We had breakfast at a patisserie since the corner café was closed on Sunday. We took the more direct train into Paris and stored our luggage in a locker in Gare de l'Est station. We then went to the Musee des Arts et Métiers, where we enjoyed free admission and lots of models, but we found most of the interactive exhibits out of order.
See an album of our photos from Versailles.
We slept in, planning to visit a nearby Indian buffet for brunch, but it didn't open at 11am as advertised, so we had to check out of our hotel first, and we wound up returning to same café as the past two days, but this time we got the full breakfast with omelets!
See an album of our photos from Paris.
See our photos of Belgium.
See our photos from Friesland.
Jessie overslept in the morning due to a small army of gas-powered hedge trimmers in the condo complex drowning out her alarm! We still had time for a canal boat tour (included in our HollandPasses) before we caught the train to Friesland, a region in north Holland.
See our photos from Leiden and Nuenen.
When I checked my email in the morning, I learned that our AirBnB host in Paris had been robbed! She canceled our booking, and I used the refund to book another room, but I did not thoroughly read the reviews. Cue ominous music.
See our album of photos from Amsterdam.
We had a lovely breakfast in the hostel featuring cold cuts, cheeses, and hard boiled eggs as well as fresh pastries (which I carefully avoided, just in case), cereal, and an espresso machine that made 10 different drinks perfectly.
We left Emporia around 7am and met Zarrin and Ziya Reynolds at a pet hospital where they volunteer, north of Kansas City. Zarrin came with us to breakfast while Ziya drove her car to work. Zarrin has been unemployed for 6 months after schoolteaching at a juvenile detention facility became too dangerous. After breakfast at Waffle House, she dropped us off at the airport and borrowed our car for the duration of our vacation.
In September, 2016, we returned to Europe for two weeks in the Netherlands and France. Follow the "book navigation" links at left to read more about the trip, or click the map above to skip ahead to a location.
I've hesitated to publish this story because it's not flattering to someone that we know, but enough time has passed that I hope we can all laugh about it. We don't mean to poke fun, but it does make a good story.