Friday, June 02, 2006
We've been to four countries since we last posted
Hi there, sorry for the delay in posting. Apparently this here Internet thing has not quite made it to Lucerne, Switzerland. They probably claim to be the most technologically advanced country in the world, just like they claim to have the best army...will we ever know if they don't use either? Here are some posts from our last three days. The connection is kind of slow so I may not get pictures up tonight.
Wednesday, May 31
Bonjour mes amis. Today was a pretty awesome day. The weather sucked for short stretches, but Paris is Paris--no? Donna and I must've walked 20 miles, no exaggeration. We are exhausted...probably about as exhausted as I must've been last night when I spelled ferry, F-A-I-R-Y! Wow, the ladies got a laugh out of that this evening when they were catching up on the blog and my lovely wife pointed it out. We visited The Opera House, Le Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the building where Napoleon is entombed, the Champs D'Elysee, Notre Dame, the Pantheon (not to be confused with the other one), Musee D'Orsy, Rodin's The Thinker and many beautiful bridges along the Seine. I got to hear Donna tell her favorite Paris joke three times.
What are you if you jump in the river in Paris? You are in Seine, i.e. insane. Ha ha ha ha ha
After hitting the major tourist traps at Le Louvre--aka Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo (under construction, big surprise), and the Winged Something or other, we stumbled across some less visited areas of Le Louvre including a representation of Napoleon III's chambers. We found the replicas on our way to visit Donna's favorite painting: The Coronation. The print above our bed does not do the thing justice: it is huge and detailed and awe-inspiring. Next, we headed to the Notre Dame or so was the plan. We walked for about 10 minutes along the Seine in the opposite direction that we should have. We retraced our steps, in the rain, and arrived at our destination just as the clouds parted and the sun made a brief appearance.
Donna got some great shots and then we started looking for a place to refuel. We settled on a cafe that might be called Le Brasseriee; we're guessing Brasserie may mean cafe because it was printed over many of the awnings in Paris.
I had no clue what the waiter said when he greeted us. I did a non-committal nod/shake and said 'Parlez vous..." when he cut me off and said: "Non!" What if I asked "Parlez vous Francais?" This made us a bit nervous, but it all worked out in the end. We did our best to speak French, ordering seis escargots a salate and quiche. To me, the snails tasted like heavily garliced dirt...not the delicious kind with cool whip and pudding, real plant your flowers in it dirt. So Donna had five of them. Apparently her tastes are more refined. We were lucky to only want six because we could only get to 10 in French. If we wanted 12, we would've had to find a creative way to put the one and two together. Un y deux? The waiter was very kind and accommodating and we felt happy to have survived. This experience was Donna's favorite part of Paris.
For the next several hours, we walked around in the rain seeing the sights listed above.
I took advantage of the padded seats at the top of the Arc de Triomphe by taking a three minute catnap. Donna and I caught up with Bonny and Steph outside the Musee D'Orsy a little after 6.
We were all incredibly exhausted and ready to sit down to eat. Finding a place was not as easy as we'd hoped. The first place we settled on closed their kitchen just as we went in. The second place seemed sketchy and I wish they would have closed their kitchen before we got our food. I ordered saucisse and frites, translated on the menu as sausage and french fries. My plate came and, yeah, there were fries, but my saucisses were two boiled hot dogs minus a bun. Yuck. Donna ordered ham and frites and got what looked like deli meat sliced into neat thin, bacon-like strips. Bonny had an omelette and Steph had a salad; they were pleased with their choices and amused by mine. We hit the streets to make our way back to the hotel. On the way, we made a pit stop for crepes. I've got to admit I was a bit disappointed, but I don't think we found the best vendor.
On the metro, Steph had a fine encounter with a French man. We were standing holding onto the poles in the subway when the man stood up, presumably because his stop was next. He reached to grab the same pole as Steph and as he did made some solid contact with Steph's bosom. We all saw it happen and it wasn't a big deal until we noticed the extended eye contact he was holding, as if he was saying, "Yeah, I touched your bosom, eh. Consider yourself blessed." Once he exited, we had a good laugh.
