The Last of Europe

A bit of humor, odds and ends, and opinions...

Paprika chips are so tasty, but they're only sold in Europe. They really should be sold in the US.  I brought my younger brother back some paprika Pringles and we polished those off fast.  They are almost reminiscent of barbecue flavor, but not quite.  Definitely, try them if you ever go to Europe.

Random street signs we passed in Belgium on our way to the house.

 

What I managed to get by with on my European vacation.  Go budgets!

 Coke Light: Not allowed in America because the main sugar ingredient has been tied to cancer or something like that.  It tastes exactly like Diet Coke made with artificial sweetener.

What we did how we could, when we could. Yes, that is a table. Yes, I am asleep.

Also asleep here, but at least my mouth isn't open...

Eating our way through Europe: Part VI (la fin!)

Paris, France

I realize it has taken quite some time to get to this point, but, alas, this concludes this European trip.  I will have one other post with a few random, funny shots regarding the trip, but this is the last fully educational one.
Our second day in Paris was where we fit in the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees (pronounced quickly: shom-zeh-ley-say), and the Arc de Triomphe.  We did so much walking on this day it probably equates to all the other cities we went to combined.  My feet hated me at the end of the day, but I digress...

We started the day off right (or wrong, as it was really early again) with a croissant from the boulangerie across the street from the Louvre.

These are the columns that greet visitors from the side entrance.  They are so ornate and the picture can't quite show it, but they are massive.  It's no wonder they have stood the test of time.

The back of the "U" from inside the Louvre courtyard.

I'll be honest, I don't remember what this one was called, but I know I've seen it before (in a textbook, perhaps), maybe you recognize it?

This is the "Diana of Versailles", a Roman copy of a Greek sculpture depicting Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, doing what she does best.

 One of the many ornately decorated ceilings.  This depicts Athena overseeing a "battle", more or less, between men.

 Couldn't miss the "Venus de Milo".  She really is beautiful and even more so when you think of the relatively primitive tools used to sculpt her around 130-100 BC.

"The Wedding at Cana" by Veronese.  This thing is HUGE! In the lower left hand side, the guy who doesn't have black hair was standing pretty close to it so it can give you a sense of scale.  The painting is a little larger than 22' x 32'.  It was one of the most impressive paintings in my opinion.

"The Mona Lisa" by none other than da Vinci. I was warned ahead of time that she would be small, so she could have been more anti-climactic for me, but still, for the amount of people crowding around her and her fame, you would expect her to be...larger.  Don't get me wrong, the painting is a work of art and her smile/smirk is intriguing, but she's about 30" x 21", so she was hard to see from 10 feet away through many peoples' heads.

 A colorful painting.

"Le Sommeil de l'Enfant Jesus" by Sassoferrato.  Translated: The Sleep of the Infant Jesus.

"Modern Rome" by Panini.  Paintings within a painting.

 Our group outside The Louvre after seeing the art and before we started the trek down the Champs-Elysees.  I cannot explain why Kevin is sans jacket. It was chilly.

This was after we already walked a bit and made it out of the gardens in front of The Louvre.  We had decided since we could see the Arc de Triomphe from the front of The Louvre, it wasn't that far. Well, it was a healthy 2.23 miles down the equivalent of Chicago's "Million Dollar Mile" or New York's 5th Avenue.  The Champs-Elysees is where the luxury giants are located (i.e. Louis Vuitton).  This is known as one of the most expensive strips of (retail) real estate in the world.

 Stopped for a quick meal before we reached the Arc.

The massive Arc de Triomphe! There are multiple underground tunnels made for tourists to access the Arc to prevent anyone from playing Human Frogger through the heavy traffic of this central location.

This is the "underbelly" of the Arc.

 We decided to pay the 6 euros to climb to the top of the Arc.  These are only a few of the stairs we climbed.  I think at some points I was using my hands as well as my then-wobbly legs.  We agreed we burned off everything we had eaten in Europe so far with this day.  Don't get me wrong, I'm fairly fit, but this isn't my usual workout...

 The summit at last! It was pretty windy up there, but the 360-degree views of Paris were worth it.  It looks like an overcast day, but the grey clouds were high.  We had visibility for miles (or should I say kilometers?).

