clog blog

Friday, 1 April 2011

Pancakes in Paris

Bonjour!

What a great week in Paris! Seven consecutive days of sunshine, temperatures in the high teens, flowers everywhere and sunset after 7pm; the promises of summer. We love Spring!

Last week Saturday we arrived in Paris after an easy flight from Lisbon, except for the usual mishaps at security. Again no passport control, I love Europe! Sunday was our first day to explore and after sorting out some admin we headed to the Arc de Triomphe. After climbing the stairs to top we were greeted with amazing views over the city, from the Grand Arch to the Sacre Coeur past the Champs Elysees and the Eiffel Tower. Wow! Definitely worth the hard climb up! The rest of the day was spent orientating ourselves in the city and planning the week ahead. We decided to get a 4 day museum pass which meant we had access to 60 museums in Paris and theoretically skip the queues. After walking down the Champs Elysees, we made our way to the Rodin museum to see the famous Thinker and other pieces by the sculptor. We liked the setting of the bigger pieces in the garden and smaller pieces in the house. After popping into the Louvre to get a map it was time to head back to a home cooked meal! Our accommodation had a laundry area and our room had a kitchenette so we got back to a little bit of normality this week doing laundry and making our own dinner. Maybe we missed out on some French cuisine but it was good practice for the weeks ahead; Justin was able to get the creative juices flowing again! Paris was very busy and vibey on Sunday and it was a good welcome to the city.

Monday was an early start at the Musee du Louvre. I didn’t know it was originally a palace, it’s absolutely massive! I think we were feeling a bit paintinged-out when we were at the Louvre because we didn’t see as much as we wanted to although we were there for about 4 hours. The museum was also very full being one of the only museums open on a Monday. We did however see the Mona Lisa and lots of cool statues including Michelangelo’s entrapped slave. We were planning to come back on Wednesday when the museum is open until late but it didn’t happen. Next time!

Next stop was the Notre-Dame Cathedral. The queue to walk to the top was a bit long so we just went inside the cathedral. It is huge inside with many little chapels. Also very busy with a choir rehearsing for a concert. After the Notre-Dame we made our way to the Pantheon. Modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, it also has a dome and many columns; an interesting design for a church. Many great French citizens rest in the crypt, including Marie and Pierre Curie, the chemists who discovered radiation, and Victor Hugo, the writer who wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Almost time for sunset, we headed back to the Arc de Triomphe for views over Paris at sunset. Last stop for the day was the Grand Arch at La Defense, a business centre with many tall buildings. Much bigger than the Arc de Triomphe, the Grand Arch is a hollow cube with enough space to hold the Notre-Dame!

Tuesday morning we headed back to the Notre-Dame and braved the queue to climb the stairs to the top. It was well worth it! The views over the city were awesome and it was kewl to get close to the gargoyles and other creatures that watch over the cathedral. We couldn’t however see the flying buttresses from the top as they are on the other side of the cathedral. We saw the great bell of the cathedral and the wooden bell tower. The bell weighs ~3 tons and the clapper about half a ton. A team of 12 ringers is required to ring the bell and it is only rung on special holidays. The bell tower is made of wood to absorb the impact of the ringing bell so as not to crack the figures and rest of the cathedral. How did they get it up there all those years ago?!

After the Notre-Dame we headed to the Musee d’Orsay for a fix of impressionist paintings. Originally designed as a railway station, the outlay of the museum is very interesting! Many stairs to would-be platforms and a great clock to keep the time. The museum is home to a real mix of art including works by Matisse, Monet, Manet, van Gogh and Cezanne as well as a section on photography and many sculptures. The less random of the impressionist era, for more random modern art head to the Centre Pompidou!

Last stop for the day, the Eiffel Tower! We ascended the North Pillar right to the top. A bit early for sunset but still kewl nevertheless. Although it was a beautiful sunny day, it was quite windy and cool at the top. Awesome views over Paris, a bit different from so high up, 376 m! It was a bit hazy but apparently on a clear day you can see as far as Chartres Cathedral 72 km away.

