Rhine Riverboat 2022

Sunday:  we had a leisurely Sunday morning 1-hour walk to Gard de Lyon.

Gard de Lyon.

Our high-speed train tickets were for first-class, guaranteeing table seats on the upper level.  And they were worth the additional expense.  The train clicked into high speed once we left the city and it was a comfortable, quiet ride.    Our hotel’s website said the area around the hotel is auto-restricted and we get complimentary tickets to a metro train.  This was confusing regarding how and where we were to get the tickets.  So Bill found someone to ask and we essentially just got on the train without a ticket.  No issues.  We found and checked into our Hotel Maerhof. Perfect location in the center of a car-free square. Our ears perked up when the checking-in person said “everything in the mini-frig is complimentary”.  Huh?  With a bit of discussion, we discovered the frig has a few bottles of sparkling water, cokes, and some bagged nuts.  I then explained to the checking-in person that American hotel frigs are stocked with liquor.  It was a good laugh.

"Everything in frig is complimentary".  WHERE'S THE BOOZE?!?!?!

He also said we could get a drink in the first-floor bar and take it up the lift to check out their rooftop terrace. What a view from the rooftop terrace! We were the only ones there.  When it came time to get out of the cold wind, Bill grabbed the door handle and pulled.  Nothing.  The door appeared to have locked!  Panic ensued.  I walked around and tried all the other doors without success.  Bill pounded on the door to no avail.  Our thoughts turned to throwing either chairs or seat cushions over the edge in hopes of getting someone to rescue us.  I then went to the empty bar in hopes of finding a call button or emergency phone.  Again, nothing.  So I walked back around to where Bill was and he said, “It’s a push, not a pull”.  OMG.  USA codes are such that all commercial doors open outward, and it’s apparently different in Switzerland.     Major laughter at ourselves. That evening we walked around the town and down to the water.

In Basel, overlooking the Rhine river.

Dinner was a great small curry dish in an outside café and finished up the day with a nightcap on the rooftop terrace. After the tiny room of Paris, this felt like the special palace of Versailles. Add bathrobes, coffee, and tea maker in the room and we are kings.

 

Monday: Met the AMAWaterways boat AmaSerta at 11am. The official policy was that we could drop off our luggage at 11am but could not check into our room until 3pm.  But, the boat was docked a day ahead of time so the rooms were available.  Winning!  Let’s celebrate with lunch and happy hour.

 

Issued a bottle of wine upon bateau entry.  Living well.

Tuesday: we both slept in late and Bill missed the morning bus trip. We happily settled for the half-day afternoon version to Lucerne Switzerland.

Church entrance.  Notice the "Angels" stepping/spearing the heathens.

The Jesuit church was white and bright. Full of sunshine with its clear glass windows. That evening was the first Alan Doyle concert. 

 

Wednesday:  the morning bus trip was to Strasbourg France. Their local church removed all their stained glass windows during WW II for safekeeping. It was the background for the movie Monument Men. The afternoon activity was on the deck reading and a sun deck circuit workout for Bill.

Met several great people on the trip.

 The evening entertainment was a local French accordion player (yawn) and finally a Matt Anderson concert.   Matt brought his big, big voice.

 

Thursday: I said it first, and then Bill jumped aboard immediately. Let’s take a day off from the rush of buses and touring. After a week of non-stop touring, we were getting tired of old buildings and churches. After everyone left, Bill grabbed his book (iPad) and went topside with a cup of green tea to just sit, read and watch the sunrise followed by a brief walkabout and even briefer hop in the pool. Chilly. The boat did an afternoon sail down the river passing lots of industrial areas.   That evening, everyone boarded a Choo-Choo train into town to see a wonderful musical instrument museum. 

 

Friday: today’s entertainment was a Choo-Choo train to a ski gondola that took us to the top of a winery hill. We had a guided tour around the top of a hill, to the Mountain Lady.

In town, below the vineyards.

And, the vineyards.

Then we had a wine-tasting experience in a cold dreary basement, where the winery owner talked indiscernible words for 30 minutes.  I snagged my replacement for my broken shot glass (and backup) and left a generous tip to cover the expense.  Back on the boat, the afternoon Alan Doyle concert scheduled on the downstairs common area was relocated to the sunny and warm sun deck. These were the best moments on the boat:  Alan Doyle and the Beautiful Beautiful band playing, outside on a river boat sun deck, and cruising past wineries and castles.

View from the upper deck, with castles and vineyards.

Yeah...

Elise and Jim.  Kendal waved from the stage!

Matt Anderson joined in, for "Lovers in a Dangerous Time".  Nailed it.

