Severine walked us to bus station (at 7 in the morning! on her day off!) + Took TGV train to Nantes. Slept for the two hour trip. + Went to Les Machines Incredible. + Rode a giant robotic elephant. It reminded us of something straight out of Miyazaki’s films, like Howl’s Moving Castle! + Amy bought a cute steel bookmark with a weasel and a jester. + Ate (very slowly) in a restaurant, while watching European music videos. + looked at puppies at a pet shop. + Toured the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) + Amy learned a lot about Queen Anne of France and Brittany. She had 3 babies by age 15! Maybe 17, but still! Crazy. + Brian jumped over a dog to avoid a dog fight. + Ate at a Chinese buffet. + The tram employees got lazy or something so they made everyone get off the tram on our way to the train station. We walked one station and hopped on another tram from there. + Two hour train ride back to Paris. + Saw the Eiffel Tower twinkle from Trocadero.

Stories:
While on riding on the elephant there was a large crowd watching it from the ground. One little boy was looking at the waving trunk in particular interest, when all of the sudden the elephant began to bellow, making elephant sounds and raising its head. Then it sprayed water out of it’s trunk… directly hitting the kid. The kid jumped back but he was trapped between the wall and the elephant spray. He escaped into the building. Later his mom drug him out to dry him off. He was not happy, and glared at the elephant with the intensity that one acquires when they meet their arch-nemesis!

Note: Brian was very excited about today. He likes giant robotic elephants.

Slept in + Waited in the Orsay Museum line for over an hour in the rain with Severine and Patrick. Got very wet + Ate some sandwiches while in line + Followed Rick Steve’s audio tour guide in the museum. Saw lots of impressionistic art. Stayed until the museum closed. + Visited Notre-Dame, but the tower was closed. + Ate a soup snack at a Chinese restaurant. + Returned to their apartment for dinner: Ratatouille! +

Bought our Orange metro passes (like a real Parisian! Photo ID and everything!) and train pass to Nantes. We were waiting in three lines at once! Patrick checking the ticket machine, Brian holding a place in line for the metro ticket counter, and Amy grabbed a number for the regional train office. + Caught a free walking tour. Lu, our guide, studied European history and was very informative and we learned a lot + We went by the Arc de Triomphe. + We enjoyed the walking tour so much we caught their next one in Montmartre. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough people for Lu to start up another group, so we followed George! He was an olympic track hopeful turned European student. That tour covered this artist district with sites like Moulin Rouge, film sites from Amelie, Places Van Gogh and Picasso hung out, and Amy’s favorite church Sacre-Coeur. + Ate at a Vietnamese place in Montmartre. Amy noticed that the waiters all dressed with lots of piercings and chains that a gangster might wear… but only stereotypically. They were still very nice and friendly waiters, though! + Went back to Arc de Triomphe and went to the top for a spectacular night view! +

We dragged Severine to St. Sulpice to hear an organ concert. We lined up at a small door in the back of the cathedral. Everyone in the line had a Rick Steves’ book. While we waited we got to hear a 30 minute organ concert. Severine felt lost in a sea of tourists. Eventually we got to go up and see the “big organ” (they have a second small one for when people sing) and the talk to the organist. Amy asked lots of questions. Severine told the organist, “So you are the one making all that noise” and realized immediately after that she might have been too rude, but luckily, he played along and said, “yes I am.” It was really neat up there! He has a set of mirrors that let him watch the procession and all he has for organ music is a one line melody that he improvises ~10 minute pieces! Amazing! He’s been playing at St. Sulpice for 15 years or so and before that, 20 some odd years at Sacre Coeur, and before that, he pretty much played organ his whole life. He has his own little organ at home now, but that was a luxury he didn’t have when he was learning, so he played on low volume mode at churches to practice + Ate a baguette. The bread cut the roofs of our mouths! ouch! but we were hungry so we didn’t mind. + Relaxed and avoided the sun in Luxembourg Garden. Pigeon watched and discussed how Hemingway used to strangle them in this park. And this brought up the guillotine. + Met Patrick for roller skating at the bastille. We (Amy and Brian) still remembered how to “go”, but we had forgotten how to stop. We slowly made our way down the road, grabbing onto signs, buildings and posts for dear life every time we needed to stop or slow down. Amy crashed once, but her safety gear worked. After a while we began waiting for the rollerskating parade. Every week Paris has two huge skating events, one on Friday and one on Sunday afternoon. Around 10,000 rollerskaters and roller bladers turn out for these events every week. They arrived like a wheeled army, and we rolled into the front of the line. By the end of the route we were at the very end of the crowd. + Relaxed in a cafe by the Bastille and drank coffee and chocolate drinks. + We go back and Severine teaches us how to make a quiche like pie with cream and milk and eggs (three spoons of cream with three eggs with some milk), steamed salmon, pan cooked spinach in butter, and Parmesan cheese on top. Yum! +

