Sept 07

Amsterdam was quite the adventure needless to say, a very busy place. If we didn't get hit by trams it would be by a bus or a bike or a car all the while dodging pedestrians of various degrees of intoxication haha. Sort of kidding but not really. We checked out a few galleries, one modern art and one photoart and both were pretty sweet and got the mind working. We also traveled to many different areas in the city in search for food,clothing, and artist markets, A good way to see the city and feel a little more local. We also found out tha the cinema plates movies in the original language!!! So we defiantly took advantage of that.

The day before yesterday we made it to den Haag and are stAying at a place with a view of the north sea. The weather here has been heavy rain and very strong wind so the raincoat and umbrella are coming in handy. We walked along the boardwalk and down the length of the Peer. We also went to the esher gallery, stunning work to be sure. Today we took a daytrip to Gouda... Yes we are in holland, went to Gouda and ate tons of cheese samples haha how's that for touristy?!
Tomorrow we are going into Belgium to the city of Ghent which looks like a very nice place hopefully the weather eases up a bit. Only 9 days left...! Yikes.

A few photos from the past couple of days

Rothenburg, Germany - This a section of the city walls

This is me fire'n at will from inside the walls

Downtown Rothenburg

Cristelles GIANT pork hock - medieval style

One of the little monkeys that stole my pen perhaps

This is the area we are staying in amsterdam

Well we've spent the last couple of days in apeldoorn,Netherlands , we arrived on Sunday and Everything I mean everything was closed so we went to our hotel which is away from the centre good hotel but.... We needed some supper so we went into town in the pouring rain and it was completely abandoned only schecky dudes hanging around so we quickly left and was forced to eat at the hotel restaurant - it was horrid, so we gave up and went to sleep. The next day we had hoped to go to either a art museum in a cool national park or to the apenhul -a zoo with free roaming monkeys but it was pouring rain and the museum wasn't open on Monday's. So we went and got groceries so we would have food later and came up with the plan to take the train to the next town over , well we got there and it was basically the same thing rain and not much to do. We just went back to the hotel and hung out there for the rest of the day/night we were so board Dam rain!!! Tuesday we woke up determined to do something so we went with our umbrella to the apenhuel monkey zoo. It was amazing , you start by putting your purse in a monkey proof bag ,we were thinking yah right monkeys won't really be near you. We were wrong the first part was squirrel monkeys all around outside climbing on you and strollers swinging above your head. One came right on Corey and before we knew it it had stolen his pen from his pocket, it was so funny, we did manage to get it back from him though. There were chimps, oranagtangs, various other bigger monkeys not able to get near but very close, they were actually on islands and a small river was all the seperated you from them. Next we went ito the lemurs island were you can get close , they are so cute just like Madagascar. The highlight was defiantly the gorillas we went to watch them get feed and again very close, ivenever seen gorillas normative glass and we went and watched them on their island for a while after including when 2other monkeys swung onto the gorilla island and we saw the silverbacks male growl so loudcand chase them away scary and coolWe just couldn't believe how these monkeys cavan roam free among the visitors , there ere quite a few more fre roaming species and non free roaming ones. The zoo was defiantly worth the 2days of wsiiting through the rain to go to. Today we are off to Amsterdam until Monday, we got a amazing deal for a hotel that is a monument in Amsterdam and built in 1900 it should belts of fun.

Aug.27,2011

Hannover is a pretty cool city, very north american like. We stubled uopn a fabulous hotel a little ways from the centre but so worth it, it is ultra modern with overhead lights in the rooms with 5 diffrent colours and 2 big flat screen tvs built in one for tv and the other for free internet, we barely wanted to leave the room. Today we ventured to the flea market, lots of good old stuff, but unfortunaly when you know you have to carry it in your pack on your back it makes you think extra hard about what you buy. We also walked down to the old town and shopping distict, the big surpirse for the day was the Tj maxx store- so weird seeing one in Europe. We also went to the indoor food market and Corey ate lunch there, after that we ventured down to the big indoor mall as it was raining on and off and we wanted to be dry for a while. Wow we have never seen a mall so busy, i guess everyone had the same idea. Tonight we are being lame and staying in because tomorrow we are moving on to Apeldoorn, in the Netherlands

August 26th

Hello from Hannover, as we decided to travel too in the afternoon yesterday while sitting in a internet cafe.

