Pearl Jam in Paris

I left hotel on Monday morning to do a little sight seeing. First I needed to attend to some business. I needed to get a Carte Orange for the Metro and a museum pass. I took the wrong collection of streets and ended up in front of the Charles Garnier Opera House. It is just gorgeous. It was only a few blocks from there to Tourist office. The four day pass for 44 euros is just an awesome deal. It gets you into so many museums and you don't have to wait in line. I then went and bought a carte orange which lets you ride the metro system for a week for 16 euros. You are supposed to carry a picture with you. I got the picture taken at the booth in the metro. I still have the pictures. They were a little frightening. I looked like the bald guy in Amelie. I started out for the Musee D'Orsay. I was half way across the bridge when I remembered the Orsay is closed on Monday and all the other museums are closed on Tuesdays. I decided I would do the Louvre. Well I decided I give the Louvre a couple of hours. That might scratch the surface.


It was still early and they were just opening. The glass pyramid is an interesting place. It was so bright, eventhough it was underground. I decided to focus on the paintings. Looking over the history of painting, It is interesting to see the evolution of the subjects. I wandered through the Italian paintings from the 12th century to the 18th century. I was not that impressed with the older paintings of all the biblical stuff. What I really enjoyed was the landscapes that started to creep slowly into the religious paintings. Portrait paintings were also eye catching. A few pictures that caught my attention were landscapes and one about the four seasons were each season was represented by things from that season. I walked through the Mona Lisa room to get to the Large format French paintings. You don't really get to see the Mona Lisa. It is behind about a 5 inch thick piece of Plexi-glass with a thousand people in front of it. You kind of get a glimpse of it. Kind of like the smile on her face. It was in the next room were I saw the two of the best pictures. Paul De La Roche's La Jeune Martyre is just haunting. You can almost see the water ripple in front of you. Delacriox's Liberty Leading the People is also magnificent. I wandered through a few more rooms including the Venus De Milo before finding the impressionist room. I was struck by the beauty of Jungkind's work. I still have many trips to the Louvre left.






I got on the metro for the first time to go to the Bastille. They have long since torn down the original prison made famous by the revolution. There is just a monument in the middle of the traffic circle and the modern Opera Bastille.


Lunch and the Marais were calling. I walked through Place dos Vosages. It is a park surrounded by beautiful 17th century buildings. I decided to knock two more Museums out of the way. The Picaso and Pompidu are both in the Marais. I was not impressed with the Picasso museum though the building is pretty. I walked by a beautiful mural on the side of a building on the way to the modern art museum.





The Pompidu is certainly a Modern Art museum. It is a great place to take pictures of Paris because of it's height. Modern Art is mostly clever rather than art.




It was getting late in the afternoon and the raison d'etre for the whole trip was going to be later that night. I went home(the hotel) to get ready for Pearl Jam. It was an easy metro ride on the newest line to Bercy were the concert was. Le Palais de omnisports is a basketball type arena built mostly into the ground. The outside is covered in grass. It is a weird looking building. My Morning Jacket was the opening band. They were good. Pearl Jam was just awesome. I just can't find the words to describe the feeling of being surrounded by 20,000 people listening to a band in what is a second language for most. I downloaded the show as soon as I got back and they put up on the site. So many pretty girls. Looking back on that day, I did a shit load of walking. It was the first full day and I was exhausted when I got off the metro and back to the Hotel.

Paris!! The first day

I arrived at Gare du Nord around 2pm. I had to wait about a half hour in the Taxi line for a ten minute ride to the Hotel. It was a nice place with a huge window that opened. I wandered out with camera with no particular place to go.





I walked down to the Louvre and through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Place da la Concorde. I crossed the Seine and walked down the quai towards the Musee D'Orsay. I Past a floating bar that was having a wedding. It looked really cool. The beauty of looking down the Seine at the Ile de citi just can't be written in words. I crossed over to the Ile de la citi and wandered through the bird and flower market. They also had cats and dogs.



I was too late to take the stairs to the top of Notre Dame but I walked through the building. I had read a story about Notre Dame du Paris about the statues that run along the front of the building. They were beheaded by religious zealots who thought they were French Kings. They are actually saints. The original heads are in one of the museums.




One of the few that I didn't visit. The stained glass was really beautiful. I was thirsty so I crossed the bridge to the Ile de Saint Louis. I had a quick beer and wondered down the main street. I had a nice taste of Foie gras. My parents and many others told me about Our ancestors the Guals. It is a restaurant right out of Middle ages. It was too early to eat there so I wandered into the pub. A Canadian Pub.




It was really cool. I ended up staying long enough to eat at the restaurant which is right around the corner. I had a few more before heading back to the Hotel for the night.

Brussels Belgium

Brussels is weird. The most famous monument is the Piss Boy. You just can't miss him. They dress him up every day with a new costume. It is pretty small as far as tourist section goes. It has been just what I needed to regroup after the first week. It's kind of a tourist trap but with good food and beer. It is also like a giant outlet mall to some degree. Well if you can have an outlet mall with all the history.






