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Day 8, Lovely morning then to Salzburg

I snapped awake at 5am and glanced up to see blue sky through our sunlight window. We left it cracked open last night and fell asleep to lightning flashes and thunder rolling through the valley.

The blue sky and birds singing had me sticking my head up through the window and glancing at the Alps.

We hadn’t seen the Alps this clear since we arrived and since we had to leave today at 9:30am we threw on some clothes and took a walk for our most clear view of the Alps yet.

We began to walk to back to our room and glanced over our shoulders only to see the sun had risen enough to light up the mountains.

This little guy came running down the road to say hi.

We lucked out with good morning weather.

Time to decend into the clouds and back to reality of life outside of the Alps.

Pretty waterfall at the bottom of the cable car.

We enjoyed a far less stressful bus and train ride to Interlaken since we knew what we were doing this time. We had a couple of hours to burn so we threw our luggage into a locker at the train station and wondered through town. Interlaken is pretty touristy. I did have 10 Swiss Francs left that would be useless outside of Switzerland so we walked around town looking for a place to spend it.

Interlaken tourist trade boomed in the 1800’s into the early 1900’s and most of the pretty buildings are built during this boom. Now it’s a bit tacky with Swiss Army knife and Swiss cowbell shops on every corner. This of course helped us spend the 10sf.

Mike asked if we’d be able to bring it on the airplane with us. I said, “of course we can! It’s got the word plane right in it!”

Crickets…

We saw over 15 paragliders Coming in for a landing in a little park we passed on our walk. (See video on Facebook.) It was cool to see how much of a controlled landing they were able to make.

As I write this we are on a train to Salzburg enjoying lunch watching pretty Swiss scenery fly by.

The train tracks run right by this glacial lake.

Pretty green field with a neat peak and the Alps way in the background.

Mike and I went into a fit of non-stop tears falling down our faces giggles trying to pronounce our lunch choices. Fortunately we got it out of our system before the train attendant came to take our order.

Despite the train reaching speeds of up to 137mph it took around 6 hours to finally reach Salzburg. The trip took us through the Arlberg Pass, a scenic journey along a rushing river and great mountains all around.

I may have gotten a little jaded from our time up in Gimmelwald with the larger than life view of the Alps but these seemed less impressive. Still, beautiful scenery, but we were ready to be at our destination a few hours before we got there.

At 9pm we pulled into a balmy 79 degree Salzburg train station grabbed a taxi to the hotel and got right into bed. We were not for the weather. Jeans, a hoodie and scarf made it a sweltering taxi ride. Shorts and a T-shirt would have sufficed! No air con in the room so we through open the windows and cranked up the fan and we are finally cooling off. Looking forward to a good night sleep and lovely day in Salzburg tomorrow!

Day 7, Glorious Gimmelwald

Best night’s sleep yet. Having the skylight open let in cool mountain air all night long that made being tucked under a thick comforter a pleasure. The Nespresso machine for guests in the kitchen allowed me to get up around 7am and have a coffee while writing my day 6 blog. The pictured coffee is my second of which I enjoyed on the large porch at Esther’s Guesthouse.

The little path to the gondola to Mürren and Schtechlberg.

No plans at all today other than breakfast at 8:30am. Typical European breakfast with croissants, various breads, cheeses and meats, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and fruit. The star of breakfast was the cheese made here in Gimmelwald. We bought some of it yesterday. God it’s good.

After breakfast and a shower we decided we’d like to look at the mountains for a while. That is pretty much the entrainment here and I think I could easily spend the rest of our vacation doing just that.

We asked our host Tobias to suggest a 20-30 minute stroll and he gave us a route that took us above the village of Gimmelwald. Because of the changing cloud cover the views would constantly change as well, the tallest peaks hiding behind a cloud bank then popping out. It was quite a show.

Just above the chalet in the picture are two waterfalls.

The mountains’ back up singers were a group of waterfalls that we could hear our entire walk.

The peak to the right of Mike was completely visible before we set up the camera. Then it jumped behind a cloud. Shy peak.

As we made our way along the path we got higher and more mountains were revealed by the new angles and the shifting clouds.

The chalet in the center is Esther’s Guesthouse and the skylight in the middle is ours.

