sept. 19.  2012

day 10

bus, metro, and finally arrived to the vatican.  we bought and reserved tickets last night, and walked up with no line, which is awesome!  our appt. time was 11:30, which isn’t that early, so you’d expect a huge line by that point, but there wasn’t.  we bee-lined for the sistine chapel as soon as we got in, knowing the girls wouldn’t last too long.  i think it took us walking the halls of the vatican for 30 minutes before we finally came to the sistine chapel.  and that wasn’t looking at works of art, admiring sculptures, or admiring really much of anything.  that was walking straight to the sistine chapel.  it was absolutely beautiful and worth it!  this is jarom and mine’s second time, but it was so great having our girls there this time, and seeing michelangelo’s amazing ceiling that took four years, on his back on scaffolding, with his arm up and paint falling and dripping into his eye.  what an inspired man.

we then walked out of the vatican, saw the now huge line wrapped around the walls of the vatican, and headed for st. peter’s basilica, getting a gelato on the way.  there was a huge line, and when i say huge, i mean gigantic, and i walked up to a woman in the line to ask her and confirm this was the line for the basilica, and it ended up being a sister missionary-so cool!  didn’t even see her missionary badge until after i had asked about the line.  we saw elders over by the colosseum yesterday, and sisters at the vatican today.  crazy!  we decided not to wait in line, because we just didn’t think we could wait an hour or two, on top of an hour and a half getting home, so we headed for the metro.  it’s been lovely relaxing, had dinner in the concierge lounge, and went swimming.

tomorrow we have a huge, long day of  trains, and finally a rental car late at night.  it will be about 9 hours training up italy, into the middle of france, and then back down to montpellier, france where we will get our rental and drive an hour over to our small village outside of beziers.  we look forward to being in one place now, and having more control over what we’re eating, and better access to water that we don’t have to pay for.  that should be nice!

sept. 18.  2012

day 9

traveling with six people is no easy feat.  it also can get a bit pricey.  i think we’ve done a great job finding ways to do things as cheaply as possible.  so, that takes me into one way we’ve saved money…our hotel is 4 1/2 miles from city center, which we thought would be easy to metro in.  but not so.  the marriott is beautiful, but in the outskirts, out in the middle of nowhere it seems.  and the hotel charges 10 euros per person for the shuttle to the city.  so instead of paying 60 euro a day, we paid 15 euro a day to ride the bus and use the metro.  we have seen very poor and dirty parts of the city, which it doesn’t seem to get much cleaner going into the city.  we’ve seen homeless families sleeping on cardboard.  riding a bus for an hour, and then the metro for 30 minutes to get into the city has been very long, tiring, and really grosses me out.  but it presents excellent life lessons.  i think it’s important to see these things, to learn from them, to teach our children to want to work hard and be able to support themselves, and to be grateful for what they have.

so after breakfast, we took the bus and metro in, and came out right next to the colosseum.  such beautiful architecture!  we took an audio tour, which gave us quite a bit more info than just walking through, so it was nice.  it was also very warm, and slightly uncomfortable, so everyone was a bit agitated.  we took more pic’s, and jarom and i wanted to take the girls to the forum and through quite a few things, but no one was interested, and everyone was tired.  we knew with kids, to try and do one thing a day, so we started walking to look for a restaurant, and we ran into some elders.  so fun!  we then ate pizza, lasagna, and salad, after our gelato of course, and then public transportation’d home.  luckily the girls got in a short swim with jarom, and we raided the concierge lounge.  uhh, dreading tomorrow.  i’m just not excited about rome…lines, dirty, lines, expensive, and more lines…ready to leave rome.

