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Published: June 24th 2009
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Birthday Surprise 51 secs
1 additional video(s) currently being processed Looking down on Grenoble
View of Grenoble and the valley below from the bastille. Wednesday, June 17th
The morning started out pretty funny. Tiffany decided to take a walk around Brignoud with one of the girls since we weren't going into Grenoble until later that day. A few minutes later she came back and I asked her what was wrong, why did she come back so early ? Tiffany said she was worried she might get a ticket for disturbing the peace. I was confused naturally. She laughed and said that one of the guys in town had whistled at her and waved, apparently appreciating the new shorts she had purchased the day before. Embarrassed but also suddenly full of herself, Tiffany headed back to the house with a giant story to tell.
Cool Meter Takes a Hit
Burned twice already by the sun, I was determined not to let it happen again. When everyone was busy buying their hiking shorts yesterday, I picked up one of those baseball caps that has a flap down the back to cover your ears and neck. It worked great for the sun but Alyssa and Erin could bearly contain their squeals of laughter. Alyssa even took a secret photo of me and posted it
to her Facebook account. Now I was famous, or more likely infamous across all of cyberspace. The cool meter dipped to new lows, maybe never to recover. Even my own siblings were in on the fun, with my brother Daniel calling me "Lawrence of Arabia". Call me what you will, but I didn't get any more sun burn that day.
Grenoble Cable Cars
Having worn ourselves out in the mountains the day before, we were taking an easy day by exploring the city of Grenoble. Back in 1968, a set of cable cars were installed to take visitors from the city up to the bastille on the nearby mountain. This was our first destination in Grenoble, and when we arrived at the top the views did not disappoint. The sun was really bright and hot but you could really see the valley and the Isere river really well. Our ticket was one way, so we took the nature trail down the mountain toward the river. After exploring the old part of town and grabbing lunch, we headed back to the house again. Grenoble is kind of like Atlanta, it is a very nice place to live but not much to see in city center. But it is a really good jumping off point to see other things.
Another Surprise Birthday Cake
That night Cecile joined us again for dinner. This time it was my turn to be on the receiving end of the surprise birthday cake. Pierre made a tasty lemon tarte with the numbers "40" baked into the middle. It went really well with some rum and vanilla ice cream. Boy that rum ice cream was good too. Wish I could find that at home !!
Observation: Using a Cell Phone in France
Being so connected in today's world it's impossible to travel without using your cell phone. Unfortunately our USA based TMobile service likes to charge $0.99 per minute to make phone calls while in Europe, not to mention if someone local needs to call you its still an international call for them. The solution was to bring 2 phones, one for people in the USA to call us, and a second with a local prepaid SIM card to call Pierre or anyone else in France. It's easy to buy a recharge for your phone because they are available almost everywhere. The real cost is the initial upfront purchase of the sim card. I think I got ripped off on this part because I bought it at the local Tabac which is like the Quickie-Mart or Wawa on every corner. Next time I will buy it directly from Orange at one of their local shops which are plentiful, but surprisingly not at the airport.
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Brad
non-member comment
Cool?
First the Fannie Pack now the hat....Whats next?