Visitors From Home Part I (Joel's Family!)

Two weekends ago, Joel's family made the trek out here to visit us! We met up with them in Paris. Thursday night we ate at a restaurant where part of "Something's Gotta Give" was filmed. It was an acclaimed seafood place, but Joel and I still agree that the best seafood will always come from the Gulf Coast. (No, seriously, we really think the seafood tastes fresher and of better quality from home!)

Friday we started out at the Louvre. There's Joel lovingly picking up his sister Celeste, me with the Mona Lisa,

and Joel being inspired by the Michelangelo statue.

After the Louvre, we headed to the Champs Elysees to have lunch at Laduree, an acclaimed restaurant and dessert place. Our lunch was fabulous, as French food usually is.

We strolled down the Champs Elysees and poked our heads in the stores. It was great because we had a wonderful tour guide, Patsy, who is from Birmingham, AL but knows Paris like the back of her hand. She has done hundreds of tours but it felt like she was giving us her first tour ever. Her enthusiasm for the art, history, and culture of Paris was inspiring.

While we were walking, Mrs. Lisa saw this house and loved the architecture. So pretty!

We went to the Musee De L'Orangerie in the afternoon where we saw paintings by Monet, Renior, and other impressionist painters. I discovered a new favorite artist there named Utrillo, who painted beautiful scenes from around the Montmartre area.

After that museum, we walked around and looked into little shops.

We saw a bridal store there, so I had to take a picture of Celeste in her element!

Saturday we planned to go to Versailles, but due to an upset stomach (me..) and exhaustion from the day before, we took it easy and spent the day shopping around our hotel. The view from the hotel was beautiful.

Sunday, we found a Japanese place for Joel to eat at. He was thrilled with his edamame and soba noodles while the rest of us longed for croissants and cappuccinos at a Parisian Brasserie...(just kidding Joel). But really...

Our train left at 4 pm so we had to say farewell to Joel's family! It was a short, but wonderful trip to one of my favorite cities in the world. :)

School in Maastricht and USA v. Netherlands Soccer

You may be forgetting a very important factor. I am also in SCHOOL! I feel like this semester is going by so fast because we spend so much time planning travel, but when we get back we dive into studying and preparing for tests. Here is our Dutch Art History class. The next picture is the outside of our school building.

One of my favorite things so far has been going to Amsterdam for the USA vs. Netherlands soccer game. This is soccer on a mass-audience scale! Something we do not get in the US. Our group of Baylor students dressed in red, white, and blue was a small majority in the stadium of bright orange, the color of the Netherlands soccer team. The US team played pitifully until the last 10 minutes. It was 2-0 (the Dutch team winning) and we finally scored a goal. THEN, we almost scored again, but the time ran out. At least we scored once. It was so much fun. Cold, but fun.

Amsterdam and Den Haag

I am a bit behind on blogging. My apologies. Even now as I write, I am excitedly awaiting the arrival of my friend Kelly to Maastricht in 2 hours! But that is another story that will come later! Amsterdam-- clean, friendly, quaint, liberal, orderly. Laid-back. The weather was unfortunately gray and rainy while we were there, but what can you expect these days in the Netherlands?

Let me back up. We headed to Den Haag (or "The Hague" in English) on Thursday night. Friday we had to be at a museum for a mandatory excursion for Dutch Art History.

We saw the famous "Girl with a Pearl Earring" painting by the Dutch painter Vermeer. But we didn't even stop at that painting.

No, our teacher likes to focus on paintings like "The Bull" by Paulus Potter. Which, by the way, is HUGE. Like covers the whole wall, larger than life cow staring at you. So strange.

After the Art Museum, we had a lunch break in one of the little squares in The Hague. We took a cool picture of the city behind us-- the historical architecture behind us, but further back, the modernity of the skyscrapers in the distance. Cute, artsy, neat city. It is actually by the coast, but we never saw the coastline (way too cold and gray to venture out there).

We went from The Hague to Amsterdam. We got there in the afternoon and decided to go to the Van Gogh Museum. It was crazy crowded (afternoon on Saturday is NOT the ideal time to visit a world famous museum). But it was wonderful. Van Gogh is one of, if not my favorite artist. His post-impressionist style is so unique. Nobody else will ever paint the way he did. His paintings are so original and beautiful, yet his life was a struggle-- full of anguish and sadness. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum, so I took a picture outside.

On Sunday, we had a really cool experience. We got to go to church for the first time since we have been here. In Amsterdam, there was a church about 3 minutes away from our hotel. And it was in ENGLISH! Very important. The church was built in 1604 by Protestants escaping persecution. It was really cool to experience a church service in a church where Christians sat 400 years ago. Also, it was cool to just sing worship songs with other believers in Amsterdam, a place dominated by secularism.

Amsterdam was very clean, quaint, and laid-back. Wish we would have had better weather, but it was a great stay.

Barcelona- We got to see the SUN

I am not sure what I was expecting with Spain, but I can assure you, my expectations were definitely exceeded. Spain is a beautiful country, thriving with culture and energy. Well, at least Barcelona is. We left icy, dreary Maastricht on Tuesday and flew into a city called Reus, about an hour and a half train ride south of Barcelona. Our first hostel experience was clean, but cramped. Bunk-beds galore. But for the price of 10 euro a night, it was a great stay. Tuesday night we only had time to grab a casual dinner and walk around for a bit. The food at a cheapo tapas restaurant was surprisingly good for the price. We already tasted some of the Mediterranean flavor with olives, fresh cheese, and seafood.

