20230126 Paris

Early morning walked to BigBus pickup location, and took BigBus tour to Louvre. When we did the Louvre tour the first day, it was mainly inside, and didn’t see the Pyramid well, this time we looked it from outside and it was awesome!

After the Louvre photo ops, hopped on the BigBus to go to next destination Covered Passage Tour, but this time the BigBus tour lady gave us the wrong information, that BigBus took us further away, so we have to quickly got off the bus, using Google Map, our best tour guide, and ride the Metro, and met our tour lady Joanna right on time.

Next we hopped on the metro to another walking tour – Norte Dame, where we met our tour guide Sophia in front of the entrance. Of course we didn’t ‘get in’, since the church was burned and closed since 2019, it is going through rebuild now, French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that he will have the restore completed by 2024 Paris Olympic, but I doubt it. So we just walked around Norte Dame, which is very close to Latin Quarter. Also learnt that hotel in French means hospital.

So we had 3 Paris Pass activities so far today – BigBus, Covered Passage and Norte Dame, there more to go – wine tasting, cheese tasting and cocktail tasting, I like the tasting stuff!

Cheese tasting

Cocktail tasting

Shopping for glove, Nono lost hers on the BigBus

After a long day of torus and tasting, we found a great Chinese restaurant near our hotel,

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Third day in Paris, visiting Eifel tower this morning, started to see the value of Paris Pass. We almost missed the appointment because the direction was not very clear, but caught up with our tour guy Bayo on time, he’s an interesting guy, did the tour nicely, and I learnt about Eifel Tower.

Nono won the quiz by Bayo

River cruise terminal is right by the tower, stopped by the terminal and got some hot chocolate, much needed as it’s cold. This is another spot for Paris Pass.

Walked to Champs-Élysées after the cruise, and enjoyed great snack, escargot, French onion soup, crepe, and multed drink at Le Bistro Marbeuf, Paris Pass, of course!

Next destination from Paris Pass Grande Arche de la Défense, interesting place, we arrived 5 minutes before it closed, so when we when to the top there were only 3 of us, it was a wonderful view, and also hosted an exhibition for Norte Dame before and after the fire, it was great!

We saw this seafood restaurant Pedra Alta on our way to Grande Arche de la Défense, decided to come back for dinner, what a great seafood restaurant it is!

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20230125 Paris

Traveling

20230124 Paris

Second day of the trip, we took M7 then RER to Chateau of Vesalius. Riding Metro to RER was a fun ride, we literally are in a sardine can. Took the wrong train, but were able to correct and got to palace on time. Had breakfast at McDonald, pretty fancy and fully automated one, then met with the tour lady to start the Versailles toru.

Morning session at Versailles was mainly looking inside, the mirror palace was impressive.

Lunch at Restaurant Angelina(dining at the Versailles Palace), it was great, shared a bottle of white, plus desert tiramisu and Mont Blanc

Some outside pictures for Versailles, it’s winter time, so not too much green

After Versailles, we went to Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, which is near our hotel.

Dinner at this great noodle place Nouilles Ceintures, and happy hour at Bienvenue à L’Ours Bar, feeling old among a bunch of young people. As you can see, if you like to eat and drink, Paris is a great place, and the price is not bad at all, I’d say it’s cheaper than Houston, believe it or not.

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20230123 Paris

Arriving Paris early in the morning, it was a little bit cold, luckily tram commute to Paris’ Gare du Nord station was pretty smooth.

Checked in to Hotel Paris Lafayette, nice little hotel at district 4, with a nice near by bakery. We had first lunch at le Café De Leglise

After lunch, took subway M7 to the Louvre, our first visiting spot for Paris Pass

360 pics for the Louvre

After The Louvre, we took M1 to Arc de Triomphe. I made a mistake and stumbled on the top of the Arc, luckily didn’t hurt much.

Had some coffee and crepe at Le Cristal Bar Brasserie

There is a Carrefour express near by, groceries was easy!

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Day 8 – Milan Duomo Rooftop and castle

Woke up early and headed to Piazza del Duomo to take morning shots, weather was chill but clear, brought some pastry from bakery near piazza and had breakfast back in Airbnb. Later went to the rooftop terrace of Duomo, had a good view of the city and architecture of the church. Visited H&M near piazza, checked out the latest fashion!

