The Meier's German Adventure

and laugh...ahh, Paris.

Some times ya just gotta laugh ...

Of course - the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. (about 1504)

We did a very quick Louvre tour - but did manage to find the highlights - the first being the Venus de Milo. (Greece, late 3rd - early 2nd century BC)

Before we headed for home there was one last stop - the Louvre.

After dinner, this became our evening ritual in Paris - a little wine, some yummy desserts and lots of laughs.

We have been the 82nd Airborne museum at Ft. Bragg so we figured we should check out this one as well. It was a great museum - lots of artifacts and pictures.

Can you guess are next stop airborne? St. Mere Eglise! It was really cool to actually see the church steeple that John Steele was stuck on during the 82nds jump. Lots of American flags flying all over Normandy.

From Normandy, we continued on to Pont du Hoc. It is located 8 miles west of the cemetery. This is where the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled the 100 foot cliffs. For those that don't know about this - think Saving Private Ryan where Tom Hanks's unit landed at the cliff.

From Omaha we stopped at the American Cemetery at Normandy to honor our fallen servicemen. There are 9,387 servicemen and women buried here. Three hundred and seven of which are unknowns. The precisely aligned headstones against the immaculately maintained emerald green lawn convey an unforgettable feeling of peace and serenity.

This is a picture of Scott at Omaha Beach.

This morning, after a small problem (the Expedition got stuck in the underground parking garage) we drove north to the beaches of Normandy. Not a lot to say except wow.

The Arc de Triomphe is right at the end of the world famous Champs Elysees. Lots of famous overpriced stores but lots of fun! We even made some purchases!! Okay - so they were in the McDonalds but still on the Champs Elysees - still counts.

And here it is! We walked all around and through and under the Arc but opted not to climb up the 211 steps for the view from the top.

While we were inside, mass was going on. That was kind of neat because even thoough it was all in French, we knew exactly what was occuring. We grabbed some food to eat along the way to our next stop - the Arc de Triomphe.

After the first level we climbed all the way up to the rooftops of Notre Dame! It was well worth the climb!

This is the view from the gargoyle level - very nice. The bells started to chime when we were up here, very loud - poor Quasimodo!

A few of the famous gargoyles of Notre Dame.

This morning our first stop was Notre Dame! Before we ventured inside for a peek, we climbed the bell tower. The first part of the climb lets you outside right at the level where you see the top of the scaffolding on the left of the church.

Note to self - when they say No Parking - they mean it.

Okay - this might look strange, but, right now at night on the hour - the tower sparkles!! It was SO COOL!! The tower has hundreds of small strobe lights all over and they all just twinkle!! The shutter of the camera just caught it for a split second but it was very impressive. It made it worth waiting until 10 pm to see. Of course our walk back to the hotel felt really far that late. Still worth it.

Here are more of the happy tourists - in case you were curious, the Louvre is in the background. In the picture with Kaitlyn and Carson on the boat - you just begin to see part of Notre Dame. The river tour was neat. The seats all had a telephone receiver that would explain the sights to you in your chosen language. Along the river there were lots of "houseboats" that were so strange looking. They were black and all looked to be like a refurbished barge or something. Definitely not like any houseboats we had ever seen before. Once the cruise was over it was off to find our first restaurant of the trip. We managed to find a great place not too far from the tower. We also arrived just in time because soon after we sat down, which was about 7:30, the place packed out! Parisians do dinner at about 8.

After the tower we walked down to the River Seine and boarded a boat for an hour cruise up and down the river.

I bet you can guess where we are - Paris! A little after we checked into our apartment - which by the way was fabulous - we headed off to see the Eiffel Tower! It was such a gorgeous spring day - if its springtime than it must be Paris, right?

Ya just gotta love the Weinstrasse! It was a fun day and now Carson's total is 3 castles in 2 days. In case you were wondering - yes, we inspected some of the new purchases that evening!

This is the remains of the castle Limburg. Built around the year 1,000. I believe it was a former Cloister. It has a terrific restaurant inside now where we were all able to warm up a little and have a great lunch.

If it's Saturday - this must be the Weinstrasse! We all loaded up today and headed over to the Weinstrasse for a little wine tasting and buying of course! When it was time for some lunch - we decided to eat at a castle along the way. Doesn't everybody?

All in all, this was a great day! Mom, Dad and Carson have been in Germany for a matter of hours and they have already seen 2 castles!

The view was pretty cool!

This was originally an abbey and is not very old - built in the 1800s.

Peekaboo! This is from the second castle,Wachenburg, which sits a little higher up the mountain from our first castle.

This was looking out from the top of the remaining tower. There is a small restaurant inside the castle which unfortunately was not open but it looks like a great place for some cool refreshments.

Here is the view overlooking Weinheim.

This is Burguine Windeck! The view from this castle was beautiful. It is about 1,000 years old. It was destroyed in the 1600s.

Our company is here! This morning we picked up Carson and Mom and Dad from the airport and it was off to Weinheim to explore some castles! We figured it would be a great way to keep them awake for the day since I am now known as the sleep Nazi - NO SLEEP FOR THEM! This first picture is a shot of the kids inside these huge bushes we found while getting to the castles. The kids thought this was so cool - they felt like Alice in Wonderland.