Masterphil

I realize I always take from this message board, here is a trip report from last year's trip that hopefully helps somebody else.... It was written "on the fly" at the time, so please excuse for grammar, etc.

Saturday, August 30th

After a sleepless Thursday night, Kelly and I boarded our flight to Dulles airport at 7:30am. Our house was hot, we were anxious, etc. Any way, I got 2 hours sleep and Kelly less than that.

If you have never been involved in 12 ½ hours on a plane, it is as horrible as it sounds. No sleep and cramped quarters even in “Economy Plus” (an extra 5 inches of leg room!!)

We arrived at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport at sunrise. The horizon was on fire just before sunrise. The brightly colored bands of the spectrum greeted us. Right on the English Channel was a bright red, moving to orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Each horizontal band of color was brilliant. A really nice welcome to Paris. Well, maybe not! We arrived in Terminal 1. So did 4 other flights. The only problem was that there were only 4 customs agents on duty to handle over 1000 people!! It was a nightmare! With some aggressive moves I learned on the ski lift lines at Hunter Mountain in New York, Kelly and I were one of the lucky ones….we cleared customs in 1 hour and 10 minutes. There were still over 700 people behind us when we cleared.

The baggage carousels were over-crowded and very chaotic. Somehow we got our bags, but had to fight the massive crowds to get out the front door.

Then there was the waiting for the right shuttle bus to pick us up and take us to our car. Everything happening at the airport was chaotic! Heavy traffic both inside and out. Lots of people arriving from Africa in their local garbs. Many of the men and children dressed in suits that seemed too small or large for them. Still they dressed up for the occasion!

We leased our Renault Laguna with GPS (the person that invented GPS deserves more credit than I can give them!).

We met a couple from Montreal, (after hearing our itinerary) told us of their horrific experience in Barcelona last year. While stopped at a light, a motorcycle pulled up next to them. As the light changed the motorcycle followed them. The motorcyclist than alerted them to the fact that they had a flat tire. When they pulled over to check it out, the motorcyclist and fellow thugs in a following car, stole all of their money, luggage, and car!! So we have that to look forward to at the end of our trip. Apparently, it was the motorcyclist who first punctured their tire while pulled up next to them).

I sit in a hotel room in Beaune, writing this. Kelly and I are sipping a 2002 Louis Gras Pommard 1st Cru “Les Epernote” while eating some wonderful newly baked baguette, with Brillat Savarin and Delices du Pommard cheeses. The kind of thing that just makes you feel like you have arrived in wine country.

We stopped at Le Chateau Fontainebleu on the way here. We walked into the building and started following the tour signs. The unfortunate thing is that, once you start, you have to go through the whole place!? We were in the room that Louis XIII was born in . We saw one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s thrones. On the negative side, we got stuck behind 4 Italian guided tours!? “Mi scuzzi..” was what Italians used in New York City to say excuse me. I used it over 50 times to get through these slow moving groups.

The Chateau was really cool, especially when you think of the history of the place.

Kelly and I have been awake since Thursday morning at 2am, it is now 7pm Saturday here in Beaune. We have not slept yet!! The last 30 miles of my driving were a lot tough. I probably shouldn’t have been operating heavy machinery with this lack of sleep. At one point, I looked over to Kelly to see if she could drive, her head was bobbing in and out of sleep as well. Fortunately, we arrived.

Any way, Day 1 has gone according to plan. The Hotel de la Paix is very inexpensive and extremely very nice for the price. It serves our need for a crash pad very well.

Tomorrow, we drive south to Macon, over to Annecy, through Chamonix-Mount Blanc and into Montreux.

I can read French much better than I can understand it or speak it.

Au revoir!


DAY 2

Out the door at 7am for a walk around the deserted town of Beaune. Really a cute little city. Even nicer when nobody is there (like on a Sunday morning at 7am).

Kelly and I are admiring the city and following the signs for “Hotel Dieu” L’Hospice de Beaune/Hotel Dieu is perhaps the biggest tourist attraction in this small town. Somehow Kelly and I missed a sign and were lost. We went into a local boulangerie for some pain du chocolat and (of course) Diet Coke (which is called Coke Light over here). I spoke French to order our food, then I asked the guy (in French) “Where can I find the Hotel Dieu?” He said Comment? (What?) “The Hotel Dieu” I repeated. He said “Hotel Dieu?” with a puzzled expression on his face. I thought I had mispronounced it or my French was indeed, that bad! He shook his head, I tried to explain it was a big tourist attraction, all to no avail. We leave the boulangerie and walk 2 minutes around the corner and guess what we find?! The Hotel Dieu!!! How can this guy not have known that? It must be that my French is that bad. We go back to our hotel and I ask the receptionist for help (she speaks English). I asked if she understood me when I said “Ou c’est trouve l’hotel dieu?” She started giving me directions. So it wasn’t my French that was bad, I just happened to meet a guy that maybe wasn’t awake yet. Kelly couldn’t stop laughing the minute we got outside of the boulangerie after watching me try every French word in my vocabulary to try to explain the Hotel Dieu. There is a sign for the Hotel Dieu not more than 100 yds from his store on both sides of the street! I guess you had to be there….
Next, we get in the car and start off for Annecy. I decide we might as well get some gas. I pull into a station and pull up to the gas pump on the far left of about 12 stalls. I put the nozzle in my car and insert my credit card where it says to inserte carte. The machine doesn’t like my card. So I run to the first stall where there is a young guy that accepts money. He tells me (In French) that my pump only uses the Total card for gas, if I want to use my credit card I need to pull the car over near him. I run back to the car and start to back up to bring the car over to the first stall. As I back up, there is a loud bang and it appears I hit something! I look out the back window and can’t figure out what I hit. Kelly looks out the window and tells me I forgot to take the nozzle out of the car! I get out of the car, the nozzle is broke and laying on the ground. Our leased car gas door is broken and laying on the ground. The little trap door that covers where you put the gas is stuck somewhere down the tube?! I realize this guy didn’t notice what happened, so deep in the back of my head, I’m thinking I could just drive away. I’m too honest, so I tell him what happened. He asks if my car is OK? (I thought that was quite nice). He tells me “pas de problem” (no problem. He doesn’t even go out to look at his broken pump! I now am rattled.

It’s kind of strange being taken out of your element. The things that come natural to you are disrupted because your mind is working on understanding the language instead of doing the things it is supposed to be doing.

