A nice day with Scott...

Woke up about 8:30 this morning after staying up until 2 a.m. calling home for an hour or so. It was sure good to hear Steve & Eric's voices! They "complained" that they were starving and had no food, and the dishes were piled up to the kitchen window. Somehow I don't believe a word of it...

I let Scott sleep until 10:30, then got him up. We had cereal and juice then got going. We first drove into Spangdahlem itself as there was a cache nearby. How fitting for me to have "Mom's Cache" (that was the name!) be the closest cache to the base and the first one I found in Germany. Then we were on our way to Vianden, Luxembourg to see the castle there.

We ran into some road construction along the way, so had to take some very interesting roads to get to where we were going. Scott is really enjoying driving me along these roads, loves making me "freak out" as I'm not a great passenger to begin with (ask Steve!) Finally found our way to Vianden, then there was a bit more road construction so we had to take another detour to the castle. But well worth it...an interesting castle. It had been in ruin and was restored about 30 years ago.

After we left the castle, I wanted to look for a nearby geocache. It turned out to be over a half mile away so I was reluctant to take that long of a walk (that would be one way then the same to return, of course) since I've been doing a LOT of walking for the last week plus. Scott seemed to take that as a challenge to get us closer using the roads. I'm using the term "roads" loosely as they were narrow and turned into more of a two-track. We finally decided to stop about .3 of a mile away from the cache as the crow flies, and walked the rest of the way. The view from the cache site was excellent! We decided to try the road that went right past the cache (really more of a path, even Scott said he probably would not have wanted to drive there) and that took us a bit off the way to the Blazer. We ended up having to climb a steep hill but we made it. Lots of work for one Luxembourg cache!

Once back in Vianden, we stopped at a gas station for cold drinks and snacks. Then used Scott's GPS to make our way down to Luxembourg City and the American Memorial Cemetery to visit General Patton's gravesite and the rest of the cemetery. Wish we'd had more time there, we arrived only about a half hour before closing. We ran into a few snags along the way as the GPS gave some wrong turn options. One sent us through this tunnel and back through the same town a second time, adding about 15 minutes to our trip. That wouldn't have been so bad except that there was a construction delay in town and we got to experience it twice!

After the cemetery, we headed back towards the base. We hit another construction delay near Trier, but then got off the autobahn and took some secondary roads. We ended up going right past another cache about five miles south of the base. Scott ended up finding this one! I've been dropping trackables, mostly coins, all day, I'm down to six or seven now. I've been dipping them into caches along the way so even if I have to return with a few at least they've been traveling.

Once back to the base, Scott gave me a daylight tour and had to stop by his shop. His friends came out to meet me so then Scott brought me into the shop and gave me the "grand" (all of about 5 minutes) tour and introduced me to those who hadn't come out to meet me. Then, we went to Pizza Hut, ordered a Hawaiian pizza, and brought it back to his room where we've been hanging out watching movies and (me) on the internet. It's really been relaxing just spending time together, I don't have to be entertained every minute.

Tomorrow we plan to go up the Mosel and visit the Burg Eltz castle, and possibly another castle in Cochem. Looking forward to one more day together, then the morning in Trier on Thursday before I leave to go back to Paris (to catch my plane Friday morning.)

I'm with Scott

Yesterday when I posted, I was using the free wifi in the park behind Notre Dame in Paris. I was able to stay on for about an hour, then decided it was time to head back to the hotel as it was getting cold. Thought I'd just stop at Franprix again for some dinner fixings. Turns out Franprix is closed on Sundays. Oops. Well, too close to the room and too close to dark to wander around much more so had the rest of my crackers, the water I'd bought at the metro, and my last teeny can of diet coke for dinner. I'd had such a late lunch that I wasn't that hungry, anyway. So tired that I fell asleep in my clothes, woke up about an hour later and went to bed.

This morning, I took my time getting dressed and organized to be on the move again. Checked out of Vauvilliers. The madame said something to me in rapid-fire French that I didn't understand but I think it might have had something to do with her four lost reservation days. If I get charged for them, I'm going to dispute it with the credit card company.

Headed for the metro, then to Gare L'Est. Spent quite a bit of time there, discovered the lounge with the electrical outlets (but no free wifi) after a while so did some photo editing. Was finally able to board the TGV for Luxembourg City - a nice trip in first class though I was sitting backwards. Nobody sitting next to me so a quiet ride. In Lux. City, had a bit of trouble figuring out the train station, finally figured it out, got on the train, sat for a while then there was an announcement and everybody got off. I figured I'd better try and figure out what was going on, the train was changed and I just barely got to the right place. This train only went as far as Wasser(something) then I had to transfer again for the train to Trier. I had to stand for part of that trip, then finally got a seat. I found I was having some trouble mentally changing from communicating in French to German, though!

Got into Trier about a half hour later than scheduled. I was sure glad to see Scott! We dropped my luggage off at the Blazer, and walked a bit of Trier, past the Porta Nigra, and to a nice German restaurant where Scott had eaten the first time he'd come to Trier. Pleasantly surprised to find out we had ordered a 2-for-1 deal on our meals! We took off from Trier to Spangdahlem, about a half hour trip. Scott was delighted to finally get to freak his mom out on the autobahn - yep he hit 100 just for mom. Weird being in a car again after a week of planes, trains, buses and metros. We drove around base even though it was dark. I'm with Scott right now, in his dorm room as he couldn't get a key for the friends house off base. He says it should be ok... anyway I'm on his computer, finally getting my e-mail down to a manageable level (sorry if AOL kicked back any e-mails, I reached my 1000 limit as I didn't have much time to check it this last week) and getting my laundry done. He's watching a movie.

It's really great to see my firstborn for the first time in 14 months! Looking forward to the next several days with him.

A Sunday at Versailles

Sunday, March 29
I woke up early so I could get an early start to Versailles and avoid the majority of the crowds. I caught the first bus to the RER station, bought my RER tickets, and rode out to the Versailles station. While on the way, I ate my bread and nutella from yesterday's hotel breakfast, plus my last two cheeses from yesterday as well. The ride took about 45 minutes. Then a 10 minute walk to the Palace. It was everything I expected it would be - especially the Hall of Mirrors! I walked around the gardens - of course there were two caches that I found, then went to the Grand Trianon, which appeared to be closed, so I went on to the Petit Trianon. Yes, Scott, I saw the "Royal Crapper." After all that walking, facing a 30 minute walk back to the Palace, I decided to take the tram. These feet have had quite a workout the last week! Went back to Paris and arrived by about 1:30.

I took the RER down to the next stop and visited the Jardin du Luxembourg. Tried to find a cache there without success. It was a traditional Parisien park, kids sailing boats on the pond, puppet shows, playground, horse rides. Fun! Decided to take the RER back up to the Ile de la Cite and ended up at the Conciergerie and Sainte Chappelle. Conciergerie was interesting, but Sainte Chappelle was beautiful with all the stained glass. Then went to the Paris Archaelogical Crypt, quick visit.

After having a "jambon et fromage" crepe and a mango ice cream at Berthillion, I'm in a park behind Notre Dame using free wifi.

Tomorrow to Germany!

An independent femme en Paris!

