Will I ever get to the bit about the Mona Lisa?

OK, so for you folk who are following my blog, I think I will finally cover the bit about the Mona Lisa tonight.
So anyway, we have a lunchtime flight out of Paris to Amsterdam and about two hours to explore the Louvre. Aaargh. The most extensive art collection in the world and two hours to see it!
We hoon it in a taxi and get there early enough to avoid any huge line-up. The hardest part was trying to work out how to use the automated ticket machines. For some reason my credit card wouldn't swipe and so we were scrabbling around for enough cash to get in. Finally ! Yes we're in.Which way to the Mona Lisa? Up that escalator, and down a very long hall, full of huge impressive early paintings. Then a crowd starts to build at the end of the hall - this is it. The famed girl! And about three hundred Japanese tourists in front of it taking photos with digital cameras and flashes. I couldn't believe it, I didn't think you would be able to take photos of it.
Anyway to cut a long story short, it is very small and behind a couple of inches of bullet-proof glass. But it was actually much better seeing it there than ANY photo I've ever seen. The woman was smiling at me! I loved it. I'm going to try to post a very blurry photo of people taking photos of the Mona Lisa, I think this is quite humorous within itself.
So then there was a mad rush to see a couple of Vermeers, some Egyptian stuff, the Venus de Milo, the Rubens room and then a mad dash back to our hotel to catch the airport bus. THE BEST OF The Louvre! in under three hours! I would not recommend it. Take a few weeks, and then you might see it all.
Next time I get to Paris I think I'll spend a week at the Musee d'Orsay. I love the impressionists.

ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOTE.......

WAR...AND HOW MUCH I HATE IT.

I can't believe John Howard is sending more Australian troops to Iraq. Why can't we just leave that poor beleagured country alone? The Americans are doing enough cultural damage for all of us. Life is actually much worse for the average Iraqi now than it ever was. Yep, Saddam and his sons were monsters. They are out of power now. Hooray. But any stability that those people have known is completely gone.
What the average American doesn't get is that the Iraqis had NOTHING to do with 9/11. There still havent been any weapons of mass destruction found. (unless you can count some rusty old shells buried years ago). OK, the war has been fought. But now the "insurgents" or even radical fundamentalists are taking control of the streets - the average Iraqis fear for their lives. Women have been forced back to the dark ages. Read Riverbend's blog - you'll see how it really is for a woman there - a woman who had a good career and a whole heap more freedom than she has now.
Anyway, for the first time in my life I'm not going to sit on the fence. I'm going to a peace march in Melbourne on the 18th March starting at 5pm at the State Library. I'm going to make some signs and have my say! If you feel the same way, come along!