Reunioun an Lëtzebuerg (Mission to Luxembourg)

In most of the international agencies that I've met so far, business trips are referred to as missions, and my first mission for the OECD was to go to Luxembourg to attend a pension workshop hosted by Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union). My attendance included presenting the upcoming work of the OECD in the area of pensions as well as a new statistical table on household retirement resources. The workshop lasted a little over a day and a half, which provided me with a few hours to see Luxembourg City before my trip back to Paris.

Luxembourg City may not have a lot of tourist attractions but it is a beautiful city. The air is crisp and clear. The streets are exceptionally clean, even compared to newer North American cities. Litter is non-existent and even graffiti is minimal in the city center. All of the buildings looked well maintained, although it seemed they were more recently constructed. It also appeared that the locals there are somewhat wealthier than other Europeans, judging by their more expensive clothing and professional gait, as well as the proliferation of luxury brands everywhere. The luxury brands may have been on sale for tourists, but Luxembourg doesn't have the tourist traffic of other European cities so I have to assume that a lot of the demand comes from the locals.

I spent my free time walking around the central part of the city (Ville Haute) and passed by some of the city's landmarks. The area also contains several blocks of pedestrian-only shopping streets lined with luxury shops, so I spent some time window shopping.

On the right is Gëlle Fra, a monument to World War I veterans from Luxembourg. In the center background is the former headquarters of the High Authority of the European Steel and Coal Community (probably now another EU administration building).



The Grand Ducal Palace, official residence of the head of state: the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

From one storefront window, three Patek-Philippe Calatrava watches. They made the Rolex watches next door look like a bargain!

This is a shot of a slope entering the Vallée de la Pétrusse. I liked this picture as it contrasts the newer commercial buildings against the older residential homes in the valley below.

A statue of Grand Duke William II in the Place Guillaume II town square.

Statues at the Place du Théâtre.

So that was Luxembourg City in a few hours. I also walked to the Kirchberg area, which contained several EU administration buildings, but the photos of the area weren't post-worthy. There was a moderate number of tourists around the city, although far fewer than Paris, Rome or Barcelona. While most of the tourists were Asian, there were also a few Ukrainians looking around the city, as Ukraine and Luxembourg were playing a Euro 2016 qualifying match later that evening. (I did not see the match but Ukraine won 3-0.)

Omnes Viae Romam Ducunt (All Roads Lead to Rome)

Rome was near the top of my list of places to visit and the city provided a great opportunity to escape the chilly autumn in Paris. The temperature in Rome was between 18 and 22 degrees Celsius during my three day visit but what surprised me was how most of the locals were already wearing light winter jackets! The residents must be acclimatized to more tropical weather and this choice in outerwear made all of the tourists easily identifiable as we were all wearing short sleeve shirts.

I made this a three day visit so that I wouldn't have to rush through everything like in the Munich and Barcelona trips, and I could use the November 11 Armistice Day holiday in France to rest and recover.

Like earlier weekend excursions, the plan was to see the major attractions, catch a football game and take in the local culture.

Day 1:

My focus for the first day was to see the major sites of Ancient Rome. Fortunately, all of the main attractions were in close proximity, so I was able to complete all of my sightseeing on foot (although it was a lot of walking).

A photo of me outside the Colosseum. Construction was started in 70 AD by Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD by his son, Titus.

The interior of the Colosseum. Most of the ground level has been removed to reveal the tunnels and prep rooms where gladiators and wild animals were held prior to their matches. On the left, you might see a cross, which Pope John Paul II installed in commemoration of Christian martyrs (although the extent to which Christians were killed here is debatable).  



The Palatine Hill was originally the residential area of the Roman Emperors. Most of the sites in the area have been worn away to piles of stone or have been grown over by grass. Pictured is the Peristyle of the Domus Flavia, with the Triclinium in the center-right background.

