Aarohi's Blog

January 2nd 2023 Monday Toulouse - Spain Today was a special occasion, and in the morning we packed up one bag to go to spain. Then we went to  breakfast. After we ate we took a train and a bus to get to the car pick up destination. When we got to the  place we had to wait 15 minutes for someone to be free. When it was our turn we learned that the car we  booked was not available so we had to find a different car. Once we found a different car we had to pay  some different fees. Once we paid we left. We started driving and after 2 hours or so we stopped at a gas  station/ rest stop. We went to the store to get some food while we were checking out our order and  somebody else’s got mixed up so we had to sort it out. After we started back on the road we stayed on the  road for 3 hours then we reached the hotel. There were no three person rooms so we had to take two  people. We were hoping the room would at least have a couch but there was only one b...

  December 30th 2022 Friday Paris   This morning we woke up just in time to get to breakfast. After we got ready we walked down to breakfast. breakfast was an all you can eat buffet. During breakfast we decided that because it was raining we would not go to Pompidou. Instead we decided to stay home till 3:00 when it was supposed to stop raining. but  instead it's not raining early so we went out earlier. We took the train and got off near Louis Vuitton. Inside  Louis Vuitton we got a guide to help us and we started searching. We were searching for a backpack and  a purse. We selected a black backpack and a blue and red purse. We could not get them however because  neither my mom or my dad have their passports and if you wanted to buy something at Louis Vuitton you  would need your passport handy. We decided to go back home. On the way we picked up some macarons  from Pierre Hermé. For lunch I ate sushi and shared some with my dad since there were ...

  December 29th 2022 Thursday Paris Today we woke up at 9:30 which is our regular time. Then after we got ready we went downstairs for  breakfast. After breakfast at around 10:30 when we went back upstairs in our room my mom read a book, my dad worked on his computer, and I translated mine and my friend's name into different languages.  At about 12:00 we decided to step out so at 1:00 we took the elevator down to the ground floor. Once we  got out of the hotel my dad said that he downloaded a PDF of a tour of a part of Paris called montmartre.  On the tour we walked through some of the streets of Paris and we even got to see the apartment where  the artist van Gogh stayed with his brother from the outside. We also got to see the restaurant La Maison  Rose(which is seen in murder she wrote). The restaurant is believed to have first became famous because of the artist Utrillo’s paintings. For lunch we ate crepes, my dad had a chicken and cheese and ...

   December 28th 2022 Wednesday Paris  Today we woke up and went straight to the Metro. in the Metro we scanned our tickets and went to our  train platform. Then once we boarded the train we took it to Concorde  then from there we went to  Champs-Elysees Clemenceau. After we disembarked we went to the Louvre Museum. Once we got there  we had to wait in line for 30 minutes. On the outside of the museum it was like a square and in the middle  there was a pyramid that was one of the entrances to the museum and the one we entered from. Our  reservation was at 12:30 but we got in at 12:53. We showed our tickets and entered then we went to the  tickets area. There we purchased tickets for three audio tracks for 5 years each. The man at the register  gave us three tickets and we went upstairs to collect them. the audio tracks for downloaded on Nintendo  3DS's! They showed highlights, where you are, a map of the museum, Where to return...

  December 27th 2022 Tuesday Brussels - Paris Today we woke up at our regular time of 9:00. When we were ready to leave, we went from the MIDI station to Central Station. the station but when we were supposed to board the train company employees told us  that the train was broken and that we would have to wait for a substitute to come and take its place.The  substitute train was delayed so it took about 1 hour extra to reach our stop. Once we got off at our stop we went to buy some Metro tickets. For some reason however, when we were getting the tickets we tried to pay with a credit card and a machine just kept saying that the payment was denied. In the end we just  decided to finish up and pay with cash euros, instead of with a credit card. Once we got the Metro tickets we took the metro to our hotel. we could immediately get the room so after we checked it out we went out  again. The room had one small bathroom and two rooms each with one bed. After we st...

  December 26th 2022 Monday Brussels Today we woke up at our regular time, 9:30 in the morning. Once we ate breakfast we got on a tram that  dropped us off close to the atomium. The atomium structure was built for a world fair that Brussels held. It  was also to show off the metal structure. to enter the structure we had to wait in line then we could enter.  We could go to four different balls but the other balls had no support and were not as safe. To get inside  the balls there were escalators but sometimes you had to climb up the stairs. Inside the balls they're only  different things. These are a few that we saw: History of other world fairs, light patterns, models of different countries' expositions, the highest one had Windows to look out from, and photos from around the world  called A View From My Window. After we got out of the atomium we walked to the design museum. As  we were entering the museum we realized that we got six tickets...

  December 25th 2022 Sunday Brussels  Today was Christmas so we slept in till 10:00. Since it was Christmas most of the places were closed  luckily the day before we had gone shopping and got the simple necessities. So for breakfast we had some store-bought sandwiches. Since we did not have anything planned and we were running a bit low on  clothes we decided to do the laundry. My parents loaded a suitcase with the clothes so they would be easy to carry to the laundromat. I did not feel like going so my parents said that they would go and put all the  clothes into the machines then one of them would come back and stay with me and one would stay with  the laundry. After they left I read a few chapters from the book surrounded by idiots then I played solitaire.  After 30 minutes or so my mom came back. Then after an hour or so we went back to help fold and bring  back the laundry. When we got there the clothes were just going into the dryer. But the...

