Ambrosian Rite

So, this time of year is the end of Carnevale, the start of Lent, Ash Wednesday, that sort of thing. This being a largely Catholic country, there's been lots of going ons for these events. I was chatting about this with my mother, who asked me if I saw lots of folks with ashes last week, and I realized, no, none. Not at the university, not at the street market. And, in an unrelated thought, I knew Milan's carnival season lasted until last weekend, a few days after Venice's. Another (seemingly) unrelated thought was the "Ambrosian" adjective that seemed added on to a lot of the paperwork at the Duomo.



So, last night, I went down to the Duomo, and it all clicked. I headed down to see the big light show they were doing on the outside of the cathedral that they have been advertising everywhere, and realized it was about Quaresima "Lent" and that it was the third day of Lent. Tuesday, the 28th... It's because of the Ambrosian Rite thing! Only here in Milan, really. It even gets a special mention on the Wikipedia Lent page. Carnival is four days longer under Ambrosian Rite, lasting until sabato grasso Shrove Saturday. There is no Ash Wednesday!



The first four Tuesdays in Lent here are dedicated to the stations of the cross. Last night was the first night. The light show debuted on the cathedral at 8, followed by Cardinal Scola's first big mass for the stations.



These four big masses are being televised on broadcast TV here. The Duomo was the most crowded I have ever seen it! The stations of the cross masses are pretty cool. They show off some great painting depicting the portion of the crucifixion, and the description of the painting is part of the service. They have more music than usual, with a full choir. Some Latin mass stuff. And the acting out of the stations of the cross. Since the crowds are so huge they throw open the big doors.



Anyway, enough about that Catholic stuff. On to the light show! The crowds were crazy in the Piazza Duomo. I spotted this lounge that they have been building on the roof near the Galleria over the course of the last couple of months. Looks done!



The show was pretty cool, I ended up watching it three times. The videos I made aren't great. I took them handheld and unfortunately, my camera won't let you set the focal length zone for video... But some of the photos are really great!

The Weather is Weird

The weather has been strange lately. It's cloudy today, and it's been a little breezy the last few days. It seems like most buildings in Milan have shutters, some wood, but mostly these drop down metal shutters. Lots of people closed their shutters for the breeze! It was nothing compared to the regular breezes in Boston, San Francisco, or London. I was a little surprised how everyone acted like the wind was going to blow stuff into their windows....

I still have a ton of vacation photos, so bear with me. On Friday the 17th, Ross and I went to the Milano Autoclassico at Rho Fiera. It was pretty fun, but exhausting! Here's Ross getting all excited to start in at the fair!



There were a mix of exhibitors. A few museums had cars there, a few car companies, parts companies and suppliers, collectors, and dealers. This fish Fiat below was part of a really good club exhibit.



The Ferrari Museum had some great stuff, like old race cars. One of the parts suppliers had an old Ferrari race boat.



I thought this car had a fishy look, too. There were a lot of weird cars. There were a whole bunch of these type of car where the front of the vehicle opens...



See, here's one open. Weird concept, right?



I saw a fair number of dune buggies, as well. I liked this one for its bright color, but another cute one I saw had wicker seats!



This fire engine was another invited guest car at the show. The pump bit on the front gives the car a kind of steampunk-Cthulhu-insectoid appearance.



After a few hours of looking at cars, we met up with my landlord's wife for a coffee. She works at the fair, and we just wanted to say hi! After, we swung through the European SCUBA Expo, in another of the fair buildings. Again, a wide variety of exhibitors, from dive shops and resorts, to equipment manufacturers, to the Italian Maritime Museum, which was exhibiting ship models and deep dive gear.



The fair is just so huge! There are 20 buildings, a few of which are double-decker, and a few extra offices and outbuildings, and outdoor spaces. The auto show was in two buildings, the scuba show in just one. There was another show on at the same time, an advertising show, in 6 buildings... Seriously, this is a lot of fair space!

Ross in Milan

Ross and I had a pretty relaxed time while he was in Milan.

On Valentine's Day, we did a little shopping and relaxed, then went out to dinner at Platz, a restaurant recommended by my landlord and his wife. They are known for their pizzas and their gnoccho frito. We had both! They also have a special page on their menu dedicated to porcini mushrooms, so we had porcini toasts. I think I need to start buying porcini mushrooms. They don't seem to be in season now, but you can buy jarred or frozen chunks to add to things... On our walk to the restaurant we saw this cute fisherman street mural.



