Personal Experience – Page 5

October 17, 2021October 17, 2021

Grand France River Cruise – A Castle Along the Rhone Between Arles & Avignon and Pont du Gard

Here and there along the river we would pass a castle. Makes sense to me. If I had the kind of money to build a castle, I would likely want to put it overlooking a river. We saw several castles along the Rhone (and the Saone and the Seine) on the full cruise. Sometimes I had my camera or phone at the ready and sometimes not.

A while after setting sail from Arles for Avignon, we spotted a castle on the port side of the ship. I managed to get a decent photo which I have included here. My phone said it was Beaucaire. But when I looked it up, the photos of the castle on the internet didn’t look like my photo. Then, I found there was another castle across the Rhone from Beaucaire called Tarascon. I looked it up. It matched.

The town of Tarascon has the tradition that Martha of Bethany (sister of Lazarus and Mary) arrived in Tarascon in 49 AD. Apparently there was a problem with a Tarasque (which is a mythological hybrid of a dragon in Provence). Martha tamed the beast. After her death, a church was built in her honor on the site of the house in which she had lived (near both the river and the castle). Her relics are contained there in the 3^rd century crypt.

The castle was built in 1400 and is still in pretty good shape. Although the bridges of the town were destroyed during World War II, the castle wasn’t. Beaucaire across the river was destroyed during the Revolution. It had been a royal castle. Tarascon had been owned by the rulers of Anjou and belonged to the town by the time of the Revolution, so it was spared.

We docked at Avignon during the night. The morning excursion that I had booked was a visit to the Pont du Gard. The highest and one of the best preserved aqueducts built by the Romans, it was built during the 1^st century AD in order to provide water to the town of Nimes.

Maintenance of the aqueduct was being neglected by the 4^th century. But the Pont du Gard survived because it was also being used as a toll bridge. By the 17^th century, the entire structure was having issues. So, in the early 18^th century, it was renovated and reinforced. A bridge was built to the side of the structure, to keep the main aqueduct safe from the wear and tear of the toll bridge.

The Pont du Gard has been a tourist destination for several centuries. That too was having its toll on the structure. In 1985 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Once again, there were just three of us on this excursion. This time my companions were another couple, Dennis & “D”. Dennis was recovering from an ankle replacement back in April. He did fine on the way to the museum, in the museum, and when we went out to the Pont du Gard and onto the bridge. It was when we went to the other side of the structure that he decided to just wait until we came back. The ground was much more uneven on that side. I hung in there until we came to some steep stairs down to a beach. Then I waited at the top of the stairs (sitting on a low wall) for our guide, Aurie, and D to return. It was great to just sit and soak in the scenery.

In the museum, a display was included regarding how the arches were built using wooden scaffolding. There were some examples of tools that were used and how the stone was quarried.

When we were on the bridge, we could see the narrow gap between the bridge and the aqueduct. We could also clearly see the graffiti from many centuries of stone masons and tourists carved into the original walls. The holes where the wooden scaffolding had been inserted and the protruding stone that supported the scaffolding were still there too. I have seen other Roman aqueducts before, but this one was by far the most beautiful and impressive.

France’s COVID protocol included proof of vaccination for pretty much anything. Entrance to attractions or shops or restaurants all required a special card if a French resident or showing the actual vaccination card if from outside of France. It was also necessary to wear masks both inside and outside. You could get away with lowering or removing the mask outside if there weren’t other people nearby (as in people outside of your group).

At Pont du Gard, we were able to remove our masks while doing most of our outdoor walking (when not in the museum). But had to put them back on when we were on the bridge as there were more people there.

Since everyone on the ship was vaccinated (all passengers, crew and staff) we didn’t need masks other than for when we visited the breakfast or lunch buffets. We had our temperatures taken each morning as we arrived for breakfast. There were hand sanitizer stations several places onboard.

Avalon was also going much more green. So we were given glass water bottles in our cabins which were refilled each day with fresh water. The daily activities and schedule, plus menus for all meals were on an app we could download to our phones. I liked that a lot, especially since the entire trip is still on my phone so I can look back at what we did and ate while writing up these posts. Such as, that night, I had a chicken liver pate, French leek and potato soup, grilled vegetables, and a chocolate parfait, washed down with a Chartron et Trebuchet wine. For lunch I had some mussels and Ratatouille with an éclair for dessert.

Next time – Avignon

October 1, 2021

Grand France River Cruise – Arles

Originally I had booked a trip before the Pandemic to take place in December of 2020. By September 2020, the reason for my going (a play) was canceled. At that point I received an email from Avalon Waterways saying that they were offering a free upgrade to the Panorama Suite (the one with an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows that could be opened – essentially making the entire cabin a balcony). Since I had a couple of their river cruises on my list of trips that I would like to take, I booked the Grand France Northbound for April 2021.

For the next several months, it needed to be moved a few more times. But eventually we settled on the end of August/early September 2021. In the meantime, the single supplement was waved and I ended up with a couple more discounts.

France would let me in as long as I could prove that I had been vaccinated. Avalon sent me a form to fill out that basically said that I hadn’t been exposed to anyone with COVID within 14 days of my flight. At Delta’s International flights desk, they were interested in my passport and vaccination card, but not the form.

On the plane to Amsterdam, I was given another form that they said needed to be filled out before we landed in Amsterdam. It said the same thing as the form I had received from Avalon. Nobody in Amsterdam was interested in that form either.

On the plane from Amsterdam to Marseilles, we were handed yet another form asking the same questions as the first two. We were told that we needed to hand the form in as we left the plane. This time they actually collected the forms.

In order to reach the Marseilles airport, it seemed that we needed to fly over pretty much all of Marseilles. I had the window seat and could see the city very well. Good thing. Once we landed, I didn’t get to see that much of Marseilles at all.

After getting my checked case (which I was very relieved to see since we had ended up with a very short time between flights in Amsterdam) and heading out into the terminal, I saw my Avalon representative. She escorted me to my driver and then I went on an hour-long ride to Port Saint Louis to board the ship.

This ship was much nicer than the one for the previous river cruise I had taken on the Nile. They also had a buffet lunch set up, which was a relief as there wasn’t really anything in the vicinity. We ended up with 21 passengers on board a ship that could hold about 128. It was the first cruise of the year for the Poetry II. At 5:00pm the ship set sail for our first stop – Arles.

Arles is just north of a natural wetlands area called the Camargue. This is a mostly wild area where flamingos, wild horses (thought to have existed for thousands of years), and wild cattle roam. Located in Provence, Arles was an important town during Roman occupation from about 123 BC to roughly the 5^th century AD. Prior to that, it had been a Phoenician port.

During the French Impressionist period, both Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin lived and painted in Arles for a while. Van Gogh produced somewhere around 300 paintings while in the area. Arles was also where he cut off his ear and was hospitalized before moving to a nearby asylum.

I found five ancestors born in Arles between 818 and 986 during ancestral research. This plus the ties to Van Gogh helped to make Arles a destination to which I was really looking forward. There were still lots of Roman vestiges, plus quite a bit of medieval architecture.

When we left the ship and climbed the steps to the street level, we immediately saw a poster of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night over the Rhone”. It had apparently been painted right there. In the photo, you can see our ship on just the other side of the wall from the poster. I found that to be exciting. Our ship was docked right next to where Van Gogh had painted one of his famous Starry Night paintings.

Due to Arles’ age and the narrowness of its streets (except for the areas that were bombed during World War II – mainly near the port) cars aren’t allowed other than for residents. So, as soon as we crossed the road, we found several parking lots.

At the edge of one of these parking lots was another poster showing the location of where Van Gogh painted “Yellow House”. The house was no longer there. But the building behind it was. This had been a house that Vincent rented and where Gauguin stayed with him briefly.

I had signed up for a painting workshop where we would learn Van Gogh’s techniques and then paint part of one of his paintings. There were only three of us that had signed up. The building the class was in was a post war building just the other side of the parking lots. There were two instructors as well as our local guide.

We were taught how Van Gogh mixed his paints. He had blue, red, yellow and white. All other colors came from those four. They also talked about mixing on the canvas, layering, the thickness of brush strokes, etc. I picked out “The Starry Night” (painted while Vincent was in the asylum) and ended up painting the far left section with the tree and some of the stars. I have included a photo of it here.

After the workshop, we went off to explore the rest of the town. Our local guide was from a family who has spent several generations in Arles. The women there tend to dress in heritage clothing for special occasions. The styles date from the mid-eighteenth century. I have included a photo I took of a shop window where such clothing was sold. The photo is a little fuzzy, but it gives an idea. I especially liked the hat on the mannequin on the far right.

The actual café that Van Gogh painted in “Café Terrace at Night” still stands and, along with the two Starry Nights, is one of my favorites of his paintings. I took several photos, but included just two here. My mom used to love Van Gogh too. We had visited Auvers-sur-Oise (where he died and is buried) together and spent a lot of time in the Musee d’Orsay looking at his paintings. I thought of her while I was standing there at another place that he had painted. The café is now called Café Van Gogh.

After walking through another part of the town, we arrived at the hospital where Vincent stayed after cutting off his ear. There too was a poster of the painting he did of the garden of the hospital. He had been living in the yellow house when the incident took place (after an argument with Gauguin) and he returned to the yellow house for a time after he was released from the hospital and before he went to the asylum.

In the center of the Place de la Republique (town square) stood a 4^th century Roman obelisk. Also in the square, the Church of Saint Trophine’s origins date back to the 12^th century. It was built upon the site of a 5^th century church and is considered to have some of the finest Romanesque sculpture in existence on the west portal.

Our final stop before heading back to the ship was the Roman amphitheater. Built in 90 AD, it could hold about 20,000 spectators. It is still used for concerts, plays, and the occasional bull fight. After the fall of Rome in the 5^th century, the arena ended up being equipped with four medieval towers and a large share of the town (200 houses plus a town square and two chapels) built inside of it. It wasn’t until the late 18^th century and early 19^th that the buildings were cleared out of the center and it went back to being an amphitheater. Three of the four medieval towers still exist.

I really enjoyed the couple with whom I had taken the Van Gogh workshop. We later exchanged contact info and plan to stay in touch. We also hung out together several times during the southern portion of the river cruise (which was the only part they were doing).

At lunch, I met another couple with whom I ended up sitting during Happy Hour and dinner that night. We ended up continuing to have dinner together with two other couples most nights. This particular couple was participating in the entire cruise. They sort of adopted me immediately as part of their circle.

After dinner, for entertainment, we had the Gipsy Kings, who were from Arles. I had seen then on TV several years ago.

Since the Van Gogh workshop, I have felt a little emboldened to try an entire Van Gogh. I am currently working on “Starry Night over the Rhone”, since I feel a special connection to it.

Next time – Pont du Gard

August 22, 2021

Traveling on My Own versus Going on a Tour

There a numerous ways to go traveling. For me, it depends upon where I am going and what I want to do while there.

I can book everything myself and be completely on my own (or with a travel companion) while there. Or do a combo where I book everything and mostly wander around on my own, but then take some day trips or short two-to-four-day trips out of wherever I am based. Or I can do a hybrid trip through Monograms (which is a branch of Globus Tours), where they take care of booking the air, airport transfers, hotel, plus give you some day trip options, but you make all the decisions about what you want to see and do.

Tours include land touring (large group, small group, or private) or cruises (large ship, smaller island hopping ships, or river cruising).

Entirely On My Own

If I am really familiar with a place and/or plan to basically stay in the one place the entire time and/or it is a short trip, I might opt for being entirely on my own. An example here would be the Black Hills of South Dakota. My mom grew up there. So booking the air, hotel and car rental was no big deal. We knew exactly what we were doing and had the itinerary planned in advance. We also did this several times in Los Angeles where we have family.

I do recommend doing research and planning what you want to do before you get there, so you know how much time you need. What are the attractions and activities in the area? When are they open? How far away are they from where you are staying? Is a rental car the best option, or would you be better off on mass transit?

As far as booking is concerned, sometimes I will use a site like Kayak and sometimes I will book directly with the hotel or airline or car rental company. Again, it depends upon where I am going and how familiar I am with that location.

Combo On My Own with Day Trips and/or Short Trips

I have done this one a lot, in several places in the US (such as Los Angles, San Francisco, Boston and New York City) as well as in London, Edinburgh and Paris. I usually use Viator, which consolidates day trips, short trips and longer trips out of most relatively large cities. So, say you want to visit Oxford or Bath while in London. They will show a variety of trips offered by several different vendors from which to choose.

The trips are offered on specific days of the week and times of the year too. I sometimes will end up with trips with several different vendors, depending upon when they are going, price, and possibly a large group on a big coach versus a small group of about sixteen max in a smaller van.

I also will pick a vendor with whom I have had a great experience in the past — such as Rabbie’s — a Scottish company that does day trips, short tours and longer tours on a small group basis, out of Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Dublin. I have always had a great experience with them. These days, if I want to do something out of Edinburgh or London, I look at Rabbie’s website first to see what they have before checking Viator.

Monograms — a Hybrid

As I mentioned above, Monograms is a division of Globus Tours, which is the main tour company I have used since 1984. Monograms takes care of booking the air, hotel, and airport/hotel transfers for you. There is a person at the hotel who can help you out with where things are and how to get there. They also take you on a orientation tour of the city the morning of the next day after you arrive and can set you up on any day trips they have on their daily list. For a multi-city trip, they will also arrange for you to get from city to city.

For instance, I am looking at a future Four Night Paris & Four Night London trip through Monograms. I would start in Paris, then they would put me on the Chunnel Train to London to get me there. I would be met in London and taken to the hotel, where I would have a Monograms person to help me out when in London. I am contemplating one possible day trip in each of those cities, but doing my own thing the rest of the time. I can decide in advance which days I want to do the day trips and have them booked ahead of time so the Monograms person would only be watching for me to get on the right tour bus at the right time.

Land Tours

So far, all of my large group land tours have been through Globus or their budget arm, Cosmos. I have looked at some other groups and have some trips in mind through other companies, but so far have only done Globus and Cosmos. They seem to go where I want to go, have decent prices, allow a good amount of free time at most locations, and they have always had wonderful tour directors who have taken great care of the entire group. They have also been very helpful in the few times that my mom or I have needed something.

For small group tours, I have already mentioned Rabbie’s. I tried them and several other companies out with some day trips first and then decided Rabbies’s was the best by far and went for a couple of longer trips with them. For accommodation, Rabbie’s offers, hostels, B&Bs and hotels as choices with price ranges for each. Booking them is done by Rabbie’s, but paying for them is your responsibility. For one of the tours I did with them (in England and Wales), I chose mid-price B&Bs. When checking out of each B&B, it was necessary to have the right amount of money in cash (British pounds). The other tour was a Scottish castle tour involving country house hotel accommodation. So that was covered in the price of the tour and paid by credit card when the tour was booked.

I haven’t done any private tours as they have been much more expensive than what I care to spend, so I won’t go into them here. Viator always has some listed however.

Usually with land tours, the hotels, all land transportation, and several meals (often all breakfasts and some dinners) are included. Sightseeing is also included with some optional extras that can be purchased separately after the tour begins. With Rabbie’s, some sightseeing is included and some isn’t. They do tell you in advance so you are prepared.

Cruises

The two to three thousand passenger ocean-going cruises in places like the Caribbean or Mediterranean are not something I have done as of yet. I have so far stayed with smaller cruises.

The biggest ship I have been on for a multi-day cruise was a french ship carrying roughly 600 passengers around the Aegean to the Greek Islands with two stops in Turkey. It seemed to be just big enough without being too big. The cruise was part of a 16-day tour of Greece & the Greek Islands through Globus. We had eight days on land in Greece and then eight days on the cruise.

All meals were included on the cruise. A drinks ticket could be purchased in addition for either non-alcoholic drinks (which included things like milkshakes and non-alcoholic cocktails) or, for a good deal more money, a drinks ticket including beer, wine and cocktails could be purchased. I did the math and realized that I would pretty much have to be sloshed all day each day to make the price of the drinks ticket with alcohol worthwhile, so I went with the the non-alcoholic drinks. Pretty tasty stuff and I didn’t feel the least bit deprived. All shore excursions were extra and were purchased the first day on the cruise (and paid for by credit card).

River cruises are the best in my opinion. I have booked two of those so far. One was in Egypt on the Nile and the other in France. The one on the Nile was part of a Cosmos tour of Egypt (a week on land plus a week on an Egyptian ship from Aswan to Luxor). Our group stayed together for all included excursions and meals. There were no extra expenses. The ship held about 160 people max.

