Paris - The Show is in the Streets

Paris , France

(Written in Windsor, England - near the castle)

June 30, 2010

Pictures from Paris

As Beatrice, a Parisian we met on the Nile cruise, said, "In Paris, the show is in the streets." Here are some pictures from the ongoing performance (including one from Disneyland, Paris/Euro Disney - a near end of trip treat for the kids.)

Jackie :o)

The Joys of Country Living

Maison Chouette

Mourceau, France

June 23, 2010

The Joys of Country Living

or

The Dog Stole My Shoe

When we arrived at Maison Chouette I put two pairs of shoes outside that were soaking wet from close encounters with Swiss puddles. The beautiful French sun was doing a glorious job drying them when Amelia gazed out the window and said, "A dog has your shoe." We raced outside and a neighbor's dog, which had been holding one of my shoes, dropped the shoe and ran home. (See picture of dog looking so angelic. Paul thinks he looks sheepish.) Happily I retrieved the shoe. Only then did it become clear that the dog had already absconded with one of each pair of shoes! With one shoe of each pair safely back inside we scanned the road. About 200' down the lane we found one of the missing shoes - a good walking shoe - so I have one complete pair. But alas, even with two days of looking, we have not found the other one (a flip flop). The dog must have found a good spot to stash the goods while they were still hot.

The dog's a cool character - I quizzed him in English and French. Knowing full well he didn't understand 'shoe' in English I interrogated him in French. Yes, I asked Paul how to say, "Bring back my shoe" in French. But that dog just gazed at me with an innocent look that said, "Who me?"

If you see him keep your shoes on.

Tour de France

The towns in the area are getting ready for the Tour de France bike race. It is coming right through the nearby village of Moulins Englibert on July 9th. Paul, a big biker, is crushed he won't be here. The streets are already decorated with flags and yellow bikes (bike above a bit of loveliness in the village) Maybe someday we'll come back...

Country Living

We are all really enjoying this blissful break - getting a chance to unwind and read good books. A short stroll down the country lane takes us by donkeys (well fed with carrots), big white cows and even bigger bulls (at least one who like to run at the fence as bikers go by). We could stay here a long time...but we are off to Paris on Saturday.

Happy summer to all those in the Northern Hemisphere (and happy winter to our other friends),

Jackie

P.S. Choutte is a type of Owl.

At Home in Bourgogne

Mourceau, France

June 20, 2010

Home Away from Home

Bonjour,

This evening a bottle of French wine, fresh cut flowers in a vase, and breakfast makings greeted us as we arrived at our home for the week in France. What a lovely surprise!!

Today we shared good wishes and goodbyes with our friends in Zurich, Switzerland then traveled by train to Lyon, France. There we rented a car with a GPS. Using the GPS got us a wee bit lost - adding at least an hour of driving to our already 2 1/2 hour drive. (However the Mapquest directions we were sent would have gotten us there easy as pie...if we had only printed them out....)

Paul is our French speaker and his abilities came in very handy today. As you can imagine, on a Sunday night in a tiny village in France there are not a lot of people out and about to ask for directions. Winding through the village streets we finally found one pub open with a few people watching the World Cup. Paul was able to ask for directions - and, even better, understand the response - in French. :o) We pulled up to the house as the sun was starting to set.

We are staying in a beautiful stone and wood beam farmhouse, in Mourceau, France, owned by friends of friends, called, "Maison Chouette," which means, "Owl House" (I think :o)). Pictures can't even do it justice. Roses of pink and yellow nod their heads in the garden, a stone and wood barn holds bikes ready for country rides, a jacuzzi is set on the stone patio outside, and we have lots of room to spread out!

Our stay here will be for six nights - the longest we've stayed any one place since we spent a week in Phuket, Thailand in March! Tomorrow in the daylight we look forward to more exploring.

Au revoir and much love,

Jackie :o)

Czeching out of Prague

Zurich, Switzerland

June 19, 2010

Prague, Czech Republic -Munich, Germany-Zurich, Switzerland

The past few days we've taken trains from Prague to Munich to Zurich. Trains are an easy way to get around Europe. Within the European Union there are no passport controls at the borders so you seemlessly enter each country. The last passport control we went through was leaving Turkey and going in to the Greek Islands.

