of the Two Things I Most Wanted To See In France.
Mont Ste. Michel. Yay!
This was my final voyage while in France-I'm leaving this Friday (July 1) and heading back stateside! I was alone for this trip :-( but it was quite enjoyable. I left from Mulhouse at 4:54 am, had a train change in Strasbourg, and arrived in Rennes at 11:45 am. I got to ride in first class for the train there since it was only 2 euros more expensive. It was nice to have more leg room and an electrical outlet so I could plug in my iPod for the entire ride. Once I got to Rennes, I took the Métro (small enough that it barely qualifies as a subway) to the closest stop to the hostel and got somewhat lost trying to find it since the directions given on the website were not very good. Once I found it, I checked in and then spent the rest of the day walking around Rennes. Not my favorite city that I've visited (that one currently goes to Avignon), but not bad either.
I woke up rather early the next day, ate breakfast, and boarded the Métro again in order to catch the bus to Mont Ste. Michel. The ride was a little over an hour so I just listened to music and attempted to take in the countryside (or sleep. I failed on that count). You can see the Mont from several kilometers away, and it is breathtaking. It's also really big. The Abbey is the part that is most visible, but the lower part of the mountain is narrow streets designed to cater to tourists-lots of shops, museums, and restaurants. You can walk along the ramparts and also, when it isn't surrounded by water, walk out on the sand/mud and rocks to take pictures from below. The view is spectacular; you can see quite a long way along the Normandy coast and beyond. The abbey itself was rather interesting as well, with many different chapels and other rooms for the monks who lived there. I happened to arrive in the main cathedral as Mass was going on so I wasn't able to get as close of a look at that part as I would have liked. Weather-wise, it was very windy and rather cold for most of the day-I had to wear my jacket most of the time which is quite the contrast to Mulhouse at the moment-it actually made it to 93 degrees today (34 degrees Celsius). I caught the bus back to Rennes along with a group of tourists from California.
My trains from Rennes to Mulhouse were pretty uneventful. I had to change in Paris (including the station, which involved taking the Métro there) and in Strasbourg, but I arrived at about 3 o'clock. It was a good trip!
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Bruxelles, Part 2
The rest of Bruxelles.
We decided to sleep in a little on Sunday since we were aware that everything opens later on Sunday. We ate our (pitiful) breakfast, then headed out to spend our day walking/metro-ing around the city. Our first stop was the Palais de Justice, but unfortunately for us, all of our pictures were marred by the scaffolding that covered much of the building. Very disappointing. After that, we went to the fine arts museum. We both agreed that it was better to see the religious art from the 15th-18th centuries rather than the modern art, since that is, in general, a phenomenon that neither of us gets. See my post on Colmar for further explanation.
After the art museum, we went to see the outside of the Belgian Royal Palace. Unfortunately there were no tours (very sad, we like palaces), so we took a few photos than continued to the park where we finally found another one of Bruxelles' staple foods-WAFFLES! I had a waffle with pistachio ice cream and Jackie had a waffle literally covered in whipped cream. They were both excellent.
After the wonderful waffles, we went on a search for the buildings of the European Union. This was interesting for me simply because I'm a political science major with a focus on international relations and, well, a lot of international relations goes on in those buildings. It would have been nice to at least get to go inside the buildings, but sadly it was not to be. The visitor's center for the European Parliament isn't set to open until the fall.
We went to see the Cinquantenaire Park, which is primarily known for having a very large building known as Belgium's Arc de Triomphe. Contained in one side of the building is an archaeology museum, which covered everything from Ancient Egypt to the Americas to Islamic art to Chinese art. It was very interesting and took several hours to go through even though many of the artifacts were very similar to those I have seen in other museums.
Our last day, we checked out of the hostel and went to the chocolate museum (samples and a demonstration! yay!) and a brewing museum (wasn't much to see there). Then we ate a quick lunch and I boarded my train for my trip back to Mulhouse!
