Paris, France

So, Amsterdam was surprisingly wonderful!  The hotel was gorgeous, had an indoor pool, balcony, and an awesome free breakfast! The best so far.  While we were in Amsterdam we went to the Anne Frank house, if you ever have the chance to visit, it's a must see! It is much larger than we expected, and more roomy too. We spent a lot of time just exploring the city and it was super pretty. I had heard lots of crazy things about that city, but it wasn't nearly as sketchy as it could have been. 

After one night in the best hotel so far, we headed to Belgium. It was a sad day... But we still had fun on the trip. We stopped in Brugee and went shopping then finished the super long trip on the slowest bus ever to Brussels.  In Brussels we ended up having Greek food and watched a little mini concert, and the next day we spent sight seeing. We saw some castles and stuff that no one has ever heard of, then we went back to the main square to watch the actual concert, which was so much fun! It was a national Flemish holiday and so they had lots of locals there. 

Then we finally got to go to Paris!!! I wish you could all be here to see this beautiful city! The first night we got in at about 8 pm local time and spent the night climbing the Eiffel Tower and watching the lights on it sparkle every hour. The view from the top was awesome. The city just glows. The next day, probably Monday, we went and saw the Arc de Triumph, Notre Dame, Sacre Ceure, St. Chapel, Moulin Rouge, and Champ Ellyse. In the evening, the entire group took a boat tour on the river next to the Eiffel Tower and we had some amazing pics come from this trip! On Tuesday we went on a day trip to Normandy and it was incredible to see Utah and Omaha Beach. I had no idea that there had been so much destruction there. You can see where bombs had dropped and where cement bunkers had been turned into piles of pebbles. The monuments and cemetery for all of the American soldiers were very well done and created a very peaceful resting place for those 9,000 + brave soldiers.  Last night was also incredible! When we got back from Normandy, we went over to the Eiffel Tower and watched the Bastille Day celebrations which included a light show and fireworks from the Eiffel Tower!!! It was the best fireworks show that I have ever seen. Probably a hundred times better than Disneyland's.

Today was one of my favorite days so far. We got up and had an appointment with the Bank of France and they gave us a tour of the bank's headquarters and we were really special apparently, because they took us into the meeting room of the bank's govenors!!! Only 3 groups get to tour the offices every year, they are never American, they never get to see some of the stuff we saw, and they usually have to be on a waiting list for 6 months! One of the guys in the group had some connections with his who set this visit up for us.  After the bank we went to Versailles! How incredible! It's nothing like any of the pictures I have seen. The chateau itself was huge, the rooms were beautiful, but the best part was the gardens! We walked around for a while and took pictures, but then eventually we found a bike rental shop and took a ride around the grounds. They went on forever! We rode for over an hour and still barely saw any of it. Dad would be so jealous if he knew how gorgeous our ride was!!! Tonight we will be taking it easy and just grabbing dinner at a cafe since we are all so tired. In the morning we will head to Switzerland and spend a few days there, it should be fun and a little more relaxing than the big cities we've spent most of our time in. Hope everyone is doing well!

Loves, Nicole