If Home Is Where Your Heart Is. . . .

Today was the best day of the trip!  All three of my British siblings took off work and school to spend the day with me (and Maggie) and it was fantastic!  We laughed all day long and I was so happy!  Happy.  That is the word.  Free and light and content.  Today was a ten!

What a wonderful whirlwind of less than 48 hours we had in Paris!  It was perfect.  The weather was cloudy and cold except when we needed the sun to shine (at the top of the Eiffel Tower for example).  It was a good trip.  Lots of sight seeing and great time with my girls (Maggie and Carolin)! Thanks, Carolin, for taking a few vacation days to spend with us!  I love you so much and I am so thankful that we got this time together. . .on your turf!  Love you! This is the view I was talking about from our hotel, the Thoumieux.  I told Carolin Eiffel Tower and she gave it to us!

We hopped on the fast train from Dusseldorf at the crack of dawn and made it to Paris before lunch.  (I love Europe!)  The day started out perfectly--the donut guy gave us donuts in the train station even though they weren't open yet and Carolin and Maggie and I all matched one another and matched the train seats (it doesn't get any better than that)--and it kept getting better from that point on. Carolin booked us the most adorable hotel on the cutest little street.  The room is adorable on the top floor (we feel a little bit like princesses) and right when we step out of the door onto the street, we look to the left and there is the Eiffel Tower.  Perfect! The day began cloudy and as soon as we got to the very top of the tower, the sun came out and it was perfect!  We loved the Eiffel Tower and our walk all around Paris.  Then it started raining as we were heading to the Champs de Elyssee to take a picture for Andy.  So, we headed back to the room for an early dinner i

This morning we woke up in Germany!  I haven't been to Europe in 15 years and I still love it as much as I did then. . .maybe more actually!  For those of you who don't know, we had an exchange student live with us for nearly a year back in 1999-2000.  It is a long and fun and wonderful story of how we got her and what a perfect year it was and what a life time friendship it has been since.  Anyway, Maggie and I are here visiting her and it is so long overdue! Carolin picked us up in Frankfurt today and drove us to her home in Dusseldorf.  I am so happy to be here with her.  I love her so much and this has been so great seeing her life.  She is all grown up and has an apartment and a corner office with Ernst & Young.  I can't believe it! She toured us around D'dorf all afternoon and we had dinner with her mom.  I love this city.  It is adorable and I wish I had more than 18 hours here.  Now we're all tucked in for the night because she is heading to Pari

 I feel like I need to download a little bit on India.  I've been great about posting pictures, but that's about all. I love it.  I really do.  I need a year there just to take it all in.  There is no way to describe that country.  It contradicts itself around every corner (in a good and unique way). The people:  they are so nice and so happy and so friendly.  It is amazing.  I'm trying to sit back and think, but I think they are the nicest people in the world overall.  The smiles are everywhere.  The whole feeling from everyone is just laid back ease and contentment.  Even in the driving. . .it is as crazy as any country, but everyone is just so relaxed about it. . .very relaxed and joyful even in what would be aggression and road rage anywhere else.  There really must be something to the whole "Namaste" thing!  Namaste literally means a reverent bow or salutation and adoration and that sums it up.  People just seem to respect one another even in greeting.

WOW!  I have wanted to see the Taj Mahal in person for as long as I can remember and I've been there and it was just as great as I thought it would be. . .probably even better!  Wow!  In my ideal world, I would have taken a book and a hammock and I would have just read in the shade in the court yard all day long.  I loved it!

Oh my goodness!  It is a miracle that we did not have at least four thousand head on collisions today and I am not exaggerating.  The driving is so crazy here and it is such a different crazy from Thailand or Saudi or the Philippines or the US. . . I'm not even sure I can describe it.  It is a big game of chicken, but at the very last second both parties swerve and everyone is so patient and unaffected by the terrible driving.  In the US everyone would be mad at the other drivers and in Saudi it is a big testosterone fest but here it is just a friendly deal.  Weird.  And then the cows. . .we were driving 120 km/hr down this road and cows just trot out whenever and you have to swerve as to not hit them and hope that you don't hit a motorcycle or a bus in the process.  Very crazy. We made it from Jaipur to Agra, though.  Hands down Jaipur is the best city on the trip.  I really wish that I had six weeks, a camera and a moped to truly catch all I saw.  I love it there and my wo

It really was!  What a full and fun day we have had!  I took 465 pictures (on my camera) and they all tell a story!  Don't worry, I won't post them all (today).  I don't have a good enough internet connection or the time.  But it was so wonderful! We started our day with an elephant ride up to the old fort in Jaipur.  It was hysterically fun!  We toured the fort and charmed a snake (yes, a Cobra).  Then we rode a camel and that was an experience!  We shopped and shopped and shopped and shopped some more.  Oh my!  We visited the worlds largest sun dial.  Then we shopped some more and some more.  Oh my!  The bazars (markets)!!!  They are so much fun! And now, 14 hours later, we are back in the room and headed to bed!  Sorry for the lack of details, but they'll come later with more pictures!  I just wanted family to know we're alive!