County Clare, Ireland!

This morning we caught the train to Dublin with Matt and Kathleen. We got off at Limerick Junction to head out toward the Cliffs of Moher and they headed out to Dublin, hopefully we'll see them again in the States someday! We went as far west in Ireland as Ennis and caught a bus to the cliffs from there. We got there at about 4pm and had until 7:15 until the bus to Doolin was going to pick us up. We left our bags at the visitor's center for free and headed out the trail. The whole thing was paved and there quite a few people there. We walked all the way to the end of the path and turned around. At the other end of the path, there were signs that said "Do not pass this point!" and "Danger" and "Private Property", so we went past all those signs :) and walked away from all the tourist to find the best views of the cliffs with no railings, pavement, or walkways. Just the dirt and us. Then I had to do what I had planned. I bought her the perfect ring before we left. But, I didn't take it with us because I'd probably lose it on a train or leave it somewhere. I got her a small white gold band instead, took pictures of her real ring and hid the band and the card full of pictures in my camera bag. We finally got to the perfect spot. Sitting on the edge of the cliff, I wanted to make a video to show everyone where we were. So, we start recording and say "Hey everybody we are here" blah blah blah then I turned around, took a picture of the awesome view and got up to show the camera. The picture was actually a picture of the ring...she thought I was just being crazy showing the camera the picture of the scenery, but she saw the picture and couldn't believe it! She went from smiling to "are you serious" in about a second. Then I showed her the band and asked her to marry me, she said YES! She couldn't believe it and it didn't really seem real it was so awesome! We hung out there for a while and walked around on the "wild" side of the cliffs before we headed back to the visitor's center to get our bags. A bus pulled up going to Galway, which was better than Doolin, so we hopped on. In Galway, there is a week on horse race that has the entire town packed full of people! The only place to stay in this town is a B&B for $80, but we are going to sleep good and we'll head off tomorrow to the Giant's Causeway on the northern coast!

Killarney, Kinsale, Cork!

We have had an awesome time so far in Ireland! We ended up staying with Gaetan and Stefanny here in Cork for a 3rd night. They are really nice and have done everything to show us around, eat with us, cook for us, even let us do laundry! The first day here in Cork, took a train to Killarney with Matt and Kathleen that we met on the train from the ferry. We walked about 15 miles in Killarney! There is a national park there with a huge lake, a big waterfall, and some castles. We ate at a pub again too! Kathleen left her phone at the train station and the people here are so nice, these two old Irish guys were going to Killarney and they said they would look for her phone and turn it in, the conductor of the train called the other station, they found it and sent it on the first train back to Cork the next morning. Everybody has helped us with directions, even walking with us (two different time) to show us where a certain street was. Geatan and Stef met us in the city and we ate dinner. The next morning, I FINALLY found a real camera store! I got an awesome tripod and ball head to replace the one that I wore out 2 weeks ago (whooo nice pictures to come)! Stef walked around with us in the morning and showed us the town, then just me and Hayley got a bus to Kinsale near where the Lusitania was sunk. We rented bikes there and had no idea that we would have to ride over 20 miles to see the huge coastal cliffs! We got our butts kicked by some crazy hills, cliffs, and wrong side the road driving! But, we got there and back by 6pm. We bought a bunch of cereal bars, pringles, and a whole big carton of orange juice to chug for our accomplishments when we rolled back into Kinsale. We checked out the craft shops and came back to Cork. They cooked dinner for us and we hung out for a while at their apartment. Tomorrow, we are heading out of here on a train to Galway to see the huge Cliffs of Moher (hopefully at sunset)!

