Great European Adventure 2012

It's been a while

2013-05-18T15:03:00.001-07:00

I don't think I posted pictures of where I lived in Brooklyn, New York. It sure has gone downhill since we lived there.

Mostly for family, here are some pictures of our old home.

Notice the trash out front. The yards on both sides are dead. They used to be grassed.

This used to be a beautiful building in the early 1900's. Notice the tile floor, textured metal ceiling and stone entryway

This would have been the waiting room for visitors. Now just a storage area. See the fireplace. Real one.

We lived on the second floor. First door on the left

Evidentally, it is not a safe place to live now.

This was the courtyard, where we would play, and yell up to our mom for money when the ice cream truck came around.

Grand Junction, Colorado Sept 28-30

2012-11-02T20:25:00.001-07:00

We had called our son, Brian, and told him we had changed our plans and we would be arriving in GJ the next day. We did not hear back. We were not concerned, since he is busy and his wife, Julia, was very pregnant, so he would be very busy.

When we arrived at the airport we tried to reach him again, just to know if he was coming or if we should fend for ourselves, but no answer. So we got a hotel that picked us up. Just as we were waiting for the pick up, Brian called to say that he was on the way to the hospital and, no, he had not gotten our first message.

So, right after midnight, Clara was born.

Proud daddy. Mom asked not to have her picture taken at this time.

Needless to say, we spent some time at the hospital visiting our newest granddaughter. Since Julia’s family was coming to help her with her family, we decided we should vacate the area for a while, so we left and drove to Laughlin, Nevada.

Laughlin, Nevada Most of October

2012-11-02T20:24:00.001-07:00

Not much to say about our stay at the Edgewater Hotel, but we got a rest. There is a lot to do in Laughlin, besides gambling, but besides sitting at the pool in 90 degree weather (pretty nice) we slept a lot.

I did spend a day in the hospital, where they made sure I was not having a stroke, since I had been dizzy since the last cruise. I checked out OK, but still was dizzy. Our son, David, told us about the Epley maneuver, which we checked out on the internet. We tried it and I feel a lot better. I wish the doctors had told me about it.

So after almost a month, we left, and drove to Las Vegas. We will stay for 4 nights, drive to Grand Junction to see Clara and stay over since Duane has a follow up appointment at the hospital there, before heading, finally, home.

New York City Sept 25 Part 1

2012-11-02T20:23:00.001-07:00

Our first views of New York

We arrived in Brooklyn, not Manhattan. For those of you who are not very familiar with New York, it is made up of 5 boroughs. When people speak of New York, they generally mean the island of Manhattan. That is where the Empire State building is and where the Trade Center buildings were. Then there are the boroughs of Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. First, I have no idea why the Bronx has “the” in front of it when no other borough does.

I grew up in Brooklyn, though I was born in the Bronx. Brooklyn is so big that it would be a major city just by itself, something like the 6th largest.

We took a transfer offered by the ship and went to Grand Central Station. I expected it to be grander than it is. You can go to all the suburbs from GCS, but to leave the city area you go to Penn Station. We didn’t go there. Our hotel was just 7 blocks from GCS, so we walked with our stuff to the Soldiers, Sailors and Marine Hotel. It seemed the thing to do when I made the reservations, since it was for veterans and less expensive than other hotels in Manhattan and we expected it to be nice, since it was for our veterans. Well, it is in a great location: near GCS, near my friend Marian’s apartment and Central Park and the subway. What it isn’t, is nice. It is very old and not kept up very well. No air conditioning, which is very necessary, uncomfortable beds and shared bathrooms down the hall. Also, the second night we noticed, OK, I noticed, a mouse running across the room. Our room was on the 3rd floor, walk up and carry up, of course, and I made it down to the front desk in nothing flat. (I don’t think I touched half the steps)

We were moved to another room, the Presidential Suite, which was the same size as our original room, but it had a tiny refrigerator and there was a breeze from the window. Not very presidential. Anyway, all in all, not what we expected.

Once we were settled in our room, we decided to go see where I grew up. We took the train to Brooklyn and got a very pleasant surprise…..the subways have been greatly improved. No graffiti at all, clean trains and stations, and modern trains with electronic information maps that showed where you are and what is coming next and the announcements were understandable. That was neat.

