Living Abroad Round II - Montmorillon: Park

Showing posts with label Park. Show all posts

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Luxembourg

Monday February 15th
Upon arriving in Luxembourg City I had no problems getting to my hostel from the train station, I just jumped on the #9 bus and was there in a flash. I checked in, but wasn't allowed in the room yet so I put my stuff in a luggage locker and headed out to explore the town. The hostel is actually located in a pretty ideal location at the bottom of a hill from the city center. So the first place I hit up was the "Bock Casements" which are caves/tunnels through the mountains (Luxembourg City is built on a bunch of mountains close together, so I was constantly climbing up and down mountains and crossing huge bridges). Unfortunately the Bock Casements are closed at this time of year so I snapped some pictures and continued on my way visiting a church and taking a few interesting side streets here and there before I made my way along "Rue de Corniche" which basically circles the side of a hill so you can get some amazing scenic photos (especially of the Bock Casements). Next stop of the day was the Cathedral, which was unimpressive so I made my way to the two main squares "Place de Guilliame II" (which is where the dull Hotel de Ville and tourist office is located) and "Place d'Armes". Both were rather unremarkable, but maybe that was because its winter and all the trees are just sticks and there's dirty snow everywhere. I saw some postcards of the spring/summer when the squares are covered in greenery and flowers and it looked amazing just like something out of a fairytale...maybe I'll have to visit again sometime when its better weather... I grabbed some lunch before continuing my tour of the town. I passed by the "Casino" and "Place de Metz" on my way to the "Place des Martyrs" (which turned out to just be a park) and "AM Tunnel". AM Tunnel was awesome. It's located 4 stories underground and is a tunnel that is lined with contemporary art. I'm not usually a big art person, but there was some pretty neat stuff down there and it had an exhibit of "Edward Steichen" who was one of the first ever 'portraitist' (he took people's portraits). He's now been added to my list of artist that I really like...the man was a visionary. After the AM Tunnel I braved the cold and the snow again in order to trek across town (I saw the Changing of the Guard outside the Palace along the way), down a mountain and then back up another mountain (using a narrow steep trail up the mountainside covered in snow...right about now was when I regretted not bring more appropriate footwear) in order to see the "MUDAM" (a modern art museum that was designed by the same guy who thought of the pyramids outside the Louvre in Paris), the "Parc Drai Eechelen", the "Philharmonie" (a concert hall) and various buildings of curious architecture located in that area including the European Union Justice Courts. By the time I'd finished looking around and slid my way back down the mountainside my pants were soaked to the knee with cold, ice water and I'd lost all feeling in my toes long before that, so I headed to the hostel (which was conveniently located at the bottom of the mountain) to throw in the towel for the day and change out of my wet clothes before a caught a chill.

Tuesday February 16th
Today was such a gorgeous day full of sunshine and warmth. I started the day bright and early, enjoyed a complementary breakfast from the hostel and then caught a bus to the train station. Before leaving the hostel I had bought a 'billet Reseau' (an all-day unlimited bus/train ticket for all transportation in the country of Luxembourg) for only 4 euros (what a deal!!!). I'd decided the night before where I wanted to go. There are several castles/chateaux located around the little country of Luxembourg and I'd decided to visit "Chateau de Clervaux" in the town of Clervaux and "Chateau de Vianden" in Vianden. First stop of the day was the town of Clervaux. The train ride to the town was gorgeous with bright white snow covering the rolling hills and surrounding mountains, like something out of a fairytale. Upon reaching Clervaux I realized I had no plan and no map (usually there is a tourist information center near or in the train station but not here), so I randomly began wandering in one direction, decided it probably the wrong direction so I turned around and started in the opposite direction. Fortunately I quickly stumbled upon a sign with a map of the little town (which was actually about a fifteen minute walk from where the train station is located), memorized the map and started heading toward the town. My plan was to hit up the tourist office first to figure out what there was to see and do in the town (my guide book hadn't told me much, only that there was a castle and an abbey), but like usual I saw something that caught my eye so I strayed off course to check it out. It was just a church, but I took a look around inside anyways. Upon exiting I discovered a narrow little footpath/stairs covered in snow leading up the mountainside and into a forest and a sign that pointed 'Abbey' so I obeyed the sign and began ascending the snow covered, steep path through the forest and up the side of a mountain until I came to the Abbey hidden deep in the woods halfway up the mountain. What an exhausting, slippery hike!!! But the Abbey was worth it. At first I thought that no one could enter, but as I finished circling the enormous, completely walled structure I found an entrance gate at the very back. You couldn't wander around freely, but you were able to visit the church. I'd timed my visit unknowingly, just perfect. I'd read in my guide book that they hold a gregorian mass (that means they chant the service instead of just say it) everyday at 10:45am which was the exact hour that I arrived, so I sat down and listened for a bit before deciding that I needed to continue my journey in order to see everything today. So I made my descent down the mountain. I'd spotted the Chateau on the way down and headed in that direction next. The tourist information center was hooked onto the Chateau but it was closed for the winter, so it didn't really matter that I hadn't gone there first. Unfortunately everything else was closed for winter too, so I took some photos and headed back to the train station to catch the next train. My train arrived at 11:53am and I took it to Ettelbruck, where I then had to change to the bus in order to reach Vianden.