Ireland Day 1

We finally made it Ireland! Our ferry landed at Rosslare harbor at 11:30am and the next train was not until 1pm. We had no idea how to get to Cork (to stay with Gaetan and Stephanie!) from there but the only train that ran out of the harbor was going to Dublin. We met an older couple from Texas and two kids our age from Arkansas and Louisiana, so we just rode with them to Dublin. The younger couple (Matt and Kathleen) were trying to go to Cork too, so we figured out together that going to Dublin was the only way, so we got to Dublin, checked it out, and purposely missed the next train to eat at a pub! We had some dang good food, steak sandwich and awesome fries that were almost potato wedges. We ran hardcore to catch the next train because we were still eating with 5 minutes left before it took off! We made it, it started moving before we even sat down! So, we got to Cork called Gaetan from Kathleen's phone and they rode on their bikes down to meet us. We went to a real Irish pub and listened to a makeshift guitar/fiddle/banjo/spoons band play some "Irish Trad" for some free beer...we drank Coke. Now are with Gaetan and Stephanie in their cool apartment on Pope's Quay in County Cork. Tomorrow morning we are going to Killarney to hike to the Torc waterfall, should be pretty awesome!

Camping and Leaving France

We had an awesome time camping and hiking with Patrice in La Hague! We got up about 9:30am and got everything ready to go. On our way to La Hague (near Cherbourg), we stopped at a store that we had seen the last time we were in Caen and bought a hard suitcase to put all of our "newly aquired" stuff in so we don't have 4 backpacks to carry :). We got the place by following the signs to a fake wedding, because the camping party was for a guy named Pierre's birthday and it was a surprise for him. It was really cool! He is a pro DJ so they had some stuff set up so he could play music and they grilled about 6 lambs and some chickens from the farm we camped on and we ate like crazy! Us and Patrice went on a hike all around the coast line, it was the perfect place for pictures! I broke my ballhead and all I have now is my Gorillapod with no ballhead. The hike was really nice. When we got back, we met a ton of people and we were up until about 3am... We set up our tents in this huge field with nobody but Patrice around and it was right on the English Channel or "Le Manche" as they call it. We had an awesome view when we woke up this morning! We ate a LOT of bread and Nutella for breakfast. They sell baguettes of bread here for about 0.80 each and they must have had over 100 two foot long baguettes for dinner and breakfast! We left and went to Nez de Jobourg which is a really cool place with rocky cliffs going down to the ocean. We tooks tons of pictures, and even jumped in "Le Manche" for a swim in our underwear! Hayley cut her foot on one the sharp rocks... We hiked around to the car and headed for Cherbourg. We stopped at a few places along the way, including the smallest harbour in France. Patrice arranged for us to stay with one of his friends, Vanessa, in Cherbourg and she lives right beside the ferry port where we leave for Ireland. She cooked dinner for all of us and we had to say goodbye to Patrice...we will see him again eventually! We have gotten to be really great friends with him and we know we are always welcome in Normandy! We had the next day to explore Cherborg, with Vanessa's house key, until we had to catch the ferry to Ireland at 6pm! We walked around Cherbourg found a camera store and talked about buying a new ballhead with a old man that didn't know a word of english. We ate at a French cowboy restaurant for 10 euros each and it was really good! On the ferry we watched an Irish dance show, some guys playing the blues, and the Irish Justin Timberlake before we went to bed. Now we are having breakfast before we land in Rosslare, Ireland!

Demnark to Caen!

