Friday 6/28/13
After 15 1/2 hours on the Ferry the Oscar Wilde, we arrived in Roscoff, France on Fri June 28 at 9:30 am.
We met two gals from Calif on the ferry, Shelby and Taylor. They were traveling thru Europe also. They had started in London and had already spent a couple weeks in Wales and Great Britain. We all walked to the train station together and took the train to Rennes.
The 3 of us hopped a train that took us east toward Bayeux which is near Normandy. Because it was early evening, we stopped in Dol and found a campground near the station. It was a bit different from campgrounds in the US - the bathrooms were co-ed. After being up since Thursday morning, (with a bit of sleep on the floor of the ferry and cat naps on the trains) we all slept well.
This morning we went to an open market in the city centre of Dol. we bought some fresh fruit, olives (Mark) and bread. We love France - they have fresh bread everywhere! As our train doesn't leave until 17:19 we walked to the Super U and found an adapter to charge the iPad, toilet paper (for campgrounds that don't provide it) and a filter water bottle (Gloria left hers on the last train:( )
Now we are waiting for our train and planning our next few days. We will probably go to Normandy on Sunday then head to Belgium.
The towns are amazing with the 400-500 year old buildings. The people have been very nice and helpful. Mark spent 1 1/2 hours getting a French lesson from the young man sitting next to him yesterday his name was Luigi and he was 22 years old and in the navy on an aircraft carrier (French).
Friday 6/28/13
After leaving a very busy train station in Rennes we decided to go to Dol and see if we could find some place to camp. We arrived at around 20:30 with no clue where to go and no Internet access so we met some people at a small bar. They didn't speak any English and we don't speak any French but we were still able to communicate and find a restaurant for Jambon (ham and cheese pancake thing). Very good. We found our campsite and stayed the night.
We left Dol at approximately 17:30 and arrived in Bayeux our campsite was roughly 3 kilometers away so we walked to it in around 30 mins. the office was closed we went to a home and a man gave us our campsite for the night. It cost us 18.86 euros for the 3 of us. It was very nice and clean. We went out to get dinner, the closest place was McDonald's so we thought when inFrance do as the French and have French fries, it wasn't to bad.
Sunday. 6/30/13
Well we slept in woke up around 8:30 got ready and left by 10:00 to go to the city center and talk to the tourism center. We saw some ice cream and just had to try it wow was it good (strawberry). The lady at the tourism office said the tours went from 8:00-18:00 but we were to late for that and the next tour started at 13:00 and would cost 50 euros Mark decided to ask if they had a car rental place and they did she gave us directions we found it. The man at the car place didn't speak English so we had fun trying to communicate what we wanted to do. I like to barter and so I was able to get the car for 7 hours and 150 kilometers for 80 euros plus diesel all told around 94 euros.
The day was filled with our own tour to Normandy. What an amazing place thank you to our veterans and soldiers for your sacrifice for our freedom we all take it for granted. As one man put it, He said "it is amazing that these young men would come 6000 kilometers and fight and be willing to die for people they didn't even know." Our savior Jesus Christ did even more we are so blessed.
Monday 7/1/13
We woke at 5:00am, left the campground at 5:55 to meet our train which left for Paris at 6:36 am. We arrived in Paris at 8:58 am where there were overcast skies. We visited the information center and met James (aka Charles) who was very helpful. He told us to purchase an all day ticket on the subways for 6,60 € each. We first made our way to Paris Le EST train station to put our packs in a locker. We then headed to the Basillica which overlooked the city.
After this we made our way to our next station. On the way we found a public fountain where we filled our bottles. While there we met a couple from Tanzania (David and Katelynn). They live in the same town as the Tanners and Wildasins. They work for Mary Knoll where they teach natives how to work with handicapped children.
We then made our way to the Charles de Gaulle place and the arch of Triomphe. We walked down the most famous street (Avenue Des Champs Elysees ) where we found a soft serve ice cream shop there. It was a very crowded and materialistic place.
The Eiffel Tower was our next stop. We then walked to the next subway station where we headed to Notre Dame cathedral. What an amazing building. We walked thru the church - many candles burning. We wonder what The Lord thinks about all this.
We had gyros (French style) which were very good. We then made our way back to Paris des EST train station to retrieve our backpacks and catch the TGV to Metz. We averaged about 300 km/ h.
Once we arrived in Metz, at 10:00 pm, we made our way across town to our campground (Municiple Camp). I was a very nice place and we camped on the river.
Tuesday 7/2/13
After a VERY restful sleep we got up about 9:00. There was wifi and we planned the next leg of our trip. We met a German couple, Kia and Monica who were very helpful with places to go.
We walked through the town and picked up some lunch on our way to the train station where we caught the 1:30 train to Luxemberg. We then traveled to Wurzbourgh via Trier, Koblenz, and Frankfurt. While in Koblenz we tried German McDonalds. It was very good. During the train ride we enjoyed the beautiful landscape of hardwood covered hills, the Rhien river, and miles of vineyards going up the steep hillsides.
We arrived at Wurzburg at about 21:30 and found a room above the Haus of 150 Biers. It was very clean with bathrooms in the hall that we shared with others. The gal downstairs in the bar even did our laundry for us.
Wednesday 7/3/13
We caught the train to Rothenburg at about 9:00 and arrived about 45 minutes later. We were told about a camping platz about a 15 minute walk downhill from Rothenburg. It was a very nice place - the nicest and cleanest so far. We set up camp and returned uphill to the walled town of Rothenburg where we spent the day exploring the many streets and shops. It rained on and off all day. We went to the medieval crime museum where we were also able to go down into the dungeon where the torturing was done. We tried the schneeballen (snowballs) which was a local tradition. Wonderful! We had a dinner of sauerkraut and sausage. At 20:00 we went on a tour of the night watchman where we heard much history of the town. At 10:30 there were fireworks we could see a bit from the camping platz.
Thursday 7/4/13. Happy 4th of July!!
We left Rothenburg at 10:07 bound for the Black Forest Academy somewhere near Frieburg or Basel. We have been unable to get wifi to contact the Academy. The train arrives in Frieburg at 16:00. We decided to go to an Internet cafe and get online to see exactly where BFA is and to look up camping. PTL we found a camping area in Kandern the same town as the BFA. So we got back on the train and headed towards Basel Bad and to find the bus to take us to Kandern. We finally figured out what bus we had to get on, it was #55. We waited for the bus and paid the driver 3,60 € for our 50 min. bus ride to the city of Kandern Germany. We finally arrived at 20:10 and we were hungry but decided to find the camping area first so we could set up in the daytime. We did find it Tessamessen camping a nice little spot with a small water park we settled there for the night. We set up camp and decided to explore the town of Kandern and see about the night life and what kind of food we could find. A little cafe called munzur kebab was what we needed Hawaiian pizza for 5,50€ a sprite and some gyro meat and fries all for a whopping 10,20€ not a bad deal. The pizza was big enough that we had extra so it would make a fine lunch for tomorrow. With dinner out of the way we hiked back to our tents roughly 10 minute walk and slept like babies.
Friday 7/5/13
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