Normandy

A few weeks ago, a few class mates and myself decided to head up to the Normandy beaches to see the remnants of the war. We were very excited to see all the history we have read and watched so much about. Not much to say except it really took you back to see these beaches and memorials in person. A lot of American soldiers died on those beaches and should be remembered. You could feel the sense of sacrifice in the air. I know it's not a common term to hear, but if you've ever been there, you know exactly what I mean. So many crosses and so many bullet holes in the bunkers, you could play the footage in your head as to what had happened there many years ago.

Many of the pictures are self explanatory. The cement structure look to be a command post. You could stand fully erect but it was due to cutouts since they kept the ceiling very low so stray bullets could not get in.

Venice

So for the last weekend Sara was here we decided to head to Venice. We took the sleeper train from Paris to Venice directly. It was about a 12 hour train ride, but you had beds.....well sort of. Each compartment had 6 seats to sit in and then convert to bed for 6 people with 3 being on each side one on top of the other. It was really weird because we as Americans prefer large rooms with big beds, but our bed size was only about a small twin, maybe. Let's just say you should hopefully get along with all of your compartment mates.

When we got to Venice the next morning, we boarded a water bus and headed to check into the hotel. I must point out though that there are no automobiles on Venice, only boats on the water. Everything from police to firemen to ambulances and taxis are boats. Pretty cool to see. After we checked in to our hotel, we grabbed the camera and headed out to see Venice. Our hotel was right next to San Marco square, which is very famous. There are palaces and churches here as well as the square itself. We started to walk around and realized that it was the last week of Venice's famous carnival. Everyone was dressed up in mask and costumes. I don't think we could have picked a better weekend. You can see from the pictures below some of the more extravagant costumes. We headed through the square and went to see the church and palace there. The palace was quite extravagant and contained the largest legislative room in Italy. It was amazing to see so much history and architectural work.

On our way back to our hotel to rest before our long night of carnival, we bought masks to wear to blend in. After our rest, we headed out to grab a bite to eat at a local restaurant. Of course, we had pizza and pasta and of course, it was delicious. After dinner, we headed back to San Marco square where Venice had a lot of shows going on for carnival. Our section of Venice for sensation was mind so all of our activities were to stimulate the mind. Other sections throughout Venice were sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. Our shows were different. One of the performances was a music artist that sang techno music, yes techno and yes he sang it. Very odd. Anyways, we stayed for the majority of the performances with our masks on but had to call it quits after awhile because we were getting too cold. We decided to call it a night and start fresh in the morning.

Our second and final day there we toured the majority of Venice. Venice truly isn't that big and we were able to walk from one end to the other and back easily. We did take the water bus around to see all of the cool waterfront buildings.

I must say Venice was our favorite place even more so than Paris. The people were so nice and most spoke decent English so you really didn't have to know any Italian. Even with the cold weather, we had an amazing time and we both are looking forward to going back to Venice and exploring even more of Italy.

Marseilles

On January 25th and 26th Sara took me to Marseilles for the weekend. Marseilles is in the south of France. When we first got off the train and into town, we were so happy to finally see sun. The ocean looked so beautiful. We checked into our hotel and headed out to site see. We walked along one side of Marseilles and saw a beautiful church that you can see in one of the pictures below. If was probably the most detailed church we saw our whole trip. We continued our trip along some windy roads in the residential area and ended up near a mini Arch de Triumph. It was really cool to see the little brother. Afterwards, we headed back to our room for a little R&R and then headed out to dinner. We had pizza and pasta. The pasta was okay (it was a pizzeria place) but the pizza was pretty good. We decided to do a little walk after dinner but not too long because the streets of Marseilles get a little scary when the sun sets, so we headed to our hotel.

On day 2 we decided to make it a very productive day. We set out after a great breakfast (I ate 5 mini pain chocolate and Sara had waffles and cereal) to get tickets to the famous island where the Count of Monte Cristo was based on. There are some pictures below to show off the island. It is a really small island that has just a few buildings on it. The main building is a fortress for fighting enemies on the ocean and then turned into a prison. The Count of Monte Cristo was imprisoned there and later broke out. You can see a picture of the lovely Sara escaping through the same hole as in the story. On the top of the largest turret you can see Sara standing in the middle at the highest point. We took a picture of this because when you stand right where Sara is, you get an echo! For the rest of the day, we walked around the other part of Marseilles we had yet to see.

Overall, the trip was amazing and we have many great memories that we will always have. If you're ever in the south of France, I highly recommend stopping by Marseilles to take in the sights.

Effiel Tower and Arch de Triumph

Alright, so I know we haven't posted anything in a while but I promise to keep the posts coming. Sara left for the US on Feb. 4th (sad) so from now on I will be writing the Paris blog. This post is for the day we went to the Effiel Tower and Arch de Triumph. We started the day off with going to the Effiel Tower. We got there a little after noonish. We decided if we were gonna do the Effiel Tower, we're gonna do it big and go all the way to the top. We started by taking the 2 elevators to the top. The elevators are all glass so you can definitely see all the way to the ground which can get you kinda nervous, (but not me). Anyways, when you get to the top, you can see for miles. It's an amazing view to see. You can see from one of the pictures looking down on a soccer match from the top, the people look so tiny. We stayed up there for a while until we got too cold, then decided to head down to the lower floors. On level 1, there were many things like a post office, restaurant and snow. Yes, snow. It was some a temporary exhibit to promote Antarctica. You can see the snow in the picture and Sara wearing snow shoes that was there for anyone to use, pretty cool. We stayed there for a while until sunset then decided to go down and get a bite to eat.

We met up with some of my classmates to eat then decided to go to the Arch de Triumph. We went at night because we heard it had the best views (which it did). All the lights were so beautiful to see. One of the photos below shows the view of the Avenue des Champs-Elysees toward the west.

I'll be posting more here soon so keep leaving comments and I'll keep posting.