Patrick's Trip Report: too long to post.
Aug 10th, 2003, 12:46 PM
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Patrick's Trip Report: too long to post.
Several people have asked me about my trip report, knowing that I just returned from nearly 10 weeks in Europe. I had my laptop along and started typing out reports to post later, but frankly they are WAAAYYYY to LOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG and BORING! There is too much to say to post it all.
Let it suffice to say this:
We spent 15 nights in "our" flat in Covent Garden, London -- the same one we've rented about 6 times now. Actually I did post this part of the trip in a report that you can find by a search.
After that we went to Berlin for 5 nights, a couple nights in Leipzig, then a week in an apartment in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, stays in Munich, Stuttgart, Basel, Weggis, Poschiavo, Chur, Saas Fee, Gstaad, and Montreux, then rented an apartment in Paris for a week.
The entire trip was great, but here are a couple of brief thoughts of summary:
Although Germany and Switzerland were great, you really don't go there for the food. The three best meals we had while we were in Switzerland were the lunch we had the day we went by train into Tirano, Italy and the two lunches in France by boat across the lake from Montreux.
I can remember when "tourist information" offices were for giving out tourist information. More and more we found that they are simply there to book hotels. We actually walked into one near Fussen to ask a couple of questions about the area and we were specifically told that if we had any questions about the castles to go to the castle box office, they were just there to book hotels. Several others couldn't even begin to suggest anything about hikes, bus routes, or entertainment.
Special thanks to Ingo, whose many suggestions we followed like a Bible!!!
Although Europe has had really bad weather this summer, we couldn't have been luckier. Our weather was great and in ten days we only experienced about four days with some rain off and on. Never wore our sweaters, and never really sweltered either.
The trains were great as always. Last year we leased a car for two months to do Southern Italy and other areas which was fine, but for Germany and Switzerland, the trains were simply perfect and a whole lot less stress. The only time we rented a car was for three days in Garmisch to do the castles, which did make that a lot easier.
Any specific questions? Feel free to ask.
Let it suffice to say this:
We spent 15 nights in "our" flat in Covent Garden, London -- the same one we've rented about 6 times now. Actually I did post this part of the trip in a report that you can find by a search.
After that we went to Berlin for 5 nights, a couple nights in Leipzig, then a week in an apartment in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, stays in Munich, Stuttgart, Basel, Weggis, Poschiavo, Chur, Saas Fee, Gstaad, and Montreux, then rented an apartment in Paris for a week.
The entire trip was great, but here are a couple of brief thoughts of summary:
Although Germany and Switzerland were great, you really don't go there for the food. The three best meals we had while we were in Switzerland were the lunch we had the day we went by train into Tirano, Italy and the two lunches in France by boat across the lake from Montreux.
I can remember when "tourist information" offices were for giving out tourist information. More and more we found that they are simply there to book hotels. We actually walked into one near Fussen to ask a couple of questions about the area and we were specifically told that if we had any questions about the castles to go to the castle box office, they were just there to book hotels. Several others couldn't even begin to suggest anything about hikes, bus routes, or entertainment.
Special thanks to Ingo, whose many suggestions we followed like a Bible!!!
Although Europe has had really bad weather this summer, we couldn't have been luckier. Our weather was great and in ten days we only experienced about four days with some rain off and on. Never wore our sweaters, and never really sweltered either.
The trains were great as always. Last year we leased a car for two months to do Southern Italy and other areas which was fine, but for Germany and Switzerland, the trains were simply perfect and a whole lot less stress. The only time we rented a car was for three days in Garmisch to do the castles, which did make that a lot easier.
Any specific questions? Feel free to ask.
Aug 10th, 2003, 03:59 PM
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Hi Patrick,
You ain't gwine ter getta way with this. Don't give us this nonsense about how your report is long and boring. If other people can do it so can you.
You have 30 days before a signal is sent that will fry your motherboard.
You ain't gwine ter getta way with this. Don't give us this nonsense about how your report is long and boring. If other people can do it so can you.
You have 30 days before a signal is sent that will fry your motherboard.
Aug 10th, 2003, 04:31 PM
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Glad you had good weather. That makes such a difference on a vacation.
