Last Day in Paris - Homeward Bound

Sunday, August 29th Paris

Last night we walked down the Rue Daguerre to a little Greek restaurant and had a lamb dinner. This morning we got ready to go touristing for the day and stopped down the street for coffee and pastries. It was a little cool and cloudy so we came back for our fleeces and then set off again for the Palace of Luxembourg and the surrounding gardens. It wasn't far to walk from our hotel.

The palace gardens are extensive and along with beautiful fountains, statues and flower gardens there are tennis courts, jogging paths, a basketball court, pony rides and lots of other stuff. It's a park that is well used by Parisians. We saw people on the grass doing yoga and tai chi, lots of joggers and lots of people having a Sunday picnic. There are hundreds of green metal chairs that people can drag into the right size circle for their group so a lot of people do that just to enjoy the garden and spend some time together outside.

We wandered from there over to the University, which includes the famous Sorbonne and the Latin Quarter in the 5th District on the Left Bank of the Seine. This is the long established cafe scene where students and others gather. Hemingway and other writers in the 20s lived around here. It's still a very cool area. On some of the buildings there are plaques with names of French freedom fighters from WWII. In 1944 the French resistance staged a major battle with the occupying Nazis and some of the fiercest fighting was in the Latin Quarter. The plaques, and sometimes flowers with them, show where some of the fighters died on the street.

We walked a short distance from there up the hill to the Pantheon, a huge mausoleum where some of the most famous Parisians like Victor Hugo and Marie Curie are entombed. From there we went back to the Luxembourg Palace Gardens and had a picnic like so many others were doing.

We had seen a sign for an antique sale on Boulevard de Port-Royal which was on our way back so we wandered down there for a look, not that we're really interested in antiques. It was just a good lazy stroll on our last day.

As we wandered back along the Boulevard Arago toward our street, we stumbled across a big old prison which had a plaque on it saying that students and followers of General de Gaulle had been imprisoned there by the Nazis during WWII. The weight of history seems so much more real in Europe than at home.

Tonight we'll find a restaurant down our street for dinner although many are closed on Sunday. Tomorrow morning we'll have pastries and coffee in a cafe and then come back, check out and take the Metro and tram to Orly airport. Our flight leaves at 4 pm for Montreal. From there we'll take the bus to Ottawa where Dylan will pick us up and drive us home. We're looking forward to seeing family and friends but it's been a great adventure!

The Palace and Gardens of Versailles

Saturday August 28th, Paris

Yesterday morning we had a final stroll along the boardwalk in Arcachon, bought some pastries at a bakery and had breakfast on our balcony. We took the train to Bordeaux and then the TGV high speed train to Paris Montparnasse. We got to the Montparnasse station at 4 pm. It only took us about 10 minutes to walk to our hotel, the Daguerre Montparnasse. It's a typical small 3 star Paris hotel in an old building on Rue Daguerre.

After we got settled we went shopping for breakfast and lunch items. Rue Daguerre becomes a pedestrian mall a couple of blocks from our hotel. It's a little side street and seems to be the neighbourhood street for small groceries, delis, restaurants and bars. Very handy. After we got organized we went back out for dinner to a little restaurant across the street recommended by the hotel desk person. We both had duck and scalloped potatoes. Excellent! There is a lot more duck available here than at home. Usually it's not really expensive and is very good.

This morning we packed a picnic lunch and took a regional train from Gare Montparnasse to Versaille. We walked about 10 minutes from the Versailles Chantiers station to the Chateau de Versailles. This is the palace and gardens built by the kings of France for themselves to live in total luxury and awe the other royalty of Europe. It was started in 1661 and had up to 45,000 workmen at a time draining swamps, digging lakes and building the palace. The kings ruled France from here for over 100 years, until the revolutionary mob showed up and dragged Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette out and eventually beheaded them. When told that the peasants of Paris had no bread, sweet Marie should never have said, "Let them eat cake", while she was living in the ultimate palace of the time. Apparently they didn't like that.

We didn't stand in line for the interior palace tour but we did spend most of the day touring the extensive gardens. It's hard to believe how extensive these gardens really are. You can barely see from the palace to the far end of the grand canal, which is really a man-made lake with stone banks and lawns around it. There are statues, fountains and side gardens everywhere. The idea was to create a series of pleasant spaces that would be like outdoor drawing rooms where the king and members of court could walk around, sit and enjoy the good life. They have a "Musical Fountains Show" on weekends all summer. Recorded classical music is played from loudspeakers hidden in the bushes and the fountains are turned on. Some of the renovated ones sort of dance to the music. The older ones just flow normally but they're doing that through some of the original piping from the 17th century that still works.

We had our picnic lunch on the lawn by the grand canal and then walked up to the Grand Trianon, a pink marble building at one corner of the gardens where Louis the XV kept his mistress, Mme du Barry. Later, Marie Antoinette stayed there frequently to avoid court life. We all like a little peace and quiet.

When we'd seen enough, we caught another train back to Montparnasse. It's only 16 km so it doesn't take long. That's it for trains. Our 2 month Eurail pass expires at midnight tonight. It's been well used. We'll miss all our nice train rides.

Tonight we'll go out for dinner somewhere down the Rue Daguerre and spend a last day in Paris tomorrow.

Arcachon part deux

　

Tuesday August 24^th Arcachon, France

Today we had breakfast of yogurt, baguette, jam, cheese, tea and coffee on our balcony. After that we packed a picnic lunch and lots of water in a backpack and headed out to see the sand dunes south of town.

On the way we stopped at the train station to get seat reservations back to Paris on Friday. This time it cost 18 euros each whether we went 1^st or 2^nd class. Naturally we chose 1^st class and got reservations at 11:26 to Bordeaux where we will wait about 35 minutes before boarding the TGV train to Paris. We’ll arrive in Paris at 4:00 pm.