We started to drive to Annecy, after driving 40+ miles on the same highway, my GPS comes on and announces in one mile and then something about an exit. I hear this and figure this is the exit I need to take to get to Annecy. I get off of the exit only to realize I have taken the wrong exit which is simply a U-turn exit. I am now going in the opposite direction. NO problem right? WRONG! The GPS informs me that the next U-Turn is in 19 miles!!! I’m serious! I tell Kelly the heck with it, since we are going this way, we will just continue to Montreux. I pull into a rest area off of the highway. We need to use the rest room and I need to change the GPS. We get out of our car, there are 3 tour vans of guys standing around. As we started walking towards the bathroom, we had all eyes on us. Kelly realized it to. Not sure why they were all staring at us, but it was pretty strange. We get to thee restroom. Kelly comes out of one door and says, I think this one is yours. It is simply a hole in the floor with a tin plate floor level. NO problem for me. Kelly goes into the room with the lady figure on the door and it’s the same thing!

This day is not going well for us!!!

The GPS informs us for Montreux, we still have to go back the 19 miles we just drove. So we reset the GPS for Annecy. We arrive in Annecy and it is a beautiful lakeside town. The lake is crystal clear, you can rent a power boat for 45 euros per hour (we didn’t). We walked around their Sunday market at had lunch at a nice restaurant. Back in car and we are here in Montreux! I am sitting on the terrace overlooking Lake Geveva. The sun is shining, it’s about 80 degrees and we are heading out to explore.

Upon arriving at our hotel in Montreux, Kelly and I went out and walked along the lakeside promenade. This tree-lined, beautifully flowered walkway runs miles along the lake from town to town. We come across a large beer hall that had a large band playing what sounded like WWII German marching music. Typical German beer hall stuff. We listened for awhile and moved on. Further down, there was another band playing. This too was a large ensemble, but they played more modern music.

After a lengthy walk, we sat down at a lakeside bistro to watch the sunset. The night was so beautiful. We sat for hours watching the endless parade of pedestrians. We drank large steins of Pression beer and ate a pizza with prosciutto on it. After the sun set, a string of lights that reminded Kelly of Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tree lot lit up around us. The still air, the moving lake, the inadequate lighting and a lightning storm up in the mountains made this a perfect night. It looks like we have beaten jet lag once again!

Tomorrow, we take a short day trip to Gruyeres, a mile walk to Chateua Chillon and then jump on a 1 .hour lake cruise to Villeneuve.

Day 3

We got in our car at 8am and started to drive to Gruyeres. While driving there I saw signs for Fribourg and I remember someone telling me that Fribourg was a great town. Actually, I wasn’t sure if it was Fribourg, Switzerland or Freibourg, Germany that was the “great town.” Turned out, it was Freibourg, Germany. So, off to Gruyeres.

Gruyeres is a cute town, actually it is a fortress standing high above a valley. The town has cobblestone streets, restaurants, souvenir shops, a museum and a Chalet. The fortress walls are complete with ramparts. We walked around for awhile and at 11:30am with rain falling and cooler temperatures we sat down for some good old kassefondue (cheese fondue) at the Restaurant Rampart.

Nowhere on my diet is there an exception for melted gruyere cheese and kirschvasser eaten by attaching pieces of bread and potatoes to long forks; swirling the pieces along the bottom of the pot to prevent the cheese from burning; and, putting this hot gooey molten cheese and bread in your mouth. Absolute heaven! This winds up on the opposite end of the health food spectrum from alfalfa sprouts, but come on!!...We’re on vacation!!! Washed it down with a half bottle of a local Swiss white wine.

We got back in the car and I decided to use the GPS to see how close to Gstaad we were. Turns out we are only 25 miles away. So off we go to Gstaad! Absolutely gorgeous drive there. We finally got off of the big highways and onto some local routes passing through some beautiful valleys! This is why I love Switzerland so much. The green grass leading up to giant mountains, all dotted with the red houses all adorned with flowers. “Scenery extraordinaire!”

Gstaad was nice. Reminded me of Vail or Aspen. Lots of high end stores, restaurants and a large kitchen store that puts Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma to shame. Kelly loves these stores! We stepped up to the door and it didn’t open! They have the equivalent of a siesta I guess. The store was closed from 10-2 for lunch. So we walked around for a while and them came 2pm. Kelly makes a bee-line for the store, I take my position on the front steps. 30 minutes later, still no sign of my wife. I know how much joy these stores bring my wife, so I sit and watch the many tourists and locals walk by. About 45 minutes and I head back in, she’s almost ready to go!! Long story short…Kelly’s cookie cutter collection has some new members.

Walking back, there is a Bollywood film crew filming some guy dancing to an Indian song. (I’m not making this up!) He stood in the middle of the street and waited for nobody to be coming. While he waited a little guy came up to him with a mirror and he would push his hair over. Than the guy with the clap board would come and the director would yell “Music” the music started playing and this guy started dancing. He was India’s answer to John Travolta. Kelly (a former Univ. of Minn dance line member) was cracking up at this guy’s “dance moves.” Every time they took a break, this little guy with the mirror would walk up to this guy and he did the same thing with his hair. You had to see this production. When you think about it, someone paid this crew of about 12 guys with cameras, lots of money to fly to Gstaad to make this video. From our standpoint it was pretty comical (as well as to all of the people watching this production…Anybody remember the Little Rascals talent shows?)

We drove back from Gstaad to Montreux 15+ miles along a winding, narrow, treacherous roadway. At points there, was nothing between us and a 2000 foot drop! I was really trying to drive slowly and more conservatively because Kelly is white-knuckled already when I drive.

Quiet evening expected tonight.

We drive from Montreux to our next stop, The Riffelalp Hotel in Zermatt, Switzerland.

We drive into Zermatt and park at the hotel’s recommended parking facility. Zermatt is auto-free, so we have to take a taxi from the parking lot to the edge of town (about 20 minutes). The taxi drops us off and the porter from the hotel has driven a smaller electric van to meet us. He takes us to the train station in Zermatt, that will take us up to the Riffelalp Resort.

From the train, we get our first glimpse of the Matterhorn!! I remember why I love Switzerland so much!!

We just arrived at the Riffelalp Resort...Oh my God (can’t find the exclamation point on this european keyboard)

This place is incredible We can view the Matterhorn from our bed...

Weather expected to be bad our next 3 days here, so we taking advantage of today..sunshine and clear skies. Matterhorn is right in the backyard here. Absolutely beautiful.

We have been here for all of 5 minutes but already have it on our Return Visit Required list.

We have to go enjoy the sun

Auf wiederzen


This hotel is just incredible. I sit on my bed right now and watch the sun getting ready to set behind the Matterhorn .

The next morning…

I went on a 1 hour hike today straight up a mountain. I'll probably be cramping up big time tonight. Of course, it was right after we just finished the bottle of Swiss wine that greeted us in our room.

This is the life. We need to find a way to be able to do this more often.

I think our next trip to Europe will be Switzerland only. I can't get enough of this place.

Five course meal starts in 2 hours...gotta get prepped!

Pressure if off me for awhile...I dont have to drive for 4 days and don’t have to speak French for 7.

