The Kurzweg’s European Adventure – Part II

My family returned from Amsterdam on Tuesday. I was still in Ireland, so David entertained everyone without me (again). Grandma and Papa had done France and Italy with us ten years ago during our first big family trip, so on Wednesday they left to get back to Minnesota. I was so glad they were able to come all the way here to visit us and see England and the Netherlands. We’ll see you again at Christmas!

On Wednesday afternoon my parents and Carrie and Elizabeth went to Abbey Road to try to recreate the famous Beatles zebra-crossing pic. The picture didn’t turn out so great (probably because there were no Asians around to take it) but they had fun trying! Then they headed to Trafalgar Sq. and the National Gallery and made their final stop at the British Museum.

A quick side note about this trip for the girls – this was a marathon for them! They had to learn how to function and physically walk miles and miles a day on less than ten hours of sleep. See, during the summers they’re used to sleeping in until noon and hanging out in the pool all afternoon. So waking up around 10AM was considered early for them. Oh, to be young again!

So on Thursday, my dad decided to let all the ladies sleep in while he ventured to Wimbledon. David and I have not been to Wimbledon (yet!) but we didn’t have high hopes for him getting tickets. And standing around in the rain for hours with thousands of other people didn’t sound like very much fun… which shows how little we know!

By some miracle it DID NOT rain on Thursday and it turns out the Wimbledon line itself is an experience. When Dad arrived they told him he was number 2,000-something in line. Yet people had brought champagne, picnic baskets, and of course the signature dish of Wimbledon – strawberries with cream. Everyone socializes and relaxes in the grass until the gates open at noon. So Dad bought a book on the event to keep himself occupied and even made some new friends!

A small section of the queue at Wimbledon

And at noon, even though there were over 2,000 people in line in front of him, Dad still managed to get in! So for a 20 pound ticket, he had access to the lower-level women’s matches and the grounds for the remainder of the day.

Watching a match - LIVE!

But the best part is that after the first match was over and he was heading out to meet back up with my mom and the girls, an official stopped him to ask if he was a single. He said yes, so the official let him know they had one seat available for the Venus Williams match in center court.

“That’s great, but I’ve got to take my wife and kids to the movies. Thanks anyway!”

I AM NOT KIDDING.

Dad GAVE UP a priceless Venus Williams center-court Wimbledon ticket to take his family to Pirates of the Caribbean. But at least now he can say he went to Wimbledon and watched a match…. I guess.

I got back from Ireland on Thursday night and much like a couple of weeks before, dumped out my suitcase full of work clothes and repacked with fun vacation clothes. And now you can better understand why I need to make packing lists!

We all rolled out of bed a few hours later at 3:30 in the morning for our early Eurostar train to Paris!

Even though David and I live in London and had to been to Paris just a few weeks before, we love seeing each of these places over and over again through our guest’s eyes, especially the ones that have never been to Europe before.

Elizabeth and Carrie were constantly cracking us up with their naivety. For example, the first time we got on the tube Elizabeth asked, “So is this the Eurostar?” Oh boy! But don’t worry, she was an expert by the time she left! Another evening, we had taco night. Part of the meal consisted of salsa, queso, and seasonings all brought back from the states. When the girls found out you can’t get these foods in Europe, or other staples like Kraft mac n cheese or PopTarts, they were so thankful to us for sharing our precious commodities… except the PopTarts.

Sarah doesn’t share PopTarts!

But anyway, back to Paris!

When we arrived, we waited in line FOREVER to get a cab to the hotels. Yes, plural. David and I were big procrastinators and waited to book our hotel until the last minute so we weren’t able to stay at the same place as the rest of the family. But it all worked out because our hotel was literally across the street from the Kurzweg’s.

Once we checked in, we walked to the Palais Garnier, or Paris opera house. This time, we all bought tickets to get inside. Last time I was inside was six years ago when I studied in Paris and they had the main auditorium closed off, but this time some of the box seats were open so we were able to sneak a peek inside. So I finally got to see the famous chandelier that inspired the opening drama of Phantom of the Opera.

