Home!!!!

Having a look at the best part of our holidays:
We can't tell you how grand it was to meet and learn and come to love all of our relatives. It was so special to be able to see them and talk to them face to face when we are separated from each other by thousands of kms. We have truly fallen in love with Holland and then Germany is a very close second. We would say that we have visited several very special places and met some wonderful people all along the way and were lucky enough to have suffered no setbacks or problems in our 4 months overseas.
Before coming home:
We spent two nights back in the outskirts of Brussels getting our things ready and resting up for our long trip back. Our first flight left at 6 so we were up and out by 4 a.m. Then we had four long hours to wait around in Heathrow Airport before we could board the plane. To our surprise, or frustration, we're not too sure yet, we sat another hour in the plane because the maintanence check hadn't been done on the plane earlier in the day. So, just as we were to pull away, we shut down and sat, or rather kept sitting. We got into Toronto a bit later and so we didn't have as much time with son Ryan and granddaughter Austyn but it was a precious hour nonetheless.
Home Town: Winnipeg is brown - brown, I tell you, and cold. Actually, we keep having these feelings as if it's fall here and that we need to get out our winter clothes soon. This is because we haven't had a winter this year and keep forgetting that we still have the entire summer season to look forward to. It is so nice to be back in our own bed and our own home. No sign of food anywhere but that's easily fixed.
Our van started up without a hitch after months of resting, which was nice. My grass needs to be cut. Today I'm unpacking all the boxes of things put away for 8 months - it's like Christmas. Tomorrow we head out for a little holiday with a school group.
Yup, you heard me, a holiday.
Well my dear loved ones, this is probably my last entry in what has been an enjoyable recount of our many days learning about the world. We've discussed how we probably did approx. 60 000 kms all total - including trains, bus, and van driving. We are feeling pretty darn lucky to have had the chance to do this trip.
Now for that awaited list of things that we need to change for the next time.
1. Each person should have their own camera.
2. Why backpack? Millions of people move with their little wheely suitcases all over the world. We're getting ourselves one of those. No more backing it for us.
3. We wouldn't change it now but it's important to have learned. 4 months away from our own country and our own home was too long. It turned out to be very difficult to find the things that were needed such as deodorant that actually worked, skin cream that didn't irritate our skin, foods that didn't upset our systems, beds and pillows - and quietness - that afforded a good sleep.
Alas, this is "The End" to this part of our life's story. But, the memories of all the places and things that we experienced and the connections to our new family members and new friends from around the world will strongly remain.
Tschuss, Ciao Ciao, Aurevoir, Bye

Last Day in Lux

Started out slowly today. Walked to the city center to take another trail into the underbelly of the city and we found new things to see and do. As we walked back up into the city from the valley, we found a pichet (or half bottle) of rose wine at an outdoor restaurant. Heh, don't blame us, the last day of Luxembourg's manifestations was going on and we had to escape it somehow. The streets were full of parades and protests. We left that restaurant and mosied along to our way back to the hotel only to find the streets still full of singing and marching. So...... we stopped, again, for another rose and some food. Gotta fill the belly with sustenance along with all that alcohol. Here we are, back in the room, ready to pack up for tomorrow and our new train ride back to Brussels where it all began. We will take a day and go back into the city to visit some of the places where we started this whole experience of Europe.
Sure hope our new hotel has a bathtub. Can't tell you how much I miss a tubby.
J

Whirlwind Trip and Home

Good Day to you both!!! Can hardly wait for you to get back to see your photos (from the camera that almost got lost) and share in your excitement of people and places from the months of travel. Have a safe trip back. Love to both of you. Phyllis & Wolfgang

Days in Luxembourg

Our days here are moving along quite quickly. Our room is comfortable - even the ants think so - and we have the ability to do our laundry and dry it on the large heating register in our room. It's been cloudy and cooler so having the heat on to dry my jeans has not been a problem. I'm turning into the laundry genius.
We went out walking today and ended up underground in the Casemates. These are up to 17 kms of underground tunnels built to hold the horses and men of the 13th century wars but were later used to protect up to 35 000 people during the two world wars. There used to be 23 kms of tunnels but only 17 remain. We walked down up to 40 meters into the earth where water dripped on our heads, mold spoke to us from the corners and puddles, threatening to swallow us up, met our every turn. Oh yah, not to forget that with every new tunnel came a new head-banging experience for G. It was pretty scary for me because I didn't want to get my runners dirty. That would have been torture.
We felt like we needed soup so we set out in the old town to find a hot bowl. Even the little restaurants that said they had soup on the menu, didn't. So now G has a new truism. You can't count on soup in Luxembourg even when it's on the menu. Finally, in the last place that we were going to try, voila, vegetable soup. Oh, but it doesn't look like vegetable soup, rather pureed broth. This, from a very expensive restaurant where the servers looked at the way we were dressed and put us in the back. They don't know that we still look this good after living out of a backpack, with hardly any clothes in it, for 110 days. Two bowls of soup and water runs you about 30 dollars in Lux.
On our way back to our hotel, we ran into several blockades. How does this always happen to us. Today, there was a manifestation. A manifestation in this part of the world is known as a strike. Yes indeed, on every street which surrounded our hotel were several thousand protesters holding signs and screaming for fair treatment.
We went for our next train tickets to Brussels airport for our next two-day stop over before our flight for home. On our way back to our hotel, we stopped into a grocery store to buy more cereal and milk for supper and two beers. The price of wine and beer here in Europe is something we will desperately miss when we get home. Two huge 1/2 liter cans of beer for 91 cents. So, while watching our new favourite tv channel, the Eurosport Network and tennis or snooker, we are drinking beer and G has put a dent into a bag of chips.
J

In Luxembourg City

Back to the land of French. Poor Gerhard, he's missing Germany already. Funny thing - I'm understanding more when I watch German TV than I do when I watch French TV. Yikes!
We trained it to Lux City on an 8 Euro Special. Imagine - 8 little euros to travel 1 hour to another country. When we got off the train, we went across the street to a Best Western to ask directions to our hotel. We sent me in because it is a French speaking country. The lady was speaking perfect German so I talked to her in German. Go figure.
Anyway, she gave me directions to the street but little did we know that she sent us - yes, in the right way, but from the other end of the street. In other words, it was a two km walk instead of a 5 min walk. Another yikes!
It poured here yesterday - same as in Wpg we heard - so we rested a bit and then went out for groceries. Got caught in a thunder and lightening storm - us with perfect little metal umbrellas pointed straight up into the air just asking for trouble.
Today we are headed into the fairy tale picturesque old part of the city to spend the day. Might take a hopon-hopoff bus to see the sights first.
Our hotel room has ants. C'est la vie!!!!!!

Almost Home

Hey Gerhard and Jo

You have been to my favorite mountain, the Matterhorn ... miss that scene a lot and wish it were me in the foothills. Your whirlwind tour of Europe is almost over and you will be returning home soon. Weather wise you made a good choice to come back now because its all uphill from here. Have a safe journey home and hope to see you after you unwind and unload.

All the best,

Hans and Brenda

May 12

We are in Trier, western Germany and heading back towards, eventually, Brussels. Please go back to the entry titled "May 12 and recapping" to get to the first entry that we've been able to put in for many days. We have been in the mountains for so long with no access to email - tiny hotels with no computers or no time.

Yesterday, we spent all day travelling up to the small western corner, not far from Luxembourg City, in a town called Trier. It's reputed to be the oldest town in Germany which has the Porta Nigra gate dating back to being built in the 2nd century. From here, we take an 8 euro ride on Thursday into Luxembourg City for four days. Our trip here was long because we had to change trains three times due to this being so far out of the way. Our hotel continues to be another one of our experiences. Our first room had no hot water and was facing the front noisy street on the third floor. We had that changed pretty quickly. We viewed two other rooms and chose one with a smaller shower WITH HOT WATER and facing the back courtyard. We had a wonderfully quiet night - not easy to do here in Europe in most places. We are now in a smaller room on the 4th floor with a slanted roof where the rain that is hitting the tin top makes it sound as if we are in a tent. Heaven.
Last night we went out to find a restaurant - one which would give G a schnitzel - and we found a place which specialized in potatoes. So, he had his schnitzel and I had this concoction of a baked potato with chicken pieces, spinach, garlic and three kinds of melted cheese. Sooooo good. We are going back today for potato pancakes and apple sauce.
We are planning to take it easy today and just do laundry and hang out reading and watching tv in our room. This is a good thing especially as it is pouring outside.
We are getting pretty excited about our return home but don't want to rush away our time here. I think I need a nap.

Salzburg

This was one of my memories that didn't remain very clear. I seem to have had Salzburg and Vienna confused. We enjoyed our time in this little river city and walked the center where Mozart's statue always reminds you of where you are. We saw where he lived and where he spent his days. We went into an old French church - very beautiful, and saw an original student art show from the university. We stopped in the main square, faced Mozart, and drank local beer in his honor. We shopped in all the little stores and found me a purse - imagine - Jo with a purse. But that's beside the point. Here's the point - it's a purse from Paris which we found in Austria on sale. Couldn't do that in Paris!!!
In the pm we took off to head for Munich again and our new hotel. We walked the streets, getting lost of course, and then asked a stranger for directions to a good local stube or restaurant. It sure helps to have G along with the German. We had supper in a small neighbourhood German husband/Yugoslavian wife restaurant. Whaooo, was it good and were they ever friendly. We enjoyed them so much and they both came out to talk to us when they found out we were from out of town. They fed us free snapps - with cherries on the bottom - and she stood there until I would finish the little bottle of fire. We gave them Cdn pins of course and we exchanged addresses. Hugs and kisses all around again before we left. What a wonderful way to end off the bus tour's last night.
This third bus tour gave us the most unusual sights and places for our money. It was G's favourite. Not mine, of course, for reasons that I don't have to tell you about. Again, we would never have done it without a bus tour to help us along.

