NEVERFOUND

Day 15- Today was so boring as we traveled all day, so I’m just going to make a list. In order to get to Nice, we rented a NeverLost GPS with the rental car. Here are some NeverFound items from our trip in Europe.

1. Dad’s iPod Touch, stolen at the train station.
2. Dad’s noise-canceling headphones, stolen at the train station.
3. Mom’s wallet, stolen at the train station-but she took out her credit cards and driver’s license.
4. Ellery’s iPod Shuffle, which we don’t actually know what happened to it.
5. The shards of glass from the mirror of the rental car; Dad had a parking accident.
6. Cough syrup from mom’s bag-maybe the pickpocket had a cold!
7. The reason for the three hour delay from London to Houston that made us miss our connection flight.

Dad’s phone was almost on this list, but it was found with about two minutes to spare as we were leaving Paris. This blog will be discontinued for a time, as our trip is now over.

Until the next blog,
Lindsay and Ellery Ewell

Paris - Part Deux

Day 14-Today we went to do all the Paris stuff we were too lazy to do last time. We went to Notre Dame, an old cathedral that is the most famous for being the setting of a book and a movie. The cathedral is still a working cathedral, so you can only go in certain sections. We went in during a service with popes and other people, and some people were videoing the whole thing! I don’t know what kind of nerve they had, but they wouldn’t like it if someone filmed their sermon! We decided to climb the tower and get a good view. We had to wait in a really long line, but there was this guy dressed up in a troll costume who snuck up on people and scared them with his gruesome looks. Ellery thought: I liked the troll guy, he was funny. The cathedral was nice. Back to moi: we had lots of fun going to the top of the tower and seeing all the cool gargoyles and sights! Their was even a gargoyle eating a chicken, and we could see all the way to Montemarte, Paris’ like only hill-remember? The Luxombourg Gardens, where we went next, was pretty cool. They made me go on this really beat up merry-go-round with split wood and immobile animals. There was one less boring part: they made you catch rings on a peg. Fuuuuuunnn. We were really tired after that, but we had to go to the train station to get to London. We’re almost home!

This Is Art?

Day 13-Hello, Paris! Again. Today we went to the Pompidou Center, a museum of modern ‘art’. We had the bad judgement to start at the 4th floor, populated by women artists. Whoo boy! These people had NO talent. One lady painted a canvas, then took a gun and shot it up, to “feel the passion” she said. Another lady put utensils on display and called it art, and another one put splattered paintbrushes. Why not use them to make something wothwhile?! And some of the stuff was GROSS! You have no idea how gross, and you don’t want to have any idea. There was one lady who took videos of people’s hands, randomly doing stuff. Hey, all you women artists, here’s a tip: if you’re going to petition a museum to put women’s work in, make your work good enough to be there in the first place. Ellery thinks: I liked the toys (Calder Exhibit) and everything else was a little gross. And some of the other things were really gross. Moving right along, we went to the fifth floor. There was work from Matisse, Picasso, and a cool guy whose name I forget-Simon Hanti. He once wrote on a canvas every day for a year just to get the effect! I liked those; they were the way cubism should be. Simple and cubes and abstract. Thank you, people! And I will say all of those paintings kept us out of the driving rain! Ellery liked: It was good. I liked the things, except some of it was completely pointless. But it was better than the 4th floor. Back to moi! We went up to the sixth floor, where they had Calder’s whole circus! It was very interesting, because he made it all out of household items. After leaving the museum, we walked ages to get to a burger place, but it was worth it! We then relaxed in our hotel room, after going to the grocery store for chicken, cookies, bread, and juice. I ordered a doughnut all on my own! In French! I also found Speculoos, some of the most delicious things on this Earth. Bwa-hahahahahahaha!

Today Was So Whatever!

