Off Seine Hotel - Paris, France

 

We turned in the boat, and got a taxi to Clemecy, and took the train to Paris.  Our mission, in Paris, is to see the interior of Notre Dame. According to the news, the lines to get in are hours long.  You can get an online reservation to go in for free but they were always sold out.  Deb had me keep checking, but there was no change.  On the train, she asked again, “Did you check?”  I check and YES…an available time slot at 4:00.  There were several screens to get through for the reservation and I kept loosing the internet going through tunnels.  After twenty or so tries. I got tickets!

Got to Paris, dropped off the bags, got a quick lunch, walked to Notre Dame, used our pass, and saw Notre Dame.  Pretty crowded, but impressive.  Found a little sidewalk cafe for a drink, and a reminiscence of our trip,  Dijon was an unexpected highlight.  Innsbruck was great.  The Jungfrau did not fail to impress!

Work in progress 

Tomorrow is a National Strike day in France.  The RER, the train to the airport is on strike.  We have booked an Uber.  The receptionist at the hotel said, “Oh, interesting!”  I guess we’ll see what that meant.

Nivernais Canal - Flez-Cuzy, France

 

Left Clamecy under cloudy skies, but no rain in the forecast.  I am driving until lunch and then I go back to being the bow man.  This canal has a lock every one or two kilometers which is a lot.  Because of logistics of getting here and going back we decided to go from Migennes to Flex-Cuzy. Well that turns out to be up river, which isn’t too bad, but at every lock we enter at the bottom and rise up.  You need to tie off the boat when it’s in the lock so it doesn’t bounce around, but the bollards you need to tie to are way up there!

Today we do the last nine locks with a break halfway for lunch.  The final lock of the trip is a double lock with three sets of gates.  It’s a long way up.  

We end up at the boat rental place, ready to turn in the boat tomorrow and head, by train, to Paris and a national strike. 

We did it!

Nivernais Canal - Clamecy, France

 

So cute!!

The boat has two steering positions, one on the bridge and one in the cabin.  The problem is that you can’t see very well when steering from the heated, dry cabin; so this morning we are driving the boat on the cold bridge in the driving rain.  Everything on the boat is wet from three or four days of drizzly weather, but there is sunshine in the forecast and a mooring in a larger village on the float plan. You can definitely see an improvement in the attitude of the crew!

We pass through a guard lock (normally open but can be closed to prevents floods) which was guarded by goats.  We go under a drawbridge that you are required to get out of the boat to open.  

Clamecy has a pretty large marina, but it’s Monday and most of the shops are closed.  Eventually we find a little bar for a beer and a glass of Chardonnay before returning to the boat.

Tomorrow is our last leg of the trip.  This leg is going to be mostly open fields

, but hopefully sunny open fields.

Nivernais Canal - Chatel Censoir, France

 We are required to be at the next lock at 9:00 and we have left a little late.  Then, that nagging moment…I think I forgot something.  In case you are not happy with the location of the bollards, you can always just drive a rental company provided stake into the ground, anywhere.  Well, you need to take the stake when you leave.  I forgot, and left it there, so we did a quick u-turn in the narrow canal went back and recover the stake.  

For lunch we stopped in Merry-de-Yonne. There a nice cliff by the river, with an All Trails hike to the top.  We can‘t resist.  And Deb hasn’t used her hiking poles yet, is that

We have left most of the rental boaters behind, so we are going through the locks, solo.  The locks have been ready for us as we go.  This was the first place that required a Mediterranean mooring ( backing in with the two stern lines holding the boats.  I got it on my first attempt (first ever).

 Chatel Censoir is another very quiet town, where everything is closed on Sunday.  Everything being the local convenience store.  There is a Chatel (castle) on the top of the hill with arrow slits and cannon holes.  Of course it burned down two or three times since it was built, but at least one of the twelve towers is still standing

.  

Back to the boat before the rain.

Nivernais Canal - Mailly le Chateau, France

 We have arrived at the next canal at precisely 10:00.  Phew!  It’s still a little overcast, but nice.  Lunch in Dames.  It is a restaurant right at the lock, and very good!  Everything made locally.  

