TravelStream™ news feed for member devinwatson on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/devinwatson en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:31:27 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1235162100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1235162100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1235162100/tpod.html Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:31:27 -0400 Traveling England

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Bath, England, United Kingdom

We arrived at our final destination in the beautiful city of Bath. We were dropped in the centre of the city and headed to our destination at the Roman Baths. Again we were very limited on time and only allowed just shy of two hours which was extremely unfortunate. The City of Bath is amazing and I dare say I will be going back there to tour the city itself at some point while out here. This was not our current goal however and we headed down the street to the entrance of the Roman Baths.

The really interesting fact about this place was that it was all spring fed naturally. The water is geothermal heated some 14,000 feet below the surface to temperatures between 64C and 96C and then under pressure rises to the surface through faults and fissures in the limestone. At the lower end of the scale water at around 46C will rise here at a rate of 1,170,000 litres (257,364 gallons) every day and has continued to for centuries. It's also interesting to note that the hot spring was first discovered by a British king named Bladud who built the first baths in 836 BC. However as the name suggests was later captured during the Roman invasion who constructed a temple there in 60-70 AD and then continued to expand on the baths for the next 300 years. When the Romans withdrew from Britain in 5th century the baths were lost in time and eventually destroyed from weather, flooding and silting. They were then rediscovered and reconstruction took place in the 12th and 16th centuries. This rebuilding is what remains there today. While most of the buildings are in fact in ruins the main bath area is still mostly intact as it was protected when the roof collapsed in on it. This is where our tour began after passing another ludicrous price for entry.

The main bath area stands now with no roof and the water is advised against touching for reasons explained later. You start off on the balconies above the baths and shuffle along at your own pace reading information boards and getting a nice view below. After this your lead through a maze of artifacts and ruins below the streets of Bath that was once the many buildings surrounding the main bath. Most are completely ruined but pictures and information was everywhere showing what it would have looked like. You eventually walk past the drain that takes the excess water down to the river and is an interesting site as you suddenly feel like you are in a cave as hot water and lime scale covers the walls.

Eventually you make your way out to the ground level of the main bath and we had to of course touch it to see how hot it was even though there signs everywhere telling you not too. The water in the Roman Baths today is considered unsafe because of the lead pipes it travels through as it's channelled into all the baths. However the real reason that it is now closed and against touching is because of infectious diseases. In 1979 a girl swimming in the then open bath swallowed some of the water and died 5 days later from a species of amoeba. The pool was then closed and remains closed today. We were very surprised to find it extremely warm even with no roof protecting it and you can even see fine steam rising from the surface. We then made sure not to touch our eyes or mouth until we washed our hands. While not being able to enjoy the baths anymore was unfortunate up until recently. In 2006 a new bath site was built known as the 'Therma Bath Spa' with new holes drilled leading to the geothermal vents and now allows visitors to enjoy the baths once more safely. However we didn't have time to go experience it, a goal for the next visit to Bath I think.

We then wandered around the connecting rooms which were full of smaller baths and saw how they used the steam from the water to heat the floors. The entire original flooring was hollow underneath with pillars every foot or so holding them up. Steam was then pumped through the hollow heating the rock floor. It got so hot in fact that you had to wear sandals the entire time or risk burning your feet. We then made our way over to the wishing pool where they found the largest collection of roman coins in Britain when the site was excavated. The Romans didn't exactly understand geothermal heating in those days and believed the natural baths to be the work of gods. It was believed that if you threw coins or messages into the pool that the gods would grant your wishes. Most of the messages found were of stolen goods and feuds in which they asked there robbers be punished for their sins and theft. We had to of course throw some change in and make some wishes although I don't think any gods will be granting my wishes for a 10 pence donation.

While most of the site is in ruins however the tour is incredibly well set up and provides lots of information and depictions of what it would have looked like. I really enjoyed the tour and seeing some of ancient history. They are still working to improve it further and I was already impressed by it so it should only get better. There were again some audio guides but we didn't take them this time as we were getting sick of holding them to our ear at this point and there were enough information boards to fill in what we needed to know. I would have to say it is a must see but would be better enjoyed if one was to plan a day trip to bath and take in the Roman Baths as well as the city itself. We had some time to wander around but it was only about 20 minutes and I was very disappointed we couldn't see more.

We piled back on the bus and commenced our 3 hour journey back to London followed by another 2 hours to back to Oxford. I lost count of how much time we actually spent on the bus but it was a large portion of our day. We never made it back into Oxford till about 11pm and had left our house at 6:30am. Considering we had 2 hours in Windsor, 40 minutes in Stonehenge, and 2 hours in Bath, that is a lot of travel time for what we spent sightseeing.

Lessons learned on this trip is that it's great to take a bus journey to see some of the harder to reach areas of the country but the amount of commute and the time restrictions at locations is a pain in the arse. While we had enough time at Stonehenge, I could have easily spent an entire day in Windsor and an additional day in Bath. So we got to see lots but again we never really got full enjoyment out of it as you were constantly looking at your watch and having to rush to get back to the bus on time. However we made the best of it and it was an enjoyable and exciting day. All this sightseeing and history lessons is starting to arouse a bit of a history buff in me. I never really enjoyed history all that much but after visiting sights like we did today I find myself researching and reading a lot about what we saw. It's a lot more exciting to read about when you have actually been there and seen it firsthand.
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Stonehenge, England, United Kingdom

Our next stop on our journey was Stonehenge. I really don't think it needs an introduction other than to say they believe it to be first built somewhere between 3100 BC and 2500 BC and construction spanning centuries. They still have no idea how it was built or for what purpose as the stones had to be brought 250 kilometres from the Preseli Hills and weighing upwards of 50 tons a block. There were no real tools back then and one can only speculate as to how they could have achieved this. Another interesting thing to note is that the site was in a lot worse ruins than it is today. It was restored in 1901, 1958 and finally in 1963 which included standing stones back up as they had fallen and concreting them from their withered state back to what they would have looked like. I included a picture that I found on the net of what it looked like back in 1877 before all the restorations were done.

For any that don't know Stonehenge was almost on the top of my list of things I wanted to see in Europe. It goes without saying that I was over the top excited to finally go see it. The bus pulled into a parking lot situated beside it and we were again pushed through some tourist trap stuff and would have been charged a £8.00 entry fee just to see some stones in a field. We were again handed audio tour guides and made our way to the monument. You aren't allowed to go near it anymore for risk of damage and there is a large paved path surrounding it that you can walk around. The audio guide was mostly useless only really offering the advantage of explaining what some of the stones were and offering some obscene theories to its construction including giants, dragons and wizards. It was also fairly windy and cold at the time and holding your hand up to your head was starting to hurt and get cold fast.

My first impressions of Stonehenge were actually a little disappointing. I expected it to be a lot bigger than it was and the ability to get closer. When you see all the documentaries it always looks so cool but when you are really standing there it kind of loses some of its mystical persona and just becomes rocks in a field. You also don't get those fancy computer generations of what it would have looked like in its prime to aid you. We did our 360 around it and got lots of pictures and only had 40 minutes till we had to be back on the bus. I don't want to say it was not worth going to see as it was but it certainly wasn't as amazing as I expected. The fact it's in the middle of nowhere and in a field didn't help either. It doesn't take long to do a circle around it and you find yourself standing there 20 minutes later saying "Alright seen it". In the end the one thing I really wanted to see turned out to be not all that amazing. However that being said even now when I look back at the pictures I'm in awe again. You see the pictures and suddenly it looks incredible and amazing again. I think it all boils down to Stonehenge being this amazing mystical place but when you go there the reality consumes you and it's just rocks in a field. Never the less it was really cool to see and I'm glad we went.

Where Windsor Castle was something I didn't want to see and had turned out to be amazing. I'm certainly glad we went so we can say we saw it but that's about all you take away. So pictures taken we headed for the bathrooms and then back on the bus, which didn't have a bathroom I might add and was very annoying considering the length of some jaunts. Another check mark on the list of life goals has been crossed off.

2 hour bus ride later...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1235161500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1235161500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1235161500/tpod.html Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:10:51 -0400 Traveling England

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Windsor, England, United Kingdom

Scott had the week off for term break and while his other days off we used to travel we decided from a financial point we still wanted to travel but keep it closer to home this time. There were still some things here in England that we wanted to see and booked a bus tour to knock some of them off our list. It was a one day tour leaving from London early in the morning and returning after supper. The game plan was to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and finally The Roman Baths. These three locations are fairly spread out and we never really thought about how much of that we would spend on a bus but booked it anyway. We were up and out of the house at the joyful time of 6:30 once again.

2 hours of walking and bus rides later...

Departing at 8:30 from London we were off and on our way. The bus was decent comfortable and completely full. There was actually a group of six American couples in front of us as well that we picked off almost right away as they didn't have accents. They seemed to be doing some traveling and from what we gathered were in Rome before coming to London.

