Museums

Using the Paris Pass over the next three days we visited or tried to visit some of the famous museums of Paris.  We intentionally skipped the Louvre as we had visited it many years ago on a brief trip to Paris.  It is so large and crowded, and takes a lot of time to really see.  Instead, we targeted the Orsay, the Pompidou, the Rodin, the Dali, and the Picasso museums.  The Dali was closed for renovations, so that was a disappointment, but the rest were fun and interesting. In the Orsay we also also had lunch in its beautiful and ornate dining room, and there are some nice photos of that in the Orsay album and below.

                 

The Pompidou was really an interesting building with it modern theme and unusual exterior.  It also offered nice views of the city from its top floor.  We captured some nice views of Sacre Coure and the Eiffel Tower from there.

                  

       
The museums were certainly interesting but also exhausting when you try to see so many in such a compressed time period.  We were trying to maximize our Paris Pass opportunities, but that also meant we were pushing ourselves to see it all.  It would be fun to have more time to explore them more slowly and over a longer period of time.

The Paris Pass, the Opera House

On the advice from a friend we purchased the Paris Pass online before leaving the US for the trip.  The Paris Pass provides pre-paid access to some 60 venues around Paris, plus free Metro passes.  You can purchase the Paris Pass for one day or multiple days, but the days must be consequetive once you activate your pass.  We chose the 4 day pass and activated them on Saturday, after we had spent the previous two days exploring a bit on our own.

Our first activity using the Paris Pass was to ride the Red Bus, which is the open top bus that travels around the interesting areas and provides recorded commentary on the sights along the way.  It is also allows you to get off and on at any of its stops as much as you want for the day of your ticket.  We used the Red Bus tours as our way of seeing an overview of the tourist areas of the city.  The photo album on the Red Bus shows a few interesting views of the ride.  We also stopped near the famous Moulin Rouge for some photos of the outside. 

The Red Bus tours consumed more of the day that we expected, as it stopped and remained stopped more than we had anticipated.  But we still managed to fit in a couple of other activities that day.  We finally got off the bus the last time near the Opera House, which we then used our pass to tour.  The Opera House was beautiful, inside and out, and the photos in the Opera House album are very nice.  We also viewed a movie on the history of Paris and then on a recommendation from a young woman at the Paris Story we walked into a nearby Lafayette Department Store to see a beautiful interior and also to check out its rooftop view.

We ended the first day of using the Paris Pass with a visit to Montparnesse, a 59 story office building with a spectacular view of Paris from the 56 floor viewing area, and even better from the covered roof on the 59th floor.  We enjoyed a nice entry and some champagne on the 56th floor, then stuck around for full darkness to take some photos of the city and especially the Eiffel Tower after dark.  It was a dreary and rainy day and evening, so the air was clear, but the photos are nice nevertheless.

Montmartre, Sacre Cour, Jardin des Tuileries

Our first two full days in Paris we explored on our own.  We rode the metro, got our bearings, walked some other neighborhoods, and enjoyed ourselves.  We ended up in Montmartre where Linda bought some art from an artist in the square.  We enjoyed the view from Sacre Cour, nearby, and walked through Jardin des Tuileries, a beautiful park that leads to the Louvre.  It was great to be under no schedule pressure and to find our way around.

Paris: Our Flat, Our Neighborhood

The train trip from Zurich to Paris was uneventful and we enjoyed the scenery along the way.  It was just over 4 hours with numerous stops along the route.  But on the long stretches, especially in France, we saw some high speeds, with the fastest  being 317 km/hour, or 197 mph!  That was fun, although the speed was hard to detect just looking outside.

We were anxious to see our flat, which we had rented from Airbnb, and when we arrived the owner was there to meet us.  She was very nice, showed us around and left.  It was just as shown on the website and very comfortable, and would be our home in Paris for 7 nights.  It turned out to be very nice and very affordable, and with a washer very convenient to do our laundry.

The neighborhood in which this flat was located was along St Martin's Canal, what had been a working canal for goods and transportation many years ago.  Today its mostly for recreation and beauty, and the locals (20 somethings) loved to hang out along the canal day and night.  Especially at night it was lined with people enjoying wine, beer, and food they had brought as a picnic. 

The neighborhood was also where Jim's former boss lives, and we were fortunate to be able to connect with him and his family twice.  We had chosen this neighborhood specifically to be close to them, and it worked out great.

