Our day in Bern

This is Bern!

Bern is even more beautiful than Geneva.

We woke up this morning and checked out of our hostel. We stopped at a grocery store to get some toothpaste (our little travel tube didn't hold up) and some breakfast. We got to the train station about an hour before our train left. We weren't taking any chances this time! I also found another USA Today at the newsstands :-) So we settled onto a bench to eat breakfast and read the news. Our train came along about 11:30am and we were off. This was not a high speed train, so it took us 90 minutes to get to Bern. The scenery was just beautiful. We saw all the typical Switzerland stuff- the mountains, green hills, cows munching on grass, corn fields, little houses with red tiled roofs, hay bales in big fields. It was so much fun.

When we arrived in Bern, we were completely lost for a solid 30 minutes. We read on the hotel's website to take bus 20. The problem is, we didn't know which direction or what stop to get off on. There was a map on the platform that showed the tourism office. But we were so confused, we couldn't figure out where we were on the map or how to get to the tourism office. After wandering around the station for close to 20 minutes, we happened upon all the restaurants and shopping that signify the main part of the train station. The tourism office was extremely helpful-as usual. They gave us a map and when we told them our hotel, the girl knew exactly where it was without even having to look it up. She told us we could take the bus, but it was also easily walkable even with our luggage. Daniel also asked for a few German words to get us through the day. She told us that everyone here knows English and we would be perfectly fine saying Please, Thank You, Hello, and Goodbye in plain old English. That was a relief.

A really long German word- we have such a hard time speaking these words, we just laugh.

We found our hotel with no problem. They even have street signs that say all the nearby hotels and point where to go. Once again, our hotel is wonderful. We have a beautiful room on the third floor, right next to the shower that is shared between five rooms. There is a sink in our room. They even left little cookies on the bed that are a Swiss tradition. We have free wi-fi and free breakfast tomorrow morning. There is even a balcony outside our french doors. We are a 10 minute walk from the entire tourist area.

The front of our hotel

We crossed a huge beautiful bridge to get to the "Old Town." This city is the most beautiful city I have ever been in. The river forms a "U" around the Old Town. It is bright teal fast-flowing water. There are lots of tall, narrow houses along the river with red tiled roofs. We saw the tower of the big cathedral. Unfortunately, half of it was covered in scaffolding. You can't have everything I guess. As we have done in the past few towns, we just started wandering. We immediately found the famous Clock Tower. There is a big clock on the top, and a calendar clock on the bottom. We found it difficult to read, but somehow it tells you the day of the week, month, and all that. We had lunch at a cute little Italian restaurant. I know, we're in Switzerland, but you can only have so much cheese fondue. It was delicious anyways. On the map we were given from the tourism office there was a clear path that went through Old Town and covered pretty much every important landmark. We followed it and saw Einstein's house, City Hall, the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, the Bear Pits, another big cathedral, the University, House of Parliament, another huge bridge with a gorgeous view of the city, and lots of fountains. We were very disappointed to find out that the Bear Pits were empty. The last bear died on April 30 and they haven't put any new ones in. They are in the process of creating a new enclosure where the bears will be able to roam free throughout 20 hectares of land. This will open in October of this year.

The clock tower

The empty bear pits.

Daniel is a statue on top of the fountain.

Between all these landmarks was tons of shopping. Daniel especially enjoyed looking at all the (very) expensive watches. He wanted to buy one, but we couldn't really find one for less than about 100 CHF. That's almost equal to 100 dollars. We also stopped in H&M. Daniel's pants have been getting bigger over the last 2 weeks (or maybe he's getting smaller) and he needed a belt to hold his pants up. We didn't find any belts, but came out with 3 new polo shirts. Since he shrunk all his clothes at Christmas, it was time for some new ones anyways.

We took a break in a little plaza and watched some old men playing chess. They had a chess board on the ground that was about 10 feet by 10 feet. The pieces were 2-3 feet tall and carved out of wood. The players picked up the pieces and walked over to place them on another square. It was so fun to watch. Then we walked back over to city hall. Earlier we noticed that they were setting up a stage and saw an ad for a jazz band performing at 20 hour. Daniel got a bratwurst and a beer for dinner, but I was still full from lunch. The band was okay, and after an hour we were ready to leave. Earlier we bought a bottle of wine from a liquor store. We wanted to try Swiss wine to compare it to Spanish wine and French wine. The man at the store helped us pick one out that was made in Bern.

The giant chess game

Daniel eating dinner

So here we are, sitting on our balcony, watching the very end of the sunset, drinking our Swiss wine. I think this town is so beautiful. Daniel and I decided that some day, when we're rich, we are going to have a second home in Switzerland. We'll buy it right after we buy our private jet to fly here :-) I am so glad that we worked this country into our itinerary. We were only here for about 3 days, but it's been delightful. And we're getting out of here just in time- tomorrow is a Swiss national holiday and there are already fireworks going off tonight. All the stores closed early tonight and they are closed tomorrow. I can't believe tomorrow night we'll be in Italy!!

