Busy Weekend

We have once again had an exciting and eventful weekend. We left Paris Thursday evening and took a sleeper car in the train. Unfortunately, we got in the wrong sleeper and did not find this out until the train was in motion. We had to drag our 5 bags thru about 30 cars, while being tossed this way and that. B was not too happy as he was lugging most of the stuff. I slept great but B did not get too many ZZZs, but we arrived in Carcassonne, France in one piece. Friday morn we toured the old fortress and were impressed with that. We then loaded up our stuff and boarded the train again. Friday evening we arrived in Marseille, and made it to the hostel when an older gentleman who spoke no English showed us the way. Saturday AM we walked around Marseille, with the sun shining down on us for literally the 1st time this trip. It was so great and we visited a wonderful park. By Saturday evening we had arrived in Nice, France, my new favorite spot. There was a carnival in town, and we rode the Ferris Wheel and were able to see many nice buildings lit up. This wheel also overlooked the Mediterranean Sea, not a bad view. It started to rain while we were on the wheel, but we did not get wet and were happy to have gotten the view. Sunday morn we walked around on the beach, and climbed up the hill to see the whole town. The pics are great and we will post them as soon as we can. After Nice, we arrived in Genova, Italy, where we attempted to find the hostel via bus but were unsuccessful in that. As we were contemplating what to do next, a thunderstorm approached and we found ourselves in the midst of a downpour. We opted for the cab and were glad we did when we realized how far away the hostel was. This morning, Monday, we got on the train and rode it all day long. On one of the trains we were lucky enough to speak to an Englishman and his son who had been skiing in Switzerland over the weekend. At about 7.30pm, we arrived in Geneva, Switzerland. The ride thru the Alps was incredible and we even got a bit on tape. Tomorrow we will be on the train again, where we arrive in Freiburg, Germany to meet up with our class and resume lectures. We have had a wonderful weekend and are always amazed at the spectacular places we end up.

Sacre Couer
Outside St Eustache
la Grande Arche

Class was cancelled today because the professor took the first class into the city for a mapping project and wouldn't be back in time for our session. Heather and I bought day passes for the metro and did some exploring. Our first stop was the train station to book a night train to Carcassonne for Thursday-Friday. We leave tomorrow at 11pm and arrive Friday at 8am. After we took car of business we headed to the outskirts of town to la Grande Arche de la Defense but decided it wasn't worth going to the top because it was a little foggy and we weren't near much historical. We then came back into town and saw la Palais de L'Elysees, where Jacque Chirac lives. We checked out two churches, St Severin and St Eustache. St Eustache was doing some renovation but it had an interesting mix of a neoclassical and gothic fascade. St Severin was similiar to Notre Dame but about two blocks away and much less hectic. We also toured the Conciergerie, where prisoners of the Revolution were held before being taken to execution at Place de la Concorde. At the end of the evening we travelled to the North side of town to the Basilica Sacre Couer on Montmartre. It was dusk and we were able to see it with the lights on outside, it was pretty incredible inside and we were able to listen to a nun-choir while we walked around. Tomorrow we have class in the afternoon and leave in the evening so we're going to do some laundry and get ready for a weekend along the French Riviera.

Well as you might expect today was rain-free but we needed to crack down on homework so we stayed at the hostel all day. The next two days we have class from 1-4 so it'll be hard to do too much around that schedule. We will make it up to Montmarte and the Basilica of Sacre Couer one evening. We might take a night train Thursday to Carcassonne so that we can squeeze a few more hours (5) of sightseeing out of Friday.

Notre Dame
Versailles
Notre Dame
Summer Palace of Versaille

1 Louvre
2. Notre Dame
3. Louvre
4. Place de la Concorde

Lessons learned

If anyone had problems logging on today, it is due to the fact that we had attempted to place too many pictures on at one time. Usually B resizes them, but last night had not done so properly, so when he published them they ate all of the space! Sorry about that!
Today we had a free day to visit as many museums as we could with our one last day of our pass for the city. We started at the d'Orsay, and saw many Impressionist paintings. It was great because we got there right when it opened, so there weren't many people at all. We then ventured out into the rainy weather and were able to visit the tomb of Napolean, which is housed in the complex of the Hotel de Invalides. B was quite impressed as he has learned much about this man in his classes. We then headed to the Rodin museum, and were able to see the Thinker, who was getting wet due to the rain. We also visited the Palais Luxembourg grounds, where there is a large garden area that is just beautiful when all the flowers are in bloom! We stopped next at the Pantheon, which is a monument built for the people of France. Inside there is a large pendulum, the largest in the world in fact! I was quite impresssed by this place! We ended our 11 hour day at the Pompidou Museum, which houses modern art. It was quite busy in there but still interesting to see the various forms of art. Tomorrow we will be catching up on homework all day, and then will end our stay in Paris with 3 days of class.

