On October 12 I stopped eating all refined sugar and flour. I went cold turkey, which for me is usually pretty easy. I just set my mind and say ‘from this day forward’… and then I do it. But I was not prepared for how difficult this would be.

What precipitated my decision was the evening of October 11 I ate 4 cookes while reading a book. Within 5 minutes and while sitting up I took a mini-nap and woke up 10 or 15 minutes later feeling totally wired. Like almost a buzzing sensation. Besides that I noticed for awhile I could easily take 10 naps a day. If I sat down, or laid down to watch TV, I could take a power nap no problem. At least I thought they were power naps. Also for many years I thought I was hypo-glycemic. If I got hungry I would soon feel sweaty and shaky and feel my blood sugar plummet until I ate something.

Anyway, it seemed to me falling asleep immediately after eating sugar was not normal. My internet searches confirmed this, in fact many people with diabetes have this problem. Like mini-diabetic comas.

inside a sugar processing plant in Lousiana

So I made the goal to quit sugar and refined flour for a week and see what happened. But then I began having some pretty major sugar withdrawal symptoms – nausea, night sweats, tiredness, tingling hands, flu-ish symptoms, and worst of all really bad sugar cravings. This all lasted about 2 weeks, with the sugar cravings lasting another 2 or so weeks after that. Also I noticed these last couple weeks some mood swings as my body rid itself of the sugar and got back to normal. I know for sure I have lost some weight, which was definitely not one of my goals.

The withdrawal symptoms were so apparent I decided to keep going with the new diet plan for much longer than a week.

Since I began this I read someplace on the internet that sugar should be considered a drug. It is manufactured, you get addicted to it, when you try to quit you have withdrawal symptoms, and it takes more and more of it to feel the sugar buzz. Eventually it can kill you if you develop diabetes and leave it untreated. They say the withdrawal symptoms are exactly the same as someone withdrawing from a drug addiction, although to a much less degree.

One of the more difficult aspects was figuring out what to eat. I used to eat a lot of granola bars (candy bars in disguise), and even things like sweetened yogurt are loaded with sugar. Then there’s chocolate milk, sweetened soy milk, and ice cream – all of these have a ton of sugar. So besides all the withdrawal symptoms you have to retrain your food choices. This also is pretty tough.

Now that I’m through the whole process there are many benefits. When I’m hungry I’m just hungry. I can be hungry for quite awhile and I have no hypoglycemic effects. My energy level stays constant throughout the day. I don’t need naps anymore. I awake feeling more refreshed. Normal food has a lot more flavor and sweetness all to itself – did you know lettuce is sweet? I think way back somebody knew this which is why the French (and probably other countries) eat their salads at the end of the meal.

Anyway, this was a really tough journey. So much harder than I thought it would be. But I feel so much better now I am going to continue to limit my sugar and refined flour intake.

In yoga, a limiting adjunct is something that limits the mind. In sanskrit it is called an Upadhi.

In Swami Sivananda’s Yoga Vedanta Dictionary he defines it as:

A superimposed thing or attribute that veils and gives a coloured view of the substance beneath it; limiting adjunct; instrument; vehicle; body; a technical term used in Vedanta philosophy for any superimposition that gives a limited view of the Absolute and makes It appear as the relative. Jiva’s Upadhi is Avidya; Isvara’s Upadhi is Maya.

He seems to suggest that an Upadhi is a concept of limitation, that anything that limits the Jiva, or mind can be considered a limiting adjunct.

During the SYVC Teacher Training Course, we are taught that there are three Upadhis – time, space and causation. Admittedly, these would seem to be the “first” limiting adjuncts because a mind can exist only within these dimensions.

First, would arise the concept of space, here vs. there, me taking up space over here, you taking up space over there. Next would be time, if something is here and not there it has to get from here to there and can’t be in both places at once, therefore, it takes time to travel from one place to another. Finally causation, in space and time one thing seems to be the cause of another.

In the relative sense all this is real. In the absolute sense none of it is real.

However, I think the concept of limiting adjunct is more broad than simply time, space and causation. In the book Self-knowledge, Swami Sivananda goes on to explain:

Sense-organs, physical body, mind, Pranas, intellect, etc., are the products of Avidya (nescience). They are Upadhis (limiting adjuncts). Negate them, sublimate them or eliminate them through Vedantic doctrine Neti-Neti (not this, not this). What remains behind, the balance or residue left is Atman or Brahman only.

And also:

Atman is one and the same in all beings. It appears different in different persons on account of the Upadhi or limiting adjunct, Antahkarana (mind). Akasa is one and the same. On account of Upadhis of pot, cloud, room, etc., it is differentiated as Ghata-Akasha (pot-ether), Megha-Akasha (cloud-ether), Mat-Akasha (room-ether), etc. When the Upadhi-pot is destroyed, when the pot is broken, the pot-ether becomes identical with the universal ether. When the Upadhi-Antahkarana is annihilated by Sadhana, the individual becomes identical with the all-pervading consciousness.

I’m pretty sure I also read in another book by Swami Sivananda that the Upadhis of the mind are time, space and causation, and the Upadhis of the Jiva are body, mind and senses. This quote I cannot find. If I find it someday I will post it here – if anybody is familiar with this quote please let me know where it is.

In the meantime if this is an incorrect interpretation based on these quotes, maybe someone who has more knowledge than me can enlighten me to the proper understanding. It seems like depending on your stage of personal evolution you would have more or less limiting adjuncts, and within a person they can vary from day to day depending on your mind set.

I don’t know, seeking answers…

Picasso’s Ma Jolie – creating limiting adjuncts or trying to break through them?

