Pidgeons and Pasta

We are calling a close to our trip after 2 busy days getting lost and found in the streets of Venice. What they call street here can be anything from a wide plaza to a 3-4 foot wide walled path between two buildings. The most amazing thing about San Marcos square was the pidgeons. People would feed them and allow them to swarm all over them.

This morning sirens sounded and the hotel owner told us that the square had water. We got there and most of the square had about a foot of water. People had put out gang planks for key paths and they were swarming with people trying to navigate from place to place. We went and had the most expensive cup of coffee in the universe with an amazing tiramisu at the ancient and famous Caffé Florian. This place started in 1720 and served some of the first coffee in Europe to the likes of Lord Byron, Cassonova and Woody Allen.

That's all for now. We should be home very late Saturday. A looooong time for us, a short time for you.

Ciaò

Bob, Shawna and Ian

Heading out of Paris today.

Well, we are closing the Paris chapter of our trip today. After breakfast at the neighborhood bakery, we are picking up our rental car and heading out of the big city. We liked Paris a lot. For such a big city, it was clean and safe.

Yesterday we went to the Louvre to visit Mona, drank French hot chocolate and visited the Saint-Chappel chapel. The Louvre is immense. 8 miles of galleries they say and I believe it. We were there for 4 hours and just scratched the surface. We saw several famous items including Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Very cool. The french hot chocolate is like drinking chocolate syrup. Decadent and delicious.

Today we are heading out to see Versailles and head out into the Loire Valley where the Chateaus are. We will be staying in a little town right next to one of them (Chenonseaux (sp?)).

That's all for now. I'll write more the next time we have internet access. I don't know how common it will be in the country, so it might be in a couple days from Carcassionne.

Au revoir for now.
Bob

We survived Brussels

Yesterday was a day trip to Brussels, Belgium. Today is the Lourve and French Hot Chocolate. More details later. Shawna and Ian are breathing down my neck.

Au revoir

The adventure starts. Day one

After a very long flight and fitfull airplane sleeping, we arrived in Paris. The plane from Seattle was delayed about 30 minutes, so they had already started boarding the Paris flight when we arrived at the gate.

Yesterday (Sunday) was a very full day of sights and sounds. We started by just getting to the hotel. This involved taking a train from the airport to a stop about a mile from our hotel. From there, we walked to the hotel. Along the way we were helped along the way by a couple of friendly locals. Shawna was greeted along the way by the calling card of some unknown french dog. :-) They apparently don't have the same clean-up-after-your-dog laws that we do. #

After settling in, we headed out on the streets and walked up to the Notre Dame. Along the way we saw many sidewalk cafes full of chatting groups of people. The cars are smaller here (no SUV's), but the motorbikes are bigger and more plentiful. The Notre Dame was an amazing sight. Beautiful stained glass and old statues -- presumably tombs of archbishops past. While we were there, they had a pipe organ concert, so we got to hear the organ filling that massive space. I especially love the powerful bass notes.

Shawna and Ian are now ready to head out for day 2, so I'll post more later.

The Flees go to Europe

The bags are about packed and we're heading out tomorrow. If we feel like it, we'll post some pictures and stories as we go.