The afternoon is pleasant with some very low bridges.  Sitting at the helm, I would be decapitated if I didn’t duck way down.  We arrive at Mailly le Château early enough to go into town. We are moored in a field on the edge of the lower village (there was no businesses there), it’s a 500ft climb to the upper village.  The upper village had a massive church, a town hall, a cafe-tobacco shop-newsstand-bar, and a little market.  

The bar was a table with six chairs, and five minutes before it opened, there were six burly men standing outside.  We decided that we had seen enough of the upper village.

Back to the boat…to pleasant pitter patter of little raindrops! 

Nivernais Canal - Cravant, FR

Waiting in line at the boulangerie 

After loosing our rafting buddies, we decide not go to the farmer’s market in Auxerre because it is too far to walk, especially with 20 to 30 lbs of fresh produce but instead head for Cravant.  It’s about an hour further than our originally planned stop, but they have a farmer market to die for.  The lock masters all communicate with each other, and know when we should be at the next lock.  Somehow we have decided that 1/2 a tank of water is not enough, so we pulled over to a wharf to fill up.  It was very high tech, using a QR code, and remote access to turn on the water.  Of course this put us a bit behind schedule, so the lock master came over on his bicycle to expedite everything.

Once we reached Cravant, we got some meat from the butcher, some bakery from the baker, and some miscellaneous stuff at the market.  (Little side note - there hasn’t been a farmer’s market in Cravant for years). 

Closing a lock

We are on the less popular part of the canal.  The lock masters have no intention of going to work until there is someone to lock-through.  So “what time are you going to be at the lock?”  We respond “about 10:00”…”NO about!  Exactly what time?”…”We will be there precisely at 10:00!”  

So tomorrow, we’ll be there at 10:00

Nivernais Canal - Auxerre, France

 A quick walk to town to get some croissants for breakfast, and a few minor requests from the boat rental place, and we are off.  The boat rental is on a little side channel, so within our first 100’, we have our first lock to negotiate.  We are getting instructions from the lock keeper, and the manager from the boat rental place.  At least, we fared better than the boat behind us, they had to have one of the boat rental employees get them into the lock.

Once on the canal, we join the convoy…five boats all travelling together, bunching up to go through each of the ten locks for the day.  We stay with the convoy until we reach Gurgy.  Our first restaurant, “Nous vous désolé!”  For the rest of the day we were in a convoy of two.

In the weeds!

There appears to be no place to tie-up in Auxerre.  I suggest a place by the boat ramp, it’s shallow, and covered with reeds, but buried in the reeds are some relic bollards, unused for years.  Finding the bollocks   Our lock-mate ( the ones that needed help) have searched endlessly for a mooring, but have come up empty.  They finally asked to raft up with us.  

Tomorrow off to Crevant.

Le Boat - Migennes

 

After breakfast, we got a taxi to the train station in a Tesla X, with Gull wing doors.  It was spectacular.  

Train ride, normal; laundry, uneventful.  Meet our friends for our canal boat rental.  Our check out time is 1:30, but this isn‘t our first rodeo.  By the time we get the keys to the boat, it’s closer to 5:00.  So our first night is in Migennes at the place where we rented the boat.  Dinner is reserved at a fancy restaurant, but  “ Nous sommes désolés” (we are completely full), so dinner was a “Dream” pizzeria…oh well!

Tomorrow, we go to Auxerre.

Maison Phillip Le Bon - Dijon, France

 

Today we explore, some rain is expected mid afternoon.  When I set up trips, I look for interesting things that we might do in the places we are staying. Dijon has some affinity with owls, and has an “owl trail” that goes around the city, identifying points of interest.  Our mission is to find the “owl trail” and follow it around the city.

The first part turned out to be quite simple, the trail crossed in front of the hotel (although it took us half a block to figure that out).  The “trail” is little brass arrows in the sidewalk.  Sometimes when they redo the sidewalks, the markers are missing.  When you come across a point of interest there is a larger square with a number or letter on it.  If the point of interest is on a spur, and the trail ends, and sometimes there’s a fork in the trail, and you have to pick one.  A little confusing, but very French!  