We are finally on our way back to France. Last night we went to Rødby, Denmark to find a place to stay because it was right on the coast and as far the train would take us that night. But, when we got there, there was nothing...not even street lights! So, we came back to Nykøbing and stayed in a crazy hostel. Nobody was working there, we just went inside and swiped our card to get a key to a room, like a vending machine! It was a good place though, it had two bunk beds, a bathroom with a shower, no AC but it feels good in Denmark (in the 70s). But, it is really expensive there because the US Dollar is not worth a lot there. We paid 550 Kroner for the room, which is like $98!! We are out of Denmark now though, in France on the way to Patrice's from Paris. We have to get back ASAP to get our stuff, meet Patrice, and go camping in Cherbourg at a music festival with him and his friends! In Germany I had an all beef bratwurst that was huge and a Coke for 4 euro! Hayley got O.J. with pulp in it! The only train to Paris from Cologne, Germany was full and the lady said you "MUST" have a reservation to take it. Well, we said screw it and got on anyway, what are they going to do...kick us off the train somewhere on the way to Paris? Well, they didn't. We sat down in a seat on the train that we we're told was completely full and we just paid the reservation fee right there on the train. When we got to Paris we had 30 minutes to catch the next train. But, it was in the station across town, not the one we came in to! We got 1.50 euro subway tickets and had to take 3 different lines and RUN up and down a million flights of stairs across the whole dang smelly city...but we made it! We took the train to Caen, got here at nearly midnight. We are staying with Patrice tonight and going camping for 2 nights at a music festival in the city were our ferry leaves for Ireland! We didnt call or let Patrice know we were going to be here but he left us a candle outside to show he was waiting on us! We knocked on the door and he came to welcome us again!!

Sweden!

Sorry for the last few days with no update! The netbook only worked for the first night on the internet at Anna's house. Anyway, we stayed in Skövde, Sweden (where the Volvo powertrain factory is). The town is really small and we stayed outside of the city in Skultorp. We had an awesome time with Anna and her family! We ate breakfast together every morning and they took us for a hike/nature walk, we had a "fika" and went to the movies with Anna to see Eclipse. It was in English with Swedish subtitles! Anna and her family speak English really well, so he had a lot of fun talking to them. Her brother Eric is 14 and loves to swim, so we jumped in the lake while we were on the hike! We cooked dinner twice and Anna's mom Maria drove us around when Anna went to work and we saw the hospital where she works, all kinds of really old ruins and churches, and took plenty of pictures! She dropped us off at the science center that Anna works at and we played around, had pizza, watched her do the "gas show" and we made ice cream with liquid nitrogen! We went downtown to check out all the stores, went to a huge supermarket, and had a BBQ with everybody at their house! This morning, we ate breakfast before going to work with Anna (the train station is right beside where she works) and we played around a little more, watched a planetarium show, then we caught the train to Göteborg. We are going to Norway now, but we are VERY behind schedule, so we may not be able to meet up with Jon and Krister! We will have to see what the train times look like when we get there...

UPDATE: Not going to Norway...we are behind and have to be in Cherbourg, France by the 26th to catch our ferry to Ireland. We made it to Rodby, Denmark, but we have to stay the night and continue on our way tomorrow.

Copenhagen, Denmark!

We got up this morning in Berlin and headed for Goteborg, Sweden. We got from Berlin to Hamburg just fine, but when we tried to leave Hamburg, our train broke down and they dumped us all off and we had to wait for the next train for 2 hours! There were WAY too many people on the train and we had to be cramped up for the whole 4 hour ride just standing up against the walls/people/bags. We ended up meeting a girl Lizzy from Portland and another girl named Anna who was on her way home to Sweden! We talked the whole ride and Anna said we should just come stay with her at her house on the lake in Sweden! She had to catch the bus across to Sweden from Copenhagen, and she had to work in the morning, so she said just to meet her at the science center museum she works at in Skovde, Sweden at 4:30pm and she would take us to her house and drive us around to check out the scenery! We found a hostel in Copenhagen for 355 kronas which is $48. We also ate dinner and tried to see the new Twilight movie in English, but they were closed! They speak really good English up here. Anna said because nobody knows Scandinavian languages, so they have movies and stuff in English. Tomorrow we meet up with Anna in Sweden! ...and more pictures, but later because I'm really tired!

Riding Berlin!

