Paris

We're leaving tomorrow after two wonderful weeks in Paris. It's still our favourite place - even though this is the seventh time we've been here together, we still haven't tired of it. We're staying on the Rue de la Huchette on the Left Bank, very near Notre Dame. Very touristy, but very central! This is what we saw from our window most afternoons.




Most of the time we've been enjoying our own private Paris. Our favourite shops and restaurants ( and some new ones which have become favourites!), flea markets, a few exhibitions, some great old movies. We've discovered the Canal Saint-Martin, and even made it to the Bois de Bologne, although admittedly just the outskirts. We also got to enjoy Paris with friends this time, which was lovely.




Spring is just starting to break now in Paris, after a really long winter. There have been two quite warm days while we've been here, and everyone was outside basking in the sunshine.




Paris is so much more than all the cliches in the tour guides but everything I think of to say about this amazing city just sounds cliched, so I will say it with pictures instead!


































Au revoir Paris, we will definitely be back.

Amboise

This wasn't originally on the planned list of places to visit on this holiday. Then we won the Alliance Francaise quiz night last October, and two nights' accomodation in Amboise was one of the prizes - serendipity!
We met our friends at the Gare d'Austerlitz in Paris and took a train to Amboise, a pretty little town in the Loire Valley. Our very charming apartment had a lovely view across the Loire to the Chateau d'Amboise.




One of the chateau's many claims to fame is that it is the burial place of Leonardo da Vinci. He came to Amboise in 1515 at the invitation of King Francis I. He lived and worked in the nearby (smaller) Chateau du Clos Luce until his death in 1519.




I really enjoyed our tour of the Chateau d'Amboise - unlike some of the famous grander chateaux and palaces, it has an almost homey, cosy feel!













The gardens are lovely, with the French love of topiary very much in evidence!




We also visited Clos Luce, which is now a museum devoted to Leonardo da Vinci. There are some fascinating exhibits of models of his many inventions, including some life-size "hands-on" ones in the gardens.

On the walk up to Clos Luce, we saw some amazing houses which have been built right into the limestone cliff face. (Unfortunately I didn't get any photos.)

We only had two days in Amboise - there's obviously a whole lot more to see in this part of France. We had a great time - friendly people, good food & wine, great company and conversation! Now.....Paris!

Berlin

It's more than a week since we left Berlin - we spent three days there. We stayed in a hotel on Axel Springer Strasse - the Berlin Wall ran along part of the street. Here I am with the Buddy Bear outside our hotel - the bears are everywhere in Berlin.




Berlin is not a beautiful city, but it is so exciting to be there. It has some very beautiful buildings, but the overall effect is rather chaotic and disjointed, obviously because it was a divided city.




There is building going on everywhere, including a new U-Bahn line under Unter den Linden. The vision is to ultimately give Berlin more of a sense of unity again.
The city's history is so evident everywhere you look. Here is the Berliner Dom (started in the middle ages and not finished until 1905) with the DDR's Fernsehturm in the background.




We went for a walk around the Alexanderplatz, where the largest demonstration in East Germany's history took place in November 1989, shortly before the wall came down. Nearby is this Honecker-era mural, plus Karl Marx Allee, with its fascinating "worker's palaces" apartment buildings.




Some of the other things we saw in Berlin - the remnant of the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, the bust of Nefertiti and (my mother would love this) the statue of Der Alte Fritz (King Frederick II of Prussia) on Unter Den Linden.




On Friedrichstrasse, we went to Berlin's amazing Galeries Lafayette. It's ironic that this plus all the other high-end shops on this street are in what used to be East Germany!



We had some terrific meals, went to a great fleamarket, and really enjoyed just walking around. It was cold, and even snowed one day - people kept apologising for the weather. I can sypathise with their being sick of winter in April, but I really loved it!

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is now several cities ago on our little holiday - I'm a bit behind with these reports. We had three lovely days in Copenhagen, once again staying at the Alexandra Hotel, a mecca for fans of mid-century Danish design.




I really love this city - it's easy to get around, has great shops and museums, and the locals are very polite and friendly (not to mention more than averagely attractive!)




We did a lot of walking - up and down and around Stroget (the main shopping area in central Copenhagen), up to Nyhavn where we went on a canal cruise, and over to Norrebro, the funky ethnic section of the city. Norrebro is full of great vintage shops - unfortunately most were closed when we were there. We did happen upon one that was open, where I managed to find a few little goodies...

We also went to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (unfortunately the section housing their collection of French paintings was closed) and to the the Danish National Museum, which has a fascinating exhibition following life in Denmark from the 1600s to 2000.




The various things we've seen here have shown us what an influential, tolerant and progressive country Denmark is. The abolition of slavery, free public education, women's rights - the Danes seem to have been ahead of other countries in many of these areas. They also rate very highly on a range of indices including happiness, lack of corruption and income equality.

We really felt sorry to leave Copenhagen - until we can go back, we'll just have to make do with all those great Danish crime shows!

A day in Amsterdam

What do you do in one day in Amsterdam? We thought we'd just go wandering, and then saw the snow from our hotel window.




Well, you can't see it in the photo, but it really was snowing! We thought we'd go on a canal cruise, as that would be undercover. By the time we got on the cruise, the snow had stopped and the sun came out. We didn't stay on the cruise for long - we got off and went wandering as per the original plan.








Easter Sunday is apparently the busiest day of the year in Amsterdam. We had planned to go to the Rijksmuseum, but were informed that it's closed. It's re-opening next week, and the re-opening ceremony will be the Dutch Queen's last official duty before she is abducted. (We're pretty sure our charming and very friendly waitress meant abdication, not abduction!)

Amsterdam is a very pretty place on a bright sunny day. The little streets and canals are lovely to wander around.




Our wandering led us unexpectedly into the red light district - some very interesting stuff to be seen in the windows there!

We finally made our way back to the Centraal Station, and after a very stressful 30 minutes establishing that the train listed as going to Warsaw was in fact our train to Copenhagen (it stops somewhere in Germany in the middle of the night and then separates into two trains, one going to Copenhagen, but the noticeboard doesn't tell you that) we got on the train and were off, leaving Amsterdam behind.

London calling

It's a few days now since we left London, but I forgot to pack my Ipad camera adaptor thingy, so couldn't upload any photos. I've only just bought another one today in Copenhagen.

London really is a wonderful place - I always forget how much fun it is. I love the red double-decker buses, the parks, the pubs, the Tube, the taxis...it's all good.

Like most of Europe, London is having a really long winter - it was cold with very few hints of spring. We stayed near Kensington Gardens, where all the trees were still bare.




I finally got to go to the V&A - the fashion exhibition was brilliant. I loved the clothes from the '30s and '40s.








We had a delicious lunch at Jamie's Italian in Covent Garden, and then went to a great exhibition of Man Ray photos at the National Portrait Gallery. There was also some shopping on Oxford Street and the obligatory visit to Liberty of London.

A really enjoyable couple of days....next stop Amsterdam!