We both made it back safe and sound! Amy to NY and Brian to Missouri. Even though the trip is over we still have lots of stories to add, photos to post, and travel tips to tell you. So if you are enjoying the site keep checking back periodically as new material will be added. It might take some time for everything to be completed though.

Here are some of the less obvious but extremely useful things that we brought on our trip:

- Bring small bottles, can refill in the middle
- Bring a carebeaner (?) will come in handy when hanging towels, etc.
- Bring sleep sack! best thing ever! Buy on ebay. Much cheaper
- When buying a phrase book, make sure the book has “Do you speak English?” “I don’t speak _______” “hello” “goodbye” “thank you” “Excuse me” “You’re welcome”
- Bring bud earphones for audio guides, two for the price of one. Preferably, share with someone of similar height. Or, be the shorter one. It’s more comfortable. Even if you’re not sharing, bring headphones. Everyone uses the headsets they provide and it’s kind of gross. Maybe darker ear buds will be less conspicuous than white iPod ones, though

For the sake of time, this is sort of blobbed together…

Brian’s tips
- Get a job before going to Scandinavia/Copenhagen. It is expensive.
- Leave a day to navigate the airport in Amsterdam because it’s so confusing. Or use our tips to do this smoothly.
- When you buy a stamp and put it on the post card, make sure you have their address, – especially if you’re leaving the country the next day. You might never be able to use the stamp.
- If you are in Amsterdam and you are not standing in the middle of the street, then you are probably standing in the middle of a bike path. watch out! especially be aware of that one dude that almost ran Brian over, had it not been for Amy pulling him off the bike path. For the record, Brian pulls Amy off the bike path pretty often too, but this biker was particularly fast and furious.

Amy’s tips:
Scandinavia:
- Use Forex (only in Scandinavia) to buy currency (other Kroners, euros, etc, just not their currency of the country in which that branch of Forex is located in) ~> can use credit card (we think… never tried). This is great if you have having trouble with your ATM card… Or, before leaving the country, you can try using your extra kroners to buy another currency. Their rates are pretty good relative to other exchange places.
- Minibank ~> In Norway, means ATM.
- Bring sunglasses for Norway in April. Sun is very, very blinding.
- If traveling in the off season with a eurail pass do not reserve bus or boat tickets for the norway in a nutshell tour )the fjord tour between bergen and oslo) It’s cheaper to buy it on the spot.
- Bus from Berlin to Copenhagen: Berlin Linien Bus: daily, arrive at ~3PM. Get to ride on a ferry! Otherwise, Berlin Express from Berlin to Malmo (daily in high season, two days a week in low season (to end of April, night train.)
- Night bus from Oslo to Stockholm, daily, cheap.

Amsterdam:
- (Reference to Brian’s tip above) Bring cash for Amsterdam. Not many people take card.
- Make sure you have enough coins for the ticket machine in the airport. The one ticket machine that takes cash for tickets into the city center only takes coins. If not enough coins, just go to the ticket counter, not that much more expensive and much less hassle than trying to buy post cards to get coins and then waiting in line. If you must, go buy something from the stores. We recommend the little marshmallow candies in the white packaging! Yummy!
- Audio tour for Van Gogh museum (4 Euro): Really get a lot more out of the paintings. Audio tour is compatible with normal headphones.
- In Amsterdam: Wok for Walk ~> very cheap and quick Chinese food!

Tips on riding on a tandem bike:
- If possible, put the shorter person in front. Otherwise, person in back cannot see. But, navigational and skill with the bike would be ideal for the front person, so if the shorter person is a bit lacking (like Amy), ignore this tip.
- Have the back person start peddling to get the bike started while the front person walks along the with the bike while on the seat. Then, the front person places feet on the pedals and starts pedaling as well. This helps with the steadiness of the bike because the two people might have different weight shifts while starting up and this may case the bike to be too wobbly to stabilize.
- Have front person wear a backpack with an easy to access back pocket to place camera and map for back person to reference/use. Ideally, the pocket can securely hold items without being zipped up.

Belgium:
- If you want to make a chocolate mold, go to Bruges first to get a chocolate making lesson from the Chocolate Story Museum.