 

The Roman Forum contained the government administration buildings of Ancient Rome. The columns in the center-left are the remains of the Temple of Saturn and to the right is the Triumphal Arch of Septimus Severus. The Column of Phocas stands in front of the Temple of Saturn. The well preserved building in the background is the Tabularium, the official records building of Ancient Rome.

 

I was able to see the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum throughout the morning and middle afternoon because I bought tickets in advance. This enabled me to skip the lines, which were very long and slow-moving. This also freed up some time to see a few other attractions in the area.

 

Since the Circus Maximus was right next to Palatine Hill, I decided to quickly walk over and take a look. I was curious as to why none of the other tourists were going to such a well known site of Ancient Rome, until I got there and discovered that there was nothing left of the arena except the worn out tracks where the chariots used to race. Even then, it appeared the grass was slowly growing over the chariot track. 



The Circus Maximus, home of Rome's largest chariot races. Now it is an open park with a long gravel track.

After seeing the major sites of Ancient Rome, I walked north to see a Renaissance era site: the Trevi Fountain. Unfortunately, the fountain was under renovation and it is expected to be closed until late 2015.

The Trevi Fountain, under renovation.

Day 2:

Since many of the Vatican's sites are closed on Sundays, I used the second day to see a bit of everything around Rome (including the football match).

The Fontana della Barcaccia and the Spanish Steps. At the top of the steps is the church of Trinità dei Monti, but it is under renovation and some large fashion billboards were placed over the scaffolding.

The front of the Pantheon. This was a Roman temple originally built during the rein of Augustus and then rebuilt by Hadrian around 126 AD. It has since been converted into a Roman Catholic church.

The interior of the Pantheon, which contains Roman and Catholic statues as well as a Catholic altar.

The Piazza Navona, with the Fountain of the Four Rivers in the left foreground.

After some quick sightseeing in the morning, I made it to St. Peter's Square in Vatican City in time to receive a Papal blessing.

A photo of me receiving a Papal blessing. I had to crop the photo so that you can recognize the window from where Pope Francis makes his speech.

 

I spent the afternoon seeing Villa Borghese (a large park), getting lost, discovering the best gelato in Rome (at a small shop near Piazza del Popolo) and then figuring out my way to the Stadio Olimpico to see AS Roma play Torino in a Serie A match. 

Stadio Olimpico during the match between AS Roma and Torino.

This football match was different in a few ways. First, the security at the stadium was much heavier than the German, Spanish and Belgian games that I've seen. I had to pass through two security checks where my bag was searched. Despite this, a few people still managed to get flares into the stadium. Second, the home crowd was much louder than the other matches I've attended. There were ultras on both sides of the stadium waving large flags and starting different chants, and whenever the Torino fans became noticeably audible, the home fans would quickly whistle, jeer and drown them out with their own song. Third, AS Roma tried to make the atmosphere more of a family affair, including holding a fan fest outside the stadium and showing shots of the crowd on the big screen. This was slightly mitigated by the heaving jeering when the announcer had to recite a disclaimer warning against racial chanting and aggressive behaviour.

AS Roma won the match 3-0 and the whole crowd (except the small contingent of heavily guarded Torino fans) had a good time.


Day 3:

For the third day, I had just enough time before my flight to see a few sites at Vatican City. As with the Ancient Roman sites, I saved a lot of time buying tickets in advance, which allowed me to pass some very long lineups.

The Gallery of Maps, my favourite room in the Vatican Museum. The one annoying part about the Vatican Museum is that some rooms (including this one) have gift shop counters right there in front of the artwork. 

 

Photos were not allowed in the Sistine Chapel, but while I was turning off my cellphone, I "accidentally" took a photo of the ceiling.

While the advanced ticket allowed me to skip the line for the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel, it did not provide any shortcut into St. Peter's Basilica. So I had to wait in line at St. Peter's Square. Fortunately, it was already afternoon and the line had shortened considerably.

The exterior of St. Peter's Basilica, shot from St. Peter's Square.

