aka Frankfurt, Rouen, Caen, on a French keyboard. So much for typing skills!

We’re in Caen today, after a pretty whirlwind tour of Frankfurt and Rouen. We’ve been taking a pile of photos but there’s no card reader on this ‘Net Cafe PC. Le crap! At least my Blackberry is charging so I can hopefully do more posts from the road. Wishing my USB plug-in would’ve lasted a few more days before frying! Anyways, on to the good stuff…

Frankfurt – cool city, busy but not insane, looking foward to seeing a bit more of it on our last day in Europe. Stayed in a hostel in the red light district our first night, which was surprisingly tame and nothing at all like the one in Amsterdan (but hey, what is?) We took the train to Paris the next morning and hit 320km/h on the way!!! Pretty sure that’s the fastest I’ve ever travelled on land before… scenery absolutely FLYING past! We were only in Paris long enough to take the Metro from one train stn to another, but Kirsten and I both agree we’d like to go back some day, especially with an Impressionist class under her belt.

Rouen – wow, how did we miss this city on our Vimy trip 2 years back? The main cathedral is jaw-dropping, and the church on the site where Joan of Arc was burned is very cool. We didn’t even realize that’s where she was killed… lucky that we came across it in our wanderings. Stayed in a cozy hotel room a few blocks from the cathedral, gorged on pain au chocolat and crepes (very healthy, I know!), and really enjoyed the architecture of the old town. And let me just say a quick word about public transit in Europe: WOW!! we’ve been on something like 6 different systems in the last 3 days, and everything is on time TO THE MINUTE! We could learn a thing or ten thousand from these folks…

Caen – good to be back! We’ve been able to check out a lot of new areas this time around, and with 2 nights to spend here we should be able to see a bunch more before taking off for Le Havre. Not only are we staying in the same little hotel as Jord and I did last trip, we’re in the very same room. Crazy like bananas! Taking a bus up to Juno Beach first thing tomorrow morning, then over to Bayeux to hopefully check out the Bayeux Tapestry, and back to Caen. On Wednesday we’re planning to take another bus up the coast to Le Havre, then on to Dieppe and finally my favorite place in France so far: Arras! Back to Vimy Ridge for sure, and hopefully do the trench tour this time around.

We have a hostel booked over the weekend in Amsterdam, then planning to visit Dutch family on the 18th. Hopefully I can post a whole bunch more between now and then, but that’s likely the soonest I’ll be able to upload photos. Links to follow, both here and on FB.

Enough novel writing for tonight… it’s after 8pm now and fighting jet lag something fierce. Hope you’re all doing well (we certainly are!)