Our last day in Rome...in Italy...in Europe. Hard to believe our wonderful trip is over! We made the best of our last day here, though. Deb left for Chicago early, and Ann and I grabbed a cab for the Borghese Gallery where we met up with Michelle. It's a rather small museum, but it has some of Bernini's best work, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the tour given by an English-speaking guide. We grabbed a quick lunch in our neighborhood (Deb, you'd be proud--salads!) and walked to St. Peter's to catch the afternoon tour given by a seminarian. We had a great guide, Daniel from Australia (remember Michelle is from Australia). We learned so much from him about St. Peter's. Great tour! We especially liked hearing the story about when his family got to meet John Paul II. Daniel's little brother had sent the Pope a birthday card for his 80th birthday while they were in Rome. The card actually made it to the Pope, and the Pope invited the whole family to come up and meet him. He said he had such a presence and was very kind to all of them, giving them gifts, and touching the cheeks of the children. Later, Michelle and I climbed to the top of the dome of St. Peter's. We were able to take a lift to the base of the dome, but then it was over 370 stairs up. You'd be proud of us again, Deb! It was really, really hard to do. The passage ways got narrower and narrower the higher you got, and the passage ways slanted just like the dome, and most of the way was a very narrow spiral staircase. Quite claustrophobic, but what a view of Rome from the top! We were so lucky that it was a picture perfect day and we could see for miles. We spent quite a bit of time up there identifying different sights like the Colosseum, Pantheon, and Vittorio Emmanuel Monument. We could see all of Vatican City with the different buildings and beautiful gardens. At the base of the dome, we were able to look down inside St. Peter's. We could hear mass being said and the singing in Latin. What an experience! The way down was actually pretty scary. There were no hand rails most of the way. I led the way, and I was nervous. But we made it. Ann was a little worried because we were up there so long. We were at the Vatican for four hours, but it was an incredible experience today. We had dinner at our favorite place--Navona Notte--with a nice bottle of wine and limoncello. Michelle and I decided to take one more walk, this time to Castel San Angelo to see it lit up at night. On the way, we stopped for one last gelato. Perfect end of a perfect day. We were sad to say good-bye to our new friend Michelle, but we all promised to keep in touch. She has invited us to come to Australia, and her daughter will be getting married in New York in a couple of years. We said she should stop in Florida then. I think we'll meet again. This trip has just been amazing. We talked about it tonight, and we just loved all of it. It's hard to pick a favorite place or experience. We've had a lot of laughs, and we've learned so much. We've had some of the best guides you can imagine, but we've also learned so much about Europeans from the people we've met. Yes, we've had a few surly waiters and cashiers, but we've also met many wonderful European people, not least of which is our lovely family in Holland. We enjoyed the ladies on the train, and our housekeeper here in Rome is the sweetest lady you'd ever want to meet. We've had to ask for directions so many times, and most of the time we were able to find people more than willing to help us, like the young woman at the train station who turned around and led us through the entire train station, using her pass to get us through the turnstiles with our luggage, and got us to the street. It's so different here in Europe. And every city we've visited is unique. We love them all. Rome is crazy. The traffic with the cars, motorcycles, pedestrians and cafes on every street is unreal. It makes New York traffic look tame, but we got used to it and jaywalk like everyone else. We just love Rome. Ann had been worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up on the tour, but she did great! In fact, I think we've done more walking in Italy than we did in France. After yesterday, we were so tired and she said she didn't know if she'd ever walk again, but she did as much today or more. Michelle and I had a hard time keeping up with her on the way back from the Vatican! Thanks for reading our blog. Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry if the posts were too long, but we wished you could have been here with us and wanted you to feel like you were.
Ciao from Rome!

We had a long and busy day today. We began by taking the underground tour at the Colosseum. They've just opened the lower level and upper level recently. Previously, we were only able to go to the main level. The lower level is where the gladiators and wild animals would wait before the show. It was interesting to see the pulley's that were used to raise the animals and scenery; there were 60 "elevators". I never realized that scenery was used, but apparently the sets were quite elaborate, even recreating jungle scenes. Two hundred slaves were downstairs getting everything together. Performances were free, and the Romans had a great system for getting people in and out efficiently. The shows were an all day affair, and the people cooked in the Colosseum. Basically, they were tailgaiters! The animal shows occured in the mornings, and the gladiators, who were prisoners that were sentenced to death, came on in the afternoon. I was totally surprised that the Romans had a canvas awning that they stretched over the Colosseum! The last show took place here in the year 523 AD. Later we walked to the Roman Form with our new BFF. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you. We have a new BFF here. Her name is Michelle, and we found her at the Colosseum. She's from Australia, traveling alone for five weeks, so we invited her to join us for the day. She is so nice; we really enjoyed her company. On the way to the Trevi Fountain, she stopped at an ATM and it ate her card! Speaking of the fountain, Deb keeps callling it "Trivia" fountain, but she made sure to throw in a coin so that she could return to Rome some day. I told her it worked like a charm for me! In the evening, we strolled around Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiore, had dinner, and drank a couple of bottles of wine in our courtyard with our new BFF. Deb leaves tomorrow, and we'll be heading for home on Friday.

We made it to Rome! Oh, the traffic! It’s crazy. Cars and motor cycles buzzing around in every direction. Can’t believe cars can fit on these tiny side streets, but they do. Our B&B is on the cutest side street, although when Ann and Deb first saw the door to the B&B, they were wondering what kind of place I got for them. The building was built in the late1400’s, and it looked like something from the Phantom of the Opera. Once inside, though, they were pleasantly surprised. I’ll take pictures tomorrow. Today we were anxious to get to St. Peter’s. It is a massive, massive church. Just gorgeous. Ann was most interested to see where Pope John Paul is buried. The last time we were here, it was in the lower level. Now that he has been beatified, he was moved up near the entrance at a side altar. He is right next to Michelangelo’s Pieta. We had dinner at a place recommended by Jen and Ken as well as our B&B owner, Triano, called Navona Notte. We each ordered a different entrée and shared. The pasta with meat sauce and the linguini with pesto were awesome. The pizza? Just so-so. Deb is counting my gelato scoops, and the ones we had tonight shouldn’t count—not good. We’ll have to get recommendations tomorrow. The wine was great; however, I’m not sure what Deb’s problem was, but she meant to top off the wine, but she poured water into the glasses instead. Talk about me having too much to drink! By the way, we almost got to meet Dr. Vino after all last night. Ann pulled the emergency cord in the bathroom last night. She thought it had something to do with the shower. Dr. Vino never showed up on his bike, though, and we were happy to be drinking vino rather than meeting Vino. Before we left for Rome this morning, we had ample time to grab breakfast, so there was no need for hoarding yesterday. The staff in the dining room wasn't very pleasant. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because we wanted to sit where we could keep an eye on our luggage. The waitress said, "Don't worry. We don't need your luggage." It was either that or she saw us stocking up on our trip for today. Deb gave up on hoisting our ever-heavier luggage in the overhead compartments today. She just lined it up in the hallway outside our compartment, but her spinner suitcase kept rolling up and down the hallway. We didn't do as much talking on this trip and didn't seem to annoy the other ladies in our compartment. We were getting a little tired, and I told Deb she could take a nap and I'd watch for the stop. She said, "Oh, no! I've read too many of your blogs before." She has no confidence in me! Sorry the pictures aren’t the best quality today. My little camera does not do well indoors.

