Day 13 - Home Sweet Home

Technically it is Day 14 because we finally arrived home at 1:00 am.  Our wake up call came at 5:45 am in Paris.  We boarded a bus and arrived at the Paris airport.  We said our good byes to Michael, our tour director and made our way to our gate.  This time, the ride home was smooth sailing....or flying.  Our first plane ride was 10 hours long and it brought us over the bottom tip of Greenland...it was all white from our view, but it was still neat to see.  We arrived in Dallas, went through customs without a hitch and boarded or flight to Minneapolis.  Jeff, Josef's dad, was in the baggage claim area waiting for us.  From there, we trekked....and I mean trekked...to the bus.  The security people told Doug if he loaded us in front he would get a fine.  So we had one last hike together before boarding the bus and coming home.

We all had a wonderful time and I'm so glad I had this opportunity.  My kids jumped into my arms this morning, my dog wagged her little tail faster than ever and my husband had a welcome home bouquet of flower sitting on the table.  It was a nice homecoming and it felt really good to be home! Thank you for following us on our journey.

Day 12 Paris - Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower

We are exhausted!  We spent the day wandering the streets of Paris, riding the Metro and visiting Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.  It was a wonderful day!  The temp was the coldest we have had all trip, but it was still in the high 60s with a very gusty wind.

Our first stop of the day was Notre Dame.  We took pictures of the church and even found the statue of Quasi Modo...the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  We also found the heart of France, which is a star in front of Notre Dame where all roads are measured from.

From there we walked to the Louvre.  It is the largest building I have ever been in.  Everyone in France apparently decided to go to the Louvre today because it was crazy busy.  We saw the Mona Lisa, which is a much smaller picture than I had envisioned.  We spent a little time in a park just outside the Louvre.  It was one of our favorite moments.

Our next stop had us standing in line for almost an hour to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower.  At first I wasn't going to go, but then I figured I'd better since I was here and everything.  I'm glad I went, but I don't think I would go again during the day.  If I ever get back here, I will go up at night.  The Tower is beautiful at night.  (All of my pictures don't seem to be loading into my web album.  Hopefully I can get that fixed.)

For dinner tonight we had Kuskus...not sure on the spelling.  It was edible, but not my favorite meal of the trip.  After dinner we hopped on the Metro and went shopping.  Some of us had Paris t-shirts to buy. We then took the Metro back to our hotel to pack as we leave tomorrow for home....wake up is 5:45 am. I'm sure some of you will hear from us once we hit the states.  This adventure is one we will never forget.

View from the top of the tower.

Creative shot while lying in the grass.

Day 11 Paris

There are too many pictures to load tonight from the Palace and the Eiffel Tower.  It's 11:30 pm and we just got back to our hotel from an amazing and exhausting day.  Tomorrow will be our last night in Paris and I will make sure to post the pictures, but as for today...Good Night!!!!!

Day 10 Strasbourg, France and arrival in Paris

The longer I'm on this trip the blurrier the days are getting.  We left Heidleburg this morning and drove to Strasbourg, France.  We walked around and went into the Protestant Church of the city and into the grand Cathedral that is very famous.  The old part of town is really beautiful.  Most of the shops were closed because today is a holiday, but we were able to grab a few souvenirs and some lunch.

In Strasbourg we boarded the bullet train, which brought us to Paris in just over two hours.  By bus, it would have taken us 6 hours.  I didn't really like the train and had to keep my eyes shut the whole way.  It was a smooth ride, unlike our airplane flights, but the trees whiz by at 200 mph in some places and that's just too much for my head to take.

We arrived in Paris to witness the crazy, crazy traffic and eat Flame Cake.  I know what you might be picturing....a cake with fire coming out of the top, but that would be wrong.  It's a lot like pizza.  It has a really thin crust and instead of pizza sauce they use sour cream.  The toppings included meat (ham or bacon) onions, cheese and mushrooms.  They also brought out two desserts, one apple and one chocolate made the same way...minus the sour cream.

We then boarded a bus to our hotel.  Tomorrow, after breakfast, we will be heading into Paris for a tour. We will end the tour at the Palace of Versailles and of course go inside to tour the palace and the gardens.  At dusk, we go on a boat ride of the Seine River.  We decided since we will see Paris from the Eiffel Tower during the day, we wanted to see Paris at night by boat.

