Writer's Land

After arriving back at our hotel, we are greeted with a warm smile and a key to our room, which is obviously ready for us. Taking our luggage and calling the elevator we cram inside the tiny box and nervously head for the 5th floor hoping that all the shaking and rattling doesn't mean we will end up on the 1st floor. The elevator finally comes to a not so pleasant stop and we head into the hall. The hallway is incredibly narrow. I had to push 1 bag in front of me, and pull the other behind. This place would be very uncomfortable for anyone that is claustrophobic. We reach our room, open the door and walk inside to a very lovely 2 bedroom suit as it appears. We had no idea, otherwise we could have had my wife's friend stay with us. But no biggy, she had a room 1 floor below and we spent most of the time outside anyway. Well, we parked our bags took a shower, which buy the way felt so goooooood. We opened the window and unfortunately our 5th floor view was not so good into the back alley type area with nothing to see but other buildings. Regardless, the fresh air felt nice swirling into our room as we relaxed.

I pulled out my power converter and set up my laptop excited to transfer some pictures and maybe get a few thoughts down. The computer came to life and after a few moments of booting up I logged in and went for my memory card. Then it hit me. "Oh my God!" I said, "I brought all this stuff, but I forgot one important item." My wife looked at me. "Uh oh, what is it?" To which I replied. "The memory card reader!" Yes I am ashamed, but hey remember how we got rushed the last minute? :) But all was not lost, I did have my 30GB video camera which takes SD cards, so I was able to back up my pictures at least and was not limited to only the 3 cards I had on me. Instead I thought I'd get on the Internet, check email and what not. I opened the wireless manager and started to look for an access point, when suddenly my computer power light started blinking and I got a low battery warning. Well, long story short, the power converter I bought didn't work. In fact after about 30 minutes of letting the computer battery charge, I pressed power only to have the computer shut down mere seconds after starting. Finally I accepted my fate and decided I would just put the computer away. Lucky for us I did that too, because when I grabbed the power converter to remove it from the outlet, I almost burned my hand. That sucker was SO hot! Who knows, it may have caught fire if I left it plugged in much longer. I took it and placed it on the ceramic sink in the bathroom. I was afraid to leave it on the wooden table it was so hot. Ok, it was so hot, it didn't cool off completely until the next morning. I know! However, while in the bathroom I discovered a US style outlet, which sadly to say did not have enough power to charge the laptop battery either. But at least it was enough to keep our other stuff charged, which was a very fair trade off.

So I finally settled down to relax once again, when the phone rang. Well that could be only one person, and upon answering the phone I found that it was only one person, naturally, as opposed to say a conference call. Just kidding, it was my wife's friend. They talked for a few minutes. She was already in her room and ready to head out into the city. My wife told her to come to our room to plan out the rest of the day. When she arrived, my wife finished up getting ready and we looked through our Frommer's book for two things. A restaurant that was recommended by her friend in Germany, to which we would go to in the evening, and the path we would take to get there. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out the correct name of the restaurant using the GPS, we finally found it and marked it on the map. By the way the GPS reception in Europe, or at least where we were, is horrible. It took 10 minutes to find the satellites, and another 5 to finally connect. Apparently as we learned later, it seems that GPS satellites are American, and do not have a very good line of site around Europe. I have to believe this after our experience with it. This particular GPS model has some newer technology which promises much better reception which is true, because here in the US I can get a connection indoors. Over there, I had trouble in wide open spaces and even then it would only last anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes.

Finally we left the hotel. One block away we passed a very nice looking bakery/restaurant which we made a mental note to visit later. You should have seen all the sweets and oh how yummy they looked! We continued walking and after a few blocks we passed through place de la Concorde and got on to avenue des Champs-Elysees. The first few blocks had a park on our right and we stopped at a food kiosk, where we bought a crepe, and ate it as we walked. Seemed a bit odd walking down the street eating a crepe like you would an ice cream. But hey, this is Paris.

