TravelStream™ news feed for member yihaw10 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/yihaw10 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 28 May 2008 18:41:14 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211585520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211585520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211585520/tpod.html Wed, 28 May 2008 18:41:14 -0400 Exploring France

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Strasbourg, Alsace, France

Thursday we set out to drive to the Alsace region, known for kogelhopf, choucroute, and of course, wines. The region definitely did not disappoint.

First enroute to Strasbourg was Colmar, a town that is mid-way on the wine route. It is the cutest little city that has a Petite Venise (Little Venice) and other famous buildings that have been there for centuries. We started off walking through the town, and found a great little spot to enjoy lunch. Lisa and I ordered the choucroute, which traditionally comes with a couple pieces of potatoes and some meats. By the way, choucroute is sauerkraut. YUM. It was a delicioso. Sup ordered the tarte flambé, which is kind of like a pizza. However, instead of red sauce, it is an onion cream sauce. It was good as well.

We continued to walk down the streets, bought some kogelhopf, which is a bundt shaped cake, and some macaroons to enjoy later. Little Venice is very cute, and when people on the gondolas went under the bridges, they had to duck as to not hit their heads.

Next on the wine route that we saw was Ribeauville. It is known to have 3 chateaus up on the top of the hill. We didn't have any proper hiking boots and what not, so we (Lisa and I) climbed up to the Notre Dame, which is nestled against the rocks. It was a long walk up, but it was worth it to see this small little church. We then visited the rest of the town to check out some of the wines. The wine tasting here is not that easy, but what we did was look for signs that said degustation vente - which meant they sold samplings of wine. You can taste the wines that you want, and buy what you want. We left with Rieslings, Gerwertzraminers and Pinot Blancs - it was a successful walk through the town.

We then made our way to Strasbourg, which is the capital of this Alsace region. Strasbourg has an enormous cathedral as well as a similar canal area as Colmar called Petite France. We arrived in the city and it was drizzling, so there weren't as many people out and about. At the cathedral area, we found a nice little Italian restaurant, then continued to walk around. Decided to turn in early and see Petite France the next morning on our way to Nancy.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211664960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211664960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211664960/tpod.html Tue, 27 May 2008 22:31:23 -0400 Exploring France

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Paris, Île-de-France, France

We left Nancy in a bit of a hurry because we wanted to visit Versailles and also deliver our car back to the rental place by 6 pm. We had a 4 hour drive a head of us, and with a looming thunderstorm, things were not looking good.

The drive out of Nancy was actually very pleasant, and we got to Versailles in less time than expected. Versailles unfortunately was very wet. We made the mistake of buying the garden ticket instead of the ticket to see inside the palace. So we then stood in line to try to exchange our ticket for the right one. Strangely, while in line, I ended up standing next to the son of one of the missionary families that we visited when I last went to Thailand. What a small world! We talked a bit and caught up, and John is the same that I remember him - if you ever see this John, good luck in your travels and your future!

We found out we could not exchange our tickets, so we decided to just enjoy the gardens. There was supposed to be a water spectacle, which we believed to be a water show (think Bellagio). However, at 3:30 pm, when we were frantically trying to figure out what fountain we had to go to, and in the rain, no less, we soon realized that the 'eau spectacular just meant that all the water fountains were going to be turned on. Meh. Actually it was all very pretty, and we took as many photos as possible.

It was very stressful trying to get back to the rental car station, but by an act of God, we got back in one piece. We said goodbye to our dirty bug-ridden car, and made our way to our hotel. We stepped in, and it was spacious, clean, and everything we could have wanted in our last hotel stay in this country. C'est bon! Tomorrow we check out the city, and try to stay awake before our crack of dawn flight to LA. :(
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211368500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211368500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211368500/tpod.html Tue, 27 May 2008 22:11:00 -0400 Exploring France