2 hour bus ride later...

Our first stop was Windsor Castle, for those that don't know it is the weekend home for the Queen of England. It's located in Windsor, England and is the largest inhabited castle in the world and the oldest in continuous occupation. From what I gather it's in the neighbourhood of 650+ years old. It's hard to say for sure as they demolished a pre-existing castle in order to build this one and there have been a lot of expansions and additions over the years. One of our main goals coming out here was we really wanted to see a castle and we certainly picked one for the ages to go see. When you arrive you can see it in the distance as it's perched up on a hill overlooking the town and from the outside it looked massive but nothing really spectacular. The bus dropped us by the train station and we walked through a market and were right at the base of the castle when we emerged. After waiting in a queue to get through where you pay (our admissions were provided in the tour) we were inside the vast walls surrounding it. We were handed an "audio tour guide" which is basically a walky talky looking thing with numbers on it (in the pictures when it looks like we are holding phones that's the audio guides). As you follow the IKEA style line through the place there are signs telling which number to enter on the tour guide to hear about the rooms and there history.

You move around the outside of the castle getting some views of the cathedral and other buildings in the courtyards and eventually turn up at the stats. This is where the real tour begins and we start traveling through the vast and never ending rooms that make up the castle. We were also informed that the changing of the guard's ceremony was today so we wanted to go see that depending on how fast we could tour the castle. We only had two hours until we had to be back on the bus and as we later discovered that goes really fast and was not nearly enough time. When I mentioned the IKEA style it is very true as red ropes guide you through the entire castle with no hope of escaping until you reach the end. We started our tour at the doll house and then made our way to the Royal Gallery of paintings by numerous famous people that have been collected over the years. After that we began the big tour of all the states rooms.

The states rooms were the most incredible experience I have ever had. Unfortunately you were not allowed to take pictures at all inside the castle so you won't be able to see what we saw. I never really planned on going to Windsor Castle while we were out here but I'm really glad that we did. This will go down as the one place I didn't intend to visit but would recommend as a must see to anyone who follows. The rooms are massive with huge cathedral ceilings which are covered in murals and paintings on the walls and roof. With the audio guide to listen to we were moving at very slow pace as we just stood in awe of every room that we walked into and listened to the explanations of all the paintings and what the rooms were used for. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail of what it was like inside as I think the mystery and how incredible it was must be seen. It's something so incredible that words would just not do justice.

We were about half way through when we finally looked at our watches and realized that we had already used an hour and a half of our two hour time limit. We had to cut the rest of the tour short and stopped listening to the audio guides and just walked through the rest at an unfortunate pace. If there's one thing I regret on this trip so far it's not having enough time there. We still got to see everything but would have really loved to listen to more of the audio tour as it really brought the rooms to life filling in all the history and purpose of them. We didn't have time though and sucked it up and made for the light at the end of the long tunnel.


When we finally got back outside we had missed the first half of the 'Changing of the Guards Ceremony' but were able to rush down and catch the end and see the famous guards for the first time. Unlike all the stories you hear of them not being able to move because of the ceremony they were marching and moving all over. Two by two they would march down the hill and be meet at the guard house by the captain who would do an inspection before they retired to the guard house. There was a band standing idle at this point but we knew something was coming. We stood and watched for a while but it was most of the same thing until you get to the end so we quickly headed over to the Cathedral and burned through it in about three minutes. I'd like to say we wished we could have spent more time there as well but once you see one Cathedral here you have pretty much seen them all. It was extravagant and amazing but we had seen the likes before and were really running out of time now.

We watched the end of the Ceremony where the band played two songs then proceeded to march in a group formation out the front gates of the castle. Unannounced to us this meant we could not exit the castle until they had gone through and moved on as it was blocked by police and other guards. We only had about five minutes to catch our bus but were trapped in the massive walls of the castle and had to wait it out. We noticed some people from our bus standing around so we weren't the only ones and hoped that they would know that people got trapped. The band marching out was pretty neat to see as they kept perfect formation and stepped together as one. The Captain or whoever at the front shouting commands the whole way out.

We eventually escaped and rushed to the bus and it was still waiting for us but we were almost the last group back. We counted our lucky stars and crawled back into our seats. Windsor Castle for me will remain as the one place I never intended to visit but am so glad that I did not miss. It's definitely a must see to any traveller coming to England. On the way out of the town of Windsor we drove past the equestrian and horse track that houses the royal weekend festivals once a year as well. We obviously didn't stop but got a good view from the bus and some fun facts and history on it.

2 hour bus ride later...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1233942660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1233942660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1233942660/tpod.html Wed, 18 Feb 2009 12:53:23 -0500 Traveling England

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Oxford, England, United Kingdom

This is not going to be much of an entry but I just wanted to let everyone know that we awoke this morning to wonderful news. After 24 years of waiting I finally got a Snow Day!! It had been snowing heavily throughout the entire night and they ran out of grit to put on the roads. I checked the interweb and sure enough the buses were not running. The city had shutdown. With a large grin on my face I crawled back into my warm bed to enjoy my first and probably last ever Snow Day.

We didn't really do anything that day aside from sleep in and hang around the house. I found out later that the unlucky souls at the hospital (my work) that lived nearby and did make it to work were sent home at 2pm as they were shutting down the hospital for fear of people getting snowed in. The snow at this point was maybe 10-20cm on the ground. They kept the emergency staff on but all other staff was sent home.

We were supposed to get more snow on Sunday but it had warmed up over the weekend and didn't get cold enough for it to turn to snow. However it still caused problems as we still got the rain it just didn't freeze. We received between 25-35mm of rain that night which is a normal month's rain fall. Combined with the previous snow it was causing flooding all over the place especially in South and South East England. There were some pictures in the paper of raging rivers and lots of flooding but we didn't see any of it, just lots and lots of rain.

They still can't believe that I have never had a snow day before living in Canada and all the stories we told. I then explained to them that we would wake up in the morning and unbury our car from the foot of snow that fell during the night, plow through drifts of two feet or more, visibility a couple blocks, raging -31 blizzards and still make it to work on time driving on pure ice. The general consensus still remains that we are idiots for living where we do. I prefer to think of it as rugged and adaptable.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1233859080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1233859080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1233859080/tpod.html Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:01:06 -0500 Traveling England

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Oxford, England, United Kingdom

You may or may not have heard but Britain is currently getting slammed by blizzards. It all started last Sunday when reports started coming in of a massive blizzard headed our way coming from Russia. While our Canadian blood kicked in and we got very excited the country however panicked. They are not equipped to deal with snow and we were really looking forward to the prospects of a Snow Day and the aftermath of a blizzard hitting. Sunday night brought down 20cm of snow on the great city of London and when we awoke on Monday morning we had also received a few cm. Just a skiff really as the main storm missed us and passed right by. London however had received the worst snow fall in 18 years and was crippled as news was pouring across the radio in the morning. Both airports had closed, all trains had stopped, all bus's were not running, and every school and work place had been closed, the city had literally shut down completely. I heard later that day that one plane took off from Heathrow and the second slid off the runway while taxing out so they immediately shut the airport down. Gatwick didn't even attempt to land or let any planes take off. A lot of the problem came in the fact that temperature wise it was still hovering around 0 meaning the snow was extremely dense and heavy. We call it perfect snow ball weather but for a city unprepared it clearly cripples them to their knees.

We on the other hand were very disappointed as we didn't get the promised snowfall. The skiff we did receive had melted by noon and it was back to plan old Oxford. We had high hopes however as snow was predicted all week and we really wanted to have a snow day just so we could say we did because it never happens in Canada. Tuesday was uneventful not bringing any of the promised snow. Wednesday was the same story. However Wednesday night before crawling into bed I noticed a familiar sight out my window as snow was trickling down. I looked out and there was just enough to cover the road and cars but it was now well below 0 as it was night and didn't look to be letting up. Thursday morning was like Christmas morning as I looked out my window as soon as my alarm went off and saw what appeared to be a good 10cm-20cm of snow. The cars were caked in it on all sides as it was again a very sticky wet snow.

Unfortunately the radio station only brought good news for one of us. Scott's school had closed and he had just received his first official snow day. Aimee and I however were destined to still go to work. The buses were still running and as far as we knew the hospital was still open. I'm kind of glad in the long run that I did go though as I got to see some of how Oxford deals with snow. For starters every single school in 100 miles had closed down so kids were pouring out onto the streets to play in the rare snow. Once I left the house I started laughing as I was watching people try to clean their cars in the parking lot. One lady was using a 2L bottle to try and scrap the 10-20cm of snow off her car. Another had the household broom out and was pushing it off. A third was using a hand held dustpan and little broom as a sweeping scooping combination. And the funniest was a girl using her scraper. Out here they do actually have window scrapers however that is all they are, little tiny scrapers used mostly for frost so they don't even have the teeth like ours do on the back. They defiantly do not have a broom sticking out one side and people were forced to improvise. So she was trying to undig her car by taking a 3 inch wide strip at a time most of which wasn't coming with anyway as it just went over the scraper.

