D149 -- Sweaters, naan & pints

The last time we were in Ireland I got cheated out of a sweater. A family member had told us that we should buy them at the airport instead of in shops around Ireland because we would find the exact same selection there and cheaper prices. You can see where this is going... the sweaters at the airport turned out to be about three times as expensive as ones I'd seen elsewhere and the selection was very small, so I returned to the US sweaterless. I've pined away for an Irish sweater ever since. Thus instead of sightseeing we went sweater shopping for most of the day. I found a few options, but none as nice as the ones I remembered on the Aran Islands. My memory has probably been effected by two years of sweater longing.

We're staying in an apartment, so on the way home from shopping we went to pick up some groceries at Marks & Spencer department store, or as I now refer to it, Fantasy Island. They had an entire floor devoted to food, and it was almost all prepackaged meals. But these were no ordinary prepackaged foods. Apparently they are free of hydrogenated fats, artificial flavors & colors, and they looked DELICIOUS. Slow-roasted lamb shanks, beef bourguignon, wood fired oven pizza... all ready to heat and serve. We chose packaged Indian food complete with naan. It ended up tasting just like a restaurant meal. I am now ready to move to the UK.

We couldn't spend all our time in Dublin shopping (stores do close, after all). And what better way to experience the culture than by going to a pub. We chose McDaid's, a friendly, laid-back place for pints of Smithwick's, Heineken, and of course, Guinness. Slainte!

-Elva

D148 --Follow the sun

We didn't have much time before leaving Amsterdam today, but we did squeeze in a final walk around the neighborhood, some parting shots of the town & its many, many bikes, and lunch at a cool vegetarian place. I enjoyed my food, but Thomas cried foul when he was served a Greek salad with ingredients that, according to him, have no business appearing in a Greek salad (scallions, sprouts). He insisted to me that it was false advertising. I commiserated with sympathy like a good wife.


The rest of the day was spent traveling to Dublin. We originally hadn't planned on traveling to Ireland on our RTW trip – we spent 10 days there in 2003 with my brother-in-law Sean and his wife Heidi, and we were wanting to spend time in places we'd not yet visited. But, the weather in Amsterdam really got us down, so we opened up a weather forecast map for Europe to find some sun. Oddly enough, Dublin looked good and Ryan air had cheap tickets, so it was decided. It does not escape us, by the way, how incredibly fortunate we are to be able to fly off to another country at a moment's notice because the weather looks good there. All this will be coming to an end soon, but we are certainly enjoying it while it lasts. As the Beatles sang, "...tomorrow may rain so I'll follow the sun."

-Elva

D147 -- Going to Van Gogh

Today we finally made it to the Van Gogh Museum, one of the highlights of Amsterdam. I have never been a huge fan of Van Gogh's work, but Elva loves many of his paintings, so it was a nice treat for her. She discovered one painting in particular that may end up on our wall some day (as a print of course). Luckily for me, there was a special exhibit of paintings by Caravaggio and Rembrandt, two of the most well known Baroque painters. I had discovered Caravaggio when we visited Galleria Borghese in Rome, and I was excited to see more of his work. His style is marked by his realistic--almost ordinary--portrayal of historical figures, at a time when only idealized versions were utilized.



The weather has not improved (still cold and dreary), and so we decided to stay in tonight and have takeaway pizza for the third time. I have been on cloud nine with all of this pizza, but I think Elva has reached her limit. In case you haven't noticed from the 3 straight nights of hanging out in our hotel, we are a bit worn out and have been enjoying this down time.

-Tom

D146 -- Downtime in Amsterdam

Today was another relaxed day for us. Except for a few moments of precious sunshine, the weather is still cold and gray, and as result we haven't had much motivation to do a lot of touristy stuff. Instead, we strolled around Amsterdam doing a little window shopping and stopped for some Indonesian food (there are many Indonesian restaurants here because of the Dutch colonization of the country). We also caught an afternoon movie (X-Men 3). We were shocked at the price of the ticket – US$12 each for a matinee! For dinner we decided to have another night of pizza from the excellent takeaway place around the corner from our hotel. They use really fresh ingredients and a wood-fired oven, so the pizza is the best we've had in a long time.

-Tom

D145 -- Bye, Sarah!

