Together again…..(Nice, June 29, 2008)

Mark arrived last evening, and we walked down to the old port to see some yachtage.
This morning we walked down to the Promenade Anglaise, visited the famous Negresco Hotel, and then went to the beach. This wonderful little hotel provides towels, mats, and umbrellas for the beach! I think we were the only Americans on our particular beach. We saw lots of interesting sights…..old people in speedos and bikinis! Evidently they were taught very young how to lie down on the beach under a towel and completely change clothes (I don’t know why they didn’t just wear their swimsuits to the beach in the first place!). Very interesting to watch!

After a light lunch in our room, we took the bus to Monaco. A young handsome couple of American kids sat across from us on the bus. They were on a honeymoon cruise, had been married for one week. We told them we were on our 25th “anniversary moon”. The groom had just finished his first year of dental school, and the bride had just finished her first year of medical school (both at Loma Linda, California). Really neat kids, enjoyed the visit. It was extremely hot today, and we walked a lot. I have actually lost some weight, yeah! We walked in the famous Casino and through the yacht harbor, and then up the hill to the palace.

We splurged tonight and had dinner in a Hippopotamus restaurant, which is a French franchise for steak and fries. But Mark had tilapia, and I had a shish kabob with chicken, peppers, onions, and two kinds of sausage. Delicious after several days of “picnicking”!

I’m watching the European footy finals, and Mark is snoozing. Spain is currently ahead 1-0, and I’m pulling for ‘em! Olé, Olé, Olé! Tomorrow we take the scenic train through the Alps to Grenoble, where we pick up a car and start our driving adventure! Prayers are appreciated, really!

Mon aventure du jour…..(Nice, June 28, 2009)

This morning Renée and I got up at 4 :30 a.m. to start our trek to the Côte d’Azur airport. With her 100 pounds of luggage (not kidding), we walked about 6 blocks to the bus station to catch the 5:35 a.m. bus to the airport. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time. There was a small ACIS group checking in on the same flight, so we met Adrian, another ACIS tour manager, and talked business for a bit. Renée got checked in (no penalties, thanks to Air France’s liberal weight policy) and we parted ways amicably after three weeks of wonderful travel. We are certainly good travel mates!

Here’s where the interesting part starts. Renée and I left the hotel with fifteen euros. She gave me five, and then two more just in case I needed them. (That part is important to my story!) The direct bus from the bus station to the airport costs 4 euros ($6), and being the frugal traveler that I am, I decided to try to find a local bus back downtown for 1 euro ($1.50). I took the free shuttle bus to Terminal 1, to try to catch a local bus. When I arrived there, I found that the bus I wanted didn’t run on Saturdays (probably because they want people to pay for the 4 euro bus). I decided to walk a ways towards Nice, and try to catch a bus on the main road. Of course, I wasn’t thinking that it was 6:30 a.m., and not many buses were running yet! But it was nice and cool and walking wasn’t too bad.

I came upon a small train station, which I recognized as one stop from the main Nice station. After detouring through some road construction (reminds me of home), I found the station. Most of the people waiting there had tickets, and the ticket window wasn’t open, so I figured I might just have to ride the train illegally. A young French girl came to ask me where to buy a ticket, and together we asked enough people and finally found the automatic machine. The machine only took coins and credit cards. The young girl only had a ten euro bill, and I just gotten money from an ATM at the airport, but of course it was in bills. Except for the three euros I had left over from what Renée gave me. The young girl had been on her way to work and she had a car accident, totaling her car. She was trying to get back home to Nice. I bought us two tickets on the train, and she said she’d pay me back when we got to Nice. We rode the train together and I learned that she was from Morocco and works in a salon doing everything but hair. She was also cleaning houses, trying to save up enough money to open her own salon. She was really rather calm when I saw her, but she said she had been very upset after the accident. She wanted to pay me back for the ticket, but I told her it was a gift. She was the sweetest young lady! We walked a ways from the train station (she to the tram line and I on my way back to the hotel). We exchanged names, she told me I should visit Marakesh and that my French was excellent, much better than her English. When we parted, she gave me the traditional “bises” (a kiss on each cheek)!

Renée’s extra two euros led me to a special encounter with a beautiful young girl in need!

(I returned to the hotel @ 7:30 a.m, and now get to go back to the airport this afternoon to get Mark!)

