If I was from Paris I would say "Oh La La Lala La Lala"

We arrived at Terminal 3 in Charles de Gaulle on Christmas Day with no problems what-so-ever (besides me getting wanded in Prague for the second time on the trip.)  I slept on the short 1 hour and 30 minute flight from Prague because I was still not feeling super terrific after the lovely food poisoning episode.  Our shuttle picked us up and we headed to The Hotel La Bourdonnais which is right next to the Eiffel Tower.

I forgot how crappy I felt, I couldn't believe where I was!

After we checked in we explored the neighborhood around the Parc du Champ de Mars and the Eiffel Tower.  We walked across the Seine to the Place du Trocadero where there was a large Christmas Market at Palais de Chaillot and beautiful scenes across the river.

The Christmas Markt at Trocadero

The smells from the stands were wonderful but I was still hesitant to eat anything else from one, and I think Dave was too!  We headed back to the Hotel in the 7th arrondissement and went to the recommended La Terrasse around the corner for our Christmas dinner.  It was very cosy, as are all restaurants in Paris, brasserie style eatery, with a red velvet living room type decor.  It was very good, and I kept it all down!  We went back to Hotel La Bourdonnais and settled in for a good nights sleep.

Monday morning we had a fabulous breakfast at the hotel's cafe with yummy little croissants.  We decided to book a the L'Open Tour Hop-on Hop-off bus for the next two days since we'd never been to Paris, what better way to see the city from the top of a double decker bus?!  Luckily it was a beautiful day, blue sky, not too chilly and we managed to stay on the top deck the whole time!

Place de la Concorde

From the top of the bus, coming through the wall into the Musee du Louvre - a very tight fit but we made it!

The Pyramid in the Louvre - I had no idea how huge this museum was!  It's very impressive from the outside and hopefully next trip to Paris we can venture into the inside.  With it being Christmas weekend, it was nearly impossible to get into some of the museums, even with the advanced tickets, the lines were still hours long and we didn't want to spend our first time there standing in lines. 


We hopped off at Notre Dame - there was no line there when we got there and we could walk in and tour it at our own pace.  It was a pretty cool feeling to actually "be in" the Notre Dame Cathedral!

Notre Dame Cathedral

It was really beautiful inside, as you'll see in the pictures but I have to say compared to some of the other Cathedrals and Churches we'd seen in the past week this was just not as "spectacular" as others.  The fact that it IS almost 1000 years old though does make it pretty special!  We hopped back on the bus after walking around the Ile de la Cite.  We did another route this time, taking us to the Western end of Paris where the National Library is located back to the Center on the Right Bank where we walked to a nice cafe for lunch.

Looking down the Seine at Notre Dame

The National Library of France - the 4 buildings are shaped like open books!

The Bastille

Listening to our headphones and enjoying the beauty of the day!

The National Academy of Music, this was a pretty building.

Lunch at a cute little sidewalk cafe that was indoors :)

We walked to another stop and boarded the yellow bus that took us around parts of the 9th and 10th Arrondissements.  First was the Opera district and then up the road to see the real Moulin Rouge!

Opéra de Paris Garnier

Moulin Rouge

The two large train stations, Gare du Nord and Gare de L'Est are in the 10th district.  This is where we took the train home, direct on the TGV/ICE only 2 and 1/2 hours - pretty easy!

By the end of Monday we had done a majority of the bus route and pretty much saw a good chunk of Paris.  We walked back along the Seine and made our way to Rue Cler, which is Rick Steves' favourite area so we had to see what it was all about.   It was a very neat area but since it was late all of the shops were closed so we stopped into Cafe Roussillon for dinner.  It was great, and all the other tables around us were Americans, weird.  After dinner we slowly wandered back to the Hotel for another good nights sleep in our cozy little 6th floor room with a view of the Eiffel Tower.

One of the quaint little streets in Paris and oh, what's that, it's the Eiffel again!

