Category: Europe, 2019

We started the day off with chocolate croissants and espresso from Marks and Spencer’s (a little grocery store connected to the airport right next to our hotel). The croissants were still warm…Paris!!

We splurged on the TGV train to Disneyland. It took 9 minutes vs. the 60-90 minutes the RER would take. Worth it! It had us at the park by 10:15am despite a slower morning start.

Just like in Anaheim, Paris Disney has two theme parks, Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. Today we started at Studios. The parks here offer an unlimited fast pass (for a few) to skip bigger lines for several of the rides. Since we thought today would be the only day we’d be in the parks we got the unlimited FP.

Our first destination was Ratatouille.

We’ve been excited about this ride because it a trackless attraction like some of our favorites from the Asia Disney parks. (Mike just calls them Disney Parks.)

Basically, you are a rat and you go through the restaurant from the movie trying to avoid bad things. In 3D. We were underwhelmed. It seemed like the cars just parked you in front of a few movie screens and you’d watch an animation until you’d be moved to another screen. A real underuse of the trackless system, which for other rides adds variety and seeming random experiences to each time you go on the ride.

Classic Tower of Terror was next. Great ride as always.

We grabbed a crepe and saw the show Mickey and the Magician. It was cheesy fun. I might have teared up at the end. We then finally found Rockin’ Rollercoaster. It was changed a bit. It used to be that the ride vehicles represented a limo that you are hopping in to get to an Aerosmith concert. Now it’s just a vague experience of being on stage (perhaps?) with the ride of performing a concert…? Who knows. It hurt a bit, but still kind of fun.

We really enjoyed Crushes’ Coaster.

You hop in these turtle vehicles and ride the EAC. The shells turn at times and it’s a fun and excited ride, not to be missed.

It was 3pm and we’d done everything we’d wanted to at Studios. Time to head back to Disneyland.

It was really warm in the sun. And it was hard to find much shade. I was getting roasted and tapped out by the heat. Wanting to get the most out of our fast passes we headed to Peter Pan, which was closed briefly for repairs. As was Thunder Mountain. We did finally go see Mickey’s Philharmonic which lacked the clever proscenium expansion and the Donald Duck butt in the back of the theater at the end. No Goofy walking through, either.

The rest of our evening was Star Tours, Hyberspace Mountain, Thunder Mountain a couple of times and finally Peter Pan.

I was tapped out. We decided again to take the TGV back to our hotel so after a a gelato in Disney village we trained back to the hotel and had dinner there.

At the hotel we showered off our Disney funk, packed our bags and crashed for the night. Coming home tomorrow!!

Breakfast at the hotel this morning before packing up and heading out to catch our taxi. We debated public transportation to the airport vs. two taxi options, one by land one by sea. We opted for the water taxi.

It was the right choice. Our driver (captain?) came right to San Barnabas Square and picked us up then motored us right to the hotel. Departing Venice on the water was a great way to say goodbye to this city.

The ride took about 30 minutes, half of it through the city and the other half through a neat freeway system through the lagoon to the airport. We got dropped off at a taxi stand which consisted of water taxis jockeying for one of the few passenger piers.

Our hotel said it would be a 10 minute walk to the hotel from the drop off point and so did many signs. It really took around 5 minutes so now we are calling anything that takes less time than expected a Marco Polo 10 minutes (Marco Polo is the name of the airport). We are also calling anything that takes longer than expected a Salzburg 10 minutes due to the long waits for Uber’s.

The flight took us over the beautiful Alps.

We made it safely to CDG Paris and to the CDGVAL train to terminal three where our little IBIS hotel is located. We chose this hotel since we have an early flight back home and since we won’t be spending time anywhere else (this trip) other than Paris Disneyland.

We threw our bags in the room after debating whether we wanted to go to the park and spend the money for 5-6 hours of park time. This was a good choice although it was a bit surreal cruising the canals of Venice in the morning then cruising the canals of its a small world in the evening. We were both sight-seed our though and mentioned as we entered the park that Disneyland would be the only place that could wow us at this stage in the game would be a Disney park.

A whirlwind of rides (Thunder Mountain 3x, Phantom Manor, HyperSpace Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Small World, Snow White, Pinocchio and a great deal of walking around and enjoying the spacious park took us to around 10:30pm where we decided to call it a night. Pretty good since we started the day in Venice.

Full day.

At this point we are both sort of done with sight seeing. Today was just about taking a few strolls and sitting at little cafes in our little neighborhood.

I went to my little cafe I visited yesterday for my 1 euro espresso while Mike scheduled a haircut.

Mike got an appointment for noon so we headed out to try and reach the lagoon on the opposite side of the grand canal. This took us to a little locals neighborhood where we came across a couple of little churches with some interesting art. Outside of one two older Italian men were arguing and clearly solving the problems of the world.

We ended up at a dead end. Mike looked at google maps and saw the reason was we were on the other side of the Cruise terminal so we wouldn’t really be able to get to the water from where we were. Still it was a pretty walk.

We walked back and sat at Caffe Del Doge and people watched while listening to crappy radio music floating out of the cafe. After a bit Mikey was off to get his haircut and I went to find the little shop we walked my yesterday to maybe buy a little bracelet that caught my eye. I’m not a big jewelry guy but I like this.

I meandered back to San Barnabas Square and had another coffee as I waited for Mike‘s hair to be done.

Haircut, check. Espresso, check check. Time for a slice and a nap. When we woke up we decided it was time for gelato (It’s always time for gelato…) so we grabbed a piccolo scope on a cone and enjoyed it in San Barnabas Square. I’d found an English speaking AA meeting in the online schedule before we left the US and it was just a 3 minute walk from where we were. I headed out and got there a bit early so I sat on the canal for a few minutes and these guys came by.

The meeting was in a little convent and a sweet little Italian nun buzzed me in and showed me where the meeting was held. The outdoor meeting was in the courtyard of the convent. I expected mostly tourists but I and a gentleman from New York were the only out of towners. Everyone else were expats. Not a bad sized meeting at 8 people.

Time to meet Mike for dinner. We went back to Pasta and Sugo, a little cheap street eats place. I had a yummy pasta with pesto and Mikey had mushroom stuffed ravioli. (Gross.)

Mike and I both wanted to rinse off and cool off. Mike has gone on a trek to the Rialto Bridge while I was at my meeting. We went back to the hotel and showered off and then headed out to San Marcos Square where we strolled up to see the Bridge of Sighs and St. Mark’s Cathedral.

A crowded vaperetto back to our neighborhood and our last gelato of Italy then off to bed. Bravo Venice. Bravo.

We started with breakfast at the hotel after a solid night’s sleep. Our big plan today was to visit this church.

We stared at the church from across the lagoon many times on our last trip to Venice and said, “what’s that place? We should go there.”

We never did until today. Beautiful on the outside stark in the inside. I’m glad we visited.

We walked to this place rather that using the Vaporetto since we are on the same side of the Grand Canal as the church. The side we’re on ends in a point.

We knew if we kept walking toward the point we’d get there or end up swimming. As we weaved in and out of little back alleys of Venice we came across this church.

I have no idea how many times we stopped to take a picture of one of the little side canals. There’s something so beautiful about these.

We finished with the church and decided to head across the Grand Canal to St. Mark’s Square.

This is probably the most popular spot in Venice. We spent plenty of time here last time so after a quick trip to the WC…

…we decided to see if we could find the square where stayed last time to get away from the crush of the tour groups.

After leading Mike down a few dead ends we found it.

It was neat to see it again but I really like the location of our hotel this time. Not only because they shot part of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade there (although my inner geek flips out over this) but mostly because it feels like a Real neighborhood.

We made our way back to the hotel for a nap. Two hours later (gooooood nap) I decided I’d like a coffee so I went out to find a little cafe to sit and enjoy an espresso. I ended up here.

Mostly Venice is pretty pricey. Here I got an espresso for 1 euro. And it was good. This cafe is on a little corner where a mix of tourists and locals passed by. Italian women would greet each other and gossip and children would run around with a soccer ball. I ended up staying here for over two hours watching the Venetian world go by. It was glorious.

I had two ciccette (Italy’s version of tapas), one with salami and artichoke heart, the other with ham and some sort of cheese, each on a little slice of bread. Delicious!

This little dog named Duro would come out of a little dress shop his owner works at nearly every time another dog would come by to check the dog out and sniff it’s butt. He’d give a little bark from the interior of the shop if he heard another dog bark.

And there were sooo many dogs! Many off leash just following there owners around. Made me miss Lainey something awful.

Mike joined me and we watch the world (and some very handsome men) walk by. We’d seen a little cheap pasta place close to our hotel and decided to give it a shot. It was probably the cheapest meal we’ve had on this trip and it was pretty darn tasty! Mike had stuffed pasta with pesto and I had handmade spaghetti with a red meat sauce. Filling and yummy.

We went for a stroll beyond where my little cafe was and ended up in a very fun little neighborhood.

We made our way back to the room to freshen up before our gondola ride. We’d skipped this cliche of an experience last time and regretted it.

We left around 9pm for our 35 minute ride. The ride took us past our hotel and through a quiet non touristy neighborhood first.

As you can see it was still very light outside at 9pm. The light kept changing and at one point the street lights came on.

After cruising the quiet canals we went out into the Grand Canal. Since it was evening the traffic of the day was gone and we had it tour ourselves, with the exception of a couple of water taxis and Vaporetti.

I know. Lots of pictures. But it was just so amazing to be sitting in a gondola in the middle of the Grand Canal in Venice!

Cliche or not I’m so glad we did this. Leaving at 9pm and having the light change so dramatically was just magical.

Earlier in the day we’d visited GROM and enjoyed a nice gelato. The kid working behind the counter was in training on his third day in the job. We chatted for a bit with him and wished him well in the job. GROM has the best gelato I’ve ever had in my entire life.

Now we’re back at the hotel and Mikey is asleep while I finish up my blog. Such a relaxing day. Bravo Venice!

Mike and I were talking about the order of the trip this morning and saying how glad we were that we’d already been to the next couple of destinations. We have seen so much beauty we’ve become a bit jaded. We were joking on our beautiful walk back from our Sound of Music that Salzburg was lovely but, meh, who cares. We didn’t really feel that way but Bruges and the Alps were both so stunningly picturesque Salzburg’s beauty is nice but unequal to what we’ve seen so far. Since we’ve been to Venice and Paris we now what to expect and have already been wowed by these cities. It’d be a shame to have our first experience of Venice and Paris after Bruges and the Alps.

So, we had breakfast at the hotel and it was yummy. Good cheeses, meats, amazing bacon and eggs. Mike had the traditional Salzburg wet eggs. (Actually he tried squirting a little ketchup on his eggs and just got a squirt of liquid.) No croissants but yummy pretzel bread.

A quick taxi to the train station got us there in plenty of time to have our tickets printed and spend 20 minutes in the first class lounge.

Up to the track and away we go to Venice via Innsbruck.

We’d come through Innsbruck on the way to Salzburg. Now we leave Innsbruck and head over the Brenner Pass into Italy. The pass was lovely.

I got a little cramped in my seat so I headed up to the dinning car and grabbed an espresso so I could be in a less crowded space.

There was a little old German lady in the dining car with her husband and every time we’d come across a lovely valley or Mountain View she would exclaim in delight. It was very sweet.

Our train pulled into Venice and we grabbed a couple of 72 hour Vaporetto passes (water bus, the primary public transportation in Venice) and rode the bus boat for 20 minutes or so to our stop. A quick walk down through St. Barnabas Square and ww were at our hotel.

Dinner in San Barnaba Square and then GROM!

We were both pretty done from the long travel day so we took a quick walk to the grand canal and snapped a few dusk photos.

Back to the hotel to rinse off and head to bed. I’m looking forward to a few days here. I love this place.

Woke up at 6am and decided to go hunting for a coffee and bite of breakfast while Mike hung out in the room. Sat and had a really gross pastry here.

Since we were traveling light it was time to do laundry. We Ubered to a a little laundromat on the other side of the river and spent an hour or so doing the wash and playing Hive.

We checked in on the idea of whether or not it was worth it to spend a couple of hours doing laundry in the middle of our trip. Traveling light has become a bit dogmatic for me so it seemed like a good time to question the belief. Mike reminded me of all of the quick train transfers we had the previous day and what a pain it would have been to try to do that with heavy or more luggage than we currently had. He was right. Packing light and doing laundry in the middle of a two week vacation, totally worth it.

Plus putting our luggage in the overhead area on the trains would be impossible with bigger bags!

Laundry done, check. We headed back to the room to drop off the clothes and strike out to see a few sights.

Mike was getting hungry so we grabbed a bite here.

A ham and cheese sandwich, a shot of espresso and a Mozartkugel later and we were ready for a nap. I wanted to see a few more sights but Mike thought we’d see plenty on our Sound of Music tour. He was so right!

That’s right, The Sound of Music tour. There are dozens of SOM bus tours in town but we decided to do Fraulein Maria’s bike tour.

I rode Rolf while mike rose Sister Marietta.

The 3 1/2 hour bike tour took us all over Salzburg to see filming site from the film. The Bikes has laminated flip cards with screen shots from the movie to compare to the actual sites. For example:

And…

Our guide Hemma was wonderful and really loved her city. Did I mention it was a 3 1/2 hour tour? With the exception of one uphill slog to reach the Abbey it was a smooth ride and a great way to see Salzburg.

Wait, you say. This church wasn’t in Sound of Music! Correct. But the church was in the graveyard that inspired the graveyard from Sound of Music where the family hid from the Nazis.

See the little tiny yellow house on the hill in the picture above? Here, I’ll circle it for you.

That’s where we are biking to!

Seeing the various film sights was fun but riding through the city center and across the countryside was a joy. The weather was just perfect for the ride, too.

The front of the house and the back of the house are two different houses in different locations. Hollywood magic. The image above is where Maria first enters the house.

Can I just say how much fun it was to watch my husband let himself geek out on this tour? Everyone else was so afraid to sing and good off in movie poses. Not Mike. He reveled in it. I just love him. ❤️

What a great tour! I’m so glad we did this. And we got stickers, so, win-win.

We strolled back across the river via the foot bridge that we’d crossed twice on bikes.

We walked through Old Salzburg and ended up at a little restaurant right by our hotel.

We had a great dinner. Yummy pizza and a big salad with huge shrimp. The cute waiter turned out to be the owner. He and his family own three of the restaurants in Salzburg and this one is his baby.

Exhausted from the day and bellies full it took no time to fall asleep. “So long, fair well, auf wiedersehen, good bye, the sun has gone to bed and so must I. Good night.”

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

For dessert, some Swiss chocolate.