France:
Don’t even imply that you do not like or do not eat cheese in front of a French person. They might attack you. At the very least, they will be very, very shocked.

Germany:
They say “chuus” (as “bye!”) and “aaa sou” (”ohhhh is that so?”) (This is particular interesting for those who speak Japanese. “Chuus” is sometimes a way to say “bye” casually and “aaa sou” is Japanese for the exact same meaning. This is more an observation than a tip

When buying extra shampoo, etc, don’t go to the pharmacy where they have it all displayed. Go to a small corner store. I assume a supermarket would have the generic smaller bottles as well. Much cheaper!

We asked for instructions from our hotel. This is what they said:

Hello,

Craig

We’re excited about staying here now.

Today we left Barcelona for Carcassonne. Took metro to Barceloneta stop. There were no signs for the Franca train station, but we were able to eventually find it. It was also raining lightly to make things more interesting. Brian wrote a song about the rain. He calls it, “Don’t cry for my Barcelona” + Once we were at our train platform, Brian set off to find some food for breakfast. He first searched within the security zone, but there was only a newspaper store. So he left the security zone to the front of the train station. Eventually he found a restaurant, but it was only serving overpriced coffee, wine, and beer. Determined to find some food he went outside and surveyed the land. Nothing. He recalled that they had passed a bread store on their way to the train station so he ran through the rain to buy two chocolate croissants and a Napoleonic cream croissant. The store didn’t sell drinks though, but he was confident that the train station would at least have a vending machine. he returned the food to Amy waiting by the train, and then gathered their coins to go find a vending machine. He found several next to the restaurant with no food. Yet none of them worked. We were not meant to drink anything that morning I suppose. + The train was super slow. At times it felt like it was crawling. In fact one time Brian once looked outside and saw a man standing right by the tracks and the train slowly passed him. At Narbonne we were, supposed to catch a train to Carcassonne. However that train ended up being just a bus. We along with an elderly British couple were very confused as to where this bus was picking us up. The French information girl just kept waving her hand very vaguely. We did catch it though, and promptly passed out until we reached the Carcassonne station. + Upon arrival we discovered, with the help of a nice train info lady, that our hotel was far far away, in the middle of the boonies. She told us it was in the direction of the prison… so if we can’t find our hotel we could stay there for free (we just needed to commit a crime first!) We also discovered after talking to another Tourist information lady that it was about a 20 minute walk and that the next bus would not come for another hour. So we set off, each with our huge backpacks and our smaller backpacks. In the rain…around 40-50 minutes later we collapsed in our hotel which was thankfully clean. note: Brian was a nice friend and helped Amy carry her smaller backpack. Imagine Amy with her main backpack and her green umbrella and then Brian with his huge backpack and two smaller backpacks in front and no umbrella. + The reason we came to here was because Amy really wanted to see their walled city castle. So with a brief rest, (time enough for Brian to collapse on the bed) We were back outside walking up to this castle. + The castle is pretty impressive, and is much like what you would imagine one to be. + We arrived around 5:00 so we couldn’t take the chateau tour, but we the cathedral was still open so we went in there. + Then we wandered around the outer wall. Amy liked stepping on the old stones and connecting with history (dork) and Brian liked romping around like the boy in the video game ICO (nerd). +