Then we started our walk to the south. I had understood the young woman in the tourism office to say that it was about 5 km. I must have misunderstood because it’s a lot farther than that. We walked from the train station for about 2 hours until we got to Pyla sur Mer from where we could see the sand dunes about another 2 or 3 km away. Luckily it was a beautiful day that was not too hot but still that was close enough. They really are huge dunes, over 100 m high. We could see some people hang gliding off the top of them toward the sea. It was a great walk down there. We saw lots of old resort type homes and quiet streets. Plus the beach had only one short gap that we saw. Otherwise it is immense. This is the biggest, widest beach that we have ever seen, and we’ve seen some big beaches in the Caribbean. It’s really pretty here - the sort of place you would think of coming back to except that there are so many other places in the world to see.

The tide was low this morning and there were a lot of people out in the shallows with buckets collecting shellfish. There are also small pleasure boats moored all over the place. It doesn’t seem crazily busy here because the spaces are so big but still there are a lot of people who enjoy vacations here.

We had a picnic lunch overlooking the sea in a big park just southwest of town. There are lots of big pine trees in the sandy soil here so it was nice for shade. We got back to our hotel about 3:30 and went to buy more supplies after a short cool-down (that is, a beer for me). We’ll probably have a quiet evening with maybe a walk along the promenade at sunset. We won’t go out to eat tonight. We have some things so we can enjoy a light meal on our balcony.

Tomorrow we’ll probably just go to the beach for the morning and be lazy.

Wednesday morning, August 25^th, Arcachon

We got some more great news from Zack and Annie in our emails this morning. They both made the Canadian Freestyle Kayak Team at the national team trials in Alberta. Zack placed 4^th overall in the men’s and Annie placed 3^rd in the women’s, putting them both on the team. Being 3^rd or 4^th in Canada is fantastic since Canada is regarded as the team to beat in the world. Congratulations to them both!

In more mundane news, we did go for a walk along the promenade at sunset last night. It was cool but beautiful with a full moon coming up. Today is supposed to be sunny and 27 so we’re just on our way out to the bakery down the street for something unhealthy to enjoy on our balcony for breakfast before hitting the beach.

Thursday morning, August 26^th, Arcachon

We had a great day at the beach yesterday. After breakfast on our balcony, we sunscreened and walked across the street to the beach. There were a few people on the beach but not many. We parked our towels and just laid around and read the books that we’ve been dragging around Europe for the past 2 months.

Around 1:00 pm we came back to our room for a quick shower and then went down the street for mussels and grilled fish again. Then it was back to the beach for another couple of hours. After a light dinner on our balcony we went walking along the beach and the promenade under the full moon. Relaxing day.

This morning looks sunny and is supposed to be 30 again. The weather here has been perfect. We’re soon off to the bakery again for croissants or something else unhealthy. We do have orange juice and yogurt in the mini fridge in our room so we’re not totally over to the dark side. We also have a kettle and coffee so breakfast on our balcony is really nice and really cheap.

Thursday afternoon, August 26^th, Arcachon

Today was more or less a repeat of yesterday with a nice relaxing time on the beach. And once again we went for mussels and grilled fish (ray, I think) for a late lunch. That stuff is addicting.

Tomorrow we’ll have breakfast on our balcony, get packed and check out sometime after 10. It’s about 25-30 minutes to walk to the train station and then we’re off to Paris on our last major train ride.

Arcachon

Monday, August 23rd, Arcachon, France

Yesterday we took a high speed TGV train from Paris Montparnasse to Bordeaux St Jean station, waited an hour and then got a connecting TGV train for the 40 minute trip to Arcachon.

While we were in the Bordeaux station, Anita determined that we had to have a sip of the Bordeaux wine that she had a small bottle of in her backpack. Bordeaux in Bordeaux, along the lines of pizza in Pisa and mussels in Brussels. Anita finds this hysterical. Sad to say, I'm finding that I understand her perception of reality more and more all the time. Our sons will understand how frightening this is for me. Anita thinks that it's taken me so long to understand her world because I'm slow. She also finds this very amusing. Isn’t it nice how she entertains herself?

It was warm and sunny when we arrived in Arcachon. There were a lot of tourists downtown since it was Sunday afternoon. Arcachon has been a tourist destination for the French from Bordeaux and Paris for a long time. There are also a few Brits here but no other nationalities that we noticed. The Japanese tour guides must have missed this place.

Arcachon is a fairly small town stretched along a few kilometres of a huge beautiful beach that continues south for about 200 km to the border with Spain. We found our hotel, the Aquamarina, without much trouble. We’re on the Boulevard de la Plage, just across the road from the beach and at the edge of a big marina where lots of pleasure boats are moored. Arcachon also has a small fishing fleet so the seafood here is always as fresh as you can get it.

Our hotel is a 3 star, not fancy but certainly okay. We have a balcony facing the hill, not the beach, but that’s okay since it’s very quiet and peaceful. After we got settled yesterday we went for a walk along the beach promenade into the central area of town. There we saw a fairly odd sight. Two people, who might have been Roma (Gypsies, to the politically incorrect), were dressed in North American Native regalia playing South American Native wind instruments to a backing soundtrack that seemed like Kenny G elevator music. Strange. A lot of the beggars in Paris were obviously Roma. The French government is currently on a campaign to round up the Roma, identify them and then put them on planes back to Bulgaria and the other eastern European countries that they emigrated from. There is a lot of resentment toward the Roma but there’s also a lot of controversy about getting rid of them. It has been likened to the Nazis rounding up the Jews during WWII.

This morning we took a walk around the marina and part of the beach. We picked up some wine, beer, yogurt, tomatoes, olives, cheese and bread. The prices here are higher, probably just because it’s high season and they can get it.

