The Final Post

We are sitting in the Charles De Galle Airport at Paris in the Air Canada Lounge waiting for our flight back home. To say that all of the family was looking forward to being home would be an understatement. We get to pick up Rover at 8:00 tonight; hopefully she still likes us because we sure have missed her. We miss our friends, our house, our jobs, our pool, our kitchen and the kids visiting their friends and leaving us alone. That is not to say that the last few days of our adventure have been without excitement and in some cases even enjoyment.

We headed into Paris by train on Tuesday with plans to spend a night, see the main tourist spots and have a nice dinner. We even booked a Segway Tour (2 wheeled gyro-scope balanced scooter) for Wednesday morning, to keep it exciting for the kids. Tuesday afternoon we went for a walk down the Champs-Elysees and stood under the Arc d’ Triumph. We walked along the Seine River, but didn’t see many artists out. It was showery, but later on the sun came out and Chris and the kids took the elevator up the Eifel Tower. I stayed on the ground as it was during my last experience climbing the tower where my fear of heights first kicked in – and there isn’t much point trying to repeat a bad experience. We rode the subways and the trains and dined at a mediocre restaurant.

Wednesday was a sunny day and our Segway Tour started at 9:30 and was to last about 4 hours, including the orientation and safety instructions. The Segways were great – lean forward to go forward, lean back to stop – right or left to turn – actually very intuitive and easy to learn how to use. Our guide was from Denver, but really informed on Paris history. We had a quick lunch break and were making our way back to our starting point with the guide weaving back and forth on the sidewalk for fun – followed closely by Kate doing the same – then Tom, then me. I watched as Tom drove smack into a big tree! Without thinking, I hopped off my Segway without stopping and proceeded to go flying across the sidewalk on my hands and knees. Tom turned out to be fine – in his words "no need to worry Dad, I always hit trees when I ride my bike". I on the other hand got to ride in an ambulance and spend the next seven hours in the emergency ward at a nearby hospital. My ring finger, right where my wedding ring sits, got broken badly.

They set it once and put it in a cast – and then took another X-Ray. They tried a second time, but to no avail. Laughing gas and morphine helped in the process. They wanted to do surgery to put a pin in, but I convinced them to let me get that done in Canada. They put a cast on it down to elbow and I will have it looked after when I get home. I have to commend the medical service I received and all for free. No charge, not even for the ambulance. We spent a second night in Paris and headed home to pack on Thursday. We got the rental car switched over so Chris could drive. She hadn`t driven a standard for 15 years, but did well getting us to the airport.

We have had quite a few laughs over the incident, and given 8 months of travel – if a broken finger is all that happens then we are pretty lucky.
Chris asked me on the drive to the airport this morning "If the trip was all that I had hoped for". It has been great – once in a lifetime – but a little overwhelming at times. We saw so much, experienced so much and got re-acquainted with several old friends. All those memories should last at least until senility can create some new ones. All going well, Chris and I will come back to Europe by ourselves in a few years to visit those countries we missed this trip.

Cheers for now - it has been fun blogging our trip.

Ian

The Final Post

France - Day 4

Voisines is a quiet (and I mean quiet) little village of 300 located about 50 miles south east of Paris. Our vacation home is an old French farm house with wooden beams and plaster walls. I wouldn’t say it has all the comforts of home, but it still nice. The weather so far this week has been perfect – sunny and not too hot. Being in farm country, it is hard not to notice that the crops are all harvested except the corn and the sunflowers.

We took the train on Friday from Maastricht down to Reims, France. With our luggage, we wanted to avoid Paris and the fees associated with the High Speed Train service. We ended up on four different trains, but made it to Reims no problem. We looked into returning our rental car from The Netherlands in France, but the “drop off” fees were in excess of $1000.00 thus the train travel. We picked up a new car in Reims, and made the 2 hours drive down to Voisines on Saturday. Reims had a nice downtown area, with lots of restaurants spewing out on to the walking only streets.

On Saturday, we got settled into our vacation home, and went into the nearest town, Sens, for groceries. Sens has about 30,000 people and an old downtown area with cobble narrow streets which my GPS had me driving down pedestrian only routes. We had lunch in a Chinese / Japanese restaurant – I guess in France all Asians look alike so no sense restricting your menu.

