London

Wow! What a busy day.  I took off this morning and got a seat on the Big Bus double decker  bus tour.  It's a hop on / hop off arrangement with buses running every 7-10 minutes, and there was also a 30 minute boat cruise of the Thames river included as well.  I went crazy with the camera, taking about 250 or more tpictures. A lot of them are junk, taken from a moving bus or boat and under less-than-ideal conditions, but that's nothing new for me.  I tend to do that a lot, then cull out the real stinkers and keep the better shots after I get home.  I got off the bus to try to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but the crowds were insane.  Unless you get there a couple hours early and camp out to to protect a spot along the fence, there's absolutely no way you're going to get any good photos of that action.  What little of it I got to see was pretty cool, with all the ceremony involved, but the crowd ruined it for me, and I couldn't get out od there soon enough.  Likewise at the Tower of London...I had planned on taking one of the Yoeman Warder-led tours, but they were so mobbed, there was no way I was going to be able to hear anything he was saying. As a result I just toured the place myself, but it was disappointing just the same.   I did get a good shot of a guard patrolling his beat outside the building where the Crown Jewels are kept, though.  

I decided when I came over here that I would be adventurous when it came to eating.  I plan to never eat at the same place twice, except for breakfast, which is part of my cost of lodging.  As expensive as it is to eat here, I would be silly to pass up meals I have already paid for to buy it somewhere else.  I had a roast beef sandwich and chips at the cafe at the Tower of London for lunch, but for dinner this evening I visited an Indian restaurant and had chicken and lamb combo plate, prepared 3 different ways, and washed it down with a beer from India as well. That meal set me back 20 pounds, which is about $33.  Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not $33 good!

Well, that's all for tonight.  See you all soon.

                                                                                      

I Made It Across the Pond!

It was a long flight, and had a few tense moments in Chicago when the agents there couldn't find my reservation, but in the end it went off without a hitch.  I slept on the flight better this time, too, getting a whole 90 minutes or so on the way between continents.  Needless to say, was pretty tired when I finally got checked into my hotel today, but after an hour nap, got up and went exploring in jolly old London!  I've successfully used the Underground (subway) system, and managed to take in a few of the sights.  The Tower Bridge is as cool in person as it is on tv, and the atmosphere of the area around it is energetic and full of life.  Of course there were zillions of other tourists around taking pictures of the sights and of themselves, but it made for an entertaining afternoon.  I got back to the Paddington neighborhood where I'm staying, had fish & chips at a local hole in the wall joint, and skyped with Rhonda for a bit.  Now it's about 9:30 pm local time and I'm sipping on a little bottle of wine I picked up at the corner party store, and very soon I expect to be catching up on my sleep!  That's all for tonight folks, but I have a big day planned for tomorrow, so I better get my beauty sleep.

Test posting

Testing 1 2 3...hoping this windows 8 system holds up for me.  It has been unstable and giving me a hard time, shutting down / freezing up for no reason.  Hopefully that's over after having Dan work on it.  Gonna do a test posting of a pic too.

The potato is planted

Hi friends.  I should have gotten on and posted this yesterday, but I was just whipped out!   I didn't sleep well Friday night in anticipation of my travel day Saturday, then a long day of travel and a 6 hour time change all added up to one tired puppy on Sunday.  I finally got home about 11:00 pm local time, Saturday night, but to my body it felt like 5:00am Sunday.  I spent the day with Rhonda, showing her pictures and taking frequent naps.  Hoping that I am back on schedule now.  Talk to you all soon!

Paris...oui oui!

Just a quick post today...was too tired to post last night.  We left Beaune and traveled to Paris on the bus.  We had to say goodbye to our driver Hub, since we had reached our final destination of the trip...sad to see him go; such a nice guy.  He dropped us off almost at the doorstep of our hotel, which is no easy feat in this city!

After getting settled in we toured Saint Chappelle, which has stained glass windows dating back to the 1400s...unbelievable that they have endured all this time.  The second photo here is of the altar in the downstairs chapel...loved the arches and colors.  (The top photo is of the building where Napoleon is buried and is one I took while waiting for my hotel room to be readied.)

After Saint Chappelle, we walked over to Notre Dame Cathedral and did a walk through there.  They were saying mass while we were there, but we had thousands of others there for company as well, so it's not like we interrupted anything.

A stroll through the Latin Quarter rounded out our group activities for the day, so I went and got dinner, then got my camera and tripod and headed over to the green space in front of the Eiffel Tower.  I hung around there for over an hour waiting for full dark...took a bunch of pictures and was there when they finally lit it up at 11:00pm.  There was lighting already, but when they turned on the sparkler lights (my own description--looks like the flashing Christmas lights), it brought a loud cheer from all the onlookers.  It was a real party atmosphere, with locals and tourists all congregated together, having picnics and drinking.  There was a group of young locals behind me playing beer pong, but I didn't see any fights or any hostilities the wohoe time I was there.  We Americans should take a couple of lessons from that!

See ya soon friends!

y

France--the Final Country

Another early start for our merry band of travelers today, leaving Switzerland behind and heading into France.  We arrived in Beaune at about 1:30 and did a quick get oriented walk before going on a tour of Hotel Deux, a hospital from the 14th century.  Interesting and an example of philanthropy in the middle ages, as it was funded by a Duke to treat the poor.

A wine tasting followed and was interesting and tasted great!  We sampled several different wines, one being a 90 euro bottle!  Tasty!

Several of us went out to dinner afterwards, the pictures of which can be seen here.  I had a salad, followed by Escargot (done it, probably won't order them again), Beef Burgoinne with noodles, and a dessert of sorbet, merrangue, whipped cream and kassis wine--a syrup like liqeur that was very sweet and a good topping for an ice cream type treat.
 
The trip will be ending soon and I will be heading home Saturday.  I think I will be ready as 3 weeks seems to be about my threshold for time away from home.  We head for Paris in the morning for the final stop on our tour.

Goodnight friends.

Lauterbrunnen Valley

Another free day today, this time in the Lauterbrunnen valley of Switzerland, where back in 1969, a James Bond movie was filmed (In Her Majesty's Secret Service).  I will have to make a point of seeing it again when I get home since I have seen the scenic backdrops that were used.  They are spectacular, by the way.  The first 2 photos today are from my walk through the valley: there are spectacular waterfalls everywhere you look and the Alps are breathtaking.

I started my day off at 7:30 am, hoofing it to the gondola station about 15 minutes from my hotel.  I made the 2nd ride of the day, arriving at Schilthorn, elevation 9700 feet, at about 8:30 am, beating the clouds by about a half hour.  By 9:00 there wasn't much to see, except for the 007 stuff,which was cool, and by 10:15 or so I headed back down the mountain.  There were 4 separate gondola rides each way and on the way down I stopped off at all the stations to take different angles of the mountains.  Once at the bottom, I caught a bus into Lauterbrunnen where I had lunch followed by chocolate cake and hot chocolate and bought a new Swiss Army knife (with a green handle--the only place you can get them is here in Switzerland, and I had the handle of mine engraved with my name).

Afterwards I headed back to my hotel on foot, a walk of about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  Arriving back here, hot sweaty and tired I rinsed off in the shower and took a welcome nap.  A wonderful dinner followed along with some drinks with the members of our group.  Hub (our driver) also had some Belgian beer he shared with a few of
us, so that was my nightcap.

Incidentally, the three peaks you see in the picture above are Eiger (ogre), Munch (monk), and Jongfrau (young maiden).  According to folklore, the monk is guarding the young maiden from the ogre.  Anyway, that's all for tonight.  Gutten nacht.