We docked the ship in Bilbao, Spain (I use the word “we” rather casually. I had almost nothing, ok, absolutely nothing to do with the docking of the ship. But we did find ourselves docked in Bilbao when we woke up. For this day I had booked an excursion to the costal town of San Sebastian, Spain.
This seaside town is a combination of the old town (Parte Vieja) and the new modern parts of the city. This city was made popular in 1896 by Queen Regent Maria Christina. Today the city is a relaxed family resort and home to an International Film Festival every September. It was apparently going on when I was there but evidently, they did not want me showing up, so I was not made aware of this.
It was lovely hour or so drive from the port to San Sebastian. We are today in the Basque region of Spain. Evidently the regions of Spain are glad to be a part of the Spanish Nation, but they also are proud of there individual history and language. The people all speak both Basque and Spanish. For example in Basque the name of the city San Sebastian is Donostia.
I walked from the drop off point near the beautiful beach to the old town and the Church of St. Vincente, the oldest structure in town dating from the 12th century. It was rebuilt in the 16th century. It is incredibly beautiful.
I strolled (huffed and puffed a bit) up the winding road to the top of the hill in the old town that looks over both the bay and the ocean. It was quite nice. I met and talked with several folks and helped take pictures for the couples.
I walked back along the beach that surrounds the bay. It is a lovely sand beach that had a couple of artists making sand art at low tide and will make like an etch-a-sketch and high tide will wipe the canvas clean.
It was a very good day.
Me, wondering how I could help dock the ship in Bilbao, Spain.My Lovely bride Penny, relaxing in BilbaoJen Brown ready to explore Bilbao she is blissfully unaware that there is a giant arachnid about to eat her.The city beachSan Sebastian beachSanta Clara Island is located in the middle of the bay.The Plaza Cervantes: Miguel de Cervantes was the author of Don Quixote. Here we remember Don Quixote and his Squire Sancho Panza.The city hall of San Sebastian
The Church of Saint Vicente MartirThe old city preparing to go to battle with the new city across the bay.A black pigeon for JenSand artist Numero Unoclose up of sand artist Numero uno
A day at sea. It was relaxing. Most everyone slept in a bit this morning. There were lots of activities and entertainment on the ship schedule. We did not do a lot but we did a few things.
The highlight of the day was at 10:30 when some of us brave souls ventured into the Royal Escape Room: The Observatorium. (I know, that is not a real word but it is the one that Royal Caribbean put in their app, so, live with.)
We had an hour to solve 4 puzzles. Go ahead and guess who it was that solve one of them. Need a clue? Sorry no clues but just remember that I am writing this blog. Go ahead, guess. What did you say? “Penny?” Well normally you might be right, but this time it was ME! We had 6 blocks to put into the wall star map. They had to be in the right orientation. We had 4 correct and two we were guessing. So, I just used my logic and tried the two blocks in all the orientations possible and in a few minutes, there was music and lights.
The 10 people in the room were unable to solve any of the other puzzles. Fortunately, they let us out (only because the next group wanted to come in). We had a fun, even if somewhat frustrating, time.
We also played a trivia game. We did not win that either.
The evening entertainment was a wonderful entertainer that juggled and told jokes. You can see parts of his act here on YouTube.
Enjoy this clip.
It was a very good day.
Hail, hail most of the gang is ready to be entertained.Pete Matthews was quite entertaining
New Cruising Rule: from now on morning will occur at midmorning or later. Getting up at 6:30 is not cool. Although the shower felt pretty good. Back on the intermittent fasting lifestyle. No breakfast for me although I still maintain that the first meal I eat is indeed me breaking the fast since last evening. Penny, my lovely bride, ordered me coffee with her room service breakfast.
I did manage to make it to the Royal Theater to meet with my excursion group #41. We were guided to the bus area and group 41 (consisting of 12 Americans and 2 people from the UK) met our guide named Sophia. We then set off for Versailles, the seat of the French governments during the reigns of Louis 13, 14 ,15, and 16. These folks reigned here from 1601 to 1793.
This was my second time to visit the palace. It has not changed much. The exception may be the number of people visiting.
After the visit to the palace, we had free time for about 2 hours. I opted to not walk out into the garden, which are magnificent. I opted to stroll through the town of Versailles. It was quite pleasant other than the fact that the banks in the town take the term Banker’s Hours very seriously. The were closed between the hours 11:00 and 2:30.
