One of the best parts of my job has always been that I get to travel internationally. This time, work has taken me back to the Philippines to the island of Cebu for APEC meetings.
Here are a few pics from the three hours that I got to escape from the conference center to check out the city:
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One of the day trips I've had in sight for a while has been to visit the Château de Fontainebleau, which is a bit over 30 miles to the south of Paris. While the trip as the crow flies may not be very far, our journey via public transportation (metro to train to bus) took over 2 hours - probably about what it used to take the Kings of France to make their way by horse-drawn carriage to their favorite local hunting palace. The original château dates to 1137, but was significantly updated by François I in the 1500s, and then basically by every subsequent monarch. It was the residence of French monarchs from Louis VII to Napoleon III, and was where Napoleon I abdicated the thrown before his exile to Elba. And it's gorgeous. But the best part... sitting by the lake on a warm summer afternoon.
Great evening for a Champ de Mars picnic with Michael's friend Chris from his Peace Corps Thailand days.
August 15 is a national holiday in France (the Assumption of Mary), and many businesses are closed. Know what isn't closed? Disneyland!
It's no substitute for a real beach, but every summer the city of Paris dumps a ton of sand along the banks of the Seine and celebrates the return of the Paris-Plages. We didn't make it across the river last year for a visit, so we chose a lovely grey-sky Parisian afternoon to check it out. It's a great option for urban toddlers to build sand castles, but not so much for anyone else. Although this chair had my name all over it...
Two of our good friends here in Paris are getting married in a few weeks, and we were invited to partake in their pre-wedding party called a Poltertag in Stuttgart, Germany. They're German, so it was only a destination wedding party for us. The poltertag (or a polterabend when it's an evening event), is basically an all-day party flowing with beer and food that is punctuated by a steady stream of guests smashing ceramic and porcelain goods. Once guests break said ceramic ware, the spouses-to-be have to sweep it all up as a team. The whole thing is supposed to make the couple aware that they will have to work together through difficult times at various stages in life; and it's a lot fun for the guests :) Prior to our plate-breaking festivities in Stuttgart, five of us spent a few days of vacation in the Bavarian capital of Munich. I had been to Munich about ten years ago, but this was Michael's first trip to Germany. We were lucky to have our German friend Sebastian as part of the travel crew, who was our go-to cultural and linguistic translator for the weekend. We immediately got down to business with some excellent (and inexpensive!) beer and schnitzel. At the recommendation of our friends Ian and Neha, we also took a bike tour of the city operated by Mike's Bike Tours, which was an awesome way to see the city. I am now pretty much a huge fan of bike tours. It also doesn't hurt that we took time to stop through the beautiful English Garden, partook at two beer gardens (including the famous Hofbräuhaus), and capped it all off with traditional coffee and cake. And in case you are wondering, no, we did not cycle off the calories we consumed. Our last day in Munich was spent visiting the Dachau concentration camp memorial site, which my grandfather helped to liberate in April 1945 at the end of WWII. He spent several months there following the liberation, which means that 70 years ago, perhaps to date, he was standing on the same ground I had the chance to visit in remembrance.
You can see some of the photos from Dachau in our trip photo album, but I'm going to finish off this post with our solid performance at dinner that night of… you guessed it, beer and schnitzel. |
AuthorBecause why not get married and move to Paris to really kick off your thirties? Archives
December 2016
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