After the opera house, we walked through the Place de Vendome, past the famous Ritz hotel to the Tuileries. We had lunch of baguettes and crepes at an outdoor café in the park, and then headed inside the Louvre. Again, Elizabeth made me laugh by asking as we walked through the park, “What’s everyone doing just sitting around?” I explained that in Europe, especially Paris, a favorite hobby is people-watching. Plus it’s nice to just sit outside sometimes and enjoy the warm weather, unlike in Texas where you might actually melt sitting outside for longer than fifteen minutes.

At the Louvre, we saw the ancient medieval foundations, the Egyptian collection, and of course the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa, Victory of Samothrace, The Wedding Feast at Cana, and Napoleon’s Coronation.

Winged Victory

How I managed to snap this photo without a

gazillion tourists in the background, I'll never know

We finished our tour on the top floor viewing the Dutch artists like Rembrandt. I had never been up to the second floor before, but it was really quiet and had great views of the park and Eiffel Tower.

View of the Tuileries Gardens and Eiffel Tower

from the top floor of the Louvre

Then we walked down the Rue Royal so I could introduce everyone to the gloriousness of French macaroons at Laduree. We enjoyed them on the steps of the Madeleine. We tried to go inside, but the church was closed for choir practice, which was unfortunate because it was also closed the last time my family was in Paris.

After quick naps back at the hotels, we met up and headed to the Eiffel Tower. The top of the Eiffel Tower was also closed last time my parents were in town. But we had really, really good luck this time because when we first arrived, the top was closed due to heavy congestion. But by the time we walked (yes, walked) to the middle section, the top was reopened!

Then Dad kept stalling so we could see the sunset, but what he didn’t realize was the sun sets at like 10 PM. So after a long day, we headed to dinner while it was still light outside. We ate at the same café behind La Madeleine that David and I had lunch at a couple of weeks before. David had stayed behind to finish the work week, so his train arrived around that time and he was able to meet us for dinner of croque monsieurs (my favorite)!

We started the next day at the Dome church and Hotel Invalides so Dad could see Napoleon’s tomb. I’d never been there before either. It was a beautiful church and the tombs were interesting to see.

David and me in the courtyard of the Hotel des Invalides

Napolean's enormous tomb - he really did have a complex!

We went to Notre Dame after that, but unfortunately it was closed due to some kind of festival.

We walked down Ile da la Cite towards my old stomping grounds, the Latin Quarter. When I was studying in Paris, we loved coming here for cheap drinks and food, like gyros! They have the best gyros outside of Greece at the stands in the Latin Quarter.

After grabbing our Greek lunch, we headed to Montmartre. First we stopped at the Moulin Rouge theatre and then walked through the narrow, art-filled streets of Montmartre to the funicular and stairs.

We opted to take the stairs to get up to Sacre Coeur. Since Notre Dame was closed, everyone and their mom had the same idea as us and headed to Sacre Coeur. It was really crowded, but still beautiful. To get away from the crowds and get a great view of the city, we climbed to the top. That was A LOT of stairs. Around 600… almost as much as the Eiffel Tower. But it was worth it.

The front facade

View from the tippy top

After walking through the empty (and boring) crypt, we walked back down to the Metro stop.

This is where I broke Rule #5.

First, I asked a young man to take our family’s photo. Before he or I could react, his older father snatched the camera out of my hand and offered to take the picture instead.

Noooooooo!!!

Poor old man… he kept “pressing the button” without actually ever pressing the button. Obviously my picture did not turn out, so instead, here’s a picture of the church that I took:

After Sacre Coeur, I told the group I’d show them where I used to go to school, which happened to be near Pere Lachaise Cemetery. Pere Lachaise is “home” to lots of famous people like Chopin, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison. Dad really wanted to see Jim Morrison’s grave, so we headed there first.

He is still one popular guy

The cemetery is a really interesting place, but it’s also kind of sad to see a lot of the tombs in total ruin. Mom's theory is a lot of the graves are hundreds of years old and eventually families move away, or die off, so there’s no one left to take care of the maintenance. They should establish some kind of foundation that looks after that kind of stuff!

