Pont & Palais in Provence

Alas, all good things must come to an end.  Say it with me...  Awwwww.

This is my last post from our fantastic-wonderful-best-trip-ever to Provence with my sweet friends.

Matt gets a bit offended when I say it was the best trip ever, so I should clarify.

Fantastic-wonderful-best-trip-ever-without-Matt.

Our last day we spent exploring Avignon a little more in depth.

We visited the Pont d'Avignon which is a bridge that used to span the river to our little island.

Legend has it that a young shepherd boy was tending his flock when God

spoke to him and told him to follow that star... no wait.  That's a different story. 

This shepherd boy was told to build a bridge over the River Rhone.

When he shared his inspired plan with the townspeople they just laughed an called him names.

They never let poor... no wait.  Wrong story again.

Young Bénézet then lifted a huge boulder and tossed it into the river.

Suddenly they were all on board with the whole bridge idea.

 I think the poor lad died before the bridge was completed.

He's buried in a little chapel on the bridge.

 We used the audio guides which told us the history of the bridge and played the famous song.

The bridge doesn't actually span the river anymore.  Only four of the original 22 arches are left.

So it was a quick tour.

We then made our way to the Palais des Papes.

This was were I took my very favorite photograph.

This time we opted out of the audio-guide.

And I'll be perfectly honest with you, we pretty much just buzzed through.

We were eager to gather once more around a bottle of rosé

to talk about guys and shoes and world hunger and stuff.

But, mostly shoes.

Such a lovely collection of... canonballs.

I think I will forever be gushing about Provence.

But what made the whole thing the fantastic-wonderful-best-trip-ever

was most certainly the company.

Thank you, Gina, Sarah and Erin.  Miss you like crazy and love you to pieces!

Have you ever traveled with just the girls? Best trip ever?

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Aachen, Germany

As you already know, Matt and I both suffer from severe wanderlust.  We're itching to take another big trip but it looks like it might be next year before that happens.  In the mean time, we just can't resist getting away on the weekends.  Even a few days someplace new is exciting and so worth the effort.  

I'm not sure how Aachen happened.  I'd never heard of it before, to be honest.  But, when we sat down to look at Eurostar destinations, we settled on Germany and Aachen is the first place you come to when you head in that direction.  So Aachen was our destination.  We left after work on a Friday and were there within a few hours and settled into the center of the city.  

We had a lovely weekend people watching from sidewalk cafes, visiting the Aachen Cathedral and the town hall (Rathaus).   Like Aix en Provence, Aachen is known for their fountains.  My favorite was the Fountain of Puppets with all of its movable parts.  Aachen is also famous for being the royal seat of Charlemagne, so a museum visit was on the agenda.  One location that was not on the agenda was the red light district.  However, we were casually strolling around the city center walking off dinner one night and after a right turn, then a left, then a right, that is exactly where we found ourselves.  It's just a few blocks from the Town Hall and apparently dates back to the middle ages.  We quickly retreated to some nearby streets without red lights and floor to ceiling windows.  

Here are some of my favorite photos from the weekend.  Don't worry, none of them are from our short and accidental foray into the red light district.

Guess where we're off to next weekend.  I'll give you a hint... gondolas!  So excited!!

Have you ever been to Aachen?

 

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