Talk to you later


The whole hotel smells of fire because of Kelly and I.

We decided to have some champagne down near the bar after a long day of hiking.

Our bartender was a nice girl from Brisbane, Australia. We coaxed her into lighting a fire in the big fireplace.

Well either it is too warm outside for a fire or the chimney is backed up, but people have been calling from their rooms 3 floors up complaining about a fire smell.

We still got it..

I'm waiting for the fire department to show up. There is smoke all over the place.

Au revoir

DAY 5 (I think…)

Well we are truly in relax mode!

This morning we woke up and were spoiled with a breakfast buffet that left nothing to be desired. Omelets, bacon, sausage, about 14 different fresh cheeses, assorted dried meats, about 4 fresh homemade yogurts, fruits, about 19 different breads with the homemade swiss butter!!!!!! It’s hard to look smooth as you’re going back for your 4th and 5th visits. Kelly discovered the champagne that raised the level a little bit.

After that breakfast, it was time for a hike. 2 mile hike. Nice easy one for Kelly to get started with (at least that’s what I thought). Of course, I followed the wrong trail. Instead of a nice easy one we got an intermediate one. Turns out it’s not all downhill! (like I had told Kelly) It’s 50% flat and 50% serious uphill. I got to hand it to Kelly, she was loving it. The scenery is just incomparable! The cool fresh air swirling in your lungs, your heart racing, your muscles burning…I don’t know…something just great about it!!

Funny thing: Lots of people walking with their hiking sticks (look like ski poles). OK..I can understand using them when you are on a steep slope, but do you really need them walking down the main street in Zermatt?

We got back to the hotel and jumped in the Jacuzzi in our room.

Over to the Ristorante el Bosco for a couple of hot chocolates, a couple of Weissbiers, and a small plate of raclette. Raclette is a cheese wheel that they heat over a fire and then scrap the hot cheese onto a plate and serve it with pickle, potatoes, small onions, and tomato. This stuff is to die for! Did you ever get pizza where the cheese dripped onto the oven and burned…it’s like the best flavor ever. It’s kind of like that.

We then went bowling. This place has a small room with 2 bowling alleys.

Then, it was off to the pool. After the pool, we asked if there was a sauna. There is a finnish sauna, a bio sauna, a schonbielhohle sauna. This last one looks like a cave, it has what looks like a scale in the middle of it, this scale rocks back and forth into a heating element that heats rocks sitting in a cradle and then rotates to dip the rocks into some aromatic water. The aromatic steam is then released. Outside the door of this place is a cave with crushed ice in it. It also has a bucket installed high on the wall with a rope on it. You fill the bucket with ice water and pull the rope and dump it on yourself! I didn’t mention the multiple steambaths, hot Jacuzzi, cold Jacuzzi. They also have a grotto. You go downstairs in this cave-like structure with all waterfalls and steam. One room is a “relaxation room” with steam blowing out of a gargoyle and a salt crystal hanging in the room. This is supposed to relax you. I got relaxed in the next room, the lay down whirlpool. This is the equivalent of 2 chaise lounges in a Jacuzzi. You lay down hit the bottom and a furious Jacuzzi starts up. This is my favorite, every household needs one!! Kelly and I are obviously spa novices, everybody else in the place was walking around nude (both men and women). I had my longboard bathing suit with giant Hawaiian flowers on it and Kelly wore her one piece. I guess we kind of looked out of place. Not to mention geeky. I didn’t think the civilized world was ready to meet Senor Philly. haha

We both feel like a million bucks right now. All of the hiking and sauna/steam. I even drank fresh squeezed carrot juice!!! I am thinking about being like Jack Lalaine and getting a juicer when I get back.

Tomorrow, we have a longer hike and we are going to Glacier Paradise. We might even ski the glacier tomorrow. We get to go 50 feet under the glacier to look at ice sculptures and do a wine tasting in the ice bar. Cool stuff! (get it?)

We bailed on Barcelona. After hearing the horror story about the couple from Montreal getting their car, money, clothes stolen, we decided not to go to a big city. Instead, we are going to the Dordogne region (Sarlat) as well as the Loire Valley. (Amboise).

I’m sitting here getting ready for another 5 course meal. We are here “half-board” which means we get breakfast buffet and 5 course meal for dinner.

Tonight’s choices: Fois gras or salad buffet; choice of chicken dumpling or gazpacho soup, risotto, choice of sea bass or deer(?!), dessert choice has been made..some coconut/pineapple thing and finally after all of that the cheese buffet!! 14 different swiss and French cheeses that taste like they were all made yesterday. Sorry for all of this detail but I’m killing time before we eat and I am now salivating after typing this last paragraph.

I’ll sign off now!

Bye!

Friday, September 05, 2008

Well the clouds have given way to sunshine today. The Matterhorn is once again staring into our chalet window.

Yesterday, Kelly and I went on a hike down to Zermatt. One hour and a half hour hike all downhill. We were supposed to have rain all day, but in the morning the sun was out and there were some patches of blue in the sky, so we set out for our downhill journey. Walking down steep trails is not as easy as it sounds. Your shins take a beating! Once we got to Zermatt, we saw the gondola up to the Matterhorn paradise. Even though it was raining now and overcast we decided to go. One nice 6 seat gondola ride that we had to ourselves. Then onto a large gondola that holds up to 40 people. Then the final large gondola ride up to the Klein Matterhorn. Before boarding the 3rd gondola, we were informed that there was a storm up there, very cold, very windy, zero visibility. So off we go! As we push off, we realize this is going to be no ordinary gondola ride. The rain has changed to sleet, then snow. The wind is howling. This big gondola is swinging pretty good and we are way, way above the ground below us. Kelly was white-knuckled as she held onto the bars. I have to admit, it was a little unnerving. I had confidence that they operate in worse weather than this. As we got to the station, the wind had the gondola rocking 3 feet each way. The little Portugese pilot yelled “Du Madre” (it kind of means ‘your mother’ and the pilot used it like my Mexican friend, Oscar after Oscar misses a putt he yells…Aye!! Du madre!!!) as he had to wait a good 10 minutes to dock the gondola. It was probably more like 5 minutes but when the wind is howling and you are dangling high above the ground on a cable, and the whole gondola is rocking times goes slowly. We finally docked the gondola and stepped out onto the freezing, windy, snowy platform. We made a bee-line to get to the “ice palace” which is 50 feet under the glaciers surface. What they failed to tell us when we bought the tickets (87CHF each) was that the whole place was under reconstruction. In retrospect they did tell us in a kind of sneaky way. Along with giving me two tickets, I was given two candy bars. I put these in my backpack. Later on (upon further review) there was a little note on the back of the candy that informed us of the construction. Of course they gave us the candy with the note on the bottom so we couldn’t see it. Anyway, we walk to the end of the freezing tunnel, take the elevator down into the glacier and walk down the glacier tunnel towards the ice palace. Well, there are a few ice sculptures which aren’t very good, the wine bar has a couple of old Corona tables and no wine insight. From the looks of it, there hasn’t been wine there in a long while. We spend about three minutes there and race back to the gondola to get the heck out of there. We arrive back to the gondola to find an older women who stupidly worn a pair of dress shoes up there (“stupidly” from a guy who wore shorts up there…me!) and now couldn’t feel her feet. They put her on a stretcher to take her down. I imagine she was going to be OK. At least that’s what we told her after we pushed her stretcher out of the way so we could catch the next gondola!! ONLY KIDDING!!! We didn’t push her stretcher out of the way! “Nudged” might be a better word. (Once again only kidding…a feeble attempt at humor 2222 metres above sea level).

