A Night at Faulty Towers

July 29 2015

Aboard Brilliance of the Seas off Harwich, England

A Night at Faulty Towers

Imagine an English hotel-apartment that was built along the seashore in the 19^th Century and had all the appearance of a classic inn.  Now imagine that after entering this place with a skeleton-type key you noticed a random collection of furnishings from IKEA and other odd sources that looked dreadfully out of place. 

Upon entering the kitchen, you noticed a strange amalgam of appliances, a few utensils and other items that you could not figure out.

Notice how tub fills from ceiling.

Our recent visit to this Essex “hotel” brought the British sit-com Faulty Towers to mind.  Our first impression upon entering the hallway that doubled as an office was “Is this really a hotel?”  Upon check-out the following morning, the question remained.  If there was an academy award for disorganization, this place would win, hands down.

The bedroom was located on the second story, accessible via a narrow, winding staircase that lacked even rudimentary safety rails.
The upstairs bath had “design” features that must have come from a mental patient.  The proprietor, a senior lady, pointed out that, in order to use the modern bathtub, you had to turn on two wall faucets, whereby the water would fill from a nozzle located in the ceiling eight feet above the tub!  The apartment also had a stall shower, complete with crumbling tiles and an odd array of horizontal spray nozzles, but no conventional overhead shower head, just a round grille in the ceiling with holes in it.  Upon using this novel shower the next morning, we would realize that the overhead shower had inadequate pressure to rinse Donna’s hair.  Furthermore, possibly due to some loose shower tiles, water dripped down the staircase when the shower was being used.

The ponds in the garden were covered with what appeared to be, green slime.  It was obvious that no outside maintenance had taken place this year.  I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

a beautiful morning stroll along the Harwich promenade

The breakfast, which was included, consisted of an odd array of items served by a young woman, who obviously never worked in a restaurant.  The food, while decent, was an strange selection of items.

classic Tudor-style homes

After breakfast, we took a wonderful morning walk along Harwich’s picturesque beachfront for about an hour.  Quite a few dog-walkers were enjoying the brisk, sunny day and we marveled at the variety of architecture from the ocean-view homes.  A few reminded us of Toad Hall.  Many had as many as 26 chimneys. 

We finally packed our bags and our taxi picked us up and transported us to the cruise port.  We were surprised by the efficiency and courtesy shown to us by the port staff and we were able to board right away, without any delay. 

We were pleased by our stateroom on the Brilliance of the Seas, located at the very bow of the ship, right behind the bridge and on the starboard side.  It was an inside room, but it seemed larger than those we were used to.

We met with our contact with the cruise staff and found out that we had been scheduled for two presentations on the next day, something that rarely happens.

This is really a multinational cruise, with 1000 Brits and about half as many American passengers.  We also had large contingents of Canadians, Germans,Asians and Israelis.

Now off to bed and ready for work the next day.

Holland to England

July 28, 2015

Leaving the Continent

Today would be an interesting day of travel for us.  We checked out of our wonderful Amsterdam hotel early in this blustery morning to catch the ferry to England.  Our Dutch taxi moved effortlessly through the morning traffic to the station where were scheduled to take the train to Rotterdam and then make connections  Our timetable showed this as a 30 minute trip, while the same trip four days before and taken us 90 minutes. Little we realize that we were booked on the high-speed Thalys for the first leg.  Unlike Brussels, Amsterdam has elevators that make train travel a pleasure.

We had ridden the same train from Paris to Brussels and marveled at the speed and comfort.  We even found a place to stow our large suitcase!  The helpfulness of the train passengers all over this part of Europe is amazing, since trains in this area don’t check luggage or have porters.

We were soon in Rotterdam and waited a short time for the local train to Hook of Holland, where we would board our ferry. The train ride was a run of less than 20 miles and stopped every mile or two, a real “milk run.”

The Hollandia, our ferry

Our stop in Hook of Holland was at a vacant station in an industrial port area.  We spotted our ferry about a block away.  We found the nearly-empty passenger terminal, checked our baggage and waited to board the ship.  When we hear the word “ferry,” we visualize a rather small craft.  The Stena Line’s Hollandia, by contrast, is an oceangoing ship, complete with staterooms and the ability to carry hundreds of cars and trucks. Kari had reserved us space in a first-class passenger lounge and we enjoyed the six hour crossing from Holland, across the English Channel and North Sea, to Harwich, in Essex.

The weather was not pleasant, but the crossing was uneventful.  Although the vehicle decks were packed, there were very few walk-ons, like us. 
We eventually reached the terminal, went through a rather awkward disembarking and unorganized, but we caught a British taxi which brought us to our quirky hotel. 

An Emotional Dutch Day

Monday was our last full day in Amsterdam before we leave the continent and our "vacation" part of the trip. Today, Tuesday we depart for England and our working part of the month's adventures. We have experienced so many extraordinary sights and things during our first 13 days abroad and now look forward to our days on the cruise.  We will board the ship from Harwich England tomorrow and cruise for another 12 days. (Our email probably may not be very reliable so we may not have the ability to blog each day but we will catcch up when we have a connection).

