LAST DAY–GOODBYE TO PARIS

Gardens at Les Hotel de Invalides

Today was our last day in Paris. So our first stop was Notre Dame. I wanted to get a few photos of the cathedral in the sunshine and I went planning on getting photos of the buttresses that spring out from it. Charlie waited for me in the garden while I went from the back to the side and I never could get a photo of that from any angle–the one that shows all the buttresses that hold it up. After looking at photos again on my computer, I guess I needed to be much further back to get the actual picture that I wanted. Darn it! I didn’t get them last time we were here and I didn’t get them this time.

Our next stop was Les Hotel Invalides, a project started by Louis XIV, which contains museums and monuments to the military history of France. It was also to be a hospital and retirement home for war veterans. It is a large complex of buildings. Since the veterans’ chapel turned out so well, Louis XIV decided a new royal chapel needed to be built and that part is where famous dome is situated–the one that can be seen all over Paris. The name of the chapel is the Egliese du Dome, a When Napolean’s body was finally brought back to Paris, this is where his tomb was installed. I wonder what Louis would think of that? The museums are fascinating–we quickly went through the WWI and WWII parts of it. There are film clips, uniforms, interactive stuff–it would be easy to spend hours there. From there, we went to the St. Germain arrondisment where I had a list of chocolatiers and sidewalk cafes, but we had to cut it short. We had been using the metro to get around, but since our hotel is in a part of town without easy access, we ended up taking a cab. A metro ride would have required 4 transfers and a lot of walking.

While finishing up this last day, I can’t help but think how lucky I am to have been able to travel as much as I have. Charlie has always been willing to try new things with me so we have been to France twice, to Italy twice, to Spain, to Greece, to the Czech Republic and a quick stop in Turkey. This doesn’t count Canada and Mexico which are right over our borders, and the Caribbean where all the cruise ships go. All of these trips were generally a whirlwind of sightseeing, taken during 10 days of my vacation from work, but I’ve seen things that until then, I had only read about in books. Traveling in foreign countries where the languages and cultures are different has been exhilarating. Our first trip to both France and Italy we did independently, making our own plans and traveling within the country, leading to stories to recount to friends and families of our adventures. Wonderful memories.

This doesn’t mean I will quit traveling, but probably just closer to home. I still have two or three more years to be able to go on photo tours around our beautiful U.S. These I usually do alone anyway. I’m considering Glacier Park next year and possibly Monument Valley–maybe my brother will let me stay in Durango for a few days and I can make it a home base. I haven’t seen much of the East Coast and its parks and maybe even continue up the coast towards Nova Scotia. Plenty of photo ops around there. Hope you are all traveling too–don’t wait too long; there’s a lot of world to see.

The Pont Neuf

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” –Augustine of Hippo

Day 13: Paris at the Opera

Palais Royal Gardens

After a long night’s sleep, Charlie felt he was ready to tackle a day in Paris. Our goal, by staying an extra couple of days, was to see some of the stuff we didn’t get to see last time with Paris. Some of the smaller things, some of the neighborhoods. Charlie wanted to see Montmarte and the Opera Garnier and I wanted to see the Chartres Cathedral and the Hotel de Invalides and the Orangerie. So today we will go to the Orangerie, where Monet’s waterlilies fill the walls! And probably the Opera Garnier.

After breakfast, we decided to take the bus that goes down the Champs-Elysee to the Place de la Concorde. From there we could enter the Tuilleries Gardens with its giant ferris wheel and pretty landscaping and odd sculptures and the entrance to the Orangerie Museum. Half of the museum is dedicated to Monet’s waterlilies, which he painted specifically for the Orangerie. They are taller than 6′ and each panel covers one wall in 2 rooms, so 8 panels. It was an amazing work of art, over 12 years, especially since he usually worked “from nature”–outdoors. He would have 4-6 panels going at the same time. One he would work on in the morning and he would move from canvas to canvas following the light throughout the day so he could get the light right as the day progressed. The other floor of the museum houses the Paul Guillame collection which includes many of the artists of the late 1800’s to the 1920’s–for instance, some Renoir, Picasso, Utrillo, Matisse to name a few. Couldn’t take photos inside so have to rely on memory–uh-oh!

