How I Spent my Spring Vacation 2001
I booked this Globus Tour vacation through our local Wagonlit Travel agent. I do NOT recommend either company.
April 21-22, 2001 - Saturday\Sunday
I wanted to get to the airport really early so I could maybe catch a power snooze before we flew out. Rick was nominated as our transport. Isn't he nice?? As we walked up to the check in counter, I realized my carry on bag was too light. RICK!! You have my camcorder! He's long gone. We called his house, we called his work and left messages on both. He HAS to check his messages before we leave in two hours. We went back out front to wait and pace. Rick came back with my camcorder in just a little while. WHEW!!
Mom and I flew out of SeaTac for our big adventure. We were excited about being seated in the 747's 'bubble'. As we were about to leave, the captain reports that there will be a delay because our airplane brakes are leaking. YIKES! I guess we'll wait. After an hour delay, we're on our way!! Don't EVER think you can sleep on an airplane. arrgh! I was sooo tired when we finally landed 11 hours later.
April 22, 2001 - Sunday
Look out London!! Here we come!! Uh oh....what happened to my suitcase? Hmm...I guess I can manage without the pull strap. We made our way through immigration and customs without any trouble. Mom got her brand new passport stamped for the first time. Now how do we find our tour person? There are about a zillion people holding up signs with names. I'm trying to read them all. I have no idea who to look for. Mom says to keep moving. Outside the herd of lookers, we find a lady dressed in red and holding up a sign reading GLOBUS. ahHAH!! She directs us to go wait by that sign as she has another couple to look for. We waited and waited. She finally came to get us and we headed for our shuttle. Hey! Isn't someone suppose to take this luggage for me? hmmpf! Wait for me! We made it to the hotel, Cumberland-Marble Arch, only a couple hours behind schedule. While we were standing around looking confused, this strange guy walks up and said something to me. "Huh?". Great conversation starter, aren't I? It was SpaceCowboy aka Brian!! We get our hotel room and head on up. Brian asking "what do you want to see?" Like I have a clue? When we get into the room, we find that it has a small safe for us. It took Brian and me a while to figure it out.
Off we go to explore London. Wait! I don't have any local cash. Where can we get some? We asked around and went on several wild goose chases. FINALLY we got some cash inside a regular department store. We walked through Picadilly Circus which does NOT have wild animals. Circus in Brit talk is a circle. There were lots of street performers and little trinket places. Here is a picture of Snoopy aka Darlene and SpaceCowboy aka Brian, trying to use the public telephone. We walked around Trafalgar Square. I was sooo tired from walking and walking and walking around London. This is Brian and me taking a break and agreeing that we'd walked plenty for one day. We, Darlene, Brian and I, took a big red double decker bus back to our hotel.
April 23, 2001 - Monday
This morning has an included tour of London. We drove by most of the sites. Here is a monument to Prince Albert. It just happens to be right across the street from Royal Albert Hall. Coincidence?
We stopped to see
St. Paul's cathedral. Did you know that that is where Charles and Di were married? We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside. Bummer!! This is a back door on St. Paul's Catherdral. Were people much shorter back then? We drove by and over, the Thames river several times and glimpsed Big Ben, The London Eye and very old buildings. We stopped a few blocks from Buckingham Palace and walked closer to see the Changing of the Guard. Our tour guide wasn't sure if it would happen today due to the rain. What a bunch of sissies!! That took care of our morning, gave us a chance to wake up and get a look around the city. The tour bus let us out back at the hotel, across from the Marble Arch. It (the arch) had been moved there because cars don't fit through it. It had been built during London's earlier days as an entrance for one the palaces.
We gathered up our maps and bus information and tried heading for the double decker tour buses across the street. You can see the buses in the picture of the Marble Arch. How hard could it be?? It just happens that the Marble Arch is in the middle of a traffic circle/roundabout. You can't cross the street because there are no cross walks there. We asked around on how to get across to the bus stop. We needed to take 'the subway'. Thanks to Brian we knew that that meant a pedestrian walkway beneath the street. We looked like Prairie Dogs popping our heads out to see where we were. We finally got to the bus stops, they even take plastic! and boarded. We paid for an all day pass so we could get on and off all we wanted during the day. I immediately went to the top floor, which was open, and grabbed a seat. Not too many people wanted to sit on wet seats, in the rain, but I'm weird.