I got to my first bus stop and the bus showed up right on time and headed to where I switch buses. Unfortunately I missed the connection and had to wait for the next bus but was again glad it happened. The second bus stop is on top of a hill with a steep slope on the other side of the sidewalk. Next thing I know kids start showing up to go tobogganing (they call it sledging here). Now if you think hard here they never get snow so they in turn probably don't own toboggans. The first batch of kids that showed up were holding bin lids (basically a large rubber maids lid) they had tied string to one end as a handle to hold onto and started going down the hill on there now dual purpose lids. A couple more kids showed up and they had skateboards that they had quickly taken the wheels off and planned to snowboard down the hill but had a hard time staying balanced. Then my favourite showed up, some kids with large cardboard boxes. However they were at least somewhat smart about it and had encased the cardboard boxes in garbage bags. I'm pretty sure everyone at the bus stop thought I was weird as I chuckled to myself watching kids tobogganing in boxes.

Once I got on the bus and we started going I noticed that the rolls had suddenly been reversed. While we had been the tourists taking pictures the whole time now as I looked out all the locals were walking around with cameras snapping pictures like mad. To them this was new and exciting, to me I just felt like I was back home. I also pass quite a few schools on my way and there were kids everywhere. Due to the warm weather accompanying the snow you can imagine what they were doing. It was an all out snowball war spanning every street and park in sight. Snowmen were popping up like rabbits all over lawns, sidewalks, and even some in the middle of roads. The one park we passed had a mob of six kids pushing a snowball across the park. Only thing was it had reached a height of nearing five feet and it was taking all of them to keep it moving. I laughed and thought to myself there never going to get the second part of that snowman on there. Pretty sure it's not what they were doing but it was amusing. They also need some lessons in making snowballs as most of the kids were making balls the size of their heads before lobbing it at their friends. While it made a much bigger bang most were dodged.

When I got to work I was surprised to find that almost half of the hospital staff had not shown up. In our office alone housing 10 people only 4 including myself had come in. I found this mind boggling as the roads themselves were actually fine. It had already crept above 0 and the streets were just wet and slushy instead of icy. However I guess here when you see snow you panic and don't even bother trying to go anywhere. I would say about ¾ of the patients didn't show up either making the hospital very quiet and empty which was unusual to see. This would be the point where I proclaim that the British are a bunch of babies. Little bit of snow hits the ground and they all cower in fear in their houses. That being said though it was rather interesting to see their reactions to it. While the first snowfall in Canada brings doom and gloom and moans and groans it was a different story out here. Everyone thought the city was so beautiful and were so excited that they poured outside to play in the snow in flocks. To us snow is nothing but to them it only happens every 20 years or so. We have had skiffs of snow here and there but it always melts within hours of daylight and is never amounts to anything. This was a full on dump of snow and nobody could believe their eyes.

I was immediately met with the comment "do you feel at home now?" when I got to work. I have had a lot of fun explaining to people out here what it's like in Canada in winter and they are all amazed at the stories. I love telling them it's -45 and we have four feet of snow by now. They cannot even fathom or imagine the stories I tell of blizzards and unburying your car after a blizzard casts a drift of snow across it. They have no idea what snow tires, block heaters, or even snow blowers and I have had to explain it to them numerous times. The general feedback is we are crazy and they don't know how anyone could live where we do in the conditions we do. They don't have plows out here but they do have sanders. They call it grit and not sand but it's the same idea as they drive down the street spraying it everywhere. However due to the large amount of snow that has fallen and how long it lasted in the area the headlines in the news proclaimed today that they are actually running out of grit to put on the roads. I love laughing at them on how the whole city grinds to a halt as soon as snow hits the ground here and how our cities only close if it drops below -60. We will drive threw three feet of snow the next morning after a big blizzard and not even think anything of it.

As the day comes to a close were expected to get an additional 10cm of snow tonight and I'm crossing my fingers that it happens and tomorrow the city shuts down. Half of the snow melted today as temperatures hit 2C and what remains is a slushy mucky mess. If and when the temperature drops tonight it's all going to freeze and all that water on their roads is going to turn into pure ice. Some snow added on top of that and I can pretty much guarantee the city will shut down. It's also worth mentioning here that there roads are made of tarmac instead of ash fault as they don't have to deal with them cracking over winter. Tarmac however is way smoother and gets extremely slippery when coated with ice and is going to cause havoc tomorrow if it does freeze. So fingers crossed and as long as that blizzard keeps coming we might get our first ever snow day.

.... to be continued
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Paris, Île-de-France, France

Being our last day in Paris we packed up our packs and were about to have a trial run of what it is like to wear them all day as our train didn't leave till 8:30pm that night. They were actually rather light as it was mostly clothes and we were fine up until around supper time then it was starting to wear on us. We checked out of the hotel and headed down to the Eiffel Tower again as we wanted to take a boat tour and they left from near there.

When we got there, there were numerous ones to choose from but we picked one that was about a two hour journey and went up the river heading East and then back down. It was rather cold that day and very windy and being on the water was not helping as we got there about ten minutes before departure so all the covered seats were already taken and we were outside at the back of the boat. Sitting still wasn't helping either as you were right in the wind with no shelter and not moving to keep warm.

We were a little worried at first as the speakers started talking in French that the whole tour would be in French (something we never thought to check) but luckily they had English immediately following the French. It was actually rather weird at first as we are used to hearing English then French but we were in there country now and had been demoted down the totem pole. It was a very nice journey and we got to see a lot of buildings that we otherwise wouldn't have walking around. Having little blurbs about what they were and some history was rather nice as well, putting some stories to the architecture. The trip back down the river after we turned around was much more enjoyable as we now had the wind on our backs and finally started to actually warm up. It only cost us 12 Euro each for the trip and it was defiantly worth looking into if you are ever in Paris. There are even hop-on-hop-off tours where they dock at all the major landmarks and you can get off and then back on later. Kind of like a bus service, we didn't go this way however as we had already seen most of it and just wanted the guided tour. There are also plenty of floating restaurants that load at the dock and then slowly cruise up the river while you enjoy your meal in an all glass enclosure. It would probably be pretty expensive but a lot of fun if you timed it right as the sun was going down.

After getting off the boat we had a few landmarks we still wanted to see and carried on our way. We stopped in a little sandwich shop on the way and got some muffins and coffee to warm us up and serve as a lunch. We then headed over to the Musee Du Louvre where we wanted to see the pyramid but that was about it. It costs to take a tour and it would also consume probably an entire day in itself if you actually wanted to go inside. For those that don't know the Louvre Museum is a art museum, a historic monument, and a national museum of France. It has over 35,000 rare paintings and statues and covers an area of 60,000 square meters (652,300 square feet). It used to be the Louvre Palace which began as a fortress built in the 12th century under Philip II. It was then extended many times and constant revamps to become what it is today. Most of you will know it as the museum that houses the Mona Lisa it was also used in the book "The Da Vinci Code" but I won't say why ;)

The subway actually pops you out inside part of the palace where they have the reverse pyramid of glass hanging from the roof which we were glad about as we didn't really know where it was. We then found our way outside and got our pictures of the main pyramid and some arch's and carried on back to the metro to go see our final landmark the Notre Dame De Paris.



Notre Dame de Paris is widely considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. The name Notre Dame means "Our Lady" in French and was one of the first Gothic cathedrals with its construction spanning the entire Gothic period. Its construction began in 1163 and wasn't completed till 1345. The cathedral then suffered desecration during the radical phase of the French Revolution in the 1790s, when much of its religious imagery was damaged or destroyed. During the 19th century, an extensive restoration project was completed, returning the cathedral to its previous state.


We again wanted to go inside to see the legendary organ and architecture but the line-up was huge and decided against it and instead just did a tour of the outside walking around. Once we were bored we began to pounder what we would do for the rest of our time. It was only 4pm and we still had quite a bit of time to kill as we planned to head to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at 7pm and then continue onward to our train. Scott mentioned the idea that we could head down to the Le Defense and take a gander around there and we all agreed as we had nothing better to do.



It was something we never really planned to go see but we were really glad that we did in the end. Paris is a very old looking city with all the buildings made of stone and dating back to years that I can't even begin to try to imagine. When we came up from the metro in Le Defense we couldn't believe our eyes. For starters we came up right beside the legendary Grande Arche which I had mentioned earlier. Construction of it began in 1982 and was completed in 1990. The Arche is almost a perfect cube with dimensions of 108m in width, 110m in height, and 112m deep (360 feet). For those that are keeping track that's as tall as the 2nd floor of the Eiffel Tower. It is said you can take Notre Dame and actually fit it perfectly inside the hole in the middle with room to spare. On top of that it's not just another pretty building but is actually functional housing offices in the sides and a gallery in the roof. However the large hole in the middle takes away a lot of what could be useful space.