How's Leipzig these days? I haven't been since my friends left in Spring 2002. Do they have the rail link from the airport to the main train station up yet?
Did you make it to the Hygiene Museum in Dresden?
How's Leipzig these days? I haven't been since my friends left in Spring 2002. Do they have the rail link from the airport to the main train station up yet?
Did you make it to the Hygiene Museum in Dresden?
Aug 10th, 2003, 04:48 PM
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Fun and food in Paris? Well, since that was the last week of the trip and we had long learned we were well over budget this year (don't tell me that exchange rate didn't make a difference), we kind of laid low in Paris. We've done all the major stuff in the past, so primarily we spent the week walking.
We arrived on Saturday, July 26 in pouring rain -- probably the ugliest day of our entire trip. Our apartment was great -- Saint Germaine between Rue Seine and Rue Buci -- couldn't be a better location. We rented from the owner who lives in San Francisco and has a Paris agent meet the clients and show them what's what, which worked perfectly. You can see the apartment at www.sant.com. BUT THIS APARTMENT IS OFF LIMITS UNTIL WE GET IT REBOOKED FOR 12 NIGHTS NEXT JULY, OK??? It was great, and even had air-conditioning, although we didn't use that until the fifth day, it really was a pleasant week, although we had rain off and on the first three days.
Sunday was spent primarily standing waiting and then watching the finals of the Tour de France. We were right at Concorde about 50 meters from the finish line, right where we were facing the cyclists before they made their final turn. They actually do 10 laps at that spot before the final finish. It was very exciting!!
I know things close in August, but this year restaurants seemed to be closed even earlier. Because it was a cool and dreary night our first night there we headed up to Republique to Chez Jenny, a place we had always wanted to go, but never had. We thought the Alsatian food and the big interior would be perfect that night in the hopes of clearer weather later on for our favorite -- sitting outside elsewhere. Surprise! When we got there we found the entire restaurant completely gutted -- total renovation going on, so we ended up walking down to Bastille and eating at a Chez Clement, which we always enjoy. A first happened there, the waiter complimented me on my French. Either he was a very good liar, trying hard to please Americans, or was just bucking for a good tip.
On Monday night we headed for Astier, high on the list thanks to all the recommendations here. I had read that it closes in August so we figured we better get there (on the 28th). Uh-oh, it too was closed -- posted that they were closed for vacation.
The next day we walked by Epi Dupin planning to make a reservation, and low and behold they too were already closed for vacation.
We discovered a new place on Rue de Seine right around the corner from us called Brasserie Italia and actually ate there (outside) two nights. Spectacular carpaccio on arugula and a fantastic Fettucine Bosciola with porcini, ham, peas, tomatoes, and cream. Had the exact same thing both times we ate there.
I had downloaded an article about the "Wonder restaurants of Paris Revisited" (www.msnbc.com/news/860797.asp?cp1=1
We did three of those places and loved them all: Chartier, the famous old and bustling brasserie (ate lunch there) on Faubourg-Montmarte. Dirt cheap and good, but mainly great for the atmosphere. Lescure, which is a really fun place just off Concorde, which only seats about 16 people (again for lunch). The waiters constantly throw out joking banter (nearly all of which I didn't understand) except for the attempt at humor of picking up a table knife and pushing me over the back of my chair pretending to stab me repeatedly as he said "George W. Bush" over and over. This was because he asked and I said I was an American. I've mentioned this on another thread here -- we don't need to go into all the other political implications again. We regarded it as fun as the French businessmen around us did. I had half a duck (that was so huge a swan would have been afraid to tangle with it) with the best fried potatoes ever (probably fried in the duck fat). This was after the two of us split an entree of goat cheese terrine at the recommendation of the waiter. An order is only 5 euro, and when it came out we figured we must have each gotten a full order, huge slab of wonderful goat cheese that was layerd with chopped chives and other herbs and served on a mound of arugula. But then we saw full orders come out and sure enough they were twice as large. Also had a great bottle of Cotes du Rhone(the only red wine on the list and all the regulars were drinking it) that I think was 12 euro by the bottle. I had a cheese plate -- five great cheese, for about 5 euro also. Oh, and I think the duck and potatoes was about 8 euro. This place was amazing and we skipped dinner that night!!! The food was sensational but the portions were simply too big (glad the article warned us to split an entree).
