December 29, 2007

Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 16:54:21 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Land speed records, a quest for the perfect pastry, and ... photojournalism???

Bonsoir,

Funny how a series of photographs can tell a story! But I'm getting ahead of
myself.

I woke up at 4 this morning, and after getting ready and checking out of the
hotel, I went to Rembrandtplein for the night bus to Amsterdam Centraal
station. I missed the night bus by 30 seconds, and the next bus was 30 minutes
later, so .... started walking to Amsterdam Centraal station. Well, that didn't
go quite so well either because it started to rain, and I wasn't going to walk
more than a mile towing my roller bag in the cold rain over cobblestone
streets!

So I flagged down a taxicab -- 8 euros for that 1.5 mile journey to the train
station [I think one of my uncles owes me that money now for having to respond
to his email this morning and missing my bus!] -- and arrived at the station
with 45 minutes to just "hang around" until the train departure time. The time
went by fast, as I met a couple from Miami who started asking me "how this
train system works" -- first-time visitors to Europe -- and then started asking
me about sights in Paris. They were going just for the day, roundtrip
Amsterdam-Paris-Amsterdam in 1 day! MY KIND OF PEOPLE!!!!

Anyway, it just so happened that we were in the same coach on the train to
Paris, but (thankfully) our seats were on opposite ends and we each "did our
own thing", not bothering each other once the train left...

It was the high-speed Thalys train, but the ride from Amsterdam-Brussels wasn't
high-speed at all... but after Brussels the train sped up, and with the sunrise
too at that time, I was enjoying watching the electricity poles zip by!

The train pulled into Paris Gare du Nord precisely on time, and I had just
under 50 minutes to take the metro to Gare de l'Est, for the onward journey to
Strasbourg. (For you French-speakers, why is it Gare "du" Nord but Gare "de" l'Est?)

The TGV's have two major advantages over the Thalys trains: (today was my first
time on both):
1. MUCH more comfortable seats!!! <<< HUGE difference there!
2. The TGV's are fast. Damn fast!

Barely 10 minutes out of Gare de l'Est, the train had already accelerated to
the point where I could see the poles "zipping by" in my window... certainly
the fastest I've ever been on land was in this train. The stats say normal
cruising speed is 186 miles per hour... 3.1 miles/minute.... 1 mile every 19.3
seconds...

The Eurostar trains (London to Paris/Brussels) also advertise the above speed
but I dont remember going as fast as today in those trains... anyway,
Paris-Strasbourg journey time was 2 hours 16 minutes.

Exactly 2 hours 16 minutes, and the train arrived exactly on time.

Strasbourg is "the prettiest little German village in France" (paraphrasing
Reno's nickname). It's an old medieval city in the Alsace region, and the old
town is basically an eye-shaped island in between two arms of the Ill river
(L'Ill). My generic European tourbook has the following lines in it: "most
visitors spend time simply strolling the streets. You'll find hidden corners
and buildings waiting to be photographed around every corner, so take your
time."

That's about as perfect a description of this city as can get!!

I did exactly that, and in fact went crazy with the photographs, taking 287
total pictures in about 5 hours of walking around. Overkill, I know... but they
served me well later in the evening! Anyway, those 287 have been since been
chopped in half -- "only" 137 pictures making it to my website.

So now, about the subject line...

Very early on this walking tour I came across a patisserie with the best,
sweetest, most delicious, scrumptious, delightfully mouth-watering RICHEST
chocolate/mango pastry I've ever had in the last ... 72 hours! I even took a
photograph of the shop window which displayed all their concoctions!
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... it was.... FANTASTIC (don't think I mentioned that word
above).

So anyway, the day progressed as normal, with me walking around the whole
island, not looking at any map, just "strolling the streets and finding hidden
corners and buildings waiting to be photographed". By 5 or 6pm, I was getting
that feeling again -- I wanted another pastry! I NEEDED ANOTHER PASTRY!!! The
only problem: I had no idea where that shop was! In all the roaming around the
tiny streets, I had forgotten exactly where I ate that perfect pastry!

Well, camera to the rescue. It just so happened that I had photographic
evidence of all my wandering! From Place Kleber, one of the main pedestrian
squares in town, I could look at my photographs and retrace my steps... up to
the point where I took the picture of the patisserie window with all the
fantastic pastries in them! Each tiny street was unique, the buildings... the
christmas decorations... and following that trail of evidence from my camera, I
found the shop!

YES! I FOUND THE PATISSERIE WHERE I HAD THAT PERFECT PASTRY IN THE
AFTERNOON!!!!! :D

The shop is on Rue de Orfevres.

The shop was...



... closed.

:-(

BUT I FOUND IT, and now that I know where it is I'm going to go back there
again sometime. :-)

Ok, that was depressing, after all the trouble to find this place, now I wanted
something else. That something else came in the form of 2 scoops of chocolate
and mango ice cream (yes even on a cold day). It was ok, a reasonable
consolation prize...

... Until my next trip to Strasbourg.

Now I'm back in Paris, it's 1:51 AM and I'm wide awake on account of falling
asleep on the return train ride. Either that or I'm just too exhausted to fall
asleep. Or high on sugar. Yeah that's probably it!

Tomorrow is unplanned again, but I'm thinking either the Louvre (haven't been
there since my first Paris trip in 2001) or just go to Trocadero (best view of
Eiffel Tower) and sit there the whole day. Depends how my feet feel in the
morning!

After that, its on to Berlin (overnight train) for the new years eve party day
after tomorrow!!!

Correction ... for the new years eve party TOMORROW.

Au revoir,
-moi.
(Today's pictures will be on the webpage 5 minutes after I hit the Send button...)