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Published: September 22nd 2006
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Amsterdam
One of the MANY canals!!! Bonjours!!
So we are finally at a computer where we can take our time and enjoy everything. Yesterday we arrived in Angers, a small city in the Loire Valley, and we are staying with a friend who Josh works with's parents. They are so wonderful, making dinner for us and showing us around this adorable little city...but shall we retrace our adventures from the past week?? Biens Sur!!
We had an amazing time in Amsterdam...which by the way, seems to be abbreviated XXX...not surprising after having a look around. Although a little pricey, we had the most wonderful accomodations at a b & b where our very spacious room was on the top floor overlooking the Prisengracht...which is one of the main canals through Amsterdam. We arrived by train very late thinking that the city would be completely quite but soon found that everything was a rocking!! Our first day we went to the "best museum in Amsterdam", the Rijkmuseum and found that we paid full price, 10€ per person, for a museum that was only a quater open. Yes we got to see lots of Rembrandt but had to share with a million other tourists too!! We were
Amsterdam
...it does the body good... disappointed but then made our way to the Van Gogh Museum which was breathtaking. It was set up to show the art that he did during certain phases in his life right up until he bit the dust, at which point, through his art, it becomes quite clear he was going a little nuts. Anyways...it was well worth the admission.
After our Van Gogh experience, we walked to the Anne Frank house which, despite being packed with tourists (how dare they!!??) was pretty intense. The walls are marked with excerpts from Anne's diary as you walk through the trap door leading to where they all hid from the Nazis. Wow...
We spent the rest of the day walking around the city, of course ending up in the Red Light District. Very interesting...slightly disappointed that there wasn't a little more action...although there were lots of curtains drawn so i suppose that some people were getting some action...
The following day we visited the Sex Museum, which was also dissapointing. Not exactly sure what we were expecting but hey it was only 3€ so we had to check it out. Aside from that the charm of the city
Paris
The Eifel Tower by night! Oh c'est romantique! can't be beat. We just walked and walked around...the thing is though that every street looks exactly the same...canals and canals and bar after bar. Very cool. And, of course, coffeeshop after coffeeshop...and for those of you curious - no we did not partake!
And who can forget about the Heineken Factory...mmm...beer...3 free beers with admission i might add! Guiness was only ONE! Damn Irish...It was very cool despite the fact that the beer is not actually brewed here anymore...but come on...3 BEERS!
And then à Paris!...Paris à la Joshua...
Alls I can say is that I am so flippin grateful that kat can speak french!! i am completely useless in france. i guess that its good because i have no choice but to shut up and do nothing. i think kats kinda sexy speaking the language of love...oh lala...paris is everything that we hoped it would be. as the capital of Europe there is so much to see and do that we were busy all day, every day.
we got to paris and our hotel was a block away from the champs de mars leading to the eifel tower. what a neat tower. all lit up
Paris
The Notre Dame Catherdral...humpback of... at night. we just stood there and admired it for a few minutes and then there was only one thing on our minds....french wine!! we wandered around aimlessly looking for somewhere to eat dinner and we just so happened to come across the Arc de Triomphe! its a neat statue thing surrounded by chaos!! 12 lanes of traffic merging around a traffic circle encircling the Arc!! so we decided to have dinner on the champs de elysee looking at the Arc. So amazing to be there for yourself! the waiter was trying to hit on kat and gave me serious attittude. ie. he aligned kats cutlery for her all nice and pretty and literally threw my cutlery on the table. kat thought it was funny and alls i could think of was we will see whos doing the tippin around here jerk?? i quickly found out that in france 15 grat on everything. jeepers so much for pay back but oh well.
paris is full of museums so we went to musee dorsay, picasso, modern art museum, of course the louvre, notre dame, mont martre and the sacre coeur, napoleons tomb, and thats all that we can remember for
Paris
...paris by day...cest tres romantique... now. And we walked all day to every sight...definately earned a glass of wine!! the louvre is the most over rated museum for people like us. yes itwas cool and it houses the mona lisa and the venus de milo, but aside from that unless you care about the 16th century ceramic evolution etc. theres not much else to see...uncultered trash from Alberta!!! pil anyone??? the thing that pissed me off was all the bull crap about da vinci. signs everywhere pointing only the way directly to see mona herself and you could even use the official da vinci code audio tour for 13€ or 20 bucks canadian!!! kiss my butt!!!
to finish off our memories of paris with a bang fresh baguette, vin rouge, and frommage in front of the eifel tower at sunset!! tres belle!! just so you know all of the french words i did not spell myself as i am not as culturally refined as my beautiful wife...and speaking of my beautiful wife...fine kat I wrote it, are you happy now??? just joking i mean it really...
mon amour...
Sooo...on the topic of the modern art museum....WTF??? I just don't get it. One room, you had to enter by going through these big drapes, and on the other side there was a pink strobe light going with 3 light circles flashing on the ground and at the end of the room, there was a large red stilletto shoe...and by large i mean that both Josh and i could fit inside...weird...Picasso was a close second but we all know what to expect from Picasso so we'll leave it at that.
I had hoped that we might do a little shopping in Paris...as Josh and i sauntered along the Blvd de St. Germain de Pres, i looked around and saw on each corner...Cartier, Chanel, Swarovski, Louis Vuitton, and Armani...hmmm...so we started at Chanel...he he...just kidding...we kept on walking only because josh was holding my hand so tight it was losing circulation.
Anywho...we are in beautiful Anger right now enjoying some wonderful French wine, more frommage and resting before we head off to Portugal on Tuesday...perhaps i can work on my tan!? Oui Oui!
Love you all!
Josh and Kat
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Celina
non-member comment
Oh la la
You sound like you are having a great time. We loved Paris too. I loved Michelangelos scullptures at the Louvre. Did you only spend a day in Paris? One of my favorite memories is boating down the Siene (sp) River at night. Did you do that? I wish we were there. I can't wait to go again.