We got to the bottom and were still trying to thaw out. It was a nice walk back to Zermatt in the rain. We got back to the cog wheel train that would have us back to our hotel in 20 minutes. Bee-line to the room, quick change into Hawaiin bathing suit and made dash for the Finnish sauna. 20 minutes and my body felt normal again. Out of the Finnish sauna and into the steam bath. I decided to get daring. There is an ice bath right outside steam room. I quickly ran down the stairs inside this pool and plunged my body under the water. Yeeeeeeeeeeeshh!!!!! Am I nuts?! This water was just above freezing. I high-tailed it out of the ice pool (at this point I was glad I had my Hawaiin bath suit on..if you know what I mean) and bolted back to the Finnish sauna…..Heat!!!!! I now walk down to the Schonbielhohle sauna. I sit in there for a bit. I don’t quite get this one? It’s not as hot as the Finnish sauna, you sit on hot rock as opposed to wood, and the big moment when the heated rocks are plunged into the aromatic liquid, is kind of a anti-climatic. I have to try the bucket however. I stand under the bucket and without a second to think about it, pull down on the rope. In one quick moment, ice cold water slaps against my heated body. This is invigorating (or is it envigorating?). Any way, I’m back to being cold so I sprint back to my old friend, the Finnish Sauna!! We then went down to the grotto to the lay down Jacuzzi for 2. This is the most violent of any Jacuzzi I have been in. It is also the best Jacuzzi I have ever been in. I was wobbly walking out of that thing. It has a timer so you don’t stay in there too long. Kelly and I reset the timer 3 times.

Out of the spa and back to the room for a quick change.

Our hard work deserves some champagne, so we decide to go down to the bar instead of having it brought back to our room. Every time we had passed the bar, we saw this little old, cute guy playing the piano and nobody in the bar. We thought, lets be nice and give him some company. We walk in and he is playing. He overhears our conversation with our waitress and he starts playing “I left my heart in San Francisco.” Nice touch, we applaud, he walks out! Time for a break! I guess he wanted to leave on a high note (Seinfeld fans…). That was it????? We come down to provide this guy an audience and he plays for 10 minutes and leaves. Anyway, we carry on a nice conversation with Laura our waitress. She is from Brisbane, Australia. We ask her about the big beautiful fireplace and why there is no fire there. She says they use it in the winter, but if we want a fire she can build one for us. We said that would be great! Kelly and I move over to the couch in front of the fireplace and Laura gets to work stacking the wood and kindle and lighting the fire. The smell of the fire is wonderful (at first). Kelly and I are sipping champagne and eating blueberries and strawberries that Laura kindly told us would work well with the champagne. Next we look up at the lights above the fireplace and notice the amount of smoke wafing out from the fireplace. Another bartender comes into the room, they adjust the flue and feel pretty happy everything is in order. 20 minutes later, the owner of the place comes in, adds more wood to the fire (he thought a hotter fire would cause more of an updrift out of the chimney) and he opened some doors. The next thing we know we have smoke billowing out from the fireplace, the reception staff has come into the bar to let the bartender know that they are getting numerous phone calls from as far away as the 3rd floor about an intense fire smell. Kelly and I finish our champagne and get out of Dodge. We come out of the elevator on the third floor and it smells of smoke and there is a light haze!! Later that evening, we are just laying around in bed and Kelly says…It still smells like smoke up here. I leaned over and realized that she still had the same shirt on that she had been wearing in the bar. All of our clothes smelled like fire.

Thank God we are leaving tomorrow. We apologized to Laura about asking for a fire and with the attitude I just love about the Aussie’s she said “no worries.”

We leave for Santa Margherita Ligure tomorrow.

The Riffelalp Resort has been wonderful. Zermatt has been wonderful. It will be hard to top this.

We have made it to Italy!!

To get to our hotel in Zermatt, you had to park in a city called Tasch (5 km from Zermatt), take a taxi to the edge of town, have the porter meet you there and take you and your luggage to a cog wheeled train, take the train 20 mimutes up the mountain where another hotel trolley (on rails) picks you up and drives you the additional 6 minutes to the hotel doorstep. So when you leave, the opposite is true. With a 4 1/2 hour drive to Santa Margherita Ligure, we made sure we left Zermatt early. So we caught the 8:20am train down to Zermatt and miraculously made it to our car by 9:10am. Way ahead of schedule!! This is great!

We are following our GPS when it turns us into some kind of parking lot. We figure it made a mistake and go back on the highway. It tells us to turn around and back into the same parking lot?! Something must be wrong, we drive to the nearest city and ask them how we get to Italy. It was quite amusing watching one old lady try to tell us in Italian and French. Somehow I can think of the French expression after the conversation is over. I get stuck trying to find the right words to respond during a conversation!? Her friend comes over and tries German. What we gather, we need to take some kind of car carrying train to Italy.

We drive back to the Simpliton or something like that. Turns out it is 10:30am and the next train is not until 11:42am. So we pay our 13 euros and sit and wait. The train arrives and basically you drive your car onto this train and sit in your car while the train travels through some tight, dark tunnel for 30 minutes. You have to keep your car turned off, so we left our windows down and the noise was deafening of this train screeching through a small tunnel. Anyway..we came from beautiful warm sunshine on the Swiss side to find rain on the Italian side.

The drive from Isbelle, Italy to Santa Margherita Ligure was an easy one. I averaged 135km/hr and didn't get a ticket. Driving through Rapallo and SML is nerve racking (especially for my co-pilot Kelly). Small, twisting, tight turns, motor scooters all of the road and pedestrians just jumping off the curbs at a moments notice. We arrived at our The Grand Hotel Miramare and I swear, we were checked in and in our room in about 3 minutes. These guys don’t kid around!! I didn't even know what hit me. We pulled our car up to the front of the hotel, bell boy immediately removing bags from trunk, escort up to front desk, front desk takes us immediately to room, in comes baggage, if you need anything call us, enjoy your stay, bye-bye!! I have never been checked into a hotel faster in my life!! Great, great service!!!

