January 3, 2009

Christmas

So we took a few days off from traveling and spent Christmas at home. Unfortunately not every package made it in time but that's life here in Europe. So all of you should be getting Christmas cards in January. Brad was still more fascinated with the paper and Rhi loved all her new princess gear. We now have a new camera and have been taking pictures of everything with it. We enjoyed a nice relaxing day and took a walk around our village. The real excitement began a day later when we hopped a train and went to Paris.

Pictures taken in our backyard and in the fields between the villages.

Paris was freezing! It was also so beautiful and it reminded me a lot of New York with all the traffic, expensive everything, cafes on every corner, and just plain dirty streets. The subway is considerably easier to navigate in Paris and the architecture is more like that of New Orleans. I loved it there and hope to go back in the summer.



We took a train from Geilenkirchen and it was only a three hour ride. Our hotel was quite interesting when we discovered there was no shower curtain and apparently Parisians are not bothered by this as most of the hotels are this way. (Maybe that's why they smell, because they don't shower much because they don't have time to shop vac the water off the bathroom floor every day.) We also had inches to spare on either side of the bed for the kids to sleep on the floor. We had to sneak them in because we would have had to get two rooms. Our hotel window looked down on a blue neon lit sex shop and we discovered a whole street near the Moulin Rouge with one after another of those. The hotel elevator was a joke if I can describe it correctly. It was triangular in shape and said 3 persons max would fit. Well maybe 3 small children would have fit in there. Kelly and I got in with some bags and we were pressed up against the walls all twisted up laughing about the elevator. Poor handicapped people would be better off trying to navigate the stairs in that place. The stairs were another story. We were on the fourth floor and the stairs go up in a kind of spiral. They sloped downward from the wall to the middle column (if that makes sense) and they were uneven. Bradley took forever to get up or down them because they were so unpredictable. Somehow I think in the states that this hotel would have been deemed in violation of building codes for the elevator and the stairs. And this was a 3 star Best Western! The Europeans only operate on a 4 star basis. At least it was clean and close to the train. I guess the standards here are lower and once we get passed being spoiled Americans, we have a really good time.

So the first night in Paris we went to see the Moulin Rouge. It is far too expensive to take in a show but Tori was able to get into their gift shop at least. The next day of course we went to the Eiffel Tower which looks a lot smaller from the ground than it does when you are in the glass elevator going up the legs with nothing between you and the ground but a few thousand tons of twisted metal. It is not a kid friendly attraction unless you go without a stroller and don't mind smashing into small spaces with lots of people. Jim was gracious enough to take our screaming and freezing kids to a cafe while the rest of us braved the elements for a beautiful view of Paris. It was worth it but my god all those stinking people... I think we spent more time waiting in lines than we did in the tower itself.

Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower

The River Seine

We also saw the Louvre which is enormous and nearly got mauled to death trying to see the Mona Lisa, the Notre Dame cathedral which is also enormous and gorgeous inside, the Arc de Triomphe and Pere Lachaise Cemetery. For those of you who know me well you know that I would never go to Paris and skip seeing Jim Morrison's grave. I have to say it was a bit depressing to see how such a larger than life person with so much to offer the world had been reduced to a such a small plot of land squished in as almost an afterthought next to at least four other graves and surrounded by a fence to ward off the vandals. That being said, the rest of the cemetery is amazing! I think Jim took the best pictures in there. It is so old and so filled with family mausoleums many of which have fallen into serious disrepair. They are stuffed in next to each other often times it seems with no rhyme or reason. It looks like it started off orderly and then people were just stuck wherever they would fit. I want to learn more about this cemetery because it was such an amazing and peaceful place. Next time we are in France it would be nice to check out Versailles, or maybe a certain film festival... Yeah right.

Pere Lachaise

Notre Dame Cathedral

We had to try escargot. Yummy!

The Louvre

At last the train ride home. We were all so exhausted that we started to get silly. Brad has taken to screaming lately for his own amusement mostly but to our fellow train passengers it was not funny. A man and his wife who were seated behind us felt it necessary to comment to Jim that he should tell his wife to keep his son quiet. It did not go over well and luckily we were within 15 minutes of our station and were able to depart without an international incident. The story is actually much funnier now than it was then because I really did think this man would attack us. You can't force a two year old to be quiet, especially one who is a week past his bed time and has been to three countries in as much time. They obviously didn't have kids and I always laugh at these people who are so quick to lose their patience with other people's kids in public places. Guess what? We have to take him home with us, they don't. You know what I say to those miserable and cranky childless folks? Get over it. If you don't like the noise, walk away. If you can't walk away suck it up for a little while. We have to deal with them forever! And most of the time we love every minute of it. It's only when they misbehave that we bring them out in public to share them with the rest of the world.

The End