Switzerland Aupair: Burgos, Spain and the night train home!

We spent the night in a lovely hotel in Burgos, then awoke and went to a separate sitting area for a yummy breakfast of croissants, orange juice, and coffee and then it was off to walk to the tourist office. We bought tickets for a train ride through the city (was all in Spanish so didn't understand a word about any of the history of Burgos) and rode to this hill which offered a lovely view of the downtown area and had this huge compass showing various places in the world and how far it was from that spot! Awesome indeed!

Once down we had a very light lunch and then it was back to the hotel for a siesta while the kids and I played Phase 10, were very crazy singing "MaCavity" from Cats and other songs and took so many insane pictures being silly. Olivia then went to wake her parents who then walked me to the train station and I bade them farewell as I waited for my train to Hendaye, France.

Once on the train I had to find the cabin, which was so crazy. Okay, instead of labeling them in nummerical order (logical right?), they were like 12, next came 51, then came 3, I mean crazy!!! I had to find 21, which wasn't even labeled when I got to it (found out because it was the only one left I hadn't walked to *rolls eyes*) and then discovered that an elderly couple were occupying one of my seats, so I sat in the vacant seat across from them next to a guy who didn't speak-it-a-english. ;-P The couple were from Italy and were really adorable (they didn't speak english either) and tried talking to me, the husband grabbed my book (Wives and Daughters), flipped through it, then laughed alternatingly tapping his forehead and the book. So I laughed and grabbed his magazine, flipped through it and did the same. Haha, so cute. An hour later they brought out a sandwich they had packed for themselves and the husband offered me some, which I politely refused. Once they reached their stop the wife gave me a hug and the husband pecked me on each cheek, haha, and they were on their way. Europeans are ADORABLE! :-P Italians must be like the Southerners of Europe . . .

Once in Hendaye, discovered I'd have to wait two hours for the night train into Paris Austerlitz and made my way to the restroom. Upon doing my business, discovered there was no soap, lovely, ah! However, I was smart and took the little packages in the hotel and fished that out of my backpack (I lasted a WEEK with ONE bag!!! How awesome is that!?!) and finished my toilet and then made my way to the snack machine, which had credit in it!!! WONDERFUL!! Tip= the snack machines in Europe do not return change, very few do, so therefore unless one has exact change . . . ya ain't gettin' it back! Out came my Orangina and a Euro to boot and then I found a seat, ravenously inhaled my cheese and baguette sandwich and waited.

The train came, was the first on, and then to my surprise it was just like the movies!!! Too surreal! I threw my stuff on the bunk, snapped a few photos and then heard voices in english coming my way. Next appearing were a Scotsman, a Norwegian, later to be followed by a Frenchgirl, and two Parisians. IT WAS PACKED! Accompaning this group of people were two bottles of rum, and a pack a beer . . . yeah . . . you can imagine how the night went . . . I finally was able to get to sleep about 3am after I tucked everyone in, wish I wasn't kidding . . . to wake at 6:30, walk down the hall and pack to make sure everyone was up and ready to leave when we arrived. Haha . . .

I then had to find the metro and buy a ticket and make my way to Paris Est, which thankfully Mrs. X had told me the names, which was very important when dealing with foreign languages . . . ALWAYS write down the names to things. After all that my train to Zurich finally came, an exhausting 4 hour ride, another 20 minutes from the HB (haubtbahnhof) to the train station where I live and then another 10 minute walk before I finally walked in my door, sorted my laundry to wash, took the most fantastic shower ever and managed to stay awake till 6pm when unable to resist the bed any longer collapsed and slept for a lovely 13 hours. :-D

Such was my week of holidays with the family. As they traveled around France, I messed around here, took advantage of two free washers,washing blankets and towels and everything. The rest of my time was spent with the other aupairs who had stayed behind and we had a lovely time, so relaxing!

The Cathedral window in Burgos

The view of the city an ME!

The compass

Boston this way!

Our tourguide train

Adorable Spanish locals . . . the boy was waving to the train and the mother was laughing at me. ;-)

Our hotel

The wall around the original part of the city

This is Tapas! Yum! Everyone gets off work and travels around to all the bars taking small plates of food and a San Miguel beer on tap and then travels to the next one until the wee hours of the morning.