Holiday Inn Metz Technopole

This is an incredible place...but I don't have any pictures... when I got there my camera stopped working :( But I really think it was a blessing because I just saw everything and didn't worry about getting pictures of everything for later, I just saw and took it all in. It was a much needed get-away and it really blew me away, especially the Cathedral! Mass there was unbelievable...and I have a new-found love of French...and their pastries :)

We left Germany this morning with fuzzy heads after 4 pints of strong German Lager the evening before. We let Pete and Tim know our proposed route and set off in search of some sun!

It was not long before we heard from the lads who said they were still in the mountains probably having fun so we plodded along the motorway heading towards Metz.

Nothing much to report apart from the consumption of BK number two, two in two days. No we are not doing a ...

... nice to see him and his family again. Fantastic lunch and same goes for the company. As all good things have to end we parted around 4 pm to go back to my brother's place for ... you guessed it another reunion with a childhood friend, Agnes what can I say... she will never change. Love her to bits even though she is a little mad (in a nice way)

Got up this morning and after our ablutions we took the road for "Domremy-la-pucelle" birth place of Johann of arc. Great trip and pics taken. We then decided to go to the local cathedral to check it out ... this is when we saw he sign for: " ruine gallo-romaines de Grand". Of we pop following ...

... the other half and it was HUGE. I loved the fact that you could still walk around the ruins and get a feel for the enormity of the place.



Day 3Today we visited the WW1 museum in Verdun. It displayed

artefacts and battlefield recreations. My favourite part was the trench art.

The soldiers had made rings out of melted bullets, vases out of gun shells and

lighters made out of belt buckles and crucifix made out of bullets.The was ...

Got up around 7 am and got to the restaurant for breakfast. Typical French fare with "croissants plain and chocolate, bread, butter and jam" and the great taste of coffee with the addition of chicory to take off the bitterness. After "mon petit dejeuner" I took some goodies (unfortunately I will have to repeat this over the next few days) to Margaret and the kids so we could all a bite to eat together. After about an hour we decided on the program of the day and were going ...

... above and beyond these minimums. Every morning, we have a full spread of bread, jams, and cheeses. She also serves us other foods such as cereal, yogurt, or even occassionally waffles. Maga has also cooked for us on several occassions, and this first-hand experience with Luxembourg cuisine has not been disappointing. Before coming to Europe, I could not understand former students' warnings about gaining weight while abroad. Thanks to Maga, I ...

... shopping. The new part of the city is like shopping HEAVEN! For you Iowa folks, it's like the equivalency of Cedar Rapids downtown, but PACKED with shopping. It's more or less a giant outdoor mall. Some of the stores are familiar (There were two H&M's on one block, Foot Lockers, The Body Shop, etc...), but the real fun is enjoying the stores we don't have in America. We went into a really neat shop that sold handmade porcelain ...

... The first on the list was Temple Neuf. It was a pretty old church right on the river. There were a lot of swans swimming around near the Temple. Then I went to Cathedral d' Etienne. I was allowed to go in for free, which was nice. It looked really old inside, and had huge, very colorful stained glass windows. I also paid 2 euro to go into the crypt and the treasury. I was a little disappointed in the crypt because it wasn't really crypt-like. It ...

... blinds called Rolladins - sp? - that are controlled with buttons). Her house is bright and just generally wonderful and makes me want to move to Germany. Kaci's place is also about 15 min from each of two military bases: Vogelweh and Ramstein. Kaci (really K.C.) is a civilian teacher of military dependents on the Vogelweh base's high school, Kaiserslautern/KHS. She's an English teacher and we met when I was teaching in California the first year.