Busy Day in Paris

Well, it's getting pretty close to the time we'll be heading back to the States for summer break so I decided I better get my blog done about the rest of the trip.  The bad thing about waiting so long is that I have a harder time remembering all the details - I think that's my age...so here goes...

Our second full day in Paris, we decided to hit a bunch of the highlights of the city.  We had breakfast at the hotel and then took a short train ride/walk to Notre Dame.  One of the things that I noticed about Paris was the the tourist areas were always very busy!  So many people around.  There was again usually some military presence in all of these areas.  We walked through Notre Dame - it was very beautiful - especially all of the stained glass.

Megan, Lizzie and Rachel outside of Notre Dame

One of the many stained glass windows in Notre Dame.

Gargoyles

Flying Buttresses

There was a VERY long line to go up and tour the upper part of the church where you could get a closer view of the gargoyles, so we decided to opt out of that part of the tour.  We walked around to the back of the church where there was a pretty little park.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather for a little while and then headed back towards the train.  On the way to the station, we looked through some touristy shops and enjoyed an entertainer keeping the crowds entertained as they waited.

Our next stop the Arc de Triomphe and the Avenue des Champs-Elysées.  We got off the train, found our way out (this was another large station) and then found our way to the tunnel that leads under the street to the center circle.  There were tons of artists here with their drawings that were lined up along the edge of the tunnel that you could look at and purchase if you were so inclined.

Once we got to the other side of the street, we checked out the Arc de Triomphe and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The Arc de Triomphe  has so many beautiful details on it - although as Lizzie liked to point out, there was a lot of nakedness :-)  The kids enjoyed checking out all the cars driving around the circle - we saw tons of smart cars - and the little kids enjoyed chasing birds.  It was a nice place to sit and relax for a while!

You can see how little we were compared

to the Arc de Triomphe.

Rachel chasing birds.

We decided not to do any shopping - much to Megan's chagrin - on the Champs-Elysées.  Shopping with 5 kids and a husband doesn't hold a lot of interest for me and everything is so expensive that I just thought our time could be spent better.  So we hopped back on the train and headed to Sacre Coeur.  When we arrived at the station, we started to head uphill. There is a funicular to take part of the way up but we decided to do the stairs.  It is a very spectacular view of Paris from the top of the hill!

It was very busy around Sacre Coeur!  There were tons of people selling things, there were many entertainers and lots of people were just hanging out on the hill taking it all in.  We toured the church also which was very beautiful (no picutres were allowed) and found it very interesting the difference between the peaceful quiet in the church and the very touristy loud entertainment outside the church.  I actually think that this was my least favorite place that we visited.  Maybe the crowds were just very heavy because it was a weekend day but it was hard to get around and just not that enjoyable.

After Sacre Coeur we headed back to the hotel.  We decided what trains we needed to take and when we got to the stop where we needed to switch, we found that the train that we needed to get on did not stop there currently because of construction.  So we had to find another station that would take us back to the hotel...ahhh the joy of trains in Paris!  We had a late lunch/dinner at the hotel and a little bit of a rest.

Our last activity today was to take a river cruise on the Seine.  We decided it would be nice to take it in the evening and I think this was a good decision except that it was a bit chilly.  Except for the cold and the fumes from the boat, this was our favorite part of the day.  It really was beautiful to ride along the river in the evening.  It was a Saturday night so there were many people out walking and sitting by the river and it was fun to see that part of the Parisian culture. 

This is one of my favorite pictures from our trip.  It was on

a bridge near where we boarded the cruise on the Seine.

Starting to get dark and the Eiffel Tower was all lit up.

Periodically little lights would come on the Eiffel Tower

and make it all sparkly.  It was just beautiful!

Notre Dame at night.

This second day in Paris was long and very busy - we saw so many beautiful things and enjoyed spending time together as a family!  Looking forward to more sightseeing tomorrow.....

Thanks for reading!

The Eiffel Tower and The Louvre

Well, it's Saturday and taxes are done so now I have some time to blog about our trip.  It is April 1, and this is our first full day in Paris.  We let the kids sleep a little this morning because of our extremely long travel day.  We got up, got dressed and headed out to find some breakfast.  We walked across the Ile de Cite over to the Left bank where we were told were lots of restaruants and such.  We finally decided on just getting crepes at a little sidewalk shop.  We tried all different sorts - nutella, strawberry jam, ham and cheese and just plain cheese.  Lizzie decided she didn't want a crepe so she had a ham and cheese sandwich on a baguette.  It is a rare treat for us to have ham lately so we truly enjoyed it!