Munich was a great stop even despite the heat and the lack of AC. Our last day in Munich we spent a good portion of it at the pinakothek der moderne museum with tons of great art to see, new and old as well as a huge selection of design items from the ages. It seems thats about all we had in us for the day, a little worn out I suppose haha...so we took advantage of the english movie channel we had at the hotel! its been awhile since we#ve heard anything in english other than cnn updates on Libia. Come to think of it we didnt even go for supper instead we just picked up something small from the bakery near by. It was a much needed rest as the next day we had to put on our backpacks and ride the rail to Rothenburg, Germany.

Arriving there it was prettz amazing as we had to walk from the train station through midevil gates to find the hotel inside the walls of the historic rothenburg! this place is 100% authentic, something like we've never seen before, towers and buildings built thousands of years ago in some cases; It all dates back to the 900's. We found our hotel without much trouble and made our way out into the town, we stumbbled accross St. James church which had an organ concert inside in a few min so we went in. Another very beautiful church and the music wasnt to bad either haha. He played some Bach, Patchbell and a few others music on a 1960's buildt organ...tons of diversity in sound unlike i've heard before and at the low end the building would shake! After the concert we stopped at a place in the main square for supper, I had the meatloaf and mushroom sauce and cristelle had the roasted pork and I found out they consider a flattened pig sausage to be meatloaf...yuck. The next day we walked and walked and what a great place for it, we walked through a vineyard to a very old looking church then down under an aquaduct looking bridge and then back up the hill through another castle style gate to get back in. We also walked into the walls of that gate which still had cannons and wagons inside the dark stone walls! We also took a stroll along the top of the walls and covered a good portion of the border. A fairytale place to be sure.

Munich

We are currently in munich and its HOT and getting hotter, +34 tomorrow...
Our first day in muich we decided to go to the museum of technology and let me tell you what an amazing place! To say it was huge is an understatment and I totally geeked out for a solid 4 hours in the place and I could go back every day and still not make it into each section... Cristelle was very nice about letting me geek out by the way haha and I think she also enjoyed it quite a bit. It covered everything from aviation to energy and nanotechnology... I could go on but I will save it for now haha.
Yesterday we went to a nearbye concentration camp, a very intense experience for us needless to say. We also had the chance this week to watch the 5pm display of mechanical dancers rotating to the music of the church bells at the top of a neogothic building in the downtown marienplatz area. Today being Monday all the museums and attractions are closed for the day so we had a good chance to check out a bunch of the areas in Munich such as the university area, downtown outdoor market and the huge park near our hotel; biggest innercity park in the world I belive. Lots and lots of walking haha but lots to see. Here are a few pictures as I can finally upload them from the hotel computer!

t

Zell Am See

Corey eating a very homemade Austrian treat in Zell Am See at their downtown street festival

This the glacier made gourge and hiking path in the mountians near Zell Am See

from the sound of music tour...look familiar to you SOM fans

Cristelle in the Swartzski crystal world

Innsbruck

these last 3 are of Eagles Nest, The Tech Museum and the concentration camp

Berchesgaden

We finallY found a decent internet cafe in which to sit, reasearch, do our banking and type! The last one we tryed to go into was 3 dudes, obviously intoxicated sitting on beanbag chairs blasting some german hiphop and all around the one computer... Yikes! I think Wifi is taking over the idea of the Internet Cafe but luckly there are still a few of us chumps that bought Windows PC's that will eventualy need to use a cafe haha. Ok enough about that.

Salzburg
Were to start? Well we had a really good time in salzburg although accomidation was tough to find and we had to move hotels between the first and second night. We despite my objections went on the sound of music tour which was a 4 hour bus ride with stops along the way. To my suprise a pretty fun way to see the city and the area around it, the tour guide was hilarious, which made for a really good time. Cristelle was singing along to the soundtrack that they were playing on the bus, it was very cute. We leared alot about the #behind the scenes# and what to look for next time we watch the movie, as well as a lot about the history of salzburg. We also stummbled upon a concert at the Dumo which was an orcherstra, full choir and 4 operatic singers playing Mozarts (salzbrug is Mozart's birthplace) Requiem...and we got in for 1/2 price as it had just begun when we got there!

