The Europe post I kept bragging about - Which took me all morningDecember 6th, 2005 @ 8:36 am
I have thought about where to start on the big post about our Europe 2005 trip. Do I start with telling you more about running into my good friend, Rob Lowe at the trendy store Colette in Paris?
He looked good. And he was standing right next to me. Nobody was even paying him any attention, so I wasn’t sure it was him. I had to have The King verify it was, in fact, the celebrity…Rob Lowe. It was him. And for the record, he bought a 3,000 watch. After looking at it for about 3 seconds. He had no entourage with him. I didn’t see anybody with him. The King said he did. What I’m saying, is the French didn’t give a damn about Rob Lowe. I am also saying (again) that he looked good. As in, I would let him videotape me any day.
Or do I start with pictures and tales of the fun things we bought? That’s always the good stuff to hear about, right?
Check out this toothpaste we bought on our last day in Berlin. Now I don’t usually use anything on my teeth with the word “rot” in it. But it was .49 cents. I am not sure what it claims to do. Will it whiten my teeth? Will it give me fresh breath? Who knows. Did I mention it was only .49 cents?
Look at the two things that the baby got. Our travel companions got to Berlin 10 hours earlier than us and found this little teddy bear for our little guy. They are such tourists and were sucked into buying many tourist items. The King and I found this adorable baby bottle at Natalys in Paris. I could not pass it up. (The baby is now the proud owner of one pair of booties, one teddy bear and one bottle. That’s all he’ll need, right? I know, we need to get serious about this kid!) We did look at many strollers in Paris, because those Europeans really know how to design a good looking stroller. We just couldn’t figure out how we would get it home. Now begins the online search for the perfect stroller. I think The King is in charge of that.
This is a picture of our haul. Not such a big haul. But when you are lugging all your stuff on your back you don’t try to add to what you are lugging around. We bought the essentials. Note the Sephora bag. Many things were bought at the Champs-Elyses Sephora in Paris. Two separate trips were made. One trip to buy Christmas presents for my little sister and then another trip to buy.me.stuff.
The little green reflector in the picture? Yeah, it’s our Christmas ornament for this year (it a tradition in our little family). It’s the Ampelmännchen , which literally translates to “traffic light man”. They are the traffic light symbols used in East Berlin, and are so cool.
Remember The Smurf’s? From like 1980? Well apparently they are still around over in Europe and apparently they make the best treats. I enjoyed them both in Germany and France. (If anyone knows where I can find this delicacy in the States, just e-mail me. Seriously.
Now for the best thing I bought. Everybody in Europe was wearing the most fabulous coats. I bought this on our last day in Berlin and have loved it ever since. For the record, Katja was right. It was cold in Berlin. Oh so mother freakin’ cold. I should have bought the new coat on my first day in Europe. But alas. On another note in regards to what the Europeans were wearing, they all had boots on. with their pants tucked into their boots. At first I didn’t see the vision. But after 10 days of it, it looks good. I wonder if we’ll start doing that soon. Because I am so on board with that look.
Want to hear about our hotel rooms? Always nice to report back on hotels.
We started off in Berlin at the Winters Hotel. We have stayed at the Winters on all 3 of our trips to Berlin. It is like a dorm room. A very clean dorm room which is perfectly nice. The (shared) bathrooms are super clean and to be completely honest, I have never seen another person in the bathroom. Ever. Oh, and we got our room this trip for $37.00. Which is about $20.00 cheaper than we have paid in the past. I am feeling really good about. Our travel companion were reluctant about the shared bathroom, but they came onboard. As soon as they saw our Hotel rooms in Paris.
Which, as you can see, is not nice. And not that cheap. And very small. But it was in a good neighborhood. (The King tested out the maid service by throwing his Q-tips on the floor to see if they would be picked up. They were never picked up. Gross!)
This picture must be added. This is the picture the Paris Hotel uses on their website. Note that our room looks nothing like this picture. Oh the deception of advertising.
We saw and did many things in Paris. Fun things. All the while being frozen to the core. Happy to be in Paris, but frozen none the less.
We took the train out to Versailles, which we had never been to before. It was….all about the bling, baby. Gold everywhere. My friend had the perfect observation, she said “how do you feel good about yourself when you get out of your gilded bed every morning and there are people outside your palace starving to death?”
So true. Because look at this place:
This is the Throne Room. I totally need to get me one of these rooms. Although I am sure it’s a bitch to heat in the winter time.
After a few days in Paris, we ditched our friends and flew back to Berlin. (They stayed in Paris one more night and then flew to Spain, and got back home last night.)
The King and I feel slightly guilty about the fact that we stayed in the most awesome hotel on our trip back to Berlin. If you get a chance to go there and have more than $37.00 a night to spend, you should totally stay at the Ku’damm 101. It’s right on Ku’damm, which was so nice. We could see the Christmas lights from our room. It was almost magical. (We figured we had earned it by staying in such cheap places on the other nights).
This hotel had a spa. Which I can not go to, since I am pregnant am therefore forbidden to do anything fun (I won’t even bring up how I missed out on so many of the good cheese in France. Yep, won’t even bring that up). The King enjoyed the fruits of the spa. He is so lucky.
Our hotel was hosting some sort of business meeting on our floor. And guess what the company was? That’s right, my very own company. Only the German version. I didn’t have any business cards (surprise, surprise) on hand to actually prove to these people I worked for the same company. So I didn’t crash their meeting. I do admit to putting my ear to the door. I heard lots of old men speaking German. Maybe they were discussing hiring me. Because I would love to work in Germany. The King would really love it. Unfortunately, he’s the only one in our family that actually speaks German.