I got us to the subway stop nearest my old apartment house and we walked the 6 blocks to my street. We walked down Church Avenue, the shopping street, which I remember had a grocery store (A & P) and a butcher and bakery and shoemaker. You get the idea. Well now, it is populated by one small discount store after another. Discount store is not the right thing to call these places, they are the kind of store where stuff is out on the sidewalk, and things are hung from the ceiling and all over the place and everything is cheap, both in price and in quality. Very sad to see.

The neighborhood, which used to be mostly Jewish with a lesser amount of Italians, is now mostly black, Hasidic (which is a very strict orthodox Jewish sect ) and Islamic, with women in burkes.

When we got to the actual house, (pictures to follow after we get home, since I need to download that camera) it has deteriorated badly. Back in the early 1900’s the house was a lovely thing. The stoop that lead to the front door was covered by a cloth archway, with gardens on both sides. The front door was glass and there were bells in the little entryway so you could call the person and they could ring you in (unlock the inner door). Then you would enter into a tiled hallway that lead to the stairs. The stairs were on the left, but on your right was a sitting room with a fireplace. Each apartment had a room for the maid and a “dumbwaiter” to send you trash down to the basement, so you didn’t have to deal with carrying your trash.

Well, no, I did not live there then, (I’m old, but not that old), so when I lived there in the 1950’s and 60’s it was not that nice. The maids room was my brother’s room and the dumbwaiter was closed and none of the bells in the entry way worked.

But now……it is a dump. Outside the main door sits a refrigerator. The sitting room is full of junk. The front gardens are dead.

We did not stay long. We took a bus down Church Avenue to Flatbush Avenue, where I went to high school, Erasmus Hall High School. It looks like a castle….hey maybe that is why I love castles….nah.

We then took the bus all the way to Coney Island, the home of Nathans. Coney Island looked very much the same, but they fixed Nathans up to look like all the franchises out there. What I remember was a dirty place where the hot dogs sat on the rotating rollers so long that the outside got really hard, but the inside was hot and juicy. Now the dogs are kept hot in a warming drawer. Not quite the same. It was fun to see, though. The beach was nice and clean, which was nice to see. The summer is over, so not many people there.

I think this may be the oldest roller coaster around.

this area is on the side of the library. That guy, feeding the squirrel, was feeding them gourmet almonds. Expensive, he said, but better for the squirrels. See New Yorkers are nice. We got lots of help getting around. No mean New Yorkers did we see.

Then we went back to our hotel.

We walked around the city for the rest of the day. We walked by, and decided to visit, the main branch of the New York Public Library. It is amazing, like visiting one of the palaces we saw throughout Europe

Doesn’t this look like the ceiling in a castle or palace or museum?

They store most of their valuable books and research material, underground, under the building and neighboring park, right, under a park.

this is one area of storage, what we are allowed to see

this is the park the books are under.

New York City Part 2

2012-11-02T20:20:00.001-07:00

The next day we went to the 9/11 Memorial.

To get to see the area, you must have a ticket. There is no cost, but you have to have the ticket which you can order by phone or download and print it off the internet. Then you go through a lot of security, not surprisingly.

This flag, which we saw while on line, contains the names names of all the victims.

this is the new tower. this is the completed smaller tower

there are 2 waterfall features where the 2 towers used to stand. The water falls down the side and then down into the center.

Names are cared around the edges.

It had rained the night before and even though it was dry today, everything was wet, as with tears. Very moving, of course.

We did some more walking around….

lots of traffic and taxis. No one yelled at us.

Lots of interesting buildings:

We walked around Battery Park, where we could see the Statue of Liberty.

We met with my friend from college for dinner at a New York deli, with Dr. Brown’s diet crème soda. Then we walked around Central Park.

Did you notice the castle like building. That is Hunter College here in Manhattan. I wonder if there is a theme.

Then we went back to the hotel and the discovery of the mouse. So we decided we had had enough of NY. Duane had been there before, and so had I. I had forgotten how NOISY the city is. We booked a flight for the next day and left for Grand Junction.

We didn’t know it at the time, but we may have felt like we had to leave so we could get to Grand Junction when we did.

Saint John, New Brunswick Sept 24

2012-10-15T15:06:00.001-07:00

It is a lovely day here in Saint John. Did you notice the difference between St. John’s and Saint John, right Saint is spelled out here in New Brunswick.

There is not a lot of things to see here and since we were not scheduled to come here, not much to learn from the ship’s excursions, since there weren’t many. So we walked around the town and visited the park and the local churches and learned that there was a Jewish Museum, so we went there.

