Cheryl and Andy visit Strasbourg!

OK...so this is the even lazier way of blogging. Add a slideshow of all of the pictures so you don't have to pick and choose!!!

Cheryl, my cousin from Hoboken NJ, and her main amigo Andy from Yonkers NY (you have to say that with that NY accent) came to visit for a quick few days. But in that short time, we managed to do Strasbourg, the Alsace wine route, [including Molsheim (home of bugatti), Obernai (plain old cute town), Mont Ste. Odile (site of a catholic miracle...chick born blind but then gets unblind during baptism...then heals other blind peeps and managed to get water out of a rocky cliff so now people come to check that out too), and Colmar (ultimate cute town. This town has now made us describe something as plain old cute or colmar-cute)], and Epernay and Reims in the champagne region (epernay is home to Moet-Chandon (where there is a Bergman (axel's dad's side) connection), Mercier, and Castellane as well as Boizel (where there is a Stieltjes (axel's mom's side) connection). Reims is where French kings were coronated so of course there is a big-ass cathedral for that soiree...and a small xmas market...and champagne which we didn't try because we were too hammered from epernay). We managed to also squeeze in a late American Thanksgiving celebration with the N. American crowd of the ISU, thanks to the most organized hostess of a thanksgiving party I've ever seen.

Cheryl left to go back to NJ while Andy kept his euro trip going by heading to Barcelona and eventually Prague. What I think we'll miss about these two is their hilarious take on the french sayings. Like voila. I never realized it but in N. America, we say Voila when it's something that we're proud of showing you, or is just plain brilliant...In France, voila is used all the time. Like when you ask for a pen and someone gives it to you...they then will say "voila". Cheryl and Andy pointed it out when we got our change from the tollbooth man and he gave it to us saying Voila. Now I have to stop myself from laughing everytime I hear it. So thanks a lot guys.