Wednesday was a bit cold and gray, but we were happy to have weather in the 50s rather than Maastricht 20s. We walked down Las Ramblas, the main drag of shops and sights in Barcelona. This street includes vendors selling "las hamsters mas pequenos del mundo" (smallest hamsters in the world) as well as souvenirs, tapas, and other odds and ends. The street is packed with various street performers, like the metallic people you see in New Orleans times 10. Most of our group wanted to dawdle, so Stephanie and I split off from the group in order to see a bit more of the city and explore.

We met back up at the Picasso Museum. I did not know much about Picasso, but his artwork is not all about cubism and bizarre colors and shapes. His early work is quite beautiful and inspiring. He lived in Paris, the south of France, and called Barcelona home. I really loved the museum-- I'd recommend it to anyone making a trip to Barcelona.

To supplement our day of Picasso, we enjoyed our best meal in Barcelona at the "4 Cats" restaurant where Picasso was a frequent customer. He also designed the menu covers back in the day. This restaurant is reservations only-- we found that out the night before. If you are late, your table is gone. People were like vultures outside the restaurant waiting to get in. We didn't know it was that famous! It was a great meal though, with lots of atmosphere and personality.

Thursday morning we awoke to beautiful sunlight. Coincidentally, this was the day we switched hostels to one located on the beachside of Barcelona. It timed out perfectly. We had some various sight-seeing plans for the day, but when we saw the coast and felt the sunshine, we couldn't help but change into shorts and enjoy the rest of the afternoon just sitting on the beach watching surfers and taking in much needed vitamin D.

I got to try the famous "Spanish tortilla"-- a potato omelette. It was quite delicious, served with toast that had olive oil and tomatoes on it.

Later that night, we went to another tapas bar. Joel ordered all three "meat" tapas. Go figure. From left to right-- tuna, veal, and shrimp.

For our last full day in Barcelona, we went to the huge open air market St. Joseph's, and later saw some Gaudi architecture. It was gray and cold that day, so we stayed in that night and rested up for our journey back on Saturday.

Casa Batllo, La Sagrada Familia, and Casa Mila.

Our train ride on Saturday was at sunrise along the coastline of Spain. I took this when everyone else was asleep. :)

Leaving Spain on our Ryan Air flight. Such a great trip!

Mougins, France

Little town

It's a quiet villlage
Every day
Like the one before
Little town
Full of little people
Waking up to say....
Bonjour, bonjour
Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour!

This quaint little village in the south of France is just what one might think of when they hear that song from Beauty and the Beast. Well, maybe what it would have been like a few centuries ago. Now a tourist town, this village was once just a quiet little area in the mountainside. I don't know the history of it, but today the town is full of exquisite restaurants and beautiful, original artwork. Our voyage to Mougins (pronounced Moo-jahn, with little emphasis on the "n" and no "s" sound) was quite a voyage. The weather was unusually cold in the area, with snow and ice ending up canceling our flight from Brussels to Nice. We flew to Marseilles late Thursday night, stayed in a hotel for a couple of hours to rest, and took the earliest train from Marseilles to Cannes. When I wasn't sleeping, I noticed that the train ride was beautiful- full of sun and coastline.

A person from the hotel met us at Cannes train station. Another obstacle appeared-- our driver could not reach the hotel because it was on the top of a steep hill/mountain? and the ice was covering the roads. We ended up having to switch cars-- to a more SUV type, and then we finally arrived around 11 AM Friday. The hotel was unique, unlike any I have been to. It was more like a refined lodge in terms of architecture. No huge lobby or high ceilings. It was stunningly beautiful, filled with large open windows, impressionist art, and ornate decorations. Yet it all had a "natural" feel to it, like you were taking in the nature of the south of France, and not just the decadence of a hotel. Okay, enough about the hotel. After checking in, we were treated to some spa appointments for the afternoon and had a wonderful lunch in the hotel restaurant. Exhausted, we slept during the afternoon on Friday. Which, I wish we could have avoided, because Friday was our most beautiful day weather-wise.

Saturday was rather dreary weather, but we got to see where the Cannes Film Festival takes place every year, which was a treat for me. Our driver on Saturday casually mentioned that he "worked with" Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt, and Angelina Jolie when they came into town for the festival. Huh. He said that Tarantino was indeed strange, and that Brad and Angelina were nice. Oh, and he loves George Clooney. Says he is really funny and a great guy.

Saturday night we had the most delicious food at a restaurant in the village. Joel had some kind of prawn appetizer and I had some kind of ravioli with truffles (as in fancy mushrooms). The entree and dessert was great as well. Hands down, Joel and I both agree that France has had the best food so far. I know that may be cliche, but it is so true. Hands down, THE best food I've ever eaten. My favorite dessert was from Friday night actually-- a chocolate tart dessert served with salted caramel ice cream. SO delicious and the perfect balance of flavor.

Sunday was Valentines Day. As always, Joel made it a perfect day. He made sure that I had a bouquet of flowers and not only chocolates, but Parisian chocolates. He is the best- I can't even tell you.

We spent our last hours in Mougins finally getting to see the village. We had missed it on Friday because of our exhaustion and Saturday because of the weather. But Sunday was a blessing-- we were able to stroll through the village, I took about 200 pictures, and we bought art. Yes, I spent Valentines Day strolling through the south of France buying art. What a dream.

Here are some pictures from the village. We flew back to Brussels later that afternoon and were back in Maastricht Sunday night.