The end of Eurotrip

Well everyone, Eurotrip 2014 has come to an end and it was pretty spectacular. There were some low moments but mostly all highs. It was worth every penny :) but before I reminisce, I'll recap today's events.  The pattern of travel days being short and stressful has continued. We had awhile in Paris as our Eurostar train was scheduled to leave at 5:13. So we took our time checking out and packing, had a nice leisurely lunch, and meandered over to Notre Dame with the intent of going in. However, the line to get in was extremely long. I do not remember lines being this long at attractions but that could be a product of elapsed time and visiting in October versus August. So we decided to ditch the waiting and just admire the church from the outside.  

This picture tells it all: when one of us is comfortable in the weather, the other is not. 

Check out those gargoyles 

This left us with a lot of time to kill before we had wanted to be back at the hotel to retrieve our things. So we explored some surrounding shops and had some delicious ice cream. 

We made it back to the hotel at 4:15 and was at the train station by 4:40. Once we were at the train station, I had a refreshing, delicious and much needed coke while Leah enjoyed a double espresso. We even got some gummies at the candy bar they had in the station.  Around 5:00 we started towards our train, following signs directing us to check-in upstairs.  So I find an attendant and ask her which direction to go and she informs us that we are too late for our train. But it hasn't left yet! "You're too late, you have to check in at least 30 minutes before it departs". You mean the 30 plus minutes we just wasted sitting around?!? Oh those 30 minutes.  My mother would be proud of me for keeping it together and not having a full blown panic meltdown at having missed a train since we are flying out early in the morning.  I did have a panicky look on my face but no tears so I'll chalk that up as a victory.  Anyways, I go to the ticket sales counter and tell a salesperson our situation. Luckily, there was another train that was leaving in an hour and he could put us on that at no charge. Crisis averted and breathing easy. So we start the check-in process which is actually code for full blown customs for entering The UK which we hadn't even entered yet! We had to get our passport stamped, fill out an embarking card, be questioned as to why we were only in England for 12 hours, get the card stamped again, go through security, and then wait to board the train. No wonder they wouldn't let us on 10 minutes before the train left.  Afterwards, we found it quite ironic that we had spent the whole day commenting how much time we had to kill... 

Post freak out/glad we made it face

So the train ride was pretty uneventful (the bottle of wine we finished may have helped) and we have since arrived to our hotel, the Crompton Guest House in Hounslow, Englad which is close to the airport.  This place is gorgeous. We have named it the Indian Palace as it is owned and operated by and Indian couple and decorated like a palace. I'm kind of sad that I'm only going to be spending a few hours here. I also may or may not have been inspired to wallpaper my walls at home...

For dinner, we headed next door to a traditional looking pub. However, it's not so traditional as they stop serving pub food at 9:00 and start serving Indian food. Good thing that I love Indian food because that's all there was. Whatever I ordered was delicious. 

Depsite the trip coming to an end, I am looking forward to going home. It's always nice to be able to sleep in your own bed, use your phone and internet whenever you want, wash your clothes...those little things. I think I would like to share with you my favorite moments of the trip in each city:

London - seeing the musical, Once

Amsterdam - Sky City music festival (might be the best overall)

Berlin - the Beer & Currywurst tour

Prague - the Prague Food tour and shopping :)

Paris - gathering items for a picnic at the Eiffer Tower

All in all it was a wonderful vacation. I've learned a few things along the way that will help in my travel planning in the future:

1. Traveling to another city is best done in the morning because otherwise the travel day is kind of a waste day. 

2. The pop up maps I bought for Paris and London are the worst. Missing streets make it extremely hard to navigate. The Streetwise maps are much better.

3. You can download google maps app and search for your destination via car, walking, metro while you have wifi. It will pull up step by step instructions and will even track you using GPS even without wifi or cell access. This was really handy!

4. I think a RT ticket is not the best if going to multiple cities. We would have much rather left from Paris today than have had to come back to London for the night. 