The other place from the article was Le Petit Prince de Paris near the Pantheon. Again this was an amazing bargain place. The atmosphere, the food, and the service were impeccable. We loved it and will certainly be going back -- in fact probably to all three of these places.
We did make our first visit to the Musee Carnavalet, which we found fascinating. Loved the pictures of Paris life in which we could easily recognize Paris landmark buildings we were familiar with.
We did a long walk along the Canal St. Martin -- the full length. And one day we started from our apartment, walked to Park Monceau, along the Blvds. (that's the day we did lunch at Chartier, through the Marais, then to Bastille, and back to our place on St. Germaine. We literally walked (other than lunch) from about 9 AM to 5 PM, but that was pretty typical of our days.
I had told the guy who owns our apartment that I was only concerned with a refrigerator in the kitchen for orange juice and maybe cheese, but we ended up never even doing that. We only used the kitchen to make ice cubes!!! Why even mess with breakfast when the delightful Paul is only a block away? Great fresh squeezed orange juice, super coffee, and pastries to die for. Although we did go two mornings to one of those little chain "Le Croissanterie(?)"s. We each ordered a pain au chocolate, I ordered a Grand Cafe Creme, and my partner ordered an orange juice (he doesn't do coffee). When the girl put it all on a tray she looked at it and said, "oh, this is an Express Formula, and charged us the Formula price -- 3.20 euro. That's the cheapest breakfast I've ever had in Paris, and although I really hate to admit it, the Pain au Chocolate was just as good (and actually seemed fresher) than the ones at Paul!!
We did end our stay with a final dinner at Chez Julien, an old favorite. This was the most expensive meal of the week and including the three courses each plus a great bottle of '94 Pauillac it amounted to $141 US.
In fact Paris was one of our least expensive stays on the whole trip. My entries into my price journal often simply read: "breakfast, lunch, dinner, apartment". That's all we spent money on many days. Our entertainment was walking. We bought a total of 2 carnets for the metro and busses (that's a total of 20 individual tickets for the two of us) and had 2 tickets left over. So we only did 9 trips total on the Metro in 8 days!!And we never loved Paris more!
We arrived on Saturday, July 26 in pouring rain -- probably the ugliest day of our entire trip. Our apartment was great -- Saint Germaine between Rue Seine and Rue Buci -- couldn't be a better location. We rented from the owner who lives in San Francisco and has a Paris agent meet the clients and show them what's what, which worked perfectly. You can see the apartment at www.sant.com. BUT THIS APARTMENT IS OFF LIMITS UNTIL WE GET IT REBOOKED FOR 12 NIGHTS NEXT JULY, OK??? It was great, and even had air-conditioning, although we didn't use that until the fifth day, it really was a pleasant week, although we had rain off and on the first three days.
Sunday was spent primarily standing waiting and then watching the finals of the Tour de France. We were right at Concorde about 50 meters from the finish line, right where we were facing the cyclists before they made their final turn. They actually do 10 laps at that spot before the final finish. It was very exciting!!
I know things close in August, but this year restaurants seemed to be closed even earlier. Because it was a cool and dreary night our first night there we headed up to Republique to Chez Jenny, a place we had always wanted to go, but never had. We thought the Alsatian food and the big interior would be perfect that night in the hopes of clearer weather later on for our favorite -- sitting outside elsewhere. Surprise! When we got there we found the entire restaurant completely gutted -- total renovation going on, so we ended up walking down to Bastille and eating at a Chez Clement, which we always enjoy. A first happened there, the waiter complimented me on my French. Either he was a very good liar, trying hard to please Americans, or was just bucking for a good tip.
On Monday night we headed for Astier, high on the list thanks to all the recommendations here. I had read that it closes in August so we figured we better get there (on the 28th). Uh-oh, it too was closed -- posted that they were closed for vacation.
