Fall in Love with Paris

Where else can you see exquisite sights, get samplings of the finest art, eat world-renowned delicacies and of course, fall in love but in Paris, France? The most romantic city in the world is indeed just that but Paris has so much to offer that it’s hard not to wonder what to do first. Only in this wonderful city can you have your portrait painted, listen to unique music and sample some of the finest cheeses and wine all within one city block! Whether you’re there for romance or simply to visit a city unlike any other, Paris is sure to be perfect!

Top your list of things to do with visiting the top of the Eiffel Tower, perhaps Paris’ most famous attraction. Throughout the years lights have been added all along the structure that twinkle every twenty minutes for amazing effects and viewing the tower at night there are fountains that also light up as the magic spray shoots up. Travel to the top of the tower and enjoy the many different views of the city from the platforms – you can see over 65 kilometers in any direction! If heights aren’t really your game, the view is just as good at the bottom where you can grab a picnic basket and sit in the grassy area around the tower and marvel at its beauty.

If the Eiffel Tower is the top attraction in Paris, the Louvre is a close second. This museum is massive so it’s best to plan to spend a day or two in it and to avoid becoming overwhelmed, split one day up with a break for lunch and come back and try to take in all the rest. Tickets are good all day and include leaving privileges so it’s easy to fully enjoy this other world-renowned attraction. When you first enter the museum, make sure to check out the signs that will point you to the most popular displays – these will be forever helpful in finding very interesting pieces and won’t leave you frustrated as you try to track them down.

While you are in the fashion capital of the world it only makes sense that you would check out some of the newest trends and designs emerging from some very young and hot designers. To see some of the finest work you will need to check out the Marais, where shopping is abound and designers have their galleries right in the center of it all for you to check out! This is truly a once in a lifetime shopping experience and you can also pick up things such as contemporary house wares if fashion isn’t your thing. But do at least check out the different styles and you will be amazed at some of the hottest pieces that come out of Paris!

Go see what all the fuss is about at Notre Dame. This magnificent building is just like you see it in the movies, with gargoyles leering from the sides of the building and the steeple which reaches high into the sky. Once you are done fawning over the architecture and taking a tour inside, cross the street for the finest ice cream you will ever eat at Berthillon. This isn’t any old ice cream, though. Not only does is have specialties such as being artifice-free but there are so many flavors, there’s sure to be something for everyone! If you’re crazy about chocolate, you may want to even sample any one of their five different chocolate flavors alone!

Dresden - hauntingly beautiful

Dresden is a Romantic’s city, with ghosts as hauntingly beautiful as the baroque masterpieces that have re-emerged from the ashes since the fire bombings of February 1945. The eerie spaces between buildings and the faint whispers of the ruins that still dominate the city are as much an attraction as the thriving cultural Mecca Dresden has worked so hard to become once again.

Enter the city by car and you will pass the gas stations, chain grocery stores, and concrete block apartment buildings that skirt almost every German city, gazing anxiously out of the passenger-side window, and waiting for a sign of the city once heralded as the German Vienna. Then suddenly you’ll find yourself right in the heart of the city, beige stone buildings lining cobblestone streets and the shy skyline peering at you over low Neustadt buildings.

The old city skyline—which has been completely rebuilt in the last fifty years—sits quietly by the river, stoically gazing over the serenely wild banks of the Elbe into dark memories. In spite of the scars and perhaps because of them, Dresden is breathtakingly beautiful. You’ll love the city for its stony-stoicism, for its distant, tragic air, even for its abandoned buildings and her shrapnel-pocked facades. You’ll love Dresden because you’ll never really be able to wrap your mind around what has happened to here. The city remains, like the dark, quiet stranger at a party, untouchable, mysterious, alluring, and beautiful. And that’s just by night.

