Blogs from Europe - page 12068

So, I have no time to write this since this computer keeps timing me out and the letters are all over the place, but here goes. Paris is amazing. Totally more than anything I was expecting. We are all totally exhausted from running all over the place, but so worth it. Weather has been fantastic, as are the crowds of Europeans on their spring breaks. Oh well, part of the experience I guess. Took a tour yesterday around the whole city and spent today at Versailles wabdering around the amazing gardens. Can kinda understand the whole revolution actually based on the extrvagance we saw, but its fun for the tourists. Tomorrow we go the Louvre, for a quickie tour around and on Thursday, we head off to Mont St Michel, then Italy. Hope all is well ... read more

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 I didn’t really have any plans for us for Wednesday morning, so we decided to try to do some shopping. We walked through the shop area, Travis bought his belt and sweatshirt, Mom bought her shirt, and Dad, well Dad walked along. We wondered up into the shopping area of the Albaycin and Dad bought a cool little cut out coin there from this guy. Well, then we headed toward Monica’s mom’s house where we were having lunch. She made chicken and vegetable paella. After lunch we sat around and talked some, Manolo (Eva’s husband) and I translated the best we could. I have a much harder time understanding Monica’s parents than I do her though! Well, Travis and I sat down at the couch and started to play connect four. However, ... read more

This morning was great... I went to a midday briefing at the European Commission (European Union). It was amazing to actually be in that room with all the other journos from around the world... especially considering so many people working at home will never get to do it. I picked up a great story about Europes inacceptably bad policing of the fisheries industries. It really was very cool to be doing an interview at the European Commission. (The online component of my Tour de Flanders story, by the way, can be read at http://www.euaustralia.com/2007/04/10/sport-bike-season-heralds-the-summer/#more-529). After the briefing we had lunch in the fabulous cafe inside the EU Commission building.... great food and really cheap - they really look after journalists in Europe and Ive noticed this a LOT so far doing various stories in Germany and ... read more

Greetings from in-transit Danielle. I’ve just embarked on my first long-distance train trip in Spain. I’m on my way to Barcelona from Bilbao on a 9-hour journey to spend my Easter vacation. I usually take the plane for convenience purposes as it only takes an hour and costs a mere 30 euro more, but I thought that this time it might be nice to see some of the country side between the Basque country and Catalonia. Anywho, I’ve taken short distance train trips before, no more than 2 hours. The trains that are usually provided for such distances somewhat resemble a city bus, standing room and hard plastic benches. The train that I am is well-equipped for long distance travel all the way down to reclining seats. The only thing is that it looks like ... read more

Way up north now in Ireland and is fantastic. The scenery is great and of course the people and pus are still the same as before, just brilliant! Left Belfast a couple of days ago after spending 5 nights there properly to long in one place but such a fun city now compared to the recent history of Belfast and the whole Northern Ireland. Everywhere I went there is reminders of the troubles of the past that was only 10 years ago some off it but is real peaceful now. On the Easter Sunday over here they have a parade in Belfast and I thought oh great a Easter parade maybe I could get a egg or two but instead it was a remembrance day for the Easter uprising that happened in Dubin in 1916 and ... read more