Bonjourno from Florence

Hello everyone Amy and I arrived in Florence this morning and after missing our stop on the bus, took an unplanned tour of the countryside. It is very pretty, but we were hot, tired, and hungry...so needless to say, the tour went unappreciated. The biggest problem we have experienced on each leg of the journey so far has been the initial arrival to the new destination. We tend to get lost and wander for awhile before finding the hotel. After that, it usually works out well and we become acquanted with the local geography.

So let's talk about the trip here. Our flight went well, not exactly the most comfortable, but at least we arrived! We got to Frankfurt where we encountered a host of people that had been delayed due to a huge storm. Our flight was a little delayed, but there were literally tons of people trying to get onto our flight as theirs were cancelled. They were crowding the poor flight attendants working that little booth and it looked very unpleasant...so though our flight was long, it was not as bad as it could have been. We arrived in Paris alive and well...thought I hadn't slept in over 24 hours.

Our hotel in Paris was quaint (spelling?) It had tons of charm and was in the main part of the tourist district...although the night we arrived was the first night of summer and so apparently on that night, it is an annual concert night. Every district of Paris had different perfomers on street corners, etc. We lucked out and had total rockers in front of our hotel. Okay, not so lucky...but we packed ear plugs. The next day we started the first of many "walking" days. We walked for hours all over the place. We hit the Eiffel Tower (very cool to see in person and some part of me wanted to spit off of it), we then walked across the Ponte Nuff to the Trocodero and over to the Arch de Triomphe. It started to rain, but we still snapped off some nice photos (which we will try to post on the next post). We then took the metro over to a beautiful church called the Sacre Couer. It has unbelievable architecture and beautiful motifs...but so does everything over here. After awhile, you stop being so impressed with the churches and other gothic buildings...you're just like "oh look, another midevil building...how interesting." Anyway, we hiked through some colorful neighborhoods after that, will tell more in person. That pretty much sums up that day. The next day we went to the Louvre for hours. I was stoked to see the Mona Lisa since I teach the Renaissance and so I stood and admired it...but then outside heard a stupid tour guide tell his group that it was not the real one which was being restored in New York...what a cotton headed ninny muggin for sharing such information...consequently we are now telling everyone we see about this. We like to see the looks of pain and disappointment on their faces...misery loves company. After the Louvre, we went into Notre Dame and that evening returned for my favorite part which was a hike up into the bell towers and uppermost levels of Notre Dame. Quasi Moto wasn't there, but it was an amazing evening view of Paris. The next day we took a river cruise on the Seinne river and walked down Champs Elysse street. We then boarded our sleeper train that evening just in time to start heading down to Venice. We will tell you all about that in a post tomorrow. Hope all is well with everyone and if you need to get into touch with us immediately, apparently you can text message us and it only cost 35 cents for us to check. Take care until tomorrow. David and Amy