OK, as you may have guessed form our last post, we didn't groove on Amsterdam as much as we had hoped.  So, we decided to be spontaneous and a little adventurous.  We deviated from our itinerary!  Can you guess where we went from these picture hints?

This city is a financial center in Europe.

Apparently, this city has a fancy for turquoise jewelry.  Remember, flights back to the US are pretty cheap now...

 

This is the only square in the city that survived World War Two, also the location of the historic city hall.

  

This is the home of the European Central Bank (and the Euro).

We'll reveal our secret in the next post!

J+S

Amsterdam.  What to say?  We had heard from most people -- almost unanimously -- that we would love Amsterdam.  For that reason we budgeted three nights for the city instead of the usual one or two.  We expected there to be many attractions, traditions, and other experiences to fill the time.

The setup

However, we quickly realized that Amsterdam is to the Netherlands like New Orleans or Las Vegas is to the United States.  It doesn't represent the long-standing and proud traditions of its nation, and has evolved into a cheap tourist trap selling vices for quick dollars (err, Euros).  Just as Vegas and New Orleans live off subsidized airfares, gambling, booze, prostitution, and shallow shopping, so too does Amsterdam.  Amsterdam, though, is a bit more extreme than Vegas is, with its window-shopping red light district and legalized use of marijuana.  And just as there is an uneasy tension between people inside Vegas and outside Nevada (think of the gambling opponents in northern Nevada), there too is an uneasy tension between people inside the canal wall and outside.  Apparently within the last year one third of the red-light windows were forced to close due to license compliance issues.  Soon to close are two of the most famous erotic theaters because they couldn't demonstrate clean businesses (a requirement to operate such businesses in the city).

Also, we learned that only smoking marijuana is legal in the city.  Every other portion of the supply chain is illegal -- growing, possessing (beyond a small, personal amount), transporting, importing, and selling (again, beyond a small personal amount).  Thus, all of the coffeeshops that sell weed have to smuggle in the weed from other countries.  Amsterdam is not as straight-forward as you would expect.

When we arrived, we both quickly got over the hype of the city, and realized it wouldn't be our thing.  Sure, if we had wanted to spend a couple days baked, we had allocated the correct amount of time.  But, we didn't, so we had allocated too much time.  In fact, we walked the entire city and saw most of the main landmarks within the afternoon we arrived.

Speaking of arriving, we first checked into our hostel Stayokay Amsterdam Stadslokendfnasdfnlkadjf (Dutch is ridiculous, although Sarah picked up the words for "Ladies and Gentlemen" and "Chicken").  Let's talk about the hostel.  We have said very little about our previous hostels until now because they were adequate.  The hostel in Paris was a room with 10 beds, and each bed had a private curtain, outlets, and a night light.  The hostel in Brussels was equally clean and private with individual bathrooms instead of a dorm-style one like Paris.  Each had some rough spots that you wouldn't put up with in a hotel, but on the whole they were fine experiences.

The hostel in Amsterdam was unacceptable.  They offered beds in a 20-person dorm without curtains, outlets, or night lights.  The room was markedly dirty, smelled of formaldehyde (or something else noxious), and also had a faint smell of body odor.  The bathrooms were dorm bathrooms that the cleaning staff just hose down (no sanitation), and there wasn't any toilet paper or paper towels.  We weren't happy.

The first hostel:

The one redeeming quality of the hostel is that they gave us a tourist map which listed other hostels.  While we went on our self-guided walking tour, we made a point to stop by other hostels.  We actually picked the worst possible day to be unhappy in Amsterdam.  We arrived on a warm, good-weather Saturday that drew in last-minute holiday travelers from around Europe.  Every hostel and hotel in the city center was booked.  However, we came across a poorly-marked hostel that was really just a bar with rooms in the upper floors.  We walked in, they had openings, asked to see the rooms, and quickly realized for the same price we could get a cleaner room with a cleaner bathroom and at most 5 beds.  This was a no-brainer decision.  The second hostel only dealt in cash, so Joe believes they rent out rooms off the books for extra party money.  The second hostel:

The bar downstairs.  Sunday morning there were people passed out in the booths from the crazy partying the night before.  This wasn't a loud-party bar; they were very quiet and docile.