Innsbruck
Innsbruck was great! the weather shaped up the second day we were there so we made it up the mountian, it was gorgeous! At one point we sat and watched a cloud make it#s way up the mountian right towards us and then completely take over our view! A very peacfull place to be. We also went to the Alpine Zoo which was basicly a hike partialy up and down the mountian and a few animals along the way...we definatly burned off some goulache and spatzle fat that day! Speaking of which we#ve had some really great meals and some not so good, a highlight would be Cristelle had a footlong currywerst wiener and mine is every time i#ve eaten goulache. I am goulache crazy! goulach soup, with beef, with onlY mushrooms...doesn#t matter I will eat every last bite haha.

Today
We're in Berchesgaden, Germany right now which is quite close to salzburg and is a little mountian city, which is a good place to rest up before Munich.
Today we took a bus, then an elevator to get to the top of a mountian...thats right an elevator that is inside a mountian and brings you to the top where Eagles Nest is located; hitlers hidaway during the war. We walked partialy down the mountian and the walk was amazing all kinds of different flowers, plants, bugs and what a view! We then picked up some groceries and had supper at the hotel, which we multitasked with doing our laundry downstairs...and about time! our bags were starting to smell like Cody's hockey bag... haha kidding nothing can smell that bad. Tomorrow we make our way to Munich so we will post again soon!

It's been a while since we wrote last. We are now in Innsbruck as it is a good base to start our trek into GeRmany. We went to swarski crystal world today , it sucked!!! But the town is fabulous and we are going up the mountain and to the zoo tomorrow so that will be good. this is going to be a short post beacause we have to do it on the iPod and it is difficult to type, oh well once we get to a real computer we will write more

Tuesdat Aug.9

Ok I am a little bit less angry about the computer situation but still annoyed. Anyways today was quite the day first we planned on taking the gondola up the mountain, but the tourism office said its really too cloudy to be good so we didn't, then we decided to take the bus to a near by waterfall, but we realized that we can take a steam train to it another day so... we were quite stumped on what to do. At the last minute at the bus stop we asked some people who were speaking english about where to go, amazingly they were from Kindersly and Lethbridge, ssmall world!!! Anyways we got on a bus not really knowing too much and then the one place we were going to go to a Gorge, the driver tells us it is closed today cause of the rain, so we are sitting on the bus stumped again and who gets on at the next stop, our Sask, Alberta friends. They tell us they are going to the dam , so we say sure and go with them not nknowing what to expect. WOW WOW WOW, This dam is up up in the mountains we had to take 1 bus through 1km long tunnle, then go up a open fuctular lift then take another bus on a 10 min journy that incled more tunnles, hairpin turns and sheer cliffs. When we arrive it is indescribable( we will see if we can put up pics) green mountains, snow covered peaks 3 dams and 2 lakes. If anyone has seen Band of Brothers this lake was the one he jumped into in the end seen!! Anyways, we were blown away, we had lunch with our sask friends Rika one of the ladies spoke german so it helped with ordering alot, had agreat lunch talking english with other people then we headed back out side to explore. At this time a cloud had come in and we are up so high we are actually in the cloud, you couldnt see more than 1 block ahead, so cool!
The cloud passed and we walke around took lots of pictures and came back into town, where it is now raining:( oh well mabey tomorrow it will be nicer. It was a great day!!
oh P.S Grandpa you guys must visit this place I thought of how much you would of loved where we were today it is called Kitzsteinhorn-Gletscherbahnen Kaprun

monday aug.8

Well we got to Zell am See, Austria, it is lovely. We are here for 4 days, mabey more due to it#s raining today and all the stuff we came to do is outside but they tell us it#s not suposed to rain any other days this week.
HUGE side note our peice of $&#? computerr that we just bought is not working so we may be back to using internet cafe's- boo!!!!!!
So less blogging, but we will try when we can. Oh if anyone goes buy London Drugs in Regina tell them I hate them for selling us a refurbished computer, those lying sacks of #!&$. It is late at night now and I am having to do this on a commuity computer in the hotel so thats where my anger is comming from. Anywasy Austria is beautiful and we cant wait to get out and explore some more tomorrow.