July 31- Geneva and Bern

We will take the train to Bern which takes about 2 hours. In Bern, we want to see Old Town including Barengraben, Rosengarten, and Zytgloggenturm, Klotzlikeller, Stadttheater, and Bern Casino. Tonight we have reservations at Hotel-Pension Marthahaus Bern. The website is http://www.marthahaus.ch/e/index.html.

Geneva Dinner

We came home to sit down for a min and relax before dinner (when Rachel posted last). While we were here Rachel googled places to eat here and we found a place that Frommer's recommended that is very close to where we are staying. We got there and ordered salmon and cheese fondue.

In case you didn't know, cause I didn't, fondue was invented in Switzerland and is a very typical meal here. All of the restaurents serve it. We ordered and as we have found is typical here it took a long time. After a while our waiter brought out a salad for Rachel and some bread. We shared both. Then eventually he brought out our salmon and fondue. The food was very yummy. We also enjoyed sitting outside and watching all the fancy cars drive by. Everyone here must be very wealthy. After dinner, we walked back to our hostel. Just down the street we stopped at a bar and got some drinks. The bartender recommended a caipirinha. It's kind of like a mojito, but from Brazil. I really liked it. The owner of the bar came and talked to us. He told us that the bar was only 3 weeks old and when he found out I was Cuban (in reference to the mojito), he wanted to talk in Spanish. He said that he speaks much better Spanish than English. So we spoke in Spanish for a while.

It was a fun night and we got to experience real Swiss food.

Geneva

We're blogging a little early tonight since we paid for internet for 24 hours.

We slept in this morning until about 9am and got breakfast just around the corner in a little cafe. The first thing we wanted to do was go to the U.N. In Geneva is one of the two headquarters for the United Nations (the other is in New York City). When we got there, we had to go through security and they even took Daniel's picture and printed out a security badge right there! Then we walked through the building to the area where the tour starts. We got there just in time for the English tour. There were about 30 people on our tour, and only one other group was from the US! There were people from Russia, Finland, Peru, Canada, India, and more. Our guide was fantastic. He knew so much about the U.N. and the Palais des Nations. We got to see the conference rooms where big important people discuss things like world hunger and human rights. He explained that New York is in charge of world security and disarmament and stuff like that. Geneva deals more with human rights. The tour was about 1 1/2 hours and Daniel and I both learned so much.

Daniel in one of the many conference rooms. The walls were painted by a Spanish artist in 1930.

All the flags outside the U.N.

After the tour, we crossed the street to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent museum. They had a lovely cafe where we had lunch. We learned all about how the Red Cross was started and how it was expanded. I didn't know that it actually started to help specifically with injured soldiers on the battlefield. Then when WWI ended, the organization figured they should expand into something else since there was no big war to help with. So that's when they started helping with natural disaster relief. In WWII, they discovered that they couldn't help people in concentration camps because their bylaws state that they only help military people, not civilians. So after WWII they fixed that and now they have helped establish rules that protect prisoners of war, civilians, and refugees. We also learned that Muslim nations take offense to the "Red Cross" emblem, so they use the Red Crescent instead.

We took the bus across town to the Old Town. We wandered through the English Gardens which are currently a big carnival. It took us a while, but eventually we found the flower clock.

We headed towards the big cathedral in town. Along the way, we came across a cute little chocolate shop. Of course we had to buy some real swiss chocolate. We saw in the back where they make all the chocolate right there.

At the cathedral, we were surprised to see a neoclassical structure. In the 19th century, the facade of the cathedral was redone in a neoclassical style. We climbed up what seemed like a million steps to get to the top of the tower and got a magnificent view of Geneva. It is such a beautiful city.

We walked through Old Town a little more and got to a small park. Inside the park is the "Reformation Wall." There are sculptures of lots of famous Reformationists built into the wall. There were even some English words inscribed into the wall. Some of them were about the Puritans taking the Mayflower over to the new world. And the Lord's Prayer was inscribed there too. We took the bus, and then a boat across the lake back to our hostel. It's so cool that there are boats here that function just like the busses.

Now we are trying to find a place to eat. It seems so difficult to find a reasonably priced restaurant. Maybe because we are still confused about the conversion rate to Swiss Francs. Everything here seems so much more expensive until we realize that 50 CHF is only 30 euros (which is 40 dollars). How confusing!

Tomorrow morning we check out at 10am and take the train to Bern. We will arrive there about 1:30pm.

