Happy Fourth of July! What an appropriate day to tell you we're just about ready to come home to the US of A. Europe is fantastic and we can never see enough, but moving from one hotel to another is getting tiring. And it's just been an awfully long time (coming up on three years) since we've been in our home country with family and friends and a place to call our own.
So, we're winding things up a little faster than originally planned. We've had to ditch northern Spain altogether, with some regret, and I've accelerated the France itinerary so that we'll finish up around August 1. Our last stops will be in the cathedral cities of Amiens and Reims.
After leaving France we'll begin to make our way towards Amsterdam or Frankfurt, which are the only European cities with direct flights to Portland. Those airports also happen to be in two of our favorite European countries, so we will probably not get on a plane immediately; we'll likely spend a week or two in the Netherlands and/or Germany first. In any case, our return date is currently looking to be early- to mid-August.
The accelerated pace of our remaining Grand Tour of France means that I won't often have time for my usual over-long blog posts. I'll still post as frequently, hopefully, but probably not in as much detail. We can tell you all about it in person before too long anyway. Hooray!
So, to the present. We arrived in Albi this afternoon and we are really happy here. We haven't explored the old town yet, but what we saw on the way in looked like a pleasant place to spend a few days. The weather has cooled off a bit, too! Now the highs are in the low 80s instead of 90s, and today at least it is much less humid.
We have a great hotel here ("Les Pasteliers") that is in an old and very crooked building that feels wonderfully European. It is filled with a mix of antiques and sleek modern furniture and decorated with style. Our walls are purple and there is a portrait of Audrey Hepburn over our bed. The room has air conditioning, internet and a fridge, and yet it's one of the cheapest places we've stayed in. We like it so much, and there's so much to do in the area, that we've already extended our stay here by one night, subtracting one from Toulouse. We'll be in Albi until Tuesday.
We received one of the friendliest and most informative and most English-fluent welcomes ever from the hotel owner, who we are almost certain is Dutch. We have grown to love the Dutch for their astonishing linguistic abilities, their well-run country, their fresh-faced families, and their love of travel and camping. We have seen them absolutely everywhere in France towing their trailers; they often outnumber French cars on the roads!
Another great thing about Albi is that just down the street from us we discovered a stack of brand-new, folded up boxes. We have been looking for large boxes to ship stuff home, to no avail, for a couple weeks now. You just can't go to your local Staples around these parts. The boxes were outside a toy store so we asked the permission of the nice man at the counter to take some - as we'd hoped, he happily agreed and suggested we take them all! So now we have boxes and there is a La Poste within easy walking distance! We are thrilled about the prospect of streamlining the load in our car. Dad, I'm afraid there's going to be another delivery soon.
More to follow soon on Albi and on what we've done in the last couple days.