The Chateau de Vianden was by far the coolest place I visited during my trip and the best castle I've ever visited, so it was well worth the journey. When the bus dropped me off on the outskirts of the town the castle was immediately visible sitting on a mountain overlooking the little village. It was a long hike uphill to the castle. I stopped by two churches along the way and walked around the old ramparts to the city while slowly trekking my way up the hill to the castle. Upon arriving at the castle I only hesitated for a second on whether or not to shell out the money and enter (I didn't take all those trains, country buses and hike a huge mountain not to enter) so I bought a ticket and headed in. The castle has a very medieval 'King Arthur's court' ambiance to it. I kept drifting off to story tales of knights and ladies and medieval times as a wandered the old halls. You could almost picture what it was actually like (banquets in the dining hall, sword fights, wars, moonlight lovers' trysts on the terrace walkway). After I finished visiting the castle (and left my daydreams for reality) I made my way back down the mountain to the bus stop to head back to Luxembourg City. I'd debated visiting some other towns just to look around since it wasn't to late, but I was once again soaking wet from trekking through snow all day and tired from hiking up and down mountains in order to visit castles and hidden abbeys, so I decided it was best to head back to base camp. When I arrived back in Luxembourg City I wandered the streets a bit before heading back to the hostel and packing my bag to be ready to leave first thing in the morning to Switzerland.

Belgium Photos

Zinneke Pis - Dog pissing statue (Like I said they really like their peeing statues)

WAFFLES!!!!!!!!

Waffle Truck (It's their version of an ice cream truck)

Waffles!!!

Ste Katerijne Church

Rue des Bouchers

Place des Martyrs

Place du Luxembourg - headquarters for the European Union

Parc Petit Sablon - the statues of men of different professions

Parc Petit Sablon - these are the two guys who got beheaded

Parlement Europeen - Headquarters for the European Union

Palais Royal - The Royal Palace

The 'Museum District'

Park next to Mont des Arts

Monts des Arts - The glass cube that serves no purpose

Mannequin Pis - Little boy pissing dressed up in his Polish garbs - Group photo

Mannequin Pis - Little boy pissing dressed up in his Polish garbs

Mannequin Pis - Little boy pissing fountain

La Bourse building

Jeanneke Pis - The little girl pissing fountain

Drinking at O'Reilly's Irish Pub with my two french roommates and dutch roommate

Grand Place

Hotel de Ville in Grand Place

Entrance to Galleries St Hubert

Inside Galleries St Hubert

Chinese Tea Room

I forgot to take a picture of my first Belgian waffle before I ate it, so this is the after shot

Cool clock located across from the Mont des Arts

Chocolate fondue fountain. Yum!

Chocolaterie in Galleries St. Hubert

Crypt of the Cathedral in the basement

Picture of what the old foundations looked like when they were doing the excavations

Inside the Cathedral

First glimpse of the Cathedral

Beer Planet...need I say more?!?

