EUROPE 2019: PARIS & MUNICH

Last summer, in fact almost exactly one year ago, Matt and I took two weeks off work and traveled to Europe! It was monumental because even though we have been together for over a decade and gone on multiple international trips, none have been to Europe—which is kind of crazy because I used to live in Switzerland and right after we started dating I studied abroad in Italy. But to understand how this trip came to be requires a trip down memory lane to my college years…

Let’s set the scene: two best friends were roommates in central Illinois during their junior year, they decide that a trip to Santorini is in their future, and it becomes a sort of unspoken bond (or blatantly spoken and therefore burned into my brain to never question it kind of bond) that one will not visit without the other. And we finally made it happen! Bridget and I joked that the trip was our BFF Honeymoon and our husbands were just lucky to be invited. Hah, not untrue.

So, the plan was for 4 of us, (Bridget, Andrew, Matt, and myself) to travel from our respective states to Santorini and spend a week there. We considered a lot of ideas, but ultimately realized that instead of meeting up in the states and traveling together overseas, that we should just meet in Santorini. A lot of this had to do with the fact that I didn’t mind extra layovers in order to see more places—after all, Matt and I had 19 days to fill whereas Bridget and Andrew were sticking to a week vacation.

Along our route, I was hoping to not travel through Athens, which left a limited number of cities that connected directly to Santorini. I scoured different routes for ages because while I didn’t mind layovers, I wanted to get something out of each one. The route we ended up taking to the Greek island was Denver > Paris > Munich > Santorini.

I was able to snag a flight promotion on Norwegian Air direct from Denver to Paris for about $350 each. Crazy! I purposely scheduled the next flight for 30 hours later so that Matt and I could explore—Matt had never been to Paris! Because I lived and traveled in Europe for many years, Matt gave me the reigns as far as deciding what we would be doing and seeing.

Our flight departed Denver after 8 p.m. and arrived in Paris at 1 p.m. Also, the flight was superb! I was very happy with Norwegian. After going through customs and traveling to the city centre, we checked in to our quaint Airbnb in Le Marais, just around the corner and down the street from the Centre Pompidou, around 4 p.m. local time.

We hit the streets, opting to walk from our Airbnb to Les Deux Plateau, an art installation inside the courtyard of the Palais Royal. Then, we continued on to the Louvre, where we had no intentions of going inside, and on through le Jardin des Tuileries, where we stopped at Pavillion des Tuileries for a couple drinks on that hot day.

We put our feet up at the Bassin Octogonal (where Matt cutely asked if the fountain in the middle was similar to the Jet D’eau that we would be seeing in Geneva later), looked at the Eiffel Tower from afar, walked across the Pont de la Concorde, and stopped at an adorable place along the Seine river for crêpes and wine. Yum. I’ve seen Paris many times, but never like this. We were casual and even though we only had a day in the city of lights, we didn’t feel rushed. My goal of stopping in Paris was to just be in Paris. And that’s what we did!

We continued along the river, stopping at Pont des Arts, until we were in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral. We couldn’t go inside because the structure had caught on fire only three months prior to our visit, but we walked around it. Ultimately, on our way back, we found a restaurant to grab a quick dinner at. I don’t have any photos of that because it was a chaotic atmosphere with very tight outdoor seating and I had a hard time with all the smokers so Matt and I ate rather quickly. However, the neighborhood of Le Marais is very LGTBQ+ positive and our visit was only a few days after the Pride Parade so there really was an exciting energy around the restaurant. But maybe that’s how it always is!

The following morning, Matt and I went to this cute restaurant called Marcelle for breakfast and then over to Sainte-Chapelle, an ornate, 13th-century, Gothic chapel with 1,113 stained-glass windows. It’s better than the Notre Dame. I said it. If you’ve been, then you know why I did. Tickets are reasonable and I purchased them online beforehand. Seeing Matt’s face when we got there was incredible. Just thinking about that makes me smile!

After walking back, we needed to check out of the Airbnb, so we were out to explore again, this time with our luggage. Even though we each had only one backpack, I knew almost immediately that I wasn’t going to be up for walking everywhere—enter our first Lime scooter rides ever! They. Were. Amazing! We basically needed to ride them up and down the river a few times, so we kept them on the bicycle path and that felt good. Of course, you need two hands to ride those things so I have zero photographic proof that any of this happened.

Next up, my favorite, the Musée d’Orsay. They had a bag check which was clutch. When I purchased tickets online, I made sure that our backpacks fit the specs. We truly ran around that place in about 90 minutes, with me showing Matt all my favorites, ending with the impressionist paintings. We hopped on our scooters again and zoomed over to the Eiffel Tower, got a couple photos, got another crêpe, and got back on our scooters. We had another flight to catch after all! Paris was a beautiful whirlwind.

We boarded an easy flight to Munich, where we were going to be spending the next 20 ish hours. Once we landed, we took public transit to the city centre and walked to our adorable hotel, Hotel Am Markt, with it’s perfect location! And obviously we then walked over to Hofbräuhaus. Matt fit right in, but the server looked at me like I was absolutely crazy when I asked if the pretzels came with cheese dip. Whoops!

The next morning, Matt and I only had to take about 3 steps outside the hotel to explore the Viktualienmarkt, a sprawling 200-year-old market with over 100 stalls selling goods from fruit to meat and flowers. We got breakfast at a ‘meh’ restaurant and then packed our bags to travel again. Before we caught the train, we waited in Marienplatz for the Glockenspiel to chime at the top of the hour. So cute! And also, so crowded!

We caught our flight to Santorini, hopped on a bus to Thera (Θήρα—get excited now for all the crazy Greek words coming soon!), walked to our Airbnb, and caught up with Bridget and Andrew just in time for happy hour.