I did find a nice Chinese restaurant. These are a worldwide phenomenon. I ordered chicken noodle soup which on first spoonful appeared to be chicken and lettuce soup. I did a little more search and I found plenty of noodles that were hiding by being almost transparent. My main course was sticky rice and caramel chicken. I know what everyone else said, “yuke!” But it was quite good. It was kind of like sweet and sour chicken. There were no Kraft caramels used.
Our guide was a wealth of information about the Normandy region we drove through to get to the Palace of Versailles. We also got a grand lesson in the history of kings who want to be emperors of France. We heard about (note I did not say learned about) all the rebellions that have occurred in France.
Back to the palace. The palace was largely destroyed in WWII. It was subsequently rebuilt, rewoven (tapestries and bed curtains), and repainted. Fortunately, the paintings were largely removed to safe areas.
The grand hall of mirrors is the most recognized in the then Palace and now Museum. There are 14 huge floor-to-ceiling mirrors that are on the east side of the room, and they face west and the 14 matching windows that look out on the magnificent gardens. The gardens took 50 years to design and grow. The hall was commissioned by Louis XIV and built from 1678 to 1684. At that time in history Mirror technology was new and had been cornered by the People in Venance, Italy. If you wanted a mirror you had to get it from them or look in a calm pool of water. So, Louis XIV sent spies to steal the technology and they did and they perfected it even more and voila you have mirrors in which a person can see all of themselves, not just their face.
Also associated with Versailles was the young wife of Louis XVI, Marie Antonette. When they married he was Louis Auguste Dauphin of France and she was Douphine of France. On 10 May 1774 Louis ascended to the throne and soon after she became queen.
The famous story of Marie Antonette saying that the people who were rioting because they could not buy bread: “Let them eat cake!” our guide put a kinder spin on the incidence. Marie had been brought up with such wealth and luxury that she asked the question upon hearing the clamoring rebelling people: “is it not possible for them to eat cake?” a much kinder rendering of the story. But alas neither would have worked. She was executed by Guillotine after the rebellion succeeded and the people arrested and executed them both.
A good day (mine not Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette).
Versailles grand entrance to the palace.Our guide Sophia Louis XIV adopted the sun as his personal emblem, symbolizing his supreme power and the idea that everything in his kingdom revolved around him, much like the planets revolve around the sun. Consequently, suns are everywhere.The rooms are pretty opulent And the ceilings are nothing to sneeze at.a few folks joined me.wedding at CanaThe Kings bed. Due to the belief that lying in bed was too much like being dead, the king sat up on pillows and recieve guests thereHall of mirrorscan you find waldo?The gardens outsideMarie Antoinette and her four children. One died in early childhood and Little Louis points to the empty crib.The crowning of Marie Antoinette
We had considered going to the Titanic Museum, but instead we opted to walk the short distance onto High Street in Southampton. High street is what most cities and towns in England call their main street.
Our mission was to find a wrist brace for Jen. She had an accident and hurt her wrist. She was a little skeptical about the effectiveness of an over-the-counter device. But with the recent hairline fracture in the wrist of our granddaughter. We kind of insisted she wear one. We went to Boots pharmacy which is the oldest pharmacy still operating England. There is one in almost every town.
They had wrist braces and one of the boxes was opened so she could try it on, and she did. She slipped it on and tightened the Velcro and stared to moan a bit in pleasure. She said it immediately felt better. Mission accomplished.
We began to walk back to the hotel and the route took us through the city park. Watching the parents and kids playing in the park. Jen also did a little bird watch with our pleasant stroll. She spotted a black bird with white wing bands. She used her app and lo and behold a Eurasian Mockingbird was added to her lifetime of sightings.
Back at the hotel about 10:15 began my little confusion about the Uber folks. We had ordered Sunday evening 3 small Ubers. We had decided that 6 people and 14 or so bag would not fit very well. We opted for 3 smaller cars to take us to the Port. Well, when I checked on mine it had gone awry, and I no longer had one reserved. I ordered anther on so we had three Ubers coming at 12:15. The port is just a 3 minute drive from the hotel if there is no traffic. The Uber app then sent me a text saying that the price had dropped, and I clicked on it thinking I would Save a few pounds. But rather than changing the price of the Uber I had ordered, it sent me a fourth Uber. The other 3 were still scheduled. I did know that after the driver is assigned that you cannot cancel the ride. So, we wound up have the fourth one pick me up and take me to the port. The other 3 Ubers arrived 15 minutes later. To the casual observe it looked like Penny and I had a fight. We all made to the port.
