I found a Stabucks!!!!! Highlight of trip!!!!!

Bonjour! I'm in Colmar, France, really struggling with a French keyboard. I apologize in advance for all the typos. This is how the French get their revenge on the rest of the world.

Last night we watched the final episode of the British version of The Apprentice. I found have fired both the final candidates. I thought they were awful.

We had takeout Indian food for dinner - fabulous.

This morning Scott took me to the train station, and took the train to Gatwick Airport. It was an hour trip - very easy. Gatwick is so much more managable than Heathrow. But boy, is England expensive!!! I had a lousy breakfast of watery eggs, soggy toast, salty/fatty bacon, lukewarm coffee and diluted orange juice, and with tip it cost $30!!! It was inedible. And then, like lirage appearing to a lan dying of thirst in the desert, lo and behold, there rose a Starbucks. I was SO HAPPY!!!

I'm sure the latte was the same as the lattes in the US, but it was the best latte I ever had!!! Like manna from heaven. And the raisin scone was devine. This treat only cost about $9.

My flight to Strasbourg was delayed 1 hour - no reason given. Took a cab from the airport to the train station, which is under construction. What a mess!!! Dust, noise..... Could have been anywhere.

Bought a ticket and ran to catch the train or the wait for the next one would have been an hour. Escalator was broken so had to run up 2 flights of stairs shlepping tons of luggage. Oy.

Ran onto the train, accidentally into the first class car. This is really a nice train, I thought, until the conductor looked at my ticket and told me to move. He pretended to not speak any English so I pretended not to speak any French.

The countryside seemed nice, but I was so hot all I wanted to do was get off the train. Was dying of heat and thirst!

Two stops later we arrived. Guess what? There were no escalators to be broken!!! Down a huge flight of stairs, and up another. Torture.

Then - - - a cab driver refused to take me to my hotel. He was very rude; but not sure what it was all about. I thought he said I could just walk there, which I thought meant it was close by. So I asked someone for directions and began walking. No hotel. Asked another person - pointed and ran on in French. Asked a 3rd person - same thing, pointing and talking. Got to the hotel - it was lovely, but it was the wrong one!!! There are 2 hotels in Colmar owned by Mercure, and I was at the wrong one.

Sigh.......

Took a cab to the right one and checked in. Had to keep asking the receptionist/operator for the Sprint 800 number. Long story but finally got the right one.

Then unpacked and came straight to this internet cafe. Relelber, I have no laptop.

Looking forward to having a nice dinner with my colleagues; they should be arriving by now.

Big meeting all day tomorrow; if the client's keyboard is like this, I'm a dead man. It's taken me over 30 minutes to type this.

Gotta run