London Berlin Paris

Monday found us with some time to visit Paris and we cabbed up to Montmarre and Sacre Couer












We saw a great clock sculpture outside of Gare De Nord










Connor & Drew at The Louvre
















In front of Winged Victory & Venus De Milo
















In front of Notre Dame Uncle Stephen and Connor as Connor beat the heat with a cone of creme glace


Drew found cool cars all through the streets, the smart cars were a great site for us!

Dinner at Tao Yeng another great Chinese restaurant and of cousre some Badoit, the champagne of sparkling water!

The night finished up with another Gin Rummy match but no one was the match for Uncle Stephen again (is he cheating????)

We had a great day in Paris, albeit a hot one as the temperature climbed over 90 degrees

There were multiple highlights of the day and one lesson learned, the first highlight was the misplacement of our digital camera and eventual recovery, found in Uncle Stephen's running shoes (lesson of the day was never skip your morning run)....

Followed quickly by a Segway (sigma) scooter tour of Paris, ,which Connor and Drew took to faster than anything else on the trip.

We zoomed around Paris, passsing awestruck tourists, had our photos take dozens of times as David our tour guide led us past the Tour Eiffel, The L'ecole milatarie, Napoleon's tomb, Les Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Tuillerres Gardens, Carousel Arc De Triomphe, The Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, Assemblie Nationale and back through the Champs de Mar with a quick stop for lunch thrown in the middle. A great event, pictures coming soon from our Kodak disposable as our digital was missing when we did this.

Back to the Westin for a bit of rest and then back to the Tour Eiffel for a great dinner at the Jules Verne

We were able to see the sunset over Paris and then at ten pm the entire tower lit up in flashing lights, what a sight!

We sat next to someone Uncle Stephen knows from Rumson New Jersey who regaled the boys with a new rocket racing league he has started. Granger quickly became fast friends with both Connor and Drew and we had a wonderful evening






Eventually we ended back up at the Westin and with no street celebrations to watch, settled in for our nightly game of cards.

We decided to retire the BS game as we were all tied and started a new game of Gin Rummy.

Good choice for Uncle Stephen as he ran the table and took a huge win from the group!

We woke up early on Saturday and snuck out before most awoke from their celebrations...we did a bit of sightseeing at Checkpoint Charlie and explored the Buddy Bear exhibit at Humboldt University before getting in some shopping where Connor and Aunt Jean found some interesting presents for folks back home

We then headed to yet another plane ride and rode in luxury on Air France (not) and dined on a wonderful lunch they provided (definetly not!! it was dis-gusting)

But our flight was right on time and we were no worse for the wear .... we actually had a driver show up so all in all a good days travel...

we arrived The Westin Paris for a quick lunch in the Terrace and some down time in the room while we watched Portgugal upset England on PKs....

Aunt Jean pulled the tough duty though as she worked with the concierge to find us a fun place to watch the Barzil - France match...she came up big with a brasserie just around the corner with a big screen but the only drawback was we would have to sit family style with other diners...we were all a bit apprehensive at first but after getting there we quickly made friends with Phillipe Carr and his extended family and all shared stories and wine togeher (stories for all but champagne and chablis for adults only!)


Phillipe had brought his nephew and some cousins from Brazil and the Uncle/Nephew connection was a great ice breaker and when they heard we had just come from the Germany - Argentina match all talk turned to the cup and we shared many a story about the US and France....Our table was evenly divided among French and Brazillian supporters and all went well - the first half ended with no advangtage or score for either team.

Mr. Phillipe was a very good customer of the restaraunt and at half time we were all invited to tour the wine cellar by the owner, Jules Retarf.

We headed down and Drew thought the cellar was really cool - temperture cool that is as Paris was having a bit of a heat wave and we all welcomed the refreeshing 58 degree cellar.





Uncle Stephen and his new best friend Phillipe found treasure after treasure in the multi-room cellar that held over 10,000 bottles of French wine.





