the final blog

hey all
paris has been really amazing. we saw le tour de france on sunday. what a day, it was so awesome to see the riders in person and to be in paris to see the third american ever win such an incredible race. monday we took it easy and just enjoyed the city. tonight we are planning to have a nice dinner courtesy of mom and dad, we cant wait.

this trip has been an incredible experience and i am so blessed to have seen such amazing places.

paris part deux

so last night after i blogged we decided to do a night bike tour through paris. it wasn't as informative as we would have liked but we did get to see a beautiful sunset and the effiel tour light up the night.

today we headed to the louve, when they say its big they arent lying. the thing is huge and very easy to get lost in, but we took all day and navigated through it and saw all the major pieces including the mona lisa and venus de milo. i liked mona lisa, she looks like a smart ass. there were other works i enjoyed as well but i took pictures and am not so sure about the names. i ate an incredible strawberry french pastery today that might have been too pretty to eat... if i hadnt spent four euro on it. anyway, after the louve we headed for notre dame. it is absolutely stunning from the outside. it is pretty on the inside, but we have been to vatican city so we are spoiled. but none of the cathedrals we have seen are anything like the outside of notre dame.

tomorrow we are getting up bright and early to go see the tour de france at the champs-elysees. the tour was the reason we began planning this trip so we are quite excited to see it. viva le france! viva le tour!


p.s. im so glad all the girls have been enjoying the blog, we will have to get together when i develop the pictures.

paris

bonjour bonjour from the city of love
we arrived in paris this morning at 7:30 am on a ten hour night train. the bunkbeds in the train were an experience in themselves and i dont think i would be in such a good mood if it wasnt for jadi's dramamine. but we made it and so far paris is beautiful. we havent done too much, just explored the area around where we are staying called montmarte because we cant check into our hostel yet. we have already visited the sacre coeur cathedral which has a ceiling adorned with a gorgeous mosaic of christ. we also visited a salvador dali exhibit which i really enjoyed, and we checked out the moulin rouge. we wanted to maybe see a show but they are 150 euro to check out. tomorrow we are trying to maybe see the last time trial of the tour de france but it is an hour and a half away. we will definately be at the champs-elysees on sunday for the final leg of the race and im pretty excited about it. i gotta run but i will blog again tomorrow.

barcelona part 2

holla from spain,
after some much needed sleep we headed out for some sight seeing in barcelona. we walked down the main street here called las ramblas and saw all the crazy spanish architechture. we also hit la bouqueria(the market)which is interestingly enough really pretty. all the vendors line up their fruits and vegitables one by one by color and type, i've never seen anything like it. we also got to see the port which is also very beautiful. the city of barcelona is very busy and full of action, we have seen several street performers including a break dancing routine and lots of kids playing soccer in the squares. today we are planing to go down to the beach and tomorrow hit the modern art museum and the cathedral. we are hoping to get some local food here soon, will try and have some tapas albrights. hope all is well in the states.

barcelona

just got to barcelona and im exahausted from twelve hours on the train. we are staying with one of jadi´s friends from florida who now lives here. i dont know what we are doing tomorrow but i wanted to let mom know that i got in o.k. in case i can´t find a phone card. goodnight all.

nice

bonjour from nice,
we arrived here in the south of france around noon and hit the beach right away, and by beach i mean smooth pebbles leading to the ocean. there are way more boobies than south beach here but everyone is in great shape (if that makes a difference). the weather was awesome and nice is gorgeous, jadi and i went parasailing this afternoon...what a view! so tomorrow morning we are on the train again at 6 am on our way to barcelona. im a little tired but having a great time, the trip is flying by.

cinque terre

wow. so cinque terre is beautiful. one of my favorite spots so far. it is five tiny costal towns connected by hiking trails on the north west coast of italy. we are staying in the first town and my favorite one called riomaggiore. the towns are cliffside to the ocean and the water is unbelievable. so glad we chose to stop here. the first day we got here we found a spot on the boulders and went for a swim. today we did four of the five hikes between the towns. the hikes were really scenic but very difficult at times. tomorrow we plan to hang out by the water all day and then we leave early the morning of the 16th for nice. if anyone is in italy anytime soon this place is not to be missed. especially for all of us who love the beach (the "beach" is mostly boulders with very little sand). this will be my last post from italy... i'll talk to you from france.