Paris – Saturday, March 28, 2009
Today is the day that I became an independent femme en Paris!
We (the sisters and I) woke up early today so we could get breakfast in and any last-minute packing before the shuttle came to pick Debbie & Judy up for the airport. We were a bit overanxious, I think, because we ended up sitting in the lobby for over a half hour. That’s ok though, it gave us one last opportunity to be together. Who knows how long it will be before the three of us get together again? We’re talking about going on some sort of vacation again in another year or two, though.
The shuttle came and the driver carried the luggage out to the van. Debbie slipped trying to get into the van and fell on her behind on the curb. I hope she’s ok, she seemed to be but it was just adding insult to injury as her ankle is quite sore after a week of walking on it while it was sprained.
After they left, I left my luggage with the hotel and took off on the Metro. My destination was Trocadero, just across the Seine from the Tour Eiffel. Why? Caching of course. There are five caches within walking distance of that stop and I intended to find all five of them. The weather was nice, getting warm and sunny while I was in that area. (More on the weather later.)
The first cache was in the Cimitiere de Passy. This was a typical, though small, French cemetery. All of the graves and monuments are above ground. The entire cemetery is surrounded by a high stone wall, it was hard to find the entrance but I managed, after heading the wrong way first. I dropped my MamaBear travel slug (copy) there so that hopefully MamaBear can enjoy Paris after I’m gone!
I headed for the second cache, which was in the Jardin de Trocadero. This was a pleasant surprise as it was a wooded and flowering area, complete with a small waterfall. The bridge railings were concrete but made to look (somewhat) like wood. Unfortunately, I did not find this cache. I kept going back and forth on this one path that brought me close. There was a Frenchwoman there taking pictures of birds in the trees. I think she thought I was strange, but also that she needed to explain what she was doing because she started talking to me – I caught oiseaux (birds) and she had a big fancy camera so I figured she was taking pictures of birds. Didn’t understand much else that she said but she was friendly anyway. I would have had absolutely no idea where to start explaining what –I- was doing (searchez pour le boite plastique?) so gave up the search and moved on.
Cache #3 brought me down to the quay on the right bank of the Seine. An absolutely beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from a different perspective. The cache was on the wall of the quay (if it was there) about 2.10 meters up. I saw a couple of places it might have been (was supposed to be behind a white rock) but they were all too high for me to reach so another DNF (did not find.)
I had more success with cache #4. It was called Une passerelle avec une vue superbe, near a passenger bridge over the Seine. There was a metal slide on the edge of the steps – I think to slide luggage down? – and the cache was in a magnetic container attached to the underside. I had to sit down and pretend to be reading my cache book while I reached underneath and found the cache.
The last cache was a virtual. It involved finding the Liberty flame that is at the Pont de Alma. This is an unofficial memorial to Princess Diana as it marks the opening of the tunnel in which she was killed. I had to take my picture with the GPS and the flame. Not easy, I hoped a friendly tourist would offer to help me but none came by.
I took the metro back up to the Etoile and headed down ave de Wagram one last time. I decided to stop at MacDo’s on the way and upload last night’s blog, plus I logged the caches that I’d done so far in Paris. I left MacDo’s about 1:30, went to the hotel and picked up my luggage, and headed for the metro to take it down to my new hotel. It was not the easiest trip as I’ve accumulated some extra baggage along the way…using my blue Rick Steves bag that Eric gave me for Christmas. I’m going to have to send a package (or even two) of stuff home from Spangdahlem, that’s for sure. Hey Scott, if you read this before I come, can you stop by the base post office and pick up a few flat rate boxes if you don’t already have some? The metro was, of course, the most crowded it’s been and I had to stand up the entire way with my suitcase pack on my back. That 26 pounds of suitcase is probably closer to 36 now with guidebooks and other additions.
I made it to my new stop, Louvre de Rivoli, and walked the rest of the distance to the new hotel. I am now at the Residence Vauvilliers, a beautifully charming one star Parisian “experience.” Not. It is located on a narrow little street that is only one block long. I’m up on the fourth level in room #9. There are only 14 rooms altogether. It is very basic. A bed, which looks a bit cockeyed, a small table with chair, a window that opens out onto the street, and a shower. The toilet is right outside the door for the three rooms on this level. A bit shabby but for two nights it’ll do. The price is right anyway – 45 euros per night. Our previous hotel would have cost me, as a single, something like 160 euros per night. Mrs. Hotel Keeper was very pleased to have “une Americaine” staying with them, guess they don’t get too many. She was much less pleased that I was only staying two nights instead of the six I had reserved for. After much discussion between her and Mr. Hotel Keeper, I was allowed to stay for the two nights I needed, especially after explaining that I changed ONLY because I was now able to go to Germany to see my son in the “militaire” because he was not sent to Iraq after all, and that I had sent an e-mail two weeks ago requesting the change. She told me it would have been much better to call. I thought later about how difficult that would have been with the language barriers.
After dropping off my luggage, I took off again for the metro. My plans were to go up to L’Opera to catch the yellow L’Open tour bus to tour the Montmartre area. I thought I went the right direction once I reached the Opera area, but ended up walking up to the Hard Rock Café where I waited for quite a while but a bus finally came.
The bus ride was COLD and RAINY. And did I remember to grab my umbrella out of the bag before I left? Of course not! The weather, which had been sunny in the morning, had turned colder with intermittent rain. I was determined to ride on top as it wasn’t raining when I got on, and once I was damp I might as well stay there. It never rained really hard but it was enough that my teeth were chattering when I got off about an hour later. We went through Montmartre. I had thought about getting off at Sacre Coeur but it was just not nice weather, decided to stick with the bus. We also went past the Moulin Rouge.
Left the bus and took the metro back to Louvre Rivoli, after stopping in the station for a cup of chocolat chaud to warm me up (hot chocolate.) Walked around my new neighborhood for a bit, trying to decide what would taste good for dinner. Came upon a Franprix (grocery store) so decided to eat in tonight. After all, I’m now on the budget plan (a.k.a. paying my own way.) My “dinner” tonight has been a pineapple and coconut yogurt drink, cheese, and crackers. After I returned to my room, I did notice the sign on the wall that said “don’t eat your meals in room” but since I already had the food in the room, oh well. Maybe I will eat out tomorrow night though. We’ll see.
I’m planning to spend the evening inside as it’s still cold and damp outside. Promised my sisters I wouldn’t walk around Paris alone at night anyway. A good night to catch up on pictures and maybe even watch a movie on the computer. I’m going to go out to Versailles tomorrow so will probably find a place along the way to post this. Au Revoir!
Postscript 9:30 p.m. (local time – at home it’s 4:30 p.m.)
I’ve been working on pictures the last few hours and only have two days of my own pictures finished. It’s gonna be a long haul…. Fairly quiet night life out on the street (my room overlooks the street) except a window across the street has had a red light shining all night, I kid you not. I don’t know why and I probably don’t want to know, do I? I’ve remembered that Europe goes on Daylight Savings Time tomorrow, so I’m going to lose an hour AGAIN only to gain it back when I get home. That means I need to get up earlier to get out to Versailles so better get some sleep.

