Europe Day Thirteen

PARIS!

Notre Dame

Today we traveled by bus most of the day through the beautiful French countryside, snapping pictures through our bus window. This truly has been a whirlwind tour, giving us just a “taste” of Europe, making us want another bite – some day.

We arrived in Paris at about 3:00 in the afternoon. The bus mostly drove around the city with a tour guide from Paris on our bus. Again – snapping pictures from our bus. Then we were finally allowed to get off at Notre Dame – for one half hour. Then back on the bus to the Eiffel Tower – for fifteen minutes!! We were able to quickly snap pictures and then head back. I’m not meaning to sound critical. It’s what we signed up for, seeing a lot in a very short period of time, but it does make us a little sad when we would like to just sit and gaze for hours at these magnificent pieces of architecture. You should see Dale running around – snap, snap, snapping pictures – running back to catch up with the group.

Paris is an amazing city. We had been sternly warned about the pickpocketers that are here. “Hang on to your purse and wallet; don’t let go of your bags for even a second.” At the same time it is supposed to be the “city of love.” Hmmm. Seems a bit incongruous, if you know what I mean. But there is so much history in this city, it’s just awesome to ponder it. Just wish we had a little more time to ponder . . .

Sort of! I am getting that longing to be home. There truly is no place like home. Missing my little grandbabies so very much (and the rest of my family as well, of course).

We ended our tour with our “tour family” at a little Parisian restaurant that looked like it was converted out of an old wine cellar. Probably several hundred years old at least. We were given quite a banquet.

For the first course we were given several options, one of which was escargot or “snails” in plain English. Well, we decided to go the safe route. I ordered French onion soup (yes, it is called French onion soup in France) and Dale ordered the escargot.

We just felt we had to try it. If we didn’t like it, then we could share the soup. Well, the snails came, and they came in their shells. You had to hold onto the shell and scoop out the little creature with a special little fork. Notice the green stuff that is on top of these little bugs. Really appetizing! NOT! See Dale.

His face expresses it all. He did it! Of course, then I had to do it. He made me. But I did it. Neither one of us likes escargot very much. It really doesn’t taste very good and the little creatures are sort of rubbery in texture. Eh! Well, we can chalk it up as a new “experience” for us, and we can at least say we’ve tried it.

The soup was good.

Karen ordered frogs legs . . . Can you see them? SO appetizing! NOT!!Next came the main course. Dale picked a beef dish with a French-sounding name. Neither one of us can remember the name. I had a shrimp thing. The third course was cheese – various choices of different kinds of cheeses. Strange. Final course, dessert. Dale had a chocolate mousse, and I had a caramel cream thing that was kind of like flan. I will say that I really think American food is better than almost anything I’ve had here in Europe, with one exception and that was the German Bratenworst with sauerkraut. Of course, we're prejudiced, I'm sure and it's also what we've been used to all our lives.

At the end of the meal we had some great French entertainment and everyone sang, clapped, and even danced! It was so much fun.

When you travel with someone for 7 days, you make some wonderful friendships.

Majed and Hamad from Dubai and Gloria from New York.

(Thank you, Gloria, for the bookmark from the New York Public Library)

Yosef and Cendriani from Indonesia

Helen and Chris from Austrailia

(Our Auzzies)

Daphne and Rosie from England
(Rosie, I'm sorry the picture isn't a better quality.

It's the only one I got of you, for some reason :(

You'll just have to send me a better picture. If you do, I'll post it)

and many more.

I regret that we didn’t get pictures of everyone and didn’t even get a group shot. Well, it was our tour guide’s first tour. She probably didn’t think of it and we certainly didn’t.