July 30- Geneva

Today we want to pack in as much of Geneva as we can. We will see Old Town, Je d'Eua, Flower Clock, Jardin Anglais, Cathedrale St-Pierre, and Palais des Nations. We may also see a show at Grand Theatre de Geneve or Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Tonight we are staying at City Hostel Geneva again.

Beautiful Geneva

I LOVE it here! What a beautiful city.

Even the water fountains are beautiful!

Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:55am this morning and after a layover in Lyon, arrive in Geneva around 1pm. We didn't want to miss our train again, so we left our hotel at 7am. The B&B is a ways out of town. We had to walk about 15 minutes to the bus station, then take the bus to the center of town and walk another 5 minutes to the main bus station. There we would catch a bus that goes directly to the TGV train station. So there were a lot of connections to make. We walked to the bus station in time to catch the 7:35am bus. Then we realized we had no cash to pay for the bus fare. We literally used all our cash to pay for our room. Luckily, we still had our bus tickets from the day before. We flashed those and the bus driver didn't know any different. We felt terrible for being dishonest, but what choice did we have? There was no ATM near our hotel. Once we were on the bus, we had to figure out where to get off. We weren't quite sure which stop was closest to the bus station. We sat and watched out the window for things we recognized. We waited too long and ended up way out of town in the suburbs. Finally, we consulted the bus driver and he told us to just stay on the bus and he would tell us when to get off. We ended up at the end of the line and he just parked the bus and got out for about 15 minutes. This is when I began to panic. Our train left in an hour and we were just sitting on the bus with no idea where we were and how long until we were going to get going again. Finally he got back on the bus. We started to recognize the town again and he indicated where we should get off. It was about 9:35am when we got off our first bus. We already knew it was too late at that point.

My worst fear was that there was no other train that day to Geneva. Aix-en-Provence is a small town, and a small train station. Our journey was actually two: one train to Lyon, then another to Geneva. Once we made it to the train station, we went straight to the ticket office. The girl there exchanged our ticket for one that left at 1pm. We had a connection in Lyon and arrived in Geneva around 4pm. I was just so relieved that we were going to make it that day. Once again, everything worked out. Imagine if we had decided to fly everywhere! We would be in big trouble. The train ride went quickly since we both slept a lot of the way. We did wake up before 7 that morning, so we were tired.

When we arrived in Geneva, we went straight to the tourism office. Usually we look up how to get to our hotel the night before, but we got home so late from the opera and we had to wake up so early this morning that we didn't get a chance. We asked for a map of Geneva and how to get to our hotel. All we had to say was "City Hostel Geneva" and she gave us easy directions to get there. It was just down the street! An easy walk, even with our luggage.

When we arrived, we checked in. This is a top-of-the-line youth hostel. They have wi-fi, laundry facilities, movie night, even a little store. He gave us a map of Geneva with all the major tourist sites marked. It also had a ton of restaurants, bars/clubs, free bike rental place, internet cafes, etc. marked on it. It even had a suggested itinerary for one day in Geneva and all the best restaurants to eat at. There were also directions how to take the bus through town and a Q&A about Geneva. We learned that their official language is French, and what the best kind of cheese is. We also got a 3 day pass for unlimited travel on all the busses, trams, and boats in Geneva as well as 50% off admission to the Red Cross Museum! We were thrilled. And everything here is in Swiss Francs which means it's cheaper. This may sound funny, but I was so happy to find that a liter bottle of water cost 3 francs, about 2 euros. Everywhere we have been, water has been ridiculously expensive. They handed us a stack of linens and we headed upstairs to our room. We have 2 beds in a 3-bed room. There is a sink and lockers in our room, and the bathroom with showers is right across the hall. There is also a lounge, computer room, and laundry room downstairs. There is a kitchen right down the hall from us. We haven't met our roommate yet, and I'm not sure we will. We'll see what time he/she comes back tonight.

The front door of our hostel

So we set off to explore the city with our remaining time. It took us a little bit to figure out the bus. We went to the station nearby and couldn't find a map. After looking at the posted schedule and discussing how we could figure out what bus to take, a girl asked us if we needed help. She explained exactly how to get to "Old Town", the tourist area of Geneva. She tol dus exactly which bus to take, what stop to get off on to make a connection, and how many stops to go on that bus. Then while we were on the bus, another guy noticed the map we were looking at. He pointed out where we were and told us a little bit about the city. Everyone here is so nice! And there is a lot of English signs. It seems that English is pretty common, though French is the official language.