A last day together in Paris

Paris – Friday, March 27, 2009
Started out this morning with the hotel breakfast again. We’ve decided that we do like nutella! (Judy already knew this. It was new to Debbie & me.) We decided to get our Paris L’Open tour bus passes this morning and ride the bus 2/3 of the way through the tour, then get off at Notre Dame and visit there. The L’Open passes were for two days which doesn’t make any sense for Judy and Debbie as they could only use one day (the voucher was dated today so we couldn’t get them any earlier.) It’s great for me as I can take some of the other tours tomorrow after Debbie & Judy leave. The buses have an open top so you can see without windows, plus headphones so that you can listen to a guided tour of what you’re seeing in your own language. We caught the bus on the Champs Elysees and rode past the Arc de Triomphe; Eiffel Tower; Invalides; Place de la Concorde; Opera Garnier; Louvre; across some of the bridges; and ended up at Notre Dame.
We were able to enter the cathedral, after dodging the scammers, where we started out by lighting a candle for our brother, David. I know that Baptists don’t really light candles in memory of dear ones, but I felt I wanted to do this anyway. I had also lit a candle for David at St. Paul’s in London, not sure if I mentioned that when I wrote about our visit there. There was a service going on, so we were still allowed to walk around but asked to do so quietly. Beautiful stained glass and stone work all around. Hard to think that this was all done without machines. We walked all around the outside of the cathedral after we left. We saw the line for the guided tour but it was pretty long and the museum pass didn’t give “front of the line” privileges so we opted not to go. Besides, lots of steps and walking, Debbie would not have been up to it. We stopped in a small park behind the buttresses where there was a scenic restroom. Smelly but scenic. There were a group of school children playing in the park, interesting to watch their games while waiting. After we’d walked around the entire cathedral, we started back down the side street to finish souvenir purchases. I think all of our loved ones will be receiving something from their respective wife – mother –grandmother. We also stopped at a stand and had crepes again. This time we were able to watch the crepe being made – with a machine called a “crepe-o-matic.” I kid you not. Saw the label on the machine. They were long and rectangular instead of a round circle. Debbie had nutella, I had nutella and banana, and Judy had jambon et fromage (ham and cheese.) Hers was the best, I think if I have another crepe that will be the one to try.
As it was too cold to go to the Jardin de Luxembourg as we had planned, we decided to get back on the green bus again, take it up to where we could transfer to the yellow bus, and tour the Montmartre area. We didn’t pay close attention to the color on the front and ended up on the blue bus instead, which took us on a tour of the Latin quartier and the Marais, including the Bastille monument (the Bastille itself was destroyed in the revolution.) Not quite the plan but we did see some interesting places. We were chased to the bottom level of the bus when it started hailing (small balls but hail nonetheless, it was getting cold.)After we made the full trip back to Notre Dame, we transferred to the green bus and rode it the rest of the way back to the Champs Elysees where we got on in the morning. We saw a bit more of the Latin quartier, mainly by the Seine, and also the Musee d’Orsay, as well as the entire length of the Champs Elysees. We got off at the Avenue Kleber stop off the Etoile. While Debbie and Judy walked over to the Ave de la Grande Armee to find the Harley dealer, I tried to find a geocache that was supposed to be nearby. No luck. I think it was at the bus stop but that bus stop was fenced in for renovations. So no caches today. I plan to try some more tomorrow!
I walked over to the Harley dealer to meet Deb & Judy – stopping at the Honda dealer across the street first to see if they had any Paris-specific Honda t-shirts. Equal time for Gold Wing riders! None to be found, though. I tried! We walked back up to the Arc de Triomphe, and since Debbie needed to buy another suitcase to haul some of her purchases back, we decided to walk down the Champs Elysees to the Monoprix store that we’d seen while coming up the street before. It was a bit farther than we thought but once there, Debbie bought a bag, I bought some miscellaneous stuff as did Judy. We got separated in the store for a while but eventually found each other. Decided to wait for the L’Open bus to ride back up the street but it never came so we finally figured out that a #53 bus would take us the same way.
Got off at the Arc De Triomphe again and walked down to the hotel, dropped off our bags, then headed out for dinner. It was only 7:30, quite a bit earlier than the night before! We ended up at Hippopotamus where Debbie had a Hippo burger, I had a Hippo steak, and Judy had tilapia. Our meals came with an entrée (appetizer) or dessert – Judy had a salad, Debbie had chocolate mousse, and I had Tarte Tatin (an apple tart w/ice cream on the side) that I’d heard much about. Had to say the plats (main courses) were great but my tarte tatin wasn’t as good as I’d heard it was supposed to be. Oh, by the way, it was not hippo meat, just named after the restaurant.
We walked the short distance back to the hotel and all of us had to organize our suitcases. Debbie & Judy for the trip home, and me for the move to my new hotel tomorrow. They are worried about me being in Paris by myself for two days. I’m not. I’m feeling perfectly comfortable here and should be fine. I’m taking the necessary precautions with my possessions and am not going to go out alone after dark. I know how to use the metro and know enough French to communicate, though I’m not perfect in the grammar department. Sorry, Mr. St. Clair, it’s been too many years, those verb conjugations are just not coming back quickly enough.
We have an alarm set for two hours before the shuttle is to come for Debbie and Judy – they are both packed and ready to roll. Judy is optimistically thinking that security is going to let her carry on a jar of nutella. I’m thinking they will say “non.” We’ll see. I plan to leave my luggage at the hotel and do a bit more exploring in the morning, then go to my new hotel, check in, and do some more exploring over in that neighborhood. Hopefully have some wifi time that is not rushed because I’m feeling bad that Debbie & Judy are just sitting there. We did go to MacDo’s this morning because Mom had to call our hotel to see if we made it since we didn’t get to use any wifi in Paris before then.
There are lots and lots and lots of pictures. All I’ve done every evening with them is download them from the memory cards. Mine, Debbie’s, and Judy’s. I plan to take some time either in the evenings in the hotel, on the train to and from Germany, in the airports, and on the plane to go through them all – turning to vertical when needed, cropping and fixing, and deleting duplicates and bad pictures. Once I have things sorted better, I’ll burn DVD’s for each of us.
To give you an idea of quantity – I’ve filled up my 1 GB card and finished filling my 2 GB card tonight. I put in the 4 GB card, hope it lasts the rest of the trip. I really don’t want to erase any of the cards until I know for sure everything has made it home ok. I gave my 2nd 2 GB card to Debbie at the start of the trip as her camera only had a 128 mb card in it.
It’s getting late and tomorrow promises to be a full day so as I listen to my sisters softly snoring near me, I’d better shut down for tonight.

Bienvenue a Paris!