This recipe has graced the table at many AYA events. It is super simple and we use fresh ingredients as much as possible. Hope you like it as much as we do:

1 lb cheese tortellinis, cooked and cooled

2 cups artichoke hearts

1 tblsp lemon juice

1 cup pitted olives, chopped, sliced or whole

1/2 cup parsley

5-6 roma tomatoes chopped (or any other variety, total about 1 lb)

1 cup radicchio chopped

3 tblsp balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves chopped

Prepare everything and stir it together. It is best to let it sit for a little while before serving so it flavors through. It is still good if you increase or decrease amounts of the things you like or don’t like. Enjoy!

My daughter started her own tie dye tshirt business on Etsy.com.They are the best tie-dye shirts ever, not kidding. She does each one by hand with professional dye with the original method of actually tying the shirt.

The web address is

DyeAndGoToHeaven.etsy.com

Here’s some examples, but you can see them all at her website:

Here is a quote from “Yoga and Kriya” by Swami Satyananda on the yogic meaning of awareness:

When you do asanas and pranayama, as well as meditational techniques … the emphasis should be on awareness. This awareness implies that your attention is directed to a specific function or activity. It means that your attention is on something specific, perhaps breath, and that you simultaneously know that your attention is on that particular activity. In other words, if you are aware of your breath it means that you know that you are breathing and that you are witnessing the breathing process. You are standing back and watching something that is occurring within you. It is the first step up the ladder to higher awareness. You are becoming a witness to all the activities of the body. This will lead eventually to the ability to  witness the actions of the mind and then gradually the deeper aspects of mind which you may now think impossible.

This is the essence of awareness – the fact that you know that you are doing something and that you are observing the action. If you move the body and at the same time don’t realize that your body is moving and simultaneously observe the movement, then you are not aware. To be a witness is to be aware. To be totally lost, involved and identified with an action is to be unaware.

The other day I was looking out the window at my fence and I had the nonsequitous idea that I bet I could go the rest of my life and never buy another writing pen or pencil. The reason being there must be billions of them floating around out there and if I tried I could probably acquire 10 new pens a week without much effort. Besides that I know we must have hundreds of pens and pencils around here.

We counted.

Sandra had around 120 pens and pencils in her desk. She doesn’t hoard them. She is the most frugal pen/pencil user on the planet. One at a time she uses a pen all the way until it dries up. One at a time she uses a pencil until it is a 1″ nub. She has accumulated them for years as we had to buy required amounts of school supplies every year that never got used up. We don’t buy the required supplies anymore.

I had 63 pens and pencils in my desk including rollerball pens. To my credit 10 pens and 20 pencils were still in the boxes from when I bought them at the 10 pens for a dollar (and 20 pencils for a dollar) back to school sale. I like office supply stores. That’s my excuse.

In the end Nicole never counted because her pens and pencils tend to be spread all over the house and are more of a challenge to count. She already uses pens and pencils as she finds them and they come and go.

Anyway, I told Sandra that since she turns 18 in about 2 weeks she should make the resolution to see if she can go her whole adult life and never buy a pen or pencil. After some discussion she said I should start this as well on her 18th birthday.

Then followed about 2 hours of discussion proposing “what if” scenarios and ground rules. What if rollerball pens are on sale for 1 penny? Or two pennies? Or three pennies? What if someone gives you a gift of a pen or pencil? What about art pens or pencils? What about refillable leads? Is it ok to collect them, or just use the ones that come to you? And on and on… .

Anyway, we took the challenge. If you would like to join us in our never-buy-another-writing-pen-or-pencil-for-the-rest-of-my-life-challenge you are welcome to.

After we made the commitment, we counter-intuitively went to the art supply store so Sandra could buy the last pen of her life. We started early but the official challenge start date is September 16.

Recently I discovered Roger Ebert’s blog. I think most people know who he is, but in case you don’t, he used to have a TV show where he and his partner Siskel rated movies. Roger Ebert got cancer and got to where he couldn’t talk. Now he types. His blog is really good.

On August 20 he wrote a piece about the health care debate that pretty much sums up what I think. He called it “I’m Safe on Board. Pull up the Life Rope” . I like how he fights back against the christians who like to hide behind their religion while proclaiming their morality. You know, the ones who don’t walk their talk.

Anyway, I’m copying the text here in it’s entirety. You can click the links above to find his original entry.

——————————————————

I’m Safe on Board. Pull up the Life Rope – by Roger Ebert

Having read through some 600 comments about universal health care, I now realize I took the wrong approach in my previous blog entry. I discussed the Obama health plan in political, literal, logical terms. Most of my readers replied in the same vein. The comments, as always, have been helpful, informative and for the most part civil. My mistake was writing from the pragmatic side. I should have followed my heart and gone with a more emotional approach. I believe universal health care is, quite simply, right.

It is a moral imperative. I cannot enjoy health coverage and turn to my neighbor and tell him he doesn’t deserve it. A nation is a mutual undertaking. In a democracy, we set out together to do what we believe is good for the commonwealth. That means voluntarily subjecting ourselves to the rule of law, taxation, military service, the guaranteeing of rights to minorities, and so on. That is a cheap price to pay.

As I’ve read through of those comments (and I’ve posted all but two I received), one thing jumped from the page at me: The unusually high number of comments from other countries. Canadians were particularly well-represented. Although we’re assured by opponents of the Obama legislation that Canada’s system of universal care is a failure, all of these Canadians, without exception, reported their enthusiasm for their nation’s system. One reader said her mother choose to fly to California to get a knee replacement more quickly, but even she praised the Canadian system.

