Today has been wonderful! We had a free day where we got to set our own schedule for the most part. We had breakfast with the group after a sleep-in until 8ish. Our group and Antonio, our tour director, took the metro downtown where we did a little shopping, had lunch at the Barcelona Hard Rock Cafe and then took a walk to the Christopher Columbus statue of him pointing towards America. We booked a cruise that took us around the harbour and down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea for about an hour and an half. It was a little wavy but a fun time. It was a boat full of EF kids. Tonight we will have supper at 9 and then get ready for our 4 am wake-up call to start the trek home. It has been an incredible trip. Ten full days of exploring, nine hour flight from Canada, eight hour flight from Munich to Toronto, seven special and well-loved students, six silly adults, five umbrellas purchased, four bus drivers we forgot to tip so we went on the cruise instead, three countries, two thousand years of history witnessed that makes Canada look like an infant equals a once in a lifetime experience with one fantastic group!

Kerri’s pedometer count today was 16852 which is 7.1 miles.

Our tour director was such a good person to have with us. Antonio was a real treat! 🙂

We woke on the train this morning to sunny Spain! We are hoping that it is warm outside and we can put our ski-doo suits away. The weather has not been overly warm. We must be blessed as we got to experience the coldest Easter that England has had in the last 50 years.

We had breakfast on the train, which was not overly nutritious, but we experienced it. We boarded the bus that took us for a city tour. We saw the Mediterranean Sea, some beautiful views and some really old churches. One was built in the 13th century! We had a tour of “old Catalonia” and saw the steps where christopher Columbus was received by the Queen of Spain when he returned from finding America. Pretty cool we had an entire group picture taken on those steps We spent some time shopping before having lunch at 2 which is the Spanish time for that. We just finished supper, which was served at 9 at our hotel tonight.

Kerri’s pedometer tallied 18000 steps today which is 7,5 miles.

Tomorrow we will enjoy our last day of Spain with a free day where we get to plan the day. We are looking forward to visiting the beach and dipping our toes in the Mediterranean

Bonjour or bonsoir, depending on when you are reading this post! Today had us visiting the extravagant home of a slough of Louis’! Versailles was an interesting view as it was absolutely beautiful with its many gardens and grand rooms. We proved that we weren’t that far away from home when we ran into the travelers from Milestone. I heard a squeal from Justine as she hugged her friend, Darby Shindelka. I even got a hug. It was kinda like a scene from a movie as they met. We spent the afternoon with some shopping in the Italian district of Paris, while some went to Invalides, a museum of WW1 and WW2. Supper had us enjoying flammekueche, a very flat pizza type of dish. It was good. I am typing this as we wait to board the night train to Barcelona. Update from the train: our quarters were tight but cozy.

The orange jackets have been a fantastic hit. Kerri and I have discussed that if this trip was to be done again, we would strongly suggest that they are a must. It makes traveling must less stressful to quickly be able to identify our students. We have had other leaders comment on what a good idea they were.

Highlights of the day:
* Amy was happy to be able to sleep in today until 650. Honestly this is a great holiday, but very hectic!
* Victoria is very excited about her new lightning bolt leggings.
* Kerri loved walking through the gardens at Versailles.
* Leah is ecstatic over the scarf she found.
* Janet loved getting a chocolate crepe today on the street. She got a chocolate one, as they didn’t have any bananas
* Jeanette loves the extraordinary rooms of Louis. She just wishes she could have had to give public births like Louis’ wife had to.
* Allen loved the fact that he got to wake up next to wife this morning as on the train to,Spain he gets to share a room with our guide and two strangers. FYI the rest of us got to bunk with each other.
* Carter liked seeing the train workers at the station ride segways around.
* Jack loved the gardens of Versailles
* Alexis is just happy to leave Paris and the language of French behind. I am not going to tell her they speak Spanish in Barcelona.
* Jada really enjoyed her nap on the bus and almost witnessing our bus whack a guy on a bike.
* Justine was pretty excited to see her good buddy Darby. Shocker.
* I am happy that we haven’t lost anyone on the subway as that is a bit stressful. Thank goodness for our orange jackets.
* pedometer count today is 14000 or about 6 miles