Riggamore Via Del Amour

Via Del Amour- you are encouraged to write/carve your names along the trail and in this tunnel.

eating lunch at the Riggamore marina

part of the trail; along the cliffside

church in Florence- Gailao's grave

Florence- fake David staue #2 above the city

awful picture of me in Pisa

we called this the alien autopsy, but it was actually an important Saint

Cathedral in Pisa

coming into Florence train station

The last week in a nutshell

It's been awhile so there is a lot to catch up on, but I will keep it simple.

Juan les Pins - Vernazza
Train-wise everything went smoothly no hiccups at all, seems travelling in the morning is the way to go as the french rail system seems to go haywire by the afternoon. Once we arrive we were to meet out bed and breakfast style hotel owner in the first wine shop on the left, or at least ask for him when we arrived. So we did as asked and sure enough 2 min later he was there to greet us and take us to our room, but that's when took a turn for the worse. He was showing us sights and places to visit along the way to the room and decides to slip in this: "um..someone broke the tap in the room last night so I um found you another place to stay." Cristelle and my ears perk up like a german Shepard: where is this guy taking us now we wonder. We met an old lady at the bottom of a staircase and the two of them took us up to the room. No obvious threat here so we decided to feel this one out. Once we were at the top of this really old-skool building we see the room, looks like an retirement home apt. So we talked it over, avoided the obvious scam and left! Our back-up plan was to take the train, 9 min to the city of La Spezia instead. We found a nice room in a nice 'real' hotel and toured the city.

It turned out for the best we really liked the city and ran into the most authentic street food style pizzeria, it was busy, hardworking and amazing. We both agreed a highlight in the trip so far (of all things a pizza joint). The next day we took the train to Rioggimorre, Cinnqe Terre, a series of towns built into the cliff side facing the sea. This is where we started a 45 min walk to Manorla the trail is called the via dell'amore 'walk of love.' A stunning walk along the cliff side, with tons to look at and explore and we were taking our time to soak it all in. After the walk we grabbed some homemade focaccia bread pizzas and walked down to the marina to eat. We ended up picking a spot on the coastal rocks along the harbour, huge boulders rather. We sat for at least an hour or more, a very picturesque and relaxing place to be, we could see the ocean and the town above. We took tons of pictures.

La Spezia - Florence
Again, pretty easy going as far as taking the train is concerned, Italy seems a little more stable with the schedules. We made our way to the hotel, took a breather and then started exploring. We love this city. The next day we decided to fork out the cash for the uber touristy open top, hop on and hop off bus. We wanted to explore the arts and crafts district that's across the river, but almost every shop and studio was closed for the month of august...I can't blame them, its pretty freak'n hot here. After we toured the city a little more, checked out the sights and I (corey) finally bought the sketchbook i've been waiting for since last time here. Florenzia marbled paper and hand crafted leatherbound! I could go on believe me haha. We also visited the apparent grave-site and church where Galileo, Michelangelo, Rossini are berried, an amazing church with tons to see including a traditional leather made goods production space and gold-leafing studio. We found a plaza off the main touristy streets to sit and have supper in; homemade pasta! Cristelle had the ravioli and I had a thick wide noodle (fettechini on steroids) with tomato sauce, awesome.

Today we took a day trip to Pisa, we were pretty underwhelmed with the place overall but to be fair we weren't there long enough to get a good feel for it. Just to paint a picture here; the 1 min walk from the train station to the information building provided us with an assortment of shady people including an old man in hospital clothes dropping his pants as we walked buy. Pisa, one square filled with tourists the rest of it; a little unsettling, and we are pretty open minded to shady areas. However, we DID get a picture of the leaning tower for Nick as he asked us to do!! We will post it soon nick! We checked out a few of the sights near the tower and were off, back to Florence. Had another good supper of pasta and pizza and off to bed. Tomorrow is our last day in Florence and then we are off to...well we're not sure yet. We will post pictures soon.

we are here in Florence, we had to come back here again cause we really enjoyed it last trip. Well we've a a good last few days, I will write more later cause there are some stories to tell but just a quick check in now.
oh yah little fun tidbits about the Italian trains we taken so far
1) dont look into the toilet on the train becuase you will see that it is just a open hole onto the tracks-ewwww!!!!!
2)the non-reservation trains are more rustic I'll say as we shared this last one with 2 men carrying cardboard boxes of live, chicken or doves or ducks not sure what was in there but it was moving and we did not ask.