5. For the love of god only pack one suitcase!!!! Just restrain yourself and pack only one. Not one plus a carryon plus a personal item. Because it is a hassle to lug around but also embarrassing to be the most overpacked tourists everywhere we go. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading about our trip! Until next time...

Très chic

Our second day in Paris was just as lovely, if not more, than the day before, despite another brief rain shower. It's such a great city to just wander and enjoy the architecture, food, and culture and it's my favorite stop in the Eurotrip. 

We set out a little earlier than yesterday and got a quick café at the local shop (double for Leah who consumes quite a lot of coffee).  Our first activity was to buy the things for and have a picnic by the Eiffel Tower. I know, that sounds extremely cliché but it was also a lot of fun and one of my favorite parts of the trip. We made several stops along Rue Cler following the advice of Rick Steves. Here's a basic list of things you need for an authentic French picnic. 

1. Stop at a fruit market and pick up some fruit. 

2. Get one or two cheeses from a fromagerie. 

3. Pick up a baguette and any other sweets from a boulangerie patisserie. 

4. Choose a bottle of wine from a wine store and have them uncork it for you. 

5. Stop at the butcher and have him slice some charcuterie. 

6. Lastly, pick up some utensils and anything else you might need, like cups or jams, at a mini supermarket. 

We had a lot of fun stopping in the different stores to assemble our picnic. It was a nice experience to go from place to place and choose from a wide variety of products. The shop owners were very friendly and helpful as well. Afterwards, we headed towards the huge green lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower and set up the spread. A few other people were doing it as well but our spread was much better, minus the old poncho we are using for a blanket. 

As we were eating, the clouds began to roll in and we packed up the leftovers (not too much) and sat on a bench to finish our wine. Just as we were doing this is began to rain heavily so we had made it just in time. 

Not going to complain about the rain because it is cool outside!

We wanted better views of the tower and also possibly to ride up to the top so we started heading towards it and were able to take some great pictures. 

During the rain:

After the rain:

The lines to ride to the top were so huge we couldn't even figure out where they began. Since we had a few other things we wanted to do that afternoon, we decided to skip that and try our luck later on at night...which turned out to be completely worth it (more on that later).

Our next stop was brief as we attempted to go to a store that sells vintage Hermes and Chanel accessories (Leah's pick). She was like a kid on Christmas on the way over there. Unfortunately, the shop was closed either for vacation or forever, we couldn't tell. So that was a bummer for her but probably a blessing in disguise for her credit card. 

After that disappointment, we headed to the Musee D'Orsay, which we had picked as the one museum to go to while here. (Not really feeling any more museums at this point). It houses a large collection of Impressionist paintings from Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pisarro, Degas, and a few Van Gogh. There are also some very impressive sculptures in the museum. It was a nice one to visit and we spent about 1.5 hours looking at the things we wanted to see. 

Giant see-through clock at the museum

View of the city from the museum:

For dinner, we picked a restaurant near the Eiffel Towel that Rick Steve's had also recommended. I was able to check some more foods off of the "to-eat" list but the entire meal was delicious. We ordered two appetizers, one entree to split, and two desserts. French food is so delicious I could cry. 

*I must research and find all of the French restaurants at home and also try out some new recipes. 

Before dinner:

First course - cantaloupe and Serrano ham and escargot. My favorite course of the night!

Second course - filet in a pepper sauce with frites

Third course - tarte tatin (which did NOT look like Ina's) and creme brûlée (phenomenal)

Post dinner with full bellies

At the end of dinner, we wanted to see the Eiffel Tower at night as it was lit up and also try our luck with the long lines to go up to the top. The tower at night is even more beautiful than during the day. It's hard to describe how magnificent it is except to say that was my fourth time laying eyes on it and I was still enthralled. We were also able to get in line for the elevators and only had to wait 20 minutes instead of three hours for tickets. I guess the key is to go at night when it's almost about to close. We were pushing it as they stop selling tickets around 11:00 and we got in line at 10:35. But we made the cutoff with five minutes to spare. However, the lines to actually ride the elevators up and down were long.  We spent about 1 hour waiting to ride, riding, and seeing the view from the top. It's a neat experience to go at night. When we were getting off of the last elevator at the ground, the tower started to sparkle and it was a perfect end to the day. 