As the title of this day suggests, it was an emotional day for us. Not only was it the finish of our exploring on our own in Europe but it was the day of a tour that we had planned for a long time. Since the first day that we started to work with Kari, we knew that when we were in Amsterdam we would want to spend some time walking in the footsteps of the numerous people who had sadly lived and died during WWII suffering the atrocities brought forth by Nazi Germany when they marched into Amsterdam. We both were very familiar with Anne Frank's life and knew that many other Jews had been torn from their homes in Amsterdam and sent to their deaths at the hands of the Nazis when they invaded this and other cities. But we had not realized the great amount of Jews that had lived in this beautiful city prior to and after the war. There were  over 100,000 Jewish citizens in this city prior to 1940 and fewer than 10% were left after the war. A very small number had left prior to the invasion but most were sent to the concentration camps when they were herded, like animals just because of their religion.

interior of the Portuguese synagogue

As Jews ourselves, we wanted to see everything we could, not just the obligatory Anne Frank that everyone visits while in Amsterdam. Kari pre-booked us into a 5 hour tour of Jewish Amsterdam which included the late 15th century Portuguese Synagogue. This lovely building is still as it was when built in the 16th century and has a lovely history that proves the strength of the souls that withstood the wars. It is still used for special occasions in much the same matter as early days with no electricy for lights or heat. We learned that it was called Portuguese because the Spanish Jews were not being permitted to emigrate into Amsterdam in the 15th century during the Inquisition in Spain by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand ,so the immigrants said they were from Portugal and not Spain where many of them had actually fled from.
This emotionally interesting tour also included the collections of items in the basement of the synagogue and also the Jewish Historical Museum. These two buildings house hundreds of artifacts including the largest library of books and scholarly Jewish writings in current use in the world.
Our tour included a diamond factory owned by Jews for hundreds of years and it was interesting. We had expected a more high pressure tour trying to sell us diamonds but we were pleasantly surprised that it was not that kind of tour. Very interesting.

Anne Frank remembered

The day ended with a tour through the Anne Frank house. Since we had purchased the package tour, we did not have to stand in the rain for 3 hours waiting to get into this place that the Frank family spent their final days in Amsterdam before being rounded up and taken to Auschwitz where all but the father, Otto died. Anne wrote this touching story of her family's days in hiding and then died in thee camp just a month before liberation. I think everyone has read this book sometime during their lives.

Entrance to the hideout

 I also acted in the play and was the student director of, "The Dairy of Anne Frank" while I was in drama in high school, so I was very familiar with the story but visiting house was so much more emotional to me. Walking the very floors and stairs that this family so secretly walked for so long gave me a much better understanding of just how cramped this space was for the eight people in hiding.  It took almost 2 hours to meander through the house, along with the hundreds of other silent people reading everything written and trying to understand what a difficult emotional time this must have been for all involved in this and other similar families. A time of uncertainty, not knowing who might be sabotaging them with the Nazis, who were intent on capturing all of the Jews for eventual extermination in the camps.
We somberly returned to our hotel after walking for over ten hours and found that we had added another 7.5 miles on our pedometer. After a stop for dinner at an Argentinian steak house,  we spent the rest of the evening packing and resting up the the next part of our adventure, two more train trips and a 6 hour ferry from the Netherlands to England.
Our new adventures begin tomorrow...on to England and Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas.  

Amsterdam - Sunday - continuation

Continuation from previous post--
Note to reader:  This tablet sometimes takes off and adds weird characteristics to postings.  This is not due to the incompetence of the operator (85% of the time), but is due to cyber-pixies and compu-trolls embedded deep within the CPU. -JM

We thoroughly enjoyed the spirit and life in Amsterdam's Jordaan district.  The love for life of the many residents on this beautiful Sunday afternoon was inspiring. Young families with their children in tow, countless, bicycles, motor scooters, trams with bells ringing and pedestrian traffic made the sidèwalks and crossings risky, although we never saw any actual accidents.  If you dislike positive, but frenetic activity, avoid Amsterdam.

We had planned to takè a tram back to our hotel, but the activity on the the streets just pulled us along, like a giant magnet.  As we approached Dam Square, the site of the city's origin, the crowds thickened, at times, reminding us of Disneyland's Main Street.  Unlike many city's central business districts, which are silent on Sundays, Amsterdam was running full tilt, in party mode.

Working our way through the teeming crowds and the twisting canals and streets, we were soon back at the Carlton.  After slipping out of our shoes off, we checked our smart phone and discovered we had logged over six miles so far today.

Turning on our tablet to check our messages, we received a note from Heidi Hoas, a distant cousin of John's, who had driven down from Norway and was in the city.  We had corresponded with her many times online, but had never met her in person.  She is a charming woman in her early 20s who was traveling with her boyfriend. A few years ago, she was an exchange student in the United States.  Her English was flawless. We had drinks in the hotel's bar and learned many things about life in Norway. This was certainly a high point of our trip.

Returning to our room, too tired for dinner, we snacked on a few items we had stashed in our fridge and turned in at about 10:30, after watching "Funniest Videos" on TV, in German, a language neither of us speak.

He have drinks with John's Norwegian cousin, Heidi, who is also in Amsterdam

a view form our Amsterdam hotel room on a quiet day.

