Happy New Year and goodbye Europe (for now)

Today is our last full day in Europe.  I’m not counting tomorrow since we leave Arles at 11:00 and take the train back to Paris.  Travel days don’t count.

Last night we celebrated the new year a full 6 hours ahead of normal.  Back home in Hagerstown there is a new tradition.  The dropping of a Krumpe Do-nut.  Just like the ball in New York City.  They did it at 7:00 instead of midnight because it was a family affair.  I really hoped it was going to drop at 6:00 because then we could have watched the donut drop at midnight our time.  It was a relaxing evening playing games with just the 5 of us.  Usually the girls and I spend our New Years Eve with the Porters.  And Mom and Dad at Aunt Dawn and Uncle Kevin’s house.

 Our New Years Eve spread.  Fruit (pineapple, kiwi, and some kind of orange fruit), shrimp, baguette, cheese, olives and salami, yummy pastries and chocolate covered marshmallows.  And the bowl of candy mom brought from home.  Wine and champagne.

New Years Day brings corned beef and cabbage prepared by Mom.  I couldn’t find corned beef here in Arles.  Well maybe they have it but the signs at the market and the packages at the stores are in french.  I am learning the french words for some food items but not corned beef.  So instead of getting something that is really not what we wanted we went for a pork roast.  Pork in french is spelled porc so it’s pretty easy to distinguish.  We did buy a head of cabbage at the market yesterday.  Mom says eating cabbage is for good luck for the new year so we are eating it.

I am going to miss the markets here in France.  I’ve enjoyed going to them twice a week to get fresh produce.  I’ve been able to get pineapples for 1 euro.  And lots of clementines very cheap.  We also got this orange fruit that is very good.  It tastes kind of like a melon but sweet.  Does anyone know what it is?  The box says cuquefrut on it but google didn’t help.  Here is a picture.

We’ve done more sight seeing since my parents got here.  The first Monday we took the train to Avignon to visit their Christmas Market.  It was not as big as the one in Colmar and Mom says the one they visited in Paris was bigger.  I managed to buy the 5 tickets from a lady at the train station who did not speak English.  I use a lot of hand motions and I do well with numbers.  I just start with “Parlez-vous anglais” – do you speak English.  Or “Je ne parle pas francais” – I do not speak French.  Or just smile and nod and pretend I know what they are saying.  And hope that I get what I want.

While in Avignon we visited the Palais des Papes.  It is a large (and I’m talking BIG) palace built by the Pope beginning in 1335.  It took 20 years to complete.  Others added and took away from the original building through the years.  http://www.palais-des-papes.com/en/content/discover is the link to find out more about the palace.

  

We also took a bus to St. Remy de Provence.  Van Gogh spent some time here at the asylum after leaving Arles.  My favorite painting by him is Starry Night.  It was painted in St. Remy.  We walked around and visited areas where Van Gogh did some paintings.

 A statue of Van Gogh at the asylum

 The courtyard inside the asylum

    I love all of the olive trees!

While in St. Remy we went to the Joel Durand Chocolatier boutique.  Manon sent me some chocolates from here for Christmas in 2009.  I’ve been wanting some more ever since.  I got a box for myself and will be enjoying them at home during January fondly remembering France.

A few more sights of Arles…

The Roman Amphitheater

       

 It was very windy on top of the tower.

 Views of Arles from the Amphitheater tower.

In Arles there is also a Roman Theater.  Most of it has been destroyed but some is left.    

And Constantine’s Baths.  They are mostly in ruins now.  I am so glad we have running water in our homes now and we can bathe in private.

    We did have a few presents under our tree on Christmas and stockings.  No room in our suitcases for big presents to bring home this year.

    

A few last pictures of us in Arles.  See you soon in America!

Au Revoir,

Robin, Holly & Katie

 

Arles, France – our last stop

We arrived in Arles on Saturday November 30th.  With all of our luggage, that’s 5 bags!  Marie-Line dropped us off at the train station in Marne la Vallee about an hour before our train left.  We got a bite to eat then waited for our train.  We had to take an escalator down to the train track.  With 5 bags 2 of us would have to take 2 down.  The girls thought they would not like doing this so we did our usual steps routine.  It’s what we did when we had to carry suitcases up or down steps at other train stations.  One would stay at the top and one would go to the bottom and I would take the carry the suitcases up or down the steps.  Holly usually took the lightest but that would still leave 2 trips for me and the suitcases were not light.  Sometimes a good Samaritan would help.  But it reminded me of the episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon decides to move to Bozeman after getting robbed.  A man offers to help with his bag then runs off with it.  That never happened to us 🙂

The man I am renting this apartment from met us at the train station to drive us to the rental.  He did not have a big car but somehow we managed to get all the suitcases into the car and all of us.  Though Katie had to sit on Holly’s lap in the back seat.  With no seat belt!  For those who know me this does not happen in my world.  It was only a 5 minute drive and through the town so we were not going fast.  And we all survived the ride!