On Sunday we drove to Fontainebleau, which is about 50 kms west of here. We spent the afternoon touring the Chateau Fontainebleau and its gardens. We even took a short horse drawn wagon ride through the property. The Chateau goes on and on - but after you see a few rooms they all start to look similar. We had lunch at a little restaurant in the centre of town washed down with a glass or two of red wine and then made our drive back to Voisines.

Monday was a quiet day. As much as I have tried to convince the kids this is our last week and we should do as much as we can, they prefer to take it easy and read or surf the Internet. Chris and I spent a few hours exploring Sens. The town has a large Catholic Cathedral, which must rank up with the largest in the world. There was also a open air market which had hundreds of stalls, mostly selling clothing and jewellery.

This morning we are heading into Paris by train. We are spending the night there, returning next day to Voisines. Then one more day and then we fly home... 3 days more but who is counting?

Cheers, Ian

France - Day 4

The Netherlands – Day 7

Our one week in The Netherlands is finished. On Tuesday we took the train into Amsterdam, which, according to the train schedule was only a 90 minute ride in from Eindenhoven. Eindenhoven is a 40 minute drive from where we are staying. We left at 9:00 a.m. and by the time we were sorted out and headed in the right direction to the Rijksmuseum, more than four hours had passed. Parking in Eindenhoven near the train station was horrendous. The first parking lot near the train station would not take my Visa Card and we would have had to plug the machine with about 20 Euro coins to get enough time. A man suggested another lot, which he gave directions to – left, then right 2 blocks and then right again – of course those directions had us lost and winding through back alleys in no time. My friend, The GPS was no better – as it directed us to a parking lot that was closed. We finally spotted a parking lot located under a shopping mall and from there made the hike to the station.

In Amsterdam, the train station is being renovated and when we did locate the Information Center, we found that the queue to get service was going to take over an hour to get through. We simply wanted a city map, but the machine that sold maps was of course out of service – so we ventured off using a small map that Chris had of Amsterdam. We followed a sign that pointed us off in a direction towards the Museum, never to see another sign giving further guidance. We were all hungry, crabby and it then it started to rain. We stopped at a restaurant and after looking over the menu decided that there was nothing for Katie to eat, so we got up in search of a more suitable restaurant. Are we having fun yet? Not!

We did end up finding an Italian place nearby, where I had a glass of wine and some pizza which had a calming effect. We decided on catching a taxi to take us directly to museum which proved to be money well spent as it was much further away than the little map portrayed. The crowds were thick at the Rijksmuseum and The Van Gogh Museum which is nearby – usually at least 3 people deep to look at the pictures. After fighting the crowds, we had had enough and caught a cab back towards the train station. We walked the last few blocks, and stopped and had some delicious French Fries with mayonnaise that we remembered from our previous trip here. On one of the side streets we were able to point out to Tom, a scantily dressed young lady in window in a black and red negligee. It was a new kind of window shopping experience for him.

To finish the day off properly, we had wanted to reserve our seats on the train we taking down to France. We had done some quick looking on the Internet and had decided our best bet was visit a large train station to get it sorted out. The queue at the station was numbered – and we stood around for ½ an hour while the one lady working spent the whole time with a single couple. We gave up waiting and decided to try to get the information we need in Eindenhoven. When we arrived there, the line up for the one person working was again long, so we headed home without the required reservations. I thought, “No problem! I’m sure I can sort it out on the Internet”.

I spent at least five hours on Wednesday trying to sort out the train route to France without success. I convinced Tom that we should ride the bikes over to Horst train station as see if they could help us. The GPS said only 11.3 kilometres, but that must be as the crow flies as we rode much further just to find that the Horst Station has no people working at it. By the time we got back home, I was riding standing up because my butt was so sore from the bike seat. The next morning, I decided I would drive into Venlo, a larger center about 20 Kms away to get the required assistance. The agent simply printed off an itinerary that included a trip through Brussels and required a reservation. When I asked if how much it would cost he didn’t know and if I wanted to make the reservation, I was informed I had to go to Eindenhoven. Grrrrrr! I spend more time on the Internet (hours) and finally found a German website that had a train schedule that had the information we required. I will let you know in my next Blog entry if worked as planned.

We are near the end of the trip, and as you can tell from the tone of my blog, we are ready to come home. It seems every little thing now bothers us. Our location in Broekhuizenvorst is too far off the tourist track to cater to non-Dutch speaking people. Don’t get me wrong, everybody that you talk too is friendly and most speak English well – but all the visible services are not in English. There may be great things to see in this area, but unless you can read Dutch, you don’t know what they are.

