France Sept 26-Oct 1

We started Friday Sept. 26 in Jerusalem with the morning available to walk to the old city on our own. We checked out of the Hotel at noon and waited for transport to the Tel Aviv Airport. We got to the airport with plenty of time and boarded our plane for Frankfort Germany and then on to Luxembourg and then by car to France. Our time in France was planned to be a visit with Joel and Nathalie Meyers and their four boys Simon, Paul, Phillip and Daniel. Since security is such a big deal in Israel the fact that one passenger didn't get on the plane caused a response of tracking down the passenger to make sure they didn't send a package through containing something that would have made the rest of the day not so fun. It took quite a while so our plane was delayed enough that we missed our connection in Frankfort to Luxembourg. As it turned out through the magic of cell phones and e-mail that we were able to change our arrangements and Joel Meyers was able to pick us up in Frankfort rather than in Luxembourgh. We got to the Meyer's about 1:00 AM this Friday the 26th. It was good to have a time to rest and visit after our whirlwind tour of Israel. The Meyers live a nice house built above the Church building in the town of Sarrguemines. with is right on the border of France and Germany.

We got a little sleep and in the morning we had a typical French breakfast of Coffee and Bread. Later I went out for a run to get some of the stiffness out. Clarice had old me about the hills here in Sarrguemines since she was at the Meyers several months earlier. I ran down to the village center across the river and a ways up the hill beyond. On the way back "the hill" to get back to their house was much steeper so the 4 mile run felt more like 8. We have had nice quiet day and a much needed rest. Jean and Roger Reisacher, long term missionaries in France, came over for a visit and dinner. After dinner Karen and I walked down to the village center and found a coffee shop and walked back to the Meyers, up "the hill". There was a nice river walk that we hoped to take one evening.

The Meyers oldest son, Simon, attends a school in Germany and has to attend school every other Saturday. We had the morning to available to relax so I went out for a run into town and along the river and up the really steep hill again. We then went to pick up Simon at his school and went for a picnic in a really nice park with a small lake that had a section with fountains that "played" with music. It was a very relaxing place. We had coffee and ice cream after the picnic. Then we went into Saarbrucken, Germany, which

is a fairly large city that has a main street and several side streets that were for pedestrians only. There were sidewalk cafes every where most of which were crammed with people. We had hot soft pretzels roasted chestnuts. It was a very relaxing day.

On Sunday the 28th we went to Church with the Meyers down stairs. After Church we had a wonderful lunch of sauerkraut and sausages. After lunch we went to Strasbourg, about an hours drive from Sarrguamines, with Nathalie and Phillip. Strasbourg is a city has an older section that was built as a walled city section, protected by rivers, moats and walls. Many of the buildings are of the 1700's vintage.

There is a cathedral, started in the 11th century and completed in 1439 that is very impressive both inside and out. On the way home we saw a great sunset over the mountains.

We decided to skip Paris and stay in the North a couple of days longer. There are several things that we will get to see here and the Meyers have asked us to stay with them a bit longer. Since we have been to Paris before we will try to see as much as possible in in northeast France. The plan at that point was to have Joel take us back to Frankfort on Thursday which will make the connections to Australia a quite a bit easier; we have three suit cases and two back packs to haul around.

That evening we did homemade pizzas. It was interesting finding all of the ingredients since pizza in France is a much different thing than in the U. S. Even so we were successful in getting pizzas made and enjoyed the meal.

On monday the 29th we spent the day in Sarrgaumines walking downtown doing the river walk, window shopping and doing coffee at a sidewalk cafe' and grocery shopping.

On Tuesday the 30th I decided to make sure that our plan fly out of Frankfort, bypassing Paris was going to work. It didn't. Apparently our "around the world ticket" would not let us skip a flight, so we had to make arrangements to get to the Paris airport after all. We made arrangements to take the high speed train from Nancy to the airport and for a hotel near the airport in Paris.

In the afternoon Joel let us use their cars for a day trip and we headed to the south west into the wine country. Our goal was to see the sites of small French villages and to see a restored castle called Haut Koenigsbourg. The reconstruction of the castle was completed in 1908 and was a very impressive site.

We stopped in one of the typical small towns and had dinner at a nice restaurant. Of course when we ordered we had no idea what we would be getting. That what happens you are in the boonies and don't speak the local language. It turned out that I had fish and mom had pork. Fancy fish and pork anyway

October 1st was our last day with the Meyers and it was Joel's birthday. I walked down town to get some powered sugar for a cake that Karen was baking for the birthday party. The grocery did not have any powered sugar so I went shopping for a birthday present and some flowers instead. They did have flowers and shirts in town. Then I got to walk up "the hill" again. We had a nice lunch birthday party and then Joel and I went to pick up Simon from School in Germany.

In the afternoon we drove to Nancy (pronounced Nar-sea). Nancy is the 6th largest city in France. There are a lot of very fancy old buildings and a couple of impressive city gates in Nancy. Also there was a complex of buildings constructed by a Polish Kaiser when they had control of that part of France.

We had our last evening meal with the Meyers at a fancy restaurant call the golden arches (Mc Donald’s that is). After dinner They drove us to a train station between Nancy and Metz.

We travel on the train toward Paris at 200 mph. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to travel the just over 200 miles to the airport in Paris with one stop along the way.

We spent the night in a hotel near the airport and headed out first thing in the morning 5:30 AM from Paris to Frankfort to Singapore and finally to Sydney. Once we got to the Charles De Gaul airport and through all the security checkes we spent the next 32 hours either on a plane or waiting for the next plane before we were outside again. We watched two sun rises and two sun sets on that leg of the trip