Elva took Sarah to the airport while I checked out of our bed and breakfast and moved to a different hotel. We would have liked to stay longer in the B&B, but their rooms were already booked. We were sad to see Sarah go as we had a great time with her and it was especially nice to be with family. Hanging out with her made us really homesick, and we find ourselves looking forward to getting back to Texas.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Amsterdam at a leisurely pace. We stopped by a weekend market, where we picked up some cheese, bread, and smoked sausage. It was delicious, but I got really sick to my stomach a little bit later, so we just hung out in our room that evening. I skipped dinner but Elva grabbed some yummy takeaway pizza from da Portare Via.

-Tom

D144 -- A city full of contrasts

We met a really nice couple from Munich at breakfast this morning who told us about a photo exhibit we should check out. First things first, though – Sarah and I did a little shopping and stopped by the closest sweet shop to buy some Dutch chocolate. Mmmm.... chocolates.

An indoor exhibit seemed like a good idea since it was cold and wet out, so we walked to the oldest church in Amsterdam where the World Press Photo 2006 exhibit was being shown. On the way there we passed by numerous scantily-clad prostitutes in windows “showing off their wares” as my mother would say. The prostitutes came in all shapes, sizes, and ages, and only a few of them were actively trying to entice customers. The rest were watching TV, talking on cell phones, or eating lunch. Interspersed among the windows of prostitutes were sex shops and “coffee” houses, which are actually places where you can smoke marijuana. They are everywhere in Amsterdam, and you usually smell them before you see them. We decided that between the sex and the drugs, my mother-in-law's head would explode here.

The photo exhibit was was comprised of award-winning press photos from around the world -- murdered gang members in Guatemala City, scenes of New Orleans looking like a third world country after Katrina, Pakistani earthquake survivors, starving children affected by the worse-than-usual drought and locust plague in Niger, and depictions of the human toll of the Iraq war. The exhibit was amazing, challenging, thought-provoking, sad, tragic, and definitely emotionally exhausting. I highly recommend checking out the photos on-line.

On our walk home we passed by a pub on wheels being cycled down the street by 10 very happy people. One minute we are despairing about the evils plaguing humanity, and the next we are laughing at a bunch of cycling drunks. Amsterdam is crazy.

Besides our walk through the red light district, our other Dutch culture experience was dinner at The Pancake Bakery. Pancakes in the Netherlands are very large and thin and come with any number of vegetables, meats, or fruits mixed in. Sarah and I got more dinner-type ones, while Thomas got one that was more of a dessert: chocolate sauce, whipped cream, caramel and pecan ice cream, and almonds. Although he loved it, after the first few bites it was basically too sweet for him to eat.

-Elva

D143 -- Ciao to Italia

Today was a travel day as we flew from Rome to Amsterdam, where Sarah is due to catch a flight home in 2 days. We hadn't chosen Amsterdam so much as it chose us. When we booked Sarah's frequent flier ticket, we had a hard time finding availability for her return flight. We tried airports in Italy and Germany with no luck, but we were able to get her a seat on a flight out of Amsterdam. So we figured we would spend 2 days there before she had to leave. It turned out to be a good choice, because I really love it here. Although the city is famous for its seedier side (legalized prostitution and marijuana), the area where we stayed was very pleasant. The B&B we picked is a very cool old house, and we love our little attic apartment, even the cute but body contorting staircases. Vlad, our host, told us that space was at such a premium the Dutch didn't want to waste any on stairs so the staircases were built very steep and winding. The city is really beautiful . . . lovely homes surrounding a multitude of canals.

We did have time to visit the Anne Frank museum, which was one of the best historical museums we've visited on our trip. It was not large, but everything was well done, even down to the smallest details. Best of all, there was an excellent film on the tension between civil liberties like freedom of speech and racial and religious intolerance. The film posed questions about what limits, if any, should be placed on freedoms like speech and religion. The questions were posed as part of concrete examples. Examples include: Should flag burning be an acceptable form of protest? Should a rap song that promotes violence against homosexuals be banned? Can a police officer who is a Sikh wear his turban on the job? Can Protestant marchers walk through Catholic neighborhoods in Northern Ireland?

-Tom

D142 -- Il Papa!