+ Wake up on time for the walking tour + Grab some fruit breakfast at the market, More smoothies! + The bad map on the walking tour brochure took us to the wrong street, so we made it to the correct place just to catch them at the corner of the street where she was explaining her tour + Walked around the Gothic quarter, found out where Columbus came to talk to Isabel and Ferdinand, where he might have gotten his shoes, and where Gaudi liked to go to church + Learned about some of the important sites of the Spanish civil war, revolts against the church against sending more citizens out to fight for colonies, saw some Roman ruins under the city, and sights of Moorish buildings. Also saw where Patron Saint Eulaliaa was thrown into a barrel by the Romans + Amy note: Did Brian Jacques get the Badger war cry from this saint? (EULALIAAAAA!!) + The tour guide took us back to the Traveler’s bar for free drinks afterwards + Everyone in the group sat at a big table + Amy felt REALLY awkward and, try as she might, couldn’t make conversation with anyone at the table… Maybe because everyone just kept talking about going to the pub crawl that night… Or maybe the fact that two of them were still in high school. Amy felt like a mom! Especially when she accidentally spilled coke while toasting that splashed on one of the high school kid’s camera and she immediately took out a tissue. + Amy looked like she was in pain, so Brian quickly finished his drink and we left + walked around looking for lunch, wound up eating a shawarma sandwich for 3.5 euro (whatever shawarma is, it was good!) + walked over to shopping mall to get top up card for cell phone, Success! The first few times we tried, it didn’t give the option of using a Spanish Vodafone top up, so we were very confused, but after a few tries, it decided to gift us with option 4 + Walked to Casa de Mila, toured the Gaudi museum, the roof top, and the mock apartment. Very nice! + Took the metro back to place de Catalunya to eat at good old Subway. Brian had another Magnum craving and tried to use their Magnum vending machine, but didn’t work + walked back to Hotel to use the interet, along the way, saw a store selling Magnum, Brian bought a Magnum Maya Mystica and Amy bought a Magnum Sandwich (Offical name! But the Catalan version was much longer) + Used internet and then got ready for the concert! Brian had been really excited about this alllll day + We went to listen to the Royal Philharmonic of London play Rachmaninoff and Dvorak at the Palau de Musica de Catalana. Yeah. We’re fancy. + The concert crowd was kind of noisy, but you could tell they were trying to be nice. They saved all their coughing for the breaks in between pieces. Each time the orchestra stopped, there was a roar of coughing. + Amy really enjoyed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Number 2 + Brian took lots of stealth pictures becuase no photos were allowed + During intermission, most people had gone out for a break, but a funny old man came in suddenly and had a ticket for a seat that was occupied before intermission. He struck up conversation with us, saying that he was so entranced by the building that he was lingering around and some nice lady saw him and his wife with their ears to the door trying to listen to Rachmaninoff (he said it was the most romantic Rachmaninoff he had ever heard) and gave him the last two tickets for the concert. He was so happy he kissed her! + He was from Buffalo New York and he seemed really into architecture. He talked about how when he was in Mexico, he saw the same Dvorak symphony and the tympani player flipped his baton in the air. Brian got excited about this. Then, the group of people who were sitting in the row before intermission came back and they told him to leave, despite his ticket. They wouldn’t even let him make his case and just kept shooing him away! What made Amy really irked was how they had five seats between their four people and wouldn’t even give a seat to an old man. Instead, they used it to put their coats. They claimed that they had bought five tickets and one of their party was ill and couldn’t make it, but man, common courtesy! Okay, enough of Amy rampage. + Brian and Amy officially dubbed these people Grump Buckets + Admired the skylight after the concert and then left to go back to hotel +

+ Amy turns off alarm in her sleepy mode and we wake up at 11, missing the walking tour + We have about the same time as when we arrived in Barcelona the day before + Tried to buy concert tickets at Palau Musica de Catalana online but it didn’t work + Walked to concert hall (should have done this in the first place, less than 10 minutes away) and bought tickets + Went back to Kirin for another buffet lunch + Couldn’t eat as much this time around, but still very good! + Went to Sangrada Familia and examined every detail until we got tired of it + Amy really liked the fruit bowl spires + Brian really liked seeing the building being constructed + Got dizzy coming down the spiral stairs of the spire (Be forewarned!) + There was a protest going on outside when we went to the gift store + Amy bought a cool hook mechanism thing! Ask her to show it to you! + Walked to Casa de Mila (La Pedrera), got there at 7:45, last admission at 7:30 + Took pictures of the house in the sunset + Brian was attracted to the post-it note display in a design store next door so we went to explore that for a while + We had been noticing very enticing ads for Magnum ice cream bars, so we decided that it would be nice to eat a magnum ice cream bar on a bench along the Passeig de Gracia (big shopping boulevard where Casa de Mila is) + Just when we wanted to eat Magnum, we couldn’t find a single store selling it! + We walk several blocks, decided to go down a side street and instead find a vodafone shop, which directs us back across to the main boulevard to a bigger Vodafone shop that might help us with refilling our SIM card + Give up on searching for the Vodafone store and continue walking down Passeig de Gracia + At the street corner, Amy spots another famous Gaudi house across the street on the right that we saw in a post card (Brian had originally thought this was part of the Casa de Mila, but it’s actually Casa de Batllo) + Brian spots a newspaper stand across the street in front of us with a sign for ice cream + Amy points at the house and says to cross the street to the right + Brian points to the newspaper stand says to cross the street in front of us + Amy sees the sign, follows Brian + We buy two Magnum Almond Ice Cream Bars and then cross the street to the house + ate the ice cream bars on a bench in front of the house + Brian gets cold + We take out Rick Steves and decide to go to El Raco for dinner + On the way to El Raco, we see some other cool architecture (wire webbing that made a giant chair, some other buildings along Passeig Gracia) + At El Raco, we ate Rissoto and Veal, very good and not expensive! Much better than La Poma from yesterday… + Brian looks at the map and finds the closest Metro Station, but when we arrived, we realized that we were right back to Place de Catalunya where our hotel was! That surprised us + We took the metro to the crazy skyscraper (Torre Agbar) from the night before. When we arrived, it was really dark and quiet, and when we finally spotted the sky scraper, it wasn’t even lit up! + We hoped that it was lit up from the other side, so we walked around to the other side of the building, but it was also dark + Brian liked the building next to it more (the Diagonal Barcelona building) + Took some pictures and then went back to the metro, avoiding the “sketchy hooded youths” +