Gimmelwald sits on one side of the valley just below Mürren which was where we decided to go after our stroll. We needed some groceries and had a couple of punches left on our gondola ticket.

Looking down the gondola cables from Mürren to Gimmelwald

Mürren is around 1000’ higher than Gimmelwald so the same mountains changed again.

We grabbed some groceries for lunch but then Mike has the brilliant idea to have lunch in Mürren and eat our groceries for dinner rather than eat at Pension Gimmelwald again. We ate at The Edelweiss Hotel, drawn in by the sign advertising apple strudel with vanilla sauce.

Mürren was a touristy little town. It lacked the charm of Gimmelwald but I could see someone wanting a less rustic place with the same views wanting to stay there. I’ll take Gimmelwald over Mürren any day.

We may or may not have found some really pricey Freitag messenger bags that we really liked before lunch and decided not to get them because they were too expensive. And we may or may not have gone back to the shop after lunch to get the bags after talking ourselves into them during lunch. Who knows? It’s a mystery.

It started to rain so we took the gondola back down to Gimmelwald and headed back to the room. With the skylight open we could hear the rain. Then all of the sudden a steam like mist began to drift in through the window. A glance out the window showed that a cloud was passing through the Guesthouse and some of it was sneaking into our room. Neat.

I took a quick nap. then made myself a cup of coffee and returned to the porch.

Picture from the porch as another low cloud passed through town.

We had such great weather for our time here. This was made abundantly clear by the clouds and rain that carried on throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening. Bits of the mountains were still visible from time to time but nothing like we’d seen in the morning.

Mike stayed in the room to rest while I went out to see the misty mountains and get a Gimmelwald smoked sausage that would serve as part of our dinner.

Ran across our tour guide from the previous day.

He was a little wet but he came out for scratches before retreating to the wood pile to keep dry.

Gimmelwald Alp cheese and smoked sausage.

For dessert, some Swiss chocolate.

Day 6, travel to Gimmelwald

We had to catch an 8:53am train to Interlaken, Switzerland. I woke up early again and decided to hunt down a coffee and croissant. This was easy as our hotel has an exit that puts you right into the train station. With breakfast in hand I snuck out of the station to snap a few more pictures of the Cathedral.

Steve Haas is the reason Cologne landed on our itinerary. Thanks Steve! This building was worth the stop.

Time to pack up and head to the platform. Actually, it was a bit early to do this but we are both still having a hard time not wanting to get to the train platform compulsively early.

Cathedral through the train station canopy. Notice the CCTV camera that caught our mad rush to another platform.

We waited on the platform for 25 minutes only to have a last minute shift in platforms. I think there’s some guy in the CCTV booth watching passengers frantically rush from one platform to the next. I bet he’s making millions on a YouTube channel.

Finally on the train we settled in for a long 7 hour train ride.

I use a website called “The Man in Seat 61” to plan all of my European train travel. The website owner is a train master and his website is full of helpful tips.

We could have gotten to our destination an hour earlier if we’d taken one of the high speed trains but our train goes along an older route that parallels the Rhine River. Seat 61 Man suggests sitting on the left side of the train. We couldn’t reserve seats and be sure we’d get the correct side since you never know which way the cars will be facing when they form the train.

These aren’t the seats we started in. Not knowing which direction the train was heading we took our best guess. We lost the coin toss. As the train started moving we realized we were on the right side, which was the wrong side. We quickly moved our stuff over to the other side of the train.

The ride along the Rhine was beautiful. Castles, cathedrals and little fairytale towns line this portion of the river. I took few pictures but here’s a few screen grabs from the videos I shot.

We saw several of the river cruise ships we saw docked in Cologne making their way up river. This would be a beautiful area to see from the water.

Ship in front of a little Rhije River village

The saddest part of our trip was this…

…our last bit of chocolate from Bruges.

After the scenic part of the trip was done we settled in and played some Rummy to pass the time.

The journey to Gimmelwald is the trickiest of our trip. Two trains, one city bus and a gondola ride. We switched trains in Interlaken Ost.We had to be on the front of the second train because they split it at one of the stops and half goes to Grindelwald (not our destination) and the other goes to Lauterbrunnen where we caught a bus after a mad dash to get the local currency (Swiss Francs) only to discover the bus accepts euros, too. Then to the gondola and up the mountain to Gimmelwald. Whew!

Beautiful lake on the approach to Interlaken which means in between lakes.

Waterfall in Lauterbrunnen taken from the bus to the gondola.

Gondola coming down from Mürren as we head up to Gimmelwald.

Gimmelwald is beautiful. Understatement of the century. I don’t even know how to describe the quaintness of this little village nestled on a cliffside of a majestic valley with some of the tallest peaks in the Alps.

The cloud cover made it a game of hide and seek with the peaks peeking out momentarily. We usually had some clouds below us as well since we are almost a mile up in elevation.

We are staying at Esther’s Guest House, a laid back little B&B 2 minutes from the gondola station.

Our top floor room. I’m calling it our penthouse suite.

The skylight opens to let in the cool mountain air.

As we strolled the village we had an orange kitty as our tour guide. She walked along the path with us waiting for us to pet her in between taking pictures of the mountains.

After our brief walk around part of Gimmelwald we made reservations at the only place to eat in town, Gimmelwald Pension. Everyone has the same thing here, no menu to choose different items. We were served a delicious slice of quiche for the starter, a yummy sausage with wedges and green beans and a baked apple with vanilla ice cream and raisins for dessert.

I took a quick stroll after dinner to see the the mountains one more time before bed and saw this little kitty grabbing a drink.

A long travel day, lack of a nap and a lack of sleep in general had us in bed by 9pm.

Day 5, Cologne

Leaving Bruges was bittersweet. We had such a nice time Ans agreed we’d both like to go back there someday. We interacted with really nice people and gorged on the beauty of the City and it’s treats.

Our hotelier Brend arranged for an 8:30am taxi and an early breakfast so we could catch our 8:58am train to Brussels. We finally got to meet Brend’s wife Veronika (from Peru) and she fed us and had us out the door by 8:20am. The wether was overcast and windy so standing on the platform was a cold affair. We huddled in a little glass box designed for just such weather. A minute or two before our train arrived there was a platform change announcement made and we and all of the others huddled in the box hustled from platform 9 to platform 6. The announcement wasn’t in English but Mike noticed a sign flashing “6” so we just followed the herd of people. Moments after entering platform 6 we were on our train and heading to Brussels Midi train station. A quick 1 hour ride to Brussels and we caught our ICE (inner city express=really fast train) DB Train to Cologne.

As the train jetted from Belgium to Germany I noticed it started to get hilly. This was quite a contrast from the countryside in Amsterdam, Bruges and our train ride in between those which were all were super flat. No hills at all.

We arrived around 12:30pm and grabbed a couple of wursts in the station, threw our bags in the hotel (our hotel is connected to the train station) and walked over to the Cathedral.

The photos below don’t come close to showing the size of this massive structure.

Flying buttresses support the structure allowing the windows to be big and the walls to be thinner.

Because this cathedral is gigantic and surrounded by the train station, museums and shops we struggled to get far enough to get a picture of the entire building.

The gargoyles are really interesting to me. Here’s a few we saw.

Screaming Gargoyle. Must look cool with water pouring out of her mouth.

Mike trying to squeeze the cathedral into his phone.

We went inside to explore. Again the photos don’t do the size and openness of the interior justice.

Cathedral floor plans are usually done in the shape of a cross, the top of the cross facing west.

On the right (south side) of the pillars.

Here are some of the things we saw inside.

Pulpit that looks like a popcorn machine. Impressive because it was built in 1544 way before popcorn machines were invented.

Closeup of Part of the mosaic. Each tile is around 1 cm squared.

The crucifix above is considered to be one of the first larger than life sculptures of the Middle Ages. It’s over a thousand years old. Jesus Christ that’s old!

The whole reason this cathedral was built was because of the Three Magi or the three Wisemen that brought gold, frankincense and myrrh to baby Jesus. The relics (bones?) were transferred to Cologne in 1164 and it was decided a grand cathedral was needed to house the relics. And here they are.

632 years later the cathedral was completed.

One of the many huge stained glass windows.

I call this one “Pull my finger Cherub.”

We wondered back outside and found this fountain on the south side of the cathedral.

We continued to circle the exterior of the cathedral trying to take it all in. On the west end we saw a bunch of people heading over a little hill. We followed and it turns out the we’re going and coming from the Rhine River.

There were at least 8 river cruise vessels lined up along the riverbank.

We are ready for a nap by this point so back to the room for a little rest. Because of the proximity of the hotel/train station/cathedral this had been or least active day and we both needed to catch up on some sleep.

Refreshed I wanted to take a little stroll. Mike wanted a bit more rest so I ventured out on my own. I strolled around the cathedral and headed onto the train bridge above the Rhine. Mike has seen a YouTube video of this bridge and mentioned it was covered with locks couples would attach to the bridge and then throw the key into the Rhine. I wanted to see it!

Since we would be in Germany for less than 24 hours I had 4 goals.

See the cathedral
Eat a wurst
Eat a pretzel
Get some magical German decongestant spray

Goal 1 and 2 were taken care of so it was time to head to a bakery and pharmacy. When I travelled to Germany back in 2011 with Wendy Morton and Nick Barone (we were performing at a shadow puppet festival) I caught a pretty bad cold. I went to a pharmacy and they gave me the best decongestant spray I’ve ever used. I’ve used it sparingly since every time I’ve gotten a really bad cold. I finally ran out a year or two ago so I wanted to stock up while here. I visited two pharmacies and got a bottle from each. I am ready for my next severe cold.

I also found a bakery with really yummy authentic German Pretzels. I’ve been craving one of these since 2011.

Dinner was a simple affair. We went here.

I was overdue for a big salad. This Caesar was great! Plus a pretzel.

Panorama of the cathedral and train station.

Time for bed. Early train to Switzerland tomorrow!

Day 4, Cathedrals and Canals

We didn’t have much of a plan today other than to find the Michelangelo statue Madonna and Child. It seems silly not to check out a Michelangelo if you have the chance.

It was a nice statue. I’m more of a fan of Bernini sculptures but this was lovely with a nice story.

While I liked the Michelangelo I enjoyed some of the other artwork in this cathedral more. I’ve always been fascinated by skulls and skeletons in churches. Probably because this is an unusual image in US churches.

This was an image found during renovations.

Skull and some sort of relic in the little glass frame.

Couldn’t tell what the relic was. Any guesses?

The choir was beautifully carved.

I imagine each of these figures in between the seats are saints.

The confessionals were also nicely carved.

Confessional has a place for two priests and 4 confessors.

The above confessional was neat. I think the angel on the left represents being burdened with sin and the one on the right is set free by confessing her sins. At least that’s how it reads for me…

It was bad form to show the soles of your feet in a church so these two tomb figures have animals covering their soles

The two tombs above are of Mary of Burgundy and her father Charles the Bold. The tombs are placed just in front of the high alter so they must have been important. Or rich. Their story is actually pretty interesting (they effected world politics pretty intensely) but I don’t want to fill my blog with history. Google it.

The pulpit was lively as well. The whole thing looks like it rests on the human figure at the bottom.

Our second church of the day was St. Saviors. It wasn’t as spectacular as the first but there were some neat things.

…I liked the little dragon on his back under the eagle.

The cathedral architect showing his plans to God. I call this one “You Like?”

Enough with the churches. It was likely going to start raining around 2pm and so we decided to do a canal boat tour while the weather held. This was an amazing 1/2 an hour on the water in one of these…

Most boats we saw were packed though they look more crowded than they feel, and we had a couple of empty seats right next to us. The guide was a retired Englishman with a style of narration that gave you a since he really loved this city and didn’t have a care in the world other than to enjoy it.

As you can see below this city is just as photogenic from the water as it is from land.

Time for a waffle and coffee. We went back to the same waffle place since the waffles were great and the server was cute. They don’t use batter like we do, they use a yeast dough.

He’s vacuuming the crumbs out of the waffle iron.

We ate our waffle in The Markt and looked at the courtyard of the belfry then grabbed a couple of chocolates and headed back the the hotel for a nap.

Belfry from behind. The people in line are waiting to go up the 366 steps of the tower.

I’m not eating chocolate in bed, YOU’RE eating chocolate in bed.

We had a hard time waking up from our nap. The lack of sleep and time change caught up to us a bit, Mike especially. We thought maybe we’d walk a block to a little restaurant around the corner, grab a quick bite and go back to bed. We’d sept through a little rains storm and was expecting more but then the sky cleared up completely so we ventured out into a part of town we hadn’t yet seen.

