Absolute peace to sudden panic

Thursday:


Even though we slept in a hostel room with four beds, we ended up being the only two in the room! It was so nice to have peace, quiet, and a dark room to sleep in. :) Despite these conveniences, the alarm pulled us from sleep too soon. But since our stay in Seville was so short, we wanted to get a few hours in the city.

We walked down the street to find a place to eat breakfast and found a place that actually served breakfast!  Eggs and ham on rolls was a pleasant change from the usual cereal and toast served in hostels. In fact, we enjoyed our breakfast so much that we didn't realize that we were ten minutes late for the tour we'd planned on taking (very unusual for Stephen who is always punctual and has diligently kept time for us!). We ran to the hostel and asked the front desk  where the first stop of the tour might be. She was incredibly helpful and showed us the first stop on that impossibly small black and white map. We quickly figured out our route and caught up to the tour just as he was mid-introduction. 

While walking around the city, our tour guide took us to churches, the area where ship-builders lived and worked, across a very old bridge that was designed by the same guy who built the Eiffel tower, and told us stories and history of Seville. My favorite was the legend of why there are so many orange trees. A long time ago, a king of this region was very proud of his city until one of his wives (his favorite) claimed that it was only the second best city! It couldn't be the best because Granada had the advantage of snow. Seville is the hottest city in Europe (this is not legend and we experienced this truth while walking around in 40+ Celsius heat...record temperature was around 55 C!!) and consequently never snows. Not to be deterred, this King planted Orange trees all over Seville because on this tree blooms a small white flower. When these flowers are released from the trees, a blanket of "snow" covers the city. 

Unfortunately, we had to leave the tour early so we could catch our afternoon train. The next journey covers a day and a half because we were traveling from the bottom of Spain to the top of France...but as usual, our journeys were not without excitement.

On the way to the train station we grabbed groceries for dinner, a later snack, and breakfast. Our first train ride was from Seville to Madrid which was uneventful and only lasted a couple hours. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to watch the movie! A previous train had played a movie...in Spanish. I assumed this movie would also be in Spanish until I looked at the screen and noticed the Spanish subtitles! As I plugged in my earphones, I was happy to discover the movie was playing in English! (Charlie St. Cloud) It's been awhile since we could just sit back and watch a movie.

Once we were in Madrid, we not only had to change trains, but train stations as well. Fortunately, the guy who had booked out tickets had decided to give us an hour and forty-five minutes, rather than just forty-five minutes. This turned out to be a very good choice. We found the station and platform without being rushed or stressed and also discovered that we would be sleeping in two separate sleeping cars. Steve had two guy roomies and I was in a room with two other girls from the US: one from Texas, the other from Cali (who was also traveling with her younger brother!). Both were friendly and we ended up talking and getting to know each other for the next few hours. Both brothers came to join us and we were having a great time until our door flew open to reveal an out of breath, wheezing, old lady who looked completely confused and surprised at the amount of people (and boys) in her room! We quickly began explaining that the boys were our brothers...and just visiting. A few minutes later, we moved our "party" to the dining car where it wasn't quite so awkward. I also brought our snacks (wine and cheese) to share with our new friends. We spent another hour or so talking and having a good time, then decided it was time for bed. For being train beds, they weren't too bad and we were rocked to sleep by the swaying of the train.

Friday:

This sleeping-on-a-train experience was much better than our last one. We actually woke up before our scheduled stop (Paris) and when we finally reached our destination an hour late, we said goodbye to our friends and started off to find coffee and explore the city of Paris. This wasn't our final destination , but our next train (to Caen) wasn't scheduled until 3:10pm and it was only 9:30am!
Naturally our first choice was Starbucks (ever wonder why?...because they actually serve you a full cup of coffee compared to the miniature European sizes :) ), but we had no idea where a store was. So we started walking. After half an hour we had resorted to any coffee shop that looked appealing and sure enough, Stephen spotted a Starbucks! I was just happy to put my heavy backpack down for awhile. Our next stop was Notre Dame. I was about to go inside until I saw the line and just resorted to admiring the exterior. 
The next few hours were some of my favorite. After walking by St. Michaels fountain, and once we'd found Lexington gardens, we set down our backpacks, placed two chairs side by side, and just sat there. The weather was beautiful and the view was unforgettable. A grand palace stood before us surrounded by colorful gardens, fountains, trees, and winding dirt paths. Far off to my left I could spot the Eiffel Tower. All of this complemented with a very good book and I was in heaven. After awhile, we were also serenaded by a free concert in the park by a really good high school orchestra. I really didn't want to leave...ever, but we had a train to catch. And this is when the trouble began.
Our first problem was in taking a tram back to the train station we had arrived in. When we were only two stops from arriving, Stephen and I, separately but simultaneously, had thoughts of whether this was the right train station. He started to check the tickets and our fears were confirmed. We were headed to the wrong train station! Naturally, the stations were on opposite sides of the city and I began praying that we would make it in time. We turned around and literally ran through tram stations to get to connecting lines. One transition tested the limits of our relationship. Stephen is much faster than me and had made it in time to get on a tram but when he turned around, I wasn't there. A few seconds later the doors were about to shut and I still hadn't arrived so he was forced to exit. I came running around the corner just as the tram was exiting the station.  I could tell he was frustrated and I wasn't too happy about being left in the dust, but being angry wasn't going to help anyone so we silently prayed, moved on, and waited for the next tram. We had two more trams to go and I literally counted the seconds of each stop to determine if we could make it. Every second was going to count. 
When we arrived at the final tram station, we assumed we would easily see the train station. No such luck. With only 9 minutes until our train was to depart we frantically started looking around and asking people where the station was. One guy pointed down the street then pointed right and we ran as fast as we could. When we reached the place to turn right we saw no station at the end. A man standing on the corner asked us where we were trying to go and when we mentioned the station he pointed us back down the street we had just run up and then to the left. Ahhh!! Hoping this guy was right (the first guy obviously wasn't) we sprinted (as much as you can with so much weight bogging you down) back down the street and turned left. And there it was. With only 5 minutes till departure we ran up the steps, hoping our platform was close. By God's grace it was, but our seats were in the very last car of the train so we ran down the platform and collapsed into our seats just as the train was leaving. Praise the Lord we had made the train just in time!
A few hours later we arrived in Caen. This had been a difficult place to book a room because I could only find one hostel in the city so I had booked a hotel. It was located more on the outskirts of town which also meant we couldn't just walk there. We looked into renting a car, but since I can't drive stick (I am now determined to learn when I get home) it didn't work out. We found a bus line that ended close to our hotel so it ended up being an ideal location. It was just down the road from the Caen Memorial which also offered tours to the Normandy Beaches which was the whole reason Stephen and I had wanted to visit Caen in the first place. 
Once you looked past the bright pink and green hallways, the hotel was clean, had a comfortable bed, and we had our own room which at this point was living in luxury! Conveniently, the hotel also had a restaurant because the wasn't too much around and would've taken us a long time to get anywhere without a car. The dinner was delicious! A minced chicken starter, followed by salmon and a veggie dish, and apple pie was a delicious end to the stressful day. We jumped into bed, read for awhile, then went to sleep.