Every trip is the trip of a lifetime. When I was 13 and I made my first trip to Europe, a similar sweeping trip that went from Holland to Portugal, upon return I was told over and over that I had "made the trip of a lifetime!" Since then, I have lived out-of-country twice, and traveled to countless places, and I still feel that each trip has been uniquely special. The hardest part of travel for me has always been the "reorientation phase." The coming home and seeing your friends and being torn with what photos and stories to share without coming off like a pompous jerk. I sincerely hope that our little online diary has only served to motivate you to get off your butt and live your dreams before you're dead. For me, I can't get enough of new places, new food, new people, and new experiences so I hope that transcends in our blog and in our *numerous* facebook photo albums :)
The only other thing I thought I'd add to this last wrap-up post, is my basic recipe for visiting a new city which almost always involves some form of public transportation, a self-guided walking tour, usually grocery shopping (even if it's just for lunch items), and never an organized tour since I find groups of tourists packed together to be the most annoying thing on the face of the planet. As a bonus, I thought I'd add a few of my own personal city walking tours. These are walks that I devised long before we left for Europe when I was in the planning stages of the trip. We then used the walks as a springboard for studying European History, which has been the primary focus of our homeschooling life for the past year. I'll try to be as brief as possible (!!) about the sights along the walks, and tell you where we had to change things due to time/weather. Just click on the title of the walk for a link to the map. Enjoy! And if you ever have any questions about this trip, traveling as a family, or European travel in general, then feel free to ask!
PARIS - MONTPARNASSE WALK
This walk begins at the Denfert-Rochereau metro/RER station. From here you walk to Montparnasse Cemetery to see the graves of some famous Parisians with a view of Montparnasse Tower in the background (tower is the best view in Paris and the best view of the Eiffel Tower at night from 57 stories up.) We highlighted Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Bouvier, Charles Baudelaire, Guy de Maupassant, Samuel Beckett, Susan Sontag, Jean Seberg, Tania Rachevskaia, Constantin Brancusi, and Charles Cros. From the cemetery, walk to the corner of Blvd Raspaill and Blvd du Montparnasse to check out Auguste Rodin's "Monument to Balzac" which was Rodin's last public sculpture that took him 7 years to complete and for which he received tons of criticism. From this corner, you can look out at the famous Paris cafe, Le Dome, which was one of the gathering places for famous artists and writers: such as, Hemingway, Gauguin, Khalil Gibran, Kandinsky, Miller, Nin, and Picasso. From the statue, walk down to Luxembourg Gardens and follow the path indicated on the map to see the Statue of Liberty (currently being renovated), the chess ramada, St Genevieve (the patron saint of Paris), and the Medici Fountain (many more, but these are the ones we highlighted.) You will also pass by Luxembourg Palace which houses the French Senate. From the gardens, walk up to the Pantheon where many famous people are interred. We highlighted: the Curies, Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Emile Zola, Rousseau, and Jean Moulin. From the Pantheon, the Cathedral St Etienne du Mont is right nearby, and I kind of like it better than the over-touristy Notre Dame. It is also a Gothic church begun in 1492 and dedicated to St Genevieve. My map ends here, but we ate at a delicious and super-friendly (rare in Paris) Chinese restaurant (yes, Paris is a very international city) called Mandarin Sorbonne on Rue Cujas. After that, we walked down Blvd Saint Michel, past the Sorbonne and the famous Fontaine Saint Michel. Our walk then crossed the river to Notre Dame, and then we walked along the Seine via the quay to go under the Pont Neuf and up the stairs to the point of the Ile de la Cite. From here, we walked all the way to the Musee de Orsay, across to the Tuileries Garden and the Orangerie, and then to the Louvre. I'm not suggesting you walk all that way, but it was quite enjoyable! We did take the metro to the Eiffel Tower and exited at Trocadero to get the elevated view.
