C’est Tout

Posted on June 29, 2019 1 Comment

Well, that’s it. Hard to summarize such an emotional, physical, and sometimes spiritual year long trip, but we’ll try:

Favorite places:

David: Galapagos, Tibet and Peru.

Dylan: Ireland, New Zealand, Japan!

Pauline: Sri Lanka, Tibet, Galapagos, Vietnam

Gwyneth: Galapagos and New Zealand

Least favorite places:

David: Phnom Penh.

Dylan: Rome (too crowded+allergies)

Pauline: Ubud, Bali

Gwyneth: Quito, Ecuador since the streets were narrow and had no sidewalks.

Favorite Foods:

David: sushi from a restaurant in the Tokyo fish market. Street dessert tacos in Bangkok.

Dylan: sushi

Pauline: Babas kitchen hcmc, Banh mi Hoi An,

Bali – all the food

Gwyneth: Jam rolls fresh from the bakery in the Galapagos, mango passion fruit shakes in China, pizza in Rome, and baguettes and crossiants in FrancE. Toasted ham and cheese sandwiches in Hanoi.

Favorite experiences:

David: sunset at Tibet Everest base camp.

Dylan: Oh boy… Luge, sandboarding, fish market, Rope course Bali, eurocamp

Pauline: safari park, Sri Lanka

Gwyneth: diving in Bali, horse riding in Thailand

Scariest moments:

David: driving rental car down bad and steep dirt road near Neta Waterfalls in Greece. Getting my leg stuck in a ropes course zip line.

Dylan: When our hotel tried to cancel us in china

Pauline: Gwyneth sick in Cusco, Dylan sick in Lhasa

Gwyneth: diving in Bali. When I had to take off my mask, and when I was practicing clearing my mask, and he filled it up all the way when he said he would only do it half full.

Favorite museums:

David: Utah beach, Musee D’Orsay, Vatican, Cairo Museum.

Dylan: Snake museum in Bangkok after a snake show (Red Cross teaching hospital).

Pauline: Musée D’Orsay, peace Park Hiroshima

Gwyneth: the boat museum next to the Great Pyramid, Cairo

Favorite Beach:

David: Mrissa Beach, Sri Lanka.

Dylan: Bogieboarding beach in Sri Lanka (Mrissa)

Pauline: Mirissa Sri Lanka, klong Kong Koh Lanta

Gwyneth: Railay Beach and caves you could swim to.

Best accommodation:

David: co-workers apartment in Singapore.

Dylan: Nanny’s house in Ireland

Pauline: Bratislava, La Spezia

Gwyneth: Sounio, Greece near Poseidon’s temple

Worst accommodation:

David: Lake Taupo motor lodge with single file bunk beds!

Dylan: Amed, Bali because of the bugs!

Pauline: Phnom Phen

Gwyneth: Probably the one in New Zealand that dad picked, and the ones in Vietnam, Tibet, and Nepal

Most emotional place to visit:

David: S21 – Khmer Rouge prison in Phnom Penh, Omaha beach – Normandy France.

Dylan: D-day beaches

Pauline: Tibet, Cambodia, Auschwitz

Gwyneth: Probably New Zealand. I just felt so at home there and I have no idea why.

Favorite animal to see in the wild:

David: without a doubt, whale shark.

Dylan: blue penguins coming ashore in New Zealand

Pauline: blue footed boobies and giant tortoises in Galapagos, elephants in Sri Lanka

Gwyneth: Monkeys in Ubud and Giant tortoises in Galapagos.

Until next time!

Paris

Posted on June 28, 2019June 28, 2019 Leave a comment

The drive to CDG was fairly painless. We checked out of our mobile home holiday camp around 8am and began the 4 hour drive. Luckily we found gazole (diesel en français) close to the camp as it was .20+ cent cheaper than on the motorway. We never did figure out why the rest stops on the motorway charged that much more than the stations in towns. A mystery to solve in the future!

We almost drove into the ring road of Paris in order to get to CDG and the roads got narrow and very busy. We stopped at another station to top up close to the airport near Ikea, and that was a harrowing experience trying to drive round a large multiple round about parking lot system looking for the hidden petrol station! From there, we drove into the short term garage attached to Terminal 1 and dropped the car. CDG is pretty old at this point, but the garages afford great views of the airplane stands as you park your car. We got a taxi after almost falling for the “this way to the official taxi” tout, and took a fixed price (50 euro) ride into central Paris.

Our apartment is in the 4th arrondisement. An arondisement is a section of Paris, there are around 20 of them in total. The lower the number the closest it is to Norte Dame and the Seine. The 4th is also known as Le Marais, which in French means marshes. It’s called that as it used to be marshland and one of the Kings’ drained it to be used for houses.

We met our host David and his son Antoine. He helped us print out our World Cup tickets saving us a bunch of running around. He then packed up and left, which was a bit different than other Airbnb’s we’ve rented. Most haven’t been owner-occupied. The plus side is that this one is extremely well equipped! We splurged a bit on our last stop and rented a bigger place with individual space for all of us. Dylan has Antoine’s room, Gwyneth has a single bed in the living room, and we have a bed around the corner from the 2nd living area. The apartment is on the ground and .5 floor of a 300 year old building and so the living room exposed beams above our heads are more like trees. It’s nice to have space again!

Our first night, Saturday June 15th, Pauline and I walked up the river all the way to the Louvre, around 30 minutes away. We also had the chance to see the damage caused to Norte Dame by the fire. At first only the missing roof and spire are evident, but after looking more closely you can see that all the main windows are covered up with clear tarps – the stained glass missing. I’m not sure if a bunch of windows were lost or maybe removed already for cleaning and repair? It was very sad to see.

We walked over to the Sunday market at the Bastille and spent a good hour walking the stalls. We ended up buying some cannelé which are like form pressed heavy custard glutinous things. They were recommended on some web site or another. They weren’t very nice! I mean they were cooked well, we just don’t like the taste and texture of the dessert! We bought a jar of fig jam as we missed Oriana’s while in Normandy, and a few baguettes. They were handing out free reusable shopping bags that said “Paris markets” on them and so we took two of them to use here and back home.

On Sunday afternoon, after a delicious picnic on the edge of the Seine, we worked our way over to Parc des Princes, which is where the US was playing Chile in the group stage of the women’s soccer World Cup. We got there very early and had brought sandwiches from the apartment to eat onsite as the game started at 6pm. Luckily it wasn’t too hot for the game. They played Chile, and while the US was in control for a lot of the game, Chile did have a few excellent chances. Of course the US scored all three goals at the end farthest away from us, and then hit the crossbar and uprights like 2-3 times right in front of us in the second half.

We decided to wait for the players to come out to their buses. Chile trickled our first and each and every player went over and took selfies with the fans, signed autographs and were well met by a trumpeter and lots of singing. We waited another hour (2 hours in total) for the US players. When they came out they waved quickly to the hundreds of fans waiting, boarded the bus and left. No photos, no autographs, and most didn’t even wave to the crowd from the bus – they were heads down on their screens. Sad.

On Monday, Dylan and I walked up to the Tuileries garden via Centre Pompidou. Pompidou is sort of like an inside out exhibition space. It’s famous as all of the plumbing, HVAC, and water pipes are color coded and outside the main shell of the building. Which makes it interesting to photographers!

The playground in the Tuileries was too small for Dylan. I guess he’s grown a bit from when we were here 8 years ago! He towered over the little kids. We were also looking for the wooden boats apparently you can rent to sail on the reflecting pool. None were to be found though.

On Tuesday the 18th, we rented Lime scooters and scooted up to the Eiffel Tower. Paris has pedestrianized the river front road that runs along the Seine. There is now a road running most of the way from where we are south of Norte Dame all the way to the tower. Or so we thought. It turns out that you have to go up to the Main Street level for parts of it near Place de la Concorde. We had fun and it took around 20 to 25 minutes to get there. We walked around the tower for an hour, it was hot and muggy, so we found a spot in the shade and sat down for a while. That night, Pauline and I went out on our nightly walk to Place des Vosges. I had never been to Place des Vosges before, but it’s a huge square with matching mansions on all four sides. The garden in the middle is around 100-150 meters on a side with those Paris style square cut leafy trees in rows.

On Wednesday, we saved our energy in the morning, and went to a pre-booked 4:30 time slot at the Louvre. We debated getting a Paris Museum Pass, and in the end, got them, but only after buying single day tickets to the Louvre. We still got our monies worth out of the Passes though that we ended up buying, despite going to the Louvre that day.

We entered around 4:00pm via the arched entry under Rue de Rivoli, away from the long security line at the pyramid and by the metro. We were lucky as I asked a guard if we could go in near the group line and he said yes. We walked almost right to the front of the security queue. We were then in and the line to check tickets was only a few seconds long. Quick! We didn’t realize this at the time, but there are three entrances to the Louvre, 1 per wing: Sully, Denon, and Richelieu. We started in Sully and we should have been in Denon, in order to follow Rick Steve’s audio guide. These guides help keep the kids entertained during the long march through the museum. And they can switch off and listen to music when they get bored, instead of pestering us. The kids lasted 3 hours, and took in the highlights of the museum.