This area had no tourists so we had it to ourselves with the exception of a local or two. We found a sign that said it was St. Anna’s district.

Church shoulder to shoulder with the neighborhood homes

We could see on our little tourist map we were pretty close to one of the windmills that circle the town along the moat.

The view from the hill of the windmill was great. If you look closely you can see the belfry from the Markt, a bell tower from one of the cathedrals we’d visited earlier and the spire at St. Anna’s.

We walked quite a bit and the wind was making it chilly. Fortunately I’d purchased a nice linen scarf hand woven by this master weaver from Latvia.

Master Weaver setting up his loom for the next round of scarves.

The amount of linen thread he has on the loom can make around 9 scarves. He changes the placement of the thread for each scarf to make a different design. He and his wife live in Bruges for five months selling their scarves the go home to Latvia during the winter and make more to sell. They are quite the craftspeople.

This kept me warm as we headed down the main street back to our neighborhood and to this restaurant just behind our hotel.

I had penne pasta with a pesto sun-dried tomato sauce with prosciutto. Mike had a yummy beef stew. And frites. With Mayo. (I think he’s hooked.)

The food was good and the atmosphere fun and friendly. A little neighborhood restaurant not really catering to just the tourists.

Back to the hotel to pack up. We have an early train to Brussels where we grab our train to Cologne, Germany.

Day 3, Part Two

Our train to Bruges connected through Antwerp. The station there had trains on four levels and the station was beautiful.

We grabbed a yummy sandwich to split (the last healthy food choice of the day) and hopped on the next train headed to Bruges. The countryside was beautiful but we’d both hit a jetlaggy wall and had a hard time staying awake to enjoy it.

We arrived in Bruges and taxied to our hotel, Hotel Boteniek.

The above is the last photo of the day for me taken around 9:45pm local. This place is so incredibly beautiful and photogenic. We were snapping shots all day long.

Before we went camera crazy we checked into our room and took a needed hour long nap.

The room has tall ceilings and a slightly worn feeling but the bed it big and comfy and the window set above a quiet little off the beat and path lane lets in a nice breeze.

Awake and in need of coffee and chocolate (when in Belgium…) we began the hunt. The first little chocolate shop we hit had some lovely treats. Sometimes I forget that I don’t like marzipan. My first little chocolate was a piece of marzipan coated with chocolate. It was…ok.

Chocolate shops all over the place in Bruges

After our little piece of chocolate we just happened to run into a waffle place we’d read about.

They had coffee and so I had a cup and a plain waffle.

Plain waffle. Mike’s in the background has dark chocolate drizzled on it.

The waffle coffee combo was cathartic. And just 4 euro!

We began our stroll to The Markt, the sort of main square in Bruges.

Centerpiece of The Markt, the bell tower

If you’ve seen the movie “In Bruges” this it the tower that one of the assassins fall from. Oh…spoiler alert…

Despite the touristy Burger King everything is just gloriously medieval in this square.

We were stunned by the beauty and detail all around us. Perhaps it was just waffle afterglow but I think this city is just stunning.

We began to roam aimlessly using the big spires of various churches to pull us from one part of town the the next.

Old hospital in the foreground. two churches in the background.

From around 6pm to 8:30pm this is what we did. Stroll around with our jaw dropping every corner we turned and snapping pictures to share with you.

We decided we’d like to go back to The Markt since the light was getting really nice for pictures…more pictures.

Notice in the image above the two green carts. one on either side of the model tower. They sell Frites. Someone, I can’t remember now if it was Mike or me but one of us suggested we have Frites for dinner. (Exaggerated stage whisper: it was me.)

I couldn’t decide which picture of these to use so I included them all. Vote for your favorite now.

Yes, that is a big dollop of Mayo on top. Not as gross as it sounds. (Rob Rough probably threw up a little just looking at these photos. He haaaaates Mayo.)

Frites fried once at a low temp (left fryer) then rested on top until ordered. Once you order them the get tossed into the second fryer (on the right) and then tossed in salt in the metal bowl in between.

They were tasty. Perhaps the best fries I’ve ever had. The Mayo was interesting. I ordered a “small” and finished maybe 1/2 with most of the Mayo scraped to the side.

