More unwanted visitors = Aug 2013

Just to catch everyone up on what has been going on in Algiers....we were robbed in August during the night, while we were sleeping in the house.  Thank God we are fine and they only took stuff.  We can replace "stuff".

I woke up one Friday morning (which is our weekend) to notice that some things are out of place by the bathroom.  I woke Kirk up to ask him if he had gotten up in the night to move anything.  He jumped out of bed knowing something was amiss.  We realized, as we woke up more fully, that someone had been in the house.  We went to call the embassy and realized all of our cell phones had been stolen.   We used our radios to make contact and had security here within 10 minutes.  We checked all the doors and windows only to find out they were all secured and locked....no broken glass, no tampered locks.

The local police showed up which was quite a show (think Inspector Clouseau from Pink Panther!!)  The police kept questioning us like we were making it up!!  They couldn't understand how there was no damaged locks or windows.  I have never seen so many people in our tiny apartment.   They had their version of CSI come in.  I was cleaning up finger print powder for days!!!  The thieves got away with my laptop, jewelry, cell phones and iPods.  It was so unnerving to know that someone was in the house and we had no idea.

Thank goodness most thieves are stupid and the police were able to locate them by tracking my Blackberry.  They arrested 2 Algerians who apparently had lots of keys and stolen merchandise in their house.  They were targeting our neighborhood and had somehow gotten keys from the hardware store to enter residences.  They will spend 3 years in jail. 

We are finally getting bars and grills on all our doors and windows.  They have reinforced the doors with slide bolts from the inside until the grills are all installed.  They are also fortifying the outside perimeter wall, making it higher and adding concertina wire.

Never a dull moment!

Paris July 2013 Part 2

We drove from Normandy back to Paris and spent a wonderful 2 days near the Eiffel Tower.  We walked miles!!  We found the most wonderful sidewalk cafés where we had some great food while enjoying several bottles of wonderful French wine.
The weather was hot and we really enjoyed walking along the Seine River.  We took a night cruise and took in the "City of Lights".

Holding Paris in my hand!

                                                             Nice "hat" Kirk!  :)

Outside the Louvre museum.

The Eiffel Tower all lit up at night with twinkle lights! 

It looked even prettier in person (especially after a few glasses of nice French wine!!)  LOL

Notre Dame