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Looking for Quasi Modo

In preparation for our Paris trip we watched a few Paris movies, including Hunchback of Notre Dame. I think it made it a little more meaningful for Jonah to see Notre Dame and look for the gargoyles and Quasi Modo and his bells.

This is the only one of the rose windows in the Notre Dame has the original medieval glass in it.

We found one of Quasi’s friends up top.

This bell used to take 16 men to ring. Then they added a few pullies and it only took 8. Nowadays it’s all machine run, pretty amazing.

The climb to the bell tower was about 400 steps. The lady who we showed our tickets to asked me several times if I was sure I could/wanted to do it. I think she was worried I would go into labor. She seemed worried about Jonah too. But Jonah has proven after many bell tower climbs that he is the champion of the tiny winding staircase. We got to cut the line because of her concern for us though, she wanted us at the back of a wave of people being let in so she had us come to the front and hop in after the next group. Pregnancy does come with some perks.

The backside of Notre Dame (I like it better) and one of the many lock covered bridges. Don’t mind me looking huge…and the glasses I had to wear all week because of a terrible eye infection, good times.

Very famous bookstore that has supported many struggling authors (very famous authors but I can’t remember who) and still does. They have rooms they let struggling authors stay in above the shop for free. Nick is considering this his backup plan, lol.

Jonah with his head tied back (hey it’s better then letting it flop around!) in front of the Pantheon…originally meant to be a church but it became more a of a place to honor the heroes of France, lot’s of famous people buried in the crypt including Victor Hugo, Marie Curie, Voltaire. Also the place where the rotation of the earth was discovered by Leon Foucalt using his Foucalt pendulum which still hangs from the ceiling.

Jonah and I went to a cute little French marionette show in the Luxembourg gardens, sorry no pictures but it was fun.

We decided to take a little scenic cruise on the Seine that evening. Beautiful. A bit chilly though, especially for Nick who forgot to pack a jacket (don’t worry, we resolved that the next day). Most of the people around us this whole trip were wearing winter jackets. Between Nick’s warm blood and me being pregnant, we were in T-shirts most the time and we got a lot of looks.

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Versailles: THE palace.

Apparently if there is one palace to see in Europe, Versailles is the one. Good ole’ King Louis went a bit overboard. This palace is simply incredible. It was fun to see but then when you stop and think about it, it does make you a little sick. They said that the cost of building the palace was the GDP of France for one year. Why not spend all of your country’s money for a year making yourself the biggest possible estate? Makes sense right? I just loved the gardens, they were huuuuge and so beautiful.

The palace had it’s own chapel (below).

Nick and Jonah hanging out in the hall of mirrors where the treaty of Versailles was signed. These mirrors were a big deal back in the day, mirrors of that size were pricey, and this is a whole hallway of them.

There was some random modern art around the palace such as this high heel shoe made out of pots and lids.

Below is Marie Antoinette’s peasant house. She wanted an escape from the pressures of the palace so in the far corner of the GINORMOUS grounds of the palace they made her own little ideal peasant village complete with a working farm. This is her peasant house. Not so peasantly. Nick says I can have a house like this and my own peasant village if I plan to get beheaded.

 

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Bonjour!

Our last big trip before the baby. Paris. So lovely. Even at seven months pregnant and dragging around a toddler. Probably one of our favorite places so far. Everything was very expensive so in order to cut costs we used an apartment rental website (our second time doing this, the first being in Barcelona). For half the price of a cheap hotel room we got a decently located very small but fully equipped apartment that made us feel like true locals.

Luxembourg garden has a huge playground you can pay a few Euro to get into. Jonah, of course, loved it.

We headed straight for the iconic eiffel tower, our first day there. we were hoping to catch the sunset from the top but by the time we made it through all the long lines (buying tickets, riding one elevator, then another) it was dark. But still very beautiful views of the city.

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“I got hit by a bike”

My poor little Jonah is so accident prone it’s ridiculous. Nick got a call from the day care the other day while I was teaching swim lessons. They said Jonah had gotten a little scratch on the side of his face and they just wanted to let us know. They didn’t know what happened but when we asked Jonah he said “Gino hit me with the bike”. After talking to Gino’s mom, she was able to obtain a confession confirming that Jonah was in fact hit by a bike. Oh, Jonah.