Wednesday we started with Les Invalides, home to the Musee de l’Armee and Napoleon’s tomb in the crypt of the Dome church. We saw Napoleon’s tomb, a huge red sarcophagus, the church and also walked through some of the museum’s collections. The parts we saw were the armoury, housing a vast array of ancient armours, the section on Charles de Gaulle and the section depicting the history of France from Louis XIII, Napoleon and the Revolution. Very interesting but obviously from the army’s point of view. Since visiting Paris, I feel inspired to learn more about Charles de Gaulle and read the story of Quasimodo!

Next we made our way to the interesting Pompidou Centre. President Pompidou had a vision for a place dedicated to modern art and the Pompidou Centre was born. An interesting ‘modern’ building, you feel like you are in a Guinea pig cage going up the escalators closed off with plastic pipes on the outside of the building. Matisse, Dali and Picasso are featured here and are the more tame of the modern art. There is also an emphasis on photography and other visual and audio arts such as movies and music etc. There are a lot of random pieces and we didn’t stay too long, lol.

Thursday was our last full day in Paris and also the last day of our holiday touring Europe *sigh* Our museum passes were up (only 4 days) so we spent the day exploring outside areas. Feeling melancholy, we headed out to the Luxemburg gardens. Originally the gardens of the Luxemburg Palace, these public gardens are full of joggers and sun worshippers even at 10 am on a Thursday. We love people gazing and enjoyed watching groups practising Tai Chi and the old retired gentleman playing tennis, what a great way to pass your retirement in the Spring sunshine! A walk down Boulevard St Michel to the Metro station and onto Place de la Bastille. There isn’t anything left of the old prison where the French Revolution broke out, but there is a monument to the victims of the revolution in the middle of the square. Many cafés line the square and we enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere over a croquet monsieur and sugared crêpes. Also in the area is Place des Vosges, a beautifully manicured square surrounded by 36 houses. Once the home of aristocrats, today the area is lively with antique shops and cafés.

Feeling a bit better, we headed to Montmartre on top of a hill, most well-known for the Sacre Coeur and the Moulin Rouge! I love the Sacre Coeur, it is one of my favourite churches in Europe. Even though it was pretty busy inside, it was still quiet and peaceful, unlike other European churches we have been to. It is a huge church and well decorated but not overly ornate like so many others. We enjoyed walking around the streets of Montmartre with many patisseries and artists. Eventually we found the Moulin Rouge! It is in a bit of a dodgy red-light district and we didn’t hang around too long! It is still open though, and for between 90 and 180 euros you can have dinner and watch a show including the French can-can.

After a busy week it was time to pack and get ready to head back to Rotterdam. Although we are sad that our holiday has ended, we are still at the beginning of our adventure and have many things to look forward to! Paris is only 2.5 hrs from Rotterdam on a high speed train which means we will be back for many weekends away! Other nearby places we want to explore include Brussels in Belgium and many parts of the Netherlands. Our first Netherlands adventure is a day out to Keukenhof on Sunday, the colourful bulb fields!

Justin starts his new job next week Friday (April fool’s day, a coincidence?) and we have a confirmed delivery date for our furniture. Our goods arrive on the 11^th of April so we have about 2 weeks of an inflatable mattress and sleeping bags. We managed to acquire two sleeping bags this week but still need to find an inflatable mattress and some other odds n ends to make the next few weeks comfortable. We don’t have internet at home yet but the blog will continue when we are set up and organised! =)

Daylight saving time starts on Sunday morning. The clocks switch forward one hour at 2 am so we will be the same time as South Africa until the last Sunday in October when daylight saving ends. We are looking forward to even longer days but still find the idea of changing the time strange!

Hope you are all well and that Autumn is treating you kindly.