I can't stand it! I just can not stand it! This place is just too beautiful! It's every bit as gorgeous as it was four years ago. I'm so glad we decided to stop here. We had the most wonderful day today. Ann and Deb love this place too. We took a boat ride from Monterosso all the way to the last village. You have to understand that this boat ride is probably the highlight of the Italy portion of our trip for me. The beautiful royal blue water of the Mediterranean Sea has been calling my name since I was here last time. It was questionable that we would be able to take this boat ride because all along rain has been predicted for today. Had we been here yesterday morning, we could not have made the trip as the boats could not go out. I am so, so lucky that we are here today when the weather was perfect. So here we go--we board the boat, I get a pretty good spot (after climbing over people in a variety of places), and I've got my camera ready. I take about four pictures--and my memory card is full! No problem, though, as I had Deb bring me a new one, and I've got it in my day bag. I fish around for it and try to open it. It's wrapped in plastic. I try tearing it, biting it, bending it, screaming at it, and pleading with it. Nothing works. I bend and bend and finally get to a bit of the cardboard. I gnaw on it, pry it, lick it and do more pleading. I frantically look in my day bag for a box cutter. Of course not--why would I have one of those. Nothing! Ah, finally I find my pen. I'm able to poke a little hole in the cardboard and am ecsatic! Oh, no....more plastic inside! Several more minutes of bending, tearing and swearing, and finally I get to the prize. By this time, I've only missed one village, so all is not lost. The rest of the trip was wonderful, and I enjoyed every moment thereafter. We got off the boat and explored the little villages, all so quaint. We had our best lunch in Cinque Terre in Manarolo, pesto lasagna, pesto pasta of some kind and lobster pasta. Pesto is the specialty here. We learned that you never heat pesto, just pour it over hot pasta. Maybe that's way I don't like it at home. We walked on the Via dell Amore and saw some of the prettiest scenery you can imagine. Deb hiked the last two villages, which she said was very challenging, but she loved it. It took her two and a half hours. Afterwards we walked around town, had some gelato, watched the sun set on Cinque Terre and ended with a nice bottle of wine on our balcony. What a perfect day. However, that's not to say there weren't some issues. Deb is having just as much trouble with the plumbing as we have had. Today she took a shower and flooded not only the bathroom, but also our bedroom. We took a little food from from the breakfast buffet because we're leaving very early tomorrow, and we decided to hide it in the safe where we keep our money belts. Now all our money smells like bananas. Ann did not make friends in the store when she was looking through some linen cloths. People in Italy do not like you handling their merchandise. I tried to warn her... We seem to ask too many questions. The man at the boats was getting pretty annoyed with us because we couldn't decide which ticket to buy. The waiters roll their eyes when they have to explain every item on the menu. And look out if you pull out a 20 to buy one scoop of gelato. They look like they've lost their best friend in the world. And Ann had a problem last night. She's perfectly OK now, but her worst fears materialized. She made it through the tour without a problem, and here in Cinque Terre, she fell. She missed seeing a short curb. She says today that she was watching someone get into a cab and was wondering where they were going. She scraped the palms of her hands and her knees, but today she's fine. She was able to walk all day, so don't worry. Today we found out that there is a doctor in this village. He gets around by bike, and his name is Dr. Vino. Not kidding! Ann's just happy we didn't have to call Dr. Vino. And Deb said she's not feeling the love. She wants to know why none of her family or friends are making comments. She wants to know if you people are reading.

We're in Cinque Terre today, and it's just as beautiful as I remembered it. We are so lucky. It was supposed to rain today, and it's just beautiful--cool but dry. We had wine waiting for us in our hotel, and we have a small balcony, but the room does not compare with the one we had in Venice. It is tiny! We keep banging into things, but that's OK. We're among friends. Walking around Cinque Terre brings back so many great memories with Dottie, Kristin and Robin: the Punta Mesco hotel, the laundry (remember how we got some man's clothes mixed in with ours?), watching the girls kayaking on the Mediterranean, the pesto making experience, the place where we took that great picture of the four of us, even the Internet cafe and bar. It's just like I remembered it, and the views are still spectacular. We spent some time just sitting on a bench and watching the tide come in. And of course, there were plenty of carbs--yes, even for Deb. We had the best bruschetta and a pizza with pesto and rocket (a type of lettuce). And two scoops of gelato, although the best gelato place in town was closed already. Getting out of Venice by vaporetto today was a lot easier than getting in. We are so lucky Deb is here to help with the luggage. I'm not sure how we'd manage without her. We took a high speed train to Milan. These high speed trains are awesome. Wish we had them in the States. Very comfy and quick. We picked the seats closest to the door and got all comfy. Turns out we had assigned seats elsewhere. We didn't realized until people were milling around looking at seat numbers. If we were in anyone else's seat, they were polite enough not to kick us out. In Milan, we transferred to an inner city train which isn't as fast, and we had to share a compartment with three Italian women. We didn't stop talking for the four hours we were with them. (Actually it was Deb doing most of the talking.) I got the impression that we were annoying them. The lady in the middle was trying to read her newspaper, and for the whole four hours she was still on the same page! Deb had a whole big bag of Halloween candy in her carryon, and I offered them some, but they refused. The lady with the newspaper finally got up in stood in the hallway for three stops before she got off! Ann passed me a note and said they were talking about us when we got on the train. She thought one of them knew English. Once the newspaper lady got off, I pulled out my Italian phrase book and started throwing words out to the other two ladies. Ann was right, one of them did know a tiny bit of English, and we had a nice conversation. They had been to Venice for a birthday party and were coming back home. She was surprised to find that we were Americans. She thought we were British because Americans are louder. Go figure! We learned all this with only a few words being said--it was more like charades, but it was so much fun! They were very, very nice. And I'm pleased to report that our French is greatly improved. The bad news is we're using it in Italy! Hope you enjoy our photos today.

