Paris, France Day 2

"… When you wish upon a star

makes no difference who you are

Anything your heart desires

will come to you…"

Today was one of the most anticipated days by the students: Free time in Paris and Disneyland Paris!

Taking the underground public transportation system we made it to the Louvre from where the students had a couple of hours on their own. Most chose to enter the Louvre; one of the worlds largest art museums. While some chose to take the audiotour most headed straight for Monna Lisa - selfie time!

At 1 o'clock we all met up again: NEXT STOP DISNEYLAND!

The EuroDisney complex consists of two parks: Walt Disney Studios and the Disneyland Paris park and the students were given access to both. 

They were given three options to go home: 6, 9 or 11:30pm as the park is quite far away from Paris, so they would have to return with a guide. 

After a wonderfully sunny afternoon with rides, thrills and tons of unhealthy food and Mickey Mouse ears the remaining students (50) watched the Disney Spectaculaire fireworks and headed home.

A long but delightful day!

Paris, France

The City of Love was the destination for today - at the end of the single longest stint of the entire Eurotour. 

The students spent pretty much the entire trip sleeping, which the bus driver took advantage of, and made good progress from the get go. 

Our bus driver, John, has been truly great in getting us where we need to go on time, and is all in all a really skilled long distance bus driver to which we owe a great deal. We have tried to help him in his job by making sure that the students take out all of their trash, belongings etc. every time they leave the bus, but apparently we were still making such a mess that he have had to spend upwards of 2+ hours to clean the bus every time we've been on one of the long drives - something we all though was completely unfair to him - after all; the rest of us can sleep while he powers on, so we've started to take advantage of the 62 willing pair of helping hands that we have available on the bus.

So during the last break the entire bus was cleaned, washed down and vacumed in just 35 minutes! Now THAT'S being effective, and John was a happy man.

Upon arrival at the Oops (I did it again) Hotel in Paris we all went out and found dinner nearby and then it was time for a cruise on the Seinen River, which goes through the center of Paris and from where a lot of the major tourist attractions can be seen. The weather was perfect, and we all enjoyed our time on the river.

After this the students could chose to go home or to stay and climb the Eiffel Tower which many did.

It proved to be quite the task and it took forEVER!

So for the first time on the entire trip we were late for a set time - in the future we'll try not to be so optimistic ;)

A sad day on the bus tour

Today is, very unfortunately, a sad day on the bus tour, as we will be saying goodbye to two of the students we've had on board so far, as they were caught walking around in the city of Avignon drinking.

Since the very beginning of the bus tour we've been very clear with the, actually quite few, rules that we had on board, which basically were: DO NOT BREAK THE 4 D's !!! - as we WILL find out, and we WILL send you home!

We can simply not accept people breaking the Rotary International rules on the trip, and so far the students have shown great dicipline and have at the same time gained a lot of privileges - unfortunately this freedom was a little too much for two of the students.

They will therefore be going with us to Paris and from there they will be taken straight to the airport and flewn home at their own expense. In Denmark they will be met with their bags packed and they will be going all the way back to their home country.

Rotary is not an unfair and unnecessarily harsh organization and we as guides are not unnecessarily mean: The students have signed a contract that they will obide by Rotary's rules and if not they will be sent home. Unfortunately that is now the case.

Ahead of us we have a grueling 10 hour trip to Paris.

Avignon, France Day 2

Today we went to see a large bridge and aqueduct, created during the Great Roman Empire – or more than 2,000 years ago! The aqueduct is called Pont du Gard and is located at a very scenic spot, surrounded by trees, rocks and a river.  After hiking around for a while we held a nice picnic by the bus.

We were then taken back to Avignon where the students could see the pope’s palace among other historical sights.

Dinner was held at the hostel, and afterwards the students were in for a treat. Since we are in Champagne country the guides thought that the students deserved some bubbles – Kid’s Champagne to be exact, which was a huge success. After dinner the students were off on their own for the rest of the evening – tomorrow we leave for Paris!