Wednesday I had to head to work for a bit, as we were getting a new machine delivered. Boy, that was a pain! With all the things that didn't work out as planned, we are lucky we got the thing moved into place with nothing wrong!



In the afternoon, Ross and I headed to the Triennale. There were a few little shows on, including an exhibit on women's skin and beauty through the years, old photos from the archives, newspaper photos, Serbian design... Of course, the highlight is in many ways the furniture design collection.



They go nuts for Philippe Starck.



It was a fun evening.



We ended it by having wine and nibbles at La Rinascente on the roof. Because of the cold temps, we were the only people out there, but I really think the Italians are a little wimpy about that sort of stuff!

Last Day of Paris

On Monday morning, Ross and I headed over to Invalides, a big combo army museum and church/tomb.



This is the place with the famous tomb of Napoleon. He's in that giant red quartzite sarcophagus.



After some time in the tomb and church, we headed to the army museum part. Their collections date from pre-history, but really begin to shine in the 15th and 16th century. This three barreled pistol below is from early 17th...



This famous wyvern helmet I believe is also from a similar period.



There were cannons all over the place, including in the courtyard. Many of them have great decorative elements, like this lion's head.



Invalides was pretty great, I would definitely recommend it.

On our way back to the hotel to get our luggage and head to the train station, we saw these quaint buildings associated with a church... I just thought they were cute.

Mmm... Paris

On Sunday, Dawn had picked and awesome show for us to go to at the Grand Palais. We headed over the Alexander III Bridge on our way there.



The show we were seeing was La France en relief - From Louis XIV to Napoléon III. Yes, French military relief maps. At a 1:600 scale. Royal surveyors went around recording incredible levels of detail, which were used to create scale models out of wood scaffolding, plaster, and fancy stuff like silk floss for the trees.



They made maps of critical settlements, so you see a lot of rivers and mountains.



The maps include detailed construction of fortifications, some of which were in beautiful patterns.



The levels of detail were just crazy. Weird rock shapes, sheds, shoals in the rivers... Some of it was stuff you just wouldn't really need to know!

After the show we walked through the Tuileries Garden.



Ross and I went to the Orangerie Museum, which is really a great museum. It's not big, but it has those showpiece Monets, and well organized rooms focused on individual artists.



We took the subway back to Ecole Miltaire. They have these odd green dish seats in some of the stations.



That evening we headed to the Eiffel Tower!



Ross and I took the elevators up to the 2nd level...



And then up to the top!



The Eiffel Tower was a lot of fun. The views were great, and the clanky old machinery was pretty cool too.

Parigi!

So many pictures, so little time, again!

On Friday night we left the Disney property to visit with Dawn in Paris. We met down by the Arc de Triomphe.



We had dinner at Le Brasier, a grill place. We all started with salads and white wine, then moved on to cheese fondue and beef kabobs for the meat eaters. The food was good and the place was cute!

After dinner we took the RER A back to Disneyland Paris. The trains have a lot of different branches and run different schedules, so they have these helpful light boards with the stops of the next train listed.



After we got home we ate the lovely pastries that Dawn gave us! The decadence of eating tiny yummy pastries while lounging in bed! They were all different flavors. The light brown eclair was mocha...



The next day we left the Disneyland Resort around noon to check into our hotel near Dawn's place, by the Eiffel Tower. We joined Dawn for the grand tour of her place, as shown below! Her apartment is on the top floor of her building... All three of us could just crush into her elevator in a row. The one in my apartment is barely any bigger...



We went out shopping in Le Marais, and walked through the city. This is a cute deli and delicacies store. Ross bought canned fishes and pates, I bought yummy mustard and crystallized kumquats.



We strolled past Saint Jacques' Tower, which is the remains of a 16th century gothic church. It's beautiful and has the feel of an artifact of a lost culture.



We made it over to Notre Dame, in time for great sunset lighting. It's spectacular and pretty completely lived up to my expectations. The stained glass is great. We wandered over to the Saint Germain neighborhood, and headed back to the Eiffel Tower area.



