France - Paris

We organised to stay with Elise, a girl we met in Laos for our time in Paris. We stayed with her and her family which was really cool. Also we met up with Constance who we also met in Laos.

It was great to have two Parisian girls to show us around a bit and give us pointers. On the first day, we arrived in the afternoon and went for a walk around Paris with them. We saw a cool old church which had an amazing imprint of the shroud of Christ. Lots of famous academic, cultural, political buildings. We went to a couple of cool parks, saw the Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Louvre and other places we would go the next day, and ate macaroons.

At the park with Elise and Constance. There were so many people there hanging out, and lots of kids playing with boats in the pond.

We went to this famous macaroon store. They were very tasty, we had pistachio and violet cassis

We had such a great day together on our first full day. In the morning Elise's father gave us a lift to the Louvre. It is an amazing building and houses some amazing art! It is the biggest museum we have been to, with over 35,000 pieces of art, we did not attempt to see them all. We saw the Mona Lisa, the sculpture Venus de Milo, amazing furnishings in Napoleans apartments, and so much more.

We spent a few hours and then had a break for lunch. There is a lot of turkish and greek food around paris and we found it a cheap food to get. We went to the Notre Dame cathedral which was pretty cool, but not the best interior that we have seen. The exterior was great, recently cleaned (sanded) so looking really spectacular, and the gargoyles of course were cool to see. We didn't see quasimodo, but there were lots of gypsies begging around paris.

We went back to the Louvre for another few hours, then walked up the Champs Elysse, a big boulevard where we passed the La Concord, Grand Palais, more parks, and ending at the Arc de Triumph.

The Arc de Triumph

A cool art nouvelle house that we saw

We had a picnic that evening in the park under the eiffel tower which was very nice. After dark the tower lights up and looks very cool. We had such a busy but really good day. Lots of sightseeing!

Once we got back to Elise's after our huge day we met up with Constance and the girls took us on a night tour of Paris. We drove past some of the more out of the way sights, and the ones that look particularly impressive at night.

The Moulin Rouge and a famous cafe in the Parisian red light district that we saw on our night drive

On our second day we didn't feel we were up to quite so much sight seeing. So we slept in a bit, then took the Metro to Monmarte for a relaxed day of looking around, having coffee at a street side cafe (we couldn't find the Three Windmills from Amelie), and reading our books in the park near the Monmarte Church.

This is the park that was used in Amelie

The metro signs in Paris are all in this cool style

In the afternoon we met up with Constatnce and she took us on a walking tour around some areas of Paris that we hadn't seen yet. We saw a really cool street preformer, the out side of the modern art gallery, a snail restaurant, a horse butchers, trendy shops, cool cafes, and some more parks.

Snail restaurant

Typical Parisian cafe

That night we had a picnic dinner with Elise and her sister on the arts bridge in front of the Louvre. Its cool that people have picnics all over Paris in the evening.

The river Seine, taken from the Arts bridge where we had an evening picnic with Elise and her sister

On our final day we went to the Musee D'orsay. It's another art gallery, that has many famous paintings, but more recent works rather than all religious art (by recent we mean 18th 19th and 20th century). Some of the highlights included a section of Art Nouveau, and the below pictures.

A painting by Jules Bastien-Lepage of his Grandfather

That night we ate with Elise and her family before catching a gruelling night bus over to London.

Belgium - Brussels

We stopped in Brussels for one night on the way to Paris. We had no idea what we could do there, or what to expect. As it turned out Brussels was pretty cool. We didn't see much, but had waffles, belgian chocolates, and lambic beer (the local speciality). They were all really good, and we wished that we could have taken more with us.

The Netherlands - Amsterdam

Having seen vast number of canals in Venice we decided to continue with the theme and visit the many canals of Amsterdam. There are actually more canals in Amsterdam than in Venice.

We were staying on the edge of the red light district. Its famous for sex and drugs, and both were very visible. All of the shops in the district are either sex shops, coffee shops (places where you can buy, and smoke drugs), or brothels. At night the windows are filled with women in their underwear trying to lure men in. It's a really strange environment and you really don't know where to look.

We took a day trip out to Haarlem (30 min outside Amsterdam) to see the tulip fields. When we flew in to Amsterdam (oh the luxury) we saw huge blocks of amazing coloured tulips, and these were even more impressive up close.

We hired bikes, and rode about 28km around the countryside looking at the flowers. The whole place is flat, and the roads are really well set up for bikes. There are bike lanes on most roads, and separate lights at intersections. The bikes are also really cool. They're old style city bikes, and you don't have to hunch over to ride them. It really is amazing how many bikes there are in the Netherlands, and how much they are used. We actually saw business people in suits doubling each other down the road on one bike.

Also in Haarlem we went to a church that had a cannon ball embedded in the wall from the time of the Spanish invasion.

We went to see the Van Gogh museum one day. It was an amazing collection of his works going from his first paintings thru to the end of his life.
After all that art we needed to relax with a walk thru vondel park nearby.

Italy - Venice

We turned up in Venice with no hotel, something that all the guidebooks say not to do, but they were all too expensive so we hadn't booked one. We thought we would have to stay on the mainland and bus into Venice each day. But we arrived at the train station and got offered a room for a good price (by Venice standards) of 30 euro each per night. So we were pretty happy to be able to stay on the island.

Venice is a series of islands and reclaimed land, the water is only about 6-8 feet deep and most of the building are built on pylons. There are no cars or bikes on the island, you either walk or take a boat. It is a really beautiful city, with ancient buildings and a lot of character.

Rialto bridge and the Duke's palace

It is the most expensive city in Italy, and filled to the brim with tourists, on the main walking routes anyway. Its great to be able to step off a couple of streets and find really quiet roads and alleys.

Venetian masks

We ate lots more gelato and pizza. We found a couple of places that did delicious pizzas, and had two evening meals sitting beside the canal with pizza and beer or Lambrusco. Could be worse!

We were there 3 nights, one day we got a pass for the big boat buses and travelled to a couple of other islands. We went to Murano island which is famous for hand blown glass. We saw a demonstration that was pretty amazing. There is a lot of beautiful glass products there, and a lot of tacky stuff too.

A horse we saw getting made

Then we went to Lido island which is bigger than Venice and has cars, so looses a bit of its charm. But they do have a beach which we went to and had a swim. It was such a gorgeous hot day and although the water was pretty cold it was lovely to be able to have a swim in early spring!

On the last night we stayed with a friend of Teresa's who lives in the old Jewish quarter of Venice. She had a lovely apartment and it was nice to meet and chat with a local.

We didn't get a gondola because it was so expensive, but we saw some really cool ones, one had a musician and singer going around with them (we would hate to think how much they paid..). It was great travelling around a bit on the bigger boats though. We went to an area of the island called gardenia which has a big park and sat and chilled out with a picnic and books one day.

Gondolas and gondoliers

The main square in Venice has a lot of the museums around it. We were all museum'ed out from Florence so didn't go to any. There are also amazing cafes with musicians in tuxedo's where you will pay NZ $20 for a coffee (!!). When it floods in Venice the square can get covered in water and the gondoliers can pont across it.

Tourist nuns at San Marco Square