We left the museum and sat for a while in the gardens since already Charlie was beginning to have trouble. We were close to the Palais Royal, so after Charlie rested for a while, we walked passed the Louvre (HUGE crowds!) over to the Palais Royal gardens where I took some photos while he enjoyed the sunshine. After that, we stopped at a sidewalk café for lunch. Wine, a cheese plate and bread. We were thinking of getting dessert, but this was more than plenty of food for us. This is kind of what we came for–to enjoy the city, not just run from place to place. After lunch, we got on the metro to go to the opera house–that’s something to see! Really amazing place. Charlie has been reading a book about the making of Paris from the early times to now, so he knows all about the Opera House and the Eiffel Tower. But he was hurting again, so we tried taking a cab to another place I had wanted to go to but it was too much, so back to the hotel. He slept for a couple of hours and then we went out for dinner to a café nearby and back to the hotel for the evening.

You probably recognize the Chagall work around the chandelier in the center of the opera house.

We definitely won’t do the Chartres Cathedral–he won’t be able to make the walk from the train station to the cathedral (a 10-minute walk) so we will stay in the city tomorrow.

Day 12: Paris City Tour

The next morning we went on city tour by bus. It was to give us an overview so that we can come back to things we want to see more of. We went into some areas that the general public is not allowed in so that was nice. It rained most of the day which our guide says is very unusual this time of year. We saw some Paris firemen playing volleyball on a “beach.”–Paris has decided it needed some beaches so it shipped in some sand and along the Seine are a few areas that now have a “beach.” Even though it was mostly by bus, we did stop at Notre Dame for photo ops and at the Place de Trocadero for pix of the Eiffel Tower.

When we came back we moved into the new room and looked for a place to eat. The hotel is out of the way so we ended up buying sandwiches at the mall across the street and coming back to the room to eat. By now Charlie was hurting too much to go out, so I worked on the blog while he slept. I’m sorry we planned on staying the extra 2 days. We were here about 15 years ago, and our plan this time was to go back to some of the neighborhoods and then for the last day (on my birthday) we were going to take a train into Chartres and visit the cathedral there and see the supposedly charming town, and come back for a splurge on a birthday meal for the two of us. It looks like we’re not going to be able to do that. He just can’t walk more than a block at a time, although he has tried.

No need to tell you what this is

Paulette and Michael had gone to Versailles in the morning–said the crowds were monstrous. (Warning: Don’t go to Europe in August!) They asked us to go to dinner with them so we went to a small café about a block from the hotel. Second night in Paris–fettucine carbonara. We really liked this couple. They were really great and made the trip even more enjoyable.

I’ll probably just combine the next 2 days together. We’ll do what we can and not overdo.

Day 11: Luxembourg and Paris

American Cemetery at Luxembourg

Disembarkation from our ship–time to say goodbye to our friendly crew. We found out yesterday that we are leaving the ship at 8:15, but not getting into Paris until 6:00 p.m. We are all disappointed in that–it’s true the itinerary says 2 nights in Paris, but I think we all assumed that we would have a half-day in Paris.

Our first stop on the bus was to the American Cemetery in Luxembourg, then on to a walking tour and an “on your own” lunch in Luxembourg. The American Cemetery was given to the US by Luxembourg and is the final resting place of over 5,000 soldiers that fought in this area in WWII. Many were soldiers who served under Gen. George Patton. The crosses and Jewish stars are aligned so that no marker is hidden by another. Some families requested bodies of soldiers be sent home after the war, but these are those who remained buried here. My father was killed in the Battle of the Bulge but he was buried in Foy Cemetery in Belgium and eventually his body was sent home to be buried in Roselawn Cemetery in San Antonio where his parents are buried.