The French are into manicured trees, which look a little scary in the winter.



This is the first of many Eiffel Tower photos to come!

Bonus Post: Disneyland Paris Resort Overall Review

Since I really need to get done talking about Disneyland Resort Paris and move on to all the other vacation things we did, I figure I will give as a bonus today my overall resort review.

TLDR version: Liked it enough, probably wouldn't bother going again.

The Disneyland Resort Paris consists of two parks, a Disney Village shopping and dining area, and a cluster of Disney (and non-Disney) hotels, located on the outskirts of Paris, about an hour from the center of the city on the commuter railroad. Ross and I got to experience a taste of all these parts across four-days-three-nights.

Disneyland Park parallels Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, with a main street leading to a castle in the center and Western, fantasy, adventure, futuristic areas filled with the expected rides. Overall, however, I would say that there are less attractions in this park than in its counterparts. Compared to the Magic Kingdom, there's no Splash Mountain, no Winnie the Pooh, no TTA, Carrousel of Progress, Stitch Escape, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor, Jungle Cruise, Magic Carpets of Aladdin (which in Paris is in the Studios park), Tiki Room, Country Bears, Hall of Presidents (though that would be pretty useless for international consumption), Philharmagic... And there are very few different attractions to counteract that. There's a Storybook area as similar to Disneyland, the walk throughs of the Nautilus and Aladdin, Captain EO is present, and the Indiana Jones roller coaster. The walk through attractions are cute, but... The Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril roller coaster was a little disappointing. It's well-themed as a ruined temple, but has less story or exciting sights than, say, the Matterhorn. It's telling that this was a unique attraction but we only bothered to ride it once. The twinned attractions like Buzz Lightyear, Phantom Manor, etc., were a toss up as to if they were more exciting or fun than the WDW version, with several being less comfortable. Again, Space Mountain: Mission 2, a very different Space Mountain, we only bothered to ride once, due to it being rather uncomfortable with the head-shaking. We ended up spending more time on the dark rides like Phantom Manor and Pirates, which were well done.

I had similar feelings about the Walt Disney Studios Park. There were less rides than the WDW counterparts, but in this case more were unique. The Toy Story Playland rides are fairly standard rides, but well themed. (Generally, I would say the theming was a strong suit of the parks.) The stage shows were cute but a little dinky feeling. (We did not go to Lights, Motors, Action, as it's identical to the WDW version. I have to assume that it is similarly exciting.) The true gem was Crush's Coaster, which is a unique ride that is very enjoyable. It's got the longest lines in the park, but no Fast Pass!

Overall, I felt that the parks just did not have enough to do for us. Park hours were short when we were there, but the crowds were low. Taking those two factors, we could have experienced both parks to our satisfaction in two full days. I'm not saying that we could have ridden every ride and seen every show in that time, but we could have tried the unique attractions and experienced a very satisfactory selection of the other best rides and shows with no problems in that time frame. Across the four days we were there, we could have spent about 32 hours in the parks, but we only spent about 19 or 20 and were satisfied. Yes, part of it was the cold weather, but I think we only skipped about 2 or 3 hours on account of cold.

The parks were lacking in a few other areas. Maintenance seemed to be an issue. Most headliner rides were down repeatedly. We waited a few days to ride Space Mountain, for example, since it was down frequently. I felt a little more understanding about the outdoor rides since the weather was cold, but a lot of these were indoors! But really, the weather was not unusual, they should know how to handle it. Also, a lot of effects (dolls in small world, etc.) were broken. We saw one effect that worked during the first day then broke and wasn't fixed for the rest of our stay. There's also no evening entertainment. I like evening parades, but they don't have any, and fireworks are special occasion only! Bummer.

The Disney Village area is rather small. I thought that the food prices were rather high. (The shopping was pricey too, but hey, that's Disney.) But I would say overall the area was satisfactory. We did have dinner at Earl of Sandwich, which was both cheap and good. The food we had in the parks was also pretty tasty.

