Day 1. Mark and I are on our way to a great two week vacation. We start in Paris then go to Trier and luxembourg where we catch a small boat (188 passengers) and we sail the Rhine River through Germany. We end up in Prague.

Today we flew to Atlanta. Had 3 hour layover. Plane was delayed for 30 minutes. Boarded the plane. Smelled of gasoline. A big thunderstorm rolled in with lightening so they had to stop loading the baggage. We waited for 30 minutes and the storm was still going strong. Then they announced that we had to leave the plane because the plane next to us had a fuel spill (hence the strong smell of gasoline). We had to take all of our belongings and as we walked through the terminal we could see a lot of firetrucks and ambulances on the tarmac. The terminal was empty and we saw that they had cordoned it off and had guards everywhere. We went to sit with passengers from a plane headed to Zurich. We waited for about an hour and then we were able to re-board our plane. We left Atlanta 3 hours late. The Delta staff were really great and so cheerful. The only problem was the elderly Indian couple behind me who got up every 15 minutes and had to grab my seat back along with a handful of my hair each time. Needless to say, I did not get any sleep and I think I am slightly balder!!

Day 2: Arrived in Paris and went to baggage claim. Mark grabbed what he thought was my bag. I kept saying that it felt heavier than mine and then I saw that it had someone else's name tag on it. My bag did come off the plane and we headed to the shuttle. Took the shuttle to the Porte Maillot station and walked a short five minutes to our hotel, Hotel Harvey on Rue Debarcadere. It is a very quaint small European style hotel. The lobby is small and the rooms are small. It is very clean and very quiet and the air conditioning works great. We took showers and went out to get some lunch and explore Paris. Had lunch at a small cafe near the hotel and then headed to the subway and the old town area. We had Rick Steve's tour book and podcast on our iPhones. Went to the Notre Dame first. Although we had purchased a 4 day museum pass that was supposed to get us to the head of the line....even that line was several blocks long. We decided to move on. We saw the memorial to those who were deported during the Second World War. It was very moving. after that we moved through the old city and saw churches and the cafes where American artists and hippies went to in the late forties and early fifties. The archetecture is amazing. I did not take a pain pill and my knees were really hurting so we went slowly.

We returned to the hotel to meet ups with my sister, Sandi and her husband, Rick. We went to dinner at a lovely restaurant near the hotel. In Paris they really believe that you should take your time eating so it took us over two hours to finish our meals. I had a wonderful breen fish. We went back to the hotel and literally crashed. I slept very soundly.