Monday Aug.1

today we were in Juan Les Pins, about 10 min from Cannes. It was very hot here but the water is freezing, mabey slightly warmer than Regina beach ( no maui for sure) anyways we went to the beach today for about a hour both of us could feel the burn comming on so we left and went on a glass bottom boat ride. The boat ride was very cool we got to see the coast and went into the " bay of Millionares" called that because you need to have a million dollars to live there- just for refrence we saw a house that the owners of BMW own so yah that much $$. But we could see some fish and plant life that was in the bay from the glass bottom- very cool. We went back to the beach later ( in the shade) then went off for supper the streets we were on look like what I imagine burboun st to look like all pedestrian and bars and resturuants filled one after another. Well it was a good day and made up for the 12 plus hours on the train to get here. Tomorrow we are off on 7 hours of trains to get to
Vernazza, Italy until Thursday then we are going to somewhere else in Italy ( we are undecided yet where)

one part of the public beach in Juan Les Pins

Figueres 9pm looking out from our balcony

Just to give you an idea of our hotel room right now, there is a brass band just down the street with at least 100+ people dancing around, it's 10:15pm. Kids are screaming and the restaurant/bars are full! We're way to worn out to attend the show tonight, hopefully its on again tomorrow. Here is a video that I took at 9:00pm right before we went for a walk around and right before it started to get lively.

Our time in Barcelona has come to a end, it was very good. Yesterday we searched out Parc Guell, we thought it was a little parc with some Gaudi structures, well we got off the long metro ride and saw a rolling section of street that went up and down then a straight incline up, we walked on clueless and it just got steeper and steeper. When we finally got near what we thought was the top we spotted the 4 sets of escalators up higher ( just in the middle of the street), we went up those and got to a 3 story staircase. At this point we aren't sure if we will make it to this thing we dont even understand what it is. So we pushed on and wow clearly after all that climbing we were over looking the entire city all the way to the sea so we caught our breath and pushed on. It is so hard to explain but basically its a series of pathways and sculptured rocks that were once intended to be a community in Barcelona but never came to be. Most aresa were adorned with ceramic tile work and are curvy and mimic trees or tidal waves quite the experience. As we were leaving we realized we took a wrong turn on the way there and could of gotten in to the front part of the parc without the mountaiuos climb, oh well we got the great veiw point from the backside. We finished our day with Tapas, Corey ordered a plate of fried fish and when it came Coreys eyes went wide and then a concered look came over his face. The fish was ancovies with heads some bigger fish some with heads and all with bones and tails, small eels and some form of squid, HAHA I thought Corey wa sgoing to cry as all he said was "I cant do it" "I cant do this". Corey the big trooper did eat one of each thing and called it quits, I can laugh about this now but let me tell you if I laughed then he may have killed me. Today we went to the harbour and the beach did lots of people watching, walking and I got BURNT... although I totally deserve it cause i didnt do anything to prevent it:( Oh well its just getting me ready for Italy's heat, we are leaving tomorrow to go to Figueres, Spain its just a smalll place with the main draw being the Salvador Dali museum, we are both big fans so we are excited. After that we are heading back into France to Juan Les Pins on south France's French Riviera it is a beach resort so hopefully my burn will go away by then.

view from parc guell

parc guell

beach

The real truth!

One crutial thing cristelle forgot to mention in the last email is this: the first time we turned on the TV here in Barcelona we saw a group of guys speaking comicly in spanish, dressed in bumble bee suits...just saying.