We got to Berlin at about 4pm today! We walked downtown and checked out stuff while we were looking for a place to stay (no couch surfers today). We found a hostel, actually a 1-star hotel by the old American/Russian sector border "Checkpoint C (Charlie)". We left our stuff in the room and the hotel had bike you could rent for 8 euro so we rode bike around Berlin all night! It was awesome! Everything is super nice and clean in Berlin, unlike Frankfurt...We went the old sector checkpoint (from the Gotcha! movie that we watched, Becky) and got our passports stamped with old Cold War border crossing seals. Then, we rode downtown and checked out everything. We found a HUGE park with cool tree covered paths and found this place were a guy was grilling steaks, rolls, and corn on the cob...so we bought two steaks, rolls, and corn, for 9 euro! We sat by the river at a little table and had an awesome meal! We saw a walking band that would just stop and play, so we watched the sun set on the river and listened to them for a while. We rode around a while longer and explored the city, Berlin is really nice! Not much traffic and plenty of things to do! We rode back through the old "Soviet Sector" in East Berlin to our room and washed all our clothes in the shower. Goodnight! Tomorrow we will be staying with Andreas in Goteborg, Sweden!
Reminder: More pictures here-  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2317767&id=38420372&l=1488399748

Frankfurt and Berlin!

So, last night we made it to Frankfurt, Germany at about 11:30 p.m. We found a hostel that was extremely close to the train station. The station, the hostel and everything else in Frankfurt was really nice! But, the hostel was in the "Red Light District." We have never seen anything like what we saw last night! And the craziest thing was that it felt completely safe. Nobody said a word to us, but it was just crazy that everything that was going on was happening right on the street. We saw prostitutes, people cutting drugs, getting needles ready to shoot up. People with knives everywhere snorting drugs out of the cracks in the side walks! There were even rooms that you could go in to get a needle and do your drugs in there. We had actually walked a little bit too far down the road and saw more than we would have if we had seen our hostel the first time. It wasn't that bad near our hostel. This morning we slept in, because we are starting to feel snotty and kind of sick and felt like rest and slowing down would be in our best interest. Also, as close as the train station was, it was raining pretty hard and we didn't want to walk to the train station while it was pouring and get all of our stuff soaked. It finally let up, so we caught the train to Berlin!

Parma to Germany!

Sasa's place was really nice! He works for the European Union and as a photographer, so he gets tons of pay. He took us out to breakfast and gave us a map of Parma, so we checked it out for a little bit before we headed off to Zurich, Switzerland to get to Germany. Parma was really cool, with nice buildings and parks, but it was super hot (forecast said 104F)! Sasa warned us the day before that it would be hotter than crap. We got on a train that we thought was the right one, but it wasn't so we jumped off, but Hayley got smashed in the door! There is a funny picture of her "door mark" on facebook. We got a train to Milan from Parma to get a train to Zurich to catch one to Frankfurt! We have made it that far and are on our way to Frankfurt for the night. We found a hostel in the red light district for 20 euros a night...Tomorrow we are going to make our way to Berlin!

Venice!

We made it to Venice! We stayed there for two nights just off the island of Venice, because property there is some of the most expensive in the world and we figured everything else would be too! We had the internet and requested a lot more couch surfers, including one in Parma, Italy for when we left Venice. Then, we showered and got some sleep! The next day, we woke up just for breakfast, but went back to sleep until about 1pm...it was much needed! We headed out to the real Venice by train (about 20 minutes) it just had to cross the water out to the island. We got there at the perfect time! About 3pm everybody was leaving and there were a lot of cool shops and it wasn't beaming sun straight down on us. We got a map and went exploring. We made our way to the famous Rialto bridge, seeing a lot of canals and bridges on the way. Madonna made a music video there (and through the canals) there were lots of cool alleys and buildings. There hasn't been a newly constructed building in Venice in forever (~200 years). We stopped for some pizza and a Pepsi on our way to Piazza St. Marco, which is a huge square and church. We found the church that one the Indiana Jones movie was filmed (the one where they go into the church and break through the "X" in the floor to find the Holy Grail). Then we walked around taking pictures and checking out the many Murano glass shops, because Venice is famous for their awesome glass blowing. We found a cool canal with the sun setting right in the middle of it, so we went down to the end of it and watched it. It was awesome! We hopped on train and went back to the mainland for the night. The next day, we slept in again and headed for Milan, Italy on our way to Parma. We walked down the "Haute Couture" streets in Milan and looked at all the rich people, we didn't buy a thing! Then we got the hottest, slowest, train in the world...again. When we got to Parma, we called Sasa Maric, our host for the night and he came to the train station to pick us up! We ate pizza and got huge Coke, talked about camera stuff all night because he is a photographer. Tomorrow, it's time to get the heck out of Italy!

