Uncategorized – Page 7 – Art’s Travel Adventures

Europe, 2022, travel day one, quick visit to Vancouver, BC

I’m very excited. I’m sitting in the dinky little lounge at the Sacramento Airport as I write this.

I’ve been planning this trip since February and I can’t believe I’m finally sitting at the airport waiting for the first part of my journey to begin. Several years ago I decided I’d like to get to Europe every other year if possible. I’ve pretty much been meeting that goal. And sometimes exceeding it.

Itinerary

Technically it’s 3 countries in 9 days. Really it’s 2 full travel days, an overnight in Canada, and transit through France.

I start by flying to Vancouver. I’ll spend the afternoon and evening there. The next morning I’ll fly direct to Paris arriving around 8am local time. I’ll hop a train at the airport that takes me to one of my favorite spots on the planet, Gimmelwald, Switzerland. That will be my jumping off point to explore the Lauterbrunnen Valley and,perhaps, beyond…

Backstory

You may be thinking, “Wait! Weren’t you just in the Swiss Alps last September?” Why, yes, yes I was. I was also there in 2019 with Mike. Again, one of my favorite places on the planet.

You run into a weird crowd in Gimmelwald…

I subscribe to a email newsletter that sends out notifications when there is a good deal on business class seats for international flights. Back in February a deal came up for Air France, direct to Paris for around $1300 for a lie-flat business class seat which is basically a bed on a plane. Round trip. Considering an economy seat runs around $1000 round trip from the west coast, this was an amazing deal. Plus, I love flying in comfort. (Full disclosure, the actual price was a bit more when all was said and done, but still a remarkable deal.)

A question I get regularly: Is Mike going with you? Well, I suggested to Mike we get these tickets for late May and go to Europe together but we were both a bit concerned about the war in Ukraine so we opted to go to NYC for our May trip. I, however, grabbed a ticket for myself hoping Ukraine would be contained or resolved by September.

I would rather travel with my husband, but I don’t mind traveling by myself. I start to get homesick pretty quickly though, missing Mike and Lainey, thus a week or so trip usually is enough.

Steve and Ash (pictured above) did a lot while they were in Interlaken and it really inspired me to explore more of the Valley I’ll be staying in. There is so much to explore that I haven’t seen yet. I plan on doing a lot.

After a very busy summer I am ready for a nice recharge. And after flying with 5 bags and sooo much equipment to Puppet Festivals in Seattle and Iowa, I am thrilled to be traveling with just a backpack and small carry-on suitcase.

I love the challenge of traveling without checking bags. My friend Matt turned me on to it. Advantages:

No waiting for checked luggage at the airport. (Saves 20-40 minutes.)
No chance of lost luggage.
Forces me to pack light. In Europe being able to quickly and easily maneuver through streets and train stations is a must.

Despite the Self imposed “no checked bags” policy I did manage to pack a bunch including:

Clothing and toiletries for 8 days
My DJI Mini 2 Drone
Insta 360 camera and DJI Pocket 2 camera
Tripod
Hiking poles
iPad, iPhone, AirPods
A book (New Pair of Glasses, Chuck C.)
Warm jacket, hoodie and umbrella
Water bottle
Bose noise canceling headphones. (Takes up some space but really eases travel fatigue, especially on longer flights.)
Gifts for Tobias and his family (the very kind owner of Esther’s Guesthouse in Gimmelwald.) I’m bringing them lovely espresso cups thrown by Sacramento pottery artist Lindsay Dillon, 2 Folkmanis puppets for the kids and two CD’s, The Toy Box by Francie Dillon and Puppet Art’s Storytime CD.
Flip flops with arch support for the guest house. (No shoes allowed in the house. These flip flops are amazing!)
A day pack for hiking. (Folds up to a little 6” by 8” packet. First time using it.)

The plane was delayed by an hour. No biggie since I have no connections today.

For any of my plane nerd friends, I’m on an Air Canada Bombardier CRJ-900. Air Canada still requires everyone wear masks on board. I like this policy as the woman a row over just coughed and hacked into her mask.