Josef and Graydon ordered hamburgers.  They were a little surprised when they got them.  

They both really enjoyed them, so the surprise was worth it!

In front of the Cathedral.

Day 9 Left Switzerland for Heidleburg, Germany

Yes, we are in Germany again.  Our fellow travelers from Rhode Island will fly out of Frankfort, Germany tomorrow and we will travel onto Strassbourg, France to catch the bullet train to Paris.  Paris is our last three days in Europe and then we fly home Thursday.

Today we traveled by bus again and made a few stops along the way.  The days are starting to blur a little and I could be out of order with some of this stuff.  One of our stops was at a rock carving of a dying lion.  He is a memorial for the Swiss Army soldiers who died during service to their country.  We might have actually seen him yesterday....after carefully examining our last few days, the lion was yesterday.

What did we do today?  Now, I remember...we stopped at Reinfall.  This is a very pretty spot on the Rein River.  From there we traveled on to Hiedleburg through the Black Forrest.  We stopped at a little coo coo clock shop where we had lunch and saw a demonstration on who the clocks are made.  Some of us sampled authentic Black Forrest cake.  Once in Hiedleburg, where we visited an old castle ruin, which is home to the largest wine barrel in the world.  This thing is huge!!!  We road a funicular down the mountain or hill, it wasn't as big as Mt. Pilatus, and then we walked around the cobble stone streets of Hiedleburg.  Some of the shops were closed due to Easter...that brings me back to this morning!

When the kids came down for breakfast the Easter Bunny...aka Mrs. Mayer...had little presents for all of us.  There was something from each place we visited.  It was very thoughtful and I think it made the kids really happy.  At supper tonight, the hotel gave each of us a chocolate bunny and an Easter egg.   We are know enjoying our hotel and relaxing.  Tomorrow is another tour of an older city and then we get on the bullet train for Paris.  It is just the 13 of us going to Paris and we are really excited.


Happy Easter to everyone at home from all of us in Germany.

Day 8 in Lucerne

I am just getting back from a walk and an Easter service at the local church.  It was an interesting service, as it was all in German.  The priest did switch to English to welcome us and the entire congregation applauded us.  We then went to the community center for Easter eggs, coffee or tea.  We felt very welcomed.  After the service, Mrs. Mayer, Alyssa and myself walked up the hill to see the lights of the nearby cities over looking Lake Lucerne.  It was very beautiful.

During the day today we did a walking tour of Lucerne.  It is a very expensive city, even more so that Venice.  We did buy Swiss chocolate and a few Swiss army knives, but that was it.  Then the 13 of us went up Mt. Pilatus by was of cable cars.  We started at the bottom of the hill in little four person cars and then went through two checkpoints before getting on the larger 40-person cable car which brought us to the top.  There are two hotels up there and it's quite a view.

We spent an hour on the mountain walking around, watching hikers and other tourists.  We also watched a man cliff jump with a parisail.  I'm not sure if that is an accurate description.  I will be posting those pictures so you can decide what it is.   I'm pretty sure everyone is in love with our little Swiss village and we will miss it once we move on in the morning.

Tomorrow we take off at 8 am for Heidelberg, Germany.  This will be the last night for the school traveling with us from Rhode Island.  They will fly out Monday morning as we head to Strasbourg, Germany.  From there, we will catch a bullet train to Paris and will spend our last three days there.  We are pretty sure we will have free wifi from hear on out so I should be able to keep up with pictures and the blog.

Right now it is 11:30 pm and I have to be up early, so I'm sorry that no pictures will be posted or sent tonight.  I will do them tomorrow.  Everything is still going great and we are all still friends.  I have to say that I am really proud of our students.   Their parents should be proud of the way they are behaving on this trip.

The kids on their balcony at our Swiss village hotel in Emmetten.

The dying lion monument....I think I mentioned it in Day 9.

Getting ready to go up in the 4 person cable car.

All of us on top of Mount Pilatus.

Day 7 Traveling to Switzerland

I started this post off by adding two pictures from yesterday to the Day 6 post.  I have also made web albums for Day 6 and Day 7.  The internet at the Switzerland Hotel is running better.  We ended our stay in Italy by walking into the Adriatic Sea.  The girls found a little store with some awesome deals on dresses and shirts, so of course, we couldn't walk away from that.  The boys scouted out a place for some Gilato and that is how we ended last night.