We wandered the streets of "Old Town" for about an hour. We came across more street performers and lots of shopping. We headed in the direction of the river and the lake that split Geneva in half. We walked along the lake. We got here at the exact right time. Their independence day is in two days, so they have all kinds of public events going on. There was a huge carnival along the whole waterfront. We saw signs for public concerts being held in a park. Tonight was a jazz/tango group performing at 8:30pm. It was free, so we decided to check it out. The park was right on the lake in the direction we were headed. We got some dinner at a stand set up in the park. The concert was awesome! I couldn't believe how many people were there. It was so crowded. And it seemed to me like it was almost all locals. I didn't hear hardly any English. I enjoyed just sitting and watching all the people. It seemed like everyone knew each other. There was lots of kissing on both cheeks and all. The music was upbeat and really fun. They had dancers on some of the songs that were also very good. The whole concert was very well done. We couldn't believe it was free for everyone. Even the lighting and cameras was really well done.

At the concert

Jet d'eau on Lac Lemon

Jet d'eau at night

After the concert, it was about 10:30pm and we had a very long day. We figured out how to take the bus back to the hostel and here we are. Geneva seems like a very friendly, intimate, cultured city. Maybe we got lucky being here during Independence day festivities, but the town seems like so much fun. I can't wait to see more tomorrow.

July 29- Train to Geneva

This morning we will check out of Villa Valbelle and take the train to Geneva, Switzerland. It is a 4 hour train ride through beautiful green mountains. We will take the train right through the Alps into Switzerland. Tonight we will stay in City Hostel Geneva. The website is http://www.cityhostel.ch/english/.

The Magic Flute!

I guess I already gave away the highlight of our day. But I'll start from the beginning anyways.

We slept in very late this morning and enjoyed our lovely bed and breakfast. Our hostess, Cathy, made us a breakfast of crepes, 3 different kinds of jam, bread, homemade yogurt, and some kind of fruit pizza type thing. We walked out to what we thought was the bus station. There was a pole with a sign that said "Aix en bus" and the bus schedule. About 15 minutes after the scheduled time for the bus to come, we gave up and decided to walk down the street a bit to see what was nearby. As we walked, we saw a bunch of people gathered by a bench. Then the bus drove past us and pulled over right there. Apparently, the pole we were standing at was NOT the bus stop. It was just a posted sign with the bus schedule on it. So we hopped on. We had no clue where to get off or where we were going, so when we recognized the town we just got off. You can imagine how much I loved this go-with-the-flow strategy. Not very much. Then we looked at our map to get our bearings. We were remarkably close to the town center. Every time we figure something out in a new city, I breathe a sigh of a relief. It's kind of a high I guess.

Daniel wanted to go to the theatre and find out if they had any tickets left for "The Magic Flute." The whole reason we decided to go to Aix-en-Provence was because they have an opera festival every summer. Online, all their tickets were sold out except for the 210 euro seats. We definitely did not want to spend that much. When we got to the theatre, they told us to go to the Festival Opera's office downtown. We walked there and talked to them about tickets. They told us the same thing, that there were only 210 euros seats left. But they also told us that one hour before showtime, they start selling left over tickets for 40 euros a piece. If we get to the theatre at around 6pm (for the 8pm show) we may get two of the last tickets. She told us that there were 20-something tickets left at that point.

The rest of the day we spent walking through the alleyways. It seemed like every single street was a shopping street. They had tons of outdoor markets as well as high-end boutiques. It was so fun to wander the streets and look at all of the stuff for sale. We also had to stop and get a smoothie. There were little stands on the street that had tables full of fruit. You pick what fruit you want and they blend it all together for you.

My orange and mango smoothie- yummy!

It's been a bit difficult in Aix because very few people speak English here. There don't seem to be many tourists (at least American tourists). We must have said about 50 times today "Sorry, we don't speak French." The few times we did come across someone who spoke English, it was a huge relief. Everyone here is so friendly! Yesterday the tourist office called our B&B and our hostess came and picked us up. Today, the box office told us about the rush tickets available. The guy at the smoothie stand asked us about our whole trip while he made our smoothies. While we were sitting on a bench, two old men started talking to Daniel in French. They didn't seem to get that we didn't understand a word they were saying, but they were friendly anyways. He even offerred Daniel a cigarette.

So anyways, we wandered our way across town (a 10 minute walk at the most) to the Musee Granet. There were ads all over town for their "Cezanne and Picasso" exhibit. I guess both artists spent time in Aix and Picasso was very inspired by Cezanne. So the exhibit examined the relationship between the two painters and their art. We have had very little education about art, but we both found this exhibit interesting. Neither of us have spent any time looking at Cezanne or Picasso's paintings before, and we got to see many originals from both today.

After the exhibit, we spent more time wandering the streets. We had heard that Aix is famous for its candy. We saw so many candy shops and chocolate shops and patisseries. We stopped in at least 3 to look. And of course we had to buy something. In Aix they have this candy that is special to this town. It is called a Calisson. It's made by crushing up almonds and mixing it with melon fruit paste. Then they put that on top of a communion wafer (I know, strange) and then ice the top with frosting. We had to try some and they actually are pretty delicious. The first one, is kind of strange, but by the third they are very good :-) We also bought some chocolates to take on the train tomorrow.