+ Brian woke up to a poke poke, and then Amy sleepily saying “it’s 6:45″ We had slept in 45 minutes! We put it into hyper drive and made it to the train station with plenty of time. + Spain’s high speed trains are nice. We both slept and missed out on the Spanish movie. + Arrived at hostal Campi just off Ramblas street. + Instead of big flyers to advertise retaurants, museums, and attractions, our hotel has little business card like things that are really handy! More places should use them. Using one of these cards we discover Kirin, an all you can eat Japanese buffet. We go there and eat. a lot. + We do a self guided walking tour down Ramblas. + Tour leads us to a quiet spot where Roman tombs that lined the pathway to the Roman city gate were found during construction + Made a detour through La Boqueria and bought some fruit and some delicious smoothies. + Brian sees coconut and reminisces about Hawaii and buys some + Walked along harbur, and then found a nice shadey place to eat our fruit. + wandered for a bit before deciding to explore the Barcelona Cathedral. + Saw lots of remains of Roman walls that people had built on top of + Once done touring we discovered that our hotel was just around the corner. We headed back so Brian could take a little siesta. + Used hotel computers to plan out some activities including seeing the London symphony play in one of Brian’s favorite buildings! + Still full from food, we headed out to find some food. An Applebees – like place (not only was the environment like Applebees, it was called la Poma and had an apple logo) suggested by Rick Steves was across the street. The picture menu outside looks ok but not great. Brian says, “let’s check inside to see the prices.” We walked in and a waiter says, “two people?” Brian says “yes” and Amy finds herself mindlessly following Brian to a table. We had made our restaurant decision for the night. Next time Brian will ask to see the menu. + Walked down Ramblas at night to see if it was very different. It is pretty much the same except more spray paint artists. + After browsing through some postcards (which is a good way to figure out what you want to see) we decide to see this crazy colorful skyscraper which appears to be beside the Sagrada Familia. + We metro over to the Sagrada Familia and take lots of pictures of it in the night sky. From one angle the spot light actually casted a shadow of the spires onto the clouds above. Pretty strange to see. Amy spots oddly colored clouds in the distance and figures the skyscraper is in that direction, but no skyscraper in sight. After consulting our map we see that the skyscraper is actually pretty far away for us to walk at night (Amy was right about the direction, though!). We head back into the metro to try again. However we then notice that according to the metro signs the trains stop running at midnight. It was 11:40. So we decide to save this skyscraper for another night. +