Bruxelles, Belgium

Friday February 12th
I woke up at 6am in order to get ready, finish packing and trudge my way through the snow to the train station on the opposite side of town. While walking to the train station I couldn't help but to think that maybe I'd made a mistake by choosing to take my cloth all-star converse sneakers with me, instead of my warmer, more weather appropriate adidas tennis shoes. Considering I was heading further north where it would probably be colder and with more snow, but oh well, too late to change my mind now. My train from Poitiers to Lille was twenty minutes late due to the snowy weather, so I was afraid I was going to miss my connecting train from Lille to Bruxelles, but no worries that train was delayed twenty minutes too. I arrived in Bruxelles around 2:30pm and was greeted by sunshine as I made my way to my hostel to drop off my bag, before heading out to take in the sites. My first stop of the day was "Mannequin Pis" which is a fountain of a little boy pissing (interesting fact: in 2007 he didn't piss for one day as a warning for prostrate cancer). It's the national symbol for the country, but was smaller than I'd been expecting. In basically every chocolate shops you can buy little "Mannequin Pis" chocolate statues. After visiting the pissing statue I started making my way toward the "Grand Place" which is Bruxelles most magnificent square. Along the way I jumped in and out of souvenir shops, chocolate shops and drooled over the waffles that were topped with chocolate, whip cream and all kinds of fruits. When I finally reached Grand Place, I was in awe. The architecture was amazing. Buildings were decorated with intricate statues and symbols and gold. The "Hotel de Ville" (city hall) had the classic gothic architecture going on with tons of little statues and the guildhalls were decked out in gold and statues. From there I continued wandering aimlessly taking in the town. All the streets are made of cobblestone and all the stores are packed with either souvenirs, chocolate or beer (and lots of times all three). Occasionally there would be a clothing store, but they were all tacky and cheap (I hear Antwerp is the town to visit in Belgium if you want good fashion and shopping). I came across the "Galleries St. Hubert" while wandering. It's a strip mall under a glass ceiling. Since it's closed-in it's suppose to help fight against the cold and weather, but it doesn't. It was just as cold walking inside as outside. The galleries connect into a street called "Rue des Bouchers" which is packed with restaurants. Because there are so many restaurants located in one area and not enough customers to fill them all, the waiters (very aggressively) stand outside the restuarant and try to talk to you and get you to eat in their restaurant. Its like walking through a gauntlet. I had actually considered grabbing something to eat there, until I was bombarded by overly-aggressive waiters. So instead I visited the tourist office and then found a little cafe and had some soup for dinner, while I plotted out what I'd do the following day and then I started heading back to the hostel. I jumped into Madeleine Church on my way back to the hostel. It looks really pretty from the outside, but the inside was very plain and dull (and mass was in session) so I didn't stay long. At the hostel I met two of my roommates. Two french girls who study near Paris. They invited me to join them for the evening (dinner and drinks), but I politely refused stating that I'd prefer to go out Saturday night and not Friday (hey, I'm on a budget, I can't afford to go out every night). So I enjoyed my first Belgium beer "Barbar" in Belgium at the hostel bar alone while I continued to read and take notes on my book Utopia by Thomas More (this book takes forever to read. It's so dense I have to reread everything and the man has never heard of paragraphs). After that I turned in for the night, so I'd be fresh and ready to go the following morning.

Saturday February 13th
Upon waking up I continued to talk with the two french girls (in french all the time, of course) and we went to breakfast in the hostel together (the hostel breakfast was actually pretty impressive, usually its just toast and jam but here there were different types of toppings for the toast, two types of cereal, fruit and a large selection of breakfast beverages) and they invited me to spend the day site seeing with them. I was a bit hesitant at first because I actually like traveling alone because I get to see what I want and at my own pace and I was worried about speaking my imperfect french all day with two native speakers, but I decided to go with them anyways. At 10am we left the hostel and headed to an antique open-air market near a park called "Place du Petit Sablon". Antique markets aren't really my thing, but the park was cool. It was surrounded by 48 little statues of men depicting old professions and in the center of the park was a large fountain with two statues of two men who were beheaded for protesting against the catholic oppression by the Spanish Duke of Alba 440 years ago. From there we visited the "Palais du Justice" (courthouse)which was just humongous and way over the top. The Copula is made of gold and it was the second largest (after the Copula in Vatican City) when it was built. The palais sits on a hill over looking the city, so it gives some great views of the town. Next to the palais is a glass elevator that takes you down the mountain, so we jumped in that and headed to our next destination a large flea market located a "Place de Jeu de Balle", like I said I'm not a big fan of flea markets so we had a quick look around and then started heading back into town (we were in the Southwest corner of the city). It was getting extremely cold and starting to snow, so we jumped into a "bio market" (organic food market) to warm up before finishing the trek into town. The Mannequin Pis was the first stop once we'd arrived back in the center of town. Every Saturday the city dresses the Mannequin Pis in the traditional clothing of a different country (this Saturday it was Poland) so we checked it out, snapped some pictures and then began hitting up Chocolateries (chocolate stores). The girls were leaving the following day and wanted to bring chocolate back with them, so I think we visited almost every chocolate store in the city. Which wasn't bad, because lots of them give out free samples or have chocolate fondue fountains that you can dip things in and some having viewing areas where you can watch the chocolate being made. So it was really amusing and tasty visiting them all. During our chocolate hunt we took a break and had lunch in a sandwich shop and then we went to a waffle shop for dessert, where I tasted my first belgian waffle covered in hot fudge and powdered sugar. Yummmmm!! After the girls had finished picking out all their chocolates, they showed me the girl Mannequin Pis named Jeanneke Pis. Yes, it's a statue of a little girl squatting to pee. Then we began wandering to a few other sites like the Opera House, Beer Planet, Passage du Nord (which is similar to Galleries St Hubert, because it's also a covered strip mall but it's walls are lined with statues), then we walked along "Nieuwstraat" street (which was lined with all my favorite shopping stores like H&M, Zara, Pimkie, Promod, etc.) until we reached "Place des Martyrs", then we continued walking toward the Cathedral (on our way to the Cathedral we took a street called "Rue des Comedians" which had some very shall we say 'original' architecture, that is probably hit or miss with a lot of people, but I liked it!). Inside the Cathedral we each paid an euro in order to enter under the church and see the old foundations. After we'd finished looking around in the Cathedral we headed back into the center of town (the cathedral is in the Northeast corner of the city, the exact opposite of where we'd been that morning visting the flea market...we did a lot of walking...helps to burn off all that chocolate and waffles we ate) to visit "Mont des Arts" which is basically a large glass cube you can walk into, but doesn't actually serve any purpose. More cool was the large clock built into the entire side of a wall of a building opposite the Mont des Arts. From there we headed to what I like to call the 'Museum District' because there are museums everywhere, but its also where the "Palais Royal" (Royal Palace) and "Parc de Bruxelles" is located. So we walked by those before making our way back to the hostel and hitting up a grocery store on our way to buy some food and drink for an 'aperitif' at the hostel. After our aperitif we headed out to the bars. The first bar we visited was near our hostel and located in a basement. It had a neat ambiance because it reminded me of an old medieval prison. Then we headed to an Irish bar called "O'Reilly's" across from "la Bourse" (the stockmarket/wallstreet of Belgium), where we met up with our other roommate who was from the Netherlands. We were originally going to go to a concert at a different bar, but when we arrived at that bar we were there less than two minutes before we all mutually agreed that the music sucked and was some of the worst we'd ever heard and walked out (it was some chick spinning horrible remixes of horrible songs). So we passed our evening at the Irish pub and then hit up a kebab shop on our way back to hostel around 3am.