On the whole we were happy with the decision to change.  Our stuff was safe, our beds were clean, and the room was surprisingly quiet.

Funny story -- right after moving our things from the first hostel to the second, we looked for the internet to contact the credit card company.  Sarah walked into a random hotel and asked how much it would cost to use their internet for a few minutes.  The receptionist first responded 50 EUR/hour, and when we started for the door, he laughed and offered to let us use it for free.  We sat in the lobby and as he was quite chatty, we conversed on various topics.  He even offered Sarah coffee!  It was quite the positive experience, thanks to Sarah's travel savvy.  He described the transition from the old Dutch currency to the Euro and how it effectively decreased everyone's real wages (the bank set the exchange rate at 1 Dutch currency = 1 EUR even though trading was closer to 1.5 Dutch = 1 EUR).  It was interesting to see someone's take on transfer payments and the emergence of a federal government.  This gentleman lived outside of the city, by the way.

The City

The name Amsterdam comes from the phrase "Amster Dam" or the dam of the river Amster.  It was founded as a sea-based trading village in the 12th century.  This emphasis on trade has led Amsterdam to switch flags, religions, and government styles multiple times.  Our tour guide suggested it was also the reason for more pragmatic approaches to laws and social problems.

Because the city was built on a river next to the ocean, it is full of canals that people travel just like roads:

Amsterdam also has more bike traffic than car traffic in the inner city.  Outside the train station there is a multi-story bike parking lot:

The more famous city tours take place on barges like this one using the canals.  We were warned against the tour since it is conducted in five languages and most of the sights require street-level to see.

The biking frenzy has even reached to the taxis.  We saw a number of regular, automobile taxis, but many more bike taxis.  Apparently though they cost 3 Euro a minute, so they're really just another tourist trap.  The real Dutch bike themselves.

The central meeting point is the National Monument, which is opposite the Royal Palace in Amsterdam.  This square was full of people every time we passed by.

We also saw street cleaning crews pick up two or three times per day.  We know of no other city which has this regular and frequent cleaning program.  Even with the program -- which picks up at 9:00 am and 9:00 pm -- we still walked over broken bottle glass, tons of cigarettes, and fast food refuse.  This is a picture of the worker cleaning off the national monument after just a few hours of use:

In every grocery store we went in, Sarah was impressed by the wide selections of Dutch cheeses:

Sarah posing in a clog display on the street next to the National Monument:

Sarah expected an ever-present red glow in the Red Light district instead of red lights in the windows.  She was disappointed to see only some red lights occasionally.  We took a guided tour through the district so we knew where we were going and what to see.

 

Taking pictures of people is strongly discouraged in the district, although not illegal like some guidebooks and urban legends would suggest.

This is the coffeeshop that was featured in Ocean's Twelve.  Inside are pictures from production of the movie with Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

We enjoyed a coke inside with Sarah's friends who were also in Amsterdam.

On our guided waling tour we saw some buildings that were leaning to the side due to foundation issues from the shifting marshland.  This building supposedly was also leaning forward by design to allow ancient merchants to hoist up goods without scraping against the building in the wind.

Our Irish/English/German tour guide who rolled her Rs and was pretty well animated.

At one point in time homeowners were taxed based on the width of the houses on the canal.  For some reason someone built a 1.8 meter (about 6 feet) wide house (the red one in the middle).  Yes, it's basically the width of the door and two exterior walls.  The stairways in Amsterdam are very narrow, so we suspect it has a small spiral staircase in the back for the second and third floors.  If you look closely you can see the owner in the second-floor window.