Smaller plane so I have a seat all to myself.

After a safe, smooth flight I quickly zipped through customs and caught the shuttle to the airport.

Huge carving in the Airport. Looks like a donut. (Foreshadowing.)

I did a quick meditation to recharge my batteries in the hotel room before heading out to Granville Island. The taxi driver gave me a guided tour of the city as we drove the 7.7km. He immigrated from Pakistan 14 years ago and became a citizen 11 years ago. He loves Canada and loves Vancouver. We talked nonstop for 25 minutes and it was great.

Granville Island reminded me a bit of Pike’s Market in Seattle. It’s got a touristy vibe. Lots of little shops and a nice market to walk around and grab a bite. I grabbed a rather disappointing Lobster Roll.

It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. The lobster was a little over cooked. It was…food.

On my way to the lobster roll place I passed by a long line of people waiting for something. It turned out to be a donut shop. What kind of idiots stand in line for a donut?

After the lobster roll I walked by the line again. There was no line at the lobster place. There was a long line here. I hopped in line.

The line was 30-40 people deep. I asked the guy in front of me what was so special about these donuts. He had no idea. It was his first time, too. His wife had him standing in line to get donuts for her. We started chatting about business and mentoring so the time in line flew by.

The donut was as good as the conversation. Light, not too sweet. Worth the wait.

I took the Aquabus across the water to Yaletown.

The boat driver directed me up the street to the train station. I wanted to take the subway back to the hotel. A couple of blocks up the street I started doubting the directions so I pulled out my little touristy map and started to check. A moment later I hear a woman’s say, “Are you lost?” She said she recognized the list look and kindly pointed me in the right direction. What a sweet lady. I’ve met some really nice people today.

The hotel was a quick 10 minute walk. When I made it to my room the lack of sleep I’ve had last night or two suddenly caught up with me. Nice timing.

As I’ve been typing this I’ve been watching planes land with a spectacular sunset background.

Nice start to the trip.

Thanks for reading.

Great Plains Puppet Train, final day and traveling home.

A decent nights sleep and a good breakfast made for a great start to the day. After repacking last night all I had to do was drive to the theater and pick up my puppet cases. I got this done and headed over to The Owl Glass Puppet Center to hang out with the festival goers and staff for a final chance to connect.

It was lovely to get some extended time with Pam, the artistic director of the festival. She made such great performance choices. This was a truly international puppet festival with some very high caliber performances. And a nice variety of styles, too.

The final performance of the festival was by a Bulgarian puppet troupe. They performed “Spas, the Tiger Cub.”

The Show was well rehearsed, clever and well directed. They didn’t lean too heavily on their use of balloon animals as puppets though they did capitalize on it. I was wondering if it was going to be too gimmicky. It was not. The same tale could have been told with regular puppets but they enhanced it with the clever use of balloons. They were very much physical comedians (Bill Irwin type clowns) but let the puppets have the primary focus most of the time. It was a really neat to see them give the puppets away to the audience at the end of the performance. Again, very clever.

It was also the first time they’ve ever performed outside of Bulgaria so that made it incredibly special. The audience was very impressed and showed their support in a way I think the performers could feel.

I took off right after the performance so I could have plenty of time to drop off the rental and make it to my flight on time. There was no need to rush as my flight is delayed so I am currently lounging on the outdoor “Porch” in the Airport. A nice place to peel off my mask and relax for a bit.

Real time update: Weather around Chicago has forced United to cancel my flight. The helpful United Agents got me on standby for a 5:24pm flight to Chicago. That gives me ample time to make my 8:50pm flight home. Fingers crossed.

Got on the flight to Chicago and made it in plenty of time. My bags did not come with me. They stayed in Iowa.

I’m glad to have United deliver those heavy cases to the house…

The flight from Chicago to Sacramento was uneventful. The greeting from my dog when I walked in the door a little after midnight was the best.

