Day Thirty-Nine
Paris
15 September 2007 23:12

We arrived in Paris early after our “five star” breakfast in a dining car which was, in actuality, two croissants, some toast and juice.

As we already knew our destination and the public transport system getting to the hotel was a piece of cake.  We chose the same hotel as last time as it in a quite area.  A bit out of the way but close to a Metro anyway.

We tried again to hire bikes using an automated machine but just like everywhere else it rejected our credit card.  Instead, we headed off in a random direction.

Soon afer we decided we should go “somewhere”, so headed towards the Bastille monument.  Not super interesting — it’s another tall monument — but a start.

More wandering in the general direction of the Notre Dame lead us onto the “Ile” where we had a Berthillon ice cream from the store itself as it has reopened.  Justine had white chocolate and I had wild strawberry. Both were fantastic.

At the Notre Dame the line to climb the towers was long so we sat in a cafe where a grumpy French lady grabbed the menu from our table as soon as I ordered two drinks; we’d intended on eating there too.  After the drinks we rejoined the line and waited for an hour.

The entry as free (usually 7.50€ each) which was strange but we weren’t complaining.  We climbed, and climbed, saw a view and climbed some more.  At the top is the famous large bell and it’s incredibly thick, about ¾ of a foot.  After the descent we headed into the Latin Quarter where some more wandering lead us to the Pantheon.

It was free too so we eagerly entered and climbed the 200-odd stairs to the top there as well.  The huge pendulum back at the bottom is also cool.  We learned that many Parisian sights are free this weekend so headed to the Arc de Troimphe since it is expensive.

Another few hundred stairs and the view from the Arc is great.  Streets just fan away from the roundabout and the view down the Champs Elysee is very nice.

We decided not to watch amilitary thing which was about to start at the bast of the Arc and instead walked down Champs Elysee.  Part way down we saw a Planet Hollywood and thought it might be fun to eat there,  It wasnt’t “fun ” but the food was OK.  A lady snapped our photo and 20 minutes later came back with a horrible printed copy of it.  The one she had chosen (from the 5 she took) was awful.  It cost 10€.  We turned them down.

At the other end of the Champs Elysee is the Place de la Concorde; I snapped photos while Justine waited patiently.  Sadly none turned out as I’d set something wrong and many were a waste.  After some confusion over the Metro entrance location, we caught 2 trains back to our hotel.

Between the two of us, we stepped on over 4,000 stairs today.  Including the Paris Metro, it might even be as high as 5,000.  I guess we are used to climbing stairs now!

Day Twenty-Eight
Rome
4 September 2007 23:12

Even though we have tickets to cover public transport for the duration of our stay here, the Metro doesn’t quite go where we want today and we don’t have a bus map.  So, we walked.

First, we visited Piazza Colonna, which seems to have a replica of Trajan´s Column.  This lead us further West towards the Tiber on our way to the Pantheon.

Before we reached the Pantheon, we found a clothing outlet selling three piece suits for only 30€!  The suit I tried on was 100% wool but in the end I decided not to buy it.

I did now know the Pantheon had been converted to a church in 608AD so was a tad annoyed to enter such an amazing building and see it “church-ified”.  Still, we were both looking up to see the incredible roof which after 2000 years is still standing.  Just astouding.

After some confusion we found Piazza Navona, which was nice but we didn’t stay long.  Area Sacra was our next destination, it housed 4 2500-year old temples but curiously is now a cat sanctuary with hundreds of cats.  Crazy!

Moving on, we saw the real Trajan’s Column and the markets, as well as the recently discovered Caesar and Augustus Forums which would have been very impressive judging from what we saw.

We next headed to Trevi Fountain which is a huge fountain with hundreds of people chucking in money.  The sheer size of the thing is incredible and surpassed what I expected.  Very cool.

More wandering leads us to the uninteresting Augustus Mausoleum and then to Palazzo di Giustizia.  This was big but not open to us.  Next was the Castel Sant Angelo which is very nice since I wasn’t expecting anything.  We went inside and I kept taking photos much to Justine’s chagrin.  I filled two cards today which I haven’t done in a while.

After emptying the cards we headed out to get some dinner and ended up at a wine bar with tables and chairs literally in the alley.  I had a glass of red (Porcia Rossi or something) and Justine had “champagne”.  Both were good and I will have to rethink my “not a wino” policy.  For food I had a great lasagne and Justine had spinach and ricotta ravioli.  After so much crap Italian food this dinner finally showed us that the food here can actually be good!

So far I have taken 7,567 photos so it looks like I may crack 10,000 by the end of the trip.