Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:15:52 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Dec 30: The largest museum in the world followed by the "City of Lights"
Bonjour,
I woke up yesterday at around 10am, and after checking out of the motel and
keeping my roller bag in their locker, I went out to the city..
It was a little late to go to the Louvre museum, so I went to the Musee d'Orsay
instead.. thinking that would make for an afternoon better spent, and I could
actually see the whole thing before closing time! Well, things again did not go
according to plan :)
When I got to the museum, there was a line stretching all the way around the
museum -- one of the security guards said it's about a 2-hour wait to get
inside!
WOW. 2 hours! That cut that idea. I thought ok might as well start walking
around the city then... and crossed the Seine River towards the Louvre. Started
roaming around the Jardin des Tuileries, basically taking pictures of the
sculptures and fountains around there, when I noticed the line to get inside
the Louvre's pyramid wasn't that long!
Hmmmm.... it was almost 12 noon, and the museum closes at 5:30, but I got in
the line anyway... thinking I'd hang around the Denon wing (the one which I had
liked the most on my last visit) until closing time. It wasn't exactly THAT
EASY though ... "hanging around" is ok for about 1/2 that wing... By closing
time I was rushing to see the whole thing -- and that's just 1/3rd of the
entire Louvre museum!!
But it was great -- just like I remembered it, except there are a few more
english signs now than there were in 2001. Also the Mona Lisa is no longer in a
room by itself, it shares a room with about 3-4 dozen other Italian and French
paintings, making that room as crowded as the New Years Eve party in Berlin was
2 hours ago!
Oops, getting ahead of myself again, sorry!
I wrote this in 2001 that I never really cared much for the Mona Lisa -- its
not as great as some of the other paintings in the Louvre, especially the
Italian and French renaissance paintings! The sculptures were amazing too --
marble statues dating from ancient Greece (Venus de Milo) to the Italian
renaissance (Michelangelo's "Slaves")... to 5 paintings of Venice sights :)
It took the whole day from noon until closing time (5:30pm) to see the whole
Denon wing, and that's when I realized I hadn't eaten anything all day today!
In my rush to go see the city in the morning, I had literally forgotten to eat
lunch!
Hmmm... my "brunch" was at 5:30pm at the museum cafeteria (not the best choice,
but I was hungry)... then I left the building, taking pictures of the night
lights..
Amsterdam was a great city in the daytime but had disappointed me at night --
Paris (as always) more than made up for it.... My overnight train to Berlin was
at 8:45pm, so I had just under 3 hours to go around Paris visiting all the
landmarks (or at least as many as I could) at night -- they all look amazing at
night, and as it turned out, I ended up spending some time at the Louvre
pyramid, Arc de Triomphe, and finally Tour Eiffel -- just the view from
Trocadero. I timed that visit to coincide with the hourly "extra lights" being
turned on the tower... 7pm-7:10pm... and after that it was time to go back to
the hotel to collect my bag and make my way to the train station...
Gare du Nord at 8pm, to pick up my dinner sandwich to-go for the train... It
was a little harder than usual to find my compartment, the double-set of
numbers confusing me a little. But finally, I settled in for the 12-hour
journey to Berlin. Overnight, I woke up when the train stopped at Brussels (3
hours after leaving Paris: twice the time as the Thalys train the previous
day), and stayed up until after Dusseldorf/Duisburg sometime... then waking up
just before arriving at Berlin.
To be continued...
Au revoir,
-moi.
(p.s. webpage updated with all the pictures from Paris [not Berlin yet] 5
minutes after I hit the send button)
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| Dec 29 | Contents | Dec 31 |