Paris

We finally went back to Paris to finish up our great year by going to the Muse Dorsey and Versailles. We met up with one kates friends from home names Anna. She is living in london for the summer. We headed over to the Muse Dorsey and we look around. It is incredible, the layout, and all of the sculptures and everything. There were even some really great paintings in there too. After the Muse Dorsey, we went to get some grub. Then went to bed. The next day was Versailles, it was where the kings and queens of france lived until the Revolution. It is so beautiful, but there are so many people that you can't really stay in a room longer than 30 seconds. it is really one of those places that you have to go and see. There are also the gardens at Versailles which are wonderful too. I would suggest taking a picnic.

The end is near (oh and holland and belgium)

Our fist stop on this last voyage was from Valence TGV to Paris (luckily we had no problems), then it was from Paris Gare du Nord to Den Haag Central station on the train service Thalys, which was awesome because it was like an airplane where they served you really disgusting food, but was nice because at least you got food. This train trip turned out to be really bad because the train ahead of us hit a car and the car turned on fire.. so we had to back up and get on really crowded buses for like one hour (our bus driver got lost) and then we finally arrived at ANOTHER train station where we crammed like 200 people onto a little train. Then we arrived at a station that was one stop closer to our destination and we met our uncle Rob. Rob and his family, like our family, are living in Europe. They are living in Holland for two years due to the fact that Rob has to work. In Holland they bike Everywhere, there is hardly any danger of getting hit by a car. If a car and a bike get into a wreck the bike has a 70% chance of winning the case. I to really liked Holland because of the biking factor. It was great to see Robs family. One of my favorite parts of being there was Amsterdam.




After our trip to Amsterdam and Leiden, we moseyed on down to Bruge where we met up with our good friends the Links. We all got settled in then went out for a very nice dinner. The second day we went on an incredible tour of Flanders Fields. And then the third day we moved on to brusseles where we didn't see anything really great, and we stayed in a HORIBLE hotel.

Romania

I know I have said this every single time, but Romania was my favorite trip of all time. It was so different because we weren't there as tourists (like all of the other trips) we where there as people trying to help other people, and that was nice just to get off of the regular path. I met so many new friends too that I will keep for life. Ones friends name was Wesley Craig, you might be wondering why a Romanian has such an American name well the truth is he is American, he is from Waco Texas. He is now living in Bucharest, Romania and he is there helping out with the church.

This was a day that we had all of the kids playing outside, and after we gave them huge things of DumDums

This was at the village Bollatine, it's funny to see a horse drawn carriage rolling down the street.

This was the kids school!! It might look nice on the outside, but really it is very simple and bare.

This boy's name is Mehi and he was one of my good friends there.

Walking down the barren avenue. Left Mr. Stokes, Center Carrie Stokes, Right Mom

Carrie with her fan club.

One of the not so nice parts of Romania, the kids can be real pains.

One of the cutest kids I have ever seen.

To Zermatt and Cervina

Not even twenty four hours before I got home from Rome, I was on my way back to Italy!!! Luckily we were heading to a town on the Italy and Switzerland border where I went skiing for one week with a French family. This is the best family of skiers I have ever seen, the mother was champion of France (on a collegiate level, she says that it is a big difference) she is also an instructor too, the father is an instructor, and both of the sons race I'd say that they're pretty good. Through out the whole entire week they all were teaching me to get better at skiing, and so I was pretty lucky to have such awesome teachers. Here are pictures of the week.



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Rome

Well I can honestly say we have probably seen more things this YEAR then most people see in their life. It was really easy getting back to Italy... jet that is (easy jet). We landed in Rome safely and got all of our baggage. Then we took a bus into town to try and find our convent!! For those of you who don't think you read the last word of the last line right it was convent. That's right we were staying in a convent full of nuns who were absolutely delightful. My two favorite sister's name was Wanda, and Mebiola (who was ironically from Romania).

Wanda Walker and Mebiola

We got settled into our very petite rooms, and when I say petite I mean PETITE. I could walk around my room in half a second!!! The first day our friend Anna (you might remember her from Naples) wasn't there so we just did some sight seeing like the Spanish steps and some important roads. Then we went to get some very delicious pizza and went to bed.

The next day we got up and had our bread and hot chocolate (the bread was shaped like a bishops hat), and then went out to see some more sites before our 11 o'clock rendezvous with Anna. We finally did meet up with her back at the convent and started out on our adventure.
Our first stop on the tour was the Colosseum (it's one of those things that I call a Mona Lisa you have to see it when you go just because it's so well known).

