Our alarm was set early (6 am), and it was pretty tough to get out of bed.\u00a0 We dragged ourselves up and in and out of the shower, and then lugged our suitcases down the stairs to check out.\u00a0 As we checked out the clerk said that he expected payment at that time, but Kuniko had already paid by credit card a long time ago.\u00a0 This is a sensitive topic for us, especially after last summer in Granada and the episode we went through there.\u00a0 I could tell Kuniko\u2019s anger was starting to come up, and I was starting to move out of the way.\u00a0 The clerk apparently saw it too, and so he rechecked his files and found that he was in fact in error.\u00a0 He blamed his coworker, but it was a little pitiful in my opinion.\u00a0 Anyway, we left our bags there for safekeeping and hit the road.<\/p>\n
Our goal this morning was to see Versailles Palace before our flight out to Portugal.\u00a0 On paper it seemed doable, and we already had e-tickets for Versailles so it was just a matter of logistics.\u00a0 And as it turned out, it was pretty easy to do.<\/p>\n
From our hotel we walked to Invalides station, which was only about 10 minutes\u2019 walk.\u00a0 From there we bought tickets and caught a train to Versailles Palace.\u00a0 The train was already just sitting there waiting so we got some seats and were pretty much the only people in the train car.\u00a0 It was a nice ride out to Versailles, passing some interesting neighborhoods and beautiful buildings.\u00a0 We ate some chocolate on the way, soon enough we arrived at the station around 8 am.\u00a0 We stopped in at Starbucks for a coffee to go and then walked down the street until we found the Palace.\u00a0 It was hard to miss.\u00a0 The front gate was quite dramatic with statues and shiny gold gates, just like at our house.<\/p>\n
We had already bought tickets, and I had heard that the gardens were open an hour before the palace opened, so we walked behind the palace and spent a lot of time in the gardens.\u00a0 They were huge!\u00a0 As we walked around the grounds it was a little cold, but the sun came out now and then and warmed us up.\u00a0 The beautiful flowers, fountains and pools were everywhere, and the scale was really impressive.\u00a0 Around opening time we walked back around to the front of the palace to join the line, and we found that it had grown tremendously while we were exploring the gardens.\u00a0 Uh, oh – maybe a small miscalculation here.\u00a0 We lined up at the back, and it took about an hour to get inside the palace.\u00a0 Luckily the weather was good, we could do lots of people watching, and the line moved pretty fast.\u00a0 By the time we neared the front of the line it had grown even more.\u00a0 I would hate to arrive at that time and try to get in.<\/p>\n
Inside the main gate they had a security check, and they looked inside Kuniko\u2019s bag and even under her hat, but we made it through.\u00a0 Once inside, there were a lot of people – maybe too many.\u00a0 Each room had so many people in it that it made it a little difficult to move without walking in front of someone taking a picture.\u00a0 There were a lot of reasons to take a picture, too – the interiors were beautifully (and ostentatiously) decorated, with each having some sort of theme.\u00a0 Because of all the photography the flow of visitors was slower than usual.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mind, since I was also taking a lot of pictures, but I could tell Kuniko wanted to move it along a little faster.<\/p>\n
Some of the rooms had historical significance, some were decorated in a unique way, and it seemed like there were decoration styles for just about every taste.\u00a0 I really liked the darkest rooms with no windows, that were decorated in black and red.\u00a0 The hall of mirrors was beautiful as well, with chandeliers catching the sunlight and spreading it out down the long hall.<\/p>\n
We went through the palace fairly quickly, finishing up after an hour.\u00a0 The lines outside were even longer as we walked back to the station, and between the station and the palace there was a steady stream of visitors walking.\u00a0 It was easy to catch a train back to Paris, and we could see inside each train going the opposite way there were tons of people going to Versailles.\u00a0 So I guess our timing wasn\u2019t so bad, and I\u2019m sure those people going in were going to have to fight even larger crowds.<\/p>\n