One observation is that the Dutch certainly aren’t into consumerism. The villages around here dot the landscape, and it seems in each is only one store. One town will have a grocery store, then next town will have the butcher, and the next one down the line will have a bakery. In Canada we would have a strip mall will all three located in it. Everyone rides a bike. I have to admit the bike trails are nice and Canada could learn do with a lot more bike paths. I think one of the shops that would work well over here would be one that sells screens. There are no screens on the windows and they have lots of mosquitoes.

Cheers for now.. see you soon.

Ian

The Netherlands - Day 3

We arrived without incident at Broekhuizenvorst, The Netherland around 9:00 p.m. on Friday. The flight was a short 1:10 minutes from Edinburgh to Amsterdam and the drive to our vacation home took about 2 hours. We are located south east of Amsterdam and are only about 10 kilometres from the German border. We stopped at a nice restaurant on the way to Broekhuizenvorst, and the meal was blog worthy, as three of us had a sweet and sour schnitzel with lots of fresh vegetables, while Kate ordered plain penne with cheese. Kate’s large plate of noodles came lathered in tomato sauce with cheese and to our amazement she made a pretty good dent in it despite her vegetable phobia.

Our house is really nice with high ceiling, modern furnishings, lots of nice art on the walls, well equipped kitchen and good fast internet. The village of Broekhuizenvorst is small and quaint. It seems everybody rides bikes everywhere. All the roads either have bike lanes painted on them or a separate paved bike trail running parallel to the road. In the countryside, most narrow roads have a bike path designated on both sides of the road, and the cars share a middle lane, pulling over when they meet another car.

On Saturday we went for a drive and ended up quite by accident at a small town of Arcen. We saw a huge parking lot filled with cars so we decided to see what was going on. The parking attendant said it was a “Koi Show”, but still not really knowing what we were going to see, paid our 66 Euro entry fee. It turned out to be a “Koi Show,” the Japanese Carp that you see in garden ponds. There were thousands of people there, hundreds of portable tanks for displaying the Koi, a group of judges picking out the red ribbon Koi and hundreds of booths where anything you could ever want or need to raise Koi was sold. We found out later the event is the world’s largest Koi Show and has been running for 17 years and last 3 days. There was also a large display of Japanese Bonsai (miniature trees). This location was chosen as it Arcen has a large park called Kasteeltuinen with some really nice Japanese Gardens. Who would have ever thought that you could have a tradeshow focused on goldfish?

On Sunday, we decided to venture to Cologne, Germany which is located about one hour’s drive away. Cologne is famous for its Cathedral which was started to be built in the 1200’s. It is a huge cathedral with high vaulted ceilings. Being Sunday, church services were on, so we couldn’t tour the cathedral and had to be content with a quick look from the back. I remember in Argentina the church service never prevented us touring the cathedral there.

Another recommended stop was The Memorial Gestapo Prison in the EL DE Building. It was a fairly small prison, but is one of the best preserved detention centres from the Nazi Period. The small prison cells are all covered with inscriptions that had been carved into the walls by the prisoners that occupied them. Although primarily an “interrogation” prison used to find those disloyal to the Nazis, near the end of the war many executions were also carried out at the prison. They also have a good display on the rise of National Socialism in the city of Cologne.

We had lunch in the one of the many cafes that line the pedestrian only streets. Of note again is that we ordered a wiener for Kate, thinking it was a hot dog, but it turned out to Schnitzel, which to our surprise she ate. We were able to convince her to eat it because of next promised stop was the Chocolate Museum. A museum focused solely the making of Chocolate. Kate and Chris were in heaven. We made it out of the museum shop with only a few bars, and then made our way home.

A quiet week planned – a trip into Amsterdam, maybe one into Belgium and maybe a bike ride or two like the natives.

Cheers for now

Ian

The Netherlands - Day 3

Scotland - Day 13

I was reminded last night by an email that I had not posted any blogs lately. I was surprised when I checked my last entry that a full week has past. The past week has been enjoyable, we have seen a lot and got a good feel for this country. The weather has been cool with rain every day, but we must be living right because whenever we needed the rain to stop to make an outing more enjoyable it did.

