And yes, I am hoping to write a lot more for NerdBird in the near future.  Things are changing fast for me right now, but hopefully I’ll have some time for some posts more often

Oh Canada!

Getting ready for Harry Potter the Exhibition!

I had been wanting to see Picasso for a while (as the Museé National Picasso in Paris was closed while I was there) and when Rachael posted that Harry Potter was on in Seattle as well it was too good for either of us to pass up.  We made some last minute plans (“advance tickets online? nah! we’ll wing it!”) and got ready to go.  The plan was for me to take the West Coast Express train Friday night out to Pitt Meadows where Rachael lives.  From there we’d leave early Saturday morning for the border, attend the noon time slot of Picasso, the 4:20pm showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the IMAX and then the 7pm time slot for the Harry Potter Exhibition.  After that we’d head home.  A nice neat day trip.  Only…

The Seattle Space Needle - built for the 1962 World's Fair!

Really, Friday started oddly for me.  I woke from a dream of winning 38 million quarters on a slot machine (just the ticket kind, I wasn’t buried in quarters pouring out of the machine).  I had hoped that it meant I was going to have good luck that day.  I did wind up having maybe something resembling luck throughout the weekend, but I’m not entirely sure it was the good kind.

I took the West Coast Express out to Pitt Meadows and met up with Rachael.  I guess I don’t look like a typical commuter (may have been the silly grin plastered to my face).  I wound up in conversation with a man from Port Coquitlam for most of my ride; he had a constantly perplexed look on his face.  I suppose if you ride the train everyday it isn’t that much fun, but it was my first ride and I was pretty excited about it!  Anyhow, once I’d met up with Rachael we went and got dinner to have at her house.  Once we were in the door she mentioned something about passports… which it suddenly occurred to me that I had forgotten, back in Vancouver.  In downtown Vancouver.  And I was now in Pitt Meadows, one hour each way from downtown.  Drat!

Rachael kindly lent me her car and I drove all the way home to get my silly darned passport.  Two hours later I was back at Rachael’s.  She had kindly waited for me to get back to have dinner.  So at nine o’clock at night we had dinner and watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth movie in the Harry Potter series.  Because of my goof we went to bed a bit later than we should have.  Which of course resulted in us sleeping a bit later than we should have, meaning that once coffee was obtained we were a bit later to the border than we should have been, resulting in about an hour and a half wait at the border.  (Rachael has a Nexus pass that gets her across the border lickety split, but I don’t.  I am working on that now!).  Past the border and on the road again.

A fun billboard in Belltown.

It was noon before we got to Seattle.  We had decided that we didn’t want to feel rushed so we would skip the Picasso exhibit this trip and just concentrate on Harry Potter.  We found parking near the Pacific Science Center (where Harry Potter the Exhibition is) and then walked to Pike Place Market to find lunch.  Why did we not stop and buy our tickets for the Exhibition as we walked past?  Neither of us have a good answer for that, but we didn’t.  We had a nice lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery (I had a beer sampler with 8 different beer!!) and then we did a tiny bit of shopping before catching the monorail back to the Pacific Science Center.

Pike Place Market

We lined up (neither of us noticing the four self-ticketing machines available) and then were astonished when the couple ahead of us got the last tickets for the Exhibition that day.  What?!  How could we have screwed that up (-please no lists!).  Drat.  ”Umm… let’s stay the night and do both tomorrow?  Okay, yeah, we can do that… Should we see the movie tonight anyhow?  That’s a good idea.”  We quickly bought IMAX tickets for the 4:20pm showing of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and to the 10am entry to the Harry Potter Exhibition (see, we’re a bit slow but we learn eventually!).  We went straight in to the IMAX and got ourselves some seats.  This was another good move as apparently the show had sold out too!  We must have bought some of the last tickets available.  Whew!  Lucky that time.

One of the knights from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the only prop we could photograph!

While sitting in the theatre Rachael called around to some local hotels listed on our city map.  Holiday Inn $129.  Comfort Inn $129.  Quality Inn $69 – sold!  So we had a room, seats for the movie, tickets for tomorrow.  Things were looking up!  The movie was great.  The hotel was tolerable (but conveniently nearby).  Shops were open late.  We had Mexican food for dinner.  It was rather a fun evening, if entirely unexpected.

The Space Needle at night.

We had the free breakfast at the hotel Sunday morning (they had waffle makers there, crazy!) and then walked back to the Exhibition.  We were a bit early for the gate opening, but we seemed to be the only ones with tickets in hand, so when the gates opened we ducked under the barriers and were the first inside!  We had time for a few quick photos before getting in line for the Exhibition.  It was rather fun to be first!  And maybe just a little bit odd to be the only adults there without children in tow (I’m sure that it’s not all that unusual, but we were a rarity that morning).

Entry gates at the Pacific Science Center.

Harry Potter the Exhibition was really quite good!  (Though no photography allowed ). It started with some actors, one sorting a few of the children into Hogwarts Houses (yes, I sort of wanted to stick up my hand too… but I behaved).  After watching a few clips from the movies and walking past a steam engine (it didn’t look very Hogwarts Express to me) we entered the exhibit space.  There were costumes and props from all of the movies, yes, including Deathly Hallows!!  Wands and robes, brooms and mandrakes (you could pull the mandrakes out of their pots and make them scream!).  We got to throw quaffles through upright rings and sit in Hagrid’s chair!  The detail on the props was truly amazing.  What a wonderful job it must have been to be involved with making the props and costumes.  We both enjoyed our visit, and somehow I magically escaped the gift store with no Harry Potter anythings!

After the Exhibition we hopped back on the monorail, found some coffee (yes, at a Starbucks, come on, we were in Seattle!), and walked down to the Seattle Art Museum.  A short lineup and we had our tickets for the Picasso exhibit for the 12:20pm entry.  (Both Harry Potter and Picasso are timed-entry exhibits, to keep the crowds ‘lower’ and moving).  We perused the gift shop and a few of the galleries before lining up for our entry.

This exhibition of Picasso’s works was very different from what you will see of most artists because it is formed almost wholly from pieces that he kept for himself that he felt represented his work.  It is made up of what he wanted an exhibit of his work to be.  It was an exceptionally educational experience.  Though I liked some of Picasso’s work before I think my now greater understanding gives me a greater appreciation, even of the pieces I don’t really like all that much.  If you get a chance to go, do pick up their free audio guide or better yet, download it to your iPod and avoid having to carry around their wand thing-y.

Two women running on the beach (The Race), 1922 by Picasso. We got to see this piece and I've included the image because of how strongly I felt there was a similarity between this painting and a sculpture I saw in Budapest. I wonder if the artist of the Communist piece had this in mind when he created it?

One last item about the Seattle Art Museum was their lobby installation.  I have come to the conclusion that my favourite pieces seem to be in the lobbies of art galleries (for example Snow White The Banquet at the Pompidou in Paris).  In Seattle it was a series of Ford (and one Mercury) sedans that had light exploding from them.  It really captured my attention!

Lobby of the Seattle Art Museum.

Installation in the lobby of the Seattle Art Museum.

After Picasso we headed back towards the monorail.  We grabbed a quick lunch at a cafe in Macy’s, did a tiny bit of shopping, then headed back to get the car.  Now, Rachael’s husband Dave had flown to California with a couple of his buddies a few days before.  We had known there was a possibility of needing to pick them up from the airport or some such while we were in Seattle but we hadn’t heard anything yet and we were about to head back to Canada.  So Rachael texted Dave.  Dave texted Rachael.  And everything got crazy again.  For full details, read Rachael’s blog here, but basically I got on a Quick Shuttle back to Vancouver and arrived home at 9:30pm Sunday night (from our ‘day trip’ to Seattle).  Rachael wound up staying most of the night at a hotel at SeaTac airport while waiting for Dave and his friend to drive from Sacramento, California.  They arrived at SeaTac at 4:20am, returned their rental car and drove back to Canada arriving in Pitt Meadows by 9am.  Crazy.

Anyway, despite all of the craziness we had a really great weekend.  I am certainly looking forward to going back to Seattle, but maybe I’ll just plan in advance to stay the night and save some craziness!

For more photos from the weekend see my Flickr album here.

Help phone on the bridge. I was startled to see it at first, then sad that there is a need, but I'm glad that someone is listening to those in need.

There is a lot of construction on the northern end of the bridge, so as I approached I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to get on.  Luckily, that part wasn’t difficult, though it did require making a decision as to what I wanted to be able to see.  Did I want to look out at the ocean, towards Vancouver Island, Stanley Park and UBC or in towards the city and the harbour.  I chose the city and harbour side though I hope I have an opportunity soon to walk the other side as well, as I’m sure the views that way are spectacular as well.

Onto the bridge.

