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.