Avalon Waterways – Page 3 – A Traveling Fool

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