We are well into our whirlwind summer vacation. During the seven week break we will be sleeping in ten or so different places. So far we've been to France and Germany, we landed in the US in Boston to see Lee's mom, and now we're in Amherst to visit my family. This is our home base, so to speak, so we'll be back here a bunch of times inbetween other trips.

It's surprising how cold it's been everywhere we've gone. At 5:30 this morning (no, my internal clock has not quite caught up to local time) it was 62 degrees. It barely ever got that cold in the middle of winter in Taiwan. I'm not sure if my memory of what's "normal" has changed but it feels really cold for a late June morning in New England. Is this really what it's supposed to feel like? I clearly didn't pack enough cold weather clothes.

Yesterday we hopped on the high seed train from Paris to Kaiserlautern, Germany. Europe has such a great train system. Fast, convenient, not expensive. And you get to watch the countryside speed by. It was very pleasant. A little less pleasant was the weather when we arrived - a chilly, rainy day. But it did clear up a little so by the time we met up with Gavin the rain had stopped, which made our drive around the countryside quite nice.

We drove to Landstuhl and walked around the castle. It was cool how they'd built the structure around the bedrock.

It was interesting to compare this place to other old structures we've visited - castles in Ireland, the temples at Angkor Wat. Even after all the centuries there are stories to learn about the people who lived here. They certainly had a beautiful view.

That's Ramstein Airforce Base just to the right of the center.

It was really wonderful to be with Gavin. Today he's taking us to Heidelberg.

Here's a quick recap of some of our Paris adventures.

We visited the grounds of the Louvre. We strolled around the museum and through the park next door on Tuesday, the day the museum was closed, so it wasn't too busy.

We also toured around the grounds of Versailles. We by-passed the crowds lined up to go inside the castle and found bikes to rent instead. We had the surrounding parkland pretty much to ourselves.

Another stop was the Pompidou Museum. We actually went inside this museum, although it was the least user-friendly museum I've ever visited. It was hard to find our way to the artwork but the views were fabulous.

We had another lovely meal with Amanda before parting ways. We both really enjoyed spending time with her. I think we may convince her to come visit us in Taiwan, if we can stay there long enough for her to find the time to come.

We've had busy couple of days so far in lovely Paris. The highlight, of course is getting to spend some time with our niece, Amanda. She's been living here for the past year and has been a wonderful host. Our first night here she took us to a Basque restaurant near our apartment for dinner. It was delicious.

We had veal wrapped in bacon and drenched in cheese. The sound you may be hearing is of my arteries clogging.

The next day we met her up at Montmartre for a wonderful view of the city and Sacre Coeur.

It was cloudy so the view was a bit obscured but well worth the climb, nevertheless. We wended our way back down the hill, with a stop at a cafe for some crepes - I'm pretty sure that's required - before hopping on the metro for a stroll through Amanda's favorite neighborhood and soon to be home, the Mouffetard section of Paris, near where we're staying.

This is Amanda's new home.

Luxembourg Garden

We parted ways in the afternoon with plans to meet up again on Wednesday.

Then later in the day on Monday Lee and I walked over to the Eiffel tower and wandered around the area for awhile.

We saw buskers, and park benches with pedals.

We also saw some quintessentially Taiwanese things - an Asian couple having their wedding photos being taken and Hello Kitty. I felt right at home.

For dinner we met up with a friend from Taiwan, Lech. He left Kaohsiung just before we did and landed in Paris a week ago to start cooking school. It was a real treat to spend the evening with him.

After many, many dull hours of travel we have arrived in paris. We're staying at an airbnb near Notre Dame and we've spent the last few hours walking along the Seine in awe of how beautiful the city is.

We found a lovely little spot to order some coffee and a bite to eat.

Lee was quite taken with all the charging stations for electric cars.

There's a wonderful walking path for what must be miles along the river bank. The flowers were beautiful.

Our airbnb is a room in an apartment overlooking Rue des Ecoles. It's about halfway down the road in this photo. (I love how the pigeon photo bombed the shot.)

When you sit in your living room with the air conditioner on watching the sun set you can get lulled into the impression that the air is beginning to cool off as the evening approaches. And then you recall your bike ride home from work when sweat was pouring into your eyes as you sat at the red lights. The evenings don't cool off much, the days climb into the 90's and the humidity can be stifling.

The good news is that we step onto a plane in about 48 hours and escape this weather for awhile. The weather report for the day we arrive in Paris is calling for highs in the 70's. I think I better find some socks to pack in my suitcase.

Here are pictures from a Wednesday afternoon bike ride to Cijin Island.

Heading out from the ferry terminal.

It was busy on the ferry. It's amazing how many scooters you can fit on one ferry.

The view from the ferry towards downtown was spectacular. Those are the central mountains sticking up above the clouds in the distance.

Sculptures along the bike path.

Black sand beaches.

 Lee takes in the view...

of the ships on the horizon.

 Another view of the city, from a different vantage point.

We have ocean to the west of us and mountains to the east. A nice place to be stuck in the middle of.