We all got to the ship and checked in. We had access to the rooms, but some folks had to eat quickly while others of us dropped our small bags in the room. It is good to unpack and think we be here for 7 nights.
look what is waiting for us to come on board today.Southampton has part of a wall and gate still left over from the 1400My bride and I in the park in the center of the city.A friendly reminders tomy friends and family to get both the flu and covid Jab!
Today was our transfer day to Southampton to take our cruise out tomorrow.
We are traveling to London from Paris, and we decided to take the Eurostar train that goes through the Chunnel. The Chunnel (short for Channel Tune) was opened in 1994 and connects Britian and France. There are two train tunnels and one service tunnel. The English Channel is relatively shallow. The sea bottom is part of the limestone crust that you can see in the White Cliffs of Dover, in England and the cliffs at Normandy beach in France.
To check in for the international Eurostar train at Gare du Norde is much like an airport. The check in took almost an hour and the wait with the nearly 900 fellow passengers is a bit crowded.
The ride is quite nice and there is not much to see when you enter the almost 32 mile tunnel part of the trip. But we made it.
We got to St. Pancras International train station and found our driver that was going to drive us to see Stonehenge then on to Southampton where we will spend one night before boarding our cruise.
The ride through the tunnel as uneventful and stress free.
I Southampton we found, with help of the hotel clerk, a nice English pub for dinner. The pub caters to families and other people just looking for a pint.
It was a good day.
Stonehenge group minus 1
dancing queen and drum coreGentleman who wanted a picture made that was a little unusual.
Today began with glorious anticipation but the end of the day was a bit of a disaster. But that later.
On the agenda for this rather rainy day was a split roster. Jen, Elvin and Ray (JER) were going to the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris. Penny, Patrica ANN, and Marilyn (PAM) planned a relaxed morning around the hotel.
The JER group had purchased tickets for the 9:00 AM opening of the doors to the Louvre. Having been here before, I suggested we should arrive at no later than 8:15 to enter the queue.
We took an uber and at 8:10 we arrived at the grand palace of French kings. It was the royal residence until 1682 when Louis XIV built the hunting lodge that became the country palace of Versailles. The entrance to the now Louvre Museum is a huge glass pyramid that was design by the renowned architect I. M. Pei. It is located in the middle of the once royal courtyard with 3 wings of the museum located around it in three sides of a rectangle.
When we arrived, there were roped off queues with ticket times marked. We joined the 9:00 queue. There were only about 8 people with more ambition than we had and were ahead of us. Very soon the masses began to arrive and by 8:45 there were a good 10,000 people in the lines behind us. I exaggerate a wee bit but not very much.
One of the curious and funny things that happened was due to the rain that was predicted. The Weather app said we would be on the edge of the rain shower and may or may not get wet. It had not been raining up to this point. But about 8:45 I felt a couple of rain drops. Immediately, and I exaggerate not, it was within a few seconds, several umbrella vendors appeared out of seemingly thin air and began hawking their wares. They shouted: “umbrella, umbrella, umbrella, ummmmbrellllaahh!” I had one with me so did not partake.
The plan for Elvin and I was to make our way as quickly as possible to the Leonardo da Vinci painting Mona Lisa (1503 to 1506). I have seen the painting before, but it is a must see for first time visitors to the Louvre. We made it and the crowd was only a bit faster. The wait to get to the rope line was only a few seconds. The rope keeps the masses about 25 feet from the painting. The painting of the lady with the enigmatic smile is much smaller (30 by 21 inches) than we seem to think it should be. It seems that the comment you hear from everyone in every language is “It is smaller than I had imagined” is the most ubiquitous sound you hear.
At the other end of the room there are no crowds, and very little attention is paid to the massive painting by Paolo Veronese entitled “The Wedding at Cana” (1562). It is 22 feet by 32 feet in size. Jesus sitting in the center with 130 frolicking figures wondering if the wine coolers might not have been a better choice. It is an amazing painting. Everywhere you look you see something going on. There are people tasting the wine and seeming to mutter: Man, this is good, where did it come from! Cats and dogs wander through the crowd.