Mom and I had decided to start the day at the London Eye and then hit some other attractions on our way back to the hotel. The Eye is reeeeally high! If you squint hard you can see a little speck near the top right of the shadow. That's a person! I've drawn a red line pointing to him/her. The Eye takes an hour to make one rotation so we all had lots of time to take pictures from every angle. Here's a shot of mom with Big Ben, House of Parliment and the Thames in the background. This is my reaction to being this high up.
We got back on solid ground, reboarded our bus and spotted the Tower Bridge. Is that a good shot of it or what!? We tried to go to the
Tower of London but it was too late in the day for us to have time for the tour. Instead, mom harrassed a BeefEater guard out front. Thanks again, to Brian for showing us how to use the
'underground' aka the subway. You can take the subway and connect with the underground. Did you follow that?
I didn't see a single SUV or pickup while in London but I did see a LOT of scooters,
bicyclists and motorcycles. I guess they don't believe in traffic lanes. I guess that's what is going to happen here if gas prices rise to $6/gallon like it is over there.
April 24, 2001 - Tuesday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out. We boarded our tour bus, met our tour guide for the trip, Audrey and our driver, Eddie and headed out of London, through the orchards of Kent, towards Dover and the English Channel. The brochure said we'd be taking a HoverSpeed across the channel. We took a 'SeaCat' which looked to me like a fast ferry. I could stay home if I wanted a ferry ride. It went so fast that passengers were not allowed outside. You would have been blown away. That was okay because it was a very wet day. Of course, I tried to go outside but couldn't find a way. We drove for a while, through Flanders, to Brussels, Belgium, the headquarters of the European Union. Time for a walking tour of Brussels. We stopped at the
Mannekin-Pis. Our tour guide told us that the locals change his clothes every so often. Next stop is the Grand Platz. It's a big town square with towering buildings (Baroque guild houses) all the way around. We did manage to find an internet cafe in Brussels and to check our e-mail. No one told me the keyboard would be different! It was a challenge to type. We walked back to the hotel at our own pace, in the rain. The tour group was served veal for our dinner. This is in the midst of the Hoof and Mouth and the Mad Cow outbreaks. Most people passed on the veal. We got back up to our room about dusk in time to look out at a splendid, complete rainbow that I couldn't fit into one picture. I had to take two! And I still missed part of it. Mom was impressed with the bathroom. The tile floor was heated. It was kinda nice.
April 25, 2001 - Wednesday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out of Belgium and to Holland. Of course, we passed a few windmills along the way. Did you know that most of the canals are above ground level? They have built up little river banks. The whole area is criss crossed with oodles of canals. In some places, the canal are used instead of a fence around a pasture.
When we got into Amsterdam, we rode on a
glass covered boat down several of the main canals. Mom seems to have enjoyed it. Some of the
houses in Amsterdam have settled funny and are crooked. Look close and you can see the gap between the buildings changes size. Of course, everyone knows that Amsterdam is pretty liberal with some of their laws. You want to buy something unusual to smoke? You can buy it at places called CoffeeShops. We saw quite a few of them, mostly on land, while we were there. Our tour included a visit to a diamond factory. It was pretty much a sales pitch for us to BUY diamonds. They had quite a selection but diamonds aren't all that interesting, to me anyway. After that we were released to explore on our own. We found a net cafe and checked up on things at home. This place had free internet access with a purchase of a drink. Mom had the drink while I got on-line for 20 minutes. We didn't have enough local currency to pay for lunch so we had to look around for a place that would take plastic. While we were looking, we noticed other people turning to look at something. We stopped to to see what was going on. Seems someone was tired of getting wet and was looking to
buy an umbrella. It was a icky, wet day. He went on his merry way.
We found a nice little cafe with tables on the second floor and we sat next to a window to watch for more 'interesting' people down below. We'd heard that the doorways and hallways in Amsterdam are narrow so they have to use
furniture hooks to hoist stuff up to the upper floors. We continued wandering around town but never did find the 'Red Light' district. Our lovely tour guide left us in Amsterdam without us having seen where our hotel was. She did point out the bus station. Wasn't that nice of her? Good thing I had my itenerary with me so I could point out the hotel name to the bus driver. He nodded and I think he said he did go there. We hopped on board the local bus, paid our fare and crossed our fingers. The driver was nice and let us know when we got to the right stop and there was the hotel, The Tulip Inn. WHEW!! The Tulip Inn is really new. The walls were covered with rather odd paintings and
lamps in nooks. Our group was fed chicken dinner this time. There may be hope yet for this tour!