Cathedral Saint Benigne 

Somewhere on the trail is  Church of Notre Dame.  A Gothic church bedecked with three row of seventeen gargoyles on the front.  Actually, the original gargoyles were removed in 1240 after one of them broke off and killed a parishioner.  They were not replaced until 1880. On the side of the church, at eye level is a stone owl which is suppose to bring you luck if you rub it.  Of course, after being rubbed for 600 years, it’s a little hard to tell what is.

France is currently in a bit of turmoil because the Prime Minister quit.  There are protests called “Block Everything”. In sympathy, the railroads are having a strike which may or may not affect our train travel tomorrow. We shall see!

Follow the Chouette!

Maison Phillip Le Bon - Dijon, France

 

The courtyard at our hotel

Today we travel to France.  From Interlaken to Basel (bah (a as in father) - zel) to Mulhouse to Dijon.  There were a few weather delays, a few close connections, a little bit of angst, but we made it. 

There was a little drizzle all day, but by the time we were ready to head out for drinks and dinner, it started to pour, so it’s going to be hard to go exploring.  The restaurant at the hotel is closed on Mondays, but the bar is open.  They have some bar snacks, so we have decided that this is our final destination.  People watching is superb!  Loud William from England is celebrating his 68th birthday with ten of his closest friends. Active Tours is having their wine ride kickoff meeting with six elderly bicyclists.  A couple of bigger tour groups were off in their own dining rooms.

We finished our wine and our cheese board, and back to the room (still raining).

Tomorrow we explore, rain or no rain!

Hotel Interlaken - Interlaken, Switzerland

When you google, “Is it worth it to go to the top of the Jungfraujoch when it’s cloudy?” the answer is a simple, “No!”  But today was the perfect, blue sky climb to the top of the world kind of day.  There are two ways of going to the top: “with reservations” and “without”.  If you miss your scheduled train, you join the long line of “without.”  

The trip up was exhilarating, with a very long gondola ride along the infamous north face of Mt Eiger, followed by a cog railroad ride which was surprisingly all one tunnel to the top.  The train stops for five minutes, so you can look out the windows cut into the rocks. (Deb made the trip to the window and back to the train in about a minute - nope, not gettin’ left behind here!). Once on top there is a prescribed 90 minute walking tour, much of it displays inside tunnels.  We picked what we wanted to see and what we wanted to skip.

Mt Monch

 Took an elevator to an observatory 300 ft up, and walked around on a snow pack outside.  Ate a nice lunch and returned.  All in all, a well worth it, two hours on the “Top of Europe.”  The Jungfrau is actually the third tallest in Europe, but it’s the highest us common folk are going to get.

Back down in Interlaken, it’s downright warm, so we switch to short sleeves, eat some Indian food (but with Swiss beer) and pack for France (or as Deb says, “ Au revoir aux germanophones!”)

Jungfrau

Hotel Interlaken - Interlaken, Switzerland

No idea what he’s doing !

 Not every day goes perfectly!  I wake up to three e-mails from OBB (Austrian Railroad).  The first - your train will leave 3 minutes late; the second, 7 minutes; the third, 10 minutes.  By the time we get to the station, 17 minutes. When all was said and done, we got to Zurich about an hour late.  When I booked the trip, I had left about an hour in Zurich to eat lunch.  Our next train to Interlaken got cancelled and replaced by a train to Bern with a transfer to Interlaken.  It all sorta pushed my angst meter a bit.

Interlaken is one of those towns with only a few local residents, but thousands of guests in huge hotels. I searched google for a restaurant, and by blind luck, found an awesome restaurant with only four tables. As usual, Deb said, make sure to take a picture of our dinner before we start eating it.  As usual, we didn’t.

Getting tickets to the Jungfrau is about as complicated as picking a college.  What time do you want to leave, what do you want to eat, how long do you want to stay, which route do you want to take?

After all your choices, there is the little spinny wheel and your price appears.  We have made our choices and there is no turning back!

Tomorrow, as Deb says, is our last day of German!

Faktoria - Innsbruck, Austria (Day 2 of 2)

Lunch was Goulash

 As predicted today is a rainy, cold day.  It’s just drizzling in the morning, but inside activities are going to be better.  The Tyrol Folk Museum looks to be about the best bet.  Never really been museum people, but it’s better than standing in the rain, actually it turns out way better.  One corridor takes you through a year of Tyrolean life (Christmas, Easter, etc, etc) another through a Tyrolean life (birth, marriage, death, afterlife, etc).  Commingled with the exhibits were several stubes (parlors) from different homes built in the 1500’s to the 1700’s.  All with carved wood walls and ceilings and huge porcelain stoves. 

Back to the Altstadt for lunch.  All the tables under the umbrellas were taken but we found an empty table under an arch.  Ten minutes later, the heavens opened, and everyone scrambled except us.  We finished our lunch in moderate dryness.

Back to the Altstadt for dinner.  Indoors this time for Thai food.  Unfortunately, it was difficult to get around because there were so many people there for the Gassen Fest (Street Fair).  Wait, wait…the Gassen Fest is where people buy glasses of wine for next to nothing and stand around drinking.  Deb’s not sure, but I think we can handle this, at least for a little while!  

The rain finally cleared in the evening, and we saw that the mountain we climbed yesterday was covered with snow!

Tomorrow, Interlaken, Switzerland

Faktoria - Innsbruck, Austria (Day 1 of 2)

 

3 mile walk along the river

When I was working it took a few days to slow down on a vacation, now that I am retired, it takes a few days to speed up!  We have two days here, and tomorrow is predicted to be a washout.  So, we are going to do Innsbruck in a day.  First a walk along the Inns (that’s the river, which is mostly glacial runoff).  We are staying in one of the row houses along the river, with the Alps in the background.

The weather has gone from the low 50’s jacket weather to the high 70’s short sleeve weather during the course of the morning.  So we need to adjust accordingly.  We have tickets to go up to the top of the Nordkette in the afternoon, with temperatures in the high 40’s, so we have packed some cold weather gear.

Somehow, we find the “altstadt” (the old city), all pedestrian alleys with hundreds of restaurants.  Most of them are “gasthauses” (street food) which apparently rhymes with ghastly in German (at least the hostess at our hotel made it sound that way, she was not a fan!)

The trip to the top of Nordkette required a cable car, two gondolas, and a 200’ climb.  The trip down required a Pilsner beer and a Hugo (an elderflower drink).  

Dinner, back in the Altstadt was celeriac schnitzel and spätzle.  After so much sausage, vegetarian day was in order.

Happy 78th Birthday !!!

Tomorrow…who knows?

Faktoria - Innsbruck, Austria

 This is the scary travel day that I have been dreading since I booked this trip, six months ago.  It is suppose to be the most scenic train ride in Europe, but if you leave too late, it will be too dark to see anything by the time you get to the scenic part.  The scenic part is the train from Graz to Innsbruck. Backing up the time we need to clean up and leave the VRBO by 6:00 to catch the train to Graz, with 10 minutes to transfer to the train to Innsbruck with all our luggage.  In the words of Alfred E. Neumann, “What, me worry?” (It actually worked out fine)

It would be hard to know if it was the most scenic train ride, but certainly was incredible, with the Alps rising up all around us.  We were in a “panorama” car with huge windows (that were surprisingly clean).

Took a taxi through Innsbruck to the hotel, so we have no idea what it’s really like. We have two days to sush it out!  Every ethnicity known to man within walking distance for dinner. We choose pizza.  We sit down at 6:00 and the waiter says the table is reserved for 8:00, so no dilly-dally.  Is there anyone that makes a pizza last for two hours?  We get the house specialty pizza - sausage and potatoes!  Now we know we’re in Austria!  

Tomorrow we explore Innsbruck.

Vienna, Austria (Last Day)

The most visited site in Vienna is the Schönbrunn Palace.  It has 1,441 rooms  and an enormous garden.  We’re not so interested in looking at the 1,441 rooms (well actually you can only see 29 of them, and no one knows who actually counted them), but the gardens sound interesting.  Because it is the most visited, it is also the most expensive to visit.  Although, it’s not published, they offer a garden only ticket for a much more reasonable price.  I felt like I just won the lottery!  

Lemon/Lime tree

The gardens are immense (google says 435 acres) with massive fountains, all built in the 1770’s.  One is designed to look like the ruins of a Roman temple.  Another has nonsensical hieroglyphics looking writing (hieroglyphics were not translated until 1832).  

Deb used her secret maze trick to skillfully navigate a couple of mazes.  I am unfortunately sworn to secrecy.  Once completed, you can climb up on a platform to watch the struggling masses.

The final attraction of the day was the Gloriette. A gloriette is by definition a “little room” elevated above a garden.  I guess if your summer home has 1,441 rooms, it’s all relative.  The Gloriette requires a pretty steep climb and has fantastic views of the entire city.  The “little room” is now a restaurant that seats a couple of hundred customers.

As predicted, the rain came in the afternoon, which was fine.  We used the time to pack for the rest of our journey.

Gloriette 

From Deb - you can graph similar plants. We tried  to graph a lemon tree with a lime tree in North. But we moved. So this was interesting to see!

Vienna, Austria (First Day Back)

 

St. Stephen Cathedral 

It’s so hard to visit a place like Vienna because there is so much to see and do.  On the other hand there are so many people seeing and doing things.  It’s my day to pick!  It’s a gorgeous day, so I decide to take a nice walk.  My go to is the All Trails app.  Well that narrowed it down to approximately 500 potential walks in Vienna.  I stumble onto the Architectural Trail, a street walk about 4 miles long that coincidentally ends only 250 ft from our VRBO.  The trail starts at Stephanplatz.  As we come out of the subway we are face to face with a massive gothic cathedral, St Stephan’s.  

The walk started with incredible architectural sights including the Vienna Opera House but as it got closer to lunch time, we sorta stopped looking up and started looking around for food.  Deb finally got her Käsekreiner sausage with mustard!

We finished the walk at the VRBO, without doing the last 250 ft.  We have packed 10 days of clothes, we’ve been gone for 7,  there is a laundromat in Migennes, France (hopefully) where we will be in 9 days, with 8 days left on the trip.  Long and short of it is, today is laundry day.  So having done a few loads, I feel driven to do that last 250 ft.

Art Museum 

We end up at an Art Museum dedicated to Freidreich Hundertwasser who was a painter and an architect.  We had seen the building he designed on the first day, which was fascinating.  The museum is in the same style.  He wanted to bring the natural world into building design.  For example, the ground is never completely flat, so floors shouldn’t be either.  He was a tad eccentric, but Deb and I were infatuated.  

Tomorrow is Deb’s turn.

Vienna, Austria (back again)

 

Today we returned to our VRBO from Hallstatt.  Austrian trains are incredibly (certainly by US standards) punctual.  I got an email a few weeks ago warning me that today’s train would be arriving 4 minutes later than expected. “Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience”.  

Our return to Vienna is in three parts: a ferry, a regional train, and a bullet train.  There is exactly 10 minutes between each leg.  Deb is having no part in that.  We take 8:45 ferry instead of the 10:15, we take the 10:04 regional train instead of the 10:32.  So we have time for a walk along the shore before the first train and a pastry in a local bakery before the bullet train.  And Deb can live with that.

I think that it would be nice to just eat in the VRBO but it’s Sunday and the Supermarket is closed.  We stop at our local cafe for a Beer and a Lillet,  pull up the menu for the food stand across the street on Google, translate the unfamiliar words, put on our big boy pants, and order Chicken Kabap Bowls.  Success!  We have take out! 

Tram O

Hallstatt, Upper Austria

This trip is comprised of “travel days” and “do things days.”  For every place we go we travel, do things, repeat!  So today was a “do things” day but unfortunately, it was also a cloudy rainy day.  Our plan was to take the funicular to the top of the mountain and walk the “sky walk,” one of those glass floored platforms that hangs over the edge of a cliff, and then visit the salt mines that are oldest mines in Europe.  My poor modestly acrophobic and claustrophobic wife must have been disappointed that we had to cancel.  She’s a trooper!