We went for a late lunch at a restaurant just down the street. Often there are great luncheon menus that are less expensive than a late dinner. We each had a big bowl of fresh mussels, Anita had a main course of roast chicken and I had grilled fish (really good). With dessert, wine, beer and tip the total was only 33 euros. Well worth it.

After lunch it was a bit cloudy and about 3:30 in the afternoon but we decided to go to the beach anyway. The sun came out and we ended up staying until 6:30 or so. As usual, most people, even on a huge beach, cluster in one area. We like a little more space and there is lots to be had here. Unfortunately, because of the clouds in the beginning, we had neglected to sunscreen and got a bit burnt. Every once in a while you have to prove to yourself that you’re an idiot. Humility lessons.

Tomorrow if we have the ambition we’ll walk 5 km down south of town to the biggest sand dune in Europe. The weather forecast is pretty nice for the rest of the week so that’s good. We’ll also stop at the train station and pick up seat reservations for Friday back to Paris.

A Second Day in Paris

Saturday, August 21st, Paris

Last night we walked down the Champs Elysees and over to the Pont Alexandre over the Seine. It was almost a full moon and a really pretty night. We took some wine and beer with us and just leaned on the wall overlooking the Seine, enjoyed our drinks and took in the sights. There were lots of boat tours going by. The Eiffel Tower, all lit up, is visible from there as well as from a lot of other spots. On the way back we watched some breakdancers performing on the street for change.

This morning during breakfast in our hotel we had quite a chat with a lawyer from Beirut who is here on vacation. We tend to take for granted that with a Canadian passport we can travel to many countries without a visa. With a Lebanese passport it's not so simple. He has to plan ahead and apply for his visas before travelling, even though he has the money and personal freedom to travel on a whim. These talks with travellers from other countries are always interesting.

After breakfast we walked down the Champs Elysees to the Place de la Concorde where there is a big 3,300 year old Egyptian obelisk brought back to France in the early 1800s. Place Concorde From there we walked into the Jardin des Tuileries which is another huge garden that leads down toward the Louvre. These open spaces are immense. The Parisians have a knack for keeping huge boulevards and gardens between places like the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe, even though they're several kilometres apart. You can still see the Arc de Triomphe from the Place de la Concorde.

We took a side trip a few blocks to the Ste-Marie Madeleine church and then to the Place Vendome, which is a square surrounded by classic French architecture. Then we went back to the Jardins des Tuileries and on to the Louvre. We weren't interested in going in. There was a long line and we're really a bit art galleried and museumed out. It would probably take a week in the Louvre to do it justice anyway.

From there we walked down along the Seine to the Ile de la Cite, the island in the Seine from which Paris was born. At the far end we stopped at the Cathedral de Notre Dame. We heard the bells ring but we didn't see the Hunchback. It must be his day off.

From there we walked over to the Left Bank and wandered back up to the Louvre and then re-traced our steps, more or less, back to the Champs Elysees and late lunch (roast duck again) in a restaurant. On the way past the Louvre in the morning we met a guy who pretended to pick up a gaudy gold ring and then asked us if it belonged to us. We just kept going because this was obviously going to be some sort of scam. If we had said it didn't belong to us, no doubt he would have sold it to us "cheap". If we said it did belong to us, he'd probably want a finder's fee for returning it. Anyway, the amusing part was, he must have forgotten what we looked like because he tried it again with us on the way back. I guess all tourists start to look alike after awhile.

The Champs Elysees is one of the most famous shopping districts in the world. People line up to get into the Louis Vuitton store. Lots of people are getting pictures of themselves in front of Louis Vuitton or other high end shops. Near the Place Vendome we saw some stores that appeared to be for shopping by appointment only. This is all very weird. A lot of people seem to be dropping a lot of money just to buy some designer thing they don't need and be able to say they got it in Paris on the Champs Elysees.

After lunch we picked up some supplies at the Mono-Prix department store, which has groceries in the basement, and came back to cool down. It's another beautiful sunny day in the high 20s. We'll probably go out for another wander around this evening. Tomorrow we catch the train from Gare Montparnasse for Arcachon and a few days at the beach.

One Day in Paris

Friday, August 20th Paris

After the buffet breakfast in our hotel (not bad), we walked a few minutes up the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe, the Paris war memorial. Lots of history here. One can just imagine all the military parades that have taken place up the Champs Elysee. Like many of the other main boulevards, the Champs Elysee is very wide and has lots of trees. If I ever get any influence on municipal planning, I'll say, "Plant lots of trees". We've really noticed how much more liveable even huge cities can be if there's lots of trees and some green spaces. Paris has tons of both.

Tree-lined boulevards radiate out from the Arc de Triomphe like spokes of a wheel. Our plan was to walk in a big triangle from the Arc de Triomphe, taking in the Eiffel Tower, the Hotel des Invalides and back across the Seine by another bridge to the Champs Elysee near Place Concorde. We walked down Avenue Kleber to the Place Trocadero where there are a couple of museums in the semi-circular Palais de Chaillot, on the right bank of the Seine opposite the Eiffel Tower. More beautiful gardens, fountains and buildings. It's also a great spot for a view of the Eiffel Tower. which you can see from bottom to top. Very impressive. It's odd to think that this was meant to be a temporary exhibit for the Universal Exhibition of 1889 and some architects, who hated it, campaigned to have it quickly torn down afterward. But Parisians liked it, so it stayed.

When we walked across the bridge to the Eiffel Tower, we saw long lines of tourists waiting to buy tickets for the tower elevator or stairs. Really long lines of tourists. It must have taken hours to go up. We knew it would be like this so we never planned to go up. We walked down through the Parc Du Champs de Mars, which used to be an old military parade ground, to the Ecole Militaire. From there we walked a few blocks east to the Hotel des Invalides.