They said reports of waiting times may be true with semi-elective surgeries, like hip or knee replacement, especially in more populous areas. But they’re able to see a physician with a minimal wait in cases of need. They are treated quickly and competently, at very little cost other than personal expenses and the graduated scale of quarterly premium payments. Similar messages came from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Greece and Germany. Everyone is pleased.

But that, too, is an argument to reason. What so many of these messages also made was an argument to morality. They were astonished that the United State is alone among all developed nations in refusing such coverage to its citizens. A Canadian wrote that it benefits his entire society that its citizens have access to universal care. By making preventative medicine freely available, it lowers the cost of chronic illness. By making early diagnosis possible, it prevents many diseases from reaching a fatal stage. By making mental health care and medication available to those who need it (and who are often unemployable), it avoids the American system where many such people are abandoned to the streets or to the care of their overtaxed families.

Many of my readers opposed the Obama plan, some of them in great detail. I will not try to simplify their arguments; you can read them for yourself. But here, in broad outline, are some of their most common statements, and my responses:

It is “socialized medicine.” Yes, it is. The entire society shares the cost. It does not replace private medicine. Just as in the UK and Canada, for example, we would remain free to choose our own insurance policies and private physicians. But it is the safety net for everyone.

It is “socialism.” Again, yes. The word socialism, however, has lost its usefulness in this debate. It has been tainted, perhaps forever, by the malevolent Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who succeeded somehow in linking it with the godless Commies. America is the only nation in the free world in which “socialism” is generally thought of in negative terms. The only nation in which that word, in and of itself, is thought to bring the discussion to a close.

It is wrong for ideological or philosophical reasons. Readers have written about their belief in Federalism, Free Market Capitalism, strict Constitutionalism, personal liberty, Libertarianism, and so on. To one of these readers I wrote something like: “Do you think your views on federalism will be of much interest to unemployed wage-earners unable to obtain coverage for their families?” To another, I wrote: “I hope your philosophy will be of comfort if you develop a serious illness.”

One reader said that the only things the Constitution guarantees us are “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” and Congress should enact no laws about anything else. Actually, it’s the Declaration of independence that mentions “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” but never mind. Some might believe universal health care would be of great assistance in enjoying life and the pursuit of happiness. It is a peculiarity that some of those happiest to cite the Constitution are the least interested in its Bill of Rights.

Good health is a responsibility of the individual, not the state. One reader wrote that he doesn’t smoke, drinks in moderation, watches his diet, and exercises regularly. I applaud him. Statistically, this promises him an extended life span. I have never smoked, haven’t had a drink in 30 years, and walked an average of 10,000 steps a day for the five years before I underwent my first cancer surgery. A doctor once told me: “If you never get any other disease, sooner or later you will die of cancer.”

My reader says he neither has nor desires insurance coverage. He will bank his premiums in a savings account dedicated to his own health care, instead of spending them on the care of anyone else. He must have no idea what it costs to have a serious illness in this country. It will take a lot of savings. I’ve been assured by some readers, however, that I’m a rich man and have no financial worries.

A guy gets run over by a bus.

Another guy runs over and says, “Oh my God! Are you comfortable?”

First guy: “I make a living.”

True enough, I’ve earned some nice money in my life–all by paycheck, which is no way to get really rich. Also, I had group health insurance plans through my unions at both jobs. They were good plans. But during the course four major surgeries–no, make that five–I maxed out one, and so much for that policy. I’m approaching the cap on the second. Most policies aren’t unlimited, you know. Luckily, I now qualify for Medicare.

Federal Death panels would decide who lives or dies. This, very frankly, is a lie. The nearest thing we have to a death panel in the United States is an insurance company claims adjuster. Some readers wrote that they or their loved ones were denied tests or treatment by their insurance companies, especially in the case of “pre-existing conditions.” One, who had a brain tumor, says he was denied coverage of the treatment by an adjuster, as if he’d known about the tumor at the time he took out his policy some time earlier. Think about this. Unless we die violently or in an accident, we all die of a pre-existing condition. The condition is called “life.”

The Obama plan, in simplified terms, would make Medicare available to everyone. Yes, even the senior citizen at that Arizona town hall meeting who screamed at his congressman: “Keep the government’s hands off my Medicare!” He didn’t know Medicare is a federal program, and he didn’t want to know.

When I wrote my original entry, I thought there were 40 million uninsured Americans. I’m informed the number is around 47 million. Some readers have informed me: “That number is inflated!” What would be an acceptable number? Thirty million? Twenty million? How many uninsured Americans are you comfortable with?

It seems to me that universal health care is a win-win proposition. It provides an umbrella of protection for those who cannot afford or qualify for health insurance. This helps us all. Every time you learn from the news about our latest jobless statistics, consider this: A newly jobless person who was insured through an employee health plan is about to become a newly uninsured person. It’s for our mutual good that we live in a healthier society. To provide universal coverage is the moral thing to do.

I was informed that my entry was “typical liberalism.” This is correct. I am a liberal. If you are a conservative, this appears to be a difference between us: I think you should have guaranteed health insurance.

Matthew 25: 31-46

31 When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.

32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,

33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.

34 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;

35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

37 Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?

38 And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?

39 And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?”

40 And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;

42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,

43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.”

44 Then they also will answer, “Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?”

45 Then he will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.”

46 And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

One of my favorite TV shows when I was little was Flipper. It was about a wild dolphin who befriended this family and did amazing dolphin stunts for them while enforcing the law, rescuing people at sea and taking care of Sandy and Bud, the two main characters in the show.

