Long Time Since Last Entry...

We were still in London when I created my last entry. Beth and I still had lots more to see so we stayed for one more day. I was getting over my cold and a little sleep deprived-I would wake up to lots of sirens and trunks from the nearby street and the sun also rose at 4am. That combined with evenings of light until about 10pm made for very long days. I went to Westminster Abbey with Beth Friday morning and that took us till about the Noon hour. It was great to see all the history and the detail of the building. We then decided to split for the afternoon as she wanted to see the Tower of London and the Globe. I had a more relaxed afternoon in mind-picking up fruit and lunch at an outdoor market and reading on a patch of grass at a local park. I wanted some relaxation time before our next adventure the next morning-a train ride into Lille, France then to Paris and then finally an overnight train ride to Venice at 8:30pm. We left our hostel at about 7:45 Saturday morning and made it into Paris at about 2pm. We were tired from carrying around our packs and manuevering around the tangle Parisian metro system so we stopped at the Jardines des Plantes for some sunbathing and rest. It was a gorgeous sunny day and we were glad to take in some sun along with the Parisians. We then walked to the Notre Dame-a familiar site for both of us. We took turns in the amazing cathedral and then embarked to find our favorite Parisian gyro place only a few blocks away. We were both in Paris in December of 2002 with Justin and ate there almost every day we were in the city of lights. Our final night train adventure finally started at 8:30 that evening at the Bercy train station-a little hard to find but we found it with the help of a very nice woman at the Austerlitz train station. We slept in a 6 bunk couchette with a nice older american couple and a very nice and entertaining older Italian couple. The husband of the latter group wore a fanny pack that said "Slime Ball" and we had fun communicating in Spanish\Italian. We are finally clean and in Venice now... more on our time here tomorrow.