Concert Trip, May, 2022, Day 3

I knew this was gonna be a long day. Today I was attending the Cruel World Music Festival in Pasadena, CA. This is a two day event (same bands both days so you only had to go one day to see it all.) Sunday was my day fortunately, since Saturday the temps were in the mid 90’s. Sunday we lucked out with mid 80’s temps. 80’s being the appropriate temperature for a bunch of bands that were famous in the 1980’s.

I went to see Missing Persons, Violent Femmes, Bauhaus, and The Psychedelic Furs. I saw all of these along with Black Marble, English Beat (which were brilliant!), The Damned, Blaqk Audio, and Morrisey.

If none of these bands ring a bell for you, you may want to stop reading now…or maybe check out a few of the videos and see if you recognize the music?

The biggest surprise for me was English Beat. They only played 4 songs but I got completely overwhelmed by the music, their talent and the energy of the crowd when they played Tenderness.

I’m on a Facebook group for the Cruel World Music Festival for several weeks and it’s been full of thousands of people around my age deciding what goth outfit to wear, or what band t-shirt from the 80’s they were going to wear and whether or not to wear sensible shoes of Doc’s. It’s been a really fun way to anticipate the concert with 1000’s of other like musically-minded people.

Missing Persons was terrific. I managed to wiggle my way to the front of the stage to see them. The bass player is the bass player from The Knack (My Sharona.) They rocked it!

Most of the bands I came to see, with a few exceptions, had 2 or 3 songs that I knew and loved. They were the sound track of my jr. high and high school experience.

I was chatting with a couple of women and I ask one, “what’s that fenced off area over there?” She said, “ I don’t know, I’ll go ask.” She did and found out that it was the Clubhouse section (I was VIP which is one step below Clubhouse) and then she said the guard would let us in if we wanted. So I headed into the Clubhouse section right to the front of the stage and enjoyed a great show by the Violent Femmes.

Bonus points to you if you noticed in the video or picture above that the drummer is playing a Webber BBQ as part of his kit. Brilliant.

I had tickets for the Violent Femmes show several months ago in Sacramento but gave them away since my sister and my mom took me to see the Eagles on the same night VF were playing. Worth giving up the tickets because seeing the Eagles with my mom was the best experience ever.

I was glowing from finally getting to see the Femmes AND I was in the Clubhouse section in the very front of the stage. I wanted to run over and see Devo on the main stage but The Psychedelic Furs we’re playing in 1/2 an hour and I had a front row spot! I decided to stay put.

And I’m so glad I did.

They sounded great.

The t-shirt line was crazy long all day long. There was finally a bit of a shorter line after the Furs played so I grabbed a couple of shirts, one Bauhaus and one Cruel World Festival shirt.

Everyone raved online about Bauhaus’s performance. While they did give a powerful show I still really only know one of there songs. It was well done!

This was on regular rotation at the new wave clubs back when I was in High School. It was neat to get to experience it live.

Morrisey came on at 9:50pm and I reluctantly stayed to watch a few songs. I am a huge Smiths fan but never really enjoyed his solo works. And his politics are…questionable… Still he was in fine voice and quite a showman. I departed after a couple of songs. From his Saturday setlist he didn’t play any songs from the Smiths until 10-12 songs in so I left after 2 songs. Unfortunately he played How Soon is Now when I made it to the parking lot! I got to hear some of it from there. Wish I’d stayed for one more song!

I am so grateful I got to experience some really stellar performances of bands I’ve never seen before. I’m also grateful for the kindness and friendliness of the people around me and online. We had a real sense of fellowship with the music being our common bond.

The flight home was uneventful and the dog went nuts when I walked in the door. She’s sitting crushed up against me as I write this. And all is right with the world.

Final day, Traveling Home and Final Thoughts, Switzerland 2021

I woke up at 6am and got to chat with Mikey before he went to bed. I was out the door and on the train to the airport by 7:30am.

I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to deal with COVID travel era details including transit forms for the UK (I’m flying through London) and negative COVID tests. I also was looking forward to checking out the SWISS Air Lounge.

