Our last day in Paris.  Last night we went to a huge metro/urban train station where we were able to buy tickets for tomorrows train ride.  We thought we had to go to the train station, but a girl on the hotel desk told us we could get tickets at that particular station.  Much better for us.  Our goal today was to see Versaillies.  We took the metro to a station where we could catch an urban train and that train went all the way to Versaillies.  We got to the palace about 9am when the ticket offices opened and when we bought our tickets, there was a special of a guided tour of some particular areas which are not opened to the public.   So for 1 euro extra we got an hour and a half tour where most people don't get to see which was fantastic.  They don't open the areas to the public because the exhibits are so delicate they want to have control over the people entering these areas.  Not only is the place huge, but the opulance is mind blowing.  Everthing is either covered with gold leaf or gilded.  The exhibits for the most part are original Louis XIV, XV, and XVI.  A huge number of pieces (about 700,000)were sold off   Many considered quality art were saved and taken to the Louvre.  They are still trying to locate some of the pieces which were sold off.  It is amazing that they have as much as the do.  Some pieces like chairs have been recovered in period style of fabric.

Versaillies

After our tour we picked up audio guides and started on the regular none guided tour.  The crowds were horrific at times but you go room to room and your mouth drops open more. It would take days to take everthing in, and I am sure something would be missed. 

This clock was built in the 16th century for Louis the XVI and was the first clock to have a second hand.  It also has the day, month and year.  It is only wound oncea month and is very accurate.  It will be able to be used for the date until 9999.  It also has moon phases and did have the movement of the planets (not working now).

Hall of Mirrors

 

The hall of mirrors.  It breath taking when you walk into it.  Its hard to imagine this was 4 one family.  Apparently 8000 people lived and worked at this during Louis time.  The whole government was here and the upper people lived in various appartments.  Poor Louis he had to attend to many ceremonies each and every day including having dinner with a room full of people watching.




The gardens are just as opulent as the rest of the palace, and will add some pictures maybe tomorrow.  Right now it is bed time as we have to be up at 6 to get to the train station.

 

 

September 3

A new day but the blog isn't begun by Roy today.  He is demoralized.  We got up, late, the next door neighbours got home late and had a room party, there is an airconditioning unit outside our balcony, the room was hot (air conditioner is not for our hotel), no bloody top sheet!!!!!

Why, is Roy demoralized.  Second stop on the metro he was pick pocketed.  YES! Poor Roy, he is careful - why him.  Wrong place, wrong time is all I can think of.  I noticed men's wallets the rest of the day and theirs were easily, if not more accessable than his.  Why him.  Wrong place, bad timing.  The car was full so they could make their escape.  What a way to ruin a day and put a cloud on things.  We went to the police immediately.  Not much use.  We don't even get a file number for a few days.  Canadian Embassy can only deal with passports.  Duh, I thought they were here to help us.
(Roy eiting: the people at the embassy were very good to us and tried, but said that the problem with our drivers license was provincial and they couldn't help with that.  The lady tried hard to find phone numbers for us but only came up with ICBC dial a claim.  Frustrating but they are limited and did try to  help)  Thank goodness we took our phones and were able to call and cancel cards.  Though the motor vehicle branch is in a labour dispute Roy was talking to a real person within seconds.  Downside, they cannot fax a replacement and will only use snail mail.  Carol and Harry to the rescue!  The replacement will be mailed to our house and they will expidite it on to us.  Pray it will come swiftly!

Okay, I was thinking how well things were going.  Never again.  No more complacancy.  It's a bad thing.
We were happy to get an email from Kim telling about the girls taking their breakfast out to the mountain in hobo bags on a stick.  What a beautiful picture of our grandgirls.

So, we have visited the police, consulate, called the credit cards, BC motor vehicles, skyped Carol and Harry, what did we do with the rest of the day.