Not terribly exciting

This morning we arose and travelled to St. Chappelle to see some amazing stained glass windows. We then proceeded to meet the group at the Louvre museum/palace. After four hours of museum we were fairly exhausted but we saw some great paintings and sculptures including the Mona Lisa and two Michelangelos. We walked through the gardens between the Louvre and the Place de Concorde during sunset and ended the day with two belgian waffles. Tomorrow we are obliged to see two more museums for class and then as much as we can before our three day museum pass expires.

Today we visited the Versailles (pictures tomorrow). It took an hour and a half to get from the hostel to the palace on the metro system. The palace was huge but the amount open to the public quite small. There were extensive gardens as well. After we had had our share of Versailles we ate at a Mexican restaurant and while we were inside it started to rain and hail! It only lasted a minute or two but we were glad to have been under shelter. On the way back we walked around and through Notre Dame near sunset and we got some great pics. Tomorrow we're slated to see the Louvre and then as many other things as we can squeeze in.

How do you top Valentine's day in Paris?

Well we've spent the last two days in 9 hours of class followed by all night studying. Good stuff! The weather hasn't been terribly cooperative for sight-seeing (rain and lots of wind), so we've been holed up at the hostel getting some work done. Tomorrow we go to the Palace of Versailles and then over the weekend we have to go to the Louvre and two other museums for class. While it's hard to complain about having to go to three museums it seems like we haven't had much for free time to actually see the city. Our hostel is about 20-30 minutes from the city center (and attractions). This hostel is full of French school kids of all ages, apparently they travel as a class and stay in hostels, wierd! Tomorrow we should take quite a few snapshots so we'll have pictures then. Many thanks to the well-wishers of our engagement. Au revoir!

Belgian waffles and Paris

Monday we left Bruges for Ghent and spent a few hours wandering the streets touring cathedrals, a castle and looking for a money exchange (tyme cards do not work in Belgium). When we were through with Gent we grabbed our bags and headed to Brussels for the night. Tuesday we walked around Brussels and then jumped on the Thalys high speed train for Paris. On the train we ran into about 14 other members of our group. An hour and 25 minutes later we were in Paris. After settling into the hostel we decided not to waste our all day metro passes and went downtown for some night pictures. First we stopped at the Arc de Triomphe and went up top (248 steps) then voyaged to the Eiffel Tower. After some convincing I talked Heather into going to the top, by elevator. Very cool, but crowded. So we're here in Paris and learning to deal with the Parisiens; we have a busy few days with class work and trips but will be sure to keep everyone up-to-date on current events.
PS- H loves Belgian waffles so much!!! :) YUM YUM!!!

...and by the way

Brandon proposed under the lights of the Eiffel Tower on the evening of the 14th! (I said Yes)

Belgian Snowstorm

As I (H) write today, B and I are sitting in the laundromat next door to the hostel, getting our clothes washed. We decided to stay 2 nights in Brugge, as it is quite a nice city and we can easily trek to Gent and Brussels by train from here. This morning we were able to see many nice sites here, including Town Hall, Basillica of the Holy Blood (where there is a vial of Christs' blood), Church of our Lady, which houses Michaelangalo's sculpture "Mother and Child," Cathedral of St. Savior, and the Belfry tower (300+ steps to the top). Unfortunately, the day started off with a light mist and turned to a MN snow storm by mid-afternoon. The lady at the chocolate shop said this was very atypical for the city to get this type of snow. This country is also famous for making its own tasty chocoalates, so we picked out a few pieces and have enjoyed them thus far! Tomorrow we plan to travel to Gent and Brussels, and hopefully end up in Luxembourg for the night. After the past few days, we will be extra cautious but minor setbacks are bound to happen!! Not much else for now, still enjoying ourselves greatly :)

Do you have a minute?