This church is part of the United Church of Canada, which is an association of different churches that use the same facilities. A combination of Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican denominations. When we entered the church we got a guided tour by a church member. It was very nice.

Duane just had to try out the pulpit

beautiful Pieta in a local church. I don’t understand why this one is less special than Michelangelo's.

This church has been closed to worship and is being saved, so far, by renters who use different parts. The main sanctuary is being used as a community flea market other parts for sales offices.

One of the distinguishing things about Saint John is that it is on the Bay of Fundy, which has the greatest tidal changes in the world. Because of these tides, a series of rapids on the St. John river reverse and flow backwards, called the Reversing Rapids. Due to the short time we had here we were unable to see this phenomenon. Maybe another time.

We went Jewish Museum had been recently relocated to this building

We saw donations of items to the museum by a lady named Marcia Friedman. My middle name is Marcia. We tried to contact her to see if maybe we are related, but she was traveling.

The oldest Synagogue in Canada is this building. It is now used as a church, and the Synagogue is now in the new Museum (there are not a lot of Jews in Saint John. As you can see from the sign, it has been a place of worship for over 100 years.

The buildings here are also very colorful, like in St. John’s.

Now on to New York and our return to the US after more than 4 months.

Canadian Sunsets Sept 23

2012-10-15T15:04:00.001-07:00

St. John’s, New Foundland Sept 22 Part 1

2012-10-15T15:03:00.001-07:00

When we arrived in St. Johns, we looked out out balcony door and saw nothing. We were fogged in. As the fog lifted we were able to see to see a beautiful, colorful town.

We decided to take a taxi tour of the island. As we talked about it, another couple asked if they could join us, so off the four of us went to see this island.

The first place we went was to see the cliffs and rocky coast, but the fog had not lifted on the cliffs

Even though we couldn’t see much, what we did see was pretty neat.

We continued on, back down to sea level, to a small fishing village

Duane taking a picture of me taking his picture

We got to the town and found some fishermen cleaning cod fishes, since it was fishing season, We were hoping that we could go out fishing with one of the fishermen, since they can only keep 6 fish per person, we could go along and they could keep 12 more fish, but it didn’t work out. They were already going to take some of their friends with them on their next outing, oh, well.

We picked up fish and chips here, since our driver said they were the best on the island, and they were great. Nothing better than fresh fish.

We then went to a brewery to try a couple of types of local beer. We continued our tastings of local brews…..

Our driver dropped us off at Signal Hill, since we wanted to walk back to town. Signal Hill is where, on December 12, 1901 Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal. We didn’t know that happened here, did you?

The view from up here is great, too.

The lighthouse on the other side of the bay

There is the Emerald Princess, waiting to take us home to NY.

St. John’s, New Foundland Part 2

2012-10-15T15:02:00.001-07:00

After seeing Signal Point we started walking down toward town. While looking at the view, a nice local lady told us about some of the sights to see. She asked if we had seen the Basilica of John the Baptist. When we said we had not been there yet, she asked us if we wanted a ride. So we went to the Basilica.

Thanks……

Every church we went to was closed to the public because of weddings. We did get a picture of the inside of the Basilica right before the wedding there.

Some pictures of other buildings here in St. John’s

This is the only picture I have of looking at a stained glass window from the outside, lit from the inside.

A foggy sunset

Not Greenland, Sept 20

2012-10-10T13:10:00.003-07:00

So, our next stop after Iceland was supposed to be Greenland. That way we get to see both huge islands. But it was not to be.

The captain announced that the forecast for our arrival in Greenland was for 35 to 45 foot swells and gale winds, so we were going to skip it and since we would then have missed two ports, we would be going to 2 ports in Canada instead.

So, we are going to see St. Johns, New Foundland and Saint John, New Brunswick.

Reykjavik, Iceland Sept 18 Part 1

2012-10-10T13:10:00.001-07:00

One of the main reasons we went on this particular cruise was Reykjavik. Greenland and Iceland were places on our “bucket list”. Of course I wanted to see the volcano that caused all the air trouble, and we did see it, but it is just sitting there, no activity. Iceland volcanoes are so active that they can predict, within a margin, when different volcanoes will go off. The eruption that caused the trouble was a relatively small one. It was the direction of the wind that caused the trouble. We were told that a volcano near “the trouble maker” (notice I haven’t used the name of the mountain, because I didn’t write it down and it has a million letters and we don’t have any internet right now to look it up) is actually expected to go any time. It is late and when it erupts it will be much larger than the last one.

