Paris, France March 30

I was up early. I had a lot to accomplish, on my final day in Paris.

First I needed to wash my final load of clothes for the trip. The next morning I had an EARLY departure for Luxembourg. The laundromat was about a half block away.

The instructions are easier than they look:


"Primus Sucks!"


After loading the machine, I raced back up the hill and attacked the breakfast room. I had it all to myself. I don't know why, but the coffee and croissants tasted better here in Paris than anywhere I'd been on this trip

I returned to the laundromat for the drying and folding portion of this task. People used the Laundromat as a meeting place. A few Asian men waited for a ride. A women and her children met another woman for a walk. I wondered if the camera in the back of the room was sending live picture to anyone

By 9 am the clothes were back in the hotel room and I was in a taxi, on my way to american express for a fist full of euros. While at Amex, I bought my ticket to the Louvre, to skip the line.

I walked toward the Louvre, staring at geocache icons, on my gps, that were behind me and getting farther away at every step. Today, I would only search for geocaches if my path went near one. Not one was on my path. Besides, so much to do, so little time.

At the Louvre, I found the line at the door to be long. A couple bus loads of children milling about blocking my way. I started waving my ticket at the clerks and once they saw me, they called me to the front of the line. Phew, I'm in.

The Louvre as seen from space:


The Louvre is HUGE. I stared at the map to figure out what section I needed to visit. I heard they have a nice portrait of an italian woman, the morning lisa or something. Once you are in the correct part of the building, you need to stay focused on where you are going. Its easy to get distracted and spend hours looking at all of the collection and get kicked out before seeing everything on your list.

They already have too much to see and more stuff keeps arriving:


Some times they don't even unpack them for us to see:


Women REALLY like this one. By the way - the box in the picture above is to the left of this picture:


I kept moving toward the must see items.


How could this be a masterpiece? She doesn't even have arms.
Venus di Milo:



Plumbers Smile:


No flash:


I made my way to 'the most famous painting in the world." As you will see in the Da Vinci Code movie, it is in a large room surrounded by tall walls covered in captivating paintings. The hum of the crowd is broken only by the screams of "NO PICTURES!" Say it often and many times in succession - no, say it LOUD. Since they were so insistent, I didn't take a picture. I did act as a shield for others to snap pictures of reflective glass.

Gotta love Google Images:


After seeing a couple 'must see' items, I made my way downstairs to see the fortress in the basement.



Yup, its authentic:


I made my way out after only seeing a teeny bit of the museum.





A light rain was falling as I made my way to the Picasso museum. I stopped for lunch and watched people come and go and deal with the wet weather.





The picasso museum is a little off the beaten path. Its in a 17th century building. I tried to take a few pictures, without a flash and in stealth mode. This is the only one that is usable.


Pablo Picasso did create paintings with weird looking subjects. He also sculpted, in a variety of mediums, he dabbled in photography... What surprised me was his use of color. A painting jumps off the wall at you - it is so vibrant. Bright orange and yellows offset with greens and browns and not one color clashes with another. Absolutely amazing:



After covering all of this fantastic museum, I made my way to the next on my list.

Almost a car:


I could have gone in but, there was a concert going on and there were no tours and the cost of admission, to the concert, was a little steep for a quick visit.











I stared at the towers for a few minutes and I assume that the current hunchback must have been busy with the concert. There was one stop left on my list for the day and there was still sunlight. Not much, but a little sunlight.



I went to the top and took in the view. It was a whirlwind tour. I wish I had planned to spend more time in Paris. I know that I can always return for a visit.









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Paris, France March 29

I hoped that my overnight ride to Paris would be as good as my ride to Madrid was. In essence the bedroom is bunk beds with a sink. The toilet is down the hall. Once you drop the luggage in the cabin, its time to think about what's for dinner.









I had a couple of beers before a delicious meal. I think the wine helped me on this overnighter. I did sleep well but I had a vivid dream. I rarely remember my dreams but this one remains in my head, to this day. It was more of a nightmare than a happy dream.

Maybe it was the hum of the train or my mind organizing my experiences or both combined. My dream involved myself and a group of people, racing on a train from station to station. At each station, we would exit the train and run around trying to find the exit. Within minutes the station would come under attack. There were bombs exploding all around us. Luckily, we were able to escape from the station before the train was hit. This went on for a few stops before I woke up.

I rolled over and slept until the alarm went off. I had a hot breakfast while sipping coffee and watching the sun rise on the french countryside, as we rolled by. I remember thinking how run down I felt. I had been on the move for over 16 days and I needed a down day soon. Maybe that is what the dream was telling me.

My train arrived at the Austerlitz station and the tourist information (hotel reservations) is at the Lyon station, which is on the other side of Siene river. I walked across, pulling the clippity-clop luggage behind me. It was another sunny day. I looked around to see if any of the landmarks were within sight - they weren't.

The women at the touriste office were so nice. I was really afraid that my limited french would bring angry reactions. Their smiles, laughter and chit chat dismissed my fears. What a nice welcome to Paris.

Just like Lisbon and Madrid, my atm card didn't work here. I still had cash from my previous cities, but not enough to last the rest of the trip. Weeks after arriving home, I got a letter from the credit union concerning this. "WEEKS AFTER" Remember to notify your bank and credit cards that you will be traveling or suffer the consequences.

The travel books all said not to try to use the metro with luggage, so I hailed a taxi for the ride to the latin quarter. The main streets are wide and the winding streets are tight. Traffic moves faster than you would expect through this compact city.

