We left for a vacation on September 6th and the rains arrived the following day. When we returned 40 days later, the night-time temperatures had dropped, but we enjoyed beautiful sunshine during the day and the leaves on the trees were magnificent colours. It's always nice to return to the comfort, familiarity, and routine of home. Lisa returned to a particularly busy time for her contract and immediately began doing hours of work each morning before I even woke up (due in part to her slower transition back to this time zone). After a jam-packed travel schedule where we did as much sightseeing as possible, I was fortunate to return to nothing more pressing than editing and posting my travel photos. We both continue to walk daily. Eventually the weather did become more typical for this time of the year. Our walks down to the bay became interesting with the arrival of several dozen sea lions from California. Lisa continues to do battery replacements and new installs for LifeLine. We saw a new dentist for the first time since moving. In the sixteen days since our return, we have watched many movies and read two novels. We celebrated Halloween with new friends and neighbours, Mark and Charlie. We had drinks at their place before heading down the hill to the "Halloween Howler" at the Cow Bay Pub. We enjoyed dinner (halibut & chips for me and Lisa) despite the high volume of the music. Charlie won "Best Female Costume" with her cute minion outfit, making the outing a success. We then continued the conversation over some more drinks back at our place. Lisa and I returned to the pub three days later to celebrate her birthday with halibut tacos. Coffee and dessert was back at home. We welcomed 79 trick-or-treaters to our door. Some of the Halloween spirit(s) around the neighbourhood...
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Over the course of our 39 days in Europe, we stayed in 27 different accommodations. Getting to and from each required considerable logistical consideration. In the end, we traveled primarily using our one month Eurail Pass. We needed to augment this with four additional days of train tickets as well as not included RER trains in Paris. In the end, we rode 58 trains in three countries. To get to Liechtenstein and San Marino, we needed to take buses. In a few instances the local buses were helpful in accessing sightseeing or our hotel, and were sometimes included in the city taxes paid by visitors through hotels. We used 13 buses, and an additional 13 waterbuses or ferries. We took two short boat "cruises" on lakes, rode two trams, and needed to ride two cablecars. We employed the subway systems in both Paris and Milan, while cycling around Sirmione. I briefly considered running some stats on our ice cream consumption, but thought better of it. As usual, we prefer to get a full litre from the grocery store rather than one scoop from the tourist vendor. On this trip we enjoyed several flavours of gelato, sorbet, and ice cream.
We bought lots of cheese (and bread) throughout France and Switzerland in particular. Good coffee was easy to come by throughout our European travels. Not only did we eat a lot of Swiss chocolate while there, we returned home with several large bars. The grocery stores often had good prices on pears and prune plums, so they became a staple for awhile. Finally, I really appreciated the grocery store beer! We selected our accommodation based on location and price. We tried to find the best value within walking distance of the train station and the sightseeing whenever possible. Given this criteria, a view wasn't even a factor or consideration. For this reason, we were often pleasantly surprised by the view our room offered. In Murren, Vaduz, and Zermatt, I spent time relaxing, sipping a beer, and contemplating the view from our room. Below are some examples of the views we enjoyed. We had originally planned to see as much of Orleans as possible on our way to Paris. At this stage we decided that taking extra trains in order to cart our luggage around another city centre, to see another church, in another square, just wasn't worth it. Instead, we took an express train to Charles de Gaulle airport, and then a shuttle to our hotel. We walked to the mall to buy roast chicken, mango sorbet, and other snacks. We watched stand-up comedy acts on the tablet and prepared for the long journey home. The trip back always seems so much longer! On the morning of October 15th, we took the shuttle back to the airport to wait for our flight to Halifax. This flight was approximately 7 hours long, and I spent much of it learning about "Plants vs Zombies" from the 8 year-old sitting next to me. After clearing customs and security, we had a reasonable wait for our 5 hour flight to Calgary. Our final leg was delayed, so we watched the sunset over Calgary before making the 2 hour flight to Victoria. Having already cleared customs in Halifax, and having no checked bags, we immediately exited the small airport and hailed a taxi back to our parked car 24 minutes away. We finally reached home after a 40 minute drive up the Trans-Canada Highway. We were very happy to be home, relieved that our furnace works (we hadn't turned it on prior to the trip nor since moving into our new home in the summertime), and comfortable in our own bed.
The journey to Chenonceaux began with more wonderful views from the train, as we passed an old walled town and hillside vineyards. It took three trains and more than 6.5 hours to reach Chenonceaux. Unbeknownst to us, Chenonceaux is a very tiny village (I've provided photographs of the entire place above), lacking in all amenities. It has no grocery store and only overpriced tourist restaurants inside the few hotels. The village exists only because of its famous castle over the river, Chateau de Chenonceau. Unfortunately, we hadn't realized that the only way to see said castle (even just its exterior) is to pay admission, nor that admittance ends at 6:30. Let's just say that I didn't get the photographs I'd hoped for, so I'll share two from the internet that were taken in ideal conditions so you'll know what I'd wanted to achieve.