The next day we walked by Epi Dupin planning to make a reservation, and low and behold they too were already closed for vacation.
We discovered a new place on Rue de Seine right around the corner from us called Brasserie Italia and actually ate there (outside) two nights. Spectacular carpaccio on arugula and a fantastic Fettucine Bosciola with porcini, ham, peas, tomatoes, and cream. Had the exact same thing both times we ate there.
I had downloaded an article about the "Wonder restaurants of Paris Revisited" (www.msnbc.com/news/860797.asp?cp1=1
We did three of those places and loved them all: Chartier, the famous old and bustling brasserie (ate lunch there) on Faubourg-Montmarte. Dirt cheap and good, but mainly great for the atmosphere. Lescure, which is a really fun place just off Concorde, which only seats about 16 people (again for lunch). The waiters constantly throw out joking banter (nearly all of which I didn't understand) except for the attempt at humor of picking up a table knife and pushing me over the back of my chair pretending to stab me repeatedly as he said "George W. Bush" over and over. This was because he asked and I said I was an American. I've mentioned this on another thread here -- we don't need to go into all the other political implications again. We regarded it as fun as the French businessmen around us did. I had half a duck (that was so huge a swan would have been afraid to tangle with it) with the best fried potatoes ever (probably fried in the duck fat). This was after the two of us split an entree of goat cheese terrine at the recommendation of the waiter. An order is only 5 euro, and when it came out we figured we must have each gotten a full order, huge slab of wonderful goat cheese that was layerd with chopped chives and other herbs and served on a mound of arugula. But then we saw full orders come out and sure enough they were twice as large. Also had a great bottle of Cotes du Rhone(the only red wine on the list and all the regulars were drinking it) that I think was 12 euro by the bottle. I had a cheese plate -- five great cheese, for about 5 euro also. Oh, and I think the duck and potatoes was about 8 euro. This place was amazing and we skipped dinner that night!!! The food was sensational but the portions were simply too big (glad the article warned us to split an entree).
The other place from the article was Le Petit Prince de Paris near the Pantheon. Again this was an amazing bargain place. The atmosphere, the food, and the service were impeccable. We loved it and will certainly be going back -- in fact probably to all three of these places.
We did make our first visit to the Musee Carnavalet, which we found fascinating. Loved the pictures of Paris life in which we could easily recognize Paris landmark buildings we were familiar with.
We did a long walk along the Canal St. Martin -- the full length. And one day we started from our apartment, walked to Park Monceau, along the Blvds. (that's the day we did lunch at Chartier, through the Marais, then to Bastille, and back to our place on St. Germaine. We literally walked (other than lunch) from about 9 AM to 5 PM, but that was pretty typical of our days.
I had told the guy who owns our apartment that I was only concerned with a refrigerator in the kitchen for orange juice and maybe cheese, but we ended up never even doing that. We only used the kitchen to make ice cubes!!! Why even mess with breakfast when the delightful Paul is only a block away? Great fresh squeezed orange juice, super coffee, and pastries to die for. Although we did go two mornings to one of those little chain "Le Croissanterie(?)"s. We each ordered a pain au chocolate, I ordered a Grand Cafe Creme, and my partner ordered an orange juice (he doesn't do coffee). When the girl put it all on a tray she looked at it and said, "oh, this is an Express Formula, and charged us the Formula price -- 3.20 euro. That's the cheapest breakfast I've ever had in Paris, and although I really hate to admit it, the Pain au Chocolate was just as good (and actually seemed fresher) than the ones at Paul!!
We did end our stay with a final dinner at Chez Julien, an old favorite. This was the most expensive meal of the week and including the three courses each plus a great bottle of '94 Pauillac it amounted to $141 US.
In fact Paris was one of our least expensive stays on the whole trip. My entries into my price journal often simply read: "breakfast, lunch, dinner, apartment". That's all we spent money on many days. Our entertainment was walking. We bought a total of 2 carnets for the metro and busses (that's a total of 20 individual tickets for the two of us) and had 2 tickets left over. So we only did 9 trips total on the Metro in 8 days!!And we never loved Paris more!
Aug 10th, 2003, 04:54 PM
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See what I mean about how long my posts get?