For France, the tour was booked with Avalon Waterways, which is the river cruise arm of Globus Tours. All meals and airport transfers were included. There were included excursions for each day (for which I signed up just so they knew who was going on which excursion as there were choices) and there were some optionals for which I was charged extra if I wanted to participate. The included excursions and optionals both had choices that meant I could do something different in locations where I had been before (such as in Normandy, where I had already been to all of the D-Day landing beaches for the US, Canada and Britain) so I opted to tour the towns and villages of Normandy. I really liked that. Even in Paris I could do some new things.

Next Time — Preparing for anything (packing smart while traveling light), cash versus credit cards, and taking photos

July 25, 2021

Merveilleux, Beau Paris!

We spent the last couple days of our whirlwind 1984 European tour in Paris. I had never been there before. Fortunately it would not be my last time in that wonderful, beautiful city. Paris became my second favorite city, behind London, at that point.

Our hotel was in Montmartre. It was a block away from the Moulin Rouge and a short walk to Sacre-Coeur. It also overlooked a cemetery with all of its graves above ground,

Officially named Cimetiere du Nord (and originally named Cimetiere des Grandes Carrieres) Cemetery Montmartre was created in 1825 in an abandoned gypsum quarry that had been used as a mass grave during the French Revolution. Artist Edgar Degas is buried in this cemetery in a mausoleum marked Famille de Gas. Emile Zola was originally buried here as well until he was moved to the Pantheon. We thought that having our room overlook a cemetery was a bit creepy, although fascinating. We were not that high up in the building (about one level up), so we looked straight out at it.

Once we received our cases, we set out to visit Sacre-Coeur, which is the gorgeous white travertine church high up at the top of Montmartre. Montmartre was the site of the first Commune insurrection in 1870, which took place forty years after the events depicted in the book and musical play “Les Miserables” (1830). The basilica was begun in 1884 and finally completed in 1914.

We made our way up the very steep hill through the winding, narrow streets of the artist’s quarter. It was a less steep walk than taking the main road to the base of Montmartre and climbing the stairs to the top. Photos weren’t allowed inside. After our visit, we went down the stairs to the main road, which took us back to the hotel past Moulin Rouge.

After having dinner at a little cafeteria near the hotel, we joined the rest of our tour group for a night tour of Paris, which included the Eiffel Tower, the Opera, Hotel de Ville, and so many other places that I couldn’t remember them all.

The next morning, we took a city tour, returning to the same places we had seen the previous night, but stopping at some of them for a visit. I would love to be able to say that my first visit to Notre Dame had been memorable. But the reality was that I was completely overwhelmed by it and needed to return a couple more times before I could say that I felt like I knew the place. It was mainly a blur at that visit.

Another of our “big visits” was to the Eiffel Tower. We took the elevator up in one of the legs to a viewing platform. I have included here a photo I took from the Eiffel Tower of the city. After our stop there, we continued our tour with Rodin’s House, the Arc de Triomphe, and Napoleon’s tomb. Then we had lunch at the Moulin Rouge before taking a boat ride on the Seine.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Louvre. This was prior to the building of Pei’s pyramid, which is now the main entrance to the museum. The photo I have included here of the courtyard of the Louvre when we were there in 1984, shows that it was being used as a parking lot and had a statue of Lafayette in it.

The Louvre itself was originally built in the late 12th and early 13th century as a palace for King Philip II. It was enlarged and remodeled several times until King Louis XIV moved to Versailles in 1682, leaving the Louvre as mainly a place to house his enormous collection of art. It was during the French Revolution that the building was turned into a public museum.

Once again, I was overwhelmed. But I did manage to see and photograph the “Winged Victory” and “Venus de Milo”. Although we did see the “Mona Lisa”, it was impossible to photograph her with the crowd of people and the reflection from the glass protecting it (I did manage to get a photo of her on a later visit). As part of a tour, we were herded through. On the later visit when I managed to get a photo of Mona, Mom and I visited on our own for a full day (after I studied and carried with me a floor plan of the entire museum, and created our plan of attack).

After we returned to the hotel, we decided that my high school and college freshman French could be relied upon well enough to visit a restaurant for dinner instead of a cafeteria. After a delicious dinner, we took a walk in the cemetery next to the hotel. It was full of cats. I am highly allergic to the little fluff-balls and Mom had always been afraid of them, so our adventure was a trifle shorter in duration than we had planned.

The next day, we drove to Brussels for lunch and Leiderdorp for an overnight stay before flying out of Amsterdam the following day for home. There was a windmill right outside of the hotel room window in Leiderdorp. It had been raining shortly before we arrived, so there were also several enormous slugs out and about.

June 28, 2021

Le Cote d’Azur & Along the Rhone

Our whirlwind introductory tour of Europe in 1984 included some time along the Cote d’Azur (including Eze, Monaco, Nice, Cape Ferrat, Beaulieu-Sur-Mer, and Cannes). Then we followed the Rhone River north to Avignon and Lyon.

We passed Monaco to get to Eze, which is a small, medieval village known mainly for being a small, medieval village and for its perfume industry. The same factories that made very famous, expensive perfumes also made what was basically the same formula, but with a different name at a cheaper price.

From Eze we drove to Nice and checked into our hotel. It was a fairly small, older hotel on a quite, narrow street, not too far from the beach (just a few blocks). After dinner, we took a trip to Monaco to visit the casino at Monte Carlo.

