Dream Europe!

I have a few world cities and places that are on my bucket to do list. And we were lucky enough to get  to visit some of those! Greg had a business trip in Berlin the end of August. Perfect! I can fly over with his sky-miles points for free and join him. So I did. Now to be honest, Berlin - not on my list. But I flew in on Sept. 1st mid-morning and took a little nap while Greg worked at the hotel that day. Then we had lunch and I headed out to see some sites. Berlin is interesting, not the old gothic beauty that you find in Europe. A lot of rebuilt after the war so modern buildings. Some famous places like Brandenberg Gate I saw, Check Point Charlie, the new Holocaust Memorial - that was neat and sombering, I wandered the streets for a bit and went back to our hotel to get Greg. We stayed at the Westin Grand. It's one of the old elite hotel buildings of East Berlin before the war. And then there is Grafiti everywhere. Kinda their thing I guess. My item that was a must see for me was the Gallery Wall. It's a portion of the Berlin Wall that they used to have Artists come and paint sections in 1990. The have redone a few of them to new pieces over the years, so it is always changing. A few famous sections was fun to see. We ordered a nice restaurant room service for dinner. It was perfect.

And that wraps up Berlin. On to BARCELONA!!

We flew in bright and early Saturday morning and dropped our bags then headed out on the bus tour. I love those. It got us all around the city to all the places I really wanted to see. Like all stuff Gaudi, the famous architect. The big one was Familia Sagrada the famous droopy trippy Catherdral. Greg said it was amazing and beautiful and also bewildering and a monstrosity. I agree. We didn't get tickets to go inside though, next time. It's being finished for like the next 20 years. Then we saw a few other of his fun buildings, the Casa Mila, Parc Guell - the park up on the hill. And had lunch across from manzana de la discòrdia - the block of discord. Where Gaudi's Casa Batllo is and next to a few other famous architects buildings all so different from each other. 

We saw where the terrorist attack was just 2 weeks before we arrived. And then walked the Ramblas and shopped and our hotel was in the Gothic quarter. AMAZING! It totally reminded us of Venice and other quaint narrow allies of old, old buildings of Europe.

I LOVED Tapas! Brilliant! Why don't we have these all over in the US. It's perfect for me, I can never decide what to get at restaurants and when I do I always wished I got the other thing or I don't want to commit to a whole dish of just pasta or some other item. This way, you order like 8 items and have a whole plethora of yummy choices! We did that for both lunch and dinner. Ha! And we had several pit stops for gelato.

And we spent the evening at the waterfront. Greg swam in the Mediterranean Sea and I waded my feet. It was warm and great. A few nudists, that's Europe for ya. Such a fun beautiful city! One of our favorites for sure!

 Next stop on to Nice, France! (Pronounced... - neess).

The Côte d'Azur is AMAZING, that will be a word of the trip. So gorgeous. The water in the French Riviera was so blue and neat! Now the rocky beach in Nice was not ideal as other parts of the Mediterranean of course, but that didn't stop beach goers. I have been to Nice like 18 years ago or something with siblings Cameron, Amy, and my friend Jolene so it was fun to see it with different eyes and see what's changed and felt like I knew it and what to see with Greg. It was that way for all our stops in France. I had done it all and have always wanted to come back with my husband one day.

So we dropped our luggage again, luckily we packed light and just had one carry-on each. And wandered the streets, ate lunch, and then made our way to the port. Greg got to go on a SCUBA dive trip the next cove over or somewhere close. He enjoyed it. While I enjoyed going to the park on top of Castle Hill, there's an old Chateau there. I used the elevator up and spent a few hours enjoying the amazing views. Wow! And enjoyed some shade and people watching. It was a cool place to see and wander. Then Greg was done and we met up along the Promenade des Anglais (English Promendade along the waterfront) and had a great dinner at one of many many restaurants in Nice.

That night the moon light on the water and city lights and ambiance was so romantic and wonderful. 

Every day we also would Skype with the boys at home. It always would start out well, then by the end of the conversation the boys would be fighting over the chair or who gets to be seen on the camera, good grief. So we'd quickly say goodbye. :)

Next stop: Monaco! We slept in and worked our way to the bus stop to get the scenic bus to Monaco. It was a about a 45 min. ride, along the gorgeous coast through little towns like Eze getting to Monaco. The stop was right by our hotel and then we went up the hill to the Prince's Palace and wandered up there. When I was here all those years ago the one side of the cliff was under construction or something, so the first picture is the new port all built up and gorgeous. Then we wandered back down and took a water bus/taxi across the harbor (amazing yachts everywhere) to the other side of Monaco. All of 2 minutes to cross. But saved us 25 minutes of walking. Where we had lunch at the McDonald's with the most amazing view on the Mediterranean. Then walked up the steep hills to check out the famous Monte Carlo Casino. And all day long we saw sweet awesome expensive sports cars all over. Greg kept taking pics of them because he knew the boys would love to see them. They are so into hot cars, Ferrari, Mclaren, Lamborghini's, etc. We got them some Ferrari shirts as a souvenir. And we weren't dressed in a suit coat and nice clothes so we couldn't enter the inside of the casino. Ha!

