In October, 2012, I had another opportunity to return to Europe to help set up a second Art Studio on board Celebrity Cruise Lines new ship Reflection. http://www.celebritycruises.com/explore/ships/detail.do?shipCode=RF It is another incredible vessel. Celebrity puts the finishing touches on their ships in Eemshaven in the Netherlands. I traveled from Miami to Paris and had a connecting flight to Bremen Germany where I would then be picked up for the drive to the Eemshaven. By the time I got to Paris I was pretty tired. I thought I would take a little nap while I waited for my next flight. So slumped over sideways in my chair I peacefully slept through the announcement that my flight was boarding. Next flight to Bremen, 4pm the next day...so after freaking out for about an hour I checked into an overpriced and not too clean hotel room in the Paris airport and headed downstairs to catch the train to make the most of it. The next day I was three hours early for my flight and sat in front of the departure board the whole time. When I did arrive in Bremen I was met by the driver who told me that we had to wait for some of the crew members to arrive. So for the next FIVE HOURS we drank coffee, ate donuts and tried to communicate with each other. Nice guy, good sense of humor and really all I could do was laugh at this point. The last crew member to arrive was one of the artists that I hired for the Art Studio. A talented and wonderful woman who became a dear friend. Here is her website http://faithbradburnkeller.com/ and one of her paintings. I love this one.
And here are a few photos taken after I finished my project on the ship and met up with my husband. We went to Amsterdam first. Stayed at the College Hotel. http://www.thecollegehotel.com/en/home
Great place, out of the crazy center of town. Interesting brothel in the neighborhood- girls in bathing suits on display along with a window full of partially nude gnome statues. Next stop was Brussels. Hotel Amigo. Best bar ever. Watching the bartender make drinks was fascinating. http://www.hotelamigo.com/ After a night there we went to Paris for a week. I bought us first class train tickets. I had this image of William Powell & Myrna Loy and Asta traveling in luxury on a train in the 1930's. Private sleeping car, dining car with champagne. Sadly my movie fantasy did not match reality. About 30 minutes into the trip a man joined us in our little closed off seating area. He had his dog with him. Asta it was not. The dog licked itself for most of the journey. Did I mention it was a closed area, no champagne...My husband had a terrible cold so at one point I asked him loudly if it was ok with his doctor that he was traveling with TB. The man with the dog did not speak English so he stayed with us for the rest of the journey. When we got to Paris we stayed in an apartment in Montmartre. A great option if you want to stay awhile and feel like you are a part of the neighborhood.
The Sacre Coeur should not be missed. The mosaic inside the dome brought tears to my eyes. So beautiful.
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