Model of the bell tower and the bell tower

We decided it was time to head back to the hotel so we strolled in that direction snapping a few more pictures along the way.

Found this guy on our walk back the the room

We saw a little green area beyond the street where our hotel is and decided to explore. It was a beautiful park called Koningin Astridpark. We decided to stroll through since us was just so lovely.

Plus we’d eaten a lot of crap so we could probably use the extra steps.

Now we are back in the room and writing our blogs. It’s not a competition but I really hope Darryl likes mine best…

I leave you with a cool bench, a provocative fountain and loaves of marzipan that looks like deli meat.

Day 3, Part 1, Amsterdam

One hell of a thunderstorm came ripping through Amsterdam last night. Non-stop lightning, hail and wind gusts up to 50-75kmph. (I’ll post a video of the lightning on Facebook.) The storm at least made the jet laggy night’s sleep entertaining. We both woke up around 10:45 local time thinking we’d slept for 4-5 hours when in reality it had been around 2 hours. Still we managed to sleep on and off until around 5am local. And by that time the storm had passed, leaving a bit of damage behind.

We decided to grab an early bite at the hotel. Decent buffet. Breads, eggs, sausages, etc and an espresso machine. With our train leaving for Bruges at 12:15pm so we had a few hours left in Amsterdam. We decided to take a canal tour on a long canal boat.

Our tour company. I didn’t make the edit on the sign. Someone beat me to it.

What a wonderful way to see part of the city center in an hour.

Houseboats were all over the canals. Some of them were really neat looking.

Below are the Dancing Ladies. These are leaning buildings that look as if they are dancing. Zoom in to see how crooked they are. The likings they are built on are rotting and that’s why the lean.

In the distance you can see 7 bridges. Capt. Louie was excited about this. Notice the green radio thingys. Plug headphones into these and you could hear the recorded commentary in the language of your choice.

Twin houses known as “The Brothers” since twin houses called “The Sisters” are across the canal.

The canal cruise was great. Hitting it early enough to where there were only around 16-18 people aboard (we’ve been seeing the canal boats leave packed from the dock the day before with 50-60 people) was good timing. With only a couple of hours before our train we went hunting for Stroopwafels, a wafer like cookie and an Amsterdam specialty. We found some in a cheese shop where we sampled (And purchased) some yummy cheeses.

We headed to the room for a quick nap before heading off to the train station.

Day 2, Amsterdam and Van Gogh

Day two is really the continuation of day one since we left California on 6/4 and got to Amsterdam on June 5th. We made it through customs and jumped a train to Amsterdam Centraal train station. A lovely station.

Since we are here less than 24 hours we figured a place close to the station would work best. Mike and I decided if we were to stay a few days here we’d find a place away from the hustle of this place but it works fine for us. Typical small European hotel room. Functional. Not a bad view!

My ATM Card wasn’t working so after a call to my bank and a quick shower at the hotel we headed out to hunt for an ATM and a cafe so I could get an espresso. We found a cafe one along this alleyway that was full of head shops.

I had a yummy little walnut tart and a macchiato.

We had tickets for the Van Gogh Museum at 4pm so we decided to catch the tram over a bit early and wonder around. There’s a beautiful park behind the museum that we walked around.

The Van Gogh Museum is in the distance.

We stumbled upon the United States Embassy.

Quite a bit of security compared to the other embassies on the block.

The Rijksmuseum was close by. I’m not a big fan of Rembrandt and our time is limited and did I mention we’ve only had 2 or so hours of sleep…? See how tired we are?

So we got into the Van Gogh museum a bit earlier than or reserved time and really enjoyed it.

Mike loves the Sunflower painting (it was powerful.)I really liked The Potato Eaters. And The Cottage (aka The Nest.)

Both are earlier Van Gogh’s before he got all Starry Night. (Which I love.) There were far fewer paintings in his final style than I thought there would be but plenty to satisfy.

Jet leg was beginning to catch up so we took the tram back to our hotel and look for a place to grab a quick bite. We decided to head toward a pretty church and look around there. I couldn’t resist going inside St. Nickolaas.

We found a little Indonesian place for a quick dinner. They had me at shadow puppets. A yummy chicken with peanut sauce later and we are back in the room trying to stay awake a couple of more hours to help with the jet lag.