Really excited because we made it in time - the guy behind us, not so much

Panorama of the city

View of the Seine:

I'm already missing Paris and we haven't even left yet but we head back to London this evening by train to fly home tomorrow. We still have a few more things to do today to finish up our Parisian vacation! 

J'adore Paris!

Oh Paris, you are such a lovely, wonderful city and I am already sad thinking about leaving you so soon. (Note to self: must start looking for school psych jobs in Paris). Well, you can probably deduce that our first day in Paris was great.  Leah and I have adopted a very low-key, minimal plan type of attitude and this is a way better way to travel (for us at least). We have shifted towards more cultural activities and aimless wandering than trying to pack in all of the museums and tourist attractions that we can.  Strict schedules = exhausted unhappy travelers whereas no schedules = enchanted satisfied travelers. So each day we pick one or two must dos and just see where the day takes us.  We are liking this style much better. 

We started off the day with a lovely brunch at a cafe near our hotel. I managed to cross one thing off of my "to-eat" list in this meal, a croque Madame. This is probably one of the most perfect brunch foods although I think the French would eat this anytime. It is a ham sandwich with gruyere cheese melted on top and a fried egg. Leah and I had both ordered one (don't want to have food envy) and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Even the basic salad was delicious with the dijon vinaigrette. 

After brunch, we took the metro to the Marche aux Puces de Saint Ouen, a fairly popular flea market in Paris. This really is a hidden gem because it's in a not so nice neighborhood that we named Sketch City where people are constantly showing you knock off jewelry, bags, and probably stolen cell phones. However, if you stick with it and ignore them, you find the real flea market which is a treasure hunter's paradise. I kept saying "oh my mom would go nuts if she saw this" since thrift store treasure hunting is a favorite family pastime. We had the best time roaming through the market stalls and looking at antique porcelain, silver, books, prints, clothes, fabrics...so many things!! 

Don't freak out mom

I'm so excited at this moment: 

While some of the things were way out of our budget, we were both able to find some gems. 

My finds: a soap dish, pitcher, and Limoges teacup and saucer - all for €22!!

Leah's favorite find - a black vintage fascinator hat 

After the market, we decided to go to Sacre Coeur to get a good view of Paris before heading to the artists' square at Montmartre. Sacre Coeur is stunning itself but also provides a great view of the entire city. 

Cold and rainy for a bit and caught with only one umbrella:

We didn't let the rain stop us though and it eventually let up so we continued to the square in Montmartre where artists are everywhere painting, selling, and drawing art right there on the spot. 

It was extremely crowded but worth it as Leah and I both bought original artwork from the same artist. 

I'm in love with this. It struck my eye immediately and I kept coming back to it so I decided I should get it!

He even wrote a little note: 

After buying the art, we took a brief break for wine and a crepe. I have accepted the Crepe per Day challenge and I think I may win. 

Then we followed Rick Steeve's suggested walk through Montmartre and saw many beautiful sights along the way:

This is Van Gogh's brother's house, where he stayed during his time in Paris, which was very influential to his work. 

So jealous of this old man right now. He is the cutest!

Our Montmartre tour ended with seeing the Moulin Rouge, which faintly resembles the original one you may think about from the famous movie but it's still worth seeing. 

For dinner, we did not do anything special since neither of us were very hungry so we went next door to our hotel to a local bar. We met the nicest bartender/owner/chef who helped us with our French phrases. We have had great experiences with Parisian hospitality   despite the stereotypes. 

Small dinner of a tomato salad (Leah) and bread/cheese (me) 

Tomorrow we plan to get an earlier start and hope to have another wonderful day here to eat and enjoy Paris. I don't want to give away any spoilers but I think tomorrow will be magnifique!  Bonne nuit!

*Leah and I have decided that we would like to learn French so if anyone has a Rosetta Stone set they'd like to sell....: