There are so many places in Europe I want to see, it's hard to pick what to see when. With no better ideas, I looked at Metallica's tour itinerary and saw that Paris and Amsterdam were near each other physically and in the tour. That's 1 week, two awesome cities, and 3 concerts (2 in Paris)! Who could beat that?
Having gone to bed at 3am due to packing and printing info and maps I was pretty tired getting up at 8am to wash the dishes, shower, and get out the door.
Arriving in the airport, I b-line for Starbucks. Sadly, I still can't figure out how to get what I want at Starbucks in Europe. Usually I go for the "cafe americano" which is a shot of espresso in cup of hot water. And no, that's not the same thing as drip coffee. This time I ordered a "cafe milk" and got a latte. Tasty, but not what I want.
Heading off to passport control, the passport officer also explained that if I show my permit I don't get a stamp but if I don't, I get one. For future reference.
The flight was bumpy, but I had a row to myself (I was the only one who did, I think). Arriving in Amsterdam one thing is immediately obvious: there are Scottish folks everywhere. Everywhere you look is kilts! I wonder if I somehow flew to the wrong country, but no, I'm clearly in Amsterdam. Hmmmm.
I got the "easy train to Amsterdam" ticket (names like this are helpful!), and then asked about the infamous "strip ticket" for the buses and trams. Apparently the transportation folks do not sell such transportation tickets and I was told to get in the book store next door. Done.
At the Central Amsterdam train station I spent a few minutes figuring out which way to my hotel and walked the 3 or so blocks. The streets in the red light district are a laid out a bit odd, but once you find a point of reference it's not so bad.
I had booked the room when it was going to be just me, but a friend of mine ended up deciding to join me (a day later) at the last second. To protect the guilty, I will refer to him as Publius, which I found randomly on a list of pseudonyms. So I was a bit disturbed to find the room was the size of a closet and the bed was a single. This place was smaller than my hotel room in Reading!
Of particular amusement was how tiny the trash can was. Check this shit out, it's the size of my shoe!
After I dropped my stuff off it was already almost 5pm. The Rijksmuseum was open until 8. The paper I had for the Van Gogh museum didn't list times, so I called them - 10. Thus I headed to the Van Gogh Museum as a safer bet. Got there around 6pm, and spent a while trying to find the door. This marvelous building labeled as the Van Gogh museum has no clear entrance:
As it turns out the building next door is the one with the door - but you're at the back of this building when looking at the building above. Here you can see the door and the view down the street.
It being a museum and all you can't take pictures, but I was highly entertained by the golf hole picture in the urinal and snuck a picture, just for you, my loyal readers.
I spent from 6pm - 7:30pm there. There was a temporary "Van Gogh and the Night time" or some such exhibition which explored his love of night. I found this really interesting. I then checked out their permanent collection. While I found the exhibitions quite interesting, it turns out I'm not a huge Van Gogh fan. I do have a new favorite Van Gogh: Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette. When I got it out, it had gotten dark, I snapped a photo and then headed off to the hotel. When I got back to the central station near my hotel, I took two pictures of the train station at night. They're hard to see in the thumbnail below, but look kinda cool if you click on them. The first picture below is the Van Gogh Museum, and the other two are the train station.
I dropped my stuff off at the hotel and then went wondering around in search of dinner. At first I desired to find "Dutch food" but after realizing that not only did I not know what Dutch food was, there was nothing around that seemed to resemble anything that might in fact be Dutch food. So I settled on something interesting that I was unlikely to find in Zurich.
A nearby pub called the "Green Light District" had an "Italian burger" with mozzarella and pesto on it. This seemed interesting, and I can't get a decent burger in Zurich, plus the place looked casual and not too busy. I grabbed a seat at the bar, ordered a drink and asked for a menu, knowing full well what I was going to order. The burger was pretty good, though with no discernible pesto on it. Two friends from northern England were sitting next to me and I spoke to them and the bartender for a while. She was about my age, he could have been our father; they were both cool. After a few drinks I headed to the hotel early (a little after 9:30) to catch up on a bit of sleep.