By the way, Amsterdam is really cute and though we thought it might rain all day long we had no rain except for when we walked from the train station to the hotel.

Mike is asleep at 7:30pm. Not bad. I’m going to try and stay up for a bit longer…maybe.

Day one, Travel Day

We started by finishing our prepping of the House for our friend Rachel who is staying with our dog while we’re away. The dog, Lainey, seemed to know we were heading out and threw a fit as we were loading the suitcases in the car. Lots of whining and scratching at the door, which is unusual for her! She calmed down a bit when we finally left though the nanny cam showed her laying by the front door. 😦

She sure has been cuddly the last several days. I’m really going to miss her.

We made to SFO (SAN Francisco Airport), breezed through security (thank you TSA Pre!) and hightailed it to the new Polaris Lounge.

Free restaurant with some yummy food in addition to the buffet. We both opted for the burger.

Not bad! And the price is right…

Our flight begins to board in an hour and 1/2. In the mean time we chill in the lounge.

Our flight was pretty smooth after an hour delay at the gate waiting for maintenance to fix a toilet. I managed to fall asleep a couple of times, once so deep I didn’t wake up when mike was poking me to see if I wanted the breakfast they served.

We arrived in Amsterdam at 11am.

All and all a good travel day!

Europe 2019 30 days out

We’re 30 days out from our trip to Europe. Mikey added a widget to my phone that’s in countdown mode. This trip is a treat for my 50th birthday. Fifty. How did that happen? Well, I can’t think of a better way to start my 50’s than a adventurous trip to Europe.

Mike and I tend to take two types of vacations; relaxing, lay on the beach and recharge our batteries trips and go to a country where we don’t know the language and navigate a journey through unfamiliar territory. This is the second. Here’s a map of our journey.

We fly from San Francisco to Amsterdam direct on a 787-900. We used miles to upgrade to Polaris Business Class which has amazing seats that convert to beds. Anyone who knows me likely knows I experience flight anxiety. If I’m going to be anxious I might as well be comfortable.

Amsterdam wasn’t part of the original trip but I’d read in a travel blog that United was opening up a new direct route I thought we might be able to get immediate upgrades instead of being put on a waiting list. I was right. I think this might be he first time I’ve gone to Europe without flying into London.

Mike didn’t have a list of places he wanted to visit but he did say he wanted to experience Fairy Tale Europe as apposed to historical ww1 or ww2 sites or modern Europe. That was a good enough to help me plan our trip.

Here’s our itinerary:

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Brugge, Belgium

Cologne, Germany

Gimmelwald, Switzerland (a small village in the Swiss Alps)

Salzburg, Austria

Venice, Italy

Paris, France

I was reading in my UK Cathedrals blog that I learned my lesson about staying in a town for just one night. It’s too much of a hassle. So we are staying 2 to 3 nights at each location with the exception of Amsterdam (we are there just long enough to visit the Van Gogh museum) and Cologne (there as a stopover to see the UNESCO World heritage Cathedral).

Mikey and I are big believers in traveling light. We each will have a carry-on suitcase and a small backpack. That’s it. No checking bags. It’s great to walk off the plane and head directly to customs without waiting for luggage. To accomplish this we will do laundry in Salzburg. (We haven’t decided if we’ll do fluff and fold or if we’ll actually go to the laundry mat and wash out clothes.) last time we did laundry in Florence and it was kind of a neat experience.

Here’s the top ten things I’m looking forward to:

1. Chocolate in Brugge.

2. Being with Mike in the Swiss Alps. (Ever since I got a look at the Alps when I was in Germany doing a show I’ve wanted to visit there with Mikey.)

3. Early mornings and late evenings in Venice. (One of my favorite memories from our last visit to Venice was walking around St. Marks Square early in the morning and having the place to myself.)

4. GROM gelato.

5. The Sound of Music bike tour in Salzburg.

6. A canal tour of Brugge

7. The scenic train trip from Cologne to Interlakken that goes along the Rhine.

8. The scenic train trip from Salzburg to Venice that goes through a beautiful pass in the Alps.

9. The new Rattatoui Ride at Disneyland Paris.

10. Experiencing the new Polaris Class seats on the flight home from Paris.