Paris in the (not quite) Spring-Part I

As promised to Ava we planned our first trip to the the continent around her birthday and it was to Paris. So on Feb 17 we took off on a grand adventure to a place neither Aaron or I had ever been. Aaron at least took French in school and had been to France before, though never to Paris. I, on the other hand, do not speak a word of the language and therefore spent quite a bit of time trying to figure things out. More on that later.

The first part of our journey was the trip to the Bristol airport since flights from Cardiff were more expensive and not direct. It is not what you would call a large airport, nor is it easy to find. Luckily, Aaron was smart enough to download the European maps onto our GPS before we left the states (it has saved my life in many a roundabout) and we did get there. As an added bonus we got to see some lovely country side and some back roads that we may not have had the opportunity to see.

We got settled on the plane and had a nice short flight.

At CDG airport we grabbed a taxi and headed to our hostel. We decided early on that we did not need fancy accommodations and that we would rather spend our money on good food, souveniers and gifts. Well, wewere not disappointed our room was very basic with tow sets of bunk beds, a separate toilet/shower combo and a sink. As mentioned before, VERY basic. We were glad that we splurged and got a private room.

After dropping all our things we head out to find some dinner. We soon discovered that most French do not eat dinner/supper until about 8 pm (that seemed to be the earliest that most restaurants opened). We did find a place that served good food; however, it was expensive -- we soon realized that Paris itself is just expensive. I tried very hard to use as much French as I could, thanks to a very kind waitress and a lot of tutoring from Aaron. We finished our meal with Creme Brulee for the kids and cheese for the parents. Ava's dessert came with candles for her birthday and a few rounds of happy birthday in both English and French.

On Friday we stayed in bed until the kids couldn't stand it any longer (7:30 am) and went to have our meager breakfast of rolls butter jam and coffee. Then off to the Eiffel Tower. We took the Subway to Militare Ecoliere, (serious props to Aaron here for his subway navigation during the ENTIRE trip) and found our way to the Park/Mall area between the Militare and the Tower. Though I am sure it is even more beautiful in the spring, it was still an awesome sight. We bought our first souveniers and headed to the tower being greeted all the way by vendors and the deaf/mutes asking for money. By the way, Paris seems to have an exceedingly high population of the hearing impaired.

Ava was unsure if she wanted to go all the way to the top but Quinn was definitely headed all the way up.

We finally convinced Ava to give it a try so we bought our tickets and walked right in , absolutely no line or wait. We took the elevator to the first level and were surprised to find and ice skating rink there. Who Knew? And proceeded up, up, up. Level 2 was gorgeous and we took lots of pix.

We then boarded the elevator to go to the top. Which took a very loooooong time to reach the end of its journey. I was a bit nervous, Ava was fine, and Quinn was psyched! We exited the lift and walked around the entire enclosed area of the top level discovering that you could indeed go up a flight of stairs to an outside viewing area. Amazing! It was Paris for as far as the eye could see. Truly lovely. At this point after taking pictures and taking in the sight Ava and I, like women every where needed a rest room, we were in luck, they have one at the top of the Eiffel tower. Now we have "gone" everywhere.

We then headed to the the river to catch the Batobus for our net stop. The Batobus is like a river taxi that has 8 tops along the Seine at many of the tourist attractions. The kids ver much enjoyed the ride along the river and we took some very nice photos of bridges and buildings. Our next stop was at the Musee d'Orsay where we got to see and really enjoy works of art by many of the great artists of the world. The kids really seemed to enjoy seeing the "actual" painting instead of a picture of it. We were so lucky to enjoy works by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Latrec and Degas. I was in heaven.

After a quick and delicious lunch where Ava was kissed by a waiter we headed to Notre Dame Cathedral. The sheer beauty and awesomeness of this place was a little overwhelming to me. The outside with all of the intricate scroll work, flying buttresses, and carvings was only outdone by the beautiful woodwork, statues, and stained glass on the inside.

Since we were all pretty tired and worn out after our long day of walking we headed back to the Hostel and to get dinner. We decided to get Pizza since there was a shop just around the corner. The miniscule shop owner was SO nice, chatting with us and apologizing that he had shut down the ovens for the day, explaining that we could only buy the pizza slices that were already made. They looked a bit unusual (french fries as a topping?) but we figure we give them a shot. We ended up with 2 slices of Potato, different from the French Fry pizza of which we got 2 as well, 2 artichoke and olive and one "plain" which had the sauce on top of the cheese. Interestingly we found these to be delicious, unlike in the states where all pizzas are basically the same crust, sauce, cheese , and then we add different toppings, each of these pizzzas were made differently, sauces unique to the topping and possible different cheese combos too. Tasty, indeed. At this point we called it a day, went to our room, the kids played cards, read, and went off to sleep.