We got up EARLY today (8 am) to head over to the Papal audience. Although a bunch of people were already there when we arrived, we were able to get rather good seats by squirming our way towards the front. We waited about 90 minutes, and were mostly spared the brutal sun by a cloudy sky, although once the Pope showed up the sun seemed to shine a lot more. He rode around in his open Pope mobile, coming within 20 feet of us, which was really cool. After 7 priests read a gospel passage in French, English, German, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese and Italian, the Pope gave a sermon in each language (!). Various priests gave shout-outs to groups in the audience. A few of the groups were choirs and would sing a short hymn when called (very neat). With the time we’d waited before hand and the lengthy audience (90 minutes) the whole affair was really long, but great.



After a lunch break it was off to the Vatican Museum, where we encountered a HUGE line. In hindsight, it was really stupid of us to go the same day as the Papal audience. The line took about 45 minutes, and after that the madness really began. It was ridiculous. The museum was packed with people, so much so that often you found yourself crushed by tourists and unable to move at anything other than a snail's pace. There were tour groups everywhere. It was impossible to really appreciate the museum's offerings in this climate, and so I headed straight for the Sistine Chapel, which was amazing, especially the last judgment, but the crowds really dampened the experience. I was glad to get out of there, and waited for Elva and Sarah for about an hour and a half (they were more willing to put up with the crowds).

We met up around 5:30 and headed for the crypt, where we saw the burial site for Pope John Paul II. It was very simple and nice, but again the crowds detracted from the experience. Still, it was moving to see the pieces of paper left on his tomb, which contained handwritten messages from some of the passing onlookers.

-Tom

D141 -- Awesome Art

Today's sightseeing activity: the Galleria Borghese. It is a mansion that used to belong to a Catholic Cardinal in the 1600s who was an avid art collector. Even with the mandatory reservation, the crowds we had to endure to get in were maddening. Luckily there were so many fantastic works of art that it was well worth the frustration. The highlights for us were the Caravaggio paintings and the Bernini sculptures. Caravaggio's work was groundbreaking in its day because he used ordinary, every-day people as models when he painted holy subjects like Jesus and Mary. He portrayed them as holy, but in a more accessible and less idealized sort of way. Bernini was also famous for portraying his subjects with great realism as well as dynamism. He was a brilliant baroque artist who by the looks of it had the ability to cut through marble “like buttah.” His statue of Apollo and Daphne was so amazing. All three of us were blown away by it. It depicts the climactic moment when Daphne, being pursued by Apollo, called to her father for help and he turned her into a tree. The leaves almost looked like they were blowing in the wind. My second favorite Bernini was a statue of David loading his slingshot.

We'd talked about going to the Vatican Museum after the Borghese, but just how much art can you appreciate in one day? Sarah and Thomas instead went to check e-mail and run errands and I'll give you one guess what I did. If you said nap, you are correct. If you said eat, you are incorrect, but your get points for making a well-educated guess.



After I got up Sarah and I went to check out a couple of churches, and Thomas went to yet another church to get us tickets to the Papal audience tomorrow. We toured the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, the cathedral for the diocese of Rome, and the Basilica di San Clemente. This basilica was actually a 12th century church built on the remains of a 4th century church built on the remains of a 1st century pagan temple. The basilica was beautiful, with gorgeous mosaics and frescoes. The church below was really a shell, but you could still see some frescoes and also the presumed tomb of St. Clement. Another set of stairs took you down to the original level – the temple to Mithras. Very, very cool.

-Elva

D140 -- Less ruined ruins

Much as we're enjoying Rome, we decided to get out of town and visit Pompeii. The train route from Rome to Pompeii just so happens to go through Napoli, the birthplace of pizza. Hmmm... I wondered why Thomas was so willing to spend four hours on trains today! We ate at Trianon, a place recommended by our Rick Steves guide book. Way to go Rick! The place was filled with locals and the pizza was DELICIOUS!

We finished our pizza pilgrimage and moved along to Pompeii. The second leg of our train journey was not so pleasant, as it was hot and crowded on the train. We made it to Pompeii and when we got out of the hot train we realized it was super hot and sunny outside. Frankly, we all were pretty much ready to call it a day. We soldiered on, though, and I'm so glad that we did. Pompeii was fascinating. In Rome, you have to use your imagination when looking at the scattered ruins to form a mental picture of how the ancient city looked. Because Pompeii was more or less buried by the volcanic eruption back in 79 A.D, however, it's an actual city that is still standing much as it did then. Very little imagination required! There were literally blocks and blocks of buildings to explore.

