Nice observation deck in the SWISS Lounge. Great place to take off my mask for a few minutes.

After walking to the train, walking around the airport to get a VAT refund and a little duty free shopping I worked up a bit of a sweat. I was pleased to see they had showers in the lounge and took a few minutes to wash up so I could feel a bit more refreshed during my long travel day. Maybe it’s silly but I love a good airport shower!

Had a hell of a time trying to get a picture of the plane

The first leg of three is Zurich to London Heathrow on a plane I’ve never been on before, an Airbus 330-300. It is a lovely plane and the business class seats are firm and comfortable.

The next flight is London to SFO on a United 787-900 Dreamliner. This is the same plane Mike and I took to Tokyo. Unfortunately it’s got the original lie flat seats that are fine but not as comfortable as the newer Polaris seats. I choose an isle (I prefer a window) so I wouldn’t have to climb over the passenger next to me when I had to pee. I rather have someone climbing over me.

The final leg is a Canadair CRJ-200 from SFO to Sacramento after a long layover in San Francisco.

This has been an amazing trip. This is the second time I’ve done a week long international trip. In the past I figured if I were traveling overseas I’d best stay for at least two weeks if I’m going to go through the all the effort of getting there. That’s fine when I’m traveling with Mikey but when I’m on my own a week is just fine since I quickly begin to miss Mikey and Lainey.

If I had my choice, Mikey would always be with me when I travel. (He is very easy to travel with.) But traveling solo makes for an interesting enough adventure and I love a good adventure and I love to travel internationally. My courage is stretched when getting out and about in a different country and I think that’s a good thing for me.

What would I do differently if I were to plan this trip again today?

I loved Bern! I didn’t need to stay any longer, 2 nights were plenty. I’d love to come back here again. And getting there from Zurich was so easy.

Gimmelwald and the Berner Oberland area has become one of my favorite places on the planet. I could easily see flying into Zurich and spending the whole week in Gimmelwald, exploring more of the valley and even going on another hike or two. I’ve barely scratched the surface of this gorgeous place. And I think I could easily get there after a flight into Zurich.

In case you’re wondering, I have three other favorite places on the planet, so far. Maui, Venice and my house. What are your favorites?

Lucerne was a pretty city and the lake and the sites seem almost designed to serve the tourists of the romantic era when people began to travel for pleasure. As I mentioned I had a difficult time mentally leaving the Alps for a big city. Still, glad I went and experienced it.

Zurich is a fine city to fly into, but other than another trip to the Freitag Flagship Store I don’t see any other reason to spend more time there.

The best experiences of the trip:

This delicious Swiss German meal was amazing and the views were killer.

Best Activity:

The Mountain View Hike. The Eiger, the Moch and the Junfrau…and Art

The hike was incredible and certainly a highlight of the trip for me. I’d like to do more. It was one of several times during the trip where I was so grounded in the moment and just flooded with gratitude. This is my life? Yes, yes it is.

Best Touristy Site:

More than an amazing sculpture carved into a cliff side, the entire grotto area was an nice retreat from the busy city.

Best chocolate:

With a nice malted milk taste combined with a yummy milk chocolate, this was my favorite, though I didn’t try very many varieties. I might be bringing some Swiss chocolate home, though…

Best human interaction:

Everyone at Esther’s Guest House, especially Johannes from Tennessee, via South Africa was a wealth of information and a fun person to chat with. He’s an older gentleman with three sons, all in their twenties. He represented the generosity and kindness of everyone I met while staying at Esther’s Guest House.

Best animal interaction:

Tie between the bird who joined me for breakfast in Lucerne and the cat that joined us for dinner at Pension Gimmelwald.

Best Blog Cross Pollination:

What a treat to spend some time with these two amazing men. And how fun to get to read Ash’s Facebook posts and Steve’s travel blog while traveling in the same area. I’ve added to my list of destinations to explore in Berner Oberland thanks to those two.