A day on the Dam town

John at drawbridge

Sunday, July 26, Amsterdam
Since our last posting, we have seen much and done even more.
Last night, we went out looking for a nearby restaurant with local flavor.  Wandering through our neighborhood, we found many steakhouses (We seldom eat beef) a few pizzerias, Burger King, McDonald's (why even leave home if that's all you decide on?) a Mexican joint or two, and a number of high-end places.  Finally, we spotted a place that offered tapas and burgers.  Since we like Spanish food, stepped inside.
Although the restaurant was too dark to read the menu, with the aid of a flashlight, wè finally spotted one of our favorite dishes in the menu, paella con mariscos, that tasty concoction the we had learned to love during our trip to Spain over 20 years ago!  The savory dish lived up to its reputation and we retired to our hotel room full and smiling.
Sunday morning brought sunshine with a few broken clouds, a contrast to the gale-force winds and rains of the previous day.   After a buffet breakfast in the dining room, we decided to take the Hop-on-hop-off boat for a trip to our next destination.  Walking along canal-side on this beautiful morning, we noticed many downed limbs and several downed trees, a result of Saturday's storm.  Some had fallen into the canals, a few hitting houseboats and other watercraft tied up to pilings.

Canal dwellers taking their morning dip.

We reached the boat landing after about a 20 minute walk from the hotel and were surprised to see a couple who lived on one of the boats, jumping into the canal for a morning swim.  Although we didn't check the water temperature out ourselves, we can't imagine that it was anything but brisk.
We were soon on the boat.  The experience was much more pleasant than the previous day, due to the pleasant weather.  It looked so nice that John decided to open the sliding window next to our seats.  As soon as he grabbed the handlè the window glass disintegrated.into hundreds of of pieces.  Fortunately, it was tempered glass and no harm was done to anyone near us.  Wè all had a good laugh, even the crèwman, who commented on John's strength.

Vincent Van Gogh, self portrait

The Kitchen Maid, Vermeer's most famous work 

The Rijksmuseum is the nationl art museum of the Netherlands and was number one on our list of museums to visit since we were in the Louvre, earlier in our trip.  Upon reaching the second floor, we astounded to see a series of stained glass windows.  Upon inspection, we noticed that they were images of great artists, and not saints. We finally had the opportunityy to view, in person, many painting by the Great Masters that we had only read about.  Rembrandt was #1 on our list and were not disappointed.  I had never realized the enoumous size of some of the paintings, where some of the

Amsterdam's last windmill

figures were, literally, larger than life.  Night Watch, originally painted under another title, took an an entire will and was as good as its reputation.
We are certainly not art history experts, but fully appreciated other artists of the 17th Century including Vermeer and Van Dyke. On a lower floor were many of the impressionist paintings, including the famous self-portrait of Vincent van Gogh, a Dutchman who was not recognized in his home country during his own lifetime.
After departing. The museum, we ate a picnic lunch in the square that faces the building's rear entrance.  We had planned to take a tram to the Jordaan, a historic neighborhood that has been revitalized, according to recent publications.  We decided to walk there, with the aid of a number of maps and our trusty Garmin GPS. 

This was also the neighborhood where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis after the country was invaded and occupied by Germany during World War II

(to be. Continued)

Donna relaxes after five miles of walking (3 more to go!)

A Blustery Day in Amsterdam

Saturday, July 25
Our first night in Amsterdam was a lovely one and we quickly learned that we are located in an excellent part of one of the largest tourist areas of the city called Rembrandt Square. It is a bustling area of tourist shops, hotels, cafes and coffee shops. We had read that coffee shops aren't noted for their coffee but are instead marijuana shops, so we decided to not try to and buy our lattees there. We saw lots of people in all of the places and lots sitting outside around the square and park who had chosen to purchase some non-coffee products in those shops.  The smell in the air was indicitive of a 1970's rock concert.
We found a nice little place for dinner that was listed as a great local sandwich shop. We ordered some local Dutch food and enjoyed it very much. The food was not only good, but the prices were the best that we have seen since arriving in Europe. After dinner we strolled through the area with a thousand or so of our closest new "friends" as it was very crowded.

A bicycle parking lot

We had heard that bicycles dominate here so we watched the streets and sidewalks both directions as we meandered through the area. We were surprised to not only see such a dominance of thousands of bikes but not a one was fancy or even something that an average America would consider riding. They are all one style, single speed and mostly flat black in color. A few have hand brakes and most have racks or attached grocery or children carts but none are even new looking by our standards. With Amsterdam being so flat, there seems to be no need for anything more than the simpliest in design as they probably never see a hill or a need to change gears. We also hear that bike theft is the most common crime in the city so no one probably wants a bike that would stand out in the crowd. The bikes are everywhere and there are even parking garages and barges solely devoted for parking bicycles. Our only question is how in the world do the owners find theirs after work or shopping when they all are so similar?
This morning we awoke to a cloudy morning but the temps were warm. We went down for a lovely buffet breakfast in this newest hotel and then decided to venture out to see the city. We decided that it would be best to purchase a hot-on-hop-off bus ticket for 24 hrs so we could get a good overview of where all of the sights are located. With so many canals cutting through the city, that seemed to be a way to get our bearings. We did that in Paris and it helped us navigate much easier on our own for the next days. We wanted to hear the narration and learn some interesting history of the city. We even saw the last windmill in Amsterdam.
We also wanted to take a canal trip as that is listed in all of the tour books as a "must do" so we purchased the combination boat and bus pass and walked across one the many canal bridges to the boat dock and realized that the weather was starting to get worse the farther we got from the hotel. John was smarter than me as he took his anarack and wore jeans and tennis shoes. I only wore capris, sandals and left my anarack in the suitcase thinking that the light weight warm up jacket and an umbrella would surfice...WRONG!
With the rain starting to come down heavier,  we stayed on the barge boat for the whole loop which took over an hour and then got off and grabbed the bus for that loop tour of the city. We were glad that both were covered and that there were enough seats so we didn't have to wait for another bus.
The city of Amsterdam is filled with gorgeous canals and homes and buildings that line each canal. It looks like something out of a tour book everywhere we went :) We didn't get off the bus until we had made the full circle and got off as close to our hotel as we could figure from the map. Luckily, John had again marked our hotel spot onour walking GPS or we would have wandered around for a long time in the wind and pouring rain.
We found our hotel after about 15 minutes of walking. I chose not to use the umbrella as it was blowing so hard that the umbrella would have turned inside out, much the same as many of the others we spotted had done so we quickly returned to the hotel. 
It was nice to reeturn and take off some wet things and make some lunch and just stay inside watching the city down below from our excellent vantage point right over one of the main squares, canals and lovely huge flower market areas. We were much happier to be up in our 4th story room than down in the blustery streets dodging wet tourists, passengers on numerous trams going every direction and thousands of crazy bicyclists trying to make their ways to their hotels or homes to also escape the July storm.

Rijksmuseum

Life on the canals

Brussels to Amsterdam

A new day, a new country.  After four nights in Belgium's capital, we headed out to a new country for us, the Netherlands.  We enjoyed Brussels, which does not attract many tourists, but it was time to say good-by and move on to a new country.
Brussels' Nord station is a perfect example of how not to do something right.  While dozens of trains come and go each hour, the signage and information is very difficult.  To top that off, it is often necessary to haul your luggage (and we had more than enough) up and down staircases and onto trains, since there is no checked baggage service on the trains.
Donna made sure we got to the station in plenty of time and we eventually made it to the correct platform for our 10:55 departure.  We were able to heft our 50 pound bag and two others onto the passenger car, only to discover that nearly all the overhead luggage racks and seats were taken.  We never saw any of the railroad personnel and finally found an empty seat to handle our heaviest bag.
We weren't aware that this was not an express train, and many stops were made along the way including two airports, Antwerp and several stops too obscure to mention.  At many of these stops, some passengers would exit and others would enter, finally giving us a chance to sit together.
We passed through numerous Belgian towns and some scenic countryside and soon found ourself in the Netherlands.  The only way we knew this is that the license plates on the automobiles had changed. 
Many people use the words "Holland" and "the Netherlands" interchangeably, but this is not correct.  Holland is part of the country of the Netherlands.  True, it is the most heavily populated part and the most famous.  To further complicate matters, we refer to these people as Dutch.  Traveling across the flat lands of Holland, we saw many scenes that remind us of the stories of our chilldhood; wonderfully flat fields drained by canals, neat houses, and even windmills.  To be fair the windmills are not the picturesque type of the story books, but are modern, three-bladed wind generators.  We did not see any stout, rosy-cheeked farmers wearing wooden clogs, but that is reality.
Soon we came to the industrial heartland of the country.  Rotterdam, Europe's chief port as well as other cities showed the savvy of the modern Dutch people, as factories, warehouses, barges and tank farms sprouted on both sides of us.
Three hours after the start of our train trip, we pulled into Amsterdam's central terminal, a modern and efficient facility, complete with elevators and easier access.  Under no circumstances would I recomment rail travel in Eupore to anyone with mobility challenges.  It appears that those individuals are simply forgotten by the system
A short taxi ride brought us to the Hotel Carlton, in the heart of Amsterdam.  The view from our room was incredible and we were soon off in search of adventure.
Details will follow in our next blog entry.
Oh, by the way, our rail tickets were never checked..

Donn a inspects the Flower Market

Dutch countryside

Visiting the Palace Where a King Actually Presides

Today we spent our last day in Brussels with another trip down to see some of the national treasures of Belgium. We took the tram down to Palais Royal after breakfast to first tour the Musical Instrument Museum. The MIM is a ten story building with a spectacular view from the top floor of the whole city of Brussels and many floors of instruments from all corners of the world throughout
history. Some of the string and other instruments date back to the 14th century. At each of the displays, the audio player that we were loaned with our admission played a selection of the music from the instruments on display when we stood in front of the display. Anyone who teaches or plays an instrument would appreciate this enormous collection of instruments that the museum has on display.  We walked from floor to floor and saw and heard so many different ones that we soon found we were experiencing a brain overload. After two hours, we went to see the Brussels' Experience Exhibit which was a high tech floor in one of the old buildings explaining the things to do in the city and some of the places not to miss while exploring the area. Probably would have been more beneficial to see exhibit at the start of our four days here but it was still interesting and well displayed.

at the Royal Palace in Brussels

After a picnic lunch in the Parc van Brussels or the national royal park, we headed for the royal palace. We were surprised that the public was invited to visit this expansive home of the king and his family but we were told that it is opened to the public for just a little over a month this summer for public visits. We weren't personally presented to King Phillipe but were able to walk through many of his royal rooms and take pictures. We have been pleasantly surprised how accessible buildings and national artifacts are to the general public in the cities we have visited and how open they are to picture taking. We were also surprised that we didn't need to even go through a metal detector as we entered. We just were asked to check our backpacks in the foyer.

King Phillipe

We hopped back on the tram and headed back to the Stephanie neighborhood where our hotel is located. They have 24 hr coffee/latte/mocha machines in the lobby so we had a latte before heading up to our room on the fourth floor, which in Europe is actually the fifth floor. All of the buildings that we have been in thus far have the mainfloor/lobbies as floor zero so our room was actually five stories up. We are glad that it is modern hotel with an elevator.

