She came in on Friday at 8:45 am. I, obviously, didn’t find out any of her flight information so I went to the airport just knowing that she would be there, not even prepared if she were to get lost in the giant airport or something crazy like that! I took the train to the airport and got there about a half hour ahead of time, flowers in hand, so anxious for her arrival! Well, I waited, and waited and waited! I couldn’t check the Arrival board; because I had no idea what flight she was on so I started to get a little worried. At 9:30 I was debating calling my dad, but I knew that it was only 2am at home, and once he’s up, he usually can’t fall asleep and I would have felt so bad! So I continued to wait. At 10 I decided that if she weren’t there by 10:15 I would break down and call him to check and make sure everything was ok with her flight. By this point I was totally out of it and had seen so many people coming in and out of the doors that I didn’t even notice her arrive!!
I was in a daze and she was shouting my name! I was SO excited! I scurried over to her and even cried a little bit! It turns out that her luggage was delayed and she had to stand around waiting for an hour before her luggage even came! From the airport we took the train back to my apartment and our week was started☺
Mom took a shower and freshened up after her long flight and revealed all of the goodies she brought for me ☺ Peanut butter, Oreos, Easter candy and all of the ingredients needed to make cookie dough! I was in heaven! I opened the jar of peanut butter and took a big finger full before I even sat down! Then, we were off. I took her to my favorite little Pizzeria that I went to my very fist night in Rome ☺ Then, we got on the bus to go to the train station to get on, yet another bus to go to the airport. She was able to experience first had all of the craziness that I have had to go through during all of my travels (well kind of..she took catnaps while on these various forms of transportation and we weren’t rushing so she didn’t get to experience all of the panic I have had! Haha )
We got to the airport very early and we weren’t even allowed to check in yet! Haha I guess it was better early than late! Plus, we would have just been sitting around waiting at my apartment, so as long as we were with each other, we were happy! We grabbed a little lunch/dinner at the airport and we were on our way to PARIS ☺ Lots of traveling for mom, but it was all worth it in the end!
When we arrived in Paris we had to take another bus to get a cab to get to our cute little hotel! We had the crabbiest cab driver that tricked us into tipping him…I was not pleased! Ahah Being in Europe so long has caused me to be a little hard on the cab drivers, I suppose! Ahah! We decided that we were going to walk around a little bit and try to find somewhere to get some wine! We didn’t want to go very far so we just went to a little restaurant right down the street and split a shrimp cocktail and some vino! After we got back we fell right asleep and we even slept in on Friday…turns out that vacation without Dad has some perks! ☺
After we got up and got ready we began our weekend of navigating the metro system…and we DOMINATED it! You would think that we were real Parisians! We got our first croissants and coffee and were geared up and ready to start touring! Our fist stop was Notre Dame! Mom had been there before, but everything was obviously new to me! The church was so beautiful! It reminded me a lot of the church I saw in Strasbourg (which is nick named the Notre Dame of Strasbourg- and now I know why!). The ceilings were so tall and the chandeliers were absolutely beautiful! I was happy because it seemed that this one had heat, the church in Strasbourg did not and we were FREEZING!
After Notre Dame we headed to Sainte-Chapelle where we bought our weekend museum passes ☺ They definitely came in handy! Saint-Chapelle was BEAUTIFUL! I liked it even more than Notre Dame. The stained glass was absolutely stunning! Inside the chapel it went from floor to ceiling! Each different pain of glass represented a story (don’t ask what they were, because we didn’t know…but we knew they were stories!) There was even a little statue of St. Louis…probably after our very own saint, Louis Edward Mann ☺
From Saint-Chapelle we headed to the Louvre! We decided that we were going to do the Readers Digest tour and just looked in our tour book to see what were the ‘must see’ pieces! If we hadn’t done that we could have probably spent all day inside that thing!! Among many other things, we saw the statue of The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Raft of Medusa painting, The Liberty Leading The People, The Wedding Feast at Cana and of course, The Mona Lisa. I really liked them all, but I do have to say that the Mona Lisa wasn’t as exciting as everyone says. It was beautiful, yes, but I think I was expecting a little bit more. Maybe I’m just not ‘artsy’ enough to appreciate it. I took a picture of everyone taking pictures of it ☺ It was funny!
After we conquered the Louvre, we sat down outside in the courtyard for a while and mapped out the rest of our trip! We were pretty proud of ourselves for already accomplishing so much! We each got salmon salads for lunch accompanied with a rather large glass of wine and we split a chocolate, banana crepe for dessert ☺ Our last stop for the day was Musee d’Orsay.We did another power tour, mainly just to look at the Monet and Renoir paintings. The museum is located in what used to be an old train station, so the set up was really cool. While we were inside the museum I turned a corner and ran into a friend that I had met in Greece!! Small world!!! We chatted with her for a while and decided that we were going to try to meet up with them for dinner by the Eiffel tower ☺ Mom and I navigated our way back to the hotel on the metro and the took a little nap before we got up and got ready for dinner!
