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!
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!
posted by Daniel Pergau | 4:07 p.m.
1 Comments:
Wonderful stories! I can't believe how fast your time there has passed!
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