PARIS

Our first stop in Paris was, of course, NOTRE DAME! One thing that I never knew is that Notre Dame is on a small island in the River Seine.  The stained glassed windows inside were breathtaking.  

Not far from Notre Dame there's another Cathedral called Sainte Chapelle.  It supposedly has the most beautiful stained glass window in all of Christendom.  Unfortunately the two times I tried to get in to Sainte Chapelle it was closed. At least I have something to look forward to if I ever get back to Paris.  There was another church near Notre Dame that I stumbled upon. The church looked like it was several hundred years old. In the back there was a smaller chapel called the "Chapel of the Holy Sacrament" which looked like it was the original ancient chapel that the church was built around. The church was built during the Middle Ages so the "Chapel of the Holy Sacrament" must have been around 1000 years old.

On top of a hill overlooking the city is one of the most beautiful churches in the world; Sacre Coeur.  From the steps at Sacre Coeur you can see the entire city.  Behind Sacre Coeur is an artist's park where you can buy paintings or get your portrait done.  I found a great oil painting for Becky there.

There's apparently a trend in Europe for couples to put a pad lock on a bridge and then throw the key into the river. This bridge was completely covered in pad locks.  There was no room and there were literally pad locks attached to other pad locks.

The Louvre was incredible!  We only had about an hour and half when we went there.  There is so much to see we could have spent 3 days going through the Louvre and still not have seen it all. It would be like trying to visit the Smithsonian in under 2 hours.

This is the "Madonna of the Rocks" by Da Vinci.  I walked right by it on my way to the Mona Lisa.  This is one of the paintings in the "Da Vinci Code".  There is an entire room for the Mona Lisa.  It's that small painting on the 1/2 wall in the center of the room.

One of the coolest things in Paris was the catacombs.  During the 1700s Paris was growing and began to envelope all the smaller cities around it.  And of course with those cities Paris was also enveloping their cemeteries.  They decided to dig up all the bodies and put them in an old abandoned quarry under the city. For the next 80 years bones were removed from the cemeteries and relocated to the quarry.

My French isn't so great but the sign above the door roughly says: 

"HERE IS THE EMPIRE OF THE DEAD!"

The piles of bones goes on for what seems like miles.  It is unreal. A guy in my group hid around a corner to scare one of our friends.  He waited in the dark for a few minutes and then jumped out and screamed and completely freaked out an Australian couple.  He was so embarrassed - it was hilarious.

One of the last spots I visited was the Military Museum and Napoleons tomb. Napoleon is still revered as a national hero in France.

We were in Paris for only two days.  And during those two days we had two business visits and a trip to the Paris temple construction site.  Even though it was over fast, the time in Paris was incredible. Paris is definitely on my list of places that I need to take Becky to some day.

Germany and Austria

BMW World HQ and museum

In each country we visited a different business to learn about leadership in a global setting.  One of the coolest business visits was the BMW factory and museum in Munich.

Before visiting BMW we went through a walking tour of Old Munich. The coolest thing in Munich was the Glockenspiel at the top of the town hall. The figures in the clock tower were life sized and commemorated the end of the black plague in Munich.  They said that during Medival times Munich had about 20,000 residents.  After the plague there were only 5,000. The clock and figures would go off twice a day but unfortunately we missed both times.

The food in Germany was awesome!  The food was also amazing in Italy and France but really each cuisine was its own kind of awesome.  We tried some spicy sausages, apple vinegar red cabbage, and pork knuckle. My father-in-law makes some traditional German dishes for Oktoberfest and he gets it awful close to authentic German food.
  

 We were in and out of Munich after visiting BMW and then off to Austria.  Our first stop was Salzburg where the "Sound of Music" was filmed. Its also the birth place of Mozart.

This is the fountain that the kids run around in the Sound of Music

This is the house where Mozart was born. He died a pauper and was dumped in a mass grave. To this day nobody knows where he's actually buried.

After a lighthearted visit to Salzburg we headed for a very somber visit at Matthausen concentration camp.  Matthausen was a work camp which sounds better than a death camp until you realize that the entire point of a work camp is to squeeze every last drop of work out of you before you die.

 Official records recognize that at least 100,000 prisoners died in Matthausen.  The "at least" is the scariest part. I heard that prisoner numbers were re-issued multiple times so it is impossible to get an accurate count of how many actually died there.

The long walkway through the prisoner barracks

Toward the end of the war the other camps were emptied and prisoners were relocated to Matthausen.  The barracks were overcrowded with hundreds of more prisoners than they were meant to hold.