Way back during the summer before we left on our trip I was watching some Rick Steeves DVDs that my dad had purchased.  As I was watching the part on Provence I thought I saw the place we were renting. What!  I paused the DVD and got my laptop.  I pulled the address up on Google Maps (LOVE this) and sure enough it was the same place.  How cool was that?  The kids weren’t as excited as me.  Here is a picture of me at our door.

Our rental is on a pedestrian street off of the road leading around the Roman Arena.  It was built in the year 90 A.D. (oops I might have told some people 70 – sorry).  It’s old.  Almost as old as my Dad but then he is older than dirt (he he – just joking Dad).  The rental is nice.  It has 3 levels.  The first level is a combo living room, dining room, and kitchen.  The best part of the first floor is the dryer.  Yep you heard that right I have a dryer!  This is only the 2nd time in our 4 months that I haven’t had to hang up our clothes to dry.  The second level has a bathroom (small shower but good water pressure) and a bedroom with 2 twin beds.  The third level is a bedroom with a double bed.  So when my parents come I will be sleeping on the couch.  I will definitely be ready for my bed when we get home.

I’ve had fun exploring this town.  It’s not too big so I am able to walk everywhere I need to go.  The Monoprix grocery store is only a 5 minute walk and the train station is less than 10 minutes away.  We haven’t gone outside of this town yet.  I’m waiting for my parents to get here before we go to surrounding towns.

The Roman Arena is still used by the town.  Bullfighting is done in the arena in April and September and during the summer plays and concerts are performed here.  Pretty cool that it is still used today and is not just a ruin.  This weekend it will be lit up with lights to celebrate Christmas.  Here are a couple pictures of the arena.

  

The weather has been nice since we’ve gotten here.  Back home they have had about a foot of snow in the last couple of weeks.  Here the temperature has been in the mid to upper 50s.  Holly considers this t-shirt weather.  She has been out walking around with no jacket and a t-shirt.  I agree that it is nice but I’m wearing my coat.  We’ve had a few days of clouds and we are getting rain now.  We didn’t get any rain in Arles until my parents came to France.  Hmm, did they bring the bad weather?  Hopefully it will clear up some so we can enjoy some sight seeing together.

These are more sights in the town of Arles

                   I love the bright colors of the shutters.

On Wednesday and Saturday mornings there is a market in Arles.  There is so much to choose from.  Fruits, vegetables, breads, meats, fish, cheese, spices, olives, clothes and other household goods.  Since we have been here I’ve gone to the market every time it is open.  It’s nice to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables.

     Anyone want some snails?

    

During this time of year they even sell Christmas trees at the market.  We got one on Wednesday.

 Here I am carrying the tree home.

 It’s beginning to look a little like Christmas.  Our tree is small and sits on the cabinet.

I’m very excited to have my parents come and join us for the last part of our adventure.  They will be here on Sunday afternoon.  I want to thank all of mom’s coworkers for letting her have off during Christmas so that we can be together.  They have been with us for every Christmas morning since Holly was born 13 years ago.  It is great to continue this tradition and share the joy of Christmas with them.

I wish each and everyone of you a Merry Christmas.

 

 

Venice, Italy 11/26 – 11/29

After our detour we arrived in Venice around 5 p.m. on Tuesday evening.  Our bus from Bologna dropped us off at Marco Polo airport.  According to the directions given to me by the person I was renting the apartment from we would need to take a bus to Piazzale Roma then get a water bus to the San Silvestro stop.  It cost 6 euros a person for the bus and 7 euros per person for the water bus.  So add another 38 euros to the cost of our trip to Venice.  This was cheaper than getting a water taxi which would have been at least double the cost of a water bus.

I wish we would have gotten in at our scheduled time of 2:00 because by the times we got to Piazzale Roma it was dark.  This square is one of the main hubs for the water buses.  There are a many lines you could take.  We took line 1 which had a few stops before ours.

 I usually take pictures before I head onto a bus or train so I know how many stops before I have to get off.  Gotta love the iPhone 🙂

As we got close to our stop I called Sebastiano to meet us there.  He is the agent for our rental.  He says he lives about 5 minutes away from our rental if we needed him for anything.  We followed Sebastiano to the apartment.  I’m glad he was there to show us the way because I would have gotten lost!  I knew that there were no cars in Venice but lots of little roads.  No they are more like alleyways but smaller than alleys from home.  They don’t need to fit cars in them.  Some were even small enough that I could stretch my arms out and touch the buildings on both sides.  It very much seemed like I was a mouse in a maze looking for the cheese – our apartment.  We made lots of turns and since the buildings were so old they all looked the same to me.  I had no idea where we were headed or how to get back.  I was lost and overwhelmed.  By the time we got to the rental (less than a 5 minute walk) I felt that I would spend the next 3 days in the apartment not venturing out because I would never find my way back.