Instead we searched for some cough medicine (to no avail).  Then we looked for an umbrella and some Hallstatt centric Christmas presents.  Realizing that our train travel tomorrow would go through lunch, we bought some sandwiches and drinks for the trip.  

Our room 3rd floor, right

On to lunch, a tour of the local museum, drinks dinner and a chat with our eldest son.  Of course, people watching was high on the list, and they didn’t disappoint.  We have been surprised by the number of Asian and Arab tourists that come here.  Deb googled it - there are 780 residents in the town and typically 10,000-30,000 visitors (even on a rainy day)

Tomorrow, back to our little hideaway in Vienna.

Hallstatt, Upper Austria

 Today is our first train ride (many more to come) in Austria.  We are leaving most of our stuff in Vienna, taking just a small backpack to Hallstatt, a picturesque town in the middle of Austria.  

Yesterday, we learned that in World War I, American soldiers brought the “American Flu” to Austria.  Well, it appears that the Austrians are paying it forward.  Deb and I have both caught colds.

The train ride was through rolling hills, until it wasn’t.  The landscape became strikingly rugged in an instant.  The town of Hallstatt was only accessible by ship until the late 1800’s.  You can now drive here, but the train station is on the other side of the lake, so you need to take a small passenger ferry to get to the town.  We stopped for a beer and an aperol spritz.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped to share some beef goulash.  And yet, there was room for an apple strudel.  

Tomorrow is suppose to be cold and rainy.  Not exactly sure what that mean to our plans.

Vienna, Austria (Day 2)

 I think we are finally adjusted to Austria time.  Today’s challenge is city transportation.  Vienna is suppose to have one of the best.  It turns out that our first challenge is to not get run over by a tram.  Not as easy as it sounds, they are, for the most part, silent.  If you get in front of one, they tinkle a little bell.

Hofburg Palace

After escaping death by tram, getting a breakfast pastry (Deb’s choice - a 3” cold margherita pizza!), we plan our first public transportation trip.  Tickets are purchased on line, and usually not checked.  Of course, travelling without a ticket has severe consequences (apparently so bad that they can’t talk about it).

Deb wants to get a sense for the history of Austria, so we go to the Inner Stadt where all the museums are. There are dozens of them and thousands of tourists.  The history museum starts in 1918 and goes to 2018.  After an hour or so of very detailed exhibits, we are as educated as we are going to get.  Deb is getting flashbacks of her teenage visit to Germany and needs a Bratwurst fix!  We find a würstrelstand, and devour some good German sausages (small faux pax - next with mustard!) 

Drinks and dinner without a hitch.  We are getting to be travel pros.  Tomorrow,  Hallstadt.

Vienna, Austria (Day 1)

 

The timezone change is getting to us, but we are troopers!  After our morning nap, we took a nice stroll around the area.  Everything is very baroque - lavish, over the top.  Even buildings built in the 50’s are in a baroque style.  Then all of a sudden we come upon the Hundertwasser building.  Freidenreich Hundertwasser was apparently not a fan of baroque architecture, or any other architecture for that matter.  He was more a visualist with an environmental slant.

As we walked around, the meal alarm in Deb’s head went off.  We looked at a few al fresco dining spots, but Deb realized that she had not studied up on Austrian dining protocol and was unwilling to make an egregious dining faux pax on her first day.  I was willing to risk it, since every place was apparently filled with the dinner crowd.  Then I realized that my internal clock was way off…it was actually the lunch crowd.  We still had several hours to go for dinner.  So we got two good Austrian pretzels at the grocery store, took them back to the VRBO, and took another nap.

Once Deb had googled Austrian dining protocols, she was good to go, and dinner, as far as we know, was a smashing success.  

Deb made it to 7:30 PM local time before settling in for a good night’s rest.  I made it until at least 7:45!