The Hotel des Invalides was built in 1670 to house old or crippled officers hurt in France's wars. It held 4,000 at a time, so it's a big place. This is also the place where the French revolutionaries broke in and stole rifles before storming the Bastille. There's a lot of military history here. At the south side is the Eglise du Dome, a cathedral that contains Napoleon's tomb.

After exploring there, we walked northeast through the Esplanade des Invalides, another huge garden with boulevards on each side to the Pont Alexandre III, a beautiful bridge which we took back over the Seine to the Palais de la Decouverte and the Champs Elysee. At that point we weren't too far from the Place Concorde and a walk to the Louvre but we're going to do that tomorrow. We walked back up the Champs Elysee from there.

For lunch, we walked up to a restaurant on the Champs Elysee that had been recommended by the hotel desk person. As we walked we checked menus on all the restaurants. Paris is expensive. One could sit in cafes and enjoy fabulous meals but one had better be prepared to melt down one's Visa card with the charges. We did manage to have a very nice lunch (salad and roast duck) without any wine or beer for 29 euros total for both of us. It would be easy to spend 40 or 50 euros per person at every meal and it would be great food, but on a nine week trip that is just beyond our budget. However, we're not suffering at all. We had a great lunch. We just had to be somewhat careful about the restaurant and the order.

Today was a beautiful sunny day in the high 20s. By the time we finished lunch about 3:30 we were ready for a cooling shower and a nap. Now we're ready again to go back out and enjoy an evening stroll down the Champs Elysee. Paris really is beautiful.

　

Thursday, August 19th on the train from the Hague to Brussels

We never did get to the music festival in Brussels on Monday night because it was pouring rain. On Tuesday morning we caught the train to The Hague in the Netherlands. The train trip was interesting. The land is very flat, of course, with very lush looking farm fields criss-crossed with all sizes of drainage canals. You see lots of houseboats and small cabin cruisers, some moored in canals that are just going through fields. Lots of people live in houseboats although the majority naturally live in regular houses. I don’t imagine anybody has a basement.

We arrived early in the afternoon. We had no map but found our hotel with only one wrong turn that took an extra 10 minutes. When we knew we had taken a wrong turn but weren’t sure exactly where, a man in a truck saw that we were confused, got out of his truck, walked over and asked if we needed directions. He quickly set us back on the right route and we went straight to our hotel. We’re staying at the NH Den Haag, a quite nice high rise business and tourist hotel. It’s surprisingly cheap at 87 euros per night including a great buffet breakfast in the restaurant.

On Tuesday afternoon, we toured the Hague (or Den Haag as it’s known here). We saw the parliament buildings, the royal palace and the old part of town but there was really nothing remarkable that we haven’t seen before. The Hague is famous for the world court and lots of international diplomacy so it seems like more of a government and business centre than a tourist destination. It started to rain fairly hard so we just bought something to eat and headed back to our hotel.

Yesterday we walked into the Central Station and booked seat reservations for Paris. The only trains on the direct route are the really fancy high-speed Thalys trains. The seats are often booked well in advance and even the seat reservations for pass holders are expensive. We couldn’t get any of the trains we wanted so instead we’re taking an IC (Inter City) train back to Brussels, which doesn’t require a seat reservation, and then a Thalys train from Brussels to Paris. For the 2 ¼ hour 1^st class trip to Brussels, we paid nothing extra. For the 1 ¼ hour 2^nd class trip from Brussels to Paris, we’re paying seat reservation fees of 26 euros each. First class would have been 41 euros each. However, the Thalys trains are really fast and supposed to be really luxurious. We’ll see.

After we had booked our flights (as we’ve been calling them), we hopped on a regional train to Amsterdam Central station for the day. It took less than 50 minutes to get there. When you arrive it’s really busy. There are lots of people, construction, trams, and water taxis in the canals at the front and the back.

Once we got away from the station area, it was just normally busy, not insane. The biggest danger is getting hit by someone on a bicycle. We have never seen so many bicycles. There are parking lots just packed with them. There are dedicated bike lanes in Amsterdam (and the Hague) and you have to be careful when you cross them. In one of our guide books, it says that there are 735,000 people in Amsterdam and 600,000 bicycles. We believe it. Everybody rides a bike. Nobody wears a helmet. There are all kinds of contraptions for carrying children on bikes. There are bike traffic lights. However, at intersections, you have to really watch the bike lanes as well as the automobile and tram lanes. Plus Amsterdam is criss-crossed with hundreds of canals. It make walking an adventure.

We walked all over the old downtown part of Amsterdam. Unlike Venice, where everything is sinking in unison, in Amsterdam there are lots of old 4 to 6 story buildings that are tilting every which way and are still in use. It makes the builder in me nervous. A 4 story building might lean a foot forward of its neighbour at the top.

Everywhere you go in the old city core, there are only periods of a few minutes at a time when you can’t smell somebody smoking pot. People whip by on bicycles with a joints in their mouths. Some bars and coffee shops have a marijuana haze drifting out the door. Especially in the Red Light District there are lots of head shops, sex shops, sex shows and, of course, prostitutes standing in windows with red curtains open and red lights. This isn’t Barry’s Bay. However, this is all in quaint old buildings on streets with trees and along canals. It isn’t really too grimy or dingy. It’s just that everything that’s available anywhere else in the world is more openly available here. It’s all legal, licensed, controlled and safe. Works for me.

We had a big lunch in a café, wandered around some more and then caught a train back to the Hague. We were pretty tired by the time we got back so we just stayed in the hotel.

On the internet last night, we found a reasonably priced small hotel, the Mayflower, not too far off the Champs Elysee in Paris. We booked 3 nights. We’ll arrive at Paris Nord station about 5:30 this afternoon .

