bickety

My friends and I walked from the Louvre, through the Tuilleries to the Place de la Concorde and down the Champs Elysee all the way to L’Arc de Triomphe (stopping for lunch at a cafe, of course.)

It doesn’t seem that far of a walk, but it’s deceiving because from the Place de la Concorde, you don’t realize how huge the L’Arc de Triomphe really is.

The rumor about Paris is that the natives are rude to visitors. It is SO not true! Everyone I met was incredibly nice. Even a couple of actual Parisians stopped to help me when I was puzzling over my tourist map.

I think a few words of French is enough to grease the wheels. As long as you can say “Bonjour,” “S’il vous plait,” “Merci,” and “Je voudrais” you should be fine.

If you’re definitely going to the Van Gogh and/or the Rijks Museum, buy your tickets on line before you go. That way you can avoid the long lines for the ticket window. It was fabulous to cruise past literally hundreds of people waiting in line. I felt like a VIP sailing past the velvet rope at a hot New York nightclub.

Anyway, unlike the Rijks, the Van Gogh is a “do-able” sized museum. The Rijks is like the Louvre, you can spend days there and not see it all. Obviously it concentrates on Van Gogh and some other impressionist painters.

The Van Gogh, though, is not for the faint hearted. I went for a special exhibit of Rembrandt and Caravaggio works, so it was especially crowded. It can be tough to see some of the paintings because of the crowds. There was some real jostling for position. The day I was there, the ladies restroom flooded, causing a major line for the one remaining facility.

Copenhagen is a wonderful city to visit. The people are friendly, it’s easy to get around (either rent a bicycle or get a metro pass) and the food is delicious everywhere you go. There’s plenty to see—Tivoli, Rosenberg Castle, Nyhavn, lots of museums. But it’s also a great place to relax at a cafe table all afternoon. The botanic garden is really fabulous. Even if you don’t think that’s your sort of thing, give it a try. The park grounds there are free and you can watch the baby ducks and coots while you take a break.

I was lucky enough to go with a large group of friends and the weather was unusually summery for early June. We spent a lot of time having a latte, or a beer, or a pancake and enjoying the scenery and people walking by.

The statue itself isn’t that big a deal. A good way to see it without going out of your way is to take a canal boat tour. They’ll cruise you past it, so you can say you’ve been, plus you’ll get great views of all the fabulous architecture and many other sights in Copenhagen.

It’s an incredible experience. The hiding place is essentially as it was after the Franks and their friends were arrested and the place was emptied.

The museum has done a wonderful job of preserving the setting and providing the historical context so that you feel as if you were hiding from the Nazis yourself. There are also wonderful films of Miep Gies, Otto Frank and others who knew Anne.

They’ve also done a great job adding exhibits related to questions of freedom.

For the number of visitors that go through this small space, you don’t feel terribly crowded. If you go at midday, especially in the summer, you can expect to wait in a long line. Either go early or later in the evening.

Also, be prepared for the steep stairs. Like most of the old houses in Amsterdam, it is a narrow and tall building. Some of the stairs are more like ladders than stairs. There are only a couple of sets to climb, so an average person wouldn’t have any real problems, but if you can’t climb stairs, then more of the house isn’t accessible.

BTW, avoid the pancake house that is just down the street on the Prinzgracht. It is truly awful.

Alaska is worth visiting, but Juneau itself is nothing special. Plus it’s full of panhandlers.

It’s sad that most locals have never been in the CPL. It’s one of the Beaux Artes style buildings downtown on Superior. It’s fully renovated and an addition was completed just a few years back.

When you step into the “old” wing, you won’t believe how beautiful it is inside. The first floor reading room has a giant coffered ceiling which matches the rug.

CPL was the first open stack public library—meaning anyone could come in and browse through the books, rather than having to order books from a librarian.

The art work inside is fantastic-check out the ceramic globe on the 4th floor. Also, the CPL has an unbelievable selection of foreign periodicals-magazines from everywhere in the world you can think of. And, there’s lots of fun stuff, not just “serious” journals—fashion magazines from China, sports from Russia, etc.

Also, if you’re doing research, the CPL can hook you up to a kinds of databases for free.

If you’re downtown, go in for 5 minutes. You’ll want to stay longer.

I wasn’t that excited about visiting the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. However, I’m really glad that I went. Although it’s small and crowded, it really tells a story about what it means to lose your freedom.