Oops!....June 26, 2008

OK, I got the Milano and Cinque Terre blogs out of order....but I don't know how to change them, so you readers will just have to figure it out! Sorry! I'm about to turn on the "footy match".

Nice is nice……(June 26, 2008)
Renee and I are sitting in the Laundromat doing a load of clothes. It has been a while since I visited a Laundromat in the states, so I don’t know how much they cost there. Here, you pay by the size of the load, in kilograms of course. We are paying 3,70E for 7 kg. That is about $5.60! Then it will cost us 1E ($1.56) for each 10 minutes of drying. Yikes!
Yesterday morning we visited the famous Nice flower and produce market. We took pictures like crazy to use in our classes. (Now can we write this trip off?) We bought some food at Monoprix and some fruit and olives at the market, and had a picnic in a park before boarding a bus to Vence. Vence is one of the oldest villages in the area, kind of an “artsy” place. It is also way less crowded than nearby Saint Paul de Vence, which Rick Steves says is the most visited village in all of France. I thought I could stay away from there, but after riding through I am seriously considering going to SPdeV on Saturday between putting Renee on the plane at 7 a.m. and picking Mark up at 5 p.m. It just looked too cute to pass up!
In Vence we visited a chapel designed by Henri Matisse dedicated to a nun who cared for him in his old age. It was really “modern” compared to all of the other churches we have seen. Even the priestly vestments were done in Matisse’s style. Photography was strictly forbidden, but I sneaked a couple of pictures anyway. Hopefully I can post them soon here (maybe tonight) if the internet is working in our hotel!
After we do laundry, we are hoping to get over to Cannes and Antibes for the rest of the day. Cannes is of course where the rich and beautiful go, and Antibes is famous for yachts.
More to follow…….
We are back from our day's adventure. The Riviera has this great (seemed like) deal where you can go anywhere on a bus for just 1 euro each way. That's what we did yesterday and it wasn't bad. So today we got on the bus, planning to go to Antibes, then Cannes, then back to Nice. But when we saw that the bus was going to stop at every little hole in the wall between here and there, and take 2 hours for the 30 minute train trip to Nice, we reconsidered! We got off the bus to look at Antibes (not that impressed....ate lunch in the park, walked through the old town and the yacht harbor). The yacht harbor is supposed to be the largest in France, and it probably is, but I will probably take Mark to Monaco instead as it is easier to get there and he will still see fancy yachts. We did see one, though, that had a helicopter on it!
Sick of buses, we took the train to Cannes. It cost more but got us there twice as fast and was worth it. But after walking on the red carpet at the Festival Center, and sitting on the boardwalk, we decided we liked Nice better and headed back, via train again. That's where it got interesting. We sat across from this tiny little French lady who was dressed to kill. (She was young.) An entire band of gypsies got on the car, and she started fidgeting like crazy. (She had lots of nice jewelry.) Eventually, at a stop, another band got on, and she suggested that we move to another car. So we did. We moved up two-three cars, and she told everyone why we moved, and how we had to take care of each other, yada yada yada! She was so funny and cute! It made for an interesting ride. The gypsies got off at another station in Nice with no problem, but we are sure that they didn't even have train tickets. Too bad a controleur didn't check.....but I guess they know which trains are the ones that never get checked. Renee and I have already paid one fine, remember, so we're not taking any chances!
Back in the room, now, after a delicious salad and fountain drink from McDo!