We left and for about two hours we wandered through ancient pre-history, Greek and Roman history and near history French events and painting. We saw Greek Barbie dolls dating from 3000 BCE. Small clay figures with little detail. They are older than the pyramids and as old as writing itself.
We wandered by the Venus de Milo (the goddess of love) around 100 BCE. It is a statue sans arms found in Melos (a Greek island). It is one of the best examples of Greek art with well-proportioned features of body and space.
At the far end of this hall and in juxtaposition to Venus stands Ares (or Mars if you are Roman) the god of war.
We also saw the furnishings from Marie-Antoinette from her bedroom and commode. She was pretty opulent.
We met Jen and the three of us ate lunch in the Louvre cafe. While waiting a bit in the entrance, Elvin saw an old friend from the dairy industry; Elvin had a good time catching up. It is a small world afterall.
We returned to the hotel about 1:00 and met up with the three other ladies. All but Elvin had tickets to a public rehearsal of the Paris Ballet at 3:00. Jen was excited to see the two performers go through their paces. There was the South African resident who was the resident choreographer, his co-choreographer, the piano player and the two dancers. They were delightful to watch, and they answered questions from the audience of about 500 people where the ballet stage is located.
That evening we wondered around and found a very nice place for dinner. The waiter was a man with our sense of humor, and it was a fun evening with great food.
Our guide trainee, Paulette, from Paris put us on the trail of a great place for gelato near our hotel. I was in heaven.
This is when the bodily wastes hit the fan. Penny got an email from the hotel saying a guest had found her coin purse in the hotel staircase. She had left that purse in our room safe. We arrived back at the hotel and a man was at the desk talking how his credit cards from his room safe had been taken and used during the afternoon.
Penny’s coin purse had $155 in it and left in the room safe. I immediately went to our room and the safe would not unlock with the code I had entered in the morning. I went back to the desk and the clerk came to the room with a key for the safe and opened it. In addition to the coin purse, a soft sided jewelry case was gone. Her passport was still there. Nothing else in the room had been disturbed.
The hotel manager on the phone was not very helpful. He said he could not compensate us for the losses and that we needed to file a police report and give it to the hotel so they could submit that to their insurance. One of the desk people said he would walk me to the police station and translate if needed. Police station 1 not too far from the hotel could not take the report at 10:00 at night and we should come back in the morning. No dice we were leaving France by train in the morning. Maybe Police station 2 will work. Another trek and the same story. Not tonight but he gave me a website to make the report online.
The website worked but would not accept a US cell phone number in the US phone number format it keeps saying incorrect format.
I gave up. Maybe tomorrow.
3 out of 6 folks at the Louvre Museum saiting to get in at 9:00if you want to see a picture of Mona Lisa – google it.wedding at CanaElvin is glad the woman being attacked by a centaur is winning.Elvin is disappointed in not seeing the invisible sculpture Venus de Milo the goddess of loveAres the god of warMarie Antoinette’s furnishings
from left to right: the choreographer, male lead dancer, female lead dancer, the pianist, the assistent choreographer, the show MC.Paris professional dog walkerour dinner restauranton the street we walked by from the restaurant via the Sien River to the Hotel
The plans for today were a bit more relaxed than the previous day. We agreed to leave the hotel at 8:30 and take an uber to the Sacre Coeur (Sacred Heart) Church at the top of the hill in the Montmartre District of Paris. Montmartre is the artsy district and one of the oldest arrondissements (or administrative districts) in Paris. The districts of Paris are numbered from 1 to 20 and they are in a spiral beginning at the city center where the Louvre Museum is located and going out to the edges. In the mid 1800s Napolean the Third (the nephew of the famous hand in his coat general) commissioned Baron Haussmann to oversee the refurbishing of the medieval city of Paris. It was this renovation that gives Paris its largely uniformed architecture and the rules that only allowed buildings that were no more than a certain height. Thus, the center of Paris has no skyscrapers. There was a special dispensation given to one man named Eiffel in 1889. His tower was originally seen as a temporary building to be used as a center piece for the 1889 World’s Fair. It was meant to be taken down after 20 years. But it became very useful for long distant radio transmission during WW I. Of course, now the center of Paris is remarkable for having no tall buildings other than the tower.