Emperor Walker at the Colosseum

The Colosseum was ok (fascinating to hear about it, but would have liked to learn more, we spent more time waiting in line than actually being in there) but I really liked the Palatine Hill where most of the emporer's palaces were. After the palatine hill we made our way down to the forum which was really neat too. It's incredible how much stuff they threw into one place. It was a commercial center, also a religious place, and where the Senate met. This area was literally the center of the Roman Empire.

The Forum

After the Forum we went up to the Capitoline hill where the mayors office is and where the Capitoline Museum is. Since this museum has some of the most famous statues in the world; we had to go in. In this museum there was the Romulus and Remus statue where the she wolf is feeding them.

Romulus, Remus, She wolf, and Dad!!!!

Also, there is the only bronze equestrian statue from the Roman period that survived.

Only equestrian statue from Roman period.

It was actually a very ironic story because when the Christians took over Rome they wanted to get rid of all of the non Christian emperors statues of them on horses. They thought that this statue was emperor Constantine who was the first Christian emperor, but really it was the emperor Augustus, and so we have this statue of Augustus not Constantine. After the Capitoline hill we meandered over to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon

The Pantheon is an absolutely MASSIVE structure that has engineering like I've never seen. I don't even think our society today could pull off such an incredible feat. After the Pantheon we went to see the famous Trajan's column.

Trajan's Column

Packing all of ancient Rome into one day really wore us out so we went back to our corner of Rome got some nourishment and went to bed.

We woke up bright and early the next morning, got our bishop hat bread, went to the train station, and motored on down the rail to Assisi

Self explanatory

You might be wondering why we would make a voyage out of Rome when there is still so much to see, well Assisi is famous for the church of Saint Francis of Assisi.

We spent the day here, but unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside, so you're just going to have to imagine or read about it. It really is one of those places that you have to go see and really hard to explain with words.

Our third day was packed full of things from the Renaissance and Baroque period. So here are some pictures (we mainly went into churches). Most of these will be by Caravaggio (my favorite artist).

Crucifixion of St. Peter

Conversion of St. Paul


Calling of St. Matthew


Saint Matthew writing the Gospel

The Death of St. Matthew

I love these paintings because Caravaggio really brings these paintings to life with the dramatic lighting and realism.

Our final day was at the Vatican, I am glad to say that I have met a new friend and his name is Benedict, we had ice cream.

Me eating Ice cream with Pope "Benny"

Just kidding, we had the choice of getting a private audience with the Pope or seeing some magnificent art. We chose the art.

The dome at St. Peters

Another Caravaggio

An ancient Roman sculpture Michelangelo LOVED this

The Popes window

Swiss Guard

After visiting the Vatican museum we went into the most fabulous church in the world, St. Peters Basilica.

The Dome of St. Peters

Where the Pope stands when giving mass

This is the tomb of a pope, the skeleton holding the hourglass is called a momenta morea meaning death is inevitable.

This is the Popes "chair" descending from hevan.

After being in St. Peters, we got to go up it.

This is from up top.

Daddy and I on top.

Inside the dome

The descending chair from up top

Well this is the end of our great adventure. Till next time when I go back to Italy to ski!!!

Paris

Mona Lisa, The Eiffel tower, Venus de Milo, and the Arc de Triomphe, and The Wedding Feast at Cana are all artistic symbols of Paris, France. It just so happens that we got to go see all of these while in Paris. Paris is definitely NOT one of my favorite cities because I don't think that it really portrays France. It's always packed with tourists so you hear more English than French. But I feel that this time was an exception. We did not stay in a hotel, we stayed in an apartment that was not in a touristy area. We also tried to stay out of the touristy areas as much as we could.

Here I am on the TGV on my way to Paris, France. I am reading The Rape of Europa which tells about how people secretly hid art from the Germans.

Ahh Chartres, my Mom's favorite church in the whole wide world (and probably one of the biggest too). Chartre towered over all of the little roofs in this little city and you could see it from a mile out. The most amazing thing about this church is its archetecture. Look at its two towers there both different, that is what makes this church stand out from the rest. I feel that this church is like the Saint Peters of France. Its just so unique and there is nothing that is taller than it. Lets go inside of it now.

The rose window, every typical Gothic church in France has one of these. This one is exceptionally amazing because when the light hits it just right it looks like rubies and sapphires are reflected on the floor. This rose window is SOOO big you could probably fit about three of me in it (which is not saying much).

Sculptures that portray stories (we were not able to interpret them). Next we went up into the top of one the tower on the left.

As you can see from the pictures we were HIGH up. Unfortunately Mom didn't come up due to a fear of heights. Seeing the towers from down low is amazing, but up high where you can see every intricate detail like the expressions on the gargoyles faces. You can just about see Paris off in the distance too. You can definitely tell why they built churches this big, it was to make YOU feel small. This church makes you feel inferior due to the "dwarfing effect."