We did see two men being questioned outside the train station in Venice and on the train going in to Germany we overheard an officer asking the people in the cabin next to us for their passports. It does mean you don't get stamps in your passports (wish you could request stamps :o)) and once you are in Europe you are IN(makes it easy).

From Prague we traveled to Munich for one night - literally - we got in after 9 p.m. and had a dark walk through the drizzle to dinner at 10 p.m. just before everything closed up. The next morning we headed out to Zurich, Switzerland where we are now. In Zurich we are staying with friends we met in a Bedouin tent camp in Jordan (!) who kindly offered us a place to stay in Switzerland. They are incredibly interesting and speak three languages (at least!) each. We've had a great time with them and only wish we lived closer so we could hang out longer with them.

Zurich is a green city on a lake surrounded by hills with the Alps in the distance. It's been overcast and raining so we haven't actually seen the Alps but have enjoyed walking through the cobbled pedestrian-only streets of the old town filled with people carrying umbrellas. We looked in store windows at the Swiss chocolate and caught whiffs of pungent cheese floating out of a fondue restaurant. In the gummy bear candy store we joined the locals in trying samples and buying gummy bears to go.

Tomorrow we head out to the French countryside to stay in a lovely home in a quiet village for a week of relaxation.

Jackie

Czech Please

Prague, Czech Republic

June 15, 2010

Beautiful Prague

Prague, a city along the Vltava River (anybody have a vowel?), is filled with ornate architecture making it picturesque. We read in, "Travel Prague," a Mobile Reference guide, that Prague's nicknames have included, "city of a hundred spires." As the city had less damage during World War II than many other European cities it really retained much historic charm. The city and skyline, with a castle viewed in the background, is beautiful.

This blog finds me sitting in our Prague apartment looking out over a window box filled with red Geraniums while Paul and the kids are at a movie. Earlier today we got together with our nephew, named Paul Handly (can you believe there are two of them? Lucky world :o)) and his friend Jill, who are on a two week trip around Europe. (We met them under the old clock tower - built starting in the 1400s - a clock with a skeleton made of bronze (?) who rings the time. Two doors open on the clock tower and the Twelve Apostles spin by as gongs vibrate the air. )

We wandered through the old town streets together to a courtyard cafe for lunch. It was great catching up with Paul and Jill. We had seen them both when we started our trip as we flew from Virginia to San Francisco to visit (my) Paul's brother and family who live near San Fran before we headed out to New Zealand. Little did we know in January, in California, that the next time we would see our nephew, Paul, and Jill was in Prague, Czech Republic! While on our trip if we had stayed longer or shorter in any place or had picked other countries to visit entirely we wouldn't have seen them at all. Amazing how it all came together spontaneously! Seeing them was so fun.

Thinking of friends and family,

Jackie

Coincidences and Good Fortune

Austria, Vienna

June 13, 2010

Coincidences and Good Fortune

We found out two days before we would be arriving in Rome that friends/extended family members would be there at the same time! My sister's sister-and-brother-in-law who live near us at home were going to Rome for his work. We met for dinner and had such a great time. (See picture above.) It was wonderful seeing friends from home and such a fun night. All four of us Handlys miss our friends and family. While traveling together is wonderful it's the one thing we wish we could change. If all our close ones could be with us it would be perfect. :o) Hearing from our friends and family through emails, Skpe and blog comments has made such a difference. Can't wait to see everyone again.

Yesterday we found out our nephew will be in Prague tomorrow - and that is just where we are heading tomorrow! Amazing as neither one of us knew the other would be in Prague at all. (We didn't even decide we were going there till two days ago ourselves!!!) How fun to get a chance to get together! Another wonderful coincidence.

As we've traveled we've made friends along the way and it's made such a difference. Finding people we click with is such a treat and making new friends such good fortune.