We had a pretty amazing day in the much enjoyed sunshine. We started the day by taking the metro to back to the train station to book our next few trips but forgot to bring the rail pass! So we left empty handed with a plan haha. We decided to take the metro to La Ramblas street, it was not scary (as suggested in some things we read because of the pick-pocketers) and we came out with all our gear. Not to mention I don't think they would have chosen us anyway with all the realy obvious tourists around stoping for pictures trying to take up the whole walkway with hundreds of people coming straight at em. I mean come on! They give us travellers that are trying a bad name. We stopped in La Bouqeria market for a tight walk through. It took all my patience not to freak out in this tight crowd of people all packed in a small space and 'browsing.' The produce was amazing though, fresh from the sea seafood, veggies, cured meats, fruit (which we picked up a few peaches that are huge!)and lots and lots of jambon (pig). Not finding anything for lunch inside we were dooped into sitting and paying extra at a local vendors place. They up the charge if you sit outside...the tricky bugger just kept telling us to go outside and they will bring out the food and we wanted it to go...just playing off the translation issues he won the battle and we sat. Espresso cost 1.40 more than it was it we didn't sit outside. I didn't tip. The food, well...not worth mentioning. After the lunch punch we took off down a side street that led to a huge cathedral of which I don't know the name of, nor does the tourist map we have tell me. We never did get inside but from what we could see it was different than we've seen so far, it had sculptures with gardens around it and growing up them indoors. After a quick breather sitting on the front steps we found the metro and took it to see Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. Huge, amazing and very unique. Traditional elements with Gaudi's modern touches. The lineup to get inside was WAY to long so we headed back to the hotel to cool down. Now...I have something to admit for the 2nd time on our trip we went to Mcdonalds... Boo.

Tonight we walked down to a Flamenco theatre. AMAZING!!! what a show, we were stunned at the music and the dancing! and the sangria was pretty good too. Very soulful in all ways. Although we were a little creep'd out by the old guy dancing, with the jerry curled hair...a diva to be certain. Thats all for now.

Here are a few pics of the show:

Barcelona, Tuesday July 26

La Boqueria market

random Plaza we stumbled into

Sagrada Família- church that underwhelmed us and the line to get in was about 7 blocks long and 8 people wide so.... we did not go in:(

Monday July 25

This morning we went to the train station to catch our train to Figueres and transfer to Barcelona. Well we went to our platform and no train, we were getting concerned because we only had 16 min to transfer trains in Figueres, we chatted it up and shared worries with some other canadians who were in the same situation. So anyways the train was like 18 min late so we all thought we missed our connection but they held the other train so we made it here. We didnt make one mistake on the metro or finding our hotel which is really good considering we have walked around for like 2 hours in much smaller places lost so we are pretty proud of ourselves! Well the rain isnt here yet and it is HOT and humid but thats ok I dont want anymore rain. After we checked in to our hotel ( so nice, a splurg hotel not by choice but by lack of options)we cooled down- oh side note for Turbo at our hotel and many others in Barcelona they advertised pillow menus, what is that we wondered? well exactly as it sounds a menu with different pillow types that you can order for free to your room, I know you always hate hotel pillows Turbo, you should come to Spain. Anyways we strolled down the busseling Passage de Gracias mostly in search for food as we had only ate croissants today, well here people do not start supper until at least 10pm so our choices were tapas bars which are very intimating almost as much as french cheese shops. But we picked one and fumbled through the menu( with English thank goodness) we had sangria, fried peppers, potaoes brava, fried artichokes and spinach with chickpeas- all so good!!! This alleviated our tapas fear some what now we need to master the bar only tapas bars where you crowd around a bar pick plates and save the tooth picks and at the end thats how much you pay by # of tooth picks, mabey tomorrow we will conquer that one. WE are now being lame and relaxing in our room, we will have a bussy day tomorrow going to Las Ramblas which is a very busy pedestrian street km's long that is said to be a highlight of the city but also pickpocketers parridise so wish us luck:) We will be careful!!!!

Montpellier

We're in Montpellier today as we arrived yesterday, it seems like a pretty young lively city so far as it has a large university crowd. Yesterday was a very nice sunny day, and it felt good, not sure about today yet, seems a little cooler judging by what I can see out the window. We didn't have much time to explore the place yet as we arrived at 5:00pm although we did sit for a really good supper at a place that specializes in kebabs. We could choose 3 different types, Cristelle choose steak (of course), lamb and squid. I had the Salmon(of course), spicy sausage and chicken. Today will be pretty low key as it's sunday and everything in France so far seems to closed on Sunday. Cristelle woke up with a headache this morning, no doubt from the change in weather although it did fade away pretty quickly.