Well, we ate lunch in what we thought was the Tullleries Gardens.  It wasn't but it was nice anyway.  We walked throught the Tulleries after lunch and visited the Louvre.  The Mona Lisa looked much bigger than she did 39 years ago.  Funny, have they changed the picture?  We saw Venus de Milo, Winged Victory and many others that I am too tired to look up.  The temperature in the museum was high, we couldn't figure out the interactive visual, audio thingy we paid for so we played out fast (not to mention our stress level.)

We passed all the big designer houses, Dior, Jimmy Choo, Versache, you name it.  They all live close to the Canadian Embassy.

Had a teriffic dinner - Roy had beef bourganion( can't spell it) and I had lowely chicken and FRENCH fries.  Very nice.

If we could have left Paris today we would have.  People have been kind and friendly but one nasty incident has coloured our feeling for Paris.  What a shame.  Tomorrow we will visit Versailles, and possibly Montmarte but we have our ticktets for London and are ready to leave. 

Time for bed
God Bless and night night

Tuesday September 4, 2012
Today we leave Amsterdam and travel to Paris.  We bought our tickets yesterday for the 11:16 high speed train so didn't have a lot to do when we got to the airport.  We left our hotel just after 9 and arrived at Station Central by 9:30 so we had some time to kill.  Bought a lunch to take on the train and just people watched until it was time to go to our Platform.  The train to Brussels was late arriving so the platform was full of people for both trains. We met couple from New York and had a nice chat with them while we waited for our train to arrive. 
They have a huge parking lot at the train station.                                                                                                                                                                         
 There are thousands of bikes left there.  We saw the parking staff removing a whole row of bikes for exceeding the parking time .  With the number of bikes in Amsterdam

I would hate to have to go and find my bike at the lock up.








The train left on time and it's fast and smooth.  A mother and 11 year old daughter sat across from us were on their way to a funeral.  As we got talking to them the mother had lived 2 years in New York and the daughter had just started an English immersion school.  The mother was from Paris so she gave us a lot of help and tips on getting to and around Paris.  When we arrived we decided to take the Metro  to our hotel.  The best route was a bit round about but it got us close to our hotel.  The temperature in the underground had to be 35+.  We were both sweating buckets and glad to get out onto the street.  The metro system is old and there are a lot of stairs to climb with our suitcases everytime you catch a train.  We were on 3 different lines which meant changing trains twice after getting on the first one.  Arrived at our hotel, checked in, cooled off and then set off to see what we could on our first night.  We went to try and get a 2 day museum pass at the Army museum but they wouldn't sell us a pass that starts the next day.  So we walked to a street our fellow passenger had recommemded to go for dinner.  It was a nice area and we found a resturant where our waiters did not speak any English so it was a challenge to get our orders.  As a matter of fact, Linda got something different than what she ordered.  It was good though and the price was the same.  We were within walking distance of the Eiffle tower to we went to see if it was a good time to go up.  Not.  Lines ups were far too long.  Instead we went to the Champs de Mars and waited for it to get dark.  We had to wait 1/2 hour or so, but it was worth it.
                                                                                                              

  My turn, the laundry is done for the evening.  I forgot to ask for extra towels to roll the clothes in. They brought us two and I was able to get things fairly damp, as opposed to soaking wet.  I need to wash our pants from the past few days but will wait til morning and I have more drying space.  It is always a challenge.                                                                                                                              

 

 

Roy has told all about our day but omitting telling what a great job he did of getting us here.  He figured out the subway and our  walk from the subway to the hotel.  The subway is old and the locals are not one bit worried about 2 aging tourists.  We did great!

 

Dinner at the little sidewalk cafe was lovely (even though my salmon became quiche.  I wasn't about to correct the waiter.  What is it about the French and their arrogance!) and so was the Eiffel tower.  The line ups looked to be about 2 hours each!  Good thing we went to the top 39 years ago.  It is quite a light show after dark.  Roy the Navigator got us back to our hotel after dark.