Today, we were on our way at 9:00 am and again spent a lot of time on the bus.  We made a two hour stop in Verona, which was once a Roman town.  We walked the city center of marble and cobblestone streets.  We saw the famous balcony of Romeo and Juliet and part of the old Roman gates, walls and their old roads, which are about 8 feet below the current streets of Verona.  We had fun looking through the small shops and just walking around in beautiful weather.  

The next part of our journey brought us to Emmetten, Switzerland, which is a small village outside of Lucerne, which is our stop tomorrow.  On our way here we went through the Alps once more and through a tunnel that was 10 miles through the mountain.  I think Tina video taped the whole thing in case you want to know what it was like to drive through a mountain.  Of course our tour guide waited until we came out of the tunnel to tell us a horrible tunnel story.  

Everyone really loves the small hotel we currently in, the Hotel Engel.  There is no elevator, but the view from our windows is extraordinary.  We took a walk tonight down the dark streets to see the city lights over Lake Lucerne. It feels special here.  Switzerland is a very friendly and clean country...at least that's what our tour director told us.  I guess we will find out tomorrow.

So far the kids most favorite moments have been swimming in the Adriatic, the pizza, the scenery and the old buildings.  They loved Venice, but I think they are going to love Switzerland even more before we leave.  Tomorrow we go up Mt. Pilatus in a cable car.  We are hoping for clear weather as that will make the view spectacular.  

All of us walked into the Adriatic Sea during our last night in Italy.

The amphitheater in Verona.

Sitting on Roman ruins with the Roman gate in the background.

Day 6 Venice, Italy

We started the morning off bright and early to catch a boat to Venice.  Once there it was just so amazing to take in the sights of this unique city.  We had a guided tour who brought us through Venice...the Venice where the Venetian live and the Venice where the tourists visit.  We ended the tour at a Morano glass blowing factory with a demonstration.  We were then turned loose on the city.  There are no roads in Venice, just small tunnels and alleys.  The alleys are all labeled like roads.  Then, of course, there are the canals.  We spent time shopping and then we met up to go on our Gondola tour.  It was really interesting to travel the canals like they did when they first built the city.  We also visited a few churches and the Doche Palace.  (I'm no looking up correct spellings of everything tonight.)

I'm not posting any pictures tonight as it takes me a good two hours to get it done and we are going for a walk on the beach and out for gilatto.  (Italian ice cream in case you don't know.)  Tomorrow we leave for Verona and then it's off to Switzerland.  I know it's been hard for the kids to call home, it's been hard for me to call home, but please rest assured the kids are doing great and having a great time.  Some will be able to get on Facebook tonight but Skyping with such slow Internet is not fun.

All of us right off the boat in Venice!

Picture from the Bridge Rialto overlooking the Grand Canal.

Day 5 Katie's Birthday

So...the big news of the day is it's Katie's 18 birthday!  What a special day for her!  We started out the day with the whole bus singing her Happy Birthday.  Then we left Germany and traveled to Austria through the Alps on our way to Italy.  Our first stop was in the Austrian town of the Swarovsky Crystal...can't remember the name and the Internet is sooooo slow again I can't look it up.  We stopped at the factory, museum and store.  We didn't go into the factory, but we did go into the store to purchase a little bling.  It was a lot of fun.  Our second stop was in Innsbruck for lunch and some shopping.  For the most part we were on the bus the entire day with a stop every two hours, which is the law here for the bus and truck drivers.

While in Innsbruck, we had pizza or Nutella and banana crepes, which were yummy.  We also walked around the entire city center in search of a surprise birthday cake.  We found a really little one, which cost more than it should, but it was worth it.  From Innsbruck we traveled into Italy where the landscape slowly changed from the sharp contrast of the Alps to rolling hills of grapes.  Every once and awhile you could spot a castle or fortress.  Some are falling apart and others are open to the public.

We are staying in the town of Lido di Jesolo, which is a boat ride away from Venice.  Venice is to expensive to actually stay there.  Tomorrow at 8:00 am, we will catch a boat to Venice.  Once we arrive we will receive a walking tour by a Venetian guide and the tour will end with a glass blowing demonstration.  At 2:30 we have all decided to take a ride on the famous Gondolas.  We will also have some free time to explore, shop and visit churches and museums.  We arrived about 8:00pm, had dinner and then surprised Katie with balloons, the cake and candles.  She was very pleased and we are so happy that we could do something for her.