After traveling so much with Josh before moving to Switzerland, it was hard to get used to solo travel again. But it's always been something I enjoy and I'm growing accustomed to it again. It's also nice to be in a country where everyone speaks fluent English (even though it's not their first language).
I got up around 8:30, went across the street to one of the pubs open for breakfast and had an omelet and then it was off to the Rijksmuseum. It was raining and miserable. I got there around 10, but stood in line for about 45 minutes, in the rain.
Once inside I was presented with two choices for an audio tour. There was the traditional tour, and then the "alternative artistic" tour. I asked what the alternative one was. Instead of speaking about most things and from a historical perspective, this one was from the famous painter/actor/director Jeroen Krabbé who is a big fan of the Rijksmuseum. He would talk about his favorites why he liked them and why he thought they were important. I chose this one and was very happy. It was very cool. His passion for the work was really infectious.
I got out of there around 1:30pm and called Publius to see if he'd landed. I left a voice mail and then considered getting a hot dog at the "Real American Hot Dog" stand. Instead, I decided to walk around a bit. I went over to the museum gift shop and saw a print of "Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette" and was going to buy it but realized I should eat first. Surveying the food options, which were all pretty much hot dogs and the like, I decided on the Real American Hot Dog stand. Satiated, I spent some time in the park between the Rijks and Van Gogh museums which had a huge Amsterdam sign.
The sky was so gorgeous that I laid on a bench and took some pictures.
I then purchased the print and headed back to the hotel. Publius called on my way back, he had just landed. I dropped some stuff off at the hotel and then went to go walk around the stores by the train station and wait for Publius. When he called me he was actually at the hotel room! Oops. I headed back, let him in and then we went out to go do a canal tour. It was about 30 minutes and covered some pretty cool parts of Amsterdam.
I have to take a moment - and give a separate section - to the FAIL sights we saw.
Of course, what trip would be complete with out a trip to the Museum of Bags & Purses!?
Thanks to Publius for both the FAIL and bags pictures. The rest of these were buildings that were either significant or just looked cool, but I don't remember what each one is.
A few gay jokes and 30 minutes on a boat later, we headed back to dropped off our stuff and then across town for dinner at Zwaantje, the place my friend Phil Pennock who used to live in the Netherlands recommended. We crossed a square full of football (soccer) fans. As it turns out the Scots were there for the big Holland-Scotland game. Heineken bottles and cans where everywhere, the places was nuts. A Scott in a kilt had climbed up a very flimsy tree and flashed everyone on this way down. The whole scene was nuts, pardon the pun.
At the restaurant we had fantastic food - I had a pork filet in peanut sauce. Lots of kids had birthdays and they would bring out a cupcake with an insane sparkler on it that looked like a half-stick of dynamite. That would so never fly in the US, but it was awesome.
Then we headed out and went to the "cafe" near the hotel Publius and his wife stayed at and bought 2 joints. I'm fairly certain we got ripped off because neither of us felt anything. We went out drinking, walking around, looking at the prostitutes and such. We decided to check out a "Live Sex Show" for 30 Euros that was just horrible. Some highlights included a girl who could smoke a cigar with her pussy, two girls appearing to fool around but chatting and laughing instead, a monkey with a dick, and a girl who could do stripper moves with two glass dildos inside of her which looked much more painful than hot. There was pretty much no point at which this was a turn on. It was just odd.
After the sex show we decided to go to a sex museum. It was moderately interesting. I got a good picture though.
Knowing I never turn down a good dare, Publius dared me to find out much the prostitutes were, but I wanted a drink first. So we went into a bar, watched a bit of the Scotland v Holland game, and then went out and I asked several girls how much. Publius didn't see me the first time. And the second time didn't believe the number. But it's 50 Euros to get laid. I asked many times, and we confirmed with a few guys who had used the services. Tempting. Seriously. But no. We found another bar which was painfully loud, had a drink and then called it a night.
