The past few days have certainly been trying. As Matt mentioned in his Tour post, I was getting sick the last you read, and it has only gotten worse. The day after he wrote that I stayed in bed all day, truly unable to do anything more. We had reservations to go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower that night, which we did, but it was really miserable for me. Don't get me wrong, the Tower was beautiful, the view was amazing, and I wouldn't have done it differently...maybe without so much phlegm - ha. The following day was our last full day in Paris, and being that I still wasn't up for the marathon site-seeing days that I had originally planned, we did a watered down version. We went to Notre Dame (but not up into the towers because the line was so long), Sainte Chapelle (which was nice, although they are in the middle of a 5 year restoration period, and so the most beautiful part of the church, the altar, was completely covered by large tarps. The picture outside made it look wonderful though!), and the Conciergerie, which is the prison where more than 2,000 prisoners were held during the French Revolution, including Marie Antoinette, and was their last stop before the guillotine at Place de la Concorde. We also walked around to see the medieval building’s westernmost tower, “The Squealer,” was used for much worse-torture.
From there we boarded a dinner cruise down the Seine. We used the advice of our guidebook and saved this until the last night, and it really was great. The food itself was nothing spectacular (not that I could taste much of it anyway, but Matt confirmed), but floating on the Seine was amazing. We passed all the major sights for the last time and just relaxed, soaking in the city.
Yesterday we left our apartment in the 8th arrondissement and flew to London, where we are now. We're staying in a cute little boutique hotel right near the Kensington Gardens. Today we're going on a super touristy double-decker bus tour and to watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Tomorrow is when Matt returns home, and I fly on to Tanzania...I'll update again once I get settled there. For now, cheerio!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
TOUR DE FRANCE!!!
-Guest blogger Matt here. Let me start by admitting that I've never posted a single thing to 'net before, That said, the final stage of the Tour deserves sharing, if anything. So here goes.
Whoa! My first whoa goes to Kristin, who braved a pretty serious head cold to stand and wait with me all day on the noisy, polluted, crowded streets of Paris. Fortunately, we caught not one, not two...but eight exciting, first-hand glimpses of the most exciting bike race in the world, so I think she would definitely agree that it was well worth it.
Looking back now, I don't think we could have timed things any better if we tried. We ended up leaving our apartment at about 11am to find one of the few brasseries serving breakfast on Sunday. It was a little trying on our patience to have to wait over an hour for a tiny cup of espresso, some baguettes and OJ, and a couple of croissants, but it gave us the fuel we needed to walk more than three miles down the Champs Elysees from L'Etoile to the Louvre and back up through the Tuileries to our spot. I was also encouraged by the sleepy faces on everyone who got up earlier than me only to stake out a spot hundreds of meters away from the finishing line where they would be lucky to catch an errant glance from one of the riders who had already finished the race. -Suckers. Plus, we got to buy the same fresh TDF swag (like yellow musette bags and Skoda bears) as everyone else. -Suckers...err...oh, well.
Let me stop a minute and give credit to a random online discussion board that we found to be super helpful in finding a much less-crowded view on the garden-side of the Rue de Rivoli just across the street from the Westin Paris. For future visitors, definitely check out this LINK. The tip about crossing over the tunnel from the Louvre to the gardens is particularly useful. I have no idea why other people found it so difficult to cross the street, but it was absolutely true! Maybe they need more jokes about chickens and less jokes about what is in their pants. For the time being, or at least until Kristin gets her camera cord, you can imagine our approximate view up the Rue de Rivoli toward the finishing line (sans cycling madness) by clicking here: GOOGLE STREET VIEW. Another reason why things probably worked out so well for us is that at about 900m to go from the finish (YEAH! Inside the final KM!), there was a rather large air vent coming up from the Metro tunnels that no one else seemed to want to stand on - at least until the other spots were taken. Not so for us, though - the breeze ended up being rather welcome on an overcast, but stuffy afternoon.
Enough about getting there, though. On to the race! Well, on to the parade at least. The race wouldn't pass us by for another three hours or so. Another good tip for future race-goers is to lie to your (girl)friends about how long it takes between the parade and the actual race. An occasional "I think it's only another twenty minutes or so" goes a long way toward contributing to morale. Actually, the caravan was kind of entertaining even if it was just a bunch of sponsors and ads with dancing girls and loudspeakers playing the same pop music tracks over and over. It was certainly colorful and provided for good people-watching. From what I had seen on TV, I certainly wasn't expecting the huge number of "floats," but it did get old after a while.
