Ephemera from my great-grandmother

From May 1896 to January 1897, my great grandmother, Eleanor Van der Beek traveled to Europe by boat. She kept a scrapbook of her trip that is now in my possession. It's a yellowed and fragile book that smells of dust. The spine has crumbled away, but the pages are still intact. I plan on gradually reading through the letters and notes she kept of her voyage. I'm sure I'll post more materials here as time goes on.

For the moment, here are a couple illustrations from a tourist map she had.

Back home

It's always a mixed bag when returning from holiday. One one hand, I'm happy to be back home and no longer living out of suitcases and eating in restaurants. On the other, it's the end of a really cool vacation and a return to the daily grind. Seems like every time I go away, there's some sort of bad news when I return. Such is life, I suppose. The suckiness exists whether I'm on vacation or not, so it's better to have had the vacation first.

Here are the things I am taking away from the past couple weeks...

1) It's always good to try communicating in another language since it has an element of risk that I think is good for you.
2) I should underpack. Always. No matter what my brain tells me.
3) My Royal Robbins walking skirt was the best garment I wore this trip, with my Joseph Seibl sandals coming in a close 2nd.
4) Don't panic too much when you're trying to drive in Prague. No matter how bad it is, it's got to be better than driving in Paris.
5) Only bring one book...you'll probably not even get through that little paperback so you might as well skip the extra weight.
6) Keep a hand or foot (or butt cheek) on all bags at all times...thieves are thieves because they are good at thieving.
7) Drink lots of water.

Those are the only things that come to mind at the moment. I'm sure there will be other items that occur to me later.

For those of you who read the blog, I hope you enjoyed it. I've enjoyed writing the posts (well, most of the time) so I may continue posting periodically, though I may just leave it for traveling.

Amsterdam

Last day in Paris

The day started a bit cooler than it's been the past few days. Clouds rolled in and brought some morning showers that quickly cleared. It appears that we're staying just ahead of the rain that's coming to Paris and following right behind the rain in Amsterdam. It's been lovely to be reminded what summer is like in "normal" parts of the world - I've been able go entire days without wearing a sweater. It feels decadent.
After a morning run around the Place des Vosges park, we headed over to the Maison Européene de la Photographie and saw great photography. The museum is housed in an incredible building - a beautiful building that has the appearance of having been an historical house. Definitely worthwhile.
After the photo displays, we took the Metro to the Tuileries where we got a chance to work on our own photographs - there's an amusement park there with rides and games and colorful carny stuff to gawk at.
From there we walked over to the Musée d'Orsay and went to the Manet show. The crowds were a bit much for me but the art was great. I found a Camille Claudel sculpture of an old woman that I really liked. We had a little lunch in the museum restaurant which is incredibly beautiful - high painted ceilings with enormous crystal chandeliers. Definitely worth a visit - their chocolat chaud is super yummy.
We headed back on the Metro during rush hour so it was a squeeze of humanity. When we walked in the room, it appeared there was a bit of a haze in the room. When I looked at some of my possessions, I realized a layer of dust was covering all exposed surfaces. There was construction going on in the room next to ours and the hammering had sent dust into our room. I spent the next 20 mins angrily wiping down surfaces and shaking out clothes. I can't say I'll miss this hotel. It's very quiet but the room is really tiny (about 14x14). We'll find another place the next time around.
We head out via train for Amsterdam in the early afternoon. Bye bye France. It's been a lot of fun.