A row of some of the better-looking tombs

After walking around the cemetery and enjoying an impromptu concert by Will.i.am (Dad was convinced this crazy man rapping on the rooftop of his apartment was Will.i.am – trust me, it was NOT), we headed down the street towards my school. Problem was, I only went to school there four days a week for a couple of months over the summer six years ago. So… I had some trouble remembering which building was my actual school. Finally, I spotted it! The one with the big blue doors. Dad wanted to take a picture, so I looked as studious as possible and posed.

As we kept walking down the street, I noticed another building that looked strangely familiar. Oops! That would be my real school. The one with the big green doors, not blue! I was positive I had it right that time (mostly because the name of the school was written on a plaque next to the door), so I posed again.

Then Mom and I had to have a fruit tart snack break, so we grabbed some from the nearest patisserie and got on the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe. Again, we walked up the 300 steps there (what a bunch of troopers!) and rested at the top for… a long time. See, we lost Dad. We kept thinking he was taking his time snapping photos and enjoying the view but after about half an hour we realized he was no longer on the roof. And sure enough, we got back down the stairs and there he was, chilling on a bench waiting for us.

My feet were KILLING me after all those stairs. I hadn’t exactly worn the most comfortable shoes that day, but I thought my Dr. Scholl’s gel pads would protect me. Not so much. I could barely hobble back to the hotel.

Before we stopped at the hotel for the night, we ate dinner at a nearby café. I’ve never thought the French were snooty at all, but it is true that they appreciate you at least trying to speak the language. A case in point: All day, David had been working on Elizabeth’s French with her and she was getting more and more confident. So at dinner, it was Carrie’s turn! Carrie was having none of it though. So since she refused to speak French to the waiter, he refused to serve her. Really. At first we thought it was a mistake that he had forgotten her drink, but then her meal didn’t arrive. After she was finally served dinner, it was another struggle to get her dessert out to the table. But we made it!

As we left the café, Elizabeth stopped and gasped, “WAIT! We forgot that I need to see the Eiffel Tower at night!! I have to see it lit up! I have to!” David was nice enough to offer to take the girls, so they wouldn’t be Taken. But Dad said he’d do it instead. What a good dad, skipping out on Wimbledon matches and trudging through Paris in the middle of the night for his kids! The rest of us are not so good, and went back to the hotels to get some rest before we headed out to Rome the next morning.

Elizabeth is becoming quite the photographer!

The Kurzweg’s European Adventure – Part I

The moment my family found out David and I were moving abroad, they started planning a trip to Europe… and then before we knew it, June 2011 had arrived! And so did our six guests – Dad, Mom, Elizabeth, Carrie (Elizabeth’s friend), Papa, and Grandma!

The weather in London has been pretty amazing (minus a small snowstorm in December that shut down the city for a week) since we moved here last July. I never knew why anyone complained about the rain… until June. When I left to Texas for my work symposium, it started to rain. And until about a week ago, it had not stopped! :(

So unfortunately, my family got to experience the infamous English weather. My sister actually loved it though, because growing up in El Paso, she never sees rain. She kept saying how cool it would be to have the sun out but be raining at the same time! Easy to please…

We knew we needed to make the most of our time in England, so we sucked it up and ventured out every day – come hell or high water.

I took off a couple of days of work to spend time with my family and show them the ropes in London. They had never been to London before, so after they arrived early Thursday morning, I gave them a quick tour of the house, and then we headed to Westminster Abbey. Everyone really enjoyed touring the church and seeing the site of the Royal Wedding in-person.

We had bought tickets to the London Eye weeks ahead of time to avoid the lines, which was very unnecessary on Thursday since it was raining and no one wanted to go on the Eye. But when we noticed it clearing up a bit, we quickly grabbed lunch of chicken and mushroom pasties, and then headed to the Eye. It was perfect timing!

Dad, Mom, me, and Elizabeth in front of the Eye

After the Eye, the family was pretty jetlagged so we returned home. We relaxed the rest of the evening and then headed out to the Tower of London on Friday morning.

Even though the Tower is my favorite thing to do in London, I hadn’t been since 2004. That is way too long! Surprisingly, it was really crowded on Friday, even with the terrible weather. First thing, we took a free Beefeater tour. This tour was shortened and took place inside the chapel because of the inclement weather, but it was still really interesting and I learned a lot! After the overview of the Tower, we were left to explore on our own.