Paris – Thursday March 26, 2009
We took our time getting ready in the morning as we were all pretty tired from our traveling day. Ate a nice breakfast in the hotel breakfast room – croissants, including pain au chocolat, with nutella and a variety of cheeses, jams, and butter; yogurt, fresh fruit (and a glass of orange juice each) and cereal.
First on the “to-do” list was to travel to the Hard Rock Café to pick up our Paris Passes. We’ve all decided that these passes could have easily been sent to our homes so we didn’t spend quite so much time going out of our way to pick them up. We took the Metro and had to transfer between lines. I’m pretty pleased with how much I understand about the metro already – we’re getting around without any problems at all other than Debbie’s walking difficulties. She is ok as long as we take it slow and avoid steps when possible. After we got the passes, we decided to go to the Louvre. Back on the metro, another trip with transfers but this time on our metro passes so no more tickets used from my carnet.
We were able to use the Richelieu entrance as we had the pass – so no waiting in line! I had to take off my jacket and my travel vest to take off my backpack with the computer. Security is a fact of life these days but it’s a pain when you are carrying lots of electronics and metal objects. (more on that later.)
We headed towards the Mona Lisa, but along the way we saw lots of statues and sculptures, and many paintings as well. These were the real thing, not just imitation! The Mona Lisa was a very popular painting – it was about six people deep in front of it, had to be patient and move forward as others left. We also saw the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory, and many other beautiful and priceless pieces of art. We spent about two hours there.
After we left the Louvre, I went searching for the geocache that was supposed to be near the Louvre. I was able to find it, and it was FINALLY my #1500 find! Judy took my picture with the sign I’d made at home to commemorate the occasion.
The weather was somewhat blustery – but we decided to walk down through the Jardin des Tuileries anyway. For the first time, we saw a scam in progress – the gold ring one – multiple times from the same lady. It was pretty funny since we knew what was happening. I don’t think she appreciated us laughing at her, even from a short distance away. We found a certain statue so that I could complete a virtual cache, then came close to The Orangerie Museum where Debbie & Judy waited on a bench while I looked for a cache about 300 ft. away. Found it and it was a glass jar that had a broken hole in it. Still held together and people had still been signing the log, so I went ahead and did the same. When I came back, Debbie had about a dozen pigeons on her lap and arms – she had been feeding them crumbs and she sure became popular!
We went to the Orangerie after that. Security was the tightest it had been – I had to empty all the pockets of my vest, plus check my computer in at security (I couldn’t carry it around the museum. This is the museum that has the large room-sized pictures of water lilies by Monet. There was also quite a few Renoir paintings (my favorite artist) and others that, before now, had only been names in my art appreciation textbook many years ago.
Left the Orangerie and found a crepe stand so we each had one. Ooh La La! C’est delicioux! Walked from there to the metro station and took the metro to the Tour Eiffel (one transfer.)
We’d seen the tower a few times from afar, but this was the first close up look and it was wonderful! The lines weren’t all that long at the time we were there (about 6 p.m. I think) but it started to rain so out came the umbrellas. It was 12 euros to go all the way to the top, which we did. I wasn’t really looking forward to being up so high but I was fine once I was up there. Awesome views of all of Paris. I even used the restroom while at the top so now I can say I (you know) on top of the Eiffel Tower….
Our timing was great because we had the daylight to see the views. As we were coming down, the lights were starting to come on and by the time we were walking away from the tower back towards the metro, the tower was lit completely.
We took the metro back to Charles de Gaulle – Etoile and decided to see the Arc de Triomphe. We had some trouble figuring out where the underground passage was – finally went back through the metro and found the passage at the Champs Elyssee. Later, we saw the signs directing us that way. C’est la vie!
Debbie’s ankle was really beginning to ache again by now so we were able to take the elevator up to the museum. Judy and I walked up the remaining 45 steps to the observation platform at the top. We were treated to the sight of the Eiffel Tower’s light show since it was the top of the hour. Lots of great nighttime views of Paris.
After we left the Arc, it was past 9 p.m. actually headed towards 10, and we still hadn’t eaten dinner. We found a nice little place on Wagram (the street our hotel is on) which we wish we’d have found last night. Judy had an appetizer of onion soup, and I was brave enough to try escargot. They looked pretty green when they arrived, but that was just the sauce. They weren’t too bad. Judy tried one, too, but Debbie said “no thanks.” For dinner, Judy had veal, Debbie had chicken, and I went adventurous and had canard (duck.) We didn’t eat lunch other than the crepes so felt we could splurge just a little bit.
Tomorrow night is our last night together in Paris. Saturday morning, Debbie and Judy head for home and I head for my weekend alone in Paris! I’m already confident that I will do ok. My only concern is that I never heard back from my other hotel about my needing to change my reservation after I had sent them an e-mail. Hope I can get it straightened out, I don’t think it’ll be a problem though. I still haven’t decided exactly what to do for Saturday, guess it’ll depend somewhat on what we do tomorrow. (Plans are for Notre Dame and the Jardin du Luxembourg if the weather permits.) Sunday is definitely Versailles, and Monday afternoon I travel to Germany. Ready for me, Scott?
I’m hoping to finally get some “MacDo” wireless time tomorrow morning so I can get the last entry and this one posted. If you’re reading this, you will know I was successful.

From London to Paris - Day 4

London/Paris - Day 4 (Wednesday, March 25)
Slept in a little bit as we were pretty tired and had no immediate plans for this morning other than packing. Decided to skip the hotel breakfast in favor of a more substantial morning meal. While Debbie and Judy were finishing up their packing, I decided to finally try to find the cache that was supposed to be in the gardens right across from our hotel (150 feet away from our hotel window according to the GPS.) Had no luck. When I logged it as a DNF (did not find) later in the day, I was about the fifth in a row to DNF so it must be gone.
We walked down Praed Street and found a café. While Debbie & Judy ate a full breakfast, I decided to walk to a nearby cache 2/10 of a mile away, as it was one I could leave trackables in and I hadn’t yet been able to leave any trackables, including some that wanted to go to London. I was able to find it, walked back to the café, and had an almond croissant and orange juice while they were finishing their breakfast (I had eaten some yogurt back in the room.)
We walked back to the room, gathered our luggage, and checked out. We took the tube from Paddington Station to St. Pancras for the Eurostar connection. Had to wait a while for the tube as the train was pulling out just as we got to the platform. Glad we missed it though, as the next train was delayed about 15-20 minutes as there was an “incident” further down the tracks. Not sure what happened, but it seems like it probably involved the train we just missed.
Got to St. Pancras and found a trolley (cart) to carry our luggage around in. Had about an hour and a half to spend before we could check in so Judy and I went off to the Kings Cross rail station (across the street) to find the famous “9 ¾” platform that Harry Potter left from. We found it but it was pretty much a non-event for Judy, whose daughter Alex is a H.P. fan. She says it doesn’t look like in the movie. I have no frame of reference there.
Went back to St. Pancras and we were finally able to check in. Went through security and of course my bag was checked again….this time I think it was just because I had such a variety of items in the bag, including my noise-cancelling headphones, souvenirs, and Debbie’s medication bag including her insulin pen. I will definitely have to mail some things back home from Germany (U.S. Mail from the base.)
Once we got to the lounge, found it had free wireless so I spent the waiting time checking e-mail, logging caches, and a quick skype call to mom. Our train was called and we got on and settled in. We were seated backwards which was pretty weird. I didn’t have a window so missed out on much of the scenery. I’ll have that chance when I take the train to Germany, I guess. Hardly even noticed when we went through the Channel tunnel.
As we approached, the intercom piped up with “Bienvenue a Paris!” (welcome to Paris) Can’t believe we’re finally here. Excited about London but even more so about Paris. There were carts available for a 1 euro coin fee. Good thing that I had ONE 1 euro coin that I’d found in a geocache last fall – that came in handy! After loading the luggage up we set off to find metro line 4, which I’d figured out we needed to use. Had to use the restroom – oops, costs 50 euro cents. Have no other coins. Will have to wait. Went to buy tickets in a machine. Sure enough, would only take credit and couldn’t read my American cards. So found a ticket window. Pretty proud of myself – I knew the best thing would be to buy a “carnet” of 10 tickets and was able to ask for them in French! Armed with the tickets, we set off for the platform. Lots of steps which Debbie was having trouble with due to her ankle and toe, but she managed. Had to change trains to the #2 – then rode that to the nearest station to the hotel. Got off and headed to the “sortie” (exit) – came up the stairs and we were on the right street! And what a view awaited us – the Arc de Triomphe. (I’ll say right now that I know many of these French words should have accents but I don’t know how to put them in on the computer.)
We went down the Ave. de Wagram and found our hotel. Very nice – 3 beds, nice bathroom, TV, minibar, and it has an elevator so no walking up and down the stairs like in London! Relaxed a bit then set out to see a tiny bit of Paris and find a place to eat. Deb wanted to eat at a place called Chez Indiana which had American food but we ended up at another place which had a fixed prie menu for 10 euros. Basic food but good. Also saw the Arc de Triomphe lit up, as well as the Tour d’Eiffel lit up a bit farther away.
We are looking forward to our first full day in Paris tomorrow! We have to find the Hard Rock Café where we pick up our Paris passes, including transportation, and we’ll go from there.
The internet in the room costs 8 euros for an hour or 13 euros for a day so I won’t get to post this until tomorrow when we stop at the “MacDo’s” just up the street for the free internet.