We've had another wonderful day in Italy--a three scoop gelato day for me. We decided to throw all caution to the wind and get on the vaporetto again today and head for Murano which is where all of that glass in blown. This time Deb and I decided to make an "Ann sandwich." We figured we'd put her between us, so that if she got stranded, at least one of us would be with her. That worked beautifully! We spent most of the day in Murano, watching a glass blowing demonstration for a few minutes and then shopping the rest of the day. (Ann is definitely going to buy a bigger suitcase.) We were in so many stores that we gave them names. The most memorable was the "crabby people" store. They had all these beads in little baskets, but apprently customers weren't supposed to look through them. The man would make comments. He especially didn't appreciate it when Ann looked through the whole basket and found nothing she wanted. Deb found a nice bead that Ann did like, but it was in the middle of a string of beads on a rod. When Deb started to unscrew it, the man ran over and yelled at her. He did take it off for her, but he was mumbling under his breath. Ann picked up an ornament, and she asked the man if it was a Santa glass blower. He said yes, she bought it, and then she later realized it was a Santa blowing a horn. Then Deb backed into glass shelves which had hand blown Christmas ornaments on them. I was afraid to turn around and see the expression on his face. He seemed very happy to see us leave; however, Deb and Ann would not leave well enough alone. After looking through ALL the shops in Murano, they decided they liked the "crabby people's" merchandise better. Once again, they were digging through baskets of pendants. The crabby guy came and asked how many they were planning to buy. Deb said, "Oh, lots!" Total purchase: $5.00. Oh the mumbling and grumbling! That was our cue to leave Murano. I was bound and determined to have gnocchi carbonnara, and we found a restaurant yesterday that I wanted to try. It took us FOREVER to find it again, but we did, thanks to our chief navigator, Deb. It was an uneventful lunch except I had too much wine and Ann got herself locked in the restroom. Luckily, a cute Italian man heard her and helped her get out. Jen, your mother is eating lots of pasta, pizza and gelato. She's even talking about giving up her gym membership. We had a special treat this evening. One of my e-mail buddies that I met through Rick Steves’ web site happens to be here with her friend, staying at this very hotel. We all got together for a walk around Venice, a vaporetto ride on the Grand Canal—and one last gelato. It was such fun! As we were walking, I wanted to absorb as many of the sights and sounds of Venice as I possibly could. I LOVE this place, and David, I will miss it too!

We're in Venice! It went so smoothly for us this morning. Cab arrived at exactly 5:00 AM, airport was very easy to negotiate, plane flight was a breeze. Deb arrived from Chicago just a few minutes after us. We found the bus with no problem. The only little blip was in the tram when Ann lost her balance and almost fell. (I think it was her new suitcase that threw her off balance. She's going to ditch it here in Venice.) Luckily I was there to break her fall, so she's OK. When I say things went smoothly, I really mean to say they went smoothly up to a certain point. The problem was once we got off the bus and went to get on the vaporetto, the water bus, to take us to the island of Venice. Remember the Metro in Paris? Yes, just as bad. Think packed Metro but with all of your luggage on a boat. There was that familiar look on Ann's face again! She asked how much the private water taxis cost, and I thought it would be about $140 for us. She said that she would pay it all! But we were at the point of no return. We were trying to read the number of stops, and we missed our stop before we realized we should have been reading right to left instead of left to right! A nice British tourist tried to help us, but it was too late. We were able to get off at the next stop, but then we had to wait for a vaporetto going in the other direction. After that, though, we were back on course and found the B&B with nary a problem. I'm not sure Ann and Deb are impressed with Venice as much as I am yet, but I LOVE this place! We're staying away from the touristy areas. We're in a HUGE corner room overlooking a canal, we have our windows open with the breeze blowing our curtains, and the sounds of the neighborhood are serenading us. It's music to my ears! Our hotel was built in 1650, so cool. We took a little walk and stopped to eat at a place recommended by the owner of the hotel. It was a little hard to find at first, but that's Venice for you. We had a carafe of wine with our pasta dishes, and when it came time to pay for our meals, we had a little difficulty splitting the check evenly with the change we had. Eventually the owner brought over a calculator! How embarrassing! Oh well, there are lots of other places to eat. Although I sorely miss the pastries of France, we did have our first gelato today. Actually, I had my first, second and third. I couldn’t resist my favorite, nutella. We walked around eating pizza tonight and exploring Venice. It’s pretty small, and everything is within walking distance. We ended the evening with a gondola ride and now we’re ready to crash. No alarm clock tomorrow!

I’m posting twice today. Since my Normandy post was so intense, I thought I’d let it stand on its own. Sorry that it’s so long, but I wish you could have experienced Normandy with us and wanted to give you just a little taste of what it was like for us. So now back to the rest of France. Once we got back to Bayeux, we had dinner at an outdoor restaurant with some of our friends from Saugatuck, Michigan and Chicago. What a coincidence that we all have ties to the same area! We’re making plans to get together when we’re up north. I entertained them with “Dottie stories” from our first trip. They laughed so hard. It was a lot of fun, but on to some misadventures. The other day when we got way to the top of the monastery, I found that my memory card was full! Horror of horrors! You know me and my pictures. I frantically tried to delete earlier pictures (which I had saved on my laptop). It was really quiet when the guide was talking, and I could see people looking around to see where that beep...beep...beep sound was coming from in a monastery with no modern conveniences! And at the American Cemetery yesterday, Ann walked into a glass door! I’m telling you, they keep that place too clean! I'm losing track of days now. I was too tired to pack up my suitcase the other night, so I got up at 5:30 this morning to do it--only to find out that we weren't leaving there until the next day. The packing/repacking is getting confusing. My curling iron was MIA for 24 hours, and today it's my comb. And the plumbing continues to be a problem. Every time we change hotels, we have to relearn how to use everything. I had a tough time figuring out how to get the water on in the shower this morning, but the place we stayed at in Bayeux was really nice. There are three buildings here--the mansion, "granny's house," and the stables. Guess where we were staying. That was a no brainer. Actually, though, the rooms are just as nice in the stables as in the other buildings. HOWEVER, the Internet connection was lousy in our room. That’s why you didn’t get a post yesterday. Last night, though, I had to check my mail. Boomer has diarrhea, and I’ve gotten several frantic messages from John and Robin regarding the little guy’s digestive issues. Can you guess that John is not too happy right about now? About 10:30 PM, I finally took my laptop to the office, where the signal is fine. The office closes at 11:00 though, so I didn’t have much time. I went back to the room and tried to get on again there, but no luck, so I went downstairs and outside the stable door and sat on the ground typing on the computer. Pretty soon some noisy Americans (not our group) came back to the hotel and were locked out, of course. Eventually the owner came out to let them in. He saw me by the stable and came over, waving his arms and speaking French as fast as he could. I have no idea what he was saying. I tried to explain why I was there, and he waved me to the office. I think he was going to let me work up there, but I was too embarrassed and just shut my laptop and ran upstairs. When I got back to the room, I decided to shave my legs. The sink is really, really high. Try as I might, I was not able to fling my leg over the counter to get it in the sink. I grabbed the rickety old chair in the room and stood on it. When Ann saw me, she started yelling: “Are you crazy? What are you doing? Do you want to kill yourself? If you fall and kill yourself, what am I going to do with your body? I don’t even know if John has a passport!” Where’s her sense of adventure? We’re now back to Paris for one last night in France. :( We made our last interesting stop at Giverny to see Monet’s gardens. I got some “postcard” pictures, but not nearly as many as I could have as we spent most of our time in the gift shop. Speaking of which, Ann purchased another suitcase today. Oh, and Ann is not the only adventurous eater on the trip. I ate crawfish—and loved them! It was hard saying good-bye tonight to all the wonderful people we met on the tour! But onward to new adventures in Italy. Deb is on her way. Venice here we come!