 

The interior of St. Peter's Basilica. This was taken from the main entrance, facing towards the main altar, although there must have been at least five other wings with altars that could easily make for an impressive church on their own.

 

After visiting Vatican City, I went back to my hotel to pick up my luggage and along the way I decided to rest at Piazza Vittorio Emmanuelle II. There happened to be a cat shelter in the plaza (although it did not appear to be an official cat shelter like the one at Torre Argentina) and within 30 seconds of sitting down near a fountain there were two cats approaching me. Most of the cats in the shelter were grey tabby cats with black stripes.

A cat from Piazza Vittorio Emmanuelle II.

 

That was Rome in three days. The extra day allowed me to move around the city at a more comfortable pace and see most of the interesting sites. The other fun part is that I noticed that food in Rome is much cheaper than elsewhere in Europe, so I got my fill of pizzas, calzones, paninis and gelatos, and fortunately all of the walking helped me burn off the extra calories!

 

Een Dag in Brussels (A Day in Brussels)

A day trip to Brussels on November 1 was a convenient way to relax for the weekend and see a small part of Belgium. I only planned to stay for one day because 1.) the high speed train could get me from Paris to Brussels in one hour and 20 minutes, thus mitigating the need to stay in a hotel in order to get an early start to the day, and 2.) Brussels doesn't have any sites that are high on my to-see list (this is further corroborated by my colleagues and by travel blogs saying that Ghent, Antwerp, Bruges and Liege are all more interesting Belgian cities than the capital). However, Brussels is still an interesting city with its own charms.

My plan was to do some sightseeing, attend the Anderlecht football match and fill up on Belgian waffles. On the sightseeing front, one of Brussels' better known tourist traps is the Mannekin-Pis, a small statue of a boy urinating (and yes, there is water spraying into a fountain). This statue annoys the hell out of North American tourists who are expecting something more from one of Brussels' most famous landmarks, but it appears to be more of a fun side-trip for Asian and Eastern European tourists. Brussels also has a Jeanneke-Pis (a girl squatting to urinate in a fountain) and a Zinneke-Pis (a dog lifting its leg towards a post, but this is not a water fountain). I decided to make it a scavenger hunt to find all three statues (fortunately they are all within a few blocks of one another). I haven't done any research on the idea behind these three statues, but I was left with the impression that Brussels has some sort of connection with public urination, which factors into the last activity of my trip (more on that at the end of my post).



From left to right: Jeanneke-Pis, Mannekin-Pis, and Zinneke-Pis. There's a lot of pissing going on in Brussels.

November 1 is a public holiday in Belgium (Toussaint / All Saints' Day), so the city seemed eerily quiet during the morning and most of the afternoon, but maybe all Saturdays are like this. Vehicle and pedestrian traffic was very light.

At the center of Brussels' historic district is the Grand-Place, which is a beautiful city square surrounded by several historic buildings. If you plan to visit Brussels, this should be at the top of your list (although you should go during August of an even-numbered year, when they display a flower carpet of one million begonias).

On the south side of the Grand-Place is the Hôtel de Ville, the city's Town Hall. There are hundreds of intricate sculptures along the outer walls.

On the north side of the Grand-Place is the Museum of the City of Brussels.

After seeing five art museums in Paris (details to follow in future posts) and the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, I was weary of viewing more art work and so I looked to see something different but unique to Brussels. Belgium happens to be the home of a lot of comic strips, many of which have attained international notoriety, and the city fittingly had the Belgian Comic Strip Center. Both Tintin and the Smurfs featured prominently in the exhibits.

Various works from the Belgian Comic Strip Center. The top two pictures are from a fun comic strip called Boerke. The bottom left picture is a historical comic strip depicting the Napoleonic Wars. The bottom right picture is an artistic modern piece depicting Alice in Wonderland in a New York setting. Click on the picture to see more closely.