More Mountains

My favourite phrase lately - Good Grief!
This surely suits for this day's travel arrangements. Most of you do know by now that I'm terrified of mountains don't you? I must love Gerhard.

After Venice - we went through the Dolomite Mountains which run from Italy to the border of Austria. It's the only way to get there from Venice. The range is unlike any you will see in the world. It is wild, rugged, pointy and beautiful. Gerhard has decided to call them JoAnne. Words escape you as you are treated to one peak after another and can't possibly snap pictures as fast as you drive.
As we passed into the Austrian Alps, we started to ascend the mountain range towards the Grossglockner. Good Grief! In the morning we had news that one of the passes was closed. I was starting to relax thinking that we wouldn't be able to go up but to no such luck. It's a national park which has 36, count 'em, 36 switchbacks. Now, to anyone who has ever taken a switchback - especially on a bus - one is way too many. 36 of 'em was my undoing. To tell you how high and dangerously close we were to going over, Gerhard said that he would never do it again. He said that it was exciting and thrilling, but........
The snow was 4 meters high and small avalanches continued to make their way down the mtn sides to fall onto the main highway. We had to stop our bus two times as we saw the slides and had to wait to ensure that the snow would not fall onto our bus and turf us overboard. The snowplows and blowers were on constant guard. One side of our highway was covered with huge banks that had become so heavy with warmer snow that they couldn't keep their place. Up at the top was 7 degrees plus a wind.
We got to the top and stopped for lunch where I promptly had 1/4 bottle of wine to soothe my nerves. Would have taken valium if someone had given it to me. At the top, we had a snow ball fight being sure not to hit the bus driver in his ever-important eyes. We descended the next 22 switchbacks where I could finally stop watching the floor. We stopped in the Austrian valley at a chalet for the night where I had a huge nightmare - just guess the subject of that dream. That's it for mountains for me!!!!!!

Onto to Venice

We left the haunted hotel early, thank goodness, to get through Milan before traffic snarls. We headed towards Venice. We had to make a few detours because of protest demonstrations which closed highways. Good grief! We eventually made it to port where we took our watertaxi to the island of Venice. Whoa, Venice. The next biggest thing on our tour. G was amazed. If you ever go here, don't drink too much - going to the washroom costs you 1 euro 50. Yikes! Do you know how many times people over 50 have to go?
We made our way to St. Mark's square to visit St. Mark's Cathedral. It is still amazing and unchanged after all this time. We went in and, still, it is so awe inspiring that there is no need to speak. The church is filled with miniscule-sized mosaic tiles to create many pictures that cover every surface. The floors, of course, still flow in ocean wave highs and lows. As you walk, you need to watch the floor. This is a good thing because the floor is totally covered in tiled patterns that amaze. It reminds me of M.C. Escher and his mathematical drawings where the eyes are tricked with illusions. The floor is as beautiful as the ceiling.
G and I - spent so much money GOING that we decided to just walk and get lost for awhile. Easy to do with all the little channels and small alleys. We found many bridges to walk over the canals.
Later on, we took a gondola ride. We had an accordianist and an Italian singer on the gondola with us serenading our group. How lucky were the two of us to not have to share this ride with anyone. The others were all squished into a gondola - 6 per boat. G and I just had two men. Jo and three men - what could be better!
Our hotel this night was a scream. We went up as usual and G tried to go to the washroom. When he sat on the toilet, it was as if his knees were under his chin and he would have had to be a contortionist for it to work. We took a picture - he couldn't stop laughing. Needless to say, we changed rooms.
Toilets seem to be an important part of our history lately.

The Glacier Express

Today we headed for Lugano by taking the 2 1/2 hour train called the Glacier Express straight through (and down) the Alps into Andermatt (another place still in the mountains 4700ft). If you ever get the chance to take this train, it has the most beautiful scenery that we've ever seen. The train ride is pretty slow - it's called the "Slowest Fast Train" because it's the fastest way out of the Alps but the slowest because it can't go that fast around the mountains. Snow-capped mountains, deep rocky gorges, quaint Swiss homes and waterfalls around every corner. In Andermatt we met our bus again and went down (again) the switchbacks (I must love Gerhard) to get to the valley (and safety).
In Lugano, a city of funniculars for the mountains reaches and a beautiful resort city on the lake, we had the most unusual hotel on the trip. Here's the gist of our time there. Two steps down to get into our room, none of the lights worked, the shower was too small for G to get into, no curtains and rooms directly across from us, too hot to close the windows and the bathroom stunk like a sewer. Oh, don't let me forget that a funnicular ran right under our hotel room up the mountain behind us. When you hung your feet over the mattress, your feet shook from the movement of the rails under the funnicular. Oh yeah, and it ran up and down every two minutes. I think the place was haunted.
Happy to leave this place but will cherish the memories of how we got there.

May 12 and recapping

Through clear skies we headed to Chillon Castle which is a castle built on rock, similar to the one we saw in France, but was once a prison/bastion. Very cool - we went into the bowels and saw how they attached it to the bedrock. It was a place that Lord Byron once visited and wrote the story of a man imprisoned in the depths for 6 years. For lunch on this day, we though we would just mosey on over to Lake Geneva - Heh Gerhard, wanna go to Geneva for lunch? Our whole trip has been like this. Wake up in the morning and say - think we'll go to France for the day.
Geneva, of course, is the world's official gov't business headquarters because of tax-saving purposes but also because they can all fit into a beautiful spot. We saw Unicef, Red Cross, United Nations etc. You name it, it's there.
After a bit more nail-biting Alps climbing, we landed in a small town where we took our cog-wheel train up to the top of Zermatt where we, again, climbed a steep street to our beautiful hotel chalet. G and I had one of the biggest rooms where we could hold a party in the bathroom (actually had a speaker in it from the tv) and also we had a beautiful balcony looking up to the Alps. We opened up wine (of course) and cheered on Zermatt. Here we found ourselves out after dark - for only our 6 or 7th time - and found all the other Canadians on our bus tour walking as well.
Zermatt is the most quiet place on Earth. No cars allowed. Only electric quiet motors. There were some actual diesel-run work vehicles doing construction etc which get flown in by helicopters or by the train but they only work in the morning.
In the morning, we took our second cog-wheel train straight up to 10,000 feet to visit Gornergrat where we had a perfect view of the Matterhorn. It was a beautifully sunny and warm day - even though there were several feet of snow left and we had to hold onto mountain ropes to get the highest up we could. We had a great time watching the marmots and ibex run about on top of the snow sunning themselves. When we descended the mountain to Zermatt, we went for a walk and found private cemeteries where all the men had been placed for their failed efforts in trying to conquer the climb up the Matterhorn.
We tried to spend great deal of our time in the world of the places that we visited and so we meet some very original and wonderful people who lived there. We kept trying to fill the pockets with change of the little girl who was our server at our hotel. She was so cute and was saving to go to Lucerne to university. Big hugs and kisses for her when we left.
Zermatt was everything we thought it would be.

Starting our last bus tour

We left Munich with high expectations. Well, this was easily actually because as we walked down the street to catch the train, we ran into a dead rat just laying on the sidewalk waiting to say goodbye to us. Poor fella.
Our first trip on the tour was to a castle called Linderhof - built by crazy King Ludwig II. That's not most important thing that happened to us though because as we were walking around waiting for our times entry into the castle, a bigger Russian man fell to the ground and had a heart attack. The ambulance and doctor was called and they worked on him - out in the open where we all watched - for over 30 minutes until they pronounced him gone. His poor wife was there the whole time as she wouldn't leave but it was terrible to see. This was only the first day of our bus tour - it had to get better after this.
Lucky for us, it did. We've been to see some marvelous scenery all through the Austrian Alps and today we continued through the Swiss Alps. I know, I know what you're all thinking. JoAnne, again, in the Alps. What gives. Let's say it's my huge present to my husband - who is enjoying it immensely. We have been to some beautiful cities in the middle of a ring of mountains. We've been through, literally, hundreds of tunnels and bridges in order to get to some of them. Today, G took a funicular and then a gondola up to the Stanserhorn mountain to get to its summit. I've been before so I stayed on the ground and visited the town and had several espresso coffees while waiting for him. He had a really great time even though it was pretty foggy and cloudy and really cold and snowy. Many women held onto his arms, rather tightly, as they climbed to the summit. Anyway, on my own, I journeyed up into the trail a bit up the mountain and came upon, what else would you come upon up the mountain in Switzerland - a whole herd of cows, each wearing a cow bell. I stood there and closed my eyes and just listened to the sound which was so melodic that I felt as if I were far removed from Earth. Each cow moved at a different time so the bells were creating music. How wonderful it was - and magical. G would have loved it. Well, one can only sit with cows for so long so I descended to the valley and went for another coffee. Just like the good ole' days in Lahr. We used to call them a "European Day." We spent the rest of the day in Berne and are now in Lausanne for the night. We are in a brand new hotel and I am sitting here with a wine in the front bar while G is in the room writing in his journal. Just like a 4-star hotel, I got a huge plate of free cheese, meat and crackers with the wine.
Tomorrow, we are heading for the number 2 rated event of this trip. Our train ride straight up the cog-wheel train mountain to reach the carless Zermatt to spend two nights. We are staying in an actual Swiss Chalet. We will then, the next day, take the next cog-wheel train higher up to visit the Matterhorn Mountain.
Gotta finish my wine - and, free stuff.
J

Learning So Much

Wow, who knew that there was so much to learn! Well, we did actually but sometimes keeping it all straight is very difficult. We spent 4 hours yesterday with a tour guide walking the area within the old city of Munich. We learned so much especially about how Germany became Germany, how Munich became Munich and all about the escapades of its historical people such as Napoleon and Hitler. There are amazing memorials all over the city that you can't find or understand unless an historian shows them to you and tells you what they mean. We walked famous or infamous streets, all with a gruesome or interesting story. And who knew that as we drank beer in the famous HofBrauhaus, we were in a place where Hitler had locked the doors on several people and military men to convince them to support him in a 'power over Germany' campaign. This all led to the Beer House Push. Good grief, will I remember all of this? No matter, G will remind me. He's better at it than I am. All this in the rain.
Last night started their huge celebration over May Day. Fireworks, parties, bands, noise all night. They sure do party hardier than we do in NA. We have experienced partying in almost every country and city that we've been in. One has to wonder why. I guess that if I lived in these crowded cities and had to struggle with their economic and political difficulties, I would need to party too. It's much like that group of people that adopted us in Cologne during Karneval, who told us that no matter what, they needed to have the celebration where they could just let go.
Here's the realization for me: Years ago when I was younger and living here for so long, I was smitten with the place and wanted to live here forever. Now, in my older years and back here with Gerhard and looking at it from different eyes and with more experience under my belt, I can see that it's far too volatile of a union for me to want to be a part of. Even our guide yesterday said that the countries are afraid that if one thing goes wrong with any one country, then they are all embroiled in the problem because they are so intensely connected. We have very much enjoyed our time here in Europe but as someone visiting from off continent, we can see all the things that this great collection of countries doesn't get yet.
Cheers to my home country of Canada.