Later that day:
We just had a chance to walk around the downtown today, the small alleyways and streets are just what one expects to see in rural coastal france... Long and narrow with amazing architecture and antique finishing down to the last detail. We were sad to see the market was closed, as we were hoping to get something to eat from inside; fruit and pastry alas we had to stop by a local bakery, a good substitute for sure. We also walked to a large arch followed by a football field sized park leading towards another decorative monument. Directly behind it was an aqueduct and we were at the top level looking out as it faded in the distance. very cool stuff.

We're off to Barcelona tomorrow and what a hell of a time we've had finding a place to stay... just booked one this morning.

Turns out, it's a pretty warm day again!

Here is a little trio of images that I like to call The Expensive one Sucks

Thursday July 21

Day 2 Bordeaux
Today started rough, I had a headache so I slept in and Corey went and had breakfast
after I gained the strength to get up we had to make our way back to the train station to book our next tickets- Montpeiller France then on To Barcelona, Spain,these trains you had to make a reservation for so that means pay extra on top of the passes - Boo!!
Oh well after that business was done we wondered around and discovered that for the next 3 days it is a city wide market, I;m talking at least a 100 city blocks of stalls and sidewalk sales selling clothes ,food, shoes and various other randomness.
We pushed through the crowds for a while then tired of that so we went to the laundrymat ( more business) and were annoyed that laundry-mat here means 4 machines and 2 dryers and 7 people trying t o do laundry, oh well we got it done. After that we rushed with laundry and all over to St.Seruin church to catch a organ concert on a huge old organ. While Corey was just loving every second I did some research for Barcelona, it was fine and Corey even let us leave early ( ah the give and takes in relationships). We dined on guess what for supper??????? A baguette and goat cheese, french cheese??? and croissants, jelly and chips. The longer you are in France the more you just need to eat at least one baguette a day, although we aren't as bad a the french locals that walk down the street eating a whole plain baguette, no wonder people are skinny here:) Tomorrow we will hopefully check out the Grand Theatre and the art museum and probably eat a baguette.Well like I said we are off to Montpeiller on Saturday then off to Barcelona on Monday, so until then stay cool in Sask and stay dry in BC. oh and we had no rain today, a first in a quite a few days !!!

Futuroscope

vineyards seen from the train on the way to Bordeaux

by our hotel in Bordeaux this was taken at about 9;00 all the people are sitting a resturaunts around the streets starting to eat supper

street market ( part of it) in Bordeaux

Bordeaux

We're now in Bordeaux until Saturday. Seems like a good place to spend a few days so far but we have yet to get out and walk around. Should be a good spot to take a wine tour to a local vineyard too! I hope all of you's in Regina don't melt! We've been checking out the weather in Sasky...+35? that's crazy talk.

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Last nights supper in Saintes

Tuesday July19

hey we are now in Saints, France we were planning on going to Cognac but at the train stop we didnt think it looked interesting so we kept going to Saintes- Ah train passes are great freedom!!! So Futurscope was interesting, the actual park was a cool concept, all rides were 3d or some other form of technology, we had a couple favorites, a round dome theater that took you into space and a very cool well done 3d movie about apollo 11 ( fictional) Also the first ride we went on was a surprise it was dynamic seats that shook, moved, twisted and simulated wind and water that sprayed at you it was cool but it was a little to shaky for my old bones and Corey's cracked egg. The downside of Futuroscpe was that you needed a car for the area, basically it was in the middle of a feild with only hotels and the park, so we were stuck at our hotel and were forced to eat at its french buffet (upside fried zuchinni down side everything else) oh well it was a experience!!
Today we searched for a hotel in Saintes, met the grumpiest most useless tourism office agent so far, when we went in there and asked for help for a hotel she said "what do you want me to do?" dumbfounded at that question we basically said nothing asked for a bus scedual and left to figure it out on our own. ( sidenote- all other tourism offices thus far have been extreemly friendly and helpful) So we found a hotel by the station ( bounus less carrying time for bags when we leave) we are tired for our big Futurscope day yesterday so we walked around a bit, watched the impending rain storm come and go, pick up some supper staples- baguette, goat cheese, jam, salami and are going to settle in for the night. Tomorrow, well it will depend on the weather, you see we were suposed to go to a seaside resort today -Royan but there was a weather warning for 100-110km wind so we figured that wasnt good beach weather so we came here instead but it looks like its supposed to rain in France till next Wednesday so we may leave for Spain early we will let you know!!

