However, my holidays about Xmas and New Year were great. Let me tell you a little bit more about it. It was really good to have again some time to relax. My holiday started on 12/21/1999 - with an application interview with DaimlerChrysler in Stuttgart. They offered me an interesting subject for my final practical training, however Ballard Power Systems had offered an more interesting subject. The days until Christmas Eve I needed to relax.
Dec. 24 I enjoyed very much. In the morning I decorated our Xmas tree and at 5 p.m. my mum and I went to church. It was really crowded. Further - it is almost a tradition - we went again to church during the night. At 11 p.m. there was the first cantata-service. It was a service with many people, and the first cantata of the Christmas oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach was performed. Afterwards we went to the midnight service at the main church. The church was packed with people - most of them teenager who are never in a church any time else. At the first day of Christmas (Dec. 25) we went at 10:30 a.m. to the second cantata-service and in the afternoon we visited Beate & Ruby (now 3 years old). For me Beate is pretty much like an older sister because her younger brother Olaf is my friend since the went together to the kindergarten.
Obviously at
the second day of Xmas there was the third cantata-service. On time
at 16:50 [ex] finally arrived in Schwerin. Although we were not
separated for a long time I missed her very much. After a good diner
we went to the theatre to watch the ballet "Cinderella". It
was a beautiful staging with modern wings. There were so many lovely
details that all of us were carried away. [ex] and I had 2 more
days in Schwerin before our trip to Paris would start. The first day
we visited the museum of technology. At Dec. 28 we went in the
morning to a sauna together with Daniela (my "little sister"
since we started school). That was very good. In the afternoon we
visited my godmother. After some nice cake we played with her
grandchildren games. You see we had some relaxing days.
On Dec. 29 of 1999 and I had to get up already in the middle of the night because the departure of our coach to Paris was at 5 a.m. On the way to the station I felt like being on flight because we were walking through deserted streets and I was carrying a suitcase. During the journey we were sleeping most of the time but at lunch time we spent one hour close to the main church of Cologne. At 20:30 we did arrive in our hotel Tim-Hotel Montparnasse in Paris. At the same evening we went on a nice walk to the Louvre and Notre-Dame.
There was a
great breakfast buffet early the next morning at half past 7. There
was just everything you could think of, and every morning we were eating
for one hour until we had enough almost for the rest of the day. Of
cause we went on a sight-seeing tour by coach on our first day. In
between we spent a half an hour to see Notre-Dame from the inside.
Further we climbed the Montmartre. There we visited the church
Sacre-Cœur before we went to the artists-marked. At this marked
a artist made some silhouette-portraits of me and [ex] which we
were talked over to buy (for the 6th part of the original
price). Back in the coach we went to Paris 2000. This is a quit
impressive conglomeration of modern architecture - a little bit like
the "new world".
In the afternoon we had some time to discover Paris ourselves while our coach was waiting at the Place de la Concorde. We went along the river Seine to the Place des Vosges. Unfortunately the weather was rather bad: it was raining and could. Nether the less, it was a joy to saunter through the streets and alleys of Paris. On the way back we crossed the Jewish area, and I called my mum.
We had only a little time to relax in our hotel before went out for dinner. Afterwards the illumination tour would start and for that reason we had to join the crowd to the self-serve restaurant. I had a bad feeling about the restaurant which was terrible (but expensive). This was the only disappointment on the whole trip. However, the following tour through Paris at night was marvellous.
The next day
brought us a trip out of Paris because we could not go on a boat-tour
on the river Seine. The water of the Seine was much to high for any
boat. First we went to Euro-Disney. A day-ticked for only 2 hours
would have been to expensive but we could visit the Disney-hotels for
free. Already these hotels gave an impression about Euro-Disney. We
went to some first class hotels and met Chip & Chap, and we
walked through towns of holiday-flats for families. Each one was
following a certain theme. For instance had the one hotel maritime
and the other forest flair, and there was a Western-Town.
This was like an excursion into an other world. From Walt Disney's fantasy-world we made a huge jump to Versailles. The gardens were closed due to the storms, which had cut down many trees, but we could visit the palace. and I did not like to cue for hours. For that reason we saw only the outside but already this was most impressive. On the way back instead of taking the highway we crossed the suburbs of Paris.
Well, it was Dec. 31 of 1999 and after a nap we went to our 4 course New Years Eve dinner. From 6 till 9 p.m. we got served bacon as starter, duck with sauce as the main course followed by some delicious cheese and finally a dessert of nut ice-cream. There were already many people on the Avenue des Champs Elysees. We strolled up to the Arc de Triumpane and back to the Place de la Concorde. From that spot we also watched the Tour Eiffel which was in the centre of fireworks at midnight. Starting at midnight there were many cultural events like music- or video-projects along the Champs Elysees. [ex] and I were on the streets until 2 a.m. and had a great time.
We were
sleeping only from 3 till 8 a.m. that night. Well, we continued to
sleep after the breakfast and a short trip to the top of the Tour
Montparnasse (opposite of our hotel). The view at Paris from some
200m was just unique. We got up again at 2 p.m. and we went on a long
walk through Paris (almost 12 h). We went through the area of
Montparnasse and had somthing to eat in the "student area"
(opposite of Notre-Dame). Across the island Ile St-Louis we came
again directly to Notre-Dame and continued our walk towards the
Centre Pompidou. Along this cultural centre, which reopened just that
day, we went to the underground shopping mall Les Halles. There we
had a good milk coffee as refreshment. s wish was to see the
Opera and because we were in that area we also watched some lovely
decorated windows of a shopping centre. On the way to the Place de la
Concorde we had Crepés and sauntered once again on the Champs
Elysees. It was already past midnight but it was as busy as to the
main shopping hour elsewhere. Three quarter of an hour we just sat on
a bank and watched the people passing by. We went back to our hotel
along the Tour Eiffel but we were too exhausted to claim it.
During that night we slept only 3 h but after a last very good breakfast we continued sleeping in the bus on the way back to Schwerin. We slept very well. We were back home at 8 p.m. and went to bed very early that evening. There were some more highlights during the last days of my holiday like a beautiful meal at "our" Chinese Restaurant, an exhibition of sculptures by Barlach, or the 60th birthday of my mum.
Mums birthday was a very special day. There were a friend of my mum, who she knows from her childhood, as well as her sisters from Rostock (with husbands) our guests. In the evening we went to church to the 6th cantata-service (the last one). Friday (1/7/2000) was our last day in Schwerin. In the afternoon Beate & Ruby were our guests, and I played with Ruby with LEGO. She gets already into the age when playing with LEGO is real fun for her. In the evening Daniela dropped in and all together we went to the cinema to the late show at 10:30 p.m.