The Smurfs originated in Belgium as Les Schtroumpfs. Pictured above is a puzzle drawing. The first challenge is to find the six objects that are not related to music; the second challenge is to find the two smurfs that are identical to one another. The answers are at the end of the post.

Before leaving the city center, I took some time to relax in the Botanical Garden of Brussels.

Visiting Brussels provided the opportunity to see RSC Anderlecht, the top team in Belgium (both last year's champion and this year's leader in the Jupiler Pro League). They were playing against Lokeren, who happen to be having a good season so far.

Constant Vanden Stock Stadium during the match between RSC Anderlecht and Lokeren. The stadium is what I would call normal size, fitting 28,063 people, and was at around 90%-95% capacity during the game.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw. The home supporters were vocal with jeering and whistling whenever a player fell down too easily or when the referee made a questionable call, but otherwise they were quiet, such that the Lokeren supporters made much more noise throughout the match (although I was sitting closer to the visiting fans' section which may have made them seem much louder).

The last part of the trip that I had planned was to see the Atomium and Mini-Europe after the football match. The problem was that the football stadium was west of the city while the Atomium/Mini-Europe were northeast, and the subway/tram ride out to the latter was much longer than I expected. By the time I reached the Atomium, it was nearing sunset. It was certainly too dark to see Mini-Europe so I cancelled the last bit of my visit.

The Atomium, just before and just after sunset.

I had a good share of Belgian waffles and Juliper beer throughout the day, but the beer passed through me very quickly. While the train station washroom charges 50 cents per use, there happened to be a public urinal just outside the station. So Brussels provided me with the opportunity to urinate in public just like Mannekin, Jeanneke and Zinneke (although to be fair, several other European cities have public urinals). The stalls are four-sided and I was able to get the spot facing away from the street.

Liekens public urinal. My apologies for not photographing a selfie but I had my hands full when I used this.

That was Brussels in a day. The city became livelier and more crowded during the evening, which gave me the impression that Belgians are night owls. And for those of you trying to solve the Smurf puzzle:

• The answer to the first question is the mirror of Vanity Smurf, the hammer of Handy Smurf, the flask of water, the wrench, the flower pot and the smurf coming out of the sousaphone (tuba). Since the smurf coming out of the sousaphone has a party favour which can make some noise, I actually thought the smurf standing between the curtains and the smurf napping in front of the drums were less relevant to music than the smurf in the sousaphone.
• The answer to the second question is the smurf playing the flute behind the pianist and the smurf playing the flute behind the cellist. I thought that two of the smurfs in the choir at the front also looked identical but they are holding different pieces of sheet music so I guess that makes them different enough.

I've been getting some questions from readers asking more about daily life in Paris. I intend on providing more insights on this after I have finished a few other trips and subsequent posts.

Un Cap de Setmana a Barcelona (A Weekend in Barcelona)

The weekend of October 19-20 was an ideal time to travel to Barcelona. The weather in Paris was getting cooler and drafty, while Barcelona in autumn was still a pleasant 25 degrees. I could enjoy summer for another two days and see a lively, historic city. Like Munich, a weekend was not enough to see everything, so the trip involved seeing fewer sites and seeing less of those sites which I did visit.

I had two worries going into this trip:

• First, going to an FC Barcelona football game was at the top of my list, but there were rumours that their star players Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. would not play due to having already played international matches during the middle of last week while also having important matches to play in the following week.
• Second, a few travel websites describe theft and pickpocketing as being a major problem in Barcelona, at a level much worse than Rome or Paris. Advice on this matter ranged from "it happens there just like anywhere; just stay alert" to "go somewhere else; it's not worth the risk".

On those two issues, I think I got lucky, but the trip still had its interesting detours...

When I arrived in Barcelona on Friday evening, I took the subway along two different metro lines and then walked a few blocks to my hotel after dark. The city certainly appeared safe and felt nothing like the pickpocketing-crazed crime-fest that some travel bloggers had described.

