Day 316: Paris, Day 6--Musee d'Orsay

Originally, we had planned to go to the Musee d'Orsay today. However, we slept in a bit later than we thought we would, so we made a last-minute change of plans to go to the Musee National de l'Orangerie, which is in Les Jardin de Tulierries. So we took the Metro there (Line 1, as usual) again. The area around the garden is so photogenic: all sorts of monuments and palaces as well as a great view of La Tour Eiffel. It's all unbelievably beautiful. When we got to the Musee National de l'Orangerie, however, we discovered it was closed on Tuesdays; it was my fault that I didn't read that more carefully. So we talked about what to do. I still wanted to make use of our six-day Paris Museum Pass in some way. Therefore, we decided to go to the Musee d'Orsay after all. As we started our walk, we noticed two young bearish guys making out with each other in front of the museum. Ah, l'amour a Paris!!!!  :)

It wasn't that far to walk to the Musee d'Orsay--about 10 minutes or so. First there was a security line to get into, but it wasn't that long, and our museum passes got us in. We got there around 4 pm or so, about two hours before closing. The Musee d'Orsay was once a railway station, but it's amazing on the inside, with a very pretty clock and all kinds of sculptures that adorn the outside of the building itself. It is contains one of the largest collections of Impressionist art in the world; it focuses on French art from 1848-1914. It's not as gigantic as Le Louvre, but it's pretty fulsome.

We began by deciding to start the Rick Steves walk for this museum. We saw the following:

• Many French sculptures (done in Greek style)
• Ingres, La Source (and others by Ingres, who fascinates me....)
• Cabanel, La Naissance de Venus

For the sake of time, we then deviated from the Steves tour a bit and skipped to the Impressionists on the 5th floor. Here we saw these artworks/artists, who were not organized in any particular way:

• Manet, Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe (my personal favorite!)
• Many sculptures and paintings by Degas...lots of dancers (La Classe de Dance) but also ordinary scenes (like Dans un Cafe)
• Monet's works
• Renoir (Garcon au Chat, which Kerry loved, and Bal du Moulin de la Galette, which is very colorful)
• Cezanne (Les Joueurs de Cartes)
• Pissarro
• Sisley
• At least one by Cassatt

It was getting late at this point, but we decided to go to the 2nd floor and see some Post-Impressionists. Here's some of what we saw there:

• Van Gogh (La Chambre de Van Gogh a Arles; Midday, La Meridienne; Potrait de l'Artiste; portraits of the Gachet family)
• Several paintings by Gaugin (I love his colors!)

Then they began to usher us out, so we went to the museum store. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. We got a few things....again for ourselves and others. I don't think I'll need to do much Christmas shopping this year.

Once we left the museum, we saw some interesting things. There was a piano player performing outside. At one point, a young woman got up to sing "At Last" with him playing piano. A crowd sitting on the museum steps watched. Also, we saw a man whom I assumed was crazy begin to mimic people he saw, such as a skateboarder, children running around, or people walking. It then occurred to me that he might be a mime, in the grand Parisian tradition of Marcel Marceau. After all, he wasn't saying anything. Still, he unsettled me, and I tried to avoid him as best I could as he chased children around the museum steps while they shrieked with laughter. This, I thought, would not go over well in the USA.

Because we were a bit desperate for cheap food after the souvenir shopping, we walked to McDonald's. Tragic error. We tried to use their machine for ordering, and it wouldn't take any of our credit cards. We ran into another American woman who said she'd had similar problems. Then when we ordered, the young man behind the counter didn't seem to understand us too well, either in English or French. Kerry's order, in particular, seemed to take forever. I decided to check out les toilettes. I walked down two flights of stairs only to see a line for a unisex toilet area. And apparently I had to point a metal coin that they gave me into some dispenser on the outside to use the toilet. Fortunately, I didn't have to do this, because I ran in there when some other person was leaving. There was paper all over the floor of the stall, a crushed plastic bottle of soap thrown haphazardly on the sink, and no dryer or paper towels. DISGUSTING. As bad a China bathrooms, or even worse.

After eating our food (amazingly, they gave us ice in our drinks when we asked), we head to the subway. And, for the first time, it was a problem. Apparently Line 1 was shut down due to a malfunction with one of the trains. People just waited and waited for the subway to come. We waited 30 minutes; it never happened. So we decided to use an Uber. Thank God for phones and data. Kerry ordered one and it came in 3 minutes and took us to the hotel. Yes, it was 12 euros, but by that point it was worth it.

So this day was full of surprises, good and bad. Tomorrow I think we'll try to go back to the Orangerie Museum; it's the last day of our 6-day museum pass. And then Thursday....most likely that will be a day off to do laundry.

Musee d'Orsay

Interior window of Musee d'Orsay

Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe by Manet

Portrait de l'Artiste by Van Gogh

La Classe de Danse by Degas

Day 315: Paris, Day 5--Cathedrale de Notre Dame, Saint-Chapelle, Conciergie

Originally, we planned just to go to Notre Dame today and explore it in and out. However, things didn't quite work out that way, but it's okay. We learned that sometimes being a bit adventurous is a good thing.

We went to Notre Dame in the afternoon....quite a long line to get into the cathedral, and our Paris Museum Paris really didn't give us any access privileges at all. It was lovely from the outside and free to get in, so we just wandered around. I noticed that each section of the interior of the cathedral was devoted to a particular saint; they even had one for Joan of Arc, which I thought was great. Plenty of votive candles and paintings abounded, including scenes of the resurrected Jesus in the choir. Of course, there was rose-shaped stained glass as well, and we were impressed by the size of it all. However, ultimately we concluded that we were more impressed by the cathedrals in Prague, especially St. Vitus Cathedral. Perhaps our feelings were influenced by the fact that, by the time we got outside, we learned that we couldn't do the tour of the upper floors with the gargoyles, as we had hoped to with the Paris Museum Paris. It turns out that you have to use the (not well-marked) kiosk to sign up for this tour on the day of, or use an app on your phone. There were all ready 517 people in line ahead of us according to the app, and two people told us there would be no more entries that day, so we gave up.