 A view of the Eiffel Tower from the top.  I will say, Wikipedia has a great article with facts and the truly awesome history of the Arc and a really neat panoramic picture of the view from the top.  There is so much history and symbolism in this one monument; I guarantee it's more than you thought you knew.

As a final note, this was my last meal in Europe, in the airport, before our flight.  Our flight ended up being delayed by four hours, so I missed both of my connections to get home to San Antonio.  I ended up spending the night in Philadelphia before having to catch a 6am flight to Denver to connect to SA later that afternoon and then drive the three hours to CS the next day. I ended up missing class on Monday, but it was unavoidable.

Eating our way through Europe: Part V

Paris, France

On another very early morning, we caught a bus to Paris.  Our first encounter with a French person was not pleasant; I'm pretty sure she had something else bothering her and encountering a group of four young Americans was the last straw.

Once we finally made it to the sunlight level from the uber-efficient subway system, the first building we saw was this one.  It is so characteristically French; it's grand, beautiful, symmetrical, and chateaux-like.  As far as architecture was concerned, we were off to a great start.

Notre Dame. I studied this in my architecture class and it was really neat for me to recall all the information and terms learned and be able to see this for myself.  This church's grand scale could not be captured in a picture; you must be standing next to it, looking up, to learn how small you are.  It's fascinating that this exceptional church was built sans modern equipment and yet it's features are so precise.  It was difficult to take it all in.

The interior of Notre Dame showing the beautiful stained glass windows in the clerestory, the tucked away windows of the gallery, and the ornate arches in the arcade.  Took 200 years to build, but it truly is amazing.

The Rose Window.  Beautiful.

The back of the cathedral where you can see the flying buttresses.

There was a "pigeon lady" in front of the cathedral with birdseed who was freely putting it in people's hands to feed the pigeons.  She also, unbeknownst to me, put some in my hair and so I quickly became quite popular with the birds.  I think the max amount of birds on me at any given time was 5 and let me tell you, it tickled like crazy!

This was our dinner a couple blocks from the Eiffel Tower before we went to the landmark.  This was probably my favorite meal.  I think it was melt-in-your-mouth lamb and potatoes in a wonderfully unique stew/sauce. Yum!

The meal again and our fast disappearing water.  Water came in that wine bottle and it was expensive so we managed to share two bottles of water between the four of us by rationing, but we were still thirsty (and realizing how we take free refills for granted here).

To use Sarah's words, "Gotta have creme brulee in France!"  It tasted just as good, if not better than it looked.  It, like the water, disappeared very quickly.

The Eiffel Tower.  One of the world's most famous landmarks.  We came, we saw, we froze and were bothered by all the hagglers. I felt it was almost anti-climactic for me, but that could be because we weren't going up it, it was quite cold, or whatever, but I can say I saw it now.  It is huge and a neat structure and it lights up in a sparkly fashion every hour, and that was pretty to witness.

This was St. Patrick's Day after all so we found an Irish pub after visiting the Tower and celebrated with everyone else in the crowded tiny pub.

On the way back to our hotel we met a group of friends on the train and struck up a conversation with them.  One in particular, Olivier, lived just down the street from our hotel (so he was headed in the same direction on the subway as us).  We got off the subway at our stop, but not wanting to end the night, we decided to go for a nightcap.  We went in the nearest bar which was pretty empty compared to the last one.  We enjoyed hearing his thoughts on Americans and Texans and we dispelled many wrong rumors for him, as he did for us.  All in all, we enjoyed our French adventure.

Eating our way through Europe: Part IV

Brussels, Belgium
On our way back from Amsterdam (via the train) we made a layover before heading back to Soignies, with what was left of the day in Brussels.

Our first sight after we stepped out of the train station was this HUGE church.  I would say it is around the same size as the front of Notre Dame; you can see people down in front for comparison.  It is baffling that this is what Belgians drive right in front of every day.

This street is open-air and covered with a ceiling and hosts many shops.  We ducked in every chocolate shop and wanted to check out some of the retail stores, but it was closing time for retail when we arrived.  I can't remember exactly it's claim to fame, but it's something to the effect of this street is the longest covered, outdoor "mall" in Europe (again, I don't exactly remember but that sounds closest to being correct).