Ron got me the cutest high heel shoes for Christmas and I decided that I was going to wear them out! Bad idea, I was cursing his name all night long! I wanted to cut my feet off! Ahah I think that I still need some practice walking in heels…I’ll keep you posted if I improve anytime soon! Haha! After we got ready we began our journey to the Eiffel tower. It didn’t turn out so smooth. First, we got on the metro going the wrong way (rookie mistake) so we had to get off and back on. That wasn’t such a big deal, but then when we got to the next metro we had to transfer on it was broke down ☹ We could see the Eiffel tower in view, but there was no way that me and my fancy heels were going to make it! Usually things that big end up being a lot farther away than they really are, anyway! So, we decided that we were going to find a little restaurant in the area we were. We found a really cute, reasonable restaurant, but it just so happened to be ITALIAN! I was hoping to escape Italy for a few days, but we ate there anyway and ended up having a really nice time! I didn’t end up getting to meet my friend Julie, but it was ok because just seeing her again at the Museum was awesome!
Saturday we slept in again ☺ The Chmill women are not early to rise, Paris or not! We like our sleep ☺ We got croissants and coffee again, but this time at a little restaurant across from our hotel and made our way to the metro to go to the Picasso Museum! It turns out that the metro station we were supposed to get off at was under construction, so we had to get off at the next one a little further away! We very successfully navigated our way there like pros! On the way I bought myself a fabulous pink purse as a little souvenir ☺ The Picasso Museum was AWESOME! I don’t think that it is something that everyone does when the visit Paris, so it seemed even more cool to us! When Picasso died his family donated a lot of his personal collection to the city to avoid paying taxes, thanks to them we were able to see his fantastic pieces! We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, but we obviously took quite a few ☺!
From there we made our way to the Pantheon of Paris. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t too enthused about this because there is a perfectly good Pantheon in Rome, but we went anyway. We somehow got ourselves turned around and it took us FOREVER to find! Plus, we stopped and got lunch at a nice little English pub and our waiter was not very friendly! It didn’t really lighten up the mood! The food was great though, so I got over it and we went on to see the Pantheon. It is actually a lot different than the one in Rome! The Pantheon in Rome is very simple, but this one was so intricate and ornate! It was beautiful to see!
Next stop, the Arc de Triomphe! It was a cloudy day, but we still decided to walk to the top! It was 284 steps, Mom was very proud of herself for making it up to the top! I was proud too! I am so used to doing tons of walking, but she kept right up with me the whole weekend ☺ Such a trooper! The view as still beautiful, the streets in Paris seem to be built all around the Arc, perfectly symmetrical! It was awesome!
From the Arc we decided that we were going to try to go to an Andy Warhol exhibit, but when we got there the line was a little too long for our liking! We were so tired from all of our extra navigating that we decided to just head back to the hotel and rest before our last dinner in Paris and our trip up the Eifel tower!We went back to the hotel and took our daily nap, got ready and left to see the Eiffel tower lit up at night! We saw it from the Arc during the day, but I think lit up during the night is much better☺ We opted to take the elevator to the top! A very wise choice! We ended up meeting some girls that go to UWM and chatted with them for a while! The world is seriously so small! The views were breathtaking! We were above the clouds! We finished our night off with some French fries, French onion soup and some Bordeaux! A perfect meal to a very perfect visit in Paris!
Sunday morning we got up early and went to the train station to take our train to Dirmstein so that Mom could meet THE BARFS! Marc and Kalus picked us up at the train station and insisted on showing Mom some of the places they took me while I was there. We saw an old palace and the famous water tower in Mannheim. Then, we went back to their house where Anna was busy slaving away in the kitchen! Just as I was assuming, she had a whole feast ready for us! We obviously had champagne and they used their best china! Once again they were shoving the beer down my throat and they even made mom take a shot after lunch…and she thought I was joking before! No, no, those Germans mean business! After lunch we went on a walk around town and through the vineyards and before we left Anna literally weighted our bags to see how much chocolate she could send back with us!! She had it down to the gram…. It was another great visit for me in Germany and I think that Mom really liked meeting Anna and Kalus and, of course, seeing Marc again!
Our flight back was very successful. Traveling with Mom means having the perks of taking a cab back home as opposed to fiasco of taking the multiple modes of transportation that I usually take! ☺ It was great!While we were in Rome we did all of the Roman tourist things. I’m not going to tell you all of them! Haha, I’m sure you would like it, but it will be very repetitive. We saw the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, Trastevere, the Vatican and the Coliseum. You know, the usual! ☺ I had seen all of them a million times, but it was my first time in the Coliseum, and I loved it! I loved experiencing all of these things with my mom and being her ‘tour guide’! I have enjoyed most of my time here, and I really do like Rome, but being here with someone you love makes it even more special and it makes you enjoy every little bit of it more that I thought was possible! Every night we went out to dinner and shared a bottle of wine, it was absolutely perfect! One night we even made our own dinner and cookie dough for dessert ☺
I looked forward to this week the entire time I have been in Rome and it was exactly what I need and what I thought it would be! I love my momma soo much and I am so grateful that my dad bought the ticket for her and let us experience this together! It is a week that I will remember forever ☺ We had SO much fun! I only wish that every week I spent here could have been that happy! Soon enough though, I will be home and we can be sharing a bottle of wine out on the deck with Dad and whoever else happens to wonder on over ☺
Links to more pictures!
link one: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041682&id=59002872&l=5e8dd111da
link two: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041684&id=59002872&l=a1f96ab60e
link three: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2041687&id=59002872&l=bd50a888dd
I can't imagine a better way for me to have seen Rome! I will also always treasure our time together as tourists! XXOO Mom
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