Finally, after what I'm sure seemed like forever for Kristin, and after all the team buses, all the King's men (gendarmes), and all the official red Skodas passed by, we caught our first sight of the cyclists. It reminded me of the wave that you often see fans doing at a stadium event the way that the noise and motion in the crowd slowly built up and crested over us. The second whoa goes to the awesome speed that the first break-away riders had when they rushed passed us. As we were leaning over the barrier trying to get a good look, it was jaw-dropping just how close they came to us. My most vivid memory from that first pass is seeing Astana's turquoise and white lead out team, including Contador all decked out in yellow with what I'm sure was a menacing grin on his face (damn you, Contador!). It was all over in less than a minute, at which point, Kristin turned and asked "Was that all of them?"
Besides Kristin's surprise that it would be over that quickly (fortunately, we had seven laps to go at that point), there were two other things that struck me most: First, out of 180 or so riders, I think I managed to recognize the faces of maybe a dozen as they went by. Besides Contador, I'm sure I saw Levi and Lance a couple of times (I got to point him out to Kristin in what I hope will be a more recognizable picture to be posted in the coming days), Petacchi in green, and Thomas Voeckler, the champion of France, in what I couldn't help but think was quite a show-off move hanging about five meters off the back of the pack on just about every lap just so all the Frenchies could see him. I had a hard time picking out the eventual stage winner, Cavendish, or a couple of my favorites, Schleck or Hincapie, even with their special jerseys. It was also pretty amazing that on the third- and second-to-last-laps, the break-away group's seconds-only lead looked insurmountable. Having a good straight-away view really made it seem doubtful that they would be caught the way I knew they always would.
From the hours between parade and race to the nail-biting final lap, it was clear that they really knew how to build the suspense. I'll end there for now. It was a great show and definitely made the trip for me. It also made me miss riding my bike.
Whoa! My first whoa goes to Kristin, who braved a pretty serious head cold to stand and wait with me all day on the noisy, polluted, crowded streets of Paris. Fortunately, we caught not one, not two...but eight exciting, first-hand glimpses of the most exciting bike race in the world, so I think she would definitely agree that it was well worth it.
Looking back now, I don't think we could have timed things any better if we tried. We ended up leaving our apartment at about 11am to find one of the few brasseries serving breakfast on Sunday. It was a little trying on our patience to have to wait over an hour for a tiny cup of espresso, some baguettes and OJ, and a couple of croissants, but it gave us the fuel we needed to walk more than three miles down the Champs Elysees from L'Etoile to the Louvre and back up through the Tuileries to our spot. I was also encouraged by the sleepy faces on everyone who got up earlier than me only to stake out a spot hundreds of meters away from the finishing line where they would be lucky to catch an errant glance from one of the riders who had already finished the race. -Suckers. Plus, we got to buy the same fresh TDF swag (like yellow musette bags and Skoda bears) as everyone else. -Suckers...err...oh, well.
Let me stop a minute and give credit to a random online discussion board that we found to be super helpful in finding a much less-crowded view on the garden-side of the Rue de Rivoli just across the street from the Westin Paris. For future visitors, definitely check out this LINK. The tip about crossing over the tunnel from the Louvre to the gardens is particularly useful. I have no idea why other people found it so difficult to cross the street, but it was absolutely true! Maybe they need more jokes about chickens and less jokes about what is in their pants. For the time being, or at least until Kristin gets her camera cord, you can imagine our approximate view up the Rue de Rivoli toward the finishing line (sans cycling madness) by clicking here: GOOGLE STREET VIEW. Another reason why things probably worked out so well for us is that at about 900m to go from the finish (YEAH! Inside the final KM!), there was a rather large air vent coming up from the Metro tunnels that no one else seemed to want to stand on - at least until the other spots were taken. Not so for us, though - the breeze ended up being rather welcome on an overcast, but stuffy afternoon.