A hot time in the old town of….Milano! (June 20, 2008)
We arrived at the central station of Milan around 1:30 p.m. (The train ride was rather uneventful, except for the oriental (American) family who got on the train having an argument/fight the likes of which we’d never heard before! It carried on quite a while. I guess the stress of traveling finally caught up with them. They certainly had no qualms about yelling at each other in front of anyone and everyone!) Following Rick Steves advice, we went straight to the tourist information office and picked up a map and Hello, Milano! newspaper. I casually asked the young lady if she could recommend an inexpensive safe place to stay near the station, and she phoned a friend at the Albergo Italia. After two to three minutes of catching up with her friend, she told us that he had a double room with the bath/shower in the hall (like a dormitory) for 52 euros per night. We could go look at it and see if would be acceptable. So, we headed out in that direction.
The “albergo” was not far at all, and the young man at the desk was very nice and helpful. We looked at the room, and other than the fact that it had no air conditioning and was on the street side of the hotel, it seemed fine. It was clean and there was an elevator! So, we decided we could stand it. (A far cry from ACIS’s 3-4 star hotels to a 1 star hotel!) We rested a bit (as we didn’t get much sleep the night before, remember), and then took off on a walk towards the city center, because Rick Steves said we should see the Duomo (cathedral) in the late afternoon sun. He was right. It was magnificent!
We walked quite a bit more, and finally our fatigue caught up with us. We decided for a cheap dinner at McDonalds. Let me just say that with the dollar in the situation it is in, a “meal deal” at McDonalds is running us 8-9 dollars. But we had eaten breakfast in the hotel at Venice, and sneaked out some quickly made sandwiches from the breakfast bar for lunch, so we really had a pretty inexpensive day! We purchased a 3 euro 24-hour public transportation pass and took the metro back to our “albergo”, where the nice young man (who’s name we never got, so I am going to name him Paolo) told us how to find the nearest internet café. After a stop there, we turned in for the night. Our reservations to see Leonardo’s Last Supper were at 9:15 the next morning!

Cinque Terre Part 1……(June 22, 2008)
We boarded our train this morning at 6:45 a.m. in Milan, for a four-hour trip to Riomaggiore, one of the five villages of Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera. As the train went on, we picked up more and more passengers, who were all destined for various beaches. Our two large suitcases took up one seat and we got a few dirty looks, but the train was so full that people were standing in the aisles anyway, so what were we to do?
An older man and his wife sat across from us, and let me tell you, I never heard a man talk so much in my life! He was on a roll about something, and he talked, and talked, and talked. His wife made comments here and there, but he was the talker! I commented to Renée that it was opposite of American relationships, where women are the talkers and the men just passively listen! I also had fun imagining that he was part of the Italian Mafia! They got off one stop before us, so it finally got quiet!
Another funny thing I saw on the train was a nun in her starched white habit, with a white purse that still had the price tag hanging on it! Somewhere along the route, I realized that in our haste to load our luggage and get situated, we had forgotten to validate our ticket. As luck would have it, the controleur caught it when he checked our ticket. Taking pity on the poor inexperienced travelers, he only fined us 5 euros (the minimum.) I bet we won’t make that mistake again!
We arrived in Riomaggiore and followed Claudio’s instructions about phoning him at the rendez-vous point across from the station. He said he would meet us in 15 minutes, (but it really took him about 30 minutes to get there.) We began walking up hill with our very heavy luggage. Mercifully, it wasn’t too far, but then we noticed that we had to go up a flight of very steep stairs left over from the middle ages! Claudio was nice enough to tote our big suitcases, but he kept asking us if we had rocks inside. (I didn’t tell him that actually I did have two small rocks from Dachau!) Mercifully again, our room was only on the second floor of our building…..but the two flights of stairs were very long and steep. Claudio to the rescue again. I hope he doesn’t get a hernia or something! He said we would be on our own to get them down! Our room is quite nice, again no airconditioner, but it is cooler here. No TV or phone, either. But it really is a nice room. We had to wait until 2 to get in, so Claudio took us downstairs to a restaurant for a glass of vino and some pistachios and olives, where we filled out the paper work and paid him for our room. He gave us some advice about the area, and left us on our own! We walked around a bit, and then came back to our room where we crashed for 3 hours! After awaking, we did the Rick Steves tour of the village, took lots of pictures, and had a delicious salad/pizza/wine dinner at Gigi’s before coming in to plan our hiking for tomorrow! I’ll let you know how that goes, but I’m turning in now!

Cinque Terre Part 2 ……(June 23, 2008)
We awoke early to the sounds of church bells chiming the hour and roosters crowing. We wanted to get on the trail early, in the cooler part of the day. So we put on the coolest clothes we had, packed our backpacks, and took off. The first two legs of the hike were easy. We spent a good deal of time in Corniglia, where we bought sandwiches and fruit for our picnic lunch. I guess we had a false sense of security, because we set out after lunch for Vernazza, thinking we were quite the hikers! Of course, by then it had heated up pretty good, and that hike was 3 kilometers of up and down trails. It was supposed to take 1 ½ hours, but it took us about 2 ¼, because we stopped for lunch and for breaks along the way! The last part was so treacherous and we were so tired of concentrating so hard (so as not to get hurt), that we decided to stop in Vernazza for a refreshing swim. We had planned to hike on to Monterosso, but since that was the hardest part of the hike, we felt like we had better quit while ahead. So we took the train into Monterosso, looked at the beach, bought a couple of bracelets made by a local artisan, and headed back towards Riomaggiore. We took showers, rested a bit, and went back to Gigi’s for dinner. (We liked it so much last night, that we went back!) I have fallen in love with pesto…..pesto on foccacia bread, pesto on pasta, on anything, really. I’ll have to figure out how to make it when I get back home!

