We like snowboarding =)

I apologize in advance for the length of this next post. There is just so much to cover =)
Alright, here we go...

Paris day 3 and 4:
Day three started off with a visit to The Hôtel National des Invalides where Napoleon’s tomb is located. There they had an extensive museum entailing the history of France pertaining to the wars. It was very interesting. There was also an armory that we got to browse in. Everything was in glass cases. Glass cases provide lovely reflections. So being the creative group we are, we discovered that if you stood a certain distance from the glass you could get your reflection to line up with the armor inside therefore making it look as if you were wearing the armor. Brilliant! We proceeded to take pictures using this lovely discovery.

Some examples:

jacob

me

savs

Our travels then took us to Sante Chapelle where we got in for free due to our current status as architecture/art students! Being artsy pays off I suppose. Sante Chapelle was beautiful. The sun poured through the windows splashing the colors of the stained glass everywhere. Have I mentioned that I absolutely love stained glass yet? Because I do! This stuff is ridiculously amazing! What was so neat about this building though was the stories in the windows. There are 1,113 scenes depicted within the 13 stained glass windows. They tell the story of mankind from Genesis to Christ's resurrection. It is pretty impressive. Everything here was over the top. You see Sante Chapelle was the private chapel of the king. He would allow only his close friends and family to join him in the upper chapel. (the one with all the windows). The lower chapel was for the palace staff. It was neat, I am glad we experienced this place.

After the chapel we were going to go to the catacombs, but they were closed for restoration until March. Instead, we ventured to the Pompidou. It is a modern art museum built by Richard Rogers. Inside there were lots of works by some big name artists like Picasso, Kandinsky, Braque, Dali, and Pollock (just to name a few). It was incredible. Of course half of the art was, in my opinion, rather ridiculous. Some pieces of modern art are interesting and then others you just have to wonder about. For instance, one room proudly displayed these 4 massive beams leaning against the wall and wrapped in large rope. I mean really. Art? Who buys this stuff? I am also convinced that some of the paintings could be replicated by a 4 year old, but I guess there are people out there who actually like this stuff. So if that is you, I apologize for not knowing what makes a composition art. I do admit that I have been brain washed by this major into liking some pieces of art that I previously made fun of, but there is definitely a line where that brain washing stops. Some of that stuff was just silly looking.

The Pompidou center finished out our day 3 in Paris. The next morning we decided to sleep in a bit which only meant 9am. Then we packed up and headed out to complete out spectacular journey through Pairs. We had a few more things we wanted to accomplish before we left. This included the Basilique at St. Denis and the Palace at Versailles.

St Denis was very pretty. It looked older than the other cathedrals but that was just because it hasn't been kept up as well as the others. The rose window on one side was completely missing as where other parts of various windows. Again we found ourselves with a sunny day meaning lots of color filling the walls and columns. It was beautiful! The museum was free here as well due to the fact that it was the first Sunday of the month (in Paris, the museums are all free on the first Sunday of every month) so we got to tour some other parts of the church.

Our final destination was the Palace at Versailles. WOW! This place is massive! It was probably the touristiest thing we did while there. It was so crowded. We took an audio tour of the inside, but we found ourselves just wanting to get out of there and go see the gardens. Things might have been different if the crowd wasn't so large. Inside you were basically shoulder to shoulder with people everywhere you went. It was like a herd of cattle being shuffles through a small space. Not cool! The outside on the other hand was amazing. Unfortunately the statues were covered up and the fountains where dry, but it was still quite a sight to see!

Here ends our absolutely amazing adventures from Paris. Paris was such a wonderful place to visit. I could never live there, but I could definitely visit it again. All in all, we had an absolute blast. To get home we got to experience another overnight train ride. This meant board the train at 10:55pm, arrive in some city at 4:40am, chill for an hour before our 20 minute ride to another destination where we waited for 13 minutes to load our final train home to Dusseldorf 2 hours away. Fun stuff. Let’s just say that it was a long night.

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Since we got here Gavin, Geoff, and I have been dreaming up a snowboarding trip in the Swiss Alps. After looking into it a bit we realized that we would have to "settle" for the German Alps, but still we had no definite plans. Wednesday rolls around and we are trying to figure out what to do for the quickly approaching weekend. Snowboarding is mentioned and suddenly plans start formulating and we magically found ourselves with reservations for a hostel and a train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the site of the Winter Olympic Games in 1936. Holy cow! We spent 2 days snowboarding in the Alps!!! It was fantastic!!!!

