Bags are packed...we're ready to go! HOME

After a year of planning and saving our 6-week European vacation is now coming to a close. We have been to many countries (8 in total), travelled over 7,300km (by car alone!) and met so many interesting people. We've had so many "once in a lifetime" experiences, that's it's been hard to pick our favourites. At dinner tonight, Aidan asked us which was our favourite country...none of us could pick just one, so we decided on top two. That being said, it kept changing as the night wore on! It seems like Paris came out on top for all of us because of all the amazing sights we got to see (Eiffel Tower, Tour de France, the Louvre, D'Orsay, etc.) then came Amsterdam/Netherlands (Ralph) Switzerland (Aidan and me), but then I switched to Venice and Amsterdam...it's just too hard to say because each place was very different. We liked special things in each place. Vasa Museum in Stockholm was a huge highlight for Ralph. Canyoning and Parasailing in the Swiss Alps was top for Aidan, although he loved body surfing on the beach in Italy as well. There were just too many special moments. We all agreed that Kutna Hora in Czech Republic was the creepiest place we visited, although Ralph was really taken with the gothic church there. I can't believe we've actually done it and it's over now! To our family in Holland and Sweden, THANK-YOU so much for hosting us and taking such good care of us in the first part of our vacation. It was so great to meet all of you and finally be able to put faces to names for those of you we hadn't met yet! We would love to have you over to visit us in Canada ANYTIME! For those of you at home that have been following our journey through this blog or on facebook, I hope you've enjoyed hearing a bit about our adventures-- the good, the bad and the ugly! A special thank-you to Sue and Dave back in Victoria for handling everything at the office so that I could enjoy this special holiday with my family. Lots of love to everyone. Here's hoping we manage ok with all our luggage on the metro tomorrow morning and we find our way to the airport. I better get back online and research the metro/RER so I know where we need to go in the morning! Next stop CANADA :)

who's that girl?

Had a pretty mellow day today, as mellow as you can get in the middle of Paris! I did something really outside the box...a photo shoot with Paris photographer Brice Hardelin. Being someone that is used to being behind the scenes and/or promoting other people, it took some getting used to...being in front of a camera like that. I was encouraged by my friend Trish who had her portrait done a few weeks ago. It was stunning and I thought, "wow, that would be cool to do in Paris." Well, I did it, and I was surprised by the feelings that came up while doing the shoot. The overwhelming feeling at first was actually "fear." I thought that was kind of weird, but realized, I'm just not used to exposing myself like that. I like to think that I'm an open person, but wow, put someone in front of you with a camera and I definitely wanted to put my arms up like some kind of protective shield or hide my eyes away from the camera. Well, Brice is very patient and the results left me very grateful for the opportunity and speechless! Before the shoot my 15-year-old son teased me about doing the photo session, but he was the first one to see the picture on facebook and was duly impressed. Today I feel very much at peace as I reflect on our amazing vacation and I feel beautiful too...thank-you Brice!

Hit the wall today...

Back at our little apartment in the Marais district. We spent the day at the Musee D'Orsay and then wandered up to Napoleon's tomb and walked to the Arc de Triomphe. About half way up the Champs Elysees I hit a wall and felt like I couldn't go one more step. Yesterday was another full day as we went to Sacre C'oeur in the Montemarte district and did another full day of walking (with lots of cafe stops to people watch). We've been travelling with our friend Trish the last few days, although today along the Champs Elysees we said our goodbyes. She still had energy to shop and I alas was done for the day. She is off to London tomorrow and we have our last two days in Paris before we fly home on Friday.

