Well, on Tuesday we jumped on our cruise ship in Southampton, England. The travel to the port was actually very smooth...it is REALLY nice not to have to carry our huge packs around for awhile. This is the first time we have been able to actually unpack our bags for almost a month.
As we stood in line to get on, we realized that once again we were going to be about 55 years younger than the average aged cruiser on our ship. Really funny, but we dont mind it at all. Everyone is really nice to us and we do our best to connect with other and hear about their kids and grandkids and great grandkids...
We got some sleep the first night and got up early to explore Paris! Jan has been dreaming of coming to this city for years, so we were both very excited. We were able to catch a train on take about a 2 hour ride to the city center. We connected with a few other folks from the cruise and split a cab to the Eiffel Tower. It was amazing standing right next to such a famous icon of Europe. After a bunch of pictures, we walked down the Champs Elysees towards the Louvre. The walk was beautiful...tons of shops and incredible gardens, fountains and ponds. We stops at a local stand and got a crepe with Nutella and each had an espresso. It was pretty crazy sitting on a bench eating authentic crepes looking over all the famous sites.
At the end of the Champs Elysees we ended up at the richest art museum in the world, the Louvre. It is home to the Mona Lisa and the Water Lillies by Monet. It was WAY bigger than we expected. The picture doesnt to it justice...apparently it was oringally a royal palace.
We then wandered down to Notre Dame. It is their famous Gothic looking cathedral. Pretty cool. All that to say, it was ALOT to take in in only one day! Although we were really grateful to be able to see everything.
With the navigational genious of Jan we took some underground metro rides back to the train station and caught our train back to the port.
We have been able to have a couple days to catch up on journals and labeling all of our pictures, along with some rest, reading and laundry. Jan even won a game of bingo and won some art!! She is pretty giddy...
We are in Lisbon, Portugal today and head to Gibralter tomorrow.
We love you all and look forward to talking soon!! jon and jan
3 comments:
I love reading your trip log/blog. The picures are great and I look at them over and over to think and pray for you both. We are in paint preps the last week, and tomorrow 7 college students come to paint with us. Wild day... Grandpa is better.
Love, MOM and DAD Reehm
I just printed out your blog in color and the pictures turned out well. I'm sending it to Grandpa. He asks alot about how the "gypsies" are doing! He'll enjoy reading it.Love, MOM
janny!!!! i love it. can't wait to see you.
hugs to you !!!
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