The quick break down of things I may have missed telling you about:
Vacation
The King
said,
December 6, 2005 at 12:10 pm
good post baby. nice work
TB
said,
December 6, 2005 at 1:25 pm
Oh yay! So exciting that you can both feel the baby move now!
Your trip sounds great and I think you can get the American version of Haribo candies at Michael’s craft store of all places. I don’t know if they have the same varieties or not.
Welcome back.
anna
said,
December 6, 2005 at 2:41 pm
Wow, sounds like you guys had an awesome time. Don’t look at me, I am bright green with envy. Although, maybe after using that toothpaste you might be a little green too. Welcome back home!
Katja
said,
December 6, 2005 at 2:48 pm
Wow, cool post! Sounds like you had an amazing trip. And, just for the record, it is REALLY warm here now. I even got out my fall coat again, because I was hot in my winter coat yesterday…
Nap Queen
said,
December 6, 2005 at 3:07 pm
Glad you are back! My family went to Europe a couple of times when I was much younger and had to endure the coin fed shower down the hall. You get used to it after a while!
And I L-O-V-E your coat! SOOOO cute!
AnnaBana
said,
December 6, 2005 at 3:56 pm
It’s always fun to hear about what people do on their trips, especially to Europe. Thanks for sharing!
Rude Cactus
said,
December 6, 2005 at 4:42 pm
I’m still just totally jealous you were in Paris. Wonderful pics. Looks like a great time!
Corinne
said,
December 7, 2005 at 5:24 am
Sounds like so much fun!!!
I’m so jealous! 
Erika
said,
December 7, 2005 at 5:34 am
The coat is GORGEOUS!! What a great purchase. Those Haribo gummi bears are the best…my aunt always brings them when she comes over from Germany…they are just not the same as the American ones.
SEVEN plane rides? Good grief!
Michael & Durga
said,
December 7, 2005 at 8:23 am
wow thats great!!!
How was Church in German? I never got the chance to go when I was in Europe.
Michael’s Cousin served in Belin i think…
well,the pics look great!!
Elisette
said,
December 7, 2005 at 8:31 am
Ah… made me wistful for travel…
Avorie
said,
December 7, 2005 at 3:09 pm
Sounds like a fab trip!!
Lisa
said,
December 7, 2005 at 4:11 pm
LOVE the coat! Yeay YOU. When I was in France, they were wearing black, high heeled boots with cute shirts and short dresses. I got got back to MO and wore the same sort of stuff and people (women)looked at me like I was from another planet. Took awhile to catch on at least in this area. SO I’m thinking the pants in the boots thing will be cool here in two years. heehee.
Sounds like a great trip. And good to hear Lil King liked it too.
hola, isabel » With this ring…
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April 12, 2007 at 10:48 pm
[…] After the divorce I really didn’t know what to do with the ring. It wasn’t like I had a child to pass it on to and I knew it wasn’t worth anything to sell. I finally decided to give it to my good friend as a Christmas present. She had always loved the ring and I knew she would appreciate it and take good care of it. She is wearing it every time I see her and I’m glad to see her getting some good use out of it. […]
hola, isabel » Blog Archive » To a deluxe apartment in the sky
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June 5, 2007 at 9:48 pm
[…] We moved into our 1 bedroom, high rise apartment in downtown Seattle when I was about 4 months pregnant with Babboo. We had just sold the house we had built ourselves. My emotions were a mess with the new pregnancy, an upcoming trip to Europe, and of course, packing up a house full of items (of which we sold most of or put into storage) and trying to cram ourselves into our little apartment. Neither one of us knew how long it would take to build our new house, so we didn’t know how long we’d be in the apartment. […]
hola, isabel » Blog Archive » In which I finally talk about my exhusband
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June 5, 2007 at 10:43 pm
[…] Every time I look at my own MySpace profile I wonder if he’s found me. What does he think about my life now? Does he wonder what I’m doing married to a brunette and living in Seattle? What does he think about my baby? Does he think I look different? Does he think I’m prettier now that I’ve gotten my teeth fixed? Does he wonder why I’ve posted so many pictures of trips I’ve taken around the world? Does he even know that I always dreamed of traveling? Does he think of me and miss me? […]
hola, isabel » Blog Archive » I once saw a commerical where someone said they wanted to visit the Great Wall of China before they died
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September 17, 2007 at 4:59 pm
[…] On my walk into the office I kept thinking about this. What do I want to do before I die? Do I have goals that will span my lifetime? Are there places I’d like to visit? I think that 14 year old Isabel would have only said she’d like to visit Paris before she died. 32 year old Isabel has been to Paris twice. The only other place that 14 year old Isabel would have wanted to visit was Washington DC. And we all I know I just crossed that off my (non existent) list this month. I e-mailed The King this morning and asked him why he wanted to know if I had a list. He responded by saying this: […]
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November 12, 2007 at 5:53 pm
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April 15, 2008 at 3:44 pm
[…] The quick-ish history of this particular trip is: The King lived in Berlin, Germany for a few years in his early twenties. We are very connected to Germany. We have many friends there and good memories of trips past. We’ve been fortunate enough to visit Germany three times since we’ve been married. The last time we went was in the second trimester of my pregnancy with Babboo. Before we decided to have kids together, The King and I discussed how wanted to raise our kids. One of the top five things we wanted for our future off-springs was the opportunity to travel. Something that I was never fortunate enough to have when I was a kid. When I got knocked up, we vowed that this kid was going to love to travel. We were adamant about this. […]