A new day, a new adventure. Sunday morning we got out (some sooner than others) and toured around Aix-en-Provence before we had to pack up and get out of the hotel (noon ckout). We had a nice brunch of huge omlettes, fake hamburgers (max will explain) and then headed back out to head to Valbonne and the Laffargue's. It rained on us some as we drove to Cannes and followed Emmanuelle's recommendation to get near Valbonne and call as we would never find their house. We did and she came down, found us and led us back to their house. There house was beautiful and so were they! We had a little family huddle with drinks and appetizers before we mounted up (boys in one car, girls in the other) and drove via windy roads down to Antibes for a shoreline hike. And it was neat! We then proceeded over to Cannes to the famous beach lined avenue (where the Cannes film festival is) for dinner.

Monday we had a great morning around the house- after a great "french" breakfast, the kids hit the pool, the adults (minus Jon-Michel, who had to work) hit the small villlage of Biot. After yet great french lunch we bid adieu and headed west to St. Margharita Italy- near Genova for the night. We had a whale of time finding Hotel Europa. We did find a Hotel Europa but this one was a 4 star one in apparently the wrong town. We finally found it, had dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday we drove on into Florence, with a stop on the way in at Pisa- to see the leaning tower, and tour the baptistry and cathedral. It's simply amazing that we found it without maps and or direction signs- we just kind "felt" our way there. Let's see- find the town, find the old part of town, look up! We had lunch and toured and shopped before heading on to Florence.

Our hotel in Florence was right in the middle of old town- right in front of the Duomo cathedral. That is great for a location, tough for finding it and driving a car to it. We did pretty well after I decided to cave in and activate a data plan (with GPS) on my IPhone. That did make it considerably easier.

Today Wed. we hit the famous Uffizzi museum early at 8am because it is typically sold out and has humongous lines if you don't have rsvns. We didn't. We got into the museum on the second shift of walk-ins however and according to the kids, they have now had a lifetime supply of midevil art and sculpture. We also walked over the Pointe Vehicco to the Petti Palce- the home of the famous DeMedici family. They thought the palace reminded them of our house- NOT. Had lunch and kind of took it easy this afternoon- some shopping, gelato slurping, etc.

More later.
SS

Europe!

After many years of thinking about taking the kids to Europe, it was finally time to, as Nike preaches- Just Do It! We thought seriously of doing this last summer- even to the point of getting the kid's passports- just never committed by picking dates and buying tickets. As my dad use to say about our many family summer vacations- there's never the right time or enough money- you just have to go. With him passing at age 61, I'm sure glad he lived that theory and didn't put travel off till retirement! (Not that I suspecting that that will happen to me!)

Anyway, after buying tickets and a lot of Alice's hard work and extensive research we boarded the plane to Barcelona on Monday June 14th. Our flight was long but ok. We stopped for a layover in Philidelphia before continuing on US Air to Barc or BCN as it's known in shorthand. It was an 8 hour flight from Phili but with time zone changes we arrived at 8:30AM their time- 1:30AM body time of June 15th. I think most of us dozed on the flight after 2 movies but we were still in a daze at landing. We got through baggage and customs and found our way to the rail station to catch the metro. Alice found us a furnished apartment in the Badal district of Barcelona on the internet and we found it despite BCN's address system- not like ours! Badal was a little away from the central tourist area but metro accessible. It was three bedroom, kitchen, living room- a full apartment and quite nice. We settled in.

We really hadn't planned much activity our first day- knowing that we would all be tired and sleep deprived so we all napped for a while to recharge the batteries. After waking up, Alice and I went and walked the neighborhood to check out the environ and bought some fruit and bread, etc. to have something to snack on. We headed out in the PM to the Las Ramblas- the big pedestrian avenue in the main part of the city, which was amazing! It was fully packed, beautiful, lots of street performers and hundreds of shops, pricey hotels, etc. We stopped in one of the outdoor square's restaurants and had a meal of tapas- the traditional spanish series of small meals- this one consisting of shrimp, meatballs, sausages, seafood salad, greek salad and some add'l items we are not even sure what they were. After dinner we worked our way down to the end of the Ramblas- the port. By 10:15 we were pretty shot so caught the metro home to crash.

