. The one in Paris (Paris being one of those fashion capitals) carries many brands of clothing and other goods anywhere from almost affordable to high-end luxury. It is housed in several massive old buildings up to 9 stories high. But that's not the point of this tale. We discovered that there was a restaurant and viewing/lounging terrace at the top of the one of the buildings, so we eventually made our way there to take in the view. And the view was great but it was warm out so a drink sure would be nice. I bought two cans of Coke (which in Europe are slightly smaller than those in North America) and kept a straight face as I shelled out the equivalent of $8 for them. Needless to say, we took extra care to really enjoy those drinks and not waste a drop.

Another must-see department store was Galeries Lafayette. Ten stories with a nice domed roof... about the fanciest department store I've ever seen anyway. Sorry Zellers.



The Seine is the river that snakes through Paris in a number of S-curves. There are at least 32 bridges in the city that cross the Seine. Some are old and plain, others are old and quite striking.



There's always more to tell, but I'm leaving it at that. Next city please!

Paris: part 4

Hmm should finish Paris soon. Blogging is such a chore... I don't know how people find time to do it several times a week.



We designated a full day to Mona Lisa's house. The Musée du Louvre is a gigantic place that has one's feet worn out before one can cover the whole thing. The Louvre was a royal palace until Louis XIV decided to move out to Versailles. The museum is very spacious; I had to remind myself a few times that much of the place was built centuries ago, which explains the 30-foot ceilings and vast open spaces that nowadays one might consider frivolous in a building project.

Amidst the old architecture, the pyramids (some upright and an inverted one) almost look out of place. Artistic freedom, I suppose. They make pretty neat skylights anyway.



We picked a good day in terms of human traffic. The museum's size easily handles the 20,000+ daily visitors, although certain places tend to be slightly more crowded than others. The dear lady for example.

The Mona Lisa is behind several layers of protective glass, a barricade, and a museum staff person. What probably helps this area to be fairly jostle-free is the fact that photographing the painting has become forbidden fairly recently. It makes for a much-relaxed atmosphere, aside from the odd rebellious soul who dares to incur everyone's wrath by sneaking a shot. The New Zealand friends we met at the Eiffel Tower told us they experienced such an incident that weekend. They were looking at the painting when some lout decided not only to take a picture but to use his flash. The whole crowd apparently turned as one, and he withered under their collective evil eye. Ahh, just deserts.

She's not much to look at, but I can say I've seen her. That's half the point of seeing things isn't it?

We saw a ton of stuff, some interesting, some not so much. Egyptian non-mummies and coffin thingies...



Egyptian art (the wooden sculpture is supposedly almost 5000 years old... just neat to think of the Old Testament people who roamed the earth at that time)...



sphinxes...



hieroglyphics and people trying to copy hieroglyphics...



well-kept hieroglyphics and not so well-kept (4400 yrs old)...



the famous (so I'm told) statue Venus de Milo (she used to have arms), and other ornaments...



some 2800-year-old Assyrian decor...



mirror in the same area to entertain museum-goers...



beautiful sculptures and people sketching them...



a couple of huge and nicely furnished indoor courtyards...



... and Napoleon's living quarters...



Well that was the Louvre. Glad you could make it...

Seriously, did you really think a bunch of pictures can do it justice?? You'll have to go see it for yourself.

Paris: part 3

Blogging. It takes such a time commitment. Good thing we don't go sightseeing every single week, or I'd be still writing about February right now. I better finish off Paris soon, so vroom vroom... off we go.

One day we decided to go to Versailles, a city not far from Paris. It is best known as the location of the Château de Versailles, a creation of Louis XIV. He wanted somewhere nice to live (away from crowded Paris) and from where the country could be governed. Thus was born this oversize cottage.

Our day in Versailles was the worst day of our trip. It was terribly hot and the lineups of people were ridiculous. The unpleasantries started in Paris, where we attempted to take the route generally suggested for tourists who want to reach Versailles: take this subway line to that one, then to another, then to this other rail line, which then gets you to Versailles. Unfortunately the rail line that was supposed to get us there was closed for construction or something; if you understood French well and could understand it over the tinny public address system, you probably had an edge over 90% of us that day. We were somewhere in that 90. We got off the subway at a station and noticed transit employees telling people what was up... but in French. Luckily for us, a young French couple from Nice got all the info and noticed us looking lost. They checked whether we were bound for Versailles and, upon learning that we were, invited us to follow them. We did, and although they weren't too sure about the instructions for the convoluted route to take to Versailles, they at least spoke French and could inquire of people as we went.