G's special day

A big event for Gerhard today. All holiday long since we've been in Germany, he's been at me to get him to a place where he can buy himself a set of lederhosen or German Bavarian costume pants and the getup. I kept telling him to wait until we were in the right spot. Well three weeks before we are set to come home, I am finally able to present him with three stores from which to chose his special gift. One of the stores - and again I say that you have to be prepared for anything - changed the price from 120 euros for the knee trousers to 180 euros just by walking down the stairs from where we tried them on. Imagine! The other store was just too expensive and the last store - really, the second that we visited in Munich - was just perfect. There were two lovely young things to wait on Gerhard and he was in his glory as they ran to and fro getting him what he wanted, or rather needed with his long body. We had such a fun time with them. We walked out with our purchase and fond memories of the event. He's so proud of himself and, actually, he's quite cute in his costume.
Then, to top of the day, we walked around the old town of Munich until we found the HofBrauHaus, or the very excellent beer brewery where you can sway to the live German beer music and drink and eat to your hearts content. We walked into a huge area just a brimming to the top with people and jolly beer talk and found ourselves a spot at a long table. At one end of the table was an older German gentleman, beside me, who did snuff all night. That great aroma of menthol wafted up to my nose just as strongly, I'm sure, as it was going into his. I tried talking to him but his mind must have been all confused or something. Across from us was a couple, not actually a couple but, a young Torontonian man and his father's friend whom he was visiting. It turns out that this young man is on his first week of his three-month European tour. That's right - see, we aren't the only crazy people on this earth. He just up and quit his job because he felt that he needed to see the world.
I don't think that I need to tell you that when a young man challenges Gerhard to try and finish their 1 liter beers together, Gerhard is going to say no. So..... watching them was hilarious. Naturally, G lost but it was in good sport and G said that he was just trying to give the younger fellow some good stories to tell about how he beat another man in drinking. Yup, right!
Munich city old town is a great place. Many museums, shops, parlours and cafes. Tomorrow we think that we will take the 3-hour free walking tour and then the 1 hour bus tour around the entire city. More to learn.

Things We've Done Right

The biggest thing that we've hit 5 stars on is our decision to constantly take the train and to not bother with renting a car and trying to get from place to place paying for fuel and car rentals - not to mention the hassle of driving the autobahns and highways and trying to find our way around. Train travel is so comfortable and cheap. We get up and walk around, go to the washroom or the bar/restaurant car or talk to other people. It is a very civilized mode of transportation. We only need to find a hotel and then train it to that place and not worry about parking and the rest. For each city or town that we visit, the methods of transportation such as the trollies, busses , subways and trams far outperform the worry over a car. We have purchased separate 4-day monthly passes here in Europe rather than having purchased a Eurorail pass from Canada. It was cheaper here because we could get the specials and deals set aside only for those already in the country.
The second best thing is the money and speed that we've saved by booking our hotel rooms over the internet with, usually, otel.com. With them we usually prepay and save tons of dollars compared to the prices given to you over the counter or phone. We collect points too and then use them on other bookings. We've always chosen hotels close to the train stations so that we need not walk too far to find them with our backpacks.
The third best thing is that we tend to walk everywhere and stay in places that most tourists wouldn't dream of seeing. It has helped us to connect with the locals and to see and get to understand how they live and how the world around us is changing.
One of the biggest things that has made a huge difference in our trip is that we have taken bus tours to give us a break over having to set absolutely everything in motion for finding a place to stay and eat. It has been very nice to just let someone else take care of things. In this way too, we have been given a chance to see many more places that we would never have bothered to get to because they would have been to difficult - like the Alps, or too scary to go near - like Morocco. It has also given us a chance to meet some incredibly fine people on our tours with us.
We also put our "Europe on a shoestring" given to us by the kids to good use and followed quite a bit of suggestions. We always dropped into the tourist bureau every single time as we entered a new place and this helped us to get ourselves settled with knowledge.
Look for our list of things we've done wrong.

Munich or Munchen

Change of plans in Freiburg. We went to Basel on Sunday instead of to the pioneer village - shorter train ride. We enjoyed Basel but there's not much to it because it's a regular city with a smaller older part suitable for free walking. Besides, it was Sunday and things were mostly closed except cafes and things of that nature. The most striking thing that we forgot about was when we paid for something and got nothing back but Swiss Francs. Oh yeah - duhhh! We did walk the old town and saw an ABC - as we tourists here in Europe like to call it - another bloody cathedral, castle or church. All apply. It's true, this land is so old and there are so many of the three mentioned types of buildings that you can't walk 500 meters without running into one or the other. Anyway, the church was the most beautifully renovated one that we've ever seen.
Today we took the three-hour train ride to Munich and, for the whole way, we had a private booth closed in so that we didn't have to listen to the world around us. Gerhard gets sick on the trains if he is sitting backwards to the mode of travel and so we have to ask for and reserve two window seats so that we can change according to going forward. It was a lovely empty train - not going to happen too much often because tourist season is about to blow wide open. Yes, even with the so called "economic crisis" we are still seeing a huge amount of tourists streaming into Europe.
Our hotel is, again, in the middle of where the new cultures settle. Our hotel clerk tells us that it's gone from being an Italian, to Russian and now to a Turkish quarter. It's always around the train stations. It was too funny as we set out this evening to try and find some cereal and milk for supper. Again we were reminded that these cultures don't eat cereal or drink milk. However, their grocery stores, which are abundant in fresh produce, are some of the cheapest that we've ever found.
Heh, I finally have a bathtub and not a shower. It's like opening a present every time we get a new hotel room. Shower or tub. Now we both run to the bathroom to check.

Freiburg

We got here Fri. morning, ditched our luggage and then went downtown. We ended up finding a little bar and sitting for happy hour cocktails with two young female students from Med School here in the city. We had a blast and didn't leave until after 11:30. They are just 20 and seem like such babies to us but they spoke fine english and we switched between german and english all night.
It is such a young city here because of the universities and so is far more relaxed and safe for walking out and about in the night. Yesterday, we went shopping a bit for much needed things. I've seemed to have washed the crap out of most of our stuff so socks and things are needed. I`ve been suffering from allergies here in the southern parts of Germany and I knew it would happen but my face often has a rash and my hair was in bad need of a cut. So, yesterday was kind of a dolly-day.
Today we are heading out by regional train to an old fashioned village set up to show what life was like in the olden days of the Black Forest. Tomorrow, maybe Basel, SW.
J

Special Day in Lahr

Today we drove to a mineral bath and spa in Baden Baden. I did promise G a very good time. We swam, lazed around, went into the aroma therapy steam room, and ate a very healthy lunch. This is not the very special time that I promised him however. At the end of our day, when he went for a shower, he was to find himself and 6 other men in the room all showering together - which is normal. However, when a cleaning lady mozied in to spray the floors and wash the drains out all around the men, this was not normal. So,,,,,, Gerhard decided that when in Germany - behave as the Germans do. AAAhhh, he decided it was a good time to wash his private parts. Well, enough of that. Poor G - Europe is having its way with him. Females, on the other hand, even got private shower stalls to choose from if they wanted.
We drove all over places in Lahr today just to do justice with our little car and to show Gerhard as much as possible. We even went to the old airfield to see how much it has changed. Lots of the buildings have been taken down and the land is now in the process of being marked for fire hydrants and streets. There were still many of the airfield buildings left - my old office building was even renovated and is a beautiful thing in the midst of a bunch of ugly green old military buildings left to be dealt with. We drove around as much as we could and took pictures of many of them because they will soon disappear from the face of the earth. The entire area has been filled with companies that deal with shipping or trucking or big business.
All of our little trips only used 1/4 of a tank of fuel, but that's not saying much because the tank only holds 1 cup of fuel anyway. Just kidding - 30 litres. We return the poor little bugger tomorrow just before we take the train outta here. We leave with very fond memories of this place - still knowing that we Canadians left a wonderful impression on these people and knowing that the city is starting to fare better in the last 10 years.
Onward we go - due South.
j