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Provence, Provence, France

Sadly our trip to the coast came to an end this morning, as we made our way up through Provence, and finally into Burgundy. A side note about driving in France. I wish we had known this from the beginning, but there are a million round abouts in this country. They are everywhere. You can drive 500 meters and come up to another one of these damn things. In any case, when you come up to a roundabout, there are signs that direct you to various cities. So although having an atlas of the area is good, the signs really guide you from town to town. Not only that, trying to navigate by street names is almost impossible because the street names are almost never posted, or are small ass signs on buildings. Not very helpful. Anyway, onto our trip:

Provence is very beautiful, with many Roman-inspired buildings. We started off in Aix-en-Provence, known for Paul Cezanne. According to Samantha Brown, you head down the main road, and just get lost in the side streets filled with stores and cafes. We did just that, and got lost. But fortunately we were able to make our way back to the parking lot. By the way, another side note, parking is very easy in these towns. There is a giant 'P' sign that leads you to centrally located parking lots, and it's not too expensive to park either.

We then made our way to Arles, which was one of the towns that I most wanted to visit. It is where Vincent van Gogh painted many of his famous paintings, including Cafe Terrace at Night (which is my personal favorite). The Place du Forum is where that painting comes from. The Rhone River also passes through Arles - it was very windy along the river. Rome had made Arles the capital of Provence, so this town has many romanesque buildings, such as a coliseum, amphitheatre, etc.

A quick half hour drive, and we were in Avignon, known for their Palais des Papes. Neens and I had visited this spot back on our Europe tour, but again, this time around, we spent more time exploring the city. It is unique because it is walled all around the perimeter. We did a quick tram tour, and learned about all the Popes, etc.

Finally arrived in Beaune, and will be here for 2 nights. Tomorrow is wine tasting at Louis Jadot, etc. Merci!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211088300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211088300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211088300/tpod.html Tue, 27 May 2008 22:10:38 -0400 Exploring France

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London, England, United Kingdom

Hi all!

Finally getting some free wi-fi here in Nice - it has been a long and tiring journey getting to this hotel.

When Lisa and I landed in London, I said, I wish we were staying here for one night. Be careful what you wish for because on our long trek to the next terminal to catch our connecting flight to Paris, we found out that flight had been cancelled. There was no way for us to get over to Paris, and we were stuck in a crappy Heathrow hotel for the night.

Meanwhile, back in Paris, Sup arrived at 8 am all by her lonesome. Lisa and I called her from our hotel to let her know that we wouldn't be joining her, and found out that Sup's airline had LOST HER LUGGAGE. :( She would like me to share that they gave her a complimentary travel kit. We found out when she was on the phone with her dad that the airline gave her paper chundies, which later turns out, is Indian for underwear.

Next morning at the crack of down, we checked out, paid for our 20GBP phone call to Sup (outrageous.) and headed back to the airport. We had already had our boarding passes from the night before, and went through security to the gates. Looked at the screens to find out what gate we were at, and the screen said our 6:15 am flight had been delayed to 4:48 PM. What a nightmare. Finally someone came around to the British Airways customer service desk, aka Lisa's new boyfriend. He gave us great news and told us the screen was wrong, and our flight at 6:15 am was still on schedule. Thank goodness - the first thing to go right on our trip.

We finally arrived at Gare du Lyon, to pick up our car rental. We got there in record time, another sign that things were looking up for us. Sup was supposed to meet us there, but no sign of her. I walk around the train station to see if I can find her. Look down some stairs, and then I see her. I was so happy that we were finally all together now. We get our car, and our reserved 4 car VW golf turns out to be a killer Kia Sportage (SUV).

Driving around France has not been that bad so far. The negatives I would say is that to take the autoroutes (like a US highway), you have to pay mad tolls. From Paris to Nice, I'd say we've spent about 60 euros on tolls and 68 euros refilling our diesel gas SUV. o.O Otherwise, French countrysides are quite beautiful, and we're looking forward to exploring it when we go on our vineyard visits.


We arrived at our hotel at about 8:30 pm. After freshening up, we walked down the main road to get some proper dinner, with a bottle of wine of course. :) Several hours ago Sup's luggage arrived at our hotel as well - Air France found her luggage after all.