We got up fairly early and headed towards the Anne Frank House. We were looking for some fast breakfast and stopped by McDonald's and Publius was very excited by his bacon and egg McMuffin. We passed some really nice scenes on our way.
And this is the actual house.
We stood in line for maybe 30 minutes at the Anne Frank house before getting in. It was very good and very moving. Your initial reaction is a bit odd - it's not as small as you expect it to be. But then you realize that 4 families were living there which makes it incredibly small.
We then decided to head back to the Dutch House of Pancakes, taking pictures along the way.
Along the way we passed a big church which was temporarily a museum of religion and spirituality in modern art. We bummed around the gift store for a bit and Publius got fascinated by a singing bowl. Then, as luck would have it, we found a pancake place on our way to the Dutch House of Pancakes and headed in for food. I must say it was some of the worst service I've ever had. Everything we asked for was a chore for her. And a small kid of like 5 brought us the check after 30 minutes of sitting around. Horrible. We then headed off to find the Cuyp Flea Market. It was really quite difficult to find, but once we found it, it turned out it was closed on Sundays. So then we tried to find the flower market, this time it was up to Publius.
Having not succeeded at consuming cannabis in any useful way yesterday, but not wanting to again smoke, we decided to pick up a pot brownie, or as they're affectionately known in Amsterdam, a "space cake." We picked one up at a cafe and headed off to find this flower market. We failed to find the market, completely, but just walked around randomly and found this cool arch.
At this point it had been about 45 minutes since our space cake - the allotted time - and neither of us felt anything. We decided to head back. By the time we got back it had been an hour and a quarter and we were supposed to have felt something after 45 minutes, so we assumed maybe we got ripped off again and bought another "space cake" on our way to drop our bags off. This, as it would turn out, was a bad move. Publius had started to feel something while we were having the second one, I didn't start to feel anything until we were in the hotel room. The laughy bits ended pretty quickly. We both agreed that it was kind of annoying to have your body laughing when your mind isn't. After a while we headed out as Publius starting having paranoid moments. As we walked around to find a bar falling further into our respective lack of realities, we took a picture under the "cockring" club. At first, some guy with a bicycle refused to get out of the way for no apparent reason, but eventually did.
And that was about the last thing either of us clearly and accurately remember. From here the night gets fuzzy. We tried to find a bar but were tripping hard at this point. After we may or may have not been hit by a car, I became lucid enough to just throw us into the nearest bar. Publius offered to buy drinks for a table of Scots but I pulled us over to the bar after they were fucking with him: "Whats your name? Horny. Harry? Horny. Horby? Horny..." and so on. We sat at the bar having our trip for a while. There was a occasional conversation about how we weren't ordering, what we might order, that we were still weren't ordering. Mostly neither of us had control enough to put together all the actions required to result in us getting drinks in exchange for money. With both came in and out of reality at various rates. At one point I distinctly recall feeling a lot like a couch, and then the color blue. At some point I observed, "Somewhere in the universe two douchebags are sitting in a bar, not ordering anything." This was, and continues to be a profoundly funny and yet accurate statement. I also observed I felt a lot like one in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy felt after the "Infinite Improbability Drive" which is, I think, where I got the sofa. Eventually, and out of nowhere, I abruptly ordered 2 cokes, to which Publius exclaimed, "Oh, execution!" and we sat there until I had realized my brain was "rebooting," for lack of a better term, over and over and I couldn't stop it. That's when things went from fun to not-so-fun. I started to panic because it might not ever stop - what if I was in a permanent trip? It was horrifying. Though its hard to panic when every 30 seconds your brain reboots and you have to figure out whats going on again. I had no control over my body or much of the time even my thoughts. I knew I couldn't get home. Finally Publius got us back to the hotel by some miracle and we just kinda laid in bed trying unsuccessfully to enjoy the high.
