Here is what they had to say about it, too:
Pipi and Anica (typed together because when I asked one of them about it, it really just became a conversation between the two of them):
"We had some jitters at first.... (getting there)...We got to the gate of Versailles...it was well worth the 18 euros. There were all kinds of incredible frescoes on the ceilings. We saw Louis the 14th's private chambers that looked to the gardens, saw his bedroom, went through the queen's quarters. There was just so much...the kids quarters, a place for the relatives, study rooms with maps. They had a special dinner where the public could come and watch them eat...
And then we saw the gardens, oh they're beautiful...symetric on both sides, and in the middle is the fountain with a statue...There was a big, long rectangular pool of water that extended all the way down the garden. There were finely shaped shrubs in a pattern, really well manicured – they must spend a lot of time on that. There was a big war room where the king had only his top notch officers come..
There was a hallway with chandeliers (Pipi whistles) and the king's thrones, and a chair that they'd put on the elephant which would be carried by 4 guys once they took them down off the elephant – a lot of royalty stuff there. It's such a big place for people to live in – I read in the book it was started in the 13th century for royalty to move out of Paris (Anica argues) No, it was so that the King could go hunt, they made it hunting grounds – they wanted to build something so that he could stay over night, and they expanded it, each king added more and more. Then the French Revolution came and took it all down and sold just about everything, burnt things, (Pipi: big garage sale!). We saw the door where Marie Antoinette escaped (Pipi: That made her day!) Yea it was quite a place!"
Next: Brussels!
Dad
"Afer gettting off the train in Brussels, we headed to the marketplace. The train station is huge and you could easily get lost in it, but the ride was nice. On the way there we passed through the outskirts and it was quite dirty compared to Paris. We stumbled upon the Manekin Pis and he was wearing an orange coat and hat, He was dressed up like that for Gay Pride Week.. he was actually smaller than I though he'd be. I thought, big deal. It's just another tourist attraction.
Laughing at how underwhelming it at was |
The famous Manekin Pis... |
Underwhelmed but amused and happy |
Walking toward the main square... not quite there. |
In the main square with Dad |
We hooked up with our bike guide and spent about 4 hours biking and spent another on lunch. We saw many sights and covered a lot of territory – the guide said what we saw was what you'd would normally see in two and a half days by foot and you'd be exhausted.
Goofy in Brussels |
My bottom was sore from the bike ride and a few steep hills, but overall, well worth it, it's the best way to do it, and it was fun. At lunch, we had a big bag of fries (cooked in animal lard!) with a variety of sauces. They were delicious and memorable. Had a few beers, one called Leffe – which was very good. The guide was well-informed and taught you a lot. He had a unique personality – the kind you like or don't like. I liked him. He was chatty.
Our amusing and quirky guide...who "escaped the corporate world" and ended up giving bike tours in Belgium - good for him! |
If you ever go to Brussels, you should go to a cheese shop. We went to one and they had all kinds of cheese and meats – pick one, buy some cheese, find a beer if you can, and that's the best part. After we had chocolate – you could spend a long time doing that. Gotta be moderate. Sat by the curb, ate the cheese and bread, chocolate.
One of my (Katie's) favorite moments was simply this - eating cheese and chocolate on the curb in the main square |
We also went to a bar and had 3 or 4 beers to try, which were excellent – that kind of stuff was my favorite."
Donna
"My favorite part was the bike tour beause I thought the tour guide was informative and funny. We got to see so much in such a short amount of time. Then the best part was the beer, the Leffe, oh and the Belgian chocolate, and being able to experience it with Katie and Ray. I did like the Big Square, seeing all the old buildings. The guide told us about the square and the history of the buildings, why there was some quirky architecture – he explained why a building was off-center. It was a great day."
Donna and Dad being spontaneously serenaded by a random man while having our fries-and-beer lunch |
And me - this trip was definitely about the little moments. There were no huge cultural differences or much like that for me, no big shocking moments or WOWS, rather, lots of wonderful little memories that added up to create one of my favorite days of the trip. Sure it's cool to see a big beautiful building or statue or whatever that makes you jump up and down and take a dozen pictures, but what I'll remember most about this day is the sheer fun we had biking around the city and being silly.
Pointing to the Atomium in the distance - forgot to take a picture though! |
The beer was really, really excellent. I understand better now why our guide used "because of the beer" as one of the reasons why he chose to live in Belgium (he's Argentenian?? / French). The cheese was superb and the chocolate to die for. It was nice to hand over the reigns to someone else for an afternoon to guide me around too :)
Love from all!
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