:)

Looks like I'm getting more foot traffic! Now if only all those people would actually give me some sort of feedback, that'd be awesome! *click on the picture to view a larger image of the map*

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Opps!

Is it bad that I completely forgot about a place that Dad and I went to? I mean, I COMPLETELY brain farted!

Last month, Eric, Dad and myself went on a group trip to the Keukenhof Gardens over in The Netherlands. It's a pretty famous place due to their tulips (hybrid breeds and traditional styles) and each year they change the theme of the park (this year it was "From Russia with Love"). When we went with the group, none of us knew about a massive flower festival that was taking place the very same day...so...everyone and their mother was there. Hoards and hoards of pushy (older) patrons, elbow to elbow and all trying to cram into the same area. In all honesty, it wasn't a pleasure being there. 

Between getting stuck in traffic just to get TO Keukenhof (we were stuck on the off ramp for an hour and we were only 10 minutes from the actual place) and waiting forever for our bus to park, we only had an hour to actually look around the park. Kinda sucky. It was so crammed that you couldn't even take any decent pictures of the tulips without someone walking right in front of your shot or bumping you. I essentially gave up the notion of taking ANY pictures cause the whole process was pissing me off. 

When our bus was on it's way out, I saw this bus...atleast that made me laugh, hahaaa

After the gardens, we all piled back onto the bus and headed over to a cheese & clog factory that was another hour away. First we checked out the cheese factory and had a pretty educational demonstration from a dairy maid. Then we were led into a room where they had various types of cheeses you can purchase.

 

  Dairy Maid talking about the process of making their cheeeeeeese

 Cheese Store ...they had tons of awesome stuff (we spent a mint in here) and I highly recommend going to their website if you're interested in unique flavors: Cheese goodness

We managed to get an interesting demonstration on how they make clogs by a gentleman who had a really thick Hispanic accent (when he first came in, he was speaking Dutch). Talk about a mind warp, lol.

The guy talking about the clogs:

 The room where he gave the live demonstration:

Once he was done with that, we ventured into the next room where we were able to pick up some pretty cool clogs for ourselves (yes, they're actually wearable). This is a picture of the ceiling, lol

I got myself a pair of traditional wedding clogs since they were carved with intricate designs, while Eric got himself a pair that looked like big shoes.

SO..since the Keukenhof was kind of a bust for us, Dad and I figured we'd go back a few days later. Sadly, Eric wasn't able to go with us since he had to work. 

I'm SO glad we went back! It was a complete 180* compared to how it was a few days prior! The weather was gorgeous, there were tourists but not nearly as swamped as before, and we were able to take some beautiful shots throughout the park. The following pictures HAVE NOT been edited / enhanced! It's the flowers natural color with natural light:

Dad being Mr. Photographer

I dunno why, but I really liked this Bull statue, lol

By the way, Dad and I went back on a Wednesday...and a few other people I've talked to have also gone back during the middle of the week rather than the weekend. SO, if you're ever in The Netherlands and wanna check out the Keukenhof, go during the middle of the week, not on the weekend. ESPECIALLY don't go on a weekend there happens to be a parade! :)

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Paris : La ville de l'amour

This past weekend, we invaded Paris, France.

Our base did over-night trip in which I managed to get myself, Eric as well as my Dad signed up for it. I'm SO glad we went! It's the first time we were able to make our way over there since we've been in Europe! The bus ride only took 5 hours, but it felt less than that considering the majority of the time, we were passed out since we left base at 6am (figure we woke up at 4am to get ready). Once we rolled into the lovely city, our bus driver swung us by our hotel ( Holiday Inn : Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport ) in which we were able to drop off our overnight bags, then continue onward to the heart of the city.

On our way to the Eiffel Tower, we passed by the Arc de Triumph. It's massive. I really can't explain how gorgeous it was...Pictures don't do it justice!

This is biggest round-about I've ever seen. This thing was ridiculous! I heard that there's some insurance companies that won't cover you if you actually get in an accident in it (that's not a shocker considering there's no median lines and the French drive like maniacs).

We finally reached our drop off point, which was the Eiffel Tower. It's really impressive in person even though it's "just" the support frame for a building (as someone put it to me). Either way, the engineering for that time is pretty apparent when you look at this thing for a while. You have the option of going to the first and second level of it, but we decided on investing our time checking out other things considering the line was VERY long (2 hour wait). Not to mention, the street vendors in the area were becoming rather pesky...they'll walk up to you and ask "Are you American? Do you speak English?" if you say "yes", they harass the hell out of you till you buy one of their Eiffel Tower key chains, toys, stands..whatever it is, you MUST buy it for them to leave you alone. We were just told that if they don't leave ya alone, just say "Police" and they'll scatter like cockroaches. True to the word, they scattered! hahaaa!

Eric & I

Dad & I

The Peace Pavilion at the Champ de Mars near the Eiffel Tower has the word "Peace" engraved in numerous languages.

 Statue of General Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre

 

 

After walking around for a lil bit, we figured out how The Louvre was from where we were. Given, we could have taken the city Metro to get there, but we figured a taxi would've been more fun. We managed to flag down a taxi (the driver was very nice) and we got to have a pimped out taxi ride in a rather flashy Mercedes. In no time at all, he got us to our destination in one piece (that alone was a miracle).

 Yes, we took our typical tourist pictures in front of the glass pyramid :) 

 

  

Before we actually went into The Louvre, we were checking out the exterior of the building since there were really intricate carvings, crown moldings and statues. Absolutely gorgeous! I really was in heaven at that place considering there was SO much to actually look at. The detail on the outside building carvings were amazing! 

