Trains, Planes & Automobiles!

What an adventure it has been already!  I arrived Sunday June 12 (12.6.2011 in Europe dating) and by Monday morning we were off and running.  Dave had an audit for work in Brest, France and I was fortunate enough to be able to tag along.  As I was still a little (okay...I'll be honest...a LOT) jet-lagged I was all sorts of confused as the alarm went off at 6am Monday morning.  I do have to throw a major shout out to Dave for keeping me awake until an appropriate sleep time (9pm I believe)...every time my eyes would get heavy he'd wake me up...what a trooper!!!  


Anyways...back to our travel adventure on the way to Brest!  The car/cab arrived at 6:45am and away we went.  We had to take 2 trains to get to the airport for our 10:30 flight.  It was fairly simple to navigate the train system as you are given a specific seat so you don't have to really look for one.  The most difficult part was during the train transfer making sure we found the right platform...but I rocked that one!!!  (Mom and Dad you'd be proud!!!!)  The most difficult part was figuring out the tickets...we were each given 3 tickets and we had to figure out which one was for which train...I guess 1 was just a confirmation for the actual purchase and the other 2 were for our seats on each train.  

Once at the airport we made it easily through security and had to just kind of hang out until about 30 minutes before our flight.  They don't announce the gate of departure until then.  Dave was given a jokingly hard time when he pulled the hot pink computer out of his rucksack (backpack).  We all had a good laugh!  He didn't even have to take his shoes off!  I removed mine out of habit but feel if I had asked I could have kept them on!  In the airport I had the most amazing breakfast croissant with meat and cheese and tomato...almost like a true breakfast pizza!  Warm, yummy, goodness.  We found our gate easily and boarded.  It was a smaller plane with props on the wings...which made it a little loud inside.  We were informed about 10 minutes before landing that the Brest airport was fogged in and they were not allowing any planes to land.  GRRRR.  But alas we were routed to Rennes, France...which as we found out is a mere 3 hour bus ride away!  As Dave started to grumble (even though the airlines had already arranged for ground transport) I cheerfully explained that "Hey!  At least we covered all the bases today!  Trains...Planes...and...Automobiles!"  Then we hit some turbulence and Dave decided to watch the wheels as they touched down...just thinking of it is making me dizzy again and for those of you familiar with my queasiness can understand the rest of the trip wasn't as pleasant as I would have liked...but I made the best of it!  And Dave was a trooper!  :)  Deep breaths and long sleeps and food and water were all very helpful!  I never actually got sick...but it was close a few times!  Blah!  It was when we finally reached Brest we realized that we went about 8 hours without any food!  No wonder I didn't feel well!  No food + little sleep = not such a good combo!  We tried to find a place to eat right away but it was a)a holiday in France and b)during siesta time when we arrived so very little was open.  We walked around a bit until a pizza place opened and we settled in for the evening.  I found out during dinner that that was where Dave celebrated Thanksgiving this past year.  


We ended up walking quite a bit and since Dave has been here before all it took were a few main streets and we both seemed to become familiar with the area.  All I need to remember is that it's a coastal town...so it's down hill to the sea (Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea) and uphill to our hotel!  

PS. In case I forgot to mention it...yes...it rained again today...in Cheltenham & in Brest!  What are my chances!  Crossing my fingers for a dry Tuesday!  I'm 0-2 for clear weather across the pond!  :)  Oh Well!