Tuesday in London

I posted yesterday's blog earlier this evening at McDonald's with the free wifi. Discovered back in the room that I can get a signal from the hotel across the street. So posting today's now...

We got up, and after breakfast took the tube to Tower Hill station and went to the Tower of London. Crowds weren't too bad when we were first there but it was pretty busy by the time we left. Lots of school kids on field trips and also groups of foreign teenagers. Saw the crown jewels and the towers. Eric would have really enjoyed it, too! I found a cache nearby, too.

After the Tower of London we made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral. Awe-inspiring. But as I told my sisters, it doesn't compare to what Heaven will be like. After St. Paul's, we made the journey by tube to the SW part of London as Debbie wanted to get to the Harley dealer to buy t-shirts. It took a couple of transfers and then a hike of probably a half mile each way but we got it done. Very nice place for a Harley place.

Back to Paddington after stopping to shop at a Sainsbury's market - we found little tiny cans of diet coke and other interesting English items. We also were trying to sort out Debbie's debit card as it had been denied. At McDonald's we contacted our mom by Skype and she used her calling feature (which I don't have on my Skype) to contact Debbie's bank and get it straightened out. It works now so that's good.

Back to the hotel where I did hand laundry, hope it's dry by morning. We do actually have a trouser press in the room so suppose I can try that in the morning to help things along. We're sorting out stuff and getting ready to travel by Eurostar to Paris tomorrow afternoon.

London - Day 2 (Monday)

London – Monday March 23, 2009
Woke up and went down to the hotel breakfast room. Interesting breakfast – toast, digestive biscuits, grapefruit, hard-boiled eggs, cereal, juice milk & coffee. Then asked at the hotel desk what the best way would be to get down to the visitors center to pick up our London passes. They told us the bus number, but we ended up getting on it going the wrong direction and rode to the end of the line, then they made us get off. We had to backtrack a bit to get on the right bus but eventually made it downtown and to the visitors center.
After getting our passes we made our way toward the Changing of the Guard. We ended up at the horse barracks first and saw the mounted horse guards getting into formation. Then we walked down towards the palace. Ended up at several different vantage points, eventually getting over to the palace itself by the time most everything was almost over. We did get some nice pictures even if we didn’t see everything. Also saw the Victoria Monument while there.
We walked up through Green Park to the bus stop, and took a bus (with our passes this time) to Kensington Palace. By this time Debbie’s ankle was bothering her so we took it nice and slow. We toured the palace, including the debutante and Diana dresses exhibits. No pictures were allowed so I bought a guidebook full of pictures, as well as a shot glass for Steve.
We walked back to the place near the palace where the original bus tour that we had a voucher for had been stopped. As we approached the bus, I saw it was about to leave so I waved my arms to get the driver’s attention. He saw me and stopped, and we got on. We rode the blue tour to where we hooked up with the yellow tour which was the circle around most of the major London sites. It was good timing for the ride as it was sprinkling when we got on and soon was raining in earnest. It had stopped by the end of the ride and was even a bit sunny by then. We rode past many sights such as Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus, lots of bridges and monuments.
We stopped for a transfer to a different bus after Piccadilly Circus, ending up staying put for about 15 minutes. After a few minutes I noticed that we were parked next to a McDonald’s so I tried to access the wifi. It worked! Since I had written out my first blog entry, I was able to cut and paste it and quickly get it uploaded with a picture of us at the London Eye. I plan to upload a picture of the three of us at Buckingham Palace with this blog.
Also was able to quickly check e-mail and got an e-mail from the travel agent that arranged the tour, wishing us a good upcoming trip. Emailed back that we were actually already in London and having a great time.
Got off as close to Harrod’s as we could and walked the rest of the way. I found a geocache not too far away. When we got to Harrod’s, we shopped in their department that had Harrod’s branded souvenirs. I bought a few things as did Debbie & Judy. We also saw the Diana and Dodi memorial that Dodi’s father, the owner of the hotel, had displayed following their deaths.
After Harrod’s, we headed for the Underground and rode the tube back up to Paddington. Had to change stations, but we’re getting the hang of things and didn’t have any trouble (other than the walking up and down stairs for Debbie.) Got back to Paddington and I wanted to find a virtual cache in the station which was a statue of Paddington Bear. It was in the main part of the train station, and we’re glad we found it because we also found lots of shops and places to eat.
We ended up eating at a pub, where three older British businessmen tried to pick us up. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. They actually were only being just a bit friendly and had no other intentions, but we moved on. I stuck with traditional British food and had a Lamb & Stilton pie. This was lamb in a wine and stilton cheese sauce, with a pastry topping. Mary had a little lamb for the first time in her life. Tasty.
Did a bit of shopping afterwards, mostly for necessities such as an ankle brace for Deb. She says if her ankle still feel s bad tomorrow she is going to stay back and let us go on her own. Hope that doesn’t have to be the case, we can go slow! Plans are for the Tower of London, followed by the boat ride back up the Thames, a visit to St. Pauls, the Harley dealer (for Deb) and whatever else strikes our fancy for our last full day in London. Hope to get a few more caches in, they are kind of falling by the wayside, especially with Deb not able to walk so well. Still haven’t made it to 1500, and the ones I have found are all too small for dropping any travel bugs.
We are having a wonderful time, though we come back to the hotel room very tired!

London Eye picture - March 22

London Day 1 and 2

Saturday, March 21/Sunday March 22, 2009
Off to London – the flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago was quick and easy. Flight time of 29 minutes. Had to gate check my bag because it wouldn’t fit in the smaller overhead bin. Almost didn’t get it back at the end, everyone else got theirs then the attendant said that was all. I said uh-uh, my bag should still be there. They had left it on the ground and the handlers had started walking away. After that came a six hour layover in O’Hare airport. I spent the first part of the time by walking from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 to find a virtual geocache. That was a nice walk but would have been nicer without the heavy suitcase. Yep, Steve, I kinda wish now that I’d tried to take the wheels. But it was my call. (I have a convertible carry on, looks like a suitcase but has backpack straps.)