The best western hotel was perfect. Nothing special but nothing bad either. I laid down to go over the map and plan my attack of Paris and fell asleep. I woke up twice, when chambermaids stopped in to check the towels and bedding. They backed out once they saw me. I instantly fell asleep after each interruption. I woke up a few hours later, still groggy.

I took a shower and went out to find a store for snacks. Next door to the hotel was a bakery. A few doors down was a brassiere. There was a butcher down the street, the opposite way. I found a couple stores that had fruit, bottled water, soda, snacks and brought some back to the hotel. As the desk clerk gave me key, she saw my bag of munchies and told me that the bakery was fantastic and I could bring my croissants to the brassiere, to enjoy with some coffee.

I dropped off my goodies in the mini fridge and headed back down with my maps and lists. I returned my key to the front desk and headed to the brassiere after a stop at the bakery. Ah, the good life. Sitting on the sidewalk sipping coffee, chewing croissants watching the world walk by.

I felt full, rested and refreshed. Time to go see the sights (aka go find some caches). It was already late in the day and the places I visited, the Pantheon and Cimetiere de Montparnasse were closed. Like Madrid, the first cache I looked for was the only one I found, during my stay. Luckily, there's lots of other things to see.

From the Pantheon, I could see the top of the Eiffel Tower. It was a few miles away. There were lots of people milling about, school kids on a field trip, workers heading home, people walking on the tree lined greens, lovers cuddling.

This brings up something that I just have to discuss. Lovers and their uses of park benches. I saw this in a few of city parks I had visited. A couple spend time kissing and whispering sweet nothings to each other. The man then sits on the park bench and spends a couple minutes trying to get her to sit on his lap. Not like you are imagining. He wants her to put her feet through the bench, wrap her legs around him and face him. The thought of "get a room!" comes to mind. Then again, I am an American and this means I am a prude compared to the rest of the world. But then again, if I was with a woman I loved, I'd want to dry hump her in public too. I wish I had a picture to explain this. Wait, I did find one on the internet:



I stopped off at another restaurant for dinner. I have never been a big fan of wine. The darker ones upset my stomach. After my second dinner in a row with red wine I was starting to enjoy it. It was dark by the time my gps had guided me back to the hotel. I went to bed with all my plans for the next day, running around in my head.





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Madrid, Spain March 27 - 28

The overnight trip to Madrid, on the train was tremendously more comfortable than my overnight ride to Munich. Maybe it was my all day hike around Lisbon or the fact that I had a bed to sleep on, but I got a really good nights sleep.

The train arrived 3 hours late, but at least I wasn't too early to reserve a room. As I made my stops around the station, for money, hotel reservation, public transportation pass..., I thought about the al queada attack at this station, just two years before.

Once I finished all my stops in the station, I hopped in a taxi to the hotel, near the Prado museum. After some polite begging the hotel said they would have my clothes washed. How nice, since they (like most hotels) have no idea where a laundrymat is. I got my clothes back that night. $75 for a wash and fold of one small load - OUCH! Lets just say that when I dry myself at home, I still use some of their embroidered towels - gotta love that extra large luggage.

The room was smaller than I had become accustomed to, but was very nice. the bathroom was very nice compared to the bedroom. Marble tile, modern fixtures and plenty of room to move around.

I headed out for a walk (aka find caches). Although Prado was closed, there were still lots of people there milling around and asking americans to donate for 'the children.' Once I wriggled away, I found my first cache. This was the only one of four that I searched for, over two days.



My hunt took me into the Parque de Retiro. A lovely day to be in the park. I also made my way to the Christopher Columus monument.



You know, the guy who announced that he found the new land (just because no one had already claimed it). They call it La Plaza de Colon. That is his spanish name, Colon. I guess he was full of it. I spent a lot of time in this park, searching for a cache that wasn't there. It was listed as missing after I left for my adventure.



Mardrid's Emblem:


The shop where I bought my new letter opener:


I spent to full days walking around a small portion of Madrid and had a wonderful time. Clear spring days, delicious food and lots of walking and people watching.





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Lisbon Portugal, March 26

I was out early searching for geocaches. I found four while walking a good portion of the city. Lisbon is nice city - but it was a Sunday. Like most europena cities, Sunday is a slow day. Many shoppes and restaurants are closed and all the hustle and bustle is home relaxing. But this also means that its easier to get around.

Heres a map of the central part of the city.



My hotel (the red H) is near the center of the picture. The Red G's are the geocaches I found. I started at the bottom left and worked counter clockwise.

My hunt for geocaches brought me to some special places.



I had to use this funicular to get to the top. The cache is hidden somewhere up on that gray wall a the top. From here I had a great view of the next find.



The cache is in that stone structure on top of that hill. On my way there, I remember that these buildings looked nice.





Once I got to the Castillo, I was rewarded with great views. I remember walking through that square.







If this picture doesn't make you breathe faster, then you just don't get it:







Found it!


View from the last find - can you see the castle on the hill on the left side?



The tricky, home made cache container. Its a 35mm film canister


After my fourth, and last, find of the day, I made my way to near the hotel, for a meal and to sample some port wines. After the cab, dropped me off at the train station, I reflected on how different this city is compared to the european cities, I had just raced through. The sunny warm day felt good. I nice tease of summer that would be here soon enough.

The train ride to Madrid was an overnighter. I had booked a private 'room' for the ride and hoped I get what I ordered and that I could get a good nights rest.





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