In Lahr

Well, to say the least, G fits into a Smart Car. Knees just barely clear the wheel. Do you people know how tiny it is? Do you know how long it takes for him to unfold to get out? The wheel is like holding onto a kiddy car.
We drove all over the countryside yesterday to find my old house that we moved into when we first arrived. It is about 30 minutes outside of Lahr and we didn't stay there too long because the kids ended up taking a 1 1/2 hour school bus ride twice a day to school. But, the house looks just the same and the old town too. I felt like Alice in Wonderland - slipping into a world not mine but still mine.
We then headed out to the largest amusement park in Germany. EuropaPark. We had a wonderful day. The weather was great and the beer was too. We saw many shows - ice shows, dancing, time travel, medieval josting, and many people just being themselves putting on a show they didn't know about. It was the best time of the year to go. Most kids were in school but it seems kids from France never go to school. They were there in droves. This just after they have had two weeks off. The park is much bigger than when we were here. It now boasts two huge roller coasters that you can see from miles away. The whole park is now put into countries of the European Union.
We drove back to the park after 8 hours of walking and playing and then drank some wine and went to bed. Great day - Great wine is so cheap - rose for 2 euros. Right from France - the same stuff that we had at the winery. Gotta come home soon or we'll be pickled.
Heading out to Baden Baden today with the little four-wheeled motorcycle. I did promise G a turn in the mineral baths. It's about a 1 hour tuna can ride on the little side highway number 3. We would never take the little car on the autobahn because it can't keep up - the engine is so small. The engine is smaller than James' motorcycle. Just picture a pregnant roller skater with two people on top - says G.
We will do a little more sightseeing in Lahr later today and then head out for Freiburg tomorrow for 4 days. Talk to you later.
j

Left Paris , In Lahr

Our last exciting thing to do in Paris was to go to the Cabaret. You all know what a Cabaret is, don't you. Well, don't take your kids is all I have to say. We went to a grand ole' place built by the man himself, the creator of the Eiffel tower - Mr. Eiffel. It's the only other thing that he built. It was all metal and lights - just like the tower. We were pretty crammed in but that didn't stop anybody from seeing anything - or rather, everything. Okay, you're wondering about Gerhard aren't you all. As a matter of fact he was caught several times just studying how the stage and the building were put together until he had to be reminded that there were naked women up on stage with no clothes on. The sets, lights, costumes and dancing were just great and that's also true for the women. They were beautiful AND they all had great voices. Ha ha! among oher things...
We subwayed ourselves out of the city to the train station and then took the four hour train ride to Lahr. You'll never guess who we had been surrounded by at our end of the train car - middle school KIDS. AAAAHHHHH!
We are here in Lahr and are quite happy to be on our own again after spending time with so many people on the bus. Walking around Lahr, one of my old home towns, is like walking into the past and getting a second chance to see things all over again. When the Canadians left, Lahr was left in quite a quandry in that there were all these housing units with no renters and there were 10 000 less people in the town who were not putting their money into the economy. As I had mentioned earlier, at that time, the European nations were starting to allow many others countries to move in. The people of Lahr are not happy with the change of the Russians, Turkish and Africans immigrants. They have been putting a drain onto the system because they do not want to work or contribute. So many people have said to us just today that they wish the Canadians were back. We answered by saying that we did too.
Lahr has changed so much but it is still so beautiful. It smells of fresh lawn and flowers and has the beautiful sound of birds constantly in the air. The traffic is quite slow and minimal - even though the city boasts a whole new network of new highways and roundabouts. The core downtown area has been changed totally over into a no-driving zone and has been enlarged to include many more streets which are now permitted to have lane-cafes and restaurants. It knows what it has to do to bring in the tourists and it's on the right track.
We arrived yesterday and after stowing our luggage into our house-size room, we walked the 2.4 kms to the inner city and G had french fries with Lahr special Pommes Frites Powder all over them. We were so tired that we took the bus back - a newly created bus system and a new set of city buses.
Today we got up and walked to the next town, 20 min, and rented two bikes. We spent the day riding around Lahr and adjoining towns. We toured quite carefully the old Kaserne, or shopping and gathering compound for us Canadians when we lived here. It was then walled-in and topped with barbed wire. The buildings looked like old barracks and it was were the kids had school, where we shopped and lunched and where we met for public gatherings. It was our second home away from home and had become very important to the many Cdn families to gather and meet each other and to seem normal in a land that didn't speak English or have the same cultures.
When we left 17 years ago, the base and the airfield had fallen into ruin and had laid vacant for so long that the city kids had turned the compound into a grafitti place and dangerous playground. Finally, today we saw the bulldozers in there taking down the barracks readying the land for new growth. Just two of the old buildings were renovated and are quite beautiful. All the rest were too old to bother with. The kids gathering place which was their drop in, has been totally renovated and is very beautiful.
I took Gerhard around the entire city and he is quite impressed with the place. He now knows why the kids and I talk about it with such love and longing. The people who talked to us today, did so with tears in their eyes about how wonderful their time with the Canadians had been.
Tomorrow, we pick up our rental car - a smart car. Don't laugh - it's all that was left and yes, G does fit into it. We will take it to Germany's largest amusement park - EuropaPark. It's very close to here and the kids and I used to go quite often. I only hope that the school kids are too busy with their work to go too.
We are back to sunny and hot weather.
G is so impressed with being back in Germany again because here in this part of the world, he says, at least they cook their meat. How quickly he forgets that in Dusseldorf they tried to feed him raw pork burgers. I must remind him at his age about everything - at least he hasn't forgotten who I am yet.
Love to all, J and G

Southern France

Wed. night after arriving in Cannes, we took the bus to Nice for the evening to walk on the beach and to head to a local inner city restaurant for a 4-course meal. We put our hands into the Mediterranean Sea and then walked along the streets of Nice. It's a very posh place but very much smaller than we had imagined. Thursday - Who told it to rain? Rain? That wasn't rain, that was the heavens opening up and giving us a bath. G and I went for a walk down the main street of Cannes - you know, the big one where all the stars going walking up the red carpet during the Cannes Film Festival. Well, don't get all excited before you know that it's a really small town, the beach area is quite small with mostly only hotel ownership and the hotels and shops along the beach could never deal with the likes of us "NORMAL" folk. As if telling us to get the heck off their rich property, it poured so hard that we both had soaked boots. We made if back to our hotel room, finally, and slept for 2 hours just to make up for the weather. Then, I held the room's hairdryer to the inside of our boots, especially mine, as that is the only footwear that I have with me. G wore his sandals today. The rest of the day we played cards, watched tv, wrote postcards, and just hung out with the rain puddling in around our wet clothes that were hanging out of our hotel room window. The rest of those who chose it, had gone on an extra excursion to a mountain town and then to Monaco. We didn't want to spend the money because we don't feel the pressure to see as much as the others cause we are here for so much longer.
Friday morning we took off for Lyon - aaahhh, but here's the clincher - who put the French Alps right in my way from Cannes to Lyon. Who said it was important to go the exact route that Napoleon took on his way to Paris. Was he nuts? Just cause he was afraid to run into any big places with a lot of people. Well, let me tell you that there wasn't a lot of people, there wasn't a lot of anything in the French Alps. Just mountains - oh yeah, and CLIFFS. Okay, first before we headed up, we visited a unique perfume factory and learned how things are made in the smelly part of France. We visited the town of Grasse which has one of only three perfume schools in France.
Then,,,,,,then.... we headed up - straight up. So up, as a matter of fact, that we ran right into a pile of snow and a left over glacier. We had wet roads for only a small portion of our drive and I kept wishing that loads of traffic would help slow our bus down but the driver, who was very good, seemed to think that he needed to drive beyond my limits. Let me tell you that I wasn't the only one who had had enough.
Tomorrow we head for Paris again. In the evening G and I are going to the Cabaret show and then will spend all day Sunday taking it easy walking around the city. We head for Lahr on the Monday train.
Toodles to all,
Aurevoir J and G

On our way to the French Riviera

But first we have to stop at a few new places. First we stopped at a medieval walled-in town with little streets and shops to walk through. G went to the washroom outside of the town while we were waiting to go in and he walked right passed me, assuming that I was looking at him, and then we were separated. How? Don't ask me but I stood outside of the men's washroom waiting for him until I thought he had a problem and walked right into the men's room to find it empty. I found him about 35 minutes later.
We next went to Nimes which is a city with buildings dating back 2000 years. An old bull fighting arena still stands. This is now pretty close to Spain and only in this area is there allowed to be bull fighting in France. By the way, blue jeans originated from Nimes. It is because originally, a french man used to use blue denim to create sails for the ships, you know - denim "de nimes" "from Nimes" Very clever. The blue colour comes from the blue die which is the colour of Genoa which also means jeans. Such a story. G and I lunched on a step in the shade next to a 2000 year-old Roman temple.
Next we stopped for the night in Avignon. You know, Sur la pont, d'Avignon, on l'y danse, on l'y danse, sur la pont, d'Avignon, on l'y danse da da da. We walked around inside that walled city as well. We are heading out for supper in 10 minutes but not before we have a little aperitif of tonic water and cognac.
Tomorrow we head for the French Riviera and the beach. We have supper somewhere on the beach tomorrow and the next day G and I have the whole day to ourselves near the resort. Toodles, and we'll be sure to have some rose, an area speciality, for you all.
J and G

Easter Sunday and Monday in France

Quite a calm place, this France, on these two holidays. Literally, no one was out and around so that we had nearly every city that we ventured into quite to ourselves. Our tour director said that not very many people in France go to church any longer. Strange when there are so many huge cathedrals.
We visited a city called La Rochelle which is a port city noted for its involvement in the movie "U Boat." We walked the beach and along a special artist's display for Easter. It was the very first harbour where Germany would bring their submarines into the harbour for safety. The big tour for Sunday was our 2-hour visit to the Cognac region and town and the visit to the Hennessey refinery. We learned so much here and we got to view over 150 year-old stored barrels of their finest. We were lucky enough to have a huge taste testing session - all of which G and I enjoyed, however, we now know that cognac is, for us, to be taken with ginger ale. The country of France has been developing techniques to improve the sales of cognac because as the older population fades out, the newer people haven't been stepping up to fill in the gap of sales. People just don't like it. So, they've decided to create cocktails.
Easter Monday, after our tour around Bordeaux, we headed towards Sarlat, a medieval town - oldest buildings in France, and stopped for lunch. G and I walked the tiny streets and found a small restaurant because this area is known for its cuisine. So..... we tested ourselves on true Fois Gras. Shall I tell you how these French people create this delicacy? Well, it comes from ducks and their livers. But, and this is a big but, in order for their livers to get huge and full of fat enough to create a good fois gras, the ducks must be force fed continually to force their livers to grow. In order to force feed them, they shove a tube down their throats by jamming their heads into kind of cow bars, only for ducks, and then pour down the tube lots of things like corn and seeds. Terrible isn't it - let's boycott. Okay, okay, it was delicious but never again. We could just be duck killers.
On to Rocomadour, a town in the middle of nowhere and at the top of the world where it is said the servant man to the Virgin Mary is buried. They say that many miracles have befallen this place and iall of its houses are built into the side of the cliffs.
We are working our way around France and still have 7 days left. Off to drink some cognac. Kind of like force feeding our livers isn't it?