They had separate areas for the tourists and the high rollers. I decided in advance how many francs I was willing to lose and proceeded to lose them. In 1984, there was no European Union or Euros as of yet.

For many years after when I was asked if I liked to gamble, and I said, “Not much.” and was then asked if I had ever tried it (with the idea being ‘don’t knock it if you never tried it’) and if they got around to asking me, “Where?” people tended to look at me a little askance when I said, “Monte Carlo.” I knew they didn’t believe me. But I didn’t give gambling another try until 2005 when I tried a one-armed bandit in Deadwood. I made enough to pay for lunch and quit while I was ahead.

After losing the francs I had set aside, Mom and I watched a few other people for a little bit (there were a few roulette tables) before heading for a little cafe where we could get some ice cream before returning to Nice.

Both of my brothers rode special racing bicycles back then and were big fans of the Tour de France and other international races. I had drawn a little map from a Motobacan shop that we had passed to the hotel so that we would be able to find our way over there after breakfast. I wanted to get a jersey for the one brother and some gloves for the other.

Back in 1984, there were not yet many French who spoke English (or who would admit it if they did). That would require another generation. So, I needed to use my limited French to tell the proprietor what I wanted. We seemed to understand each other well enough and I left with what I wanted to buy.

Next we stopped at a place that had tennis dresses. It was Mom’s birthday and she saw a tennis dress she wanted. At another shop, I bought a touristy T-shirt and cap for myself. Then we retraced our steps back to the hotel, dropped off our packages and walked to the beach.

After lunch we departed for Cannes, Avignon, and Lyon. At each place we just had a short bus drive around before heading to the next location.

Avignon was a walled city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of Southeastern France along the Rhone River. It was the location of the Pope from 1309 to 1377. A palace is still there, although it is empty.

The bridge Pont Saint-Benezet, also known as the Pont d’Avignon, was originally a wooden bridge spanning the Rhone between Villeneuve-les-Avignon and Avignon. It was built between 1177 and 1185. This bridge was destroyed in 1226 and was rebuilt, beginning in 1234, with 22 stone arches. The bridge was abandoned in the mid-17th century as the arches tended to collapse each time the Rhone flooded making it very expensive to maintain. Four arches and a gatehouse at the Avignon end of the bridge have survived. The bridge was the inspiration for the song “Sur le pont d’Avignon”.

Lyon was the capital of the Gauls at the time of the Roman Empire. During World War II, the Nazis used Lyon as a center for their forces. Lyon was also a major center for the resistance. Klaus Barbie, known as the “Butcher of Lyon” made his headquarters at the Hotel Terminus.

This was the hotel where we stayed the night. Our room had a chandelier, a lovely fireplace, and brass beds. At dinner, we all sang “Happy Birthday” to Mom.

Next time – Paris.

June 14, 2021

Florence & Pisa

Continuing with my first European trip back in 1984 — after we made it out of Rome alive — we headed for Florence and Pisa. Florence had always fascinated me because of both Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni and Leonardo da Vinci, who were both born in the 15th century not too far from Florence.

The older of the two, da Vinci, considered to be one of the greatest painters who ever lived, had been born out of wedlock and educated in Florence by the renowned Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. After beginning his career in Florence, da Vinci went to Milan for a while and then went back and forth between the two cities before spending some time in Rome and finally in France. He died in France and was buried there in the Collegiate Church of Saint Florentin at Château d’Amboise.

Michelangelo was also sent to Florence for his education, but not in art. All he wanted to do was paint and he was soon taken under the wing of the Medici family who were willing to employ him to do just that. He also took up sculpting and began to bounce around between Bologna, Florence and Rome after the death of Lorenzo de Medici. Eventually he returned to the patronage of the Medici family before being commissioned to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. That project took him four years to complete. He died in Rome and was buried in Florence at the Basilica Santa Croce.

We began this visit at a leather factory and then went on a walking tour of the palace and chapels of the Medici, the Palazzo Vecchio, the Ponte Vecchio, Saint Mary’s Cathedral (also known as the Cathedral of Florence), the Baptistry, and Santa Croce. Even though the statue of Michelangelo’s David that stands in front of the Palazzo Vecchio is a copy (the original is safely housed in the Galleria dell’Accademia), it is still exquisite. I bought a small copy of it for 9,000 lire (roughly $5,00). Since there wasn’t any barricade or guard to prevent me from doing so, I touched my finger tips to my lips and then placed them on Michelangelo’s tomb at Santa Croce.

The next day, we left Florence for Pisa. We stopped at the main square where we could visit the Cathedral, the Baptistry and the Leaning Tower. This time the tower was open. On a later visit, it was closed as it was in even greater danger of toppling and was being shored up by hanging counterweights on the one side to try to straighten it out a bit. On this first trip, we only had a short morning break in Pisa.

Next time — Eze, Monaco (Monte Carlo), and Nice

May 31, 2021

Be It Ever So Crumbled, There’s No Place Like Rome

The two main things that struck me about Rome on my first visit in 1984 were: how old it was and how badly in need of repair it was. The newer buildings seemed to be almost as bad off as the ancient ruins. Sometimes it was difficult to tell them apart. It was, however, a fascinating city.

There is so much history in Rome that you can practically overdose on it. The Vatican, the museums, the Colosseum, the catacombs, the Circus Maximus, the Spanish Steps, the Vittoriano, the Arch of Titus, the Arch of Constantine, the Pantheon, the Palazzo Venezia (from which balcony Mussolini gave his speeches), various temple ruins, palace ruins, the Roman Forum — to quote the King of Siam, “Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.”

