More Europe Pics

I have finally gotten around to posting some of our pics from Europe. We took over 1100 pics and I've narrowed it down to about 130... so I thought that was good. Anyway, the link is here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/caviness.michael/Europe

July 18 - Home and lessons learned

Well, we did get home about 7:00pm. Had an absolute blast! We would recommend it to anyone... but we were very glad to be back!

Things we learned and discovered:
You can't get around Europe without a GPS.
It's nice to have a couple friends who do a European crash course.
Nude beaches aren't really attractive.
Dawn gets a little tipsy at 2 glasses of wine.
You really need to be able to get along with someone if you are going to be with them for 18 straight days. Luckily, we didn't have a problem with this.
The Euro kicked our tail!
Driving in Paris sucks!

July 17 - back to Germany

Left Paris and headed back to Germany for our trip back home. Took a very indirect route to Travis' place. Got to talk to him about our experiences and then he took us to the Snitzelhaus. Shnitzel is a fantastic pork dish. The place that Travis took us to served 12" diameter shnitzel! It was huge and it was good! Many thanks to Travis for taking us to our best two meals in Europe! Also, it should be said that I don't think we could have made it around Europe had it not been for Travis' crash course on European driving rules and etiquette. Very helpful!

From Travis' we headed back to Neustadt and stayed with Dawn's friend Viviana. We stayed up too long drinking and talking but we had a good time.

July 16 - More Paris

While most people would say that you can't see all of Paris in a couple days, especially by walking, we gave it our best effort. Today, we set off for the Arc de Triumph... we stopped to eat like three times on the way there. From there, we went back to the Eiffel Tower to try and go to the top. Again, the signs said the top floor were closed so I resigned myself to just go to the second stage. While standing in the huge line, just before we got to the ticket counter, the sign changed and they allowed us to go to the top! You have to walk about half the way up, but then take an elevator from there to the top. Incredible view! It was well worth the stairs.

Came down and was ready to tackle the Louvre... at least, we were going to see whatever we could within the hour and a half before it closed. Ran around inside and finally found the Mona Lisa... it's much smaller than I had pictured in my mind and it is very crowded there. We took a couple pics from a distance and then headed to other parts. We found the ancient artifacts to be the most fascinating. Seeing stuff from the ancient egyptians and pheonicians was pretty cool... I found Hammarrabi's code of ethics and that too me was the coolest. I'm weird like that though. Finished there and went and ate at one of the many cafes near the Louvre. Had the most expensive ham and cheese sandwich ever... they made it sound all fancy but really, that's what it was. Anyway, finished it off with a beer and wine!

videos to aiden and adia

July 15 - Paris

Finally made it to Paris. We're starting to feel like we're winding down our trip (and we miss Adia and Aiden). Anyway, Paris wins the award for the CRAZIEST driving in Europe. Seriously, would any road markings be too much to ask? There are no defined lanes and apparently motorcycles and bikes are allowed to do anything they want. I actually can't wait to run over a biker of some sort!

Paris is a beautiful city though. Today we got to see Notre Dame, Seine River, Pont Neuf (oldest bridge), and the Eiffel Tower. All were absolutely gorgeous! We decided to wait to go up the tower because there weren't letting people go all the way to the top tonight, so we'll do that tomorrow.

July 14 - Normandy

Headed to the beaches of Normandy. Me being the WWII history lover couldn't wait. On the way, we almost ran out of gas because we didn't realize it was a holiday and that most gas stations would be closed! We did a lot of praying from our little car and just barely made it to an open station. Spent most of the day at the American Cemetery that is located above the Omaha beachhead. The cemetery is located at the point where the Americans finally breached the German fortifications. We were there during low tide just like them that day and it was a LOT of open ground. Trying to imagine what kind of hell those guys went through... very touching. The museum that opened last year was great. Had a lot of interactive videos and stuff. Told a lot of personal stories of bravery and sacrifice. It had one section where survivors retold stories from that day... tough stuff to hear. We witnessed a veteran returning to Normandy and were unable to hold our tears back as he began to cry remembering. Walked around the cemetery, over 9000 graves are there. The Americans lost 3600 just on Omaha beach that one day. Just amazing to think about.

Later that day, we went and found our hotel in Arromanches. This small seaside town was the site of Gold beach and later was made into an artificial harbor by sinking some ships and constructing bridges. We walked around the town and had a lovely supper by the seashore. Since it was France's independence day, they had a fireworks show and some live music. Just a wonderful time. We didn't get to celebrate the American independence day but learning about the sacrifices of our forefathers and being able to witness France's independence day was a decent substitute.