Lastly, we saw the Anne Frank house (the house where her family hid from the Nazis for two years, and a major Amsterdam landmark).  We found the museum to be among the most overpriced and least informative holocaust museums that either Joe or Sarah has seen.  It basically was empty rooms with a few quotes printed on the walls, random short video clips, and loosely related period material.  The actual diary was a replica.  In most rooms there was one display per wall with only 10-15 total rooms.  Given the enormous crowd, waiting took more time than learning. It didn't tell a story -- either Anne's story, the story of Jews and the Nazis, or the story after the war.  You didn't learn anything from going to the museum other than how large the living quarters were (not to discount the peril they went through, but they didn't live in the attic).  The eight people lived in an average-sized New York Apartment in an annex to the house that wasn't visible from the street.

Yet another disappointment with Amsterdam.  We would not recommend paying the 7.50 EUR each to see the museum.

Tot ziens/Good Bye (They speak excellent English in the Netherlands)

J+S

Here is the map of our second day's events in Brussels, so you can follow along geographically!

 

Number one: Our hostel

Our starting point.  Clean, well located, etc.

Number two: A church

We were on our way downtown, and spotted a large, impressive building not too far out of our way.  We decided to check it out.  It turned out to be a pretty cool church.

Number three: Sunken Gardens

On our way to the next stop, we wandered into a sunken garden.  It was gorgeous!  We randomly came across it, and were so smart to momentarily forget our path, because it wasn't in any guidebooks or anything, totally non-touristy, just a peaceful garden in the city.

Number four: Shopping

We both bought practical shoes.  Our feet had been complaining for awhile, so we had to give in and get tennis shoes.  We also walked for awhile in the shopping district of Brussels.  Three H&M's!  These Europeans like their H&M, let me tell you.

Number five: Another church

You'll probably be bored or pictures of churches after we've finished our adventure, Sarah is already, but she's completed a cathedral tour in France.  So here's a picture of church number 107 for Sarah.  We both thought it was kind of ugly actually...

Number six: Grand Place

The architecture in the Brussels Grand Place was quite impressive.  Like we mentioned earlier, Brussels is known for being erratic in its aesthetic, but this is one place that is purely beautiful.

We stopped for waffles on our way through the Grand Place, another culinary must in Brussels, and had to pause on a stoop to eat them.  These puppies were labor intensive with all the toppings piled on.  Joe chose one with Praline ice cream and chocolate, Sarah chose whipped cream and chocolate.  The sugar high was unbelievable -- although to be fair, we made up for it by walking 12 miles that day.

 

Number seven: Belgian Royal Palace

It was slightly disappointing that there was construction surrounding the palace, but it was striking nonetheless. 

Number eight: Manneken Pis

This little guy is Brussels' mascot.  His name is Manneken Pis, and the locals sometimes dress him up for special occasions.  We got lucky, here he's dressed like a bellhop.  But he was seriously tiny.  Like maybe a foot tall.  It was a little anti-climactic, albeit amusing.

Number nine: Cantillion Brewery

Historically Brussels has been known for its chocolate and beer, so naturally we chose to see a Belgian Brewery.  One that was recommended by a few of our travel guides was the Cantillion Brewery.  Cantillion is a microbrewery that prides itself on making "authentic" or "traditional" gueuze (goo-ez) beer.  They contrast themselves from the larger breweries that make modern "sweet" gueuze.  The fundamental differences it hat Cantillion takes 3 years to brew a bottle of beer since the fermentation is "spontaneous."  The more modern breweries add sugar to brew beer within 3 weeks.  There is a markedly different taste between authentic and modern gueuze, even though there is no differentiation between labels.  The authentic gueuze is very bitter and sour -- a beer that is very much an acquired taste.  The modern gueuze, with the added sugar, is sweet and generally palatable.  We ran across this difference by accident on the first day when we ordered modern guezue at the restaurant and authentic gueuze at the bar.  This microbrewery also only brews in the winter, so while we visited they had stopped production for the season.

The first step in the process (something to do with distilling):

The second step in the process (something to do with adding ingredients).  We were allowed to wander by ourselves to avoid the elderly tour that came through (and was rather rude):

The third step (I believe boiling ingredients):

 

Sarah in front of the barrels that sit for 2-3 years:

 

Joe in front of the barrels:

Where they dump the boiled ingredients to allow fermentation.  This particular step requires a narrow range of cool temperatures, and this brewery chooses to let the natural airflow regulate the temperature.  This step is why the brewery only brews in the winter.  If you look closely, where the roof meets the wall there are vents that change airflow through the room.  It was weird because the barrels are stored in a very warm room (70+ degrees F), and on just the other side of the window through which we took this picture the room is very cool (40 degrees F).  We stuck one hand on one side and another hand on the other, and the wide difference of temperatures confused us.