 

I was a bit disappointed by the train ride today - I thought we would see windmills (of the old variety) but we only saw one.  It felt like home or the Canadian prairies for most of the way.  They are busy harvesting and grow lots of corn.

 

I should make notes of the things I want to put in the blog during the day because I am brain dead when I sit in front of the computer.

 

Oh, the elevator in this hotel holds one person and a suitcase or two people.  You get in, close the outside door and then the inside door closes, push in your floor number and up you go.  The inside doors open, you push open the outside door and the lights come on in the hallway.  They stay on just long enough for you to get your door open.

 

The Amsterdam hotel had a tub that was so narrow that when I stood with my feet lengthwise in the tub, heels at the drain, the tub was filled from side to side.  I don't know how anyone would sit down!

 

All for tonight.  God bless everyone

 



Today we started off taking tram #5 to the flower market.  We expected to see a sea of flowers, but while there were alot of flowers, there were more bulbs, seeds and souveniers.  It was nice to stroll down all the shops and just look at all the different plants and flowers.  Some how the flowers seem fresher here.  One of the shops near the flower market was a cheese shop.  Inside the sales person was dressed in traditional Dutch costume.  There were lots of cheese on plates to sample and we sampled many of them.  They were all so good but we didn't feel we could buy and carry around cheese.  The lady gave us cards to order cheese if we want.  They ship all over the world.  We walked on looking for a second flower market, but couln't find it.  There is a open air market that we deciced to investigate in Jordaan.  Another tram took us to the train station and we went inside to scope out what we need to do to get to Paris
Thought we had it made but later we found out we had it all wrong.

 

The market we were trying to find was in the Jordaan district which is quite a bit up scale from the old town where the Red Light area is.  We did have trouble finding where we wanted to go.  The canals and the streets are a bit confusing.  Linda finally asked somene and they did give us good directions even though we were a bit skeptical.  When we finally got there it was a huge flea type market.  The guide book said it was a textile market on Monday.  There were some textiles, Linda bought a couple of fat quarters.  The market was packed, so the people from Amsterdam must use it as a regular shopping spot.

 

We found a little sandwich shop and purchased a couple of sandwiches for lunch.  We walked to to the canal, found a spot and had our lunch.  We were able to get onto a small dock.  It was a great place to have lunch, watching people and the boats go by.  After lunch we walked a short distance to Anne Franks house 

...
Roy has left off here so I will continue.  The guide book suggested waiting until 4:00 when the line ups are less but although it was just after noon we decided to give it a shot.  The line was long and there was a bench nearby so Roy suggested I sit on it for a bit while he stood in line.  After about 10 minutes I switched places with him.  A man from the museum came along and gave us booklets to read; I asked for two, one for my husband and one for myself.  He looked over, saw Roy sitting and made a comment about chivalry being dead. I managed to save his name by saying that he had let me sit there first.  Then he got called a gentleman. The wait was only 25 minutes so it wasn't too long.

You walk up an incredibly steep  flight of stairs to the annex and there you see displays and explanations of how the Franks lived and of the time.  Then there is another incredibly steep flight of stairs to their home for two long years.  Even though Anne and her family have been gone for a long line, there is a sensation that you have stepped back in time.  May history never repeat itself.

After we left the house we wandered a bit, had  a snack at a sidewalk cafe and then visited the Ould  Keirk.  Both of us were glad that we made it to visit the church.  There was an organ recital - beautiful music!  We both thought Bruce would enjoy it.  We headed back to our hotel for a bit of a rest.  The tram system is very handy.

Wow, achy feet!  It is so good to get your shoes off and wait for the soles to stop pulsating.  When we were sufficiently rested we went for dinner in one of the many out to catch the tourists with "tourist Menus"  they offer good value with lots of atmosphere.  Sitting outside, watching the passersby is very entertaining. 

The canals and bridges add beauty to the city as do the gabled roofs.  Brick streets and sidewalks are attractive but a bit hazzardous for walking.  I was a bit shocked at the amount of garbage laying about on the streets.  It is a rather dirty city.  The people are friendly and everyone seems fluent in English.  How, fortunate for us.