Tomorrow we leave for London and this will be the end of this tour. That will be a good thing. We will be at one hotel for four days, and we will be on our own pace. Yes! We’ll actually be able to sit and gaze. Great Idea! Caun’t wait (said with a good British accent ;)

Europe Day Twelve

Europe Day 12
Switzerland and
France

The Alps

The day in Switzerland started out foggy and cold. We took a boat trip on The Lucerne. If it had been a clear day, it would have been an amazing trip because we would be seeing the Alps all around. Instead, it was just a nice little boat trip on a lake and some pretty (and very expensive) houses on the shore. A little bit of a disappointment, but we can’t blame the tour company on that one.

Next we traveled by bus to get onto a little train to climb the Alps. This train was constructed in 1893 and is still functioning. The windows you see are open. This little train climbed up the mountain at about a 30 to 40 angle.

Going to the top might be frightening for some, hence this sign with a bit of humor.



From our little I-think-I-can-do-it train we boarded an aerial tram or gondola to ascend to the top. It was an ear-popping ride.

Still foggy for a good portion of the trip up, but all of a sudden we burst through the clouds into beautiful sunny weather. We arrived at the top and my, oh my! what a view!

Hi Dale!


“The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.” Psalms 111:2

Europe Day Eleven

Europe Day 11
Verona, Italy
and
Switzerland

Today we went to Verona, Italy. Verona is the location for the inspiration of the famous Romeo and Juliet.

Juliet’s balcony

It is said that the play was inspired from an actual occurrence in this city. Apparently it is a common thing for large families to be mad at each other here in Italy, even today. I’m not sure, but maybe that’s where the mafia got its roots. It is a beautiful city which has inspired many artists.

Here there was a Roman arena that is in better condition than the Coliseum. You can actually see what the arena must have been like. Apparently the people discovered iron in the walls of the Coliseum and began to dig it out, due to its value. However, this greatly weakened the walls, leading to its partial collapse after a large earthquake. If the iron had not been stolen, the Coliseum would probably still be in the same condition as this Roman arena in Verona

From here we began our climb into Switzerland.

Switzerland is the most amazingly beautiful country and combined with the colors of the Fall season – absolutely breathtaking.
This evening we went to a Swiss folklore program of yodeling and blowing of the alp horn. It was a fun-filled evening of music straight out of Lawrence Welk. They called people up to the platform to try their voice out for yodeling. Dale was one of the people they called. He actually did quite well – compared to everyone else, that is. Then as a reward, they brought out a huge tray of beer in mugs to see if they could drink it down in one breath. I thought, “Oh, no, what is Dale going to do?” But he just took the plunge and drank it down. He said it tasted awful. You should have seen the expressions on the faces of our people in the group when Dale told them it was his first beer -- EVER!

Europe Day Ten

Europe Day 10

VENETZIA!! (Not Venice -- like we say in Americaneze :)

Today we went to Venice or Venitsia as they say in Italian. Fascinating place. I basically thought it was an old city built on an island with some canals running through it. It actually dates from the 5th century or mid 450 on and it is built on 18 islands that are connected by bridges. It was built by Italians who were fleeing from the Huns and the Longobards. They discovered they could live on these islands and better defend themselves.

This is St. Mark’s cathedral, dating from 829. It is such a incredibly beautiful building. Supposedly Mark’s remains are there. Who knows. Probably not. Sadly, we were not allowed to take pictures inside, but everything from the floors to the walls to the ceilings is ornately done with marble mosaics floors and gold gilded paintings on the ceilings. Just amazing to think that they could do that so long ago without the technology that we have today and have it still standing. It is interesting that the floors are actually wavy from the movement below. I mean, fairly large waves of maybe 6 to 10 inches in varying heights. You really have to watch your step.

The gondola ride was fun. It was an extra excursion that we had to pay for, but we felt we just couldn’t come to Venice without a gondola ride. Those of us that paid for the extra trip occupied four boats and we had one singer for the four boats. He wasn’t on our boat, but we could hear him very well and he had a great voice. It was really fun.



Our days are very long. This morning we arose at 6:00, and we didn’t get back to our hotel until 8:00 p.m. -- at which time we went to diiner. We’re both very tired, but having a wonderful time. Wish you were all here :)