Joan of Arc, William the Conquerer

Normandy is an amazing place. In a very quaint city we stopped to see the burn site of Joan of Arc. In it's place is just a plaque with flowers all around and beside it is an amazing church built in the shape of her helmet.
In Bayeux we stopped to visit the incredible 70 meter long tapestry created by Bishop Odo who was William's brother. It is a wonder how it makes one want to learn about history, which I have an unbelievably hard time with. So, after walking the 70 meters and listening to the tapes, AND, having Gerhard create a story for me and all the other people on the bus, I have a good grasp of the story line.
All along the Loire valley live people whose houses are entrenched into the mountain sides and have little holes in the sandstone for windows. The area is known for its wine and IT'S VERY GOOD. Tomorrow we will be tasting cognac. Then on to the Bordeaux for more wine - aawwhh darn!!
We were given these new listening devices to use while with our tour director and it is so funny to watch Gerhard try to put one of these things into his ear. The entire bus now knows about it because I couldn't stop laughing at how the listening pod of the ear piece only reaches the cartlidge piece of his ear. Poor fella, it's so hard being huge. People on the bus are now aware of how large he is and are watching him for the next thing as we've already gone through his having his big feet protruding down the aisle as his knees don't quite fit into our seats.
We are managing quite fine. Not to worry - we still believe we are Canadians, and, we are very proud of it.
Will continue when next we meet up with a computer.
j and g

Some Corrections

Okay, I've read some of the blog that I did in a hurry and I found a couple of errors that I need to fix. Remember, don't repeat anything that I write because one doesn't know how much of my brain in working at any moment.
The Strasbourg story when there were riots. It wasn't because the mobs wanted to join the NATO, it was because they were pacifists and didn't want to belong to anything. They wanted France to remain isolated from the rest of the world and not take part in the wars of Afghanistan etc. Imagine, pacifists causing trouble. The mobs in Strasbourg caused an enormous amount of destruction including burning down an Ibis Accor huge hotel and several homes right in the middle of town. They wanted to get over the bridge into Germany to meet with Obama to tell him just what they thought about his wanting to take part in the world's business. There was so much hatred among the people; all of them wore face covers to not be seen and around 10 000 police tried to keep the town safe from their stupidity. Sound like someplace in our country?

In Tours, France

Welcome to France - the rest of it I mean.
Okay, we've done Paris and have yet another day to do a couple of things which include a Cabaret Show. But now we have spent two wonder-filled days in Normandy. We visited such lovely towns as Rouen, Ammeranches, the beaches of D-Day - Gold and Omaha - not Juno sadly as this was the Canadian beach but there are only 4 of us of the tour and finally yesterday, we stopped for an overnight on the island of Mont St. Michel where a huge abbey stands reaching to the sky and only 49 people live there in a little village that lies at the bottom of the abbey.
We have had rainy weather for these past few days but on the day when we went to the American grave site at Omaha Beach, it was pure sunshine - it just sort of poked itself through for that time. The Americans have done a wonderful job preserving and presenting the space dedicated to the fallen soldiers during D-Day missions. Even the Jewish soldiers have a Star of David instead of a cross. It was very sobbering and totally moving. We walked and walked among their graves and did the respectful thing of at least reading their names. I picked some wild daisies and put them up against one soldiers star. The entire piece of land was given to the states by the French government. It stands to give all of its visitors a reminder of that time. It is, thankfully, a very popular stopping point for the world.
G and I stood on the British landing beach and looked out at the ocean of deep gray and couldn't even imagine how hard it would have been to struggle over the landing gear and then run the sand to land, only to be torn down by bullets.
A chance in a lifetime.
Yesterday, we stopped in several small towns, having a look at northern french lifestyles. We stopped in one city and went into the cathedral only to end up in the middle of Good Friday's service which was totally sung during the 14 stations of the cross. Beautiful again.
We are now in Tours for two nights. G and I will shortly take the train- a 5 minute trip - into the city center to walk for a bit. Some of the others have taken a bus trip to two castles which we didn't want to do. So the day is ours.
We are feeling somewhat mellow after all this stuff. Who would have known that our trip would have done this to us.
Love to all, J and G

LAST Day in Paris

Guess what? You will never believe how cheap it is to eat at McD's for breakfast. Egg macmuffin, yogurt and berries, real espresso or cap, three, count 'em 3, special croissants and even freshly squeezed orange juice - all for only 4 euros. We ate there twice. Need to, eating out is outrageous here. All other times we groceried it and bought cereal, milk, fruit etc to stay healthy. Twice we ate at French restaurants and I had to save G from eating steak tartar. He sees the word steak and he goes nuts. Of course, we have been to quite a lot street-side cafes to sip wine and beer. It's the thing to do and somebody has to help the French economy.
We've been here for 6 days and have nearly covered the entire city center core area and three of the four compass points on the outside of the city as well. We've left off three city neighbourhoods to do on our two day return in two weeks. Some of the things we've done are: the chateau Versailles, the Louvre, Picasso's museum, both the Notre Dame and the Sacre Coeur, the huge shopping centre called La Fayette, the Opera House, the Vosges, the Bastille, the Arc de Triomphe, the Grand Arch, the Centre Pompanou, the Hotel De Ville, oh jeez, I can't keep going.
We actually ended up visiting the two churches at a time when a service was going on so we went to church - even communion, we listened to the sisters of Sacre Coeur carry the service through singing. What an awesome feeling to be in that church when a time-honoured tradition was being carried out. Our favourite areas are the Montmartre and Pigalle - a bit off the wall, I will agree - and our own area of Poissoniere was also very interesting.
We subbed in the metro throughout our whole stay. We did pay 28 euros each for a 5-day pass but we ended up using it way more than that after all was done. We walked approx 8 to 10 kms a day. I mean, we really did walk our butts all over Paris. We have seen riots, rights for health care gatherings, people being sniffed for drugs by huge shephard dogs, teenagers hauled over by the cops for bag checks and, yes, a multitude of vagrants and panhandlers. So sadly, we were watchers of one old man as he got himself up off the hot vent area from the exhaust of the subway, where he had spent the night. He toddled over to the puddle in the curb to take his shoes off and wash his feet. Later that day, we saw him drinking from a bottle of wine and eating garbage.
There are so many people in this city and still not enough housing to deal with them. The immigrant problem is more apparent now than 20 years ago but Europe knew back then that it was going to happen. They just haven't bothered to deal with it. Our hotel room was cleaned by a lady from Africa and she was so delighted when we would leave her french notes with money every day. It is such a statement when one can say that it is cheaper to live in a one-room dirty hotel than to live in an apartment.
We have been going straight out for so long that it was just today that we decided that we couldn't take any more waiting in lines to see something else. It happened after we had just left our pretend good hotel to move to our hotel that is chosen by our bus tour beginning point. This hotel is a 3 star but after the one we just left, which takes top marks for the dirtiest and sleeziest place that we've ever stayed in, this one feels like a 10 star. We even have a tub - not to mention a toilet. And, after you take a bath or shower, you ARE clean. Again, I did say it was cheap didn't I.
Well, we head out tomorrow for Caen and Normandy and to the beaches of Normandy. It's going to be cold - do you guys in Winnipeg hear me - cold, at least, oh I don't know, maybe 12. We really have had beautiful weather this past week - about 23 each day. I am feeling sorry for you guys though with the horrible winter that you have experienced. Hope it's over soon. We see that you are expecting 9 this coming week. See, we do try to keep abreast of all of your lives.
We've been told that we may not have good email connections in the next week, so if you don't hear from me, you must remember that I'll be in the wine Bordeaux region and sipping probably a bit too much.
Cheers,
Love J and G
XO

Paris

We are now working from a french keyboard so it is finger watching and slow.

We took our TGV from Stuttgart to Paris. At 320 km per hour, Gerhard successfully went to the washroom, pissed into a hole 5cm big. Unfortunately, the speed sucked him out through the hole, onto the track and now I am on my own. Nothing but drama here in France. As we passed Strasbourg, a small city near the German border where we used to live in Lahr, 10 000 police were gathered to control the mobs trying to get into Germany for the NATO gathering in Baden. It is there where they want to confront Obama to help settle many issues. France is not part of the NATO group and the people want to be. We were acompanied by three police officers and one undercover cop on our entire 4 hour trip to Paris. Our train got slowed down but not stopped. Many people have been hurt as we watch it every day on TV. Also, as we get off the train in the east train stn, we are surrounded by policemen carrying submachine guns.

Our walk to our hotel was fine, close enough to be just a little exercise. Our hotel is another story altogether. We are again in the, what should we call it, the seedy area which we don,t mind but trying to sleep is, again, another story.

