WASHINGTON DC- Here I come!!!!!

Another fabulous travel blog to come! I plan to see WAY TO MUCH in just 2 days!  Kelly and I will be on an adventure to find fabulous food, maybe a market, a possible horse race and we might bump into the Obamas.  If you have any great suggestions for places to see in DC please email me or message me on Facebook!!!! (Even though I have full confidence in my amiga)

Road trip through Tuscany... hahahaha!

Sorry this one is a little late, but there has not been a good time to sit down and type it.

Renting a car in Tuscany
This was our first obstacle. Unfortunately, many of the books you read about traveling through Tuscany make it sound so darn easy to get from one place to the next using the buses. Well, that is far from true! If you are going to Tuscany, you either need to be on a bus tour or you need to rent a car and have some good navigational skills :)

I voiced my need for a car to the ladies at Voltrona, and they jumped right on it. They called 5 different places and finally found us a car that we could rent for a day. A guy named Daniel, from San Gimingnano, owns a Peugeot museum and also rents some older Peugeots that he has. He came out to Voltrona and picked us up that evening, we looked at his antique cars and then sat down to sign some papers. The thing about Italians is once you get them started talking, they tend to not shut up :) No offense to my relatives :) I gotta say, I have a slight hint of that trait myself! (Don't laugh). He just talked and talked about places we should go see, what wines we should try, etc. Both Matt and I are thinking "Can you please shut up and can we please get the car and go." Finally, we signed the papers and left. This little "yee deet" car (as my Mom and Dad would call it) was actually great. It was really small, enough room and it worked!

Early morning start to begin our road trip on Easter Sunday
We got up around 7:30 am and headed out! We had a map in hand, that Daniel gave us, which did not include the roads… just the cities. That was our first mistake. Had we had a good ROAD map for our ROAD trip we might have had a much easier time. When traveling by car through Europe, you notice an annoying number of roundabouts every few miles if you are not on the highways. Our first destination was Pisa so that Matt can see the famous tower. We get to the first round about, and it has the little sign that points in one direction. Well for about 4 more roundabouts there is no sign for Pisa. What we figured out later is you keep going in the direction that it pointed you in... not toward the other towns that you think are near the one you are trying to get to. Matt nearly lost it by mile 15.... he was sure we were going to get lost and never ever ever be able to find our way back! He was literally freaking out, and I of course, kept my cool and told him it would be fine. We went through every tiny little town between San G and Pisa. We guessed our way through the entire 2 hour trip that should have taken about an hour. To be honest, I would not have done anything differently except reassure my sweet husband a little more :) The countryside was beautiful. Along the way we saw some interesting things, to say the least. When we were almost to Pisa, we are driving through a larger town (more industrial) and I looked up ahead and saw this guy on a cart being pulled by something. It's smaller than a horse, so I am thinking "what the heck is pulling him?" Um, it's a mini-horse pulling this old man on his beat up cart down this street that has stop lights and such. “What is he doing?” He wasn't even pulling any goods. It was like his morning exercise, except, this poor little mini-horse is doing the work? I died laughing. Once we got into Pisa, I assumed we would see the tower... not exactly. We navigated our way through the town based on the location of the river and our trusty North, South, East and West directions! Yes, we did this without a Garmin, ladies and gents! We actually used a road map to get us all the way to Pisa! WOO HOO! As we drove up and Matt finally saw the tower, I will never forget the words that came out of his mouth..."Wow, that thing is really leaning!" HAHAHHAHAAHAH! Um, yes dear, it is really leaning :) I think he thought it was going to be a slight slant, but as you can see, it's definitely leaning!

We walked around, took some pictures, BOUGHT A FREAKING ROAD MAP and headed back out!

Trip from Pisa to Lucca

This was much easier! We got there in about 45 minutes. Lucca was packed with people, so instead of getting out of the car like normal people do, we drove around the tiny streets that you could drive in (kind of like in the movie Italian Job) and saw the sites. The city is amazing! It has the original wall still wrapped all the way around it. Inside, it's this town with streets that make you feel claustrophobic, but it's really magical. We both loved it! I would highly recommend it for a day trip.

