Paris.

It's a city I love going back to. We spent some fabulous days there, and it's a city that just never gets old. Each time I visit, I find new things to love about it. For starters, there are some fantastic hotels. And you don't have to blow your budget to enjoy a wonderful stay in the city. You just have to have an open mind. The place we stayed at was recommended by a friend who lives in the city. It's a little place with little rooms, see:

So what if you have to duck each time you go through a door! I love experiencing the old. And the wonderful service you get from the reception, where they know you by name. One of the things that shocked me was the americanization that has taken place over the years. A Starbucks at the Louvre. Really?? They also have a fancy new MAC store there too.

Trying to find the real Paris, we rode the subway like the real people do. I just don't know how they do it. The Paris subway system needs a revamp. You can barely breath down there because there are too many people, it's super hot & stuffy and there is no air circulation. And I thought the TTC needed work. It's luxury compared to the Paris Metro. The chocolate souvenirs we purchased didn't even make it back to the hotel because they melted instantly down there!

Did you know that to paint the Eiffel Tower it takes 60 tons of paint. There's a job for you Robert!! I also learned that when Hitler visited Paris and wanted to go up to the top of the tower, the elevators were broken so he had to walk up! ha! Oh, and I also learned that my mom LOVES shopping.

Next time we'll bring a compass

Small anecdote before I continue sharing the tales of our recent travels. I am officially a bike-queen. Today I rode my bike in the rain. With an umbrella. How's that for talent?? Clearly I was determined not to show up to my 'ladies lunch' soaking wet.

Anyways, back to the tales of our recent trip to mainland. We continued the journey and headed to Brussels. It was a pleasant journey, and we knew we had to change trains at one point. Since the train was delayed we rushed out of one and into another. Minutes into the journey we realized we were on the wrong train and heading to Antwerp. oh on. Luckily it was not an express train and we were able to get off in the middle of no-where to wait for the next train back. The station had a name, but it's a station that has barely been touched since 1935:

Hours later we finally made it to our hotel. Except it was not so much a hotel and more of a hostel. A crappy one for that matter. Our room faced some pipes that smelled like sewage. There seemed to be this same smell through out the city but we didn't let it stop us from enjoying some of the glorious food Belgium's got to offer.

Fresh mint tea and a belgian waffle:

Moules frites!

I had read on a blog written by locals that Brussels is an ugly city. I didn't quite recall from the last time I was there. But they were right. There is so much beauty in terms of architecture but there is so much dirt, pollution and garbage. It's certainly a city that's rough around the edges. It's evident someone is ignoring the basic needs of this city and it's people.

Who knew trains can float!

With my mom's arrival in Scandinavia, we decided to take a little tour down to mainland Europe. We boarded a really chic, modern train here in Copenhagen, it looked more like an office than a train. It was a great ride down to Germany - did you know that full trains can board a ferry?? Here is the train actually on board the ferry - how weird!

We also braced ourselves because we heard of the soaring temperatures down on the mainland... our first stop was Hamburg. As soon as we got off the train we were greeted by a soaring 30+ degrees and as you probably know, there is NO air conditioning in MOST of Europe. By the way, if you ever come across a popsicle with the laughable name of 'Bum Bum', don't buy it. It's gross.

This product is real, what was Nestle thinking??!@

The second train was not so pleasant. We were stuck in a 6 person compartment, full of sweaty men and a big dog! Poor Chris, with his severe allergies to four-legged people he had to go find another place to park - there were people everywhere, in the hallways, in the doorways, I had flashbacks of the scenes of I have seen of rural trains in India. It was like that. Except that they were giving out free water and at one point calling for a doctor because someone must have had heat stroke. The train trip was worth it though because we arrived in Cologne just in time to see Germany beat Argentina 4-0. The streets were full of parties and the parties lasted all night. And because you can drink anywhere, flip flops were strickly prohibited the next day due to the broken beer bottles, EVERYWHERE.