When this one goes, there will be floods from the melted snow.

Our stop in Reykjavik was to be from noon to 7 pm. The day before we arrived I booked a tour through Grey Lines Tours that would pick us up and leave at 1pm. Well the best laid plans can be messed up easily, or at least ours were. We hit some heavy winds during the night before we arrive in Iceland, which set our arrival time back 2 hours. Well, I freaked out when I found out the evening before our arrival. I had to cancel 24 hours ahead to get our money back, and anyway, I didn’t want my money back, I wanted the tour. I emailed the company, hoping that there were other people on our ship going on this trip and they would reschedule. Well, that is exactly what happened and we went on a wonderful tour of the “Golden Circle”, the most popular tour on the island.

Our first view of the island gave us a glimpse of how active this island really is.

Amazingly, although the island is called Iceland, it is very green and fertile, in the summer. It is also very volcanic which keeps the ground in some areas clear of snow all year.

The first place we went was the Rift Valley. There are only 2 places on earth where the tectonic plates are moving apart that under water. One is in Africa and the other is right here. We went to the Rift valley and stood in between the North American Plate and the Euro-Asian Plate. That was a neat surprise.

On the left side is the end of the North American plate There are some rocks that broke off from the plate on the right.

In the distance you can see the edge of the Euro-Asian Plate.

The plates move apart on average of 3 cm per year, and no, we couldn’t feel it '

Another thing interesting at this location is that here, at the site with the flag, is the meeting place of the longest parliamentary government in the world. Back when there were only tribes here, they met here and set rules and dealt with disputes in a peaceful manner. Another interesting surprise.

From the rift valley, we went to see a waterfall.

Nice waterfall, so we walked closer

And found we had only seen a small part of the beautiful waterfall. It was very windy and cold…..and sunny

Even this picture barely gives an idea of the beauty of the falls. When we get home, we can show you many more shots. Iceland is a place where I could post dozens of photos, but unless you ask, I won’t.

Reykjavik, Iceland Part 2

2012-10-10T13:08:00.001-07:00

From the waterfall we drove to their version of the Old Faithful Geyser. They had an old reliable geyser, but the last earthquake changed the flow of the superheated water to a younger geyser, which is still going off about every 3 to 4 minutes. I could watch it forever…..

The whole island is smoking and they use the geothermal energy to heat and make electricity.

(sign is on the bus window)

Another unique part of Iceland are her horses. No, they are not ponies, but small horses…..people here are very sensitive when it comes to their horses.

And yes, there is ice in Iceland. Glaciers actually

There is also a lot of desolate areas, also

Belfast, Northern Ireland Sept 16

2012-10-10T13:06:00.001-07:00

Today we decided to walk around Belfast, since we have a short day here and most things to see are quite a distance away. The ship provided a shuttle to downtown which looks like this. Oh right, today is Sunday so no stores can be open until 2 pm, it is the law that nothing can be sold on Sunday until that time, except at restaurants.

Pretty street with pretty flags on both sides of the street. At the end of the street is this building

Looks like we could be in London. This is not Big Ben but reminds you of it

They even have phone booths like London (at least they used to have them). It is unusual to even see any kind of phone ooths anywhere.

Here are some views of typical Belfast streets. Nice walking day, even though we did have some rain, most of the time it was dry.

While waiting for the stores to open, I talked to a local lady who was open to talking about what was going on here in Belfast. While we were cruising toward Belfast we heard there was a clash between locals and the police and wondered whether we would be able to visit here. I asked her about the event. She felt that it was caused by outsiders instigating the locals and that nothing was really going on and all was well, no fighting. Seemed true, since we did visit the port.

Again we found the locals to be very friendly.

Dublin, Ireland Sept 15 Part 1

2012-09-25T18:29:00.001-07:00

You have all probably heard the song Molly Malone, about the fish monger. Well, here in Ireland they erected a statue to her

So we have arrived in Dublin and, even though it is quite a walk to get to the town center, we have decided to walk and see what there is to see.

So off we went.

The town was full of people walking around, and even though it is Saturday, there is a lot of construction work being done.

There were horse drawn carriage rides

And shops were open

Of course there were interesting buildings and churches to see

This is part of the old city fortifications that are still being used today as government buildings and this church.