+ Brian woke up with rubly-tumbly grumpy stomach. He probably ate too many churros last night. + We missed our train to Segovia, but got a replacement one for an hour later. + Ate a petite breakfast in the train station. + Since we got replacement tickets they for some reason put our seats in first class. Sweet! It’s only a 35 minute train ride. + Segovia has a huge Roman aqueduct from around the 1st century AD. We saw it. Amy touched it to feel its oldness. + Wandered into the city walls. The town is very quaint with lots of little churches and nice road ways. Most of the day we just wandered. + Amy got a toy monster truck from one of those toy-canister machines. + Wandered around and wondered what all the monuments were, didn’t have any English explanations + Found tourist information and asked for an English pamphlet + Amy was curious and asked the tourist information lady how the aqueduct worked + Learned how the Aqueduct worked (channeled water from a mountain far away all the way into the Roman military base close to where the town is) + Walked around to find some lunch, all expensive except for a chain sandwich place, Raquillo? Pretty good! Very affordable (1.50 euro for half a sandwich with soft bread!) + Walked to the Alcazar castle, they didn’t seem to be letting anyone in so we walked away after Brian climbed onto the wall for a better view of the countryside + There were lots of bugs flying everywhere! + Walked to Hercules’ Tower, three storks had their nests up there + Walked around some more, saw the city outside the old city walls + Tried Deutsch Bank ATM, both failed + Took bus/Train back to Madrid + Ventured to the other side of the hotel and realized that we were really close to Place Mayor where we sat to people watch yesterday, both were shocked. + Found a grocery store (first!) and bought some ice tea and two big oranges (very good! Total only 3.5 euro!) + went back to hotel, Brian was able to ask the hotel people to borrow their phone and made reservations at the flamenco place + Ate another Kebab plate at corner place, had Turkish and Apple teas + Stalled until ~ 9:15 + Walked along a new street and found another very busy plaza in Madrid + Went to Anton Martin to see Flamenco + Flemenco was cool! Asked the lady next to us (who was very audibly enjoying the show throughout) about Flamenco + Sleep!

Ask Brian Day:

Throughout the day, people kept asking Brian (in Spanish) various things that we could not understand. Brian would stand there, unable to communicate, either muttering “Lo Siento” or “no no” as they continued their question. This happened 1. At Chamartin station before we were able to get into the train platform for Segovia when a lady with a bag and a smiling face kept saying something and Brian thought she might have been trying to sell him her handbag. 2. In Segovia when a lady went up to Brian and asked him something and then we looked really confused and then she said “Speak English?” “Yeah…” “Ah okay.” and then went away. Both of these were old ladies. 3. A Spanish couple asks Brian to take a picture of them on the city wall in Segovia. Brian is very proud of this because he conducted the entirety of this conversation in Spanish. This consisted of “[something something] photo?” “Oh! Si!” The couple gets ready, Brian goes to his spot. Brian says “Uno, Dos, Tres!” and the couple can’t help but laugh. 4. After Flamenco when a man went up to Brian to ask him, possibly for food. Brian topped walking and tried to say “no no” and then we walked away. As we walked away, he goes “I want food!” Thus, the theory.

+ Strolled through Madrid to the Temple de Debod. Eqypt gave Spain a temple to thank Spain for helping them with their flooding problem. + Siesta in the park. + Amy took a nap (her first real siesta!) + Brian drew a picture + Kebab sandwhich + Ran around Atocha train station trying to settle our Segovia, Barcelona, and Carcassone train tickets. + Walked through Madrid following Rick Steve’s self guided walking tour. + More tapa hopping: drinks in Plaza Mayor, Calamari sandwich, more gazpacho, and more of Amy’s favorite shrimp. + Churros con chocolate. Brian ate a lot of churros. +

Madrid, night of May 4 at Churro cafe:
Brian: What was the [Souvineir] lady asking you?
Amy: Oh, she asked me where I was from ethnically and then I asked if she was from China too and she said no but said she was from a place that had 100 dialects similar to how China has lots of dialects, but I coudln’t catch which place she said. Does Spain have 100 dialects?
Brian (confidently): Yeah. It does.
Amy: Really?
Brian: Well, I know they speak Catalan in Barcelona. So that’s two.
Amy: ….

