Owen and Europe

Today we had hoped to go to the Eiffel Tower. We took the train there, saw it, saw the line and thouht, we'll come back another day and maybe try to get advance tickets online. There was no one in the reservation line. More on this monument when we actually get in...

So instead, we headed over to Musse d'Orsay. The gallery houses impressionist artists works. We were there later in the day, so it wasn't very busy. We saw a bunch of Renior, most notably the garden party. Also there was an extensive collection of Monet - the Lillies and the one with the bridge. Also at this gallery were paintings by Van Gogh, including his self portrait.

Impressionist art is very different from the art we have seen so far on this trip. These artists were interested in conveying the feeling of a moment, capturing people being people, rather than trying to immitate reality. Their works are softer, a little abstract, maybe even blury. Everyone in the gallery stood so close to the paintings, but we discovered that they look amazing from afar. A clarity comes out in the work, as if they are one of those stereograms coming into focus. Particulaly the Van Gogh, whose choppy brush strokes make things appear sort of cartoonish up close. (not funny cartoons, but big and thick and unreal)

After the museum, we sat down for some more typical French fare - crepes. They were mediocre at best. Kinda soggy, with canned mushrooms and olives. I'm being polite. They were gross. Owen ate well though. He had some pretty chunky food, which he actually chewed.

As we sat there on the tiny street, a motorbike passed us. I've never seen it before, but Owen actually did a rubberneck, watching the bike race past. It's yet another example of how much he's grown over this trip.

On the metro, Owen did his best to get people to notice him. He squeals and a-goos, looking around for anyone to notice him. Hen he lays it on thick, with smiles, ahhs, and oohs. He is becoming quite the attention seeker. Maybe he will become an actor or something. He certainly has the charisma for it.

I was looking throught some of the pictures and ran across this one from our first night in Paris. We ate at a bar not far from our place. The server brought Owen a cookie. It was cinnamon or somthing. Probably the most flavourful thing he's ever had. He made a face, but after a bit I think he didn't mind it.



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The Eiffel Tower

We managed to buy some tickets online and downlowd them straight to my phone. This phone has been a lifesaver, particularly when our return flight went south. The man at the entrance to the line told us it was an "excellent endeavour" to have pre-bought tickets. The lines weren't too bad, but it was still worth it.

The first elevator goes up the pilar. It was a bit strange, because you don't expect the elevator to go sideways as much as it does. Out on the second deck, you get a pretty nice view of the city.





We also had tickets to the top, so we waited in another pretty long line. It was a bit windy so it was chilly in the shade. This elevator was quite a bit smaller. Since we were the last ones on, we got an excellent view of our ascent. From below, the elevator looks like it's pretty well buried within the tower, but when you're on the thing, it feels as though your out in the open. It was quite scary. I spent most of the ascent clutching at Owen and trying not to look down, or out, for that matter. Once up top though, it's pretty cool. I still felt pretty exposed, and not too comfortable near the edge. They also have champagne up there -10 Euro for 10cl. Pretty steep, but you gotta do it.


Afterwards, we sat in the big park beside the tower and ate some lunch. We had packed some Italian salami, French chese, and a French half bottle of wine. We bought a baguette from a nearby cafe. It was delicious. Owen got a chance to sit in the grass and enjoy some freedom to move around. Of course, he got some baby food too.

We've noticed that Owen's hair has gotten alot longer and thicker since we arrived. Kris has especially noticed changes in Owen. It's so special that he's gotten a chance to spend so much time with Owen in this last month. I know it's given the two of them a chance to really bond.

We also made a trip over to Notre Dame Cathedral, even though we're pretty churched out from Italy. It's a different kind of church than we were used to seeing. It's newer, and in a gothic style, different than the style of most churches in Italy - taller, pointier, and with lots detail and gargoyles around the tops. We could have walked to the top of the tower, but we were pretty tired, so we sat at a cafe and had a beer instead.

French food sucks. It's all the same, sandwiches, croque monsieur, croque madame. Boring. We had seen a couccous resturaunt near our place, so we gave it a try. We were served way more couscous than anyone could ever eat, a big bowl of veggies in a broth, and two hunks of meat on a single plate- lamb for me and chicken for Kris. Delicious.