After the cache, I watched part of a movie on my netbook until Debbie’s flight came in. We sat for quite a while at a food court and caught up on each other’s life and compared notes on the trip ahead. We had about four hours then got on the 777 bound for London. We both had window seats, Deb one row ahead. A gentleman from Ireland was seated next to me, very nice chap. Plane was nice, it had individual in seat entertainment. We could choose movies, music, or games to play. There was also trip information such as a map and statistics on how many more miles, etc. I watched parts of Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Slumdog Millionaire. We were served dinner not too long after we took off, then breakfast not too long before landing. I am operating on a severe sleep deficit right now, not sure I slept more than 5-10 minutes at a time before that. I’m sure I will sleep good tonight, I was falling asleep on the underground on our way back tonight.
We got to London and needed to meet up with Judy. I had written down she was coming in at Terminal 3 but for some reason thought that it would be terminal 2. See what sleep deprivation does for you! We went all the way to terminal 2, but none of the airlines there were Delta. Oops, look at the paper. Oh, I wrote down 3. So off we go, but stopped along the way and found out she had actually come in at terminal 4 and had come in earlier than us rather than later. So off we go to terminal 4, which involved a trip on the shuttle. She wasn’t there. We talked to the company that was giving us a shuttle ride to the hotel, she hadn’t checked in either in 4 or 3. So we decided to go back to 3, and were thankful to finally catch up with her at last.
Our shuttle driver was an interesting chap, gave us some commentary along the way, and took us through some congested traffic that we weren’t sure we would make it through, especially near the hotel. We settled into the hotel – not the most modern but it’ll do for a few nights anyway. It does have shower and toilet in the room , not all do.
Went toward Paddington Station, stopped at a nearby McDonalds to use the wi-fi to let family know we had arrived safely. Then on to the station, we rode the tube down to Westminster station. We walked out of the station to a glorious sight – Big Ben and Parliament. Awesome. Brought tears to my eyes, I am finally here…We walked across Westminster Bridge and on to the London Eye. We timed it just right as we started up in the daylight and it was sunset and lights were turning on by the time we were done. Tried to do a few caches along the way and found one of them.
Walked back to the station, ended up catching the Circle line the wrong way so we had a longer ride but still got back to Paddington Station. We decided to have dinner at Sawyer Arms, a traditional English restaurant. I had fish and chips and mashed peas, Judy had Scottish salmon, and Deb had a English beef burger. Walked back to the hotel and here we are. A wonderful first day in London (except for

Stopped at security

Ok, I know I said my next post would be from London. But I'm in the Grand Rapids airport, on the free wi-fi, trying to catch up on the last episode of Survivor. Excellent reception but the video is coming in very choppy. So not really worth trying to watch it.

Had to have a secondary search at security. Not of me but of my jacket. I left my swiss card in my jacket pocket (though I'd taken out the knife, I knew that wouldn't go through!) instead of taking it out right away. So they had to go through both my jacket and my travel vest to find it, then took everything out to make sure that there was no knife. The nail file looks like a knife on x ray I guess. I could see Steve standing outside security, looking a bit concerned as to why I was being detained. He probably thought it was my geocoins. So I sent him an e-mail right away.

My flight boards in 45 minutes, and leaves in an hour and 15. We got to the airport 2 hrs early as American Airlines recommended. My carryon did fit into the little box, I was so relieved as the 9" measurement was really really close. But softside baggage does have its advantages.

I know that O'Hare does NOT have free wi-fi so my next post will probably really be from London. I'll be meeting my sister Debbie there and we'll have most of the evening to hang out together before boarding the plane that leaves at 11 p.m. Chicago time (midnight GR time.) There's a virtual geocache at O'Hare, we may try to find that. I hope so, it'll be more fun to do it with her rather than by myself on the way back.

I'm leaving on a jet plane....

The day of departure is finally here! We leave for the airport in about a half hour. My bag is completely packed, Steve adjusted the straps for me while I had it on and it fits quite well. I definitely have some weight on my back, but I'm confident it'll be manageable. The travel vest is fitting everything that I wanted to, and I discovered that I could have a laptop bag in addition to my carryon so have my netbook in a bag with some magazines.

At 11 a.m., I reach for my sports watch on the counter. No display. A dead battery. So off I went to Meijer to get one. Better at home than on the trip, I guess.

Yesterday afternoon, I tried doing some geocaching. I think my geo-sense left for Europe before me as I only found one out of five caches that I tried for.

I was able to sleep from midnight to five a.m., then took some melatonin and was able to go back to sleep until 8 this morning. Better than the last few nights, at least...

Next post from LONDON! : )

Need for sleep...

Note the time. Yep it's accurate. And I've been up for an hour. Can't seem to manage more than 4-5 hours of sleep the last few nights. And that's with taking melatonin. Perhaps it is because of taking the melatonin? Gonna google that. Anyway, I don't feel particularly anxious. It's more a "not being able to shut down the brain" type of wakefulness. I'm really hoping that I sleep well on the plane. Not hopeful though. We'll see. One more (half) day of work then getting some last minute stuff and grocery shopping done, coming home to do the laundry, then hopefully to bed early tonight. Oh, and probably a few caches. I can't do more than six today, I'm at 1492 and want to leave a "spot" in the pre-1500 for the virtual cache that is at O'Hare airport.

I went to the monthly geocaching meet & greet last night. I had posted that I'd be willing to take small travel bugs that wanted to go to Europe. Well, I now have 17 bugs, mostly coins, to take. Lots of metal to take through security - bet the TSA will have fun with that - not. But I got through security with travel bugs last year going to Florida so I don't anticipate any problems. A couple of the bugs have been traveling around the U.S. for quite a while and want to go home to Germany. So I'm happy to oblige.

The moment of truth...

The moment of truth...tonight, I packed my suitcase pretty much for real. Weighed it at 26.5 pounds. That's not going to be all that light on my back. Do-able. But not all that light. I wrote "pretty much" because I will probably look it all over again tomorrow (it's just past midnight as I'm blogging) and possibly lighten that a little. Dimensions-wise I should come out ok. Not a lot of room to spare, but ok. Thank goodness for compression bags and compression straps on my convertable suitcase. It has a handle to carry as a regular bag plus backpack straps. I specifically wanted one like this as the wheels add weight/dimensions to the suitcase and wheels are no good going up/down stairs as in metro stations, etc. By the end of the trip I'm betting I'll either have loved it or hated it.

Relieved to report that my train tickets from Paris to Trier arrived today, via UPS 2nd day air. Everything looks to be in order. Now just three more days of work and the next day, off I go!

First motorcycle ride of the season

This was a nice early spring day, temps in the 50's, might have hit 60 but I'm not sure. Steve saw that the Gold Wing rider group was having a get together at Bob Evans this afternoon and we decided we would go (decided yesterday.) Steve has done more with the group than I have and nothing much in the last year as he was so busy with working in Detroit. When I said that would be good, I didn't think about riding the bike. Sure enough, Steve spent time last night getting it ready for riding. And ride it we did. We wore our heavier riding jackets and dressed warmly. I wasn't at all cold, except perhaps my hands a bit. When I kept them tucked behind Steve's backrest, I was fine. It wasn't that long of a ride, just to M-6 and Kalamazoo Ave., but long enough to enjoy being out in the warmer weather. We were warmly greeted by the group and had a good time eating and talking.

