Some long awaited pictures...

Letter from Lourdes, Bordeaux, Amboise, Paris, and London

Sorry that there are no pics attached to this blog, but the machine won't attach them....will try to fix tomorrow.

Hello All!!

This letter comes to you from London, but includes much of the finale of our Trafalgar tour. Here are some highlights!

October 23 - Today we left Madrid and Spain, drove through the Pyranees Mountain Range, and ended the day in Lourdes, a tiny village in France. Lourdes is popular with many pilgrims because in the 1800's a young girl named Bernadette received 18 visions from the Virgin Mary. She was canonized by the Pope and now everybody goes to Lourdes to light a candle, walk in a procession, and participate in an evening service. We decided to take part in this ritual and very much enjoyed it! Dan carried the candle and ended up with a little wax on his shoes, but did a great job of lighting our way!

October 24 - This morning started with a search for a barber. We weren't leaving Lourdes until a little later, so Dan thought he'd get his hair cut. Unfortunately for him, it was Monday and all of the barbers are closed on Mondays in Lourdes......oh well....maybe in Bordeaux. After we left Lourdes, we stopped in Biarritz for 1.5 hours and Dan and Kiel (our Canuck friend) - otherwise known as the Prairie Surfer - had some great fun on the beach with a surfboard and some big waves. Heather and Katie enjoyed the sand (and the sand spiders) and watched Dan and Kiel in the water. Then the bus left for Bordeaux and we arrived in time for our last group dinner. After a great dinner of salad (finally!) and salmon - burger for Katie - we headed to a nearby fair that we had seen on the drive into town. We had so much fun! Heather and Kiel went as well and we went on the Ferris Wheel, some spinny rides, and Kiel went on a crazy upsidedown ride! Lots of fun.

October 25 - To Paris today! We travelled to Amboise in the Loire Valley region and saw the Castle there. This castle is where Leonardo da Vinci lived his last years and died in 1519. We saw his statue and his grave/tomb.....Dan even found a cat in the chapel that we named da Vinci....it really liked Dan! Once again we tried to get Dan's hair cut, but alas all the barbers are closed in Amboise from 12-2, the exact time frame that we were there!!!!!! Oh well....maybe Paris. We arrived in Paris to find out they'd left us and another single man off of the rooming list! No worries though, we soon had a great room that had a view of both the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral! Then we went out in the evening to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to climb all the stairs, but unfortunately they closed at 6 pm. We took the elevator to the very top and could see for miles.....beautiful!!!

October 26 - All day in Paris today. We had a great bus tour in the morning - in the rain:(. Then a small group of us headed to Versailles! It was excellent and sunny by the time we were outside again. Then we headed back into the city, visited Notre Dame Cathedral, the Louvre, and had a great ITALIAN dinner (ironic) by the Eiffel Tower. Afterwards, we grabbed a couple of bottles of vino, headed back to the hotel, and played crib with Heather and Kiel. Late night tonight, but it's our last night on tour.

October 27 - Tour ended today. Up bright and early (the front desk screwed up our wake up call and called an hour early!!!) We left Paris for Calais, passing by Vimy Ridge on our way. We'll be back there in 2 weeks. Then on the ferry we had a nice lunch on the outer decks, played some crib/rummy, and reboarded the bus for London. We arrived in London and said goodbye to our touring family. We'll miss them all very much! Then we caught the tube and got to our hostel. It's an interesting place outside of the city, but is nice and cheap and pretty clean. We're here for 6 nights, so it will be nice not to have to move around for a few days! By the way, Dan finally got his hair cut today! The cost in Paris was outrageous!

October 28 - Spent the day catching up on sleep, doing laundry and then we visited the RAF Museum. It was great...Dan was in heaven! We saw all sorts of old planes and even a new Eurofighter model. We had a great picnic dinner and after using the internet will be off to bed. Tomorrow we meet up with Heather and Kiel downtown to go see a show (probably Guys and Dolls with Ewan MacGregor!) and also we'll be at the British Museum!