As soon as the bridge leaves the ground you know.  With one footstep I passed from solid ground to the constant vibration of the bridge deck.  It was neat, though a little startling how much it moves.  Next thing you pass is the help phone, for those who come to the bridge for much less happy reasons than I.  I’m glad those phones are there, I hope that they are successful in their mission.  But I’m very glad it was a calm and peaceful day on the bridge.

The Lions Gate Bridge is about 1.5 kilometers long and passes ‘First Narrows’ – the first narrowing of Burrard Inlet between the North Shore and Vancouver.  The towers reach to a height of 111m and the bridge deck has 61m of clearance for ships (I am guessing that the measurement is from high tide…?).  It was completed in 1938 and is still just an impressive bridge.

Looking up the north tower.

Hmm… I was going to tell a story here about some interesting history of the bridge, but oddly, I’m not finding any information to verify what I have been told.  Anyhow - I’ve been told that the bridge was forged here in Vancouver, in big workshops in Burnaby.  Once they were done constructing the pieces for our bridge the foundry then made similar pieces for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, which were then floated by barge for assembly down south.  The Golden Gate Bridge was built in Canada!  Since then, those workshops have been turned into movie studios and house Bridge Studios (thanks Michael for the correction).  Now, I’ve always believed this story, and I still do.  I admit I didn’t do an extensive search for information but I didn’t find one whisper of it at all.  Does anyone have more concrete information?  I’d love to learn more – please send it on or comment if you do.  Thanks!

Downtown Vancouver from the Lions Gate Bridge.

Right, back to my walk.  It really was enjoyable.  I do highly recommend the it to anyone that is looking for a nice activity in Vancouver – it doesn’t even have to be a sunny day.  I got rained on a bit, but somehow that just made it more fun for me.  I was thinking that if you walked from Vancouver north on one side of the bridge you could head to Park Royal in West Vancouver for lunch before walking back on the other side of the bridge.  It would make such a nice day!

Vancouver Harbour from the Lions Gate Bridge.

One of the lions at the south end of the Lions Gate Bridge with a poppy wreath for Remembrance Day.

Another nice thing about walking across the Lions Gate Bridge is that you get to walk through Stanley Park.  I do get to visit the park fairly often, however I’ve never walked along the paths I went this day.  I got to see Beaver Lake and the Rose and Perennial Gardens as well as a lot of beautiful forest.  I did have one odd encounter.  One of the Park employees in his little Gator work truck stopped to warn me about people being attacked in the park.  I thanked him for his warning, paid more attention to my surroundings and wondered how often something actually happened, particularly in broad daylight.  I am not trying at all to belittle the victims of crime within the park, but I do hope that the warning was not a true reflection of a person’s safety.  Like I said, I paid more attention to my surroundings but did not ever feel the least bit threatened (instead I seemed to annoy a squirrel that was trying to enjoy a snack).

Stanley Park is part of the temperate rainforest found along BC's coast. Here the morning sun is vapourizing the water on the forest floor.

In Stanely Park.

Ducks on Beaver Lake.

The Perennial Garden near the Georgia Street entrance to Stanley Park.

Though not a very long story it was a long and lovely walk.  I took many more photos and if you’re interested in seeing them please visit my Flickr page by clicking here.  Until the next adventure… thank you merci for reading.

Looking up at the Eye of the Wind turbine on Grouse Mountain.

When we first arrived at Grouse Mountain things looked a little worrying.  One gondola was closed for maintenance and the other gondola seemed to be stopped dead – with a load full of people.  Hmm…. Well, we picked up our tickets and worked at being patient (not one of my stronger skills).  They did manage to get the gondola down and the people out (they were only 10 metres from the bottom) and then they decided to run the other gondola (the one that had been under maintenance) to get us all to the top.  We got there just in time to meet up with our tour guide and to watch a woman be arrested, then slip her cuffs, and subsequently get hand-cuffed much more firmly.  (Nope, don’t know why she was arrested at the top of Grouse, but it was sorta interesting to watch, surreptitiously of course).

Our guide Giovanni was from Mexico and seemed excited that snow is starting to fall on the North Shore mountains.  He started by introducing us to the mountain and then bringing us to the grizzly bear wildlife refuge where two grizzly cubs rescued in 2001 live now.  I do appreciate the idea of educating people about bears, but having spent some time in bush I’m sorta good not being around bears.  So while it was interesting it definitely wasn’t an activity for me.

Grizzly at Grouse.

After the bears though the experience got so much better.  We took a ride up a chair lift to the top of the mountain where we walked to the wind turbine.  It is so big!  I knew that it would be, given how easy it is to see from the city, but standing at the bottom of a tower that stretches more than 20 stories high really brings it home.  The Eye of the Wind is the only electricity generating wind turbine in the world with a viewing platform for visitors.  It is reached through an elevator in the centre of the tower.  Because of the wind the tower moves a lot – generally not an ideal combination with an elevator – they had to get creative.  Cruise ships also have the same problem with a lot of movement though so marine elevator technology was used at 1,230m above sea level – an elevator for a moving structure.  Very nifty!

Looking up at the viewPOD on the Eye of the Wind turbine.

The viewPOD (the name of the enclosed viewing platform) is the most amazing place to be.  With a 360° view from the sea to the mountains, the city to the valley, it is an exceptional place to see the Vancouver area from.  There is a glass floor in one area so that you can see directly down the tower.  The blades go whipping by the pod as they spin in the wind and generate electricity – the tips of the blades can go up to 300km/hour, though not so fast when visitors are in the pod.  After exiting the elevator and taking a quick tour around full of awe and excitement I felt the tower move with the wind and then in a new way, and that’s when I remembered that wind turbines always turn to face directly into the wind.  On the Eye of the Wind the whole viewPOD also turns into the wind.  It was great!  (I get silly, giddy about things like this – combining a fantastic view with scientific nerdiness? Sweet!!).

Looking through the glass floor.

I think this is Castle Mountain, to the north of Grouse.

If I could take the turbine home and put it in my backyard (assuming I had a yard) I would!  It was way too much fun and as I said before, something I really think everyone should go and see (think they’ll let me camp in it every night??).  It was a great day and I am so happy that we went.  If you would like to see a few more photos of the trip you can  check out my Vancouver photo album here.

At the Eye of the World.

For those of you that have been looking for a new NerdBird post I’m very sorry for the long delay.  I will try to get myself back on track over the next couple of weeks!  Thank you all for reading!  I really do appreciate your support!

Nitobe Gardens at the University of British Columbia.

Click here for more photos of my day

The morning started well, I got a quick run in, grabbed coffee from the lovely little Italian place, Prego, down the Seawall, and walked up to the hotel to meet me Vancouver 2010 friend Rachael and our bus.  We were told 9am.  It came and went.  I’m a bit of a panicky tour person so I called to make sure the tour company hadn’t forgotten us, they hadn’t.  But it was after 9:30am before we got picked up.  At first that was a bit frustrating but I now suspect that it probably wasn’t the tour company’s fault…  Anyhow!  We got on the bus and joined a woman and her young daughter from Australia/New Zealand (yes, I know they’re different countries but I’m still not clear exactly which one they claim to be).  That was it!  Just Rachael, myself, two others and our tour guide!  Seemed a perfect size to me.

Our tour bus - awfully big for only four guests, but it was nice, and so was our guide Susan.

We drove out to Spanish Banks to look at the city and then onto UBC where we headed directly to the Nitobe Japanese Gardens (one of the world’s top five Japanese gardens outside of Japan!).  I did manage to make it to the Gardens a few times while at UBC and was happy to be returning.  It is such a serene, beautiful place – I always find it relaxing, and did so again today (despite distracting companions).  The moss, the water, the rocks and the trees all combine to make you feel like you are somewhere entirely different than Vancouver.

Moss on the top of a stone lantern.

The schedule was never made entirely clear to us so both Rachael and I were startled to be rushed off to the MOA (and more startled that our companions didn’t seem to understand that we would be late for our museum tour).  We scooted over to the museum and caught up with the tour.  I am very happy to say the guide at MOA had a lovely voice and I could wander around in quite a large area and still hear everything she was telling us.  The tour started with totem poles, bentwood boxes, serving dishes, canoes and more.  From there we went to basketry, masks, clothing and paddles.  We finished in the Bill Reid Rotunda.  I cannot begin to describe my astonishment and awe at the pieces they had on display.  I did honestly cry in the mask room.  I had no idea at the variety, the quantity or even sometimes the quality of what the museum houses.  As I said before, I will be going back, over and over again.

Potlatch serving dish and spoon. Notice the canoe behind it - potlatches were big feasts!

'The Raven and the First Men' by Bill Reid - awesome!

