Visiting Auschwitz

On Saturday we went to Auschwitz I and II.  We started at Auschwitz II Birkenau, the larger of the two camps. It was incredible to see just how big it was and imagine life for all those innocent people. We spent nearly 3 hours walking the grounds and taking it all in. 

It was humbling spend time in a place where over a million people, no different than you and me, were murdered.  After making our way around Birkenau. We drove to Auschwitz I. 

There we went on a guided tour. While waiting for our tour to begin, we had a little fun with our super stylish headsets.

When the Germans took over Poland during WWII, they acquired this Polish Army Base. The blocks were already build and The German Nazis turned it into a concentration or work camp. Later a gas chamber was built and Auschwitz I became an exterminate camp as well.  When the camp became too small Birkenau was built.

On the tour we walked through the gas chamber. The most upsetting part for me was seeing scratches from finger nails on the walls. It clearly illustrated how painful their death must have been. 

It's hard to imagine a numbers as large as million. There is a whole hallway filled with shoes taken from people were killed at Auschwitz. All the shoes in this hallway is just 5% of the shoes collected. This picture shows maybe a quarter of the hallway. Seeing these shoes made it clear how many people's lives ended at Auschwitz. 

It was an informative day and forever changed how I remember The Holocaust. 

The Big 3!

The view from the top! 

Notre Dame. 

Me and Mona.

Ended the trip with my favorite meal in Paris (sorry Chipotle, you were a close second). The fresh squeezed orange juice was unforgettable. My salad was delicious and the adorable retired couple we sat next to were great company. A great ending to an awesome trip. 

It's hard to believe our trip to Paris was already a month ago! It exceeded all of my expectations. Paris is an amazing city. It definitely lived up to the hype. Well done Paris! Hope it wasn't our last meeting. 

An Arc and a Palace

We got up early on the second day and took the metro to The Arc De Triumph. The Arc is the center of a huge round about that has 12 roads that lead into it. We walked all the way around and took pictures from every side. 

We asked someone to take our picture with the Arc. Nice picture of half the Arc huh? 

We did some shopping on the Champs Elysees. Genna got new jeans and I bought a T shirt for Reed. Suddenly we realized we had spent a little too much time shopping and then were late to meet our tour for the Palace of Versailles. Luckily, after a little running and a lot of worrying we caught the train and were able to meet up with the group right outside the train station!

The gold fence outside the palace was spectacular!

The gardens were HUGE and very impressive. 

It was very cold and misting. The other people on our tour walked so slow. Genna, our tour guide and I were walking quickly to warm up, but then would have to wait for the others to catch up and get cold again. 

We were grateful for a break and warm hot chocolate in the middle of the tour to warm up! 

All of the statues in the garden were covered for winter. I am happy that we went and saw the gardens of Versailles, but I think it would be better to visit in a warmer month. 

After the tour of the gardens we went inside the Palace. With our Polish Residency card it was free! There were lots of cool paintings on the ceilings. The furniture was pretty cool, but my favorite part was the Hall of Mirrors. At the time the palace was built mirrors were very rare and only made in Venice. So they brought Venetian mirror makers to France and filled the entire hallway with mirrors from the floor to the ceiling. 

The Hall also looks cool from the outside because you can see the reflection of the garden. It looks like you are looking through the palace. 

Before going back to the city we indulged in some great treats. 

We bought an eclair, macaroons and crepes. Yummy! 

Monmartre, Paris

As the sun went down we began our second walking tour of Paris. The Monmartre District. 

We saw the red light district.

The Basilica was beautiful all lit up. 

This is the view of Paris from the steps of the Basilica. 

Monmartre is the art district of Paris. At this square there are lots of aspiring artists who will gladly draw you a portrait for a small fee. 

On the tour we also saw where Van Gough lived, the only remaining vineyard in Paris and the cafe were the movie Amile was written and filmed. 

After the tour we used our newly mastered subway skills to go to CHIPOTLE! 

Genna and I love Chipotle. In college we would make just about any excuse to go to Hudson for a burrito. I've been craving Chipotle since we left for Poland in September. So this was an exciting night! 

We knew what street it was on, but weren't exactly sure where it was. When we saw the familiar sign we ran to the door. It seemed as though we were characters in a movie when we went to open the door and it was locked. There was a brief moment of panic that it was closed, but then we realized we were trying to open the wrong door! Once inside I ordered my usual. Which I am happy to report was delicious! 

Hello Paris

We arrived in Paris Sunday evening and went right to our hostel from the airport. Genna and I got up early on Monday ready for a full day of sight seeing. We started our day with a walking tour. 

On the way to the meeting place we got our first look of the Eifel Tower. When I first saw it, it was a bit like finding the prize in a box of cereal. I knew it would happen eventually, but it still took me by surprise and was exciting.

The tour was great. By the end we saw many of the main attractions of Paris including The New Bridge (the oldest bridge in Paris), The Luve, and Tuileries Garden. See the sea gull on top of the statue's head? I thought it was funny!

After the tour we ate lunch at a cute café. I had an omelet and Genna had French Onion Soup. We thought it was all pretty good, but about an hour later we didn’t feel the same. Unfortunately, something we ate there didn’t agree with us and we both ended up getting sick.

Our marathon of a day continued with a trip to the Orangeria Art Museum. It’s located on the edge of the Tuileris Garden. There were a lot of beautiful paintings, most from the Impressionalist era. The most amazing was Monet’s Water Lillies. They were as big as the room. Looking at them I instantly felt calm amongst hundreds of people and an upset stomach. I wish I could share pictures with you, but photography wasn’t allowed in that gallery.

Our big day continued with another walking tour and a trip to my favorite restaurant! I’ll get that post up soon. 

Munich Museums and More!

We started our day by rubbing some lucky lions! I think the one I rubbed was for prosperity, but I'm not sure.

We went to Englischer Garten. It's really big and I hear very popular in the summer months. In the winter... not so much. As we were walking though the park was saw a bunch of people surfing.   The forceful current and a cement slab create a wave for the surfers. It was fun to watch them. 

After exploring the garden we went to the Neue Pinakothek art museum.   We got there just as it was opening.  Since it was Sunday the entrance fee was only 1 Euro. By the time we left it PACKED!  We got to see Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Claude Monet’s Water Lilies. Very cool! There was some other impressionist paintings I enjoyed everything else was just like any other art museum to me.

Next we went to the top of St. Peter's Church. There were what seemed like a million stairs and they were really narrow so only one person could be going up or down at a time. The view from the top was AMAZING! It was so clear we could see the Alps. On one side it was super windy and scary so I kind of hurried down after that. 

Last stop on the busy day was Deutsches Museum. It is a very large science museum. It reminded me a lot of the Smithsonian.  It was pretty cool. I was getting tired by then and mostly just wanted to sit down the whole time we were there. 

Then we said so long to the clear sky and clean air and made our way back to Poland.