Cafe Roussillon on Rue Cler

Tuesday was a very foggy day - the weather - not that I didn't remember it!  We were glad that we had such a beautiful day on the L'Open Tour Bus on Monday.  Since many of the museums are closed on Tuesday, we decided to purchase a combo ticket for the Musee Rodin and the Musee d'Orsay, two that we wanted to see.  Only a 5 minute wait or so to get into the Rodin and first thing we went to see is:

The Thinker

It was a pretty small museum housed in the Hotel Biron (from the early 18th century) and it's garden.  It was really amazing to see some of the famous works by Auguste Rodin - he had quite the gift of sculpting all from memory!

The Gates Of Hell

The Kiss

Three Men - all the same statue just different angles. Dave on his audio guide!

Once we had learned all that we could possibly learn about Rodin we walked up to the train station-converted-museum, Musee d'Orsay where I was so excited to zip through the reservation line with our pre-purchased ticket and see actual painting by van Gogh!  Well to our surprise there was still an almost 2 hour wait in the reservation line!  We decided to forgo the museums since that would take up the rest of our last day there. 

We hoped on and off the bus a few more times and walked up the ever famous Champs-Elysees to the magnificent Arc de Triomphe.

This sits in the center of an enormous round-a-bout where 12 or so streets join together, it's a place I would never want to drive through!  We wandered around the neighborhoods and found another cosy cafe for lunch.  Usually you can see the Eiffel soaring above the buildings but since it was so foggy and misty this is what we saw as we got closer.

eerie but still beautiful

Back at the hotel we just put our feet up and had some tea in the lounge before wandering out for our last dinner.  Perhaps if the weather was a little better we would have been willing to venture out for more exploring but quite frankly we were pooped, it had been a long vacation thus far and there were just TOO MANY PEOPLE everywhere!  It didn't help that I was pretty sure I was getting a sinus cold and everywhere we were people were just coughing right in our faces!  We really didn't see anything wrong with just vegging out for a little while.  We found another great restaurant in the Rue Cler area for dinner called Cafe Central.

Inside Cafe Central

We liked Paris and are glad that we can check it off our list but we both agree that a few days in warmer weather, not a holiday, & not a weekend, would be perfect for going back to focus on areas more specifically or just going to strictly museums...with the Museum Pass! (which is a must do if more than 3 or 4 museums are on the agenda)  Plus it really is easy to get to from where we live via the fast train. 

Until next time Paris, thank you for our Christmas experience that we'll never forget!

LINK TO PARIS PICTURES

Prague - One of the best preserved cities in Europe! (And one of our fave's!)

Friday, December 23rd - On To Prague

The bus ride was about 4 hours in total to Prague which I spent most of resting my eyes.  It had been such a busy, fun filled week already it was hard to believe that we still had another 5 days to go!   We were excited that Paul and Tracy were headed there too plus many others that we had met during the cruise.  We arrived at the a Hilton Hotel (not where we stayed) in the Old Town and made our way through the streets of Prague.

Celetná Street

Christian, our Cruise Director who was still with us, led us to the beautiful Old Town Square with the former city hall and it's tall tower, the famous astronomical clock, the "other St. Nicholas Church", the Church of Our Lady Before Tyn with its many spires and the festive Christmas Market.

Celetná Street with the Christmas Market & Old Town Hall Tower in the distance.

What a beautiful city!  It is known for being one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I can clearly see why.  The panoramic landscape is not and cannot be ruined by tall buildings, its is old and beautiful and full of history over the past 600 years. 

Panoramic view of Prague from the Castle Grounds

We grabbed a quick lunch in the Old Town Square with Paul and Tracy and sampled some of the delicious Czech beers.  We met back up with our group and Christian walked us up the ornate Paris Street which was festively decorated and full of designer stores right to the Intercontinental Hotel which was right in the city's Jewish Quarter.

Walking up Paris Street in the Jewish Quarter with the Old-New Synagogue on the left.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore the Jewish Quarter, which had great museums and and interesting collection of Jewish sights.  As the Nazis decimated Jewish communities in the region, Prague's Jews were allowed to collect and archive their treasures here.    