Anyway just wanted to let you all know that we're all safe, and apart from the first night's debacle, trip is a lot of fun.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211751780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211751780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211751780/tpod.html Sun, 25 May 2008 17:50:21 -0400 Exploring France

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Paris, France

This was our only morning to sleep in - and it was nice to know that we didn't have to hurry to drive to the next town. We didnt have much of a plan for today, except to just make our leisurely way about town. It ended up being very busy, and a really great way to spend our last day together.

First off, we walked to the Luxembourg Gardens. It is very near our hotel, and it turned out to be quite a spot for runners. Lots of daisy duke shorts - very interesting. Our next stop was to the Orsay Museum to check out some paintings, but it just took us forever to find the stupid metro station. On top of that, once we got there, the station was closed! Meh! We then finally get to the Orsay, and the line to get in was just too long. Anyway, the jist of the day was walk, eat, drink, take pictures.... here are all the spots we visited today:

Luxembourg Gardens
Orsay Museum (exterior)
Eiffel Tower
Cruise along the Seine - Notre Dame, Place du Concord, Louvre, etc. - but all from afar
Moulin Rouge (and Cafe Oz for some beers)
Montmartre
Sacre Coeur
Invalides
Petite Palais
Grande Palais
St. Germain des Pres

It was a busy day, and now we're trying to figure out how we're going to pack all our stuff. It's been a long trip, and even thought we're tired, we're not looking forward to coming back to work. :( Boo hoo... hope you guys all enjoyed reading about our trip and we'll let you all know of a link to see the rest of the photos.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211586420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211586420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211586420/tpod.html Fri, 23 May 2008 19:48:39 -0400 Exploring France

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Nancy, Lorraine, France

Today we visited Petite France of Strasbourg, which was very cute. As we were making our way from our hotel to this area, we saw a bunch of people kayaking in the river that encircles the town. That looked fun, but not something we were going to try. Petite France was cute as well, very picturesque.

We then left the Alsace region, headed towards Nancy. Nancy is known for their amazing Stanislas Place, which is a big square that is ornately decorated with gold-ish trim. It is really beautiful, and very different from the German influenced buildings that we were accustomed to seeing in Strasbourg and Colmar.

We had lunch at the Stanislas Place, walked around, then headed back to our hotel to check in, which wasn't ready when we first arrived. I have to say that driving to the hotel locations has been much more difficult vs. when we arrive to a city to just visit for an hour. The signs all tell you how to get to a centrally located parking garage, but the signs towards the hotels are very small. Very hectic! But the combo of Lisa driving and me navigating has been very good so far. Good thing I printed all the maps of the towns and directions from the hotels' websites.

Again, after a 4 hour nap, we headed back to the Stanislas Place to enjoy the area in the evening. It is so beautiful here - seems to be a recurring theme. Finally found a bar that serves proper Stella Artois, so we spent the last few hours throwing back a few.

Tomorrow is Versailles and back to Paris :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211409600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211409600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211409600/tpod.html Wed, 21 May 2008 19:02:42 -0400 Exploring France

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Beaune, Burgundy, France

So we arrived in Beaune last night, only to discover that there was no one at the reception desk. Finally someone came around, and when we asked her for a place to eat, she looked at us with a confuzzled look - I guess this town is much sleepier than the busy Cote towns that we became accustomed to.

We decided to be a bit adventerous and drove into the center of Beaune, a town of 25,000 people. We found a nice little bar, and feasted on chicken nuggets and a curry flavored chicken burger. Another side note - every single town we go to has a carousel. Not sure why the French love these, but it is in every town center we go to. Very random, but we have also decided that we will ride one of these things before we leave France. It was a bit hectic trying to find our way back to the hotel since we didn't have any town maps, but after lots of circling, we made our way back safely.

This morning we drove out to make our 10:30 am appointment at Louis Jadot. We met our tour guide, Anthony, and he was definitely a wine expert. A former sommelier, he came to work at LJ about 7 years ago. The way he sloshed his wine around and spit them into the spitoons showed he was truly an expert. He was spitting out the wine like a fountain - whereas when we spit out the wine it was just ugly (and landed everywhere, like on our faces). Let me also say that having a tasting at this winery is not very common as LJ is not open to the public, and it was through a work connection of mine that we were able to visit this very fancy winery and do some barrel tasting. Anthony was very nice and explained so much about the Burgundy wines. We learned a lot, and this winery is definitely one of the most impressive, cleanest, and coolest wineries I've ever gone to. Thanks Bryan and Bryan's poppa!