Enough about getting there, though. On to the race! Well, on to the parade at least. The race wouldn't pass us by for another three hours or so. Another good tip for future race-goers is to lie to your (girl)friends about how long it takes between the parade and the actual race. An occasional "I think it's only another twenty minutes or so" goes a long way toward contributing to morale. Actually, the caravan was kind of entertaining even if it was just a bunch of sponsors and ads with dancing girls and loudspeakers playing the same pop music tracks over and over. It was certainly colorful and provided for good people-watching. From what I had seen on TV, I certainly wasn't expecting the huge number of "floats," but it did get old after a while.
Finally, after what I'm sure seemed like forever for Kristin, and after all the team buses, all the King's men (gendarmes), and all the official red Skodas passed by, we caught our first sight of the cyclists. It reminded me of the wave that you often see fans doing at a stadium event the way that the noise and motion in the crowd slowly built up and crested over us. The second whoa goes to the awesome speed that the first break-away riders had when they rushed passed us. As we were leaning over the barrier trying to get a good look, it was jaw-dropping just how close they came to us. My most vivid memory from that first pass is seeing Astana's turquoise and white lead out team, including Contador all decked out in yellow with what I'm sure was a menacing grin on his face (damn you, Contador!). It was all over in less than a minute, at which point, Kristin turned and asked "Was that all of them?"
Besides Kristin's surprise that it would be over that quickly (fortunately, we had seven laps to go at that point), there were two other things that struck me most: First, out of 180 or so riders, I think I managed to recognize the faces of maybe a dozen as they went by. Besides Contador, I'm sure I saw Levi and Lance a couple of times (I got to point him out to Kristin in what I hope will be a more recognizable picture to be posted in the coming days), Petacchi in green, and Thomas Voeckler, the champion of France, in what I couldn't help but think was quite a show-off move hanging about five meters off the back of the pack on just about every lap just so all the Frenchies could see him. I had a hard time picking out the eventual stage winner, Cavendish, or a couple of my favorites, Schleck or Hincapie, even with their special jerseys. It was also pretty amazing that on the third- and second-to-last-laps, the break-away group's seconds-only lead looked insurmountable. Having a good straight-away view really made it seem doubtful that they would be caught the way I knew they always would.
From the hours between parade and race to the nail-biting final lap, it was clear that they really knew how to build the suspense. I'll end there for now. It was a great show and definitely made the trip for me. It also made me miss riding my bike.
1 week down
We've been gone for about a week and it feels like a month...in a good way I think. Unfortunately, despite my incessant lists and organization, I managed to forget the cord to connect my camera to my computer. The result is that I am seeing and taking pictures of the most beautiful, well recognized, and respected things in the world, but you can't see them - ha ha. So perhaps, I will re-edit this blog after I return home to add in the pictures, but for now, you have to live with my descriptions.
We started out in Whistler, Canada for Nik's wedding. We picked Will Reynold's up in Vancouver on the way up and the three of drove the spectacular Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. I have to say, that even though I will always be a Colorado Rockies girl at heart, this was, by far, the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen. We made it into Whistler in time to catch the rehearsal dinner at the Greek restaurant, Kypriaki. They had arranged a set menu of items, and every one of them was beyond delicious. We all thoroughly stuffed ourselves with hummus, saganaki, greek salad, lamb, moussaka, and many more things that I can't remember or spell.
Before the wedding the next day, Matt, Will, and I hiked around at the base of Blackcomb mountain and watched some young ski jumpers practice by going off their jumps and landing in a swimming pool.
The wedding itself was beautiful. It was in Pemberton, and they got married outside at the base of a majestic mountain...no flowers necessary. Perhaps my favorite part was the selection of old-timey candy they had available before the ceremony - ah, it's the little things in life that make me happy!
The next day we drove back to Vancouver and met up with our friends Tristan and Kaili. We had dinner at one of Matt's family's favorite Vancouver spots, the Blue Water Cafe. We had delicious, raw, west-coast oysters, ceviche, salmon, halibut, scallops - everything fresh. An unforgettable meal.
