Belated Update #3

Quick Update #1
Quick Update #2

So Emily and I woke up in the very early morning to find it snowing in Bern. Since it was so early, no bus was running and so we had to walk to catch our train to Geneva. We did get pretty wet, but luckily the train was completely empty so we could lay out our coats/hats/gloves to dry. This was completely useless as when we arrived in Geneva we found it pouring rain. All of this was made worse as Emily had her umbrella stolen earlier in the week from the hostel in Zurich. So we kept ourselves entertained with indoor activities (UN, Cathedrals, etc.) as much as possible, but still got completely soaked.

The train ride was long from Geneva to Paris but we met Barack and taught him how to play Skip-Bo while we chatted about life in the US, Morocco, Paris, and Geneva. He won, but Emily and I put up a good fight. It was great to get to Paris and hop on the familiar Metro to our hotel for the evening. We felt like locals returning home!

We spent a beautiful day in Paris taking two New Europe tours - Free Walking and Montmartre. Emily and Scott found this company in Edinburgh and loved it, so we used it in Munich and now Paris. It was a great day but unfortunately the storm that was in Geneva found its way to Paris by the evening, and we found ourselves getting soaked again as we raced to the train station to catch the Eurostar to London.

We made it successfully to London and again felt like locals when we whipped out our Oyster cards to catch the Tube to our hotel near Heathrow. What screwed up our plan was the holiday (Easter) weekend, so we missed the last bus and found ourselves temporarily stranded at the empty airport. Luckily Emily stumbled upon someone who had called a cab, so we were able to share a very expensive ride to our hotel. The next morning we awoke to snow! (Yeah the weather appeared to be crazy all over Western Europe.) Even with the poor weather, Emily's flight to the US left and Ben's flight from the US arrived successfully within 1 hour of each other.

I survived backpacking through Europe and had a great time! And with that conclusion, the final pictures are finally up. Enjoy!