One of the interesting features for me however comes back to my childhood.  I grew up in the Secwepemc area of British Columbia; particularly with contact and education from the Kamloops Indian Band.  I did notice walking through the MOA that there is almost nothing from the interior of British Columbia.  I’ve also grown up exposed to the art and culture of the native peoples of the West Coast, such as the Haida and Musqueam.  It has always struck me as odd that there is a huge amount of art from the Coastal peoples and almost nothing from the interior peoples, despite being separated by not particularly vast differences.  I have always had my theories about why this is.  My main thesis was that in the interior of British Columbia they get a true winter.  Snow and cold.  While this weather is not unknown along the coast it is much less frequent or extended.  With more time devoted to storing food and building shelter for winter less time can be spent on artistic pastimes.  I did ask our tour guide if I was on the right track and she did agree with me.  I’m sure I’ve over-simplified it, but I’m glad to know I’m not entirely delusional.

Not the best photo but I wanted to give you an idea of how many objects are on display - it is truly overwhelming!

A frog on a Haida totem pole.

After MOA we were back on the bus for a short trip over to UBC’s Botanical Gardens.  The Gardens currently occupy 110 acres of UBC land, though once the whole peninsula was considered to some extent to be botanical gardens (evident still by some of the older trees on campus).  We had a lovely tour through an Asian garden, a food garden, alpine, succulent and native BC plant gardens, as well as the Physic garden, where medicinal plants are grown.  I have a growing fascination about plants (no, the pun wasn’t intentional) and was pleased to find my identification abilities improving.  I can’t wait to have my own garden one day, so many things to grow!  But maybe not Aconitum Napellus or Saponaria Officinalis…

Aconitum Napellus or 'monkshood.'

Saponaria Officinalis or 'soapwart.'

If you have a chance to visit these gardens and the Museum of Anthropology I certainly recommend it.  They are stunningly beautiful and a real treat in a world where most things seem rushed.  Take some time, take a friend, and let me know how it went!

Close up of a beautiful fountain in a new amphitheatre at the Botanical Gardens. Can you see our tour group?

Merchant Navy ship at the Falmouth docks.

Day 77 – A quiet day in Falmouth (click here for more photos of Day 77)

Today was a very quiet and relaxing day.  Dan and I headed into town in the morning to have Cornish pasties for breakfast but the pasty shops weren’t open yet!  We did find somewhere not far away to have a full Cornish breakfast though – an egg, toast, (British) bacon, sausage, white pudding, grilled tomatoes, grilled mushrooms, beans and toast.  It was huge, but tasty.  I spent the rest of the day writing.  Though somehow I accidentally skipped lunch, so by the time Dan was finish up at the university and back in town I was starving!  Luckily he was hungry too so we gorged ourselves on nachos and stilton chips (french fries).

A seagull on the shores of Falmouth.

Day 78 – Return to the Eden Project (click here for more photos of Day 78)

One of the biomes at the Eden Project.

I loved my first visit to the Eden Project at the beginning of my trip.  It was peaceful and beautiful.  But we only made it to the rainforest biome so I wanted to return and visit the second biome dedicated to the Mediterranean.  I caught the train from Falmouth to Truro, transferred to another train that took me to St. Austell and from there I planned to either bike or take the bus to the Eden Project.  It was a stormy day with off and on rain so I decided against renting a bike but when I checked the bus times I was shocked to find out it would be nearly 1.5 hours before the next bus departed.  Luckily a couple of others were looking to get out there as well so we split a cab.

Flowers in the Mediterranean biome.

I could tell this would be a different experience from my first visit as soon as the cab pulled up near the entry – it was busy!  There was a crazy long lineup for tickets.  Luckily I had got a year membership (same price as a single visit!) when Dan and I visited the first time so I got to jump the queue.  It wasn’t any quieter inside.  I think maybe all the lineups and craziness of Paris had put me off crowds entirely.  That’s one of the reasons I decided to return to Cornwall, it’s so much quieter than many places.  However the Eden Project is very successful and very busy.  There were kids and parents everywhere!  I beelined for the Mediterranean biome and tried to not go through it at light speed.  I just wasn’t interested in staying long, so after my quick look through the biome I headed up the walking path to the exit.  My favourite part of the whole visit was watching the bees in the lavender.  They were very busy and very happy.

Bees in the lavender.

Back in Falmouth I met up with Dan and we headed to Gyllyngvase Beach for some sea swimming.  This is something Dan does at least once a week, and though I thought it was a bit mad at first I found that I really enjoy being in the ocean.  It’s… brisk and invigorating.  Yes, it’s cold.  The water in Cornwall doesn’t get particularly warm during the summer but it is enjoyable nonetheless.  We paddled around for a bit (I’m not entirely confident at my ability to swim very far from the shore) and then headed in for some barbeque from Gylly’s Cafe on the beach – yum!

Day 79 – Jousting at Pendennis Castle (click here for more photos of Day 79)

So how do you get children (or adults who are kids at heart) to visit a national monument castle during their summer break?  Host a jousting tournament!  Pendennis Castle is on the headland protecting Falmouth from the waters of the English Channel.  Henry VIII built it to defend England from the Spaniards and though it has been manned for most of its history it’s really never seen much action.  That is unless a joust is on!  There was four knights in the tournament riding horses that normally are ridden for polo.  There were squires and fools and falcons.  I think Dan and I may have been the only people there without children but I’m so glad we went, the day was a blast.

Sir Matthew and Sir Francis battling during the melee.

English Heritage has the jousting days well planned out.  They start with a bit of music and foolery and then the knights are introduced and each one runs the skills course.  The announcer lets us know that we should choose our favourite knight and buy flags to cheer them on.  At £2.50 it isn’t a hardship and it really is fun to have a favourite.  Our choices were Sir Matthew of the North in red, Sir Thomas of the South in blue, Sir Timothy of the East (also known as Mr. Blobby to the greens) in yellow, and Sir Francis of the South in green.  Sir Francis however is from Burgundy in France, and is clearly the knight to detest if you’re English.  However, he also had the best squire – a man with an amazing beard and a will to mock the other knights incessantly.  Dan and I chose Sir Francis just because he and his squire were the most fun.

Sir Francis' squire - with a most impressive beard!

After the skills competition (Sir Francis was robbed of points – the judge was biased!) there was a falconry display with two different falcons and a hawk.  The birds were all really amazing to watch.  They’re so fast and accurate.  Next up was the melee, where the knights would try to knock a small statue off of each others helmets using a club.  They did three rounds but yet again Sir Francis was robbed!  He had a victory taken from him and awarded to the second place Sir Matthew in the first round.  In the second the other three knights all ganged up on him to knock him out first, in retribution he threw off his helmet and chased all three of the other knights knocking their statues off – and getting himself disqualified from the final round.  Rats!

A goshawk, part of the falconry display.

One more display of falconry was presented before the joust however Dan and I chose to go get a good viewing spot right beside the centre of the lists (jousting arena), closest to where the knights would meet with their lances.  The competition started with a round robin competition where each knight faced each of the other three knights in a best of three lances joust.  Points were awarded and the two highest scoring knights went on to face each other in a final of three lances.  Knights received one point for hitting their opponent with the lance but not breaking it, two points for breaking their lance in the top third, and three points for breaking it further back than that.  It was really quite amazing to watch.  There was wood shattering and points awarded (and the judge cheating Sir Francis of further points).

Lances splintering during a tilt - photo by Dan.

In the end Sir Francis made it to the final facing Sir Timothy of the East.  This guys clearly all do this for fun during the summers, they know each other and obviously enjoy sparring with one another.  It is a demonstration joust but they do also really wack on each other.  We hadn’t seen much serious during the whole day but on the second to last lance green must have hit yellow just right.  I’m glad to say I think that Sir Timothy was just winded but I thought for a minute that maybe he’d broken ribs the way he was bent over and clutching his chest.  He tilted the final lance though, even without being able to breathe yet, and it was a pretty courageous.  He did lose though to Sir Francis of the West and those of us with green flags cheered loudly!  What a fun day!

Sir Francis after his win.

The evening was pretty quite compared to our day of jousting.  We went for another sea swim then headed into town for fish and chips from HarbourLights which we brought next door to the Front pub where we grabbed a cider to go with our huge servings of fish and chips.  Another perfect day.

Dan with our gigantic fish and chip dinner.

Day 80 – Returning to Munich (errm… that was the plan anyhow) (click here for more photos of Day 80)

I said farewell to Cornwall and hopped on the train back to London with a Cornish pasty in my bag for the road.  I mostly had lovely sunny days while visiting Cornwall but as I left the mist and rain were starting.  I got to London and headed for the underground to transfer to the train to the airport.  Unfortunately for me neither of the two trains that go directly from Paddington to Liverpool Street station were operating from Paddington that day, so I caught one underground, transferred to another and proceeded to stress a lot as the train I was on kept randomly stopping no where near any stations.  I could sense time slipping away and I was starting to be concerned about making my flight.  I finally got to the Liverpool Street station and onto a Stansted Express that was leaving only 3 minutes after I boarded.  I hoped maybe my luck was improving.

