An Easter Trip to Amsterdam and Paris

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks it's been!

Yesterday I got home from a week-and-a-half trip around Germany, Holland, and France. The trip started two Thursdays ago when I traveled north to Münster to visit friends and celebrate the end of their senior year with them. It was great to see old friends and to meet new ones, and, as always, the Albersmeier family was as hospitable as they could be. The senior class (which, by the way, is the thirteenth grade instead of twelfth grade like we have in the states) celebrated their graduation for a good three days straight! I stayed for two days, though, and it was great fun.

The following Saturday I took the train to Amsterdam to meet up with Alli Kimmel, with whom I've acted in the plays at St. Paul's. It was wonderful to see her again, and she was gracious enough to let me stay at her apartment for a few days, even when she had her dance classes. We had a ball in Amsterdam seeing a few sights, meeting her friends, and enjoying the Dutch night life. This was my second time in Amsterdam, which was why there were fewer pictures of that leg of the trip: I had already documented a lot of the city on my first trip! This time, though, I was able to visit the Rembrandt House, which was the actual apartment that the artist Rembrandt lived in during the 16th century (reconstructed slightly, of course). It was cool to see a small glimpse of how people lived back then and how Rembrandt constructed some of his most well-known pieces of art. I was also able to take a trip to the Heineken museum, where I learned about the history and brewing process of that famous beer. As a beer connoisseur, this was of particular interest to me, especially since the Heineken brand had such a history with the American prohibition era. Did you know that Heineken was the first beer to be imported into the United States after prohibition ended? Me neither!

See?? I'm learning things!

Then last Thursday Alli Kimmel and I traveled together to Paris on the train. I was unaware that this particular train required a reservation, so when I showed the conductor my RailPass, I came quite close to paying the full 130 Euro fare for the trip! Thankfully, a nice female conductor intervened and merely had me pay the 33 Euro price for a reservation instead of the full ticket price.

Once we got to Paris, Alli and I found her aunt's apartment, and then I found my hotel. I would have stayed in the apartment, but Kate Siegel (another good friend from St. Paul's) was also coming to Paris to meet us...with five of her friends! They had already agreed to stay in the aparement before I jumped on this particular bandwagon, and people were already sleeping on the floor, so I simply couldn't have made it work, unless I slept on the bathroom floor or on the stove, neither of which looked particularly comfortable.

I managed to grab a hotel room for 275 Euros total for four nights, which was a hell of a deal considering the average hotel price in Paris for Easter weekend was 500 Euro. It was also only a 15 minute walk from the girls' apartment, so I lucked out, really!

The eight of us tried to cram as much as possible into our four days in Paris. As you can see from the pictures I posted on Photobucket (see link at the bottom of this post), we went to the Louvre Museum, the Champs-Elysees, the Arc du Triomph, the Eiffel Tower...all over the place!

The Louvre Museum was overwhelming, in a good way. I heard that if a person wanted to spend at least five minutes perusing each piece of art in the museum, it would take them 23 years. That's right: twenty-three years! It's huge!! We obviously didn't try that, but I saw a lot of famous art (including the real Mona Lisa) from a lot of famous artists. The Champs-Elysees is the self-titled "Most Famous Street In The World". There's a famous song about it, too, although I forget how it goes. I assume you all can guess its title! It's quite a beautiful street to walk down; it's lined with perfectly-manicured trees and gardens, and it's wider than most streets I've seen. The Champs-Elysees is one street that intersects at the Arc du Triomph (Arc of Triumph), which is a monument to French people who have died in combat. By pure accident I managed to arrive at the Arc just minutes before a large military procession marched down the street to join a ceremony honoring the fallen soldiers and the living veterans, who also attended the event. By their age, I assumed that many of the older soldiers fought in the French military and/or resistance against the Nazi occupation. As a World War Two buff, this was particularly moving and interesting for me.

The Eiffel Tower is a must-see in Paris. I was impressed by the sheer size of the thing; it's truly huge, and an architectural marvel for its time! It was just a little surreal to be relaxing with the girls in the gardens directly in front of the Tower. I remember lying in the grass and having the enormous Tower as part of my view of the sky. Awesome!

We also saw and toured the famous Notre Dame church in which the story of The Hunchback of Notre Dame took place. That's where the panoramic pictures came from. We toured the church on Easter Sunday, so there was a mass being held with easily two hundred attendees. As a guy who's sung in many big churches and cathedrals, I was blown away by the acoustics of this place. When the choir sang the traditional hymns with the churchgoers and the organ accompanying, the sound was gigantic and breathtaking.

The trip back from Paris was certainly interesting! I left the Monday following Easter Sunday, which is probably one of the worst travel days of the year, I think. The only ride back to Germany I could find was a night train that left Paris at 8:20 PM and arrived in Stuttgart, Germany at 4:19 AM. From there, I had to wait an hour before the next train to Tübingen arrived. I took that train, arrived in Tübingen at about 6:30 AM or so, and then slept a bit.

And now it's Wednesday! I spent most of the day in various meetings for exchange students. We're meeting again for a little taste of the Tübingen night life in about an hour or so, so I have to wrap this post up and cook up some quick dinner before heading out.

Oh yeah, I'm also adding a few pictures of the area where I'm living in Tübingen to my Photobucket account, so check 'em out!

Here's the link:

Alex's Photobucket

You should be able to get to find the Paris/Amsterdam album and the Tübingen album from this link. They're on the left-hand side of the screen, under "Albums". If you can't find them, let me know!

- Alex