On Thursday we had to get up fairly early, well early for the teens, as we had pre-booked the Vincent Van Gogh digital art experience. We had around a 25 minute walk to get there, but found a bakery along the way for energy via pain au chocolates and muffins. The Van Gogh experience was immersive in that they projected his art over every inch of the floor and walls of the 100-150 foot long space while music played. They also chopped up his art in a way that went along with the music. The art was blended together somehow and so each painting seemed to fill the whole space and not really repeat. It was interesting from that perspective how they put it together. Not as stunning as seeing the art in person, but still cool.

That afternoon Pauline and I walked miles and miles to the very nice shops on Saint Honoré. We were looking for chocolatiers and we found them! We also found a graff diamond store (wow) and loads of other shops that had bespoke suited security guards outside. We ended up at Decathalon, a large outdoor products retailer near Madeline.

On Friday, we activated the 4 day Museum Passes we had bought for 62 euros for adults (under 26 are free) by getting to the Musee D’Orsay right at opening time. We got in quick, and made our way to the Van Goghs and had the room to ourselves! There wasn’t even a security guard! We had Rick Steve’s along with us again, and that helped. I was content to just get lost in all the Monets this museum has on show. My taste in art has definitely changed over the decades. I used to love the swirls of Van Gogh, but now I find myself completely drawn into and absorbed by the Monet’s. Luckily for me, they have 50-80 of his paintings there!

That afternoon the kids and Pauline were tired and so I walked back to the Louvre by myself and spent a few hours in it. I went to Mesopotamia and then the northern school of painting. From there I went to French, Spanish and Italian landscapes before finishing with the Mona Lisa again. I’m really not sure why that painting is as famous as it is, there are dozens more interesting and in my opinion, engaging.

We all went out that night, midsummer’s night, to the river. There was live music all over Paris, but we struggled to find something good. In the end we settled for a house music playing DJ with an LED-syncopated fire breathing train. It was hot again and so we retired fairly early, around 11:30pm.

Couldn’t see the camera it was so bright

We got a fairly early start on Saturday morning, day 2 of our four day Paris pass. We walked up to the Picasso museum which was nearby to our apartment. The Picasso museum is nicely AC’d, one of the few in Paris by the way, and so it was nice to walk around there for a while. Paris still has very little AC and I think it’s becoming a bit of a crisis for them. There are a lot of deaths each year due to the lack of decent AC during heat waves. The worst part is the humidity! The temps have been edging up the whole time we have been here and there’s been little relief. Most of the metro trains are dank and hot, and all restaurants are AC free. Sigh.

Photoshop fun with arc de triumph staircase

The Picasso museum is worth visiting as there are good examples of his work, both in paintings and drawings. Calder’s sculptures were also on display so they were nice to look at. After the museum we visited Nicolas Flamel’s house (a fictional and real character in Harry Potter), followed up by Stohrer patisserie. This is the oldest patisserie in Paris and it was worth it. We had pain au chocolates that were much flakier than any others I’ve ever had, eclairs, and macarons! So yummy! We also visited the arts and science museum which had some cool old animatronics, and Foucaults original pendulum (more on that later). We finished the afternoon at Centre Pompidou mainly to see the view of Paris from the top floor, but it was too hot inside the hamster style escalators and roof area to stay, so we left rather quickly.

We walked back to the apartment and had a light dinner, before heading back out to climb the Arc De Triumph. I have never been to the top before and it was well worth it! You have to climb up a 200-300 steps spiral staircase to get to the top, but amazing views await. We were there just before sunset and the clouds and sun setting over the new city were special. We took some time lapses of all the cars moving down the Champs Elyseé like ants.

On Sunday the 23rd we arrived at the Palais du Justice just as Sainte Chapelle opened, at 9:30am. Sainte Chappelle never disappoints. The way it is laid out just surprises you every time. You enter on the ground floor under the chapel and while the small glass, columns and wall coverings are nice, they don’t hold a candle to the chapel itself. You walk up a small spiral staircase into a chapel that is lined with stained glass. Fifteen main windows each with 4-5 vertical columns of glass inside them surround the nave and apse. They rise around 40-50 feet making it one of the best examples of medieval stained glass in the world. It leaves you speechless to think through all the work that must have gone into it in the 1200’s!

From there we walked over to the Musee de Cluny. I have never visited it before but if you like the Middle Ages don’t miss it! It has some incredible gold and ivory religious artifacts that are stunning. Also not to be missed are the tapestries of the Lady and the Unicorn. I never knew that’s where these tapestries are, and they are quite amazing to see. Nicholas Flamel is buried here but that area was closed.

The last stop for the kids on Sunday was the Pantheon. We walked to it from Cluny. It’s a newer building with a huge dome. Suspended from that dome is a replica of Foucaults pendulum as this is where he conducted his now famous experiment of show and tell. From it hung an 67 meter long wire with a 28kg ball (62 pounds). It was quite amazing to see. We looked at it before going down to the crypts and it was crossing 10.75 or so. When we came back later it was over 11! This showed how the earth rotated under the pendulum and was quite cool to see in person! The crypts were cool literally, but not so much figuratively. Voltaire and Hugo were nice to see but unless you are a student of French history or physics I’m not sure it’s worth visiting the Pantheon.

Give me your bbq chicken and no one dies!

We dropped the kids back at the apartment, had baguette sandwiches (our goto crowd pleaser), and then headed back out to the Musee D’Orsay sans kids. Pauline and I got there around 3:30 and although it was very crowded it was nice to be able to see all the main paintings again. On Sunday night we met up with Valencia, our friend from home and Dylan’s piano teacher, and walked around the river with her for a few hours. It was great to catch up with a friend from home and hear about her upcoming travels through France this month.

The kids were completely museum’d out by Monday and so we didn’t push it. Pauline and I left early and got to the Louvre at 9:15. It was swamped! Luckily we got into the priority security line as no one was checking the lines. After a few minutes we were in and headed to Mesopotamia! We spent 45 minutes there before we saw another tourist! Amazing! Museums can be sublime or dreadful experiences.

From Mesopotamia we went up to see the apartments preserved from Napoleons’ time. Quite ornate and well preserved. Ostentatious obviously, and I’m surprised he was let away with that given how much the populace disliked monarchist ideologies and the rich.

After about 2 hours there and a lovely coffee from Cafe Richlieu (Angelina Paris), we headed to the Tuileries and l’Orangerie. Luckily it had AC and we were able to see the second watercolors room as it had been closed on our first visit. I was much more impressed with the Monets in the Orsay. We took the metro across the river to find the Delacroix museum as he had done some very impressive paintings. The museum is in his old painters studio and house. It’s tiny, and only has a few of his paintings there. His studio was the best part, which overlooks a nice small back garden. If you’re in the area and have the Museum Pass I would visit, if not, it’s probably not worth going to.

Tuesday the 25th was a mix of a day. Pauline spent time prepping a picnic for that night while we waited for our friends from the trip, Kristi and Ian, to arrive in Paris. Dylan and I both got haircuts from Le Bon Barbier across the street in Rue Saint Paul. He did a great job, second only to the haircut I had in Chiang Mai.

The Walkers arrived around 6pm and we then headed out, picnic in hand, to the Seine. We had gone for many walks along it, and so settled into an area with a small playground for the kids. It was hot, way too hot! We made the best of it but no one was having a good time. There were Parisien teens running around behind us throwing water everywhere and we got hit a few times. We didn’t mind too much, but Charlie, who is 3, wasn’t very happy when he got soaked accidentally! After dinner we came back to the apartment with their daughter Lara who spent the night at our apartment. After dumping the leftovers back at our house, we took the teens to Trocadéro to see the Eiffel Tower light show. We got there at 9:50 hoping for a 10pm show. The sun was only just setting and so we had to wait until 11pm before it twinkled! It was hot and there were people splashing around in the Trocadéro’ fountains well past when we left at 11:10pm. Late night for us, but luckily the kids settled in quickly when we got back and weren’t loud!

We woke up around 9:00am on Wednesday morning to what was supposed to be the hottest day of the heat wave. They were expecting 97 degrees which felt like 100 and something. Crazy with no relief! We got pain au chocolates and baguettes for breakfast from our local place, Miss Manon, and got a late start. After breakfast we took Lara over to see Nicolas Flamel’s house as she LOVES Harry Potter. We then had to find a “cool room” as we were melting. Luckily the Tourist Board office was close and their AC was magical. We had baguette sandwiches again for lunch before Pauline and Gwyneth took Lara to meet her parents at the Arc De Triumph. After the Arc, they all came back to our place for dinner and we sat and drank almost two bottles of wine and had good chats about re-entry and everything else! Lara spent the night again which was cool.