Here is a video that we shot while in France this week, it was shot in Nantes (its the giant mechanical elephant). We're off to Futuroscope today! Rain rain go away!

Friday July 15

Nantes was a pleasant surprise, our hotel was a great find- it was a chain but independently run it was so cool the chairs in the lobby were bright red seats from a old movie theater and our room was bright orange. The hotel itself was in a very ritzy area lots of Hermes,Coach and watch stores, we saw all these from the outside!! Anyways we had a great supper at a Vietnamese restaurant and had a early night. The next day we went out to Les Machines which is`very hard to explain but it is in the shipyard district and they make these wooden creatures that can move, among the smaller creatures the highlight is a 50 ft elephant that people go on rides on. This place was the strangest, coolest place we've seen and Corey dreams of getting a job there:)
Next to offset Les Machines we went to the Nantes Art gallery which was very good as well. That night we stumbled on a italian restaurant and had fabulous pizza and lasagna for supper. Again we changed our mind on where to go next we debated between Poiteiers and La Rochelle, well we decided on Pointiers and woke up to go to the train station but we wouldnt make the first train so we waited for the next, when we got to the station we found out that all trains to Pointiers were booked up so we ended up going to La Rochelle, which is AMAZING and are so glad we ended up here. Ah La Rochelle it is on the Atlantic coast and is a harbour resort town, so we were a little worried about coming here at 4:00 on a saturday with no hotel booked and as we leave the train station we checked out the fist hotel we saw, right on the new harbour, they wanted 150 euro a night :0 so we moved on and got more worried, next we went to the tourism office and saw about 50 people in there and got a bit more worried, but we some how lucked out and got a room overlooking the grand canal and off the old harbour within our hotel budget-score!. So we were feeling ok and then we turn the corner and see... stages and streets with vendors and balloons and carousels and hear music playing. I dont know how we did it but we stumbled in on the last day of a week long serious music festival in France. It is amazing here!! There are 2 free stage areas and concessions selling food and jewellery ect areas and 1 huge pay stage area, there are probably around 100,000 people here enjoying the festival, it is packed but everyone is in great spirits. So after checking in our hotel we wondered down the harbour, got some frittes and mayo for a snack and enjoyed the music for a bit. Then we checked out old town, which is cobblestoned streets lined with stores and creperies and thousand of tourists, I think Corey was loosing it a bit in the crowds but he won't admit it- haha. We had to stop and get some sugar to keep us going so we went into a very intimating chocolate shoppe- on a side note cheese shops and chochlate shops are serious business here and I feel I dont belong in either cause they are so fancy. Anyways the shop we went into had all chocolates, french jelly candies and macaroons in individual temperature cases that only a employee could open to get you your treats, we opted for a few chocolates and a piece of flur du sel caramel- YUM!!! We then headed for supper but had to wait a bit because most places dont start serving supper till 7 yes 7 is the earliest people start eating, we were hungry tonight so we picked a place we were the only ones eating yet even when we were leaving a t 8:30 most ppl hadnt started supper yet. Supper was great I had mussels fresh from the sea and Corey had salmon ( we took pictures because it was such a great meal) After supper we strolled around and listened to some more music, it stated to rain about 10:00 so we came back to our hotel for the night, but there are still thousands of people out despite the rain, what troopers:) Tomorrow we are off to Pointiers for sure ( we booked ahead) we are there for 2 days to go to the french Theme park Futuroscope.

church in Nantes

les machines

les machines

les machines

giant steel tree at Les machines

giant elephant at Les machines

elephant moving

La rochelle

Corey and Frittes and one stage- La Rochelle

supper- fresh mussles- la rochelle

La rochelle