The neighborhood was also very convenient to the metro, with two stops nearby.  The larger stop was at the Place de la Republique, which boarders the 3rd,10th, and 11th districts.  It is one of the largest squares in the city at 33,000 square meters and was also the scene for the artsy crowd that lives in that area.  There was always something interesting going on there.

Switzerland: Chur, Zurich, Lucerne

We spent one night in the small mountain town of Chur, and it was a charming place.  We arrived on the Bernina Express from Tirano, Italy, about 5:30pm.  The hotel was a short walk from the train station and we were very pleased to find a very modern, very "Swiss" hotel.  It felt like an Ikea design through and through.  The hotel had made dinner reservations for us, and we enjoyed a nice Swiss dinner in an outdoor patio at a nearby restaurant.  The next day we casually walked around Chur, took some photos, and window-shopped a bit before boarding our train for Zurich.  We saw our first Swiss chocolate shop, but didn't buy any there.  It was tempting!

The other observation we made in Chur was that everything is smaller in Switzerland (and more expensive!).  The elevator in the hotel was so small we could barely put both of us and our luggage in it.  The water glasses were small at the cafe's and the servings were small with meals. 

We arrived in Zurich to high 80's temperatures and discovered that our hotel was not air conditioned.  Its actually not common to have A/C in hotels in Switzerland and they just deal with the heat when it arrives.  Fortunately, we had a fan in our room and had large windows to open, so we survived.  Our hotel was near the Zurich train station and an easy walk.  Later that evening we walked down to Lake Zurich and enjoyed a really nice sunset, and walked around the area by the lake.

The next day we took the local train to Lucerne for the day and enjoyed walking around Lucerne, although it was raining and dreary most all day.  Most notable in Lucerne was the medieval wall and tower we climbed for a fabulous view of Lucerne, and the wonderful cheese fondue we enjoyed at a restaurant along the water.  Lucerne looked to be beautiful, if the day was clear and sunny, so we will have to try again another trip.

Two nights in Zurich and we were off for Paris on the double-decker high speed train. 

Switzerland, The Bernina Express

Our trip over the Swiss Alps on the Bernina Express was everything we expected and a bit more.  We were fortunate that the weather was clear and sunny, allowing for spectacular views the entire day.  The Bernina Express is a narrow gauge scenic train that travels over the Alps between various points in Switzerland and the station in Tirano, Italy.  The cars are air conditioned, which we needed the day of our trip, and equipped with large windows for a glorious view.  However, the windows are also sealed closed and can interfere with taking good photos of the passing scenery.  So, Jim spent a lot of time at the back of our car, outside the door, shooting photos through an open window there.  Most of the photos in the album with this post were shot that way.

The train route over the Alps passes through 55 tunnels and over 196 bridges to make its way over the summit at 7391 feet above sea level.  The bridges are beautiful, built like roman aqueducts of stone with wonderful arches.  The provide a wonderful scene as the trains climbs and descends the mountains.

The train passes through villages and towns along the way, and along ridges above villages in the valleys below.  Every scene was more beautiful than the last.  Finally, at the top as we passed over the divide that separates the water runoff in separate directions, we passed by a beautiful lake.  These are some of the best photos of the trip and worth taking time to look at closely.

                                 

The trip was about 4 hours altogether from Tirano to Chur, arriving in Chur about 5:30pm.  It was a wonderful day!

Final Thoughts on Italy

Our week in Italy was everything we planned and expected, and more.  We were blessed to have friends in Italy who helped us and entertained us during our week. Our Italian neighbors from Houston who were back in Italy for vacation arranged a fabulous winery tour and tasting, and then a wonderful afternoon BBQ with their friends in Marone on Lake Iseo.  How often could we be so fortunate to enjoy an Italian dinner in an Italian home at a table filled with Italian friends we have made over the past year. And thanks also to Paolo, our neighbor, for excellent recommendations for our day trips.

Then we also were helped and blessed by U.S. friends living in Vicenza who gave us a personal tour of their town, plus fed us, then met us later in the week to tour Desenzano and have dinner there.  They also added to the advice for our day trips and enhanced our time in Italy.  Thanks to Andrew and Silvia for their hospitality.

Finally, Italy this trip for us was about the small towns and villages, the back roads and the countryside, the non-tourist areas and how the regular Italians live and work.  Our strategy worked out better than we could have expected and our experiences were local and genuine.  Of all the individual day trips, however, Valdobbiadene was the biggest surprise and most memorable. We had no idea that was wine country nor that it would be so beautiful. We will definitely return there one day.