Paris!

What can I say about the city of Paris? Magnifique , Fantastique ? And more. If you've never been,  well let's just say it is a place to put on your bucket list.  It is a food, architecture, art and people watching extravaganza.  Essentially it is an amusement park of a city. Between the museums,  monuments, sights and tastes there is an endless list of things to do morning, noon and night.

Our first night we walked from our hotel towards the Place St. Michael and found the back streets filled with restaurants, creperie, gyro stands and all kinds of cheesy gift shops. Way more than when we were here last (12yrs?!).  We ended up having an 'ok' meal of traditional French fare: Fondue, steak with Roquefort sauce and fries, with apple tart and creme Brulee to end the meal.

Monday:Our first day in Paris was supposed to be easy and low key... Sitting in cafés to watch people.  Instead we did that briefly when we needed coffee and food. And in between we saw The Cathedral de Notre Dame and walked half way to the Eiffel tower via the Louvre, the Tuillieries and the Obelisque . Then we went to the top, third level of the Eiffel tower which turned out to be entertaining as Kat is actually a bit afraid of heights.  We all took the elevator down to the second level, walked down the many flights to the 1st level,  and I took the elevator the rest of the way while Kat and Kim walked down the stairs.  

I've had a terrible time with blisters for the first time in years... I'm blaming the heat.. Well that and the 20,000+ steps a day we are walking in said humid heat. It's gotten so bad that I switched to wearing my flip flops for a couple days.  Now those are toast so I'm back to my sneakers. I'm not even going to pack them home as I've walked those flip-flops flat!

Tuesday: Disneyland Paris! 

We'd booked in advance and had an excursion complete with bus tickets out and back.  

It was Disney magic with some old, some new and some very different rides and attractions not in the other parks that we've been to. In the Disneyland park we did 'Phantom Manor', Big Thunder roller coaster, walked Sleeping Beauty's castle, Pirates of the Caribbean and went on Indiana Jones Temple of Peril roller coaster.  Pirates of the Caribbean was a delightful nostalgia hit as it was the way Pirates used to be before the one back home went totally Jack Sparrow. 

In Walt Disney Studios park we rode the 3D Ratatouille ride which turned out to be my favorite. We also rode Andy's RC Racer in the Toy Story area where everything is big like in Bug's Life. 

By then all of our feet were toast so there were no arguments about staying later than the 8pm bus back.
One or two things about DLParis that were surprising to me: The Parks were not as uber clean as I'm used to. The rules about smoking only in designated areas and not using selfie sticks were ignored or just not enforced. And the lines and organization of lines for food and attractions were not as clear or well put together...which made for some awkwardness and annoying waits. 

That night we had an absolutely great street food dinner in the area between our hotel and the St Michael Square.  Amazing falafel and gyros, crepes with lemon and sugar or Nutella! You'll never guess which one I had... Nutella! I've never seen such large containers of the stuff... It even comes in a bucket!

Paris pt 2 (end of this trip)

Sorry this got long but I felt like wrapping up the blog before I jump back to reality on Monday.

Days 3,4&5 Paris Pass & Museum pass days

Wednesday:
Feet so tired from the over 24,000 steps in Disneyland (we have been breaking 20k most days), that we decided to do seated tours...all covered by our pass. Big bus with the open top and audio guide as well as the mini train around Montmartre and the Siene river cruise!
The Big Bus was an ok way to see the city and get an overview with a little history although it was quite hot and sunny.
We did the 7:30 Bateaux Cruise along the Siene which was lovely and although not sunset it was close enough to have nice light and be slightly cooler. We even saw people dancing in the alcoves along the river! I think it was West Coast in one and Salsa and Tango in a couple others.

I'd never been to the Montmartre district of Paris so the cutesie "train" around was fun and we got to see the Sacre Coeur much closer than the usual distant landmark. It is an area renowned for the risqué shows and shops... Essentially the 'red light district' of Paris.
While there we decided to book a show at the famous Moulin Rouge. So, we made plans to return at 11 that night. Although we tried to take it more easy with less walking tours, I'm not so sure we succeeded. With all that riding around sightseeing we still made 20k steps.
We were quite surprised to find when we arrived for the show that there were 2000 seats for each show... The clue was that the line went around the block. I've stood in some long lines but this was perhaps the longest! I was impressed  with how quickly they got everyone seated.
The show itself had lots of over the top, skimpy (many topless) costumes with more shiny & feathery bits than you can imagine. Since they've been doing this since the 1800's I'm going to say 'Vegas Style' is the wrong term... They should all be called 'Moulin Rouge Cabaret' style!
Two great two person acrobatic vignettes and one extremely humorous comedy bit broke up the singing, dancing and top-less prancing nicely.