Our guide did more talking than walking, and our group seemed restless. We stopped at one overlook while he talked about the history, then at Queen Charlotte’s statue where he spent time talking about the Queen(s) and then a final stop in front of Luxembourg’s version of a town hall, and that was about it. He talked about Luxembourg becoming neutral after many wars over their history. They tore down all the walls and fortifications that they used to keep them safe in previous times. Of course, being neutral didn’t keep them from being occupied by Germany in WWII and Queen Charlotte having to flee the country.

Then 4 hours on the bus to Paris. The hotel was a big disappointment. Nothing like the hotel in Prague. The lobby (where you have to go if you want to use free wi-fi) only has about 20 chairs in it, and certainly not very comfortable ones. The rooms are small (which is fairly standard for Paris) and the “king size beds” are actually twin beds made up separately, although they are pushed together. The bathroom has a nice big tub, but there was a lot of mold in the grout and when I went to bed, I discovered this steel “thing” sticking out from the edge of the bed (which I hit twice when getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.) So the next day we did ask for another room, which they gave us and it is somewhat better. We paid “big bucks” (at least to us) for the extra two days and were very disappointed. Wish we had just booked our own hotel.

Paulette and Michael wanted to take a night cruise along the Seine and invited me and Charlie along as well as another couple, Nanette and Mario. We got to the boat dock area too late to have a real meal, so I had to settle for a grilled cheese sandwich (a croquet monsieur) and Charlie had a hot dog (a hot dog). Couldn’t get my shutter speed high enough to take good night shots, but I have a couple that I will add here just so you can get an idea. They are pretty noisy but maybe not too obvious on the web. One other thing we wanted to see was the “sparkle lights” on the Eiffel Tower that come on once every hour. So we had to wait, drinking wine at a little bar, until 11:00 p.m. to see them. We suffered through the inconvenience by enjoying a French wine and a little snack, and it was worthwhile.


Tomorrow the Viking tour of the City.

Day 10: Bernkastel and Along the Moselle River

A View of Bernkastel from the Ship

The Bernkastel tour started early enough that the streets were mostly deserted. Charlie changed his mind and decided not to go on this tour. He is having trouble with his hip and legs. The stores didn’t open until 10:00 a.m. and only deliveries were allowed, so the only people who got in the frame of my pix were the people on my tour–how lovely.

The Oldest House in Bernkastel

I was beginning to get tired of the timbered houses and town halls, but evidently, without the addition of lots and lots of people, they were much more (cozy, lovely, cute???) I enjoyed walking through this 700-year old town with our guide who told us all about the wine making in this area. The wines here are mostly Reislings but each with a different taste depending on the soil, the sunshine, etc. Did I mention that there is a machine that goes thru the rows trimming the grapevines so that more sun gets to the grapes? Do they do that in our vineyards in the US? It seems to be a good idea when they explain it.

Our tour ended at the vaulted cellars of St Nikolaus’ Hospital. There, many of the wines from the Moselle Valley are stored, said valley producing more than 130 types of wine. Tasting in the cellars works this way–we go down to the cellars where the different wines are divided into different rooms–the dry, semi-dry, dry, a few reds since this is mostly white wine producing vines. You find a bottle that you would like to try and it has a number on it. You go over to the barrel where the wines being tasted are in cold water, pick out the wine with the number, pour yourself a glass or a taste. If you want to taste more, just repeat. If you want to buy a bottle, just pick out the one you want, take it to the clerk/owner and pay for it. Most of the bottles of wine are @9,90 € and very good. However, we were told when we turn in our wine glass, he would give us a taste of an excellent, very expensive, relatively rare (they only produce so many bottles), wine. I had my taste and it was good but to me, not any better than the one I bought, and I asked how much it was–18,00 €. Their idea of an expensive wine is actually reasonable to us, it seems.