Severine and Patrick give us a great breakfast with warm bread and all sorts of delicious condiments + They take us to the center of La Garrenne Coloumb (Sorry if I mispelled this) to buy French cheese and meat and the supermarket for ingredients for an American Hamburger (American Burger Buns, American Ketchup, American Cheese slices, Pickles) + Severine teaches us how to make a very easy Rissoto dish with rissoto, leeks, onions, and cheese for lunch + Walk to La Defense and appreciated the modern architecture while Severine and Patrick went shopping for gifts + Went back to prepare for Patrick’s Brother (Julian) and girlfriend (Clementine) and baby (Chloe)’s arrival + Brian calls his mom for pointers on making hamburger + Chatted with everyone after Julian and Clementine came, French style with little snacks and drinks! + Helped Severine make hamburgers with onions and mushroom + I asked for one without cheese and Severine nearly killed me… “YOU DON”T LIKE CHEESE???” “No no… just not on my burger…” ::cower:: + Played “Time’s up” with everyone. They filtered the cards so that we wouldn’t get too many French people that we didn’t know + Amy still had a lot of trouble because she didn’t know many famous people (except for those on Star Trek) +

+Walked around Bruge one last time, went to the windmills at the city wall and then back through the main square + Went back to the cheap sunglass store we spotted yesterday that had the only pair of sunglasses that would fit over Amy’s glasses and, after much reassurance that Amy didn’t look ridiculous with giant sunglasses from Brian, especially since Europeans generally like big sunglasses, she bought them. She was still really self conscious when she wore them and kept giggling. That probably attracted more looks than the glasses did. + Then, practically spent the whole day trying to get out of Belgium. From Brugges to Brussels, no problem, just took the train, but form Brussels to Paris! Could not get to Paris directly because we had the option of paying 80 euro for a full ticket or wait until night time 10PM to get Eurail Pass tickets, so tried another way, take the local train back up to NorthEastern Belgium to Lille and take the TGV from there. It still only got us to Paris 2 hours earlier than the direct from Burssels train, but it was worth it. We still had to buy the full ticket to leave earlier, but it was a lot cheaper than the Brussels to Paris train. + Tried various methods through the phone to try to top up the cell phone, but no success (02 was asking for a UK credit card, Vodafone didn’t even have the option), just bought a Belgian phone card instead, 2 euro per minute to call France! + To make things worse, they had a lingerie fashion show in the middle of the train station, which, of course, attracted large numbers of males to clog up the passageway. Had to cut through the ticket office to get to the other side + To make things even worse, there was never one place to get all the information we needed. Offices kept sending us across the train station (through the lingerie fashion show) to another office, which would send us back to the other side to yet another office. This wasn’t very fun + Finally got to Lille to wait for the TGV from Lille to Paris + Amy goes out to venture for food, finds a Quick (Belgian fast food chain that sells chicken wings!) and sees a picture of a giant hamburger and thinks that it would be nice to get one for Brian, who was waiting in the station with the luggage + Amy comes back to the waiting room in the train station with a big bag full of food, tells Brian excitedly, “I got you a BIGGG hamburger!” Brian opens the box, it is tiny. Brian bites into it. It isn’t fully cooked. Amy feels bad and gives him half her cheeseburger, which was about the same size. It looked a lot better and bigger in the picture, Really! + Met up with Severine and Patrick at Paris Gare du Nord + They showed us to their nice apartment in Courbevoie in La Garenne Coloumb + Took showers in peace and slept on their fold out furniture! Thanks Severine and Patrick!

Tip: Reserve for French high speed trains. Always. Especially on a Friday.

Hi all!

Just wanted to give you a notice (or warning?) that we will be updating the blog with backdated posts next week during our rest week in Paris! So, says Brian,

“Check back everyday for more posts, more photos, more fun, and excitement like you’ve never read before!”

Yeah!

PS: We’ve made a teeny change to the itinerary. See if you can spot it!