sept. 17.  2012

day 8

we left switzerland early this morning, and caught a train from montreux to milan, and then caught another train from milan to rome(six hours on train today, which is such a great way to travel).  we decided to eat lunch in the restaurant car on the second train to rome.  we thought we’d share meals with one another, because we didn’t really want to spend 21 euros on each person for lunch, and the girls don’t eat that much.  it was a three meal course.  so we ordered three to share, and it ended up being 33 euros per plate!  oh my goodness, 100 euros for lunch!  luckily, when we checked into the marriott here in rome, jarom’s days of travel paid off.  since he’s platinum, we got free upgrades, and access to the concierge lounge.  so we had free snacks and drinks for dinner.  plus free buffet breakfasts!  we have been relaxing, watching a movie, and making fun of italian commericals and shows which are hilarious.  oh, so needed rest!  we will have three very full busy days coming up!

 

i must say, coming from switzerland, where it’s clean and beautiful, to rome where it’s dirty and graffiti’d everywhere, is a definite change.  the pushy taxi drivers who are very short tempered are also quite a bother.  i know it’s only my second time here, but very dis-enchanted so far.  hopefully the colosseum and other historic sites will make up for the rest.

oh ya, check out the swiss chocolate bar we all ate in about two days…good thing we have another one.

 

 

 

 

 

sept. 16.  2012

day 7

first of all, today is camden’s 9th birthay!  happy birthday cam!  and in switzerland of all places, how lucky!

one of the things we love to do when we are traveling, is go to church and meet new people and see how the church is always the same, but to meet all the different people.  we woke up sunday morning, and i could not push myself to get out of bed, i was exhausted, and so was little madison.  i was terribly bummed to miss out, but also terribly tired, so jarom took the other three girls, and went to church.  they had a great time, and on lds.org, it said church started at 10:50, but that ended up being the last hour of meetings.  so they ended up catching sacrament meeting.  camden was hoping to go to primary, and have them sing happy birthday, and alex was excited to meet the young women.  but sacrament was what they got to go to, and it was a fun experience.

jarom and the girls picked up two pizza’s-medium size, and to show how expensive it is in switzerland, it cost 35 francs!  ouch!  the day before, we bought four large sandwiches, in about 15″ size baguettes, and it was 40 francs.  add 10% onto that, and that’s the equivalent of a dollar.  not cheap!

we dipped our feet into lake geneva with mi’chel and isabelle, and soaked in the sun and admired the alps.  our little family then walked 20 minutes along lake geneva on the path over to chillon castle.  this medieval castle, built in the early 12th century and renovated up to the 20th century, was marked by the savoy era, the bernese era and the vaudois era.  so many rooms, it seems they started making up things to do in them.

we made it back for dinner with marielle and allan.  it was absolutely a lovely evening.  we enjoyed so much getting to know all these wonderful people, their stories, and a small part of switzerland.  we were taken care of from head to toe, we are so very grateful for marielle’s hospitality and kindness.  what a beautiful hotel, and a beautiful location!

after dinner, cam opened a card from grandma waldon(she already opened her nice camera before our trip), danced with her daddy, and then the kids decided jarom and i needed to go on a date. so we walked the path along the lake by twilight, and while we were gone, the girls wrote thank you cards and watched a movie.  it was a nice close to our switzerland stay.  we packed in a lot in in a short amount of time, and it was beautiful!

 

 

sept. 15.  2012

day 6

we awoke thinking we had a rental car(just made the resv. last night), and received a call this morning saying they didn’t have anymore cars, which we decided wasn’t a big deal since there are so many trains.  we ate a lovely breakfast in the hotel, and then walked to the train station, caught a train from montreux to montbovon, and then on to bulle, then caught the train to broc, where we went to a yummy swiss chocolate factory tour, and chocolate tasting.  to be quite honest, i didn’t think the chocolate was that great…belgian chocolate is much better!

