"THE LOUVRE IS CLOSED ON TUESDAY"

Greetings again, friends.

Well, our trip to mainland europe is done. It was a helluva time, filled with mystery and intrigue, with sexy parties at every stop.

Since we spoke last, we went on a three day Fritsch-Bender. Four Fritches, three days. It was a Fritsch-a-Palooza. It was the Fritsch German Tour 2005. etc. After leaving Prague (where we finally got an email from Eva) we headed towards Jena (pronounced yena, not Jenna or Gina, etc.) where Eva goes to school. Spent a drunked night there with her 'friend' Andy and his cohorts, playing pool in a bar in the middle of a park. Spent the next day with Eva walking around her charming little college town before taking an afternoon train to Frankfurt to see Anton and Beate. Did dinner with them, and got a wonderful nights sleep there in Morfelden. The next day was off to Trier (the oldest city in Germany) to see Anna, where she recently got a job as a pediatrician in a hospital. Finding her there was not the easiest of jobs, but it was ultimately successful. Again, a great time and good night's sleep was had by all.

The Following day we hopped on a train headed northward to every college person's main attraction in Europe, Amsterdam. Spent two days there. There were no pictures taken. Only a couple of deeply coded messages were leaked from the Heineken Experience.

From Amsterdam, we made our way to Brussells. By that time, I was deathly ill. Really needed to go to the hospital, but didn't know how my insurance worked, so I didn't. Had a good time in Brussells despite the weather and my ailment. The had really great monuments to both world wars in the city that were cool. Belgian waffles for breakfast in the afternoon. We stayed in a hotel in Brussells. I've never been so happy to stay in a hotel. Hostels suck. I know I'm young and I'm not supposed to need privacy, but hostels suck. ( and sidenote: Angry British guys who go to bed at 9:30 in Amsterdam also suck)

We went to the train station early sunday morning to catch a wonderful eurostar train to Paris. Problem #1, eurostar trains don't go to paris. Problem #2, all trains to paris are full. Problem #3, Jerk-ass who works at the information booth is in a bad mood. Forget about Parisians hating Americans, I think this guy in Brussells had a stick larger than the eifel tower stuck in his ass. Screw you guy, wherever you may be. We went to another ticket window and got a train to Charles De Gaul airport, gave some angry glances to ticket guy #1, and were on our way.

Finally, Paris. Everything we hoped it would be. Except for the doctor who didn't speak english.
Another hotel there, it was worth it. I spent monday in the hotel recovering, while john made his way around town looking at the sights. The next day, awoke early ( I had my first breakfast in 5 days) and made our way to the Louvre to spend half the day looking at the greatest art museum in the world. (see above heading)

Spent the rest of the day wandering around the city, seeing Notre Dame, the eifel tower, palaces, gardens, where Laura went to school, etc. Ended our trip with a dinner at a medocre french restaurant.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

thanks to all who let us crash during the trip.

later y'all, we'll be home in two weeks.