So, that's our lives for the past week.....we hope you all are well. We're home in three weeks tomorrow! Can't believe that our little adventure will be over so soon, but we're going to enjoy every last second of it!

Letter from Rome, Florence, Pisa, Nice, Barcelona, Zaragoza, and Madrid

Hello All:

We have experienced so many wonderful places, people and things since leaving Iona, it´s amazing to think that there is still more to see!! We celebrated on October 19th however as the realization that we will be home in one month kicked in! We are so excited to see you all!!!

So, here´s a quick recap of what we´ve seen since our last transmission (by the way, we did find our way out of Venice!)

October 14 - Off to Rome! Arrived in Rome in the evening and as we had free time and dinner on our own, we struck out for the city via the excellent metro system. As we walked out of the station, we literally walked right into the Coliseum!!!!! Absolutely beautiful with the sun setting on it and perfect for pics! We also saw, that evening, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon (the oldest surviving building in Rome), the Piazza Navona (where we ate outdoors), and the Unification of Rome Monument. We also tried to find as many locations as possible from Dan Brown´s recent book, Angels and Demons (which we´ve both enjoyed now).

October 15 - Spent the entire day in Rome today with a local guide and a local bus driver. Tosca, our guide, was so incredibly knowledgeable! Our very first highlight was to visit the Vatican where we saw the Museums of the Popes, THE SISTINE CHAPEL!, and St. Peter´s Basilica. By the way, in the 1500´s there was something known as the great ´cover-up´where the Pope thought it undignified to see the real human body as it was sculpted, so many male parts were cut off or covered up with a fig leaf. Such a desecration of great art! Then we hopped back onto the bus and it was off to the Coliseum again, but this time, we got to go inside! Absolutely incredible!! We finished the evening with dinner with our Canuck friends, Heather and Kiel, and then had some cribbage with Heather while Kiel attended an opera in town. Excellent day!

October 16 - Off to Florence today! First we stopped above the city for a group shot which could then be purchased for 10 euros....we opted not to do this. Then we headed down to Florence where we had a leather working demonstration/sales pitch (Julia, you would LOVE this store!) and then headed to the main Dom to see the Doors to Heaven. They are replicas in the square, but the originals are in a museum and they took 21 years to make. The originals are made from solid gold! Then we headed to the Galleria Accademia to see David, Michelangelo´s famous statue. This was the original as we had already seen two fakes in the city. No pics allowed of the real thing, oh well. It was arrestingly beautiful, simple at first, but much more indepth the longer you looked. Then, we saw an exhibition for a music instrument collection. They had a Stradivarius violin, viola, and cello! They also had some Christoforo pianos, some of the first pianos ever constructed! We were in heaven! Then we walked back to Santa Croce to see the tombs of some well-known Florentines. We saw Galileo Galilei, Michelangelo, Donatello, Rossini (music guy), and Danti (who wrote The Divine Comedy). Then it was off to our hotel for dinner and bed.

October 17 - We got to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa today! One of Katie´s life dreams was to see this in real life and it was SOOOOO cool! We grabbed a few shots (even one with Scooter making a swan dive off the tower - optical illusions are great!) and then went back to take some pics of some planes that Dan had seen on our way to the Tower. There was an Italian Widowmaker (F-104), F-86 and trainer MB-326 on static display! After Pisa, we travelled through 168 1/2 tunnels to get to Monaco. When we arrived in Monaco, we had 1 hour to wander around the city of Monte Carlo and see the casino and the fountains. Confession time.....Katie lost her 1 euro (just 1=) at the Monte Carlo Casino. It was tragic, but we´ve moved on:) Then we found a statue of Hector Berlioz, famous musician, and found several extremely nice looking cars! There was a fashion show on this night for Swarovski Crystals and we knew that Bon Jovi and Mariah Carey would be in town......no sightings though. It was time to get to Nice, so we piled back on the bus and when we arrived, Dan, Kiel, Heather, and Katie all walked down to the Med to see if it was suitable for swimming. The water was lovely (just wading tonight), but the beach is made with large pebbles and was not NICE on the feet :) Swimming tomorrow.