An employee bottling product for distribution.  The bottles sit for 6 months and continue to ferment.

 

Number ten: Palace of Justice

From the brewery we walked to the Palace of Justice, one of the highest points of elevation in Brussels.  Something we didn't know before is that the city is on a hill that slopes downward toward the west (toward the coast).  The top of the hill seems to be the more well-to-do part of town, with the Palace of Justice, the Royal Palace, parks, etc.  The bottom of the hill (where the brewery was) seems to be a not-so-good part of town. We made the mistake of walking through a markedly poor part of town that definitely was not meant for tourists.  To be fair, it was in broad daylight, so it wasn't a big deal.  But we weren't expecting to see the broken glass bottles and run-down apartments.

We could not go inside the palace since it was after five (remember, things close very early here).

Off in the distance you can see the Atominium, a structure built for the 1950s world fair to celebrate the atomic age.  According to a few travel guides this structure was Brussels' Eiffel tower.  We left seeing it for the next trip.

 

Number eleven: Brussels Park

On the way back to the Hostel for dinner, we walked through Brussels Park.  It is just south of the Royal Palace and features statues of 30+ professions in Brussels.

 

Number twelve: Kebab Street

Just south of Grand Place we ate on Kebab Street, a famous street known of Kebabs.  When we went there the different restaurant owners courted people to sit down and eat.  Most of the shops were Gyro shops as well, so we aren't quite sure where the Kebab name came from.  We told one owner no since his tables were full of smokers and sat at a restaurant a few down with no smokers.  Within minutes, however, all three people sitting next to us pull out cigarettes and start smoking.  Let's just say Europe reminds us how spoiled we are in places with smoking bans.

Number thirteen: Jazz Festival in Grand Place

Finally we enjoyed the internationally-renown Jazz festival at the Grand Place.  We didn't know the festival was going on before we arrived, but we saw the signs everywhere and the dates matched.  Throughout the city for 3 days Jazz musicians performed live in bars, at city parks, and also in important squares like in Grand Place putting on a total of 162 concerts.  This one was the biggest.

The music was pretty good, and like any Belgian event, they featured their famous beer.  We each had a rodenbach.

The steeple of the city hall lit up for night.

Au revoir/Tot ziens

J+S

Thing number one on the agenda in Brussels was to check out the European Union buildings.  If you did not know, the three major cities for EU headquarters are Luxembourg, Strasbourg, and Brussels.  And Sarah being the political science girl that she is, of course we had to check it out.  There were significantly more buildings in the complex than we had thought, and they were pretty spread out.  So Sarah asked directions from a Eurocrat (the local name for those who work for the European Union).  He was kind and directed us to the parliament building.  We went inside and asked about visiting the parliament, and Sarah was hoping we'd be able to sit in on a session, but none were going on.  So we settled for a guided tour and learned some interesting facts about the EU!  For example, the EU budget cannot go into deficit.

The EU parliament building.

 

Us in front of the flags for the 27 member countries of the EU.

This says "European Parliament" in the 23 official languages of the EU.

Also, it seemed every Brussels building also flew the EU flag, as if the EU was emerging as a strong federal government. 

After walking for four days straight, we both decided we needed better shoes.  So after our parliament visit we went downtown to window shop a bit and were surprised at how everything was already closed at 7:00pm!  Apparently the Brussels citizens enjoy working even less than the French.  So we re-chartered on to dinner.  Brussels is a city of many culinary masterpieces.  The waffle, chocolate, fries, mussels, and of course, beer.  We made it our mission to eat as unhealthily as possible in Brussels.  First, beer.  Sarah, being not exactly the beer enthusiast, eased her way in at dinner by ordering a peach beer (the Belgians make fruit beers that are delicious) and Joe ordered a traditional Bruxellois Gueuze (we later learned the this particular beer was not traditional, but hold on to that thought until tomorrow).  Oh, were they good.  Sarah noticed though at dinner the differences between Belgian and French dining procedure.  Most places will offer coffee or dessert in France, presenting a prime opportunity to decline and request the bill.  In Brussels, we had to hunt down our waiters to get the bill.