Then the weirdest thing happened. We turned on the TV and I recognized everything. Every movie, every show, I'd seen. No matter what it was, my brain told me I'd seen it before. Everything that happened I'd go "I knew that was going to happen" in my head - it was all familiar. Publius finally proved that I didn't by asking me what was going to happen and I never knew. That freaked me out even more - I couldn't trust the information coming from my own brain! Finally I turned off the TV and eventually calmed down. We had decided to try not to go to sleep, but then I decided that was better so fell in and out of sleep for a while. We started doing regular time checks, and it made me feel a lot better to know that it was still early (6:15, 6:30, 6:45, etc.). We did those through 10pm or so at which point I think both decided we should get whatever was left in our system out (I'd suggested it about 8 but we'd decided it was too late - clearly we changed our mind). We both threw up and then caught periodic 15 minute stretches of sleep. From them on things got very gradually better. I woke up periodically throughout the night in varying stages of reality. Around 2am I finally passed out for good. At 8am I woke up to actual reality for the first time and was very relieved.
We got up around 9, showered, packed, and headed back to the pub I had breakfast at the same place I did on Saturday for the first food in about 21 hours. After breakfast we went to go find the bar we were at the night before and to take pictures of the corner at which we may or may not have been almost run over by a car.
We think we were safely on the sidewalk but the car slowed down and we both just freaked out but weren't actually in danger. But I remember the car coming towards us and perhaps being in the middle, and Publius remembers pulling me back, but I remember him doing that well after we had gotten back on the curb. It was weird. We both remember being in danger, but putting together the facts, I don't think we ever were. Off to the train station we went. In front of the train station while Publius called his wife, I observed this awesomeness.
We arrived in Rotterdam only to find out the stupid strip tickets that are supposed to be good for all public transportation except trains throughout the Netherlands... aren't good on the metro. Lame. We each bought a one-way metro ticket and headed to our hotel. Walking outside the metro station we were facing our hotel, it was directly in front of the metro station! We checked in, went upstairs and discovered a vastly nicer hotel room. Two beds, a couch, TV, huge bathroom, kitchenette, and lots of space. Best of all, we had our own beds!
We went out and got some schwarma pizza (yes, you read that right) for lunch then went back and watched A-Team and some other random TV before heading out to the venue. The venue was in walking distance from the hotel which was fantastic. We got there just before 4. You can see IPOM for my review of the concert.
After the show, we headed out to go find food. Sadly nothing seemed to be open, but Publius swore he saw a McDonalds sign near the hotel. After much looking around, we realized it was a Metro "M", which as you can see below (this one's from Paris, but they're identical) doesn't look much like a McDonalds M.
The only thing open was of course schwarma. So, more schwarma it was, then by a convenience store to grab some ice cream. Then back to the hotel to watch a bit of TV, take a shower, and get to bed.
Up at a nasty 7:50 for my 9:30 train. Got dressed, packed, made myself coffee, etc. Then I headed down just after 9 thinking that we were right next to central station, forgetting we weren't. Got to the train station at 9:20 for my 9:30 train, and made it. While waiting for the train, I saw a girl wearing a shirt from the show, so we chatted. She's Dutch, but living in Paris and couldn't get Paris tickets so she came up for the show in Rotterdam. I sat next to her until I realized it was a reserved-seat train and then headed off to my seat.
Once in Paris I tried to get a "week card," but after waiting in line for 20 minutes was told I needed a photo and while I could have gotten one at the booth was unwilling to wait in line again. Instead I got a one-way metro ticket at the machine and headed to my hotel. I was staying right next to the Bastille. I found my hotel and checked in. It was even smaller than the Amsterdam hotel, if that's possible, and definitely less well kept up. Although, at least there was water pressure in the shower (which had only hand-held shower head and no holder for it).