We ran into Claudio after dinner. He and his lady friend (from Brazil) wanted to buy us a drink. He bought us some “aperitif” liqueur drink that tasted a lot like Nyquil, but we were big girls and drank it up! He had told us to get up early and take the 7 a.m. train towards Nice, but we told him we were exhausted and wanted to leave at 10 a.m. That turned out to be a mistake, which I will tell you about later!

Travel Time…..Munich to Venice via Villach (June 17)
Our bad weather has moved on, and today we backtracked to Salzburg, to head to Villach and then on to Venice! A full day on the bus, but no one minded because the scenery was spectacular. Lush green mountains with clouds hanging below their tops, deep green valleys, onion-domed churches, occasional water falls….I stayed awake the entire time! Upon arrival in Venice, we went by ferry to the Lido island, where our hotel was located. The hotel was very modern and was actually a sports resort…..large pool, tennis courts, football field, beach, etc. But of course, we were there to see Venice, not play! ACIS bought us 36-hour vaporetto tickets, so we could ride the water buses to our hearts content!

Buon Giorno, Venize! (June 18-19, 2008)
We had one day to visit this magnificent place! We got an early start by taking the vaporetto over to Piazza San Marco, where we each had ACIS independent walking tours so each person could go at his own pace, where he wanted to go. I decided that since it was my third trip to Venice, I should really see the Accademia museum (Bellinis and Tintorettos), and Renée and Lisa and I headed off in that direction. Just the walk over there was a treat, because we got out of the tourist crowds and walked through little piazzas and streets! We stopped in one of the many churches to see a Vivaldi exhibition of ancient stringed music instruments. We all felt more cultured and a bit more intelligent having seen the religious paintings in the Accademia. Since we had the 36-hour vaporetto ticket, we took the water bus back to Piazza San Marco to meet up with some of our folks, and then walked to the Rialto Bridge to meet up with some more. On the Vaporetto, we passed part of our group taking a gondola ride! It all worked “swimmingly”. There were so many people there, it is amazing that we could find each other both accidentally and on purpose! Our plan was to have a little lunch, shop the market, and then catch the #1 vaporetto for a tour through the Grand Canal. Rick Steves told us exactly how to do it, and it worked! So, for what you can pay a tourist boat to do, we did for free! We cruised the entire length of the Grand Canal, getting off again at Piazza San Marco, where we all split up for more shopping. (I only spent $19 euros on a scarf and a necklace for myself!) We had gelato (gotta do that in Italy). We were to be back on the Lido at 6:40 to meet the group for dinner, so we headed that direction. Maggie, Debbie and splurged and drank bellinis in a sidewalk café, and I finally was able to call home from a pay phone! We had an excellent dinner at another sidewalk café, and then headed back to the hotel for packing. The ACIS part of the trip is over. Our group got up at 2:00 a.m. to make the crossing to the airport for their 6:55 flight. Renée and I got up to see them off, and then went back to bed until 7:00 a.m., when we got up to start our own adventure. As I am writing this, we are on the train to Milan. We should arrive there at 13:55, and will find a hotel on our own. Abi, our tour manager, picked up another group in Venice, and they will be in Milan tomorrow night. What fun it would be to run into her again!

