Madrid, Spain!

We had a long day of traveling to Madrid so we were exhausted when we arrived. Our train ride to Geneva was beautiful and we had a nice flight to Paris but our flight to Madrid was delayed once because they had to change the tires on the plane and a second time because of weather so I was pretty cranky when we arrived late in Madrid.

Mt first impression was that it was very modern although there was some beautiful architecture. Madrid is currently bidding for the 2016 Olympic games so there was a lot of construction and refurbishing going on while we were there.

We took an open air bus ride, Madrid Vision, with some friends and were able to see a lot of the city that way. This picture was taken in front of the royal palace, Palacio Real. It had just started to rain a little so we had to duck into a little place for Tapas. They eat their meals from 11-4pm and then everything shuts down from 4-8pm for Siesta. We had some amazing white wine and tapas (appetizers) while we were waiting for the rain to pass.

After that we walked past the Cathedral which was right next door to the Palace. It was raining pretty hard so we just hopped on the bus to see the next stop which was the Prado Museum. We weren’t able to take pictures inside but we saw some beautiful works by Raphael, Goya, El Greco, and Rembrandt.

These are some more pictures taken from the bus before it started to rain. There were lots of circles with fountains and statues in the middle so it was really beautiful. For dinner that night we went out with friends and had the most amazing Paella. Restaurants didn’t open until 9 or 10 at night so we had some really late nights in Spain.

This was one of the churches that we passed on the tour. The stone work was so beautiful.

Switzerland!

This picture was taken in front of their historical clock tower in downtown Bern. We arrived just before 6 and were able to see the little man on the top hit the gong with all the bears dancing in a circle. I loved Switzerland – especially Bern! Everything was within walking distance. There was a wonderful department store next door and we had so much fun shopping there. There were also lots of quaint little shops along the way and of course tons of chocolate! I’ve never tasted such wonderful chocolate!

Bern is the capital of Switzerland so this was one of the government buildings. I think it was actually their capital building. The architecture was so beautiful. The food and wine was also surprisingly good. We had one of our best meals in Bern. Mine was some sort f goulash which I thought was Hungarian but the pasta was freshly made, the meat was so tender and the sauce was amazing. Paul had some incredible Pork with a type of potato pancake. We usually eat half of our dishes and then share with the other person so we get to eat both but these were so good we didn’t want to share!

Bern is surrounded by a river so this was taken on the edge of town. To the left is the city and the right is the river. Even though it was cooler and definitely the Fall, they had beautiful gardens everywhere. All of the homes had beautiful red geraniums from their window boxes.

This was a home that was on the other side of the river. It was so beautiful I just had to take a picture. You can see the leaves were already starting to turn colors.

This is a picture of Lake Geneva taken from the train. It was so beautiful. There were vineyards everywhere which surprised me since Switzerland isn’t known for their wine. Our trip from Bern to Geneva was very beautiful and filled with quaint little villages and lots of farms.

More vehicles

We had lots of traveling on our last day in Paris. This is the RER train which is a double decker and much nicer than the metro although we took the metro a lot too. We took this to and from Notre Dame and then grabbed a cab to the train station for our train to Switzerland.

This is the Paris train station. We took train G to Switzerland. You can see Paul in the bottom right side of the picture with the red shirt on waiting for the train. We had first class tickets so our seats reclined and were really comfy. Our seats faced each other and we had a table between us so Paul could work a little. The train ride was really scenic and took only 5 hours. We arrived in Bern a little after 10pm and had a short walk to the hotel.

Notre Dame

Thursday was our last day in Paris. Since our train to Switzerland didn’t leave until 5pm we decided to spend the afternoon at Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter.

We timed it perfectly and were able to attend the noon mass. It was totally in French but we were able to follow along. After that we toured the church and spent some time in front of the Blessed Sacrament saying some prayers and lighting a candle for a friend.

This was Mary’s chapel and was probably my favorite. We stopped at the little gift shop on the way out and got a couple gifts for the kids.

This was my favorite picture of Notre Dame taken from the bridge. It was another gorgeous day in Paris. We were so blessed to have such beautiful weather the entire time. As were we crossing the bridge and holding hands one of the street vendors asked if we were on our honeymoon.

The Latin Quarter was a short walk from Notre Dame so we walked around a little. We ate lunch at an outside café and then picked up an amazing pistachio desert. There were some great souvenir stores so we picked out some cute things for the kids and I got an apron for myself.

Louvre Museum

We went to the Louvre on our last night in Paris. Since we wanted to see as much as possible we took the Masters tour and then went wandering around on our own. We went on a Wednesday night after Paul’s meetings so it wasn’t that crowded.

The Venus de Milo was beautiful, of course, and was really large. On the audio tour they had us view it from all different angels and distances which was really interesting. We also saw the Mona Lisa and some of the other more famous pieces. The museum was so enormous that you could have taken a week to go through and truly appreciate everything there was.

After the Master’s Tour we visited Napoleon’s apartment. To say it is opulent is an understatement. It would have been amazing to see the whole palace decorated like this. And these were only his private quarters.

It was dark when we left and this was one of my favorite pictures in Paris. I love how you can see the clouds passing by in the sky. I had always thought the pyramid was lit at night but we didn’t see that while we were there.

We went to a nice dinner at a little restaurant near the Louvre and then headed back to our hotel. We got a drink at the panoramic bar on the 33rd floor of the hotel and the views were spectacular. It was a fun way to spend our last night in Paris.

Dinner Cruise on the Seine

One of Paul's customers took us out for a dinner cruise on the Seine on Tuesday night. There were 3 couples who went and we had the best time. The company was wonderful - I haven't laughed that hard in ages - and the views were amazing.

The Eiffel Tower strobes on the hour for about 10 minutes and our boat was passing right in front of it as it lit up. It was breathtaking.

This is from the upper deck in front of the Eiffel tower. It was such a beautiful night and it was so warm outside.

The cruise lasted a little over 2 hours and went past some amazing sights. Notre Dame was beautiful at night as was the Statue of Liberty. There were lots of people on the river walk partying and dancing as we rode by. Paris is such a party city! We were amazed at how many people were out so late on a Tuesday night. There were lots of students but there were also some dance parties with people our age. It looked like so much fun.

Here's a picture of the Statue of Liberty. The boat was turning around at this point so it came out a little blurry.

Paul bought me some roses as we walked off the boat. We arrived a couple minutes before 10pm and stayed until we all got to see the lights strobe one last time.

It was by far our best night in Paris. The meal was amazing, the view was incredible, and the other couples were so much fun. It made all those sleepless nights that Paul was helping this customer last year worth it.

Orsay Museum

I went to the Musee d' Orsay (Orsay Museum) yesterday with Melba, one of the wives of Paul's coworkers. We had such a wonderful time. There were so many gorgeous paintings and sculptures that we spent 6 hours going through the collection. There was a huge line to get in since the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays but it moved quickly and we were inside in no time at all.

I have always loved Monet so it was a thrill to see Waterlilies up close. We also saw a lot of Cezanne, Degas, Manet, Matisse, Renoir, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec. There were also a couple paintings by Mary Cassatt who is one of my favorites. We had an audio guide in English so it was interesting to hear all the back stories of the different paintings.

This was by far my favorite sculpture by Rodin called The Gates of Hell. It's actually the plaster original for the bronze cast. It depicts a scene from Dante's Inferno and has over 180 figures. It was meant to be the doorway for the museum so it was enormous. I thought it was fascinating to find so many famous sculptures in the door itself including The Thinker and The Kiss. I could have looked at this sculpture for hours.