Along the Moselle River

Our last city tour from the ship was in Trier, Germany’s oldest city. However, Charlie seemed to feel neglected since he hadn’t been going on many of the tours with me, so I stayed aboard the ship this time. We cruised down the Moselle River for 5 hours, going through the last of the 40 something locks we have traveled through before getting to Trier. Most of the passengers boarded buses for the Trier trip in Wintrich and then they were picked up in Trier. I think there were only 6 people on the ship with us.

Our last evening’s entertainment was an “oompah band.” They were really good and it was quite an original act. They had costume changes and everything. I didn’t bring my camera so I can’t show the band, I’m sorry to say.

Day 9 (Part II): Cochem

As I said in the previous post, I decided to do this in two parts so I could post pix of both types of scenes.

After lunch, we took a trip up to Reichsburg Castle in Cochem. More than 1000 years old, it’s the only real castle we got to see up close and was quite interesting. The walls and ceilings were all handpainted. And the rooms were furnished in the style of the era. I took lots of pix inside and out, but of course, can’t put them all here. I was glad Charlie decided to go on this trip; he seemed to enjoy it but the cobblestones are hard on his legs.

Detail of one of the Ceilings in the Castle

We ended with a city tour of a town founded by the Celts, hence the un-German-like name. The towns are all beginning to blend together–lots and lots of pix of the timber frame houses and the small churches and government buildings. We didn’t stay too long which cuts into photo time (and shopping). It’s a good thing I’m keeping my pix organized by date and name of town. LOL

Windows in the church

Back to the ship for the Captain’s farewell dinner–a 5-course meal in which the chef has outdone himself. However, most of us are Americans and are not used to eating so much food, and lots of it was sent back uneaten. I know, for myself, I could only take a few bites of each course. It truly is too much food, although it was delicious.

Cochem

Such a nice day! I like the cruising as much as the touring.

Day 9: Cruising on the Rhine River

Up early this morning to have a quick continental breakfast and go up on the sun deck. The sun deck is great for us photographers because no one can get in front of us. Today dawned kind of gray and looked like it could rain, but I was the first one out there. Pretty soon, Michael, an early riser, came out in his shorts and short sleeved shirt. He said the maitre ‘d rousted him from his warm spot and told him that he should get on the deck–I was already there–so he wasn’t going to let me get that first photo without him getting it too. LOL. Charlie decided to sleep in since he didn’t care much about the castles and figured he could see them from the dining room at breakfast. (Did I mention that the windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the ship are floor-to-ceiling?)

Today was the only day we’ve had gray weather since the rainy day in Bamburg, and this time, it was pretty chilly too! It had rained overnight so I had asked the maitre ‘d when I first came up if he could find someone to wipe the tables and chairs. Since the maintenance crew was busy, he did it himself. It’s amazing how attentive the crew is about every little detail. It seemed to get colder for a while and the maitre ‘d showed up with blankets and hot cocoa or coffee. We were all very grateful. By that time there were probably about 7 of us up there taking pix. This area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and our program director pointed out all the different towns, castles and ruins as we sailed along the Rhine. By 10:30 a.m. we had left the 10 km stretch of the river and I decided it was okay to end my watch on the Rhine, so I went downstairs and took a little nap before lunch. It’s too bad that the weather was so gray–with the low lighting and the ship cruising, I couldn’t get my shutter speed up enough to do a great job hand-holding the camera.

I’m dividing Day 9 into 2 parts since we spent the morning cruising and this afternoon we will make a stop at Cochem to see the Reichsburg Castle. Even though I’m only showing some of the castle/ruins that we saw, there’s a lot more to the Rhine River than that. It is a major shipping channel with barges loaded with all sorts of commerce; for instance, coal, trucks, some kind of construction equipment that I don’t know what it is, as well as other things. We often see kayakers and rowing sculls (I think that’s the term) with 2-4 people rowing too.

Day 8: Mainz and Rudesheim

We stopped in 2 small towns today–Mainz and Rudesheim. All of these towns are quite old–for instance, Mainz is over 2000 years old! A guide told the joke–“Do you know the difference between a European and an American? An American thinks that something that’s 250 years old is really old and a European thinks that 250 miles is a long way to drive.” I thought it to be funny and probably very true.

