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Day EIGHT: Munich

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  Starting the normal day around 7:20, we head down to breakfast and are greeted with an amazing arrangement of many delicious foods. Something unique that we were presented with was a juice machine. It had a tablet with about six different drink options and you put your cup beneath and could fill it with. In terms of food they had chocolate croissants, fresh bread straight from the loaf, egg pancakes, and several different jams that complimented the pancakes perfectly. To add some normalcy with delightful bacon that made our morning. Continuing on with the day, the LPA travelers boarded the bus. The bus ride was silent as we emotionally prepared to enter the Dachau Concentration Camp. Stepping on to the grounds, the somber atmosphere hit us immediately. From there, people spread out to tour different exhibits. The exhibits offered different explanations and images that depicted the life of the prisoners in the camp. For many, this was a difficult thing to see, but it was importan
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Day SEVEN: Lichtenstein and Munich

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  Awakened at 5:00 am, we got ready and went to breakfast at 6:00. It was a continental breakfast, meat, cheese, yogurt, cereal, and coffee. Our bus brought us from Switzerland to Liechtenstein where we were surprised by the decrease in temperature. We used the bathroom, shopped, and went to a nice cafe that we wished we had in Ashland. Some of us bought souvenirs at a gift shop and we all loaded back on the bus. We were headed to Neuschwanstein castle in Germany.   On the bus, though many of us fell asleep, we traveled through Austria. This was our fourth country of this trip, and we saw many cows. We continued through to Germany where we took the Autobahn, a highway which has no speed limit. Unfortunately, since we were on a bus, our top speed was capped at 100 miles a hour (McGann note: at no time were we traveling anywhere close to 100 miles an hour... it was actually 100 KILOMETERS per hour, which is about 62mph). Elise continued to be asleep and she is now just learning that
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Day SIX: Lucerne

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  This morning we woke up and had a delicious Swiss breakfast of meats, breads, eggs, and cheese. Our first activity was a boat cruise on Lake Lucerne which allowed us to see the incredible sights of Lucerne in every direction. Expect to see a lot of beautiful photos. When we arrived at Mount Rigi we took a train ride up the mountain and were greeted at the top by a heavenly view of the Alps. There was a small town atop the mountain where we took more photos, got food and did some light souvenir shopping. After about an hour we took the train back down the mountain and loaded the bus. We took the bus into central Lucerne accompanied by the beautiful music selections of DJ GWEN and Michele (our amazing bus driver). In Lucerne we had lunch at a Swiss buffet. Following lunch, we took a walking tour of Lucerne to see their historic art, buildings, bridges, and statues. Gwen told us all about all the hundred of years of history of Switzerland and Lucerne as it related to the sights
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Day FIVE: Travel Day (Chaperones Take Over the Blog!)

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Hello everyone!  We decided because it was a (fairly) uneventful travel day for us, that we would hijack the blog for one night and give the kids the night off from writing.  They will be back tomorrow writing for sure! We had a very early wake up call this morning with a 6:45am call time for breakfast.  Everyone had to be completely packed the night before so that we could get in our coach and be on the road by 7:30am.  The first couple of hours of the drive, most everyone promptly went back to sleep. Due to safety rules for drivers, we had to stop every couple of hours, but that was a good thing because it allowed opportunities to get snacks and drinks for the ride.   The lunch stop was also a bit of an adventure, because as we got into more and more rural parts of France, the number of people who spoke English diminished.  The kids did a good job of navigating as best they could to get the meals they wanted.  The lunch options at a rest stop area ranged from really good, high-qualit
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Day FOUR: Paris

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The second day in Paris was the most eventful day of the trip so far, from seeing local historical buildings to seeing how Parisians live their daily lives. First, we woke up and had an amazing breakfast, including croissants, baguettes and pan au chocolat at the hotel. Then, we went straight to pick up our tour guide Stephanie from the Arc de Triomphe, which is in a crazy intersection, and contains a memorial to forgotten soldiers, and has a flame that burns infinitely.  After picking Stephanie up we started on our bus tour, seeing the streets of Paris and hearing about all the old buildings, what they used to be, and what they are now. As we were going past one of the colleges (the Sorbonne), we witnessed a student protest about climate change first hand, which was ironic considering the fact that Stephanie wanted to say this is a very lively street where everything happens.  We stopped at the Luxembourg Garden where we were able to walk around or stop to get coffee. The garden was k
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Day THREE: Paris

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Our day started bright and early with a 5am wake up call. We went downstairs and we enjoyed a quick breakfast of pastries, fruit and juice before boarding the bus to the train station. We navigated through the hustle of the St Pancras station before grabbing a quick snack and boarding the train. We enjoyed the countryside as we traveled into downtown Paris. We arrived at Paris around 1 pm and traveled to Notre Dame Cathedral to explore and grab a quick bite for lunch. We enjoyed a mix of different cuisines. After lunch, we followed our tour director, Gwen, to the bus which took us to the Louvre. We enjoyed seeing multiple different sculptures and paintings, like the Mona Lisa, or, as the French call it, La Joconde. As we tried to make our way through, we felt as though we were walking through a maze. Although it was very crowded, we enjoyed the beautiful art.  After the Louvre, we headed to dinner at Flam’s. We enjoyed Flammenkuchen, a flatbread pizza style Alsatian specialty. Ther
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Day TWO: London

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Our day started with a continental breakfast with some traditional and non-traditional foods, including the staples and baked beans, porridge, and, of course, tea. We boarded the coach and took a ride through London to pick up our tour guide, Lottie. She gave us more background on the city of London and showed us some famous landmarks such as Parliament Square, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and lots of Harry Potter shooting locations.  Church bells rang all morning for Easter, and we spent some time hanging out around St. Paul’s cathedral. While we couldn’t go in, the exterior was beautiful and the surrounding area was great as well.  As we crossed the Thames, we could see ancient architecture on one side of the bridge and modern on the other. Super cool! We broke for lunch at a food market near a festival hall, and there were lots of delicious food options from many countries. Jess and Molly recommend the rice bowls. We then broke horror movie rule #1 and broke into two groups, one taki
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