I have two blog posts to do before I can talk about our recent Berlin trip. Don't worry, it'll all happen this week! I promise (though, I must warn you - my blog promises often don't mean squat).
So, after the trip to Munich & Salzburg with the cousin & her bf, they stayed at our house and we did a few local trips. Josh had to work, so it was just the three of us the last few days. I didn't bring my camera with us on any of the day trips, which was awesome. Sometimes I just like to enjoy the moment & not have to worry about taking pictures of the moment. First, we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber. That's the medieval village near here, which is famous for all the overpriced Käthe Wolfahrt Christmas crap. What should have been a 2 hour trip took 4 hours because of traffic. Ugh. We did the Rick Steves guided walking tour, ate at a falafel restaurant, and then did the Käthe Wolfahrt Christmas museum. It was interesting, but after that we did the store, which was just completely overwhelming. And overpriced. Have I mentioned how overpriced KW stores are? Because they are.
Overpriced.
The next day, we did a Rhine River cruise. It was awesome, too. So awesome, that I went back with Josh & a friend in October. That will be my next blog post.
The day after the river cruise, we just hung out close to home. We did the Burg Lichtenberg castle, Globus grocery store, and I showed them around the base.
We had to get a good nights sleep, because the next day - we were all taking the ICE train to Paris. That's where us cousins were parting ways. Josh, our friends the Collins', and our friend Linda were all doing the marathon. I was there for moral support. And babysitting.
But I'll get to that in a second.
So, the ICE train. From Kaiserslautern to Paris in 2.5 hours. You can buy train tickets up to 92 days in advance. I waited a little too long (maybe a month or so), and our tickets were therefore not that cheap. €118 per person, roundtrip.
The train left pretty early in the morning. I wanna say around 7:30am or so, but I can't remember. Anyway, we're all getting ready to leave in the morning, when it dawns on me that we forgot to get gas the night before. We did not have enough to make it from our house to the train station.
Oops.
We rush out of the house to get to the base to fill up (no German gas stations in our area are open at this hour). We didn't have time to sign in Karen & Curtis to the base, so the three of us got kicked out of the car so Josh could rush in and fill up. On Josh's way off base, he passed us up, and we had to run to catch up to the car. Thankfully it was a weekend, so there was no rush hour base traffic.
Needless to say, it was a white-knuckle drive to the train station. Josh was *not* a happy camper, and there may have been a few expletives thrown around. Lacie called us when we were a few minutes away, and said, "I know y'all are running late since you aren't here before us. Please tell Josh to stop panicking - the train has been delayed by about 5 minutes." She just knows him so well. :)
We made it to the train station with a good 5 minutes to spare.
I don't think Josh breathed once during the entire drive. He tends to get a little high-strung during situations like that. And, he does NOT like being late.
Buuut, we made it.
The train ride was great! I love to travel by train. Karen & Curtis had a compartment to sit in, and Josh & I and the Collins' had the airplane type seating. Linda went to Paris the day before. There is a little screen in the front of each cabin that tells you how fast the train is going at any given time. THAT was a little disconcerting to watch. Then Lacie starts in with her, "You know, we're going so fast that if we crashed, we'd all die."
Thanks, Lacie.
In no time at all, we were in Paris. And, we then had to say goodbye to the cousins.
Our first order of business was to get from the train station to our hotel. Linda was planning on meeting us at our hotel, so we could all go get the runners' packages together. We all became *very* acquainted with the Parisian subway & train system. It actually got to be pretty easy. We all purchased the 2 day metro pass, which included zones 1-3 (which covers all of central Paris, and excludes Versailles), for something like €20 per person. Paris is the only city we've visited where you absolutely MUST purchase subway tickets. You have to scan your ticket every time you go into the Subway. Every other time we've been to a city with a subway system, we've never had our tickets checked (by man or machine).
