When I originally started thinking about visiting Paris, I had spring in mind. Seeing the sights with mild temperatures, beautiful blooming gardens, and before the crowds of summer vacation sounded perfect. When I started looking at my vacation days from work however, the two weeks surrounding Christmas and New Year's Day jumped out as the … Continue reading Paris in December
For the last full day of our vacation, we booked a day trip to London with Golden Tours. The tour included roundtrip transportation on the Eurostar train and a fully guided tour of London. The description said we would visit St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London, witness the changing of the guard at … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Day 11 – London
Our last full day in Paris fell on New Year's Day. Knowing it was a holiday and the Parisians aren't exactly our idea of early risers, we planned to be up and ready by 10am. All four of us were moving pretty slowly that morning, so I figure we headed downstairs closer to 10:30 or … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Day 10 – New Year’s Day and Musee d’Orsay
Josh and I got up a little early to finish packing and then went to Monoprix in Place Kleber to buy some drinks. We stopped in at the same pastry shop as the day before for pain au chocolate before returning to the hotel to check out. The hotel desk called a taxi for us, … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Day 9 – Strasbourg to Paris, Quick Trip to Versailles, New Year’s Eve
We wanted to see the astronomical clock presentation at mid-day, which requires being in line before 11:30am. We didn't want to leave the hotel too early, as nothing really opens very early anywhere in France. Once we were all dressed and ready, we walked around near the hotel looking for a bakery for breakfast. There … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Part 8 – Strasbourg
Words don't do justice to Strasbourg, so this post is going to be very image heavy! We got up and finished packing our bags and checked out of the hotel pretty early that morning. We had to navigate the metro (lots of up and down stairs) with all our luggage to Gare de l'est in … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Day 7 – Paris to Strasbourg
I took a break, but I'm back to writing about our trip! Day 6 was a Sunday and our all-day trip to Bruges, Belgium. We went to bed early the night before, and my alarm went off sometime around 5am that morning. We had to be downstairs before 6:30am for our tour guide to pick … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Day 6 – Bruges, Belgium
Day five was supposed to be our second day for museums, but after a lot of walking the day before and 4 pairs of sore, tired feet, we opted to try a hop-on-hop-off bus tour instead of hoofing it around town. We used the hotel's computer to purchase our one day pass for Foxity's buses. … Continue reading Day 5 – Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus and Musee des Arts et Metiers
We originally set aside two full days for museums in Paris--the Friday and Saturday after Christmas. Most Paris museums close on either Monday or Tuesday, so make sure you check the museum websites before you set your itinerary. Friday and Saturday are probably more crowded days all year long, but it's what worked in our … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Day 4 – Monet, Rodin, Napoleon, and The Louvre
Our second full day in Paris was Christmas Day. I was a little apprehensive about this when we booked our trip. We went back and forth about renting an apartment or a hotel with a kitchen so we could cook and hang out at "home" on Christmas Day, but we decided to test our luck … Continue reading First Trip to Europe, Day 3 – Christmas Day
I'd Rather Be Sailing 