From our hotel window

From here we decided that we were going to head over to the Eiffel Tower.  Mark didn't yet have a SIM card for his cell phone (and GPS).  We tried to purchase one but his iPhone has a micro-SIM and and the little shop nearby had only regular ones.  So we had no idea how to walk there (because who can get anywhere without GPS nowadays) but we did have a nice little app that would help us with the train to get there.  We headed to a close train station and purchased our three day city pass.  If I remember correctly, we made it to the correct station pretty easily and soon spotted the Eiffel Tower.

We got in line for tickets to go to the top and soon headed up in the elevator.  Megan was not excited about going all the way to the highest point, but we convinced her that she needed to go.  How many times would we have this opportunity - so up we went.  First you head up an inclined elevator to what I think is called the 3rd floor.  There is a level below it that connected by stairs that contains stores and a restaurant.  Then you head up another elevator to the top. 

You are warned at many turns to be aware of pick pockets!

There is an indoor viewing platform and then you can head up the stairs to the highest level which is outside.  The view was spectacular even though it was kind of a cloudy day but it was very windy and cold!

Spencer and Alex under the USA flag

Rachel, Alex and Lizzie under the Saudi Arabia flag

Mark and Lizzie trying to stay warm at the top of the

Eiffel Tower

Alex is checking out the sights

Here are some views of Paris from the very top of the Eiffel tower.

So once we had our fill of the view of the city, we headed away from the tower so that we could get some pictures of the kids.  When we were making our decision whether we would move to Saudi Arabia or not, travel was probably the main thing that enticed me into making this move.  I'm sure I've told many of you that the picture in my head was a picture of my kids in front of the Eiffel Tower.  These are some that we took the first day.  I think they turned out okay but my favorite is one that we took later in the week.

We didn't think that it was going to be that cold while we were in Paris.  The forecast had said that it would be in the low 60s, but without sun and with a little wind, it was very chilly.  It could be that we're just getting used to our low 80s always sunny Saudi Arabian weather too.  So our next goal was to find some lunch and some jackets for the kids. 



We found a little place at the Champs de Mars which was called (surprisingly) Champs de Mars.  It was probably a little touristy because it was right on the corner - and when I say touristy, I mean expensive!  I think it was our most expensive meal of the trip and the food really wasn't that great.  We found a cute souvenir shop after lunch and bought the kids some sweatshirts and some little trinkets. 

At this point, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and get a little rest before we head over to the Louvre.  This is where the train fun starts.  We have come to find out since we've returned from our vacation that the metro stop near our hotel, the Chatalet - Les Halles station, is the largest station in Europe.  We get back to the station, there are 11 exits and we have no idea which one is the closest to our hotel.  So basically we pick one, come up onto the street and don't reconize anything.  We did happen to see a mobile phone store so we popped in to see if we could get Mark a SIM card and voila!  we could get one!  We got it installed and with the GPS determined the way back to the hotel.  We ended up walking down a street with some very interesting stores so we were happy to make it back to the hotel.

After a little rest, we hopped back on the train and headed over to the Louvre.  Anyone who has seen or probably heard of this museum knows how large it is.  I don't think that you could possibly see everything without spending a lot of time.  These next 2 pictures were taken just outside the "inside" entrance to the Louvre.

So our main goal was to see the Mona Lisa of course.  We spend some time looking around just enjoying some of the truly amazing art that is here.  Lizzie still pointed out (just like in Athens) the nakedness of many of the statues.  But after what seemed like a fairly long walk, we made it to the room that housed the Mona Lisa.  Well, it was a little underwhelming....for all the fuss - you'd think that it would have been bigger!  It was very cool to see it though!

Megan probably won't like that I posted the picture

but it gives you an idea of how big the Mona Lisa

really is.

Alex was extremely bored during this whole adventure (and really let us know it) so we finished up and headed outside to see the pyramid.  We enjoyed watching the people and enjoying the scenery.

We had headed a bit away from the museum and crossed the circle towards the big arch when we noticed that there were these military guys walking around.  We came to learn later that they often have military presence at a lot of their monuments because of the happenings in the world.  But the odd thing about this that as we started to walk back to the train station, they started blocking off the road and moving people away from certain areas.  It was kind of disturbing so we headed off back to our hotel.

Because they headed us off in a different direction, we couldn't get to our original station, so we walked along the Seine River for a while.  We passed the Pont des Arts which is a pedestrian bridge across the Seine.  If you can see, the side of the bridge has all of these things hanging off of it, these are padlocks - the padlock is hung by sweethearts and it symbolizes their love.  Kind of cool!