The views from the two trains and the bus we took to reach our destination were great. We seemed to be traveling further and further into the countryside, passing farm fields and vineyards, as well as many old mansions. We had a 22 minute walk from the station to our hotel. Sarlat-la-Caneda Place de la Liberte Cathedrale St. Sacerdos (& Lanterne des Morts) Place du Marche aux Oies (geese), Manoir de Gisson, Place Boissarie, and Le Badaud (The Watcher) Sarlat (and its region) is known for duck, goose, foie gras, cheese, truffles, and wine. We opted for the specialty cheeses (red = tomato, saffron & green = basil, garlic) and pear sorbet at Square du 8 mai 1945. After having thoroughly explored the streets, views, squares, and buildings of Sarlat's old town centre, I repeated the process after dark. That evening I savoured a Fischer beer while catching up on "Ballers". Fortunately we had a late enough departure the following morning to allow us to check out Sarlat's morning markets, which have been famous and popular since the Middle Ages.
The train to Toulouse was just over one hour, so we arrived earlier than check-in, dropped off our luggage, and set out to explore the city, starting with the Plaza Capitole de Toulouse. We checked out the Donjon du Capitole and the Theatre du Capitole, decorated with many characters' faces. Eglise Notre Dame du Taur For me, the highlight of Toulouse was the Couvent des Jacobins. We continued to wander around Toulouse, shopping on Boulevard Strasbourg, seeing Basilique St. Sermin, and finding squares, parks, and statues. After a curry chicken sandwich and coffee, we were able to check into our hotel and relax for a short while. In the early evening, we set off once more, this time for La Garonne River with the Dome de la Grave and the bridges: Pont Neuf, Pont St.-Pierre, and Pont des Catalans. We walked along the river, then past the university, all the way to the Japanese Garden. We then walked back through the city to our hotel, stopping along the way to eat some vanilla ice cream with macadamia nuts and caramel. We capped the day off by getting caught up on the new "This Is Us" episodes. In the morning, we had some time to kill between check-out and our (later than usual) departing train, so we walked along the Canal du Midi and around the neighbourhood.
While on route, it poured. It was still lightly raining upon arrival at our Carcassonne hotel and as we headed out. I rushed to sightsee, fearing the return of heavier rains, but instead, it continued to clear as the day progressed. As it turned out, I could have taken even better photos had we gone out later... oh well, I loved every minute of our exploration! I should warn you - if you are not interested in castle photos, just skip this particular blog entry, as there are going to be MANY of them. "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" was filmed here for good reason. Carcassonne refueled every "Dungeons and Dragons" fantasy I ever had. The "castle" of Carcassonne is actually a medieval walled city with the small Chateau Comtal and an impressive cathedral enclosed within it. I was giddy walking the ramparts, exploring the winding cobblestone streets, and imagining my own knighthood in the days of yore. The yellow stripes are part of a massive art installation to create the effect seen on the left if viewed from precisely the right location. St. Nazaire Basilica The ramparts provided great views over St. Gimer Church. We enjoyed eating coffee ice-cream in Place Carnot. I had to go out again to get some night shots of Carcassonne: Gambetta Square, Midi Canal , Pont Vieux, and of course, the walled city. Carcassonne surpassed all of my expectations!
Another early morning departure in order to catch a bus scheduled for 7:30, that was supposed to arrive in time to give us a leisurely 29 minutes to connect with our first train of the day. Of course it left late and then fell further and further behind schedule. We ended up running to make our connection... only to discover that our train, too, was of course late. Two additional trains had us in Avignon for more sightseeing. We ate sorbet in the Place de l'Horloge in front of the Hotel de Ville. Then checked out the Palais des Papes and the Cathedrale de Notre Dame des Doms. Saint-Benezet Bridge (Pont d'Avignon)
After a good night's sleep, I felt remarkably better and was grateful for a cold pizza breakfast before taking two trains and a bus to reach St. Tropez. We actually arrived earlier than anticipated, which came in handy when Lisa finally conceded that a visit to the doctor was required (mostly because she feared the pressure on her ear that our flight home in a week would cause). Luck was on our side when we discovered a doctor (next to a pharmacy) just down the road from our hotel. He wrote three prescriptions to clear what turned out to be a middle-ear infection. The psychological healing began immediately after having a diagnosis, allowing us to resume our sightseeing. We explored the Old Port full of yachts, the Old Town, the Citadelle, and the cathedral. Though it wasn't until we checked Facebook that we realized that today was Thanksgiving back at home, we never forget all the reasons we have to be thankful.
It took four trains and over six hours to reach Cagnes-sur-Mer. We walked along the beach promenade to our Cros-de-Cagnes hotel. Once unencumbered by our luggage, we walked 20 minutes to the bus stop for the free #44 shuttle to the Old Town and Grimaldi Castle. This quaint part of town was practically abandoned and very few restaurants were open, so after I'd adequately photographed the Haut-de-Cagnes district, we walked back to a Dominoe's Pizza that we'd spotted earlier. The pizza smelled wonderful and we hustled to carry it back to our hotel, but once we got there, I was overwhelmed by an ill feeling that I suspect was a combination of caffeine withdrawal (having missed two days of coffee intake), dehydration, and general fatigue. Lisa was hearing none of my complaints (almost literally!) as she continued to suffer from an increasingly problematic ear. Thankfully, sleep came relatively easily...
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