Day 1:

My hotel was located in the quiet suburb of Llobreget and my room was on the second floor facing the front entrance. I woke up in the morning to hear commotion on the front driveway. An Italian tourist in his 60's was yelling at his wife and then at a tour bus driver and then at anyone else within shouting distance, intermittently pointing at a vacant spot on the sidewalk where obviously his luggage was supposed to be. After searching the two tour buses parked in front of the hotel (including the cargo holds) and a taxi, the man calmed down a bit and was resigned to filing a report with the hotel front desk. While the previous night made me feel that the travel websites had exaggerated the risks in Barcelona, this first morning was a reminder to at least be a bit more careful than usual.

I decided to use a hop-on hop-off city tour bus to get around the city instead of a two-day subway pass. This backfired on the first morning as the stop that I expected to use was closed due to the Carrera de la Mujer (a run to raise funds for breast cancer research) being held that weekend. I ended up walking to the city centre before finding another tour bus stop.

A photo of Plaça d'Espanya taken from the top of Arenas de Barcelona. Beyond the Venetian towers are the thousands of runners in pink shirts participating in the Carrera de la Mujer during the weekend.

The Magic Fountain of Montjuic, situated below the Palau Nacional. Unfortunately, I did not get to see the fountain's light and water show as I had other commitments for the evening.

The Mirador de Colom (Columbus Monument), located at the end of Las Ramblas.

Near the city center, Las Ramblas contained many interesting artists, buskers and merchants. The street did not have any of the con artists described on other travel sites. The only nuisance was a group of younger men selling whistles that made a high pitched quacking sound. None of the tourists were buying them.

The El Born Cultural Center contains excavated remains of earlier settlements of Barcelona going back as far as the 10th century.

A main street in the Gothic Quarter.

Coincidentally, after leaving Barcelona I came across a news article noting that rent controls in Barcelona are ending in 2014 and so it is anticipated that many of the family-run shops in the Gothic Quarter will shut down and will be replaced by larger franchise/chain retailers that can pay higher rents. If you want to see the Gothic Quarter with its traditional shops, don't wait too long to visit Barcelona.

The Picasso Museum exhibited paintings from the earlier half of Pablo Picasso's career, much of which he spent in Barcelona and the surrounding area. Photos in the museum were not allowed but I managed to sneak one photo of Las Meninas (conjunt).

I bought a replica Barcelona jersey from a souvenir shop and went to Camp Nou to see FC Barcelona play Eibar.

Fortunately, both Lionel Messi and Neymar were in the starting lineup for Saturday's La Liga game against Eibar. Several players from Barcelona's glory years were also starting, including Gerard Pique, Xavi Hernandez, Dani Alves, and Javier Mascherano. While Andres Iniesta did not start, he did come into the game later as a substitute.

The modest attendance at Camp Nou did not surprise me (75,546 in a stadium that can fit 99,354), especially since Eibar is a smaller name team and still new to first division Spanish football. However, I was surprised by how quiet the crowd was. There was only a small group of ultras (fans constantly singing and chanting) for Barcelona and the large proportion of tourists in the upper sections meant that the rest of the crowd was not as loud as I would expect from 75K people.



I arrived at Camp Nou at sunset, about 25 minutes before kickoff, so I was able to take a photo of the stadium before it was filled with fans.

The game ended in a 3-0 win for Barcelona, with goals by Xavi (assisted by Messi), Neymar, and Messi (assisted by Neymar). Messi had several chances to score, so it was an exciting match; and I think even the Eibar fans enjoyed the match as their team was competitive for most of the night.


Day 2:

My plan for Day 2 was to head to the southeastern part of Barcelona to relax on the beach. On my way through the city center, I noticed a large group of locals dressed in yellow walking towards Plaça de Catalunya. I decided to follow them to see what they were up to and after a few blocks, I was enveloped by a massive crowd of yellow shirts and Catalan flags. It turns out more than 100,000 locals had turned out for a Catalan pro-independence rally that day!  I was able to eventually work my way through the crowds and out of the town square.