So we're done with London and here on the Continent, but it hasn't been as easy as it might sound. Long ago we booked a flight from London Stansted out to Eindhoven in the Netherlands so we could catch a train up to Amsterdam. After weighing all of our options on how to get to the airport from the hostel we decided to catch a shuttle bus provided by the London Hoppa because we could board at the front door and rest easy knowing we wouldn't have to change trains. So it was a 6:45am flight and we needed to be about two hours early, therefore we decided to take the 3:30 bus for an hour long journey. We booked the bus at the hostel for four pounds and would pay the other 16 to the driver... except no driver ever came. We were outside at 3:20 AM and waited until 4am with the security guard telling us they always run late. We assumed we'd been forgotten and ran to the next stop for the 4:15 bus. 4:30 rolls along and no bus with two hours until take off and an hour between us and the plane. B started signalling taxis and our first draw was a gypsy cab, B haggled with him for the price but H was not comfortable with getting in the car. A black cab came along and we we're able to talk him down from 90 pounds to a measly 80 pounds, mind you we only saved 16 for the bus ride. He took the rest in American cash so it cost us 4 pounds for a bus that didn't show and 16 pounds, $120 for a cab ride to the airport. At the airport we had to shuffle our belongings between bags so that we could sneak through weight limits (we were still 1.5 kilos over). The flight was an hour but we hardly noticed with our eyes closed. The plane had a hard landing and if we hadn't been buckled in we might have been thrown around the cabin, a rough way to wake up. We made it from Eindhoven to Amsterdam no problem but Amsterdam was swarming on a Friday afternoon. We tried to see if we could store our bags at a hostel for a few hours like we had when we were in Scotland but to no avail. We ended up going back to the train station and renting two lockers (because the large ones were either full or defective). This may be a good place for a breather so I'll skip a line so you can bookmark if you haven't time for more.

Amsterdam was pretty dirty and crowded so we promptly made our way to the Anne Frank Museumand then back to the central, also the red light district conveniently enough. After talking it over we decided to take canal tour before getting out of town and it was cheap enough, but we were the last tour and the driver seemed to be in a hurry so we missed a few snapshots but got the gist of it. From Amsterdam we went to the Hague, it was dark when we arrived so we just asked for directions to the hostel from the information desk. He sent us up the street and so we walked a few blocks knowing it wasn't far but found nothing. B asked inside a corner stand but the man wasn't very clear on his English. We walked another block to the next market and B went for more directions. When B came out H was with an officer who informed us that we were in the ghetto and lucky to not have been mugged by the dealers or junkies. Apparently we were sent down the wrong street and the officer was kind enough to give us a lift in his unmarked squad car. He said he'd seen us walking and knew that we were in the wrong area. The hostel was nice and we spent the morning walking around the Hague. The people we ran into gave pretty terrible directions all morning and we probably spent at least two hours wandering and riding the wrong trams. After we felt we had seen it all we gathered our stuff from the hostel and jumped the train for Brussels. At the very first stop (Rotterdam) we were informed that the rail line was having electrical problems and we would have to find an alternate route. The alternate route made our quick little direct connection into a round-about seven hour train ride with numerous changes. We landed in Bruges at 10pm to find the bus system shut down for the night and ourselves walking a mile or two to the hostel. We had to go throught the city centre and all the towers and church's were lit up so we had a spectacular view the whole journey, only we also had a few textbooks and three months of gear on our shoulders and backs. We're at the hostel now and actually have free wifi that we are connected to. Its 1am but we're using it while we can. We are probably going to stay in Brugge for two nights and just day trip to Brussels and Ghent. After that we'll squeeze in Luxembourg and meet the group in Paris. H says "thanks" for all the kind birthday wishes.

Big Weekend Ahead

Today was our last day of class in London, and we ended it with a large group lunch in a pub. There were 34 total and took a long time for our food,but it was tasty and enjoyable. Tomorrow, the 10th, we get up at about 2.30 AM and then get on a shuttle bus that picks us up outside our hostel at 3.30am. this brings us to Stanstead airport in london, where we fly out of at 6.45am headed to Eindhoven, Netherlands. We will spend all day Friday in the Netherlands, and don't know exactly where we will crash. We have until Tues, the 14th to get to Paris, and we plan to hang out in Belgium and also check out Luxembourg b4 settling in Paris for another 10 days. It's amazing to know that our 1st city is already coming to a close... Time is flying for us!! We didn't really do anything productive today, since we had class and the late lunch. I (H) plan to get to bed about 7pm, as I am quite tired and wanna get some quality shut-eye. Last night one of my roomies borught a French guy to visit us and B and I and the gals had fun asking him questions and chatting with him.
We really appreciate the comments and emails from those that have made them!! We thank you greatly!!