After Chartres we went to see an old friend named Jackie. Jackie and my grandfather were stationed together in World War II, so they go way back.
I know what you are thinking, she looks like she is twenty years old. But the fact is, she is 90 years old and thinks that her 70 year old neighbors are old. The truth of the matter is that Jackie is practically blind, speaks English perfectly, has a basset hound, and has a Porch Boxter in her garage. I guess you could say she is a step down from Wonder Woman and that's about it. After our very tasty visit at Jackie's, we hopped back on the train and chugged back to Paris where we sought out some grub. While searching high and low for some stomach growling remover we passed by this beautiful well lit up "thing" that we couldn't find the name for, so here it is.
Yes my friends, here it is. The symbol of France, even more so than their flag, Le Tour Effiel (a.k.a Eiffel Tower). The most beautiful time to see it is at night just because it is lit up. We finally got our food and motored on home to rest for Le musee de Louvre.

Day 2: Le Louvre
How can anyone describe all that you can see in the Louvre. The fact is, you can't. There is just so much to see that words can't describe it. But luckily, I'm going to back up my words with a lot of pictures so stand by.

At the entrance to the Louvre where one of the glass pyramids points down. Didn't hurt much.

A baby killing strangling/ playing with a goose however you want to picture it.

Ahh The Venus de Milo. It seems that any thing that gets a name is famous. Not one of my favorites becaus there were too many people. I had to push to see just to see it. It should really be called the Aphrodite de Milo because it is a Greek statue, and Venus is the Roman name for Aphrodite.

Perhaps one of my favorite statues in the world, The Winged Victory. It was found at the base of a cliff on a Greek Island. This statue represents the goddess Nike (or in English victory). Scholars think that Victory was in an open aired amphitheater or on the edge of a cliff looking out to sea. The reason it is one of my favorite is because you get to imagine the arms and the head of the goddess and her expression.

This painting might not look all that great, but wait until you hear the history behind it. This depiction of Saint John the Baptist was painted by the notorious Leonardo de Vinci. Can you tell what famous painting (by the same man) this looks like? If you guessed La Gioconda a.k.a The Mona Lisa you are right. Leonardo de Vinci either used this painting as the model for The Mona Lisa, or the other way around... I forget.

This painting is of Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata (or holy wounds of Jesus) from a four winged angel that has a name but right now I don't know what it is. This painting is not a Renaissance or Baroque period painting by looking at 3 major things. One, the "canvas" is made of wood colored in gold leaf, two, when you look at the painting, there is no real movement in the people its just still, and three (this difference you can't really see) the paint base is egg white and not oils like later periods.



Part of the decoration of the Louvre is that on the ceiling they named all of the artists that's paintings are in there. Major ones such as Raphael get corners and bigger places for their name.




This painting was done by my favorite artist in the whole wide world. His name is Michaelangelo de Caravaggio aka Caravaggio. In this painting he is depicting a gypsy girl reading a boys palm. While she is telling his fortune she is stealing his ring as shown below. I love his work because it is always so realistic. He is definitely not an idealist.

This picture is also by Caravaggio. This is called "The Death of the Virgin." I bet no one out there can answer who he used as his model for the Virgin. It was a dead prostitute that the police found in the river Thames. There was a lot of controversy over this painting, especially since it was supposed to be an alter piece!!!!!


And of course the infamous Mona Lisa. It might be a pleasant painting to look at if there weren't so many people looking at it at the same time. Not much to really say about this one.


This painting is called the Wedding Feast at Cana by Palo Veronese. This painting is incredible because of its size, its use of color, and the movement. This hast to be one of my favorite paintings in the Louvre.

This is Michaelangelo's two Bound Slaves. The slave on the top represents death because as you can see he looks like he is giving up and looking up into the heavens saying, "take me" almost. The one on the bottom represents the constant fight. I think Michaelangelo represents these slaves so well with the vivid movement, almost like water. These two sculptures were the last two things that we saw before we left for lunch.

After lunch we had to go BACK to the Louvre to get our bags. We decided to cut down on time, and save a little money, so we rented bikes. The bigger cities in Europe have rent a bike on the streets, and all you do is swipe your credit card and get your bike. There is a light in the front of the bike that lights up when you peddle!!! I guess they are really energy efficient. The problem was dropping off our bikes. There was no place in ALL of Paris that had a slot for three bikes!!! We probably saw more of Paris in 20 min than you can in 3 days. We found a bike station with one spot, so i put my bike up to rest and had to run after my parents. Luckily there was a station about a football field away with two slots. We just barely made our train to get back to St. Marc. It was a wild experience.