Aug 2006

I arrived in Bonn at midnight last night, owing largely to my missing of the train at Koln Hbf station. However, I'm here now and staying with Bernd, one of my mates from Singapore, and his girlfriend, Verena, in their amazing apartment. Thanks guys for having me! (Especially given all that has happened in the past few weeks, my condolences again go out to you and your family, and I really appreciate all that you did for me).

I had the day essentially to myself today, so I woke early but left the house quite late, as I used the occasion to call home and Angela. It was fantastic to hear from them after such a long time between phone calls!

So, after leaving the house at midday (!), I headed into Bonn to visit the few sights that are actually open on a Monday (German attractions close on a Monday nationwide). I visited the fantastic Beethoven Haus (where Beethoven was born), and even though I don't find classical music wholely entertaining/interesting, the house itself was great. I also visited the excellent Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Bundeskunsthalle) (Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany) which housed a really interesting exhibition on art from all the Guggenheim museums worldwide. This exhibtion served as this week's intake of modern art!

The only downside today was it was my day to suffer from 'Traveller's PMS', that one day a month where one feels homesick. The fact that everything was closed compounded this, but heck, if it only happens once a month then it's hardly a problem!

After a great dinner of pizza and bier, all was well again

Today was my last day in Paris, so Chye and I decided to do everything that we hadn't done so far ... or at least the key 'must-do' sights.

Firstly, that meant the Musee de Louvre. THE art gallery in the world, covering almost all types of art up until the 1800s, at which point the Musee d'Orsay takes over.

The big plus about visiting it today was that it was FREE. Almost all museums in France are free on the first Sunday of every month, and I guess we underestimated how many people knew this! We arrived at 9:30am to find all entrances open and huge queues at each. Luckily we were directed to the shortest queue and were inside within about 30mins. Yay for us! We had a look outside later on that morning and saw the queue stretch all around the courtyard and double-back on itself so I can definitely recommend waking up early!

We spent 3 and a half exhausting hours meandering among the throngs of people visiting the main artefacts (Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Wedding Feast, the Coronation Crown of Louis XV, the Sphinx and the Medieval Louvre among others). We can highly recommend purchasing the Audio Guide, as without it Chye and I would have been absolutely LOST! As it was, the guide was a bit spurious in parts (especially the 'revolutionary' painting!), but so much better than we could have learned on our own.

After lunch in the Jardins du Tuileries (the patisserie 'Paul' serves excellent baguettes), we visited the Musee de Rodin, which houses all the main works by the sculptor Rodin. In the short time we were there we saw the 'Thinker', the Gates of Hell, the Kiss, and my favourite, 'Girl with Blocked Nose' ..h . sorry, that should be 'Main with Broken Nose'! (Sorry family joke there!). Even though not many people visit there, I would definitely recommend it, if only for the gardens, which are immaculate and contain many of his most famous sculptures

And that was it, the end of my time in Paris I've had an amazing time, and loved every minute of it! Thanks Chye for having me!

The train to Koln (again a first-class Thalys train) was uneventful, save the serving of Salmon Steak for dinner (oh how I love salmon steak!!!) TWICE, and my realisation that I am hopelessly addicted to bread rolls. If someone wanted to seduce me, all they require are bread rolls and butter!! I'm easy!

Ciao,

Tris.

PS: For photos of Paris, click here

There is very little that can be said about Versailles (or Paris for that matter) that hasn´t been said before, which I why I will be brief today.

The palace is at once opulent, gaudy, beatiful, and tasteful. It does go over the top, but it never pretended to be anything other than a display of French wealth and power. Chye and I spent AGES there - probably 3-4 hours in the Palace alone, and of that only 45min was spent in a queue. I would definitely recommend, however, that if you are planning on visiting, buy your ticket in advance (at any staffed Metro/RER station) or come early. It was VERY busy and the main queue was at least 2hrs long. A tip: don´t queue in Entrance A. You can buy all the tickets from the entrance to the Dauphin's Apartments, near the entrance to the Gardens on the left. Ask one of the staff for the Dauphin entrance and they´ll help you out!

We returned to Paris for 5pm and spent one hour (for free) in the Musée d´Orsay. I would have liked to spend longer there, but I´m only here for 3 days, so compromises have to be made. As it was we saw paintings by Monet, Van Gogh and sculptures by Rodin. It´s all housed in a recently-renovated train station and looks amazing. It´s worth a visit for the building alone!

After dinner, Chye and I returned to the Louvre to take some night photos of the Pyramid, the Tour d´Eiffel and the Champs Elysees. They turned out quite good I thought - although Chye´s tripod definitely helped!

And now, it´s off to bed.

Bon nuit!

As seems to be the way with this trip, I had one day to myself in Paris. That day was today and I think I made the most of it.

I started with the Jardin du Luxembourg, before crossing one of the many bridges that span the Seine for Sainte Chapelle. Ste Chapelle is one of those amazing places that is particularly difficult to describe without photos. Essentially it´s a chapel, however it is pillarless. This means that you have a 360 degree view of the entire chapel no matter where you stand! It might not sound like much, but with the right amount of sunlight and all the stained-glass windows, it´s spectacular.

From Ste Chapelle I headed over Pont Neuf, stopping to further confuse some Italian tourists who mistook me for a local (so my beret and moustache disguise worked! Just kidding). The best part was, despite my very limited French, it still took a while. I even had a Lonely Planet map (thanks Ange!) How much more tourist can you get!?!

From the Right Bank of the Seine I walked the entire length of the Champs Elysees from the Musee de Louvre, past Place de la Concorde all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. It might not seem like a huge distance, but it´s probably close to 2km, if not further! To give you some idea, it´s 6 metro stations! Along the way I stopped and had a crepe avec jambon et fromage - essentially a ham and cheese crepe. Not too bad considering it´s on the Champs Elysees and they can serve anything and people will eat it.

To add insult to injury I decided to climb the hundreds of steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. It was well worth it though, with a spectacular view of the Tour D´Eiffel and the 12 roads that lead from the roundabout. What makes the Arc so special, aside from its history, the tomb etc., is the road itself. Legend has it that all insurance policies are null and void once you enter the roundabout, and are reactivated when you leave it. Having seen many near misses in my short time there, I´m not at all surprised. It´s the only road I´ve ever seen where the traffic entering the road has right-of-way. This makes for a very slow-moving road, which is I guess the intention.

From the Arc, I walked down towards the Tour d´Eiffel and the Australian Embassy. Neither for any particular reason, more just to say I´d done it. The bonus came near the Aus Embassy, where I stumbled upon Place du Sydney. I´ve travelled all this way and I still haven´t left Sydney!

By this time it was 4pm and I was buggered, so I headed home to catch up with Chye after his day at school. I also got to see his photos and video from the trip to Cambodia and Vietnam he took in May. Impressive stuff! Makes me want to go there again

We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant (as you do) near the Musee de Louvre, which was actually fantastic - I´ve been missing rice so it was perfect! Afterwards, we headed for Montmartre with the aim of having a drink at a corner cafe somewhere. We ended up climbing to the Basilica de Sacre Coeur, eating amazing gelato and taking loads of night photos.

The highlight came though when I paid for the gelato, and a €1 coin fell into the remaining tubs, never to be seen again. I guess it might be good luck to find a €1 coin in your ice cream, but I would be wary of the hygeine!

We were even offered roses by some over-zealous sellers! Don´t worry Ange, I´m not going to run off with Chye...yet

And on that high note, I shall end this post.

Bon nuit!