Deserts followed and Connor fell in love with his Dame Blanche (Hot Chocolate and vanilla ice cream) while Drew and Aunt Jean were served a flaming Crepe Suzette,

Oh la la what fun but just after desert France scored and the entire place started to think the impossible, could France really beat Brazil?

Connor led the charge saying all along France would prevail and slowly but surely the clock ran down, 88 minutes, 89 minutes, how much extra time would there be???, only 3 minutes are added, the buzz started to build as you could feel the tension in the room swell higher and higher, and suddenly ZOOT ALOURS!!!

France had prevailed

People hugged and shouted, they started dancing on the tables and suddenly we heard blasts of noise from the street while the four of us looked at each other and said "Here we go again!"

Two nights in a row street celebrations in a major European capital but we must say, the Parisians made the Berliners look like they were at a country club re-union, wow did these people party...

We headed out and stuck our toe in the water of the celebration but quickly retreated to the safety of our hotel as wave after wave of celebrants came pouring out of the metro and side streest into the Place de La Concorde heading to the Champs D'Elysee, we must have passed 20,000 people and car horns and flags were everywhere and motorcycles reved their engines to ear piercing levels, what a scene!!!!!

And then the fireworks started and then things seemed to be getting too crazy, fireworks and flares being shot off everywhere...these people are crazy!!!

We watched the rest on tv from our hotel and finished our night with our regular game of BS and Connor came through and evened our series up at one game for all!!!!

Sounds like the trip keeps getting better and better! Germany-Argentina was some game! It must have been very exciting to be in Paris when France upset Brazil. Keeping track of your fantastic trip on the blog has been really fun. Continue to have a great, great time! (Baseball update: Yankees and Mets have split the first two games of their Subway Series at Yankee Stadium. Randy Johnson got rocked yesterday.)
Love, Marc and Shari

I don't know if we could have ever asked for a better game than what happened yesterday.

Our day started very slowly as the boys caught up on some much needed rest, sleeping until 1 PM!

After a burger/chicken sandwich filled lunch at the Regent we departed for the game.

We decided to use the S Bahn to get us there as the traffic and crowds were pretty intense.



The S Bahn was packed with flag waving fun filled fans and we enjoyed the experience as we followed the masses into Olympic Stadium...


Getting into the game we had a bit of a scare as one of our tickets did not work in the card reader, Aunt Jean bravely met the challenge and we were in the stadium in no time.



















The game was all we could have ever asked for, a comeback win in PKs.

We were all overwhelemed.


The opening was thrilling, the game was awesome




Security was ever presnet and non intrusive, we felt safe and no one caused any problems whatsoever

















We made tons of friends in the stands, they were impressed we came from the United States to watch, Uncle Stephen even got a gift from this man, a replica 1954 German team shirt that he insisted he take home with him....people were having fun and then they made the last save and the place simply erupted!!!!



The match was great but the celebrations after were unreal!!!
















The celebration even continued outside the stadium, into the Train on the way home and all over the streets all night long




















Eventually we made it back to the tranquility of the Regent, but we did brave the streets one last time to dodge the flag waving, horn tooting cars and pedestrians to grab a great steak dinner at The Block House and then back to the hotel for a final Berlin round of cards (BS standings through Friday Night - Drew, Aunt Jean & Uncle Stephen 1 game each, Connor waitng to break through)

We have some time for sighteseeing in the morning, a bit of shopping and then we head off to Paris... but Berlin and the memory of this game will last a lifetime....

An early travel day took place as we rousted ourselves from the Marriott at 4:30 AM to catch our flight to Berlin...the boys were great and took it all in good spirit and we were all rewarded when we got there as Berlin has gone World Cup CRAZY!
















The airport was quite a scene and we took a cab over to the Regent, a great hotel and called home using the weird but effective SKYPE phone!

