Back at the hotel, we packed up our stuff and got ready to board the coach early to head to Switzerland.
Thursday, June 1
Happy Birthday Jake. Today was pretty uneventful; most of our day was spent on the coach riding thru France to Switzerland. Bonny and Steph found ways to stay entertained during our stops at rest stops.
The weather was cold and rainy and the views were not terribly interesting. Most of the drive was thru rural areas of farmland and the like. Once in Lucerne, we got off the bus and walked the city in about an hour. It is quite small. The two major sites were a chapel bridge and a carving of a lion that represented the involvement of the Swiss Military in the French revolution.
Perhaps the tour manager was keeping us from seeing our digs for the night as long as she could. Our curiosities were all piqued because the hotel was a jail as recent as eight years ago. Good for the hotel, they didn't seem to have to do much renovation to "convert" the jail into a "hotel". For a jail, it might be considered comfortable...for a hotel, not so much.
But hey, we're not touring hotels in Europe, we're touring the cities. Sleeping in a cement walled dungeon for a night wasn't so bad. I just wish they had Internet! In the evening, we had a cruise on Lake Lucerne. The water is beautiful, exceptionally clean and surrounded by nice greenery. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and miserable so we could not see much on the banks.
Even so, the captain of our ferry made the trip interesting with his colorful commentary. We headed back to jail, did not pass go, did not collect 200 Franks and prepared for another early start and day of travel.
Friday, June 2
Gutentag. Hello from Munich, a rebuilt city that I found to be quite enjoyable and endearing. The Germans have all been very friendly, tons of people are out and about, and the city is clean and seemingly easy to navigate. We did not arrive until close to 5 after driving thru Switzerland, stopping off in Liechtenstein for lunch,
and passing thru Austria. I feel more worldly now that I have more than just US and Jamaica stamps in my passport.
Before leaving for Munich, we spent the morning near Mt Stanserhornbahn in Switzerland.
Donna did not have it in her to take the cog railway up to the top of the mountain so we wondered about in the small village with an Aussie couple. We started the day in the village with a hot chocolate at a cafe. Our waitress only spoke Swiss German, so we felt fortunate to communicate our hot chocolate and latte orders correctly. It is a lot more difficult being a foreigner in a foreign land without any knowledge of the local language than I expected it would be. We've survived, but I've definitely gained some perspective whatever that over-used cliche means.
Bonny at the top of the mountain
Our view at the bottom of the mountain
Tonight we had about an hour in Munich to spend before going to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus.
Glockenspiel
Donna got some Birkenstocks for 50 Euro and we checked out the pre-World Cup gear that is on sale. I don't think it is possible to get more excited about the world Cup, but if it was it happened tonight. The Hofbrauhaus was insane. Lots of crazy tourists drinking liters of beer and singing and shouting and cheersing. Donna and I sat with four members of our tour group that we had not talked with so it was good to get to know them.
After polishing off our liters, we headed back to our hotel which is a step or four up from the jail. We're only here for one night. Tomorrow we are headed to Venice, with stops in Austria and Verona (home of Romeon & Juliet). Our bodies are still quite sore from the 20+ miles of walking in Paris, so another few hours on the coach won't be so bad.
A new word that has entered my vocabulary is blogworthy. To be sure, there are countless events that Donna, Bonny, Steph or I have labeled as blogworthy that have not made it into the blog. Writing these entries and posting the photos and then sharing them with you has helped us recapture the joy we've so recently experienced. We are having an awesome time and are so glad we have 16 more days! We've loved to see your comments and hope they keep coming. If you have been reading the blog and haven't posted a comment, please do or send me an email just so I know who is reading. Donna helped me with these entries, but she has some stories she'd like to share on her own. I think the liter of beer she consumed prevented her from posting them tonight. We'll get them up soon. We miss you and are glad you are keeping up with us. Have a great weekend.