Donna, the photographer

We relaxed in the early evening after our day exploring and then went out for a late dinner at one of many neighborhood cafes. We walked through the area, enjoying the lovely architecture for one last time and checked the many cafe menus that eveyone posts outside of their cafes until we decided to try a Belgium vegetarian pizza at an Italian cafe. John ordered another one of the various beers but did not like the taste of it at all. Yesterday, he actually took one sip of a beer he had bought and then spilled it down the drain! I guess that he has now found that there are lousy beers here also. With over 450 Belgium different beers, there are bond to have some that have an unpleasant taste. The one he spilled out tasted like it had poultry spices such as oregano or sage in it!  I guess that he won't be able to sample all 450 varieties before we leave to find one that he actually really enjoyed. A few were good but nothing so far has been outstanding.


Brussels is not listed in most guide books as a very popular tourist location but we have found it to be a very bustling city with lots to see and do. They refer to themselves as the capital of Europe since the EU is based here.  It isn't the easiest city to get around on foot due to the ever winding streets, without adequate street signage,  but a place that we wil long remember for its beauty, interesting languages and friendliness.
Off to Amsterdam tomorrow on the 11 am train. It is not a high speed one like the one we rode in from Paris but should prove to be a great opportunity to see the countryside and to rest our tired feet from four more days of miles of walking.

Finding Your Way in Brussels and Other Myths

We have enjoyed our stay in Brussels, but have noticed that finding our way around its maze of streets can be a bit confusing.  Today, July 22, we were determined to visit Grand Place, the cultural and tourist center of the city. Little did we know that we would get a lesson in humility.
If this had been in the USA, we could have easily programmed our smart phone and followed its directions.  Unfortunately, we need wi-fi to use most of our phone's functions.  Therefore, after. A quick breakfast in the hotel cafè, I brought up Google Maps on the wi-fi in our room and wrote down each direction. Displayed on the screen.  It gave us a total distance of about 2 km, about 1.5 miles,  an. Easy walk for us.  We headed for Grand Place immediately after dropping our laundry off at a local shop.
One of the things you need to learn about Brussels is that is not laid out on a grid. Every few blocks streets comè in from 6-8 directions into roundabouts, none on compass directions.  Another feature that endears us is that many streets are not named.  Of. Those that are, most use both the French and. Dutch names.  We followed the directions from Google carefully,  but after a. Kilometer or so, reached a point where we could go no further.
The map we were given by the hotel was incomplete and very hard use and being unable to speak either of Belgium's languages did not help when it came to directions.
Wè did find a few things we weren't looking for including. Brussels' main synagogue and the Jewish museum, which we visited.  Like so many countries, the Jews of Belgium came close to total extinction during the Nazi holocaust of 1940-45. This is not something from the ancient past.  It still goes on today.  Last year, 2014, three Jews at the museum were gunned down by terrorists.  At the present time, the entrance to the museum is guarded by two, fully armed soldiers.
After a complicated series of wrong turns, backtracks, attempts to ask directions and a miniscule speck of good luck, we came across the area outside the. Grand Place where our Waterloo tour had started yesterday. 
Our mission today was clear.  Seek out consume Belgian fries, waffles and beer.  We purchasèd a large cone of the fries.  Nothing special, perhaps because we didn't follow the local custom of dousing them with mayonnaise.  Nearby, we found a stand vending waffles and churros (an interesting combination?)  The waffle we shared was light and tasty.  We then dropped into one of the many beer sales shops, stores that sell hundreds of varieties of local and imported beers for takeout.  I chose one bottle of. Blonde and one of Porter.
About the Grand Place, it is absolutely gorgeous,  reminding us of the Plaza Mayor in Madrid, but with different architecture.  Google this!
Footsore and dragging (John woke up at 3:00 and couldn't get back to sleep) we decided to take the tram (streetcar) back. To our hotel (if only we could locate the tram line.) We only had to ask 3 people this time.  It was a short ride and dropped us off right in front of our hotel.  We picked up our laundry and took a break while the beer cools in the fridge.
Here is an oddity.  When. We asked for ice at our Paris hotel, we were given a small bowl of it.  In. Brussels, we got strange looks from the staff who replied that it was not available.
8.5 miles walked today, not bad for a 2 mile walk, eh?

If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium!

Today was a busy day in Belgium, our first of four in this city. We started with a very nice buffet breakfast in this new hotel. It is quite different from most that we have stayed in Europe since it is so modern and only one year old. It is decorated in what I refrer to as Ikea modern and much larger rooms than the older stately hotel we were in at Paris. So far Kari has booked us into some great hotels and locations at very reasonable rates. Sure nice to have a good travel agent doing the work for us! We are spoiled.
After breakfast, we walked around our hotel neighborhood and ended up at a large square with a huge flea/produce market. We weren't sure where we were located but luckily our hiking GPS is always with us and John marks our hotels as we begin our exploring each morning so we can find our way "home". We loved the architecture of the buildings with a wonderful mixture of old and new buildings from different eras.
This is the national holiday of independence for Belgium, July 21, so most of the stores were closed so our morning walk was very quiet.
We got back to the hotel in time for a quick lunch and then were off again for a special organized tour that Kari has booked for us. This is the 200th anniversary of Napolean's dismise at Waterloo, about 20 miles from modern Brussels. With this being their '4th of July' type holiday, the downtown was packed so our tour bus couldn't even get close to the tour office. Most of the streets were blocked either with people or police barricades so we had to meander through the crowds to where the bus was able to park.
The tour included a brand new ultra high tech museum and computerized audio-visual show that looks like it belongs in Disneyland. The bus tour was in English but the guide's English was very much in a monotone so it was sometimes hard to keep awake.  He definitely knows the history and told us everything possible about Napolean and Waterloo in the three locations that we visited during the four hours of walking and driving. We visited the exact farm location where over 10,000 troops from various countries lost their lives. It bothers me to see and hear of the murders which I always see as so so senseless. War, to me, is usually senseless and this was one battle that fits that to a 'T'.