Woke up at 4:00 (two hours after we went to sleep) + Patrick and Severine drove us in Patrick’s brothers european car to the bust station. + Waited with a crowd of confused people. The situation was like a candid camera prank. see illustrations coming soon + Patrick and Severine stand as sentinels guarding our luggage in the luggage compartment until the crazy crowd filters away. Thanks for everything, Severine and Patrick! + Slept on the airplane. + Brian used his language skills for real communication for the first time. He is very proud of himself. He smiled for 10 minutes. + Went to McDonalds because we hadn’t eaten very much since lunch the previous day and it was near by. sorry! + The go to Reina Sophia museum and see the Picasso exhibition + Picasso was a very prolific artist… Totally picasso’d out! + Followed Rick Steves’ Tapas bar crawl to eat genuine Spanish Tapas! Very yummy! Had a small shrimp in onion dish, fried eggplant, and pig’s ears! (oreja) + Participated in a Rick Steves Gathering + Brian couldn’t eat very many of the pig ears + Wandered around the Puerta del sol area (Amy really liked the small, busy pedestrian streets) + found a movie theater, checked times for Iron Man + used navigation to get back to the central square, passed by a McD’s express and got a soft serve ice cream for 0.75 euro + Walked back to Opera, decided to walk back the other way (about a 5 minute walk, 10 if we’re slow and wanted to walk by the churros store) to watch iron man at 10:15 (it was just so nice and bustling! Nice warm night!) + Watched Iron Man + Brian really enjoyed this quote: “It’s impossible, it can’t be done!” “Tony Spark built this in a cave! From scraps!” + Amy thought it was really funny how iron man was super cool and could fly and all, but to fly, he had to hold out his hands like little ballerina wings + Walked back to hotel (still a lot of people on the streets!), sleep!

stories: Rick Steves’ Gathering
We were following Rick Steves’ Tapas crawl tour in Madrid and we go into the Casa Toni Bar to try their fried eggplant (bejerena) when we overheard the three American ladies at the table by the window trying to ask an Italian couple at the next table what they were eating (we recognized it as the eggplant we had on our table) and the Italian lady pulled out a Spanish-Italian dictionary, which wasn’t really helping the American ladies, so the Italian lady gave them a piece to try. Finally, Amy couldn’t stand not helping out so she said “It’s eggplant!” The ladies couldn’t hear her, so Brian tries to get their attention. We tell them that it’s eggplant and everybody’s happy, the American ladies thank us for telling and the Italian lady thanks us for helping. Then, another American couple comes in, holding a Rick Steves’ book! The three American ladies get all excited and point out that they also had a Rick Steves’ book. Of course, we had to jump in and flash our own Rick Steves’ book that was lying on our table. All of a sudden, Rick Steves’ book wielding American travelers took over the tapas bar, babbling about taking pictures and sending them to Rick Steves. Brian, a lady from the first American group, and the lady from the American couple stand together with their Rick Steves books and take pictures. Then, they commenced asking each other for recommendations on hotels and where they were staying (Brian was the one participating in the foray, not Amy. She just mostly watched). The three American ladies were from the Sacramento area and had come in from Bilbao, and the American couple had come to that same tapas bar for gezpacho the last time they came into Madrid. The ladies figured out we were “techies” almost immediately after we said that we lived in the Palo Alto area. Brian’s Stanford Swimming tshirt probably helped them deduce. We then all sat down at our respective tables and did our own thing. The couple left after their gezpacho and when the three ladies were about to leave, Brian, who had churros on his mind all night, got up to ask them if they knew where to get good churros. They didn’t know, but they talked about other tapas bars to try and said goodbyes while hoping that we’ll cross paths again. Afterwards, Brian noted to Amy that the ladies and the couple were on a different level of Rick Steves travel. They were all staying at 3 dollar sign hotels! We’re still at 1! We saw both the couple and the ladies together one last time in front of La Casa de Abuello, where we had shrimp in olive oil (gambas al ajillo) earlier. We didn’t say hi, though, and went on to our last tapas stop for the night.