That afternoon Dave and I did a little more exploring around Prague on our own before meeting up with Paul and Tracy and heading over the Hard Rock Cafe .

Hard Rock Cafe - Prague

 

Tower at entrance to Charles Bridge

After some local beers and grub we walked around the lively city. We ventured out onto the famous Charles Bridge.  This is one of Prague's most defining landmarks, and the only bridge across the Vltava River for over 400 years.  The foundation was originally laid in 1357!  Along the pedestrian bridge you'll see many statues (in the picture link), including one of St. John of Nepomuk (the statue with 5 stars around his head), former priest, who was thrown over the bridge according to a 17th century legend for not sharing the Queen's confessions with the King!The large tower is on the Old Town side of the bridge is considered one of the finest Gothic gates anywhere!The next day we were getting a city tour and seeing all of this again, but it's just so beautiful at night.


Saturday's tour took us to the grounds of Prague Castle that included a tour through the amazing St. Vitus' Cathedral with it's brilliant stained-glass windows and rich history.  This might be one of my favorite Cathedrals that we have been in so far, and we've seen a lot of them here! 

The backside of St. Vitus - but oh so beautiful!

We were able to see a changing of the guard also.

Changing of the guard at Prague Castle

Our guide, Liba, led us back downhill to the Old Town where we crossed over the Charles Bridge in the daylight.  We learned all about the history and that it was a famous location for many films to be shot as well.  Mission Impossible, A Knight’s Tale, The Bourne Identity, Casino Royale all had scenes from around Prague and the Charles Bridge.

Our awesome guide Liba - and her favourite tour member, Dave on the Bridge.

Liba took us to the famous 600+ year old Astronomical Clock on the tower of the Old Town Hall and then departed to start her Christmas celebrations. 

The Astronomical Clock on the Old Town Hall Tower

The tour was great, Liba our guide was EXCELLENT.  She made it so worth our while and gave us such great information that I'm anxious to get back to Prague again someday.

We enjoyed a fun lunch at Les Moules, a Belgian Beer Cafe around the corner from our Hotel after the tour with Paul, Tracy, Rinatta and her daughter Angel.  Such a fun group of people we had met on this trip!  After lunch, Dave and I decided to do a little more venturing around on our own to a part of the New Town Liba had mentioned, the Wenceslas Square where there was another Christmas Market.  This was more than a square, but a few blocks long, that led to the impressive building - The National Museum at the end.

Wenceslas Square and it's Christmas Market

Was I ever excited to try the pastryTrdelnik, but never again will I eat them! 

The National Museum with memorial to former President Vaclav Havel who had just passed away.

This was as far as we got in Prague.  We made our way back to the Hotel to rest before our lovely Christmas Eve dinner with Paul and Tracy at Prague's Parnas Restaurant right on the bank of the river.  Unfortunately, like lightning fast, I got violently sick!  For about 6 hours I saw nothing more of Prague, just the inside of the toilet in our bathroom :( so we canceled dinner and poor Dave ordered room service while I did all I could to keep down a sip of water.  After I heaved out all that I possibly could, I managed to take some NyQuil, climb into bed and slept until the next morning.  During that time, Dave was trying to figure out what the heck we were going to do since we had a flight to Paris at noon on Christmas day!

Even though I still felt terrible the next morning, I was not running to the bathroom every 10 minutes so we got a Taxi and made our way to the airport for our flight to Paris!  Prague was an unbelievable city and even though my stupid food poisoning (we're pretty sure that is what it was, I was the only one who ate a t.u.r.d.l.n.e.k.) took away a 1/2 day from us, I have to say that it might be one of my favourite cities that I've been to thus far. 

So until next time, Prague...we are off to Paris for Christmas!!!

LINK TO PRAGUE PICTURES - with detailed captions!

