Our Continuing Journey – Page 19 – Lover of Wine – Travel along on our adventures

September 22, 2022September 27, 2022

Germany – A visit with Family

In our last blog, we discussed our return to Paris after several years being absent and that our sons had both moved to Europe. In this posting we will highlight time spent in Wiesbaden Germany saving our visit Livarot France for another post. Jason and family moved to Wiesbaden March 2022. They are established in a nice rental apartment with our two granddaughters so started to get familiar with the area. While in Wiesbaden, the granddaughters were in school – so during the day we spent time with Terri, both discovering parts of the area and enjoying our time together.

G’Pa and Wee Banshee #2 having some ice cream bars

Additionally, both of our granddaughters have various afternoon activities and we were able to join with the family to watch our oldest earn her yellow/white belt for Taekwondo.

Banshee #1 doing the board break move – very impressive.

The Master presenting Banshee #1 her Hello/White Belt.

After arriving Friday evening, we just relaxed and enjoyed spending time with our family. Unfortunately, most of the time we were visiting in Germany it rained! Nothing huge but it kept us inside much of the time. On Saturday, we out after bundled everyone into two cars and went into Wiesbaden central to wander around and have lunch. There was a farmers market happening with a variety of stalls and a celebration happening in the main square.

Morning coffee acquired (Nespreso machine) and lunch done, Wee Banshee #1, the 7-year old, headed off to a birthday party for a friend and the rest of us went home for a nap and relaxing time.

Tuesday, while the girls were in school, Terri took us to the Niederwald monument. It is located close to where they live and was built to commemorate the Unification of Germany between 1871 and 1883. The monument is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and overlooks the Rhine Valley and the town of Bingen on the far side. To get to the site we took the Cable Car. Originally, to accommodate the numerous people wanting to visit the monument, a rack-and-pinion railway was built in 1884, the forerunner of today’s cable car, which transported visitors through the vineyards to the monument.

The monument was constructed to commemorate the founding of the German Empire in 1871 after the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The first stone was laid on 16 September 1871 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. The monument was inaugurated on 28 September 1883. The 125 ft tall monument represents the union of all Germans. The central figure is the 34 ft tall Germania figure. Her right hand holds the recovered crown, and her left holds the Imperial Sword.

Beneath Germania is a large relief depicting Kaiser Wilhelm I riding a horse with the nobility, army commanders, and soldiers. The relief has the lyrics to “Die Wacht am Rhein” (Watch on the Rhine) engraved.

We had a lovely time visiting the monument.

Evenings with the family were relaxing with G’Ma reading portions of Anne of Green Gables with Banshee #1 and G’Pa playing with Banshee #2 (3-year old). It was a very nice way to spend quality time with our girls.

Saturday, with Jason’s work week finished, both cars drove downtown Weisbaden for lunch at the Ratskeller and a visit to the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock Shop.

For several years, Jason has been talking about buying a cuckoo clock and he finally pulled the trigger. This place sells LOTS of clocks of all varieties, the shop is the biggest and only one of its type. It is one of the major attractions in Wiesbaden, and is now well over fifty years old. It offers cuckoo clocks, beer steins, nutcrackers stuff toys and a variety of other things. Inside there must be a hundred clocks on the walls, fortunately not all ticking, or it would have been a madhouse when they all chimed. Jason spent quite a long time discussing with the owner what he wanted and this resulted in the owner calling the factory to see if they could accommodate his request! Talk about service. Of course, the clock won’t be ready until November but that isn’t an issue for them as they live there now.

Sunday the 18^th we drove back to France to hook up with Ryan and Chris in their new hometown Livarot. But that is for another blog.

September 16, 2022September 19, 2022

Paris September 2022 – A brief visit to a lovely city

Last March, our son Jason and his family moved to Wiesbaden Germany. He (Jason) had accepted a position with the US Army and moved the family. This was a dream of his for the last several years which finally came to reality earlier this year. About a month after they moved, Ryan and Chris went back to France with the intention of purchasing a property to turn into a Bed and Breakfast. This is happening in the Normandy area of France.

So, for the last several months, we have been planning a trip to Europe. Originally, we were hoping to stay for 6 months or so, but health took a turn, resulting in a shorter stay. After making several changes in our plans, we finally boarded a flight to Paris on September 4^th arriving the morning of the 5^th at Charles de Gaulle airport. Once we cleared customs, got our luggage, we were met by Chris who took us to the car with Ryan behind the wheel. Once together, we drove over to the Bastille area where we checked into a B&B. Madame Dy, the owner, welcomed us back as we had stayed with her several years ago – and Ryan and Chris had stayed with her several times. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the lovely Paris weather, walking around a bit and having a lovely lunch at Bistro 65. This is managed by the same guy who was the manager of Le Réminet – just a few yards away and owned by the same people. As it had been a very long day we went back to our B&B and called it a night.

