And they lived happily ever after....

Enjoyed dinner on our last night in Germany. We are looking forward to seeing our friends and families! And to share our adventures with our students! Thanks to everyone for following our journey:)

Au Revoir Paris

What an end to our stay in Paris! We started at the Louvre with Venus De Milo and then on to the Mona Lisa -- with so many incredible works of art in between! We had a relaxing lunch in the Jardin de Tuileries...Mrs. Larson ordered a french classic--quiche lorraine....and it was delicious!!! We stopped by Notre Dame and walked around the outside -- where we saw a couple getting wedding photos taken!! And then we hit the shops along the Seine River -- where we saw another wedding on a boat cruising down the river!! It was another scorcher today, in a city that doesn't have air conditioning most places. Needless to say, we are all exhausted from our whirlwind visit in Paris!! Tomorrow is another driving day -- back to Frankfurt and then we leave for an early morning flight home on Monday. Au Revoir!

A Day in Paris

Bonjour from Paris! Today we learned the Metro system to get into the city and back to our apartment in Vincennes which is just outside of Paris. It is a beautiful Parisian apartment and we are loving the extra space. Anyway, after emerging from the tunnels we found our way to the Louvre where we boarded the "hop on, hop off" tour of the main attractions in Paris. We learned lots of interesting facts as we enjoyed NOT having to drive! We got off at the Eiffel Tower where we ate lunch while we stood in line. We waited about 1 hour and then boarded the elevator for the 2nd floor! We were in awe of the amazing sites below us. Then, Ms. Evans and Mrs. Manske waited another 20 minutes to ride the elevator to the TOP,324 meters off the ground. Tte wind was whipping but we were all smiles as we circled the deck to see all the sights! We have several video clips to share too! After coming down to the ground we all agreed that we can cross this experience off our bucket list. Our cultural lesson the the day is that it is socially accepted to change a baby's poopy pants in the middle of a restaurant! Word of the day: merci ( thank you!) Translation time: tres chaud

Bon Jour, France!

Today was a good driving day. We took our time leaving the hotel in Belgium and drove through the heat to Paris. We were back on the highway for our drive, sadly no more cozy roadside villages to see. What did we learn on our way? 1.How to use the French toll system 2.How to navigate around the crazy motorcyclists 3.Avoid the standing bathrooms if at all possible and 4.NEVER EVER stop to eat at a rest area cafe! Looking forward to navigating the metro system of Paris and a whirlwind tour of the city! Translation time: (comment your best guess) Liege Our French word/phrase of the day: Bon Jour (hello)

Herring, Rats and 113mph!

Today was a hot and long day. We ate breakfast at our hotel, (herring, head cheese and other assorted things that some of us would not eat were available!) then headed out to find the tourist information center. The center was full of souvenirs and we found some cool things to bring back and use with the students including a pied piper hat, a rat puppet and even some finger puppets! Next we headed to the Internet cafe to try to check Facebook, etc. We were expecting to find a cafe with wi-fi, what we found was a creepy old man in a tech repair store. He spoke no English and since we couldn't communicate, we gave up. On to the old town part of Hameln where we did some shopping and waited and waited and waited for the musical, Rats, to start. We enjoyed the musical even if it was in German. The music was great and it is an interesting story. Years ago, children really DID disappear from Hameln and no one knows what happened to them. We also got to see the Pied Piper clock-work figure play some beautiful melodies. Unfortunately, today was one of the hottest days that we have had, it reached 33 celsius, about 90 degrees. Of course, all four of us were sitting in the blazing sun for at least 2 hours. Finally, we left Hameln and headed for Belgium. Jenna, once again, did an awesome job driving over 3 1/2 hours to reach our hotel. She broke her record on the Autobahn, 113 and she still had people passing her! Our German word/phrase of the day: Auf Wiedersehen (Goodbye) Translation Time: (please comment your best guess) stift : - )

Chicken chips and Pommes...

Today was a rather relaxed day! We woke up in Trendelburg where we slept in Rapunzel's tower. We walked down the hill to get breakfast at the local 'bakerie' where they had apple juice 'with no bubbles'. That was quite exciting for all of us. We then loaded the car and headed on our way to Hoxter to see a statue of Hansel and Grethal. We had lunch at another outdoor cafe and most of us had none other then chicken chips and pommes (chicken nuggets and French fries). We also looked at a few of the local shops in the area. We proceeded to Polle where the ruins of Cinderella's Castle are located. We were able to tour a museum, the grounds around the castle and then meander through the castle imagining what had once been there. We saw what we believed to be the dungeon in the middle of the castle grounds. It went almost 50 feet into the ground. Finally we were able to climb 52 more stairs to the top of Cinderella's tower. We had an excellent view of the river that was winding through the small town. To end our evening we drove to Hameln, where we would be staying for the night. We ate at the restaurant in our hotel, and then spent the evening repacking our suitcases with all of our exciting purchases to prepare for the next days drive to Belgium and Paris! We are excited to see 2 more countries, but most of all we are getting excited to return home where we can drink something other than sprite or coca cola light at dinner (milk would be nice...) and sleep with 'real' pillows. Our German word/ phrase from yesterday is aschenputtel (Cinderella) Translation time: (comment your best guess) Sparkasse

Princesses for a Day

Wow, it has been an amazing day. We started the day with a visit to Sababurg, Sleeping Beauty's Castle. We toured the garden and saw LOTS of roses. There was a herd of deer outside the castle wall too. We walked inside the castle and saw some great architecture. Then we left for Trendelburg, Rapunzal's Tower. It has a hotel in it where we are staying in a very fancy room! Ms. Evans and Mrs. Manske climbed to the top of the tower, 136 stairs in a very narrow spiral staircase, while Mrs.Larson and Mrs. Schroeder held steady at the spot the stone steps ended (about halfway up). We enjoyed eating lunch at the hotel and dinner at a local restaurant. We were so excited to order from a menu written in English and to have a waiter with great English skills.