Friday Morning, August 20th, Paris

Yesterday afternoon we had an hour or so at the Brussels Midi station so we had our picnic lunch outside in a small square. There are lots of traveller warnings about pickpockets in the station and I've read about muggings in the square but it was the middle of the afternoon so it was okay. We are always vigilant for snatch and run thieves. It's become a habit.

The Thalys train wasn't exceptionally luxurious in 2nd class but it was certainly fast. There was no screen to tell us the speed but it was definitely faster than the 200 km/hr trains we've taken before. It only took an hour and 20 minutes to get from Brussels to Paris.

When we arrived in the Paris du Nord station, we got seat reservations from Paris Montparnasse to Arcachon, with a connection in Bordeau, on Sunday. Only 4.50 euros each. The pricing system is impossible to figure out but it seems that the Netherlands is just plain expensive because they can get it.

We took 2 different subway lines to get to the Charles de Gaulle station right at the Arc de Triomphe, the hub of the Champs Elysee Boulevard and other streets. The Champs Elysee, being one of the most famous boulevards in the world, is extremely busy with both automobiles and pedestrians. We walked less than 10 minutes down the Champs Elysee and then about 2 minutes down a couple of side streets to our hotel. It's a typical older Parisian hotel, not fancy but quaint and serviceable.

We'll soon go for breakfast downstairs and then we're off to explore Paris for the next two days. We've included some pictures of Amsterdam.

Exciting News!

Monday, August 8^th Brussels, Belgium

We left Trier Germany yesterday morning. We had a nice stay there but by far the most exciting thing that happened was that we got an email from Zack asking us to call him. He and Annie are at the Canadian Freestyle Kayaking Team Trials near Canmore, Alberta. When we called, he announced that he had proposed to Annie on a mountain top and she said, “Oui”. We couldn’t be happier. Annie is a wonderful young woman and we already consider her part of our family. Zack obviously has his father’s good taste in women. We are still expecting a big dowry from her father, though. Anyway, congratulations to Zack and Annie!

Yesterday, it was about an hour train ride to Luxembourg City where we changed trains with no problems. Then we made the 3 hour trip through the rest of Luxembourg (which didn’t take long) and then through a lot of Belgium. The eastern part is very hilly and wooded but as we got closer to Brussels, the land got flatter and less interesting.

We had no directions to our hotel from the train station but we knew it was close. So we just walked down the hill from the train station and looked for clues. We found a bus tour office and asked them. They were very friendly, gave us a map and marked our hotel for us, which was only a 5 minute walk away.

We’re staying at the Hotel Opera which is a small hotel just down from the Gallery, a famous shopping arcade built in 1847 and the Grand Place which is the main square of the old part of the city.

Last night we wandered just up our street where it becomes the Rue Boucher connected to the Gallery. It’s really more like a wide cobblestone alley lined with restaurants and small shops. We found a spot for mussels, fries and beer - the quintessential Brussels meal. It was a bit rainy so after dinner we just came back to our hotel.

This morning was damp and drizzly but not really raining too much so we toured all the sights - the Gallery, the Grand Place, the Royal Gardens and Palace and of course, the Mannekin Pis. My father was in Brussels in WW II and brought back a replica statue of the Mannekin Pis, which my sisters and I thought was quite risque in the 1950s. Anyway, 65 years later, we came to see the same statue that entertained my father and his buddies during the war.

We stopped at a waffle shop and had Belgian waffles with cream and chocolate. A healthy, nutritious lunch. By then it was starting to rain pretty hard so we bought some supplies (wine, beer and chocolate) and came back to our hotel to dry off. Tonight we’ll go out for dinner and if the rain stops, we’ll go back up to the Palace Gardens where the 10 day Brussels Music Festival will be in full swing starting at 7 pm. On Saturday night, Rodger Hodgson of SuperTramp fame played. Tonight there are 3 European bands on the main stage and 3 more on the secondary stage. We didn’t recognize the names but it all looks very professional so they’ll probably be good. Tickets are 15 euros for everything but we didn’t buy yet because the weather might not co-operate. We’ll see.

Brussels is an interesting place, even in the rain. We’re used to cobblestone streets and sidewalks by now but here they’re really rough and can be slippery in the rain. The Italian women in their 3-4 inch spike heels wouldn’t do well here. The street builders could have used a few tips from the Romans. It’s also interesting to be in the midst of a country in which one half is officially French speaking and the other half is officially Dutch speaking. There’s also controversy about unity similar to the situation we have in Canada. However, as a tourist it’s not noticeable.

Hopefully we’ll get to yet another music festival this evening. It’s funny how this keeps happening to us. If the weather doesn’t co-operate I’m sure we’ll arrive just in time for another music festival in The Hague in the Netherlands tomorrow.

Trier, Germany

Saturday August 14^th Trier, Germany

We arrived here yesterday afternoon. The trip from Wurzburg to here was quite pretty. For part of it, we travelled along the Moselle River Valley seeing lots of vineyards, old fortress castles along the river and nice little towns. Once we get on the train, it’s always a relaxing day to sit in comfort and watch the countryside go by. Once we got here, it took us half an hour to walk from the train station to our hotel, much of it through the tourist pedestrian area. These walks are no problem since we packed light. On the way, it seemed like there were a lot of tourists and when we got to our hotel (which had also seemed a bit expensive at 120 euros per night) we found out why.

This is the big Roman Festival weekend of the year. Two thousand years ago, Trier was Augusta Treverorum, a Roman city. There are lots of Roman sites around including 9 different Unesco World Heritage Sites. At the old Imperial Baths park there are dozens of old canvas tents and people dressed in togas camping for the weekend, demonstrating old Roman skills and equipment and selling crafts. At the old amphitheatre, which we toured this morning, there is some kind of swords and sandals pageant with German TV actors in it, with shows in the afternoon and evening. the amphitheatre is built into a hill and used to seat 20,000. We paid 3 euros each to get in and wander around by ourselves including into the old cellars below the main floor where the gladiators and animals would be kept until they were needed onstage.