October 18 - As we didn´t have any included excursions today, we had time to do some laundry........hooray!!!!!! Dan & Kiel found a coin laundry nearby (and a cute French girl - for Kiel of course) and got that done early so we had the rest of the day for fun. Then, we headed to the ´beach´ for swimming....it was cloudy and cool, but it was the Med and the water was nice and warm. We dídn´t stay too long and headed back to the hotel to find some food. Heather was back from her extra excursion by that time and we went to the nearby Spar shop (they´re everywhere!) and bought a nice picnic dinner including some very VERY cheap wine. We finished dinner 1/2 hour later and went out in search of more drinks. We had a really fun evening with drinks and cards and had some water and tylenol before bed, so no worries about the next morning!

October 19 - We left Nice for Barcelona and had a long drive through varied landscapes. Much of the time was spent sleeping (a little tired from the night before) or reading and we arrived in Barcelona around 6 pm. Some of the group were off to a Flamenco show, but we went down to the beach (a real sand beach!) and checked it out for swimming capabilities. It looked lovely with big, huge waves and we enjoyed the sound. Then we had another picnic (non-alcoholic ;) and went to bed early.

October 20 - BEAUTIFUL DAY! We´ve had really nice weather for our tour, but today was gorgeous. We started with a tour of the city and have decided that we will definitely return here for a few days after this tour before our return to Canada. After the tour finished in downtown Barcelona, we and Kiel headed back to the hotel via the subway, changed into our swimming suits and rushed down to the beach. It was awesome! The waves were between 6-12 feet in height and it was so much fun riding them. We stayed for a good 4 hours, just enjoying the sun and relaxing. Then we returned to the hotel to find Heather back from her excursion and so we headed to the mall in search of postcards. We didn´t find any, but enjoyed the walk. Then Heather said that she´d really like to swim in the Med, so we threw our suits back on and rushed back down to the beach. We could only swim for 25 minutes, but that was enough as the waves had grown bigger since we´d left and we were all tired. We had dinner at the hotel and flopped into bed after a couple of hands of crib.

October 21 - The drive from Barcelona to Madrid was a long one and Wim (our tour guide) likes to play various types of music on the bus while we drive. Some are okay, but some are very loud and somewhat different, so that takes a bit of getting used to. We stopped in Zaragoza in the middle of the Spanish ´desert´ and saw the beautiful church there. Then we headed to Madrid and arrived at our hotel which is full of groups. Dinner was extremely interesting this evening as the main course was fish. Katie had asked for some chicken instead, but Dan, loving fish said bring it on. He got it all right......the fish came whole!!! With its head!!! and tail!!! After a large amount of laughter and some turned up noses, he managed to swallow most of it, but the fish eyes were something else all right! Thank goodness for the good custard dessert to take the taste out of his mouth - some of Katie´s chicken helped with that as well:).

October 22 - Finally we arrive at today! We had a nice tour of Madrid this morning (although the rain was pouring down) and returned to the hotel to come and write this update. We´re happy to be heading back to France tomorrow and onto Paris soon, but will definitely return to Barcelona for some more fun in the sun!

So, that´s been our lives for the last week......imagine all the other stories that we don´t have time to write about.......ahhhhhhhhh! We´ll attach a couple of pics here for you...enjoy!

Hope that you are all well and we truly are very excited to see you all soon!
Dan & Katie

Hello from Koln, Strasbourg, Hockenheim, Heidleberg, Lake Lucerne, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Vienna, and Venice!!!!

Wow!

Who ever could have guessed that you could see so many different places, things, people, cultures, etc, etc.......in only 9 days!!!!!

So here's some of the things that we've seen/done on the way to Italy. Unfortunately, our time here is quite brief (and expensive) so we can't go into too much detail.

October 6 - Left Amsterdam to go to Koln, Germany where we saw the beautiful cathedral and we climbed one of the spires. Amazing views!!! Then we left to go castle spotting along the Rhine on our beautiful Rhine cruise. We had lovely weather and Dan had his first German beer! Scooter even had some. We ended the day in Hockenheim, Germany.