French soldiers at Waterloo

The tour bus dropped everyone downtown at the main station but we told the tour guide that we had no idea of how to get back to our hotel as we are staying south of downtown so the bus driver was nice enough to take us back to the correct section of the city where we are staying. We got off at about 7pm and started to look for a place to eat dinner but with it being the holiday, most cafes were also closed. We finally found one after walking more on tired feet and sat down for a very multi-cultural street side dinner. John had pasta with bolonaise sauce and i had a Greek salad. John had not yet sampled any of the 450 different Belgium beers that they list in the travel guides so he tried two different varieties. The first was a famous one we had read about which is a fruit flavored beer. It was red and tasted like a mixture of cherry soda and beer andis called Krieg. Not his favorite. The other was a pilsner and he liked it much better. The meal was nice and we were glad to find a place to enjoy people watching while eating.We also enjoyed listening to all of the Dutch being spoken even though we understood none of it. The owner of the cafe didn't speak English but we were able to communicate using our little bit of French that we had picked up in Paris as many people here also speak French and we tried a few phrases in german so he must of thought we were germans.

We walked back to the hotel at about 9pm and we were tired. We checked our pedometer and found that we had walked 8 1/2 miles so our feet and backs were ready to relax. We went to sleep but I awoke at midnight to see if I could see the fireworks that our tour guide said would be starting at that time. I couldn't see them from our location, south of the city, but was surprised to see the streets and tram were packed with familes at this late time of the night. I awoke again at 3 am and looked out the window and was surprised to still see the streets were busy with families. 
"Tuesday, it must be Belgium!" A rather non-descript old movie but a perfect name for the day!
(by the way, if there are spelling mistakes, our old tablet has a bad habit of self correcting our spelling the way it thinks it should be spelled.

Also, if you care to make comments or have questions on our travels, feel free to post them here in the comment section of our blog and we will try to answer them.
Just keep in mind that we are 9 hrs ahead so we may not answer right away...lol

John enjoys a classic Belgian brew.

Paris to Brussels

Before we leave Paris, I want to share something with you that I have noticed in sort of an eerie way since I have left the city. Paris police cars always sem to use their sirens when moving from place to place.  The sirens are those loud high-low types that we always heard in those old movies when. We were growing up.
Every time I hear those sirens, it makes me wonder if the Gestapo is coming for me since th Germans controlled Paris during WWII. No wonder I have had trouble sleeping!
Knowing that we had an early wake-up this morning and having a million things on my mind, I (John) awoke a 4:00 AM, against my better widhes.  We had a taxi scheduled to pick us up at 7:40 and had some of our hote'sl breakfast first.  We got to the Nord rail station with plenty of time to spare, since the morning rush really hadn't started rolling in the downtwn area yet.  As we passed each of the now-famliar landmarks of Paris, we smiled, the love in our hearts paralleled our. Love for the City of Lights.
The last time we had come through this station was 1991 on our way to Copenhagen on a slow night train.  Todays trip would be a much different experience.  The Thalys is a modern,  high-speed train and we had reserved seats.  Hefting our HEAVY bags onboard, we discovered that the conductor had put is in car 8, instead of car 5, where our reserved seats were,  This meant we had. To manhandle the bags through the narrow aisles of four coaches to find our seats.  Well, we made it.
The trip on the train was marvelous.  Checking the train's speed on our GPS, it averaged 180 mph and topped out at 189!  There were no grade crossings, whistles, or signal arms or was there. In fact, there was hardly any feeling of motion.
I reflected upon the flat lands and beautiful fields we were crossing during our 165 mile trip.  These were the lands of Flanders Fields contested by great armies.  Thesse lands in France and Belgium were the lands of trench warfare during the Greeat War of 1914-1918/  These are the lands where millions of. Germans, French,  Belgians, Brits and Americans were sacrificed to gain a few yards of mud against mustard gas and machine gun bullets.  These were also the lands of Napoleon's attempts to rule Europe, Nearby, lay the port of  Dunquerquè, where, the British Expeditionary Force achieved miraculous rescue as the Nazi blitzkreig rolled across the continent.  These coastal farmlands where so many of their nation's finest will rest forever, we crossed effortlessly, un-noticed and in comfort in only 80 minutes.
We pulled. Into Brussels' midi terminal on time and were soon at our hotel, a modern facility.  After a short walk into. The downtown area, we decided to relax for the remainder of the day.
Tomorrow, we will visit the location of Napoleon's final battle at Waterloo

the Thallys in Paris

Checking our speed on the GPS. 183 mph ain't bad!

Art in Montmartre, Our Last Day in Paris. July 19th

Today we took the Metro to the Montmartre district of Paris. It was the mecca of the artists of past and present in the city so we wanted to experience it on our last day. We joined thousands of others on this Sunday that wanted to do same as the many Metro trains we took were cram packed. We have gotten pretty good at catching the correct subway trains and pride ourselves at never once getting on the incorrect one.

from the Dali Museumthe wrong train or making the incorrect transfer here in Paris.