One of the reasons I picked this tour is that it included Normandy. For years, every time I saw pictures or stories about the American Cemetery, I thought it would be wonderful to see it. I never thought I could, but now this dream has come true for me! It was an incredible experience visiting the beaches in Normandy and ending the tour at the cemetery. I don't think my eyes were dry all day long. We had a wonderful British guide for the whole day. He has made it his life's mission to study this period of history, and he has talked to hundreds of veterans and told us their stories and showed us their pictures. He loves these men and treats their stories with such reverence. He talked about the war movies we're all familiar with and told us the rest of the stories, those that were incorrect or just not finished in the movies. We made a quick stop first at the German cemetery, where about a third of the dead were teens or seniors who were conscripted at the end of the war--the expendable soldiers. Our next stop was the town of Sainte Mere Eglise. It was made famous by the movie The Longest Day, where Red Buttons played the paratrooper whose chute was caught on the bell tower of the church. But there was more to the story. Another soldier was caught on the other side of the bell tower and still another was on the ground. A German soldier mortally wounded the man on the ground (right where we stood) and turned to shoot the soldiers on the bell tower. Before he died, the soldier on the ground shot the German and saved the lives of his buddies. That wasn't in the movie. Our guide Stuart told us about a man named Bob Murphy whose story was also in the movie. Bob came back to this town several times every year and became like a godfather to the villagers. Everyone knew him. (He was actually an attorney to the Kennedys after the war.) Stuart came to know him quite well, and the last time Stuart saw him, Bob told him he had a terminal illness and wouldn't be back again. He knew Stuart always told his story on the tours, so he said he would be looking down and smiling whenever Stuart gave his tour. In Utah Beach, the boats had to come in at low tide because there were so many obstacles and mines planted there. So many things went wrong that day. The boats landed there by mistake, about a mile from where they were supposed to be. It was lucky because they only lost 190 out of 16,000 (imagine 16,000!) men that day, but within three weeks there were 5,000 casualties. Standing there looking out from the beach, it was hard to wrap my mind around the idea that 826,000 men landed here. Pointe du Hoc was probably the most moving site. This is where 225 Rangers climbed 100 foot cliffs. The area had been shelled by air for six and a half weeks before D-Day. I wasn’t expecting to see all the craters. It really makes war seem real for the first time to see physical evidence like this. Our guide Arnaud told us later that’s why the French were so against the second Iraq war. So much of their country had been devastated by the war, and they were hesitant to wish this on anyone. The job of the Rangers on D-Day was to take out six big German guns on Pointe du Hoc and hold the road until reinforcements came. Of the 225 men, 167 made it up the cliffs through heavy fire. Once they got there, they found telephone poles instead of guns. When the shelling began, the Germans moved the guns. At the end of the movie, one of the men said something about it being all for nothing, but once again, that wasn’t the end of the story. Two soldiers found five of the six guns hidden in an orchard unattended by the Germans who were up on a hill watching the invasion on Omaha Beach. They used fermite (?) bombs to incapacitate the guns. Other Rangers took the road. Mission accomplished. But instead of waiting for three hours as planned for others to come, it was 60 hours under heavy fire before the reinforcements could get there. In the end, only 87 men of the original 225 were alive. On Omaha Beach, it was to be shock and awe by the air force, and the men arriving by boat were just supposed to mop up. Once again, things didn’t go as planned. Because of heavy fog and low clouds, the planes were unable to see anything. They couldn’t risk bombing our men,so they couldn’t drop most of the bombs. 95% of the targets were missed. The men coming by boat were easy targets—85% of them lost their lives that day. Stuart has told this story hundreds of times, but he was still emotional, as were we. We were on American soil when we visited the American Cemetery. France has given this piece of land to the U.S. Nearly10.000 Americans are buried there, about one third of those who died in the Battle of Normandy. There are 42 sets of brothers and a father/son buried there. It’s such a beautiful place! It’s landscaped so beautifully, and there’s not a blade of grass out of place. It’s situated right along the water. You would be proud of it. It was a very, very moving experience. Stuart helped Ann find the grave of her sister-in-law’s uncle, Theodore Zajac. When he saw the date of death, he said there were very few casualties that day and that Theodore may have been wounded a few days early. I can’t imagine having a better guide at this special, special place. This is definitely one of the highlights of my trip to France.

When my eyes opened this morning, they were greeted with the sight of the sun rising on Mont St. Michel. Talk about a room with a view! Later, we went up to the abby. When we finally got to the door of the abby, I thought that wasn't so bad. But it was like a Disney line--as soon as you get in the building, you see more lines. Well, once we got in, there were probably another two hundred stairs. It was worth it, though. We had a great guide, and it was so interesting to hear about how the abby was built. It was started in about 700, and it was built on a peak of the mountain. Crypts were built first to make the top flat. Only 13 monks live there now, and the youngest is only 19 years old. Only 25 residents altogether live on the island. Only two rooms had fireplaces--the room where royalty stayed when they made pilgrimages there and the room where the monks copied manuscripts because they couldn't write if their hands were cold. The abby was so fortified with the walls that it was never invaded in any war. Legend has it that St. Michel always protected it. The statue of St. Michel acts as a lightning rod and still protects the mount today. Very interesting tour. Ann decided to skip the walk up to the top and spend her time shopping. She enjoyed that very much except for when a pigeon made a deposit on her! In the afternoon we went to Bayeux to see the famous tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings in 1066. We really enjoyed seeing it. It's unreal that this was done nearly a thousand years ago! Afterwards we went into the cathedral and saw where the tapestry was originally displayed. Ann has been lighting candles at every church we visit. We had the very best meal by far tonight with our group--well, except for the topping on the salad which was foi gras, gizzards and bacon. We picked all of that stuff off, and the rest was pretty good. The entree was great. It was filet mignon with a wonderful mushroom sauce. FYI, filet mignon is pork. Arnaud said he can't get over how in the states we call beef filet mignon. The dessert was awesome too--raspberry Charlotte. Bathroom update: Today we were happy to find one that had a men's door and a women's door; however, once you got inside, there was no wall between the rooms! In case you missed it, I posted earlier today also as yesterday I had no Internet access. More pictures too.