We visited a couple of private homes, an amphitheater, a temple, a meat and fish market, and even a bakery where we could easily pick out the wood-burning oven and the mills.

We tried to visit the largest brothel in town (there were several back in the day) but it was closed for restoration. What a shame! Sexuality was apparently a big part of the culture back then, if the paintings and carvings we saw on some buildings were any indication.

Probably my favorite buildings were the take away joints like the one above. We kept passing what looked like stores with counters that had big holes in them. We finally heard on our audioguides that they were restaurants where food was sold out of large clay pots. The holes in the counters are actually the necks of the pots. There was sometimes a little place to eat in these stores, but most food was taken home to eat. And you thought McDonald's invented fast food! Another favorite sight: possibly the oldest “Beware of Dog” sign in the world. Hey - looks like our dog Maddie!

Something I hadn't known about Pompeii… The town actually suffered a pretty bad earthquake in 62 A.D. that killed many villagers, but when the big eruption hit the devastation was much worse. Thousands of people were buried in burning ash in a matter of minutes. When the area was being excavated, archaeologists came across hollows where bodies had been buried but had long since disintegrated. They were smart enough to pour plaster in the voids and now there are several casts of victims. They were an eerie sight. You could definitely see pain and fear in their poses. Very sad.

Enlightened but exhausted, we made our way back to Rome just in time to shower and head out for an anniversary dinner. Today was our second wedding anniversary. We left Sarah to fend for herself and then went around the corner to Piazza Farnese for a romantic and delicious dinner of penne arrabiata and gnocchi. We also grabbed some gelato on the way home. We've pretty much been having two servings a day since we arrived here. I felt badly about ditching Sarah, but when we got back to Campo de’ Fiori we saw she'd made some friends. College students from Iowa, of all places (she's from Nebraska, just across the border). Such a small world.

-Elva

D139 -- Vatican City

We figured after all that partying last night we should get ourselves to church. Vatican City here we come! St. Peter's square was beautiful. The lines weren't too long, so before we knew it we were walking into St. Peter's Basilica.







Whoa! That's pretty much what all three of us said when we walked in. Thomas and I have been to some pretty ornate churches in the past few months, but this place takes the cake. It’s massive in size, the floor is completely made of marble, there are beautiful mosaics, marble statues, and gold leaf everywhere... it's insane. Yet unlike a few of the churches we've visited that seemed gaudy, all of this grandeur felt completely appropriate. It is, after all, Vatican City.


It was really peaceful inside, despite all of us tourists. We walked around for a couple of hours listening to info about the different statues on our audioguides. The most famous of them was Michelangelo’s Pietá. I would have loved to get a better look, but after some crazy guy attacked it with a chisel a few decades ago, you can't get anywhere near it. Many of the statues are built on top of tombs of popes. Two or three of the popes were not in metal tombs, but glass ones. Is it sacrilegious of me to say that it was creepy to see embalmed bodies, even if they were popes?

We didn't have time to go to both the dome and the crypt beneath the church, and we'd seen enough bodies, so we chose to climb up to the dome. From inside we had a beautiful view of the altars (2) and the mosaics lining the dome. Funny, from the ground they look so small, but they're actually huge.



More stairs (we're really working off all that mozzarella) and we were outside the dome, checking out the views of Rome. Ah, la dolce vita!

-Elva

D138 -- When in Rome...

We got a late start today so lunch had to be quick. Thomas grabbed some takeaway pizza and Sarah and I went for sandwiches from a place around the corner. Oh my goodness! The most fabulous sandwich I've ever eaten – buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil on delicious focaccia bread.

I need a moment to regain my composure here...

Okay. Thomas had some errands to run so Sarah and I went to tour Palatine Hill on our own. It's the hill overlooking the Forum where the emperors used to live. We saw the remains of a sprawling mansion and also the spot where Romulus, the founder of Rome, lived. Down the hill and on the other side of the Forum we visited the jail where Peter was kept before his crucifixion. It was a small, dank, underground room. The column he was chained to is still there. Creepy. We walked over to the Pantheon and met up with Thomas there. That is one well-built temple! It dates back all the way to the second century A.D. but is still in excellent condition. That's largely thanks to the Catholic church, which converted it from a temple to all gods (thus the name) to a church. Since it was a church it was kept up over the years, and you can see it today almost exactly as it was 1800 years ago. Cool!