“Never forget…

After two delightful nights in Salzburg, we woke up to rain and clouds for our drive to Munich. The majority of the group wanted to see Ludwig’s famous castle in Bavaria…the one that was the model for the Disneyland castle. Ten or so of us wanted to visit the Dachau concentration camp. The only time I was in Munich before, we were told that Dachau was open all year long. However, when we arrived at the Dachau train stop, there was a sign stating the beginning January 1 (1983), Dachau would be closed on Mondays! We were so disappointed…and took the bus out there anyway, giving each other “boosts” to look over the fence! I was determined to see it this time, especially after visiting the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.
As we neared Munich, it became pretty obvious that the castle was going to be lost in the clouds, so the group decided (disappointedly) that it wasn’t worth the time and the money (2 hours each way, $30), so we picked up a few more on our self-made tour to Dachau. After a city tour of Munich with a novice guide named Teo (who had been an exchange student in Oklahoma in 1993), we grabbed a quick lunch and boarded the train for Dachau. We made friends with a delightful elderly German frau named Claudia. We discussed politics (she brought it up…who’s going to be your next president?). She said that the Germans really wanted Obama, because the older they get, the more they remember about their past history with war. I just listened to her and nodded, without agreeing!
Dachau was worth the visit. The gloomy day (light rain off and on) added to the somber mood. There we saw the main building, a restored barrack, a restored crematorium and gas chamber, and Jewish, Catholic, Protestant and Russian Orthodox memorials as well as sights of mass graves when the people were dying too quickly for the crematorium to keep up. There is also at a Carmelite Convent at the back of the property. There were originally 34 barracks, and the spots where 32 of them were are just marked with foundation-like structures of wood and gravel. The Carmelite sisters were praying on the site of where the clergy were housed. Those who made the trip with us were very moved. Some didn’t want to go, because they didn’t want to be depressed. But I feel very strongly that it is a part of our world history and that if possible, people should see it out of respect for those who died there. So I’m very glad I went.
We had a wonderful dinner of sauerkraut, sausage, salad, and lemon pie at the Ratskeller on the main square. They even served fresh horseradish with the main dish! We tried to go to the Haufbrau House afterwards, but because of the football match, it was packed. We stayed about 10 minutes, and then went to a quiet street café for our after dinner beverages….wine, pepsi, and hot chocolates!
We had less a less than stellar opinion of our hotel in Munich….another ACIS group was there, and we both gave them the “red card”! I had never used a red card in my life, but Abi, our tour manager, said that that hotel had been red carded four times already this summer! So, I guess ACIS has some work to do with them!

Salzburg, Austria.....(June 15-16, 2008, I think)

The hills are alive with the sound of……football!

I am in the beautiful city of Salzburg, Austria, surrounded by the Alps! My hotel room is on the 12th floor, and it has an incredible view of the city and the fortress from a huge picture window. I’ll try to post a picture at some point…..when I have more “internet” time. This place is famous for The Sound of Music, but currently it is reminding me of Camelot, because it has rained both evenings after dinner, but the weather has been gorgeous during the day! The European Cup is being played here, in Vienna, and in Switzerland. Tonight Austria and Germany are playing in Vienna, but the fans here are CRAZY! Last night the Turks won, and they went absolutely crazy in the streets, honking horns, screaming….it went on for quite some time. We finally had to put ear plugs in to get to sleep! So tonight there will probably be a repeat….either Austria or Germany is going to be happy. I’m trying to watch the game, but in typical soccer style, they’ve already played an entire half and the score is still 0-0!

We had a delightful walking tour of the city today with our guide named Heidi. I think she was the real Heidi, because she was as old or older than I! We saw where Mr. Doppler was born and grew up. We tried to take a picture to send to Ron Roberts, but mine didn’t turn out so well. Maybe someone else’s did! We saw these Sound of Music sights…..the Mirabel Gardens, the Festival Center, and the cemetery. Lisa, Pam, Jan and I decided we wanted more, so we took the four-hour Sound of Music tour which took us to the palace, the gazebo, by the abbey, the mountains, and finally the church where the wedding took place (in the village of Monsee). I’ve seen a lot of churches, but that was one of the prettiest ones I’ve seen. Of course, they played music on the bus and we were encouraged to sing along, which we did! There were four young kids from Midland on the bus, and we took turns taking pictures of each other in the various spots. It was really quite pleasant.

So tonight we’re getting ready for an early departure tomorrow morning to Munich (and trying to watch the soccer/football game/match. Olé, Olé, Olé!

On our way to Vienna from Prague, we stopped at a delightful little town called Telc for lunch. Telc is in the Morovia part of the Czech Republic, whereas Prague was in the Bavaria part. Telc was charming….looking somewhat like a movie set. They obviously wanted to be a tourist town, but there was a combination of junky dollar-store type places run by Asian people, and some very nice gift shops. However, most of us just grabbed some lunch and looked around. A cold front had come through, and some of us (not I) were underdressed.

