The Kleiber Family Timeline

Category: Monuments/Buildings

Monuments and special Buildings

  • 2024 Day Four of Paris Trip

    Todays schedule included a trip to the Palace of Versailles on this overcast morning in France. Louis XIII built a simple hunting lodge on the site of the Palace of Versailles in 1623. With his death came Louis XIV who expanded the château into the beginnings of a palace that went through several changes and phases from 1661 to 1715. It was a favorite residence for both kings, and in 1682, Louis XIV moved the seat of his court and government to Versailles, making the palace the de facto capital of France. This state of affairs was continued by Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, who primarily made interior alterations to the palace, but in 1789 the royal family and capital of France returned to Paris. For the rest of the French Revolution, the Palace of Versailles was largely abandoned and emptied of its contents, and the population of the surrounding city plummeted.

    Napoleon, following his coronation as Emperor, used Versailles as a summer residence from 1810 to 1814, but did not restore it. Following the Bourbon Restoration, when the king was returned to the throne, he resided in Paris and it was not until the 1830s that meaningful repairs were made to the palace. A museum of French history was installed within it, replacing the apartments of the southern wing.

    After returning from Versailles, James’ class visited the Eifel tower at night and got some great pictures

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  • 2024 Day Three of Paris Trip

    The first full day in Paris was today and James’ French class was now in session. One of the places that they visited was the Notre Dame cathedral of Paris. It is in the center of the city and was the setting for the famous film = “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” which starred Charles Laughton in 1939. A fire broke out at Notre Dame on 15 April 2019. The fire made the roof and main spire fall. The building’s vaulted stone ceiling contained the burning roof as it collapsed, preventing worse damage to the interior.

    Around 23:00 local time, the spokesperson of the Paris firefighters said that the structure would probably be saved. James took pictures of the construction currently going on at this world famous cathedral.

    Over 400 people helped fight the fire that day in 2019 and as you can see by these pictures, they saved the cathedral.

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  • 2024 Day Two of Paris Trip

    Once the plane left New York, James was fascinated by the plane tracker which showed exactly where the plane was via a gps system.

    After the long trans-atlantic flight the first day in Paris was a real adventure. Despite being tired James class did what most people would do on such a trip, they went to visit the Eifel tower and grab a bite of food to eat at a local cafe. The Eiffel Tower was built by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel for the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Even though Gustave Eiffel is credited for the Eiffel Tower it was actually two lesser known people who came up with the original drawing of it. These people were Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier. These two men were the chief engineers of Eiffel’s engineering firm. The main architect was Stephen Sauvestre. James held up his VIP Camp sign for his friends at camp and will do this repeatedly during this trip.

    Despite being tired, James had a wonderful time and called home to let his family know he was alright.

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  • Liberty Island 2018

    What a thrill it always is to see the Statue of Liberty on a beautiful day in August. While it was a bit hot, it made the cool breeze coming across the Hudson river that much better as we walked around the giant colossus and trying to get the perfect selfie with a structure so big (many of those selfies are in the gallery of this post). After our walk around the statue we took a break in a nice shady area of the park and James bought us all water which made for a perfect family moment. After relaxing in the park drinking our water we made our way to the souvenir stand where James got a hat, Mom got a T shirt, and Dad got a sweatshirt all featuring the statue of liberty!

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  • New York Skyline 2018

    No matter if we were at Liberty Park, on the boat, Ellis Island, or Liberty Island, the one constant picture was the fabulous New York Skyline. When last we saw it construction was still being done on One World Trade Center so this is technically the first time we saw it completed (it opened in 2014). The building has 104 Stories and is 1776 feet high (a symbolic height for sure). Also far to the left of the One World Trade Center is the Empire State Building which is actually taller than the One World Trade Center building minus the spiral on top. Regardless of who is taller, its a beautiful skyline and we literally could not get enough pictures of it.

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  • Ellis Island 2018

    Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay next to the Statue of Liberty, was the gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the U.S. as the United States’ busiest immigrant inspection station for over 60 years from 1892 until 1954. It was the first stop on our journey from Liberty Park to Liberty Island. While it no longer is a place where immigrants enter to U.S., it has been modified into a beautiful museum and a tribute to another era when immigration was done the right way. We included a pic of how the NY skyline looks from Ellis Island, taken from the boat docked outside the museum. One has to wonder what the immigrants of the past thought seeing the NY skyline as they awaited their entrance into the United States.

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  • Washington DC Jefferson Memorial 2018

    There were many places we did not get to see as we only had a finite amount of time in Washington before we had to drive to New York. One place we saw at a distance everytime we took a cab was the Jefferson Memorial which was located on the other side of the Potomac. This was as close as we got to the monument, although we did try driving there later, only to make a wrong turn and end up heading back toward the hotel (and NY so we kept on driving). The driving is not easy in Washington DC and we did not take the car out of the parking garage until we left for NY. Our apologies to Thomas Jefferson but we tried.

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  • Washington DC 2018

    While the monuments and three branches of Government were all impressive, one of the funnest and most interesting things to do was just walk the streets of Washington DC. Almost every building is “something” such as a dept of agriculture, FBI building, Library of Congress, Hubert Humphrey building, FEMA, etc. Mary even found a Marshall store (which is one of her favorites) in one of these buildings. We tried to keep these pics in order as we saw them, so we started with a picture of where our adventure began, in the park, and our day ended with James taking a much needed dip in the pool.

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  • Washington DC Supreme Court 2018

    Right behind the Capitol is the Supreme Court. The Capitol pretty much hides the Supreme court from the park or monument strip so it would be very easy to be missed. We put special interest on this building for James because at the current time the Senate is in the process of approving a ninth judge. Justice Kennedy retired earlier in the year and the current nominee is Brett Kavanaugh and the interview process is getting ready to begin. We told James he would probably be seeing a lot more of the Supreme Court in the near future because of these developments so he will be monitoring the hearings on TV to see what happens.

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  • Washington DC Trump Hotel 2018

    While walking down the streets of washington DC we came across this beautiful building and we could not resist taking pictures since we heard so much about it during the 2016 election (it opened the same year after being renovated). This is the old post office building and is just gorgeous with the clock tower and fairy tale castle looks. Its 315-foot (96 m) high Clock Tower houses the “Bells of Congress” and is the third tallest building in Washington at the time of this visit.

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