Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Had our little breakfast and got ready for landing.  

Took a few minutes to figure out how we wanted to arrive at our house but was decided to get a Navigo pass which can be used for train, metro and bus.

It's 63 degrees here.

Had a nice ride on the train and got off at La Place where the owner of the house met us and took us to it.  His wife showed us around the house.  We were tired and hungry. 

The owner asked if there was a Lisa here snd if course I said I was and he gave me an envelope.  It was from my Aunt Joan and Uncle Larry in Connecticut welcoming me to Paris and for good luckbon the race course.  How wonderful!  Merci beaucoup!

We got out for a walk and mary found a nice restaurant off the beaten path.  It was good.  I will post a photo of the specials.  Waiter was Sammy (sp?) And he didn't speak English and between the four of us  we were understood.  We got an appetizer, entree and dessert for €15 plus a bottle of French wine was split between us.

I had and egg dish with a nice sauce for an appetizer, beef with mashed potatoes and creme caramel for dessert.  Mary had bruchetta for app, salmon for entree, and creme Brule for dessert.  Deb had the egg dish, beef, and pear torte and Libby had pate, veal and pear torte.  It all looked very good.

After lunch went to grocery store for breakfast supplies.  Back to house and Deb and Libby went to bed around 6 pm.

We are 6 hours ahead of you folks on the east coast.

I will head to bed soon as I have been up for 31 hours or so and then the 6 hour time change know top of that.

Plan for tomorrow is to go to the Louvre and get a cup of hot chocolate that Mary has remembered since her time here previously.  Looking forward to it.

French wine

Egg dish appetizer

Beef with mashed potatoes

Creme caramel

Eiffel Tower in the distance

Monday, September 19, 2022

Up at 6:30 am.  Thundering and lightening and pouring rain.

Dave and mom went to mass and said Father Stitt prayed for "all travelers and especially Lisa."  Spoke to mom and visited Dave at Partridge Knoll before he started his exercise class.  On my way to get Deb.

Since it was raining I called Parkway Chevrolet at 8:15 to see of they would put new wiper blades on my car.  They said they could have them there at 8:45.  Off to Parkway I go and what a difference it made.  It wasn't chattering as the blades wiped.  

Picked up Deb at her house and as I was traveling there my tire pressure light came on.   Stopped at Stewart's for air and then on our way to get Mary.  Successful pick up and then to Central Square for the last traveller, Libby.  Still raining hard.  We went to a nice little diner called R diner and had sandwiches.  By the time we were finished the rain let up.  Off to the Syracuse airport.  Dropped Deb and Libby off with luggage and Mary and I went to park car.  We had to use overflow lot as the others were full.  Parked near the ticket booth so our friend Sam could find it easier and he took it to his house so we didn't have to pay for it to sit in the lot for 9 days.

Got boarding passes and to the gate.  Got there around 2 pm.  Plane departs at 5:10 pm.

Was able to get mom set up with What's App.

Uneventful flight to Detroit.  Landed at gate A50 and needed to go to gate A56.  Not very far of a walk.  Had a little dinner at Mezza's of Chicken BLT.

Depart Detroit for Charles de Gaulle airport in France at 9:10 pm.  Again another uneventful flight.  They served dinner of your choice of pasta or chicken at 10:45 pm.  I had pasta and it was not great.  Pasta shells with a roll, salad, cheese and brownie.  Had entertainment channels to watch.  Difficult to sleep.  They served breakfast at 4 am of orange juice, brioche bun, and a blueberry muffin.

Pre-flight photo

Libby, Mary, Deb, me

Yay Paris!

Camera on the plane

Paris, France - Sept 19 - Sept 27, 2022

Welcome back to the blog! 

I am going to Paris with three lady friends for sightseeing as well as to race the La Grande Classique from the Eifell Tower to Versailles.  The race will be Sunday, September 25.

I will try to post everyday about the activities we are doing as well as photos.

See you soon!

Day 8 - Basel, Switzerland

Day 8, May 2, Wednesday - docked at 2am and they call that a “day”?

Viking people were so good at rearranging our return to USA on a short notice. I will summarize as follows: Arose at 4am to catch a $50 cab ride to Basel, Switzerland, train station (driver: which station? Me: How many are there? Driver: 3 Me: no idea. (we look over the tickets in the dark and he spots correct station. This is all in German which he barely speaks and no English; said he was from Serbia) where we catch the train (199 kilometers per hour) to Frankfurt airport to catch a plane to Amsterdam, to fly to Boston, to catch an UBER, to take us back to our car at Halliwell's to drive back to Canton. We make it in time for my 3pm Dr. appointment where I begin to heal, barely as of now.

 

Late entry, May 7, diagnosed with pneumonia this morning and now on powerful antibiotic.

TILL NEXT ADVENTURE. DAVE WRITING, LISA TAKING PHOTOS.

Having hot chocolate in Switzerland train station - not many photos in Switzerland as we woke up at 4 am to get a taxi to the train station at 5:15 for a 6:08 departure to Frankfurt

Day 7 - Black Forest

Day 7, May 1, Tuesday

I mentioned, above, one of the nice people we met on the boat. Jim and Karen are at the top of that list. Karen is a scuba diver and Jim is in the process and will complete his open waters on an Aggressor Dive Boat in Honduras this June. Needless to say, we always had something to talk about. They both also have varied backgrounds with world wide experience and are interesting people. Other nice couples were Kimberli and Brad from Minneapolis, MN as well as Shawna and Steve from Utah. The dining arrangements on the boat insure that passengers meet. All the tables seat 6 or 8 people from all over the country. It would be difficult to be isolated on that boat.