Trip back to San G


So there are highways! Straight from Lucca, after figuring our way out of the city, we jumped on the highway and headed towards Florence. We did great! We followed the signs and got on the same path that our bus took from Florence to San G. Not sure how we did it... oh yes I do... we had a real ROAD MAP! We got back to Voltrona and called Daniel. While in Lucca, we purchased our train tickets from Florence to Milan, but getting back to Florence, the next morning, was going to be a challenge, so we decided to turn the car in that evening. Daniel was less than thrilled when we showed up and did not fill up the car. He never mentioned it, and with him not being a large company like Avis, we didn't know if we were supposed to. So we took the car back up the hill to get some gas. Time to use some math: Gas is 1.32 euro PER LITER! There are 3.78 liters in one gallon. THAT IS $6.48 PER GALLON U.S.! We had to fill up half a tank. We spent 38 euro on half a tank of gas (in a tiny car) which means a full tank of gas after the conversion rate is probably upwards of $84.00 OH MY GOSH! Thankfully we only used half a tank! Anyway, he charged us 50 euros flat and we were on our way.

Getting from San G to Florence

Now remember, I lost it on the way to San G with the bus, so we decided to pay for a taxi to get us to the train station in Poggibonsi which would take us into Florence. The taxi was a mere 40 euro (geeze we spent a heck of a lot on Taxi's while in freaking Tuscany). Then the train was 12 euro to get us back. We had two backpacks strapped to us, bottles of wine and olive oil strapped to us (I could just kick myself for not taking a picture). We looked like a couple of gypsies traveling through Europe. It was time to get some rolly bags! So I got Matt set up to guard our bags while I headed under the rail station to the shopping mall. I picked up two lovely flowery bags that Matt just LOVES :) HAHAHA. I reorganized everything between the bags. I had clothes out, bottles of wine out I was rolling bottles in clothes, stuffing everything so it would not move. The last thing I wanted was to spend 70 euro on these two bags and have something break. It worked.

Train from Florence to Milan
Unfortunately, the trains were sold out, as far as seating goes, but they will still sell you a ticket. I met a very nice customer service agent who gave me a great tip. He said to find either car number 4 or 5 and be the first in there. It's their bar area so there is plenty of standing room. As soon as the train pulled up we booked it to the 4th car. Sure enough, it was the bar. We had our two huge back packs and are new little rolly bags under the counter and we stood on either side of them. It was only 2 hours, so standing was no problem at all.

Train from Milan to Bergamo


As soon as we got off the train in Milan, we went to a TRENITALIA kiosk and purchased our one way tickets to Bergamo. They were 5 euro total. It's a quick 30 minute train ride. I would describe it as a suburb of Milan. We get on the train and head out. As we are sitting there, a TrenItalia agent comes by to check our tickets. Mind you, we have traveled all over Italy on trains and never once has someone checked our tickets. We hand him our ticket. He sits down... which I knew was a bad sign... telling us (in broken English) that we did not validate our tickets. I showed him our other tickets to prove that I had no idea what he was talking about. For those of you taking trains in Europe, always stick your ticket in the yellow box where your train is located and get your ticket stamped by the meter. They don’t want you to be able to use the ticket twice, which makes perfect sense. Back to the guy... I apologized and told him I had not had to do that before and that it would not happen again. He could clearly see we had no plans to use that ticket again... we had all of these bags, we showed him our plane tickets out the next day... nothing worked. He wanted me to hand him 50 euro for EACH of us. I told him we didn’t have that kind of money on us. He kind of scoffed in disbelief. These Italians think we are rich (being Americans). When we got to Rome our first night, we didn’t have any Euros yet, so I presented them with my mastercard, which happens to have an American Flag on it. They made a comment about wanting to keep the card (joking of course) because American's are rich! HAHAHAHAHHA! That card wouldn’t get them very far :) Anyway, back to our guy. So he asked me for our passports, scribbled down our passport numbers and walked off. So, if I get thrown in jail next time I am over in Italy because there is a warrant for my arrest for not paying a fine, at least I have the story documented! I doubt it though :)

Bergamo

Getting to Bergamo might have had some frustrating components, but we were there. The tourist office is located right outside of the train station. They pointed us towards our hotel, which was a 5 minute walk. Now, in the states, you could not pay me to stay in a Best Western. I have a very fowl impression of them here. In Europe, STAY AT THEM! They have basically taken over some of the nicest hotels (all 4 stars and above) and slapped their name on the building! We loved this hotel! The room was small, but clean and updated. The location is perfect if you want to venture around the lower and upper city.