Yesterday we were walking down a little street in Montemarte and I heard someone say Aidan's name. I looked back and there was a young boy in a cafe with his family. Turns out they're from Victoria and the boy and Aidan go to the same school (same grade and some same classes!) They also recognized us from the day before at the Tour de France because they were across the street from us and couldn't miss our signs and Canada paraphanelia. Had no idea that they actually knew us tho! After chatting for a bit, seems like we're even on the same flight back to Vancouver on Friday. Very small world indeed. Looking forward to getting home now. The trip is amazing, but it sure makes you realize what a wonderful place Canada is. Will probably spend the next few days exploring our very funky neighbourhood and doing some shopping before we have to say goodbye. More rest tonight to recharge the batteries for the last push before HOME :)

Tour de Freakin France

I don't even know where to begin. Yesterday has to rank right up there on the "best day ever" category. I'm having so many of those lately it's like an embarrassment of riches. The day started early when I picked up our friend from Victoria, Trish, so we could all watch the Tour de France and cheer on our local hometown guy, Ryder Hesjedal together. First stop, a store where we could buy posterboard and felt markers so we could make signs. No posterboard, but they had large white shipping envelopes with bubble wrap inside so it made them a bit stiffer...check, they'd do the job. We stopped in at a local cafe and bought our lunch for the road, but before we left, we spread out on the tables and started to make our signage. After some initial funny moments as we tried to get the Canadian maple leaf looking right for our "Canada flag" we were off to the races. (Thank goodness for our passport, which had a very tiny, but good model for us to use so our flag didn't look too amateurish.) Aidan and I also dashed back to our apartment to change our shirts because we realized we both had "Canada" shirts in our suitcases and today of all days was the day to be wearing them. Next it was off to the Place de Concorde to go and find a spot with the masses. We got there about 12:30 and it was already pretty crowded. We were trying to find a good spot when these two older ladies called Aidan over. They saw us with our signs and red shirts and decided we must have their spot right against the fence. They were from BC and had been waiting there for quite awhile, but realized they weren't going to be able to stay there for another 5+ hours, so they gave us their spot. The one lady said to us, "you've got these great signs and are all decked out, so you really must have a place right on the rail so they can see you." She was so great. So, signage, good spot, now we wait...Had a picnic lunch on the sidewalk. Had a group of student artists from the US next to us who were sketching the surroundings the whole time, another group of Norwegians all decked out with flags and colourful costumes and a very grumpy English couple...more on them later.

At about 3pm, all the sponsor vehicles started to come through the Concorde Plaza and it turned into a big party atmosphere. That lasted for over an hour. Many of the team cars also came by including the Garmin cars and bus (Ryder's team). They actually stopped and came out and took our picture. They must've alerted the CBC crew, because at some point the reporter and cameraman came looking for us. We did our interview that made it onto the CBC National news that night!! (click on the hotlink to have a look...it was fun!) THEN, along came the riders. That was super exciting and of course our guy did amazing. We clicked pictures like crazy and didn't really know if we were getting anyone in particular. I lucked out and one of my shots is of Ryder!!! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that it was #54!!! How cool is that! :)

Now, let me really set the scene. We were standing at the Concorde in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background and from afar we could see the big screen TV so we could actually watch the riders as they were making their way to the Champs Elysee. The atmosphere was electric, we were attracting alot of attention because it's not often Canada is represented at the Tour de France. Many of the other team buses and cars waved, gave us the thumbs up and took our picture. We were all yelling and cheering as the riders went by and remember that grumpy English couple I told you about? Well, they actually told us to BE QUIET!!! Here is what they said, "we've been listening to you cheer for the past three hours and now we're trying to watch the race, can you please stop yelling." They were actually really mad. We were in a crowd of tens of thousands of people...everyone yelling, clapping and making noise and they wanted us to be quiet so they could watch the big screen way off in the distance! Well, I thought Trish was going to come to fist to cuffs with the big Brit guy. She told him to settle down and I thought he was going to hit her! He said, 'well are you going to stop yelling?' I let him know that 'no, every time those riders come by we will be cheering, yelling and screaming...ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE IN THE CROWD AROUND US!'

Trish figured if they wanted to watch the race on the screen, then they should've stayed home and watched it on TV! Anyhow, it was actually kind of funny.

