Update from Rome

Sorry for the long break. We're still alive, but it hasn't always been easy to find the time and the Internet connections to stay in touch. Today we're taking a bit of time off, and if we open the shutters and hold the computer out the hotel room window there's a bit of a wireless signal available, so maybe this update will work.

So I have to do another quick summary of three very full weeks. When will I learn to write things down each day and upload them when I can? Maybe tomorrow.

After the boat trip we spent a couple of days in Luxembourg - one more tick mark for our country list. Turns out it's a good tick mark to get. We had some great food, and were delighted to find that for 5€ we could get a day bus ticket that would take us anywhere in the country. We went to Echternach in the east, where there's a lovely basilica, and then explored the area around, called "Little Switzerland" because it's so rocky and mountainous. Lovely, and so easy to get around! Don't miss Luxembourg.

Off to Brussels for the weekend, to be met by our favourite son. We'd planned to move on to champagne country in Reims on Monday, but he had Tuesday off (May 1) so we stayed, walked around Brussels a bit more, and spent the holiday with him in Ghent. We'd seen Bruges on a tour from the boat, but I liked Ghent better. Perhaps it's because, as Evan says, it's a real town where real people live; perhaps it's because Evan was showing us around one of the places he likes. I kept thinking that this is surely payback time: the kid was collicky and screamed for his first few months, but now he's a delight to spend time with; a few months of misery are totally insignificant compared to the years of joy we've had with him (and his sister, of course).

So Wednesday morning we set off for Paris to meet up with our Turkish "daughter" Begüm, who arrived from Canada that afternoon. There was a panicky time at first when I couldn't find the tickets I'd been guarding in my purse - they didn't show up until that weekend when Evan was packing to go home. So we bought some new ones, trained to Paris, dropped the bags off at the hotel, got out to the airport by train and were there in plenty of time. No problem really.

Our hotel, the Albe, was in a perfect location right at the St. Michel-Notre Dame metro stop - Ron has found some great places through Trip Advisor. Poor Begüm has had to share some rooms with us, but she's been a good sport about it. Thursday we did Notre Dame, took a tour bus, and went up the Eiffel Tower. Friday was Versailles. Saturday we met Ophélie, the other Rotary exchange kid in Creston when Begüm was there, and did the Louvre. Unfortunately that day I also "did" my wrist by tripping over a cement traffic-stopper and landing on my hand. Moral: never walk and gawk at the same time. I think it's just sprained, although there have been times when I truly believed it was broken. That night Ron's camera got left at a restaurant and hasn't been seen since, unfortunately. That was not a good day. Sunday was better, though: a performance of the opera Simon Boccanegra at the Bastille theatre - great! - and a dinner boat tour along the Seine. Elegante.

Monday we headed off to the Périgord district in the southwest of France to visit our friends Susan and Harry. They have an amazing centuries-old farmhouse with attached guest apartment in the ancient town of Carlux. We enjoyed luxurious accommodations, the best food (mostly cooked by Susan, but the restaurants we sampled managed to look not too bad in spite of the stiff competition she gave them), great wines - Harry knows wine - and friends who are still good to be with after 15 years or so of absence. Those days felt like a real holiday.

Speaking of which, the rest of the gang seems to think we should get back to the hard work of touristing again. More later, inşallah.