We arrived in London Tuesday night, and took a cab to our hotel. London was gorgeous. Obviously I was a little thrown off by the reverse driving directions, but I got used to it eventually. The cab driver was a pleasant English chap that was very informative of some good places to eat, buy goods, etc.
We stayed at the Haymarket Hotel in London, which is an unbelievable fancy hotel/restaurant right off of Piccadilly Circus. I managed to squeeze in a photo before I went to bed. Here's the bathroom (lavatory.)
It was incredible. Most powerful shower I've ever experienced. Remember that Seinfeld where Jerry's and Kramer's shower pressure was way too low? This was the opposite.
London is a beautiful and diverse city. You see all kinds of people around the Piccadilly circus area; it's very similar to New York City. I managed a couple pictures that night before my camera died:
The next day, Wednesday, we took the train from London to Gare du Nord in Paris, France. When we got to Paris, we took a cab to the other train station across town, Gare de l'Est. We ended up not being able to get on our preferred train and had to wait 5 hours in Paris. This was a bit tough. We found that our limited knowledge of French did not go too far. Parisians near our train station didn't like it if you didn't speak French. It seemed pointless to ask, "Parlez-vous d'anglais?" because most people answered, "No." The area of town was pleasant, however, and we were able to grab some food and drop off our bags alright. We even pulled off buying an international phone that took a little while to figure out how to charge the SIM card. The directions were all in French, as were the call-in messages, but with the help of some semi-English speaking clerks, we got it up and running.
We took our train to Strasbourg France, rented a nice Opel car, and checked into our hotel, Regent Petite France, in Le Petite France area of the city. Here's the place:
And here's some pictures of the area:
This morning, we headed to La Gare Centrale (Central Train Station) in Central Strasbourg to buy some tickets for our train tomorrow. We were pulling around a street to the main parking area, stopped a little quickly as the car ahead of us also hastily stepped on his brake, when BOOM. We were rear ended. We pulled off to the side of the street, as did the car who hit us. The man who got out was a French man in about his 30s in fully matching Adidas garb who started to get really emotional about the collision. I was trying to pick up some of the things he was shouting, with no luck. But either way, when you rear end someone in any country, Peugeot into Opel or Ford into Buick, you tend to get kind of upset with yourself. Especially when it turns out the car your driving is your fiancé's. And when the man whose car you just rear ended is not from your country and speaks almost none of your language, the situation lends itself into becoming a difficult one. Unfortunately, my father, this French man, and I found ourselves in this situation this morning. But surprisingly, it didn't take too long to fix. We went over to Avis, which was conveniently across the street, and they took care of anything. I really hope everything turns out for that French man; it was a pretty shitty situation to be in, and he had a really nice car. Thankfully, he can possibly tell his fiancé it was some stupid Americans who didn't even have the decency to pick up any French for just such a situation as this.
Our car was fine, and we continued driving on our way to the area my grandfather traveled in WW2.
Here is the very map from the Military company book that describes the whole journey:
We traveled through the countryside of the Alsace Lorraine area of France. This is a beautiful rural countryside that reminded us a lot of Western Upstate New York. There are kilometers upon kilometers of farmland that ends only at the foot of the beautiful Vosges Mountains. We traveled from Strasbourg to Schirmeck to Sarrebourg and back to Strasbourg. Here's basically our route:
It was an essential, but beautiful circle. We stopped only in Senones for a Stella Artois and Sarresbourg for a Heineken. (Diet Coke for Dad in both of course!)
I'm sad my camera wasn't working this whole time; the countryside was beautiful, and it would've been nice to show you guys. But wither way I shall have it tomorrow!
When we got back to Strausbourg, we had a wonderful dinner at a local French restaurant, where I used mein deutsch a bit to order and ask, "Wo ist das bat?" Look it up. :)
Strasbourg is gorgeous. As an American we encountered in the center of the city said, "This place is really a hidden gem." It really lacks a French or German identity because of border changes throughout the 20th century, so it has the flavor of both countries. We ventured down into the center of town and accidentally came upon a light show being cast upon a beautiful cathedral in town, set to classical music by the likes of Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov. Incredible. Some pictures:
We leave tomorrow to continue exploring the warpath of my grandfather, and get our first taste of Germany. Gotta start practicing my "Ein bier, bitte!"
Till then,
Tschüss.
James
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