Sarah appeared to enjoy all the sightseeing, but she seemed as impressed with the Roman nightlife as she was with the monuments. Campo de' Fiori, where our apartment is located, is a flower and vegetable market by day, and a popular social spot by night. And when in Rome you must do as the Romans do, so . . . we decided to booze it up with the locals. In Rome you can actually buy a bottle of beer at a bar and just walk around drinking it – even right in front of the police. Now, all this is very new to my niece, of course. I don't want to give you the impression we're contributing to the delinquency of a minor here . . . she's legal to drink in Italy, and since she was being supervised by responsible adults such as ourselves, we figured it was a-okay. Our first stop was Piazza Navona, one of the more famous piazzas in town, with a great big Bernini fountain in the middle of it. Whoa! We'd walked a whole 3 blocks – time for a dessert break at Tre Scalini! Next up: the Pantheon at night;

the Spanish Steps; and the Trevi Fountain. They say if you throw a coin in you will come back to Rome some day. I hope it works!

We had some delicious gelato at Giolitti on the way home and then hung out in front of the apartment with some of the locals before turning in. I couldn't really tell if Sarah was having fun or not. What do you think?

-Elva

D137 -- Stepping back in time

Today was all about sightseeing. Tons and tons of sightseeing. The Victor Emmanuel monument, Circus Maximus, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and the church of St. Peter in Chains. They say that these two sets of chains were used to lock Peter up when he was jailed in Israel and in Rome. What a trouble maker he must have been to the non-Christians in charge back then! The church is also home to a very cool statue of Moses carved by Michelangelo.

The church and the monument were interesting, but the ruins were awesome. It was truly incredible to see a structure like the Colosseum standing after almost 2000 years and imagine how impressive it must have looked back in its day. Not to mention all the bloody gladiator “games.”

And the Forum!

We saw the place where the Roman senators met to make laws and the spot where Julius Cesar's body was cremated. Seeing first hand how humans have had organized and impressive civilizations for thousands of years left me with mixed emotions. It was inspiring and made me feel like we are all just little insignificant blips on the radar, and it made me sad that we've had organized governments and communities for thousands of years but are still living with war and hunger and inequality.

-Elva

D136 -- Roman Holiday

We packed up, grabbed some chocolate macaroons for the road, and headed to Rome. Thomas and I were traveling together, but Sarah was on a different flight that originated and terminated at different airports than ours. I was a little worried about this, as she doesn't speak French or Italian and the only time she'd been alone in a foreign airport was for about 10 minutes in Paris before I met her there. We arranged a shuttle to pick her up at the apartment so she wouldn't have to navigate the subway alone, and had plans to meet her at (supposedly) the only McDonald's at Termini Train Station in Rome. Our flight was fine, but when we got to Termini we couldn't find her. Agghhh! I was worried about Sarah, but more worried about the wrath of my sister Patty if something happened to her “little girl.” You don't want to see her when she's angry. You wouldn't like her when she's angry!

It turned out that there were three McDonald's at the train station (!) and we finally found Sarah at one of them. We jumped into a cab with the most agitated cabbie I've ever met. He was yelling constantly AT other drivers, TO US about other drivers and the traffic... I thought for sure he was going to stroke out right there in the driver's seat. Our first few minutes in Rome and we met a total Italian stereotype. Awesome!

We got checked into our spacious two-bedroom apartment at piazza Campo dei Fiori – a great location! The area was so vibrant and full of people and in the next piazza over there was an outdoor concert going on. Thomas and I were so excited to be in Rome, and Sarah's reaction was “I gotta come back here with my friends!”

Prudence, the apartment rep, recommended a place down the street for dinner. We've been looking forward to Italian food for months and it was fantastic. Every dish we had, save the Caprese salad, was something new for us. We had three “firsts”: pasta shells stuffed with ricotta di bufala and covered in a walnut sauce called Tripani; handmade ravioli with a lemony parmesan cheese and basil sauce; and linguine with pepper and goat's cheese. We split one “second,” a sliced steak with balsamic vinegar sauce. It was all great, but way too much food, although that didn't stop us from cleaning our plates and washing it all down with a bottle of wine. We're off to a great start in Rome!