This is the description of the rental.  “We offer a lovely apartment (attic) on the fourth and fifth floor (no elevator or lift) of a historical Venetian building located close to San Polo square (historical centre of Venice)”  Yes it is lovely and yes there is no elevator.  I am so glad we only brought 1 carry on piece of luggage for the 3 of us – it was packed full!  By the time I got to the apartment I was beat.  The apartment has one bedroom on the main level with the bathroom, living room and kitchen.  In the living room were stairs leading up to a loft and a terrace.  The girls slept up here since it had two twin beds.  There were wood beams all throughout the apartment and quite a few were lower than the tops of our heads.  While staying here it was not uncommon to stoop when walking through the apartment or suffer the consequences.

After getting settled I walked to the grocery store to get us dinner and supplies for the next few days.  I made it there and back without getting lost.  We had spaghetti and salad for dinner – ya know cause we were it Italy.

Wednesday was Katie’s birthday and when we first started planning this trip she really wanted to go to Venice and ride on a gondola.  That was our plan for the day.  It meant I would have to leave the apartment and hope we could find it again.  Luckily there was a great map in the apartment.  It was the MapEasy guide to Venice.  It was made of a material that would not tear and it was great for finding our way around.  Navigating Venice was much easier than I thought it would be.  There were signs on the walls of buildings pointing directions for most places we wanted to go.  Yeah I made some wrong turns and found a dead end but mostly we found our way.  Thinking back about it now I would say it was like a huge maze with dead ends but eventually I found my way to the prize.

The night before Sebastiano pointed out a restaurant at Campo San Polo that was good.  We decided to eat lunch here.  Holly got lasagna.  Katie got a cheeseburger and fries – yep 🙂 And I got pumpkin ravioli with nuts and poppy seed.

 O my goodness.  This was like heaven on a plate.  It was so good!  I know Holly would have enjoyed a bite of it but she couldn’t because of the walnuts.  And Katie didn’t want any so I got to enjoy the whole thing.  This was my best meal of the trip so far.

After our bellies were full we continued on to the Rialto Bridge.  This really is a touristy area.  Lots of shops and stalls selling their fares.  And we helped the economy of Venice buying our share of goods.  How am I getting all of this home!  We also found a place to take a gondola ride.  I’ve read that it is expensive doing this.  I was expecting about 40 euros a piece.  We were given a quote of 80 euros for all three of us and while that is expensive for a short boat ride it was less than I was expecting.  And it was Katie’s birthday.  Now she can say on her 12th birthday she was in Venice and got to ride on a Gondola.  Ha future husband top that!

   View of the Rialto Bridge from the gondola

   It is so neat how the buildings are right on the water.  These were taken while we were on the grand canal.  It is larger than others.

     Don’t you love the laundry hanging up to dry.  I have been hanging my clothes up – just not outside!

   This is our gondola driver / gondola steerer / gondoleer / what are they called?

After our gondola ride we walked around a bit then headed back to the apartment.  Thank goodness Sebastiano lives close because Wednesday evening the power went off in the apartment.  I was using the oven and I figured I must have blown a fuse.  There was a flashlight on the bookshelf and I looked around the apartment for the fuse box.  I couldn’t find one so I gave Sebastiano a call.  He came over and flipped it back on.  The fuse box is located at the ground floor next to the entrance.  I never would have found that.

Thursday – Thanksgiving for those back home – we walked in another direction and found St. Mark’s Square.  In Italian it is Piazza San Marco.  It took us about 45 minutes to find it.  On the way back we went in the direction of Rialto bridge and found that it only took 15 minutes.  For Thanksgiving dinner we had pizza!

Here are a few more pictures of our time in Venice.

 Those yellow signs were what I used to find my way – very helpful.  And look at that cute balcony!

 This man was at a small courtyard signing to everyone around in Italian.  Loved it!

 View from the Rialto Bridge

 We didn’t have a toaster so I didn’t buy these but I’m not sure how it would work.  Wouldn’t the cheese melt off into the toaster?

 This is a HUGE chunk of Parmesan cheese.  For only 12.19 euros that would equal $16.70.  I wish I could have brought some back with me.

 And look at these wheels of cheese!

 Not the same as Heinz ketchup.  Venice is the only place that did not sell Heinz.

Thursday and Friday we had blue skies.

            

Here are a few pictures of the apartment.

 The main bedroom where I slept

   The kitchen.  Because this was the “attic” space of the building there is a lot of space that just can’t be used with the angles of the ceilings.

 The living room and table

 Stairs leading up to the loft. “Hi Holly”

 The loft where the girls slept

 The terrace at the top of the stairs to the loft

  And our only bidet of our trip.  None of tried to use it.  We did our business the American way 🙂

  This is the metal front door to get into the apartment building.

 These are the steps leading up to our attic apartment.  The stone steps are worn down from the centuries of people walking up them.  I’m not sure of the age of this building but it is old!

