Bonjour Paris!

Pictures from Brussels

Tuesday (Day 1 in Paris)

Paris is cold and we are southern wimps. Turns out our only sunny day didn’t work out that way. Living in Georgia, I think we forgot what 50 degrees actually feels like. We most definitely did not pack warm enough clothing. The morning started off at the Eiffel Tower. They recommend arriving when the tower opens, at 9:30am. We did arrive at that time and there was already a pretty long line. As it turns out, one of the elevators is also broken. So, we stood in line for 1 hour. Then the wind picked up and it started to rain. To say that we were freezing doesn’t even begin to cover it.  At the 2 hour mark, we finally had our ticket to the top of the Eiffel tower in hand and we were in the elevator. The first part of the ride takes you 75% of the way to the top. It was so cold and rainy up there that we literally stepped out of the center of the building, snapped two photos, and ran back inside. We didn’t want to go to the very top. Sadly, I feel like we really didn’t get to enjoy seeing everything because we were Parisian popsicles! I think we’re going to go back one night to see the tower in lights.

Since the rain continued, we bough a 2 day pass on the big red bus that tours around Paris and you can hop on and off whenever you want. It was perfect because we got to see a ton of Paris that we just wouldn’t have been able to cover in 4 days. The entire bus tour takes 2.5 hours so we did part of it and then got off to have lunch at a café. We had a delicious Croque Monsieur and a nutella and banana crepe for dessert! Yum! Then we paid another 0.20 euro each to use the bathroom and then we were off to see the Arc de Triumph. All of the architecture of the buildings is so amazing. And having the Seine river run down the middle of city is beautiful. After the Arc we walked down Champs Elysees which is mostly tons of shops. We went to Laduree which is a patisserie that specializes in macarons – they are the best in Paris! They make like 20 different flavors, all pretty traditional (lemon, orange, chocolate, pistachio, etc). We tried a few different flavors and they were all delicious! The rain and wind had died down and it was actually much warmer so it was okay to walk around. On Champs Elysees there is everything from H&M to Dior. We got a cute outfit for the peanut and a sweatshirt for the rest of the week (not from Dior)!

I think so far my favorite part is all the cute cafes and getting French snacks all day J. Nashama’s favorite is Laduree. With the rain and cold we didn’t get as much accomplished as we had hoped, but it was a fun day overall.  Tomorrow we are going to do the Louvre and Notre Dame in the morning. Stay tuned…

Dessert count: 2

Nashama’s ankles: still swollen.

Day 1: Amsterdam and Brussels and Paris, oh my!

With no internet on my computer in England, I wasn’t successful in updating my blog. To give you a brief idea, here was the rundown of my week:

Skate, eat, meeting, eat, ref, eat, sleep.

Repeat for 7 days.

Now that you’re caught up…

Nashama and I easily found each other in the Amsterdam airport and we boarded the train for a 3 hour ride to Brussels. First order of business, water closet (bathroom), which had a 0.50 Euro fee. I always find the bathroom entrance fee a bit weird.

My French is okay, not great. I can talk in present tense, but definitely not in future or past tense. For example, I can easily ask for a crepe with nutella and banana (je voudrais un crepe avec nutella et banana s’il vous plait) but I can’t say tomorrow we are going to the Eiffel tower. I’m pretty sure sometimes I also mix up the verbs “am” and “have”. But, although pretty embarrassing, usually I can muddle through the day with my broken French.

So, when trying to find baggage check, I told a women, “Today we walk. I don’t want to walk with my clothes. Is there a place I can move my clothes for 1 day”? Then, the problem is that people respond and that’s where I really lose them. They just talk too fast for me to comprehend. So I just smile and nod, say merci, and walk away no more informed than I was when I started.  Nashama just laughs.

Outside of the station, we went to the Grande Place which is this beautiful square with huge imposing buildings that have amazing architecture. A lot of the buildings have gold trim, which makes them sparkle in the sunlight (not that we saw any).
We headed to a café for lunch. I had delicious sausage and mashed potatoes, and an amazing cherry beer. Nashama had a warm goat cheese salad and a bottle of water that cost as much as my beer.  Sadly, the weather is not great. It’s really cold (50 degrees) with wind and rain. Even though we looked at the forcast, I don’t think we packed warm enough clothes. We were freezing most of the day.

This part of Brussels is about 100% tourists so we walked around tons of chocolatiers and souvenir shops. Of course, we had a Belgian waffle with nutella and some french fries, both of which were amazing.

Next we went to the most famous statue in Brussels called Manekin Pis, which is an underwhelming bronze statue of a young naked boy urinating into a fountain. Odd. Around the city they have also have a statue of a young girl urinating and a dog lifting its leg. I guess they’re equal opportunity.

I’ve decided to keep a running tally of how many crepes/waffles/anything with nutella I can eat in 1 week. I’m betting on at least 1 per day, which puts me in the 6-8 range. So delicious.

So, now we’re back at the Brussels train station waiting for our train to Paris. Nashama is beyond tired (she’s been up for almost 27 hours at this point) and her ankles…let’s just say they’re a bit swollen and resemble what I had for lunch.

Our plans for tomorrow include….actually…we’re not sure. Tomorrow is going to be our only rain-free day here so I think it’ll be up the Eiffel tower and maybe a boat tour down the Seine River so we can enjoy the sunshine.

We had a great first day! To be continued…

Dessert total: 1

Testing, testing, 1...2...3...4. Testing.

Well folks, it's been awhile. Almost 3 years since my last post.
I'm of to England to officiate the Women's World Championships. Then, I'll be taking a week long vacation in eastern Europe. I thought I'd try to blog and post some pictures again this year of both the tournament and vacation afterward.
I hope you enjoy.
Now I have to go pack!
My flight leaves Atlanta at 5pm tonight!