Fortunately, I like history. Actually, I hated it in school. For some reason the teachers seemed to try to make it as boring as possible. Most of it was about memorizing dates. I don’t do well with memorizing dates. I can remember who did what but not necessarily when. I figure I’m doing well if I can get the approximate century. I learned to love history on my own, outside of school. Anyway, Rome is loaded with it.

To get to all of this history, one must drive. They had a very rudimentary mass transit system back in 1984 and, because of all of the historic relics under the city, they have had difficulty creating much of an underground system. Every time they dig for any reason, they strike ruins. Then the place gets declared a national monument and they have to find somewhere else to put whatever they had planned to put there.

Driving in Rome is an adventure. If it isn’t designated the accident capital of Europe, then it should be. European cars are, for the most part, much smaller than American cars in the first place. The streets are quite narrow. They can also be steep and/or winding, and there are loads of traffic circuses. An Italian traffic circus is a circular torture device where you drive in, then drive around and around and around until you die — or until someone gives you space to drive out — whichever comes first.

We entered Rome from the south and crossed the Tiber River into the main part of the city to take a quick gander at St. Peter’s, Castel Sant’Angelo, the Coliseum, and a few other landmarks before heading to the hotel (which was on the northeastern fringe of the city). We had just exited one of those traffic circuses (after only three rotations) onto the Via Arenula and were feeling somewhat cocky when we felt a thump and found ourselves sitting on the back bumper of a Lambourghini. They do say, “When in Rome …” Fortunately we had Ricardo with us.

Ricardo could speak French, German and English, but his native language was Italian. He leapt out and proceeded to have a very spirited discussion with the driver of the Lambourghini. He was in his element and a wonder to behold. His eyes flashed, his nostrils flared, his arms waved — I was very impressed. Soon he returned and climbed back in with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Everything okay?” we asked.

“Si, si,” he replied as Louis (who was Belgian and spoke no Italian) threw it into reverse. We backed off of the rear bumper of the Lambourghini and onto the front bumper of an Alpha Romeo. Fortunately that driver was preoccupied with the driver of the vehicle sitting on his rear bumper, so we gunned it and vacated the scene of the crime. We must have immediately reached our quota as we didn’t have any more accidents our entire stay … at least not with cars.

We reached the hotel, checked in, argued with the management about surrendering our passports (most hotels in Italy, at that time at least, expected you to surrender your passport to them for the duration of your stay), and went to our rooms to unpack and freshen up. The hotel was a brand new, modern, round tower, with balconies all the way around. This was important — the balconies, I mean. When it came time to leave the hotel (we were supposed to meet downstairs) we couldn’t get out of the room. The door lock kept turning and turning, but the door stayed locked, so I ran out onto the balcony and hollered down to Ricardo to get help. The cavalry promptly arrived and sprang us. The lock worked fine from the outside. It appeared that they just hadn’t quite gotten all of the bugs worked out in their new hotel. They had only been open a couple of days. We were quickly moved to another room.

I have always liked Michelangelo’s art, so I was looking forward to seeing the Sistine Chapel. This was before the restoration that took place in the 1990s. What I saw back in 1984 was pretty muddy. But it was still magnificent (unfortunately the camera I had at the time didn’t do interior shots terribly well, so I only have an even muddier photo). I was quite tempted to lie down on the floor to save myself from getting a crick in my neck. But I didn’t want to embarrass my country any more than I already had by this point in the tour. I tried to imagine Michelangelo lying on his back on the scaffolding while he painted this breathtaking ceiling, but I kept picturing him as Charleton Heston (I had seen “The Agony and The Ecstacy” too many times).

After watching the Pope ride around on his “Pope-mobile”, we went into St. Peter’s Basilica. Peter is reportedly buried beneath the altar of the Basilica in an ancient tomb. St. Peter’s is the largest church in the world (St. Paul’s in London is second in size) and is definitely impressive. Actually the entire Vatican compound is impressive. On the way to see the Sistine Chapel, we had gone through the museum with its amazing collection of art.

In the Basilica itself is “The Pieta”, Michelangelo’s sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding the body of her son. It had been attacked and damaged not too long before we were there, so it had been placed in a glass case and was heavily guarded. It was difficult to get too close to it and it was much smaller than I thought it might be. But it was exquisite.

We covered a lot of territory in the couple of days we spent in Rome. The Coliseum gave me a great deal of exercise climbing up and down over what had once been seats and exploring the area which had been under the stage (and is now exposed to the elements). One popular myth is that the Christians were thrown to the lions in the Coliseum. This is untrue. The Coliseum is much older than that and was already a ruin by that time. The lion feeding took place in the Circus Maximus — a much newer stadium that was located near Caligula’s Palace (the remains of both can still be seen today). The Coliseum did have gladiator tournaments, pageants, plays, and even water sports. They used to flood it and bring in boats.

On our last night in Rome, we drove out to Tivoli, which had been a resort town in ancient times. Up on the side of a mountain is a former monastery that originally was a castle and is now a restaurant and hotel. We sat down and found seven plates stacked before each of us. With each course a plate was filled and a different wine was poured. The courses included: 1) melon and proscuito; 2) a salad (antipasto); 3) a pasta dish; 4) another pasta dish; 5) soup; 6) the entree with vegetables, and 7) dessert.

As I said, a different wine was served with each course. The trip down the mountain was rather interesting, what with fairly intoxicated American tourists singing songs, the Belgian driver trying to stay on the mountainside road, and the Italian laughing uproariously. I don’t drink usually more than one or two glasses at a time as a rule, so seven glasses …

Next time — Florence and Pisa.