The view from the terrace

    

And the view from our living room window

  

 

The rest of our time in Colmar, France

The time spent in Colmar was very relaxing.  We didn’t venture out of the town.

We did not have a car so I had to walk to get groceries.  Usually I went every other day to pick up some supplies.  There are 3 different stores I had to choose from.  Lidl is like Aldi and that is where I found some good deals.  Simply Market is like Food Lion and it was the closest to me.  Monoprix is more like the Martins back home.  We are eating meals that we like but not a lot of variety.  The rentals we are staying in have the basic cooking supplies but no extras.  I did find a roast beef and attempted to cook it.  I’m not real good at doing this at home but we wanted something different.  It was edible but I think I will wait until we get back home to do that again.

We planned to go to Switzerland to get fondue.  But we ended up not doing this.  The weather was cold.  The train tickets to get to Basel cost $70 and it would cost about $100 for cheese fondue.  The dessert part of the meal at The Melting Pot is Holly & Katie’s favorite part.  So we decided to skip doing this and go to The Melting Pot sometime when we are home.

We did go to le Musee du Jouet.  It is a toy museum in Colmar.  They had a room of trains.  Displays of old Barbies.  And a display of old dolls.  Some of them looked a little creepy.  I wouldn’t want them in my room while sleeping.  They also had displays of bible scenes and movies using playmobile.  I use to play with these with my brother when I was a kid.  Here are a few pictures from the museum.

 Moses and the Israelites crossing the Red Sea.  Moses is the figure on the right.  He is holding up a staff so the Israelites can cross.  The Egyptians are up above following them.  I can’t wait to see Moses next year at Sight and Sound.

 Noah’s Ark

 David and Goliath

 Little Red Riding Hood

 The Gingerbread Man

 Hansel & Gretel

 Pirates of the Caribbean

 Jurassic Park

 Ice Age

 Lord of the Rings.  I’m not sure of this one.  It’s been a while since I’ve seen this movie and I don’t remember an elephant.  Maybe I got the signs confused.  This is either for Lord of the Rings or Hannibal.

In the old town there are lots of shops to explore and spend your money if you choose to do so.  I enjoyed window shopping.  Unfortunately Holly and Katie are not into shopping.  Is that good or bad?  They did not want to go with me.  I think they get their lack of shopping enthusiasm from their Mimi.  I enjoyed myself and I got to go at my own pace.  They did go with me one day to look around.

Here are a few pictures of the town

 I wonder what it would be like to live in this old part of town.  What does it look like inside? Or this one. 

                    

 They call Colmar “little Venice” because it has a canal running though it.  They even have gondolas to take a ride during the warmer months.

 We did buy one of these little guys.  Yummy!

We ate out only once while in Colmar.  I gave the kids a choice of American style food or french food.  They choose American so we ate at Oh Happy Days.  They sell this gigantic burger.  We went for the regular option.  And it wasn’t as good as home.

Our last weekend in Colmar began Les Marches de Noel de Colmar – the Colmar Christmas Markets.  It started on Friday November 22nd.  We were to leave originally on Saturday but the owners let us stay an extra day for free so we could enjoy the market.  It was cold, in the low 40s, so it felt like Christmas.  I hear that Germany is famous for it’s Christmas Markets.  We were there to early to find out.  But I would have to guess that Colmar is right up there with Germany for them.  There were 5 different areas with stalls set up to sell things.  One of them was inside – to warm up.  And one was geared towards kids.  Holly and Katie’s favorite was a stall selling fruit dipped in chocolate.  We visited both Friday and Saturday.  They had pineapple dipped in chocolate.  I got to try and it was delicious!  I even had a couple glasses of hot wine to warm me up.

I didn’t get as many pictures of the market as I should have.  I was too busy looking at everything.  Here are some of the pictures I did take.

 A Ferris Wheel

      

As I post these I see that I only got pictures of the rides the kids could get on.  Oops.

 This is our rental.  Our apartment is the right side, first floor.

And this is the view from our living room window.

  

 

Quick Venice update

I have more to tell about Colmar but I wanted to share our Venice experience with you.

We flew Easyjet out of Charles du Galle airport in Paris.  Our flight left at 12:25 and everything was going fine until the pilot’s announcement.  He said that we could not fly into Venice because the baggage handlers were on strike and there would be no one to unload the plane.  (But I didn’t check any bags so you can just drop us off.)  Instead we flew in Bologna.

See quite a bit away!  Easyjet did hire buses to drive us to Venice Marco Polo airport – nice of them.  The drive took about 2 hours.  So we arrived in Venice around 5 pm instead of 2 pm.  Just an extra 3 hours to our trip.  But we did make it to our rental and all is well now.  Please pray that the strike is over by Friday when we are to return to Paris.