Daniel enjoying a Calisson

We stopped to grab a snack at Europe's McDonald's. It's called "Quick." I found it amusing that they have so much English on their menu, but they spell it phonetically in French. I never ever eat McDonald's in the U.S., but this trip is all about new experiences. And the burger wasn't terrible. I even tried the french fries with mayonnaise. I wasn't crazy about that. And the coke was different too. Much sweeter.

Our Quick lunch

After wandering the streets a bit more, we came across a wonderful cafe/book shop. I couldn't believe it, but we found a huge bookstore with all English books! ALL English! And the girl at the cash register spoke perfect English. So much so, I had to ask where she was from and she said of course that she's American. Small world. After all these train rides, I thought it would be worth it to buy just one book to read on the train. I asked if she had any recommendations and she showed me a few. We also picked up a tiny guidebook for Rome. I love bookstores and libraries, I could spend hours there. So that took up a good chunk of time. By then, it was time to head to the theater.

We got there at 6pm. There was a man handing out paper with numbers on them. We were number 6. We thought that was pretty good since there were about 20 seats available earlier in the day. We waited around and talked to some of the other people there waiting to get rush tickets. By 7pm, there were probably 30 or 40 people in line hoping to get tickets. We lined up in numbered order and at about 7:30, they started to give out tickets. We got two right next to each other, right in the center of the orchestra level! We were thrilled. The tickets are normally 210 euros a piece, and we paid 40 a piece. It's unbelievable. After us, there were only 4 tickets left. We felt so bad, but that's the way it goes I guess. We bought a small sandwich inside the theater and took our seats. The theatre was beautiful. The best part of the whole show for me was the set. It's impossible to describe, but it was very cool. The backdrop looked almost like a pencil drawing. It was all gray and white. Then they projected moving images onto the backdrop and stage behind the performers. I can't describe it well enough, but it was awesome. The performers were great too of course. And this opera is famous for the scene with the Queen of the Night singing really high. I'm sure you'd know it if you heard it. Anyways, the whole show was awesome and we felt very privileged to be there at all. The opera was performed in the original German, with French subtitles displayed above the stage. Luckily for us, the program had an English synopsis. It was still difficult to follow, but we got the main plot which was the important part. Daniel also pointed out that the orchestra played with period instruments. The flutes were wooden, the clarinets were open holed with no metal keys, and the piano was actually a piano forte.

The view from our seats-amazing!

After the opera, I had a panicked moment or two. The show ended at about 11:30pm, and the bus stops running at 10:30. So we had to somehow find a taxi. We also needed to pay our hostess for our room tomorrow morning and she only takes cash. We have a $310 limit on our ATM withdrawals each day. After paying 80 euros for the opera, we didn't have enough left to pay for our room and the taxi home. We tried withdrawing money, but it wouldn't let us. So Daniel decided he would go out at 6am the next morning and take the bus to town to get cash. Then we had to find a taxi. We walked towards the center of town, and found a whole line of them. We got in and gave the driver the address to our B&B. As he started driving, we told him this didn't look right. We showed him where our hostess had marked on a map where the B&B was located outside the town. He said that the address didn't match that spot on the map. But he knew where it was so he turned around and got us there pretty quick. Unfortunately, that cost us about 10 euros. When we got back to our room, Daniel found a 50 euro bill he had left in his suitcase. So thank goodness he doesn't have to take the bus to town tomorrow. Overall, everything worked out. It always does. But I can't help worrying about it. Daniel knows exactly what to do to calm me down and figure things out though. He's wonderful.

So that was our adventurous day! I absolutely love Aix. It was a great way to see a small French town and experience another side of France. The people here are lovely and friendly, even though they don't speak much English. The countryside is beautiful and the wine is delicious! The opera was fabulous and the candy is delectable. Tomorrow: Switzerland! And more chocolate, cheese, and wine I'm sure!

Pictures!

We posted up many more pictures from our first 10 days.

Pictures of Madrid: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123453&id=666754001&l=a6b58c2ec1

Pictures of Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123467&id=666754001&l=f1f8b8e55b

Pictures of Paris: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=123509&id=666754001&l=ae5c337e4d

Here are some pictures from yesterday and this morning.

breakfast- yummy!

Daniel cooking dinner for us

lounging by the pool

Our room is the white door on the left. The kitchen is up the stairs.

Daniel on the train

July 28- Avignon and Provence

Today we are still in Provence. We don't have any real plans for today except to relax and enjoy the countryside. We may take the short train ride to Avignon. Tonight we are staying at Villa Valbelle again.

