Today we drove from La Spezia to Florence. We quickly found a very nice OLD hotel. The rooms were HUGE and had 20ft ceilings. It was a great spring day but a little windy. Many of the museums are closed on Mondays so there were slightly less tourist on the streets, which was nice. We walked around for a few hours. You can’t go far in Florence without bumping into some building or sculpture of major historical significance. It really is a beautiful city. In the afternoon, Lisa went window shopping, Mo went a run and did laundry and Al just [View Full Entry]

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Woke up to an amazing spring day in Canne. Drove to Monte Carlo Had a picnic lunch overlooking the Monico skyline Drove south to Italy Got detoured off the highway to a one lane mountainous road to La Spezia Italy. Lisa was driving and she did a great job thru the windy one lane road! Honesty, couple of times as we meet cars coming from opposite direction, I had to get out and direct traffic to avid collision. [View Full Entry]

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Drove from Belleville to San Tropez then Canne France. These towns are just beautiful. A great place to spend lots of money and have a wonderful romantic vacation [View Full Entry]

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No bag. British Airways tells us they have located the bag but can’t say where it is (that is just amazing)!. We pack up the car and prepare to head out of town. One last call to BA and then a French hot dog for lunch with Homayun. Al finally decided to F’ the bags. Finally, we head south. Stop at a French rest stop where there are no toilets, just a hole and couple of metal handles. Lisa has pull out a gymnastic move to use the bathroom. Mo and Al are too traumatized to properly explain how things [View Full Entry]

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No bag. Drive back to Paris in hopes of finding Al’s bag there. Shopping for Al just incase no bag ever arrives. Indian food for dinner and a long walk back to the Hotel on a great spring night in Paris. [View Full Entry]

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No bag. British Airways up to 25,000 bags lost. Finally we are all together and in the car. Off to Normandy, France. The Memorial and grave site was very powerful. To stand there and try to understand and experience of these solders was pretty intense. So many have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of Northern Europe. We walked around the grounds took lots of photos and visited the bunkers on the hill side. Al suggests we go to Mont-St. Michel, which is just about 80 Km or so from Caen. There is a castle in the middle of water there. [View Full Entry]

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No bag, no car. Al goes to Le Havre to try and get the car out of port. Mo and Lisa visit Canterbury Cathedral followed by Leeds Castle. Then a Skype call to Homayun in Paris to see if he has heard anything from Al. (A very special thanks to Homayun and Christine for the phone and translation services they graciously provided us while in France.) Homayun delivers the news that Al has the car and he is staying in Le Havre! Lisa and Mo arrive back in Le Havre, park in front of some apartment building to “borrow” a wireless [View Full Entry]

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No car, no bag. Al still in Paris Mo and Lisa- Call to check on the car and talk to a nasty man who is totally unwilling to help. Decide to rent a car and flee France for some fish and chips in England. Realize once they reach the Euro Tunnel that is actually a train that you drive your car into. Drink wine; eat cheese, in a car, in a train, under the English Channel. Once in the tunnel, we broke-out the wine, bread, cheese and salami for a quick picnic under the English Channel. There and then during my [View Full Entry]

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No car, no bag. Mo and Lisa- Explore the town of Le Harve in the wind and cold and rain. Find an Art Museum. See a few paintings and an “art film” of some guy slitting his wrist in a bath tub. Mo and Lisa consider slitting their own wrists. It totally sucked; we walked in the rain for about an hour looking for a place to sit down for a quick meal. Every place was closed, we found one nice restaurant, but guess what they needed reservation. Finally we found a place to get out of rain and had some [View Full Entry]

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No car, no bag. Al stays in Paris waiting for his bag. Lisa and Mo - Leave Paris and go to Le Havre and stay in the totally strange Etap Hotel….bunk beds, no phone, bathroom and shower made from one piece of molded fiberglass… just a general level of strangeness. Other than the ability to on the commode and shower at the same time this place has no redeeming qualities. [View Full Entry]

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