This week and a half was probably the most exciting so far. On August 1st, we left Poland and flew to Dusseldorf, Germany. Well, not exactly Dusseldorf, but pretty close. We settled with our friends in Wesel, a suburb about 50 minutes from Dusseldorf Center. So, here goes:
Day 1 (August 1st, Friday) After arriving, we decided to take a short drive to the Netherlands (Holland), to go to huge hot tub, from a natural underground source. It was one of the most relaxing moments of my life, and enjoyed every minute of it.
Day 2 (August 2nd, Saturday)
Today, we visited the town of Xanten, outside of Wesel, famous for its 2 lakes and Roman City ruins. All we really did was visit more friends there, and checked out the lake, where there was a lot of interesting things going on.
Day 3 (August 3rd, Sunday)
Today, we first drove to the actual city of Dusseldorf, for about an hour. It's funny because we asked a guy at a tourist info center what we could do in one hour, and he gave us a booklet and said "Page 23, "Dusseldorf in one Hour", the trail is marked on the map". How interesting. We saw the basics, the rathaus (town hall), the old town, and riverside. After that, we went to the Dusseldorf International Airport (Less than 15 minutes away from where we were), to fly to Paris! When we landed, the first advertisement I saw was this: Luis Vuitonn Handbag: €2,700, Lafayette Jacket: €3,570, Courir Pants: €5,000, Keeping Up With Fashion: Priceless. Probably the best Master Card commercial yet. Today we didn't visit Paris, instead we visited our friends in the town of L'isle Adam, which in French means, The Island of Adam, or Adam's Island. We just walked around the small town, and learned the history of the city. At their house, we just rested, and got ready for the next day.
Day 4 (August 4th, Monday)
Today, after waking up and having breakfast, we went to straight to Paris, only about 30 minutes away, we drove through its many tunnels, and finally arrived near the Eiffel Tower, where we were fighting for parking spots for almost half an hour. After finally getting a spot, quite close to the Tower, we went to it. The next few moments were simply just looking at all of the people in line, there were 5 lines, 4 for the elevator, and 1 for the stairs. The lines for each elevator were about 3 or more hours long, and the line for the stairs up was about an hour and a half up. That was only for the second floor, there were still two more floors above where I don't even know (and don't want to know) how long the lines were. We just decided not to to go on the tower, it wouldn't be worth it. So next after lunch, we took a boat taxi through Paris's Seine River. After arriving at Notre Dame station, we got off, and saw the Notre Dame, but we didn't go up the tower since the lines were ridiculously long. After walking around the area of Paris we were in, we saw many various attractions such as the Hotel de Ville (Town Hall), Centre Pompidou, and the streets of Paris. After returning to the Eiffel Tower on the water taxi, we went to the car to go up the hill, Montmarte (427 feet tall), and saw an AMAZING view of Paris, and the church, Sacré Cœur (Meaning "Sacred Heart"). The inside of the church was just a large circular room with many side chapels. Before leaving Montmarte and Paris, we had dinner at a restaurant near the Sacré Cœur, with very fast service. At home we relaxed, for another exciting day to come.
Day 5 (August 5th, Tuesday)
Today, we first went to a small village called Auvers, where Van Gogh used to live and died, but the day we visited, the Museum was closed, so we visited Van Gogh's gravesite instead. After that, we went to Versailles, the Royal Palace of French Kings. Well, not anymore. Today it is a huge museum that you can visit, and see the rooms where French Royalty lived and worked. After the long line, we went in to see many of the various rooms, including the famed Hall Of Mirrors, and the King and Queen's Bedrooms. After the museum closed (We came late to avoid long lines), we decided to stop by the Gardens, which are larger than Central Park in New York City. They were HUGE, and you could see a long canal going right through the middle. What a backyard. I could just imagine living in Royalty in France. After Versailles, we drove to Paris, to see it by night. Before we did anything, we drove to Champs-Elysess (Paris's most famous street), and had dinner at a restaurant called George V. By the time we finished, it was already starting to get dark. We went to the Arc De Triomphe nearby, to take some pictures, and then took a stroll down Champs-Ulysess, passing by many big fashion stores, and seeing a €2,700 handbag (Almost $4,000). The coolest thing we saw, was in the Toyota store. There was a really nice prototype convertible car, which looked like this. After walking down far enough, and seeing enough stores (including 3 McDonalds'), we went back to the Arc De Triomphe, to get the view from the top. I have to say, it was incredible, and probably definetly better than the view from the Eiffel Tower. The half hour we were up there flew by quickly, and they pushed us out as the Arc De Triomphe began closing. One last thing before we left Paris, we drove through La Defense, Paris' Business District. It was quite interesting, with all of the highrises, and the whole district was on an elevated highway type road. It resembled downtown Boston at night. By the time we were back in L'isle Adam, it was almost Midnight, and we slept extra long to prepare for the next day in Paris.