Austria

We've all enjoyed Vienna, Austria. Yesterday we visited museums - one of them being a world class museum - the Kunsthistorisches Museum (which I can write but not pronounce) which holds artwork from Rubens and Rembrandt - and another, the Zoom Museum, a fantastic children's museum (geared for children up to 12) where the kids did such fun experiments related to water - including a chance for Ben and Paul to shoot each other with water - in a museum!

Today's experiences of Vienna included seeing a show of the white Lippanzer horses that perform in the Spanish Riding School and a visit to the Prater Fun Fair, an amusement park in Vienna (picture above - I'm on the slide with my big black carry all purse on my lap :o)). While touring the great works of humankind including ruins and monument is incredible, I admit we had so much fun going to the fair and riding the Ferris wheel (constructed in 1897 with cars the size of small buses), roller coasters (built more recently), bumper cars, and going in to the fun houses. The day would not have been complete without eating cotton candy. It was a blast.

Off to the Czech Republic tomorrow.

Auf Wiedersehen,

Jackie :o)

Venice, Italy

Venice, Italy
June 11, 2010

The kids and I are sitting in an internet cafe while Paul is in another cafe watching the World Cup with an international crowd. The nearby water is filled with boats including gondolas. No cars are allowed in Venice so pedestrians are streaming by outside. Today most of the water buses are on strike, making it quite the adventure getting our luggage from the hotel to the train station to store it for the day. Since only a few boats are running we had to pull our suitcases on and off two of the running boats, through Saint Marco's Plaza, pigeons flying as we walked past, up and down the many bridges with stairs crossing the small canals, making a 30 minute trip into two hours. And it's hot...always an adventure.


Tonight we are taking a night train to Vienna, Austria sleeping on bunk beds in our four person cabin.

Ciao and love,

Jackie

(Picture: Paul carrying Ben's pack while Ben pulled a wheeled bag. During our two hour trek the kids took turns pulling bags. Bag on front - also a good idea as the woman sitting next to us in the intenet cafe had her purse pickpocked the night before and had to busily contact home to cancel credit cards.)

All Roads Lead to Rome

Rome , Italy
June 4th, 2010

It's been a while since our last post. Perhaps that's because our pace of travel has been a little fast lately...

We took a ferry from Patras, Greece to Bari, Italy on the 30th of May. This time we paid extra to get a cabin and it was worth it! We slept like babies until we landed on the heel of Italy. We took a cab to the airport, picked up an Avis rent-a-car and drove to Sorrento. Sorrento was terrific but we didn't give it too much time as we were headed to Pompei the next day.

POMPEII
Pompeii is a big town! Buried in the violent eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD the town is still being escavated today. As we entered the ruins I saw a bike that was clearly a rental and within a couple of minutes we were all on Mt bikes headed down a gravel road that rings the ancient city. The bikes were a blessing, even though Ben took a major tumble (he survived relatively unscathed) as they allowed us to travel the entire length of the city and back without too much hiking. Pompeii is incredible. The city shows how advanced Roman urban development was even in AD 79. There were numerous houses we'd be happy to to call our own even today.

CASERTA
Not many foreign tourists make it Caserta, a tough city of southern Italy, but its royal palace is famous with Italians for good reason. The huge palace and its asounding grounds are the most luxurious digs we've seen so far. I never thought I'd see anything that rivaled the summer palace in Beijing, but Conserta's palace did it with style. Star Wars fans might remember the palace as it was used as Queen Amadalla's palace.

ROME
We rolled into Rome on Italy's independence day. The Tom-Tom GPS didn't know what day it was so it kept telling us to drive into dense crowds of pedestrians in the city center; not fun. Definitely leave your car at the walls of the city and hoof it or take the Metro around this ancient city. As usual, we didn't know where we were going to stay, but thanks to Trip Advisor we found an apartment next to the Spanish Steps in the heart of the city. Jackie had to save us by finding the guy with the keys to the apartment in the teaming masses of Romans and tourists, but once that problem was solved we moved in and are happy in our new apartment called Suites Rome.

More from Rome tomorrow...

Ciao!

--Paul