The pictures aren't too exciting today as we were on a buss ALL DAY in order to get to Italy, but the scenery was beautiful.

First stop at Wattens, Austria to see Swarovsky

The Alps

Katie's Birthday Party

Day 4 in Germany

Today started off on a sad and somber note....for today was our visit to the Dachau Concentration Camp.  We spent a few hours roaming the place were thousands of innocent people lost their lives for simply being different.  Our guide, Michael, is a German and he described in detail how hard it is to deal with this issue. He also said that they keep it alive in the form of memorials so that it will never happen again.  We visited the crematorium and gas chamber located there.  The gas chamber was never used, which made it a little easier to step inside.  The crematorium, however, was used.  In fact a small one was replaced by the big one we walked through because it couldn't keep up with the dead.  Upon liberation of the Dachau prisoners by the US army, the neighbors of the camp, who tried to pretend this wasn't happening were brought into the camp and shown the stacks of bodies and other evidence so that they would believe.  We left the camp at noon and observed a moments silence in remembrance of that time.

After Dachau, we went back to Munich and walked the main square in search of lunch.  It was fun looking at all of the ethnic food and deciding what to try.  If someone didn't like something or was too full to finish, we just passed it on to Trevor.  I'm pretty sure he is very well fed on this trip.  After lunch, we hopped on the bus for a guided tour that gave us even more history on Munich.  We stopped at a second castle, much smaller than the one we were at yesterday, Schloss Nymplenburg is the name.  We didn't go inside, just took pictures of it and the swans.  From there we went to dinner and then saw the surf spot of Munich, which is actually on a river next to a bridge.

Tomorrow we move on to Venice by way of Austria.  We will actually drive through three countries tomorrow.  Imagine trying to do that in the US?  We will be in Venice for two days and we are unsure if we have Internet access there.  We tried to find out but the hotel we are staying at does not have a website...which is why we question the whole access thing.  So, if you don't hear anything from us for two days it's because we can't get online.

Gate to Dachau.  "Work Brings Freedom"  this is what prisoners saw upon leaving the trains.

Our biker gang on BMW motorcycles.  Even the taxis here are Beamers!

Watching the Swans at Schloss Nymplenburg.

The surf spot.  It's a little blurry...my camera died just after taking this picture. 

Day 3 in Germany

This has been an amazing day!  We traveled outside of Munich to the German Countryside and made two incredible stops.  The first was at a church they call the Church in the Meadows.  It was built for the farmers in the area and it is beautiful.  The second stop was at Neuscwanstein Castle.  It was built by King Ludwig II and is called a fairytale castle.  The one thing I found really interesting is it was never finished.  Ludwig went into debt and upon his death, which is a mystery, his family halted construction.  The family decided to open it up as a tourist attraction in an attempt to pay off its debt, which only happened in 1920...the castle was built the late 1800s.

We also took a quick walking tour, to make up for what we missed the day we flew in.  We go back tomorrow to go shopping.  Tomorrow is also the somber part of our trip as we will be traveling Dachau.  I have a ton of pictures, of course, I will try to get a link up so you can see more than the two or three I post here.

Two differences we have run into here is that you have to pay for wifi.  That has made it difficult for everyone to communicate with people back home.  You also have to pay 50 cents to go to the bathroom.  Even at some restaurants.  Another difference is the gas prices.  I took a picture of one of the signs.  Don't let it fool you, it's 1.44 Euro a liter...so do the math and it's like $12 a gallon.  (That's a guess as I don't do math if I don't have to. :)  The prices of most things are quite higher than back home.

Traffic is horrible here.  There are 2.5 million people in Munich and I'm pretty sure they are all out at the same time.  The bike traffic is rather heavy as well.  Two pictures you will see in my web album is one of the building with the word Voksbad on it.  That is a bath house.  Another picture shows a building with a vinyl covering over the scaffolding that is up restoring the outside.  It was actually the residence for the royalty when they came in to Munich.  Anther picture is of our tour bus.  It's a Mercedes Benz!  Not kidding.   We also got to see the Alps today, so there are pictures of that as well.

Anyway, I hope all is going smoothly back home with our friends and family.  The time difference is hurting our chances to Skype with anyone who works.  For example, it is 9:22 pm here and 2:22 in Prentice.  In order to Skype with my husband, I would have to call at midnight.  It's not going to happen tonight, the walk up to the castle was a beast!