On Thursday, our last full day of the trip, we got up around 9am and had our normal breakfast of pain au chocolates, cereal or baguettes. We then took the metro up to Pont Neuf which is where we caught the Vedettes de Pont Neuf, our boat cruise on the Seine. It was hot by the time we got there at 10am but they had shade we could wait in until we departed at 10:30. The cruise was fun and we went all the way up to the Eiffel Tower and back down around both isle’s in Paris along the Seine. Even though we had been to all the museums and locations the cruise went by, it was neat to see them from the river. I particularly liked looking at all the mansions that line both banks, crazy how nice and I assume very expensive they are!

From the cruise we went back to our apartment with everyone to eat leftovers and make grilled sandwiches. Yum! After lunch I had a surprise for the older kids. I had picked up a flyer at the tourist board for a virtual jet pack experience over Paris. We metro’d up to Opera and checked in. Pauline went out to Starbucks and found an amazing one in an old building that had Palace style ceilings. We went downstairs in a nicely air conditioned room and watched a quick video before heading to the “flight” room to step into our jet packs and don our HTC Hive VR goggles. We took off and flew over all the main sites in Paris for 15 minutes, very cool!

We then headed back to our apartment and said our goodbyes to the Walkers. We knew we’d see them again in San Jose in August, so it was a see you soon goodbye. We cooled down for a bit and then headed out to a pizza dinner at Pizza Momo close by. It was nice and we ended up playing our “trip memory” game for an hour. We did this after our last trip to keep it alive for 6 months after we returned. It goes like this: look at the person to your right, name a city from the trip, and then that person has to come up with a memory – any memory – from that city. Then that person turns to their right and asks the next person a city. Simple but helps us to remember all the things we’ve done over the year.

We even splurged and had some dessert and so had to go for a walk down the Seine afterwards. We lasted about 30 minutes in the 28 degree heat (82F) at 10pm before calling it. We started packing for the last time (bittersweet) and then went to bed. I woke up very early, around 5:45am, and wasn’t able to go to back to sleep. We walked down to the bakery one last time to get pain au chocolates, and a chocolate swirl. We also went to Starbucks to get coffees to take away. After breakfast it took around 2 hours to finish packing, re-arranging, and to tidy up the apartment.

We loaded up with 1-2 extra bags, and headed to the subway. We went slow and stuck to the shade and surprisingly stayed fairly cool. After 2 stops on metro, we changed to get the RER B our to CDG hotel. Luckily that train had good AC!

We are now settled into our hotel for the last few hours before heading home tomorrow. My next post will be a retrospective but I’m not sure when I’ll get it posted!

Normandy and camp

Posted on June 17, 2019 Leave a comment

We left our apartment in Cheverny around 10am to drive most of the way up to Normandy. We wanted to try and make a stop or two before arriving at my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Oriana’s house which is near the western coast, 45 minutes south of Cherbourg.

Utah beach museum, note O’Brien which is in SF

We strategically stopped at IKEA, had an overpriced meatball lunch and then bought a sheet set. The camp we were going to in Brittany rented sheets but the rental sheets were about twice the price of buying sheets! From IKEA in Caen, we realized we were only 20-30 minutes from Omaha beach. We decided to detour there and amazingly found a parking spot right in front of the museum at 4pm.

This guy sure knows how to park a tank! Haha

It was packed with people and cars, and every second or third vehicle was a WWII military Jeep or transport. People were dressed up in military uniforms and the 101st Airborne, from the US Military, were everywhere. I think they were there to do a parachute jump the next day.

We walked down to the beach after buying some American flags. We bought flags because we just bought tickets to the women’s World Cup soccer match – USA vs Chile in Paris. The street you walk down to get to the beach is named Liberation Street, and when you get down to the beach, it became quite emotional. There are two monuments to those that perished 75 years ago, and the one in the sand is quite moving.

We walked down to the landing area where parachutists were going to be landing in 30 minutes and waited. Around 5:10 we looked up and saw a C47 Dakota flying by and little black dots leaping from it. More than 100 jumpers came and landed on the beach, but we stopped watching after the first 10 or so as we were due at Jeff and O’s by 6:30 to 7.

We were very close to the American Cemetery at Omaha and so I made the executive decision to try and go see it for 5 minutes. This turned out to be a bad idea as we got stuck in bumper to bumper non moving traffic just past the round about to it! After waiting about 20 minutes and only moving a hundred meters or so, we gave up, turned the car around carefully on the small road and left for Jeff’s.

After our memory kicked in as to which house was there’s (only 1 drive by!), we found the house and it was great to see them both again after nearly 8 years. We had last visited in 2011 and so it was nice to catch up. After a wonderful bbq and homemade pie for dessert we turned in, even though it wasn’t really dark at 10:30!

For the actual anniversary on June 6th, we couldn’t go near most of the beaches as world leaders were there and they had setup an exclusion zone surrounding all but Utah beach. So we headed to Utah late morning, and again our luck held. We found a spot about as close as we could have gotten to the museum and memorial. The museum at Utah was very well put together, with a good mix of artifacts and history. They had a flag from one of the ships that participated, a bomber, and a real landing craft. It was informative and the teens even seemed to learn a few things / not get too bored too quickly!

After the museum we bought sausages and chips from Le Roosevelt bar who had an outdoor bbq stand setup for the crowds. The wait was quite long but we needed something to hold us over. There was a commemoration at 2pm that we watched. A commander of US forces gave a nice speech and there were about 10 veterans on stage as well.

Flag that flew on USS Tuscaloosa on d day

We then explored some of the German bunkers that are still in place around the beaches. After that we walked down the dunes to the actual beach and talked about what it must have been like to land here in the early hours of June 6th, with the weather probably similar to what we were experiencing.

On Friday June 7th we decided to head to Lessay airfield to try and see planes. Unfortunately it was a bit of a bust as there were only 4-5 WWII planes there. We did get to see a C47 on the ground though and so that was cool.

Digging for dinner spuds – Jeff and O’s garden

After that we headed to Sainte Mere Eglise to see the church and replica camp that had been setup. It was a mixed weather day, meaning it blew a gale and was pretty rainy for most of it. The camp here was really well put together with lots of tanks and tracked vehicles around. The kids, however, were in need of a diversion though. So when it rained we headed to the amusements that had been setup next to the camp. There they had around 30-40 minutes of bumper car fun, before going on the bungy cord trampolines that allow you to jump really high. We couldn’t stay too late as we had booked in to Le Bac a Sable to take Jeff and Oriana out to dinner.

We really enjoy the meals there as they are known for their mussels and fries! Moules et frites! Yum! They deliver the mussels in humongous bowls that must contain 100 or more mussels in a yummy sauce.

On Saturday, our last day in Normandy, we drove up to Carentan to go see Camp Arizona. This was the best of all the camps we saw as it had tons of period dressed people, as well as foxholes and babies pushed in old prams. They even had a market area with a bunch of vendors selling everything from military surplus parts to WWII era dresses. After Carentan, we drove to Ecauseville, and a dirigible hangar, where there was supposed to be hundreds of people jumping from C47’s using round canopies. These are the old style chutes they used in WWII before they invented the square and rectangular chutes. The place was packed! We parked in a field nearby and then went to watch a guy from Louisiana packing a round chute in the hangar. I got to talking to him and we learned quite a bit about how to pack a chute. He was over to do the cross channel jump, and the final jump in Ste Mere Eglise on Sunday.

Dirigible hangar, with parachute packing on blue tarps

Unfortunately the wind was blowing a gale again and so our waiting 90 minutes for the parachutists was to no avail. We learned that they had a window from 6-7pm and we left as we didn’t feel like waiting around another 2 hours on the chance they were able to jump.

We said our goodbyes late Sunday morning, packed up our rental Citroen Berlingo and headed south for Brittany. The drive was supposed to take 90 minutes but we stretched it out and took the coast road. It was a nice drive through small towns along the coast. All very sleepy as it was Sunday afternoon and Whit weekend. About 15 minutes into our drive we had to pull off the road, as about 15 C130 military aircraft were circling the area. Presumably these were the jump aircraft for the large jump in Ste Mere Eglise. After that we drove on and saw from afar loads of round canopies in the sky, and then 4 C47’s circling farther south. It was a good conclusion to our WWII experience.

We arrived at our camp around 3pm and checked in to our mobile home / caravan. We had booked this as something for the teens, hoping they would have tons of activities to do. Well it rained on and off the entire week we were at camp. We ended up wearing our raincoats daily but still made it to a bunch of activities. Some were free like junior archery, hover carts, land zorbing and other games, while some were paid like rock climbing, archery and horse riding. It was also nice to be able to cook our own meals and not eat out every day. There was a Spar market on site and the prices were reasonable.

We had one good day of heat and sun for our last day. We loaded up on chocolate croissants for the drive to Paris and enjoyed an adventure course and the pool for our last afternoon.

Carcassonne to Loire Valley

Posted on June 14, 2019 Leave a comment

We checked into our Airbnb in Carcassonne around 6pm and then went out to explore the old fortified city. For any castle lover out there, Carcassonne has to be on your visit list. Although partly reconstructed it is an amazing place and you feel like you’re stepping back in time as you walk across the moat and drawbridge and through the barbican. We had dinner at a small French eatery and while it was ok, I’m not sure it was worth the $70 we spent.