Arc de Triomphe by day...

....and by night

The Eiffel tower

Rodin's the Thinker

Musee de l'Armee at sunset

The Louvre

The Mona Lisa

Michelangelo's entrapped slave

The Notre Dame

Stained glass windows at the Notre Dame

Gargoyles watching over the city

Sunset from the Arc de Triomphe

View of the Grand Arche and La Defense from the Arce de Triomphe at sunset

View of the Eiffel Tower from the Arc de Triomphe at sunset

At the top of the Eiffel tower!

View of the Arc de Triomphe from the Eiffel tower

Armoury at the Musee de l'Armee

View of Montmartre and the Sacre Couer from the Arc de Triomphe

The Sacre Couer

In Montmartre

The Moulin Rouge

Last night of holiday dinner

Sun, sardines and sangria!

Portugal, what a great country! We almost skipped Portugal due to train limitations and I’m so glad we didn’t. Lisbon and Estoril surpassed our expectations and we had a really good time here.

Last week Monday was our first night train experience on the way from Madrid to Lisbon. Hm, an interesting experience! It was a 9 hour journey but definitely not 9 hours of sleep! Our cabin was pretty small but the use of space inside was impressive. Bron naively hoped that there would be a shower somewhere on the train, wishful thinking! At least we had a basin in our cabin. The actual ride wasn’t that smooth and the noise kept us awake a lot of the night but apart from that it wasn’t a bad first experience; it definitely beats a 9 hour flight!

Portugal is one hour behind the rest of Europe, the same time as London and two hours behind SA, so we gained an hour when we arrived. Arriving in the morning gave us an advantage of having an extra day to explore which we spent wandering around the coastal towns of Estoril and Cascais. Tuesday was a beautiful warm day and it was so nice to not need a jacket! We found the Cascais lighthouse, the yacht basin, the land reclaimed from the sea and the Boca de inferno (a hole in the rocks which creates an angry sea!). For lunch we tried the sardines and sangria at a restaurant Justin discovered when he was here in 2006 for an engineering conference. They are very serious about their sangria!

Wednesday was time to explore Lisbon! The first stop was Belém where we visited the Torre de Belém, the Monument to the Discoveries and the Mosterio Dos Jerónimos. Torre de Belém was originally in the middle of the river where it protected Lisbon from an invasion from the sea. Today it is right on the shore and a national monument. The Monument to the Discoveries honours the sea-faring Portuguese explorers who discovered new lands and trade routes, such as Vasco da Gama. Part of the monument is a world map on the ground showing where and when important discoveries were made. The Mosterio is a monastery of the order of Saint Jerome and contains the tomb of Vasco da Gama. We love the Manueline style of the cloister with its archways and depictions of ropes, the cross, images from nature and sea creatures.

We took the tram to the centre of Lisbon where we explored the areas of Baixa and Alfama. Baixa is the area behind the Praça do Comércio where the streets are laid out in a grid, one of the first examples of town planning in Europe. East of Baixa is the Sé Cathedral, Alfama and Castelo de Sáo Jorge. The single yellow trams are a quaint symbol of Lisbon and watching them pass by the Sé added to the scenery. We enjoyed wandering around Alfama with its narrow cobbled streets and tourist shops selling items made of cork and the symbol of Portugal, the chicken. The last stop for the day was Castelo de Sáo Jorge, the remains of a Moorish castle which became a royal residence and later a theatre and prison. The views of Lisbon from the castle were magical and the setting sun made it even more romantic.

Thursday we boarded an early bus headed to Sintra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to many royal castles and palaces. Sintra is a very hilly area and most of the day was spent walking up hills! Although we didn’t go in, the first palace we saw was Palácio Nacional de Sintra. The most striking external feature of this palace is the two large chimneys which protrude from the kitchens below. Much further up the hill is Castelo dos Mouros, a 9^th century Moorish castle. The castle is mostly ruins now, similar to St George’s Castle, and was used as an observation post for monitoring the coastline.