 The Louvre fountains

From the courtyard, you could see the Eiffel Tower as well as the Arc du Carrousel. It was commissioned by Emperor Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his Austrian victories and honor his grand army.

Once we got inside...

I was honestly surprised with how...uhhhh... calm The Louvre was. I mean, I was fully expecting it to be jam packed with tourists since we were there on a Saturday...and it's Paris, lol. Given, I was very grateful that we were able to move around pretty freely and take nice pictures without getting shoved around (biggest pet peeve ever). By the way, the entry free to get into the exhibits is only 9.50 euro AND....AND you can take pictures (without flash, of course). Take THAT Saint Pauls Cathedral!

The only time when we really experienced any sort of crowd was when we saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace as well as the Mona Lisa. Other than that, smooth sailing! Speaking of which:

By far, one of my favorite pieces! Very Hellenistic! Here's some additional info on this:

This exceptional monument was unearthed in 1863 on the small island of Samothrace in the northwest Aegean. It was discovered by Charles Champoiseau, French Vice-Consul to Adrianople (Turkey). The goddess of Victory (Nike, in Greek) is shown in the form of a winged woman standing on the prow of a ship, braced against the strong wind blowing through her garments. With her right hand cupped around her mouth, she announced the event she was dedicated to commemorate. The colossal work was placed in a rock niche that had been dug into a hill; it overlooked the theater of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. This niche may also have contained a pool filled with water in which the ship appeared to float. Given its placement, the work was meant to be viewed from the front left-hand side; this explains the disparity in sculpting technique, the right side of the body being much less detailed. The highly theatrical presentation-combined with the goddess's monumentality, wide wingspan, and the vigor of her forward-thrusting body-reinforces the reality of the scene. 

 

 Next was the Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde ) by Leonardo da Vinci. People need to realize that this isn't a massive painting. In fact, it's a piece that's of average size (something you'd normally have done as a private portrait)..never mind the fact that there's a 20 foot barrier keeping you from getting too close to it, as well as bullet proof glass. Tell ya what, it was a challenge to get a decent picture of her since I was battling a sea of Asian tourists, lol. 

Now that I got the two heavy hitters out of the way, I can show you the rest of the spiffy pictures I was able to take while we were wandering around the Denon wing of the Louvre. It mainly consisted of Italian artists as well as Greek / Roman sculptures: 

One of the first rooms we went into had this awesome pillars with really awesome carvings at the top of them. Each one has a different "theme:

Pretty ceiling

Awesome bathtub (it was actually used)

Bust of Minerva (Athena)

Statue of Titus

This statue was pretty awesome because of the different materials that were used to make it. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of it...sadly, I didn't take a picture of the statue information either :(

Inlaid stones were used for the garments patterned design

From there, we walked into another hall area with even more Greek sculptures:

Another statue of Minerva (Athena); she has a baby owl in her hand (it was stinkin' cute!) Her dress is made out of yellow onyx and marble. 

Mercury (Hermes)

Other various sculptures:

 When Eric first saw this, he thought the face was still a "work in progress". Actually, she has a sheer veil over her face, almost looks as if it would've been silk..and the same texture is consistent with the rest of her dress. LOTS of detail! It was just amazing to see that type of talent in marble..

This is actually a clay "practice design" that was made before the artist started working on it in marble:

Gorgeous ceilings in different exhibit area's:

I looked all over for some information on this archway.. I couldn't find it!

This is the "Coronation of Napolean", where he crowns Josephine queen. It takes place in Notre Dame and to the very right of the picture you can see the altar statue from Notre Dame. The size of this thing is ridiculous. Well, I mean.. it IS fit for a King & Queen.

Here's some close-up pictures I was able to get (I enhanced the colors so you could see the images better).

 The lady sitting in the upper left corner is supposed to be Napoleon's mom. From my understanding, she wasn't a fan of Josephine but she got a big spot in the painting anyway.

There's tons and tons of pictures I took, but these were the ones I was really stoked on considering we spent well over three hours in that one wing. When we were on our way out, Eric and I stopped off in the souvenir shop in which we were able to pick up a mini replica of The Winged Victory of Samothrace:

 Sure, I should've gotten something along the lines of the Mona Lisa, but you can get prints of her anywhere. I've never seen a mini replica of the statue we got, so of course, it was coming home with us. I love it! She's now sitting on "My travels" shelf in my office and keeping my other nick-nacks company :) 

Once we were done with that wing (we'll have to go back another time to see the rest of the place), we were off to get some dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  The staff there was REALLY nice.. you wouldn't even know you were in France because most of 'em spoke perfect English! Once we did some damage in there as well as their gift shop, we went a few doors down to pick up our official Starbucks Paris cup (we HAVE to collect 'em from any city we visit!)

Snagged a cool purse from the next door shop then made our way back to the hotel via Paris Taxi. 

I will say....riding in a Paris Taxi is definitely a life altering experience. It makes me appreciate my life a little more considering those guys drive as if they're rally car drivers. There's no lane markers so they drive ALL over the place, almost rear end one another regardless if they're in a nice Lexus, Mercedes or BMW. Motorcyclists and bicycle riders use the road (even the sidewalks) at their own risk considering they're just moving targets for the taxi's. By the time we reached our hotel, I think I lost 5 lives, almost 6. I don't quite remember since everything was so blurry, but I believe I threw myself onto the ground once I got out of the taxi, kissed it numerous times and said, "THERE IS A GOD!". Our driver WAS very nice, but I gotta tip my hat to him considering that's a whole other breed of driving!

All in all, the trip was a blast! We didn't go all over the city like a lot of people did during the trip, but it gives us something else to look forward to when we go back again :)

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