I called my friend Vero who would be my Tour Guide for the next two days and we agreed to meet at Bastille. I walked back there took a ton of pictures and then and found a crepe place - I was starving and it was around 2pm. I ordered a ham and cheese one but got a cheese one which I accepted without argument.
I ate my crepe, and Vero showed up as I was finishing. We went straight to the Champs-Élysées, starting at the end with the Arc de Triomphe.
We stopped at various pretty buildings and expensive shops.
In particular we stopped at this very famous restaurant. In addition to being one of the most expensive in Paris, it's apparently there the (current?) President requested his first meal, or something like that.
We then stopped in the Peugeot car store to check out their cool concept cars!
I was very surprised to see a Virgin Megastore, which I thought had gone out of business.
We stopped about half way where the Alexander III bridge is and headed down it to the armory museum or something at the other side.
A few more pictures of the amazingness that is the Champs Elysees.
We got to the end of the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde with The Obelisk of Luxor. The Obelisk, in addition to lots of Egyptian hieroglyphs also has, at its base, pictures and a description of how it was transported.
At the other side of the Place de la Concorde is a park in front of the Louvre. We walked through this park and sat down to relax for a bit.
We then stopped in front of the Louvre - possibly the largest building I've ever seen. Its just unimaginably huge!
As you can see, I really was there!
We then walked through the Louvre (not inside, but through the middle of the building which is open), and then stopped at a cafe for some soda. After chatting and people-watching we headed to Notre Dame. Here's picture of something along the way I don't even vaguely recall.
I snapped a few pictures of the famous cathedral.
At this point it was time for Vero to go to dinner with her boyfriend for his birthday. I headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a bit before heading out in search of dinner around 8:30. I found a pizza place right on the Bastille square and watched people walk by while I had a damn good pizza with an egg on it (an egg!). On my way home I stopped in an icecream shop where they take various flavors of icecream and make a tulip on the cone. Wow, I love Paris. Satiated and tired, I headed to the hotel for sleep.
But, on my way home, I was entertained by this "walk-thru" McDonalds. For countries where driving isn't that common, I guess.
Up at an ungodly 7:30 to shower and get ready. Vero met me around 9:30 at the Eiffel Tower - bless her for getting up early and schlepping around with me. Went up to the second floor - 668 stairs up. We took pictures enjoyed the scenes, read all the various bulletins about what we were looking at, and then headed the 668 stairs back down. There's a lot of pictures here, and in particular you will find pictures of me (I really was there!) as well as my beautiful and awesome tour guide.
Once again, I have photograph evidence I was there - as well as a picture of my lovely tour guide.
And more photos...
Next up was Vero's favorite restaurant for lunch which is near her school. But on our way we got on the new people mover in some station or another that moves 9 kph! That's about 5.6mph! It has a whole carefully designed entrance to help you get up to speed.
We got there around 11:40, but they weren't serving until noon, so we sat in the restaurant and chatted. I had an interesting dish of cured ham on potato slices which was really good, she had a salad with cured ham, potatoes and a few other things. French food's pretty good, so far. For desert I had a, get this, Floating Island and she had caramel cream (flan).
Then it was off to Montmartre a "very Paris" area that Vero is quite fond of. They have portrait artists, street vendors, and cafes and pubs and the like. Oh, and a huge massive staircase you have to walk up. Because we like stairs, goddamnit.
We walked around there for a while and then saw Sacred Heart church and went inside. This area is apparently where most of the Emile movie takes place.
Then we walked down to the red light district, saw the infamous Moulin Rouge.
Back to Montmartre it was, where we had a soda at a cafe. Then we headed back to the Champs Elysees for our last hour or so.
We stopped to chat a bit in the Louvre Gardens and I took a picture of a piece of art I was determined to figure out what it was. On our way out, we saw a plaque on a nearby wall though.