We stayed in the Hotel Santa Fe, one of the cheapest hotels. I would give it passing marks. It did look a little bit beat, but it was clean. We had a little trouble with our hot water, but they handled it for us well. Overall, I would say the crew members were not quite as peppy as their WDW counterparts, but were at least somewhat in the spirit of things... The breakfast at the hotel was a little chaotic, but the food was completely satisfactory. Croissants and pain au chocolat were the highlights. The bus service to the resort was frequent enough, but part of that is just the small size of the resort. The package price was also right. For two adults for three nights and four days including park hopper tickets was $620. The tickets if bought alone would have been close to $500! The more expensive hotels did look nice, some of them have indoor pools with slides and water features. I am glad we stayed on property, just for the convenience and package pricing!

In the end, I am glad I went, but I do not think I will make an effort to go again. If I happen to be in Paris for four days and people wanted to go on a week day, I would go. If Ross and I go to Paris again for other reasons, I would consider tacking on an extra night to stay at DLRP. Particularly, if I could attend for a special event, such as Halloween or Christmas, that would be an added incentive, though I think the crowds could be unmanageable during certain events or seasons if you were unlucky. But overall, one visit was enough to satisfy me. There are a few attractions I adored, but in general I found the resort lacking in that department. The maintenance is subpar. The food, crew members, and hotels as far as I experienced were at least acceptable and sometimes good. The above average part was really the theming, from the dragon's lair under the castle to the Jules Verne inspired Discoveryland.

As a final note for people trying to decide whether or not to go, here's my suggestions: If you happen to be in the Paris area for three or four days anyway, and you are curious about it, go. On a weekday, preferably. If you are a Disney lover who is going to be in Europe anyway and can get away with two extra days of vacation, then go. Getting to Paris from pretty much anywhere in Europe will be less than $200 round trip per person, and could easily be much less depending on where you are. From Milan, I did it with a $70 plane flight to head to Paris, and took a first class $70 train back. Prices should be similar from pretty much anywhere else, quite possibly cheaper if you book well in advance and get a good deal. Or fly open jaw, entering Europe by your primary destination and leaving from Paris, and only having to take one extra trip inside Europe. I would not, however, plan a special trip just to go to the Disneyland Paris Resort. It's not worth the plane fair and time zone adjustment when you could just go to the more complete destination of Walt Disney World in Florida!

OK, I think I am done now!

Studios Park Paris

As promised, a selection for Disney Studios Park in Paris...

The entrance of the park is through a big studio building of shops and restaurants. You emerge on the other side to see this statue of Walt and Mickey, very similar to the WDW one.



In the background of that photo, you can see the Tower of Terror. This is one of my favorite rides in WDW, and it was pretty good here, too. As with many of the attractions, it was half in French, half English, but in an odd way. As the ride has several sets of rooms and cars running in parallel, half were in French, half in English. This version of the ride has the show elements and the drop ride in the same shaft, which means no "Through the 4th Dimension" part. The other quite interesting change is that the loading area is on two floors, giving the opportunity for some large set dressing, like this furnace.



The Rock'n'Roller Coaster with Aerosmith is also in this corner of the park. It's very similar to the version in WDW, but instead of road signs, it's just got blink lights. I feel like the cars are a little less comfy, too. This photo op outside the ride must be from an Aerosmith album cover? I googled for such a cover, but didn't find it...



The Aerosmith tie-in continues with the Armageddon Special Effects show, which sort of dates the park. Here's me with a replica space vehicle.



Next, Ross and Buzz outside the Toy Story Playland area. The rides there were a little on the kiddie side, but fun and well-themed.



There's a small launched shuttle coaster, themed after the RC Car from Toy Story. You can see the really adorable cue area on either side of this ride view. Ross and I did pretend to be slot cars on the track!



There's the Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop, a fun, not too tall, jump ride. Here's Ross posing as a toy soldier.



Slink Dog also has his own simple caterpillar-style ride that is cute.

And there's also Crush's Coaster, a Nemo themed roller coaster with dark ride scenes. Here's the load area Seagulls!



This was by far the best unique attraction at the whole of Disneyland Paris. The few dark ride scenes of Nemo and Squirt, Jellyfish, and Bruce the Shark were a nice add on to the coaster part. The cars hold four people in a two and two back to back configuration. Once you are on to the coaster part, the vehicle is free to spin. Since it's not actuated to spin, this part is not overwhelming. The motion is smooth, and the spinning motion ends up being more like gentle random reorientation. It's pleasantly exhilarating!