October 7 - Left Hockenheim for Heidleberg, and climbed the super steep hill to visit the ruins of the castle. There was also a huge HUGE keg in the castle that Dan enjoyed immensely! Next we stopped in Strasbourg, France and saw the Cathedral with only one spire and the Gutenburg statue. Then we ended the day in Switzerland (where Katie saw her first alps!!)

October 8 - Today was an amazing day. We left bright and early for the Pilatus Mountain which we climbed using the steepest cogwheel railway in the world. At some points, it was at a 48 degree angle. Then we walked the last 200 feet to the summit of 7000 feet!!!! Absolutely amazing views. There was also an echo point, so we had a fun time yelling off the mountain. Descended via two cable cars. Scary, but fun! Then we went to lunch at a Swiss experience restaurant where we had swiss cheese fondue (yummy!) and a traditional swiss show. Afterwards, we toured Lake Lucerne with our two Canadian friends and prepared for our trip to Austria.

October 9 - Headed off for Leichtenstein and saw the last inhabited palace by the Hapsburgs. Sent a postcard to M & D P with a rare Leichtenstein stamp! Also, a Harley was spotted and photographed. Then we headed off to Innsbruck for one night. Upon arrival, had time in the city centre, bought some Peach Schnapps with Heather and Kiel (our fellow Canadians) and had dinner at the hotel. Afterwards, it was time for laundry, cards, and Schnapps!! Fun all around.

October 10 - Left Innsbruck for Salzburg. We enjoyed the Sound of Music tour with many different highlights, like the scenes from Doe a Deer and I Have Confidence. Katie was in heaven! Then we wandered around Salzburg, seeing many Mozart buildings and the Dom Cathedral (Katie's fave so far). Left Salzburg for Vienna. Upon arrival, had dinner in the hotel and went to bed!

October 11 - All day in Vienna. Late start as we didn't take the optional tour and had a nice relaxing morning! Toured St. Stephen's, and unfortunately, the music instrument museum was closed as it was Tuesday. So, Heather, Kiel, and us walked the 11 kms to see the graves of Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Schubert, and Brahms! It was awesome. Then we experienced the Vienna underground as we took the subway back. Went to an evening concert in the Orangerie and heard Mozart and Strauss pieces. Excellent!

October 12 - Drove all day to Venice!! Excellent drive with much scenery and lots of sleep! Had lasagna for starter for dinner at the hotel.......YUMMY!

October 13 - We've been in Venice all day and have literally followed the advice of our tour guide to get lost in Venice!! Hopefully, we'll find our way back!

Letter from Salisbury, London, and Amsterdam

Hello All!!!

So, this is our update letter covering the above cities. No pics today, sorry.....we're using an internet cafe, but didn't bring the camera card reading utility device thingy.

In Salisbury, we stayed at a youth hostel, and we booked a guided tour to see Stonehenge! It was awesome, with lots of information and even Scooter got a pic with the rocks. After we returned to Salisbury, we visited Salisbury Cathedral, which has the tallest spire of any cathedral in the UK. While we were there, we participated in a service that was going on for the ordination of some Deacons. Dan had communion and we heard both the choir and the organ and sang some hymns too! We also found out that David Willcocks (who writes some amazing descants for hymn tunes such as Adeste Fideles) was the organist at Salisbury in the past. Dan nearly wet his pants when he saw that he was so excited! After our visit, we went to get some picnic food (cheap!) and had a nice picnic on the lawn of the Cathedral. There was a wedding on at the Cathedral, so we got to see all the pretty people in their outfits and Rolls Royce's pull up. It was neat.