Dublin Part 2

2012-09-25T18:28:00.001-07:00

For the Dolphin House folks in Montrose, here is a picture of another Dolphin House

Church

Beautiful !!!

There were more statues, besides Molly Malone, like these. The first are celebrating the people who left Ireland because of the famine and went to Canada and helped build their country. It was dedicated by Canada in 1999.

On our way out to the ship we saw this ship, really nice We weren’t able to board her, but we went aboard another ship that has become a restaurant and bar and had our Irish beers, neither of us liked them.

We were VERY glad that the local government found it advisable to paint the crosswalks for us Yankees and other right hand side drivers. We might not have made it out alive…..

Greenock, Scotland Sept 14 Part 1

2012-09-23T12:04:00.001-07:00

When we docked, we found a free tour, by bus, of Greenock. Most of the ship passengers went to Glasgow and Belfast, but not us. You know us, we avoid cities whenever possible.

It was another cloudy, rainy day, but who would expect any different from Scotland. I think I would be disappointed if it was any different.

He was our tour guide, and yes, we could understand what he said, most of the time.

This guy was his assistant, and we never understood anything he said (luckily he didn’t say much)

First we went to a small church that was the first one in Greenock. It was originally located in an area that was taken over and became a port area, so they had to move the church. The company that created the port, moved the church to its new location brick by brick.

This is the church.

And these are the lovely ladies who told us the stories of the church

Then we drove to a lookout point

What do you think this is? Castle????

Greenock, Scotland Part 2

2012-09-23T12:03:00.001-07:00

This is the city hall of Greenock. The Queen of England visited here some months ago, to open a new portion of the building. She has rooms that are just for her, including her own personal toilet, that no one can use but her.

This is the Queen’s throne…….can you tell how low the toilet is? She is a very short person. I really wanted to sit on the “throne” but time was short and I might have gotten shot.

Here is another church we saw

When we returned to the ship we saw a folk show. It was one of the best shows we had seen on board. Sorry to say, since we expected, since this is a very large one with over 3,000 passengers, that the entertainment would be better than on the smaller ships. It has not been.

Scotland is lovely. You don’t get to see much of any country when you travel by ship. Here are some shots of lovely Scotland

See the little island behind the yellow buoy? It is not an island but the bottom of a capsized ship. The ship was carrying sugar when it sunk, so if you catch fish from the ship you have to throw it back because they cause diabetes

Sept 12 - Not Kristiansand, Norway

2012-09-19T05:02:00.003-07:00

We were supposed to stop in Kristiansand today, but last night the Captain changed our plans. There are two storms heading in the direction of Norway, coming from the south. We skipped Kristiansand, so we could beat the storms on our way to Scotland.

Even though we did beat the storms, the seas were rather wild. Thank goodness for sea sick pills. They worked. Of course, Duane had no problems with the seas.

So our next stop is Greenock, Scotland

Oslo, Norway Sept 11

2012-09-19T05:02:00.001-07:00

It doesn’t seem fair to have a port stop right after you have boarded a ship. Most people have just flown in from somewhere and are exhausted. But here we are in Oslo. It is raining and blowing and cold. I guess our luck finally ran out. We cannot complain about the weather we have had on this trip, so a little rain is OK.

Instead of running around, we spent some of the day right next to the ship. Everything you need to see was right there…

There is a fortress right here at the port of Oslo….

The town has used some old fortifications….

While we were out it started to pour. Our luck with the weather has changed. It hasn’t been terrible, just wet and windy.

This poor guard has to do his duty, rain or shine

So we went into a Resistance Museum here in the Fort. Many exhibits about WW II, again. Boy, do I hate war.

The rain subsided a little so we made our way back to the ship.

Copenhagen more calmly

2012-09-16T08:43:00.001-07:00

Ok, yesterday’s post was a bit chaotic. I was exhausted, but I wanted to get something on line while we had internet. Today I have some time, so even though I am on the ship, I think I will recap Copenhagen a little better.

We took a bus, two trains to get to Copenhagen. When we arrived, about noon, we asked someone if they spoke English, of course the first question, and if they knew where our hotel was. He looked up from the paper I handed him and pointed right across the street.

Our hotel backed up to the railway tracks. Luckily we both use cpaps, that helped cover up the train noises, which, really, were no worse than street traffic noises. Since we had been to Copenhagen before, on our trip out to Europe, we were not going to run around this time. First we needed to get some lunch and then dinner, so we decided to walk to the port where we would be going the next day, and see how far it was and whether we needed to take a cab or not.