Here’s Flipper, actually Flipper was played by 5 different dolphins,
most of the time by a dolphin named Cathy

Sandy and Bud

Ric O’Barry, the trainer who personally caught all the dolphins in the show

The TV-show house which in real life was Ric O’Barry’s house located at Miami Seaquarium

I liked the show so much I wanted to be a marine biologist for awhile. So many people liked the show so much that it started the whole industry of Seaworld and all the other sea aquariums where dolphins and whales put on shows for the public.

The show ran for 3 years and during this time Ric O’Barry got really rich. He was considered the top dolphin trainer in the world.

He said about the show:

I captured the five dolphins that collectively played the part of Flipper. I trained all of them, from the very beginning of the first show to the last show. I lived with all five of them in the Seaquarium. And on Friday nights, at 7:30, I would take the TV set, with a long extension cord, out to the end of the dock, so Flipper could watch Flipper on television. And that’s when I knew they were self-aware. I could tell when the dolphins recognized themselves and each other. Cathy, for example, would recognize the shots she was in, Suzy would recognize her shots, and so on. Dolphins are hard to read, because you have to look at body language. Almost all other animals you can read by looking at their faces. But dolphins have this built-in “smile” that makes it look like they’re always happy.

The truth was, and still is, that dolphins in captivity are miserable. They spike their fish with Tagamet and Maalox to help relieve the pain of their ulcers from the stressful conditions they live under.

Anyway, the turning point for Ric O’Barry came when his favorite “Flipper” dolphin Cathy died. He explains this in the movie The Cove, and here is an excerpt from an interview in New York Entertainment where he explains how.

How did your ideas about captivity turn around?
Cathy died in my arms, of suicide. It was just before Earth Day, 1970. The next day, I found myself in a Bimini jail, trying to free a dolphin for the first time. I completely lost it.

How do you know it was suicide?
You have to understand, dolphins are not automatic air breathers like we are. Every breath for them is a conscious effort. She looked me right in the eye, took a breath, held it — and she didn’t take another one. She just sank to the bottom of the water. That had a profound effect on me.

And now, for the last 30 years, O’Barry has been trying to undo what he basically started. He goes around the world trying to free as many dolphins as he can in as many places as he can and tries to bring as much awareness as possible to the horrors that lie behind these businesses.

Photo from The Cove, produced by the Oceanic Preservation Society

The movie The Cove talks about all of this in general, but focuses mostly on the Japanese city of Taiji, where dolphins are rounded up between September and March in huge numbers.

In these fishing boats they round up the dolphins by putting long metal pipes into the water and banging on the pipes with hammers – because dolphins are hyper-sensitive to sound, and because it is their primary sense, it is easy to herd them in the direction they want

No doubt they want to keep everyone away from the area

The first day the dolphins are caught they are sold to sea aquariums. Trainers and buyers come from all over the world to select the animals they want, usually young females, and pay $150,000 apiece for them.

On the second day, the dolphins who are not sold are rounded up into this cove

Under the cover of darkness they begin to kill EVERY SINGLE DOLPHIN

It’s sick and disgusting. Seriously, what is wrong with humans? To get these photos the team of people working on the movie had to cross over rows of razor wire using night vision goggles and hide cameras in fake rocks so as not to be discovered. Literally they made this movie at risk to their lives.

They kill 23,000 dolphins every year in Taiji, Japan.

After this, the nightmare continues as the dolphin meat is unknowingly sold to the Japanese as whale meat. The allowable level for mercury in fish is .4 parts per million. Dolphin meat from Taiji has a 2000 ppm contamination level of mercury. One of their government plans to get rid of the meat was to give the food to their school children as part of their compulsory school lunch program. In interviews the Japanese public were unaware all this was going on.

Toward the end of the movie O’Barry walked into an International Whaling Commission meeting with a TV strapped to his chest playing a loop of the carnage that goes on in Taiji. A really brave way to stage a peaceful protest.

Anyway, this movie deserves support and the word needs to get out about this. To find out more about what you can do go to takepart.com/thecove .

Ric O’Barry today, who said if he had really been aware of what was going on at the time during the TV show Flipper and where it was all headed, he would have not looked away but would have, and should have, set all the dolphins free

Yesterday we went to see the movie Food, Inc. It’s not exactly a fun light-hearted movie, but on the other hand, if you eat food and live in America you should try to see this movie as soon as possible.

The movie exposes the industrialized food system in America and the effect it has on the environment, our health, the economy and worker’s rights. It ain’t a pretty picture, as they say.

You’ll never look at dinner the same way.

If you don’t know what industrialized food is, it’s mostly everything sold in the middle part of a grocery store that comes in a box. Estimates are there are 47,000 food products in the average supermarket. Most of it is industrialized food that is created in a chemical laboratory and is designed to have long shelf life and never rot. While normal food spoils in a few hours or days if left on a shelf,  industrial food can sit in your pantry for months virtually unchanged and show almost no signs of degradation.

All the following pictures are from the movie.

This is the owner of Polyface Farms, where cows live in and eat grass like they were designed to do.

These are feedlot cows standing in piles of manure. This is where US beef comes from. (Not sure why I could only find a picture like this with the lines across.)

This lady was a Perdue Farms chicken grower. Perdue wanted her to change her barn with the windows to the new type where the chickens live in complete darkness their whole lives. She didn’t want to and ended up losing her contract after allowing the film crews into her chicken barn.