The Sacre Coeur Church is made from a special marble that is gleaming white and has the characteristic of not staining when it gets wet. We arrived at the church and had a little over an hour to take a walk down the hill via steps to the starting point of the 10:30 start of our pastry and sweets tour. This walk from the top would take us a bit longer time than Google maps said the walk would take because we are old. Our allotted time in the lovely church was cut to about 5 minutes. The church was very beautiful.
The pastry tour was pretty fabulous. Our guide was James and his trainee was Paulette. James is from Taiwan and Paulette is a Parisian. They gave us some history of this region of Paris and guided us from one shop to another. At each shop, James would purchase a specialty treat for us to sample. We had croissants, cream puffs, chocolate candies, macarons and 2 other delights. It was a very pleasant time.
At the end of the tour, we took an uber back to the top of the hill (no way we were going to make that reverse trek) to the arts square where Jen conversed with her fellow kindred spirits. She was in heaven talking to the lady that paints chickens as she is also a bird painter. We ate lunch there at a sidewalk café and were serenaded by a street performer. It was fun.
Our next event was to go and tour the Palais Garnier Opera House. It was a magnificent building. The actual auditorium was not open but the grand staircases and fabulous ceilings and the Great Hall where you probably could hold a chariot race if you were of a mind to do so. (A slight exaggeration, perhaps.)
After we all oohed and aahed at the Opera House we made our way across the street to the Galeries Lafayette Department Store. It is 6 stories high and a huge city block in area. It is 750,000 square feet of shopping location. My good friend Alan Holliman put us onto this store. On the 6 story there is a cafeteria that serves okay food at reasonable prices. Only a few of us tourist folks were there. The rest were Parisian shoppers. The Piece de Resistance was the roof terrace where you can walk around and get a bird’s eye view of the city and its surrounds. The store is located on one of the tallest hills in the city and thus you are higher than most other buildings. It was a good place to see the lovely city. We left the department store about 5:00 and the uber we ordered took a while to arrive at our location, but we made it home.
Tomorrow three of us are tackling the Louvre and 5 of us are going to the public rehearsal of the ballet company. The only ballet performance scheduled in the time we were here.
Another good day!
The Sacre Coeur Church Pat asking why she decided to come to Paris with these lunatics?Hail, hail the gang’s all here. We made it down the hill.
The creators of these heavenly sweetsPenny Jen and Ray asking what the next heavenly treat will be.Fashionable young women in ParisParis borrowed this windmill from The Netherlands (Wink, Wink)in a park in Montmartre a wall has “I love you!” written in most if not all languages.Waiting for lunch and listening to the street musician.
The locals join in on the fun.
Love of music is no respecter of age.Palais Garnier Opera House Grand Hall. Chariot Race anyone?Palais Garnier Opera House Grand Staircase Can you find my lovely bride?Palais Garnier Opera House the Grand peoplePalais Garnier Opera House Grand CeilingPalais Garnier Opera House Grand Staircase part deux
Galeries Lafayette Department StoreGaleries Lafayette Department Store terrace and the Paris sky line
A little contest: How many sayings can you think of that have the meaning of these: “You have to roll with the punches.”; “If at first you don’t succeed keep on sucking until you do suck seed.”; “When life gives you lemons make Lemonade.”; “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
Today did not go as planned but it turned out to be a pretty wonderful day.
The plan #1 was to go to the Orsay Museum at 9:30. The way it worked out was that we arrived at about 9:05 and got in the line that was for people with purchased tickets. There were only about 6 people in front of us. 9:30 came and left and they had not opened the entrance. They soon announce that the opening would be delayed. Around 10:30 they opened the doors. Rick Steves audio tour advised us to look at a few great works of art and then make our way by escalator to the fifth floor and work our way down. I found the escalator and it was not running and was roped off. Rats I will have to climb the stairs. But the stairs were also blocked. That was when I asked one of the staff how to get upstairs. He announced that all the upper floors were not opened today. I went to the information desk and asked the nice lady “what gives?” She said that due to the labor strike today the upper floors were not opened. I soon got a text from the Orsay Museum saying that yes, the upper floors were closed and that a refund would be given to all ticket holders.
So after everyone got their fill of the first floor paintings and statues (I did get to see the painting of the maternal parent by some guy named Whistler. Which was cool.
We gathered outside the Orsay at about 11:45, way before we were scheduled to leave. Plan #2 was to go to La Fontaine de Mars a French restaurant for lunch at 2:00 (yes a late lunch, but it was the first seating of the day and yes I know that all the restaurants in Paris are French restaurants including McDonalds.). We arrived at about 1:30 and were told that they could seat us early. The meal as very good. One of us order escargot. It was not yours truly. There was a special of veal stew and braised beef with French Fries – correction they were just fries. It was an almost 2-hour lunch. Quite relaxing.
At some point around this time Plan #3, a visit to the top of the Eiffel tower at 5:00, was crushed when I got another text and was told that the Eiffel tower was closed all day due to the same labor strike. Pivot.
We walked to the Eiffel tower and got to see it from the bottom but not the top. What to do with this time block. We had planned on taking a seine river cruise if time allowed. Time was available in our topsy-turvy day. So, we booked a one-hour tour and had a relaxing time cruising up and back down the river (it may have been down and then back up, I am unsure).
While relaxing on the boat we had time to talk about another option to replace the canceled Eiffel towner tour. It turns out that the Eiffel tower has a five-minute twinkling light show every hour on the hour starting about an hour after sunset. Tonight the sunset was 7:57. The first twinkles would start at 9:00. We had about 3 hours to kill after this. Having had a late lunch no one was particularly hungry. But we thought we might be persuaded to have some desert. We shopped a few cafes and picked one. Very nice wait staff and good food. The selected foods for dinner included a chicken green salad, chocolate lava cake with ice cream, a small cheese plate, and a large meat and cheese plate, and an order of crepes with strawberry jam. Three guess who had the salad and who ordered a second desert.
The internet suggested that one of the best places to view the twinkling lights on the Eiffel tower was the Pont de Bir-Hakeim bridge. We made our way from the dinner restaurant to the bridge about 8:30. There was not a huge crowd at the middle of the bridge that juts out and where the monument to La France Renaissante was located. Also located there was a photographer that set up a place to get lovely pictures of people in love during the twinkling.
The twinkling lights were not a disappointment. It was brief but ooh so lovely. The boats going up the river kept us entertained as we waited for the light show to start.
For a day that was filled with plans gone awry, this day was fabulous.
the crew at the Orsay by the elephant.These were the poor souls who arrived after us.the 4 people on the left are the fortunate folks who arrived before us.Guess who?doing what tourist are paid to do while touring.The Eiffel tower from down the street.The Eiffel tower from much closerToo close to the Eiffel towerThe eiffel tower about 30 minutes after sunset from the BridgeThe love photographer set this up.
I set my alarm for 6:00 AM to be ready to be picked up by daughter Candace at 7:30 to be taken to the airport. I had forgotten to tell my bladder about this plan, and I was rudely awakened at 5:35 by my bladder’s agenda. Such is the life of a gentleman of 7 plus decades.
All the last-minute items to go in the suitcase were packed and off we went at 7:30 to MCI. MCI, that brings me to a conundrum I have struggled with for years. Mid Continent International airport equals MCI, the airport code for Kansas City Airport. I understand that there was one or two direct flights from Kansas City to Mexico back in the days of prop planes. I digress.
Daughter Candace drove us to the airport, and we quickly got our bags checked and made our way to our gate after a brief stop for a cup of coffee. I could not resist getting a cup of joe from the Parisi coffee shop as we headed to Paris. There is no longer a Starbucks at the airport but never fear Parisi is maintaining the tradition of overpriced and very strong coffee.
The first leg of our journey was to Detroit and was an uneventful journey. We had arranged to meet our dear friends Wes and Lorna Hardin. We met Wes and Lorna when we were in Graduate School in Logan, Utah. They are delightful people. We arranged to meet them for lunch at the Westin Hotel which is integrated into the Detroit airport. We walked the hall following the airport signs to the hotel. We came to a major hallway intersection and turned left and asked an employee how to get to the hotel: exit the terminal turn right on the sidewalk and voila you are at the Westin. I tell you this story because as we left the restaurant, we asked an employee how to return to the airport gates. He turned and pointed to the private TSA check point a few yards from the restaurant. We had taken one of my dad’s infamous “long cuts” to arrive at the hotel.