the views along the trains were gorgeous, and great photo opps.  i felt like we would spot heidi and peter at any moment…it looked just like the movies.  after the chocolate tour, we trained back from broc to bulle, and then on to gruyeres.  gruyeres is where we did a swiss cheese tour, and ate cheese samples on our 10 minute walk up to the medieval town and chateau de gruyeres.  wow, absolutely amazing.  the medieval castle was exactly like you see in books…we toured the chateau room by room, and walked through the medieval village.  there was a show of five men blowing the alphorns in the center of town.  we had to buy(or jarom decided it was necessary), to get swiss army knives while in switzerland, so we visited one of the small shops in the village, and got our souvenirs and chocolate, and headed back to the train.

we were on time, ready to go, got on the train that pulled up, and even asked the conductor to make sure it was heading back to montbovon, and it ended up going the opposite direction than we needed, back to bulle.  so that was over an hour that that put us back.  we waited at bulle for an hour, and then got on the right train back to montbovon, and then on to montreux.  i’d say we did a pretty good job navigating all the trains, the extra hour and a half pushed us over the exhausted and hungry line though.  we made it back, and had dinner at the hotel, which was very nice.  we left this morning at 10:00am, and got home at 9:30pm, and that’s walking and training all day.  the girls are absolutely amazing.  they are excellent travel buddies, they just go, go, go, with hardly a complaint.

isabelle and mi’chelle(relatives) got our girls little gifts, including chocolate for us all, which was so sweet.  oh man, i’m not going to fit into anything after this trip.  we did walk quite a few miles today, hoping that helps!
exhausted and ready for some rest!  good night.

sept. 14.  2012

day 5

last morning of paris…we awoke at 5:00am to get bags packed, and the apartment in order.   our taxi we ordered the night before came and left…without us…so we were sweating bullets for a few minutes, but got a hold of another one.  our train(tvg-high speed) left paris gare de lyon train station at 9:11, and we arrived to Geneva a little after noon.  we then caught a smaller train from geneva to montreux, which took an hour.  the train from geneva to montreux goes along lake geneva, and once you see it, you really don’t ever want to go back home.  you start thinking of ways to try and make a living over here so you can stay and see the view everyday!  so the “large” taxi’s to house all of us took off from the train station, so i’m sure it was quite a sight to see six people lugging 7 pieces of luggage through the beautiful streets of montreux, the distance of 1 kilometer to the hotel…but we made it!

i really haven’t had many personal connections in my time…but when we were making our plans for this trip, my grandma let me know we had relatives who owned a hotel on lake geneva.  she emailed mireille for us to see if it was possible for us to stay with them.  mirielle said of course, we could stay in her mother’s apartment.  we have been very blessed to be able to not only stay here, but with relatives and get to know a part of their lives and their stories.  they have been so very gracious, and we have enjoyed our time today.  we were able to eat dinner on the terrace of the hotel, overlooking geneva lake and the alps.  magnifique!

we’ve had a long but wonderful day, and are ready to head off to bed.  just wait and see where we are going tomorrow!   good night.

 

sept. 13.  2012

day four

we woke up to a surprise today, and not a good one.  it sounded like someone was drilling right in our room, it was so extremely loud.  right outside our window some guys were working, and it was so loud that we left that side of the flat and went to other rooms and closed the doors.  i finally went back to sleep, and so did the others that had woken up, but it wasn’t enjoyable at all.  of course, the people we rented the flat from, never pick up their phone, and then after emailing them, they said they can’t help work that is being done in paris.  unacceptable!  obviously, that’s why we got a good deal!  it’s a cute flat, i will take pic’s tomorrow before we leave.  jarom was joking, that that’s probably why the owners rented it out this week, because of the construction.

