Brad and Neal's Excellent Adventure

There is nothing like spending three days on the Cote d'Azur. All the trouble zwe had in Rennes just melted away. We were able to find an apartment to saty in with a full kitchen. That was great because there was a supermarket up the street and our enitre food buget for the three days here was less then 25€. There was a group from Finland staying in the other room of the aparment and we taught them how to play 31. It feels good to just sit around and not doing anything. That isn't something we had a chance to do yet this summer and Neal and I both needed it. We are meeting Aaron Tournoux in Paris on Saturday and after that it is off to Spain. We visited Monoco, which was unreal. I mean honestly, do you really need a helicopter on your yacht? We also got amazing tans spending 2 days on the beach.

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...

It is 2am Icelandic time while I am writing this. It is still light out but its raining and 45 degrees so we decided to stay inside. Our plan to camp out in the bar has been hampered by the fact that the bar is closed. Instead, Neal is reading and I found some free internet access. By the way, Ms. Parker, if you are reading this I dropped a cracker on the floor when we first got here. I´ll let your imagination decide what I did with it.

How has the trip been going you ask? Well, the train station in Elyria consists of a double wide and a bench and we had to sit on that bench for 45 minutes because the train was 20 minutes late. Amtrack wouldn´t be a bad way to travel, you have big seats, room to walk around, a lounge car, plugs to charge electronics, if it wasn´t for the fact that the train has to stop for every freight train that comes along. Amtrack doesn´t own the track and so its trains spend a lot of time waiting on sidings. What was suppose to be a 13 hour ride turned into 15.5. I did learn however, the location of a nice bar just a block from the train station in Albany, NY, for future reference. I was a little sad when we got into Penn Station because I was hoping to get a sub. I figured that Penn Station subs were over priced in Columbus but in New York I wouldn´t mind paying that much. I couldn´t find one though.

Our hostel in New York was in a Brownstone on the Upper East Side and three block from central park. We roomed with a couple from Argentina and had some very good pizza. The next morning we were able to see a little of the city before flying out on Thursday afternoon. We walked around the park, got some bagels, admired the sky-line. I´ll have to go back and spend a longer amount of time in the near future.

That brings me to the flight. We were on Icelandair and that is why we have 8 hour stopover in Iceland. The flight was crowded and the Icelanders decided to have a party. They were constantly up and down the aisle,talking to people, drinking a lot of Viking beer, and generally having a good timea. I guess when your country only has 308,000 people you are bound to run into some you know. The guy Neal was sitting next to was from Sweden but now lives in the US and was taking his kids back to Sweden to visit his parents. He, however, spent 6 summers traveling around Europe for a month or two when he was in college and was full of great information. There was a also a couple and their three kids in the row behind us who are from Powell. They are traveling onto France as well and we are hanging out together in the airport. The seven of us are the only people here besides the occasional sercurity guard. It would be creepy but it is still light outside so it feels like the middle of the day in here.

All in all it has been fun so far. We haven´t gotten lost yet and I have already finished two books. Neal is about a third done with his first one. He falls asleep everytime he starts reading. Now I know what he does at the library all the time. Here I thought he was studying and it turns out he was just napping. Sorry for the typos and errors but its late and don´t feel like taking the time to fix them. Next stop Paris.

Neal and I are getting ready to spend three months in Europe this summer and I thought I would get our blog going. For those of you who don't know we are heading out on the 13th from Elyria and taking the train to New York. This will be my first time in New York so hopefully we'll get to see a few things before we leave. We fly out of JFK on the 14th, have a stop over in Rejikavik, Iceland and get into Paris on the 16th. Right now we are in the final stages of packing and getting everything ready to go. Well, Neal is packed and I haven't started but it shouldn't take too long. How much stuff do I need for three months anyway?

I tought with this first entry I would give some history on Neal's and I's travels. We have taken some sort of trip together every summer since our Junior year in High School. We went to Europe with our high school French class that year and visited London, Paris, and Barcelona. We have also been to West Virginia to the New River to rock climb and raft, we have been to Kentucky and Mammoth Cave, Virginia and Washington D.C., and our biggest trip was a road trip to the Badlands, the Black Hills, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons. That was the first trip that we planned ourselves and did on our own. That was the first Brad and Neal's Excellent Adventure and so that is why this part deux. This blog is our way of trying to keep everyone updated on what we are doing. I hope that you enjoy reading it this summer and leave us comments about how jealous you are. I will be doing most of the writing and the pictures that we have will be courtsey of Neal.