* This morning we went on a very interesting city tour in our very comfortable tour bus. We visited many things that Napoleon was responsible for, the tunnel where Princess Diana died, and zoomed by the Arc and Eiffel Tower with lots of other things. We have been touring for six days now and are showing a little fatigue. A few winks may have been caught during this tour. Oops. The tour guide kept sniffing into the mike with her soothing voice and I think that’s why we may have napped some. We visited the Louvre. We tried to do the entire museum in about three hours. That’s a joke as one could MAYBE see it all once in a lifetime. It is huge. We had time to some shopping and enjoy each other before heading to “Hippopotamus” for supper of pork and scalloped potatoes. After that we went to a painters market “Montmatre” where some had their portraits painted. It is another late night, but all is going well. Tomorrow we are off to Versailles and the night train to Barcelona. I don’t expect to have wifi tomorrow so will be probably not be able to update until the next day.

Highlights from today
* steps today 21492 which equals 8.9 miles
* Carter tried to order a crepe today in French. He received hot chocolate instead. Oops
* We thought we couldn’t find Jada, Alexis and Janet today, but they just had the meeting time mixed up. They showed up just a little late. All is good 🙂
* please disregard any English goofs in this blog. In doing this late at night on my iPad, some mistakes slip by my tired eyes and not having a real keyboard is a hindrance. I feel like a hypocrite as I tell my students to edit and revise before publishing. To my students, please remember this is a work in progress :).

Bonjour from Paris!
*Took a great ride on the euro star thru the Chunnel from London to Paris this morning! We were at King’s Cross but had to go through security before we could visit Platform 9 3/4 of Harry Potter fame. Arrived around noon and visited the Arc de Triumph and were sent off on our own to find lunch in a short amount of time. After searching for something “different” most of us decided on none other than McDonalds! It was quick and somewhat ironic to eat French fries in France and Jack was able to get his “royal with cheese”!
*After lunch it was down into the metro to make our way to Notre Dame! What a site! Then we had an early supper of crepes. We made sure to utilize our buddy system strictly. We have a great ratio of adults to kids all of who do not want to get left behind on the subway.
*We ended our day with a trip to the Eiffel Tower! Many of the kids and Leah and Jeanette climbed the stairs to the 2nd level! They got some awesome pictures! We also were privy to see the tower all glittery at 9pm! Very beautiful all lit up! Some of us went on a motorized rickshaw contraption on a drive to Champs d’Elysee. Very interesting zipping around the Arc de Triumph in that thing.
*The pedometer hit a high today of 17,508 steps which is 7.3 miles! Way to go Team Orange!
* Amy’s goal is to catch a pigeon before we go. She will do it the last day as she doesn’t want to get too dirty. She had her chance today at Notre Dame. Good luck with that Keitha!
* Carter has started drinking coffee. The others are thinking he shouldn’t as it is a little potent then at home
* Victoria knows her mom has sent her voice mail messages, but she is unsure if she will be charged to listen to them. She knows they are there though Mom!
* Alexis, Jada, and Justine were a little shocked to be able to enter someone’s apartment from their hotel room in Paris tonight. W got that fixed before long.
* Justine thinks the others are crazy as they were all buying lasers tonight.

Tomorrow it’s a trip to the Louvre to see the famous Mona Lisa!
Good night all!

Today found us on the tour bus to Stonehenge where we were informed of all the theories of how the massive rocks got in place and the reasons for why they were put in place in the first place. Aliens. Druids. Lots of men. The most plausible reason to me was the need for telling the time of year for the farmers as we understand the importance of the seasons for farming. Anyways, to steal a phrase off of a shirt there, “Stonehenge Rocks!”. After that we visited the ancient Roman baths at Bath, England. It is really is a charming little town with street performers and entertainment. It was reminiscent of Banff or Aspen, some say. Supper was in London at “Aye Old English Pub” or something like that for fish and chips, while Kerri had a lovely baked potato instead. One needs to become a fish lover, I guess. The sightseeing was good today, but the other highlights of the day were our wonderful guide, Stuart, who shared many English stories of royals, listening to Jack’s idea of creating a show entitled “Jack’s Lifestories” where he would enlighten the world with his wisdom, and watching the kids really relax. They were riding the tube tonight with the confidence of real Londoners. They have really gelled and are enjoying each others company immensely, which is wonderful. There is girl from another group who has taken a real shining to one of our boys. Too funny :). The time changes tomorrow so we will have another early morning as we take the early train to Paris via the Chunnel. With any luck, we might even get to use Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross.
* Kerri’s pedometer read 10350 steps today so only 4.3 miles.
* only one casualty so far when Pam bit the pavement tripping off the curb. Oops. She didn’t need that skin on her knee anyways.
* we are so proud of Kerri and Janet today. They rode a glass elevator to the top of a building to take some photos. They did so well.
* interesting English terms: interesting means “are you kidding”, sorry doesn’t really sorry as it just the English way of being nice, way out is the term on signs to exit