We walked the entire avenue occasionally walking into a store to have a look. Levi's are about 80 euro. I'll let you do the math. Prices are just ridiculous. We walked almost all the way to the Arc de Triomphe, but decided to cross the street and head back since our restaurant was in the other direction on the other side of the Seine. As we crossed the street I took this picture of the Arc.

On our last day I got a really nice shot at night also, right in front of it. I'll post that later.

We walked almost the entire avenue back, but turned right and walked towards the Seine.

 The day was really starting to improve as it got warmer and a bit clearer. We followed the Seine for a couple miles and decided to get our bearings. We found that we somehow ended up much farther away from the restaurant then we thought. At this point we were all getting pretty tired. We had already been walking for about 3 hours. It was around 6pm and we decided that we need to find the nearest metro and use that to get there because it would take us at least another couple hours if we walked, and that didn't appeal much anymore after a very long day of nothing but walking.

On the way to find the metro we stopped for a few minutes to get these shots.

Around this time it looks like I got some dust inside my camera which on some pictures shows up as a dark spot. I didn't clean it for a couple days because it's hard to notice it on the small display the camera has. I will eventually use Photoshop to remove it, but with so many photos to go through and write these posts, I decided I'd rather use my time to get this out there rather then spend the next few weeks correcting images.

We actually ended up walking another 30 min or so until we finally got to the closest metro station. We rode to our stop and from there we figured out which way to go and had to walk yet another 30 minutes to reach the restaurant. Here I was able to use the GPS to get us there quickly, but the reception on it was really bad at best. By the time we reached the restaurant it was around 8pm. We got a table and had a really good dinner. It was in fact a very nice place. It was strange though, one of the waiters there was kind of weird. Every time we asked him for something he just said "No." and walked away. So we had to keep calling someone else. We had a really good laugh every time after the first few attempts of asking him for something.

 We finished dinner around 10pm and decided it was time to head back to the hotel. We got outside the hotel and looked down the street and to our surprise there was a metro station right at the end of the block. How did we miss it on the way there? No one knows. Needless to say we chose to use that station versus walking back to the one we came from. We got back to the hotel, set our alarms so that we don't oversleep because we needed to get an early start on another long day of site seeing, starting with Montmartre.

At this point a couple hours have passed and we started getting anxious to find the Mona Lisa and head back a little early. We're both getting tired and the back pack is starting to feel more like 60 lbs. After all, we have not had any rest what so ever. So we study the map to try and find the quickest route. The map however doesn't label the spot where the Mona Lisa is, it only labels the areas. So we take a guess and move in the direction we believe we need to go in when we spot a court yard type area that is inside with a glass ceiling. We decide to have a look around and check out the many statues that are displayed here.

 
I wonder if they call this the hall of nudity? Some people appear to be very impressed by this display.

And for those of you wondering what is on the other side of this statue...

It's a good thing this is art, otherwise I'd be in big trouble. But it's interesting how the human body at one time was considered a very important artistic expression. Today's versions of that are somewhat distorted, which is probably a big part of the reason for how screwed up our society is getting. 

We go back to the area we came from and continue up the 3 flights, thankfully on escalators, until we get to the top floor with paintings. But upon examination of said painting, we quickly realize that we are in the wrong time period and the Mona Lisa would certainly not be there. So...back down we go...

On the first floor we again examine our map and try to figure out which way we are facing in comparison to the area where the Mona Lisa is. Finally we look outside the window and get a good visual idea of where we are in contrast and overlay that on the map we have. Suddenly we know where we have to go. It's pretty easy to get turned around in there if you don't know what is what. As it turns out we were on completely the opposite side of where we needed to be. This meant we had to traverse the entire area to get back. We stayed strong and determined and started walking.

