Avoir Paris

Avoir Paris.   We had a wonderful visit in Paris.  We decided to extend our stay from 3 to 5 days--still not nearly enough time.  I think I would like to live in Paris for a while.   We stopped by an English language school one afternoon and it looks like it would be very easy to get a job.   Something to ponder….

We seem to spend a lot of our days walking, be it exploring the city or a museum.  I try when I can to talk to the Parisians who, contrary to their reputation, have been exceedingly helpful and gracious.  

On our first day, we caught the last day of the Tour de France.  Unfortunately we missed the bicyclists but we did get a chance to see the yellow shirted children as well as the team mechanics proudly pedal down the Champs-Elysee. 

Amy was still traveling with us when we visited Sacre Coeur and Montematre.  The church is impressive.   At a park behind the church I met some young French-Africans practicing gymnastics and sat with them, while Amy and Mark explored.  Amy found the streets leading to Sacre Coeur reminded her of visits to Queen Anne in Seattle.  I was here as a child and remember having an artist draw a caricature of me.

The following day Amy left to join her GAP Adventure tour group.  She will spend the next 28 days exploring Europe with a group of young people.  Mark and I switched hotels courtesy of a Travelzoo coupon.  We stayed for 2 days at the Hotel Rochester.  The hotel was impressive (particularly the FABULOUS breakfast included with our room) but a less pricey, more backpack friendly hotel like the Hotel Magador is more our style. 

We thoroughly enjoyed the Roden Museum gardens and our trip to the Louvre.  One evening we took a boat ride on the Seine.  We found a lovely French restaurant near Montematre and availed ourselves of Monoprix and Carrefour for snacks and sandwiches.  We even made it to Versailles yesterday. 

Today has been a day of travel as we head to Amsterdam.  I am looking forward to seeing our dear friends Anne and Hans Daniels (I have known them since we were all in school in Boston some 25+ years ago) and hopefully catching up with Amy this evening.

There is no doubt that Europe is lovely, however, the weather reminds us of what we left in Seattle—overcast and cool.  On the other hand, I prefer that, particularly when I am carrying my backpack.  

A River runs through it: Prague and Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a beautiful place.  The rolling hills of the countryside remind me of Pennsylvania though the landscape is more open.  

We arrived in Praha from Berlin on Saturday in the late afternoon.  The train ride was about 3 ½ hours and took us beside the Elbe River.  Praha is a lively city that straddles the Vltava River.  We saw gypsies when we exited the station.  Karolina, Ivana’s niece met us at the station and gave us an excellent orientation to the town before taking us to the apartment where we stayed.  We stashed our stuff and walked to the Old Town.  It was jammed with tourists.  As Karolina had explained it is easy to get lost here.  The cobblestone streets are like a maze, with passages here and there leading to who only knows where.  The city map is of minimal help.  Better to use your nose and just guess.  With camera in hand, we marveled at the architecture and the statues.  Day 2 we experienced Mother Nature’s tears and got soaked as we continued to explore.  I had hoped to leave the rain stateside. 

On our third day, the skies were with us and we got an early start.  Praha offers tip only tours, so we took a morning tour of Old Town and the Jewish ghetto.  Praha was taken over by the Nazis in 1938, a year before the official start of World War II.  At that time, the Jewish ghetto housed more than 120,000 people.  By the end of the Nazi occupation, less than 10% of the Jewish population survived.  Our afternoon tour guide took us to the Castle District.  Her parents escaped Communism with their 3 children in the early 1980s.  Their daughter, our guide, had been raised in Australia and had returned to Praha after marrying a Czech.  She said it is much more difficult to find work and make a comfortable living here than it is in Australia. 

The United States is such a young country compared to so many of the countries in the rest of the world.  This seems to be reflected in the countenance of the people.  We also noticed this is Berlin.  Although the Czechs smile more easily than the Berliners, there is still a reserve that may indeed be a remnant of a society that has been so often invaded and massacred.

From Praha, we took a bus three hours south to Cesky Krumlov.  This is one of the most picturesque villages I have ever seen.  It is like a miniature Praha with buildings dating back to medieval times.  As in Praha, a castle overlooks the town but this castle has a vertical rock base.  It’s hard to imagine being a worker suspended from such a height as they laid the castle’s foundation. 

Amy had been in Cesky Krumlov before we arrived and had canoed the river.  The river won and she lost a shoe as she capsized.  Brr—it looked cold!  When I was sharing this story with my friend Barbara, she said her son and daughter-in-law had also fallen in the river when they rafted it.  But it seems that everyone who plays on the river enjoys it.

