Paris Randomness and Depature

Our last morning in Paris came quickly. We had enough time to get up and enjoy another yummy breakfast at the hotel before checking out and making our way back to the airport.

Breakfast Dining Area

Breakfast consisted of a basket of fresh bread and croissants, cheeses and meats for the bread, hard boiled eggs, and other odds and ends. They brought each of us the cutest little individual glass jars of coffee and each a giant coffee cup!

View from our Hotel Room

View From Hotel Room

Our way to the airport was pretty uneventful. We got to the airport got checked in and went to the SAS lounge. I think Paris is one of the worst airports if not THE worst airport I've ever seen, so getting to use the lounge was a very spacial treat. When we were flying over Denmark I happened to look out about the time I knew we were landing soon and as I was looking I could harldy believe my eyes! I saw some buildings called, "Høje Gladsaxe" which were down the street from where we lived the first time we were here. I knew Lyngby was just North of it and then all of a sudden I saw the green roof of the Lyngby Town Hall and the Christmas Tree. As fast as I could I took a few pictures. When I was flipping through them after we passed I was happy to see I actually got our flat in one of the pictures along with all of "our" other landmarks of Lyngby! To give some idea of the scale of this picture, right above the word Lynbgy there is a white C shaped building. That is where our gym is and a mere 2 minute walk from our flat.


We got back home about 2pm and unfortunately, because Michael and his group are in crunch time, he had to call into a meeting at 3pm. So he literally went right back to work. At least he was able to call into the meeting from home. He was so grateful for the one day break.


We have what we call the "Pate Picture". When we were in Tokyo Michael took the camera and pulled me close and snapped a picture of us with the Emperors Palace grounds behind us.

Since then we take that picture everywhere we go with a backdrop that we like best from that city. Somehow we ended up with two from Paris. (Actually 3 if you count the Christmas Tree Anniversary Picture)

Pate Picture with Notre Dame

Pate Picture with The Eiffel Tower

I did some comparison shots of Michael in December 2002 in Paris and Michael December 2008 in Paris! He has grown a neck and lost all his hair.





I'm sure in our lives we will make it back to Paris again, or I certainly hope so. How can a city be SOOOO beautiful??? Since we have only been in December perhaps we might go see what all the fuss is about with "Paris in the Springtime". I can only imagine it is amazing. Paris was the first international city (besides copenhagen) that Michael and I have re-visited together. I have done Moscow twice and him Tokyo. It was a nice change to really be able to enjoy the city in a different way.

So where to next???
Did somebody say Bella Roma??

Paris in Pictures

When we left Denmark both of us were a little under the weather. Michael had a sore throat and my lungs weren't liking me so much. It felt like a constant asthma, but it wasn't my asthma. None the less it didn't stop us from enjoying our 1 full day, and anniversary in Paris. We had a yummy breakfast at the hotel and like the stereotypical Americans that we are we went to the Starbucks across the street and started our day of roaming the streets of Paris.

The day was beautiful! The sun was out and shining which was a welcome change from Dreary Cloudy Lyngby. The morning we had about the same weather that we have in Copenhagen, but as the day progressed it got colder and colder and colder and then FREEZING. It was much colder than it is in Denmark currently.

The Seine

Isn't it just beautiful?

The Louvre

We sat here and drank our coffee and liked watching the sun.
We walked through the grounds of the Louve to a big park area which would eventually lead us right onto the Champs-Élysées.

We walked up Champs-Élysées to the Arch de Triumph and stopped in several shops along the way. We were going to cross under the street to the middle but once we got there, it just didn't really sound all that appealing. So we didn't, and continued our walk to the Le Tour Eiffel.

Arch de Triumph

We had to cross back over the Seine. If you look carefully in this picture you can see Sacre Coure in the background.

