LOS ANGELES REPRIEVE

Well, back to back days of posting. I must warn you this post has 31 photos in it, and that was really holding back on the number I really wanted to put on here. We have taken 1,136 photos on my new camera, which all of today's photos are from. There is an additional 250 or so on the smaller snap and shoot camera we brought also. Suffice it to say we are going a little nuts with the photo taking, but what else do we have to do right? This is a mix of photos between Monte Carlo, St. Paul de Vence, Ville France sur Mer, Interlaken Switzerland, and Paris. Right now it is a little before 1am here in Los Angeles. I am typing on the first regular keyboard in quite sometime, compliments of Mindy. Nancy is asleep and I am getting ready to head there myself. Due to jetlag and the fact we just arrived from Paris our bodies think it is 10am right now, and we will be in Australia in a couple of days where it is 6pm right now. We are meagerly attempting a plan to avoid jetlag for our arrival in Australia as much as possible. Our last day in Europe awarded us with a day of rain and thunderstorms to break the heat streak we had ran into, so it was quite pleasant. We were able to put our warm cloths on and walk around in the rain a bit. While we were on the top of the Eiffle Tower we were enjoying a dry and windy view when we noticed a storm moving pretty quickly towards us. We were blasted with a burst of stronger wind and rain, I stayed outside on top to enjoy a little nature adrenaline rush and met Nancy back inside after a few.

Our last stop of the trip was after eating out last meal and walking about in a neighborhood we hadn't yet stubbled upon in Paris. We saw a group of 100 people or so sprawled out on the street with tables and chairs and a 5 piece band of 20 year old kids playing jazzy tunes. We decided to watch the festivities for a few minutes when a man stood up from one of the tables closest to us and started towards us speaking French. Once he arrived at our spy base we let him know we don't speak French, he launched into English telling us we must come sit and enjoy the festivity. He explained that he was a friend of the mayors and throughout the city neighborhoods people were blocking off streets and hanging out together on this special day. I am sure there was some lost translation there, but we were sure he wanted us to stay. We enjoyed our last time in daylight with this group of people and headed our way back to the hotel to get sleep before our way back to America.

Aquarium, Monte Carlo

Neighborhood gathering, Paris

... About to stumble upon the neighborhood gathering, Paris ... Park parallel to the Champs Elysees ...

Statue on the bridge of Alexander III, Paris

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Guess. ...

Bridge of Alexander III, Paris

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Arch of Triumph

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Eiffle Tower from the top looking down, had to hold my camera out over the edge.

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Enjoying the view at the middle of the Eiffle Tower, think my eyes are closed though.

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Statue with clouds

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Blurry car photo with The Norte Dame in background

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Norte Dame from under a bridge

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Self Portrait, Paris

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The Louvre, Paris

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The Louvre, Paris

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Our day in the mountains outside Interlaken, Switzerland

Swiss view

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Nancy checking out the view above

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Nancy charging up the mountain, we had come from the bottom of the valley

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Bottom of the valley, Swiss

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Our arrival to Interlaken Switzerland, just off the train

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Photo from train

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Photo from train

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St. Paul de Vence, France

Ville France sur Mer, France. Over exposed night shot without flash. ...

Night shot of Nancy, no flash. Ville France sur Mer.

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Le Casino Monte Carlo as a reflection through this mirror cylinder from out front.

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Monte Carlo

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PARIS

Today in front of Norte Dame

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The Louvre, after a 5 hour visit. I am wearing a red shirt because I was out of clean cloths. I purchase a tshirt later in the day

... Under a tree in Switzerland during a thunderstorm. Self Portrait. We were almost done with a great Mtn bike ride. Outside Interlaken. ... Chris on bike with 2 waterfalls in distance. ... Nancy at St. Paul's of Vence, France. In front of a Horse made of horse shoes, yep. ... Bugatti!!! Look it up. Probably only see one in Monte Carlo! ... VIP Monte Carlo ... The boat I promised Nancy! It has its own garage. ... Me, beer, French Riviera ...

Here we are at the end of our European Tour. We haven't posted updates on this site nearly as often as we would have liked. But we are here now so let's move on shall we? Here are some tid-bits since our last post: 1)

We walked into a Casino in Nice, France that was staring us in the face and begging us to come in. I, Chris, put 10 Euro into the machine for 5-card-draw with jokers wild and we walked out with 59 Euros which helped pay for some of our day. Another day after we walked all over Monte Carlo and ended up at the Casino at the end once again.... Beacause if you are in Monte Carlo you have to visit the casino, right? We had to go in of course. Put in 10 Euro and walked out with 64 Euro. Because of this run of luck the prior two days, we tried thrice... This time we lost our 10 Euros. No more visits to the casinos this trip.

2)

We have learned to schedule the big city trips ahead of time. Yesterday we were to arrive in Paris via the fast train. The trip was going to take us about 7 or 8 hours from Interlaken, Switzerland. We had been doing well with all our train trips and figured everything would be fine. Wrong. It was Sunday and everyone who was on a quick weekend get away wanted to get back home to Paris before Monday. 12 hrs and 5 trains worth of 2nd class later we arrived to our destination.

3)

Switzerland! Wonderful place. We should have booked more time here. The Swiss are perfectly organized in everyway, and make sure you are comfortable with your travels. We had the train ride of our lives through the Swiss Alps. Magnificent beauty around every corner. We happened to be on the best part of this trip during sunset. The train was very empty compared to others we had been on with maps of exactly where you were at every stop. I have a few photos on my other camera that isnt working at this internet site. I will post them, but they can't do what we saw justice I dont think.

4)

It has been really hot the last few days and this internet station is killing me. Everyone in here stinks worse than I do and the fan is only blowing hot air all over the place. No wonder I am not keeping this blog site more updated.

We have a lay over in Los Angeles on Wed the 28th. Chad Flynn and Mindy Knox have been nice enough to put us up for the night at their place, then off to Australia.

Peace from Paris!

NICE & MONTE CARLO

Hello all!

Same thing applies to our last post, hard to type on this computer due to key placements on this keyboard. Also, we cannot place all pictures we would like do to this computer's issues. Here is what we have come up with though:

Well, we were unsuccessful updating this site due to technical difficulties. Better luck from Switzerland!

2 POSTS TODAY

This post probably shows up first, but it is the second to be put together today. Be sure to find the one titled CINQUE TERRE also!

Au revoir!

My new friends from Morocco!

We flipped off this dock a few times together Enjoying the view

Nancy enjoying the view

The end of our day of wine tasting in the Ciante Classico region

Chris and Lily

Nancy walking around the garden at our place in Siena

Night shot of Florence, shutter open for a couple seconds

Florence

CINQUE TERRE

Bonjour friends and family!

This post will be shorter on words and greater on photos. The main reason is because now that we are in France (Nice, France to be more acurate), the keyboards are totally different. It took me 4 minutes to write this much. Here is what it would look like if I tried to write normal:

Hello everyone ze zill be stqying here in Nice Frqnce for 4 dqys (I hqd to use the shift button for the number 4).

Nancy in the Mediterranean Cinque Terre

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4.5 mile walk to our stay in the country side outside Siena ...

Rome

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Together in the water with waterproof camera

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Manarola, Cinque Terre

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Self Portrait, Cinque Terre

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The view from our place outside Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

Cant edit verticle photos

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Picture of our Cinque Terre room from above

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New Friends from Belgium, Germany, and Netherlands

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Top of Tower adjacent to the Duomo in Florence

Sorry Noah, line for the Duomo was unnecessary at the time

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Our friends from Australia and Russia