I forgot to blog about Friday afternoon. I had decided to go to the Women's Expo. The parking under DeVos Place was full so I decided to go up the street to the lot that is free on weekends. Found out it costs $3 during the week, payable at an automated machine that takes coins, $1's, and $5's. I had 2 quarters, 2 $1's, and a $10. Just as I was figuring out that this probably wasn't going to work without the proper money, a truck pulls in behind me and blocks me from backing out. I did the only thing I could think of under the circumstances and yelled out my window, "You wouldn't happen to have an extra dollar, would you?" The driver did and gave it to me, then I was able to park. I'll just have to pay it forward someday as I still didn't have the proper $ to pay them back inside the lot.

Women's Expo was ok, not great. Lots of places trying to sign you up to sell you something. The best part for me was trying out a Nintendo DS while getting a massage. Ok, it was a short one, but still bliss. I told them I'd buy a DS if the masseuse came with it. No deal, unfortunately.

I did a few caches after that, on my way towards home. Hard to not do too many as the weather is getting nicer. I still want to have my milestone in Europe. My grand total right now is 1491. I am going to the meet & greet on Thursday night, and there is also a virtual cache at O'Hare Airport so I can't do more than 6 other caches this week. I have a 5 hour layover before we leave for London, and a 6 hour layover coming back from Paris, so I should be able to get the cache sometime when I'm there.

Went to bed late last night and woke up at 5 a.m. and took quite a while to get back to sleep. Too many thoughts racing through my head. That's not good - I know I need to be well rested before I go.

One week to go...

One week to go. Seems like I have been dreaming and planning and anticipating for FOREVER - and a week from now I'll be on my way to London. It's been a year since the possibilities were mentioned, and a good six months since the plans were actually made.

I spent today going through all the notes and papers that I've made over these last few months and organizing them. Most were put into recycling as they were duplicates, but a few were saved. A few were tucked into my Rick Steves books, and I made notes in the books for a few others.

The suitcase is mentally packed, and physically packed with all but my clothes. Some of my clothes are already in the suitcase, too - but I don't want to put them into the compression bags too soon.

What's left? Oh yeah, I need a TRAIN TICKET to Germany! It's a done deal now, hope there are no last minute calls for deployment because it's non refundable. That's why I've waited until now to get it. I tried to get it through the de.bahn site (German Rail) but they only mail the tickets. Nope, that won't work. Too long to get a ticket mailed from Germany. So go to the Rail Europe site (a US site.) For whatever reason, it didn't recognize Paris or Trier as train stops! So I noted the 800 number and waited until this morning to call. I now have a ticket - First class yet! - from Paris L'Est to Trier, where Scott will pick me up on Monday the 30th. I'll go back to Paris on the train Thursday afternoon, the 2nd, then go to my airport hotel and fly out the next morning. Didn't really need the first class ride but one way it was actually cheaper, and the other way it was only $14 more (that's dollars, not euros.) So what the hey. I'm officially "all set" with plans and tickets. Cross your fingers anyway. I know things can come up but I'm good to go as of now. Oh, and the ticket will be UPS'ed to me and should arrive by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest.

My sis Debbie called this morning! She's just as excited as I am, neither of us have been to Europe before. She wanted to know for sure that I was just taking a carryon. I confirmed that, and she is only taking a carryon as well. We talked for a while about the trip and what we want to do and see. BTW, she says Hi Mom! and to let you (mom) know that Paula's laptop isn't working and skype doesn't work on her dialup either.

Tonight I'm going to go to the RATP site (Paris Metro) and use their search engine to figure out some directions to different places. I did do this a little in the past but now have a different hotel to get directions from (the Residence Vauvilliers.) I have a good map which includes metro stops, but am most concerned with getting up to the airport hotel from Gare L'Est, and getting to Gare L'Est from the hotel. Shouldn't be a problem, I just want to check it out though.

I also realized that I will have Monday morning in Paris as well. I don't have to check out of the hotel until noon, and the train to Trier doesn't leave until 2. So that leaves a few more hours to do something I didn't have time for before, or just absorb some more Paris magic. We'll see. I would have liked to have left a little earlier in the day but that's the way the schedule worked out. Also coming back to Paris in late afternoon on Thursday rather than evening, also just the way the schedule worked out. So that means I have a little time before I need to head out to the hotel.

Will be tough to keep my head out of the clouds this coming week, I'm sure.

Da Bears Travel Da World

I've blogged previously about Da Bears of C-16-07. For Christmas in 2007, I released travel bug coins for each of us and started a competition to see whose "slug" (the name of the coin) could travel the farthest by the deadline for completing tickets - March 9, 2009. It has been great watching them travel - Germany, Australia, Iraq were three of the top destinations. (There is an individual code on each slug which is logged in by the geocacher moving the slug on geocaching.com.)

As the competition neared the finish, most of the bugs were overseas, some having been held long-term by other geocachers. I really had no expectations of any of them coming home by the deadline. It really doesn't often happen with trackable geocaching items.

After my babies went home yesterday, I decided to make a quick e-mail check before I left work. I am glad that I did -- first I noticed a log that one of Da Bears had visited one of my local caches. Hmm...that's nice. Fitz finally got over to Tall Pines. Then I noticed other logs from Fitz. Opened one up. He had grabbed MY slug...Mama Bear. How could this be? Last I knew it was in Germany. I'd even posted a note asking for help reuniting me with it when I went to Germany next month. To make a long story short, Fitz made personal contact with who knows how many cachers and managed to have three of the seven sent back to him. He had Mama Bear with him at the Chili Cookoff on Saturday (it turns out they arrived just after I left.) And yep, there were "discovered" logs from other cachers that thought it was great that it was there and I didn't even know it!

Yesterday, he dropped Mama Bear AND Sonia (who had been in Washington state after being brought back from Australia) into my cache Walking Through the Tall Pines. I had dropped all the slugs into that cache in Dec. 07 as it was my closest cache to Vickie's house, where we had the party that year. So in essence, it was their home cache. Having them return, especially the way that they returned, means a great deal to me. I'm still not sure how Fitz pulled it off but I am so thankful that he did.

When I saw the logs, needless to say I headed straight for that cache and retrieved Mama Bear. I also took Sonia so I could reunite slug with owner, with no risk that someone else would take it first.

To add to the story -- he apparently received Vickie's slug in yesterday's mail and dropped it in several area caches today. And Tod made up for lost time -- he had been hanging onto his own slug but apparently had taken it on many business trips for which he had never gotten around to logging the visits.

So out of seven travel slugs - four made it home by the deadline. Incredible.

a busy Saturday

A rainy afternoon but nice to take it easy after yesterday...

Had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get to downtown GR by 6:30 to help set up for our Fundango event. Everyone had a great time! It was nicer for me this year because I was out in the event instead of back in the registration room. I got to see a whole lot more this year than last. (In the link above, watch the video and if you look really quickly at the end you catch a glimpse of me working at the t-shirt table.) http://www.wxmi.com/pages/news_landing_page/?Fundango=1&blockID=233117&feedID=2516 Edited: Ok, I did see myself quickly when the clip played on the news last night, but I don't see myself today watching the clip online. Oh well, if you watch the clip you still see what it was all about.

After leaving Fundango, I stopped for a short visit to the 4th annual geocaching chili cookoff. It was also downtown, just a short distance from Fundango. I would have liked to have stayed longer, but needed to go to an Eagle Court of Honor as well. The CoH went well, glad to see another young man with much accomplished.