Because we had come up right underneath it we couldn't even get a decent picture at first as it wouldn't fit in the cameras view. We eventually did by walking farther back but it was pretty impressive considering it was completely hollow in the middle. The big thing that took us back was how we had gone from centuries old buildings to standing in downtown New York. We were surrounded by glass skyscrapers as far as the eye could see and words can't really describe how odd it was. Most cities have all there skyscrapers in the middle but here Paris had it way out on the cities border and had just piled them all together. And these weren't just your everyday square buildings. One thing about Paris is they don't build anything normal. Every single skyscraper had a unique flare and design to it that we had seen. Not one was alike and they were amazing pieces of architecture for the new age. We had noticed this when we were on the Eiffel Tower as well looking out as there are some other taller office buildings scattered about the city. They were all straight out of a fiction novel and at times you questioned how they even stayed standing. They are probably the coolest and most amazing examples of modern building and I'm really glad we took some time to go see it.

We later found out that around the Grande Arche which has become the unofficial centre point of the area housing Paris's tallest high-rises. Le Defense covers over 77.5 acres, houses 72 skyscrapers and has 37.7 million square feet of office space making it Europe's largest business district.

I guess a lot of the shock for us came in the fact that we had been living in Oxford for so long that we forgot what skyscrapers looked like as they just don't exist in Europe like they do in Canada or the States. Every city doesn't have them; in fact most don't at all. The country is older than dirt and the buildings reflect that as they go to great lengths to keep it that way. In fact Chris always jokes to us that his house is older than our entire country (Canada). They don't want to create an eye soar of a skyscraper in the middle of century old buildings. After going 6 months without seeing a single building made of glass and then walking into the middle of 72 of them was just mind boggling.

There happened to be a market as well and we had a blast wandering around in although everything was insane expensive. We walked through there for a while then continued on to some dancing fountains and sculptures that were nearby. After that we saw our first McCafe which is basically a McDonalds Star Bucks. As if they don't have enough shops around now they're putting up coffee shops as well. We grabbed some food and headed back to the metro to return to the Eiffel Tower for the sparkling and lights.

It was rather odd standing there staring at the tower all lit up just waiting for it to sparkle. A large crowd was gathering and I made the comment that it's like waiting for fireworks as people hold the cameras ready to snap away. When the magical moment came there was even a cheer as the sea of cameras starting going off. We got some really nice shots then just stood there for about 10 minutes as a final farewell to Paris. What better way to say goodbye then to stand and gaze upon the Eiffel Tower as it sparkled away in the night.



We then said our goodbyes and headed to the train station where we would begin our long journey home. We were training it all the way till we hit Didcot and which point we actually had to switch to a bus replacement as the trains were not running to Oxford anymore. And I can see why as 1:30am in the morning as we got on the bus only two others got on as well and the train that took us that far were virtually empty with only 4-5 people in each car. We eventually made it home by around 2:30am and crawled into the wonderful home bed that you always look forward too. I in particular as the ones in the hotel were extremely soft and completely destroyed my back as I woke up almost crippled every morning with extreme lower back pain. Good old back injury popping up just to let me know it's still around.

In closing the trip was to die for and everything we wanted. It was a little more expensive than we expected but we will recover. However I can honestly say that I will be going back at some point in the future. We were only there for three days and there was so much to see that we kind of "rushed" seeing everything just because we had so little time. While it worked and we saw everything we wanted we never got to truly see it all. I would love to go back and spend an entire day at Garden's of Versailles and tour the palace as well as spend some time wandering the gardens in the summer. I want to spend a day at the Louve and actually walk through all the exhibits, would love to go in the Notre Dame cathedral and see it. There are also a couple other museums there I would like to go to, so there is still plenty to do in Paris. Now that we have seen everything we need to explore everything. However time and money were short and we really enjoyed what we did do and see and you have to save something to look forward to.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230316440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230316440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230316440/tpod.html Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:55:02 -0500 Traveling England

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

We wanted to get up nice and early to try and beat the crowd but didn't have a means of alarm clock so we had to just hope to wake up at a decent time. We did however get up around nine so it wasn't all that bad as the tower doesn't open till ten. So we ate some breakfast then headed to the metro to catch the three trains to the Eiffel Tower.

When we got there it was just as busy as the other day when we were walking around in the afternoon so we didn't beat anything. The army men were still wandering around as well but there wasn't as many this time. The nice thing about the Eiffel Tower is you can go up all four legs which helps spread the crowd out a bit. Unfortunately for us the West tower leg was closed as they were doing renovations to the lift. This left us with the other three to deal with, two of which had huge lines and one which was about a quarter as long as the other two. We soon realized why after deciphering some signs. The other two legs were running the lifts so the lines were a lot longer as you had to wait for the lift going up and down. The really short line was not running its lift and strictly stair access.

We had discussed it the previous day about how to get up and I was determined to actually climb the stairs and not cheap out and take the elevators. Luckily Scott and Aimee agreed so I didn't have to climb them alone. If you're going to go up the Eiffel Tower you have to climb it for real, not be lazy and take the lifts. Within 20-30 minutes of waiting we had our tickets which gave us access up to the 2nd floor. Tickets to go to the top were sold on the 2nd floor separately. It ran us 3.10 Euro each and then an additional 4.20 to get from the 2nd floor to the top. Actually surprisingly cheap but when you consider it has around 7 million visitors a year they probably bring in a nice chunk of change. That's not even including the people that don't climb it and just walk around it. The running total from opening till December 31, 2007 has reached a staggering 236,445,812 paying visitors. So tickets in hand we began the first leg of 328 steps to get to the first floor.

I'm sure most of you know the story of the tower but here's a quick rundown again. The tower was designed by Gustave Eiffel and built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle (World Fair celebrating the French Revolution). It is the most visited paid monument in the world and including the 24m antenna it stands 325m (1,063 ft, roughly 81 stories) high. When completed it was the world's tallest building and retained the title till 1930 (41 years) when New York City's Chrysler Building finally stole the title away. The first floor is 57m (187 ft, 14 stories) high, the second is 115m (377 ft, 29 stories), and the final top area is where you stand is 276m (905 ft, 69 stories). It's made entirely of Iron and is repainted every 7 years with over 60 tons of paint and takes about two years to finish painting. And an interesting fact I found was during the construction only one person died. I would have put the number way higher considering when it was built and that they didn't use safety lines back then but apparently Gustave was very safety paranoid and used movable staging's, guard-rails and screens to protect the 300 workers.

All and all it's very big and kind of creeps you out a bit when you're climbing the first 328 stairs to the 1st floor. They have cages all around the stairs but you can still see out fine and you're surrounded by nothing but beams of iron. The openness of it was even getting to me and I'm not usually afraid of heights. It was also a very cold day at around 0C (yes I know that's nothing compared to back home). There was also a very strong wind even at ground level and the humidity was around 80% so it cut threw you like crazy. It was only going to get windier the higher we went as well so we were trying our best to keep our faces covered while we ascended. Having only stopped once on the way up, we finally made it and got an amazing view of the city as we finally were above all the buildings. There was a bunch of restaurants and souvenir shops on the floor as well which I didn't really expect but after seeing wasn't really surprised either.

We tended to stick to the West and North side as it was really windy and cold on the other sides. We got some nice pictures and then carried on our way up the additional 340 steps bring our total now to 677 (there was 9 steps leading to the beginning of the stairs at the bottom also, just in case Rene actually checked my math). The first set of stairs must have gave us a nice warm-up because this time we didn't stop to rest and just carried on right up all the stairs. They were also kind enough to write the number of stairs you have climbed every 15 stairs or so just in case you lost count. We are still trying to decide if it helped motivate us onward or was simply a depressant. The second floor was a lot of the same as the first only it was colder and smaller but still housing more shops and restaurants. You also got a better view of some of the landmarks around as even on the first floor some were still blocked by the insane number of tall buildings around. There were pictures on this floor scattered around the edges showing a picture of the view and then pointing to different buildings explaining what they were. It was a nice touch to be able to actually pinpoint and name some of the buildings although we couldn't read what they actually were just their names.

Having conquered the bulk of the stairs we only had 15 more to go to get to the lifts to take us to the top. There were no stairs to take from the 2nd floor to the top although I imagine there probably was in case of an unlikely fire or lift breaking, but they weren't for normal climbing. It is also twice the distance of any of the floor gaps so it would be a lot of stairs. At this point we had conquered the 692 stairs and can now officially say we have climbed the Eiffel Tower. However our journey was not over, we still had to reach the top of the Eiffel Tower. Shivering in the cold and queuing up for a nice long wait we stood there to get on the lifts. However if you're going to stand in a queue for something I don't think we could have picked a better spot as the line wrapped around the Tower leaving you the view over the city while you waited.