 

We had gotten a little taste of Brussels beer, but it just wasn't enough.  So we tried out a bar recommended by a friends of Sarah's, called Morte Subite ("sudden death," in French).  Sarah was not exactly adventurous, and ordered a raspberry beer.  Joe ordered a house specialty Gueuze and was confused by the marked difference in taste from the beer he had enjoyed only an hour ago.  (Like I said, explanation to come).

Then we walked in town for a little while, discovered a chocolate store, and had to indulge a bit more.  We bought 100 grams of assorted chocolates (7-pieces) and shared so that we each got a taste of each one.  Good God, we've decided to move to Brussels based on the chocolate alone.

 

We turned in for the full-day adventure tomorrow.  Au revoir/Tot ziens,

J+S

 

We began our final day in Paris by venturing to the American Embassy.  Why?  Joe was curious.  Story of Sarah's life.  So we shed all our stuff (no stuff allowed in) and found the embassy, located by the obelisk at the other end of the Champs Elyeeses from the Arc de Triomphe.  On our way there, we traipsed through a seriously nice part of town.  We're talking Dior next to Chanel next to the Ritz Carlton next to Armani.

We had to treat ourselves to some Godiva chocolate.

At the embassy we saw a 40 minute line just to enter the building and had second thoughts about spending time there.  However, when we showed our American passports, the guards let us cut to the front of the line.  We then went through ridiculous security screening -- they even took Sarah's emergency toilet paper.  Inside, to our disappointment, the embassy was basically a DMV complete with "numbers," waiting areas, and old coke machines.  We were expecting a grander experience... but so it goes.

On our way back to the hostel to retrieve our backpacks, we saw a familiar sight on the head of a constructor worker at the Obelisk.  Even Parisians are Huskers at heart.

After getting our backpacks, we did the obligatory climb up the Eiffel Tower.  This step says 668, but Sarah swears that there were 750 the last time she climbed it.

 

Sarah at the top, in front of the mall.

Joe at the bottom, enjoying his lunch of a chicken and cheese crepe.  Yum!

Then Sarah led the way to Sacre Coeur, the other must-see cathedral in Paris.  We'd been sight seeing all day, and Sarah was tired, so Joe let her rest on the green space in front of the church for awhile before continuing on.

Finally, that night we got to do something Sarah hadn't done yet and had been looking forward to since high school.  Wednesday nights the Centre Pompidou, or the Parisian Museum of Modern Art, is free for students so we took full advantage.  We saw some interesting things... including a Microsoft mouse.  Yes.  As a piece of art.  In a museum.  Not altered in any way, just a mouse, in a box.

And a red rhinoceros...

But there was some seriously cool art too, like a ton from Picasso, Mattise, and Chagall.  This one below was Joe's favorite (Picasso). 

 

After museum wandering for three hours, we had worked up a healthy appetite, so we ate a lovely French dinner on the right bank.  Joe was able to get chicken, and was therefore very happy ;)  We then explored a little, and found Les Halles, a verdant park, and took a romantic stroll.  It was a great way to enjoy our last night in Paris.

Next time you hear fro us, we'll be in Brussels!

Au revoir,

J+S

First thing on Day 2 we went to Gare du Nord to make train reservations for Brussels.  We found out, while waiting in the information line, that there was a 36-hour strike of Brussels train transit workers.  The lines at Gare du Nord of all the people trying to get on alternate trains were too long for us, so we went to Gare de l'Est (the next metro stop on the 5 line) to make the reservation.  Having success with the reservation, we hoped that the transit strike would end as planned.  While waiting in the much shorter line at Gare de l'Est, some dumb woman cut in line and multiple people in line yelled at her.  Apparently tensions run high while at train stations in Paris.  We got our train tickets and continued with our day.

