Looking Back

I realized I missed my blog anniversary. I posted my first bog last year on April 8th. We were getting ready to fly away to Amsterdam, and someone suggested I start a blog. My son had one, so I just used his and followed the directions to start my own. It worked, much to my amazement. - I posted my first political rant on April 9th, about the treatment of returning Iraqi veterans. I envisioned myself doing much more of this sort of thing, but after reading so much of it already posted by others, it now seemed somewhat redundant. I see that mine has become more of a photography blog, but you never know when a rant might pop out.

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Shortly after, we left on our trip, going first to Amsterdam, where we hooked up with our first of two river boat tours. The first took us through the Netherlands and Belgium. It was called the Tulips and Windmills Tour, and it was wonderful. There are pictures on my side bar from this part of the trip.

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After disembarking the boat, we stayed several more days in Amsterdam, and then took the train to Paris. That was one year ago yesterday.

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April 23rd was our first full day in Paris, and as I look at my journal, I see the emphasis should be on the word FULL. Here are some highlights:

Le Jardin des Tulliers near the Louvre. where we started our days touring. The Royal Bridge over the Seine, near the Palais Royal, and our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.

The Church of the Golden Dome, the tomb of Napoleon, seen from the sculpture garden of the Rodin Museum. Everyone knows Rodin's "The Thinker". Shops on Rue Cler where we had a quiche lunch at a bakery stall.

The most famous landmark of Paris, the Eiffel Tower. I might add, it's HUGE. Monet's water lily panels in the Musee de l'Orangerie. This began my love affair with Monet, leading up to visiting his home and garden later in the trip. We met our prearranged English guide at 5:00 at the Louvre pyramid, for our evening tour.

Inside the pyramid. Venus de Milo

Winged Victory Detail of a Rubens in the Rubens Room.

The Mona Lisa is very small and heavily protected. I found many other masterpieces more interesting.

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Early on in this first period of blogging, I found a comment from Kay of Musings. She said she had insomnia and was surfing the web and found me. I'm so glad she did. I know friends and family read my blog but they never leave comments. It was through Kay that I found my group of blog friends.

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Today Kay is setting off on her own trip, to Seattle! Happy Travels, Kay, and Thank You.