Boomer in Paris

Bounjour all the way from Paris, France! Here I am standing right in front of La Tour Eiffel, or as we say in America, The Eiffel Tower! 

It is a surreal feeling finally getting to see historical monuments such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, and Notre Dame! Look at all of the wonderful pictures I took while I explored Paris; my favorite one is of my best friend, Juanito, jumping in front of Notre Dame.

Follow the link to take a video tour of the beautiful city of Paris, France.  

Paris Travel Video Guide
In this picture I am standing in front of our hotel, Best Western Montmartre Sacre-Coeur! The people were very friendly and after a long day of sight-seeing and other touristy-type-things, it was nice to come and rest my hooves on the nice and comfortable beds! I sure am glad the hotel was horse-friendly!

Follow the link to book your very own room at:

Best Western Montmartre Sacre-Coeur

"Whether you are on a business trip or on a vacation, you will enjoy and appreciate your stay at the BEST WESTERN Montmartre Sacre-Coeur. The hotel is fully air-conditioned, offering Wi-Fi access, and has six floors accessible by an elevator. Some guest rooms overlook a nice garden."

- Bestwestern.com

Our last day in Paris consisted of walking around the many shops & stores that lined the streets. My friends and I bought lots of souvenirs for ourselves and we bought lots of gifts for our family back home! Here I am with my best bud walking the streets of Paris. Let's play "Where's Boomer?" as you try to spot where I'm at in this picture!

Follow this link to see all of the wonderful stores that line Champs-Élysées, one of the most famous streets in Paris!

Champs-Elysees Stores

Flat Boomer Visits Paris

Flat Boomer had a very exciting weekend trip to Paris. He has always wanted to visit Paris and was super excited to finally be able to go there. He flew from Florence, Italy to Paris. Flat Boomer then decided to take the metro or train to his hotel. Can you locate Paris on a map? What country is Paris in? To read more about Paris please click the link below.

https://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-191501740-paris_vacations-i

There are many famous structures to see while in Paris. For instance, what famous river runs through Paris? Some of the main attractions Flat Boomer saw were the Louvre whihc has the famous Mona Lisa painting, the Notre Dame church, and of course the Eiffel Tower. There is a lot of history in Paris as it is an ancient city that goes back before the Roman times. Paris is made up of 20 districts that start from the center of the city and the rest following in a clockwise spiral. For more information about the districts, click on the link below. 

http://about-france.com/paris-quarters-districts.htm

Flat Boomer's favorite spot to hang out in Paris is in the park by the Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower is one of the most popular attractions in Paris. There are a lot of people that hang out in the park starting at sunset until late at night to see the lights of the Eiffel Tower.

Flat Boomer really enjoyed seeing the Eiffel Tower at sunset. He had a blast watching all of the different people around him playing ball, eating dinner, and laughing.

He really liked being around all of the people in the park. But his absolute favorite part of the Eiffel Tower was watching the sparkling lights which came on every hour starting at 10 pm.  When was the Eiffel Tower built? Did you know there is a restaurant all the way at the top of the Eiffel Tower?

Flat Boomer had a great weekend trip to Paris but was really tired when he got back to Arezzo. He is excited and sad about spending his last few days in Arezzo before going to Rome. ~Ciao~

Boomer relaxes on the coast!

 Boomer really took advantage of his long weekend to relax and unwind close to the water in Sorrento, Italy! After a long day at Pompeii we happened to stumble across this beautiful and quiet city and it could not have been a more perfect way to unwind and relax. This website has a great variety of things to do while visiting the city: http://www.sorrentotourism.com/en/. 

When we got there and got off of the train we immediately saw this lemonade stand and knew we had to try it! The guy squeezed FRESH oranges and lemons right in front of us and mixed it with lemon granita, which is italian shaved ice. It was so refresing and very delicious!! The coast of Italy is known for amazing lemons and oranges and we saw them growing on the streets EVERYWHERE in Sorrento! In the picture above you can see how much bigger the lemons are in comparison to the ones we get in the United States. They are also sweeter here in Italy than they are in the United States. This link will give you all the info you need to know about lemons in Sorrento, they really are a big deal there! http://www.charmingitaly.com/article/lemons-sorrento-amalfi-coast 

We got hungry and went to Marina Grande because everyone we talked to said that was where the best seafood was and they were right! We ended up having a nice meal on the water while watching the sunset. I had mussels and gnocchi (pictured below). All of the food was really good and the prices were very fair. This link will give you more information about Marina Grande: http://www.italyguides.it/us/campania/sorrento/sorrentine_peninsula/marina_grande.htm. 

Boomer can't wait to go to Rome next weekend! He is so excited he already packed his bag, Ciao!

Boomer visits Pompeii

Over the weekend, Boomer and I decided to take a trip to southern Italy. We visited an old ghost town that’s very famous. It’s located near Naples. Can you guess what the town is called?

Our train left for Naples at about 7 pm, and it’s a 5 hour train ride, so we didn’t get there until midnight. It was dark outside so we couldn’t look at the scenery, but we had the whole train compartment to ourselves, so we were able to stretch out.

The next day we took another train, but this one only lasted about 15 minutes, and it took us to Pompeii!

  

Pompeii is a really interesting city, and one of Earth’s most famous archeological sites. Pompeii is a ghost town. A ghost town is a town that doesn’t have any people living in it anymore, so all that’s left are ruins of the buildings.

Pompeii was an ancient Roman city founded in 6^th-7^th BCE. It was a center of trade because of its location along the Volturno River on the north, the Apennines and the Sorrento peninsula to the east and south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

Many towns and villages liked to trade with Pompeii, and so it became a very wealthy city. All of a sudden, in 62 CE, a terrible earthquake hit Pompeii, ruining many of the buildings. The people had just finished rebuilding and renovating the ruined buildings, when about 10 years later Mount Vesuvius erupted. The city was hit by a gigantic cloud of poisonous gases, ash, and stones that buried the buildings and people.

Ironically the people had about 3 days’ time to leave Pompeii before the volcano erupted. People could see smoke coming out of the mountain. But many people refused to leave because they thought that the gods were mad at them, so they stayed to pray. By the time the citizens of Pompeii realized that they needed to leave, it was too late.

For more information about the history of Pompeii, click here

Boomer’s favorite buildings

Boomer saw many interesting buildings while walking in Pompeii, but he really liked the bathhouses.

He thought that it was really interesting that bathhouses were for middle class and poor people. The rich people had their own private baths in their houses.

 The bathhouses were the modern equivalent of spas. They even developed a way to heat the bathhouses by running heated water through pipes in the wall.

The bathhouses had rooms for cold baths, lukewarm baths, and hot baths. They also had changing rooms, and bathrooms. The fancy ones even included gymnasiums and swimming pools!

This is Boomer in with a statue in the bathhouse.

They used to be decorated with elaborate pictures and bright colors. If you want to see what the bathhouses used to look like in the Roman Empire, check out Getty images and click here to play a game about Roman bathhouses

Roads

Boomer also thought that the roads in Pompeii were very interesting. They were made with stones of different sizes, but all of the stones made a flat surface to walk on. But at major road intersections (sort of like at stoplights now) there were big stones that went across the street from sidewalk to sidewalk.

 This prevented the chariots from going too fast, and allowed people to cross the street without stepping in water when it flooded.

 

For more information about the roads in Pompeii, and Pompeii in general you can read this article by Rick Steves here.

Boomer really liked visiting Pompeii, and hopes that you enjoyed learning about some of the interesting things that he saw.