We walked to the harbor and enjoyed a farmer's market. Cheese tasting (Madonna!!!!), every kind of pork imaginable, a big smoked pig head laying on the table, all kinds of breads, olive oils, etc. I got stuffed just tasting everything. The Italians really are extremely nice. Everybody was very accommodating and I got to use my best Soprano Italian. We sat down for a bottle of Prosecco and a Quatro Fromaggio pizza on the water. Everything was so wonderful. This town is amazing. Beautiful to look at, the church bells are ringing right now, the smell of the Med. sea, wonderful. We are leaving now to walk 45 minutes to Portofino. Tomorrow we head to Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terre

Oh my god!! Kelly and I just got back from a day trip to Cinque Terre. We started off at 7:30am and got back at 6pm. We took a train from Santa Margherita Ligure where we are staying to Monterossa (the first of the 5 cities of Cinque Terre). Once again, we had an incident on the train. Turns out you not only have to buy a ticket, but validate it before getting on the train. We didn't know this and got on the train. The conductor on the train, in his best Italian informed us that we had to get it validated. Failure to do so is a 50euro per ticket penalty (that's $65 each). With lots of smiling and "we didn't know's" he agreed to let us go for 5 euros per ticket. He had to go through lots of paper work to make this happen. He took his hat off, pulled out a giant book to get some numbers, wrote the equivalent of two parking tickets and took 10 euros for the effort. This guy looked like Lou Costello (“Ciao Abbott!”). After completing his time with us, he was sweating up a storm. He made this simple thing seem like a lot of work for him. He was nice to let us go easy.

We arrived at Moterosso and met a girl from Lake Tahoe. She told us about the hike ahead of us. She said she hikes allot and this hike (between the 5 cities) is a hard hike. Well how hard could it be?! Leaving Monterosso you head up a steep incline where you find a small trail. We must have walked up 1000 "stairs" to get to the top of the mountain where the trail continues. This was like being on a stair master for 40 minutes. Once you get to the top it was another hour of walking on a trail sometimes 1 1/2 feet wide and them some more climbs. This hike was brutal. We arrived at the next city Vernazza after 1 hr 45 minutes. We sat for a quick water and then continued on to Corniglia. I have to tell you on the way to Vernazza a German couple blew by us early. As we continued along we kind of caught up to them. It was like the tortoise and the hare. We kept an even pace, they went out too quick. At one point, we caught them and it was funny because the guy took off immediately so we didn't pass them. They pulled away again. As we decended into Varnazza they were in sight again. This time we overtook them and beat them to Vernazza!! USA! USA! haha

We start off for Corniglia. This is supposed to be the second hardest hike. Our first was the most difficult. At first it starts off easy, but we meet lots of great folks who tell us of the impending climb that awaits us. Brutal!!!! Understand these are not paved pathways or anything; they are broken rocks, ledges sometimes only 1 1/2 feet wide. We made these climbs and things starting flattening out. We made the walk which they said would take 1 hr 40 mins in 1 hr and 15 minutes. In Corniglia, we bought some water and a couple of diet Cokes and the nice man who owned the store escorted us to his private garden, so we could enjoy our beverages in the shade. Nice guy. Next stop Manarosa (something like that). Manarosa is a one hour hike that starts off down a whole bunch of stairs and than is a pretty flat walk along the Med sea. Towards the end there is a little bit of a climb. These cities/towns are pretty non-descript. Not much to do in each of them. Kind of makes you wonder why you made the effort to do so. We finally do one more 1/2 hour hike to Riomaggiore which is where we catch the train back to Monterosso. We are beat up at this point. In Monterosso, we grab a couple of beers while we wait for the train.

A hike back from the train station to our hotel, a much needed shower and a nice bed to chill out on.

I once hiked 13.2 miles up Pike's Peak in Colorado. This hike wss much more difficult.

A beautiful hotel tomorrow. Nothing but laying poolside in St. Jean Cap Ferrat.

An exhausted me, signing off!

St. Jean Cap Ferrat…

We’ve been in a bit of an internet black hole the past couple of days. We were also staying in the lap of luxury.

We finished up in Santa Margherita Ligure after a wonderful hiking trip to the 5 cities of Cinque Terre, Italy. I believe I mentioned how difficult this hike was.

Anyway, we got an early start and drove past Genoa, Ventimiglia, Monaco, Menton and into St. Jean Cap Ferrat. Roughly a 2 ½ hour drive.

We got to the Grand Hotel Cap Ferrat and were taken to a nice room with a large terrace overlooking a construction site!? Kelly wasn’t pleased (rightfully so) so I went down to the front desk to let them know that that room wasn’r going to work for us. The Receptionist called Mr. Poulet the manager. Great guy!!! He said he had a solution to the problem. He said he wanted to show us the room before moving us, but he was sure we would say “yes.” He took us to a room that usually costs over 1500euros per night. He said we could stay here for our two night stay for the same price we were to pay for the other room. There are only 2 rooms in the hotel with a big terrace with an ocean view. Guess where we stayed!!!!! Thank you Mr. Poulet (for some reason I think that translates to Mr. Chicken). The room was incredible. Very large, great terrace, full ocean view, wooden chaise lounges, sitting area inside the doors that open onto the terrace, remote control drapes from the bed. Absolutely, wonderful!!

This was to be relaxation at it’s finest. We decided to go down to Club Dauphine (the spa and swimming pool area). We walked down the walkway to our hotel and across the street and we are shown the way to the funicular down to the pool. The pool is awesome! It is an Olympic sized infinity pool overlooking the Med. Sea (unfortunately there is a fence between the pool and sea which kind of ruins the “infinity” illusion!). We sat down at the bar and ordered a couple of beers. 12 euros per beer (that’s $18 each my friends!! We looked at the lunch menu. Hamburger cost 45 euros (that’s $67!!!!). I wish I were kidding! I am OK with spending a little more money for luxury, but $67 for a hamburger?! I’m not stupid! We have another beer and head back to our room.

The dinner that evening was 135 euros each ($405 for two, not counting drinks, tax, tip, etc.). Also, it is a prix fixe menu and the two entrée choices are veal or lamb (Kelly doesn’t necessarily like either). We decide to go to Villefrache-sur-Mer for dinner. We have a wonderful French onion soup, I have fish soup which was tremendous. I had a scallop dish which was good and Kelly had a lousy seafood risotto. She has been on a risotto slump. Risotto should be creamy and cheesy. Every risotto she had gotten recently has been similar to rice-a-roni. Actually rice-a-roni would have been better.

