Just another quick post with a little easier to use keyboard!! We travelled to St Malo where we spent a few nights and travelled over to Mont St Michel. What an amazing sight it is with the monastary built on top. The climb up to the top was not as long or as steep as I remember from 20 years ago but then I think everything looks bigger when you're young. We walked around St Malo and while the weather was cold and breezy, there weren't many tourists which was a nice change from Paris. In fact everywhere we've been we feel like we're travelling in the off season, the weather feels like snow should be coming any moment except when the sun pops out for its fifteen minutes to remind us it really is summer here. Dad wasn't too keen on the waiters in France and I dare say they probably shared the sentiment. More on that later.

Our adventures led us next to Tours, chateau country along the Loire River. We spent two days touring some impressive 'country homes' and admiring the beautiful flowers. Our driver explained a bit of the history of the region which I'll go into a bit more detail once I put some pictures up. He noted with more than just a little amusement that if it were not for the English, France would not have the nice chateau in this region. More impatient waiters but the wine makes all things bearable. And sometimes there is ice cream.

A train ride later, a mad dash from one Paris train station to another (not to mention a rain storm that would have had Noah building a new ark) and another train and several hours later we emerged, not quite dry, in Offenberg, Germany from where I'm currently sitting pecking away at a keyboard where most letters are in the right place except for the y and the z which are reversed.

The folks are off training about to some small town in the black forest that has 5 residents and hasn't been visited by the outside world in almost 600 years. Nancy and I chose to pass on the 4 hour round trip train ride in order to catch up on our blog a little, our email alot and enjoy a little of the sun that has chosen to grace this day. From here we head onto Heidelberg and then to St Goar en Rhein, still waiting for summer, I can only hope it catches up to us soon. The one pair of long pants I brought has finally learned to stand on its own accord and I'm sure will master the art of walking in another day or two. Pictures when they do get posted will surely look like I toured from London to Scotland to Ireland to France to Germany to Italy all in one day since I only brought one warm(ish) set of clothes and we are starting to become paranoid that the big black cloud we keep seeing is following us around!!

To truly appreciate how little one knows of a language, one must only sit down at an out of the way little restaurant and be handed a menu that the establishment has been kind enough not to include the english translation of its contents. This my friends is how we four have found ourselves these past two nights passing our time, trying in vain to interpret what this meal might actually be. Oh! a guide book might be helpful you say? we have two, trust me when I say they are not. Perhaps a complete unabridged German English dictionary might be of help but to which I say "Where´s the fun in that?" Besides, hunger drives us on and the wine (waiters understand the drinking motion, it must be universal) helps us laugh at our own ignorance. I cannot help think about how we must look to everyone else in the restaurant, hunched over our menu's, referring to our books as if we were cramming for that mid-term exam and we must not fail. So far we've all managed to get very edible meals, some would say delicious even if we can't pronounce any of them.

well that's all for now, time to go enjoy the sun while its out, oh wait its gone again...any way time for a DC. If everybody could kindly think sunny thoughts for the next few weeks it would be kindly appreciated. Ta.