-Elva

D135 -- Crazy, fun-filled day

We introduced Sarah to the wonders of the chocolaty goodness that is the macaroon today. Ahh.. macaroon. The way we carry on about food in almost every blog entry, I am fully expecting that when we get home there will be some sort of intervention held by our family and friends with the help of a food addiction specialist.

After the chocolaty goodness we walked to Notre Dame. While waiting in line to climb the tower we met an American who appeared to be traveling on his own. We chit chatted for a while and he told us that we should be careful on the subway tonight because of all the rowdy soccer fans in town. There was a big match in Paris today between a team from Barcelona and a team from England. We'd already seen lots of people wearing jerseys and carrying flags, and when we got to the top of the tower (SO many stairs!) we could actually hear a bunch of the fans singing their team songs. Even the kids were singing out front. At least you couldn't hear them inside the church. It was very peaceful in there.

Our next stop: The Da Vinci Code. Thomas and I had both read the book and thought it was a real page turner, and since it is set in Paris we were excited to see the movie here. We told Sarah she could tour on her own while we went, since we didn't think she'd want to waste her precious time in Paris at a movie. But she opted to accompany us. Big mistake on all our parts! We waited through 45 minutes of commercials and previews – I kid you not! Do all Paris movie theaters do this? The movie was in English with French subtitles, which was good, but we hadn't thought through the whole language thing. Several important scenes took place in French, and of course there was no need for subtitles then, right? So, we missed a good bit of dialogue. And to top it off, the movie wasn't good! You know a movie is bad when half the audience laughs at what is supposed to be the most climactic moment. That's what we get for going to see a movie in Paris. Though in our defense, it's always an interesting cultural experience to see how foreign audiences react differently than American ones. For example, when a character in the movie compared the French DCPJ with the FBI, all the French people laughed. We didn't get it.

We walked to the Place de la Concorde to get back on track with our sightseeing, visited La Madeleine, a Catholic church that looks like a Roman temple dedicated to Mary Magdeline (how appropriate!) and then walked through the Tuileries to the Louvre (again, how appropriate!). And of course our first stop was the Mona Lisa. Beautiful as ever. I think Wedding Feast at Cana on the opposite wall is equally impressive. There is such amazing art work at the Louvre!

Not amazing enough to lure Thomas away from soccer, though. He went to go watch the big game at a pub while Sarah and I stayed to see more of the art. We saw Michelangelo's Slaves, an Egyptian mummy, the Venus de Milo, the base of the medieval castle that the Louvre was built upon (below), and tons more. Amazing!

We left the Louvre to travel to the final place on Sarah's short list of must-sees: the Arc de Triomphe. We took the metro from the Louvre so our first sight of the Arc was as we were coming up out of the metro station right in front of it. Beautiful!! Impressive!! Enormous!! I was excited to show Sarah the view, but while we were climbing the 284 or so stairs to the top it started to POUR! We had climbed all that way and this was Sarah's one shot to see the view so we went outside anyway. Our umbrellas were useless, and we could barely see though the rain. In a matter of minutes our jeans were soaked and we finally gave in and headed back downstairs, stopping in the museum to pause in horror at our bad luck. The statues couldn't believe it either.

To add insult to injury, it had completely stopped raining by the time we got back down to the ground!!! Oh, well. At least she got to see the Arc.

We were in a hurry to get home since we were soaked, so we stopped in at McDonald's. We could see the game was over because there were a lot of people in jerseys walking around. In fact, two of them almost got into a fight at the McD's counter. I remembered back to what the American tourist had told us this morning – beware of the subways! So I decided we should cab it home. But there were no empty cabs to be found, only full cabs and cars full of crazy soccer fans honking their horns. We were on the Champs-Elysee, and a guy came up to us and told us that we should try a couple of blocks up where it's not so crowded. We thanked him and walked off in the direction he pointed, and joked on the way there that maybe it was some kind of set up. “I tell these chicks to go two blocks up where it's nice and quiet, and then I have my partner in crime wait there to abduct them.”

While we were waiting on the quieter street, two different men approached us and told us that they weren't taxi drivers, but would take us where we needed to go for money. Uh, no thanks! Maybe we shouldn't have been joking about being abducted!