April 26, 2001 - Thursday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out for Germany. We had a little lunch stop in Cologne. We stopped next to a huge, old cathedral. Mom and I crossed the street towards the smell of a bakery. FOOD!! We had to do the point and hold up one or two fingers to place our order but that was alright. This was freshly-baked, SOFT, goodies. As we walked out and were looking around, chomping on our wonderful snacks, a man stopped and asked where we were from. He was from Kuwait. He offered to take our pictures and then insisted that mom take a picture of me with him. Uhm...ok. Here is mom discussing my sale price. Why is she smiling so much? Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head to the Rhine river for a cruise. It's STILL raining and drab. Good day to be sitting on a bus. We had a little wait before our boat arrived so I had a chance to pick up some sand for Kim. Good thing they'd had a little flooding recently so there was sand washed up on the path next to the river. Time to board the boat and head down the river. As we got on board, our tour gude mentioned that it was too bad that it was raining and we wouldn't be able to sit outside. Yah, right! Guess where I headed immediately? I grabbed the first table on the outside stern of the boat where I'd be out of the wind but still have a great view around me. AAAhhh.....This is the life! There were oodles of hillside vinyards and castles on the hilltops. We were busy gawking at the scenery and while we weren't looking, Ducky climbed up to have a look around for himself. Wasn't it nice of mom to give Ducky an ever better vantage point?
Next stop, Heidelberg! Anyone for a beer? Audrey hustled us through, pointing out a few things and mentioned that we shouldn't buy our cuckoo clocks here. There was a better place we'd be at later. HAH! That's reason enough for me to buy my clock now. I stopped in a little shop, mom and I were the only customers. The sales clerk turned each clock to cuckoo for me as I looked at them so I could pick out just the right one. I also bought a cute little porcelain cat, wrapped in a blanket with a little mouse next to him. Hurry, hurry, shop and back on the bus to head out. We sat on the bus forever this day. We got to the hotel so late that it was dark when we checked into the Renaissance Hotel -Karlsruhe. We saw nothing of the town.
April 27, 2001 - Friday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out for a drive through the Black Forest towards Switzerland. We had a little coffee break at a tourist shop along a busy main road. It had so many tourists in the store that you could barely buy anything. Guess who told us to buy our cuckoo clocks at THAT place. I got so frustrated waiting to buy a simple t-shirt for Devan that I didn't even try to look at the clocks there. Besides, I had MY clock. Hurry, hurry and back on the bus to head for the Rhine Falls. We had to hike down a bit to the restaurant and bathrooms. And then hurry, hurry, eat and back up the bus. The first stop in Lucerne was to take some people in our group to there optional trip up to Mt Pilatus. Audrey got us on to a small side street and Eddie had to back that bus up for about a half mile. We applauded him when he got back on the right road. She next asked a local lady for directions. We found the right place and let out several of our group. We arrived at our hotel early enough to do some exploring. Audrey told us all that it was a 10 minute walk from the hotel to town. Ok! Let's go. It took us about a half hour to find town and on the way, we passed several bus stops. One of them right outside the hotel. My next project was to learn the bus route. I wasn't doing that walk again if I didn't have to. We hit a ATM and so we were set to enjoy our two day stay in Lucerne. We tried to find a chat room that was no longer there but a nice man gave us directions to one he knew about across town. He marked up my map so I could find the place and even wrote the street address on the map. We took the public bus back to our hotel. Piece of cake! We met up with the rest of our tour group for dinner and then mom and I relaxed on the veranda and watched the sunset on the Swiss Alps.