It probably took an additional 20-30 minutes in that line before we made it to the lift station. There were four lifts which they packed as tight as Tokyo subway trains. We crammed in and as the doors shut we noticed that the walls were not walls but rather glass. Aimee had once said during one of our random conversations out here that she really wanted to ride a glass elevator. For some reason this stuck with me and as soon as we left the platform the steel was gone and we were staring out onto the city as the elevator climbed to the top. I turned to Aimee and said well now you have ridden a glass elevator and was meet with a glare and the response of "Not this high up". Scott was feeling the effects a bit too as you stared out into the city while in your little stuffy elevator 200ish meters above the ground. I quite enjoyed the view on the other hand, I felt safer in the elevator than I did when we were on the stairs actually. I think it was part of the fact on the stairs you can see down and it's the ground below you and that you can feel the wind and elements so you tend to feel more vulnerable. Whereas now you couldn't really can't see down below your feet and were in a box.

The elevator moves rather quickly and is controlled by a worker stuffed in the corner on a chair (be a sweet job to have). When the doors opened it was the other side of the elevator to let us off to avoid the mass of people trying to get back on the elevator to go back down. We were in an observation area that was enclosed with glass but left you with a breathtaking view of the city, which for the record extended as far as you could see. There was no grass or farm land out there, just endless buildings. At this point I was actually slightly disappointed as I thought it would be open and wanted to feel the wind on my face 300m up in the air above Paris. We wandered around taking some pictures and I noticed a staircase leading up and what appeared to be an open observation area. I was immediately sold and started to climb with the others eventually following me even though we were still cold and knew it would be really cold up here. It was in fact what I had hoped for and a wide open observation area with only a small fence to block your view. I was in heaven the view was so amazing and while it was cold the aspect of being in the wind and fresh air just added to the peacefulness of the moment. We did wander around to the two windy sides but quickly retreated back to the other side's as your hands turned red almost instantly taking pictures over there.

We spent a decent amount of time up there just enjoying the view and eventually headed back to the elevators to begin our decent. Upon reaching the second floor again I was half deciding on whether to take the stairs down or just cheap out and take the elevator. Aimee was freezing and couldn't feel her toes or hands so we decided to just take the elevator as we did the stairs once and that was good enough. The elevator from the second floor to the bottom (also stops at first floor but then continues down) was an interesting one. While the elevator to the top was a single floor vertical elevator this was neither. It was a double-decker elevator allowing for more passenger movement in shorter times. On top of that because of the shape of the tower a conventional vertical elevator wouldn't work. The elevator had to actually travel not only down but to the side as well as it descended to follow the shape of the legs. This created a very weird sensation when it first started moving as you normally expect just a pull upwards, this time the pull upwards was also coupled with a pull to the side that I was not ready for and almost fell over. Eventually we were safe and sound back on solid ground and another checkmark on the life goals list.

Back on the ground we headed off to the metros to get over to the Galeries De Lafayette. This is something we saw on the net before we came out and wanted to go see so we made sure we would have time to get there. Aside from being a super-mall there was an anchor store that was 10 stories tall and in a donut shape with a 6 story tall Christmas tree in the middle. It was quite a sight to see and the store itself was incredible. There was an additional 62 stores on top of the anchor one but we really only toured the anchor.

What we found to be most interesting was that the store was not broken up into sections like a typical store. There was no men department or women's department or toy area. This was a perfect example of how fashion conscientious they are out here and why you see people wearing nothing but the best off the runway type clothing. The entire place was divided up into the designer's names. There were even sections for Armani, Gucci, Valentino, Prada, and pretty much any other designers you could think of. Now consider this for a moment... then consider what kind of price tags would be lying around in this mall. Let's just say we had strayed into the rich man's land. Fur coats for 6,000 Euro, Suit jackets for 3,000 Euro, Shirts for hundreds of Euro, Socks for hundreds of Euro. It was quite a sight to see and dream about. Even funnier when you consider we were walking around in jumpers and blue jeans.

Needless to say it's a place not a lot of people have probably heard about, or maybe they have, we hadn't. Never the less I recommend it as a stop if you ever go to Paris because you really have to just see it for yourself to understand the scale and prices of the place. Not to mention we weren't about to walk around taking pictures and get hauled off by security and have what would probably be a very difficult conversation. A definite must see in the Christmas season if you are there at that time for the tree as well as the building itself which is decorated the whole length on the outside in lights. Unfortunately we were there during the daytime so we never got to see it lit up but I can only imagine what it would have looked like at night.

After wandering around there for a while then wandering the streets around the area, which was an extremely rich area so kind of neat to see all the buildings, we headed back to the hotel. Our evening concluded with some cards, wine and watching football on TV as it was the only thing we could enjoy. Tomorrow would be our last day in Paris but we had made our Train tickets for 8:30 at night so that we wouldn't waste the day and would still be able to go to the last remaining places we had wanted to see and do.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230227640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230227640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230227640/tpod.html Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:34:47 -0500 Traveling England

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

It was Christmas morning but unfortunately our hotel room didn't have a fireplace so we didn't get any presents. We were ok with that though as we were about to head out and make our own presents in the form of memories and pictures. We sat down after breakfast and started to plan out our day and where all we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. We planned to climb the Tour Eiffel tomorrow and a few of the things we wanted to see where around there so we decided to try and spend the day hitting the farther away things. We initially planned on walking but realized very quickly that this was not an option. Everything was to spread out and it would take us all day just to walk to one thing. So we looked at a metro map and everything we wanted to see had a metro station near it so we had our transportation. We had become an expert on the metro systems after dealing with London so this was going to be a easy, only difference being the metro stations were in French so we again resorted to nicknaming.

Our first stop of the day would be the Arc De Triomphe. Most of the main attractions are all city centre around the river that cuts the city in half but the Arc was a off by itself so we wanted to see it today to get it done with. We popped out of the metro station pretty much right in front of it and it was huge. Not to mention the 6 lane road that does a donut around it and has no lines so cars just weave around. Between the road and the Arcs massive size it took up your entire view. The monument stands 49.5 metres (162 ft) in height, 45 metres (148 ft) wide and 22 metres (72 ft) deep. It is the second largest Triumphal Arc in the world. The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, marking the end of hostilities in World War I, Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it.

Napoleon I decided to build the Arc in 1806 to honour those that fought for France in the Napoleonic Wars. It was then designed by the architect Jean-françois Chalgrin and work completed in 1836. Inside the Arc is names of generals that fought in the wars and on the outside walls is depictions of certain wars that were fought. Underneath it is the tomb of an unknown soldier from WWI. While there actually was an unknown soldier buried there the tomb more represents all those unidentified soldiers that died in the now two world wars. There is also a flame burning on top of the tomb in memory of the above mentioned.

Now that the history lesson is done there's really not to a lot to say about it other than it is freaking huge and makes for some good pictures. There was a street leading straight from it to the Le Defense part of the city which also houses the La Grande Arche. We got an unexpected good view from afar of the area. It's kind of like a downtown that's not downtown. It's a large clump of glass high rises and what you would expect to see in any modern day city only its way out on the outskirts and centers around the La Grande Arche which is an odd looking Arc building that is incredibly huge. We will come back to that later though.


After getting our pictures and doing the tour around it we wanted to go inside but because it was Christmas day it was closed to the public. Unfortunate but we weren't too disappointed and headed back to the metro to take us to our next destination.

Our next stop was way out on the outskirts of the city and without the use of the metro there would have been no way we could have gone to see it. But we had sucked it up and bought day passes for us all and had free reign of the city now. At this point I would like to point out that in Paris you never ride one metro either. To get anywhere it is a constant jumping on and off trains and walking through underground tunnels connecting transfer stations. I can't even fathom the number of tunnels under this city as it seemed like any time we had to transfer trains we would be walking hundreds of feet to get to the other platforms but all the while remaining underground. So it could have been very easy for us to get lost or turned around but luckily they were very well marked and we had no troubles. Some of them smelled rather rancid and were very dirty but for the most part they were well kept.

Couple metro jumps and transfers later and we ended up at a station that connects the RER trains to the metro trains. The metro trains are the underground subway trains if you will. The RER trains are the above ground trains that generally lead out of the city but are also useful for getting to the edges of the city as the metros don't usually run that far out. Lucky for us our day passes included these trains so we stood on the platform waiting. When the train was pulling up our jaws dropped in excitement. It was a double decker train and we suddenly were very excited. We had ridden the double decker bus and crossed that off the list, now we got to ride the double decker train. So of course we headed to the top and it was actually almost empty so we had the whole area to ourselves.

We then had about a twenty minute ride to a destination Aimee had picked out and was very excited about. We were headed to the Garden's of Versailles but before we got there we got a fantastic view of the city. Because we were now on the above ground trains we got to see all the residential area as we moved along. While the houses remained 4-6 story giants they were very well kept and it was a very beautiful landscape of buildings. Every now and then there would be some new glass current buildings mixed in with the old buildings and we quite enjoyed our unofficial tour.