The next morning Matt and I started our 50 hour journey to Paris. We drove from Vancouver to Seattle, then took an overnight plane from Seattle to Washington DC. We had an entire day in DC before flying to London, so we made the most of it. We went to the mall and saw the White House, the Washington Monument, the capital building, and we visited the National Air and Space Museum. Next we boarded another overnight flight to London, and connected to our final flight to Paris. We arrived, exhausted, but in one piece, and with all our luggage : ) We got the keys to our apartment for the week, took a much needed shower, and braved the streets of Paris to find food!
In the days since, we've done a lot of touristy stuff, but it's been great. I've never been to Paris before, and it's much different than I had pictured in my head - not really better or worse, just different. I've been surprised with how much French has come back to me, and while Matt does most of talking because he can actually converse with people, I've been holding my own ordering off menus, etc. With one exception, the waiter immediately realizes that we don't speak French and speaks back in English, which to me is a relief because I can't really understand well when they speak so fast, but we continue to speak French, and so far people couldn't be nicer. It happens more and more that we get through entire exchanges in French, and that part is getting more and more fun.
The apartment we rented is a little 1 bedroom place about 2 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe, and in a busy and bustling neighborhood. Right outside our door are cafes, patisseries, fromageries, boulangeries, etc. We took a day trip out to Versailles a few days ago, which was one of the most interesting tours I've been on. I suppose, I had never been to a truely famous historic site, such as the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed. It was moving. It was cold and rainy, which ended up being a good thing because it dispersed some of the crowds. Yesterday we went to the Louvre and saw all the most famous pieces of art in the world. Again, we somehow managed to find a day and time combination that was not at all crowded, so we didn't wait in any lines, and barely had to push through people to get to the front of any exhibits. I took some stunning pictures, which would appear here if I could get them out of my camera...I was particularly impressed with the Winged Angel of Victory, placed at the top of a long staircase under a skylight, standing at least 15 feet high. It was truly breathtaking. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa. Our guidebook mentioned that many people are disappointed when they see her, because she is smaller and darker in person than you would expect from all the hype (the book also mentioned that the eyes of virtually all painted portraits follow you across the room, and that Mona is not special because of it). The crowd that gathers in front of her is impressive enough, you surely know when you walk into the room because the energy of the place changes. Being on the shorter side, and in a crowd of people all trying to see a (relatively) small painting, it was hard to see, but I'd say I was neither profoundly impressed or disappointed.
Today is the final stage of the Tour de France, where Contador (damn you, Contador!) will solidify his 3rd Tour win in 4 years. Matt and I both really wanted to see Lance in victory here, but c'est la vie. We tried to set up a bike tour of the city for yesterday so we could bike around part of the route that they would ride on today, but it fell through, so no biking...yet. We found a great place to watch the race, bought a picnic of bread, cheese, and chocolate, and 2 cheap folding lawn chairs to camp out all day before they arrive around 5pm tonight.
We only have 3 more nights here, 2 nights in London, and then Matt flies back to Durham, and I fly the opposite direction to Kilimanjaro. I'll try to post another update before we leave London. Also, after reading this, Matt tells me I'm leaving out "all sorts of important stuff", so he might post something all on his own : )
We started out in Whistler, Canada for Nik's wedding. We picked Will Reynold's up in Vancouver on the way up and the three of drove the spectacular Sea to Sky highway from Vancouver to Whistler. I have to say, that even though I will always be a Colorado Rockies girl at heart, this was, by far, the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen. We made it into Whistler in time to catch the rehearsal dinner at the Greek restaurant, Kypriaki. They had arranged a set menu of items, and every one of them was beyond delicious. We all thoroughly stuffed ourselves with hummus, saganaki, greek salad, lamb, moussaka, and many more things that I can't remember or spell.
Before the wedding the next day, Matt, Will, and I hiked around at the base of Blackcomb mountain and watched some young ski jumpers practice by going off their jumps and landing in a swimming pool.
The wedding itself was beautiful. It was in Pemberton, and they got married outside at the base of a majestic mountain...no flowers necessary. Perhaps my favorite part was the selection of old-timey candy they had available before the ceremony - ah, it's the little things in life that make me happy!
The next day we drove back to Vancouver and met up with our friends Tristan and Kaili. We had dinner at one of Matt's family's favorite Vancouver spots, the Blue Water Cafe. We had delicious, raw, west-coast oysters, ceviche, salmon, halibut, scallops - everything fresh. An unforgettable meal.