It's a rivalry to rival Microsoft versus Mac when it comes to window displays for Belgian chocolate shops.  This was one part of an elaborate window display.  They must put more time into this than a woman choosing new shoes! The other shop's window had an equally aesthetic display that was ever-so-slightly different and with the same Easter theme.  In case you were wondering, the actual chocolates were wonderful (coming from someone who's not a great chocolate fan).  

A sweet looking building.  I have no idea what it is but it is a fantastic thought to know that this is commonplace in Europe and other parts of the world (but not so much America).  Having wonderful buildings of old scattered around an international city, helping illustrate the city's multi-century old history, fascinating.

The famous Mannekin Pis, a.k.a. a little boy peeing in a fountain.  It was quite anticlimactic.  He's about 15 inches tall and is simply situated at a street corner.  Doesn't seem too special, but he's one of the most recognized statues.  You can find him peeing on the gardens of Home Depot as he is replicated worldwide for many gardens.

Couldn't stop ourselves from indulging in another waffle before we headed back to the house!

Eating our way through Europe: Part III

I'm trying to get through Europe more and more so in order to write about other stuff and post pictures from Vegas!

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Another early morning to get on the train, but, no worries, we did what we do best to pass the 4+ hours on the train, sleep! This was going to be our first overnight trip.  We got to Amsterdam and started walking in the general direction of the hotel where we were going to stay at.  We stopped in at a little brasserie to get brunch and kept walking toward the main plaza, stepping in souvenir shops along the way.  Let's just say, we all felt very educated after stepping in those shops.  The front part of most shops had the typical souvenirs, but the further back you walk, the more paraphernalia you see. I won't say more on the matter, but if you ever go there, you can't be bothered by it.  It's a different way of life and the Dutch opinions on those matters is very nonchalant. Nonetheless, it was a unique experience.

This is actually a mall right next to the palace, but the palace was under construction with scaffolding wrapped around the entire outside of the building (that's it in the left side of the frame).  The view from the guys hotel room could see the other side of this building and the palace.

We got to our hotel which had a 73-stair walk-up.  These are the 40 that greet you when you enter from the street. I don't know if you can tell, but they have about a 4" tread and are 8" high (a.k.a. very vertical).  This is actually very common because they are taxed on width of houses and the city only has room to grow vertically.  At least we could make sure we got our exercise in (amidst all the eating)!

This was Sarah's and my view.  It was mostly backyards and trees, but I loved looking at the sky at night and snooping on the neighbors!  I almost forgot I was in Amsterdam given the view I had.

One of the canals we walked by.

My absolute, hands-down favorite part.  We went to the Anne Frank House which is a museum as well as the actual house.  First of all, it was very well done.  You had to walk through it in a certain order and it was set up to where you learned the life story of her and her family and those who helped them hide.  We actually went through the hole behind the bookshelf into the "house" she hid in.  It was quite humbling, standing in Anne Frank's room.  It was neat to see artifacts, articles, videos, her actual diary, and well-placed quotes of hers on the walls that met you at every turn.  It was sad, but affected you in a graceful way.  It left a powerful lasting impression on all of us.  Note: they didn't allow pictures to be taken inside.

Another canal with a river cruise on it.  Classic Holland.

If you look up, you'll notice these beams on the top of every building.  Since the stairs are so vertical, and very narrow in many places, one would never want to risk their life carrying furniture up or down them.  These beams have hooks that are for hoisting furniture to the upper floors of the buildings in a safer, easier manner.

Dinner at Sara's Pancake House! The menu was about size 4 font because Sara (the owner and only employee) had so many different kinds of pancakes to choose from.  I'd probably guess over 200! Also, pancakes there are not the same as what we have at IHOP here.  They are thin and crepe-like but oh-so-good!

This hot-food vending machine which was at the front of a cafe or brasserie where the food was cooked then put in these windows.  Matt bought a croquette which is comparable to a cheese stick, and very tasty!

A cute window display at a (dessert) bakery.

On our way back the next day, we stopped in The Hague for lunch in between trains.  I had a panini with  something (I can't remember) on it, but it was yummy because it had a uniquely sweet taste to it. 

Lastly, I have to mention we ran into the Dallas couple (we met during the Zot Brewery Tour in Brugge) outside of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.  Small world concept wins yet again! We named them Amber and Steve because they look like those names, but honestly we never knew their names!