Ave des Champ-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe

Pics of Notre Dame

Some pics from today...Tour Eiffel

Some of the usual Paris stops - day 1

Got settled into our hotel, it's a small, older hotel around the corner from the National Opera. Not bad, but nothing compared to where we stayed in Kensington (London).

The first thing we picked up on in France (well Paris specifically but I suspect France in general) was that no one here, the locals, were very interested in helping out the Americans. Just getting a big enough taxi, not to mention an idea of what it would cost, to get us to our hotel (which turned out to be very close to the EuroStar terminal) was a huge challenge! Then similar experiences with the waitress at the restaurant when we asked about the breakfast menu*.

*breakfast was odd, the menu seemed big enough but what they actually had was limited, or at least the way they could prepare it was limited. We all, each of us, ended up having the exact same omelet because the waitress did not seem to want to ask the "chef" if he could vary the ingredients. Yeah, and they were like 12 euros each, and a 15 euro bottle of water did not help things.... don't get me started! I'll leave it at that.

After breakfast we hopped on a Red Bus (the standard open top tour bus you see everywhere. Here is how my first interaction goes with the driver:
Me - how much for two adults and two kids?
Driver - how old kids, 11?
Me - no, 12 and 16.
Driver - 96 euros!
Me - you take credit cards?
Driver - no credit cards! You have check?
Me - no, how about cash?
Driver - Yes, cash.
I give him 100 euros (its 96 so I should get change)
He gives me back 5 euros and asks for 1 euro back.
Me - you don't have 4 euros?
Driver - no, you give 1 euro to me!
Me - I don't have one!
Driver - you give me one!
Me - I'll tell you what, I have my change and my tickets and receipt, get it from someone else!
Driver - ok.

Need I say more?

Off we went. Started feeling the effects of the early wakeup call later in the day, kids falling asleep on the bus, etc. Wrapped up the bus thing, got dinner, back to the hotel. Off to the Louvre tomorrow and some sightseeing via foot.

Revisiting the sarcastic name of this blog

So it turns out the name was really accurate, the kids are even suggesting that I change the blog to "They Hate Us Here!" We're off on our first Paris sight seeing tour, this should be interesting, to say the least.

Waiting for the train....

We had a 4am wake -up call this morning, 5am taxi to the St Pancras Station to catch the Eurostar train to Paris. It's about a 2 and a half hour ride; should get there just in time for breakfast. More updates soon if the train has wireless.

BTW, not nearly enough time in London, I suspect it will be the same in Paris. Oh well, next time we'll stay longer.

Heading to the pub with Gilda.

Going out for a few pints with Gilda. More updates later. Off to Paris tomorrow.

Westminster Abby

Piccadilly Circus

St. Paul's

Update - day 3.

Yesterday was a long day (after the kids slept for 16 hours or so), got up, had lunch and then we went off on a Big Bus Tour. Stopped at the Tower of London and The London Dungeon. Both pretty cool but nothing too exciting. Later on we caught a taxi up to SOHO and checked out the pub scene up there, stopped in and had a pint mid afternoon. Saw china town too! Walked over to the London Eye from there, we were 15 minutes too late to make it on (we only saw it the other day, never went on it). That was ok though, got to see Big Ben again at night. Caught a cab back to the hotel, dropped off some stuff, then went out for a late dinner at an Italian restaurant. The kids had pizza twice yesterday, go figure.

Today we are up early, heading to breakfast, then up to King's Cross Station so the kids can see where some of Harry Potter was filmed (exciting, seriously, you don't believe me?). Anyway, later we'll head over to St. Paul's and Buckingham Palace (the Queen is in today apparently).

Yesterday it was quite cold, today is expected to be warmer summer like weather. Maybe that means above 60 degrees. We'll see! More to come later.

We have arrived...safe and tired!

2 hours Albuquerque to Houston, 9 hours Houston to Heathrow, finally landed here at 9:30am local (3:30 NM time). The kids enjoyed the flight as usual, watched movies, slept, ate, etc. Gilda and I had a nice exit row so it made the flight a little easier. Customs were slow but when we finally got through it was nice. Quick exit from the airport and off to the hotel.

We are staying in a decent place in the South Kensington section, just southwest of Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. Once we freshened up at the hotel we were off to Westminster to see Big Ben, Parliament, The London Eye, the Government Buildings, made our way up to Piccadilly Circus, etc. Had some lunch, got the kids some ice cream, and walked back to

the hotel.

Probably walked a good 8-10 miles today. It's 20 past 6pm and the kids are asleep already.

Overall, it was a great first day, looking forward to tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Today is the day. Last thing to do before we head to the airport is to drop off the boy for his vacation from us. He does fine where we board him and he usually does not want to leave, so he'll be good to go. This will be his longest stay to date so he will probably pick up a few bad habits. Nothing we can't handle though. He is snoozing because I just ran him for 30 minutes... he's good to go!

Kids are still sleeping, Gilda exercising, I'm going for a bike ride. Off to the airport in 2 hours or so.

Just About Ready!

A little past midnight here in N.M. Just finished packing (mostly), Gilda and the kids seem to have been done for days now, I always pack last minute. You know, so I can forget something last minute instead of before hand! Everyone is sleeping (Duncan too) and I'm up trying to make sure this netbook the I got for the trip is configured correctly, don't want to have to do this stuff when I should be relaxing.

Anyway, a brief overview of where we will be.

London - tomorrow - Thursday
Paris - Friday - Sunday
Barcelona - next Monday and Tuesday
Cruising next Wed... 13 days to Italy (a bunch of stops), Greece (3 stops), Turkey (1 stop)

Hopefully we can start throwing some pictures up here tomorrow.

BTW, congrats to Larimar's NM Select Basketball Team for making it into day 3 of the NM Games at UNM! Too bad she is not going to be able to finish the tourney tomorrow. Good luck girls!

Getting ready for departure on Monday

Made a decision, the name is not going anywhere.

Last day of work today before I take off for 11 weeks.

Busy weekend packing, making sure we did/do not forget anything.

Gonna try to make sure this blog is ready to go and easy to update while we travel. I'll try to post our itenarary* here so anyone who is interested can preview it. Not sure how the picture/video upload things workd here, I'll play around over the weekend and try to figure things out.

*I don't even know what time our flight departs Abq on Monday, probably something I need to look in to.

More later....

No surprises so far...

Well, Gilda already does not like the blog name "They love us here". She wants something like Burfeind/Rodriguez Adventures. That is a fine name but it just sounds a little boring to me. Maybe it would be more appropriate if we were, say, going on a "adventure" down the Amazon, or backpacking across .... They Love Us Here! makes me think of the movie European Vacation, only we would be the opposite of them, I hope, but enjoy it just as much. Anyone hear what I'm saying? I'm open to more suggestions too. Who knows, if your suggestion works, maybe you'll get a nice souvenir from Newark Airport, I mean Italy or Greece.

Just setup the blog... how's it looking?

So I just decided today that I'm going to make a somewhat serious attempt at blogging* our family vacation to Europe. Check back often and hopefully we'll have something you find interesting, or at least funny (intentionally or not).

Stay tuned!!

*btw, I have now idea how to blog, I'm learning as I go. This could turn out to be really messy.