Visiting the Palace

Today's adventure was travelling to Versailles by train to visit the Palace of Versailles.  This palace was most famously occupied by one of those Louie's (either 14th or 15th).  It took us awhile to find the right train.....but once we were on it, we enjoyed the ride along the Seine River.  Total travel time was approximately 35-45 minutes.

We had bought our tickets online before we had left home, so we only had to wait in 1 line to get in.....one BIG LONG line, but we spent our time chatting with the mother and daughter behind us who were from Indiana and were traveling Europe together for about 3 weeks.  How fun!

 This was outside the front of the palace.  Just a small little place!

 Getting closer to the entrance

 This was the organ inside the private cathedral inside the palace. 

The organ pipes were 2 stories tall

 

 The Hall of Mirrors (because of all the chandeliers).  Very fancy

 A statue in one of the bedrooms.  Hard to get pictures in there due to the amount of people.....crazy!!

Interesting story happened between when the picture above and the picture below were taken.  We were walking out of the palace and made a casual remark to the people behind us and we started a conversation with them.  We spent about 30 minutes at this spot talking with them and found them to be extremely interesting and friendly.

They were from Magnetic Island, Australia and were on a 5 month trip doing house swaps.  We discussed the fact that we were going to be heading out because we hadn't eaten lunch and they promptly offered us some snack/energy bars to hold us over so that we could tour the Marie Antoinette Estate with them.

 The back of the palace

 The water in the distance was half the way to Marie Antoinette's Estate, probably close to 1 mile.  We walked along with our new friends and talked the entire way.  We enjoyed sharing our tales of past and future journies.

 As we finished our tour and were walking back towards the palace, we had the opportunity to walk along this beautiful tree lined path.  Hardly took any pictures, because we were still visiting with our friends.

As we got to the end of the palace tour.....we decided for the 4 of us to head to a close by pub and enjoy wine, beer, and some more interesting conversation.  We ended up sitting there with them for about an hour and a half and then found out they were riding the same train back to Paris as we were.  We started the 30 minute slow walk back to the train station talking the whole way.  We exchanged our e-mail addresses with the promise to keep in touch with each other and try to visit each other's home towns.  We got separated in the train station due to a problem with our pre-paid tickets not being in the right zone, so we had a delay while we got our return ticket to Paris.  Unfortuntately we didn't get to enjoy their company on the train ride back to Paris.  What an interesting couple they were.

In fact, since we have been home we have already exchanged e-mail with them.  They are currently visiting Madeira Island (which is off the coast of Portugal and Morocco).  They promise a more detailed e-mail once they move to their next location and better Wi-Fi.

We'll pick up the rest of the evening when we get off the train in Paris!

Waking up in Paris

Yay!  Our first morning in Paris and we had big plans.  Going to the French Open.  If ever there should be an item on my bucket list, it would have to be such a major international event such as this.

Of course, you need a selfie shot of yourselves on the balcony at the start of your day!

After a quick review of the subway map to figure out how to get there.....we were on our way.  We purchased a 5 day pass for trains, busses, and subways so that we could travel around the city easily.  Our destination was Roland Garros Stadium.  The trip took about 30 minutes.....the time to get in the stadium was probably 90 minutes after going through all kinds of security checks, including getting frisked. 

So after all the time to get inside.....we finally made it.  We grabbed some water and some snacks and managed to get a front row seat to a match with a US female player

We moved around from court to court and watched some great matches.

The day was beautiful and warm.....a great day for tennis and this place was PACKED!

Big screens were on the outside of the main courts so you could see what was happening inside

This guy was loving it.  He loves tennis and enjoyed the entire day

We had a picture of him in front of the standings board at Wimbledon.

He now has a picture of himself standing in front of the standings board at the French Open.

I am so glad that he had the opportunity to get to see this

After the long day in the sun, we hopped on the subway, picked a random spot to get off, picked a random restaurant to eat outside, found a random grocery store to pick up supplies for the apartment, and headed back. 

We had some planning to do for our adventure to Versailles tomorrow!

Bonjour.....we are in Paris!

Sometimes I had to pinch myself to believe I was really on this epic vacation.  Just thinking that we were flying to Paris was unreal.

However, the reality hit pretty fast after we landed at Charles de Gaulle airport, Paris, France.  One of the most confusing airports I've ever been in.  At one point you are in this glass tube on a moving sidewalk and as you look around there are 10 other tubes going all different directions.

Once we got our luggage, found the right place for the bus to take us to a drop off point in Paris (about 30 minutes away), we could finally look at the scenery around us.  It was about 7pm, so the day was almost over.  We took a 10 minute taxi ride from the bus drop off point and got let off at the famous Moulin Rouge.  Our hotel was only 1/2 block down the street from this iconic place.

 We never made it to the show there (although we really wanted to).  They had a dress code and, due to space limitations in our suit case, we didn't have the proper attire necessary.  Oh well....next trip!

 The apartment we rented was in the Red Light District of Paris.  Lots of restaurants and lots of strip clubs in the area.  But......there was always something happening in the area. Biggest benefit....located in awesome area for bus stops and metro station.  Made moving around the city so easy.

 Here was the front entrance to the apartment.  It was a 17th century old building with this old time door and skeleton keys to open the locks.

 It was also in a building with no elevator.  Apartment was on the 4th floor which was equivalent to 5 floors (they count ground floor as the first one) and 83 steps.  Have to say that we really got our stair walking in on this trip.

 This was looking down the center steps 5 floors down.

This was our view off the balcony, where we did enjoy a lot of time sitting on. 