we left the flat this afternoon, with the lovely smell of fall in the air today.  oh, so breezy and cool.  september is such a great time to visit paris.  we have not had lines anywhere we’ve gone, including the louvre.  we showed them our museum pass, and walked right in.  it wasn’t very crowded in the louvre either.  seeing the mona lisa the first time two years ago, there were hundreds of people vying and pushing with shoulders to catch a glimpse and raise their arms over others to get a pic.  today, only maybe 40 people were standing in front of mona, it was easy to get to the front, much more enjoyable.  walking the halls of the louvre, with the old stone, and all the historic artifacts is very exciting.  all this history, each telling a story from the past, needing to be told.  it’s fantastic.  we saw “mona” and other beautiful art by leonardo di vinci, “venus di milo,” and a lot of  other beautiful paintings and sculptures that we have no idea about.  you walk through seeing people getting dowloaded on info either with a tour guide or headphones with info, and we were happy just hitting the few important sites in our eyes with four kids!   we teach our kids to not look at inappropriate pictures, obviously, so it’s a little shocking to them as we walked around seeing many naked sculptures left and right.  alex said, “i’m going to take pictures of the guys showing just the upper part.”  good idea!

we walked out of the louvre through the pyramid, and enjoyed the front of the grounds, which are immense!  we kept walking the opposite direction of the louvre, toward the obelisk, with the trees changing and beautiful lanes to stroll down, it was breathtaking to look at.  of course, everyone needed an ice cream along our stroll, which made the view even better!

after the louvre, we headed to the mall, called-galleries lafayette.  we did get to pass the opera house, which is gorgeous.  we made it to the mall…i don’t really care for the mall here, probably because the prices seem double to triple.  but we did grab some healthy food in the mall, which isn’t a normal thing in the u.s.-quite the opposite!  the girls kept saying they wanted to go to the mall and shop, so it was good for them to see it, and realize we really didn’t “want” to buy anything there.

we finally headed home, exhausted, and ready to journal our day and get to bed.  also, we are bummed the bread stores are closed, because we ate what leftover baguettes we had when we got home, and it’s kinda gross how much you really enjoy snacking on bread!  plus, it’s pretty cheap.  we can get 6 croissants, 2 baguettes, 2 chocolate rolls, and 2 chocolate baguettes for 12, 50 euros.   we have an early day tomorrow, packing up all our garb and setting off for switzerland.

good night.

 

sept. 12.  2012

day 3

we made it out of the flat by 11:00 this morning.  breakfast-croissants were so yummy and flaky, along with the chocolate chip baguettes.  oh man, i will be pillsbury doughboy’s twin by the time we leave.  we metro’d over and caught the train out to versailles.  we walked through the small town where all the markets are, getting our bread, fruit, meat and cheese for lunch.  we also took the girls to get a nutella crepe where jarom and i remember having one two years ago.  oh, they are just delectable!  we made our way to the grounds of versaille, ate our lunch outside on the stairs behind the chateau overlooking the grand canal, and then made our way inside.  we got our little audio guide and started the tour of the beautiful palace.

as they say…louis the xiv built it, xv enjoyed it, and xvi payed for it.

the hall of mirrors was beautiful, and they have added 3d short videos in some of the rooms, which they didn’t have two years ago.  it was so interesting to see that when louis the xiv built his hunting lodge in the country, it was a decent size, but after others having added to it, it is now what has become versaille.

the crisp fall air was a bit chilly, so we were glad to have brought layers.  the 45 min. train ride back into paris was a bit quiet, as a couple of us fell asleep riding back into the city.  we did a lot of walking today, which was great.  we were going to try and rent bikes like jarom and i did before, and ride around the grounds, but with four kids in tow, it worked out great just walking and touring the large chateau alone on foot today.

we ended the day with our fave salad of potato, ham, egg, and tomato, and a baguette with nutella on it.  we got in a movie, beauty and the beast, which half of us fell asleep to, and we are on our way to bed.  it was a good day, but we are all a bit tired still.  hopefully tomorrow we will feel a little more rested!