 

1st week in Colmar, France

It took 3 trains to get from Munich to Colmar.  The first train we did not have assigned seats so we had to go looking for empty ones.  We found a train car that did not have reserved seats but none of them were together.  We had to sit separate but they were all within a few rows of each other.  On the Bahn (German trains) there is a digital sign above each row showing if the seat is reserved for anyone.  So we just looked for some that were blank.  It’s pretty easy to use.  Our second train took us from Stuttgart Germany to Strasbourg France.  It was our first double decker train.  We had seats on top which was nice for looking at the scenery but not so nice for carrying up 3 heavy suitcases.  But I managed.

We got into Colmar around 3:30.  The owner of the apartment we are renting picked us up at the airport along with his son.  Olivier does not speak English but his son does so he was able to translate for us.  The apartment is nice.  It is 2 bedrooms with a combined kitchen and living room area.  I do have a washing machine but again no dryer.  It takes a long time to finish a load of laundry since it has to air dry.  I try to do 1 load every 2 or 3 days to keep up on it.  The machines are always in another language so before I even wash a load I have to translate the words written on the machine.

I have a confession to make.  The first week in London I bought what I thought was laundry soap at the store.  It took me a few weeks before I realized I had not bought soap but fabric softener.  So our clothes were soft but not getting clean.  And the label was in English.  I didn’t even have the excuse of a foreign language.  Not one of my smartest moves on this trip.

We will be spending 3 weeks in Colmar, France.  It is located in NE France close to the borders of Germany and Switzerland.  It is a cute town with a pedestrian area in the old part.  It has a lot of German influence in its buildings.

This first week we haven’t done very much.  We caught up on some schoolwork and just relaxed.  We won’t be doing too much while we are here in Colmar.  It will mostly be for relaxing.  The last weekend we are here is the beginning of the Christmas Markets which will last through the New Year.  We are planning on taking the train to Switzerland some time next week for the day.  We will travel to Basel which is the first large city near us.

 This is the bakery near us that has some incredible European bread!

Here are pictures of Colmar…

        

 

 

News of our trip

We are going to be coming back home early.

We will be flying home on Friday January 3rd the same day as my parents return.

I planned well with finances but some bumps in the road have come up.  And things are more expensive than I planned in Europe – I think it has to do with this exchange rate.

And I miss home.  Yeah I admit it.  I miss my family, my friends, my stuff (I can’t wait to sleep on my own bed and use my own pillow and use a clothes dryer!  Hanging up all my clothes on drying racks is so overrated.)  Holly and Katie are getting home sick too.

We have had a great time and I’m sorry we won’t get to visit Ireland and Scotland (we were close when we were in Northumberland).  We will be going to Venice at the end of November but I would have liked to seen more of Italy.

 

1 week in Munich

The journey to Munich involved 2 trains and a bus.  I still don’t understand why there is not a train that goes to the central station in Munich.  There is a train that goes from Garmisch to Munich-Pasing, a station on the outskirts of Munich.  And there are subway lines that go from Munich-Pasing to the central station.  If only I was in charge.  The travel to Munich went well.  The bus we took was 2 put together with a connection piece in the middle that enable it to make turns.  I don’t know how anyone could drive something like this.  Maybe Angela or Scott could but I certainly couldn’t!

The owner of the apartment met us here to show us around.  This apartment is a 1 bedroom with a sofa bed.  The rent is higher in Munich like it was in London so for this week we are going to make do.  When we go to Colmar next we will have 2 bedrooms again.  Munich along with most of Europe changed their time back on Sunday October 27th.  So the week we were in Munich we were only 5 hours ahead of everyone back home.

Monday was a beautiful day so we decided to take a bike tour of the city.  The place we are staying is 3 stops away from Hauptbanhof – the central station in Munich.  Here you can switch to almost any line and the regional trains that go all throughout Germany stop here.  We are close to the center of Munich but where we are staying it is like a residential area.  I believe it is close to a University.    From this central station we took a subway to Marienplatz.  This is where the large glockenspiel is located.  Noon is one the times you can watch it go around.  We arrived in time to watch it.  It’s one of those things we did during this trip that only needs to be done once in a lifetime.

The bike tour lasted about 4 hours and took us through parts of the city and through the Englische Garten.  There are parts of the park where clothing is optional for sun bathing and because it was a nice day there were some people enjoying the park.  Our tour guide stopped far enough away.  Thank goodness.  He says it is mostly older German men who enjoy doing this.  Holly and Katie must have been zoning out during this stop because when I asked them about it later they did not know the people sunbathing were nude.  Or so they say!

We stopped at the Chinesischer Turm, a beer garden inside the park.  I had my first beer in a Munich beirgarten.  We also had a huge pretzel and some fries.  Then we went to see the people surfing on the river in the park.  We also rode through the Residenz courtyards and saw the White Church.  You can see why it is named this from the pictures below.  The city is fairly level so the 4 hours of riding was easy.  There was only 1 hill.  It was a great day to be out enjoying Munich.  This was my favorite thing we did in Munich.