The town of Truro.

Unfortunately for me though, I got to the airport about half an hour before my plane was scheduled to depart.  I raced through security (they stopped my to swab my bag for explosives, drat!), and I raced towards my gate, only to find I had to catch a silly train to the next building.  I hopped on and hoped.  I got off and raced.  I got to the gate and there was no one there.  No one at all.  They’d already closed the flight, probably 3 minutes before I got there.  Damn.

I looked for some EasyJet personnel to tell me how to get back to the terminal so I could rebook my ticket.  I found a couple working at a gate boarding for Copenhagen and just closing the boarding.  I waited until it looked like they had a moment and then asked politely how I get back.  I should have gotten the woman’s name.  She was so lovely.  They were obviously swamped with the flights they were trying to board, so she couldn’t take me back but she called the check-in counters to get someone to help – they were reluctant, she said “Okay, I’ll bring her back with me at 9pm”.  I looked at my watch – that was three hours away!!  I looked up as she hung up the phone and she smiled, the check-in counter was sending someone over.  Her words ‘I just used a little emotional blackmail, don’t you worry, there will be someone here soon’.  She rocked.  I went and sat nearby so that I would be easy to find and then I got a bit of a show.

A young man went racing towards the closed gate for the flight to Copenhagen.  He had missed his flight just like I missed mine.  He however wasn’t polite about it – cursing and swearing at the staff, who got loud and confrontational right back.  He really didn’t seem to get it and I really thought they were going to have to call the police on him but he did eventually settle down a bit.  Not long after someone did come to bring us back to the main terminal – where my experiences with EasyJet just got better.  I was on the internet on my phone talking to Dan as he searched for alternative flights for me back to Munich.  It looked like the cheapest option would still be EasyJet but the flight would cost about £90 and leave the next night – I’m such an idiot for not giving myself enough time to cross London.  I got in the line for tickets from EasyJet as it would be easier than booking using my phone.  I got to the counter and explained the situation and he got me on a flight the next morning, from Stansted, for only £40!  He called it a ‘recovery fee’ for missing my flight!  Then he pointed me in the directions of the hotels around the airport.  I am certainly more than pleasantly surprised at how nice all of the EasyJet staff are (as long as you’re nice to them too!).

With my new ticket in hand I checked the hotel right at the airport, the Radisson.  They wanted £99 for the night plus £10 for breakfast.  I instead caught a shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express and paid £85 for my room – breakfast and internet included!  I had an alright dinner, caught up on emails and got a good night’s sleep.

Day 81 – Return to Munich (click for more photos of day 81)

With three missed bookings behind me I was a bit more cautious about timing this morning.  I got up before 6am, grabbed a quick breakfast and caught the 6:30am shuttle back to the terminal.  I checked in, went through security, grabbed a latte, hopped the train to the building with my gate, and nearly had a heart attack when I looked up at the board and it said my flight was in final boarding!  I raced around the corner to the gate and found that they hadn’t even started boarding.  So yes, my timing was much improved!  I had a short, uneventful flight back to Munich.

It was a quiet afternoon in Munich.  I worked on packing a little bit and then went with Tony to his friend Pete’s place for Pete’s birthday barbeque (you host your own birthday parties in Europe, instead of throwing them for each other).  Once the barbeques were going (good work ladies) we had a nice meal and a few beers.  From there we went to a nearby pub for some more drinks, including a 5L caipirinha for the birthday boy which he shared.  It was a fun night, chatting with people from Germany, France, Ireland, the USA and more.

Birthday boy Pete with his zombie caipirinha.

Day 82 – Recovery (no photos)

I wound up staying up very late (early…) on Saturday night and spent the rest of my day having a ‘How I Met Your Mother’ marathon.  Yup, many episodes of the show were watched and I vegged the whole day.

Day 83 – ‘I think it’s time to go home’ (no photos)

I had a few things that I thought about doing in Munich.  Maybe a bike tour… Maybe visit some parks…  Instead, I watched the remaining episodes of ‘How I Met Your Mother’.  Motivation to move was very low, so I didn’t.  I took this as a sign that my flight back to Vancouver on Wednesday was pretty much perfectly timed.

Day 84 – Munich’s Olympiapark! (click here for more photos of Day 84)

I was not feeling particularly inspired to travel and tour this day either, but as it was my last day in Europe I felt a need to make a special effort.  And I am so glad that I did!  Munich’s Olympiapark is the perfect example of the sorts of legacies that the Olympics can leave behind – things that benefit the city and the region for years to come.

Olympiapark from the Olympiaturm, or tower.

Before World War II the area that is now Olympic Park was Munich’s airport.  After the war the airport and 2/3rds of Munich was destroyed.  Rubble from the destroyed buildings of Munich was brought to the former airport lands and piled into hills – creating really the only hills in Munich.  After that the land sat empty.  In 1965 some folks decided to apply for the Olympics as Munich had this large piece of unused land.  They put in a short video to the International Olympic Committee saying just that.  They were up against Detroit, Montreal and Madrid – cities that had facilities to offer that Munich did not.  My guides described it as a surprise win, and with only 6 years to go until the 1972 Summer Olympics Munich had a lot of work to do.  A competition was held to design the stadium for the Games.  The man that won, Günther Behnisch of Stuttgart, had more than just a design for the stadium, he had a design for the whole Games.

Two thirds of this hill is rubble from the buildings destroyed during WWII - now it's a beautiful park.

The 1972 Olympics were to be 1) Green – the Olympiapark and the Games all looked green – green seats, green grass, state of the art technology such as the runoff from rain on the stadium roof is fed into the pond in the lake. 2) Close – the Games were to be held in as small of area as possible with as little travel as possible.  Olympiapark hosted 80% of the events plus the Olympic Village.  3) Democratic – this was partly done to demonstrate how the Germany of 1972 differed from 1936, when Berlin hosted the Olympics under Hitler’s regime.  There were almost no fences.  There was no security.  Unfortunately this part backfired terribly when the Israeli team was taken hostage by the terrorist group Black September during the Games in what is now known as the Munich Massacre.  The whole Israeli team was killed, 11 people, as well as one police officer and five of the eight kidnappers.

Waldi - the first named Olympic Mascot. He's a very cute little dachshund.

Olympiapark has some fascinating features such as the world’s largest tent-roof.  The tent roof stretches over a large part of the stadium (Olympiastadion), a multi-purpose hall (Olympiahalle), and the swimming pool (schwimmhalle).  It has all the pieces that any tent would have – poles, ropes, fabric, and pegs.  And, like most tents, if a peg or a pole fails it will effect the whole structure.  It is constructed of a steel net holding Plexiglass sheets in place, forming the fabric of the roof.  As the roof structure is very complicated, and computers in the 1960′s and 70′s aren’t quite like we have today they did dozens of tests on the materials to make sure they would be strong enough to hold, even in adverse conditions.  Everything flexes – the steel cables, the Plexiglass sheets, and even the pylons which are set on hinges – 2 cm of movement at the bottom gives more than a metre of distance at the top.  Safety was also a concern.  If a fire occurred the tent roof would trap the heat, potentially cooking anyone under it.  The solution was to create ‘memory’ in the Plexiglass.  They started with 2x2m sheets of Plexi, heated them to a specific temperature and then stretched them to 3x3m sheets.  The result is that if the sheets get heated to that temperature again, they will shrink to their original size, allowing the heat to escape through the roof!

Under the tent roof over Olympiastadion.

I toured the stadium in the morning.  I went to the top of the Olympiaturm, a 291m tower overlooking all of Munich.  And the most fun of all was a roof walk on Olympiastadion, right up on the tent roof.  It is a very cool thing to do, they even let you climb up one of the peaks, and the amount of flex and bounce in the roof is quite incredible.  The only thing I’m sad about is that I didn’t ask about tickets for their ‘Flying Fox’ – a zip line across the stadium.  Ah well, I’ll be back to Munich soon I’m sure so I’ll go then and bring my brother along!

On the roof tour.

After a day of Olympic-ing at Olympiapark I headed back towards town where I met up with my friend Sara and she brought me for poutine at M Poutinerie.  The owner, Jochen, was born in Canada, lived all over the world, went to university in Canada and now lives in Munich.  He has opened a poutine shop there where he makes quite possibly the world’s best poutine (and yes, sadly for us Canadians is way over in Munich where it’s hard for us to get any!).  He makes his own gravies.  He makes killer crispy fries.  And he’s got a supplier for the squeakiest of squeaky cheese curds.  I snarfed mine, it was way too good.  I can’t wait until he starts opening shops in Canada (Vancouver first please!!).