 
Ok this might give you a better idea. See the building on the other side? Ok so the building we're in is the same length and connected to the other one at the end, like a letter "U". The Mona Lisa would be in an area that is approximately at the end of the building. So this meant we had to walk all the way around from approximately a location at which this picture is taken. Do you see how small the people are in contrast to the building? 2+2 equals a very long walk. :) Nice picture by the way, I wonder who took it? ;)

On the way around we did stop at places that we have not seen. Come on...did you think that we were going to let a little fatigue get in the way of this? So the next two pictures are from the Napoleon apartments.

 
It is truly unfortunate how poorly these people had to live.

Passing through yet more areas.

 
Now that's a chess board!

Finally we reached a popular area. Venus de Milo. Notice how many people are in this room. Of course feel free to look at the statue as well.

 
This is pretty constant. People were constantly flowing in and out of this room.

We moved on and finally started seeing signs pointing towards the Mona Lisa. We were finally getting close and towards the end of our visit here. Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier, we did not have a chance to photograph her, but here are some photos other photos we got before we left.

 
There is nothing really special about this picture. I just wanted to give you another idea of the size of this place. Look down the hall...it just keeps going and going. Yes there are other people with back packs. But mine is about 80lbs by now. :P

And thus our journey through the Louvre has come to an end. We leave through the exit and before heading back to our hotel we make ourselves comfy in some very cozy chairs at a cafe inside one of the building. We sit on the balcony area overlooking the main yard and order some sandwiches, frit, and coffee, while we people watch and discuss what we have seen.

It's approximately 12:45pm and we are rebuilding our energy before our 2 mile trek back to our hotel. I didn't mention earlier, but one other exciting thing that we had coming up was that one of my wife's best friends from childhood, who is now a professor in Germany was to arrive and meet us at the hotel at about 2pm as well.

What can I say, the Louvre is a truly amazing place. There is just so much to see here, so much history, so much art. I was immensely impressed. If you are ever in Paris, do make sure you plan to come here and spend at least half a day. Just walking through without stopping anywhere to closely examine any pieces, it takes no less then 2 hours. But if you want to really understand some of the items and read the history and background, you can very easily pass 4 hours without notice, and even more depending on how much you want to do. But regardless of how much time you do spend here, in my opinion, every single minute is worth it!

Well it's day 3 of writing and I still have a ton of pictures to go and starting to wonder just how long the entire thing may take. Also I decided I'll split this day into multiple posts as it's becoming to long for 1. So I just split it into 3 parts and posted the first. Well, at least I won't have a shortage of material for the coming years. LOL

So we continue walking when we spot to our right, in the not to distant...err..uhm...future? That sounded right when I started typing. Lets see...we spot to our right not much further away from us...
 
The Louvre. There it is, a section of the Louvre
 
Just beyond the statues rear end of Joan of Arc and her horse. On a side note, see those busses on the left? Those are tour busses, and the tour office entrance is inside the building left of those buses. This is also a place of note, because we take a tour from here later on, which my wonderful wife scheduled for us in advance, of castles. But that's another day, so stop asking. sheeeesh, people!

But wait, no Louvre just yet, we can't forget our primary objective...cafe shop! Well what do you know, just across the street on the opposite corner from where I am taking this picture as an open cafe, with chairs outside and everything. "Two cappuccinos." I ask of the gentleman behind the bar. Yes it's a cafe with a bar, so what of it? As he prepares our lovely beverages, my wife looks for a place to sit. Inside is a bit cramped and we really wanted that outside in Paris in a cafe experience. You know what I mean? Even though it's like 58 degrees outside and windy...imagine how cold that is, we choose to sit outside. So my wife walks out and picks a table to sit at. At this point the guy has said to me that the 2 drinks will be 8.50 euro, naturally, and notices that we will be taking our drinks outside. With a quick wave of his hand, "Outside?" he asks. To which I respond wee, my French is exceptional with all 4 or 5 words that I know. He responds, 3 euro, brining our total to 11.50. So now we are also paying an additional 3 for the luxury of sitting outside! Imagine if Starbucks did that. This seems to be normal there, although this was the only time we were specifically told there is an additional fee to sit outside, it's possible it was automagically included in future trips to cafes and we just didn't pay attention. Anyway, about $5 US gets you a seat anywhere outside the cafe. Which we ended up regretting because it was very difficult to enjoy in that cold and windy weather. None the less, our spirits high we finish our drinks and head for our next destination. By now it's around 9am or so. Hey look who we passed.
 