Montmartre was a great place to visit and we thank our neighbors, Patti and Bill for suggesting that we see this area of the city. The streets were something out of a movie with hundreds of artists showing their paintings along with hundreds of tourists having sittings for portraits everywhere. The streets were packed with shoppers and the cafes were buzzing with people sipping wine and eating crepes. Quite a delightful scene.

We walked by the original Moulin Rouge before heading up the hill to the art district and the busy Sacre Couer Bascillica which was another crowded spot in the district. It is a beautiful church sitting on the highest hill in Paris. From there we walked to the Salvador Dali Museum to view his rather unique sculptures and paintings. We were familiar with this modern surrealist artist and his unusual work but it is very interesting when seen in person.
We took the funnicular down the hill and walked the lower section of the district before taking the Metro south of the city to go to the tallest building in Paris, the Montparnasse. We got our tickets to ride the elevator to the 58th floor observation tower and it was a wonderful view of all sides of the city. We were able to look out at all the places that we had visited during our fabulous stay in this beautiful city.

We had a marvelous French dinner at a neighborhood cafe called Chez Papa. Donna ordered what she thought was a salad and it turned out to so much more and different than any salad she had eaten as it was a large bowl with a little lettuce and wonderful home grown tomatoes and then filled the rest of way with blue cheese and roasted potatoes. John ordered an omelet which was stuffed with blue cheese and he ordered wine. The dinner also included a basket of hard crusted bread and a slice of other bread with two types of melted cheese.

There was so much food that neither or us could finish this dinner. After walking for a few blocks to try and help this meal to settle in our stomachs, we went back to our hotel at about 9 and packed our suitcases in anticipation of our next city to explore, Brussels. We have scheduled a taxi to take us to the train station early in the morning so we can take the high speed train to Belgium where we will spend another 4 nights. The adventures continue.

Our Explorations of Paris Continue

Paris Continues Day 3 July 18th
After a nice hotel mini buffet breakfast, we boarded the local Metro and changed at a station for the Eiffel Tower stop.
When we got off the subway, we walked to the location of the boat cruise on the Seine for a one hour narrated trip on the river. It was very interesting and a lovely morning to cruising outside. The boat rode by many of the same spots that we had seen on our bus tour of the city but from a completely different perspective. We had bot realized that there were so many bridges and so much boat activity on the Seine.When we got off the boat, we walked over to the Eiffel Tower to see it from the ground as the other view we had gotten was from the double decker bus. We were taken back with the enormity of this structure, something that we had never realized from the pictures we had seen. It is a massive  architectual wonder with it iron work and rivets soaring skyward.

We walked to the Metro station and navigated our way to the military museum house in Les Invalides. This large building houses all of the weapons and splendor of the French throughout history.  From there we walked a few blocks to the Rodin Museum to see the masterpieces in sculpture done by this artist, including the famous Thinker statue.

Statue of Liberty in Luxembourg Gardens

We were tired by this time in the day so we worked our way back through the Metro transfers and returned to our hotel neighborhood where we bought a small baguette and some drinks for our dinner in our room. Later in the evening we walked our neighbor and bought another of the wonderfully delicious frozen delights that the French are so famous for and watched the late Saturday night diners in the streetside cafes.

Paris, day 2 corrected

Day 2 in Paris  July 17, 2015

This was our first full day in Paris.  Everyone has heard stories about Paris.  Most of these are true.  Some are not.  Up until this point, we have been treated courteously, even though we do not understand French and speak only enough of it to read a menu at McDonald’s.  (actually, we didn’t go to Mickey D’s and have no urge to do so.)

We awoke at about 5:30 after a full night’s sleep.  The nine hour time difference will still take some adjustment.  We called Kari on Skpe, who was still up on Thursday night. After looking over our tour books, we had a buffet breakfast in the hotel dining room and got our stuff together for a day on the city. 

We rode the Metro to the Louvre and made the transfer without any challenges.  We are getting to be adept at the subway system, even with the many staircases present.  As soon as we got on the crowded #4 train, a woman gave up her seat to Donna.  We have noticed this on every trip.  The subway cars are packed with young people.  In fact we saw few, if any riders of our age group.  Perhaps it is the difficulty of navigating the stairs.  Perhaps it was the just the pace of life in Paris.

We arrived at the Louvre at about 9:30 and spent much of the morning in the museum.  Of course we saw Venus di Milo, as well as many other notable sculptures.  We also made sure to see the Mona Lisa through the crowds.  Fortunately, John is taller than most of the Asian tourists and got some good shots of Leonardo’s most famous painting.  I thought a great trick would be to take a picture of another’s viewfinder just as he snapped a picture of the painting.

We walked along the Right Bank of the Seine for a bit after leaving the museum and the boarded the Hop-on  Hop-off bus for a  very thorough tour of the city from the upper deck.  The sun was out again and I was glad that I had worn sunscreen, as the temperature and humidity were both up.

The narrated bus ride took about two hours and visited all the expected sights, plus many we were unfamiliar with.  We chose not to get off, as we planned to visit some the places over the next two days.  The statue of George Washington pleased us and many other kind words were said about America. 

One thing that surprised us were the number of military monuments, commemorating France’s victories and defeats.  There was no shortage of palaces.  It really helped us to understand why the commoners revolted from time to time.