BILBAO WALK
This walk can be started from the Calle Navarra bridge near where our apartment was or from the train station that is right there as well. We generally followed the route as shown on the way to the Guggenheim Museum, but after visiting the museum, we crossed over the pedestrian bridge just northwest of the museum. This route allowed us to photograph some great shots of the Guggenheim with the river in front of it, but more importantly, this re-route took us to the BEST CREPES we had in all of Europe at Don Crepe on the north side of the river, past the university, across from the museum, and just before you get to the big car bridge Espainako Printzeak. We just wandered in because the food at the museum was way to expensive, and we were thirsty and hungry at 2:45, and we knew that everything would be closing at 3:00 for siesta time. Enrique the owner/cook was playing his guitar when we walked in to this little art-filled hole-in-the-wall, but he quickly fixed us up with his delicious crepes. Enrique is also super-friendly, originally from Portugal, and gave us all kinds of tips about Bilbao in our short time with him before he needed to leave to go pick his daughter up from kindergarten. We carried on after our lunch and took the funicular up for a great view over Bilbao. On my map this is where our walk ends, but we finished it off by crossing over the Zubizuri pedestrian bridge and then wandering the streets of Bilbao on both sides of the river. The Casco Viejo is a great place to get lost on a Thursday evening after everyone comes out after work to shop. Bilbao is surprisingly un-touristy compared to other cities in Europe, but I would go fast before that changes!
GEORGIAN DUBLIN PLUS THE BOOK OF KELLS
(Just FYI, we watched the cartoon movie "The Secret of Kells" as part of the preparation for this walk. I think it was a nice, easy introduction to this topic.) This walk begins in Temple Bar at the corner of Anglesea and Fleet Street. You could also start this walk at the O'Connell Street bridge because that is the first place we went -- we needed to pick up an all day, family bus pass (only 11 Euros) at the Londis on the west side of the road since rain looked imminent, and we wanted to go the Guinness Storehouse after the walk. Walk down Westmoreland Street and turn east to walk through the arched doorway to enter Trinity University. From here there are signs pointing you to Trinity Library and the Book of Kells. After the library, you will walk through the campus and exit on Lincoln Place jogging over to Merrion Square. The first house on the left on Merrion Square North is Oscar Wilde's former home. If you cross the street and go south just a little bit on Merrion Square West, there will be an entrance to Merrion Square Park on the left. If you stay left on the path through the park, just a little ways down the path is a statue of Oscar Wilde on a large granite boulder. We continued east on this path through the park, but took the first left exit so I could get back on Merrion Square North and continue photographing the Georgian doors and famous architecture of this area. Turn right on Merrion Square East and walk one block to Lower Fitzwilliam Street. After crossing the street, the first house on the left is Number 29 the Georgian House Museum. The house visit starts with a short video history of Dublin, and then you get a guided tour of the house. We all really enjoyed this visit. After we came out, it looked like it was about to rain so we did not finish this walk through St Stephen's Green, St Patrick's Cathedral, and Christ Church Cathedral. Instead, we jumped on a double-decker Dublin city bus, sat in the front seat, upper deck, and rode to the Guinness Storehouse during a hail storm only to have beautiful sunny skies from the Gravity Bar by the time the tour was over. Crazy Dublin weather!
LONDON - SOUTHBANK WALK
We did this walk after a morning visit to the British Museum so we started the walk at the Waterloo tube station. After exiting the train, we followed all signs pointing us to the London Eye. If you've followed the right signs, you will be rewarded with a stunning view of the London Eye on the right side of the road after exiting the station. Unlike my map route, we turned right immediately after spotting the London Eye, and headed towards the Jubilee Gardens instead of the Florence Nightingale Museum by the hospital. My kids are huge Doctor Who fans so they wanted to go to the London Film Museum in the old County Hall building instead. The London Film Museum was pretty interesting, if only for the history of the building which they explain right upon entering near an exhibit about "The Iron Lady." After the museum, we turned right along the Southbank river walk with views across the Thames of Parliament and Big Ben, and we headed east as described in the map. We passed the various bridges each with their own history, and also made a stop for a tour at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, right along the river. I think this walk makes a great case for the enormous changes in London over the last 20 years (since I last visited and lived there) as you are constantly faced with images of the very old against the very new. We stopped to eat at Mango Tree Indian restaurant after the Globe Theatre, so instead of going all the way to the Tower Bridge along the Southbank walk, we crossed over the Southwark Bridge and were able to get pictures of the London Bridge and the Tower Bridge from the Southwark Bridge, and then from the river walk on the north side before reaching the Tower.
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