Back in Paris we walked back towards our hotel to pick up our bags, but we felt like it would be a better idea to get something to eat first, before we had to manage our bags at some restaurant.\u00a0 So we hit a small corner brasserie (the kind with red awnings).\u00a0 The place had a relaxed atmosphere, and we took a table facing the street so we could watch people walking by.\u00a0 I can\u2019t say enough how nice it is to eat and drink outside on the street and watch the world go by.\u00a0 This has yet to catch on in the Kansai area, so we always try to get our fill in Europe.\u00a0 The waitress spoke English, and they had an English menu, so I knew we must be near the Eiffel Tower.\u00a0 We ordered a couple of big glasses of wine – rose for me, red for Kuniko.\u00a0 I ate some spring rolls stuffed with warm goat cheese and mint, with a little sweetness in the spring roll wrapper.\u00a0 It was really good.\u00a0 Kuniko had a very substantial ham and cheese omelet, heavy on the cheese.\u00a0 A few tables down a young American couple were discussing deep topics and maybe having a fight, but by the end of the meal they had seemed to patch things up.\u00a0 Ah, Paris.<\/p>\n
With brunch completed, and a little bit of a buzz from our wine, we went back to our hotel and collected our bags. As we walked with our bags we happened to see a taxi.\u00a0 I flagged him down and he stopped, but he already had a passenger.\u00a0 He told us to wait five minutes and he\u2019d be back, so we sat and waited.\u00a0 At the end of the quiet street we were on there was a much busier street, and I could see taxis driving back and forth along it, so I started to wonder if this was a good idea.\u00a0 We waited about ten minutes, and then gave up on our taxi and went to the busier street to catch another cab.\u00a0 As you might expect, as soon as we got to the busy street there wasn\u2019t a taxi to be found.\u00a0 We waited a few minutes here and eventually a cab came by.\u00a0 And wouldn\u2019t you know it – it was the original guy.\u00a0 He swore up and down that he went back for us, and I believed him, but it was kind of an awkward ride to the station.\u00a0 He took us to a station but it turned out to be the wrong station, and we spent a few minutes walking to the correct one.\u00a0 Once we got our suitcases down to the platform, bought our tickets and caught the correct train, everything was cool.\u00a0 The Paris metro was not exactly clean (especially compared to the London underground and Japanese trains, which are admittedly high standards).\u00a0 When we got on the train to the airport a nice lady gave up her seat so we could get our bags and bodies near each other.\u00a0 The ride was a little long, but there weren\u2019t so many stops before the airport.\u00a0 While we were riding the train an old guy played the violin (rather poorly) in our train car, looking for donations afterwards.\u00a0 It was just the right thing for a train in Paris, I thought.<\/p>\n
We got to Charles de Gaulle airport with plenty of time to spare, and went to check into our flight to Porto in Portugal.\u00a0 We were a little early, so we had to wait about 30 minutes off to the side until we could get our bags checked into EasyJet.\u00a0 In the baggage line we spotted a musical group, who were checking a giant tribal drum made of a log – I wondered how much that costs in baggage fees.<\/p>\n
Our flight to Porto was about 25 minutes late, but that is to be expected with the cheap low cost carrier flights.\u00a0 We just sat and read our books and soon enough they were calling us to board.\u00a0 We had the aisle and center seat, with an antsy middle aged woman trapped behind us in the window seat.\u00a0 She was clearly uncomfortable with the arrangement and kept trying to communicate with someone else on the plane.\u00a0 We just sat down and went right to sleep, which made ignoring everything much easier.\u00a0 The flight was a pretty noisy one – maybe the noisiest flight I\u2019ve ever been on.\u00a0 There was not one but three screaming babies, lots of turbulence, and the boy behind us kept yelling out \u201cPapa!\u201d every time he saw something out the window.\u00a0 Our zen training served us well, however.\u00a0 Thankfully it was a very short flight, and soon we were descending to the runway at Porto.<\/p>\n