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Mama Mona

We went to the Louvre today. We did the Rick Steves iPhone tour. I know, you're laughing, but after the Uffizi Gallery tour we did in Florence using the book left in the apartment there, we're hooked. It's just nice because we don't know jack about art, and these tours give you the quick and dirty version - allow you to hit the majors and give you just enough insight into them to be worthwhile. Today we saw Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory, some more renasaince art (we saw lots in Italy) and also some neoclassical and romantic era pieces. And of course, we saw the Mona Lisa. She was, as Rick said, less in your face than you imagine she will be, but she grows on you. Also very interesting is the ability to photograph anywhere in the museum. It was very interesting to watch the papparazi show in front of her.


As you can see, Owen enjoyed himself.



It was cool to see another place in the Dan Brown books. As cliche as that is.





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Chur to Paris, via Zurich and Lusane

Poor Owen did not want to wake up this morning. Even though he had lots of sleep during the day yesterday, he had a late bedtime. The way he sleeps has changed too. For the last week or so he's been sleeping with his head jammed up against the top of the peapod and his head craned to the side and back. It didn't look too comfortable. This morning though, he was full on sleeping on his side.

We were unable to get the most direct route to Paris so we had to purchase tickets with two changes, once in Zurich, and once in Lusane. We figured the dicey one would be in Zurich, where we only had nine minutes to get from platform 9 to platform 17. The place is very efficient though, so there was no problem. In the train station there was an ad for the Mini (car) that read, "Don't be a gashole."




As we got closer to France, the language gradually shifted from German to French. Until finally they said welcome to France!

The train was pretty hot so we took Owens pants off to keep him cool. And we also tried to make sure he was hydrated.


It was a pretty long train ride. Owen had a couple of naps and tried to drink the evian we bought along the way.

We arrived in Paris 45 minutes late and then ate at a lounge that reminded me of the Mercury. We both ate burgers and Owen got his first taste of a gingersnap. He made a face.


Owen is again sleeping in the bathroom, ad there isn't a seperate bedroom for him.
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Tirano

Very few people speak any English here in Tirano so I was once again able to use some of the Italian I learned. I must admit that I'd given up a bit on speaking Italian. In the big cities, as soon as they hear you struggling they speak English to you.

Today I managed to negotiate the purchase of a bottle of white wine for 8 euro from a bar up the street from our hotel, and ask for directions to a supermarket.

Our hotel room had a little anteroom which was perfect for Owen to sleep in.

We had the most amazing dinner in the hotel. This was the view outside at dusk.






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Tirano to Chur

We have caught the most amazing scenic train through the Swiss alps to reach our next destination, Chur. Very quickly the language changed from Italian to German, which is crazy because neither Kris or I speak a lick. The train is electric and looks a little like a c-train, except it has these panoramic windows so you can get a better view. We climbed to 2253m above sea level and saw two glaciers that pour into a lake called Lago Bianco (white lake), probably because it's mostly snow.









Owen had a little cat nap on the way.






I am really looking forward to the different cuisine at our resturant tonight.

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Riding the rails and random stuff

"They grow grapes everywhere."
In the ditches beside major highways, in fields that look like they'd be better suited to wheat, and in their back yards, or front yards.

The train lady came by and said what many Italian people have said to Owen: bello (beautiful), and picollo (little). He gladly eats up all the attention.

Owen finished off the rest of the carrots I made for him the other night. I'm very proud of him because they were pretty chunky and there were a lot of them. We also managed to find some organic zuchini and potatoes. He hasn't had many veggies. They don't seem to be that available in Italy.

On the subject of food, there has been a lot of meat available for babies. Crazy meats like ostrich and rabbit and horse, as well as others like turkey, two or three different kinds of fishes, and pork. They all have pictures on them, so it's easy to tell what you're getting... We've tried to stick to the basics, in case he had a reaction (and because I couldn't bring myself to feed him some of the stuff) - pollo and vitello and tacchiria (I think that's how you spell it, or close enough). The other day though, we ran into something that had a picture of a cow on it called manzo. There was also some vitello there, which had a picture of a different cow too. But on further inspection, the vitello cow seemed somewhat smaller. We realized we've been feeding him veal!!!

Our train stopped in Milano and then we had to board another train to Tirano. We had about 50 minutes in the train station so we took a peek outside. Milano is a very different city than Roma. Much more cosmopolitan, with modern tall buildings mixed in with the old. We saw a McDonalds in the square. We ate there. We are pretty sick of paninni and pasta.

We are in the alps on our new train. Our first class ticket got us a bigger seat, but not air conditioning, like on the first train. But the scenery is already very beautiful.






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