When we got to the Palace of Versailles we were meet with a large gate made entirely of gold (or at least plated or painted in it, we prefer to think it was real). Behind the massive gate was the palace itself which was colossal in its own and covered in more gold trimmings and statues. Once again the palace was closed because it was Christmas. We would have really liked to go inside as it is apparently amazing but we couldn't. Instead we headed around and through the gate to get behind it which housed the Gardens of Versailles.



With Louis XIII's final purchase of lands from Jean-François de Gondi in 1632 and his assumption of the seigneurial role of Versailles in the 1630s, formal gardens were laid out west of the chateau. Records indicate that late in the decade Claude Mollet and Hilaire Masson designed the gardens, which remained relatively unchanged until the expansion ordered under Louis XIV in the 1660s. This early layout, which has survived in the so-called Du Bus plan of 1662, shows an established topography along which lines the gardens evolved. This is evidenced in the clear definition of the main east-west and north-south axes that anchors the gardens' layout. There is a long history of renovations and building expansions following this but it gets a little boring reading after a while. Lots of names dates and people but for the most part the gardens remain the same as they were when it was first designed most of the renovations were to the palace. Even the trees themselves are replaced with identical ones when they get to big or old so as to keep it looking the same way it did when it was first designed.

The garden itself situated to the West of the Palace (Palace faces East) and covers over 800 hectares of land. There is over 200,000 trees' and over 210,000 flowers planted annually. It also encompasses over 50 fountains with over 620 streams of water. There is also countless number of lakes and trails winding around and statues lining almost all of the major pathways. We were very excited to see all this but were sadly disappointed at a foresight we never had. It was winter and they shutdown in the winter time to protect everything. All the fountains were turned off, flowers were removed, the statues were covered and the trees weren't in bloom. However even under these circumstances it was still a sight to see. We had a nice stroll through some of the garden's that are sectioned off and walked around to see most of the major fountains. I can only imagine what this place would look like in the summer in full bloom, but it looks like those memories will have to come another day. We plan to try and return in the summer months, even if it's stopping for a day on the way to somewhere else, because it would be an amazing sight and defiantly worth coming back for.

We made the best of it however and wandered around for a good hour or two as it was very tranquil and peaceful being away from the buzz of the city. The fountains are very impressive and we got some decent pictures of them even though they weren't on. For something that I didn't even know existed I was very impressed and was glad we took the extra time to come to the edge of the city to see it.



After our aimless wondering we headed back to the subway to head down towards the Eiffel Tower (Tour Eiffel in French). We had already planned to climb it tomorrow but we just couldn't wait any longer and wanted to set our eyes on it. We were told to dedicate 5 hours in order to climb it so we had set aside an entire day in order to take our time. None the less we were hungry and wanted to see if we couldn't find a restaurant near it to eat at. This as it turned out, was a terrible idea as the prices triple just because you can see the Eiffel Tower from them.

We got off the metro and headed towards the Tower which at this point was still hidden behind all the towering buildings around us. Then we took a corner and there it was not more than a couple hundred meters from us. I mentioned in one of my previous entries that when we went to see Big Ben I was a little disappointed as I expected it to be bigger. Well the Eiffel Tower had the opposite effect; I didn't think it was that big. It is such a massive structure and towers so high into the sky that it hurts the neck to try and look up at it because we were so close. I knew going in it used to be the tallest building in the world but when you see it in pictures you never really realize how big it actually is. One thing we didn't expect was the army guards standing at the base walking around. We counted about a dozen of them in full army uniform and large machine guns over their shoulder and in their hands. I think it was more unnerving to see them then a feeling of safety. Pistols are one thing but these guys were packing military machine guns which left you feeling a bit uneasy.

After wondering around the base of it for a while and being harassed by people selling souvenirs every five feet we went looking for food. There are men walking around with rings of mini Eiffel Towers jingling away and I'm not kidding when I say they are every five feet. They also spread out for about 3 blocks in every direction from the Eiffel Tower so at any point if you chose to, you could buy one of a guy who was probably within 10 feet of you at all times. Luckily though they were very polite and while they did constantly come up to you a simple no sent them on their way again.



At this point I should go back a bit and mention something else that happened to us. When we first walked out of the train station into the street after arriving in Paris we were approached by a women. She asked if we spoke English and unknowingly we responded yes. At this point she hold up a piece of paper with your normal give me money my life sucks jumbo on it all written in English. We kind of laughed and said sorry we do not have any money on us we just got off the train (a lie but it sounded reasonable). She then walked away and we overheard her talking in English to friend that was doing the same thing. Not too sure what the piece of paper was for when you clearly speak English as well. They are basically just trying to scam tourists into giving them money but luckily we meet one in the first five minutes we were in Paris because it wouldn't be the last. While wondering around the Eiffel Tower we were approached numerous times with the same line "Do you speak English?" Having learned our lesson we now responded no in as French an accent as we could muster. This prevented any further confrontations with them as they seem to work in large numbers all over the main areas.

Pretty much every metro station or tunnel connecting the stations has music players in them as well. Although I have to hand it to them almost every single one was very good and they probably make a decent amount of money. Riding the metros others would jump on and off trains as well. We had someone jump on our train and quote what seemed to be a play of some kind as she paced up and down ranting about something in French. We had some people get on and sing, and the best was a guy who came on and hung a curtain and did a puppet show to music. He was the only guy that we actually ended up giving money to just because we gave him originality points and it was actually pretty funny. You really have to be on your guard around any of the touristy areas though as there are people everywhere trying to get a piece of your money. Whether its people asking for change, playing the sympathy card, trying to draw cartoon sketches of you, singing songs, playing instruments, selling souvenirs, or even selling roasted chestnuts on the corner (yes they actually were doing this over a barrel) they were everywhere. I must admit though, they were all very polite about it and while you did get approached you simply said no thanks and they would walk away. They were not needy or pushy in any way and it was a nice change as you were constantly surrounded by them and if they were it would really get annoying fast.

We were searching for a restaurant but everything was really expensive so we ended up eating at an outside vendor that you would normally find at a fair. I got a hotdog wiener slapped on top of some French fries which is apparently common here. And I'm sure someone is wondering, no they do not call them French fries here they simply call them "Frites" which translates to just fries. However we did get a kick out of the pizza hut menu that had them listed as "American Potatoes" which we found to be the funniest thing we had ever seen. We wanted to ask someone what they call French Toast but not being able to communicate with people made that impossible. For a French speaking country though we were surprised to find that a good number of people in shops and restaurants spoke English, granted it was butchered and basic knowledge but it helped get past the communication barriers. We found that most shops while they couldn't fluently put English words together they knew the English translations of most of the things they were selling. We still resorted to pointing a lot of the time but the pointer speaks every language. We even ate at one restaurant where we got asked if we wanted French or English menu's which was really surprising. The waiter however didn't speak English so we were again back to pointing but at least we knew what we were ordering.

After eating some food and getting some nice pictures posing in front of the Eiffel Tower we headed back to the metro to head back over to Basilique du Sacré-Coeur which roughly translates to ' Basilica of the Sacred Heart'. It is a Roman Catholic basilica and is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is located on the summit of the butte Montmarte which is the highest point in Paris. There is a long line of architect and builders but it was originally designed by Paul Abadie and the first stone was laid in 1875. Then there was a long line of laws and attempts to halt the construction and a bunch of people that took over. In the end it was not officially completed till 1914 and not formally dedicated till 1919.

When we got off the metro we had to walk up a long street that ascended on about a 30 degree angle and was littered in souvenir shops for as far as the eye can see. When we got to the foot of the Basilique we were confronted by some Africans that were asking us to put out our finger and holding some thread that they wanted to hook onto our finger. We refused and refused as we knew they were trying to get money somehow but were very sneaky about it unlike our other confrontations. They kept on saying just hold out your finger it will only take a minute and eventually Scott caved. He was "hooked" for lack of better words while Aimee and I stood trying to take pictures. They were harassing us as well but we just kept saying no and I eventually stuck my hands in my pockets to try and get them to go away. Unlike the others we had meet these guys were very rude and persistent and would not leave us alone, eventually Aimee walked over to Scott and was also hooked. I then stood beside them and had a guy actually pull my hand out of my pocket and hook it on my finger after telling him no over a dozen times. They then proceeded to make a bracelet by twisting and weaving the coloured thread. They then tied it around your wrist and just held out there hands. Finally the jig was up and we reached the part where they wanted money after basically forcing us to do their game. So we handed over a couple Euro to which was meet with criticism but we ignored them and made our escape. They were wanting 10 Euro for what they had did with spinning a couple pieces of thread around into a bracelet. We eventually did escape and finally had been caught in the numerous give me your money games that happen all over the city. Unlike other places we had seen it all before and knew how to avoid it but these guys were new and persistent and they got us. Lesson learned and on the bright side they were all over the place so we had an out for the rest of our time there as we just showed our wrist and they left us alone.