Provance

This morning we could sleep in a little bit because our train wasn't till 9:46. We got to the train station with plenty of time to spare at around 9:15. We didn't see our train listed on the screens so we checked our tickets. We were at the Paris Gare de l'nord our ticket said Paris Gare de Lyon. I can't believe we got it wrong again! We scrambled and got to the right station minutes before it left. We ran to the train and got there just in time. This time we had seats right next to each other, unlike the last couple trains were we were across the aisle of caddy corner to each other. We napped and talked and watched the French country side go by for the next three hours until our stop at the Aix-en-provance gare (station). We got off there. There wasn't any indication of public transportation so we thought we could probably walk. We headed off in the direction our GPS said. We were walking along the side of the highway with no sidewalk. I tripped once and cut my knee! After about 15 minutes, Rachel looked at the GPS and noticed it was going to take us an hour to get there! We turned around to go back to the train station. When we got there we found an information desk which we didn't see before. We asked there and they pointed us in the direction of the bus to town. We waited twenty minutes or so for the bus and paid our fair and went to town. From the bus station we walked with our luggage to the tourism office of Aix-en-Provance. We talked to a very helpful woman who gave us a map and answered our questions. She even called our B&B to ask the host to come pick us up. We only had to wait a few minutes before a French woman came up to us and said, "Bonjour, my car is out here" She said she didn't speak much English, but it was enough for us to talk. She didn't understand all of our questions, but we got enough information. It is times like that that we feel terrible that we don't know any French.

our B&B is so nice! When we got here our hostess gave us a tour. She showed us our room, the laundry room, the kitchen, the pool, the backyard, and the dining garden. All of it is gorgeous! We spent the afternoon doing laundry and sitting by the pool. We took a walk to a small store where we bought pasta, sauce, cheese, and two oranges for dinner. I cooked dinner while Rachel uploaded most of our pictures onto Facebook. We ate and then decided to go into town for a few drinks. We waited at the bus stop for twenty minutes for the bus. It was right on time, but instead of stopping for is, it just drove on past! I was shocked, how could it do that?! The next bus wasn't for another twenty minutes, so we decided it wasn't that important. We walked up the street a little bit and found a tiny wine store run by a woman who didn't speak a word of English. We wanted to try something made in aix-en-provence so we picked a rose wine for 7 euros. The woman said, "bubity bubity bubity fromage bubity bubity tre ben." I got out of that that we should eat cheese with it and it was good. We paid and walked the ten minues back to our B&B. We watched the sun set and enjoyed our wine. We had some of the leftover parmesan from dinner. It was delicious; I wonder if it was so cheep because it was made here?

Today was much more uninteresting then many of our days, sorry. We still had a lovely day, it is nice to sit down at the end of the day and not feel like my feet are very mad at me. :-) I'm sure tomorrow will hold adventures we can't even imagine yet. Stay tuned.

July 27- Train to Provence

Today we will have a day of rest and take the train from Paris to Aix-en-Provence, the capital of Provence. The train ride is about 2 and a half hours. We are staying at a beautiful bed and breakfast called Villa Valbelle. See pictures of Villa Valbelle at http://www.villa-valbelle.com/index.html. Provence is our chance to experience the countryside and small town atmosphere of France. We will relax and take a "vacation from our vacation."

Chartres

We missed our train again this morning only by a few minutes this time. So we got a new ticket for the next train which was only forty minutes later. We walked around the station, got some breakfast, and shopped a little. Rachel had two chocolate croissants and I had a muffin and banana bread. We went into every news stand and book store in the station looking for an American newspaper, because Rachel felt disconnected with the US and "missed reading English." We ended up finding one in the last store that we looked. We got Friday's USA Today. It actually had some interesting news in it. I cant believe Judge Sotomayor isn't a justice yet! Comeon Senate! Please let us know when she is confirmed.

We got on the train and were on our way to Chartres at about 10:00. I'm not sure what they put into the air on those trains, but even if I am fully awake right before I get on, after just a few minutes I fall asleep. I can't help it. Anyway, I woke up in Chartres about an hour later and Rachel and I headed for the tourism office. We got a map of the town and they offered us an audio guide tour of the old city. It was pretty inexpensive and had time to kill because mass had just started in the cathedral and we couldn't visit during mass. We did the tour and learned a lot about the city. It was originally founded by the Romans a long time ago and then there was a fire. Then the Catholics took it over, then there was a fire. Then, and still, the French live there. We saw that a lot of the buildings are built inside of the old structures. For example, part of the restaurant we ate at for lunch was built inside of an old wash house (old fashioned laundromat). There were old churches and mills and bridges that were all very interesting. After our tour, we went and ate lunch.