Monte Carlo, Monaco & Avignon, France

We left our hotel bright and early as usual, and headed for Monte Carlo: The main city of Monaco. Monaco is one of the smallest countries in the world, only covering about 2 square kilometers. It has approximately 36,000 citizens – and an unemployment rate of 0%! There is also no income tax, which is why many of the world’s wealthiest people chose this small country as their primary residence.

Upon arrival in Monte Carlo the students had three options: To go on their own and explore as they liked, to go on a tour to see Princess Grace’s tomb and the aquarium or to take a “car-themed” tour around the city, which yours truly was in charge of. 

Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

 Ferrari Daytona racing car

The car-tour started out with a visit to “His Serene Highness: Prince Albert of Monaco’s personal collection of exotic and historical cars Museum” (that’s the actual title of the museum). Here we saw many rare vintage cars, and the students really enjoyed it. After that we went on a walk around the 3.5 km long Monaco Grand Prix circuit, which took us past Casino Square with the famous Casino Monte Carlo, Hotel de Paris and Café de Paris. (For the car-enthusiasts out there we saw, amongst other exotic rarities, a Ferrari Enzo, a Ferrari SA Aparta (wow) and the brand new McLaren P1 hyper car).

A rarety! The Ferrari Enzo super car (one of 400)

Mercedes SLS AMG convertible and the Ferrari SA Aparta (one of 80)

 The brand new McLaren P1 hyper car

After this we went down to the famous hairpin at the Fairmont Hotel, and continued onwards to the coastline where the Grimaldi Forum was located. We went on into the tunnel which makes up the main “straight” of the circuit and leads down to Port Hercule – probably one of the world’s most exquisite and expensive harbors where million-dollar barges are being replaced by hundred-million-dollar ferries. We learned that many of these mega yachts are registered in the Cayman Islands (no surprise there) and are then relocated to Monte Carlo; the largest of the ones we looked at being The Wedge 2, clocking in at more than 100 million USD… Damn…

After having felt extremely poor for a while we went back on the bus, where a 4-5 hour drive laid ahead of us. Next stop: Avignon, France!

We’re staying at a youth hostel called the YMCA which is located a little outside Avignon.  The evening was spent playing cards and walking around the area.

Verona & San Remo, Italy

The tour’s 9th day was pretty much all dedicated to driving.

We started out with the usual, early 7:40am departure.

First stop of the day was in the city of Verona: The home of Guilietta – or in the English speaking parts of the world: Juliet from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The city also had an old gladiator arena, which unfortunately was closed when we were there. From there, it was back on the bus for a 6 hour drive.

 Juliet's balcony

 

We are initially heading for Paris, but the drive is quite long, so a ”pit stop” has to be made along the way. The location for this pit stop was San Remo: And old, Italian Riviera town, beautifully located amongst green hills, filled with charming old buildings and beautiful views of the ocean.

The hotel we are staying at is like a piece of the olden days. Things has it’s own, slow tempo, the staff looks like they’ve all been here for the past 100 years. The dust lays thick on the paintings and in the restaurant bottles of Champagne and wine dating more than 50-60 years back covers the walls. It’s really quite charming (the kids thought otherwise though, and called it the Italian version of The Overlook Hotel from The Shinning). 
The evening is going to be spent exploring the city or bathing at the pool. Tomorrow: Monaco!

Lido de Jesolo, Italy, Day 3

Today the word ”relaxing” was key. No plans what so ever, other than sleeping in, swimming in the ocean and tanning on the beach.

Everybody went into a beach-induced coma - sunburns pursued

However some students mixed ”tanning” and ”getting ridiculously sunburned” up a bit, and entire tubes of after sun had to be issued to the suffering at the end of the day.

Other than that a few students chose to watch Rossberg win the Monaco Grand Prix on TV – we are going to Monaco in a couple of days, so it was fun to see what it actually looks like.

After dinner almost everybody went down the street to a karaoke bar where we ruled the stage – even Glen (the travel leader) and one of the guides gave a song in spectacular style.

Glen dedicating "Love me Tender" to all of the students <3

Tomorrow morning we have one of the longest drives on the tour ahead of us – so to bed early, and be ready to rock’n roll on the #YOLO bus!