God's Peace,
Andrew
Wednesday, May 31
Bonjour mes amis. Today was a pretty awesome day. The weather sucked for short stretches, but Paris is Paris--no? Donna and I must've walked 20 miles, no exaggeration. We are exhausted...probably about as exhausted as I must've been last night when I spelled ferry, F-A-I-R-Y! Wow, the ladies got a laugh out of that this evening when they were catching up on the blog and my lovely wife pointed it out. We visited The Opera House, Le Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the building where Napoleon is entombed, the Champs D'Elysee, Notre Dame, the Pantheon (not to be confused with the other one), Musee D'Orsy, Rodin's The Thinker and many beautiful bridges along the Seine. I got to hear Donna tell her favorite Paris joke three times.
What are you if you jump in the river in Paris? You are in Seine, i.e. insane. Ha ha ha ha ha
After hitting the major tourist traps at Le Louvre--aka Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo (under construction, big surprise), and the Winged Something or other, we stumbled across some less visited areas of Le Louvre including a representation of Napoleon III's chambers. We found the replicas on our way to visit Donna's favorite painting: The Coronation. The print above our bed does not do the thing justice: it is huge and detailed and awe-inspiring. Next, we headed to the Notre Dame or so was the plan. We walked for about 10 minutes along the Seine in the opposite direction that we should have. We retraced our steps, in the rain, and arrived at our destination just as the clouds parted and the sun made a brief appearance.
Donna got some great shots and then we started looking for a place to refuel. We settled on a cafe that might be called Le Brasseriee; we're guessing Brasserie may mean cafe because it was printed over many of the awnings in Paris.
I had no clue what the waiter said when he greeted us. I did a non-committal nod/shake and said 'Parlez vous..." when he cut me off and said: "Non!" What if I asked "Parlez vous Francais?" This made us a bit nervous, but it all worked out in the end. We did our best to speak French, ordering seis escargots a salate and quiche. To me, the snails tasted like heavily garliced dirt...not the delicious kind with cool whip and pudding, real plant your flowers in it dirt. So Donna had five of them. Apparently her tastes are more refined. We were lucky to only want six because we could only get to 10 in French. If we wanted 12, we would've had to find a creative way to put the one and two together. Un y deux? The waiter was very kind and accommodating and we felt happy to have survived. This experience was Donna's favorite part of Paris.
For the next several hours, we walked around in the rain seeing the sights listed above.
I took advantage of the padded seats at the top of the Arc de Triomphe by taking a three minute catnap. Donna and I caught up with Bonny and Steph outside the Musee D'Orsy a little after 6.
We were all incredibly exhausted and ready to sit down to eat. Finding a place was not as easy as we'd hoped. The first place we settled on closed their kitchen just as we went in. The second place seemed sketchy and I wish they would have closed their kitchen before we got our food. I ordered saucisse and frites, translated on the menu as sausage and french fries. My plate came and, yeah, there were fries, but my saucisses were two boiled hot dogs minus a bun. Yuck. Donna ordered ham and frites and got what looked like deli meat sliced into neat thin, bacon-like strips. Bonny had an omelette and Steph had a salad; they were pleased with their choices and amused by mine. We hit the streets to make our way back to the hotel. On the way, we made a pit stop for crepes. I've got to admit I was a bit disappointed, but I don't think we found the best vendor.
On the metro, Steph had a fine encounter with a French man. We were standing holding onto the poles in the subway when the man stood up, presumably because his stop was next. He reached to grab the same pole as Steph and as he did made some solid contact with Steph's bosom. We all saw it happen and it wasn't a big deal until we noticed the extended eye contact he was holding, as if he was saying, "Yeah, I touched your bosom, eh. Consider yourself blessed." Once he exited, we had a good laugh.
Back at the hotel, we packed up our stuff and got ready to board the coach early to head to Switzerland.
Thursday, June 1
Happy Birthday Jake. Today was pretty uneventful; most of our day was spent on the coach riding thru France to Switzerland. Bonny and Steph found ways to stay entertained during our stops at rest stops.
The weather was cold and rainy and the views were not terribly interesting. Most of the drive was thru rural areas of farmland and the like. Once in Lucerne, we got off the bus and walked the city in about an hour. It is quite small. The two major sites were a chapel bridge and a carving of a lion that represented the involvement of the Swiss Military in the French revolution.