The following day we headed out to The Musée Carnavalet. This is one of Janeen’s favorite museums in Paris was closed in 2016 and only reopened late last year.

The original entrance to the Museum – not very impressive until you get through and see the Statue in the Courtyard.

The Musée Carnavalet in Paris is dedicated to the history of the city. The museum occupies two neighboring mansions: the Hôtel Carnavalet and the former Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau. On the advice of Baron Haussmann, the civil servant who transformed Paris in the latter half of the 19th century, the Hôtel Carnavalet was purchased by the Municipal Council of Paris in 1866; it was opened to the public in 1880. By the latter part of the 20th century, the museum was full to capacity. The Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau was annexed to the Carnavalet and opened to the public in 1989.

One of the first hallways you enter is the Sign Gallery. These are signs that were around the City and have some historical significance.

Wine merchant sign, formerly at the angle of
Rue Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin and boulevard Saint-Germain, 7° arr.
Second half of the 18th century

This sign represents a famous tree of justice. Planted in front of the Eglise Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais (church), this elm tree, under which lords and judges meted out judgment, was cut down shortly before the Restoration. The crossroads had long been called the “elm-tree crossroads”. At the end of the 19th century, this sign was transferred to above a shop on rue du Temple, where Atget photographed it, shortly before its acquisition by the museum.

The building, an historic monument from the 16th century, contains furnished rooms from different periods of Paris history, historic objects, and a very large collection of paintings of Paris life. Many of the paintings and various displays depict the city’s history and development, and its notable characters.

One of the unique things about the Museum is the recreation of actual rooms and spaces from buildings that have long since been destroyed.

Lovely Janeen – UnfortunatelyI didn’t make note of where this room came from.

In 1941, the jeweller Georges Fouquet donated the remarkable decors from his boutique to the Musée Carnavalet. Designed by the artist Mucha in 1901, this decor had been conceived as a total work of art. Inspired by jewels, the floor, ceiling, furniture and lights reflect the natural curves of flowers and plants.

I clearly have a soft spot for anything done by Alphonse Mucha. This room is VERY special – with the floor, walls and ceiling all working together.

A salon from the Hotel Colbert de Villacerf

Another one of the installations interior rooms 18th-19th centuries.

After walking through many areas of the museum, and learning a lot about the history of Paris, we stopped for lunch in the courtyard.

The entire staircase (marble) was moved from another location along with the painted murals on the walls.

This museum is clearly a place we will return to time and again as there is a lot to take in and always something new to discover. It also doesn’t hurt that it is free entrance. After spending the better part of the day at the museum, we headed back to our B&B and a evening with Pizza at a local spot.

The following day we headed out for a Mademoiselle Angelina at the Musée du Luxembourg. This is a much smaller version of the famous Angelina’s that opened in 1903 and has a much smaller menu but was very pleasant for sure.

Janeen had the TOAST À L’AVOCAT (AVOCADO TOAST) – Radish, spinach shoots, cream of fresh cheese, purple cauliflower, sesame seeds and I had CROQUE-MADAME Tea towel ham, Emmental cream cheese, fried egg, mesclun

After our late breakfast – early lunch we wandered through the Luxembourg Gardens and find this lovely reflecting pond. In 1862, the drilling of Medici Street by Haussmann led to the displacement of the fountain and its rapprochement of the Palace by about thirty meters.

The architect Alphonse de Gisors then built a basin about fifty meters long in front and ordered new sculptures from Ottin.

Thursday morning we did a quick walk around of the Bastille Market before heading out for a birthday celebration.

Ryan had found a special place and made reservations at Le Train Bleu.

Le Train Bleu is a restaurant located in the hall of the Gare de Lyon railway station. The restaurant was originally created for the Exposition Universelle (1900). Each ornate dining room is themed to represent cities and regions of France and they are decorated with 41 paintings by some of the most popular artists of that time. Initially called “Buffet de la Gare de Lyon”, it was renamed “Le Train Bleu” in 1963, after the famous train of the same name.

The decorations throughout the restaurant were beautiful and show various cities the train passed through.

Over the course of several hours, we had a lovely meal with wonderful service and great conversations.

Amuse Bouche- to get the meal started
Minced octopus marinated in lime, creamy chickpeas with cumin, condiment with spices and fresh coriander
Supreme roasted farm poultry, eggplant velvet with candied lemon, crispy Parmesan, devil sauce
Rabbit ballotine à la provençale, sweet sour vegetables, pearl juice
Half-cooked swordfish with Indian peppers, fricassée of potatoes shot and new

Chris and Ryan seemed to be enjoying themselves for sure.

After spending the afternoon enjoying the Le Train Bleu, Ryan and Chris headed out to get our car so we could pack it for our trip the following day and Janeen and I headed back to our B&B.

We were only in Paris for a few days but it was a lovely time. It’s nice to come back to a place we have been and realize we don’t have to see everything in a limited amount of time. This was our 4th or 5th visit to Paris and maybe our shortest one – having stayed for 6 weeks twice over the last 4 or 5 years. Paris is a place we will always enjoy and have special places we want to visit. The work on the rebuilding of the Notre-Dame Cathedral continues with a hoped completion by the 2024 Paris Olympics. Once reopened, I am certain we will make trip to see how it has been cleaned and redone. For now, however, we head to Germany to see our son Jason and wife Terri and our two granddaughters. More about Germany and France in our next post.

July 2, 2022

Travels Continuing starting this August 2022!

After our long rest, we are set to begin traveling again in August. Sure, Covid impacted our ability to travel but hopefully the world has settled down a bit and we can take off again. We fly to Paris in August where we will stay a week or so rediscovering this lovely city before taking a train to the village of Livarot – in the Normandy region of France. Ryan, our youngest and his husband Chris have purchased a property and will be opening a B&B. They are calling it, Le Douet Fleury. Check this out. Our other son, Jason and his family have moved to Germany – specifically Wiesbaden. So given that our family are all now living in Europe, we have gotten an extended stay visa for six months and are heading across the pond.

So, as we begin to travel again, follow along as I hope to post stuff from time to time of interest.

David & Janeen

March 15, 2020April 26, 2024

01-10-20 Panama Canal Transit

After leaving Aruba, we motored along the north coast of Venezuela getting read to enter the “cue” for the Panama Canal transit. It took the better part of a day and a half to get from Aruba to Colon the entrance to the Canal.

The main reason to take our cruise in January was to transit the Panama Canal. Sure, it was enjoyable to visit Aruba and be entertained by the on-board activities, but the highlight was clearly the Canal. In anticipation of this adventure we both read David McCullough’s book The Path between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 first published in 1978. This book tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year old dream of construction an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

This is a current map showing the route of the Panama Canal. About 50 miles long.

Our passage through the Canal was early morning – really before sunrise but that didn’t stop most of the passengers from being out to view the process.

Entering the first lock from the Atlantic side.

Having been on a number of river cruises that had to pass through various locks on rivers, the canal passage wasn’t as amazing as it might have been. Sure the size of the ship was significantly bigger but the system operates just the same.

A nice perspective showing the locks and our need to move up.

We arrived at the first lock at 5:45 and began the process. I’m guessing our Captain has done this kind of thing before so it went very smoothly. Transit through the first lock took about 45 minutes – most of that time taken up by the inflow of the water to raise the ship. Overall the ship was lifted some 85 feet from sea level and by 7:30 we were through both locks and on Gatun Lake.

Gatun Lake Dam – a critical piece of the entire canal system. This creates Gatun Lake, some 164 square miles of land was flooded to create this.

This man made lake was the largest man made lake when it was created – 164 square miles. Covering approximately 21 miles of the transit between the seas, it is staging space for ships waiting passage through the locks. We were required to anchor for several hours until our time slot for the next part of the journey.

Gatun Lake – at anchor for a couple of hours before continuing along our way.

This is the jail where Manuel Noriega former head of state for Panama ended up after being busted.

Once back underway we passed through the Culebra Cut.

The Culebra Cut was done in steps ever widening the path through the area.

This area required one of the most difficult construction challenges: excavating the Culebra Cut through the continental divide to connect Gatun Lake to the Pacific Panama Canal locks. Seen from the deck of the Pacific Princess it’s amazing to think how much mountain had to be removed to create the passage.

Once through the cut it was a quick transition to the Pacific side locks and we were underway.

The size of the gates was rather impressive

Some of the equipment dates back to the beginning – all still working.

Here we are entering the lock – we were followed throughout the transit by a Norwegian Cruise ship

We passed through the final sections and into the Pacific Ocean by mid afternoon.

Here we are enjoying the lovely weather overlooking the lock

This was the final Lock on the Pacific side.

Overall the transit took about 10 hours and was a wonderful experience.

The view of the City of Panama as we head out to the Pacific Ocean to head north.

If you are going to make plans to go through the Canal, I do strongly recommend McCullough’s book. It really gave some wonderful insights into how it was created and the difficulties involved. Today more than 14,000 ships transit the Canal using both the old locks (which we used) and the new larger locks for the bigger ships.

February 24, 2020April 26, 2024

01-08-20 Aruba – First port of Call – Princess Cruise day 4

Aruba was our first port of call on our trip through the Panama Canal.