The Internet was really slow and I ran out of time so I didn't get any pictures posted, but here are some from our awesome time.

Inside the Church in the Meadows

The Alps...Yellow Castle is Ludwig's Ancestral Hunting Cabin

Neuscwanstein Castle

The kids and me withe the Alps in the background to the right.

We Made It!

Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, New York, London and Munich...one of these things is not like the other, one of these things doesn't belong....That's right!  PITTSBURGH!  That was not on our agenda.  We flew to New York, but we couldn't land.  They put us in a holding pattern...which reminded me of Die Hard 2...and then we started to run out of fuel, so we had to stop in Pittsburgh for gas.  We finally got to JFK and then missed our plane by 20 minutes because they had stuff parked in front of our plane dock.  After an hour on hold, Mrs. Mayer, decided we need to go back through the main gates to get our new tickets, so we rushed there and with the help of two very nice ladies from America Airlines, we managed to get on an 11:00pm flight to London.

We flew 5 different times 24 hours...I was not liking the landings or the turbulence.  The flight to London was very nice, very little turbulence and they fed us twice.  Michel, our EF tour guide, was right there waiting for us.  He and his driver had us loaded and on our way.  We didn't have much time to do anything as it was 5:30pm local time by then.  We went to dinner and then to our hotel.  Where I now sit typing this and Skyping with my family.  Internet is not free here so I only have one hour to post and talk.

So, this was the beginning of our adventure.  Tomorrow is a tour of Munic and the castle!  I will try to keep you updated as much as possible.

Dallas!

We're in Dallas!  Our flight was just delayed by one hour due to "traffic controllers in New York."  Whatever that means.  Anyway...so far all has gone really good.  We are having a good time and I didn't get sick, which was my number one concern.

Really? I'm up at 2:30 am?

Good morning! Good morning!  Still snowing but not to bad. Time to go listen at doors and make sure the rest of the crew is up. Time for our adventure to begin!!!

The Day is Finally Here!

This is it, our last day before leaving the good old USA!  We leave today at 4:30, after our bus driver gets back from doing his normal route.  It will take us about 4 hours to get to our hotel in Minneapolis.  I sure hope we can all sleep tonight and on the plane tomorrow.  When we land in Munich, it will be about 11:00 a.m. local time...that's 4:00 a.m. our time (if I did my reverse time change right, which I have been known to mess up).  On our agenda first is a walking tour of Munich.  This is to keep us all awake and let us stretch our legs.  I believe our trans-Atlantic flight is seven hours long.  I'm going to take the advice of my middle son, Aidan, and sleep the whole way because that will make the trip "shorter."   

The week leading up to today has been a good one.  If anyone had a question or a problem I couldn't fix, I just said ok...whatever, I'm going to Europe.  We sent our Forensics Team off to State this morning and I road the bus in with my kids.  Connor, the 5 yeard old, said, "Mom, this is kinda weird."  I had one little girl behind me say, "I didn't know teachers could ride the bus, too!"  It was funny.

As far as I know, everyone has remembered their passports, money and luggage.  Now everything just has to stay with us for the next 14 days.  I'm not 100% sure when my next post will be, but hopfully by Sunday night I'll have some pictures and some time to write.  I am really excited about this trip!  It's taken a long time to actually get here and I'm a little nervous about taking care of teenagers.  My oldest is 12!  Plus, these aren't MY teenagers.  I would be less nervous taking my own kids.  Anyway, I'm positive we will be having a great time together and I look forward to getting to know some of them better. 

Technology Check

This is my last 9 nine days to get all of my technology working and in order for the trip.  This Global Connections trip is not just fun and games. It is an educational experience as well.  One of the goals of this trip is to show the students how small the world is when connected with technology.  That is my role on this trip, technology guru.  Problem is, my technology doesn't always like me...or vise versa.   This is an attempt to post a picture and a video from my ipod.  The picture is of my youngest son and probably the only person in my family who will actually miss me.  They all love me, but my husband is a good dad and they might not even know I'm not there.  :(   The video is one of our students who doesn't really want to be recorded, but I appreciate her cooperation. If you are trying to view the video at school, it will probably be blocked.  You know...the whole filter thing...anyway, we are working on that.