Last Day

Hard to believe it is just about over. All that anticipation and planning and it is time to go home. We spent the morning in Madame Tusssud's wax museum where Alex met Einstein. Then we boarded an open topped double-decker bus for a tour around London. We saw many interesting things including Harrods and the Globe theater, pictured here as well as driving through Nottinghill, Kennsington and many other posh neighborhoods. One interesting thing we saw was the Holy Trinity Brompton Church it is directly across the street from Harrods, we wanted to stop in and say
hello to Nicky Gumbel. We are back in the hotel for a short rest and then we are heading out for a nice dinner for Bob's Birthday. We wanted to see a few other things in London like the British Museum and inside St Paul's and the Westminster Abbey but we ran out of time and steam. We have seen enough museums and churches this trip. We will leave those for our next trip through London. We are all starting to get a bit crabby and it is getting time to be home. We have done fairly well until now so I would say we have done very well. Our flight is early tomorrow morning and we should be home around supper.

London

Yesterday we took the train from Paris to London. Our last stop on our trip. We got into London in the afternoon and rested alittle then we took in a show. We went out to dinner followed by Wicked. It was truly amazing. One of the best shows I have ever seen. Really great story line too. This morning we did a tour that showed us the parliment building and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral and of course Buckingham Palace. We took a ride on the London Eye the largest ferris wheel in the world. Great veiws. Very smooth ride. We also saw the Millenium Bridge that was used in the begining of the latest Harry Potter Cassie was very excited about that. We got back to the hotel just as it started to pour buckets. So we came to the room to regroup and as I look out now the sun is shinning YEAH and we are heading off to the tower of London.

Paris day 2

This morning we drove the 12 miles to the Palace of Versailles. It was orginally a hunting lodge but is quite the place now. Very fancy. The gardens are amazing and I could have spent hours just wandering the pathways and mazes. This afternoon Bob and I are going to go to the museum that houses that more modern art like Monet. These are not in the Louvre. Tonight we have an included meal in a French restaraunt. Then tomarrow it is off to London. The picture of the Eiffel tower also has the statue of liberty in it. This is an exact copy of the one in NY only 7 times smaller this one would fit in the head of ours in NY. It is facing her sister across the Atlantic.

Paris

The TGV train from Switzerland to Paris was quiet, smooth and fast. The french country side was beautiful. When we got to Paris we went all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The veiw was wonderful. That evening we took a boat tour on the river Seine and then drove around looking at the lights. The Eiffel tower was beautiful as you can see. Today we took a city tour and saw Notre Dame and then spent the afternoon in the Louvre. The kids headed back to the hotel and Bob and I walked along the Champs Elysees. The picture in the upper left shows the arch at the Louvre museam and if you look carefully down the middle it lines up perfectly with the oblisque, then the Arch d'Triomphe and finally a very modern arch where the new city begins. This very straight road is the Champs Elysees. It starts out as parks and then turns into a very busy street with all the "right shops and restaraunts". Last night we had snails and french onion soup at one of the bistros.

Matterhorn

Yesterday we left Venice behind and drove through the beautiful lakes region of northern italy. We stopped for lunch by the shores of this beautiful lake. Then we crossed into Switzerland and drove around winding twisting roads with veiws that were out of this world. We arrived in the town of tasch where we took the train up into the alps to the town of Zermatt. We stayed in this quaint little town of chalets and had a traditional swiss fondue supper. This morning we took the cog railway up to over 10,000 feet to an amazing veiw of the matterhorn. It was in the 30's but with no real wind so it wasn't bad. Alex does a great job with souveniers he waits till he sees something that means alot and then buys so he is now a proud owner of a special swiss watch and a swiss army knife called the "supertinker". Isn't that just perfect for him. Soon we will be heading off to the train to return to our bus. We spend tonight in Lake Geneva in Luseanne and tomorrow thanks to the" tgv" we will be in Paris.

Venice

Yesterday we spent the day in Florence. We saw the statue of David- what a fine specimen of a man! The country side as we were driving was magnificent. This is a field of sunflowers.
We saw lots of old castles on hills and could really imagine what it was like in the lord of the manor days with the lords and the serfs. This morning we left Florence and drove through the Appian mountains to Venice. What a facinating city Venice is. With it's 180 islands connected with 450 bridges. We got to take a gondola ride through the canals. We had an opportunity to make our own venician masks. It was really fun. Now we just have to fiqure out how to get them home. After a yummy pasta dinner at a nice restaraunt we are now back in our hotel. Tomorrow we board the bus and after a lunch in Stresa the northern lakes region we arrive at the base of the Matterhorn for a night in Zermatt. The next night we spend in Lucerne before boarding the high speed train to Paris.

Rome day 3

How to tell you about all the wonderful things we saw today? I have no idea. We went to the Vatican museaum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. I filled 4 pages of a notebook with things I don't want to forget. The beauty just can't be captured by photo. We also went to the ruins of the Roman Forum and to the Colleseum. To think that all the marble in St. Peters came from the collesum is amazing. I keep using the word amazing in this blog I just can't thnk of a better word except maybe spectacular. Tonight
Bob and I are going to go out and wander around to see the Parthenon and look around at night. Tomorrow we are boarding the bus to Florence where we will see the statue of David and stay the night. The day after is Venice and hopefully I will get a chance to blog along the way.