Walking around Bruges + Asked hotel guy the night before about how to look for Brian’s name and he suggested the etymological book in the library + Amy drags Brian into the library and asks the librarian for help. Spent a while looking through etymological book of names in library. Didn’t find anything conclusive, but took pictures of some possible roots of the name. Tried to ask librarian to translate the Flemish description, but she didn’t give us too much information + Walked through market square + Then went to the Chocolate Story, a Chocolate museum! (they have a fry museum too, but we found out about that one too late). Brian learned a lot about chocolate that would have been very useful for his chocolate mold. Why don’t they just have this information on line??? + Then Lace Museum and Private church. Lace is insane… We have a lot of respect for any lace that is hand made. There was a demonstration room that we followed signs to find, but when we pushed open a door, we just see a bunch of elderly ladies sitting around chatting and holding spools on a pillow, we get nervous and walk all the way out to ask the ticket person if that was the right room, and she confirms and we walk back, feeling very awkward as we go into the room and they carry on as if we didn’t exist. We oggle at their crazy lace making skillz (yo). It takes probably six hours to make an inch by inch square. Maybe. + then walked to Chocolate line, famous for chocolate with crazy flavors (wasabi, chili, etc), got a chocolate assortment box, tasted, and were disappointed. They probably put the most boring chocolates in a box just for tourists We would have bought individual chocolates, but the lady didn’t seem to want to help us translate the Flemish signs + Walked through church of our lady, sat (it was nice) + We came out and it had started raining + Ran over to a carnival vendor (it was really just one ferris wheel) and got Belgian waffles. We had to get some before we left Belgium! Ate under the vendor awning to avoid the rain + walked back to hotel, napped + Dinner at Tom’s diner. Yum! (note to Brian’s friends from Rice: this is not the same place where you can get free frozen yogurt.)

Took the train to Leiden. We ran around the train station asking every information person how to see tulip fields. There was a tulip garden that a lot of old people were going to, but we didn’t want to see gardens. We wanted to see vast fields of tulips! Finally we found the tourist information booth down the road. The girl there was able to give good advice. We caught a bus to Keukenhof. People were going crazy on the bus anytime they saw a patch of flowers. + We had information on a bike rental place so we decided that would be fun. But what is more fun than riding bikes through tulips? Why riding a tandem bike through tulip fields of course! Brian rode in front and Amy in back. We nearly fell off the first time, and we made a wiggly exit out of the parking lot, but we were pros by the end. + Took the wrong turns a couple times while following the biking tour map, but our wrong turns turned out to be some of the best tulip field viewing roads. + Amy liked watching the old people lining up for the tulip park. She said could imagine Brian doing that when he’s old (Because he really likes to take pictures of flowers. Side story: While waiting for boat tour in Amsterdam, Amy goes to the restroom, comes out and Brian says “Guess what I just took a picture of!” Amy, seeing how Brian was sitting at a bench with flowers behind him, says “The flowers?” and was correct.) + The people on the bus back to town were not going as crazy with tulips. + 3 hour train to Bruges (they call themselves Brugge). Comprehensive tourist information from B&B guy, looking for food, eating in the market square, nice UK couple.

Day of Compliments!
1. On the bus back from the tulip place, there were some Malaysian tourists. Amy allows one of them to hop in front of her to the aisle as we were exiting the bus. The second Malaysian person let us go in front in return. As we exit the bus, the second Malaysian tourists asks Amy where she’s from “America! You?” “Malaysia. We’re visiting from Germany” “Ohh.” “Good looking.” “I’m sorry?” Malaysian tourists points at Amy and then at Brian and repeats: “Good looking.” Amy is a little flabbergasted, but says “Thanks!” We part ways and Amy wishes them good travels.

2. As we were sitting in the cafe waiting for dinner in the main square of Medieval Brugge, Amy, as her usual dorky self, starts reading out loud the history of Brugge from her book. She hears some chuckling from her right, but she thought the couple sitting at the table weren’t English speakers because she couldn’t understand what they were saying, so she carries on. Later, when the JUMBO Spaghetti Bolognaise comes to the table (we ordered large because we were hungry and we were going to share), Amy is dwarfed by the size of the dish and the couple on the right make their first verbal conversation “Ahahahaha, You need to finish all of that!” This was the first sign that they spoke English. It turns out that they had a northern UK accent! We learned to understand them as the night went on. Then, as we carried out our maneuver to switch plates after we had finished half, they commented on how good of an idea that was and we laughed. Then, we made small talk about the beauty of Brugge, how we’re doing this 2 month long travel, they gave us some tips on Paris (Don’t eat by the Eiffel tower, super expensive), and they told us that Flemish stew was very good. We carried on until they had to leave, and as they passed by us, the lady said “Enjoy your trip! You both are wonderful people!” WONDERFUL!