We decided to sleep in a little on Sunday since we were aware that everything opens later on Sunday. We ate our (pitiful) breakfast, then headed out to spend our day walking/metro-ing around the city. Our first stop was the Palais de Justice, but unfortunately for us, all of our pictures were marred by the scaffolding that covered much of the building. Very disappointing. After that, we went to the fine arts museum. We both agreed that it was better to see the religious art from the 15th-18th centuries rather than the modern art, since that is, in general, a phenomenon that neither of us gets. See my post on Colmar for further explanation.
After the art museum, we went to see the outside of the Belgian Royal Palace. Unfortunately there were no tours (very sad, we like palaces), so we took a few photos than continued to the park where we finally found another one of Bruxelles' staple foods-WAFFLES! I had a waffle with pistachio ice cream and Jackie had a waffle literally covered in whipped cream. They were both excellent.
After the wonderful waffles, we went on a search for the buildings of the European Union. This was interesting for me simply because I'm a political science major with a focus on international relations and, well, a lot of international relations goes on in those buildings. It would have been nice to at least get to go inside the buildings, but sadly it was not to be. The visitor's center for the European Parliament isn't set to open until the fall.
We went to see the Cinquantenaire Park, which is primarily known for having a very large building known as Belgium's Arc de Triomphe. Contained in one side of the building is an archaeology museum, which covered everything from Ancient Egypt to the Americas to Islamic art to Chinese art. It was very interesting and took several hours to go through even though many of the artifacts were very similar to those I have seen in other museums.
Our last day, we checked out of the hostel and went to the chocolate museum (samples and a demonstration! yay!) and a brewing museum (wasn't much to see there). Then we ate a quick lunch and I boarded my train for my trip back to Mulhouse!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Bruxelles Part One.
Two blog posts in a month...if it weren't for the four from February this would be a record.
Last weekend was a very fun one. Friday afternoon, I boarded a train from Mulhouse. After six hours and fifteen minutes of varying degrees of annoying seatmates and boredom, I arrived in Bruxelles (Brussels, for all you non-French speakers), Belgium. Sadly, thanks to the Schengen Agreement, this no longer warrants a stamp on my passport. I've gone to Switzerland, Germany, the U.K. (well, Heathrow Airport), and Belgium and not received a single stamp. This depresses me. I want proof of my travels in my passport! Anyway, back to my story-I stepped off the train, went down an escalator, and surprise, surprise! There was Jackie waiting for me! We proceeded to get a little lost in Bruxelles Midi station as we looked for the Metro, but after that we were pretty easily able to find our hostel.
The next morning we got up quite early (earlier than we needed to, as we later found out, since nothing opens before 10 am on weekends in Bruxelles) and attempted to find the Atomium. It wasn't listed on any of our maps except for an arrow pointing in the general direction of the river. We saw several street signs, but nothing to indicate where the Atomium might be. After about an hour of wandering and searching, we decided to find the Comic Strip Museum instead. This we were able to find quite easily, and when we got there, we were a little early so we started looking at various brochures. We found one for the Atomium, and lo and behold-it was in exactly the opposite direction we'd been searching and absolutely no where near the river (hence why it wasn't on the map-it was too far out). Fortunately, it sits on a Metro line so we were able to visit it that afternoon.
What the Atomium is: It is a very large model of an iron crystal. When I say "very large", I mean "magnified 165 billion times and large enough to house elevators and escalators for visitors). It was quite fascinating-being inside an iron crystal, yet reading exhibits about immigration to Brussels. Immediately after exiting the Atomium, we walked across the street to Mini-Europe. Mini-Europe is exactly what it sounds like, a walk through incredibly detailed miniatures of major cities and/or buildings from almost every country in Europe. These models were incredibly detailed-in some cases even having very tiny people and moving parts. Each model had a plaque marking its country as well as a button which when pushed played the country's national anthem.
Food: Moules-frites (mussels and fries, yum!) for lunch and pasta in a random Italian restaurant.
