http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/EuroAtkinsons/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from EuroAtkinsons en-us Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:54:19 +0000 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:54:19 +0000 Christ what a day. We hit the road from Trier at 8 this morning German time for a 548kilometer er 340mile 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 expl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Mittenwald/blog-14329.html Anybody who tries to tell you that the French have mastered the Art of Living has not spent enough time in French bathrooms. Nothing throws this fact into sharper relief than crossing the border into Germany. Even in Trier an 1800yearold wine town just over the line the contrast is startling.With a nod to the tired old white people dance like this black people dance like that standup c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Rhineland-Palatinate/Trier/blog-14112.html 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. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-12631.html ...and we're in Reims France about an hour northeast of Paris. It is a gorgeous little town of about 200000 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 shutterandwroughtironladen buildings grandiose Gothic architecture shopping wi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Champagne-Ardenne/Reims/blog-12616.html Dan here.Well it has been a long time since we updated but here's what's happeningWe are in Paris having been here about 24 hours. Thursday was a day of trains and airports. Our inflight entertainment during the 55minute 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 ex http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-12407.html 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 hotelflat. 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 fairl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-12037.html 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.WeatherI 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-11856.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-11767.html 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 SmelloVision.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. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Willesden/blog-11705.html 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 beauti http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-11698.html Well the mold turned out to be worse than we had originally thought and we've chosen to move. We now are staying at a hotel near Paddington Station which thankfully is mold free. We decided that the mold in Willesden Green was making us feel ill and was leaving a negative impact on our trip. Dan was very resourceful and found us a new home. We will be here for the next nine days. Our new http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-11650.html Well we made it The flight over was very long and the seats on the plane were fairly small making it hard to get comfortable or sleep. We had a little delay in Frankfurt which seemed at the time to be a lot longer than it actually was. Once in London we sailed easily through customs and hopped in a cab and made our way to Willesden Green. The area seems nice and has a very diverse populat http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/Willesden/blog-11551.html Things have been pretty chaotic here in Eugene for the past week. It finally seems as though we are getting things organized. We leave on Saturday June 18th. Dan has been busily updating some of our plans. He has been changing some of our reservations in France and Germany. Here is our itinerary as it stands right nowSat 618 LondonThurs 630 ParisSun 73 ReimsTues 75 TrierThurs 77 Munich http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/blog-10995.html This is our test entry. We are still at home and about two weeks from our journey. I think we will post our itinerary here in the next few days and then after we leave on June 18th we will start updating regularly. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Oregon/blog-10236.html