Rachel read on frommers that we should eat at this expensive fancy French place right on the river. "It is a little expensive, but well worth every penny." We went in to check it out. The hostess didn't speak a word of English, but eventually we got a table. We sat down and waited. We looked at the menu (completely in French) and couldn't pick out a word. This was not the sandwich and fromage(cheese) that we were used to. Eventually our waiter came over who spoke a little English. He helped us figure out the menu and we each ordered. We weren't sure exactly what we ordered, but it was fine French dining, so how bad could it be? While we waited, they brought out two tiny sandwiches and two shot glasses with a thick yellow mucus-like soup for us to eat. We saw everyone around us eat them up, so despite our intuition we gave it a try. The soup tasted like tomatoes mixed with lemon and orange. I took a few bites, and left it at that. After some coersion, Rachel tried one bite. The sandwiches were good. Thirty minutes later someone brought out our food. He announced to us what it was in French, but we couldn't tell him which one of us ordered which dish. We all just kind of looked at each other for a minute before he finally blurted out "egg?" The food was good, and after our main dish we got a chocolate cake which was superb. Two hours and a lot of discomfort later, we left the restaurant and headed for the cathedral.

We went inside and waited in line for an audioguide, but when we got to the front they wouldn't give us one because there was a concert in 45 minutes. So we just looked around ourselves and read all the posted information. I thought it was more of the same, but Rachel found it unique and interesting. Something I found unique and interesting was the labyrinth built into the floor of the nave. They had most of it covered with chairs so we couldn't do it, but we could imagine what it would be like. This church was built specifically to house a piece of cloth that they claimed to be the Virgin's shroud. They have it on display in the back so we went to go look at it. We saw a white piece of cloth in a very elaborate case wit h a huge stained glass window behind it. Thousands of people each year pilgrimage there to see this piece of cloth. At this point, it was about 4:00 and our train left at 4:30, so we headed back towards the train station.

The famous "Chartres blue" stained glass. Original from the 12th century!

Sitting across from us on the train were two guys. One of them was sketching the other while he slept. Rachel and I quickly fell asleep on the train and when I woke up ten minutes later, both of the guys were looking at us very intently and the same guy was sketching again. I assumed he was sketching us, and I think that's really cool.

We got back to Paris and went to the Tuileries Gardens. When we got off the train, it was very hectic with tons of people and we couldn't figure out why. When we got out to the street, there was even more people and we realized we had taken the train right to where the award ceremony for the Tour de France was currently happening. We mingled among the masses for a few minutes and watched the winners get their trophies on a big screen. It was very exciting to completely on accident stumble onto such a momentous event! We walked through the gardens and found a café to have dinner. After our pricey lunch, we just got sandwiches. After that we headed back to our tiny hotel room to enjoy our champagne and our last evening in Paris.

July 26- Chartres

This morning we will take the 45 minute train ride to Chartres. We will walk around the town and see Chartres Cathedral. This was Daniel's parents' favorite Cathedral when they came to Paris for their honeymoon over 25 years ago. We will take the train back to Paris and take a night illuminations tour. We may also do some shopping and sample Parisian chocolate and cheese to go with our champagne. Tonight is our last night in Les Chansonniers.

Versailles

Today didn't start out so great. This morning, I woke up early to take a shower. Since there's only one for the whole hotel, we are trying to shower every other day. I went to grab the shampoo, and I couldn't find it. Daniel used it last, and apparently he left it in the shower. He went upstairs, and of course it wasn't there anymore. So we just made it work and showered without shampoo. The pharmacie (I'm learning to spell in French) doesn't open until after 8am, so we couldn't buy any. That whole fiasco put us about a half hour behind schedule. We were concerned about the crowds so we wanted to get to Versailles as close to 9am as possible.

By the time we got ready and everything it was already about 9am. We knew we had to take the RER C line to get to Versailles. Right now they are doing work on a bunch of stations that are closed. This complicated things a bit. Once we got to the RER station, we had to figure out what train to transfer to that would take us to Versailles. After looking at a bunch of different maps and screens, we discovered a sign that said, in English, "How to get to Chateau Versailles" Ha! The French are smart after all :-) So we followed the directions. We came upon a ton of other English speakers, so we knew we had to be in the right place. When we got off the train, there were immediately people trying to sell us tickets and tours and everything else. We stopped at the tourism office to buy our tickets there since we knew the lines would be long at the Chateau. The tickets were 2 euros more expensive, but we discovered when we got to the Chateau that it was worth it. The line was so long! Then, another disappointment: we still had to wait in a loooong line to actually get into the Chateau. But the line went very fast and before we knew it, we were inside. Our tickets came with an audioguide headset too.