Looking along the walls of Carcassonne thru an arrow slit

The next morning, we packed up what little we had unpacked, and walked back up to the museum inside the city. You can tour the old ramparts and living quarters. We hurried through it in order to get to the cathedral at the end. The cathedral has lots of gargoyle rain spouts, soaring columns and stained glass. We then walked back through the middle of the old city inside the walls and did notice a ton of souvenir and ice cream shops – hallmarks of a heavily touristed path.

Just one of the impressive battlements at Carcassonne

We drove over to Toulouse Blagnac airport, which is around 70 minutes from Carcassonne. I dropped Pauline and Gwyneth at a shopping mall while Dylan and I went to the airport. Well, not any simple airport. Blagnac is the home to Airbus and where it’s largest assembly lines are! We had booked a 2pm tour of the facility.

Trying to guide a plane in – simulator fun!

Inside the original Guppy, built in California!

At this point it was 30 something degrees, around 90-95F, and so we were hoping for full AC! Once we found our group, we headed into the telemetry room, which was basically a room with a few large screens in it along with smaller computers. They showed us the first flight of the A380 along with the telemetry of that flight. You could see the pilots as well as views out the cockpit on the screens. We learned about how the assembly lines were spread out all over the campus around the runways and how each specialized in a line (320’s, 330’s, and 380’s). Obviously they are shutting down the 380 line next year unless something drastic happens. The plane just never got enough orders and was a victim of newer more efficient planes like the 350.

Enjoying a beer in the bar next to our apartment in Cour Cheverny

Once the telemetry was over we boarded a bus to drive into the campus. After passing security we toured the outside test stands where there were loads of 330-neo’s, one 380, and 3-4 a350’s undergoing final checks before going to Germany for paint and fittings.

Inside the 380 assembly building, which is large enough to house 4 380’s side by side, we watched a video on how and where all the parts came from. Wings come from the U.K., via ferry, truck and barge. Tail cones and tails come via Beluga air cargo, and the other parts are made in or around Toulouse. It’s a crazy assembly which comes together quickly in the final hanger. Unfortunately the part I really wanted to see, the line where they put the big pieces together was off limits for the tour.

It was a bit of a let down for this av geek, probably partly due to the heat and the allergies we were suffering from. When we got back, we purchased tickets for the museum and crawled around that for another hour to 90 minutes. It was cool to be able to go inside the test Concorde, an old A300 (one of the first widebodies), and see inside the old Guppy cargo plane. They also had another Concorde outside next to the test A400.

When it was time to leave, we picked up Pauline and Gwyneth at the mall and drove on to Cahors, our overnight stop part way to the Loire. This was another Ibis budget stay, but since the Budget wasn’t available (not open yet) they upgraded us to the Ibis which is much nicer!

We left in the morning for our Airbnb in Cour Cheverny, right smack in the middle of the Loire valley. I’m not sure why they call it a valley though as there really aren’t any mountains around. And the Loire River flowing through is wide and slow. Cour Cheverny was a sleepy little town right next to a huge Château. We arrived to 30+ degree heat, no AC, allergies driving us crazy, and the radiators ON in the apartment. We texted the owner to ask how to turn them off and she said “don’t turn them off, there will be no hot water, don’t worry it’s supposed to rain tomorrow!”

Aliums in the kitchen garden Cour Cheverny Château

We suffered that night but the next morning it had cooled off quite dramatically. We drove up the road two minutes and parked at Château du Cheverny. You needed to pay the entrance fee to even see the outside of this one, and the inside was amazing. It was furnished like someone royal was living there, mostly up to date rooms and an amazing armory that Gwyneth loved. They had a lot of hounds that we watched being fed. They also had a nice kitchen garden that we walked around. A family still owns this one but it was unclear if they live there.

After lunch back at the apartment we decided to drive over to Chaumont sur Loire, another Château nearby. This was was around 60 euros for the four of us (not cheap) considering the teens didn’t want to be there. This Château was obviously higher up the food chain as it had a royal bedchamber (used when the king visited, it wasn’t his Château). But it was a lot more sparse than Cheverny. It had an amazing set of gardens around it though that overlooked the river. I think the Château is more known for its gardens as I think it’s something of a “Chelsea garden show” in France. They were little areas of gardens designed by what we assume were famous landscapers. We all liked the mist sculpture the best.

The next morning, June 4th, we got up late and drove over to Chambord. This was the Château I really wanted to see. It didn’t disappoint. Kids under 18 were free in and so it was very reasonable. It was also the largest of the houses we visited. We got there and saw medieval dressed people riding around on horses and so after we quickly realized there was a bird and horse show, bought tickets. I skipped the show, had a coffee and a break to enjoy the atmosphere. The kids came back having thoroughly enjoyed it, jousting and all!

King, queen and raptor from Chambord show

The insides of the house were cool but the best part was being to walk up to the terraces on the third storey and view down to the courtyards. This house is known for its double helix staircase which is huge and occupies the central area of each floor. The rooms were so large it was hard to imagine people living in them. They must have chopped down half a forest per day in order to keep the rooms warm in the winter. They obviously still use the fireplaces as the rooms smelled of fires when we entered.

Close up of Chambord and some of the water surrounding it

François built this, so there are “F”’s everywhere

Book dating from 1493 – view of Jerusalem at time of Solomon

Leonardo Da Vinci’s studies in circles – originals

Leo again – I liked the arm study in this one

Terrace selfie at Chambord

That night we packed as we had a 4 hour drive to uncle Jeff’s the next day, and we hoped to stop by some Normandy beaches on the way.

Pisa to Nice

Posted on June 13, 2019 Leave a comment

We took the bus to Termini in order to get our pre-booked train to Pisa. The trip was short, around 3 hours. Our apartment in Pisa was close to the train station but around a 25 minute walk to the tower.

We checked into our apartment, which wasn’t great, but it was only for 1 night. We then headed out for a late lunch and to visit the Tower. The town of Pisa itself seemed to be short changed. What do I mean by that? The crowds were mainly around the church and Tower, but the old town part of Pisa 20 minutes away were very nice and quaint. Pisa is a college town, so there were plenty of restaurants and shops. It felt like a town you could live in.

We took the obligatory selfie photos of the Tower and were amazed to learn the tilt is still changing despite large efforts to stop it from falling.

The next morning we checked out early and had to find a coffee shop in order to wait for our train. There was a Sunday market on near the train station and coffee shop. Loads of locals were in the coffee shop which was cool and a bunch were drinking coffee from the bar inside the building. The only downside is that many were smoking outside.

The train was plush and after 1.5 hours of travel time, we ended up in La Spezia, our base town for exploring CinqueTerre. CinqueTerre is a national park in Italy on the coast where 5 impossibly built towns perch over the sea.

Our flat was very nice and spacious, very modern and close to the harbor. There was also an all you can eat sushi place next door that Dylan was begging me to visit. We did visit it one night and gorged ourselves silly. They even had rolls made from the local fish – branzino which were amazing. Fried and nigiri style – we ate tons.

The first morning we took the train all of ten minutes from La Spezia through the mountain to our first stop, Manarola. The “cinque” means there are five towns: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso.

We took a hike up above Manarola into the terraced fields. There was an interesting rail system that allowed crops to be lowered to the village (we think). I was glad I brought my hiking sticks with me as I really needed them to descend the stone steps back to the village. The views were spectacular. We spent around 2 hours walking up and down Manarola before taking the 2 minute (and 4 euro each) train ride back to Riomaggiore. You can actually see the next station thru the tunnel if you look carefully!

Riomaggiore didn’t disappoint either. It had a beautiful harbor with fishing boats and very colorful houses. We tried to hike up a path to a sanctuary above the town, but turned around after 30-40 minutes or so. It was steep, with loads of stone steps. I was worried about Dinah getting back down and tried to turn us around a few times before we finally realized we weren’t going to make it to the top. Still, we enjoyed the hike!

The next day we started out by training to Corniglia. Corniglia is the only town that doesn’t have a harbor. You have to walk straight up around 200 steps from the train station to reach the town. The stairs are switch-backed and look like something out of a video game when all the people were going back and forth on them. The town itself is very quaint, small with only a few restaurants compared to the other towns. Obviously people don’t visit it as much, but we still liked it a lot. The views back to Manarola were spectacular!

We then took the train to Vernazza, a very crowded town. Vernazza has the most facilities for tourists, and very picturesque views everywhere you looked. We sat in its harbor for quite a while, just admiring the views. After a false start hiking up the wrong street, we found the path up to the viewpoint only to be stopped by the “inter city” hiking checkpoint. In order to walk from town to town, you have to purchase a 16 euro daily pass. We had only purchased train tickets from point to point and so stopped. I asked nicely, however, and the guard lady let us go through to the viewpoint 100 feet further up the path to take some photos and admire the view.