We got some nice pictures from the outside but were not able to go in as it was again closed for Christmas day. We had also seen plenty of old churches already and were not all that excited to go see another as they have all been about the same. So we returned to the metro and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our big supper that we had planned.

We had supper booked at a fancy restaurant for 7 and needed to shower and get changed into formal wear and then get back to the restaurant which overlooked the river, a 30 minute metro ride from our hotel. They advertised they spoke English so we were really excited to go. It was an upper class restaurant which for me was a first. We did some quick msn conversations back to the family while we were in the room but had no way to charge our laptop as the plugs again changed and we didn't even think about it, again. So we had limited talk time but it was nice to get a shout out to the family on Christmas day.

The restaurant was called Le Frigate and it was beautiful inside. The waiter was fun as he spoke poor English, while we spoke poor French back at him. The menu's were in French but had the English translations below them which made things a lot easier as this was high class dining and not your normal menu. Being in Paris there were two things I wanted to get, one was a bottle of wine as we were in the country of wines. The other was to have duck for the first time. I'm told that France is the place to have duck so I bit the bullet and went for it. I must say both lived up to my expectations, the wine was fantastic and the duck was amazing. I was a little shocked when they bring it to you "rare" and by rare I mean really rare but at least it wasn't bleeding. It was covered in a caramel sauce that was to die for and probably one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Scott got duck as well but he got the Confit Duck which is basically duck braised or submerged in its own "oils" (i.e. fat) and herbs. Aimee got chicken and the waiter actually made fun of her for it which was fairly amusing. He made the comment "You come to Paris and you're going to have chicken?" Scott and I laughed pretty hard over that one, Aimee not so much, but she sampled some of mine and Scott's so at least she tried it. Our bill came to about 170 Euro I believe so it was defiantly not a cheap place to eat but it was an amazing meal and we also drank two bottles of 30 Euro wine. And it was Christmas and we had to spoil ourselves somehow. We passed on the 300 Euro wines however as they were slightly out of our price range.

When we left we were right on the river and decided to go for a bit of a walk along the river to see what Paris at night looks like. The answer to that is, even more amazing than Paris in the daytime. It is amazing at night and every major statue or building or bridge is covered in lights. The fact that it was Christmas just added to the fun as we found a bunch of tree's and other areas decorated in Christmas lights. We also saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance and while we heard it was lit up at night we didn't really know what to expect. Apparently they change the colors every now and then but currently they were lighting it up blue and the whole tower glowed. It was really quite amazing to see but because we were so far away we could only see the top third or so of it. So we decided that before we leave on our last day we would go stop by after dark and get some pictures while closer to it. Then something amazing happened, it started to sparkle. The whole tower had been covered in lights which now were twinkling away in probably one of the coolest displays I have seen in a long time. We had no idea this happened and were just amazed that by it. We checked into it later and it sparkles for five minutes on the hour. We had just happened to be outside and looking at it at that time so we added to our plan to go see it later that it had to be on the hour so we could see it sparkle up close.

We wondered around for quite a while just enjoying the peacefulness and beauty of the city at night until we were starting to get cold and tired. We headed towards some buildings that looked like 5 star hotels as we knew there was a metro station near them somewhere we just didn't know exactly where. The one problem with the metro system is they are very hard to spot unless you came out of it. Most of them are not even marked at all other than a staircase leading into the sidewalk. We saw a guard standing in the distance by one of the buildings and decided to ask for directions. This job was landed on Scott as he could at least ask where the metro station was in French where Aimee and I would resort to drawing a metro train on a napkin or something. So Scott approached and in perfect French asked where the metro was, pretty sure he even had "excuse me sir" in there as well. The guard then rambled something back at us and pointed in a direction leading down the street. Scott walked back over to us and said that way and we started walking. I asked him what the guard had said and again he responded with I have no idea but he pointed that way so that's where we are going. Once again pointing saves the day. Low and behold the metro was not even 50 meters from where the guard was standing so he probably thought we were complete idiots but we were fine with that. When we got down, there was a map of the area and I stopped to look at it hoping to figure out what some of the buildings were that we were near. Turns out we were in the Embassy area where the American, Japanese, and British embassies were all located. And funny ironic story the guard we asked for directions in French to... was a guard for the American Embassy. So he probably spoke English but because Scott asked in French he responded with French. We caught our train and headed home for the evening excited that tomorrow we would be climbing the Eiffel Tower.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230139620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230139620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1230139620/tpod.html Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:53:10 -0500 Traveling England

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

Up bright and early at the crack of 6:30am we grabbed our bags and started our stroll to the bus stop to begin our long journey to Paris, France. When we had gone to Wales we had only taken one of our large packs and my small knapsack that I brought. This time we took both big bags and the Aimee carried the small bag as well. We found it was doable the other way but space was very limited and a lot of stuffing was going on. This way we could split the load between Scott and I and Aimee could just carry the stuff we would need on the train and other miscellaneous things we might need on the fly. Having learned my lesson in Wales this time I packed for the cold and had my polar gear as well as multiple sweaters. There was no way I was going to get stuck in the situation of being cold and having all my warm gear soaking wet again.

Having made sure we had our passports and tickets we headed off for our first out of country excursion. We were very excited about the prospect of getting a new stamp in our passports and finally breaking the borders of United Kingdom. For those that don't know the United Kingdom consists of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is also referred to as Great Britain or just simply Britain. So why Wales was a new country "technically", it was still not crossing any borders that required customs or passports. France on the other hand is all new and we would get roughed up by customs as we headed to our final destination of Paris.

Our journey began as they always do, us catching a bus down to city centre and then walking the 15 minute stroll to the train station. However Aimee and I had a bad graving for some McDonalds breakfast the last trip we took but didn't have time to stop so we made a pact to get some this time. We even allocated time so that we could stop and eat before heading to the train station. It's the only McDonalds we know of in the city and its right down town so we rarely get to eat there let alone get breakfast. I'm sure many of you are shaking your heads right now and you can shake all you want because I still love it.

After eating our breakfast of champions we headed off to the train station to catch our 7:30 train to London where we would be arriving in the Paddington station again. Some of you may remember it from previous entries as it is the main station in London for most of the out of town trains. It took us about 30 minutes to get to London and once we arrived we had 60 minutes to make it to St Pancras station in London and board our train, so things were a bit rushed at this point. This was the station we would be catching our international train from. So we had to hustle to the London Underground and catch the metro over to the other station.

You are supposed to arrive 40 minutes before your train departure and we arrived at exactly that. However there were lines, very long lines and they were going to slow things down. Unlike flying we had to go through the full customs now and then when we got to Paris we just walked off the train and were free with no more customs. Luckily the lines did move rather quickly however we were still worried. We went and asked a worker if we should skip them as our train leaves in 40 minutes and he told us to just stay in line as we will have plenty of time still. He was right as the lines moved quick enough and the customs was very slack if you ask me. It was your standard x-ray machine that your bags go through and you walk through a metal detector but that was it. There were just some guards after that who looked at you and your passport and then sent you on your way. We were expecting to get some stamps but apparently you get those when you come back. So 20 minutes to train departure we were on board and seated and I was ready for my nap. No more on-off crap for just under three hours so I could catch up on some much needed sleep I neglected the previous night.

We were very excited as we were going to get to go through the Channel Tunnel. This was one of the main reasons we decided to train there instead of fly. Most of you at this point would say "so what it's a tunnel" however, it is much more than just a tunnel. The Channel Tunnel (French: Le tunnel sous la Manche ), is a 50.5-kilometre (31.4 mi) undersea rail tunnel linking Folkstone, England with Coquelles, France running beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point it is 75 m (250 ft) deep. The Channel Tunnel has the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world. And now the big news; in 1996 the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnel as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. However at this point I must confess that of any of the wonders it's not all that great. When we began approaching the tunnel you saw a long line of cars waiting to go through customs and then suddenly darkness fell. This was followed by 50 kilometres of cement and lights. None the less we went through it and its one goal off the list of life. It was a two and a half hour train ride from London to Paris which really isn't too bad at all. The train was very comfy and lots of leg room and quite frankly, I'm really starting to like training everywhere as opposed to flying. You get to see way more country side and it's very peaceful and quiet.

We arrived in Paris at 1:30 local time (2:30 Oxford time, we gained an hour) so all in all it was about eight hours of travel when you include all the walking, buses, trains and sitting in stations and the whole mess. I must admit it didn't feel that long at all as our longest one stint we had was the two and a half hour train, the rest of the time you're walking around or jumping on and off trains so it went rather quick.