Perhaps the tour manager was keeping us from seeing our digs for the night as long as she could. Our curiosities were all piqued because the hotel was a jail as recent as eight years ago. Good for the hotel, they didn't seem to have to do much renovation to "convert" the jail into a "hotel". For a jail, it might be considered comfortable...for a hotel, not so much.
But hey, we're not touring hotels in Europe, we're touring the cities. Sleeping in a cement walled dungeon for a night wasn't so bad. I just wish they had Internet! In the evening, we had a cruise on Lake Lucerne. The water is beautiful, exceptionally clean and surrounded by nice greenery. Unfortunately the weather was rainy and miserable so we could not see much on the banks.
Even so, the captain of our ferry made the trip interesting with his colorful commentary. We headed back to jail, did not pass go, did not collect 200 Franks and prepared for another early start and day of travel.
Friday, June 2
Gutentag. Hello from Munich, a rebuilt city that I found to be quite enjoyable and endearing. The Germans have all been very friendly, tons of people are out and about, and the city is clean and seemingly easy to navigate. We did not arrive until close to 5 after driving thru Switzerland, stopping off in Liechtenstein for lunch,
and passing thru Austria. I feel more worldly now that I have more than just US and Jamaica stamps in my passport.
Before leaving for Munich, we spent the morning near Mt Stanserhornbahn in Switzerland.
Donna did not have it in her to take the cog railway up to the top of the mountain so we wondered about in the small village with an Aussie couple. We started the day in the village with a hot chocolate at a cafe. Our waitress only spoke Swiss German, so we felt fortunate to communicate our hot chocolate and latte orders correctly. It is a lot more difficult being a foreigner in a foreign land without any knowledge of the local language than I expected it would be. We've survived, but I've definitely gained some perspective whatever that over-used cliche means.
Bonny at the top of the mountain
Our view at the bottom of the mountain
Tonight we had about an hour in Munich to spend before going to dinner at the Hofbrauhaus.
GlockenspielDonna got some Birkenstocks for 50 Euro and we checked out the pre-World Cup gear that is on sale. I don't think it is possible to get more excited about the world Cup, but if it was it happened tonight. The Hofbrauhaus was insane. Lots of crazy tourists drinking liters of beer and singing and shouting and cheersing. Donna and I sat with four members of our tour group that we had not talked with so it was good to get to know them.
After polishing off our liters, we headed back to our hotel which is a step or four up from the jail. We're only here for one night. Tomorrow we are headed to Venice, with stops in Austria and Verona (home of Romeon & Juliet). Our bodies are still quite sore from the 20+ miles of walking in Paris, so another few hours on the coach won't be so bad.
A new word that has entered my vocabulary is blogworthy. To be sure, there are countless events that Donna, Bonny, Steph or I have labeled as blogworthy that have not made it into the blog. Writing these entries and posting the photos and then sharing them with you has helped us recapture the joy we've so recently experienced. We are having an awesome time and are so glad we have 16 more days! We've loved to see your comments and hope they keep coming. If you have been reading the blog and haven't posted a comment, please do or send me an email just so I know who is reading. Donna helped me with these entries, but she has some stories she'd like to share on her own. I think the liter of beer she consumed prevented her from posting them tonight. We'll get them up soon. We miss you and are glad you are keeping up with us. Have a great weekend.
God's Peace,
Andrew
Andrew 6:40 PM
2 Comments:
Um, your sister pointed out the ferry misspelling as well. In a comment. A few days ago. Just thought I'd mention it.
Glad to hear your safe from the Paris riots. I'm still enjoying reading about your adventures. Stay safe!
Glad to hear your safe from the Paris riots. I'm still enjoying reading about your adventures. Stay safe!
So much for French cuisine: Garlic dirt, boiled hotdogs and sub-par crepes... Did Donna at least get a good creme brulee?
Glad you all are having a good time; I enjoy reading about your trip. May you have perfect weather the rest of the way!
Glad you all are having a good time; I enjoy reading about your trip. May you have perfect weather the rest of the way!