Last Saturday, we drove over to Glasgow to see the World’s Pipe Band Competition. The one day event is held annually and some 250 Pipe Bands from around the world come and compete in five different grades. We had tickets to watch the Grade 1 competition from the portable bleachers and were thankful for them. The event drew about 40,000 visitors, and a lot of them crowded around the edge of the competition ring standing about 20 rows deeps to listen to the performances. The band from Simon Frazer University in Vancouver ended up winning the event for the second year running, but all of the 14 bands in the Grade 1 Competition were great. I have a new appreciation for how difficult judging such an event would be. We were not impressed with what we saw of Glasgow – it was dirty and ugly. To be fair we only saw a bit of the area around where the competition was held, but we have no desire to go back and look for a nicer area of the city.

On Sunday, the kids “vegged” out while Chris and I spent a couple of hours touring the Scone Castle. This Castle, which is located just outside Perth is the where the Stone of Scone is from upon which the Scottish Kings prior to 1296 and the English Kings and Queens ever since have been coronated on. King Edward stole the stone and took it back to Westminster Abbey and placed it under the chair used in coronations. Queen Elizabeth II just recently returned to stone to Scotland, where it resides in Edinburgh Castle. She did so upon the condition that it be returned to Westminster Abbey every time a new King or Queen is crowned. The grounds at the Castle were vast; they even had a hedge maze that kids would have enjoyed if they weren’t being couch potatoes.

On Monday, we drove the short 45 minute drive into Edinburgh. Our friend, the GPS, guided us to a parking space just below the Castle. We spent the afternoon dodging rain showers by popping into some of the popular tourist attractions along the Royal Mile. We saw St. Giles Cathedral, the Camera Obscura (rooms filled with different optical illusions), and Starbucks. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival was on, and while we were waiting for a table at Starbuck we were given free tickets to attend a one-man comedy show. The comedian did “improv” and turned out to be really funny. For us, the main attraction was the Military Tattoo held just in front of the Edinburgh Castle. The Tattoo started at 9:00 p.m. and was non-stop entertainment for the next 90 minutes. Lots of bands, some singers, dancers and even a modern “shoot-‘em up” display put on the Medical Evac Unit of the British Air Force kept us entertained.

Tuesday was a quiet day. We tried to fish some more in the river at our place with no success. Chris and I went out for Indian food again. Wednesday we headed north to Pitlochry and to see a bit of the Scottish Highlands before leaving. The town is nestled in the hills and is picturesque. We had a quick tour of a hydro-electric dam and power plant where they have a fish ladder so the salmon can make their way past the dam. We also visited the smallest Scotch Whiskey Distillery "Edradour" and picked up a bottle of Single Malt that we can’t get back in Canada. The drive back took us through some of the highlands, and the hills were filled with sheep and were purple with the blooming heather.

As we leave Scotland for The Netherlands in a couple of hours, this will be my final entry from Scotland. We have enjoyed our time here, and Perth turned out to be a good location for exploring this country. Our visit would have been more enjoyable if the sun had shone more, but this is Scotland, and near constant rain in part of the life here. My only real disappointment was the slow speed of the Internet. We get so used to having fast Broadband access, when we aren’t able to find it, we are at a loss. When I get to our next place, I will upload the pictures of Scotland that I have been unable to do so from here.

We are home in two weeks from today – not that anyone is counting!

Cheers
Ian

Scotland - Day 13

Scotland – Day 6

We are finding Scotland very relaxing. The only stress we have is when the kids are bored and they decide to get some kind of reaction out of their sibling. Our place in Bridge of Earn appears to have been a good choice as it about a 40 minute drive to most places we want to go to. The town also have some good restaurants. We went for Indian Food last night; it was very good but not nearly as good at what we get at the Hammonds. The restaurant only seats about 20 people, but they appear to do a booming takeout business. We have also discovered a friendly pub within a couple of blocks of our home.

On Monday we took a drive out to the town of Crief. They have a glass factory there, which we wanted to see. We were able to watch some craftsmen mould the hot glass into paperweights adding colour and design in the process. The drive was also enjoyable – lots of great scenery and photogenic cloud formations. We also picked up a fishing rod and reel so the kids could try to catch fish in the river that runs by our place. They haven’t caught anything yet – but it keeps them busy.