From Vernazza, we took the train to Monterossa, the biggest of the five towns. It’s also the only town with a proper beach and so gets a lot of people because of that. We walked from the train station in the new part of town over to the old town. There was a small playground for the kids while the adults found a bar and had a drink overlooking the beach and sea. We booked ferry tickets back to La Spezia, and so I took the teens back on 1 boat while Pauline and her mom took the later ferry. We lined up early to get seats up top on the land-side.

The ferry was cold and windy, but offered a great view along the coast. We didn’t stop at each town unfortunately, so I’m not sure it was really worth the 23 euro per person. You pass the 5 towns quickly and then the other even smaller villages show up, each more precariously built on the steep hills. We did stop at Portovenere, however, to change boats. There is a huge walled castle there along with an old church built above the waves. We didn’t go into Portovenere but Pauline and her mom did the next day. Portovenere was beautiful, tall thin buildings and narrow quiet streets. It is also home to Lord Byron’s Grotto. Apparently he used to swim in the very rough sea there. They hiked up to the castle for amazing views.

On our last day, the teens and I didn’t really go out. Gwyneth and I went for a long walk around the town looking for a hat and eventually found the marina where there were a bunch of mega yachts to look at. Giorgio Armani’s boat is there, it’s a sleek black job about 60 meters long. Very nice looking in a sea of typical white boats.

On May 30th, we took a series of three trains along the coast up to Nice. I didn’t realize it, but the train ride stopped in Monaco, somewhere I’ve never been before. The Monaco stop though is underground so you don’t really see anything. The route around Monaco is right along the seaside and so we would get glimpses of multimillion dollar mansions, coves, beaches, and yachts as we popped out of tunnels. Lifestyles of the rich and famous for sure.

We had a 15 minute walk from the train station to our Ibis budget hotel at the Nice airport. Our room looked right out over to the runway, and Nice is a very busy airport. Between the dozens of private jets and commercial flights there was always something taking off or landing. We saw the Washington Redskins NFL team owners plane pull up as well. Accompanying the jets were lots of Mercedes vans that had blacked out windows, no doubt ferrying the rich from Monaco and other places to and from the airport. No celebrities were sighted.

The three adults wandered down to the beach, and I went in for a swim. Surprisingly it was a lot warmer than Croatia, which is strange as its farther north. We ended up at a casino supermarket and had a picnic dinner as we weren’t that hungry. Casino is the chains’ name by the way, the supermarket doesn’t have a casino in it.

After a lazy morning we had the hotel’s buffet breakfast of chocolate croissants, bread, and loads of coffees. We checked out, walked across the street to the airport, and said our goodbyes to Dinah. We then had to switch terminals to get to the Europcar rental desk. The rental car counter was the best setup I’ve ever seen, very efficient and able to handle a lot of customers coming and going. After a short wait, the representative told us our car wasn’t available and tried to get us to take a smaller one than we had booked. I told him we had booked that class of car as we needed the trunk space for all our luggage. Well, after a 10-15 minute wait, he came back and told us we could have the much bigger Berlingo, which is basically a French minivan that seats 5.

We managed to get out of the airport, but the garages and side streets aren’t really built for vans like that, and so it was a bit stressful. Soon we were on our way paying tolls along the motorway. We first passed Cannes and only caught a quick view of it from the road, but it looked absolutely beautiful.

It seems like you have to pay tolls about every 30-40 miles in the south of France and they added up quickly to $50 or thereabouts by the time we got to Carcassonne.

Rome

Posted on June 11, 2019 Leave a comment

We landed in Rome late afternoon on Wednesday May 15th. We took the train in to Tiburtina, Rome’s second largest train station and walked to our hotel. We picked this hotel so we could be close to where our friends, the Walkers, were staying. It was a converted apartment that had many rooms off a central living and coffee area. Our host Julio, recommended a pizza place around the corner and so we ate there that night.

The next morning we met up with the Walkers at a park near the Colosseum. We had fun with them and discussed all the joys and pains of being nearly a year into our respective trips. I think all of us were a bit travel weary and trying to enjoy each place in the remaining month or two. We hung out around the Colosseum while the Walkers visited and had lunch nearby. A lady literally grabbed Pauline by the arm and dragged her across the street into her restaurant! After their tour we went back to the first park we were in and then to our local pizza place which we learned didn’t open til 8pm!

The next morning we took the metro out to Aquaduct Park to have some park time and explore the ruins. This park is on the edge of Rome and had some streams with tadpoles in them, which all the kids enjoyed trying to catch. We then headed back to the city and had pizza near the Spanish Steps in our quest to find the best pizza in Rome.

We said our goodbyes after that as they were driving down to Pompei the next day and Pauline’s mom was flying in to join us in Rome. We also moved apartments that day to be closer to the Colosseum and central Rome. We had booked a large three bedroom flat which luckily had a small lift as it was on the fourth floor. Pauline went out to the airport after having a really hard time buying tickets at a small station!

On Sunday the 19th we explored Piazza Navona, had tartufo ice cream, and went to the markets in Trastevere – which were a bust as they were all goods markets, not food. We also found the best pizza place near our apartment and I had a white pizza with blue cheese, gorgonzola, and walnuts. Amazing.

We had our Colosseum tour on Monday and it bucketed rain for parts of it. Hard to really enjoy when it was like that but we made the best of it. Got to the front of the lines quickly with Dinah as she had her walking stick with her. After the Colosseum we went to the Palatine hill. The kids were really acting up that afternoon and so I ended up taking Dylan back to the apartment and missing half of it.

On Tuesday, sans teenagers, the three of us went to the park near Villa Borghese. It was nice to see the views down over Piazza Del Populo and the Caravaggio’s in the church nearby. What wasn’t nice though was the awful karaoke singer at the overlook trying to earn money belting out tunes. Almost ruined it for us! I went back to the apartment from there while Pauline and her mom explored the Trevi Fountain.

On Wednesday we went over to see the Pantheon, a large dome the Romans built that is still standing today. It looks like a huge basketball partly underground. It amazed me 18 years ago and amazed me again. Oh I almost forgot, we were all pretty much dying from allergies. For some reason everything was blooming in Rome and we were having a really hard time with it. Not ideal to be outside every day when all you want to do is find AC and closesd rooms!

After the Pantheon, we went over to the Vatican to do the tour of their museums, St Peters and hike up the dome. The museums were amazing (even elbow to elbow with crowds) and you could spend all day in them gawking at the statues and paintings, let alone the Sistine Chapel. Even the teens were impressed!

Dylan trying out his “bust” pose, but there were no sculptors around!

Crazy detail on Roman sarcophagus in Vatican Museum

School of Athens – scientific side, with a bored Gwyneth

We didn’t tell anyone about hiking up to St Peters dome, but simply bought tickets and went. The teens and I walked up the first 250 stairs while Pauline and her mom took the elevator for that part. Then we were able to see inside the dome down to the floor of St Peters! Wow, it was a bit fear inducing to stand there even through there was a high railing for safety. We stayed for a bit as the choir and organ were warming up for mass, and then hiked up 324 more steps to the cupola right at the top of the dome. Wow! What views were had. It was a bit tricky getting up there as one part used a rope in a tight spiral staircase, and one part had you leaning over against the dome while walking up stairs, but we all made it.

Looking down from inside the dome

View of the square from the top of the dome

I don’t think Dinah thought she’d be standing on top of St Peters when she woke up that morning! After that we were done and so went back to the apartment via the square and had more pizza.

On Thursday we split up a bit and met back up at the Casa Romane – ruins of a Roman house,near Palatine hill, that had frescos and small cold dank rooms the kids liked. From there we walked down to the Mouth of Truth before going back to Trevi fountain. We had to have one more tartufo, so took the bus over to Piazza Navona again, this time at night. It was cool to see all the fountains and statues lit up.

Gwyneth telling no fibs – Mouth of Truth

Piazza Navona at night

Amazing tartufo in Piazza Navona and 1 ice cream cone!

For our last day, we took the tram down via Circus Maximus to the pyramid. Yes, there is a funerary pyramid in Rome, built at the time when Egypt was all the fashion, around 200 or 300 AD. We walked up to the Knights of Malta Priory in order to look through the keyhole. This is a magic keyhole that when you look through you glimpse a hedgerow that perfectly frames the dome of St Peters! Very beautiful!

Pizza with egg, who knew?!??

Best pizza in this universe – Gorgonzola, blue cheese and walnuts

From there we metro’d back to Villa Borghese park only to find an international horse show jumping event on! It was neat to see all the beautiful horses and riders going over the jumps. The teens and I rented go karts and pedaled those up the hills of the park and whooshed down, having loads of fun. My leg muscles and ankles hurt for a day after that due to my being a bit larger than the average rider. I took the kids to see the Caravaggio’s in Piazza Del Populo while Pauline and Dinah enjoyed the opera singer in the square. We were never sure if she was lip syncing or not. If she wasn’t she had an amazing voice that didn’t quite fit her frame. We packed up that night for our trip to Pisa the next morning.