The meal we consumed with our friends was very good and conversation was superb. It was good to catch up with the Hardin family.
We are now on the airplane in Detroit readying to fly to Pari! I am about to take a little red pill which I anticipate will allow me to sleep until we reach France.
Seven hours later: the pill worked tolerably well. I slept on and off for about 6 hours of the 7h 19m trip. The fun will soon begin in the timeless City of Lights!
Five of the intrepid crew are on this plane together. Locating them should not be too difficult when we arrive in Paris. Sister in-law Pat is flying solo across the Atlantic from Houston. She is scheduled to arrive about 30 mutes after we do.
Charles De Gaulle airport has devised a master plan to make sure all arriving people get their 6 miles of walking in before needing to walk in Paris. The baggage claim is 7 miles from the arrival gate. There is an 8-mile que to go through passport control which has 2 operating gates to scan your passport. Then it is another 9-mile trek to the taxi stand. Oh, to add insult to injury when we arrived at the carousel to get our bags the good folks had removed our bags to a mystery location so they could load the next flights bags. I exaggerate but only a little.
After being assured by the taxi representative inside the terminal that they would have a van for 6 people and 12 bags all for the low cost of 66 eros, we were guided to the taxi stand. After starting to load the bags I confirmed with our driver that cost. He said with all these bags it would be 82 eros. Too late to back out now. When we arrived at our hotel 6 hours later (it is a long way), I tried to pay with a credit card, and he asked if I had cash. I said I did not have eros but did have dollars. I happened to have $86 in my little coin purse and pulled those out. He thought about it and agreed. That is about $72 euros and he and I were both happy.
Our plan for day 1 is to mosey in the direction of Notre Dame Cathedral. I am very excited to see the restored version. On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in the roof space. The structure was virtually destroyed. They, with herculean effort, did manage to remove most of the art before the building collapsed. I recall seeing in 1993 the cathedral and it was beautiful but largely covered with a thin layer of soot from centuries of candles burning. Today it is bright and beautiful building that is virtually all new but the people of the Paris and the world managed to restore the exact nature of the building using the same materials, and construction methods that were originally employed. I can imagine seeing this ancient structure (that was begun in 1163 and completed in 1260) looking very much like it did when it was new.
Our purpose for the day was to stay awake until at least 7:30. We walked around the island where Notre Dame is located and oohed and aahed at the city we made our way to Odette’s bakery. This establishment was recommended by friends of Elvin as having the world’s greatest creampuffs. I have not sampled all of the world’s creampuffs, but these were dog-gone delicious.
I am pleased to report that Paris has improved their bakeries since 1993 when we came with the girls. The pastries in the windows looked divine but, evidently, they had not invented sugar back then and they tasted rather nondescript. So much better in 2025.
We started back to the hotel and some of our crew members were talking about going to bed soon. Others were planning a dinner trip. About 5:30 we all decided to go to find a place to eat. We ate at a pub not too far from the hotel and 4 out of 6 of us ordered the fish and chips. It was a nice way to end the longest day (not to denigrate the people who landed in Normandy in WWII).
It was a good day!
Opened the window this morning and this gentleman evidently was embarrassed that he had not returned to the North Pole before September.The girl with the red hear is snubbing the others.The Notre Dame Cathedralone of the senes from the life of Christ before the resurection.The gang after asking for forgiveness in the Cathedral. Cream puffs were eaten
Day 6 and last day of our Yellowstone adventure was a great one. It began by the five folks who were willing to dare, taking a raft down the Yellowstone River. Candace, Scott, Charlotte, Logan and I drove to the “Flying Pig Adventures Yellowstone Whitewater Rafting” company where we slithered into wetsuits, water shoes, and helmets. We were joined by 3 other folks and headed down stream. Charlotte and Logan did a lot of giggling as we rode over some mild rapids. It was a memorable experience.
The day began with a raft trip down the Yellowstone River.
About 11:00 all ten of us set off for what would be a spectacular last day of being in the park. On our last day we stopped at the Entrance to the park near Gardiner. We took the obligatory group photos at the Yellowstone National Park sign. We got pictures of the Arch that Teddy Rosevelt dedicated. He was hoping to attract more visitors. Many folks think Teddy was president when Yellowstone was made a park but in fact, it was Ulysses S Grant who signed the legislation to establish the park in 1872. We stopped in Mammoth Hot Springs, just 20 minutes up the curvy road, and had lunch at the Mammoth Hotel Grill.