Me and Jochen with other customers at M Poutinerie.

After stuffing ourselves on poutine we caught the U-Bahn to the centre of Munich where we strolled around and did a little shopping while waiting for my brother to get back from work.  Eventually we met up with him and went for Indian food for dinner.  The food is always good at Ganesha and it seems like there is always a show.  Last time I was there a group of guerrilla gardeners planted a wee garden in a plot right beside our table.  This time the driver of a car wasn’t paying attention and wound up slamming on his breaks and crunching into a small post just across the road from us.  It seemed like a long drawn out process as the occupants of the vehicle tried to decide what to do about it, they still hadn’t done anything by the time we left to find some gelato.

Day 85 – Back to Vancouver (click here for photos of day 85)

After 85 days of travelling through England, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland it was time for me to go home.  My brother drove me out to the airport nice and early in the morning so that I wouldn’t miss my flight.  We checked in my bags and went for breakfast.  Tony asserts that the Munich airport is one of the best in the world and as far as I saw he’s right, and I didn’t even go into the fancy, new Lufthansa terminal.  Around 9am it was time to say goodbye, but I know I’ll see him soon.  Thanks Tony, for everything!

The flights home on Air Berlin weren’t too exciting, which is really a good thing.  My first flight was from Munich to Dusseldorf and then I had a direct flight from Dusseldorf to Vancouver.  I met some lovely people from Vernon and White Rock and spent most of the flight awake in anticipation of getting home.  I landed in Vancouver, happy to be home, and tempted to be lazy and take a cab to my parents apartment downtown, but I was good and got on the Canada Line, which really was as easy as I had remembered it being.

Saying goodbye to Germany.

Home – land of ocean and mountains, sushi and crispy bacon, Seawall and salty air, bridges and boats.  I love Vancouver.

And I loved my Grand Tour of Europe.  I’ve been asked a lot of questions already about my trip – What was the best thing you did or saw?  What lessons did you learn?  Where would you go back to?  Where wouldn’t you go back to?  Since it’s taken me this long to get my final travelling post done I’m going to save those answers for another post in the next couple of days, but they won’t be easy questions to answer.  Until then, I’m just going to soak up being in Vancouver and being in Canada.

]]> http://nerdbird.ca/blog/2010/08/grand-tour-days-77-84-cornwall-and-munich-and-the-end-of-my-journey/feed/ 2 http://nerdbird.ca/blog/2010/08/grand-tour-days-68-76-last-week-in-paris-then-to-munich-and-beyond/ http://nerdbird.ca/blog/2010/08/grand-tour-days-68-76-last-week-in-paris-then-to-munich-and-beyond/#comments Tue, 03 Aug 2010 15:54:08 +0000 Andrea http://nerdbird.ca/blog/?p=485 I tried to write on the train to Cornwall yesterday and failed miserably, but today, in the peaceful village of Falmouth I have time and some focus. It’s been over a week since I last posted – the longest I’ve gone without writing in more than a year I believe (wow, just realised that this second). The last week has been busy, it involved – my last week in Paris starting with the Tour de France and ended with me missing my train to Munich by 15 seconds, going to Munich for the weekend and then travelling here to Cornwall. Busy but in a way that only your final moments on vacation can be – wonderful.

The Eiffel Tower on a foggy morning.

Day 68 – Le Tour de France! (click for more photos of Day 68)

Emma and I had one goal for today – to see the final day of the Tour de France as the riders arrived in Paris and rode laps of the Champs Elysses. We started the day a bit late as I had to finish up my last post but then headed out for le Brunch. Le Brunch is supposed to be huge in Paris. On weekends Parisians head out for a sumptuous long brunch with croissants and viennoise (yummy pastries), coffee and juice, eggs and more. We figured we needed our strength up to cheer as the riders passed so le Brunch was the perfect solution.

Test riders on the course - about two hours before the competitors!

I had checked the riders’ schedule (okay, what I thought was the riders’ schedule) before we left the apartment so we were expecting the riders to hit Paris by 2pm. We walked from Les Halles where we had breakfast to the end of the Tuileries nearly to Place de la Concorde to find ourselves a spot to set up. We got a great spot along the river, up on a wall above the road – a perfect view of an area we were told that the riders would pass eight times. We were very proud of ourselves. The catch? We were definitely really early. At least two hours early. There were ups and downs of being so early. Good – we got spots right on the railing, we got to see all of the sponsor vehicles and float-like vehicles go by and we got to know some of our neighbours a bit. Down side – I apparently don’t stand still for two hours very well. I think Emma would tell you I got pretty winge-y. I didn’t want to leave but I was cursing the riders for not being faster (and Team Radioshack for wearing the wrong jerseys and delaying everything – I support why they did it but… winge, winge, winge).

One of the Haribo parade vehicles.

I took a lot of photos. Photos of the sponsor float vehicles, team buses and vehicles, media vehicles, the test riders and eventually the riders! I’m glad they rode past us eight times because they go fast! I photographed them the first two passes and then realised I wasn’t really seeing anything so I watched a few passes and photographed one or two more. It was pretty neat all in all. I certainly would like to see some more of the Tour live in the future.

St. Michel chicken - too good to leave out!

Finally! The riders!

The riders passing with the Grande Palais in the background.

Em and I happy as clams!

After the riders had passed we all wandered away. Emma and I passed over the Seine and into the Saint Germain des Pres area to hunt down some dinner – we were looking for fondue at a restaurant that we’d been to previously. While usually my sense of direction is quite good there was something about this place that made it hard to find. But after nearly giving up we did find it again. We had a lovely traditional fondue dinner before doing some window-shopping in the area. We meandered onto Ile de la Cité and to a restaurant beside Notre Dame for a bathroom break. It’s always easiest to order something at a restaurant in Paris if you’d like to use their toilets – so we ordered a glass of wine each and were treated to wonderful music coming from the square in front of Notre Dame.  We danced in front of Notre Dame before wandering back towards the apartment in Bastille.  It was a wonderful day.

Music in front of Notre Dame - that baby boy loved to dance!

Day 69 – The Paris Opera (click for more photos of Day 69)

Since reading “The Phantom of the Opera” as a little girl Emma has dreamed of visiting the Paris Opera House – the setting of Gaston Leroux’s story.  Fascinatingly Emma and I had different recollections of the story.  For her the lake in the cellars was real – for me a useful plot tool.  Unfortunately regular tourists can’t visit the cellars, but there is water down there!  This story starts with an unknown architect, Charles Garnier, won the commission to build a new Opera House in Paris from Napoleon III.  While construction started in 1860 it took until 1875 to complete.  One of the major reasons for this is that the site of the new opera was on marshy land.  It took a considerable amount of time for the land to be drained and a concrete cistern to be built as the Opera’s foundations – leading to the story of the lake.

The Grand Foyer.

It was a fairly short visit.  For how gigantically huge the Opera House is not that much of it is open to the public but we did see the Grand Staircase, the Grand Foyer, snuck a peek inside the theatre itself and looked in minor horror at the painting on its ceiling.  The theatre seating area is opulent – red velvet and gold gilding, a gigantic crystal chandelier, a stage that can hold up to 450 artists, and the ceiling, ah the ceiling.  It was painted by Chagall in 1964 and has always been controversial.  Maybe if we’d known what was coming we would have been more prepared to appreciate it but the bright primary colours and rough sketch outlines looked more like children’s paintings to us than master works of art.  As I said, maybe if we’d expected it we could have appreciated the art more, but for me I found the contrast jarring, and not in a pleasant way such as the pyramids at the Louvre.

Heavy gilding and red velvet below - primary colours of Chagall's ceiling above.

So that was the Paris Opera house – fascinating yet slightly disappointing.  We grabbed some lunch and had a quiet afternoon.  We walked along the Promenade Plantée along Avenue Daumesnil – an abandoned bit of elevated rail that has been converted into a 4.5km long park.  Below it we passed the Viaduc des Arts – artists’ studios that occupy the archways of the viaduct.  It was quite the lovely walk.  As we were in a walking mood we just kept going – all the way to Republique.

Day 70 – Chanel and the French Revolution (not at the same time) (click for more photos of Day 70)

Chanel.  So Parisian.  So French.  And such a wonderful way to start a day.  Emma and I went on a Paris Walks fashion tour with the main focus being on Chanel and Coco herself.  We even visited the flagship store at 31 Rue Cambon, where Coco used to work on the upper floors.  It was a fascinating tour – and really wonderful to get to visit a store such as Chanel’s flagship.  It’s not something I would have done on my own, but if I do ever have enough money to go back and buy a Chanel suit (my uncle insists every woman should have one) then I certainly will be happy to do so.  It was a beautiful store.

Exiting 31 Rue Cambon - such a treat!