The movie talks about a lot of different topics including high fructose corn syrup, treating chickens, cows and pigs as commodities instead of living, breathing animals, the growing prevalence of E Coli 0157 and it’s relationship to cows eating corn instead of grass, Monsanto, federal farm subsidies, how the ability to buy healthy food in America (ie. not industrialized or fast food) has more to do with economic status than anything else, how all this affects the environment, etc. It’s a pretty bleak picture.

Chickens as commodities: in 1950 it took 68 days to grow a chicken, in 2008 it takes 47 days to grow one that is really huge thanks to hormones and antibiotics. The 2008 chickens can’t stand up because their bones are too weak from growing so fast and having to support so much unnatural weight.

Inside a processing plant.

Then at the end the movie leaves you on a positive note by giving you 10 things you can do to help change this. Some of the most important ones are to buy local, in-season, organic food and reduce your intake of animal flesh.

As they say in the movie, you vote 3 times a day by the food you eat, and consumer choice is the biggest factor by far to make changes in the US food system.

They also provide a web page where you can find out more information about the issues on these and related topics.

A good, thought-provoking movie.

Here is a nice and very rare video of Ramana Maharshi:

So now I have posted all the major events from our trip to Germany and Paris. Here are a few photos that are interesting but didn’t make it into the other posts.

When we were shopping in Frankfurt we stopped to rest on one of the little brick hills around the trees. Right next to us a film crew set up and started filming what looked to be a commercial. It was interesting and we watched them for awhile.

At the Yoga Vidya center in Bad Meinberg they have lots of flat rooftops. They are taking advantage of this and slowly putting solar panels on their roofs. They have some solar panels already and are adding to them. We got to watch their progress day by day from our balcony. This is as far as they got when we left.

When we got to Paris the first night we took a boat ride on the Seine. When we floated past the University of Paris there were all these little quays, or whatever you call them, and people were dancing. We noticed in general lots of people hang out along the Seine at night.

Pont Alexandre III.

When we went to Notre Dame we had to wait in a slow moving line. It eventually paid off because the tour of the towers is much less crowded. While we waited there was this guy in a mask who would go up behind unsuspecting tourists and put his arm around them and when they turned to see who it was, it was quite a shock. Most people were good sports about it and it was hilarious.

Fancy dessert at the Boulangerie.

Another view.

We had a no smoking room at our hotel in Paris. They informed us of this with a notice in an ashtray.

Here’s Sandra looking out the window of our hotel room. You can see a bit of the courtyard. I wondered how old the original structure of the hotel was, and how many times it had been redecorated inside.

When we went to the Eiffel Tower there was a nice park that started right near the base. Along the path there was this mother duck with eight ducklings. For some reason the two pigeons you see at the edges of the photo kept attacking one or another of her babies. And then she would counter-attack. No one could figure out what it was all about but she did have a number of tourists verbally cheering her on as she defended her babies.

On Bastille day they shut down many streets for quite some distance around the Champs-Élysées. This picture is taken at the corner of the Rue de Rivoli where the ferris wheel and the Louvre and the Jardin de Tuileries all come together. If you watch the Tour de France it’s the same corner where the riders come out from underneath the tunnel and turn left onto the Rue de Rivoli. Anyway, we had just eaten breakfast (croissant!) at that little cafè on the corner where we watched these policemen patrolling the shut down Rue de Rivoli. Seriously, that street is normally insane with traffic and there was not a single car except for a few official vehicles.  They also shut down some of the metro lines that day so we had to walk across the Seine to get a train to the Rodin museum.

At that same corner is this statue, which you may recognize from Tour de France coverage.

Butterfly on the path at the Rodin museum.

This souvenir shop near the Louvre stole my web design business’ name. haha.

Somehow on our train ride from Paris to Frankfurt we got seats in this booth. There was a sliding door to shut out the noise and the seats were much more spacious than the normal seats. The train ride only took 4 hours and was quite nice.

I may have a few more photos to post at some future point when Sandra loads her pictures on her computer, otherwise this is the last post from our trip.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/29/leftover-trip-photos/feed/ 2 sitayoga 1 film crew frankfurt 2 solar panels BM 2.5 dancers on seine 3 pont alexandre III 4 guy at notre dame 5 boulangerie 6 boulangerie 7 no smoking ashtray 10 sandra hotel window 8 ducks at eiffel tower 11 security for bastille day 9 gold statue by rue de rivoli 12 butterfly at rodin museum 12.5 ohlala 13 train to frankfurt http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/le-musee-du-louvre/ http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/le-musee-du-louvre/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:51:45 +0000 Sita http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/?p=1018 ]]>

The Louvre. Is. Really. Spectacular.

Altogether the Louvre holds about 35,000 works of art, and has more than 645,000 square feet of exhibition space. We were there almost 4 hours, maybe saw 1,000 works of art, or less, and while we saw a lot we feel like we barely touched the surface. I think it is the most amazing building I have ever been in, and it is certainly, by far, the most amazing museum. It is hard to do justice to it with just a few pictures.

When it was first built, the Louvre was a palace, then it was a war headquarters, next it was a college-type place for art students, and now it is a museum.

As you get closer to the main courtyard of the Louvre there is this arch, very similar to the Arc de Triomphe but smaller. When Napolean lived in the Louvre there was a statue of a horse on top which he could see from his bedroom window. Now it has been replaced by the statue shown.

Here is a typical view of the main courtyard of the Louvre. You can see the pyramid quite clearly. There was always this big debate about people thinking the pyramid was ugly and didn’t fit in with the Louvre. But having seen it with my own eyes I kind of like it. And in relation to the total size of the Louvre it is really quite small…

… because the farther away you get …

… the smaller the pyramid seems, until…

…it virtually disappears in relation to the hugeness of the Louvre.