Yesterday was an interesting day, to say the least. We had a five hour bus ride to Mont St. Michel, but we made a couple of stops on the way. The first time we stopped, everyone headed for the restrooms. When I saw the squat toilet, I couldn't believe it. I thought they were only in Italy. No one seemed to be making a fuss, however, so I didn't complain. Turns out all the toilets were normal except for mine! But that's not the end of it. We next stopped for lunch at an awesome midieval village called Fougeres. The specialty of the area was crepes, so I was in heaven. Before we left, I thought I'd stop in the restaurant restroom. Big mistake. It was a unisex restroom....with no door....one urinal and two stalls....and the urinal was occupied! I stepped back and tried to nonchalantly look at brochures until the guy was gone. One of the stalls had a light but no paper, and the other had paper but no light! Oh, I can't wait to see what we get in Italy. The next stop we made was Cancale to see the oyster farms and have an oyster tasting. Arnaud, our guide, told us there are rules for everything in France, and he had to show us the correct way to eat oysters. There were two different kinds. Ann ate both kinds. She has been very adventurous in her eating! You should see what she had for dinner tonight. She had an appetizer which included the whole shrimp, eyes and all. They are black, beady eyes, and I thought they were fake eyes, but no--they were real. She ate them--not the eyes, just the shrimp. She also ate big snails, baby snails, and baby shrimp as well as oysters. This part of the country, Brittany, is known for omelettes, so that's what I had for an appetizer. I had some poison for my main course. Actually, it's poisson in French, which means fish. It was cooked in parchment. I don't know where the French come up with this food! And the cheese in this part of the country is nasty, made from sheep I think. Not at all like the others we've had. We both said we were anxious to get to Italy and just eat pasta and gelato. We are in Mont St. Michel now. There's a monastery built on a mountain, and the town is built around the monastery. We were a little disappointed because the tide is so low. Usually when the tide comes in, it's really cool because this place becomes an island, but now it's more like a sand dunes. There are tons of flies and mosquitos, and the stairs! Oh my, the stairs! Our room was the highest of anyone's, and we had a terrace. There's a cemetery about two stories down from our room. We figured it was for the people who couldn't quite make it as far as our room! But wow, what a view! After dinner, I went for a walk on the ramparts and got to the top by the abby. Robin, it's like Matera but with five times as many stairs. And Billie Jo, be sure to do some heavy-duty walking in the evenings or you're going to have a hard time keeping up with me when we walk in the park! The bus ride was great. The French countryside is beautiful with its stone houses, some with thatched roofs, with brightly colored roses threllised along the walls. There were white cows, black roosters, sheep, horses, and even windmills. So, so beautiful! I’ll try to write again tonight to catch up with today’s activities.

Today was a fantastic day. BTW, thanks for all your mother's day wishes (and cards!). Our hotel is so cute! We open the windows and the smell of the roses comes in the room. We had the best bread at breakfast (found out it's brioche) with homemade jelly that the owners make. There are about 50 varieties that they make. And we eat goat cheese with honey and walnuts that we shell ourselves and put it on the bread. And the croissants are THE best I've ever eaten. Good thing we're walking off all these carbs. Today was supposed to be a two people day, but it was definitely a four people day before it was over. Even I was tired. We went to another chateau, Chenancou, but it was way better than yesterday. I definitely wouldn't have minded living here except there was not a bathroom in the whole place. And Ann found her House Hunter's International, believe it or not, at the chateau! She liked this chateau a lot. The place she picked was actually the farmhouse, but it really was awesome. Afterwards, we went th Amboise where we chose to take a tour of the house in which Leonardo da Vinci spent his last three years. They had a wonderful display there. They took the plans for all his inventions and built them--a plane, a car, ball bearings, etc. It was fascinating, and the gardens were beautiful. And the best part, Ann says their restroom was 4-Star! This evening we had a wine tasting at the hotel which was so, so fun. The owner of the hotel is a wine expert, and we learned so much. Well, not that much apparently, because he gave us a quiz, and I came in way near the bottom. One thing I learned was that in France they do not irrigate the vineyards.  The grapes "have to find their own water."  That's why it makes such a difference from year to year whether the wine is good or not.  You've heard people say that it was such a good year?  That's why.  We both ate pate. Can you believe it? I think I ate it because I was a little tipsy after five glasses of wine, so I probably would have even eaten the horsemeat! (Ann thinks you don't believe she ate horsemeat. Do you?) Afterwards, I wanted to take a walk on the ramparts, which probably wasn't a good idea after all that wine, but I had company. Four of us ended up going. The ramparts are the stone wall which was built around the whole town for protection, and the views were awesome. Ann wisely chose just to head off for dinner with other members of the group. We joined them later, and it was a really great evening. I had been wanting to try a tart tatin (upside down apple pie), and I had that after dinner. It was great! We came home after 10 o'clock, so we all had to use our keys to get in the back way. Kind of like sneaking in after curfew. We held up OK in spite of all our stair climbing today, but tomorrow is the real test. It's about a million stairs up Mont St. Michel, so we can't even take our suitcases, just a small bag. Alissa, we haven't found any French princes, but we have had an awful lot of cute waiters. Your grandmother wanted me to take a picture of the one tonight, but I couldn't do it without being too obvious. Actually, the guy who came into our hotel room in Paris was even cuter. I mean--he was REALLY cute. He unlocked the door and came in unannounced (your grandmother was in her PJ's already). He didn't speak English very well, and I kept asking him what he was doing there! Finally I figured out he was there to adjust the A/C. He apologized that his English wasn't so good. I thought with looks like that, even his French didn't have to be good! You wouldn't believe how teeny, tiny our shower is. And the light in the bathroom is over the shower. I saw Ann putting her makeup on in the shower this morning. Time to pack for tomorrow. I'll put a few new pictures on tonight, but I don't think I'll drag my laptop up Mont St. Michel tomorrow.