By day Dresden is a friendly city, with a month’s worth of personalities to explore. There is the historical side where you can stroll down quaint cobbled streets flitting between churches, the castle, and the Zwinger’s ornate courtyard. There’s a classy side, where you can spend the day perusing the galleries of old masters and then, tipsy from a local vineyard’s wine, take in a night of opera. There is a hip young Dresden that can be found in one of the small locally owned pubs on the graffiti-smeared Neustadt streets. There is a burly, traditional side where you can spend the day hiking in the nearby Saxon Switzerland and the evening eating hot bratwurst, knödel and red cabbage with a large, cold glass of Radeberger beer, fresh from the tap.

Dresden is a city of contrasts. Where refined culture, baroque architecture, delicious wine, and fine art live comfortably among empty buildings, rambunctious idealistic bohemians, and fifty-year old scars. A capital city that combines a distinctly East-German attitude and ambience with an economy racing ahead to meet that of the West. An enchanting city, with a history as tenable as it’s rich cultural present. They even claim to have invented toothpaste.

London - The Big Pear!(?)

 

Start spreading the news,
I’m leaving today,
I want to be a part of it,
Lon-don, Lon-don.
Yep. It’s official. Frank Sinatra was threatened by the Mafia to sing about New York. He originally wanted to sing about London but they wouldn’t let him.

London, a place pregnant with business suits, ‘entertaining’ weather, and more languages, people and places than you can shake a stick at. A really long stick. The longest stick you’ve ever seen, actually.

Power to the People…
London, capital of the UK, is a great big melting pot stirred by over 7 million people. Yes. 7 million. And counting.

You only have to wait at the bus stop for just a few moments to hear the beautiful array of languages seeping through the air, hitting your ears better than any music ever could. Spanish, English, Yoruba, Hindu, Chinese, Welsh, Italian, you name it. Over 300 languages dancing round each other.

People are generally quite friendly, slightly reserved but mostly helpful, although this can depend on whether it’s a weekday or the weekend!

Are you Hungry?
…good because there’s a whole range of food for every minute of the day!

With diverse culture comes diverse range of yum-yums! Have some Thai cuisine for lunch and a Caribbean for dinner. Make a beeline for some English breakfast the following day and end the night in an Indian restaurant. Then, there’s Vietnamese, African, French, Chinese and so many other cuisines to try that you might need to cover it over two trips to London!

Work off your lunch…
…by passing through Trafalgar Square on your way to see the Queen’s corgis at Buckingham Palace. Make funny faces at the unsmiling guards in their bear-skinned hats and red tunics – see if they’ll crack a smile – you’ll be making history if they do!

Appreciate the insignificance of your wristwatch when you’re standing next to Big Ben, the world’s biggest chiming clock, then pass through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich to check Big Ben’s got the time absolutely right. (Greenwich is where all time zones are measured. Cool or what?!)

Then there’s the famous Oxford Street which is one of the busiest high streets in London, Canary Wharf - the tallest building in London, and St Paul’s Cathedral which was one of the locations in the bestselling book, The DaVinci Code.

Visit the endless stream of markets: the soulful Brixton market, the culinary Brick Lane market, the bohemian Portobello market, the warm Green Street market, Columbia Flower market and more, each market with their own distinct flavour.

But how do you get from A to Brixton?
London has a very robust transport network, and with the Olympics coming in 2012, it’s becoming even more so. You can use the famous double-decker buses or the relatively-new long ‘bendy’ buses. Hop in a taxi, use the underground train or the driverless Dockland Light Rail. Yes. Driverless. But don’t worry. It’s safe!

Erm, can you swim?
Now, we’ve got to talk about the weather. There’s no avoiding it.

Britain is renowned for its April showers. It’s a phenomenon in its own right. Children love it. Adults dread it. Umbrellas hate it.

Decembers are fresh and stone-cold, autumns are leafy, the spring tends to be very bright and flowery, and the summers get by.

However, global warming seems to be working its charm on this cosmopolitan city. Last December was mild, February was freezing, April showers happened in January.

And last summer was the best ever. All 7 days of it.

London, I name thee ‘The Big Pear’…
Well, if New York can get away with it….

London’s weather might be unpredictable, but that hasn’t stopped the millions of visitors who pass through her doors every year. What it lacks in terms of climate, it makes up for in character.

Visit often. But don’t forget your umbrella.