Allison and Miranda

Greetings from the coastal city of Le Havre. We arrived here a couple of days ago from Amsterdam...I must admit we were happy to leave the cold rainy weather and come into hot sunny weather...We met our new hosts Abi and Alex. They are our age and they are both social workers. Both of them have been wonderful hosts. They took us to Etretat a little seaside town with a killer view off white cliffs lookin down at rock formations to the endless blue sea below. Then we found a nearly desserted rock beach to get some sun. The rock beach is totally different than in America because they are not pebbles but rather large rocks. People just put their towels or chairs on the rocks as if it really were sand...nonetheless my feet were hurting ... read more

Finally we have an opportunity to sit down for a few moments to let everyone know how our trip is going...things have been a bit crazy because we have only been staying in each new location for 2 or 3 days and therefore we spend most of our time siteseeing rather than sitting in a cafe. However, we just arrived in Amsterdam yesterday and already you can smell the weed all around town...we haven't been to the red light district yet here but we did see the red light district in Brussels while we were in Belgium. Belgium was really beautiful and the people were the nicest that we have encountered in Europe. Here's the scoop on our time spent in Belgium. When we arrived in Antwerpen we met our hostess Jef and two other guests ... read more

Wow, Barcelona was so wonderful. Truth be told we haven't had any time to write because we've been having too much fun. To start we decided to nix Costa Brava because everyone told us that Lloret del Mar was a big sleazy resort town that was overcrowded and dirty, the second reason being that there was no easy way to get there that didn't involve changing transportation at least once. Once we got to Barcelona and checked into our hostel we really wanted to stay. The hostel was very cute; bright colors clean and comfortable; and the staff was very friendly. There was a really good mix of people there, no one was there just to drink and party. We fell in with a nice clique of people all interested in experiencing the culture and having ... read more

Sorry that we have not posted in a few days...the truth is we have been having too much fun!!!! However, it was not so much fun trying to get here...we had quite the adventure. Last Saturday morning we sadly checked out of our bed and breakfast and began our three and a half hour drive to Narbonne, France so we could catch a train to Barcelona. Well we did a great job of following the directions and navigating the french auto route (highway) but the drive took almost an hour longer than the directions stated....ahhh.....unfortunately we missed our train. Now normally this would not have been a big deal but there was not another train for 4 hours so we had to sit in the station, which stunk pretty bad, and just drink a lot beer ... read more

This is really a Fairytale land of knights and castles. The scenery is dramatic. The Dordogne River cuts the valley into a deep chasm with the cliffs rising steeply on either side, dotted with Medieval Castle Keeps on their promontories and troglodyte cave dwellings along the rock faces. We hiked up the side of a cliff to go into one of these dwellings. It was fascinating. We visited a Medieval castle that our area is named for, Castelnaud-La-Chapelle, a key player in the hundred years war. The castle had winding stone staircases and teetering tower walls. it is complete with 3 giant catapaults, chainmail and suits of armour, and and armoury full of crossbows, lances, canons and bows. The bed and breakfast is lovely, the owners are American from California. They have some excellent insights into ... read more

Bonjour from Bordeaux!!!!!....Yesterday, Alliey and I journeyed from Tours to Bordeaux!!! We were able to find our hotel alright because it is near the station but it is not in the nicest of areas. Our hotel has an ocean theme and the bathroom in our room has a door like a submarine and has funny decor like an anchor rope hanging on the wall. In the evening we took the tram into the centre ville which is were all the interesting things are...Wow the city is almost completely covered in limestone (which according to the tourist office was cleaned by the government in 1985). We had dinner at a cheap cafe and then just walked around. Then we went and saw a movie called Les Citronniers which was a movie from Israel dubbed in French. Even ... read more

Bonjour from Tours, So much to write, Tonight Tours is holding its Fete du la musique, with all different bands and music being played in different parts of the city. All the bars and restaurants open to the street and everyone wanders from one to the other to hear the different music. It should be fun, its already going strong as I write this in the late afternoon. We have been chateaux hopping in the last few days. It is soooo nice to have the car and the GPS, it really is fun to just get in the little Renault and go. We have seen some lovely little villages, and lots of fields of wildflowers and plenty of farm eqiptment. By far my favorite Chateau was Chenonceau. It intersects the river, the castle litterally built on ... read more