Plitvice and Sibenik – Croatia

Posted on May 25, 2019May 25, 2019 Leave a comment

We left Hvar on a breezy rainy morning. The ferry took 10 minutes just trying to tie up on the pier as it rocked wildly up and down. Hundreds of people streamed off, most looking rather green. A bit of a foreshadow for our crossing.

We picked seats in the back middle of the catamaran as that is always the most stable part of the boat. As we rounded the island into the straight between Split and Hvar we really started bucking and the staff passed out bags. Luckily we made it across the hour long trip without having to use the bags.

We walked over to a bar where I met an ex-colleague from Brightcove (Rocket), who worked on a few projects for me. It was nice to meet Ivan in person and have a coffee with him. Once we had finished we walked around the corner and picked up our Chocolate brown Skoda Octavia rental car. Getting out of Split was tight along some old roads, but we made it out to Lidl so we could stock up on food for our national park visit.

It took around 3 hours to get there and after a short rest stop we climbed up a massive hill and drove through an 5.5km long tunnel. We couldn’t hold our breath that long! We emerged into a pine tree forested landscape that was quite different than the coast. We got stuck behind a lorry for 45 minutes, but eventually made it to Plitvice (plit-veet-sah). We booked into what I would call a chalet. It was large with a main bedroom that had a double and a single bed, while the kitchen-living-dining room had a fold out futon. It was pretty rural which was really nice for a change. We all loved the donkey even though he hee hawed at 5:30am every day and when he wanted attention!

The next morning we packed up our rain gear and jackets to drive over to the park early. Plitvice is Croatia’s main park and receives over 1M visitors a year. We were there as it opened and bought 2 day tickets so we could come back anytime that day and the next.

We could see the big waterfall, called a “slap” in Croatian (we had a few laughs over that), from the entryway. Wow! Very impressive. We walked down a path to find the river and lake system surrounded by boardwalks that took you from waterfall to waterfall. Amazing. It is certainly one of the wonders of Europe and almost on par with Yosemite for pure natural beauty. The water was Caribbean clear, you could see fish swimming more than 10 feet down and it wasn’t even that cold as I found out later.

The big slap

Our first stop was the main waterfall system. As you descended over a set of small waterfalls, the boardwalk we were on was anchored to the limestone walls above it. Surprisingly it didn’t feel that sketchy, but it was quite precarious. If it had failed about a dozen tourists would have been swept over the edge and down the next set of waterfalls, a lower drop of more than 40 feet probably.

We got soaked trying to take pictures at the main waterfall. I was using my new iPhone gimbal and was hoping the spray didn’t affect it. From there we walked up the set of lakes to more waterfalls and took a boat across the main lakes. Shortly thereafter I was walking behind a group of tourists, absorbed in filming a set of waterfalls and walked blindly off the boardwalk! I dropped straight down into waist deep water. I banged both elbows on the boardwalk, which saved me from going under or backwards I think. They also allowed me to lever myself up quickly. Unfortunately my good Sony camera was in my trouser pocket and got soaked.

Looking down on the boardwalks from near the entrance

I hurt my pride pretty good and I was upset with myself for ruining my camera. The wallet could be dried out and luckily the car key was still in my pocket (and working). My Columbia trousers were thin and quick drying, but my socks and shoes were quite sloppy for a few hours. Luckily this happened as we were about finished and so we made our way back to the car.

Later that afternoon we drove over to the village of Rastoke. Rastoke is an old milling village that once had 17 water mills placed over the many forked river it was build over. It was amazing and quite an interesting place. Someone had even tied a slack line over the roaring river and waterfalls to try and walk the length of it.

After packing my wet camera into a 2 pound bag of white rice and hoping to dry it out, we slept like rocks.

On Saturday the 11th of May we went back to the park but visited the other entrance. It was busy but not as busy as the main entrance. We took a tram to the far end of the park and walked back along the edge of the lakes. The upper waterfalls were just as impressive as the lower ones only not quite as high, but much wider.

Sunday we checked out and drove back down the hiway we had gone up, tunnel and all. We found a nice movenpick / Marché rest stop and had a snack on the way down to Zadar. We arrived in Zadar after lunch in the pouring rain. Trying to not let it stop us, we valiantly walked around Zadar’s waterfront looking for the sea-organ. The sea-organ is a water based musical instrument that plays notes as the sea moves back and forth through what we assume were underwater pipes. It sounded otherworldly! We were soaked by the time we got back to the car, and then drove on to Sibenik where we had booked in for 3 nights.

On Monday we took it slow but went into old town Sibenik for the afternoon. There was a cool old church, St Jacobs, in the old town that we paid to go into in order to get out of the drizzle. It turned out to be the Iron Bank from Game of Thrones! The old town was cool but we couldn’t really enjoy it because of the rain.

Iron Bank

On the 14th we drove up to Krka national park and explored that for a few hours. It’s another water based national park but not quite as dramatic as Plitvice. There was much more wildlife however. As we walked along the boardwalks, scores of beautiful blue winged swallow-like birds swooped every which way. They were very fun to watch. There were also all kinds of fish in the clear streams underfoot. One of the highlights was seeing the old turbine from the second oldest hydroelectric dam in the world. The oldest being on the Niagra in New York.

On Wednesday the 15th of May, we drove to Split and tried to find the old amphitheater there. When talking to our very nice host in Sibenik, she mentioned that the previous occupants were traveling the world with two kids, and they were from San Jose. We thought she was talking about us at first, but then realized there was another family traveling! After finding them via an article in the Mercury News, we pinged them on Facebook and agreed to meet them. We wanted a place outside of the city so as not to take too long and miss our car drop off tome at Split airport, so that’s why the amphitheater was chosen.

Randy and his family have been traveling since February and have been to China, Morocco and a few other countries prior to Croatia. They go on to Quito and the Amazon before finishing their trip in July. Crazy! We are second degree separated from them as he’s in rotary and we know quite a few people in rotary. Small world!

We then drove on to Split airport, dropped the car, and boarded our short 45 minute prop plane flight to Rome. Luckily, they had a small lounge which Pauline and I enjoyed prior to the flight.

Dubrovnik and Hvar

Posted on May 12, 2019 Leave a comment

After leaving Prague, we spent 10 days in Ireland with our family. It was nice to see everyone and we had glorious weather… for the first 3 days! Then the wind and rain came. We hiked up our old mountain, went to our favorite coffee shops and Pauline’s sister Diane took the teens for 2 days.

We left Dublin early on Monday the 29th of April for Dubrovnik via Frankfurt. Because we had a 9am flight, and a 3 hour layover, this turned into an all day affair. Luckily there was a lounge in Dublin and Frankfurt to keep us coffee’d and snacked. The lounge setup in Frankfurt wasn’t great though as we had to go through security twice: once to get into an area where the lounge was and a second time to get into our gate area.

The final approach into Dubrovnik was spectacular, even with cloudy skies. We took the bus into the old city, a trip of around 20km and 30 minutes. A beautiful drive. It was raining quite hard when we got off the bus and by the time we got our rain jackets on we were soaked. In the process I managed to lose Gwyneth’s luggage lock!

The two brothers that run the apartment came down to meet us and guide us up to the apartment. They also helped us carry our bags up about 15 flights of stairs to the flat! We dropped our bags and headed into the old city for dinner. Alberto had recommended a place at the top of the city but after hiking up we found it closed due to the rain.

Dylan warming up in a Dubrovnik restaurant during a rain shower

We settled on a small cheap-ish restaurant half way back down and had spaghetti ragu, bruschetta, and fish and chips. Food is not cheap in Dubrovnik. Most meals cost more than 60 euros and we don’t normally have alcohol or four main courses! Our solution was to shop at the local market – Studenac – and try to cook half our meals. We also made lots of toast, sandwiches, and had muesli in our apartment.

Beautiful patio garden in our apartment- Dubrovnik

Tuesday was back to school and so the kids worked on math and science while Pauline and I went shopping and had some coffee at a local bar cafe. We were there around 11am and there was a table of 4-5 people drinking and smoking up a storm! They were quite inebriated.

That afternoon we paid around $80 for the four of us to walk the city walls. Dubrovnik old city is a medieval city with intact walls and so you can circle the entire city in about 2 hours. It’s a pretty easy walk once you get up and I will remember the views for a long time. There are a few restaurants scattered around the tops of the walls but we resisted their overpriced temptations. Luckily we had brought water and snacks with us, but the kids were quite entertained with the whole medieval city part. They especially liked the cannons!

Dubrovnik through a tower window on the wall

Blackwater Bay – from the Dubrovnik walls

When we were about 2/3’s of the way around it started raining. This just added to the atmosphere of the walk as we could watch the clouds scoot past from our elevated position. It was a photographer’s dream!

We made spaghetti with a paprika based red sauce we found in the local shop, but Dylan didn’t like it so I had to wash the sauce off and reheat it in the microwave.

After school on Wednesday the 1st of May, we went for a hike up to the top of the mountain above the city. We were sweaty and hot after about an hour of hiking up in the sprinkling drizzle. There was a radio and microwave mast at the top along with a museum and a small restaurant. You could drive up as well as take a cable car. But the cable car got audited by the government and allegedly wasn’t paying enough tax and so was shut town temporarily.