The front side of Joan of Arc and her horse. "Hey Mr., quick run! She's gonna spear your head!" She also does circumcisions on the weekends.

By now we've walked almost 2 miles. Which really isn't that bad, unless you've forgotten I'm carrying about 30 lbs on my back. I didn't forget! So our plan is excellent. We'll spend the entire morning at the Louvre and head back to the hotel to get our room at 2pm. As we get closer to the Louvre however, it starts to look like we are going to have to rework our plan.

It looks like there is not a sole, well except for that guy by the bushes, around. Well it is pretty early, and this is Paris, so we are thinking makes sense that it's not open yet. But we figure we're here, we'll get closer and take some pictures. As we get closer and round the bush, to our surprise...

It's open! Yay! We rejoice, take some pictures and get in line. As it turned out, this was an excellent plan, because we got there in time to beat the crowd. What you see here is nothing. When we left this place, but mostly inside was a blob of people. So we had a great opportunity to see stuff without any pushing and shoving. You know how it gets in a really crowded place when you try to get up front and see something? No one moves, no one cares, excuse me, pardon, etc., people don't seem to understand this. So you end up having to squeeze through. Anyway, inside this glass pyramid the first thing you go through is a security check and then an escalator to the bottom and entrance into the museum. But before we go there, here are a few more photos outside.
This is what I love about a place that's not crowded. You get to take scenic photos. My favorite style of photography by the way is journalistic, but I do love to be able to get nice portrait styles as well. Keep in mind I didn't do any Photoshop work on these photos, but with a little cropping and tone adjustment, even with the bad weather and poor lighting, it can look pretty decent in a frame.
  

Ok we head inside to get our tickets.
 
Well this is the lobby area. The ticket booth is right there on the left and it appears like there are 4 or 5 different ways to enter, depending on which exhibit you want to start with. But don't worry they are all connected so you will be able to see everything. But make sure to get a map, because lost is what you'll be without one. This place is HUGE! On the flip side, while there are multiple ways to start your day here, there should be only one way to leave, and that is through the Mona Lisa exhibit. I mean really, that is probably one of the single most reasons people come here. But I should say right now, photography in that area is strictly prohibited and guards are very watchful of this, so I do not have any photos of her.

I take one more photo before we head inside.
 
And we begin with...
 
Armenia Sacra. It's pretty cool. The room is built like a section of a castle.
 
With a miniature model of what the entire castle looks like.

We move on.

 
That was about the size of the crowds we had to deal with. Pretty good. The only time it got really crowded was at the Vinus de Milo, Winged Victory and Mona Lisa areas.

Next we arrived at the Egyptian exhibit. Actually this and Mona Lisa were the two things we wanted to see most.

 
How cute...it's the original and current version.

Wait a minute...something about these...hold up I know!
They look Japanese. Don't they? I swear we were in the Egyptian section.

In the next room we find...
"Ok, the next one to interrupt me will end up like these guys!" Needless to say it was very quiet as all the children listened up.

"We were inverted..almost."

And finally you know how sometimes you read a forum and there might be a picture with some phallic shaped object, and it's almost certain that someone will write something really stupid about it, and you just know it's some poorly raised 14 year old?
 
Well, I'm not 14 years old. ;) So I will not make any comments. Not a single one, nothing that stands out and makes you wonder about my character.

I believe this one was Hathor.

Next we went to the Chinese section and I only have 2 pictures from there.

It's kind of hard to see it in a picture, but this was a giant slab that was hanging on the wall. By the looks of it it has to weigh at least a couple tons. I can't imagine what it takes to hang it on a wall.

Red Bull, it gives you wings.

There are still a few more areas to cover, but my time has run out today and I must go to work.