We're now in Chinon, another cute little French town. And our hotel couldn't be more charming. We had a busy day before we got here, though. In the morning, we split up in groups to shop for our picnic lunch in the market. We had to buy the cheese. It was so much fun trying to ask questions in French and make decisions. There's one cheese that's called "horse dung" because it looks like that. It's as hard as a hockey puck and covered in mold, but it is so good! It's my favorite. We bought about six different kinds. Most of the cheese here is goat cheese, very yummy. Afterwards, Ann and I went walking around town. She likes to shop, and I like to take pictures. While I took off to take some shots, she'd pop into a store and look around. Before we left for Chinon, we all met in the park for our lunch. We had meats, cheeses, breads, fruit, and desserts and a few bottles of wine. The weather was perfect, and we both enjoyed it very much. Ann especially loved the sausage and was a little disappointed when it was gone. I was chatting with Cesar, and he told me that it was made of--Jody stop reading right now--horsemeat! Yes, horsemeat. I was debating whether to tell her or not, but I couldn't help myself. I grabbed my camera and told her right then and there. She was surprised to say the least, but she said she still liked it. We were a little sad to leave Bourges, but it was time to leave. On the way we stopped at a chateau in Chambord. It was used as a little hunting retreat in the 1500's. It was a long walk to get there, and there were lots and lots of stairs. Ann did not like it at all. She said it was fake! I pointed out the silk wall coverings, and she said, "fake, fake, fake." She said some Disney people probably made it. Personally, I don't think I'd want to live in a chateau either. There's a spiral staircase that goes up about five flights of stairs in the center. Can you imagine wearing those hot, bulky dresses and going down that spiral staircase every day? And what if you forgot something upstairs? Forget it. And who needs over 400 rooms? Aren't 200 enough? Anyway, it's interesting to see how royalty lived. I'm looking forward to tomorrow's chateau. Ann does like the cathedrals, though, and she was glad to see one in Chinon. We had probably our best meal of the trip tonight at our group dinner. We had a salad with bacon and hot goat cheese (very good), perch wrapped in a pastry and some sort of noodle thing. The dessert was awesome. I'm not sure what it was, but it was great! The French do make good pastries. And it's official--I've learned everybody's name! Our daily problem? Our tub/shower in Bourges had a clothes line that you could string across, so I decided to wash some clothes. In the morning, I took down the clothes. When it was time to take a shower, I forgot that the line was still there. It was exactly at neck height, and I almost decapitated myself. When we were in Paris, we saw the last thing Marie Antoinette saw before she was guillotined, and all I could think of was that the last thing I would see in my life was a shower stall in France!  And for those of you who wondered why she wasn't smiling in all the pictures, she said that she's taking lessons from her new BFF, Mona Lisa. We're having a lot of fun, wish you were all here, and we're enjoying hearing from you. Check out our pictures. This is the best Internet connection so far!

We love Paris, but we also love Bourges! On the way, we stopped at Guedelon, where a midieval castle is being built using tools and techniques during that period. It was very, very enjoyable. Interesting, and the forest setting was beautiful. We had a picnic lunch with the group with eclairs for dessert. Ann made the supreme sacrifice and gave me the chocolate one while she ate the coffee flavored on (not too good--as bad as our ice cream last night). We had a four hour bus ride to Bourges, and the French countryside is beautiful. We stopped to take pictures of the vineyards. I'm afraid I'm having trouble getting the photos on line tonight, but maybe tomorrow. Bourges is just on the edge of Burgundy, in the Berry region, near the Loire River. We had some awesome wine from the region. It's Sancerre, if you can find it on line or anywhere. Walking around Bourges is like walking around a movie set. Most of the buildings were built in the thirteenth century. The cathedral was incredible. The stained glass windows were even more impressive than Sainte-Chappelle. Our guide was wonderful! She had so much knowledge, and explained the stories in the windows. After the tour, quite a few of us went to dinner at an outdoor cafe. The waiters spoke almost no English, and the menus were only in French. We pulled out our French phrase books, but it was difficult to figure out what everything was. The couple with us got their salads a good 20 minutes before our food came. Jane's dinner was not what she ordered, but she didn't want to send it back because it would take too long. And their desserts were not what they ordered. The people at the next table waited about an hour for their food. One of the waiters walked away down the street and didn't reappear until much, much later. But the wine was great! Put a big smile on Ann's face! ;) Afterwards we walked around the town. They have a light show after dark, which was nice. The cathedral is lit up at night and music of the time is played throughout the town. Ann said if Bourges was on Househunters International, she could definitely live here. It's got very few American tourists--it's not even in the Rick Steves book because it's away from everything. A real gem. We picked up some trivia today. Cul de sac literally means butt of the bag, or bottom of the bag. French roosters don't say cock-a-doodle-doo. Instead they say cock-a-rico. We saw lots of cats in Bourges, Robin. Reminds me of Vieste. Problems today? A couple. I didn't hear my alarm this morning at 6:00. I didn't wake up until 6:30. Ann got up early and was in the bathroom when she heard it go off. She was afraid that I died or something (not that she bothered to check!) and was wondering what she would do. And my clothes got wet on the floor again. We had a very tiny elevator in the hotel in Paris. When we were trying to squeeze in (think subway) with our luggage, Ann had to reach over me to push the button. We kept going to the basement and up to the same floor we were on. Finally we realized that we were pushing "1" to go the first floor. In Europe, the first floor is "0". I wasn't able to answer any of my e-mails today, I'm afraid. This Internet connection is screwy here. Maybe tomorrow....

Hi everyone! Subway again today! This time it was worse than yesterday. I wouldn't have believed it was possible, but it was. My purse was actually between two different people than I was. It was a pretty rough ride, so I felt like I got a Shiatsu massage on the way to the Louvre. Ann didn't seem to mind so much this time because she was wedged between a couple of nice looking young Frenchmen. Just kidding...she minded anyway! Ann wasn't too excited about visiting another museum today, so she said she was going to see the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo and sit the rest out. I told her she couldn't do that because we were going to be part of a tour group! And the Louvre is huge. If we lost her, she wouldn't be found for days. As it turned out, we had a great Dutch guide, and Ann really enjoyed the tour. Each day on a Rick Steves tour itinerary, they have a little symbol of how strenuous the walking will be. One little person is easy, two is a little more, and three little people is the most strenuous. Yesterday was a three people day. Today was supposed to be a two people day, but it turned out to be a four people day for us! After the Louvre, we had a free day, so I wanted to go to the Arc de Triomphe. There was no way I was going to get Ann in another subway, so we decided to start walking (about four miles) as far as we could and then take a cab the rest of the way. She got tired about half way down the Champs-Elysees, but I didn't want to stop there because we were just getting to the shops and restaurants. We kept going....and going.....and going. We stopped for lunch at Boulangerie Paul and had a wonderful lunch. We split a tomato, mozzarella and basil sandwich on the most delicious olive roll. Everything is so fresh in Europe. People shop every day for their food and bread. Then we got rhubarb and raspberry tarts. So delicious! The Champs- Elysees reminded me so much of New York--all the traffic, stores and people. Crossing the street is the same as New York too--you watch the locals and cross when they do on a red light. Once we got to the Arc, we found out it was 276 stairs up, and there was no way Ann was going to go. I figured I'd try it. I could always come down if I couldn't make it, but I decided to ask someone if they had a lift. They did, and we went right up. The view was as nice as the view from the Eiffel Tower, and we avoided the long lines they have there. Ann is OK with the buses here, but I really didn't know how to get the bus to our neighborhood from there, so I talked her into taking the Metro. It wasn't rush hour, so it was fine. It's really a very easy system. We've got a lot of nice people on the tour, and Ann is doing great learning their names. I, on the other hand, am not. She gave me a test tonight, but I didn't pass! Oh, well, at least I can find my way around Paris on the Metro. Only a couple of mishaps today. Every day at breakfast, Ann spills coffee on the table. She couldn't quite figure out how to use the coffee pot at the hotel, but today she broke the code so she should be OK tomorrow. Me? Well, our tub only has a half shower door. Unfortunately I put my clothes on the floor next to the tub when I took a shower this morning. That's OK. They'll be dry by the time we leave tomorrow! Thanks for your comments; we enjoy getting them. Jill, to answer your question: We usually try to find American tourists to take our picture (we look at their shoes). We'll write again when we can.