We finally gave up and walked back to the Champs Elysee to take the metro. But by this time the soccer fans were really out, and a huge group had congregated right in front of the entrance to the metro. This is going to be fun, I thought. But there were a lot of cops down below, so I felt better. There was one group of drunk, singing Englishmen on the platform, and I tried to discreetly video them over my shoulder. They were too drunk to notice, but another guy did. He came up to us and asked us if we wanted a picture, and said that he'd ask the guys to pose for us since he was British too. I told him no thank you, that I'd been taking a video of their singing, so then he calls a couple of guys over to sing for us. Uh-oh... I hope this doesn't get out of control!

It turned out to be fine, and we talked with the English guy on the train until his stop. He was very nice and funny and didn't appear to have been drinking, so that was refreshing. Alas, he was too old for Sarah. I'd like to think he would have invited us to the party he was on his way to had I not mentioned my husband several times. Yes, that's why – it had nothing to do with the fact that I looked like a wet hamster! Besides being wet, we were cold and exhausted once we got back to the apartment, but it was one heck of a day.

-Elva

D134 -- Welcome aboard, Sarah!

I felt very Parisian this morning heading to the nearest boulangerie and returning to the apartment with a baguette in my hand. I love Paris!

Today was the day we picked my niece Sarah up at the airport. She graduated from high school last year and as her gift we used some of our frequent flier miles to buy her a ticket to Paris. Her first flight was delayed quite a bit because of mechanical problems but she arrived safe, on time, and very tired. With only two days in Paris we weren't about to let her succumb to jet lag so after a quick shower we dragged her to the Eiffel Tower. I had forgotten how much of a crowded ordeal a trip to the top can be, but it's one of those things you've just got to do. Nice views, of course. And so convenient to have a third person to take pictures of us!

Next on the sightseeing agenda... the Pantheon - a church turned mausoleum turned church. We toured the crypts below the building and visited the resting places of Marie Curie, Victor Hugo, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and other illustrious individuals. After that we headed back upstairs to explore the cavernous building. One of the coolest things about it is the Foucault's pendulum hanging from the center of the dome. It was a scientific experiment developed in the 1850s to provide more evidence that the earth revolves around the sun. Blasphemy!



It was time to get ready for dinner so we walked back to the apartment through the Luxembourg Gardens - that's the Pantheon behind the statue and the Luxembourg Palace behind Sarah. I didn't have the heart to keep Sarah awake while Thomas showered.
Big mistake –







she was pretty much dead to the world after that and it was a painful affair to get her back up. She managed to regain consciousness long enough for dinner with... our friend Yves! If you read about our trip to Halong Bay back in April you will remember that we met Yves on a boat tour and he invited us to visit him in Paris. He treated us to a fantastic dinner at Les Deux Magots – one of the most famous cafes in Paris. It's where Hemmingway, Sartre, and Oscar Wilde used to hang out back in the day. It was great to see Yves again, and we enjoyed talking with him about French and American politics, travel, food, immigration policy, etc. etc...


We've been so lucky to make friends like Yves on this trip. Austin is no Paris, but I hope someday one of our new friends will visit us back in the Lone Star State.

-Elva

D133 -- It's all about the food

Being the food-obsessed couple that we are, I have to confess that the highlight of today was a fantastic caprese salad that Elva made in our apartment. A caprese salad consists of fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, slices of tomato, olive oil, basil, and sometimes balsamic vinegar. We had this salad for the first time in Mexico, and now we find ourselves addicted to it. It is very hard to get really good buffalo mozzarela, so we were excited to find it here in Paris. The salad was soooooo good. Even now as I write, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. The picture doesn't do it justice, but at least it gives you an idea.

In the afternoon we walked to the Marais neighborhood in the 3rd arrondissement, which has been home to a large Jewish population for hundreds of years and more recently has attracted a large gay population. We love exploring new neighborhoods in Paris, as there are always lots of nice surprises waiting for us.

From Marais we headed to the 4th Arrondisement, passing through an interesting art exhibit in front of the Hotel de Ville, the city hall. We also walked through one of Paris' oldest squares, the place des Vosges. Victor Hugo lived and worked in a house on this square.



















Before heading back to the apartment we stopped by the Centre Pompidou, which houses the National Museum of Modern Art. Most of the buildings in Paris look like the ones in the two pictures above, so it definitely contrasted with everything else we've seen in the city.

-Tom