Christ, what a day. We hit the road from Trier at 8 this morning, German time, for a 548-kilometer (er, 340-mile) burn across southern Germany to Mittenwald, this tiny hamlet tucked away in the Bavarian Alps. A couple of hours in, as we navigated the tunnels and narrow river valleys of the upper Black Forest, a blip of German radio news broke through: ". . . blah blah scheigen fergen swaller explosion blerghof London derkaderk doppel-decker bus auf blahgerzwei Russell Square dergblekkerdanke . . ." Holy crap. We flipped around, and over the next half hour o [View Full Entry]

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We are in Reims but we have some more Paris stuff, along with gratuitous twists on the phrase "not ready for prime time," to lay on you. Enjoy. [View Full Entry]

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...and we're in Reims, France, about an hour northeast of Paris. It is a gorgeous little town of about 200,000, and it feels good to be here after three nights in Paris. Not that Paris wasn't a great scene, but Reims offers much of the same French urban experience -- charming sidewalk cafes, good wine, quaint shutter-and-wrought-iron-laden buildings, grandiose Gothic architecture, shopping -- with more hospitality and lower prices and without throngs of obnoxious tourists like ourselves. Plus, this is where they make Champagne with a capitol C. You don't save any money on it by comin [View Full Entry]

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Dan here. Well, it has been a long time since we updated, but here's what's happening: We are in Paris, having been here about 24 hours. Thursday was a day of trains and airports. Our in-flight entertainment during the 55-minute flight from London to Paris was a physical altercation between an irate Frenchman and a mercurial Brazilian over legroom, right across the aisle from us. Literally, an exchange of punches, broken up very late by the flight stewards, and followed by a fair amount of multilingual cursing. The woman next to me, a French lady, turned and said apologetically, "Wel [View Full Entry]

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Ashley here. I think I will leave the eloquent posts up to Dan and just give an update on our weekend. We spent Saturday resting in our hotel/flat. We were both tired after Friday's tour of town. On Saturday evening we went out to dinner at a Greek restaurant near the Tate Modern Art Museum. The Tate Modern has late hours on Saturdays, so we slipped in hoping to miss the crowds. It was fairly crowded, but not as bad as the National Gallery the day before. It is a fun museum and they had a good display of modern art. [View Full Entry]

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Dan here. Friday was an eventful day for London and for us, bookended by events that together marked it as a day of transition: a set of major morning transport snarls both caused and exacerbated by the heat, and, as the sun retreated for the evening, a cool, thundery rainstorm. Weather I don't know if we've harped on this point much, but it has been HOT in London this past week. Highs have been in the low but humid 90's in a city not really equipped for it: air-conditioning is rare and the "cold" drinks are generally lukewarm from overworked refrigerators. [View Full Entry]

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Hello All, Ashley here. Well, I spent all of Thursday in the British Museum. It just fascinates me and is only a few blocks from Dan's classes, close enough that we can meet for lunch. I've taken many pictures, and I will post a few here. The Museum is the perfect place to hide from the hot weather. It has continued to be around 30 C which is about 86 F. London is just not designed for this type of weather, and there has been a smog alert issued for the first time in three years. We are supposed to have [View Full Entry]

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Dan here. I just wanted to show you a couple pictures of the Willesden Green flat we were forced out of by sickening mold. In terms of conveying the feel of the place, this will just have to do until they perfect Smell-o-Vision. (And on the second day, Ashley said: "From what I've seen so far, London seems a lot like Eugene." 'Twas then I knew we had to move.) [View Full Entry]

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Hello All, we were very lucky on Wednesday, Dan was given the day off from school, as well as a free ticket to one of the London double decker bus tours. We spent the entire day doing very touristy things, and it was very fun. We discovered that our new flat is very close to Hyde Park, and we caught the bus there. We then rode through town and hoped off at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was beautiful. We spent a good amount of time wandering around, and we made our way up to the whispering room in the dome, so [View Full Entry]

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