Hearken back to the astronomical clock in Strasbourg. Here is a very short video which shows a bit of the clock. It's at least 20 feet high. You can see longer vids in Youtube but I posted this short one because it has a written explanation of the clock(s) just below the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIwe7BAwVNE

Now back to Tuesday, May 1.

Boat landed at Breisach, Germany. First was a 90 minute bus tour (thank God) of the Black Forest. In medieval times the main road from Paris to Vienna led thru Breisach over high mountain switchback passes. Dizzying and unbelievable that horses and carriages could do it. We stopped at a waystation which was making and selling cuckoo clocks, glass ware and black forest cake (not so sweet and lots of crème). A chef demonstrated making a Black Forest cake in front of a large crowd. I could not find a video of that demo but here is a similar one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Zhg1HHZlQ

Lisa went on a guided hike into the forest but I could not breathe so had to stay back where they make wine. Somebody had to guard the wine. We got to watch the world's largest cuckoo clock operate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlXaBWH4fV8

Back to the boat where I took a nap and Lisa went to Colmar, France. She will let you know what was important. Colmar was home to Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty. At one of the round-abouts they had a smaller version of the statue. Strolled around the city and went into another beautiful cathedral and more half-timbered houses.

 Swan by the boat

 Dining Area

 Black Forest

 Cuckoo Clock

 Black Forest Hike

 Black Forest Cake in the Black Forest

Astronomical Clock

 Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty

 Canal with half timbered houses in Colmar

 Kimberli and Brad

Karen and Jim

Day 6 - Strasbourg, France

Day 6, Monday, April 30 (all the rest have 31)

Strasbourg is the cultural center of Alsace, a territory between Germany and France which has changed citizenship many times. It is currently French, politically, but thoroughly mixed culturally. Another great cathedral, Notre Dame. Tallest medieval building in Europe, 426 ft. (seen one great, magnificent, towering, unbelievable cathedral, seen'em all). Stained glass windows the size of your house. Tapestries even bigger. It also contains an astronomical clock. Not an hourly, daily, monthly clock like you have on your wrist but a clock which starts at the beginning of the world. Can you dig it? I think it was here it finally hit me that the people who built these cathedrals had a sense of persistence which is entirely foreign to us. In a discussion with a friend, Jim, on board, he said it best. They had a different concept of time than we do. Imagine planning and starting a building which you know you will never see even more than the foundation started, if that. You have no exact idea how long it will take but you know it will be centuries. The cost is so staggering that it would equal a country's complete economic worth. These concepts did not matter and may not have even been taken into consideration. Was it hutspa, arrogance, faith? Or do they portray the magnificence of the human spirit? If I can dream it, I can do it. These thoughts rattle thru my brain often.

 

 Strasbourg Cathedral

 Astronomical clock

 French Onion Soup in France

Day 5 - Heidelburg and Speyer

Day 5, Sunday, April 29, Heidelburg and Speyer

You may have noticed a distinct delay in this blog. I was getting sicker by the day. Could not breath well, lots of expectoral coughing fits and nasal nonsense which led to lack of sleep and exhaustion eventually. We had planned another 5 days in Europe at the conclusion of the boat tour but had to change plans and come home for medical treatment. We are writing this on May 5. Blog takes up with Heidelburg:

This day was so crammed with activity that I could not blog it same day. I will probably be a day behind from now on.

We left the boat early for Heidelburg, one of my most memorable cities from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Heidelburg is most famous for its university, its castle and the student life. We started with a walking tour of the old castle high over the city. Begun in the 13^th century, it was in a lot of wars between robber barons and was destroyed and repaired over the centuries. Still impressive. It holds the largest wine barrel which ever held wine. (Bad Durkheim has wine barrel which has a restaurant in it and is the largest in the world.) People in these castles must have had legs of steel from all the steps. The guide pointed out the large calves of the statues of nobles. She said that in those days large calves was thought to indicate high sexual performance. Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LIhHCtqz-M

We then went into the old city. I found the gasthaus I used to frequent, Zum Roten Oxen, but it was closed on Sunday afternoons. I still have their beer mug hanging on my wall. We discovered a wonderful bakery and a place for lunch. Note about German pastry, it never tastes as sweet as it looks or we Americans expect. Lots of crème. Went to the large Catholic church. All the churches are museums of medieval paintings and sculpture. So many churches that they begin to blur for description purposes. We had foot long wursts and brotchen and sweet mustard and beer. Great.

On to Speyer. In spite of living near there in my past, I had never been there. After Hburg so many were too tired to walk there so we stalwart few went on the walking tour. I was too tired also but went anyway. It was a typical German Sunday afternoon with people strolling in the large city square, sitting at the many Eis cafes. Speyer is famous for originating the term Protestant. In 1529 a bunch of free city states and princes who were Lutheran protested the Edict of Worms which had banned Lutheranism. We visited another great cathedral.

During our trip on the Rhine, we encountered 12 locks. Our ship had a hydraulic mechanism to lower the bridge/wheelhouse in order to pass under the entry to the lock. The wheelhouse would lower to within a few feet of the top deck.

View of Heidelburg

 Heidelburg Castle

 largest wine barrel

 The noble man with large calves

Zum Roten Ochsen - The Red Ox