So it's dinner time and again we're trying to determine what to have for dinner.  We opted for an exciting dinner at Pizza Hut near our hotel.  Kind of pathetic for Paris but we were tired and hungry and it was close and open.  We enjoyed our first day in the City of Lights and are excited for our next one to begin....but first we all need a good night's sleep!

Thanks for reading!

The Longest Day Ever

We've just returned from a week in Paris and now it's time to blog about it...I sure hope that you enjoy our stories and pictures.  Our week was filled with fun and frustration but we enjoyed spending time together as a family in a very beautiful city.

In Saudi Arabia, it seems like the flight times that you can leave or arrive are always very strange.  I booked a round-trip direct flight to Paris from Jeddah and the outbound flight left at 3:05 am.  So after finishing up our final preparations, we got a little rest and  woke the kids up about 11:45 to be ready for the taxi to pick us up at midnight.  The ride down to the airport takes about an hour and we arrived in plenty of time, got our luggage from the taxi and in line to check in for our flight.  It is amazing to see how much traffic and how many people are at out and about in the city at this time of day. 

We approached the ticket counter about 1 am and presented our passports to the agent.  He then proceeded to tell us that our flight is overbooked by 50 passengers.  FIFTY!  I can't imagine how an airline could overbook by that many.  It looked like there was no way that we would get on this flight because we were a large group and they were also moving business class people down to economy and bumping the economy passengers.  Air France offered us 300 EUR per person and a hotel voucher to give up our seats and after a little discussion we decided to take the offer.  We probably wouldn't get seats together which makes travelling with children difficult and the money would be a nice chunk for our next trip.  So we stood aside for a little bit until finally someone got to us and took Mark up to write up the vouchers and put us on flights for tomorrow.  The kids and I waited in some seats and we were ready to head to the hotel by about 3:00 am.  There were many people just sitting around in the chairs by the door - it was interesting to see Security approach a lot of them and ask to see passports.  We were never questioned by anyone. 

When Mark was done with everything, we checked our luggage for our flight in the morning which was very helpful because we didn't have to drag it to the hotel.  They put us on a little shuttle bus with a few other people who had gotten bumped from the flight and we headed out to the hotel.  Much to my chagrin, we passed hotel after hotel in this old bus that swayed back and forth and was making me very sick to my stomach.  It took us 30 minutes to get to our hotel (so much for close to the airport).  The hotel was very nice on the inside and they were nice enough to put us in a large suite so we could all stay together.  We rolled into bed about 4:00 am and fell right to sleep.  About an hour later, call to prayer started in the many mosques surrounding the hotel, it woke both Mark and I up and I did not sleep well the rest of the night because I was afraid that we would oversleep and miss our flight in the morning.

We got up about 7:00 am, had a quick breakfast and got a taxi to the airport.  Now, I've talked about driving in Jeddah before, but I don't think I've ever experienced a taxi driver quite this bad.  He was going so fast and if anyone ever was in front of him, he would honk a lot until they got out of our way.  I kept saying prayers the whole time that we would make it back to the airport safely!  Luckily (and probably with divine intervention), we arrived without incident and it only took us about half the time it took us to get to the hotel the night before!

Our flight left Jeddah a little after 10 am and we had a short hour and a half layover in Milan, Italy where we experienced their airport - how exciting!  We boarded our last flight about 4:30 pm and landed in Paris at 6:00 pm - these flights were nice and uneventful although we didn't sleep much.

I had hired a shuttle service (Always Shuttle) to take us from the airport to our hotel in Paris which in hindsight was a great idea.  You'll hear more about the Paris train system later ;-)  Our driver was great - he was talkative and gave us a great tour of the city as we drove to our hotel.  We were so excited to see all the beautiful buildings and places that we would soon get to visit!

We arrived at our hotel - the Novotel Les Halles - at about 8:00.  The hotel was nice and very centrally located which is why I picked it.  It was a fairly reasonable cost also - everything in the city was very expensive!  We thought about heading out for dinner but opted for the hotel restaurant instead where we had a nice meal.  We were all so tired so we just turned in for the night.  We kept referring to the "start" of our trip as yesterday when it really was the same day - so the kids dubbed this travel day as the "Longest Day Ever" - so forever shall it be known!

We had missed our "first" day in Paris because of our flight changes (originally we should have arrived at 8:30 am) but we were excited for our adventure to begin in the morning.  Stay tuned for pictures and the Eiffel tower...

Thanks for reading!

International Week at KAUST Schools

This past week in the Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary schools here at KAUST, the kids celebrated International Week.  Each day, the kids learned about different countries and cultures and experienced different types of food from some countries at lunchtime.  One morning they enjoyed a pot luck with foods from all sorts of different cultures around the world.  The week culminated in a parade and assembly with all the kids from K1 (preschool) to 12th grade.

