Amiens

Today was the second major outing with the group, and this time we knew to go to sleep earlier the night before. We caught an incredibly crowded RER to Gare du Nord where we met Stephan. From there we caught our train to Amien (a town I, as well as numerous other people, including Parisian, didn’t even know existed until now).
The more time I spend with Stephan, the more I like him. He told us we were a good group (even after a rowdy lunch where he and Ecola played the adult to keep us under control) and told us stories of “bad” groups. His most quotable comments were that “beer is for breakfast, cocktails for lunch, whiskey for dinner,” “who is this professor?” and “I have to take a picture because my wife will not believe we walked this far to see a broken bridge.”
These comments were interspersed throughout the day, but we started the day out with a tour of the Amien Cathedral. This is a Gothic structure that looks very much like a very large Notre Dame. It was built because of the relic it houses of St. John the Baptists skull (which is still on display inside). The oddities of this building are plenty, but most noteworthy amongst them is that one of the stain glassed windows is actually an upside-down pentagram, there are no books in the hands of the statues of the pre-Catholicism prophets, and under all the statues are the only real examples of artistic freedom: tiny “stupid people.”
After the tour we had the aforementioned lunch, a quick walk around, an entertaining carousel ride, then a fun but long walk to nowhere featuring a hilarious Juewai and Justin, then finally a long ride back featuring M.A.S.H. I am marrying Katie, we are having 12 kids, live in a Shack, we have an elephant and a tricycle.