Our life continues to be interesting. Here in Paris, it is crazier than Gerhard with speed. Yesterday we sauntered along the Champs Elysees, the Concorde ring area and up to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. You must be totally on your toes here. We were approached by a man who was picking up a gold wedding band from the ground and then asked us if it was ours. He tried to give it to us telling us that he was from Yugoslavia and that he had no use for it. He said that he was giving it to us in friendship and that it didn,t fit him anyway. We refused of course, after all, what would two millionnaire travellers from Canada need gold for? We told him to take it and sell it. He then pushed it into our hands and asked for 5 euros to help him buy his papers for the country. We pushed it back and turned away from him. What a scam.
We slept on the grounds near the Eiffel Tower and ate ice cream as we watched the 5 000 or so people line up to climb the stairs up to the top. I,ve done it once, in the winter when no one was there, but Ill be jiggered if I would do it again especially with a two hour wait for a ticket and 2 000 people on my tail. Later in the day we took a bus back to our hotel from the Eiffel Tower and nearly had an accident. We came so quickly to a stop that an older lady was thrown to the floor across my lap and then hit her knees onto the stairs as she went down. The bus was stopped, cleared out, and again we were on the street waiting for another bus. We did meet some nice people as we waited though. G again met another lady who spoke German. So he stood and spoke to her as I stood and spoke to an older French man.

When we returned to our hotel, we changed rooms because our heat wouldn,t shut off and the man couldn,t understand why we Canadians would want to sleep in a cool room. It was so hot that the edges of our paper was curling. I did say that it was a cheaper hotel didn,t I? It gave us memories of years ago when we stayed in London and our room had the hotel¨'s heating system in our closet. We called that room the B52 room. We call this room the sauna box. Ahhhh, life in Paris.
What to say about Paris === amazing, wonderful, living a dream==hope we survive it.

Karlsruhe, Heidelberg, Stuttgart and Esslingen

We have been to all of these places in the last week. What a round of travelling. Karlsruhe was the least exciting of them all but somehow Gerhard managed to, again, get us into yet another red light district. Drats on those 'mother hold onto your children' signs. This time, however, the road was filled with older ladies looking quite tired and each of them had a dog in the room with them. They didn't seem to be too interested in anything in the streets - least of all, us two. The road had a 6 inch-thick, iron gate to close in on the area. Seedy looking area I'll tell you. It didn't take us too long to get out of there.
In Karlsruhe, Gerhard also lost one of his crowns and so we had to find a dentist here and have it recemented. I'll let him tell you all sometime about his trip to the office. Now, he is trying to tell me that he is Agent 007.. Yeah, right.
We also took the train one day and went to Heidelberg and had a lovely time walking around that beautiful university town and drinking their wine. We visited the castle and just enjoyed the place.
We arrived in Stuttgart yesterday and immediately went out to find a place to eat. So imagine, we are in Germany and walk straight into a French restaurant to have a special meal, served to us by a frenchman, surrounded by only french people and eating a french crepe filled with turkey. It was great. After leaving here, guess where we found ourselves again? Yes, you are correct. In Stuttgart's red light district. How do we do this? We definitely have to stop getting ourselves lost. Not a collection of interesting girls??? selling themselves in Stuttgart either. Where are all the pretty ones from Amsterdam?
Imagine, last night we stayed out until 8:30. We feel all grown up. Today we set out to explore the city again and then jumped onto another train to go to Esslingen - one of the oldest towns in Germany. We have been having a great time here and are now looking for a place to have some wine. But first we found this internet place and thought that we should check in.
We head out tomorrow for Paris and are staying in a little dive place for next to no money. We will log on again when we find a suitable place.
toodles loved ones.

Here in Almersbach

We arrived from our flight from Palma de Mallorca Sunday evening in Stuttgart. We took the train to Bachnang and then a taxi to Lili and Dieter's house and arrived there at 12:30 in the morning. They opened a bottle of bubbly and we stayed up until 2:30 celebrating. It was nice to arrive in some loving arms after our long trip south.
These people are lovely. They, as all of our other relatives have done here in Europe, have treated us as their own children and have accepted us into their lives as if we have only been gone for a few days. Gerhard has had a wonderful time talking, you all know how much he loves to do that. His german language is spectacular now and he and his relatives have come to know each other well through sharing. A time like this will never come again for several of these people by the time we are able to ever get back here. The world moves quickly and claims all of us and several of these loved ones are older and suffer from the world's illnesses. We share and love each other well with all of this kept in mind.
We leave already tomorrow to take the train to Karlsruhe for a few days, then Stuttgart for two days and then off by train to Paris for 6 days on our own before our 14-day bus trip starts for France.
We are well, no sicknesses as of yet, and are feeling quite alive. We miss you all and hope that the winter is treating you as well as it is treating us.
Love J and G xoxo

Impressions of Africa and Morocco

First of all, we've been told that pretty much what we've seen in Morocco, the rest of Africa is similar. Except for the happy made-up tourist places, but we know that those are not real.

Anyway, here goes!!!
The first thing that comes to mind is: 'What have we done to ourselves?' We will forever hold in our memories the visions of all things horrible in this country. Yes, there are some beautiful things, people, buildings, weather and new and exciting things to do, but, all of this is numbed next to the abject poverty and state of living. Poverty that 60% or more of people didn't ask for nor can get out of no matter how hard and tirelessly they work.
Hidden behind mud walls and beside the mud huts, concrete broken down buildings covered with rocks and tin for roofs with no windows stand beautiful mosques filled with gold and marble. Why aren't these places hidden behind high walls to hide them from sight? Because we were high up in a tour bus, we could see the deplorable situations behind the walls.
Animals, too, are treated with as little respect as the poor. Donkeys bear weight not fit for 4 and have their legs tied together so that can't escape. Horses stand for hours waiting for a chance to walk or trot. Too, we saw that their front feet were tied together.
The pathetic manner of these poor people draws at your soul as you are forced to refuse their goods because it becomes overwhelming and dangerous to accept them. They are desperate to sell you something they wouldn't have or need. The amount of personal space is assaulted with every step. If a motorcycle, car, donkey, or bike is not in your way, these sellers are constantly on your feet.
Being rude doesn't work, you must harden your soul and push on. Trying to ignore their existance. How sad is this for caring people such as we try to be. How sad is this land. How sad are we to have to behave in this way to fellow human beings. And the worst yet and the hardest to live with is 'How pathetic is it to be glad that we are no where near as desperate as they are and relieved that we can escape the madness.
We leave this place with heavy hearts not able to take any more. We leave with many questions of how can a place like this exist.
Did we have a special time of our lives here? Yes. We have learned so much with which we will carry for the rest of our lives. Would we ever return to this land? No.

Our Impressions of Africa

Sorry, can't do it right now. We are far too emotional over this country to put it onto this page and have it make sense. We will need some time.

Left Morocco Today

To ensure that you don't get the days out of order, you will need to go back a few postings and read what's been up with us since day one of Africa.
Our tour guide did tell us that driving through Morocco was a lesson in contrasts. The farm land and agricultural growth is pretty green right now because it's winter and warm but not too hot to grow. In the summer and 45 degree heat, everything dies. Marrakech turned out to be another city of rich get rich and poor get poorer. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, a 5-star for Africa, which had a nice pool for G to swim in and a swing beside it for me to watch him from. We toured the center city market place, again with a guide, and visited a herbalist and spice shop. We walked through a crazy stream of shops and allies where we were jostled by more donkeys, bikes, motorcycles, cars and yet again, more poor people trying to sell their meager wares. The area is really called a "sook" and is unbelievabley crowded. We were set off on our own for a bit and Gerhard really wanted something to snack on. We headed towards this wonderfully looking nut food stand tents and bartered over some walnuts. We started to eat them and were really enjoying them because they come from the country and were cracked and ready. After I had ordered some almonds and started to also eat them, Gerhard had found some worms and bugs in the walnuts. Needless to say, both bags hit the trash.
We continued to walk around and ventured upon some snake charmers, monkey tamers, story tellers, musicians and all sorts of other entertainers trying to make a living by getting you to watch and partake in their area. We headed back to the hotel to walk a bit and later in the evening, we and another sweet couple took a horse and buggy ride for an hour through the city streets. It was a nice way to end the visit to Marakech even though the buggy driver, a dear old man with no teeth, kept, in our ears, squeezing the horn at all his buddies along the way to show them that he had a fare and that he was so proud.
We also visited Casablanca - and you can save your breath on this one because it's not worth the trouble. Pretty dirty city with only the second largest mosque in the muslim world to boast about. Rabat, the political capital of Morocco, was also visited and in this city we visited a musoleum and the king's palace.
Today, we drove back to Tangier and waited quite some time to get through customs. We had to empty all of our luggage out of the bus so that we could get checked properly but, more importantly, our bus was to be inspected. Indeed, our bus driver and the police found some Moroccan men stowed away under the bus hanging on for dear life. We picked them up just outside of the docks. All was cleared but it did take us over an hour to get back underway.
We drove in yet again another mountain to Granada - a beautiful city in Spain. Mostly a vacation spot near the beach. We will go to see one of the most famous palaces tomorrow but right now I can't remember the name. Heading back to Madrid tomorrow.

