For Your Entertainment

Rail Pass and Dreams

Hey Carina,

I took a look at the rail passes on eurail. Did you see the 5 country one with a group rate? Apparently if you are traveling with 2 people or more you can get a group rate (saver pass). The 10 days within 2 months comes to 478 euro, the individual youth for the same amount of time is 365. I read up on the saver pass and we would travel on the same pass that means we would both pay 239 (euro). Plus getting a saver pass would allow us to travel in first class. (I wouldn't care about this usually, but it would be kind of nice as we'll be traveling in the summer and I'm pretty sure most travelers are going to go with the individual youth passes. Which would mean a very crowded second class area. Plus that's quite a bit of a money saver (126 euro).

Oh and I was looking at bike tours, and noticed while doing so that a large amount of France's vineyards are on the eastern side of France, almost directly on the way to Frankfurt.

I know that we've talked a very small amount about cycling, but I want to lay it out there that I'm up for cutting even one country to do a cycling tour of some length. If you are not interested however don't worry about it. I'm just playing around with time and ideas. Here are two self guided tours in France that I've found and thought you might also like the sound of. I chose to stay away from cycling in the ridiculously hot areas...as I think we may die if attempting one in the middle of the summer:

Amboise Short Escape Cycling 4 Day Tour

Chateaux of the Loire 7 Day Tour

http://www.randonneetours.com/bydestination/france.htm

The price for the first one I think is decent. I looked at a site that compared pricing and reviews and this company seems to be a good one. (I especially like the sounds of the 1st one as well because it allows us to do some wine tasting and skip around pretty castles!) Both of these tours are self guided and the cost includes the bike rental/repair supplies/accommodations/breakfast/Maps and Contact with a support team. The price comes to $710 US if we choose to stay at a B&B. (Roughly $180 a day for 4 days).

lol Well that's all I have for this Morning, I'll be posting this as well to our blog. Give me ideas of what you would like to do...as well as things you absolutely positively will not be satisfied without. We need to lay out our desires on the table!

I am in love with art history.

Hello fellow traveller! I just got back from an Art History class in which I was practically drooling from the slides we were looking at.

Here are some significant cathedrals that I hope we might be able to see:

St. Denis cathedral, paris, france: Burial site of the Kings of France

Significance-every gothic cathedral is based off of this design. (gothic architecture was all about stained glass windows and "how tall can we make it"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/benidormone/1193437476/

Chartres, France: There are two freaking huge cathedrals here

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/79/93579-050-84329CF4.jpg

Carina! This cathedral is 3x as high as it is wide...this picture does it no justice. (Amiens Cathedral, France)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59927723@N00/3624790590/

Reims Cathedral, France

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caracolquiscol/2604069326/

And this...if we don't see anything else...this is top ten right now of buildings I want to see:

Ste. Chapelle, Paris, France

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasenz/3185477852/

It doesn't have walls, it has buttresses and stained glass...it's beautiful

(below this pic is one of Reims Cathedral)

And that about does my rant for tonight, I can't tell you how hard it is to sit in a class and hear from Prof talk about these places and pretty much drool over them herself. And the way she describes the amount of skill that goes into creating these buildings makes you appreciate them so much more. Just think! These cathedrals were being built in the 1100s, no cranes, no electricity, just man power. Even the idea of standing on the finished roof would make me vomit, I can't imagine what it would have been like to build the roof.

Okay I'm going to go to bed. Take an art history course if you can as an elective...honestly soooo interesting. (I know the name doesn't really make it appealing...it should really be called "time-travel Europe in your desk)

Dearest Lynne,

I hope that you are doing well and not feeling too stressed! The beginning of the semester is always the hardest I find. haha over christmas I forget all about how to write papers and study!
Sooo over le holidays I got to meet your old roomie Mary Anne! And she told me all about her upcoming wedding... haha in fact she invited me to attend! So i was thinking that I would offer myself as your date lol if you wanna go
TTYl