 

We walked around for a bit and then found a pizza place 2 doors down and decided on a pizza and a salad.  Both were delicious, expensive, and different......we enjoyed the meal and the company and talked about all the fun we would have in Paris the next 6 days!

 

 

Auf Wiedersehen to Germany

Our last day in Germany and we woke up to a rainy day.  We weren't going to let that stop us.  Since we had to leave for the airport around 2pm, the decision had been made to explore Frankfurt on this last day.  We really hadn't ventured much past our hotel since we had arrived.

After enjoying another one of those awesome buffet breakfasts the hotel served, we checked out of the hotel.  They held our luggage at the front desk for us so that we could be free while we ran around town.

This time instead of traveling by train, we traveled by subway.  We were searching for Frankfurt's Old Town, which had a museum that we were interested in seeing.

When we popped up out of the subway....we had arrived:

 The buildings looked just like you would imagine German buildings to look

 

 Love this guy.  The rain didn't stop us.....we had come prepared and packed umbrellas

 Luckily though, the rain did stop a lot of tourists from being out and we didn't have to fight any crowds.

We couldn't find the museum we were looking for so we ventured towards the Rhine River, since we had only seen it by train.  Our good fortune brought us to the bridge with all the locks on it.

The idea is you are supposed to lock a padlock on the bridge with your initials (and date on it if you want) and throw the key in the river.  It means you'll be together for ever.  Oh...how romantic.
We did not engage in this activity, but now I'm wishing we had.  Guess we'll have to go back.

 Even in the rain, the scenery was beautiful

 We finally decided on another destination and headed towards the Goethe House. 

Apparently, Goethe is German's most famous author.  Personally, I had never heard of him, however, I really like to look at old houses.....so I was in.

 

Nice house.  Enjoyed my visit there.

 

By now our feet were tired from walking and we still had souvenirs to buy before we left Germany, so we found a nice place to sit for a bit and enjoy a beverage.  We found a Hagen Daz.

As we plotted our next move, we came up with a brilliant plan of something we wanted to do while we were in Paris.  So we sat there on our smart phones and successfully scored the tickets to something big.  (not going to tell you here......you'll find out later in this journey).

 

After picking up beer glasses for everyone and a few other cool German souvenirs, we made our way back to the hotel to pick up our suitcases and head to the airport. 

 

Because the taxi ride from the airport had been so expensive, we decided to be brave and take the train to the airport.  We were a little concerned about having to lug around the suitcases and backpack full of beer glasses......but we made it safely and with no broken glass. 

 

After checking in for our flight, we finally decided to grab some lunch while we waited for our plane.  Airport lunch that is.  Mine was a frankfurter.  Not just one frankfurther, they link them together and give you two on some kind of funky bread.  But it was delicious.  Paul decided on pizza and just ordered one without knowing exactly what all the toppings were.  It came with tuna on it.  I'm sure glad I didn't get that.  He said it wasn't bad.

 

As we waited for our plane, I took some pictures out of the airport window.

It really was a gray rainy day.

But we were only a 1 hour plane ride from Paris.

Can't wait.

 

We'll pick up this amazing adventure in Paris.

Grills Gone Wild

We've been making lots of changes to our lives recently.

One is changing what we eat.  Not that what we ate before was too terribly bad, but just trying to make better choices.

And since the grill gazebo got put together.....I've enjoyed hanging out by the BBQ lately.

Here's what we've been eating this week:

 Chicken wings, corn on the cob, and mushrooms, onions, and cheddar turned into this:

 Makes me hungry just looking at it

 And this pile of veggies turns into this:

 We've got a grill full with this meal

 Tried a new way to make sweet potatoes.....grill the sweet potatoes.  When they are done you sprinkle on a mixture of Cayenne pepper, Salt, and lime zest.  Then top with a little squirt of lime and chopped cilantro.  We rated this recipe an A+ and glad to find another way to make sweet potatoes that doesn't require lots of brown sugar and butter.

And we had another delicious grilled meal for dinner last night...yay us!

 

Now I need to figure out what's happening at this house for dinner tonight.

Finishing our train trip

Koblenz was an amazing place to visit, but we needed to start heading back to Frankfurt.  But we weren't quite ready to go back yet, so we hopped off the train in Bacharach.  I am so glad that we did.  Just looking at these pictures makes me remember this awesome tiny little medieval town.  We were there about 5pm and the town was so deserted and almost nothing open.  But that didn't stop us from exploring the town and walking those cobblestone streets.

The Bacharach train stop

 This was our view when we left the train station

 Main street in Bacharach

 Our walk down this main street led us to a place that served ice cream cones. 

What a perfect treat to enjoy while walking the streets

 You can notice that there isn't any traffic.  What a quiet little town.

 Interesting fact:  we had looked at staying in this town during our visit to Germany. 

I don't think we could have lasted more than a night.....absolutely nothing happening around here after 5pm each day.  But what a wonderful place it would be to stay for a couple of days.

 We took this picture because we couldn't believe where they planted their grapes in their vineyards.....on the sides of the hills surrounding the village.

 It was time to start heading back towards the train stop......but not until we get a couple more shots of some of the amazing things we found here.

 While we waited for the train.....I took some pictures of the scenery around the train station

 Loved it here!

And here comes our train arriving in the station.......headed back to Frankfurt!

 Decided to celebrate our last night in Frankfurt by hitting the beer supply in the wet bar. 

The fancy glasses made it taste better!

 Taking our last pictures out of our hotel room window.  We always felt safe there....since we were right across the street from the Polizei station.

Last day time shot of the train station across the street, and......

......one last shot of the train station from the front at night.  Time for dinner and bed.....we still have until 2pm tomorrow to do sightseeing before we hop on a plane to Paris!