The next morning Matt and I started our 50 hour journey to Paris. We drove from Vancouver to Seattle, then took an overnight plane from Seattle to Washington DC. We had an entire day in DC before flying to London, so we made the most of it. We went to the mall and saw the White House, the Washington Monument, the capital building, and we visited the National Air and Space Museum. Next we boarded another overnight flight to London, and connected to our final flight to Paris. We arrived, exhausted, but in one piece, and with all our luggage : ) We got the keys to our apartment for the week, took a much needed shower, and braved the streets of Paris to find food!
In the days since, we've done a lot of touristy stuff, but it's been great. I've never been to Paris before, and it's much different than I had pictured in my head - not really better or worse, just different. I've been surprised with how much French has come back to me, and while Matt does most of talking because he can actually converse with people, I've been holding my own ordering off menus, etc. With one exception, the waiter immediately realizes that we don't speak French and speaks back in English, which to me is a relief because I can't really understand well when they speak so fast, but we continue to speak French, and so far people couldn't be nicer. It happens more and more that we get through entire exchanges in French, and that part is getting more and more fun.
The apartment we rented is a little 1 bedroom place about 2 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe, and in a busy and bustling neighborhood. Right outside our door are cafes, patisseries, fromageries, boulangeries, etc. We took a day trip out to Versailles a few days ago, which was one of the most interesting tours I've been on. I suppose, I had never been to a truely famous historic site, such as the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed. It was moving. It was cold and rainy, which ended up being a good thing because it dispersed some of the crowds. Yesterday we went to the Louvre and saw all the most famous pieces of art in the world. Again, we somehow managed to find a day and time combination that was not at all crowded, so we didn't wait in any lines, and barely had to push through people to get to the front of any exhibits. I took some stunning pictures, which would appear here if I could get them out of my camera...I was particularly impressed with the Winged Angel of Victory, placed at the top of a long staircase under a skylight, standing at least 15 feet high. It was truly breathtaking. Of course we saw the Mona Lisa. Our guidebook mentioned that many people are disappointed when they see her, because she is smaller and darker in person than you would expect from all the hype (the book also mentioned that the eyes of virtually all painted portraits follow you across the room, and that Mona is not special because of it). The crowd that gathers in front of her is impressive enough, you surely know when you walk into the room because the energy of the place changes. Being on the shorter side, and in a crowd of people all trying to see a (relatively) small painting, it was hard to see, but I'd say I was neither profoundly impressed or disappointed.
Today is the final stage of the Tour de France, where Contador (damn you, Contador!) will solidify his 3rd Tour win in 4 years. Matt and I both really wanted to see Lance in victory here, but c'est la vie. We tried to set up a bike tour of the city for yesterday so we could bike around part of the route that they would ride on today, but it fell through, so no biking...yet. We found a great place to watch the race, bought a picnic of bread, cheese, and chocolate, and 2 cheap folding lawn chairs to camp out all day before they arrive around 5pm tonight.
We only have 3 more nights here, 2 nights in London, and then Matt flies back to Durham, and I fly the opposite direction to Kilimanjaro. I'll try to post another update before we leave London. Also, after reading this, Matt tells me I'm leaving out "all sorts of important stuff", so he might post something all on his own : )
Monday, July 12, 2010
time for another adventure
Matt and I are leaving on Thursday for a 2 week (much needed) vacation and then I fly to Kilimanjaro to start the data collection process for my dissertation. We start by spending a few nights in Whistler for a wedding of one of Matt's childhood friends, Nik Perleros. Having only been to Vancouver, I'm really looking forward to seeing Whistler. Our next stop: Paris for a week. I can't believe that in all my travels I've never been to France, but I won't be able to say that for long! We're staying in a cute little apartment just about 2 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe and we timed our trip perfectly so that we can catch the final stage of the Tour de France as they finish down the Champs d'Elysees. Next we head to London for just a few nights before Matt flies back to Durham, and my trip just begins. I'll fly from London to Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) to spend 2 weeks piloting survey questions for data I'll be collecting in November. I'll try to include a little more about my project in the next few days when I get a few free minutes. I'm going to try my best to keep this blog updated over the next month - I suppose with all the flying I can always use flights to catch up on blogging : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)