Life couldn’t get better!!!  Afterward, we toured Castle Lahneck.

 

Saturday: in the morning the boat sailed down the Rhine. In the afternoon we had a tour of old Cologne with the usual gothic church and remnants of a walled city. Cologne took some shelling during the world wars.

Classic Gothic.  The church, not me.

 The tour guide pointed out small brass inserts in the sidewalks.  These inserts were etched with the name, birth date, and deaths of some that perished in a world war, and were placed where that person last lived.  Somber, especially when you start noticing many more inserts throughout the tour.

One of many brass inserts in the sidewalk.  Too, too many.

The tour finished in a pub with potato pancakes with endless beer glasses. We were instructed to put a coaster on top of the glass when done, otherwise, a server would grab an empty or near-empty glass and put a full one in its place.

Outside the potato/beer bar.

And inside the bar.  A tasty Kolsch beer.  Very tasty.

We had the remainder of the afternoon off, so Bill and I walked the town.  Everyone smoked - Gag!  3 protests were going on; one was for the murdered Iranian woman, a second was for climate change, and a third was unknown.  There were many police vans in a ready state, obviously expecting a riot.

I counted 20 police vans.  And saw much police, just killing time.

At Captain's Dinner.  Living Well.  Alan Doyle is behind Tim's left shoulder.

That evening was out Captain's Dinner followed by the 4th concert and 2nd for Matt Anderson.

 

Sunday: that morning we sailed towards Amsterdam.  At breakfast, I noticed we seemed to have stopped moving (looking at the buildings on the canal side).  Then Bill said, “Is that the A’Dam building?”.  Duh, yes.  We were docked in Amsterdam!  That afternoon was a canal boat tour. The canal boat was docked about 100 yards from our boat.  The tour guide was hilarious and informative.  At one point the boat driver yells to another boat ” Stop your fucking boat!”. We needed room for a sharp turn.  That evening was the last Alan Doyle concert.  Good times.

More Rhine riverboat pics here.

 

Paris 2022

Europe Oct 18 - Nov 4

Wednesday 19: I took the long drive (rental) from home to LAX then took an even longer direct flight to CDG.  There was a point the flight seemed a few hours shorter than expected so I guess there was some shuteye.

Left my noise-canceling, comfortable headphones at home and had to use these.

Only a short time was needed after landing to gather luggage and get past Customs.  I was feeling somewhat tired but not zombie-level tired.  Bill landed before me and had already discovered the RER train to take into Paris.  However, due to protests and strikes, only 1 in 5 trains are running.  It was packed beyond belief and we both had our largest suitcases.  In the age of Covid, we found ourselves pressed closely with ever-changing people within a tight space.  At 3 stops before our stop, we started moving towards the door. It was not easy!  I was concerned we might not be able to get off when needed.  Very stressful and never again!!!!

Hotel Design Sorbonne was up this street...

and down the street was Universite Paris-Sorbonne

We dropped off luggage at Hotel Design Sorbonne, walked up to the Seine to pick up our 4-day Paris Museum pass ($195/each), and then rode the Hop-on-Hop-off bus.  It was the perfect afternoon activity when brain-dead and even that was hard enough. The bus ride of 2+ hours was about 1 hour too long for us.  We were so tired and pushed to stay up until 7p and slept until almost 7a the next morning. The Hotel Design Sorbonne was Paris tiny.  The elevator was cramped with 1 suitcase and 1 person, a tiny shower (when I dropped the soap wasn’t sure if I could pick it up without opening the door). When sitting on the toilet your shoulder was literally resting against the sink. This was yet another hotel we were unable to open up both suitcases at once.  We had to be careful when brushing your teeth to not hit your head on the sharp corner of the shelf above the sink.  It’s time to look for another Paris hotel.

 

Our daily plan was a morning museum, an afternoon walking tour, and a sunset somewhere. Some events needed a timed entrance as well as a pre-purchased ticket due to the Paris Pass.  Hard to imagine with only 3 daily events, but it was stressful to get them all in.  I guess this was because we were always walking to avoid crowded public transportation.

 

But in the plus column, the weather report up to departure said cold and rainy every day.  The Weather Gods smiled on us and we had great weather (upper 60’s into 70’s, cloudy to full sunshine) for every day until Amsterdam.

 

Thursday 20:  the Hotel had the perfect buffet breakfast.  Croissants, Nutella, butter, coffee, water, baguette, OJ, hard-boiled eggs, etc.  It was hard to limit ourselves and not overeat.  Later on, we discovered our favorite crepe place, for either sweet or savory.

Creperie Genia, the best crepes in Paris.  Oh Gawd so good.

Sometimes we would split a crepe (they were large) and never any better than in Paris.  We walked to Musee D’Orsay for our 9am reservation and were there for 2 1/2 hours with a coffee/beer break.

The view from inside Musee D'Orsay to Sacre Coeur.

Musee D'Orsay is incredible, even when just talking about the building.

We could have stayed longer but had to catch a 2pm, 90-minute guided walk at Sacre Coeur. We arrived at the tour meet point and found many people awaiting the tour.  The tour guide announced that everyone already checked in would follow her on the tour, and everyone else (i.e., Bill and me) would join in with another guide that was en route.  Our tour guide was Amara (introducing herself as the "World's Best Tour Guide") and she was right. The 90-minute tour lasted 2 1/4 hours and was the highlight of Paris.

Amara said these are the best baguette in Paris - too bad I already had a breakfast baguette.

A plaque for the Parisian singer Dalida who lived in Montemarte.

And a bust of Dalida.  It's good luck to touch Dalida's breasts.

Restaurant frequented by Dalida, Dali, and Picasso.

Amara, the world's best tour guide, didn't have a banner to hold up so she used her water bottle.

After the tour ended we went into the Sacre Coeur Chapel.  It was huge!  We planned for a Sacre Coeur sunset was the cloudy conditions said not so, so we enjoyed a large wine up on the hill (without a view).  We planned for dinner on our walk back to our hotel and found an Irish pub on the way. After getting a table we discovered they didn’t have Irish beer or any Irish food so we had a non-Irish beer and left.

I love this random Parisian street pic.

So dinner was at our usual Nutella/banana crepe shop.  Yum. Total walking of 25,000 steps, 11 miles, and dead tired.

 

Friday 21: Bill previously arranged to visit Versailles but I opted for another d’Orsay visit.   While at Versailles Bill offered to take a photo of a mom and 2 kids. Darn if it weren’t the same family that was on the Sacre Coeur trip!  I should have gotten a d’Orsay timed entry ticket but failed to plan, so a 30-minute line awaited me.  Most of my time was spent in front of Renoir, Degas, etc.  So beautiful.

I spent an hour in front of these Renoirs.  So, so beautiful

Bill and I met up for a long walk to the base of the Eiffel Tower for a Seine Bateau ride.  12 1/2 miles of walking today.  34,000 steps. More dead tired.

Bateau pic #1

Bateau pic #2.  So sad

Bateau pic #3.  Musee d'Orsay, notice the 2 huge clocks lit from inside the building.

Random pic was taken on the walk back to the hotel.

Saturday 22:  we had a scheduled 9:30a entrance to Musee De Orangerie.  This museum had 2 oval rooms of 2 immense Monet paintings/murals per room. Monet painted these murals in sections.

Monet did these paintings in sections while his eyesight was fading.

The lower floor had nice Renoir and more art that didn’t interest us.  Lunch was at Café Central on Rue de Cler.  Rue de Cler is the classic walking street, a street that has been shut down to cars.

Dining very well at Cafe Central.

Rue de Cler.  So chill.

We then continued to our 2:30p: Eiffel Tower guided walk.

The Eiffel Tower is H-U-G-E.

There was a long queue to get in. Our ticket allowed us to climb the stairs to the second level but we quit at 1. Our guide wasn’t that good and had a monotone voice. Bill had a hard time hearing her even though he stood next to her. I gave up on hearing anything from her.  On the first level, the guide went on and on about something (don’t ask me what – couldn’t hear her) and then someone asked about the tour continuing up to the second level.  The guide said her part of the tour ends on the first level but anyone could continue up to the second level.  We headed down the stairs to a crazy madhouse of vendors and tourists on the sidewalks.  Let’s get away from here!  So we worked our way thru the crowd towards Arc de Triumphe.  Jardine de Trocadero, on the north side of the Seine, was a total zoo like Times Square.  I remember being here in 1997 and having an outstanding view of the Eiffel Tower across the Seine.  Not so this time: the tourists were filling the steps and viewpoint so Paris has put up partitions to block that view. So sad.  Our plan was for sunset on top of Arc de Triumphe.

Look at the number of people on top of Arc de Triumphe.

  That line was too long to go up to the top just for the view so we abandoned that thought and started the 3 miles walk home mostly on Champ-Elysees.  It was a death march through too many tourists.  Again we were dead tired and not talking much.  We couldn’t wait to get to our fave crepe place so we tried another, and should have split the 4-pounder crepe.  Too much cheese but that didn’t stop us.  We got to bed at 7pm, insanely dead tired. 28,000 steps.  Why do we push ourselves so hard?

Here are more Paris 2022 pics.