So off we go. It was a lovely day and a Sunday. We found a train station about 3/4 of the way to the dock, so we knew how we would get to the train, but we found no restaurants or food stores. We walked to a different area and found an open food store. We got excited until we asked if they took credit cards,…. only Denmark chip cards. Same from a 7/11 type store. We got directed to a “fast food” pizza place. Yup, he was open, but he took no credit cards are no Euros. He felt sorry for us and decided he would take a 10 Euro note, which here in Copenhagen only buys one sandwich, which we shared.

We never found a place to have dinner, so we ended up having an ice cream from the hotel, since they would put it on our bill, and their free coffee and shared an apple we had left over from the farm. See, everything works out.

In the morning, since it was now Monday, we were able to find that the grocery store across from the hotel was open and did take visa. Happy day. All went well and we made it without incident to the ship.

Boy……is she big.

Copenhagen, Denmark Sept 9-10

2012-09-09T12:18:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a very long day. We had to get here. Now that we are here we leave for New York, or Brooklyn, we don’t know.

Yesterday started in Echternach, Luxembourg, packing and getting out of our room by 10 am even though our bus didn’t leave until after 4 pm. So we hurried and waited. Finally we got a ride to town and across the bridge into Germany, where we waited for the bus. We had arrived by bus from Trier 5 days earlier and we were surprised when the bus arrived in Echternach early. It not only arrived early but it left early. So, we were concerned that it might be early again, so we got to the stop at 3:30.

So far so good. We checked the bus schedule on a pole and did not see a bus scheduled for 4:10, as the internet had told us. So we stewed for more than 1/2 hour making back-up plans in our heads. At about 4:05 a man joined us in our wait, so we felt a little more secure, until he started checking his watch. The bus was 15 minutes late. We were covered in sweat by then.

But it did come and it did take us to the train station in Trier, where we caught the train to Koln, or Cologne in English. From Cologne we caught a night train to Copenhagen. If you have never taken a night train in Europe, don’t go out of your way to do it. We shared a cabin with 2 other people, because we splurged and went for a room with 4 rather than 6 people, and we had to find places for our luggage and stuff ourselves into sheet sleeping bags and try to sleep on rock hard surfaces. You might have noticed I did not say mattress because we were sleeping on what became the seats in the day time.

So we are very tired now and will go to bed early, but we must have been bad children because we have to go to bed without dinner. We were told that all places in Copenhagen take VISA, so we spent most of our Euros before we got here. Well, our experience has been different. Yes it is Sunday, but so far no one has been willing to take our card and we don’t want to get local money for just one day. One of the adventures.

Tomorrow we may have ice cream from the hotel for breakfast, because we can get all the food we want when we get on the ship. So until we talk again after we are on board…..

Echternach, Luxembourg Sept 3-8 Part 1

2012-09-07T13:12:00.001-07:00

Well, we finally figured out what train station we needed to go to to get here. We made it to Echternach, we thought, about 8 pm and waited to be picked up by the owner of this farm. We started getting concerned when she was 20 minutes late. We had her phone number, but no phone, so we went looking for someplace to use a phone. The nearest place was an emergency room and they were nice enough to call for us. We found out that we were not in Luxembourg, but we were still in Germany. Luxembourg was across this small bridge, so our hostess was waiting for us at a different bus station, one in Luxembourg. All’s well that ends well.

So we get settled to the sounds and smells of cows. What do you expect when you book a place that is a farm. How we got to stay here is sort of weird. I found a website that was talking about a town where you could go hiking. That sounded different and we were looking for different. We had seen enough history, now on to nature. So I emailed this place to find out what their rates were. She emailed back that we had reservations for 2 nights. I asked if she had availability for 5 nights and she emailed back that we were confirmed for 5 nights. Sometimes communicating in different languages is difficult. I even sent some of my emails in 3 languages, English, German and French. Now I am not sure if any of the messages were understandable, since I used Google Translate, and it can’t be counted on. It sure is better than nothing.

Anyway, here we are. We wake in the morning to a view of a valley filled with cows all covered in cloudy mist. Just gorgeous.

So we walked into Echternach about 4 miles round trip. Past a beautiful lake on a sunny day.

the girls

Duane stealing, I mean, picking apples

This time of year is off season, but during the summer there are a lot of athletes, or would be athletes here. One example is the adventure park, now closed, on an island in the lake. Looks like crazy stuff to me. Must be fun.