~Another reason we would probably never go during the Easter Holiday again, ~ all of Bergamo was basically shut down. We walked around for a bit and came across a Sushi restaurant. They didn’t open for another hour, so we continued to site see. We ventured back over when they opened. The food was great! I have a picture of the restaurant and the street that it's on. Everything we had was great! They do not speak English! So be prepared!

This is the street that it is on ;)

After dinner, we were too tired to venture up to the historic upper city, but we did stop for some Gelato. The first place we went had 6 people behind the counter, all serving other customers yet they would not even look at us! We stood there for 5 minutes thinking they were serving people that were there before us... NOPE! They were purposely skipping us! Wow! I even had money in my hand sitting on the counter... still nothing! So we walked to the next shop and they gladly served us! Yet another example of how rude these Italians were... unreal!

DONT GO TO GROM IN BERGAMO!

We got a good night’s rest and headed to Paris at 5:15 am!

Napoleon's Tomb, Open Air Market, Subway and Montparnasse Tower

Our last day in Paris pics/sites :)

I promised some pictures of the last day, so here they are. We woke up and went to our fav little bakery, as I stated in my last little blurb of a blog. Here are the pictures of it. It's located right across from our little restaurant on the same street, Rue de Laos!

After breakfast, we were walking to Napoleon's Tomb and stumbled upon this fabulous open-air market. Each neighborhood in Paris is required to have one of these at least once a week, so you will more than likely come across one without even looking, just like we did. Butchers sell their best cuts of meats, clothing shop owners bring out a few sizes of each of their latest fashions, bakers have their fresh breads and pastries for sale... they have it all. By the way, children's clothing in Paris is 100% top of the line. Those kids are dressed better than royalty, if you ask me. Naturally, the market had a number of stands with children's clothes.

If you look close, you can see that the butcher is waving at me :) Oh, and I stopped at one of the shoe stands down from this point and the guy quickly realized we were Americans. Well he went OFF in French about how he hates Bush and loves Obama.... whatever! We humored him by agreeing and moved on. Do you think I bought anything from him, Um, No :)

So then it was off to Napoleon’s Tomb. It's 9 euro per person to get in. The ticket not only gets you into the tomb, but it also gets you into the military museum. I was not thrilled with the museum part, but may people do not know that the Hitler took over Paris for 4 years during WWII, so there are a few things of his or his men in there.

The tomb holds the big guy, Napoleon, and a few of his top officers that worked alongside him. Their tombs are quite impressive as well. The instructions in his will for building this thing were very specific. He knew this would be a place where many people came to view him, so when you look down at his tomb, he wants you in a bowing position, and when you view him from the bottom, he wants you looking up to him as if he is your superior. In death, the guy still wanted to feel powerful... go figure!

Ok so here we are "bowing" to him :) as we look over the rail.

And here we are looking up to our "beloved" Napoleon... ridiculous!

He was OBSESSED with the Egyptians, so he wanted to be buried like one. This casket that you see is layered. There are several different ornate boxes that he was placed in...which explains the massiveness!

I know this picture is kind of dark, but this is one of his officers, Foch, who has an iron sculpture of men carrying "him" after death. His body is in the box they are standing on.

As you look up in the tomb, this is the dome. Now this dome had to be hand painted TWICE because when the artist finished it the first time, Napoleons loved it, but it was "too far away." So they built a ceiling that was a bit lower with the exact same look to it. Can you imagine finishing this beautiful master piece after two long years of hard work and your boss tells you to build another ceiling a little lower and re do it.... I might quite!

I highly recommend this when site seeing through Paris.  It's not far from the Eiffel.

Next, we were on the subway over to Montparnasse.

The subway system is very easy to understand. The mail line is the 1 line to see all the major things, all other lines somehow cross one of the stops. It's very easy to travel around the city without using taxis.

The tower has a stop with the name in it, so it's easy to find. You get off the subway, walk upstairs, and you can't miss it. Walk over to the visitor's center and pay 11euro per person. Then you stand in a short line (much shorter than the Eiffel) and ride up 56 floors on the elevator. The view is immaculate. They also have a restaurant up there.