Had pasta at Pasto – Laboratorio di pasta con cucina, printer was broken, so they had to use chalk board, pasta was good. Next visiting Sforzesco Castle, lots of people there, so we learnt that there was a political pep rally, most of the attendees were young students and farmers. Stopped by Slam Jam Milano, very cute store. Walked by Santa Maria del Carmine Church and Piazza della Scala, then visited Giusti Boutique Milano for wonderful Balsamic vinegar, learnt a lot from the store manager, he told us that you can add Balsamic vinegar on top of gelato, so we went to Ciacco across the street, supposedly the best gelato in Milan, and went back to the vinegar store to add Balsamic topping, it was really amazing, tasted great! Ended the day dining at Neko Bento & Ramen. Tried to go back to Ciacco for another gelato, but its’ closed, so went to the second best, Venchi Cioccolato e Gelato. Took some more night shots at Duomo and Galleria. This concluded the last day at Milan, going back to US tomorrow morning 😦

Traveling

Day 7 – Bologna to Milan

Travelling from Bologna to Milan. Started the day at the cheese store Al Regno Della Forma, then got more coffee and croissants from Caffè Terzi, then visited the wax museum Luigi Cattaneo.

Travelled from Bologna to Milan, fairly quick ride, from Milan Central transfer via subway to Duomo di Milano, finally got to see the big church! Settled down at Airbnb, Heart Milan Apartments, very nice place! Had a quick but nice lunch at Gastronomia Yamamoto, good Japanese food. Visited Duomo di Milano next, what a magnificent church! The weather was wet, so took some pictures then moved on to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, lots of fancy stores, looked at PRADA, LV, was going to have coffee and snack at Marchesi 1824, but not really a good coffee place, skipped and moved to Milano shopping district to find more good stuff. Was able to find a good PRADA purse for Kelley at Prada Milano Montenapoleone Uomo, and was able to get the tax refund at Global Blue, that was pretty cool. For Dinner Ayman and Kelley picked wonderful veggie pizza. Took a night walk after dinner, and had gelato from Venchi Cioccolato e Gelato, that concluded another wonderful day!

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Day 6 – Bologna Tour

Begin the day by having wonderful cappuccino and croissants at Caffè Terzi Bologna, also bought a pack of their house coffee. Next moved on to today’s highlight – Food Tour at Mercato delle Erbe, very interesting, begin with Piadina, then pasta, also saw horse meat butcher, then greeted by true Bologna Mortadella, Jessie took a bite. Introduced to different type of cheese, and ended with Gelato at Cremeria la Vecchia Stalla, now we learnt that true gelato does not have open display, it’s stored in metal tins under counter with lid.

Got some coffee from Il Caffè delle Sette Chiese at Piazza Santo Stefano near the campus of University of Bologna. Next stop is a very interesting museum, can be called the birth place for modern Anatomy. On the way back to Airbnb, enjoyed a different type/flavor coffee at Aroma. Dinner at Pizzeria Nettuno, since we had a great pizza the night before. After that, completed the day with Gelato at Cremeria Cavour, and this is a real authentic gelato place!

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Day 5 – To Bologna, 9-28

It’s Ayman’s birthday!

Had breakfast from Bar Ristorante Vecchio Borgo, walked around the stairs to take photos without the crowd.

Later in the morning visited garden I Giardini di Villa Melzi,

Farewell to Bellagio, took ferry to Varenna, had a quick lunch at the corner store, food was good.

Arrived at Bologna via train ride, and checked in to Airbnb, took the two towers tour, almost 500 steps on the way up, great job for everyone! Went to Basilica Di San Petronio and Fountain of Neptune afterward.

Dinner at Trattoria da Me to celebrate Ayman’s birthday!

Life Style

Day 4 – Menaggio

Day 4 – trip Menaggio, train ride and garden tour

Good morning with croissant from “downstairs”, and cappucino from Vecchio Borgo. Early morning not too many people, but lots of cars going through.

Next going to Menaggio, it’s a quick ferry ride. Saw a bunch of fancy cars wating to get on the ferry. Menaggio is little bit spread out, very nice and pretty, side walk along the bank is a great photo spot! Got some croissant from Pasticceria Cassera Moretti before heading back to Bellagio.

Back to Bellagio, also took a walk along the lake shore, it’s also amazingly pretty! Took a train ride to the back side of Bellagio, and got more gelato 🙂

It’s a busy day, next to Parco di Villa Serbelloni, a beautiful park funded by Rockefeller Foundation, looked at Bellagio from the top, magnificent view! Also caught a great sunset!

Dinner at La Grotta, pizza pizza pizza! I had a great fried squid pizza, delizoso!

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Day 3 – Lake Como Sailing

Day 3 – Sailing at Lake Como and tour around Bellagio and Varenna

Early morning walk to Punta Spartivento point, northern tip of Bellagio, beutiful view. Had cappuccino and croissant at market center.

Walked to the back side (west) of Bellagio, boarded sail boat from Bellagio Sailing, started sailing on a gorgeous day.

This is one popular place for lots of movie scenes, like Star War and James Bond/007.

Back to Bellagio, enjoyed the street food, cheese cake, and gelato of course!

Next going to Cadenabbia, no to Vareanna for sight-seeing and dinner. We found out that we can take the train from Varenna back to Milan, instead of 1-hour boat ride to Como then take the train. Dinner at La Veranda dei Pescatori, at hill top looking at Lake Como and beatiful night view!