We arrived in Vienna and checked into the Metropole Europlatz Hotel. Abi took most of the group to the city center, but Lisa and I opted to just explore the neighborhood around the hotel, window shopping where the locals shop. We didn’t buy anything, because although the prices look reasonable, by the time we do the conversion from dollars to euros, things seem very pricey!

Our city tour on Saturday started with Shoenbrun Palace (the summer palace of Maria Theresa and her 16 kids….the most famous being Marie Antoinette). Our guide was excellent, and it was so nice to visit the gardens where flowers were in bloom! We normally travel during January or March, and often miss the pretty gardens. We then hopped back on the bus for the rest of the city tour. I don’t know what it is about buses, but as soon as the guide starts talking, I get sleepy. I tried really hard to stay alert, but am afraid I did doze off a couple of times! (The only exception is Julian, our normal guide in Paris, who is very energetic and tells really good jokes!) The walking tour in the city center was very interesting. Again, Vienna has been taken over by Football Fever, as they are hosting the European Championships this year. But being Saturday morning, most of the football fanatics were probably still hungover so it was relatively calm!

After the city tour, Renée, Lisa and I met our dear friends Vicki Harris and Brandi Cantrell (missionaries with Pray Vienna) for lunch. We had visited with Vicki when we came to Vienna for MLK a few years ago, and of course Vicki and Brandi were so kind to host my daughter Whitney for a long weekend when she was studying in Prague a couple of years ago. We went to a great ice cream shop for lunch, where we had panini sandwiches, and yes, ice cream. I ordered Tartuffe, which is dark chocolate ice cream with cherries in the middle. I promise, when it arrived, it was 4x4x2 inches! It was covered in dark chocolate sprinkles. Yes, I ate every last bit. I’m guessing it was worth about 50 weight watchers points! Hopefully I have walked enough to compensate for my indulgence!

Speaking of walking, I am on day two without my boot, and so far so good!

We walked over to Vicki’s very cute apartment, got into her little Honda Civic, and she and Brandi took us on a drive through the Vienna woods (beautiful….) up to a lookout over the Danube and the Danube Valley. It was the spot where the Austrians defeated the Turks at some point in history. We stopped at a beautiful overlook where they was a restaurant with a terrace, and had coffee. Very proud of myself, I ordered a kleine mocca, which I thought was a small mocha. But I received an espresso. Not sure how that happened, but I put two cubes of sugar in it and drank it anyway. I’m pretty proud of myself, since I don’t do coffee!

Tomorrow we are off to Salzburg. It will be a beautiful drive, which I have been looking forward to! People keep talking about how we must go to the salt mines, saying how much fun it is. So I suppose I shall do so. I hope to find time to upload my blogs before we leave. I’ll add pictures when I have a chance!

Our group has arrived safely and in good spirits in the beautiful bohemian city of Prague!
We have expanded our knowledge learning about the Good King Wenceslas, King Charles, Jan Hus, Hapsburgs and Turks. We arrived around noon on Wednesday, transferred to and checked into our hotel, and then set out to explore Prague on foot! The fresh air did wonders for our jet lagged bodies, and we walked to the Little Quarter, crossed the Charles Bridge, and spent a bit of time in the Old Town. It looks like DisneyWorld, except it’s the real deal! The Baroque architecture is absolutely beautiful. Steeples abound in this city where only five percent of the people practice their Christianity, thanks to the years lost to communism.

We met up with the Denver delegation and our perky little tour manager, Abi at dinner on Wednesday night. We haven’t had much time to bond with the Denver folk yet….it will be interesting to see if and how that happens. They seem nice enough….10 students and 7 adults. The students wanted to go to a disco tonight, and I was quite thankful that they weren’t my students and I didn’t have to drag my bones to chaperone them!

Our hotel (Andel’s) is superb, and the food has been very good and plentiful! We can really tell the weakness of the American dollar, though. In the Czech Republic, they use Czech Crowns as currency, and currently they are worth about six cents each. So, when you see that a bottle of water cost 50 crowns, you think that’s not too bad, until you realize that it’s not 50 cents, but rather $3! Yikes! The Czech people are rejoicing in all of the money they are making off of American tourists! I had lunch at McDonald’s today (I know, I’m sorry!) for 138 crowns….which included a burger, fries, coke, and a bonus bottle of water. Let’s see, 138 x 6 = $8.28. And I figured that was a pretty good deal!