After lunch we headed out to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. As we left a parking lot to see the canyon, Charlotte got to use her binoculars to get a very close-up view of a raven. The north end of the Canyon is very beautiful. The walk along the edge of the canyon wall is much more pleasant with the boardwalk and fences. From high above we could see a big-horned sheep way down at the bottom of the canyon. The geology of the ages can be seen along the exposed walls of the canyon. You may recall the columnar lava flow formation that the kids climbed on at Sheepeaters cliffs were the results of Lava flowing over the edge of cliff and cooling as it drops over. Here you can see the same formations that are several miles long near the top of the canyon wall. It was amazing to see the millions of years of geological history revealed in the walls of the canyon.
IYes, I can see the raven’s eye brows.Logan admiring the beauty of the canyonColumnar formations at the top
From the north end of the canyon, we drove along the ridge to Artist point. On the way we came across a Mama black bear and her two young cubs. The really great part was that one of the cubs was a cinnamon (blond) color and the other was a traditional black colored black bear. It was sprinkling a little and the bear family was down a hill a way. Quite a crowd stopped, and a ranger was there trying to keep folks safe. As the bears began to meander up the hill toward the road we headed back to our cars. The ranger had to tell many folks to get in their vehicles. Fortunately, as we began to move forward in our vans the mother told her two cubs to climb a tree. I got a video of the cubs coming down the tree. That was pretty dog gone special.
At artist point we got to see one of the coolest views of the canyon. The lower falls of the Yellowstone River is 309 feet tall. This is taller than Niagara Falls and by most people it is considered more spectacular by means of the Canyon it occupies. The view of the canyon walls at this point are filled with colors often caused by the minerals that occur in the rocks. The colors change appearance with the sun and clouds. It is amazing.
Chris and Amy and the lower falls
Our next stop was to see Yellowstone Lake. We ate dinner in the Lake Hotel. The hotel cafeteria was OK, but I was disappointed in the food I selected, pot roast. Now I don’t know about you but I would argue that to be legitimately called pot roast it requires the meat, potatoes, carrots and onions all be cooked in a single pot. The meat and potatoes and onions may have been in the same pot, but the carrots were left outside the kitchen doors until just before the meal was served. The carrots were not al dente they were in fact raw. I have nothing against raw carrots I just prefer not to have them served in my pot roast.
The view of the lake was fabulous from the front steps of the hotel. The elk and geese were hanging out by the lake front.
Our next stop was two types of thermal features we had not yet seen: the mud volcanoes and the acid pools. The mud volcanoes are where steam is rising through the cilia mud or water and creates a perpetual bubbling of mud and churning of the water. It was here in this parking lot that Candace and Amy encountered the bison wandering through the parking lot back in 1988. See previous post. The acid pools are water pools with gas that creates pH levels that are about what car battery or stomach acids are. The smell is just barely tolerable.
The toilets of rescue for Candace and Amy back in 1989
We set off home (back to the hotel in Gardiner) and took a different route than the way we came to get here. We were discussing all of the animals we had seen over the week. One of the animals we regretted not having seen was a grizzly bear. Suddenly up ahead, the cars were stopped and we got out and in the meadow below was a grizzly bear mama and two cubs. I use the term cubs rather cautiously. They were nearing the end of their family time with mom. Grizzly moms will tend to and shepherd her offsprings for 2 to 3 years. This family had been together for at least two years. Wes tells us that at some point the mama bear will inform her children it is time to move on. This will involve her running away from them or if that doesn’t work will growl and bite them. They are very serious about the kids leaving home.
It was a marvelous last day of a spectacular week in the premier National Park of America. Yellowstone was Americas first national park, and it remains the best know of all of our parks. I just pray that, our country does not fall prey to the material greed that wants to encroach on the park lands by leasing mineral rights.
I so very much love and appreciate our friends Wes and Lorna for giving the gift of their expertise to guide our family this week. Not many people get their own personal guide who happens to have been a park ranger. Thank you, dear friends.
Traveling with Ray Owens 