We went to walk along the Monaco beach, way better sand, although big and grainy. But after the first part there was too much nudity. So we bailed and walked part of the Grand Prix track and wandered all the way back to the hotel until dinner time. After dinner we headed back up the hill to the palace to take in the sunset sky's and city lights. By this point I was sick of the same old boring selfie stick pictures. So you'll see a few more ideas being used for fun pictures. Ha! It was so pretty looking out over the unique Principality that is Monaco. It was the cleanest place you've ever seen. They spray down all their sidewalks and it's the only place that had doggy bags for the dog's poop. Every where else in Europe it would be all over the sidewalk, so watch your step. I was planning on showing Greg the amazing gold Train station to head back to the Nice airport the next day, but I didn't realized I had to pre-book tickets. So we took the express bus which worked out nicely to Nice. :)

Next stop, PARIS! We booked all our flights on Easy Jet. The budget quick airline in Europe. It was all so cheap to get around, $25 bucks here, $35 bucks there. Awesome time and money saver!

I really spent time researching all our hotels and was diligent about picking a good location in our budget. I think I did pretty good. Our hotel in Paris was right near the Notre Dame! Great neighborhood with lots of shops and restaurants. Right by the St. Michel/Notre Dame metro stop. Perfect. It's the stop you can get to either Orly or Charles DeGualle airports and straight to Versailles and all the famous stops like Eiffle Tower, museums, etc. All on the one line, no transfers. We only did one transfer when we went up to the Sacré-Cœur. And I used the new Paris metro map, way easier than what they had. Anyways...

We enjoyed Montmartre and seeing the Sacré-Cœur and the views. This is the area known for it's artists and artistic history. Lots of people around but I remember all those years ago when I was there before, we found some famous steps and worked our way down to the Moulin Rouge. So we did that this time as well. 

I took a picture of a picture I've had hanging in my house since before I got married. A photograph of Brassai, he was a famous black and white photographer in the early 1920-30's or something. You've seen his work. And I've always loved the steps of Montmarte! So I asked Cameron exactly where they were, which were just right there where we were at and I redid my own photo version. Leaves on trees but pretty good effort I must say.

 I really really wanted to go to the top of the Arc De Triomphe, but the wait was long and Greg didn't want to pay the $35 for us to do that. I think he regrets that now. I remember it had the best views of Paris! But we walked under it and high fived! Ha!

We walked through pretty Paris over to the Eiffel Tower. It was a bummer because the famous spot to go take pictures they had sectioned off because they are building something there! What?! Why would they do that to the world? How will you get your view of the tower in your pictures without anything obstructing your view? Whatever- hopefully it works out. And they had it gated off as they will be building a security glass wall around the tower. I don't know why they haven't protected it before. I guess all the terrorism attacks are making them think of stuff finally. Anyways, we created quite an audience when we were trying our jumping pictures. Only like a dozen tries. Ha!

Then next day we slept in, because man we were tired and jet lagged, etc. And took the metro/train to the Palace of Versailles! I had been there before in March so there wasn't much in bloom and it was dull and gray and they had just had a random tornado/wind storm destroy a bunch of trees all those years ago. So this time I was excited to see it better!

It was forecasted to be cloudy the whole time we were to be in Paris. But this particular day was sunny. So we hurried and did the gardens first while the sun was still out. We rented bikes to ride around the acres of land. This is the only way to do it. Walking is for snails! Ha ha! And we discovered by trying, that we could take those trusty bikes out of the side entrance of the park grounds and ride across the street to see the Paris LDS Temple. Perfect! I didn't want to walk the 3km to get there just to see it. It is small but the grounds were pretty. I saw pictures of the inside and stained glass from when it was being built so it was fun to see it. Then we hopped on the bikes and back to the gardens of Versailles we went.

 We were out on the bikes and there were few people the further you go of course, we came across some gorgeous little spots, like this row of trees I got a picture of Greg riding through in the blk/wht. We were super bummed they didn't have any fountains on. Lame! All this money they bring in and they can't run a couple of the main fountains?! What's up with that? Even if it were for like 10min. every hour. Come on! They only run them on certain days. blah blah. 

The bottom left pic is the Temple. After that we crashed at our hotel and I took a power nap. And then we headed out to walk the Seine and see some bridges, Pont Neuf  - the oldest bridge in Paris and the pretty Pont Alexandre, also saw the Louve, the Tuileries garden, and had dinner at one of bazillion Italian restaurants in Paris. Very yummy! And with all this french language everywhere it really made me wish we could bring our boys here someday as they are all learning the language. I can be patient and dream for that one day.

 After Greg's quest for hot cocoa we arrived at the Eiffel Tower at dusk as the lights came on! So neat! I have to say though, for Paris being the city of love - yes ok, but the city of lights? Not so much. It is a dark city. They need more lights! Make stuff brighter! Ha!

I have also had a black and white picture I love of the Eiffel Tower hanging in my house since before I was married. So as we walked around it, I saw a glimpse between some trees and redid my own version of the picture I love. Both of these I took. One in blk/wht the other in the color and gold looking lights. The boys were impressed when I showed them I was there and took the picture just like the one they see everyday hanging in our family room. What a fun and cool structure.

We crossed the Seine again to get to the steps of  Place du Trocadéro and the aquarium and get some pictures with a hundred other people doing the same thing of when the lights sparkle on the hour. For only 5 minutes. Really? 5, why not at least 10? Geesh, see it's not a city of lights.

We sure tried to spice up our pictures with the selfie stick. See, not so boring. He he!

Gosh, we sure loved our trip. It was a dream trip for me! I've been talking about wanting to do all this someday. And with Greg traveling to Europe so often it was great to make it a reality! I am so so grateful to my mom for being willing and able to babysit our boys so we could go and explore the world! 

Au Revoir Paris! Adios and Au revoir to Europe!