I love these port-a-potties actually they are very clean and new.

The square

Isn’t this plaque on a building neat. It shows a man killing a snake or serpent

The fun part is that it is on the police station

Another fun thing we saw was this cross walk. Even with Duane standing there, you cannot tell that the crosswalk goes right into a wall. There is no sidewalk or walkway on that side of the crosswalk.

This town does not let anything go unused. Even the old towers of the town are used today. Either someone lives there or the rooms are rented out to tourists. Imagine staying in the tower of a town wall…..wonder what that costs?

Echternach, Luxembourg Part 2

2012-09-07T13:09:00.001-07:00

Still walking around town we went into a church and saw beautiful stained glass windows. The unusual part is the shadows the windows made inside the church. Look

More pictures, they don’t all need comentary

I told her she was going to America. She gave me a big smile

Echternach, Luxembourg Part 3

2012-09-07T13:07:00.001-07:00

Today we went on a walk of about 6 or 7 miles. It was beautiful. It took a lot longer than we thought it would because we kept finding things, besides walking, to do. Like picking blackberries.

we ended up with enough berries to give some away and still have berries for cereal for 3 days (then we found some more)

Here are some scenes from our walk to Bergoff.

neat cave where we were told hippies used to smoke stuff.

an association with our country. 2 km from our farm, in Osweim, we saw this plaque. Small world.

just beautiful flowers we have never seen before

Tomorrow we leave here for Copenhagen. We get a ride to Germany, remember just across the bridge in Echternach, 3 km away. There we take a bus to Trier, Germany. Then a train to Koln, Cologne to you, then another overnight train to Copenhagen, where we spend the night before boarding the Emerald Princess for our cruise toward home.

We have mixed feelings about getting nearer to the end of the European part of our journey. We have seen so much. Castles and churches and town walls and wonderful people. We hate for it to end, but on the other hand, we look forward to seeing Scotland and Ireland…..wait a minute, isn’t that still Europe? And then we go to Iceland and Greenland. Still, this train travel part is almost over. Some days we are looking forward to returning home, other days we would just love to keep on keeping on. I guess it depends on what time it is and how tired we are feeling.

Now that I have caught up on posting the next post will probably be from the ship. Sorry I got so far behind, but as you can see, we were busy.

Riquewihr, France Sept 2

2012-09-07T11:53:00.001-07:00

France? you say. We did not know we were going to France. We set out to see views from the top of the alps but the weather, though not rainy, was overcast enough to limit your view. So we headed for France. It is amazing how close countries are to each other.

And again we were looking for castles. Found some….

and some churches that could be castles.

We could not believe what we saw right after we got into France

Yup, that is the back of a replica of our Statue of Liberty. We got it from France, so I guess it is OK for them to have kept a copy or more for themselves. There is one in Paris I am told.

At a stop light we were entertained by this guy

Riquewihr is another lovely town.

The interesting thing about this picture are the overhanging rooms. They were the bathrooms, or actually the toilets, when the parking lot used to be a moat. Pretty smelly moat.

You entered the town through this tower which had a pointed wooden gate that was lifted via those wooden beams.

So, if the smelly moat didn’t deter you, the pointed gate would.

We ate tarte Flambee for lunch. It is like a pizza but with a crust as thin as a potato chip. It is a local favorite. We liked it, too.

Here is a picture of the scenery we passed through. That is one thing we just can’t convey, how green and beautiful the countryside is.

One of the most interesting things we learned has to do with the Danube. Here in France is the continental divide, like the ones we have in Colorado. The water on one side goes to the Black Sea and the water on the other side flows to the North Sea. All the water does this EXCEPT the water of the Danube.

The Danube starts right here in Donaueschinger, Germany at a spring in the castle there. See it behind the fence?

It was once thought that the source of the river was on the other side of the continental where it would empty into the Black Sea, which is where it does empty. Ordinarily if the river started in Donaeschinger it would empty into the North Sea since it is on the other side of the continental divide. So, what’s up?

The Danube starts in Donaeschinger and then disappears underground and comes back to the surface on the other side of the continental divide so that it empties into the Black Sea. They were able to verify this in the 1930’s when they put some dye into the water at the spring and it showed up in the Danube. Isn’t that interesting?

To another subject, we have never seen a dog that looks like this, like a tiger.

but we have been living with a dog, Collin, who looks like a lion

And finally, I just love this picture