sept. 11.  2012

day 2

setting no alarms, and having curtains closed is not a good combination!  we all slept until noon!  which is probably what we needed with the jet lag and not sleeping the night before, so we allowed ourselves the break, but only for today.  by the time we got ready and going, and of course, had the girls run down to the patisserie for some croissants, baguettes, and a chocolate baguette, we left the flat at about 4:00pm.  we took the metro to get to the musee d’orsay, and on the way, decided to have dinner, stopping in a small little bistro.  two women started talking to us, one who was english, and ended up being from ft. collins, colorado.  she heard nadia say something about byu, and came over and told us she was mormon too, and her friend was also.  we got to chat for awhile about life, it was fantastic!

we then headed over to the d’orsay, got our museum pass, and realized it was 5:58 and it closed at 6:00.  we decided to walk around the city, saw the square where marie antoinette and others were guillotined, and walked to the eiffel tower.  it was rainy at first, and then just overcast and breezy, turning into a beautiful evening.  we took a million shots of the eiffel, grabbed some more food, and went back to the eiffel for some night shots.  on our way to the metro, oh man, we got a crepe smothered in nutella.  the girls thought it was the best thing on earth!  yum-mmmy!  it was fun just hanging and chatting with the girls on our 16 metro stops back to abbesses, and hitting the market on our way home for some bottled water.  i guess it will be more bread tomorrow for breakfast, since fruit is too expensive for six people.  is it possible to be a little sick of bread already-on day 2?  because i think i am!  that doesn’t mean i still won’t stuff my face though!  hoping all the walking will burn some of it off!

sept. 9-10th

we have started our five and a half week journey to Europe with our girls!  sunday, sept. 9th, we boarded our plane on Icelandair at 5pm, had a layover in Iceland(oh beautiful but cold!), and made it to Paris on monday the 10th around 1pm.  by the time we got to our cute apartment, it was 3:30, took a nap until 5:00 , and then we headed up more of Montmartre a little more.  we found the place jarom and i loved to eat when we were here two years ago-oh that yummy salad with ham, egg, puff potato slices and i don’t know what else.  we found a patisserie for a couple of baguettes, and a couple of chocolate desserts.  we headed up to the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur, and sat on the steps eating our dessert overlooking the city.  we then took the girls through the magnificent church, and i still can’t believe we are here, and with our girls!…it seems like just yesterday jarom and i were here(it was two years ago).  i loved it so much, and am excited to take the girls around to places we have been, and haven’t been.

we have made it through a couple miss-haps, which always happen of course:)  like leaving for dinner and forgetting the code on the table to enter our apartment building.  thank goodness for a tech-y husband who can log into the mailbox on my mac, and look up all the emails we have saved for this trip.  otherwise, we probably would have been on the streets tonight…ew gross!   i didn’t even pull out my new camera this evening i was so tired, so we took them with jarom’s iphone.

and luggage… i’m not sure how to even fix this issue, i guess i haven’t learned to simplify enough.  we each have a suitcase, and a backpack(ok, i had two bags and a backpack and a suitcase), but it is still a lot with 7 total suitcases, and everyone has a backpack to carry things…and it’s unbearable…so much luggage!  we will have to figure a better configuration, because we have a lot of trains to get around on coming up, and we’re going to have to figure it out.  thank goodness for us standing in the airport looking confused-we were trying to figure out the most economical way to get to our apartment…because we figured 60euro per taxi, times 2 taxi’s…way too much.  i was pushing for us to take the metro, which would have been exhausting, and then someone with a taxi van walked up, and took us where we needed to go for 80euro, to two stops.  we had to pick up our key, and then be dropped off a the apartment.  so it’s still a lot of money, but for our load of people and bags, it was a total deal!

the bottom pic, that says picasso, is from where jarom and i stayed two years ago, which was one of picasso’s atelier’s he had stayed in when he was living here.  i’m sure he stayed in quite a few places, but it was neat, nevertheless.

the good part about not sleeping on an overnight flight, is that i feel like we are already on paris time.  we are heading off to sleep, 10:30 paris time, 2:30 colorado time.  good night.