The party did not end there, we also got to celebrate Cologne Pride which was an even bigger, louder and longer party than the football win over Argentina.

Cologne is a great party city - and it also holds the biggest church I have ever seen!

Compared to southern Germany, the biggest difference was the size of the beer. We all love the 1 litre beers you order in a beer hall in Bavaria, but what's up with the tiny beers in Cologne that are more like shots than a drink?? They are called Kolsch and the servers just keep them coming until you tell them to stop! Notice the delicious fresh fish meal Chris is enjoying,

by far my favorite meal of the trip!

You know you're in Denmark when...

1. You go to the beach WITHOUT a sun umbrella and sit under the sun with no shade in sight.

2. You spend the first weekend of July at the Roskilde Festival (a big music festival that attracts huge bands but really it's just one big excuse to drink and party!!)

3. You close your shop/restaurant or whatever your trade is, for the ENTIRE month of July. (most stores on my street have a sign saying "Closed for summer holidays. See you in August."

4. You leave your city flat and live in a summer house near the coast line.

5. You have an ice cream cone in hand at all times.

It seems that my mom brought the gorgeous weather with her, 25 degrees and sunny every single day for over a week now. We have been busy seeing all the sights and I must say, I'm impressed with my mom's willingness to try it all. She loves smørrebrød and loves biking around town. When I ask what her favorite thing here has been she says she loves how no one is ever in a rush here. And yes, that is true. Power walking does not exist here!

The beaches of North Zealand...

The most delicious ice cream ever!!

The long days of summer!

By 4:30 in the morning the sun has been brightly shinning. So by 10:00 it feels like lunch time. Dinner is at 17:00, so what do I call my fourth meal at 21:00?? Today is the longest day of the year and so the sun will shine until at least 21:55. Day light remains until much later than that so days are long, efficient and it is very easy to get through my daily to-do-list! We have really been enjoying the Danish summer, especially sitting out back. Chris has been really lucky in that some of the world's best beers are sold here at Øl Butikken, a beer specialty store. Can you see how happy he is??

Being summer, it's also the time of year when every road seems to be under construction. The bike paths are under repair, the train rails are being re-done and some of the roads are right out closed for repaving. My commute has evolved into a combination of bike, bus and train. Teaching has been keeping me busy and working at the airport has been keeping me entertained. I love the chaos of people coming and going and my job is to help keep the chaos at a minimum!

The other day we went to watch the ballet in the park - it was really cute to see all the families with their picnic blankets and bottles of wine. Surprising to us, several ballerinas came from the National Ballet of Canada!

The Hills are Alive!

The title of this blog is dedicated to you Christine. As I know you haven't had enough of the theme :-)

I continue to share the tales of the lands of Norway. We saw so many beautiful sights but there is one in particular that I will remember always, which is the town of Vik. After about 22 hours of driving we reached were close to the location of the last ferry - the one that would take us to the cabin that we would call home for a few days. As we descended from a long mountain overpass that the guide book called bleak and improbable, we approached the magical town of Vik. It was everything you think of when you picture the northern fjords of Norway. Take a look:

This church you see in the distance is almost a thousand years old. One of the few remaining stave churches in Norway.

I think the fog helped set the scene for the mystical almost eery feeling. Once we crossed over to the north side of the fjord, we reached our cabin and were really glad to have survived all the tunnels, bridges and ferries. Thank you Robert for driving so carefully and getting us there in one piece!!!

Check out the view from our cabin:

Another one of the many highlights was the hike we did in the nearby town of Balestrand.

I was full of joy when as I was quietly hiking up the side of the mountain (not an easy feat!) hummingalong to the sounds of my all time favorite movie: The Sound of Music!!

With these views, how could one resist rejoicing about the hills!!

Bergen: How proud are they?

During the trip north, we spent a night in beautiful Bergen. It's not the capital of Norway but it might as well be since it seems to have all the history! On our morning there we woke up at 7:00 am to a very nice surprise of canons and marching bands. We couldn't believe our eyes, everyone in the town was out strutting their stuff and celebrating National Day in their traditional costumes. You could tell who was a visitor in the town since those dressed in modern clothing were the minority. I've also never been around so many tall people!