It was about 4 pm at that point, so we decided to use our passes elsewhere. I noticed that the pass guide book said that Saint-Chapelle was open, so we went there; it was close by. We first stopped at a souvenir store along the way that actually had some cheap, good stuff. At Saint-Chapelle itself, the line wasn't long for security (and security was a bit tight...they made us take phones and wallets out of our pockets, and they didn't even do this at the Louvre..). And the pass was an advantage for us; we got to bypass the long line to get in of about 100 people and walk straight to the front. Go Paris Museum Passes!  For once, they did save us time. On the main floor of Saint-Chapelle, I wasn't overly impressed--some stained glass and a statue of Louis IX, but that was about it. I noted in one of my guidebooks that it was built in the 13th century, from 1242 to 1248, and that it was almost torn down at one point. Once we ascended the stairs, though, WOW. Totally different impression. The stained glass there was AMAZING. The room was surrounded by it, and it was quite a sight to behold.

We still had time afterwards to go to the Conciergie. On the way, we made an accidental detour to the Cour d'Appel, which looked like it had a palace gate from the outside. I found this out only by asking a young woman smoking a cigarette on the steps (en Francais, of course). She explained to me what it was, and then asked if I spoke English...which I guess is a good sign that my French is serviceable.

The Conciergie was a medieval prison during the French Revolution; it is where Marie Antionette spent her last days. The place was quite dark and foreboding, not surprisingly. It seemed mostly like a museum about the French Revolution and the way that prisoners were treated at the Conciergie. The last major room was about Marie Antoinette: it contained a chapel of reflection on her and some items from her life, including a dress she wore at the Conciergie and even a lock of her hair (encased in paper). They were shooing us out by the end, though, because it was 6 pm and time for the place to close.

We went to a place called Cafe Sarah Bernhardt for dinner. And we FINALLY had a really good dinner--I had tartare with fries and a good side salad; Kerry had andouille sausage. For dessert, I had three scoops of coffee ice cream and Kerry had chocolate cake. Very, very tasty and not too insanely expensive for Paris, either (60 euros in all).

Afterwards, we walked to a gay bookstore called Les Mots a la Bouche: lots of stuff here--mostly French books, graphic novels, porn, and even some English texts. I asked the sales clerk if they had 2019 calendars (in French!), but they did not. (I will admit, though, that I couldn't fully understand the torrent of French he replied to me with. But I got the jist of his message.)

We then took Le Metro home. We don't have to buy tickets each time now since we bought books of 10 (each) the other day. The problem is that you have to use one ticket each way, so they'll be gone in 5 days. But, it's cheaper than buying a ticket for each ride (1,40 euro vs. 1,90 euro). Overall, I do like Le Metro a lot: it's easy to follow, cheap, clean, and neat. The only problem is that on our last couple rides there have been beggars (with signs, oddly enough); they good things is that they haven't bothered me or Kerry so far. Hopefully they assume we don't speak French.

A productive day overall. Tomorrow, we'll tackle Le Musee d'Orsay.

Notre Dame

A window from Saint-Chapelle

Day 314: Paris, Day 4--Musee National Picasso

Our major accomplishment of the day was going to the Picasso Museum, on the other side of the city. We noticed that several stations on Line 1 of the Metro were closed due to the Tour de France. However, this worked to our benefit, because the subway did not stop at those lines. I was still struggling a bit to figure out Le Metro; by mistake, I submitted yesterday's ticket in the second entrance gate, but one guy was kind enough to swipe his card on my behalf. (People in the subway have so far been very nice here and willing to help out.) The Metro was quite crowded, but not QUITE as bad as Shanghai. Not yet, anyway...

Once we got off at our stop (Saint-Paul, interestingly enough), we had to walk about eight minutes to get there. The museum is at a hotel called the Hotel Sale. Today was the final day of an exhibition on Guernica. Sadly, they did not have the original painting (I asked...it's still in Spain), but it was interesting to learn a lot of background and context on the painting itself: we got to see a lot of sketches on it as well as his paintings that inspired it as well. This part of the exhibition was on floor 0--the ground floor--but then we decided to be weird and go to the basement--doing things a bit out of order. I wasn't too impressed with the items in the basement. Many of them had to do with the architecture of the museum itself and how it was designed by design students; they also were having a special exhibition on this floor on Diego Giacometti, which didn't interest me much. Oddly enough, while we were milling around on this floor, they asked for our tickets again; I really didn't understand the rationale for this, but I complied. Even though there were signs around saying that the 2nd and 3rd floor exhibitions were closed, we went up anyway. We had much better luck there. We started with the 2nd floor, which was called "Picasso's Picassos," and then went to the 3rd, which was "Pablo Picasso's donation: The Artist's Own Collection." The rooms tended to be organized thematically, such as one room on women, one on children, one on landscapes, one on cubism, one on surrealism, and even one on a play he did the set design for called Parade (1917). They showed a film representation of the play, which was pretty interesting. It's interesting to note that his private collection had some from artists such as Matisse and Gaugin. Once we finished the 2nd and 3rd floors, we decided to finish the one on Guernica. One room showed the progression of Guernica as documented by his inspiration, Dora Maar (I didn't know she was a photographer, and she took a lot of photos of his creating it). Near the end of the exhibit on Guernica, they showed modern representations of the painting by other artists.

Upon leaving, as usual, we went our way through the gift shop, but controlled ourselves: we're sticking mostly to purchasing things like postcards, pens, bookmarks, and magnets for ourselves and others. Then we went back on the Metro--and got there pretty quickly. I do have to say I'm impressed overall by Le Metro, still. We dropped off our stuff at the hotel and then walked about a block to get some subs from Subway--and they actually had ice!!!  And the meal we got--two combos--wasn't bad, and neither was the price (about 18 euros). So we did well with the budget today.

Tomorrow, I think we'll try to go to Notre Dame Cathedral.

Day 313: Paris, Day 3--Musee Rodin, Hotel des Invalides, Napoleon's Tomb

Before beginning this entry, I wanted to point out that we decided to try the breakfast buffet at our hotel. Once again, we were disappointed with the food. The scrambled eggs were great, but their offerings were less than half of what they had in Prague, and this buffet was 13 euros!  So high prices with subpar quality seems to be a theme of Parisian food thus far. On the plus side, I left one of my Paris guides behind at the breakfast table, but they saved it for us at the hotel desk (Kerry went back to get it).