The kids gathered by country with their flag and paraded down one of the streets to a courtyard at the Harbor Secondary School.  The President of the University was there with other dignitaries from the community.  We listened to a couple of nice speeches - one in arabic and one in english - by a couple of students and then the names of all the countries represented were read off. 

The parade - just over the barricade is the Red Sea

The United States contingent

I just loved seeing all the different flags!

There were a total of 75 countries represented! It amazes me how that in this small community we can have so many countries and cultures!
I felt very overwhelmed at being such a small little part of it here and how lucky I feel to give my kids the opportunity to associate with so many different people.  As hard as it is sometimes for me to be here, it really is a good thing for us. 

Spencer carried one of the flags in the parade.

Some of our little preschool friends!

Megan played the drums with some of the other kids

in her class.

Lizzie with her teacher and a couple of her

good friends.

I think this is my favorite picture of the day.

I ran into our little friend Victoria and asked to take

her picture - she posed herself (I didn't ask her to

hold out her skirt) - she's such a cutie!!!

A Night in Jeddah

When we were contemplating our move here to KAUST, I think we were told that we were about 40 km from Jeddah - at least that's what I remember.  In reality, if it is 40 km, that is only to the very northern most part of Jeddah and doesn't really even get you into the city.  It takes at least an hour to get there and since traffic is normally busy and I can't drive, getting things we need for the house and kids tends to be a bit of a challenge.  Since we go into Jeddah every Friday, about two weeks ago, we decided to go in on Thursday, do our shopping and then stay overnight.

We accomplished much of what we wanted to do for shopping.  Our first stop was Saco World which is like a Home Depot type of store with home improvement things and outdoor furnishings.  I bought the shower curtain rod which I had forgotten on my last trip in to Jeddah that we needed for the boy's bathroom.  The funny thing (or not so funny) was that I bought the wrong size - it's too small.  So we are still in need of a shower curtain rod! 

After this stop is was prayer time, so we decided to head to the hotel to check in.  I have found that travelling with a large family outside of the US is a bit more difficult. A lot of hotel rooms are very small and are set up of 2 or 3 people. So earlier in the week, I had emailed the Sheraton to verify that their rooms would sleep 4 people.  It was confirmed and I made the reservation.  We got to the hotel where we were checked in and taken to our rooms.  Much to my chagrin, they were very small rooms with 2 twin beds in each.  Definitely not enough room to sleep 4 people unless you're used to sharing a twin bed!  The gentleman that took us to our rooms said that he could bring in a roll away which I didn't find acceptable because we would have had to climb over it to get around the room.  So we headed back to the front desk.  I explained the situation and that I was told via email that the rooms would sleep 4 and the ones we were given did not.  I'm very proud of myself for not getting upset :-) 

They were very nice and helpful and finally accomodated with a 4 bedroom apartment (for the same cost as the 2 rooms).  If the first 2 rooms were way to small, this apartment was exactly the opposite!  It had 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, full kitchen, living and dining room and a maid's quarters with full laundry facilities.    We were on the 4th floor of an apartment building next to the hotel and had balconies that had a view of the Red Sea.  The apartment had seen better days - I think the decor was circa 1975 but it was clean and we all had a bed to sleep in.  I'll post pictures at the end of the blog.  They hadn't finished cleaning when we checked in so we decided to head out to finish shopping and get dinner and then we'd come back.

We set out to find a store where my friend Belky had bought a piano.  We decided to buy an electronic piano here for a couple of reasons.  The kids really want one to play while we are here, they are a bit cheaper here than in the US and there is no sales tax, and we can pack it up and ship it home when we return to the United States.  We purchased a Yamaha Clavinova 340 and are very excited about receiving it.  Our only problem is that it is 2 weeks later and it still has not been delivered.  They say today but they've said that before so we may never receive this piano...I'll keep you updated.

We next headed to Ikea where as we walked in, we realized it was close to prayer time again.  The kids were a little hungry so we got a snack in the cafeteria and ate during prayer and then headed in to do our shopping.  Nothing exciting here - just stuff for the house.  On our way back to the Sheraton, we at Chili's at the Roshan Mall and then headed back to turn in.  I am always exhausted after any amount of shopping in Jeddah!

The Sheraton Jeddah Hotel

The dining room in the apartment

The living room(s) in the apartment

A view of the Red Sea

A little store you could see from the balcony

A pretty view of a mosque on the water.

Outdoor landscaping at the hotel