We came home (Steve and Eric had come with me to the CoH) and Steve wanted to use the comp tickets to the home show so we went back into town and walked around the home show. Needless to say, I was beat by the time we got home again!

This was definitely NOT a good weekend to lose an hour but it's now Daylight Savings time so I lost an hour anyway. Will look forward to a good night's sleep tonight.

I finally have the rebuilt desktop set up and used it to cancel my Young & Happy hostel reservation. Wanted to be able to print it out to prove I'd cancelled if there's ever any question.

Talked to Scott this afternoon. Sounds like he can get a good deal for me on the train. Driving is still not out of the question but I think he'd like to preserve some of his leave time to use later this summer to come home for a visit. Some friends of his suggested that I pick a spot to see between here and Paris and have Scott pick me up there so we can see another part of the country as well. Might not be a bad idea. I still want to see what Scott finds out at the travel office on base about the train. Plus there's another week until we know for sure that Scott won't be off to Iraq before I get there.

D-oh!

I am mentally smacking myself alongside the head tonight....

I blogged last time about making copies of all the cards and vouchers, etc. Well tonight I started looking closely at them, because I knew the dates were specific and wanted to get more info on all of that. After that closer look, then a bit of web searching, found out that we have PASSES for both London and Paris, not only for transportation but for getting into attractions. No extra cost. Why that fact didn't previously sink in, I'm just not sure. Anyway, now we can plan to go places not based on cost (or lack of) but on what we want to see the most. About the only three places that don't seem to be covered that are on the "to-do" list are the London Eye and Westminster Abbey in London, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

I seem to remember Debbie saying something about some stuff being covered but that didn't sink in either. Though if I hadn't stuck the vouchers inside the fire safe when I first received them, I might have figured this out sooner.

A beautiful afternoon here in West Michigan - temps in the 50's and 60's the last couple of days. I wanted so badly to cache the afternoon away - but had errands to accomplish, plus I'm only 10 caches away from 1500 (counting the two event caches I'll be attending before I leave) so really can't do a lot before I go if I want the milestone to be in Europe. Did do three though - a 3 stage multi and two micros. All in the same area as my errands.

Tomorrow, I have a busy day. Fundango in the morning (a fundraising event for my work) then a stop at the geocaching chili cookoff event, then an Eagle scout court of honor in the later afternoon.

Paperwork, Computers, and AirMiles...

Yesterday morning, I decided it was time that I gathered all that "vital" paperwork that I needed copies for (just in case of theft or loss) and get them taken care of. That involves firing up the old computer, which is the only one with a scanner. This computer was put together by my brother-in-law for me in 2001 and is still running Win 98, just to give you an idea of its age. When the scanner stops working, that'll be time to get a new scanner. Don't need a new computer though. Too many others in the house already.

Speaking of computers, finally got around to taking the eMachines in to the repair shop for the free estimate. They discovered that the hard drive was ok but that was about all that was. The power supply was shot and so was the motherboard, among other things. Bottom line, they are building a new one for about $300, and transferring all our hard drive data to the new one. Should be done today I hope. But I digress....

I scanned all of the vouchers for the trip, including tickets, hotel rooms, tours & transportation. I also scanned my passport, the 2 credit cards (AmEx and Mastercard) and the two ATM cards (from my personal savings account for the trip, and our joint account (which will be only for a backup.) Also my health insurance card, prescriptions, and eyeglass prescription. Perhaps overkill but I'd rather have it and not need it than the other way around.

After all the scanning, I copied the files onto my flash drive in the encrypted section. That way they'll be available if I need them. I also made hard copies of everything to leave at home, and an extra copy of passport and cards which I'm going to put into an envelope, laminate the envelope, and that way if its messed with in my suitcase I'll at least know it.

Speaking of credit cards, I am NOT happy with Citibank. For over 20 years, I've had a CitiMiles account with them which gave me one airline mile for each dollar I charged. Then I could redeem them for airline tickets, one CitiMile per airline mile. So if the round trip is 1500 miles, it took 1500 CitiMiles. 500 mile minimum round trip. No extra charges. So I get my latest CitiBank bill, on March 3, on the second page is buried a notice: As of March 1 it's now a $39 fee for each ticket PLUS the minimum mileage charge is now 2500 miles. Five times what it was before, and no advance notice.

For years my CitiBank has been my primary card for gas, groceries, whatever (paid off every month of course) just so I could accumulate air miles. I've received five tickets over the years: 3 to Virginia Beach for me and the boys in 2001 to see Judy & family; 1 for Eric in 2004 to Baltimore so he could go to a Naval Academy seminar; and 1 for Eric in 2007 to go to San Antonio for Scott's graduation from basic (he couldn't take off as much time as Steve & I who drove.) I currently have just under 3000 miles so guess I can redeem them for one more trip. After that I'm planning to cancel the card, after being a loyal customer since 1986, and I'll make sure CitiBank knows why. I was already planning to take a different card on the trip, and am now going to use that other card here at home as well.

He beat me to it...

Scott called from Germany today. He usually calls every weekend so it was nice to have a good long talk as usual. He told us about his weekend - which was spent in PARIS. I would be jealous but I'll be there myself in less than a month.

He went over with three friends from the base yesterday morning. The trip took about 4 hours. They took extra gas cans filled with gas from the base (at comparable price to U.S.) so they didn't have to buy gas at European rates which are quite a bit higher. They got to Paris and seems like they mostly walked around and saw things - didn't go inside anything but got a good taste of things. Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, the Statue of Liberty (the smaller model, not NYC), and Arc de Triomphe were what he mentioned seeing, I'm sure there were other things as well. He ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and also some crepes - stayed in a 2 star hotel not too far from the Eiffel Tower which didn't sound too great according to Scott but it was just for one night.

Today they went to Versailles! He was quite impressed with it, especially the Hall of Mirrors. Took pictures and posted some on his facebook, including one of the "royal crapper" as he put it. Only a Cooper would take a picture of that! After Versailles they made the drive home and he called us about a half hour later.

He told us about all the little scams that are attempted - the gaudy little Eiffel Tower trinkets, postcards with sob stories about being stranded in Paris, the gold rings, sounds like about all of them except for the bracelets at Sacre Coeur. He said he started holding out his pack of gum and saying "You buy? 1 Euro" after which most of them left him alone. He also said that whenever you heard a police siren they all quickly scattered. Much of this I'd already heard about but good to have confirmation.

We talked some about my trip. Now that he's driven to Paris, he's not so reluctant to drive it again to come get me and bring me back. He may do it both ways (with the gas $ coming out of my pocket, no problem there) or just bring me back Thursday night. If he brings me back to Paris on Thursday night, we could stay in my hotel room and then he could spend the weekend in Paris himself if he wanted to. He's still wanting to go IN to some places, most especially up the Eiffel Tower as the lines were way too long for the limited time he had this weekend. So at this point I won't have to worry about where to stay OR how to get there. I'm happy about that. Now I just have to wait a couple of weeks to know for sure that he WILL be there.

I would like to see the base, of course, and the nearby towns. I'd also like to go to Trier, which is the oldest city in Germany and only about 20 miles away. Has some great Roman ruins. Also there's a castle right along the way in Vianden, Luxembourg which sounds quite interesting. I'll have to come up with a few other possibilities but that's a good start.