The group consisted of Gavin, Geoff, Sierra, and me. Again our travels found us on an overnight train. This time fortunately it was an 11 hour non stop train. One day I will get the hang of these things. I do not understand how this works. When I am in class I have to fight extremely hard to keep my eyes open! It never fails: walk in, sit down, lights turn off, PowerPoint appears with the sound of the professors voice explaining the material, and then WHAM, you are hit with the overwhelming urge to sleep. In a desperate attempt to keep your eyes open, they cross and suddenly the PowerPoint starts appearing twice. Your head oddly becomes much heavier and the words of the professor begin to sound like a beautiful lullaby singing you off to sleep. Sleep comes so easily in class. This is not the case on these trains. Why is this? When you want to sleep you can't and when you don't, you do. Maybe they should start playing boring documentaries on these trains. Maybe that will fix things.

Once in Garmisch we set out to find the ski place. Establishing its location, we decided to just walk. I would say we ended up walking a mile or so to get there. Walking through the streets of the town was so neat! Garmisch is a small town tucked away at the base of the Alps. Everything was so cozy. The smell of fireplaces filled the air! This of course happens to be one of my favorite smells!

We find our destination and spend the day snowboarding in the Alps with absolutely perfect weather! The whole experience was simply amazing!!! The only trouble was when Geoff and I attempted to use the t-bar lift. If you have no clue what I am talking about then click on this link.... T-bar lift .... To keep a long story short lets just say they ended up having to stop the lift 4 different times for us before we finally made it up. Well, we actually only made it halfway up the lift before falling again but decided to give up. So we popped of our boards and walked through the woods to the nearest run. =) My advice to you: never ride a t-bar lift with a person where there is a significant height difference. It just doesn't work.

After a long day we loaded up our gear and set out to find our hostel. And when I say loaded up our gear, I mean everything. We walked to the complete opposite side of town with our heavy backpacks, boards, and boots in hand. That was quite a walk. I would say that we walked for a solid hour. This hostel was forever away. But our walk did provide us the opportunity to see more of this cute little town. The sun set and we got to walk under a blanket of stars. Everything was still and quiet. The smells of the chimneys filled the air. It was great! Finally we arrive at our hostel where we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the place. It was only 11 euros per person so we were glad to find that it was so nice!

The restaurant we found for dinner was amazing. The staffers were all dressed up in traditional German clothes and there was live music provided by a man playing the accordion and a woman playing the guitar. It was so much fun! The food was strange but delicious. I had some kind of white sausage with a fresh pretzel and mustard. After we finished eating a couple who had been sitting near us came up and asked if we where American. The man then looked at me and said "I giggled internally as I watched how you ate your sausage. (I cut it with a knife and ate each piece with a fork) You ate it the German way! You should have eaten it the Bavarian way!! You stab it with a fork and suckling the whole thing up!" It was hilarious.

The next day we decided to check out the other side of the mountain where we would find ourselves skiing above the tree line on a glacier at the highest point in Germany. The only way to get there was by a 20 minute gondola ride. It was absolutely AMAZING!!!! The views were breathtaking!!! The skiing area was basically in this bowl on the top of the mountain. Once inside you were surrounded by mountains as far as the eye could see! The day before, the runs were often icy and the snow was packed. But here, there was a blanket of powdery goodness =) I highly recommend this place for skiing. It was amazingly cheap too. And even if you don't ski, the gondola to the top is for anyone. Lots of people just went up to see the view. I basically fell in love with this little town!!

Unfortunately our adventures there had to come to an end and that night we hopped on yet another overnight train home to Dusseldorf. We arrived at 6:50am just in time to shower and leave for class at 9am.

The whole gang!

The group minus me obviously =)

Going home for the day

Sierra and I on the slopes

View from the top. Yes that is a frozen lake. AMAZING!!

View of the town from the top

very important sign...

The ski slopes

view while on a ski slope

snow angel =)

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Due to the length of this post I think I shall save Amsterdam and Rotterdam for tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed!