Adeus, Adios, Tot ziens, and Au revoirs

That is "goodbye" to our vacation in the various languages we have been dealing with over the past few weeks - Portuguese, Spanish (Catalan dialect), Dutch (Belgian) and French. Hard to believe that our four week adventure is finished and our feet are once again on U.S. soil. We are spending two nights in NewYork with our friend Robin as we re-orient ourselves to America. I did find myself saying "Merci" to the cab driver as he dropped us here in the village...and I can barely remember how to use my cell phone, and I'm not recognizing the ring!

But still a few more days of our trip to update you on. On Saturday (in Bruges) we got up and climbed the 366 steps to the top of the Bell Tower.

The views from the top - panoramic- were incredible. We were also able to see the mechanism for the music that plays (Greensleeves, Danny Boy, and several classical pieces. We timed it just right as we realized it was almost 10 a.m. when we were at the top, so we raced down 33 steps to be at the mechanism when the music was playing, than ran back up to the top to be with the bells when they chimed 10. A very magical moment. We love Bruges!!!!

Belgium is quite fascinating. The people speak many languages - Dutch, French (although a strange dialect of French), German, and English. Here you see our waiter from the previous night's dinner speaking with Gilles on the square the next morning. He spoke all 4 languages mixed together, and then his native Italian thrown in just to confuse things more. He was quite a character!

We then spent the afternoon in Antwerpen (also referred to as Antwerp and Anvers - everything in Belgium has several names because of all the languages). We loved Antwerpen!!! Are you noticing a pattern here?? We first visited the Ruben house/museum/gardens which was fascinating. We have enjoyed the art museums that focus on one artist and what inspired him. Like many others, he also designed buildings and we were later able to see the cathedral he helped to design.

Here is the big square in Antwerpen - similar style of buildings as in Bruges, but on a much larger scale.

You can see on this one building all of the flags - we have seen many signs of the European Union and this is a good example.

We happened upon a wonderful place for lunch filled with all sorts of "saintly" statues, cherubs hanging from the ceiling, and little touches of humor (a painting of a nun with a low cut habit and impressive cleavage). An equally interesting assortment of food - we had a curried vegetable soup and vegetable lasagna...

For our last full day in the Paris area (Sunday) we decided to stay around Brunoy. We went with Janet and Gilles to do their Sunday marketing at a neighboring town Brie-Comte-Robert. We have learned that most of French regions seemed to be named for some sort of cuisine or wine. We have also learned that France has over 40,000 chateaus - they spot the countryside and most towns have some sort of chateau. Here is the one in Brie ComteRobert - actually in ruins and being restored, including an archeological dig and museum.

We then, for a bit of contrast, moved on in the afternoon to another nearby "little" chateau, Vaux le Vicomte.

There was a special event going on with many people in period piece costumes - these were my favorites.

The grounds were designed by the same person who designed Versailles, and most other famous French gardens - if I wasn't so tired and punchy I'd remember the name for you. The grounds reminded us of the Mall in Washington DC

We ended the day, and our trip, with dinner at the Mona Lisa with our wonderful hosts.

This morning we were up early to go to the airport in Paris for our mid-day flight to London, then a mad dash to make our connection to JFK. We again enjoyed the royal treatment on British Airways, so much more "civilized" than our normal jaunts on JetBlue or Southwest. Lots of food and snacks, free alcohol, free movies, free headphones, etc. And pleasant little comments from the pilot: "it is a bit blustery in New York, so hold on to your hats!" I will be back in Pleasanton on evening of 6/24, and Jim will be home on 6/26 after a quick visit to see his dad in Virginia.

So that is it. We are so full of so many wonderful memories. We have seen and learned SO much our heads are swimming - in a good way. Best of all, we spent 4 weeks together, 24-7, and still like each other!

Hope to see you all soon!

In Bruges

We are "in Bruges". Or, as Colin Farrell's character said in the movie, we are in "f****ing Bruges." But we could not disagree with him more. This is a beautiful and charming town. Much like Obidos, every turn you make you find another interesting detail on a building, or street sculpture, or plants/flowers. People ride bikes everywhere, the bell/clock tower sings with a different melody each time. It is built on canals, so it is a "little Venice".

It has been so interesting on this trip that each stop we have made has presented completely different architecture with different building materials. Here the buildings are almost all brick and have this "step up" roof line. We did take a boat trip on the canals, and then walked the same streets to get the different vantage points.

The arched bridges over the canals were often very low, and we had to bend over as we passed through.

I need to read about this sculpture -I don't think that it represents the need to lean over as you pass under bridges. I do think that in Europe they are much less prudish about their art - lots of sensual poses.

There is Belgian chocolate everywhere. Of course, that does not matter to me, but the window displays are fun to look at. Chocolate in the shape of asparagus..

We went through this covent museumand then through a church that had one of the few Michaelangelo sculptures outside of Italy

Here you can see the view of the famous clock tower featured in the movie In Bruges - this was the view from our hotel room window at 10:40 p.m. - you can see how light it still is outside. This morning (Saturday) we will climb to the top
Just to catch you up on our Thursday, we spent hours in the Louvre, seeing much more than our our visit in 1990. Apparently you could walk the Louvre 24-7 for 2 months, spending just a few seconds at each piece and finally see the whole thing, so we still have a long way to go! We also went to the newly refurbished, and a museum for the first time, Petite Palais. The exhibit was French history - furniture, art, sculpture, all displayed in a gorgeous building and garden.


And LOTS more walking, walking walking.
By the end of the trip my feet will look like this,,.

Okay, off to climb the clock tower. Our plan today (Saturday) is to spend the day in Antwerpen as long as the "Milk" demonstrations (the milk farmers VS the government) don't disrupt our plans, and then head back to Paris,

Americans in Paris

Yes, we are in Paris now. Actually, staying at Janet and Gilles house in Brunoy, which is just outside of Paris (just a 15 minute train ride from Gare de Lyon station). But before I update you about that, Tuesday we drove here from Annecy. There are so many temptations driving here as we pass by such interesting freeway exits (again, not freeways, as there are rather hefty tolls along the way) - we just skirted the edge of Switzerland (so that was one temptation) and then the turnoff signs for Turin and Milan (more temptation), but we continued on a course to Paris, just discussing all the different possibilities for "next time". We did have an interesting stop for lunch in a little town called Beaune (in the Burgandy region) and visited the Hospices de Beaune Hotel-Dieu - a charitable hospital built in 1443 and functioning until 1971.

The building itself was beautiful, with these amazing rooftiles creating a geometric pattern. You can also see the well that provided the water for the hospital.
This is the great hall for the poorest patients, with a chapel at the end.
Beds, which actually each would hold several patients lined each side of the hall. You are able to view the pharmacy, the section for the wealthier patients, and then a museum of items and art.
The support for the hospital, and many other charitable efforts, was gained from wealthy benefactors, but also through the production and sale of wine by the monks. The hospital label wine is still produced and quite expensive.
While eating out is part of our travel routine, here you can also see that we are doing some "to go" picnicking. Here we are munching on smoked salmon sandwiches - "fast food" is a bit different here! So with that interesting and tasty mid-trip stop, we arrived to Brunoy in the late afternoon (Tuesday).

Yesterday (Wednesday) we took the train in to Paris. Last time we were here (18 years ago) it was late March, so city looks quite different with leaves on the trees. Since we were doing lots of walking we took a foot-break and did the boat tour on the Seine. Completely different views of Paris, including some interesting sculptures on the under sides of the many bridges. You can see the "mocking" sculptures representing the attitude at the time that the bridge was a bad idea and would not last.

And we also learned interesting facts like: Do you know how many stairs there are in the Eiffel Tower and why? Answer will be at end of blog
We couldn't resist a return visit to Notre Dame, although a lot more tourists this time. We also couldn't resist a return visit to the "best" ice cream in Paris, Berthillon on the Isle St Louis. Just like we had our favorite pastry in Portugal, we have discovered our favorite ice cream flavor in France - salted caramel, and as good as it has been elsewhere, at Berthillon it is to die for.

In spite of visits to stores and shops along the way in Portugal and Barcelona, we decided to save our "shopping euros" for Paris. Here you can see us doing our thing. Janet had preselected the shopping spot (in the Marais district) and we both found some french fashion statements.

Here you can see Janet and Gilles home - it is a lovely setting that feels very "in the country" yet just a short walk from the train station.

One of the side benefits to our timing of this trip is that the days are VERY LONG right now - we are much further north than California. So here we are eating dinner and the sunlight at 9:30 p.m.

Doesn't really get dark till around 10:30 p.m. Makes for a nice long day of touring and talking.

Today we are off to museums, and probably more ice cream...Friday we will drive up to Bruges for an overnight, and then spend the day in Antwerpen on Saturday.

Answer: 1789 steps in the Eiffel Tower to commemorate the French Revolution! That is your fun fact for the day.