Train Travel

So we were heading into Paris on a Saturday to meet Aaron. We had a train from Nice in the morning and got in around 12:30. The major concern was, not meeting up with Aaron but finding a place to stay because it was a Saturday, in June, in Paris and we were without a room. A few phone calls later and some sketcy directions hammered out using the poor English of the girl on the phone and my even poorer French found Neal and I riding the metro out to Hoche. We later found out that we weren´t even in the city any longer but out in the suburb and it was a questionable area at best. We were able to get a room for the night and make it to airport in time to meet Aaron. We were so happy about finding a room that we didn´t even mind his flight being delayed.

That night we went back to the hostel and ate mircowaved mac and cheese. It wasnt easy mac but the stove was broken so what was going to be a good meal of mac and cheese turned into a mircowaved mess of undercooked noodles and semi melted cheese. We then headed out to the the city because Aaron hadn´t been there before. We took the metro to the Eiffle tower and then walked over to the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysee to the Louvre. On Sunday we got up bright at about 7:00am and early to get over the Eiffle tower so we could go to the top before the lines formed. We didn´t get up early enough. There were lines and I think that no matter how early we got up there would have been lines. We then took the train out to Versailles and went to the gardens. The line was too long and it was 25€ to go tour the inside unfortunately. The gardens were packed though and we couldn´t figure out why until all the fountains came on. They don´t run the fountains normally and it was lucky that we just happened to be there. The gardens were amazing without the fountains and ten times better with them. We headed back into the city stopped by Notre Dame real quick and then got on our night train to Barcelona.

If you ever take a night train and it only costs 15 more euro for a sleeping car you should probably consider it. The recling seats that were suppose to go back 160 degrees and be nice and comfortable... didn´t and weren´t. We did end up meeting the girl in the row across from us and taught her how to play euchre and were able to get a decent amount of sleep although my back wasn´t too happy about it in the morning. We are in Barcelona now. We have two nights here and then it´s off to Cordoba. We´ll hit up the beach and go see La Sagrada Familia and do some relaxing.

Well, everything was going tip top until today. We spent two night in Paris. The first day was just getting organized and situated but we went up to Sacre Couer
and then down to the Seine to watch the sun set.
Saturday we spent in Chartes which was amazing. The view from, the north bell tower is amazing.

Sunday we took the train out to Bayeux. This was our second ti,e using the rail pass qnd everything went smoothly. We did learn the hard way thought that everything closes in France on Sunday, including super markets. The hostel in Bayeux was in a wonderful old home and had a garden, a library, an outdoor game of ches. It was fairly epmty being a sunday night. I would love to stay there again with more people around; We were hoping to get a tour of the D-Day beaches on Sunday but had to wait until monday morning but it was well worth it. Point du Hoc and the americain cenetery were both beautiful and moving.

This is when the troubles started. Since we did not leave Bayeux until late we missed the last bus from Pontorson to Mont St Michel. Then we got into Rennes but it was too late to coninue onto Le Mans or Tours as we hoped. Then to top things off we tried to book a train from Paris to Nice for later in the week think two days aheqd would be enough. It was not. So now we are not sure what we are going to do. It has been fun, exciting and tiring so far and we are still getting the hang of this whole travelling around with no plans. I am being to think that we may have to give up some flexabilty to make sure we have a place to stay and a way to get there. All in all its been a crazy and fun four days

Also Neal is having trouble with the size of his photos and taking up all of our storage space so for now look on facebook and hopefull we can work it out soon.

This point du hoc. For those of you unfamiliar, this is where the US Army Rangers scaled the cliffside and took out German posts to prepare for D-Day.

An example of a gun, with something like 150mm cannon and a 12 nile range

and after a hard days work of travelling, we checked our email and had dinner...