The hike back down was faster and Dylan, Gwyneth and I had an hour long chat about Camp Hi-Sierra since this summer will be her first visit. She had tons of questions for us! We were quite tired and hungry by the time we got back and so quickly dumped our stuff and headed to the old city for dinner. A friend we met in Vietnam had recommended a good pizza place and so we tried that out. Two pizzas, a burger, a small salad, and two waters came to 63 euros! Youch! I guess they’re called “Mea Culpa” for a reason! But the pizza was good!

On our last morning, while the kids did school, Pauline and I walked through the old city to Buza bar. Buza is situated on the water side of the wall facing the sea. You get to it through a small door in the wall and then you are presented a 180 degree view of the walled city behind you and 180 degrees of Adriatic blue in front. I had a beer at 10:30am – don’t tell anyone – while Pauline had sparkling water. We sat under an awning with 20-30 other people and enjoyed watching the boats pass by.

On Thursday afternoon we checked out, dragged our cases down the steps to the bus stop. We paid around $2 each to take the bus across town to the ferry port. The bus was packed to the gills, really unsafe, and I could barely get off with my two suitcases and backpacks when the time came! We got to the ferry port early but there was a market nearby along with a park. So we stocked up on snacks and water for the ferry while the kids climbed trees and used the exercise equipment in the park.

The ferry was around 3.5 hours up the coast. Since it was a fast catamaran ferry, you couldn’t go outside to enjoy the ride. It was smooth though and sunny and we passed a massive cruise ship just up the coast from Dubrovnik parked under a bridges. We pulled into Hvar town around dusk and walked along the malecon to our apartment about 10 minutes from the town square.

Dylan had to have a can of Pipi – it was good!

Hvar town is sleepy in comparison to Dubrovnik, but apparently turns into a Mediterranean party town in the summer with beach parties and billionaire yachts. We only caught a tiny glimpse of this via the early-season yachts pulling into the harbor. They were still massive and pricey, just not 100+ feet long.

Our apartment was a nice 2 bedroom place that had bunk beds in one room and a double in our room. The kitchen was new, had a mini dishwasher and an excellent toaster that liked to launch toast into the air when done! I’ve never seen a toaster with so much oomph! We had made arrangements to have sailing lessons on Friday but the weather was looking a little skittish. Still, Gwyneth and I got up early and took the cazmatrans (local) bus over to the other town on the island, Stari Grad. SG has been occupied for around 2400 years and you can see some evidence of that throughout the town. We met Bartul near the towns sailing clubhouse, about a 10 minute walk from the bus station. It was a bit windy when we settled in for our practical lesson, but after an hour of learning the absolute basics we were off in the 4.5m Vision. This is a 150kg sailboat with traditional rigging – main and jib. It’s also quite fast and so you have to hook your feet under the straps and hike out over the gunwales.

It was blowing pretty good and so Bartul sailed it down out of the harbor to an area where we could tack on decently long reaches. Gwyneth took the tiller first and had a good time taking us back and forth. After an hour of that I took over and brought us back towards the boathouse. The tacks became shorter and shorter as we got closer and the speed never dropped! I asked Bartul to pull in the jib to make pulling up to the dock easier, but in the end I brought us close enough to get out of the boat while Bartul hauled it out.

While we enjoyed sailing it was a bit spicy for us. Dylan and I went over the next day but it was blowing a gale and so we just hung out in Stari Grad town and explored it a bit.

On Sunday the 5th of May, we went for a walk down to a private beach west of Hvar town. The hike took around 45 minutes through rocky paths and pine tree lined walkways. The sea was the clearest I have seen in a very long time. We passed two, we assume, rental bungalows right on the ocean. They had no roads going to them, only these rocky paths. I can’t imagine how you stock yourself for a week, but I can imagine the solitude and relaxation you’d get. Especially if you rented one out when it was warm enough to swim in the sea every day.

It was just about warm enough to get in, so Dylan braved the sea! He said it was freezing but enjoyed it. He scraped up his ankle and leg a bit getting out, but luckily we had some bandaids with us.

A storm blew in that Monday morning and it rained and rained and rained. It wasn’t cold but we had to have the heating on to warm up a bit. In the afternoon it cleared up a bit so I went for a long walk up through the fortress, over a hill and down towards a back bay. I enjoyed the exercise and barely a single car passed me when I had to traverse via the roads for 15-30 minutes. A sleepy island!

Fountains Pajot 42 – the boat type my friend Ben just bought!

On Tuesday, Dylan and I went back over to Stari Grad and got our sailing lesson! We went over to a bay close by and then back and forth by the large docked ferry. We had a great time, and even got stuck near the ferry when the wind completely disappeared for 20 minutes. All we could do was wait since we didn’t have oars or a motor.

On Wednesday the 8th of May, we all went back over the original beach we had walked to and this time, Pauline and I braved the water. Dylan was right it was freezing! Almost as cold as swimming in a Sierra lake, but after 10 minutes we got used to it. I had brought my mask and so snorkeled around a bit – there weren’t many fish. There were nudists however, but they were mostly tucked into bays out of sight most of the time.

Gwyneth and I went for a walk at the end of our visit to place rock cairns on the rocks by the sea. As we ventured out we found a large blue plastic barrel in the water. We tried for 20 minutes to pull it out of the water and when I finally got a hand on it, it was encrusted with mussels and sea urchins. Glad I didn’t grab it hard or I would have had a ton of spikes in my hand to deal with! Still it’s a shame we couldn’t pull it from the water, I hate seeing trash in the sea! We ended up bringing back an armful of styrofoam and plastic bottles we found washed up on the shore instead.

On Thursday we woke to a storm (again) and whitecaps in the harbor – not a great sign before our ferry ride to Split, back on the mainland of Croatia!

Prague

Posted on April 30, 2019 1 Comment

Back to the land of Burritos!!! Holy guacamole!

We arrived in Prague after a three hour train ride from Bohumín. It was then about a 20 minute hike to our apartment near the Charles Bridge. The apartment was really cool in an old building that had been mostly renovated. Our flat was two bedrooms separated by a large kitchen / sitting area. Once we checked in we decided to go shopping to the local “My” which turned out to be a rebranded Tesco! I was amazed to find 2L plastic bottles of beer and wine for under $3-4 each. Crazy. After that we found a Burrito Loco and got fast food to take back to the apartment. Not tremendously cheap but it was decent Mexican, our first in months!

2L beer in a plastic bottle for $2.50!?!?

Charles Bridge and Prague Castle

That night we went out for a walk to the main square and watched the astronomical clock strike 8pm. This is a really cool old clock that has been in place for hundreds of years. As it tolls the hour, a skeleton rings a bell while the apostles above the clock go around on a wheel moving back and forth. The apostles are only seen via doors that open as the skeleton rings the bell.

Stained glass window, Tesla was consumer goods company, now defunct

The next morning Pauline and I went for a walk across the Charles Bridge and had a chimney cake on the other side. Chimney cakes taste like a donut and a churro combined. They are round, with a hollow inside that is sometimes coated in chocolate. The outside is covered with cinnamon sugar, and it makes for a delicious snack. They are cooked over a charcoal fire or gas burners.

GoT characters at IKEA store? We weren’t sure what this was about but it was the premier day for season 8 of Game Of Thrones so I’m sure it had something to do with that!

On Monday we did a Rick Steve’s audio tour via his app of Prague, and found a bunch of interesting places and gardens that I think we would have missed without it. We walked up to Wenceslas square – yes that guy – and then down some side alleys to see statues and interesting buildings from different periods. We even found a paternoster elevator, which the kids thought was cool and like something out of Harry Potter.

To use it you walk into it while it’s moving and then exit on the floor you want while it keeps moving. There aren’t many of them left in Europe due to regulations and so it was nice to see this marvel from the past still working. Needless to say we had to go up down and around a few times.

LPG powered “old” cars you can hire

We stopped to view a cubist building near the city hall that had an amazing staircase in it, shaped like a question mark! Later on we walked across the Charles Bridge amid throngs of tourists, with hundreds taking selfies.

Painting our enamel mugs

On Wednesday Dylan and I had pre-booked a Segway tour of the city. When we got to our starting point we realized we were the only ones on the tour and that segways were not allowed in the old parts of town. Because of this we opted for 1 hour on electric bikes and scooters and 1 hour on segways. Electric bikes were allowed around the Castle and so this was good fun. I got kitted out with a blazingly fast fat tire low rider while Dylan got a 5 speed bike. Both had dual disc brakes and plenty of go and stop! We started our trip by going up the hill towards Prague Castle. We went through a community orchard of fruit trees where the residents of Prague can come and pick their own fruit – cool idea. At the top we had remarkable views over the river and into the old city.