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More on Budapest

Budapest has this really random claim to fame that I never would have guessed. They have the oldest metro on the European continent (the only one older is in London). It is so old that it was originally horse and carts that would go through the tunnels. The trains that run on this line must be the original trains or close to it, they are super retro. And they sing a little diddy at each stop which is fun.

We have been trying to do more for Jonah on our trips so in Budapest we went to the circus. They spoke in Hungarian but we got the jist.

Langos are a delicacy in Budapest…basically the most fatty thing you can eat. Fry bread with sour cream, garlic and cheese. It was tasty but a bit much.

We have found lot’s of fancy buildings around Europe that were built for various world fairs. The one in the photo above is an example. Below is a statue of “anonymous” who wrote Hungary’s history down.

Szechenyi bath house. The number one thing to do in Budapest according to all the guidebooks is take a dip at one of their many Turkish style baths. (Pretty much a hot springs spa).

(Above) Old abandonned Parisian style “mall” with original wood and glass in it, super pretty and neat old phone booths. (Below) Market hall place similar to the Boqueria in Barcelona.

Cool church (above). Fisherman’s bastion (below) apparently this is where they used to sell fish. Not sure why it’s such a cool looking building just for fish….

 

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Budapest

We found super cheap tickets to fly to Budapest (gotta love Ryanair). So we decided to check it out over a weekend. Hungary is more of an Eastern European country, but they  have tried very hard to be more western, so it’s a good mix of both really. The country was occupied by Nazi Germany for a little while until the Soviets came in and “liberated” them. They have several monuments to the Soviets, but it didn’t take long to realize that the soviet reign was not so good either. The monuments are still there, and are controversial, it’s very interesting to think about.

Above, a monument to the soviet liberators. Below, the opera house, their attempt to be more westernized. They wanted one just like the one in Austria.

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Kotor, Montenegro

Montenegro is not a country I have ever even heard of, but it was our last stop on our cruise. The medieval town of Kotor.

There is a castle up on the hill that we decided to hike to. It was so hot outside and the hike was much harder than we anticipated, by the time we made it to the top we were soaking wet (sweat), but the view was of course amazing. (This is the view of the castle from the town, see it up on the right?)
And we found a cute little church behind the castle.

Overall we very much enjoyed our cruise. We had dinner each night with another military family stationed up in Germany. The food was plentiful on the ship, there were lot’s of activities and entertainment including a pool, we had a great time. After a week of being on the ship though, we were ready to be home.

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Argostoli, Greece

Argostoli is a very small port town, there didn’t seem to be much there. We asked a shop keeper and she said to go see the turtles. The turtles ended up being kind of interesting. There are 6 loggerhead turtles that hang out in this bay and eat the fish guts that the fisherman throw out from their daily catch. This is highly unusual as these turtles do not normally eat fish. Because these turtles are so “lazy” and do not travel very far, they have very thick moss on their shells.

Seeing as there wasn’t much in town, we headed for the beach. We learned on the way there that Greek taxi drivers are very offended if you try to haggle with them. After asking three separate taxi drivers for a lower price (that a shop keeper told us we could get), receiving no response except the screeching of tires…we finally accepted their price and rode to the beach. Well worth the price though…I’ve never seen water so clear…it was incredible. Not even in Hawaii does the water look like this.

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Athens, Greece

I was super excited for our stop in Athens, Greece. But it turned out to be super disappointing. We had about four hours at each port and for Athens, that just was not long enough. It is a huge city and it took up half our time just getting around. We decided to try out the hop on hop off bus. We rode it to the Acropolis, wandered around there and then had just enough time to hop back on the bus and finish the loop back to the port without getting off again.

The Acropolis was pretty amazing though. I wish it wasn’t missing so many pieces from all the looters and raiders, but it’s amazing how much is still left really, considering how old it is. So much stinking history…I need to do some research so that I know more about it. Lot’s of stories started here.

The Parthenon.