It took longer than expected to reach our hotel. We weren't quite sure which way to go once we came out of the Subway, but after a few backtracks, we found our way. Of course, then we realized there was a Subway opening that was MUCH closer to our hotel than the one we came out of. Oh well. Poor Linda had been waiting in the hotel for us for a loooong time. Oops.
We couldn't check into our rooms yet, but they let us drop our bags off. I LOVE when hotels let us do that (though, honestly, I've never been to a hotel that hasn't allowed that).
Time to get back on the Subway and go get the runners packages. Yahreen was supposed to run, also. I was going to take care of the baby while they did their marathon thing. Buuuut, due to an injury, he wasn't given the clearance to run. So, the two of us were just going to hang out in Paris while they did their runnin' thing. Not a bad consolation prize, if you ask me (although, if you ask me, I don't know why people run in the first place...unless something is chasing them...)
The half-marathon was actually only 10 miles (so technically not a half-marathon). The start was at the base of the Eiffel Tower, and ended at Versailles. Fancy, eh? That should make up for the length technicality. But the race wasn't until Sunday, and it was still Saturday.
At the check-in place, the runners got their packet - which included their bib, t-shirt, and some other run-related things that I took no interest in. In the same building, they had a small runners expo - booths full of running gear, athletic gear, etc. Again, not my thing.
They did have a banner with all of the runners' names, however. Well, except for Lacie. Poor thing got left off. :/
After the oh-so-interesting runners expo, it was time to explore Paris a little bit. We didn't get to go to Montmartre the last time we were in Paris, and none of us had ever seen the Moulin Rouge - so that's where we headed.
At this point, we're all hungry. And I'm cranky. Not a good combo for me. Then I started to get a headache. BOO!!
We took the subway to the Montmartre stop. And boy, was that a mistake. We should have found a subway stop near the bottom of the hill, near the funicular that takes you up to the top of Montmartre. As we stopped at the base of the hill on the subway, we had no choice but to take the stairs up. Didn't seem like a big deal at first, but the stairs just kept appearing (I think something like 200 steps?). It was worse for the Collins' - they had to carry the baby stroller up the steps. Oy.
We made it up the hill, and then had the task of figuring out where to eat. Finally, we just picked a random place. I should have done a little more research, because it was just blah. The wine was good, though. Did NOT help with my headache, however.
After a mediocre lunch, we walked up MORE steps to the top of the hill, to check out the view & the church.
We milled around for awhile. Apparently it’s a ‘thing’ there for guys to buy six packs of beer, and sell the individual beers to the tourists at the top of the hill. Weird. No, we didn’t buy any.
We took the funicular down the hill (which was included in the cost of our subway pass), and headed on to the Moulin Rouge. There are a whoooooole lotta sex shops in that area. But, it was GREAT fun to people watch there. You can still see cabaret shows at the Moulin Rouge. Unfortunately, the reviews are pretty poor, and it’s very expensive. Still, I’d like to see a show one day, just to say I saw cabaret at the Moulin Rouge.
But, at least I saw the outside of the building!
We strolled around a little bit more, but then it was time to part ways with Linda, and head back to the hotel to let the runners relax a bit. Linda was staying at a hotel near the finish line, and we were staying at a hotel near the start. We stayed at the Hotel de l’Avre, which was only 1.6km away from the Eiffel tower (walking distance). At €105 per night, it wasn’t too bad. The only weird thing - there was one ‘regular’ room and one ‘garden view’ room. The garden view room was €10 or so more than the regular room. Lacie & Yahreen took that one (the Aycocks are cheap, remember?). They ended up being on the 2nd floor, and we were on the 4th or something. Regardless - we both had the EXACT SAME VIEW. Yes, they were technically closer to the garden, since they were lower down, but still....we thought that was pretty chintzy of the hotel to charge them for the same view that we had.
But, it was still a cute hotel. Very Parisian. At this point in the evening, it was time to eat again. Lacie stayed with the baby, and the 3 of us Hunter-Gatherers went hunting down a grocery store to gather some food (ha! Anthropology joke).