A few unique things I’ve seen in Prague:
A girl who had every toenail painted a different color
Shirts/key chains/stickers that say Czech me out!
A three-story mall (across the street from our hotel) with escalators that are
ramps rather than stairs, so you can take shopping carts and baby strollers
on them (We all thought that was a brilliant idea!)
A bicycle built for eight…in a circular arrangement! It’s called a conference bike!
(I’ll try to attach a picture.)

Since the European Football (Soccer) Championship is currently in progress, things have been a bit crazy in the city center, where they have set up giant screens and have football-watching parties. It may be even worse in Vienna, as they are actually playing games there!

Susan Williams wore her pedometer today, and we walked over 16,000 steps (7 miles). My boot/aircast and I are getting along pretty well, and occasionally I even get some sympathy (not really needed, but appreciated) from folks. On these cobblestones, I don’t think I would have been able to make it without the support/protection.

The Czech language is Slavic, more like Russian with an “English” alphabet! I’ve tried to master the magic words (for those of you who remember Captain Kangaroo) please and thank you. A young girl in the tobacco store where I bought my tram ticket was amused enough with my efforts to offer to write them down for me (a true souvenir!)…..prosim and dekuji. I’m still trying to master the pronunciation.

Tomorrow morning we get to sleep in….we’re not leaving for Vienna until 10:30 a.m.! And since we’re not going to be walking too much, so I’m going to try to make it without my boot friend today!

Thirty-five years ago this summer I took my very first trip to France! I traveled all alone halfway around the world. Long distance was so expensive that my parents and I agreed that I would not call unless it was a real emergency. It took one week for a letter to go by airmail across the Atlantic. I promised my parents that I would write them as soon as I got to Paris to let them know how I was doing. So, imagine that they put me on an airplane, and did not hear from me until they received a letter eight days later!

I asked my parents to save all of my letters that I wrote to them that summer, as a diary of my very special summer. I still have those letters (aerograms) today! I wrote with very tiny handwriting in great detail about my experiences traveling to nine major French cities, staying with families in each one.

My mother's fear was that I would get lost in the big city of Paris. I told her if I got lost, I'd find a gendarme and ask for directions. I did get lost one day, and wandered around in circles for a couple of hours before I got the nerve to go into a police substation and ask for directions to the Baptist Church where we were staying. I was really proud of myself for communicating my way out of a real life problem.....and mad at myself for wasting two hours trying to get up the nerve to ask for help!

I have been fortunate enough to go back to France many times, mostly with my students, and have managed to discover something new about Paris each and every time I go. I have renewed friendships with the French young people that I worked with that summer. I have experienced Paris with my husband, my mother, my daughter, and my sister-in-law. As a French teacher I have looked forward to an opportunity to study abroad (an opportunity I never had as a college student, but was able to give my daughter), and I've always said that one day I wanted to rent a car and visit some of my favorite areas of France at my own pace! This summer those two dreams are coming true! I have received a scholarship from the French government to study with other French teachers for 3 weeks in Grenoble at the University Stendahl! Since I already had an ACIS tour to Prague/Vienna/Salzburg/Munich/Venice planned, and there are only two weeks separating the two events, I am going to stay and travel for a week with my best friend/teacher/traveling "copine" Renee. We will be traveling by train to Milan, the Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre), and the French Riviera (Nice, Cannes, Eze, St. Paul de Vence, etc.).

When Renee returns to the US, my husband will join me in Nice where we will rent a car and drive the triangle from Nice to Chamonix to Avignon, celebrating the summer of our 25th wedding anniversary in Provence! How perfect is that?

Well, it is almost perfect. I managed to severely sprain my ankle ten days before departure, and will have to spend part of my dream-come-true vacation in an aircast. How stylish is that? Being the optimist that I am, I will say that the aircast is much more comfortable than walking on crutches, and I am planning on healing very quickly, so that I can lose the cast about the time I hit the beaches of the French Riviera!

This blog will be what my handwritten aerograms were 35 years ago.....my diary of a dream come true.....an extended stay in a beautiful country halfway around the world. This time I will be able to communicate instantaneously with my family via e-mail, cell phone, facebook and text messaging. Vive la différence!