Day 12-More traveling. Again, nothing really to remark on, except three-hour wait for our train to get there. IN A SMALL CHAIR. It was pretty dull. We had a good lunch while we ate, though, and I found out that sugar doughnuts are really good. I also discovered that Frodo Baggins is being attacked and Fatty Lumpkin is stupid (it’s the Fellowship of the Ring). Do you know how small the print is on those books? It made my head spin. After the train, we discovered that dad had misplaced his iPod touch, and, as you might guess, it’s missing now. Poor dad. We also had to wait thirty minutes in a huge cab line because people with babies-not with small kids, or the elderly, just people with babies-kept cutting. Dad picked Ellery (who is unavailable for comment at this time) up and tried to pretend she was a baby. The dude manning the line wasn’t fooled or impressed. Oh well. When we finally got a taxi, we all had to sit in the back of a small one, thanks to al the singles and groups of two who took vans. We finally got to our hotel. It was a bit like our hotel in London, but better. We have a view of the tip-top of the Eiffel Tower, which is better than no view. Dad went to get our bags from the other hotel, while Mom took us to the one non-sitdown place open. McDonalds. It was packed, but we finally got our food and went home. Dad was trying to avoid McDonalds, but he ended up going there too. We have a full day in Paris, then we head home. SOB!

Ewell-ro Trash?

Day 11-Firstly, I would like to give a shout out to those women who kept all of their swimsuits on despite what other sunbathers were doing. I know we’re in France, and I’m not dissing their customs or anything, but I’m unused to the fact that women sunbathe topless here. Today we went to the beach, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now. The rocky, sandless beach. We went to the private section, where there was like no talking. But we did get chairs and umbrellas with our 16 euro package. There were also waiters who walked around catering to your every whim. Sweet! Ellery dragged me in the (freezing) water straight away to build a ‘rock castle’. I did the best I could, but there was no way humanly possible that you could make anything remotely like a castle. Ellery thought an area of pebbles would help us fill in the cracks, but the sea just washed them away. After a bit, I got tired and went hunting for interesting rocks. There was a rock that was striped all over with white: it was awesome! After that, I settled down to read the book I got at Waterstones. It was very good. Dad kept popping in and out to juggle work, relaxation, and a missing phone (left in Orsos in London). He attempted to take Ellery (unavailable for comment during this blog due to fatigue) in the water, and I went with them, but we had to turn back because Ellery swallowed too much seawater or something. We all napped, then Ellery and I had ice cream. Later we claimed hunger again, because we had skipped breakfast (woke up late) and got french fries. Yum! After going out a few more times, we showered up and went a delicious seafood place. They had a three scoop sorbet where you could pick your flavors: HEAVEN! Sadly, we leave Nice tomorrow, but we got some cool commemorative t-shirts. Mine is white and black striped. It’s super cute, and has a little anchor on it-dad says it means attitude. Hmph.

Where's the Sand?

Day 10-Today we traveled to Nice by train and car. Nice is a small coastal town about-and this is just a really rough guess-about five hours away from Paris on the French Riviera. It’s medium sized and basically everywhere is within a few minutes from the beach. The traveling was nothing to remark on-trains, train stations, (by the way, they allow dogs everywhere here, even on the trains, if they’re well-trained enough) car rental places, rental cars, and lots of driving and mixed up directions. We tried to go to McDonalds while in the car, but it was so mixed up in the roundabout that it took us several tries to get there. We finally got to Nice and the Hotel Brice, where we would stay for the weekend. The hotel was nice, but had some outdated, or just plain old, furniture. There was also an old fashioned room key, which Ellery took under her wing almost instantly. Ellery says, though, that: the hotel was nice! They had good candies! Lindsay says again: After that we went to the beach. Here’s the weird part. There is no sand. NONE AT ALL. NOT A SMIDGE. NONE. There are rocks instead; oh joy! Believe me, without shoes, those rocks are tough. Ellery: I called it the rock beach! It was fun! After the beach, we went to a little restaurant recommended to us by the hotel lady. They made great sorbet, but had some seating issues. First they sat us inside, when we didn’t want to. Then, once we were situated there, they moved us! GEEZ! Later on, there were fireworks that mom thought was a gun at first. What a warm welcome!