It’s kind of cool from the inside looking out as well.

They say the three most important works of art to see in the Louvre are the Wings of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa, and the Venus de Milo.

Here is the Wings of Samothrace. Actually the goddess Nike.

Of all the art we saw, this was my favorite by far.

Mona Lisa.
I have to say, with all due respect to Da Vinci, who I like a lot, this painting is totally lame. To see it, just follow the river of people going in that direction, then stand 10 deep behind the people waiting to get to the front. Then the actual painting is covered by glass, you can’t get closer than about 30 feet, and it’s nearly impossible to take any sort of decent picture of it. But on the other hand, if you go there you have to see it…

Venus de Milo.
She was found on the Greek island Melos, hence the name. However, there is a question about whether she is Aphrodite, goddess of love (known to the Romans as Venus), or Amphitrite, the sea goddess who was venerated on the island. The reason they don’t know for sure is because she has no arms or hands which would hold the attributes which would definitively determine who she is. She stands in a hallway and while there are tons of people around you can get a 360 degree view of her which is cool.

Here is Nicole standing in one of the big galleries. The distance behind her to the end of the gallery is about half the total length of the room. The statue is Diana.

This pair of paintings shows David and Goliath from this side, then you walk around to the back…

…and it shows David and Goliath from the other side. By Ricciarelli.

This is a totally amazing ceiling in one of the rooms.

There was a gallery of large French paintings. Some of them were as big as the side of my house I think. I liked this one, the Coronation of Napolean, where he crowns Josephine queen. It takes place in Notre Dame and to the very right of the picture you can see the altar statue from Notre Dame.

Here is a close-up of the middle. The lady sitting in the upper left corner is supposed to be Napolean’s mom. I guess she did not like Josephine but she got a big spot in the painting anyway. There is another copy of this painting at Versailles.

So we got tired of paintings after awhile and we walked through this life size medieval moat.

Then we went to see some Egyptian stuff. I think these are Sekhmet.

More Egyptian.

Then we got lost. Eventually we made our way through some Etruscan galleries, and the Dutch paintings to see Vermeer.

At the end we went out through the Richelieu wing where they have a mini-pyramid and underneath it a beautiful courtyard full of more sculpture. This is one of the Marly horses.

We really enjoyed our day at the Louvre. I think sculpture is the most amazing because they have to leave the stone that comes toward you in space, carve out the stone that goes away from you, and make the whole thing work in three dimensions.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/le-musee-du-louvre/feed/ 1 sitayoga 2 arch 4 courtyard traditional 3 courtyard med-far 1 courtyard medium 1.2 louvre far inside pyramid 6 wings of samothrace 6.5 wings of samothrace 7 mona lisa 15 venus de milo 8 hallway, diana and nicole 9 david and goliath front 11 david and goliath back 12 awesome ceiling 13 coronation of napolean 14 coronation of napolean 16 medieval moat 17 egyptian 18 egyptian 19 marly horses http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/place-de-la-concorde-champs-elysees-arc-de-triomphe/ http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/place-de-la-concorde-champs-elysees-arc-de-triomphe/#comments Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:06:08 +0000 Sita http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/?p=988 ]]>

Place de la Concorde

The Place de la Concorde is between the Jardin de Tuileries and the Champs-Elysées. The whole time we were there they had trucks, barricades, port-a-potties and I think also a grand-stand set up around the Place. I think this was for Bastille Day, and then it was left up for the Tour de France. We never could get as close as we wanted to or find an unobstructed view. Here are the few pictures I did get.

Here is the approximately 3300 year old egyptian obelisk from Luxor. You can see the Arc de Triomphe in the background, which is much farther away than it looks in this picture.

Closeup of the gold top of the obelisk and the heiroglyphics.

They have these ornate street posts all around – Eiffel Tower in the background – again much farther away than it looks here.

This is the famous fountain at the Place de la Concorde. You can see behind the trucks and port-a-potties, etc.

Close-up of the fountain.

Champs-Elysées

We walked along the Champs-Elysées several times. Some people are not impressed saying it is just a street, and while this is true, it is a pretty grand street. It is lined with fancy apartments, shops and places to eat, but it had a nice feel to it and we liked walking along there.

Sandra and Nicole by a Champs-Elysées street post.

The famous cobblestones. They are actually quite rough. It must be something for the Tour de France riders when they have to bike over this.

We ate lunch at this fabulous pizza place along the Champs. It ties for my favorite lifetime meal. One thing you can say about Paris, every single place we ate the food was fantastic. Even at the touristy spots they never compromise on the taste or quality of the food.

Arc de Triomphe

The Arc de Triomphe is at the other end of the Champs-Elysées from the Place de la Concorde. It is definitely the highlight of the avenue. We were there twice, once to look and once more to go on top.

Arc de Triomphe from across the round-about.

Close-up of one of the carvings on the front.

There was an eternal flame which I think is for the men who died in World War I. I don’t read French but going by the dates… The sun was setting behind as it was about 9pm when we went there to go up on top and take these pictures.

From the top of the Arc de Triomphe – close-up down the Champs-Elysées towards the Louvre. You can see the Place de la Concorde, the Jardin de Tuileries and the Louvre behind.

Same thing but not a close-up. Gives you a better idea how big everything is.

Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, “Basilica of the Sacred Heart”

Eiffel Tower

Again with the stairs. I think only about 80 or 100 for the Arc de Triomphe and they let us take an elevator up and walk down so it was not so bad.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/place-de-la-concorde-champs-elysees-arc-de-triomphe/feed/ 0 sitayoga 1 pdlc 2 pdlc top 4 pdlc streetpost 5 pdlc fountain 6 pdlc fountain close 2 ce s&n streetpost 1 ce cobblestones 3 ce lunch 1 adt adt carving 5 adt flame 6 adt top level louvre 8 adt louvre top far 7 adt sacre coure 9 adt eiffel 10 adt stairs http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/picasso-museum/ http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/picasso-museum/#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:04:06 +0000 Sita http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/?p=974 ]]>

The Picasso Museum in Paris is full of the art that Picasso himself considered his best works. Not necessarily the art that is critically acclaimed.

I wanted to go because of all the famous artists, I understand Picasso the least. Some of his early pieces are ok, but his later works I really don’t like, and I thought, maybe if I could understand him better I would like it better.

The Museum is in the Le Marais district, which was full of narrow streets, cool shops and neat cafés. Unfortunately I was taking a break from picture taking and did not get any pictures of this. The following pictures from the museum were taken by Nicole. They did not really like our taking pictures within the museum so these were hard to get.

The Goat, Le Chèvre

Cast of Picasso’s right hand

For the Woman in a Long Dress

Head of a Woman

Here’s one by Matisse – Still Life with Oranges

I was glad to have seen the museum.

The Paris Catacombs. A couple centuries ago some big cemetery started leaking into the Paris city center and so they got the idea to exhume all the bodies and move them to the catacombs.

In the turnaround next to the catacombs is this cool statue. I don’t know what it is, but i thought it was nice. You can see the typical french style architecture in the buildings behind.

Front entrance to the catacombs. They only let you go down in groups of 10 or 20 at a time.

You have to walk quite a distance to get to the actual rooms of bones. There are some carvings along the way.

Lighted hallway. Most of the passageways were quite dark.

Estimates are there are 3 million bodies down there. In each room they mark when the bones were moved and where they came from.

Hall of bones. There were many, many hallways like this.

The walls of each hallway are all made of skulls and femurs stacked up and behind this, we presume, they dumped all the rest of the bones. So you walk for a long, long time through hallways of skulls and femurs.

Pillar of bones.

It is macabre, but not as bad as you might think. In each room an effort was made to remember the souls of the dead, and the rooms were obviously stacked with reverence…

Bones in decorative shapes, here is a heart.
There were lots of cross shapes too.

…but still…

There are myriads of passages going every which way. All along the path we walked there is a black mark on the ceiling, because there did not used to be lights down there and back when they had candles and torches it helped them find the way without getting lost.

This is not a very good picture but you can see the mark on the ceiling.

On the way out there is a bag check, because apparently theft of the bones is common.

The Jardin de Tuileries was one of my favorite places to hang out and rest and people-watch while in Paris. It was built by Catherine de Médici in the 1500’s and redesigned a couple times since then.

At one end is the Louvre…

…and way at the other end is the Place de la Concorde. You can just barely see the egyptian obelisk at the end of the path in this picture. It’s a pretty big place.

The grounds are pretty and restful; art sculptures all over,

and pools of water you can sit around.

At the end by the Louvre were my favorite two sculptures. Here a lioness fights an alligator. A piece of the Louvre shows in the background.

And on the other side of the path the lioness with a peacock and her cubs. The other end of the Louvre is in the background.

Here’s one of Julius Caesar that’s kind of nice.

And the Good Samaritan.

The Rue de Rivoli runs all along the north side of the Jardin de Tuileries, and along that whole edge is a small amusement park, mostly for kids. There is a huge ferris wheel as part of the park.

Another picture of the ferris wheel. One evening it was starting to cloud up and I liked the colors of the ferris wheel, the buildings and the sky.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/jardin-des-tuileries/feed/ 0 sitayoga 1 toward louvre 2 toward place de la concord 3 grounds 3.5 pools of water 4 lion 1 5 lion 2 6 julius caesar 7 good samaritan 8 ferris wheel 9 ferris wheel http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/eiffel-tower-videos/ http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/eiffel-tower-videos/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:27:33 +0000 Sita http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/?p=941 ]]>

Here are a couple videos of the Eiffel Tower.

Riding down in the elevator from the 4th to 2nd level. July 12, 2009.

Eiffel Tower at night from boat ride on the Seine, you can hear the boat announcements in the background. Each announcement came in at least 4 languages. July 10, 2009.

Eiffel Tower twinkling at night, taken from along the Seine, Pont Alexandre III in front. Lots of traffic noise. July 10, 2009.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/eiffel-tower-videos/feed/ 0 sitayoga http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/eiffel-tower/ http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/eiffel-tower/#comments Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:45:07 +0000 Sita http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/?p=920 ]]>

The Eiffel Tower is a magnificent monument. It’s just beautiful – and from so many different places around Paris you can see it and orient your direction. The first time you see it, it is impossible not to break out in a huge grin, because, there it is, what you had only seen in pictures before that, now in real life.

One of my favorite pictures was this one, from the Arc de Triomphe at about 9pm.

This is a photo Nicole took at night while we were on our boat ride along the Seine.

One morning we decided to go see it and go up in the tower as high as they allow. We took the metro to the Champ de Mar exit and as you come walking up you see these beautiful flowers and the tower behind it.

Another view of the same thing, but better.

It’s huge. This is the underneath as we were waiting in line.

It opens at 9am, we got there at 9:15. Already there were tons of people. Here is the line going towards the South Pillar where we bought our tickets.