Anthony then directed us to Aloxe-Corton, where we had some more tastings. He also said that if we told other wineries where we came from (LJ), that it gave us some credence, and that wineries would be more open to allowing us to taste. This area is not really and area that you can go around and taste, like in Napa, Sonomoa, Santa Barbara/Ynez, or Temecula. Each area of Burgundy is manned by very small farmers/owners. So after visiting Aloxe-Corton, and after the 9 types of wine we tasted at LJ, along with jet lag setting in, we decided taking a nap was the way to go.

4 hours later (:p) we decided to have dinner in Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, which is only about 40 min north of Beaune. This town pleasantly surprised us - it was much bigger than Beaune, had many shops, cafes, and bars around. We had a nice dinner at a local cafe, and later made our way to Le Kilkenny, an Irish pub recommended by the Frommer's guide. Plenty of young people around, which was surprising given the area that we were in.

Tomorrow we head through to Colmar and Strasbourg to do some Alsace wine tasting, aka rielsings and gerwertraminers (not sure if I spelled that right).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211180700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211180700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211180700/tpod.html Tue, 20 May 2008 03:12:28 -0400 Exploring France

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Nice, France

It has been some time since I was last here, but Nice and Monaco have definitely impressed me more this time around. After a much needed 9 hour rest (and a 35 euro parking ticket), we all got up to explore these cities in a leisurely manner. A quick walk to the train station and we were ready to head to Monaco. But first, we had to get a chicken kebap sandwich from the spot right next to the station. It was a delicious as I remembered, and it was a great way to start the day.

We missed the train to Monaco, however, and then had 2 hours to kill until the next train. We then took the tram down to the 'old town,' which has amazing buildings, fountains, etc. It was really beautiful, and I couldn't believe that I had missed seeing that the last time I was here. We walked down to the pebble beaches, had a drink at the Meridian Hotel, then made our way back up to the train station. We nearly didn't make it to our 4 pm train, but we were able to sneak onto a tram without paying the euro fee (woohoo), and made it onto the train just in time.

Monaco has now trumped St. Raphael as our favorite Cote town. It's super clean, beautiful buildings, and beautiful people, all dressed very well. Monaco is not very big, so we were able to see about 75% of it in a few hours. Not bad, eh? We started off at the Monte Carlo casino, which we didn't enter because it was going to cost us 10 euros. What a rip. So we just took pictures of fancy cars, and headed over to the east end of the port. We really had no choice but to walk down to the port because everything is blocked off due to preparation for the Grand Prix. I wasn't sure if were going to make it up to the Palais because Lisa's flip flops were not cooperating with her. But a few breaks, and a stop at the marche (market), we started the long trek up to the top of the hill to see the Palais.

The Palace is obviously very beautiful, with the best views of Monaco. I now remembered why I wanted to buy a yacht so badly, so I could dock it here and hang out on the coast. We then walked around Monaco-ville, had dinner, and headed back to what is definitely the most beautiful train station we have seen yet.

Back at the hotel, two bottles of wine shared on our awesome terrace. Tomorrow we visit a few cities in Provence and head up to Burgundy.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211146080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211146080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1211146080/tpod.html Mon, 19 May 2008 17:47:34 -0400 Exploring France

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Nice, Provence, France

Sunday was a very busy day of driving all along the coast as well as up into the mountain. Our first stop was to have brunch at the annual Morgan Creek brunch up at Le Moulin de Mougin. It was an awesome brunch - our first great meal - and it actually was not so bad seeing the coworkers in Cannes. :) Everyone was in good spirits. Maybe it was all the free flowing champagne.