Pisa and Florence! (Pictures Coming...)

We got to Pisa about 10:30pm and found a hostel (no internet for a few days, so no couch surfers either)! They only had one bed left, ONE BED, so we payed $30 and shared a bed on the top bunk with rails around it. It was really nice and brand new with a full kitchen and 2 bathrooms with hot showers and WiFi for free! No A/C though! So, we went out to the Leaning Tower of Pisa at about 1am. We saw rats, bats, and ate pizza in Pisa! It was awesome, handmade, and $5. The tower was sweet at night nobody was out there, and we could do whatever we wanted, so we double-handedly straightened the tower...at least it's straight in all of Hayley's pictures of me, because she lined up the shots on the tower and not the ground :) We went back to the hostel and took cold showers and woke up with wet pillows because it was so miserably hot! We kinda slept in (about 8am) and sent out a bunch of couch requests, most of them have said no by now, but...we went to Florence and got tickets to see the Galleria Academia which is the museum with Michaelangelo's statue of David (that killed Goliath). The line was 3 hours long unless you already had tickets, so we found another museum that sold tickets to that one and went back later without waiting in line! It was nice, but you were not allowed to take pictures of it AT ALL. So I took some "sneak attack" style until security reminded me that it was strictly forbidden. 800 ISO and shooting from the hip, they came out nice! We checked out the rest of the gallery and the city, deciding that we are ready to get back to America: The land of a ton of food for cheap and free refills on drinks for 99 cents! We hopped on the EuroStar Italia train to Venice!

Alps to Rome! (Pictures Coming...)

Ok, got to get caught up here! We fell asleep on the train back into Switzerland :) We were woken up at the last stop of the train, which just happened to be the one we needed, Chur. I was woken up by a Swiss train worker guy yelling at us in German to the heck off the train! He woke us up so fast I didn't even know where the heck we were, but we were the only ones an the train! We checked out Chur again, went to a Victorinox store. We got a bus (with our Eurail pass) over the Alps through the St. Bernadino pass. It was pretty sweet we got off in Bellinzona, a city with a bunch of castles that we still are not sure if it is in Italy or Swizerland... The train there took us to Milan, Italy where we finally got our night train to Rome! It was 150 degrees in that train when we hopped on, we shared a room with a guy from Denmark and a guy from Africa that spoke French and we finally got the AC turned on. When we got to Rome, we were dropped off at Roma Tiburtina station, which is the most run down homeless shelter on Earth! We left our bags there in security and went exploring. We walked all of Rome! From the far east side all the way to the Colosseum, Paletine Hill, Roman Forum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, and through the Vatican and St. Peter's Square! Then, we found out the Vatican was closed to visitors on Sunday, so headed back across town to see the Boca de Veritas, Circus Maximus, and the Colosseum again. We stayed the night in a sweet room to finally catch up on some sleep and showers. We washed our clothes in the sink and were ready for battle the next day. The line to get in the Vatican was around 4 hours wait in the sun, but we booked a tour for $26 that gave us "no-line" entry and number coded audio tour of each item/room/painting in the whole place! We just saw something cool, typed the number in the headset thing and it told us all about it. Even sneak attacked some pictures inside the "Absolutely NO Photos Allowed" Sistine Chapel! We headed back across town to get our stuff from the nastiest train station on Earth, caught a train to Pisa, and relaxed as it stopped at every single city between  Rome and Florence over the next 3 dang hours! Next up is Pisa!

Switzerland!

