Night in Paris

We have spent two days in Paris so far. We have seen the Sacre Coeur, the Louvre, the Arc de Triumphe, the Moulin Rouge, the Opera, and the Eiffel Tower. The days are so long here with the sun setting at about 10 or 10:30. We have covered alot of ground in the last couple of days. We have met alot of nice and helpful people. There are quite a few Americans here especially around the Eiffel Tower. We hooked up with Derek's friend, Xavier, and talked about what we should see in Paris over a nice glass of wine.


The day we arrived in Paris was the annual Music Festival across France. There was music being played everywhere in the streets all night long. One lady told us they played until 4 am. We listened to both good and bad music and thought about Ben playing on the steps of the Sacre Coeur.

At the Louvre we saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus di Milo, and magnificent paintings and sculptures (and our Nepal friends). See Flickr. After walking all day, we ended our day by going up the the Eiffel Tower. It was so beautiful! We went to the top and could see all of Paris, then we stayed until 11 pm to see the Eiffel Tower light up and sparkle. It's really hard to believe you are in Paris especially when you are sittng at the base of the Eiffel Tower while it shines its beauty to the world.

Today we will try to conquer the Notre Dame and maybe the Musee de Orsay as well as taking a river walk. Tomorrow will be our last day in Paris and then we take an overnight train to Rome.

Paris and the rescue

We arrived in Paris. On the way we had to change trains because, as the French lady on the train said, German trains can not go fast enough!
We also met a couple from Katmandu, they did not make hotel reservations, so Barbie and I helped them find a hotel (SEE PIC)



We just visted Sacre Coeur, it is just up the street from our hotel. Standing inside was so majestic, very peaceful, it felt like a dream come true.

We are off to check into our hotel, then some more exploring. More pictures to come!

Day in Langen

Today we traveled to Langen to find where I used to live. We walked up and down the streets and found the place, so I think. Maybe my mom can confirm it all for us. The house was smaller than I remembered although, isn´t everything the older we get. It´s funny how our memories remember things so big.


Anyway, I wasn´t exactly sure, so we walked around to the back of the house and found the remembered cherry tree in the back. Instead of a church next to the house, we found an Asian Market. Langen was a very quaint little town. We spent a couple of hours there and then just rested underneath some beautiful green trees at a park, while watching the little German children run and play in the sandbox. Well, we set out to accomplish finding my home town and we did that.
Our next adventure will be to travel to Paris tomorrow morning. We will be taking the high speed train which will travel about 180 miles per hour. I don´t know how often we will be getting on the internet after Frankfurt. One plus to the hotel we are at right now is free internet access.

Chris:
My adventure in Langen started with trip to the public restroom (see pic). Why was this part of the adventure, everyone should pay to go to the bathroom at least once in their life.

The town was very nice to walk through, my plan to lose weight by walking is going to happen for sure. Barbie and I also took the Subway there, It is so much fun just looking out the window, while someone else does the driving!!


PS, UPS was here in force!

Made it to Europe

Hey everyone, thanks for keeping up with us. We haven't done much site seeing yet. Our plane ride was alright. It was a bit cramped and the inflight entertainment was all in German, so forget about watching movies. We were delayed in Vegas for almost an hour something to do with the wind pattern. I don't know, but finally we got off. After landing in Frankfurt, we had to buy our first train pass to get to a different part of the city to find our hotel. That was interesting. We stood around the machine trying to read the German and figure out what to do. We had two "helpful" people wanting to sell us their tickets. Well, we prayed about it and eventually we made it to the right station, reserved our train to Paris and then to Rome, and checked into our hotel (which is conveniently right across from the train station). We didn't get a lot of sleep on the plane (evidently on Condor air, everything is extra, alcohol, headsets, and no footies for the plane), so we took a little snooze. Now we are off to check out the city and get something to eat. Thanks for all of your prayers.

love,

Chris n Barbie