The girls with a Beefeater

Some of the highlights of the Tower are the Crown Jewels, Armoury, and the Wall Walk.

Dad in front of Traitor's Gate, where prisoners were rowed into the Tower

This summer, there’s also a special exhibit on-site featuring the old menagerie. Since this is a new exhibit, I hadn’t learned about any of this before. I didn’t even know there was a zoo inside the Tower. There were so many strange stories from hundreds of years ago… For instance, one of the animals kept at the Tower was a polar bear. Every day the bear was tied up to a rope and allowed to swim and fish in the Thames. The Tower was also home to a family of monkeys that lived in their own apartment, like people!

Elizabeth and Carrie where they belong!

But back then people didn’t know anything about animal nutrition or healthcare so unfortunately a lot of the animals died in horrible ways. Like the ostrich that choked on a nail (because people believed they ate iron) or the bear that overdosed on honey. Let that be a lesson to you, Winnie the Pooh!

After the Tower we headed to Harrods. It was getting pretty late in the day and the group was still jet lagged, but a sale was starting Saturday so I knew we needed to get to Harrods before the weekend rush of shoppers. Even so, that place is always crowded!

We picked up a few goodies in the food hall, then explored the ridiculous animal kingdom, and made our last stop at the Princess Di memorial at the bottom of the Egyptian escalator.

For the past two days, Elizabeth and Carrie had become obsessed with trying to make the Queen’s guards crack a smile or laugh (impossible, by the way). We had seen a couple of guards at the Tower, but they were roped-off so the girls couldn’t get near them. Plus they wear those really big hats so I’m sure they can’t even see anyway! The girls thought they’d have more luck at Buckingham Palace, but unfortunately we slept in late on Saturday and missed the changing of the guard… which I’m sure didn’t take place anyway because of the rain.

One of the Tower ravens and a guard

But after we finally woke up and got out of the house, we still walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace and took some photos. Then we headed to the Apollo theatre to see Wicked. Out of all of the shows David and I have seen over the past year, Wicked is still our favorite. After hearing me rave about it, my family bought tickets.

After we took some photos of the gang inside a red telephone booth, the clouds let loose! It poured like crazy! I hadn’t experienced anything like that since Texas! We were drenched. Dad even broke his umbrella in the lashing wind and rain. We managed to find an office building with an overhang that we huddled under with some other Londoners for about 10 minutes during the downpour. When it started to let up, we made a dash for it, forgot all about the pub lunch I had scheduled, and ducked inside the nearest coffee shop to dry off and grab some sandwiches.

Papa and Grandma moments before the storm...

Then my poor family had to then sit through three hours of Wicked in soaking wet clothes. The musical was good enough to make them forget all about it, though. And no one caught pneumonia, so that’s good.

The Wicked stage - waiting for the show to start

After the show, Grandma and Papa wanted to go souvenir shopping so we took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and went to the giant souvenir store down the street.

Where's Waldo in Piccadilly Circus - Where are Elizabeth and Carrie??

Everyone bought some goodies and then we tried to get back on the tube to head home. This is where the fam got to experience how crowded London can be. We didn’t make the first train that appeared because people’s limbs were literally hanging out the windows it was so crowded. When the second train stopped, only half of us managed to squeeze into it. Luckily David was in the back of the pack with the girls, so he led them home. Thankfully he was there or I think Mom and Dad would’ve flipped!

You see, my parents recently watched Taken. The entire time they were in Europe, they were paranoid that Elizabeth and Carrie were going to be kidnapped by a bunch of Eastern European gangsters and sold as sex slaves. So even though they’re sixteen (the same age as the girls in the movie, I think) they had to have chaperones everywhere they went.

Because of little quirks like this, I established Sarah’s Rules on day one of the trip:

Rule #1: No shouting or freaking out or yelling (Americans are generally VERY loud in public compared to local Europeans and I did not want to be those people)

Rule #2: No fanny packs (which unfortunately left me carrying almost everything in my big purse, but it was worth it to avoid the fashion faux-pas)

Rule #3: No fast food (this was basically impossible to enforce and whenever I wasn’t looking, the girls somehow managed to sneak in Burger King or McDonalds – SHAME!)