April 28, 2001 - Saturday
aahh...we get to sleep in, FINALLY. Isn't that what vacations are for? We met up at 10am for a walking tour of Lucerne. I know why Audrey is so skinny. She doesn't know how to take a leisurely walk and enjoy the scenary. We walked along the waterfront, passed nice flower beds, statues and terraced apartments. We turned in towards town to see the Lion Monument, Thorwaldsen's masterful stone sculpture in honor of the heroic Swiss Guard of Louis XVI. It is carved out of a rock cliff face. Very cool! There is a little pool in the front of the lion. Probably to keep people from climbing on the lion. Mom and I took a few minutes to look around and take some pictures and suddenly the rest of our tour group had vanished. HEY! At least I knew where the hotel was this time. I guess I can find the famous covered bridge on my own. It's not like I paid thousands of dollars for this guided tour or anything. Mom joined up with some others in the group for an optional folklore party with yodeling and alphorn blowing for lunch and I went to look for the chat room across town. We'd planned to meet back up at a specified time in town but neither of us knew how long the yodeling party would last. Mom and I eventually met up in the afternoon, took the public bus back into town, and did some more shopping and looking around. And we can't forget to get Kim some more sand! Let me tell you, that water is COLD! We took about three hours to meander back to the hotel. Lucerne is very nice. Even Ducky enjoyed it.
April 29, 2001 - Sunday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out for a drive to Lichtenstein. We stopped at the Switzerland/Lichtenstein border to show our passports. This is the only picture I have with our wonderful tour guide in it. Look close. We had to wait around for quite a while.
We got into Lichtenstein so early in the morning that nothing was open. I managed to buy some cough drops and a hat pin at a magazine kiosk. Mom promptly tossed my hat pin into the gutter. She claims it was an accident. hmmpf! We looked and looked and finally found it. On the hill above our parking lot was the 'royal' residence. We loaded back up on the bus again and headed for Mad King Ludwig's Neuschwanstein Castle. It is suppose to be the model for Cinderella's castle in Disneyland. We stopped here for our lunch and trinket shopping break. I ordered Black Forest chocolate cake for dessert. mmmmm..... Then I hit the little souvenier store and found Bernie looking sad and forlorn wearing his liederhosen. While we were parked looking at the castle, Eddie found Ducky waddling down the bus aisle by himself. Ducky got back off the bus and then waited for his turn to board the bus with everyone else. We drove some more until we arrived in Munich, right on past the Olympic Stadium, 1000 foot high Television Tower and 17th century Nymphenburg Palace mentioned in our brochure. I hope no one else blinked. I know I didm't have a chance to see those 'highlights'. We got to the hotel and had dinner. We paid to go on the option tour to the Hofbrauhaus. We were lead through Munich, another walking tour, to see the Glockenspiel. By the time we got to the hofbrauhaus, I was more than ready for a beer. As we were about to enter the place, our tour guide let us know that we would have 45 minutes and to meet her out front at that time. WHA?!? What's with the time limit? It was packed, hot and we hadn't had a chance to get local currency. What fun. Instead mom and I had our look around the place and then did some window shopping in the dark.
April 30, 2001 - Monday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out for a drive towards Austria. First stop was in Salzburg for a walking tour through the very pretty Mirabell garden. Our tour guide reminded us to stay off the grass but Bernie just couldn't resist the feel of grass on his bear feet. Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart. Once we were set free from our tour guide, we were able to have some fun and go back to the farmers' market for some good lunch snacks. That's a kohlrobi in my hand. Of course, we had a time limit and so we headed back towards the bus, via the Mirabell garden. Who knows what this purple plant is? We rode on our bus for a bit more, along the Danube Valley and arrived in Vienna. Mom and I bought a 24-hour bus pass, took the underground and found another net cafe for a check-in. Did you know that no one checks your bus pass? It's all on a honor system. We got back to our hotel room early and had a nice relaxing evening.
May 1, 2001 - Tuesday
We all met up for a walking tour of Vienna. We saw the Hofburg Palace winter residence of the Imperial Royal Family, St Stephen's cathedral (it had a fire and the black is from the smoke) and street performers/mimes. We wandered the city, taking the underground across town to look for tulip bulbs. No luck. Whew! It was a hot day! Most stores were closed because it was May Day. A holiday in Europe. Even the Lippezan stallions weren't practicing today. RATS!! We took the tour of the stables and I actually got to see some of the horses. That was neat!!
I guess the air conditioning man couldn't fix the hotel a/c due to the holiday. It wasn't working for the two days we were there. We kept the room door open as much as possible to keep the air flowing through. We had a view of the alley AGAIN but this time we had some entertainment.
May 2, 2001 - Wednesday
After feeding the pigeons and mom worrying about them flying into the room, we did the usual....