You are SO lucky that I am writing the blog instead of Ann. We took our first subway ride in France this morning. If she had been writing, you might have heard words from her that you did not know were in her vocabulary. This was way worse than the subway in New York. We all crowded into a FULL car. Ann and another guy were the last ones in, and his coat was stuck in the door when it closed. We were so tight that you could pretty much feel the heart beat of the person you were next to. To make matters worse, another guy squeezed in at the next stop. Everyone groaned. We could hardly breathe. Ann was having a stroke. Can't you just picture it? At the next stop, she had to get out to let other people out, and I was so scared that she wouldn't get back in before we took off. It was awful! Then we had to transfer, but the next one wasn't nearly as bad. Then the guide told us we would be responsible for getting ourselves home after the tour. That did not go over very well with Ann, but I figured we'd deal with it when the time came. We had a nice tour of Sainte Chapelle with all the stained glass windows and also Notre Dame. Ann lit a candle there. We all walked to the Latin Quarter for lunch. Before we got to France, we were a little afraid we wouldn't find anything we liked to eat, but we figured we could just eat crepes--and we have. We shared two crepes for lunch--a mushroom cheese and a banana, nut, raspberry sorbet and choclate ice cream one with chocolate sauce on top. Yum! We're happy. After that, we had to get back onto Paris mass transit, this time on the RER, a train. That was OK too. It took us to the Orsay museum. By then Ann was really tired, so she sat and waited while I looked around. I saw loads of art from some of my favorites like Monet, Manet, Van Gogh--and my very favorites Degas and Renoir. They had Whistler's Mother there, and I told Ann she should go see it, but she didn't want to. She said it was probably a fake, and why would they have an American painting there. She's such a skeptic! While I was busy enjoying my art, she had an experience. There was a little snack bar in the museum, and she wanted to get something to drink. You know the soup nazi from Seinfeld? She said there was a table nazi there. He wouldn't let anybody sit down at a table and wait while someone else was getting drinks. He chased a whole family of Japanese away and dragged an American over to a sign which laid down the law. She said if there were old or handicapped people waiting, they could sit in a chair against a wall for a short time. She was a little intimidated and was afraid to sit at her table too long because she was afraid he would kick her out too. On the way home, we took a bus, and I was afraid we were going to have another Queens moment like New York when the two of us were going to take a short subway ride in Manhattan and ended up in Queens. This time we were busy studying the names of our tour members and weren't paying attention to the stops. Once again, a nice Parisian came to our rescue. We went to Rue Cler again and picked up cheese, bread, veggies, fruit and wine for dinner, but not before we had our dessert, of course. We got the macaron cookies that I had heard so much about, but they had sorbet and ice cream filling, so we had to eat them right then and there. I liked the passionfruit and carmel the best. Don't worry, they're pretty small. Ann has a new favorite drink that she tried in Holland. It's Panache, a French beer mixed with 7-Up. I know...it doesn't sound good, but she likes it. I didn't get into too much trouble today, but I came close. I tried plugging my hair dryer into the outlet built into the hotel's hair dryer. It made a grinding noise, and then I read that it was just for shavers. Oops. But it's OK, the lights in the hotel stayed on. Last night I had a little problem also. We were at our first meeting with our group. The tour guide was talking for quite a while, and he seemed really nice. I had had a mole burned off my ear lobe right before I left, and now I had a scab. At the meeting, I scratched my ear, and it loosened the scab. I decided to help it along, and suddenly my hand felt wet. I looked at my hand, and it was covered in blood! Luckily I had a tissue in my purse, but it just wouldn't stop. When it was time for everyone to introduce themselves, I had to do it with my hand on my ear! What's strange about this is that probably 75% of the people in the tour are in the medical profession. The people on the tour seem pretty nice. One couple had gone to London first and got to see Kate's wedding bouquet and wedding flowers that were still in Westminster Abby. Today was probably one of the most active days on the tour, and Ann hung in there! And she's really good at learning the names of the people on the tour. French is easier to understand on the street because many of their words are the same or close to ours--like avenue, boulevard, librairie, etc. so you can figure it out. Dutch is harder in that regard (I wonder if the washer would have been easier to figure out in French!), but with Dutch you have to be careful when you speak it because with some words (like "hrunten" which means vegetables), you run the risk of bringing up phlegm. Tomorrow to the Louvre, and then we're on our own for the rest of the day. Subways here we come!

We're in Paris! We had an early train, and Corrie, Carine and Marieke went with us as far as Rotterdam. It was a good thing the girls were along because they carried our heavy bags up and down stairs. It was rough getting the suitcases up the steps to the train, but you should have seen Ann's face when she found out we had to lift them to the overhead compartment! Luckily we found a nice man to help us, but his eyes did bulge when he lifted mine. The high speed train was really great. It's like flying, but with scenery and without the noise. The only way you could tell you were traveling so fast was when you passed another train. That literally took only one or two seconds. It was a great way to travel. We went from Holland to Paris in a couple of hours. We were a little lost once we got off, but I asked a nice lady for directions, and she turned around and took us all the way through the train station and up to where the cabs were. Our hotel is nice. We have a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower. I had a "Dottie" moment today. (Dottie had us walking round and round the Eiffel Tower hunting for the restaurant she had been to before.) I wanted to get crepes on the street on Rue Cler, the street we loved last time we were in Paris. I had a map and asked directions, but the streets are not laid out in squares, most are diagonal. There were restaurants everywhere, and I was just on the verge of telling Ann, "Here we are"--she wouldn't know the difference. I finally found it, though, and we had our strawberry crepes at an outdoor cafe and people watched. On the way back to the hotel, Ann couldn't resist doing a little shoe shopping, of course. We had dinner with our group, and afterwards we walked to the Eiffel Tower at dusk and watched it light up. Tomorrow we take the subway on our own. The weather is perfect!