On the way home we stop at a gas station/convenience store and pick up some cheap wine, some brie cheese. We stock up because with the prices at the hotel, we are going to have to eat somehow. (haha). In the morning, we took a 1 ½ hr. walk to Beaulieu-sur-Mer passing Paul Allen’s house. We bought some baguette, some individual cheese and ham quiche, and a bottle of some really nice champagne (the same bottle goes for 180 euros ($270) at our hotel. (we paid 72 euros..a splurge). That evening we decided to bite the bullet and go to dinner. We were going to pay 135euro each for dinner. We ask about the menu, and we are informed it is the same prix fixe menu from the night before!? It’s the last night of a very special 3 night run for this same veal/lamb menu! Are you kidding me?!!! We don’t feel like driving anywhere for dinner. We are out of bread, brie and champagne. All we have is one bottle of cheap (5euro) red wine. Our terrace at night is beautiful. Beneath us is a band with a great female singer, playing for the prix fixe menu crowd outside and below us. The layout is pretty cool. Even though all the people and band were immediately below us (2 levels down), they are set up beneath trees which prevents us from seeing them and vice versa. We decide to order room service for our terrace. This turned out to be very special. Wonderful meal! Kelly finally got outstanding risotto with some great big shrimp. I got rack of lamb which was outstanding. We had our 5euro bottle of wine with our meal and believe it or not, this inexpensive wine was wonderful! We watched a couple of cruise ships depart Nice with all of their lights on. You could watch these lights later disappear on the horizon, really kinda cool. We listened to the band, finished our wine and had a very romantic dinner alone in our room.

The next morning, we packed and went down to check out the 45 euro per person ($67) breakfast buffet. Once again, we were ready to splurge. Kelly asked if we can look at the buffet before deciding. The waitress said sure. For $67 we were expecting a breakfast buffet like you have never seen. Wrong!! Nasty looking eggs, sausage, mushroom, tomatoes and bacon. Less than what we received at the Grand Hotel Miramare in SML for FREE!!!

I don’t get it! Are extremely rich people stupid? How else can you describe someone who pays $67 for a hamburger (the in room dining hamburger costs 53 euros…I took a picture of the menu to prove it!)

Anyway, I’m glad we stayed at the Grand Hotel Cap Ferrat. The room was beautiful, the pool was wonderful, our dinner WAS wonderful. No internet, not much other than the pool to do. Needless to say…even if we happen to win a lottery any time soon, we will not be returning to Grand Hotel Cap Ferrat.

We left Cap Ferrat and went to Eze. Eze is a medieval city that overlooks Cap Ferrat. Kind of interesting. Eze requires lots of climbing because the whole city is built on a hill. Mostly all restaurants, hotels and tourist shops. We were up and down in about 40 minutes.

Next it was a hectic drive over to Ste. Maxime. Only a 1 ½ hr drive, but we couldn’t figure out the toll both situation. Previously, all toll roads had you get a ticket and then pay when you exit the freeway. I pull up to “get a ticket” instead I need to put in 2.20 euro with some scrambling we find the necessary coins to raise the gate. We come upon another toll plaza. I pull into a lane that I believe has a person to give me change. It doesn’t!! Now I am THAT tourist holding up lots of traffic because I didn’t have change. Kelly grabs my 20euro bill and runs to the next lane and asks the guy for change. Turns out to be a nice guy and hurriedly gives her change and we are on our way.

We make it to Ste. Maxime to find our hotel room won’t be ready for 1 hour. We decide to walk into town to get lunch. We eat a fantastic lunch (mussels in a wine stock for me and croquet Monsieur/ham and cheese Panini for Kelly). We walk through this lovely little place and can’t get over the amount of food stuffs being sold on the street! A truly fantastic place if you like to eat!

After our walk, we find the ferry to St. Tropez. 20 minutes later, we are in St. Tropez!! Very cool place. We might need to come back here some day. Beautiful yachts (we have seen them all over the Med. Sea..it’s amazing how many people own these giant yachts!).

Back to Ste. Maxime. To our normal Best Western Hotel Monte Flori. We do have a lovely view of the sea and we overlook the pool. Really not a bad place, but certainly not the quality we have been staying at.


We still have 8 days to go on this vacation!! It has been wonderful! Kelly is a great travelling companion and better wife! It is certainly nice to kick back and enjoy this wonderful planet.

September 12, 2008

We just drove 110 miles to St. Remy de Provence... A really cool little town. Room at our hotel, Hotel Les Ateliers de L’Image , wasn't ready when we got here so we walked all over the place. Found the best wine guy. Bought a bottle of Vieux Telegraph Chateauneuf-du-pape 1998 (apparently the best ever). In our funky hotel, eating local cheese, baguette and this wonderful wine! Still not anxious to get back home. We have one more week to go and we hope it goes slowly.

Hotel Les Ateliers de L’Image is a great and unique hotel!! Located in downtown St. Remy, walk thru the hotel and out back is a beautiful and large park-like setting complete with pool. Walk out the front door and you are in the beautiful town of St. Remy. I almost made the mistake of staying outside of this town! The hotel is quirky. Home to one of the only sushi restaurants in southern France. They actually have a tree house room!! Our room was located above the bar. Walk behind the stage up the stairs and there we were!! It was delightful and despite the location, quiet! Parking in the back of the hotel as well!!

Provence is really laid back and a great place to "chill." This already is on our "have to come back to" list.

Kelly is catching a nap, so I decided to take a glass of wine outside and rest in the sun on a hammock, listening to Pink Floyd on my iPod. Everything was great until I tried to sit down! Next thing you know, I'm on the ground, my sunglasses are off, but I saved my wine glass! The glass at least, the wine that was in it is now raining down upon me! My new white Tommy Bahama tee shirt that I bought for this trip is now spotted! The bartender at this place saw what happened and ran and grab some spot remover spray. Now if I was home, I have some "Wine Out" spray which works miracles. The stuff they gave me didn't work! My new Tommy Bahama tee shirt is now in the garbage! Unfortunately, while falling with loud music playing in my ears, I can't imagine how loud my French was while falling. One guy looked at me in horror as I walked back to my room. I think I kind of shouted a word that begins with "F" while falling to the ground.

They have curbs 2 feet from store entrances here. So all morning I've been stumbling all over the place. My wife thinks I'm nuts. The lady in the cheese store that I tripped into thinks I have mental problems. Especially, when she hears my French! haha

I just love when I ask somebody something in French and they respond to me in English!

Aloha!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Day 2 in St. Remy de Provence..

We woke up early (as usual) and walked to our favorite local boulangerie. Yesterday, we enjoyed their wonderful broccoli quiche. Kelly did that is, because, ahem, real men don’t eat quiche. We arrived early and through my wonderful French, found out that the quiche were being baked upstairs and would be ready in 10 minutes. Just our luck, they have every kind of quiche except the wonderful broccoli. We get a ham and cheese and a two cheese quiche. Breakfast in our hotel is 19 euros each. 2 quiches are filling a great breakfast and costs only 5euros.