Janeen on our balcony overlooking the port in Oranjestad

Aruba is a lovely island in the southern Caribbean and still a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is 19 miles off the coast of Venezuela in the west part of the Lesser Antilles. The island measures 20 miles long and 6 miles across at its widest point. Along with Bonaire and Curacao, Aruba forms a group referred to as the ABC Islands.

A lot of Dutch influence on the buildings for sure.

As a result of its link to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the citizens are all Dutch nationals. Unlike much of the Caribbean, Aruba has a dry climate and an arid, cactus-strewn landscape. This climate clearly has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather – and our visit in January was certainly was beautiful.

Early human presence on Aruba dates back to as early as circa 2000 BC. The first identifiable group, the Arwak Caquetio Amerindians migrated from South American about 1000 AD and there is Archaeological evidence on many parts of the island.

Ayo Rock Formations – sure looks like the face of a monkey and maybe a dog on the hillside.

Yes, cactus and desert plants all around

We visited the Ayo Rock Formations – with one area showing rock drawings dating back thousands of years.

The gate protects the early cave drawings

Nice little park at the Ayo Rock Formations

The first Europeans to visit the island were from Spain in 1499 – who of course claimed it. The early explorers described Aruba as an “island of giants” as the locals seemed to have a comparatively large stature. Spain began colonizing the island in 1508 and controlled it for the next 100 years or so. The Netherlands seized Aruba from Spain in 1636 in the course of the Thirty Years’ War and it has been under Dutch control ever since.

No, this cactus is NOT giving you the finger.

With not a lot of resources on the island there wasn’t much industrialization. There are ruins of a gold mine but no active work being done at this time. In the 1920’s two oil refineries were built to process crude oil from the vast Venezuelan oil fields. This brought greater prosperity to the island and it grew to be come one of the largest processors in the world. These closed around 2009. Another industry on the island is Aloe.

A field of aloe with a windswept tree – clearly the wind blows in one direction over the island

First planted on Aruba in 1850, aloes seem to love the desert conditions. With a healthy demand for aloe products, it has become a continuing part of Aruba’s economy. One of our tours was to the Aruba Aloe plant where a new modern facility is active and selling a number of Aloe products in their gift shop.

In 1947, Aruba presented its first constitution as an autonomous state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Ultimately the Netherlands Antilles was created that united all of the Dutch colonies in the Caribbean into one administrative structure.

For years, Aruba had a large horse breeding operation – this is a reference to that history.

Our visit to the Island included an excursion out and about the island – The Butterfly Farm, Ayo Rock Formations, Aloe Plant and a general overview of the island. As we had some free time before our actual tour, we headed off the ship and walked around the town Oranjestad. Located on the northern end of the Island, it was lovely to walk around, pick up a few post cards and explore. We did find a Starbucks (I was asked to get a coffee mugs for one of Jason’s coworkers) and walked past, but not into, the Casino. We also were able to get a stamp in our passport!

First stop on our tour was the Butterfly Farm (www.buterflyfarm.com).

Jim and Sally joined us on the Butterfly Tour.

Started on Aruba in 1999 with hundreds of exotic butterflies from all around the world. Among some of the favorites are the iridescent beautiful Blue Morpho from the rainforests of South America. We started off with an introduction by a

Our guide for the tour showing off a butterfly

member of the Butterfly Farm Team and learned about all the various examples flying around us in the enclosed area.

Butterflies all around us – landing on us, drinking from the various fruit plates set out for them and generally a lovely environment.

It said to be good luck to have one land on you.

Fruit plates around the enclosure ferment – and yes, the butterflies enjoy the juice, getting a little drunk before courting dances

Butterfly cocoons getting ready to hatch

After getting our fill of the beauty of the butterflies, we re-boarded the bus and headed out to Ayo Rock Foundations. It is clear the island is arid – lots of cactus along the way and dry desert plants for sure. The place is so dry they have to import water – and you see lots of rain catching systems on houses to collect what rainfall the do get. Ayo Rock Formations are monolithic rock boulders located around the island mostly on the northern end. While there are a number of areas, the one we stopped to view included an enclosed area with early cave paintings – most likely from about 1000 years ago or so. The boulders have unusual shapes resembling birds and dragons as well as other things we noticed as we traveled along. After visiting the rocks, we went to the Aloe plant.

Located across the street from a major school, and next to a large field of Aloe plants, the Aruba Aloe Company is clearly a going concern.

A demonstration was given on what parts of the Aloe plant are used, how they are processed and what kinds of products are created. The history of the plant, how it’s been part of the Aruba culture for 150 years or so was interesting and filled out the day with a pleasant tour.

These aloe plants were next to the factory – makes harvest easy.

Once back to the ship, and everyone on board, we slipped away to continue our adventure towards the Panama Canal.