On an adjacent hilltop is Pálacio de Pena, a mixture of colours and architectural styles. We loved this palace! The rooms are a decent size that befits a royal residence (not like the tiny rooms of the Residenz in Munich) and the views from the palace are amazing. We liked the Manueline style and the decorative tiles. The gardens for the palace are magnificent. If we had more time it would have been awesome to explore them more. The last stop for the day was Quinta de Regalaira, the summer residence of the Carvalho Monteiro family. The house is quite large but not much of the original furniture remains. The garden is massive and full of weird and wonderful statues and other wonders. There is a chapel, a lake, a waterfall, caves and tunnels connecting various parts of the garden, castle-like towers and 27m deep wells with stairways to the bottom. Someone in the family was an enthusiastic botanist evidenced by the many different tree and plant species in the garden, including a cycad and a sequoia tree (a ring from a trunk of a giant sequoia tree is in the National History Museum in London). After a full day out it was time to celebrate St Patrick’s day at an Irish Pub in Cascais. Justin felt he deserved a Guinness, or two. We enjoyed the home-made beef and Guinness stew and the live traditional music.

Friday we headed back to Lisbon and visited the Oceanário de Lisboa. The second largest in the world, the oceanarium has one main centre tank and four smaller tanks on each corner of the main tank. The main tank represents the open ocean and the four smaller tanks represent the Atlantic, Antarctic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. We missed the turtles of the Durban aquarium but enjoyed seeing a real manta ray. Our favourites though were the three otters in the Atlantic tank. These guys, girls actually, are so playful and cute! I could watch them all day! They are so fluid and graceful in the water and play with each other all day. They rub their faces, tails and tummies with their hands, so human-like. They really were so cute. Otters eat a third of their body weight each day to maintain an internal body temperature in the cold water but we think it’s because they play so much! The aquarium is well laid out; there is one way traffic through the aquarium and you can view the tanks from above and below. The oceanarium focuses on the plight of our seas and educating people on awareness and smart consumer choices. We really enjoyed our visit to the oceanarium and highly recommend it! The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through the streets of Alfama soaking up the atmosphere before it was time to head back to pack and get ready to move onto Paris on Saturday.

Portugal was much warmer than the rest of Europe and even Spain. We enjoyed soaking up the sun and not needing a big jacket! Although the wind cooled things down quite a lot. Our hotel room had a 180° view of Estoril, the ocean and Cascais. When we weren’t exploring, we enjoyed our relaxing chill-out time in the sun on our balcony watching the view. One of our other favourite things in Portugal was our mission to try as many of the traditional custard pastries, pasteis de nata, at as many different bakeries as possible! Clearly we have to be more serious next time as we only managed about 6 in one day. We loved the colourful decorative tiles used everywhere; covering whole buildings and used signs. However, we do not approve of the public toilets! The public loo’s in Italy, Spain and Portugal leave a lot to be desired. I eventually got used to no toilet seat but one public loo at Cascais took the cake. It was a stand-alone corrugated metal building with only a porcelain bowl in it. However, it was not obvious how to use the toilet as the bowl did not have a pipe leading from it or an obvious way of flushing it. Definitely not ayoba!

On Saturday we braved airport security for a flight to Paris. Paris is sunny but not as warm as Portugal! We are in Paris for 6 nights until Friday when we head back to Rotterdam. We have a preliminary furniture delivery date of 11 April which should be confirmed this week and means that we only have one week in Rotterdam with no furniture, yay! On this week’s agenda is to find sleeping bags! At least our new place has a fridge and a washing machine.

We will not have internet the first little while in Rotterdam until we get sorted. If we don’t manage to post a Paris blog before the end of the week, apologies! It will follow as soon as we have internet again. And our blog will not stop just because we are back in Rotterdam, we will keep you informed of ‘going Dutch’.

