sayhitojohn

We covered many kilometers by plane, ship, train, tram, metro, bus, atv, bicycle, tennis shoe, and flip flop. We traversed the high ridges of the Greek Isles, the dairy lands of Switzerland, the cobbled lanes of Barvarian walled cities, the canals of the Dutch lowlands, and the heights of Eiffel's tower.  We consumed mass quantities of cheese, chocolate, gyros, french fries, crêpes and more than the occasional beer. We woke up early for the calm of the morning and  stayed out too long and stayed up too late on too many nights.  We had many great meals prepared by head chef Tara with first understudy Riley.   We climbed stairs of wood, stone, steel, and dirt. Ancient stairs and modern stairs. Stairs made steep, straight, crooked, and spiral.  We slept in structures centuries older than our country. We were hostily hustled into a youth hostile with hostile youth.  We saw a collection of art from across history and collections dedicated to the old European ruling classes. We tried our

The kids were delighted with the decision to hit Disney on our last day.  We had fun for 12.5 hours and then called it a day. But before we arrived we had a little bit more train fun. The line we were on ended so we had to depart the train and catch the next one to the Disney stop. But the next one never came and the one we were on never left. Everyone, even the locals, seemed confused as to what was happening.  A few minutes later came some announcements, in French, over the address system.Everyone, still looking a little bewildered, began to file slowly back in the train. So we did the same. Next stop Euro Disney.  While we were in line for our first ride it really did become a small world when around the corner walked Josh and Olivia, whom we met in China. Josh and Olivia are from New Zealand and had just quit their jobs in England and are taking the rest of the year off while making their way back home.  We did have some challenges with maintenance issues.  The first ride we boarde

You could spend a year in the Louvre and still not take it all in. So what do you do with a few hours? We wanted to give the kids an appreciation of this museum and some of the works in it but we also wanted not to push their burn out factor. We found a 'Best of' tour that we could accomplish in a few hours and leave a more in depth tour for later in life.  It was a little like a scavenger hunt following this route, first take this escalator, then turn behind this wall, then take this elevator. We did manage to accomplish it and see all the sights.  Of course, top of the list was saying "Hi" to Lisa. This is the ultimate selfie. There was no getting the kids directly in front for a shot as it was mass chaos. I am sure with a little photo shop work you could create a very nice image and fool everyone.  The Wedding Feast at Cana was next, depicting the first recorded miracle of Jesus' earthly ministry. There is no way to do these works justice with my camera, skills

Today was the Skinny Jeans debut. I grew tired of wearing the same old single pair of drab pants that still bore grease from Greece.  I love olive oil almost as much as my pants. Paris is much more fashion forward then Littleton so I was going to feel right at home in these, maybe even my man-prees would be fine here.  Patti and Tara keep telling me that they are not skinny jeans, but I am not so sure about that. After I only burst 2 blood vessels in my left eye trying to get these on we headed out to start our day at the Palace of Versailles (PoV). We had it on good authority that if we arrived at the PoV before 9:00 we would be all set. We arrived at 9:05. But, we had a few other things working against us, the first being that PoV is close on Monday which makes Sunday, our day, the busiest. Our second challenge was the 20 tour buses which were already in the lot when we rounded the corner from the train station. Those tour buses hold up to 65 people and the quick math put that at may

The kids were easy to wake this morning as they were still reveling in their spy game triumph of the night. They were successful in filling their spot under the covers with pillows and sneaking around our bed. Just minute before they were going crazy, then it was all quiet. I looked over to see them under the covers and barely moving. I hovered over them for a few minutes,sure that they could not handle it for very long. When they did not come up for air I figured that just maybe they must have somehow relaxed under there. It was only later when I heard them rustling around the room that I clued in.  We left Ghent this morning earlier than Patti wanted, as I was insisting that we do everything possible not to miss our train to Paris via Brussels. I t was a train that was not available to us the first few times that we had checked, and if we missed this one we were in trouble. We arrived in the Ghent station early enough to take the train before the one that we had planned for the Brus

STRIKE! Yes, we did it again. This time it was a double, a train strike along with a trash pickup strike.  The trains, not the trash, helped make up our minds to spend the day wandering and touring right here in Ghent. Patti and I decided to let the kids sleep in and we got out for some early touring just after dawn. The sun did not break through the clouds until later today but we still found some interesting things to look at and snap the occasional picture. This is the most contemporary design that we saw in the old city center.  Waking up early like we do at home has not been a problem, but I have gotten good at laying around for a while before actually getting out of bed. For whatever reason I have been sweating profusely at night in this hotel. Everyone else is cold, but I wake up at about two in the morning drenched, actually dripping with sweat. I must be going through the DTs from my lack of mountain biking. When the kids woke up we took a walking tour and interspersed were th

Today it was off to Brussels to have a look around. This was bigger and really had none of the quaint appeal of Ghent or even Brugge. But what it lacked for in the cute factor it more than made up for in chocolate. The kids, and I, ate way too much chocolate...again. From the train station and into the old city square and beyond were shop after shop of Belgian Chocolates. In nearly every one of them the kids were able to score free samples. Back and forth they went zigzagging across the narrow streets canvassing each and every opportunity. In many stores there were samples out for the taking but others were more guarded with their freebies.  When it was the latter case the kids would put on their best puppy dog eyes and talk about how they wish there were samples. Sure enough a plate would soon emerge and chocolate was served. Waffles were also highly available starting at 1 Euro and rising exponentially as you added flavor. The old town square was in partial renovation but the remaini