PARIS

So, I must say, we were quite dissappointed in Paris this time. Last time we LOVED it and this time we strongly disliked it (hate is too strong of a word). The difference...well, a few things...I didn't remember as much French as I did last time, so we spoke more in English and did get the Parisian snub that it is known for. We did not remember all the stairs in the underground, or lack of elevators, so we lugged Kaleb in his stroller up and down many, many stairs. Also, the newness of the city and the awe of all the sites were a distant memory. We also noticed how misrable and rude the parisian people were this time b/c we had a baby. When you're an adult you don't expect anyone to talk to you in the subway, but when you have a cute red headed baby waving hi to you, most people smile and wave back, but not in Paris...they look away and act irritated. This was so different in Greece b/c there everyone wanted to talk to Kaleb and try to make him laugh. They were so friendly. Paris was such a stark contrast and was very noticable. Nevertheless, we were still on vacation and enjoying ourselves. I don't mean to complain, we were just surprised at how different we felt about the city this time and I am not recommending Paris with kids. Above is a picture at the Arc de Triumph...The tomb of the unknown soldier is underneath it You can go to the top of it, but we didnt do it this time.

This pic is taken from the eiffel tower on the first level stop. We went all the way to the top and Kaleb kept sticking his head out of the rails, saying "car, car". It scared me to death!

Above is a "The Thinker" by Rodin, a famous french sculpture. Rodin is one of our favorites and we went back to the gardens this time.

Above is Notre Dame which was beautiful. Kaleb took a good nap inside and Jason went up top to have tea with Quasi Motto. A couple of pictures down is a picture of a gargoyle and the eiffel tower from the top.

Above is the Sacre Coeur or "The Sacred Heart" church. Tons of people go and sit on the stairs and listen to musicians sing songs in English and then start speaking in french. I wonder if they have any clue what they are singing about. And yes we drug Kaleb and his stroller up all those stairs. This church is in the are of town called Montmartre. We stayed here this time and last, but over the 3 year gap I think we forgot how hilly it was. Oh, here is a funny story. On the way to this church, we were walking up all the hills with the stroller and there were tons of "african-french" beauty parlors. Suddenly the stoller didnt steer right and we realized that we had a hair weave stuck in the front wheel...oooo, nasty...we weren't about to touch it to get it out, so it just roller up tighter and tighter. Anyone want to borrow a stroller??

Below is Saint Chappelle, a church that was closed when we were there last time that we were eager to see this time. It was one of the only new things we did and it was very impressive. It was full of stain glassed windows that told stories of the Bible from Genesis all the way to Revelation. It was very hard to see them b/c they were so far away and we had toddler scooting around on the very dirty floor.

We had such a great vacation and think that everyone should go to Greece at least once in their life. It was beautiful, the people were friendly and the food was more than amazing!! We've been cooking greek food every week since we've been home.

Naxos

Naxos is another Greek island known for their beaches. The one we stayed on was a gignatic baby pool. You can see Jason standing way out in the water in between the 2 boats. The water was only up to his knees the whole way out. It would have been fun if Kaleb wanted to get in the water, but he was not the least bit interested.

Naxos is also known for the above structure which was the beginning of a huge temple that was never finished. In fact, it barely got started b/c the front door frame shown is the only thing that was built. The temple was built on a smaller island that is connected by causeway (shown below) to the larger island of Naxos.

Below we had just finished our dinner and the owner, who was very friendly the entire meal, sat down to snap a picture with us.

Kaleb at his cutest!

This was the street that our hotel was on. The streets were so quiet and quaint. I think it looks like a fake background in this picture. Our hotel was about 30 steps from the beach and even better it was only 35 euro's a night! I would highly suggest Naxos if you're in Greece!

Dinner in Oia

As you can see above we had an amazing view for our dinner in Oia. It was so beautiful that every time I looked out I started to cry. That meant I was crying throughout our whole dinner (and I'm not joking- I couldn't stop).

Despite our awesome view all Kaleb wanted to do was stare at these empty beer bottles in the back of the restaurant. I'm not sure why he thought they were so entertaining but it kept him occupied. Luckily there were not many people at the restaurant so we could roam about freely.

This is a panoramic of our dinner, but as I've said before, it doesn't do it justice! Oh yeah, and the food was great too!

Santorini-Oia

Santorini is known as one of the most beautiful places on earth. I agree b/c these pictures do not do it justice. Oia is a little town on the island that has beautiful sunsets.

Here you can see the cresent shape of the island from where the volcano blew and it filled with the beautiful agean sea

There were lots of churches with either crosses on top of blue domes.

Santorini- Kamari

I love this picture. Kaleb and I were just enjoying the beautiful view. Karmari is the beach on Santorini where we stayed. Santorini is mostly a bunch of cliffs and we didn't feel comfortable staying that close to a cliff with our adventurous toddler.

Santorini has a very interesting history. It was once a good sized island with a dormant volcano. Then one year there was an earthquake that woke the volcano up and it erupted and the whole center of the island slipped away into the sea. Some experts believe this is the lost city of Atlantis.

Here is a view from our hotel. Ahh, I want to go back!!! The beaches were not sand, they were black volcano rock and pebbles. It got pretty hot during the day, but Kaleb loved playing with the rocks.

Athens

One of our first trip in Athens was to see the Temple of Zeus. It was never completed and later was damaged by storms.

Above is a picture of the Plaka, a lively area of town with lots of restaurants and tourist shops for people like us. Every where we went the greecian men tried to make Kaleb laugh and seemed so interested in him. I thought it was interesting b/c in the States, it's typically the women who are interested in babies.

Every once in a while Kaleb took a break from his stroller to chase some pigeons. We were at the tomb of the unknown soldier that had a changing of the guard ever hour. It was pretty interesting.

This is part of the Acropolis and is an ancient coliseum. You can see Athens in the background. They still have shows in it today. Some ballet dancers were practicing when we were there.

Here is family Bruns at the parthanon. It was much bigger and grander than the one in Nashville (where we got engaged), but there wasn't much left of the inside. It was blown away during a battle, where they were storing gun powder.

Athens was a big city, but Kaleb loved the subway and all the cars and taxis. He's definately a city boy, like his mom (except I'm a city girl). By the end of the day we would go back to our hotel room and Kaleb would jump back in his stroller and yell "GO!" He didn't hold us back from doing anything. He was a great traveller.

Hi from Greece

We just had our first day in Greece. Our trip could not have gone any smoother. We had a 6 hour lay over in Philly, but they had a nice playground that kept Kaleb occupied for most of the time. He fell asleep as soon as we got on our long flight and only woke up once for dinner. Yes, he had some help from Benadryl. Once we arrived we were able to check into our hotel early and we unpacked and went to lunch around our hotel (which is in the middle of Athens). The first time I came to Europe and completely fell in love. As I've returned a few time since, I've come to realize that I do like some things about America much better...like, no smoking in restarants, no people begging at restaurants, no motorcycles on the sidewalks and child seats in the restaurants. After lunch we all took a 3 hour nap and then went to check out the Acropolis and Plaka (surrounding area around the acropolis w/ lots of character.) We quickly found out why they said the Acropolis was not stroller friendly. We had to carry the stroller and Kaleb around and tommorrow will bring his riding backpack instead. We had an awesome dinner of moussaka and tender lamb w/ potatoes and Kaleb had some fresh squeezed strawberry juice. We then came home gave Kaleb and bath and put him to bed by 10pm. And now i'm typing b/c I had a 3 hour nap. I hope to add pictures to these posts once we return home.