"Sweet! I'm going to Sweden for the weekend!"

... well actually, I already went.  But those were my thoughts as we spontaneously planned out this trip with the frequent flyer miles.  What an AMAZING weekend!  

It was really neat to see a part of the world (Scandinavia) that I’ve never been to before, to test my independence by safely traveling alone, to meet new people, and to experience and learn a bit about a part of my heritage. 

It was neat to spend time in Germany last January with choir and get a little taste of that part of my history, then this weekend I got to see some of the Scandinavian part.  Certainly I am an American with American cultural background and understanding, but the more I’ve traveled and spoken with people from different cultures this semester, the more I realize how much our history does make us who we are today.  I feel like I’ve picked up little things from each culture, which I hope to incorporate into my ideologies and understandings of the world.  

My first afternoon, I arrived happily at the airport and immediately noticed how many blonde people there were haha.  I made my way thought the narrow cobble-stoned streets and then along the water until I found my hostel in Gamla Stan (Old Town).  It was nice seeing the beautiful skyline from various points in the city, the shimmering water at sunset, and to get a little sense of the character of Stockholm. 

I explored the park around the incredibly impressive City Hall, walked around the Royal Palace’s grounds, and heard a man playing beautiful guitar music in from of one of the bridges just as the sun gently set behind the boats on the water.  It was quite magical, really.  

They had a neat exhibit describing the various origins of holiday traditions, where it was fun to see many of the things we do at Anderson family Christmas time!  

Then I went to the Vasa Museet, where they have a huge ship that sunk in the 1600s and was only brought up in the 1960s to be restored.  Quite impressive!  They had great exhibits describing everyday life during the time, information about the shipmates, osteology research, King Gustaf, and the diving and restoration process. 

I had quite the adventure trying to use my 5 maps to find the Nobel Museum.  As I was just about to give up after walking on the same 5 streets for a ½ hour with no success, I heard a little band playing with an elderly gentleman singing “What a Wonderful World” in Swedish.  I decided to stop and listen and halfway through the song realized that the band was set up right in front of the steps of the museum!  When I heard them singing the song in English while I was buying my ticket, I decided I needed to capture that beautiful moment! 

The museum displayed some of the more significant (well of course they’re ALL significant) prizes and reactions to them throughout history.  I never realized how controversial the Nobel Prizes have been at times.  They also had an exhibit on current combinations between medicine and design/art.  Very cool!

I took the train to Uppsala and met Gustaf, the son of Susan’s host family when she stayed there not long ago.  It was absolutely amazing to meet him and his friends for dinner and lots of good conversation.  In the morning, he gave me a nice little walking tour of the city. 

When I got back to Stockholm, I went to the National Museum, which had beautiful classical art, an exhibit on clocks and the interpretation and understanding of time throughout history, and a cool exhibit with tons of work by Toulouse-Lautrec. 

Saturday was definitely an exciting art history day for me, which helped me study a bit for my upcoming exam!  From Watteau, Boucher, Chardin, Degas, etc at the National Museum, I went to Juan Gris, Braque, DuChamp, Miro, and Ernst at the Modern Museet.  It was fantastic! They had a huge extensive exhibit on Andy Warhol at the Modern Museet as well, which was pretty interesting because I didn’t really know much about his life or much of his lesser-known artwork. 

I enjoyed my last afternoon in Sweden walking around during the beautiful sunset and savoring my last few hours.  I just did not want to leave!  What an amazing weekend! 

Sweden!

La Loire à Vélo

After our lovely tour of Northern France, my friend Emily and I split off from the other four of our group (who were going to Paris) for an amazing adventure through the Loire Valley.  It was an unforgettable weekend in which we saw some of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen, transported ourselves back in history, and pushed ourselves physically and mentally on our non-stop whirlwind tour of the châteaux region.  

We were the ultimate examples of poor American college kids while waiting for our train to Orléans, sharing an apple and a day-old crusty baguette with some good old Skippy peanut butter.  PB definitely saved our lives a few times on this trip haha.  

We arrived in Orléans and then had quite the adventure finding our hostel.  After our 45-minute bus ride to a campus in the middle of nowhere and lots of wandering, we found our hostel in the stadium.  Yes… that’s right… a sports stadium.  It was fine, but pretty much the weirdest thing ever.  We went into town and visited the Cathédral St. Croix, a gorgeous church with stained glass panels telling the story of Joan of Arc.  As we walked in, the organist was practicing a beautiful hymn and I felt such a lovely sense of calmness.  

We got a free personalized tour of the Joan of Arc Museum, the building itself a replica of the one she stayed in during the siege of Orléans in 1429 (the original was bombed out in WWII.) 

Orleans: Joan of Arc!

The next morning, we arrived in Blois and rented our bicycles from a really nice guy who gave us a zillion maps and helped us plan out our entire itinerary, highlighting and scribbling notes about little tips about which tiny paths to follow and which to avoid.  Our first leg of the journey took us winding through adorable little villages and on to our first château Chambord.

  

It is the Renaissance-style wonder originally begun by Kind François 1^er, designed as his “hunting lodge,” but I’d say it’s a bit more than just that!  It is 156 meters log, with 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms.  I absolutely loved the magnificent double helix spiral staircase in the center, thought to have been designed by Léonardo da Vinci !  There were intricate designs of salamanders (symbol of the « immortality » of the French monarchy), scallops, cherubs, etc, and the turrets on top were just magnificent.  

After Chambord, we headed off through the woods, in the rain, to Cheverny.  It was really neat to be in the beautiful forest, but this was definitely not my favorite moment in life :( When we finally arrived, we were cold, hungry, and could barely walk … but we’d made it !  

Cheverny was neat, but definitely a bit decadent, over-done, and a visual-overload in certain rooms where everything was completely COVERED in intensely patterned tapestries, intricate bed spreads and curtains, rugs, carved furniture, etc.  It is still owned by the Hurault de Vibraye family, descendents of the original architects, and their family portraits are all over (they still lived there until 1987 !)  They had a letter framed on one of the walls from George Washington to one the family members who fought alongside La Fayette during the Revolutionary War. 

We built up our energy again with Prince cookies hehe and had a nice ride through a beautiful farmland, seeing cows, chickens, sheep, and even some doves (“there is hope!” we thought!).  We saw the Châteaux de Villesavin and Beauregard briefly along the way just from the outside because they were closed.  

 We got up really early the next morning and toured around the city of Blois quickly before our 7h15 train to Amboise.  We walked and biked around the lovely city when we got there, seeing our first real view of the Loire River.  Da Vinci spent the last four years of his life in Amboise as a guest to the King and member of the French court.  He worked at Clos Lucé, connected to the château by an underground tunnel.  Now they have 40 models/replicas of his inventions.  Unfortunately, it was still closed and we didn’t have time to see it. 

We went through the Château Royale d’Amboise right as it opened, which was neat, but a little creepy to see completely alone.  It was beautifully decorated, as usual, and had lots of antler-related decoration as well haha.  We almost skipped going into the little chapel, but luckily decided to take a peek.  Da Vinci is buried there !  How cool is that ? 

 

Our bike ride from Amboise to Chenonceau was definitely my favorite part of the journey.  It was pretty sunny, a little windy and hilly, but we went through the prettiest little forests, fields, and villages.  It just made me so incredibly happy :) 

Chenonceau (le Château des Dames) was gorgeous, vast, elegant, and overall very impressive.  It tied with Chambord for the place of « favorite château » in my heart.  We first saw the château through a long path of trees seeming to bow together toward it.  Two sphinxes proudly guard the entrance.  There are beautifully planned out gardens on either side, along the Cher River.  

Each room was filled with so much history and beauty, but not overdone or tackily decorated.   There were tapestries and paintings depicting many scenes from Greek mythology and Biblical history as well.  

Henri II gave the chateau to his mistress Diane de Poitiers, who is noted as responsible for the planning of many of the beautiful carvings and design.  However, in 1559, when Henri II was killed in battle, his widow Cathérine de Médicis ordered Diane to five Chenonceau back to her (don’t worry, she gave her Chaumont-sur-Loire in exchange haha).  I don’t want to bore you all to tears, so I’ll stop with all the history now, but I just absolutely loved Chenonceau.  

Overall, this trip was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.  We were incredibly fatigued and probably looked like real Grenoble vagabonds with our backpacks and messy helmet-hair by the time we returned home haha, but it was truly amazing. I hope to return someday to be able to see more of the 40 châteaux in this beautiful region!  

La Loire à Vélo!

Beautiful Bretagne

After getting some lunch at the market in Caen, we got on the train to Pontorson in Brittany. Our "hostel" ended up really being an adorable Bed & Breakfast with a cute little British couple. Somewhere along that train ride, we were magically transported from France into England... pretty sure :) Our "host grandpa" from the B&B was waiting at the train station for us and helped us all pile into the back of his ancient Land Rover (with British steering wheel on the other side). We bumbled along off to the B&B, passing by beautiful farmland and old brick houses and buildings. It was incredibly cute! We took a walk around the village around sunset and it rained a little, so there were crazy beautiful clouds!