We're sad that this is our last day in Holland. It's going so fast! Today we went to see the biggest collection of working windmills in Kinderdijk. It was so interesting to go inside and see how people lived in the windmills. The rooms were so tiny. They had all the original cooking utensils and shoes, etc. Afterwards we went to another old Dutch city called Dordrecht. We had so much fun there, shopping, eating lunch, and learning Dutch words with Corrie and Marieke. We laughed and laughed. Ann and I are pretty sure we could order a meal here with no problem. We can say "please, chicken, egg, fruit, ice cream, chicken legs, pancakes, and thank you very much," but neither of us could get the word for vegetables so I'm afraid we'd have to do without fiber. Ann learned how to say "money please," but I advised her not to say that outside or people would think she was a street walker. Ann is pleased that she has a handle on European money, so she feels pretty confident about going to Paris tomorrow. I myself am not as confident. With all I had to do to plan this trip, the only, only thing Ann had to do was to read the French phrasebook on the plane and learn a little French to get by, and I know for a fact that she did not even open the book! She said not to worry. She was going to make friends with people on the tour who speak French and just stick with them. If that doesn't work, she has made arrangements to have Stanley pick her up at the Eiffel Tower and bring her back to Holland, and I could just be on my own. And what is up with this woman and shopping? Today she bought a windmill! Look for it to arrive in the mail soon. And I kid you not, when we were in Breda on Queen's Day, she was in the Ecco store trying on shoes! Yes, more shoes! The biggest adventure in the last 24 hours, though, happened last night after we got back to our little apartment. Ohmigosh! Corrie had been bugging us to give her our laundry so she could wash it. I just didn't want her to go through the bother, so I told her I would wash out a few things at the apartment later. We got "home" quite late, and I really, really didn't feel like washing things out by hand. Next to our apartment is a washer/dryer combo, so I thought that would be easier. The problem, though, was that I can't read Dutch. So many settings! Witte Was, Bonte Was, Donker Wasgoed, Overhemden... I decided on Koud, which I thought was cold. Ann was going to put a few things in there, but she said she'd only put in things that she didn't like that much. In the end, though, she decided she liked everything and wasn't going to wash anything in there. It was a front loading machine, so I just put in a tiny bit of detergent just to be sure. As soon as it started, lots of lights started blinking. One of them said 1200, and I was afraid that my clothes were going to be baked at 1200 degrees! Another light said Kreukbeveiliging. What on earth could that mean? The washer was behaving really oddly--the clothes sloshed just a little bit and then stopped. Really strange, so I wasn't sure what was going on. I tried opening the door to stop the machine or change the settings, but it's a front loader and it was locked. With a top loader, you could just open the lid to stop it. Not with this machine. I was scared, so I sat there and watched the clothes until it finally went off. Finally, finally I had the clothes in my hand. That should have been the end of it, but noooo. Ann said the machine washed and dried the clothes, so for some strange reason, I thought I could get the dryer to work. What possessed me to think that I don't know. I thought the settings on the right side would be for drying, so I threw the clothes back in. The minute I shut the door and it locked, I knew that was big, big mistake. Water started gushing in, lights were going on and off, and the timer said 60 minutes. By this time it was 12:30 AM! This time the clothes were spinning like crazy. I didn't think there'd be anything left of my shirts after an hour. The bad part was that it was after midnight and the washer was right up against the apartment next door and there was a sign on the door that said, "No washing clothes after 10:00 PM!" I tried everything I could do to change the settings or stop it, but nothing worked. I was afraid someone would come pounding on the door, and Ann said we shouldn't answer the door if they did. The washer just kept going "tha-thump, tha-thump" so loudly. I didn't know what to do! Ann said I should try to unplug it, but I kept thinking about the first time we were in Holland and I blew a fuse in the B&B, so I didn't want to mess with their electricity again. Ann went to sleep, but I sure couldn't. I just crouched in front of the washer and watched it until the water started draining. By this time it was about 1:30 in the morning. I was so relieved when I could open the door. The clothes were soaking wet and dripping on the floor. I didn't care, though; I just wanted it to be over. I was so worried that the neighbors would tattle on us. All's well that ends well, though, and no one said a word the next morning. When I told Corrie about it, I said that teaches me a lesson for not learning more Dutch when I was here before. She said that teaches me a lesson that I should say "yes" when someone offers three times to do my laundry! Tomorrow we're off to Paris and new adventures. We're going by high speed train, and we have to change trains. That should be interesting. Corrie insists on going to go as far as Rotterdam on the train with us because she says she wants to make sure we leave the country. Seriously, though, we've had so much fun with Stanley, Corrie, Carine and Marieke. We're going to miss them and wish we could bring them home with us. I think they're going to miss their crazy American relatives too. :( Check out our pictures.

Ann is loving Holland! Our family is taking really good care of us and making us feel right at home. She's enjoying it so much that she said she might just skip the tour and stay here! (Don't tell her I said so, but that's starting to sound good to me right about now. I took 144 pictures today and she took 26, and she's bragging about what a great job she did. Please! Well, it's her birthday, so I'm going to let it go.) Anyway, yesterday we had a full day. We saw a working wind mill. Although Ann and Corrie climbed the rickety old stairs to the second floor, they were afraid to go way to the top to the fourth floor, which I did. Wimps! It was Queen's Day, a national holiday here in Holand, so we went to the city of Breda to mingle with the locals. Actually, mingle might not be the right word. We wedged ourselves into the crowd. There seemed to be millions of people there, all dressed in orange. Looked a little bit like a Bucs game in the old days. I was so afraid we were going to lose Ann in the crowd, but we didn't. Actually, she was missing for a little while, but we found her--coming out of a "coffee shop." Check out the picture evidence below. She swore that she didn't inhale! We spent the day today in Keukenhof getting our tulip fix. The real reason I took so many pictures and Ann didn't was that she spent most of her time buying things to bring home. She says Danny, Ryan and Alissa are going to love the wooden shoes she bought for them. The problem is she's going to have to ditch some of her clothes to fit them in her suitcase. It's going to be worth it, kids, you're going to love wearing them! Stanley is a great cook. Tonight we had Indonesian food. Yummy. I told Ann she had to learn to eat European style with the fork in the left hand and the knife in the right. She wasn't too excited about it, but she gave it a good try. Tomorrow we thought it would be fun if she and I ate European style and the rest of the family did it our way. We'll see what happens. It may end up in a giant food fight.