While the apartment was great, we were certainly not ready for sleeping in the city. Even though our building had exterior sound and light shutters, it was LOUD! Both from traffic and interior- other)apmt sounds. No one slept well the first night, which I'm sure was also due to jet lag/naps. Most of us had our Ipods plugged in or read to try to doze off but it didn't help. Of course everyone was exhausted by 7am...so Tuesday we were a little slow out of the gate- probably close to noonish. Our first stop was the Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi designed cathedral featured in all Barc references. It is something. What's most ironic to me is that they haven't had a religious service in the place in hundreds of years- it's been underconstruction now since 1884. And the construction was hot and heavy when we were there. I think they expect completion in 2033. Talk about not Just Doing It! We then walked down to Gaudi stop #2 (there's lots of them in BCN). Gaudi designed an apartment complex for a rich industrialist (his main sponsor) and his friends called the Casa Mila. It was just as bizarre as his other creations. The tour consisted of his wild rooftop terrace and a typical apartment occupying the entire 6th floor- set up as it would have been in his day- the teens-20's. We walked (alot of walking!) on back down to the Ramblas for lunch so we could also watch the Spain/Switzerland world cup match with the Spainards (they are known to flood the Ramblas after a victory). Instead we ended up in the back room of this restaurant with a bunch of Swiss fans, which was good because Spain lost- ha. Alice wanted to see the beaches so we walked down to the beaches then after the mandatory daily gelatio we headed back to the apmt. Everyone still very tired.

I really thought by the third night here we would have this sleeping down but some still had problems. So even though we went to bed at 9PMish, I was shocked to be the first one up at 10AM. I went on over to the bakery and picked up breakfast (or more likely- lunch) and was able to check my email with their wifi. BUT I also found out at this time that our electrical converter was not working for the laptop so I ran out of battery pretty quickly and couldn't recharge it. Oh no! So much for our planned use of the computer. Everyone was finally up and moving at the break of noon and we headed out to the Montijuc area to check out the 1992 Olympic site, the art museum (no interest except Al & I) and various other attractions in the area. It was kind of ironic that they were having a Harley Davidson show at the nearby convention building. Unfortunately because we got such a late start on the day, we made it to our next stop- the beautiful music hall about 15 min's after the last tour so we didn't get a chance to see it. Maybe on our way back through BCN before we leave? We had dinner locally then headed up to Parc Guell- the last Gaudi design stop- where Gaudi and his industrialist bought a mountain and decided to decorate it up. It frankly was a little disappointing to me for the hype given in the brochures. Alice wanted to go back to Montjuic where they had a music/fountain water show (kind of mini version of the Bellagio's) It was ok- very short.

Friday was our transitional day as we leave Barcelona on to our next destination. Everyone actually got up early due to necessity and I went over and got our rental car, we checked out of the apartment, survived driving through BCN to get on A7 motorway towards Avignon France. We did have one "culture" stop at the Pont du Gard- the famous roman three story aquaduct outside of Avignon. It was huge, which proves that pictures in books cannot replicate "being there". We headed on into Avignon and like in the old days- headed to the tourist info office at the train station to get a room (since we could book on the non-working computer). Since were tired of city night noise and had a car we chose a rural hotel the Hotel du Parc near Entraigues- a small town outside Avignon. This place was an adventure! It didn't help that we got totally lost trying to find it (because of my mis-turn) but once we got there we kind of cracked up. What a classic french hotel! We'll have to tell you in person what this place was like- or better yet- have the kids tell you. We had a french feast at their restaurant that night even though we had no idea what we were ordering (we had a little french and staff had no english either) The kids were disappointed that their room didnt have pope chairs like ours did!

Saturday, we were slow out of the chute again (see kind of a trend here?) and stopped at McD's (ok, a concession) for breakfast. It was unlike any traditional McD however. Called Quick, they only served "french-like" breakfast items- pastries, expresso, etc. Alice commented she's yet to find a good glass of cold skin milk. We headed into Avignon and toured the papal palace. Seven popes in the entire 14th century decided that France would be a better place to host christianity then the political turmoil in Italy at the time so they moved to Avignon where they built this complex. The tour was ok but the topic was somewhat depressing as all they talked about was the wealth collected by the popes and how they withered away the money on themselves (have things changed?) Avignon, in general is a neat town and I would like to spend more time here sometime but not today. After touring we headed via country roads down to Arles, a roman settlement where we toured the roman remains- a collesium, ampitheatre, and other remains before heading down to St. Marie du le mer- a small coastal village recommended by the Laffargues- french friends of the Lehoczky's. We got there and checked the place out. When we went to book a room, we discovered that none existed. It is apparently a very popular weekend escape destination for the french and showing up Saturday afternoon w/o a rsvn wasn't a good idea. The village was actually alot more commercial than I anticipated- reminding me of Destin.

So, we rolled with the punches and decided to go on to another city- Aix-en-Provence, an unplanned stop but what the hay? We got lost getting into the city (another reoccuring trend) before seeing a Best Western, where we stopped for directions and possibly a room. They were full but sent us over to an extended stay type hotel the Adagio which is where we are. We discovered last night that Aix is really cool-sophisicated and full of energy as we wandered the streets last night. No one here stays home on Saturday night was our conclusion.

Today we head on over to the Laffargues near Valbonne for the night. We look forward to it.

More later.

Scott

I will add pics to this later when I find time.