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out of Vienna for a drive to Klagenfurt. It was another gorgeous day! We made an early morning half hour rest stop in Kindburg. This town wasn't on our itinerary. It should have been! Ducky, Bernie and I had fun during our little stop. I was even splashing Lillian with water. The town had their own May Pole still up. Of course, it was too good to be true and soon we were back on the HOT bus. Seems the a/c suddenly stopped working on it. Within an hour, we were stopping again, I'm not sure why, in a the middle of no-where. Seems we HAD to stop for an hour and a half NOW rather than extend our stay back in Kindburg. Lucky for us we arrived in a town that literally closed their doors at noon. It gave us time to sit on a curb and sweat. And then, back on the bus, driving over Semmering Pass, through Styria and Carinthia, to our next stop of Klagenfurt, Austria. We got checked into our hotel, (not the one in our itinerary) asked our tour guide where and how far town was and headed off for our 'short walk' into town. Audrey had told us it was a 10 minute walk to town. It was a straight shot into town, along a nice foot path and stream. After walking for more than an HOUR in the 80+ sunshine, we found the center of town and it's famous dragon fountain. We weren't about to walk BACK that far so we found a bank machine for cash and then checked out the local bus routes. Why didn't we hear about the bus route?! It was a 10 minute bus ride and a one block walk to our hotel. Just in time for dinner where Audrey met us with our 'complimentary' drinks. We sat down, requesting a lot of drinking water and were served boiled beef for dinner. When the waitress came to clear the table and saw that I hadn't eaten mine, she seemed offended. I guess she didn't know there was a hoof and mouth disease going around. We skipped out early after dinner so we could git some sleep before....you guessed it...that hurry, hurry routine in the morning. On the way out of the dining room, I had a quick talk with Audrey to let her know that we've been getting alley-view rooms each night so far, and I'd like a NICE room for our two day stay in Rome. She said she could do that for me.
May 3, 2001 - Thursday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out towards Venice, city of canals. Our lovely weather has left us and it's a cool and rainy day. We walked down to the waterfront to board a glass covered boat to shuttle us to the city of Venice, which is built in a tide flat/river delta. The people thought it would make their city hard to attack since no one could walk or ride through the mud to attack. It worked! We stood around for a while to wait for our local guide. I think the rain made mom a bit goofy. Our guide met us and asked for a couple of tall people to hold up the city map for everyone to see. This is the Bridge of Sighs. So named because a prisoner, on his way to execution, caught his last glimpse of daylight/sky through those small windows. Our tour included a glass factory where I drooled on some gorgeous hand blown art. At the end of our guided tour, our tour guide was so annoyed with us (we couldn't hear much of her touring), that she stomped off without waiting for any tips. We now had some free time. We stopped in St Mark's Square for shopping and gawking. Mom was all excited about going on a gondola ride. I was NOT even going with her. Off they go down different canals throughout the city. The part I hated about our tour of Venice was when we had to walk the plank between the dock and boat. Yikes!!
May 4, 2001 - Friday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out for ROME, the Eternal City. We had a rest stop along our way where the ladies had a looong wait in line to use the water closet. Here's mom posing with anItalian police officer outside the rest stop. We rode our bus through the Apennine Hills to Assissi where we stopped at the massive 13th-century Basilica of St. Francis built above the saint's grave. After walking through the basilica (no photos allowed), Ducky, Bernie and mom needed to take a little rest break. We had a little time to explore Assissi before reboarding the bus. Mom and I made our way back seperately because we were both on missions. Who could find a water closet first. Audrey's directions were wrong again.
On the way towards Rome, you guessed it, another truck/rest stop where Ducky and Bernie teamed up to phone the airport for a flight home. Mom wasn't too impressed with them and told them so. We drove along the shore of the Adriatic sea and Tiber & Po rivers before arriving in Rome in the afternoon. We had a nice leisurely dinner, of pizza and beer, in the hotel lobby. Our hotel room had the smallest beds of our whole trip. Thank you, Audrey for coming through with my ONE request!
