Ou se trouve le Louvre?

So, it all came down to this. All those weeks of travel was working up to the city of all cities - bring it on Paris!

Sterling Air did a stirling job (ahaha) of chauffering us into town, and in conjunction with the wonders of the RER and metro system we made our way to Clichy, our home for the next week (and one of Paris's largest hostels). Armed with the trusty Lonely Planet we did a walking tour through Montmartre, visiting Sacre Coeur and checking out the overpriced souvenirs, then headed out to Pere Lachaise cemetary to see Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison etc. It's such a serene place, you could just wander there for hours, and some of the monuments are so beautiful.

But we were here to see everything we could in the shortest amount of time (I don't know how long you would need to give Paris justice, but I see new things everytime I go, so our stint of five days was definitely not enough) so on day two we headed into town to join a free tour of Paris. Free tour you say? Well, you pay what you think it's worth at the end, and after seeing the Pont Neuf, Louvre, Grand Palais, Petit Palais, Tuileries gardens, Champs Elysees etc. etc., let's just say we decided to part with some of our (rapidly diminishing) euros. But we were not sated! So that afternoon we crammed in a visit to the Arc de Triomphe, a wander through some gorgeous back streets, and of course, a trip up the Eiffel Tower. 

That night we joined up with a pub crawl run by the same people who do the free tour, met heaps of cool people, had more than enough of the free vodka orange shots, and (incredibly) negotiated the Parisien night bus system to make it home safe and sound. At least, that's what I think happened...

Day three dawned incredibly hot and sunny (again) and so after a visit to Notre Dame we motored on out to Versailles to eat iceblocks, dip our feet in the ponds and lie around in the stunning gardens. We also thought we had factored in just enough time for a visit inside the chateau, but were unceremoniously kicked out early - hint for young players, it is ginormous, overwhelming, and will take way more time to see than you think!

After a day out of Paris it was time to get right back into the action so after visiting more gardens, watching some serious boules competitions, and spending way, way too much money on the most delicious macaroons ever (La Duree macaroons are unbelieveable), it was off to Le Louvre. I (Amelia) was desperately keen to see the collection of Northern European art, as it was closed the last time I visited in '99. So of course, it was closed again the day we went as well. Sacre bleu!! But, to make up for it, we saw the Egypt collection, many, many, many paintings, Napoleon III's opulent apartments, and a little old painting of a brunette.

We had originally planned to be jetting out of Paris that night, making some more use of our Eurail pass while we still had money to afford to eat, but being August, all the Eurail pass seats were already booked. One more day in Paris - such a chore! Luckily we found some stuff to keep ourselves busy, namely, a visit to the Catacombes de Paris which was just so eerie you couldn't keep it in your mind that you were walking through tunnels of real bones, and a visit to the Hotel des Invalides. The latter is where Napoleon I (Napoleon Bonaparte)'s tomb is, as well as that of other luminaries such as Vauban and Marechal Foch. The complex also plays host to the National Army Museum which would have kept Adrian amused for days, but the SNCF waits for no man, so it was au revoir Paris and bonjour Metz!

For more Paris photos, see here.

Malmo and Copenhagen

From the comforts of being looked after by Stina (and her Mum and Dad) to the comforts of being looked after Stina's sister (Matilda) in Malmo. It was great to be able to relax in a house with some luxuries of home life again - a kitchen with a fridge, and a nice lounge with state of the art surround sound and DVD player.

Malmo is home to the tallest building in Sweden, the 'Twisting Torso', and some great museums. We spent our time looking around the beautiful town and went to the beach for a bit of a dip. A series of the museums have the one entry ticket to them all. We decided to hit up a couple of them.  The Science and Technology was a real find, they had a submarine you could look around, and a whole floor of hands-on exhibitions to explain different scientific theories. I'm not sure what we learnt but we had a great time playing on different games. We left with the high score for the geography game, (as you would hope with a Master in the team).

Watch Amelia on the oversized piano, again not sure what we learnt other than don't give up the geography.

Malmo is connected to Denmark by a 7.8km bridge, which takes you to Copenhagen. In the water under the bridge is a wind farm, good luck getting that past resource consent in NZ. We spent a couple of days looking around the town, seeing the Changing of the Guards, the Palace, the Little Mermaid, and the Calsberg factory. The port area which was also very beautiful (and expensive). 