Today we decided to explore the Musee Rodin (the Rodin Museum). It was in a beautiful hotel; apparently, when he died, Rodin left all his works to France, that this museum is the result. We used our Paris Museum Passes to get in; they're becoming very handy these days. Almost as soon as we walked in, we spotted The Thinker outside and took quite a few pics. We also saw his piece The Gates of Hell (based on Dante) in this sculpture garden. After viewing some of these outside works, we went in. It's a two-floor museum.  The ground floor contains Rodin's early works; the second floor is organized more thematically, and contains some works by his contemporaries (including Camille Claudel, Van Gogh). The second floor also includes his collection of Greek antiquities and some recent photos inspired by his work. On the first floor, I got to see the very famous The Kiss sculpture. There were others that stood out for me as well, including one called Children Embracing. I discovered that I tend to prefer his sculptures, especially those with a lot of movement, to his paintings. The sculptures of heads also didn't do much for me; I found this was true at Le Louvre for me as well. We popped in at the "boutique" before leaving the building, and then traveled around the garden with sculptures some more. They had an enclosure of marble sculptures here, and larger versions of some of the smaller ones inside. I liked one of the last ones we saw, which was a memorial to Victor Hugo. He seemed to do a lot of works of Hugo and Balzac.  Overall, the museum gave me a fuller appreciation of the man's talent; I can't think of a more individually talented sculptor.

Afterwards, Kerry and I went to the Hotel des Invalides, a gorgeous building, to see the tomb of Napoleon. We walked through security, which had huge guards with even bigger machine guns. The main building we walked into was like a cathedral, with a dome-like ceiling, tombs from famous French soldiers and Napoleon's relatives all around, and then, looking down at the floor beneath, we could see Napoleon's tomb itself. Apparently all five layers of the tomb contain his fragments. It's quite elaborate.

We didn't stay long because we were hungry, so we tried the nearby Cafe du Musee. The waiter, who did not smile, made it abundantly clear that the nicest plates (like the steak tartare) were no longer being served. "Mangez?" he asked. (I remember the other restaurant asked this too...apparently they want to know if you're there to eat or just to drink, maybe?)  So we just ended up having ham and cheese sandwiches, french fries, goat cheese, and some drinks (non-alcoholic). The sandwiches were crap--they looked like they had been thrown together in two seconds. However, the fries and cheese were really good. I also like that they served french bread gratis with the meal. Total cost: 33 euros, much cheaper than the cheeseburgers we had. It wasn't great, but it sufficed. So far, I must say I'm disappointed greatly with the quality and cost of Parisian food. It seems like you have to pay a lot for basic crap; I guess I'm just used to much cheaper prices in China....or even in Prague!

On the way home, we stopped for water and Magnum bars. Tomorrow, we will probably go to the Picasso Museum; we found an ad on the subway that said they're having an exhibit about Guernica...which made me wonder....will they show the piece itself?  We will find out.

The Thinker

Gates of Hell

Me at the Hotel des Invalides

Napoleon's tomb

Day 312: Paris, Day 2--Le Louvre

Today we went to Le Louvre--at Kerry's suggestion! It was pretty easy getting there via Le Metro--just six stops down on Line 1. The Metro was neat and clean, as I remembered it, with nice cushy striped seats. It's less crowded than the Shanghai subway, not surprisingly. Once we got there, we entered into the mall beneath Le Louvre, which I didn't remember from before. This led us to the museum itself. We saw an inside entry point, but we were told that we had to go OUTSIDE near the pyramid if we wanted priority entrance with the Paris Museum Pass, which we did. It was very hot out; but the architecture outside was stunning. Just a precursor for what was inside the museum. Amazingly enough, the line was only about 5 seconds long, and security was a cakewalk: they didn't even make me take my phone out of my pocket or drink water out of my water bottle, as they do at the Shanghai Museum. Very relaxed security, it seemed.

So then we started on our journey. We used the Rick Steves book as a guide. I'm not going to mention EVERYTHING we saw--that would be impossible--and I'm sure we covered only about 20% of the museum. Here are some of the highlights (mostly Medieval, Italian, and French paintings, with some Greek and Roman sculptures), in the approximate order we saw them in:

• Michelangelo, Slaves
• Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People
• Gericault, The Raft of the Medusa
• Leonardo, Mona Lisa (surrounded by AT LEAST 200 people shooting pictures!!)
• Veronese, The Marriage at Cana
• Ingres, La Grande Odalisque
• David, The Coronation of Napoleon and Oath of the Horatii
• Raphael, La Belle Jardiniere
• Leonardo, The Virgin and Child with St. Anne
• Cimbaue, The Madonna and Child in Majesty
• Giotto, St. Francis of Assisi
• Mantegna, St. Sebastian
• Botticelli, Frescoes
• Winged Victory
• Pre-Classical Greek statues
• Venus de Milo
• Gallery of Greek statues
• Parthenon Friezes
• Roman statues (mostly emperors, mostly heads)

It was a very full afternoon. We stopped at one point to have dejeuner in a cafe there (tres cher--about 40 euros for sandwiches, chips, and drinks). And once we were done, we popped in at McDonald's to have more drinks and sandwiches (15 euros!--which is about 17 dollars--insane!). We also got some Louvre souvenirs--small things, gifts. The Metro passageway was malfunctioning a bit on the way back; it wasn't accepting our ticket. So people just walked through the "out" way and no one noticed or said anything. Pretty easy return, otherwise. Just a little bit of rain coming home.

All in all, it was not just a fun day, but one I'll probably never forget.