Wow! We are getting our exercise on this trip. We started the day with our 630 wake up call with breakfast at 730. We took the “tube” (subway) to the Tower of London and spent about four hours there viewing the castle, the Torture Chamber and the Crown Jewels. Those royals from yesteryear took life seriously with their weapons, discipline, and their crowns! Lunch was on our own with some choosing pizza, fish and chips or burgers. The afternoon had us taking a bus tour of central London. We saw St.Pauls’s Cathedral which was really cool. There was a Good Friday service going on so we could only sneak in very quietly and see the beautiful inside. We also visited Buckingham Palace with a bus tour of Fleet Street, Piccadilly Circus, the theatre district and more. The weather has been quite cold so there have been some toques and sweaters bought. The kids (and adults) are enjoying themselves, but are a little tired. Once again the kids from Yellow Grass are the best. When they have been allowed free time, they have always been back in plenty of time. These kids make it very easy to be happy we have done this trip. Well done parents! Tonight, nine of our group who aren’t afraid of heights went to the London Eye and had a wonderful view of London.
* Kerri’s step counter clocked in at 21000 which is approximated 7 miles. No wonder we are ready for bed!
* supper tonight was at Wagamama, a noodle with bean sprouts and chicken joint at the Tower of London.
* Awesome day. Looking forward to Stonehenge and Bath tomorrow
*BTW, even with warning from the beefeater, SOMEONE from our “trip”, missed her step into the chapel……hmmmmm….who could that be???

I know Pam will also be adding a post but I wanted to add a little tidbit of info so u can get a feel for how busy we have been: yesterday we walked 12,482 steps which is approximately 5.2 miles! Today when I got back we were at 15,828 steps which is roughly 6.5 miles of walking – and lots are still out enjoying one site that was just too high off the ground and moving for this gal and a few others! But I was sure to send Amy with my camera so I can pretend I was there! So far it’s been an awesome experience! Everyone is so well behaved and having a blast! What a great bunch!

Today was a relatively short tour day, thank goodness as we are pretty tired from the flight. Our entire group consists of students from Kipling, Waldheim, and southern California. We took the subway to central London to view Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Government Road with 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square, the London Eye, and a sneak peek of Buckingham Palace. We went to the Queens Calvary and got our picture taken with the guard. All was good, but we were warned not to touch him. We went to Covent Place which is a center of intense trinket shopping, street entertainment and tons of people. Finished the day off with a meal of chicken stew with hummus. Everyone is accounted for and is ready for a good nights sleep tonight. Will tell of more tomorrow, but all is good. Thank goodness for our orange jackets as it helps immensely on the subway.

*Interesting count. Kerri is wearing a step counter. She logged over 12000 steps today which is roughly the equivalent of 5 miles.
* We were told the Queen is not in town as she spends Easter at Balmoral in Scotland. Hmm. I thought she had told me she would be here to visit. Haha!
* weather was quite cool for London standards. The wind made it seem quite cold even for us tough Canadians. Some of us were quite happy we packed gloves.

The security in the Regina Airport was an interesting experience for all, especially Victoria, who was the lucky winner of getting her bags swabbed down. :). We have arrived in London after a somewhat restful night in a chair. The weather looks good and we are looking forward to our first day of touring. The group from Waldheim that will tour with us sat with us on the plane. They seem like a good bunch to hang around with. Our orange jackets have already gotten us noticed in the airport. We feel a little like celebrities. We are just waiting for the group from Kipling. All is well!

* one little note: we only lost Jeanette and Leah for a few minutes today. Hopefully their buddies, Jack and Victoria, can keep better track of their charges.