   The glockenspiel

 Tower of the Old Town Hall

 This is the white church.  It is not called this because of the outside of the building.

 But you can tell why when you walk inside.

 People surfing the river.

We decided that since we rode through the courtyards of the Residenz we should visit it.  This is the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs.  During World War II it was severly damaged.  During the 80s it was rebuilt but the city ran out of money and the last part of the building has a fake facade.  Instead of individual bricks I believe stucco was used and then it was painted to look like bricks.  You can kind of tell in this picture.

On Thursday Neil, Holly & Katie’s dad, came to visit.  He arrived early on Thursday.  He wanted to visit the BMW museum so we took the tour looking at the cars.  Did you know that BMW bought Rolls Royce?  They did so now Rolls Royce are built by BMW.  There are some cool looking cars at the museum.  Old and new.  And they had motorcycles too.  After the museum we had an early dinner at the Hofbrauhaus.  Then we went to see Thor.  Holly really wanted to see this movie when it came out.  She even said she was willing to pay for us to go to an English speaking country to see it.  Luckily we were in a large city for the opening and we were able to find a theater playing it in English!  I am a fan of the Avengers movies.  This one was great.

 Katie and Holly want this car.  You can only fit 2 people into it.  And you open the front to get in.

 The HUGE beer I had at Hofbrauhaus

Friday we went to visit the Dachau concentration camp.  We used a tour guide to go through the camp.  Only those who go through the training provided by Dachau can give tours.  I think it was a good idea using a tour guide.  I only wished that we had more time to look at some of the signs posted around.  It was a very somber experience.  The sorrow I feel for those who experienced this atrocity is great.  Seeing this camp has made my understanding of what others had to go through better.  I can’t imagine going through this and surviving.  I thank God for the life I live and the opportunities I have be given.

 The gate leading into Dachau

 The words on the gate say “work will set you free”  The camp was originally set up as a political prison and the idea was to rehabilitate the prisoners and then release them.  This is part of the propaganda from the Hitler regime.

 This is a memorial created by one of the survivors of the camp showing the bodies of people dying on the electric barbed wire fence.

Our week in Munich ended on a sad experience but it we had a great time.  It was nice to have a visitor and Munich is a fantastic city to visit.

   The views from my living room window this week.  Munich is a city where a lot of people get around by bikes.  They are all over the city.

 

10/21 – 10/25 Garmisch, Germany

We spent 5 days in Garmisch, Germany.  This is the view from the living room in the apartment we are renting.

  

 And this is the apartment we are staying.  We are on the far side with the balcony.

To get from St. Goar to Garmisch we had to take 4 different trains.  This time it was not as scary.  I can navigate my way on German trains and we were getting into Garmisch before sundown.  Having the sun out makes me feel more comfortable.  We arrived in Garmisch around 5 pm.  It was about a 15 minute walk from the train station or we could have gotten a taxi for about 10 euros.  Of course we walked.  It was an easy walk.  The owner met us at the apartment and showed us around.  This place has 2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bath.  No washer or dryer so I will have to wait until we get to Munich to clean our clothes.  I love having the balcony.  I sat out there many mornings having a cup of coffee.  This place had a coffee maker.  A few of them did not.

At the grocery store there was a small area that had American food.  I was able to get mac & cheese, not Kraft but Katie liked it.  And they had Campbell’s tomato soup.  Holly was excited about having this.  We haven’t been able to find ranch dressing since England.  And there I only found it in the Sainsbury’s and it was Paul Newman’s.  But they do have Heinz ketchup.

The town of Garmisch is a combined town with Partenkirchen.  Here is a history of the town found on Wikipedia.

Garmisch and Partenkirchen remained separate until their respective mayors were forced by Adolf Hitler to combine the two market towns in 1935 in anticipation of the 1936 Winter Olympic games. Today, the united town is casually (but incorrectly) referred to as Garmisch, much to the dismay of Partenkirchen’s residents. Most visitors will notice the slightly more modern feel of Garmisch while the fresco-filled, cobblestoned streets of Partenkirchen offer a glimpse into times past. Early mornings and late afternoons in pleasant weather often find local traffic stopped while the dairy cows are herded to and from the nearby mountain meadows.

I enjoyed walking around in the town and window shopping.  We did buy some chocolate at a store.  It was good.  Quite a few of the buildings have pictures painted on them.  I thought I had taken more pictures but I only have 1.  Here it is.

Thursday was a beautiful day.  It was in the 60s and it was going to be a clear day.  We decided to take a trip to the Alpspix.  There are two options of mountains to explore.  Mount Zugspitze which is close to 10,000 feet.  Or the Alpspix.  We chose the second option.  It is part of the Garmisch Classic ascent.  We took the local bus to the Alpspitzbahn cable car.  This was the way we were to get up to the Osterfelderkopf, the first station of the round trip.  It is 6,725 feet up the mountain.  Standing at the bottom waiting to buy our tickets it didn’t look too bad.  Yeah it was above the pine trees.  But it didn’t seem much higher than a ski lift.  We could do this.  The London Eye looked like it was higher.