Finally we made it to the beautiful beautiful Le Tour Eiffel. Its size didn't strike us as impressive as the first time our eyes laid eyes on it. Yet, it was still massive and still impressive. Maybe knowing how big it is makes it less shocking? The lines to get up it were itty bitty. I couldn't believe it! And the line to climb the steps up it was non existent. We didn't go up this time, but last time the view was just incredible. So beautiful to see Paris from that angle.



We started to get a little tired and quite hungry about this point (as this was about 3 hours after we started) and opted to head back to the hotel for rest, food, and warmth. We stopped along the way to look in the windows of a real estate place and couldn't believe how expensive it is to live in Paris! We saw an ad for a 32 square meter (Sorry, I don't know what that is in feet) flat for 380,000 Euros! DANG! That is PRICEY for that little of space. Granted thats not really drastically more expensive than Copenhagen.

I had forgotten that you can see the tower from all over. So pretty.

To get back we walked along the Seine the entire way. It was a lovely walk. We admired all the bridges and buildings that line the river. We talked about who must live there and how one can afford to live in the buildings along that stretch of road.

Michaels Favorite Bridge
Pont Alexandre III

Me and Pont Alexandre III

When we travel we live off of bread. We aren't foodies so it doesn't phase us much if we do or don't eat good meals or the local food. Give us some bread and we couldn't be happier. We each got a baguette's. OOoo they were SOOOOO good.

Yes, I ate that entire thing by myself. :)

After resting a little bit and warming up we braced what had turned into freezing cold weather. If we had more days in Paris, we would have called it a day at this point, but alas, we didn't. So we bundled back up....and marched on.

We have a tradition that on our anniversary we take a picture together with a Christmas Tree. Any Christmas tree. So our first stop was to get a picture with the tree outside of Notre Dame.

From there we had no direction and we just walked. We saw this cute little skating rink set up complete with 3 igloos. This is the little kids skating area. Parents were pushing their kids around in little seats and other kids were using cute little things to help them from falling.


We walked up a bunch of smaller streets and saw this very decorated little restaurant, with the most over the top nativity scene I have seen in a long time.

We only walked about an hour before we decided it was just way too cold to be outside any longer and headed back past Notre Dame and back to the hotel again.



This is a boat that was sitting on the river. It has grass on it. We thought it was perfect for a picnic.


Since we had both been a little under the weather and then suffered cold weather all day we both weren't feeling 100% and so didn't do anything fancy for dinner as we had planned. We hopped about a block from our hotel for a quick bite to eat and a *gasp* Tex Mex Restaurant (Yes, Myra, it was Indiana Cafe, and we did talk about our margaritas and you speaking French to the waitress).

The street where the restaurant was located

The best thing came after dinner when we went to the Patisserie across the street from the hotel for some desserts to split and Nicolas wine shop where we purchased some bottles of wine to bring home and a half bottle of wine to drink with dessert.

Me with my wine and half a brownie

Brownie

Apple Tart

I hadn't seen this little symbol before. It made me laugh

After we ate we watched the Democratic debates on CNN. We felt very political I suppose because we were looking forward to watching it after seeing the Republican debate the day before. We had an awesome anniversary. It was especially nice because Michael turned off his phone so no one from TI could reach him at all. He enjoyed having a full day of no work to be bothered with because they are incredibly busy right now. We had an INCREDIBLE day in Paris. Even though we were under the weather a little bit and it was FREEZING it was still SO much fun to just BE there and be there together. :o)

Arrival to Paris

Our trip to Paris was awesome....short and freezing, but awesome!

We arrived to the airport and checked right in and headed to the SAS Lounge where we ate lunch and relaxed a bit. This was the first trip that we have gone on since moving back to Denmark that we didn't have to go through passport control so got to stay a little longer in the lounge than normally. On the way to our gate we had a GREAT surprise! We saw that a 2nd Starbucks opened up in the Copenhagen airport!! This one is through the security check between terminals A and B. The first starbucks was opened this summer in the airport but it is before the security check. This made me very happy especially as they were handing out little samples of yumminess. Maybe a stand alone store in Central Copenhagen isn't too far off? A girl can hope can't she?