Thursday:
After our late night we got a slow start but managed to get to the Opera house for the 11:30 English tour. Rita, our entertaining tour guide, gave us quite a bit of the history. She really put across the importance of the venue as a place to 'see and be seen'. Men would attend 3 nights a week: Monday with their wives adorned with expensive outfits and jewelry, Wednesday with their daughters to attract suitors,  and Friday with their mistresses.
And yes, this was the Opera house depicted and made famous again by 'Phantom of the Opera' ... So there's even a box assigned to him.
We followed up the Opera tour by going to the History of Chocolate Museum and enjoyed the delicious samples and retro adverts! There was even a special chocolate drinking cup with a mustache guard on display.
As if that wasn't enough touristing, we headed over to the Musee d'Orsay for our fill of the classics. This is one of my  favorite museums in the whole world. I enjoy the Van Gough, Gougin, Matisse and Seurat. But even more for me, at that museum there's a section with gorgeous inlaid furniture. Some pieces are by Gaudí.  There's also a few Rodin sculptures and a small but delightful display of Lalique jewelry pieces that I never tire of.

Friday.. Last day:
We 'only' managed to get to the Louvre and Orangerie museums ;)
We went early to the Louvre and left before complete overload set in. If you have been (or been to the Vatican museum) then you know what I'm talking about. It is not just the art and sculptures and exhibits... The building was a palace so it is amazing as well. The ceilings, walls, floors and windows are art of their own. Walking all of it would be more than 10 miles. Although we didn't scratch the surface of that distance, we still did over 8miles total (only 17000steps but I  may have left my phone in the room when we went to dinner)
L'Orangerie Museum is a refreshingly  small and manageable size... Mostly because it's devoted purpose and exclusive upstairs 2 large oval rooms house Monet's Nymphéas (aka water lilies) Not everyone is aware of their enormity as its hard to depict that in books. There's also a series of exhibition rooms on the lower level but it is so small by comparison to the other museums that overload is less likely. It does have a nice selection of Renoir, Gaugain and a few others.

Cumulative days on the feet and imminent rain meant that dancing was out of the question so we returned to the hotel for some much needed off the feet time.  This made the search for one last awesome street food dinner more pleasant, despite the rain. It was a cooling nice drizzle which ended up a pretty significant rain by the time we got our dessert :D Nutella crepes! We even had to duck into an empty shop doorway to  finish them before they got soggy.

Tomorrow we have our last warm amazing French croissants for breakfast and then head to the airport. (little bit of a bummer as the last morning croissants were kind of burnt but we'd had many amazing warm ones.. So that's good)

Overall it was a fantastic trip and a delightful visit with Joelle and decadent crazy touristing time with my awesome traveling companions... Thanks Kim and Kat for such a blast! I was probably a little whiny because of my blisters and the crazy heat and both were so patient with me and let me sit while waiting in lines at times.

Thanks for reading/'traveling' along,
Ciao, Auf Wiedersehen, Au Revoir until October when we hit Northern Italy for a week with barges, bicycles and a weekend in Rome!

Germany Part 2

Day 4:
A blissfully uneventful train ride to Baden-Baden later we made it to check in and get an awesome lunch at the Lowenbrou Restaurant before heading to the Caracalla Spa.
Although check in was less than relaxing and the staff seemed very confused and disorganized, the pools and treatments we all got were very nice. Since we'd just been to Bath England in the spring, I was able to compare the two. I'd say the organization and efficiency of the spa in England put it higher on my list for future visits.
Day 5 Baden-Baden
A missed bus meant we spent more time in town changing money and getting snacks for our outing. Instead of the 11:23 we were supposed to take, we mooked about the walking district, got gelato and caught the 1:45 bus. On arrival we decided that famous Lake Mummelsee of the Black Forest  would now be downgraded to pond status. We spent all of 10 minutes mosey circumnavigating said wonder of the area before taking the bus back to town. The ride however has been very pretty with lots of green trees and low mountain views.
I am looking forward to later as we are going to the other bathhouse in town...the one that was the original roman baths. It has 17 stations of Irish airbaths and roman pools combined in a healing sequence. Should be fun. And since it's been high 90's again..any water sounds good!