The Bodies exhibition was on in Copenhagen so we decided to go have a look. It is amazing, they have all these real bodies that have been disected and preserved in all these different ways so you can see how the different parts of the human body works. It helps to not think that you are actually looking at someone's insides.

That was our time over in Scandinavia, after a great night sleep at the airport it was off to Paris.

Nybro and sailing in the archipelago, Sweden

What other way to travel than first class? After months of travel in the most economy class of economy class, travelling first class on Swedish rail was absolute bliss. Stina booked our tickets well in advance, which meant that a student fare and a ticket on first class was the same price - definitely something to remember if you're ever planning a trip to Sweden!

So, on our way from Stockholm down to Nybro we made full use of the giant seats, free headphones, OJ, coffee, tea, and fresh fruit. Spoiled us for all future train travel I reckon. We were heading to Nybro to see Stina's Mum and spend a few days in the countryside. She still lives in the house where Stina and her sisters grew up and we (again) were absolutely spoiled with delicious home cooking including one of Stina's favourite dishes, raggmunkar, which are potato pancakes served with bacon, cottage cheese and lingenberry jam. Yum!

We also visited the local history museum which included farm and house equipment that had belonged to Stina's family. Looking at all the old wringers and everything makes you glad that Fisher and Paykel was invented that's for sure! The weather also continued to be gorgeous so there was lots of sitting outside drinking home made cordial and reading books...

There's an end to all good things though, but this time it was onto something equally as good - two days sailing around the Karlhamn archipelago in southern Sweden with Stina's Dad. We cruised out past the million kroner homes (that used to be fishermen's huts) and stunning scenery, and then were lucky enough to get a bit of wind once we hit the edge of the islands so we could do some 'real' sailing. We anchored up for the night and then in the morning explored the island, picking our own blueberries, attempting to feed wild sheep, and checking out the biggest anthill I have ever seen! It was absolutely gorgeous and we were all even brave enough to have a swim in the chilly Baltic - although I don't think any of them lasted for more than 30 seconds...

Next stop, south to Malmo. (And here are the photos again if you missed them from the last post).

Photos of the South of France

Bonjour! Here are some more photos, this time of the south of France: Nice, Marseilles, Nimes, and the Camargue.

More soon!

Stockholm

Now, everyone knows that I (Amelia) am normally a very organised and detail-loving person. Adrian, on the other hand, is not. The events of our first night in Sweden clearly show how much we are rubbing off on one another...

So, the plan was that my friend from uni, Stina, would come and meet us at the train station before taking us back to stay at her place. This would have been fine and dandy apart from the fact that a) our flight was delayed half an hour, b) our bags got lost for another hour, and c) I gave Stina the wrong day that we were arriving... (Yes, that third point may be the most important I agree).

I won't go into too much detail, but suffise it to say the youth hostel was booked out (only 10 minutes before we arrived at 1am I might add) and we ended up sleeping behind the Ethnographic Museum with a view of the Royal Palace. It gets light in Stockholm at about 3am but we persisted in our snooze till 8am when the threat of coming across passers by became a bit too real! Many hours, lots of internet checking and a few phone calls later all was well and we were safely ensconsed in the luxury of Stina and Vasco (her boyfriend)'s apartment.

Seeing a place with a local is the best way to travel. Stina showed us round her neighbourhood (an ecologically friendly, design heavy area near the central city) and then we did the tourist thing together and got a boat tour around the canals. She also wouldn't let us spend any money and we were treated to first class dinners courtesy of Vasco (including reindeer stew...mmm...) and packed lunches! It was so lovely to be able to see her again and we've concocted all sorts of plans for future European travel so it won't be so long between visits next time.

We checked out the Nobel museum and learnt all about the laureates from a booming voiced guide named Olaf, looked at a Lonely Planet funny signs exhibition, and watched the changing of the guards. Adrian has rated it as the best changing of the guards he has ever seen (and he's up to about seven so far) and the fact it went for an hour and included a gigantic marching band on horseback definitely rated it up there - I challenge you to watch the video and say if you've seen a better one!

Here are the photos of the whole of Sweden and Denmark as well, enjoy!