Rule #4: Always try to get an Asian to take your picture (I know, this sounds like a stereotype, but it is soooo true! Asians are technologically-savvy and they travel a ton, so in my experience, they take the best pictures)

Rule #5: NEVER let an elderly person try to take your picture (Sorry to all of our grandparents out there reading this but most older people we’ve given our camera to have snapped photos of their fingers, their feet, even themselves... that is, if they can even figure out how to work the camera in the first place)

Rule #6: No giant maps (Dad loves bringing out the big maps and standing in crowds of people searching for places. This screams ‘I’m a tourist, come pick my pocket or try to take advantage of me!’ I had my trusty guidebooks with me most times so we avoided this and no one got robbed – yay!)

This concludes Part I of the Kurzweg’s European Adventure because on Sunday morning, the gang left for Amsterdam, where Dad used to spend a lot of time for work. He wanted to show everyone his old haunts, including the Van Gogh museum, the Anne Frank House, and the canals. David and I stayed behind to work, plus I had to go to Ireland on Monday.

Stay tuned for Part II – Paris!

ConGRADulations Jeff!

Hi everyone, David here. I’m back! I haven’t written a blog since Bath last year, but I wanted to write a little somethin’ special for my little brother Jeff.

This past June, Jeff graduated from high school. It was the end of an era, with the fourth and final House kid graduating from TASIS England.

The kids are all grown up!

The whole family was in London for the event. Dad flew in from Houston and Amy and her soon-to-be-husband Ross flew in from Boston. Laura came down from Edinburgh and my wife made it in the nick of time with a 7AM flight into Heathrow from Dallas.

Jeff started at TASIS in Kindergarten, so this really was a huge accomplishment for him, having stayed at one school for pretty much his entire career as a student.

On top of receiving his diploma, Jeff was also honored with the Sportsmanship Award for the graduating class of 2011! After the speeches and ceremony ended, we all enjoyed a buffet lunch with champagne and beers on the TASIS lawn, and then Jeff, Ross, and I snuck away for a pint at the local pub just outside of the school grounds.

It was an awesome day for the whole family, and we wish Jeff the best of luck in his next challenge at Texas!

Laura, Sarah, Me, Jeff, Mom, Amy, & Ross

Cote D'Azur

Our good friends from Austin, Allison and Jordan Gristy, made their first trip to Europe this summer! Allison is a teacher and Jordan is a day trader so they were able to take five weeks away from the daily grind to soak up some European culture.

The Gristys started their trip about two weeks ago in Italy and then moved on to their next destination, the Cote D’Azur. Amy is getting married at the end of July so we are not going to be in London when Allison and Jordan arrive but we had to fit in some Gristy-time! So we figured this was the perfect place to meet – the beautiful, sunny French Riviera!

Allison and Jordan, like the Sylestines, are huge fans of HomeAway so they used a similar service called Riviera Pebbles to book us an apartment in Nice near the beach and old town. It was the perfect location. Six years ago while I was studying abroad in Paris, my classmates and I took a long weekend trip to Nice and Cannes.  That was my first and last hostel experience. Needless to say, this trip’s living arrangements were much, much better! A lot has changed in the past six years, so I was not the best navigator around the city. But it was great to see the coast again and experience new things like the awesome tram system and farmer’s market!

On Friday night we met the Gristys at the apartment, dropped off our bags, and headed to the city square for a late dinner. July hosts the European Handball Tournament and Nice Jazz Festival in downtown Nice so the city was buzzing. The Gristys had already eaten, but Allison ordered some delicious profiteroles to share and I had a croque monsieur while David tried the salmon pasta. We walked around a bit more and then decided to turn in early. I know, we’re so boring, but David and I were exhausted from work and Allison and Jordan were tired from travelling.