The main reason for the stop in Mainz is the Gutenberg Museum which covers the history of printing and has on display many beautiful books and fascinating printing technologies. It also contained a replica of Gutenberg’s workshop. I enjoyed strolling around the town square, visiting the church, and photographing the lovely buildings and landscaping. After lunch back on the ship, we set sail for Rudesheim.

St. Stephen’s Church

Window by Marc Chagall

Fresco in church

Viking was offering an optional wine tour this afternoon in Rudesheim. I thought Charlie and I had agreed that we wanted to do that, but when the time came, he said he didn’t want to go. I went into the town by alone since he didn’t feel like walking that far. It’s very, very touristy and very crowded. It’s major draw is that it’s the beginning of that part of the Rhine where many of the castles are (about a 10 mile stretch.) August is vacation time for people in school as well as many businesses, so there are traveling and taking in the sights too, one of which is this stretch of the river. The only thing to say about this town is that it has a cable car that goes up for about 15 minutes to a stop where there is a really giant monument, so the view is quite nice. The ship is docking overnight so that we can get an early start on cruising in our search for castles in the morning.

Docking at Rudesheim

Traffic Jam

While we’ve been cruising on the river, we’ve had many photo ops–pastoral scenes, small town picturesque scenes. There are several photographers along. Michael and I have had fun talking about the pix we are taking. In fact, Paulette tells me that even if he’s tired, he doesn’t feel like he can skip a “cruising session” because I might get one more photo than he does! LOL. He’s a birder too and he tells me he’s found 12 “life birds” on this trip. I’m going to have to go home and try to find a book on European birds and see if I can name the ones I’ve seen.

Well, the castle hunt starts at 7:30 a.m so I’m off to bed. Got to get up early to get a head start on Michael.

Day 7: Heidelberg

View of the Castle from the Town[/caption]
We are now sailing on the Rhine River. The sun deck has been closed until now because, since our ship is 3 decks high, it was too high for people to stand on the sun deck when we went under the low bridges (danger of decapitation.) But now we are on a river that they can open the sun deck, so of course, we all flocked there, enjoying our cruise with a 360 degree view. Lots of tables and chairs, reclining type chairs, a larger than life chess board, a shuffleboard.

Our first stop on the Rhine was to visit Heidelberg, another of Germany’s ancient cities. We docked in Wertheim and from there drove 1-1/2 hrs to Heidelberg for what was described as a full-day tour. A lot of that time was on the bus. This drive took us through a more “mountainous” area (nothing high, just hilly). There are fewer fields of crops, but beginning to get into the wine country. We can see field after field of vines, sitting in terraced rows along the river.

But one of the main reasons tourists go to this town is because of ruins of Heidelberg Castle (Schloss), which are considered among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps. Construction was started in the 12th century and expanded in the 13th century. However, it was reduced to ruins because of fire and 2 wars. There has been hardly any reconstruction, just maintneance of the ruins. The guides give us a lot of history about the areas we visit and we get to listen them on little audio boxes, so that we can hear the talk even if we not close (like when I’m taking photographs.)

After our visit to the “castle,” we stopped in the center of Old Town for a short tour and then lunch in the oldest hotel/restaurant in Heidelberg. It was an excellent meal–a beef roulade with a brown gravy with vegetables and mashed potatoes and a really memorable dessert of a type of cheesecake (not dense like ours) with a berry topping. Besides the food, we had another treat–there was a student from Heidelberg University at each table for us to talk to–hopefully, we would learn new things from each other. Next, a little free time for those who like to shop and for those of us who like to take photos. Then hop on a bus to meet the ship in Miltenberg.

Towers of the Town Gate

Heidelberg University Library

Church of the Holy Spirit

Inside the Church

Inside the Church built of Red Sandstone

One of Many Statues in the Streets

As usual, we had entertainment after dinner (an international menu tonight). The program was excellent and well received by most people on the trip. It was an hour of opera arias, french horn and piano solos (classical). The three young people were all quite talented. The pianist (who was only 20 years old) got a standing ovation.