Manet, Monet, Montmarte, Mona (again)

Day 9-Hello again! Today we went to Musee D’Orsay, a museum with famous impressionist paintings like Manet and Monet. It was cool; they had interesting sculptures, paintings, figurines, and a collection of 36 bustlets by a man called Daumier. They were all members of the French Parliament, and they all had stuff like big noses and pinched up faces. You see, Daumier had trained as a political cartoonist. There were lots of paintings, such as a room filled with Van Goghs. Van Gogh painted what he felt, so you could see the stages of his life unfold in just a few paintings. My favorite was by...now that I think about it, I don’t actually know the name or the title, but I can describe it. It was a lesser known painting showing a small girl with brown hair and eyes and a high collared white outfit. In her arms is a purring gray striped kitten. I think the girl is well done, her eyes striking and real, and I love cats! But Ellery’s favorite things were: My favorite painting was a family with a Black Lab. It was fun. Anyways, after that we went to Champs-Elysees. I thought we had walked it yesterday. Oh no, I was wrong. We walked a very small section of it. THIS, that we walked today, was the REAL Champs-Elysees. We ate at a small Italian place, then walked the dozens of stores. Lacoste, Nike, Adidas, and ESpirit were just a few of the big name stores we passed on our way down the famous street. Lacoste had these darling shoes, but not in my size! Oh well, can’t win them all! Ellery liked:In Adidas, I set up a MiCoach profile online. I also liked Lacoste. Back to me! After an afternoon nap, we went to Montemarte, a famous section of Paris. There were cool stores; I bought an awesome Paris bag that says Paris all the way around! We went to a gorgeous chapel at the top of one of the only hills in Paris, where you could look around and buy candles and rub the statue’s feet. After an outdoor dinner, we headed back around  and took the Metro home. Montemarte in Ellery’s eyes: I bought a Mona Lisa picture It is sooo cool. It was fun. We had lots of fun, and tomorrow will be even better! 

Their Eyes Do Follow You!

Day 8- Today we went to the Louvre, Champs Elysees (pronounced like Shanze Lize), and the Eiffel Tower. Although the Louvre was a museum and therefore lacking in fun, it was actually interesting. They had many biblical scenes, and the Greek statues were very cool (although lacking in clothes).  We saw the Venus de Milo, which was one of the best things in the museum.  I know what you’re thinking: enough of the preliminaries. What about the Mona Lisa? Well, my friends, I’m sad to say it was sorely disappointing.  You had to stand several feet away, it was small, it was surrounded by a paparazzi of sorts, and I hate to say it, but she was even plainer up far away (as opposed to up close).  We ate at a café in the Louvre, then walked to see some of the statues and figurines.  Have you ever looked at the ceiling of the Louvre, if you’ve been there? It’s like, it’s own art form, with paintings and frescos.  What Ellery thought about the Louvre: The Mona Lisa wasn’t as good as I thought. But it was still good. The statues and figurines were nice. So were the paintings.  I had fun. Isn’t she just a ray of happy things? We then took the Metro, where the subway cars had wheels, to the beginning of Champs Elysees. Its such a busy street that they built underground passageways for pedestrians to lower the risk of getting hit by one of the many cars that pass by. It was pretty cool, but nothing huge to remark on. But Ellery thinks that: the Arc de Troimphe was COOL! After a short nap at our hotel (it’s me again) we headed to the Eiffel Tower. We were lucky that the sun came out after a lot of rain, and there was only like a five minute wait. Once you got up there, it was cool for a bit, then it got sort of iffy. Overall, though, I liked today.  Did you know that you can’t take stairs all the way to the top? I was hoping we could, just so I could say I did. Oh well. We then exited to watch the Eiffel Tower put on an on-the-hour light show. Fun, fun. I believe tomorrow we’re going to some place on a hill, and another museum. Wish me luck. 

How Do You Say 'What?' In French?

