We made it!

At long last, we have finally arrived in Nantes. What a trip! After arriving this morning in London we thought for sure 2.5 hour layover would be plenty of time to make it to our connecting flight. It was enough, but just barely. Compared to the super awesome tram at Dallas Fort Worth, London Heathrow had a cramped bus that drove quite carelessly on very sharp curves. Took forever to get to the next terminal. Then through England's version of TSA. One bag search later, we finally made it to our terminal. The flight to Paris was short and uneventful. Then we had to catch another bus to the airport train station. I think it took at least 30 minutes, including a 10 minute employee smoke break for the driver. Everybody smokes here! Everywhere. Right in front of the train doors. Everywhere. Guess I've gotten used to our nice non smoking culture in the US. So then I had to figure out how to print out our new train tickets since we missed the early train we had originally scheduled. Luckily the French have invested in some good automated technology so that wasn't so hard after I figured out which kiosk to go to. The tricky part is doing this and not looking like a tourist. I'd say mission accomplished since people have asked me things in French along the way, and I successfully shooed a squatter out of our assigned seats. The train ride was fast (speed) but very long. These weary travelers just want to be in a room with a bed. At the Nantes train station I had to figure out how to get some Euro coins to buy tram tickets from the machine that didnt take bills, and didnt like our credit cards. Phew! We're now in our hotel room and ever so thankful for a bed to lay on and a shower. Our plan tonight is refresh, find food, then to bed for our first real nights sleep in I don't know how many hours. This is going to be a fun trip, but man did it ever take an effort to get here! Good thing is, so far i speak good enough French to fool people into thinking I know more than i do. If only I could understand their responses! Hotel lady spoke to me entirely in French, and I understood most of it. We are getting by ok in that sense. Goodnight for now. Got some relaxing to do.