Utilized the French post office. They have standard package for a 2 kg max parcel for a set rate for international post, so we gathered our brochures and maps (all stuff we got for free…) from our first part of the trip and put it together on Severine’s scale, and it was 1.93 kg! But… we figure that with the envelope the post office gave us, it would push it above 2, but we decided to try it anyway. It turned out to be 2.1 kg! But the post man was nice enough to let us slide without bumping us to the next weight level (for maybe 15 euro more…) Thanks Severine and Patrick for looking up every possible international post option available from France + Waited in a pointless line for Sainte-Chapelle for 2 hours. Turned out to be a horribly inefficient metal detector line that they make everyone go through because Sainte-Chapelle is inside the French Justice Department complex + Finally got in to see the amazing stained glass windows of Sainte-Chapelle. + Ate a crepe. banana and nutella. yum! First crepe in France, and cheaper than palo alto! + Cluny Museum aka the Musee National du Moyen Age aka the Middle Age museum. Amy loved being near such old artifacts. Brian was surprised that he enjoyed looking at the tapestries (He usually finds them a bit boring). + The Louvre: the Denon Wing. Saw Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, and of course the crowd in front of Mona Lisa. (We also were able to see the Mona Lisa, but it was mainly the crowd.) + Went to have a final stroll up to the Eiffel Tower. It is large, and quite nice in the dusk sky. + Last on our Paris list: Statue of Liberty. Yes there is a statue of liberty in Paris. (Amy tells me it faces the one in the US) If you don’t believe me watch National Treasure. It took us three attempts to find a sidewalk that would lead us to her, but we finally made it. The streets were pretty deserted too.

Mona Lisa tip from Brian: People kept saying that the Mona Lisa is a big disappointment when seen in real life. Most often the complaint is that it is so small. Or that the line is so long. Well I found a trick. I prepared myself mentally beforehand. I convinced myself that the Mona Lisa was boring and tiny and not worth my time to see. So when I saw it, I was pleasantly surprised that it was larger than I expected, and the wait was not long at all. I enjoyed watching everyone take photographs between the gaps in crowd too.

Today was France’s Labor day. + Lazily woke up and ate breakfast. + Patrick gave Severine and Amy the traditional flower on May 1. Cute little bell flowers that Amy really liked but she already forgot the name. Severine! Help! + Lazily worked on booking hotels for the rest of the trip. + Relaxed. + Panicked when we realized our early flight out of Paris was out of a budget airport that is 55 miles north of Paris… We figured out their bus system to the airport (basically, there’s a bus 3 hours and 15 minutes before your flight. Ours just happened to be at 8AM, so the bus would be there at 4:45AM. The metro doesn’t start until 5! We contemplated sleeping at the airport, but we read online that it was a horrible airport to sleep in. Patrick convinces his brother Julien to let Patrick borrow their car to drive us to the bus station. Thanks Julien! + Watched a 4 hour Indian movie. Amy danced. Everyone shava shava!

note: I think neither of us took a photo this day! A French Labour day miracle!

We’ve been wanting to update the blog during our “rest” in Paris. We have been trying to keep track of all our photos and stories, but it’s been difficult to find time to write/post. Don’t worry though they are coming. At some point!

Right now we’re in Paris and on Saturday we’re going down to Spain to kick off our second month of travel!

Severine walked us to bus station (at 7 in the morning! on her day off!) + Took TGV train to Nantes. Slept for the two hour trip. + Went to Les Machines Incredible. + Rode a giant robotic elephant. It reminded us of something straight out of Miyazaki’s films, like Howl’s Moving Castle! + Amy bought a cute steel bookmark with a weasel and a jester. + Ate (very slowly) in a restaurant, while watching European music videos. + looked at puppies at a pet shop. + Toured the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne (Castle of the Dukes of Brittany) + Amy learned a lot about Queen Anne of France and Brittany. She had 3 babies by age 15! Maybe 17, but still! Crazy. + Brian jumped over a dog to avoid a dog fight. + Ate at a Chinese buffet. + The tram employees got lazy or something so they made everyone get off the tram on our way to the train station. We walked one station and hopped on another tram from there. + Two hour train ride back to Paris. + Saw the Eiffel Tower twinkle from Trocadero.

Stories:
While on riding on the elephant there was a large crowd watching it from the ground. One little boy was looking at the waving trunk in particular interest, when all of the sudden the elephant began to bellow, making elephant sounds and raising its head. Then it sprayed water out of it’s trunk… directly hitting the kid. The kid jumped back but he was trapped between the wall and the elephant spray. He escaped into the building. Later his mom drug him out to dry him off. He was not happy, and glared at the elephant with the intensity that one acquires when they meet their arch-nemesis!

Note: Brian was very excited about today. He likes giant robotic elephants.