Cesky Krumlov is truly magical.  Unlike its big sister Praha, it is manageable by foot and even if one gets lost on the little lanes, getting back to your destination is not challenging.  Our room and breakfast at Pension U Mrazku (http://pensionumrazku.krumlov.cz) was delightful as were the innkeepers, Marek and Eva.  We toured the town, the castle tower, museum, and gardens, along with the Josef Seidel’s home and photography studio and the Cesky Krumlov regional museum. We thoroughly enjoyed garlic soup (Jenny, you need to make this!) and a medieval dinner of steak and ribs grilled on an open fire.  We even had the good fortune to meet three Hungarians who joined us for a beer after dinner.  Their tales of life in the Soviet block fascinates me.  Two nights is too short to be in such a paradise.  If you go, plan to spend three or four nights to explore the town at your leisure.

Das Boot

Traveling gives me an opportunity to catch up with friends.  And that is just what we did during our trip to Holland.  Anne, Hans and I have known each other from our college days in Boston and are like family.  Which is why a visit to Holland is always so special.

By the time Mark and I reached Amsterdam, Amy had been on her tour for three days.  We were curious to meet up with her and find out whether she was enjoying her tour group.  Anne and Hans drove us into Amsterdam to meet Amy.  Happily, Amy was delighted with her fellow travelers and having an amazing time.  The previous day she had spotted the perfect boot at a tiny disorganized boutique.  The owner was too busy to look for the boot’s mate so she asked Amy to come back.  Later that night, while wandering around Amsterdam, Amy found herself again at the boutique.  The owner still hadn’t found the boot.  So, when we arrived the following day to meet Amy, she wanted to take us to the boutique to buy the boots. 

This would have been a simple enough task except Amy lacked the following information:  the name and the address of the boutique. One of Amy’s travel friends had circled a spot on the Amsterdam map indicating the boutique’s location.  Anne took off to run some errands while Mark, Hans and I went with Amy.  After a 20 minute walk, using Hans’ knowledge of Amsterdam to read the map, we couldn’t find the boutique.  So we walked, and walked, and walked.  We covered a 10 block area in circles. As we walked we continued to learn more and more about the boutique and the boot.  The boutique was downstairs.  The owner had never located the second boot.  We were in the district where there were literally hundreds of similar boutiques.  After more than three hours of walking in circles, we finally gave up.  Mark and I had a very unique tour of Amsterdam while Hans demonstrated the patience of a saint.

Click and clack

On our second day we caught up with another friend from my Boston days.  John.  Both John and Hans had come from Holland to Boston in the early 1980s to get their Master degrees. Mark and I hadn’t seen John since our honeymoon in New Zealand in 1988.  It was wonderful to see John and catch up with his life.  Anne and Hans had recently purchased a home and wanted to show it to us.  So with John, Mark and I went with Anne and Hans to their new home.   It is an impressive home fronting a canal with an enormous, beautifully landscaped yard.  The house is spacious with large windows and high ceilings; however, the home also needs a lot of renovation. 

So the following day Mark and I put our home improvement skills to work.  Mark worked in the yard along with the automatic mower (see the picture). My task was to disassemble the dark brown snap and click floor panels that had been placed in much of the downstairs. Underneath we found a Termaline floor with marble pieces in the living and dining rooms, a brick floor in the media room and a patterned stone floor in the utility room.  Anne and Hans have their work cut out for themselves but I have no doubt that the house will be a masterpiece when it is complete.

Divine Decadence

Best of all, is the great conversation, delicious food (yes, Amy—it was fabulous!) and tremendous affection we always enjoy when we visit Anne and Hans.  As always they wow us with their hospitality and love.

A River Runs through it: Praha and Cesky Krumlov

The Czech Republic is a beautiful place.  The rolling hills of the countryside remind me of Pennsylvania though the landscape is more open.  

We arrived in Praha from Berlin on Saturday in the late afternoon.  The train ride was about 3 ½ hours and took us beside the Elbe River.  Praha is a lively city that straddles the Vltava River.  We saw gypsies when we exited the station.  Karolina, Ivana’s niece met us at the station and gave us an excellent orientation to the town before taking us to the apartment where we stayed.  We stashed our stuff and walked to the Old Town.  It was jammed with tourists.  As Karolina had explained it is easy to get lost here.  The cobblestone streets are like a maze, with passages here and there leading to who only knows where.  The city map is of minimal help.  Better to use your nose and just guess.  With camera in hand, we marveled at the architecture and the statues.  Day 2 we experienced Mother Nature’s tears and got soaked as we continued to explore.  I had hoped to leave the rain stateside. 