We next went to the Latin quarter and saw Notre Dame.  It is a magnificent building that is as beautiful as its reputation suggestions.  It sits along the river Seine on an island, and the day we visited there were lines of visitors, which according to Sarah is rare.  The following is the outside of Notre Dame:

Some of the detail surrounding the building:

 

The main stain glassed windows at the end of the cathedral:

The main sanctuary:

The opposite facade of Notre Dame:

We walked north from Notre Dame and explored the neighborhoods around the street Rivoli.  This is a typical Parisian street:

Notice the rectangular windows, french balconies, and limestone walls.  Every street in the inner sections of Paris look like this -- the city is nearly uniform.

We wandered into the Jewish Quarter and bought fresh Challah (egg bread) on a Tuesday!.  We saw a crazy man try to direct traffic in broken French and Yiddish.  Onlookers called him an idiot from the crowd.  Past the Jewish Quarter we stumbled on the Place des Vosges.  People were enjoying their lunches on the grass.   How cool!

 

At this point, Sarah surprised Joe.  We had completed a puzzle last summer of a seemingly random French cafe.  Sarah discovered in her other travels in Paris that in fact it was a quite famous cafe, located in a posh part of town, and once frequented by the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simoone de Beauvoir.  Some heavy French philosophy went down in this cafe. So she found it.  She brought Joe here as a surprise, and he enjoyed a rich hot chocolate, she, a refreshing lemonade. 

Us in front of Les Deux Magots

Then, Paris weather being fickle as it is, we decided we both needed a pair of pants.  So we hit up H&M for some cheap wares, then headed over to the Luxembourg Palace and Gardens in the afternoon.

We posed in front of the Palace, which is where the French parliament meets.

From there we went North to the National Assembly building, which is near many other government buildings, a new part of Paris for Sarah.

 

For dinner Sarah brought Joe to her favorite Moroccan restaurant in Paris.  This restaurant is located in a part of the Latin Quarter that is buzzing with touristy eateries.  Greek, Italian, French, they all try to lure in the susceptible passers-by, by offering free drinks or cajoling people until they give in.  After we explored a little and laughed at their antics, we shared a delicious dark chocolate gelato.  Here, Sarah is posing with the cone, which resembles a rose! 

Au revoir!

J+S

Well, we arrived in Paris!  Our train took us to Gare de Lyon, and from there we took the Metro to our hostel, St. Christopher's, in the northeast.  We settled in, locked up our stuff, and headed off to the Louvre.

For those (like Joe) who don't know, the Louvre used to be the French palace for the kings.  It is what you would expect from a palace: spanning three blocks and oozing ornate finishings, it has a very modern mall in the basement.  We ate at the food court (how American), and we weren't sure which dish to choose: Italian, "American," French, Japanese, Mexican, Spanish, and Chinese.  We chose Italian, if you were curious.  Sarah commented how depressing the effect of Americanism is on Europe.

After the food, we went inside the Louvre.  The following pyramid from the DaVinci Code, which is actually just a prop underneath the lobby of the museum:

 

Inside the Louvre we saw many ancient statues, including the original "hear-no evil..." monkeys...

 

Of all the famous art in the Louvre, by far the Mona Lisa is most well-known.  This is the crowd surrounding it.  Surprisingly, it wasn't very difficult to get close to the rope:

Everyone at the rope was taking multiple digital pictures.  We hope it was for the purpose of admiring the work at home and not to post on a blog to show off to friends.  We certainly wouldn't do that...

