If you are not up for a lot of whining then you may want to skip this post.

Day 1

I managed to get to Paris but it was an experience. The idiots in Nashville didn’t put enough fuel in the puddlejumper I took to Washington so when they had a 45 minute weather delay to land we had to divert to Richmond. Because of that we got in half an hour after my 5:05 pm Paris flight left. While waiting in a long line at customer service I called the United Airlines reservation desk and they managed to get me onto a Delta flight that left at 7 pm. But it was also delayed at both ends so we didn’t get in until 9:30 AM. Really glad we changed the time of the car reservation and I was still half an hour late for it. Of course since we made that fast connection my luggage never caught up with me and is still in Washington. They were hoping to get it here late today or tomorrow. I am really glad that for the first time ever I packed all of the essentials, even a change of clothes, in my carry on bag.

First hotel is OK but near a kind of sketchy area. I have to park about 6 blocks away at $20 per day. There are very few decent restaurants in the area but some nice pastry shops. I managed to stay awake until 8 PM so hope to get a good nights sleep.

Day 2

Not having a lot of fun yet. Driving is extremely challenging and there is no parking anywhere. The lot for the hotel is 6 blocks away. I went to the Paris flea market today and that was fun but parking cost almost $30 (I didn’t know it was 5 euro per hour on the weekends). And when I went to check out by automatic machine my credit card was rejected. I have no idea why but it still works at the hotel. At least the machine took the debit card even though there was no way to input your password. There is no cash option on the machine. I hope it works again since I will be returning tomorrow. The flea market has antiques stores also and you would not believe the nice things they have and the prices are not as high as I expected. For the second time in europe I had to turn down a terrific grandfather clock for $450. It just wouldn’t fit in the suitcase since it was 10’ tall. I did manage to buy a few chips and had to pass on others due to price. One was a set of 200 chips but most were generic inlaid letter chips with about 25 nice 500 CEU chips from a casino I never heard of. But they would only sell as a lot for $150 Euros. Toomuch for me. The few chips I bought are regular chips or jetons - no plaques yet.

I still do not have my luggage. It was supposed to be on the plane that arrived at 7AM today but has not arrived at the hotel yet so I called them to remind them that I am leaving after tomorrow. I am also running out of clothes fast since I only brought one extra set.

So I get the charger out for the computer and noticed that it has a 3 prong plug on it. The adapter I bought only has 2 prongs on it so I can’t charge the computer. I found a “universal” adapter at the flea market today but when I plugged everything in the computer still would not charge correctly. Really stumped but being OCD to the max I looked at the charger and it says it is good for 110V-240V input so I just used the universal adapter and plugged it into the wall. Problem solved .

One big problem so far is finding a decent restaurant. In this sketchy neighborhood most everything is a 2 table mom and pop operation. There is a pizza place but it does not open until 6:30 PM. I may try that tonite. With parking so expensive, not to mention the 6 block walk, it is hard to drive to a restaurant. It also has been raining on and off the whole time, although it didn’t start until after 3 pm at the flea market today. But it was cold as heck this morning – in the low 40’s. I would have brought heavier clothes but it called for lows around 50 and highs of 70.

And the two biggest problems are since my luggage has not arrived I don’t have my travelling bottle (OK I bought a half pint of rum at a local store) and the hotel has no ice. With all of these problems, especially the tough city driving I am a Nervous Wreck.

I asked at the desk and they gave me a recommendation for a French restaurant just down the block. Decent if unremarkable meal for 15 Euros including appetizer, entre and desert. Still trying to figure out if the prices include tip or not. Guide books all say tip is included but locals deny this.

Day 3

Raining like crazy this morning. Still no luggage and losing hope of it making it over here. All I know is that it is still in Washington supposedly. Air France is no help so far. I have told them to check with United and Delta to see who has my bags. I know they are sitting in a claim area somewhere. Looks like I will be buying new clothes soon.

The other problem I am running into is that the parking lots are not accepting my credit or debit card now. I had a hard time getting out of the hotel lot today. I had to go into a bar and change a large bill for smaller ones since the attendant had no change. I was going to go back to the Paris flea market today but the only parking is unattended so I would have no way to get out of the lot since the machine does not take cash. I went to another flea market today and found a parking spot but it was raining pretty hard so I didn’t stay long. My shoes got soaked so I am using the hair dryer to dry them and one of my two pairs of socks. I emailed Cindy and told her that I'm not having fun yet

Can you see why I said you may not want to read this? I can only hope it gets better as I go to Germany and beyond tomorrow. Just going to lay around the hotel room today and relax.