Hope you are well and had a good weekend! Have a good week ahead!

Until next time, au revoire!

Cascais

Lighthouse at Cascais

Sardines and 'a glass' of sangria

Torre de Belem

Monument to the discoveries

Pasteis de nata!

The cloister at Saint Jerome Monastery

A yellow tram!

The Se Cathedral

Castelo Sao Jorge

Moorish Castle in Sintra

Pena Palace in Sintra

In the gardens at Pena Palace

View of Pena Palace from the Moorish Castle

Waterfall outside Quinta de Ragaleira

Palacio Nationale de Sintra

Otters at the Oceanarium. So cute!!

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

The bear and the strawberry tree

Olá!

Greetings from Madrid in Espana! On Thursday last week we caught a speed train from Barcelona and arrived in Madrid 4 hours later. As always, we really enjoyed it and are bleak that our long distance train trips are soon to be over. We enjoyed watching the scenery go by and the landscape change. Spain is more hilly than we thought with flat plains inbetween, much like Cape Town. There is quite a lot of agricultural use of the land between Barcelona and Madrid although the country side is looking quite brown.

After checking in, we had time to explore the city before the sun went down. We were blessed with a sunny afternoon and it was so good to be in the sun! First stop on our walking tour was Peurte de Sol, or gateway to the sun, where a statue of the symbol of Madrid is, the Bear and Strawberry Tree. We are not quite sure when the tree became a runner plant or vice versa, but hey. (by the way, no one commented that I got it wrong. The she-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus is the symbol of Rome, not Siena!) This square, or semi-circle, is where a lot of important events in Madrid’s history took place. Our hotel was located close to Sol which was great because it was so central. It was also conveniently located near many restaurants so we didn’t have far to get back after a bit of sangria. However, Friday and Saturday night party-goers had the same idea and the Spanish are not quiet people! They were still going strong at 6am on both days.

We walked along San Jeronimo to Paseo del Prado, the street where many of the Madrid’s museums are located, to the city’s largest park, the Parque Del Buen Retiro. Most of the afternoon was spent wandering around the park, chilling on a bench and people gazing. It was quite interesting watching the buskers and exhibitionists on their roller blades! Spring is definitely here! So many trees are budding and in blossom and the days are getting longer. Sunset is about 7pm in Spain at the moment, think it will be earlier in Paris & Rotterdam though. We passed a whole orchard of trees in blossom, so beautiful! I love spring! Love-bird type-parrots were munching on the blossoms, so cheeky!

To end the evening we found a typical local restaurant and tried to decipher the menu! English is not very beeg in Spain, if you decide to visit here we suggest you learn some basic Spanish! Would have helped us a lot. At least know important or your favourite things. Tea doesn’t usually come with milk here so if you want some it is useful to know that it is called ‘leche’. We have really enjoyed Spain but have found the food to be a little unconventional. Every restaurant serves octopus or squid done in ink, tripe, cuttlefish and others. We also found brave potatoes (patatas bravas) and potatoes in a crisis (patatas de crisis)! We liked empanadas but our friend Mayira makes the better ones than the ones we tried.

Friday rained a fair bit so we took it a bit easy and had the first nap of the holiday! But first we braved the rain for a walk about in the opposite direction to the day before. We started with Plaza Mayor, past Palacio Real, down to Plaza de Espana and home again via the Grand Via, one of the main streets in Madrid. We found Don Quixote! He is off on his mission with his side kick Sancho Panza at Plaza de Espana. I didn’t know that he was a Spaniard or that the famous sketch of him is by Picasso. The Spanish love ‘Don Quijote’ and there are figures of him and Sancho almost everywhere.