There are lots of things going on. Who knew? We just thought this might be an interesting stop and it was the right distance between Wurzburg and Brussels, our next destination.

Anyway, we did get to see some German band playing in the main square this morning and another a capella group this afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny morning. This afternoon is clouding over again. We’ve seen quite a bit of damp weather over the last few weeks.

Last night we had a good fish dinner with dry white wine at a little “Weinhaus” restaurant just down the street. Tonight we’ve picked another old family-owned restaurant just off the main tourist area near the Porta Nigra (the Black Gate). This big gate building is supposed to be the best preserved Roman gate north of the Alps. It really is kind of black.

Tomorrow we’re taking the 9:52 train an hour or so to Luxembourg City and then catching another train to Brussels, Belgium.

August 11th, Wurzburg, Germany　

It was pouring rain this morning so after another great buffet breakfast we got 1 hour of WIFI for 3 euros. This isn’t much money but I resent paying for wireless when it’s free in so many less expensive hotels and pensions. I always used to resent paying for local calls in hotels when I was business travelling too. It just seems like their opportunity to gouge the customer one more time.

Anyway, we booked hotels in Trier, Germany, near the Luxembourg border for 2 nights and then 2 nights in downtown Brussels, Belgium. We had also arranged last night to spend another night here because we like the hotel so much (despite the lack of free WIFI). We’ve been enjoying the steam bath and pool area in the late evenings after we get back from dinner. Our room is great too.

The rain tapered off by 10 so we hustled down to the train station in 20 minutes and caught the 10:41 regional train to Steinach and then another one to Rothenburg ob der Tauber where we arrived at 11:48.

Rothenburg is the best preserved walled medieval town in Germany. It’s only a short walk from the train station to the old walled town. We climbed the lookout tower, walked around the ramparts a bit and then wandered into the old square. There were hardly any tourists compared to what we’re used to - maybe several hundred but no big crushes in narrow streets. We almost felt lonely.

We had our usual picnic lunch in a nice little yard behind the museum and then wandered down to the castle gardens and back up to the main square. At 2 pm the bells on the old city councillors’ tavern clock rang. This time, instead of apostles appearing in 2 windows, there was something different. Two windows did open but standing in the windows were 2 wooden figures of old German guys both holding steins of booze. The arm on one pivoted up bringing the stein to his mouth. Apparently there’s a legend that some conqueror was about to demolish the town. On a whim, he said he wouldn’t if a town councillor could drain a huge tankard containing 3 ¼ litres of wine in one fell swoop. The mayor did it and the town was saved. Now this is commemorated every hour and on the anniversary of the event they have a festival, no doubt with copious quantities of beer and wine consumed.

Eventually we caught the trains back to Wurzburg. It’s really beautiful countryside with lots of vineyards. Wurzburg is a centre of the German white wine industry. A lot of the steep hillsides, especially those facing south, have huge areas of vineyards on them. Anita bought some local white wine and it’s quite nice. I’ve been sampling a lot of German beers but I keep forgetting which ones are the best. I wonder why.

All of the pictures are from Rothenburg except the last one which is the view from the restaurant where we've had dinner the last 2 nights.

Thursday, August 12^th Wurzburg

It was drizzly again this morning so we had a leisurely breakfast and then did some catching up on laundry and re-organizing. After a while we walked downtown and found a spot for dinner. We were going to walk along the river park but the rain got harder. Instead, we picked up a few groceries for lunch today and tomorrow on the train. It looks like it’s clearing up a bit so maybe we’ll get out later. Time now for another hour of internet research.

Prague to Wurzburg

Prague Saturday August 7^th

Yesterday we had breakfast in our hotel and then walked back to the train station to get seat reservations to go from Prague to Regensburg Germany where we’ll make a connection to Wurzburg. There was a 2 minute line-up and the reservations cost 140 CZK which is about 5 euros. We haven’t had any trouble with line-ups or expensive seat reservations since we left Italy. The more efficient the train system, the less you wait and the less you pay, it seems.

From there we wandered down through Wenceslas Square, on into the Old Town and across the famous 500 year old (at least) Charles Bridge. Across the bridge there was a spot on a building where they’d marked severe flood elevations over the last century or more. The year 2000 flood was the worst. However, they’ve recovered quite nicely. We saw the astrological clock in the Old Town Square and a lot of other sites. Because of Prague’s complex history, there are a lot of events that have occurred in these places that have a lot of meaning for the Czech people and some significant events were only 20 years ago. We stopped for a beer and a wine in a really nice restaurant in the Old Town. Even though it’s very touristy and historical during the day, there is a lively bar scene. In the place we were in the nightlife type bar opened at 8 pm and closed at 6 am. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the stamina for that kind of scene.

We walked back to our hotel and had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Good food and very reasonably priced.

Today we knew from the weather report that it was going to be rainy and cool. After breakfast we set off in the pouring rain in our coats and caps for the nearest subway station. We took the subway to a stop near Prague Castle. We visited the Royal Gardens that were very beautiful. We then bought an audio guide tour of the Castle. This was expensive but not a total rip-off since Prague Castle is, I believe, the biggest castle complex in Europe. It’s huge, with different palaces, cathedrals, other buildings and squares, set on a high hill overlooking the city. Even with an audio guide it’s hard to keep track of all the history that’s taken place here.