AMAWaterways Christmas Time Cruise Day 7 & 8 - Nuremberg, Germany

Thursday, December 22 - Day 7
Nürnberg
We did not have an early morning, as we didn't get into Nuremberg until about 12:30.  We were leaving the Danube River to enter the Main Danube Canal which is 106 miles long, linking the North Sea to the Black Sea.  It thus creates a 2,200 mile waterway that connects 15 countries and can accommodate barges carrying up to 2,425 tons of bulk cargo.  The canal has a total 16 locks each about 625' long and 40' wide and up to 81' deep. 

Quite a tight fit going into the locks!

The canal reaches a height of more than 1,332' over the Schwabian Alps which is south of Nürnberg.  The exciting part of cruise that morning was passing over the continental divide.  At this point we had been cruising upstream till we hit the continental divide so now that we were going downstream the process of going through the locks was opposite.

This marks the Continental Divide

We actually docked in Roth which was just a quick bus ride to Nürnberg.   Nürnberg is the 2nd largest city in Bavaria, about 500,000 people.  The city was founded about 1,000 years ago by an Emperor named Heinrich III and before the war, the city was one of the most beautiful medieval cities in Germany.  From the 12th to the 16th century nearly all the emperors maintained their residence in the Kaiserburg Castle. 

The Kaiserburg Castle Grounds

At that time Nürnberg was regarded as the unofficial capital of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations.  Even today, the city is surrounded by its sturdy 13th century defensive wall complete with fortified towers!  Most of Nürnberg was completely destroyed in WWII (in 90 minutes btw!) and the historical buildings we saw on our city tour were rebuilt using the very same stone.  We had a nice, informative tour through the city and ended at the main square, Hauptmarkt, home of the unique and famous fountain "Schöner Brunnen" as well as the Marienkirche (its most famous church) and the Christmasmarkt. 

Glühwine and Lebkuchen at the Nürnberg Christmarkt 

We spent time wandering the stalls, eating the famous Nürnberger Sausages and Kraut as well as sampling the city's famous and traditional gingerbread, "Elisen" Lebkuchen. Which I have to say I did not like that much, but Dave got the Glühwine and liked that just fine.   It was a cold stroll through the 160+ stalls, I got separated from Dave and had a mini panic attack when he didn't answer his phone but we reconnected, bought a nice ornament and found our way back to the meeting point to board the buses.

We enjoyed our last dinner on the ship with Pat and Tom from LA and Rolf and his wife who live in Canada but are from Germany.  It was great to meet them plus they gave us a list of their favorite places in Southern Germany that we will have to visit.  I cant wait to share travel ideas with Pat who has been to a lot of places we would like to go to because she is a research guru for finding good deals!  We said our goodbyes to Jerry and Elissa that night and spent one more evening just chatting over drinks in the lounge.  With the ship being so empty, we were usually the only ones in there at night, or late at night anyway. Anita, the bar manager called us the "jolly" group but I'm sure enjoyed having us there. 


Friday, December 23 - Day 8
Nürnberg heading to Prague
We departed the ship at 8:30 and made a few mini stops at some more famous sights in Nürnberg.  We had already heard a lot about WWII but this day we heard more about it during the time of the Third Reich and we saw several reminders of what actually went on there.  We went to the courthouse of the Nürnberg Trials and then visited the Zeppelin Field where Hitlers Party Rally grounds and Coliseum were.

Hitler's Rally Grounds - The Coliseum

The Coliseum was never finished and was very difficult to build as they placed it by a lake where the ground was not the most stable.  They wanted it by the lake so it would look even bigger than it was by using the reflection off the lake to help magnify all the buildings in the area.  The Coliseum today is used as storage.  We toured the rest of the rally grounds before heading off to the Czech Republic. 

What a fantastic week we had aboard the AMALegro!  We have to say, AMAWaterways is an exceptional river cruise line and we would sure do it all over again!   To be able to go on board on Day 1, unpack and settle in, see all that we saw in the matter of a week and then pack back up at the week end is just a fabulous way to travel.  We included an extension to Prague along with about 20 other passengers.  Next post is Prague - our favourite stop during the whole trip!

LINK TO NUREMBERG PICTURES