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.