Day 7- Bonjour! Parlay vous Francais? Because I sure don’t! Today I woke up early, did the usual routine, and settled in to watch The Life and Crimes of Dr. William Palmer for the second time on the tube. It’s a wonderful movie, but soon we had to say goodbye to Aunt Christie, and we jetted off to Paris from Scotland. The Edinburgh airport was open, so you walked out on the strip to get to the airport, like a celebrity or something.  Dad said we should turn and wave like the celebs do, but I said that was too corny.   This is totally off-topic, but I’ve been noticing that the toilets in Europe are cool.  Instead of a handle or boring motion sensors, they have these way mod buttons that flush it automatically. Its super cool! Anywho, we had a layover in London-Heathrow before making the trip to Paris. Everything is close together in Europe, so from London to Paris only took 45 minutes.  We got stamped for another country, and off we were. Our hotel in Paris, as described by Ellery (unable to comment at this time) is like a taxi: two beds facing each other.  It’s a nice place three blocks away from the Eiffel Tower. Ok, so about the Eiffel Tower. When you walk up on it, you can only see a bunch of museums. Then you round a corner, and its like WOW!  There’s a huge pavilion overlooking the Eiffel Tower, and guys are all selling mini tower statuettes. There are about 50 or so of them, all selling the same thing. Their prime sales spot is beneath the Eiffel Tower, but the fuzz then chases them off, and they all run down the street at once, in a mass.  There’s such jingling, you’d think Santa was landing his reindeer. After viewing the Eiffel Tower, we walked to eat at a nice restaurant.  Problem: Everything was in French! But no worries, the place had a translator waiter.  Their steak was ok and their apple tart was to die for! Check me out tomorrow-I’ll be reviewing the Louvre!

Short Night. Long Day.

Day 6-Today was our first and last full day in Scotland. Okay so I’ve been getting up at seven every morning, London time, and taking a shower. Well, in Scotland, it says light very late and starts getting light at about three. Well, I woke up at 3:30, and seeing it was light, tried to take a shower! Luckily I had a clock to prevent that from happening. Later on, we had breakfast at a small restaurant across the street from us. They had marvelous chocolate croissants! After that, we made our way up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle, where we took a guided tour. There was lots of historical whatnot, so it was okay, and the guided tour was better than those dull audio tapes. Ellery’s thoughts on Edinburgh Castle: it was very fun! Cool stuff! The Crown Jewels were awesome! Moving right along. Next we went to the place right next to that terrible place we went last night. Here, everything was better: right up there in terms of taste, service, and food. Their pizza was delish! They even gave us lollipops and mints with the check. Ellery’s thoughts on that one place: They gave me a heart shaped pizza! It was good! Then we went to the Holyrootplace or ummmm, Holyroodpace or, Holyoodroot Palace- I don’t know! Oh, I remember: Palace of Holyroodhouse! It’s the queen’s official residence in Scotland, where she stays in the summer months. It was pretty cool, but we had to listen to audio tapes, which I’ve said before is DULL!! (By the way, I bought a lovely Celtic pendant at the Edinburgh Castle store for ten pounds. It’s a lovely ring style with a Celtic knot pattern, symbolizing the innterconnectedness of all things.) After that, we went home for down time, then out to eat at Elliot’s across the street. They had good food and great service-and a great dessert! Tomorrow we leave for Paris, and I can’t wait!