We jumped in the car and headed 7 miles away to Les Baux des Provence. This is another 16th century town built into the mountains that have been converted to be tourist attractions. It was great to walk around the town and shop.

Next it was back in the car and a 45 minute drive to Rousillon, Gordes, Fontaine de Vacleuse which is a mystery fountain. Jacques Cousteau divers as well as a many robots have been sent down under the water to find the source of the water. It remains a mystery. We ate at a beautiful restaurant that a woman at a wine tasting yesterday recommended. Restaurant Philip offered outside seating right along the beautiful, crystal clear river created by the fountain. I asked “Avez-vous la carte en anglais?” (an English menu?) Non! We had a great waitress. I was able to figure out what some dishes were based on her answers to some of my questions. We got pork tenderloin and a outstanding scallop dish (“filet mignon du cochon” and “St. Jacques”). Some strawberry and lemon sorbet at the end!!! This was probably our best lunch of the whole trip.

We than went to L’Isle de la Sorgis to scope it out. We will be heading back there early tomorrow morning. They have the largest market in Southern France every Sunday.morning. Farmers market, antique market, cheese, meats, etc. etc. Kelly is looking forward to that one!!! She has already added to her cookie cutter collection while in Switzerland.

We than drove back to the hotel room and went back to visit our favorite wine guy. (“Entre Terre et Verre” 13 rue du Chateau, St. Remy de Provence..www.lacave.eu) Every night he has a special tasting. His recommendations have been wonderful. We just bought a Chateuaneuf-du-Pape white wine from Vieux Telegraph 2007 and a Domaine George Vernay “Les Chaillees de L’Enfer” 2006 Condrieu.. (Some reading this blog are wine folks that might enjoy this info). This wine might be absolute garbage but when you here the owner of this shop tell the stories behind the wine, it almost has to be good. He has been on the money with his previous recommendations. Tonight, was the only night, we didn’t like his tasting.

The weather has been pretty good to us along the trip. We have had very little rain. Today was a little cool 60 degrees and the city of Gorde is up in the hills and was extremely windy and cool. Not much to see or do there either. I’m not quite sure why this was so highly recommended on some travel message boards I had consulted.
Reality is starting to set in…

We are in the final week of our vacation.

I’m back to sitting on this bed watching BBC (I am so tired of watching CNN or BBC.) They repeat the same things over and over.

Almost forgot, in Ste. Maxime we ate at a Morrocan restaurant. This restaurant was so cool. You walk in and the floor had sand on it. You could sit on pillows at low tables, little bigger tables with kind of stools or tables. We had chicken tagine and vegetable coucous and finished off the meal with that wonderful Moroccan tea. Moroccan tea is black tea stuffed with mint leaves and sugar. Absolutely, wonderful stuff!!

I think I am done…….

Au revoir…

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Early morning start today, because Sunday is market day for L’Isle de la Sorgie. It has the second largest market outside of Paris in all of Europe. We were told to get there before 9am to get a parking spot.

Speedy ole Kelly and Phil arrive at 8am!!! Actually perfect timing. We got one of the last on street (no pay) parking spaces available and we got to experience a little of the market with no people.

On our tour we stopped and bought a couple more quiches. These are quickly becoming the petit-dejeuner (breakfast) of choice. They only cost 2 euro ($3), they are quite large, have eggs, cheese and either bacon, ham or vegetables in them. They are tasty, a good source of protein and inexpensive!!!! As we continue to walk, we spot a woman who has a 4 feet in diameter pan which is over heat and filled with rice, saffron, mussels, razor clams, shrimp, chicken, peas, tomatoes, peppers, and calamari!!! Seafood paella!!!!! I ask her when it will be ready, she tells me it needs 20 more minutes. In 20 minutes, we are back and buying the “grand” portion for 10 euros. The plastic container she is filling is about 6 inches wide, 8 inches long and about 3 inches deep. She puts two big pieces of chicken and then fills this container until it is about 3 inches over the top!!!! I couldn’t believe it. You can tell she liked us though… It is extremely windy and cold, so we decide to take it back to our car to eat. Oh my God!!!! This paella is outstanding!!! It is loaded with seafood and chicken and the wonderful saffron rice is to die for. Kelly and I can’t shovel enough of this stuff into our mouths! This is the best dinner for 2 for $14 we have ever had!!! There is no way you could get this quality food for so cheap anywhere.

We had to go back and tell our new friend how wonderful it was! She was happy that we came back.

We bought some outstanding cheeses at this market as well. I can say that because we are sitting here eating them along with some wine in our hotel room.

After a full morning at the market, we headed over to Avignon. We visited the Palais du Pape. The Pope actually resided outside of Rome for awhile and lived in the Palais du Pape in Avignon.

They had a mass for local horsemen and their award winning horses. There were priests behind an altar, an orchestra, a choir and a whole bunch of horses in this town square. Kind of a strange outdoor mass. At one point, there was a line for communion. It actually looked like some of the horses were on line waiting to receive communion.

After the Palais, we climbed to the top of the Papal area for an overview of Avignon.

20 minutes later, we were back at the hotel.

The past few days, it has been very windy here. In fact, the sun is shining outside, but we are sitting on our bed, because it is just too windy (trop du vente) to hang out by the pool or on the infamous hammock again.

Tomorrow, we have A 315 mile drive over to Dordogne Valley. At this point, I am not looking forward to driving 5 hrs tomorrow. We will get an early start and be there before 2pm. Hopefully, when we get there it will have all been worth it!

Provence is definitely a great stop! I wasn’t sure if I were going to like it or not, but I do. Very much so!

Kelly is a great friend and better wife! With our work schedules, we don’t usually get to see a lot of each other. Being together 24/7 on this vacation has been wonderful! She is just the greatest human being a person could ask for. She is also laying next to me on the bed right now, so I’m hoping she will glance over and see what I am writing about her right now!!! She did!! She did!!

Gotta Go!!!!!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

We are now out of another internet black hole. Let me try to figure out what we have just accomplished.

Three days ago, we packed our bags in Provence and drove 314 miles to Dordogne Valley, France. The city of Domme to be exact.