Then I headed off to the show and she headed home. My review of the concert, as always, will be posted at IPOM. After the show I found my way back to Bastille and went looking for food. Quite a few things were open but the first place that made crepes didn't look like they were interested in making them. At the second one I decided I'd rather have McDs. I stood in line at McDs for 10 minutes without moving - and there were only 2 people in front of me - so I got pissed and went back to the second place. I've started to realize that "fast food" isn't nearly so fast outside of the US. After my fantastic ham and cheese crepe I felt much better. Then I ordered a "nutella coco" crepe. Disappointingly, coco isn't chocolate, it's coconut. When he handed it to me I went to leave and he told me I had to eat it there!?! WTF? So I ate half and then left to get some sleep for I had another full day of sightseeing ahead.
By the time I woke up at 9am Vero was already at the airport and probably on a plane on her way to the US. So today I was on my own. My first stop was Notre Dame.
I took my time walking around Notre Dame and enjoying the art.
Then I decided to pay the 4 or 5 Euros for the treasury tour. There wasn't as much back there as you'd expect, but it as very cool. I particularly liked the preserved bone.
I snapped a few pictures of the stunning reliefs on the outside as I left.
At this point I found my way around to the side to do the "tower tour" (go up in the towers). However the tower tour didn't have access to the top between 11:30 and 2:30 and it was 12:15. So I decided now would be a good time for lunch.
The French know how to do hot dogs! With cheese! And yes, they call them hot dogs. Then I walked around the perimeter of the cathedral - the other sides are also amazing! The pink door is totally out of place and amused me.
Next up, while waiting for the towers to open was the crypt. The entrance is on the far end of the courtyard and while its clearly marked once you find it, it's actually a bit difficult to find. I have to admit that while cool, this was probably the least interesting thing I saw. Crypt is kinda the wrong word. It's ruins from the original Notre Dame found underground.
Still well too early to go to the top of the Notre Dame towers, I headed down to the Pantheon which was reasonably near by. On the way I passed a very cool looking church which was apparently the Saint Severin church.
The Pantheon is a very impressive building!
Once inside it's only more impressive. The sheer space borders on intimidating. It's not heated, so the chill from the marble adds to the feeling.
But my favorite thing was this experiment that proved the world was rotating. This pendulum swings and you can see the time of day based on which way it's swinging. This works, in fact, because the world is rotating causing the pendulum to swing differently at different times creating a clock.
In addition to this, there was a lot more really amazing art. I'm a bit partial to the 6th one below - the group of mostly naked women. =)
The Pantheon also has a crypt. Indeed many famous French folks are buried there, but I don't know who any of them are. Nonetheless, this was a real crypt and quite cool to see.
Outside, I took a few more pictures of the amazing reliefs and to show the size.
Outside there was some very large protest I didn't understand. I think it had something to do with students and probably the university across from the Pantheon, but I don't know.
On my way back to Notre Dame I saw another cool looking church...
Got back to Notre Dame around 3 and there was quite a line for the towers which I proceeded to wait in, after buying a crepe to help pass the time. It was a long away up - another 400 or so stairs. But it was very cool. In particular the gargoyles and the bell were really cool.
I was considering heading back to the Champs Elysees or maybe somewhere else, but decided to rest at a cafe first. This very cool scene was on my way to the nearest cafe.
I found a nice cafe and had some creme brule and a coke. I was exhausted from the walking and stairs. The view of folks was great.
I was thinking of going to the Champs Elysees, but I was sore and tired and had another concert to go to tonight. Plus, when I went to the restroom, I noticed that a bird had shat on my sleeve while I was at the cafe. I decided to go home, change, and relax a bit.
Back at the hotel I took a nap from about 5:30 to 6:30, then left for the concert, which, as always, you can find the review of at IPOM.