Tomorrow we will be sailing on the part of the Rhine that has many castles. The captain expects a lot of company on the river since everyone, it seems wants to see the castles.

Day 6: Rothenberg and Wurzburg

View from the Wall Surrounding the Town

Today’s excursion was a tour of the Bishop’s Residenz and time on your own in Wurzburg or an optional trip to Rothenburg. Rothenburg is supposedly a highlight of the cruise because it is the best preserved walled town in Germany; it’s also known as the Christmas town. I had thoughts of buying my grandchildren a genuine nutcracker from Germany while I was here so I thought I would like to take this tour. The one thing they didn’t tell us is that it would take us 2-1/2 hours on a bus to get there. I might have reconsidered since this was a long time on the bus. Charlie chose not to go because he was concerned about walking over the cobblestones, so he just took the tour of the Bishop’s Residenz.

This part of Germany is known as Franconia. It’s a lovely agricultural area and is indicative of how the Germans here grow their crops. Instead of huge fields of wheat, barley, etc., these farmer have smaller patches of a crop interspersed with fallow fields and other crops. It was something I had learned in school–to protect the soil, crops should be rotated and left fallow over a period of time. We don’t seem to do that in the USA, so possibly with fertilizers, it’s not necessary to do it any longer. I tried to take some photos of it to show what it looks like, but since we were on the bus, I couldn’t seem to get a good enough perspective to show what I was seeing.

Rothenberg is the most preserved walled town in Germany, and our guide gave us the quick city tour with historical background. Because of the long bus ride, we really didn’t have much time to shop and to sightsee so I tried to do a little of both. They have a truly amazing Christmas shop but the nutcrackers were also amazingly expensive. I would have bought a Christmas ornament but we haven’t been putting up a tree at Christmas in recent years. There was the major church (St. Jakob’s which was begun in 1311) with a lot of interesting art work, a couple of pieces I believe I’ve seen in books but didn’t have time to find out about them. The altarpiece is a hand carved wooden piece that is just beautiful. I took some quick photos before it was time for the included lunch. I am giving a link here in case you would like to see more about Rothenberg. It was interesting and I didn’t have nearly enough time to see all I would like to see and certainly don’t have enough room to really describe what we saw today. I don’t know if these links work the way I have done them here, but maybe you can copy and paste to get to the websites. https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/germanys-fairytale-dream-town-rothenburg

Lunch was in a small café and was advertised as a typical German lunch. We had sausage (milder than in the US so I liked it), mashed potatoes, sauerkraut (not vinegary like ours so I liked it) and a fabulous apple strudel with vanilla creme sauce.

St. Jakcob’s

Altarpiece at St. Jakob’s

Tower of the Town Gate

Part of the Town Wall

When we left Rothenberg, we ended up again in Wurzburg where we visited the Bishop’s Residenz. It is truly an amazing place. We weren’t allowed to take pictures so a link here might give you an idea of what it looks like. There are giant frescoes, 3-D plaster paintings. One room is very rococo, mirrored art throughout another room–all very unique. It is worth seeing, for sure. If the link doesn’t work, you can google Wurzburg Bishops Residenz to see some images of the rooms. A lot of it was destroyed during WWII but it has been restored since then.
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/t/tiepolo/gianbatt/5wurzbur/index.html
http://www.germanplaces.com/germany/wurzburg-residence-pictures.html

Back Side of Bishop’s Residenz

This evening we had a glass blowing demonstration. The glass blower (is that a title?) was very personable and lively and put on a good show. His family had been making scientific equipment for all these years–then he, the rebel and an artist, came along and wanted to do more. They now make decorative items for houses and his wife makes jewelry. The business has been booming ever since. I bought some jewelry from him. And stayed to dance after the demonstration. LOL

Dinner that Night

Glass Blowing Demonstration