Next on the trip was a visit to Grasse, home of many parfumeries (aka, places that make perfume, duh!). We bought some cool soap. The town is very beautiful, with amazing views of the area. We then made our way back down the mountain, towards St. Raphael.




Each day we do a high/low of our day, and it was unanimous that St. Raphael is definitely the most beautiful town along the Cote D'Azur. There is a beautiful cathedral, among other beautiful buildings. Great coastline, friendy (beautiful) people, etc. It was a pleasant surprise when we arrived there, especially since we hadn't heard much about it (vs. Cannes, St. Tropez, etc.).

After St. Raphael, we went to St. Tropez. I really had to pee, and was in a foul mood because we ended up in a weird part of town where there were creepy carnival rides and unfriendly French people. We randomly went to a restaurant to use their restroom, and ordered three espressos to wake ourselves up from all the driving. They were not cool at all to us, so we left rather quickly.
After some walking, we made it to the main area of St. Tropez - and it really does live up to its reputation. Tons of high-end boutiques, and yachts on end. It won a couple of points, but apart from the 'glamour', it is definitely not as beautiful as St. Raphael.

We then took the LONG drive along the coast back to Cannes to have a late dinner with Kaisa. She was lucky enough to go to the Indiana Jones premiere (damn!), but she made time in her busy work schedule to have dinner with us. It was very scary driving along the dark coast, with all the narrow roads, but Lisa is an expert driver and has been doing really well despite these scary situations. Hung out with Kaisa in her swanky apartment, sharing a bottle of wine, then had dinner at a Lebansese restaurant, then had drinks at the Martinez (where we saw Rodrigo Santoro - Neens, I know you're jealous). Made our way back to our hotel in Nice at a respectable 2 am hour. Not bad for one day, right?

Next up, more of Nice, Monaco, and chillin' on our hotel terrace....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1210615260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1210615260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/yihaw10/1/1210615260/tpod.html Mon, 12 May 2008 15:19:07 -0400 Exploring France

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Los Angeles, California, United States

Surprise! So I know we haven't started our trip yet, but I figured this would be a good way to introduce all of us, and just get the word out on our travel pod. I may have bitten off more than I can chew here, since I'm not really sure how often we'll be able to post about our trip. But that will be a goal of mine, to update this thing as much as possible so you all can be a part of our journey.

Lees:
Lees has been designated as our driver. Now many of you are probably asking, why aren't you driving, Kristen (since I am the obvious choice)? However, as I am the only one that knows how to read a map, I have designated myself as the navigator. Lisa is concerned, however, about getting yelled at, and I keep telling her that as long as she listens to me, we'll be OK. Lisa's expectations of this trip are to drink lots of wine, and soak in all the beautiful towns that we're visiting. She actually was in Paris for a couple months during college, so I hope to rely on her for her French speaking skills.

Moi:
When I was really young, my family liked to go on road trips. Some of the best memories I have are sitting on an ice cooler in between my parents in our blue Astro van, reading out the number of pit stops from point A to point B. My dad taught me how to read an atlas, and that helped keep me occupied during those long drives. Probably why to this day I have a pretty good sense of direction. Thanks pops!

I am excited about wine tasting as well as just being at the Cannes Film Festival during the Indiana release. I hope to run into some people with connections who will get us into the party. (Btw, chances of that happening are slim to none. But a girl can dream right?). I also am excited about driving up in the mountains, and going canyoning in the Gorges du Verdon, the Grand Canyon of Europe. Lisa, however, is not enthused about this idea, so we may have to settle on paddle boating instead.

Sup:
Lisa and I have decided that Sup's role in our driving adventure is to be the pointer-outer. She'll help be the look out person, making sure that I don't navigate us into one of those scary Parisian round-abouts. However, I have a feeling she will be sleeping a lot in the backseat. Sup has also agreed to go canyoning with me, so I at least have an adventure buddy for a couple hours.

Sup is traveling from Cincinnati, and Lees/I will be meeting her in Paris. Unfortunately, Sup is arriving about 12 hours before us, so we're am not really sure what she will do during the day. What I am sure of, is that she will probably get into some funny situations, which is typical for her. Sup... just be safe!
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