On our third day, the skies were with us and we got an early start.  Praha offers tip only tours, so we took a morning tour of Old Town and the Jewish ghetto.  Praha was taken over by the Nazis in 1938, a year before the official start of World War II.  At that time, the Jewish ghetto housed more than 120,000 people.  By the end of the Nazi occupation, less than 10% of the Jewish population survived.  Our afternoon tour guide took us to the Castle District.  Her parents escaped Communism with their 3 children in the early 1980s.  Their daughter, our guide, had been raised in Australia and had returned to Praha after marrying a Czech.  She said it is much more difficult to find work and make a comfortable living here than it is in Australia. 

The United States is such a young country compared to so many of the countries in the rest of the world.  This seems to be reflected in the countenance of the people.  We also noticed this is Berlin.  Although the Czechs smile more easily than the Berliners, there is still a reserve that may indeed be a remnant of a society that has been so often invaded and massacred.

From Praha, we took a bus three hours south to Cesky Krumlov.  This is one of the most picturesque villages I have ever seen.  It is like a miniature Praha with buildings dating back to medieval times.  As in Praha, a castle overlooks the town but this castle has a vertical rock base.  It’s hard to imagine being a worker suspended from such a height as they laid the castle’s foundation. 

Amy had been in Cesky Krumlov before we arrived and had canoed the river.  The river won and she lost a shoe as she capsized.  Brr—it looked cold!  When I was sharing this story with my friend Barbara, she said her son and daughter-in-law had also fallen in the river when they rafted it.  But it seems that everyone who plays on the river enjoys it.

Cesky Krumlov is truly magical.  Unlike its big sister Praha, it is manageable by foot and even if one gets lost on the little lanes, getting back to your destination is not challenging.  Our room and breakfast at Pension U Mrazku (http://pensionumrazku.krumlov.cz) was delightful as were the innkeepers, Marek and Eva.  We toured the town, the castle tower, museum, and gardens, along with the Josef Seidel’s home and photography studio and the Cesky Krumlov regional museum. We thoroughly enjoyed garlic soup (Jenny, you need to make this!) and a medieval dinner of steak and ribs grilled on an open fire.  We even had the good fortune to meet three Hungarians who joined us for a beer after dinner.  Their tales of life in the Soviet block fascinates me.  Two nights is too short to be in such a paradise.  If you go, plan to spend three or four nights to explore the town at your leisure.

Cinque Terra and Rome

It’s almost 11PM and I’m exhausted.  Rome is wonderful.  We have been on our feet somewhere between 8-10 hours a day seeing the sights, hence this brief blog entry.

We had a fabulous visit in Cinque Terre where we met our friends Don and Marilena from Arlington, Virginia.  Don found a lovely apartment near the beach in Levanto.  Our first day we all hiked 3 of the 4 Cinque Terra cities: Monterosso to Vernazza to Corniglia and the Lover’s walk in Riomaggiore.  The Corniglia to Manarolo leg was closed due to a landslide.  We also met a young couple, Angela and Jeremy with whom we hiked and shared a meal.  The following day Mark and Don hiked from Levanto to Monterosso while Marilena and I caught up on email and lazed around the apartment.  That afternoon we took a boat from port to port.  The sunset we saw in Vernazza that night was magical.  Mark was eager to share the hike he had done with Don from Levanto to Monterosso so the last day, at 6AM, Mark and I set out.  All was well until around 7AM when Mark heard a noise that he thought was either another hiker or an animal.  As he got closer he thought he saw a dog.  He walked more slowly since he didn’t see a person with it.  Within a step or two he realized it wasn’t a dog but instead a juvenile wild boar.  A few yards behind it were two mature wild boars and another youngster.  That was enough to propel Mark quickly backward toward me.   We gave the boars ample time to leave before we headed back with rocks in hand singing loudly with hope of scaring the boars off the trail.  It must have worked because the boars were nowhere in sight.  Despite the encounter with the boars, we were still able to enjoy the beautiful vistas and complete the hike in time to shower and pack before heading off to Rome. 

Happily we haven’t run into any wild animals in Rome, only lots and lots of tourists.  Turns out that September and October are the top months for visitors.  Lucky us.  Nevertheless, it has been worth joining the crowds to take in the wonderful history offered here. We are off to see more ruins today and then to the Vatican tomorrow.  On Thursday we board the MS Noordam for a 10-day cruise to Croatia, Greece, Turkey and Italy.  We will be off-line so for now, Ciao!