Paris - Bon Voyage

Today was all about getting knickers knackers for our friends and family.  The girls took care of their shopping needs for all of their school friends, and Jenn and I found the last of our small gifts.

Mostly shopping today.  I found one more sweet italian jersey from the most recommended bike shop in Paris.  They spoke no English, so that was fun.  I found a discount jersey in the clearance bin, unfortunately the one Jenn really liked was unavailable in her size.

Although sad to having our trip come to an end we are excited for the new beginning at home.

The evening ended at a local microbrewery, nachos, burgers, fish and chips and beers.  Felt like home already.

See you all very soon.

Paris - Full Day

What a day.  We begun with the sightseeing day of Paris with our tour.  It was a general overview of the city with a narrated tour of Notre Dame cathedral.. Wow!  Yep, bigger than imagined.  The statuary staring down upon you is a bit haunting.  Makes you feel small, just like it is supposed to.

Look forward to guest posts from the kids in the next few days.  They have agreed to post their favorite things about the trip from our 6 hour Dallas layover on Tuesday.

The early morning sun on the cathedral and the bells at mass was wonderful.  Music inside and a service  going on as well.  It didn't really feel right snapping photos in church, but we did anyway.  Couldn't help it, too beautiful.

Just one of the 2000+ photos I have taken on this trip.  It's going to take me until the next vacation to sort them out.

From Notre Dame, a bit more tour and then to the Louvre, where the que was over 3 hours.. Argh, but we had read our travel books in advance and found the secret locals entrance below in the mall.  Sweet, it was also the first Sunday of the month, so it was all free today.

Many recognizable relics.

Awesome.  Winged victory is gorgeous.

Aphrodite is hot.  Had to add her to my collection of inappropriate photos.

Jenn got stuck with this creeper.

We spent about three hours in the louvre before heading out to see the Monet rooms.

No photos, but Jenn was very pleased.  The clouds kept moving over the windows, changing the lighting in the room, it was magical on the walls.

I think I have purchased one of all the Tour de France items now, but still looking for another jersey and tshirt for Jenn and I tomorrow at a local bike shop.  I'm also hoping to find a Tour de France poster for my new office, at least I hope it's an office.

The grandstands are being setup on the champs de élysées 

It was a busy day.  The kids finished it at Subway for something familiar, while Jenn and I ate close to the restaurant for Italian, while the kids rested.  Back on the streets tomorrow.  Can't wait.

Paris arrival

Another long day on the bus but we made a wonderful lunch stop in Beaunne.

We had to make our typical stop decision, although we got one hour fifteen this time, toilet, sights or food?

We held bladder, skipped the seven euro entry to the famous tiled roofs of the hospitals of Beaunne, and hit the Saturday markets.  We could just barely see the tiled roofs of the hospice. 

Here's the google shots.  The tiles are only one ones spire outside otherwise all on a paid interior square tour.

Back on the bus.  One more Autogrill later and we arrive in Paris.  To head out on adventure.  We arrived around 5 p.m. so we will have some time to explore.  We decided to spend the evening with the Aussie family we have got to know a little bit.  Their story is so much like ours it,akes us laugh.  Who knew you would fine so much commonality with people from across the world.  They have two teenage daughters, about the same age, and share many similar interests.

First stop, ascend the Eiffel Tower.  We took the stairs to level two and the lift from there.  The views were so much better than imagined.  It was so much bigger than I imagined as well, again.

Clever Sam got picture of the day.

Off to a quick late night dinner with our new Aussie friends, the back to the tower.  Apparently on the hour the tower lights up.  It was ten til eleven, perfect, and wallah.

On the tube late, back home to the hotel, and you can bet we will pack in as much as possible tomorrow.

Grenoble

A late start to the morning today.  Time enough to sleep a little bit extra and then dip our toes in the warm Mediterranean Sea.

First stop Parfumerie Fragonard a perfume shop.  I read the French sports page to check on the tour.  Jenn translated for me.  That was a lot of fun.  Not sure if our translation was real accurate though, maybe?

I couldn't breathe and had to flee quickly.  It was interesting though.  I had no idea that the basically distill it like whiskey.

Although our route looked short on the map, the day was mostly seen from the coach.  We took the route Napoleon, up through the alps.  

The coach stopped in a wonderful mountain town for lunch and we are happy to announce that French food kicks italian foods arse.  For 25 euro we were all happy, yay!!!  Google Castellane, France.