Best snacks:

I made the alp cheese and sausage breakfast most mornings so they’re not really snack foods but they had to be included somewhere in my favorites. The pretzels with pumpkin seeds were incredibly delicious and filling. The wild blueberries were yummy and fun to pick and eat.

The rest of this blog is all about the travel home. I try to enjoy my travel days as much as the trip itself. Thus the upgrades to more comfortable seats and lounge access. I can be an anxious flyer so, if I’m going to get a little nervous during turbulence I might as well be comfortable. Did I mention my seat on the a330-300 has a massage function…?

The plane from Zurich was delayed due to something like 30 passengers making errors with the COVID Tests and paperwork. The ground crew had to locate and remove those passengers’ checked luggage and help some others get the correct paperwork. All and all we were delayed by about an hour.

Every time I began to feel the edge of worry I would shift to imagining this day of travel rolling out perfectly, exactly as it should be, even if it’s not what I’d prefer. That was helpful.

The plane landed in London at 1:35pm and my flight to SFO finished boarding at 1:55pm.

Heathrow Airport is a beast. Fortunately, this fine gentleman was waiting at the arrival gate and escorted me and two other passengers through security and passport control at a light jog…

I was the last passenger to board after a 25 minute long speed walk/jog. I wonder if they have a shower on board…

And would you look at this!

Looks like I’ll only have to climb over myself to get to the restroom. And I get to look out the windows. TWO WINDOWS!

These windows don’t have shades. They have a dimmable function, which I think is just neat.

I slept for quite a while on the 11 hour flight. I also watched two concerts, Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots which was part of the inflight entertainment. Fun!

A nice landing finished off a very comfortable flight. I zipped through passport control (thank you Global Entry) and found out my checked back didn’t make the quick connection in London. It’s spending much more time there than I did! No worries. They’ll deliver it when it arrives.

I made an inquiry about an earlier flight since I was scheduled for a 10:30pm flight. they got me on a 7pm flight. I haven’t told Mikey. I’m going to surprise him by getting home early.❤️

Despite being exhausted because of the time change it has been a great travel day.

Thanks so much for joining me on this trip. I hope you enjoyed following along. I really enjoy writing about my travels. It makes me more attentive during the trip watching for things to share with you.

Until next time…

P.S. Here’s a great article on solo traveling overseas…CLICK HERE

Day 3, Gimmelwald, Switzerland, 2021

Like clock work I woke up at 1:30am after three good hours of sleep. The good news is I got a little nap in today! But I’m getting ahead of myself. The nap was just one of MANY enjoyable moments.

Alp cheese and sausage with an espresso was my breakfast. I’m going to miss that cheese!

The last time I was here I didn’t do the main tourist attraction, the Schilthorn! This mountain peak is something to be done in the morning since clouds tend to roll in later in the day. It couldn’t be more clear outside so I started the journey up the mountain.

The assent was terrifying and exhilarating. I’m not a huge fan of heights and couldn’t help think about the very thin and hopefully strong cables our heavy gondola was hanging from. The video above shows just the first leg of the assent. There was a equally steep and high assent after that one. The entire journey took me up one mile. Was it worth it?

Yes. Yes it was. For perspective, Lake Tahoe’s altitude is 1897 meters. Gimmelwald where I’m sleeping is at 1357 meters. Schilthorn is at 2970 m.

The views were spectacular.

You can see from the pictures with clouds that if it weren’t clear you just be in a fog bank seeing nothing. That was not the case here.

In addition to the views one of the draws of the Schilthorn is that it had been a filming location of a few James Bond movies. There’s a little museum about that. I skipped it. I was just here for the stunning views.

Not a stunning view…at least not for me. This is the door of the toilet stall, the entire restroom was James Bond themed.

I spent around 45 minutes or so enjoying the views and helping others take pictures with them in the views. It was just great.

I made the ear popping decent down to Mürren, a resort town just above Gimmelwald and grabbed a snack at the CO-OP.

I wanted to go for an easy hike so I decided to take the 35 minute walk down to Gimmelwald instead of riding the gondola. The following video shows clips from that beautiful walk, my time on Schilthorn, paragliders and a cow parade. Enjoy.