This is the Stairs of Death. Prisoners had to carry 45 lb rocks from the quarry below.  Clearly they could have put in a rope and pulley system to get rocks to the top of the cliff but the camp Directors weren't concerned about efficiency or productivity - Matthausen was built to kill people.  You can even tell from the picture that the stairs are not level and are very steep.

This is one of the crematoriums.

This is a memorial to Polish prisoners murdered at Matthausen.  There about a dozen different memorials to different nationalities outside the prison walls.

 After Matthausen we went to Vienna.  Vienna was a very modern, cosmopolitan city.  This is St Steven's church which was built in the 12th century. St Steven's is right in the middle of downtown and up the street there's a McDonald's, a Tiffany's, and a lot of high end shopping.  Downtown Vienna is supposedly some of the most expensive real estate in all of Europe.

 The business that we visited in Vienna was Brodmann's Pianos.  They build high end pianos and speaker systems. The speakers that I'm standing next to cost $22,000 - EACH.

 In Vienna we got to visit several palaces.  This is the Belvedere. It was built by some Duke that defeated Napoleon and became a national hero.

The most amazing palace was Schönbrunn. It was the home of the Imperial Family which reigned from about 900 AD until the end of WWI.

Foreign Business Excursion: ROME!

Before I could complete my MBA I had to go on a trip. Apparently, they don't let you graduate unless you abandon your family for two weeks and leave the country. At least the try and make it sound boring by calling it the "Foreign Business Excursion". The options for the trip were: Europe, Asia, or the Middle East.  I chose Europe and have no regrets. While my other classmates got to ride on elephants and enjoy the odd masochism of a Turkish bath I got to see Vatican City, Roman ruins, the Mona Lisa, and the Tower of London.  Our first stop on the trip was ROME and it was better then I could have imagined. 

On our first day we went to the Vatican museum. It was gallery upon gallery of ancient Roman sculptures, Renaissance art and Medieval tapestries.           

Above is the Parthenon.  It was a Roman temple to all the Gods. I learned that any Roman buildings that survived only survived if they had been converted into Christian churches. That's the case with the Parthenon.  On the outside it is an ancient Pagan temple.  On the inside its a Roman Catholic chapel.

The day after I got back from the trip "Angels and Demons" was on tv.  It was pretty cool to recognize the scenes in the Parthenon and throughout Rome.

The Colosseum was far bigger than I imagined.  I knew it was big but it rivals most college football stadiums today.  It could seat 60,000 and had a retractable awning to create shade.

BYU stadium seats 67,000 but has no awning - if you're in the east stands you're blinded for 1/2 the game.

Another thing I didn't know before visiting the Colosseum - it's oval.  For gladiator matches they would fill the field with sand. The Latin word for sand is ARENA which is why we call the center of sports stadium the arena.  Gladiator matches are very expensive so when Rome fell, nobody could pay to maintain the Colosseum.  During the middle ages it was stripped down for building supplies.  During the Renaissance a pope dedicated as a memorial to all the Christian martyrs who did in the arena which really saved it from total destruction.

To commemorate their victories the Romans built huge arches throughout the city. Only 3 are left. This one commemorates the victory of Emperor Titus over the Jerusalem.  In the close up picture you can see a depiction of the Jews being forced to carry the Menorah from the temple through Rome.

To commemorate their victories the Romans built huge arches throughout the city. Only 3 are left. This one commemorates the victory of Emperor Titus over the Jerusalem.  In the close up picture you can see a depiction of the Jews being forced to carry the Menorah from the temple through Rome.

1.  After seeing the sites of Rome we were able to go back to Vatican City and see St. Peter's Basilica.  We opted to take the stairs to the top of the dome and it was an adventure. As you get higher and higher in the Dome the hallway gets narrower and narrower.  The picture on the left is of a rope in a spiral staircase. The staircase was too narrow and steep for a handrail so they hung a rope.

This is on the top of St Peter's below the dome. This isn't even the top - we went back in and went even higher.  The view from the top of the dome was unbelievable.  You could see all across Rome.  

Hiking to the top of the dome took awhile.  And of course I had to make my way back down too. I hurried out of the church to catch up with my group when I realized I hadn't seen the "Pieta".  You can't go to Vatican City and miss Michelangelo's greatest sculpture!  I rushed back in and snapped a couple of pictures. If I ever get back to Rome I definitely want to take my time and enjoy the Pieta.