We saw a portion of the Tour de France route when we came down.  Those are some monster hills.

All my pictures won't do it justice, still, but here is a shot high above the valley.  Reminds me of the top of monitor pass, you can see forever.

I had no idea we were up so high.  It took the bus forever to get down.  I think we were about 10,000 ft for this shot.

Tonight's stay in Grenoble (definitely an area to see with more time) and then off to Paris tomorrow.

Monaco

Headed straight for Pisa this morning and enjoyed watching all the touristas (just like us!) posing in various ways with the Leaning Tower. It's bigger than we thought, and is accompanied by a church and baptistery that no one ever hears about. 

Holding up the tower was much easier than the hot sweaty tram to get into Pisa.

After Pisa, we cruised through the Tuscan countryside. Such a variety of crops growing, including sunflowers, herbs, and grapes, of course!

Hilltop towns everywhere, sunflowers, poppies, you name it.  The bike enthusiasts were again trapped on the bus to ponder future rides.  Another long day in the bus, but we arrived in Menton, which is just outside of Monaco.

Menton was very nice and two blocks from the Mediterranean Ocean.

We dressed up fancy and headed out for a night on the town in Monaco.

It was our best dinner in quite some time.  We had vegetables, cheer, and the view was amazing, if you got up and walked to the window.  We had nicoise salad, chicken with ratatouille, and finally chocolate mousse.  

Next stop a cocktail by the casinos.  We passed exotic yachts while helicopters on them.  Too many Ferraris, Lamborghinis,to count.  Beautiful cars.

The wine was good, but we had to make time to enter the famous Monte Carlo casino, where Mr. James Bond always played baccarat.  The line to get in was crazy and they had to record my passport.  

We ordered a drink at the bar, yes I had the martini shaken, not stirred (20 Euro, but you have to right).  Martini in hand I sat down at the blackjack table thinking it was 10 Euro a hand,, wrong, 25.  I lasted about 15-20 minutes before my martini was gone as well as my 50 Euro buy-in, oh well it was great fun.

The girls were happy the adults we were with all chipped in to babysit a young.un on the trip.  The stayed and had a huge banana split.

The night was a lot of fun and will require some bond reruns.  We have been following a lot of places he has filmed.

The gambling posse.

Guess ill just hop in my ride and head home.

Florence in ninety minutes or less.

Not a whole lot to report today.  More crappy italian breakfast and a very long day on the bus.  Finished my book though.   

The Tuscan countryside was wonderful.  Hilltop towns abound and my longing for biking was evident.

We ate at another roadside.  We are truly despising spending 50 euros for garbage.  I refused to eat lunch today.

When we finally arrived at Florence we were dropped off at the leather shop for toilettes and shopping. We skipped both the annoying tour and went straight to the duomo.  Amazing views, jenn and I climbed the 453 steps to get an amazing city view.

Ninety minutes isn't nearly enough time to spend in Florence.  :(

Off to the hotel.  Overpriced wine and sad pasta.  Bonjourno Italy.  Bonjour France.

Capri by day, Sorrento by Night

We began our day with a typical Italian breakfast.  Espresso, Hard croissant and cigarettes, minus the cigarettes.  Looking forward to France, maybe omelette?

Off to the harbor to catch our boat excursion.  

A view from the docks.

A view from the front of our ferry as we pulled into Capri.

We shopped, ate bruschetta and then took a boat tour around the island.  We also did the detour into the famed Blue Grotto.  We took a small hand oared boat into the cave for an extraordinary view.

The water was magical.

After the boat tour we headed up to Anacapri for a fabulous lunch. Pics to come soon of Jeff's seafood risotto and Jenn's octopus salad...some of our best eats yet!

After returning to Sorrento, we had a fun time splashing around in the pool with many of our fellow tourists. The girls enjoyed ganging up on one teenage boy with four other girls on the tour.

Then we got cleaned up and headed out for dinner in Sorrento.  Beautiful views.  Another mildly disappointing meal, but we did get a salad this time to start and some limoncello to complete.

Tomorrow off to Florence.

Sorrento

We couldn't tour the Vatican on Sunday, but we did on on Monday.  It was amazing.  The Sistine chapel is a big wow.  Or tour was very informative and the galleries to get there are very neat.  You could spend a lot of time exploring history here.

Jenn has all the photos on her phone, so you'll have to wait and see the amazing statue photos later.