The next morning, (Dan's 30th birthday!!!!!) we were up in good time to catch the train to London. We were both very excited and it was only a 2 hour journey, so that was good! When we got to London, we realized that the walk to the hostel would be very substantial. But it was a nice day, so we started out. We walked past Big Ben (the bell in the tower), WEstminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, and 3 parks! By the time we got to the hostel, we had walked approx 10 km and were exhausted!!!! But it was only 2:30 pm and we wanted to get out and see a bit of the city, so we went and grabbed another picnic lunch, sat in Kensington Gardens and watched the many planes fly overhead on their way into Heathrow. Then we went for a long walk, called Dan's parents and Katie's parents and headed back to the hostel. On the 3rd, we jampacked the whole city into one day! We took our first cab to St. Paul's Cathedral (on the other side of the city) and took a peek inside. Then we crossed over the Millenium Bridge by the Thames and walked to the British Airways London Eye! We got on straight away and had a great view. The weather has cooperated very well since we've left Iona:) After our 'flight', we walked across Westminster Bridge by Parliament, with the intent of visiting Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, it was closed until 2:00pm, so we went and met Tammy at the Trafalgar Tours office, picked up our documents for our tour, and had some lunch at Pizza Hut. (I know I know....not very British:(. Then, we headed to Trafalgar Square to see Canada House and the lions in the Square. We visited Canada House, saw the gallery there with Canadian photography, and headed back outside. Scooter met one of his distant relatives in the Square (pictures to come soon), and even Dan had some fun with the lion. After we'd had our lion's share of the Square, we headed for another Square, Leicester Square in the heart of the Theatre district to see about half price tickets for a show that evening. We scored some great seats for Les Mis (20th year running!) for 1/2 price!!!! Super! By this time it was almost 2 pm so we headed back to the Abbey. There was a huge queue, but it disappeared quickly and we were in before we knew it. Amazing time here, visiting Elizabeth and Mary I, Mary, Queen of Scots, Handel, Shakespeare (Memorial), Churchill, and Newton among many many others. From here, we grabbed a cab to the Tower of London. Had an awesome tour here with a surprisingly very genuinely funny tour guide. Saw the crown jewels, the White Tower, and the Bloody Tower. Then, we grabbed a cab back to Leicester Square for our show. It was incredible. Katie had never seen it before, but Dan has seen it twice. Dan says that this performance easily compared to the other 2 and he thought it was excellent. We even met a couple from London, ON and Adam is a pilot!!! Small world huh? After the show, we grabbed a cab to the hostel and headed for bed.

The morning of the 4th, we were up super early because our tour left from the Trafalgar Tours office at 6:30 am! We got there in plenty of time, met Wim, our tour director, and got loaded onto the bus. There are 24 people altogether on the tour and they all seem very nice. Surprisingly, there are 13 South Pacific types. There are also 4 Canadians, and the rest are Americans. We headed for Dover and crossed the English Channel on a very large ferry. When we arrived in Calais, France, we boarded our tour bus (that we'll have for the duration) and began the trek to Amsterdam. On the way, we passed through Belgium and Flanders Fields. When we were getting close to the hotel, Wim was telling us about the hotel we'd be in for two nights. To Dan's happy surprise, we found out that our hotel was to be at the Schipol Airport!!!! He giggled all the rest of the way:) We arrived at the hotel, checked in and had a great dinner. After dinner, we walked over to a McDonald's to see if you could see the runway from there. Not only could you see the runway, but the planes were using that runway for every take off and there was a huge viewing platform outside for the general public. We sat there for a good hour watching planes and guessing their types. It was pretty cool and cold!

Today, we've been to a cheese and clog factory near Volendam (Dan is sure that he was there 14 years ago!). We got some cheese samples (yummy!:) and tried on some clogs. Even Scooter tried on a pair (but they didn't fit:). Then we visited the town of Volendam (a large tourist trap), a very pretty little fishing village. We saw a great example of a dyke keeping the water from flooding the town. Then, we headed for Amsterdam and the Gassan Diamond Factory. We saw how diamonds are cut, polished and sold. They showed us a bunch of examples of different carat, colour, clarity, and cuts. We even saw a brown diamond (pretty rare). Nobody bought any though as the cheapest one sold was going for E12,000 (or $15,000 Cdn!). Needless to say, Dan was very excited that he had proposed BEFORE we visited this factory:).

Since then, we've been walking around Amsterdam, enjoying the sights, smells ;), and sunshine. We're off to meet the bus soon to head back to the hotel. Tomorrow, we're off to Cologne (to see some wise men:), and the Rhine River for our cruise.