Welcome To Scotland

We left Paris and arrived about 30 degrees cooler in Scotland. It was a very long day - packing (getting all the bags below the 15 kilo limit), cleaning and leaving the Paris apartment, hanging out at a cafe and park with the suitcases (there was only one guy we saw that looked like he was considering a snatch and run), lucking into an express train to the airport, arriving in Edinburgh, getting dinner, chatting with some fun folks at the pub, going to the Tattoo (totally cool, check out the Secret Swiss Drum Corp), and finally getting back to the apartment a bit before 2am.

We slept in late today, then went to walk the Royal Mile. It poured rain and became a game of chance with all of the morons carrying umbrellas.  Robb's rain coat failed, so we gave up on the walk and went shopping. There was a North Face store that had a great sale on, but before he could make up his mind they closed the store due to some electrical problem. We tried checking out, but were told it was unsafe for any of the staff to touch the electronics. We put the coats back and went downstairs only to see someone being checked out. Fortunately there was another outdoor store across the street with even better sales and all three of us found something!

We had a great dinner then back to the apartment to repack and play a game or two. Tomorrow we pick up a car and start the road trip.

This travel stuff can be exhausting.

Tourist Season, or Being Mowed Over At Versailles

We are moving into the tourist portion of our trip. A couple of Barb’s teammates planned to go to Versailles in Wednesday. Barb had a late night being out with her team after the competition, Rob had a late night waiting for Barb. This meant that they were still asleep when I decided to go meet the group going to Versailles. At least they were until I flushed the toilet on my way out.

I told the first group we would meet up with them at the palace while Barb and Rob rushed through their morning routines.  We hit Versailles, saw the lines for the palace and rapidly changed plans. Gardens first, then palace. Barb and Rob tried to get a museum pass at the Grand Trianon entrance, but they were only available at the main entrance, so they got timed tickets for the palace. When it came time to go through the palace we kind of sort of tagged along with a tour group through the initial security check. There was a quarter mile long line for general admission, but the timed tickets had no waiting. The guard told me to wait in the long line, but let Barb and Rib through, then took pity on me when he saw we were together.

The palace is really cool, but it is incredibly crowded. The tour groups move at their speed and woe be the person who gets in their way. They elbow, shove, push, and step wherever they want. The more popular rooms are wall to walk people. The gardens, however, are FABULOUS!  They are still crowded, but also huge!  The fountains are incredible, even if they are not running. Go see the gardens, skip the palace. Seriously.

Today was the Cluny, Pantheon, St Etienne’s, a failed attempt at watching some teammates compete in sparing, then.a sunset stroll along the Seine. Barb and I climbed the Pantheon tower. Highly recommended!

We have been doing 15-35k steps a day. There is no problem sleeping at night.

Competition Day

Rob and I spent ten and a half half hours sitting on wooden benches without any backs in 95+ degrees because the stupid games were too cheap to pay for AC.

Barb did an awesome open hand form, but finished 0.4 out of the medals. (I think she was robbed, but I might  be biased.) Weapons didn’t go as well.  The school as a whole did really well.

Tomorrow I think the sightseeing might finally begin. Versailles here we come!

Google still sucks. No luck on photos.

Paris Life

Now that I have a metro pass Paris is starting to feel more like home. Getting the pass was a bit of an issue - the first station wasn't able to sell the passes, the next one wasn't open, we burned time going to see a cool church, but it was closed on Monday, the info center was open, but wouldn't sell us the passes without photos to put on the passes and couldn't tell us where to get them. I remembered seeing one in the first station, so we walked back, took the photos and finally got the passes.

We headed out to Pere Lachaise and spent an hour or two seeing some really cool crypts and caves.  On the way back one of us was stepping on to a crowded metro car when someone stepped right in front of the one of us who had their pack over one shoulder while two others were jostling them from the sides as one started reaching for the pack. The person behind all this was able to grab the loose strap and pulled them off the train and started shouting.  The doors closed and the train pulled out. We didn't lose anything other than the two minutes to the next train and a sense of security.

Paris is still a beautiful city.

Waiting &Walking

I keep waiting for it to feel like I'm in Paris. Maybe it is because this is part work and part vacation. The first thing that had to be done on arrival was to get the athlete credentials for my sister. Which meant we walked to wait for her to get the name badge and gift bag.  The next day we waited for some team mates to show up for the opening ceremonies. Once they came it was standing in line for another hour, in the sun, with 200 close packed strangers.  We almost lost the fancy metal water bottles, but managed to get them through the final security check.  Unfortunately the water had to be dumped, the stadium had no water fountains we could use to refill, the bathrooms only had hot water and were a little gross, the concession stands opened late and wouldn't accept money or cards.  Then it was another wait to see her walk into the stadium. It was worth it   The team had matching black jackets, but that didn't make them stand out - the gold fan that my sister brought as her secondary weapon did.

The team is practicing in a small Roman coliseum until the competition facility opens. Yes, it its pretty cool. (Also, if you do come to Paris make sure you are here on a Sunday - the church bells are going off all over the place!). I left them to practice and wandered vaguely in the direction of the Rodin museum. On the way I ran into the Luxembourg Gardens (nice), got my first real glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, and had a fruit tart from a farmers market. I just have to say that The Thinker may be his most known work with the Kiss close behind, but if you haven't seen the Burghers of Calais you are truly missing out.

I had planned on walking back to the apartment straight after the museum, but I had bought a six day pass and decided to see if there was anything else in the neighborhood.  It's Paris! of course there was something, unless you consider Napoleon's tomb to be nothing. Then it was just a simple walk along the river back to the apartment.

Sorry, but I still can't get the photos from my phone to the blog. Thanks a lot Google!

Sleep

Thursday morning I wore a jacket and walked the dogs in an intermittent drizzle. Friday evening I went out for a crepe dinner in 95 heat. In between I slept for four, maybe five, hours. Welcome to Paris!

The sporting equipment made it fine, but when checking in for the games Barb asked about practicing with weapons in the parks and was told it would be a bad idea.  She will have access to an indoor practice facility so all's well and good on that front.

Here is the view for the next several nights:  (this image of the towers of Notre Dame obscured by trees and a clear view of the spire and south rose window is not available right now because :;)&-{#€^# Google decided to pull their app and I can't get the web page to pull it from my phone, oh well it is a problem for tomorrow).

The church bells have been ringing off and on for the last couple of hours. There are some night clubs in thebstreet below.  I have earplugs.