The Michelangelo of Mary was surreal.  This is one big impressive church. 

After the Vatican we had more sad fast Italian food.  40 Euros for "Rubbish" was the common discussion.  

Off to Pompeii.  

We had a guided tour.  The site is so well preserved.  It was remarkable.  

Sam particularly liked the "houses of pleasure" which are actually some of the best preserved pictures on the walls.  Haha.

Here's one way you can get to them.  Follow the road signs.

A great area and a great tour.  But we keep trucking.  To Sorrento, where our bus driver showed off some amazing skills.  These small winding coastal roads are incredible.  Check out the view from the bus.

The girls crashed out after a busy day and hotel dinner.  (Which was finally pretty good for a change). The dessert was really good, a stuffed cream pastry hot out of the oven.  We asked what it was and have already forgotten it.  Went well with the bottle of white wine :)

When Still in Rome

(First, sorry for delays in posting, WiFi isnt always available so we post whenever we can.)

When still in Rome, find good food!! After our interesting dinner last night, we were bound and determined to find a great meal today. But first things first...

Before our guided tour we had a short stop at the Vatican to be blessed by the pope.  

Tough to see in the photo I'm sure, but he's up there.  Sadly we didn't have time to slip in an confess all of our sins.  Next time.

Our tour day started with guided tours of the Colosseum and the Forum. As with most of the major attractions in Rome, we were most impressed by the sheer size of these ruins. How did these ancient people build such (ok I'm going to say it) COLOSSAL buildings? Our pictures can't possibly do them justice. We were also taken back by the number of slaves, criminals, and animals who were slaughtered in the 'games' at the colosseum (tens of thousands). 

Rome was hot today, and our local tour guide was long-winded, so we left our tour at the Forum a little early to be sure we had time to get to the Pantheon. We were all a bit drained, but a little gelato perked us up nicely (you would be proud of us, Momo!), and we headed for the Pantheon. Wow. Another colossal place, initially built as a temple to all the Roman gods but converted to a Christian church, it was built with a giant hole in the ceiling and drainage holes for any rain to drain out. A must see in Rome. 

We left the Pantheon seeking a great dinner spot, and turning a corner we stumbled into a church with a humble facade, the Church of Mary Magdalene. Intrigued, we peeked in, and found an immense, guilded shrine. Even the small, more private churches in Rome are phenomenal works of art.... And a bonus was that we could take pictures!

So, back to our search for some really high-quality Roman grub.  Our wish was granted. Finally some outstanding food and service. 

When in Rome

Leaving Venice and off to Rome.  A long day on the bus.  I'm enjoying reading the new Dan Brown book "Inferno".  It takes place in Florence and Venice.  It adds a lot of history to what we have seen so far.  Very fun.

We had a quick stop for lunch.  A small country road where I watched several cyclists bomb by.  I was envious. Mather countryside looked primed for a sweet ride.

How that for a sweet location.  The Appenines mountains of Italy.

From there we moved out with the next stop at Assisi.  It was a gorgeous hilltop monastery.  St. Francesco.

A common theme with our pictures is that they just won't do the site justice.

Once we hit Rome, we headed into the city for an evening tour and dinner with the group.

We've found that doing the dinners is the only real way to see the city when we arrive.  

We hit the Trevino fountain.  One coin thrown over my left shoulder to be sure I return.

The Parthenon.  Note the people to door ratio.

Off to dinner which was horrible.  Too much food, too fast.  Cheesy tourista.  Ally quoted "dad your food is way better than Italian food". Tomorrow we will work harder too find something good so we dont keep this sad italian food feeling that we have.

Our final sight for the evening.

Lunch stop with bikers

Assisi

Rome at night bad dinner

Venezia

We were fortunate enough to have a whole day to spend in Venice. We had originally planned to take an optional excursion to the colorful fishing village of Burano, but decided we needed the time to explore as much of the unique city of Venice as we could. We were enchanted by the canals, of course, and all the winding passageways and hidden corridors. We took more pictures than were practical because every direction you look and every new turn greet you with interesting sights. We want to bring it all home with us! 

Piazza San Marco

Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo

Basilica di San Marco

Gelato break

Canals, canals, everywhere!

Mom, I had no idea your Geraniums were such an italian look.  They are on nearly every balcony in containers just like you have, right down to the black iron railing.  Beautiful.  

Tomorrow's post "When in Rome"