Oh,last night we went to the Cafe American - quite a posh hotel.  Mata Hari had her wedding reception there.

On to Paris.  Roy has figured out which subway trains we need to take to get to our hotel.  We've got our tickets for the train

September 2, 2012

Our day started off with breakfast at our hotel.  It was not included in the booking, but we felt it was better to get off to an early start without having to find a restaurant.  After breakfast we headed over to the Van Gogh museum.  We bought a pass which gives us unlimited transit on the buses and trams and entrance to some museums and attractions.  It also got us to the front of the long.  The museum was definitely a do again.  We both really enjoyed seeing his art work.  The museum is set up so it goes in chronological order and you can see how his art changed and developed over the 10 years he was painting.  We followed up with the canal cruise.  The boat takes off and cruises along the various canals.  Some there is barely enough room to swing the boat around.  The driver must turn like the log boom boats we see in BC.  The tour lasted just over an hour.  We passed many of the buildings we were going to visit today and tomorrow. 

  Linda's 2 euros worth

Roy has added the picture of the curved bridges.  There are 7 of them in a row and we were at the only place you can see them all.
The VanGogh museum was great.  No formal lessons, he tried all of the different techniques and used them as he wished.  What makes him a famous artist and someone else never gets noticed.  His are  was done quickly with short cuts but it still has something that makes the painting come alive.

We went to a pancake house for lunch.  They are everywhere.  The pancakes were like the ones you get at Panakoeke house at home.
Roy has talked about our boat tour.  After that and lunch we rode the tram to Dam Square and toured the Amsterdam Museum.  It was good but we probably should have bought the audio tour.  The places you could go to hear about the history of Amsterdam were too busy.  Next to Neuwe Kerk (new church).  Construction began in 1410.  (Oude Kerk -Old church was begun in 1250)  It began life as a Catholic church but the government ousted the Catholic Church in the 1600s and it has been protestant ever since. there was a movie by a man named Fabre playing.  It represented different forms of civilization - very weird.
After this we had a damned good and expensive beer on Dam Square.   Always fun to sit outside and people watch.  Wandered at bit and found the narrowest house in Amsterdam.  It is only 6 1/2feet wide and 20 feet deep.  I was starving so we had dinner and then visited the Red light area.  The girls stand in their windows in scanty attire and lure customers in.  Most of the girls were young and attractive.  A man in a group ahead of us (including a husband and wife - tourists) opened one door and asked how much she charged - 50 euros.  They just close the curtains when they are busy. My god, what a terrible way to make a living.  A little of that went a long way so we headed back to our hotel but first we had to get past all the "coffee shops" and stores selling paraphenalia for smoking and for sex.

Back to the room to wash some clothes and blog.