Last Day in Fes and 1st day in Marrekesh

Two nights ago we went to a typical Moroccan dinner and entertainment evening. We had food that I would say was "unexplainable" - in other words, we didn't know what we were eating. Good though! We were walked back into the maze of streets into the medina again and into a small palace where we sat at tables about us to our shins with little poof chairs that leaned forward. People would take pictures of Gerhard because he was so squashed into his place that he couldn't move.
The entertainment was music by a male band - loosely speaking, 5 different belly dancers, a magican, male dancers and another set of singers and dancers. It was a very different experience - one that was really set up to satisfy the male portion of society - go figure. Gerhard wasn't really too excited about it because they kept coming into the audience to pick on him as he was right in the way and looking pretty conspicuous. On our way back to the hotel at 11:30 that evening, we ran across a lorry that was smoldering in flames on the road that we had to take so we had to turn the bus around and try to find another way to our hotel. All in a day's life here in Africa.
We left the next day to drive a very long way - yes, through the middle Atlas mountains - up, down, through, around and between them all. We drove for 11 hours with stops in between because we had to make it to the west coast to Marrakesh for our next stop. The drive ended up making several people ill on the bus because it was nothing but switchbacks and one-lane highways something akin to our little dirt pathways we would make for our dinky cars. Dust was everywhere. Oh, by the way, I almost forgot to tell you that my aim is pretty good. Found this out when we keep stopping for "comfort breaks" as they like to call them, and we women head off to the washrooms. Not bad I guess for a 51 year -old but it sure would be nice to rest while going. Good thing my knees are okay when squatting.
The land was quite different than we expected. Very lush forest and plenty of growth for agriculture. The government has several cooperatives delegated to the land to ensure food for their world. But...the towns and the villages, and even the cities, are filled with nothing but hovels. Mud huts, tin homes, concrete building with no doors and windows and people everywhere. It's so hard to describe the state of these people's lives and have you understand exactly what the country is all about.
Marrakesh is something else again. Yet again different from Fes and Tangier. It is filled with opulence and is the place of rich and important people's holidays. Our hotel is a 5-star with pool and spa treatment areas and bar with band etc . Bikes, motorbikes, donkeys and feet all mingle together in a mess of honking horns and shouts. We took a city tour in the morning today, a tour that was full of still more smells, sights and people than is possible for one to handle. I am so overly stimulated that I just need to sit for a bit in a quiet place. I'm pretty tired of telling people to go away.
We walked through the little alleyways and stopped into a herbalist and spice store and had an introduction to the African way of healing. We then were walked to the old city center where, again, many stalls were lined up selling goodness knows what. We watched snake charmers, story tellers, henna artists, and monkey tamers try to get us to stop and watch and take a picture so that we would have to pay. It's all very sly but legal and tricky. Every corner is filled with bartering and if you don't barter and watch your money, you will be taken for a pretty coin. G and I have a very special solution to this problem. We just haven't bought anything. It's junk anyway.
Oh yeah, we did buy walnuts but,,,, they were full of worms. So the almonds that I bought as well went the same way as the walnuts.
Tomorrow we head out to Casablanca for a short trip and for lunch and then head to the capitol Rabat. We stay overnight there and then head back to Spain to Granada. We have done quite a bit of driving this trip but it was necessary in order to get in and around the ancient roads of Africa. G and I knew that we would never have come here if not for a bus trip and, while we are glad to have come and be here and to have learned so much, we, or rather I, will be glad to arrive back onto the European Union land once again. It's far too depressing for me to spend such a long time here. One good thing for sure is that all Moroccan's speak French. It's their second language.
Off to wash the sand and dirt. J

More on the city life

I'm back. I had to get help with the cord.
Our walk through the town was slow and meaningful. The walkways, not streets really, were cobbled, falling apart and extremely small. You could put your arms out and touch the sides of each building on either side. Along the sides were many small shops full of things that I've never seen before - for example, snails crawling around in baskets for you to buy, bark to chew on, open dried fruit just covered in flies and bugs, and a multitude of wares used by the people. Shop keepers were mostly men as the women were the ones who made or gathered the merchandise to give to the stores for sale.
The streets were dark because the sunshine couldn't make it in between the aisles as the buildings were too close together. The amount of people was astounding. Some were dressed in gowns but some were also wearing normal attire. Only the Arabs wear the gowns and hats or hoods. Following us everywhere and popping up out of the corners were the street dwellers and sellers who try to get you to buy for want of a better word - a second class item compared to the stuff in the stores. Most don't take no for an answer. I was lucky as I had Gerhard, who towers above them as you now know, and he seemed to ward off the would-be sellers around me. When I left his side or backtracked to see something, they were all over me.
In and around these small spaces were donkeys, truly burdened with too much stuff, trying to get around the crowds. This is why the screaming out of the words is important.
The smells are incredible, the amount of items for sale is unheard of and the feeling of hope for a sale from the merchants is more than one can stand. Several times throughout the walk, we were taken into special stores to learn about the craft. After this, of course, you were given a chance to buy the wares. G and I are pretty good at saying no to anything for sale but the women of this trip, mostly Americans and a few Aussies were buying up the whole city. In our carpet factory/home, for instance, one of the Aussies bought a 2000 dollar carpet. Ouch.
We went to a leather tanning outfit - small really but which gave many men a job, and watched as the men were standing and stomping in big vats full of die in order to give all the hand-polished leather a different colour. All day they stomp and walk in the liquid, not water by the way but a drying agent, with tiny shorts on. There are other men who place the leather to dry way up on top of the roofs of the buildings to be in the sun and yet others who take the wool from the sheep and do the same thing. I can't tell you how horrible it all smells - similar to feces, so that the owner gives the people pieces of mint leaves to help you breathe as you view the process. Our guide wouldn't even go in.
All around the area the homes and buildings are crumbling, the land is dry dessert-like and the heat brings up the smells until you just have to get within proximity to smell it. All in all. the people all around us seem to be perfectly happy and it was only us that thought something was amiss.
And we seem to walk around saying - these people don't know what they are missing but I think it's probably the other way around. We are too full of perfect lifestyles to even ponder being okay with living like this.
Pondering yet again about life in Canada.
J

Life in Morocco - the city of Fes

Fes is titled the spiritual capital of Morocco. Lots of mosques, muslim and the palace. We ate typical Moroccan fair for last night's supper and this morning's breakfast. Tonight we head out again for a special restaurant in the old town and for some entertainment. We had our Medina (old town) tour by bus and on foot this morning until 1:30 pm. Such a thing in my life I will never see again.
First of all, coming across the country was a very sad statement for the poverty of this 3rd world country. People live in hovels, pull their water out of community wells and still ride and use donkeys for their plowing and hauling. We couldn't take our eyes off the destituteness of it all. It tugs at your heart. I felt like jumping off the bus and rescuing the children. Some mothers have up to 12 children and yet they work all day in the fields tending to crops. 60% of the people still live in the country growing food for the population. It was Sunday so we had a very good chance to see how the families spend their holy day. Lots still worked in and around their praying time.
We climbed mountain after mountain, yes, you heard me, yet more mountains - my favourite. However, after seeing the state of life for these people, a simple mountain could not bother me here.
The Medina or the center of the city where most business is carried out was our destination this morning. We had a lesson on a few Moroccan phrases to learn before we could go into the tangled, crowded area. Our guide, a Fes inhabitant, said that it took him 20 visits with a guide himself before he didn't get lost in the area. We were very carefully watched.
The phrases we had to lea;rn were: balack balack - listen for it to be yelled. If it is heard the third time, it's too late. A bloody big donkey is riding up your ass. Today i used it myself to move one of my group out of the way for a man with a cart.
The other word in Ls Shokron which means No Thankyou. This is needed in order to get the merchants off you as they try to sell their wares all over your body. Will continue my memories after I plug in.
Later
j

Morocco Style

Hello from Morocco. Good thing that this hotel has a computer because I need to get this down before it becomes just a memory and not a reality any longer.
We drove yesterday for many hours crossing the country from Tangier to Fes. Four people actually got sick in the back of the bus from the bumping and jostling on the small, broken up roads that we had to take. Morocco only has two main highways and we weren't on any of them.
This country is a place of contrasts. Tangier is said to be the armpit of the country yet that's the place where the ferry dis and embarks. I actually found that Tangier was a pretty little city but it is said that it can be uite a rough place to be because of the port and the beach areas. We seemed to get through the crossing and back on the bus with no problem but as we were driving towards Fes, just outside of Tangier, 5 boys of ages 10 to 12 started to run around the bus while we were at a stop light. Turns out two of those 5 jumped onto the back of the bus and hitched a ride with us. We were going over 100 km/hr and yet they were holding on for over 30 minutes until we finally stopped on the side of the road and shooed them off. Our Moroccan guide told us "Don't worry, this is normal." It seems that they hitch often trying to hide themselves on the buses that are about to cross over to Spain and enter illegally to escape their country. The rest of us were quite worried about their safety and yet the guide said, "If they fall off, it will be their own fault." All this and only 10 minutes on the road. He said that on our return is when we really have to watch for them because they will hide themselves in the luggage area or by hanging onto the undercarriage of the bus. I felt like I was back on one of my trips to the Eastern Block of Germany. It was pretty unnerving.
During the night, in our hotel room, we had a little visitor who left remnants of his meals in the bathroom. Parts of the ceiling asbestos were falling onto my face, bed and luggage as I slept, I had a tubby this morning that was tepid and I had let the hot water tap run full blast the whole time and... and this is the best part of all..... the toilet seat is not functioning so when I sat down, my bottom fell right into the bowl. Needless to say, I needed another tubby. Well, things are surely interesting here for what they call a 4-star hotel.