Switzerland was AWESOME! We took a train from Brig to Chur that went over the Alps at the Oberalp Pass. It was sweet, we had two restaurant style booths to our selves (one on each side of the train) and I was like a dog running back and forth to each side taking pictures. The windows were about 4 feet by 4 feet squares but they slid down into the wall so you could have a huge open hole to hang out of. It was the best thing for the ride across the mountains. We got to Geneva, Switzerland at about 6am checked out the big lake in Geneva heading toward Brig. That's where we got the cool train to Chur. Before we left Brig, we got some Coke and a huge "baguette" of bread to break apart as we rode across. We stopped in Andermott and I really, REALLY wanted to check out a river in the Alps, so we found one not too far of a walk away and cooled off in the freezing cold water. It was sweet! Then we headed on to Chur and over the Oberalp Pass to take a million more pictures. We went over some awesome mountains, bridges, tunnels, etc. and went through the Grand Canyon of the Alps! Switzerland is Überexspensive! Their money is Swiss Franks (Francas) but they convert straight to US Dollars (1=1)...McDonald's there is $12 for a combo! We book a night train to Rome for the next day so we had the whole day and the night in Switzerland. We decided, since we have the rail passes, we should just go to Austria for the night! We messaged a couch surfer in Innsbruck, Austria and he said to come on over, so we headed over there from Chur. He said he would pick us up at the train station! But, when we got there he wasn't there so we found some WiFi and checked my mail to find out that he sent us a message saying "Sorry I have friends coming over tonight and can't host you"...So we got a room at the Goldene Krone in Innsbruck...it was crappy. We are on our way back to Switzerland now, then in Chur all day until our 6pm sleeper train to Rome!

Spain!

Last night we got our sleeper train from Paris to Barcelona. It was pretty cool, but we had reclining chairs instead of a bed. They slept ok, but we woke up every time our feet slid off the chair! We still have to pay revervation fees for really nice trains and popular routes if we want a seat (we can just stand the whole way on some trains that require reservations). Most of the trains we can hop on and off anywhere we want with just our passes.The Paris to Barcelona train cost us 1.50 euro each for the reclining seats. It took us through the Pyrenees mountains and into Spain while we slept and we got some awesome views once we woke up. We spent the day today in Barcelona walking around in the blazing sun of Spain! Our bags are heavy, but we packed light compared to everyone else we see backpacking. I put the waist bag on and strapped the other bag to it...finding out just now that the netbook has a white line of dead pixels running up the screen! Barcelona was hot and we didn't really want to stay there, so we got a night train to Geneva. Pretty awesome! We planned on going to Italy, but there is a train worker strike!! We thought we were going to be stuck in Spain! This train is sweet, we have beds and a locking room, guys and girls are separated though. It train was completely booked except the beds...which cost us 75 euro each! But, its better than the full fare of the Barcelona to Switzerland route which is almost 300 each! We will hopefully find some internet and get caught back up with pictures! We will wake up in Swiss country!

Well, funny story...we went to Paris the day before yesterday (July 5). It was pretty awesome, we saw the Arc de Triumph, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, walked down the Champs-Elysees and even went to the Louvre! We walked EVERYWHERE in Paris! Hayley has a blister that is taking over her pinky toe (and she said she needs her mommy). On our way back to the station to catch the train back to Caen, we decided to take the last train back at 12:24am (after midnight) since it only runs one day a week on Monday. Well, we realized on our way to the Gare St. Lazare (1 of 4 train stations in Paris) that it would technically be Tuesday morning and NOT Monday anymore when that train ran...so it was only the night before! Then, we got on CouchSurfing and posted in the Paris group that we needed a place to stay ASAP! A guy named Paul messaged us back and said come on over, even though it was 1AM. So, we called him from a pay phone and got directions to his apartment on the 7th floor looking out towards the Eiffel Tower. He was a really nice guy and we slept good! Patrice (back in Caen) was glad we found a place and didn't have to sleep in the street too! We walked back to the station and headed back to Caen for dinner with Patrice, which was awesome! Now we are on a train to Paris and we have a night (sleeper) train to Barcelona tonight at 10pm. This Eurail pass is awesome!