On Tuesday we made the short drive to Sterling to see the Wallace Monument. The monument stands on a hill overlooking the town of Sterling. William Wallace (Brave Heart) defeated King Edward 1st forces in a famous battle at the town. He later was captured and taken to London, where he was dragged through the streets naked, near strangled, castrated, and then dismembered with his head being placed on a stick on top of London Bridge. (Similar to what I threaten Tom with if he hits his sister again)

Yesterday, Tom and I made our way over to historic Golf Mecca of St. Andrews. We visited the golf museum and toured the club house prior to our round of golf. Both Tom and I were playing well – par, bogey, par, par, birdie, par- and then in rolled a thunderstorm with sheets of rain and we had to call it a day. It would have been nice to finish the round, but at least I can say I played six holes at St. Andrews. Did I happen to mention that the golf course was the mini-putt course called The Himalayas? Kate was feeling a little under the weather, so she and Chris spent the day at home puttering around. By the time we returned, Kate was back to her normal self – maybe the break from her brother was healing.

Our internet connection at the house is very limited, and we are unable to upload any pictures. I plan to make it into an Internet Cafe today, and if you see pictures for this blog entry and the previous one, then you will know I was successful. Clear skies today, but calling for heavy rain the next two days, one of which we are to attend the World Pipe Band Competition in Glasgow.

Cheers for now,

Ian

Scotland - Day 6

Last 4 Days of England and the First 3 Days of Scotland

The last few days in Reading were nice. We had good weather and got out to see a bit more to the surrounding area and Reading itself. We took the “Salters’ Steamers” on a River Thames boat trip from Reading to Henley on the Thames. The trip lasted about 2 1/2 hours and we passed through several locks on the way. Henley on the Thames is famous for its Rowing Regatta which we were a few days too early to catch. Chris and I also spend an afternoon seeing some more of downtown Reading – have a look at the picture of the Reading Lion. The artist supposedly committed suicide when someone pointed out that if a Lion really had legs like that, it couldn’t walk.

We left Reading in good time on Friday morning and made our way up to Warwick. The Warwick Castle, according to the guidebooks was a place to see. We were not disappointed. It is a large castle with ramparts around a couple of sides of it which you could walk up on. It had a “Scary Dungeon” complete with period actors who made the experience fun. In one room the “Cook” was dissecting a body to see if she could determine the cause of the Plague, and in another room a “Torturer” showed off the tools of the trade – a tongue twister (literally) and a most cruel device – a penis snipper (ouch!). We also got to watch the firing of the Trebuchet.

From Warwick, we headed up to Leeds to spend the night. In the morning we made the short drive out to Bilton, where my Grandfather, on my mother’s side was born. We took pictures of the Church where he sang in the choir and of the house he was born in. His father, my great-grandfather was the head gardener at Bilton Hall. When I visited England in 1986, we were able to tour the gardens, but now they are fenced off to the public behind a large gate.

From Bilton, we headed off to Haworth where the Bronte Parsonage (Wuthering Heights / Jane Eyre books) is located. Although not a direct descendant, supposedly the Brontes are on some branch of my family tree on my father’s side. Behind the Church is an eerie looking graveyard, with row on row of old tall headstones. The rest of the day was spent driving up to Perth.

Our place in Scotland is in the small village of Bridge of Earn, about 3 kms outside of Perth. We have an A-Frame cabin that is comfy. As we sit in our living room, we can see River Earn flow by – sometime one direction and sometimes the other direction. If you catch it at the right time – the flow appears to stop. The river is clearly affected by the tides. The country side is beautiful around here, and hopefully it will stop raining so we can enjoy it in a bit of sunshine.

Yesterday, on our way to stock up on groceries, we discovered that the Perth Highland Games were on. It was a nice sunny afternoon and we spent it wandering the fairgrounds, watching the pipe band competitions, strong men throwing hammer and shot puts, bike races, tug-a-wars, highland dancing and a series of running races for people of all ages. The event was well attended and the beer tent seemed always to be busy. We left before it was over, and within a few minutes it was pouring rain down in buckets. We were sure glad we made it out of the fairgrounds before the rain hit. We will get to see more pipe bands while in Scotland as we have tickets to the World’s in Glasgow this Saturday and the Tatoo in Edinburgh the following week.

Hope all is well back in Canada. I hear that summer has finally arrived in Ontario with the temperature going up into the 30’s for a change.

Ian

Last Last 4 Days of England and the First 3 Days of Scotland