Somehow, even though we bought a ticket for the lift, they said the lifts were not working. So we had to climb, first 350 or so steps to the first level. Then to save some money we climbed another 350 steps to the second level. This is a big mistake. If you go, hold out for the lift and pay the money . They number the stairs and I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not as you are climbing. Anyway, we all made it.

Finally, from the fourth level we got some good pictures all around the city. Here is the Arc de Triomphe.

The Seine looking back towards the Louvre.

Pont Alexandre III.

Notre Dame.

Sacré-Coeur Basilica. We never made it there in person but it is quite beautiful from afar.

The very top from the second level. All the little pyramidal shaped objects all over the metal are the lights, which at night first illuminate and then twinkle.

There were tons of people at the Eiffel Tower. Of everything we went to it was the most crowded. Above the platform of people there was this pigeon just sitting there with the best view of the city and out of the way of the people.

At the base of the Tower are beautiful gardens that extend quite a distance. We did not explore them too much unfortunately.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/eiffel-tower/feed/ 0 sitayoga 15 view from arc de triomphe 01 et at night 13 view from street 14 view 2 from street 1 underneath et 2 pillar plus people 11 stairs 3 arc de triomphe from et 4 seine from et 6 pont alexandre III 5 notre dame from et 8 sacre cour from et 10 looking up top level 9 pigeon 12 gardens at base http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/le-chateau-de-versailles/ http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/le-chateau-de-versailles/#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:11:00 +0000 Sita http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/?p=897 ]]>

On our last day in Paris we went to see le château de Versailles, the Palace at Versailles. It’s about 30 km or so outside the city of Paris, but one metro train gets you there in about 30 minutes.

It was built by King Louis XIV, and then the Kings Louis XV and XVI lived there as well. It all ended when Marie Antoinette spent so much money while all the French people were broke and starving, that the people marched all the way from Paris to end the monarchy and the Revolution began.

Here is the chateau from the front, everything that looks yellow is gold or bronze

This is the two story chapel. King Louis XIV wanted it to be the highest point of the palace. On the second floor above the altar are the organ pipes.

Overall the rooms did not have many furnishings in them; there was a set of these two huge blue cups…

…and one of them had this beautiful carving on the front. Not sure if it was ivory or what it was carved from, but I liked it.

There were many beautiful statues. Apparently the Palace at Versailles is second to the Louvre in the amount of art holdings.

Every single thing is decorated. This is a corner of one of the ceilings. It looks like the painting comes toward you but it actually goes away from you. This picture does not do justice to the real thing, but it does give new meaning to the term crown moldings, which here consist of a piece of white painted wood.

Here is a bust of King Louis XIV at 27 years old.

In the War Drawing Room there was this marvelous bas relief carving on the wall…

…and here’s the whole wall. Again with the amazing crown moldings and ceilings.

The King’s bed. They told us that every single room had been redecorated at least 10 times while it was being lived in.

Marie Antoinette’s room. When the French people marched from Paris she escaped from this room through a doorway on the left of the bed, that went through some secret passageways.

The Hall of Mirrors. It is huge in real life. 17 windows on the left match 17 mirrors on the right.

Sandra outside by some of the gardens. There are also gardens extending to either side of the castle which are somewhat smaller, although I guess huge in comparison to anything I’m used to.

The backyard at Versailles.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/le-chateau-de-versailles/feed/ 0 sitayoga 1 front outside versailles 2 chapel 3 blue and gold cup 4 cup closeup 5 statue 6 crown molding 7 louis 14 at 27 bust 8 bas relief above fireplace 9 wall with fireplace 10 kings bedroom 12 marie antoinette bedroom 11 hall of mirrors 13 gardens with sandra 14 backyard at versailles http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/rodin-museum-bastille-day/ http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/rodin-museum-bastille-day/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 22:54:19 +0000 Sita http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/?p=877 ]]>

On Bastille Day, July 14,  we went to the Auguste Rodin Museum early in the morning. It turned out to be quite a beautiful museum with many of his sculptures outside in very well kept gardens.

Arguably Rodin’s most famous sculpture, The Thinker, or Le Penseur

The Burghers of Calais

There were hardly any people around so Nicole joined the Burghers in their conference…

…and stood in for some of the missing sculptures – here she is as Cybèle.

Here is a nice one – Monument to Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo close-up

In the middle of the museum grounds there is the Hôtel Biron. Inside are more sculptures, but you can see just above and to the left of the roof top four jets, flying over the Champs Élysées to mark the start of the Bastille Day parade.

The grounds are quite beautiful and here you can see The Thinker from afar, with another sculpture in the lower right corner.

Inside the museum I liked this one, La Cathédrale.

Most museums have art by other artists, here is Van Gogh’s Le Père Tanguy.

And this by Rodin, Mouvement de danse A, otherwise known by the yogis as Natarajasana.

After we finished at the Rodin Museum, we took the metro over to the Champs Élysées to try to see some of the parade. It was packed, some of the metro lines were shut down for security. Anyway, it was a military parade, all tanks and other armored vehicles. All we could see were little bits of things – like in the above picture in the very middle you can just see the tips of some tanks. We stayed only a very short time because of the crowds.

]]> http://sitayoga.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/rodin-museum-bastille-day/feed/ 0 sitayoga 1 the thinker 2 the burghers of calais 3 burghers plus nic 4 Cybèle by nic 5 Monument to Victor Hugo 6 closeup hugo 7 Hôtel Biron plus jets 8 thinker from afar 9 La Cathédrale 10 Van Gogh Le Père Tanguy 11 Mouvement de danse A 12 tanks on Champs