Day 6 (August 6th, Wednesdays)
Today we slowly woke up, and stayed on L'isle Adam for a while, but later in the day, at around noon, we went to the Louvre. There is too much to talk about the Louvre, because there are thousands, of pieces of art there (a book said 130,000 pieces of art inside the Louvre, and 35,000 are displayed), and each and every one of them had their own stories. All I can say is that in the Mona Lisa room, looking at the people in the room was more interesng than the painting itself. If you wanted to take a picture, you have to push through the crowd, and you have 5 seconds to take pictures, which will generally be blurred, and you'll be quickly be pulled by more people so they can see it. After leaving the Louvre, we took a short driving tour around Paris, but when rush hour traffic kicked in, we just drove back to L'isle Adam, where we spent the rest of the day, exhausted from the day.
Day 7 (August 7th, Thursday)
Today was our last day in Paris, so we first visited Auvers today to visit the Van Gogh Museum. It wasn't too exciting, but it was still interesting to visit the room where Van Gogh died. The small museum didn't have any Van Gogh Paintings yet, and they were planning to buy one, but just didn't have the money. Back in L'isle Adam, after saying our goodbyes, we went to the Airport to fly back to Dusseldorf. By the time we were in Wesel, it was around 10PM, so we decided to sleep.
Day 8 (August 8th, Friday)
Today, we just decided to relax, by staying in Wesel. For lunch w went to a small German fast food restaurant, and in the afternoon, we visited the hot tub complex in Holland again, for more relaxation. And after that, we just went back to Wesel and relaxed. Today was just the perfect day to relax.
Day 9 (August 9th, Saturday)
Today was another exciting day, because we visited the city of Amsterdam, on a german tour bus, after the 3 hour drive, we were in Amsterdam. We first went on a boat tour through Amsterdam's canal complex, and after that, we were on our own. We walked through the streets of Amsterdam. We saw many interesting things, most notably cannabis "coffee shops". Since Marijuana isn't illegal to sell in Holland, people buy it at these coffee shops and can smoke it there and only there. The streets with the Coffee shops smelled horrible, but we had to deal with it. At about 6 o' clock, we returned to the bus, to go back to Wesel. Back at Wesel, it was 8, so we just had dinner had talked about the day adventures.
Day 10 (August 10th, Sunday)
Today we first went to a chinese buffet in Xanten, and then visited Xanten's Roman Ruins. It was a quick day since the Ruins were basically empty. Today was just another day of relaxation.
Day 11 (August 11th, Monday)
Today, we simply just drove to the Airport, and flew back to Poland, where we spent the rest of the day in relaxation.
August 12th - 17th
This week was spent in Bydgoszcz relaxing. The only thing we did was watch a movie on Wednesday, and visit Gniezno (Poland's first capital), and friends in the country of Poland on Friday.
August 18th (Today)
Today, I'm just finishing up this blog entry, and getting ready to go to Warsaw, where we'll be spending the last day in Poland in a hotel, and tomorrow, I'll be flying back to the USA.
Once Again, sorry for no pictures.
I hope you enjoyed these blog entries and learned something new from tracking my trip. For now, I'm on a break.
