Paris - September 12th 2010
On to the second post for this holiday, this time Paris in pictures ^_^
Just kidding, though not really. At least all of you who have seen "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" will know about it, but let's start at the beginning.
We left the hotel in the morning and headed for Versailles. There was only a little bit of rain, but we brought the umbrella anyway. Getting there took us about one hour and when we arrived there the rain had basically stopped.
Finding the castle was very easy. We just used the plain old "lemming" method and followed all the other people. First we took a few pictures of the surroundings and then wanted to get in. And suddenly noticed the queue... 200 m maybe? It took us almost half an hour just to get into the castle ^^;;;
Versailles how we first saw it
And a close-up
The BIG original gate
And a close-up of the castle within the gates (this was actually taken in the early afternoon, when the sun had returned)
Now a few pictures from the inside (Mel took MANY, but you'd be sitting here for hours if I were to post all of them)
A random ceiling
The Hall of Mirrors
Bedroom of Marie-Antoinette (I think...)
Inside: Lots of very pretty, VERY high rooms. They all looked splendid, but it's no wonder that the people wanted to get rid of the king and the royals. If you have to give most of what you make, up to the point of almost starving, and the "government" spends all your money on making their palace look pretty, I'd surely freak out sooner or later too.
Now, about 400 years after the castle was finished, it still looks very pretty and you can surely see that today's government invests into the castle to keep the tourists coming ^^;;;
We could only see a very small part of the gardens as a) you needed a second ticket (on Sundays) to enter it and those 18 €... well, we found other ways to spend the money. The gardens DO look very vast and pretty. I have no idea which giant army of gardeners keeps it like that *g*
You get a few pictures anyway ^^
The golden thingie is a plastic by Murakami Takashi. Versailles was hosting an exhibit for his plastics. The official opening was the 14th, but many plastics could be seen already when we were there. Lucky ^_^
Afterwards we returned to Paris and made our plans for the rest of the day while we were in the train. In the last second we remembered the Statue of Liberty and hopped of the train at the very station. We walked there along the Seine, took lots of pictures and neared the Eiffel Tower.
Bad photoshopping ahead ^_~
Then we were at the Eiffel Tower again, more pictures and from the there we walked through the gardens behind the Tower, towards the École Militaire.
The École Militaire
From there via Metro to the station "Abbesses" (which has too many stairs, in case you don't take the elevator) and up, up, up to Sacre Coeur. More pictures and down again. It's not really necessary to pay all the money to get up on the Eiffel Tower, as from Sacre Coeur you can see a lot of the city too (not that much though) and it's for free.
Church-thingie next to Sacre Coeur
We stopped in a few shops which sell touristy goods and tried to find our hotel. Not having a sufficient map and misinterpreting the local geography made the way home a bit (ha ha) longer.
We had dinner in a not that good Japanese restaurant. It did look okay though. (They messed up the rice for the sushi, which was a major DUH. And my cheese "yaki-tori", where... uhm... I wouldn't recommand them.)
...and then finally back to hotel. Where a not working internet waited for us -.-;;;;;;;;;;
Just kidding, though not really. At least all of you who have seen "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" will know about it, but let's start at the beginning.
We left the hotel in the morning and headed for Versailles. There was only a little bit of rain, but we brought the umbrella anyway. Getting there took us about one hour and when we arrived there the rain had basically stopped.
Finding the castle was very easy. We just used the plain old "lemming" method and followed all the other people. First we took a few pictures of the surroundings and then wanted to get in. And suddenly noticed the queue... 200 m maybe? It took us almost half an hour just to get into the castle ^^;;;
Versailles how we first saw it
And a close-up
The BIG original gate
And a close-up of the castle within the gates (this was actually taken in the early afternoon, when the sun had returned)
Now a few pictures from the inside (Mel took MANY, but you'd be sitting here for hours if I were to post all of them)
A random ceiling
The Hall of Mirrors
Bedroom of Marie-Antoinette (I think...)
Inside: Lots of very pretty, VERY high rooms. They all looked splendid, but it's no wonder that the people wanted to get rid of the king and the royals. If you have to give most of what you make, up to the point of almost starving, and the "government" spends all your money on making their palace look pretty, I'd surely freak out sooner or later too.
Now, about 400 years after the castle was finished, it still looks very pretty and you can surely see that today's government invests into the castle to keep the tourists coming ^^;;;
We could only see a very small part of the gardens as a) you needed a second ticket (on Sundays) to enter it and those 18 €... well, we found other ways to spend the money. The gardens DO look very vast and pretty. I have no idea which giant army of gardeners keeps it like that *g*
You get a few pictures anyway ^^
The golden thingie is a plastic by Murakami Takashi. Versailles was hosting an exhibit for his plastics. The official opening was the 14th, but many plastics could be seen already when we were there. Lucky ^_^
Afterwards we returned to Paris and made our plans for the rest of the day while we were in the train. In the last second we remembered the Statue of Liberty and hopped of the train at the very station. We walked there along the Seine, took lots of pictures and neared the Eiffel Tower.
Bad photoshopping ahead ^_~
Then we were at the Eiffel Tower again, more pictures and from the there we walked through the gardens behind the Tower, towards the École Militaire.
The École Militaire
From there via Metro to the station "Abbesses" (which has too many stairs, in case you don't take the elevator) and up, up, up to Sacre Coeur. More pictures and down again. It's not really necessary to pay all the money to get up on the Eiffel Tower, as from Sacre Coeur you can see a lot of the city too (not that much though) and it's for free.
Church-thingie next to Sacre Coeur
We stopped in a few shops which sell touristy goods and tried to find our hotel. Not having a sufficient map and misinterpreting the local geography made the way home a bit (ha ha) longer.
We had dinner in a not that good Japanese restaurant. It did look okay though. (They messed up the rice for the sushi, which was a major DUH. And my cheese "yaki-tori", where... uhm... I wouldn't recommand them.)
...and then finally back to hotel. Where a not working internet waited for us -.-;;;;;;;;;;