Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Our Christmas letter is online again this year, as we transition to a more-green* season. A little taste of how our year has been, as well as some pictures taken by both of us, are posted in warm JPG form. Enjoy :-)

Jon and I are doing great, and will be cozy in Calgary (brr... it's -20 C right now!) for the whole holiday season. My parents are in town for the month, so I'm betting that we'll be sharing a meal or two with them between now and the new year. Life is good.

I've also consolidated the pictures from Europe into albums by country name... even if we visited a couple of places in most countries. Comments are an ongoing project. To see the 'best' of the 'best', stick with the albums with only country names.

The Netherlands
Germany
Czech Republic
Italy
France

Have a great Winter break everyone!

xoxo
Rea & Jon




*Jon won't let me go all green on the cards... some people still get them in the snail mail :-)

For the Christmas Visitor

Hey Everyone!

If you are coming to this blog because of our Christmas card, welcome! If you are not, welcome as well!

Plans for our traveling next year include Kewlona sometime around February and New York City in the Fall. Who knows what else as well!

Have a Merry Christmas!

- Jon and Rea

In the days after...

Sometime today I'll start looking at pictures that I didn't get to post, and insert a few here/facebook/picasaweb.

Jon and I are certainly zonked. We were happy to see Beth, and of course the puppies... they were well prepped by Beth to know we were coming home and didn't seem excessivly surprised that we walked up to Beth's truck when we did. It was cute.

We're ever so thankful for her staying over with them. The place looks great (cleaner in spots than it has been in ages!) and the doggies are content and stress free. We owe her immensely - and the Kapler family too for taking over for a couple of days in the middle there.

Yesterday was composed of getting up, having pancakes, sorting out some errands online (bills, etc), lunch with Jayne, washing the car, and making our way back home. We stopped by Sobey's and picked up a mock Paris lunch of ham, cheese, baguette, and the essentials we're out of like milk, bread, and eggs. Jayne joined us after work and we swapped catch-up stories and watched some of the episodes of Amazing Race we missed. Their cross-world races and jaunts remind me a little of what we returned from, and I now more than ever know that show would kick the butts of anyone who wasn't seriously fit. It made me tired watching it...

So since the plane ride home I've been battling a bug. It's no fun. I'm happy to have Pepto, a bed, and a bathroom nearby, and thankfully work doesn't expect me until Monday. On top of jet lag I'm a grumbily tummy lady and I'm none too pleased. At least it didn't hit while I was IN Europe, like it did Jon in Prague. Jon is at work today - the poor dude. I expect him home early.

While I'm happy to be home it's certainly a little surreal. I can empathize with my parents, who never seem to have that 'home' landing base for long. I wonder if their routines just have to be what ground them, no matter the country. That's a reality I can only somewhat relate to it seems.

The rest of today should be putting my bag away, washing everything I wore there (it's nice having different clothes to choose from!), and getting the house back to where it was only 36 hours ago when Beth was the only one here.

Maybe a nap first.

Thanks for reading (and for the few comments too - more next time please :-)

-Rea

Back in Calgary.

We made it back in one piece after about 14 hours in the air and 3 hours in Chicago O'Hare. I think it is about 6AM tomorrow body time, so I don't think I will last much longer before going to bed. Beth picked us up from the airport with the puppies and it was great to see them all. Thanks to her so much for house/dog sitting.

Next week I am going to Los Angeles for a conference (Rea gets to play the single girl while I am gone) so I guess I might post some more about what I see down there. As it will be a technology conference I don't expect too much worthy of this blog will be coming up, but you never know!

Thanks everyone for reading, it really was neat to see who was following along and to read the comments. It makes keeping a blog like this worth it.

Took to the last day...

This afternoon after the Catacombs tour Rea decided that she wanted to visit this department store in East Paris (Barbes-Rochechouart station for those who were wondering) that we saw on the train one day. Needless to say it was not in a good part of town, and there were lots of guys trying to sell Marlboro cigarettes in front of the train station which was completely bizarre. We walked through the crowd and went to the store which was a disappointment.

On the way back to the station, Rea and Caroline went through the turnstile on the left and I went through the one on the right. I had my wallet out earlier to get tickets out, so I think that was probably what marked me. Quickly this dude bumps in front of me trying to get through and I thought that it was kind of fishy. I suddenly felt a movement in my front right pocket (where I keep my wallet). Quickly I reached down and I grab the guy's hand and slaped it. He quickly runs up a little further and fakes getting rejected by the turnstile and runs away saying "sorry sorry sorry". I gave him the stank eye and quickly looked at his hands and couldn't see anything in them.

Initially I thought I had lost my wallet, but since I didn't see it in his hand I checked my pocket again and it was still there. After the turnstile Rea and I said to each other that it appeared that was a typical pick pocket ruse and we turned around and flicked off the guys still standing on the other side of the turnstile. They were all well dressed nice looking middle eastern guys.

You know since there was only a credit card, debit card and about 20 Euro in cash in the wallet I was not too pissed off and actually considered it a interesting experience. Especially since I got to tell the guy to f*ck off. Also since it was the last day of the trip it wouldn't have been that big of a deal. Good story though...

On the way home later in the evening we noticed that police were at that station and had busted up the guys selling the cigarettes and hopefully the pick pockets.

So, dear readers, when in Europe as everywhere else in the world, keep an eye out for
your personal belongings and remain observant of your surroundings. Use a money belt to store your passports, large cash bills and other important things. Also, don't let petty thieves spoil your trip if you do get ripped off because at least you have an interesting story to tell. :-)

All good things must come to an end...

Today is the last day of our trip in Europe. Tomorrow morning we fly home at 11:15AM from CDG airport here in Paris. I think today we are going to go see the catacombs and maybe bop around town some. We are staying at Caroline's brother's place with her, so I think we are doing a day late Thanksgiving dinner tonight as well. I think that all depends on the availability of turkey and/or chicken at the grocery store.

Paris was a good place to end the trip, especially with 5 days in which to take in the sites via a sane and less wearying approach. I would have liked to get to Versailles, but as Rick Steves says, I will just have to plan to come back. Next time I think we might rent bikes in the bigger city to help with the commuting to the sites as walking and metro is effective but pretty tiring after a while.

Speaking of tiring, I think we have both lost about 10 pounds and stairs are no longer as daunting as they were at the beginning of the trip (even with the 15 kilo packs on our backs). I hope we can somehow continue this level of activity at home, but I think that might be pretty challenging. I guess lots of dog walks and maybe a treadmill?

At the end of the day, this trip was awesome. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Other than the night train from Milan to Paris I don't think I had one bad experience the entire time (and really that wasn't so bad either, it was just kind of irritating). Sure, there were some exhausting moments, but they were worth it in the long run. I think everyone should have an experience like this, traveling to another place and seeing how the other side lives.

What is next for the traveling Sauters? I think there is a trip planned to New York next October, but other than that nothing is in the works. I would like to visit some of the places we did on this trip again and spend some more time there, but then I also would like to see Croatia, China, Morocco and about 10 other places. I suppose we will have to see where life takes us now!

Blogging from Under the Eiffel Tower

Paris has free wifi in parks. It is a really good idea, and it is surprisingly fast. Faster then the for pay wifi we could get in our room.

We are sitting in the park under neath the Eiffel Tower and it is a very nice day out. We waited in the line and went up to the second floor to see the view. The line up to the top was long, and the haze and lack of cash on us prevented us from going to the top. No big deal, maybe next time we are in the city!