Eiffel tower and louvre

Cool. Impressive. Goal to see the Eiffel tower once in my life: check. Tobin got a multi coulored pen from a souvenir shop there, and some elevators weren't working so the line was huge! We saw the prices for the Jule's verne (mentioned in airborne books by Kenneth Oppel) and the prices were like in the book even though I thought they were exaggerating. Jeff calculated with tax and tip for all five of us to eat there it would cost $700
At the mall place under the louvre we peeked in at an art/ toy shop. Art because they have designer paintings, weird sculptures and expensive brick-a-brack, and toy because they have designer giant playmobile people and giant Lego heads and blocks. Some neat things there were hand sculptures and origami light sculptures that were also lights.

Limberg castle ruins

In Denmark we were looking for a castle ruin, but we only knew the general location, so we were driving around for awhile on logging roads in an old volvo without a speedometer. And we wouldn't have found them unless Julias went up to some people we passed and asked them if they spoke English and they did, so they told us that you had to follow the signs for the hotel and not the ruins and didn't you already know cause everyone knows that. So we found them, and they were pretty neat. Pictures:

Paris park

Paris park

So one of the things we did the few days we were in Paris was visit a park, and we didn't really know what it would be like or how big it was, but it turned out to be pretty big and pretty cool. They had a man made lake surrounding a lookout post place on top of big hill, and a huge man made cave with stalactites and a waterfall, which was all very cool considering we just expected a grassy field with some paths and benches and trees.

Llamas alpacas walk

Yesterday we walked all the female llamas and alpacas that were at our place over a hill for an hour and a half to our hosts place to stay for a bit. We all got to lead an animal by a halter through a path in the woods and it was pretty fun. The alpacas don't really let you pet them, but sometimes you can and their wool is super soft.
Half way through the hike we stopped at a little shelter hit place for a rest, and it started to thunder and lightning and rain a lot, and so we had to cram the six llamas and alpacas into the hut with us. Then we waited for it to stop. It was very dramatic, and apperently the owners of the animals had never been caught in a thunderstorm with llamas and alpacas in a hut before either.
It was weird wether that day because the rest of the day before and after the storm was super sunny and nice.

Farm big house

We arrived in Germany 3 days ago now, and at our next host's houses. They are both at least 300 years old, and each has six or seven llamas and alpacas in the huge grasslands around each house. They're more like camps than houses, at least this one is. It has something like 29 beds (mostly bunk beds), a huge kitchen, three toilets, three showers, a huge common room, and about twenty other rooms as well. Also apparently the lamas are trained to carry stuff for picnics etc, and there are a few castles very near here, and a big hill covered in trees. All that plus the fact that they had homemade black forest cake and tea ready when we got here makes this my favorite place. I'm very much looking forward to staying here.

Park ponies

Park ponies

Awhile ago in Denmark we went for a walk in a park with a lot of hills, with Mona, Lise's cousin. There was a horse riding place in the park, and so even though it was really busy (it was a Sunday) we managed to rent two ponies and lead them with Julias and Tobin on them through the park. It was a very big park, but we only had them for half an hour and at the halfway point, the ponies started turning around and wouldn't go any further. I think they were used to half an hour rents.
There was also a fair in the park, and we walked through it but it was too busy to do anything.