Rail strikes and palm trees

We left Paris yesterday after four wonderful days. The day before we had taken the stairs to the 2nd balcony of the Eiffel Tower (718 steps) so we were looking forward to the 8 hour train ride to Barcelona to rest. Our double-decker TGV train (which travels close to 120mph) arrived in Montpellier on schedule but after total confusion and language barriers, we finally figured out that there was a rail strike in Spain and we could not cross the border. It was complicated because I needed to cancel our lodging reservations in Barcelona and could not get the call to go through from the payphone in the train station so thankfully my dad was in the office when my call came and was able to send an email for me. So then it was 10:00 at night in Montpellier, we have no place to stay and no map, and this is a part of France that doesn't speak as much English. Luck was in our corner when we got the last room (which somehow was a triple...) at a hotel with a private bathroom and comfortable beds. We decided to just take things easy and stay in Montpellier until we head to Nice tomorrow.

When we woke up this morning, we discovered that this is a beautiful city! Pure blue skies and temps in the upper 70s which felt like August in Nebraska after having been in London for so long. There are palm trees everywhere and we are just 7km from the Meditteranean. We ate lunch at one of dozens of outdoor cafes and spent the afternoon in a park after buying sunscreen, which was another ordeal. Everything ended up working out pretty well although last night, with 30 pound backpacks and no place to stay, I was a little worried. Someone up there is surely watching over us while we're trapsing around Europe!

Sandy is now sick and so none of us are sleeping very well with her coughing. I am anxious to move on to Nice tomorrow and then Rome on Saturday. It's wonderful to have warm weather and sunshine now. Au revoir!