We went through all of the rooms in the Chateau first: the King's staterooms, the Queen's staterooms, the Dauphin's staterooms (the Dauphin is the next in line to the throne, kind of like the Prince), the Madames' rooms (madames were the Dauphin's sisters) and of course the Hall of Mirrors. To be completely honest, at the end I was left wondering " that was it?" Daniel told me he felt the same way. The audioguide was very unimpressive. It spent most of the time telling us this painting is of this second cousin twice removed of the third in line to the throne and the chest of drawers was made by the official wood carver to the Royal Family. And when they described where the pieces came from, most of them didn't really belong there. A ton of the stuff was reproductions based on descriptions or drawings, and a ton of it came from other palaces. Almost none of the rooms look now like they actually looked in the 18th century. It was quite disappointing. They weren't nearly as extravagant as the Palacio Real in Madrid or even the Louvre's exhibits of furnishings. In fact, the rooms were mostly empty. I'm making it sound worse than it was really. We still did enjoy it. The fabrics in particular were beautiful. And Daniel remarked on how they liked everything to match. The wallpaper matched the bedspread matched the chairs matched the carpet. It was really funny. Of course the Hall of Mirrors was beautiful. I don't mean to be cliché, but I think it was my favorite. I thought it was cool that a little piece of American history took place in that room.

The Hall of Mirrors

Daniel thought it was funny that I blended in with the room so well.

After we toured the Chateau, we started out to the gardens. The first thing we came across, of course, was the "Grand Perspective". We stood at the top of a big staircase and looked out over the whole grounds of Versailles. It was beautiful. Today was cloudy and windy and cold, which made it actually quite pleasant to be outside.

At Grand Trianon

The back of Chateau Versailles

The ticket that we bought included a visit to two other small palaces on the grounds called Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon as well as Marie Antoinette's private grounds. These were about a 30 minute walk through the gardens. We stopped to get a mediocre, overpriced lunch at a small stand in the gardens.

Grand Trianon and Petit Trianon were nice, but equally unimpressive. I think they are in the process of renovating them. The gardens, however, were full of beautiful flowers and small fountains. I really tried to imagine what it would have looked like to Marie Antoinette, but it was so hard to picture it with all the tourists and signs and everything. We walked over to Marie Antoinette's private grounds. This was a little village that she had constructed where she could go to get away from court and not have to practice all the strict etiquette rules. There was a full farm with goats, sheep, donkeys, rabbits, ducks, and chickens. We really enjoyed that. We walked back towards the main palace to the Grand Canal. They had a bike rental that wasn't too expensive, so we went for it. We thought that it would be a better way to see the grounds. We could see more in less time. It was so much fun! It's been a long time since I've ridden a bike. We rode all the way around the Great Canal in about 45 minutes.

Along the way we stopped to take pictures and talked to a family from Chicago. We returned the bikes at about 5:00pm and the gardens closed at 5:30. We made our way back up to the palace. They had little tiny stands along the way where they were freshly squeezing orange juice from oranges grown right there in the gardens. We each got a little cup. The guy stood right there and cut open the orange and squeezed it into the cup. It was delicious!

We sat on the steps looking out over the whole gardens for the last 15 minutes until it closed. We ended up sitting right next to a couple from Michigan. They asked us to take their picture, and we started talking. They asked us if we were on our honeymoon or what, and we said no we just got engaged. They congratulated us and told us that they got married on Friday. So we congratulated them! There are so many Americans here, it's almost ridiculous. So we took the train back to Paris and got back to the city about 6:30pm. I wanted to see the Pantheon, so we took the metro there. It was closed, but we got to take pictures of the outside. Then we found a little café with a very friendly waiter and ordered some dinner. I love that in France, I can order cheese and bread for dinner. It's delicious! Daniel got an omelet. Then we had to save room for dessert. I had chocolate mousse that was almost like eating chocolate frosting with a spoon! Daniel had chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. I think the food is one of my favorite parts of Paris.

We got on the metro to come back to our hotel. We had to transfer trains of course. The first one had an opening to get onto the platform without buying a ticket. So we went right through and didn't buy a ticket. We got off to transfer at one of Paris' huge stations, Gare du Nord. We walked all the way across the huge station to our platform, only to discover you have to put your ticket in to get through. So we walked through the station and tried to find a ticket machine. We couldn't find one! We wandered the station for 30 minutes looking for a ticket office or automated machine and didn't find one. Finally, we decided we had better exit and find a machine outside the station. Then we discovered you have to put your ticket in the machine to exit! So we were stuck inside the station without a ticket and no machine inside the station. A guy saw that we were trying to get through and he held out his automated card for us to use to get through. He was so kind to let us through with his card. We offered him a 2 euro coin, but he declined. I don't think he spoke very good English. Anyways, we have come across so many nice Parisians. On the way back to our hotel, we found that the pharmacies were closed (they are not open 24 hours like ours are) so we wandered the streets until we found a general store where we could buy shampoo. Thank goodness we have some now! Maybe Parisian shampoo is better than American. We'll see!