After Chanel (and a quick pop into Hermes) Emma and I found some lunch and headed off for a French Revolution tour again with Paris Walks – my last tour with them!  And one that I had been trying to get to for a while.  I’ll miss Brad’s stories – I walked through Paris with him on nine different tours and thoroughly enjoyed every one.

The metric system was developed during the French Revolution and started being used in France in 1791.

Day 71 – Giverny and Monet’s Gardens (click for more photos of Day 71)

Refreshed from a restful evening Emma and I headed off early for a bike tour of Giverny and Monet’s Gardens.  We met the group at Gare St. Lazare just before 10am and headed off by train to the town of Vernon where we’d pick up our bikes.  We shopped in the Wednesday market in Vernon, picnicked by the Seine, rode to Giverny and explored the gardens Monet built himself to paint in.  They are truly as spectacular as his paintings suggest.  Even with hoards of tourists the area is peaceful and beautiful.  I hope one day I’ll have time to return to Giverny, stay in a little bed and breakfast and spend my days painting in the gardens.  Or at least drawing.  One day…

Monet's Japanese gardens and his inspiration for his Water Lilies series.

Monet's French Formal gardens - normally they would be arranged symmetrically but he arranged them in swathes of colour.

Self-portrait on a bike.

Day 72 – The end of a perfect month (click for more photos of Day 72)

Emma and I started our day with packing as we both had early trains, Emma to London and myself to Munich, the next morning.  We left the apartment around 10am for breakfast, one of the best we’d had yet in Paris.  We picked up Em’s ticket at Gare du Nord and then took the metro to Place d’Italie for a bit of last minute shopping – finally with some success for both of us!  Then hot chocolates at la Maison du Chocolate by the Louvre.

Then we went to the Musée d’Orsay.  Based on our previous museum experiences, especially our first trip to the Louvre, we were not hopeful.  We had been warned of two hour lineups as well…  But as the day was perfect, the Musée d’Orsay also worked out perfectly.  There were no lineups to get in and the first thing you see as you enter the museum?  A sign saying ‘No photography or filming”.  No photography at all?  Yup, and it was magical!  People actually stopped and looked at the art.  Everyone was careful to share space, letting the others around them in to see something more closely or being sure that if they did go in to look close up that they weren’t interfering with someone else’s enjoyment.  We got to stop worrying about flashes and elbows and really enjoy the art ourselves.  Such a treat!

We had dinner at a wonderful little place on the Left Bank right near the museum – I bravely had steak tartare for dinner (it was much too big to eat all of, but it was pretty darned tasty!).  After our very filling meal we headed off for a last minute bike tour.  We had enjoyed Giverny so much we decided to go on the Fat Tire evening bike tour of Paris.  Andrew, our guide from Giverny, advised us that we may want to bring our own wine along for the evening.  As we didn’t pass any shops Emma did some fierce bartering with one of the guys selling wine and beer from buckets along the Champs des Mars under the Eiffel Tower.  He started at one bottle for 25€ but she got him to two for 20€!!

Em riding past the Eiffel Tower.

The tour was great – but made even better as we met up with Patti and her friend Francine from Vancouver!  Patti became my friend during the run-up to the Olympics and was an invaluable asset to my writing of 2010vanfan.  I had met Francine on the day Patti carried the Torch.  They were both in Paris for a few days after they finished a tour where they accompanied the Tour de France.  It’s amazing how small the world is sometimes, but it was wonderful to see them both and fun to share the experience with them.

Patti in Paris!

We rode from the Eiffel Tower to Ile Saint-Louis, through the plaza of the Louvre right at sunset (amazing, truly amazing!), then back along the Seine to where the river cruise boats leave.  We locked up the bikes, boarded the boat and poured our wine – just as the Eiffel Tower started to sparkle.  We laughed and talked and drank wine for the hour that the boat cruise lasted.  It was really quite lovely.  Then back off the boats and onto our bikes.  Now, if I leave the next part out I would have it pointed out in a bunch of comments I’m sure.  Why?  Because someone had to be the clown – and it was me.  I don’t think it was just the wine, but looking up at the sky while riding a bike results in me turning abruptly to the left… and right into a parked car.  I promise, the sound it made was much more exciting than the actual sensation.  I tried to demonstrate why I hit the car and promptly turned left again, though there were no parked cars to jump out in front of me so I learned to keep my eyes at street height, and spent the rest of the night amusing people with my silliness.  There’s always one in every group right??

The Louvre at sunset.

Patti, Francine, myself and Emma on our river cruise.

After the tour finished Em and I headed to the local pub the guides go to, where we met up with some fun Americans from Florida, and were eventually joined by our guide Andrew (they had to put all the bikes away first).  It was a boisterous and fun evening… that turned into morning…

The Eiffel Tower sparkling.

Day 73 – Au revior Paris (no photos of Day 73 )

Emma woke me in a panic at 6:45am.  Her train left at 7:15, mine at 7:24.  She had hit her snooze button and I had failed to even turn my alarm on, though it was set correctly.  We jammed our things in our bags and raced out the door.  We found a cab for Emma and I hopped on the tube.  I got a text – she’d missed her train.  I ran into Gare de l’Est and for my platform – the train was still there!  I sprinted to the first door and pressed the button, only to have the train pull away.  I’d missed it by 15 seconds!  Damn.  Em caught a train half an hour later.  I wasn’t so lucky and had to wait four hours for the next train going my way.

I ate breakfast.  I strolled through the station.  I tried to nap a bit, surrounded by my bags.  I caught my train and napped some more.  Changed trains in Stuttgart and napped some more.  Then arrived in Munich – happy to be there.  I picked up the keys my brother had left for me at his neighbourhood pub, the Hüttn Wirt, and let myself into his apartment.  He was about half an hour behind me – returning from training for work in Bremen.  He made a wicked jambalaya for dinner and we had a quiet night.

Day 74 – Munich (all the photos of the day are posted)

So many things to do.  We headed to downtown and headed to a small square where one of Tony’s friends, Erin, was displaying her jewellery at an artist’s market.  She had wonderful pieces – I got a lovely amethyst and ‘aqua quartz’ necklace.  Tony bought a caprihina and some cookies.  Where else but Munich can you get beer and caprihina’s at a market??

Mmm... German food! A definite change from French food.

From there Tony took me to a dirndl shop.  Dirndl’s are the traditional clothing for Bavarian women and for those women visiting Oktoberfest.  While I am heading back to Canada soon I am still hoping to make it to Oktoberfest this year or next year so I figured it would be easier to get a dirndl now – before the crowds of Oktoberfest (apparently the shops get absolutely feral!).  As it was, even two months before Oktoberfest, it was packed in the store!  But with Tony’s help, and the help of one of the shop girls we got me suited up in a beautiful emerald green dirndl with a pretty pink apron and ribbon.  Then Tony surprised me by buying it for me for my birthday.  I have the best brother in the world!  I hope I can wear it soon, it is really very pretty!

Not the best photo of me but my dirndl looks wonderful!

We finished up the evening by going to a house-warming at the house of one of Tony’s ultimate frisbee playing friends, Justin.  He and his family’s new house was a bit out of town so Tony drove a few of us down and we had a mellow time sitting in their yard, eating wonderful homemade food (I missed Mica’s tiramisu though!) and chatting.  Luckily for me there were a bunch of English speaking expats so my German wasn’t tried too hard.  After a while, Tony, his friend Tim and I headed back to town where we had snacks and some Bavarian beer at the Hüttn Wirt.  Bea later joined us and the four of us were well looked after by Ante – the wonderful co-owner and hostess of the HW.

Day 75 – Ultimate frisbee (click for more photos of day 75)

We had a very quiet morning around the house.  I packed my things so that they would be out of the way while I headed to England for the week.  In the afternoon we headed down to Englischer Gartens for the weekly ultimate frisbee pickup game.  It’s been a while since I played but I gamely got out there, until I moved two directions at the same time and decided to cheer from the sidelines instead.  It was hot out, particularly on the field in the full sun.  Most people jump into the Isar river after the Sunday games anyway but today it was a necessity.  The water felt great – though ‘isar’ in my brain* means ‘ice’ and it was darned cold.  None of us stayed in for long but it was refreshing!  From there it was off to the biergarten for a maß (‘mass’ – 1 litre of beer) and some dinner.

Tony playing ultimate frisbee.

*Note – Isar probably comes from Celtic words meaning ‘fast water’.