The culture shock of going to a foreign speaking country had not hit us at this point yet. Most of the people on the train were speaking English and the train itself was in English and French. However once we stepped off that train at Gare Du Nord (translated: Paris North Station) the shock of what we just did hit us. Suddenly all the signs were in French, everyone was speaking French, and we suddenly felt very lost. Even the exit signs were all in French; luckily we knew that 'sorte' was French for exit and followed those signs. The size of the station was mind boggling as we got off the train. We thought Paddington station was big but this one beat it hands down and a large portion of it was underground which made it even more massive while remaining hidden. It has roughly 180 million travelers pass through it every year and is the busiest station in all of Europe and third busiest in the entire world, beat only by two stations in Tokyo; figures. A large portion of Paris's metro (subway) lines run under the station as well so it was going to become a very handy tool for getting around.

Our hotel was about a three minute walk from the station so it would make getting around Paris really easy for us and minimize our walking distances as the city is very big. The first thing we noticed walking out of the station was that the Paris road infrastructure puts England's to shame. We thought England was bad this was a million times worse. If you're bored one day look at a downtown map of Paris and you will see a literal spider-webbing pattern of streets. There is no direction or reason to them at all as they are just all over the place and not even close to a grid pattern. On top of this the people driving on them are crazy beyond reason, there is no real lines on the road so they pretty much just weave their way around and the amount of horns you hear is mind blowing. Pretty sure they actually burn out there horns here from using them so much. It is also the Vespa capital of the world or at least it is to me now. I would put the number of Vespa's there greater than the number of cars as the streets were covered in them and there were even more just parked on the sidewalks as there are no parking lots at all. This really added to the fun of the roads as anyone on a Vespa would weave in and out of the cars which were weaving in and out of other cars. A Vespa would certainly make getting around a lot easier and allows you to just pull onto the sidewalk and park, so I can see why they are so popular.

Although the hotel was right beside the train station we still had the fun of trying to find it. All the street names were in French of course and we couldn't pronounce them properly so we started nicknaming them as English words that were close. Proved to be a very efficient system of remembering where to go and what streets we needed. Because there was such a mess of streets we had some trouble at first but eventually found the street we needed and started walking the wrong way down it at first but realized it rather soon and turned around heading the other way. The intersections were an amazing as a clash of 5-7 streets all meeting in a giant mess of street lights and cars. Getting across them was even more fun as most locals didn't wait for the walking man to tell them to go; they just ran across when there were gaps. We on the other hand waited for the green man to tell us it was safe as we couldn't even tell where the cars were going to come from.

Another thing we noticed right away was that there were no buildings under 6 stories tall. Not only that but they were all connected. The entire strip of the street would be a row of buildings sharing walls with no space in between. They also love their little stores as every single one of these buildings would have a string of shops running down it on the ground floor with hotels and offices above. I still question how that many shops could stay in business as there were so many and quite a few of them were the same type of stores.

None the less we found our hotel and luckily we had planned ahead and they spoke English as well so it made getting our room easier. It was very poor English but enough that we could communicate with them. We were up on the fourth floor and had to take a little closet of an elevator that only housed 3 people max. The room itself was very nice actually and had lots of room and your normal hotel type things. We immediately turned on the TV and sure enough every single station was in French making watching TV pretty much impossible but somehow amusing. We did at times flip through the channels till we found something that didn't require understanding what they were saying. Some of these being football matches, blooper shows, sport injury shows, and the best one we found was a domino stacking competition. It was those crazy guys that stack couple hundred thousand dominoes in big designs then knock them over.

The day was still young and we had the afternoon to kill so although we were tired we went for a walk down the streets near our hotel. We realized rather quickly that we were not in one of the richer areas of Paris and the streets housed some homeless people on corners, which apparently is allowed here as it was very obvious with tarps and mattress's and belongings laying around. The people on the street kind of gave us the willy's as well as they were very gangster looking. However our mind was going back and forth as the buildings looked nice, most of the shops were nice and there were just as many people walking around in suits and nice clothes as there were shady looking people. So were not really sure what the area really was. In certainly was weird seeing rich people and poor people all mingled together.

We eventually stumbled onto a massive arc that was in one of the donuts near our hotel. It was huge and had a pigeon infestation problem. It would later be trumped in size by the Arc De Triumph however. We wondered around some more and eventually stumbled onto a really unique looking mall which pictures will show later. There were tubes running on the outside that housed the escalators and it really stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all the old buildings around it. There was also a little fountain area of art type fountains that were rather interesting. We then watched a man paint blindfolded for money which was rather interesting. We would come to realize that most of the people wanting money here were not your typical beggars. They were actually very talented or at least made an effort to do something for your money rather than just sit with a cup or ask you for it, however there were those too.

We were starting to get hungry so we noticed a Pizza Hut down the street and decided to go there as all the restaurants we were passing were very expensive running 15-20 Euros for a plate. We also figured that we would be able to at least decipher there menu as its someplace we already know. So we headed in and simply muttered trois (3) when confronted by a bunch of rubbish we couldn't make out. We assumed they asked us how many and were correct in our assumption as they took us to a table and sat us. We then killed ourselves laughing for about 10 minutes trying to decipher the menu which proved to be a lot more difficult than we had originally thought. Luckily we had Scott with us though and he at least had a basic knowledge of French and was able to explain or figure out most of it for us.

The waiter returned and rattled off a bunch more rubbish to us and we just kind of stared at him and Scott responded oui (yes) so I assumed he at least made out part of it. We placed our orders butchering the pronunciation and mostly just pointing at what we wanted. After she left I asked Scott what she had said at the beginning to which he responded he had no idea. I burst out laughing and asked why the hell he responded oui to it then and he just shrugged saying I assumed she was asking if we were ready to order. It was the first time we had to talk to someone and we realized how deep in and lost we had become not being able to speak French. None-the-less we made the best of it and got our meals and left without too much of a scene or looking like complete morons.

At this point it was starting to get dark and everything was closing anyway as it was Christmas Eve so we decided to head home. We were still unsure on just what kind of area we were in and decided it best not to wander the streets at night, especially when you don't know the language. We found our way back to the hotel and crawled in for the night as we were dead tired, or at least I was only having 4 hours sleep the night before and not being able to sleep on the train. Tomorrow we planned to hit up many of the landmarks that were farther out from the main area of Pairs. We would have a big day ahead of us with a lot of traveling. It was also Christmas Eve, although with no snow, family, or presents it doesn't feel much like Christmas. We never really gave it much thought however. We were already having a blast just being in Paris and excited to hit the town tomorrow and see some of the sights.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1225226580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1225226580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/devinwatson/6/1225226580/tpod.html Sat, 01 Nov 2008 17:46:12 -0400 Traveling England

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Oxford, England, United Kingdom

For our final day we got French toast again as it was a nice treat and something we never make for ourselves and then parted ways catching the bus to take us back to Fishguard. Due to the bus's only running every two hours it meant we would have about an hour and a half to kill in Fishguard but the weather was nice again so we decided to head back to the harbour overlook we had gone to when we first got there.


When we got there the tide was out again and the harbour was interesting to see as all the boats were now laying on the mud floor of the harbour and got some more pictures with some cannons stationed there and the coast as we could see it without the rain in our faces. There was also a trail leading along the coast that was part of the coast trail we had been on earlier so we walked that as it leads to Fishguard Harbour and we had time to kill so instead of taking the bus we would just walk. We got to see the ferry coming into port and turning around to dock as we were right on the edge which was neat to see.

When we got to the train station we had about 20 minutes so we grabbed some sandwich's to go and as we were standing in queue it started to pour and hail outside. We all laughed as I had said in the morning I hoped it would pour once we got to the train station just as some cruel irony and low and behold it did. So we left Fishguard Harbour and Wales in the pouring rain just like when we arrived. However this time we didn't have to go out in it and get soaking wet as we were already protected from the train station.

Our journey home was actually longer than coming and would take four and a half hours however it would only require three trains this time. We were to catch a train back to Cardiff which was the same 2 hour journey we had before but then from Cardiff we headed to Reading and then from there back to Oxford. It was a very confusing trip and the reason it took longer was there was backtracking involved. Reading is technically East of Oxford and we were coming from the West coast. So we actually ended up going around Oxford and hitting Reading then having to backtrack to Oxford. But the way the train schedules were it was the quickest way.

When we got to Oxford it was already dark and we were disappointed to see the rain had followed us and it was pouring again and we had a good jaunt back to the bus pickup point to get us home. So into the cold and wet we went again only this time it was warmer outside and there was no freezing cold wind so it wasn't as bad. Once we got off the bus near our home we had a small jaunt to walk still and were amazed and happy to see that the rain had turned to snow. It was a beautiful snowfall and brought back memories of home. It was too warm for it to stay on the ground but it was still fun to see as the snowflakes drifted across the skies.

It was a great trip and we got some really nice pictures and do think there will be another journey there in the future during summer.

Another random thing I think worth mentioning if you have been reading all the blogs I have been without a light in my room for a couple months now and we finally found one at a speciality light store downtown. The lamp shade doesn't fit on anymore for some reason but nothing a little duct tape couldn't fix. So I finally have light in my room again, YAAAA!
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