At Plaça de Catalunya during the Catalan independence rally.

Like yesterday, events in Barcelona had led to the closure of the tour bus stop I needed (this time to get to the beach), so I took a different tour bus route to the northern part of the city towards Parc Guell.

Palm trees and a stone wall at Parc Guell.

Parc Guell is a beautiful park filled with interesting stone sculptures and a diverse range of trees and flowers native to the region. It also has a great view of Barcelona if you climb up to the higher levels. The only downside was that it was crowded (at least for what I would want for a quiet walk in a park).

Underneath one of the stone bridges at Parc Guell.

I ended the day by seeing the Sagrada Familia on the way back to the city center. Barcelona takes a lot of pride in Antoni Gaudi and it is clear that the architect either designed or had a strong influence over many buildings and parks around the city. The Sagrada Familia was his greatest work, and the design was so complex that construction still isn't complete yet. Apparently, seeing cranes and scaffolding around the building is the norm.

The front entrance of Sagrada Familia.

That was Barcelona in a weekend. The trip did not go as planned, but I think the Carrera de la Mujer and the Catalan independence rally made for a more interesting experience than I expected. I will get to a Mediterranean beach on other trips, so my only big miss was that I did not get to see the Montjuic Magic Fountain show in person, but watching the football stars of FC Barcelona took priority. If you are curious, here is someone else's recording of the Magic Fountain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DFHyxlJdn0.

A Day at The Louvre

At the top of my list of places to visit in Paris is the Louvre. I am by no means an art buff but this is the art museum of all art museums and there were plenty of items that I wanted to see there.

The museum offers free admission on the first Sunday of the month starting in October, so I waited a few weeks to save 12 Euros. This combined with my strategy of buying a monthly subway pass instead of individual tickets (to save a few Euros each month) is why my Dutch coworkers say that I'm very "Dutch". It turns out there were plenty of budget travelers in Paris last weekend who also came for the free admission, so the Louvre was a bit crowded that day.

I was there for about five hours, which was enough time to thoroughly visit the Denon wing and briefly scan the Richelieu wing. I will go back again to see the Sully and Richelieu wings, as the museum is far too large to properly see in one day.

Here are the highlights:

The Pyramid outside the Louvre, with the lineup extending around this courtyard and around another one further back. Fortunately, the line moved very quickly as there were no tickets to be checked. I also discovered later that there are other entrances around the museum with much shorter lineups.

Of course the one painting everyone wants to see is La Joconde (the Mona Lisa). A crowd filled the entire room to see it, while other hallways of the museum were nearly empty.

I finally nudged my way to the front of the crowd and this is as close as I could get. The Mona Lisa is actually smaller than I expected.

For the law enthusiasts, the Code of Hammurabi, the first written set of laws. Below the sculpture, the rest of the pillar is engraved with Babylonian text.

The Galerie d'Apollon was the most impressive room in the museum. The ceiling contained detailed paintings and sculptures, one set for each month of the year and another set for each sign of the zodiac.

A Moai from Easter Island. The resemblance is uncanny.

L'Assomption de la Vierge by Martin Knoller.

I always appreciate the intricacy of paintings that contain other paintings. This is Gallery of Views of Modern Rome by Giovanni Paolo Pannini.

Another intricate work by Pannini, Musical feast given by the cardinal de la Rochefoucauld.

La Pentecote, by Jean Restout. This painting was at least 15 feet high.

A local favourite, the Coronation of Napoleon, by Jacques-Louis David.

So that was the Louvre, or at least a third of it. I did not see the Venus de Milo as it is in the Sully wing, but it will be on the top of my list for the next visit.

I am trying to alternate my posts between Paris and other cities in Europe, so if my travels go according to plan, my next post should involve Spain...