Entertainment of the night: Watching/Listening to the various Maître D's trying to sell tourists on their restaurants by very vocally competing with each other.
More Bruxelles later...
Last weekend was a very fun one. Friday afternoon, I boarded a train from Mulhouse. After six hours and fifteen minutes of varying degrees of annoying seatmates and boredom, I arrived in Bruxelles (Brussels, for all you non-French speakers), Belgium. Sadly, thanks to the Schengen Agreement, this no longer warrants a stamp on my passport. I've gone to Switzerland, Germany, the U.K. (well, Heathrow Airport), and Belgium and not received a single stamp. This depresses me. I want proof of my travels in my passport! Anyway, back to my story-I stepped off the train, went down an escalator, and surprise, surprise! There was Jackie waiting for me! We proceeded to get a little lost in Bruxelles Midi station as we looked for the Metro, but after that we were pretty easily able to find our hostel.
The next morning we got up quite early (earlier than we needed to, as we later found out, since nothing opens before 10 am on weekends in Bruxelles) and attempted to find the Atomium. It wasn't listed on any of our maps except for an arrow pointing in the general direction of the river. We saw several street signs, but nothing to indicate where the Atomium might be. After about an hour of wandering and searching, we decided to find the Comic Strip Museum instead. This we were able to find quite easily, and when we got there, we were a little early so we started looking at various brochures. We found one for the Atomium, and lo and behold-it was in exactly the opposite direction we'd been searching and absolutely no where near the river (hence why it wasn't on the map-it was too far out). Fortunately, it sits on a Metro line so we were able to visit it that afternoon.
What the Atomium is: It is a very large model of an iron crystal. When I say "very large", I mean "magnified 165 billion times and large enough to house elevators and escalators for visitors). It was quite fascinating-being inside an iron crystal, yet reading exhibits about immigration to Brussels. Immediately after exiting the Atomium, we walked across the street to Mini-Europe. Mini-Europe is exactly what it sounds like, a walk through incredibly detailed miniatures of major cities and/or buildings from almost every country in Europe. These models were incredibly detailed-in some cases even having very tiny people and moving parts. Each model had a plaque marking its country as well as a button which when pushed played the country's national anthem.
Food: Moules-frites (mussels and fries, yum!) for lunch and pasta in a random Italian restaurant.
Entertainment of the night: Watching/Listening to the various Maître D's trying to sell tourists on their restaurants by very vocally competing with each other.
More Bruxelles later...
Monday, June 6, 2011
Hi!
I'm not dead, I promise. Really.
Since I posted, I've been to Paris, Avignon, Carcassonne, Freiburg (again), and Basel (two more times).
My parents came to visit, which was really exciting (for them and myself), but it did make me quite homesick. My favorite place was Avignon; I thought it was exciting, historical, and gorgeous. It didn't hurt that the weather was absolutely perfect the two days we spent there. The view of Carcassonne was stunning, our hotel looked right out onto the old city, which is lit up at night. Paris, was, well, Paris. I got to go to Versailles, which was the first of the two places that I absolutely had to see in France.
I'm waiting on the results of my exams at the moment. I know that I passed my Français Langue Étrangère exams very well, but I don't know about the others.
This weekend, I'm meeting up with my friend Jackie from USC in Bruxelles!!!
Since I posted, I've been to Paris, Avignon, Carcassonne, Freiburg (again), and Basel (two more times).
My parents came to visit, which was really exciting (for them and myself), but it did make me quite homesick. My favorite place was Avignon; I thought it was exciting, historical, and gorgeous. It didn't hurt that the weather was absolutely perfect the two days we spent there. The view of Carcassonne was stunning, our hotel looked right out onto the old city, which is lit up at night. Paris, was, well, Paris. I got to go to Versailles, which was the first of the two places that I absolutely had to see in France.
I'm waiting on the results of my exams at the moment. I know that I passed my Français Langue Étrangère exams very well, but I don't know about the others.
This weekend, I'm meeting up with my friend Jackie from USC in Bruxelles!!!
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