Monday morning, after our lovely little English breakfast, we piled back into the crazy truck and headed off for Mont Saint Michel. It was so exciting to finally see it as we drove through the winding country roads. I don't know how we could have possibly gotten there if we hadn't stayed at the amazing "hostel," because it was quite out in the middle of nowhere. There were hundreds of fluffy sheep in and around the road welcoming us to the lovely island town as we arrived. There were no tides this week, for whatever reason, that was a bit of a bummer... but it was still quite amazing! We did a guided three-hour tour (in French- go me! haha), which was really great.


After lunch, we wandered around the extremely touristy winding streets, ate ice cream on the rooftops after squeezing through little alley pathways upwards, and explored a little around the bay (getting a bit muddy in the process). We got some good inexpensive food at the Oyster Catcher, one of two food establishments in the tiny town we stayed in, and walked around the village until sunset.

More pictures :)

Brittany

Mont Saint Michel

Oh p.s. There is controversy over whether Mont Saint Michel is in Normany or Brittany... and I think today it is technically part of Normandy, so I apologize for having it part of the post of Brittany haha.

Wednesday, we took another train to Concarneau, on the Atlantic coast of Brittany. We really lucked out with a cute and clean hostel right on the beach. Our window in the room opened right up to the beautiful sea ☺



We had a lovely afternoon clambering around tide-pools. Emily, my friend who is a marine biology researcher, told us all about the different algae, shrimp, anemones, and assorted crustaceans we were seeing. It was so much fun! After hanging out on the beach a little, we headed into the cute little maritime city. We walked past he busy marina and headed into the old fort on the water, which is now apparently where they cram in the cheesy tourist town. It seemed like a crazy little village from Shrek or something haha… there was a band playing pep-band/folk music, souvenir shops, creperies, etc. It was cheesy but fun.



We were able to cook in the hostel’s kitchen, so we made a lovely little spaghetti sauce and pasta for a grand total of 2€ each… now that’s what I’m talking about!



We had a nice little walk around the tide-pools again in the morning after breakfast and then a stately monsieur cormorant sent us off on our trip to Carnac.

l'Océan Atlantique

After quite the process of buses, trains, and autocars, we finally arrived in Carnac, another city on the coast. We walked out of town to the park where they have the ancient megalithic stones. It is apparently the largest site in the world, with over 3000 stones dating back to 3300 – 4500 BC. The rocks are all lined up in rows for about a kilometer, and there are many different theories about their origins. It probably had something to do with astronomical alignment and/or farming. Whatever it is, it is pretty impressive and mind-boggling!

Carnac

News from Normandy

Hello all!  I have just returned from my whirlwind nine-day tour of Normandy, Brtittany, and the Loire Valley.  It was absolutely fabulous, and I will try to write a bit about each day with pictures. 

Our first morning, I spent three hours between trains wandering around Paris because it was such a beautiful day.  I had a lovely time seeing all the sights, but my body punished me for being over-ambitious and so I spend the whole week with blisters on my feet.  Oh well, it all worked out! 

We traveled around Caen and Mondeville, saw some beautiful churches, and the Chateau of William the Conqueror.  We decided that St. John’s should be called the Leaning Tower of Normandy! 

We took the train to Bayeux in the morning and did a taxi-tour service of the D-Day beaches, which worked out really well. It was kind of depressing driving through some of the little towns and hearing our tour guide talk about how all the small businesses and country way of life are dying out. 

I’m glad I got to see that again because I understood it better and got a chance to see the new museum at the American Cemetery, which was very informative and well put together.  We walked through the cemetery and memorial, drove to see the huge bombed out craters above the cliffs and went to Omaha Beach itself.  Seeing such a destroyed area was pretty tough stuff, it made me realize how very blessed I have been in my life. 

After our tour of the beaches, we went back to Bayeux itself and visited the Cathedral, which was absolutely gorgeous.  It was so filled with beautiful light, which I find much more uplifting than the scary dark old cathedrals.  It was also quite huge and impressive for such a small town. 

We finally saw the Bayeux Tapestry!  It was so awesome to finally see it, after having studied it for years in history, French, psychology (changes in language), and even science (Haley’s Comet!).  They had nice audioguides that explained it all panel by panel, a museum, and a video.  It is so interesting to me to think of how our sense of history can be so influenced by what artifacts and stories we have.  What a great day! 