Seville, Spain

Seville is one of the southern cities, 700 000 people, where the 1992 Expo was held. Just like Montreal, you can still visit the expo pavilions and such which were built on an island right in the middle of the river that runs past the city. The city was first lived in by the Moors or the Muslims. Today we walked, slowly I might add because it was 30 degrees, into the city center and toured around the old buildings and sites. There is still a Moorish tower dated to the 1100's which we walked up 40 flights to get to the top. There, was a 360 view of the city (and a bunch of breathless people). Attached to it is the huge catholic Cathedral built after the Muslim church was torn down when the city was taken over by the Spaniards. This church is the third largest Christian church in the world. I don't know what the other two are but I'm sure I'll find out. The church is astounding, opulent, and too large. It doesn't give one the feeling of a quiet presence that you feel in many other large cathedrals. But.... it does hold some of the remains of Christopher Columbus - one of the most revered people here in Spain.
Yesterday we arrived here around 5 and headed straight to our room for a siesta. After our nap, we ate and then took the bus to our flamenco dancing show. 11/2 hours later and we don't know why those ladies and gentlemen haven't got smashed kneecaps. They can move, I'll tell you that, and they put so much passion and feeling into what they are doing. You know belly dancers and big bellies?....well, it's the same for flamenco dancers and big butts. It doesn't, however, stop them from moving and the Spanish men just love it. We had a terrific time.
Another story about Gerhard: Well, today as it was 30 and yesterday when we arrived it was between 28 and 30, Gerhard decided that he should dress as he does at home. You know, plaid shorts, t-shirt, long hairy leg with sandals. Oh, don't forget the Tilley hat and the fact that he is about 12 inches taller than inhabitants here. Well, as you know, it is still winter for these folks here in Spain and they are still (and probably always are) dressed in their European slacks, white shirts, sweaters and heavy shoes. Some of the ladies still wear coats. I am also dressed in jeans, shirt and carrying my sweater for the shadowy streets. I have never seen so many Spaniards stare and snap their heads back at one person before. He might as well have been naked. He said that he could only have been more conspicuous if he was painted neon yellow. One good thing - I could always find him in the crowd.
j

Spain or Portugal?

We pick Portugal. It's way prettier - a bit more like Greece with all the pure white houses and red roofs. Both places are very mountainous - as a matter of fact, Spain in the second most mountainous in Europe after Switzerland. The people are friendlier in Portugal although both countries only grow shorter people. We also find them quite a bit more sophisticated in P probably because years back the government decided to spend a lot of money educating and creating a more world-sense public. Most speak English.
The number one employment area for both countries is the tourist trade. Without us, the countries would suffer. I say if they care about us that much, they should create more toilets somewhere.
Their way of life is odd for us. Some parts are very nice - like the way they take so much time to relax and enjoy the day and each other. But other parts, for example, the way they are used to having no privacy, the way they are used to living in filthy environments ( at a restaurant they just throw their napkins and junk all over the floor), the incredible amount of time they spent traveling amongst each other to get from one place to another. This is what it is like to live in a place where space is a premium and land is small plus, there's packed into this small land, more people than can be expected.
I guess what I'm saying is that Canada is great!!
We've met so many wonderful people in the last month and a bit. People from all places, people from all walks of life. Each and every one of them is making an impact on the stories of our lives and we are thoroughly enjoying that impact. Even though we didn't feel lucky to have taken this trip because we had planned for it for 5 years and saved and borrowed and gave up things for it and luck had nothing to do with it at all, we are beginning to feel incredibly lucky to have such a diverse and interesting world to be a part of.
We will be heading to Morocco in a couple of days and we know that this particular part of Africa is pretty strict and sometimes backwards so we may not get to a computer unless our hotel has one. As a woman, I must keep my shoulders and upper arms covered and, I must go and ask again, but one of my hands I must not touch anything with. One hand is filthy and the other is clean. Hmmmm! I could be in trouble. These days, with all the new stuff around me, I can't keep a thought in my head for more than a minute.
Love to everyone, J

Lisbon

We left the northern part of Portugal, which was full of lemon and orange laden trees, beautiful scenes of homes on the very hilly terrain and warm sunshine. Our first stop was a small town way high up in the mountains. It was the town of Fatima, where a huge area of the town in the 70's was set aside to dedicate to "Our Lady of Fatima" a young girl who lived there and was said to have seen apparitions of the Virgin Mary monthly on the 13th of the month starting in May for 6 months. The whole thing was built on a shepherd's field. The area was built to the size of around 1 square km. I can't even put into words the feeling of being there. The quiet awe of people as you stand and view the area in its silence was overpowering. People would actually get down on their knees and crawl and pray down the marbled approach. G and I lit many candles and spent 2 hours walking and breathing in the positive nature of the place.
Before this area we had a session of port tasting in one of the town's port cellars. This reminded us of our taste testing of scotch that we attended once in Scotland.
We arrived in Lisbon, a beautiful city, by supper. G and I went directly to the grocery store for cereal and milk. We rested for the rest of the evening and today we had a bus tour of the city for the morning. This afternoon, after our siesta of course, we headed out and took the subway to the center of the city where we had a regional big meal for lunch. We had a lamb dish and salad which we both shared.
Tomorrow morning we head to Seville and to a traditional flamenco dance show for the evening along with an included supper. Every second night on our trip we have an included supper so it's a night of our not eating cereal.
We are now back in our hotel, way ahead of everyone usually, and having another rest before the evening. It's different for us because we are here for a longer period of time than everyone else and don't feel like we have to fit in hoards of things before we head home. The rest of the folks are scrambling to go to all the extra excursions in order to see all that they can see. The problem with that is that it turns out to cost an extra 500 euros and they end up not seeing the city we are living and staying in, but rather the stuff outside of the cities that are touristy.
I need a nap. Love to everyone.
J

Logging in No problem

Hi Guys,

Glad to hear things are going well, love the stories J. I don't feel sorry for G, frostbite here :) I;m looking forward to my first bug bite. We'll be waiting for more travel tales.

Take care Trev Jo

We continue to press on

Yes, even though it's very hot outside, we do continue to wear sandals. G got a sunburn on his feet today from sitting in the square while we ate lunch.
Yes, we have had to pack away our winter coats and carry them, whoa's us, in our backpacks.
Yes, we do get up each morning to someone making us breakfast. Such a chore.
Yes, we are letting someone else do the planning and driving for the next three weeks.
Drats, there's bugs out - wasps, little flying flies in our rooms each morning but....I guess we can stand it... and they do need to live somewhere.
Yes, the trees are green and now have leaves and...are obscuring our view of the landscape but we do need the shade to get out of the hot sun.
Yes, we are poor. Could someone send us a million dollars?

Sitting in Coimbra

We left Madrid this morning on our bus trip. We stopped into two cities on the way. Avila, is another in the list of medieval towns surrounded by a high wall. We visited the church where Saint Theresa lived and later, in Salamanca, we ,G and I, walked the old town and ate lunch in the sunshine of the large city square. One thing we have noticed a lot on our travels is that we are learning how to spot a place to go to the washroom. Today it was in the McDonalds.
We drove on to cross the border in Portugal. Quite different than Spain and a pleasure too. We pulled into a beautiful city called Coimbra and are about to go down for supper. Tomorrow morning, we head out for a tour and walk of the old city and then drive onto Fatima for the day. We will end our day in Lisbon where we stay for 2 nights.
It sure is nice to be here in the Best Western, who would have guessed, and to have free computer use.

In Madrid

Well, we are here in Madrid. Our flight to Spain was delayed for 40 minutes and the flight was very hot, heh, it´s RyanAir - budget airlines, but we arrived safely. There was no arranged seating as usual for airlines, so when it came close to flight time, the people started to line up like cattle. The flight attendants weren´t very charitable about how the spanairds behaved with the flights so I won´t repeat it but it seemd to go along fine in the end. I managed to get G an exit seat so that he had leg room. We landed and found a shuttle bus shared with another woman for only 26 euro which was great but it´s so busy here, traffic and construction, that it took us 1 hour to get to our hotel.
Madrid is something else. Similar to Mexico we find. Very poor and very crowded and the city itself is extremely old. We spent two wonderful days taking the bus to the old part of town and walking, eating, picture taking and viewing. The next day we walked in the new part of town going to museums and enjoying the 18 degree weather. Today, 21 degrees outside, we are just going for a slow walk around to places that we´ve yet to see. Gerhard is wearing his sandals.

Thursday night after we settled into our hotel, we needed to eat so we walked down the busy street of our hotel. We were invited to enter a small restaurant to eat and we had what we call - breakfast. Too funny. They gave us toastados - toast, eggs and meat. We loved it. The two guys inside the restaurant were gems. We managed with broken language. We said we were from Canada after they´d asked. The one fella said, ¨´ ah, Toronto!! ¨ We said, ¨¨No, Winnipeg, Manitoba.¨ He looked at us and asked, ¨huh?¨ I guess we aren´t really well known we Manitobans.
We went back to that same restaurant the next morning for a real breakfast and lo and behold, the female waitress heard me say ¨nein¨to Gerhard and came right over to speak German to us. Life is very funny sometimes.
I forgot to tell you more on the ongoing story of Gerhard getting used to Europe. On the way back to the hotel after our first day here, Gerhard thought that we should stop into a bar along the way. He puts his hand onto two big black doors that have¨, in Spanish, ¨¨no trespassing¨¨ pasted onto the front. I tried to pull him away and tell him no, but you know that he has his own mind. Well, he opens the door, pulls apart the curtains and is faced with ten, not nine, but ten woman of the evening who, all at once, look up at him and say, ¨¨ola!!¨¨ Sheepishly, he backs out and we had no more beer that night.

So, the rest of the bus group arrive today and we meet tonight for supper. Tomorrow, we have a free day and tour around the city or Toledo and then we leave straight away on Tuesday morning. We are very excited that things have been working out well. This is the first time that the two of us have been thrown into a country where we don´t really understand the language. It´s pretty amazing how easily we are getting along with sign language and facial and finger movements.
Onward over the mountains we go.

Waiting for our Flight

Okay, you buggers!!!! We have snow. Actually, it's snow rain mix and is supposed to turn to all rain by afternoon. Our flight is 15:45 and seeing as we are at an old military airbase, the landing strips are all heated so the snow is not a problem. Just the day to get snow, when we are taking off for more southern weather. Actually, in the northern mountain areas of Spain and the Alps of Switz, it is snowing like a banshee.
Check out some of the pictures I was able to get onto the blog because we had a really relaxed day yesterday here at the hotel. I hope to get a few more on before we leave. Please note, that if there is no picture for an entry, it is because the picture for that spot has people in it and we have promised to not put anyone into the blog.
Hope your snow turns to rain as well.
j