Our flight was uneventful but we got some very good food and free champagne, wine and I had a Baileys and Michael had a Whiskey. We landed, got our luggage and went to the RER station to catch our train to the city center. Since we have been to Paris before it didn't take long to know where to go and what to do to get our tickets.

Michael Purchasing the RER tickets (he is at the second machine from the right)

The train ride took about 40 minutes to get to the St. Michel/Notre Dame Station and a short walk to the hotel from there. Myra, you would have been driven crazy knowing there was a station closer to the hotel but we would have had to change tracks! The hotel was really cute and the staff very nice.

Our Room

I thought the ceiling was quite nice too. You don't see many hotels that have the wood beams on the ceiling.

We dropped off our stuff and immediately headed out into busy Paris. It was already about 7:30 and dark but made our way down to the river and Notre Dame. I am not sure why but for some reason I was more taken with Notre Dame than I was on our first visit. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was wonderful, beautiful and magnificent the first time, but it just struck a stronger cord with me this time. We walked up to the doors after admiring it from the far end of a square when all of a sudden a mariachi band walked out of the doors playing and sining. That made us both laugh

Beautiful Notre Dame

Notre Dame with Christmas Tree

We left here and walked around the Latin Quarter for a short bit before hitting up a patisserie for some baguettes to eat for dinner and retired to the room. There wasn't much to choose from on French TV so we watched the Republican Debate on CNN while we ate our AMAZING baguettes. We called it an early night so we wouldn't be inclined to sleep in the next day.

December 13th...Almost

We are packed and ready to head out the door to Kastrup to catch our plane to Paris. We are looking forward to escaping real life for a couple of days.

Happy 4th Anniversary (tomorrow) to us!

Free Ride to the City

This weekend we were pretty lazy, but decided to something on Sunday to spice things up.
The first 3 Sundays of December the S-tog or commuter trains are free all day long. It is a Christmas Gift from the company to the people. We thought of 100 places we could go, but in the end, we ended up going to Copenhagen for the day. We went to a coffee shop and got some coffee to walk around with. The streets were PACKED with people. Usually everything is closed on Sundays, but because of Christmas, everything is open and the city was hoppin'. After walked around for about 2 hours we started to head back to the train to go home and took the long way through Nyhavn. Every year Nyhavn has a Christmas Market. It is always cute and charming. We have never really stopped to look at the little places selling stuff, because it is mostly stuff we aren't so interested in. Some stalls have lots of kids stuff, others sell jewelry, others sell clothes. Last year though, we stopped and bough crapes and one of the stands and it was GOOOOOD. :)

Nyhavn Christmas Market

Nyhavn Restaurant Decked out for Christmas

After Nyhavn we headed to a little path way that stretches along the waterfront. I couldn't believe how many people were out walking here either. It is usually quite with just a few people when we walk this path.

Me with the New Opera House
It was barely 4:00 pm when we took this picture!!

Then we hopped back on the train and came back to Lyngby. Ever since we spent the day in the city when we went to Tivoli for Halloween, when we get back home we both feel awful. I think it is because we have been in the cold all day long and then our bodies start to warm up??? I don't know, but I DO know...after Paris, I am hibernating inside until February.

Countdown to Christmas

Advent Candles are a huge tradition here at Christmas time. The last one we lit was Christmas of 2004 in Lubbock. Klaus had given it to us along with an æbleskiver pan. Typically they are tall with the numbers going down the candle. You light it and burn it each night until it burns down to the following days number.


This year we found some really cute ones. They aren't tall but are individual little square lights with numbers. It has been fun to light them and watch them burn the past two days.


