Our Final Day in Paris

We ended our tour of Europe on a good note! It is well after midnight and we just got back to the hotel from an awesome day touring the city of Paris. I won't go into much details as we have a busy day of traveling and it is late, but we started off our day with a tour of a perfume museum followed by a trip to the Louvre Museum. We then walked to Notre Dame where we also grabbed lunch, then took the metro to the Eiffel Tower. Students definitely got a taste of city transportation today as we stuffed like sardines into the cars of the subway trains. The top of the Eiffel Tower was closed when we bought tickets (for only 7€). After we got to the 2nd level they let us go all the way to the top and we didn't even have to pay extra! We then jumped back on the metro to get to our last dinner at Chez Papa, and once again to go back near the Eiffel Tower where we took a boat down the Seine River. It was an amazing way to end our trip, as we watched the tower twinkle during our last night in Paris! Tomorrow we head home so see you all soon! Thanks for reading the blog and following our students adventures around the world! :)

Paris Day 2

Today we started off with a bus tour around all of the major sites in Paris, stopping shortly near the Eiffel Tower (we will be visiting it again tomorrow), followed by a tour of the Palace of Versailles, time in the gardens, then shopping near the Basillique du Sacre Couer (the artists' quarter). After our free time, most of the students had their very first metro/subway experience which was very exciting! Claudia quizzed students on the bus with metro maps on how to get from point A to point B, and when she told them they had to lead us through the metro stations, they eyes just about popped out of their heads! (Don't worry, she didn't actually make them do it or else we would probably still be down there). Tomorrow we head to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, And Notre Dame to name a few. We will end our trip with a boat ride down the Seine River after dinner! One last student blog is below!

P.S. Anyone at school reading this, could you tell Nicole Harmon to check out today's blog photos? Thanks! :)

Bailey:
This trip has been great! Austria was my favorite country because the town was really pretty and not so packed with people. Tomorrow is our last day of the trip. I will never forget the amazing places we went and I know we are incredibly lucky to have experienced such an amazing opportunity.

Strasbourg/Paris Day 1

We crossed the border from Germany to make a stop in Strasbourg, France. We took s bus/waking tour of the city enjoyed our first day of sunshine! It was a great day to walk around the city and see the Strasbourg Cathedral. It was fun watching most of our students get lunch in a little market where they chowed down on baguettes, sausages, sauerkraut and crepes. We walked to the train station in Strasbourg and jumped on a TGV train reaching speeds up to 200mph getting us to Paris in about 2 hours. After a transfer bus picked us up we went to dinner where the power went out in the restaurant three times! We just checked into our rooms ands everyone is starting to settle down for the night. We start our day tomorrow with a 2 1/2 hour tour of the city!

Easter in the Black Forest

Happy Easter! After our wonderful evening last night, we started out with breakfast and Kinder eggs from Mrs. Mayer (mine had a mini polar bear inside!). It was our last full day as a large group with the travelers from Tennessee and Idaho as well as out awesome driver, Siggi. When we made our first stop of the day at Rheinfalls we gave Siggi a gift which he absolutely loved! Tyler was sent on a hunt for his gift yesterday in Switzerland and picked out a Swiss army knife that he had engraved. Our group photo of the day is with Siggi at the falls. After our short stop we continued on through the Black Forest to the world's largest cuckoo clock where we had lunch and Schwarzwalder Kirschetorte (black forest cake...delicious!). Once again we continued on, making another stop in Heidelberg and ending at our hotel in Ludwigshafen, Germany. Tomorrow morning most of the other travelers will head to the airport bright and early and go back home while our crew (plus a few others) take off for three days in Paris! More student blogs below!

P.S. Mom, does that name look familiar in the last picture? :) I've seen it around a few times now in Germany!

Dalton:
Hey from Ludwigshafen, Germany! The trip has been a very influential part of my life. I am very glad to have this opportunity. I may never be able to have this experience again. My favorite part of the trip so far would probably have to be the Swiss Alps. The Alps are awesome. Happy Easter everyone! Hi family! See you guys at home in four days!

Colten:
Hy everyone, I hope everyone is having a good time over spring break back home. I have been having a really good time. Things are a lot different than the U.S. but that's not a bad thing. It had been a great experience to be out on my own. I thought that the Alps were super awesome and all the different foods were really good as well. Hope to see everyone soon.

Tyler:
My favorite part of this trip so far is definitely seeing the mountains. They are awesome and something we don't get to see often. Another awesome part of this trip seeing the big towns from an elevated view. My favorite food so far was the meal we had in Rothenburg which was sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and sausage. Also a fun part of the trip was going to the church service last night and seeing how they do things, turns out its about the same just in a different language. Happy Easter to my family. Hope it is warm when we get back because it is cold here!

Alex:
The trip is awesome. My favorite part of the trip was Switzerland. It was very peaceful and quiet. The people are kind and open to us. Happy Easter family. I can't wait to get to see you guys.

Chelsea;
Guten tag from Germany! This trip has been amazing. Today we went to the Black Forest (which was a lovely shade of white due to the snow). The chocolate here is sooooo amazing!! And the rest of the food is good too. I'm so excited to head to Paris tomorrow and experience life in france. I'm also excited that I'm spending Easter in the same hotel my brother did two years ago! Missing everyone back in the United States!

Kelly:
It's been an amazing trip so far, even though it has been a little cold at times! I'm so excited to be here and when we are looking at the beautiful scenery, sometimes it still doesn't seem real. I'm super excited for Paris, especially after all the research I've done for Global Connections. We are in Germany for the night and hopefully going swimming! :) Miss everyone back home and hope to see you soon!

Lucerne/Mount Pilatus

We had a very long day today! We started off our morning with a quick ride to Lucerne where we took a short walking tour with Claudia followed by free time for lunch and sight-seeing on our own. James and I jumped at the chance to feed the swans by the Chapel Bridge as everyone else walked right by (I hope they enjoyed my granola bar!). After about four hours of free time, the group road up the side of Mount Pilatus in gondolas. It was very eerie traveling up the mountain because it was so foggy. I road in a gondola with Mrs. Mayer, Emma, and Katie and the girls kept the ride interesting by jumping around trying to take pictures and of course, licking clouds. That's totally normal, right? After our full day in Lucerne, Siggi drove us back to the hotel for dinner then our Prentice crew met in the "man cave" (a.k.a. The boys room) to go over our plans for three days in Paris! Most of our group attended a candlelight Easter service an afterward we were invited to the fellowship hall for an Easter egg hunt. It was so much fun to be welcomed like that, and no one wanted to crack their eggs! They were too pretty! Tonight we will be losing an hour of sleep so I think the kids will be thankful for a little time to snooze on the bus tomorrow morning on our way to Heidelberg via the Black Forest! My lunch tomorrow? Black forest cake. :) I'm thinking I'll have to run an extra mile for that one!