 

The museum was very efficient at removing people at closing time.  It took them less than 15 minutes to clear 80% of patrons with well-placed ropes and signs.  Outside we admired the ancient royal courtyard:

 

A view of the Louvre from farther away:

 

We then walked towards the Champs Elyeeses and past the Obelisk.  On the Champs there was a crazy crowd outside of the Sephora store.  We stopped and onlooked for a bit too.  Inside Sarah Jessica Parker was promoting her new perfume.  Sarah wanted to get a glimpse of her, but SJP was behind displays and not viewable from the street.  The crowd:

As we walked on, we crossed the Champs and took this picture:

  

As you can tell from the sunset, we were hungry, and we ate at a nice (and moderately-priced) restaurant on the Champs.  The hostess insisted on taking our picture as we sat down:

We then walked to the Arc de Triomphe.  Inside the upper structure is actually a small museum (would you have guessed they had rooms in there?), although we did not have the energy to go up.  The Champs and this plaza had very heavy traffic, although the traffic was not congested.

Finally, we took the Metro to the Trocadero stop for the night-time viewing of the Eiffel Tower:

The building to the left with gold statues is the Museum of Man.

A recap of our journey from today (we won't do this every time):

 

Au Revoir,

J+S

Hey there!

Here are a couple more pictures from Besancon.  The first picture is a view of centre ville from the university along the river.

 

The second is of the citadel, an ancient fortress built in medieval times to protect the city from invaders.

We spent Saturday and Sunday in Besancon, resting and watching movies.  We both caught up on The Office and 30 Rock from this past season (Andy Bernard is an idiot!).  We went out with Sarah's friends to local hotspots for the study-abroad group's last horrah on Saturday night.  Sunday night we ate a Thai restaurant (yes, in France we ate Thai!), and it was just like a good Thai restaurant in the states.  Later Sunday we finalized packing since we would have to live out of our suitcases for the next 30 days.  Joe laughed as Sarah sorted through her mess and rationalized each item into her bag.  Right now we're on the train to Paris for a 3-night stay.  Having just finished one of the movies from Joe's stock, we thought we'd send out a quick update before we arrive in Paris.

The last picture is us waiting in the train station with our tickets -- Paris, here we come!

For those who don't know where Besancon is, here is a map:

Joe flew out to Besancon, France, today to meet up with Sarah.  He started in humble Cedar Rapids Airport and flew to Charles De Gaulle through Newark.  On the flight to Newark he met randomly a fellow college grad also off to Paris on the same Air India flight.  They agreed to spend the layover time, after checking in, to eat dinner in Times Square.  They took the NJ Transit line to Penn Station, walked the 10 blocks to 42nd and 7th, and they had just enough time to order McDonalds before hurrying back for the return train (thanks papa for the directions!).

The Air India flight had a swarm of people waiting to board.  It was a very full flight with a mix people stopping in Paris and others going on to Mombai.  The plane was a 757 with individual media center consoles.  It was pretty cool -- a person could select a variety of new and classic movies, television shows, music, and games to watch and play on demand.  Joe watched Dirty Harry and Knocked Up (though he didn't put the headphones on for the latter).  This whole on demand concept can be beautiful when executed well.  On the other hand, the CPU units took up leg and bag room under the seats.

Joe met Sarah outside of customs at CDG, and the two of them took the metro to Gare de Lyon (a major train station in Paris) for the train to Besancon.  Passport control was painful since there was only one agent checking the entire plane.  Customs made up for the delay by not inspecting Joe's bags.  The train station Gare de Lyon reminded Joe of the train station in City 17 from Half Life 2.  (Joe: "I'm unsure whether City 17 was modeled after Paris or if multiple train stations are just like Paris.  We'll see.")  The train from Paris to Besancon took 2.5 hours after the 1 hour it took to get to Gare de Lyon from CDG.  Once in Besancon, Sarah showed Joe around the town briefly, and Joe checked into the hotel room.  Joe took Sarah back to her dorm, and the two turned in early to catch up on much needed sleep.

Tomorrow they plan to explore more of Besancon, eat in French cafes, and get Joe used to the foreign country.

J+S

Hey all,

This is a blog to record the Europe adventure of Joe and Sarah during Summer 2008.  We'll post stories and pictures from our trip to share with friends and families.

Joe flies out on Thursday, May 15, and meets with Sarah in Paris on Friday, May 16.  More updates will follow then.  Below are the cities we're planning to hit during the whirlwind tour:

J+S