The first 4 hours was a piece of cake. The last 24 miles was on two way roads that were built 1 ½ cars wide with lots of blind corners. It was a very slow go and kind of nerve rattling (especially if you were a passenger with me driving!). As our GPS told us we were 2 miles from our destination, we noticed a walled city up on a hill up to our right. That was Domme. We drove 1.2 miles up the hill to find a very enchanting walled medieval city. We drove through the main gate and asked 3 people how to get to the Hotel Esplanade. Everybody pointed up and responded with more words that weren’t right, left or straight, so we just kept going to wherever they pointed. A fourth response told us the hotel was 100 meters straight ahead. We got to the hotel to find it locked at 12:30pm. While we were waiting by the door, a couple came out and we walked in. We couldn’t find anybody inside, so we starting walking around the place. We checked out the restaurant, the lounge and kind of hung out by the reception desk. Finally, a lady, Sophie, came in the back door and was startled by the fact that we were there. Her first response was “How did you get in?” When we informed her of who we were and how we got in, she kind of calmed down. She immediately took us to our room. Our room was the best in the hotel, the only one with a terrace that overlooked the entire Dordogne Valley. Pretty spectacular Rather than sitting and enjoying the view, we decided to drive to the medieval city of Sarlat. After Sarlat, we went to the Chateau Beynac. We got to the Chateau at 5pm, so nobody was there! A pretty remarkable place with once again, great views of the Dordogne Valley. Sarlat really didn’t do much for me! Ever wonder how all of these shops that sell the same foie gras and black truffles stay in business?????

This area is known for their foie gras and black truffles. The dinner at Hotel Esplanade was incredible!! I actually had the foie gras (duck liver) and couldn’t believe how great it was. It was also quite filling.

Every store in all of the cities in the Dordogne Valley sell foie gras and truffles. I mean every store! After awhile, one city looked like every other city.

We also visited the cities of Belves and Montpazier. Getting to these cities required driving on these 1 ½ lane roads. You are really hoping there isn’t some speeding idiot or tour bus coming the other way, especially around the blind turns.

All of these medieval towns are interesting, but they all start to look the same. The tourist shops sell the same things, the restaurants serve the same food.

We did find a restaurant in Domme that was great for lunch. Great because one of the items was “Haetch Steak” that was a hamburger!!!!!!!! After weeks of French fare, I was really up for a burger and it didn’t disappoint. Kelly had the French equivalent of chicken nuggets. A baked chicken breast cut into nugget sized pieces. This dish was extremely tasty. Kelly had it two days, I got adventurous and had duck confit my second time there. The first time I have ever had duck confit and it was quite tasty.

The dinner at Hotel Esplanade was noteworthy. Foie gras was a great appetizer. Kelly’s langoustine ravioli with wild mushrooms and a langoustine bisque foam was to die for! (We both got it the second night). I had some pretty good lamb. The desserts were incredible. Kelly had some macaroon with raspberries, raspberry coulis and (her favorite) coconut ice cream. I had fresh strawberries with some kind of mousse some sort of granola and some chocolat on top. Very little talking during our dinner. Lots of sucking down some great food.

Two nights in Dordogne and it was time to get on the road for our big 6 hour drive to Paris.

The way the GPS works, if you miss a turn, it calculates a path to get you back on course. Kelly and I drove under a wonderful big bridge (on it is the highway we need). About 5 minutes after we pass under this bridge the GPS tells us to turn onto this small dirt road. I comply. The next thing you know, I have this angry german shepard chasing the car trying to bite the tires!! Kelly says, “missed the turn!” With a big dog chasing me, I tend to concur! We turn around and now the dog is looking a little nervous, because now this car that he just chased is turning around and coming back for some more! Once again, the dog is barking, chasing our car and biting at our tires. I kept yelling “bonjour, puppy!” through the small cracked window of the car. Shortly after the dog, we find the other dirt road we missed. About 10 minutes later after a couple of lefts and rights, we are passing under that same wonderful bridge we passed under 15 minutes ago!! It is at this point I realize we had missed a turn.

There are lots of roundabouts in Europe. The GPS has somewhat of a delay. There are also some other exits off of a roundabout that aren’t included as an exit. So when the GPS comes on and says, “In 50 yards there is a roundabout, take the 3rd exit.” This happened to me in Freibourg, Switzerland and I wound up looking like the fool tourist driving down a cobblestoned, pedestrian only street with lots of people waving their finger at me (no..not that finger (that would be the response in New York City..this is Europe)). We finally got on the correct highway and then it was 300 miles to Paris!!

The great thing about driving in Europe is that the speed limit is 130km/hour. This is approximately 81 mph. This is a realistic speed to be traveling on a highway. In the US, we impose a 65mph speed limit and have lots of police on the highways to give tickets. Europe has 81mph speed limit and no police on highways and everything works just fine! It is a true pleasure to drive in Europe. Also, Europeans know how to drive! Nobody doing 60 in the left lane here, like back in the US. Here, you stay right, except to pass!

We stopped at Versailles on the way back to Paris. I never realized how grandiose Versailles was. There is no way we could have gone through this place in the amount of time we had available to us. We took some pictures and headed to our hotel (CDG Hilton – make sure you sign on for the “club room” for extra money we drank lots and had breakfast as well as appetizers all night long) near the airport. We dropped off our bags, took our car back to the leasing company and we are now in position to fly home on Friday. We will be heading into Paris early tomorrow.

It is a great feeling knowing that I don’t have to drive anymore! It is truly relaxing knowing we don’t have to do anything anymore.

Off to sit back and relax!

Having been to Paris many times before, we did not have an agenda.

We simply got off of the train and started walking.

No running to a museum, no standing in line for tourist attractions, just walking holding my wife’s hand and enjoying this beautiful city!!

FIN

ParisAmsterdam

Enjoyed your report Phil!

Mamaw

I really LOVE you TR. I hope to see the rest really soon! HINT HINT....

Yeah, it's kind of funny walking around with a bathing suit on when everyone else is naked as a jay bird. One the other hand, some of the people walking around nude need a bathing suit

Once I was on the beach in Cancun when an elderly couple from France struck up a conversation with me. I was really enjoying their company until the wife whips off her top and starts slathering herself with sunscreen/tanning lotion. I was truly speechless. I just kept my eyes straight ahead and made an excuse to go up to the pool area. Totally my problem, not that they did anything wrong.

Tell your wife I think it's wonderful how your enjoying her company. And I hope Paris is as wonderful as the rest of Europe has been so far.

Hiking is your thing eh? Cool. I bet that helped with all the feasting you all have been doing.

Theresa in NCAA crazy Detroit!

blh

Wow! You guys really covered a lot of territory. Enjoyed your trip report. We had been to most of the places in France and Cinque Terre too - so it was fun to hear your take on all these different places. We were in the Dordogne in the fall and agree that there are a lot of foie gras stores and that most menus are very much the same. Very beautiful area though. Thanks for a fun report!

Michael

No cops on the autoroutes but cameras. There's even the rumor that if you drove 150 kph between toll stations without a stop you would get a ticket because the toll cards are time punched.

Masterphil

Michael..Quite a few cameras. They were usually in highly congested areas. Most of the locals know where they are. A number of times, I was driving and asking myself.."why is everybody slowing down?" Then I saw the camera up ahead!