Saturday we caught the 30 min speed train to Toledo. Wow!! What an amazing place! So typically Spanish and Mediterranean yet so different. An eclectic mix of gothic and Moorish architecture with spires and arches dominating and blending so well together. We loved the narrow cobbled streets with many side alleys and passages. Every street name is a tile and many buildings have colourful pictures in tiles on them, in Madrid too. We had a lovely day exploring Toledo and wandering around the streets. Sights we saw include the main plaza the Plaza de Zocodover, the Alcazar or old royal palace, the cathedral, the last Muslim building still standing (Ernita del Cristo de la Luz, a mosque which was converted into a church), the Peurta del Sol (an arch this time), Iglesia de Santo Tomé (a church housing an El Greco masterpiece) and the Monasterio de San Juan de Los Reyes. It is interesting how Jews, Muslims and Christians lived together so peacefully here for so long. What changed?

Toledo is well known for its silver smiths and their swords. You can’t miss the sword shops, they are everywhere! Justin was really keen to get a sword but getting it past airport security would have been interesting! Bron was happy to settle for a set of steak knives. Next time…. They also make jewellery inlaid with silver or gold in patterns, beautiful and so different. Other popular pieces are Don Quixote and Sancho and chess sets. We were really lucky with the weather and although it was cloudy most of the day it only rained as we boarded the train headed back to Madrid.

Sunday we explored the flea market known as El Rastro which sprawls across many of the central streets. Could have been a flea market anywhere except that the owners of the various stalls shout out what their wares, very interesting. We spoilt ourselves with a pair of cow skin slippers, toasty! We also wandered through the collector’s market at Plaza Mayor. Collectors of stamps, coins and bottle tops gather here every Sunday to check out each other’s collections and see what they can add to their own. Much smaller than El Rastro but equally as interesting.

After psyching ourselves up all week, it was time for the Museo del Prado! We spent about 6 hours in the Prado and probably saw about 70% of the museum’s permanent collection. The Prado is home to quite a varied collection including many well-known Spanish artists such as Goya and Velázquez. We enjoyed the work of El Greco, Goya, Velázquez, Ribera, Rubens, Bosch and of course the few Michelangelo’s, Raphael’s and Rembrandt’s. After 6 hours we were all paintinged-out and decided to call it a day!

Monday was our last day in Madrid and was a slower day preparing to depart for Lisbon on the night train. After a slow start we headed to the local Lavenderia or Laundromat, packed up and spent the afternoon wandering through Parque Del Buen Retiro again and down Gran Via. We discovered the National Geographic Café but had already had a tea break somewhere else, bleak! Next time!

We have really enjoyed Spain and would like to come back to explore some more. We have found Madrid to be a city that is so alive and vibrant and exudes energy. We enjoyed Barcelona too but it didn’t have the same alive-energy feel about it. Barcelona is way more chilled out; maybe it has something to do with the ocean? Next-time items include the Museo Thyssen Burnemisza and some of the other parks in Madrid, Seville, Granada with the Alhambra and other towns on the coast.

Last night we hopped on a night train and arrived in Portugal. We are staying in Estoril which is about 30 min from Lisbon by train. We are here for 4 days and move onto Paris on Saturday. Another flight, oh yay. Hoping the Portuguese are as relaxed as the Italians! We will be back in Rotterdam on Friday 25^th of March. While we are bleak that our holiday is almost over, we are also looking forward to setting up a new home and the challenges of a new job. We have an update on our furniture! The container left Cape Town on the 4th of March and is due to arrive in the UK this Sunday the 20^th. Depending on how long customs clearance takes, it should be delivered to our new place in Rotterdam 2-4 weeks later. So it is on its way but we will need to make a plan for the first few weeks. Hold thumbs that it gets there fast!

We have had a lovely day soaking up the sun in Cascais and taking it easy (read: eating good food and drinking sangria), we are on holiday after all! Looking forward to exploring Lisbon tomorrow and Sintra on Friday. But more about that next time!

Until then, hope you have plans for St. Paddy’s day on Thursday!

PS: Go Proteas!!