The cable car is enclosed and there were about 20 people on it.  There were a few seats around the edge but most of the people had to stand.  Everything was going fine until we got to the top of the mountain.  This was not the tall mountain.  It was the shorter one in front.  The cable car did not follow it down but continued up to the higher mountain.  So we were above the valley between the two.  Yeah we were really high off the ground.  Much higher than the London Eye.  Sorry but I did not get any pictures.  I didn’t look out the window very much.

We made it safely to the Osterfelderkopf station.  At this station is the Alpspix viewing platform.  It is in the shape of an “X” and protrudes out over the gorge.  This was worse than the cable car ride.  Of course fearless Holly went right out.  Katie was a little hesitant but she went out with Holly.  I went part of the way out then went back.  Then holding on to the rail I went out saying “Facing Fear, Trusting God.”  Yeah for VBS!  I touched the glass on the end then went right back to having solid earth under my feet.  I was not afraid of heights as a kid.  I’m not sure what has happened but me and high places do not do well together anymore.

 This shows the cable going up the mountain.  See it doesn’t look too bad.

 Then here is the view from the top!

 Holly & Katie out on the Alpspix.  Someone had to stay back and take their picture.

   A couple of pictures of the view down from the platform.

After I trusted God and faced my fear we took the Pleasure Adventure trail down to the Kreuzeckbahn cable car station.  This took about 1 hour and was steep in some places.  The views were absolutely breath taking.  The ride down in this cable car was not as scary after what I had been through.  This day has been one of my favorites of our trip.  I am glad the weather was nice.  We had a great time.

Here are a few pictures from the walk between the cable car stations.

The girls had fun throwing snowballs and they wanted to climb up on some rocks.

On Friday our last full day in Garmisch we went to visit Neuschwanstein Castle.  We caught a local bus out of Garmisch and went on a 2 hour ride to get to the village of Hohenschwangau below the castle.  I could have rented a car and driven there quicker but this way I was able to enjoy the sights of the country rather than concentrating on the road.  It was a nice trip just a little long.  We arrived at the village around lunch time so we decided to eat at a restaurant in the village.  I had spatzle (germany noodle) with cheese and fried onions – it was kind of like macaroni & cheese.  Katie had spatzle with chicken and a cream sauce.  Holly had breaded pork and fries.  The meal was OK but not for the 50 euros I paid for it.  Holly & I should have just gotten a hot dog and Katie fries.  We haven’t eaten out too much on this trip so it was nice to try some Bavarian food.

After lunch we bought our tickets for the castle.  There are 2 castles to tour through, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  We only went on the tour of the Neuschwanstein Castle.  From the village it is about a 30 minute walk to the castle and adding an extra 30 minutes to go to Mary’s bridge and back.  After all the walking yesterday we decided to take the bus to Mary’s bridge. t

 A picture of the castle from the bridge.

 Looking down from the bridge I was standing on.  I am going to be thankful that when I get back to Maryland the highest thing will be South Mountain.

 This is a view of Hohenschwangau Castle from Neuschwanstein.

Another view of Neuschwanstein.

Sorry Addy but we were not able to take pictures inside the castle.  I hope you liked the ones of the outside.

You can not enter the castle without being part of a tour.  They offer both German and English tours.  Our guide was hard to hear unless you were standing right next to her.  She spoke softly making it seem like we were in a library.  Only a few rooms were available to tour.  King Ludwig’s bedroom, his dressing room, his dining room.  We were  also able to go into the ballroom.  I think this was my favorite room.

We enjoyed our time in Garmisch and we’re looking forward to Munich.

 

 

 

10/16 – 10/21 St. Goar, Germany

Wednesday was a long day of travel.  Fabrice & Marie-Line dropped us off at Marne la Vallee station around 9 am.  This is the train station closest to their house.  Our train was to leave at 10:52.  We found some food for breakfast and a table to wait.  Katie had 2 chocolate doughnuts, Holly a blueberry muffin and I had a latte and a raspberry muffin.  Our table was across from the doors leading outside so it was pretty drafty.  When our train arrived we got our bags on to the train and found our seats.  This train had reserved seats and we had 3 of 4 seats around a table.  The 4th seat was empty.  That was nice after our last trip on the Eurostar.  We also had 3 of 4 seats around a table but the 4th seat was taken by a man who tried to sleep on the train and got into my space.

After a 2 hour trip we arrived in Brussels, Belgium.  We had a 1 1/2 hour layover before catching our next train to Germany.  We didn’t make it out of the train station.  Too much luggage to try to explore Belgium.  Instead it was lunch time so we got a bite to eat.  Here are pictures of Belgium from the train.