May 5, 2001 - Saturday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out for our tour of Rome with our local tour guide. This time, we all were given 'Whispers" so we could hear the tour guide. Yippee! We started our tour outside the Vatican Museum, waiting in line for a while. We walked through lots of hallways covered with paintings, sculptures and tapestries. Pretty neat!! And then we were led into the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo's paintings. No photos allowed. DANG!! We then went into St Peter's Basilica and Square where the Pope hangs out, within the well-guarded Vatican City. We gathered together and swarmed onto a city bus for the trip to see the colosseum. We walked down the center of the colosseum. Look where we are, Gary!! You could look down into the cells where prisoners, gladiators and/or animals were kept. We had a few minutes to look around and then met across the street to swarm onto another city bus again for a ride back to our hotel. We had more pizza, beer and ice cream in the lobby, to celebrate mom's birthday. Very nice!! The rain was really coming down as we went to bed at 7pm that night. I, briefly, felt sorry for those people that went on the optional walking tour to Tivoli and dinner.
May 6, 2001 - Sunday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head towards Florence, Italy, Cradle of the Renaissance to the north. We couldn't take our usual truck/rest stop this morning because of all the football hooligan's swarming around. So we ended up checking into our hotel early. Since the rooms weren't ready, we couldn't have our luggage. No coat for me. It was still raining hard but there was no way I was going to miss out on the walking tour to see Michelangelo's David!! We went next door to a little restaurant to get some lunch before our tour started. I think we found the rudest Italian ever. He wouldn't wait on everyone and when he did take orders, he mixed up them up. After that, I was ready to do some walking to let off some steam. We met back in the hotel lobby where I managed to borrow a spare umbrella from the hotel Grande Albergo - Mediterraneo, Firenze. THANKS!! I spent most of the time hunkered under my umbrella trying to keep reasonably dry as we hiked around. I had to check my umbrella before we toured the Galleria dell'Accademia to see David. Smart people!
May 7, 2001 - Monday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out towards Nice with a stop at the famous leaning tower. It was another day with lots of rain but this time I had my coat. If you look closely, you can see the cables pulling/holding up the tower. 180' high and 16' out of perpendicular. Construction/restoration was just being finished up while we were there to save it from toppling over. Back on the bus, to drive past Italian and French Riviera resorts. We stopped at a perfume factory to see how perfumes and scented soaps were made. It was interesting but hard on the nose. I had to escape without buying anything to save my nose. We arrived in Nice to plenty of bright sunshine. We had another alley view but this time, there was a net cafe tucked into that alley. Yah hoo! We went for an exploratory walk to get our bearings. The beach and Promenade des Anglais, was only a block away so I just had to get wet! I left the kids basking on the beach while I dipped my toes. We then walked up several blocks, just for Michael (chat friend) to find Boulevard Gambetta where his Aunt Alice lives.
He promised she'd give us a free lunch if we could find her. No luck! We had to settle for a sidewalk table outside the restaurant, with a waiter that didn't understand us very well, pointing out items on the menu. We then headed back to our hotel, stopping at a bank machine and drug store for cold medicine, to discuss our plan of attack for tomorrow.
May 8, 2001 - Tuesday
Guess what?! We got to sleep in as long as we want today. Over two weeks into our vacation before we could do it. aahhhhh.... We really soaked up the sun hanging out on the Cote d'Azur, Blue Coast. You might have noticed that the beach isn't sand. It's made up of rounded pebbles. A bit hard on Bernie's butt so mom had to hold him sometimes. After we got tired of basking, and mom was pinking up a bit, we walked around looking into lots of shops, bought some trinkets and watched a cat juggler/street performer. Look close. He has a solid black cat on his left shoulder and a black/white cat in his right hand.
Tonight, we were on our own so I wanted to find a nice French restaurant to celebrate our wonderful day. I like seafood so I ordered scampi on rice. I didn't get what I expected but it was still yummy.
May 9, 2001 - Wednesday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out towards Lyon. Our first stop was the picturesque hilltop town of St Paul de Vence, where we could then take a 10 minute walk to see a winery. Instead, we waited at a little cafe/store and enjoyed a coke or ice cream, while some of the group hiked up the hill. Our next stop was Cannes, opulent resort of film festivals, millionaire yachtsmen and bikinied beauties. It was the first day of the film festival and there was a lot of hub-bub going on getting ready for the nights festivities. We didn't spot any stars or souvenir magnets. After ditching Audrey, we stopped outside the Hotel Carlton where Liz and Richard used to renedevous and did some looking around. Back on the bus, for a drive through the Rhone Valley and on to Lyon, the country's second-largest city. We checked into our Concorde Hotel and mom was properly impressed. We had a HUGE room, overlooking the Rhone river, and furnished with desk and big beds for Ducky and Bernie.