Day 76 – The trip to Cornwall (again no photos – I’m just forgetting on the travel days)

Not such an exciting day really.  Tony headed off in the morning to drive to Bern, Switzerland, where he has a few days work this week.  I caught the train to the airport for my flight to London.  All good, until I landed in London.  It started promising – I was the first person into the Customs line for non-EU citizens.  Then the woman at the counter that I needed a full and correct address of where I was staying to be allowed into the country, and that I should sit down until I figured it out.  My sim card for England was out of money, my German sim card wouldn’t work… I couldn’t get a hold of anyone to find out the address and there was no pay phone available.  After 20 minutes I jotted an address on the card, the best that my memory would serve me (how many blonde female Canadians are there likely to be in Falmouth – town of 5000?? Jeez!).  The next desk that was free was not the same women – I said I had the address but not the post code. “No problem” was the response.  I was thrilled and annoyed all at the same time – how much time could I have saved if…. anyway.

I had only budgeted two hours between landing and my train to Cornwall.  I had just lost nearly half an hour at Customs.  The train ride into town would be 45 minutes, and when I got to the platform I’d missed the previous train by two minutes and had to wait for 13 more minutes.  While it gave me time to put money on my phone it did not bode well for making my train.  Which of course I didn’t.  I did get a few extra minutes with Emma at Paddington Station though (I had accidentally packed one of her dresses in my things when we raced out of Paris), so that was nice.

The train trip from London was uneventful (though the feral children and the parents ignoring them tried my nerves a bit).  I made it to Cornwall safe and sound and happy to be breathing clean Cornish air.  It really is beautiful here.  So I have a few more days here in Cornwall – with a long list of things I’d like to do – sea swimming, eating Cornish pasties and cream teas, visiting the Eden Project again…  It’ll be another busy few days.

It’s really an amazing amount of people – all of whom need water, electricity, sewage facilities and more to live life in our modern world.  In Paris that is all underground.  There is access to the underground everywhere.  Manholes for electricity or water or sewers but there are also manhole covers, in the southern parts of the city, that are labelled “IDC’ for ‘L’inspection des Carrieres” or the Quarry Inspectors.  Don’t accidentally drop down one of their access points because the ground will be 20m away!  There are more than 300 km of quarry alone below Paris and more than 2,100 km of sewer.  There is a city beneath the city of Paris and over the past few days I’ve spent some time down there!

In the limestone quarries under southern Paris.

Day 63 – Sewers and Crypts (click here for more photos of Day 63)

First up today was a Paris Walks tour of the Paris Sewers.  This may sound an odd thing to do but I’m by no means alone – Paris has an actual museum and educational walk through a section of their sewers in an area along the Seine on the Left Bank.  Chris, our guide, told us that the facility was rather recent.  Tours used to be on the right bank near Chatelet, and were mostly conducted by boat (floating on you know what).  However, someone managed to sneak away from a tour group and drill a hole into the vault of a bank so the whole tourist attraction has been moved away from all buildings.

While this device itself isn't used anymore its modern versions are similar. This little guy was used for cleaning the smallest sewers. It acts as a dam, blocking water to build pressure, then the gate is lifted to send a gush of water through the sewer, flushing out any buildup.

Yes, the tour was a bit stinky – but not really as strongly as I had expected.  I think it was made up for by learning about the architecture, tools, and history of the Paris sewers.  For instance – while the first sewers were Roman and built between the 1st and 4th centuries, but when the Romans left so did the sewers.  Philippe Auguste had some built in the 13th century – but the architecture of his sewers made them plug up very fast so those too were abandoned.  While various other bits and pieces were added here in there over the years it wasn’t until Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann arrived that things really started to work.  Paris until that time still had predominantly Medieval (read – very narrow, winding, unpaved, rather-ick) streets.  Waste was tossed out of windows (regardless of who was below).  The population was high but waste had no where to go, other than on the streets.  Haussmann redesigned the city – adding broad boulevards, connecting commercial centres and, since he was tearing things up anyway, sewers.  Everything was thought of.  The sewers follow a natural slope in the Paris basin to make it self-draining.  The sewers are ovoid in shape to prevent buildup and to make the removal of that buildup much easier.  More recently excellent treatment facilities have been installed at the end of the sewer system (to the northwest of Paris) where the water is cleaned and returned to the Seine clean and safe.

In one of the main sewage lines. While the sewage level is normally low, in severe rain or flood situations the level can rise.

After learning all about the Sewers I rode a Velib’ bike to Notre Dame to learn about another sort of underground – the ‘Crypt Archeologique’ beneath the square in front of the grand cathedral.  Notre Dame is on Ile de la Cité, the ancient heart of Paris.  When the Romans first came to the area they did occupy the Left Bank as well, but the city was essentially unfortified and when marauders appeared the Romans abandoned the Left Bank for the Ile – building walls around it to keep themselves safe.  Below the square in front of Notre Dame you can see remnants of Roman construction.  As well as 11th and 12th century construction from the same time as the construction of Notre Dame.  There are bits of churches, quays, hospitals, businesses and more down there.  I found it rather fascinating.  If you like old bits of rock and architecture then you will enjoy it as well if not you’d best give it a miss and head for something more exciting (maybe Napoleon’s tomb or the Moulin Rouge).

Stairs into what was once a cellar for a building that sat in front of Notre Dame.

Day 64 – History, modern art and Montmartre (click here for more photos of Day 64)

I started my day with a visit to the Musée Carnavalet which hosts exhibits on the history of Paris (and is free of charge – that was a lovely surprise!).  There were all sorts of treats in this museum, one of which was just the two lovely houses that it is hosted in.  There were also rooms and shops from the 19th century that were basically just picked up and re-installed into the museum (my favourite was the jewellery shop) as well as some pre-Roman artifacts including the remains of dug-out canoes!  While there aren’t that many spectacular pieces I found the museum as a whole well worth visiting.  It is a bit quieter than many of the museums – definitely a big bonus.

Vase from the 1924 Paris Olympics!!

A 19th century Parisian jewellery shop.

I had a few other thoughts on options for after the Carnavalet, but as I was right near the Georges Pompidou Centre I decided to go there.  The Pompidou is mainly a modern art gallery and I will admit it hadn’t really occurred to me to go but then I saw a few names of artists with works on display (Picasso, Matisse…) and thought that I should.  I am very glad that I did though not so much for the permanent collection.

I bought my ticket and headed for the gift shop, hoping to buy myself a sketchbook (I still have not found a sketchbook in this city, lots of notebooks, but nothing to draw on).  On my way from the ticket desk to the gift shop I passed what I can only term an ‘art installation’ but it had live people in it.  Many Snow Whites to be precise.  The piece was called Blanche-Neige, le Banquet or Snow White, the banquet and consisted of a great many women dressed as Snow White moving around a banquet table as well as a huge surrounding area.  There was music, and voice-overs and a lot to see, including the awe, enjoyment, confusion and more of the spectators of the piece.  I’m not sure what exactly it was about the Snow Whites that drew me, but it was easily one of the most moving art pieces I’ve ever seen.

Blanche-Neige, le Banquet

I did manage to actually head up the ‘hamster tubes’ (the escalators are all outside the building and look remarkably like hamster tubes) to the gallery spaces above.  I started with the current exhibition, called Dreamlands, on the top floor.  Dreamlands looks at imaginary cities from art and literature and how they shape what and how we live today.  Dreamland was an actual amusement park on Coney Island that burnt down in 1911 but they also explore Vegas and Disneyland, modern cities and how we continue to dream.  It was a wonderful exhibition.

Then I was off to the permanent collection.  Here is where I show that I’m not a ‘true art connoisseur’.  I did like many of the Matisse pieces, but most of the rest of the collection I found depressing, grotesque or unpleasant.   Even Picasso’s works were not the type that I enjoy from his work (I’m starting to understand some of the many different phases he went through).  Even past the ‘masterpieces’ of the gallery I was sometimes shocked at how unhappy a lot of the work made me.  There was a great exhibit of GuerrillaGirls.com posters (“Do women have to be naked to get into US museums? Less than 3% of the artists in the Met. Museum are women, but 83% of the nudes are female”) but then the part of the Pompidou devoted to art by women was predominantly sexual, and sometimes graphically so, in nature.  There are wonderful female artists the world over that don’t concentrate on the fact that they are female or feel that they have to make sexual art to be taken seriously.  Anyhow, I left the permanent collection feeling rather disappointed and a little icky.  I fixed that though by visiting the Snow Whites on my way out.  They really made me smile to the point of nearly crying.  While it was unusual art – this is the sort of modern art that really speaks to me.

Snow Whites with machine guns.

Last up for the day – I had planned to meet Hattie in Montmartre for a ‘NewEurope’ tour of the area.  I have been only on Paris Walks tours in Paris and this was my chance to compare companies.  While Hattie and I had a lovely time (and made a new friend, Rena, from Vancouver Island) the tour was no where near as good as the Paris Walks tours.  I will spare you most of the details but give you an example.  Our tour started in front of the Moulin Rouge.  Our young and eager (and, I’m sad to say, Canadian) guide spoke a bit about how the dancing girls realised they could make more money if they showed more skin.  This eventually led to the cancan dance, kicking legs high to show glimpses of what was under the skirts.  Of course they stopped wearing underwear at some point as they’d be better paid for that.  This led to a group of men our guide admired and envied highly.  He said outright that he wanted their job.  They were panty-inspectors.  They got to make sure that the girls were wearing them.  Now, maybe with some guides this could be a funny story, but really I think all he managed was making us feel sorry for him at best.  I did learn a lot about how not to run tours though (silver-lining?).