A Visit to Cadbury World

A number of the Colgate students planned a trip to the Cadbury factory in Birmingham, England last week and asked if we would like to join them. We asked the kids and they enthusiastically agreed! After a two hour car ride there (which went surprisingly well) through some beautiful countryside, we arrived and were met by the students.

After getting our tickets and being handed 2 full sized chocolate bars, which I assume is to keep everyone occupied during the hologram show that serves as the introduction. The self guided tour starts with the history of chocolate and how it was brought to Europe from South America. So, we walked through the jungle and into the European streets to learn about how the Cadbury brothers took chocolate from a bitter drink enjoyed by royalty to a solid sweet concoction and eventually the addition of milk to the mix.

We then got a peek at the packaging process. after being given another free candy bar we got to see thousands of little packages whizzing by. Then off to the decorating center where they hand decorate all sorts of chocolate creations. Each of the kids take a turn writing their names and watching the decorating. Oh, and a sample of warm liquid chocolate.

Next, a creepy ride through a world of chocolate drops (ala It's a small world) I have to say it took me a few minutes to realize they were chocolate drops. I was very disturbed.

Next to "Essences" which told the story of the significance of adding one and a half cups of pure dairy milk to the chocolate (yet again). Then onto where? Oh thats right off to the mixing room where you get a free sample of molten chocolate to mix with goodies like gummis, caramel corn, marshmellows and other healthy choices.

... and then off to the gift shop where you can buy ---Chocolate!

Cardiff Castle

This past weekend we took a tour of Cardiff Castle, which is in downtown Cardiff. The most impressive part of this castle is the "apartments." This was redone in the mid-to-late 1800s by some rich guy named Bute. And by rich, i mean most of the walls and ceilings were goldleafed. We don't have any pictures to show since visitors are not allowed to take pictures. We do,

however, have some pictures of the exterior. To the left is a picture from the outside of the castle. I believe that the bus stop is not original to the castle.

What's that you say. Take a closer picture of that tower because there seems to be some nice stuff on it. Okay, here you go:

You'll see Millenium Stadium in the background. This is were Wales lost by 7 points to England in the 6 Nations Rugby game the previous night.

What's that you say, still not close enough to see what's on that tower. Okay, let's have aaron risk his life scaling the wall to get a close up. If he falls, he knows to throw the camera in the bushes so that the picture is saved.

After the castle tour, we went down hill street and into the Central Market:

Then a bite to eat at Cafe Minuet inside one of the many arcades:

And to end the day, we visited the oldest record shop in the world: Spillers Records.

You can tell they are old-school by the picture of Elisa's favorite gansta rapper Vanilla Ice.

Castle Tours (Revised and expanded)

So this weekend we had quite the adventure. We visited 2 castles and an abbey with our Colgate students and took a trip to our local leisure center for a swim. The kids seemed to really enjoy the castles. The first we visited was only about 20 minutes from where we are living: Caerphilly Castle.

This one was Quinn's favorite of the day. It apparently is the oldest andlargest of Wales' castles. The kids had a great time mucking about; however, it was quite a cold day.

We managed with hats and gloves and after a while I was carrying everything as usual because the kids were warm from all the running and climbing and aaron is a lazy putz.

Caerphilly was one of the first castles to use water as a defense and is only second to Windsor Castle in size. This is truly an impressive structure first because it is so enormous and then second because it is so intricately designed. There are towers and hallways and little teeny tiny rooms everywhere. The stairways alone are enough to make you claustrophobic. Ava commented once that the stairs were not big enough for her to put her entire foot on, how could Daddy's feet fit? Well, if he can get them in his mouth, then the stairs should be easy.

Next up was Raglan Castle. The bus drive was a bit scary and those who weren't sleeping had to change their pants when we got there. After freshening up, we took these pictures:

After this impressive castle, we had lunch at a great little Indian restaurant in Monmouth.

Then onto Tintern Abbey. This had very intricate designing and was very grand when viewed inside (from the outside it did not look like much). Here are some pictures of the Abbey:

That concludes our look back at our Castle trip.