Infrastructure

During the Mayer's visit, the long days of rain did not stop us from trekking up to Norway. We also challenged Robert’s driving endurance when after two hours into our road trip Chris and I realized we forgot our passports at home so we had to turn back. Double the bridge tolls and double the gas later, we made it on time for the ferry that takes you across the North Sea to the southern tip on Norway. The ferry was incredibly fast, and flew like an airplane just over the water. We took the time to relax and re-charge after a very long driving day.

Pics below, entrance to the ferry, us sitting on the ferry, and the airplane-like seats on the ferry.

This was the first ferry but not the last, I lost track after the 5th ferry that we took to get to our final destination of Balestrand. We became experts at loading in and out of the ferries. For most we arrived with only a minute to spare, once a girl in the ticket kiosk just stuck her head right out and waived us in yelling "Just pay on board!" That was not the last close call. I can't imagine living in the south west of Norway. You really have to have all the timing right in order for it not to take 5 hours to drive 200 kms. This is the biggest challenge in Norway, it's not the distance, it's the logistics!

It's not only about the ferries. There are countless bridges, which on a windy day will make even the most confident drivers nervous, and there are tunnels. Oh joy! The tunnels are not for the claustrophobic because they can be many kilometers long. Thank goodness we were able to avoid the longest one (30 km) but we did travel through dozens of tunnels that were anywhere from 2 to 11 km in length.

The other threat of travelling Norway are their roads. Why didn't anyone warn us?? No wonder most towns in Norway are dry towns. Yes, that's right, no booze. How else can they control people on their crazy single lane roads made for two way traffic?? See for yourself:

The Mayers: LIVE in Copenhagen

Unfortunately all good things must come to an end. The Mayer's are on a plane back to Toronto after a very exciting and sometimes nail-biting road trip through Scandanavia. Robert will have returned their rental car with approximately 5,000 km travelled. They were warmly greeted by traditional Danish weather: four days of non-stop rain. But that didn't stop us from visiting the famous castles around here.

Some of the highlights: the medieval fishing town of Dragør, Denmark's best ice cream shop, Ismageriet and seeing all the thatched roofs.

Stay tuned for highlights of the biggest highlight: the fjords of Norway!

Full Skies & Smørrebrød

Home Sweet Home. As soon as I got word that the airports were opening up again I took an early morning train to Nice to try to get on stand-by. The gods were smiling on me when an hour before the flight, they issued me a boarding pass. It is really nice to be home. Not to say that my trip was not SUPER FANTASTIC! Southern France is a dream. But when earlier in the week people began to panic about the volcano eruption and lack of mobility around the continent, the mood was quite somber. I was so lucky to be living with the most wonderful host mother who was kind, helpful, comforting and truly a friend. She took me in as her own. She drove me to magical places like Eze and St. Paul to keep my mind off the situation. She spoiled me rotten with her fabulous cooking (crepes, calamari, etc.) and taught me so much about her relaxed approach to life.

Highlights? Being by the ocean, hearing the signing accent of souther french people saying "Au revoir" and living out my dream of studying French in France.

Cannes and Nice are wonderful cities full of life, culture and beauty. But the true gems are the little towns that are scattered on the site of mountains. St. Paul is an artists paradise. Dozens of art galleries filled with the most amazing work - all very accessible to us common people.

Eze is a medieval town on the peak of a mountain. The views from up top are incredible!

On the flight home yesterday I noticed a heck of a lot of air traffic. It seems that the airlines are working double time to get everyone home as quickly as possible. My hats are off to all the ground people working double time to get stranded passengers on flights - the ladies I dealt with at the airport in Nice were working as a team, keeping long lists of people and working creatively to find a solution for everyone. All while providing service with a smile.

On the lunch menu today: smørrebrød and danish pastries. Being in Denmark never felt so good.