Indytravel, you posted while I was writing. I'm not sure about Leipzig's airport link. We arrived and left by train and did a day trip to Dresden by train from there (nope, didn't do the hygiene museum). They are building a new tunnel with a station right in the center of Leipzig that I think is part of that link however. Really liked Leipzig. We were amazed how crowded it was with young people, even though we knew it was a big university town. Duh. When we left, we discovered the Rolling Stones had done their big concert our last night there. We never seem to know what's going on, but that sure explained the crowds!
Indytravel, you posted while I was writing. I'm not sure about Leipzig's airport link. We arrived and left by train and did a day trip to Dresden by train from there (nope, didn't do the hygiene museum). They are building a new tunnel with a station right in the center of Leipzig that I think is part of that link however. Really liked Leipzig. We were amazed how crowded it was with young people, even though we knew it was a big university town. Duh. When we left, we discovered the Rolling Stones had done their big concert our last night there. We never seem to know what's going on, but that sure explained the crowds!
Aug 11th, 2003, 04:36 AM
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Patrick!
Loving this report! But I'm particularly interested in your impressions of and activities at Weggis, Poschiavo, Gstaad, and Montreux, so if you can cut 'n paste parts of your journal, I'd love it!!
Or if you want, just e-mail it to me.
Thanks!
s
Loving this report! But I'm particularly interested in your impressions of and activities at Weggis, Poschiavo, Gstaad, and Montreux, so if you can cut 'n paste parts of your journal, I'd love it!!
Or if you want, just e-mail it to me.
Thanks!
s
Aug 11th, 2003, 05:21 AM
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Patrick, how wonderful to hear from you. I was starting to wonder where you were. I'm glad your trip went well, and you're certainly right about the location of that apartment in Paris. It would be hard, if not impossible, to do any better. I have confidence that other Fodorites will coax more details out of you (like our Scarlett, who just returned from a week in Montreal, and is obviously still on a French buzz), so I'll just look here for further posts. I'm a bit under the weather, and know this will pick me up a lot. Again, welcome back!!!
BC
BC
Aug 11th, 2003, 12:09 PM
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First, I know Brasserie Italia is new since last year, so not sure of when a phone number might be published. But it is just about four doors down from Blvd. St. Germaine on Rue Seine.
To Lola, actually we like our Covent Garden flat even more -- more warm and homey (sort of a big loft conversion with some wood beams and lots of artwork and light) although it does not have air-conditioning.
About the Swiss cities. We had been to Montreux before and were never really too excited about. We did a splurge hotel there of the Eden au Lac, which was great. We enjoyed our excursions out and loved finally going through Chillon, but otherwise the town itself still doesn't do a lot for me -- we found it surprisingly lacking in neat restaurants, for example.
Loved Gstaad, despite the fact we had our very worst weather there, a pretty fair amount of rain. We stayed in the delightful little Post Hotel Rossli in the center in their largest room with a balcony. Dinner in their little garden across the street was excellent. We did major hiking in the area.
Poschiavo is a charming little town (thanks for the info, Ingo). We did an amazing hike there by taking the train all the way back up to Alp Grun and then spending most of the day hiking back to Poschiavo. We stayed at Hotel Suisse which was very nice, but loved eating on the square at the Albicini more.
Weggis is really nice. The Seehotel Gotthard was wonderful and we had a balcony opening to spectacular views on the lake. The owners and staff there were some of the nicest people we met on our whole trip. Rigi is the one mountain in the area we had never been up and we really covered it with day pass, going back up and down on trains and lifts and hiking to other parts, then back up again.
Saas Fee doesn't have quite the charm that Zermatt has, but we found the views breathtaking and the hikes wonderful. We were very happy with Hotel Beau Site.
Chur was just what we used it for -- a base to do day trips out (four days). The town itself wasn't much, but there are great places around it. We were surprisingly turned off by Davos which seemed not to know what to do with its summer visitors. But we found Arosa a delightful place. From Chur, we even hopped on a train and went up to Rapperswill one night for dinner on the lake.
