Archive for category Travels

Oh, Paris…

paris

Eating lunch in the Louvre

Favorite things in the city of lights…

  • Sugared lemon crepes
  • Whipped cream crepes
  • Buttered crepes
  • People assuming that I could only speak English (no, really, I liked this)
  • A man puking on the sidewalk without breaking stride while climbing up a huge hill in an, umm, interesting area
  • Cezanne
  • Monet
  • Degas
  • The scam where people pretend to find a “gold” ring on the sidewalk in front of you and then try to give it to you (apparently, Tony looks like their kinda guy)
  • Tony’s umbrella exploding in front of the Arc de Triomphe (as in *literally* every piece of his umbrella separated and jumped in front of the insane traffic roundabout — I don’t think it could handle the shock either)
  • Shoes
  • Marais neighborhood
  • Macaroons

paris2

Eiffel Tower at night


Least favorite things…

  • Fixed menus (onion soup, farm chicken, tarte)
  • Tourist traps
  • Lines (actually, we skipped them all, but still…)
  • Traveling via plane (yes, we were advised to take the train….)
  • Latin Quarter restaurants (sorry!!)
  • The price of macaroons (kid you not…. 3 euros for each little morsel)

,

Comments

ITALIA! Buon Natale

I *think* that’s Merry Christmas.

Either way, we survived through a week of Italian driving to see Florence, Rome, Pisa and Cinque Terre… all in seven days and two major traffic jams.

(You might guess from the pictures, but yes, it rained. A lot.)

, , , , ,

Comments

The Ladies

IMG_0698

The ladies start their pilgrimage down the mountain.

How do we spend our weekends in Switzerland? If Tony won “paper, rock, scissors,” we would visit a cow-related festival every weekend. Fortunately, we’ve only dedicated one to our bovine peeps.

Thus, this last weekend was the overload of all things cow.

Saturday was spent in Saint Cergue, Switzerland watching hundreds (maybe thousands?) of cows descend from the Jura mountains to the lower level pastures. Most wore headdresses of flowers – some wore pine trees decorated in crepe paper. Most looked thoroughly disgruntled and were shaking their heads frantically to dislodge them.

Sunday, the ladies tangled. Martigny, Switzerland is famous for their cow fights. We paid 15 francs and crowded into the standing area only.

Umm, yep, Tony refers to cows as “the ladies.”

Comments

A marmot and a chamoix were walking down the trail…

We *just* were in Zermatt for the weekend, hiking and, not too shockingly, taking pictures (i.e. Tony took thousands of pictures while I hopped up and down impatiently).

The oddest moment of the trip happened when I saw a man up ahead, leading two mules and carrying something around his neck. As he came closer, it was clearly a dead animal — namely a chamoix (small goat-type creature).

IMG_0607

About 10 minutes later, we saw a younger 20-something carrying a dead animal in a plastic bag. It was his son and he was carrying a marmot. Of course.

Comments

Montreux, Switzerland


Created with flickr slideshow.

Hmm… So I do tilt my head when I take pictures. Ignore the 20 degree angle. I think it adds character.

, ,

Comments

Chamonix with a lil point and shoot

I mean I know my camera is no Nikon D-90, but this kid can shoot.


Created with flickr slideshow.

, , , , ,

Comments

And I never fell in a canal…

Venice, Italy.


Created with flickr slideshow.

, ,

Comments

The stress of flying (and we’re not even talking about swine flu)

Lost Luggage

Right now, I’m holding onto my cell phone and watching the minutes tick by (yeah, it’s digital time, but same concept).

I fully expect my parents or significant other to call me in minutes to say that checking six pieces of luggage was not a win. The airline said “nuh, uh” and my parents are heading back to their hometown with four big bags and no solution of how to deliver them overseas.

Read the rest of this entry »

Comments