Brugge, Paris and Croatia, oh my!

In the wee hours this morning, while most of Paris' youth were still out celebrating a victory for France in the Eurocup, we jetted out of western Europe and landed safe and sound in Pula, Croatia!

 This last week we've been with Colin's family and traveled from Holland to Brugge, Belgium; a medieval city well know for many things but our favorite was it's chocolate and beer.  One pint of their hefty lagers and we all started to walk a little funny (9.5%!).  Our next stop was in Northern France where we visited the impressive Juno Beach Memorial and Museum.  We were all quite moved by it and would recommend it to any Canadian visiting the area.    

Our final stop with the whole family was Paris!  It started out with a lot of excitement as we tried to navigate our two rental cars through the chaotic (understatement) streets of Paris.  Somehow our gps decided that taking the round-about through the arc-de-triomphe was the best route...for those who have not been to Paris, know that the traffic around this monument is like nothing you have ever seen, there are no lanes, there are no rules, there are 13 non labeled exits and  hundreds of cars all trying to figure our where they were going!  We did make it to our hotel without a scratch and immediately found a parking garage where we left the car for the three days we were in the city.

We had great weather and hit up all the sites.  I have been fortunate enough to visit Paris before but each time I came the line up at the Eiffel tower was so long I didn't even bother but this time there was a surprisingly short line, the catch, of course, was we had to get up it on our own steam.   We huffed it up the 700 steps to the second level of the tower and then took the teeny tiny lift up to the very top which was spectacular!  Tired from a day of sightseeing most of our afternoons were spent in a local cafe/bar near our hotel, the beers less potent than in Belgium but well deserved.

I wish I could post a few pictures with the whole family but after taking some 30, 000 photos our camera went on strike.  We got a small replacement for the remainder of our trip but no family pictures on that one...apologies to Colin's family back home hoping for some family shots.

R