OMG...Friedrichsbad my new favorite spa of all time...just bumped the Hanoi tea bath/steam/massage to second favorite!
We went for the full shebang with food, 3 hours time to do the 17stations, an 8 min brushing soaping massageish thing and even a 5 min lotioning up near the end. It was awesome and we were in there from 6:30 until after 9:30! The building itself is so gorgeous and has been in service continously for over 130 years. The steam room is the only one in the world solely heated by geothermal water. I can't say enough about how nice it was and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys  soaking/swimming/relaxing/pampering.
So after all that healthy detoxification of our systems...off we went for ice cream. To make the evening even more blissful the temperature dropped to 79...whoooeee! 

Day 6 Baden-Baden and on to Freiburg
Spent the morning at the oldest Casino, going on the lamest tour ever. It is very ostentatious and over the top and our English tour turned out to be completely in German. So we looked around.. Took a few pictures and left early... I did catch one of the other tour guides explaining that this one particular room was an exact replica of a woman's dressing room in Versailles... Very gaudy and gold covered.
We killed some time before the train by getting full eye exams for free and they even checked my glasses to see how close they were to what I needed. A little lunch then onto our next city.

Freiburg is a good sized city with a huge Gothic Cathedral at the center.  We tried to go inside several times but they seemed to have services a lot on Saturday and Sundays. So we got to enjoy the exterior plenty. Lots of walking around the pretty cobbled streets enjoying the architecture and teeny tiny open waterways. I parked a faded overheated and hungry Kat and Kim at a cafe/restaurant and circled the big square snapping pics of the menus for us to compare.  One of them stood out for me and since it was going to be our last night in Germany I wanted to have a nice German dinner.  Well I got my wish and had a fantastic meal. We all had chanterelles in various ways... One crepe, one with dumplings and one with meat and spaetzle .
Still dealing with the overwhelming heat, even though it is improving slightly, we were all pleased to find out that the swimming pool stayed open until 11.  That helped quite a bit...as well as the air conditioned room.
Tomorrow off to Paris by the TGV train (Tres Grand Vitesse)

Germany Black Forest Region

Day 1 of Germany:
We had a beautiful drive from Morgins to Strasbourg, where we were returning the car. All went super smooth until we caught the train into Germany.
For starters I will just mention that almost all the following takes place in temperatures above 90°f.
About 12 minutes into the trip the train stopped just inside Germany and we were told the track was broken up the line. So we waited for a long time for a train to the next stop, only 5 minutes down the way, where everyone was put off and stood about in the little town (no actual station...just a stop). Kim and I actually gave up and had boarded a train to go back to Strasbourg to rent a car when the bus appeared. We rode that to the place, past the broken line,where we could catch a much later train than originally intended to Karlsruhe.
We felt a bad that Kat and her sister Yvonne were waiting so long for us as we were supposed to get dinner and go dancing with them that evening. Well we made it to the hotel in Heidelberg by about 9:45 and somehow managed quick showers, after the melting hot day, and to get ourselves to the college where the swing dance was held. It only went til 11 so we managed to catch the last half hour.  It was a bit tricky to find but we followed the Google map and I saw a couple of girls catch a cab from out front of this huge university like building...so I poked my head in the door and we followed the faint music to the top floor, et Voila...about 4 couples dancing in the hot, still, summer heat.
On the advice of one of the dancers, a long walk through the quiet oldtown took us to a place by the river that was still open and serving food. So we had our first flammenkuchen of the trip. It's a super thin crust with a cream sauce and lightly topped with either vegetables or in my case bacon and onion. Think flatbread pizza but burnt crisp edges and super thin crust.

Day2Germany:
Our first full day in Heidelberg, Germany we visited the impressive castle (schloss). There were some clouds overhead and the temps were down into the higher 80's just for this one day which was a relief. We toured the largest wine barrel, castle grounds fountains, gardens and the Apothecary museum before riding the funicular tram down to town for coffee and shopping.
After collecting Yvonne's car, she drove us all to Karlsruhe. We stopped at a greek Restaurant called Zeus. It was attached to a fitness center so I was a bit worried but it was a fantastic dinner. Possibly the best of the trip...certainly so far.
After dinner we went to Kat's Grandma's place where we taught everyone to play Splendor late into the night.
Day 3:
The Karlsruhe Zoo is a bit of a tired and sad place but had nice flowers & water features. Then we went into the Dulach area with lots of cobbled streets and shops. When I saw the sign of where we were, all I could think of was Dulac the 'perfect town' in Shrek. Helga, Kat's Grandma, made us a fantastic traditional dinner with brats and dumplings and two kinds of cabbage! Dinner was followed by Rummy Q and more Splendor (on Grandma's request).

