From E. Europe through France on our way to the Med!

View larger photo 

First off, Happy 39th Anniversary to my parents! Today is their big day. (although they probably won't read this note until much later)

Well the last entry was from Prague and now we are in Barcelona. Quite the opposite sides of Europe, but we have managed a few nice stops along the way. Taking overnight trains are a great way to make tracks and combine travel with accomodation. They are the best nights of sleep we've had, considering Border Patrol wakes you up at 1 am to check your passport.

After Prague, we took the night train across Germany to arrive in the French city of Colmar. It is right near the border of Germany and since the border has switched many times throughout the centuries, the two cultures and languages are both evident. Everyone speaks both German and French, there are creperie stands next to sausage and pretzel stands. We didn't have the best time in Colmar, it rained each day and it was very cold (about 50 degrees F).

We left Colmar after only two days and went further south in France to a town called Perigeuex. According to our itinerary we should have gone to Sarlat, but the train rides from Colmar would have taken over 16 hours and 5 changes. No thanks! So on a total whim we picked Perigueux. It was a great choice. It had a lot of sites to offer tourists. There are many Roman ruins including remains of a huge ampitheater, city wall, pagan tower and baths. There is also a couple of really big churches, one from the 1100's and a huge cathedral from the 1500's. The tourist office gave us a map with a self guided tour, complete with history, photos and other information. We loved following it through all the cobble-stoned streets, we felt like we were on a treasure hunt!

Our next destination was the town of Lourdes. This small town is the site of 1000's of pilgramages a year. It is a holy site for all Catholics and my mother would never forgive me if we got this close and didn't stop there. In a quick summary, during the spring of 1858 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 different times to a young french girl named Bernadette. The most important event that occurred there is that a natural spring popped up in a cave (a.k.a. 'grotto') at Mary's request. Throughout the years, this water appeared to miraculously heal people. Lame people with crutches could walk, cancer victims have been cured overnight, and any number of other illnesses seem to disappear after the person drinks from this spring. Well, this draw is as good as gold to the merchants, souvenier shop owners and especially empty bottle makers. There are 100's of shops that line the path from the train station to the grotto and surrounding churches. You can buy empty bottles form these shops bearing the image of Mary and the grotto, and candles to place in an area nearby to offer up prayers. Wow, and do the people buy them by the truck load. It is really unfortunate that the entire area has become quite commercial.

Well, Andy and I emptied our bottles of Evian water and went to the spring to fill up our bottles. In order to avoid mass hysteria and over crowding, the city has created a big network of pipes and faucets to bring the water out of the grotto and along a big wall where the water could be obtained in a more orderly fashion. There were 1000's of people lined up along the wall filling up their bottles, splashing water all over themselves and some just about taking a complete shower. We waited our turn then took a couple of sips before filling up our bottles. We looked at each other like...'do you feel anything...?' I guess we really had no expectations of some great miracle, we were just curious if we something would happen. Oh well, at least we can say we gave it a go.

After Lourdes we went to the incredibly fabulous city of Carcassonne. It is a well-preserved, completely fortified medieval city from the 1400's. It is so beautiful, that we must have taken over 100 pictures of it. It has a great castle inside, and a cathedral and lots of tiny streets with shops and cafes. We loved every minute of it and we highly recommend a stop here for any castle lover. It is probably the best one we have seen.

And now we are in Barcelona. Before we left on our trip, we had many people tell us how wonderful and beautiful Barcelona is. We had really high hopes, which is a dangerous thing to have. Well, we have not been terribly impressed. Our first day it rained buckets so we stayed in our youth hostel and did laundry and played cards. The street that our hostel is on is really scary. There are a lot of beggars, hookers, and other undesirables lurking about. It just didn't give us that 'warm fuzzy' feeling when we ventured out. The next day we took one of the open-air tourist buses to get acquainted with the city. The traffic is so bad here that we really just crept around the city wondering if we would ever get back to our inital stop. Then our bus driver hit a parked car and a road sign RIGHT in front of 5 cops. As he attempted to speed by as if nothing happened, they all flashed their badges and jumped in front of the bus to stop us. As our bus driver was being either ticketed our arrested (we weren't sure which one), we had to wait for an hour for another bus to come and pick us up.

On a good note, Andy just loves paella. It is a traditional rice dish that is cooked with vegetables, and your choice of any number of meats. Last night we tried the 'mixed paella' which was quite a rare combination of land and sea animals that would never ever meet, except on a cooked pile of rice. It think it had chicken, rabbit, squid, shrimp and mussels. I like the Sangria, it is chilled red wine with citrus fruits floating around in it.

We have had a few rough nights of sleep because we are staying in a youth hostel. You never know who is going wake you up by making too much noise at 4 am. Well last night was the worst! A group of British guys were in town for a stag party. They all came stumbling in around 5am and they were incredibly drunk. They made so much noise up and down the halls that everyone woke up. Andy jumped out of bed to try and corral them back to their room so they could pass out. After about 45 minutes they finally all went to sleep. Well revenge is sweet, and a bunch of us that were angry jumped in their room at 8:30 am and screamed and yelled and whistled and kicked their beds. We were quite happy with ourselves all day.

We are sorry our Barcelona experience wasn't the best, we will probably try again someday when we can afford to sty in a better location. We are on our way tomorrow back across S. France on our way to Italy!

Love to all!

Jennifer and Andy