Saturday 30th April
Palace of Versailles
This morning was a trip to Versailles. On arriving at the Palace of Versailles we were shocked to see so many people already lined up. It looked like we were in for another scrum and indeed that was the case. The Palace and its gardens form one of the most famous world heritage monuments and some say that it stands out as the finest and most complete achievement of French art in the 17th century. The old brick and stone chateau of Louis XIII was transformed and greatly enlarged by his son Louis XIV who installed the Court and Seat of Government . The town of Versailles was built around the Palace, as you do in France! To us it is a fine example of a pissing competition, where we would think who can piss the furthest, the French see who could build the most elaborate and biggest palace. There is no doubt that it was grand, but I don’t know whether I am just all castled out but I found that the grandeur of Versailles to be opulence at its worst. The fact that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, has always concerned me but today, I found it quiet disturbing. There was some remarkable art work and some fine pieces of furniture in the Palace and the gardens are amazing. We were rather amused at the water show, all the fountains in the gardens came on on the hour, they did look very nice but we were expecting something a little more. My goodness I think we are getting fussy.
When we left Versailles a couple of hours later, as that’s about all we could stand the crowd that had developed since our admission was amazing. The line snaked around for about a kilometre or what would equate to least a couple of hours worth of waiting. Buggar that for a joke, I wouldn’t be lining up for that long. We have a friend that came to Paris arrived one day and saw the line for the Eiffle tower and got the plane back the next day.
On our way back to the hotel our driver took us in the tunnel that saw Lady Di’s demise. It appeared quiet innocuous really but then we were only going 50 kms an hour and not the 160 kms that it is reported that her driver was doing. For some reason I always imagined it to be a very long tunnel, but it wasn’t at all. I was very pleased to have driven through it, being the royalist that I am. And I have loved the French coverage of William and Kate’s wedding but look forward to revisiting it when I get home in English!
We then headed off to Champ du Elysees to attempt to find Anna a gift, well my goodness what an eye opener that turned out to be. It took us about 2 minutes to realise that this drag was way out of our price range, that we had champagne tastes on a beer budget. Nothing in that drag was under a thousand dollars and it almost costs you to look. Short of taking out a mortgage Anna seemed destined not to be getting a gift from this part of Paris. Howeve, we continued feeling a little despondent as I really wanted to bring her home something from Paris, the fashions here are incredible. It is plainly obvious that some people have far too much money that they need to give some to the poor. We walked up to the Arc de Triumph on one side of the street and then back down the other side.
One thing that you never tire of in Pairs is people watching, it is amazing and I could do it forever. The sights are endless and one thing that very quickly realise is that in Paris anything goes. It really has to be seen to be believed. I have thoroughly enjoyed himself’s running commentary of embellished stories about the sights we are seeing. He has a lively imagination and is a wonderful story teller and it has been very amusing, even though it is dribble.
Sunday 1st May
After skyping home we are relieved to know that the four packages that we mailed have arrived safely. We then quickly head off to 0830 mass at Notre Dame. Mass was lovely even though we couldn’t understand it. It was very amusing at communion, every time a parishioner didn’t put the host in their mouth immediately they were chased and told in no uncertain terms by the acolyte to do so immediately . Himself’s take on this was that they may have thought that they were going to take them and use them in some form of Black Magic.
May Day is quiet a big deal in Paris and there were over 50 reports of demonstrations, the Gendarmes were out patrolling the streets in large numbers. The streets were nearly empty on our way to mass. It is a public holiday and none of the shops are open and only some of the restaurants and cafes are open. After mass we wander through a lovely bird market and walk along the Seine before we head back to the hotel to pack up ready for our trip to Rome via Spain.
We make flying visit to Madrid rushing between terminals and that is the extent of our sightseeing. I don’t think we can lay a claim to being in Spain. L Apparently our luggage didn’t do the same rush between terminals and so when we arrived in Rome our luggage was still in Madrid. After making the relevant complaints and completing the necessary paperwork we head to our Hotel arriving at 00:30 with only the clothes we have on. I would not recommend Liberia airways as they wouldn’t even give us a bag of toiletries, your luggage has to be missing for 24 hours to be eligible for that!! So we will start the tour tomorrow in 2 day old clothes…great introduction. But hopefully our luggage should catch up with us at 1100 today. Fingers crossed.
Monday 2nd May
Rome
At breakfast this morning it doesn’t take us to long to realise that there are a few Americans on our tour. Himself and I are well known for the amount of food that we can pack away, but you have no idea how laden the breakfast plates are of some of these people on our tour. Honestly you would have thought that they hadn’t seen food for a month of Sundays, and that is really saying something coming from us two. And they went back several times…nothing short of gluttony we decided. Even more to the point was that we hadn’t eaten anything from 1500 the day before.
After breakfast we head out on the tour. The tour had some changes due to the fact of Pope John Paul’s beatification yesterday St Peter’s Basilica was closed to the public. There were 1 million visitors in Rome yesterday for the beatification. We were however able to visit the Vatican city and the Sistine Chapel. In 1508 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Vatican Chapel, despite his lack of experience in wall painting. Michelangelo then spent the next four years lying flat on his back, painting the story of Genesis upside down. The ceiling took him four years to complete. One can’t begin to imagine how difficult this was to accomplish, even staring up at the ceiling for 45 minutes gave us both a pain in the neck. Working in this position did however permanently affect Michelangelo’s vision. For years you read and see pictures of the most famous scene the Creation of Adam, where god points his index figure at Adam, bringing him to life, it was great to see the real thing. It really is an amazing place to visit. The spiral staircase is beautiful; the tapestry’s are really magnificent, I don’t think that there are enough superlatives to describe it all.
We then went to Saint Peter’s Square where they were celebrating mass, there were thousands of people there celebrating Pope John Paul II beatification and it was lovely to be able to bear witness to a small part of this mass, one couldn’t help but be moved by the experience. We are told that we will be able to see the St Peter’s Basilica at the end of our tour.
The colosseum was the next point of interest. I am finding it quiet incredible visiting all these spots that for nearly 50 years I have read about and seem on the television and the movies, I find myself walking around nearly having to scoop my mouth shut. I am simply intrigued, I have never been that interested in history but I find that this trip has woken something in me and now I have a thirst for more. Himself is so very patient with me answering my million questions. I would never have thought that I would feel this way. To be honest I thought that I was going to be quiet bored by it all, not a chance.
We get back to our hotel to find that we still have no luggage…oh dear, we have to wait till 2300 before we can purchase more clothing and guess what we have to be ready to go by 0730 in the morning, so it may be another couple of days with no gear. What is frustrating is that Liberia were pretty strict with hand luggage so we packed a lot of things that we would always usually have as carry on into our luggage..we broke our own rule….never again. Himself is without his medications also which is a worry as if he consumes to much vino or tomatoe based food or seafood he will come down with the gouto!
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