  

We got on a German train leaving Brussels and were headed to Koln, Germany.  There we were to have a 40 minute layover before changing trains once more and arriving in St. Goar at 7:19 pm.  I guess German trains are not as reliable.  We got part way into Germany and there was an announcement saying that everyone had to get off the train at the next stop.  They may have said why in German but they did not explain in English.  We had not gotten to Koln.  After getting our bags we followed everyone else off the train and went to a different track to wait for the next train headed to Koln.  At least I didn’t have to pay any more money.

The bad news was that we missed our connection in Koln for our train to St. Goar.  At the Koln station we found the Bahn information/ticket room and got tickets for the later train to St. Goar.  Our new train was getting us into St. Goar at 8:19 an hour later.  I called Walter, the owner of the apartment we were renting and told him our new arrival time.  He was going to meet us at the train station to show us to the apartment.  We went to the track for our train and waited until the new departure time.  There was a train leaving at the right time as our ticket but it didn’t have the right train number listed on the train.  The departure sign did show this train going to St. Goar so I guessed it would get us there.  We were to take the train heading to Mainz.  After we got on the train it showed the last stop being Koblenz, which was north of where we were going.  Uh-ho.  By this time it was getting dark and I was getting worried.  What if we had to get off at Koblenz and couldn’t get another train to take us to St. Goar.  I just hoped the town had some hotels.  I knew it was time to start praying.

Before the last stop in Koblenz I asked a lady if she spoke English (she did!) and if she knew if this train would go to St. Goar.  She thought I would have to get off at Koblenz and take another train to St. Goar.  But she asked someone else and they said no the train continued on to Mainz.  So after the stop at Koblenz which was longer than the other stops the sign on the train showed it going to Mainz.  Thank God we were on the right train!

Walter and his wife met us at the train station with a cart for our bags (and they were heavy) and showed us to our apartment.  I’m glad he met us there because I’m not sure if I would have found it in the dark.  It was after 8:00 at night and most of the stores and restaurants were closed.  I guess in off season they close earlier.  Walter explained how things worked in the apartment.  He also showed me the basement area to put the trash and showed me where I could get water, sodas and beer!  I just had to mark on a sheet what I used and pay it at the end of our stay.  It was late and we were ready to settle down for  bed.  Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to have dinner so we ate baguettes on the train and Katie had some Nutella.

In the morning I found a bakery to get some breakfast and stopped in the tourist information spot.  There is one small family grocery store in St. Goar.  We would need to take the train to Oberwesel to go to a larger store.  So we got our Sainsbury bags and headed to the train station.  The ride was only about 10 mintues and cost just over 2 euros.  In Germany Holly & Katie get to ride the trains free with me.  We had to wait about 20 minutes for the next train.  After getting to Oberwesel and finding the store we got our groceries and headed back to the train station.  I should have looked at the times the trains return to St. Goar and plan our shopping accordingly.  We arrived 10 minutes after the train left and would have to wait 1 hour before the next train!  And Holly got ice cream.  Our place in St. Goar does not have a freezer – only a refrigerator.  So I knew she would need to eat it when we got back to our place.  We didn’t have a spoon so she had to wait.   When we did finally arrive it was a lot softer then she would have liked but it was still good.  Great lunch!

The town of St. Goar is small but so cute.  It was a great place to just walk around and see the sights of the town.  Here are a few pictures of the town.

 At the train stop

   Looking out the living room window.

 A few steps to the end of the street and this is the view of the Rhine River

 A castle in St. Goarshausen – across the River Rhine   A restaurant in St. Goar  Metzger in German means butcher  This is the worlds largest hand carved free hanging cuckoo clock (or so says the internet)

    They actually drive cars down these streets.

 A restaurant in St. Goar

On Saturday we took a cruise on the Rhine River towards Bacharach.  There are steep hills on both sides of the river with castles at every new town.  There are also vineyards on the hills.  The leaves are just starting to turn colors.  Within a week or two it is going to be beautiful.  It was a clear day but windy on the top deck of the boat.  We managed on top for a while but then had to move down and inside.  But every time we went around a bend I would go upstairs and take more pictures.  Here are some pictures of the sights from the river.  Sorry I don’t have the name of the castles.

     I saw many places along the river for RVs.  The famous Lorelei Rock.

In 1801 German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novel Godwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting female associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and falls to her death; the rock still retained an echo of her name afterwards. Brentano had taken inspiration from Ovidand the Echo myth. (source Wikipedia)

 One of many vineyards along the Rhine      Oberwesel has 16 defensive towers still standing.  The announcer on the boat said some are used as apartments today.  It would be neat to live in one of these.      This castle was built on a small island in the middle of the Rhine.  From this side it looks similar to a ship.

The one thing we did not get to do that was on my list was go to the Rheinfels Castle in St. Goar.  Katie got a soar throat and we needed to spend a day at home.  Mine started to feel soar too but luckily we are better now.  Please pray for no illness for us while we are on this trip.

Next stop Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.