One of Michaelangelo's Slaves

Mona Lisa and her famous smile

The Winged Victory

The Venus de Milo

Liberty Leading the People

Day 311: Paris, Day 1--L'Arc de Triomphe

Our major accomplishment of the day was going to L'Arc de Triomphe, which is fairly close to us, so we walked there. When we came upon the monument, we noticed that it is surrounded by a HUGE traffic circle. Crossing the street to get there was impossible, but we noticed a sign leading us underground. So we went through this passageway underground to get to the other side. We got to take a close look at the details, including all the names on the monument, who were French soldiers. According to Wikipedia, there are 660 names there. We also saw sculptures there of Napoleon and La Marseillaise, which shows a winged woman leading soldiers into battle. There's also a tomb of an unknown soldier there, with flowers surrounding the tomb and a flame (which gets relit every day at 6:30 pm). We decided to brave the walk up to the top of the monument, so we bought tickets (12 euros) to do so. Oh man, what a walk!  About 250 stops to the top. We had to stop and catch our breath--twice. But we had a beautiful view once we got there: we even saw the Eiffel Tower!  After looking around a bit, we checked out the gift shop a couple floors down, and then completed our sortie (exit). We went back through the same passageway that we used to get there, and we got back to our original side of the street.

Then we decided to seek out something to eat. We ended up at a place called Le Vin Coeur. It was okay overall: the burgers were decent, but nothing to brag about, but I did like their chocolate mousse. It was very dark and rich. I noticed that most everyone ate outside in 95 degree heat, which I thought was odd. They put a fan on us for awhile, but then removed it away from our direction early in the meal. Our primary waiter was pretty good for the most part and seemed to understand my French. So the rumor about horrible service in France was at least partially proven untrue for me. However, the meal was VERY expensive, so we will have to eat more cheaply tomorrow.

It's supposed to be 97 degrees tomorrow here, but we're going to try to go to The Louvre. Hope it works out!

A replaced portion of the victory goddess

L'Arc de Triomphe

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Paris

Day 310: Another Travelling Day--Prague to Paris

So today was a travelling day; therefore, not a lot of monumentally interesting things happened. We had our last breakfast at the Clarion in Prague, which was of course good. Then we packed, checked out, left our bags there for awhile, and just went to the local McDonald's to hang out. Before doing so, we perused the fruit and vegetable market across from the hotel a bit. They also sold meat and a couple other things; it was kind of like a farmer's market in the USA, only with some things I hadn't seen before.

Most of the day went off without a hitch. The hotel ordered a taxi for us; the driver was nice and we had no problems getting there. The check-in at the airport--including the security--was easy and fast. The airport wasn't crowded at all, totally the opposite of the Dublin airport. Even the paninis we got in a coffee shop were good. The only problem was that Czech Air made Kerry check his carry-on; they said it was too big. He grumbled about that, but I wasn't completely surprised because he does have a big carry-on. Oddly enough, when we got to the gate, the asked me to volunteer to check my carry-on (this time for free) as well. I obliged.

The flight worked out well, too. It took off on time and got in 30 minutes early. Comfortable seats, quiet people, no problems. And our luggage came in fast. We were able to find a taxi easily (50 euros, but worth it). And checked in. Behind the counter in our hotel, we saw an African man, an Indian woman, and a Chinese man. What a mix! The Indian woman was the kindest to me and explained, with a map, how we could find a local ATM. We were a bit chagrined to discover that breakfast is NOT free, like it said in Google: it's 13 euros per breakfast. Not sure it will be worth it.

We nibbled on some snacks after we got settled in the (small) room and then ventured out to find the ATM. Actually, we found one very close on our own, which was good. Thanks to Google Maps, we also located a laundromat and a convenience store. TONS of restaurants around, and people were outside eating, drinking wine, and smoking at 10:30 pm. Even the Subway was open. No major rudeness so far.

Tomorrow we'll do something easy--probably go to the L'Arc de Triomphe because it is so close to us. Then we'll see.

Day 309: Prague, Day 5

Today we got off to a bit of a late start again. We had breakfast, but my feet were killing me. So we waited a bit before going to the St. Agnes of Bohemia Convent. We had an Uber take us there; again, it was a success with no problem. At the Convent, they had a special collection from the National Gallery of Bohemian Art from 1300-1600. We spent almost 3 hours perusing over the beautiful sculptures and paintings. Not surprisingly, most of them were religious in nature: Madonna and Child, depictions of Christ, etc. Several were of the execution of St. Barbara.  I'm not sure if we were supposed to take pictures, but we took as many as we could when security staff were not milling around. I bought a couple postcards afterwards.

To save a bit of money, we ended up having dinner at a KFC in a mall. They actually gave us quite a lot more than we bargained for and we couldn't finish it all. We had some frozen yogurt in the mall for dessert: I had pistachio-flavored, but the candies in the yogurt were too hard for me to chew. Perhaps I am getting old. Anyway, after finishing, we got another Uber home--it's worked very well for us here.

In the evening, we just did some packing. Tomorrow will be a travel day; we have a 5:30 pm flight to Paris. Hopefully, there won't be crazy delays as with Ryanair. I already checked us in online, so all we have to do is print out the boarding pass.

All in all, I liked Prague. I think the nicest surprises were the beauty of the city (mainly its architecture) and the kindness of the people (everyone spoke English, no one was rude to us).  It helped that we had great weather.

Day 308: Prague, Day 4

So the day started out kind of boring. We had breakfast (which is great here, btw), took a bit of a nap, and then we went to do laundry. It turns out there's a laundromat about 5 minutes from our hotel. So we went there to wash and dry our clothes: it cost 110 crowns to wash, 120 to dry (for 48 minutes). (Just so you know, 230 crowns is about $10.42 in all total, which isn't bad compared to what the hotel laundry charged.) Also--it was nice that there was detergent there free to use, so we didn't have to pay for that.

One funny laundry story: an old woman came in and started talking to us in Czech. We just held up our arms and shook our heads to indicate that we didn't understand her. She shouted "Hello" in the back. She obviously didn't get what she wanted because she started talking to us. "Brothers?" she asked. We just smiled and agreed; it was easier than telling the truth. She tried talking to us a bit in English, gave up, and then blew us several kisses (!!!!) before she left. It was cool that she didn't try to hit us up for money; she apparently just wanted some conversation.

When done, we brought our folded and clean laundry back to the hotel, packed it, and then got ready for our day's adventures (finally).