One block from us was a store called Monoprix. It was a small department store on the first floor, and a small grocery store on the second. And, it was AWESOME!! It was so fun looking at all of the stuff! Fresh fish, fresh cheese, fresh vegetables. Ohhhhh, it was heaven. It was really crowded in there - I guess we were in the "young adult" neighborhood of Paris. All beautiful twenty-somethings that just made me feel inadequate as a person. But, it was still great fun to shop. We got fresh baguettes, meats (blech), cheeses, olives, wine, lemon tarts...ughgh, drool. There was a little breakfast nook in the hotel that we hung out at, eating & drinking. No one could drink too much (well, except me & Yahreen) since they had to run the next day. But, we all had fun eating!
The race started at 10am, and I think we ended up leaving the hotel at 9am or so. Linda met us at our hotel again, and we all walked towards the Eiffel tower together. There were SO MANY RACERS! After the race, we found out there were a total of 21,260 runners.
We all kind of hung around at the starting line together. With that many racers, they had to let people out of the gates at staggered intervals. I don't remember the exact numbers or timing, but it was something like 200 people were let out every 1 minute. Lacie, Linda, and Josh decided to go get in line to race, and Yahreen and I were left to make our way through a sea of people. We were going to just go straight to Versailles, but we decided to first walk down the block to get a view of the runners actually going thru the starting gate.
I am sorry that Yahreen couldn't race, but I am SO thankful he was there with me. For one thing, I wouldn't have been able to carry the stroller up & down the subway steps by myself. But, just trying to make our way thru the crowds at the Eiffel tower was INSANE. With the stroller in front of him, and me behind him, Yahreen parted the seas of the oncoming crowd. We were going down a sidewalk - barriers on both sides. I swear, it was like 5 people across the sidewalk, shoulder to shoulder. It felt like everyone was coming towards us, and we were the only ones going in the direction that we were going. 99% of the people on the sidewalk were racers trying to get to the start of the race. It was so HORRIBLE! I hate crowds, and this was my nightmare. I'm pretty sure I was grabbing on to Yahreen's shirt every once in awhile, to make sure we stayed together. It's hard to remember, due to my PTSD.
FINALLY, we made it down the street far enough to get away from everybody. There, we watched for our racers in the crowd. There were rows of bushes on the opposite side of the street from us. Apparently runners will pee anywhere & everywhere - we saw at least (at LEAST) 50 different guys stopping by the bushes to pee. It's like, they bust thru the starting line, and then immediately have to pee. Ick.
We waited for what felt like forever. We really wanted to get a picture of our runners! We both kept thinking, "Ok, one more group of people, and we'll leave." But then, once that "one more" group would pass us, and our runners weren't there, we thought, "Oh, well they're bound to be in the next group."
Patience is a virtue, and finally we found our runners!
Then, it was time for us to head to Versailles. Our metro pass didn’t cover our train ticket to Versailles, but it didn’t cost very much. Maybe €3? Linda let me borrow her train ticket while they were running, and her pass DID include Versailles. So we just ended up buying one roundtrip ticket. Well, sometimes in certain stations around Paris, they’ll have special double doors you can go thru, specifically for those with strollers (and I guess wheelchairs). The station we were in DID have the double doors, and either the scanner was broken, or it just didn’t need tickets - because, Yahreen was able to just walk right thru. Woohoo! Cheating the system! So, we were just going to use the roundtrip ticket as two one-way tickets for the trip back. But, I’ll get to that in a second.
The train was nice - the interior was sort of “Marie Antoinette-ish”. We were able to see some runners as we were going thru Paris - it was surprising to us how fast they seemed to be going! Getting out of the station was kind of a pain - it was really crowded. When you’re in a crowded place, and you see a million people trying to get out of ONE exit, look around for more. Right next to the main exit was a handicap-access ramp that was virtually empty. Oy, people.