I tried to get a picture of Matt pinching the Eiffel, but it didnt really work :)

On the way down, we were stuffed into an elevator and I happen to be blocking this little Asian girl's view of the screen that counts down the floor. She very quickly motioned me to get the heck out of her way! She was maybe half my height, but I was scared :) I tried to be funny with her making faces as we were going down... well she was less than amused and rolled her eyes not once, but twice at me :) I died laughing when we got off. She probably thought I was nuts! But any American kid would have probably laughed. Not this little one... she was a tough cookie!

We walked back over to the subway station to head to the hotel to grab a jacket and I swear pigeons started flying straight at me. There I am, stupid American, running from pigeons as they fly right at me! Too bad I don’t have any pictures for your viewing pleasure on that one!

 

Then it was time for our last lunch in Paris :( We went back to this great little neighborhood place across from the bakery. This is the gathering place for the area. People from all of the surrounding businesses come to have a small lunch and a drink. It was packed! The guys that run the place are AWESOME! They always waived as we walked by, they always helped us through the menu since we could not read it, and they gave us a very fond farewell as we were leaving ;)

After lunch, we hung out at the hotel for a bit then started out on our journey back to Beauvais. For those who are brave enough to take a RyanAir flight out of "Paris" you have to travel to Beauvais. You take the subway to the Porte Maillot. There is a bus on the opposite side of the station. The trip is 14 euro per person. The buses run 3 hours before each flight. It takes about an hour to get out there with no traffic. The ride is BEAUTIFUL because you get to see the countryside. It's green green green! We were a little nervous about getting out there with plenty of time… well we made it like champs 4 hours before our flight :) We did some good people watching. Our flight left at 9:20 Paris time and got into Rome at 10:50. Then you have to take another bus into the city, which luckily drops you off at Termini (the rail/metro) Station. That station is a couple streets over from our hotel. We walked with 2 backpacks, 2 rolly bags and 2 carry-on bags over to our hotel. We checked in and were in bed by about 1:00 am. Then it was rise and shine at 5:00 am. We headed to our train, which left at 5:52. Got to the airport at 6:30 and checked in. Both of us were in need of some rest, but we had to stick it out a little longer. Then it was on the flight for a quick 2 hour trip to London. It was off the plane in London, and literally on the next. Our flight back was great, even though it felt like it would never end. I slept the first hour or so of the flight then it was on to finish the last 100 pages of my book, The Help. British Airways was wonderful. We will be flying them again, for sure.

Customs was a breeze to get through, even though it took us a good hour. They did not even ask about the wine... thankfully :) Meme and Owen were there to pick us up with our babies along for the ride! I thought Matt was going to cry when he saw his baby Bailey :) I could not wait to get home and just rest.

We went over and had some tacos at Yucatan Taco Stand in Southlake (our favorite local spot at the moment). When we got home I watched some of the shows on the DVR and fell asleep around 9:00 pm. TERRIBLE IDEA! Here I am typing a blog at freaking 5:00 am on Saturday morning.

Leaving Paris- very sadly

We packed our stuff, for hopefully the last time, this morning :(  We headed over to our favorite little pastry shop and had some croissants and some raisin rolls... yummy!  Then it was off to Napolean's tomb... which was excellent.  Since we are sitting in the lobby of our hotel, it's not easy to download pics off the camera to show, but I will include all the pictures in my next post.  After the tomb we headed up to the only sky scrapper in the heart of Paris.  It's called "Montparnasse".  You can go to the top for 11 euro per person and see a 360 view of the city.  It's beautiful!  They have some touristy things you can partake in like a green screen picture that looks likes you are in Paris at night... cheesy!  Overall, I highly recommend that!  Then we sat down for some lunch at the neighborhood cafe that we went to on our first day here.  It was wonderful, as usual.  Now we are headed for the bus that takes us to Beauvais airport (near Tulle).  Then we get into Rome around 10:00 pm to stay one last night at the same hotel we stayed at before, Hotel Angelica.  We have a VERY early morning... 5:00 AM wake up to catch the 5:52 am train from Termini to the airport.  Our flight on BA flies out at 8:00 am.  We get to London Heathrow at 9:40 am and then off to Dallas at 11:00 am.  Meme- we land around 3:00 pm, but we will call you when we pick up our bags.

Paris has been magical with my husband and our honeymoon, overall, was fabulous.  I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I would have done some things different, which I will blog about later... for now... I am soaking in Paris one last time!

Au Revoir!