After the race, yours truly actually managed to bust through the barriers and the French Police guards and get into the area where all the team busses, cars, riders and support crew were. Went looking for the Garmin team bus to try to get a pic with Ryder. Unfortunately, they had already left! Every other team bus was there, so saw Lance Armstrong up close, Alberto Contador and several other athletes (big doping area set up there as well.) Anyhow, it was all very fun and cool. However, our day didn't stop there. Had a wonderful dinner and then we set off for the Eiffel Tower. Went up at night and saw the lights of Paris from the top of the tower at midnight. There was a full moon, the tower would light up with "sparkly" lights for five minutes at the top of the hour and we even saw a young man bend down on one knee and ask his girlfriend to marry him at the top of the tower!! It truly was a magical evening and an amazing, once in a lifetime day. I am living a dream!

exhausted, but resting up for more

Well, I think I finally got hit by the "i'm so tired truck, I think I'm going to tip over." We are in our flat in Paris, the 3rd district (Marais). It's right in the centre of the action and it's great. We arrived last night after spending the morning at the Canadian museum at Juno Beach. We stopped at the burial site for the Canadians that died on D-Day and the following Battle of Normandy. There were so many white markers. The tears start flowing before you even realize you're crying. Ralph and I were both moved to tears more than once yesterday. Then we took the tour of the beach and went through a german bunker and saw the various remnants of the fortifications from back in the day. The museum itself was a great history lesson. Clips from the front on D-day. More stories from veterans. It leads you through how Canada got involved in the war and had the speech from Hitler, the British PM and then the Canadian PM when they each declare war on Germany. Was also very nice to see "home" again. Just seeing the Canadian flag on our way in, was so nice. Made us all miss home. The emotion of yesterday, must've taken more energy than I realized because today at about 4pm, after a full day of visiting the Louvre and wandering to see the sights of Paris I just couldn't keep going another step. Had to get back to the apartment to lie down for a nap. We were going to go back out again tonight, but realize we've still got 5 more days, so we'll save our energy tonight, recharge our batteries and be ready to roll again tomorrow. We're going to meet our friend Trish in the morning and then go and cheer on our hometown cycling hero Ryder Hesjedal (sp?) at the finish of the Tour de France. I LOVE IT!! I was excited to see the finish of the Tour, but to now have a fellow Victorian who's in the actual top 10 to cheer on is just a gift. Trish and I are professional cheerers of our local sports hero's so it's going to be very fun! Saving energy for tomorrow is a very good idea, so it's off to bed for me! Early for a change :)

pictures :) Aidan flying and me back on terra firma

Went flying...like a bird!

Our final morning in Interlaken, Switzerland was AMAZING! The thunder and lightning that came through the night before made way for beautiful blue skies and we were able to go paragliding before we left for Paris. I have never experienced anything like that before in my life. First, let me say when you first arrive in Interlaken and you look into the sky you will see not only the majestic mountains, but a beautiful rainbow of paragliding sails sweeping and looping way up in the sky until they gently drop below the building skyline. It happens several times throughout the day, but when we arrived at about 6pm, you couldn't take your eyes off the sky and it looked so peaceful and beautiful that it really was the first thing you wanted to do. That was certainly my first question...how do we arrange to do that! Luckily, we were able to finish off our great stay in the Swiss Alps flying like birds over the treetops and in the mountains. It was so quiet and peaceful and beautiful up there...not scary at all! (once you get off the ground ;)

The first thing they do is get you into a harness that will act like a seat while you're in the air. You fly "tandem" so the pilot is behind you and you run together down this very steep mountain until your parasail catches the wind and lifts you off the ground and in seconds you are literally flying. It's like you're about to jump off a steep cliff, but you don't jump at all, just run and then lift-off! We were about 2,500 feet (800m) up and it's about a 15 minute flight down to the landing field. We caught a few cool updrafts and then my pilot took us swooping very low over the treetops (ok, that felt a bit scary when we were first heading for the trees!) But, you look down and see the town below, the lakes, the mountains and we actually saw a little deer type animal way up on the cliffside in the trees. We were also flying next to a hawk who was making alot of noise trying to talk to us. Aidan and Ralph took off behind me. Aidan requested a bit more of a spin and roller coaster ride (and got it). Anyhow, can't imagine anything else quite like that. Between canyoning the day before and then the paragliding, it was definitely a highlight, although there's been so many. One more week to go until we head for home. We've covered alot of ground over 7,300 km...woah. Feel totally blessed to be living this adventure. More soon.