Here’s where we all kind of messed up. We all just gave a general, “Oh, we’ll meet you at the end of the race. I’m sure we’ll find you.”
What a bunch of dummies we are! As we’re walking towards the end of the race, we realize that it’s going to be really difficult to find our runners. There is just one main road leading from the end of the race up the street to the Palace. We thought it’d be simple to find them. Nope.
But, we didn’t worry about it. We had at LEAST another hour and a half before we started playing “Where’s Waldo” on the street. So, we decided to have lunch. We stopped at a cafe which had an outdoor seating area - so we could keep a lookout for our runners.
Good food, good drinks. We had a good time.
But, we were still nervous we wouldn't be able to find our runners. We didn't even know what hotel Linda was staying in - and none of the runners had a cell on them. Man, we just didn't think this one thru.
I don’t know how he did it, but he did. Yahreen managed to spot our runners, just as they were passing our restaurant. Thankfully, our little group of friends has its own “call”. It’s our “wild monkey” call. Yahreen did the call, and you see all three of their heads whip around to the sound of the call, and spot us almost immediately (as well as several other passersby).
So, kids, the moral of the story is - create your own audible call sign so you can find your loved ones in a crowd.
It was a successful race for them, and they all did very well. But, they were hungry & thirsty! So, we just stayed at the same restaurant so they could eat & get rehydrated.
After lunch, we all went back to Linda’s hotel so that everyone could shower. She was leaving that day, but we still had one more night. Josh & Lacie took turns showering, and we all just hung out in the hotel bar. Then, we said goodbye to Linda (she had to catch the train back to Kaiserslautern that afternoon).
Since we were in Versailles, we had to head up to the palace! Lacie & Yahreen had never seen it. We weren’t planning on going inside, but we were going to go thru the grounds. Last time we were there, you didn't need a ticket for the gardens. You could just go thru - we even saw local joggers in the gardens.
We were NOT anticipating having to pay to get in. I think it was something like €7..not sure. Nobody really felt like paying that, and going thru the gardens. So, we just took pictures from the outside.
I do love Versailles, though. I’ve been to Paris 3 times now, and I don’t *really* need to go back. However, I reallllllly want to go back to Versailles, even though I’ve already done that twice. I want to go visit Marie’s chateau! Haven’t done that one yet. Also, I’d like to go back to the Paris area so I can visit Claude Monet’s home again. That was a good one (although, I was 12 when I did that one, so who knows how accurate my memories are).
Anywho, we did some window shopping, then headed back to the hotel.
So, remember how I said that we had the one roundtrip ticket (really, it works like 2 one-way tickets) between Versailles and Paris? I had given Linda her ticket back, so between the four of us, we only needed two more one-way tickets to go back.
Until we discovered the stroller entrances. We kinda sorta cheated. Josh & Yahreen went thru at the same time with the stroller, using one ticket. I talked Lacie into going thru with me. They did have guards in the Versailles station, but we waited til their backs were turn, and just pretended like we knew what we were doing. Do something with confidence, and you can get away with anything.
That’s right. We’re badasses.
It was already getting close to dinnertime. Well, an early dinner (we had to get up early to catch our train, and the runners were le tired). Josh & Lacie went back out to get dinner. Unfortunately, the Monoprix was closed (it was Sunday). They were able to find a store to get more wine, but we ended up just getting McDonalds for dinner. Blergh.
But, it was another great night of hanging out with friends. Even better was that we were hanging out in Paris.
It was an early morning.
We got to the train station pretty early, so we had time to get some breakfast. And Alyssa had time to look cute.
On the train back, we actually had a table in between us - two people facing one way, two people facing the other, and a table in between. Made it perfect for card games! It was a fun ride back.
It was a fun trip altogether. We didn't do a whole lot, except eat and drink and run (well, some of us ran). We're really going to miss being able to travel with friends in foreign countries, whenever the time comes for us to leave Europe.
Loved the blog and photos! When am I going to get a copy of your pics lady?
ReplyDeleteLacie