Wes was supposed to arrive in Amsterdam on Thursday 11 August. However, when I got up that morning, I found a note from him which explained that his plane never left Charlotte and he missed his connection. Eek! So instead of meeting him at the airport, I went to work...now his flight landed at 5.30 on 12 August. Some how, I managed to not set my alarm and he ended up waiting at the airport for me for almost an hour...I still feel quite bad about it. It was really karma, if you're interested in knowing why, just ask me. =)
So he was here for about a week, and then I sent him (without a bank card and no idea how to use the gas card I handed him) by car to PBP, which went very well for him! I worked that week and then left on Friday to meeting him, Aron and Melissa outside of Paris. After a bit of annoying travel on the RER (for whatever reason the train I was on would not stop at the station I needed!), I finally made it to the correct station.
We had dinner with Aron and Melissa and a few of the North Carolina crew, who were leaving for Portugal on Saturday. Wes was really excited about his dinner:
Saturday morning we said goodbye to Aron and Melissa and drove to Reims, where we were staying the weekend. This out of the window of the car, it was quite gray and a bit rainy as we were driving. The drive was supposed to be a bit over an hour, but we managed to get a bit lost. =)
Wes was still catching up on sleep after the ride, so I took the opportunity to do some work (yes, the wall was pink). You'll see in the small picture that sleep was not the only thing that Wes needed to catch up on, he also neglected his skin during the ride!
Of course, since Wes had slept, he was immediately hungry. We found a
place that sold crepes and had dinner there. Side note - we realized
when we got
back to Amsterdam, that the grocery store sold already made crepes, so
they've become a regular part of our diet here! The creperie had cider,
which I LOVE, and a few different kinds of crepes.
Since I had the 50mm on the camera here were some fun pictures of dinner.
You can tell that Wes was not having a good skin day...
The best kind of buttresses are the flying ones...
They were in process of restoring the front of the cathedral, so the contract was quite striking.
The front of the cathedral.
Another view of the restorations.
Gothic hallways!
The arches.
More arches.
Even more arches, different angle.
I was also playing with some angles...this one was pretty neat.
So he was here for about a week, and then I sent him (without a bank card and no idea how to use the gas card I handed him) by car to PBP, which went very well for him! I worked that week and then left on Friday to meeting him, Aron and Melissa outside of Paris. After a bit of annoying travel on the RER (for whatever reason the train I was on would not stop at the station I needed!), I finally made it to the correct station.
We had dinner with Aron and Melissa and a few of the North Carolina crew, who were leaving for Portugal on Saturday. Wes was really excited about his dinner:
Saturday morning we said goodbye to Aron and Melissa and drove to Reims, where we were staying the weekend. This out of the window of the car, it was quite gray and a bit rainy as we were driving. The drive was supposed to be a bit over an hour, but we managed to get a bit lost. =)
The view from our hotel:
Wes was still catching up on sleep after the ride, so I took the opportunity to do some work (yes, the wall was pink). You'll see in the small picture that sleep was not the only thing that Wes needed to catch up on, he also neglected his skin during the ride!
After the nap, we wandered around town a bit, the town had converted this fountain to a flowerbed...
Of course, since Wes had slept, he was immediately hungry. We found a
place that sold crepes and had dinner there. Side note - we realized
when we got
back to Amsterdam, that the grocery store sold already made crepes, so
they've become a regular part of our diet here! The creperie had cider,
which I LOVE, and a few different kinds of crepes.Since I had the 50mm on the camera here were some fun pictures of dinner.
After dinner we headed to the cathedral in town, Notre Dame du Reims, where the kings of France were crowned before that pesky revolution thing happened. Something about eating cake? Since I only had one lens with me, Wes promised that we could come back again. =) Here's a few that I took, with the 50mm I was playing with having a short depth of field (for camera lay-people, that means I was making the background fuzzy on purpose):
I was also playing with some angles...this one was pretty neat.