On Saturday we relaxed all day on the beach. After walking through old town and stopping at some shops for beach mats and towels (where we also considered purchasing some plastic swim shoes that we later regretted not buying), we had lunch at a traditional Nicoise (or Nice-style) restaurant. David and I split the beignets de croquettes (fried zucchini) and socca (chickpea crepe). The Gristys had the poulet frites (chicken with French fries). After that heavy meal, it was the perfect time to go to the beach… :)

The one thing I did remember about the Cote D’Azur from my previous vacation was the rock beaches. Almost every single beach along the coast is rocks and the ones that are sand, I wouldn’t even consider real sand. Those dang rocks are so uncomfortable to walk on! I definitely did not look graceful getting into or out of the water. At one point, David threw me a flip flop, which flew past my head. I must’ve looked like a beached whale rolling around in the surf (to avoid running on the rocks) trying to get that stupid shoe. I’m glad the Flip wasn’t out to capture that moment!

The waves were surprisingly big on Saturday. Allison even got crushed by one and lost her bottoms and her sunglasses! Luckily she pulled up her swimsuit from around her ankles in time and Jordan found the washed-up sunglasses along the beach. Before that, we had been having a great time jumping the waves. So afterwards, while Allison and Jordan napped and read on the beach, David and I continued hanging out in the water.  

When we first got to the beach, I noticed some people cliff jumping at a little peninsula of rocks. So I convinced David it would be fun to swim over there and check it out. I told David I wouldn’t peer-pressure him into anything because he has a great fear of heights, but he said he wasn’t swimming all the way over there for nothing!  

First, we had to figure out how to get to the top of the rocks. So we treaded water for a while, watching some kids jump to see how they’d get back up. Those little monkeys literally scaled the cliff face to get back to the top! “So how else do we get up there?” I wondered out loud. There was NO WAY I was scaling a rock wall. We noticed a policeman monitoring the jumps, so he pointed to a cluster of mossy rocks that we managed to crawl up. Once at the very top, I tried to reassure David by telling him he just needed to pretend to be Bella and I’d be Jacob coming to his rescue after his daring cliff dive! The French girl in front of us who spoke very little English knew exactly what I was referencing and turned around laughing at us. Then she effortlessly jumped and we made our move!

Obviously we didn’t have our camera with us, so we went back later and took a picture.

 We were very proud of ourselves.

After soaking up a lot of sun, we headed back to the apartment and got cleaned up before dinner that night at Chez Juliette, a French restaurant in the heart of old town that was recommended by almost all of the other apartment guests. 

 David always likes to think he’s Italian like me and doesn’t burn, but now we have this picture and his ridiculous Frenglish video from Paris to prove otherwise! 

Dinner was sooo yummy! All of the tables outside were full, so the hostess sat us inside and we had the whole place to ourselves. We started off with French onion soup (even though it was hotter than hell outside). Allison and I had chicken with herbs de Provence and potatoes. Jordan had meat stuffed vegetables, also traditional Nicoise food, and David had pork with a delicious mustard sauce. We finished the meal off with peaches and cream covered in rich melted chocolate. 

I loved this adorable sign outside the restaurant - my kind of place!

  

When David and I confirmed our trip with the Gristys earlier this year, David immediately had this idea in his head of us renting a boat and sailing around the Cote D’Azur eating wine and cheese like a bunch of yuppies. I didn’t really think this would ever happen and left all of the planning up to David. He surprised us all by arranging a sailboat trip for us on Sunday!

So Sunday morning, we woke up early to head to the main harbor to meet our skipper. I was the only one that had never been sailing before, so I was a bit nervous, but our skipper did a great job of explaining things. I even successfully steered the boat! Unfortunately there was no wind on Sunday so it wasn’t truly sailing, more like trolling. But we had the sails up to pretend!

We left from Nice and sailed past Antibes, a small resort town, towards Cannes. We saw some gorgeous mansions on the water and plenty of ridiculous million-dollar yachts. We stopped for a quick swim to cool off and then continued to Ile Sainte Marguerite. Here, we dropped anchor and enjoyed lunch of rice with jambon (ham) and pizza with olives and pesto. For dessert, we had tourte des blettes sucre. We were all a little scared to try this because it looked like a spinach tart. I’ve never heard of this dessert before, which surprised me since this was my third time to France in the past couple of months. But apparently it’s really popular and it’s actually made from Swiss chard, raisins, pine nuts, and rum. I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it. I could eat it as long as I didn’t look at it.