Story: Surreal Brugge Train
After entering Belgium we experience three strange surreal events.
Brian needed to go to the restroom on the train so he followed the directions until he came to a big metal door. It didn’t seem to be a toilet door but he decided to check inside anyways. Suddenly someone called out to him in Flemish (or Belch as we first thought there language was called) Brian turned around to find a large guy in the back of the car just repeating the same phrase over and over. Brian asked if he or anyone in the car knew English, but everyone just stared at him. The way they were all just looking at him with the same serious face was intimidating and creepy. He got scared and decided he could hold it.

Later when we entered Antwerp to transfer trains, the trainstation looked like a creepy stage set. The weather was getting rainy outside and it created this foggy like atmosphere inside the station. To add to the effect the train station was HUGE and EMPTY.

When we got to Brugge, The train station looked like a giant construction zone, it was as if we were plopped down onto an unfinished world…. @_@

Today we learned a lot about Amsterdam. In the morning we did a 3 hour New Europe free walking tour. + Ate lunch at a place called the place. + Finished the tour near the Anne Frank house. + Went to the tulip museum to ask about seeing tulips. Apparently there is only a 1-3 week window of opportunity to see them and we happened to hit the very beginning of the blooming season! + Amy missed seeing a door during the walking tour so we had to go back and look at it. The door was to a hidden cathedral! That sounds a lot more interesting than a door… (Amy typed these last two sentences) + We got some fries from “the best fries place in Amsterdam.” Right next to the “coffee house” that was filmed in Oceans 12. But we only had the fries. Really! + We went to a floating flower market. Amy bought a wooden tulip + boat tour down the canals. At first we had a boat all to ourselves, and we had picked out the perfect seat. however then the boat company decided to stick us on a another boat. This boat was already full and we got bad seats inside the stuffy boat. People enjoying the freshair got cold eventually and we were able to steal their spot. + red light district tour. Amy’s idea. It was pretty informative and learned a lot about this other side of Amsterdam. + Amy saw a street carnival and wanted to go pretty badly, but we hadn’t eaten, and it was late, so she gave up on it. Plus, Brian is a party pooper and doesn’t like carnivals + walk the wok. Again! Amy’s cook friend was there again and remembered her +

Plane to Amsterdam, super confusing airport to Train system, signs pointing in every direction for one thing, third unsolicited comment on book by guy at Hotel Anne Marie, Rijik museum, Van Gogh museum (Did you know that Van Gogh shot himself in the stomach and died two days later in his brother Theo’s arms? Well, they repeated this fact so many times in our audio guide that we felt it would be nice to tell you too) + dinner at Wok the Walk (Chinese fast food! It’s awesome! and Cheap! There was a nice cook there who always asked Amy if she liked her food) + Anne Frank Museum + cafe on the canal!

Stockholm (second unsolicited compliment on book by the guy at the desk in the hostel), walking around old quarter, eating cookies with sugary center at the bus stop + Went to Stockholm open air museum with houses from the area that were from the 1800s. Rick Steves said this was the best open air museum in Europe! + Ate McDonald’s and watched stunt birds+

Story: Stunt birds in front of Mcdonalds in Stockholm
We couldn’t decide what to eat in Stockholm after the open air museum, so we wandered along the harbor and followed the streams of people and fell upon a very busy square where there was a Turkish music performance. We kept walking but didn’t see anything interesting to eat other than a TGIFridays, but it was very expensive, so we tried to go to a Swedish fast food burger place, which was also quite expensive for the type of food, so we decided to settle on good old McDonald’s across the street. As we sat by the window eating our Big Macs and fries, we noticed that there were a lot of birds that looked like seagulls but were smaller and a lot more agile flying around. One particular one kept flying down by the road and then doing crazy flying maneuvers in the air to avoid the cars coming by. We couldn’t figure out why it kept flying down and putting it self in danger. Amy thought it was lost and didn’t know where to go. Finally, we saw it. The French Fry. It was in the middle of the street, and the bird was trying it’s hardest to grab it!!! Finally, it made a successful charge from the air and grabbed it and flew off. Afterwards, more birds came and there were several of these birds doing stunts in front of our window. Then, the seagulls came. And hit jackpot!! There was an unfinished burger by the trash can! unfortunately, it was too big for any one seagull to take, so a lot of it splattered back onto the ground for other birds to share. But this definitely was not as impressive as the smaller stunt birds that definitely gave us a stunt bird show unlike any other.

