Tour 2011 Cont.

Friday
We continued our stay in Paris for most of the day. We toured Le Louvre that morning, splitting into small groups. Thanks to John David's research, we saw many of the famous works, including paintings by Italian and French artists and statues. Our group, Janet, Sarah, Toby, Robynn, John and moi, left and crossed the Seine to find a lunch spot. We enjoyed sitting outside eating quiche. Toby enjoyed a real lemonade (citron presse). We rejoined the large group and walked to L'Opera, splitting into small groups for free time. My group, John David, Jackson, Carol, Sarah, and Stephen, actually went inside and toured the Opera. This was a highlight for all of us. I had never been inside, and it was truly spectacular, rivaling anything at Versailles. Afterwards, Jackson went to his favorite shop, Zara, and bought a yellow shirt. Carol bought a blue and white striped shirt, very French. We met the large group and returned to the hotel to prepare for our overnight train ride to Milan and then to Florence.

The Train Ride from Hell
I warned everyone that of all my adventures in life, the craziest ones had happened on trains. We would not be disappointed. I'll just list everything that went wrong:
1. We were supposed to go from Paris to Florence, which would mean leaving early that evening and arriving early the next morning, around 7:30 a.m. Then we would eat breakfast and tour Florence. We had big hopes for shopping, eating a relaxing lunch by the Arno and seeing all the wonderful Renaissance architecture.
2. EF decided to put us on a train to Milan, which would arrive at 5:00 a.m. and then another train to Florence.
3. A tunnel in Switzerland closed due to a fire, which rerouted all trains. Thus, we knew in advance that we would run 4-5 hours late.
4. Our train left an hour later than planned--9:30 p.m. We knew we would not arrive in Milan before 10:00 a.m.
5. Once onboard, we actually had fun. We were in three cars. Car 1: Carol, Debbie, Joy, Sarah, Cathy, and Robynn; Car 2: Janet, Toby, Sarah, John, Jackson, and Dawn; Car 3: Josh, John David, Stephen, Armon, Aaron, and Claudia. I thought it would be wise to put the ladies in the first car away from the students. However, they had French women next to them who partied and entertained the train workers ALL NIGHT LONG!
6. We were having a good time, having found the bar car, when we realized we had stopped in the middle of nowhere. At some point we realized we were stopped for THREE HOURS! The next day we found out that someone had died on the train, and we had to stop for the investigation.
7. Around 1:00 a.m. we decided to call it a night. Jackson and Sarah slept on the top bunk, Janet and I had the middle, and Toby and John the bottom. We settled in for some much-needed rest.
8. Early that morning I heard the screeching sound of brakes and the teacher from Hawaii screaming, "Who did that?" One of her students had "accidentally" pulled the alarm, which resulted in our stopping for another hour.
9. Finally, at 2:30 p.m. we pulled into Milan.
10. We could not catch another train until 6:30 p.m. so we reached Florence at 8:30 p.m. that night!
I have to brag about our group. They were fabulous. They lost their day in Florence but graciously made the most of the rest on the train and the shopping/eating in the Milan train station. I have to admit that the train station was very nice, if you have to be stuck somewhere. Jackson went to Zara's and bought another yellow shirt.
Once we got to Florence, we ate pasta, which was very tasty. We walked around for about an hour, not really long enough except to see what we had missed! Unfortunately, these things happen in our travels and our life. We just make the most of what we have and move on.