That Swiss Pass is a great thing and boy did we get our money's worth, hopping on and off trains for day trips and taking boats all around the various lakes, even in the later afternoon or early evening to relax after a day of hiking.
We did the "Chocoate Train" from Gstaad (joining it in Montbovon as it comes from Montreux) which was a great trip, stopping in Gruyere (great Raclette lunch on our own) and visiting both a cheese and chocolate factory, traveling by old luxury pullman cars.
To Lola, actually we like our Covent Garden flat even more -- more warm and homey (sort of a big loft conversion with some wood beams and lots of artwork and light) although it does not have air-conditioning.
About the Swiss cities. We had been to Montreux before and were never really too excited about. We did a splurge hotel there of the Eden au Lac, which was great. We enjoyed our excursions out and loved finally going through Chillon, but otherwise the town itself still doesn't do a lot for me -- we found it surprisingly lacking in neat restaurants, for example.
Loved Gstaad, despite the fact we had our very worst weather there, a pretty fair amount of rain. We stayed in the delightful little Post Hotel Rossli in the center in their largest room with a balcony. Dinner in their little garden across the street was excellent. We did major hiking in the area.
Poschiavo is a charming little town (thanks for the info, Ingo). We did an amazing hike there by taking the train all the way back up to Alp Grun and then spending most of the day hiking back to Poschiavo. We stayed at Hotel Suisse which was very nice, but loved eating on the square at the Albicini more.
Weggis is really nice. The Seehotel Gotthard was wonderful and we had a balcony opening to spectacular views on the lake. The owners and staff there were some of the nicest people we met on our whole trip. Rigi is the one mountain in the area we had never been up and we really covered it with day pass, going back up and down on trains and lifts and hiking to other parts, then back up again.
Saas Fee doesn't have quite the charm that Zermatt has, but we found the views breathtaking and the hikes wonderful. We were very happy with Hotel Beau Site.
Chur was just what we used it for -- a base to do day trips out (four days). The town itself wasn't much, but there are great places around it. We were surprisingly turned off by Davos which seemed not to know what to do with its summer visitors. But we found Arosa a delightful place. From Chur, we even hopped on a train and went up to Rapperswill one night for dinner on the lake.
That Swiss Pass is a great thing and boy did we get our money's worth, hopping on and off trains for day trips and taking boats all around the various lakes, even in the later afternoon or early evening to relax after a day of hiking.
We did the "Chocoate Train" from Gstaad (joining it in Montbovon as it comes from Montreux) which was a great trip, stopping in Gruyere (great Raclette lunch on our own) and visiting both a cheese and chocolate factory, traveling by old luxury pullman cars.
Aug 11th, 2003, 01:07 PM
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Thanks for the information, Patrick. We were looking at using Montreux as a base, but booked in Lausanne instead, fearing that Montreux might be too small for our taste.
Do you recall the name of the town in France where you had your best meals?
Thank you.
Do you recall the name of the town in France where you had your best meals?
Thank you.
Aug 11th, 2003, 01:17 PM
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Thanks Patrick! I'm a longtime fan of Montreux but only because of some personal history there, and I know its limitations (but the promenade . . . !). I wish you had gone up to the Hotel/Restaurant du Pont -- pretty neat place in the old town. But I know, after about two days of nothing but cheese, cheese, and then warm cheese, one's body does . . . rebel.
Thanks for the snippets on Weggis, Gstaad, & Poschiavo. I enjoyed Weggis myself last November but thought it was a bit small for my taste. I spent a few hours in Poschiavo last June and am eager to go back. In fact, I want to do the hike you mention from Alp Grum! Would you recommend the Suisse? I'm considering a stay at Le Prese but I'm not wholly convinced.
In any case, thanks a lot for your report and letting us share your memory lane!
s
Thanks for the snippets on Weggis, Gstaad, & Poschiavo. I enjoyed Weggis myself last November but thought it was a bit small for my taste. I spent a few hours in Poschiavo last June and am eager to go back. In fact, I want to do the hike you mention from Alp Grum! Would you recommend the Suisse? I'm considering a stay at Le Prese but I'm not wholly convinced.
In any case, thanks a lot for your report and letting us share your memory lane!
s