Tuesday August 9^th Wurzburg

We never posted a blog again in Prague because the connection was bad but to continue the Prague story: It rained so hard that by the time we got back down the hill from Prague Castle to the subway station we were pretty wet. We decided to forget the anniversary dinner in the old town and just go back near our hotel. After drying off in our hotel room we went just down the street to a Mexican (of all things) restaurant and actually had a decent meal. When we got back to our hotel at only 6:30 pm the night desk clerk was totally drunk. The only thing holding him up was the front desk. He gave us the wrong room key and when I asked for the right one he just smiled and kept talking to 3 young women tourists. I reached across the desk and into the shelves behind him and got the right key. He didn’t even notice. We heard later that he had papers all over and couldn’t manage to close the safety deposit box (which we weren’t using). Somebody even called the police on him but we don’t know why. However, it all worked out and the next morning he kept coming into the restaurant for big glasses of juice but he was still there.

Our final day in Prague was beautiful weather. We walked down to the old town, had a nice lunch (potato pancakes and beer), toured the old Jewish quarter and sat in the square listening to music. It was Prague Jazz Week with 4 or 5 groups playing for free in the square on Sunday afternoon (this kind of thing keeps happening to us - it‘s great). We listened to a couple and then had a really nice dinner for our anniversary. We had talked to Mike and Diane Klobouk about Prague since they’re very familiar with it. It’s a beautiful and seemingly very livable city that easily lived up to our expectations.

The next morning (yesterday) we walked to the train station and after much confusion about platforms caught the 9:04 to Plzen near the Czech/German border and then another train to Regensburg, Germany. As sometimes happens, our train was 70 minutes late so we missed our connection to Wurzburg at 2:30 pm. We improvised by taking a regional train to Nurnburg and then another one to Wurzburg arriving 1 ½ hours later than planned. You have to accept this stuff.

On the way here we noticed that the rivers all looked awfully high for August. Then on CNN last night we saw that there had been flooding in Poland, Czech Republic and southeast Germany. It did rain pretty hard on Saturday, all day.

We had booked a Novotel through Eurobookings and we’re here now. It’s really nice. We paid 297 euros for 3 nights including the best buffet breakfast yet. However internet is extra so we’ll get it for a few hours later, post this and do some further research.

Today we toured the sights of Wurzburg - castles, bridge, palaces, gardens, town square - the usual. If you came only here it would look fantastic but we’re getting used to all these beautiful old towns. Wurzburg is the first place we’ve been in weeks where there are only hundreds of tourists not thousands or tens of thousands. It seems quite calm compared to other cities. In Prague, when the famous clock on the side of a church chimes each hour, 2 windows open and wooden figures of the apostles rotate by so you can see them in the window for 20 seconds. Every hour there are at least 500 maybe 1,000 people waiting to watch this happen. It really isn’t that interesting so we doubt if anyone does it twice. That means that every hour there’s a whole new group of 500-1,000 people there. The crowds in the tourist areas are insane but you just somehow get used to it. The trains aren’t bad - especially 1^st class. Some train stations are a little wild at times.

We could only be here in July and August so we came despite knowing it would be crowded. We’re coping just fine but anyone who has a choice should not visit Europe in the summer. All of Japan must be here and a good part of China and Australia too. Then there’s all the North Americans. Plus the Europeans are all on holiday travelling now too. We haven’t gone to any beach resorts since Nice but we imagine that they’re insane too. Oh well.

We’re just cooling off before dinner although it’s been a beautiful day again - 28C and sunny. It doesn’t feel hot at all compared to Italy.

Tomorrow we’re going to take the train about 1 hour to Rothensburg which is supposedly the best preserved medieval walled town in Germany. We’ll come back here for tomorrow night. After that we don’t know where we’re going. We better figure that out soon.

Budapest to Prague

Wednesday August 4^th Budapest

We had an uneventful train ride yesterday leaving Vienna at 11:50 and arriving here in Budapest at about 3 pm. It’s flat farmland most of the way. The only notable things were, once again, hundreds of giant wind turbines. Hmm, maybe these people who have had high electricity prices for years know something we don’t.

The moment you step off the train at the Budapest Keleti main station, there are people in your face with taxis and rooms to rent. The old train station is kind of neat but right out the front door there is a massive subway or underground structure of some kind under construction so it’s quite chaotic. Plus this seems to be a little bit seedy part of town so there’s lots of people (some with teeth and some without) hanging around. Everything by the train station is also sooty and dirty so it doesn’t give a very good first impression of the city, especially after coming from Vienna where it’s so clean.

We could see the sign for our hotel from the front of the station so it was no problem getting here. Our hotel has 51 rooms on the 5^th and 6^th floors of this 6 story building. It’s common for these small hotels to be just a couple of floors of a building. Some of the pensions we stayed in just own flats in a few buildings in an area and might have 3 or 4 rooms in each flat.

Anyway, we’re on the 6^th floor and have 2 roof windows, luckily, because the AC makes noise but doesn’t cool the room fast enough on a warm day. We had to keep the windows open last night and got a few mosquito bites again. They don’t bother me at all but the last couple of years Anita really reacts to them. So just like in Venice, she now has 4 or 5 big bites on her back and legs. Having the windows open also means a slight sewer smell, probably from the roof plumbing vents, plus some street noise. That’s the downside. Other than that, the room is actually pretty nice. There’s also a glass walled elevator that goes down through a corner of the courtyard to the ground floor.

Anyway we had a great dinner at a traditional Hungarian restaurant recommended by the hotel staff. We had one plate of chicken paprika with dumplings and another plate of goulash with dumplings plus cucumber salad, beer and wine for 5,300 Hungarian Forints including tip (equal to about 20 Euros). Hungary wants to adopt the Euro but still has some hoops to jump through to satisfy their partners in the EU. No doubt they’re being extra cautious considering the financial stability problems they’re having with Greece and others. One of our guidebooks refers to Hungarian restaurants as having “superb food at laughably low prices”. We have to agree.

