Rabbits at the Metro Exit

We were pleasantly surprised to exit the Subway in Paris near our flat to find a little park in which it's main purpose seems to be to house the Parisian Rabbits. The park completely sour rounded by busy streets, with no way to enter or exit but to/through the subway. At first we were so surprised by seeing a few rabbits. Then the more we looked we saw that they were ever where in the grass and in the bushes. They were living similar to the squirrels and chipmunks in our neighborhood at home. In the moment we were tired and in a hurry to get home, so we did not stay, nor did we return...here are the few photos we took in the moment!

Cluny Museum

We are sure we lived many live times during the medieval times. We feel so at home in the art and items of this time period.

The Cluny Museum has a wonderful collection of medieval art. The most famous item is the collection of the Lady and Unicorn Tapestries. Enjoy and let us know if you too feel cozy and comfortable with this art!

Art at the Louvre

We spent several morning/afternoons at the Louvre . It is huge and very crowded. We'll share a few of our favorite paintings with you here on our blog.
We spent several morning/afternoons at the Louvre . It is huge and very crowded. We'll share a few of our favorite paintings with you here on our blog.

Paris

We spent a lovely week in Paris.

We choose to purchase Paris museum passes for the adults for 6 days - most places children under 18 are admitted free into the museums. (though on the train they are an adult ticket at age 12!)

We stayed in Dan's colleague's mother's Paris flat. In a few days, we were comfortable with the subways, (though not comfortable inside, as the subway system is hot and very difficult to breathe in!) and took them back and forth to our temporary Parisian home.

Here are a few photos from our first day....

Van Gogh in Basel

Just outside the Kunst Museum......
The Trolley's of Basel....

Tammy and Karin - great to be together again!

Our day began with a two hour train ride ride to Basel. It was early and raining, so we napped much of the ride. Upon arriving in Basel, we took the trolley (which is more fun than a bus, because they travel right through the middle of the streets and are painted to be bright and cheery!) to the Kunst Museum.

There we meet our friend Karin who took us out for coffee/tea/hot chocolate/water. We had a lovely visit and then went into the Museum to enjoy the Van Gogh exhibit. No photographs were allowed to be taken in the museum, so please enjoy the ones on the Kunst Museum website. While at the Kunst Museum, we found other lovely artwork to enjoy.

The rain continued, so we did not walk about Basel. We did however enjoy our train ride home, where the sun came out - with rainbow and we had lovely views of the Rhine River and the Bodensee on the way home. In fact, we enjoyed ourselves so much, we forgot to take photos! That's living in the momement!

Train Ride through the Austrian Alps

We chose to travel through the Austrian Alps from Salzburg to the Bodensee. It was a lovely journey and we were thrilled to have such picture postcard views. The water was so clear and a green-blue that did not show up so well in the photo. It looked amazingly fresh. In a few crevasses of the mountains, we think we saw a bit of snow.

Salzburg

We visited Saint Peter's Abbey and took time for prayer and meditation. I had visited this church almost 30 years ago. At first, I am struck by it's fullness, too fancy and busy for my personal tastes. Yet...in quite and silence the energy in the church is amazing. And the prayer very moving.

The older "Roman" part of the city..Salzburg was once the northern Roman Empire City North of the Alps. Even Mozart is shown in Roman style!

I love Salzburg. There's a crisp cleanness to the city and it's full of history and music events. We enjoyed watching the evening's opera from the famous Salzburg Music Festival http://www.salzburgerfestspiele.at/ outside at the open air kino.

Mozart's Cossi fan Tutti and a 2nd to be named opera were dramatically acted in modern settings, providing a new twist to the old and ever popular operas. We enthusicastically watched the 1st hour of these operas and then sadly walked to our hotel in order to be in bed by 12 midnight. (which is 00:00 on the European clocks!)

During the day we enjoyed the city sites.....and enjoyed an amazing marionette show of The Magic Flute.