We got back to our hotel at 2:30 after a picnic lunch in a nearby plaza.  After a much-needed rest, we decided to visit Luxembourg Jardin, the most popular park in the city.  Google  Maps showed the trip as 1 km, just a short jaunt for us.  We discovered otherwise, as the spiderweb of streets and intersections must have tripled the length of the trip.  After asking several people for directions, all of which were answered courteously, we eventually reached the park, and walked around for a bit.  We looked in at one reception that was taking place in the Senate building, thought we were out of place, and were about to leave when a woman courteously signaled us to stay.  We enjoyed the appetizers, were served champagne and water, and departed, not really sure what the reception was all about.

We always mark the location of our hotel on our handheld GPS, and it directed us to home, using the shortest route.  We stopped by a neighborhood Lebanese restaurant at about 7:30 and ordered an elaborate dinner, which we had planned to share.  We ate so much we could barely move and, when the check was presented, discovered we had been served a dinner for two at twice the price.  Oh well, it’s our fault for not speaking the language!

Dinner in this part of Paris seems to start between 8:00 and 9:00 pm and by the time we were finished, there was not a seat to be had in any of the dozens of eateries in our neighborhood.  We will turn in soon.  We checked our pedometer at day’s end and discovered we had walked an amazing eleven miles in the heat and humidity!  Enough for one fine day and bon soir.

Day One in Beautiful Paris
We arrived in Paris early in the morning after over 24 hours since departing our home on Tuesday night at about 12:30 in the morning and arrived Paris time at 6:00 am. Our transport was pre-arranged by Kari so we onl had to wait for a few minutes for our pick-up. The drive into the city from the airport was during morning rush hour and took over an hour.
We arrived at our lovely hotel and found that Kari had arranged for any early morning check-in so we got right into our room. It is very nice with a balcony that overlooks a park.

our hotel

We were very tired as we hadn't slept for two nights so we decided to taka a short rest and shower and then we got directions on how to go cross town on the Metro to pick up the Paris pass that Kari had ordered for us. It will cover all transit, metro, sight seeing bus and museums, etc. for four days.

After returning to the hotel with our passes, we took another brief rest and then walked our neighborhood to see it. We stopped for a drink at an outside cafe for some people watching. We enjoyed this very much.
Next we decided that we were too tired and warm (91 degrees) to get a real dinner so we stopped at a bake shop  and bought  a baguette and walked and savored this fresh bakedbaguette and some wonderful frozen  ice cream and yogurt from a gelato som of the best we have ever taste. A tired couple of travelers came back for an early night in the hotel.

Long Flights have Begun
We left the house in Lacey at 12:30 am and drove to SeaTac in plenty of time for our 5 am flight. We checked in when they opened the desk at 3am and flew to Chicago with a 4 hr flight. We watched a great movie called "Spare Parts" which is a true story about some high schoolers who complete in robotics even though everyone thinks they will never amount to much in life.
Now we are waiting out a lay over for 3 hours before the long flight begins to Paris. That is a 8+ hour flight so we plan on trying to get some sleep on this leg of the trip. A long day has begun and so has our adventure.

Like the so goes, *All our bags ae packed, we're ready to go...  We're leaving on a jet plane..."

 Ocho is still a bit uncertain.

A New Adventure-Europe Awaits, July-Aug. 2015

July 12, 2015—Packing for our trip

Today we are busy with packing our suitcases again and getting our house ready for our house/Ocho sitter, Joel. Since this will be a trip that includes not only a cruise job, but also 12 days in Europe in three different countries, it is our goal to try and keep the luggage at the minimum. Usually, we don’t have a concern with two large suitcases, our computer rolling case and back packs as we are simply getting on a ship. This trip is different as we are vacationing for a few weeks on the continent prior to our work days on board. That also means lots of ground transport on numerous modes of transportation such as trains and taxis, etc. between locations. Also, we will need a variety of different types of clothing, some for touring in Europe where the temperatures are warm now and then the cruise where it is not warm. We also need to take dress clothes for our lectures and formal nights on board ship as always.

We will be driving to the airport after midnight on Tuesday/Wed morning as our flight leaves Seattle at 5 am Wed. The airporter van could not help us as they could not pick us up here in Lacey/Olympia early enough for our flight so we will drive and park for the month at an off airport lot. We found one with a good monthly rate.

We fly to Paris with a change of planes in Chicago. We will spend 4 days in Paris and then take a train to Brussels for 4 days and then another train to Amsterdam for 4 more days. From there we take a train to the Hook of Holland and board a ferry to England where we board the ship, Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas for 12 more days. We cruise from Sussex to Bergen Norway, then through the fjords of Norway and the Faroe Islands and then to Iceland for two nights. Then we sail back to England and fly out of London for a long trip back to Los Angeles and then Seattle.

It is so nice to have a great travel agent to help in all of our plans. Or course, our travel agent is our daughter, Kari, and she has been in that business for about 25 years so she knows the places to stay, the tours to take and which flights to book. We just told her where we wanted to go and or how long and she planned so much for us. We know why she has so many returning clients over the years and why she has won so many national awards for excellence. Guess we might be a little prejudice but she really is an excellent travel agent and much appreciated.

Watch for our travel stories and pictures from our 28 day trip on our blog. Whenever we are able to post a new entry we will do so. That way you can see what we are doing and put the places we describe in your own personal bucket list for future travel.