We decided to walk to the Old Town area of Prague. Once we got to the square, I had to have a pic with a panda bear, and the polar bear from the other day was there again. So were Mickey and Minnie Mouse, for some inexplicable reason, but no one was paying attention to them. We did sort of a compressed version of the Rick Steves walking tour of Old Town, beginning with the Jan Hus memorial. Jan Hus was a religious reformer in Prague; "a symbol of nationalism," according to Steves. It was quite a marvelous statue, with him flanked by his followers. We gazed around at all the buildings in Old Town Square, which had all types of architectural styles. These included the Church of St. Nicholas, the Kinsky Palace (red and tan), and the Tyn Church. The famous Astronomical Clock could not be viewed because they were renovating the clock tower. Bummer. We could see the clock at the very top, but that was it. We took a detour into the "Museum of Sex Machines," which included silent pornographic films from the 1920s and sexual devices from the last century or so of all shapes, sizes, and predilictions. I won't go into detail here other than to say it seemed like most of them were female-oriented (such as vibrators for women) and I was surprised at the number of people there considering that the museum wasn't on any of the maps or tour guides.

When we left the museum, we headed for the Charles Street Bridge. It was beautiful, with Catholic statues abounding, but it was very touristy and claustrophobic. Lots of artists milling around: caricature artists, watercolor artists, etc. It reminded me of Taipei, a bit. Amazing views of the river and the city from the bridge, though.

Soon after crossing the bridge, we found a place to eat. It was called the Residence U Cerneho Orla. A small but fancy place, it seemed to be run by an old gentleman with white hair; I really didn't see anyone else milling around except a small old woman (presumably his wife?). Kerry and I split the beef carpaccio; it was good but quite small. I had the lamb with garlic mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts. It turns out that their lamb is homemade, and I believe it because it was quite good!  Kerry liked his pork dish, too, with soft egg, broccoli, mashed potatoes, and brown gravy. Good food, but I liked the dishes from the previous night better. We went for ice cream after at this place that was selling black-and-white soft serve cones with an Oreo cookie placed in. Everyone here, by the way, seems to eat ice cream ALL DAY LONG. I swear I saw 30 people eating ice cream today, from early afternoon to evening. People here eat ice cream as much as people in Ireland drink beer.

We ended the day with another Uber; no problems with the ride. Good times overall.

A panda picture in Old Town Square

Great views from Charles Street Bridge

Example of buildings in Old Town Square

Day 307: Prague, Day 3

During Day 3, we went to the Prague Castle Complex. We took a taxi out there because it was a bit of a walk--the hotel called the taxi for us. When we got there, it was quite a sight to behold. There's this archway flanked by two stoic guards, similar to Buckingham Palace in London. Oddly enough, though, we had to enter on the side and avoid the guards altogether. We walked into the second courtyard and I saw that they had an art exhibition there, so of course I wanted to check it out. I ended up taking some pictures of some Italian Renaissance art as well as a couple Reubens paintings in spite of the fact that an old woman was yelling "No photo! No photo!" at me. Next, we went to the St. Vitus Cathedral, which was really the highlight of the entire complex for me. Gorgeous stained glass, statues, and just an overall ornate display of centuries-old art. It included the Tomb of Wenceslas at the very end. The Old Royal Palace was interesting, but it really didn't have that much inside, other than the "Czech Office," where two Catholic governors were thrown out the window in 1618 (according to Steves): an act called "denefestration." Vladislav Hall was 200 feet long; it and the Diet Hall had nice Gothic architecture. But on the whole the Palace paled in comparison to the Cathedral. We briefly perused the Basilica of St. George, a Romanesque church containing the remains of Ludmilla, St. Wenceslas's grandmother. Next we went to the VERY crowded Golden Lane with lots of brief peeks into history. My favorite was a place where Franz Kafka used to live; we stopped in there briefly as they now sell Kafka's books. After going through the Lane, we briefly went underground to a medieval prison, which included an iron maiden and other lovely torture devices.

The next problem we had, though, was getting home. We walked and walked trying to figure a way back; it turns out that we had to walk our way all the way back to the beginning of the complex and then walk down hundreds of steps to leave. No signage for any of this. Kerry tried to order us an Uber--twice--but they cancelled on us twice. So we gave up for awhile and decided to have dinner at a very empty Italian place called Pivo and Basilico. BEST FOOD SO FAR IN EUROPE. Wonderful caprese salad, spectacular lasagna, and a fantastic apple strudel for dessert!!  I love how the waiter spoke English, and he even asked a couple near us, "Do you prefer English or Russian?"  Can you imagine anyone asking a question like that in America?  I think not.  

We finally did manage to get an Uber home, and it worked out well. The nice thing about Uber is that you can pay for it out of your credit card account, even the tip, and there's no hassle and no negotiating.  I hope we can use it in Paris and Berlin as well.

St. Vitus Cathedral

A tomb in St. Vitus Cathedral

The entrance to Prague Castle

Days 305-306: Prague, Days 1 and 2

I'll be honest: we didn't do much our first day in Prague. We've been feeling sick and, after that horrible travelling day, we just wanted to sleep in. So all we really did was go have dinner at KFC. It was actually cheaper than the lunch we had at the Dublin airport. After dinner, we looked around the area a bit. Noticed a Thai restaurant, a sushi place, and some vegetarian restaurants. One convenience store sold bongs and cannabis gummi bears. Far out!  One thing I notice so far is that everyone speaks English to us automatically. Maybe we look like we're not from around these here parts.  And the English is good: not great, but I can understand people, which is nice. It's less stressful and challenging for English speakers than China is, that's for sure.