Piazzo Navona The Rivers Fountain by Bernini

May 17, 2021

First Time Ever In Italy

From Austria we crossed the Alps into Italy via the Brenner Pass. I was really looking forward to this part of the trip. The first evidence of civilization we encountered was a cool castle that was wrapped in the clouds. As much as I liked it, I thought it was just a bit too isolated. Maybe it had been someone’s summer home. I thought it would be completely snowed in when winter came.

After traveling from Innsbruck to Balzano, we took a break in Trento. Trento began as a Celtic village, but was conquered by the Romans back in the first century BC. Then it changed hands several times, being conquered by the Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards, and Franks. It became part of the Holy Roman Empire at one point. By the 14th century, it was part of Austria. Continued from there on through Verona, Vicenza and Padua.

On the outskirts of Venice, we had lunch in Maestra, followed by taking a taxi boat into Venice itself. People seem to either love Venice or hate it. I love it! It is beautiful, unique, and full of history.

Starting with St Mark’s Square, we toured the Basilica and a glass factory. Up until that point, the Basilica was the oldest building I had ever been in. The original building had been built in 828 AD, but was burned down (with the Doge inside) in 976. The Doge was the ruler of Venice. Obviously this particular guy was not a favorite.

The present building was built as an enlargement of the version built after the fire. The body of St Mark (which had been stolen from Alexandria, Egypt) was discovered hidden in a pillar and reburied in the altar. We were not on our own for this tour, so it wasn’t until a later trip that we could really explore what is one of my favorite churches/cathedrals/basilicas in the world. As it was, the interior was gorgeous with loads of gold mosaics.

Since Venetian glass is world famous, visiting a glass maker was fun. The way that the colors were included and the glass was blown was fascinating. Afterwards, we had some free time. Mom and I went to the Doge’s Palace.

This version of the Palace was built in 1340. In addition to the Doge’s residence, it also includes Council Chambers, court rooms, the Senate Chamber, and other government facilities. Across the Bridge of Sighs is a prison. The Bridge of Sighs is named as it is because the prisoners would sigh over their loss of freedom on their way across it to the prison.

It was in the Doge’s Palace where I encountered my first ever Turkish toilet. This is a hole in the floor that must be straddled. I quickly found out that the McDonald’s in Venice had western-style toilets (and fortunately also the hotel). Whenever in that part of Italy from then on, I kept my eyes open for a McDonald’s should I need a restroom. Eventually I also learned how to correctly use a Turkish toilet for the times I traveled to other parts of the world where that was my only option.

That evening, before dinner, we went on a gondola serenade as a group. I loved gliding along the canals in the gondolas listening to traditional Italian songs. Even alone, with a friend, or with one’s mother, it is still a magical experience, not to be missed.

That night we stayed in the town of Gambarare and had a dinner of lasagna and fish. The next day, we set off for Assisi where we visited the Basilica and the tomb of St. Francis before heading to Rome.

St Francis is the patron saint of animals and lived in Assisi in the 13th century. The Basilica was built in the 13th century, shortly after St Francis was canonized. There is a lower Basilica and an upper Basilica. The lower part was built first and was where Francis was buried. When we had a little free time, I found a place that had replicas of old weapons. I found a small crossbow, a mace, and a couple other things that I was not certain what they were called. They are in my family room.

Next time — Rome (be it ever so crumbled, there is no place like Rome).

For some reason, this site was reluctant to upload all of my scanned photos from 1984. So I have included what I could get uploaded and added a later photo of St Mark’s Basilica from a different trip.

May 2, 2021

Flying Low Through Luxembourg, Switzerland, Liechtenstein & Austria

Luxembourg is a very small country, but has signs of occupation all the way back to the Paleolithic Age, roughly 350,000 years ago. It is down below the lower southeastern corner of Belgium with Germany and France as its other neighbors.

We visited Luxembourg City between breakfast and lunch on the day after we visited Belgium, having breakfast in Belgium, lunch in France, and dinner in Switzerland. In Luxembourg City, we were given a coach tour of the city and visited the Notre Dame Cathedral there.

Lunch was in the town of Luneville, France. Not much there in the area where we stopped. Just a cafe and a Cora store (similar to Kmart in the US). We explored the Cora after lunch. We liked getting fresh fruit to take along with us. We would sometimes also pick up some bread or pastries.

The afternoon break was in Basel, Switzerland, on the border of France, Germany, and Switzerland. It also spanned the Rhine. Since it was my first time seeing the Rhine, I was fascinated as we crossed over the river on a bridge and then drove alongside it for a while before making our pit stop.

The main things that I can remember about Basel all these years later (we were there in 1984) are the river and the manner of toilet flushing in the rest room. Because there is such a variety in the way that a toilet can be flushed throughout Europe (at least back then), we had established a ritual that, the first person into the rest room let the next person in line in on any tricks involved with getting that little job done.

Basel stands out because it took me a while to figure it out and it was so unique. I studied the toilet itself and the wall behind it; looked for something suspended from the ceiling or some sort of pedal on the floor. Nothing presented itself. Eventually, I noticed that one of the small, black, tiles in the floor (which was composed of several white tiles punctuated periodically by these small, black tiles) was raised a bit higher than the others. I stepped on it and voila!

As we approached Lucerne, Switzerland, we began to see mountains. I had never seen a mountain before, so I was absolutely awed by the Swiss Alps. We stayed on the outskirts of a village outside of Lucerne called Stans. When on a budget tour back in the 80s and early 90s, the hotels were all on the outskirts of any large city or in some village out in the country. Although it meant that we couldn’t see any major tourist sites anywhere near our hotel, it also meant that we often had some fun and/or interesting experiences when we went for a walk.