August 31, 2012

Well we are off.  Carol and Harry drove us to the West Coast Express where we caught the 06:55 train for Vancouver. The attendant at the WCE was really helpful and joked that we didn't need that much luggage for our train trip.  Once in Vancouver we hopped onto the Canada line and made our way to the airport, arriving before nine.  Alot of people use Canada Line to get to YVR when they are flying out.  When we got there we stood in front of the big board and looked for our flight.  Linda spotted it and the time for departure said 18:05.  We were floored.  We decided to go for coffee and a snack and while I was getting my coffee, Linda checked the Air Transat web site and it still had a departure time of 14:05.  A bit of a relief.  We walked around the airport for a while and saw Rick and Brian Antonson where doing a book signing.  I thought I might like one of their books so we went up and talked to them.  Suprise Brian remembered us from Kim's graduation.  Anyway we bought a book and then thought it was not to good of a thing to do because we would have to haul it around with us.  Had lunch at the White Spot and the speed at the airport is the same as Mission, slow.  After lunch we had to hustle a little to get down to the security check in, and the line up was miles long.  We snaked along at a reasonable pace until we got behind the frosted glass and with still a long way to go, a security guard pulled us out of line, did a swab on my hands and shoes and put us in the Nexus lineup which was very short.  We thought this was great.  Only problem was the guy doing the xray screening was taking 4 or 5 times as long to check the bags as the other line. The people behind us in the long line were through the same time as us.  We made it to the departure area with lots of time to spare.  Our plane was waiting, an airbus 300 which left approximately on time.  After an hour flight we landed in Calgary and by Canadian law we had to stay in the aircraft.  With nothing to do we wandered around the aircraft.  I noticed the cockpit door was open so went up front to have a look.  The captain saw me and invited me in.  He spent a few minutes explaining what the different switches and lights were and had to leave for a walk around so he told me to sit in his seat and the copilot would take care of me.  The copilot was busy putting in all the information for our next leg of the flight so he was explaining what he was doing.  Incomes a maintenance man who is trying to fix the terrain avoidance system who jokes and explains what he was doing.  Unfortunately when the captain returned I had to leave.  A cool experience.   The plane soon filled up with passengers, and with them were several infants.  One mother on boarding said your probably not happy to see me.  She wasn't far off.  It seemed like one or another baby cried most of the trip.  We tried to sleep but got very little, we should have taken David's advice and used gravol.  Overall not a bad flight, crew seemed good and the food almost edible and we arrived 20 minutes early.  Must have been due to the advice I gave the captain and copilot in Calgary.

Roy has pretty well covered our trip over.  Wow, he was so lucky to get to sit in the captain seat!  That will be a highlight of the trip for him. 
The luggage collected, we set out for the city, but first we had to buy our I Amsterdam passes, have a snack, and find the bus.  Jet lagged, that seemed to take forever but we were at our hotel before noon.  We should have taken the gravol, but as it makes me groggy for so long after I've taken it I was reluctant to arrive and have to cope with a new city in that state.  Roy felt the same.
My first impression of the city - bicycles, bicycles and more bicycles.  Reminds of the the Queen song about riding bicycles!  They have their own lane, which they share with motor scooters.  It is a different pattern of brick from the sidewalk.  I never seem to know which is which.  It is very hard to be on the right pattern!  We will be lucky if we aren't taken out by a bicycle before we leave.

Our hotel was a short, 3 minute walk from the bus stop.  It is old and European but there is an elevator.  We are on the 3rd floor.  Our room is small but has everything we need.  The window is like a dormer - double windows open so we can look out over the street.  We are next to Vondelpark and took a stroll through it last evening.
After checking in we visited Rijksmuseum and saw the Rembrandt exhibit.  The paintings seem as fresh as they must have the day they were painted.  It was interesting to see paintings done by teachers and contemporaries of Rembrandt.  It would be wonderful to have the talent to paint like them!  The downside to the visit was that jet lag hit with a vengance.  I have never experienced it like that before.  I thought, "we'd best get out of here before I pitch forward into a picture".  Surprise, Roy felt the same way.  We went and had a drink and a snack, went back to our room and slept for and hour and a half and felt a bit more like ourselves. 

Out we went to see Amsterdam.  Vondelpark was just next door so we walked through its 44 acres.  There are paths for bikes and walkers.  Stay out of the bike lanes!  People were picnicing, barbueqing, necking, playing, drinking.  It was a good way to see how people in Amsterdam relax on a Friday evening.  There is an out door theatre and a play called "Fold" was in rehersal.  We sat and watched for awhile.  The dancers were learning their steps.  The stage was covered in what looked to be peat moss and they kicked the dirt around as they danced.  In front of the stage there was a circle of peat that looked like the cone of a volcano.  Wonder what the play will be like.
After that we went to Leidse Square for pasta and strolled around the surrounding streets.  Home to bed.

Amsterdam

September 2, Amsterdam

We are having blog difficulties.  After we type a little bit, everything disappears.