On the second full day, we were much more productive. We decided, first of all, to eat the breakfast that the hotel offered. And it was surprisingly better than we thought it would be: it offered not only scrambled eggs, but cottage cheese (yay!), and lots of other protein options, such as bavarian sausages and even liver.  Quite tasty. Later on, we decided to follow the Wenceslas Square Walk in the Rick Steves guidebook to Prague that we purchased. It was pretty accurate, overall. We started at the statue of Duke Wenceslas, glanced over at the National Museum and the Communist Era Building (which Steves describes as an "ugly" modern structure...not sure I agree). As we were walking, I learned what a place of revolutionary history the square was. There was a memorial to the victims of 1969 who set themselves on fire, and we saw the balcony at which the Velvet Revolution took place, which allowed the Czech people to free themselves from communism. I also admired the beautiful Grand Hotel Europa. I think my favorite thing on this walk was a funny statue in the Lucerna Arcade, which showed an upside-down statue of Wenceslas on a horse!  We traversed over to the Svetozor Mall, then the Franciscan Garden (with some flowers, but not many...very few rosebushes in bloom), and then we ended up in Jungmann Square where we walked over to the end of Wenceslas Square. That was a crowded, busy area with a touristy souvenir store, a dancing polar bear who preened for photo ops (including one with me), and a silver-painted Oliver Hardy who made himself look like a statue (Kerry had a photo taken with him).

We then walked back to the hotel and had dinner at Deminka, a bar/restaurant nearby. Kerry and I both had a "steak" (which was more like roast beef), covered in a sweet sauce and a side of bread on the plate. We also sampled the fried cheese with potatoes and served with tartar sauce. Both dishes were quite good!

I was pretty tired from all the walking and have a feeling that my resistance will be worn down for the tour of Prague Castle...tomorrow.

The Grande Hotel Europa

Upside-down statue of Wenceslas's horse ride

Me with a dancing bear!

Day 304: Travelling Day

Today not much happened except travelling....and more travelling. We first ate breakfast in the hotel, which was like most Irish breakfasts we've had here: tomatoes, Irish sausages, and white and black Irish pudding. Plus a lot of water and tissues for our ailing selves. Then we picked up our laundry, got showered and packed, and we were off to the Dublin airport. Kerry made good time and got us there early--it took about 2.5 hours. We handed in our rental car and took the shuttle to the airport with no problems at all. But then the fun began. We went to the Ryanair area only to find out that we were supposed to have our boarding passes ready in advance. How we were supposed to know this, I do not know. We were told by the ticket agent that if we get the boarding pass now, it would cost 55 euros each. And, oh yes, the checked bags cost 50 euros each. To her credit, the ticket agent was able to locate my online info (because I did process some of our information online in advance), but I thought the checked bag price was asinine. We then went through security, in which EVERYTHING had to go into these huge grey containers, and the security agent told me I had to have my boarding pass in my personal item, and then proceeded to shove it in to my bag.  Lovely. After that, we learned that our flight had been delayed about 90 minutes. At first, we just said, okay, let's go to Burger King. We get to Burger King and there are about 60 or more people crowded around three cash registers. It took me about 30 minutes to get the food: 20 euros for two crappy BK lunches. Our flight gets delayed...again. Then we go to our gate area....and there's nowhere to sit. So we sit down at another gate. We wait. And wait. The flight gets delayed two more times. By the time we boarded, it was a three-hour delay. By the time we actually took off, it was a FOUR-HOUR delay. Not fun.

On the plus side, the seats on this flight were more roomy and comfortable than the last one. But they wouldn't give us any snacks, not even water....they charged for EVERYTHING. I'm assuming that they also charged to use the toilet, but I didn't bother to even try.

When we landed in Prague, we didn't taxi much, and the bags came out pretty fast. We located a portly Airport taxi driver, who said "Taxi?" to us. I showed him the address and we got in. To his credit, he didn't rip us off and he played good music in the cab: Czech music and oldies, like "Ballroom Blitz" (but not too loud). I gave him a decent tip. The night manager at the desk of the Clarion City Center, where we are staying, was also nice and helpful and tried to show us where certain sights were. Then we headed to the room, which, oddly enough, is across from the "Hairdresser" in the hotel (but, as of this writing, things haven't been noisy at all).  We were a bit wired, but we eventually fell asleep around 3:30 am.

Lesson of the day: Don't fly Ryanair.

Days 302-303: Ennis

Our first day in Ennis, we didn't do a lot. We just checked out the ATM, the pharmacy, and the laundry on Abbey Road (no lie). We had lunch at a small, quite place there: pulled pork sandwiches, which were quite good, and sweet potato fries. After a jaunt to a bookstore, in which I bought a biography on George Michael and a pen, we went back to the hotel, where we had a WONERFUL dinner, probably our best in Ireland. I had seafood chowder, which was in itself a meal, steak with onion rings, and a strawberry mousse cheesecake with vanilla ice cream. A great experience.

The next day--our final full day in Ireland--we went to the Cliffs of Moher. I had heard from locals and read in the guidebooks that this was THE place to be, so we decided to check it out for ourselves....and we were NOT disappointing. It was an amazing, breathtaking experience. We viewed the cliffs from the south, main, and north platforms, in that order. I am not sure I've ever seen a greater display of natural beauty in my life. It took me back to being a child, climbing the bluffs in Frankfort, Michigan, and just being in a world with no Trump, no social media, just the blue skies, the gigantic cliffs, the pure blue water, the chirping gulls: nature in all its glory. It was crowded, yes, but not insanely so. And fortunately I didn't see people smoking or littering around there. We had lunch--seafood chowder again--at the cafe there. Once we were done viewing everything, we bought some soft-serve ice cream and then went to their gift shop. A fantastic experience that made me love Ireland more. I left feeling disappointed that we didn't get to spend more days appreciating Ireland's natural beauty. Perhaps I am more of an outdoorsy guy than I have always thought!

Cliffs of Moher

Brian and Kerry at the Cliffs of Moher!