Wednesday

Nothing exciting to report today; we had class yesterday morning until twelve and, after lunch, proceeded to spend all evening in the library. We didn't have class this morning so we have an extra three hours to spend in the library today! We've pretty much seen the major sites of London, day and night, and have the thousand pictures to prove it, literally. Tomorow it's class in the morning and, more than likely, more library time. We leave bright and early on Friday morn, I believe our flight leaves at 6 am and the hostel is at least 1 hour away by bus!! We will be getting to bed early tomorrow night. We each have 3 roomies of the same sex, and thus far we have not had any problems with them. I (H) have a very fun roomy who loves to chit chat with me and we haven't gotten to sleep earlier than midnight every night!! No worries though. The sun is trying to come out today, and I've heard it may get to 50 today!!! We will have a take a break from our studies and stroll around a park perhaps!

COMMENTS

Hi everone,
Sorry for the confusion with the "comments" section of our blog... We have now changed it so that ANYONE can post as many comments as they want or need!! So please know that we are thinking of you all and hope to read them whenever your schedule allows!! All for now :)

Tuesday

We told you we'd put on pics but we didn't figure it would take this long. We we're hoping to find some free wireless internet but seems like that isn't going to happen in London. On Monday we bought a London Pass which gave us access to St. Paul's Cathedral, the Monument, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the Globe Theatre. After touring those and climbing a few thousand steps to get to the top of St. Paul's and the Monument we we're pretty tired but we still had to go on a Jack the Ripper tour walking around London alleys. Yesterday was pretty long but we got plenty of exercise and had a good time. Today we had class in the morning and are spending the day in the library getting some research done because we leave on Friday already. Time is going by super fast and we're being pulled in every direction as to whether we should go have fun, relax, or do school work. So far school has lost out. If we don't post again in London it'll be because we have much to catch up on. We'll have a busy weekend and then arrive in Paris on Tuesday. Cheers!

Tour

Today is Sunday, and the niceest day in terms of weather thus far!! The sun is shining today, which doesn't happen often here, and the wind is not blowing. Yesterday we did our bus tour, and had a marvelous time. We had paid for a tour that included Bath, Stonehenge, and Salisbury cathedral, but when we got there we were able to upgrade for free to Windsor Castle instead of the cathedral. It was a lovely bus ride and the guide was quite informative and nice as well. Of course B took loads of photos, but we failed to bring the card with us to the internet cafe and thus we can't load them up now :( Soon we will!! On Monday we have no class but we will have to get cards at the British Library to begin our research for other classes. The hostel is fine, but the food is sub-par and is getting redundant already!! since we have a meal plan, we eat there for supper every night. We are going to splurge and get some Chinese food for lunch today though!! Everything is SO expensive here and we are really trying to be tight with our cash. I can't wait till we get to the continent where at least the exchange rate will be comparable! Also, everyone smokes cigarettes here and I really had to adjust to that. For the first 5 days, i would wake up with a sore throat and tummy ache from breathing it in all night, but now I've adjusted for the most part. I plan to find out what the lung cancer rate is over here!! B and I are getting plenty of exercise, and walk so many places that I may have to buy a new pair of shoes b4 long! Other than that, not much to report. Hope all is well there!! :)

Friday

Today we went to Greenwich with the class on a river cruise. Got to see the Prime Meridian and and a banquet hall completely covered in mosaics. Not much time to type. We go to Stonehenge and Bath in the morning and will soon get pictures, really. :)

Day 3

Today was a very busy day! We had class till noon, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then hit the town! We did a walking tour of old Kensington with our whole group!! (33 of us) that was cool and the guide was funny and interesting. it was a bit chilly with the wind blowing slightly, so our cheeks are a little rosy but all is well. then we split from the main group and about 10 of us went to Buckingham, where the queen stays. it was cool but of course couldn't get close to the guards at all. by the time we left it was getting dark so 5 of us decided to look around the city all lit up. we went back to Big Ben and the Parliament and Abbey and the London Eye and saw everything with its nice lights!! So fun! Tomorrow we get out of class a bit early and will go to Greenwich on the river for the afternoon!! Then Sat. B and i will get some alone time when we trek to Stonehenge, Bath and Sanisbury!!
All is well in terms of adjusting and the sorts. Some of the group members have not been able to sleep well but thus far B and i have slept perfeclty. they are not co-ed rooms, so I am in a room with 3 girls while he has 2 other guys in his room. no worries. I guess this has begun to drag on so I will end here. Hope everyone is well and all that jazz ;) Hugs and kisses!!