This morning we had the buffet breakfast included here and then set off to see the sights. We walked up to the Danube and across one of the bridges. Then we took a funicular (cable car) up the hill to the Castle Hill area. We toured the Hungarian state art gallery and walked through the old area of Buda (Budapest is actually an amalgamation of 3 towns - Buda, Obuda and Pest). After that we wandered down through the old town toward another bridge. On the way we had a nice lunch of potato pancakes with paprika chicken (paprika is the traditional Hungarian spice) and cream of potato soup. We walked across the bridge, stopping at Margitsziget Island, a big park. Then we wandered past the Parliament Buildings (very impressive right on the shore of the Danube) to St Stephen’s Cathedral. The cathedral is magnificent. In a smaller chapel behind the altar they have St Stephen’s actual right hand (the chapel is called the “Chapel of the Right Hand“) in a glass case. If you put 200 Forints into a slot right below it, the case lights up for 2 minutes so you can get a better look at the hand. Having this “relic” displayed like this doesn’t bother Anita as much as it does me but I find it downright creepy that people worship some dead guy’s hand. I’m not sure this is what Jesus had in mind.

By the time we had wandered home, buying some buns for the train trip tomorrow on the way, we were pretty tired. It was 7 ½ hours of touring and a lot of walking. Luckily it was a beautiful day and not too hot.

Budapest has some areas that need upgrading and some other areas that are really nice. There are some big infrastructure construction projects ongoing and it’s clear that there have already been big things done to beautify the city. However, on some streets there are still individual buildings that are decaying. It actually reminds me a bit of Moscow. Maybe I’m reading too much into this but I think it takes cities and countries a long time to recover from the stagnation of communist rule. However, there are lots of beautiful pedestrian areas and parks. There are also lots of cultural events going on all the time, from rock concerts to opera. Budapest seems to be a city that will get even better over the next decade.

After a cool down, we’ll go back to the same restaurant for dinner. It was just too good to pass up again. Tomorrow we’ll get to the train station and take the 9:10 train to Vienna, change stations by subway and catch another train for Prague. We’ll spend about 13 hours in transit but then we’ll be in Prague for 4 nights. We’ll likely post this there since we don’t have WIFI here.

August 5^th - On the train

We had a better night last night after another good meal (complete with Hungarian music). We had left our air conditioning on all day and it wasn’t that hot so we were able to leave the windows closed and get a better night’s sleep. After breakfast we went to the train station, spent our last 950 Forints on M&Ms and gum and caught the Rail Jet train to Vienna. The best scam in the station this morning was a reasonably well dressed woman with a clipboard and well organized looking form who was signing people up (with no addresses of course) and collecting 10 or 20 euros per person for leukemia treatments for a little girl who was nowhere in sight. Nice try. It's getting easier and easier to reject every beggar because it truly is just another acting job. I'm sure that most of them take the subway to work and do their begging just like every other worker and then go home, out to a restaurant for the evening and plan their weekend.

We were entertained on the way by an extended family of 5 Brits who were not very competent travellers but seemed quite cheerful about it. Some people get caught in scams getting their luggage carried, can never find their train seat and generally don’t know what’s going on. However, they told us about some of their travels and they’ve managed to muddle their way through a lot of places. Apparently, anybody can do this.

The train from Budapest stopped at the Vienna Miedling Station before the Vienna Hauptbahnhof station, which put us in the right place for our connection to Prague after all. We had 2 ½ hours until our train left for Prague so we walked up out of the station into a little park and had our usual picnic lunch.

Back in the train station we bought some more buns in a little bakery/deli there so now we’re prepared with buns, liver pate, juice, water and M&Ms. It’s a 5 hour trip and train food is expensive so it pays to pack your own.

We’re on a “Eurocity” train which isn’t quite as nice and spacious as the Rail Jet trains but it’s still a lot better than economy on Air Canada or any other airline. We’ll use some of the time to research Prague. In the end, they actually served us a free sort of airplane meal on the train. It's always different on different countries' trains.

Later that same day - Arrival in Prague

Our travel from Vienna went sort of north-east about halfway up the Czech Republic and then straight west to Prague. On the eastern end of our journey the landscape reminded us of the Wilno hills. Very picturesque. As we got closer to Prague, the land got flatter with huge fields all looking well farmed. Nice.

We made it to our hotel in Prague at about 8 pm (an hour ago). It was quite an arrival. The train station is quite nice but we had a few minor glitches getting subway tickets. We used an ATM to get 3,000 Czech krone (about 150 euros). It came out as one 2,000 krone note and one 1,000 krone note. Unfortunately the subway ticket machine only accepts coins near the right amount (26 krone). So we went into the Relay store and bought some water. The woman wouldn't accept such a large bill so we didn't end up buying it. Then we went to another store where the cashier accepted a 10 euro note for 2 cans of beer and a bottle of water and gave us krone in exchange (we got hosed a bit on the exchange but didn't really care). Then we went to the machine and got one ticket before we ran out of change. Back to the store for more change. Then the machine wouldn't accept 2 20 krone coins as often as we tried (3 different machines). We found a young woman who tried for us, couldn't understand why it didn't work but gave us 2 10 krone coins for a 20. Finally we had two tickets. We got down to the platform, the crowded subway arrived and I got on. If the crowd hadn't pushed Anita on, that might have been the last I would have seen of her. We got off at the next stop and switched trains, went one more stop and were near our hotel. When we got off it took us about 20 minutes of wrong directions, wrong advice and searching before we finally found our hotel. We're glad to be here. It's plain but fine. We were hoping for something a little nicer for our anniversary on Saturday but we're here now. Tomorrow we start wandering around Prague.