Days 299-301: Dublin and Cork

We began our day in Dublin with a hearty breakfast in the hotel: it included such items as tomatoes, baked beans, brie cheese, and EXCELLENT Irish sausages. Quite tasty--but I was not feeling well--I had quite a sore throat, and we had very limited time. So since we had only one day in Dublin, basically, we decided to do a city bus tour. It was pretty good, actually: we got to sit on the top of the bus; our guide's name was Gerry (pronounced "Jerry"). We saw such things as Oscar Wilde's birthplace, Trinity College, beautiful churches, and even the Facebook headquarters. "Of course they're not working today," Gerry noted. On the whole, I got the impression that Dublin was more old than new; it lacked the skyscrapers of Hong Kong, of course, but instead seemed to have a richer sense of history. After the tour, we had lunch at a mediocre burger place in the city; 7 Euro for an overdone burger with no fries. Bleah. Afterwards, I sent Kerry to get the car, which took 40 minutes, once again (the traffic is a bit insane here, especially if you're driving on the left side of the road). It took about 2 hours and 45 minutes to drive to Cork.  The drive was lovely; I took lots of pictures of the scenery (and the many cows and sheep!).  We weren't even sure we had the right address, but we did end up in the right place: the Imperial Hotel, which was fancier than Jury's Inn. Again, though, there were parking issues: we had to park out on the street. Fortunately, we were much closer this time, but we were told it was only free parking until Monday morning at 8:15 am. We had a difficult time finding a place to eat. The restaurant in the hotel told us we needed a reservation, and we tried two other places in town that told us there would be waits of an hour or more....and this was at 8:30 pm!!!   We eventually came upon an Italian place called Milano's. The food was just okay: I had a ceasar salad and calamari, and neither was overwhelmingly wonderful.

The next day, my 48th birthday, I unfortunately felt much worse, so I just stayed in bed all day and watched TV. On the plus side, I saw a great movie with Angelia Jolie called The Changeling. I was not surprised to learn that it had been directed by Clint Eastwood; the film reminded me a lot of his film Gran Torino. Kerry was exceptionally nice to me, dispensing medicine and even buying me a birthday card and cake.  :)  I did go downstairs for dinner--more fish and chips--but I think I liked the fish and chips in Dublin better.

On the 16th I felt well enough to get out of the house, so we decided to go to Blarney Castle and Gardens after we checked out of the hotel in Cork. We were told that the wait to get into the castle was 2 hours, but it was actually more like 90 minutes to get to the castle and 30 more minutes to get to the Blarney Stone at the top. There was an older couple from Grand Rapids, Michigan behind us in line, of all things. It was a bit of a challenge to climb to the top--the stairs were narrow, often steep, and near the end of the journey to the top I bumped my head quite hard. Still the journey was slow but sure, and we made it!  I got to kiss the Blarney Stone!  This was practically my main reason for coming to Ireland, so I was quite happy about this. Afterwards, we explored the "Poison Garden," where cannabis, hydrangeas, and hemlock grew. Then we went to the "Rock Close," which was a rock wall with a tunnel that led to a beautiful garden with lots of greenery and waterfalls. However, after that, we decided to call it a day. We then drove on to Ennis; it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes. The desk clerk was a bit terse with us, but the room was the most spacious we've seen so far. We were both exhausted: we had skipped lunch, and we decided to take a nap after we settled in...and slept through dinner as well! The next thing we knew, it was 1 am.  Crazy!

Me kissing Blarney Stone!

From the USA to Dublin

Our trip from the USA to Dublin was long, but fortunately fairly uneventful. The flight from Minneapolis to Paris didn't take nearly as long as I expected, and I was able to watch the movie Goodbye, Christopher Robin on the plane. I enjoyed it a lot. We got good service, and I even liked the pasta that they served. I didn't really sleep much on the flight, though. Once we landed in Paris, we had to go through security again, which I thought was odd, because we hadn't left the airport at all. They made me dispose of a water bottle that I was given on the plane....c'est dommage!  I did get to practice my French at a baked good stand called PAUL; I ordered deux pain aux chocolat for me and Kerry. The second flight, from Paris to Dublin, was much more uncomfortable. The seats were very small and I couldn't even bring my carry on with me on the plane; I had to leave it outside the plane before I boarded. Fortunately, though, there wasn't too much trouble getting the rental car in Dublin. It was just a long process. First we had to stand in one line to pay for the car. Then we had to take a shuttle to get the car and our insurance options were explained to us there. Kerry is doing the driving, and he did a good job getting us to Jury's Inn. However, when we got there, we realized there was no place to park near the hotel, so I had to go in with the bags and then ended up waiting 40 minutes for Kerry to come back. On the plus side, late in the evening, we did have a good fish and chips dinner in the hotel restaurant. (Well, actually, the bar....the restaurant was closed...we are finding that hotels don't open the restaurants here unless needed because the bars are MUCH more popular.)

Back in the USA

During our time in the USA, we saw good friends, ate good food, and just had an opportunity to chill and relax a bit. As I type this, it's the night before we go to Ireland, and it's sort of weird to be travelling again when we practically just got home.

The flight to America wasn't too bad: I saw I, Tonya and Lady Bird on the plane to Seattle; the first film was definitely superior. I didn't get much sleep on either flight, but it was nice to see Jeff and give him his presents once we landed in Seattle. And, this time, we didn't have to go through security twice, which was nice. I think I slept more on the second flight, from Seattle to Minneapolis. Kerry and I thought we might get a pizza when we got home, but I was so tired that I turned in about 7 pm. Fortunately, I got up about 7 am or so the next day, so that effectively cured my jet lag.

Our first full day back, we first ran errands: got pants for Kerry, guide books at Barnes and Noble. We had dinner at Acapulco with Bradley, who then followed us back to Maureen's to drop off some stuff for Bette, and we chatted a bit.

Sunday, we had brunch at Green Mill with Crystalyn and her family. The prime rib was way overcooked, but it was pretty good otherwise. We also went to Best Buy to try to get my desktop computer fixed; the technician just sprayed out the dust and it seemed good as new. (However, a day or so later, we were still having issues with it...sigh).

Monday was all about Minneapolis. We had dinner around 12:30 with Crystalyn and the girls at Fogo; Maureen joined us this time. We stayed for about 4 hours, just chatting and having fun. Afterwards, Maureen, Kerry, and I went to the Twins vs. Royals game. It was a pretty boring game for the first six innings, but eventually the Twins scored some runs in the 7th and 8th and won 3-1.  It was Pride Night at Target Field so we all got hats with the rainbow "TC" symbol. And it was gratifying to see same-sex kissing on the jumbotron!!!

Tuesday, I got my glasses adjusted, we had India Palace, and we visited Zach and Sarah at TTFF. I also picked my Comp 2 textbook up from school and visited some folks there.