We have also been watching a little Danish show called, "Jul i Svinget" by request of our Danish Teacher. It is aired every night from December 1st until Christmas Eve. It is pretty cute and a fun little Christmas thing to watch in the evenings :o)

A Year in Denmark

Today is November 30th. Last year this time, we were arriving in Denmark to start the current chapter of our lives. Can you believe it has been 1 year today? We certainly can't. The year has FLOWN by. For some odd reason I keep thinking we arrived here in February or March and I have to remind myself that we came the last day of November. It has been a wonderful 1st year back in Denmark. We have had a completely different experience than we did in 2002-2003. Which I think it is good because it has provided us with a more well rounded opinion on Denmark and that in turn helped us to understand even deeper what Denmark is, and what it means to be Danish.

We quickly remembered what we fell in love with here and what we missed so terribly. Our friends and family in the states will probably tell you that we hold Denmark on a pedestal. This pedestal is so high that often I think it has become an annoyance. (Seriously though, Denmark REALLY is THAT great!) On the other hand, and as a shock to folks back home, this past year we finally found a few negative things that we hadn't seen before. And while it can be sad to us that we did find these negative things, it actually somehow strengthened our relationship with Denmark. I suppose loving a country is no different than loving another human. Your love is stronger when you learn flaws and love not despite but because of them.

The best way, I can sum up our current feelings about Denmark is to quote something from a book I recently read.

"Chris asked, Do you think he was happy?

Yes, But he was thinking that however much Marek loved it, it could never be his world. Not really. He must have always felt a foreigner there, a person separated from his surroundings, because he had come from somewhere else. "

That actually sounds a little sad. But the point I am making is, we LOVE it here. We LOVE almost everything about life here. But the more we learn, the deeper we get into knowing this country, the more we realize, we will never be Danish. I think if we stayed our whole lives here (Just as Marek did in the above quote), we would become very close, but it will always be obvious us, that we clearly will always be foreigners here. Maybe its because we doubt we will ever find ourselves loving "Anders And"the way the Danes do, we will never master remoulade, I'll never be able to ride a bike in high heels and a skirt/dress and if we can help it lakrids (Salted liquorice) will never enter our mouths again! :o)

I'm so very excited to see what the next year in Denmark brings us and what new adventures we will have and what new things we will learn. I'm excited that this next year we will be able to enjoy Denmark without the language barrier. It is amazing how much you don't learn about a country if you don't speak or understand the language even if they all speak yours. I'm happy to say that we don't have to say, "I don't speak danish" or "I speak a little danish" anymore, and that we can finally say, "I speak bad danish" :)

Some of you will remember that when we moved here last year, we changed the name of this blog from, "Learning to Love Dallas" to "Learning to Love our Lives Abroad" along with changing the appearance of the blog. While I am not changing the name again, I did decide that since you have been looking at the same layout for exactly a year, I'd give it a nice makeover.

L'Anniversaire

My hubby rocks.

December 13th is our 4th anniversary.

Michael is whisking me away on a First Class flight to Paris on December 12th.

We are staying at Hotel Left Bank Saint Germain which sits just off of the Seine River and slightly west of Notre Dame.

We are eyeballing, Le Coupe Chou for our anniversary dinner.

After two nights in Paris we will return on December 14th again on a First Class flight.

We traveled to Paris right after Christmas in 2002 to meet up
with our fun fabulous friend Myra for about 5 days . Since we aren't strangers to lovely and romantic Paris we will be able to enjoy the city for the evening of the 12th and all day on the 13th without the pressures of wanting to see all the Paris highlights. This will be a nice change as it will be the first city we have ever returned to together. (Michael has done Tokyo three times , and I have done Moscow twice)

Prior to previous belief, it doesn't look like we will be making it back home for the Christmas holidays so this will be a little treat for ourselves to heal our holiday homesickness blues as well.

***Now I must have a disclaimer So all our family isn't questioning why we can't come home for the holidays but we can go to Paris for our anniversary. We got a great promotional rate on the hotel room and Paris was one of the 3 cities we could get to for free this month and no, we couldn't have used those miles to get to the states. :o)***