But there was one final surprise in store for us.\u00a0 Just as we were about to touchdown the plane suddenly accelerated and took off again.\u00a0 That was a first for me, and everybody on the plane was wondering what was going on.\u00a0 The plane began to circle over the ocean and head back to Porto, and after a while the captain announced that there was a dog loose on the runway, and that they would try landing again after it was safely captured.\u00a0 Everybody laughed at the story, and soon enough we landed safely and taxied to the terminal.<\/p>\n
Maybe I\u2019m cynical, but I had doubts that there was really a dog on the runway.\u00a0 If the pilot made some kind of mistake, or if there was some technical trouble with the plane, the last thing he would say on the announcement would be, \u201cI made a mistake, let me try again.\u201d\u00a0 I figured the dog on the runway was a funny situation that would make people relax, and then they could have a planeload of calm passengers for the second attempt.\u00a0 This is only my theory, though – who knows?<\/p>\n
We got our bag quickly, cleared customs, and grabbed a taxi right away.\u00a0 We were the only people in the taxi line.\u00a0 The driver was very aggressive, and it was our introduction to Portuguese drivers.\u00a0 Thanks to his aggressive driving we made it into Porto very quickly.\u00a0 He took us to the address that I had shown him, and it was clear that it was a bad neighborhood.\u00a0 I was pretty nervous, until he realized he had made a mistake, and he took us around to another place.\u00a0 This might have been a way to get a little more fare – I wasn\u2019t quite sure.\u00a0 However, the final destination was a much nicer area so it was with much relief that we got out and unloaded our bags.\u00a0 Our hotel was located on a busy shopping street, mainly filled with pedestrians.\u00a0 The streets were cobblestone, and the sidewalks inlaid with black and white tiles to form tasteful designs along each street.\u00a0 I really liked the architecture as well – most houses had tiles inlaid into the front with various colorful designs.\u00a0 We were off to a good start in Porto.<\/p>\n
We checked into our hotel, the Grande Porto Hotel which was historic, clean, and very old-fashioned.\u00a0 We really liked our room – it was spacious, with a big modern bathroom, air conditioning, and a refrigerator.\u00a0 It was nice to know that for the next three nights we\u2019d be very comfortable with plenty of room to spread out.<\/p>\n
First item on the agenda was to go out and explore the city.\u00a0 I had a plan to go see the riverside, so I used the GPS application on my phone to lead us to one of the bridges on the river.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize it, but we ended up on the top of the bridge, and all the stuff we wanted to see was at the bottom.\u00a0 It was dark, and we were a little wary of the vibe in the area.\u00a0 Since we didn\u2019t know the town at all, we thought it best to head back to our hotel and get something to eat nearby.<\/p>\n
Across the street from our hotel was a restaurant that had tables out on the street, so we grabbed a table and soon had some glasses of wine in front of us.\u00a0 The restaurant was called the \u201cMajestic Caf\u00c3\u00a9\u201d and later we found out that it was famous.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if it is famous for the food, the architecture, or the history, but we really liked it.\u00a0 Our waiter was really friendly and helpful, and he gave us lots of freebies.\u00a0 With our wine we ordered some dinner.\u00a0 Kuniko had duck cooked in port wine, and I had cod cooked in garlic oil, on top of boiled eggs and potatoes.\u00a0 My dish had a pretty dramatic presentation, and even the people at the table next to us wanted to take a picture of it.\u00a0 We finished the dinner with a couple glasses of port, and then went back to our hotel.\u00a0 Before bed we turned off our alarms and put out the \u201cdo not disturb\u201d sign.\u00a0 That was a very busy day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our alarm was set early (6 am), and it was pretty tough to get out of bed.\u00a0 We dragged ourselves up and in and out of the shower, and then lugged our suitcases down the stairs to check out.\u00a0 As we checked out the clerk said that he expected payment at that time, but Kuniko […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOpl7-Kx","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bryan.fredricks.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}