After we chowed down on lunch (we were hungry from all that swimming and sailing!) we got a nearby boatman to row us to shore. Ile Sainte Marguerite is a tiny island about half a mile offshore from Cannes and across from Ile Sainte Honorat, home to a monastery founded in 410 AD. Sainte Marguerite is famous for its fortress prison, Fort Royal, where the Man in the Iron Mask was kept captive.

Most of the island, though, is heavily wooded. So David and I only made it about a third of the way to the fort before I got half a dozen mosquito bites and turned around.

So instead of exploring we spent most of our time on the island snorkeling and tanning on the beach.

On the way back to Nice, David’s dream came true as we “sailed” across the water enjoying our glasses of French wine.  

 "I'm on a boat!"

After about 10 hours in the sun sailing and eating and swimming, we came back to harbor and went home to rent a movie and veg out on the couch the rest of the night.

On Monday, we slept in a bit and then took the bus to Monaco. It was a gorgeous drive along the coast, just a bit bumpy and HOT. Apparently we passed Bono’s house (though I had no idea which one was his) and Cap Ferrat, a very Ritzy area home to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Monte Carlo Casino

When we got to Monaco, we were starving and soooo thirsty from the sans A/C bus ride. So we booked it over to the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco’s convention center, for lunch at a new trendy restaurant on the beach. Jordan had the best lamb of his life, David had fish, and Allison and I had ravioli. It was also Allison’s first time trying lamb – whaaat?! I couldn’t believe that Allison had never had a lamb chop before, so I gave her my favorite recipe to try when she gets home! :)

 We found this picture frame outside the Forum and had to strike a pose.

Then David found this sculpture in the Japanese garden and had to pose!

After lunch we walked to one of the only “sand” beaches on the Cote D’Azur. They claim to import the sand, but once there we discovered the sand was really just teeny tiny pebbles.

 Lies!

So we quickly left and walked along the Formula 1 race route to the Monte Carlo casino. We looked around inside, but did not pay the entrance fee to actually gamble at a table. We were a bit disappointed (but not surprised) there was a cover charge, but our moods were lightened when we found a Laduree at the nearby Metropole shopping center. We got an assortment of macaroons for the Gristys to try (and David and me to share of course). 

I had to get some Carmex at the health store inside the mall and guess what they charged?? Keep in mind this is Monaco, one of the smallest, but richest countries in the world. 4 Euros! 4 Euros for a tube of Carmex. That’s almost $6! I was really desperate though, especially after my poor lips had been in the sun for three days straight, so I ate the cost.

Then we took the Bateau (or ship) bus across the Hercules harbor to the other end of Monaco. We passed between even more ridiculous yachts (some with their own helipads!) and debarked in front of the Oceanographic Museum and Aquarium. This is one of the best aquariums in the world and is beautifully built into the side of a cliff against the sea.

Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go in before catching the last bus back to Nice, so instead we walked through a scenic park overlooking the harbor and Monaco coastline. We ended the day walking along the palace walls back to the bus stop.

On our last day in the French Riviera, we grabbed breakfast at the Cours Saleya market. David and Jordan had fresh, juicy peaches from a fruit stand and Allison and I had pain au chocolat and almond croissants with chocolate filling. After browsing through the market stalls, we headed to the beach for one last swim.

David has never been parasailing before, so we decided to go. It was deja vue for me because the only other time I’ve parasailed was in the same spot six years ago! This time was much more fun experiencing it with my hubby!

I’m so proud of David for conquering his fear of heights more and more on each trip we take. Whether it’s riding the roller coasters on top of the Stratosphere in Vegas or taking a funicular to the top of a mountain outside Barcelona or parasailing in Nice, he’s more and more confident with each new adventure! 

We realized it was getting pretty late, so we had a fast lunch at a delicious pizza place in old town and then literally ran back to the apartment to grab our suitcase before heading to the airport. When we boarded the plane, my hair was still wet and there was salt all over me from the Mediterranean. It was a very uncomfortable plane ride, but I was glad we made the most of our trip.  

Only one more summer trip to go – Amy’s wedding! And don’t worry, for all those looking forward to Jeff’s graduation and the Kurzweg’s European Adventure blogs, they’re coming… but I’m waiting on pics for Jeff and it’s going to take a long time to put together the Kurzweg blogs so I wanted to get this one out first. But stay tuned!