My blog is now coming to you from the road! I am only one week into my trip with Kelly, but already have a bit to write. Friday May 30th was a rough day moving out of my apartment. Brady had left very early in the morning, and Kelly and I worked our butts off cleaning and throwing out everything he left hanging around, but we finally got out of there around 12:30. I had to turn in my keys to the landlady, so we spent the last night in Nancy in the Ibis Hotel across from the train station. We dropped off our bags and headed to the school for my final concert with the chorus, which was difficult to get through. The students are so enthusiastic and sweet; I will really miss seeing them every week. We sang "Flower of Scotland" again since it was one of our favorites from the last concert, and they had changed the lyrics of a verse to say goodbye to me. Afterwards, Jonathan and Aurelie had arranged a little aperitif in the teachers' lounge where they made me open a bottle of champagne for the first time (and I didn't kill anyone with the cork!). Most of the English teachers were also there so I said my final goodbyes, and I couldn't help welling up a bit, though I mostly kept it together. Kelly and I had a great last night in Nancy with an assistant friend Katie-- we ate delicious crepes and went to the Mezcalito, a "techno bar" next door that Pamela and I always liked. Then it was off to bed before our 7 am train to Paris!
We spent three and a half days in Paris, which was once again overrun with other tourists who slowed us down a bit. It also didn't help that our first budget hotel was awful (small room, small bed, shared bathroom, no breakfast, etc). When we found out you had to pay for the showers, though, that was it. We quickly changed our hotel for the next two nights, but lost a bit of time arranging everything. Still, we got to see all the important sights-- Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Coeur, the Eiffel Tower, and even Versailles. We squeezed in some museums (the Conciergerie, Rodin, Carnavale, Picasso) and saw some areas I'd never visited before. We explored Montparnasse where we went up to the 56th floor of the tower, Place des Vosges (I was missing Lorraine!), and Place de la Republique. I even bought a new pair of women's walking sandals, so the man-sandals I bought in Quebec back in '04 have finally been retired. But after four separate trips to Paris, I still never made it to the Musee d'Orsay or the Centre Pompidou, so now I will have a good excuse to return.
We left Paris on Tuesday afternoon for Bruges, Belgium, which has to be one of the most charming cities I've seen so far. All the houses have jagged, pointy roofs, and there are little canals winding between the cobblestone streets. We sampled waffles and "French" fries which are Belgian specialties, and went to a chocolate museum. Then there was the hospital museum, and though it was mostly about the church the hospital had been in, it was interesting nonetheless. Otherwise, we just strolled around the squares and markets, and ate very well. And after a bit of laundry Thursday morning, we were on the way to Amsterdam.
That first afternoon we just wandered around the neighborhood of our hotel. We ended up with two Frenchmen as our roommates! (I can't escape!) We had breakfast with them the next day before Kelly and I went to the Anne Frank House. Afterwards we had delicious pancakes for lunch, and went to some grill for dinner that had menus shaped like bulls' heads, and corn on the cob that tasted horrible! Since we hadn't gotten much accomplished yet, Saturday turned out to be quite busy. We started off by renting bikes for a ride out to the countryside, where we saw a windmill, and lots of farms and animals. Then we did some errands which took an unnecessarily long time, but after we went on a pleasant boat cruise through the canals. We got stuck in a sudden downpour that night, but we waited it out and had a relaxing last night downtown.
I am writing this last bit on a German train from Cologne to Freiburg. We stopped over in Cologne for a night since it was cheaper than travelling long distance on Sunday, or paying for an extra night in Amsterdam. We were pretty exhausted so we didn't do too much, but we did get to walk around a bit to see the Rhine and "The Dom" cathedral. So this week is Germany and Switzerland-- and on to places I've never seen before. I got to scope out some of this week's cities already, but even so we had some difficulties with languages, maps, and menus. I will post another blog next week to let you know how it all goes...
No comments:
Post a Comment