Nomandy

A Weekend of Sunshine and Smiles

What an amazing weekend!  We had great weather and great adventures throughout Provence with Miranda and the group.  We let early Friday morning and started out with a tour and wine tasting at the Chateauneuf-du-Pape “cave.”  It was really interesting to learn all about the different parts of production and the history of French wine.  

Next, we went to the Pont du Gard, a Roman aqueduct built over 2000 years ago.  It was incredibly windy on the bridge, near the water, and in the hills there (basically everywhere!) but beautiful and sunny.  There was an 800 year old olive tree right next to our picnic lunch site!  

Then we went to Avignon and visited the Palais des Papes, where the French popes lived during all the fun schism years of political squabbles and corruption.  We went and danced on the Pont d’Avignon, the bridge that was supposedly built by a Shepard boy who heard God tell him to build it.  Part of it is actually broken now, so it does not actually cross over to the other side like a bridge.   Rough, huh?   "Sur le Pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse, l'on y danse!" 

We did a morning tour the next day of Terascon, the chateau of King Rene.   It was build between 1400 and 1449 and was quite beautiful and fascinating.  Inside the prison part, prisoners had drawn lots of intricate religious symbols, the chateau itself, and games to play (a checkers board and backgammon).  The view at the top was quite spectacular.  I loved all the funny gargoyles and there were also neat carvings that made cool shadows on the walls.   

We toured the Roman Arena from 90 A.D., which was pretty amazing.  Apparently a whole village lived inside the arena at one point during the Middle Ages.  They still do bull fights there today once in awhile.  French bulls get to "retire" to farms when they get older, but the imported Spanish bulls still get killed during the fight :( 

We went through Arles, where Van Gogh spent a significant part of his life, and walked through all the cute little streets there.  We picked up some fresh strawberries and baguettes at the market and had lunch in the beautiful Van Gogh gardens.  The building around it used to be the mental institution in which Van Gogh checked himself into toward the end of his life.  We got to see the cafe featured in "Le Cafe du Soir" and many other cute little sites.  

We spent part of the afternoon in Baux de Provence, a little winding village that leads up a hill/mountain.  They've left it mostly in the Medieval style, although it has become quite touristy in past years.  There is part of a chateau built right into the rock at the top and they do Medieval reenactment type things.  

We drove through a rather mountainous region called "Hell's Valley," which definitely reminded me of the Black Hills and the Badlands in the US.  It was quite a dramatic and beautiful landscape.  Then Miranda surprised us with a stop at the Cathedral d'Images, one of the coolest things I have ever experienced!  It is an old limestone quarry/cave in which they project moving images upon the white walls of the cave along with music.  

When we were there, it was all Van Gogh paintings, with the colors and brushstrokes gently floating around the rooms, with amazing mixes of colors and lights.   Each painting blended in with the next and you could feel the liveliness of the people and landscapes.  It's hard to explain, but I found it absolutely fascinating.   They've had exhibits of the canals of Venice, ancient Egypt, the doors of Europe, African safari, etc in the past.  I thought it was such an amazing concept of combing our modern technology and honoring such amazing art and history of the past in a new way.  I would love to come back again someday and see another exhibit.  

We drove through the Camaguge a bit and saw hundreds of beautiful wild flamingos.  Then we pulled into Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where our hotel was located.  The town is all about the legend of the Three Marys: Mary Jacobe (sister of the Virgin Mary), Mary Salome (mother of disciples James and John), and Mary Magdalene.  The story says that the 3 Marys and their servant Sarah were set adrift by boat from Jerusalem by the Jews and landed in St. Maries-de-la-Mer in 40 AD ... with no oars or sails, of course.  They were so happy to have safely landed, they built a chapel in thanks for their safe journey.  Their tombs are a major pilgrimage site for gypsies every May.  Pretty interesting.

Our hotel was right across from the beach, so we frolicked around on the sandy beach and rocky jetties during the sunset before dinner.  How lovely.  We had a fun dinner at a Spanish-themed restaurant with guitarists and flamenco dancers.  

The next morning, we went horseback riding through the Camargue, passing lagoons filled with flamingos and herons, salt marshes, grasslands with bulls, and rice fields.  Our beautiful white horses were fairly well behaved and it was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. 

 

We got back into town and watched the running of the bulls, which they do every other Sunday on the main street I guess.  After seeing that, we lounged around on the beach eating gelato until it was time to go back to rainy Grenoble.  Quite a lovely weekend!  

More pictures?

Sunshine in Provence :)