After much transit-taking and walking/running, we four arrived at the above-ground train that was to take us to Versailles. Sadly, everyone and their dog seemed to be headed to Versailles and since this train didn't run nearly as often as subways do, a whole lot of people were trying to get onto this one. At a glance, we knew we'd never get any seats so we stood inside a train car at the end of it where the doors are. It seemed a bit hectic to us but there weren't too many other options. What was worrying, however, was that the train wasn't leaving for another 20 minutes and people were constantly arriving and trying to board. By the time we set off, I longed for the conditions of the train when we had first arrived: standing room only, but with the ability to breathe. Now we couldn't even fall down, we were so sardined! I wish I'd gotten a picture of it, but I doubt I would have been able to get the camera out of its bag.

Not pleasant. On arriving at the Palace of Versailles, we were met with a ridiculously long line of people waiting to get into the place. So we stood in line forever and wondered why we had looked forward to summer weather. It was cooking! Fortunately our fellow tourists from Nice were great company, and they spoke little English so we got to practise our French. Without them, our day would have been downright lousy. But now we'll have somewhere to stay if we ever want to visit Nice.



The prices were horrible compared to many other sights we'd seen, but we coughed it up anyway. We finally got in and enjoyed a few self-guided tours with headsets. Here are some obligatory pictures.



We had planned to see the palace gardens at 3pm because that is when the fountains are turned on for a couple of hours, so we stood in line forever again and paid another fortune to get into the gardens. (We determined later that we had wandered aimlessly into the gardens earlier via some lesser known route that didn't require any payment... oh well, I didn't really want to retire before 80 anyway.)

Once in the gardens, things went better. There was plenty of space so it didn't seem like there were a million people on the grounds. Plenty of statues and shrubs and fountains to admire.





It was early in the year so some areas of the garden weren't open yet, and there weren't nearly as many flowers as Carrie remembered there being, but despite that it was a very nice place to spend the afternoon, especially later once most of the people had cleared out.



Well, for a worst day it turned out all right. Next time we just won't go on a weekend, especially not a long weekend.

Paris: part 2

Since a dear nephew of mine has an interest in the Eiffel Tower and his parents don't seem very eager to take him there personally, I figured I better do that bit next. We did a whole lot of walking in Paris (and Carrie recalled doing the same during her previous visit). Hence it was important to plan our days carefully and not schedule more outings than our feet could handle.

On a semi-related note, five days was a great length for a stay in Paris. We could go see a couple of things each day without getting too tuckered out (though we did anyway), and the best vacation is always an unhurried one. The Marriott hotel offered free coffee each morning until 10AM and only once did I manage to get up early enough to nab one (I actually had 4 or 5 that morning to make up for the ones I'd missed). Not too big a deal, it was North American coffee. But it should give you an idea as to what kind of tourists we can be. (Although if we had been in a hostel, we would be out of there ASAP.) But I digress.



The Eiffel Tower outing was on a day with little else planned, just in case it proved to be gruelling. We had decided long before that we would take the stairs rather than the elevator. The stairs can be taken only up to the second of three observation levels, so we only got to the second level, which isn't even halfway up the tower. There are 359 steps to level 1 and then 360 more to level 2; we didn't even break a sweat... and we saved money (elevator costs way more).

So, not terribly high (especially if you've visited the CN Tower), but it's still cool to look down at the many ants waiting in line and perhaps laugh at them... that's what they get for sleeping in and arriving to long line-ups! Either way, the people down there made cool line-up patterns whether they knew it or not.



Luckily we went on a Tuesday, so it was probably a lot quieter than it was over the preceding Easter weekend. But yes, we still had to stand in line ourselves for a bit (note to future visitors: the stair line is much shorter than the elevator line). We happened to be behind a New Zealand couple temporarily living in London; they proved to be entertaining and we saw them a few times afterward up in the tower. Plus now we have somewhere to stay when we visit New Zealand one day.

Anyway, the view from the first level was nice; the view from the second level was even nicer, if a little hazy; I imagine the view from the top level would have been stunning, but they should have had the stairs open so too bad for them. Or us.



The view down was pretty cool but so was the view up. Yes just a bunch of metal... but it looked so climbable! (Hmm... that really doesn't look like a word.)



Once we climbed back down (the stairs), we basked in the sun in the park at its base. Then we wandered to the end of the park to get a nice picture of the tower... and lo and behold, guess who was there?! Asterix himself! It was cooler than that time we met Tintin. Asterix let me get a picture of him with Carrie, and somehow his dog snuck in the picture too. And yes, it's really him. Else he wouldn't have a shadow.