Wednesday we picked up some tooth paste from the dentist, ate free pie at Baker's Square (including an extra one to go, because it's so close to my birthday), and visited Zach and Sarah one final time. And, of course, we did packing. Maureen made us shepherd's pie for dinner.

Thursday afternoon, we will leave for Dublin...we have a connecting flight in Paris.  Wish us luck!

Days 297-298: Cleaning, Final Goodbyes

Two days before leaving (Wednesday), Kerry cleaned up the kitchen a bit, and I swept the floors. In the afternoon, we visited with Roopa at her new place at the SISU Hotel. It seems much nicer than the place we currently have, which makes me wonder why they couldn't have put us there in the first place. She has two TVs, for example...and they work!  It was great to visit with Roopa; she's another person whom we'll miss dearly. In the late afternoon, Kerry went off to his last game, and around 5 pm Deborah came by to collect some of our stuff. Then I had dinner (more leftovers). Richard came over later in the evening; we shared some whiskey and a Chinese beer. I'm going to miss him; he's been a good friend to us here. Fortunately, though, we scheduled a goodbye dinner with him--and Peter--tomorrow. Kerry came home a bit after 10, sad that his final D & D campaign here in Shanghai is over.

Then came that day: the FINAL DAY before we leave. We spent most of the day cleaning, but we had a nice early dinner with Peter and Richard. We had to go to Starbucks first because Beijing De Xin Roast Duck wasn't open. But once it opened at 5, we had some fun: ate duck, their scrambled eggs, tofu, potatoes. Richard ordered some green beans; Peter some bamboo. We also imbibed wine and beer. It was a good goodbye. Once Kerry and I got home, we finished cleaning and took pictures for Ms. Yang. We're sad to leave...but I think we're ready to go!!

Selfie with Roopa!

Roast duck!

With Richard and Peter at Beijing Dexin Roast Duck.

Final shot of our living room.

Days 295-296: Our Last Excursions--Longhua Temple and Luxun Park (finally)

Monday we met up with my former student, Bella, at the McDonald's in Jiangwan Town Station. She gave us a beautiful gift: some Chinese silverware, including chopsticks. We ate and chatted a bit, and then we invited her to accompany us to the Longhua Pagoda and Temple. It took awhile to get there....Line 3 to Line 11....but we had subway seats most of the way. The Longhua Pagoda we saw first. It's a huge pagoda in Shanghai, from AD 242 originally, according to the guide book. Bella told us that there was something on the side of the pagoda that said it would be good for the pagoda if we walked around it seven times, clockwise. So we did! (Fortunately, it wasn't all that hot.)  Then, we went into the Longhua Temple: 10 RMB per person. We paid for Bella's ticket. It's a really huge temple with a lot of different rooms. Many different statues, especially Buddhas, abound. Lots of gold everywhere. It's quite impressive. Kerry and I lost each other at one point: he was following a cat around, and I went off exploring. There were several different buildings all in the same temple complex. We stopped in at a souvenir store there for a moment, where Kerry bought an ornament for Bella, surprising her. Once we were done, we went to the subway with Bella, and said goodbye to her at the Line 9 interchange. We took Line 11 back to Line 3 and then the bus home.  We were going to have dinner with Christa, but she wasn't feeling well, so we mutually cancelled. It was just as well; my feet were hurting a lot, so I stayed off them the rest of the evening.

From Longhua Pagoda and Temple:

Longhua Pagoda. Our first view.

Bella told us this is a "pichu" monster.

Beautiful white Buddha.

Musical god.

Rows of gold Buddhas.

Seated Buddha.

Another Buddha, standing.

Many-armed Buddha.

(left to right) Kerry, me, Bella

Tuesday was a SISU day. First Kerry and I went to SISU so I could have a form signed: I went to the library to get my e-card cancelled, and then to another office in Teaching Building 1 to get a refund on the money I had left: I got 48.60 RMB left, which was a nice surprise.  However, I couldn't understand them, and when they asked for my card, I gave it to them....I would have preferred to have kept it as a souvenir!  After all that, Kerry and I went to Lu Xun Park. I am shocked that we didn't go sooner--it's quite beautiful. Lots of ponds, lilypads, trees, people playing badminton (and even cracking whips!) in the park. Peaceful. And, of course, CATS. Kerry saw at least 7 and got pictures of most of them. We also saw the Lu Xun Mausoleum; there were a couple people doing tai-chi there, and a couple schoolgirls in uniform walking around. Fortuantely, the weather was nice during all this, not overly hot or rainy. Once we were done, after about 90 minutes of strolling around, we paid our last visit to the good ol' Ciao Cafe and got some paninis. Very tasty. Next, we went to the SISU Souvenir store and got some hats, a stuffed bear, and a pen for various people (can't mention who.....or it wouldn't be a surprise!). We then went to the coffee shop next door and waited for Christa and Christine; we had coffee with them (well, water...they drank coffee). I gave Christa my book about Minnesota recipes; she seemed to like it.  I gave Christine a Century College bag. Pictures were taken, hugs were given all around. Then Kerry went home and I went to my interview with Grace. She asked me a few questions, for her research, about my impressions of China and perceptions of China in the American news media.  I also gave Grace a Century bag; fortunately, she was able to send an intern to get my SISU ID back for me as a souvenir, which was a nice surprise!  I said goodbye to both Grace and Christine (again), and then went home on the bus, which was surprisingly uncrowded. I was starting to feel a bit melancholy. I mentioned to Kerry during dinner that I was staring to feel genuinely sad. Saying goodbye to Christa, in particular, was quite hard. It feel like we were just starting to form a good friendship.

Tuesday pics:

Beginning our stroll.

Lu Xun Mausoleum.

A single, gorgeous flower

Lilypads and trees.

Christa's sketch: she wanted to take all her Shanghai friends home with her!

Me, Kerry, Christine, Christa.

We also received the sad news today that Kyle had to put B.B. down. He had to make the trek from Tampa to Chicago to do this. It seems that many things are ending these days: Nathalie and Angela; Kyle and B.B.....and of course our time in China. I am surprised to feel more sad than excited.