  December 24th 2022 Saturday Brussels  Today we got up at 8:30 and headed towards a place where we could start our Bruges and Ghent tour at 9:00. Our tour group started walking towards The bus. On the bus our guide pointed out some interesting  places and told us facts. Then he handed us little radios with headphones we would use outside of the  bus if he talked in the one we would all hear him in hours. When we got to get we walked around a while  with our God then he took us to see the cathedral. Once we started Cathedral the group got to split up  and wander for a while we got some souvenirs and I got a cup of hot chocolate. I also got one euro  because I returned the hot chocolate cup. Soon we got back on the bus and headed to Bruges. On the  way our guide asked who Wanted to do the canal trip. We had said yes that we would go on the trip when  we reached Bruges. We wanted to see some old places. We even saw a horse and buggy ride. Then ...

  Strasbourg to Brussels Friday December 23rd 2022 In the morning we left from Strasbourg at 6:00. To get to Brussels from Strasbourg we took a 3-hour train.  On the train I slept for an hour and 30 minutes then I went on my mom's computer for an hour. around 8:30 we went to car 14 and got some food. I drink some orange juice and eat some yogurt. At 9:00 we got off  the train in Brussels. After we got out of the station we walked to our hotel/apartment. Then my mom's  niece came over. she had been in France/Europe to study so she just joined in on the vacation. She will  also meet us in Paris and Toulouse. We went to lunch with her then we went to the parlamentarium. In the  parlamentarium we each got audio tracks. In the parlamentarium we saw a quantum computer, a gallery of  historic events, we watched a few videos and also this came with a video tour. Oh and there was also a  model of meeting spots in Strasbourg,Luxembourg, and Brussels; they w...

  December 22nd 2022 Thursday Strasbourg  Today we slept in till 12:00 in the morning. Once we woke up we stuck around in the hotel room. At about  1:30 to 2:00 me and my mom stepped out to get breakfast. We ended up going to the same place that we  had breakfast the day before but this time it was for lunch.We got two sandwiches and a quiche. We ate  in the hotel lobby then went upstairs to give my dad his food. After we gave him the food we went  downstairs and sat in the lobby. While we sat in the lobby I read some eBooks on my iPad. At around  5:14 we headed outside to check out some of the Christmas markets. We also wanted to get some  souvenirs from Strasbourg. We found a candle holder and two snow globes at an outdoor stall and later  we got another souvenir at a store. After we got the items we decided to look around for a while then we  looked around then we went to dinner. For dinner we went to a Tibetan restaurant. We ordered ...

  December 21st 2022 Amsterdam to Strasbourg  Wednesday      Today we woke up at 4:00 and at 4:30 we got picked up from the hotel and taken to the airport. In the  airport we ended up standing in the wrong lane for 1 hour. Then we got redirected to the correct baggage  drop-off. Luckily that drop off was not only the correct one but it also had a very short line. Once we  dropped off our baggage we went through security. In security for the carry-on bags my bag was held back  because my iPad was in it. They said that we could leave the electronics in the bags but because it had a  case of a different material it was held back for extra checking. In security the baggage machine broke for  the line we were in so the bags were transferred and it took a while to locate them. But we found them in  the end. After security we had to wait a while in the gate for the flight to arrive. While we waited I read a  book, ate a piece of ...

  December 20th 2022 Tuesday Amsterdam      For breakfast we wanted to go to a pancake house but instead because it was closed we went to a smaller restaurant. After breakfast we went to the Nemo Science Museum. The museum looked like a great big  green ship. inside we showed our tickets and entered. We put our things into a locker using two coins that  a lady at the front desk gave us. for the locker we had to open the door but put in a coin to remove the key.  The museum was not like a regular Museum instead of having displays everywhere it had activities it was  almost like Discovery Place science in the U.S.A.  There were four floors with activities and one floor with  the restaurant. a while after we arrived there was a little show about chain reactions. in the show you watch  the train reaction take place. on one of the floors there was a lab. In the lab you could do different  experiments. You could study and look at ink...

  December 19th 2022 Monday Amsterdam        For breakfast we picked up some food at a store. Then we went to a museum called  Rijksmuseum where we waited for a while so we could find the tickets. Once we got inside we got some headphones for an audio tour. when we went to get the headphones we  found out we had the family Quest where you get to find eight secrets in the museum as a group. We got a little sidetracked and ended up looking at the rest of the museum before  we finished finding the secrets because it was super interesting.        After the Rijksmuseum we headed out to the Van Gogh Museum. On our way we went  the wrong way by accident. Once we found it, we showed our tickets and entered. We  checked if we had the audio track on our tickets. We did not but since I wanted one my  dad got it for me. Once we dropped off our stuff we started looking at the art. for certain  pieces of Art you could lis...