Catching Up

So this is the blog I meant for last week, but somehow last week turned into this week without my permission, so here it is. . .

We are certainly in Europe in "the off season."  Why do I say that?  Well, it seems to me that every place we visit is covered in scaffolding!  Paris, London, Basel, Strasbourg, Heidelberg, Brussels, EVERYWHERE was covered in the eyesores of renovation!

In a way, it is really interesting to be over here in the not-so-touristy season, in fact I rather prefer it.  It is much less crowded, and we get to see things from a different perspective with it being fall/winter.  However, I find it very hard to believe that every historical monument needs restoring at the same time!  I have a large collection of pictures of scaffolding on major historical buildings, monuments, or whatever! It's all under construction!

I guess they won't restore themselves, and I guess it makes for a good story!  Really, I think the benefits of being here in the off season outweigh anything else.  It has been really nice not to be fighting with hundreds of other tourists everywhere we went! Seeing everything in its not-so-pretty state reminded me that we are really here in unique circumstances, and might have even been a quite reminder that "touring" shouldn't have been our main purpose here.