Sacre Coeur

The true silver-lining though was going for dinner with Hattie and Rena after the tour.  We went up to a little restaurant right below one of the two remaining windmills (Montmartre is a hill after all and was perfectly situated to catch wind for grinding grain and gypsum).  Our server was hilarious (he mocked me for not eating two wee slices of cucumber – implying that I thought they’d go straight to my hips!).  The food was delicious, somehow we even fit dessert in (more mocking for not finishing my ice cream).  And the company was wonderful, Rena was verging on rambunctious (she doesn’t get out often because of work and we were having a great night in Paris!!).  After we finished our wonderful meal we walked down Montmartre and right smack dab into the middle of the red light district.  We got photos of the Moulin Rouge at night and crepes from a street vendor.  It was a lot of fun!

A wee digestif to help break up the fats.

The Moulin Rouge - entry starts at 80€, I didn't go in.

Day 65 – Emma’s back! (click for more photos of Day 65)

Mostly a quiet day – and a quick post.  I tried one or two museums in the morning (both closed) before deciding to just head to Gare du Nord to wait for Emma to arrive at 2pm.  Gare de l’Est has all sorts of interesting shops so I thought I’d be fine at Gare du Nord but it isn’t nearly so much fun.  Instead I sat and had a beer while drawing the station, killing time until Emma arrived.

Once she had we hopped the metro out to the hostel in Villejuif to drop her bags, then we headed back into the city for a little shopping at Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.  We had hoped to break our record of having no luck at department stores but unfortunately the trend held.  Though lots of things were on sale the prices and styles and sizes still just did not work for either of us.  Before we got too cranky we bailed and headed back to the hostel for Korean dinner!

Inside the Galeries Lafayette - one of Paris's oldest department stores.

Day 66 – The move (click for more photos of Day 66)

Emma only had one night in the little Korean hostel to the south of Paris.  We packed up the next morning and said goodbye before heading towards the Bastille area.  I had found a room for rent in an apartment with the owner – Brigitte.  The Bastille area is much easier to get to and from, and though it is more expensive than the hostel we also have more privacy which is very nice.  Brigitte is fabulous.  It’s going to be a very nice last week in Paris while staying with her.

The next chore we had to take care of was returning the keys from the apartment I had rented and getting my deposit back.  I had really hoped that the landlady would maybe give me back part of my rent as the studio was uninhabitable – but I also wasn’t surprised when she didn’t.  It’s frustrating but I am happier losing the money than staying with the bedbugs and getting very ill from them.  The most frustrating part is that she still doesn’t seem to believe me that the bedbugs are there and they’re what was causing my bites (I had 5 bug carcasses and the examination of pharmacists and a doctor for cryin’ out loud!).  I really hope that her new guests in August don’t suffer.

Back to fun stuff – I’d scheduled a Paris Walks tour of the Masterpieces of the Louvre for Emma and I for 4pm that afternoon – a Friday.  If you ever want to go to the Louvre I highly recommend this tour.  If you can’t make the tour then I still highly recommend Friday evenings!  It was still busy, but not the rage inducing sort of busy that it had been on my previous visits.  I managed photos of the Venus de Milo with no others in the way.  I actually got to walk up to the rope around the Mona Lisa and take as close of a look at her as it is possible to get – without being elbowed or shoved by anyone else!  It was a lovely experience made even better by Oriel’s knowledge and appreciation of the Louvre and the pieces she brought us to see.

The Venus de Milo.

Day 67 – The limestone quarries of Paris! (click for more photos of Day 67 – there are a lot!)

I am a lucky girl.  I know I’ve said this before, but it’s because it is true!  While on my Paris Sewer tour I asked my guide Chris if there was anyway to visit some of the gypsum mines of Paris.  He gave me his email address, I emailed, he emailed his friend, and his friend invited me underground in Paris!  This is the first time where I wish I’d brought my boots with me on this trip (and that the Tour de France wasn’t on).  Gilles, a man who knows the quarries of Paris better than almost any other, invited me on a 10-hour trip underground.  I wish I could have gone!  But Emma came back to Paris for the Tour de France and I didn’t have my boots.  Instead Emma and I went on a two-hour tour under l’Hopital Cochin – an area that is basically a museum (no boots required).  We tagged along on the trip that Gilles was leading for a French journalist and it was amazing!

A map of the quarries.

We started our day by scarfing breakfast so that we wouldn’t be late (note: scarfing food is always a bad idea).  We raced to the meeting point and introduced ourselves and headed for the entrance.  Normally it would have been a calm introduction in the entry room, looking at maps and such, however today was a little different.  A man was returning engraved stone plaques taken from the quarries in the 1970′s (everyone wanted souvenirs).  The quarries are labelled with the street names above them, so once there were lots of plaques with names but many went missing and the fear at losing them was so great that the conservationists actually removed many for safe keeping as well.  It was very evident that the return of some of these ‘souvenirs’ is a very rare occurrence and it had Gilles and the care-taker of the Cochin quarries very excited and happy.  What a great way to start the tour!

One of the two stone plaques returned today.

When I visited the Catacombs with Dan I was disappointed at how little you could see of the stone (much more interesting than a bunch of old bones!).  But here at Cochin every bed was visible.  As were fossils, particularly in a layer right near the ceiling!  We saw 18th century reinforcements (streets had started collapsing in Paris), groundwater wells, tool-marks from the digging and consolidation of the tunnels, collapsed roofs, different identification systems and 18th century graffiti, plus so much more.  I walked around with a perma-grin attached to my face.  I think we startled the journalist (and maybe even Gilles) a bit.  I would lay down on the floor for photos of the ceiling or have my nose glued to some interesting bit of rock.  The ‘tourist’ tour was wonderful, I can’t imagine how much fun a proper 10-hour tour would be!  I’m definitely going to be back with my boots!

Emma checking the water in the well - this well is really only used as a gauge of the height of the groundwater.

Gilles showing us an usual place where you can see the thickness of the reinforcing wall constructed in the 18th century.

Sometimes the engravers didn't have quite enough space - notice the 'ns' that is supposed to be part of 'Bourguignons'.

After we finished underground Gilles actually acted as our tour guide above ground for a while too.  He showed us different sorts of manhole covers and how you can tell what they lead to.  We walked past the very long line for the regular Catacombs (trying not to feel too smug that our tour was infinitely better…) and to a little shop near the exit of the Catacombs that a friend of Gilles just opened selling postcards and books about the quarries and ossuaries of Paris.  Thank you, thank you Gilles!  We had a wonderful time!

Manhole to the quarries - welded shut to prevent intruders.

After we said goodbye to Gilles we stopped for a bit of lunch.  Scarfing breakfast had upset Emma’s stomach so we had hoped a small amount of food would sort her out.  While it did help she still didn’t feel well so she headed back to the apartment for a nap while I scurried off for a tour of the Left Bank, focusing on the Arènes de Lutece and Jardin des Plantes.  The Arènes de Lutece was a Roman arena that used to seat about 17,000 people – way more people than occupied Paris at the time.  It must have drawn people from far and wide.  There would be gladiator battles, and wild animals, but they also had it set up with an aquaduct from the nearby Bièvre (beaver) river so that they could flood the arena for mock naval battles!  Though less than 25% of the arena is original nowadays (much of the original stone was used to build defensive walls on Ile de la Cité) it still looks quite impressive.  And the Jardin des Plantes is equally interesting.  It has the second oldest zoo in the world.  The first known all metal structure.  Some of the earliest all glass and metal structures and much more.  But for me, the highlight of the trip wasn’t so much the tour but someone I met on the tour.

The first known all-metal structure in the world.

Bob Burrows is from Vancouver, and is a very lovely man to talk to.  He is just finishing up a book on the history of the First United Church in Vancouver (it opened one year before Vancouver became a city!) and knows an astounding amount about Vancouver, British Columbia, the downtown eastside, and the First United Church.  I looked him up online and his life simply makes you want to help people more – it seems to be all he’s done!  He and his wife have been travelling here in Europe and somehow our paths crossed.  I’m looking forward to going for lunch with him back in Vancouver.  Really, it is amazing how small the world is some days.

One of the first 'glass-houses' in the world. Though the current glass is much newer than the metal.

Tomorrow is the Tour de France.  Besides le Brunch Emma and I don’t have much planned except for seeing the end of the race.  Hopefully we’ll be somewhere with a reasonable view!