Nice blog!

We fell asleep in the train that was supposed to take us to Nice. When we woke up and deboarded, we were still unmistakably in Paris. Vacation can be mayhem - especially when you can't figure out what's going.

For the last two months we've anticipated that right now we would be reclining on the French Riveria. Instead, we're leaning against the wall in the Marseilles train station, a few agonizing kilometers from the coast.

One of my wife's coworkers was the mastermind who acquired tickets to see U2 in Nice.

Train tickets were subsequently booked, saving a few pounds versus if we'd flown. The thought was that the overnight sleeper would be more adventurous. And it certainly has been.

We stood in security at London Waterloo for 45 minutes. Apparently an undercover reporter wrote an expose at the beginning of the week after traveling on the Eurostar using someone else's passport. Now security has been seriously beefed up. Three people checked my passport; last journey it was scanned once.

Once we finally boarded, we found that our seats were adjacent to an individual who apparently was on a two month fast from bathing. We would have asked the motivation for such behavior, but the stench stagnated the air to the point that soundwaves could not travel.

What was supposed to be a mere two hour layover at Gare de Austelich was not so simple. We ate a simple dinner at McDonald's, which I must say is usually a very pleasant place to sit for awhile. They have nice chairs and interiors, not to mention the bathrooms, which require a code from your receipt. We strolled into the station to find that are train had been cancelled due to a fire. It took talking and listening to five train workers to piece that together. They were all quite proud however to tell us that the train would still be available for sleeping.

Everyone rushed to the ticket counter to clamor for alternate trains. Shortly thereafter a bomb threat led to evacuation of the area. We went off to try to rent a car, but were deterred by the 190 euro price tag for a two door diesel. Just for the day!

The ticket counter reopened and we were booked onto a 6 a.m. train.

Into our sleeping car we went. Surprisingly, when the train is not moving, you can get decent sleep in those beds. We dreamed that while we were sleeping, the train decided to proceed, but some dreams unfortunately never come to fruition. After the 5:30 alarm went off, we got up and transferred to the train that actually had plans to attempt the journey.

As I write, we are having another elongated layover, uncertain as to whether Bono will have these fans to entertain ce soir.