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Just a mini-update while we do some research back at the hotel...
We stayed up until around 4AM talking with folks in the lobby, so we missed the ending of the Tour de France. Not a huge loss since I'm not a big biking fan, but it was something that may have been neat. We chatted up an aussie law student and a new zealand soon-to-be doctor. They were a great lot and had a greater grasp of politcs than most folks in the US. I argued with them about socialized medicine and they argued right back. Great fun!
We went up to the Sacre Coeur today, which is pictured above. It is a 5 minute walk from where we are staying and gives a panoramic view of the city. Inside the church is amazing with the requiste stained glass and statues. We came out and watched a street performer for a bit. Brenton dropped a .2E coin (a bit more than a quarter) and a 8 or 9 year old Japanese boy chased it down the stairs and picked it up. Brenton was rightly upset and chased him down and asked for his money back. The kid oblidged and Brenton sat back down with his coin. After a few seconds he got back up, tapped the kid on the shoulder, and gave him the coin. What a nice gesture! We then walk down the hundreds of steps and the kid comes tearing down the stairs after us. He gives Brenton a 100 Yen coin in return. How awesome is that - and it made an impression on Brenton.
A few minutes later, Brenton's 20E was burning a hole in his pocket so he spent 7.50 on a Haagen Daz smoothie. Now he wants to go take a ghost tour and can't afford the 20E it costs. Hopefully this will make things sink in for the rest of the trip.
He did another good deed today, which is nice to see. A teenage boy dropped a glass bottle on stairs and broke it. His whole family looked at it, shrugged, and walked on. He poppoed over there and picked up all the glass slivers so nobody would get hurt. I gave him a pat on the head and here we are.
I'm not sure what's going on the rest of today, but I figure we can pop out of the city for a day trip tomorrow. Tuesday we are going to head to Bruge (Belgium) for a day on the way to Amsterdam (Holland).
As much as I didn't want to do it, I've had to put together a rough itinerary because I realized we weren't going to hit the important stops if I didn't. I'm not going to book anything, but here is what we are looking at now. (I'll be interested in seeing how much it changes...)
28 Bruge
29 Amsterdam
1 Berlin
3 Prague
6 Munich
9 Interlaken or Grindelwald
12 Genoa
14 Sienna/Florence
16 Rome
I've love to explore eastern europe more (such as Aushwitz in Poland or Budapest in Hungary), but it just wouldn't work. Broken up like this our time on the train should be kept to small managable chunks that don't totally kill a day.
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