Louvre, Museum D'Orsay, Notre Dame, more shopping :)

Today was to much fun!  I love traveling with Matt.  We both like to go until we have blisters all over our feet and can't stand up!  Plus, he loves to have an adventure... even if it means getting lost.  My Nani hated when I took her on adventures when I was little.  I would always get us lost and we would have to find our way home.  It's funny now, but she was NOT laughing then :)  Anway, today...

We got up and headed to the Metro.  Can I just say this, WHY IN THE HECK DOESN'T DALLAS HAVE A METRO SYSTEM LIKE!  How easy and wonderful it is to get all over the city of Paris!  We headed to the Louvre.  Now, you must purchase your tickets ahead of time so that you do not have to stand in line.  Go to their website and they have a couple of vendors that you can purchase tickets through.  We chose the "PICK UP" option.  They have these places called "WithDraw Points."  The closest one is in the shopping mall located in the Louvre.  You enter through the Rivoli entrance and head to the Virgin Mobile Store.  You will need your order number and the credit card that you purchased the tickets with.  We did not have our order number, and she refused to look us up by our names, so we hopped over to the apple store, checked my email, got the order number and headed back to pick up our tickets.  Not too much of a hassle.  We did not have to stand in any line except for security to check our bags.  The museum is a zoo this time of year, so we booked it straight to the Mona Lisa.  On the way, we took a few glances at some other artwork, but I wanted Matt to at least see her.

There is a mob of people around her all the time, but it's worth the elbow bumping to get that one magical shot of her! 

Winged Victory of Samothrace

Miss Venus de Milo

One of the HUGE Sphinx

Napolean's Apartment

Matt at the "bar" of Napolean's dining room...

Some of the artwork in the Louvre is GIGANTIC!  I wanted to try and show you all just how large some of them are...

After the Louvre, we headed to Museum D'Orsay... well the line was snacked around and around and around so we decided to book our tickets and see when we could make it back. 

On our way to our next stop we had a quick sandwhich.  I love the sandwhiches at the walk up windows all along the streets.  Here is a great one we ate at.

As we were walking up to Notre Dame, we encountered another begger.  There are these woman that come up to you and ask you "Do you speak English?"  Matt and I have learned to say no and just walk away, but today I was feeling a bit frisky... so I decided to tell her to go away.  Well big mistake.  In her fabulous attempt at cussing me out, she managed to get a good "F YOU" and "Kiss my a%&" OUT :)  I died laughing!  I could not help myself!  

Anway, on to Notre Dame... I had seen the outside before, but I had missed out on the incredible inside.  Here are some shots of the whole thing :)

The stained glass is incredible!

Right near the Notre Dame, some delicious ice cream awates you!  Do not miss out!  It's right across this bridge!

Look for the green awning!

After seeing ND, we headed back to the hotel and booked our tickets to D'Orsay.  We ended up booking them for today.  We had to go back down to the Virgin Mobile Store and pick them up, but it was worth it.  No picture taking in this museum... and what a shame because it was incredible!  Most of you know I am Renoir's biggest fan.  I LOVE THE IMPRESSIONIST PERIOD!  We saw a ton of Manet, Monet, RENOIR, Van Gogh, Degas, Vuillard, Cezanne, and many many many more!  DO NOT MISS OUT ON THIS MUSEUM!

After walking all over the place, I thought for sure my shopping trip was out of the question, but luckily I have the sweetest husband in the entire world and he took me for one last hooray!  Did I mention that I already bought two extra bags?  And by the way, no one (except Mom and Meme) are getting olive oil or wine because we have spent nearly 200 euro already on getting it to Paris and now we will be spending about another 300 euro to get it home.... SORRY ;)  The cheap oil and wine have now become more precious than gold! 

After shopping we came back over to the neighborhood we are staying in and Matt grabbed a slice of Quiche.  I will take pictures of this bakery.  There is always a line out the door and nothing is left after 5:00 pm.  We came back to the hotel and packed our 4 big bags... yes 4 and now I am just about to keep reading and relaxing. 

Christina - I am relaxing... as much as it seems like we are go go go, we have stopped, much because of your advice :)

Kel- I am not coming back to Europe with out you EVER AGAIN!  Seriously!

Tomorrow will be hectic in the afternoon, so whatever we do in the morning, I will try and blog about it!

CIAO!