Ate a sandwich and drank some smoothies that cost the same if not more than the sandwich + Amy got excited about eating pho from her wiki information on Oslo + Saw a real viking ship. Actually, THREE! Wow! + Saw Oslo national art gallery + Walked to the harbor and examined Nordic mythology art on the outer walls of town hall + Bought thick stringy candy (like twizzlers, but not twisted). Amy really liked this + Tried to look for sunglasses for Amy because she kept complaining about how bright the Norwegian sun is. She liked looking at it, but it got painful after a while + Ate pho at Hai Cafe. We had asked the ticket seller at the Viking Museum for directions to the address we had in our book. Amy was very happy, first real pho in Europe! There were also a lot of babies in the restaurant + Got very confused by their “ring” metro line. It took us about 4 attempts to get on the right train going the right direction. Their ring is more like a loop-di-loop + then night bus to Stockholm

Norway in a Nutshell tour to Oslo: Fjords, Fjords, and more Fjords!
Bergen to Voss by train, Voss to Flam by bus and then boat, then from Flam to Myrdal (sounds like Mordor) by scenic train, then from Myrdal to Oslo by train

Tips for best views:
Sit on the left from Bergen to Voss
Sit on the right on the bus from Voss to the boat

Stories:
Little girl on the Norway in a nutshell train to Oslo
When booking the trains for Norway in a Nutshell the day before our journey, the ticket agent informed us that the leg from Myrdal to Oslo was fully booked and we could not reserve a seat. He suggested we take it anyway and see if we can find a seat when we get there. So after seeing beautiful fjords on the train, bus, boat and then the Flam train we wait for the train to Oslo. We see a lot of hard core looking people in cross country ski gear and we wonder where everyone was going. The conductor from the Flam train was also on the platform as we waited and he explained to us that there was a big world famous cross country skiing meet happening somewhere along the train route. Sure enough, when we got on the train, there were cross country skiiers everywhere, sleeping on the floor of the train, filling up the seats, etc. So we walk through the cars, trying to find some place to put our bags and wait for a seat to open up, when we come across a little room with benches, soft stools, a table, and a tv playing a cartoon. Inside was a woman with her daughter. She looked at our confused faces as we wandered into the room and said “There’s no more that way,” pointing to the other side of the room, “This is the end.” “Oh… uh… can we sit here?” asks Amy. “Sure, if there are no children.” So imagine Brian and I wearing our giant backpacks wandering into a little kids room with two big windows on either side looking outside of train and plopping down on a soft stool next to a little girl who’s eyes are glued to the television screen. We sort of settle into our little purple stools and watch Norwegian cartoons with the girl, keeping an eye out for pretty scenery outside of the big windows. It was sort of a sanctuary away from the rowdy, excited cross country skiiers on the rest of the train. Suddenly, the cartoon froze on the screen. The little girl starts muttering something, we can’t tell if she’s speaking English or Norwegian, but we exchange hand signals that translated to “Ah! It’s not working!” “Gosh, I wonder what happened!” “I don’t know!” “Sorry ” The little girl sits there for a while, staring at the frozen tv, and when she leaves, it starts up again. As if by instinct, she turns around and looks at us and we’re frantically waving to her to come back. She comes back and it’s working for maybe another five minutes and then it freezes again. She still sits there, disappointed. Brian feels like we needed to entertain her, so he comes up with the idea of folding origami. He makes a square out of scrap from an unimportant brochure and hands it to Amy. Amy commences to fold a crane with moving wings. The little girl is interested and peeks over, but tries to avoid staring by looking at the TV. Eventually, the little girl’s mom comes back into the room and we strike up conversation with her. Both her son and husband were participating in the ski meet and they were going to meet them at the finish line. She said it takes about 6 hours for them to ski the distance the train could go in half an hour. It would probably take Brian and Amy a week. We tell her that we’re making the little girl a crane, and the mother is very knowledgeable and says “Oh, yes, Origami! That is Japanese!” Amy finishes and hands the crane to the little girl and shows her how to make the wings flap. The little girl is very happy and at her mom’s prompt, she says “Thank you” very clearly and constantly plays with the crane even though the cartoon had started working again. When they leave the room to get off the train, she turned around and said, again, very clearly, “Good bye” with the crane held tightly in her hand. Maybe we inspired her to become an origami master!

Apparently this blog sometimes likes to not work. It’s kind of stubborn that way I guess. Unfortunately, with traveling I don’t have much time to figure out why it’s doing this, but if you are patient, the site should be running after an a while.

small update: Leaving Bergen tomorrow to see some fjords then on to Oslo!