In Stans, after dinner, we encountered some preteen boys marching around together, carrying torches and wearing brown shorts and shirts. We found this to be very unsettling (they were also speaking German), so we went back to the hotel fairly quickly. At the hotel, we were told that it was some sort of scouting organization. Ah huh.

The next morning we drove to Mount Titlis where we took a train straight up part of the mountain, then switched to a series of three cable cars to get to the top, 10,000 feet up. A much earlier post, “A Swiss Miss”, from 2017, went into a lot of detail about how neither my mom or I were fans of heights and the difficulty one of the cable cars had docking.

As it swayed in the wind and snow with Mom and I standing in the middle of it, holding onto the pole there, I was imagining being found in the glacier below in another 3,000 years with my fingers still around the pole and Mom’s fingers still around my neck (I had been the one who had talked her into it — how often in one’s life does one have the opportunity to go up to the top of a mountain in the Swiss Alps?). We survived, docked, and took some photos of the view from the top. I also purchased a small cow bell as a souvenir.

Back down on terra firma, we had lunch in Lucerne and did some sightseeing. We visited the baroque Jesuit Church and then the Kapellbrucke, which was a covered, wooden footbridge that was built in 1406 across the Reuss River diagonally. It had loads of paintings on the inside dating back to the 1600s. We also visited a monastery, which was founded in about 750 and was dedicated to St Leodegar.

We set off for Austria, stopping off in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, for a quick pic of the castle there. Our destination was technically Innsbruck, Austria, but we spent the night in the village of Auland. Apparently some of the exteriors for the movie, The Sound of Music, had been filmed in the area. After dinner at the hotel in Auland, several people in the group went into Innsbruck for an optional evening at a nightclub there. Mom and I stayed behind in Auland and went on one of our walks where we encountered a rather stubborn cow on a narrow bridge who let us know beyond any doubt that we were the interlopers.

Next time – the Italian Alps (through the Brenner Pass), Venice, and Assisi.

April 18, 2021

If This is Friday, It Must Be Belgium

In 1984, Mom found out about a group tour leaving from the Twin Cities for a fourteen day trip to Europe. It was designed to give a summary, so you would know what places interested you enough to return.

We left on a chartered plane that had been booked through the group in Minneapolis, with the tour itself through Cosmos Tours (the budget arm of Globus). This was our first experience with either Cosmos or Globus. We like them so much that we booked all of our larger tours with them over the years. I still use them now. They have an independent travel group called Monograms and river cruises through Avalon Waterways.

We arrived in Amsterdam and were met at the airport by our Italian tour director, Ricardo, and our Belgian driver, Louis. Because the entire group arrived together from one location, we could leave immediately for sightseeing without having to wait for people to trickle in from multiple countries. This was the only time I have ever been with a tour group that was totally from the US and all from Minneapolis/St. Paul and suburbs. Since Globus is a Swiss company, the people on the tours can be from anywhere in the world, just so they can understand and speak English. I really like that. I get to meet people and develop friendships with folks from all over the world.

Our tour of Amsterdam began at a diamond factory. They were not giving out free samples. Then we took a canal ride. That was quite enjoyable. As I have mentioned many times, I love being on a boat on the water — no matter what kind of boat or water.

After the canal ride, we had some time to ourselves. So we exchanged money, had a quick, light lunch and then checked out Dam Square, the Palace, the New Church, and the Old Church. The Old Church was in the middle of the Red Light District. It was a little disconcerting to pass by all of those shop windows with prostitutes on display.

We met up with our tour coach by the Railway Station and were taken to the Rijksmuseum. This museum’s main claim to fame is that it holds the largest collection of paintings by Rembrandt, Franz Halls and Vermeer. They also had some wonderful, very old, dollhouses. I love dollhouses, so that was as interesting to me as the paintings. Rembrandt is one of my very favorite artists and a favorite of one of my brothers. In Minneapolis, our museum has an amazing painting by Rembrandt of “Lucretia”. I have set off the alarm by getting too close. Not just once, but twice.

The star of the show in the Rijksmuseum is “The Night Watch”. While “Lucretia” is relatively small and intimate, “The Night Watch” is gargantuan. It takes up an entire wall.

Back at the hotel that evening, we were on our own for dinner. Mom and I ate in the hotel restaurant and had bouillabaisse, which is a French fish stew, for dinner.

The next day, we left Amsterdam, driving past Utrecht and Breda to Belgium. We had a coffee break and time to exchange money just across the border. Then we drove past Antwerp to Brussels.

We had free time to get lunch just off of the Grand Place. Again, we had a quick, light lunch so we could spend most of our time exploring the Grand Place. There we saw some lovely buildings with very interesting names — The She-Wolf, The Sack, The Wheelbarrow, The King of Spain. Then there was the House of the Dukes of Brabant, the Town Hall, and The Kings House.

Once we rejoined the tour coach, we were taken to see the Royal Palace, the Royal Park, the War Memorial and arch, the Palais de Centenaire, and The Atomium. I didn’t know at that time that I have some Belgian ancestry. You have to go back a few centuries to hit it, but it is there nonetheless.

Our hotel was out in Wepion, Belgium in a hotel on the River Meuse, right across from a beautiful, pink castle, called Chateau de Dave. No, I’m not kidding. That really is its name. After our included dinner with the entire tour group, Mom and I walked along the river to see the village itself and its locks.

We spent Thursday in Amsterdam, Friday in Belgium, and were leaving the next day to spend Saturday in Luxembourg and Switzerland, and Sunday in Liechtenstein and Austria.