First Italy then Switzerland

Travel tips for those interested:
1. Expect to pay quite a bit in tolls to drive the major highways of France and Italy.
2. Somehow know that if you are going to drive in Switzerland you must buy a
special pass to display in the window that shows you've paid the annual road toll (40 Swiss Francs so about $41). Although it probably won't be checked, the fine is 200. We got one after our friend informed us of the rule.
3. If you have a phobia about tunnels then the drive through northern Italy and Switzerland is soooo not for you. ...I lost count on the first day after about 17 and some were crazy long!

Our departure from San Remo was entertaining as Google sent us straight up from town on the narrowest of streets to get us to the motorway. Serious rock walls on either side and straight up the mountain it seemed.

Although the drive was rainy and thick with clouds the snippets of scenery we could see were very pretty. It also made it easy to decide whether to take the Grand St.Bernard Tunnel for 28€, or the windy mountain roads for an extra hour plus. Since visibility was next to nothing at that altitude we drove the tunnel.

Our friend Joelle lives in a small ski village in the Alps of Switzerland very close to the French border. It is a particularly lovely little town. And the chalet she has is fantastic. Since we visited last she's really made 'la Chapelle Belle' even lovelier!

It was great to see Joelle and although we've kept up on Facebook and called each other occasionally there is nothing like in person time. We also got to meet a good friend of hers, Dorna. The four of us chatted a bit then went to Di Vin Restaurant in the village of Morgins. It is Joelle's favorite with good reason! The food was spectacular. I had a two cheese fondue and got to taste everyone else's dinner ...wow!
Our arrival was coincidentally on Swiss National Day, which is their 4th of July with festivals in the village and fireworks the night before. (which were cancelled due to the drought even though it had been raining all day) It did mean all the houses had lots of Swiss flags flying and everything was dolled up even more than usual.

After a very long cheese coma sleep we managed to get in gear to go for a nice gentle hike along the river down in town. We checked out the red iron spring and passed the art installations along the path. Hence the pic of Kim in front of a giant wooden Swiss army knife. We put our feet in the water and whoooeee is that chilly!

To end the lovely visit,that night Joelle and I got to trade bodywork, which we hadn't done for about 10 years!

Morgins with Joelle

Dana and I have been visiting our dear friend Joelle at her chalet in Morgins, Switzerland.

We had a birthday celebration dinner on Saturday night and went for a small hike yesterday.

The company and scenery are both magical!

(Don't ask me why the photo is rotated... my phone kinda hates me.)

Europe 2015 take 2!

We picked a nice relaxed way to start off a summertime European jaunt. After landing in Nice, France we rented a fun little car. Now Kim wants to see if he can get a Peugeot 206 at home. It also makes us think of David and Anna as they had one until recently as well.

Less than an hour from the Nice airport you pass Monaco and cross into Italy and there begins the Italian Riviera. The place we picked to stay has a small private beach, although the pic I used of it is a glammed up version as the real thing was a bit more worn and churned up and a bit of debris...but we still swam. It also has a large lovely saltwater pool and jacuzzi in the main area. It is a combination of small cabins, essentially a stand alone hotel room with a little deck in front, and tent and camper parking further down towards the sea. This of course made Kim and I think of Ronny & Michael as well as Linda & Mike our caravan loving British families. 

They have a lovely breakfast buffet in the restaurant and Kim says the coffee is typically amazing  (as in better than almost everywhere back home) and we are in a campground!
Since our arrival late Thursday night we haven't done much other than sleep, eat, swim,sleep eat swim & sun and repeat in an attempt to beat jetlag.
Well, since it's not yet 6am I haven't won the battle obviously but it could be worse.
Last night we drove into town and circled a bit until we found a parking garage and managed to get a table at a popular restaurant out of sheer luck as they were fully booked. All I can say is Italian pizza is the best! We have pretty great places back home like Hot Italian, Selland's, Massulos and Pizza Aiolo in Colfax, but it's just not quite the same..must be the flour or tomatoes or cheese or some magic combination of all of them.

After breakfast we are going to road trip north to Morgins, Switzerland to visit Joelle. Should be a beautiful drive with the alps in the route. I will try and snap a picture or two as we go.