Sunday February 14th
First stop of the day was the train station (located in the southwest corner of the town), which for some reason I decided to walk to, even though it was snowy and extremely cold. I needed to pick up my ticket for my train to Luxembourg the following day. Then I jumped on the metro back into town. The weather was really crappy on my last day. It was snowing all day and extremely cold so by the end of the day my pants and shoes were soaking wet and I was freezing, but I've never let the weather stop me before. Once in town I stopped for some soup to warm up and planned where I was going to go for the day. I decided to trek to the northern part of the city walking by "la Bourse" and the statue of the dog pissing called "Zinneke Pis" (they really like their pissing statues/fountains here). Then I headed to "St. Katerijne Church" where they were preparing for Ash Wednesday, before taking an elevator to the 10th level of a parking structure in order to get a panoramic view of the city. Unfortunately, because of all the snow my view ended up not being as great as I'd been hoping for. After that I walked to the Southern tip of town to visit "Place du Luxembourg" and "Parlement Europeen" (European parliament), this is where the European Union headquarters are located. I walked around this area for a while, but the cold and snow finally were getting to me so I caught a metro back to my hostel and called it a day.

Monday February 15th
Woke up at 6am and made my way to the train station in order to catch my 7:30am train to Luxembourg. My hostel was awesome and had packed me a to-go breakfast so I enjoyed that on the train ride. There was a young woman sharing the compartment with me and she had a cat in a basket that you could tell she was way to close to (she's definitely going to be the old lady with lots of cats in the future). I spent most of the trip staring out the window and watching the snow covered country fly by, until I arrived in Luxembourg City at 10:30am...to be continued in the next post 'Luxembourg'...

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Barcelona Photos

View of Barcelona from Park Guell.

View of Barcelona from Park Guell. The two big lines are La Rambla street

View of Barcelona from Park Guell. There's Agbar Tower and Sagrada Familia

View of Barcelona from Park Guell.

View of Barcelona from Park Guell. The two big lines are La Rambla street

View of Barcelona from Park Guell. That's the Sagrada Familia

View of Barcelona from Park Guell

Sagrada Familia a church designed by Gaudi.

Inside Sagrada Familia a church designed by Gaudi. This is the little area that we were able to sneak into.

Inside Sagrada Familia a church designed by Gaudi. This is where Gaudi was buried when he died during the construction of the church which is still not finished

Sagrada Familia a church designed by Gaudi

'Ronda del Litoral' a boardwalk next to the Mediterranean Sea

Barcelona Port

Park Guell. A collection of paths, buildings and marketplaces for the wealthy elite of Barcelona designed by Gaudi

Park Guell. A collection of paths, buildings and marketplaces for the wealthy elite of Barcelona designed by Gaudi. Some of the group: Milton, me, Leidy, Beto and Kevin