An afternoon of rest and relaxation at the Regent was followed up by a trip to the Sony Center at Potsdammer Platz, were we were all mezmerized by the video screens and tent like roof
















Ownards to a great performance by Blue Man Group, interesting in German, we all missed a few things but most of it was perfectly easy to get and certainly a blast to see and participate in!

The world cup has even permeated the theater as Argentine and German fans exchanged some fun spirited cheering during the finale of the show, UAR chants won the day though I dont think that will carry over tomorrow!


















Drew found some of the biggest Brawts we have ever seen at dinner in a restaurant with a name far too long to remember or type out.




















And an after dinner we took a stroll to the Brandegburg Gate where we saw fake Prince play in front of a crowd at Fan Fest - which is a blocked of portion of the Tiergarten - a mile long street of soccer mania,

We then back to the hotel for a game of BS, (won by Aunt Jean, the running score now is Drew and Aunt Jean one each, Connor and Uncle Stephen shut out for now) and some much deserved sleep in comfy comfy beds!

Wow! We love the photos coming up fast! Your trip is amazing so far, and it's only just begun. Sounds like you saw great tennis in awesome seats. And obviously, without a doubt, you're a very compatible eating group!

Enjoy every minute!

Love, Shari and Marc

Wimbledon day, great weather, guys slept late and we headed off on the Tube




We arrived just in time to see Venus William s take the court and blow someone away 6-1 6-0

Great - and I mean great seats (Thanks to TW, way to go dad!)


We were able to eat lunch and watch more tennis and adopted Georgian player named LaBladze as our player of the day and then watched him pull out a 5 set comeback win over an Austrian

We did some shopping and saw the far courts but soon headed back to watch David Nalbandian brush off a pesky Anthony Clement and then the match of the day Roger Federer versus England's own Tim Henman

The crown was excited and Henman won the first game to great applause and encouragement...but soon Roger ripped off ten games in a row and settled down the crowd with a 6-4 6-0 6-2 straight set win....he is just that good















We headed back on the tube and found our way to a great Chinese restaurant called China Tang at The Dorchester Hotel. The food was awesome, the chicken was wicked spicy and the pork and beef the highlights for all, never ordered a second helping in a Chinese restaurant before but we re-ordered both and the plates were all but licked clean.

A Our trip back to the Marriott was simple and easy and after a quick game of Scrabble the boys are packing for our trip to Berlin in the morning

Great first day, everyone shaking off their time zone issues, a little groggy at times but no worse for the wear

Checked in at the Marriott County Hall, great rooms with views of the Thames



The boys had pay per view going immediately and all was well

We met Russ & Cindy Demers and their daughters Alex and Marissa in the afternoon...a fun trip on the London Eye with them in our private capsule with guide...our guide Becky was wonderful and pointed out all kinds of interesting sites...including the "gherkin" building, Drew and Uncle Stephen were quite pleased when Becky told Connor you can see right through that building...settling a multi-hour debate to their satisfaction



We got to stretch our legs out with a nice walk across the jubilee bridge to Trafalger Square where we met a Dutch artist who is building some amazing plastic "animals" who walk on wind power, really neat...we all debated the value of Plinth's Allison Lipper sculpture (Connor: "the pigeons seem to like it...") and treked on over to Leicester Square where we had coffees and hot chocalate, french fries and waffles and ice cream while we watched the Brazillians dancing in the street having quite a party celebrating their 3-0 victory over Ghana in the World Cup...

Following the Brazillian's parade through the streets we dropped off the Demers at their theater and strolled around the west end until it was time for dinner at Asia De Cuba

Quite fun....the boys liked the setup, the mini tvs were cool and the Kobe beef was consumed with passion by our carniverous young men....we headed back to the hotel around 9, amazed at how late the sun was up here we decided to conquer the hotel swimming pool and after that bunked in for a good nights rest as we prep for Wimbledon tomorrow

Thanks Shari, Marc Mary & Tim, what a great send-off

The boys loved the upper class suite on Virgin (Way to go Virgin!!)



Our plane trip was tremendous and we all got some rest and are ready to go