May 10, 2001 - Thursday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out towards Paris. aww....we have a nice room. Do we have to leave? We followed the valley of the River Saone into Burgundy. We stopped in Beaune (pronounced Bone) for our rest stop today. We bought some lunch, trinkets and a present for Tom. We managed to be 10 minutes late getting back to our tour bus. Oops! At another rest stop today, before we got to Paris, we noticed on the map that we near a town called Le Biche which just happens to be where mom's grandfather Koehl was born. That was cool! We arrived in Paris and went straight to the Eiffel Tower for our visit to the first floor for a bird's-eye view. We waited and waited for an elevator to take us up. Then we couldn't all get in at once. I went up and had to wait for mom to arrive before I started looking around. It was worth the wait. There are four elevators on the Eiffel tower but when we arrived, only two were running. While we were up, looking around, one of those was shut down. It took us forever to get back down. That'll be memorable! Once we got back to the hotel, we had time to go for a little walk, in search of dinner. We found a grocery store and had the idea that we could save some money by just taking some fresh food up to our room instead of eating in a restaurant. While I was bagging our few things, a man came up to me and pointed at my bag that I'd put on the floor. I looked at it, trying to figure out what he wanted. Eventually, with a little translating from another customer in the check-out line, I found out he was store security and he wanted to see if I was shoplifting anything in my bag. Ooooh!! I opened my bag for his inspection and we continued with buying our groceries. On the way back to the hotel, we found where some bus stops were and figured out which ones would be best to use if we stayed in Paris and explored on our own. If we leaned out of our window, we could see the Eiffel tower. We watched the spot lights coming on as dusk came.
May 11, 2001 - Friday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head out see Paris. We drove right past the Arc de Triomphe, Opera, Madeleine, Louvre, and Champs-Elysees mentioned in our itinerary as sights to see. We stopped, with our local guide, at the Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame. The arches are filled with 3-D carvings of saints. Right in front of the entrance, there is a plaque marking the center of Paris. Superstition has it that if you touch the plaque, you will have good luck. From inside the cathedral, you can see some gorgeous stained glass windows. Next, we rode to a place just far enough from the Eiffel Tower that we could fit it all in one picture. We liked this local guide. When we heard she'd be guiding the three hour tour of the Louvre later in the day, we signed up for the optional tour. Before the afternoon tour, we had about an hour of free time to explore downtown Paris. We bought a few trinkets and I got two bandeaus for my hair. Aaahh...much cooler that way. We re-boarded the bus and headed for the tour of the Louvre, home of Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo among several other great pieces of art. Even Ducky found a statue that spoke to him. We were all suppose to meet back at the large glass diamond at the end of the tour. Well, MOST of us were there. Our bus left the Louvre, knowing we were missing one of our group. I heard later she did manage to get back to the hotel on her own. I'm sure glad that I wasn't left behind! We got back to our hotel room and packed and repacked until everything fit nicely into a few small carry-on bags, getting my every-growing suitcase back down to a managable size.
May 12, 2001 - Saturday
Hurry, hurry, eat and back on the bus to head home! We had time to tease our driver Eddie about the suitcase before we boarded a bus that would take us to the airport. We had lots of time before our flight left but some people had an earlier flight. The driver wouldn't leave the hotel BEFORE he received his tip. He dropped us off at the wrong airline entrance and we had to lug suitcases for quite a ways to check in. What tip did he earn?? At the check out corner, I requested a seat, on the flight from London to Seattle, with leg room. We had a long wait before our flight left but we were ready! When we landed in London, I bought a Stephen King book, Rose Madder. It had to be the most miserable flight ever. We sat on the runway for an hour while the crew tried to figure out why the plane had a weight discrepancy. Defective switch. Ok, let's go! I was in an aisle seat with someone in front of me that insisted on reclining, mom to my left and a nose picking, very jittering smoker suffering from withdrawl on her left. We were stuck that way for 11 hours. I'm sure glad I bought that book. I was sooo glad when we finally landed at SeaTac. I'll never believe another airline that claims they have 'leg room'.
Last edited June 24, 2001