A Wee Bit of Haggi

Day 5- Today we went on a five hour train to Scotland. We started out in King’s Cross station, then made several stops on the way to Edinburgh. We held a sticker contest with Ellery’s stickers from Hamleys, and I won (obviously). Then I read a book on Dad’s Kindle. There were plenty of sheep around, and we could see the ocean! Ellery’s thoughts on the train: it was nice and fun! Anyways, we met up with Aunt Christie at the train station and we were in taxis headed to Prince Street Suites. Our suite is incredible-it’s very posh and modern, with three separate rooms for all of us. Our room has a TV and a view of a monument! It’s cheap as well. Our common room had a gorgeous view on the third floor, with lots of modern equipment. Ellery’s thoughts on the hotel: beautiful! awesome! Ellery and I had an adventure while trying to get to the fourth floor where the rooftop garden was located. We went down to the lobby and waited instead of going to the fourth floor. Oops! The rooftop garden was gorgeous, with a picnic spot and beautiful view. Then we started to walk down the Royal Mile, which has Edinburgh Castle on one end and The Queens residence on the other side. We tried to go to Edinburgh Castle, but we got there 5 minutes too late, and we missed it. I was rather relieved, but that’s just me. We went to a restaurant called Filling Station, where Dad made us try haggis. If you’re not familiar with haggis, it’s a traditional Scottish dish that contains multiple intestines and brains of animals. It was actually not that bad, but I wouldn’t eat it twice, that’s for sure! The food tasted like bricks, the waitress was inattentive (don’t pay attention to us, we’re just the paying customers) and the credit card slot didn’t even work. Oh, and there was a spill all over my favorite sweats! In the end, though, we survived, and we’re all the better for having tasted haggis!

Walking

Day 4-Today was our last day in London, so we had fun doing everything we missed. First we went to the London Eye. Sadly, it was raining, so the gorgeous view was stunted by rain, but I still got some good shots. Ellery’s thoughts on the London Eye: Sadly, it wasn’t a ride, but it was still fun. Okay, back to me. We saw (from the London Eye) a rehearsal of the Queen’s birthday parade minus the queen, which was kind of a bummer. We had to get on the capsule or whatever with a ton of other people, which annoyed me, but what are you gonna do? After the London Eye, we went to the Portobello Road market, which was like several miles of outdoor vendors hoping to sell stuff that they can’t unload in a store. It was pretty fun, I guess. There was a lot of gaudy jewelry and used clothes. There was also a lot of food. Fruit, fish, pan-seared, chicken,greasy, fried, grilled, you name it, they had it. I bought a large hot dog that wasn’t your average processed hot dog. Oh no! This was like a breakfast link sausage in terms of taste, but fresher and bigger. Mom bought a scarf, which she says is very warm and useful. Ellery’s thoughts on the Portobello market: it was really fun! They had pretty jewelry! Anyways, later, Dad and I went to Saville Row. Turns out it’s all men’s stores! Who knew?! We also tried to go in an art gallery, but it had a warning about, er, inappropriate things, so we left. We did buy some excellent cheese at a fine cheesemongers. I mean, I hate cheese, but this was delicious! It was cave-aged cheddar that was their special, and we bought some crackers as well. After Saville Row, we went to Orsos, a posh pasta restaurant. They had some good food, good service, and lots of ice cream! Ellery’s thoughts on Orsos: It was very good! Okaaay, back to me. London was lots of fun and I’m really going to miss it. I had zillions of photo ops of corny, boring, cool, fun, and exciting. We also had fun taking the subway, which I hadn’t done for a while. Be sure to look at our blog for the next leg of our trip, Scotland, for all the kooky, haggisy fun!

Peter Pan Was Okay, But the Rest Was Boring!

Day 3- Today we revisited the Tower of London, this time going inside to take an audio tour. Boooooo-rrrrrriiiinnnggg! To me at least, because I didn’t think it was all that interesting to hear about or see. There was one part that was both interesting and boring; the crown jewels. Interesting: seeing jewels like the First Star of Africa, the largest cut white diamond in the world, inside the royal scepter. Boring: listening to the history of monarchs, when the crown jewels were created, etc. When we finally left there, we took the subway to Hamley’s, one of the largest toy stores ever. It had seven floors of toys! Okay, have you ever seen in catalogues the section where you can get replicas of movie stuff? Like, “Harry Potter’s Light-Up Wand” or “The One Ring”? I’ve only ever seen them in catalogues before, but they had a whole section on the fourth floor with all that stuff! Like, everything you’ve ever seen in the catalogues, but more! It was fantastic! I also loved the candy section they had on Level...three, I believe. They also had people giving demonstrations of toys to people, like throwing boomerangs, doing magic tricks, and making stickers (this was what eventually lured Ellery in). After lunch on Carnaby Street, we went from Oxford circus to Piccadilly Circus, to go to Waterstone (the seven-story bookstore). I rocketed to the third floor and the teen books. They had eight displays full of teen fiction books I’d never heard of! I could have stayed there for hours, reading the backs of hundreds of books, but we had to leave. I settled on Tales From Earthsea, by Ursula Le Guin. Lastly, we went to see Peter Pan, put on at the Kensington Gardens. They had one actor play all the animals, which were yarn dolls and some sticks. Seriously, the guy needed to sit down after Nana! He had no purpose in the play. There is a distinct possibility that he was related to the director. The flying harnesses were clearly visible, but no one cared. They had a ring of visuals that changed so that the set didn’t have to very much, and the set just flipped over when needed. Tinkerbell had a character, and she talked, being menacing most of the time. They also used adults for all the characters, and Peter Pan was played by a boy. That strays from the norm, but it was fun. Tomorrow is our last day in London, and I’m going to miss it terribly!