From there we scooted down city streets at 30mph(!) until we got to the second shop where the segways were. Our guide swapped our scooters for segways and we got on them to try them out. This was our first time and so they took a few minutes to get used to them, but then once you do, they feel like extensions to your legs. You can twist the handle left or right and spin on a dime. If you lean slightly forward you start rolling forward. Lean back and you slow down. The only thing that’s a bit tricky is getting on and off as they will tend to go a bit by themselves if unattended!

Well we took the segways into the park and then off-road over roots, dirt paths, and grass. They could cover any terrain we through at them. We even went down hills! Much fun was had and I only _almost_ fell off once!

Once back at the shop we traded the segways in for our original scooters and then went down the hill back to the main shop. We had loads of fun!

River cruise in front of the Charles Bridge

Amazing detail on every building, old city square

One of the cool things to do in Prague was to paint your own enamel ware. I’m not sure why enamel ware is so popular in this part of Europe but we had a lot of fun creating our own mugs over the course of three “bakings”. Each time we painted a layer onto the mug the helper would bake the paint via an 800 degree C oven!

View from outside the top of the national theatre

That night Gwyneth and Pauline went to see the ballet in the old national theatre.

Segways through the King’s old hunting grounds

Our e-rides for an hour prior to the Segways

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s cousin

On our final afternoon we took a tram down to Vysherad, an area on the river but outside the tourist area. We walked up to a park where Gwyneth proceeded to climb a tree, we all had a picnic lunch, visited a cathedral and cemetery (Where Dvorak is buried), and then had a beer at a beer garden. Pretty much a perfect afternoon in sunny Prague. Oh yeah, the beer was really cheap as well!

Charles Bridge

Bratislava, Vienna, and Auschwitz

Posted on April 17, 2019April 17, 2019 1 Comment

We arrived in Bratislava via train early in the afternoon and dropped our bags at our apartment as it was still being cleaned. We found a nice little coffee shop on the corner by our place and sat outside in the almost warm air.

On Sunday morning the 7th of April we got up and walked over to a Lidl in order to get groceries for the week. Lidl, when we’ve been able to find it, has been great as they have food for everyone on the cheap. We ran into a marathon on the way to the store and so had to bypass a lot of runners! It was the third race we came across on the trip: Sydney, Siem Reap, and now Bratislava!

In the afternoon we bought bus tickets and went up to the forest hills right next to the city. We had wanted to do the ropes course again, but it was closed for the winter. Our second idea for fun, bobsledding, was also closed. Luckily there was some basic exercise equipment for the kids to mess around with. They also had 2-3 beer gardens at the top, which were quite nice looking, and my first shock at how cheap the beer is in this part of the world. .5L mugs for under 1.50 euro! And that’s in a nice setting in the mountains, beer was much cheaper in the stores!

Monday we didn’t do much other than explore the old city center a bit more. Bratislava is a cool mix of old Soviet, and new buildings with most being 100-300 years old. Some of the trams have a distinctly soviet style to them.

UFO bridge across the Danube in Bratislava

Flowers near the Opera House, Bratislava

On Tuesday, we got up early to catch the 8:45 train to Vienna for the day. Vienna is only 35-40 miles from Bratislava and so is an easy day trip. The train journey was quick and we were in the bustling metropolis of Vienna at 10am. We knew we were in a much larger city by the size and modernity of the train station. It was huge but easy to navigate its many levels. We descended down to the metro to take the subway 2 stops. We had researched the train tickets in advance and for around 5 euros for an adult, you can tack on a Vienna center zone ticket. This lets you ride the metro, trams and buses throughout the main parts of the city.

Eager customer watching the chimney cakes get made

We arrived at Karl Platz and walked towards the Opera house, and then on to the House of Music. The House of Music is an interactive museum that walks you through how we hear sound, how music is composed, the city’s great musicians (Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Strauss) and more. The twins got to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra through clever use of a motion detector and a baton. As they went slow, the orchestra would play slow, speed up the baton and they played faster. Mess up the speed and they all stopped and complained. It was quite amusing.

After the museum we went to 1516 brewery across the street for lunch and had sausages and chips. From there we walked over to the park to visit the Strauss statue before taking a tram to the Hofburg Palace. The Palaces in the city, and the architecture in general, was amazing. We will definitely have to come back here in the future.

We walked through the Palace and Pauline saw the Spanish Riding School, something she had remembered from her youth. Luckily they had tickets for the 4pm tour and so she and Gwyneth went on that. That left Dylan and I to our own devices. We hunted down electric scooters and went on a 45 minute self guided tour of the old city. We had a blast scooting around this unknown city in glorious weather.

We met back up with the girls after this and found an Easter market to poke around near Freyung. We then trammed back to our starting point, went to Lidl for some snacks, and then trained back to Bratislava! We were knackered!

Sliding the rails, Karl Platz, Vienna

On Wednesday after a late start we hiked up to the castle under wet and windy conditions. The weather had turned on us and had threatened snow overnight. Alas, there was no white stuff, but it certainly felt as if it could have snowed!

The castle had great views overlooking the old city but it wasn’t very old, more of a palace than anything. Later that day we went to the Slovak National Philharmonic to see a chamber orchestra play some Mendelson, Mozart and Shostakovich. I enjoyed a few of the movements more than others, and the kids did fairly well tolerating the classical music. The building was very nice though!

On our last day in Bratislava Dylan and I did a huge walking / filming tour for this YouTube channel. We searched high and low for the inverted pyramid building, and then went all through the old town as well. I think he really enjoyed it, although it was quite cold! We finally got into St. Martins Catholic Church to see the huge stained glass windows. Fabulous!

Hilario Chamber Orchestra, Slovakia Philharmonic

Michaels Gate Bratislava

We checked out the next morning, Friday the 12th of April, and took 3 trains through Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and finally Poland, to get to Auschwitz, or in Polish, Oswiecim. This was a long day of trains with two breaks in small towns along the way.

It was raining and dreary by the time we got to Poland, quite appropriate for the somber visit. The apartment we had was amazing however. Warm, cozy, brand new, with all the amenities. And finally we had a really comfortable bed. We’ve had a weird collection of pillows the last few weeks, large and rather flat. Strange! We went out and I had dumplings and a beer from a restaurant nearby while Dylan had spaghetti carbonara, and Pauline had pork chops. My dish was really good and exactly what was needed on the cold night. It threatened snow again that night but we didn’t get any. Because it was so cold, we put almost every layer we owned on for our tour the next day.

Luckily our apartment was walking distance from the main part of the museum, Auschwitz 1, and we walked there even though we tried to get an Uber.

There were large groups of people waiting to get in. To enter you needed to go through stringent security before walking towards your tour group. We were lucky to have booked a group tour in English as it was thronged with people. You walk in through the very gates others walked into the camp under and then you see the all the blocks. Each block held somewhere between 800 and 1500 prisoners. And each block now had a specific purpose: to show the remnants of what the prisoners left behind, to show how the separation process worked, to show the first gas chamber. I think the only thing that saved me from breaking down during this visit was that we were taken through the rooms pretty quickly. I think if we had roamed these halls by ourselves, I wouldn’t have been able to complete the tour. As it was you had to stick fairly close to the guide and the 25 others in the group just to make sure you didn’t miss something.

Block 24, Auschwitz

Just before the selection, Birkenau

There were rooms full of shoes, rooms full of hundreds if not thousands of luggage, and one particularly haunting pile of 12,000 pairs of eyeglasses.

Children’s shoes

We saw the impromptu gallows setup outside one block where Rudolph Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz was hung after his trial at Nuremberg. We walked into the same gas chamber where thousands of people were murdered, and looked up at the shafts were Zyklon B pellets were dropped, and we finally saw the furnaces were the bodies were cremated.

Electric fence that people would throw themselves on

Narrow strip between two barbed wire fences

We then took a bus over to Birkenau, which is 3km from the main camp. Birkenau is much much larger than Auschwitz and was meant to keep 200,000 prisoners. As soon as you walk into the camp through the Gate of Death as it was called, you immediately see the train Spurs, next to which the infamous separation occurred. Women, children, old people and men were placed into groups. Women were told to give the children to the old people, who were then both led directly to the gas chamber. Women and men were evaluated quickly by an SS Doctor, who would decide their fate. If somewhat healthy they would be sent to register for the camp as a prisoner to be worked to death. If not healthy, sent to the gas chamber.

We walked over to see the remains of the main gas chambers, now in ruins but left as the Soviets found them on liberation day in 1945. It’s hard to comprehend the scale of the killing here based on the size of the buildings but you get a sense that thousands per day were ushered through.

Afterwards, we went back to the apartment, collected our bags and walked to the mall to spend a few hours prior to our train. Our train to Bohumín just back over the border in the Czech Republic was quick and we ended up in a very lifeless town. We found our penzion, which was above a pub. It was clean, but a bunch of things were broken. All the beds were hard but I had to sleep next to a radiator on full blast that I couldn’t turn off. Ugh, I baked all night long. I woke up wide awake at 5:15, and then Dylan did as well around 7am.

Pauline and I walked over to Lidl to get some breakfast pastries before our 3 hour train ride to Prague.