Slow internet here, so check the pictures at this public link...more to come!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2314216&id=38420372&l=76980f3eb7

Caen, Normandy, France Day 3/4

Yesterday, we went to a car show in Caen with lots of European cars, Opel, Alfa Romeo, Renault, Ferrari, and a bunch of American ones that they thing are so awesome...like a 5.0 Mustang and an I-ROC :) We walked the town yesterday and took lots of pictures. We spent the 4th of July at the beaches and battle sites in Normandy! It was awesome! We took a Peugeot 307 convertible and another car because some of Patrice's friends went too. We had a picnic lunch on Omaha beach the site of the landing on D-Day June 6, 1944. We swam in the water and checked out the leftover German batteries and barricades. Then we went to the American cemetery it was super nice and Patrice knows more about WWII than anybody in the world! He gave us the grand tour! We saw the busted up guns, bunkers, and pillboxes at Pont du Hoc and Longues sur Mer and checked out the cliffs at Arromanches and the leftovers of the temporary harbor used for the invasion of Normandy which was the largest harbor in the world when it was used during WWII. We had a ton of fun then ate at Patrice's house! Because of weather, we didn't go Paris the other day, but we are taking the 7:03am train in the morning. So, pictures tomorrow of Normandy and Paris!!

Day 3 Caen, France

We left Bayeux this morning with Cecile and Vincent. They were heading out of town and passing Caen, France on their way, so we rode in their car (a Peugeot brand hatchback like a Element or Scion xB). The bedroom for us had a memory foam mattress (the blue bed in the picture) and a cool view. We are in Caen, France now! We are staying Patrice Renard and he and his two friends came over this morning and brought a real french breakfast for us "Americanos" and it was really good, croissants, sweet apple fritter things and "Jus du Orange". Everyone is gone now and they gave us a key to the house which is right in downtown Caen and has a cool back yard. They are going to try to get a "cabriolet" (convertible car) and take us to the D-Day beaches with their girlfriends tomorrow. Today we are just recovering, resting, charging batteries, and walking in Caen. The next day we will see Paris.

Day 2 England and France

We made it to London! The flight was not that great because they had pasta and I had a "special" vegetarian meal because they said it was going to be chicken...and we couldn't sleep because the seats leaned back about 2 degrees and that's all! Hayley sat behind me and played "Bejeweled" on her touch screen and I watched a show like planet earth. Anyway, we got to London and tried to figure out what day/time/world we were in because of the time change and no sleep. Caught the Underground (the "Tube") to downtown and walked around a while, saw Westminster, Parliament House, Big Ben etc., then got the train to Portsmouth.  Got our ferry and were bloodshot-eyed by the time the ferry let us board at about 11pm! Woke up in Caen, France, bot some Euro cash (England uses the British Pound) and tried to activate our Eurail passes... the people speak no English here and had so clue what a Eurail Pass was or how to activate it! We had the girl stamp it and we just got on the train. As far as we know, that's all you have to do because it works! We went to Cherbourg, France just because we can go anywhere we want and that was the first train that pulled up to the station, so we took it!Saw some cool stuff like WWII bunkers. Came back to Bayeux on a nice train! Saw the sights there. Hayley donated a Euro to light a candle on a box inside this huge cathedral that said "Tronc Releve Journellement". It was in front of a stained glass wall with lots of flags in the design. We thought it meant something about helping you on a journey...turns out, Vincent said it means "Don't try to steal this box!" Oh well, Cecile and Vincent are two people from Bayeux we are staying with tonight. They have a nice place and cooked us crepes and eggs, let us try cheese from all of Normandy, and gave us our own room with a memory foam mattress in the floor! Next Day = Paris! Au Revoir!