Final day

Today was the last day of our amazing journey through Europe. It's hard to describe it. We left home sixteen days ago, in some ways different people. In such a short span of time we have visited twelve European cities in four countries, and spent at least one night in six of them. We saw a blended mix of large cities and small towns. We spent a night in, Cochem, Germany, which has 5,000 residents. We spent five in Paris, with a metro area of more than 12 million. In all of them we were warmly greeted, got to interact with residents and travelers alike, learn about the culture, the people, the work environments, and about ourselves. Tomorrow we fly home and begin the task of re-adjusting to our everyday lives. I have a great wife at home waiting for me, so that will make things easier.

We started our last day off with a visit to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD. The OECD is an advisory body that has been working since WWII reconstruction to help countries share best practices for developing their economies. We met in a conference room in the center's main building, a chateau built by the Rothschild family in the 1930s. When they were forced to flee before the German occupation, the building lay empty and was eventually sold to the OECD for their headquarters. Our liason was a public relations officer named Andrew who originally hails from Indiana, but has been working in Paris for the past 26 years. Andrew gave us an overview of how the OECD works, and then handed the presentation over to a French gentleman named Justin, who works on an interactive survey called the Better Life Index (BLI). This index allows people to rank 11 factors on the basis of what is important to them to achieve their ideal quality of life. This provides the OECD with invaluable data on various life factors and what is important to different people throughout the world. I took the BLI after our session, and it told me that based on my responses, my top three countries to live in would be Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. The United States was 15th (out of 34) on my list. This is largely due to the fact that the average U.S. respondent ranks jobs and income #1 and work-life balance last, and I was nearly reversed in my scale.

After the OECD our official program was complete. We were allowed to spend the remainder of our final afternoon in Paris as we chose. Unfortunately it was also raining like nobody's business. Most of us hopped on the train and went down to see Notre Dame. The cathedral was free to enter and was a welcome break from the downpour outside. It was a very moving experience to see, just as the cathedral in Cologne had been. Afterwards, I joined up with Sasha, Barb, Becca and Marie and we went down to the Musee D'Orsay on the left bank of the Seine. This is another art museum, much smaller than the Louve. It is built in an old train station, and the architecture is beautiful. The Orsay is famous for its large wing of impressionist art, featuring many paintings by Monet, Renoir, and other French painters of the 19th century. They also had a fantastic temporary exhibit on the life of Vincent Van Gogh, with around 40 of his works on loan from museums around the world. We had already been to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, but this was equally worth the visit. Consider me a convert to his art.

After the museum it was time to meet up with everyone for our farewell dinner. This was at a very nice restaurant somewhere near the 14th district, on the southwest side of town. We had a three course meal featuring a salmon spread starter, roast duck with potatoes for the main, and a chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. It was very good, definitely the best meal of the trip, and the duck was the best I have ever had. Sadly, the restaurant service was poor, and we were kicked out immediately after serving dessert so they could give the room to another group of 60 schoolchildren waiting outside. Not gezellig at all. On the way back to the hotel a few of us stopped for one last drink at a cafe. I paid 9 Euros for the worst Long Island iced tea I have ever had. I didn't even drink it. Not a great note to go out on!

Ater returning to the hotel nobody much felt like calling it in, so we decided on one last hurrah. At a little after 10 several of us met in the lobby and took the metro back down to the Eiffel Tower. We got there just before the 11pm light show. We couldn't sit on the grass because it had been raining all day, so we wandered for a bit, eventually passing under the tower and to the north across the bridge, where there was live music playing. We were careful of the time, as our metro passes expired at midnight, so we got on the subway line at Trocadero around quarter til. Finally, we returned to the hotel once more and surrendered. However, while standing on the steps of the Palais de Chaillot we all promised ourselves that this would not be our last trip to this city, and I mean to keep that promise. I would love to come back one day soon with Katherine (and again later with our children).

That's all. Tomorrow we fly out at 1:30 in the afternoon, headed back to Chicago. It will be a long day by the time we return to UWO tomorrow night, but we will all be high on excitement and ready to relay the stories of our wonderful adventure to family and friends.