This time for dinner I stopped at the McDonalds near my, not the one in the Bastille square, hoping for faster service. Alas, it was slower. I was in line (in the "walk-thru" line pictured above), for more than 20 minutes. But alas I got my food, went home and checked my email while I ate. Still quite awake, I took a shower before heading to bed around 1:30am.
I got up at a painful 7:30 to pack, check out, and head to the Louvre!
I stopped by the bakery for a pain au chocolate and coffee and took down the name of the pizza place and bakery I'd been going for Vero. Attempting to lug along luggage and coffee I descended into the subway.
I got to the Louvre around 9:30 (they open at 9). Fortunately there was no line, though I darted in front of a huge school group about to get in line. I was very excited to walk in through the famous pyramid!
They had full airport security, and after getting my luggage scanned, I found the coat/bag which was surprisingly well equipped to handle all my luggage. They asked me to take out all valuables - specifically mentioning passports - so I removed my passport, work permit, etc, and carried it all with me.
I acquired a ticket and then an audio tour. I didn't plan on actually doing any tours, but simply using it to get information on particular pieces I was interested in. I picked a wing and headed on my way. The wing I was in had the Mona Lisa, which I wanted to get out of the way before the crowds got too big, so that was fortunate. I was surprised that photography was allowed. While some sign had mentioned that flash was not allowed, everyone was using flash and none of the museum staff was saying anything. I found this incredibly surprising given the value of the art here.
The Mona Lisa is disappointing in size - but not as much as people make out. The real disappointment is how far away from it they keep you - there's already a wooden railing keeping you about 2 feet from it, but they set up another barrier about another 5 feet out from there, which makes it hard to actually take a close look at it. Given its small size, being so far away was quite disappointing.
Directly across from the Mona Lisa was an amazing piece that took up the whole wall. I spent quite a lot of time on it. There was so much to see.
The ceilings were particularly amazing. It was a bit hard to take a decent picture of it, but I tried. There were also several artists attempting to copy various pieces.
Unfortunately, I was very tired and sore from a week of walking and sightseeing, late concerts, early mornings, and hundreds of stairs. That's not the greatest state to see art in, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless.
I have to say the Louvre is huge. Way more massive than you can imagine. The place is unfathomably big. I did 3 of the 4 floors, and I was moving quite quickly. One could easy spend most of the day just on one floor.
I stopped for lunch before deciding to try the "highlights" tour on my audio guide. This was only about an hour and was a great choice. It has 3 main pieces including the Mona Lisa while mentioning a few other pieces while your in transit between these. Here's some pictures from that path.
I tried to be somewhat organized in how I made my way through the museum, but it's a bit difficult after zig-zagging through the place for the tour. Personally I enjoyed the sculptures much more than the paintings. I especially enjoyed the underground base of the original building above. Here are some more pieces that caught my eye.
This next piece really blew me away.
Look at that veil! That's freakin' stone!! It really looks like a veil over the stone you can see through. It's unreal! Click on that picture and take a moment with it. Moving on...
That cupid really made me smile. The picture doesn't capture it well, but he has the most evil smile!
Being a fan of the female form, this piece was particularly inspiring.
And this one was just really beautiful.
The big open space below one of the smaller pyramids was one of my favorite spaces.
On the whole, the sculpture was much more amazing than the paintings for me. I took a few breaks due to tiredness and soreness, but basically walked the museum from 9:30 until 4:30.
At that point I took a few moments in the lobby under the pyramid to just soak up the amazingness.
A few final pictures outside were in order...
Then I got my luggage and headed towards the train station. I acquired a snack and waited for my train home.
What a terrific trip. I partied in Amsterdam. I caught 3 Metallica shows. I climbed the Eiffel Tower. I walked along the Champs Elysees. I saw Notre Dame and Moulin Rouge. I was shown around the city and to real French restaurants by a friend/amazing person/local. I got to spend a whole day in the Louvre. If that's not an action-packed vacation, I don't know what is!