It just doesn't have the vibe that Amsterdam soaks you in. I needed a little break from the constant movement and senses overload. I needed time to do some laundry and not spend money. The streets are mostly cobblestone. I don't know how you could drive a car in this town. The streets are narrow and confusing. There are circles. There exits off the highway. There are circles off of exits. They drive like there are a bunch of unwritten laws that no one actually follows. The food is pretty good considering the shear number of alike places in what is basically a bunch of alleys. I picked some restaurant at random around the square. It was called Cafe du Brussels. It was just off the Place Royal. They had a beer tasting menu that intrigued me. It was five trappist beers. Two Clinys, Mae's, Grimbergan, and kerik cherry beer. I had to warm up to a couple of them. They needed to warm up a little so the aftertaste calmed down. I had the Belgiuan dish Mussels vin blanc. Mussels in a white wine sauce with onions, parsley and celery. It was delicious. What really made everything great was dessert. Two types of chocolate mousse with a cherry beer. Death by Chocolate. That pretty much did it for me for the night. I got a beer out of the vending machine. What a concept beer in the vending machine. Saturday I got up for breakfast and The tulip Inn has quite a good hot breakfast. I wondered around Uptown taking pictures.






There are lots of pretty buildings. I kept taking a picture of some church in the distance because it made a great picture. I still have no idea what it is.





The hotel had a gym so after walking around all morning and doing my laundry at a local Laundromat I hit the gym. I needed to waste some time so it would get dark and I could go eat and take pictures of the Place Royal at night. I ate at this place again near the square. I sat outside with two women from Thailand and next to a bunch of jewelers from America. They had been coming to restaurant for ten years. They used to barter with the owner for extra food and drink. I was ready to hit Paris so I went home to pack. I was able to catch the weekend football highlights including VFB Stuttgart's victory of Alemania Achen.

Amsterdam The Netherlands

When last I left you I had to get up at 4:30am to make my 9:55am train from Paris to Amsterdam. I left enough time for the Paris Traffic but not for my inability to return the car. I knew this was going to happen. I was able to find the station but not where to return the car. I finally parked the car in a parking garage which of course was the wrong car garage but close enough to find out where. I am now late for the train and carrying to much stuff. I had to run out of the station and buy a cheap suitcase to hold the wine. I now had plenty of time to unwind. I was a little mad at myself for missing the train and incurring the stupid penalty. Once I gave up the money and relaxed the train was wonderfull. What a more civilizied way to travel. It made the rest of day great. Ahh!! The train ride was nothing but groovy if a little corporate. Wine and the Clash can cure a lot.




I arrived at Central Station in the middle of Amsterdam. It was built on three artifical islands with an ungodly amount of pilings. The warm afternoon sun of Amsterdam was a lot less humid than Paris. It took me about a minute to find my way to the taxi's. The great vibe of Amsterdam just beginning to settle in as I reached the Hotel. It was nice little hotel across from the leidseplein. Plein meaning square though there wasn't a squrare. The room was perfect. It included a wonderful Franz Marc “Yellow Horses reproduction. It also had a real shower. Emerging from the steam of the bathroom, I felt like a completely different person.




I really hate driving now. It is such a hassle. I headed out to the Leidseplein to eat. I found a nice tourist trap advertising Argentinian Beef. It was an excellent Sirlion with three prawns. I am sure you can find better places but it is downright difficult to screw up steak. The First thing that I noticed was the bar with giant neon Rolling Stone Lips. I had have a few Bavaria's there. When I came out there was a group of people listening to music. It was three guys doing Bach's Torracota and Fugue, mostly with Accordians. It sounded great. The square was packed as I set out to find the Rockerij. I didn't have much luck finding that and wondered into the good times cafe and hung while I watched the first half of the Netherlands football game with Bulgaria. There were a few people there. The leidseplein was swinging on a Wednesday night.




I found this card in Hotel with all the tourist brochures. I couldn't stop laughing.




I was lucky to make it till eleven because I was really tired. The next day I got an early start by heading out to the Van Gogh Museum which was only a few blocks away. I sipped coffee at sidewalk cafe and watched with amusement the rush hour traffic in Amsterdam. There were a few cars but it was almost all bikes. Beautiful women in skirts and high heels pedaling their way to work. There were so many bikes and more than a few interesting designs. What struck me though was none of them were racing or mountain bike style. They were just plain bikes like the old days. The three story Bicycle parking garage by Central Station still makes me smile. I spent most of the day taking pictures. The Van Gogh museum was nice eventhough only one floor was open because they are doing renovations. I wandered through Vondal park, Dam square and the red light district. I took the canal bus downtown and rode it back. I found out they are decomissioning churches and turning them into stores and office space due to lack of churchgoers. I really wish I could have spent more time here. I really love this place. It will have to wait til next time.