PARIS-AMSTERDAM-AND THE WORLD
February 13 to the 22, 2014
 

February 13  Thursday     

• Luggage to room 23 or 25 at 8:15 AM.  MAKE SURE YOUR NEW LUGGAGE TAGS ARE FILLED OUT COMPLETELY AND LEGIBLY.  PUT MS. SMITH’S PHONE NUMBER OR EMAIL.  Passports and money and I 20’s and other valuables to Ms. Elkind or Ms. Smith.    The rooms will be secure all day and watched.   Do not carry your money or your documents or your valuables or leave them in your locker.
• 4 PM  Bye-bye to parents, friends as we board the bus for JFK.   Parents can go to JFK but as soon as we check in, we will enter the secure area and they cannot go there.    Security will be extra picky so sort out all of your stuff in the carry-on, especially liquids.   Flight departs 6:59 PM.
   

Friday:  

• Arrive Paris around 8 AM.  Drop our luggage at the hotel but the rooms will not be ready.  Have your toothbrush in your day pack and whatever  you might need for the day such as snacks or medicine or your fleece.  We will be out most of the day.
• Eiffel  Tower 11 AM.
• Lunch on the run on Rue Cler.
• 2 PM Napoleon’s Tomb and Les Invalides War Museum..
• 4 PM  Stroll and Metro back to the hotel for check-in and freshening up.    Dinner in the neighborhood of the Hotel Opera Madeleine.   
   

Saturday:  

• Musee  D’Orsay  Enter 9:15 AM.
• 1 PM lunch on the run.   Couple of miles saunter over to the Champs Elyssee.  Visit to the Paris St. Germain-des-pres  soccer team official store.    Leisurely shopping along the Champs Elyssees.  Ferrari, Prada, etc.  Reconvene atop the Arc de Triomphe in the middle of the craziest traffic in the world.  Great photo op location.
• 5 PM Dinner near the Seine.   7:30 PM  Evening cruise on the Seine.  One and a half hours.

Sunday:  

• Bus tour to Montmartre, Sacre Coeur church.   Then on to Notre Dame.   Climb the tower if you dare.   Deportation Memorial of Holocaust victims.  The Conciergerie, converted to a prison during the French Revolution and featured in A TALE OR TWO CITIES.  Stroll  through the Latin Quarter.   Lunch there.    Ste. Chapelle, “the triumph of Gothic church architecture is a cathedral of glass like no other.”  
• Dinner in the Latin Quarter; your choice of
• Greek to Italian to French to halal.
• Hotel by 9 PM.
   

Monday  

• Louvre Museum, 9:15 AM    
•   Bon Marche, Paris’ oldest department store,   for lunch and a few hours of shopping.   Then out to the small street filled with shops, boutiques, bistros.  Something called the La Maison du Chocolat in case you are behind in your calorie count.  
• Last night dinner in Paris; back to the hotel by ten PM.
   

Tuesday  

• Out by 8:30 AM.   First stop Bruges, Belgium, about 150 miles from Paris.    Lunch and tour in Bruges, a city that 500 years ago was one of the largest in the world.   Number one national product:  chocolate.   Languages  mostly French, but also Flemish.
• On to hotel in Amsterdam.   Arrival to check in and out for dinner.

Wednesday  

• 9 AM Rijksmuseum,  most famous work: Rembrandt’s THE NIGHTWATCH. 
•     Others Vermeer, Hals, Steen.  Incredible collection.
• The Diamond Museum: demonstration on polishing stones, discussion of clarity and cost; purchases allowed.
•   Shopping along either  1. High-end designer stuff in  with trendy elegant  things, forty boutiques, gift shops, etc.---Magna Plaza behind the Royal Palace
•                               2. Jordaan  at Westersrtaat “a veritable wonderland of funky arty shops.”
• We think we will divide into at least two groups but the areas are too far apart to go to both.
• Dinner in a historical Indonesian Restaurant.
   

Thursday 

• The Van Gogh Museum   Over 200 paintings that were owned by Van Gogh’s brother Theo. Need we say more?
• The Bag Museum – TASSEN (Hendrikje) the history of purses from before there were pockets! All the way back to the Middle Ages.
• Walk through the Red Light district of Amsterdam in the afternoon.  Reports on the history of Amsterdam’s tolerance and approach to drugs and prostitution.
   

Friday:

• Anne Frank House –museum, introductory movie and guide talk, tour the rooms the families lived in while hiding from the Germans.
• Lunch on the run, especially recommended are the raw fish snacks sold from wagons as hot dogs are here.
• Rembrandt’s House – restored with furniture and possessions the great artist had to sell when he fell into debt in his later life. Check out the sleeping closet!
• Last night banquet, carousing, each person speaks of memories and feelings.    Seniors on their last trip.
   

Saturday 

• Four of our travelers are up early and out on a ten AM flight with Ms. Smith and Ms. Ahfeld.
• Rest will catch a noon-ish flight and arrive at JFK around 3 PM.