Big Bus

Day 2-Today we did all the normal stuff. You know, the reasons people come to London in the first place?  After waking up to Bacon Butties from Eat, we tried to get to a bus stop to take a double-decker tour of London.  We wanted to get on in time to see the changing of the guard at 11:30, but we got lost. Finally catching a bus, we went to several famous places such as the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and Big Ben (among lesser attractions and minor monuments). Despite the odds, we made it to Buckingham Palace in time to see the changing of the guard! It was a long and complex ceremony, and the guards were always in perfect formation.  we ate at a pub called The Clarence-ha! My dad’s name is Clarence-and three fourths of us had fish and chips. It was very good. We got tickets to a show at Buckingham Palace, and HRH The Princess Royal would be there!  Ellery was excited about that, but she said she’d rather see the queen. We then took a tour boat to look at the many bridges and their particular history.  Afterwards, we took another tour bus to Piccadilly Circus (Circus is Latin for circle) and Oxford Circus.  I can’t remember off the top of my head, but one of those places hosts Waterstone, a 7-story bookstore, and Hamley’s, a 6-story toy store.  Pizza Express was our dinner location as we ate at our hotel waiting for the show to start. It was officially called the Beating Retreat, and was a chance for official militia to show a royal what they could do. They played songs in bands, marched in formations, did ripples, and commanded horses in an open air pavilion with Big Ben in the background. The military that performed was grouped in battalions, such as the 1st battalion Scots guard. Tomorrow we go shopping in the famous areas, like Piccadilly Circus!

Ewells in Europe - 2009

Day 1- Can be described in two words; jet lag. The flight ran smoothly, but Ellery was the only one who took advantage of the time we had to sleep. The rest of us went nuts over the entertainment system, watching multiple movies over a sad little meal (complimentary, of course).  I went to sleep for a few hours while we were over the Atlantic, and woke up to greenery and sunshine.  Ellery and I payed a few games on the console, and we were in the London-Heathrow Airport!  Dad insisted on leading, which normally would have made me upset. I was too excited about being in London. We went outside and called a taxi, which looked like a normal car, except it had two pull out chairs and the drivers seat was on the right. Our driver was a friendly ex-cop who took us on the “scenic” route to our hotel, showing us places such as Hyde Park and Saville Row. We went to two next door places that sold the exact same thing-sandwiches and baguettes. The Covent Gardens, a sort of outdoor mall that we went after lunch, had  exciting things such as an opera  singer, outdoor eating places, and lots of stalls. It was reminiscent of a mall in Los Angeles, but with an older feel. There was a hat vendor, and Dad bought me a striped hat for 10 pound. Then the jet-lag hit. We practically passed out in the lobby of our hotel waiting for our check-in time. We got into the room and quickly monopolized the bed. My family says I was a bit delirious, but you can ask them;I don’t remember a thing. By dinner, I was hungering for a traditional fish and chips meal. However, at the Engineer, our pub, there was no fish and chips!!! The lamb was incredible, though, and the ginger cake was fabulous. Tomorrow we’re going to the famous places in London (joy) and I WILL get my fish and chips!