The video starts with a bird (a little larger than a blue jay) harvesting something off of the tree in front of my hotel. I watched him do this repeatedly this morning. The cow parade was really just some farmers moving their cows through the town to get to a different grazing pasture. Notice how that third heifer stops and gives me some serious side eye.

The walk down took around and hour or so since I took my time soaking in the views.

Back at Esther’s Guest House I sat on the porch and had some carrots and an ice cream cone for lunch. (The one cancels out the other. Look it up.)

I spent some time editing the pictures and video I’d taken and started to get sleepy so I headed up to take a nap. FYI, here’s what my room looks like.

I threw the skylight open and the fresh Alp air made the nap glorious.

I was up in time to head back to my perch on the porch and log into one of my favorite Zoom meetings (8:30am Pacific Time, Sunday morning). The meeting ended at 6:30pm local time and I had dinner reservations for three at 7pm.

For three you ask? (Go ahead. Ask. I’ll wait…)

Yes! For three!

I love this. Steve (who inspired me to start travel blogging) and his boyfriend Ash just happened to be in the same part of Europe at the same time as I was. We initially were just supposed to have lunch in Interlaken as I was leaving the area and they were arriving but a few crossed wires and changed plans later led to this gathering.

I see Steve all the time in Sacramento so it seems a little silly that I’ve been looking so forward to “running into them” here in Switzerland but the truth is I’ve been stupid excited about it for months. Also, I’ve gotten shoutouts in Steve’s blog from time to time (which I love…both the blog and the shoutouts) so it’s neat to actually include him in mine! (And, I assume, get a shoutout in his…?)

Yummy bean starter with edible alp flowers

It was a joy to eat with these guys and our friend Tracy made a hilarious (virtual) appearance via video speaker phone.

I showed Steve and Ash around Gimmelwald (the place is so small it took all of 15 minutes) and got them to take some alp cheese back to Interlaken with them. I walked them down to the gondola station to see them off. What a lovely way to end a lovely day.

The dessert at dinner was a little disappointing. Fortunately, I’d picked up a little something at the CO-OP.

A few squares of this delicious chocolate wrapped up another great day in Switzerland. Thanks for following along.

Maui, day 6, 2021

We slept in until 7am. I sat on the Lanai for a while listening to some meditation stuff and having coffee. We ate breakfast around 8am and then got ready to head out for Kihei. Every few years I have to go over to the south side of the island to remind myself how much I love the side we stay on. Don’t get me wrong. Kihei is still Maui but there’s just something about Kaanapali that feels more “vacationy” to me.

All of that said we had a lovely time hanging out on the beach in Kihei and playing in the water for several hours. The sand on this beach was extra fine and soft (except for the twig that stabbed Mike in the toe) and the waves were gentle.

When not in the water we parked it under our rented umbrella. This part of Maui is usually pretty windy but today it was mild.

After we’d had enough of the beach we checked Yelp for a good place for lunch. We ended up at Coconuts where I had a delicious Caesar salad with a huge piece of Ono (local fish) and Mike had coconut crusted shrimp and chips. Neither of us like dried coconut unless it’s deep fried and on a shrimp. These were yummy!

We made it back to the condo in time for a nap before I had to open up a zoom meeting. Then we decided we’d have fish again, this time in the form of fish tacos.

Once again, Maui Fish Co. nailed it. Two out of three ain’t to bad.

We headed down to the pool and played corn hole (Mike won), darts, (Mike won), and ping pong (I won but Mike may have let me win. Then again, no gimmes.)

We wrapped up the games just in time to catch the sunset. we thought it was going to be a lame one but it ended up subtle and pretty. Not like last night’s show off sunset.

The time-lapse is pretty neat this time. At around 21 seconds you can see a little old Hawaiian man in an outrigger making his way across the ocean.

I’m falling asleep as I write this so time for bed. Goodnight!

Thanks for following along. ❤️

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!

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.